Meeting with Mike Sheedy

Following the meeting I had with Fabio a few weeks ago, he had set up the opportunity for me to meet and chat to the course leader of MA Advertising and Design, Mike Sheedy. Unfortunately Fabio was unable to join me in the meeting but that may not have been a bad thing. I went to the School of Design on the Leeds uni campus and was directed towards Mr. Sheedy's office.

When I arrived Mr Sheedy had a few questions for me, asking about what I do and why I want to apply to the course. I explained that I specialise in branding and that ultimately branding and identity is what i want to be doing. I went on to say that, while I was happy being cast as a 'creative' I didn't want that to be all I do, and I wanted to fill a role along the lines of 'creative strategist'.

Mr Sheedy seemed pleased enough with my answer and so then sat back while I asked him questions about the course. I asked him about the module breakdown and he explained to me that half of my modules would be in the Design school and the other half in the business school. I went on to ask him about creative dynamic of the projects we would be set, as I was keen to work more within groups to gain a greater understanding of the way in which my peers approach a project and what they think of it. Mr Sheedy assured me that basically all the creative projects are group projects and that we would be working closely with about three or four other people.

Overall, I found the meeting to be extremely helpful and I was really pleased I was able to meet Mr Sheedy ahead of sending in my application, in the hope that when I did, he would be more likely to remember me than otherwise!

Self Branding: Creative CV

I had created a new CV to send out with my emails for work placements, but since rebranding my design, I thought it would be necessary to alter it and keep it in conjunction with the rest of my branding.

Old CV:

I decided to make my new CV in a small booklet, allowing me to break up the sections of it a bit more.

I used all the same illustrations and imagery that I had used in the previous CV but altered the colour scheme and layout of the information, allowing me to break it into sections that are all relevant to each other.

Below is the final design of the booklet:

Self Branding: Letterheads

I started out in the same way I did with the business cards, trying to fit the design into the page.

When I started to incorporate the logo into the design, I realised I would not be able to keep the visuals the way they were as the overlapped with the design of the logo. This was when I started looking at it in the same way I did the business card and started putting the image on an angle.

After trying this out a couple of times I still found that there was slightly too much going on and that I needed to lose either the image on the page or the image in the logo. After taking it off the page it appeared much more bare and didn't have the same impact as that on the business cards. So I took away the pattern of the logo and was really pleased with how that looked, seemingly as though the two had disconnected from each other.

Final letterhead design:

Videcon Job Opportunity

John sent an email about a temporary three month assignment in the marketing and design department of a security distributors company based in Heckmondwike called Videcon. This would involve working with graphic designers to do a full rebrand of the company.

This would be ideal for the summer if I were to go on and do an MA in September. So I sent over my email and CV to the email John provided.


Ms. Phillips,

I received an email from John Watters explaining the need in your company for a newly graduating graphic designer to aid the company's rebrand. I am a few weeks aware from finishing my BA (Hons) Graphic Design degree at Leeds College of Art and plan on doing an MA in Advertising and Marketing in September, meaning that I have a three month gap in between the two.

I have attached my CV and digital portfolio and will be happy to hear back from you soon.

Kind Regards,

Sarah Butler




I have yet to receive a reply but it has only been a couple of days so will keep my fingers crossed.

Self Branding: Business Cards

Below are the two logo designs I had landed on and wanted to use.

I was keen to use a couple of variations on colour for the business cards, but initially I was having more of a struggle with the layout that I expected.

After A LOT of experimenting with layout, I landed on the one shown below which I suddenly loved. I felt the juxtaposition of the straight right angled lines on a diagonal made the image appear more unique and interesting in terms of shape and composition.

I used a similar aesthetic on the reverse side of the business card.

Final business card designs: