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.