Brief 5: Collaboration with Illustrator

For one of my briefs for Extended Practice I had decided to create and brand a shop selling specialist jams, chutneys, honey, oil etc., and after doing my research I had quite a clear vision of the brand. I wanted to find a way of combining the homey comforts that I associate with jam, with an upmarket aesthetic.

A friend of mine, Izzy, who is an illustrator on the Visual Communication course has a very distinct illustrative style, much of it continuous line, and I realised while I was thinking of how I wanted the brand to look, I was thinking of visuals in the exact way that she draws.

I wrote her a brief giving her the flavours and asked if she could draw at least ten images, allowing me to choose the ones I felt worked best.

I found working with Izzy to be really easy as I knew exactly what i wanted and I also had a rough idea of how she would interpret the brief. She worked very quickly and so had a very quick turnaround whenever I had asked her to make some changes to any of the images.

I would enjoy working in a similar fashion in the future, and due to my existing interest in illustration, I would love to work more with illustrators, and given the chance working more with Izzy would be great.

Final PPP Presentation

I felt the final presentation went well, and that I've really developed my approach to presenting over the past three years. While I was never very uncomfortable or nervous with the idea of giving presentations, I have found that I speak best and remember all the points I need to make well when I don't spend a lot of time rehearsing what I will say.

I will always go through a presentation several times before presenting and ensure that I know what I will speak about for each slide, but memorising notes causes me to fumble if I forget something and loose any confidence I had before, so I have stopped trying to memorise what I am going to say, and instead just try to chat my audience through my thought process.

Whether or not this presentation seemed to go well to Amber, Simon or John, I know that I have come on a lot since our first presentations in first year, and for that I am happy and proud with how it went today.

Meeting with Fabio Fragiacomo

A couple of weeks after meeting with John, I found that one of the tutors on the Creative Advertising course, Fabio, used to teach the MA in Advertising and Design that I wish to apply for. I got a hold of his email and sent him a message asking if I could meet with him and see how he things I should approach the application.

I met with Fabio this morning and he was keen to hear my reasons for applying. I explained that while I do still want to go into branding, a further knowledge of advertising and marketing will allow me to fully understand how my audience thinks and expand the ways in which I can respond to that. Fabio said he was pleased with my response and that it was clear I had an evident goal and plan with the course.

Much of his advice on my application was similar to John's, he told me that the course takes only the people they think will benefit from the course and the way it's run and structured, half in the design school and half in the business school. He said I should make my intentions apparent in my personal statement and speak about how the course will help me get there.

After this meeting I thought about how I would word all these points, and decided that I would try and convince the reader of my application that the course was the last thing I needed to go into industry, or the last piece of the puzzle.

As if Fabio hadn't been helpful enough, I got an email from him a couple of hours after our meeting saying that he had spoken to the MA course leader, Mike Sheedy, and that he has set up a time for me to meet with him and discuss the course further. This is such a great opportunity as I am very comfortable talking to people and was disappointed that there was no interview stage for the course. Because of this there would be next to no one else applying given the opportunity to meet the leader of the course. I will be meeting with Mike on 24th April.

Design Studios

Although my plan for next year is to do an MA in Advertising and Design, I feel that I should prepare for the possibility of not being accepted onto the course. I have done some research into several studios that I would be keen to contact in the near future once I have found out if my application was successful or not. All of these studios are located in or around Leeds as this is where I plan to continue living for the near future.

D.S. Emotion

http://dsemotion.com/

Robot Food

http://www.robot-food.com/

Analogue

http://madebyanalogue.co.uk/landing.php

Qubik

http://www.qubik.com/studio.php

Split

http://www.split.co.uk/

Duke Studios

http://duke-studios.com/

If my application is unsuccessful I plan to contact these studios for work, and if it is successful I plan to contact them about a potential work placement.

Meeting with John Watters

Yesterday I met with John to get some advice on how to approach my application to the MA in Advertising and Design that I am keen to apply for.

I was mainly seeking some help on how to go about my personal statement, something I haven't written since applying to Leeds College of Art three years ago. I was keen to make it punchy and memorable but I wasn't sure of how much I should be writing, and whether I should explain me as a designer, or my manifesto or something entirely different.

John's advice was extremely helpful, and he clarified what I should be covering in my personal statement. He assured me that it didn't need to be a short essay and could be as much as a paragraph. He went on to say that I should make a point of why I want to do the course, why I would be suited to it and why it would be suited to me. He advised I mention my plans for moving forward after the course if I get on, and where my interests within the field lie.

He also said it might be a good idea to come up with what I want to say, and then design the paragraph. He assured me that this would make it memorable because, even if other applicants designed their applications with paying attention to layout, mine would still look different to everyone else's.

Brief 11: DBA Presentation

Yesterday we presented our concept and branding visuals for Capital North. While we didn't win, I was pleased with how the presentation went, given that we were two group members short. We were able to fill in the gaps and explain Joe's work as well as our own.