Personal Branding// Presentation Boards// Cover Sheet

Self Evaluation Publication// OUGD603 Self Evaluation

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

To identify all the skills I have learnt this year will be difficult as there have indeed been many. I must begin with the skill that has taken most of the year to master and a skill that is a life saver in the life of graphic design and in life in general. That skill is time management. Through first year and second year we had to be in everyday, because of this my time management wasn’t of my own doing, I had to be in college so I would be in and from there I would work. 

In third year we had the freedom to do as we pleased, the demand to be in wasn’t there so naturally the course became very relaxed. It was no entirely up to us to get the ball rolling and for me, this task was very difficult. As the year went on and we approached the Christmas hand in, I found myself becoming stressed for the first time that year. This I needed, I found that I was working twice as much and I was in college regally.

It was this Christmas hand in that put me into gear, my daily routine became normal, like it was in the past and I found my work load increasing, increasing in a good way. I was meeting my own deadlines and I felt my confidence growing. Printing down with James was a huge issue last year. I never booked slots in advance so I never had slots, and in a result I had to wait around for drop in all the time which was a waste of time a highly uncomfortable. In terms of how well I have applied my time management, I feel once you have learnt how to mange your time by yourself, you become a more organised and professional individual that longs to succeed.

The next lesson that springs to mind is checking everything before it goes to print. When it came to sending my Amsterdam Zines to print, I forgot to check probably the most important thing, the resolution of the images. I sent off the zine with all the photos at a low resolution. The error almost cost me £100, which goes to show its good this happened this year and not when I was working for somebody. Its mistakes like this that you’ll never ever forget.

Aside from the last two points brought up I must say that all the other skills come in to the adobe suite and using it so much. Fellow students around the studio are always so happy to help if you need it. The skills I have learnt this year have really taught me a hell of a lot which will be very useful in the years to come as a graphic designer. Time Management is a skill only you yourself can learn from determination to get things done, when you have this determination you will find your daily routine fall comfortably into place.

What approaches to methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

Considering that we had to go out on our own and find briefs to complete throughout the year my method was at first inexperienced and at the end of the day wasn’t working too well. I always said that I am not the one to come up with briefs on my own, so I decided that I needed to come up with a new idea.

A friend of mine suggested that I contact studios to look for briefs, which was a very good idea. I emailed around and most studios didn’t have anything. Then, Innocent drinks got back to me. Claire is the senior designer at Innocent and she said I should have a go at designing some back of backs for their juice cartoons. This filled me with joy and excitement. This would be the first brief I would do for someone. 

In terms of other briefs I had to find, I went about looking on websites. I did find some I was interested in on YCN and D&AD, YCN I didn’t follow through but Luke and I did WPP for D&AD. Again, the task was to find 10 briefs to come back to college with, out of those 10 briefs I found I only did 2 of them. This shows that throughout the year was when I found my briefs. I liked how studios came in to introduce briefs to us. 

My design development process has been the same since I started the course and I think is pretty standard in that it is everybody design development process. I begin by reading the brief and writing down ideas that come to my head, of course it is always a good idea to get what is in your head into paper. From there I look for inspiration, whether that be looking on the web or seeking it from elsewhere. 

I don’t always use design sheets, I find I sometimes get an idea and get straight to the computer to play around. I always blog my process and I consider this to be part of my design process. I think this is a real important process and you get to follow the whole brief. It’s often a pleasure to look back at the work I have done through the brief, I like to look at previous designs to see if they might inspire the latest design. It’s an odd process but It seems to work for me. 

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

I have to say I’m happy with the work I’ve produced this year. My main weakness that has been with me for as long as I can remember is spelling and punctuation. This really brings down the quality of my work sometimes and despite looking very closely at my work, I always seem to miss the errors. I seem to go to print and look for the mistakes, seeing that there aren’t any, I proceed and print my work. Once it’s printed is somehow when the spelling mistakes turn up.

It doesn’t just effect my design work. It also effects my blog massively. This is such a shame as I spend a lot of time trying to perfect my blog and there are mistakes everywhere. In terms of this self evaluation I am trying my hardest to spot them out. I don’t know to well what I can do to address this problem in the future. Probably the best idea would be to get people to check over my work and see if they can find any spelling mistakes. In the studio this is always impossible. 

I said earlier that my fellow peers on the course are always happy to help when it comes to a problem with design, but when it comes to spelling it’s a different story, looking for spelling mistakes is quite a long process and also takes a lot of concentration. Considering this is the last year of my time as a student I guess I’ll have to figure something out when it comes  to printing in the real world of design. I am aware that this is some ones job in the world of editorial design so that in some ways is a relief. 

Another weakness that I can identify is the lack of design sheets I have. It does worry me that I don’t have many but at the same time I haven’t felt the need to do them and they haven’t always helped me. 

Finally, my primary research this year has been next to none existent. Firstly, when it comes to looking for inspiration in design, I honestly see no need in buying a book when there are tonnes of examples of design on the internet. In terms of surveys I could have constructed I never had the need to produce one. 

Looking back at my weaknesses in second year it’s such a joy to see it was time management. Time management is probably the best skill I have learned this year, it’s times like this you really realise how much you have learned.

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

The main strength I can locate in my work is my attention to detail. Since first year I have treated the blog as the heart of the course. The main thing that must have absolutely everything about everything on it. In terms of improving this It hard to say as I won’t have a blog that I religiously turn to everyday. I can however say that I will continue to keep my attention to detail the same. Making sure that everything is legible and easy to understand. 

I feel the above is the biggest strength and without falling too much into what I said in my skills I must say my time management. My time management has been the most important part of this year and what has made me into the designer I am today. I has been so important in my work, from creating it to blogging about it.

Time management is always something that anyone can improve on and the only way you can improve on this is by making sure you stick to your work schedule. If you make your you stick to this to are guaranteed to become better and better.

I feel that I have covered everything within these four questions and they do fall in hand in hand. These three years have been such a thrill. They have been extremely difficult but that was the only way any of us were going to learn. The long hours the course gives us is something that every university course should have. 

To become a Professional in any given filed requires daily practise. It was so fantastic to have a course that offers this to you. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at LCA and it is a real shame that my time has come to an end. I can only give all my thanks to my tutors that have spent a great deal of time making the course what it is today. All I can do is put all I have learnt here and apply it to the real world.

Out of FIVE

Attendance :            4

Punctuality :             4

Motivation :             4

Commitment :          4

Quality of Work Produced :             4

Quantity of Work Produced :           3 

Contribution to the Group :             5

Personal Branding// Business Cards & Progression

Process

Final Photos

I am extremely pleases with the outcome of my business cards I just wish there could be more of them. Triplexing is a technique I found out about earlier in the year. I wanted to use it to make my business cards. This is done by layering 3 pieces of card on top of each other to create this sandwich of paper. The overall outcome is very striking. 

I simply used the printer in the studio to make the back of the card and then with my stamp, stamped the front. The front was done after the cards where cut out. When it came to sticking the card together. I was told to use a gluestick, this seemed a bit risky but I trusted to advice and moved forward. I left the 3 pieces of card to dry under a large piece of wood over the weekend. This really did the job and the paper was glued perfectly together.

Cutting was the next job and despite not knowing what to expect found this an easy process in which I experienced no mistakes. This did take a while but once it was done I was very pleased. I do however find the corners quite sticky from the glue but I'm hoping this will go away after time. 

Stamping was next and this went very well. I love how grainy and smudgy the effect is. It really feels hand made and indicates more that I am a graphic designer that works in design for print. The final photos were easy enough in there was a space for me to use. I decided to make them black and white as the the only colour is the wood on the stamp and that's no exactly very important. 

Personal Branding// Website Progression

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After I bought my domain name 'simonisles.co.uk' I left it at that for a while. It was after I made my Amsterdam zines that it hit me I had used that website in the zine, meaning when people went to look at my website after looking at the zine they would be met by a page informing them that it didn't exist. So, naturally I began thinking about the next step.

A close friend of mine came to my aid and helped me set up a page that would not only active my domain name but also inform the viewer that my website is under construction, which it is. Underneath this information they would then find my email address if they wish to contact me and also my tumblr.

The next step is to await news from my brothers friend who is to code the website. I also have big ideas for my first page which I wish to mock up soon.

Studios// Online Portfolio Sent to Filthy Media

When in Brighton I managed to get in a conversation with one of the team from Filthy Media, this company being one I have admired for quite some time. Andy, suggested I send them my work in an attempt to get an internship. 

Email.

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Online Portfolio & Creative CV

Creative CV

I really look forward to a reply from these guys, to receive an internship from them would really be an honour.

PPP// Final PPP Presentation

PPP presentation

Simon Isles PPP presentation third year graphic design.

1) Black Swan Issue

Here is one example of a piece of design that I tend to return to as it played a massive role in deciding what I wanted to.

It is  a short montage video of the amazing process Little White Lies magazine went through during the making of the ‘the black swan issue’.

It showed the creative working atmostphess, the highs the lows of a working designer but most importantly gave me an insight to what life as a working desinger would be like.

Working for a magazine is something I want to do in the future. Working in a team I find a much more exciting and thrilling process as there are always new ideas being thought up that you would never have thought of yourself.

So when I feel low on inspiration there are many things that get me motivated once again but its this sort of editorial based design that I really benefit from.

Its this sort of thing I look for when searching for inspiration because its guaranteed to work!

I first watched this during my foundation when I really didn’t know too well what I wanted to do and this  changed that for good!

I love how even now I look at that video and it still has the same effect.

2) Set Magazine FMP Foundation

This then inspired me to create ‘set’ magazine for foundation. This was were I found 8 people to talk about what they did and why they loved it. Pretty straight forward.

This was very difficult as I has never used Indesign or illustrator  before. This magazine is quite valuable to me as in my eyes it was the first proper design I had done.

First Year PPP TEN THINGS

First year

First year was all about learning the basics and for me getting to know what graphic design really all about. I really enjoyed first year because I learn’t so much. One of those things being illustrator and indesign.

Because I had literally only used photohop to do work before this was hard but difeeantly worth it. Like this poster on the left I was able to start drawing illustrtations.

I didn’t really have a chosen area of interest I was just trying to experiment with mostly everything.

JUICE PURCE!

My favrouite part of first year was juice purce that Sam lane, sam hoh and myself did. This ws my first collaboration and also gave me a chance to make a short film of the process.

It was all about recycling you juice cartons and making a purce out of it.

I posted it on the Tropicana facebook an nothing happened so that wasn’t very good.

Second year­­

From my list of 10 you can really see the difference from first year.

Before I knew it second year.

Some of you may remember Fred saying the course drops you in at the deep end but I really found the deep end was second year. The work level had really risen and I found it very hard to cope with the load.

For example the design for print books. That was a nightmare.

And design for web where we had to design a website after 2 workshops! It reminded me of when I made set magazine where I didn’t know how to use indesign but the only problem with design for web for me was I didn’t have the same determination.

However, responsive was a nice change and I liked the freedom we were given. It sort of set us up for third year.

Ted baker had to be my favroutoe brief of the year. This was a collaboration with nigel and was my first brif that was for something. In this case D&AD and that was a very different experience.

Nigel and I also used a lot of the college facilities which was a nice change as I was always worried to do this because I thought it would just result in failure.

Third Year.

Briefs summer find 10, and at the moment that has change quite a bit!

Inncent Drinkst

Contacting Claire the senior designer and she said I should design some back of packs- information about the drink, fun facts and stuff. She gave me feedback which was great and then one day I thought lets make the cartons

Claire had previously sent me the template of the cartons so I knew it was possible but it was the hardest thing ive done this year. It was so painful. To much went wrong and even now the tops are all funny.

Priority Earth with Luke

This was for d&AD and the brie fwas the creat a new campaign to gith against global warming. Luke and I came up with priority earth and we made a two minute video that explained the concept. It also showed the promotional poster that was made with thermo ink and the website.

I really enjoyed this process and I’m very happy with the final outcome

Secret 7”

I won!

Third year.

My thoughts on the whole is it has gone way to quickly and I can’t believe we only have less than two months left I have so much work to do!

I haven’t liked the freedom that much because there have been times when I have been way to relaxed and thought I don’t have to be in college today but I got out of that rutt.

That’s been my most valuable lesson this year, time management and self dermination to get the work done because we have been left to our own devices and it was a big shock!

My week placement

During the summer I did a placement at iFour studios for one week. I four is a team of 8 people. They mainly do branding for print and web.

During my week there I worked on mocking up a website for an English school for foreign students. This was quite enjoyable and we were briefed every morning with how we were doing and feedback would also be given.

This year I haven’t look for a placement as all I want to focus on is my work for the final hand in. I feel its something else big to think about and I already have enough on my plate already.

Studios

This is what I want to do after the course, work for a magazine to do with culture.

Spindle Magazine.

STUDIO MAKGILL isn’t a magazine but…its good!

Branding.

A friend said they are really nice there and I should go there for a week after a finish as they like taking on graduates.

  This is what I want to do after the course, work for a magazine. I asked to look round but they work in there living rooms

Plan after the course

I am moving to Brighton in late June and I have some bar work lined up to keep me going. This will be the plan until I get properly settled in and comfortable with my part time work and money etc. During this time in my spare time I will of course be working on the odd thing here and there to keep my head in the game.