Portfolio and Curriculum vitae

During this week I have been organising my portfolio and curriculum vitae so that it is ready to hand in for PPRD on the 9th March.. After the portfolio lecture with George Beverley I felt a lot more comfortable about how to present my work in my portfolio. Since the talk I have been working on my portfolio to get it looking at a professional standard.

I have included a few my curriculum vitae and a few portfolio pieces that I have been working on.

Portfolio lecture

Today I attended a lecture from the ex-creative director from Marketing Matters about portfolio presentation. The lectutre was given by a guy called George Beverley, I found this talk really helpful and now have a much stronger understanding of how to present myself and my work. Here are my notes that I took...... 

 1) Always makes sure your 100% happy with the work you include in your portfolio

2) Don't show anyone else's work as yours

3) Memorize at least two things about your work

4) 8-10 pieces of your work, if you only have 6 pieces of strong work that you feel compfortable with then only show them 6 pieces, don't add in work if you if your not happy with it.

5) Show your thinking  and how your got to the final design

• Your not the finished article so just be yourself, no one else
• Find out who the directors top 5 clients are, ask him questions to make him think your interested in the business 
• When getting criticism, ask what about the work you don't like
• Be aware that I am young with fresh thinking and cheap. So really this is an advantage for the director
• Punctuality, always turn up at least 10 minutes before
• Have a good attitude 
• Show you have a good interest in recent design/articles
• Be hungry for the job, show that you want it
• Always be honest no matter what, never lie
• Start your portfolio with a good piece of work, in the middle display the work that you feel is alright and then finish with your best piece of work

More replies

I have had some more useful replies from other companies which I feel have really helped with the project, here are the replies....

Hi Ben,

Thanks for your email; sorry it’s taken a while for you to receive a reply from us. 

If you head over to the “about us” section of the website (click on this link: http://www.howies.co.uk/content.php?xSecId=5 ) then you’ll find our full history, and a couple of pieces written by Dave and Clare (the founders) about the companies’ humble beginning 13 years ago on their living room floor, and also things like our decisions to partner with timberland etc.

What else is there..? Well, if you click on http://www.howies.co.uk/info.php then it would maybe be a good idea to have a read of our product stories, as you’ll find good info on the products we sell and where they’re made. (Also check out the hand me down micro site: http://hmd.howies.co.uk/story.html)

If you’d like me to send you a few past catalogues then that’s fine, just let me know where you’d like it sent to and I’ll get some sent, as these always have some really nice written pieces and stories.

If there’s anything else you’d like to know then just drop me another email and I’ll do my best to find out for you!
Kind regards,

hollie

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Hi Ben,

Our company, Get Ethical, is a portal site for many ethical companies.
I am involved with both Get Ethical and also my own company called Earth & Wear ltd, which sells ethical clothing brands, including our own labelled tshirts.
The tshirts are made from 55% hemp / 45% organic cotton. The reason for this is both the ecological benefits of organically grown materials and also the hard wearing, yet softness of hemp.
If you were setting up an ethical tshirt company then you should investigate hemp it as an excellent material - it requires no fertiliser or pesticides; it improves the quality of the soil where it is grown, it grows in a wide range of climates. The product produced is hard wearing, and tends to actually improve with age, whilst also blending well with other materials such as silk, cotton, wool etc. Also it has a very long and varied history of use throughout most of human civilisation.

You can view our own branded tshirts on our website - www.earthandwear.com. If you would be interested in a sample tshirt then please get back in touch.

I'd be interested to know your reasons for creating a brand identity for a organic/eco-freindly company - Is it a topic you have been given, or have you an interest personally in the ethical clothing business?

Best Wishes

Leith

Replies

I am glad to say that I have had a number of replies from the email I sent to various organic/eco-friendly clothing companies, here are the replies I have received so far.

Dear Ben

Thank you for your email and kind words about The Natural Store.

We do not have any written information in hard copy/brochure form. All our information is written on the website and you may find the 'more info' sections against each product you are interested in, very helpful.

Another recommendation is possibly contacting the various brands direct, as we do not manufacture any clothing ourselves but work like a department store where we sell many brands on The Natural Store but each product is already ready made. If you contact the various brands direct, they may be able to share further design, manufacturing, logistical, fabric make up information with your good self.

Finally, if you're looking into organic cotton and it's many benefits or normal cotton and the many pesiticides used in its growth, then we would say that the following website is very informative. http://www.pan-uk.org and also http://www.luxuryredefined.co.uk/docs/lux/intro.html

Good luck with your project.

Have a good weekend.

Best regards.
Rachel & Ismat
The Natural Store

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Dear Ben,

I would be happy to send you a catalogue and some fabric samples. I just need your address. You can read more about us on our website under 'Our ethical and eco practices' which you can find at the bottom of the page.

Kind regards,

Sue
Gossypium

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For the past two or three days I have been contacting organic/eco friendly clothing companies to see if they can help me with some research. I have called most of the companies by phone and have ordered their catalogue which I feel will help me, as I will be able to see how they display their products, I have also sent out emails to specific companies and am now waiting for some replies. 

Below is the email that I sent out to the various companies.

Hi, I am a student currently studying visual communication, and for my professional project I am designing a brand identity for a non-existent organic and echo friendly t-shirt clothing company. I have come across your company and have found it very inspiring, I was wondering if there is any possibility if you could send me any relevant information to help me with my project, this could be a catalogue of your products, materials, information about organic products, anything really would be much appreciated.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Thank, Ben.

Screen based communication 2 results/feedback

Today I received my results for screen based communication 2, I was pleased with the feedback that I received for this project as it was very positive and really helpful feedback. I was told that I worked really hard on this project which I feel I did, and that the final outcome works really well as a portfolio as it is minimal and well organised. I was also told to consider a few things which I now have realized and completely agree with, I was told to consider decreasing the size of my thumbnails as they are a bit large and indiscreet compared to other elements within my site. The other thing was to develop more confidence in my designs because when I am faced with a problem I tend to go with a completely new idea, but as it says in my feedback I will develop this skill through my professional project. 

My overall grade for this project was 57, which isn't bad, but then its not great. I said to myself before I get the grade if I get over 55 then I would be pleased but for some reason im not. I think it because of the fact that I only got 46 on the last project so at the moment I am still only borderline 50, I think. To progress onto the BA Graphics course I have to achieve over 50 overall for this year and at the moment I am just scrapping that, not only do I want to achieve this to progress onto BA Graphics but I also want to achieve it for myself, because if I were to get an overall grade below 50 this year I would not be pleased with myself. So therefore I have to now step up a gear and really push my professional project. 

Learning agreement

Today I completed and handed in my learning agreement for my proffesional project. I am pleased with the brief I have written myself and feel that it will be an exciting and challenging project to work on,  I have included my synopsis of study below.

Synopsis of study

For my professional project I will create and design a brand and identity for an organic and eco friendly clothing company, this is a non-existent company so therefore I will be creating a new identity. I will create a set of promotional materials for the company which will promote the brand/identity, I will research into existing clothing companies and how they have advertised and branded themselves, I will also look into why people buy organic clothes and what type of person buys this type of clothing, from this I will demonstrate my research and development through sketchbooks leading to my final designs. My research will consist of looking at existing clothing websites; magazines, catalogues and also other materials that I feel will help me. I will be contacting the companies I feel will be able to give me the relevant research that I need as I may not be able to find it in shops or elsewhere. I will create a time plan during this project to help me be organised and prepared for the work I have set myself. I will set myself deadlines to keep me focused and to make sure I get everything that I set myself completed within the time I have left, this will be noted throughout the project. Not only will this benefit me but it will also show a sign of professionalism that is what I am aiming to achieve throughout this project. The branding for the company will be designed to have a relaxed style and an organic feel to it, my target audience will mainly be people aged between 18-35 who care about there clothes and take into consideration how they look.
I have chosen to create this identity because during this year I have been working on a branding and identity brief that I really enjoyed and felt was very successful, so I feel my strengths lie within this area of design. For my professional project I want to create and design something that will help me get to where I want to be next year (BA Graphics), and I feel that if executed well this project will help me do that. Also I feel that this project will help me prepare for employment, as I would like to work in the branding area of design in the future. This project will be a professional standard of creative work and will be a strong piece of work to present in my portfolio. The reason I have decided to design an organic and eco friendly brand is because I feel that there is a huge market for the clothing, also my aim is to persuade people to buy organic clothing rather than going to designer brands.

 

Good times

Today I proposed my new idea to Mike Ryan and Sally Hope, and the feedback I received was a lot more positive than than the last idea I had. I was told this new brief I have set myself is a lot more subtable for a professional project and has a lot more scope than the last one. To be honset I completly agree, and I feel that I have made the correct decision by changing my idea. 

I feel so much more pleased and also confident which is a really positive thing, before I was really unsure with the idea that I was working with but now I feel so much more confident and content with the new and final idea I have to work with.

Live brief reflection

I am pleased with the outcome of the work myself and Chris have put into this live brief, I feel that the logo works well and the colours that we chose work well for the particular areas we were designing the brand/identity for (Dorset, Poole and Bournemouth) as the blues represent the costal recognition of these surrounding areas. Also the stationary we designed to go with looks strong and is well presented, I think the most positive aspect of our designs for this project is our presentation of the work as well as the brand/identity itself. We decided to chose three different shades of blue for the type to represent the surrounding areas which I feel works well. The only thing I have to say which I feel could make the logo stronger is to have three tear drops instead of two, this way there would be three shapes represting the three areas (Dorset, Poole and Bournemouth), other than that I have enjoyed working on this brief as it has developed my knowledge of branding and also working with another designer which we were able to bounce ideas of one another to come to a final product.

Live brief presentation

Today myself and Chris Walter presented our logo design and rest of the stationary to two representatives of the MAA (multi area agreement). We explained why we had chosen the logo and what made us come to this decision, we then went on to explain and show the rest of our work. I feel that the presentation went really well and was pleased with the feedback that we received about our designs. It was an experience presenting to a real client, I was a little nervous at first but then adapted to it. After that presentation I think that I would now feel a lot more comfortable when presenting my work to a client.

I have included our chosen logo and some of our development work. 

Today I emailed Anna about what I plan to write my essay on and told to define the topic so I can have a title ready to work with by next week. Below I have attached the email I sent followed by the reply from Anna.

Hi Ben, this is ok, but try and get your examples/case studies. If you use coca cola ads as one case study about how digital imaging changed the way it looked and also looked at the different socio-cultural aspects of the work (take 3 images- one from early 20th century one from mid and one from 2000) but then also look at another example to see how that changed (Levi's?? ).Try and get a list of books from the library to help with this topic,and take some out now to start the research. Bring it all in on Monday.
thanks Ben,
see you on Monday,
Anna.

From: 3161328 BEN STROWMAN
Sent: Wed 11/02/2009 19:03
To: Anna Middleton
Subject: RE: CVC

Hi Anna,

I have been looking at the coca cola adverts and how they have progressed over the years, I could look at what the different impacts of digital and non digital advertising have on people/the consumer, I was thinking about looking into consumer behavior.

Ben

I have been stressing long and hard about wether to change my idea completley for my professional project and I have come to a decision, and that decision is yes I am chaning it. I have decided to change my idea due to the fact of my presentation, I have been thinking about the feedback that I received an no longer want to think about it any more. The presentation made me realise that the project I have set myself is not strong enough, I created to much work for myself, and also the wrong work, the idea consisted of me interviewing other students whci meant I would spend most of my time writng the up. Also I realised that writing is not my strongest area so it would be a bad idea to carry on with this idea. So I have been brainstorming fresh new ideas and this is what I propose to design for my professional project (A brand/identity for an non-existant organic/eco friendly clothing company). 

Why I have chosen to do this?

Well I think it is for the best really, as part of this second year I am meant to be a more independent student and this means I have to make decisions by my own accord. A very vital decision aswell, the reason for the change was because I sat down and really thought about what I want to do, what would I like to produce? and also what will make a strong piece of portfolio work. And I think that this new idea answers all of these questions. I look foward to really getting stuck into this project now and feel its a much exciting and challenging project to work on than the last one. 

The next day

Well after yesterday I feel a whole lot better, I had a tutorial with Mike Ryan and explained what I had been working on over night since the presentation. I felt that a lot of progress was achieved from this tutorial, I explained the aspect of my idea that I plan to focus on which would be interviewing students from different backgrounds and different course to create a series of spreads for a student guide. I felt this went down quite well and I received some positive and useful feedback, I was told to go ahead with creating the spreads for the interviews for the guide but to think about all the considerations that go with it, such as the size of the magazine, if it is a magazine, the layout, and the text. This information helped and I feel that I now know what to focus on and feel that I can start on this project, and to honest im looking forward it!

Presentation

Today I presented my proposed idea for my professional project, this was to produce a student guide for students who are intended to study at bournemouth or students who are currently new to bournemouth (threshers). After talking to Kit and Neil about my idea I was pleased about the feedback that I received, but when I presented the idea to Sally, I just got negative feedback which really confused me. I suppose each tutor has different opinions so I just have to take that, this is when I have realized that I have to start making decisions myself, as noted in the feedback I received for Visual Communication in Context 2 project (there is no right answer to a graphic design brief, just your response, so don't worry about being wrong). 

I was told that I have created to much work for myself and would never be able to complete it in time. I agree with this and am considering reducing the amount of work I have given myself by maybe just creating a series of spreads for the magazine. I now intend to think about this project long and hard and come to a conclusion of what I want to do about it, make a final decision by myself.

Live brief (multi area agreement)

Today myself and Christopher Walter had a catch up with Matt Desmier about the live project we have been working on, which is a creating an identity for the MAA (multi area agreement). We showed Matt what we have produced so far and we received some very positive feedback, I was pleased with the feedback that we received and feel confident about presenting our work when it comes round to it next week. The only thing we were told to do was to make sure we have the answers for the questions that we could be asked when presenting our work, basically be prepared. So we now need to go off and think how we are going to sell it to them (literally), what makes our identity the best, why they should choose it. Myself and Chris felt that this was very useful information and will now act upon this and be prepared for our presentation next week. 

Today was a really good day, I had a chat with Kit and Neil about the idea that I had for my professional project. I received some really positive feedback and was told to stick with this idea and to dispose of all the other ideas I had floating around in my head. The idea that I explained to them was to create a student guide for the typical student that is intending to study at bournemouth. The reason I want to create this student guide is because when I came to bournemouth I felt that it was very daunting moving from home and not knowing where anything was. I showed them my learning proposal which explained my idea in more detail and showed how I was going to create the guide. The feedback that I received was basically to start my research that I had planned out to do ready for thursday when I will be presenting my idea. I was really pleased with the feedback that I received, it relieved a lot of stress knowing that I have a strong idea to work with and now I can start setting my aims and objectives. I intend to start planning out what I will be doing each week to keep on top of things, this will help me reach the aims that I set my self and also keep me organized. 

Visual Culture

Today I had a tutorial with Anna focusing on what I will produce for my essay, I found the tutorial helpful and feel that I now have an idea of what I want to write about. The reason why I have chosen to write this essay is because I hope to progress on to the BA Graphic design course next year, and to do so it is compulsory to write this essay. At first I felt like I didn't know what to write about but after explaining what I would find interesting to write about it all started coming together. After the tutorial I sent Anna an email as I still wasn't certain on my idea, so here is the email with the reply.....

That’s ok Ben, but a bit broad, what do you want to focus on? The impact of digital design on how ads look/are created? What time frame? What key examples? Have a think and get back to me- we need to get you started asap!

Thanks,
Anna.

-----Original Message-----
From: 3161328 BEN STROWMAN
Sent: 09 February 2009 19:43
To: Anna Middleton
Subject:


Hi Anna,

I have been thinking about what I could write about for my essay since our meeting earlier, and I have thought that I would find it interesting to write about how advertising has changed over the years, and the difference's between the adverts today and the adverts created many years ago.

If you could let me know what you think that would be much appreciated.

Thanks Ben

So after the response from Anna I now need to act on what exactly I will focusing on, im going to have a think about what she has said and then get back to her.

Today I have written up a basic learning proposal for my professional project. After stressing for the past week about what I should produce for this project I now feel satisfied with the idea that I have for this project. After the group tutorial I had with Sally I was put of the original idea that I had which was to create a series of books which translate languages. So I started thinking of what hasn't been done before, what could I do which is different? 

So I started by brainstorming all the ideas down onto paper that I had, this helped me a lot because I then began to think of what I would like to have produced for myself, what would I like? So here it is, the start of my learning proposal for my professional project.

What I will produce and why

For my professional project I will create a student guide designed for students that are planning to come to Bournemouth to study, the guide will be designed to inform
the student about Bournemouth and what there is to do, what places will be useful for
students, and also a description of what the areas of Bournemouth are like so they have an idea of where to live.

The reason why I am going to produce this guide because it is very daunting when moving into a new place, especially when you have been living at home your whole life. There is nothing like this out there at the moment so there will definitely be a market for this guide. As a student myself I would of found this guide useful when I first moved onto Bournemouth as I didn’t know where to live, where to go, how to get to places etc. My guide will help the student adapt to the area a lot more quickly, it will be a very useful guide for the student as it will tell them all they need to know about Bournemouth.

Target audience

My target audience will be students that intend to study in Bournemouth, which are curious about what is in Bournemouth and how to get around etc.

What to include?

Where to eat for cheap
What nights to go out on, which nights/pubs/clubs would suit the student
Where to get art equipment etc, best shops.
What is in winton, charminster etc
Library opening times
Any student deals
Travel information
Tips page, how to eat cheaply , ways of saving money. Etc
Use full telephone numbers, taxi’s etc
Where the doctor’s is etc
Interview students in Bournemouth at the moment and create a spread on there experience

 

Live brief (multi area agreement)

Today me and Christopher Walter had a meeting with Matt Desmier to go through the live brief that we had chosen (multi area agreement). We explained that we had read through the brief but still don't really understand what the multi area agreement is all about. So he told us some useful information about them which I feel will help us with our project. In a nutshell he told us what the multi area agreement is about and what they are asking for, also what style of design would suit there needs. Myself and Chris felt that the meeting was very useful and now feel we can go away and work on this comfortably.