Design Presence: Personal Submission Boards

PPP Evaluation

I feel positive about my personal branding, as I spent time developing it throughout the year, to ensure that the outcomes of design presence would successfully communicate my practice and personality.

Working with Suzanne and Mike as an ongoing collaboration is definitely a positive I have taken from this year, I just wish that we could have spent more time developing ideas and plans for the design studio, although we intend to do this now that we are ready to hand in and can focus on this over the summer. This year I have been able to further develop my interests in both printing and publishing design, entering into competition briefs where I could to build up my confidence and improve my abilities. I have also attempted to actively seek out interesting information about publishing design and printing to help improve my understanding of these subjects. 

I feel that I have been weaker in design strategy, where I was expected to communicate with studios. At first this was to do with a lack of confidence in my abilities and my portfolio, as I felt that there were aspects I was still to improve upon, however once I began emailing people, I realised that there isn't really anything to worry. Unfortunately these people are obviously very busy and so the studios I targeted, which ended up being local and Northern studios, did not reply to me. There was some communication between myself and Made studio in Liverpool, however after several back and forths which seemed to be going well, the emails ended and I was left feeling a little confused. I did have more success with my communications with Leicester Print Workshop, and although I have not been able to successfully secure a placement with a studio within this year, I have successfully organised for a placement during September, as they were unable to accommodate me any earlier. I am excited for this placement as I will be able to shadow print apprentices, explore different traditional print processes, as well as learn more about the business side of the studio. 

 I would like to improve upon my communication skills, and not be so afraid to ask questions of design studios. I would also like to improve upon my time management, especially in terms of working collaboratively so that we could have organised more and had a better idea of our plans for the upcoming year. I would also have begun communicating with studios a lot earlier, and pursued this more actively and persistently to ensure more visits. I would also like to improve upon my online presence, which at the moment I am not happy with because I have not built it myself as I have limited skills. If I could do the year again, I would most definitely focus more on my future after the course instead of worrying a lot about the present, and I would also want to research more heavily into the business of design. 

All this being said, I do feel like at the end of this module, and the end of these three years, I have been able to successfully gain a better understanding of my practice and the path I would like to carve for myself upon graduation, and I am thankful for the opportunities I have been given on the course to further myself. I intend to continue exploring my practice and developing my skills. 

Say My Name: Winterlight Pitch Feedback

Feedback from the clients we presented to for the Winterlight Festival Pitch that we received today. A little bit of motivation for the final push!

Group 2 Say My Name Studio

The presentation at the college by the students was engaging, friendly and extremely informative about the concept of the designs. We enjoyed the discussion and  remarked that the three students acted as a team, spoke clearly and presented themselves as professional designers.

The logo linked successfully to the brief as it was flexible and could be used in a variety of ways. We felt the idea of using a photogram was novel and very useable for Winterlight. The idea of photosensitive printing inks was exciting as was the concept of involving sponsors with a transparent window sticker. We felt this group used the idea of light and linked it successfully to the brief. The copywriting ideas "there are 3709 light bulbs..." was excellent and again this is an idea we would like to develop in conjunction with the group. We will be happy to work with Say My Name and develop the ideas for the Festival next December.

Design Presence: Website

These are just a couple of mock ups to display my cargo collective site, ektyrer.com. The site is incredibly simple, which is what I had wanted for now anyway seeing as I don't have many (any) skills in web design. I have chosen a centralised layout for the site as I feel this suits my practice and my style more, and I have been previously inspired by sites similar in layout to this. I would at some point like to develop my web design skills, but I feel that for the purposes of getting my name out there it's decent enough. 

Design Presence: Online Presence Development

I have created a Cargo Collective site as I have no experience or skills with web design and coding. In the future I would like to learn so that I have more control over the work I produce, but until then I'm happy with a Cargo. I have gone with quite a simple layout and the template already has a really simple but well put together typeface that I am happy to use.

Design Presence: Say My Name Business Cards

The concept behind the business cards is to create a sense of consistency whilst still allowing each of us to present ourselves as individuals also. We will each use the typeface from our personal branding on the front of the business cards, for example I will use Superior Title Black, and Suzanne will use Brandon Grotesque, whilst the back of the cards will show our name and contact details in a simple layout.

Front of Business Card Example 

Back of Business Cards

Design Presence: The Finished Cards