Portfolio Viewing

The other day I went and shown Dave Sedgwick my portfolio at 999 design.

The whole talk we had together was great, from the hello to the handshake at the end.

The positives I took out with have the portfolio viewing was;

1) How friendly Dave is.

Since e-mailing Dave on the very first time (regarding blogs) he has always been generous enough to take time out and reply back to any questions I ask him.

2) How we shouldn't be scared of showing off our work.

3) How impressed he was with the way I think - work I produced.

When showing my work Dave mentioned how he wishes he came up with ideas like I have for my work, two of these would be the poster for a museum, and then the other would be the brass band mailer.

4) How helpful he was with suggesting things to do which will benefit me.

At the end Dave suggested things that would held me stand out from the crowd, he suggested how I should take certain briefs further, don't just use the same istock photo that everyone else is, it becomes too repetitive .

Over all the hour or so spent with Dave was great. We mentioned that we should keep in touch still, and hopefully towards the end of my final year we could meet up and show him my final portfolio and see how it's come along.

Container Plus Talk

On 02 November 2009, an illustrator called Louise from Container Plus came in and gave us a talk about the work they create, and what the industry is like for an illustrator.

Straight away this was something new for me, I wasn't that much into illustration work, but I went along to see what the industry is like from a different perspective.

Container Plus was set up in 2002, there a company allocated in London.

Louise set up a website up with another student who she was studying with in the second year of her course (Nicola) and till this day they both work together.

They've worked for companies such as Selfridges and Vauxhall.

Whilst in this lecture it appeared that they was showing more of the work they've done, which unfortunately didn't interest me. This was a good experience for me because it's good to see how illustrators or photographers work.

Dave Sedgwick Talk

On the 29th October Dave Sedgwick from 999 design came in and gave us a talk about his experiences and what we should expect after we finish University.

Dave is an ex Manchester Metropolitan student, this is where he spent three years wondering what he's going to do after University. During his time in University, Dave was freelancing for his own clients which allowed him to bring in that extra bit of money which always helps.

During his time at Manchester Metropolitan, Dave went on two placements. One was for a company called Flux Magazine in the Northern Quarter, and the other one was called Splinter in Liverpool.

After this he started doing his portfolio, got contacts of people in the industry, rang them and set up portfolio viewings with these people. Dave got a portfolio viewing at Dinosaur, one of the feedback he got was that "you need some Yorkshire pudding packaging added to my portfolio."

After his time on the two placements, Dave had time to reflect on things and question himself on how serious he took things. After a good think to himself he started being more involved and being more determined to be successful. With this he started researching agencies, using the internet to browse through company websites, he kept notes and kept a diary. A tip he gave us was 'find out as much as you can.'

Although his feedback from Dinosaur was like that, Dave ended up having his first placement at Dinosaur (after he finished University.) The feedback Dave us was that the conditions was horrible, he got payed £65 for two weeks work! Also it's hard to get a job there.

After this he got another placement at TCW which is now Love Creative. Whilst working here he got offered a job on a salary of 13k a year. He happily took this, but on 02 January 2003, he was made redundant, nice way to start the year. Although he was made redundant Dave found it a lot easier to get an interview in the industry now that he wasn't a student.

Dave went on to take a full time job at Race. Whilst here he worked with LMDI and The Arts Council etc. He won a pitch at Designersblock and also at 100% Design exhibition, both of these pitches were against at least three other big design companies.

A few extra things Dave went on to say was that it's not as hard as you think it is to get a job in the industry, you just need to be dedicated enough. There's no time like now, you just need to start looking and planning. Don't discount the small agencies. Call up ask who to send a PDF or CV and emails too, never send anything to info@_____.

Last of all SPELL THE PERSON'S NAME CORRECT

Finding Myself On Google

Recently I was searching a topic on Google, when the results came up I noticed that I came up on the results, due to my blog.

When I realized this I was rather impressed because for two reasons,

1) It was on Google's first page of results

2) It was through my blog that I was getting promoted.

This links in with my debate 'Blogs - Good or Bad?' because this shows how you get publicity from having a blog - even if you don't think you do.

WKD Adverts

WKD adverts and promotions are always something that make me laugh.

I love the humor to them how they always make me laugh no matter how random they are at times. Even when you read the poster campaigns what have been done they manage to be humorous and put a smile on someones face.

As you can see even the video's are humorous, but the only thing what gets me is why are they all aimed at lads? Is this a marketing thing due to mainly women drink them on a night out?

JK Wedding Dance

Recently I came across this video on the ASABailey blog.

Although it's not an advertisement for anything this made me laugh. I love how different it is from what you expect to find at a wedding. You just usually expect the bridesmaids to walk down and then the bride to follow after, but with this the bridesmaids, the groom the bride herself all take part in a dance which in turn would reflect the couple themselves.

With the response what has been received from viewings of this video (over 31 million hits on YouTube to date) they have given any sort of money received to a charity of there choice, which in turn is a good thing to do. For more information regarding the video itself, or even donating money just visit the website - www.jkweddingdance.com

Kinetic Typography

When researching into typography I wondered how experimental you could be with type itself. I decided to look on YouTube for Kinetic Typography and see what people have created out there.

I came across this video on YouTube, which I was really impressed with.

The reason I like this video, is because how the typography is really clever in how it reflects the song lyrics. Also the creator hasn't gone over the top with what they've produced, they've kept it simple, clean and clever.

As you can tell the results for the search are enormous, but if you wanted to see more examples all you have to do is search Kinetic Typography on YouTube.

Post Typography

Whilst still researching into typographic posters, I came across a company called Post Typography.

Post Typography is a creative studio specializing in - well according to there website - literally everything!

When you go on to there website, at first it's like just a pure typographic page listing what the company does, but with this it allows you to easily navigate to what the website itself where you can find there work and portfolio.

This is just a selection of the work the company produces, but when you look at the rest of the work they create you notice how much of a high standard there typographic (and other pieces) of work are.

Black and White Typography

Recently when researching examples of typographic posters I came across a blog with a selection of Black and White typography.

When I was reading the article about the twenty selected typographic pieces there was a quote what stood out to me, this was;

"Typography is an art without which every design seems to be incomplete."

Charlie B. Johnson

I couldn't agree more with Charlie's quote, this is down t

o how you could have a beautiful image or a great illustration, but with out typography you wouldn't get the meaning of it.

When I came across this blog I was amazed at some of the poster's what have been created. Typography is something that I enjoy more in Graphic Design and when I saw these pieces of work I was amazed.

These are just a few of my favorites off the blog itself, too see more just visit the blog itself.

Google celebrates Sesame Steet

As some people may have noticed Google Doodles have changed recently to include the kids TV show Sesame Street. This is down to how Sesame Street are celebrating their 40th anniversary.

Each day there is a new Doodle up with contains the characters we all know such as, Big Bird, Elmo and the Cookie Monster.

Seeing these each day will bring a good childhood memory of the TV show to the people who are using Google, and you can't complain about thinking about the good old days.

Kasabian Song Promotion

Kasabian recently decided to promote their new song in a completely different way than usual!

Sony Music, in partnership with Umbro has combined the the creativity of Guitar Hero and came up with Football Hero, this was then used to promote Kasabian's song Underdog.

I love how they have took Guitar Hero and thought of another way it could be used instead of simply pressing the buttons on a joy stick or even a guitar. Although it took a bit of effort and practice to make it happen the overall finished thing is good.

It makes you think what else could you do to further this idea, add it too other sports like Basketball? Golf? Rugby? Could you make it into a competition who does the best, who hits in most timely? The possibilities are endless.