Self Branding - Video Research

Video 1: 
Do what you like, like what you do
Bert Jacobs

-Focusing on whats good with out lives will help fix whats wrong with our lives
-Focus on the opportunity, not the obstacles
-Our view of the world makes us happy
-Lessons learned from his personal experience make him focus on making his work fulfilling and to make others happy

"your life is a road trip"


Video 2:
Building a personal brand
Jacob Cass

1. DEFINE your brand
2. CREATE your website/blogs
3. UTILISE your networks

1. Know your goals, audience, USP and visual identity. You need to decide who you want to work for or what you want to produce so that you can target your branding and the way in which you work towards this.
2. The website should include a homepage, portfolio, about you, testimonials and links to your blog.
3. Creating a tribe of followers is important as you need to have people who want to listen to your opinions and see your work. The relationships with others should be established to ensure more chance of your work being shared and becoming known.

Inspiration

My Inspirations

In todays session on self-branding, we started to think about all of the things that inspired our design decisions. Throughout the morning, I began to realise that it wasn't necessarily the designers and artists that informed my work, but actually my personal interests and hobbies. 

David Bowie once said "the only art i'll ever study is the stuff I can steal from" which is something I would also agree with. The work of other artists should inform my own practice, trigger ideas and eventually help me to find my own design preferences. 

I think it is also important to recognise the fact that taking inspiration from other artists should be seen as a positive thing and as long as you are not plagiarising their ideas it is fine. To successfully take inspiration from an artist, you need to credit them for their work but also make sure what you produce is a transformation and complete remix of their original piece of work. 

Become a sponge and absorb everything around you as possible sources of inspiration.

Designers/Studios

Lo Siento 

Artist

Jose Romussi

Painting

Fernand Leger, Le Pont du remorqueur

Sculpture

Ai Weiwei, bicycle sculpture

Song

Changes, Faul

Recording artist

Alessia Cara

Book

Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber

Poem/Poet

Porphyria's lover, Robert Browning

Quote

"Never resist the unfamiliar" - The Beach

Building

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

After individually completing the list of 10 different inspirations in our lives, the pieces of paper were passed around the classroom so that everyone could share their inspirations. I found this useful because I now have a long list of different sources of inspiration I can refer back to when starting new projects or for general inspirations.

I found the quotes and the song choices the most interesting ones to read through as I believe that these are the most personal of the categories. The quotes that inspire people are particular character defining and can really show how a person may approach different situations in life, also influencing their design decisions. 

 

 

The results are stunning.

Following on from the session about stress management, I found this article particularly engaging as it highlighted that punishment isn't always the best solution to mistakes.

Robert W. Coleman Elementary School realised that making a child attend a detention session was not positively productive as staring at the blank walls did not encourage them to reflect upon their behaviour, instead the boredom created agitation. The school introduced the Mindful Moment room instead which is filled with lamps, decorations and purple pillows. The children are encouraged to sit in the room and got through practices like breathing and meditation, helping them to calm and re-centre.

It is thought that mindful meditation can improve a person attention span and focus. This is something I may consider starting when I have a lot of different projects all at once. To manage the workload, it is important not to procrastinate and the hours put in must be used to their best. I think at the start of a long period of work, I would benefit from clearing my head and focusing exactly on what needs to be done.

Source: http://www.upworthy.com/this-school-replaced-detention-with-meditation-the-results-are-stunning

Day Brief - Nest 'focus' submission

BRIEF:

In order to develop my personal and professional practise, I submitted a piece of work to NEST magazine based on the word 'Focus.
Focus could refer to the literal sense to the lens focus of an image - or in a broader sense referencing your personal focus as a student at LCA. The work could be representative of your focus within you chosen subject, or a focus on social, political, economic or environmental issues that you are passionate about.

The magazine is looking for work in the format of photography, illustration, design, collage, painting, sculpture, ceramics, 3D work or written text pieces.

RESPONSE:

I decided to use a photograph I had taken in Madrid. I started by experimenting with a coloured layer which had a low opacity and I then slightly offset this on top, distorting the focus of the picture.

I repeated the same process again so that the image was in three different positions, all overlaid. 
I then looked at applying this design decision to the word 'focus' and also adding this to the image. 
I liked the aesthetic, but I do not think it illustrates the meaning behind this photo. To take this photo, I had to face my fear of crossing busy roads and in doing so I was nearly hit. I was so focused on getting the photograph that I wanted, I didn't realise that the lights were no longer on green for pedestrians. I wanted to express the fear I felt when I realised this. 
The offset image shows the shaking and the Spanish phrase translates to 'focus on fear'.
The design decision to use the particular colours was based on the colour of the Spanish flag and then transferred straight onto the photograph as the opaque layer. 

Final submission

Guest speaker - Radim Malinic

Guest speaker Radim Malinic delivered a very inspiring talk on his journey as a creative individual. The focus was on the influence, inspiration and information we as graphic designers can use to inform our work and how we approach a brief. His vast range of projects that he has worked on showed me that design is a skill that can be applied to EVERYTHING. We do not have to choose a specific discipline within graphic design and stick to it as by doing so we will create the same thing over and over. Instead, we should take our creative approach expand in as many directions as possible. 

I found his approach to the re-brand of the dating company called 'Mutual Attraction' very interesting as it proved just how important research is when designing with a strong concept. Branding is an area of Graphic Design that I find interesting as it amazes me how such small details can easily portray very different messages to what was intended. The presentation of his initial ideas and the process to develop them into the final branding identity was useful to see as it allowed me to think about how I could present my design decisions in a more professional way.

"The best thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you"

His 'Book of Ideas' was visually inspirational and very simply addressed different obstacles and questions that may come up in the creative industry. I particularly found the writing titled 'Face a fear every day' interesting as it reminded me that fear can prevent greatness from happening. This is a comment that I would always think of when approaching a new brief as I do believe that more interesting work is created when it doesn't fall within your comfort zone. 

http://www.brandnu.co.uk/work/

Time management

This video visually shows you how an average person would use each hour of their life and what you have left for personal time and leisure activities. The vast amount of hours you use up sleeping is very eye opening and made me think that I don't actually need to aimlessly scroll through social media, take long naps and that I could use my time much better.

I started to think about where I have my best ideas and compared my findings to the findings in 'The stress report'.
I am most inspired after having spent time in a city and then taking time to sit in a coffee shop and draw up my ideas and inspirations from the day. 
I like the atmospheres in coffee shops because it is the interactions and relationships that I observe that inspire me and make me feel my most creative. Seeing the happy conversations, usually caffeine driven, influences my work and confirms that I am creating to please others and make other people's environments pretty.
The findings suggested that mid exercise is often a time when a person has their best ideas. This does not apply to me, as I use my time at the gym to zone out from work and completely just focus on making my heart beat fast and tiring myself out in a way different to working. 

The Pomodoro technique is a proven way of increasing productivity, a factor very important when improving time management. I want to start to use my time in a way that means I will need to dedicate less time to a particular task because the time that I do spend on it is well planned and not disrupted by different distractions.


The technique focuses on distractions and how they can reduce the quality of the work produced. It is important to remove all distractions and set a time period in which you want to get a particular task completed in, set a timer and stick to it. This should be repeated 4 times with 5 minute breaks and then after 4, a 15-20 minute break is allowed. The use of times will conditions your brain to work to specific targets, making meeting deadlines much easier and overall reducing stress.

DO GREAT WORK.

LIVE GREAT LIVES. -Wolf Howl