olivetreesdesign

[olivetreesdesign]

BLOG POST #6—MOODBOARD

Your Brand Statement (Same as from blog post 3!)

My name is Emma and I will be graduating with a bachelor of design. I started mainly as an illustrator but fell in love with the more technical aspect of design through my yearbook class in grade 11/12. I can pull it back if I have to, but I love being loud with my design. It matches the energy I have.

Colour:

I really like the idea of a controlled chaos for my design elements. Using brighter warmer colours for a sense of warmth with the addition of the warmer teal as it is my favourite colour and I use it in a lot of my current branding and would like to keep it. Plus a darker colour for contrast.

Typography:

I’d love to use an interesting font, preferably sans serif. Something fun with a bit of a personality while still readable and not too overbearing. My accompanying font will be a simple and clean sans serif font to compliment the header font. I really enjoy the wording used in the first picture, whimsical + clean and geometric.

Imagery

I enjoy the professional and clean look that photoshop mock ups provide. As I don't have any physical pieces of work to include in my portfolio I will most likely end up using mockups like I've done in the past. Such as the photos below.

[olivetreesdesign]

BLOG POST #5—CLIENTS AND SCHEDULES

Part 1 –"Ideal Workspace" or "Ideal Client"

Identify your Ideal Workspace

I'd like to work for a company that requires a great deal of artistic creativity in their design. As I am an artist first, designer second, I don't want to lose the fact that my creativity is what got me into this field in the first place. Which means a job where I can be an illustrator would be ideal. I also have a huge passion for video games and have always wanted to work in the field.

For this blog post I am going to use: Supergiant Games

Create a profile of your Ideal Workplace/Client

Who are they?

Supergiant Games is a small video games company based in San Francisco, California. They are responsible for the creation of  handful of high quality games such as Bastion and Hades which is two of their more popular games.

https://www.supergiantgames.com

How are they a good fit for you? 

Due to it being a smaller company of, currently, only 25 employees. As well as it being an indie games studio, as opposed to a major games studio. It matches my want to avoid working in a corporate environment. Though no production is perfect I’ve heard nothing but positive things about how the company is run and how work is produced.

How are you a good fit for them?

With my artistic/design specialty being in character design and typography I feel like I would be a great fit based on the style of games they produce. All of their games have unique and varied character designs and styles, my art style is very flexible and allows itself to adapt to what the design needs.

What are you offering to them, specifically? 

I am offering them an enthusiastic and invested designer who will create good work because I am passionate about what I'm creating.

Part 2 –Weekly Production Schedule

February 25: 

- Begin layout of portfolio site (sketches, XD, etc…)

- Start to gather what content will be used

March 4:

- Begin building site on Webflow

- Begin writing content

March 11:

- Continue building site

- Continue writing content

March 18: 

- Review and edit written work

[olivetreesdesign]

BLOG POST #4—SELF AUDIT

olivetreesdesign is the domain name I went with.

I chose this because I have a strong love for the olive tree and its meaning due to personal reasons and I felt it was nice for my design name to embody that.

I really want to make my website in Webflow due to the freedom and I feel confident enough in my skills to accomplish it. I’m just worried I won’t have the time to do everything I want to. I have a feeling that I may start and realize I've bitten off more than I can chew. If I feel that I'm thinking of falling back to adobe portfolio as that is what Im more comfortable with.

Pages I'd like to include on my site.

About Me

Work

Contact

Various social media (LinkedIn, Instagram maybe, I'd rather not make an Instagram if I can avoid it. I hate trying to run my own social media sites.)

Potential Projects:

Chamber U Internship

Bai bottle redesign

Illustration work

Logo Redesign for the cafe Felice + Mockups

Editorial Design from last year

Most of the work I will have to do for my portfolio is the written portion as I don’t write a lot for any of my work. There are a few projects that I need mockups for but a good chunk of them already have mockups made due to needing them for another project.

Here's a very simple wireframe. I'd like to keep the layout simple to help contrast against the fact that I'd like the text and visuals to be a bit more attention pulling and I don't want to make it look cluttered.

[olivetreesdesign]

BLOG POST #3—WHO AM I???

Part 1: Creative Brief

We've been working through a work sheet that helps us figure out who we are as people which leads into how and why we design. Its been really interesting for me getting this introspective and putting a lens on ME.

Part 2: How to get a job at X

I read from:

Disney

I love Disney for their movies so when I saw them on the list I had to read. The biggest this I took away from reading is, "attention to detail." Knowing your work and being honest and capable of talking about it. A lot of the advice, especially in the hiring process always came back to the portfolio. Disney is a visual company, so having a relevant and good portfolio is really important.

"We need designers who can stay cool, agile, open to ideas and iteratively produce great work."

Electronic Art (I really don't like their business practice and thought, "eh why not, let's read this")

It really shocked me to learn EA was founded in the 80s. I guess it makes sense but it never occurred to me that they've been around that long. EA is very community forward when it comes to a lot of what they do. I really enjoyed the section where he talked about how a fan made trailer led to the creator eventually being hired.

"Let your work do the talking."

Spotify

This interview felt so genuine and clear. You can tell the 3 of them used to be friends by they way they talk. I found it quite nice after the first 2 which were quite formal to read. The biggest thing they kept circling back to was to be genuinely yourself in your design and how you talk about it.

"Don’t get lost trying to be someone you think you should be."

Overall Points:

Networking is super important. All three mentioned that the hiring in split between referrals and a normal application process but networking will always give you an advantage.

Quality Portfolio. Every single one mentioned how important your portfolio is. Not only the final product displayed but also the story attached to it. The process the struggles and the success.

Not being able to talk about your design. It's not enough to display your work, you also have to be able to back up your choices. I really liked what, I believe the Spotify interview said. Even if you don't like your work you have to be able to explain why.

[olivetreesdesign]

BLOG POST #2—INSPIRATION

I really enjoyed the creativity and humour of this site. The video above shows the home page when you first enter the site.

minhpham.design

The way this site shows off project was quite interesting. The image on the left has it when you hover over the small square, an image enters from the left side and covers some of the screen. The other image shows that when you scroll it isn't just a locked grid system but laid out in a more free flowing way

our-revolution.com

The simple but bright pastel colour palette really caught my eye for this website. It's playful and fun while not being too much to look at.

viens-la.com/en/realisations/

Take Aways

For my portfolio website I want:

Fun & Creative

Sense of Humour

Bright Colours

Interesting Layout

[olivetreesdesign]

BLOG POST #1—INTERESTS/TALENTS/PASSIONS

With my final year of university soon coming to an end I am faced with my greatest challenge yet... learning about myself.

This first activity is a something that I found very interesting. I have a hard time talking about how I, as a designer, am; how I talk about my values. The Pixie dust exercise was fun for me because it was so specific. It really let me hone in on, well, me!

I'm excited to move forward and see what my personal discovery reveals about the inner workings on me.

Stay safe, have fun and I'll catch you next week!