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Professional practice - WEEK 26: 16/3/20

Today is deadline day! Today I will submit my final 5 year career plan, which will include links to my social media, online portfolio and also my blog! It will also include my final CV, which I will use to apply for jobs closer to the time of graduation. I will also publish my website to the internet, making it available for everyone to see! www.laurencooper.uk

Overall, I have enjoyed this module and it has allowed me to identify my strongest skills and give me a direction to head towards in term of finding my area of digital design I feel most passionate about, which for me is illustration. This module also allowed me to create an online presence through the creation of a professional online portfolio, as well as through applications including instagram and LinkedIn. This will allow me to open up channels, which hopefully will mean more opportunities! I also developed a strong CV and created matching business cards in order to help brand myself further.

I am excited to see if my future follows my ‘planned’ career plan, and where I end up as a designer. I am very excited to graduate and begin my career as a digital designer!

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Professional practice - WEEK 25: 9/3/20

This week was our final week at university, before our deadline for this module. This week I sent my work to my lecturer for feedback and to be proof read before submission. My blog is complete and up to date as well as my 5 year career plan for the most part. I have spent the week playing around with my online portfolio and getting it up to standard before I publish it live on the internet. I will aim to publish it on Saturday to ensure if there are any technical errors these can be resolved before my deadline. I Also decided on my domain name as www.laurencooper.uk. 

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Professional practice - WEEK 24: 2/3/20

After last weeks session I had a response from the man who I sent my CV to for review. He replied with a potential interview for a placement with a company. I was confused as to what I had applied for? He assured me it was his mistake I had sent my application on the same day as he was reviewing CVs for this opportunity. It was an unexpected surprise but I don’t feel as it is the right timing or that I have enough information in order to apply for this role. So does that mean my CV is good?

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Professional practice - WEEK 23: 24/2/20

This week in class we began looking at creating a social media skills audit, where we organised our social media accounts relating to our digital art. This allowed for me to see what social media accounts I had, and if I was keeping up to date with them. It highlighted that all the accounts need updating and some need creating, for example I created a LinkedIn account in class. This will allow for more avenues of opportunity to reach me. We also discussed some minor changes and updates I would need to do to my 5 year careers plan in order to adjust the layout and add a section regarding research into my chosen avenue or job title. This would allow for me to meet the success criteria.

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Professional practice - WEEK 22: 17/2/20

This week we had a break from our lecture and this allowed us to catch up with our work for this module. I emailed my CV for review to finalise and work on the given feedback. I also asked for feedback on my 5 year career plan. This allowed me to work on these adjustments to ensure it was all correct and up to standard. I also spent the week sorting out my online portfolio and ensuring I have sufficient work to upload and ensure it is the highest level of quality possible. I still need to add context or a caption to pair with my pictures. I also need to settle on a domain name.

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Professional practice - WEEK 21: 10/2/20

After creating my CV I wanted to check with updated sources that my CV was relevant. This expertise would also help me, to ensure I have the strongest portfolio possible. I began by looking on ‘jobdesignboard.com’ which was recommended by my lecturer, by which I then looked for jobs based in London, across many different companies including fitness and food. This allowed me to see key words used in job adverts and how I could tailor myself and my CV and portfolio to be the most appealing for future employers. I then highlighted key qualities  across all of the CVs I found. They all required individuals to be highly skilled across Abobe software, where aftereffects was desirable but not necessary like Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. The majority of them required a degree but all of them required experience. This lead me to think further about graduate programs or internships in order to gain experience. Another similarity was they all enable you to work well under pressure and to tight deadlines, all of which I have experienced at university.

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Professional practice - WEEK 20: 3/2/20

This week I used a link given to me by my lecturer for the website ‘prospects.ac.uk’ I created an account, in which I completed the career planner quiz, which in turn I was matched to the job of an : urban designer, exhibition designer and product designer. Nothing digital other than a digital marketer at number 50 of my recommendations. I then completed the job match beta quiz, I was 69% suited to the job of a creator. This was a fun experiment to see after answering the 4 steps of the quiz what job I would most suit. After completing my first set of questions on the career planner quiz, I was recommended a furniture designer, so it was interesting to see how that then progressed to an urban designer, and furniture designer was not in my top 50.

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Professional practice - WEEK 19: 27/1/20

This was my first week back at university after the Christmas break. We were asked to present our 5 year career plan, blog and our online portfolios. I then restarted my trial for squarespace, and designed my online portfolio to how I would want it to look, but then take on the feedback from my peers. If everything was approved then i would pay for the personal plan on squarespace. I presented my presentation and everyone liked my portfolio, and I had very little criticism. One thing that was pointed out was the lack of colour in the background, in which I noted in week 11 when I was comparing wix and squarespace. Looking at my presentation I wasn’t happy with the thumbnail photos used on my home page I will see about changing the background colours to add more vibrancy. There was a few things about my 5 year career plan that needed changing including a research page into defining a more specific path of what area of digital design I would like to go into.

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Professional practice - WEEK 18: 20/1/20

Following on from last week I was curious about creating buisness cards. I have began the research into creating business cards. I looked into potential styles and added it onto my Pinterest board. I liked the use of the holographic outline around the edge of the card as well as used for the font as this is eye catching, however it does not fit the current theme of my CV. I begin to experiment with this further, as I believe this will be handy to always have as I could meet anyone, anywhere asking for my details, which may open up opportunities. As well as the cards being available at my degree show where anyone invited from industry can take a business card if interested.

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Professional practice - WEEK 17: 13/1/20

After receiving some feedback on my CV, I then took the time to update my CV and work on the feedback. Some of the feedback consisted of changing my personal statement. I researched on how to update and rewrite my personal statement in 3rd person. I also received feedback to add more skills I have related to my degree and experience that I have. Due to me not having any relevant experience aside my degree, I was advised to use projects I had completed at university and what I had gained and learned from doing this. This is fitting as my CV would have a link to my online portfolio, so potential employers can see what I am referring to in my portfolio. From the creation of my CV, I then began to think about creating matching business cards. This was also highlighted in my ‘Digital design : prototyping module’, where I will eventually have to present my final piece, in which they will invite people from industry,where business cards while be avaliable to take.

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Professional practice - WEEK 16: 6/1/20

This week I began to plan out how I wanted my Instagram and my online portfolio to look like and began looking for the most similar template on squarespace. I decided on all of the pages I would include on my portfolio including an: about me page, my work and a contact. I decided to keep my blog separate, as this is not something I would desperately want future employers to see. I also was working on refining the work I would include in my online portfolios and give them a background or face lift if needed. I then would use the same images on Instagram so it was consistent and would allow people on different platform to see and access my work.

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Professional practice - WEEK 15: 30/12/19

Following on from last week I then began finding accounts on Instagram who’s work I liked. I then looked on their Instagram page to see if it followed any style. I found that all the Instagram pages I had found, used backgrounds that were similar or the same colour to add continuity. This gave the Instagram pages a professional feel, which I would like to follow for my Instagram page to give flow to my page. This would mean if potential employers were to see my work it would follow the style, which I planned to use on my online portfolio also.

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Professional practice - WEEK 14: 23/12/19

This week over the Christmas break, I decided in order to help promote myself further I would create an instagram in which I can post relevant and personal work. I would try to keep this as professional as possible, but be able to show projects I am currently working on step by step. Also by creating an Instagram I can see other artists and digital designers and see and learn from there work and process.

https://www.instagram.com/laurencooperdigitaldesign/

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Professional practice - WEEK 13: 16/12/19

This week I took the time to research further into online digital portfolios and see what I could take and apply to my own. In image order:

MERIJN HOS - I like the layout of his portfolio and the simplicity of it, only having two pages. I like the layout especially if the artist has lots of work to show, this is the most efficient way.

MALIKA FAVRE - This layout was similar to the first layout of MERIJN HOS however these images has no spaces between each image which I though was interesting. I also like the rollover of each image exposing the title.

ROBBE LEONARDI - This whole portfolio was interesting due it it being interactive, and the portfolio being split into animation and illustration which was easy to navigate to see specific work.

SEAN HALPIN - After clicking on this portfolio I was immediately grabbed by the load page of the clean illustration. I like his use of a digital illustration of himself for his logo and the layout of the navigation buttons along the top of the portfolio.

By completing this exercise it allowed me to take and learn from each portfolio. I like the idea of the navigation bar and logo or name along the top., with all of my images categorised by title, with a rollover of there title, letting the images instantly attract people attention. 

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Professional practice - WEEK 12: 9/12/19

This week I heard back from the Go-ahead graduate scheme which I had applied, and I had been invited to complete a video interview on the app - ‘shortlist me’. This was my first ever video interview and I was only given 3 days to complete it. I started by doing deeper research into the company. I also completed the set of 5 practice questions given on the app, which were not related to the graduate scheme but allowed me to practice where to look, how long I had to talk and also when to begin talking as you get a thinking period all timed. This was a strange experience and I struggled to keep talking for a long period of time, as I found when I have had face to face interview in the past they can help prompt or ask you a further question to build on you’re answer. They also asked some questions in which threw me and were unexpected so I didn’t have the option to ask if I could come back to the question to have a think, so it was a very fast pace and the whole interview took no longer than 15 minutes. I didn’t feel confident after completing this interview but it was experience gained.

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Professional practice - WEEK 11: 2/12/19

This week I signed up to squarespace, wix, weebly and carrd.co. After playing around with all of the websites above I decided squarespace and wix were my top 2. I then used the templates on squarespace that was similar to my design which I had drawn on paper. I then picked a similar one on wix also and began uploading my work onto the websites. After inserting my images of my past work I decided squarespace was the most professional looking, and also the software I had the least problems with. I liked that on square space you could have pages, so I don’t not lol have to be on one page. I was struggling to create this on Wix, however this may have been due to the template I chose?

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Professional practice - WEEK 10:25/11/19

This week I took the time after to look at old work I had completed over my time and university. After last week looking at layouts for my online portfolio, I would need to look back and what work I would include and in which layout for example by year, module or title. This would allow me to create an accurate mock-up and see if the layout worked with the amount of images I have, as I want my work to be show cased to a high standard keeping it professional and not overcrowded.