Digital Skills - SWOT Analysis

My tutor has asked me to create a 'SWOT' analysis, which will help me to identify personal strengths and weaknesses as well as areas for improvement and possible threats, specific to this module.

Here it goes:

Digital Skills - Self Branding Module

The brief for this module was to brand ourselves ready for future employment. I had to create my own logo and slogan as well as a poster containing my digitally edited self image. I found this module particularly hard, I was definitely the hardest client I've ever designed for!

These are some of my ideas for my logo:

Inspiration - Emma Hack

I stumbled across this whilst flicking through the Daily Mirror (yes, I'm a flicker!). It;s not quite graphic design, but it's amazingly creative. Emma Hack (photographer and skin illustrator) transformed 17 naked people into a mangled car as part of a campaign for the Australian Moto Accident Commission. This lady had an amazing vision which came together as a fantastic, eye-catching piece of art. Hats of to you Emma Hack.  

In the process:

End result:

Take a look at her website to see the other projects she's worked on: www.emmahackartist.com.au  

Newcastle Music Hub Logo Revisited

So this week I found out that my logo (design number two) has been chosen as one of the top two to go forward into the next stages! As this was my first ever live brief, I'm extremely proud that my design has been chosen to go forward.

Feedback that I had received was to 'minimise the 3D effect so that the logo was neater and more compact'. I was also informed that the Newcastle Music Hub had changed it's name to 'Music Partnership North' and that there were in-fact going to be four 'Music Partnership North's': Newcastle, Newcastle College, The Sage and Northumberland. They asked that each Music Partnership North had their own logo with the areas assigned colour: Newcastle - black, Newcastle College - blue, The Sage - grey and Northumberland - red.

First of all I amended the companies title on my original design - Music Partnership North was actually much nicer to align within the square as the words music and north contained the same number of letters. I then decided that I would incorporate the colours into the '3D' section of the logo. Here are my amended designs:

 

 

 

 

Wish me luck!

 

 



Illustrator Digital Skills - Watercolour Technique

If you liked the watercolour effect I used for my Newcastle College School of Creative Industries logo, take a look at this link for a step-by-step guide on how to do it: http://www.gemznunn.com/?s=watercolour

The watercolour effect is a great way to add a human touch using texture, shape and colour mixtures.

Branding and Corporate Image

The live brief for this module was to design a logo and stationary set (including a letterhead, business card and compliment slip) for Newcastle College School of Creative Industries.

Because this section of the school was for the 'creatives', I knew I wanted to design something bright and eye-catching. After my initial research, I decided to go for a 'splat' look with a watercolour effect. I felt like the watercolour effect on the logo softened the splat look. I chose shades of orange because it's bright and eye-catching ad associated with happiness. This is my end result:

Edinburgh

This week we had a day trip to Edinburgh to visit some design agencies: New Haven, Leith Agency and Story. I really enjoyed the day, proper school trip vibes! I'd never visited an agency prior to this and it was great to get an insight into a live working studio, overall very inspirational!

First up was New Haven advertising agency. They had an amazing studio, light and airy with props from their adverts dotted about the place and a chill out area with bean bags and 'table football'. First impressions: this would be a really cool place to work based solely on the studio itself. Their latest interns gave us a short talk on their experience's and how they got to work for New Haven and answered our questions.

Next was The Leith Agency. They took our group to their board room for a presentation on the company, which was actually a boat moored at Leith Harbour! I thought this was a really quirky idea and the boat was spacious and modern. They said they chose the boat so that they could get away from 'the office' from time to time, a great way to clear your head. They showed us their latest campaign for Iron Bru which were humorous and appealing.

Lastly was Story, who's approach to design is, "Find the simple truth and give it legs. Ideas with legs can run anywhere." We had a talk from their latest intern and were then given a mini brief: we had to create an advertisement strategy for a brand new midge spray. This was a brand new experience and gave us a chance to work alongside the advertising students and their expertise! Each group came up with really good ideas and the overall session was good fun.