G MAN

"Self promotion is one aspect of design that cannot be taught."

Graham gave us a talk today about self promotion, showing some examples of his brilliant work on logos and branding for agencies and his own self promotion. I really love Grahams work as he produces very typographical pieces that really appeal to me and the style of work I like producing. 

So what do you need for successful self promotion? an identity, a portfolio, a website & printed literature.

Being freelance Graham showed us his own identity which he has had a bit of fun with rather than producing a generic boring business card. The bright colour's used stand out and catch your eye and even down to the stock it is printed on shows that extra attention to detail. As he said it is 'those extra bits of detail that separate you from everyone else.' I am going to enter a very competitive market in a few months time so having good self promotion is vital to being a success. I need to stand out from the crowd! making promotional activities varied and distinct...think of a different way to attract attention and get your work noticed. You can tell the high quality of Grahams work and the attention to every single detail and he is involved in every stage down to the choice of stock the work is printed on and also the printing process - you can't just do a great design and think your finished, you need to follow it through to the very end. I love the attention to detail he pays to his work and how he is so enthusiastic when he talks about it...you can tell he really enjoys what he does. It was really interesting to hear about the printing processes and is something I would like to get more involved with as it can really make a design.

Grahams business cards and comp slips continue with the bright colours even giving people a choice of which colour business card they would like - making it a bit more interesting. Even when you have clients you always have to be promoting yourself to get more work.

"Finding clients will be the main battle of your whole career: not only to find clients to start you going, but constantly to be finding them to keep you going."

If you produce good work it should speak for itself but "you have to tell your clients that you are available and willing for more work...don't suppose it will happen automatically."

Seeing Grahams work got me excited about design again seeing how you can have fun and be creative when working with clients. I'd love to produce work as good as Grahams in the future!

Tameside burglary reduction

Following on from the police campaign we worked on we have been approached by Tameside Metropolitan Borough to redesign a burglary reduction initiative card for them. They saw an article about our campaign in the paper and it proves to us that the campaign has been noticed and has created another great opportunity for experience for us. We are currently discussing with them exactly what they want producing but it is more experience for us 3 to work on a live brief. I will keep you posted when things develop...

Get out of the sketchbook...

Last week was 'wacky week' so I signed up for a tutorial with Sue. It was great to get a different opinion on my work and the direction I'm heading in. Sue was really helpful in telling me to get back to being a 'designer' and the work I like doing. I feel over the past few weeks I have been trying to be different and have kind of forgot what I like doing. She also told me to 'get out of my sketchbook' so that is what I have done! My wall is now starting to fill up with silence experiments...

I finally feel like I know where I am heading with this project and I have spent the weekend experimenting further with my photographs. In my tutorial with Clinton last Friday we discussed that I should go back to the house and take more directed photographs and also think about how I felt when I was in there. He told me to look into interior monologues - a text of thought of what is going on inside someone's head, they represent a character speaking silently to themselves and quote their inner speech. So I took a trip back to the house this time with a more focused idea. I feel much happier with the recent experiments I have produced which contain my thoughts and feelings about the house and give the work quite a personal feel. I have picked out the important words in my writing and I guess this is also a form of silence as I am choosing what people can read - physically deleting words to create an abstract piece and also crossing words out. My next stage is to continue with my experiments and begin to bring the photos together to create a more structured piece working towards a final piece. Lots more experimenting to do for my review!

Take a break...

As I mentioned in my previous post I was given an idea for how to get people to give me time to answer some questions for my essay primary research. In my tutorial with Hitch we discussed that I should aim high with my primary research and interview some art directors and he told me to think of a way to get them to give me some time. I know they are very busy people and I hope they will 'take a break' to answer some of my questions.

I have made three small boxes to send to some of the big agencies in London which say 'Take a break' - inside each box are 4 cards explaining who I am and a set of questions for them to answer and reply to me by email. There is a kit-kat and a tea bag and the general idea is that they will 'take a break' - have a cup of tea and the kit-kat and answer my questions. I really hope they will reply as I have put a lot of effort into these little boxes...and I also hope they recieve them with the postal strike,fingers crossed!!

Speaking of my primary research Liz gave me a couple of contacts to email and I have had a response! Adam Richardson the creative/art director at TBWA has answered my questions for me and I am very grateful!

First Class!

Over the past two weeks we have had two graduate students (both with a first class degree) from last year come in to talk to us about their time in third year and what they are up to now... 

Libby Scarlett

Libby had been in previously to talk to us at the start of third year and she came back to show us some of her work. Libby produces a lot of hand-made work which she puts a lot of time and effort into. It is all beautifully presented and you can tell she thoroughly enjoys what she does. Her work all has a deep meaning to it and you could tell there was a concept and reason behind everything she does. Her final piece for the degree show goes to show you can do anything you want. Libby said she spent a lot of her time towards the end in the wood workshop and looking at our course people may think that isn't 'what we do' but it just goes to show the real diversity and openness on our course and you really can do what you want. Although a very different style of work to mine it was great to see that hard work pays off in the end! 

One piece that really caught my eye was Libby's journal which was beautifully presented and just by looking at the quality and final execution you can tell was something she really enjoyed producing. Libby herself admitted that in hindsight she probably did spend too much time on her journal but I think I can relate to her in being a 'bit of a perfectionist.' The overall presentation and idea behind the journal was great, taking time to produce the indexed file and not just throw it into a file. I think it is this attention to detail that makes you stand out.

Nicola Rowlands

Nicola gave us a great talk on how she spent her time in third year, her work experience and what she's up to now. It was refreshing to hear an honest talk from both girls but also slightly panicky in the amount they fit into the year. Nicola talked us through her 'top tips' for getting through the year and afterwards looking into industry and how to 'get in there.' ("Make lots of tea" was one of her tips which gave me an idea for my essay primary research.) Her work is very illustrative hand-drawn work again. She showed us a wide range of work from her time on the course, work experience work and stuff she's doing now. Nicola did a lot of work placements during her time at uni and I don't know how she fit it all in! The pieces below are one's that really stood out to me and show the connection between the hand drawn and the computer.

This powerpoint slide produced for the BBC. It really reminds me of the branding for Code, although quite a different style the simple graphic illustrations are quite similar to their style of branding with the empty tv to hold text and images and their Andrew Rae illustrations.

One of her most current pieces of work for 'Don't Panic' packs distributed throughout September.

I love this identity Nicola created for an interior designer....it is a great identity giving the feel of fabrics and also friendliness with the hand-drawn elements which will really attract people.

It was great to hear from people who have been in the exact place we are all in now and refreshing to be given honest advice. I have a lot of hard work ahead of me!!!

Classic's with a twist...

Whilst doing research for my dissertation I came across this great campaign Love Creative have done for Gola. It really caught my eye so I thought I would put it up here...

It's time to blog...

So it's been a week or so since I last 'blogged' and quite a lot has happened so here goes...