PPP overview

Business cards and personal branding

Throughout my time on the course I've always known a role in an agency would be right for me in comparison to working as a freelance designer. An agency feels relevant to me due to the capacity to learn from mentors and people more experienced in the fields such as bosses etc.

For this reason the traditional business card never had much relevance to me as I don't aim to seek freelance work or individual design projects, for this reason I treat business cards as more of a calling card, a way for a potential employer to remember my name and my details, hence the design of my Level 6 personal branding.

My business cards and personal branding for level 6 were developed from the ideas created in level 5. Knowing I would treat this design as a calling card the concepts were always limited and began to get exhausted in level 5, but I feel the design I created last year was a good representation of my design attributes, therefore recycled and developed it to use this year.

The business cards and logo/mark created work well in both monotone, black and white, and also with colour. A black background with a white mark and white text represents me the best possible ways due to the minimalism, professionalism and smartness associated with those clean use of colours.

Web landing page 

The logo mark was easily transferable over to my website, where I created a landing page style theme inspired by Lee Goater's own practice. The meeting and conversations with him were very inspiring and I personally consider his career to be very successful with the clients he has worked with and the large scale commercial work he has produced. In ways I would like my own career to compared to his in the large scale scope of his projects, the audience reached and the high profile clients he has had the privilege to work with. 

The landing page website would be a simple way for anyone interested to view a sample of my portfolio, easily contact me, see how I am professional and also see the projects I like to work with.

Avenir was the chosen font for my logo and business cards. As a designer and fan of design I have always preferred bolder, smart, clean fonts, hence my choice in this situation.

Mailer

A mailer could be considered for me in the future when I am looking to progress my career. Sending a mailer and a cover letter type of document to companies I am interested in, with my expanded professional portfolio. Creating a mailer would have been my plan of action if I didn't land on my feet with Rockfield media and gain a job offer earlier this year. 

Creative CV

I have never personally liked the idea of Creative CVs for designers to use, but I see the functionality in them, with a designer being able to display their layout skills and other design features in a document that promotes their experience and history. 

The feature of rating ones Adobe suite capabilities out of 10 or 100, is laughable to me. How can a designer claim they are a 9/10 using illustrator when it is such a vast and immersive piece of software.
If for example a famous, successful designer such as Shepard Fairy would be a 10/10 on illustrator then for a graduate to claim they were a 9/10 coveys a very high level of arrogance, which I do not feel is a good trait to have on a CV or for any graduate to have.

The decision to have my CV in brighter colours compared to my personal branding came from the reason that in black and white or vice versa the CV would be very bold and harsh on the eye.

Cyan is a very trusting colour, as learnt from colour theory.

Level 6's engagement

External

The external part of this statement will contain any professionals who I contacted outside of university.

Milkshake brief

Towards the beginning of the year I responded to a post where the company Tropic foods were looking for a graphic design to design for one of their products.

I enquired as it was early in the year and I was seeking out more live briefs to complete.

The brief turned out to be part of designing packaging for a milkshake brand. 

Packing is not generally my forte but I was willing to attempt it due to to broaden my portfolio and because I like milkshake.

It turned out the client of this brief purely wanted me to copy an existing Oreo logo so he could use the design as the logo for his company. I was not happy with this request, or his lack of professionalism, therefore declined the brief.

I considered designing milkshake packing off the back of this as one of my brief, using screen printing methods and classic glass milk bottles, I never completed this brief due to my interests changing to films and advertising and it not fitting in my portfolio. 

Warp studios

I contacted Warp Studios after Josh from marketing informed me of their presence in Sheffield. It was difficult tracking down anyone higher than the receptionist and she recommended to email any questions to the bosses and they'd reply after the weekend, but I intended to ask if a short notice work placement would be possible over easter.

I emailed and discussed my portfolio but nothing came of that discussion, my portfolio was underdeveloped at that stage and contained no film work.

Rockfield media

I commenced with a week of work experience at Rockfield media, creating campaigns and taking part in idea generation with Jamie Smith.

After 2 days at the company and designing a BMX brief for Manchester the boss decided to offer me a full time job which begins at the end of May, 2 days after final hand in.

A situation I am really pleased with due to beginning a junior account handling role, working with clients, pitches, social media, and also idea generation for campaigns etc etc, a field I feel I will excel in and find very motivating and rewarding.

The boss commented on how myself and Jamie have great synergy working together and complete briefs professionally and methodically, therefore both working at the company in different roles should be very positive. 

NQ photography photoshoots

Visitng NQ photography studio in Manchester to get involved with fashion model photoshoots has introduced me to a new side of business and the working world I hadn't encounted.

Also the reality of leaving university and not having easy, free access to facilities such as photostudios and high quality printers.

It has also inspired me to enquire about starting a small business, looking into the details involved with this and how achievable it would be.

Z3 Film production

Working with a pair of students from West London who operate under the name Z3 film production has broadened my horizons and enabled me to get work in other parts of the UK.

I find it very beneficial building connections and relationships with anyone, not knowing what situation I may be in in the future and who may have design work or a job vacancy that could suit me.

Internal

Student ambassador role

Having been in the student ambassador role for over year and a half now (since September 2015) I have had a lot of encounters with members of the marketing team such as Andrew Crask and Emma Morris 

Emma Morris from Marketing

Emma Morris seems to really value my opinions on student life and also studying at LCA, having emailed my many times for a quotes on interviews at art university, to feature my work in the Guardian and various other interview type things.

All of which I took as a confidence boost in terms of getting my design profile out into the world 

Josh from Marketing

Conversations with Josh in marketing have been interesting and insightful as he is a few years older than me and working in a similar role that I could potentially be interested in. 

When I informed him that I was looking for experience in a design studio that worked with film and film campaigns, he told me about Warp films in Sheffield, which was discussed in my presentation.

Fabio and David in Advertising

I approached these two advertising tutors as the year progressed, after the dissertation period due to the fact that I realised advertising suited me as a career slightly more than graphic design, as covered in my presentation.

When I asked for recommendation of studios in Leeds or Sheffield. Their advice was to leave Sheffield and go to Manchester or London. Fabio explained how he would have a think about agencies in Leeds and Sheffield and email me his findings, he never managed that.

John Watters

John Watters as been thoroughly useful throughout the 3 years with anecdotes and confidence boosting pieces of information. 

Lee Goater

I approached these two advertising tutors as the year progressed, after the dissertation period due to the fact that I realised advertising suited me as a career slightly more than graphic design, as covered in my presentation.

Ingrid Career assistance

I booked a session with Ingrid earlier this year to gain some direction and form a list of objectives to get my design motivation back after the dissertation stage. Not much was gained from this session, the very obvious basics which I already knew and the website Prospects.co.uk was recommended, not a very useful website from what I found.

Nice to have the option to use her skills though, but I knew most of it.

Maraid

Maraid were a very unusual couple of designers compared to the image and stereotype that someone would have. They talked in a very monotone and under confident way not conveying much passion for being a freelance designer.

Another reason re-enforcing why freelance wouldn't be for me.

DBA

The design business association were different to any other company that had visited our course in the past. The idea of their visit being very formal and dragons den like excited me as that was an unfamiliar situation from our course.

Their influence and feedback upon the project was very useful and different, but in a presentation like that with straight talking blunt people, I feel I thrive in, being able to give and receive feedback in a very straight talking way.