Portfolio surgery sign up.

I signed up for my portfolio surgery and I'm having mine with Aidan Nolan from AND studio in Huddersfield. I've been looking at his work and he seems like he'd be a good professional to talk to as the studio does a lot of branding work like myself. I've spoken to some people who have already had their surgeries with other professionals and they all said that they were very useful. I've not changed my portfolio based on what I've heard from them however as I want to get feedback on my first idea of my portfolio should look like.
http://www.aidannolan.co.uk

Portfolio final draft before surgery.

Portfolio 2nd draft.

Portfolio first draft.

Portfolio considerations.

After purchasing my portfolio folder it became apparent that I need to consider a number of things and make some choices. With the portfolio surgeries approaching I want to have as much done so I don't have to make too many big changes to it.


Things to consider:

   - landscape or portrait?
   - layout - images of deliverables? development? ideas?
   - font choice?
   - which briefs include?
   - what kind of work?
   - what to write about the briefs/whats appropriate?
   - what details about myself should I include?

Decisions:

   - landscape
   - layout - images of deliverables on a double page spread for each brief. Images on the first page then more images and a bit about the brief on the second aligned to the right in a column.
   - Minion pro - for its neutral aesthetic across the entire portfolio and because I don't want to use Helvetica.
   - include briefs from OUGD301
   - briefs should all be based on branding and identity
   - an overview of each brief roughly 100-150 words long explaining the purpose and the design choices. Maybe include some print and production specifications.
   - my logo, my contact details and a short about me paragraph

Personal branding

Looking back at my personal branding, I have gotten used to it and I'm quite comfortable with it for now. At this point I want to push it further forward an begin applying it to a small range of branded materials that I will actually use when designing and networking.

So far I just have a business card and a few social networking accounts with very little on them. I don't use them frequently enough to promote myself that way and upload work or interesting subjects.

I need to upload more to my online portfolio and customise the layout which will take some time but will be very worthwhile. I also want to look into a specific mailing list that I can send a some mail to. I've decided not to send any sample of my work but to send them a taste of my creativity.

I've also considered a concept for a bespoke website. I wouldn't actually create one as I'd rather not pay to have it at the moment. The concept would be based around my initials, there will be four pages Charlie, portfolio, jobs and contacts. Charlie would be about me as a designer and my interests much like a home page and an about page merged together. Portfolio would be a page of all my projects which could be for clients, for competitions and for personal practice. The jobs page would define what kind of jobs I'm looking to do and which skills I have so people looking for a designer will know exactly what to expect from me and whether or not I'm the right man for the job. Finally the Contact page will have my details and links to social networks and clients that I will have done work for previously.

Sounds like a lot but I'm not going to spend too much time designing but more time just doing things.

Business Card 1st Order.

Just placed my first order for 50 business cards from http://uk.moo.com/. The design is only a basic one but it does the job for the time being. I'm expecting them to arrive of the 14th of May which will hopefully give me time to send a few out or use some when going for interviews.

Business Card Logo Ideas

GD Illustration Zine - Update

The Illustration zine which i was planning to design and publish has had a lot of positive feedback and interest with 7 people submitting work for it and many others that wanted to.

I've not managed to meet my personal deadline which was to have the zine printed and ready to hand out before the Christmas break because I ran into some trouble printing. Below are a series of miss-prints that I have documented to show errors in my work.

Open publication - Free publishing - More illustration

This first print came out wrong because the pages that were meant to be facing each other on A3 sheets, were instead printed double sided on separate A4 sheets.

Open publication - Free publishing - More illustration

This second print is in the right order however it was still printed on single A4 sheets then stapled together at the spine which isn't what I designed the zine to be like. It's forced some of the pages to be too close together distorting some of the illustrations.

Open publication - Free publishing - More illustration

The third print out came out even worse as there wasn't a multiple of 4 pages to print. The result was that some pages were printed in odd places and rotated so that they were upside down.

Open publication - Free publishing - More illustration

The final print that I tried was in the correct order and had the right amount of pages to print properly. However it is still a miss print as the document setup is slightly wrong. I need no to go back and change the document size and adjust some of the content so that it wont be cut off once guillotined.

This is a good thing that these books have come out wrong as it shows I have made some mistakes which I need to address. This is one of the major learning outcomes i was hoping to get by setting myself this task.

From here I am going to:-

- rectify these mistakes

- document what went wrong and how to amend the mistakes for future reference

- reprint and publish on a better stock

- redesign/finish the design and layout of the zine

- propose the second volume of the zine

BUSINESS CARD - Ideas & Concepts

These are some initial rough ideas for some business cards.

I'm focusing on the functionality of the card mostly and how I can present the relevant information. This way I will ensure that the business card has the right content. The creative and possibly interactive or concept of the card will come a bit later in my design process.

Ideas so far (from top to bottom):-

- 'C' as a symbol/logo giving myself and brand and identity

- 'CPJC' my initials are the brand/identity - act as a logo - variations include using the letters to describe myself as a designer and a colour coded type set to show my interests e.g. CPJC = CMYK colours

- Using my whole name on the front indent of the business card.

- Using a simplified symbol taken from my illustrations

I've already begun to look at some typefaces that I like and would consider using for some of these ideas. I'm going to try out all the ideas and develop them further to see which works best and which are most suitable for mass production and communicating who I am as a designer.

Business Card - Research & Inspiration

This is a blog post which I will keep coming back to to update and add more and more findings too throughout my business card development.


http://www.toxel.com/design/2010/06/30/24-creative-die-cut-business-cards/

Open publication - Free publishing - More business cards

http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/01/22/30-memorable-and-creative-business-cards/

Things - Adam Mayer Digitally Designed Geared Business Cards from Bre Pettis on Vimeo.

Open publication - Free publishing - More business cards

http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2008/08/07/24-creative-business-card-designs/

Open publication - Free publishing - More business cards

STREET SUMMER ON CHANNEL 4.

I've signed up to www.dontpaniconline.com where I've recently entered a design competition for a series of programs that will be shown on Channel 4. The programs will be about street art and the graffiti movement and the winning designs will be featured on a wall (legally) or a billboard for 2 weeks and there will als obe a short film made about the design and the designer that submittied it.

The public voting doesn't start until the 8th of July and the competition closes on the 17th july. the top 10 designs with the most votes go through to a judges decision. Below is a link to the brief and the webpage.

http://wwwneblog-.dontpaniconline.com/street_summer

Here is a link to the video for the Northern region of the competition

http://wwwneblog-.dontpaniconline.com/street_summer/north

This is the design I've submitted.

The design doesn't have to be spectacular, they are looking for the idea more than anything at the moment and I'm visualizing the out come to be black and white on a brick wall as a paper graffiti piece. If I  do win however I will be working with a professional to paint my design on.

CPJCDESIGN - Facebook page.

I've set up a Facebook page to post up some of my personal drawings and designs whenever I find the time to. The aim is to just share my work with my friends and acquaintances and have something that i can do thats refreshing if my other projects become tiresome.

I've have only posted a few drawings but I've got plenty more ready to post at a later date.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cpjcdesign/232366150116230?ref=hnav#!/pages/Cpjcdesign/232366150116230?sk=wall