Together trust

This is an agency that I visited this time last year with my portfolio. This year they were looking for volunteers to do placements so I filled out an application form and sent it off. I heard back straight away and Helen Bee who is the design and print co-coordinator of the company asked me to come in for an interview and to bring my portfolio along with me. I felt that it would be good to get her opinion on what she would think of my portfolio now to what it was like a year ago.
Again I felt more nervous on this visit than I did when I went to Absolute Media. Especially as its an interview and apart this one I have only ever had one other interview in my life so I was very anxious.
The interview started with the question 'What would I get out of volunteering at together trust' I said the experience, as I have never been on a design placement before. I thought it would be good to get a feel of what it would be like working in a office. Then I talked through my portfolio and she discussed with me what worked she had to offer based on the work that I had in my portfolio.
The feedback I was given was a mixture of good and bad. This time I felt the visit didn't go as well as I thought it could of. Helen said I had some good work, she was really impressed with the Body Shop work I did with Stacey but she felt I could have made more of the project in my portfolio (spreading it over 3-4 pages), which I intend to do before I finish the course. Also as a packaging brief I should have taken a picture of each product at different angles because that is what any designer would what to see. Helen also liked some of my poster designs and layouts. She said to me that I should sell my work better. To be honest I agree with her I felt so nervous and I let it get the better of me. I think I did explain my work, but I could of explained it better and clearer. Even though I felt the visit didn't go to well I still appreciated all the advice she gave me. She interviews quite a few people so she knows what she is talking about. I will take this advice on board and this will help me with future visits.
Overall the process of getting in contact with agencies has been quite difficult. I contacted so many agencies some didn't get back to me some asked me to send a pdf. They just didn't seem to have the time for me to go and visit them.
My plan for before May 13th was to get at least six visits, and I didn't reach the target which I'm disappointed with. I still intend to keep trying after I leave I'm going to be persistent with agencies. Getting in contacting with absolute media was really good but when I was sort of arranging times to meet with them a few of my emails got missed by them so I rang up and they were happy and i arranged the visit over the phone. So i feel its good to be persistent, not to just leave it at an email, because in the past that is what I would have done and if they hadn't got back to to me I would have just left it. Again this is all about my confidence if I would have been asked in the first year of the course to ring up several agencies I would have struggled or I would have put it off. So I think my confidence has grown to some extent.

Absolute Media

On the 21st April 2011 I went down to Absolute Media which in Bolton. I had a chat with Chris Hodgeon I talked him through my portfolio. He thought that I had some good work in my portfolio, he particularly liked the Body Shop work me and Stacey had done. As my portfolio is more typography based he passed me on to Wayne who is very into his typography. I briefly talked him through my portfolio and he gave me some really good advice on my work. He told me to think of different ways to execute my work e.g taking pictures (photography) make mock ups of for the Body Shop packaging. He liked some of the posters I did for The Language Show project I'm currently doing he said that he really liked the English poster I did for culture. He said even though the type is placed in different directions you can still understand what it is saying. He told me to look at designer Wim Crouwel for inspiration. He also told me that when I get a typography briefs in the future, it doesn't just have to be about type, images and pictures can be a major part in them. At the end of the visit I told Wayne what I was planning to do after I finish I mentioned doing a Master's degree because I felt that I still wanted to learn more about about graphic design and told me that you would learn more doing a placement for a few months than doing a master for a year.The reason being when doing a placement you get the feel of what it will be like working in the industry and will be working closely with other designers.
Before this visit I was very nervous about going seen as I hadn't visited a design agency in a while. If I'm honest I did sort of put off contacting agencies for a while, because I felt my work wasn't as complete as I wanted it to be. I also feared that designers would say that it isn't strong enough, especially as I'm coming to the end of my degree. The work in my portfolio will be the work that gets me a job.
I think this visit was quite successful I think I got good and bad feedback. More good than bad which I was pleased with. I appreciate the bad feedback because it will help me improve my work and make me stand out from the crowd. I feel this visit has given me more confidence in my work. What I also liked about this visit was that both Chris and Wayne were both honest about what they thought of my work which again I appreciated.

?????

Trying to find a third portfolio visit this year was a nightmare. I contacted many agencies in Berlin and in Manchester and only managed to get two visits. Not only is it frustrating when agencies don't respond to your emails, it knocks my confidence as well. I felt like I had tried so hard trying to get in contacting them, I did a back up emails for some of the agencies who didn't get back to me the first time round, but I still didn't hear anything from them. I was so adamant that I would have done all my portfolio visits done by the end of November and it was looking that way the week before I went to Berlin, I felt like I had achieved one of my aims before even going on the visits. I keep thinking back to the visit I missed in Berlin because I couldn't get there. I thought to myself maybe its the way I am portraying myself through an email. Then I thought if this is the case then why did I get responses from Germany but not Manchester. I think the reason why I heard back from agencies in Berlin and not in Manchester is because in Berlin their agencies don't get visited much by students, so to them its something new and exciting when people want to come to see their work. Manchester based agencies seem to not have much time to see people they don't consider a priority.
For next year I want to visit agencies in London I want push myself more and not just focus on agencies in manchester because when I have graduated I hope to move down there as I think that it is one of the best cities for design.

The Apprentice

The apprentice has been a big influence to me. It recently finished for this year but it was on BBC1 every wednesday at 9.00pm. The programme is set up into two teams each team has a different project manager each week. They are set different task each week in the show and the team who collects the least amount of money loses and one person from that group gets fired.

The programme is very relevant to the line of work im going to be doing when I have graduated. The task involves advertising, packaging, selling and buying etc. From watching the programme for so long you see how people work together, how they communicate with each other, there organising skills how they work under pressure, giving presentations and coming up with the final product. This is what I experience most days on this course. I see how the groups of people on the show make mistakes and I question it e.g where did it go wrong, how they could have done it better.

Working outside of the 'box'

This has been a problem for me since the start of the course. Sometimes I feel reluctant to really push myself. This isn't because I don't want to, I fear that that the outcome won't be impressive. I think from the start of the course, to where I'm at now my style of working has changed.
Graphic designers that influence me such as Carson, Brody and Rand all have there own style of working and are quite rebellious when it comes to their work. So it makes me question why I don't follow their risk taking. The piece of work that I am proud of this year is the envelope security pattern I created. This is a brief that I was passionate about and I never got bored with,I have shown this in the outcome. I tried to make this brief more about my personality, instead of just following the brief. I really need to take more risks because as a designer it will make me stand out from the crowd.

Deadlines

I don't think I have ever handed a piece of work in past the deadline I always seem to stick to them. It just working to the deadline which can sometimes be tricky. Sometimes i feel like i have got longer than I actually have to complete a piece of work. So this is why I seem to be in a panic the last week up to the deadline. This has got a lot to do with time management if i organised myself better i wouldn't be in such a panic. What I tend to do a lot is spend so much time on the research and the idea aspect of projects then sort of lose myself at the last hurdle when it comes to producing the final piece.

Objectives for creating a stress free bulid up to a future deadline

Plan

Prepare

Produce.

Surroundings

Over the last couple of months I have been inspired more by my surroundings, than I have by designers and their work. I think its always good to acknowledge designers and incorporate their style into my work, but I think my work should be more about what I am about. Before starting this course I didn't do that much research into designers I did my work based more on what I thought looked right or made sense to me . The key thing to me is communication. I don't agree when people say 'that design doesn't communicate'. I believe everything communicates something even if its not communicated well. When I talk about my surroundings I mean things that interest me e.g signage, labels, editorials, posters at the bustop billboards, road signs, cd covers, leaflets etc. They are all created for a purpose whether its visually or for reading purposes.

As a designer there is always going to be a group of people that are not going to understand what Iam about but that is what makes designers and design interesting.