Lifes a Pitch // initial group and concept

Group.

- Mikey Scott

- Simon Isle

- Ross Francis

- Joel Burden

- Sophia Akrofi

Name.

Four iiii

Design Focus areas.

- Brand and Identity

- Photography and Film

- Promotional campaign and strategy

- Packaging and Publication

Our initial intentions and research.

After sitting down with the majority of my group this week, we have decided the best tactic to take with working in a collaboration was to assign ourselves initial research tasks, each focusing on a different area of our design focus's.

We have set deadlines for each other and requested that each must do the work for a certain day / hour, this already has greatly improved my motivation instantly.

Branding and Identity.

This is the area I am researching at this point, we have decided that we should all find a miniumum of 4 design studios that specialise in our chosen area. we then need to contact them all asking about there costings and charges.

Below is the standard template of email that we all are using.

'Hello .....

My name is Mikey Scott and I am currently studying Graphic design (second year) at Leeds college of art

Basically we have been set a new group brief at college, we have to construct a business plan or business proposal for a creative design studio.

In this brief we have to look into what services we would provide and have decided to look into promotional campaign, packaging and publication, photography and film etc. We are also looking into branding & identity and this is where I thought you could possibly help us out?

All we would like to know is whether you have a general price list or is it a more of a specialised decision? If you do have a price list, could you possibly send us an example of what you charge and for what? This is purely a college brief and non of the information you send would be used in the commercial environment. This is purely a research task so we can get an idea of costings in different areas of design.

Thankyou very much for your time and your help, I will look forward to hearing from you soon

Thanks again

Mikey Scott'

Burneverything

Sockeye

 Allyn Creative

WHAM Creative

Turner Duckworth

PPP2 // John's task No. 2

My Chosen Areas of practice as of now.

• Logo/ Branding
• Advertising
• Packaging/ Paper engineering

At the minute I am still a bit clueless to what area I want to go into after the degree, so these are the main 3 areas I could see myself specialising in, I do however still have a lot to learn and my interests change over the months.

My main strengths as of now.

• Analytical Qualities
• Idea Development
• Logo/ Branding

I haven't as of yet forced myself into taking advantage of the facilities here and really get frustrated with myself when I look back on ideas or projects which I know could be improved and developed into decent designs but because of my poor time management I always end up feeling down about my work.

My identified weaknesses as of now.

• Time Management
• Lack of confidence
• Organisation of multiple projects

I found it much MUCH easier to think of the weaknesses than it did the strengths, but I think t is good to be self critical I definitely know I have the potential to create great work but i just need the time to find myself as a designer.

A set of main goals for the year.

• Use Screen print, embossing, foiling and laser cut in a project.
• Be pleased with a piece of design I produce.
• work closely with other designers on the course more often.

3 wishes for the year

• I will win a competition brief
• I will be able to create awesome websites for anyone who needs them so I can rake in the dolla'   
• Find someone on the course I collaborate with really well. 

PPP // John Task 1 - Five Studios we would liek to work for and why

All the studios I have presented below, I have tried to pick depending on both their location, work ethos and work environment as well as the style of design they produce. I want to find a studio that is heavily involved in brand and identity and mostly print based products, however I wouldn't mind trying to find a multidisciplinary studio so I can work, learn and develop the design skills I will have formed on this course.

I wouldn't say I have a style of design but I would say I feel like all the studios I have chosen would benefit from my conceptual approach when it comes to general graphic design.
 
Blacksheep Design Studio - Cape Town South Africa
 

When we were asked to find these 5 examples of studios that we are creatively attracted to I tried to think of what I would really like out of my dream design job, and I realised one of the main factors for me was the environment and culture I would be working in, having visited South Africa and Loving the city, it's weather, culture, people and landscape. I thought I would try and find a couple of studios in Cape Town that focus on the areas of design I am most interested.

I browsed a series of South African studios that focus mainly on branding and printed graphic design, and Blacksheep attracted my attention when I saw the existing branding work they have produced as well as the wide variety of clients that they work with. They work on various different types of media from surf boards to gift cards, and I think this would be a great environment to learn how a well rounded graphic design company tackles extremely different briefs for extremely different clients.

K&I - Cape Town South Africa

 

 K & I is another South African Studio based in Cape town, it was founded by husband and wife Karl J Mynhardt and Ida V Mynhardt who are studied both in SA and Britain in both Graphic design and Fashion design and have won awards for their work. 

They seem to have a great work ethic and both really enjoy what they do and you can tell that in their work, I think it would be a great environment to learn, and the work they produce it really innovative and interesting and they get a large amount of clients which cover many different sectors. I really like the look of this studio.

BurnEverything - Liverpool 

BurnEverything is a great British design studio based in Liverpool, even though Liverpool isn't my number one desired place to end up I really do love the work they produce and the methods they use to approach their wide range of briefs. They have a fantastic brand and identity portfolio and the products and packaging they have produced for some clients is really innovative, unique and exciting, so it would be great to go see how these guys work.

Pearlfisher - London

This seems to be quite a successful studio, when looking at their successful identities and packaging they have produced, it seems they have worked with some huge global companies and successfully produced products that are in popular use in the industry. Therefore this studio attracts me to both their interesting range of brands they have created as well as their all in one approach to design, tackling as many areas of a project as they can to keep each project integral to their company.

I Want - London

I wanted to find a studio which did everything under one roof, while also visually appealing to the style of design I am interested in I Want is a multidisciplinary studio that works on projects from branding through to website and fashion design, They produce some really interesting work over all media and seem to work really hard on conceptual development of each brief and don't just design products that you would expect.

8 Creative methods of contacting desired studios

- 'Shake My hand' - Design a hand shaped percussion shaker and the packaging to accompany it, send as a small package with creative cv written on outside of box - This explains who I am and what I have to offer, as well as implying that even though I am not their I would still want to 'Shake hands' which is an important interview tactic. 

- Send a gift bag, which would include a retail style paper shopping bag with my branding on with a t-shirt or some other piece of clothing inside with my Cv written on it.

- Create a series of logos, each one highlighting a specific skill or strength i obtain. This idea would be purely visual with no written content, which may be quite difficult to give a good level of communication.

- Passport CV - personalised passport style cv, with each destination stamp containing information about myself and my practice.

- 'I'll Make the Tea' -  I would create my own branded box of tea, with each tea back containing a skill or strength printed onto it. This idea would specifically aimed towards non UK studios as it shows both my English heritage and my willingness to start at the bottom and learn

- Sponge in a box - create packaging that would hold both a sponge and a bottle of water. you would open the box to find the sponge with 'My Brain' printed onto it, it is accompanied with a bottle of water which will say ' what you have to teach me'. The concept being that I am saying my brain is a sponge and I am willing to learn and grow with your studio.

- Dot to Dot CV - a publication which is made up of both written and visual information, the written information would be printed directly onto each page, but the visual elements would have to be completed in the form of a dot to dot.

- Photography book where the photos contain my strengths and skills. instead of writing my cv on a piece of paper, I could write it in different ways, in different environments and photograph it, so the book itself is just a series of photographs but it will be structured in such a way that each photo highlights a skill / strength.

PPP2 // The Business of Design - Who are They?

The Business of Design

The UK economy is the 7th largest in the world

Different Sectors in UK Economy

Industry Sector - goods producing a segment of an economy

Primary Sector
Anything that is extracted and sold as a raw material (Milk, clay, oil, compost, sand etc...)

Secondary Sector
Anything produced using the raw extracted materials from the Primary sector.

Tertiary Sector
Taking the Primary and the Secondary sectors and using them in services

Quaternary Sector
Industries coming into improve, help and develop the first 3 sectors

this is the first I have heard of these sectors in the UK economy but after listening to Fred’s presentation and actually understanding how every job is catogorised into individual and specialised sectors.

It is a benefit to know these sectors as it will help you discover which sector you are most interested in
- find out which sector has the most design competition
- see where there is a gap in the market
- Understand which sector you are working in and why

Public Sector
Tax payer funding
Benefits everyone
A needed service that makes society run
Free at the point of delivery
NHS, Police, Military, Government, Council etc...

Private Sector
Businesses run for profit
Owned by individuals
Biggest employment sector

Third Sector
Non profit organisations
Volunteers, charities, Coop etc...
The sector in between Public and Private

PPP2 // Task 3 What is Industrial experience

Use your PPP blog to record your responses to the following questions ahead of the group tutorials after reading week.

• What is Industrial experience?

 - When you take your studied practice and involve yourself in an experienced organisation focusing on that specific professional practice. 
- Gaining experience from industry professionals in your chosen sector.
- Developing studied skills to a level a professional practice would be happy with. 
-Learning production and development skills from accomplished designers.

• What can you learn from industrial experience?

- How to communicate with other required sectors and work as a team.
- How an individual organisations represent themselves in the industry and how they differentiate themselves from their competitors.
- Practical and production skills.
- Networking opportunities.

• What form/format could industrial experience take?

- Placements, 
- internships, 
- work experience, 
- Sandwich course, 
- day release

• What are your concerns about industrial experience?

- Choosing the wrong organisation to gain experience from.
- Being used by a studio or organisation to get free labor which results in no Job
- Not gaining a job from industy experience.