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.