Christmas Exhibition

As part of our course in Visual Communications an exhibition is held at the end of a Professional Brief. I feel this exhibition is a valuable tool into the progression of our career path, as it gives us the opportunity to present our work to a professional standard.

For my space I decided to link all my projects together, so for the exhibition it shows professionalism in my presentation. I feel presentation is really important, It show that you are organised and shows potential employers that you are committed. 

Statement of Intent

Over the third year I would like to focus on graphic design and photography. At this moment in time these are the key areas which I would like to pursue. I feel it is extremely important that when I leave university I have a clear understanding of what path I would like to take.

I would like to improve my portfolio hugely, I feel this is an important process that needs to be done in my third year. Also by preparing myself for leaving university will be valuable for me. A CV and business card should also be completed. 

I would like to get myself involved in the design industry as much as possible and build up contacts. I am not too sure where I see myself living just yet, but the two cities Manchester and Leeds are definitely worth investigating.

Professional Brief

This brief was really successful for me, as a was able to get some work experience and get involved in live briefs.

I have been involved in a project with Andy Edwards Design Leeds. For this brief I have created a book which displays the Photographs of Marc Riboud.

I took a professionial approach to this brief, I wanted to get it printed and bound to a professional standard.

Book Binders

I have discovered the best bookbinders in the world. Spinks and Thackray are a Leeds based book binders. They hand bind any sort of books and any quanity. You can find them on their website www.spinkandthackray.co.uk

Work Placement

I managed to get a week placement working with a Scenic Artist Nigal Lomas. This isn't a job I had thought about before however any placement within the design environment is a bonus.

I found myself working on the Coronation Street set, this gave me an insight into all the different roles played within Tv. As part of this placement I helped the Scenic Artist out on location in buxton, where the job was to make a piece of rock which was to be placed inside a cave. This was to cover up barriers within the scene which were to be hidden. This was very enjoyable. Nigal advised me that a scenic artists work was being taken over by print methods and was a dying career.

Throughout this week I was also able to engage with the Coronation street graphic designer.

The job wasn't the most challenging but allowed me to see that even Coronation Street needs graphic designer. Maybe I should start looking at in-house designers.

Overall my experience with granada gave me an insight into different job areas where I could fit myself into. I also got chance to appear in the audience of Jeremy Kyle, which was an experience.

YCN summer exhibition

Over the summer holidays myself and Becky Brock received a commendation from the YCN awards. The brief was to create the artwork for Sainsbury's limited edition bags. We attended an exhibition in London, which wasn't as good as we had hoped. All the commended work was shown digitally on large screens, however the way in which it was displayed gave some projects a disadvantage and certain projects were shown more than others. Also from receiving this award we were told placements would be put in place, this wasn't the case. A positive thing that came out of this was our work was placed in the YCN book, and when showing our portfolios I hope people will recognise an award as a good achievement. You never know this might get me a job.

Hello

Welcome to my blog. I have never written my thoughts and opinions in this way before, not too sure whether I'm going to enjoy this blogging thing, but here goes. I have just turned 21 and adulthood is seeming alot closer than I had hoped. I am quite scared about the year ahead, lots of decisions to make and hard work to be done.

I have just spent a slightly boring summer at home and now am eager to get on with some work, find some contacts and enjoy my final year here in Leeds.