Evaluation.

I thought I'd do a mini evaluation because I feel I've got so much out of PPD this year and just generally in the past three years. Before doing PPD I hated presenting and I'll admit, I'm still not the biggest fan but I'm now able to stand at the front of a room and present without notes and feel confident in what I'm talking about so this is good progress! This year in particular I feel I've finally found where I would like to be within the industry, this is in a small graphic design studio, somewhere in the North of the UK. I've confirmed that I'm an image based designer throughout the DP module but I'm in no way looking to become freelance so I want to try and utilise this in my own time by selling things via my Etsy. I've applied for one job so far but I'm not too concerned because I'm taking a couple of weeks out to have a rest and gather my thoughts before ploughing into 'the real world' and then I'll be applying for anything that interests me! Initially on the job front, I was really worried because I'd read an ad for a job and think nope, that doesn't suit me or nope, I don't want to live in London but now I'm finding the location and the jobs that suit me so that has given me confidence. If I don't find a job straight away, I'm going to look at doing more work placements/internships so that I can gain more experience in Graphic Design that will hopefully go toward me getting a job. Overall, I'm feeling confident about my future and this has definitely got a lot to do with this module because it's given me the confidence I needed to talk to new people, in particular other professionals and decide exactly where I want to go. 

Design Presence; portfolio.

This is my final portfolio that I'm going to print for the end of year show. I changed the format to portrait after advice I recieved a while ago from Joe when I had my surgery. I prefer this a lot more since I made the changes for various reasons I discussed with Joe that it could be better. Although it appears minimal still with the space around some of the images, it's visually better because the images can be a lot larger with being on two pages. Each project has been allocated two pages for this reason. I've also included less text because the projects should be able to speak for themselves and a lot of text distracts from the imagery. I've included my favourite and most successful projects because I feel in interviews I will be able to speak about these most confidently and they also communicate my skills most successfully. 

Design Presence; business card.

I've ordered my final printed business cards in time for the end of year show so they should arrive on the 10th. I have however printed a paper sample for the purpose of submission. The final business cards will be 400gsm on matt coated stock with sqaure corners but look exactly like the example above. The colour could differ slightly because obviously they will be printed more professionally. 

Design Presence; samples of work postcards.

As well as my samples of work portfolio I've also decided to create postcard samples that I could actually send out to people whilst I'm looking for placements and studio visits. This is a nice element to have because people are more likely to take note if I send them something physical. I've chosen my best pieces of work that I'm really proud of so I feel confident in sending them out. I've printed them onto cartridge paper to fit with the hand rendered aspect of my work as this is quite tactile. 

Design Presence; letterhead.

I've created a branded letterhead as I quite like sending letters so this could come in handy at some point. 

Design Presence; samples of work.

I changed my samples of work portfolio to suit my new physical portfolio. The general layout has stayed the same but I've included less information about the actual outcomes and just left a sentence about the brief because really the work should speak for itself. The only difference between this and my actual portfolio is that this is landscape but this makes sense because this is more likely to be viewed on screen than anything else. 

Design Strategy; looking for jobs.

http://www.thedrum.com/jobs/

http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/

http://www.linkedin.com/job/home?trk=hb_tab_jobs_top

http://creativeboom.co.uk/

These are a few of the websites I've been looking on for jobs. I'm slowly finding jobs that I find appeal to me and my skill set and check these on a regular basis. I've applied for one job already off the back of this at UK Greetings. Going to really get into applying for jobs once I've had a couple of weeks break after uni. 

Design Presence; website.

http://cargocollective.com/kirstyaldersondesign

I've also updated my website with my most recent and favourite work. I've kept this more image based because this is the type of designer I'd like to be so I really want to showcase this skill in particular to potential employers and they are more likely to visit my website than they are my behance. I'm going to update this with some more image based work over the summer as I'd like to draw more in my spare time. I still need to link my domain to my cargo but I will get round to this eventually! 

Design Presence; behance.

http://www.behance.net/kirstyalderson

I've updated my behance with my favourite and most recent projects. 

Design Presence; samples of work.

My samples of work portfolio will be sent to people if they require a few examples of my skills and the work I've done. I've chosen some of my favourite and best projects for this and based this on my actual portfolio. 

Design Presence; personal cv.

I finally got round to updating my CV with new experience and the relevent references so that I'm able to send this through when applying for jobs. I've kept the general design quite simple because I want it to look professional but have my own twist on it with application of colour and my branding. The fact there is quite a lot of white space actually fits in well with my branding too. The reason the image is so small is because I want to keep personal details private on my blog. 

Design Strategy: evaluation.

I thought I'd write a quick evaluation after reflecting on my ppd presentation I gave the other day. I've always been the sort of person that doesn't have a set life plan and likes to take each day as it comes. To this end, up until a couple of months or so ago, I had no clue where I was going next after university and it scared me that this didn't seem to concern me at all. I feel the design strategy has really given me that kick up the bum that I needed once I started doing my research properly as well as my experience on my work placement. I've had the puzzle pieces all along, they were kind of just in a muddle so nothing in terms of my career aspirations was making sense in my head. I have specific design interests and I'm aware of the type of atmosphere/place I prefer so these two things alone direct me to certain jobs and design studios. Once I started applying this I've realised I'd like to work within the north and in a small graphic design studio, hopefully being able to utilise my image making skills. Since finally figuring myself out I've actually found a couple of jobs where I think, yeah I'd like to do that, finally! I feel the PPD modules throughout my whole time at uni have helped me gain confidence with the fact they have encouraged me to talk to people and now I have some great contacts. Everyone always says it's not what you know, but who you know and I'm really beginning to believe this, especially after seeing opportunities people have gained in their presentations. This year I wanted to figure out who I am as a designer and where I fit in and I think I've definitely achieved that goal. 

Design Strategy; contacting Chris.

Chris was one of the people I emailed to get some feedback on my portfolio. Due to my work being specifically image based I thought Chris would be perfect to talk to because he works within children's illustration. He replied quite promptly and it was really nice to hear from him as I've spoken to him previously. The feedback he's given me is really good and in depth so it's given me a lot to think about both with my portfolio and also my design work in general. He directed me to a site of an agency he works with too and this will prove quite useful because children's illustration is something I could conider going into based on the style of my work. It was really good to hear what Chris has been working on too and that he's keeping busy! Hopefully we'll continue to keep in touch. 

Design Strategy; PPD presentation.

Design Strategy; contacting Lucy.

Lucy was someone else I contacted for feedback on my portfolio. I've only recently came across her work and love it because it has a very hand rendered approach to it so this is something I can relate to. Lucy's feedback is really useful because it's very much about someone seeing it for the first time and this is how it will be when I go to interview. Although she wasn't sure how much she could comment, the feedback is definitely going to be taken into consideration because it's things I hadn't really noticed myself. The feedback I'm getting on my actual illustration style wasn't expected but is very much welcomed because obviously I want to continue to improve this and these are people who are out there doing it so they know the industry better than I do. I'll definitely continue to follow Lucy's work. 

Design Strategy; D&AD New Blood.

I've booked tickets to go down to London to D&AD New Blood this summer. I've never been in previous years so I'm pretty excited to go. I feel this will be a great opportunity to network and meet new people so I will definitely be taking my business cards with me. 

Design Strategy; portfolio.

This is my portfolio with my new branding applied. It shows the success of the branding because I feel this fits in more with the style of my work now. I still need to get around to changing my portfolio based on the feedback I got from surgeries but I'm waiting on email replies from freelancers first to see if they have any other great tips. My portfolio is quite small at the moment but I feel this will improve at the end of the OUGD303 module as I'm really pleased with the work done so far and feel it's going to represent me better than other projects. 

Design Presence; Etsy.

I've been talking about setting Etsy up for so long and finally I've done it! Since I've really got stuck in to image I've been designing a lot of artwork that could easily be turned into something such as a greetings card. I've decided to utilise this in order to make a bit of money and further promote my skills and name. I've only got two cards in my shop so far but I'm hoping over summer I will find time to create more designs and fully stock my shop. Particular calendar dates such as christmas will be good things to focus on because I imagine a lot of sales could be made. I've not really made a massive effort to promote this shop because it's something for me in my spare time really at the moment instead of being an integral part of my practice. 

Design Strategy; the master plan.

*The dream*

Move back home with my parents

Get a design job 

Buy a car

Save up to get my own place 'Up North' 

This is my plan for after uni. Although I have an idea of who and where I would like to be I can't garuntee that it will run as smoothly as I hope. I'm moving back in with my parents as this is realistic for the time being until I get myself on my feet. I don't feel this is going to hinder me though because my home town has great travel connections which will make it really easy for me to commute initially when I get a design job. Ideally I'd like to be based 'Up North' when I do get a design job but I'm also open to comprimise. I've always felt comfortable in the North and I'm learning what a good design scene it appears to have based on researching various studios. I'd also still really like to illustrate in my own time because this is something I've always enjoyed. I'd love to have my own car eventually too. This will give me a lot of freedom and may open up opportunties in terms of work. My main goal once getting a design job is to move out and gain my indepedence again. It's obvious it will take me a while to save up but I feel i'll be in the best possible situation to do so by living with my parents. I definitely think how I feel about a place/location is going to impact on where I apply for jobs a little bit but also think it's important I'm happy. 

Design Presence; Linkedin.

After being encouraged to join and hearing how great linkedin is, I've finally set up my account. I feel this will be a good tool to have because it's in a way promoting my skills and abilities and I can also connect with people I meet at various events. I've also found the job section quite useful because some of the opportunities advertised are to my taste so I will keep checking this. The next step is to get involved with group discussions that interest me as I'm sure this will extend my contact list. 

Design Strategy; old and new contacts.

Due to my great interest in image based design this makes it hard to gain studio visits as most illustrators work from home. I've still decided to utilise the opportunity to talk to people though and I've emailed the above illustrators/designers to get some feedback on my personal portfolio. I feel their feedback would be of great help to me because they all work with image so may be able to give me some really great tips! A couple of them I contacted last year as well so this is also an opportunity to see how they are getting on and keep up these connections. I have no replies as of yet but hopefully some will come through soon! 

Design Strategy; the north.

I've made the decision this year that ideally I'd like to be based in the North of the UK. There are a few contributing factors to this decision such as the fact I'm quite a family orientated person so would still like to be fairly close to them. I feel comfortable in all of the places within the north as I'm familiar with them. As I was brought up in North Yorkshire, the North in general just feels like home and I feel to be happy I need to be within my comfort zone to a certain extent. I don't feel as though I'm restricting myself with this decision based on the research I've done into design studios and freelancers because theres plenty of creative buzz. The North is also actually bigger than you realise so there has to be job opportunities somewhere and I have seen a few when I've been hunting. Most ideal places for getting a job would be Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and York or surrounding areas and I know of studios I like within all of these places. 

Design Strategy; companies.

http://printpattern.blogspot.co.uk

Although there are a lot of design studios that I would love to work for, there is also one particular company that I would too. I've always been a huge fan of Paperchase's products and approach to design so this would quite literally be a dream job. I've never though much about in house positions because of my preference of a smaller working environment but I think this is definitely where the exception comes in. I could see my style fitting into a company like this too because it's so adaptable. I've even connected with the company on Linkedin just in case any job opportunities crop up!

Design Strategy; past work.

As part of my ppd presentation I decided to look back on some of my old work. This is the first thing I ever design upon coming to university. When I look at it now, I must admit that it does make me laugh because I've come so far and can see an obvious difference in the quality of my work. The weirdest thing about it is, although I didn't use to describe myself as an image based designer, I've been designing that type of work from the very beginning looking at this. I feel as though since this I am a much more confident and professional designer. This photo was taken on my phone for example and now I'm regularly using the photography studio to get professional looking images of my work. I also have developed many software skills I didn't have before because when I started I had been taught to design everything on photoshop. This could be the reason why the quality of my work is so much better now because you definitely don't use photoshop to design!

Design Presence; website design.

I didn't feel quite brave enough to be writing my whole website from scratch being more of a print based designer so I have decided to utilise Cargo Collective because their website will guide me through the process in a way. Although I applied for my account a while ago I've only really just got stuck in. I struggled a bit to start with because I'm not very familiar with their website but kept at it until eventually it clicked, this has been a good learning curve for me really because I learn better sometimes If I teach myself and persist. I've managed to sort out an 'about' section and upload my first project so I now know exactly how Cargo works to be able to upload many more projects. I want the design to be really straight forward and simple because this will reflect my new branding design and my work in general. It will also make it easy for others to navigate around and showcase my work in the best possible way. I do have a personal domain/web address so I would eventually like to link this through my cargo for a more professional website address that I can add to my business cards. Once I get everything up on my website I might be a bit more adventerous with the layout and have a go at editing the CSS more but for now it does the job!

Design Presence; personal rebrand.

I decided to rebrand myself because my old branding just doesn't appeal to me any more and I feel as though I was holding back with the previous design. I've decided to utilise my favourite colour throughout the designs so this connects to me personally and it's just a bonus that it's really bright and bold so will stand out visually. On my old branding I already had a hand rendered font but this time I've decided to go for my own hand writing to create my logo because again, this makes the design personal to me and also links to the way in which I work. I do like to design the majority of my imagery by hand before creating anything digitally so this idea really makes sense. Although the overall design still looks quite simple, I feel this is much more representative of me now. On my old business card, the logo was quite small and the design seemed to lack personality where as this one seems to shout a lot more and I feel shows the confidence that I've gained as a designer. I'm undecided on whether to keep the little smiley on the back of the business card because I'm not sure how professional this seems. I do feel there is justification however because it's a further representation of my personality (being quite cheery/quirky!) and links to the logo. I had a go at both landscape and portrait business card designs to see which I preferred and I definitely think I'll go for portrait because it's a bit more unique and will hopefully be memorable. I'm going to outsource the printing for these business cards online. This will also link to the fact my portfolio is going to be based on a portrait structure. I'm going to ask for feedback from others to be sure about this decision though. 

Design Strategy; the job hunt.

By speaking to people and searching online I've got a list of websites I've started checking regularly for job updates. I've started to find some job opportunities I feel would suit me too so this is really good. Sometimes I find it difficult to know what I'm looking at though because when it's through a recruitment agency, in some cases you have no idea which company you're applying to. I look on websites such as Creative Boom, The Guardian and YCN. I'm really struggling with the whole location situation too because I get quite disheartened when you scroll down a site and see 'London' numerous times. I know with it being such a big place theres more opportunties but London just isn't for me at all. I'm going to keep at it though and not let that put me off because opportunties with a more ideal location are slowly starting to multiply. I'm moving back in with my parents in June so ideally I'd like to be based somewhere commutable from home. We have great transport links though so I don't see this being a problem. I need to start applying for things now and putting myself out there. 

Design Strategy; North East based studios.

http://www.paulwindledesign.co.uk/

http://velcrobelly.co.uk/

http://www.brainboxstudios.me/

http://www.weareglad.com

Here a few studios and designers based in places like Newcastle and Middlesbrough. The one thing I love about all these companies is that their website gives you an impression straight away and a very good one at that. They all seem quite happy and like the studios would house the sort of people I'd love to work with. Although not all of them are completely to my design taste I feel as though I should maybe visit a few just to get a comparison with where I've already been previously and see properly what the north has to offer as I'm so fond of it. I have previously contacted Paul Windle so maybe it's time to send them a photo of a crying kitten because I love their work so I'm really keen to see their studio and meet them! Velcrobelly isn't actually a studio, it's another freelancer but by researching this guy I've seen possible places you could be based as a freelancer in Newcastle if not from home. There's the biscuit factory which I've actually visited before so this is something to bear in mind. 

Design Strategy; internship.

My friends told me about this internship with Propaganda which is a worldwide indie night club. I looked into it and although it's absolutely perfect for me and I have all the skills they require, the location puts a massive downer on it. I worked out that even if I lived in a hostel during the week I still wouldn't be able to afford it based on this wage, one of the downsides to internships of course. Commuting would also be completely out of the question because it's 4 hours one way from where I'll be living as well as the money being an issue again. Although the location of this means that I won't go for it, it has restored my faith a little because I was really struggling to find things I thought I may enjoy. I'm really gutted about this because I think it would be an amazing opportunity but at least it's given me a little insight into the world of internships and the sometimes downsides to them as well as the practicality and importance of location. 

Design Strategy; work placement at Room For Design.

During the easter break I did a three day work placement at Room For Design in Northallerton in order for me to gain experience within the industry and see the day to day runnings of a Graphic Design studio. When I emailed Joe about the work placement I sent him a few examples of my work and off the back of that they said they had the perfect brief for me to have a go at due to my design interests. This brief involved designing sheep themed wedding stationery and I got stuck into it straight away. I was especially pleased because I seem to be drawing animals a lot at the moment so I knew I'd enjoy it. There's a few examples above of some development for the stationery and you can also see the sheep vectors I designed on illustrator. Whilst I was on my placement I also got to work on some ammendments that clients had sent through for other briefs. This was really good because I got to see the sort of work Room For Design have been doing and there was a range of different outcomes. Whilst doing this I learnt how they record the ammendments you make too and this was useful because it's something I'm unfamiliar with. Overall, whilst on my placement I definitely got a lot out of it because I'd never been in a proper working studio environment before, I got to ask questions about design and the industry in general and the people were really nice! Before doing this placement I was quite nervous about the thought of going into a job because I had no idea what to expect but now I feel so much more relaxed about it and you could even say quite excited! I know every studio will be different and I'm never going to love them all but the atmosphere at Room For Design was really inviting and I felt comfortable straight away. I think this is down to the fact that it's a small working environment and this is something I've always preferred. If I get the opportunity to go back to Room For Design I definitely will. After being so nervous I was dissapointed with how fast my placement went, I didn't want to leave! Success. 

Design Strategy; Leeds based studios.

http://www.wearevapour.com/

http://www.englandagency.co.uk/

http://www.ayoungdesigner.co.uk/

http://www.weareunit.com

I've been researching more studios/designers but this time in Leeds. The reason I keep choosing different locations within the North is because this is ideally where I would like to be so by seeing who is out there, I know where to look for potential jobs. I've become quite fond of Leeds now and with living here I'm aware that it's quite a good city for design. I didn't want to just look at the studios that we've been linked to via uni because I know everyone will be looking at them so I've found some different ones that I feel link to my practice and interests within Graphic Design. I particularly love the work of Unit because they work with a range of different disciplines and one of these happens to be illustration. It's not often you find a studio that categorises this seperately so this says to me that they are quite active in this area. They've worked with some really big clients too so it may be a studio worth visiting for further insight. I've also included a freelancer within this post because I feel it's relevent to the research I'm doing. Although being freelance has never been something I've considered doing, I have found quite a few designers within Leeds recently so this gives me confidence in the fact it's a back up option for me. Obviously it's easier said than done though. 

Design Strategy; contacting Room For Design.

During the summer I had a studio visit to Room For Design back home in Northallerton. At the end of the visit there was a mention of a possible work placement so I've kept that in mind all this time up until I've finally found the right time to follow this up. I contacted Joe explaining that I'd been to see them before and wondered if it was possible for me to come in and work with them. I attached a small PDF of a few examples of my work too because when I went to visit I didn't actually take anything with me so I thought it would be nice for them to see this. Joe got back to me and we arranged a few days during the easter break for me to go in so I'm really pleased and can't wait for my placement now. They have also moved studios but within the same building so it'll be really nice to see where they are working from now! 

Design Presence; portfolio surgery two.

I had my second portfolio surgery with Joe Gilmore and it was great to recieve a second round of feedback on my work because obviously everyone interprets things differently so some of the points he made weren't brought up the first time round but were really relevent to improve it. 
Joe suggested that I utilise a double page spread layout so that each board appears landscape because it seemed as though I was holding back a little bit as some of my images were quite small and I left quite large boarders around each of my boards. He also said that when someone is viewing it, it will make it a lot easier to see each induvidual projects because at the moment I have a single A3 boards per project and he said when you're looking the top project with the portfolio landscape, you have to lean over so you don't necessarily take it all in properly and it's a bit difficult to view. 
I asked Joe about his opinion in including branding on each seperate page. He said personally he's not a fan of this but in some ways it works because my logo is quite simple and at least whoever is viewing my portfolio will remember my name. 
I need to have a space between 'The brief' and 'Target audience' to make this easier to read because at the moment it's quite squashed up. After thinking about this though I've decided I might take the target audience out altogether because although it's relevent it's not massively significant as the focus will be on the actual images. 
Joe suggested that I create a grid for my double page spreads so that every single board is kept uniform because he said a lot of people will wonder why things aren't uniform and it says a lot about you as a designer. You can be quite playful with this grid but it's just there to guide. 
With one of my briefs Joe suggested having the film titles under each typeface because someone may spend more time trying to work this out than taking in the actual work. 
Joe said it'd be great to see the typeface and actual character designs from the wind in the willows brief because although you can see it in the photographs, it's not completely clear and this aspect was a substaintial part of the brief. 
Going back to layout, I need to make sure all the spaces between images are the same on all the spreads. 
With the black and white print brief, it's better not to have one square photo and all the rest rectangle because this doesn't particularly fit in. 

These changes make a lot of sense now that someone has gone through and pointed them out to me so I'm going to take all the advice on board and re-jig my portfolio. 

Design Presence; portfolio.

Just before the portfolio surgeries I decided to take some of the projects out based on conversations I'd had with some of my peers. Some of the projects weren't my favourite and they suggested taking these out because I probably wouldn't be able to talk about them very comfortably unlike the ones below that I have left in. There was also the Coca-Cola brief, this project wasn't print based at all and that isn't who I am as a designer so this one definitely needed to go. I've also decided to shrink each project down to just one page. Before I felt like I was taking two for the sake of it and there was maybe a little too much white space. This format gives a hint of the projects but there is still much to be seen and advice is usually that you don't want to give everything away. I feel the text also sits a lot neater on a layout like this too. It's a small portfolio at the moment but I'd rather have that and love the work thats in there. 

This is my portfolio after the surgery with Ben and the changes he suggested. The main alteration I've made is to the typeface project. The products seemed to fall at the last hurdle a bit with this brief and it was more about the typefaces for me so I decided to just use these and explain the purpose they were designed for. This works a lot better because they appear a lot stronger just placed by themselves and I think I'll also feel a lot more confident talking about them.

Design Presence; portfolio surgery one.

I had my first portfolio surgery with Ben Haworth and found the feedback I was given was very constructive and useful in a way which helps me understand how well my current portfolio communicates to people viewing it for the first time and whether there is anything that I need to reconsider. I noted down some of the key points that were discussed. 

- Really push the illustration/image work, show that I am capable of a range of styles so I can be flexible in a studio environment. 
- The pattern work is successful, how can I utilise this throughout future projects? 
- With The Wind in the Willows brief, reword the brief, it appears more traditional visually rather than reinvented. This style doesn't come across as well as some of my other hand rendered work so consider this with future projects. 
- The illustrative type brief board needs to include the logo design for the company I created. This brief could have taken a more comical approach in order to avoid copyright with the quotes and make it more appealing. The outcomes look a bit clinical but this could easily be improved. The comical aspect would suit the brand more. 
- The black and white brief has brand essence and it's important to understand a brand is not just a logo. This could be the link branding has to my personal practice more so than actual logo design. 
- With illustrative type I could just include the typeface design to showcase this skill as this part of the brief was a strength. 
- Processes should be an after thought as the ideas and concept are most important and what potential employers are interested in. 

Design Presence; portfolio.

This is my portfolio at the moment ready for the surgeries where I hope to gain feedback on how I could improve it. I've chosen my favourite projects with one of them being from second year because this is where I feel I started to notice personal improvement. I've given each project two pages, kind of like when I create my design boards because I always like to have a full shot of the outcomes so you can see how everything works together. I've also included some artwork for some of the projects so you can really see the detail in elements such as the letters for the typeface brief. I've gone for quite a large border around the edges because I feel this looks quite clean and organised. I've also included a little bit of information on each of the pages so that someone looking at the projects for the first time has an idea of what they are all about. My logo is consistent throughout the portfolio too so hopefully my name will be remembered by whoever is viewing it. Due to all the projects being image based I feel this portfolio works because this ties them all together.