Written piece

Having studied Graphic design for a total of 8 years, ranging from GCSE, extended diploma and finally at Degree level I consider my self very familiar with the processes involved when designing and the considerations that must be made when creating a piece of design.<br>The 8 years of studying an art and design course has an impact on my life away from education/work, influencing my interests and thought processes. Criticality and an investigatory way of thinking has been established over the years, figuring out why Designers and Creatives have made they choices and believing no stone is left unturned in the creative world, no decision was arbitrary.<br><br>With a history on courses that entwine graphic design with traditional art , I believe in certain circumstances, combining traditional mediums of design can provide an exceptional aesthetic when combined with digital methods of design.<br>Self taught digital skills have been established to such a level of confidence where a project or brief would never be declined due to software capabilities. This freedom and expression when using design software means any ideas can be quickly transferred and created on a computer screen.<br><br>My time at university has been my most recent examples of working as part of a group or team. Plans to create a functional and operational design business with a group of other creative have been ideas that were executed to a professional level. Collaborations with other artists inside the university and even in further cities have always proven successful, enabling my to collaborate with illustrators, film makers and so on.<br><br>The ability to gather hands on feedback on my work by interviewing peers, other creatives and tutors is an ability that comes naturally and freely. Any opinion on my design outcomes and processes is something that I will always take on board and also the ability to question members of the public on how effective a piece of design would be.<br><br>Wanting to develop my knowledge of outcomes at the end of a project, I embarked on work experience at a large scale commercial printers (Evolution print, Sheffield), during my time here I worked closely with the managers of this company, got hands on with the processes involved in this large scale way of printing and witnessed the stages a design must go through to then become a final, mass printed product. This experience was massively beneficial to my journey as a designer, when a project or design is finished I now how the knowledge of how to prepare files for large runs of print and also communicating with the printing managers.<br><br>My current role of being a student ambassador at Leeds college of Art for over one and a half years, has boosted my confidence and public speaking to levels higher than ever. I find myself very comfortable talking to a range of people from those younger than me looking to study at university level to those in a higher position of authority, and even more famous designers and creative who visit the college. I am constantly commended on my levels of clarity in communication, being noted as a very helpful individual.<br><br>Competing and taking part in live briefs and competitions has broken a barrier of confidence, enabling me to source my own work, produce design for a real world audience and also interact with companies outside of my university life. The time frames, quality of work and deadlines associated with these briefs and competitions have always motivated me to complete brief professionally and to the best of my standards.<br><br>Confidence, public speaking and asking questions are abilities that come natural to me, always finding ways for other people's opinions and knowledge to benefit me as well as providing my own educated knowledge. The abilities to listen to other people and follow instructions are also crucial for working as part of a team and meeting important deadlines. Listening, conversing and taking orders from people of all levels is something I do really well, respect is something I have for other people and other people's knowledge can be crucial.<br><br>From researching styles of Graphic Design over my time in education has provided me with the skills to communicate messages effectively, even in situations where type shouldn't be used. <br>Advertising methods, design principles and theory have been researched extensively resulting in a knowledge of what methods can be best used to address an audience. <br><br>Research trips, tutor feedback and direction, investigating design styles and competing in a range of briefs has provided me with a vast knowledge of design, audience and overall communication. These are skills that will never leave me and only grow in the future. <br>Creative can be applied to most roles in the workplace and having an informed creative mind is something that I definitely feel I possess.&nbsp;

PPP overview

PPP overview

Business cards and personal branding

Throughout my time on the course I've always known a role in an agency would be right for me in comparison to working as a freelance designer. An agency feels relevant to me due to the capacity to learn from mentors and people more experienced in the fields such as bosses etc.

For this reason the traditional business card never had much relevance to me as I don't aim to seek freelance work or individual design projects, for this reason I treat business cards as more of a calling card, a way for a potential employer to remember my name and my details, hence the design of my Level 6 personal branding.

My business cards and personal branding for level 6 were developed from the ideas created in level 5. Knowing I would treat this design as a calling card the concepts were always limited and began to get exhausted in level 5, but I feel the design I created last year was a good representation of my design attributes, therefore recycled and developed it to use this year.

The business cards and logo/mark created work well in both monotone, black and white, and also with colour. A black background with a white mark and white text represents me the best possible ways due to the minimalism, professionalism and smartness associated with those clean use of colours.

Web landing page 

The logo mark was easily transferable over to my website, where I created a landing page style theme inspired by Lee Goater's own practice. The meeting and conversations with him were very inspiring and I personally consider his career to be very successful with the clients he has worked with and the large scale commercial work he has produced. In ways I would like my own career to compared to his in the large scale scope of his projects, the audience reached and the high profile clients he has had the privilege to work with. 

The landing page website would be a simple way for anyone interested to view a sample of my portfolio, easily contact me, see how I am professional and also see the projects I like to work with.

Avenir was the chosen font for my logo and business cards. As a designer and fan of design I have always preferred bolder, smart, clean fonts, hence my choice in this situation.

Mailer

A mailer could be considered for me in the future when I am looking to progress my career. Sending a mailer and a cover letter type of document to companies I am interested in, with my expanded professional portfolio. Creating a mailer would have been my plan of action if I didn't land on my feet with Rockfield media and gain a job offer earlier this year. 

Creative CV

I have never personally liked the idea of Creative CVs for designers to use, but I see the functionality in them, with a designer being able to display their layout skills and other design features in a document that promotes their experience and history. 

The feature of rating ones Adobe suite capabilities out of 10 or 100, is laughable to me. How can a designer claim they are a 9/10 using illustrator when it is such a vast and immersive piece of software.
If for example a famous, successful designer such as Shepard Fairy would be a 10/10 on illustrator then for a graduate to claim they were a 9/10 coveys a very high level of arrogance, which I do not feel is a good trait to have on a CV or for any graduate to have.

The decision to have my CV in brighter colours compared to my personal branding came from the reason that in black and white or vice versa the CV would be very bold and harsh on the eye.

Cyan is a very trusting colour, as learnt from colour theory.

Level 6's engagement

External

The external part of this statement will contain any professionals who I contacted outside of university.

Milkshake brief

Towards the beginning of the year I responded to a post where the company Tropic foods were looking for a graphic design to design for one of their products.

I enquired as it was early in the year and I was seeking out more live briefs to complete.

The brief turned out to be part of designing packaging for a milkshake brand. 

Packing is not generally my forte but I was willing to attempt it due to to broaden my portfolio and because I like milkshake.

It turned out the client of this brief purely wanted me to copy an existing Oreo logo so he could use the design as the logo for his company. I was not happy with this request, or his lack of professionalism, therefore declined the brief.

I considered designing milkshake packing off the back of this as one of my brief, using screen printing methods and classic glass milk bottles, I never completed this brief due to my interests changing to films and advertising and it not fitting in my portfolio. 

Warp studios

I contacted Warp Studios after Josh from marketing informed me of their presence in Sheffield. It was difficult tracking down anyone higher than the receptionist and she recommended to email any questions to the bosses and they'd reply after the weekend, but I intended to ask if a short notice work placement would be possible over easter.

I emailed and discussed my portfolio but nothing came of that discussion, my portfolio was underdeveloped at that stage and contained no film work.

Rockfield media

I commenced with a week of work experience at Rockfield media, creating campaigns and taking part in idea generation with Jamie Smith.

After 2 days at the company and designing a BMX brief for Manchester the boss decided to offer me a full time job which begins at the end of May, 2 days after final hand in.

A situation I am really pleased with due to beginning a junior account handling role, working with clients, pitches, social media, and also idea generation for campaigns etc etc, a field I feel I will excel in and find very motivating and rewarding.

The boss commented on how myself and Jamie have great synergy working together and complete briefs professionally and methodically, therefore both working at the company in different roles should be very positive. 

NQ photography photoshoots

Visitng NQ photography studio in Manchester to get involved with fashion model photoshoots has introduced me to a new side of business and the working world I hadn't encounted.

Also the reality of leaving university and not having easy, free access to facilities such as photostudios and high quality printers.

It has also inspired me to enquire about starting a small business, looking into the details involved with this and how achievable it would be.

Z3 Film production

Working with a pair of students from West London who operate under the name Z3 film production has broadened my horizons and enabled me to get work in other parts of the UK.

I find it very beneficial building connections and relationships with anyone, not knowing what situation I may be in in the future and who may have design work or a job vacancy that could suit me.

Internal

Student ambassador role

Having been in the student ambassador role for over year and a half now (since September 2015) I have had a lot of encounters with members of the marketing team such as Andrew Crask and Emma Morris 

Emma Morris from Marketing

Emma Morris seems to really value my opinions on student life and also studying at LCA, having emailed my many times for a quotes on interviews at art university, to feature my work in the Guardian and various other interview type things.

All of which I took as a confidence boost in terms of getting my design profile out into the world 

Josh from Marketing

Conversations with Josh in marketing have been interesting and insightful as he is a few years older than me and working in a similar role that I could potentially be interested in. 

When I informed him that I was looking for experience in a design studio that worked with film and film campaigns, he told me about Warp films in Sheffield, which was discussed in my presentation.

Fabio and David in Advertising

I approached these two advertising tutors as the year progressed, after the dissertation period due to the fact that I realised advertising suited me as a career slightly more than graphic design, as covered in my presentation.

When I asked for recommendation of studios in Leeds or Sheffield. Their advice was to leave Sheffield and go to Manchester or London. Fabio explained how he would have a think about agencies in Leeds and Sheffield and email me his findings, he never managed that.

John Watters

John Watters as been thoroughly useful throughout the 3 years with anecdotes and confidence boosting pieces of information. 

Lee Goater

I approached these two advertising tutors as the year progressed, after the dissertation period due to the fact that I realised advertising suited me as a career slightly more than graphic design, as covered in my presentation.

Ingrid Career assistance

I booked a session with Ingrid earlier this year to gain some direction and form a list of objectives to get my design motivation back after the dissertation stage. Not much was gained from this session, the very obvious basics which I already knew and the website Prospects.co.uk was recommended, not a very useful website from what I found.

Nice to have the option to use her skills though, but I knew most of it.

Maraid

Maraid were a very unusual couple of designers compared to the image and stereotype that someone would have. They talked in a very monotone and under confident way not conveying much passion for being a freelance designer.

Another reason re-enforcing why freelance wouldn't be for me.

DBA

The design business association were different to any other company that had visited our course in the past. The idea of their visit being very formal and dragons den like excited me as that was an unfamiliar situation from our course.

Their influence and feedback upon the project was very useful and different, but in a presentation like that with straight talking blunt people, I feel I thrive in, being able to give and receive feedback in a very straight talking way.

business cards(bad photos)

Small business idea

Taking care of business OUGD602

Small photography studio

Concept:
As a user and visitor of NQ photography studio in Manchester, a small business such as their own could easily be set up.
Their company revolves around renting out a one of a few large photography screens for a 4 or 8 hour slot charging around £16 an hour where the customer is left to photograph their model for this period of time.
The only outgoings of a business such as this would be the rent, the wages for the members of staff, the rolls of photography paper used as the backdrop and the electricity etc, couldn't be adding up to more than £500 a week in total for 1 member of staff managing the building on £8ph.

The business idea revolves around the building but mainly the customers bringing their own equipment and models and making use of the space, something that would require very little management but have good financial returns if busy for the majority of the week.

Location: Sheffield city center
Reasoning: Cities I am familiar with are Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester, Manchester and Leeds are already more popular for that sort of business and rent would cost more there.
Sheffield would have cheaper city center rent and also more familiar and comforting for myself as I have lived there for 18 years.

building:
AVEC
http://www.studiosandspace.com/find-a-space/2015/1/21/avec-building-studio-city-centre

http://www.studiosandspace.com/find-a-space/2014/11/11/studio-arundel-street-sheffield-s1three

Contacting:
I decided to contact the website http://www.studiosandspace.com/ in regard to AVEC to find out how much the studio space was valued at and if it fit into the category for business rate relief therefore making the rent free for small businesses.

Business rate relief

https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-business-rate-relief/small-business-rate-relief

A way for the gouvernment to help small businesses by paying the rent on a small and unused office building. Obviously the government promoting and helping small businesses earns them money from tax and improves unemployment rates.

There are certain criteria to qualify but they generally revolve around the size of the office.
These facts are being looked into.

Overview:

If I were to attempt to set up a small business such as this in a few months time, if the rent was written off due to a 'Business rate relief' saving around £5000 per year.

The main idea for me would be to set up this company in my spare time, employing a receptionist of sort aged 18-30 who would managed the business, greet customers etc whilst I would work my full time job in Bolton. This role would not be massively stressful of challenging for anyone with basic people skills, involving greeting customers, setting up photography screens, answers the phone, replying to emails, making coffee, locking the building etc, nothing to challenging or specialist. Therefore this person could be paid Minimum wage (£6.70) - £8 or so.

The packages for the business would be for a photographer to hire the screen for £10-15 per hour and bring his models then take the shots.
A freelance photographer would be close by, such as Jamie Smith (who has plenty of photography experience) to offer another deal to the customers where he would take the photographs for £20/25 pounds per hour, editing them afterwards in his own time.


NQ photography is Manchester claims to be open 24/7, with customers booking slots using this innovating online tool, as seen below.
The downfall of being open 24/7 would be that if the studio wasnt booked or busy for a full day a person would still have to man the fort and be paid for doing so, whilst earning no money, therefore losing money. Obviously if it was the business owner doing this then no wages would be lost, but in my case it wouldnt be me due to full time commitments.

Figures:
Rent - Free / £5000per year 

Staff - Wages depending on their capabilities £6.70 - £8ph
40 hours per week = £320 x 52 weeks = £16,640


Potentially operating the business as 12 hours per day 8 til 8, for 7 days a week would equate to 84 hours =£672 x 52 = £34944 

12 x £8 = £96 per day for the staff member on full wage

A fair salary for a receptionist role.
Camera technician experience could be useful, but requiring a higher salary.


Freelance photographer -
£25ph earnt when used, pay the photographer £10/£15 per hour or so, with the other £10s paying for the screen rental.

Bills - Electricity, gas etc id estimate to be £50per week

Profit - with potential to have 2 large screens and 2 small screens on the go at one time

Charging £15ph for a large screen and £10ph for a smaller screen, if all four screens were in use in one particular hour then £50ph

a lot to expect for a small business early on in its life span.

Hypothetical situation if a week was spent fully booked and all 4 screens were rented out 12 hours ever day of the week, £4200 would be earnt per week, and then £218,000s annually.

profit figures
100% booked for a full year, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year = £218,000

50% booked in a year (likely) operating 42 hours a week = £109,000

25% booked in a year, 21 hours = £54,500

These figures are with 4 operating screens.

Paying the single member of staff £8ph, but if no one had booked to use then the staff member would be being paid but no money is being earnt.

My experience:
Rockfield media
The company that I am about to start my full time job with, Rockfield media, have their own tiny photography studio, the boss has told me that he'll be getting rid of the room, removing his equipment  and giving it back to the landlord of the building unless the boss can earn £100s per week from this photography room.

It currently has zero advertising, and no one to contact for enquiries. My personal challenge when I start work, alongside my job, is to get this photography studio earning a profit.By making a facebook page and a tab on the website for the studio, being able to contact me and book slots this should create a use for the studio therefore earning money. If £10s per hour was charged for this use, then 10 hours work would earn enough to pay for the studio.



If I can get this personal mission to be successful then I feel I could start my own photography studio as a side business to my full time job and will look into doing it further, hoping to open it in early 2017.

Graphic design
Graphic design would benefit this venture due to designing my own social media presence as well as branding the company.
I would be in charge of the social media and the public facing online personality (which will also be one of my roles at Rockfield media, giving me experience for this venture).

The graphic design and advertising skills, some of which I already have and others that I imaging ill learn during my time in full time work will benefit this project.

Organisation, people skills and management are the other skills that remain which I would consider myself very efficient at already.

Potentially names and branding for the company:

White walls
1994 / 94
AVEC (due to studio name)

Sidney St. Shooters (Sidney is name of the St.)

PPP alternate website

Design boards 2. LCA Triptych

The brief was to design an A2 poster for LCA Triptych, a poster that would be situated on the corridor outside of the BA Graphic design area at Leeds college of art.

With the posters not having no description alongside them, the image must work along and covey the message or simply just work as a piece of art or design.

Having seen most of the other entries for the previous Triptych's I had noticed that the designs were based on the style of designs the students liked/followed and also the topics were based around the student's interests.

I thought on how I could make something intriguing that reflected my interests and would work successfully in A2 format. The idea of the audience taking from a piece of art what they will, and everyone perceiving the piece in different ways appeals to me.

The quality of the design was an aspect that mattered immensely as it would reflect the course and the ideas BA Graphic design stood for, and allowed to grow on the course over the three years.

List of 2016 brief

List of 2016 brief:

1.Creative networks

2. LCA tripytch

3. Clockwork orange penguin books

4. LCA End of year show

5. Colours may vary G.F Smith

6. YCN Independence day

7.James Bond posters

8.Bmx Manchester Campaign

9.Film studio branding.