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Portfolio Notes - Session 5

Since my last entry about my portfolio, I have managed to format and print a copy from John E Wrights. I was able to print it using good quality 140g silk paper and a card stock for the front cover. Due to its size I wasn’t able to get it perfect bound, so I had to have it wire bound. This isn’t that much of a problem because the wire is white, so that it doesn’t detract from the book. I also have a plastic sheet over the top of the book to keep the pages in good condition.

 The problem I have experienced with printing the portfolio is with the printing process itself. The front and back pages weren’t printing in alignment. If the left hand side of the page on the top of the paper was printing properly, the image on the back of the page would be printed too far to the left by about the distance of the margin on the page – roughly 1.5-1.8 mm. I have since tried to adjust the rear-facing pages by shifting them by that amount to the right. Doing this will mean that when the printers next cut the paper once it has been printed, that it will have to be cut from the centre edge and not the outside edge. Hopefully this will mean that the printing will meet in the middle and that the finished version for the exhibition will be displayed as I’ve designed it.

 In the last month or two I’ve been producing work for Spotify, the British Heart Foundation and for the Cannes Film Festival, which is my exhibition piece. I intend to replace some of the older sections of my current work such as Matte Painting, Photomaniplation and Life Drawing with these new works. I’ve also been producing a new set of stationary for a local business, called Local Media. I will include some of this more recent work in the portfolio, replacing some of my older local work.

 My aim is to have the portfolio, a matching business card (design-wise) and the sketchbook of the project printed at John E Wrights within the next few weeks in time for the Exhibition. As I continue to work my way up to this goal, I will contact the printer for details on the cost, the time needed to print and the format the files are needed in. To match the portfolio and business cards I will make a 1-page website with a similar design with my contact details and a contact form on.

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Masson Mills

As part of the Impossible Machines project, I went to visit the Masson Mills over in Matlock. I needed some inspiration and I figured seeing 200-odd year old machinery would be a great foundation for the rest of the project. I’ve been to the more commercial shop-based side of the Mill many times in the past, but I’ve never before been to the museum.

The museum itself was bigger than I thought; chilled by the winter air it was a treasure trove of mechanical gears, spikes and looms. Entering the museum I was met with a room that was narrow but very long and filled with rows of machinery I don’t have a clue what purpose it served when the mill was running. A gas mask was hidden amongst other odd bits-and-bobs on the shelving in this first room. On a side table was a series of metal cogs, arranged to illustrate how some of the machinery worked. Further along this room was an even greater number of machines used to process the cotton. In a side passage cutting through a medium dark and dank room was filled with expansive machinery with a variety of archaic tools hung up on the wall, clearly untouched for a long time. This was a machine shop where the machinery in the main shop was repaired.

The last rooms I looked in were even bigger and longer than the first; about the width of a house but perhaps the length of half a football pitch! It was filled left and right with giant metal machinery. A series of looms to the left and a machine that had a series of hundreds of threads ready to be threaded together and made into sheets of wool or cotton to be used for clothing. Lastly there was a boiler room, the energy centre of the facility at one point. There were 3 boilers painted black and red that were as big as the first floor of a house.

Overall it was good to go and see the big machines, even though it would have been more enlightening to have been taken on a tour of the facility by someone working at the museum. Unfortunately I went at the wrong time for this. I still got some great pictures and most importantly of all it got the cogs in my head spinning, giving me some great ideas that I can take forward into the rest of the project.

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Spotify Project Review - Day Three

18-

Task: Met as a group to see progress.  Decided which illustrations to go with and how to balance workload with Chloe sick.

Strengths: Helping to see what had been done and what was left to do kept everyone in the loop and focused on the deadline. Making bigger decisions like deciding on final illustrations together helps to keep the group happy with decisions being made instead of splintering. We decided to use the 2 illustrations I had done in Photoshop and one from Stephen G drawn traditionally.

Weaknesses: Deciding on illustrations meant some illustrations we had put time into would have been discarded which could have offended the artist, negatively impacting the group. Deciding who did what could have negative implications if someone wasn't interested in doing a specific task.

Improvements: Keeping everyone in communication and reinforcing an atmosphere where all parties feel they can contribute equally. Making sure everyone is aware of the brief and knows how we are answering it.

  19-

Task: Scanned in Stephen G's chosen drawing and tidied it up, using it as a base for a new illustration.

Strengths: Using both illustrators drawings helped to keep the project balanced, not favouring one persons work over another. Scanning it in sped up the process of helping it to fit into the other chosen drawings and kept the e-shots with a unified theme.

Weaknesses: Since the drawing had to be scanned in, it meant redrawing the illustration to match the style of the others. This used up valuable time that could have been spent helping on the animation.

Improvements: I could have better balanced the time between retouching the illustration and keeping myself available to help with the animation where needed.

  20-

Task: Made sure all aspects of the animation were in hand and tried to keep myself and Stephen G available to help Alex when needed.

Strengths: Trying to keep on top of the work to be done and collaborating between everyone involved in the project helped to keep everyone on-task and aware of where they could help. This helped us to meet the deadline especially when we only had one dedicated animator.

Weaknesses: There's a risk with organising people that they begin to ignore or resent you or perceive you as takijng charge. This can negatively impact the productivity of the work being completed.

Improvements: Trying to make an atmosphere where everyone feels they can ask for help and advice as and when they need it.

  21-

Task: Did final outlines of the illustrations, adjusted them for size and proportion and decided to keep lines black except the headphones and microphones, which were Spotify green.

Strengths: Chris and the rest of the group helped me to make sure all aspects of the image were in correct proportion and keeping to the brand guidelines of Spotify. This collaboration helped us to decide on the final colour scheme of the illustration and the animation.

Weaknesses: Making big changes to colour schemes at this stage in the project can derail you and make you miss the deadline.

Improvements: Try to keep a balance between visual aesthetic, deadlines and ensure every aspect of the outcomes are in-keeping with the brand.

  22-

Task: Started to lay out the emails sticking loosely to the agreed rough layouts. Laid out the Logo, placed illustrations and placed some dummy links/small text to make the emails look official.

Strengths: Having already decided on the layout beforehand, I knew where everything needed to go roughly. I was then free to make design choices to improve the aesthetic of the layouts. Working on one e-shot at a time until it was finished ensured each e-shot was the best outcome we could make it in the time given.

Weaknesses: Working in this way, one at a time poses the risk of running out of time and not having the full 3 e-shots to present. It's better to have 3 rough outcomes than 1 completed one.

Improvements: It would have been a more efficient use of time to try to develop all 3 outcomes at roughly the same time in order to leave the individual elements for each e-shot to spend more time on.

  23-

Task: Outlined the tagline text and worked with Stephen G to review language Spotify has already used to promote features and use similar language to explain specific aspects we had agreed upon in each e-shot.

Strengths: Looking at existing examples of Spotify's promotional language helped us to choose the words we used carefully. We wanted to follow Spotify's communication guidelines and be conservative with our language, never using more than a sentence to communicate our message for each e-shot. This kept each e-shot concise and strongly worded to make an impression on the viewer.

Weaknesses: Relying too heavily on existing examples of text from a company can restrict how you present your message, a message that is supposed to advertise the brand in a new way.

Improvements: It's a good idea to have a rough idea of what you want to say and in what way you'd like to present it before looking at existing material to find ways of professionally conveying that message.

  24-

Task: When happy with the final e-shots I emailed them to myself and put them on the Mac screen ready for the presentation.

Strengths: This allowed the group to see the e-shots in their intended environment; the browser window. More specifically, the inbox itself. It showed the outcome in the right environment and gave us an impression of whether an end-user would read or delete the e-shot.

Weaknesses: For presenting to a big group of people perhaps the email on the screen was a little small and didn't let everyone see the details or the explanation text for as long as they would have wanted to so they could read everything.

Improvements: Next time I would print off a copy of the e-shots on an A4 sheet of paper like the other groups did as well as showing the e-shot on-screen in someone's email inbox. This would allow everyone to see the email up close but also in its intended environment.

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Spotify Project Review - Day Two

15-

Task: Decided to use computer to draw out the illustrations to save time and chose to draw illustrations to fit an A4 page.

Strengths: Given I only had one day to produce 3 final illustrations I decided to draw directly into the computer using a graphics tablet in Photoshop. Using layers I could refine the sketches into the finished outcomes without the need of a scanner. This meant I could work quicker and produce a better outcome. Drawing on a bigger page meant I could use the illustrations for unforseen bigger purposes, like printing off bigger at a later date without a reduction in quality.

Weaknesses: I used the Pen Tool in Photoshop to keep a clean single line which took longer than just using a brush stroke. A graphics tablet helped to speed this up a little.

Improvements: Experiment further with producing the same clean lines with just brush strokes, not involving the Pen Tool. Alternatively find a better method of producing similar results.

  16-

Task: Using Simon's Cat as inspiration, drew out the illustrations in Photoshop. It took 6 hours to complete 2 so left the third one as a digital-rough for Friday.

Strengths: Using Simon's Cat as inspiration for the visual style meant I could focus more on keeping a sense of proportion, form and the communication of the illustration itself. I sketched out the scene and characters before later going over them again. Using this method took a little longer than I expected but produced a clean result that fulfilled the target.

Weaknesses: Working in this way meant I had to learn exactly how to produce the results I wanted. This took longer than expected and so I wasn't able to produce the 3 finished illustrations I had agreed to.

Improvements: Next time I would sketch out all three illustrations before beginning to outline the sketch. This would mean that I could complete the outlining process quicker.

  17-

Task: Researched which fonts were officially used by Spotify branding and website and got the closest free fonts I could ready for the Friday.

Strengths: The Spotify visual brand guidelines I had found helped me to discover which  were the official fonts used in Spotify marketing. I found out these fonts cost hundreds of pounds to buy so I found the closest free alternative fonts I could. This would mean I could produce an e-shot that used nearly identical fonts to an advertisement produced by Spotify themselves. Spending this time meant we were ready on Friday morning to start laying up the adverts.

Weaknesses: Finding these free alternative fonts took a long time in comparing specific lettering, time that could have been spent illustrating.

Improvements: The trade-off between illustrating and researching for the final outcome could have been managed better. I could have found a more common font to use although the final result may not have looked quite as authentic.

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Spotify Project Review - Day One

1 -

Task: I helped to assign tasks for people to research. I researched what Spotify is, what the brand identify is and how this is seen in existing material.

Strengths: Splitting the research up for people helped us to find out more, quicker. Finding the visual branding guidelines helped us to identify key traits of Spotify's marketing and emulate it to make a more convincing end product. Researching the existing service helped us to keep all aspects of initial ideas focused on using the music  to advertise Spotify. Researching the existing services helped us to find how to relate our genre to the service.

Weaknesses: We didn't stick to the time we originally agreed, using 45 mins instead of 30. This meant we did more research but knocked back our meeting to discuss research and making initial ideas.

Improvements: Be careful to stick to the action plan closer and not get carried away in a task. Be prompt.

  2 –

Task: Helped to coordinate the activities of the group throughout the project. Emphasised brief.

Strengths: Coordinating the efforts of everyone and trying to make sure everyone knew what needed to be done by what time helped keep everyone focused and on-task. This helped us to manage and stick to self-imposed deadlines better than if everyone was doing their own thing.

Weaknesses: Having someone coordinating tasks and emphasising the brief can make people tune out and risks getting even less done.�� Risk of being alienated and separated from the group.

Improvements: Make sure to coordinate the group casually and not imposing your opinion on anyone. Keep everyone enthused and doing tasks they want to.

  3 –

Task: Looked over our initial research together where we discussed different alternatives and design ideas. Narrowed down target audience.

Strengths: Comparing ideas together keeps everyone helping each other and focused on the project. We were all free to give any ideas and feedback we wanted to throughout, allowing for a collaborative environment.

Weaknesses: Looking over the research for too long can make enthusisam bubble out and result in a loss of focus. There is always a risk of following an idea that goes fundamentally off-brief no matter how good the idea.

Improvements: Keep everyone focused on the project and make sure ideas stay on-task and on-brief at all times by emphasising the brief and the project outcomes that are needed.

  4 –

Task: Used Grooveshark to create a playlist of Easy Listening music. I helped to contribute to the songs listed and considered.

Strengths: Using a music service like Grooveshark that didn't require a membership or specific access that was similar to Spotify helped to keep everyone listening to the genre we were assigned and using a service similar to that we had to advertise. This helped to keep us familiar with the product and music needed for the project.

Weaknesses: We were using a competitor's product in the end, even if it was because Spotify was blocked. We could have picked up on a few songs that weren't the right genre or a few services offered by Grooveshark and assumed Spotify worked in the same way. This would have resulted in incorrect advertising, derailing the entire project.

Improvements: Make sure everyone is aware exactly how Spotify works and what we're trying to advertise from the brief. Using Grooveshark was an advantage as long as we kept the brief in mind at all times.

  5 –

Task: Brainstormed individual ideas then met together and chose 4/5 songs to be considered to develop into final ideas.

Strengths: Coming up with ideas away from the group allowed us to keep our ideas wide, not being funneled into a narrower set of ideas by each other. Choosing 4/5 songs to be considered further kept us focused on developing a final idea, which was crucial at this stage.

Weaknesses: Coming up with individual ideas could also have meant we strayed too far from the brief and spent valuable time thinking of irrelevant ideas that couldn't be used. Choosing 4/5 songs also meant we could have nailed down our 'narratives' for the adverts too early, producing problems with the outcomes we couldn't forsee.

Improvements: Keeping the brief and our agreed 'angle' of advertisement in mind at all times would make sure we picked the right message that was

appropriate for Spotify.

  6 –

Task: Helped to think of songs, which would say a direct message to the reader via the song title.

Strengths: We decided we wanted the advertisements to appeal to our target audience via direct appeals. Using our genre's songs to do this seemed sensible and also directly advertised the genre to the customer at the same time.

Weaknesses: There was a risk that the song titles being used as a strapline would be close to what we wanted to say but could mislead people or could be inappropriate for the established communication style of Spotify.

Improvements: Keeping the brief and our agreed 'angle' of advertisement in mind at all times would make sure we picked the right message that was appropriate for Spotify.

  7 –

Task: Consolidated strapline options and conducted a survey of everyone in the group (13 people).

Strengths: Writing out the different strapline options and taking a survey of people from within our target audience meant that we would get a much better picture of which straplines would make an impact on the audience. Performing a quick survey of a limited number would still represent this well.

Weaknesses: The limited number of participants might reveal a niche set of straplines that wouldn't work outside of those people in the same group that have similar taste / interests to me.

Improvements: Take the time to survey a slightly larger number of people within the same area and target market but perhaps from different classes to survey a larger series of interests.

  8 –

Task: As a group we reviewed the final ideas and split up into 2 groups; 2 people working on emails and 2 people working on animation.

Strengths: This meant that the people that were more technically adept and interested in each part of the project outcome would be most likely to stay enthused, focused on their work and so most likely to keep to the deadline of Friday afternoon.

Weaknesses: Splitting up at this stage could mean that each half of the group viewed the other half with apathy. The project needed to present as a finished and cohesive whole, which would be impossible if the designers and animators didn't communicate.

Improvements: Making sure to keep both groups in communication and interested in what each half was doing would ensure the final product seemed whole.

  9-

Task: Researched the options for visual style with regards to illustration and text. Decided upon a clean visual style similar to existing video promotion.

Strengths: We referenced a simple illustrative style similar to Simon's Cat, a famous animation seen on Youtube. This would produce an illustration that had a down to earth, simplistic feel but wouldn't compete for focus in the advert. This would present an hand-drawn effect and presenting the text as hand-drawn would mirror Spotify's existing advertisements, making the outcome seem more authentic.

Weaknesses: Depending on the colours used and execution, the illustration could take impact away from the strapline and confuse the e-shot entirely. Keeping the text in the same style would have to be executed carefully to make sure it was legible and complimented the illustration.

Improvements: Again, keeping the strapline, Spotify and it's branding guidelines in mind when researching the visual styles would ensure the final outcome appeared authentically 'Spotify'.

  10-

Task: Researched size of existing e-shots in my inbox to get an idea of size to work to.

Strengths: Taking screenshots of a variety of e-shots in my inbox meant we could see what the industry-standard size of e-shots was. This would add another layer of realism to the outcome. We decided that 600 pixels wide with a little room to scroll down was appropriate, leaving the final image size at 600x800 pixels.

Weaknesses: Using an existing standard size meant we had to use pure design to stand out from the crowd. This could have been a self-imposed limit that made the e-shot seem too similar to e-shots and would relegate the outcome to being deleted without even being seen.

Improvements: We had to use a standard size to make sure everything rendered properly on a variety of resolutions and email clients. We needed to keep the brief in mind and used Spotify's style to stand out from other emails. We could have targeted a specific set of users like mobile or tablet users, allowing us more room for creative freedom.

  11-

Task: Helped animators to design and approve a 'mascot' character design that would be used in both project outcomes.

Strengths: Collaborating on character mascot to be used in both the animation and e-shots meant everyone was happy with the design. It was important it was simple, down to earth and appealed or depicted our target market, so the audience could relate to it. We also made sure it was something we could imagine Spotify creating.

Weaknesses: Depicting the target audience directly could impose limitations. If we got it wrong people would delete the e-mail and disregard the animation as irrelevant to them.

Improvements: We needed to keep Spotify's guidelines in mind and commit to the visual style we had decided upon for the animation and e-shot illustrations. We could have come up with a male and female variant to make sure we weren't segregating our audience at all.

  12-

Task: Gathered the group together to evaluate progress, set tasks for each individual to complete on the next day (Thursday) to be completed before Friday.

Strengths: We knew that Friday was the deadline so I gathered everyone together and went over all the decisions we had made. I made sure everyone was happy and gave everyone tasks to finish for Friday individually so e could meet the deadline. This kept everyone productive and aware of other members in the group.

Weaknesses: The weakness here is that giving each individual something to do fundamentally assumes each individual will be present. As we see later this was not the case, leaving one of the teams with a mountain of work to do, which is unfair on those that stuck to the tasks they were given.

Improvement: Perhaps it would have been better to set tasks for each group instead of individually. It would be the group's responsibility to communicate and ensure the task is done instead of individually.

  13-

Task: Worked with Stephen G to block out a rough layout to give us an idea of the space we had to work with to draw the final illustrations the next day.

Strengths: We had decided on the dimensions to work to, so we mocked up. The placing of the straplines, explanation text and other elements. This meant we knew exactly how much space we had to draw our illustrations, so we could draw an interesting composition to add interest  to the e-shot.

Weaknesses: Tying yourself down to a specific location or size would limit what you could do with the depicted characters.

Improvements: We could have come up with ideas before blocking out the layout or at least alongside it in order to make sure we weren't limiting our ideas in any way.

  14-

Task: Talked through illustration ideas and we both decided we would draw up 3 final ideas the next day to be completed for Friday.

Strengths: When generating illustration ideas I tried to keep Spotify's communication guidelines in mind at all times. Talking these ideas over together made sure we were both in a good position  to draw the final illustrations the next day. We knew what the strapline was and the space we had so we were in  the best position to use the space wisely to use the illustration to compliment the strapline.

Weaknesses: Having a series of specific artists and a mascot to use would have perhaps narrowed down the scope of our ideas or how we used the space we had decided on.

Improvements: Try coming up with a series of ideas before deciding to use specific characters or straplines. Brainstorming ideas or thumbnails after each decision to ensure the most creativity.

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Portfolio Notes - Session 4

I went to Derby university with my portfolio on a USB memory stick, which I found a little funny because everyone else was carrying around A1 / A2 ‘folio’s. I was taken to one of the University’s computers and loaded up the portfolio for one of the graphic design students. I made sure to warn the student that the portfolio was still incomplete and that was why there was only placeholder text throughout. I tried to give a little background for each piece and talk through some of my decisions when making the work and convey how the image was made in an enthusiastic way.

After I had guided the student through the entire portfolio, she responded with some initial feedback, suggesting that the order of the portfolio needed tweaking. It was suggested that the placing of the traditional work interrupted the flow of the portfolio, being surrounded by more digitally based work. It was also suggested that I complete the portfolio’s text throughout as soon as possible. The design I had used was also complimented saying that it was a more minimalistic design that doesn’t compete with the portfolio pieces.

I also asked if my current planned size of the portfolio, with each page being A3 landscape orientation would be an appropriate size for presentation in an interview and was surprised to learn that the university recommends their students take portfolio’s of this size to their interviews. This is because they are a good size when presenting to groups of people so that everyone can see the work and be able to see the details in the images and it’s also a high enough resolution to project on a wall and keep its quality.

After this session I worked hard to fill out the text and reorder the portfolio to flow better from beginning to end. I realized through the feedback I had received from Derby University that the way you present a portfolio and the order it is presented in will speak volumes about you as a designer. It should tell anyone looking at it that you are passionate about what you do and give an impression of the variety of work you have done and can even show how you problem solve. When writing the descriptions I decided to justify the text in order to fill out the frame more.

As well as receiving feedback from the course students I emailed the graphic design course leader, Tracey Allanson-Smith, and asked if she would give any feedback as she has worked as a graphic designer in an agency in London in the past. Tracey emailed me her feedback, suggesting that I range the descriptive text left instead of justified. She said people can view text almost as you would view cloth, and justifying the text will space the text in such a way as to leave gaps in the ‘cloth’ which is visually unsettling to the eye. Keeping the text ranged to the left would read better because the text is all evenly spaced. It was also suggested that some of the pages feel a little cramped, that there was not enough white space in some instances. I will reduce the size of the descriptive text to 14pt from 16pt and try to create more white space and try to convey a greater sense of space throughout.  Related to this was Tracey’s last bit of feedback, to halve the number of calendar spreads in the portfolio and to keep 3 bigger spreads on the page so you can see the detail better.

These feedback sessions have been a great help and have helped me to realize how important the order is to a portfolio, both when being presented and talked through and when not. I’ve discovered that it can ruin the flow of a portfolio if you include work you feel obliged to instead of work you feel you can talk about more and I think this is the case with the traditionally based work in the portfolio. I don’t think I would want to send out pictures of life drawings to a potential employer, especially in a digital portfolio and as such I will try to find alternative work to include in the traditional section of the portfolio.

 As of this feedback the order has been revised as follows;

1. Ascension Poster

2. Calendar

3. Teamwork Spreads

4. Website

5. Website

6. Local work

7. Local work

8. Life Drawing and Maltese Falcon (College)

9. Coca Cola (College)

10. Matte Painting

11. Photomanipulation

12. Unity Billboard

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Portfolio Notes - Session 3

We have recently been informed that at the end of January we are able to go to Derby University to show our portfolio’s to them in order to get valuable feedback so we can make the necessary changes to get into courses or employment positions we want. With this in mind I will use Adobe InDesign CS6 to create a draft of my portfolio because it’s software I’m familiar with and I can create consistent page elements like page numbers or certain design elements across all elements easily using master pages.

After looking through a few more portfolio’s I have decided to make my portfolio landscape because it will allow me to present my work in a greater variety of layouts but will also allow me to make the images a bit bigger as well as giving me more space on the page to include descriptions.

While designing the portfolio I have reconsidered some of the content and as such my revised layout going into the portfolio review for Derby University is as follows:

Ascension Poster

Local work

Local work

Calendar

Teamwork Spreads

Website

Website

Coca Cola (College)

Matte Painting

Photomanipulation (College)

Life Drawing (College)

Unity Billboard

I have designed a clean and minimal portfolio centred on a hierarchy of colour to guide the eye around the pages. These 3 shades are accent colours, which is a very light blue and a much darker blue that forms the background of the description sections and finally a dark shade of grey that is used as the main body text. The lighter shade of grey is also included behind some elements of the pages to act as further emphasis on some pieces of work and leads the viewer through the portfolio. I have used white space as a separate element throughout the portfolio that grounds the images and leads the eye through the pages and is used as the ‘accent paragraph’ on all descriptions throughout.

I chose the font ‘Delicious’ to be used throughout the portfolio because it is a sans serif font that is nice to look at; I find it almost relaxing. This helps to push forward the idea that content is king, which is a principle I’ve tried to keep in mind throughout the design process. I will keep the font at 16pt for the time being because given the size of the portfolio I want the text to be easily legible at a slight distance if the portfolio is being viewed by multiple people. This is obviously subject to change through feedback.

  As this is still a draft I have only put the titles of the portfolio pages on the pages but elsewhere I have filled the descriptions with placeholder text (latin). This is because I needed to know for the design what the text should look like throughout the portfolio but am not sure as of yet what the actual text for the descriptions should be.

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Portfolio Notes - Session 2

My portfolio will be aimed towards employment and as such I don’t want to put too much into it so that it would make presenting it too long the point where a potential employer would start to lose interest. I’ve been looking around at some examples of portfolio’s that people have created and it seems most people try to ‘brand’ themselves. They choose a visual style to present their work in and keep that a unified theme through all visual media; whether that’s a website or a digital or printed portfolio.

 As such I will try to come up with a portfolio theme that I would be able to extend to a variety of other media should the need arise in order to present a cohesive whole. In order to obey the rules set down by the first session I will have to make sure this is a very minimalist theme in order to keep the focus on the work itself rather than the design of the booklet. If I can put this portfolio together well my aim to make the portfolio itself an advert rather than something that is merely a means to present some work. So, in creating an A3 portfolio and designing it digitally myself it will advertise my graphic design skills by aiming to sit in the background and let the work take to the forefront.

I have created a first draft at the order of content I’m thinking of including at this stage, which you can see below: 

Ascension Poster

Traditional Work (Life Drawing)

Traditional Work (Life Drawing)

Local work

A series from print – Calendar? Book?

Campaigners Leaflet

Websites

Websites

Coca Cola Series

Unity Billboard

Matte Painting

Undecided – something from college?

This will be the tentative order I have decided upon and will try to build the portfolio to I am a little hesitant to put only a few college pieces into the portfolio so I may change the content at a later stage but it is my intent to present work that shows I can be a versatile graphic designer, able to use techniques that will compliment any type of client-based professional work and work that shows my ability to problem solve, think and analyse a brief and produce work to a clients satisfaction. 

I intend to include some description detailing some background information or motivation behind the pieces. This is to make sure that the portfolio reads well to someone that requests a digital copy and I won’t be there to explain myself. My initial thoughts are to put this description on the top left of each page. I will try to keep these descriptions succinct.

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Portfolio Notes - Session 1

Today we have been focusing on building our portfolios. We gathered together all the work we have produced so far on the course so that we could evaluate each piece’s suitability to make it into our portfolio. We were given a few tips to do with putting the portfolio together;

   Include a variety of subject media including drawings, photography, designs, prints as long as they showcase ideas, development and samples of your work and processes.

    It is important you showcase work that showcases your ability to problem-solve, think and analyse as well as work you feel you have something to say about. There’s nothing worse than filling a portfolio with work you don’t have anything to say about – this leads to blank faces and dead air in an interview where you’re trying to show your talents.

The portfolio must be immaculate. The pages should be white or black and should be cut with a guillotine or knife and ruler. You are there to impress the interviewers and work cut quickly with scissors will not do this.

When you mount your work on a page make sure to put double-sided sticky tape on the corners of the pages only. If you use any more there’s a danger that when you come to look at a piece again, you’ll notice that the work is not quite straight. Too much tape will damage your work.

Expensive portfolio’s often come with plastic sleeves. Many interviewers don’t want to see your work behind a shiny plastic sleeve. Especially if your area of interest is in textiles or fine art.

Think about how you will present your work and order your work accordingly. You want to put your strongest piece at the very front of the portfolio and your second strongest piece at the end. Your aim is to first of all get the interviewers attention and get them to take you seriously for the rest of your interview. You leave your second strongest piece at the end in order to leave the strongest impression. Your aim is to WOW them.

If you have time and want to, you could leave a brief project description somewhere in the pages of your portfolio. It’s not uncommon for the place you are applying to, to request a digital copy of your portfolio or to examine your work while showing you around. In this situation comments can explain a little of what you would say about your work if you were there. If you decide to do this it’s best to put this work at the same place in each sheet and these comments should always be word-processed.

It’s often recommended to keep the same format throughout your work regarding landscape or portrait. You don’t want to make the interviewers have to keep swapping and changing the orientation of the portfolio – this will become tedious and you will lose their interest. Not to mention the way this will physically wear your portfolio out more than if your work was laid out similarly.

If your portfolio is mainly non-digital, you want to make a note of the order of the pages. There’s a good chance that through the course of an interview your work will be reordered and you will want to put it back in the right order. Don’t rely on your memory.

As far as my own portfolio goes, I will create an A3 booklet that will be digitally based. I will photography any non-digital work and treat my portfolio as another graphical design exercise. My focus will be to make a portfolio that not only looks good and reads well but something that expresses my interests and include pieces through which I can communicate my passion for Art and Design. This portfolio will also be an advertisement for the kind of work the employer can expect to see from me in a professional environment, too.

Today I have picked out some of the images I’ve done throughout the course that show drawing and photographed them. This way I am getting ready to start to put it all together digitally in InDesign. I will have to start thinking about page layouts soon.

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Sarah Taylor Silverwood Review

An undeniable part of the human experience is that we all experience a sense of connection with a specific location and the things around us. Sarah Taylor Silverwood’s ‘Living City’ exhibition is on display from the 31st August to the 2nd of December 2012 and free to the general public. Held within the silent galleries of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham explores her passionate encounter with the metropolis of Birmingham.

Originally from the Forest of Dean, Silverwood moved to Birmingham to study English at Birmingham University and fell in love with the city. It is this newfound love that inspired her to explore her creative side, gaining a Masters in Fine Arts at the same. Living City is founded upon Silverwood’s intricate drawings, with each scene assembled in complex layers. This Jerwood Drawing Prize (2008) nominee is currently an artist in residence at Birmingham University.

Silverwood’s fascination with Birmingham is clear. She depicts scenes most people walk by and ignore in their day-to-day lives. Inherent to the exhibition is an underlying tone of both exploration and protection coupled with an art style that makes no attempts to beautify Birmingham.

Alongside the exhibition as you enter is an area dedicated to providing context for the visitor. Here we find a varied collection of comics, books and poems opened at specific points and inviting you to find out more. Gordon Jenkins ‘The Complete Manhattan Tower’ (1956), Alan Moore and David Gibbon’s ‘Watchmen’ graphic novel (1986) and Charles Baudelaire’s ‘The power of Modern life’ (1863) are just some of the items that attempt to explain how a variety of people across time have shared a connection with specific environments. With this in mind we can begin to understand the scenes that ultimately become streams of Silverwood’s urban consciousness, from the Parisian poet Baudelaire’s obsession with the ‘universal life’ of the city to the ficticious; Batman’s desire to protect Gotham City.

Visitors to this exhibition might wonder why such scenes as a derelict car wash, a crowd of people or even going as far as devoting a piece to a traffic jam, labelling it ‘Traffic’ (2012). Look deeper and we find a fascinating art style engaging the viewer acting as an invitation to explore. These odd scenes are pieced together carefully in an even more curious collaboration of materials. Ordnance maps, wallpaper, watercolour washes through to tracing paper and tipp-ex combine to depict a scene full of character. The more you explore each scene the more detail you notice within to create a scene you’re almost surprised doesn’t live and breathe as if you were standing there.

Some pieces have subtle hints of a cardiograph or key inspirational text hidden behind the buildings, suggesting that such ordinary, unknown and ignored places are the heartbeat of this ‘Living City’. Silverwood has said she grew up wanting to draw comics for the ‘Beano’, a famous British children’s comic. Today we can still see those roots in her style, but there are no comic characters depicted here. We see real crowds of people swarming from A to B, crumbling buildings and dilapidated interchanges.

Stark white tipp-ex on the reverse of tracing paper cleverly leads the eye across the scene, while the front of the same sheet is inked, showing a uncommon economy of art. Lines and perspectives change across the scene, adding an authentic and charming edge to an otherwise uninspiring location. At first glance, it isn’t the actual location that appeals but rather the care and attention put into the piece that makes you pay attention and discover the beauty within the scene.

The work of George Shaw is immediately comparable, infamous for painting photo-realistic pieces of the areas in which he grew up. Shaw has painted similar collections, showing the estate he grew up in for many years as a child and other things people would normally ignore like painting the road and gate leading to a field. Silverwood’s style isn’t as refined as Shaw’s but arguably nor is realism her focus with such exaggerated buildings and perspectives. Both Shaw and Silverwood clearly show a connection and fixation with places that have undeniably influenced their lives yet neither depict individual people. It is the location they both identify with, not the people.

Silverwood’s use of Birmingham’s arguably uglier side challenges the viewer directly to appreciate the beauty in any place or experience in life. The building that’s falling down or that run-down shop on the street corner? Silverwood argues these places don’t need to be replaced with ultra-modern, genericised buildings because they combine to make the foundation of a community and city. These are places that connect communities together. It is together that we share experiences that shape the rest of our lives. We are seeing one woman’s love story with Birmingham in the most honest way she knows how to show it. But more than that, we’re also seeing an invitation to be a part of it.

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Stop-motion Animation

As part of learning a foundation of new techniques in the first year of the course, we were introduced to animation. We were shown how to do a limited kind of animation just to get our 'feet wet' per se. As the theme of the first project was called "A Walk in the Park" we had to get some of the leaves, bits of trees and so on that we'd fine in the park - the ephemera. We were then to animate these bits and pieces into an animation that told a story. I would go on to revisit Animation many times throughout the year, and this is where it all started.

We had a video camera connected to a mac and the software on the screen is iStopMotion. We would arrange the leaves and such on the black piece of paper and when we were happy with that scene we'd press the spacebar to take a picture. Then we'd re-arrange the scene before taking another shot. We would keep repeating this until we had a smooth animation that eventually animated the scene we wanted.

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This is the first final piece I did on this course and the first time I ever painted anything on a proper canvas. I had a good time doing it although in retrospect I'd really have loved to make it slightly bigger and have been able to spend more time on the execution. I think I've learned a lot over the past year about painting and the process and while I think I would keep the sections and order in which I painted everything the same, approaching the same subject now I'd change how I actually painted the scene. I'd keep blocking in the basic colours and gradients more and leave the details as a final step.

I loved doing this painting and I see it as a huge stepping stone and something that really taught me a lot about painting and acrylic in general.

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Discussing Painting.

One of the first things that being on this course has reintroduced me to is painting. It's something I really love to do and something I have been doing digitally in some way for quite a while now. I did some painting in GCSE Art but never took it any further practically until I enrolled on this course, due to being in a print shop where everything needed to be done digitally. So it was quite a challenge to try to pick something up from a local park, draw it on A1 paper and then begin to paint it out. Especially using my fingers to blend the colours together because the paint brushes we had were often dried out.

I had a larger scene planned. We had picked up some autumnal items from local parks and used them as studies to draw inspiration from. We made view finders and selected a section of the items and then drew them on larger sheets to paint. This was my first time actually painting in over 7 years, so having to learn the process and order you have to paint - from dark to light and how that changes the execution at every stage in the painting. I learned a lot from this tester-piece but I didn't really get a chance to get much further than this in the end. I did paint the leaf but didn't manage the other two items or a background unfortunately.

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A Pencil Rubbing, Pinhole Camera

As discussed in my last post, I went on to try to challenge what I had already learned in the first attempt at carving an impression into board and making a print from it. I wanted to stray away from the theme of the project which at the time was nature and try to make something that required a steadier hand and even some symmetry. My original intent was to try to print this in the same way as I had the first, but I ran out of time because the design I came up with took longer to carve out than I first thought it would. In the end I never did manage to make a print out of it, but here is the graphite rubbing I made of it onto tracing paper.

The next thing we did on the course was something I wouldn't get a chance to use until much later on in the year, but it was around this time at the beginning of the course that I made it. This was a pinhole camera. I had heard of them but had always wanted to try to make one and here was my opportunity. It was surprisingly simple to make; it only took a black 35mm film container, black electrical tape and a section out of a Red Bull can.

First I cut out a section of the film container and then cut out a slightly bigger section from the side of a Red Bull Can. I used the point on a compass to make a pin-sized hole in the can metal and then used sandpaper (first a thicker then a thinner grain) to make sure there were no rough edges around the hole that would cause problems when using the camera. Next I used black electrical tape to bind the metal section (the 'camera lens') to the film container both inside and outside to make sure no light could bleed through and ruin the end result. Finally I taped the lid on with the same electrical tape and hey presto there's a pin hole camera. Just add a cut-to-size piece of photographic paper and figure out how long the exposure needed to be. I'll update this blog at a later date with the details on how to do just that.

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This is where it all started.

This blog is necessary so I can evaluate my ongoing artistic experience. As such I thought I should start at the very beginning of the Art and Design course I started on last year. I'll showcase some of the things I've produced in the course over the past year, what I think of it now and how I intend to improve on it in the future.

This is one of the first things we did practically in the first module of the course last year. The board starts off purely black and you use a scalpel to carve away an impression you want to print onto paper. Once the image is carved you pick a colour and coat the surface of the print with ink, then you clear away excess ink to leave a thin layer of ink in the carved recesses. Finally you run the print through a press and squeeze the ink out of the carved surface and onto the paper, making a print. Below is how this first print came out for me.

I like the way the print turned out overall, and I tried another version that mixed the pink with a blue ink, which showed me that how you could use colour effectively to make the piece more interesting. I was amazed how this process could pick up the most intricate details carved into the board. I did go on to try to make a second much more intricate print using this method. I will evaluate that in the next post.