New CV design

I have created myself a new CV to show off the skills I have learnt and developed over the last month as I want to start emailing studios so I can find a long term work placement for my final year.

Work Experience at The Point Design

I am currently doing a work placement at The Point Design, a Graphic Design studio based at The Toffee Factory. So far I have found the experience really helpful and it has given me an insight to what to expect when working in  industry. I have enjoyed the fast paced approach to work, in the past week I have worked on three briefs rather than working on one project over six weeks, I have also been introduced to working with a new program which is similar to InDesign, Quark.

The previous project, Digital Applications has really prepared me well for work experience, every day I have been able to apply a lot of techniques that I learnt in the sessions. Alongside my work placement I have been working on my D&AD brief in the evenings, this has given me even more practice using Illustrator and Photoshop, as a result my confidence has really grown, I feel that I am really heading in the right direction with the course.

PNE start up your own business short course

I recently finished a four week short course on how to set up your own business which is run by PNE enterprise. I found the course very useful as it provided me with all the information on what steps I need to take to enable me to start up my own freelance graphic design business, an option I want to consider in the future.

The course gave advice on how to write up a business plan, what financial help is available, information on how to manage tax and national insurance, what market research should be done and any important details regarding the law.

Now that I have all these resources  I am going to write up a draft business plan so that I will remember and have a reference of all the of information I have learnt, I will then be able to apply these skills in any future career choices.

Wedding Invitations

This the invitation I designed in collaboration with Phil Bailey for a friends wedding which is in July, I really enjoyed working as a group to develop the design, it has been inspired by Native American patterns and the style focuses around a variety of fonts.

Tuesday's Session 5th Feb

In todays session two graphic designers from ClicTime, a company extended from Lego, came in to speak to the class. They explained how their personal career journeys have progressed from being students at Newcastle College to working for a multinational company. Their job descriptions include designing a range of lego clocks and watches to designing a fashion range for a branded surf festival.

After showing a selection of products they design and explaining how they work, they went on to tell the class about a work placement opportunity available and how to apply for it.

Family Explorers

I was part of the brand development group for Family Explorers, a scheme which encourages families in the North East to visit their local cultural sites of interest. This was my idea which I put forward and developed, I designed these characters to represent the brand, they would be used for the children's scrap books, passports, calendars and other printed documents. I created the characters with a retro 50's style illustration which grungy colouring. The logos where developed from my original design (the coloured binoculars) the group liked the idea of using a passport stamp style logo so integrated my design into a stamp.

Magazine insert revisit

I have been having problems with my memory stick that contains all of my first year work, as a result I have lost all of my final pieces, I will always remember to back up everything twice from now on! This has become a problem especially as I want to put a portfolio together, I have decided to redo the pieces I want to put in my portfolio. This is the magazine insert I designed for Typ, a graphic design magazine. Although I have found that it has given me an opportunity to improve my design, I altered the typography a little and changed the colour palette, I also added sample text and arranged the images so it has a better composition. This is the template, I will be printing it out and photographing it to show how it would look folded.