PPP: Evaluation

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

This year I have really developed a skill in organising and time managing my workload and social life. There has been a difference over the  years and with the hindsight each year this has improved more and more. I've created a better equilibrium between all aspects of my life. This has allowed me to book print slots in advance which I had built up my ability to work to self initiated deadlines. As well as managing my other module I have maintained a on going interest in my PPP which has benefited my FMP as its progressed myself personally and as a designer. I have developed a skill in recognising what design I like and dislike which last year I found hard to really pinpoint. This allowed me to effectively realise my ambitions as well as what kind of designer I am. This new skill I effectively applied to reanalysing my self branding by using the areas of design I want to go into as a basis of searching where I am aiming my branding at. I really concentrated on my personal taste drawing inspiration from things I collected and used the qualities I picked to display me as a person and designer in my branding demonstrating my creativity and friendliness as well as using a concept to show how I work and am idea driven. I feel the finished production and overall quality of my work is something that has gone really well developing me portfolio. I think this has come from realising the kind of design I am aiming to be producing in the future by using my research in PPP to discover where my ambitions lie. 


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

One strength I can identify in this module is discovering my confidence as a designer. This has been by researching and analysing what I like, what I do and where I want to be. These decisions have built up a picture of the direction I want to go in, in my career and in return has made me have confidence in myself. As I can understand myself I can present myself to others in an appropriate and honest way. I will capitalise on this in the future as my portfolio will be presented in an honest and relevant way displaying myself in a true representation. This will allow myself to attract and engage with the right studios and professionals meaning I will work within a place that fits my design aspirations. Another strength has been searching for studios for me and knowing what I do and don't like. I have researched lots of studios in several locations, learning to understand the kind of work i'm attracted to and the place I want to put myself. By searching so many I have been able to rule out a lot of places and also contact many. By contacting studios I have realised what works and doesn't work in terms of tone of voice and ways of contact. These has advanced my professionalism and skills in networking with others.

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

The main weakness in my work is pushing the application of the brand. I could of pushed the avenues a lot further to more creative ways rather than just general ones such as billboards or bus stops. I think this could of really advanced my projects making them so much stronger if i'd considered this whilst doing the briefs. When I realised it was at the end of the year and I didn't have time to do this before the submission. However I am going to address this for my portfolio by selecting briefs to push further and show interesting and exciting ideas of application through mock ups . Another weakness I think is communicating the idea quickly in a short few sentences. I sometimes am bad at cutting down the information and selecting what needs to be shown for it make sense. This is a skill I need to learn to improve on as its important to be selective and not show everything all at once in your portfolio. I will address this by creating limits and boundaries to work towards when presenting my work. By evaluating the brief before hand I can establish what needs to go in and in what order in order to make sense. I will then check this against others who haven't seen the project and see how they respond and understand it.

Identify 5 things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from these?

Plan Website
Develop my site and organise my briefs, limiting down a few to key aspects and create a narrative, this will make it clearer and more direct
Source of Contact
Try contacting people in alternative ways to just emails to make more of an impact and statement, this will make me stand out from the crowd and spark up more interest
Speak on LinkedIn
Gain contacts and make friends with industry people
Keep in contact
Maintain conversation in order to gain work 
Blog more
I want to blog more about the experiences that have made me think about design and ideas and have made me realise my ambitions

Attendance - 5
Punctuality - 5
Motivation - 4
Commitment - 4
Quantity or work produced - 4
Quality of work produced - 4
Contribution to the group - 5

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PPP: Website Link

www.cargocollective.com/imogenmary

PPP: Self Branding Boards

PPP: Presentation Prep

The final ppp presentation was really important to me so I really wanted to come up with a concept that showed me as a designer and a person as well as represent the last three years.

I started off by writing out a few things that I wanted to include in the powerpoint.

I decided that this whole experience has taught me so many different things that aren't only design related and that i've really grown as a person. This led me to the idea of using photos of when I was younger and growing up into an adult as a basis to demonstrate the different things i'd learnt.

Therefore I went through 100's of old photographs whilst at home picking out key ones which had narratives I felt I could link to the things I wanted to present.

I then wrote out an extensive list of each photograph and a brief note of what it represented.

From this I then lay out all the images in powerpoint and wrote notes using this extensive list. I then systematically went through rearranging the images to create a flow from one point to the next so it made a narrative of my experience. I did several practices to see how the flow worked and rearranged as I trailed it to get a better order.

Competition: D&AD New Blood

I was very pleased to of won a merit for the New Blood Awards with Seb for our entry to the British Council brief. We have been invited to a portfolio clinic on the 1st of July with leading industry figures to go through our portfolio. This is an amazing opportunity and hopefully i'll get some really good feedback on my portfolio.

Portfolio Meeting: PearlFisher

After not being able to attend my Pearlfisher portfolio meeting last time I was in London I regained contact with them again. I was pleased to see that she was still interested in getting me in to meet a creative director. I hope to arrange one for after submission with a printed portfolio.

PPP: Final Presentation

Final Presentation

Notes

Placement: Forms

Self Promotion: Linked In Update

I updated my linked in profile with my most recent placements and awards. I noticed that people I was emailing back and forth looked at my linked in profile so it was important to keep it up to date with the latest information on my experience.

Self-Branding: New Prints

These are some images of my new revised self branding. I maintain the colour palette that I selected at the beginning of the year as I still felt that this was most appropriate to me. However I did use more of the palette that I had done initially, bringing in the duck egg blue strip across the printed material. I also kept with the pulp card for my stock as again I felt that this was a true representation of myself. I also think it's a bit different to standard white card or textured stock making mine stand out more.

Self-Branding: Website

Over the year I have developed and worked on my website. Initially I had the background the creamy colour of my branding palette and I had made my images jpegs with this as the background so it blended. However this did cause problems on my site and also I ran out of space for images quickly. 

When in London with Alphabetica I went through my online porfolio eg. my website. The colours on the screen were completely different to the original images, they were also neon and weren't a true representation of my work.

When working on my placement I spoke to the web team and one guy in particular called Chris. I showed him my site and asked for some advice. He went through with me the best ways to save images for web and how to reduce the file size. He suggested saving them as pngs instead of jpegs so that they had transparency and then when I decided to alter the colour scheme I wouldn't have to reedit all my images. I also saved them as pngs and for web which drastically cut down the file size freeing more space for images.

I decided to get rid of the background cream in the end and go for pure white as I felt that this worked better as a background for work.

As I have gone on through the year I have altered, added and took briefs off. After going through my portfolio with someone I also noticed things that were missing which I wanted to talk through such as a logo at full scale. Things like this I added in along the way, improving the overall story of the brief.

I also added in projects that are quite different to my standard commercial briefs so that I have some that show my craft and experimental side. This I hope shows professionals that I can work with alternative methods to come up with something that stands out.


www.cargocollective.com/imogenmary

Self-Branding: Cont.

I applied some placeholder copy to my letterhead so I could see how the design would work in context. I'm pleased with the layout and feel it looks professional and considered.

After looking back at my CV I changed the pt size to slightly bigger as it was quite small initially. I'm going to test print it to check it is readable.

 I also tried left aligned and justified as two different versions to see which one worked best. I think i'll also test print these to and get some feedback from my peers on which works best.

Self Branding: ReWork

I decided to alter my business cards as I felt the original flip layout of the details was confusing and it didn't make the branding clear. I wanted to keep to the original colour scheme and stock but just alter the design and layout.

After a few trails I chose a different typeface and separated my details with them all facing one direction. I also looked back at my original rework from the beginning of the year. I wanted to include more the colour scheme I had chosen and in particular this duck egg blue colour. This led me to create a strip across the bottom. This added a bit more decoration without over compensating and making the branding look busy.

The card alone. I'll have to  see how this additional colour prints on the pulp stock I have. I may have to  add it in an alternative way.

I then applied this new atheistic and layout style to a letterhead creating a unity between the different pieces through the strip.

I took some information from my CV from last year and altered it so it was more appropriate to my practice now. I also added extras from the detail from my website making it more personal. I wanted to keep the layout simple and structured. The last one was to busy and bright and this new branding style was the opposite of that and a lot calmer. I wanted to reflect this in the CV and use less visuals but appear more professional.

Portfolio: Reshoot

Snap was a brief from second year that I felt was conceptually strong and one which the concept was applied to all aspects such as format, scale and design. However the photographs I took of the project last year weren't very good quality. Therefore I decided to retake the photographs to show the elements of the pieces I had made for it. I want to apply these new images to my website portfolio and I may consider it as part of my printed portfolio also.

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