OUGD502 / Self Branding / Business cards

Screen prints which I have cut up to use as business cards. I have mocked up what it could look like on the back with pen, however to reproduce properly my name and details would be printed on a digital printer.  

Mock up of refined final outcome:

OUGD502 / Overall evaluation

I’ve found this module really beneficial to my own practice as it’s helped me develop my own style and encouraged me to do more things outside of graphics. It’s given me a better understanding of the industry which I initially found quite daunting, whereas now I feel a lot more comfortable approaching studios and emailing them.

The Taking Care of Business task opened up the possibility of starting our own studio, which I wouldn’t know where to start with beforehand. With the knowledge I now have from this task by researching studios and emailing work spaces for prices, it has made the whole idea a lot more real if we were to carry it out. Instead of the standard types of presentation slides we normally present to we decided to approach the presentation with a video. This enabled us to be more creative in a practical sense, which is something we wanted our studio (Aloe) to offer. We all contributed the the video in different ways, working in a group strengthened the concept and style of the studio as together we utilised our best skills and interests into one. The feedback we received for our presentation was really helpful, one thing we didn’t know about was the rate at which to price our work at, in result we set it far too low. Something else that we should have thought of is offering video, filmmaking and stop motion as a service, which we would all be keen on doing. If we were to do it again we would have included this as well as putting in more examples of our own work which Aloe would produce, as well as stating a clearer manifesto and defining our target market / competition.

The Design Strategy presentation allowed me to clearly see areas in which I have improved from in comparison to first year. The main thing which I think has improved my overall outlook to graphic design is practicing and developing other skills outside of graphics. This has helped me spread out my creativity a lot more and explore things I really enjoy, doing these other things has given me motivation towards graphic design as because of these other things going on, I’m not getting bored of graphics or finding it repetitive. It has also inspired me to approach briefs in different and more original ways. An aim I have is to incorporate these other interests in to graphic design and the briefs we get set. The Design Strategy presentation has also encouraged me to think about my future, which I have always found a struggle to pin point exactly what I want to do. Studio brief 1 (creative report) helped me a lot with this. Contacting Nous Vous opened my eyes up to multidisciplinary studios, which is something I’d like to be a part of as I enjoy working across a range of different mediums, and think this is how I work best - especially using methods off the computer.

I have stripped back my personal branding a lot this year because when I look back to my branding from last year it looks too busy and unprofessional, therefore by having it very minimal this year hopefully it will be more timeless and I wont have to change too much in years to come.

OUGD502 / Creative Report / Evaluation

I interviewed Nous Vous as I like how they're a studio who as they put it; create playful & intelligent visual work appropriate to the context, communicating fluently across a range of processes including drawing, painting, collage, digital image-making and three-dimensional installation. This appeals to me as I’m interested in many different areas of design and don’t want to restrict myself to just graphic design. Getting in touch with Jay, (one third of Nous Vous) has allowed me to see that this is possible, as before I have been struggling to find one specific area that I’d like to specialise in and work in. Getting in touch with Nous Vous has influenced me to put aside time to practice things I’m interested in and want to develop as a stronger skill, such as ceramics, weaving and other crafts.

When coming up with the questions I wanted to ask I thought of things I genuinely wanted to know, this enabled me to find out what I didn’t know about the industry, how things work and how Jay got there. I also encouraged tips by asking questions like ‘did you make any mistakes at uni’, to which he encouraged mistakes, saying they’re absolutely necessary to your knowledge. This encouraged me to be ambitious with my outcome for the creative report, creating everything by hand (screen printing, stitching the cards together, making the envelope), as even though this way it was a lot more prone to mistakes (and many did happen along the way) I found the result a lot more rewarding and beneficial to me in terms of practicing these skills.

If I had more time, something I would definitely consider is the amount of practice cards I had available, as I was very short on practice copies, this was stressful as I felt quite under pressure to get the prints right which can be especially problematic with screen printing. This problem also occurred when screen printing the envelopes, I made a practice envelope and also a neater final one. When it came to screen printing onto the envelope the ink bled on the final envelope but came out fine on the practice copy. This meant that the rougher envelope now will be used as the final one, this would not have happened if I made more copies - something which I’ll need to remember to consider when screen printing again.

If I were to do it again another thing I would consider is changing the type to just one font, perhaps the hand written type as I think this worked best with the design due to the hands on, personal feel of it. I’m unsure if having a lot of different fonts on it causes unnecessary inconsistency as there is already lots of different coloured stock and ink used. However this could also be seen as fitting in with the different colours and stocks also.

Overall I am pleased with the final outcome and have thoroughly enjoyed this brief, it has enabled me to contact studios I admire which I wouldn’t have contacted before due to not knowing how to approach them and being unsure what to say. It has allowed me to become more confident in making connections and I can now see how easy it is. I’m going to send Nous Vous some pictures of the report as well as a thank you card written on the back on one of my prints.

OUGD502 / Taking care of business / Finished video & feedback

Making a video allowed us to show our hands on approach we would have as a studio. This approach was also a lot more fun which is how we want to come across as a studio, it let us be a lot more creative visually and got us of the computers, it also expanded our software skills in iMovie and video recording in general which is something we'd all like to do more of.

Plan before filming: 

• Open with logo
• Manifesto
• What we do & what we don't (digital printing)
• Location (map) - & where we want to go in the future
• Examples of materials
• Examples of work
• Finance 
• Origami / stop motion

Feedback:

• Hourly rate was too low
• Needs to show more examples of the studios work
• Offer video as part of our studio

All of these comments can be acted on in the future if we were to progress with Aloe. Offering video or stop motion as a service is something we didn't think of but are all keen on doing. 

OUGD502 / More screen prints

Using the prints I designed for the creative report, I have used the screen again to print little cards. I'll use these for cards / gifts for people and to possibly sell also.

OUGD502 / Creative Report / Final

Pictures of the final outcome - overall I'm happy with the report. I have really enjoyed creating something physical with more practical techniques and skills required. It makes the piece feel more special and I felt a lot more motivated and excited making it. 

If I had more time I would have made sure I had more spare pieces of card, this would enable me to do more practice screen prints more freely without stressing. 

OUGD502 / Creative Report / Envelope

I made an envelope to hold the report in. The envelope style is called a string tie envelope, I then screen printed on the top of this. The act of having to untie the envelope and opening it up hopefully adds to the fun, playful feel I wanted to achieve with this project. 

I made a mock up envelope and then a neater, final envelope. However when it came to screen printing the ink bled on the neater envelope - therefore the mock up envelope is now the final one. If I had more time I would make another envelope again to screen print on so it was neater. 

OUGD502 / Design Strategy Presentation

OUGD502 / Studio Brief 02 / Websites

This is a range of the few platforms I am showcasing my work on online, I have also mocked up a website for how I'd like my own website to look in the near future. It's been designed to be spread out with fairly big images & mainly just image based as this is the type of website I interact best with. 

Cargo Collective:

Tumblr:

Vimeo:

Future website:

OUGD502 / Creative Report / Screen Printing

For the creative report I have screen printed the post cards as I want to achieve brighter colours which I couldn't get when using CMYK. This was a lengthy process and was tricky as some parts of the type are very fine, so it was important for all of it to come out well as it needs to be legible.