PPD REFLECTION AND PRESENTATION

Jacob Ham

DATE

8th May 2017

DATE BRIEFED.

19th September 2016

DEADLINE.

12th May 2017

Introduction.

Throughout the past 29 weeks, I have progressed as a designer but have documented that within my WRL and PSP Sketchbooks along with my PPD blog. In my blog, it was crucial to state both development and the thoughts on my work and adding feedback from any presentations and tutorials I attended.

I was briefed for this unit on 19th September and set myself of the aim of at least one blog per week and managed to create 59 pages. This means I developed at least two pages per week. During this reflection, I will be stating on aspects I have improved on and could revisit in the near future in the summer and level 5.

What have I progressed in?

This year, I have learnt far more than I had expected both in my work and myself. I have improved immensely in various aspects of employability skills crucial for going straight into a job after graduation. The progress I have made in learning branding and logo design, now understanding how guidelines and grid systems work. My personal branding has changed and improved in reflection of this, although I redeveloped it recently. Keeping the same logo, designed in November 2016. I reworked the branding and assets of the brand to showcase the potential of my work.

Prior to starting any project, I have always planned It out to ensure that I hit the deadline and this year was no different. However, I went into more depth with planning, using Excel spreadsheets and Microsoft Notes to mark out completed or outstanding work. I have also developed Mind Maps at the start of the project, firstly on paper then digitalizing them and expanding then in a program called CMap. At first I struggled to use the program but gradually picked up how to use the overall purpose of the app and highly recommended it for anyone needing to produce digital mind maps.

I have always struggled being confident in my work, presenting myself and ideas to others. However, in this Second Semester, I somewhat feel a lot more confident than I did in the "Hoam Grown Presentation" and feel that I can now stand at the front of the class and talk about my ideas and get the correct message across. Being more confident allows me to also be involved during class discussions, which can crucial for development in my work and others too. Before when I developed a presentation, the entire preparation was useless but now I feel more independent and can rely on spending the minutes before double checking and going over the ideas and main talking points, prior to presenting.

Referenced from, https://www.jacobham.co.uk/secondsemesterreview

Overall, I feel that I have handled the transition from Level 3 to Level 4 with ease. Although a few of the deadlines set, have been tight they have kept me busy and allowed me to develop my skills further which is crucial early on in my career as a designer. Each deadline was hit, with expansion tasks being completed prior to presenting to the class and my tutor. This allowed me to get more feedback to expand or improve the standard of work.

Before and After?

Prior to this year, I had a strong understanding in how to effectively use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. This year I have gained a stronger knowledge of how to use each program for various purposes. Such as using artboards within Adobe Photoshop, to help make web pages much easier. Throughout this year, I have progressed rapidly in branding and logo design, having a major understanding on creating guidelines for the work I produce. Next year, I aim to carry on developing my skills working with branding and logo design but adding editorial design as one of my key strengths as a designer.

I aimed to grow comfortable with using Adobe’s new program “Adobe XD” or “Adobe Experience Design” however due to being a Window’s platform user, which is still in Beta. Lacked simple UI features such as scrollbars both horizontally and vertically, lacking the layer’s tab and sharing to mobile devices, which is crucial especially when developing web design or app design. Viewing your designs on the device, is crucial both for development and functionality. In the future, I will probably revisit the software once the program has fully released.

Overall this year, I have progressed massively in the way I present myself and the work I create whether that’s being confidence when presenting my work to the class or placing it within my portfolio’s or work. My portfolio (Behance and Dribbble) is now full of work that I am happy with and in the future, will be used within my new website during the summer.

The type of designer I am now?

I started this year, with the main focus being around branding and logo design, although that still is the case. This year has allowed me to become an overall designer with now a passion for both editorial and web design. Throughout the year, I have learnt new ways on how to expand my work through 1-1 tutorials with my tutors, growing a love for reading books about design and engaging in trips to Edinburgh, Newcastle and York.

At heart, branding and logo design is still my main passion but is bigger than ever and now using editorial and web design to expand the projects I have produced throughout the year.

Aims for the summer?

Set Targets.

The following targets are set to help me outline areas of study throughout the summer period, these could change throughout the duration, but they will strongly reflect and be helpful for Level 5. The targets below are a small insight to what I plan to spend my summer doing;

Redevelop my portfolio
Develop early concepts for my Critical Study
Continue to work with clients on various types of projects beyond branding and logo design.

Redeveloping my portfolio.

Currently my portfolio(website) is used for my PPD blog and nothing more. I would like to rapidly change this across the summer, building a new and more professional site that gives a better representation of the standard of my work.

During the summer, I will either be hiring a coder to develop the site I produced for my personal branding or switching from Wix to Squarespace for a more professional appeal on my website. I will still use the site for my blogs but will fit into the style and theme developed for the site.

Develop early concepts for my Critical Study.

One of my first modules upon returning after the summer is known as "Critical Study" in which I develop a editorial piece based on an area of interest that contains between 3,500 to 4,000 words. I decided it would be best to start earlier to both get a head start and produce a higher quality outcome compared to spending the allocated three months given when briefed. This would be beneficial to myself with having to get professional standard prints for handing in on deadline.

During the April half term, I came up with an idea of researching into music albums both contemporary and historical to base around the hypothesis "What is the importance of album artwork? and how it can be used in a symbolic way!". Although this does not seem like a controversial topic, but in recent years. Album covers have often started to become more meaningful and symbolic to the artist. However album's such as "The Life of Pablo" by Kanye West that features a derogatory image on the front of the cover, have often sparked issues to why and arises issues for equality and the freedom that is given to artists when producing music.

This entire concept for this study, comes from listening to one of my favourite artists known as "Logic" or better known as "Bobby Tarantino" after his favourite director "Quentin Tarantino". Bobby released a song called "Everybody" on 30th March 2017 and shortly after that "Black SpiderMan" on April 13th. These two songs focus on everyone being equal regardless of race, sexual orientation and creed. Prior to Bobby released the cover for his upcoming album known as "Everybody" and what really appeals to me about this is that from the few songs he has released as pre-order incentives. The entire album focuses on "Everybody" and the album cover features everybody, even Quentin Tarantino who has played a influential part within his life. I find this interesting as the artist can use the design to display both his life story and the meaning of the entire album on the front cover.

I wanted to use quotes from the artist themselves to help spilt up the pages and contents of my study. So, for example for Logic, I used the words found within the trailer for the album which I then combined with the colours used on the single track cover. This being red, white and blue. This probably would stay the same throughout the book, with colour being allocated depending on the artwork.

I then decided to take the project a little, further and found that the album cover was actually inspired by a painting that has been around for many years. From here I would go on to compare the aspects and consider the background of the painting. The Human Condition, an album from another of my favourite artists known as, Jon Bellion. This album, every single song had a dedicated album art even if the song was not available to be bought separately and it was not until I was watching the Disney film "Up" that I started to notice how similar the style of character illustration is on the cover.

I decided to do some research and found that the album was actually a business proposition aiming towards Pixar and the album was designed to appeal to the same audience so that employees of Pixar would see the cover and respond with "Hey, that looks like our movies but its not and then pick up the album and play it.". The whole idea of this was to score a movie at the company. This was confirmed in an interview with "iHeartRadio" back when the album first released in June 2016.

Next areas for development?

To develop this, further, I will be researching into various genres of music to find iconic album art that has importance and can be seen in a symbolic way. My main goal is to finalise the design aspect of my study over the summer which then gives me plenty of time to write the essay but it is crucial that I remember to keep all the links used for quotes, images and anything that is used to correctly reference them within my final essay.

Working with clients.

During the summer, I plan to continue working with clients similar to the past year, using the work to build up my portfolio as a designer and featuring it in both my PSP and WRL module's. Over this summer I will be rebranding a charity called "Creating4Charity" twitter.com/Create4Charity_ which is a brand ran by the owner of StreamerMarket another project I had completed in the past year. This will be used in my WRL module, showcasing development and annotations.

Redeveloping my portfolio will allow me to gain newer clients, especially when giving a better first impression compared to what my current site does.

I will reflect on these targets in one of my first posts after the summer in PPD2.

Referenced from, https://www.jacobham.co.uk/targetsforthesummer

Aims for next year?

With my first year nearly at a close, it would be best to set potential targets for Level 5. These targets would help to push me in the right direction from the start of the first semester, even if I decided to change them upon returning to the college.

Set Targets.

The following targets are designed to help me have a greater understanding of preparing for next years studying at a higher level. These are based around the briefs that I have undertaken this year and ones I am due to start on returning to the college. The three targets below, give a small insight on what I aim to achieve

next year;

Greater understanding of editorial design.
Work towards and enter D&AD.
Undertake work experience at a local design agency.

Editorial design.

My first target for next year, is to gain a greater understanding on editorial design. This target is based around one of my first modules known as "Critical Study". This module will present me with the chance to produce a book based around a subject of my liking that should correctly use a grid system.

Although I have started my development for this brief, I have decided to keep every draft of the progress to ensure that next year I can display it all within my WRL2 sketchbook. Prior to this I have developed a few pieces of editorial material mainly branding guidelines but never developed a entire book, but before leaving for April half term. I was given a brief that I had to create a brochure for a festival of my liking.

During this project, I developed a greater understanding of how the grid system works and how it can be used to my advantage as a designer in certain situations. Throughout my Critical Study and leading up to my Dissertation in Level 6. I will plan to develop a strong skill in designing editorial based projects to expand my employability as a student leaving the course.

Work towards an entry for D&AD.

One of my main aims for my PSP module was to enter my work into an award brief. Although I successfully entered my "Gaming In Mind" project to Creative Conscience and currently waiting on the results of the entry. I am happy with the work I submitted, however I originally was aiming to enter the D&AD New Blood briefs alongside that, meaning I would have had two entries for an award. However, I picked a brief based around "Crowne Plaza" and kept pushing it aside whenever I had free time due to not being confident in my work at the time. This was the same for "Gaming In Mind", however the more I progressed, the more happy I was with the brief and therefore grew the courage to submit it.

So next year, I will take part in at least one brief and submit, the briefs are often released in October and deadline usually take place in March. This gives me plenty of time to develop a strong entry getting feedback from peers and tutors to guide me in the correct direction but mainly relying on creative freedom within the restrictions of the brief. All work will be showcased within my PPD 2 and PSP 2 module.

Work Experience.

The final target for Level 5, is to undertake work experience at a local design agency within the Newcastle or Durham area. To prepare for this it would be best to print my creative CV in which I developed as a part of my branding earlier this year. Expanding this, it would be best to exploit the connections that the college has with studios in the area such as Courage Creative, who visited the college in October 2016.

I will aim to take part in work experience during the spring or summer of 2018, so that It does not interfere with my studies in a great deal.

I will reflect on these targets in one of my first posts after the summer in PPD2.

Referenced from, https://www.jacobham.co.uk/targetsforlevel5

The future of PPD2.

During this year, I have produced at least two posts per week. However, I was allocating a day to focus solely on the blog posts for that week. This day was always a Sunday, allowing me to spend the week finalising the work in my WRL and PSP module sketchbooks. Over the course of this year, I often found myself planning blog posts prior to that week. Such as developing a spreadsheet to outline the contents of each posts and the date in which it should go live.

Next year with PPD2, whether its producing a sketchbook, blog or presentation. I should be more critical on my work. This year, I was reflecting on the various stages of the design cycle, but mixed it in with talking about the design process. I should aim to separate my reflection from the concept, having a summary at the end of my work would be a great idea.