PPP3- Studio Brief 2: Design Strategy

Brief

Undertake an independent and sustained investigation into opportunities for progression within your own intended area of creative, professional practice and/or academic focus.

You will use your PPP blog to provide evidence of ongoing research activities, reflection and evaluation of an increasingly iindividual and independent understanding of your design practice.

Your research will be summarised in a 10 minute presentation that focus on and summarise your design strategy with specific reference to your career aspirations, progression opportunities and the work/skills that you have developed in relation to your future aspirations.

Background/considerations

Your research activities should aim to:

Identify and evaluate professional practices, concerns and opportunities that you intend to pursue on completion of the degree programme.

Document and reflect on your industrial experience to date, including a brief summary of what you have learned and how this has affected the way you will approach your professional development and further opportunities for progression.

Record and evaluate any examples of self-directed projects, business ideas, collaborations and opportunities for enterprise that you intend to pursue. Summarise the concept, content or underlying rationale for these.

Deliverables

• A 10 minute Powerpoint (or Keynote) presentation
• A completed manifesto and/or position statement
• Ongoing engagement with PPP blog 

Deadline: 1/4/19

PPP3- Studio Brief 1: Personal Branding

Brief

Produce a range of self-promotional material for delivery through print and/or electronic media as appropriate to your individual professional and design practice.

To include:

• Print based portfolio
• Appropriate online presence (may include social media)
• Self-promotional material (business cards, letterheads, creative cvs, stationary) and methods (mail shots, websites, blogs)
• Research, development and evaluation of your personal design collateral should be evidenced through ongoing documentation and evaluation on your PPP blog.

Background/considerations

You may be good, you may be the best and you might be exactly what the world is looking for, but you need to tell the world that you exist. 

Developing an effective design presence requires a clear sense of what you want/need to communicate about yourself combined with an informed understanding of what your potential clients, employers or collaborators expect to see. Consider the following questions ...

What do you want/need to say about yourself?  

What makes you "YOU" and how do you communicate this? 

Who is your audience? What do they expect to see and what do they want to see it? What are they looking for?

Do you tailor your material to specific audiences or aim to create a uniform identity and how will your audience/s receive your material? (consider humour, sophistication, individuality or convention)

Deliverables

1. Print-based promotional material appropriate to your ambitions/intentions
2. An accessible/functioning online presence
3. Any other material appropriate to your individual design practice
4. Ongoing engagement with PPP blog

Deadline: 1/4/19

PPP3- Module Briefing

Main focuses:

• Money
• Networking
• Being a professional
• Self-promotion

Working on what you want to be

Making it happen

How to hit the learning outcomes

6A2

Look at people who are doing what I want to do

6B2

Networking, reach out to people, look for opportunities

6C2

Self-branding

6D2

Understanding social media, how to send an email and initiating a professional relationship

Brief 1

Personal branding

- Tell the world who you are and what you want to do

- Branding

- Tone of voice

Brief 2

DESIGN STRATEGY

Every interaction you have with the professional sphere that helps you progress or establish your career

-Industry. emails, questions, briefs

- What you did

- Why you did it

- What you learnt

- Get into the habbit of blogging everything

- Document everything

TASKS (throughout the year)

- Build a website

- Get online press

- Send real mail

(6A2) Tate Liverpool- Op Art In Focus

Op art in Focus is a part of Tate Liverpool’s in Focus series – displays of the Tate collection dedicated to significant modern and contemporary artists or movements.

Op Art is something I haven't heard of until visiting this exhibition. Optical Art is its full name and it emerged in the 1960's, they combine lines, geometric shapes, and eye popping colour to fool the eye. This was shown in the pieces and pictures I have put below.

The exhibition room wasn't like anything I had visited or seen before, it was incredibly fun and energetic as the colours used on the artworks were incredibly bright and bold. The floor especially caught my eye as it was like one large optical illusion and gave the sense and feel that it was moving as you walked across it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition, having never heard of Optical Art it has encouraged me to look into it further and think about exhibition spaces and how you don't always have to create something that can be hung on the wall or sculpted, it can be something like the floor or walls of this exhibition.   

(6A2) Leeds Art Gallery Natural Selection Exhibition

Curated by Andy Holden and Peter Holden

'Looking at a blackbird building a nest in the garden of his parents' house several years ago, the artist Andy Holden began the extended conversation with his father Peter Holden which led to this exhibition.'

This exhibition is situated within the first exhibition room of the gallery, the first thing you notice when you walk into the room is this life-sized birds nest that fills up a huge amount of space. The 'sculpture' is quite breathe-taking as it fills up a huge space and is nothing like I have seen in an exhibition before. The exhibition is heavily focused on nature, so naturally the space feels incredibly calming and peaceful, it's a unique exhibition because although there is a lot going on, its not busy or fast paced. The structure/layout almost encourages you to take your time walking around each part of the exhibition. 

The large birds nest creates an all round shadow and reflection of the branches around the whole space, this part of the exhibition felt really lovely as again it was really calm and peaceful. It felt like a special place to be in and a space to really connect with nature.

In the final part of the exhibition was an interactive part to involve children, it was a large space of origami birds hanging from the ceiling. I thought this was a really nice idea to do to involve children but to also create a nice space to look at.

Module Evaluation

Overall, I have enjoyed PPP this year a lot more than first year. I have really seen the benefits of this module this year as I have begun to really think about the future after university and what kind of career I want to continue in. PPP teaches the skills required and mostly gives life lessons about the real working creative industry whilst still providing help and support throughout the year. Getting in touch with creatives outside of university has been an enjoyable experience and it has definitely excited me more for the future and getting out into the working world and gaining experience and knowledge even further than I already have these past two years at university. Thinking about work experience over summer is something really exciting as I am yet to work in any kind of design environment outside of education so I am really looking forward to seeing what that holds.

In terms of my work produced for this module, I have definitely struggled with time management, this was something I thought about last year as PPP just has a hand in date towards the very end of the year, its not spread out therefore it's quite easy to leave things and forget about things that need doing because there are no constant deadlines throughout the whole year. I have struggled a lot this year in terms of personal reasons happening within my life and it has definitely affected me and my work, something I really wished and hoped didn't happen but something that I have really had no control over. Recent events that have been happening in the past year in my life are making me more determined to do well and taking advantage of what PPP has to offer is definitely something I am taking on board.

Moving onto Level 6, I really want to work on my presenting skills as this is definitely a week area of  mine and I really want to get in touch with the creative world and create lots of contacts that I could get in touch with after finishing my final year.

Creative Report

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Creative Report Questions

• How would you define yourself as a creative?
• What drives you to create work?
• Where do you find yourself being most creative?
• What inspires your work?
• Do you have any advice for a young creative starting out?

Network and Connections- AndSmile Studio

Here are some tips to keep in mind if at the moment you feel a bit isolated in your work, they all are based on my experience and are extremely subjective and in general some thoughts on the subject.

📺 Both internet based and real life based communities are equally valid.

If you live in a remote place with no like minded people around you or don't have the opportunity to join your local network because of accessibility or meeting times don't feel that the only way to build support system is to meet people face to face. Choose whatever works for you and your situation, don't feel like you have to do one or another

🙋🏼One person and you is already a network/team :) 

👯Reach out to people who are in the same place as you in their careers. 

If you know of (online or offline) people who are in the same place as you in their careers or are interested in the same things as you, they might feel as isolated as you and want to have that connection both personal and business. Growing together, supporting each other and lifting each other up is an incredible feeling and also incredibly helpful, you can share your experiences and find out shortcuts. It's a great adventure and it's easier and more fun when you have people you can rely on and people you can support.

Be active locally and online

Find local etsy/market anything group. Go to talks, meet ups, join online chats and live streams, FB groups and connect with people on instagram.

Consider getting a studio space

If you feel lonely and isolated consider becoming part of a collective, finding a studio space or a co working space. Some of us work better on our own and some of us need people around us but you will never know without trying and you may make some friends along the way.

Join professional network

Does your profession has an association or maybe a huge FB group? Maybe joining them will benefit you.

Talk to people

Be it online or in real life. We are all people and we all make connections and friends somehow. If you want to say something - say it, if you know someone who might light someone else's work - share the love. I personally believe it takes time to find likeminded people (it certainly took a while for me) but even the most fleeting of connections can be so meaningful. There could be people with who you just chat on instagram about Queer Eye occassionally and there can be people with who you are chatting on daily basis. Both are important.

Don't look for validation from outside

Build it from within. Please do seek constructive cryticism and reviews but do not let anything from outside to affect your personal and professional self worth. I am a strong believer that if you love doing something no one can tell you that you shouldn't draw/crochet/dress making. And sometimes our work doesn't reflect our taste and that's where your support system will help you grow but they can never replace your inner voice which will push you further in your career. 

Last but most important..

Be kind to yourself and people around you. There is space for everyone, we are not competition we are peers. 

Placement Opportunities

I have luckily been approached and asked if I would like to do some work for the Warrington Wolves Charitable Foundation, they work alongside people within Warrington and they create fundraiser events and activities. They also work alongside people with special needs and create events to raise money or raise awareness for issues that are going on. 

An example of their event:

For the work that I would be doing, it would be more of a graphic design approach as they employ companies to design posters and flyers for events to advertise them so I would have an opportunity to do this myself but also work alongside other graphic design companies.

Presentation Self-Evaluation

Presenting is something I find incredibly difficult because I struggle a lot in terms of my confidence and my anxiety definitely holds me back from presenting to my true potential and to the best of my abilities. Firstly, I thought before criticising myself I really thought I should think about the positives and the main factor that I actually got up and presented the presentation in front of a small group of people. For that I am very proud of myself, although I did compare my presentation to everyone else's and did feel mine was quite weak just because I let my nerves get the better of me and I completely forgot to refer back to my notes therefore I feel I did not get the chance to say everything I intended to within the presentation. I definitely think I covered the key parts I wanted to get across however.

As I am not completely used to doing presentations like this, its only since coming to university have I been required to but I definitely think my confidence has grown slightly and as cliche as it sounds, practice makes perfect and I only think my presenting skill will get better the more times I do it.

Presentation Slides

Nina Cosford

Nina Cosford is an illustrator who I have admired and loved for years, she is definitely one of the people who inspired me to peruse a creative career and of course someone who I would love to contact for my creative report. I have previously tried to contact Nina in regards to work and question asking yet I did not receive a reply, looking back at the email I definitely didn't think it was really that interesting for her to answer so this has definitely made me think a lot more about what I want to ask and what kind of questions would be interesting for creatives to reply to. 

'The Creative Leap' Podcast

After getting into podcasts more over the past couple of years, this one has to be the one that stood out to me most, especially as it stated about making careers out of the hobbies you love. Although the interviewees are not all designers, they all work within the creative industry and Cat herself, the host is a web and product designer. 

The podcast introduced me to Cat and her work, from there I found myself looking at her social network pages and her design portfolio. Also another creator who I wish to contact and ask some questions 

And Smile Studio

This is the first creator I wish to contact in relation to my creative report, I have followed Viktorija for around a year now on Instagram and have always admired her work and her work ethic. She is based in London and works in a large studio with lots of other creators, her studio space is something I really admire because she has really made it her own. 

I am keen in contacting Viktoria because she keeps her Instagram page incredibly interactive with polls and encourages discussions, she also has a very casual bit at the end of her 'About' on her blog in which she gives her email and says 'Let's talk!' therefore I feel she would be a great person to have a friendly chat to and it be quite informal.