OUGD602 | Personal & Professional Practice 3 - The Briefing

Summary
OUGD602 offers the opportunity for you to evaluate and communicate your individual progress in relation to personal and professional development. It introduces reflective approaches to your experiences as a learner and the development of your individual creative interests. Module content will offer you the opportunity to develop a contextual awareness of subject areas and broader communities of practice.

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate specific knowledge and specialist understanding of the professional and contextual location of their practice. (knowledge and understanding / critical awareness)
• Undertake independent research to identify and evaluate their personal and professional skills and the career or progression opportunities available to them. (cognitive skils/ critical awareness)
• Develop and implement a personal promotion strategy to communicate to relevant organisations. (problem analysis/practical and professional skills / resolution)
• Use a range of appropriate communication methods to present themselves as a professional practitioner to a relevant audience. (key transferable skills / innovation)

Indicative Content

The communication of their own context may take the form of a presentation and includes:

• Ongoing evaluation of work related practice in relation to individual professional context
• Identification of projects or progression opportunities
• Their analysis of their own progress

The presentation of physical (or virtual) promotional collateral includes:

• Contextualisation of design practice and career direction
• The definition and analysis of a target audience or market
• Production and refinement of self promotional material
• Communication of the concepts and context of practical work to an audience/s
• Career or business plan or self promotional plan (as appropriate to practice/direction of practice)
• Reports on visiting speakers, exhibitions, conferences, networking events etc...

Module Brief

Context: This module provides you with the opportunity to create a synthesis between your professional and contextual research skills and creative intentions with your own understanding of professional practice/ career ambitions. You will build on your enterprise study developed during level 5.

The module will enable the you to position yourself at a professional level for progression to employment/ self employment or post graduate study.

Brief: It is important to see this brief as starting point for an ongoing individual/independent investigation that underpins your studio practice. Your approach to this brief in relation to the rest of your work should allow for a sufficient level of objective reflection but integrated enough to maintain relevance to your practical work.

This Brief is in two parts:

Brief One | Personal Branding: You will be required to demonstrate appropriate preparation for your stated progression ambitions through research into self promotion material (business cards, letterheads, creative cvs, stationary etc.) and methods (mail shots, websites, blogs. etc.). Post graduate study (project proposals, application).

The research and development of your personal design collateral should be evidence through ongoing documentation and evaluation to your PPP blog.

You will be required to submit print-based and/or digital personal branding.

Brief two | Design strategy: You will be required to document ongoing research into and preparation for your stated progression ambitions through regular postings to your PPP blog.

Blog posts may include but are not limited to:

• Studio visits and open days
• Industrial/work experience
• Professional activities
• Live briefs
• Visiting professional talks/workshops
• Portfolio surgeries and creative CV workshops
• Information of conferences, talks, exhibitions...
• Timetables and schedules
• Individual external engagement appropriate to your studies

You will be required to submit a design strategy file. that contains records of professional correspondence, enterprise plans/contacts, skills evaluation and a current CV.

You will deliver a 10 minute presentation (powerpoint or similar) that communicates and summarises your individual creative ambitions, career plans, design strategies and professional activities.