Saturday 28 March 2015

PPP3 - INSPIRATION

Currently, one of my close friends is travelling around Australia for a year working and experiencing the different aspects of the countries culture. 

While he was there, he spotted this absolutely amazing mosaic artwork on the floor of a building he was visiting and snapped a picture to show me.

The level of detail and accuracy of the whole piece is absolutely amazing, and encapsulates the skill of a true craftsman. The mosaic itself, with its thousands of individual pieces, must have taken the artist who produced it a lot of time and effort to complete, illustrating the level of commitment and skill that is needed to complete such an outcome. 


Friday 27 March 2015

PPP3 - EXHIBITION VISIT - DREW MILLWARD - DUST

After a long day presenting our final PPP presentations on Friday I decided to finish the day on a high note by walking down to Drew Millwards 'Dust' exhibition at the Colours May Vary shop in the Munro House complex. 



I have been following Millward's work extensively since becoming interested in his work & subsequently interviewing him as part of one of my first year projects. As an individual he is full of character and enthusiasm which is clearly represented in his amazing work. 

Images taken at the exhibition are displayed below and showcase some of Millward's intricate pieces that are often inspired by post - industrial norther landscape within which he lives. 







Millward effectively used reclaimed wood, coloured dye and a laser cutter to produce these fantastic little disk illustrations.




PPP3 - FINAL PRESENTATION

Today, I presented a PPP presentation for my final ever time at the college! A very scary achievement when it feels like such a short period of time since initially completing my first ever one during the first few weeks on the course.

Since then, I have developed in every way imaginable, from aspects of my personality and values to elements of my practice and understanding of the graphic design as a subject. As PPP predominantly addresses such achievements, I wanted my presentation to have a predominant focus on my creative journey, the things I have learned, my professional opinions and what I think makes me stand out as an individual. 


The bullet points featured below list the individual focuses of the presentation;  
  • My creative journey - How did I get where I am now?
    • Acts as a good introduction to rest of presentation. 
  • Achievements gained over the three years on the course/
    • Strong portfolio.
    • Professional branding.
    • Publication features.
    • Competition success.
    • Work experience. 
  • Learning achievements.
    • Creative thinking.
    • Subject knowledge.
    • Confidence.
    • Ambition. 
  • Values & Ethics.
    • Important aspect of my identity. 
    • Manifesto.
    • 'Playful Expression'. 
  • Industry Loves and Hates.
    • My understanding & opinion of the industry.
  • Progression opportunities.
    • Nothing concrete decided.
    • Perfect agency assessment system. 
    • Three potential directions.
  • Agencies list - Work I find inspirational.
  • Hopes and dreams - Looking to the future. 


When developing my presentation, extra time was dedicated to making the slides engaging for the audience, applying techniques learned during Ian Anderson's workshop such as using less text on slides, bright colours and visual illustrations. I believe that using such techniques was a large attribute of the presentations success, as after a full day of 10 minute long PPP presentations it is hard to keep people engaged with what you are saying by simply shoving some text on screen and talking enthusiastically. 



SLIDES 

Individual slides and their supporting notes from my final PPP presentation. 

Introduction – Hello! 

Speak about my creative story – events that got me where I am today. 

Young age - Always expressed creativity.

By 3 – Mastered Jackson Pollock style paintings

8 – Being creative is something I really enjoy – Drawing & Painting more & more.

Influenced by my great grandma – water colour painting as a hobby – Taught me techniques while looking after me. 

Art & Design - something that interested me – Like most 17 year olds I didn’t know what I wanted to do – didn’t initially consider graphic design as a career.

Took maths as one of my options – dropped after two weeks of drawing at the back of the class – took up graphics as a replacement – Lucky decision!! 

Progressed through college to foundation and on to where I am now…

About to graduate from one of the best universities in the UK doing a subject I LOVE!
Degree - positively affect my future. 


In my three years at the college…


Work I am proud of and feel represents me.
All professionally photographed for my portfolio. 


Will be refined soon – small aspects changed.
Website being developed.
Logo icon developed from fingerprint pattern – representation of identity.
Hand rendered patterns & own font.
Natural stocks – organic feel. 

Personal branding project featured in two international publications. 

Brand Magazine – Hong Kong.
Book - Portfolio Design – Published by Sandu publishing – Looks at designers personal branding. 

Also had competition successes 

Which I am hoping to repeat this year with my entries to – YCN & Secret 7”

Client work – both paid & for free.
Important to work for free – For friends with little or no money – I find favors are often returned twice!
Working on - Photography student branding.
Work experience – American Company - Work in skateboarding.
Placement – Something more – during Easter. 

Address some of my learning achievements.
Important aspect of overall achievements. 

Creative thinking massively improved.
Ability to solve problems.
Develop logical and creative solutions.
Look at problems from a different perspective. 

Knowledge & understanding of subject – Design principles. 

Confidence has come on leaps and bounds.
Consequence – become more ambitious. 

Follows on from previous slide – with confidence my presentation skills have also massively improved.
Ian Andersons workshop helped me learn how to keep presentations engaging – visuals, little text on screen. 

Finally - Established ethical outlook – Helps me make sense of the world – stay true to my values. 

Values - Very important!
Give us direction, shape who we are & affect how we progress through our lives.


Points of my manifesto – refined from my 2nd year manifesto.
Not going to discuss in depth – covered in previous PPP presentation. 

From the 10 points of my manifesto some common themes can be identified. 

These are…
From these themes I was able to create a term to summarise both my values and work ethic.  

The term.

To help you understand the term and how it applies to my design practice I will explain its specifics…
Not saying working hard is bad – but overworking is counter productive.
Snask – example – create amazing working environment for employees.
Experiment with other mediums and integrate what you learn into your practice.
Be humble – Feeding egos creates pretentiousness and judgment. 

Supporting Quote.

Industry specific Loves & Hates.


Comparing yourself to others successes is dangerous – often creates jealousy – Not a good working environment. 


Not going to lie – still a lot uncertain as to what exactly I want to do.
So many potential opportunities I could pursue. 

Divided possibilities into three potential directions I could follow.
Option one is most likely direction I will pursue.
Option two is least likely.
Option three is something I want to do either way. 

Employment within the UK.
Lots of agencies are appealing.
As of yet, none are perfect that I have found.
Dont want to commit to anything that I dont feel is right for me. 

Created the perfect agency assessment system – Help identify relevance of company to me.
Would move anywhere in the country for the right opportunity.  

Option two is working abroad. 

Two countries I have considered..
Amazing design scene & Lifestyles associated with living and working there.
America has the skateboard industry – Link to work experience I am doing for Working In Skateboarding. 

Agencies list – all produce work I find really inspiring. 

Option three – self employment with a creative business.
Attending Life after college sessions – Check viability of idea with professionals.
Lots of positive feedback!  
Considering developing company along side employment. 

Idea in a nutshell.
Environmentally friendly skateboard cruisers made from old skateboard decks.
Cruisers are smaller than a skateboard – old skateboards can be cut down to make them – uses waste materials – sustainable!
Cruisers are very popular – most made with plastic – not sustainable.
Gap in market! 


Hopes and dreams are very simple…

Thank you for listening everybody!Hope you enjoyed the presentation.
Does anybody have any Questions? 





CONCLUSION 

Overall, I feel like the presentation when really well, I spoke with confidence, covered all of the points I wanted to cover, made no major mistakes and finished speaking in just over 11 minutes. 

Due to the running order of the day I ended up as one of the last people to present to the group. Therefore, I feel that creating a brightly coloured, visual presentation really helped to keep the audience to keep engaged with what I was saying and was one of the major successes of the presentation. 

Compared to first year, when I had almost no experience of standing in front of a group of people and speaking, my confidence has come on dramatically. Before presenting I used to get really bad anxiety, sweat and feel uncomfortable with the idea of public speaking. However, over the three years on the course, and the multiple times presenting in front of groups of people, this no longer bothers me. Now, as I am finishing my third and final year at the college I am happy to stand in front of groups of people and speak and am able to do so with confidence.

As a final aspect of the module, it was almost as if an era came to an end as I finished the final slide and sat down. Throughout my three years at the college I have truly enjoyed the PPP module and can clearly identify its importance to my journey during and after college.