Thursday 31 May 2012

PPD//Personal Development//Getty Images.



Really excited a couple of days ago, after hearing about Getty Images for the past couple of years, to have been contacted by the photo-sharing (licensing) company to request that some of my photography work can be sold (by commission) on their site, after sourcing my work through Flickr online. For me, this always felt like a great achievement and compliment, and something I'd definitely like to get involved in to get a great deal more exposure for my work, and some small financial benefit too!
So far, I've signed up four of the images they selected, and keen to see how it develops in the future. I've definitely learnt a lot more about copyright and licensing (model and photographic) through this process, and really appreciative that I've also managed to learn something new whilst also helping to get my work seen.


Monday 28 May 2012

PPD//Studio Visits & Industry//Pearlfisher.



Really excited on Thursday evening (so excited that I forgot to blog it until now...) to get an email through from my favourite design studio, whom I contacted a couple of weeks ago, Pearlfisher in Hammersmith, inviting me down for a placement interview. Naturally, I was delighted and did a little dance around my bedroom (it certainly helped me through an all nighter before module hand in the next day!). Booked my tickets down for June 22nd, and researched how to get there from King's Cross. Obviously really excited for my trip down, and even if I'm not lucky enough to receive a placement, I'll have a studio visit. Good times!

Friday 25 May 2012

Design Practice II//Product/Range/Distribution//OUGD203 Self Evaluation.




My finalised, written self evaluation for the OUGD203 Design Practice II module, reflecting upon my design experience throughout the past months, my strengths, weaknesses and things to improve upon for my future modules and project concepts and design outcomes.

Design Practice II//Product/Range/Distribution//Finalised design boards.



The finalised design boards for my Product/Range/Distribution brief, with completed images, notation and explanation of the brief.

Design Practice II//YCN/Graze//My Responsibilities//Design Boards.



Again, re-publishing the design boards I produced at the end of the Design Practice II/YCN Collaborative brief which demonstrate my own personal responsibilities throughout the live brief project.

Design Practice II//Product/Range/Distribution//Final Revisited Brief.



The finalised, revised and written brief for my submission of the Product/Range/Distribution project within the OUGD203 Design Practice II module, taking my current product outcomes into consideration and reviewing what I have achieved throughout the project.

BRIEF

Create a reading scheme to be promoted and run by schools throughout the United Kingdom entitled '200 Books 200 Schools', (from the Puffin publishing house) whereupon 200 selected schools receive books and reading packs to be given to 9-11 years old (for each month of the academic year) to encourage and promote classic children's books and encouraging independent reading.

BACKGROUND//CONSIDERATIONS
Consider my target audience and the appropriateness of designs and communication for both this age group (schoolchildren aged 9-11) and their parents, who are encouraged to support the reading scheme.
Research the history and visual communication of Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimms (the story selected for the first month, and for which promotional media will be produced), and what will most effectively engage the chosen audience.
Research existing Graphic Design and Illustrative designs for children in a variety of contexts to find the most appropriate style, methods, and design outcomes.

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS
Produce an extensive body of research into the history of The Fairy Tales of the Brother's Grimm, and the illustrative communication of their work throughout the past 200 years (of which the reading scheme '200 Books 200 Schools' was inspired).
Produce an extensive range of design developments, potential outcomes and experimentation with various forms of design media such as packaging, illustration and typographic design.
Produce a range of design outcomes to inform and persuade and encourage the target audience to keep reading with fun incentives (such as free gifts through printed media) and the fundamental encouragement to let their knowledge and capabilities grow. 

DELIVERABLES
Produce a range of printed media to be presented within a reading progress pack such as a printed publication, audio book (for the visually impaired), progress planner and free bookmark. I will propose that for each academic month a new series of printed media is produced and distributed, but in the case of this project, only producing the range for 'Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm', which will be proposed as the first book within the range, distributed to schoolchildren (in the selected 200 schools throughout the United Kingdom) in September 2012.
Produce promotional advertising design for the reading scheme in both print-based and screen-based formats.

STUDIO DEADLINE

OUGD203 FINAL CRIT// Wednesday 16th May

MODULE DEADLINE

Friday 25th May 2012, 1-2PM

Design Practice II//Product/Range/Distribution Self Evaluation.



A full, written evaluation for the Product/Range/Distribution project within the OUGD203 Design Practice II brief, reflecting upon my strengths, weakness, and things to improve upon in the future.

Monday 21 May 2012

OUCS205//CTS Module Feedback.



The results back from the past year's CTS module. 
Really, really happy with the feedback from Richard and the grade I received, and it's really given me the drive to work hard towards developing my dissertation proposal material next week (after module hand in this week, and before the CTS proposal hand in deadline!)


The thing that I am most pleased with was Richard's comments about my triangulation, which I felt was something I had particular  problems with, and it's encouraging to see I'm making progress.


Still lots of things I could improve on, but I'm glad the work paid off. Since day one I've really enjoyed CTS, and I hope I can keep it up for my dissertation next year. 

Image//OUGD205 Module Feedback.



Module feedback from the OUGD205 Image module that was sent back to us today. Happy with all the comments given, and definitely see the relevance of this within my work, and wish in certain areas I could have devoted more time or experimentation to my weekly outcomes.


A little disappointed with the grade, largely because it's only 1% higher than last year, and I feel that I put a considerable deal more effort in, though I understand that the years are graded differently. Plus, it's also my lowest grade of the year so far. However, I still maintain that it's been my favourite module of the year, and I really appreciate the ideas, inspiration and challenges it has provided me, and that have given more focus and direction into the future of my design practice.

Personal Development//Cafe 164 Exhibition//Opening Night.



Photographs from my work up at the Split/Cafe 164 opening night this evening. I was really lucky to have friends Polly, Fran, Beth and Baljeet go down with me to take a good look at the work on show, as well as meeting our tutor, Jane, at the event too, so it was great to see some friendly faces.

Really enjoyed seeing the work hung up (thanks Oli!) and chatting to some of the designers there, as well as Oli himself and finding out a little bit more about the industry and his design studio, Split. He was also kind enough to give me some really great feedback and encouragement about my work, and I've felt feeling really inspired. Really looking forward to my PPD presentation now and talking about my future plans.

Sunday 20 May 2012

Personal Development//Behance Showcase//Ghosts Type.



http://www.typographyserved.com/
http://www.behance.net/gallery/GhostsIllustrative-type/3578647


Really pleased this morning to get an email through from the head office of Behance to let me know that my 'Ghosts' typeface design had been selected for showcase on the Typography Served portfolio group, which is run by creative designers at Behance HQ.


Been a good day for getting my work seen- quite a few more "follows", portfolio views and appreciations, all helping to get my work seen, and, hopefully, building my creative network further still.


Personal Development//Craft Fairs//Reetsweet Blog Interview.



http://reetsweet.blogspot.co.uk/


Lovely interview from the wonderful Becki at Reetsweet on the blog this morning, after I sent along a few interview responses to her yesterday.
Always a pleasure to chat and work with her, and a great opportunity to get my work out there before the next fair on 2nd June.


Thursday 17 May 2012

PPD//Industry Experience//Contacting Tigerprint.



Not one to waste any time... got straight on with an email to the heads of Illustration/Graphics at Tigerprint RE a studio visit to either their Bradford/London design studio. Really, really hope it goes well.  This, ultimately, is what I really want to do with my design practice. It's what I love, and what inspires me. Hoping for the best!

PPD//Studio Visits//Tigerprint.




http://www.tigerprint.uk.com/


Although hearing about the company, and knowing a brief amount about them, I had never the opportunity to look at the Tigerprint website before, and today, I'm really glad I did.
Tigerprint are the producers of illustrative printed media such as cards and wrapping papers (along with gift items and stationary), having formed in 1996 to produce exclusive cards for Marks & Spencers, which, as a result, has now lead to Marks & Spencers being the fourth largest card retailer in the United Kingdom.


Their design portfolio and products are beautifully illustrative and printed, and, frankly, just my cup of tea. Although placements are ordinarily given on a competition basis (and rightly so for such a successful company),  I would really love the opportunity to visit either their Bradford or London studio and to learn more about the industry and sector that I am, myself, so keen to be involved with. 


Really inspired stuff- after a disappointing reply earlier in the week from one studio, I'm really pleased to find another company that I am excited about.


PPD//Make your mark//A note on branding.



Already wanting to change my branding designs. Argh.
Although the concept is okay, the delivery doesn't feel original, and I need colour... my work IS colour.


Need a re-think after the OUGD203 module hand in.

Tuesday 15 May 2012

PPD//Industry Experience//Contact from Taxi Studio.



I got my first proper rejection email today, sadly, from one of my favourite design studios, Taxi, in Bristol. Whilst it undoubtedly felt like a big kick to the stomach, it was a constructive kick, and they were kind enough to give me some feedback of both the negative and positive aspects of my portfolio and CV.


Hopefully I'll be able to take this experience and learn from it for my next level of contact, as well as the future of my design practice, and the projects that I undertake.


Monday 14 May 2012

PPD//Dreamweaver//Transferring domain and hosting.



Good news! After a quick check this morning, both of my domains (at sophiewilson.com/.co.uk) have been transferred over to one.com from 123 reg and now ready for content to be added to start constructing my website. Really keen to make a good start on the designs towards making my website live as soon as the OUGD203 module is complete, and hope to have it completely finished by the end of the summer.

Saturday 12 May 2012

PPD//Make your mark//New business cards.



Really excited yesterday to have my cards come through from Moo, with a great print quality and lovely presentation and packaging as an extra cherry on top. Over the 50 luxe cards I had ordered to print, 12 different language translations for 'Hello' can be seen on the front of the cards to send out to international clients and retail buyers from my online store(s).

Really impressed with the quality, especially in terms of the finish of the duplex which is really crisp, and at 600 gsm looks really smart and professional. Also, I cannot justify the cost enough, even without my student discount (which I discovered you could get too late...argh, next time!) the total came to approximately 68p per card with VAT (approx 20%), delivery and a presentation box also included. Really great value for money.


Friday 11 May 2012

PPD//Make your mark//Personal letterheads.



Spent a little while this afternoon returning to my self promotional and branding designs to try and create a more substantial body of printed stationary designs which will be useful within my freelance work and potential client work in the future.

Again, wanting to keep the brand and identity consistent, I am sticking to my minimal design aesthetic- using black and white, with the 'Hello' at the top of the letter, logo and contacts at the bottom, and the standardised address and body copy layout for a uniformed, and, hopefully, professional outcome.

To be printed onto brilliant white 180gsm paper stock, and photographed with the complete range of my printed, branded stationary within the next couple of weeks, printed with the full x12 language translations I am currently working with for my printed media.

For development and ideas, see the screenshot images below.

PPD//Industry Experience//Contacting Elmwood.



As previously stated in a blog post this morning, I decided to go ahead and contact Elmwood this afternoon RE Industry Experience in the form of Studio Visits and/or placements. In the studio talk, they discussed placements and effective ways to get (and not get!) them, and just how useful they are. Hopefully, they'll see me taking this action as a positive! I felt really, genuinely inspired by them today, and I would love to look more into branding, and how I could push it further within my own design practice.

Studio Talk//Elmwood.




This morning, I went along to the studio talk by multinational branding design agency, Elmwood, as organised by the BAGD tutors. Although I have come across Elmwood before, I hadn't considered directly following there work, as, throughout last year I wasn't really sure if branding was "my thing". However, throughout the past year I have developed a greater understanding of branding within the industry, and some really inspiring examples, and would love to find out more about the practice, so this was too good an opportunity to miss.

Below, a few notes taken from the talk, and steps to remember for my future within the industry.

NOTES //

Designers at talk. Rob Skelly and Chris Jackson

5 THINGS WE'VE LEARNT ALONG THE WAY

1. Be an expert for a day

Royal Mail, Thomas the Tank Engine stamps commission 

ALWAYS make quick design drawings with a level of thought- but don't waste time on them, generate work quickly and efficiently.

2. Take people with you 

You and your client on a journey together.
Working with ASDA was the first time they worked with motion graphics (along with 'We are 17' design studio).

3. Design for humans

Soreen rebrand (audience from old ladies to cyclists [energy benefit])

Writers at Elmwood (copy writers)

Held a big launch event at Manchester Arena (Soreen ice cream van)

4. It's not about you

Chocolate coin "xmas card"

5. If it feels right, do it

Divas Jonas and Divas Jonas Deloitte Property Co, "under one roof" card for clients


OTHER PROJECTS...

- BBC Tree o' Clock
- Builder's Christmas Card (Charity Christmas cards with builders notes... "sucking the joy out of Christmas".
- Swedish Massage (Fun, photo-based branding and stationary, "hands on")
- Hall & Rose (seamstress)

Have the confidence to go with your idea

GET STUCK IN
BE OPEN TO NEW EXPERIENCES
IT'S ALL ABOUT COLLABORATION

Getting into industry is tougher than ever 
Get all the placements you can- get a feel of where you want to be, and what you want to do

SO.MANY.AVENUES.

Portfolio is 40%, You are 60%

BE BOLD
BE MEMORABLE

Really glad I went to the talk, as I found out a lot more about the company, their work and their approach (I love the sense of fun and humour they with their work which really brings life and energy to their designs- no matter who the client or company is, large or small). Really excited by them, their portfolio and their client base, and now I'm definitely going to get in touch with them RE Studio Visits/Placements- really inspiring guys.

PPD//Industry Experience//Reply from The Archipelago.



Received a great reply from Mike at The Archipelago in Leeds today RE Studio Visits. The studio are currently in a transitional period of moving, but in July should be a little settled, so, around mid-July (once Uni is complete for the summer) I'll be back in touch, and hopefully we'll both be flexible with time, as I hope to spend at least half of my summer this year in Leeds, as well as my house in Shropshire. 

Really exciting getting replies! Next week I'll be sending out another batch of messages, and hopefully getting some more feedback RE my portfolio as I have been fortunate enough to get so far as I go along.

Thursday 10 May 2012

Personal Development//Crybabies Business Cards.



Spending this evening working on some quick designs for the business card of the corporate client I am currently working for, Charlie LeBeau, body piercer, and owner of Crybabies Piercing Parlour in the West Midlands which is opening in just a few weeks.

I mocked up some really simple designs with the logo and process colour that Charlie and I had agreed to work with- also using Gotham for body copy/type throughout documents to work with part of the logo type and ensuring consistency is kept throughout the brand designs- again, using the powder pink colour upon Charlie's specification and request, going for a 1950's "Milkshake bar" retro theme within the studio (and with a newly painted pink stripe wall in the back piercing room).

Sending over a couple of initial designs, Charlie was actually really pleased with the simplicity of the initial designs and decided to go for the option shown at the top of the page.
Quickly working over the next half hour, got the business card designs up onto Moo with my 10% student discount (the best thing about being a student freelancer!) and ready to print onto their 'Green' papers, which is environmentally and sustainably sourced, whilst still at an impressive 300gsm, along with a business card white acrylic holder.

My largest print order to date (and hopefully much larger ones to come!) the total order (400 cards) came to £101.10 including VAT and postage.

Excited to see the printed outcome! More updates in regards to the branding and advertising before the opening night coming soon.


PPD//Dreamweaver//Studio Web Design Workshop.


This afternoon I had my studio web design workshop with tutor Lorraine, discussing our development in terms of our concepts for our web pages, as well as the content. Below, are the written notes I took through the session as well as things for me to go away and consider as I go on to create more SCAMP designs and refine my ideas before getting started on my designs and coding within Dreamweaver.


NOTES//


PAGES TO CONSIDER


HOME


Navigation bar, links, logo, header, images to represent my work/work space/image of work.


ABOUT


Brief 'About' section- course of study, years of experience, specialisms within the industry. More about collaborations and client work.


PORTFOLIO


Various files with links in navigation bar- rollover buttons on text and/or images- descriptions of images/products and slideshow and/or series of images.


CONTACT


Contact details for briefs and commissions (business email and telephone) as well as social media and networking links for further contacts and examples of portfolio work.


SHOP


Links/source information to connect with online stores (Etsy/Not on the High Street) as well as stockist information.


ALSO... (to think about)


- Testimonials
- Client List


THINK ABOUT


SUB PAGES... When you have a large enough body of work, you can categorise it into disciplines (typography, editorial image, etc) , and that the number of files warrant their own page(s).


PROMOTE YOURSELF


BE RELEVANT... BE INTERESTING


Subscribe page- monthly newsletter?
NEWS- In the 'About' or 'Home' page to advertise?
Downloadable PDFs and CVs available


UCO- User Centered Operation... all pages should be linked and easy to navigated (KISS)


//


We also took the opportunity to draw up some SCAMP designs and get some feedback on them from our peers. As I currently have pretty chronic RSI, although I attempted a detailed design, I didn't get too far, so used a design I made a couple of weeks ago (posted on my blog), although a few tweaks have been made since this time (and will continue to be). Really happy with the feedback I received (as shown below, and I feel as though I'm going in the right direction).


- Very clear
- Lots of relevant information
- Simple, easy to digest
- How will content be arranged on the body of the page?
- Good putting measurements
- Clean and simple
- Good amount of information
- Minimal approach has a positive impact as it makes it easy to follow.
- Measurement considerations- well done!
- Definitely know the direction you are taking

PPD//Dreamweaver//Web design tutorial II with Lorraine.



DREAMWEAVER WORKSHOP II
Workshop session with tutor Lorraine


Notes from this morning's workshop


- When saving for web & devices you can see the speed at which sliced elements (saved and uploaded for your web page) will load (eg 1 sec @ 1 Mbps).


- Click + Shift on the slices you want to store on the save page.


- Don't save as HTML & Images as I didn't have a hand in designing it (as in CSS) and it is very easy to get lost.


- Apply HTML or /**/ (CSS) comment- can alter code to see what is most effective without deleting. Can then click the "remove comment" button or restore code.


<img src= "images/______.gif"


(Example of adding images)

Wednesday 9 May 2012

PPD//Industry Experience//Reply from Oli at Split.



Really pleased this morning to find a reply from Oli at Split in regards to my portfolio and creative CV that I sent along to him yesterday.

Already being on chatty terms with Oli thanks to meeting him at the Reetsweet Craft Fair and being a designer exhibiting my work at the Yorkshire Graphic Designers exhibition this month (which Oli has helped to organise, and, when first meeting him, he urged me to become a part of), so I'm really happy to have met him for a level of relaxation and relation that I don't, as of yet,  have with other studios.

Delighted to have received feedback from files sent (without even asking!) and hopefully seeing Oli (and possibly Josh from Split too) on Saturday at the exhibition hanging for a further chat about design and industry experience.

Tuesday 8 May 2012

PPD//Industry Experience//Contacting studios.



Throughout today, having finalised my CV and PDF portfolio to send to design studios, as well as creating a condensed list of the studios that I was most interested in getting in touch with (and, therefore, contacted first), I have very happily now contacted a total of 13 studios so far, along with my three contacted over the weekend, now adding the studios below to my list (as evidenced in each of the emails, of which a draft was written, and then slightly adapted, where appropriate, for each):


- Split
- Box- head*
- The Archipelago
- B&W Studio
- Burst*
- Creative Orchestra
- Pearlfisher
- Taxi Studio
- La Boca
- Smile


CONTACT REPLIES//

Taxi Studio, Bristol
Smile, Birmingham


I exictedly found two replies, though (unfortunately!) automated- one from Taxi Studio letting me know that Terry, the recipient of my message would be out until Thursday (at least that will give me a clearer understanding in terms of receiving/replying times!), and one from Smile, which was probably the kindest form of rejection in this first instance- that they aren't currently looking for multi-disciplinary designers, but solely web designers, though my CV will be added to their database.

Looking forward to hopefully hearing some more responses soon!