602: Compiling Design Strategy

A designed PDF which will compile key learnings and evidence your career-specific activities. 

This designed, professional document will compile your key learnings and will be visually consistent with your personal branding and is to include evidence of critical engagement with a range of appropriate theoretical, conceptual and/or contextual source material. There should be written evidence of personal reflection and critical awareness when evaluating individual progress in relation to a design practice

Key Learnings So Far:

• My practice revolves around concepts and ideas, these come first and the aesthetics come later. This is a strength of mine as a creative as I'm able to interrogate a brief and apply the most appropriate design choices, not get distracted by aesthetics and current trends.
• Working within the book industry is much more than design books themselves, interested in other roles within the industry editing, cover design, production etc.

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Engagement:

• Pep Talk: Creative Lives x Andrew Herzog
  - You get the work that you do, keep up with making stuff you want people to pay you to make.
  - Not having a clear aesthetic is fine, but what is the thread that ties your work together?
  *For me it's my way of thinking and approaching briefs, relating back to manifesto 'concepts first aesthetics later'. 
  - Importance of branding of different channels being suited to that channel.
  *What do we use Instagram for, a website, behance etc. How they differ as a platform should reflect how we use it.
  
  

• Rahel Zoller Interview
  *Will have information on this after the interview
  
  
• Residency Opportunities:
  -Centre for Book Arts, Book Artists Residency
  - Extrapool and Knust Residency
  - There are opportunities out there, just gotta go looking.

• London Book Arts, A6 Books
  - Using this as a self-initiated project platform for collaboration between myself and multidisciplinary creative Sophie Warner. 
  
  
• Printed Matter Virtual Artbook Fair
  - An amazing opportunity to hear book designers and people who work with books talk about their projects and the industry.
  - Was able to hear from creative in many different countries and boarded my western view on print and publication.
  
  
• Sophia Watts (Random House):
  - Reputation is really important within publishing, need someone to be honest.
  - When first speaking to people it's great to hear their voice. 
  
  
• The Guardian x YCN Workshop
  - Listening to professionals from large companies and organisations talk was a great way to see into how bigger companies work but also how they present themselves.
  - The talk was more casual than I had first anticipated which put me at ease. The context of when you meet and interact with larger companies can affect the experience.
  
  
• Self Initiated Project
  - Research into studios and practitioners that produce their own self initiated projects shows the importance, allows for creative freedom without fear of failure. 
  
  
• Creative Lives Portfolio Review
  - Received feedback on projects and portfolio presentation from 3 professionals. Really helpful experience for discussing the presentation of self and of work.
  - Also was able to see work by other young designers around the country which was a great way to reach more creatives, particularly as many were interested in print and publishing also.
  
  
• VP Talks 
  - Insight into industry and variety of roles and jobs that are out there. 
  - Taken the initiative to ask questions and gather extra feedback from VPs. 
  
  
• Breaking the Swiss Grid with Letterform Archive
  - Looking at past examples can inspire contemporary work, many experimental works have been made decades ago and by looking at them we can push print and publishing forward in new ways.
  - This talk presented the history alongside examples of design, it was a great way for me to learn more theory with a practical example to go back to. 
  
  
• CA Spaces & Meanwood 
  - Working with community based companies has been a great way to work with clients in a low pressure environment. With CA spaces I was really involved with Sarah on the development of the project.
  - I've learnt how key it is to be clear and direct with communication through these projects and am able to articulate myself at the start of a project better as a result. 
  
  
• Angus MacPherson, Feedback Session
  - Repitched the Curate.TV project to Angus, a great opportunity to practice my presentation skills as this is something I struggle with. 
  - Chatting with Angus about the project was a great way to get feedback on presentation and further feedback on the project.
  *Important to continually take on feedback and accept opportunities to talk to professionals. 
  
  
• Adobe MAX Irma Boom
  - You can use every detail all together, weight, smell, all of it, to make it something specific. 
  - Books are made to be read, to use, to hold in your hands. 
  *I find this statement to be something I continue to consider throughout the design process. Making work that is to be handled not as a pristine artifact that people are scared to touch. 
  
  
• Adobe MAX, Stefan Sagmeister
  - Idea generation being a process that needs as much attention as the designing. These ideas have encouraged be to focus on the development of ideas before you think about how it looks. 
  - Exhausting objects of ideas, generating mindmaps that explore every avenue, allows you to think of something new. 
  
  
• June's Journey
  - Work for Wooga Games designing an artbook showing the progression of their new game 'June's Journey'
  - Worked remotely with Zoe on the project over the summer and learnt a lot, many practical and logistical skills in terms of organising files etc. 
  - Great experience, lovely team to work for.
  - Time management skills needed to be well handled as working across 3 different time zones (Sheffield, Berlin and Dubai).

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How to present myself:

- Friendly

- Hard-working

- Approachable

- Inquisitive
- Attention to detail

How to do this?

1. Website
- Showcase work, allow it to speak for itself

2. Instagram
- More personal, progress imagery and documentation of practice.

3. Contact

- Friendly tone, yet professional, good email etiquette. 

Sourcing jobs:
Looking on If You Could, Design Jobs Board, Creativepool, and Shillington. 

Main Direction Going Forward:

Work as part of a studio team while developing my own practice focusing on publications. 

Contact from Hove & Co photography for design job on a project he's working on for Country Victacullar.
- Will be working with them over the summer to design Christmas catalog. 

Upcoming Engagements:

• Print Production and Approaches to Self-Publishing: https://centerforbookarts.org/classes/print-production-and-approaches-to-self-publishing
• Country Victacullar Commission

• London Book Arts, A6 Books

• Studio The Future (Klara and Vincent) Interview

• Joe Gilmore Interview