This year, I felt like I have put myself out there in terms of attending events, workshops and speaking to people in the industry. I have actively looked at places and speak to people to better myself as a creative and try and get an insight of the design industry. The Glug vs. Ladies Wine and Design was inspiring to me. The main thing that puts me off getting a design job is how heavily male-dominated it is which makes me feel uncomfortable so it was empowering and exciting to see an all-female list of speakers that are doing well for themselves in design. Abbie Moaks, a graduate of LAU was also inspiring to listen to as she explained her journey and how she felt at university and what she did after she graduated. The main thing that stuck to me was that she was speaking about jobs after university and that we shouldn't have a job for the sake of one but instead, because we would see ourselves enjoying the job/studio.
Although I did attend events, I didn't contact many designers/studios but instead I have been contacting bloggers and influencers to collaborate with the Mei Mi Studio brand which we did manage to achieve. I am aware that I should have contacted industry professionals but I'm not sure that I want to be a designer after I graduate as I want to focus on the Mei Mi Studio brand and I don't feel I can dedicate my time to it if I had a full-time studio job.
The most stressful thing was trying to find a placement at a studio that was either in Leeds or in Manchester as I didn't want to be in an unfamiliar place whilst I had other work I had to do. Luckily, I had found one in Manchester and saw that it specialised in branding and web design and I wanted to try and further my web designing skills so I tried there. The actual placement itself was not what I expected, I was hoping it would be creatively-led but instead, I didn't end up making any creative decisions as the studio was very much about what the customer wanted rather than what looked good. Even though it was not what I hoped, it has given me an insight of what to look for when/if I find a design job in the future.
The final PPP presentation was a relief as I know I wouldn't have to put myself in that position in a long time. Every year, whenever I do any sort of crit or presentation, my anxiety always gets the better of me and while I have CBT sessions and when I thought I had control over my anxiety, my anxiety hadn't been as bad since first year. Something about the PPP presentation and the attention was very very overwhelming for me and I felt wholly uncomfortable but I knew I had to do it as I need to pass the module. My anxiety is something that I am working on have have continued working on from years.
Despite some stressful experiences, I am very pleased with the final outcome of my self-branding as I feel it really does reflect me as a designer and a person (minus the anxiety). I feel that the pattern design, colours, typeface and the contents of the box is very me and it was even better that I was able to emphasise the 'She' in my name which is supposed to sound empowering.
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Visiting professional - Abbie Moaks
Abbie Moaks is a LAU alumni who graduated 2 years ago. She currently works for We Are Vista is an events based company but are expanding to design and film.
Starting out, she tried to make her portfolio different and stand out so she would have a better chance of getting a job.
She got an internship by looking on LinkedIn which later, was able to get a job from. Abbie advised us to do freelance work and internships now as we have free time and would be able to do it instead of trying to do it extra work when we have jobs.
Abbie recommended that we take a break between graduating and having a full-time studio job as when she graduated, she wanted to find a job straight away. She got a design job at UYR which is a printing place and studio that specialises in dining design. Abbie told us to really think about what we want to do and what we want from a studio instead of rushing to get into a job.
When looking for design jobs, Abbie advised us to look at turn around times - how frequently people stay at the job for - that usually indicates if the studio is a good place or not and it also shows how frequently employees get promoted.
Recruitment agencies to look at: Craft, Type and Book.
Things to ask during an interview for design job:
Starting out, she tried to make her portfolio different and stand out so she would have a better chance of getting a job.
She got an internship by looking on LinkedIn which later, was able to get a job from. Abbie advised us to do freelance work and internships now as we have free time and would be able to do it instead of trying to do it extra work when we have jobs.
Abbie recommended that we take a break between graduating and having a full-time studio job as when she graduated, she wanted to find a job straight away. She got a design job at UYR which is a printing place and studio that specialises in dining design. Abbie told us to really think about what we want to do and what we want from a studio instead of rushing to get into a job.
When looking for design jobs, Abbie advised us to look at turn around times - how frequently people stay at the job for - that usually indicates if the studio is a good place or not and it also shows how frequently employees get promoted.
Recruitment agencies to look at: Craft, Type and Book.
Things to ask during an interview for design job:
- Progression opportunities
- Do they collaborate with other people or different media?
Thursday, April 5, 2018
Professional website development
Since re-creating my self-branding, I wanted my website to be cohesive with my self-branding design. I used my self-branding pattern as a background on all the pages of my website but made it subtle by turning the opacity down as I don't want to overwhelm the audience nor do I want to draw attention from my actual design work.
I prefer my website now than I did before as I felt previously, it was too stark and dreary and it did not give an indication of who I am but the development shows my character and it makes me look more like an actual designer.
I prefer my website now than I did before as I felt previously, it was too stark and dreary and it did not give an indication of who I am but the development shows my character and it makes me look more like an actual designer.
Monday, April 2, 2018
Self branding development
In the 1st year of university, I had created my self branding that was inspired by the Birchbox concept where you would be sent a box containing 5 surprise items. As I love surprises myself and like the enigmatic concept, I personalised it to me but over the years, the items in the box from 1st year didn't make any sense and I only did them as I didn't know what else to put inside of the box.
Now I am in my 3rd year, I have since developed in my design skills and decided to change the pattern. I still liked the idea of the 90s themed geometric pattern as I was born in the 90s. I developed the design by keeping it simple, using a white background colour but having a fun pattern that consisted of shapes to represent packaging or 3D design. I used mainly pastel colours as I wanted it to be easy on the eye but also use a range of colours to represent my personality.
My original self-branding design tried to use the 'She' part of my name so it seemed like an extension of who I am but it didn't work out too well. The branding looked confusing and it wasn't direct enough to make sense unless I explained the concept. So, I developed the idea by using a simple typeface that is a reflection of myself - I chose Six Caps, which is a sans serif typeface as I feel I am a sans serif person. The typeface isn't too bold but I felt it stood out enough to be easily legible as the stems are equally weighted throughout each letter. I had to readjust the tracking so it didn't look bunched together like it would without any changes. For the body text typeface, I have chosen Baskerville which is a serif as I thought it worked well against the Six Caps typeface and they balance each other out. I've always liked the Baskerville typeface as it is a classic serif type and it looks clean and is easily readable. I did use a serif typeface in my current website however, I don't feel that I am a serif person so this time, I have kept it for the body text instead.
I had chosen a yellow colour for my self-branding name as the name 'Huang' when pronounced in Chinese has a double meaning and is the same pronunciation as yellow. I feel that yellow is a lively and bold colour which again, would hopefully show my personality.
The 'She' in Shelley is more obvious than the previous branding design therefore it allows me to emphasise on who I am as a person and a designer for example, 'She is...', 'She can...', 'She will' etc...
As I've developed more as a person and a designer, choosing elements to be featured in the box was easier. Most of the items in the box have my pattern design or name included as it would hopefully allow the receiver to think of me whilst using my items.
My self-branding box includes:
Now I am in my 3rd year, I have since developed in my design skills and decided to change the pattern. I still liked the idea of the 90s themed geometric pattern as I was born in the 90s. I developed the design by keeping it simple, using a white background colour but having a fun pattern that consisted of shapes to represent packaging or 3D design. I used mainly pastel colours as I wanted it to be easy on the eye but also use a range of colours to represent my personality.
My original self-branding design tried to use the 'She' part of my name so it seemed like an extension of who I am but it didn't work out too well. The branding looked confusing and it wasn't direct enough to make sense unless I explained the concept. So, I developed the idea by using a simple typeface that is a reflection of myself - I chose Six Caps, which is a sans serif typeface as I feel I am a sans serif person. The typeface isn't too bold but I felt it stood out enough to be easily legible as the stems are equally weighted throughout each letter. I had to readjust the tracking so it didn't look bunched together like it would without any changes. For the body text typeface, I have chosen Baskerville which is a serif as I thought it worked well against the Six Caps typeface and they balance each other out. I've always liked the Baskerville typeface as it is a classic serif type and it looks clean and is easily readable. I did use a serif typeface in my current website however, I don't feel that I am a serif person so this time, I have kept it for the body text instead.
I had chosen a yellow colour for my self-branding name as the name 'Huang' when pronounced in Chinese has a double meaning and is the same pronunciation as yellow. I feel that yellow is a lively and bold colour which again, would hopefully show my personality.
The 'She' in Shelley is more obvious than the previous branding design therefore it allows me to emphasise on who I am as a person and a designer for example, 'She is...', 'She can...', 'She will' etc...
As I've developed more as a person and a designer, choosing elements to be featured in the box was easier. Most of the items in the box have my pattern design or name included as it would hopefully allow the receiver to think of me whilst using my items.
My self-branding box includes:
- An A6 plain notebook
- A pencil featuring my name
- Mini packaging design
- Teabag
- A card that shows the type of design I mainly do which also doubles up as a mini illustration poster.
Friday, March 30, 2018
Competition briefs
Since the competition briefs came out, I had chosen 4 to complete, 2 as collaborations and 2 by myself. I wanted to push myself and see if I was able to complete all 4 straight after my dissertation submission.
From going from intense academic writing to planning, developing, creating, researching and getting feedback - it was extreme. Even though the competition briefs were released late 2017/early 2018, I had only really begun the competition briefs after the dissertation submission which gave me around 2 months to complete 4 briefs which I was working daily at. I had done some initial ideas but it felt like I was just starting out on all the briefs.
The first brief I completed was the RSA Fair Play brief where I made a physical board game. This brief was bigger than I expected and more challenging as I hadn't considered how much time and elements it needed to make something work properly. As it is a new board game, I had to think of the rules, the concept, the design, the sustainability and I also created an app. I didn't expect that I would have to do product design as part of this brief but in considering the sustainability of the game, I decided to create the board game from wood which meant I had to go to the wood workshop to get completed.
The second competition brief was in collaboration with Stephen where we created tea tins for the Starpack awards. We both decided that Stephen should do ideas for tea tins and I would do some ideas for coffee and decide which direction we wanted to go from there. We decided to create tea tins as we both rarely are coffee drinkers ourselves so we form that perspective, we felt we had a better understanding of teas as we are more aware of tea. As Stephen had already researched into teas, we discussed the idea and he would create the tin shape and I would create the pattern. This brief was quite straight forward as easy enough to do so I did not feel too stressed whilst doing the Starpack brief.
The third completion was the Ohh Deer Papergang brief. This is the brief that I was able to complete the quickest. The brief was to create a design for their subscription box for the month of October. They did not specify what they wanted so it was a broad brief and allowed me to create whatever I wanted so I looked into trends, into the month of October and created a simple pattern design.
The final brief was another collaboration with Karolina, a 3rd year Graphic Designer at Northumbria University. We had chosen to do the YCN The Grown Up Chocolate Company brief. This brief was more difficult to do as Karolina had her own deadlines and work going on and it was difficult to communicate with her and find free time. We went back and fourth with ideas as we felt we couldn't really fully understand each other's ideas as we only used text as a way to communicate as we did not have the same sleeping habits. In the end, we did finally understand where we wanted to go with the brief and we both did some illustrations and she created the digital mock ups and website design whilst I created the layout and design of the chocolate bar itself.
Doing the 4 briefs in a few months was definitely the most stressful thing I have done in my entire few years on the course. It was very intense and at (many) time, I felt I was going to burn out and give up because it was making my anxiety worse. When everything was submitted and completed, I relaxed a little more but was also very conscious of the other briefs I had to do. Overall, I'm glad that I experienced the turn-over time of each brief and how I pushed myself to submit all the work on time.
From going from intense academic writing to planning, developing, creating, researching and getting feedback - it was extreme. Even though the competition briefs were released late 2017/early 2018, I had only really begun the competition briefs after the dissertation submission which gave me around 2 months to complete 4 briefs which I was working daily at. I had done some initial ideas but it felt like I was just starting out on all the briefs.
The first brief I completed was the RSA Fair Play brief where I made a physical board game. This brief was bigger than I expected and more challenging as I hadn't considered how much time and elements it needed to make something work properly. As it is a new board game, I had to think of the rules, the concept, the design, the sustainability and I also created an app. I didn't expect that I would have to do product design as part of this brief but in considering the sustainability of the game, I decided to create the board game from wood which meant I had to go to the wood workshop to get completed.
The second competition brief was in collaboration with Stephen where we created tea tins for the Starpack awards. We both decided that Stephen should do ideas for tea tins and I would do some ideas for coffee and decide which direction we wanted to go from there. We decided to create tea tins as we both rarely are coffee drinkers ourselves so we form that perspective, we felt we had a better understanding of teas as we are more aware of tea. As Stephen had already researched into teas, we discussed the idea and he would create the tin shape and I would create the pattern. This brief was quite straight forward as easy enough to do so I did not feel too stressed whilst doing the Starpack brief.
The third completion was the Ohh Deer Papergang brief. This is the brief that I was able to complete the quickest. The brief was to create a design for their subscription box for the month of October. They did not specify what they wanted so it was a broad brief and allowed me to create whatever I wanted so I looked into trends, into the month of October and created a simple pattern design.
The final brief was another collaboration with Karolina, a 3rd year Graphic Designer at Northumbria University. We had chosen to do the YCN The Grown Up Chocolate Company brief. This brief was more difficult to do as Karolina had her own deadlines and work going on and it was difficult to communicate with her and find free time. We went back and fourth with ideas as we felt we couldn't really fully understand each other's ideas as we only used text as a way to communicate as we did not have the same sleeping habits. In the end, we did finally understand where we wanted to go with the brief and we both did some illustrations and she created the digital mock ups and website design whilst I created the layout and design of the chocolate bar itself.
Doing the 4 briefs in a few months was definitely the most stressful thing I have done in my entire few years on the course. It was very intense and at (many) time, I felt I was going to burn out and give up because it was making my anxiety worse. When everything was submitted and completed, I relaxed a little more but was also very conscious of the other briefs I had to do. Overall, I'm glad that I experienced the turn-over time of each brief and how I pushed myself to submit all the work on time.
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Self branding ideas
Since I am going to be developing my self-branding this year, I've had to think of things that reflect me as a designer and as a person so that I can put it into my self branding box.
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Glug vs. Ladies Wine and Design
Marlin Persson is the Glug HQ coordinator. She is originally from Sweden and graduated there. In 2010, Malin in 2010, she attended Billy Blue College of Design in Sydney and studied Communication Design as a foundation degree.
After she was done with her foundation degree, she attended London Ravensbourne, studying Graphic design
After she finished her degree, she didn't know what to do. She saw on Facebook that a friend of hers had spoken about a Glug event. Malin attended the Glug event and liked the content, speakers and the concept of Glug which had then led her to work at Glug and has been there for 2.5 years.
In the design industry she gave us some advice which were to dare to ask about business, money, projects that you aren’t involved in and extra curricular opportunities. She believes that context leads to confidence and that you should be your own cheerleader. Change routine - say yes more than no. Go to events.
Cari Kirby is a marketing manager at Team Cooper in Sheffield. She studied Media and Politics at university.
Cari got into her current job at Team Cooper after having her child, she wanted flexibility - a balance between work life and being a mum.
She went back to work for 4 days a week as account executive - after 11 months after having child but she no longer felt that she liked the job she was doing and as it didn't allow her to be as flexible as she wanted so she handed in notice and did freelancing.
Whilst Cari was freelancing, she saw an advertisement aimed at women who were on maternity and wanted to get back into work. Team Cooper is a place where it has allowed Cari to be flexible in her work and she enjoys what she does. Her advice was to surround yourself with people in the same position and speak about it so that way, you don't feel alone.
Olivia Downing is a copywriter for a advertising agency. She created 'Chicks in Advertising' which is all about female empowerment in the design industry and is a space that allows women to support one another. She helps to advertise for other people.
Olivia said that it’s important to adapt and have empathy to a lot of different people and relate to people from a small frame of time and the more places that you go on your own, the more opportunities you will have.
Ellen Ling grew up in Harrow on the Hill and used to work at D&AD New Blood but now is a creative copywriter at LOVE Manchester. She has worked on the designs for Simply B and Peri A. which she and Tess collaborated on to create the branding.
She originally went to Drama school as wanted to be an actress - she did performance art for 4 years.
After doing unpaid internships for sometime, she got a job as an admin for Damian Hurst which she said she was working with hipsters for 4 months but then was been made redundant.
She later got a job at D&AD New Blood as an admin worker but it inspired her to want to be a copywriter instead so after a while, she got a job at LOVE Manchester as a copywriter.
She said she was inspired by Alec's (Intern) quote “If you’re not hearing different points of view, then it’s alarm bells you should be hearing instead".
The advice that she had given us was:
- when you are given a brief, solve it, figure it out - be a detective.
- Work out who you are. Be that.
- Don’t hope. Do.
- Be the dumbest person in the room.
- You learn nothing when you try to know everything.
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