Study Task 7: Samples of Work

John has made it clear that it is important to make yourself recognisable and how to keep yourself in there and remembered by other designers. This is important as without knowing who you are talking to and how to present yourself to them visually you will not be remembered or recognised for the work that you produce.

Task

Based on the exercises, feedback and discussion in the module so far:

Identify document and evaluate a minimum of 10 examples of professional designer's and/or design studios who have used a range of media and formats to distribute samples of their work. You should aim to select a range of examples using a range of media. Produce a SWOT analysis of each example in order to analysis its relative merits and effectiveness as a promotional tool or strategy.

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Charlotte Olsen

Oslo based Charlotte Oslen, Graphic designer has produced this extremely innovative way of promoting herself with this unique concept of '100% Raw Talent'. She promotes herself with a bar of chocolate this is very clever and unique way to promote oneself which is ultimately very memorable the key to any promotional work.

Strengths

Innovative and original concept which will no doubt impress the recipient!
A clear aim and target audience 

Well crafted demonstrating her skills as a graphic designer 

Shows that she is excellent at communictor

The chocolate bar has solid concept

Weaknesses
It is temporary which is the main problem with this concept as a promotional item, if the audience were to eat the chocolate and open the package her promotional information is then destroyed and furthermore potentially forgotten about, they will remember the idea will they remember her name?

Threats

Can only been produced in small production runs

Opportunities

Real opportunity to stand out from the crowd as it will no doubt be appreciated and recognised as her work.

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Sean O'brien 

Graphic designer based in Bristol specialising in logo design and branding.

Strengths

Eye catching and memorable.

The style reflects the humorous side of his personality.

The interaction and very nature of the large box means that it can't be ignored. 

Weaknesses

The size may cost loads to post, especially if you wanted to send these abroad would be a lot. 

Some employers might be put off with the box as they might find it gimmicky.

Opportunities 

This pushes the boundaries in the normal format. 

Innovative 

Threats

It might be considered gimmicky

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Passport Branding

Passport is a young and independent design bureau founded by Jonathan Finch & Rosalind Stoughton, based in Leeds.Certain destinations and international design culture have informed and influenced our practice which is centred around print-based design for branding, identity and publications.

As the name Passport suggests, travel is a large source of inspiration for us. Where you are born; where you grow up; where you study; where you work; where you visit affects everything from choice of colour to application of type – and we like that. Our branded stationery needed to reflect all of these interests. We wanted it to feel classic but contemporary, formal yet approachable, whilst taking care to present a close attention to detail that we pride our work on. The printed collateral includes personal photography collected from our travels to add a strong, individual element to the identity. Website designed by Passport, and built by Refresh Interactive to include 2 x desktop versions for different resolutions, iPad version & mobile version.

Strengths

The visuals of the cv reflect the name of the studio so it instantly becomes more memorable, especially when the format is so unusual.

Weaknesses

The size may cost loads to post, especially if you wanted to send these abroad would be a lot.

Opportunities

This pushes the boundaries in the normal format.
Innovative

Threats

How many times can they produce the material?

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Two Times Elliot 

Two Times Elliott is a design consultancy based in Notting Hill, London. Two Times Elliott produce a diverse range of work across multiple disciplines including print design, identity and web. We help our clients communicate their message clearly and intelligently.

Strengths

The postcards work as a set so that when brought together spell out the name of the studio. 

Bright and colourful / eye catching.

You could repeatedly send the postcards to the same company and create intrigue. 

Memorable 

Reflects the style of the work of the studio 

Weaknesses

This is just a postcard which acts essentially as a larger business card. 

It may take time to send the postcards, you will have to plan it very well for it to spell out the name of the studio.

Opportunities 

Memorable to employers 

Af un way to engage the interests of the studio

Threats

Possibility that the format could put people off if they really do have no where to put the larger size of card.

Life's a Pitch: Presentation Feedback

More feedbacks from John for all of us as a whole year...


" Hi all,


Just to say how pleased I am (and sure Andy is too) with the level of presentations.


You all seem to have grasped the idea that once you have all of the research, it is
easier to put an effective presentation together. An 'across the board' set of
presentations, some very memorable and some not quite so. This is not a negative,
but hopefully helpful for you all to see the difference in all of your individual
presentations. Those who engaged fully can see what can be achieved and those
who spent less time preparing, will also see what may have been missing.


Put your presentations onto your blogs and a paragraph or two two say what you
think you may have achieved, or did not achieve and how you felt after presenting.
You will be getting feedback sheets from Tom (both from myself and Andy...double
bubble) when he can get them copied.


Thanks again for letting us into your practices and please recharge your batteries over
reading week if you can. Looking forward to working with you soon.


John W "

Final Over + Out Presentation

Last Friday, we sat down as a group to make our presentation ready for the group presentations this Tuesday which were being assessed by John and Andy. Initially we only thought this would take 1/2 hours as we have also had another 3 deadlines this week and so our workload is pretty high, however it ended up taking a whole 6 hours to prepare the presentations making sure all measurements and pixels were lined up exact as we wanted a professional approach to the slides.

Initially we decided to reduce the amount of text on each slide, as we wanted to audience to listen to what we were staying and not get distracted by the slides on the screen, and so on many slides we created 'word lists' that related exactly to what we were talking about. This approach seemed to work and we all really liked it so we kept the design and structure consistent by using it all throughout the design.

Overall I was really pleased with the presentation, I thought we were professional and confident, and the feedback was also really positive, the only major thing that was highlighted by both John and Andy was that we used cards to read from, as did many of the other groups. Ideally we would have liked to just used the slides themselves as pointers and talk fluently about our company, however we had a lot to remember for each slide, and with limited time to rehearse with all our other deadlines in the same week, without our que cards I feel the presentation would have been lacking in confidence.