COP 3 | Presentation

Presentation 1

Personal statement:

- Hello, i'm Lisa and this is my level 06 presentation.

- I like generating patterns for print

- Initiating concepts for brand projects

- I love any creative design which includes fashion, photography and interior. 

The things I have learned from this course so far are:

- Design techniques 

- Software skills

- Researching methods

- Communication skills

- Individual and collaborative practice 

- Professionalism 

- My aim for this year is to progress as much as possible as a young professional designer

BrandFuel:

- Before summer I contacted a creative agency in london called Brand Fuel.

- I requested a studio visit to meet with the design team to gain an understanding of how the studio environment worked. 

- After meeting I had a placement confirmed for two weeks at the end of summer. 

Week1:

- Worked with friendly and helpful professionals 

- Worked in a professional environment 

- Was a member of the graphic design team

- Was included in pitches, brainstorming sessions, presentations

- Work which I contributed to (Hope & homes, Benefit cosmetics, ITV, Twitter, Google) such as retouching logos, developing presentation boards, ticket and invite designs along with researching.

- I had the opportunity to visit the Google offices with David from BrandFuel to sit in on two event pitches. 

- It was really interesting to see how another design office worked, and it was a great chance for me to meet other designers.

Week 2:
- Was included in the events and production work flow

- One event i worked at was The Heroines Of Computing event held by Google at Bletchley Park, an event which payed tribute to the women code breakers of WW2

- I also worked at BGC Charity Day held in the Barcleys building in Canary Wharf, I got to meet some amazing people, and gained a lot from my time there. 
- And it was a worthy experience to be part of. 

Studio visits and placements:

- Brinkworth is a creative agency which develops interior work for global brands (e.g All Saints). I'm keen to explore areas of design which include interior, set design and production. 

- From doing the placement at BrandFuel I've realised i'd like to be a more hands on designer. 

Briefs for this year:

1. Complete a live brief 

2. Competition brief 

3. Fashion branding for Laura Richardson 

4. Asian wallpaper collection 

5. Boho chic decor store

6. Clothing line 

7. 3D installation 

8. So&So's Sweets 

9. Typographic project

10. Albino Strawberry Boutique 

Asian wallpaper design:

- For this brief my idea is to create a range of wallpaper designs based on Thai temple art and architecture.

- So far i've collected some photographic research when I was traveling around Asia as a starting point.

- In terms of research I need to learn about the culture of Thailand and artistic themes. 

- Deliverables for this brief would be a variety of wallpaper designs, exploring different drawing techniques and processing methods for imaginative finishes and visionary techniques.

- Along with a design format of showcasing the designs, such as samples booklets and a website.

Expanding brief:

- A good way of expanding the brief to produce larger quantity of work would be to consider other aspects of Thai culture.

- So investigating themes like nature, food, animals and travel which could all be seen as recognisable imagery to design from. 

- In terms of research I need to explore a lot into existing patterns design, wallpaper designers and interior trend forecasting. 

Boho Chic Decor: 

- Another brief is to create a Boho Chic Decor store, all products would be advertised and sold on esty. 

- Creating home products such as hand made dream catchers made from laser cut leather doilies, feathers and other organic materials. 

- The interior crafts inspiration has came from the likes of Elle Decor and Anthropologie.

- Design aspects are hand crafted items, branding and identity as well as packaging and promotion along with mini publication books about bohemianism and dreamy home ideas. 

Research boho lifestyle and interior design. 

- Research hand craft design, embellishment on materials and other processes. 

Other things to look into bohemianism, popularity and 1960's and the links to the Pre- Raphaelites movement.

Clothing line:

- This brief is to design a collection of illustrations to be printed onto garments such as t-shirts and jumpers

- The concept is to based the illustrations on portraits, faces and selfies - a trend of the time. 

- The inspiration for this is lead by the London based fashion line Illustrated People.

- Deliverables would be branding and identity, packaging and promotion along with illustrations and final garments.

- I'd consider exploring drawing styles, booking photo shoots, practice screen printing and contact plain clothing suppliers. 

- I'd also research on WGSN - a trend forecasting website for up and coming trends for prints.

So&So's Sweets:

- This brief is a collaboration and business proposition i'm planning with nikki.

- The idea is to promote a travelling sweet shop called So&So's, Hypothetically the choice of vehicle would be a camper van!

- It's purpose is to travel around festivals, food fairs and special events such as weddings.

- To sell unconventional cakes and sweets such as cake pops, cakes in jars, glitter marshmallows, ice cream cupcakes.

- For deliverables we'll produce branding and identity, packaging and promotion along with decorative design 

- Other design ideas were to create a recipe book for So&So's along with a small publication book showing the start and finish point of our mini business. 

Dissertation:

- For context of practice my dissertation title is:

- Does the significance of flowers lie in artistic nature or commercial value?

- Themes I'm researching at the minute are..

The nature of flowers and the value of their existence 

What flowers represent, and their symbolical meaning 

Flowers and branding 

The impact on print in the 1960's 

Research which I've been doing so far:

- Documenting my floral photographic research from Asia.

- I went to a flower and butterfly exhibition at the natural history museum. 

- As well as a trip to the V&A museum to document the history of flower design through iron work, architecture, textiles, ceramics and painting. 

- I've also been collecting quotes from a numbers of sources.

- In terms of the practical side to COP i'm a little unsure right now what i want to do, but I think ideas will come after more research. 

Thanks for listening! 

Studio visit to Google Offices

Whilst on placement I spent 50% of my time out of the studio working at events, helping the production crew filming or sitting in on pitches for upcoming projects. One of the most exciting days on placement was when I was invited to sit in on two pitches at Google Head Office with David, the CEO of BrandFuel. The day was a huge learning curve in terms of having a very professional manner in front of clients and professionals, along with being myself and having an input when it came to ideas being shared in the pitches to show my interest in the projects.

What I gained from my visit to Google:

- A sense of professionalism
- An idea of what the design and events area is of the creative industry
- An understanding of real life working relationships, between creatives and clients
- An idea of how to pitch to a company
- Who Google are as a company, their workers and their ethos
- Met people from global brands such as Google and Twitter

In summary my visit to the Google offices made me realise that working for a large company is something i'm keen to do once graduating.

Placement at BrandFuel

I decided to keep a record of my time at BrandFuel whilst on placement. My time there was educational, fun and mainly an experience. The main reason I chose to do the placement was because i wanted to be living and working back in London for a few weeks and to gain professional experience to enhance my practice before starting back in third year. 

My two week placement at BrandFuel was in retrospect practical knowledge of a graphics, events and production. 


The placement diary

Week 1.

- Worked with friendly and helpful professionals. 
- Worked in a professional environment. 
- Was a member of the graphic design team.
- Was included in pitches, brainstorming sessions, presentations.
- Work which I contributed to (Hope & homes, Benefit cosmetics, ITV, Twitter, Google) such as retouching logos, developing presentation boards, ticket and invite designs along with researching.
- Visited the Google offices with David from BrandFuel to sit in on two event pitches.

Interior decor at the Google offices 

Week 2. 

- Was included in the events and production work flow.
- Worked at The Heroines Of Computing event held by Google at Bletchley Park, an event with payed tribute to the women code breakers of WW2, my role was to decorate the venue, put up signage along with packing up after the guests had left. Overall it was a great day and I'm glad I played part in the event. 
- I also worked at BGC Charity Day, helped the production crew with filming and audio recording, and got to witness interviews from behind the scenes. As well as talk to a few high profilers! 

Over all the BGC charity day was the best part of my placement, the day was a great experience and all for a good cause. I met some amazing people and would love to work at an event like this again. 

Studio visit to BrandFuel

Before applying for placements I wanted to visit some studios to gain an insight into what it would be like working in a graphic design studio. First off, I contacted the design studio BrandFuel, a design and events agency in London. I took a trip to London during the summer to talk with the designers at the agency to grasp what it would be like working there and to see if they would consider me as a placement designer. Overall the trip was a success and from organising  the visit, and getting to know some of the designers I gained myself a two week placement in September.

Things I gained from the studio visit:

- Engaging and interacting with working professionals 

- An understanding of what the creative environment is like in a studio

- The confidence to speak those with years of experience and knowledge in creative areas 

Statement about me as a designer

"I am a graphics designer, ready for the creative world of design, I tend to focus on producing branding, packaging and my main medias are print and web"

Summer brief

To kick start the year we were asked to produce a presentation which informed everyone about us as young professional designers, the things we have learned and the experience we have gained so far from being on the course and where we aim to go from here. 

The presentation should include:

A statement about me as a designer

Who am i?
What have i learned so far?
What experience i have gained?
What direction i aim to go from here?
What other placements i'd like to do?
Which sector of work I wish to work in?

The eight studio briefs you are proposing for level six

Live brief
Competition brief 
Collaborative 
Self initiated 

The research and direction for COP level six

Context of practice dissertation plan and research 

Level 06 Studio Brief

OUPD301 PPP3

STUDIO BRIEF
LCA//
BAGD
Level
06

Brief Title

CREATIVE STRATEGIES
Semester
1 & 2

Design Strategy

Brief

Undertake an independent and sustained investigation into opportunities for progression within your own intended area of creative, professional and/or academic focus. You will need to use your PPP blog to provide evidence of ongoing research activities, reflection and self evaluation of an increasingly informed understanding of your.

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 learnt 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. Briefly summarise the concept, content or underlying rationale for these.

Identify problems that you have encountered with these ideas, questions that have arisen and things you need to find out in order to further these ambitions. In this section you should include issues relating to, Funding, Business support, Financial guidance, Legal concerns etc.

Mandatory Requirements

Your presentation should be supported by an up to date blog. that documents the development of your design presence, ongoing research into progression opportunities and relate your work to relevant areas of contemporary design practice.

Deliverables

A 10 minute Powerpoint (or similar) presentation.
A completed skills profile and plan including rationale and statement of intent (see handout).
Entries on your PPP blog. that document your progress over Level 06 of the programme

Studio Deadline
Module Deadline

 21 / 05 / 2014 - 3pm

PPP - Evaluation OUGD502

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

The studio briefs that were set were very helpful, in particular Life's a pitch, Fred presented to us all the information we would need to know about setting up our own business. From this we got ourselves into groups and produced a design organisation, from working with other peers and researching aspects about a business set up I have learnt a lot in terms of costings, business and collaboration work. It was a great brief to work on because it made me consider what I should be doing through summer ready for third year, and a potential business is one i'd like to contemplate. A great skill I have learnt is how to communicate and collaborate with other individuals for work purposes. Each time I have worked with others on projects, the outcome has always been good and i've always been pleased with work produced, so this is something I will look forward to in third year and onwards. As a designer I believe I have improved my skills set in the adobe, however this is something I feel I have to practice with further. My researching skill have improved a lot over the past year, in comparison to last year we her I was unsure what was important and relevant to blog, I now feel I can gather information that will help me in projects. 

2. What approaches to/ methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

I feel I have progressed a lot since last year, my design abilities have enhanced and I want to keep going in that direction and progress further throughout third year. I have enjoyed experimenting with different materials throughout briefs in particular the Dazed and Confused brief which I collaborated with other art and design students for, taught me that I am capable of produce a body of work which full fills a brief and that I am really happy with. Whilst doing this brief I explored a lot in terms of design from photography, 3d type, graffiti, interior, installation and even event organising, doing this made me realise what kind of design direction I would like to explore through out the summer and third year. 

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

Over all I can see an improvement in my software skills since being on the course and that is due to producing lot of digital based work, although I want to improve this further I have plans to explore a lot more with hand rendered and more practical based work to show a variety in my skill set. I can see a huge different in the style of work, although I don't have a specific one, I feel the over all appearance of my designs have massively improved from last year when I struggled to produce work that even resembled graphic design. I love photography and I have tried to incorporate it into as many briefs as possible this year as its an aspect of art which I love, I feel like I have done this quite well and I have liked the work from dong so, from this I have realised i am capable of work which I like doing but I need to push myself further to create work which is a challenge for me. 

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

My downfall this year has been due to bad time management, a problem which has to be over come before third year. I feel like my lack of organisation skills can bee seen in some of my work, for example finished and printed design which aren't photographed well, designs which I haven't left myself any time for improving or changing all together to full fill briefs, designs which are just printed due to not giving my self the planning and preparation time to do screen printing or process and finishes. This is something that has to change next year because I want the quantity and quality of my work to be a whole lot different to now. My biggest weakness is public speaking, it's a problem which is very frustrating and upsetting at times due to the fact I can't present to my peers confidently in crits and especially presentations, this is something I want to improve massively before heading into third year an industry because I feel like my nerves and presentation skills won't get me very far. 

5. Identify 5 things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
Manage my time more effectively and be a more organised designer so that my work doesn't lack in quality or quantity.
Begin designing sooner to show a stronger development in ideas and to gain a more satisfied outcome when the products are finished. 
Experiment a lot more with processes and finishes to show a better collective of work.
Work more on creating good concepts and fulfilling all work that I want to achieve as a brief. 
Don't be lazy when designing, do all the things I set out to do not just the easiest/ last minute option. 

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

Attendance: 3
Punctuality: 4
Motivation: 3
Commitment: 4
Quantity of work produced: 3
Quality of work produced: 3
Contribution to the group: 5

End of year presentation - Level 05