Creative Report Considerations

Today in PPP, Alec talked us through things to consider thoroughly when going about contacting our chosen design practitioners/studios:

• Research is the key to a good interview, it'll also make you aware of how accessible (or not) your subject is.
• Get in contact soon to ensure that I have time to wait for them to respond- draft an email tonight!
• Check out any social feeds to tip you off on their working habits, this will give inspiration for what to ask as well
• If you understand your subject, you'll be able to write great questions for them
• You only get ONE change to make a good first impression, really think carefully and proof read my email!
• Look at the different platforms that they use, try and find the best one to use that will get a reaction from them- theres usually one that they engage with in an unfiltered manner
• Reach out in a manner thats consistent with their tone of voice
• Face to face is ideal...and ASAP. Hunt them down if you need to
• Keep an open mind, be tactical 
• Hunter.com; lets you find email addresses in seconds and connect with the people that matter for your business
• BCC- blind carbon copy feature to be used when emailing if relevant
• Email at 7am- most people are more likely to reply at this time, before everyone else is awake and bothering them. Use boomerang
• Write the email on word or grammarly first- for spelling and grammar mistake checks
• If theres a phone number provided- ring them!!!
• End it with 'can we meet up, i'll buy you a coffee' or 'can we phone call/video chat'. Its better because its quicker, more fun and engaging. Record these interviews but always ask for permission to record the conversation first. Making notes or typing away is VERY off putting, the less interrupting the better
• Make sure you've carefully prepared your questions, be adaptable but keep things on track if needs be
• Always thank people for their time
• Share the finished report with them
• Be creative!!!
• Maybe collaborate with a photography/illustration student for my content if relevant

Creative Report Initial Ideas Critique

Today I had a critique with Dom and a few of my peers in which I spoke about my initial ideas for my creative report. I mentioned the type of things that interest me/relevant to my practice, as well as the design practitioners that I'd like to focus on.

I mentioned that I would love to focus on my two favourite designers/illustrators; Hattie Stewart and Webcomic Name (Alex Norris). I said that I was worried about using them as my main focus for my creative report as they are so big in the creative world so I may not get a response, however Dom mentioned not to worry about this as everyone is experiencing this issue and that I wont know until I try. The other artist that I'd like to focus on is Neil Carribine; an illustrator from Sheffield, I would probably be able to speak to him easier than my other two favourites as he is more local.

All three of the artists that I would like to focus on use the same sort of aesthetic; very wacky, fun, bright, jazzy and sometimes humorous. This is extremely relevant to my practice as this is the aesthetic that I often use in my own work, I hardly ever make work that is minimal- my style is more out there and jazzy, quite crazy at times.

I am also interested in the way these artists went from being independent freelance artists to now being so big in the design world and working for huge brands. This mainly applies to Hattie Stewart as she has previously worked for brands like Mac and Apple. Webcomic name and Neil Carribine also follow the same wacky aesthetic, but in a more humorous way. Additionally, researching a small artist (Neil Carribine) with the two larger ones creates an interesting contrast whilst still maintaining the same concept and aesthetic focus throughout my creative report.

I have begun to research into how I would contact my chosen design practitioners. Hattie Stewart and Webcomic Name (Alex Norris) are both from/working in London. All of the artists provide an email address.

Hattie Stewart: cheeky@hattiestewart.com

Webcomic Name (Alex Norris): webcomicname@gmail.com

Neil Carribine: hello@neilcarribineoriginal.com

I have started to make a list of possible questions that I would like to ask, I will select and develop a small selection from these;

• How did you go from being a small independent designer to working for such massive brands? What was the process? (This question mainly applies to Hattie Stewart)
• How did you go about putting yourself out there? Or was it just something that came with time, did the public just slowly start to discover you?
• Do you prefer to make work just for yourself/for fun or work for brands/commissions?
• Do you feel like your work reflects your personality and general life? (As I feel like my work is quite crazy, out there and sometimes girly...which reflects my personality)
• What advice would you give to your younger self designer?
• Who influences your work/you as a designer? (This doesn't have to be an artist, could even be family members, music artists, a group of people etc)
• Would you collaborate with designers/studios that don't have the same wacky, fun, snazzy aesthetic as your work? If not, why?

Design Manifesto

A manifesto: "a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization".

We were given to task to research into different manifestos through the website: http://www.manifestoproject.it

As I read through the manifestos, I noticed that I liked some manifestos a lot than others as some related to me more on a personal level and some of the points that were made from certain people/designers I highly disagreed/agreed with.

My favourite manifestos:

I loved both these manifestos, the first one is titled 'Humans' by Mike Mills and the second one is 'Ten things I have learned' by Milton Glaser. I particularly like the points that Mike makes about 'sometimes being dumb is the only smart alternative' this relates to me personally as I often find myself being 'dumb' about a lot of things, but sometimes it just needs to happen in order to get somewhere, instead of avoiding it. This relates to his point about embracing your sanity in order to be sane.

Additionally, I especially loved two points that Milton Glaser mentions in his manifesto; 1. You can only work with people that you like, 2. Less is not necessarily more. I agree with the first one as working with people that you dislike/negative people can really affect the work that you produce, happy person= happy work. For the second point, Milton relates it to a Persian rug; you cant say that less is more because every part of that rug, every change of colour, every shift in form is absolutely essential for its aesthetic success.

Reflecting on my reading, I have been set the task to come up with my own manifesto:

I decided to make a few clear points/rules for my manifesto:

1. Stop faffing around

2. Stop getting stressed over literally nothing. Stop, think, what are you ACTUALLY stressing about this time? 

3. All work is good work even if you do end up binning it, its helped you somehow

4. If it doesn't work the first time, try it twice more instead of 6 more times... then fuck it and move on

5. Go and see more, constantly! Even if its just random like Ikea, a farm, a 3 hour journey away to some random city, just GO!

From our manifesto notes, we got into groups of 6 to discuss and develop our ideas and suggestions in order to create one refined manifesto point which applies to all of us. We then presented our chosen idea at the end.

Our group manifesto point:

Blood, Sweat and Tears, Each word represents something to us as graphic designers:

• Blood: is the investment constantly bleeding into design
• Sweat: is the hard work that makes good work great
• Tears: is the passion embedded into our work