LIAM KEARNS

PDP/blog overview

1. Placements 2. Exhibitions 3. Talks 4. Workshops 5. Online presence 6. Freelance

1. Placements:

- Transmission Creative – 2 weeks full-time unpaid placement (July 2014) - Transmission Creative – 1 day a week paid internship (February 2015 – Present)

I have learned a significant amount whilst working at Transmission. I have adapted well to the fast-paced nature of the design industry and have managed to learn a variety of different skills from working along-side Graham and Grant.

I was delighted when the duo offered to have me back for a paid internship after my initial 2 weeks in the studio. I loved the friendly atmosphere and quickly built a good relationship with Grant and Graham. On our last day of the 2 week placement Grant took myself and Charly out for a meal with Dave; his good friend, and printer. It was very interesting to see the relationship that Grant had developed with his printer. I spoke to Dave in depth about print and learned a lot of information that will prove vital in the future.

Working mostly on Transmission’s self promotion was a happy coincidence as I had just finished branding myself and was able to adapt what I had learned through the university module, into my work at Transmission. Now I am currently working on illustrations, branding and advertising as part of an animation that the agency plans to launch with their website. Technical skills aside, I’m also learning a lot about running a business. How to speak to clients and interview processes are all things that I have been able to take part in while at Transmission, which will help me significantly in later life.

2. Exhibitions:

- BCNMCR at 2022NQ - Roses awards night - x4 Forever Manchester First Friday, at Whiskey Jar NQ (Networking event hosted by Forever Manchester that takes place on the first Friday of every month). - Four Collective – Celebrating four years - Hyper Island Learning Lab - Manchester Print Fair No.8 (part of Design Manchester 14) - Everything Must Go 2022NQ - Existence at Kosmonaut – Stafordshire University Networking Event (Spoke to Trevor Johnson, 3 Staffordshire tutors and 2 designers from The Chase who set the brief for the event). - Good Ship Salford – Networking Event at Black Dog Ballroom

3. Good Ship Salford networking event:

- Designed and Coded the website for the show. - Made amendments and resolved issues with website. - Received positive feedback from designers at the event with regard to the website.

- Created iPad portfolio for feedback - Printed my business cards with Moo - Received feedback from 8 designers/agencies (Access, Arena, Absolute, K2L, Code Computer Love, Transmission Creative, Tom Shaughnessy (Glorious Creative) and Nathan Littler (Media Village))

I was approached by the barman at Black Dog Ballroom who asked me if I could design and code a website for a salad bar business that he was looking to pursue. Showed him my portfolio and gave him a business card and received an email the next day. Currently discussing his proposal and his budget.

4. Talks:

- Andy Golpys freelance talk - Andy Golpys business talk - Talk with Jo and Sarah (regarding Cabin) - Talk with Jo and Gary (regarding Cabin) - Whatever Your Brand presentation - Machina presentation - Alumni talk - Photography by Anderson (Client pitch to Transmission) - Antalis Paper Company (Client pitch to Transmission) - Dave (Transmission’s printer based in Sheffield) - Fiona Christie – CV, cover letter and interview presentation help.

5. Competition entries:

- 1 x YCN (Propercorn) - Penelope’s Kitchen Media City (competition within course) - NHS (competition within course)

6. Workshops:

- Took part in book binding/book making workshop by Hannah Frey. - Screen printing tutorial with Hannah Gibson. - JavaScript Lessons taught by Jason Mayo to help my website have a dynamic experience. - Talk from ex-Salford student Steve Lowry from UMI regarding how he set up his own business. - CV writing lecture - Good Ship Salford workshops & running blog

7. Online presence:

- Created my online portfolio website using html/css/jQuery & updated from feedback in January 2014 - Created a holding page for my website so that I could make my web responsive before going live: www.liamkearns.co.uk - Created a professional email to match my domain name – [email protected] - Uploaded work to http://goodshipsalford.co.uk/ - Tumblr - updated often: www.liamkearns.tumblr.com - Behance: https://www.behance.net/liamkearns - Twitter: refined for creative purpose: https://twitter.com/lkearns94 - Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liamkearns94

8. Freelance:

- Ambitronic Music – Branding, Album artwork, online presence. https://soundcloud.com/ambitronicmusic - Ste-J – Logo design, business cards. - Dementia Buddy – Logo rework.

-Connect Tech - Logo design.

A selection of research that I used heavily to inspire my work for Transmission. Since I hadn’t really touched illustration until this project I needed all the help I could find when it came to styling and colour schemes. I settled on the flat colour, vectored shape style and ran with it to create all of my illustrations. I managed to create a unique style that develop from my skill in illustrator. 

Grant wanted to try different colours for the background. As oppose to the current pale backgrounds that help to draw attention to the characters, he thought it might be nice to try vibrant backgrounds as they could look more lively and exciting. We soon realised that they were far too overpowering and totally sapped all life out of the characters, so we stuck with the original colour scheme. The hair on the characters in these scenes is also different. This was before I remade the hair style to be more suitable to the style. Creating less detail and making them more shape-like.

Started to try different logo variations experimenting with dials to represent Transmission’s “tuned in” ethos.

Added the remaining two themes to the shop front, which are the joinery and electrical departments. I think this brings life to the shop and ties it in with the new branding. This shop front, with the plant pots full of large themed objects in front would be really eye catching if you were to be driving past.

I chose the most appropriate photograph and edited it in photoshop until I was happy with the effect and then dropped the type on top. I darkened the photo slightly to help make the type stand out more and positioned the type carefully so that it retained it’s legibility. I’m really proud of this piece of work as I managed to achieve something much nicer than what I had initially envisaged. Like I said, this was the first time I had used this technique to create type that maintained it’s hand-drawn feel and I think that the overall aesthetics of the poster are really nice.