Design Strategies Presentation

Contextual references are a bit weak, need to build on that & find companies that represent where I want to be/produce work that I aspire towards.
In general the presentation went well, got a bit worked up about it when I needn't had - Feeback included pointers on how to improve my presentation style as this will be important in the future, i.e. pitiching work to clients.

Sign-up Workshops

Been thinking about this all day - because it's going to dictate a good chunk of what I do for the next few months, but also because yet again the idea of working with motion graphics has yet again been thrown into debate..

I was so sure up until now that I'd pick it up in the future, and for now I was done with it - but being faced with a decision between print, web and motion workshops I just couldn't stop myself signing up for motion graphics. Shortly after I finally grabbed the chance to speak to the new tutor Lorraine, who only reinforced the message that I was making the right choice. I'm so, so happy that we've now got a digital specialist, I was crying out for a tutor with both the creative knowledge and technical skills to encourage me through the digital module - and I just think it's a huge waste of a resource to throw this away now.

So this now changes some of the briefs I'll be responding to - definitely going to include a digital branding exercise and with Lorraine's input I think I'll finally be able to fit motion graphics into my practice. Awesome, happy Lauren.

AllGood

A design studio based in Roundhay, a prime candidate for a visit. They're just the right size, not too big not too small, and just browsing through their website they seem to have a good grasp on what it means to be a business in this industry. I'm not specifically interested in anything other than how they run their business - but I'm sure I can learn more than that from these guys.

Keighley Christmas Guide

Over summer, a contact of Will's got in touch and essentially employed us to work on their brochure for Keighley Council. A great opportunity to earn some money - but more importantly it's a chance to build a relationship with another design agency. Augemente are a small group of designers focussing on branding across the whole range, offering a relatively cheap price for what they do - they know how to make a living out of this industry. We have been dealing with Helen (accounts/client manager) and recently met her in Bradford, she's keen to keep the work coming and though they're only small jobs, the experience of working with someone like Helen is absolutely invaluable. 

Posts with the work we have produced will be up here as soon as possible.

Business Cards - Text Layout

Really like the little arrows, both as an interesting accent to the text, but mainly because it reflects the arrow shape in my logo.
The outline is just so you can see the document borders, this isn't a part of the design.

The favourite so far.

Business Cards

What a revelation, I do already have a business card, just not one I'd be happy showing to any industry professional. Remarkably similar to Will's you might say, well yes, it was the process I was most interested in and he happily lent me his text layout just to test this.

I did about 10 variations of the design on the front, but they were all pretty poor - quite like this one though.
As far as the process goes.. quite easy to hand produce, but as you can see from the product shot they are going a bit curled at the edges. Going to try something similar for Wednesday with thicker stock - and my own text for the back.

Logo updates

Liquid Lunch - Product shots

*To be uploaded

Liquid Lunch - Follow up

Liquid Lunch Identitiy

Just a quick update on the last week - Will and I have been working on an identity for a smoothie stall in the Manchester area.. 

Initial mock ups - We worked on these for quite a while, the layout of the individual elements became so time consuming and tedious that it took an argument and a half day break before we came to our senses and realised that this looked like a child's party set.

Menu and bag layout - More to follow!

Going into college tomorrow to photograph this properly, along with the rest of the range. This design is far more sophisticated, whilst keeping the aspect of fun you'd expect to find with this industry.

Summer Update

As usual my plan to keep this updated has fallen short, mainly because of how busy I've been with various plans and projects. I'm writing now because I've reached a bit of a block, and inspiration has left me. Seems I have a lot to do and am starting to panic about where to start. 

Obviously there's a lot to be doing for college, my personal identity has remained the same and I'm still unhappy with it, and my portfolio is in desperate need of an update... then there's the 10 briefs we've been asked to develop for the coming year. Everything college related seems to me to be very unappealing after me and Will spent the summer working on a collaborative project with views to set up together after college. We had a good few plans and ideas to work into next year's time table and everything was going fine, until I went away for the weekend to see my family one last time before the summer ends.. and it's just killed my creativity! I'm gutted. And I'm totally stuck in the panic of being unprepared for the start of the new year.

So what to do about it? 

BBBREAKITDOWN...

10 Briefs

Presentation

Personal ID

  - logo/portfolio/website propsal... 

  - business card?

PPD 

  - Smoothie/soup stall rebrand

  - Kieghley Council 

  - Will & Lauren promo mailout

The thing worrying me the most is the 10 breifs, so that's the first thing to sort out as this is what's stopping me getting on with other things. To do this properly I need to first think about what my porfolio is missing.. I've never really thought about resolving any of my projects to a portfolio standard, they've always been quite conceptual and usually a lot of their strength is lost once it's in PDF. All this means that my portfolio is pretty sparse, and as I mentioned earlier I'm pretty embarrassed to still have 1st year projects in there as they're the only things suitable to this method of showcasing. 

So what I need to do now is figure out what's missing from my portfolio, keep in mind that I want to head in the direction of branding and consider an overall style of documentation.. I.e, Is everything photographed? Digital files? Shows the design process? 

I'd like my portfolio to stick to some pretty strict guidelines, as I feel there's going to be quite a varied selection of work and there needs to be something that keeps it working nicely once it's all together.

Now I've got all that figured out. Time for dinner.