Jaguar/Land Rover Graduate Program Application

Whilst I found Study Task 2 useful in terms of it helping me write about myself, working in a big Multi-Disciplinary studio isn't for me, I'd rather work part-time freelance or in-house at a large company. I'd had an eye on the Jaguar/Land Rover Graduate Program for a few weeks and thought I'd have a better chance of being successful in my application if I applied after completing Study Task 2.

The application required a portfolio and a CV, neither of which I had when I first came across the program. Over the last few weeks I've been developing the below files to submit with the application, which I submitted this morning.

Harri Larkin - Passing Over Files and Discussion of Further Work

I was hoping do send Harri the files today, this would've been done through e-mail, but the some of the files I needed to send were so big it wasn't feasible. Instead I had to arrange for my friend to pick up a memory stick with them on to take back to Bristol with her after Christmas.

Having never been in a situation where I've been expected to send people files before, this is a problem I wasn't expecting to encounter, and is definitely something I'll be considering in the future when doing work for people.

Harri mentioned that they were planning to release and album around September time and they'd like to stay in touch with me for more work on that, which is promising.

Harri Larkin - Logo Development

After making some changes to the design to make them more suited to the band requirements I sent them some more screenshots of ideas. I knew they were having trouble deciding on colours, so I told them to focus on the actual design rather than the colours, at that's something which I can change easily at any point.

I'm waiting to hear back from the band before doing anything else.

More information about this stage of the project can be found here on my extended practice blog.

Study Task 2 - Interview Practice

I am a creative, free-thinking, caring, productive, efficient, organised and resilient person who appreciates the solidity of routine but is creative enough to allow spontaneity to keep life exciting for myself. I’m a massive sports fan, football forms the backbone of my life through playing it, watching it, even down to discussing it in some of my social circles. I’m also a massive snooker fan and enjoy watching tennis and cricket. One of my slightly more obscure hobbies is aquarium-keeping, which I find relaxing against the stresses of life, as well as being enjoying the beauty of tropical fish.

My technical skills are sound. I’m very familiar with Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, having largely taught myself Photoshop through experimentation from around the age of 10 when the limitations of Microsoft Paint started frustrating me. My weaknesses in a technical aspect are my inability to use motion graphics software and lack of coding skills. However, having proved a quick learner of Illustrator and InDesign, I believe learning such skills wouldn’t be too difficult in the right surroundings given my general technical competence, persistence, and motivation.

I have varying experience in terms of work having worked with Square.One, a commercial design agency in Sheffield City centre, so I’m familiar with the industry, as well as having volunteered for a local Branch of Boys Brigade for 2 and a half years which is reflective of my caring nature. As well as this I also did a part time stint as an administrator in a Doctor’s surgery, a task where organisation and efficiency are of utmost importance. In terms of working with clients, I’ve worked on live briefs for clients including schools, bands, and film producers, so I have a fairly broad history in terms of working on cultural projects.

When working independently I tend to find my thought process works to it’s full potential such as in my dissertation and my WWF app proposal, as I’ve found that no two people think the same way, and so when thinking collaboratively certain things are inevitably overlooked. This is something which I find greatly irritating given my organised personality. That said, my ability to work in a team has been proven numerous times such as in my Duke of Edinburgh award, my extensive spell volunteering at Boys Brigade which was heavily reliant on the teamwork of the staff, the project proposal for Barbered Design, and the WWF Condom packaging.

My communication skills are generally very good. I find it easiest to express myself in writing, where I can properly structure and plan my thoughts into an eloquent message. I’m a very capable reader, as proven by my ability to write a dissertation around a subject as academic as philosophy, and know the importance of being able to listen to the opinions of others having grown frustrated at not having my thoughts taken seriously when I was younger. I occasionally struggle talking in front of large groups, but this is generally not an issue when I’m talking about something I’m knowledgable about or a design/product that I’m confident about.

In my opinion, graphic design is best summed up by the old ‘life is a box of chocolates’ metaphor. No two projects are the same, and naturally you’re drawn to the ones that you know you like, and are more apprehensive about newer ones, but that’s not going to stop you from trying them. The main difference between the box of chocolates of life and the box of chocolates of graphic design however, is that the latter will be much prettier. 

Harri Larkin - Stickers Turning into a Logo

I received some photo's of the stickers from Harri, who thanked me for the time and effort I'd put into the stickers. 

She also asked if I wouldn't mind spending a bit more time on the logo as she was more impressed with my ideas than the ones from the album artworker. In return she offered to send some money back for me with our mutual friend at Christmas. This was something I accepted straight away, as they're clearly pleased with my work and I thought it a good idea to establish a good working relationship with them as it could lead to further paid work in the future either with them or others from Bristol Institute of Modern Music.

Lack of Follow-Up by Simon Pickles - City Under the Floorboards

It's now been 10 days since I e-mailed Simon Pickles form City Under the Floorboards showing him my logo ideas. He replied saying he'd get back to me but he hasn't. It's been a bit of a disappointing experience in general.

The first time I contacted him it took him 2 weeks to get back to me, so I'm partially expecting the same thing to happen this time, however, the inconvenience this is causing me at such a busy time of year has caused me to decide that I no longer want to work on this project with him were he to eventually get back to me.

Harri Larkin - Follow-Up Work

I rang my friend to tell her I'd had some ideas and asked if her housemate was available to talk about them. I sent the below screenshot to my friend and started talking to Harri, the lead singer of the band via text message.

Unfortunately by this point the person who's doing the artwork for the band's first album had offered to do a logo as well, but Harri liked these a lot and asked if she could use them as stickers, and potentially as the logo if she and the band liked them more than the other proposed logo.
I set up the ideas they wanted to use for stickers in the way for them with bleed and crop marks as this website asked as Harri wasn't comfortable doing it herself.

This project didn't take me too long, and because it was for other students I wasn't bothered about asking for any payment, especially as it opens the door for more potential work with them in the future if they get bigger, but this might be something I re-assess if they want to use it as the logo rather than just for stickers.

There was some confusion caused on their end by them forgetting the difference between a diameter and a radius, which lead to me having to spend about 20 minutes longer working than I would've otherwise had to do, but this is really a minor issue at most, and, on the whole, it's been another positive experience working with friends as was the case with Jamie, Beth, and Barbered Design last year.

More information about this stage of the project can be found here on my extended practice blog.

Curated by... Domenic Lippa - Sheffield Hallam University

Today there was a talk at Sheffield Hallam University that I wanted to go too and had a ticket for, but was unable to attend for health reasons, as I thought it better not to go at all than to risk falling asleep during it.

I wanted to go for a couple of reasons:

1. Domenic Lippa's background involves packaging and retail graphics, areas of design which I can see myself going into more than others, so it'd have been interesting to here what he was going to have to say.
2. In my dissertation I cite Michael Bierut a lot, who also works at Pentagram. It'd have been good first hand research for CoP and interesting to see if there were any parallels between the mindsets of the two of them.