Presentation Critique

Today I presented my final presentation and 3 applications to my crit group of around 15. I received a good amount of feedback, positive and negative. I agreed with everything that was said.

The main positive feedback was that I had a good amount of research to back up my ideas, which also clearly represented my working aesthetic straight from the start, it was clear to see why I would be inspired by those particular artists. Another positive was that my collages worked extremely well, everyone seemed to enjoy the funky, vibrant aesthetic of them. Ben made a point of using the same collage technique when designing my book cover for the Penguin book cover competitions.

Furthermore, the main area to improve was to actually consider what am I trying to say from my applications, how will they actually communicate to the designers and agencies that I want to contact? Would each designer get sent one of the posters? or maybe they'd get sent the polaroids which would have a message on each one at the bottom?. Another area to improve was to be less descriptive when talking and get straight to the point, as in don't just say why I like something, talk more about what inspires me about it.

Overall, I found this brief really fun but at the same time challenging. It was fun because I was able to experiment fully with whatever I wanted, I was free to do whatever I wanted with no design rules to follow. However, I think it was challenging because the whole idea of self branding was a little bit intimidating as a whole at times, because I don't really think about myself as a person in that much depth and detail. I feel that by tackling this brief I have learnt a lot about myself and where I'd like to be in the future after graduating, more than I knew before.

3 Applications

These are my 3 applications which I will present in my critique tomorrow. 

1. The posters; I have created a set of 4 A3 posters which have been combined and collaged together to create one A1 posters. 2 of the posters were photoshop edited versions of the collages where I enlarged certain areas, occasionally used a grid system and changed the colour balances. The other 2 A3 posters were enlarged photocopies of the collages of areas that I found particularly interesting. The combination of the 2 techniques gave a nice contrast while at the same time still working as a set.

2. Because of my interest in cameras, I have used polaroids to display my collage work. I really enjoy taking photographs in my daily life whether that is at events, parties, holidays or just days out, I like the idea of physical memories. I have selected interesting elements from each collage for the polaroids.

3. Using the photocopier I have made a little booklet/publication of experiments from my collages. When photocopying I used a range of different paper media for different effects; coloured paper, sugar paper and normal cartridge paper. The main colour I used was pink as its my favourite colour. When experimenting on the photocopier, I used the techniques of enlarging, repeating the patterns, double copy, using singular colour, overlaying and black and white.

Collages

For my 3 applications, I have decided to go with my idea of using collage to represent myself, by making these collages visually extremely abstract, energetic, bright, bold, fun and experimental. When collaging I also looked at work of some of my favourite artists; Hattie Stewart, Mat Maitland and Magdiel Lopez, the inspiration for a lot of the shapes was from  shapes and marks that I found interesting within their work.

This task was extremely enjoyable as collaging is one of my favourite ways of working. It allows me to experiment with no restrictions and I felt that I could get the wacky aesthetic that I was aiming for through perfectly using collage. I used a range of different paper media; magazines, newspapers, coloured paper, sugar paper and cartridge paper that was printed onto. Also, in general I prefer to work more handmade than digital.

From these collages, my aim is to create a set of posters or a little zine. I will develop these collages using the photocopier; photocopying onto different paper media (colour, sugar etc), enlarging, repeating the patterns, using singular colour and overlaying.

   

3 Application Ideas

As well as the presentation, I need to have a set of 3 applications, the applications can either be digital, handmade or photographed. I have begun to brainstorm some possible ideas, however I can't create anything too ambitious or time consuming as I only have till Thursday morning.

My first idea was to create a set of stickers that communicate what I'm into; illustrations of makeup, chocolate, cats, mini rolls, cocktails, fashion etc. I thought about having them as line drawing without colour so that people could take them home to colour in, making it a little bit more interactive.

My second idea was my logo, sticking with my initial collaged logo as it is funky and clearly represents the way I like to work; collage. I thought about maybe displaying the logo on a business card, I'd want the business card to be a funky shape instead of a typical rectangle to make it unique. However this idea is a little bit basic

My third idea (the most interesting) is to create a set of really funky collages/illustrations that are made out of everything that I'm into; cram it all in, make them wild, busy, bright! The collages would include imagery of patterns, illustrations that I create, bright coloured paper, photographs, album covers, fashion magazines and more. The collages would then be scanned and photocopied over and over onto different papers as well as edited and re-worked into on Photoshop.

Improving Presentation

This week I am going to present my final self branding presentation to my critique group of around 15. However, before I do that I need to make a lot of tweaks and adjustments to my presentation to make sure that it communicates everything that I am trying to say professionally and smoothly throughout.

I have made a list of things to consider and change throughout my presentation;

• Show the music that I'm into; I feel that a persons music taste can say a lot about them as a person and what they're into
• Plan each day- I only have 4 days!
• What do I enjoy?
• Whats my mission?
• Why do I get up in the morning?
• Watch some presentations by famous graphic designers; how do they go about presenting? is it more visual or physical etc
• Practise what I'm going to say; I'm not the best at presenting my ideas so I feel that regularly going through it and practising will help me achieve the best result on the day
• Make some illustrations! I'll really enjoy this
• Handwrite some of the titles for the slides to stick with the handmade aesthetic where I have used collage
• Make some stickers as a little fun element? maybe stickers that the audience can colour in? 

In the studio today we also watched a few video clips by Casey Neistat; American YouTube personality, filmmaker, vlogger, and co-founder of multimedia company Beme. My favourite video that we watched of his was where he used all of the money for a Nike advert to travel the world till all the money ran out; it took him 10 days. It was the world’s most expensive video travel journal. I loved the idea of actually getting up and doing something amazing will all that money, instead of just making a traditional ad. 

“My vision for it was forget about what Nike is, forget about sneakers, forget everything; what does ‘make it count’ mean to me?” - Neistat