Personal & Professional Practice: 2017

Monday 27 March 2017

End of Module Evaluation

At the start of the PPP sessions I wasn't too sure about how helpful they would be for me, however I really engaged with them and when I look back on past blog posts I realise how much I've learnt and matured as a designer in professional terms. One of the things I enjoyed most about the PPP sessions was when we had guest speakers as I found them a great inspiration, from individuals to design agencies it gave me a real insight into the work required and how you can get to that place. Another part of the module I enjoyed was creating the reflective practise poster as we were given total freedom in design, unlike the constraints we have in the other modules, I do appreciate these but it was fun to be able to write my own design rules. If I had more time I would definitely improve my self branding as it still needs a lot of work but I am okay with this as it was only my first try of level 4, I plan to work on it over summer and create a proper identity for myself. The only one thing I didn't enjoy on the course is how vague the deliverables were in terms of blogging I was never sure I had completed the tasks to the standard required.

Wednesday 22 March 2017

Studio Brief 03 - Design Strategy Presentation

I was really nervous to present in front of a group of my peers and tutors for 7 minutes however once I got up there I was okay and able to talk through my presentation, I am glad that we were made to do it as with everything practise makes perfect and you aren't going to one day become good at it. I received feedback that I made a lot of good points however I could have done with a lot more visuals about the points I was discussing and some examples of my work and how I have developed.

Thursday 16 March 2017

Studio Brief 02 - Applications

business card mockup

logo

business card

tumblr

instagram

Studio Brief 02 - Self Branding

My self branding presentation included the concept behind the branding, the pay off, the story so far, fonts and colours to be used as well as imagery and logo.

Tuesday 14 March 2017

Studio Brief 01 - Reflective Practice

What I have learnt...

getting feedback from peers is an essential part of the design process and seeing other peoples work is a great motivation
research is a huge part of the project to ensure a piece of work has context, everything must be for a reason, not simply to look ‘good’

What has engaged me...

inductions such as bookbinding, monoprinting and software inductions
keeping a blog (not)

What I have NOT enjoyed...

having to juggle so many projects at once whilst trying to have a life outside of uni, leading to a very messed up sleeping pattern
having to continue with a project I had little interest in as there wasn’t time to start over

What I aspire to...

to discover my own creative direction
to start working on a project as soon as it is briefed
to work in house design team for a clothes, makeup or food/drinks company (favourite things)
to travel the world

How I will approach this task...

I have discovered that the best way to start a brief that is very open ended in terms of the design aesthetic, is to give myself constraints:

5 colour palette from pantone
sans serif typeface
only 3 different text sizes
use geometric shapes to add depth
a2

I decided to use a modular grid for the design of my poster and went for a minimalistic approach, after hearing from Michael (Build) saying that as a designer you should either go all out detail or keep it very minimal, anything in between just looks like you're lacking confidence in your decisions. With this in mind I opted for a monospaced typeface - Andale mono as it has consistent stroke weights and spacing that won't draw attention or add unnecessary detail to the poster. The typeface is also very readable.

I reached a colour palette by using the Pantone app on a screenshot from my identity Instagram therefore the colours are from what I have recently uploaded. I think the colours accurately represent my ideas at the moment I have been using black, white and grey a lot with the occasional injection of a vibrant colours - a splash of colour to focus the eye (The graphic design idea book).

Whilst keeping to the rules I imposed on myself I did bend the rules with layering and opacity to create more interesting visuals. I also added in some photographs I had taken last year on holiday as one of my aspirations is to earn enough money to be comfortable and able to see the world. I edited the photographs slightly by adding noise to take away the harshness compared to the rest of the poster as it is quite plain and neat.

Wednesday 1 March 2017

DR ME Workshop

Today DR ME came in again but this time to deliver a workshop, I was excited for this as I have never really experimented with collage or animation as I haven't thought it was for me. However this workshop showed me that you can create some really interesting and exciting work with the right materials and tools. Everyone was put into pairs and given a word to create a number of collages with, which would later be animated. Our word was 'Cosmos' meaning 'the universe' and below is our finished result, we looked at things which people think are important in the world such as money, pets and shopping.

Tuesday 28 February 2017

Oslo. Talk

Today we had a talk from Eleanor from creative agency Oslo. She gave us a quick lesson on colour theory and the science behind it as this is what she did a degree in University of Leeds however her studio partner attended LCA. They set up their agency as they didn't want to move to London and be under someone else's control, they would rather be their own bosses. Eleanor spoke about how it is really difficult to begin with in terms of starting up an actual business but the rewards are worth it, they are multi disciplinary and are really starting to be known. This talk was yet another of inspiration for what is possible when you set your mind to it.

Wednesday 8 February 2017

Build Talk

We had 2 talks from the design studio BUILD who are based in Leeds, formerly in London. The practise is run by partners Michael and Nicky and we had a talk from them both separately.

The first from Michael about his life story, how he became a designer and what his inspirations are. This was really interesting to me as he has always had a strong interest in music and this has always shown in his work, as well as being really enthusiastic about designing art work for bands/artists. He spoke about how initially his love for music and fashion lead him to design without even realising and later gaining him jobs after attending a few different courses. He showed us some of his early work as well as the methods he would have to use pre mac such as a rotring pens and letraset letragraphica. I found this very interesting as I like to hear about how designers got to where they are and how they use their skills in different ways to achieve the jobs they want. Speaking of design he gave us a tip 'go all out with the detail or keep it very minimal' in other words don't sit on the fence, trust in your idea.

Nicky also shared her life story about how she attended Liverpool for university and ended up staying there for a long time, not fulfilling her dreams of wanting to illustrate children's books but illustrating for a games company who ended up being owned by Sony. She eventually moved to London with Michael and they started to set up BUILD whilst she continued to work for Sony through the first few years. From this I learnt that sometimes you do have to work to get money and to be known rather than doing something you love, however that is life and eventually you should be able to have your dream job - as they do with BUILD back in Leeds with clients such as Virgin America and Nike.

Saturday 4 February 2017

Self Branding Task

For this task we were asked to come up with some self branding material, this included - a title, a pay off and a brief description of ourselves. I struggled with this task as I am still unsure of what direction I want to go in, however realised it is just for practise and to get us thinking so I came up with the following:

re.beccalouise
better than clipart
young designer based in Leeds, experimenting visually to find my style

We all stuck our ideas up on the wall so that we were able to see each others to get inspiration and get a feel for everyone's ideas.

This is my first draft for self branding ideas and a lot needs improving; I am however happy with the name I have given myself - re.beccalouise is my name split up in a sort of 'concerning' becca louise style like the 're' in emails.

Tuesday 24 January 2017

Linkedin & Other Platforms

Today John emphasised the importance of setting up a page on Linkedin - a sort of Facebook for professionals that allows you to connect with other people who are interested in the same areas as you, as well as being able to upload your experience and look for jobs. An essential part of our jobs now and in the future is to push our work out there and get people talking about you - resulting in people wanting to work with you. The site can also be used to get feedback from projects are working on and chat to people about similar work.

Other platforms can be used to share and promote your work such as Behance which is run by Adobe and allows you to connect your creative cloud to share projects and gain feedback and responses.

As well as these professional websites a lot of designers also use Instagram and Tumblr to share their identity as a designer online.

I use my instagram to showcase work that I have produced, both design work and photography. As well as following a lot of inspirational accounts and saving anything I really admire.

I use tumblr more for inspiration as you can see I have posted some of my work and tagged them into specific categories which you can find on the links, however it is primarily used to gather inspo - a visual mind map.

Another website I have work on is flickr however I wouldn't relate this so much to design, however it is still relevant as I like to use photography in my work.

The final website I use often is pinterest - I don't upload any of my own work to this site but use it a lot to gain inspiration and ideas from work similar to what I want to produce - or on the topic I am working on.

Wednesday 18 January 2017

A Brief Description

As cliched as it sounds I have wanted to study graphic design since looking for courses and universities in year 9 before choosing my GCSE options, with that career path in mind I took GCSE graphic products and ict as they were the most relevant to get me onto my a levels. I then took product design, ict and photography a levels along with english and RS. Whilst looking around universities in sixth form I was advised to take a foundation year in art and design to develop my skills and way of working - as from a levels would be too much of a jump. I am glad I did this year as it was my first proper experience of using sketch books and conducting a lot of research as well as developing ideas a lot more before coming to a final design - I didn't do this much before.

Starting the course in September I definitely had some concerns that I wouldn't be good enough, but the tutors made us all feel capable of the initial tasks they set and we had a lot of support through software inductions and presentations in class. Looking back to the work I initially did I have certainly improved a lot and the course is just as good as I would have imagined if not better, I am very happy with the progress I have made this year in my physical work and how I go about a brief - I am a lot more confident in starting a project now and finding inspiration as this was something I struggled with to begin with - making a start and initial ideas.

Wednesday 11 January 2017

Inspiration Sharing

Today in class we shared with each other what we like to use for inspiration, things we admire and how we get our minds working. Some of the sites and methods I use and some I picked up are down below:

collaging