Personal Branding - Buisness Cards

Screen-printed business cards on my chosen personal branding stock: G F Smith, Bright Red, Colour plan. Each card has the colours flipped on the opposite side to create a sense of diversity within a deck of cards, as well as to give them a slight perceived value. 

Used for establishing a point of contact, the illustration acts as a reminder to who I am upon seeing it, to reinforce a link between me and the piece of paper.

Personal Branding – Website

Website has been made to establish a online presence, with pages dedicated to my work for potential clients and employers to view. I used pro-site to allow me to export work from behance easily without having to recreate the projects. This allows me to keep my website as well as my portfolio updated at the same time.

Raw - Studio

I wanted to see if I could find a studio that perhaps is more suited to my illustration style, flat and vector. Raw in Manchester, although isn't limited to this, does a lot of  varied branding work which a lot of the time does use block colour illustration. Their work is all filled with character however, which is something I really want in a studio, I want to work somewhere with a soul.

 Raw really stands out from the crowd and as seen below, it does quite a bit of work that could be seen as been socially and politically focused. Such as vegetarian campaigns, work for the NHS and for equally other good causes. I think that's rather admirable and I feel like because of that, they add a lot of weight behind them by having a rather light hearted take on the subjects. Rather than being overly serious and bland.

3rd Year – Final Presentation

My presentation went well, however there was a lot more I think I could have mentioned, I just didn't want to rake on to long. Although I practiced before hand I felt like it fell apart as I went through it, which is disappointing but nevertheless I believe I got all the points that were most important across. I wish I said more about more successes this year and perhaps more of my work, but it's all over with now.

Personal Branding - March Portfolio

This is where I'm currently at with my work sample portfolio, the work I've put in it is work that I feel shows the most variety, although I'm unsure still about Flo been included, I don't want to litter it with books, as well as that it has the web element going for it which I think is important in showing considerations. 

Anyway, notes to takeaway from this, I'm happy with the overall look so far, however I'm going to tinker with it for just a few more days.

Personal Branding - Typeface

In the past I'd relied on Futura and Gill Sans quite a lot and the big bold geometric look which I think really resonates with my practice. I like thick lines and big block colour, things that pop out. As well as that I'd like to think it reflects me as a person too, light hearted, approachable and friendly. 

Gill + Din

Lively, but to bold.

Futura + Din

Rigid, lacks the life of Gill. 

Walsheim + Open Sans

A perfect mix between the two.

Edmondsans + Open Sans

Wild card.

I created 4 examples of my past favourites which over the past years I have felt have come to visually represent me the best. They are all very similar on first notice but there are some things I don't like between them which has helped shaped my choice between them. 

I'll start with the main type, used in the couplets. With Gill, I currently believe is too bold for the size it is, visually it appears to fill much more space and doesn't come across as overly light hearted as the other options. 

Futura, although it has been a long favourite of mine, I feel appears to rigid in comparison to Gill which has a bit more life in it, the curly t and the slants, for example.

Walsheim takes the positives of both of them and puts it together, the sleekness of Futura and the life of Gill. It comes across as professional, yet approachable and light hearted.

Edmondsans I used quite a bit last year in my publication Put it in Print. It carries a lot of character in it, with it's unusual lower-case a and cross t's. It has a lot of appeal, but I think it comes across to casual for my liking, it doesn't seem confident in its self. I'm just not sure where that comes from though.

The only thing I didn't like about Walsheim however the crossbar on the G didn't really fit in with the rest of the typeface so I edited it to fit better.  

My final custom typeface, 

DBA – WIN.

For DBA presentations, I created the presentation for the group. I thought I'd try something different using different size images in combination with text to control the flow of the presentation instead of it just been full screen image after image. Just to make it that much more rememberable, and having the images I thought had the biggest impact full screen instead so you can truly appreciate the detail within them.

I'm proud to say after the day was up, we found out we had came first in front of all the over groups, the feedback we received during the presentation was absolutely amazing. I was really impressed by Ian Thompson from Thompson Brand Partners, he had an impressive charisma about him, he's someone I'd love to work for because he was rather inspiring. The winning prize turned out to be a placement at any of the studio's who participated, which is such a huge help, I'm so happy. The brief may have been an ordeal but it was so worth it in the end, just for that.

ANALOGUE - Week 2

My two week placement is over, and what a two weeks it has been! – I was given a happy surprise at the end with Barry paying me for the work I've done while I was there, as well as a meal out! I wasn't expecting it, however I'm very grateful.

Anyway, the big project I'd been working on, Barry said I can use for my portfolio which is great! However it still needs a little tweaking if I'm wanting to use it, I grabbed all the files I could for it however I think I may be missing one or two. 

I've really enjoyed my time at Analogue, however I don't know if it's for me. I still need to really discover what other studios are like and find something that truly feels like a good fit. It's not down to one thing, it's just a bit of everything, like the fact that it's in an awkward part of town with nothing interesting.  It's not something I can nail down, I just don't have my gut set on it. But I'm happy knowing that, because I can identify that as a type of place I don't want to be.

As well as that I got some really good contacts out of it, and someone to rely on for help and advice. Which I'm really happy about. I feel like I've become a lot wiser, and I've really missed having the feeling of been out of my depth and I absolutely loved that. 

ANALOGUE - Week 1

My first week at Analogue has gone really well, I don't think I could have chosen a better studio to have my first taste of studio life. I've been working on quite a big live brief, which I'm really surprised at  because I didn't expect to be given so much responsibility for such a short term period.

The atmosphere is really relaxing, although I feel like I've shied away a little, just because I'm just growing my confidence in the studio. I do think however, that a studio this size isn't really for me, I would prefer it to be a little bigger by a few people.

 I've talked with the other designers and they agreed with me on this point, it's due to the studio losing some designers recently so it's only temporary. The conversation dies of pretty quick with so few people, as well as there been a barrier between everyone.

Personal Branding - Logo

While I was creating some profile images, I wondered what it'd be like if I was to create one for my self. I wanted to get the most distinguishing aspect of me across, sideburns and fringe. As well as my nose, which is pretty small.  I might not smile as much as the picture, but – It's the personality of my work which I want to get across which I would say is all smiles. 

I wondered what It looked like to have it as the front of my portfolio, I really liked it however I think doesn't look quite right as of yet but I like the look of it so far. I've applied it to Behance and Twitter and it works so well! Really happy with this. :-)

Hungarian Design – Frakk

Frakk is a Hungarian cartoon from 1971 about a Hungarian Vizsla, the countries national dog. – I found out about this cartoon from one of the tour guides while I was there in summer and it's one of the most utterly charming cartoons I've ever seen, the expressions in the dog's face are absolutely amazing. These did inspire Flynn quite a bit just because of how much expression is shown in just so few tweaks of the face. 

I'd love to go to other countries to find out what their favourite cartoons and characters are. The thing that interested me most about this one however, was the art style. It's got all the same charm and craft that is found in other Hungarian pieces of art. It's almost a houses style, and I'm really not sure where it stems from. Similar to Anime from Japan, it's rather distinctive.