Newspaper

I do eventually want to send something out to studios, something physical but I want to have some sufficient work I am proud of to send first. I really want to create something personal.When Robie Porter came in he told us about this website where you can create your own newspaper which I really like the idea out. So maybe after this module I will be ready to send some more images of work out.

Newspaper club.

Design Strategies

I think my presentation went OK I do think I have improved at presenting over the year wasn't as nervous as I used to get but it's still daughnting standing up infront of a group of people talking about yourself.


I though I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do but I think I need to revisist my statement and narrow it down to one final one which sums it up.  I don't want to limit myself to print although I would like to be predominently print based but I want to have a strong grasp on web design.


I do want to focus on branding and identiy though and I think the work that I had looked at did represent this, although there coyuld have been a lot more.

Glad Creative

I really want to build up my skills in coming up with strong, clever yet simple concepts. I really like some of the branding work by Glad Creative.

Concepts like this work so well but are som simplistic combining two ideas together, the idea of a coffee morning and the League of Peace simply recreating the universally known peace symbol using cake. I really like simple but really effective concepts like this and want to improve my thinking skills.

The range of clothes for babies is called 'Glad rags' which works perfectly because of the company name, again so simple but works so well.

 

They have a great name to work with and play around with language which they have done for their range of stationary, maybe I could look at using something like this with my own branding. 

RED flyer

I've reversed out the red so that red is more dominant than white but left the back with a white background and red type.

October Creative Network

I've finished all of the images for the letter. Bridget wants a different colour, a brighter one so I need to experiment with a better colour/colours.

And

Nice branding I found

October Creative Network flyer

Bridget asked me to have another think about the concept and gave me some new information saying she wanted it to be like the pop-up Made flyer which I remember I really liked at the time.

Bridget also mentioned that the title has changed to Yorkshire Creative Showcase and will include disciplines such as Graphic Design, photography, fashion design, animation etc.

So I came up with a simple idea of using a range of creative tools you would fine used in all of the practices and use these to spell out the letters of the title. So for example a needle and thread, camera, computer etc etc.

Even if Bridget doesn't use the concept I'm glad I tried it because it forced me to use Illustrator, I am always careful to stay away from Illustrator because I thought I was just so bad at it but doing this I found it quite easy and so hopefully I will willing incorporate it into my work from now on.

October Creative Network

Bridget contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in doing the next flyer for October's Creative Network event.

I was quite surprised but pleased she contacted me as I felt like I was quite unprofessional about the last one but she said she really liked it.

Anyway this one has no given images to work with and the theme is expose yourself but Bridget wants it to have a digital theme as the event falls a week before Leeds Digital Festival.

I had a quick explore of the words explore and digital.

Initial idea I had was to use pixelation and to 'reveal' subtly the title 'expose yourself' within this. I'm not actually sure if this is the title but the two previous event flyers Bridget showed me both used this title.

These are just very quick experiments, I had a mess around with filters will pixelate things on Photoshop,  but then I want the words to blend in to the background and be subtle. So I created a grid of small squares and pixelated these, I then created letters on top of this so they are the same size squares and changed the opacity so it's not so obvious. Obviously it's quick and messy but is a rough first idea.

Skills set

In order to help me write my statement of intent I have wrote down a skills set which includes where I'm at now, what I can do, where my interest lie and where I'd like to improve upon and focus towards.

I have also focused my areas of interest down for the third year in order to make decision on the kind of designer I want to be and the areas I would like to work with.

Spetember Creative Netwrok Flyer

This flyer is proving to be a lot more work and stress than I anticipated! I have made many ammendments to the flyer and have altered it a few times now and have started to really not like it, especially the back but Bridget said she likes it and has said she's going to send it to the printers which is exciting/scary as I really feel like a novice and like I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to that.

Final flyer
 I enjoyed doing the flyer even though I don't really like the outcome, especially the back but I do feel excited that it's going to be actually used. 

New colour PDF

A lot of my work is monotone colours, I don't want creative directors to think my work is boring and that I have no personality in my work, I've always liked this green and since its just a email pdf for screen I can use this kind of colour. 

I'm not sure if it totally contrasts with the work but we'll see.

Getting in touch with Founded

I've contacted Anthony again, now that I'm heading home soon, as he suggested to contact him when i'm in the region again. I've re-worked my PDF too so hopefully it's an improvement on the last with some new work.

I hope he replies positively it's pretty scary putting yourself out there. I need to contact some more studios also but I haven't got many replies so far.

Re-doing my PDF

I think that I should take one of the H's out of shh since it's not even my initials I just added an extra to emphasise the shh but if were to explain it to anyone it doesn't make any sense. So I'm leaving it as sh.. and I think it makes more sense and still reads sh...

I'm considering making the sh.. 500pt as when it's small it doesn't make much impact and for a front page being sent to a company it needs impact, although the small 100pt one has the personality of the word sh.. I think the large one works against this though, I think I prefer the larger one now I've done it. I might play around with it and see what works

B&W

I've recently become aware that I want to start looking at and working with branding more. It's something I have never really focused on and haven't really thought about.

 B&W is one of the studios I am contacting and I really like that they have a mix of disciplines that I'm interested in.

They have some really strong clever but simple concepts, I love the print techniques like embossing they've used.

End of module evaluation OUGD203

This module has been one of my favourites as we have been able to steer towards the area of design that we have interest in. I think this has helped also by me starting to find where I want to head with my design. 

I believe my skills with group work have improved, I really enjoyed the collaborative brief because Kim and I have similar interests and wanted to create the same kind of work. This was the first brief on the course where I have been happy with the outcome. I believe this module has allowed me to develop my type and layout skills further, carrying on from the type module and also build upon my print skills. 

My research methods admittedly could have been broader within the design practice brief especially, although I think that I am looking at more relevant context work possibly. With the Fedrigoni brief we were able to gain some of the actual stock which helped develop our work as we new what we were working with.

Within Fedrigoni brief I believe my strengths were generating ideas, Kim and I seemed to bounce ideas off each other and helped each other out with designs etc, whilst one of use did one thing the other did something else so we weren't wasting time. I think my strengths also included keeping on top of work, being organised, improving my Indesign skills, type and layout. Within the design practice brief I think a strength was knowing exactly the areas of design I wanted to work with and knowing subjects I have interest in also. I was really happy with the outcome of the Fedrigoni brief and the way we photographed the end products so I think this is another strength and from here I knew the kind of work i wanted to create. Something I've noticed within myself is my confidence and contribution to crits has improved, they used to be something I was always anxious about but during this module I have overcome this a little and improved my skills.

A weakness within the design practice brief was definitely not listening with regards to screen printing, I was determined to use this method but it turned it i wasted a lot of time and it didn't work out. I also think I have been less organised within this brief and leaving things until the last minute which I don't usually do. 

Next time I would listen to advice about not screen printing, experiment more with stock, try to create a more professional finish on all products and possibly use the help of a professional photographer to help me document my final products. 

Attendance-5

Punctuality-5

Motivation-4

Commitment-4

Quality of work-3

Quantity of work-3

Evaluation

I believe the Enterprise module has been a great benefit this year with regards to learning about the industry and getting us to think about our future when we leave college and the possibilities of working for ourselves.
I feel I have gained so much useful knowledge that I can take away from this and put to use in the future. I think my strengths have been the ability to work well as a group, take lecture notes well and listen to the information given and apply it to our own group.
My weaknesses are more about leadershio, letting others take charge, maybe letting someone else deligate what I do rather than do it on my own iniative. Maybe at times also I found it hard to concentrate or engage within the group when we were struggling to come to a decision etc.

I believe that working together as a group benefitted me as I was able to learn from others and seek help rather than struggle on my own. I also think that the presentation task was very beneficial as it has taught us the structure and basics of setting up on our own and how it works in the real world.

I found some of the tasks quite challenging but they were all appropriate to the lectures and things we have learnt in the past year, I liked how everything linked together with regards to the lectures, the quizzes, the tasks and the presentation.

Presentation

Manchester

 

Manchester is an up and coming city with an exciting future for the design industry,it is the best location for our business we feel.

Our competitors and us

Competitors