E-Mail Feedback

After e-mailing the companies, 8 in all,

I got 3 responses,

from Smiling Wolf, Liquid Studios and Stuart Baker from Teabag Studios.

All the agencies more or less said the same thing;

They said they where impressed with the portfolio work I sent out to them,

mentions they like the layout, style and simplicity of my work.

Currently I still e-mail Stuart Baker,

and have kept in touch about design and about my work etc,

so hoping something could come out of this.

Liquid Studios,

Have offered me a placement for this upcoming summer,

not clarified date and how long for,

that will be given to me as soon as they know.

Smiling Wolf,

I have also be offered a placement at Smiling Wolf, in Liverpool.

They offered me a day there during the easter holidays but I wasn't able to attend,

so instead they said they will see me in the summer, and will let me know dates as soon as possible.

So it is all looking good so far,

but I will be e-mailing more companies after the major project to get feedback and anything else possible.

E-Mailing Agencies

We where given a deadline to get a written e-mail prepared to send of to agencies with a brief description of what we wanted and a electronic portfolio which we had to put together.

I e-mailed to:

- Smiling Wolf, Liverpool

- Liquid Studios, Liverpool

- Teabag Design, Leeds

& a few free lance designers.

I will be continuing to e-mail through out the summer, with more work to show them.

The e-mail I sent out goes as follows;

Hey [Name of Company],

I am a Graphic Design student from Liverpool, currently in my second year of a (BA Hons) Graphic Design course attending Leeds College of Art,

I enjoy browsing through the work you and your companies work produce,

its the type of work that catches my eye, and I get inspiration from it.

We have been advised to get ourselves out there, and send our favorite design companies examples of our work.

Attached is a PDF of a electronic portfolio I have put together.

If you could spare a few minutes of your time to have a look at my work, and give me any possible feedback,

I would be very grateful.

Thank You

Andrew Makin

OUGD202 Self Evaluation - Design For Digital

For this module, OUGD202, Design for Digital,

using animation programmes, for videos and idents,

never really had my name on the cards.

The module started getting tutorials, using the programme Adobe After Effects.

I was finding bits and bobs hard to understand more than others,

so they were the bits i focused on working on to get used to the programme.

But no matter how much help I got, how many notes I wrote, I could just never get them into my head,

something would always go wrong or something wouldn't go as I planned.

which leads us onto "Silent Movies".

Silent Movies, 4x 5seconds.

My whole intentions was to keep them simple, using just the basic skills we where shown in the tutorials. They where nothing special, but I was happy with the out comes.

I kept to a Black, White and Orange colour pallet.

Looking at others in the class, theres were hundred times better, but some have the skills to use them programmes, others don't.

Top 10, 30-50 Second Opening Credits.

Having two options, one long animation, or 5 shorter ones,

I chose the one long one, and focused on "Top Ten Haircuts"

My final resolution was pretty weak, if am going to be honest.

I did try, but I could just couldn't get it to run as smooth as the story boards I developed.

I think the timing was pretty poor, the first 7 numbers take up to long, I could have improved on that.

I feel the storyboards and layouts were a strong idea, and could work pretty well,

but I just lacked the After Effects Skills.

DVD Menu,

I left mine pretty late, and had to redo the menu numerous times,

so I decided to just have it plane and simple, hence the black and white layout.

With a last minute check, I feel this could also be better,

the menu would work perfect on a PC screen and mouse, but abit harder to use for a DVD Menu.

On the whole, I don't feel I have done very well during this module,

it was never gonna go in my favour a brief like we were given, I tried hard, but all the experimentation I done just didn't work out for me and my resolutions.

My resolutions were weak, and I would be first to raise my hand and admit that,

but as for my ideas and storyboards I feel they were strong.

The idea was there, the resolution just wasn't.

So in the future, if a client comes to me wanting some work along these lines,

I would happily get the ideas and storyboards together,

but beyond that point, I think I would pass the rest on to someone else to produce the resolution.

If I was to do this brief again, and do anything different,

would be spend alot more time on After Effects, Experiment more with it.

Give myself more time for my resolutions, so if I ain't happy with them, I could improve them or add to them, or even restart them.

Progress Tutorial

Strengths I have developed during Level 05.

Confidence,

During this second year I have found that I have gained a lot more confidence than I had during Level 04,

Around my fellow students,

speaking about my work to others,

presenting my work to other,

also explaining my ideas.

Attitude,

My attitude towards the course have changed this year,

I knew I had to come into it with a confidence boost,

knowing it was going to be a hard work, a lot more of a challenge compared to last year.

Time

Using my time better,

Using the studio space, and the amount of time a day in there and options around us.

Time Management, planning my work, doing it with a few spare days/hours to edit what needs doing.

Weakness I Have developed during Level 05.

To be fare I can't think of many weaknesses,

I feel compared to last year i have improved,

I had jumpy start with a few incidents, but minus that I feel I have just got stronger and gained more than lost.

I suppose I could mention my folder hand in during the first module,

with lack

My first hand in wasn't to great,

Lack of money and printing made my folio look weak and unprofessional.

CV's

What Is A C.V?

- Information about you, and your qualities as a worker.

- Summarising what you have done in the past, school, college, university, recent jobs.

- Information selling yourself, so a company can get in touch if they're impressed.

- A way of putting yourself out there as a client.

- A piece of information about yourself that a company can keep hold of, so they can read about you and have your contact details if they are interested.

What Should A CV Contain?

- Contact Details.

- Information about yourself.

- Recent jobs.

- Recent places attended; college, universities, placements.

- Enough information to sell yourself, as the person wanting the job.

What Is A Portfolio?

- A collection of someones work, to show industries or clients.

- Evidences of past work.

- College portfolio, University portfolio, Work portfolio, Portfolio for different stages of study.

- A well presented collection of work to help get jobs.

- Work you have put together through your time of study and work.

What Should A Portfolio Contain?

- Best pieces of work.

- Work that will impress industries.

- Showing you have skills, not a one trick pony.

- Work that shows you know what you're doing.

- Creative and clever work.

OUGD201 Self Evaluation - Design Production, Print

Was a good module to kick start the year, postcard brief was fine, apart from some personal issues back home, losing all the work I had done.

But as for "What Is Good" took me so long to come up with an actual idea I wanted to focus on,

my What Is Good was Scrabble, but it was were I went from there that I struggled most with. That taking a while to sort out, I could only get research about Scrabble, not about were I was taking it from there.

So my research side of things could have been alot stronger.

With all my design sheets for this module, I feel I had alot of ideas down on paper, and not just focusing on one,

messing about bits and bobs of each idea, trying to get the most out of each one.

I ain't the greatest at crafting and making objects, I feel my strong point is programme work, resolutions etc. So I try and focus on my resolution on screen,

Although I did have to make items for the "What Is Good" wasn't happy with them,

To be honest I wasn't happy with the resolution for that brief at all.

But at least the photographs make them look a tad better.

As for the Summer Brief & 16 Page Booklet Brief i was happy with them,

was happy how they looked on screen and when i got the printed out.

My biggest problem was funding to print,

module deadline, and I was skint, and had no printing credit either,

so my resolution boards had to be printed off on A4, which was a massive pain and unprofessional, but that will be sorted out for the next module,

cause I wasn't pleased with myself or how it looked.

5 things I would change:

- Time Management - In famous Time Management, I done alot better than I have done recently in the past, but next time I would like to give myself a good few days to have everything sorted, and printed how I want it.

- Research - For this module I feel that my research was weak, I had some good bits, but I could have expanded on them.

- Resolution - This is mainly about the "What is Good" brief, I wasn't happy with the outcome, the photographs were fine, but the actual piece was disappointing, I want to design work that am happy about.

- 16 Page Booklet - I did leave this rather late, mind was to focused on the other brief, I was happy with my outcome, but feel the design sheets and research could have been alot stronger.

- Final Ideas - Get them quicker! I seem to get my final idea very late into the brief, then I have less time to get the layout, research and resolution all done.

Group Tutorial Prep

What is professional/industrial experience?

- Work placement in a design industry.

- Finding out the in's and out's, the do and the don't.

- Not panicing if things are not going as planned, dealing with the heat and pressure.

- Designing for a client or industry who expect a resolution.

Why is professional/industrial experience important as part of PPD?

- Using the knowledge you have gained on the course, putting it into context.

- Put more thought into the industry and your own future,

would you manage? should you be there? prepared? ready?

- My positives and negatives, does this help your development?

- Motivation, something to aim for, a goal, how to go about it.

- Find out what it is that industries and public want, beat the competition.

How do you gain professional/industrial experience and what form does it take?

- Contacts, Employers, Agencies, Friends?

A friend who works or worked for a business maybe?

- Visiting Agencies, show interest, even if it is just a few hours of looking around the studios and flicking through their work, where they work and what the atmosphere is like etc.

- My own work, send it to agencies or employees, just ask their opinion, never know what could happen, no harm in trying.

- Look for as many agencies possible, ring or e-mail, you could try 20 and 3 get back but at least that is something.

- Just kick start your experience, no matter small or well known the company is.

What should you aim to gain from professional/industrial experience?

- Contacts, as many as you can, big or small.

- Where I want to be, what side of the industry?

- Greater passion for Graphic Design.

- Knowing about the industry, expand knowledge you know.

- Understand the time and effort needed to go into the work you provide for companies.