OUGD502: First Collaborative Session

What you did:
The course was split into 3 groups and we played Banana Magnet. After we went off into the illustration room with animation we were split into random pairs. Beth and I were put together and we got the words "Calm" and "Electric" from our surnames from Banana Magnet to create "Calm Electric." We thought of the concept of creating an electricity service from renewable energy sources. It would be connected to a wrist piece you would wear to monitor your sleep, steps and respiratory system so you could create energy from doing relaxing things. We would advertise this through social media and viral video. Unfortunately our idea didn't make it to the second round but this is when we decided to join a group called "Sausage Rain" which was essentially a concept for a range of different sauces. This placed us in a group of 6 other people from all practises and we managed to create a strong concept and other practical parts of the project.

What you learned:
You don't always get to chose what you want to do. The "Sausage Rain" concept wasn't my favourite initially but was more invested into it as we discussed it more. Also the final group idea for the slugs wasn't my favourite. A group of 50+ students was a lot of people all working at once.

What you achieved:
I feel more confident speaking in groups now. I know that people want to hear your ideas and it's better to at least say something than to say nothing. We learned to pitch as a group and to each other as we were pitching all day. I feel like I have the confidence to expose my ideas initially and challenge other people's ideas to develop a good product.

It was refreshing to work with people from different disciplines as we all approach things from a different aspect and angle. Illustrators and animators tackle projects and aspects of work that sometimes I wouldn't even consider as a Graphic Designer.

OUGD502: Who am I, Why am I here?

Identify 5 things you have learned so far on the programme:

• How to use software on a basic level
• How to set up visual presentation
• How to organise my work and questions in a crit to get feedback I want
• There are a lot of briefs and tasks
• Engaging more within the creative industries - going to events, seeing what's local to Leeds. 

Identify 5 things that you want to know more about:

• Manufacturing products to a high standard - i.e. printing publications
• Painting on photoshop
• Placements and internships
• Freelancing / being your own business
• How to make a creative portfolio look professional

Identify 5 skills that you think are your strengths:

• Being able to approach creatives - quite proactive in networking
• Adapting the brief to make it something I enjoy doing
• Time management
• Conceptualising ideas
• 
  

Identify 5 things that you want to improve:

• How to use the software to a more advanced level
• How to improve my presentation skills
• Working collaboratively with other people
• Visual and verbal presentation skills
• Analysing my work to a higher standard in blog posts - third person. 

Identify 5 practitioners that demonstrate your interest in Graphic Design:

• Sophie Corrigan
• Gemma Correll
• Shitty Watercolour
• Papio Press
• Stay Home Club

Identify websites/online resources that demonstrate your areas of interest within the creative industries:

• Looking at online shops and marketing places such as etsy, notonthehighstreet, ohdeer etc.
• It's Nice That
• Creative Boom
• Editorial websites - Cereal Magazine
• Looking at instagram accounts for inspiration - Jean Jullien

OUGD502: Coffee & Graphic Design chat with Alex Dyson

Alex Dyson graduated Leeds College of Art in 2015 with a first class honours degree in Graphic Design and is currently a Graphic Designer & Illustrator based in Leeds - The Lift Agency, Restrap and does freelance work.  

Alex and I have followed each other on social media for a little while now and I thought it would be a good idea to invite him for coffee to discuss Graphic Design. I feel like chats with other creatives helps to inspire and motivate me and this is exactly what I needed at this time. Luckily, I asked Alex just as the right time as he has a couple of busy months coming up. I prepared a couple of questions for Alex to answer about what he does, the course and Graphics generally.


How do you stay motivated? is the first question I asked because at the beginning of the year it's hard to keep yourself motivated when all these new briefs are being thrown at you.
"Don't really have a choice. I work in a very intense studio. It's small but with big clients. It has high responsibility. It becomes a way of life."

I then went on to say that the course at LCA is very full time, being in every single day and feeling like there isn't much time to do anything else. Alex agreed that it was but then said that "Real life becomes easier. You're not working towards a grade so there's no self value factor. It's just deadline after deadline. Sometimes you have to go for a walk or sit on blogs for a bit. Do something else. When I started at rest in a junior role I never had a full responsibility."

I then went on to discuss crits.
"Crits are everyday real life. You're not doing it to be like this is what I've done. To have people say it's good. You explain your idea and other people give their insight on their idea then you have this awesome idea from other ideas." With things like this you have to develop a "fuck it, I don't really care what other people think." Which is exactly think about these types of situations. You get to a point where you just stop caring. However Alex offered me words of advice such as "preparation is always key." Notes are extremely important to have beforehand and help a lot. "With the digital presentation just a prompt whether it's a visual, photo or illustration. Make bullet points as notes then you can just look at the side to your prompt then look at everyone. Just find the easiest way for you to present. People that are watching either care what you have to say or don't give a fuck. Also humour and engagement is important. A huge part of my end of year presentation was being as funny as I could. I included photos of me being drunk and swearing."

As I am entering second year and things are getting real, I asked about placements as experience is an important factor and he said that he waited until 3rd year to do one. As he never felt confident with real studios. He realised before it became a big thing that instagram was a big network and made it look like he had his shit together. Analogue had found his instagram and liked his photos and commented on one and said "give me an email. I really like your work." So he asked him to come for a chat and although they had never had an internal placement they offered him one. "Instagram is a very good tool for students." Web presence is really important. People shouldn't be scared to show their work.

We also discussed freelance work as that would be something I may be interested in doing after university. He said he was surprisingly more busy in winter. He used online resources such as instagram and his website to start work and get recommendations from people you've already done work for. Such as doing work for friends and then they promote you to people in the industries they're in for extra work. "What John says about networking is really important. I met someone drunk then he sent me a friend request on Facebook and I hadn't heard from him then a couple of months later he asked if there were any secret Graphic Designers as he was a Creative Director and I sent him my portfolio and he was like can you start monday? I went in 2-3 days a week whilst at uni. All because of that Halleycat thing. Networking is so important." "It's really important to talk to anyone you recognise, it could be a friendship, relationship, work. Even if you just say I really like your work it's always worth it because you don't know what could come from it. Find someone clued up on going to things. Go to exhibitions. Go to everything because what's 2-3 hours of your evening. Go and absorb everyones knowledge."

He then asked if I had any hobbies and the only thing I really do outside of art is go to gigs. He said that "real life is more important than Graphic Design" because you "need an escape from design. You have to live, breathe and ingest it to do it properly. You'll be knackered all the time but happy."

Final inklings of advice were "work hard, be nice to people. Be socially engaging. It never hurts to say hello I don't know you but I'd like to know you. One small decision can change everything. Fake it until you make it. Everything is in your head with design. If you believe you can do it, it makes you more motivated to keep going with it. You need a unique selling point. Find something you're really interested in because chances are if you're really interested in it, you're good at it. Also get known for something people say to me you're the bike guy. You need a USP."

Massive thank you to Alex for talking to me and offering me words of inspiration and knowledge about the course. I left the coffee chat feeling very inspired by everything he has achieved from only graduating last year. You can see Alex's work on a-dyson.co

OUGD502: Reflecting On Last Years PPP

This module is about exploring yourself as a designer.

Task:
Make a list of everything you found uncomfortable during first year:

• Presentations
• Procrastinating
• Work load - deadlines clashing and crossing over

How I'm going to overcome these issues and progression into second year PPP:
I need to Engage in a much broader context - nationally and internationally. Not limiting myself to working in the town or city that I'm based in. Identify areas of interest in the creative industries. I'm going to make more of an effort to keep on top of every module and not prioritise ones until the deadlines actually come. I also need to get the work done right right away. For example blog posts need to be done on the day given instead of a few days after. For presentations I'm going to watch more talks and people presenting and note methods that they are using to present to audiences.