FMP Targets

Here are some new targets for OUGD303, based on things I realised I needed to improve on at the end of OUGD301. As well as new targets, there are continuous ones from the previous module and before that I am yet to complete. I have thought about why I want to achieve these things and what I will gain from doing so. I will be evaluating my progress throughout to see how I am getting on with achieving these targets. 

Targets

1. Working on collaborations throughout FMP is going to be important for me, as this will help me to gain some live work, as well as preparing me for life in the industry, as I get the chance to improve my communication skills and gain a better experience of working with others.

2. Live work is also something that I want to be able to add to my portfolio. As well as this being a benefit, dealing with clients and issues such as pricing will help me to be more professional and would prepare me for if I was to work freelance after this course.

3. Following on from this, I need more experience dealing with printers and sourcing my own stock. By printing and producing things to the highest quality I will achieve professional results. Most of these targets are about in some improving my professionalism and preparing me for life after LCA.

4. This is a target that I have been gradually improving on, but still need to pay a lot of attention to, which is improving my photography skills. I did make use of the photography studio in the last module, but think I need to practise more next time before the final photo shoot, to gain more knowledge of what works best and how to best use the studio equipment, including lighting and how to set up the studio without the help of others. Having better photography skills will mean that my presentation boards look more sophisticated and showcase my work to the best of my ability.

5. Another target which has been something I still need to improve on is more experimentation with my work. Throughout the last module I did get to try out more new techniques but again I want to push myself further, to learn new things and create exciting work that stands out. I want to increase my skill set before I aim to gain work after LCA.

6. This target is something I always say I wish to improve on, which is making use of the facilities available. As I get closer to the end of my time on this course, I know that I need to make the most of these and not take them for granted as soon I won't be able to. I want to re visit things I have had inductions for, and make them relevant for my work. These include book binding, laser cutting and screen printing. This will help me work to be a bit different and more interesting if I put more effort in to my presentation skills.

7. For FMP, I aim to create a detailed time plan that I will stick to throughout the module, to stop me from getting stressed and rushing things at the end of the module. For the last module, I did not put enough consideration in to my time plan and so did not end up following it, which is something I regret, so now I want to make the most out the time plan I create.

8. As I have been previously focusing my skills on design for print, I now want to allow my digital skills to develop, especially in terms of web design. I want to gain more advanced skills, especially with the use of dreamweaver. Website design is something that I want to look in to in the future so I need to be prepared for this, as I think having digital skills will improve my chances of securing a job/freelance work. 

9. Throughout the last module, the quality of work I have been producing has improved greatly, with me now having a range of work I would feel happy and proud to include in my portfolio. However, I think I need to be careful about how I spend my time, which goes back to creating a time plan, as I believe I can produce a greater quantity of work.

10. I need to stay motivation and focused throughout this module, no matter what responses I get towards my work in a crit. If I feel like I am at a dead end, I need to get help straight away, rather than wasting time, which causes stress. Every moment now is very important so I need to work hard to make the most of the time I have left. 

11. I want to produce a relevant body of work that shows who I am as a designer, that I can include in my portfolio. I need to focus on the PPD side of things as well as this module, as I need to increase my confidence in my work, and so promote myself as a designer, to potential clients as well as to studios. By doing this I want to gain more professional industry experience which may help influence my design practice.

OUGD301 Module Evaluation

Paper Samples

Fedrigoni //

As well as collecting some examples of printing samples, I want to collect some paper samples to help me think past the limited amount of stock that is available to us and consider how much further I can push things.

Placement / Holden & Sons Advertising

After visiting over summer, I returned to Holden & Sons to complete a weeks placement.

Here are some of the topics that I covered:

- branding, logos and business cards, 

- idents (Story boards and after effects), 

- social media for outside brands, promotions and competitions, considering customer interactivity

- own company self promotion

It was really exciting to see a project turn live as I was working there, and for my opinions to be appreciated. I have been invited back so will hopefully return either christmas or easter to continue to learn more about the industry.

My Work on the YCN website

http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards/past/2011-2012/peacocks/commendations/56

While looking at the new briefs for the 2012/13 YCN awards, it was nice to see my work (with Chloe Wilkinson) from this year on the new look YCN website. Now I'm looking forward to getting the annual with my work in it!

Planned Visit: Manchester Print Fair & Gallery

Graphic Design things to do in Manchester...

Paper cut exhibition

Friday 5 October 2012 - Sunday 27 January 2013 @ Manchester Art Gallery

Paper craft featuring Rob Ryans work who I am a big fan of. Relevant to my OUGD301 brief where I am making a graphic design rule book, and want to use a mixture of laser cutting, screen printing and other processes.





Manchester Print Fair

Definitely want to go to this to see and maybe buy some examples of nice print to inspire me through the year!

Magma book shop

This book shop sells lots of graphic design books so I might be able to buy some that I've been looking at.

_______

PRINT FAIR:

_______

PAPER CUT:

[photos of first cut book]

OUPD301 Sept - Dec & OUGD301 Weekly Evaluation

Week Beginning: 24/09/12

This first week back at college has had a focus on getting ready for the upcoming year, with briefings and PPD presentations. I am pleased about how my presentation went and found it interesting to hear what others have done. Now I know my timetable I have organised a placement (at Holden&Sons again) during reading week. I want to organise visits to other studios and printers throughout the year and over Christmas to get an even better insight in to the industry. I also feel like I need to make a plan for the dissertation, like how long I will spend on it per week as I am aware how busy I am going to be for the rest of the year, especially if I have placements too.

Week Beginning: 1/10/12

This week has been a good and busy first week back, and I have been working as I mean to go on, meaning long days at college but then giving myself a bit of a break in the evenings so that I don't get too stressed. I think this is a much better way of working than I did last year. My four briefs have changed a bit during this week but now I know what I definitely want to do I can finally get started properly. The progress tutorials next week will be useful to help me see if I am going in the right direction. I know that I have set myself a lot of work to do in not a lot of time, so its important I get the most out of everyday. I've been doing a bit of a time plan to ensure I don't waste my time.

Week Beginning: 8/10/12

I've been changing my briefs around again this week after the feedback I got from the group tutorial got me thinking about why I was actually choosing to do things. I found this so useful and now have re-written my brief, meaning that I've set myself a task I actually feel like I'm looking forward to doing and can get started with. I thought I would have done more by now as its the third week in, but I think not being totally sure about what my briefs were was what was stopping me. Now I know what I'm doing, I'm ready to get going and have set myself a week by week plan, so lets see if I stick to this.

Week Beginning: 15/10/12

So at the start of this week, I was beginning to lose motivation a bit and not really know which design direction to go in. I've been focusing on just two of the briefs, and got to the point where I didn't really know what to do next. I've been continually asking for feedback from others in the group and I have found this really useful, as they sometimes point out things I wouldn't have thought about myself. Also, my individual progress tutorial was really useful and motivational, especially for thinking about the structure of this module. I now know which briefs I should spend longer on, and where to start, so now I've got a bit of order I think it will be easier to stay motivated and hopefully not get too stressed.

Week Beginning: 22/10/12

This week I feel like I have done lots for this module and I think having the crit to think about has been massively motivational in helping me get everything up to date. I've been getting through the things I talked about in my individual tutorial, as well. Some of the feedback I received was a bit confusing, so I need to have a talk about this as soon as possible, but most of it was useful, pointing out things I hadn't noticed.

I've set up a facebook group for me and a few other students, so that we can upload our work to it and get feedback, which is especially useful if I create something late at night and can't wait til the next day to get others advice. Because graphic design at LCA never ends.

My concern this week is that while I've spent a lot of time on this module, I haven't done much at all PPD wise or for my dissertation. So next week, while I do have my placement, I'm going to work on both of these areas so that after the reading week I will be able to concentrate back on this module.

Week Beginning: 29/10/12 (Reading Week)

This week I have been on placement which has been a really fun and useful experience and I would love to go back over christmas. Its got me excited for life after uni rather than scared about leaving the course. However, due to the time I've spent at this placement and the commute, I've done very little work, and am a bit worried I will be really behind everyone else. I don't regret my decision to do my placement in reading week, but know that I'm going to have work twice as hard and be even more organised to get everything done on time. The deadline is getting closer and closer and while I've done a lot of the initial work, I need to make sure I'm sticking to my time plan and start designing the actual final pieces, so I can produce some good quality work which can be used in my portfolio.

Week Beginning: 5/11/12

At the start of the week, I discussed where I was up to with Andy, which was really useful as I thought more about things having more meaning and a context to them, rather than just designing for the sake of it. With the deadline fast approaching though, I don't have time to keep changing ideas, so need to make important decisions soon, as I already need to prepare for print.

Then I had the crit, where after this I felt like I was at a dead end, and felt disheartened, as people are continually giving me totally mixed feedback on my work, so I keep changing directions to suit what people have said, for people to tell me to go back to what I have done in the first place! It was making me feel very stressed, so I've taken a break from the briefs that were causing me problems and started to focus on the new competition brief I want to enter. I think I need to continue doing what I did this week and discuss where I am up to with a tutor as well, as crits have been really confusing me and making me feel unmotivated with the mixed feedback.

Week Beginning: 12/11/12

This week I have got all my stationery brief finished and ready for print, as well as starting on ideas for the hand drawn typography brief. I found my individual progress tutorial with Andy very useful, and this week there hasn't been a crit to confuse me about my progress, but at the same time, I think I do actually need crits mainly just to motivate me to get more work done. This week I've felt less motivated than ever and unbelievably stressed. I hope when I get a brief out of the way this will be a bit easier.

Week Beginning: 19/11/12

This week I have got my motivation back by having a break from the two briefs that were stressing me out a bit and focusing on the ycn hand drawn typography brief, which I have found and a good change from the type of work I have been producing. It has allowed me to play around a bit with type and print finishes, and I'm now almost finished with this brief. I am still more worried than ever though as the deadline gets closer and I also realise I have so much dissertation work to catch up on. As always, there will be things I look back on and decide I will have to work differently next time.

Submission Deadline: 12/12/12

More Print Samples

I had made it a bit of a PPD task for myself to collect lots of print samples, for a variety of reasons, and had already collected quite a few packs. [see samples]

The reasons are: to help me to find a printer to potentially create a range of business stationery for myself to come across as a more professional designer at the end of the year; to have something to show to clients when discussing what stock to use and how things should be printed during a project and also just because of my interest in design for print. Some of the packs are really well designed and give you some ideas of things you could print.

_____________________________

Printed.com

All the prints from printed.com feel really good quality stock and the quality of the printing is impressive too, and as you can see they print most things, so would cover what I would need to print.

The sample pack was delivered quickly and came in a folder to keep things organised which gives a good impression.
_____________________________

Genie Design and Print

 

Genie sent absolutely loads of print examples, of different products printed on to different weights of stocks. Really fast delivery. A particular selling point that makes them stand out from other printers is how they can print stickers of different weights and sizes and they can also die cut them to size. As well as sending me examples of business cards and paper weights with their logo on, they sent me real examples of how this had worked. I think seeing both is a good idea to help you decide what would be most suitable.

_____________________________

Benwells

This is definitely the most amazing print samples pack I've ever had. Benwells are specialists in print finishes as you can see from these beautiful examples. The pack was really well presented, and the delivery was quick. I was impressed with the box which even had a bit of foiling on it. I think it would be quite expensive to use Benwells, but it could be more relevant in my FMP, when I am working in collaboration with a fashion designer.

The examples include embossing, textured surfaces, flocking and foiling, spot varnish, duplexing and die cutting. Often a few of these finishes are combined, but the simplicity of the designs means that they still look sophisticated. The stocks are luxurious and great quality and I would really love to find something to print with these.

_____________________________

I think now I need to get some samples of different types of paper, as while I have lots of examples of different weights and colours, I'd like to get some examples of different textures of paper, as I haven't printed like this before and would like to try it.

Self Promotional Material Update

After rushing to print my self promotional material, I decided to spend a bit more time correcting it and getting it ready to print in digital print. The results are so much better, and the choice of an off white thick stock worked really well the images. I've also printed stickers with my logo on, but they were printed on to very white sticker paper which doesn't quite go so they will probably be used for something else. I want to create an envelope for this piece of self promo work to go in but I'll do this at a later date when I've got a bit more time.

Graphic Design Exhibition

After the PPD module briefing, we have been thinking as a group (me, lisa, kirsty's a + h, sarah, baljeet,  beth and sophie) that we need to organise more things ourself, to make networking and promotional opportunities and show that we have the initiative to start these things.

Things we need to consider:

- Where would it be?
- When would it be?
(To not interfere with deadlines etc.)
- How long would it last?
- How much would this cost?
- Who would display work?
- How would we promote it?
- Who would come?
- Would we sell work?
- Would there be a theme?
- Which work would we choose?
- How can we attract more visitors?

Possible venues in Leeds:

http://www.dockstreetmarket.co.uk
http://www.whiteclothgallery.com
Leeds College of Art canteen

Group Meeting...

Graphic Design Weekend

This weekend I'll be thinking PPD with these visits...

The Pink Milkfloat Printing Press  

Saturday 6th October — Leeds Wharf Chambers

___

A little research as I am considering making working to sell at a craft fair for one of my OUGD301 briefs. I want to see how other people do it.

Places / Exhibitions I want to visit

Here are some exhibitions and places I intend to visit as they are relevant to my practice as a designer. Recording them here so I don't forget about them!
___________

LONDON.

I think a visit to London will be order to visit a few studios and see some exhibitions, and I might try and link this in with going to new blood and new designers next year.

Fedrigoni London Showroom - Pick up paper samples, browse through their collection of paper...

YCN Shop - See the work of their illustrators, and maybe buy some nice inspiring pieces...

72 Rivington Street,London, EC2A 3AY

possibly: arrange a visit?

New Designers 2013

I have been for the past two years to Part 1, which has been relevant, because of the large amount of illustration displayed, and also because of my interest in graphic design for fashion. I would like to go to Part 2 as well next year to see the graphic design side.

New Blood 2013

London Design Festival 2013