PPP3 : PPP Final Presentation

PPP presentation:

This is my PPP final presentation. I felt it went well and then I hopefully covered all the points that I intended to. I never believed John when he said by third year we will enjoy presenting, BUT it is true, I wouldn't say I look forward to it but when I am presenting I feel way more comfortable and able to talk clearly about what I want to talk about which is a skill I never thought I would develop, but I am very glad that I have. My presentation covered my journey from first year ( the year of finding your feet) to second year ( the year of being a sponge and soaking up information) to third year (the year of finding feet, being a sponge and the year of achieving). I covered significants moments in all three years where I felt I learnt something valuable. I also covered the conversations and communication  I have engaged with through out ppp3 as it has been very beneficial for me.  I then moved on to focus on the future and where I envision myself working and future goals which are to set up a studio with Lizzi and Mike for Say My Name.  I also covered my design strategy and manifesto as I feel it is a clear summery of who I am as a designer. and Finally I finished with ticking off all (most) the goals I have set myself this year. I am happy with how this presentation went and got some good feedback from peers.

PPP3 : Dialogue

Dialogue:

Yoke have set up an exhibition under the the title of 'Dialogue'. They want people to blind collaborate by submitting a poster to the theme of 'dialogue' which will be paired up with another design from another person and then screen printed. 

I have decided to submit this brief as a live brief for PPP3. To start the brief I began by looking at things that cause a conversation and dialogue:

- Cups of tea

- Beer

- The news

- Weather

- Food

- Work

Out of this list the two that I feel would work well as a concept art, A cup of tea or the weather

Tea:

If I was to go with this concept I would most likely draw two old women nattering over a cup of tea as I think visually this would be a good look, and it is what a lot of grannies do. 

Another option could be to draw a tea set, or to draw a tea bag.

There would also be the photographic option of photographing used tea bags. This concept would involve inviting a friend around and seeing how many tea bags get used in that one sitting of having a friend over this could then be documented by photographing the tea bags.

Weather:

The weather is an interesting one as it is probably what people talk about the most. There are many types of weather that cause people to talk, and it is usually the extreme weathers. I think the one weather that gets people moaning the most is rain. Most people do not like rain, you rarely hear someone cheer with happiness when the heavens open but it does get people talking, and although people don't like the rain it is a very necessary part of life, without it there would be no living. 

Decided Concept:

I have decided to use the weather concept as I feel this will translate better and is something that most people have a dialogue about when it does rain.

I have taken some photographs throughout this course where I used an underwater camera in a puddle to capture the rain from a different perspective. I feel these photographs capture the beauty of rain and through that beauty it represents what rain does for the world and human kind. 

To represent people hatred for rain i have taken on the persona of rain asking the question.. "why do so many people hate me?" which is what I think rain would ask since mr rain does nothing but good for the world (unless there is flooding).

Development:

To add a more rain/puddle like feel to the poster / text I have overlaid the writing causing a visual distortion that occurs when light travels though water. I think this effect makes the poster look more visually exciting and captures the essence of rain more.

The poster is going to be screen printed so to prepare it for print everything must be grey scaled and the image must be half tone. As my input for the poster will be just one colour the poster itself will be quite abstract but the texture of rain will hopefully be captured.

The Exhibition:

This is my poster at the exhibition. It has a very abstract feel to it which I like and I also think the persons work that I was paired up with suits the style well as it is very fluid like water and rain. This was a fun project to work on as a quick brief and any opertunitiy to get involved in a live exhibition is always great and beneficial. The exhibition was a great success and it was a pleasure to be a part of it.

PPP3 : GOALS

Goals:

I have been looking over the goals I have set myself in the past 3 years including the ones I set at the begging of the year. It has been really useful to see all the things that I wanted to achieve and seeing if I have actually achieved them in my time here, and it is very encouraging to see that a lot of them I feel I can now tick off as to say I have achieved that goal, which is a great feeling. Now that I have looked at all these goals I can see area where I could still improve so it will be beneficial to try improve in these areas.

PPP3 : Jaypee

Jaypee

Jaypee came in to give a talk and set a brief for the class. He spoke about how he has built his career up since studying at Leeds college of art. It was really good to see yet another success story for someone who has done things a little differently and not gone straight into employment from uni. He gave some great advise about how to deal with things after college, such as it is beneficial to get bread and butter clients to bring money in. Jaypee has been successful through working hard and loving what  he does. This sort of passion is really refreshing and is what I want to feel about what I want to do.

The brief that Jaypee set was really exciting to paint a mural on the wall of our briefing room. It is a really great brief but I do not feel like I have the time to partake in it as I am planning of pitching for winter light and have already done the flag brief.

PPP3 : Studio set up - meeting

In order for the studio to work I have discussed with the group that our work must be photographed in a similar way which allows for consistency across the website. 

There is also an issue of how much work we have produced as a studio, leaving us with a solution of using work that we have produced with the input of others. 

The aesthetics of the studio in terms of promotional materials etc will take focus over Easter, at this point in time we are focused on creating content as a studio. We have picked up 2 live briefs and several smaller self set briefs which will form the content for a web launch after Easter. 

Points to be discussed
I have many ideas and questions that I need to get off my chest, many are obvious and easily answered, some are harder to think about but aside from difficulty, this are what I want to find out personally.

Manifesto points.
Who do we all know that can help us?
What facilities can we/do we need to use before we leave for summer.
What events are coming up.
Look of studio - which existing studios do we like the look and feel of
Business cards - what are our job titles
Website - individuals as collective or all projects together
Budget
Passport have kept own work accounts on behance and websites and use these to advertise the studio by updating everything at the same time. Should we do the same to increase traffic?
Timescale
What does everyone want out of the first year?
What does everyone want after three years?
Coffee shop working
Desk Camping
Studio rentals
Self promotion stunts (window vinyl example by HSC)
What industries can we target first
Mini zine as ephemera in Village etc.
Who are our competitors?
What exposure can we get locally
What about further away, Manchester, Liverpool, our hometowns.
How much do we each need to make individually for this to work in 1 year?
How much do we want to make in the first year?
Working hours, set or flexi?
Purchase orders each month for new magazines/books/stationary etc.
What are our goals as a collective of people?
Sharing books and equipment or using what we have ourselves?
Legal side, we each get 25% - financial input must be equal.
Do we all understand the risks and constraints?
Do we have landing pages until we set up - what will this look like?
Video with every brief?
We need a blog - who runs it or manages content? - robot Food have different staff each week.
Social media, who manages it?
Client chase ups, who manages it?
Picking work from each others portfolio for new company website - we need content that fits us all.
What industries are our speciality or areas of interest? e.g alcohol/books/installations

PPP3 : SAY MY NAME

Say My Name:

After a few weeks trying to figure out what our potential studio should be called we may have found a name that works.

We went through many names like 'cups and ice' , 'unforeseen' , 'Shindig' , 'Ladies and gentlemen'.  and then one day whilst I was talking with Lizzi a destiny's child song came up and we joked and said ..we should call the studio that ... we laughed... conversation ended.

Then I went to work and on the train over to Harrogate I started thinking about that destiny's child song and said name and things began to click into place and seemed to work really well so I pitched it  in a very unprofessional way to the group it went something like :

*** NAME PITCH ******

' S A Y M Y N A M E '

It could work as a way of having our own individual personality jazzzz as we could be ....

Say my name - Greta

Say my name - Lizzi

Say my name - Mike

it would make people write stupid emails like...

Hi say my name,

..... LOLZ

or we'd answer the phone ... Hello say my name and make people confused for a split second

we could add in our own branding / do our names in whatever way if we fancy to have our own twisttzzzz

I have mocked up a crapy example.

SAY MY NAME LADZ

Lizzi, Greta and Milke all thought this name works well and we all got a good feeling from this studio name. Now that we have a name it feels like we can start to get things moving and make things more of a reality than just an idea.

PPP3: Say My Name - contacting studios

We have decided that it would be a good idea for us to start contacting studios that we respect or feel we have a certain synergy with. When looking over lists of studio that we admire we noted that most of them are abroad, so a studio visit is out of the question, and so an email engaging and seeking advise seemed like the next best thing. Below is an example of the type of email that we will send out to studio and finger crossed we will get some replies.

Andre, Susanne.

As a result of coming to the end of our studies with little desire to work for a larger design studio or agency, we three soon-to-be graduates are looking for some help and advice in setting up for ourselves. We understand that this is a competitive market so we don't take the following for granted, nor do we ask it with little respect for your business.

Quite the contrary, it is because of the reputation of I Like Birds that we would like to ask if it is possible to have a chat with you about how you got to your feet, who was there to help with all the legal and business side of things and if there is any roads that we should avoid walking down in our first year. 

Starting out for yourself is a daunting, exciting and nervous time for anyone, it is because of all these things that we are excited to get the ball rolling and meet people who found themselves in a similar situation. Can you help us?

Thank you,

Have a great week,

Lizzi, Mike and Suzanne.

Leeds, U.K.

PPP3: DITTO

DITTO press:

Ditto came to give us a talk and set a live brief.  The talk was really interesting to discover how Ditto was set up and the process the business developed. Ditto Press is a well established riso printing company that has been built up through love of print and all things lo fi. I am really interested in lo -fi graphic design and riso is a process that I really appreciate although I have not used due to funds.  The talk was very inspirational as once again it was a story of how a business / studio has been built up from nothing. Most of the  professional talkers that have come in have been independent studios or built up from there and it has been really interesting and motivational and I truly think that if me mike and Lizzi put in enough effort we will be able to have  pop at succeeding too.

The work that Ditto press is very considered and is the labor of love their riso books are beautifully printed and have had a lot of hard work put into them. I am a big fan of publishing design and this sort of company is very aspirational.

The brief set by ditto is to collate and showcase something that you research / collect but have never done anything with. As I really enjoy creating book I will participate in this brief.