Friday, 30 March 2018

OUGD602 | Personal & Professional Practice 3 | Self branding Reform - Initial Sketches

Third Year - Initial Sketches of New Self Branding logo
By using the First year previous sketches and designs of the 'KS' self branding logo to further develop and expand the meaning of my self branding design. To reiterate the ideal logo that I wanted to produce was to unite or blend the two letters 'K' and 'S' together. This part of the logo design was the most challenging aspect of the design process. 

The reasoning of this is that majority of the combined logo designs from other designers initials of their name are all letters that have straight edges. These straight edges are easier to merge to one another, comparison to the initials in my name the letter 'K' is more straight whilst the letter 'S' is more curve. These types of letter shapes are more challenging to combine therefore lots of trial and error sketches were made. 

Below are the sketches: 




Wednesday, 28 March 2018

OUGD602 | Personal & Professional Practice 3 | Self branding Reform - Previous design (Beyond)

Previous First Year Self branding design - 'KS' and Beyond
At the beginning of first year of University, I began to do my first attempt of my self branding logo design which were based on my forename and surname initials which are 'K' & 'S' to make Katie Sung. This previous logo design's concept was to imply what kind of a designer I would like to be. For instance, the imagery idea of the two initial letters to supposed to be a star. The star semiotics was to portray that I am an individual and designer which its still developing, so therefore each time I learn a new skill. I will alter and change my logo design thus becoming something completely new. 

Nevertheless, during the development stages of my first self branding design started to change my logo design. The reasoning of this is that I did not like the combination of my initials together nor my name being used as my identity. Therefore, I started thinking about my journey how my art style has changed over the pass years in high school, college and now University. This involved me looking back at my old work and see the slight or massive changes that has effect it. For example: my old work is very cartoony, colourful and imaginative. Now it has tone down to a more simplistic, mature, informal and sophisticated as I start growing up and becoming more like an adult. Thus using the work ‘Beyond’ conveys how much I have changed and exceed my expectations by the work I have produced over the first year in University.

Below are the sketches and digital designs:






Below are the digital design development and final design for the 'Beyond' self branding concept, the colour schemes and font choices. The first colour scheme were: gold, silver, dark blue, white and black. The reason for this is because the colours that I have chosen represent me as an individual, for example the colour Gold shows my success, achievement and triumph. Associated with abundance and prosperity, luxury and quality, prestige and sophistication, value and elegance, the colour psychology of gold implies affluence, material wealth and extravagance. Silver highlights a feminine energy; it is related to the moon and the ebb and flow of the tides - it is fluid, emotional, sensitive and mysterious. Blue presents of trust and peace. It can suggest loyalty and integrity as well as conservatism and frigidity. White coneys its most complete and pure, the colour of perfection. The colour meaning of white is purity, innocence, wholeness and completion. And black symbolises is the colour of the hidden, the secretive and the unknown, creating an air of mystery. It keeps things bottled up inside, hidden from the world. But overall it is portrays me me being like a star (concept). 

Whereas the typefaces that are used were 'Helvetica CY' and 'Futura' as they have that  modern, clean and simple style. Reasoning of this type of typeface for my Self branding logo is that Helvetica - It's over 50 years old, it is the most widely used font ever, and has become the subject if its own movie. This is the world's most recognisable font. Futura has many variations of thickness, thinnest and so on. Futura remains one of the most used (and loved) sans-serif fonts today with no signs of slowing down.


Final design to showcase my First Year Self branding logo
The final design of the 'Beyond' logo and product of my self branding that was produce was a travel kit concept, this product was to imply to my audience that the designer that I wish to be in the future is the one that travels and demonstrates a journey of being a Graphic designer - specifically over the course of university.  

The main target audience for this logo was aimed at First year students who are about to start their University course. This logo will enable the potential audience to relate and connect to the branding. In addition, the overall logo design and product depicts me as a designer and an individual. 

Below are the final products for the self branding these are a small like A5 concertina bind travel journal which its purpose is to communicate/record the journey of developing as a designer/individual. Foiling productions were also exacuted for the product design as it was to highlight my colour scheme. The foiling production is not 100% as it demonstrates that being a novice design is still in development.  








Evaluation
Overall, this primary design of the self branding logo and final product was successful but was not the idea logo that I would like to further develop nor distribute online as my final self branding logo. I preferably like my logo to consist of the first and last name of my initials and to try to combine the two letters together to make a shape or a symbol/icon. Similarly to other current self branding logos online. Therefore further growth will be experimented on the previous first sketches of my initial logo to something which I am proud to show and distribute to a wider audience. 

Thursday, 22 March 2018

OUGD602 | Personal & Professional Practice 3 | Placement Email - Responses, Rejections and Disregard

Below are the list of agencies and firms that I emailed and the response, rejections and disregard reply. I may try and email these agencies/firms again. 

List of Design firms and Agencies response:

Manchester
  1. 999 Design – no reply 
  2. Thinkdesignagency – no reply 
  3. Gorillastudio – no reply 
  4. Bgn.agency – replied not taken internships this year 
  5. Dcp-uk – no reply 
  6. Renfrewcreative – no reply 
  7. Cubecreative – no reply 
  8. Ahoy – no reply
  9. Loaf – replied contact if they have anything free 
  10. Dinosaur – no reply 
  11. Refinerygroup – no reply 
  12. Creative sparks – no reply 
  13. Rainbow - waiting for response
London
  1. Digital light ltd design – no reply
  2. Tough little graphics – replied no office cannot offer placement 
  3. Design happy – no reply 
  4. Maydaylondon – replied not taking placement this year 
  5. Spinach design – no reply 
  6. Pearlfisher – no reply 
  7. R design – replied, sent portfolio and replied if they want an interview with me. 
  8. Marmalade London design – replied someone has taken it 
  9. Gloriouscreative – no reply 
  10. Love creative – No reply 
Leeds
  1. Robot food – no reply 
  2. Lord Whitney - reply not taking internships
Email response from agencies that have contacted back:
Underneath are the some of the agencies that have contacted back to inform me that they are not taking creative internships this year or they have already accommodated someone else. The 'R Design' agency admin replied if they liked my portfolio work they will contact back and request to interview me. Unfortunately I did not have a following email for this potential interview and internship. 







Wednesday, 28 February 2018

OUGD602 | Personal & Professional Practice 3 | Placement Email Draft

Email Placement Draft

To Whom this may concern, 

My name is Katie Sung I am currently a final year Graphic design student studying at Leeds Art University.

I am looking for a placement around Easter (anytime from 26th March until Friday 13th April) for one or two weeks, or any time after June. If you are able to help me that would be great.  

I have covered the following experience from my degree course -  branding/logo design, packaging design, screen printing, photography, adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign and so on, UX design and Editorial design. There is a link to my portfolio - https://katie-sung.squarespace.com.

If I can provide any further details, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

My email address is ktsm.sung@gmail.com
Phone no. 07768392805

Thanking you in anticipation.

Kindest regards, 

Katie Sung 

The Email draft above will be sent to the list of design agencies and firms across: London, Manchester and Leeds. 

List of Design firms and Agencies:

Manchester
  1. 999 Design
  2. Thinkdesignagency 
  3. Gorillastudio 
  4. Bgn.agency 
  5. Dcp-uk 
  6. renfrewcreative 
  7. Cubecreative  
  8. Ahoy 
  9. Loaf 
  10. Dinosaur
  11. Refinerygroup 
  12. Creative sparks 
  13. Rainbow 
London
  1. Digital light ltd design 
  2. Tough little graphics 
  3. Design happy
  4. Maydaylondon
  5. Spinach design 
  6. Pearlfisher 
  7. R design
  8. Marmalade London design 
  9. Gloriouscreative
  10. Love creative 
Leeds
  1. Robot food 
  2. Lord Whitney 
Screenshot of a few emails sent out to the following above agencies:








Friday, 2 February 2018

OUGD602 | PPP3 - Visiting Professionals - The Pop Up Agency, Abraham Asefaw

Summary
Abraham Asefaw of The Pop Up Agency is delivering a talk and workshop. He’ll cover designing how you want to live and work, the value of creativity and working globally. 

About - Abraham Asefaw
  • Founder of the agency - older
  • Originally from Sweden/grew up
  • The pop up model - solving problems 
  • 40 countries
  • Based in London
  • Needs & Values
  • These values & needs created the agency 
  • Solving briefs within 48hrs 
The intention of the agency

  • To share/explain how to start up a business
  • Abraham started the agency during school (University) 
  • Check in expectation - concept 
  • It about the state of mind 
  • What happens to work during the day 
  • How it is working in the environment of this industry
The Pop Up Agency



  • Transparency - Reflection - Feedback
  • Within the agency the employees have no designated roles 
  • 15 Weeks, 15 Clients, 15 Days 
  • Prototype this concept. Who needs this?
  • Takeaways from these long hours of working 
  • Naive enough & stubborn to see it through 
  • 'We are a reaction of our time'
Question & Answer time
  • To connect more - most people are linked to one another (e.g. CEO knows other CEOs & Directors to Directors
  • It's common that most agency do not understand the business side of the agency
  • Being a Student is the best time to experience/experiment 
  • The reason of their concept of following '48hr' for completing a brief? The reason is as they were students, they had to do separate briefs during weekends. So the weekend only had two days to complete. 
  • Choose London as the best location as it has Global intention 
  • Try things - add strategy, design, communication 
  • Bad at production and designs - lasted a year - No salary
  • Good at the creative process - challenge to the production
  • Creative consultant and creative training
  • How to make this work? Idea of creating a board of adviser. 
  • Look into the agency's own needs 
  • Staying sustainable is extremely important for an agency and business 
  • Salary to Expenses to savings have all been spilt into 33%.
  • Brand needs processes 
  • Sales, development, execute 
  • Democratise creativity 
  • What value are you providing 
  • Value of guidance 
  • Constructive feedback 
  • Having mentors and advisers 
Last Q&A
  • Is it the same people who started the agency still within the agency? Not the original 5 people at the beginning of the agency - lost of goals not the same attitudes or aims at the beginning of the agency. (There is always change within team members.) 
  • In the agency their are currently 10 people but 2 founders 
  • Their target audience are bigger brands 
  • They mainly approach them - lots of public speaking, promoting themselves 
  • No more pressure, confident as they had a experience 
  • Only working one brief at a time. No multitasking
  • Collaboration 
  • Focus and an open mindset
Email 


Workshop

Brief Question - 'How can we create a business based on our needs and values

Learning more about the business side of owning and starting up an agency. By working in groups of 5 -7. The aim was to work together in a group by sharing and developing our ideas. For instance: all group members get a piece of A3 paper, we have 3 minutes to either draw or write our idea. Once the time is up we switch other to the person to our right paper. We can either develop their idea or start a new one. 

When everyone is done, we put it into a chart on which idea has the most impact but is difficult to product and vice vera. When we decide which one to present, we had to do a tweet explaining the idea to the class. 


Thursday, 1 February 2018

OUGD602 | PPP3 - Visting Professionals - The Elephant Room, Shannie Mears and Will de Groot

Shannie Mears and Will de Groot of disruptive new advertising agency The Elephant Room are going to discuss identity and diversity, it’s value and their motivations and goals for starting their own ad agency.

Will de Groot - Co-founder & Cultural Strategist. will.degroot@theelephantroom.net.
Shannie Mears - Co-founder & Head of Talent. shannie.mears@theelephantroom/net.
  • The Elephant Room is an advertising agency that started less than a year ago. 
  • Located in London. 
  • The Elephant Room is the type of agency which helps clients/employees to do what is liked than what they do not like. 
  • Agency looks into more of the potential aspects than following age general and now have become out dated structure within advertising companies. For example, creating new roles such as 'Head of Talent'. 
  • They look into different interests with the employees, interns and clients. Hence connecting to anyone with a creative background or knowledge. 
  • 'Always look out of things that could potential collaboration with.' 
  • Expanding network is extremely important & to never disregard any sort of work. 
  • 'she says..' is a women advertising industry that focuses on feminism. 
Why We Exist? - The Elephant Room
  • The agency tells the truth to their audience and clients. 
  • Maintain a stable and strong bond with other designers/clients.
  • Wanting to expand their advertising agency - currently five members only. 
Reaction to a Brand
  • The agency explained how some advertising companies may promote or adverts a product in a matter which could be seen as offensive, racist and discriminative etc. 
  • The example that they gave us was the H&M selling a kids hoodie which the black kid was modelling. It was the wording of the hoodies which stated 'Coolest Monkey in the jungle.' 
  • This developed controversial status as it was implied that black people are seen as monkey/animal like. 
  • The H&M apologised for the image 'The ad sparked a backlash on social media, with some calling it inappropriate, disgusting and negligent.'
  • Even though the brand may of wanted diversity within their brand and may not purposely being racist. 
What's important within an advertising agency
  • Researching subcultures. 
  • Able to communicate to clients on: belonging, desires, promotion, etc. 
  • Understanding the audience - be aware that audiences are aware of the forefront person who represents the product/brand. 
  • For instance - Kendall Jenner was the forefront person who represented a Pepsi advert. - Get it wrong!
Shift - talk presentation in New Blood D&AD
  • Is an organisation which involves European countries to allow diversity and young people to be able to meet and create. 
  • It's important to find a mentor or find a peer mentorship. 
Other Companies
  • Dyson - coming into lifestyle products like hairdryer than heaters, air conditioning etc. 
  • Wileyfox - is a collaboration in a big group and importantly a team of people with various talents and backgrounds. 
  • Do not under value. 
  • Royal Mail which The Elephant Room is currently collaborating has come up with 'Rethink Ink and Creative lock in' scheme. 
  • Royal Mail wants to highlight or promote more of traditional prints/printings. 
  • Expanding print such as a print as a channel. 
How to get an internship?
  •  When emailing design agency constantly nag with sending repetitive amounts of emails. 
  • Sunshine agency is worth looking up. 
Live Brief - Wickes Colour Selection

Background
  • Wicked want to re-imagine the customer experience for selecting colour and create a journey to replace the current approach that;s their stories. 
Task
  • Disrupt the market to significantly grow in-store footfall and attract new customers to Wickes by: 
  • Connecting and delivering the best and most simple way for customers who are shopping colours in stores. 
  • Helping customers choose a paint colour scheme and get them to the tin that they need in the most intuitive and straightforward way of any retailer in the UK. 
Considerations
  • It's about shopping colour, not tins.
  • It's about schemes not just individual colours.
  • It overtly caters for the different ways customers shop colour. 
Deadline
  • Week today - Thursday 8th of Feb, midday.
  • Format 5-6 pages of PDF.
Recommended agencies that do internships
  • YCC
  • Social fixt on facebook 
  • Mad hand hack
  • It's nice that 
  • Creative Equals
  • Outer Box
  • Virgin Atlantic 
  • The dots 
  • Exposer scouts 
  • Creative Access

Wednesday, 31 January 2018

OUGD602 | PPP3 - Visiting Professional - LAU Alumni, Eve Warren & Chris Shuttleworth from Robot Food - Project Disrupt

LAU alumni Eve Warren and Chris Shuttleworth 

Summary
Warren and Shuttleworth both graduated from LCA in 2014. They are currently from local agency Robot Food and are stopping by to talk about Project Disrupt and their experiences of working in the industry. 

Information
  • Big fish in london working, couple of placement in Robot food - 4years.  - Shuttleworth 
  • Warren - manchester internship few months, more in the north and london. 
  • Robot food - branding, packaging, advertisement, social media and so on. 
  • Disruption - Simplfy & amplify 
  • Seabrook - crips package. Brand workshop - identity personality of the brand of the client. 
Summary
- Shout about the USP of the product
- Use TOV to bring a brand personality to life 
- Keep the design simple and memorable 

In house - Electric ink tattoos

  • Is a pattern work of tattoo designs 
  • Has launch in urban outfitters in America. 
  • Many people have been engaging with the product 
Summary
- Identify a consumer who is not being catered for.
- Design for the consumer and the category.
- Introduce unexpected visual styles into stagnant categories. 

Go Your Own Way - Co-op

  • New packaging design for nappies as the same concept is used regularly and has become outdated. 
  • Jim Field is an illustrator which collaborated with Robot Food to create a new design for the nappy package. Inspired by his illustration that he creates on children book - the illustration of new characters on the nappy product.
Summary
- See what everyone else is doing and do something different.
- Keep messaging minimal 
- Design for the audience

Robot Food - Project Disrupt

  • The project is based on 3 teams, given 3 type of different briefs, and they must finish it within 5 days. 
  • Briefs were: laundry capsules, cheese packaging and air fresheners.
  • A whole lot of disruption 
Robot Food is advertising for....
Graduate/junior designer
Email - martin@robot-food.com 

Question
  • google design spirit - templates 
  • tailoring portfolio to what you want to work on or do. 
  • always important to engage