OUGD602: End of Module Evaluation

by Roxxie Blackham on Friday 22 May 2015

I have really enjoyed this module this year as I have finally started to come to terms with what I want to do once I graduate. I have experienced so many different things over the year and visited all sorts of studios and exhibitions, which has given me a totally new insight into the creative industry.

Although I didn't manage to bag myself some work experience during the year, I have finally managed to sort something out for the summer and I can't wait to get down to London and go and speak to Isabel and Helen in person.

I think that the PPP module is definitely important and has been so inspirational. I have definitely grown as a person and a professional and have become so much more confident in myself because of this module. I can now present my ideas with confidence and know how to speak to creatives and professionals properly with ease.

Even though I've really enjoyed most of my time at university, I can't wait to finish and get out into the real world where I won't have to feel as though my life is absorbed in ISOs and criteria, and I can actually spend some time doing what I love rather than dedicating my entire life to the subject. I'm really excited to see where my life takes me after university and to experience a variety of different areas of design before I choose my final career path.

OUGD602: Design Boards

by Roxxie Blackham

OUGD602: Edible Art Exhibition

by Roxxie Blackham on Sunday 17 May 2015

A friend in first year invited me to go and have a look at her work up in an exhibition in Munro House so I went down to show my support as well as have a look at what else was being exhibited.






(photos of me taken by Jessie Leong)



There were some really interesting pieces up on display. I particularly liked the photos of food taken by Nathan Pask - the colours were so rich and the images of the food were really raw and kind of hard to look at, which made them strangely alluring.

I think that the exhibition was good to go to as it was nice to see conceptual work that was quite trendy and vivid too. I also have a huge love for photography so seeing a lot of rich photographs on display was really pleasing for the eye and I really enjoyed looking at the work for a while rather than glancing at it and moving onto the next piece.

Going to this exhibition has inspired me to get back into my photography when I graduate. I still really love taking photographs and it's always been a bit of a hobby on the side, especially as I love to take nice photos for my instagram page, so I think that when I graduate I'd like to make some more time for this and see what I can come up with image wise, as I'd like to produce some portfolio pieces that are highly image orientated.

OUGD602: Graduation Game Plan

by Roxxie Blackham on Saturday 16 May 2015

I've been thinking more and more about what I want to do when I graduate and am finally starting to realise who I am and what I want to be doing after university!

1. Get the internship at Isabel and Helen 
http://www.isabelandhelen.com
After Isabel and Helen replied to my emails and offered me an internship at their studio in London for a month, I've become a whole lot more positive and confident with my work and abilities. For a while I was starting to believe that there really wasn't any place for me within the creative industry, but I think that my problem was not being able to really understand what it was that I wanted to do with myself! When I found out about how exciting set design can actually be, I was really happy that Isabel and Helen saw potential in my work and offered me a placement when all I asked for was a studio visit and chat with them!! I'm looking forward to graduating so that I can get back down South and closer to London, meaning that opportunities like this will be so much easier to organise and achieve. I'll definitely be travelling down to London asap to visit Isabel and Helen in their studio and get to work on organising my placement!

2. Get my driving license
Getting my license is something that I was hoping to achieve before I set off for university, however due to various things going on with organising moving up to Leeds, I couldn't find the time to book in for a test before I left which was really disappointing! However, now that my studies are coming to an end, I can finally get round to finishing off my lessons and getting that license!

3. Get a part time job
If I want to get my license sorted, I'll need a part time job. The reason that I didn't want to get a full time job is simply because I want to allow time to rest after all the stress from the last 3 years, as well as organise my portfolio and get some more self directed or client work in there.

4. Look at getting my own studio space
As I still don't want to go straight into a studio job, I think that finding my own studio space will be extremely beneficial for me. Having my own space means that I will be keeping my design life and personal life completely separate, rather than doing work in my bedroom. I want to make sure that I keep both of these things more separate when I finish uni as it's very true that there is more to life than Graphic Design, and I need to make sure that I stay happy and sane! Also, getting my own studio space will help to make self directed work feel more professional and if I look at getting a space somewhere similar to Munro House in Leeds, I'll be able to engage with other creatives and keep informed and inspired.

5. Relax and work on my personal happiness
I've had a bit of a hard time this year and definitely feel as though I should take some time to relax and rejuvenate in order to make sure that I'm a happy and positive person outside of education. I think that working on my own happiness is a definite must do when I graduate, as I don't want to end up overly stressed and aggravated from not working on personal difficulties whilst I had the time!

OUGD602: Photographs of Final Collateral // Personal Branding

by Roxxie Blackham on Friday 15 May 2015

Earlier on today I decided to take some photos of all of the collateral for my personal branding to show how it works as a set.















I am extremely happy with the outcome of my personal branding. Although we had some issues with the photography and lighting the studio properly, the photos have come out okay after a lot of editing, which makes up for it! It's still annoying that I couldn't get the background colour quite right throughout the set - you can see that some backgrounds are slightly darker than others, but this was really difficult to get right! (Especially as I hardly ever use photoshop).

I think that my branding this year reflects me and my practice really well and I am actually proud to use it. Hopefully I can find some sort of printing service that will do my business cards justice, as I'm not that sure if I'd like to print out hundreds of cards and make them myself or not...

OUGD602: Other Collateral // Personal Branding

by Roxxie Blackham on Thursday 14 May 2015

Vinyl Stickers
I went down to the print room and got loads of different sized versions of my logo cut out of vinyl to stick on lots of different collateral. I decided to use white vinyl as I felt like it worked with the light peppermint colours better than any other colour.




Macbook
I decided that my laptop should be part of my branding as I take it everywhere with me and would be taking it along to interviews or when working with clients.




Letterhead & Envelope
Although I don't often send letters, I felt as thought designing a letterhead was a good idea as I might need to send letters to clients or studios in the future. I decided to keep the letterhead as simple as possible and then use a peppermint envelope to add more colour to it.




Sketchbooks / Notebooks
As I will be using sketchbooks and notebooks when working with clients or on self initiated briefs, I thought that I may as well pick some that suited my branding and put my logo on them to reinforce who I am.



I also have a really old shabby notebook that I always use that is a similar colour, so decided to stick my logo on this too as I will be taking it everywhere with me and always using it!



Postcards
I decided to create some postcards, simply because I wanted to create something that shows off the design on my business card, but at a larger scale. 


I am really happy with how my personal branding has come out this year! I am definitely much happier with it this year than 1st or 2nd year and I think that's because I'm finally starting to get a clear definition of who I am and who I want to become after uni. Took me 3 years, but I've finally got there!! The peppermint colour has been a favourite colour of mine throughout my time here so I don't know why I've never used it before, as I literally have so many things that are that colour which will make the overall branding so much more successful!

I think that the next step will be to get a phone case the same colour and apply my branding to that too, so that I have the full set!

I didn't create a creative CV this year, as I felt that my website showing off my portfolio of work is definitely more worth while, so instead I spent a lot of time making sure that I was proud of my website and logo. I think that if I find that I need a CV when I've graduated, I'll take some time out to sort this out, but as of yet I haven't found the need for one. This also goes for an invoice. I think that an invoice might be something that I need to consider in the future if I decide to go into freelance work, but at the moment I don't feel as though I need one, which is why I made the conscious decision not to design one for myself. Again, this is something that might change, so I should definitely consider designing an invoice in the future!

OUGD602: Business Card Development // Personal Branding

by Roxxie Blackham on Tuesday 12 May 2015

For my business cards I wanted something quite plain, yet reflective of my crafty and lettering side. When I was playing around with ideas, I realised that the logo itself doesn't really work on the business card on it's own and would need something extra to make it pop.

I decided to come up with a hand rendered design to put on my business cards...








Vectorising the design took hours and hours because of the beveled letters..









I had a play around to see how my business cards could look...



I decided to go with the following design:


I changed a few things about my original drawn design, as I found it really difficult to trace over properly. I also found that it wasn't perfect enough and I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my work so wanted to make sure that the design was impeccable. 

I found some really nice stock in Hobbycraft that was the perfect colour for my branding, so thought that it would be good to test out colours on this stock and see how they looked.





These were printed out to test the colours on paper...


(For some reason the photos keep uploading upside down and sideways, but you get the idea...)



I made a few changes to the design after seeing how they would look printed on the stock.

The final cards printed:







It was hard to photograph the business cards in the studio on my iPhone as the colours didn't really show up that well. The stock used for the cards is actually a peppermint colour. Will need to consider what colour backdrop I use when photographing the work properly in order to make the colours pop!