Lisa Jones' PDP

Creative Futures. Tuesday 2nd March

lisa jos — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:40:08 +0000

10a.m.

“How to get a job in Design”

Chris Ramsden – Chartered Society of Designers (CSD)

- Never make assumptions in design.

Victor Papanek – Design for the real world

- Creativity

- Professionalism

- Skills

- Knowledge – keep up to date, be well read.

11.30a.m.

“What does an employer/client want to see: Portfoilio’s and CV” by James Graham from Thoughtful. – Agency in Manchester

Greg Quinton from The Partners : “have to have persistance”

Portfolio – “No spelling mistakes” – Michael Bierut from Pentagram, keep clean, consistency, start with your best work and end with your best work, varieties – box portfolio, A3 wire-bound, newspaper format, screw-post book, saddle stitched book? preference = A3 book with bound pages. How many pieces? 10 to 12, less is more

E-mail – include attachment, research – find out who to send it to, know the work they do. e.g. Dear mention making tea?! nice person to have around in the studio, easy-going, i have a lot to learn but i can work alone, i own my own laptop – Say what they want to hear, key words. Know about the studio. PDF’s – keep to 5-7 projects, include link to website.

Patrick Baglee – “it’s better to be interested than interesting…you cannot not communicate”

Jonathan Baldwin – “don’t ask ‘what does design have to do with this?’, think ‘what could design have to do with this?’”

- Go to as many Art galleries and talks as possible

Paula Scher : Pentagram – “admire, respect the work the company does. Choose a studio/placement based on which one offers the broadest learning possibilities. It’s ok to make mistakes – they aren’t going to affect the rest of your life.”

Michael Wolf – “inquisitiveness”

Hillman Curtis, James Corazzo – “don’t give up.”

Summary :

1.) Which studio? Research

2.) Start a dialogue today

3.) Short, professional e-mail

4.) No reply? Call them after 3/4 days

5.) A3 book style portfolio

6.) 15-30 minutes interview. Prepare

7.) Thank you e-mail after interview

8.) Don’t give up

1.30p.m.

Portfolio and presentation in the digital age. Tessa Elliot – Surgery – digital art research

bloc:Creative Technology Wales

tessa@bloc.org.uk

Creative Futures. Monday 1st March

lisa jos — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:04:38 +0000

Notes I made during the talks at the Catrin Finch Centre as part of creative futures week.

10a.m.

A woman who started her own graphics and marketing business called Promofix spoke about the difficulties of starting out with a new business and the obstacles to overcome.

11.30a.m.

Garry Greenwood from Venture Wales spoke about business planning.

Six Key Sections

1. Introduction and background

2. Market and Competitors

3. Marketing strategy

4. Operations

5. Financial data and forecasts

6. Appendices

Things to consider – idea, detail, legal status, owner/management details, product/service details. Business idea, technical specifications, features and benefits, unique selling point, design, packaging, future development plans.

Features / Benefits (the benefits of the features is what’s important.)

-Marketing needs to match product/service of the business

-Marketing – linked-in is a ‘business facebook’, e-bay, twitter ..

-Target markets – who? narrow target market – better, cheaper, more focus

-Unique selling point

www.patents.gov.uk

-Operations – health and safety, legal aspects, premises, equipment, suppliers, staff, processes, systems/procedures, quality control, insurance …

-Financial data – cost/prices/volumes, funding, sources, profit and loss account, balance sheet

-Appendices – previous work, photographs, evidence

-Executive summary – purposes, obstacles, finance.

Advice for anyone considering starting their own business – get an accountant.

1.30p.m.

Tracy Simpson, project manager

- Public Arts commissions

- Stiwdio safle

- Strategies and proposals

- Getting grants for new businesses. Usually time/aim-specific

- eligibility and deadlines – check carefully

- can’t get funding? what next? – interest free loans; form a group; get free advice; local authorities and galleries.

- check eligibility, priorities.

-Research – gather basic information, estimated total project cost

- show previous work, CV

- make notes, keep evidence to justify the business.

Safle – North Office

Principals House

49 Regent Street

Wrexham

LL11 1PF

01978 293 534

2.30p.m.

Shona Hambleton, tax assistant accountant.

(in) ££££ EXPENDITURE —–> business ——->(out) ££ INCOME

-sales, loans, grants, capital introduced.

- keep records, invoices and receipts.

lisa jos — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:23:47 +0000

video.php

Heres a video the Zone’s technical team put together of the beer designing competition event.

zone glyndwr beer competition

lisa jos — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:22:30 +0000

We took part in Zone Glyndwr’s entrepreneurship week for one day. The brief was to design a new beer for students – Glyndwr students to be precise – that captured the essence of Owain Glyndwr. We had to consider the bottle shape, colour and material, the beer’s taste and colour, and of course the branding and name of the beer. We worked with media students and were split into teams of 5 or 6. We were then given paper, and a netbook to do any relevant research. We had a few hours to come up with the designs, and had to make a video presentation of our beer to be judged and sent up to brew dog in scotland for the final judging to announce the winner.

We came up with the idea for a name to be ‘Saviour’, because of Owain Glyndwr’s status as the saviour of Wales, as he was the man who fought for the right of a government and universities in Wales. It is also a play on words with ‘save your beer’. We also came up with the idea of using Glyndwr’s identity stripes along the label, which would then be wrapped around the bottle, like is seen on the university’s website. We decided to make the bottle black, as the dark colour glass would better preserve the beer, as we found out through research, and also because it would make the colourful stripes stand out. As for the name of the beer we decided to have it embossed and running vertically along the bottle. We also made the bottle caps a variety of colours, ranging from the colours present in the stripes. We thought this idea could be used by the university as a marketing idea, such as 10 bottle caps could be collected to win a free bottle of beer. We thought such a strong use of the university’s identity would make an attractive memorabilia of a students time in university. Here are some images of the paper work designs we made on the day.

websites i like

lisa jos — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:32:15 +0000

I have been looking into design and illustration websites that i like the layout of to try and get inspiration for my own website which I intend to build this academic year. As I don’t specialise in building websites I will find it rather difficult when it comes to production stage, but for the moment I am concentrating on developing my own style which I want to be seen on my website. The first impression of a designer comes from the first thing possible clients see, which is the business card, and if they then decide to look at the persons website it needs to show the same style and quality of the business card design. A well designed and printed business card may attract potential clients to look you up on your website or blog, but if they get there and the design isn’t to the standard expected they can still change their minds. Therefore I think it’s important to have an interesting, well designed website that shows your ability to design well and show your unique style, this will make the viewers want to know more. Here are screenshots of two websites i particularly like.

hand drawn type

lisa jos — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:18:18 +0000

Here is an alternative version to a magazine cover which i found on the internet. I like the hand drawn type as well as the illustrated version of the model. I don’t think the same effect could be achieved by computer, and I think it communicates better with hand drawn type.

Klaruw Christmas Cards

lisa jos — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:02:23 +0000

Me and Sean were approached by Klaruw (as Sean’s mum works for the company and mentioned that we were studying Graphics and looking to do some Professional Practice) to design company Christmas cards for them to send to clients and possible new clients. Klaruw is a road re-surfacing company, and it’s goals are to reduce the number of accidents on the road, and to do this in a cost-effective, environmentally-friendly way. Their first idea was for us to try incorporate this into the design, and to use their company colour scheme, which is yellow and black.

We weren’t sure how we could use the colour scheme successfully, as well as show what they do, whilst still being a Christmas card and not a marketing card. We did 4 similar designs for them….none of which we were completely happy with!! They worked as a marketing card, we showed what the company did, and we used their colour scheme but I don’t think they worked very well as Christmas cards. They then sent us feedback on the first designs, they confirmed what we already thought, they changed their minds and wanted us to design a card that was ‘more Christmassy and less Klaruw’. We then did 3 more designs which we were happier with, and I got to do some illustration! They were happy with them, and preferred the more humorous approach. They decided to go with one of them, but wanted a few changes. Here is the final design which they will be using this year.

We also designed the inside of the card.

maxwell lord

lisa jos — Mon, 25 May 2009 11:51:39 +0000

Here is an example of young Russian artist Maxwell Lord’s work. He works with various ink pens and gel pens to create stunning handwritten, traditional pieces. It’s nice to see successful typographers who use their skills to create these detailed type and image made by hand, in a time where computer software is so advanced .

“Maxwell’s typography is an entanglement of detail and intricacy. His pieces are generally filled with ornamental marvel and majestically formulated lines. He carries a rare, yet impressive and extraordinary talent, which unfortunately, is hard to come by in this day and age of computers and design software. Fortunately for the art and design community, there are still people in the world, just like Maxwell, who continue to practice and pursue their inspirational trades.”
I like his work as it’s similar to what I enjoy doing. I love hand drawn type as I think it’s so much nicer and personal than computer generated type, but I also know that there are places for each. In my third year I hope to explore hand drawn type more, and try and bring my own style into the briefs I will be choosing, and

Interesting business cards

lisa jos — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:58:46 +0000

Business cards

lisa jos — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:37:04 +0000

For the degree show it would definitely benefit us all to get business cards, to get our names out there! I looked at moo.com, and also vistaprint.co.uk to see what was available and look through their templates. They had some nice ones but as a graphic design student I think it makes more sense for me to design my own, to show my ability and also my style. Business cards are the first example of your work potential buyers will see, before a portfolio and website, therefore it must make a good impression. These are a few illustrations I had made that I thought I might be able to use on the card:

I then edited these images in illustrator and photoshop to come up with these ideas:

I’ve decided not to go with these, even though I like the layout and text, but I think the effects I used screams amateur, as they are so easy to achieve in photoshop!!! The colourful illustration is a nice image, but looks more suited for glasswork or something!! So then I came up with these:

I am happy with the design, but was unsure what colour scheme to use, so I tried out a few. I think they all work in a way, but each one communicates a different message. I think I will steer clear from pinks and purples, as they (combined with girly squiggles) looks more suited for a beauty or hairdressing salon!! I think the 2 strongest are the black on the bottom right and the white top left. I think the black one is more attractive and interesting, but the white is minimal and professional. If I could go back I would leave myself more time to design a business card that better represents my style, make a more interesting one that I am happy with. These are ok and I do like them, but looking at websites I have seen so many weird & wonderful business cards I wish I had left enough time to make a great one, not just an ok one. I’ll start planning for next year!!!