PPP2: Group company / Presentation - Meeting one.

PPP2 / BUILDING A COMPANY.
MEETING ONE. 

We wrote down what areas of design we were all interested in:
Illustration, Print, Web, UI, Editorial, UX. 

LLC/ Limited Liability Company. 

- Branding Acency. 

- Tone of voice: Quirky, laid back, Team based. 

- Outside printers. 
- In house web hosting. 

Starting with small independent companies as we are a new business. 

Rent or buy office space? 
Printers to use externally. 

Choosing Leeds as it is an up and coming city for design. Look at digital and print companies, see their clients, what they are up to. 

Equipment:
- Macs. 
- Printer. 
- Photocopier. 
- Scanner. 
- Shredder. 
- Chairs. 
- Desk. 
- Whiteboard.
- Air hockey. 
- Service. 
- 24/7 Internet. 
- High speed. 
- Landline. 

Hire an accountant. 

Pitch/ idea room. 

- Need a website. 
- Stationary. 
- Mugs. 

Jobs list that we need to do:

- Daisy to look at Company types. 
- Danielle to look at Digital companies.
- Ant to look at hosting and Banking/ business accounts/ building societies. 
- Me- look into office space and printers in Leeds. 
- Mel Branding agencies and equipment needed and cost. 
- All to think of Logo design. 

- Make a contract and manifesto.

- How much do we charge?

- Plan how are business will look in 1,3 and 5 years. 

- What makes our business different from the competition. 

- Everyone has their own identity within the business.


- What is the total startup capital you think you may need to launch your business?


Next week: 
- Logo. 
- Website.
- Presentation.   

PPP2: Studios I am interested in.

PPP2.
STUDIOS I AM INTERESTED IN.


Analogue - Leeds.

I first found out about Analogue when I visited Cielo Blanco in Leeds, a new mexican restaurant in the trinity centre complex. I picked up a menu and just fell in love with the design, illustrative based and inspired by relief printing techniques, my passionate for print self was captured. I also found that Analogue have taken on a lot of branding projects, the area of Graphic design I am most interested alongside illustration.  

Other works by Analogue that I like and are similar to the works which I produce:

Passport - Leeds.

Passport is a never design agency in Leeds that I find particularly inspirational as it was set up by Graphic design graduate from Leeds college of art. It would be great to work with Passport, as this set of designers are people whom I can find out about the whole transition from being a student at LCA to opening a studio. Although this is not something I imagine myself doing any time soon, I imagine working for myself to be the ultimate job within the design industry. Passport also have a similar calibre of work to myself, and complete projects that I am interested in, taking illustrative motifs and combining this with strong photography. 

Elmwood - International.

Elmwood is a graphic design studio with offices both national and international, they currently have 3 british locations in Leeds, Manchester and London. As I had previously mentioned my interests within graphic design are branding and illustration. Elmwood are known as the worlds 'most effective brand design consultancy. As Elmwood are so successful and are the largest agency I admire, I would have to work hard on my confidence and building an impressive portfolio before I feel that I could approach them. Therefore elmwood are an agency I would most probably approach in third year when I have an even further understanding who I am as a designer and my work.

Duo - Leeds.

Duo are as it is called a creative Graphic design duo based in Leeds. Something that really struck me about the agency was not so much the fact that they have created some of my favourite works in the industry, but the friendliness of the studio. As I had previously said, I would be intimidated to approach elmwood, however Duo aka Paul and Emily seem very friendly and approachable. As the second year student I am now, I would feel much more comfortable to take a visit to Duo studio.


Vibe studio - Manchester.

Vibe studio is a Graphic design agency in Manchester with a focus on Branding. The main focus for the company however lies with packaging and photography. Although photography is not my strongest skill, designing for packaging is one of the sectors I love to approach within Graphic design. 
Vibe studio also have a very welcoming personality and seem like if I wanted to visit, that they would welcome me with open arms. 'Vibe’s aspiration is to build a creative community so our studio is always open to artistic people, corporate people, and all intelligent people willing to work with us or just to come over for a coffee.' - Vibe studio. 

PPP2 - Study task 1.

• identify and explain 5 reasons why you chose to study on this programme.

• Local to home as I didn’t want to move out. 
• Great employment rate for graduates. 
• Good industry links. 
• Intense education with full time attendance. 
• Great facilities. 

• Identify and explain 5 things that you want to learn during your time on the programme.

• Identify who I am as a graphic designer. 
• What are my skills and what are my interests? Where is my focus within Graphic design, what is it that drives my practice?
• Am I more suited/ interested in print or web? I know this year that I will be studying both print and web and so I will be able to find out which my skill set is more suited to and which I prefer. 
• Where do I want to work when I leave? Freelance or studio?
• How do I contact and talk to industry professionals. 

• Identify and explain 5 skills that you think are your strengths.

• Hand drawn and digital illustrations. 
• Working in a group, I feel that I am very reliable and can be counted on for great communication, to meet deadlines, and to help with any problems my group members are having. 
• Product and packaging design. 
• Presenting to my peers, with a background in performing arts, talking in front of a large audience is something that has always come second nature. 
• Time management (project management, time keeping, blogging on time) I always make it a priority to blog as I go along on projects, many people find it hard, however I find it much more suitable to blog as I go as it keeps me much more interested in my work, rather than having to do a couple of days blogging at the end. 

• Identify and explain 5 things that you want to improve.

• Crafting skills. 
• Ability to design for web. 
• Presentation of work (Boards, photographs and mock ups)
• Talking to professionals and confidence. 
• Skills in photoshop. 

• Identify and explain 5 ways that you will evaluate your progress.

• Via blog posts, recap my progress.
• Success of client led briefs where I am no longer able to design for my own likes. 
• Crits with my peers, as well as ones organised by tutors. 
• Putting my work into the public eye on live briefs. 
• Entering design competitions.

• Identify and explain 5 things that inspire you.

• Music, whenever Im working creatively I always listen to music with the exception of essay writing or blogging. I find that it helps to inspire me and relaxes my mind. 
• Other designers. When I feel like I’m having creative block, I take a break and look at design blogs or websites for inspiration.
• Travelling to other cities, Travel helps to broaden the mind and open your eyes to new culture, another city, a new climate or language always helps to generate new ideas and experiences.  
• Day to day tasks such as trips to the supermarket where I am able to see many pieces of graphic design in action / context.
• The success of previous students on the course, lets me know that although the course is very difficult and demanding most times, there is a definite light at the end of the tunnel. Also inspiring because you know that they have been through the same difficulties as you. 

• 
  

PPP2 - Session 2: Networking.

PPP2.
Networking.

What is networking?
- Sharing and gaining pertinent information that can help us gain something or another. 
- Talk to anyone and everyone now. 
- Your approach should have a reason and a plan.

What will you get from networking?
- Advice
- Mentoring
- Feedback
- Visits
- Placements
- Employment

Have a reason to speak to someone!
Ask people on linkd in for feedback.

Why are you contacting them?
What do you want from them?
In what way do you want them to respond?

What should we consider giving out in networking?
- Your identity (an identity of some kind)
- A creative CV?
- Write a hand written letter.

Task - Think of as many ways to contact someone as possible.


Contacting professionals.

- Become a key player within the industry.
- Reinforces your position as a student and a new potential creative in the industry.
- Treat it like a brief, we need to undertake relevant research that we record and utilise. 
- Blog and reference a synergy in the work of others that may become worthy of investigation. 
- You will only get what you put in!

Check out the web, call and ask for/who is the creative director as you want to send him some files. If not ask to be put through. 
However consider why you are contacting.
Visits are good!
Consider the benefits of going out of your way and calling someone, remember you are a valuable asset.

What are you trying to tell them?
- Quite simply that you exist. 
- Could you arrange a visit for advice/ feedback?
- You want to look at a professional studio.
- DO NOT ASK FOR A PLACEMENT. 

What will they want to know?
- Why you chose them to contact?
- What type of creative are you?
- What kind of work do you see as synergetic to you?

What can you show them?
- Anything you are working on or you feel good about. 
- Creative CV that you can leave with your details. 
- You could even invite them into college. 

Placement. 
- Experience and a practice run. 
- See how a professional studio operates. 
- A contact to go back to. 

Don't be afraid to disagree with people!

PPP2: First session.

Make a list collaboratively as a group of the 10 most successful things that came out of last year:

1. Passed first year.
2. Learned to live alone/ as an individual. 
3. Learn to cook. 
4. Learning how to use printing resources/ screen printing. 
5. Developed digital skills. 
6. Learned how to answer a brief/ a reliable design/development process. 
7. Improved confidence in self and work. 
8. Improved personal and professional practice. 
9. Improved literacy and writing skills.
10. Balanced part time work on top of course.
11. Learned to integrate workshop skills into practice.
12. Prioritise briefs in order of importance.

We then came back together as a class and made a corresponding list according to the most frequent successes that were on each groups lists:

1. Presentations (Building confidence in public speaking, giving a successful presentation)
2. Giving and receiving good feedback.
3. Trying different workshops (as there are so many available)
4. Research/ development of ideas.
5. Being/ learning to be independent. 
6. Understand time management, how to use time most efficiently.
7. Working with others (Collaborating on briefs)
8. Inspirations/ Motivations
9. Theory/ context (understanding the backbone of design as well as being able to communicate this effectively through writing skills)
10. Understand style - who are you? What are you good/bad at?

In our groups we can presented our presentations, below is the presentation I made on frozen yoghurt.

  
Unfortunately when it came to our presentations, the laptops we were working from would not recognise my USB stick. It wasn't until after the session that I realised the macs at the back of the studio would recognise my USB stick. Due to this error, I had to present the information I knew by memory, and therefore my group were not able to give me any feedback.
However I have since sent the presentation to some people in my group for feedback.

We then went on to talk about what is useful feedback?

I found from the task that constructive feedback that allows someone to go forward and progress is the best. 
- Suggesting specific things to be changed. 
eg. - Use larger type.
- slow down when talking.
-Suggest focus points/ specific further information.

- Saying what is good may not help with things that need changing, however it does help with things you could include in the next presentation.
e.g - good amount of research. 
- effective amount of text on each slide. 

What is not helpful to the development process are ego boosting compliments:
- Nice use of illustrations.
- I liked the font you chose.

This can be seen as giving feedback to someone that doesn't show them how they can develop or improve.

What feedback I found useful of the feedback I could receive:

- Check presentation before university.
- Clear knowledge of subject - knowing your research subject without having to look for cues. Enables better delivery. 

To consider: What feedback would I like to receive?
Feedback with a specific focus, making a point then backing it up with why, feedback that delegates direction for improvement. 

INDEPENDENT TASKS

My 3 objectives on how to improve my summer brief:

1. Use less text on slides as there is no need when you don't use them for cues.
2. Use your graphics/illustrations as visual indicators and talk about your subject instead of using text.
3. Don't try to talk about too much, pick specific details, simple and to the point instead of trying to fit too much in.

10 things that I think I will need to be successful at this year:

1. Developing a style, or finding out what I am most and least successful at in order to narrow down my future practice. 

2. Making industry links eg. making connections in relation to possible placement.

3. Very confident with digital suite. Before I started the course I had barely touched the digital suite, in Level 04 I really got a great education of how to use the adobe suite, Learning how to use it last year, I'd really like to try more experimental design now i am not particularly learning at the same time I am doing.  

4. Using a DSLR camera. I didn't use a DSLR camera in my first year and so it is something that i'm still pretty new to, hence why my work is very illustration based. 

5. Try out as many workshops as possible that I have never done, wood cutting, etching, embossing etc. 

6. Learn how to code, in order to transform a website design, into a live site. 

7. Continue to become more confident (In my work, public speaking etc)

8. Not to resent the time I spent on an idea if it does not work out, it is all part of the design process.

9.

10.

OUGD402: Module Evaluation.

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I think the most important skill I have developed is the skill of understanding, not only understanding other designers work, and their design process, but also understand my own personal and professional practice. I have learnt to understand what design I lean towards, what design I can and cannot do, what design processes to use, and what materials I work best with as well as understanding what I want to move on to doing in the future and how I will apply this. I have also learnt a great deal about myself, about my strengths and weaknesses, both personal and professional, as well as picking up skills such as confidence, and an ability to talk about myself which has been very useful in presenting my work, and will be useful in the future whenever speaking to clients.

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

I have constantly grown in terms of following blogs, at first I would go onto blogs because I was told to, I would do the set tasks, and that would be all. However now It seems as though sometimes I can never switch off and constantly find myself looking at blogs, not even so for projects, but just to catch up on what is happening in the graphic design world. Thanks to looking at these blogs, I have started to find a group of designers whom I aspire to create work at the same level, for example illustrating for books, or finding traditional screen print designers. This module has also helped me to realise what design processes I would like to take forward, It has helped me expose my love for book design and custom illustration and typography, as well as my love for print. I screen printed for this particular module and it has made me want to try even more traditional processes. Although these seemingly take a long time to set up, the outcomes of them out way the time taken by an enormous amount.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I think a strength in my development through PPP is the honesty I have kept within the work I like and the work I create. Especially during the last project which was the information pack. I didn't try to create a visual identity that I thought could vaguely or slightly represent the work that I do, I didn't want to create a pattern that 'sort of represented what I was about'. Instead I created something that was honest, that reflected the integrity that I don't quite know who I am yet, I wasn't afraid to put my hands up and say im not sure who I am right now. I think I will continue to be honest with work, and not push myself to design in a certain way because I feel I must have a visual identity, but rather, I must 'let the coins fall where they may.'

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

I wouldn't particularly say there are many weaknesses within my ppp module, as its really been about learning, and there is no right and wrong when learning. When we first got the 'Its up to you!' Brief I struggled to create something that I thought was entirely me, I took the brief and thought that I had to create a promotion pack that represented my exact practice. However not really knowing who I am right now within Graphic design, with it being my first year studying the subject, I convinced myself that I had to come up with a solid identity to show who I was. After a week of trying to get on with something, I had gotten nowhere, and I had to remind myself, that I was trying to create something that represented who I am right now, and if I didn't know who I was, then that Is what I should communicate in whatever I produce.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

Not try to push myself into trying to become a certain designer, because I think I should have realised exactly what I am/ am going to do, to let the chips fall where they may. To gain confidence in making contacts outside of college, although with it being my first year studying on the subject I didn't feel confident enough to do it this summer, a placement or visits is something I would like to do next year. Go to exhibitions such as the print festival to educate me on my new love for print and traditional processes. To keep up to date with designers throughout the year, not just in short bursts, so I am totally up to date with the design world at all times. Try new sectors of design, and working in different sized collaborations to further help me discover the direction in which my design practice is going.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’) 5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Attendance         4

Punctuality          5

Motivation           4

Commitment       4

Quantity of work produced   3

Quality of work produced     4

Contribution to the group      4

The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

OUGD402: Studio Brief 2 - Its up to you! evaluation.

Overall I was happy with the way that the book I had created came out. I thought it represented well, the love I have developed for book making this year and the experience that I have gained from doing this. I also felt that it showed my love for print, and want to try new things in this sector such as screen printing which I really enjoyed doing for this project.

Although I had seen others and saw that they had created a pack with a solid representation or identity for themselves I felt that I was just not able to do that at this point. I'm very young within the design world, having this being my only year studying graphic design, and so I felt that I was very far off in having an identity. In fact this year I had used specifically to learn about the world of graphic design, spending more time trying lots of different things out rather than refining the things that I liked, and could efficiently and effectively do. Therefore the book I have created mirrors this, I have created an illustrative book, as one thing I know is I prefer using illustrations rather than editing photos, however I have no distinctive illustrative style, or way in which I like to produce work, and so as a result all the pages I have made are of a different style.
The content of the book is more so an information pack about what I have learnt rather than an information pack about myself. Im not quite sure, where I stand within the graphic design world right now, and so I wanted to share my experience of learning this year.

Downsides of the book were mostly in the early production process, I had originally wanted to print the book on recycled paper, as I have a new found appreciation for ethical design, and I want to learn more about how I could be ethical. However I couldn't find anywhere that sold it in Leeds, I did find somewhere online, however the delivery time was 7 days, and this woud be delivered after my print time which was no use. I also thought that ordering it online meant that it wasn't particularly ethical as I should be sourcing the paper from a local area.

Something that I was very unhappy about with the book that I noticed after binding was a couple of printing mistakes. When I had shown my design to someone they recommended that I should change my text boxes from being aligned from both sides to being aligned solely to the left as it would be easier to read. and so I followed this advice, I had already spell checked the book an unhyphenated alot of the sections to make for easier reading, however just before I went to the printers, I decided to follow the advice that I was given.

This ended up in some of my text being cut off from too of the pages I had produced, Once I had changed the alignment of the text boxes, the text had gotten longer, however I hadn;t changed the size of the text box, and it ended up in the bottom section of the paragraph being cut off.

I would have loved to have gone back and redone the mistakes however, with the weekend before deadline being a bank holiday one, and the original which I had already cut and began to bind has cost me £14 in printing and binding, being without a loan, and on a budget, i didn't have the funds to reprint.

The error with this bit of text on the time is key spread, is as the bottom of the paragraph on the left and top of the paragraph on the right and is supposed to read 'I have adapted to the changes of time, responding to briefs ranging from one day to six weeks'.

The other problem is on the alternative media spread in which the bottom of the right hand paragraph is cut off.  This is how it reads:

The bottom sentence is supposed to read:

'I currently and plan on in the future combining hand drawings with the digital aesthetic.'