5 Things

5 Things you know that you didn't before the break.

• Didn't consider how important directing briefs are to develop your portfolio.
• I have come to realise how important and useful web design actually is. 
• How hard 3rd year would be . 
• Studios like to look at things in emails if you send work with an email you are more likely to receive reply rather than just a normal email.
• How short the first module actually is. 

5 Things you would address differently than you did this summer.

• Try calling studios instead of email
• Not have such a long break from doing any design
• Would like to go away next summer as i didn't get to this year
• Contact more studios
• Read more for my dissertation 

5 specific things you will address this semester that should be useful

• Web design and creating your own website. 
• Better branding for myself. business cards, web design
• Focus my design on things that i want to do professionally. 
• How to communicate with clients

5 Things you feel we could address as group 

• What do you actually send clients?
• How do you go about getting work
• Is a partnership better than doings freelance?
• Writing a client contract.
•  How do you get a job/work?

5 things you feel we have not looked at in PPD you personally would like to know more about.

What you send to clients as the final design what format what else you send with it. 

More about protecting my work?
The essentials of starting a business?
How a contract is written up.

Self Branding

This is my current logo. I have decided to go with just the symbol for the moment as it resembles my practice very well i think. I am good at logo design and branding so i feel having a nice symbol resembles me very well.

John Presentation

Year 3

Letter head

Website Prep

I have secured the Domain name mattchatfield.co.uk for 2 years. i will hopefully get to making a website in the summer when i have more time. 

Emailing studios

Here are the studio i have got into contact to simply for some professional advice. i ask what sort of things  professionals look for when hiring and how i could improve on what i have done so far. 

Mailing out work

Prin

Finished Business Card Designs

This is my finished business card design. I am happy with is although i would of loved to screen print them with a 2 colour print and a different design possibly. 

I got them printed at Moo which felt like been a bit of a sell out although it was easy to use and got a huge range of pre set designs. for a company its great but for a graphic designer its like buying cards from moon-pig just felt a bit cheesy. 

I am still waiting on them to be delivered so we will see how i feel when they arrive. 

More Business Card Development

I really like the grey and blue combo. I didn't like it as much for the reverse side but i am feeling a white and grey reverse. I would also like to duoplex the business card with a light blue to give it the professional feel to it am make it look that much better.

Spreading The Word

I have made a Tumblr account to help me present my work to studios and help spread the word of what i am doing. 

I chose a tumblr layout which best presented my work. so i have picked one with 3 collums and no hight restrictions so you get to see the full piece whatever the length. I chose about 4 pieces to start and have been adding gradually ever since starting it. I am really pleased with how it has turned out and my logo works well at the top.

I have used more personal project to go on my tumblr account just to make it more interesting for when people view it. It gives them a better sense of what i enjoy and shows motivation to do work other than set briefs. 

Above is a piece i did which has got a huge amount of interest over 240 likes and reblogs. I am new to the tumblr scene so this was a first my work was getting shot around the internet and now on hundreds of others pages. I didn't really like this and felt like i had no control over my work anymore. 

There is a great deal of design on tumblr but i have found its not how good it is, it's all about the wording and emotional connotations of work which people like. This i am not a fan of. Just because my work says "wish you were here" its getting reblogs because of the wording not the design. 

I want to get off Tumblr as i don't think its my kind of thing i not looking for my work to take on this emotional meanings its not why i do it. 

I plan to make a website with a similar sort of layout. both more professional and for my masculinity as a designer. 

SWOT Analysis

The Consult 

There strengths is a wide range of media and design style. they are very adaptable to different challenges set  and always have innovative ideas to keep there work fresh.

Weaknesses are probably the lack of personal project and printing techniques they don't seem to explore much when it comes to printing techniques such as embossing foiling etc. 

Opportunities such as a wide range of clients keep them creating different work appealing to a wider range of people. 

Threats are studios such as Box Head and Pixel room who are similar in there works and based in leeds. 

Sorted

Sorted stenghts are the fact the design and print commercial flyers and advertisements. not many other printers do design as well and i wouldn't call them a graphic design agency so they are taking a new angle on things.

Weaknesses design skills are limited and also printing methods and techniques are just digital based. 

Opportunities. They know there market and are perfect for this market i don't feel like expanding would help them they know there audience just stick to it. 

Threats  other local printers and cheap commercial designers. 

Beachhead Studios 

Beacheads strengths are there wide range of skills and can connect to there audience on a personal level making there work fit perfectly with there target users. there design is fresh humorous and masculine which is perfect for what they want to do. 

Weaknesses there website although nice to look at could contain more of the work they are doing. 

Opportunities for them are great they have produced work for call of duty the biggest selling game of all time and are very up to date with there technology.

Their threats are big gaming companies like sony, Atari, Microsoft and competitors like that. 

Socket Studios 

They are producing some nice design and the website layout is different and interesting.

not really screaming out to me it sits in the background not innovative. very inside the box design.

Based in london you really need to impress and they are just not doing that for me.

Has many opportunities been in the design capital of england but the competition is massive down there.

BERG

BERG are a very strong design agency producing outstanding work and even better concepts and ideas. 

Cant find strong weaknesses with them they are very all rounded in there print and design. 

Opportunities don't just come to them they make there own putting on events and things of that nature. 

Again based in london so competition is feese. Very proactive people so even without clients i think they would be very successful. 

Analogue 

Analogue is a strong company which speiclzes in a wide range of media and designs. 

Who i will be mailing out to.

I have decided to mail out locally due to the nature of my job over the summer im not sure i will be able to vist the debts of the county.
I feel like visiting many studios locally i will get a better feel of the diferent studios you will incounter in a city and possibly get a better idea of the type of one i would like to got to.

PDF Front page

This is a front cover for the PDF i was going to send to studios before John gave me the good idea to send some work instead. It is like an extended business card with all my contact details and what not. 

FAB mail out

Here is what i produced for the mail-out. it is A3 in size. I would of liked to go bigger but it was simply a money issue which made me choose A3. I Spoke to John about the word Progress and he seem to like it and thought it was appropriate to promote myself in a positive way without seeming to pretesious. 

My contact details are on there and also my logo. i think this is a great piece to send out and i am happy that john gave me the all clear and cant wait for some feeback from studios and to actually print it now. 

Business Card Development

Played around with portrait business cards but i feel like landscape is the way to go. 

Creative Spark

Creative spark is one of my favourite places i have found. Not that they don't take work seriously but they make time for personal projects as they feel thats where the most creativity comes from. I love that about them and the work they are producing is increadale. 

FAB idea

Been a person who likes to finish his meal with the best bite of the whole meal a Fab ice lolly is just never been easy of me to save the best bit for the last bite as it is ment to be eaten first. 

Something needs be done Fab is made the wrong way round and know one is fighting this even though we all feel the same!!

I produced this shape first i like the angel it is at but it is to square. 

This is the finished fab but the thing i am not sure about is the sprinkles so i went back and sort out another method of doing it. 

Here is my finished Fab with improved sprinkles. Really like how it has turned out. 

I showed John what i was doing and at this point it was more of a personal project he told me this is what i should show studios and send them a print with this on. It shows difference improvement and fresh ideas. 

Further Logo Development

The Consult

The Consult is a leeds based design agency who's work i really enjoy and admire. I love the minimal and well worked ideas. 

I feel like this would be a fun studio to work at and the design is something i like and enjoy.