Contacting Studios

What I have Learnt.
What I have learnt throughout PPP is that all studios are different and there isn't a blanket was to contact them all. Each studio will react to something different. I think that most important thing about contacting a studio, is make sure that you know the history and the information about the studio, do your research. Sending them examples of your work that is related to work that they produce will give you an edge over other people as they will see that you have done your homework, and that you will work in a similar way to them. Creating a general promotional pack is a good start for me, but I have found that if I am really interested in a studio and want to work with them, I should be producing something more personal to them, something that shows I am serious about working with them.

During the summer I will be producing screen prints as this is something I really enjoy doing, I will send these off with my amended creative CV, a letter explaining what I would like from them, and a business card so that they can get in touch to imeus. This will hopefully relate to Anthony Peters as he specialises in screen prints. The screen prints will also be used to start putting together a portfolio of the work I like and enjoy, as right now my portfolio would be quite bare.

Module Evaluation

Evaluation of PPP.

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them? One of the skills I have developed during PPP is networking. I have found that before this year I would find it very intimidating to contact any studios, I think I have gained a lot more confidence to do this now. I did business Studies at A level but I think after ‘Life’s a Pitch’ I have a better understanding of how to set up a design studio, including all of the legal requirements so that it is viable. This is something I have never thought about before, although I think that it would be possible now.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process? I haven’t used a range of printing methods for my pack due to my poor time management skills; also it may not have been appropriate for my pack. Although I do think that having a behance will be useful for me as a designer, to get my work out into the design world, this may bring opportunities to me. This is something that I am currently in the process of making. Through this module I have grown more confidence in my designs, and I there a few different pieces that I am incredibly proud of, so I think that I am ready to have a behance account and show people my work.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? I have found that I really enjoyed the business side to ‘Lifes’s a Pitch’ and I think that it is a possibility to start my own business in the future. I relised during PPP that if you don’t think that something is your best work, you don’t have to use it in your portfolio, in the future I will not use anything I don’t like, or don’t think is appropriate for the brief. During PPP I have learnt that I should be networking and its all about the people that you know, I think that knowing this is a new strength of mine, and it is something I will take action upon in the summer.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? One of the weaknesses I have in my work is time management, because at the end of this year we have had many different module hand ins, I have been prioritising different modules. Although I think that it was the best method for me at the time, I started to run out of time for making my promotional pack, which meant it was rushed, and I don’t think that it is my best work. Another weakness for me is web design, it is something I don’t have a lot of confidence in and something I need to practice more, although I know that it isn’t a creative field I want to go into. Another weakness is blogging as I go, at the start of level 5 I was blogging as I went, but as the work piled on I became lazy with my blogging, this is something that I will address in level 6.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? Next time I will blog as I go, throughout the year, this will make the hand in less stressful. I will spend longer developing ideas, as for my promotional pack, due to lack of time, I went with my first idea and rushed it, this is something I would change for the future, don’t settle for anything less than the best. I will plan my time more efficiently, so that I have more time to spend on the designs rather than having very little time to develop my work. I will plan my print slots ahead of schedule, as the print room was booked up months in advance I had to go to drop ins, which were stressful and time consuming. Next year I will make sure that I book print slots around my deadlines so that I always have them there. Next year and through the summer I am going to aim to contact different studios for visits and placements. This will mean that I can increase my networking skills and find out what it is really like in the industry.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					x
Punctuality					x
Motivation				x
Commitment				x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group				x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

Development of Self Branding Pack

Promotional Pack.
I want to create a pack that I can send out to studios and designers so that I can try and get placements or a job in the future. I think that the pack would include a letter head, envelope, creative CV, mini portfolio and a business card. I want to keep the pack simple, and the right scale so that they can fit through letter boxes. Although I think this would be a good idea, I think I would only use it on certain studios as each studio will react to different things. For example if I were trying to get a placement at imeus with Anthony Peters, I would send a pack with a screen printed poster in it rather than everything else, and a business card of corse.

Letterhead.

As I have already created my avatar and logo, I think that making the branding

Creative CV.
A CV is very important thing to send in a promotional pack, and I want it to reflect my personality and the design I am interested in.

I have drawn around all of the icons for the software I can use. After looking into creative CV's I found that some people put how good they are as a percentage on each of the pieces of software. But I don't want to tell future employees or someone I am trying to work for that I'm not very good at Photoshop but I know basic skills.

I also wanted to include the strengths that I have, so I decided that the best form for them would be small vector illustrations.

Putting a description by the side balances out the illustrations and explains what they actually mean.

When putting together my creative CV, I experimented with colour and layout, looking at how it would look if some bits were highlighted with pink. Although I found that they all look horrible and I should definitely not use them, I think I got a bit over excited with the pink.

I decided that I would include my avatar on my creative CV, as it's nice for the audience to see what kind of work I like to produce, also they can see who they will be working with potentially.

Business cards.

I put my avatar on my business cards for the same reason. I think that it is nice for a client or anyone who wants to have one of my busienss cards to see what I will look like. It will put a face to a name. I also think that it will show them the kind of work I like to design.

I stuck to the colour scheme throughout the designing of all of my pack.

I decided to add the colour to the back of the business card as well as the front. I think that this looks more aesthetically pleasing and consistent with the rest of my branding.

I wanted to include only the necessary information on my business cards as I didn't want them to be too cluttered.

I have considered printing double sided onto the business cards, but I think that I am going to duplex them by putting a sheet of pink card through the middle, this will give a good effect. It will also make the business cards thicker and more sturdy.

Invoice.

I will need an invoice, although if I was mailing this out to studios I wouldn't be including an invoice in the pack with prices on as I think that that is a bit forward. For the design of my invoices I just used the same layout as my letter head and creative CV, then researched what invoices would look like to find out the information I needed to include on it.

Envelope.

I will need an envelope for my pack so that the letter head will go inside it. I decided to put my address on the front just to show an example of what it would look like.

CD Case.

The reason why I have produced a CD cover is so that I could put it in my pack if I had any pdf's or hopefully in the future after effects files, as this is a software I am really interested in learning. Although for hand in I will be putting my proposed website on it, just to show how it would work.


Net for File.

I thought about having just a plain pink file, but due to lack of time I found it hard to colour match the ink to a stock, therefore I thought to keep it all consistent I would print out the net for the file on the stock that I am already using to make sure that it is the same colour.

Final Self Branding Pack.

Pack

Inside Pack

Letterhead

Invoice

Creative CV

Envelope

CD Cover

Mini Portfolio

Business Cards

All A4 Letters

Evaluation.
When I printed my self branding pack I really didn't like it and thought that the colours were too much, although after putting the pack together, I think that it works well. The pink ninja is something that is light hearted just like I am, not to serious and quite fun. Pink is a colour I love, it is also quite a vibrant colour which means that it will be noticed and will stick in peoples heads. I think as I develop as a designer I want to pick up the name, 'The Pink Ninja' but as of right now I don't think that I can pull it off, or have the portfolio to back it. This is something that I can hopefully achieve by the third year.

In respect to sending out my promotional pack, I don't think I will actually send it out this summer unless I amend it. Because of the time limit I rushed it a bit and I don't think it's my best work. I also think that it might not always be appropriate to send this pack as different studios will react to different things. I think each studio, depending on what kind of studio and how much I want it, will have their own personal touch. If I were to do this brief again I would have tried to produce something that the studios would want to keep, use and interact with.

Presentation

Presentation.
For my presentation this year I wanted to keep it short and sweet. Say everything that needed to be said and that I wanted to say without boring people, because think that is the hardest thing to do during a presentation, keep the audience entertained.

Starting with introducing myself and a brief explanation of why I chose my logo, then going onto my branding and what I have done for that. I wanted to talk about how I have worked this year, and how my mind set has changed from just getting the work done, to, enjoying the work I am doing and being proud of the outcomes I have achieved. Moving onto what I am planning on doing next year, and what I want to get out of PPP. I ended a couple of the studios I have been looking at and trying to contact so that I can show what kind of studios I am interested in.