New Years Resolutions

The festivities of Christmas are gone and now people are beginning to look towards New Years Eve and with that comes new years resolutions. Resolutions are the promises we make to ourselves at the start of the new year to ensure success, happiness, health and wealth in the following twelve months. With new years nearly here I have been thinking about my own resolutions, specifically career related ones. So here they are...

From Here

1. Get a job.

I talk about getting a job a lot, but more specifically I want to get an awesome job. Gaining experience on placements shows I am willing to learn, better myself and allows me to be more aware of career choices. 2013 will be the year I land a fantastic job because I will work hard, research, learn and get there.

2. Use LinkedIn effectively.

Today I have been busily updating my profile on LinkedIn, connecting with relevant individuals and joining groups. I believe it is important to be up to date with LinkedIn because it allows you to broadcast yourself to the "right people" and meet like minded designers you admire and see how they achieved what they have. In 2013 I will be regularly updating my LinkedIn profile, to be witness to this you can connect with me here.

3. Use my SLR more

I've had my SLR for about two and a half years and in that time it has been primarily used to photograph work for my portfolio. My new years resolution is to learn more about photography, and produce great quality shots. I love the fantastic vibrancy of the photos from the camera so in 2013 I will be more snap happy.

4. Visit more exhibitions, museums and galleries

I have the V&A and The Tate on twitter and regularly hear about the fantastic exhibitions they have on yet rarely go. In 2013 I will make more effort to visit exhibitions, design related or not, in order to inspire myself and experience new things. In January I am hoping to go down to London and definitely want to visit The Natural History Museum and the V&A Ballgowns exhibition.

5. Be successful and have fun

If you have these two factors in your career you can't be doing too badly, so in 2013 I will be aiming for both.

Updates & The Tate

My blog has suffered a little lately for a range of reasons, one of said reasons is that I had been preparing for a busy week of interviews and meetings and have been working hard to make my portfolio look the best it possibly could.

This week I visited a company that wanted to discuss ways they could promote their 20th anniversary through branding, packaging and promotion and invited me to pitch for the job. This was really exciting as it was something I had little experience of at uni but would definitely be useful for a future in the design industry.

On Tuesday I made my way down to London for an interview about an internship in South Kensington with a small agency that worked with a number of large clients. The interview was more informal than I had been expecting but the interviewer gave me some great feedback which has helped me improve my interview technique.

On Wednesday I got the chance to meet one of the fantastic companies that I had sent my "Lemon Post" to when I was kindly invited to their studio to discuss my portfolio and learn more about the company. Having been to an interview the previous day in London I felt much more prepared and took several work examples, my iPad full with photos and my portfolio. This might seem quite excessive but I was happy to feel that I could answer any question and talk with confidence about my work and my ideas. I felt that the meeting went well and I left a few promotional items with them in the hope they would email me back with some feedback.

It really helped me to research the company in detail beforehand as I could compare my own work to theirs and find similarities and common interests. I think this also shows how much you want to work for the company that you take such an interest.

In general the past few days have been quite successful and I feel that I am getting somewhere with my job hunt and that perseverance and dedication will pay off in the end.

In the mean time these are some photos from The Tate Modern. I particularly enjoyed the new exhibitions in "The Tanks" which you can see here. I do enjoy art but some of the pieces I saw did throw me a bit, but see what you think for yourself and please excuse the iPhone snaps. 

St. Pauls

"The Tanks" new Tate exhibition

Jeff Keen's vibrant pop art instillation  

 

Picasso 

My mum enjoying the work on show

One of the pieces I found hard to understand...

Cheeky Krispy Kreme at the end of the day

Tips for Student Designers

If you follow me on twitter or have read this blog before you will know that I have just finished my BA (hons) in Graphic Design. During the three years of the course I learnt a few things: graphics is expensive, time consuming, and at times frustrating.

But it doesn't have to cost a fortune, take up all your time or drive you insane when a project just. won't. work. These are some tips I picked up during the three years that can be useful and helped me to become more professional about my design career.

Books


I find books and essential part of my design process as they can give so much inspiration from simply flicking through them. As I have said before, I love adding to my expanding collection with new examples of great design that I can come back to over again. The usual staple for online book purchasing is Amazon, but I find Play.com is equally extensively stocked with  great design books, usually a few pounds cheaper than Amazon, and always with free delivery. This doesn't sound a lot, but when I come to order five or six books the difference can mount up.

Scrapbooks


I take a lot of photos when i'm out and about (see here & here). Instead of leaving them languishing in files on my desktop I get them developed and stick them into old sketchbooks. This is another inventive way of providing yourself with some inspiration from exhibitions or places you have visited. I have a number of scrapbooks with photos from 2011 and 2012 degree shows I visited to remind me of the most influential pieces.

Cameras

My DSLR is used for many things; photographing final pieces, blog posts and just taking my own photos. The quality and vibrancy of the images far our weighs that of my compact camera, which isn't quite up to taking good final piece shots. But with them both being Sony the memory card is can easily be swapped between the two without having to purchase a second, which is extremely convenient when you are a poor student.

Printer

Admittedly my printer is a beast and takes up most of my desk (annoying) but it is probably one of the most useful things I have ever bought so I can forgive it. I have a Brother MFC-5890CN which is capable of printing anything up to A3 and anything as small as a 4" x 6". This was amazing as at uni we had A3 sketchbooks so I could print my pages straight out instead of faffing around with glue/scissors/paper/trying to make it look professional. Along with this it scans, faxes, copies and can link directly to a USB or memory card. This meant that I could complete most tasks myself without having to out source more equipment and just focus on my work.

Although it is not advised by the manufacturer, I tend to use recycled ink for day to day printing. The quality is comparable and recycled ink is SO much cheaper. I get ink from INKcredible, an amazing site where you can get C, M, Y and K for £10 and the speed, service and quality is awesome. If you print as frequently as I did during the three years then this will definitely persuade you to swap to recycled ink.

Sketchbooks


My last bit of good advice would be to always carry a sketchbook with you to note down or sketch down ideas. Some of my best ideas just dropped into my head when I was on a bus or walking somewhere. It helps clarify ideas, keep records and develop concepts into a functioning solution to a brief.


These are just a few things that I find useful to inspire me when i'm stuck with a project or just save some money on things that I use all the time like printing. Either way I hope somebody finds it useful.

Postcards Printed

As I mentioned yesterday, the degree show exhibition is now underway after the opening night on Thursday. If you read this blog you might of seen me talking about my involvement in the show here.

Most degree shows have a catalogue with all the exhibiting artists in, a statement from them and an accompanying image. For our show we decided to have individual postcards, and it was my job to gather, edit, chase people up and make all 83 of these postcards, with the help of my good friends Nic and Lorna.

This was pretty stressful task on top of finishing my own degree as time was tight and there was lots to do. The whole process was a good experience in organising a large group of people and dealing with some difficult customers, which will hopefully be useful in industry.

Despite all this we did it and they came out looking really smart. I had been worrying on the drive up to the opening that they wouldn't live up to my expectations, but I was pleased with the clean style that linked in with our show branding perfectly.

Final Exhibition Set Up

Thursday the 7th of June marks the final part of my degree where I will be presenting work I have produced this year in an exhibition. The pressure to do a good job is high, especially when surrounded by some great pieces from other designers. Due to the jubilee weekend time has been tight to get the exhibition set up and ready in time for the 4pm deadline.

For my part of the show I will be presenting some work from a self initiated charity brief. The concept is to raise awareness about The Haven, a breast cancer charity, by situating a campaign in womens' changing rooms and playing on the word "change" in terms of clothes and changing your lifestyle choices. I will also include a brochure I designed as part of the same brief along with my business cards and other promotional items.

Due to the nature of my brief, I want to make my space look like a changing room to put the campaign in situ. With added props of a mirror, seat and coat hooks I hope to achieve this look and ensure a professional exhibition.

These are some images of the exhibition coming together, spending time at the printers and mess.

Degree Show

If you follow me on twitter then you have probably seen me talking about the degree show over the past few weeks. The exhibition requires months of prior planning on top of our already busy schedules to ensure that the show is presented in the best way possible.

I have been quite heavily involved for a number of weeks collating an image and statement from each exhibiting student, editing and adjusting it and then making it into an individual postcard. Luckily I have had the help of a crack team of individuals; Nic and Lorna, to help turn the postcards around.

I really wanted to get involved with the show because I could ensure the outcomes were to a good standard and something we could be proud to present. However, dealing with such a large number of people you don't know and can't rely on can be challenging, but ultimately rewarding when you eventually organise the situation.

The process has been pretty stressful at times when trying to get required images from certain people and trying to explain what DPI is to fine artists. Hopefully within the week the postcards will be sent off to print ready for the degree show and we will end up with some great promotional items.

These are some images of the degree show in progress. This week I have been painting my wall space, getting covered in paint and building my plinth (I made it myself, from scratch and using tools like a pro)

Exhibition In Practise

As I have been talking about a lot on this blog lately I have been making an exhibition, these are a few photos of it actually up on the walls. They are just iPhone photos so I will hopefully replace them with better versions when I get back into uni next week.

These are the posters being printed and prototypes. For the larger posters I wanted a screen printed look but wasn't able to actually get them screen printed in time, instead I used a thick 300 gsm cotton paper which allowed some bleed in the paper to create a great effect. I had to get this printed in uni using a huge A0 printer which was good to use because the quality is so concise and calibrated, unlike my printer. The project had a strong typography feel as shown in these images below.

These are some images of the exhibition actually up on the walls, if you haven't read some of the previous posts it is based on a magnetic gallery concept and promoting the Kingsway Gallery on my uni campus. The idea is that people can stick what they want to the walls in order to inspire others all across the campus and promote themselves via the website. To illustrate the point of the piece I went a bit crazy, stripped my walls and covered the whole area in photos, sketches, postcards, polaroids and pieces torn out of magazines and this was the result. The final thing wasn't how I had envisaged, I wanted a cleaner feel to the exhibition but I think it makes an impression. 

Up The Wall Exhibition

I take my camera with me most places I go to capture things I can use in my work later. Consequently I end up with a lot of photos that have no real relevance to my work but deserve to be shown. This being the case, I have decided to post them on a blog to keep a record of things I have done or seen. These photos are from an exhibition I went to in November called "Up The Wall" - an exhibition of light and sounds. It was completely different to other exhibitions I had visited and Chester Castle was a great backdrop in the composition of modern instillations and historic architecture.