Summative Evaluation PPP

Overall through the duartion of doing this module I have found that I have developed a vareity of skills and learnt alot especially with the briefs we have been set. The brief which I had found to be the most useful includes SB1 - Creative Report. I had some knowledge of getting into contact with designers and practitioners for research for other modules but I hadn't gone to the extent of contacting them through more formal means - email rather than Instagram dms and setting up an interview and producing an outcome based of their answers and their work as well was something which I had enjoyed.

The only module which I had concerns with included SB2 - Lifes a Pitch. I think this may have been down to having a longer duration to complete this brief - alot of the people within my group had taken advantage of this by using it as free time to work on other modules. I had ensured I had attended most sessions unless I had a valid reason as why I coudlnt attend but I feel as though because of this - our presentation could have been alot better in terms of the performance as well as refining our concept as there was alot of confusion over it being one idea or several ideas which had been merged into one. 

I am yet to do my personal presentation but I feel after doing the workshop which Alec and Orlando had set for the 1 minuite pitch had been very beneficial in terms of seeing how well I could sell an idea/ present something under such tight timed conditions. As well as this, as a large number of the group hadn't attended this session, it meant that with the small group that we had I was able to analyse traits or ways that certain people perform their presentations and considering as to how I could tie this into my own presentation. 

I would like to continue going to more events and engaging with people in my practice but I need to be aware ot going to too many and allowing this to hinder my main studies as the Find &Seek project which happened obver the duration of three months had meant that I wanted to do this work more than my uni work - although tbf most of this was done in my free time and has been something that I have wanted to do for a long time.

Find & Seek - Pop up shop Submission

I have always had an interest in producing product related to clay and ceramic materials but never found an opportunity before to produce things as its either been something which was impossible to produce or I have put it off to not having enough time to produce things for myself. 

I may have not realised how busy I would be from January onwards with work needing to be produced for modules but I thought I may as well as take on the task whilst I have the time and fitting it around doing work for uni and utilising my free time a bit better. 

I have never had my work put into the exhibition or shop before so I had made sure that I had thoroughly carried out my research before I started sketching out ideas and buying materials. I had started out by using websites that I would normally use to find and search for earring - as people have commented on my range of handmade earrings that I own so I had looked on Depop and Instagram mainly to see what sort of thing is popular among people and how I could fit this into my own designs. 

I didn't want to rip off anyone's designs as well as doing this so I had drawn up some designs including the kind of shapes/colours which I would wear myself. I had categorised my audience as the typical art student/ a version of myself including colourful and bold shapes which can compliment most outfits. 

I feel as though as towards the end of this - the branding of the products which I had made could have been a lot better but because I was very pushed for time I had to make use of resources which I had at hand. I had recently worked on producing a book for Adam French for my responsive module and I had 20 sheets of nice G.F. SMITH card stock and I thought that I may as well make use of this - so I had painted some textures on a couple of sheets of this and trimmed them down to the sie of the earrings and the bags which they were contained in. 

Throughout my research I had found that I would be able to use a certain type of clay which I would be able to solidify without using the kilns at the university as I didn't have time to be inducted and to wait to be added onto a list to get an induction without ceramics so the more DIY approach was more suitable for this. 

I had asked the staff at Fred Aldous about what sort of clay would be suitable for this kind of project which I was wanting to do and they had suggested using a FIMO Polymer clay to make the earrings  - Although quite expensive  their store does apply a student discount to products so I thought that it might work out buying the main materials through them. 

I had been suggested to apply for project fund as well as I had heard that it might be a beneficial approach to getting funding for the earrings that I had produced - later on in the application process I had found out that this money is only allocated for future projects which are unrelated to work being produced for modules being worked on. I have still put my application forward and will be finding out this week if my application will be getting funded as I have already received a response that they have accepted my application and are very happy with the information that I have provided. I will be finding out the 25th of March if this has been put forward and will be funded. 

In term of the production of the earrings, I had to work around being the work I do for my main university hand ins which meant that I had to utilise my free time as well asking for help from some of my friends to help me mass produce a lot of the earrings which I had made. Throughout this Eloise and Alice had provided me with a lot of help on making these and making sure I got everything ready to put in the Find and Seek shop which was based in Leeds Corn Exchange. 

I had attended the Launch event for the pop-up shop which was very successful - there was a very large turnout to this and the people setting up the event - Ada and her illustration peers from the 57 Club had commented on how they would be buying a few pairs. The thing which had hit me about all of this was being able to see a girl who had bought a pair of earrings which I had made on that launch event which had put into perspective that what I was doing wasn't a complete waste of time - even though it was just one person this was enough to of a highlight to take from this event. 

SB3: Personal Presenation

SB1: Sending out the Email to Saul Studio

After having the realisation that I was not actually taking any of the research which I had found relating to the creative report which may have been down to the fact that as I had not visited this information in a while and I had lost interest in pursuing these avenues further. 

As the deadline has been approaching, I felt like I need to apply restrictions to make myself actually contact a design studio which I am interested in which would be able to work around the restriction of time which I have left as well as the consideration of the locality of where the individual is based.

I had opted to find people through my social media  who were based within Leeds which I could contact as this way I may be able to speed up the process

I decided to take a very casual approach to the way that I would email Saul Studio - I knew it was very short timing for me to ask for these questions and didn't want to put the pressure onto them with the brief which I had been set to do. I was quite unexpected with their very quick response as they had emailed me within a few hours of me contacting them. I thought it would probably be best to send them the list of questions as well as offering to meet up - based of the session we had with Alec where he provided useful ways to getting in contact with practitioners.

s of speaking them face to face and potentially being able to see their studio space. 

As they had got back to me so soon - as well as offering for me to go to their studio space as well I didn't have much time to plan the set up of the interview and just thought I would go with taking a camera to get images of them ( I had asked permission prior to the interview after bumping into Joey) as well as just recording the session using my phone which I could transcribe later on.

BBC Fierce Women in Media - Tech Skills Workshop

I had heard of the BBC put on a series of workshops which was promoted through the university Instagram. This was something which just from the name of the event sounded really appealing as I hadn't heard of any events happening locally like this before. One of the main requirements to apply for a ticket just included having a Leeds based address and I thought to fuck it - what do I have to lose with a free event which had very vague information about what would actually be going on in the event itself.

Myself and Eloise who attended this event didn't realise that the panel discussion which we had signed up to listen to was primarily focussed on software design and engineers who work in the BBC as this was a complete tangent from what we do but later on the discussion there was mention of how the BBC has multiple programmes in place to support those who may have joined them in a job role and want to try another role out for 6 months (or more if they are happier in a different position - called Hot Shoes. Some of the people in the panel had been on these programmes and had talked about the benefits and drawbacks of doing this:

Including...

• Being able to meet new people in other parts of the BBC
• Find out about a role and completely fall in love with it
• Can start this very shortly after you have joined the BBC if you're unsure of the job role you had previously enrolled onto

Although...

As a lot the people who join this role may be from other graduating from other programmes in the BBC and be encouraged to work for certain teams - but later on, realise in that short period of time that they don't enjoy it that much.

(Generally this was low key a pointless session for me and Eloise but we had found out about a few of the programmes that the BBC have in place to support those who may not have a degree or on in stem subjects and how they get work their way up to working in an actual role that they might want to do)

We also attended a Social Media workshop later on in the day which had provided us with some useful ways of promoting our work/ making sure it gets seen by a larger pool of people. 

SB1: Making the Creative Report

I had realised as I was transcribing the information for my creative report that the information which I had noted down did not make sense - the initial transcription process had taken a long time as well as the recording quality was quite poor as it was done on my phone - which I was also using to read the questions so with the movement of the recorder in my phone had caused further disturbance. 

I had searched online for free software which transcribes audio recordings - even though I was advised against this as this type of software is often not very accurate - which is evident in pieces like this - where all the information has just been mashed together. Although this seems quite useless - the software tracks each phrase it has captured and links it to the word so then it can be easily tracked or replaced with the correct word. 

This had helped to bulk out the main body of information which I needed to include within the creative report but it meant that I needed to listen through the recording 7 times to make sure I didn't include any information which they did into want to be included within the interview. 

Scotty - Book Reference

I thought that layout wise - this book would be a good example to look into to help me layout my creative report. As well as looking at Saul Studi's work when it comes to publication design - the only examples of their work which I had to look at after the interview was what they have available on their portfolio page on Behance so by looking at a more tangible example of how to visualise the information obtained from the interview as well as the images I had gathered, this had given me a much better idea of how to layout my spreads in my indesign doc

International Womens Day Talk - Headrow House w/ Kristyna Baczynski

Myself and Eloise were having a great week of just celebrating that we're both women part of creative industries and through Facebook as well as seeing posts on the university Instagram account about events we thought it would be really useful to go to these to get a real insight from people who would be able to share their experiences, especially those based in the local area. 

Some of the notes I had made from this q&a/ talk included: 

• building up work bit by bit

-whether that's in spare time 

- even if you don't have time 

- trying to spin all the plates! (which I thought was a good way of visualising what she was explaining)

• Refusing to answer or read emails after 6/7 

- the importance of setting boundaries rather than working yourself all the time and not providing yourself with free time as well as working.

• Sending a sketch (or thumbnail?)

- This is to avoid getting clients asking for lots of changes if you have worked up something and it has been time-consuming - but with a rejection from a client it just turns into wasted time 

- Setting an hour rate 

-Contracts !!!

• Being pulled in different directions

- After getting quite a reputation for releasing a book 

• Is Instagram dying?

- trying to compete on a platform which has so many hidden algorithms and it is uncertain if you'll be getting paid work from putting your work on there

• Getting a print-based job 

- learning about setting up files for print - all these things which are learnt on jobs like that feed into the work that she produces 

• Fail better!

-chilling out with products as soon as you have made them 

• Giving yourself brain time to recharge!

-filling it with information that you like - exhibitions and books!

• Setting up boundaries - time (personal &proffesional)

-using spaces where you can hotdesk - where you can physically detach from doing work 

- doing this with social media ( mention within the social media workshop of the use of apps where you can schedule posts for insta so you don't get sucked into things like that and end up wasting your precious time)

- making time to just do stuff for yourself  - and not posting this online!!

• Don't undervalue yourself as this doesn't pay for rent!

- know your worth!

• Figure out a day rate

- quoting your work (not entirely sure what this word means but i remember in a session with john watters this term was mentioned and how providing a quote to someone is a legally binding contract- which can be good and bad depending on how you look at it)

- good thing for weeding out bullshitters

I think a lot of the advice which Kristyna had given was really useful as although she is primarily an illustrator and the course I'm doing is design based - I feel like the same principles of what she said applies.

Asian Network

Something that I have been meaning to do for a while to organise some kind of a society which includes all types of Asian people as this has been something which I have found quite difficult to locate within Leeds. As well as this I haven't been able to find any Bengali people whilst I've been in Leeds so I thought that by organising an event with the SU would be a great way to find other creative Asian people who I can be assimilated with culture-wise. I had spoken to Joe from the SU  a few times and he had said there were a few people who had approached on a similar topic of starting up an Asian network and if I would be interested in working with them, so I had set a date that was available in the SU and created some poster designs which would promote an initial meet up.

I decided to include imagery which would make the event as open as possible to different in a variety of Asian cultures without going down any typical stereotypical routes. 

The first poster design includes current and prominent individuals for different backgrounds acting on social and political change - especially with things I can relate to so I had included three people being: 

• Malala Yousafzai
• Nadir Nahdi 
• Christine Sun Kim

The second design was developed from something which is recognisable in Asian culture - being known for good food so with this in mind I had chosen to illustrate a Mango and to enlarge this illustration and duplicate it across the poster as I had noticed at the time that a lot of illustrative posters seemed to be gaining traction and attention.  

I had received quite a bit  of interest whilst putting up these posters as well as posting about it on my personal Instagram from peers being interested in what the event could entail but after having the first meeting only one other person had attended- which was quite disheartening as I was expecting a bigger turnout asking people to share the word. 

SB1: Answers from Interview with Saul Studio (Transcribed)

After I had conducted my interview with Joey & Dan - I had thought that as the initial questions that I had brought would lengthen the duration of the interview but as I had sent the questions to them a week before and as they were answering a couple of the questions that I asked they had answered other questions by linking them together which meant the main bulk of the information which would be included within the creative report lasted 30 minutes. 

Was it difficult to find a design-based job as soon as you had graduated?

Both Dan and Joey had mentioned that neither of them were seeking a job as soon as they had left university. In dan’s case he was interested in setting up his own business and he had made his tutors aware of this so he was able to do a business module through the university he went to. /Although as he had graduated he felt as though he was quite naïve at the time as he didn’t realise that straight out of university he didn’t have access to a wealth of clients – so he needed to subsidise his own work with working part time where he was able to get a part time job at Colours May Vary. On top of this is made the decision to kickstart a project to make the book – Coffee Shop North, a independent guide which includes a range of Coffee Shops based within the north.

In Joey’s case he had been offered two job opportunities – one being from a small design studio based in Leeds which was a full time design role with a fairly decent pay as well as after being offered this job, the day after he had met the Creative Director at the Tetley who had approached him after seeing his work he had produced answering a live brief which was in association with an event taking place at the Tetley and herself and Joe and got into a conversation about this as well as discussing his topic of his dissertation – which was also about the Tetley and how its identity at the time was unprogressive and how didn’t match the ethos of the Tetley. This had lead to Briony – the creative director to become quite interested in the work that he had done surrounding The Tetley and had resulted in Briony giving him a job for Saul Studio.

The work produced by the design studio in comparison to the job opportunity that Briony had given Joey was quite bland and did not suit the type of work that he wanted to produce where as with the job at the Tetley of being an in house designer for a day a week was more appealing for him even though after discussions with his father about the two options – they had disagreements over as to his father the obvious option was to go with the higher paying job even though joey wouldn’t necessarily enjoy it.

It was an obvious choice for joey to go with the job as an in house designer at the Tetley as he had a keen interest with them as he had based his dissertation and carried out a live brief they had set and buy doing this he was able to do his own work and carry out passion projects alongside this work too.

Although by doing this he had burnt through his savings in the space of six months my doing the work of being at the Tetley for a day a week and it was enough to pay the bills so he had decided to get a job which so happens to be at Fred Aldous and  this was enough to cover his bills and other expenses. Was able to get proficient and he was able to sustain this.

A couple of months after this Dan and Joey kept bumping into each other and as they had spoken as ell as seeing the work they had both produced and posted on their Instagram accounts they had come to realise that they both have a mutual respect for each other and after speaking to each other over Instagram and meeting each other at the Henry Moore Institute and The Tetley they had made the decision to combine to form Saul Studio.

Working by yourself and working with another designer – how was this worked for you both?

Friends have pointed out that Dan and joey compliment each other in the way that they work as well as the work they produce as well. By having another person alongside you whilst you’re working is very useful as its good to have another set of eyes to help with critique e, help with proofing and sometimes just having someone to agree with that an idea might not be stupid as it may if face be really good idea.

I had asked about the project titled Material Environments as I was quite interested in the work which they had produced for this they had provided some background information about working on this which included how it was the second exhibition which they had worked on together at the Tetley.

Some of the design decisions which were made in relation to the outcomes produced included that they had used a Khaki Green Stock from the G.F. Smith Extract range and this main colour from the paper stock had influenced the other components very heavily.

With everything they produce as well if will be in some kind of physical product – they mentioned that it is very important to see it in a materialistic form even if it’s not a refined product. This being done by requesting samples whether it be foil or card stock as for some projects such as one brief they had completed which included doing the full wayfinding for a gallery based in hull – the clients had concerns that the typeface they had chosen didn’t meet the needs of legibility and accessibility and when they are producing something like for this brief where their work will be accessed by the public, it is essential that these needs are met.

Using dummies which can be used for cases like for that brief where they needed to include their typeface into sandwich boards which includes a white backing with black laser cut details and they are able to address concerns of the client of things like legibility by getting a small scale dummy version produced to see if the text is visible. They had also mentioned that another benefit of this is that by getting a small scale dummy version of this produced.

Its also helpful in the production of publications – once the decisions have been made about the colour of the paper stock, paper weight and how many pages will be included, the printers are able to put together a dummy which is the actual book which has been put together with no print.

And did you experience within did your experiences within University prepare you for this or does it differ from client to client?

This differs from client to client and it depends if they are organised or not. Depends on if you get clients who are very persistent with getting something on the same day in which they have requested it or the next morning. As they currently have 19 projects on at the moment which they are working on it is difficult to accept extra projects but sometimes if they have room to do it they will take it on. As well as this, another thing which they consider if how much the client would be paying as they have a very strict schedule and squeezing in another project makes it more of an inconvenience for them.

As they are both very on it with being organised and stick to their shared schedules – they know who’s doing what and when but when clients ask them to do last minute jobs on a very short timescale there are things to consider like does the client have respect for the designer? Yes or no and also taking into account by doing these jobs as well as the other 19projects on at the same time there isn’t much time to take on other clients.

If there is a mutual respect between client and designer and if they’re willing to understand what they’re asking for is a tough task then they may be lenient and take on the task alongside the other jobs that they have going on.

Q: Whilst I have been in university there has been some emphasis on the importance on “Networking” as well as having a portfolio which shows a wide range of work. How is it worked based on your own personal experiences with getting work; has it been based of a good balance between these two things or something else?

Dan had said that he thinks that both parts are just as important as with a broad portfolio to display the kind of work you can produce but something that he looks for specifically is not specifically someone who is able to do everything but someone who is at least very good or excellent even at one thing – whether its typography or web design but obviously having a broad skill set is advantageous.

With networking – its always been a bit of an organic thing – if you’re in the arts and cultural sector – its just a matter of getting yourself out there as well as going out for a drink, talking and approaching people.

He has been in instances where it has been forced as Dan had mentioned that he had been in programmes which had been set by his university where he was sat around a table with people in fields completely different to his – including a doctor and physician and designer (being himself) and this kind of environment didn’t suit what any of them were looking for so in that sense those kinds of events aren’t really appropriate.

Joey had talked about instances where someone may be a freelance designer – if someone decides to work at home, there are less opportunities available to those unless they get themselves out there by interacting and engaging with people then it might make it extremely hard for that person to find work unless they have a huge online presence then they might be able to use that.

Joey had mentioned with their new website launch he was unsure if that had gained much traction and if it had any contribution towards clients approaching them for work, or if they had gained work through word of mouth with people putting them forwards as being a reputable design studio.

Through the use of Natural Networking – like being at the Tetley by being able to talk and meet people from a range of creative disciplines is a good way of engaging with other people in neighbouring studios. Dan had mentioned when talking people – once you’ve spoken to one person that opens up opportunities to maybe two or three people so it is worth going out, maybe not forced networking events but places where you can talk to others through a more natural format.

SB1: Interviewing Saul Studio

I had arranged an interview with Joey and Dan from this studio at their workspace which is in one of the studio rooms located at the top of the Tetley. I thought it would be a nice location for us to have the interview here considering I hadn't met the other half of the studio and it would be more comfortable for them to have this within a recognisable place.

The interview had lasted the duration of an hour including some additional information I had gathered whilst going off on tangents about their work when they would mention specific examples of things they had worked on.

As well as this, as I had visited their studio to conduct the interview I was able to get some images of them in and around their studio space - which will be helpful to include within the creative report.
Although the only thing I regret about this was that I felt as though I wasn't that comfortable with directing them other than asking them to pretend to be doing work in their computers and reading a book. It had also been two days since I had my photography induction and it meant that I could put the skills I had learnt in the induction to practice very quickly.  I think next time if I do this again I should have a plan of locations and things they can do whilst I'm photographing them - or even bring in a photographer to take the images.