OUGD602 End of Module Evaluation

At the end of second year I set a few personal aims, several of which I have accomplished this year. I have learnt so much more about the graphic design industry by contacting studios and doing my placement at Holy Cow. This has really developed my confidence in my work and in my ability to talk to and communicate with professionals, which has resulted in me finally feeling ready to enter the working world.

Another aim was to develop my personal branding, which unlike the other two years, I left plenty of time for in order to design something I really love. I have achieved that this year in the design for my logo and printed brand materials. As well as this, I did not believe a year ago that I would have enough work that I liked to fill a portfolio, but this is the first year I have produced a body of work that I am proud to show people.

I feel that I have also reached the stage where I understand my approach to presenting to a large group of people. While I was never that nervous with giving presentations, I now know exactly how I need to prepare myself for them. I am now more than happy to present my ideas, my aims and my manifesto, because I now feel that I understand them a lot more.

Thanks to all the modules this year, I have now realised who I am as a designer, and how to apply myself to achieve all my wants from graphic design. I have never been someone who had much of a future plan, but for the first time, I know exactly what I want to be doing in a few years time, and I now also know how to get there. This module specifically has taught me to just bite the bullet and do something, particularly with contacting professionals, as I was always previously nervous about that.

I now know that I specialise in branding and identity primarily, secondarily typography and promotional design. I have learnt through all of my mistakes in first and second year (which were frequent) how to apply my practice to various contexts and backgrounds. Doing brief work in the industry has informed me of the environment I work best in, and would be more than happy to ultimately work in a small boutique studio with just a few other designers.

I have had varied experiences collaborating, but have found that I excel the most when working with illustrators or advertisers, so this has partially informed my decision to go on to do an MA in Advertising and Design. I feel confident doing this because I now understand where my skills in collaborative work lie and how to apply them. While I love working on my own and do a lot more of it than group work, this is something that I would like to do in an advertising environment as I have learnt how much I enjoy the process of visualising someone else's ideas.

Overall, this module has hugely informed the direction I want to take after the completion of this course, where I want to be and how I am going to get there. I have developed a knowledge of networking that I would never have expected to have last year, and a real sense of professionalism, which has diminished any feeling of nervousness I have previously had. In essence, this module has really ensured that I now have a path, a knowledge of how to get there, and the confidence that I will get there.

Self Branding Design Boards

Digital Portfolio

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.