Portfolio

Module Evaluation

The PPP sessions highlighted the importance of networking and following other designers with a similar output to mine so that I could engage with them and also take tips on how they presented themselves and their work. The module pushed me to design a website at the beginning of the year which I may not have seen to be of importance until after graduation without this task. Having to submit an initial design at the beginning of the year allowed for almost the full year to reflect upon it and develop it as I defined my design style as a designer which as evidenced in blogs has changed a fair amount and my visual style and approach to design work has changed a lot but overall become more consistent and predictable in a positive way.

Over the year there have been many opportunities to engage with visiting professionals which I really value. The talks of professionals remind me why I am doing this degree and give me a real sense of motivation for my personal professional development. The week of Creative Conversations was something that I was really looking forward to but due to illness I was unable to attend the majority of the sessions which I was upset about. I did however get to go to Bafic and Eva Cremar’s talk who both are very different creatives but equally as inspiring and interesting to listen to. Eva highlighted the importance of studio contact and doing something a little bit different in order to be noticed and taken on as an intern. This is something that I will take into my future development after graduation over summer, focusing my free time on finding ‘dream’ studios and thinking of the ways in which I can contact them in a slightly inventive way. Bafic is in the design industry in a disciplinary way that I do not relate to my practice, but by talking through the process of his music video creation this stuck in my mind and later inspired me in the Channel 0 ident project, encouraging me to think outside of the box and confidently film in a new way and most importantly stepping away from my laptop.

I have really struggled with my Instagram account and I think the sessions may have forced me to feel as though it needed to look a certain way in order to be successful, so I plan to develop this as my next step. As a designer I personally engage more with accounts that are a bit personal and include both design and real life, showing process and just generally being more relatable. I think this would be achievable by gradually transferring from my personal account to the design one but really thinking about the type of photos that I put on it. I might use this as a space to show m photography and personal inspirations I find when travelling etc. and let my website solely focus and represent my graphic design outcomes. This is something that I want to play around with a little more and plan out better as I begin to pursue a professional career.

Some of the day tasks I felt to be a little time consuming despite serving a purposeful message, but that was just personal to me as they often fell at a time where I was experiencing a few deadlines looming for example. I did however participate in the sessions and learnt some valuable skills from them that I will take into the future such as working quickly, really thinking what I am putting out there as a graphic designer and what I think is missing in the creative industry.

PPP has allowed the development of confidence to have myself as a designer with a visual style that I can present myself with to a professional standard. I now feel very confident with my cv, website and portfolio style so I plan to transfer this to my LinkedIn account and continue to network via this. Throughout the year I have had a lot of interaction on this social media account, more so than others which has motivated me to reach out to those that I am connected with in order to enter the industry with a bit more knowledge.

The design successfully shows a branding solution for personal representation within the graphic design industry of Hannah Rice. The use of Montserrat as a typeface ensures that the visual representation of the designer’s modern approach is accounted for and the bold use of colour palettes that the designer would predominantly use is represented by both the bold line and the vibrant orange.

My next steps as a designer are to concentrate on finding the studio that best suits me in London. I aim to do this by applying to as many different Junior Design roles over the next couple of months and attend events in the area to start to build on my contact sheet. Throughout this process I will be working on my Instagram so that I can start to have something that reflects me as a designer but also as a place to document the travels that I will be having over summer.

Overall, PPP has taught me how to take my design work and think about where it would sit in the real world. I have started to think about this as a way of enhancing my design process – thinking more about the variety of outcomes that I could produce and the ways in which the design can be spread on different medias. I have also learnt about the importance to develop a consistent visual identity in attempt to be recognised within the design industry.

Presentation

Duo Studio

Skills evaluation

As part of my creative development, I have used the time this year to become a part of projects that will stretch my creative capabilities past what they currently are, forcing me to learn new skills and software’s. The agreement to be the solo Graphic Designer for a full festival branding, visual identity and online presence was one of my biggest challenges this year as it is something that would have been much easier to complete as part of a team. Upon reflection, I was able to develop a number of skills as everything design related was coming only from me. The demand of the project required video outputs which I had some experience in but nowhere near enough to produce a professional outcome. To overcome this problem, I watched a very extensive list of YouTube videos on how to use Adobe Premiere Pro and then also utilise the ability to dynamic link Adobe After Effects files into the video. I will admit that I was unable to do everything I had envisioned, but as a whole I was happy with the outcome and will use the skills that I have developed in a number of future projects. 

To continue developing my skills with Adobe Premiere Pro in the collaborative project to create a TV ident for Channel O - run by Anyways studio I volunteered to edit together the two videos that were needed for the deliverables. This took a lot of patience and self-motivation to learn more and more about the software in order to produce the outcome that we were aiming for. The feedback from the final presentation confirmed that the outcomes were of a professional standard which really helped with my confidence to try and use these software’s for more of my projects.

Another skill that I have been actively developing over the year is the ability to think past the brief and think about the ways in which the design concept can be applied across a number of different medias and in different formats so that a much larger body of work is produced. This is something that would be expected from a design project when in industry, so the completion of briefs in Extended Practice has allowed for me to take my own control on the outcomes and ability to adapt the designs and push them further I have become more confident with taking a print campaign for example and then designing social media content, small animations and looking at the ways in which it would exist in the real world outside of the mandatory requirements of the brief.

Reflecting upon the past three years on this course I have realised that the biggest skill is that of self-motivation as a lot of the outcomes and progressions that I have produced have been self-taught. I have used the past three years to invest my time in learning the skills needed to produce work to a professional level and present in a way that would be expected when in industry. This has taken time and perseverance, watching many tutorials, learning from peers and just generally gaining confidence within the different Adobe software’s.