#workshop series

Workshop 2 - Jonny Griffiths

An Introduction To Moving Ideas

It’s possible to use Photoshop to export high resolution videos.

The purpose of today is to encourage people to use video to showcase your work.

Create a greater impact with your portfolio by using video and moving image.

Melissa Williams - Graphic Designer, Branding, Packaging, UX UI, Video. White October in Oxford, she’s working with as a graduate scheme.

Motion Graphics:

Branding Idents Advertising Brand Communications Online Mobile Video UI Digital Screen TV/Social Media Conceptual Communication

Live Action:

Brand Video Digital Screen Promos TV/Social Media Research Video Explainers Concept Communication

Animation

Entertainment Advertising Motion Branding Identity Promo UI Digital Screen TV/Social Media GIFS Concept Communication

How Can you Use Video?

Research Motion branding Motion design Process videos Concept videos Showreels

Kering - look at this company! Owns a lot of luxury branding.

Documenting Your Outcomes - you can use video to photograph the work you’ve done.

Live Action - story telling - film based.

Adding graphics to the beginning and end of a video is called top and tailing.

Opening shots of any films is called the establishing shots.

Spark 44. They go to each shoot they do and create a ‘making of’ video. Creating and building content is part of the design process. You could sell video alongside what it is you do.

Use your strengths in Graphic Design to help you make videos.

Style frames are a good additional design for identity selling.

Audio Jungle - Royalty Free Music

Always use a storyboard. Never just get into Premiere Pro and go without a plan. It’s OK for there to be slight changes but always have a plan.

A Core Idea: what is your concept? How will you convey the essence of your message.

Beginning, Middle and Ending - treat these as three separate areas of film.

Beginning - engage your audience, grab and hold attention and establish a narrative.

Ending - Close your pitch neatly, critical to gain buy in, end on a high note.

Mano Le Tough - have a look on Google at these videos. 
Motion Tracking - using After Effects, you can fix design to moving video. Such as a sign moving with someone down the street above their head.

movingbrands.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36M4CCCXRw

Workshop 1 - Jane Anderson

12 Essential Tips for Creating that Killer Portfolio

It’s very important to always update your portfolio, even when you’re in a job.

A portfolio is a story about you. Often your portfolio needs to be engaging about you - when offering jobs to people employers look for personality. Let that personality show through your portfolio. Try and show a wide ranging portfolio.

If you’re applying for branding jobs, make sure it shows 90% of branding work. Consider the work the employer will want to see?

Send the low resolution first and then ask if you could send a higher resolution version. Smaller than 10mb.

A contents page that might wet their appetite. Give your portfolio bags of personality. Work with big brands but in your own style, it shows you can work with big brands.

Show what you're passionate about.

Choose the right briefs and competition briefs.

Photograph your work if you've got 3D, physical things.

One thing agencies hate seeing is Graphic Burger mock ups. Go the extra mile and shoot your work.

Have an intro page, who are you and what are you doing. Having a well designed introduction page sets the tonality of your portfolio.

If you have volunteered then add this; internships and placements.

State your area of practice.

Contact NEC Group for work experience/internship.

Computer Arts Magazine - send your work off to places like this.

Keep the number of projects in your portfolio between 8-10 projects.

Maybe have two versions of portfolio - one with 8-10 projects and another more in depth version to send more later.

“All Killers, No Filler” - Jane Anderson, 2017

Your portfolio is a living document so it should be updated. It’s important to update it roughly every 6 months.

Ensure that projects in your portfolio are no older than 3 years. Make sure your portfolio is contemporary and not very old.

Know the purpose of each project in your portfolio. One of the key things you’re trying to show someone is highlighting your strengths and abilities.

Be clear about your weaknesses. Don’t be over confident. Be vocal about areas you’re not confident in. It’s OK not to know everything. You can admit the things you’re weaker at.

Label the work with important information; name of the client work was one for, specific skills you have used, software used if it was specific, a sentence or two about why the project was important to your evelopment.

Create a customised portfolio; let it show the kind of work for the position you’re applying for.

Do your research on the employer - if you see work on their website that is similar to work you have done then show this in your portfolio. Curate the content for the job you want.

Possibly critique their work - what would you have done better.

So many different ways of creating a portfolio.

Know what you want to do as a designer.

A killer portfolio is well designed. Try not to use templates and design you’re own style. Don’t just use a template from Keynote.

Get something printed off. It impresses and creatives love to receive printed things.

Introductory Media.

You can create a portfolio for your Major Project, they are looking for professional development.

Consider layout - look at working with master pages to give a consistent look and feel to your portfolio.

Along with your personal brand - make your portfolio reflect, visually, your personal brand.

Consider getting someone else to create your personal brand, it’s one of the hardest things ever to create your own personal brand. It’s a great idea to swap with another student. Get someone else to design yours and you design theirs in return.

Pull out elements that work really nicely.

Digital vs Printed? It’s entirely up to you, printing is always going to appeal to creatives.

Consider the image quality when printing your portfolio - 300dpi.

Commercial Sells - it really sells. Having recognisable brands in your portfolio will really help you get a job. Let your work have a commercial slant.

Talent House is a good place to look for a wild card brief.

The photography department resides in the Media Ship, which also hosts the video, audio and electronics workshops. The emergence of digital photography has caused a major change, a development that technical supervisor Roy Taylor closely followed. “We started with very simple digital printers, which made prints that quickly faded. But these days digital prints can be much better conserved than traditional photography.”

    There is a large daylight and artificial light studio for film recording and photography. Residents are regularly asking about studio photography and video, in particular about the illumination of an object or a set. Also finding the right material for printing requires specific knowledge. Therefore, photography department works together with the graphic workshop, and also the paint laboratory, for example for the casting of photos with epoxy. Experimentation is encouraged and custom work is important. Roy Taylor: “Some residents come equipped with a 5 gigabyte file, while others made a series of pictures with a cell phone. It’s great to work with artists, and to find a way that suits their work best." Taylor sees a renewed interest in analog photography. “For instance Uche Okpa-Iroha, who traveled through Africa with an analog Hasselblad camera for his project Invisible Borders.

Currently Uche is working on a more 'digital' project called: The Godfather Part One in which he photoshopped himself into over 40 films stills of the famous mafia movie. “For this project both the studio work and the digital work were of great importance”  says Taylor “For example, the light in the studio has to match the light in the film still and after that it needs lots of editing in Photoshop.” The project is a lot of work requiring knowledge of various techniques which Taylor all masters. “Until the residents can do it themselves I help them out with the technique-part of their projects, however that does not mean I do all the work for them, they have to be there and see how it is done. For residents like Uche who are autodidact and lack a technical background in photography the Rijksakademie is a great place to catch up” The project with Uche has to be finished before RijksakademieOPEN 2012 when he wants to show his work. Although he is not yet sure what he exactly wants with the edited film stills presentation wise. “But that is his ‘problem’” Taylor says “when all the shooting and editing is done, it is up to Uche what he wants to show, he is the artist after all.”

I also got to ask Uche some questions about his project below.

Can you tell me a little more about the godfather project?

The project investigates how movies affect the individual and society.  Many movies are based on true life stories and facts but are replayed by a group of actors and their acting blurs out the difference between real, fantasy and fiction.The actors leave traces of their individualities, emotions and identities. Furthermore, the sequences of past events, social or historic, are simulated to give an almost original or authentic narrative in cooperation with a script or direction.

My project explores this simulation and/or deception.  I try to accomplish this by photographing myself in the studio and then place myself in the original scene or conversation.  With the simulated image properly inserted, a distortion or distraction is created and this draws attention to me who is now the “foreign” or the “other”, away from the original image.

This way an illusion is created and a rethink of the original conversation and scene is instigated.  The viewer will now be left alone to form his own story line or to develop a new conversation from what he sees.

What inspired you to start this project?

I’ve always loved to watch movies and very good ones for that matter. This year is the 40th anniversary of the release of the movie which was on 16th March 1972, just two months after I was born. So it’s a legacy and I’m paying my tribute to a great movie and a masterpiece. The movie is evergreen and the time or period of its production is irrelevant whenever you are watching it. It comes alive right in front of you. Yes, it’s a mafia movie full of violence, blood shedding and betrayal but at the same time, a lot can be learned from these vices.  It’s like a paradox, you draw or pull out the good away from the bad or you show the good side of a very bad thing.

Is there a person or artwork that inspires you in general?

Yes, firstly, I would like to mention the Berlin based Nigerian photographer and curator, Akinbode Akinbiyi.  He really inspired me a lot as a mentor and he also gave me my first platform as an artist (photographer).  Akinbode bought books and sent them to Lagos for me to read.  I think that is some good encouragement in one’s early career at a time when you find yourself in a space devoid of indigenous art platforms and non-existent or well developed art culture and tradition.

J.A Green and Pa J.D Okhai Ojeikere are two other photographers from Nigeria whose work inspires me a lot and also make me believe that anything is possible for an artist.  Their works are very iconic and they set the foundation for photography in Nigeria.

Lastly, I think John Baldessari and Andy Warhol is an amazing pair of photographers/artists. They inspire me a lot and I started experimenting with paints because of them.

What are your plans for the future?

After my residency, I will continue to build on what I’ve learned at the Rijksakademie and try to develop all the experiments I carried out while I was staying here. I’m also going back to Nigeria to establish an art school that focuses on photography, video art and other lens based media. I want to make an impact on the Nigerian creative industry, and it’s my ambition to use the model of the Rijksakademie as my template.   My passion is to give knowledge developed during my Rijksakademie residency back to people in Nigeria and to develop future artists.  We lack well organized formal artistic and creative structures and platforms in Nigeria.  My intention is to help re-address this situation no matter what the challenge may be or how long it would take me to achieve this.   So I introduce The Nlele Institute – African Centre for Photography (TNI.ACP).  It will be an independent art institution, a platform where talents can be harnessed and developed.  I believe it is possible.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Find out what became of the Godfather project and visit Uche Okpa-Iroha’s studio (and that of the other residents) during RijksakademieOPEN 2012, December 1 and 2! More info here

Photos: Uche Okpa-Iroha and Roy Taylor