Logo Idea

Just an idea... added a shadow to the logo as this is a technique I have used in lots of typographic designs before. Not really sure if this actually adds anything to the logo so might ask others whether I should use this or not.

I also had the idea to get the logo printed as a stamp so that I can add the hand made touch to my deliverables. To bring in the pastel colour theme, I was thinking I could buy pastel paper, then stamp my logo on to it, and then use this as my letterhead paper. Or I could get my logo made as an embossing tool, to hand emboss things. I need to concentrate on getting the hand made luxury craft theme throughout my PPD deliverables.

Easter Placement

Over Easter I will be returning to Holden & Sons, where I have visited for two short placements before.

I will be asking some questions for my design context book as well as showing my portfolio to get some feedback.

I updated my portfolio last week to send via email and have updated my branding and printed new business cards in time for this placement.

Here are some examples of their work, from their website:

http://www.holdenandsons.co.uk

PPD Plan

I'm already thinking about the PPD presentations that will take place over Easter, and have completed my re-brand, so here are tasks I aim to complete:

PPD Tasks to be completed over Easter

- Organise visits - Print visits, studio visits
- Portfolio scamps, update portfolio with latest work
- Portfolio surgery
- Website scamps
- Website updated
- Business cards sent to print
- PPD presentation
- Freelance business set up plan & ideas

Here is also a bit of a brief after uni plan:

- Work experience - build up relationships with studio, invite to EOYS, seek advice, and keep in contact with 
- Plan for studio visits for summer - make more contacts
- Summer - Small freelance work - gain experience of dealing with clients and sending to print
- Keep up geek table blogging and networking after uni
- Set up an etsy and promote myself through social media
- Keep on top of the latest trends and continue to attend events and networking opportunities
- Offer commission service for a range of products, such as personalised invites & cards, sell through etsy

Obviously I am hoping for a job, but I know that might not be that easy, so I might have to work for myself for a bit, and even when I get a job, I plan to keep up with selling my own work and making connections.

Portfolio Changes

I have been changing my portfolio based on the feedback I have had from Ben and Andy, and also because I want to send it out to help me get a placement over Easter.

As the file will be sent as a pdf, and I won't be there to talk over it, it is important that I include enough information so that each product is understandable. Therefore I've changed some of the product descriptions to include: the client, target audience, the problem, and what I have done. I really do need to practice speaking about my portfolio though as previously I have got nervous about it.

Here are some changes I have made based on the feedback:

- Included the YCN logo on the Peacocks page. I've also used the colour scheme from this logo throughout, to show how my logo is versatile and can feature in a number of colour schemes.

- I've re-done my branding to make it a lot more suitable to me, and I've experimented with how this logo can work on the CV page. I've changed the font used throughout to geosans, which I think is also more suitable.

- The next thing was to work with page layout, which was quite tricky. I still needed to follow a grid, but I didn't want the pages too be as boring as the previous layout.

- Sorting out the text was a struggle and as you can see it took quite a few attempts before I got this how I wanted it. I didn't want it to take away from the images by being too bold, as others had commented the previous titles were too big.

- I've adjusted the way some of the images were featured, to make things fit in better. When Andy looked through my portfolio, he said that most pages had four images fighting for attention, so I've tried to mix up the scale and number of images.

- I added a border around images that had a white background, such as the Peacocks web browser, so that you can see where the image ends and what is the background of the portfolio.

- The craft and design page was originally landscape, so that the portfolio would have to be turned around for this page to be viewed. This wasn't ideal, and also

- Here is my portfolio, ready to send out at the moment, but not complete, as there are a lot of things I either aim to re-shoot or re-do. With more time, there will definitely be things I change to make this portfolio perfect.

Re-Brand / Business Cards

As well as updating my social media and blog, there are other deliverables that I need to update. These include: portfolio, cv, promo piece, website, and business cards.

I've started off with playing with colour schemes for the business cards, as well as layouts. I've used the font 'geosans' to compliment the logo. I started off using a curly font that matched the decorative style of the logo but this looked awful, so I realised a really simple font was actually what I needed.

I'm quite happy with the design of the business card. I'm still not sure whether to get them printed in one colour, or whether to go with moo and get lots of different colour schemes printed, but then, I need to consider how this will match the back of the card. I think I need to test print some examples of which colours work best printed before I send these off to print.

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I've updated the colour schemes, so that they are print friendly. I have decided to print these in digital print for now, so that I can have loads of colour variations. This might mean in the end I print these with moo to get professional cards.

I've printed these on to a matte stock, rather than a laminate, and I'm actually really happy with how the colours look on the final outcome. The pastel colours are pretty but not too childish. I think even more variations of colour would be good.

Photographs of the business cards I produced, that I can use on my placement.

   

Re-Brand / Updating Social Media

Twitter

I still haven't finished my website which I started nearly a year ago. I really need to get on with updating my promotional web presence. I do use twitter a bit, so I've started with playing about with a background for this. I played about with different spots in different positions for the background.

When I reached a background pattern I was happy with, I then tried editing the header box. However, twitter puts a weird gradient over everything, so putting an example of my work in here did not look good.

I decided just to go back to having the photograph of my YCN award in the header box.

Blog

I've also updated my blog. Each page has a header featuring the colour scheme that is currently running throughout. As well as updating the banner, I've played about with the font choices and colours.

The font used for the text is Droid Sans, and the colours are: C9A8E2 & B4EDE6

When a link is rolled over, it will feature the greeny blue colour:

Tumblr

I was quite happy with the layout of my tumblr, so all I've done here is update the logo. I don't use tumblr anyway near as much as I should do.

Behance

Again, my behance really has been neglected, but I've updated the logo. I've decided to keep the colour scheme as it is, as I think it might not look very professional to introduce these bright colours to the header.