PLACEMENTS

Placements are something you do whilst you're at university which is usually unpaid
Internships are usually paid and normally once you've left uni 

Where you do these is important. Choosing the studio, an agency is easy but getting a placement can be a challenge. Identify where are who you would like to do a placement with, plan and record it

How you communicate with them is also important, you could -
- send something
- phone them
- email them
- use Twitter or Instagram
- linked in

On placements -
- pick up terminologies
- contacts
- mentors 
- learn how the industry really works
- consider how studios work, what they work on e.g. packaging, branding, editorial etc
- you need to decide what you want to learn from them

STUDIO 2 BRIEFING

Studio Brief 02You will arrange yourselves into groups. Consider who you are best working within 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.

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.

Things to consider - 

- target audience

- structure of group 

- costs, chargers and financial considerations

- responsibilities within the group

- how you are going to communicate

When you actually pitch your ideas -

- start with the brief 

- keep key themes like the logo the same

- think about an overall reason for why you are most suited to the brief, why is yours better than others

Creative Pitch - 

- think about the market already

- what are the base requirements

- what do you want to achieve from this brief 

- how will it impact or change their lives

- consider human interaction

- simplicity of use

Final things to consider -

- design

- language

- functionality

- expectations

MAKING A SHOW OF YOURSELF

Prepare -

- know what you are talking about

- plan to a story you want to tell and break down slides to remind yourself

- use imagery to enhance what you are saying and reinforce points you are covering

- limit the text as lots of text takes away from the content that you are saying

Relax -

- right or flight reaction to facing crowds

- the easiest way to relax is to prepare and rehearse so you are fully conversant with what your talking about

- keep it simple and easy to follow

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, there's no need to rush

Pauses - 
a few pauses will relax you and help people catch up and consider potential questions 

Tell it a story -

- beginning

- middle

- end

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 out your presentation, refine /add in areas that need it

- check the quality of images

SKYPE WITH GRETTA

Send people things they will remember you by - it is more interesting, always talk to people

The Kennedys = small group of creatives from all disciplines who live together for 8 months in Amsterdam, was an adjustment but an interesting experience. No rules, was hard to get to know people at the beginning. Ego stops you from creating good work at the start. You are there meeting new people and getting paid doing projects you would not usually get the chance to.

'Do you think being at university gave you enough info to do your own thing?' 

I stuggled but college is a good platform to do whatever you want to do. It is really important to realise you have the opportunity to be serious in industry, experiment and do what you want. It is important to have your own passions and interesting in life. Find new things to do and it is more interesting when people combine skills.

Progression -

Had no idea where she wanted to be at the start, lots of ideas but unsure what she wanted to do. She moved around, freelanced and created the way the industry worked for her. It is important to talk to people and make friends, best things happen when you listen to the advice that is given to you. Alway email people. 

'Is there a limit to persistence?'

Write to anyone like you know them, need to have an idea of what they are about, the people who care will respond to you, be personal

'What was your most enjoyable project?'

Platform about the work in Lithuania - chance to meet new people

'Do you feel uni held you back in any way?'

Uni was hard but she was strong, because of the struggle she learnt to fight for her own ideas. V important to stand your ground. You dont have to be one thing, you dont have to specialise, colege was hard to try and do one thing

Top Tips -

- create your job - it is up to you, create your own what id you don't know what you want to do

- question everyone - people will doubt things but if you feel in it right do it

- be silly - uni doesn't have to be serious

- put 100% into everything, be persistent 

- look for personality in you projects

CREATIVE REPORT / INTERVIEW

PPP 

Design week magazine have a look every week

Interviewing 

• -interview is an exchange of information as a question and answers to extract information
• -more of a conversation this way you will get more out of it
• -interviews will need contacting in advance
• -suggest to them how long the interview would take
• -how and where will it take place
• -better face to face, never do a questionnaire 
• -have a reason to contact someone about why you want to find out about them
• -don’t just have general questions, plan for the more personal ones to them
• -be attentive, look interested
• -empathy, be able to manage silences so it does not get awkward 
• -prompt - if goes silent repeat last few words spoken by the interviewee
• -probe - ask for more detail if you don’t understand
• -checking - summarise their thoughts ‘If I have understood you correctly..’
• -introduction - talk about the aims of the interview / intentions, confirm recording to see if they are ok with it
• -write notes, engage, audio recording
• -first questions significant, should be something they have little difficulty talking about
• -finishing interview - ask interviewee if they have anything else to add? Then thank them for their time
• -transcribing - don’t edit quotes 

Plan before you go some examples of questions -

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. 

NETWORKING

Methods of Networking 
– email
– phone
– facebook
– Linkedin
– Behance
– mail

Networking is not just about handing out business cards and hoping people get in touch with you. It also should not be forced because you could then be remembered for the wrong reasons. It is also about making connections for a long time rather than getting instant work. It is more about meeting people and sharing anything such as love of work and making recommendations about who else you could be talking to.

Make sure you engage with others, by sharing impression friends and projects they will simply be within your circle. 

Write a post or an article about something you enjoy and are passionate about then put the link or share it on social media. Other creative people may want to collaborate, it is a two way street. 

If you don't talk to people you can't expect them to talk to you, you need to engage with the industry in order to be noticed and make a difference.

MANIFESTO

Goals –
- Make an impression on people when they see my work
- Do work that inspires me to try as hard as I can
- Be more confident in my own ideas and work
- Have fun in my work and in my own life as well 
- Start networking that will help me in my future practice
- Do more work experience
- Stay on top of all my work and not get stressed out
- Go outside of my comfort zone and push myself
- Do more hand made stuff if that interest me
- look into advertising - done work experience in this area

My Manifesto : Small things make me happy
- little things make me happy
- keep collecting lots of random little things
- keep learning 
- balance work and fun stuff
- always look UP, whats around you makes you the designer you are
- research comes when you're not even looking for it

Keep developing my skills as a designer whilst learning and gathering research. LOOK UP - look around, things you collect and see makes you the designer YOU are. Have fun in your work, have a good balance between all aspects of life.  Keep on top of work, don't stress. 

VILLAGE - BEN HOLMES

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

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

Why self-publish -
- the internet makes it easier to get your work seen however can also make it hard to stand out
- creates something that is permanent
- if you have a passion for making a book then you will try hard and get results which are showcasing ur skills as a designer
- making something physical means people have to stop and look through something physical

What they are looking for -
- mainly photography books
- want to create objects that reflect the content inside
– layout, how content is presented on the page
– 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
– multiple binding methods, trade off with how affordable something is vs how time-consuming it is

– the book doesn't necessarily have to be bound, no real right way to make a book

One example of what they have had - 

photos of the 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. A good example of how the designer can influence perspective as some images are portrait and others landscape to show how you can get lost in the ocean

PROFESSIONALISM

Amateur 

Semi - professional

Professional = one’s main paid occupation

Creative for money 

‘Art’ for money used to be known as ‘commercial arts’ Our work is often used to sell, promote, explain, narrate and inform. 

Graphic Design was only named in 1922 - it is still growing 

We need clients to do what we do. Creativity is subjective and any work done is open to personal taste, colour preferences, committee thinking, trend, cultural and ethic acceptance, personality clashes.

To be professional we should be capable of handling most clients. 

What do you hope to achieve - work recognised? Fame? 

There are downsides :

• not being able to get work
• bad clients
• not getting paid for your work
• poor and negotiated outcomes
• clients who don’t listen

Mission statement / manifesto 

Write your own (500) words

This can be seen as what you would like to be seen as, as a creative practitioner. When you are happy with it post it to your blog to explain how you see this at this early stage.

SUMMER REFLECTION

EXPERIENCES 
– Barcelona - visited lots of exhibitions
– Budapest
– Mallorca
– Egypt 
– Bar work at 5 festivals

MOST INFLUENTIAL EXPERIENCE AND WHY
My most influential experience was probably in Barcelona, I visited many museums and exhibitions, my favourite probably being the Fundacio Joan Miro Collection, It was not only the work that was exhibited there but also the actual space it was exhibited in. The space was created by Joan Miro himself with the idea of making art accessible to all. The collection of paintings, drawings and works on paper offered a thorough overview of all the stages of his life and career. One of my favourite pieces was the large canvases Miro produced from the late seventies onwards, they are characterised by large fields of colour and free gesture. I think it was nice to see work that meant something to the person who created it and accessible to all. It made me think that I want to make work that I want to do rather than last year maybe I did some work just because I had to and maybe I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have. This year I want to focus on trying to make briefs relevant to myself so that I enjoy them more and be happy.

EVALUATION

Throughout PPP I have learnt a lot about myself and how to reflect and critically analyse my personality and my work. We have also focused heavily on the strengths and weaknesses of our work but a main thing that has helped me is knowing that your weaknesses are not a bad thing. In terms of personal branding and who you want to work with in the future we have learnt to always be looking for new ideas and inspiration anywhere you can and to share this inspiration with others around you. What I have gained from this year is improving about talking about myself and my work but also I think my public speaking skills have improved hugely. My favourite part of PPP would be the workshops and the visiting professionals because it gives us a break from all our work but it is also very inspirational for us to see that there is a positive future out there for us. It also shows us good ways to connect with professionals and the best way to make the biggest impact to gain the best result and response for you. I have found PPP this year to be very captivating to learn new things constantly about the industry and how professionals have got to the places they are today.I have learnt the best ways to network and new techniques to improve myself as a designer.

PRESENTATION STUDIO BRIEF 3 PRESENTATION

Before coming here all my work was based on the outcome, since being here I have realised that a lot of the work can be based on the design process and the ideas behind the work. I have also pushed myself to ask for help from both tutors and my peers, which I think, has helped my work a lot to improve1

I find the group crits extremely helpful for me and I believe it is a good learning curve for me because I still am not very good at portraying my thoughts into words and having to do this for the crits is helping me to improve. Usually I do not always have enough work to show in the crits to get the feedback that I needed the most which is a mistake of mine. I have realised how helpful the crits are because you receive so much feedback that you can choose what idea you go with and getting the feedback really does impact on my work. In future projects I will make sure my idea can summarised more concisely within my rationale, to promote a stronger sense of direction earlier on in the design development process. I should also use this rationale as a source to constantly evaluate my project development

not getting a good amount of helpful feedback will affect my outcome and future development, which is shown in my work for my zine. I didn’t go to all the crits which I think shows in my outcome as I didn’t get as much feedback to change my outcome so had to stick with the same idea that I had very little feedback on

Throughout being at LCA I have accumulated new skills, knowledge and strengths that has and hopefully will keep on impacting my design. I have found the workshops we have very helpful. The most helpful ones for me are Illustrator, Photoshop and the handmade print methods, I found them the most helpful as I did not have much experience with these before. I have also found out that if you do not keep on using the skills you learn they are very easy to forget. The workshops we had at the start were incredibly useful but I know there is so much more to learn. I think my strongest aspect is researching and sourcing visual materials for my projects because I enjoy researching the most. I will try to develop this further by looking into different ways of researching and exploring a range of approaches

Before making informed design decisions with purpose was not one of my strengths, I found it hard to make a decision without going back on it and changing my mind. This affected my work greatly due to the fact that I then had less time to actually design. I intend to address this by starting to take more care and think about why I am making the decisions that I make, however I believe it is an on-going aspect as well as blogging that I will keep working on. Time management skills also affect my blogging because I find it hard to keep up on the amount of work I get

All inductions provided I enjoyed. The induction I enjoyed the most was bookbinding as I have always wanted to do it but never had the opportunity to do it before, I want to use this method more frequently in my work. I enjoyed all the hand made print inductions also because I think this year the majority of my work has been on the computer and it was nice to do something handmade for a change. 

Not being able to ustilise InDesign has prohibited my work because it takes me too much time to work out how to use it rather than actually designing. I haven’t liked blogging as it is a consistent thing and my time management needs improvement. It affects my ambitions because I am spending more time on aspects like blogging that I do not enjoy and it is taking the time away from my actual designs. However I believe that using my blog more frequently, critically analysing my process will help me improve

I believe I have gained new skills that have aided my work which is what I set out to do initially, however I believe that there is always room for improvement and I hope to improve further over the next two years.



I have discovered that research doesn’t just have to come from the internet; it can come to you when you aren’t even looking for it. Not all research is online. It is about going out looking around you and seeing how the things you see around you influence your design and why they do. This has given me a sort of understanding that I can take in inspiration from anywhere that will affect my practice in a useful way. However it is still extremely important to research online to the full because there is always more things to be found. 



I received good feedback after my presentation which was good because i was really nervous before I had to present. However after seeing everyones presentations and getting pennys feedback I realised I could have done with more images and pictures of my work and research in my powerpoint. I was 2 second under 7 minutes which was good as I practiced multiple times to get it at the perfect length. After it was done I felt good however I do believe that my presentation skills  need work however I know that this will be possible over the next 2 years.