- Revise & update printed portfolio
- Setup proposed website to gain web presence
- Network & meet up with design studios/individuals over the summer
- Work on a document my time at IdN and True North
- Work on a self written brief over the summer
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Current Portfolio://
As I'm approaching the end of 2nd year, and after working on a load more projects, I feel like I'm at the stage where I can be more selective with the work I put into my portfolio now. This time last year, I was struggling to find 5 decent pieces of work that I was happy to put into my folio, a year later I definitely feel more confident with my work and have a stronger sense of where I'm heading with the 3rd year in sight now.
Below is my current portfolio, with a selection of some of the project I've worked on so far, hopefully reflecting who I am as a designer at this current stage.
Below is my current portfolio, with a selection of some of the project I've worked on so far, hopefully reflecting who I am as a designer at this current stage.
PPD Presentation
PPD Presentation; I've kept the text down to the minimal as I wanted to talk through it and have the emphasis on the work that I'll be showing. The structure of it is pretty simple, working from my proposed intentions from last year, through to current work and plans for the summer.
End of Module Evaluation OUGD203://
At the start of this module, I wanted to focus on print and typography based work, but was willing to compromise depending on what type of brief I get, particularly for the collaborative part of the module. While working on the collaborative brief I feel that I demonstrated good time management skills, which helped keep us on track of our progress and to meet the crit and tutorial deadlines. For the practical development of our work, I was involved with the primary stages of our layout development but was responsible mainly for the map designs, which gave me a chance to develop my skills with layout and image based work, which were both areas that I’ve wanted to work on more. Altogether, with the collaborative brief I feel that I was able to work efficiently in a small team, by contributing my ideas and voicing my opinions throughout.
For the self directed brief, I prioritised my design practice on the areas that I wanted to focus on, therefore developed my design direction towards print and editorial design. In terms of my design skills, I feel that I’ve definitely improved on my use of typography and layout skills that I’ve explored during the type module.
I strongly believe that a good design solution is informed by good research and understanding of the design context and subject matter, therefore I've often delegated the first part of my practice on researching, which I feel has become a strength of mine. For the collaborative brief, we focused a lot of our primary research, which included experiencing P&O Ferries first hand to help us identify our design direction. We also utilized our secondary research to determine the content of our design solution. For the self-directed brief, I worked on a similar format; primary research determined my design direction and the way I was thinking, whereas the secondary research influenced or became the content of my design solution.
While working on the collaborative brief, I feel that my strengths in project/time management and action planning came in very handy as it was a relatively short brief for something that we had big hopes for, therefore required good time management to ensure that we stayed on top of things. We started working collaboratively with an opened approach, and believe that we worked really strong as a team of 3 as we all had something to contribute towards the group and we were all very vocal with our opinions and thoughts throughout. Although we all had our own interests and focuses, we worked well together as we managed to delegate specific roles for each member, which turned out to be one of our strengths. From the collaboration, I think i've identified that I work quite well as a team member, I feel confident expressing my ideas and opinions and I am constantly aware of the design progress.
In terms of working on the self directed brief, I've really tried to focus more on making the right decisions, and if they do turn out to be the wrong decision, I feel that I was able to redeem this by responding to crit feedback and my own on going evaluation. The whole design practice of the self directed brief went relatively smooth, although I did struggle to decide on something at the start, I focused my ideas on my strength in researching to help determine my decision. Again, my time management has improved a lot in comparison to my first year, action planning and daily blogging has become part of my design practice rather than something that get's done at the end. I feel that I was able to meet the the deadlines and have work prepared on time for crits and tutorials to make the most out of the feedback that I would receive.
Although I feel that I’ve managed my project quite well and documented my work throughout via the blog, it does seem evident that I didn’t really explore a wider range of design approaches. Eventhough I feel that I justified my reasons for the choice of design approach, I do think that I would have benefited from a more experimental approach, and tested out a range of different design ideas before making a decision.
Five things I would do differently and what would I expect to gain from this.
1. Although I did spend a lot of my time researching and gathering information for the contents of my publication, which is also part of my design practice that I enjoy working on, I would have liked to see how the work would develop if I chose a subject matter that already has the content defined for me. If I did go with this approach, I would definitely be able to work on the design direction in more detail.
2. I think I would have prioritised the logo of the publication more aswell. Although I did work on this, I think I was a bit safe on the design of it and didn’t really spend enough time on it.
3. If I had more time, I would definitely have to explored a range of print finishes and potentially ordered a range of paper stocks to test my design and printing on.
4. Developed my poster designs and possibly worked on a wider array of design range.
5. I would have liked to develop my proposed website into a functioning mini site so that I can see how the site interacts.
For the self directed brief, I prioritised my design practice on the areas that I wanted to focus on, therefore developed my design direction towards print and editorial design. In terms of my design skills, I feel that I’ve definitely improved on my use of typography and layout skills that I’ve explored during the type module.
I strongly believe that a good design solution is informed by good research and understanding of the design context and subject matter, therefore I've often delegated the first part of my practice on researching, which I feel has become a strength of mine. For the collaborative brief, we focused a lot of our primary research, which included experiencing P&O Ferries first hand to help us identify our design direction. We also utilized our secondary research to determine the content of our design solution. For the self-directed brief, I worked on a similar format; primary research determined my design direction and the way I was thinking, whereas the secondary research influenced or became the content of my design solution.
While working on the collaborative brief, I feel that my strengths in project/time management and action planning came in very handy as it was a relatively short brief for something that we had big hopes for, therefore required good time management to ensure that we stayed on top of things. We started working collaboratively with an opened approach, and believe that we worked really strong as a team of 3 as we all had something to contribute towards the group and we were all very vocal with our opinions and thoughts throughout. Although we all had our own interests and focuses, we worked well together as we managed to delegate specific roles for each member, which turned out to be one of our strengths. From the collaboration, I think i've identified that I work quite well as a team member, I feel confident expressing my ideas and opinions and I am constantly aware of the design progress.
In terms of working on the self directed brief, I've really tried to focus more on making the right decisions, and if they do turn out to be the wrong decision, I feel that I was able to redeem this by responding to crit feedback and my own on going evaluation. The whole design practice of the self directed brief went relatively smooth, although I did struggle to decide on something at the start, I focused my ideas on my strength in researching to help determine my decision. Again, my time management has improved a lot in comparison to my first year, action planning and daily blogging has become part of my design practice rather than something that get's done at the end. I feel that I was able to meet the the deadlines and have work prepared on time for crits and tutorials to make the most out of the feedback that I would receive.
Although I feel that I’ve managed my project quite well and documented my work throughout via the blog, it does seem evident that I didn’t really explore a wider range of design approaches. Eventhough I feel that I justified my reasons for the choice of design approach, I do think that I would have benefited from a more experimental approach, and tested out a range of different design ideas before making a decision.
Five things I would do differently and what would I expect to gain from this.
1. Although I did spend a lot of my time researching and gathering information for the contents of my publication, which is also part of my design practice that I enjoy working on, I would have liked to see how the work would develop if I chose a subject matter that already has the content defined for me. If I did go with this approach, I would definitely be able to work on the design direction in more detail.
2. I think I would have prioritised the logo of the publication more aswell. Although I did work on this, I think I was a bit safe on the design of it and didn’t really spend enough time on it.
3. If I had more time, I would definitely have to explored a range of print finishes and potentially ordered a range of paper stocks to test my design and printing on.
4. Developed my poster designs and possibly worked on a wider array of design range.
5. I would have liked to develop my proposed website into a functioning mini site so that I can see how the site interacts.
Developed website://
Developed design direction for my personal website. I've changed my mind once again on the choice of name for the website; I didn't want to use my name directly for the website, instead I wanted a fairly meaningless name that would relate to me in a subtle way. Therefore had the idea of using my initial but in phonetics. The website will be used for added web presence, showing a selection of my work and contact details. This will be used to replace my emails, rather than emailing companies with file attachements showing my work.
Saturday, 22 May 2010
Work Placement 02
Again, similar to IdN I will be working at True North for a month over the summer. Hopefully this would provide an opportunity for me to work alongside other designers to get an idea of what it's like working in a design studio that's of relatively small scale. From placement, I aim to improve my understanding and experience with working on a range of projects with a small team of designers in mind.
Work Placement 01://
I chose to apply to IdN because I wanted to work with a studio practice that dealt with publications/ editorial again. IdN was one of my top choices as I really like the way it's written and designed, with each issue focusing on a very specific field of design. They also utilise many print finishes and seem to take a lot of care into detail and also seem very current with design trends in an international scale. After working at HK Magazine last year, also in Hong Kong I wanted to experience working overseas again and absorbing the lifestyle and studio culture. From the 4 weeks placement there, I hope to gain experience and knowledge around putting a publication together in a small team, networking with other designers and also overseeing what the studio culture and design practice is like.
Brooklyn Brotherhood competition://
Brooklyn Brothers are a design and advertising agency with offices in London and New York City. Over the Easter break, I entered one of their competitions, the format was very open and pretty much invited people to create something interesting about their hometown and where they came from etc.
I entered this, without much initial thought, they seemed quite big and I just wanted to create a simple print booklet that utilises photography so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. As I was back home for the week I spent a day cycling around taken photos of the dingy corners of my home town.
The concept was simple, I wanted to capture my hometown in it's raw state, so kept the framing quite natural to how you'd normally see it. This was then laid out in an A5 format book with the details and timing of each photograph printed. The PDF was then submitted to the Brooklyn Brotherhood competition in it's it original state aswell as an ISSU publication link as shown below.
My submission://
A couple of months later, they got back in touch and said that my submission came out as one of the top ones so wanted to hear more about me and what I do. From this, I'm now planning on going down to London in June to meet them and discuss something......
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Website proposal://
As part of my personal & professional development, I intend to develop and produce my own website that would act as my online portfolio. This will be used in conjunction with the branding and the business cards that will be proposed. The main aim of the website would essentially be to promote myself as a practising graphic designer in the UK, it will also be useful when contacting designers and design studios for potential work placement opportunities.
For the website, I will plan to include a selection of my design work to demonstrate the range, skills and type of design work I'm into. Contact information, links to my blogs and information about myself as a graphic designer will also be available.
As I am not too confident with using Adobe Dreamweaver yet, I plan to use Indexhibit as the initial setup of my website, before gradually customising elements of it through Dreamweaver.
Mockups://
Developed a few mockups on roughly how I want the website to look and function. I want the emphasis to be on the range of work I have produced to demonstrate my multidisciplinary design practice. Each selected project will be displayed as black & white thumbnails, all loaded up at the same time so reduce the amount of time people will have to wait to load every page all the time. A description of the project will appear when users hover their cursor onto the image, and when clicked, a lightbox with the range of images will appear.
For the website, I will plan to include a selection of my design work to demonstrate the range, skills and type of design work I'm into. Contact information, links to my blogs and information about myself as a graphic designer will also be available.
As I am not too confident with using Adobe Dreamweaver yet, I plan to use Indexhibit as the initial setup of my website, before gradually customising elements of it through Dreamweaver.
Mockups://
Developed a few mockups on roughly how I want the website to look and function. I want the emphasis to be on the range of work I have produced to demonstrate my multidisciplinary design practice. Each selected project will be displayed as black & white thumbnails, all loaded up at the same time so reduce the amount of time people will have to wait to load every page all the time. A description of the project will appear when users hover their cursor onto the image, and when clicked, a lightbox with the range of images will appear.
Team Impressions visit://
Trip to Team Impression today was a valuable experience, going from the booking office to the print and finishing workspaces. We were shown around by Peter Crowson who is the Managing Director of Team Impression Ltd who pretty much gave us a tour and explained to us the process from receiving a job, to preparing a metal plate to printing and applying quality finishes to add value to their products. A small group of us were able to witness and get a taste of what it's like to get our work printed, whether they're a small one off prints to large scale high end publications.
Saw some really nice work being printed, and was amazed by the speed and scale of print activity going on. The trip was definitely worth the taxi trip out and missing a few hours of college, definitely something to keep in mind when it comes to getting work printed in the future.
Saw some really nice work being printed, and was amazed by the speed and scale of print activity going on. The trip was definitely worth the taxi trip out and missing a few hours of college, definitely something to keep in mind when it comes to getting work printed in the future.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
OUGD202 End of module evaluation://
Unlike most of the other modules where I’ve had quite a good understanding and experience with in terms of the skills required, the design for digital media module has definitely tested my ability to pick up new skills under intense pressure during the design practice. After being given the choice of two different briefs, I chose to work on the Movie Season one as I felt that the opportunity of being able to work towards 5 resolutions would mean that I could experiment with different ideas more. From previous projects, it has become apparent that I tend to struggle sometimes with decision-making, where I can never seem to decide on one single idea, so the choice of 5 idents seemed more logical for myself as I get to develop a series of ideas. While working on this module, I have picked up new skills with software that is completely new to me such as Adobe After Effects and DVD Studio Pro, which has opened up new doors to graphic design. Most importantly, I think I have developed my skills with project management and design direction towards digital production. From working on this module I have definitely realized the difference in terms of design practice and managing the work load in comparison to designing for print; eventhough the format of delivery might be set already, there is a lot more to think about with things like interactivity and managing the research/development throughout the brief. This I think I have managed to a satisfactory level with the work, I realised the change in design practice quite early on, which helped identify my design direction for my idents.
To aid my development and design direction, I researched into many different forms of designs for digital media ranging from live interactive motion graphics to existing tv idents. I did this through the resource of magazine, books, design blogs and websites and documented constantly through the use of my contextual studies blog. With the digital age steadily over taking print and would most likely be the most common form of communication in the future, I needed a clear idea of the things that are happening at the moment, the possibilities of design for digital production and most importantly how people would interact with it as this is what I believe the quality that print can offer which digital media cannot currently replace.
Although I’m quite disappointed with how my final idents have turned out, I feel that my decision to focus on the concept and idea before the technical aspect of it has made my outcomes a lot more effective. I wouldn’t see the work of this module as a failure, as I have learnt a lot, which is going towards my development of who I am as a designer. In general, I think my project management skills have improved throughout this module, regular blog posts have made me more aware of my project progress, which I believe has contributed a lot towards the resolving the brief. I managed my time fairly well, allowing myself plenty of time to experiment with DVD Studio Pro, a completely new software to me. The process didn't take too long as my work had already been organised throughout the module and I had a clear concept emphasising clarity and user friendly while still reflecting the visual approach of my idents. Overall, I think my DVD worked rather well, I kept the idea as simple as I could and simply experimented with different variations while still considering the user interactive aspect. In general, I feel that my whole design process and way of working is a lot more professional, in comparison to my 1st year, when I would often do all nighters while still achieving little amounts of work, my work practice now seems more organised which has resulted in more efficient design solutions.
With the change in my design process for this module, I struggled with generating ideas during the initial stages of the project; I found it difficult to visualise my ideas while still considering the aspect of motion. I feel that this was the main issue that caused a major halt to my development, causing myself to constantly revisit my ideas, which therefore left little time for visually developing the ideas digitally.
Five things that I would do differently://
1/ Experiment with software a lot more while working on ideas – although I strongly believe that I should focus on the concept and ideas first before jumping onto a Mac, I also think that a good understanding of the software is essential towards effectively establishing a good idea.
2/ Don’t write unrealistic action plans – chances are, I won’t achieve this and would therefore affect the rest of my development, as I’ll feel that I’ll be behind on things.
3/ Clarify what I would like feedback on for my crit’s – resulting in more focused/relevant feedback.
4/ Focus my ideas and take more risks with my concepts.
5/ I think the main issue with my idents, is the lack of engaging motion to them for the start, as much as I wanted to maintain the standard subtitle format, I could have experimented with kinetic type a bit more, which would have determined the rest of the development and resolve to the brief.
To aid my development and design direction, I researched into many different forms of designs for digital media ranging from live interactive motion graphics to existing tv idents. I did this through the resource of magazine, books, design blogs and websites and documented constantly through the use of my contextual studies blog. With the digital age steadily over taking print and would most likely be the most common form of communication in the future, I needed a clear idea of the things that are happening at the moment, the possibilities of design for digital production and most importantly how people would interact with it as this is what I believe the quality that print can offer which digital media cannot currently replace.
Although I’m quite disappointed with how my final idents have turned out, I feel that my decision to focus on the concept and idea before the technical aspect of it has made my outcomes a lot more effective. I wouldn’t see the work of this module as a failure, as I have learnt a lot, which is going towards my development of who I am as a designer. In general, I think my project management skills have improved throughout this module, regular blog posts have made me more aware of my project progress, which I believe has contributed a lot towards the resolving the brief. I managed my time fairly well, allowing myself plenty of time to experiment with DVD Studio Pro, a completely new software to me. The process didn't take too long as my work had already been organised throughout the module and I had a clear concept emphasising clarity and user friendly while still reflecting the visual approach of my idents. Overall, I think my DVD worked rather well, I kept the idea as simple as I could and simply experimented with different variations while still considering the user interactive aspect. In general, I feel that my whole design process and way of working is a lot more professional, in comparison to my 1st year, when I would often do all nighters while still achieving little amounts of work, my work practice now seems more organised which has resulted in more efficient design solutions.
With the change in my design process for this module, I struggled with generating ideas during the initial stages of the project; I found it difficult to visualise my ideas while still considering the aspect of motion. I feel that this was the main issue that caused a major halt to my development, causing myself to constantly revisit my ideas, which therefore left little time for visually developing the ideas digitally.
Five things that I would do differently://
1/ Experiment with software a lot more while working on ideas – although I strongly believe that I should focus on the concept and ideas first before jumping onto a Mac, I also think that a good understanding of the software is essential towards effectively establishing a good idea.
2/ Don’t write unrealistic action plans – chances are, I won’t achieve this and would therefore affect the rest of my development, as I’ll feel that I’ll be behind on things.
3/ Clarify what I would like feedback on for my crit’s – resulting in more focused/relevant feedback.
4/ Focus my ideas and take more risks with my concepts.
5/ I think the main issue with my idents, is the lack of engaging motion to them for the start, as much as I wanted to maintain the standard subtitle format, I could have experimented with kinetic type a bit more, which would have determined the rest of the development and resolve to the brief.
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Christmas Postcards for SALE://
A collaborative project that was self initiated with Ian Prentice
The side project was aimed for a local arts & crafts fair in Leeds. We wanted to create something in time for Christmas, but didn't want it to be treated as a Christmas card, but more of a series of card designs under the title 'if you could do anything this Christmas...'
We wanted it to be a collaborative project with a few other Graphic Design people from the course therefore initiated a 'brief' as a guideline for people who would be interested to contribute. Under the title of the brief, they were asked to design an A6 portrait postcard that would form one of a set of 16 cards that would be screen printed. As it would be screen printed, we wanted to keep it simple and the cost at a reasonable price therefore, the limitations were the colours used.
Final collection://
The limited edition A6 postcards screenprinted with gold and red ink on cartridge paper, hand trimmed and bounded together with a belly band. The prints are limited to 50 copies and are all hand signed by each designer at the back.
If anyone is interested in purchasing the collection, then just get in contact via email://
timsum10k@gmail.com and I can arrange for payment and postage in time for Christmas!
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Questions to be answered://
{ UNFINISHED }
What is professional / industrial experience?
- Experience gained from working in the design industry or work that is design related that is practiced outside college. This can be gained from part time work, freelance commisioned work to short internships.
- Contributing towards part of a design process in a industrial workign environment.
- Get in contact contact with practicing designers - collaborative or simply overseeing their work process.
- Getting feedback from professional designers.
- Having an idea of professional design practice and being aware of what the industry is like.
Why is professional / industrial experience important as part of PPD?
- Offers you an insight into what/ where you could be after your degree.
- Allows you to reflect on your own work in comparison to what is expected in the industry.
- Knowing how to work/ communicate with your clients ( people with no design background) and other designers.
-
-
How do you gain professional / industrial experience and what form does it take?
- Attending guest lectures.
- Speaking and getting in contact with practicing designers.
- Arrange for short internships at the relevant design agencies.
- Getting hold of some freelance work and actually learning from doing.
- Collaborate with other creatives and getting your work out there.
- Entering design competitions eg, YNC, D&AD, Computer Arts etc.
What should you aim to gain from professional / industrial experience?
- A better understanding of who you are as a designer, what your strengths and weaknesses etc.
- An idea of how the design industry works, things from how to get work, promote yourself to something like pitching your idea requires experience and an understanding on how to apply yourself as a designer.
- A clearer idea of your career path and what specialist area you would like to pursue.
- Contacts - people you may get back in touch with for collaboration or for reference.
-
What is professional / industrial experience?
- Experience gained from working in the design industry or work that is design related that is practiced outside college. This can be gained from part time work, freelance commisioned work to short internships.
- Contributing towards part of a design process in a industrial workign environment.
- Get in contact contact with practicing designers - collaborative or simply overseeing their work process.
- Getting feedback from professional designers.
- Having an idea of professional design practice and being aware of what the industry is like.
Why is professional / industrial experience important as part of PPD?
- Offers you an insight into what/ where you could be after your degree.
- Allows you to reflect on your own work in comparison to what is expected in the industry.
- Knowing how to work/ communicate with your clients ( people with no design background) and other designers.
-
-
How do you gain professional / industrial experience and what form does it take?
- Attending guest lectures.
- Speaking and getting in contact with practicing designers.
- Arrange for short internships at the relevant design agencies.
- Getting hold of some freelance work and actually learning from doing.
- Collaborate with other creatives and getting your work out there.
- Entering design competitions eg, YNC, D&AD, Computer Arts etc.
What should you aim to gain from professional / industrial experience?
- A better understanding of who you are as a designer, what your strengths and weaknesses etc.
- An idea of how the design industry works, things from how to get work, promote yourself to something like pitching your idea requires experience and an understanding on how to apply yourself as a designer.
- A clearer idea of your career path and what specialist area you would like to pursue.
- Contacts - people you may get back in touch with for collaboration or for reference.
-
First taste of industry practice
During the few months prior to the summer holiday, I decided that I wanted to get some industry experience over the summer period, therefore started looking into different design agencies and individual designers whose work appealed to me the most.
After spending days researching and finding out about different agency's and there design methods, I decided to get in contact with a few places. As there are so many different agencies around, I focused mainly on ones that worked mainly for print and editorial design which is an area that I wanted to go into for my 2nd year. Ideally I was also looking for more independent studios, rather than in house places as this would hopefully offer a more personal learning opportunity. Another thing I had to take into consideration was the location, I focused my research into Leeds, London and Hong Kong based agencies.
Some of the agencies contacted via email include:
A Practice for Everyday
A2/SW/HK
HK Magazine
Stereo
B&W
SEA
etc etc....
Thankfully, majority of the places did get back in touch, with most cases, as they're quite small independent studios with limited people, it was a bad time to recruit any interns at the time. Both HK Magazine and Stereo got back with more positive news I guess, with HK magazine offering an interview with a potential 3 weeks internship in their Hong Kong office. Whereas I was also in talk about another internship with London based Stereo, but never did get the time to visit their studio to arrange something further unfortunately.
The process was rather frustrating really, I probably took about a month just researching and getting in contact with all these places, with only a handful of places replying with slightly more positive news. However, I'll take this as experience for this year hopefully. Quite a few places, did like my work but were not in a position to offer an internship at the time, so they will be the ones that i'll be contacting again in a few months time!
Work and my experience working as a graphic design intern at HK Magazine can be viewed here
After spending days researching and finding out about different agency's and there design methods, I decided to get in contact with a few places. As there are so many different agencies around, I focused mainly on ones that worked mainly for print and editorial design which is an area that I wanted to go into for my 2nd year. Ideally I was also looking for more independent studios, rather than in house places as this would hopefully offer a more personal learning opportunity. Another thing I had to take into consideration was the location, I focused my research into Leeds, London and Hong Kong based agencies.
Some of the agencies contacted via email include:
A Practice for Everyday
A2/SW/HK
HK Magazine
Stereo
B&W
SEA
etc etc....
Thankfully, majority of the places did get back in touch, with most cases, as they're quite small independent studios with limited people, it was a bad time to recruit any interns at the time. Both HK Magazine and Stereo got back with more positive news I guess, with HK magazine offering an interview with a potential 3 weeks internship in their Hong Kong office. Whereas I was also in talk about another internship with London based Stereo, but never did get the time to visit their studio to arrange something further unfortunately.
The process was rather frustrating really, I probably took about a month just researching and getting in contact with all these places, with only a handful of places replying with slightly more positive news. However, I'll take this as experience for this year hopefully. Quite a few places, did like my work but were not in a position to offer an internship at the time, so they will be the ones that i'll be contacting again in a few months time!
Work and my experience working as a graphic design intern at HK Magazine can be viewed here
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