OUGD502: PPP2 - Module Evaluation

Self-evaluation Form Ougd502 Level 5 by antjtw

OUGD502: Personal and Professional Practice 2 // Study Task 2 - Contacting Agencies

Investigate a list of methods you can employ to contact other Creatives, studios or agencies.

• Studio visits, by e-mailing a studio and asking for a visit, recently I visited Numiko, the web design agency, based in Leeds. We simply asked for a studio visit, following a recent talk they did in University a few weeks prior. When we visited the studio, we had the creatives right there with us, so we were able to ask them questions about their creative process and also ask them about work placements - to which they told us how to apply and that they do in fact pay their interns (...yay).
• Attending Events, it's important to attend events which exhibit the areas of creativity which interest you. It's likely that there will be professionals there, which are the leading creatives within your interest, gateways to highly renown professionals. By meeting them and befriending them, you're more likely to collaborate with them. An example of this is Leeds Print Festival. I managed to meet loads of professionals who use the methods which interest me, and obtain their contact details. 

OUGD502: Personal and Professional Practice 2 // Task 1 - PPP Fundamentals

1. Reflecting on your Summer what is your most memorable event and why?

• The most memorable part of my summer was being able to design for my first 'real' client. I was able to design the business collateral for a small brand, located in Malton, North Yorkshire. Seeing my work being used a real environment, rather than within a hypothetical sense, as done with typical educational briefs. 

 2. Have you made any contacts over the Summer that you feel could be helpful over the coming year or so and what outcomes did you feel you achieved?

• I haven't really made any new contacts over the summer unfortunately. As much as I would have liked to improve my creative scope and meet new contacts, I was engaged with commitments and festivals/stuff. 

 3. How did you meet/contact these contacts (methods used or how it happened)

• None applicable. 

 4. If you didn’t make any contacts, why? too busy working? holiday? commitments?

• I spend a large portion of the holiday engaged in commitments, I managed to work on a small project, but there were no creative contacts gained. I spend a large amount of the summer training for a series of obstacle races, know as the Spartan Race, and spending time with family and friends.

 5. What methods of contacting creatives can you think of and what would you ask?

• To contact creatives, you're able to use LinkedIn, which is a less personal approach, but it's an effective way to present your skills and contact circles and communities of designers through suggestions and common ground. You can also contact creatives by e-mailing them directly, perhaps asking them about what they do, or ask for a studio visit. 

OUGD502: Personal and Professional Practice 2 // Why is Networking Good?

Why is networking good for ME personally? 

• Networking is good for me personally, as I'm able to explore the creative industry around me, as someone who's quite split between the physical and digital elements of Graphic Design, I find it's useful to see creatives around me and see what they've done, what they're doing and where it's taken them. Doing this helps me plan out what I would enjoy doing, and if the road to which it leads is suitable for me. It also helps me find new people, friends of friends, colleagues and family members that offer unique skills which I can utilise to enhance my practice, or work with to produce something fantastic. 

For what I may get out of it is it worth it? YES/NO 

• Yes, yes it is. 

WHAT can I get out of this? 

• I can get a great deal out of networking! I'm able to expand my creative links by meeting new people, using the common ground we might have. Using this, I may be able to get work placements, employment, attend events, and boost my creative knowledge, to a level far superior to what I might obtain left to my own devices. I could also get the chance to collaborate with other creative individuals, or companies, from which I can learn new skills. 

Am I doing this simply because I am being asked to? 

• To begin with, I was doing this because I was asked to. However, once the ball started rolling, I began to quite enjoy networking, attending events, where I was able to meet and learn about creatives within our community. Whilst also building my LinkedIn profile, which represents me as a professional. 

WHAT do I think that I am NOT doing as far as networking? 

• I feel I could be attending more events, I've only been a limited number, thus limiting my networking abilities. If I were to increase the number of events I attend I will be able to meet more creatives, and expand my scope of social links, to which I can draw upon in the future. 

Do YOU think that in this kind communication, language is a major barrier?

• To an extent, I do feel that there is a language barrier in this kind of communication. However, in this industry, I feel the quality and production of an individual's work and say more about them than a strip of text, or a speech. Of course I won't be able to understand their justification of their work, but there's always software available to translate texts, roughly. 

OUGD502: Leeds Print Festival 2014 // Print Talks

Following the, extremely sudden, recent realisation that this course affects the rest of my life, I've decided to get more involved in Graphic Design and it's culture. Yesterday, I attended Leeds Print Festival 2014's Print Fair, Today, LPF were hosting talks in Leeds College of Music, which is why the lecture theatre/performance hall looks extremely classy. 

The talks consisted of Mr. Bingo, talking about his love of illustration, and his hate mail scheme - he was a fantastic illustrator, and a very funny guy, I really enjoyed his talk. He talked us through his career, his previous works and what he's doing now. It was a fantastic insight to see how he works. After a brief interval, we then heard from NOMAD Letterpress. He showcased his works and showed us what he's currently doing, how he works with his father a few days a week in a traditional print studio, using a dying breed of print methods. He also showed us a project he did, whilst at Glastonbury, how he and a small team, one of the members being The Print Project, attempted to create a daily newspaper, however due to equipment issues they were unsuccessful for the first few days. 

Si Scott was unable to give his talk, so instead, as a last minute stand in, we heard from The Print Project and Print for Good, who did a sort of 'Adhoc Q&A', where they spoke about the collateral for the festival - which was amazing, created using GF Smith's wonderful stock. Finally, we heard from Creative Review. Who showed plenty of underground forgotten Printers, who all use traditional printing methods, and creating fantastic prints. Plenty of short films were shown to give us an insight into the print studios. 

Now onto the loot...

Copper-plated press, from Print for Good, the stock has a lovely deboss from the printing press, on a thick GF Smith stock. It looks wonderful. 

On the left, you can see the ticket, produced by The Print Project on GF Smith's glitter-highlighted paper. It looks and feels fantastic, something I'm certainly looking after. 

GF Smith Loot, a sample book and other stuff!

OUGD502: Leeds Print Festival // Print Fair

As a developing professional, I thought it's about time I should start going to events, experiencing some of the culture associated within our industry. So, myself and a couple of course-mates who I live with decided to go to Leeds Print Festival - the third annual Leeds Print exhibition. 

I managed to snag some freebies, a programme which contains all the dates and information about Leeds Print Festival, a NOMAD Letterpress card, and Ditto Press swatch booklet. They all feel fantastic, I really love the feel of the slight debossing on letterpressed prints.

I found this really amazing bound book, using book rum and paper to create a hard case bind. It looks and feels fantastic, something I really want to try!

A small collection of fantastic little note books. All of which using different methods of binding and different process to create them. 

A range of great screen prints. Such high quality inks used, and some very interesting artworks. 

A pencil case with a debossed look. Covered in print technical info. 

Leeds Print Festival info sheet. 

OUGD502: Personal and Professional Practice 2 // Numiko Visit

Yesterday, Grace, Adam and I were lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit Numiko, a web design agency based in the heart of Leeds. I thought I might benefit from visiting a web design studio, to see how it operates and what the staff are like - mainly because after seeing their work, I'm very interested in applying for an internship there. 

http://www.wahoo.wateraid.org/uk/

http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/

Above are two the sites they have worked on, both the sites are due to go live soon. They showed us previews of them, and how they worked and the design process involved; the scamps and wireframes, the designer's work and the developers and their work. It was really exciting to see the process from how some wireframes, simple drawings, are transformed into wonderful functional websites. 

OUGD504: PPP2 - 10 Successes

10 things I've gained from the first year;

• Passed 1st Year,
• Living alone/learnt to be independent,
• Learnt to cook,
• Printing resources/learnt screen print/workshops - new skills, foundations to build upon this year,
• Developed digital awareness, new skills with profession standard software,
• Learnt how to be more focused answering the brief correctly,
• Developed my level of confidence, the ability to stand by my work, 
• Improved personal and professional practice,
• Improved literacy skills, 
• Balanced a part time job, work, and a social life as well as the course, 
• Learnt to integrate work shop skills into practice,
• Developing a system, learning which brief is more important/urgent, prioritising. 

10 Successes as a class, collectively

• Presentation skills,
• Feedback,
• Workshops,
• Independent,
• Research/development,
• Understand time management,
• Working in 
• Confidence/motivation,
• Theory/context,
• Style/signature

Pick out 10 traits you want to be successful at this year; (post/publish on PPP blog).

• To develop my understanding of typography,
• To broaden my skill set in terms of design process, 
• To improve, out of college, my financial position, learn to budget, and stick to it. 
• Improve my time management, this year matters, it counts towards my degree, so I feel it's important to focus of planning ahead of time,
• I want to improve the final quality of my work, apply more techniques to my work to make look more professional, for example, applying spot varnish.
• I feel that I can improve the motive behind my work, rather than only creating a solution to a problem using Graphic Design, I want my work to be an extension of the individual to whom my work is aimed at, allowing to connect with them on a deeper level.
• I want to improve my English, by this, I mean I'm dreadful at essays. I think I did poorly last year. I know I can do better If I apply myself. 
• I want to create some sort of signature, sort of a style, a timeless visual representation which I can implement into my work which separates me from other designers. 
• To fix my Mac, I broke it. 
• To expand on my level of visual research, explore it.

Presentation Feedback

Useful Feedback:

• I received a lot of feedback mentioning I spoke incredibly fast, trying to fit everything in, teaming with my accent, it may have been difficult to understand, speak slower, and account for time in future,
• Someone also mentioned that I had issues with the timing of my presentation, I wasn't in control of the slides, so I had to keep up with them, rather than stopping and expanding. 
• The introduction to the presentation was entertaining and in the style of a James Bond film, which set the theme for the presentation,
• Pick out the more important parts, rather than focusing on the timeline, 
• Focus more into the Graphic Design side of the Bond films, such as the posters,

Could be Useful Feedback

Ego

• Well researched,
• The introduction to the presentation was entertaining and in the style of a James Bond film, which set the theme for the presentation,
• Strong Powerpoint, 
• Very good enthusiasm in the subject, it was interesting to hear about, 
• Memorised very well,

3 Objectives, how to improve that summer brief from what I've been told;

• Speak slower, and clearer to deliver the information, so people can understand, learn more from my presentation, getting a better insight from the world of 007.
• Include some more imagery and less text, reduce the amount of reading in the presentation, and try to include more images in the slide show. 
• Try to focus on more important events, rather than focusing on the timeline in full. Perhaps cutting down the information on each individual Bond actor, and including more exciting info graphs which convey the information in a much more elegant manner.