OUGD502 / STUDIO BRIEF 02 / PROMO PACK RESEARCH

Upon looking at Behance I came across some really creative ways of demonstrating skills and designers talking about themselves.

This is a promotional pack containing the identity of Charlotte Allen. This contained a CV and a portfolio in one, which is a really good way of combining the two in one succinct publication. This makes it easier for the client to read and is something professional to keep. Presentation as a designer is everything so it is important to always demonstrate the skills that make you stand out from the rest.

I liked the eco friendly look of Allen's CV, especially with the hand printed feel of her logo alongside the brown envelope. The envelope is the first thing that will be seen, so it needs to impress from word go.

The continuity in this branding is what makes it stand out (alongside the eyewateringly bright green). It is important to give your self branding consistency to really enforce your identity and who you are, so you can become as recognisable as possible.

Another concept based brand identity which stood out to me during research. The portfolio looks extremely professional, which is something I am aiming to implement in my own work. As I plan to make the discourse quite informal within my CV/promo pack, I think the overall aesthetic should reflect my professional side to create a nice juxtaposition between my common northern personality and my love and passion for great design. 

OUGD502 / TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS FEEDBACK

Feedback was emailed back to us regarding our Bodies presentation:

"A ‘quarterly’ student publication and associated blog to showcase student

offerings and works to their peers and beyond.

A somewhat similar offering to ‘ISSUE’ but with additional offerings potentials such as workshops, visits and presentations. This has potential as an offering in subscription terms. The question of whether students would pay £14 per issue is 

not really important, one can offer student discounts and subscription terms as these will potentially guarantee an income of some sort (which is a good planning tool for development).

As I mentioned on the day, if you are producing short runs, it gives the opportunity to utilise the ‘limited edition’ effect and the collectible value potential too.

When presenting work, it is really important to spell check your slides as in future, clients will feel a little less comfortable that if handling their work, you are

potentially going to spell things incorrectly and transferring the ‘sloppiness’ to them? 

Well done and you can build on this if you feel like it?

Blog all the feedback and try to rationalise what you thought of this project, helpful. informative or too business  oriented?

We should be having Alec Dudson from Intern Magazine coming in this semester and that might be of particular interest to you all."

The feedback was very helpful and addressed issues that can be worked on should I work on anything similar in the future. 

The project overall was very informative and gave me a feel of how it would be to start up a business from scratch. There is a lot to think about when creating a new business, and having 3 extra heads was beneficial as we all assigned each other responsibilities which lessened the work load. Overall I enjoyed this project and it ended up becoming a resolution that I was proud of and interested in, which I feel would be successful if it became real.

OUGD502 / STUDIO BRIEF 01 / ANORAK

I attended a talk made by the creator of Anorak magazine, Cathy Olmedillas. I am interested in anything editorial so this was a good opportunity to gain some knowledge. Anorak is a well established children's magazine, founded in 2006, which is very illustration based. I enjoy Anorak's overall aesthetic and feel as though this is appropriate for their target audience. I personally do enjoy illustration when I get the time to do it, and so I found the talk very inspiring. I also like any project which delivers a real sense of enjoyment and fun.

Cathy was extremely passionate about Anorak magazine, which is why I feel it has gained so much success over the years. A project without passion cannot thrive.

 

Cathy has also branched out further, and created Dot magazine. She felt Anorak was only  suitable for older children and excluded those of a younger age. This just shows the dedication in expanding on an already successful magazine and choosing to try and include a wider audience. 

OUGD502 / STUDIO BRIEF 01 / PROJECT EVALUATION

During the course of this project, I have become more aware of existing industry professionals in cities within the UK as well as those outside which has introduced an increased level of ambition and aspiration for my future. Seeing established industry professionals and developed studios has allowed me to set goals for myself and my practice, and inspired me further to push my evolution as a young graphic designer. I realised the importance of gaining exposure and communicating with other creatives, and the benefits of building a successful rapport. 

Choosing who to base my creative report on was too difficult as I had progressively became aware of professionals through using social media, however conducting the questions and eventually contacting Tyler was daunting incase I was met with no reply. In order to ensure success, emailing and contacting multiple individuals proved to be effective, and built up my confidence in communicating with other designers professionally. Tyler Spangler omits a very overt sense of fun and spontaneity which I feel is a strong part of my own practice. I like to always maintain a sense of fun within my design, and try not to take myself too seriously. Enjoying a brief is a recipe for success, and even though I recognise that concept is key, and research is a highly important area of the design process, sometimes just doing something for the fun of it is immensely appealing. Tyler was overall very friendly and this brief allowed me to make a connection with a designer I’ve personally admired for over a year. It is inspiring to see designers take the time to reply to young designers, as I have experienced within the brief with Tyler Spangler, Wayne Daley and Sam & Kaeli Wood from Both studio; each response gave me something different and useful to take away into my own developing practice.

Alongside this, attending talks by Anorak and Teal Triggs again inspired me. It is great to see an idea like Anorak form into something spectacular and successful. Attending the talk by Teal Triggs was especially interesting for me as the topic of women’s self publishing and feminism is important to me, and gave me a lot of insight and help for other briefs in different modules, proving that the course is broad, and skills and knowledge can be transferred between modules.

This project has simply been very enjoyable for me, as I felt I had a lot of creative freedom which is something I thrive on. I enjoy editorial design over any other discipline within graphic design, so being able to further develop my skills in this particular practice was helpful and satisfying, and in regards to what I produced, I am very pleased with the final resolution. I managed to combine a contemporary style that I am currently interested in, with Tyler Spangler’s unique work, in order to create something that encapsulated him, but also expressed my own style of working too. 

OUGD502 / STUDIO BRIEF 01 / TEAL TRIGGS

In order to gain knowledge and further understanding for mine and Jack's Telegraph brief,  we were told that a talk by Teal Triggs, a professor at the RCA, would be useful. The talk was in reference to women and self publishing, particularly the development of independent feminist zines throughout the 70s-90s. There was a clear theme throughout a lot of the fan zines, of aggression which promoted the new wave feminist movement. Women then were understandably tired and frustrated because of the situations they were in, and the inequality they faced, and obviously their anger was channelled through creative publishing.

Zines such as Riot Grrrl, girl is transformed to 'grrrl' to represent a phonetic growling noise linked to anger in the animal kingdom, and Vaginal Teeth - referring to the vagina as an animal that can cause damage, all present women in a very aggressive and radical tone, which could have been the most effective way of gaining publicity and a voice back then, and an alternative method of bringing a particular community together.

A lot of the zines featured hand rendered elements, including the humanisation regarding hand lettering. This was because zines were commonly done by hand, then copies were made and distributed.

I found this talk particularly interesting to me because of my consistant passion for feminism, plus I have my own experience with feminist zines myself. It was great to see the alternative methods used to connect people and bring about change, and Teal Triggs delivered a very engaging talk which is what you would expect from a professional. It would be amazing to actually show her my own zine and get her opinion in the future.

OUGD502 / STUDIO BRIEF 02 / DISTRIBUTION

In order to get my work out there, I would send the promotional pack out to potential studios or clients, in hopes of acquiring work and experience. The types of places I would send these to would ideally be contemporary studios around Manchester, Leeds and London, but I would also love to send work to studios in other countries - eventually I would really like to get an internship or work opportunity in a country such as Berlin, where there is a lot of opportunity regarding design. 

The most realistic aspiration right now is to gain experience over Summer in London, Leeds or Manchester by sending out my promotional pack or sending a lot of emails! I'd also like to try and email studios in Berlin (even if it is a long shot) and see where that gets me. Even having a chat with studios there would be beneficial to me and my practice, as I am always keen to evolve as a designer whenever possible. 

OUGD502 / STUDIO BRIEF 02 / WHY A PROMO PACK?

The reason I chose to create a promotional pack was to basically show off design skills to potential clients and work opportunities. Instead of only recieving a business card, they will recieve a card, print and a copy of my creative CV. 

The field of graphic design I am most interested in is editorial design, ideally working on magazines in particular, although potentially just any form of publication is where I see myself in the future. In order to demonstrate the skills I have acquired in this field, I felt  that a creative CV would be the most appropriate. In the end I had a lot of fun with it, and since it is all about myself, created it exactly how I wanted it; having a lot of creative freedom is liberating. 

The print is also a way of communicating my personality which is consistent with my branding. 

For the promotional pack, I chose to package it using special matte black bubbled envelopes. The envelope is the first thing they will see, so I wanted to impress them initially by using something perhaps a little different. These envelopes are also very durable, meaning my promotional pack would avoid damage during postage. 

On the front of the envelope, I chose to print out stickers  with my logo on, further reinforcing my branding from the very beginning and also aiming to look as professional as I can.