Thursday, 9 June 2011

Up to date PORTFOLIO*




James Jessop finally complete!



This has been the most fustrting but incredibley healthy breif to date.  It's given me a perfect experience of designing for a real client and how you might not be happy with the finished result.  I thought that despite we ran over the deadline I was punctual in my working and any changes that needed to be made I did within the hour.  I suprised myself in managingto juggle this aswell as working long hours on Product Range and Distribution.  I will definatley enter more breifs of this kind with the aim to win again. 

Tuesday, 7 June 2011

PRESENTATION




NOTES-JUST INCASE I MISS ANYTHING


slide one
Hello! and Welcome! /  I didnt want this to sound like a story but I do have to start at the beginning with print because my personal and professional development was very systematic and had alot of knock on effects as the year went on.


slide two
Print, quite frankly was a mess on my behalf.  I
 knew I wanted to do some experimental print onto some cool surfaces but I was far to ambitious.  
I spent too much time on the way I wanted to  make something and not what I wanted to make.
Un clarified concept
I came out of it with a pretty 'thing' rather than a design that has a real/useable reason to exist
Lost confidence in myself as a designer which continued in digital


slide three
Image was a small positive pick me up
boosted confidence slightly as I was able to produce quick turnarounds that I liked.
But/ split design personality-illustration and layout.
Spoke to few people and one in particular was Paul Luke on Fashion as he did GD.  Found it it wasn't a bad thing.  Multi disciplinary is actually a good thing, more to offer


slide four
YCN was real pick me up.  Saved year.
Originally though collabs are just vision ruiners
but quickly learnt that to have a good collab you have to have the same ambition as partener. Skill sets and briefs are bonuses.
Both want something, both make it happen
Just so, that I worked really well with steph/
skills sets gelled ad both had same ambition of not wanting to win but to have a commercial/retail resolution.
Exactly what we did
Hope to work again with Steph


slide five
Tried to further happy energy.
Produced a black and white brief to build creative barriers to work within
Set myself a too strict vision
Found hard to fulfil vision as it was using stuff I don't 'do' or know very well.
Meeting fred pointed this out and did drawings that weren't part of vision but made me learn that you can brand through just image.


slide six
I was worried I am just an illustrator, but showed what happened when pushed through to make something commercial.  Showed myelf what I can think up within strict lines-ipad shop interface and things


slide seven
Portofolio pieces from year
commercial experience from James Jessop Brief Bridget-fustrating but healthy
I spent aot of time making specific mailouts for 3 specific places.  
aimed quite high
Cath Kidston-personal response/dialog/ graduates only though
AA wasnt so seuccessful


slide eight
Sartorialist-american photogrpaher and blogger
made some editorial work of his photos to show how he could push his blog further using design


slide nine.
But even though these didnt go amazingly well I dont regret aiming high but I do regret not aiming low. 
saying that.. I do feel in a much better position to know what I do and what I want out of it, and will spend the summer making more effort with places like these..


slide ten
I do think Ive used 2nd year well-experimentally
I know know what I want from a brief and what I need in a brief
Ill take forward my lack of contacting a variety of studios and also my new found peace with collaborations and long breifs aswell as short
Most of all my understanding of commercial value in design


Thanks for listening, see you next year.



Tuesday, 31 May 2011

Snazzy Self Promotion
//


QR CODE - Content-rich Resume from Victor petit on Vimeo.

PRODUCT//RANGE//DISTRIBUTION evaluation

After a workshop with Fred where we allocated what we think we are about- as a designer, I went into this brief with such a clear picture of what I wanted to achieve.  In the writing of my rationale and statement of intent, I wanted to take forward an element I found in a D&AD brief of designing 'an environment'.  I was keen to put into practice an area of design that I haven't done much of and where I thought I had a massive gap in my portfolio.  By injecting creative concepts into a retail environment allowed me to put int practice the multi disciplinary skills I want to exercise but in a brief where I come out with relevant designs with commercial potential.

Once clarifying exactly the design direction, ie Lettuce Eat, I then had such a specific picture of what I wanted the outcomes to look like.  This proved to be a bad thing when I struggled significantly in the basic branding of the store.  The logo in my head was heavily type based and had an extremely clinical and modern look about it.  I was setting myself such a massive task in doing this and had shot myself in the foot  as my determination to make this a successful brief meant that I would not give up on this aesthetic but was running around in circles getting more and more frustrating with my lack of performance.  I hadn't realised this of course before my meeting with Fred.  This proved to be a crucial stepping stone in my design direction.  I was advised to do what I do best and inject some of my image knowledge and capabilities.  Straight after the meeting this is exactly what I did.  It proved to be a success as the first piece of imagery came out that worked well and had a lot of potential.  I could then base my branding around image and move on with the brief.


I feel as though I was constantly working so hard in the brief and kept setting highly ambitious tasks such as screen printing a whole POS -to scale, yet when I look back at my blog I don't seem to have accomplished as much as I wanted to in my head.  In each crit I felt well prepared in setting up early with the required amount of work, but I still wasn't satisfied.  That is why I began my presentation boards early.  This allowed me to allocate where I ad gaps.  I then understood that it didn't matter that I wasn't going to screen print or make the actual resolutions I had in mind.  It was all about the ideas and allocating what I would do if I had more time.  I have heaps that still I want to do with this brief and to me that is a good sign for next year.


I worked so hard in this module and feel satisfied that I gave it a good shot from the resolutions themselves to the documenting and presentations.  I feel as though I have finally reacted to past feedback and hope to see different feedback for this brief-good or bad.  

Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Sunday, 8 May 2011

YCN evaluation

ycn RE RE visited


I HAD 6 PDFS UHOH
now I have 5 pdfs.  Thank goodness I realised before submission!




YCN evaluation

When I look back on YCN my first thoughts are that there are no painful memories or stress waves coming back to me.  As a whole I never felt stressed in that project and had a constant wave of ambition, inspiration and proactivity.

Working with Steph was such a goldmine.  The though of picking someone to work with was my idea of a nightmare.  I had heard bad reveiws of this project so was exceedingly daunted by picking the right person and worried about the standard of work that I wold produce.  Not to mention havign someone on the course that now blanks you.  This was all a myth.  I can safely say that YCN was my favourite project to date.

To start with, being labelled as the image maker and illustrator had bad conotations.  I was worried that I wouldnt be able to use the oppertunity with working with a type based student to further my skills.  This was unneccassry worrying (asper) as firstly I really enjoyed drawing.  I took control of the design direction of our project and secondly It would be put to something to make a rock solid use.  

Our Idea generation stage was great.  Both of us were bouncing some fantastic ideas off of eachother and we ended up with a solid concept that we felt really confident with.  This action continued throughout the project.  We would both separate and work hard at ease as we both had the same ambitions to reach.  Once reunited this work would expand massively.  

Our ambitions played a massive role in this equal working success.  From the start Steph and I both had unexplored targets in the design for retail world.  It was like we had both been sat waiting for this brief and we had now got it and woulnt waste a second of it.  This came accross at various crits when we seemed to be set up earlier than everyone else with double the amount fo work.  This may come accorss big headed but it was great.  you could tell how passionate we were about it and that nothign would get in our way.

THe resolutions themselevs -Im really roud of.  My objectve for this breif wasnt to win YCN but to create something for my portfoilo that was relevant and of high standard to the fields I want to enter.  They puncture in snippets of both of our personalities fantasticaly but also cover the brief sufficiently.

From this breif I have no neative pre conceptions of collaborations. I think the most important thing to bare in mind when thinking about a collaborative partener is ambition.  Interest yes do help but if you don't have the same objectives the you might aswell give up on the first day.

Working with Steph was such fun and I was genuinely sad when the project ended. However, I have so much to takw forward from this brief.  Srtting high standards in small, frequent deadlines was a great way of working.  Pushing the boundaries and thinking outisde the box in a plain and restricting brief.  By putting up boundaries for ourselves, breaking them became exciting and successful in our design direction.  

Since the deadline Steph and I often reminisce of how much we enjoyed this brief and how much that we have learnt.  I hope to work with Steph again, perhaps in the third year.   

Thursday, 5 May 2011

My most awaited.scariest email







HURRAY!
this is a great link now for some more dialog.  Next to send my portfolio!




Dear, The sartorialist
Love Alice



+ this...



Open publication - Free publishing - More mock up







PORTFOLIO ALSO SENT OUT TO AMERICAN APPAREL

THEY HAVE A GRAPHIC DESIGN INTERNSHIP IN CALIFORNIA AVAILABLE.
OHHHH.




Tuesday, 3 May 2011

Evalutation

Speaking after just finishing our presentation,  I'm actually really happy with the outcome.  I did my best to reserve my nerves and urges to giggle at the most inappropriate of moments.  I think that our time spent working on it had paid off and showed. The fact that no questions were raised was a real rewarder.  We worked so great together.  We took on our roles without even having to establish what they were verbally.  Steph and I plunged into the content with stamina and determination, whilst Aaron and Arthur adapted it a lot more for presentation worthy structure of content.  There were of course overlaps of these two aspects of our team but overall we gelled well into how this was going to get done.  There were no disagreements and we all set out with the same ambitions of producing a presentation for a company we really would love to work for.  A lot of time was spent initially brainstorming what we do and how we could build a business that suited everyone's aspirations.

On the more theory side of things, my initial reaction towards this module is by golly I can talk about myself ALOT.  However this might not be a bad thing.  I have developed so much over this module without even realising.  Corresponding with my ppd module-enterprise has made me see the bigger picture as to an inkling of where I want to get to and how, and how you could be the best designer in the world, but if you don't know your stuff about getting out there, you'll get no where.   I really do believe that is isn't about what you know-it's who you know.

At first I found the tasks quite daunting, as well as the lectures being quite over whelming with the amount you have to consider.  I also found the thought of a enterprise presentation a bit of a waste of time as rude as it sounds.  Yet in fact it couldn't have been more useful.  Despite the hard work it bought down to earth all of the number crunching and long scary words.   It was just another thing to do if you want to get to where you want to get.  It also gave me a bit of a energy enhancement towards my won design work.  Knowing that Im not going to be in university forever is often forgotten.  I will be in third year soon and then I'm out on my own. It was comforting to know that everything I absorbed from this, everyone in that hall is also going to have to consider-so it cant be that hard?!

All of the tasks were completely relevant.  It was good to step back and analysis where I fit at the moment and where I want to fit and against whom especially.  It really hits home what you have to do to get there.  I found that I did go through the tasks very much in my own case study.  I don't know if I applied the theory from the lectures too much and lost sight of the facts and figures.  This is something I may need to revisit to make sure again nearer the chuck out time at college and also in writing my own briefs next year that I really am ticking the business boxes. 

I have come through this with a good attitude to apply everything I have learnt to whatever I venture out on doing from now on.  Even in some small scale research I was doing earlier for a re branding brief-I was making sure-is this realistic? Am I selling something that there is definitely an audience for? Is that audience too big?  Surely that is all you would want from a  module, the ongoing appliance into your own practice.  I intend to revisit everything I have documented and learnt from this module in my coming years.  Especially the costing database handout. 
STATEMENTS REVISITED






1. I like finding things and documenting them nicely

2. I like to work with concepts which involve humble subject matters


3. I would like to be known as a multi disciplinary designer or a 'package deal' where I can be given an art direction, styling, or designing breif and tackle it with enjoyment and ease. 

4. I want to make Graphic Design apply to found interesting high street fashion as well as high fashion

5. I don't like useless design, I want my work to be used, even if its just for one person somewhere.  I want to contribute something to the world and be remembered by someone for what I did.


6. I want my work to be used because it is appreciated, not appreciated because it is used.

6. I am completley comfortable and confident at talking to anyone who might invest in me in any way.

7. I am extremley ambitious and set myself massive goals. Aiming high makes you work harder and settle for better things.

8.  At some point in my life I want to work for a massive company and even slightly change it for the best.  

9. At some point in my life I want to work for myself and build something that will last a long time.

10.  I like to change peoples perspective in the work that I do, whether that falls under informing, persuading, or promoting I will never know.


10.5.  I want to make it big and earn loads of money by doing something that I enjoy.





final presentation
_





what did you say again alice>?


_in bullets.


Following on from Steph on equipment and start up costings..


-Our costing was affected alot by the pesting analysis.


-Political considerations included insurance such as public liability insurance, capital allowances and various taxing-but the most challenging to meet was the environmental regulations


-as a heavily print involved company its hard to be sustainable, but we intend to work in the most sustainable manor possible and obey pollution laws as well as using sustainable printing where we can.  


-However it is budget driven which is dictated by the client, so unless it is imortant to them, its hard to make it important to us


-Economic considerations are based mostly on cuts at this time


-they could work in our favour by them encouraging more freelancers with redundancy increasing, resulting in more creatives wanting to launch themselves as freelancers through businesses like ours.


-disadvantages are apparent as some of our younger and less experienced clients will be receiving funding from places such as the arts council which is facing alot of cuts-causing less potential business for us.


-social issues are health and safety based-considerations based on the amount of time we sit at the computer so our costings are effected in things like screen protectors and supporting furniture.


-technical issues imply that we also need room in our budgets to keep on top of developing technology in our working and resolutions, aswell as keeping our skills up to scratch which might eat into more day away from the studio to attend classes.




Where are we? Why?


- London as we believe it is the busiest  place for companies and freelancers to launch themselves.  


- Using the workspace group we found clerkenwell workshops with a suitably sized studio for 3-6 people, ie us, plus and clients invited to the studio.


-for £860 per month it includes a reception, carpark, broadband, 24hr security, numerous meeting and event spaces.


-theres is an award winning cafe onsite where you can pre download the weeks menu-incase you need to butter up a client.


-It's a great creative hub with plentiful other agencies which could work as a networking advantage-sending their clients to us if they have a gap in their capabilities.


-the event spaces hold private and more social public events which is also a networking advantage


-It is situated 15 minutes cycle away from a £120 pp per month house in Crouch end-an area would could imagine some of us living.


-walking distance from tubes and major rail stations such as kings cross and liverpool street


-has numerous studio sizes at different rates-so there is potential to grow into a larger studio as our business grows.






Moving onto marketing, how will we get out there?


-Using the 4ps-we allocated £5000 for our first year of marketing to help really get us out there.  This will decrease the 2nd year onwards once we are more established.


-the first year will involve web banners on appropriate websites such as fashion blogs


-mail-outs to select creatives we think might benefit from our business


-joining networking sites such as linkedin


-feature in local press and to have a fortnightly ad in design week for 3 months would cost £583


-we will also upkeep a major webpage and a company blog.


-The second year we intend to move onto more CAVASSO based promotional events to capture the spirit of our work a little bit more in more inventive ways.  This will hopefully attract press.


-Keep up blog and webpage


-keep in touch will clients and inform them of our latest works frequently to enduce the re use or referencing of our agency.

TASK F O U R

LOCAL







Economicly considered, a lot of B&W studios clients are public organisations such as councils and universities musical organisations etc.  Cuts have hit hard on such organisations.  Will this then mean that they don't have room in their budget to fork our for skills in a specialist design studio?  As the cuts are introducing and increase in freelancers, meaning organisations like the above may find alternative and cheaper freelancers to do the same job.

social considerations might include that fact that there is a fair few employees listed just on the image above.  There is more.  As they are a big studio it will cost a lot of money to insure both the employees and cover public liability insurances if there studio is visited by all those clients.
Also, how long are those employees going to stay on top of trends in Graphic Design?  Will they consider newly graduated breaths of fresh air?  Technically thinking, keep updating your software, hardware and skill set B&W studios.
  

EUROPEAN



Kooples is a company based in Paris where its branding features different couples that are interesting in their personalities and their dress code.  I love this brand.

They are featured alot in british VOGUE and I can imagine others.  This would cost alot in shipping bills and taxing by generating so much custom abroad and having only one branch in England.  

When technology is considered, an example of ipads being introduced as menus is a great example to bring in the point of print versus digital.  Digital advert and publications themselves are becoming a lot more popular.  The company could be more environmentally driven if it could introduce and bigger online shopping resource as it is restricted at the moment.



INTERNATIONAL




The sartorialist is a great money maker.  Through sponsors and features in top magazines like VOGUE, this fahsion blog has began from nothing.  A blog has the great advantage of being accessed by anyone who has a computer no matter what corner of the world you are in.  However, it is very restricted to one medium.  I'm all for blogs I really am, but how can he take this one step further to keep up technically?  

a mock up I produced as a solution to this part of the pest analysis which could also address the political consideration of environmental regulations, how it is a good example to produce an alternative to such a heavy print based resolution.




NATIONAL



American Apparel is a growing clothing company which produces minimal good quality clothing.  However its advertising schemes aren't always ticking the social box.  They are exceedingly raunchy and speaking from experience from myself and others-put off a lot of custom.  Technically they conduct an up to date thorough webpage and feature advertisements in engaging places, for example the sponsor the Sartorialist blogger mentioned above.  They also encourage sustainability as they sell publications as part of their range, which often feature sustainability content or meerly in the manufacture of the zine itself.

PRESENTATION CARDS MASSIVELY CONDENSED






DEVELOPED NOTES TO PRESENT 

NEED TO BE FILTERED!



PEST ANALYSIS

MARKETING

WHERE AND WHY?