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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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.

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Personal Branding - Applications

Business Card:
In the development of my personal branding for my first application I've created a business card featuring a pattern created from different sections of my logo (see figure 1) allowing for a continuous theme to be created across my branding in order to make it stand out and be recognised in different situations. The patterns have been created by taking away certain sections of figure 1 to create a more abstract representation of my brand instead to sticking to the use of a single logo across all branding. I felt this approach was appropriate as I wanted to portray an interesting and playful approach to the simplicity found within organisation and alignment within my personal practise and work. In relation to the colours within this application I've taken inspiration both from my own work and colours which I feel would enhance the patterns 3-dimensional nature without distracting from the pattern itself. In regards to the information on the back of the business card I've kept the layout very simple due to the complex nature of the patterns on the front. I've chosen to provide limited information in order to spark interest with the inclusion of an Instagram handle allowing people to quickly view and discover my work. Overall I feel this application works well within my branding and links successfully to other applications I've created.

Figure 1

Mailer/Flyer:
In addition to the business card I've also developed a flyer that could be left in public spaces or sent to studios alongside a letter so they had something with more of a personal touch that they could keep due to the decorative pattern on the front (see figure 2). This pattern has been developed from the a section of my logo in in order to identify my brand in an abstract manner that still allows the print to appear decorative. I've chosen to have my name, payoff and description on the flyer as the main focus is representing myself as a designer and what I can do for someone instead of just containing my contact information which I've included in the form of an email. Due to the incorporation of pattern and colour a consistent theme is kept across all branding which is reenforced by the use of the cubed logo within the name provided on the back.

Figure 2

Letterhead:
For the final application I've chosen to create a letterhead (see figure 3) as during sessions throughout the year regarding hows best to engage studios a letter appeared due to the personal nature as many studios/companies tend to receive e-mails and phone calls instead of something they can physically hold. Therefor I created a different pattern from a different section of my logo that more closely resembles my logo in order to create a more consistent and professional impact when compared with my logo at the bottom of the letter. The use of sending a flyer alongside a letter draws of the more creative representation of organisation and aligned designs that I want my branding to have. Overall I I feel all applications (see figure 4) work successfully as brand identify due the incorporation of the logo within the patterns and the use of similar colours within the patterns across the branding.

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Personal Branding ideas and development

In order to develop my personal branding I've looked back to previous workshops surrounding the creation of a name, payoff and tagline to help for them basis of my personal branding. For this I first started to develop a logo based on my chosen name The Cubed Ball (see figure 1). I wanted to keep the logo quite simple so that it would be able to be read when used within my name instead of 'cubed'. Although some of the more complex experimentations are interesting I decided to stick with the basic illustration of a cube (see figure 2). In relation to the more mathematical experimentations which I feel work successfully due to the less obvious representation of cubed however I felt this looked too mathematical which didn't accurately convey my interests and design style.

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In order to further develop my branding I've created patterns which will feature on different piece of promotional material. Each design has been developed from a section of my logo in order to create a consistent theme across all of my branding. Figure 4 is based on the outline of the cube however I feel this design in too simple and doesn't accurately reflect the cube. This lead onto the development seen in figure 5 which better reflects the cube due to the use of colour within the shapes. I've taken inspiration from pieces of my own work by incorporating pastel colours (see figure 5) as those in figure 4 where too bright and clashed and the use of black and white didn't create much of an impact as I want my branding to catch peoples eye and spark their interest. The patterns in figure 6 have been taken from the edge of the cube to create a more intriguing pattern which I feel will work well in combination with those in figure 5. Overall I am pleased with the patterns I've developed and feel they work successfully within my branding (see figure 8) due to the use of bright colours and patterns to draw people in.

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