OUGD602: Personal and Professional Practice - Brief 4: Interactive Mail shot, Contacting Studios

Throughout my first two years on the course I have learnt from PPP sessions the importance how to communicate with professionals in terms of securing visits and possibly future placements. In order to pass the third year of the course it is imperative that I complete a two week placement which is something I discussed with Amber during my progress tutorial in December. 

She suggested an informal, friendly tone of voice and to offer to bring something such as Yorkshire teabags in order to differentiate from the masses of other students whom they will be receiving emails from. Therefore I began by writing a simple structure which I could send to a number of studios.

I personally believe it is of vital importance to be as personal as possible when contacting studios, just sending out a mass email which is vague will possibly get lost within the hundreds of other emails they receive whilst something that is personal to them and shows I have gone to the effort of looking and their studio and what they do may be more impactful.

Using the mailing list I created for Studio Brief 4 for Extended Practice I began emailing my selected studios from Liverpool, Leeds and Amsterdam changing the content slightly each time.

To Dave Williams:

Hi!

My name is Anna Sergison, I am currently in my third year at Leeds College of Art studying Graphic Design.

Being an avid football fan myself I find your work particularly inspiring. I watch as many games as I can, of course being a red it's mostly from behind my hands anxiously! I loved the 'Back in Europe' insert you did for the Liverpool Echo which I had hung up on my wall, although it was heartbreaking filling in the results! 

I would love to come and take a look around your studio should you have the time, i'll even bring you a box of Yorkshire teabags!

I look forward to hearing from you!

Anna Sergison

Response:

Hi Anna,

Thanks for your email and for your kind words. I wish I could invite you to have a look around my studio, but unfortunately I don’t have one (yet!). I have been freelancing full-time for just under a year now so I still work from home in a spare bedroom, which is quite un-glamourous! I’ve been working as a designer for nearly 10 years, freelancing in my spare time for the last 5 but I only made the jump to working for myself last Feb.

Long term, I would love to rent some studio space, or even just a desk within a studio environment but for now Im trying to build up enough regular work to keep me doing for the foreseeable future, so it makes sense to work from home and not pay the additional expense of a studio.

If I can be of any help to you though, just give me a shout. I’ll happily give you feedback or advice as and when I can!

Cheers
Dave

This was a real blow as I have a keen interest not only in the type of work that Dave is producing but also the subject, however it is good that I have a point of contact should I need any feedback or advice about my future.

To Liquid:

Hi! 

My name is Anna Sergison, I am currently in my third year at Leeds College of Art studying Graphic Design.

I too put an emphasis on creating imaginative and memorable concepts within my design work, and therefore find your work to be particularly inspiring.I love the concept you generated for the Onitsuka Tiger campaign, the warning posters around town was a really unique way to engage with the audience and really caught my attention as something I myself would like to achieve.

I would love to come and take a look around your studio should you have the time, I'll even bring you a box of Yorkshire teabags! 

I look forward to hearing from you!

Anna Sergison

To Black and Ginger:

Hi!

My name is Anna Sergison, I am currently in my third year of study at Leeds College of Art studying Graphic Design.

I too like to use a brief as an opportunity to be as creative as possible and therefore find the work you have produced particularly inspiring. My best friend was actually involved in helping with the giants last year, I really love the identity you created, particularly how it was applied to the website with a distinctive World War One aesthetic which for me really epitomised what the event was about.

I would love to come and take a look around your studio should you have the time I'll even bring a box of Yorkshire teabags! I look forward to hearing from you!

Anna Sergison

To All Good:

Hi! My name is Anna Sergison I am currently in my third year at Leeds College of Art studying Graphic Design.

I too consider myself to be a concept driven designer, and put a lot of emphasis on producing innovative solutions in my design practice and therefore I find the work you have produced particularly inspiring. I love the designs you produced for Broadgate Chiropractors, the hand-rendered aesthetic is something I explore a lot as I personally find it really engaging. The type you used for 'Super Health Heros' particularly works really well.

I would love to come and take a look around your studio should you have the time, I'll even bring a box of Yorkshire teabags! I look forward to hearing from you!

Anna Sergison

Response:

HI Anna

Thanks for getting in touch, we’re a bit busy in the studio at the minute.

If you can get in touch again late February we might be able to sort something.

Regards

Paul Dodd

To Robot Food:

Hi! My name is Anna Sergison I am currently in my third year at Leeds College of Art studying Graphic Design.

My personal interests lie particularly in the branding and packaging sectors of the industry and therefore I find your work particularly inspiring. I love the packaging you produced for your Robot Roy nutcracker toy what a lovely idea to thank your clients! The gold foiling and limited edition numbered stickers makes it look, and I'm sure feel really bespoke. A really personal way to engage with others and a beautiful gift to receive.

I would love to come and take a look around your studio should you have the time, I'll even bring you a box of Yorkshire teabags! I look forward to hearing from you!

Anna Sergison 

Response:

Hi Anna,

Thanks for getting in touch.

Have you got a Pdf of your work or a link to an online portfolio?

Thanks,

Simon

A PDF I put together of some of the briefs I have worked on during the second and third years of my course.


To Happy Giraffe:

Hi! My name is Anna Sergison I am currently in my third year of study at Leeds College of Art studying graphic Design.

I too would refer to myself as a doodler as I prefer to work with hand-rendered techniques within my work, therefore find the work you have produced particularly inspiring. I also love the name of your agency! Giraffes are actually my favourite animal, I recently adopted one at Chester Zoo!

I would love to come and take a look around your studio should you have the time, I'll even bring a box of Yorkshire teabags! I look forward to hearing from you!

Anna Sergison

To Freshu:

Hi! My name is Anna Sergison I am currently in my third year at Leeds College of Art in England studying Graphic Design.

My personal interests lie in the branding sector of the industry and I too enjoy letting the story come to life by being as creative with my ideas as I possibly. Therefore I find your work very inspiring. I particularly like the branding you produced for GYLD, the identity is visually really strong and the pattern you have created is not only impactful but also creates a really a sense of cohesion to the outcomes.

I would love to come and take a look around your studio should you have the time, I'll even bring you a box of Yorkshire teabags! I look forward to hearing from you!

Anna Sergison

To Lava:

Hi! My name is Anna Sergison I am currently in my third year at Leeds College of Art in England studying Graphic Design.

Within my practice I have a keen interest in working with mixed media, similarly to the aesthetic of your work and therefore I find your work particularly inspiring. I really admire the work you produced for The Museum of Communication, the mixture of the hand-rendered and digital media is really engaging.

I actually visited Amsterdam last summer it is such a beautiful city! I would love to come and take a look around your studio should you have the time I'll even bring a box of Yorkshire teabags! I look forward to hearing from you!

Anna Sergison

Studio Brief Four

This idea of a personal approach when it comes to contacting professionals gave me inspiration for a concept for my fourth studio brief for the Extended Practice in which I will design and produce a mailshot to send to studios. Not only will personal feel showcase me as an individual rather than just another Graphic Design student looking for a placement but it will also represent my outlook as I consider myself to be a friendly, down to earth person, something I would really like to get across.

OUGD602: Personal and Professional Practice - Semester One, Briefs 8, 1, 2 & 4: Initial Critique

Although we are only at a initial point in terms of the development of out individually set briefs, we were allocated time in which we where able to manage and run a crit ourselves with the intention that we would talk through the briefs we intend to undertake and hopefully get some help and feedback from our peers who could be perhaps undertaking a similar brief.

Our initial crit group contained about 14 members of the group however we decided to break this down further so we would be presenting to about six or seven in order to gain more detailed, constructive feedback. We decided to manage our crit by allowing a timeframe of ten minutes to present in which we would give a brief description of the brief we will undertake and present what we had done in response to the group.

I began my presentation by explaining that I had decided to focus on four of my eight briefs -including one CoP and one PPP crossover briefs - for the first semester and four in our second semester following the CoP hand-in. 

I then displayed the range of designs which I had produced for my second brief, in which I aim to produce a range of Cockney Rhyming Slang prints for a Museum or Regular gift shop. I also talk through the ideas I had in terms of printing onto patterned stock which would then be mounted on black to create something which ideally the audience would want to keep and hang up on the wall.

My Feedback:

• Make the purpose more substantial? Prints could possibly be a range of postcards or Birthday cards?
• At the moment the designs are more appealing to children - Similar to alphabet flashcards
• More consideration into colour scheme? Experiment more? Pick out a colour from the stock?
• There is possible extension for a stationery set
• Think about your target audience? Would they engage with this? And how?

Overall I pleased with how constructive the feedback which I received was, I completely agreed with the idea of a more substantial purpose to the prints I would produce as I can not assume the audience will engage with the prints and want to put them up on their wall. By producing a range of souvenir postcards or even birthday cards - still for a gift shop - at least then they would serve a purpose.

It was also suggested that this would give me an opportunity to have a brief description about the aims behind the brief bringing in the research I collected about the survey the Museum of London undertook about whether modern day Londoners actually know Cockney Rhyming slang phrases.

OUGD602: Personal and Professional Practice - Brief 4: Interactive Mail Shot, Mailing List

Brief:

Create a piece of Graphic Design that puts a particular emphasis on personal communication rather than relying on texts and emails etc.

Concept / Proposition:

In order to create sense of interactivity between my design and the intended audience I propose to produce a mail shot which would theoretically be interacted with and then sent back to me.

My personal aims for this particular brief were not only to produce a piece of interactive design which demonstrates my personal preferences in Graphic Design but to also send it out to a variety of studios whose work I admire and am interested in with the hope of creating professional contacts and ideally securing a placement at a later date.

In order to get the most out of this brief I began compiling a mailing list of studios and agencies I am interested in which the final mail shot would be sent out to.

Throughout my first two years on the course I have developed a keen interest in the advertising / promotion aspect of Graphic Design and therefore began searching for advertising agencies in my home town of Liverpool, however, I found that most agencies had a focus on television advertising etc. rather than the traditional print adverts I prefer, therefore I widened the search to branding agencies, another field I am interested in.

Dave Williams

Recently I have developed a passion for football, I support Liverpool FC and try to watch as many games as possibly although most of the time it's from behind my hand anxiously. One of our local newspapers in Liverpool had a insert with a wall chart for the upcoming fixtures which featured illustrations by Dave Williams. I particularly admire the simplicity of his work not only within the illustrations but with other projects which he has primarily worked with type. 

Through further research into the Liverpool based illustrator I found he specialises in the sporting industry, producing work for clients such as Liverpool FC, Carlsberg and BT Sport. With sport being a keen interest of mine I felt his agency would be an appropriate one to contact as I had a vested interest in his specialism and would therefore find the work enjoyable.

Liquid

27 Lord Street, Liverpool, L2 9SA

Liquid are again a small advertising agency based in Liverpool, as well as an opportunity to work within the branding sector, a particular area of the field which I find interesting within all there work the agency put a particular emphasis on creating imaginative and memorable designs which is something I too put an emphasis on in my practice.

Black & Ginger

26A Norfolk Street, Baltic Triangle, Liverpool, L1 OBE

Similarly to Liquid advertising agency, Black and Ginger also put a particular emphasis on creativity throughout there work. Their website lists the main principles of their practice; innovative, reliable and effective, which are three key factor I can personally relate to. I have always viewed my design work and briefs I have been set  in the past as a opportunity to produce something different and create a concept that is unique. 

Uniform

3rd floor, Link 19, 9-19 Bold Street, Liverpool, L1 4DN

Uniform is again another agency in Liverpool which focusses on Branding, however they appear to be more independent and as I can appear quite shy at first I believe this would be more appropriate for me individually. I also found similarities in the three principles they discuss on their website and the principles which underpin my practice, I too have a methodical approach to briefs and the design process.

Although practically it made sense to look at agencies in Liverpool, following the course I am keen to travel and wouldn't really like to move back home. Therefore I began looking for similar agencies in Leeds.

All Good

Morwick Hall, Mortec Park, York Road, Leeds, LS15 4TA

Again, All Good are branding agency which focus on the ideas and concept creation aspect of the design process, much like myself. They call themselves the 'idea people' which is something I can relate to, I also like the idea of experimenting with not only imagery and design but also 'creative wordplay' as they call it to produce original designs.

Robot Food

Tower Works, Globe Road, Leeds, LS11 5Q6

Robot Food is a creative agency which specialises in branding and packaging design which are two areas of the design industry I myself am interested in and would like to explore further this year. They also describe themselves as 'challenging' which is something I would like to achieve with my design work.

Happy Giraffe

6&7 Lower High Street, Stourbridge, DY8 1TE

What first attracted me to this agency was in fact the name, as giraffes are my favourite animal. Through looking through their work I discovered they have quite a hand rendered feel to their work which is something that underpins my own creative practice. Another thing on their website that drew my to Happy Giraffe was the fact that they described themselves as 'doodlers' which is something I have always done growing up and even now on my degree I prefer to draw up ideas on paper than work straight onto the mac.

Over the summer I visited Amsterdam with a couple of my friends, over the holiday I was really struck at how beautiful the city was and the Dutch culture therefore I decided to research into agencies in Amsterdam. I also felt it would be interesting to make my experiment international and seeing how many, if any responses I got.

Freshu

Singel, 64 Sous, 1015 AC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Freshu describes themselves as a 'full service creative agency' and cover a range of disciplines as well as branding, I felt this would be appropriate to me as a start-up designer as it would enable me to learn about these sectors and ultimately grow as a graphic designer. Again they are put a emphasis on creating concepts and pushing them as far as they can go much like myself.

Lava

Silodam, 1F, 1013 AL, Amsterdam

As well as striving to produce creative ideas / solutions to set problems another thing that endeared me to Lava was the hand-rendered quality to their design work. Even the header to their website appeared to have begun as a sketch which was then scanned into the computer, this idea of mixed media within design work is something I aim to explore more this year.

Ideally, in order to get the most out of this brief and to hopefully secure a placement which is my primary aim of the brief I will need to send out as many mail shots as possible, therefore increasing my chance of getting a response. 

This list of agencies I have outlined will act as a primary mail list which, over the course of the brief and indeed the year as I find design/designers which interest me I can add too. 

Note: When I begin the designing for the solution to this brief I will therefore need to consider the production as it is possible I will need to produce several not just to begin with but also as I add to the mail list.

OUGD603: Extended Practice - My Statement of Intent

Who am I as a Person?

Personality wise I can seem quite shy at first, especially around new people. I don't really enjoy public speaking and can find social situations quite awkward.

I'm from Liverpool, one my favourite things about it is the scouse sense of humour. Although I do love Liverpool I would love to travel following the completion of my degree and possibly live abroad.

I particularly enjoy spending time with my family, watching football - supporting Liverpool FC of course and drinking beer!

Whenever I feel down I like to buy a pair of trainers to cheer myself up, I currently have nine pairs in my collection.

I recently adopted a giraffe from Chester Zoo.

Who am I as a Designer?

When working on a brief, I particular emphasis on devising creative concepts as solutions to set problems as I personally feel this is one of my strengths.

When it comes to media, I prefer to experiment more with the idea of hand-rendered processes and mixed media rather than digital software within my design work.

I am not as confident with digital software and I'm not very good at coding websites.

I strive to make the solutions I produce as interactive as possible.

I enjoy a hands on approach especially when it comes to constructing prototypes etc.

I have a keen interest in the promotion/advertising and branding sectors of the creative industry and would like to work more within these areas.

What I Know

Throughout my first two years on the course I have been able to have workshops on the hand-rendered processes I particularly enjoy such as screen-printing and Lino print and I have took advantage of these facilities in previous briefs.

I know how to approach a brief in quite a organised and methodical manner, and how to use the initial stages of a brief to devise creative solutions to the problem set.

I have a basic knowledge of the Adobe software such as Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign and use these to visualise my initial ideas.

I know how to produce a brand / identity and the theory and psychology behind branding.

What I Want To Know

I would like to know how to produce more relevant, specific and in-depth reach which will inform my practice.

I would quite like to improve the professional quality of my design boards which I believe will aide my in the future.

I would ideally like to improve my skills in Adobe software to feel more confident using it.

In order to work with a live client at some point in the future I would like to know how to conduct myself in a professional manner.

I would like to used this year as a opportunity to experiment further with mixed media.

My Statement of Intent

I am a concept driven Graphic Designer, with a particular emphasis on the exploration of hand-rendered and mixed-medias to achieve interactive design outcomes.

Briefs

Before I started planning and writing up any of the eight briefs I wanted to undertake as part of the OUGD603: Extended Practice module I started by thinking about what I wanted to incorporate overall in my design work in order to reflect me as a person and me as a designer I came up with humour, Interactivity with the audience and mixed media within the areas of promotion / advertising and branding. This gave me a starting point as to the kind of briefs I would write, which hopefully incorporate at least one of these.

I personally believe humour is important, this probably comes back to my love of scouse humour and therefore I like to incorporate it into my design work where ever possible. Therefore I chose to do a brief centred around Cockney Rhyming Slang another unique sense of humour to demonstrate this.

From working on the Bear brief for the OUGD503: Responsive module I found the idea of interactivity and how the audience would interact with the outcome, therefore I decided to design for exhibition, putting a particular emphasis on the space itself and how that will be interacted with, which is something I never designed for before. Another concept I came up for as a brief was to collaborate with the PPP module in order to send out some sort of interactive mail shot to members of the industry ideally to see how many responses I can get back.

During the course of the year I also plan to undertake to advertising / promotion briefs as this is an area of the creative field which I am particularly interested in and would like to design work for.

Other ideas for the briefs I devised came from my own personal interests such as trainers and Giraffes, by having a personal interest within the subject of the brief itself I believe I will be more motivated to work and produce outcomes.

OUGD502: Personal and Professional Practice 2 - Studio Brief 2: A Design Presence Module Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Throughout the Personal and Professional Practice 2 module I believe I have gained and developed from last year the skills that will aide and inform my professional practice in the future.

During the third studio brief for Personal and Professional Practice we were required to construct our own business plan for a creative design studio which we would propose and present within groups of four or five to the rest of the year group. This brief required us calculate estimated start up costs, profits, hourly rates etc. which are all things we will need to consider when starting up ourselves in the industry.

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

Throughout the module, more specifically with the second studio brief there has been a particular emphasis on branding and identity, and how we can visually represent ourselves to prospective clients through design.

Branding and identity has been a aspect of the design industry I have been interested and therefore I really enjoyed this challenge of representing myself in a interesting way in order to create a impact in the industry.

As I enjoyed this brief, branding and identity is definitely an area of the design industry I would definitely consider exploring in the future.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

Within the Personal and Professional Practice module I personally believe my strengths have been in creation of my own personal identity. In order to differentiate myself from other creatives within the design industry, it is vital that I create my own personal identity that will associated with me.

For the second studio brief of the module, ‘Design Presence’ I created my own branding and identity called ‘Glass Half Full’ which was based upon my own personal beliefs and therefore is bespoke to me.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

I personally believe my weakness throughout the Personal and Professional Practice module lies in my networking and gathering of contacts which is imperative for success when I leave the course next year and want a placement / job.

Although I believe the experience would be beneficial to my professional practice, to date I have no placements lined up for the summer as I have not put myself out there in terms of communicating with studios and arranging visits.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1.     Contact studios in order to arrange visits

2.     Have more confidence in myself and my design abilities

3.     Have more of a contribution to the group

4.     Manage my time more appropriately in terms of promoting myself through Behance etc.

5.  Improve time management in terms of completing written tasks