Evaluation

So this is it :) time to step into the real world and put all the skills I've learnt to test.

Since Christmas I have been contacting companies such as Thompson, Elmwood, Love, Music, Gratterpalm and Brass, sending them my pdf portfolio sample aswell as a short summary of my design practice an interest within their company. From this a gained a few studio visits at Thompson and Love where I was offered 2 x 2 month paid placements for when I finish. To gain a placement with Love I had to do a project for them in which I had to go back and pitch the idea to them.

I was offered a placement with Elmwood before I leave to go to Manchester so I will be working with them for 2 weeks, I'm really looking forward to this as they were really enthuasiastic about my work and ideas and I think it would be a really good company for me to work in.

Winning the SH! Awards 2012 was a huge turning point in my future, it really gave me a confidence boost and made me realise that I have something unique to offer companies, also it was really nice to have such great feedback on my presentation skills and how I communicate my ideas. It was a great way to gain recognition throughout agencies in this area and make them aware of what I have to offer. I have won a 6month paid placement which next week I am meeting Andrew from Brass to sort out where I might do my placement at.

I start my journey into industry straight away with a two week placement with Elmwood starting on the 18th June then I go to Love in Manchester on 2nd July for 2months. From here I will then either start my 6month paid placement with a local leeds agency or go straight to Thompson for 2 months. So I have the next year pretty much planned out :) YEY! Hopefully in the meantime someone might take me on full time... if not I will have heaps of experience in a mixture of different studios and agencies which will put me in good stead to getting a job. After working with a few different companies it will show me what kind of job is best suited to me and my practice.

Meeting companies and showing them my work has helped me to realise that I can do this as a job and I could have a strong future in the design world ahead of me. It has made me a lot more professional and comfortable in speaking to companies aswell as confident enough to go for opportunities and not let them pass me by.

I WON THE SH! AWARDS 2012!

Out of 70 applicants and a shortlist of 16 I won the Leeds Media Sh! Awards 2012.

Work submitted for the awards night:

Open publication - Free publishing - More future

I submitted a selection of projects as my practice is shown better like this and can't be represented by one project alone.

Final Crit

Really great feedback from the final crit.

Had some lovely feedback for the Angels Share Whisky Brief 1 - although I'm still not happy with this as the packaging is pretty weak I'm going to re do this at the weekend.

Lauren Carande Brief 2 - the branding is really strong just need to re do the packaging abit better and make sure the final tags for Lauren are crafted well. Make a proper receipt. vinyl cut bag sticker.

SOM - really strong branding and story need to show interactive elements / digital / web etc. well crafted well finished.

Mine and Jonny's project 'Crossover' Brief 4 definitely got a lot of praise and attention from the other students. We're so glad other people love this project as much as we do. Just need to make sure we do the project justice by photographing it well.

Waterstones brief needs to be taken to a stage where it can be presented.


Overall it was really nice to see how people have improved over the last few years on the course, there was some really strong work and it was clear to see where people were heading with their practice.

2 month paid placement with Thompson

Officially got a 2month paid placement at LOVE

WAHOOOO!

I start on the 2nd July for 2months... get paid fix amount everyday :) pretty good!
Really excited to work for a studio I've loved for ages, can't believe Ive got this great opportunity :D

I've also found a room to rent just outside the city center for 2 months, I'm really looking forward to moving out of leeds for abit and it will be a great opportunity to see where I would like to be based in the future.

Placement at Vast

Just finished a 6day placement at The Vast Agency -Leeds.

It was such a great experience and much needed to polish up on my design and styling skills. I find I have good ideas but find it difficult to execute the idea as well as I can invision it. So Vast was an excellent place to go to really push myself. The first 3days I felt abit out of my comfort zone working closely on a logo design I really had to look carefully at the crafting of the letterforms and colours etc which I feel I especially struggle with type so it took me a while to get something I was happy with. This was really good for me as I can sometimes leave a logo half done... thinking it looks ok but really it could be pushed and crafted so much better. I feel I understand a lot more about this now and this will really help me with future work/ placements. The guys at Vast were really lovely, we had a good laugh and they showed me their extensive range of beautiful bespoke lookbooks which really helped with my design context publication.

Whilst there I also did abit of work on a lookbook collecting material samples for a swatch book, colour matching and then adding them to the collection. It was really nice to get hands on with a project and was nice to break up the day with this kind of work. I also helped make some mock-ups to send out to companies including promotional concepts for a well known supermarket brand.

On my final day I worked on a crest logo for some Vast promotional work... can't really discuss the nature of the work but I really loved the design that I produced... much more my style of work and Phil and the team were really happy with my design.

Phil said I'm welcome back anytime and to keep in touch so that's really nice to know and I'll be sure to be in touch with them to let them know whats going on :)

Thanks guys!

Feedback from interview for the Sh! Awards.

It was so great to meet all the judges at the Sh! Award interview and get a good range of feedback from all different companies. It was really lovely to hear such positive feedback and was nice to see some friendly faces in my group Chris Jackson and Andy Lodge. I took through my portfolio so far to show them and they really loved the concepts and thought the branding for each project was really strong graphically but the story behind each of the briefs was really creative and captivating.

A big thumbs up :) was such a great experience.

2 Week placement with Elmwood

Saw the guys from Elmwood today



Sorted out a 2week placement for 18-29th June just before my placement at LOVE!

Crit

Tutorial with Fred

Design Strategy / PPD Presentation

Open publication - Free publishing - More future

Notes:

Design Strategy Presentation
Stephanie Oglesby

1.     This quote is something I am starting to realise more and more recently. How important it is to have a goal. To focus on the bigger picture and understanding why I’m here doing this course, this has really allowed me to enjoy my final module and has made it both rewarding and exciting.

2.     My Rationale is: A conceptually driven practice investigating retail branding through retail outcomes focusing on Print Promotion.

FMP:
Has meant my practice has grown to cover these key aspects, the fully branded experience, creating high concept brands and tell the philosophy of the brand through creative outcomes. The importance of consumer interaction to gain attention and give the consumer something back.
The ability to work with a full range of clients and brands. Through all retail sectors.

My work is:
-consumer interaction
-range of brands
-creative concepts

Understanding how to create fresh brands and design for existing ones to keep them fresh.

3.     This Year has been a mixed bag of emotions, focusing on who and where I want to be at the end of my degree and into the future has really helped to guide me.
I’m now more focused than before and more confident to speak about my work.

4.     Lauren Carande Live Work:
Ability to work with a fresh creative Fashion Designer on a live brief, getting me ready for industry and creating contacts with other creative’s within the industry aswell as printers, stockists etc.
Working tight to a budget has really made me understand costings and abilities of projects it’s been a real eye opening. Working with Lauren has been great as she really knows what she wants and is really into her work so it’s been a positive experience. Also she has promoted me both on her website and End of Year show so that’s a great way to get my name out there.

5.     Live work for Jigsaw –Harrogate
1^st birthday ..Invites/ buntin and in store promotion
Again great coverage, well known brand to add to my portfolio. Good to work with brand guidelines.

6.     A continuation of my branding to date. Previous were too impersonal and did not suit my work style (SI SCOTT)

7.     Getting my work out there:
I have posted work both up on Behance aswell as creating my oen website www.stephanieoglesby.co.uk.
PDF sample to send to companies (great to email out)
Printed Portfolio of work so far (great for studio visits and interviews)

New logo just finished so will be sending off for business cards VERY soon from my new contact at IST.

8.     Contacting companies…. So I would to stay up North I’m happy here, I’ve got a really great social group as well as my family and some amazing companies up here. London isn’t for me right now, but would want to do it at some point in the future when I have more experience. 5-6yrs. I don’t want to work for any HUGGGGE companies and like those that deal with a mix of clients in the retail/ fashion and culture sector and a very CONCEPT DRIVEN company.

9.     Andy Lodge was great giving me confidence to get out there and contact companies…. Which was a much needed push! From his recommendation I email Sarah Walsh at Thompson as he thought she’d really like my work as we are similar styles and idea machines. I popped into Thompson in Easter and got some great feedback, she really loved my work and wanted to sort out a placement for me once I had finished UNI.

Their work for brands such as Harvey Nicks and Paul Smith aswell as working with the culture sectors is a brilliant range of clients for my practice.

10.  G last yr, great insight into a big company, filled me with a lot of confidence to know that I CAN DO THIS as a job! Although the projects weren’t creative enough apart from Pitches for projects which were great to work on. It was a great atmosphere with a good mix of people and I enjoyed having feedback, meetings and crit style chats as it is based on the way we work on at uni! Here I went on photoshoots, copywriting and motion graphics course. Contact through Sarah Craven to Mike Hughes at LOVE creative in Manchester.

11. I’ve loved LOVE for a long time through my contact I was able to get in touch with Mike – Creative Head and show him some of my work, I had seen the 2 month paid placement advertised on their blog so I wanted to see whether I could be looked at for this opportunity.
I went in to show them my work and they loved the creative concepts and thought they were really strong, fun and imaginative. That’s what they look for in people…strong ideas. It was great to talk to them as I realised it doesn’t matter if I’m not as great as everyone else with finished designs / styling as long as I have good ideas and can visualise them appropriately.
They asked me to apply for their 2month paid placement scheme and sent me a Waterstones brief over to do about consumer interaction and store experience which is a perfect brief for me.

12. Vast 2 weeks work placement starting 14^th May … Fashion lookbooks mainly, will really help me to polish up on my styling skills and strong use of type and layout. To be more professional and multi-skilled, making me work to  higher standard.

13. In my future careers its really important for me to get a mix of working for studios that work for different Fashion brands, a range and mix of cliental.

14. Aswell as working for In House teams such as Toshop, Urban Outfitters as I think it would be great to see the difference in working for one brand alone and then many brands at once. I think it’d give me a great insight into the industry.

15. Jobs Available HQ / Creative / Graphics / Marketing Events
Full scope of jobs for fashion retail.

16. Art Directing. This is where I want to be heading and to reach by my 30’s I think my work is best suited to concepts working closely with a client and find the people that’s best suited to the creative style we wish to create.

Contacting companies

I have noted a few companies that I would like to get in touch with through the Easter holidays to possible get a visit or placement with them.

Funding to run exhibitions

I've started looking at a few places we could hold the Crossover Exhibition me and jonny are doing for brief 4.... what funding would be available and how you go about curating an exhibition.

My Branding

Open publication - Free publishing - More branding

Design Development for Logo

Chosen Logo

Brief from LOVE

Today I recieved the brief from Love for the 2month paid placement scheme, its a brief for Waterstones and could turn out to be a big project. I really want to give it a good go so have decided to make it one of my main briefs so I can dedicate a good amount of time towards it. I have 2 weeks to do this project then organise a day where I can go back to pitch the brief to them.

Art Directing

What Does an Art Director Do?

An art director oversees the art, i.e. the photographs and drawn images, that appear in newspapers, magazines, ad campaigns and on book covers. An art director is usually the person who oversees the entire design department, working with photo editors and editors to coordinate what images will match up with what words.
More than simply assigning a photographer or illustrator to create an image, an art director works on creating visual concepts. At a magazine an art director would work to create the specific look and feel of the entire magazine, ensuring there’s a unified visual look throughout. If you notice that certain magazines maintain different types of “looks” -- with certain layouts and certain types of images -- you’re picking up on the work of the art director.
Where Do Art Directors Work?
Art directors work throughout media in advertising, in book publishing and at magazines. Art directors usually specialize in one sector -- focusing on, say, advertising or book publishing -- and the type of work they do varies on their subset of the industry. At magazines art directors conceive of layouts and the art that will match up with the various stories in the magazine. At book publishing houses art directors often focus solely on book covers, hiring designers to create those covers and overseeing their work. (An art director at some book publishing houses may also do some of the designing.) At ad agencies art directors, usually working with a copywriter, create the images that go with an ad campaign. At ad agencies art directors may specialize in a specific area, such as print (creating ads for magazines), TV or Web.
How Do You Become an Art Director?
Most art directors have degrees from art schools, where they’ve studied graphic design, photography and drawing. (A background in graphic design is usually essential for most art director jobs today.) In today’s job market art directors also need to know various computer programs (most run on Macs) that allow them to work with everything from photographs to font sizes. While photoshop is a standard program all art directors should know, this is just one of many. For more on specific programs art directors should know, you can check out this video.
Art directors who’ve gone to art school are usually trained in the computer programs needed to get jobs in the field. Art schools will also provide candidates with a portfolio, which is necessary to land most jobs in this field. Art directors, who often work up to that title (from assistant positions), need to show examples of their work. Someone looking to work as an art director in an ad agency, for example, need to show a potential employer sample ad campaigns he’s created. To get these samples, you need to have experience from an internship or from your art school experience.

Love Creative- Manchester

So today I went to LOVE to meet the Creative Director Mike Hughes and Ste Owen who runs the placement scheme to discuss my work and applying for the placement scheme. 

Mike suggested I should change my description from Graphic Designer to Creative Concepts, so that when people look through my work they are looking at the ideas more than the technical design side. This is what I try to explain with my work, I'm ideas based I know I'm not the worlds best designer by far so I will change this on my portfolio and business cards.

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ADD

They seemed very positive about my work and it definitely filled me with a lot o confidence having gone and seen them

New Live Work- Jigsaw Harrogate

I recently got talking to a close friend of mine who is the manager for Jigsaw in Harrogate, after seeing some of my work and chatting about retail design and her ideas for the store she has sent some work my way to help out with designs for promotional events soon to take place in the store.

Jigsaw's 1st Birthday

Help the Heroes

For both of these events Laura would like me to produce invites aswell as designs for instore promotional touchpoints such as displays and posters.

Current Work sample

Open publication - Free publishing - More jobs

Most recent work sample including projects that I'm currently working on, this is my current portfolio to take with me to Love Creative on tuesday.

Vast 2week placement

I have secured a 2 week work placement with Vast

Contacting Love

I sent out my pdf sample to Love along with a little info on my practice and my interests within their company.

I contacted Mike through a connection made through Sarah Craven a TV producer I worked with at Gratterpalm last year whilst on placement. She made me aware of their company and that she knew the Art director there.

Thompson Visit

Today I visited Thompson -Leeds.

Re-branding

After speaking with a few people about my branding I've had mixed opinions. I've started to really dislike it, I would rather not be known as 'OGLESBY' but I'm fining it difficult to make a good interesting and unique design with my initials or name. Although John really liked the fact I had created my own typeface and totally branded myself uniquely Si Scott thought my branding was cold and didn't reflect me and my work as he said it has a warmth to it.

Sooo... I've come to the point where my old branding isn't working anymore.
What to do...

I want something quite stylish, sophisticated and simple. Preferably just my initials or at least highlights my initials in the design ...SJO aren't the best letters to work with but i'll give it a crack.

This is one of my Easter tasks in preperation for the Design Strategy Presentation and also the making of business cards and to add onto my website that is in working progess.

Mulberry branding

I really love how Mulberry uses both the elegant white, grey and gold with bursts of hot pink. Merging a sophisticated label with young, trendy stickers, vector images and brown paper attracting a younger audience.

Updated portfolio for Thompson visit

Open publication - Free publishing - More placements

Contacting Companies

After speaking with Andy Lodge I contacted Thompson & Music.

Unfortunately Orla had already started maternity leave at Music so I contacted Craig but it wasn't very successful as they already have lots of students on file and in placements etc.

Thompson was a lot more positive :) ... emailed back saying she liked my work and we have organised a visit on 10th April to talk through my work with her.

Creative Pioneers

I saw this up on the noticeboard today, going to give it a shot, some really good companies listed in the field of  advertising, creative marketing etc. 36 DAYS to make a video and fill in the form to the best!

Projects chosen for yearbook.

Heydays Studios

I really love the selection of colour within this work, taking a new stance on primary colours. Its bold, bright really fun and happy ...I'd love to create a brand that creates this feeling.
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Companies to contact.

I am contacting companies mainly in yorkshire as this is where I would like to work, although I will contact companies further a field to get some feedback and get my name out there. Companies to contact so far are:

Manchester
-Love Creative (Through contact Sarah Craven)
-Raw (Tom Heaton)
- V / I X
-The Chase (branding)
-Glorious (big ideas, creative sectors)
-Music (working with brands)

Leeds
-Elmwood
-Brass
-Propaganda
-Vast (Through contact Chris)

Sheffield
-Human
-The Cafeteria*
-Peter and Paul*

Huddersfield
-A.N.D Studio*

Claridges Branding

The Claridges branding has enabled them to keep their luxurious and sophisticated appearance with a modern and unique twist. The bright, fresh, mint green adds a fresh appearance to the brand along with the striped lines that is reminiscent of both pinstripe and a barcode.. an element I tried out in an early personal branding.

Design for my website

I want a really simple design for my website, very clean and easy to navigate that puts emphasis on the work. Here are a few website styles I like:

Design for my website:

Main Work page

 

New Business cards for first portfolio Surgery with Si Scott

Portfolio Surgery

http://www.siscottstudio.com/

Today a had a meeting with Si Scott to show him my portfolio and branding and discuss my practice and future in entering the industry. I have been struggling a lot with confidence in my work recently and was quite worried to show my portfolio to a leading Graphic Designer, the surgery was a lot more casual and then I had at first anticipated....

He really like the Fashion Branding I had done for the Topshop brief especially the colours used in the New Mod and the layout ideas as well as the typeface I had created for the Bavarian label. Si said that my work had a warmth to it which my branding didn't always reflect, I agree with this as I think the typeface I created for myself is quite cold in comparison to my work and doesn't really have a concept behind it unlike the work in my practice. This is something I've been struggling with for a long time, maybe introducing softer colours could give it a warmer feel as the black and white are quite strong and striking. Although the use of black and white was to create a neutral brand to lay against my work, I didn't want it to impose on the work.

We spoke about where I see myself heading and where I would like to work after university, he said to get back in contact with Gratterpalm as they are a great company to keep in touch with and look at visiting them again. Also he mentioned contacting Music and Truth in Manchester as these are both companies that work with branding for the retail sectors and also on his return to uni in the next couple of weeks he'd put me in contact with some companies to get a work placement or a visit in place.

Si Scott was it was a pleasure to speak to and it really helped to get feedback from a designer so highly regarded in the industry. A big thanks to Amber for sorting these surgeries out, I know a lot of work went into the organisation of this and it proved a huge success!

http://www.truth-design.co.uk/