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Imagine That : Issue 1

Here's the magazine all finished with my design on the cover!

It's really exciting to see along with my double page feature inside the mag which shows a few images of my work and the interview questions they asked me. Hopefully it's the first competition win of many!

Anagrama Email

It had been a couple of weeks since I sent the email to Anagrama but I did get a reply yesterday! They are actually looking to hire a new designer right now which I saw on Twitter and replied saying that I wish I lived in Mexico so that I could apply...

Here's what they said:

–

Hey Jonathan,

Just wanted to write back to you to thank you for your email.

We are really working hard to try to keep up the good work.

I just saw your tweet
"I really wish that I lived in Mexico right now... ;-)"

We would definitely consider talking with you if we were to open offices in the UK.

In the mean time we are definitely interested in someone at least in México as we really need to hire someone in the short-term.

I looked through your work and it looks great. If you need anything, please let me know.

Im not sure if I will be able to answer fast, but I definitely will.

You too keep up the great work.

Best regards!

Gustavo

–

I was really pleased to get a response since they are my favourite studio right now and hopefully if I keep in contact with them I could get some feedback on my work in the future.

Anagrama Email

After chatting with John I've decided to send my favourite design studio a little email just to say I like their work and see if I get a response. Even though Anagrama are based in Mexico I think it can't hurt to get in touch and perhaps get them to see my work as I may be able to get a little feedback from them occasionally.

 I also plan to start emailing more studios both nationally and internationally. Studio visit week is coming up soon so I need to get things sorted now.

Individual tutorial with John

Imagine That : Magazine Feature

Here are the answers I gave to the set questions for my magazine feature as well as the photos of work I'd like to have included...
I tried to keep the answers concise and not sound like I was some established designer who was just boasting about their work.

I've sent this to both Amber and John to check over to make sure it reads ok before submitting.


Imagine that
Feature Questions

1.Hello Jonathan. How did you feel when you found out that your entry to our competition was the selected entry to feature on the cover of our magazine?

Excited! I feel lucky to have contributed to the very first issue of the magazine. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the design printed up and on the front cover.


2.What inspired you to become a designer?

I guess it started with my interests in drawing and painting. I still remember the importance of colouring within the lines from when I was little. My creative interests developed through school and college and then graphic design started to give my skills more focus and purpose. Basically, it was not one specific thing, I’ve just followed what I enjoy.

3.How would you describe your style of work?

Well, I wouldn’t say that I have a style of work - which I like. I do however enjoy working mainly across printed media and I strongly believe in well-crafted, carefully considered design which satisfies my fairly obsessive attention to detail. For me, simplicity and quality are key.


4.What are your future career aspirations?

I’d love to try working abroad. Travel is a large source of inspiration for me with new places fuelling loads of new ideas. Ideally, I’d see myself designing in a smaller independent studio environment involving lots of collaborative work since I enjoy discussing ideas with people. I love being creative, making things and I look forward to any opportunities where I can use my skills and knowledge.


5.If a specific colour could best describe your personality, what would it be and why?

I think it would have to be Herringbone Grey (I hope that doesn’t sound boring…) It’s calm, laid-back but quietly confident.


6.Last but not least, if you could be any animal in the world, what would you be?

To be honest, I wouldn’t mind switching places with the family pet dog, Harvey - he lives in luxury.

Imagine That : What happens next...

After winning the competition to have my design on the cover of their magazine, I now have the prize of having a feature within the the publication itself! I've been emailed some set interview questions by them and I also need to select some images to put with the answers in my feature.

This is really a great prize since it gives me a lot of exposure and promotion. Personally, I think no matter how big or small the magazine is - it's still all beneficial to me as a designer and in terms of starting to get my work out there. Also, after having this correspondence with the Imagine That team, it may lead to other opportunities in the future.

Imagine That : I won !

Very pleased and excited to say that I won the Imagine That live competition brief to design the cover of issue one of their new mag! This is my first win in a live brief situation so I'm really happy, especially since it's such a good prize for winning...

Now I get my design (see previous posts) on the cover along with a feature on myself as a designer within  the magazine whereby I can select images to represent my work and I will have questions to answer in interview format to go along with it (see below). I'm really looking forward to seeing the design when it's been printed and no matter how big or small the magazine is, it'll be great to have some more exposure for myself and my work - Good times!

Imagine That: Competition Update

Got some positive news with regards to the live brief from Imagine That - to design the cover for the launch issue of their magazine. My entry has been selected as one of the 'final few' and I'll find out on friday whether my design has been picked as the overall winner...

PPD group tutorial with John

1/ What major points stands out in your learning of this experience?
- Being in and around the studio environment. Discussing ideas with fellow students.
- Gaining new skills and developing existing ones. Trying new things.
- Talking about my ideas and work to others. Gaining confidence in spoken presentations.

2/ What one thing would you have done differently whilst there or in preparation?
- Tried harder to gain a placement within a design studio through earlier preparation in second year.
- Stayed later more often during second year.

3/ Has it changed your outlook on the business going into your final year?
Positives +
Much better informed understanding of the industry.
Strong design community 'out there' that is supportive and interested.
Good relationship between students - Collaborative opportunities.

Negatives -
Highly competitive - often about who you know and not your work.

Other Notes/
- Always write a brief. Ask a client 'What do you want to achieve?'
- Start planning interns now. Don't just contact one or two.
- NETWORK!
- Tell studios that you like their work.
- Target specific people. Consider who your talking to.

Personal Business Cards

I've finally gotten around to finishing my first business cards! 

I did go for the custom stamp in the end and I think it works well, especially on the grey-board stock. It also means I can just make them as I need them and the stock is really cheap to buy. Then by the time the final show comes around I can get some professionally printed perhaps. Also, now I have the custom stamps made, I can use them on other things where I could use my logo or details.

ImagineThat

Very pleased to say that I was given a mention on the ImagineThat blog the other day. Here's what they said about me and my work...

Personal Business Cards

I've designed some personal business cards that match in with the identity used for my website and blogs. I've tried to keep it simple and clean with the finished thing probably just printed black on a grey-board type stock. I'm also thinking of getting custom stamps made to produce them which should add a different sort of finish and with using this method and sourcing a specific stock, it should start to communicate aspects of my working practices.

Online Portfolio

As I head into my final year I've felt it's important now to try and start forming a more professional image and I also needed a platform that would enable me to more easily showcase my work (compared to my blog). So, I've now got an online portfolio/website through the Cargo Collective which you can see here. There will also be a permanent link from my blog.

Identifying my creative focus

At the end of the second year, it was made clear to us the importance of having a clear direction in terms of our creative focus when we return for our final year in September.

This is something I haven't found easy to think about in the past but, over the course of last year I have found that I definitely prefer working with design for print, yet after that, I still couldn't be much more specific. Thus during the early part of summer I felt it was most important to take time to reflect on the work I have already produced and then I focused on researching into studios and designers I liked and pin-pointing exactly what it was within their portfolio that really interested me. I've started to realise that identity and branding are aspects that particularly engage me and is an area I'd like to move towards. I see identity as addressing both the look and feel of something and using the design work to cover all access points to a brand between client and customer which could regularly lead to my skills being applied across several areas, from printed stationery to shop interior. Furthermore, if I can source suitable briefs along these lines I feel it will help me produce a body of work with a more commercial edge to it which I think is important to develop at this time.

Other areas that I know I enjoy from experience over the past year are editorial (magazines & publications) and printed promotional work (posters & flyers). I also thoroughly enjoyed  creating a typeface for a competition brief last year and I think aspects of this could fit well with the identity and brand work I'm aiming to do with regards to developing logotypes and custom lettering.

Below are a few links to posts on my design context blog and the actual websites of studios that show the direction I want to move towards:

Berg - http://www.bergstudio.co.uk/

Anagrama - http://anagrama.com/

Heydays - http://heydays.info/

Raw - http://www.weareraw.co.uk/

Gabor Palotai - http://www.gaborpalotai.com/

Now I just need to crack on and find the briefs to help me do this!
 

Freelance work @ Moon

Here is some of the stuff I've produced whilst working freelance for fabric company Moon. It includes a new furnishings brochure and a sub-booklet featuring just the newest 'Boutique' range as well as a range of rubber stamps which were used to mark design boards for different collections of fabric.

Essentially I've been working as an in-house designer for Moon which has been a new experience for me. For many of the projects I was set - they already had a clear idea of what they wanted which didn't really allow me much creative freedom but things such as a brochure had to be quite classic and timeless as it needs to last for a decent period of time. On the other hand it was just really useful to be working alongside clients and actually getting paid to do design work! - and I was satisfied with the work I'd produced. Overall it was a very useful experience and it was a chance that I was very grateful for being given.

Main brochure:

Booklet:

Stamp Set:

Enterprise Evaluation

The Enterprise and Innovation module has been very different both in terms of structure and content compared to others we have completed on our course so far. Beginning with the lecture programme, we were introduced to many different themes and subjects relating to how design works alongside business in the real world of work. For some of these themes it was more of a refresher for myself as I studied business up until A-Level which proved to be highly useful as I already had some existing knowledge on many of the topics discussed and so I felt it didn't take long for me to pick them up again. What I hadn't learnt up until now was how business and graphic design overlap and all the ins and outs of setting up a design studio.
When first faced with the Enterprise blog tasks I definitely found it more than a little daunting as the way they were worded made out that we were deciding exactly what kind of designer we wanted to become and which areas of graphic design we wanted to focus on. This was the first time I'd been specifically asked to write in detail about this and the pressure of doing so made me reluctant to start. Once i'd had time to digest what was being asked I managed to go about the tasks in a more pragmatic manner by just simply thinking about what I enjoy doing the most in graphic design and how I like doing it. Once finally completed, I can see now how I have benefitted from trying to focus more specifically on what I want to do and by how starting to think about this now will help me next year and as I move into employment afterwards.
For the group task we were challenged with researching and presenting information based on four of us setting up our own design studio. I worked with Hazel Gage, Steph Bourne and Jo Catlow. At the beginning of this task we split the main bulk of the work into four key areas for each of us to research. Hazel looked into start up costs and analysing our competitors, Steph concentrated on the finances and calculating our daily rates, Jo sourced the location/property and I conducted the main SWOT and PEST analysis of ourselves as I had experience of doing this at A Level. Across the period of this work our group actually seemed to work really well together as we had similar ideas for how we wanted our proposed studio to be presented. In terms of organisation I think we ended up with a flurry of activity as a group at the start and end whilst the middle section we tended to be working individually on our areas. Everyone did however stick to what we agreed to do and got it done on time which was great.
We put all our findings together and presented it in front of Jane and half of the group and it turned out really well, even better than I thought it was going to be. The feedback we received was that our presentation was very 'thorough' and that the fact we had put together our presentation with humorous images gave 'a lift' to something that was very informationally heavy. The main positives that stemmed from the presentation part was that it continued to build my confidence of speaking in front of the group and just also the overall body of work my team put together. I think the personalities were very complimentary and we proposed a studio that I could actually see myself working for which must mean that this exercise was a success.

Sauce : Presentation

Notes for the presentation