hand in for PPRD is the end of the day (4.30) Monday the 9th. There is a sign in sheet in the store cupboard – Jo, Kit or myself can sign it off.

You need to hand in:

• A correctly spelt blog address or print based journal
• Plan for portfolio
• CV
• Evidence of live projects and competition brief

PPRD checklist (notes I took of key point in the PPRD2 handbook)

• weekly summary/evaluation (include tutorials in here)
• Unit Evaluations
• portfolio + CV
• evidence of planning and management
• transferable skills
• research
• theory stuff
• contextualive leanring in preparation for employment/study
• ability to run concurrent projects
• prioritizing evidence
• Learning Agreement

http://www.totoroforestproject.org/

]]> http://ladislava.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/totoro-forest-project/feed/ 0 Ladi totoro-forest-project-2 http://ladislava.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/artician/ http://ladislava.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/artician/#comments Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:35:51 +0000 Ladi http://ladislava.wordpress.com/?p=418 ]]>

Just got an invite to another online art community… ‘Artician’

Deviant Art and Art Limited are the main sites for my work…on Deviant Art I have anything and everything, from graphics, to sketches to art work…nonetheless it’s a brilliant place for inspiration in just about anything and the feedback and community spirit is great.  Art Limited has a more professional look to it so I keep that nice and tidy and only have select works there, so that it serves as my portfolio. A while back I joined a new site called ‘CG Hub’ a nice place to see the works of others but I haven’t used it much to display my own work. Nonethless, I thought I would check out this new Artician site anyway…has a catchy name to it.

[link]

Looks interesting, I won’t sign it off just yet…but I have to come back to this when I have some time on my hands and have a proper look around the site, to see what it can offer, what the artist profiles are like and so on.

Self-promotion has been an ongoing process and has been reinforced and developed throughout these two years. The beginning of the course, almost two years ago, seems like an age away…back then when I had no idea how to write a CV, how to use InDesign, how to make a website and so on. Self-promotion is essential no matter what I do, whether it’s design work, fine art, or illustration.

Here is a list of aims…

• an online portfolio
  • VisComm. Portfolio
  • Art Limited
  • Deviant Art
    
  • (something to consider) creating my own fine art page to complement the VisComm. page
  • OR creating a brand new site which has all my work on it…fine art, graphic design & illustration
    
• a PDF portfolio
  • VisComm.
  • fine art
• a physical portfolio
  • VisComm.
    
  • fine art
• CV
  • show evolution of my CV since the beginning
  • my fine art CV
  • update and design a VisComm CV
• business card
  • (for the future) consider making a graphic design & illustration ONLY business card?

How things stand at the moment…

• an online portfolio
  • VisComm. Portfolio
  • Art Limited
  • Deviant Art
    
  • (something to consider) creating my own fine art page to complement the VisComm. page
  • OR creating a brand new site which has all my work on it…fine art, graphic design & illustration
    
• a PDF portfolio
  • VisComm.
  • fine art
• a physical portfolio (not right now…)
  • VisComm.
    
  • fine art
• CV
  • show evolution of my CV since the beginning (my old CV versions were included with last year’s PPRD)
    
  • my fine art CV
  • VisComm CV
• business card
  • (for the future) consider making a graphic design & illustration ONLY business card?

1st February 2009

One of my housemates just came back from London where he was on a work placements. He went to a workshop run by Blue Skies Creative (b.creative). He was telling me about what a great experience it was and how he learned so much from the creative directors who talked to them on the day…he really recommended that I go to the workshops next year (something I should definitely slot into my calendar). He let me have a look at the folder he got from the workshops which had a lovely little pamphlet on “Portfolio Perfection”.

So since I was quite impressed with this discovery of his, I visited their website…

http://www.blueskiescareers.co.uk/about-us/bcreative.php

They even had an online version of the little Portfolio Perfection Pamphlet!

http://www.blueskiescareers.co.uk/about-us/portfolio-advice.pdf

my notes from the Portfolio Perfection booklet:

• use scampe books to show how your mind works
• top five of your very best pieces presented and highly finished
• electronic and hard copy portfolios are equally as important
• make duplicates! (so you can leave a copy of your portfolio, such as a pdf, when you go for interview)
• want to see thoughts and ideas behind the finished work
• start and end with your strongest idesa
• keep it short and confident (the less you cram in the more you will be remembered)
• write an intro for each piece…outline the brief, your solution and results
• present a cross-section of work…good balance
• starrt with your strongest and end with your second strongest
  
• know your stuff (brief, background, target audience, unique selling point, differentiation etc.) then practice talking about it

http://www.blueskiescareers.co.uk/about-blue-skies-marketing-recruitment/bcreative-showcase-2009.php

http://www.blueskiescareers.co.uk/about-blue-skies-marketing-recruitment/bcreative-showcase-2009.php?showcase=56

Some other useful links on their site…

Creating an exceptional CV

[link]

There are many dos and don’ts when it comes to writing an excellent CV. We’ve listed a few pointers, which should give you a head start.

• Adapt your CV to mirror the key aspects of the job description
• Include a short profile outlining your key strengths and experience
• Try to keep your CV to two pages
• Use bullet point where possible – paragraphs are harder to read
• List the most recent position you’ve held first. Always show your job title
• Bullet point responsibilities and key achievements
• Use months and years to show how long you held a position
• If a recent graduate put the education section first
• Double check spelling and grammar – attention to detail is crucial
• Cover letter/email:  State current salary and what you’re looking for; use personal email address not a work address NB check your email address is professional,  not rude e.g. goodtimegirl@hotmail may not make the best impression on a future employer

Something worth doing in the future?

And…another useful article…

How to become a savvy job seeker

[link]

Know what you want
All too often candidates don’t really know what they want. To help clarify this create yourself a career objective:

- What do you want to do?
- Think about the role you are in, plus previous roles, what did you enjoy?
- What are your strengths?

Once you have identified these, you will be able to see what skills can be successfully transferred to other areas. Then you should have a clearer understanding of the direction you should be taking saving valuable time and getting yourself one step ahead of the competition.

What skills do I need to get there?

If you don’t have the necessary skills for a role, think about how best you can work towards getting them. Where you can try to get a good breadth of experience across disciplines, find out what areas you like and then develop strengths in that discipline; don’t be afraid to learn from your mistakes and peers, be a sponge, absorb all information. Remember it is the art of observing and learning that will stand you in good stead for your next step up.

Get yourself known
Any chances to network, take them, and that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go to an actual event. Sites such as Linkedin, Marketing network and even blog sites such as Blogit will help you to talk to your fellow peers. Make yourself known to industry leaders as you need to sell yourself, show you can use your initiative and enhance your own creditability. Use the tools you know the best; word of mouth and personal recommendation are two of the most effective and credible forms of advertising.

Do your research
Just because you’re in a job now doesn’t mean you should stop reading and enhancing your industry knowledge. You need to be aware of what’s going on around you, strengthening your knowledge through a greater depth of interest which will ultimately add to your kudos when talking current industry affairs. Reference and support what you are talking about – it will show you have an inherent interest and appreciation of the industry.

Tailor yourself, you are a brand
Your CV is the single most important tool to getting you noticed and securing that all important interview. Ensure you strengthen and tailor your CV for each application, there will be key things you have done in your current or previous roles that will be more applicable to the each individual role you are applying for. Highlight these key credentials accordingly and use them to sell yourself in.

So you have got yourself an interview, now it’s time for preparation
It can sometimes seem like the simplest thing, but it can’t be emphasised enough how important being prepared is. It could be the difference between getting the job or not.

- Can you get to the location?
- Do you like the look of the company?
- What exactly do the company do and who do they do it for? Check out the company website, search for industry related articles, scour the press for cuttings, ask people around what they know about the company.
- Check the job description – ensure you have picked out key areas of the job description where you have strengths and can support this.
- Prepare questions and write them down – you can be sure you will have forgotten them when you are asked if not.
- Practice with a friend or partner to build your confidence, even the most experienced candidates lose their train of thought.

I started an illustraton on the 17th of January, just something quick to loosen up and get into a better mindset…inspired by the Chinese new year. I decided to come back to it and develop it over time, so it’s somewhat of an ongoing project, something I can fall back on or something to take my mind off of course work.

This is the sketch I started on the 17th of January…I soon realized that the anatomy wasn’t working, that I liked how the body sat on the page but the head didn’t match it so I began trying to rearrange it….the result of the change is shown below as well as a lot of further development…a glowing night time feel, with falling petals and a flower-like lantern.

Above, some of the main issues I have with this at the moment is the eyes…really have to try re-work those as well as just the general area around the eyes. I like th elantern idea for the background and the stock image I found (which I duplicated a few times to get the flower effect) is truly lovely but it is too dominant at th emoment.

Below is the illustration as of the 21st of February 2009….the following tutorial which I found on Deviant Art really helped me with this piece: [link]

(unfinished!)

I went to see “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” yesterday…a very touching and beautiful film, it may be long but it holds your attention throughout.

I am putting it in here because it fits nicely with the earlier post about the 20 year old model made to look 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60. In that post I focused on how the age 10 transformation was the one I found most intriguing because I think the reverse aging process isn’t something I see much of in ads and films. Benjamin Button though was a perfect example of this and that’s why it’s such a rare story…a man who is born old and grows younger.

The film makes you question a lot of the norms of society regarding the relation of age and love, because they cannot possibly apply to the special case of Benjamin Button. In one scene for example, when Benjamin is still a child (though he looks like an old man) he becomes friends with a young girl and they sneak around the house one night and hide under the table. They get caught by the girl’s relative (grandmother?) who keeps saying ’shame on you’ to Benjamin…lots of the scenes tip toe around such tender issues.  We can understand where the grandmother is coming from but we as the viewer know that Benjamin is only a child in his mind, and that is what counts…though that is not how the world sees his case….the world goes by face value.

Another example of this is when Benjamin is getting young and goes into his teenage years. For the last time he goes to see the love of his life and that night she comes to him for a last night together. This time the guild rides with his love interest, and she is the one who questions whether what she is doing is right even though she knows Benjamin is older in truth then his body. This situation of a older woman with a younger man is another that is frowned upon.

Personally I never heard of this story before so I was absolutely enthralled and blown away…it’s incredibly sad but somehow poetic at the same time…how all rules of relationships are turned upside down…and how these two people meet in the middle as they go opposite ways…one ages, one grow younger.

http://picdit.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/a-20-year-old-model-photographed-as-if-she-were-10-20-30-40-50-and-60-years-old/

A brilliant series of photographs I stumbled across one day, which really embody the magic of lighting, makeup and good photography. I think my favourite is the age 10 photo, probably because it’s something we don’t see very often…films are a great example of a medium where the opposite trick has been used, aging. The reverse though, making someone look younger is quite rare. And I’m not counting anti-aging beauty product ads since half the time they have 20 year old models advertising wrinkle creams for a target audience roughly twice their age! Unless they are actually trying to convince 20 year olds to use those creams on account of their non-existent wrinkles…

Anyways…I think that making the 20 year old model in this series look like she is 10 is quite a feat, she just looks so young and innocent and naturaly so!  It seems to be the biggest transformation out of all of them. The angle is brilliant because its shot just so that she actually looks so convincing…. small, and quite bony, and developing (with a seemingly flat chest, teeth that look a bit crooked cause they are still growing and aligning).

My favourite icon sets…

http://gaia.customize.org/

I like how this has a clean, airy feel to it, with the light colours…on the other hand though I downloaded the full windows blinds file for it and everything is a bit too bright…too much white/light colours which makes things a bit hard on the eye. I think some of the icons are too similar to each other and hard to distinguish easily but I absolutely love the Adobe icons set…I think those work the best. Now that I think about it though…perhaps the other icons would hold their own as well if they were on a darker background where they could stand out more.

http://prax-08.deviantart.com/art/Qure-for-Adobe-Creative-Suite-102159022

Speaking of Adobe icons…ta dah! My other favourite set of adobe icons alonside the gaia icons (first set)…lovely, simple, shiny, bright, round, bouncy, colourul….what else could one ask for?

http://raindropmemory.deviantart.com/art/Red-Little-Shoes-Icon-set-85092008

Traditional style icons?!?! such a simple idea, I mean, WHY NOT? But, I guess you get so caught up in the standard looks of icons that you just don’t think that they could look any way you want them to! A lovely set, each one is distinct and clear and beautifully stylized. This is the set that made me realize, hey I don’t need to try imitate what’s already out there, I can make my very own set of icons if I want in my own style. Icons is not an area I have ever considered before but after coming across such a diverse and inspiring selection I am heavily tempted to try my hand at it in the future.

http://www.hybridworks.jp/readme/yoritsuki/

This set just blew me away all over again, so beautifully rendered and yet again a truly ‘thinking out of the box’ idea.

(the final correspondence)

So, things have come to an end. Originally I was going to work with Jeff but then he couldn’t make it and an illustrator stepped in instead…and it turned from group work to pitching against the illustrator. This was the first time I have had to pitch against someone for a live brief, in other projects I’ve been up against people but only once the final pieces have been handed in. This pitch was at a mock-up/sketches stage. This experience, of pitching as well as being declined, are both very common things in the industry (as so many of the visiting lecturers have said). Even though I did not get selected, it seems that from the feedback I got a good review from them nonetheless and that they will keep me in mind or recommend my work to others.

I could complete the brief nonetheless as something to put into my portfolio…(didn’t get the time to do this in the end but that doesn’t mean I can’t come back to it sometime and finish it…maybe over the summer).

The final mock-up I made for the poster design

The final mock-up banner design

Preliminary designs…

(banner designs)

Wednesday 28th January 2008

(the unintentional pitch)

The work below is what I have done up to this point and what I plan to show Caitlin. I met up with Caitlin after all the re-schedulling of the meeting (something I couldn’t afford to do in the industry I think, but since we are both students, and thanks to her being understanding, everything worked out fine).

I presented my ideas to her and recieved positive feedback, the mock-ups were still very rough so I logged on to my site to show what some of my finished work looked like…so that it could be considered. Caitlin added that besides a flyer and poster, they will also be needing a banner…no problem. She brought up some good pointed questions which kept me on my toes, such as whether the poster designs could be adapted into flyers. I had been thinking about the communication element of the promotion material I was working on, and what I realized is that from the information Caitlin had given me (the info that they want on the flyers/posters) that it probably wouldn’t be quite clear to people WHAT exactly the ’spring hullabaloo’ will be. So I brought this up with her and suggested that maybe it might be worth including a short explanation of the fact that it is an exhibition of art work, done by children, on the occasion of easter celebrations in different cultures.

It was through this meeting that I found out I was actually pitching against the illustrator, this shook me up a bit since it wasn’t at all what I expected…and I despaired a bit because I got the feeling that now that I have finally found a live brief I genuinely like, I bet I won’t get it. It made me wish I had more to show, even though I had a deadline coming up. When I returned home I went back to my course work but the pitch scenario kept nagging at me and under that pressure I suddenly got a burst of inspiration and churned out some pretty decent designs (above) and sent those to her on the day…to aid my case.

(poster designs)

(fonts)

(below) Sketches 20th Jan 2009

I think I went above and beyond my own expectations in terms of the website…I managed to make it better then I thought it would be, more sophisticated, more interactive, more dynamic. I approached the unit with ambition and big ideas of what I wanted to do but after my more artsy page got put on the shelf I think my expectations were lowered since I was aware of the amount of work I had to do along with the time constraints. I completely redesigned the site

This unit is a bit odd for me from beginning to end. In the beginning I missed a week before Christmas because of my exhibition and then was sick for a week towards the end of the brief. To myself I can say that I did a lot of research, because I truly did…from looking at a lot of websites and then narrowing it down to a select few to use for primary inspiration, looking through trick and tutorials, and learning more about Dreamweaver in general. But, the problem is that I just had to keep churning forward in a wild attempt to actually finish the site! There were plenty of moments when I thought it may not get completely finished because so many complications arose and I wildly underestimated how long various stages would take. So, because of the time constraints and because my priority was to actually make the site itself, I took all the research on board, scribbled some down, kept some to memory and had to just keep going forward…there simply wasn’t enough time to stop and properly document everything. I suppose it is slightly pointless to explain this here. I understand that if it’s not there, it’s not there. ..even if it’s in my head and breathing through my work.

On top of it all I was also juggling working on D&AD as well as a live brief.

This brief overall was a brilliant experience and it’s a case where I think the grade may not quite correspond to how much I actually learned and got out of the unit.

I think the amount of time I put in into making the actual site was what made it turn out so well and I am really truly happy with it. It’s not perfect, and I have debated a few of the points already in my sketchbook (splash page debate for example) but, as my first proper website I am utterly happy with it.

My idea generation was quite impressive I think since I made almost 2 complete front end website designs (artsy and viscomm) in the short amount of time I had.

I think that in terms of the rough work, planning, notes, development of the various looks to the site, this was very strong as well. All the thumbs, sketches, plans and layouts as in my sketchbook but towards the end I ran out of time and couldn’t put all the digital variations of the site in. All the artsy versions are there but I only pooled together the main/essential developments that took place in developing my vis comm oriented site.

Planning is a bit of an ironic area…Neil stressed how important it was to make good plans and layout for the site, and one of the .net magazine articles I read focused heavily on that as well. So, naturally I put a lot of time into it and at one point it held me back because I was trying to plan everything to perfection. I was brought back down to earth when I actually made myself start constructing the site in Dreamweaver. My planning was great, but this is the first time I have made a site, and my problem was that I didn’t know what exactly to plan for! So many little quirks and problems sprung up while I was actually making the site, issues that I couldn’t have foreseen through paper based planning. It’s a bit like learning a foreign language, once you grasp certain things they become familiar and you can use them, work with them. Same thing here, I am no expert but I think that if I make a website in the future I will definitely have a solid foundation to work from.