OUGD602: Starting a Collective

Through EP. Me and Anna have found we work in similar ways and our likes and styles are very similar. We decided to create a collective called Sunny Collective based around wellbeing of students with Graphic and Photography outcomes. This is something new and we want to continue it after uni to spread awareness of mental health issues within students in a light hearted and engaging manner.

OUGD602: Creative CV

This is the design for my creative CV. It uses black and pink so that it's easy to read. It has a small picture of me on it and it has information such as experience, skills, education and where to find social media. It is consistent with my business cards. 

OUGD602: PPP Presentation Plan

You will deliver a 10 minute presentation (powerpoint or similar) that communicates and summarises your individual creative ambitions, career plans, design strategies and professional activities.

These may include although not limited to:

Studio visits and open days

Industrial/work experience/placements

Professional activities

Live briefs

Visiting professional talks/workshops

Portfolio surgeries and creative CV workshops

Information of conferences, talks, exhibitions...

Timetables, schedules and strategies 

___________________________________________________________________________________

Include:

• Been selling prints since first year made about 400/500 sales, online, in person etc. 
• Had a stall at Girl Gangs Christmas craft fair 
• Glug
• Ideally I'd do something within social media applied for some 6 month places
• Who are you as a designer
• Likes making physical products

_________________________________________________________________________________

ROUGH GUIDELINE ON WHAT TO INCLUDE AND SAY:

hi i'm natasha.
me as a designer - my aesthetic is quite cute, pastels, hand rendered.

one of my biggest obstacles this year has been balancing a job and uni.

basically had a breakdown didn't know if i could do uni anymore but was not willing to give up after making it to third year.

actually reached out for help and was given good advice and reassurance then found some time management videos and inspirational talks. 

what i've been up to this year - i'm quite entrepreneurial, i'm motivated by seeing physical products being produced which inspires me to design. after uni i would like to do my shop as a full time hustle and not a side hustle. and having them manufactured - show everythingisfine stuff i use companies such as awesome merch which i have used since i was in sixth form and have actually visited the physical studio as it's local to leeds. they were super friendly and it was interesting learning about the products and printing.

i have been selling prints, notebooks, pocket mirrors small business products and have made about 400/500 sales online and in person which i know isn't a lot but it was a good consistent start for me.

add customer photos.

i had a stall at girl gangs christmas craft fair and it's something i definitely want to participate more with in the future.

want to do renegade one year. 

on the theme of girl gangs i went to glug vs ladies wine and it was super inspiring hearing talks from influencial women in industry from all angles my favourites were talking about balance and work and home. 

networking is something that has always interested me in first year i created a blog based on conversations between creatives and students about industry and their content and aspirations.

i find i am most productive working collaboratively which is a change between first and second year, it's out of my comfort zone because i've always been scared of sharing ideas but i feel like i work better collaboratively because ideas bounce off each other - show photos from belgrave etc with anna - show photography instagram, just been trying to experiment with disciplines and collaboration. 

as for after university, i've applied for some 6 month and longer term placements in social media because that's something i can see myself doing. 

OUGD602: Self branding

Rough ideas of a logo. Hand rendered to go with my style of work. Light pink colour.

Finalised one.

Circle to use as a logo on things such as presentations.

In context.

Business card experimentation.

Too girly.

Illegible.

This was my original finalised one after feedback was said that my hand rendered name could be used as a signature but I felt like this looked very unprofessional and not personalised enough so after more experimentation I came up with this:

This is my final business card. Simple white front. Can write any extra info needed. Light pink on the reverse with white and dark pink text just to add more colour to the design. I feel like this looks more professional yet informal because of the light colours and I added the work creative instead of Graphic Designer to not limit myself to a discipline because I enjoy all. 

OUGD602: PPP Evaluation

PPP has been my favourite module for the past three years. I enjoy networking, as demonstrated in first year by starting up my own blog called Tea & Talks where I spoke to students and creatives in regards to the creative industry. Where they wanna go, how they're gonna get there and how they have established themselves. I got responses from the likes of my favourite illustrator Sophie Corrigan, Alphabet and Hungry Sandwich Club. This is when I began arranging my own studio visits and going to more galleries and art based events. In second and third year I also attended Glug events which I find incredibly inspiring. I enjoy going to look at art and exhibitions. I think PPP is the best and my strongest because it's personal. It's all the things I want to do such as strong social media presence. Connecting with people and doing things that individually interest you. I find speaking to people such as my friend Alex who has already gone through the course and made it to the other side of employed and freelance life inspiring because he started from where I was and has made it his full time grind. It's always a huge concern whether or not your course can take you where you want to go and for the longest time and now I still am not 100% certain what I want to do but now I know what my strong points are and that getting involved and being proactive is so important and so easy to do. Sometimes it is just writing emails and getting a response but not being disheartened if someone doesn't reply straight away or at all. It's making phone calls. It's organising your own time as efficiently as possible. I find it's so much of not only what can I do for you but what can you do for me. Making the most of being a student and being around so many people even in different disciplines has proven so important over the past three years because it's all about building connections and friendships. Who knows the people you could've met in uni could do amazing things and you could help each other out in the future and with collaborations after university. I used to hate collabing. It was difficult to organise time, some people slack with work and some times ideas clash but I have found this year it's been a game changer and such a strong point if you pick the right people to work with. Overall, like every year I have enjoyed PPP the most and will continue to self motivate and attend events after university to be involved in industry as much as possible. 

OUGD602: Presentation Evaluation

I've always found presenting quite difficult. I get extremely nervous before and anxious on how I present myself but once I'm up and start speaking I feel fine. In my presentation I wanted to make it an honest journey of how I've felt this year. I explained my personal and professional progression through the year and admitted my biggest obstacle was finding motivation and the will to continue on with the course. As unfortunately this year I have not enjoyed the academic side of university as much as previous years. I think this is because having to write your own briefs and self motivating is extremely difficult. This is obviously why things like time management help. Alec has sent me some great youtube videos on that and general life and career motivation which have inspired me massively. I write to do lists everyday, sometimes big, sometimes small because even if I don't achieve it I have more to do the next day and some days I need to set realistic goals. I also write weekly plan lists so I can divide my days into when I have to go to work and university work then other things to do that could relate such as studio or gallery visits, trips etc.

I think presentations make people understand how hard you work. Obviously tutors and people can't keep tabs on what you're up to all the time especially out of university hours. I spoke about how hard it is working 4 times a week, night shifts, running my shop by social media and online orders and going to the post office every. day. along side doing university etc etc etc. Whereas I feel like that had been underestimated as me just being lazy.

I've worked on my shop a lot this year and it's something I want to expand after uni. I think being self employed is a direction I want to steer myself in because I find working in a large team and for people challenging and prefer to work on my own as I have complete control of everything. I would love to sell products wholesale to larger companies such as Urban Outfitters or Paperchase. I have sold wholesale twice once to a beauty blogger for personal use and then once to a start up beauty box. I found with those it was hard to figure out pricing and make a profit but I made it work and it gets rid of more stock efficiently and helps to share more of your products in an indirect way.

In my presentation I used dog pictures because they're cute and can distract the audience. They are light hearted and fun. Let's face it everyone loves dogs. Personally, they make me feel calm so it took a lot of pressure off at the beginning and end of the presentation.

Overall, I think it was a success and I'm happy with how it went for my final PPP presentation. 

OUGD602: Awesome Merch studio visit

Awesome Merch is a print company that specialises in printing merchandise. It's local to Leeds and just up the road from my current accommodation this year so I had to plan a trip down there. The space is used for products such as tote bags, t shirts, pins, badges, art prints, business cards and much more. It was one of the first merchandising companies I used when I was first setting up my small business. However, I did find them to be quite expensive when starting. However, the quality was amazing. I used them to print products such as notebooks, business cards and pocket mirrors. I've also had books made for university projects just so that I can have things in bulk without the hassle of trying to print it myself. The guidelines they send for you to fit their products are super easy to follow and they assist you with back and forth emails if there are any issues with document setup. This helped massively in projects over the past couple of years. The studio space was surprisingly big. The person that showed us around did say that over the last few years they have been expanding the studio space as they have been launching new products to print. Their clients vary from students to professionals so there is always a variety of work submitted to their printers.

OUGD602: Village Book Store Exhibition - Fresh Faces

An exhibition from Leeds Arts University students called Fresh Faces. Village is a good location for exhibitions, small, minimal and you can see everything in one room. The plants are also very cute.

OUGD602: EP Internal Collab Project

This was my favourite EP project because we worked collaboratively to to self initiated deadline of 1 week and it's amazing how much you can do when you set yourself strict times and schedules. I was able to experiment in photography which I had really wanted to do since second year and found good outside working spaces that aren't the studio space or a library. A strong ethos of mine is that you can work literally anywhere as long as you get it done. I find uni quite suffocating and intimidating being around people doing the exact same as you all the time. It's nice to be in a coffee shop or something where no one knows you or what you're doing so they can't judge what you're working on. It's my happy and most productive place. I spend most of second and third year in Starbucks working away so it was nice to find some indie places.