OUGD602 - PPP3: Boards

OUGD602 - PPP3: Review

I feel as though this year I have become much more confident with photographing my work. There is always room for improvement, but when I look back to first year I can see how much my work has developed which I am really pleased about. I am also really pleased to have all of my work ready for submission and feel very proud of it all. 

OUGD602 - PPP3: Personal Branding

For my personal branding I have decided not to change it too much as I didn't feel as though it was necessary. The only thing I have changed is my logo. I have used Gill Sans MT Pro to produce it and feel as though it represents me as a designer quite well.

In total I have produced:

- A business card

- CV

- Invoice

I also designed an envelope but don't feel as though it is really necessary for me to have one which is designed specifically. Because in the future I would simply buy a pack of them and print directly on top. I have also bought a domain name which is www.laurabrucedesign.co.uk, but the live website is currently being designed and will be ready for the end of year show. I didn't want to rush it for the purpose of this submission and wanted to be able to have all of my photographs of updated work to put on there too. 

My invoice is clear and straight to the point and my CV has been updated with a main focus on all of the work experience I have gained over the past three years.

OUGD602 - PPP3: Laura Bruce 2015 Portfolio

My digital portfolio only contains a select few projects at the moment. This is because, when contacting studios I only like to include a select few so that I can have more to talk about when I meet them in person.

For the end of year show I will have all of my work included in this, printed at A3 scale at LGP in Leeds.

OUGD602 - PPP3: Fedrigoni Calendar Attracting Publishers

I have now been contacted by three separate publishers who have asked if they can put my YCN Fedrigoni Desk Calendar 2015 work in their books. When I received the first email I was absolutely thrilled to bits, and I felt even more overwhelmed when I received the last two emails. The first book has been published and I have bought it, photographed below. Whilst the second one is currently on the way to me, and I am still in the process of replying to the third publisher.

Publisher 1

Publisher 1 Feedback

Publisher 2

Publisher 2 Feedback

OUGD602 - PPP3: Crackers Brief

I received an email a little while ago about designing some Christmas crackers for a mutual friend's family business. I read through the brief and it sounded really fun, as they were asking for the crackers and the box to be designed and then sent to the manufacturer in China to produce. This sounded quite exciting and so I decided to say yes to them.

This was one of the worst decisions I have made this year. I thought it would be a great brief to have to include in Extended Practice, but in the end it turned into a disaster. I designed a nutcracker styled cracker for them and mocked it up on some glossy stock and sent it over to them. They said that we needed to immediately revisit the brief as this was not what they had asked me to do. In the end, they had me designing a bright blue and orange cracker which they absolutely loved and I absolutely hate. 

I was treated so rudely and spoken to like I didn't have any graphic design knowledge what so ever. It actually led to me feeling really upset, deflated and I lost motivation for a couple of weeks because he knocked my confidence and made me feel rubbish about my work. 

In the end a lot of emails were sent between us, and I had to ask him for more money, because we had already gone past the agreed deadline, and I had already agreed to less money in the first place, as my quote was 'way above our budget'. He then accused me of all sorts, relating to the law and their company rights. 

I ended up having to finish the work and sent it to them and then said that I wanted no further communication with them at all. He even said at one point that the fact they had provided me with this amazing opportunity would mean that I could have a 'live' brief to include in my portfolio which is very rare. Little did he know (hadn't researched) that I have already worked with multiple clients and didn't need his job to help me to find employment when I graduate.

I feel as though this has been such a huge learning curve for me and this simply pushed me to develop the brief further once I had finished the work for him. It took me a little while to find motivation but I have managed to create one of my strongest outcomes of the year and designed my nutcrackers which I am extremely proud of and have submitted as part of extended practice.

OUGD602 - PPP3: Vickie Lang

My mum knows a lady called Vickie Lang who is a Bafta winning Make up artist. She works on various TV programmes and films and is more than happy to help me gain more work experience. She has several contacts in the industry who work on props for films. I am looking forward to hopefully having something planned for the Summer as this will be fantastic experience.

OUGD602 - PPP3: Momentum Worldwide Work Experience

Week 1 at Momentum Worldwide - Manchester

On my first day working at Momentum, I was warmly welcomed and introduced to every member of the team individually. Since then, everyone has been so friendly and I have been fortunate enough to work with different people every day. 

Prior to starting my placement I had expressed an interest in some of the ASDA work I had seen at the agency showcase event, the ‘Momo Hello Show’ (Pot Noodle experiential).  

To my surprise and utter delight I was asked to work on a brief for ASDA, specifically looking at retailtainment during my week at Momentum. I absolutely loved being involved in this brief and particularly enjoyed working closely with Neale and Lauren who opened my eyes to the world of copywriting and art direction.

The three of us spent a full day working on concepts and it became apparent to me just how much I love working on this part of a creative brief. I even found that I was asking myself at the end of the first day whether I would be happier and more suited to being a designer or a junior art director. When I think about the briefs I have been working on nearing the end of my degree, a lot of the time I have the most fun when I am experimenting with concepts and prototyping design ideas. 

When I wasn’t working on this brief, I worked alongside head of design, Julian to try and make amendments to some designs for Nescafe. This consisted of lots of meetings and constant feedback and allowed me to understand what it would be like working as a designer at Momentum. I have really enjoyed working on this brief too as it has been very insightful and actually quite challenging at times. The brief itself was also very different to anything I have worked on before, and demonstrated to me just how diverse the projects here at Momentum are. 

Working at Momentum has been a refreshing change for me. I have worked at several other studios prior to this placement, but this has to be one of the friendliest and most inviting. I had always considered myself as a ‘graphic designer’ until now. I have started to question the career path I would like to take and have already started to consider the possibility of applying for the graduate programme here. 

There are so many opportunities within the creative industry to explore and consider. This is why I view placements and studio visits as being so important. If I hadn’t engaged with any work outside of university it would have been much more challenging for me to understand where my strengths lie. All of the choices I have made since starting my degree have helped to inform my practice at present. 

I am thoroughly enjoying my time here and feel extremely grateful to have been given this opportunity before graduating. I have already learnt so much and I am really looking forward to what next week has in store for me!

Week 2 at Momentum Worldwide - Manchester

During my second, and final week at Momentum, I once again had the opportunity to work with new people every day. At the beginning of the week I was tasked to work on some identity designs to be used within Momentum. I really enjoyed this as it allowed me to be as creative as possible and produce a variety of different designs to choose from. For the same brief, art director Lauren and I were also asked to go into town and carry out some research into current trends in shopper design and tech. This is something that I always do when starting a new brief at university, as it is so important to be aware of successful and unsuccessful existing work, and personally, it also kick starts the creative thought process. 

I was then introduced to the 3D team who started off by showing me some examples of their work. This included briefs for Cadbury's, Boots, Stella Artois and Dulux, to name just a few. This was really interesting as it gave me the opportunity to discover the wide range of projects and disciplines that Momentum is involved with. For the rest of the day, I went to a briefing with 3D and was asked to produce some graphics for one of their current projects. This was really refreshing and exciting, as I love seeing 2D designs come to life in a 3D form. 

On my final day, I was briefed by the Creative Director, Oli, who asked me to work on a brief which Momentum worked on late last year and is ongoing, so it is possible that one of my ideas could be used! This brief also gave me an insight into what it would be like to work as an Art Director at Momentum. I was tasked to develop concepts throughout the day, with one interim meeting, and then to present back to Oli and Lauren at the end of the day. I was really pleased with the positive feedback I received and feel as though I ended my placement on a high! 

Overall, my experience has exceeded my expectations by a long way! Although I knew that I would enjoy it as soon as I first visited the office, as there was such as positive and friendly atmosphere, the reality of it has been even better. I feel so fortunate to have been involved in so many different briefs in the space of two weeks and have learnt so much in this period of time. I hope to work at Momentum again in the near future and have decided that I will definitely be applying to the Momentum graduate scheme!

_____________________________

I had been asked by the Creative Director to write the above posts for their blog on the Momentum website. I was flattered and wanted to make sure that I wrote in as much detail as possible. A lot of people in the studio said they had read the blog post and made me feel so welcome, I would absolutely love to go back there and have everything crossed for the graduate scheme.

This in the link to the blog posts on their website:

Week 1

Week 2

OUGD602 - PPP3: Nick Munro

One of my friend's knows Nick Munro who is a British designer. They put me in touch with him and he has asked me to package a teapot which has been designed for the Queen. I am yet to hear from details from him with a detailed brief so that I can get started on this work. This will be an exciting brief to work on, and I am hoping to start it when we finish the end of year show so that I can focus more attention on it.

OUGD602 - PPP3: Annie Atkins

I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel a couple of months ago and absolutely loved it. I loved the way it was filmed and adored all of the props throughout the whole film. Half way through watching the film I had to find out who had designed it all. I found out it was a lady called Annie Atkins. I fell in love with the Mendyl's packaging she designed along with everything else and for ages I contemplated telling her. 

Today I received an email response from her and felt completely flattered! I feel over the moon to have heard from a woman who has turned out to be one of my biggest inspirations. I am going to make sure that I keep in touch with her in the future as it is a fantastic contact to have.

OUGD602 - PPP3: Creative Networks

Being a Student Ambassador, I have been fortunate enough to work at most of the Creative Networks events at college. I have helped to curate the evenings and have met the likes of Jamal Edwards (SB.TV), Matt Forsythe (Illustrator for Adventure Time) and Patrick Grant (Fashion Designer). Meeting all of these people has been so much fun and a great break away from doing work. I have gained a lot of confidence and I am going to miss working at college when I graduate.

OUGD602 - PPP3: Tony Broomhead Work Experience

Today I went and visited the OS31 studio in Sheffield. I have been in touch with Tony ever since he came in and did a workshop with us at college. When I got there he showed me some of their projects they had completed and some that they are currently working on. This was really interesting for me to see! 

Below are some photographs I took while I was there. The model shown below was laser cut and created out of wood as a miniature mock up of one of their projects.

This is their miniature model for the Grand Designs Live Competition which they won and this will actually be built down in London. This prototype was made by hand, using a variety of different card and paper. I was so impressed by the outcome of this to say that it was crafted in this way. It made me want to create something similar.

He then told me what he would like me to do today. He explained that they had recently won a pitch to design an area within the new Sheffield Children's Hospital which is currently being built. They had already come up with a concept for it based around balloons.

Their idea is to have balloons floating up a staircase for the poorly children to be able to follow as they get higher and higher. I loved this idea and it reminded me of the film called UP. He had already made a little model of this idea but wanted me to express it in my own way.

At 2pm we then went for a meeting with about 10 different people who are involved in the process of making it happen. Tony presented the idea so far and I was able to talk about the model I had created to try and persuade them to go ahead with it.

This was a fantastic experience and I feel as though I gained so much from it. There were a bit health and safety queries from the women we presented to, so they are going to review the situation and feed back to Tony. To say that I was involved in such an amazing brief is a fantastic thing to say, and I have also gained more work experience from it.

After the meeting Tony then took me to Sheffield Uni to the Architecture studios and showed me all of the work they produce there. It was fascinating to see, and obviously interesting to me as I am so interested in three dimensional outcomes. 

I didn't create any design boards for this brief, as I didn't feel as though it was substantial enough, and the photographs I received from Tony weren't very high resolution. Instead, I have therefore uploaded three PDF presentations explaining the concept and the development up to present day. I am looking forward to hearing back from Tony about how this project is going as well as all of the others and I am hoping I may be able to go back and visit in a couple of weeks, as he said this would be possible and great for me to see how projects have developed.

This was a fantastic opportunity and proof that graphic design isn't just the stereotypical leaflets, business cards and posters!

Feedback from the meeting:

Concept:

- Floating balloons

- Reflective in the day

- Illuminate at night

- Winding up the staircase

Feedback:

- Are the stairs that open? Safety first

- If it is open it can work if it is closed then it can't work

- Lights could be in the walls rather than inside the balloons as this is easier to maintain

- Cluster at the bottom and a few strays at the top

- Have the stray balloon in the hospital somewhere - The children could find it

- Different sized balloons

- Refer as a bubble as this is more friendly

OUGD602 - PPP3: Filmdoo

Today I was emailed by Filmdoo. They said that I should enter my work into their competition to be featured on their website. I submitted my work straight away and followed them on Facebook. It was a great feeling when I saw my work on my news feed.

OUGD602 - PPP3: Packaging Innovations

Today I visited Packaging Innovations at the NEC in Birmingham. I was in heaven! I felt quite nervous turning up when I knew that I would be the only student there. I spoke to a lot of people and came away with lots of samples.

I went to a talk which was set up to be a bit like Dragon's Den. One of the dragons was Roger Wright, the head Packaging Technologist at Marks and Spencer. Later on in the day I saw him walking around and managed to go and speak to him and give him my business card and details. He has since emailed me and put me in touch with the Marks and Spencer design studio down in London, so I am going to contact them about work experience.

I was also fortunate enough to meet a couple of people from MacFarlane packaging, who work on packaging for the likes of The White Company, as well as many other brands. This would be a dream job of mine! I explained that I would be graduating this year and he said that he would contact me when there are any job openings in the North West.

I also saw Colin Pow from The Label Makers. I met Colin when I was on my placement with Sharples and Grant over the Summer. He gave me one of their sample booklets which I have wanted ever since I first met him. So overall I am extremely pleased with the contacts I have made today and I am so pleased I visited!

OUGD602 - PPP3: Helping a Friend

My friend is a medical student and they had a competition to design a poster for one of the hospitals he works in. He designed this poster but wanted me to make it look a bit more professional for him.

OUGD602 - PPP3: Momentum Placement Organisation

Today I received an email from Oli from Momentum. I am really excited to go and meet the head of design and confirm a date for my placement.

OUGD602 - PPP3: Manchester Digital

I went to Manchester Digital with Ellen. This was more for her to gain contacts but I went along to see if there was anyone there who could help me too. I met a guy from Vibe studio and although they are not recruiting, he did review my portfolio and give me feedback which was great. He said he was very impressed with my work and said I would have no problem getting a job when I graduate which was so lovely to hear. 

OUGD602 - PPP3: The Sharp Project

The Sharp Project is located in Manchester. There are numerous studios within the building in small shed like areas. There is also a big open space in the centre that a lot of freelance designers hire out to work there. I went along with my boyfriend the other day, as he works with quite a few of the various companies. It was great to see such a different space and I was fortunate enough to have a tour whilst I was there which was brilliant.

OUGD602 - PPP3: Ben Casey (The Chase)

Ellen and I went to a talk by Ben Casey, the founder of The Chase agency in Manchester. The talk was very inspirational and we came away feeling really pleased that we had managed to go.

We also went to an Adidas exhibition afterwards which was good fun too.