Inspire. Create.

Recieved an email about this but didn't do anything about it, gutted! It is certainly a wake up call to write things in my diary and book events as and when I head about them!

"Organised by Leeds Media and Social Alchemy, Inspire. Create is a FREE event, combining an exhibition of budding creatives’ work with a series of seminars and workshops in a bid to support Yorkshire’s rising stars. Students and freelancers are given the chance to showcase their talent to the region’s media and digital sector through an exhibition / competition. Workshops and seminars will be held by representatives from some of the UK’s leading agencies, including Ogilvy, jelly London, Coolpink, Clearsilver, Creative England and What!?"

As this is a feww event and held at The Faversham I have signed up for some talks and put myself on the waiting list for a student day ticket. 

3 - 4PM Seminar: Being Creative In A Commercial WorldA talk by Brand Nu & jelly focusing on the process of monetising the creative process when leaving college; paying specific attention to briefs, deadlines, IP rights and general survival tips. Find out more: http://www.inspirecreateleeds.co.uk/brand-nu/

5.30 - 6PM How to Approach an Internship [Professionals/Agencies] LIMITED PLACES
Louise Leach & Pip Rogan provide insight into how businesses and organisations should approach a placement. Find out more: http://www.inspirecreateleeds.co.uk/clearsilver/

6 - 7PM Seminar: Media Without Barriers
jelly & Brand Nu will demonstrate how they produce content and design across all media, with a consistent approach to quality and creativity. Find out more: http://www.inspirecreateleeds.co.uk/jelly-three-blind-mice/

6 - 8PM Networking Drinks
Come and join us for a drink and a chat! Bring your business cards and portfolios and take this opportunity to find placements, new talent or new business! All are welcome!

Just realised that some of these overlap! And after some more research, I think one or two of these events is not necessarily relevant to my practice. So I will have to think about which would be most beneficial to attend. 

Manchester Book Fair

I helped out on our stall at Manchester Book Fair and was glad I did. I hoped to talk to more people, but it is hard to start making conversation! We sold a few items, but not as much as I thought we would. The book fair was more craft based than design based and there was quite a bit of illustration rather than type. After saying that I am surprised that I sold one of my books, it was also the first item to sell (so I was pretty happy!).

On reflection I think it may have been better if I had produced something more illustrative, than a type specimen booklet for this event but it is part of my submission for OUGD301. It would have also been great if I could have collected some more business cards and spoke to more professionals.

Pop-up shop application

Submitted my pop-up shop application and it has been accepted! This will form part of my submission for OUGD301 but it will also aid in my commercial practice.

Tutorial with Fred

• Define deliverables
• Be confident
• Overlap briefs
• Make own decisions
• Experiment and conclude
• Type a focus for OUGD301

Group tutorial with Fred

Really helpful to see what others are tackling in their third year. Some have chosen similar briefs to myself but are approaching them with a different focus.

A revision of my briefs has happened through this group discussion. I need to stop worrying and thinking about what is going to be produced at the end of the process and see where it goes through development. Some of my small briefs for the book fair and pop up shop could relate to my larger briefs.

Brief 01 - Typefaces. Explore the collaboration of different typefaces. By next week I need to aim for a whole load of different examples of possible typefaces, then at the tutorial I can show what I have and discuss what is working and where it can go from there.

Brief 02 - Publication. Headline fonts for a series of publications based on window designs in the Midlands. By taking the elements from one window from each city (Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Sheffield) and create a typeface for a publication on each city. Also create a working interactive web version of the publication.

Brief 03 - Identity. Exhibition of possibly my own work or maybe black and white film photography. Identity across different deliverables.

Brief 04 - ISTD.

Common Room - Graphic Design

Collaboration would be good possibly for my final major project. I would like to be able to work in a collaboration with a photographer, and create a publication to show off their work in an editorial format.

I put out 15 business cards, and 13 were taken which made me feel pretty positive and I saw alot of people looking at my 'Hate Week' brochure which was encouraging. I think people like to physically hold and look through stuff. However I was disappointed to hear that beer had been spilt on the typeface I had been working on all day. This means photoshopping out the imperfections, which was an avenue I wanted to avoid to have the purest hand-drawn type.

September

PPD group tutorial

John emailed asking to reflect on any work experience I had over summer. The three questions didn't really relate to my summer as I did not seek studio placements once I left uni at the end of second year. I am glad I had a relaxing summer and stayed sane and ready to come back into third year. One thing I have definitely learnt was that I do not wish to work as an in-house designer. Since coming back, my outlook on the type of designer I want to be has changed, so I do think the type of summer I had, even though it may not have been professional, was personally for the best.