#254dva

While working on my 254DVA presentation for next week, I decided to finally work on my logo. I’ve been thinking about making one for a long time but I never got a good enough idea until yesterday. I can’t say I’m extremely proud of what I’ve done, but I am quite satisfied with it. 

This is an interesting exercise we had to do last week but I did not get the chance to write about it. As usual, we had to answer some questions:

List your skills:

Hard/technical skills: Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Dreamweaver, Word, Power Point, Excel, HTML and CSS, can work in Windows and Apple.

Soft skills and competencies: Good communication and teamwork skills, adaptability, intrapersonal skills, multitasking and working on multiple projects in the same time, emotional intelligence, ability to learn and accept from criticism.

List your strengths:

What do you love doing? What are you good at?  In terms of design, I really enjoy branding, book cover designing, web designing, advertising and packaging. Out of these, I think I’m better in branding and book cover designing. 

What do you care about? As a designer, list your values. I am attracted by simple and minimal designs, with little to no colours (or pale colours that are not so powerful). I also appreciate knowledge, not only in design but in as many subjects as possible. I think that as a designer, you have to know lots of things from as many areas as possible. If you’re interested in something else other than designing, that’s good. But it has to be more, not just one thing, not just two things, there have to be a thousand things you are passionate about (some more than others). In order to create smart designs, you need to have a great amount of knowledge. I do not like designs which are too colorful or have too many details - I prefer those that are simple, symmetrical and have a restricted colour palette (only 3-4 colours). 

What are you like as a person? What kind of personality do you have?

Undertake a self branding audit - how do others see you? (relatives, friends, classmates, professors and co-workers).

Another exercise our tutor proposed was taken from the book ‘Skills for success: Personal Development and Employability by Stella Cottrell.

Define the problem (what you might want to do/achieve) 

Desired outcome 

Options

Is it feasible

How do you (what do you / will you) feel about it?

Steps to success (what must I do, when, with whom, where? Remember to use SMART principles - specific, measurable, action, realistic, timely)

Possible obstacles (what might get in the way? how might you overcome those problems?)

What to do next...action (Do it!)

Evaluation (after the event ask yourself...did it work?)

I am not quite sure what ‘problem’ means in this context, as number 1 and 2 seem to be more or less the same thing to me, so I just decided to go with it.

I would like to work in a designing agency, preferably doing branding or book cover designing.

Options would be to work on live briefs and get involved on placements so I can see what is right for me but also to develop my skills and produce better work.

It is feasible but there are some things I have to work on before (CV, portfolio)

Although I think I would enjoy working in these fields, I might be wrong. I want to see how I feel about it after getting a placement with a company that specializes in one of these fields.

Work on live briefs while in Coventry. Get work placements from March on - in Coventry or cities around Coventry. Look for companies around Europe and start applying for the a year abroad. Come back to Coventry and finish my third year. Either look for a job in Europe (thinking of North Europe or maybe Germany, Italy) or try to apply for N.D.C in Tokyo. If I do that, I will first have to improve my language skills so I might take some language classes first (maybe in my home country or even in Japan). I am also thinking of maybe applying for a master’s degree (in graphic design or in marketing). I could do both the master and improve my Japanese skills in the same time.

Lack of skills - I might not have some of the skills that are required in this field or there might be some skills I have but need to work on (such as teamwork and communication). I often communicate better in writing so I need to work on speaking with the same confidence I write. I might not get too many offers, even if I apply to lots of companies. The best way to overcome this situation is to keep applying, even to companies that don’t seem that great to me - at this point, any experience is valuable. 

Finish my CV and portfolio -> start applying for placements.

Branding opportunity at Big Fish. This is quite a big agency and they have worked with many famous companies. I imagine it would be rather difficult to get a placement with them but I am willing to try. As soon as I finish with this module and I am sure that my CV and portfolio are done, they will probably be one of the first companies I’ll contact. 

Placement with Penguin. As I said before, I will definitely participate in this year’s book cover contest. If I do manage to win, I might be able to get an internship at Penguin. Even if I don’t, I am still thinking of applying for an internship with them, but for that I have to design more book covers. The ones I have in my portfolio are not that great and they are definitely not enough.

This is something I cannot do for now but it’s a plan for the future. One of the companies I started liking last year is called Nippon Design Center. Since they are based in Tokyo, Japan, it would be difficult for me to get a placement with them (mainly because of the money, since the university could only cover the plane tickets; unless I manage to get a paid internship which would be helpful), but I am currently working on a plan of getting a job there once I graduate.

What processes and learning experiences do you expect are necessary to get you to your ideal placement or project? Think about writing your CV, designing your CV, writing letters, learning important new skills or theory, and so on. 

Writing and designing my CV. Unfortunately, there are not many things to put in my CV for now, but I will try my best to make it look interesting. I also want to come up with a design that really describes me, as opposed to making a generic layout with info graphics like most people do nowadays. 

Designing my portfolio. I already have the portfolio I created when I applied to university, but since then I obviously improved my skills and produced some more work. The portfolio I made back then was also rather impersonal. I think it would be a lot easier to make it once I’m done with the CV as I could simply follow the same style, in order to show a connection.

When it comes to skills, I would like to improve my photoshop, illustrator and indesign skills, but also learn to use other Adobe programs that I haven’t used before. As for soft skills, I want to work more on my communication and teamworking skills. 

Last week during the PDP session, we were asked to start working on our CV and action plan. I have never made a CV before, although I did know what is usually supposed to go in a CV, how it looks like and so on (even though I did learn new things I did not know about during the session).

The action plan is what is a bit more difficult to me. I do not have a very detailed plan of what I want to do in the future (I usually don’t have detailed plans about anything, I am more of a ‘go with the flow’ type of person and whenever I try to plan something on a long term, I find it tedious and useless) but I do know what I would like to do in general. What is really difficult is writing it down in detail. I think it is useful to do this, to some extent, but as I said, it seems to be easier said than done.

In last week’s session we were asked to answer the following questions:

1. Identify as many different types of projects / ideas / opportunities that might be applicable to you. List as many different ideas as you can.

 First one would be the live brief I am taking through the add+vantage module. This will allow me to work with an actual client for the first time, but also to improve my teamwork and communication skills, as I will have to work in a team of 3 or 4 people. I am curious as to how this will go, especially when it comes to communicating with the client.

 Secondly, from what I understand, next year (starting from March) we will have to either take up a live brief or find a placement for ourselves. I do not mind doing another live brief but I think I would rather try to find a placement, preferably in Coventry or somewhere close to Coventry so I would not have to waste too much time commuting. I plan to look for some design agencies in the city and start applying as soon as I finish my CV.

2. Using the above list, identify any ideas for projects, placements, opportunities that are particularly of interest to you and your practice.  I would be happy to do anything related to branding, advertising or book cover designing, as these are the fields I am most interested in. I also enjoy packaging but not quite as much. For now, I would rather focus on a design agency that does a bit of everything, rather than going for an agency that focuses on one specific field.

3. Discuss the relevance to your own practice and interests

This opportunity would enable me to gain experience and see how it is like to work in this field, with real clients. There is no other way of gaining this experience because it does not matter how many articles and books you read about it, unless you go out there and do it yourself, experience it yourself, you won’t know how it is like. It might turn out that it is not even the right thing for you. If that will happen to me, I will just keep trying until I find something that fits me and allows me to do something I truly enjoy. I would not like to do something I am not good at and do not enjoy, or even something I am good at but do not enjoy. In the same time, I would probably end up meeting new people or developing an interest in new areas of design (which might even make me realise that there is a field in graphic design I did not even consider before but might be perfect for me).

4. What might you hope to do for a professional experience. This will probably come from your list, identify one or two might like explore. How is it / are they relevant to your possible future career. Why are you interested in this type of activity.

 As I said before, I am currently focusing on branding/advertising or book cover designing. 

Creating the branding for a company seems like something fascinating for me. It is not simply about creating the logo or coming up with the right colour combination. First of all you have to fully understand the client - who they are, what they do, why they do it, what are their goals and inspirations, what do people think of them. Then, to create a brand, you have to create a story about the company. People have always been more interested in stories rather than in facts and figures. Brands have to be presented as stories, they have to be personal so that people can connect with them. The more people feel a connection to your company and your brand, the better. For that to work, you can’t simply design a logo, get your money and then forget about it. As a designer, you have to understand the company (and its target audience so you can see what they want, what attracts and inspires them) and maybe even treat is as your own. 

As for book cover designs, this is something I enjoy as well but for now I only see it as a hobby, not as something I could do for a living. I would love to take a placement in this field and see how it is like - maybe it will turn out that I actually enjoy it more than branding. I always loved reading, and the more I learn about graphic design, the more I realise how powerful book covers are - how you sometimes don’t even pick up a book because of the way the book cover looks like; or how you sometimes do pick up a book because the cover attracts you but it turns out it was not what you were looking for. After taking part in the Penguin competition last year, I realised how important it is to thoroughly read a book in order to create a smart cover for it. Right now I am limited by the fact that I can only create good book covers for books I know and love. But I want to be able to do the same even with books I don’t enjoy quite as much. 

5. How might you make your idea real? What research / action can you undertake to ‘set the balls in motion’? Who might you contact?  What questions could you ask?  Bullet the relevant points.   I plan on looking for various companies and agencies that deal with branding or book cover designing. Or even graphic design agencies that don’t focus on just one field. In the same time, I want to take a part in the Penguin competition from next year as well. Last year I thought I did quite a good job but I did not get shortlisted - this year I will try my best to earn that achievement.