OUGD602 - PPP3 - Visit to Pressission Print, Leeds

This morning, a group of us from the course visited Pressision Print on the outskirts of Leeds.

The visit was really interesting and really opened my eyes to a world of FINISHING a world that sadly, I'd never realised I'd not paid a whole lot of attention to since my incident with the gold ink in the screen printing room last year (sorry Andy).

The best part about this was, for me, you could see these sort of select, 'arty' finishes being exercised in a commercial environment, hitting home that it doesn't hurt to be extra creative if it pulls the whole design (and budget) together.

Rather ignorantly of me, I had never realised that practices such as gold foiling and ENGRAVING ON FOIL were so popular in today's tight-budget climate. It was so refreshing - we got to watch some absolutely beautiful work being crafted before our eyes.

There was also a digital printer that printed white - something I didn't even think was possible!

The business card has digitally printed white ink on it.

Although I don't really have time to apply any finishes commercially to my work for university, the trip was still fruitful because it has planted the seed for many curious design and finish opportunities long after I depart.

OUGD602 - PPP3 - 1 Week placement at Entyce Creative (2)

Yesterday, I received an email from Jane, the Director at Entyce, notifying me that the icons I created for their site were now online! : http://www.entyce-creative.com/what-we-do/

Here's how the illustrations/ icons appear on their site: 

For 'web design and build' I drew a trowel as a more tactile meaning for 'build'

Copywriting and content was simply a pile of books

A little more provoking than your standard smartphone! 

'Strategy and planning' left me a little dry for ideas, so a simple arrow was used to represent positive results.

a rather obvious decision for 'Search Engine Optimisation'

A playful symbol of an origami fortune teller for 'design for print'

Simple speech bubbles for 'social media'

A playful watering can and flower to represent support and the growth of a company after the 'seed' had been planted.

You can also read about my experience at Entyce on their blog at: http://www.entyce-creative.com/sarahs-week-with-entyce/

OUGD602 - PPP - My Crash course in Augmented Reality at Media and Digital

Today, I got the chance to experience a 'crash course' in Augmented Reality, the feature for many designs at design studio 'Media and Digital', formerly Printel UK based in Widnes, Cheshire. 

A little demo of Augmented Reality:

I came across augmented reality during second year, after looking at one of their brochures. For me, it was an opportunity to experiment with both print and digital media, and the opportunity for potential experiential design for my portfolio (which would obviously be great for concerning my interest in the Themed Entertainment industry)

Media and Digital encompass the use of this amazing technology to bring prospectuses for local colleges and schools to life.

Chris, one of the designers at MaD showed me around the studio and gave me a quick tour of the necessary technologies that make this virtual reality a reality.

Although Augmented Reality can use any kind of digital animation, a lot of what they use is video, meaning they can take a still from a video and use that as the 'trigger image' (a symbol or marker in which the app can scan from a real life product, usually a printed product and 'marry' up with a digital image, thus creating a 'trigger' for the app to play a video). Because they use a lot of video for their AR, they actually have a green screen in their studio, and Christ showed me how they remove the green screen for a nice clean background on their video. He also explained that the background can then be substituted for any background digitally.

Me in front of said green screen

He also showed me many of the different tools and tricks within Adobe After Effects such as frame transitions, moving imagery and text animation that all assist in masking any lack of alignment between trigger images and the video itself. The result is very effective.

We finished off the session with me creating some front cover designs for Riverside College's 2016 prospectus. 

I really enjoyed the session it was really beneficial. He advised a few different websites for different tutorials on creating your own transitions and said that the best way to know your way around the software is to teach yourself through online tutorials and that a one-time session isn't enough (Much like the rest of the complicated Adobe Creative Suite).

Georgie and Gill from MaD's team.

OUGD602 - PPP3 - Recent Communications (2)

I am currently subscribed to a newsletter for freelance art and design professionals working in the Themed Entertainment industry in and around Orlando called SLICE. It's been a good source for me discovering new inspirations and mates, along with ideas to steer my portfolio and career.

Over the course of the week, I have had the pleasure of connecting with a kind, talented and  knowledgable illustrator living and working in Orlando, FL. I reached out to him on LinkedIn, as I recognised his name from having seen his artwork before.

If you wanna take a peek, his work is right here: http://adamicenogle.com/

He offered a lot of friendly advice and basically reaffirmed for me that being in Orlando is definitely at the epicentre of the industry and the best place to be:

I am very interested in working with him collaboratively on a project, and was delighted and honoured that he suggested it. I don't think I'll have time to do it before the end of my degree though, which is disappointing. 

It was such a pleasure talking to him and has made me excited to 'follow my dreams' all over again! 

OUGD602 - PPP3 - 1 Week placement at Entyce Creative and Interview at Chester Zoo

This week, I have been lucky enough to experience days in the lives of the fabulous team at Entyce (Chester). It’s the first time I have been placed in an agency that deals mainly with web design, and I was amazed at the speed and efficiency in which Entyce performs.

Have a look at Entyce's Twitter page

Here is there website, where you can find a little more about the wonderful people I have had the pleasure of sharing an office with this week.

I have been busy with trying out designing a website independently and was overjoyed at the positive feedback I got from my colleagues, especially considering I have little background knowledge of designing websites professionally, but the team at Entyce have really boosted my confidence with their constructive criticism. 

The experience has opened my eyes to dealing with creative work in a professional, organised manner, observing how Entyce conduct their talents in their practice has been a very valuable lesson, just from time-sheets to organising meetings - everything runs so smoothly!

Jane, Libby and the team have been so friendly and welcoming and my nerves were soon settled. I am humbled they have taken time out of their busy schedules to be so accommodating for me.

I am now even more excited to graduate from my bachelors and become a professional in this industry because of my positive experience at Entyce.

I created some icons and a couple of images for different blog posts and for their website:

http://www.entyce-creative.com/news/

The image on the left is slightly different to how I designed it, and was altered according to the director.

Although I have had a great experience at Entyce, it has sort of confirmed for me that web-based design really isn't my niche and I would prefer and flourish in a more varied setting and a role that didn't mean so much solitary design time. It certainly wasn't lonely in the studio, but I like to work in a team, preferably. It became clear that I don't have an eye for such constructed design, and definitely sway more toward illustration more so than Graphic Design, after all.

Yesterday, I left my placement at Entyce early as I had my interview at Chester Zoo. It wasn't your conventional one-on-one interview and it was conducted in a series of group tasks. They were a bit unusual (such as creating animals out of drinking straws and sellotape) but I can understand that this was good for observing cooperative skills and initiative. I think it went really well - so now just waiting to hear back. They said yesterday that I would hear back in the same day but I didn't so I called them up today during my lunch at my placement at Entyce and they said it would be sometime this week. I'm excited to hear back!

I have just one more day at Entyce and I'm hoping they'll be able to assist me with my own website for my personal branding. It's quite basic (I have created it on Wix), but I would appreciate their professional feedback.

OUGD602 - PPP3 - Personal Brand Design - Logo

I am uploading my new logo online so it's accessible to be used in an email signature/ footer. (Branding post to follow)

My new logo:

OUGD602 - PPP3 - Personal Branding

Sarah Heal Personal Branding 2015

Components:

• Business Cards
• Invoice
• Email Signature
• Twitter Page
• Website for Desktop and Mobile

VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE

VIEW MY BEHANCE HERE

CONNECT WITH MY LINKEDIN HERE

FOLLOW MY TWITTER PAGE HERE

The main inspiration, aside from last year’s personal branding, was the ongoing theme of Mid Century Americana. But a lesson learnt since last year was to TONE IT DOWN! The theme has been vastly simplified, mostly reliant on ‘blank’ space, which I have learned to love. 

Previously in favour of a highly illustrative layout, a more simplistic style was adopted to expand shelf life and also to eliminate fear of appearance of seeming juvenile. However, this ‘retro’ style is still hinted through the colour scheme and the slanted oblong framing the logo as it echoes those also seen in the portfolio itself. 

The lettering within the logo is my own handwriting, so remains true to myself. A slab serif was chosen for a contemporary twist. Grey was chosen for type over black so it wasn’t so harsh looking. This new identity lets the portfolio work speak for itself.

New Business Card Design

Again, in ‘letting the work speak for itself’ I have disciplined my design style for a more widely-appealing, simpler look. As you can see, there are many ways to contact, many of which are online. The decision was made to opt for more digital and online presence, since I intend for lots of my clients to be overseas such as the US or the Netherlands, seeing as they are best points of contact when concerning Themed Entertainment design, the industry I am still pursuing.

Email Signature

Again, a digital presence was favoured over a printed one, as I quickly realised I have never actually sent a written/ printed letter in my life! An email signature that pointed to my online presence and was consistent with the visual brand, was a lot more suitable. 

Twitter Page Branding

The observation was made that a huge portion of my connections and contacts were made through social media, most notably Twitter - it spreads information like wildfire! 

I deemed it important that my Twitter both advertised my services and echoed the rest of the visual identity.

www.sarahhealdesign.com - 'Hello (home)' Page

For the first time in my life, I have my own website that showcases my portfolio. The colour scheme is consistent to the rest of the brand down to the number code! But again, a more minimalistic approach was adopted. There is even a favicon! I am extremely rusty with coding, and so opted for a site builder which concerned none whatsoever, leaving me to focus on the design itself and not limiting myself to the technicalities behind it, when out of university wouldn’t necessarily be part of my job. I am already seeing positive results from having my own website, including more traffic on my Behance portfolio (which is linked through the site) and two new clients - the site had not even been up for a week yet! 

'Work' Page

I took inspiration from my favourite designers websites to create a very basic layout which again, let’s the work speak for itself. I found rolodex and long pages without shortcuts hard to navigate around, and so created a grid system that lets you enter each project through a small thumbnail, and then back again. I chose the projects I wanted to showcase the most, such as ones that maybe express different techniques, some concern type more than image, and vice versa. But all of them are definitely more on the illustrative side, which is how I want to portray myself to new clients, this is the work I am more interested in.

'Work Closeup' Page

This is a typical page you can see if you were to click on one of the thumbnails on the ‘work’ page. Again, using a simple layout inspired by a few of my favourite artists and designers portfolios, The text down one side and images on the other leave the viewer to view as they please (I found that when mindlessly browsing other designers work, I wouldn’t read the text if I wasn’t intrigued by the visuals themselves).

'Résumé & CV' Page

For my CV page, (which I also named Resume to suit the Stateside clients I hope to visit my site) I dropped in a design that I created as a printable CV for the recent jobs I have applied to. This was to hope that if needs be, clients would be able to download and print my CV if they so wish.

'Let's Talk' Page

Rather than have a standard ‘Contact’ Page, I decided to show a more chatty tone by naming it ‘Let’s Talk’ and including a little bit of (silly) information about myself. I think it’s important to convey a little personality in this industry, rather than hide behind a screen.

Mobile Website

Luckily, the website builder I chose, gave the opportunity to create the website visuals for mobile, too. The only thing that I’m not happy with about the mobile version is the homepage - the stretched image doesn’t quite fit, which I think I am stuck with unless I hide it altogether.