28/11/13

Tutorial

Had a tutorial with lance this morning, there was a lot I wanted to talk about and I had a lot on my mind to get out because I was starting to get bogged down with it all. We started off talking about my 3rd year options, I said how De Montfort and Nottingham Trent may not accept me at 3rd year and I didn't really want to go Derby so I didn't know what to do. Lance said how different uni's are different and have different intake procedures. As we went further into the conversation it dawned on me that maybe Derby is the option, its on more year then i'll have a degree which will be more valuable to me in the future when it comes to job hunting. However he did tell me that the 3rd year may go ahead at Burton so if that's the case i'll have until March to apply so I will have to see what happens.

Next I wanted to talk about absences, lately I'd had a few afternoons/mornings/days off due to family commitments and I need more time off next week so I was concerned about having time off and wanted to see if Lance was concerned about it. We spoke about the reasons behind it and the circumstances and he reassured me that it was ok as he knows that I will produce the work and he just wanted to make sure I was coping ok with everything and not getting behind.

There were a few small things we talked about such as I told him that marketing still haven't contacted me and he said as far as he's concerned I've done my part so I just need to keep pestering them to get in touch. We also briefly touched on the design duel, new blood pitch and grades and a few other pieces of work.

YCN

I decided to start and look at competition briefs today, I found one I really liked the look of on the YCN student awards. It was a brief for a company/brand called bear. I downloaded the full brief and pack with all of the relevant information. There were some past examples of the sort of work they were looking for. Straight away I was flooded with ideas and got them straight onto paper and told Lance about my ideas, he said that I had good concept and then I started to go through making some lettering for my designs, I made my own alphabet out of the product which was lettered cereal.

I am very pleased with the way the alphabet turned out, i'm looking forward to developing my idea further, however I have until March for this so it might take a back burner until my other work has been handed in.

Overall today I have been very productive, at the start of the day I was not feeling the best but I felt reassured after my tutorial and I know what I need to do and what needs completing etc. I have sent off my Norwich film festival posters as the deadline was Sunday so I look forward to hearing from that if I get selected. I have also tried to chase up marketing about the Cinderella poster by emailing Jade. I made adaptions to the arts market poster and flyer and I have acquired details of the course leader at Derby uni for Graphic Design so overall it has been a productive day and I'm pleased with my progress at this stage.

Rebranding

To start off the re branding process I have created a selection of new logos. I tried different fonts, shapes, colors and composition. I have selected my final 3 designs, I will then narrow these down and chose my favorite then make a start on promotion material such as business cards, letterhead and compliment slips.

I have now chosen my final logo and developed it. I have created business cards and a letterhead also.

I am pleased with the way my new branding has turned out. It was a quick process but this was a good thing as spending too much time on this would take away time from other projects I have going on which have more priority. But rebranding myself freshens up and updates my portfolio which will be good when I start to showcase my portfolio soon for interviews and jobs.

Paperplane Creative

I have found a design agency in Derby called Paperplane Creative, there is a section where you can upload your portfolio to them so that they can review your work which may lead to employment. This would be great so my task for today is going to be to put together a portfolio and possible rebrand myself as I have gone off my previous branding.



Action Points:
Rebranding
Put together portfolio
Send portfolio to Paperplane Creative

3rd Year University Choices

Getting really wound up about starting my UCAS application for 3rd year choices. I am unsure about where to go now as most of what I hear about Derby isn't great - Derby was my first option but now its becoming a no go however they seem to be the only uni out of my options that will take me at 3rd year. Went to De Montfort open day and they basically said I'll have to apply for first year then in interview state I want to go in at 2nd or 3rd year but they cannot guarantee, it will go on interview and portfolio so I could end up having to do all 3 years! I am not paying for 3 more years when i've done most of the content in my 2 years of this foundation degree. Nottingham Trent was not one of my options but I decided I needed to have a look as De Montfort and Derby were going out of the window, I actually got the chance to talk to someone who is studying graphic design at Notts Trent in her first year - the prospects sounded good and good employment rates by the end of the course - she also showed me a few pieces of her work, she really recommended the course. So I decided to look if they have an open day up and coming which they do, its the 4th December which is next week but it will mean that I will miss another day of uni, I don't want to keep having all this time off so I might not go. I contacted the course administrator saying I may not be able to make the open day so could I have some more info or go in on another day but I cannot go another day and they said I can only apply at 2nd year so I think I may have to go to the open day so I can actually speak to the tutors of the course and see what they say about entry level.

Its starting to concern me that as I want to stay local my only option might be Derby for 3rd year - I don't know what to do! I don't think college are going to set up doing 3rd year on time for the UCAS deadline which is a shame as it would have been so ideal for me to do it at college and it was ideal for may others too so i'm a little disappointed that we have been told it may happen but then nothing has actually happened. Looks like i'm stuffed, i'm in a right pickle.

Do I take a year out and get a job or 3rd year? 3rd year is so valuable but seems closer to home isnt going to work for me. I may have to seek further afield to do my final year.

25/11/13 International Women's Day Work Ideas

After last weeks meeting regarding international womens day I have started to think about some of the shocking statistics that Vanessa told us, I noted most of them down and I was reading through them and I decided I would like to form some sort of infographic out of them. I looked at a few examples of infographics for inspiration:

After researching I started to put together some of my own ideas. i thought about what sorts of things IWD wanted to include for the event, they wanted a magazine so I thought I could create infographics to include within the magazine, as I was working I decided to scrap the whole infographic idea and create  individual posters/pages for each statistic/fact which can feature throughout the magazine between articles etc. I may return to the idea of creating infographics at a later date for the event.

Here are my first few poster designs:

These are my designs so far, I hope to create some more using some more of the statistics. I hope to get fully involved with the event helping with the advertising aspects and possibly volunteering on the day.

20/11/13 Briefing with Vanessa - Chair for International Womens Day Derby

Half way through our Design Duel meeting we had to stop for a briefing for some projects related to the International Women's Day Derby. She told us how the brief is open to all disciplines and she is open to everyone's ideas which is great to get everyone involved.

Some things they require are:
Social media advertising
Posters
Magazine (including timetable, lasting product of the event)
Voulenteers for the day and events leading up to it

Vanessa gave us some very shocking statistics about female related issues such as rape, children  worrying about weight and also ratios of men to women in certain job roles. These could then be used in infographics or within the magazine. The theme for this year is "Generations" - all about bringing all different age groups together. And the keywords they wanted us to include are, festival, community, inspiring, celebration, campaigns and activism. The color scheme will be: Purple, Green, White.

This will be a great opportunity and I hope to get involved within the event itself volunteering and also producing some marketing material.

20/11/13 Design Duel Meeting 2

Today we met up with the photography students again regarding the "Design Duel", as of yet we haven't got an official name for it so we are sticking with that for now. After making a plan and timetable for everyone yesterday I was very optimistic and looking forward to the meeting as everyone would be able to have a copy of this and we would all then have the same information written down. The meeting didn't go to plan from the start, many people didn't turn up and then we go told that the proposed date we had chosen wouldn't be ok with some of the group due to work commitments etc, this was disappointing as we didn't want to change the date but then if we did it on the date we chose not everyone would be able to attend - it was a bit of a dilemma but we have decided to stick with December 12th.

We started to try and come up with a timetable for the day, deciding what events will happen when, when breaks will occur etc. The break in the middle was a bit of a pain as it interfered with timings for events. Me and Becky predominantly led the meeting with input from other group members from time to time. The timetable was rejigged many times throughout the meeting - I was getting a little stressed out as I thought having a sheet we could all work from would help but to me it didn't go as I had planned. It was difficult as not everyone was there so we couldn't allocate jobs and also different people kept popping in and out so we had to reexplain many things so everyone was up to speed with things. To me the meeting was not a success but at least me made a little bit of headway and arranged the events - Becky said she will try and organize the rest of the timetable later on so that will be a help if she can have that for the next meeting. As we also had a few prices for costings we went through this, we went through the prices and added them up to get a total cost then split this between the group which equated to roughly £1.50 each so costing shouldn't be an issue.

I think the next meeting I will step back a little and let someone else lead it, it will give everyone a chance to get involved as it is a group task and at the moment it is clear who are leading it and who is stepping back.

Action Points
For the next meeting:
Have some ideas for advertising the event
Will the event have a different name?
Have a rough or finalised timetable

19/11/13 Design Duel Planner

After last weeks design duel meeting I set it upon myself to create a plan/worksheet that everyone could have a copy of so that everyone could note things down and it would be the same. It was only a simple layout but I figured this way everyone will have a copy and note of what we discussed within the meeting. We've got a meeting tomorrow so looking forward to seeing if this plan is a success.

Design Duel 12^th December 2013

Discipline team leaders:

Graphic Design: Jasmine
Fine Art: Dan
Photography:
Fashion/Textiles: Lauren

Who Is Doing What Tasks:

Task	Name
Main Intro
Host/s
Music
Photography & Video
Powerpoint
Advertising

Events:

	Name of event
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th

Supplies and Costing:

	Cost

TIMETABLE
Time	Time Allocated	Event	Jobs and Whos Doing Them

13/11/13 Design Duel Briefing

Today as a large group (all 2nd year degree students) we had a briefing with Lance about an event called the "Design Duel/Face Off" this is an event for level 3 art and design students, and we will host and plan it to present in December. I was already aware of last years event as this was solely put on by last years 2nd year graphics group. After the briefing we a meeting to discuss the planning of the event. We started off by working out when we was going to host the event and after much deliberation we decided upon the 12th December, we then talked through what events we could hold, was we going to make new ones or keep some existing from previous years.

This project requires us to work as a team and each person should have a specific job to do whether it be hosting the event, operating the music, powerpoint, videoing or photographing the event. It gives us all the chance to work on our presentation skills and team building skills.

We decided that we should have a team leader from each discipline, me for graphics, Lauren for fashion/textiles, Dan for fine art and photography couldn't decide for theirs.

Action Points

Look into prices for prizes and things needed for the events

Find out if we have a budget

This afternoon I have carried on working on my controversial ads. I have now completed them and I am happy with the outcomes. Lance told me about a website called "Graphic River" on there there's loads of templates and mock-ups to purchase, I purchased a few for presenting my adverts.

07/11/13 Cinderella Poster

After much debate about how to design the Cinderella poster for the performing arts show. I came up with an idea which was actually quite quick to produce. It has all of the key information on it however marketing still haven't got in contact with me since my meeting so I am waiting on that then I can finalize the design. Overall I'm really impressed with how its turned out and I have received some great feedback from tutors and peers.

06/11/13 Meeting With Jade Wilcock (Deputy Head of Department for Hair, Beauty and Performing Arts)

Attended a meeting with Jade Wilcock today to discuss working alongside the dance/performing arts department to create some marketing material for their productions. When I got to the meeting Jade simply asked me what I was looking for in terms of what work I was looking to do. I told her how I want to be able to create something and see the finished outcome such as posters and see the finished thing up and around advertising an event. She said that they have an up and coming production of Cinderella that needs marketing so I am required to create a poster and flyer for this event - I am excited to have the opportunity to do this and link with other areas of the college. Jade showed me some past examples of posters for their productions to give me and idea of what sorts of things have been done before etc and then she gave me all of the important information about the event, time, location, prices and dates along with a brief description of the story - it isn't a fairy tale classic Cinderella it is a Victorian version. So this will impact on the design and theme of the poster and flyer.

She then rang marketing to clear with them that it was ok for me to do this as they are usually responsible for the marketing and advertising of productions. They were happy for me to go ahead but want to have a meeting with me so that I know the restrictions and protocol when designing the poster, what size font, logo etc. I am looking forward to this as it will give me an insight into working with marketing and also help me when it comes to dealing with clients as this is one of my weak points. So hopefully over the next few weeks I can gather some ideas and work with marketing on this also.

After the meeting I set straight into research looking into classic Cinderella posters and vintage posters also. I came across many fairytale/Disney style Cinderella posters which was a theme I was told to avoid so it was hard to find something un-fairytale. Told Lance I was struggling to find something so he suggested look for the book version of the story to look at the cover for inspiration - I did so and this did not help as the cover was blank. So was back to square one - I just kept researching Victorian Cinderella, masquerade Cinderella and things like that.

These are a few images I came across:

24/10/13 Dance Quotes Project

Today I started on the first few designs for the dance quotes project. I have been searching for alphabet vectors and I found a really good one which looks similar to ribbons so I then set about individually coloring in the letters to look similar to rope. It was going to be a great end result but it was so repetitive and time consuming. I used the fill tool, smudge and blur tools also. I used 2 different shades of pink and blended them to look like light and dark shadows on the ribbons.

Lance suggested I drew a ballet shoe and added it to the text as if it was hanging off one of the letters so I drew it then scanned it into the computer. I was very pleased with the end result and cant wait to see it if it is chosen to go on the walls it would look amazing large scale!

23/10/13 Controversial Advertising

We have been working on our controversial ads today. A few of the group were unsure about using Photoshop to cut out and image and place in into another. I already knew how to do this but I struggle to get a clear edge on what I have cut out so Lance decided to do a tutorial for the group on how to cutting one image out and superimposing it onto another image.  He showed us the different tools we could use - the magic wand tool and the quick selection tool. he then showed us how to refine the edges to smooth them out so they didn't look grainy or pixelated. This was extremely useful as I was going to be selecting specific areas to remove from images for my ads.

I have one subject idea for my ads and I do have another subject to focus on but I don't have any ideas for this as of yet. I have done lots of research but I still cannot think of an idea what will be controversial enough so I hope to sit down with Lance tomorrow and go thorough my ideas and think about ideas for my controversial ad.

23/10/13 Hand In

Today was hand in day for 2 of my written assignments. The first was an essay which was based on an artist or movement that has had a significant impact on my area of specialism of Graphic Design. At first I was going to write about a specific movement associated with Graphic Design but as I did my research and spoke to others I realized that for me it was easier to write about a designer rather than a movement. I looked at many influential designers such as Stephan Sagmeister, Jessica Walsh and Saul Bass. I chose to write about Saul Bass as the more I researched him I noticed he had a huge impact on Graphic Design and there was lots of content I could write about.

I also had to hand in my project proposal that I have been writing, I only had to hand in the written proposal, the practical part for this assignment will be completed after half term and handed on before breaking up for Christmas. For the proposal I researched an identified progression routes including universities, jobs and top up years, from this i could identify my strengths, weaknesses and work out what skills I will need to progress along my chosen route. From this I was required to create a project proposal for a project which will help me gain, improve these skills for my chosen progression route whether it be a job or final year at university.

17/10/13 Arts Market Research

I have done some research for the arts market postcards I wish to create. I looked at quotes that relate to the home, family and friends. I also looked at composition - this will be important to consider when printing onto cards.

17/10/13 Arts Market Meeting 1

There is a live project coming up which is the annual Burton arts market which will take place late November.Rather than do lots of things individually we have come together as a group and decided to yes do things individually but also as a team in terms of organizing it and helping on another with ideas and running the stall. Becky decided to call a meeting so we could all come together and discuss our initial ideas, we wasn't sure whether to make it predominantly Christmas gifts or just gifts in general. In the end we decided to do a Christmas theme but not too strong with the theme. So gifts that people would buy as presents perhaps considering it is almost Christmas time.

We went round the group and all put down our ideas discussing them together, would they work, would they sell etc.The meeting was a success because it got us all thinking about the event and we was able to give each other help and feedback with ideas. We have arranged to meet again next week to discuss the developments in our ideas and see if we can find out anything else about who else will be on the stall and how big is the stall etc.

I hope to do the advertising for this event along with the help of Lauren. The group suggested we create flyers, posters and banners to draw the attention to the stall. I also would like to create a series of prints on postcards for the home, not with a Christmas theme but with quotes on about family and friends.

Action Points
Come up with ideas for advertising
Research quotes linking to family/friends/love etc
Think about amount of product I will/can produce in the time

16/10/13 David Higgins 'Stick Man' visiting lecturer

This afternoon we had a very interesting and engaging guest lecture from David Stickman Higgins. David is a world class, multi-disciplined, drummer and percussionist, also a poet, actor, educator, conceptual artist and father. An avid researcher and collector of "The hidden-in-between language of African-Caribbean culture, roots, belonging and heritage." Finding out about ancestors by exploring blood-lineage. Examining the evidence. Unearthing the real history.

David is involved in creating and delivering a wide range of innovative arts projects since the mid 1980's. His Projects comprise connecting cultures and communities across generations, ages and abilities, in schools, colleges, museums, galleries, country houses and prisons. A good example has been his Passport Project.

During the talk David performed some of his poetry which at first I didn't understand, he was so energetic and lively bounding about across the room. As he went on I started to understand the meaning behind what he was saying and it was actually more interesting than I had first thought.

10/10/13 Gathering brief for project proposal

Today I went along to Fleet Street building to go and find someone to talk to about my project proposal. I went to go and find a dance tutor to talk to them about creating murals of quotes for dance and performing art studio walls. I couldn't find anyone so I went up to ask Mark who headed me in the right direction. I went into the staff room and bumped into Thomas Berriman who I wasn't actually looking for but glad I bumped into him as it was him who originally asked Lance about this quotes project so I sat down with him and had a quick chat about it - he then forwarded the quotes to lance ready for me to get started. We then went to go and see Jade Wilcock to see if she had any work that I could do for the drama department - she took me details so hopefully in a few weeks she will contact me regarding some work.

I went back to Lance and told him what I had found out and that I was ok to go ahead with the quotes project for Thomas. So I got hold of the quotes and started to research typographic wall installations.









Action Points
Gather initial ideas
Find out if there is a budget
Arrange another meeting with Thomas once I've got some designs together

09/10/13 Completing Project Proposal

Spent this morning finalizing my project proposal. I have managed to complete a timetable which is easy to follow and I have managed to keep some contingency time for the end in-case anything goes wrong and I need spare time. My project proposal will help me to structure my project and also help me gain the skills I need for my chosen progression route.

Project Proposal

I have thoroughly looked into a range of progression roots including 3^rd years at university and looking into different job roles that I could go into after my foundation degree. I looked into what sort of skills I will need for each and what things that would be expected of me. From this I identified weaknesses and gaps within my skill set that I can work on and improve which will then help me as I progress on to further study or straight into work. From this I have come up with a project proposal that will fit in all of the areas I need to improve upon such as communication with clients, creating a variety of small and large projects that I can then use to bulk up my portfolio and also help me gain skills using new software and researching more thoroughly.

For this project I am going to do one large project and also a range of mini projects. For the larger project I intend to approach the dance department of the college and produce some advertising material for them such as dance show posters, general advertisement for the department and also I hope to create a range of designs for white wall space within the department. These are big white wall space which I can create designs for which will brighten it up and make it look more appealing than just blank space. I hope to take the project as far as possible, working closely with the dance department so that I can work with them on any future projects that they may have lined up. I intend to work closely with the department and also use other departments within the college such as photography, I will approach photography students as I will need photographs of dancers for my project – this will fulfil the criteria of working closely with others and clients, essentially helping me improve my communication skills. These skills will then be valuable for both a 3^rd year top up course and also in industry working within a studio. Because the project is solely done by myself it is up to me to present ideas to clients and speak by myself, there is not other peers or group members to take lead – I am not confident giving and presenting ideas so by having to do this it will help me improve and build upon my confidence. By doing mini projects also I can work on my time management skills – smaller projects with have a much tighter deadline than a larger project, for example I could just do a small project that would need an outcome by the end of the day or there could be another that would have a weekly deadline. So by having tight deadlines to comply to it will help me manage time better – in a job deadlines will be key therefore I will need to keep on top of what projects need to be completed when. I could create a timetable to help me keep track visually of what needs to be completed when.

                There will be a lot of research involved within the project. A requirement of my progression was that I need to develop my research skills – I am not thorough with my analysis and research so doing a lot of research will help me develop this skill. For the dance department advertising project I am going to research other dance studios and companies and look at the way they advertise and look at the way they use colour, composition and shape. In particular I will look at Melbourne Dance Company and their advertisements – they in particular have significant and distinguished adverts for their dance studio that will be an influence to me when making my own designs. I will research shape within dance, the shapes they make for dance moves etc, I will then try and incorporate these shapes into my designs. Another influence will be Jessica Walsh, from a recent project I did which was based on Jessica Walsh I remember one of her projects which I will look to for influence for my project – it is her Aizone project where she used items such as ribbons, hair and paint to make lettering and words, I want to do something similar within my project. I will not only research things relating to the project but I will also research tutorials and how to use software, this will fulfil a requirement that I need to improve for my progression. I want to learn more about using different software as I need to be more competent using different software such as illustrator because I am not that good using this software as of yet.

                Throughout the project I will come across successes and failures within the design process and also within the way I work and learn. I have already identified weaknesses within my skill set which I will develop throughout this project and expand on which will help me along my progression whether it be into a 3^rd year top up course or into a design studio job. A good way to assess successes and failures is tutorials with my tutor, this will enable me to showcase my work which I have already produced and also hand in written assignments for initial marking so that I can have feedback and my tutor can make notes on what I can change etc for written pieces of work whilst also telling me what they like, don’t like and make suggestions on practical design work. Feedback is a good way for me to track progress – I can see what projects are going well and what isn’t going so well.

Contacts

Contact Name	Email Address
Thomas Berriman (Burton College Performing Arts Teaching And Learning Technician)	Thomas.Berriman@bsdc.ac.uk
Jane (Burton College Deputy Head Of Performing Arts)	(To be confirmed)
Hardy Signs, Burton	sales@hardysigns.co.uk

Costing and funding

Funding for:	Total Cost:
Adobe Creative Cloud Software (Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop etc.)	£15 per month
Printing costs for final outcomes	Dependant on size of print
Vinyl printing (hardy signs)	£25 per sq metre
*ADDITIONAL COSTINGS NEEDED THROUGHOUT PROJECT*

Timescales and deadlines

Week Beginning	Task	What do I need to do?	Resources Needed
04/11/2013	Meet client(s) to discuss project	Arrange a meeting with the client(s) to discuss the project – gather information about what they require, what sorts of things they would like to see.	Notepad to note down requirements etc.
	Start to generate initial ideas	Start and draw up some ideas, make list of what things I need to include within my designs.	Drawing and Sketching Materials
	*TUTORIAL WITH TUTOR TO DISCUSS PROGRESS*
11/11/2013	Continue generating ideas	Draw up some more ideas, think about colours, shape, layout etc.	Drawing and Sketching Materials
	Meet with dance and photography students gather photographs produced	Meet with both dance and photography students to brief them on what sort of photographs I want and then gather final photographs.	Photography
	Mock up some digital designs of initial ideas	Using software such as Illustrator and Photoshop start and create some digital designs of my initial ideas.	Design Software: Photoshop, Illustrator
	Arrange meeting with client(s) to discuss initial ideas and showcase work.	Meet with the client(s) to show them my initial ideas. Gather feedback and take away any more info on requirements for the brief.	Notepad to note down feedback etc.
	Look back on feedback and think about idea development	Look over the feedback received from the client(s) What did the like? What did the not like? What so I need to change/develop? Start to think about idea developments.
	*TUTORIAL WITH TUTOR TO DISCUSS PROGRESS*
18/11/2013	Start idea development	Start to develop the best initial ideas, first on paper then in a computer program such as Illustrator and Photoshop.	Design Software: Photoshop, Illustrator
25/11/2013	Arrange a further meeting with the client(s) to show them idea developments	Meet with client(s) to show them developments made. See which idea they want to carry forward to be the final designs. Gather feedback.	Notepad to note down feedback etc.
02/12/2012	Work on idea developments to produce a final design	Work on information gathered from client; use this to draw up final design.	Drawing and Sketching Materials
	Work on final idea	Now that I have a drawn up final idea, start to develop and create the final product in the design software.	Drawing and Sketching Materials
	*TUTORIAL WITH TUTOR TO DISCUSS PROGRESS*
09/12/2013	Make final amendments of final design, ensure fulfils all criteria set by client(s)	Make any final changes to final design before client meeting. Make sure it fulfils all requirements set by the client(s) in previous meetings.	Drawing and Sketching Materials
	Arrange final meeting with client(s) to show them the final outcome	Final meet with the client to show them the final outcomes of their brief. This will be their last change to inform me of any small changes that need to be made before submission and printing of the final product.	Notepad to note down final feedback on designs, any final changes
	Contingency Time	Ensure majority of project is finished by this date to allow extra time in case anything else needs changing at last minute – I will have time allowed for this before deadline.
16/12/2013	Contingency Time	Make sure project finished before this date – allow this week as extra time in case anything went wrong along the process in past weeks.
*DEADLINE 18TH DECEMBER 2013*