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

Email to I Like Birds

Andre, Susanne.

 

As a result of coming to the end of our studies with little desire to work for a larger design studio or agency, we three soon-to-be graduates are looking for some help and advice in setting up for ourselves. We understand that this is a competitive market so we don't take the following for granted, nor do we ask it with little respect for your business.

 

Quite the contrary, it is because of the reputation of I Like Birds that we would like to ask if it is possible to have a chat with you about how you got to your feet, who was there to help with all the legal and business side of things and if there is any roads that we should avoid walking down in our first year. 

 

Starting out for yourself is a daunting, exciting and nervous time for anyone, it is because of all these things that we are excited to get the ball rolling and meet people who found themselves in a similar situation. Can you help us?

 

Thank you,

Have a great week,

Lizzi, Mike and Suzanne.

Leeds, U.K.

Design Strategy: Invoice Set

Mike has been working hard on the business side of things for our studio plan, which includes this invoice set.

As a start to the work on the studio I have decided to draft a few things for the stationary set including a schedule and a contract cover sheet. 

Colours, type and details will be critted by the studio when we are ready to move forward. Using a planned Welcome Skatestore brief as an example client, I have created the following:

Design Presence: Say My Name Photoshoot

Today we photographed ourselves for our proposed website. The images play on the name of our studio 'Say My Name' by introducing us using traditional 'hello my name is...' stickers. Only our torsos are visible, as these images would act as a holding page prior to our official opening. Therefore the images create a sense of tension and suspense about who are. We used a pale purple coloured background that ties into our ideas for branding using pastel colours. Each of us is dressed to represent our personal style, to display us as individuals, with the consistency in photography and layout tying us all together and showing us as a united studio.

Design Presence: Say My Name Branding Inspiration

These are a selection of branding projects that we have been inspired by for our own studio branding. We have looked at branding projects that are playful and colourful as we feel that this represents our vision for the studio.

Say My Name: Inspirational Studios

So far our main inspirations have been studios that are set up in Europe. They seem to take a more experimental approach to design, sort of more arty and considered with more focus on conceptual work than some British studios. We just feel like our hopes for our studio fit more similarly with theirs, and we are really inspired by the work they produce. Not at all saying we are there yet, just that we'd like to be where they are. 

Bielke and Yang

I Like Birds

Snask

Folch Studio

Heydays

Oh Yeah Studio

Design Presence: The Printed Business Cards

To make the process of printing my business cards easier and quicker, I have decided to send off for stamps of the phrases to go on the front and screen print the back of the cards where my information and logo will be. Screen printing the cards has gone well, and this is how they have each turned out.

I am really happy with the look I've been able to achieve with screen printing, it's a really crisp finish but it still looks quite tactile. The main bonus of screen printing has been managing to get the exact colours I wanted, if I have printed digitally there is no way that I could have achieved the same effect without sending off with a spot colour, something that would have cost me a lot of money.

Lord Whitney Studio Visit

Today we went on a studio visit to Lord Whitney: Mike has been in contact with them previously wanting to discuss how they have made their small business into such a success. They emailed back a group of people who they wanted to chat further with as understandably they are insanely busy and don't have the time to talk to all of us separately. They explained the story of how they got started, as well as discussing Leeds as a creative city and what they can do to help nurture it, instead of people automatically heading to London to pursue a career in design. As myself, Suzanne and Mike are definitely wanting to stick up North this talk was so useful and motivational. We got a chance to chat to Rebecca after the talk as well, discussing the whole Leeds/London thing in a bit more detail and also discussing our plans for the studio. We all left feeling a little boost of confidence which was much needed since it's getting so close to the deadline now. We've all decided that we will make more definitive plans and chat more in depth about the studio after we have handed in our modules. 

Pointers

The benefits of living up in Leeds: cheaper rent, less saturated market and when you do travel down to Leeds as a business you stick in people's minds more.

Work hard and be nice to people. If as a business you don't feel you're suitable for the job, the Leeds community is such that you can recommend another studio, and also have them recommend you. 

Also with clients if something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. It's ok to walk away if you feel it's totally necessary. 

More boring jobs will be necessary to pay the bills.

Lord Whitney started small just doing what they loved, working full time jobs and pursuing their interests on evenings and weekends. 

Be determined. 

End of Year Show Pitch

Another pitch that myself, Suzanne and Mike worked on together. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful but I really enjoyed working on this and felt like our concept was strong.

The Beautiful Meme Portfolio Surgery

This is the portfolio I took in the portfolio surgery with The Beautiful Meme.
They had some very useful feedback for me regarding the presentation of the boards and the brief themselves. He was very positive, but he did note slight errors in some of the work that need amending prior to printing my final portfolio. He told me to blow up the images larger as well so that the boards have more impact. He also mentioned that with my Oasis boards I need to get rid of the imagery and work on creating higher quality visuals to work alongside the copy I've written. He also told me to change the logo for Winterlight so that the curves are perfect as it was very noticeable on the boards.

Design Presence: Online Portfolio Research

Design Presence: Business Card Development

I have now decided on how my business cards will look. I have bought GF Smith stock from Paperchase in 3 different colours: pink, pistachio and citrus, which I intend to screen print onto as well as stamping them. The back of the business card will be screen printed, whilst I will be ordering stamps for the front of the cards. I feel screen printing the cards will be beneficial because it means I have more control over the colours used. I am going for bright, contrasting colours which I feel will give them more impact. The stamps will incorporate playful phrases similar to the ones that I was using in last years PPP module. 

Back of Business Card

Front of Business Card

Design Presence: Business Card Development

Design Presence: Colours

These are the colours that I have decided I will be using in my personal branding. The top colours are the stock colours that I have bought from the GF Smith Colourplan range, and the lower colours are the ones that I will be printing onto the stock. I think that these colours are interesting and contrasting so they will be able catch the eyes of people walking past my part of the end of year show.

Design Presence: Buying Stock

Because I am printing my business cards myself, I have decided to try and invest in the best quality stock and finish that I can. Therefore, I decided to head to Paperchase Manchester on the hunt for Colourplan paper from the GF Smith range they stock there. The choice is usually pretty small, but I was really pleased when I got there because they had 3 colours that I thought would work really well for my personal branding. I hadn't gone with any specific colour in mind, but I enjoy working with pastel and contrasting colours, often being inspired by the colours I see in book covers and on examples of branding and identity. I found three colours of stock and then knew instantly from there the colours I would like to use for my personal branding.

These are the choices as shown on the GF Smith site (which as an aside, I really dig).

Winterlight Pitch

Myself, Mike and Suzanne successfully pitched for the Winterlight Festival, a live brief set by Janie from the fashion department. The job is to create the branding and identity for Sowerby Bridge's Winterlight Festival which is a one day event celebrating creativity in the Calder Dale area through live music and light art installations. Here is our pitch presentation. We felt very comfortable talking through our idea as we had discussed and thought through everything thoroughly, and the people we were pitching to were very friendly and excited about our ideas. There is not text on the boards as we felt it was more appropriate to use visuals and simply explain through everything in person.

Design Presence: Logo Development

Quick experimentations with the logo, I first thought that maybe a different layout for the logo would look interesting but in reality it's just messing about for the sake of it. I like the simple type logo and because it's such a strong typeface I don't feel like it needs anything else adding to it. The main thing I would like to experiment with for my personal branding is use of colour, so that it represents my personality and design ethos better.