OUGD602 // Personal Branding // Presentation Boards

Final presentation / submission boards to evidence the full project from the start to end. The presentation boards show the research, development, concept and final outcomes of the brief.

OUGD602 // Personal Branding // Evaluation

This year I have enjoyed working on my Personal Branding, I fell as though this time round I have connected with the idea of it and enjoyed producing the printed material around the branding. Compared to last year, I think that my branding now it a lot more sophisticated and communicates me as a designer better, the identity is much more considered in the approach to the design and application to relevant products. Plus the branding products this time, take simpler approach and are more focussed on being there to aid the use of the product than being creative and 'designed'. I feel that products are practical and will work for running a business and any freelance work that I do undertake.

The consistency of the branding is much stronger this time round and I have used a couple of printing techniques - simple ones, but ones that add to the value of the branding and make it a little bit more interesting and unique. This would be the use of vinyl on the logo and the metallic black bubble envelope.

Using a serif font was a brave move on my behalf, I don't usually use these types of fonts, but I wanted to show the sophistication and professionalism of my practice, which I believe this does achieve. Also the type looks great and has a really nice character within the letterforms. The small details of the different stroke weights creates a well formed letterform and add a nice detail, along with the slightly over bold serifs, that shows assertiveness and boldness.

As a range of material, I have created a consistent design across all the products. The use stock is evident within the branding, both GFSmith Mandarin and Mist have been used to produce the various products within the range, which I believe covers everything you need to have a branding set and usable product range.

I am much more happy with this branding and I feel that it is a more considered approach to my practice and I feel that it communicates where I am now compared to when I first started the course three years ago. The develop of my practice over these  three years is phenomenal and I think this branding is just the beginning of what will happen outside of the course.

OUGD602 // Studio contact

Over easter I got back into emailing a few studios and asking them about placements / job vacancies for when I left uni. I feel that this is something that I have engaged with more this year and contacting studios hasn't been a problem for me. This was evident in the COP practical project too, which I got a lot off feedback back from that, so im the hoping the same will happen this time.

I contacted around 4 or 5 studios for placements and then another couple, which were asking for job vacancies. Below are the screenshots of the emails that I sent them and blow is the reply I got from then if there was any at all.

It turned out that not alot of the studios / designers hav any jobs or placements going at this time, even though I didnt get a placement out of it, it has given me contact that I can get in touch with. 

OUGD602 // Personal Branding // Product Images

After creating all the products of my personal branding, I have taken images of it all together to show the full product range and how my new identity is carried across all the different products and formats theses are presented in.

Full branded set -

Promo Pack - 

Printed Stationery - 

OUGD602 // Personal Branding // Promo Pack

The promo pack is a collection of the branded products created in my personal branding, which I have created a small folder for them to be put together within and create a product which can be handed out, or posted out to studios and designers, informing them of me as a designer.

The pack includes:
- Creative CV
- Business Card
- Small letterpress design / postcard design.

The idea of the promo pack is to inform potential employers of myself and show give them details of me as a designer and my work. With my website online, I don't think it is necessary to start creating printed portfolios to send out as I can direct them to the website or send a digital portfolio. The promo pack is to introduce myself and tell them who I am.

The postcard design is a small product which is something nice for them to receive, a tactile physical product which I produced myself. Its always nice to get something sent in the post and its adds some personality to the promo pack.

The folder created is an A5 folded folder, which has a flap on the bottom to hold the content of the pack inside. The creative CV will be folded in half to fit within the folder. On the front of the folder, I have personalised it, by adding 'Thanks______ for meeting with me today'. When going to a meeting or interview with a studio / designer, I can write their name within the space and it created a personalised product directed at them. Hand writing their name onto the folder also shows some personality too. 

Images of Promo pack - 

OUGD602 // Personal Branding // Creative CV

The final product to design is the Creative CV. From last year I already had a CV which I have been using, but now that I have redesigned my branding, this doesn't fit with the new aesthetic and identity I am now using.

Previous CV -

Last year this was a great product for me and not knowing the complete route I was heading down for my practice, this brought alot of different elements together to showcase me as a designer. But now this doesn't really fit my practice anymore. I feel that it is too illustrative and maybe a little childish? in the design. It doesnt really say much about me and I don't like the use of the illustrated person in the middle. 

A lot of the information within the CV is great and speaks about me as a designer well, but it just needs updating and bringing in line with the new identity. 

Using the template of the letterhead, the CV keeps a consistent style within the branding and works alongside the rest of the products. Using the main content area I have used the same categories as before but adapted this to be more current and up to date. Taking away the illustrative elements that made the old CV look out of place for me, this gave me more room to add in more information about my achievements and things I have been involved in. With a up and running website, which displays all my work, I have been able to take away the social media elements and focus on directing people to my website instead. 

I think that this works much better as a product than the previous CV. I have much more I can say within the CV now, as I have started working on things outside of uni and have more achievements, I think this is better to display on such a product as this than speaking about me personally, I can do that within an interview. The style of the CV works with the rest of the branded products and finishes off the personal branding product range. 

OUGD602 // Personal Branding // Brand Guidelines

From creating the identity and applying this to the branded stationery, I thought it would be necessary to create a brand guidelines. This will pull all the individual elements of my branding together into one document and display how my branding is built up.

The document uses a simple grid to display the elements of the branding, showcasing the logo, colour palette and typefaces that make up my branding. This is a basic brand guidelines, but it is good to see all the elements together and shows the making of the identity. 

OUGD602 // Personal Branding // Business Cards

With the new identity in place, I wanted to create new business cards. Last year I got them sent off and printed using Moo, but at this moment in time I don't feel that this is necessary to do that and I didnt particularly like the printed cards from there, the print wasn't the best quality.

For the new business cards, I wanted to take on a more hand crafted style and show some of my own practice within the cards. The use of some printing techniques could make them more 'special' and look nicer than a digital printed card.

Back Design

The design of the back of the card is very minimal. I have included the main information needed on a business card, contact number, email and website. These three fit together well within the design and adding my name to the top of the card identifies who I am. As the cards are just for myself, I didnt feel it was necessary to add a job title or 'graphic designer' to the cards because people getting in touch with me will already know this. Plus if I am handing them out, it will be personally from myself or as part of the promo pack, which gives details on who I am and what I do. These part of the card will be printed on white stock. 

Front design - 

The front of the business card will use orange stock, this will be stuck to the backs of the business cards creating a duplexed business card. The logo will be placed in the bottom corner, but I will do this using black vinyl. This adds an interesting element to the business cards and makes it a focus point to the cards. It also means I will only have to print the backs to produce the cards, the front will just be orange stock. 

I think that creating these cards in this way is more related to my practice and communicate me as a designer much better than getting a digital printed business card from online. The hand crafted style and aesthetic fits me and my practice and should make it more of a memorable business card than the standard digital printed ones. 

OUGD602 // Contacting further Studios

After creating my portfolio, I decided to contact some more studios about some studio visits / placements / possible job opportunities.

The studios in which I have contacted are:

Raw

Fieldwork

Beautiful Meme

Otherway

Dots Printhaus. 

Raw and Dots Prainthaus both emailed me back saying that they didn't have any placement opportunities open at the moment, but have saved my details for future reference. 

Fieldwork emailed me back and said that they liked the look of my portfolio and the work that was in it, they have asked me to go into the studio to speak to them further. Taking my portfolio and some work samples along to show them. This is great news as I really like the work of the studio and I am an avid follower of theres.

An example of the PDF portfolio I sent out is here:

OUGD502 // Personal Branding // Final Images

After creating both the promotion pack and my personal branding i have taken images of both the elements to show the content and my branding.

Promo Pack.

Personal Branding.

I am really happy with the outcomes of both the elements of this brief. I think i have branding myself well and done something which represents and communicates me as a designer. I think everything i have designed here is very consistent across the whole product range, which i think i have pushed and shown a large amount of products for this. 

I am really happy with my promo pack and i think it is something different from what i have looked at online. I believe that it should do well and hopefully get me some more placements / studio visits with other studios that i send them to. I would like to think that the two i have got i got them without this or any business card, now i have the promo pack and everything else, it should put me in good stead. 

With the business branding, the main accent colour - orange has printed differently to the business card and other elements i printed earlier because i used a different printer and not the ones down with James in the digital print. This was a shame that i couldn't get down there and print them out as everything would be exactly the same, but i can always reprint these. This shows the idea of my branding, which you can see how i am representing myself and communicating myself as a designer.