Web Group Critique

Web Group Critique.

The feedback I received in my group is as follows:

• Make sure your navigation is always visible. So therefore you have to, make sure your homepage is similar to your title pages. 
• Go on to comparison sites to see how they hold feedback & what works best within that? 
• Make sure you make it worth your while the infographics? Make it consistent throughout all parks and then have a key to bring it together.  
• On my homepage rather than just the links maybe have a short summary about what the website is about and how they should use it. As you don't know what the website is about.
• Need to make more decisions on colour themes & font families.
• Also create a wireframe so it will be easier to translate onto dreamweaver.
• Maybe to show a map of how to get to different parks.
• Maybe start mock-ups on illustrator.

 

Ways You Could Contact People in Industry

On the subject of qualifications, this depends, a degree will certainly help but talent is probably more important as are organisational skills, how you work as part of a team and whether you ‘fit in’ with the other people in the agency/department.
Proficiency in Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator are a must and Freehand and InDesign will also do you a lot of good. If it’s a new media agency then some kind of Flash or Dreamweaver experience will almost certainly be required. If you don’t have experience in certain software packages and an agency likes you and you’re really lucky, they may send you on a training course.
If you are trying to get your foot in the door at a local agency, but lack a folio and/or experience, there are things you can do. Design stuff for your mates: club flyers, CD sleeves, logos, T.Shirts etc. Offer to re-brand your Uncle’s dry cleaning business; make potential employers/clients know that you understand the fundamentals; take a client brief and present your ideas in an attractive and organised way. 


Invent a bogus company and design a complete set of stationery and a company brochure; design a website and think up an online marketing campaign. Contact a local agency and offer yourself for work experience during the summer holidays. Ask to sit in on client/designer meetings, ask for a ‘real-life’ brief, go away and come back a week later and present your work to the art director and his/her team. They’d be nuts not to want someone around who’s hungry for experience, who’s willing to help out to get ahead (and who can make a decent cuppa).
Network Network Network!!! Go to design conferences and chat to other designers/exhibitors/guest speakers, go to the local club/art-house cinema/gallery/café bar and meet the local movers and shakers. Go and see the best local bands/DJ’s in your town – chances are there’ll be lots of like-minded people in the audience. Target the small to medium sized agencies, contact them and offer to take the art director for lunch [art directors LOVE going for lunch!], infiltrate the local art/music/independent film scene [delete as appropriate] and follow up any good leads with a telephone call not more than three days later. After that time, people would’ve forgotten you. Don’t be a pain in the arse though – people won’t give you the time of day. Remember that everyone started somewhere and even the top designers/art directors still need to network.
Your portfolio
If you have lots of copies of your work and you don’t mind losing a few along the way, then leaving your book isn’t a bad idea. If you only have ‘one offs’ then don’t. In this day and age, a good way to make an approach would be via a CD ROM – that way you don’t have to worry about losing work plus whoever you send it too can look at it when they’re ready. Also, the design of the CD ROM itself can be another vehicle to get your message across. Make sure it gets to your intended target and then follow it up with a telephone call no more than 3 days later.
Your own branding
Personally I think it’s worth setting yourself up formally as a business.


01. Join design organisations and/or volunteer to their events
02. Work for charities
03. Get internships
04. Nurture a network of peers
05. Send fan mail
06. Create an online presence
07. Exploit your other skills
08. Submit work to competitions
09. Be nice, be bold, be humble

Contacting Professionals

Contacting Professionals Seminar


Why would you want to contact professionals?
To become a key player
New potential creative in the industry.
Agencies look for that individual.

Why are we doing a degree?
It doesn't mean anything although we are learning more than other universities who are in two days a week and don't learn much, but this is not what talent comes from?

Planning & Documenting
List all the references that you have seen 

How are you going to contact them?
Email
Post
Twitter

Ring creative directors up, ask for his details. Say can you put me through.
Have some questions ready to ask.

WHY? WHAT?
Why are contacting them?
A visit maybe?

If you consider what to ask, there should be no problem in using the phone.
Skype could be a good way?

What do you want to tell them?
Just tell them you exist.
A visit for a bit of advise?
Looking in a professional studio.
DON'T ASK FOR A PLACEMENT, STRAIGHT AHEAD!
Just ask for a visit.

What will they want to know about you?
WHY you chose them to contact?
WHAT kind of creative are you? Dont give them the school blog you need a private one.
WHAT kind of work do you see as synergistic to you? If you don't know don't worry?
Keep it short & sweet.

What can you show them?
A brief you are wokring on?
Creative CV
You don't have a portfolio yet so don't stress.
You could invite them to college?

What is a creative CV?
Its a shop window on how you do things.
It all about you & what is great about you up to now?


BE OUTSIDE THE BOX!
Its not just a CV, its a reference to you hey may keep it.

What should you aim to take away from the meeting?
How you interact?
Insight to the studio.
Keep in contact for feedback on your work.
Who else do you think I should be talking to?

Negative & Positive list created by a friend?
 
 
 

Networking Seminar

Networking Seminar

Getting to know people.

Concentrate your minds on to the scale of things.
Its getting to know people now!
There must be a reason to contact people & have a plan!

Your Network is for many reasons, it can be friends, family & colleagues, teachers, tutors or whomever you see as beneficial to your practice.

WHY do we network?
So people know that we exist as a creative & see what makes you special.
Getting to know people you work with within the industry.

The reasons are:
Advice
Mentoring
Feedback
Visits
Placements
Collaborations
Employments

Contacting People.

You will not have a portfolio that you can use to get a job till after third year. Show things you are proud of!

Its the methods can you employ to get contact?
INVESTIGATE yourself!
Questioning them? Comment on them?

Websites are about their business. Look at the blog this is the real things! The inside knowledge like parties & events.

Give yourself a reason to contact them!
Give yourself a reason to blog!

Identify areas you want to have a voice in.

Linked in is the best format to contact people. 
NEVER use Facebook for professionalism.

Why are you contacting them?
What do you want from me?
In what way do you do you want them to respond?

What do you want from a graduate now?
People who care about what they do? People who live it day in day out. Everyone will come out with skills, they want commitment!
You need to be an all round graphic designer.
This can happen through networking.

Johnny Cupcakes - Started in the boot of his car. He is not narrow minded.

What should we consider?
Your Identity, what makes you you?
Cartoon yourself, see what others see!
Maybe a CV, a different kind of CV creative!
Doesnt have to be a CV, can me a mailer! 

Progression Crit

Progression Crit

This critique was only a day after our first critique and therefore I didn't find this very helpful although I did get more of an idea of my audience. Although, now I am not sure about when I have my next critique if any and this means I could move on in that night to get more feedback down the line which I am rather disappointed about.

Here is my feedback sheet:

Reflection

 
Reflection on the Summer.


1. Reflecting on your summer what is your most memorable event and why?

Reflecting on my summer the most memorable event was possibly taking part in the new shop fir of BANK fashion in the White Rose. This is due to me doing most of the visual merchandising and helping with the displays of the accessories and the small exhibitions of the range up high. 

2. Have you made any contacts over the summer that you feel could be helpful over the coming year or so and what outcomes did you feel you achieved?

I have been asked to design a pricing list and a business card for my friends beauty salon. Which I think I will answer these and use them as a brief for my responsive brief. I was unsure at first as although she is my friend I wasn't sure if I would be able to meet her needs of cheap but effective as I am quite creative when using die-cuts etc.. but therefore the budget would have to be relatively high end for this. But I think I am going to set myself the challenge and this will also give me experience of working with a client on a one-to-one basis and then also get my design work out there.

I wanted to contact some studios to enquire about placements for next year in the gap between level 5 & 6 but wasn't too sure how to grab there attention and didn't want to sound ill professional and at the moment don't feel I have a strong enough portfolio to take if they asked to see some work I have designed.

3. How did you meet/contact these contacts?

This is just a friend, who I mentioned that I designed my own business card and showed her mine from Level 4 PPP and she wanted me to design hers as at the moment she just had a standard vista print business card. Then she also mentioned about the chance of a pricing list. I think this would be a challenge also due to the layout of having to put pricings and title of treatments, without it looking too busy.

4. If you didn't make any contacts, why? too busy working? holiday?

I didn't feel confident enough to contact any studios about placements or even just going to visit them. Also, I was working quite a high amount of hours due to the retail shop I was working in was getting a new shop & therefore was highly involved in the shop fit & the visual merchandising. 

Although, my uncles niece works for Clintons which I think I am going to try and get in contact with her about getting a placement or a visit to the studio. Or even just to look at my work and see if she had any feedback. As card design is a big interest of mine a lately, which I am entering into a competition brief to design a range of valentines day cards for Tigerdesign.

5. What methods of creating contacts can you think of and what would you ask?

Although, I think that email is easy to get lots of entries sent out I do think this is less personal and If i put some sort of effort into the letter by foiling or embossing the header this would be more appreciated and possibility a better chance of been looked at. Rather than an email which will just probably get put into trash.

Maybe to start just handing out business cards. At the moment I only have one business card which I think would be hard to imitate as I have used colour edging but using pritt stick rather than professionally. So maybe, think about a new design which is more achievable.

Interim Peer Review

Interim Peer Review.


PRINT CRIT

So when I went to this interim crit I was really struggling with my ideas with print and wasn't too sure which would work best for the brief so I asked them their decision.

They thought that out of my ideas I had brainstormed that the magazine or the calendar would work best. 

The feedback for these was that the magazine:
It is a good idea!
Although how would you get this to your audience?
Audience - would be in a formal language as it could be possible experts I am telling how to do prints etc...


Then the calendar:
Amy liked this idea
Although, it would be hard as people work at different time scales and not too sure how to get around this unless surveyed the time scaled and then generalised between them.


Another Idea 
Would be like a little book of swatches so they can take it with them.
Also a swatch like book with examples on.

Loraine then came over and tried to breakdown the audience of a student.
They said that they would be:

• The social media background would be preferably middle-class.
• With a low budget
• The education varied due to different courses, but they have one.

Now think about who else it could benefit?
Could it be charities to work out for them the cheapest way to print?
Useful for people working the in marketing department.
WHY? WHY? WHY?

Then I started thinking about a hard back bound book full of finishes as this is what I like the most and have done the most primary research about.
Then also have a little How To Book? Like my little graze book when I got my first pack.

Although, I also thought that I could do a poster full of processes!
And then do a book of how I did these processes/ How I created this poster?


WEB CRIT

I thought that I had set all my information for the website down to a tee. Until when I presented it to the group they told me that there was too much info & that I was created it too complicated for myself. Although, they really like the idea of having infographics for rides and the forums.

They told me to narrow it down to only theme parks in Yorkshire. Although, then I said I haven't been to all and therefore this is why I didn't want to do this.

So they said that I should do a survey to ask others experience and then take that info to rate the places and see what type of places they are, family orientated etc...
And then, just use information which is from the theme parks website and the info about the rollercoasters that are online. Maybe get interesting facts such as are dogs allowed in?


What they most famous for?

FLAMINGO LAND
THORPE PARK
LIGHTWATER VALLEY
ALTON TOWERS

Then I thought of having a map of yorkshire on the homepage so you can click each of the points but also have buttons across the top too for easy navigation.

Then I thought about having maps about each theme park and telling them how far it is between different areas etc...