PPD slides

Pentagram

One of the best international design agencies around. They produce some great printed work including posters, publications and books. As they are such a large company they can focus on so many different fields of design.

Pentagram

Studio Brave

Studio Brave is a design studio driven by brand identity and visual communication that differentiates. They offer an internship program for graduates that runs for 4 weeks at a time.

Departures

Departures



Departures is a branding and graphic design studio.

Studio Newwork

Studio Newwork
As I am interested in editorial and layout design I found a couple of spreads while browsing and decided to look further into the magazine. Newwork magazine is a large format arts publication, which is published biannually by studio Newwork. The magazine features work from a wide range of artists and creators in the world of fine art, design, high fashion, culture and politics.

Other pieces of work from Studio Newwork.

Again Studio Newwork produce some interesting and appealing prints, through a range of different formats such as magazines, books and mail outs. The work produced includes areas that I am particularly interested in such as branding, layout/publication and typography. Something that I am also interested in is print and how various methods can be used to create interesting designs. One area I would like to develop further, feel that I lack much needed knowledge is print processes which is something that I want to expand on. I often feel that this is something that limits my designs not having a full understanding of the various processes needed.

D&AD Talk

Just some notes taken from the D&AD talk a while back.

James Kape Portfolio

Interesting idea to get your work out there. Something like this would be a good way to showcase my interest and skills in layout, as well as encompassing other work.

Self promotional materials

From the type exercises I had a go at creating a business card and a cv.

Task 5- Proposed Position Statement

1. I want to work as part of a studio, within a creative team with designers with different skills and varied experience. Collaborating with various professionals, generating ideas and executing them to create design that is recognised within the creative networks.

2. Predominantly I am interested in type and editorial layout, with the direction towards magazines and publications. I think that this is the area of design that I am have the widest breadth of knowledge and I feel that I am strong at.

3. I would like to work freelance at some point, whether it be while I am in a studio or so many years after as a full time position.

4. Have a constantly growing portfolio of work that I can update throughout my career.


5. I would like to work in various places throughout the country including London, also working abroad is appealing to me, places like Australia and America for example.


6. Always be aiming to learn more, never be content and completely content.


7. Effectively brand and promote myself as a designer, communicating what work I do and what I am interested in to potential clients. Business cards and innovative ways to communicate to people who I am as a designer.


8. Continue to create work throughout my career that I am interested in aesthetically, even if it is designing for myself or for smaller clients.


9. As well as effectively branding myself I want to create and maintain a personal website even if I am working within a studio. I would like to keep an on going blog, which helps to inform others and invoke discussion about design that I like.


10. With the idea of working with editorial layout, ideally want to work with high end print and other media such as digital, potential producing slick but navigational websites.

Homework

Homework design studio produce some really interesting work, I particularly favour the printed editorial work that they have produced. 

Hunt Studio

Hunt Studio is a Melborne based multi-disciplinary design consultancy, that specialises in brand identity and developing art direction, packaging, environmental design, printed matter, online and interactive design. 

Hunt Studio produce the Process Journal that I was previously looking at. They have a lot of great work on the website what I find most appealing is the print and publications they produce. Quite far away but I've always wanted to visit Australia.

Task 4- Who else is out there

Who am I competing against?


I have chosen four companies that I could potentially be competing against when I graduate. For each of the companies I am going to access them hypothetically suggesting what areas I have the upper hand in and how I can benefit from this in the world of design. I am looking at two different local design agencies of different sizes, Rabbit Hole designs and Elmwood.


SWOT- (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and treats)


Rabit hole design


S:

• Knowledge and experience of using web design.
• Knowledge in coding, HTML and other web platforms.

W:

• Lacks creative work.
• No print based work.

O:

• Able to offer print based solutions on multimedia briefs.

T:

• As they are predominantly web based they would excel in briefs that are web design heavy as I lack the knowledge in coding to create certain things.

Elmwood


A well established international brand consultancy agency.


S: 

• International cliental. 
• Well established all around the world.
• Redesigning and rebranding existing products, packaging with a contemporary lift.

W:

• Not as many small local clients.

O:

• Taking on more local clients doing similar jobs to elmwood on a more local and regional scale.
• Able to take on the smaller clients that they might not have time to take on.

T:

• Vastly superior and known name, with a large client history and years worth of experience.

Process Journal

Process Journal is a quarterly released design publication that showcases the very best of Australian and International design.

'As you turn the pages you will see that we are not a magazine, we are not a book, but we like to consider ourselves somewhere in between. We are about capturing beautiful work in a printed publication that takes a step back and allows the design to do the talking. Process Journal is produced in Melbourne Australia by Hunt Studio and is printed exclusively on stock by K.W.Doggett Fine Paper.'

Awesome publication, just tossing up whether to buy the magazine or not!

Task 3- How will I promote myself?

There are all sorts of ways that I can promote myself, here is a list of what I think are suitable ways:

Portfolio

Business cards

Creative CV

Website

Blog

Mailshot

To promote myself I first need to find out what potential clients want to hear from me. Ideally the client would want to know if I had complete confidence in myself as a designer, that I am the right person for the job and have me on their team will help them.

As well as having a clear understanding of what a client wants to hear from me I should know what to say to them. I will need to be able to show clients what I have to offer, showcasing my skills and specialities. One of my main aims will have to be, grabbing their attention and maintaining it, this could be done with a memorable business card which could then include web addresses to my website and blog. Both the website and blog would be easily accessible, easy to navigate, so that the potential client can obtain all the relevant information needed to get into contact with me.

Potential clients can often need convincing a good way of doing this is gaining recommendations and testimonials from people that you have previously worked with/for. Showing any awards that you have won can be another asset to include to support your sales pitch. Another useful thing to include is an artist statement, this is something that shows potential clients what your short and long term aims are and with this they can more easily identify if you are right for them and vice versa.

Ideally I would like to have contact with a client(s) with a face to face chat so that I can get a clear understanding of what they want from me on a particular job. Building a constant dialogue is important between client and designer as the more informed either side is the more productive and the easier, more flexible each party can be. If this constant dialogue is there then this will reinforce the relationship with the client which can lead them to recommending you to other companies, opening up more business opportunities.  

Task 1- Who am I and Who are they?

Possible Client groups that use graphic design in development, production, distribution, promotion and/or communication of the products or services:

Publishing

Music

TV/Film

Retail

Web/Interface

Private Businesses (Branding)

Areas in graphic design which fit in with these client groups:

Branding/ Identity

Type design

Editorial/ layout

Packaging

To identify my aims and ambitions clearer I am looking at editorial and layout design as I feel it is one area that I have a particular interest in.

What skills you have and how they relate to the needs of your client group, including professional and creative aims:

I feel that I have a range of skills that relate to the needs of the client groups. As a designer I am constantly learning new techniques, skills such as software (Illustrator, Indesign ect) and ways of solving problems to get the best possible solution. I think that it is key to have the ability to solve problems set by the client in order to be successful in my chosen field of design. Concepts, ideas are nothing without someone that can develop these into something that is digestible for the specific target audience, that some is me.

What is also important is being able to sell myself (product) and my work, if you are a good designer but cant sell yourself you are at a loss to the industry. Being competent, clear and concise to potential clients is a necessity in order to succeed. I want to build on how I approach and project myself to clients in order to sell myself well. A strong and selective portfolio will be important, to help get myself out there, I would want it to emulate who I am as a designer showcasing my skill and ability as a designer.

I feel that I have a clear understanding of typography and layout with the aim to develop this understanding further. As the industry gains new technologies such as new software and better hardware I think that I will need to adapt quickly for this in order to stay at the head of my competitors.  

Summary:


It is important to understand from this exercise how I fit into within the industry, what they are looking for within me that I can provide there businesses. I will need to take into consideration how my creative input into the product will affect the target audience so that they will come back for more. I would like to identify over the next year and a half whether I am cut out for being a freelance or if I want to work within a design studio. How will I determine this? Go out and visit various agencies and studios to get a feel for what they are like, also talking to freelance graphic designers to see what they have to say.

Notes from PPD Group Session

Group Tutorial Prep

What is Industrial experience?

Having the opportunity to experience how the professional industry works.

Working closely with clients and other professional designers.

Working on live briefs, having to consider timescale, budgets and certain requests from the client.

Given direct instructions on a brief.

Experiencing being a part of the whole design process, from ideas to finished product, being very much at hand with the clients ideas.

What can you learn from industrial experience?

What I want to learn from industrial experience is if there is a particular working environment that I am best suited to work in.
Gain advice and meet people that will help me move from uni into the industry.
Industry standard skills and techniques
Improved teamwork and communication skills, as you will be dealing with multiple clients, printers, stockists and other designers

What form/format could industrial experience take?

Freelance.

Studio based.

Exhibitions and galleries.

Print companies and manufacturers.

Design agencies of various sizes.

What areas of industry are you interested in?

Type and layout.
Editorial.
I have also taken a recent interest into branding and identity, this is something I will look further into to see whether or not I enjoy this aspect of design.
Print both digital and screen.

What are your concerns about industrial experience?

My main concern is that will I be up to the standard of what is out there and can I cope with what is expected of me. 
Being unprepared.

Preliminary PPD Group Work

In this session we were asked to answer three of the following questions:

What do you want to achieve by the end of this academic year?

What do you want to achieve by the end of this course?

What do you want to achieve in your career?

After completing this we then pooled all our groups answers together on one large answer sheet.

Progress Tutorial

For the progress tutorial I had to fill in a form accessing the overall progress I have made from the start of the 2nd year.

The progress was useful to gauge where I was at and how I can go on throughout the year and progress. The main issues that arose in the tutorial were planning my time and get designing. Time management has often been a big downfall in the past, but I have found that over time eventually I have improved slightly. An idea that was suggested by Lorenzo was to plan out what I am going to do in the college day so I can get the most out of the time that I am in. We also spoke about generating ideas throughout the course of a project and one of the main issues I find is if I am researching it is hard to transition from research to image generation. Lorenzo made it clear that it was a two way process with each processes working side by side.