Personal branding - CV send out

Concept - Seeded Paper

The stock I used for this mail out is seeded. This means that once the stock has been watered it should eventually allow the seeds to germinate. The seed is specifically wildflower. The idea is that by using wordplay "budding designer", "branch out", I will begin a dialogue with a potential employer.

I thought about the context of the poster; if the CV was watered and left to germinate in a studio, people would get the chance to see my work, rather than it going to the bottom of the pile.

The poster is double-sided and will be folded 4 times to fit into a smaller envelope.

Personal branding - Digital presence

Web development

Personal branding - Stationary

Personal branding - Business card

Black, white and grey

I want to keep my branding as neutral as possible as I know I will hate it fairly quickly. So by keeping it black, grey and white I think it's for the best. The only problem with this design is when it comes to printing I can't print black on black stock in college unless I screen print it, the second problem with this is lining up the front and back perfectly which is pretty much impossible.

The colour of the stock although 'black' generally isn't fully black, this will allow me to print jet black ink onto the black stock which will show up. Hopefully. I will get this printed with a local printer I know.

Personal branding - Logotype/Symbol

Brand guidelines

I started by listing the purpose of my brand in terms of what I want it to do. I made a list of the following points the brand needs to fulfil:

- Communicate the right message when contacting studios/agencies

- Communicate the right message to potential clients when freelancing

- It needs to be neutral in order to not date fast

- It needs to be easily produced with simple print processes that are financially efficient

- It needs to work across different mediums both print and digital

- It needs to be bold

I created the brand guidelines after I chose a specific logotype and symbol. The brand is extremely simple which answers the purpose and the list above. By using only three colour with one of the colours being a shade I feel my brand wouldn't put anyone off from commissioning me. 

Experimentation

I tried to think of a clever way to represent myself, thinking about abbreviations and personality traits that could explored visually; my personal taste when viewing other peoples brands is something that is simple and doesn't get in the way of the work. It is more about the work than the brand of a studio or designer. 

I feel my second name HOH is enough with the use a typeface of my choice. It is not the most exciting conceptual brand but it works for my intended purpose. 

I am particularly interested in this dark grey with a black over the top. I find beauty is understated, modest design. I am reading John D. Rockelfeller's autobiography currently, a point the author makes about John D is the fact that at the time he was one of the richest men and eventually the richest man alive yet he never ever showed off his money. His house was self-deprecating and humble. John D shied away from the media and did his own thing. I would like to be some how the John D of graphic design.

Typeface variations

PPP3 - Final presentation

I honestly can't believe we have just delivered the last PPP presentation/any presentation for the third year and time at the college. I actually feel quite sad but at the same time extremely relieved. It's a pretty weird feeling.

I felt the PPP presentation went really well. I delivered in the allotted time without any disruptions. I felt at the time my presentation skills were satisfactory if not good. Thinking about how much they have developed from the first year I can say I am proud of myself. I found presenting before and when I came to the college extremely difficult/frightening. I now feel confident I can coherently present to reasonably sized groups of people.

I decided to keep the presentation relevant to my practice which paid off. I felt some people went slightly off topic which wasn't devastating but personally I enjoyed seeing people who displayed old work and also current work with a specific focus on future progression and plans.

The main most important skills when presenting that I believe from my experience over the three years:

- Don't bore people to death. If the presentation has no interesting content than most likely it is going to be dull. Even if you have to add some content that isn't 100% relevant, keep it interesting. I guess this depends on how interesting you are as a person...

- Always include picture! I fond personally when I don't include visuals the attention on myself becomes slightly overwhelming. Keep peoples attention off you if only for the first couple of minutes until you find your flow.

- I like to interact with people before the presentation to kind of break the ice, this might be in the form of asking a question to someone else before my presentation. It just takes clears my mind and helps me find my voice.

- Humour. Most people have a sense of humour. Find it, exploit it. Then again when people try to hard to be funny it can get awkward so don't try to be funny, perhaps a funny image!

- Make something rememberable. After watching more than ten presentation they pretty much all blend into one. Again be interesting.

- I find I have to rehearse my presentation thoroughly before so that I am confident I know what I am talking about and so that I don't go quiet.

Placements - Waste Studios

The second placement I did was with Waste studio. I contacted the company after seeing various work they produced online. As they were another studio within Nottingham it made contact easier. After showing my portfolio to the creative director I was invited to do a placement. Waste studio specialise in specialise in brand identity, design for print, fashion graphics, illustration, packaging, digital & online, interiors and art direction.
I began working on live projects the first being the Savlon brief. It was pretty cool to be involved in the initial process and research stage. It was reassuring to see how professionals within industry approach a brief.

Savlon

I started creating a colour palette from existing Savlon material that already exists as products on the market. I found this allowed me to be selective with colour moving quicker through the design process.

I then began creating different mock ups and began thinking about a concept that could be applied through a range or set. The packaging became quite minimal which I quite liked.

Trudy Gill

A quick task I was given was to create a business card. I was told not to spend too long and not to worry too much. It was more about being critical and not letting the work drag on something I have taking away from working with Waste. It is important to stick to deadlines!

Haberdasherme

I started exploring the idea of creating a dynamic brand for Haberdasherme. I physically experiment ted with spray paint and then began working with it once it was digitalised. I am pretty impressed with myself at how fast I did this work. 

Here you can see the final rangeI worked up with the spray paint overlaid. It was really useful to have someone with a professional opinion cast their eyes over my work and suggest different techniques or options. I felt the feedback help me push the brief further.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed myself at Waste and would like to go back in the future. It was really useful to do the two placements in the summer as it gave me an insight into how I like to work and how some people work within industry. 

I am going to contact more studios for internship in hope of gaining more experience while at the same time deciding what I want to do.