who i am as a graphic designer

Design Statement 

I identify myself as a general graphic designer as i do not have a specific specialism in graphic design, i have interests in lots of different specialisms but i do not define myself by them. I have a passion for branding, publication design, package design and design for print as well as many other general graphic design skills. As i do not have a specialism i decided to create a wide range of projects that allowed me to experiment with things that i take an interested in. 

I chose to a range of different briefs as i wanted to show the range of design skills i have developed over the years, as well as show how versatile i am when designing as i have my own style but only chose to use it when it is appropriate to the brief. 

I also chose to work on two collaborations for two of my briefs as i like working in a team as you can play to each others strengths and weaknesses to create a fully developed final outcome. My personal design style is influenced by modernism as i favour a minimal approach to my design outcomes as i like to design things that are practical with a clean and sleek aesthetic to them, which is clear in most of designs outcomes.

End of module evaluation

Through completing this model i feel that it has improved my practice as well as opening up my options for the near future. At the start of the year i intended to improve my social media presence as well as develop a successful personal brand that represented me, as well as gain confidence when speaking to professionals about their practice and my own, i feel like i have achieved all of these goals this year, and my work placement was a key part of gaining my confidence in the graphic design industry.  

A key part to my learning this year was due to study task 1, you've got mail (real mail) as it pushed me to take the leap into contacting a studio that i admire and like the work of. This was successful in my opinion as the studio responded to me via Instagram by posting in their story about my and following my, this gave me more followers and helped me gain confidence putting my work out there to be received by a larger audience.

This model has definitely improved my practice as previously i did not go to many exhibition or opening events but i have found that they are very beneficial as you get to talk to other designers and create many different contacts. At the start of the year, i was reluctant to put my work out there and talk to professionals about it. I have since made myself a website to go alongside my Instagram, Behance and LinkedIn, and have gained the confidence to keep up to date with uploading work. Although the responses are slow it has not knocked my confidence as i know that not everyone will like the work.

From my experience on this model i have found that i do not have a specific specialism in graphic design, i have interest in lots of different specialisms but i do not define myself by them. I have a passion for branding, publication design, package design and design for print as well as many other general graphic design skills. 

What i have learnt from this module is that the graphic design industry is hard but all it takes is a little hard work, and the confidence in yourself and then you can make it, but also not to be afraid of other designers most of them are very nice and not as pretentious as you think they are. 

It's Nice That - Birds doing yoga, watermelon heads and The Truman Show: highlights from April’s Nicer Tuesdays

Original Article: https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/nicer-tuesdays-april-2018-review-020518

In the month of April, it saw the return of an It's Nice That Monthly event in which they host a range of genre-spanning talks from several practitioners including Natalia Stuyk, Max Siedentopf, Will Anderson and Marion Deuchars. Found all these talks really interesting reading about different practitioners points of views on various subject matters.    

It's Nice That - May diary: this month’s must-see events and exhibitions

Original Article: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/diary-may-2018-exhibitions-events-whats-on-design-art-010518

This article discusses and shows a really interesting range of current exhibitions on across the globe discussing and reviewing the exhibitions and why we should go and visit them. Although I can't currently visit these exhibitions it is still important to see what work is been displayed across the globe to understand current design themes and trends as understanding these allows me to create more current and successful pieces of work.    

It's Nice That - Designer Dominique Vine’s type-heavy visualisation of dreams

Original Article: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/dominique-vine-dreams-archive-graphic-design-270418

In this article, it discusses a publication created by Dominique Vine on the subject matter of dreams in which she was inspired by a podcast where people document there dreams the moment they wake up. In the publication, she documents her dreams and creates a narrative archive made up of 64 dreams typeset into a format that represents the dream. I believe this is a really interesting concept and publication and I think the typeset pages are really inspiring when comparing it to some of my publications.  

photos of branding

photos were taken by a Leeds beckett graphic design student, edited by myself.

looking for jobs for after university

To start the job hunting early i decided to Look for jobs in the Leeds area that would be suitable for a soon to be recent graduate graphic designer.

Types of jobs I'm looking for:
Corporate job in a small team
small design job that works in a small team
junior graphic designer 
paid internships

After looking on numerous websites at jobs there were limited jobs that suited my skill set and were available for junior designs in Leeds what don't have a driving licence, this is currently something I am working on as I was aware that it is a key skill that is wanted. The limited jobs made me opened up to search to closer to home in Wakefield too and found a job for a junior design in Horbury. The job was perfect as I knew the area, and the skill set they were wanting from someone is similar to that of my own, because of this I decided to apply. (evidence below) 

It's Nice that - Collins unifies downtown San Francisco neighborhood under new identity, The East Cut

Origonal article: https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/collins-rebrand-san-francisco-graphic-design-180418 

In this article, it discusses the creation of a graphic design brand for a downtown San Fransisco neighborhood now called The East Cut. The redesign was created by a local San Fransisco design agency 'Collins' who has worked with the likes of Nike Jorden and Airbnb. The logo itself is designed to represent local architecture with 3 rectangles stacked on top of each other representing the three blocks and neighborhoods coming together into one community. The use of eye-catching colours on a dark background not only draw the viewer in they represent the unity of a diverse community. The rebrand has created many different promotional materials for the community such as posters, flyers, illustrations and wall murals creating a successful and different design for the local community. What I believe is successful in these pieces of work is the clear modernist inspiration representing the community through the use of shapes through a simple yet effective way of displaying information. 

Staying in Leeds

Currently I am planning on staying in Leeds in the near future, my current plan is to move home to Wakefield and then search for a job in Leeds. Then when I have found a job in the field of design here in Leeds I'll commute until I find a place to live in Leeds getting rid of the need to commute. I wish to stay in Leeds as I have enjoyed the past three years of living here in the design community and wish to stay to further a career in design. I had previously considered moving and working in Manchester but I think Leeds feels too much like home and I don't want to move away from here.

working on collaborative briefs

For extended practice i have worked on 2 collaborative briefs with graphic design students within Leeds arts university and with a student from Leeds Beckett. My experience on these brief has been positive and i have found that i really like working in small collaborative groups and this was clarified by my work placement at Asda as i was working collaboratively in a small professional environment.  Although my experience with working on collaborations with people that i could work closely with were a positive experience the brief where i produced work for someone was a negative experience, but this was just a bad experience it isnt to do with working for other people.
I have also experienced working with a photographer to shoot pictures of my work for different projects, this was a good experience as i got to co direct a shoot with anna for our chocolate collaboration which helped use achieve the right shots that we wanted for our project.
From this experience i am looking forward to working in a team in the future in a studio.

Branding pack

After creating my cv i decided that i would design a pack that i oculd put together to send out with my cv to studios. In the pack would be my cv a business card and other additional materials. 

buisness cards 

cv

Inspiration :

below is a mock-up for the collection of branding pack items to send to studios.  Includes cv, business card, letterhead, memo paper, sticker, sleeve for a publication(only added if appropriate) and square cards with images of work on with belly bound sleeve.

I choose to include these items as they are very small items that work wall in a collection, a small memo paper could be used to hand write a note to the studio to go alongside the letter on the letterhead paper. A small square pack of Instagram pictures from ym design account would show then without assessing Instagram what style of work i make. I would make a sleeve to go over a publication(with the studio makes publication and if it was appropriate) this sleeve would make the publication look part of the pack and my branding. I would include stickers to a small item that would promote my branding. 

After further development for the mock up i decided not to include the instagram squares as they would easily go out of date as i kept uploading on my instagram. This was the only thing that i decided not to include on my pack to send to studios. 

below is the final pack, Im very happy with how it came out as it all works well together and does my branding justice. I plan on sending this to studios in leeds to see if they would consider me for any design positions they may have of to even keep me in mind for the future. 

Self confidence

After the success of my work placement and contact with professionals, i have gained confidence that was lacking at the start of the year i seem to have found myself and who i am as a graphic designer.
Really pushing myself out of my comfort zone and sending mail to studios, talking to professionals and interviewing them help to show me that there was nothing to be afraid of and most professionals are happy to talk to you about their work or yours.

I now have the confidence to use Behance, linked in and Instagram to my advantage showing off my work and getting in contact with other designers as well as taking pride in my website and the work i show on it.

moving forward with this confidence i will continue to post my work on social media and keep in contact with professionals, as well as start looking at future plans for work after university.

freelancing is not for me

Freelancing has always been at the back of my mind as a possible option for the future but it has never been something i wanted to start off doing. While on work placement i with Asda i spoke to a member of the team that had previously freelanced since she left university. They too stayed in leeds and had to have multiple job to pay the bills, and was never guaranteed design work for very long. The idea of this is very unpleasant to myself as i like that idea of a steady job and the uncertainty of freelancing does not seem like anything steady.  I thought that it would be the case but after this discussion about their experience of freelancing, i have been put off the idea of ever freelancing as i would not like the stress of the uncertainty all the time as well as 50% of the time not actually doing design work.

Although it has put me off a pathway, it has clarified another, that i would like to find a steady permanent job for the future.

Work placement with george home, asda

On Monday the 26th of March i started my placement with Asda home. While on this placement i experienced a range of things such as their design process, about the company and also sat in on a meeting with the buyer.

The design team at Asda is a small team that has their own area of George home to design but the team work together or askes other people for designs/patterns if they have time and if the person's who's department it is can't get the design right. I found this to be very welcoming as the team knoweach others strengths and they played to them.

I was surprised to find out that the team didn't have to think of the practical element of the design and how it would be made in detail, which is unlike how most graphic designers would work, but in their case the manufacturers figure out the most of the finer details, this allowed the ideas to be creative and out the box as they were not restricted by how it would be produced.
Although thinking about the production was not as important the team still had to create a brief sheet before sending things to the supplies to be prototyped.

After a few days of designing, i got to sit in on a meeting with the buyer for George home, when a team member was showing the buyer what they had so far. This meeting was interesting as I got see how the decisions were made and how they thought about the products as different ranges while also considering how they would look on the shelf. I also picked up on a bit of the lingo that they used to reference certain things.

In my 2 weeks of work placement, i work on 7 different designs, that included hand-drawn type, illustration and mocking up and idea for bookends. Out of all these designs, a selection has been sent for prototyping so will hopefully be in stores next year.
(was ask not to show any designs as they are unsure which will be used)

Things that I learnt while on work placement :
I like to work in small teams
how to create repeat patterns using photoshop
the design process at Asda
how to work in a professional environment
that corporate design offices are not always as bad as they seem
i have strong illustration skills
i can do more than just traditional graphic design

My overall experience from work placement was a positive one, I really enjoyed working in the small team creating something that could be in someones home one day, this made me realise I enjoy making physical pieces and digital design is now something I want to pursue. I also found that i am a quick worker as the team were surprised when i had finished a set task in a day.

Cv

To start the creation of my cv i started by searching for creative cvs for inspiration on how to layout my cv as well as what content to include. 

After the above creative CVS that i looked at i decided that i wanted to keep my design simple and magazine its impact with the layout as a lot of information needs to be included. Key things that i will need to include are a personal statement, personal skills, design skills, education, work experience, interests and contact information. 

To start my cv i made a document with all the appropriate information that i wanted to include so that i could keep a back up separate from my design. The hardest part was getting the personal statement right and including important information as well as doing myself justice. 

After collective/writing the content of my cv i started to place it into a indesign document. I decideed that i would include my personal branding and separate my page down the centre, on one side contract information and skills and the other my personal statement and education. This worked well as the information was separated into two parts making the information easy to read and well as giving the document order. 

Above is my finalised CV. I creaed a simple skill document that was easy to read and ordered the information by importance. The black and white simple look of the cv matches my branding that is displayed cross all my social media accounts which will help me be recognised if the employer looks to my social media pages.