PPP 2- STUDIO BRIEF 2 - Moross Emails part 2

A professional i'd emailed as part of my creative report is Kate Moross, an illustrator/graphic designer who's work has really inspired me over the last few years due to the typographical nature and illustrative unique style. I'd emailed her to get in contact about being part of my brief in the form of an interview, i know she'd have a very busy schedule but i thought it was worth a try. Surprisingly i got an email back today!   

Unfortunately Kate's assistant had messaged me back to explain that Kate is currently really busy, but that instead they'd send me over a book to give advice as she could not give advice personally. Even thought this wouldn't fulfill the brief i personally this would still be a really effective book to read for advice and about my future, i never expected to be sent anything from the artist and it's really useful. This shows as an artist Kate does really care about her fans and people who look up to her, its a really caring way to support artist. 

PPP 2- STUDIO BRIEF 2 - Moross Emails

As part of brief 2 for this module we have to contact a professional, this is a really scary brief as the idea of email or contacting a professional is really daunting, i don't want to annoy them. My aim for the interview to receive useful advice on my future, and to help with my practical development. I'm still really unsure about my future. I currently don't know what i want to do yet, i'm not even sure if graphics is the right choice, therefor i've used this brief as a way to find out how professional decide and to advice around this subject area.

Last year as part of my PPP i identified Kate Moross as an artists i love the work off, and the type of work i'd love to do more off. I've also used her work in my Picha Picha Presentation as one of my inspirations as well as for my 100 days of type project, therefore any advice i could get would be really relevant to my practise and my work.

In the intern magazine issue which launch i attending and purchased the book for earlier this year Kate did a interview and discuss her view on the CV's and her view on what an internship should be about. I also think this is an area i'd also like to discuss with her, after going to the intern talk and talking to Alex i'd love to her more about her experince and her views on the subject.

email -

PPP 2- STUDIO BRIEF 1 - Charlotte and Danny Talk

Charlotte and Danny Talk 

Today there was a talk set up with Future Rising, due to the weather their train from London was delayed by 4 hours so the talk was 4 hours later than expected but for my this was really worth the wait.

The talk was held mostly by Charlotte and Danny a creative team from Iris, a big advertising agency, as i'm interested is this as a career path this talk was one of the most useful events i've been to this year. AM I ON THE WRONG COURSE?? The more Danny and Charlotte talks about the work they do, the work they've done and their careers the more i'm starting to think that i should have done creative advertising as this is EXACTLY what i want to do.

The focus of the talk was around their work, work they wish they'd done and industry advice. A major subject of the talk was that as creatives we are our own brand, we need to sell our selfs on social sites and as much as we can, Danny and Charlotte got their jobs on this medium therefor this shows how important our professional platforms are to advertise our selves.

YOU ARE A BRAND, BE YOUR SELF, GET SOCIAL, GET TO KNOW THE INTERNET, SOLO ISN'T AN ISSUE

As the talk progressed it was made clear that in this industry it's the idea that sells, its the idea process thats the most important, this fits perfectly with what i love about design the idea part.

Advertising isn't linear, it's different for everyone and everyone career paths to it differ as well, how ever we get into this industry if we're good we'll stay.

DON'T BE AFRIAD TO PUT OUR SELFS OUT THERE

Placements Advice-
go to events
talk to people
keep eye peeled on social media for other events and jobs
go to book crits (???)
don't wait to graduation start now

One of the adverts the talks discussed was the Adidas Neon Snapchat advert, this was a brief they wished they'd done, it was about the same topic as my responsive studio brief 1idea social media advertising and specially snapchat as the 'new' social media platform. It was discussed how to advertise on this site it's very costly for the clients therefor companies are constantly looking for new ways to do this for free which is exactly my brief idea.

After the talk i felt worried about how much this talk inspired me as it made me realise that this is really an area i want to do for my future or explore more but thought the talk there was a range of references i didn't understand due to my graphical background. After the talk i aimed to discuss this with Danny and Charlotte but due to their train issues they couldn't stay long.

I managed to talk to they for a few moment and discuss my idea for responsive, both of them where really supportive and gave me their emails to contact with the work and to show they the progress! I also think since i now have their contact details i will ask around the graphical background concerns and other questions i have about advertising. IT WAS AMAZING A ADVERTISER LIKED MY IDEA.

EMAIL THEM ASAP    

PPP 2- STUDIO BRIEF 1 - Fem Fest

Fem Fest

A few weeks ago i visited a print fair and art event put on to celebrate Females in Art and their work. I visited this as to explore this area which includes myself, i'm a female in art and this is a celebration therefor wanted to show support.

After going to this i released an issue that related to my current research for 505 studio brief 2, this was a feminist art event and their branding, style and the colour of the event all reflect female tone only. The world views feminist as a girly, fancy, white female issue, which is what this event reflected, even with it's positive tones and fun vibe the even was very women advertising, branding and based. This is why the general public view feminism as this girly issue because this is how people brand the subject and events around the subject. Feminism is about equality, but this event was just about female empowerment rather than equal empowerment and promotion, males could not submit work are is clearly not the target audeince.

Even thought i enjoyed this event, and felt it was a very postive artist movement and i love what the organizers are try to do, going to this event has informed my research and my idea for the social issue i will explore for 505 studio brief 2.

PPP2 - STUDIO BRIEF 2- FootPrint

FootPrint 

Footprint is a worker coop print company that was set up in the late 1990's to produce print aspects. Set up by environmental activists. The coop was started as they workers inherited a printing press but over time this was became a wasteful, breaking, un-eco machine due to the old style of the mechanics so instead they purchased riso printer. This printing fit more with the ethical practice of the coop, the ideology fo the coop is to create a printing system that doesn't harm or have any negative effect on the community or world.  This printing medium allows the coop to print in a wide variety of colors as this printing press work via the same method of screen print but is a digital screen print rather than by hand as being more environmentally friendly due to less waste and low energy running cost.

A ethical sustainable practice is a major feature in the coops manifesto they also make sure they use  only 100% recycled paper stock unless given by the client, whilst also aiming to use recycled energy, don't work with large environmental energy companies like BT or Scottish power . A big part of their work is working with other coops, this is as the moral of the coop is to help other worker and hare the work/profits so working with other coops allow this network to expands, other coops get 10% printing at the company. As well as using recycled paper the company aims to recycle all their wast, including recycling all of the ink cartridges, 1% of annual turn over goes to seed company to give back to the environment. Riso printing was selected as it's easy to use but also as the inks are soya based so it's better for the environment as well as due to low energy running cost, by they are imported but minimal waste is created. 

RECYCLED PRINTING

The printing press has strong moral principles for all the worker as well and the coop in general of sustainability, ethical practices and making their printing as viable with these ethics as possible. Being a coop means it worked and owned by the members and workers instead of by a owner/boss who would again all the profit, instead everyone is paid a fair wage which is worked out by the workers as well. Created in the 1900's to deal with the change of the labor industry, as a form of rebellion against the way society was taking advantage of the workers, with bad condition and exploitation the worker formed trade unions. This movement then created working coops to create their own businesses run like footprint. Everything is decided by the workers, no large profits for one person, no share holder, wealth for you and your community this is show by the 10% discount they give to the other coops in effort to support other coops, they also give larger discount to many charitable companies.

The coop is situated in the basement of a housing coop in Leeds, as they are fit in a coop don't pay rent to the other coop. As a business they have a very low staff turn over which is as they create a very good relationships between the members the coop nature eradicated the boss worker vibes.


ROCHDALE RULES
The printing press works of the basis is that its run by the members, these are the people who use and work the service also own and run it, the service is democratically own. Management can be an be decided on in the coop or in the case of footprint as it's a small coop of only 5 members everyone is given a equal share in the decision making process. Everyone in footprint is director of the company, all 5 of them. This is done so no-one loses out on any decisions being made as if there is any issues it made sure all compromise are made, it's a very different to place to work compared to every other work place you're not just doing something as your told to, everything has reason. EVERYTHING IS DONE FOR A PURPOSE OR BECAUSE ITS THE RIGHT THING TO DO, rather than just because you are told.

As a business the printing press make limited profit but what profit they do make the members have control of totally. There is also not unpaid workers, so there is no unpaid internships, don't want to take labor without payment as they feel this isn't fair practice.  Members get paid more than minimum wage this is decided on by how much by the workers, due to the ethics of the business 50p an hour for their wages go to helping the community, donated to charities.

If the press don't agree with the content they wont print it, simple as that, if the content is uncomfortable with any of the members no one will print it, it's all decided if it can be printed as a collective. Most of their work is art work recently or political campaign, or self publishers.  They take part in Leeds zine fair, see themselves as part of the self publishing community, biggest customers are zines . Most of their business comes from having regular customers and clients , other coops know about in coop circles due to worker communication. The also produce a lot of band printing, like record sleeve or posters as this a cheap from of printing styles. 'We are hippies and punks.'

As well as printing the coop also host and make website for companies.

Relay heavily on social media, post events on Instagram and Facebook. Having a wide following on these site allow them to gain more and more free publicity,  they have a heavy interaction with the sites to improve this network medium. The more people are aware of their work the more client they have, the more they can donate to charitable causes  as feeding back into the community  is a driving aspect of the presses aims.

PPP 2- STUDIO BRIEF 2 - Charlotte Email Part 2

After Emailing charlotte asking if she would have time to complete and interview with me for studio brief 2 but also as a way to get inside advice from someone in the advertising industry. I feel like charlotte would be a great person to pick for this brief, this is due o how much she inspired me with her and danny's talk. After the talk i felt very certain that advertising is the industry i'd lie to go into or at least and area i'd like to focus on this year and maybe next, this is due to the heavy dependance on the Idea part of the process. Through out the talk it discussed how the big idea is the main part their industry, how the ideas are what inform their work for the start.

Admittedly i love adverts, i love smart adverts and how people think of them for years on after they are shown due to the impact they had, how they can be created to be very very bad yet are still effectively (go compare), how different companies  using advertising n different ways to make the audience remember their brand. I think one of the most interesting concepts is how to make people remember things even if its for a bad reason they remember them.

some of my favourites -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtRzkaSF66o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhK4su98XTM (ALL SHOT IN 1 TAKE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUeI0bzigEY


After talking to lord whitney at the start of the year a quote they gave me which i've thought about heavily this year is to go back to what we'd liked before we over thought things, what we wanted to be and do when we didn't thin about realistic issues. I remember from a young age being taken in by and loving adverts,  the catch slogans or the terrible 'you buy one you get on free, i said you buy one you get one free' or even '0800 00 1066' which haven't been around or on TV for years yet i still remember them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgdU6gaEPFE 
Maybe advertising is for me??

Before asking the question straight away i wanted to think more about the questions i wanted, think of more areas i'd be interested in and what i could learn from her but i wanted to make sure i replied fast to show my passion for talking to her and learning about her work.

my response

Even thought we've spoken briefly in person about getting into advertising from a graphical background and how charlotte didn't feel this wouldn't hold me back at all if i had the ideas, i wanted to explore and get more advice around this area as over the las few mouths i've found the proudest and the work i enjoyed the most has been my advertising based briefs, the essay for COP as well as my YCN advertising brief therefor is really could be a basis for my future i want to check doing my current degree won't hold me back.

The main worry is that in industry there will be vast amount of theories, phrases, topic and areas i'm unaware of due to not having this background.

 

her response 

Charlotte's reply this made me feel so much better about this, this has shown how thought this year i need to still focus on design work as well as some advertising brief as this could benefit me in the future. SHE HAS ALOS INVITED ME DOWN TO IRIS, Jen is currently going to the D&AD festival down in London in April but these dates clashes majorly with our final deadlines os i'm unsure if i'll be able to as i get very stressed about deadlines and with the extra stress of the festival this might ruin the experience for me.

PPP2- STUDIO BRIEF 1- Behance Set Up

Behance Set Up

After last years talk from Alphabet and this year PP talks of John bechance has been mentioned over and over again as a really useful site to set up as a way to be seen by professionals as well as a good platform for presenting work as an a online portfolio. Since coming to uni haven't included any new work in my physical portfolio which is something i do aim work on but in the digital age on online presence is as relevant as the physical portfolio if not more, therefore i feel i'd benefit from creating a Behance page.

This is a way to show my fully completed work in a professional manner which will be seen by professional and industry on the site but also a way i can easily showcase my work  which allows the link to be sent to anyone interested in my other work, the site could be sent to future jobs or used as personal way to express my previous projects.

The difference between this site and the design instagram created is the tone of the content as well as the professional nature of the target audience. Due to the use instagram has a more casual nature as it's seen more as social site rather reflected in the the photography and work often used to showcase on going project available to everyone and a wide audience, where as behance is an online portfolio site available to professional looking for designers/creatives.

As over second year i'm producing more professional grade work and work for lives brief this will be a go way to showcase this a more professional manner. The link to in Kate Moross book 'Make Your Own Look' she highlight the need for every creative to have an online professional site they can be contacted and contact others.

Whilst creating this page this highlight the lack of professional photographs i have taken of my work over the years, this is an issue as i am looking work to upload to the page i'm struggling to find work that could be shown to a professional. This was no an issue i'd expected as my design instagram has a wide range of content yet no professional imagery or mock ups that are useable on this site.

After creating this page this has shown the need to professional photography or even mock ups for all the outcome as the only work i felt i could upload was the professional imagers of the last book brief. This gives a proficient feel to the work a whilst showing it in a more positive light, allowing professionals to the work in the best way.

Due to this realization all the work i've done will be professional photographed or mocked up, even if this is not in time for the submission deadline it should still be done for the behance page. This is as the work i produced this year should form behance page which i can use over summer for internships, or for next year or for just general practise.

current work i can upload to the site fitting with the standard i aim for on my page -

PPP2- STUDIO BRIEF 2 - interview Advice

Interview Advice

The purpose of an interview received and to record a beneficial or informative talk with a person of your choice, this will then influence you're practice, give ideas and answer any questions stated.

STEP 1- contact them, give reason, why? also explain why you picked them.
STEP 2-  arrange a mutual method of connection, cannot see them but can do email or skpe

PPP 2- STUDIO BRIEF 2 - Build Email

Build Email

informyou@studio.build

As the talk i went to was too the whole graphic design course for all 3 year, so over 200 people at uni it's possible and very likely that the company have receive a large range of emails from our students  at this uni as well as general student/business. In effort to stand out from the rest first i intent to send the email from my personal account, my Hotmail instead so it's just lost in the swam of @students.leeds-art.ac.uk email.

Also intent to make the email personal, express my personal issues relating to my practice so even if i don't get an interview the email response will be useful/relevant. The subject of the email will talk about topic listed in the talk to make it obvious i attened the talk as well as took on aborad what Micheal said/listened to it. As  i found the talk very inspiration due to th nature fo the main content being about his music interest which related i'm generally intrigued in record sleeves design myself in the email i will discuss either the art work Micheal showed at the talk or either send him some of my work for feedback to ask his option, this will give porfessiona feedbacl from someon in the industry with coudl be very vital to my porgess into this buiness. I could also discuss any of my personal favorite designs and the concepts behind them the glass animal/alt j) as this show interest in his past work but also in the subject of the talk.

For this studio brief my aim is to ask interviews about how the creatives decided on their specialisms or their practice style as this is a something i'm struggling with, getting advice form people who've done this was an aims asking about this should also be relevant. Also advice on how they got noticed/got work so this will be the main body of my email so i can experiment with taking part int he same way to improve my networks. Rather  base the first email about an interview straight away as this might seem like i'm only email as i have to i intent to first just ask general advice in a way that will express my design interest in the business personal outside of college work rather than just suing  the company as for work i needed to do for a project (suggest as a good email advice).

make it personal
make it interesting
show interest
make it stand out
send things i like
ask for advice
not just using them, generally interested

email address informyou@studio.build

email

'Hello,


Currently I'm undertaking my a second year as Graphic Design student at Leeds College of Art, last week i attended a talk from your studio (thank you), after the talk i have a range of related question i intended to ask but unfortunate at the time allowed nerves to get the better of me in front of the large crowd, personally i found the whole talk incredibly inspiration, specifically the focus on music and design.

My interest was around worked you'd produce for this industry as well as the discussion about old record sleeve design like the classical Iron Maiden covers ect design relating to how even before thinking about a career path these where admired as amazing piece of art felt very relatable. I've recently had some amazing feedback off another professional in the field that told me to go back to my childhood to explore what i was interested in before i thought literally, practically and overthought everything. To explore these interests to find out what creative path to take, thinking back to my first experience with graphic design was my dads all old heavy metal and 90's rave music records. At the talk hearing another designer talk about the relation of music with graphic design felt made me think about this and how know still it's one of my main area in the subject, an area i'd like explore and learn more about. Last year i took part in the record sleeve design competition Secret Seven, this is probably the work i was most proud of.

One of the questions i wanted to ask after the talk was your opinion on the new Glass Animals album cover. It's a bit of a different cover design as it combines many different style of graphics in one piece of design, but as you said it's better to be different that nice, nice is boring. The concept behind the cover is based off the music direction of the albums content, this has inspired. This article in Creative Review probably explains the concept better than i could.
https://www.creativereview.co.uk/glass-animals-front-man-dave-bayley-storytelling-making-album-artwork-digital-age/

After the talk i'm assuming you're been bombarded with emails for students from my university, but if there was any chance i could ask you a few more questions either over the phone, in person or even a if i could organized a Skype interview whenever you are free? It would literally be 10 minutes and I'm fully flexible around your timetables and any breaks in the day you may get.

Any advice and communication with you would be very beneficial to my studies, especially when developing my practice into my final year.



Thanks again for the talk,
Beth'

 

PPP 2- STUDIO BRIEF 1- Nest Lauch

Nest, the uni magazine has recently been taken over by Erin on my course, the next launch is the first issues she's produced and had control over. Nest is used to showcase a range of different work from students are the uni, anyone can submit their pieces around a selected theme. As this is Erin first launch myself and a many people off the course decided to go to show support for erin and for the magazine. Personally i feel it's very important to support people on the course and their outside work as much as possible, in a few years the contact we make at uni will be very useful for our practise whilst also if i put on a event of this nature i'd hope they'd support me in the same way.


I'm thinking of submitting to nest as part of my responsive next term so this will also be chance to explore the style of the content of the magazine and what the magazine are looking for to assess if this brief will suit my style and design. After going to the launch and looking ta the content i feel the style of the worked picked for the issue is largely more photographic or contemporary personal than my style so therefor i probably will not enter this brief.

This also another networking chance with people on other course at the uni for future collaboration and briefs as we have just been brief officially on the collaboration brief this would be a good chance to explore other people to work with for the brief.

PPP 2- STUDIO BRIEF 2 - Buttercrumble Zine Company

Buttercrumble Zine Company

Buttercrumble aim to produce fun and exciting visual art that make them and their client smile, these are project that use graphic designs and illustration in harmony to produce their work for professional and personal work. For their brand they expresses on of the key values that work around is that foundation and idea combined with well set out plans as these are the major parts of design that create successful projects. Also collaboration is a main factor they feel is important as it gives your chance to use new skills and work unknown media/experiment more. Buttercrumble work with projects and people who want to change the world for the better via joint programs or project as much as possible

to be a great graphic designer
-right connection
-wide portfolio
-good exposure

this can be done via Social Enterprise Journey

Always feel free to make our own projects or can join some of these
-Leeds Indie Food Fest
-Wander Exhibition
-Independent Leeds Magazine
-Kirkstall Art Trail
-Garforth Zine Workshop and "Festival"

Advice -

Get involved with projects and as much work as possible.Exposure is key, projects are a great way to do this even if its for free as it will get your paid commissions after due to portfolio build up and exposure.

Collaborate - Work with as many people as possible, it makes you think about thinks different and can offer new skill, learn skill of them. Don't be afraid to reach out as this will enhance my work.

Always personalize emails, do research before and make sure you know information about the brand/professionals. Excite them, show passion and how much you love your subject as it will show commitment. 

Social Media -

As a brand Butter-crumble use it to soical media platform as a new way to market themselves mostly via Twitter and Instagram. Be interactive and post on these site alot, this will make the pages more popular and therefore seen more. Also it's important to interact with a range of people not just designers, use these to be professional but be yourself as well. Different audience for different channels as they have different markets/use.

PPP 2- STUDIO BRIEF 2- Studio 12

Studio 12
http://www.studio12.org.uk/

What?
Free space available to use for anyone in the ages 16-30, this is for people who couldn't afford to go to uni or afford the software at home but so they can still create/do design work. They have rap artist, voice overs and spoken word artist all that use their systems as there is free space for voice recording, music editing and photography, white and back background as well as full mac suites with full adobe suits.

Celebrate culture and passion in young people.

Main objective
-engage with young people
-create a experience for young people using technology equipment but also with non tech, manual media
-empower people to become producers of new media content 
-assess to library
-empower young people to transfer their skills in different environments


Wide range of workshop available in different subject areas as well as briefs and project set by companies with available teaching.Very music heavy but can do any design work, app or anything. The studio allowed you to work on your own projects, any subject area the artist selects.

The impress of this studio was that it would be a very useful resource to use over summer if i wanted to get into film, they have film work shops available and learn how to film/edit/conduct and interview. This would help my issues in studio brief as usually any adverting briefs i'd struggle to produce the outcome but learning this software and skills would help with these current issues. Also i feel that having a wider knowledge of film/director roles could be applicable in the future if i intent to go into the advertising industry, over summer i intent to look when these style of course are available to allow myself to take part.

Also i feel this studio would be extremely useful once i've left uni and if i'm still in Leeds want to still work on my own personal creative project, this would give me access the same style of equipment i have in uni once i've left. Still give me a chance to explore creative project even branch out into more film or music style work.

LEEDS ZINE FAIR
https://www.facebook.com/events/1395060570545706/

'Join us for the Leeds Zine Fair! Swap zines, meet new zine artists, listen to open mic zine readings and create your own zine!

If you are interested in hosting a stall please email: claire@studio12.org.uk

The Leeds Zine Fair is part of our Zine Exhibition in Room 700, Central Library during March 2017. Zines have been collected from groups across Leeds, including workshops taking place in libraries across Leeds. The exhibition will showcase Leeds culture, heritage, talent and creativity'


Exhibition on the 25th March, room 700 in Leeds Central Library
Celebrate Leeds heritage, culture and the people
Can submit work,
Help people across Leeds access design,

PPP - STUDIO BRIEF 1- Lord Whitney, Be Influenced

Be Influenced 

After studying in depth the conversations with Lord Whitney of the useful piece of information that suggested is to be influenced by everything i can, this means going out to events or to art gallerys and finding my own influences. This links heavily to part of my Ten Year Presentation as well, when one of my aims was summarized by a Graphic Designer quotes explaining how to know graphic design we as designers have to know everything.

To be influenced or to learn something new, my aim is to at least once a month (hopefully more) go to a creative event/place or opening. This will greater my knowlegde of the creative industry whilst also allowing me to meet, see and discover new influences and things that could effect my current or future practise.

This also links to the talk with Intern Magazine, as her i learnt the great importance of networking, the better my network the more sucessful i will be these would be very good places to work on this aspect of my practise. aim of the year - GO TO EVENTS, LEARn THINGS, MEET PEOPLE, DO THINGS.

PPP 2- STUDIO BRIEF 2- Lord Whitney Emails part 3

Lord Whitney Emails

Unfortunately it has been a few week since Lord Whitney emailed me since the email when into my junk folder but a response need to be sent as soon as possible due already existing delay. The delay will need to be explained to them to make up for late reply, this will give off an unprofessional appearance but they themselves did take longer to reply to me so hopefully it doesn't appear to terribly.

The documentary given to watch cannot be found anywhere online or to buy for cheaper than £50 but to show i have tried to find as well as to show i want to watch it in the email i send as a response i intent to ask Lord Whitney if the site i have found for the film is the correct site, if it is i will by the film to watch. This shows i have tried but also will make sure the site is official, make sure that it will not steal any credit information ect.

After a talk with John and the Professor Heller Advice for the response i aim to compile an engaging email that shows knowledge of their work, ask personal questions, don't say this is for a brief, responses in the same tone of voice, and expressed my general interested and admiration for this work.

NEED TO APOLGISE 
NEED TO THANK FOR REPONCE
NEED TO ASK FOR CHAT/VISIT
NEED TO SHOW KNOWLEDGE OF WORK
NEED TO MAKE IT PERSONAL

idea -
collaboration -from the email response and from the visit i remember that Lord Whitney discusses working together and how they did this to create their brand, this is what made them the brand which link to my current worries about the collaboration brief. Asking them about this will allow me to get advice i can use about how to take advantage of that brief whilst also applying this to future collaboration briefs/work.
cider pig brief - as for my responsive work i wanted to create an advert or something more out of my comfort zone as the brief is so open talking to them about their advert work and as well as how to explore this brief will get help on current projects.
  
Response -

hopefully they will email me back for an interview :)

PPP 2- STUDIO BRIEF 2- Build Talk

Build Talk

http://studio.build/ 
In this session as a course we have a talk from the Founder of Build a design company not situated in Leeds. The talk was discussing how he started graphics, hes career, the company growth, and more inspiring part personally how he decided to get into this industry.

The talk started with a focus on record sleeve design , old more rock album covered as Micheal explained his love for this style of design and typography before he was even aware of this being a industry path. How he saw this as a form of art, art that he loved and still does, this linked heavily to my inspiration as i remember feeling the same when i was younger about poster design. I related straight away to Micheal talks about loving graphic design before even being aware this was a subject area he could part take in later in life.

As one of the main briefs i enjoyed and felt produced the most engaging outcome last year was for the brief Secret Seven, this outcome was to produce record sleeve design (or range in my case) which related to Micheal earlier work with was heavily around music, music design or branding, or record sleeve design. Micheal's interest from a young age was based around this genre of design, how different record sleeves can be, how diverse the outcome can be, how creative the work can be.

Micheal discussed how that looking back some of the covers are terrible and make him cringe even looking at them but the engaging design or unique concept have latest over time, these are the ones that now still work well as pieces are design. Good design stand the test of time and he aims to create work that achieves this.

This made me think of the article about the new Glass Animals Album Cover designed by Dave Baybel. (https://www.creativereview.co.uk/glass-animals-front-man-dave-bayley-storytelling-making-album-artwork-digital-age/). 
This album cove design lately has really stood out to me to due to postmodern nature of combination of styles, type and pastiche photographic styles. The retro inspired cover design has a concept created from the same basic inspiration as the idea the albums music, the music is based around stories and life facts from a range of people the band met over the years. For the album cover these people where then personified as a range of unique human characters, which where then used in collection style 80's family photograph for the cover.

This is then given a retro video game style boarder linking to the time frame the imagery is created to be inspired from. This shows the direct link to the unique more abstract style of music the band produce due to the crazy, over the top, different nature of the cover. The cover stands out due to not following any current trends or styles popular in record sleeve design but instead takes influence from the actual musical content of the album.

This talk made me think of this album cover due to the nature Micheal stated that he loves 'interesting design' over nice design, he explained how he feels nice design is boring where as interesting design is always stand out and attention grabbing for the audience. He prefer design to be borderline terrible yet different that just nice, as i struggle to create nice design this has shown that there are other professional that feel the same about concept-less pretty design being meaningless.

Micheal also discussed how to be influenced by everything, how everyday life can inspired design idea without even thinking about it. How his took a year to travel and explore, this then has benefited his practise as he's learn new things, meet people and just generally gained more knowledge about the work from traveling. This will hopefully mean that when i book my planed trips over summer these will end up influence my work, give me greater information about the work and show be done as much as possible to greater my knowledge of life as well as my intended profession.

MIN OR MAX
BE EXCITED AND BE PASSIONATE
SHOW THIS PASSION IN MY WORK
ME INTERESTING, NOT NICE

After this talk as i felt that Micheal work int he music design industry as well his interests would make him perfect for my studio brief 2 for this brief. He's done the type of work i aim to do as well as explored other things i'd be interested in and having an insight to this business and how  get far in it would benefit not just my practice but work on allow me to further decided what i want to do and if this is right path for me.


how to contact him -

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email given - informyou@studio.build (from insta)

PPP 2- STUDIO BRIEF 2- Lord Whitney Emails Response

Lord Whitney Emails Response

After accidentally email Lord Whitney a draft of the email i aimed to send about the future interview for this brief i didn't expect a in-depth response and after this amount of time had past i thought my email had just been missed, i was planning to write a personal hand render letter to them instead but today i received a response, yay :)

ISSUE - this response was sent to my junk emails due to the sender being unknown, due to this i didn't know they had responded so haven't replied even though the email was sent awhile ago, 19th of jan, in future i will need to check my junk more to stop this happening again as sending a reply this late will appear unprofessional/like as if I'm uninterested/ as if i couldn't be bothered to reply/lazy.
 
The response was this -

Amazingly the response was a long email helping with the issues i had discussed, they explained how i should follow my childhood ideas and loves.Going back to this age my passion was always art, drawing and designing clothes, so thinking about how even at that age i loved designing has allowed me to feel more safe with my current degree choice, even when id didn' know what i wanted to do i knew i wanted to design.

Bek explains how i should look at the work i most enjoy, this for me last year was the print money brief and the CD cover design Secret Seven, i feel i enjoyed these outcomes the most as i could produce something more abstract, less confined to rules. This can help me this year as this shows the work i like more is more art side of graphics, more creative less minimal side of design so i should try and work this into my brief outcomes from now on. 

The email also suggest a documentary to watch, "Beauty is Embarrassing", after looking on-line and in the Libray at uni i currently cannot find this available to watch under £50 on amazon which i currently cannot afford. There is an official website with the documentray for £5, which i don't mind paying for but this seems a bit dodgy as it doesn't have paypal and the site ask for credit card information straight away which feels unsafe, i will discuss this site with a tutor before purchasing of this site. I'm going to continue looking for this documentary this week as i feel i need to watch this before emailing back to so i can included links to it in the response, shows i have listened to them and taken their advice on board.  

BEFORE EMAILING BACK
-do more research into their work
-watch the documentary
-find out more about them/ask more questions
-find out when i can go visit them
-ask for interview
-response soon
-check junk more
-apologies for the long reply time 

Overall i'm really happy with this response, Bek has been very helpful and her informal tone has made me feel more relaxed about this brief and emailing in general. This response hasn't stated a time or date or if i can interview them for this brief as this part of the email didn't send, this is as the email i sent didn't as for a email due to sending the draft instead due to this the response will ask for a interview.

PPP- STUDIO BRIEF 1 - Film Presentation Feedback

Film Presentation Feedback

The personal aim of this presentation was to focus on my aim issue, my talking speed. This was a good chance to explore this issue area a subject i'm more confident about, as around my work i get paranoid that people will judge me so i get more nervous which makes me fast but around an area not related personally to me i can focus just on the presentation speed in effort to work on this.

I planned to make the presentation shorter rather than longer, but after getting talking about the subject area in depth i did go slightly over the time set but unlike normal i was slightly slower. There was not a drastic improvement but there was an improvement! I feel that for this study task i talked slightly slower than usual due to being more relax about the subject area, as well as due to the amount of practise i put in. The more conformable i aim with the content the slower i talk, therefor for the other presentations this year i will make sure i practise the content largely before the final presentation, the more comfortable i am around the content the slower i talk.

Feedback from the presentation was very positive, the audience felt it was the visuals where appropriate and related well to the content. The audience where also less aware i talked at the speed, this was no mentioned therefor as it wasn't seen as a downside i'm taking it as a positive.

This study task highlighted that i can talk slower when i'm less nervous, and to overcome this i need to learn the content more before, not relay heavily on notes as this confuses me when i cant read the notes, practise the timing well before, and just generally try to relax more about the presentation.  Though out the year i aim to work on timing more and more, hopefully over the range of presentations we have coming up i'll get more used to this presenting therefor will become more confident with it and REMEMBER TO BREATH 

PPP 2- Studio Brief 1 - Professor Heller interview advice

Professor Heller interview advice

Facts and advice from Professor Heller that can help me phrase the emails we need to be send, this will help currently as I'm struggling with what to reply to Lord Whitney as well as panicking about how to contact and phrase other emails to professionals. This whole part of the brief is very stressful for me so more research into how to create emails, how to word them and also feature people i want to ask might find annoying will make sure that the emails and questions i ask will allow for better response. 

article link -

title - get an interesting title, not just question or simple, make it stand out against the rest of the other that will be emailing

content - there is usually a basic email that sent out mine will need to be more interetsing, have feature the others wont so it's less generic as this type of email being send is boring for them so will not get as positive response if any. Most will have no greeting, this feel very formal and puts of the artist as they aren't spoken to a person but as a resource. Don't say i have to do them, say i want to. Make the emails personals to my interest in their work whilst showing i wanted to do them, showing my interest in their work. Make them sound wanted, don't say need to say want to. Don't say asked anyone else act like they the first choice always even if they aren't.  Background reading is good as it make informed questions show i have knowledge of them, not just a google search.

bad practice - make an interesting questions, with not a book length answer but also not just a yes no blank questions. Don't just fulfill the requirement, ask what actually interested in so the response can actually be used and relate to my work, gives actual advice.

email - nothing wrong but nothing great, email are seen as lazy, they don't give chance for more questions, go in person? should be personal to me

More research -