Client work: photo zine

Brief:

Create a photo zine based on photos taken from Instagram featuring photos taken by tourists which have had the attraction removed. 

Initially the client presented some print outs, which link to the zine so I could gain idea of the basis for the zine before our first meeting. This showcased the photos that had been crop to remove the tourist attraction so the person posing was left. I also learnt that the photos had been taken from Instagram. This lead to the decision to make the zine into a square like the original photos on Instagram with the negative space where the photo has been cropped being filled with a colour chosen from the sky in the photo featured on the page to create a consistent theme with the book due to the different shapes and colours within the photos (see figures 1-2). The concept behind the zine was to highlight the humility of the poses tourist make at each attraction and then idea that many people go to these historical/cultural cites to only take a photo instead of taking in the experience. The inspirations taken from Instagram within the book enhance the humility shown through the poses made as the type and size of the publication have all been inspired by Instagram. Furthermore the colours featured at the side of each photo have been taken from colour within the sky from the featured photo. This allowed for a consistant theme/aesthetic to be created ad taking colours from any other section of the photo would have resulted in an unordered/ unrefined aesthetic to the publication.

My Experience:

I found the experience working with a client an overall positive one, as due to the time limitations (2 days) of the brief the client was easy to contact and gain feedback from. The process of designing the zine was fairly straight forward once the photos had been organised and sent through, as the client loved the first concept pitched meaning the design work could be started quickly. However if more time was available I feel I could have developed the concept of the zine to further reflect the humility of tourist photos. However despite this I feel the links to Instagram help reinforce the concept behind the publication showing where the photos originated from. 

Figure 1

Figure 2 

Contacting Studios

As part of OUGD504 I've contacted Andy and Martin the founders of Hungry Sandwich Club to gain more information about their recent work for York Mediale. I found this experience very useful as I learnt about the technical aspect about the site build, including the programs they used as well as their inspirations behind the site, to create an interesting and unique experience for visitors which reflect the unique experiences had at the event. I was initially nervous to contact professionals as I was unsure about what to say/how to approach them about talking about their work. However once I had sent the first email the nerves disappear as both Andy and Martin are very friendly and approachable, as they where more than happy to discuses their work.

Placements

Work Placements:
something you do while in university, usually unpaid
Intership:
this is what you do once you've left and should be paid

Where:
choosing the studio, an agency is easy but getting a placement can be a challenge
Identify where and who you would like to do a placement with, plan and record

How to communicate:
Send something
Phone
Email
Twitter
LinkedIn

• Pick up terminologies, contacts and mentors on placements, learn how the industry really works.
• Consider how studios work, what they work on e.g, branding, 3D, animation, packaging, editorial etc. 
• decide what you want to learn

Contact:

• ANALOGUE 
• CATALOGUE

Both of these studios work in areas and ways that I'm interested in with Analogue working to create unique and innovative work which I find interesting and feel would push me out of my comfort zone in terms of designing and working environment. I'm particularly interested in editorial design which has lead me to discover Catalogue who produce interesting publications for numerous clients and would allow me to learn/ pick up more industry level terminology and also become familiar with the printing process and prepare a publication for print and how studios interact with printers. 

Studio Brief 2: Briefing

Studio Brief 02

You will arrange yourselves into groups of 5. Consider who you are best working with in areas of strength, abilities and performance.

Deadline: 22/02/2018

THE BRIEF:

We are now heading toward a new image as Leeds Arts University and we are expanding into a new extended facility (building). A new logo has been created by Peter and Paul in Sheffield. This brief is to create a wayfinding and imagery for the building and the various courses and facilities. I will attempt to gain plans and elevations to aid this. The work should cover all areas of this wayfinding and human interaction and will be to proposal level. A rationale of who and where we can connect with staff, visitors and students.

This investigation should be as wide and exciting as achievable, there are NO restrictions and how this is achieved is down to research and awareness of what wayfinding is, externally accessed maybe, do not get bogged down with detail unless you feel it is important. Consider BIG IDEAS and try to be innovative, creative in all areas. As mentioned, manufacturing is NOT essential, concepts that cover the brief in the most 'fresh' creative and reasoned way. Your presentation at the end of this can be pdf (deck,,,if you aren't aware of this term, find out).

Presentations are up to the groups how they are presented and a considered 'rationale' is needed. This is a really 'native' brief and you will need to note all work on your PPP Blog as you go with a final post that sums up your individual take on this project together with your take on the 'collaborative' aspects of this brief.

• Rational 
• Group of 5 
• add opinions to blogs, update blog with progress 
• 10 minute presentation, 3 mins of Q&A 

Considerations:

• Target audience 
• Structure of group 
• Costs, chargers and financial considerations 
• Responsibilities 
• Communication 

Pitching your Ideas:

• starts with the brief, don't be guided by the website
• keep key themes such as logo 
• focus on the fact where a new institution 
• think about overall reason and rationalise 
• why are you most suited to brief, why is it better than others
• mood boards
• 
  

Creative Pitch:

• Client looking for creatives to show there creative, innovative and best person to answer there question.
• Think about market 
• Dissect the brief, share what you gained from the brief 
• What are the base requirements
• What do you want to achieve 
•  Who will use 
• How will it impact their lives 
• Disabilities, mobility problems 
• Language 
• Consider human interaction 
• Simplicity of use 
• Creativity in action 
• Consider imagery 

Consider:

• Design 
• Functionality 
• Technology 
• Language 
• Viability 
• Expectations 
• Maintenance 

Presentations

Prepare:

• Know what you’re talking about 
• Plan to a story you want to tell and break down slides to remind yourself
• Use imagery to enhance what you’re saying and reinforce points you’re covering 
• Limit text as lots of text takes away from what your saying 

Relax:

• Fight or flight reaction to facing crowds
• Easiest way to relax is to prepare and rehearse so you are fully conversant with what your talking about 
• Keep it simple

Speak Clearly:

Take your time and try not to read from notes

Introduce yourself, simply tell people who you are 

Smile!

Tell them what they're going to see:

set out what you want to cover during the presentation 

Make eye contact, pause and relax and remember to smile 

Take your time, theres no need to rush

Pauses:

a few pauses will relax you and helps people catch up and consider potential questions 

Tell it a story: 

• Beginning
• Middle 
• End 

Consider adding a video:

• it will allow for a break and pause 
• lift a presentation, make it more interesting 

If you use bullet points:

think about build ups so there not read all at once, this can also be applied to images 

Checklist:

• why am I doing it 
• what am I trying to get over 
• what do I need to show 
• get a rough draft together, time it out and refine 
• Check quality of images 

Spell check if using words

Final file preparation 

Hardware:

• Check files on more than one computer 
• Make sure the its saved in the correct format 
• Save onto one or two memory sticks 
• Save as a pdf 
• Test on projectors 

Consider:

Printing presentation, bind with a nice cover and leave so it can be reviewed  

Gretta Madline

Gretta Madline

Talk to people
try interesting ways to talk to people
send people things, more interesting

The Kennedys:
small group of creatives from all disciplines who live together for 8 months in Amsterdam. Intersting experience, adjustment but its an interesting experience.
No rules, all put together to create. Struggle to get to know people in the beginning. Ego stops you from creating good work, never thought about hiding things i'm doing always sharing. Hard at the being to realise people come from different backgrounds. 

Why Kennedys:
its amazing, creative accelerant life doesn't exists. Meet new people and get paid, do amazing projects that you wouldn't get the chance otherwise. Support all creative people.

Do you think being at uni gave you enough information to do your own thing:
yeah, i struggled but i think college if a good platform to do whatever you want to do. Really important to realise you have the opportunity to be serious in industry, experiment and do what you want to do.

Important to have own passions, interest and life, fine new things to look at and discover . Its more interesting when people combine skills

Progression:
roller coaster, really hard in the beginning. Had no clue where I wanted to be had a lot of ideas but didn't know what to do. Started freelancing, moved around and created the way the industry worked for her. Trust your gut feeling 'you do you'.

Important to talk to people and make friends, best things happen when you listen to that advice. Just do it, email people. You'll be surprised who responds.

How do interest effect your work:
a lot! it becomes a philosophy however don't push gold onto clients as it may not fit who the person is, but tends to slip into a lot of people, becomes infectious.

Is there a limit to persistence:
write to them like you know them, need to have an idea of what there about, then people who care will respond. BE PERSONAL

Most enjoyable project?
platform about the work in Lithuania, got the chance to meet new people. Now do podcast and challenged

If you were not designer what would you be doing:
i think id be doing anything creative, always be creating things

How do different is it working in an ad agency:
not doing any ads if they where they wouldn't be as good, come up with ideas.

Do you feel uni held you back in any way:
Uni was hard but I was quite strong so I didn't know how people would react, but because i've struggled i've learnt to fight for my ideas. Important to stand your ground, grateful as become stronger. However I wasn't encouraged enough to be creative, probably made it hard for people around me as well.

You don't have to be one thing, don't have to specialise. I like a lot of things, college was hard to try and do one thing.

Top Tips: 
Create your job:
It's all up to you, create your own way if you don't know what you want to do.

Question everyone:
people will doubt things but if you fell its right, just do it.

Be silly:
your in uni you don't have to be serious, think about the work you want to be doing and so it.
Be nice, don't be an arse and just relax a bit!! enjoy the experience, stop and be grateful.

Whatever you do make sure its golden- put 100% into everything.
Let go of your ego.

Look for personality in your projects, look for soem characteristics
No-one knows what there doing, its not just you. People pretend to know

Main Milestones to get you where you are now:
hard work, never going to get easier
Very exciting, be persistent and always to do the work
Persistence, making a decision once you've decided to do something you'll get there

what are you going to add to the skills your learning, thats what will make you different. if yo have doubt just don't think of it, emails do work sometimes but if depends how and what you write. I write how I talk to people, find your own style. If you can send something its more personal.

Creative Report

Creative Report:

• interview with a creative professional
• must be talking to the right people 
• what do you want to get out of it 
• 500 word count published as a digital ISSU presentation 

Interviewing your heroes:

talk to people you find interesting 

Interview:

exchange of information as a question  and answer session to extract information that we see as important 

conversation is more spontaneous into following a specific outcome like an interview.  Conversations are more natural. 

Interview with Michael Wolff:

how does client relationship evolve:

must like them, can't remember working for someone he didn't like 

Role of client:

Huge, why is very difficult to establish, why are they doing what there doing. Hard when clients aren't open becomes difficult to guide someone on how they should express themselves. Doesn't like the word client, relationship is based on mutual respect.

'people will never forget how you made them feel' they will discard what you say or what they read. 

rather not know what to do and see what happens

Biggest mistake of young designers:

vanity, we idolise others resulting in similar styles and sameness.

Encourage any designers to respect the power of writing.

Best piece of advice:

People can see how you behave, brand is a form of behaviour and very few understand how behviour is seen. 

Preparation is key: 

Arrange an interview:

contact in advance and will usually have to give an indication of how long the interview will take, the purpose etc. Always better face to face, becomes easier has conversation flows more naturally, never take the easy route.

How and where:

Needs consideration prior to you approaching of potential interviewees. Skype/ Facetime is an option.

Why do you want to speak to a creative hero:

have a valid reason why, got to have an answer e.g; need some help, working on a brief etc. 

Plan:

requires good planning, proper questions and the nature of an interview itself 

e.g:

• background 
• describe yourself as a creative while at college
• what do you wish you'd known before leaving uni 
• most memorable experience since uni 
• why was it good? why bad?
• best achievement so far 
• always ask why!!!

Interaction:

be attentive, more difficult to listen to people than you think. Monitor a number of different aspects, keep track of time 

Empathy:

be sensitive to what there saying, show feeling. if there a hero tell them why.

Manage silence, use prompts, probs and checks 

RELAX, don't be nervous look at them as anyone else there just like you 

Probes:

ask for an example, clarification, more detail. 

Checking:

summaries the interviews thoughts, check you understand what there saying. 

The Formalities:

Introductions and formalities, hello names 

Confirmation that its alright to record the interview, got to feel they can trust them, tell them where its going to be used 

remember to prepare the recording equipment prior so your prepared, make sure phones charged 

Think it threw

how?

written notes, harder to connect 

Audio recording

online record (email interview)

make them fully awear of what your doing 

Getting Started:

use the first question to put them at ease

something they will have little issue talking about 

use notes and tick questions off as you go 

Finishing:

remember to thank them, tell them why 

reassure your not going to publish without telling them 

good oportunity to get a second interview if sending info back 

Transcription:

take a long time, be mindful of this when you consider interview length 

try keep conversation going 

check grammer and spelling 

Too good to waste:

allow to inform practise, can inform other modules 

Interview Examples:

https://confessionsofadesigngeek.com/2014/12/16/interview-jessica-walsh/#3

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/02/beautiful-covers-interview-chip-kidd/

http://www.coolhunting.com/design/interview-snask-creative-agency-stockholm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb8OShAd96U

https://www.designboom.com/design/interview-jessica-hische-03-31-2014/

https://portland.aiga.org/an-interview-with-paula-scher/

https://the-agency-review.com/lois/

http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/designers/a16517/sandra-choi-interview/

Networking

Methods of networking:
– email
– phone
– facebook
– Linkedin
– Behance
– mail

Networking isn't:
–Just about handing out business cards and hoping people get in touch
– Shouldn't be forced.
– Putting yourself in front of people who will hopefully remember you
– Not about getting instant work.

Its more about:
– Meeting people and sharing anything such as love of work, music.
– Make recommendations, who else should I be speaking too.
– Share all accounts on Linkedin, Instagram, twitter etc

Join the Circle:
By sharing impression, friends and projects they will simply be within your circle of friends. Make sure you engage with other, e.g. i read you post...

Be PROACTIVE:
Write an article or post about something your passionate about and simple put the link on any form of social media. Remember other creatives may want to collaborate, it works both ways others can see your work too.

Don't distance yourself:
If you don't talk to people you can't expect anything back, you've got to engage with the industry in order to be noticed and make a difference.

My Manifesto

My Goals:
Main Goals:

• live and work in New York 
• make work I'm passionate and happy about 
• Don't let work stop me doing tother important things; e.g: keeping fit, socialising
• travel 
• Make people say 'wow' when they see my work/ make an impression 
• be more confident 
• self publish? 

Smaller goals:

• develop presentation skills 
• network 
• go to a new country in the next year 
• stay on top of work 
• talk to people more 
• do things that scare me 
• make more publications 

What I've learnt:

• make work your happy with not just to get good grades 
• don't stress over the small stuff 

My Manifesto: Concept, Concept, Concept

• Developing my skills as a designer: editorial design, branding
• keep learning, design for screen, animation 
• attention to detail
• innovative ideas, concept drives design 
• don't sweat the small stuff, sometimes you fail 
• being able to work from anywhere
• living and working in New York 
• balance, not sacrificing staying fit staying fit for work 
• being my own boss either through free-lancing or setting up my own studio
• Being able to make money from my own self directed projects 

Village: Ben Holmes

About us:
started in Corn Exchanged at back end of 2012, aim was to create a space where interesting independently published publications could be easily accessible. Wanted to bring publications/artists into Leeds from around the world but also provide a space for creates in Leeds to gain exposure. Contribute to making a permanent creative community in Leeds. The incorporation of a non-profit gallery space which gives opportunity for emerging creatives in Leeds to gain exposure.

Fresh air showcases artist in the north.

Zines:
typically referring to a simple staple bound publication, however this is quite limiting. Anything which is independent published and independently published could fit under the umbrella term.

Why Self-Publish
– age of internet makes it easy to get your work seen which also makes it hard to stand out, very passive process
– zine slows people down and creates active participation, not just seeing it but touching it
– creating something permanent
– limitless applications, showcase typefaces (G.F. Smith)
– making book you've got a passion for/ interest in whilst showcasing your skills as a designer
– Made (figure 1): annual publication to showcase what they do as designers based on healthy living
– demonstrating what you do as a designer in a novel intersting way
– Allows the opportunity to collaborate
Catalogue (figure 2):
producing zines since they graduated, used to communicated there ethos and aesthetic to people in  a more exciting way
Library Paper, bi-annual magazine featuring different creatives with a brief interview

What We Look For:
– specialise in photography books
– creating an object where each element says something about the content inside, cohesive artefact

Concept of book:
– foundation of any book
– how the concept is communicated, is it obvious
– should be more than its content, have a purpose/under arching idea
– Useful Photography
– format of book, has potential to communicate a lot about the book, drive the idea
Funny Money, Max Siedentopf (figure 3)
– response to tendency that western tourists have on going to african locations and paying locals to take there photos.
– went around Namibia with dollars, and asked locals for there photo in order to capture there personality but wanted them to be holding the money
– format drives idea

Design:
– layout, how content is presented on the page
– how work can be perceived through design
– Fire in Cairo: bleed develops through the book to highlight the political situation in Cairo, starting with an abstract image and focusing on the people of Cairo at the end.
– working with the designer gives the ability to say something else rather than just the design of the book
– printing method must fit the book, as can change how the book looks or is seen
– reproductive print techniques such as risograph printing loose quality, decay through repetition
– no reason the whole book has to be printed in the same way
– paper stock can change as you go through, tactile element

Surfaces Phenomena, Bartolomeo Celestino Figure 4 
photos of same spot on the Australian coast, photo a day for 18 months. Used different paper stocks to showcase the photos and colours within the images. Good example of how designer can influence perspective as some images are portrait and others landscape to show how you can get lost in the ocean

Binding:
– multiple binding methods, trade off with how affordable something is vs how time consuming it is
– book doesn't necessarily have to be bound, not real right way to make a book
Details: spot varnishing, foiling etc.
– must suit what your trying to say, must fit the content
– don't be a gimmick

Commercial Considerations
– Last consideration you want to make is think of the book as a product, when a books being sold all the elements above are important, how they work together on a shelf. Is the impression immediate?
– price tag
– exposure is just as valuable as sales if not more

Self Publishing Community:
– Offprint, London self publishing community get together and showcase there work
– engage with the community, look at others books

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Professionalism

Amateur:
– doesn't get paid
Semi- professional
– get paid but doesn't relay on as a profession
Professional
–work that needs specialist training
– engaged in a specified activity as ones main paid occupation

What are we?

• Being creative for money 
• Commercial art, our work is often used to sell, promote, explain, narrate and inform.
• Graphic design was only named in 1922

Clients:

• Creating work for someone else throws up problems as creativity is subjective 
• Colour opinions often arise 
• Open to 
• personal taste 
• Committee thinking (more than one client, all making different decisions) 
• trend 
• cultural and ethnic acceptance 
• personality clashes 
• Be your own client
• Rationalise Work:personal opinion, your not the customer your trying to attract 

Downside:

• not getting work
• poor quality clients
• clients who don't listen 
• communication problems 
• poor and negotiated outcomes 
• not getting paid!

Mission Statement

• simple paragraph that details purpose for being, tells people what your about 

Manifesto:

Published verbal declaration of the intensions of a company 

First Things First - manifesto 

Has been developed over the years, to reflect how creative practise has changed over the years. 

• Ken Garland, 1964 
• Jonathan Barnbrook, 2000
• Cole Peters, 2014 

My Mission Statement/Manifesto: 

What would you like to be seen as, as a creative practitioner... 

Dalton Maag

Intro into Type Design:
In order to start developing a typeface Dalton Maag starts with kick off workshops where they explore existing typefaces by looking at the characteristics of fonts and determining what the client does and doesn't like. Within the worksop they present an image gallery and ask the client to pick those which best represent the values. On the reverse of the images are typographic representations of the image which allows Dalton Maag to make the transition from values into typographic characteristics. Another exercise is the font grid where the client is asked to add cards to the sections which is most important to there brand. Once the workshop is complete Dalton Maag revisit their brief and work through the following stages, discuss, sketch an design. Once the sketches have been drawn there digitalised using Postscript which involves describing the outline of the letters with as little nods as possible. The typeface is presented using TrueType which allows the font to be hinted which involves controlling the pixels within each letterform. The font is present in a regular weight which is developed into extreme weights once the client has signed off. Once extreme weights have been developed it becomes easier to alter the weighting to present different weights to the client. Once the font is design they move onto looking at kerning by adding structures to increase the space. Finally once the font is designed it then needs to be engineered to work on all platforms. Coding is used to control the metrics of the font to allow the font to be successfully delivered to the client. Final delivery comes in the following forms:

Desktop:
- TTF
Web:
- EOT
- TTF
- WOFF
- WOFF2
App:
- TTF

Overall I found this talk very interesting as I previously didn't know about the mechanics of creating a typeface and the research that goes into identify the desired characteristics. It was particularly to find out about the engineering of a typeface and the use of coding to prepare the typeface for delivery and use.  Additionally it was interesting to learn how many different ideas they work on at once in order to present options to the client, and how the font is developed from a regular weight to multiple different weights.

Summer Reflection: influential experiences

Experiences/ Events:
- Rock, Cornwall
-  looking back on last year, realising what I want to do differently this year:
        start producing my own work
        making work i'm passionate about and happy
        exploring editorial, design for screen
- learnt to drive (stalled whilst turning onto a main road)
- starting going to the gym more, focusing on health more
- moved into a new house
- broke down on motorway with no hard shoulder in the rain
- LCA degree show

Most influential experience, why?
Looking back on the year and deciding I wanted to make more time for myself to make my own work, go to the gym more and not stress out as much about making things perfect. I realised I needed to stop worrying about other people and work and focus on making myself happy rather than putting so much pressure on myself because the pressure of first year resulted in my crying on the uni floor toilets in front of a lot of people. Although this wasn't a great situation in made me realise that I shouldn't worry about the little things and should focus on what actually matters to me. Consequently I realised I wanted to make work I was passionate and happy with whilst maintain a life outside of uni that meant I could focus and make goals not related to graphics. Summer allowed me to focus on my health and fitness to the point where I didn't dread going to the gym because I felt like I was waisting time but that I was excited to go because I had goals I wanted to achieve and I could feel myself becoming stronger.  This resulted in a focus on being more productive with the time I have at uni during 2nd year as I was prioritising my self over my work and not the other way around, because at the end of the day although I got a first in the very module that made me cry it didn't actually count and in all honesty I think I'd rather be happy than stressed out and sad over a stupid number on a piece of paper. Despite this I still have the same determination to do well and to create the best work I can but that determination has been put into perspective and is so far working out quite well.

Summer Brief Presentation

The following presentation shows the key information/research discovered whilst responding to the summer brief focusing on the following:

Secondary Research:
- existing books ands how they started such as Deliciously Ella and Livia's Kitchen
- dietary conditions helped by eating a whole food diet and elimination gluten, diary and refine sugar.

Primary Research:
- Interviews exploring how those with dietary issues would respond to a baking book that both educates about foods whilst teaching you how to bake.
- Images of the recipes that I've made over summer mainly from Deliciously Ella and Livia's Kitchen with some small alterations to make them easier to make.

Upon reflection I feel this presentation wasn't as clear as it could of been as I failed to clearly and consistently communicate my topic as I ouched on lots of different ideas making it hard to distinguish a clear idea. I feel the experience of presenting among a group of over 20 people will add to my experience and allow me to develop my presentation skills in the future as I've found more preparation is need to organise my thoughts and decide what to talk about. This will allow for a clearer and more direct presentation in future.

Module Evaluation

Personal and Professional Practise has been very engaging as I've learnt a lot about my self and my practise in particular how to develop my ideas further based on what inspires me in my current environment. This can be seen in my wayfinding system of OUGD405 which was based on connecting Leeds Print Festival to individual shops around Leeds. Furthermore this project also demonstrates how I've learnt to develop my ideas further to create more professional outcomes with a strong conceptual underpinning as each pictogram is based on the window shape of each shop with the distance from the print festival being represented in the intensity of the curved lines within the pictograms. In relation to PPP as a whole I've learnt how to critically reflect upon my work and personality in relation to my strengths and weaknesses. Consequently I've discovered my strengths involve producing final outcomes such as the placards which displayed the wayfinding system for OUGD405. In relation to my weaknesses I've been able to develop my public speaking skills which is an area I struggle with however I've improved my skills a lot this year through participation in crits and presentations for personal branding and design strategy's which I will continue to participate in, in order to develop my skills further into level 5 and 6. Furthermore I plan to further develop my interest in editorial designs in order to improve my design skills as this is an area of design I've discovered this year in both OUGD405 and OUGD404 that I hadn't previously experimented with.  In relation to specific workshops within PPP I found visiting professionals such as Brand Nu and networking sessions the most interesting and helpful as it was intersting to learn about different professionals practises and different ways to connect with people in order to make the biggest impact to gain a response. Overall PPP has been engaging as I've found it interesting learning about industry, networking and different techniques to improve time management.

Design Stratage Presentation: Feedback

Upon delivering my presentation (figure 1-18) I received feedback which was very positive in nature as I delivered the presentation with confidence and have significantly progressed and come out of my shell which allowed for an engaging and successful presentation peered with successful visuals.  and with a good use of visuals allowing for an engaging presentation. Personally I feel the presentation went well and that I delivered the information clearly and concisely as I became more comfortable and got over my initial nerves. It was also addressed that I managed to hide my belief that public speaking is one of my main weaknesses (as included in the presentation) showing the progress I've made across the year to deliver a successful presentation. In order to develop my presentation skills further I need to practise more which will come with time and more opportunities to present across the next two years of my course.

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Figure 17

Figure 18

Design Strategy Presentation Ideas

In order to reflect on what I've learnt this year I have considered the following questions and what they mean to me in relation to my own practice but also my life in general outside of university.

What have I learnt
- Failure is good and is not something to be afraid of
- Concept makes a project
- To relax and not do work all the time
- It takes time to adjust to a new place
- Experiment more
- Broader range of research is needed
- New skills (letterpress, screen printing, laser cutting)

What I want to learn?
- More skills
- Different ways to experiment and improve my personal process

Mistakes?
- Not doing work as soon as possible
- not experimenting enough
- blog in more detail, be less descriptive
Strengths?
- Adobe, Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign and After effects.
- Organisation
- Cooking
- budgetting
- looking after people
- focused

Weaknesses?
- Public Speaking
- Blogging
- Missing home/not adapting to Leeds as well as I could.

What I've enjoyed/engaged?
- Barcelona
- Studio visits/ talks
- Peer-to-Peer feedback
- Gallery Visits
- Learning new skills- screen printing
- Colour and patterns

What I've disliked?
-Blogging
- Essays
- Workload

Ambitions?
- Do more of what I can't
- Have more time to do my own work
- Discover Leeds more
- Improve my work and design process

What I wanted to achieve?
- Make good friends
- Learn new skills
- Improve my design skills

What I wasn't expecting?
- The workload
- To move away from branding which I thought was a strength of mine
- Enjoying editorial design

Upon reflecting on these sections I've decided to include the most important from each section within my presentation in order to effectively reflect on the year and set out my intensions for next year and further. I feel the most important things I've taken from this year is to stay on top of work and start things as soon as they're set and that it takes time to adjust to a new city and thats alright. In order to create the presentation I will use imagery to represent each point so that I can discusses each image within the presentation to avoid the use of text in order to better engage my audience. I will structure the presentation my starting with what I wanted to achieve and then move onto what I've learnt and end will looking froward to next year and my ambitions.

Personal Branding Presentation

Upon receiving feedback based on my personal branding presentation it was felt there was a good use of surface graphics however it would of been more effective if the applications had been physically made and had more form. Overall I feel my presentation went well, however I felt I spoke too quickly and missed out some points due to nerves. Consequently when presenting design strategies I plan to speak slower and take little breaks for water to help gather my thoughts in order to avoid leaving out any information. In relation to my personal branding I think the final outcomes work well with the variations of the patterns created using the logo which provides a bright and eye-catching aspect to my branding. However if I had more time I would improve the presentation of the mailer in order to create a more concise visual representation of my idea to create a small package including information about me which would be sent to different studios. 

Production of Self Branding

Throughout the production process I encountered some issues when printing business cards and the flyer due to the double sided nature of each application. This require meticulous alignment so that both sides would line up when printed. I also had to figure out which way to feed the paper through the printer in order to have the text in the right position. Consequently this lead to some mistakes when printing (see figure 1-2) as I failed to prepare my document correctly as each item needed to be centred to the design board and aligns precisely so the printer could read the document correctly. Once I'd amended the document and flipped the paper correctly the printed successfully (see figure 3-5), however if I had more time to develop my branding further I would alter the size of my business cards to a shorter width and reduce the size of my flyer slightly as I feel its slightly too large to be sent along with a letter.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5