Gemma.

Illustration Practice

For this module we have to create a viral either by creating a video, animation or performance. I have decided to create an animation as I have never created one before. It will be challenging but i'm hoping my viral will be successful and along the way I will learn a lot about animation and therefore will have gained a new skill.

I have decided my viral is going to be on a topic I am very opinionated about, and i'm sure many others are too. I'm going to create a shocking awareness animation about parents smoking around their children.

Here is a photo of the beginning of my storyboard that I started recently.

I know this module is going to be very challenging but I am very determined and plan to put a lot of work and effort into this module as I feel that my idea has a lot of potential, and I want my final animation to be something I can put in my portfolio.

Film Festival Trailer

I created my first ever video on premiere. We had to pick 5 films from the guardians 1000 films to watch before you die and pick a theme to go with the films you picked.
I chose to go with the theme 'Love' and I chose the movies 'Romeo and Juliet', '10 things I hate about you', 'American Beauty', 'Edward Scissor hands, and Snow white and the seven dwarfs.
From mixing images from the films and some of my own images I managed to create a 52 second movie trailer that also has effects including film dissolve which I used to fade the images into one another. I found this project on Premiere very helpful and successful as I didn't know anything about premiere before but now I feel like I have a good understanding of Premiere and will be able to use it in the future for other projects/work.

Final ideas/designs

Here are photos of my final ideas/designs for my two brands: Bob Martins and Kleenex.

After lots of research, development and feedback these are the ideas I ended up with. I found this brief extremely helpful as I gained a lot of knowledge on Advertising which I did not know before. It got me thinking a lot about advertisements , as we had to think about the target audience for our designs, what the design would go on for example a billboard, magazine, Adshel etc, where the advertisement would be and what time of year.

I'm pleased with my designs, especially the Kleenex ones, as I feel they work well and are quite impactful and appealing.

These pieces of work will be good to put in my portfolio as it shows an understanding of advertising which is something I will need to go into the field of work I wish to go into.

Looking for placements

I have started thinking about our module next year where we have to find ourselves a placement. I have done lots of research and have managed to find a couple of websites which are aimed at students and job/placement opportunities.

I have signed up to Student Jobs and YCN, both of which post regular opportunities.
From YCN I applied to a internship called 'Making pictures' which are premiere artists representation organisation specialising in commercial photography whilst supporting its artist’s personal practice and creative development. Their clientele includes advertising agencies, graphic design companies, music companies, fashion brands, and magazines.

I read through everything to make sure that I understood what I would be doing. I meet all of their requirements which are:

Basic working knowledge of Macintosh
Photoshop & InDesign a must –basics are fine
Some writing skills
Understanding of social media, networking, interactive and online media

I applied to this internship by sending in my CV and a cover letter.

On the student jobs website I also found another opportunity, a graphic design intern in London.

The company is called 'The Guestlist Network', and it is a multi media platform aimed at 18-36 year olds. They run a monthly newspaper full of fashion, travel, festivals, film and a variety of sections for different music genres which include interviews with artists.

They are currently looking for someone with a passion for design, who can work on their website, their newspaper layout, banners and their iPhone application.

I thought this opportunity sounded perfect for me as it's exactly the area I wish to go into and it sounds like it would give me great experience and knowledge within the area. I feel that this placement would also help with my confidence and communication skills.

I meet all the skills and requirements they ask for and if I managed to get this placement I would hopefully learn a lot more.

I also applied for this by sending in a CV and cover letter.

In addition to them I have emailed 'Reds magazine' applying for their internship in 2014 which lasts for a month and sounds perfect for me as at red's magazine you spend time with every department, sitting in on features meetings, contributing ideas, writing, researching and going on photo-shoots. You get to see how they choose the stories, design the pages, and produce the covers.
This is exactly the kind of opportunity I need to help me achieve my career goal, and I would be so happy and amazed if I managed to do this internship or something similar.

I have also emailed three different magazine companies asking about work experience, including 'Women and Home magazine', 'Country Homes and interiors magazine' and 'good to know recipes magazine'.

PDP

The PDP module this year has made us go a lot more in depth about where we are going in life and how we're going to get there.
I'm finding the PDP module quite challenging, a lot more than last year as there is a lot more work we have to do, and a lot more we have to think about. Although its challenging i'm glad we are doing it as it has helped me with research and decisions that I need to start making. It has helped me put my thoughts down onto paper through the 'action plan' and 'community of practice' written pieces. I have a better understanding of my community of practice, and what I need to do to get where I want to be.
I have always been a bit lost when it comes to writing and designing a CV, but this module and the lectures we get every monday have helped with knowing what to include and what not to include in a CV and what employers will be most interested in. I have been working on my CV a lot recently and I feel a lot more confident with how it looks and what's on there compared to before.

3D Workshops Clay/Foam

Over the last few weeks we have been working with Clay, creating an alien for a young child. Today was our first lesson using foam. I have never been particularly confident with 3D work so i'm glad we are getting these workshops now. Hopefully at the end of it, i'll be more confident and would have produced some nice work using the Clay and Foam. I have really been enjoying these 3D lessons, and already feel a lot more confident and capable of using Clay. The foam is definitely a lot harder, takes a lot more preparation as once you have taken away the foam, you can't put it back, so takes a lot more thought and concentration, whereas with Clay you can easily add and remove, changing it all the time.

Here are some photos of my progression with the Clay and Foam:

Here is my alien design.

I'm really pleased with how my alien is coming along so far. Its definitely got a while to go before it's finished, but I'm happy with it so far, and its definitely coming out a lot better than how I imagined.

Here are photos from the foam workshop today:

Computer Workshops

I am really enjoying the computer workshops this year, I feel i've learnt a lot already. We have been using 'InDesign', 'Photoshop' and Premiere. I've been using Photoshop for a while, and I did a little bit of 'InDesign' in the first year, but Premiere was completely new to me. In about 4/5 weeks we have managed to create our first Video Diary on Premiere. It's very simple, but of course thats how you have to start out, but I'm very pleased with what we have learnt and done so far. I'm also very much enjoying the workshops on InDesign and Photoshop, furthering my knowledge of them both, and finding out new techniques.

Here are a couple of photos from the last two lessons we've had on Photoshop:

In this lesson we learnt about perspective and reflection, creating reflections off of the Lost Box and the bottle.

This piece isn't finished yet, but last lesson we started creating a splash of water. We used many different tools and effects while creating this such as the brush tool, filter gallery effects such as plastic wrap, the warp tool, and many more.

Although I have been using Photoshop for a while now, I am finding the Photoshop Workshops very useful as I am finding out new ways of doing and creating things such as splashes of water and bubbles. Photoshop is very complex so there will always be something new to learn.

New Advantage

This year I chose the Advantage 'Adobe Dreamweaver' because i've always been very interested to learn how to make websites and quite a few times in my life I have thought about becoming a web designer. When I was younger I had a huge love for 'piczo' which was a website for teens where you could make your own website/blog. I used to spend hours on it, and would change it very regularly, updating it and designing new layouts etc.
I feel like i've learnt so much on Dreamweaver in just a few weeks, every lesson we learn something new. I'm really enjoying learning Dreamweaver and my aim once finishing the Advantage in December is for me to be able to create my own website, to show my work, and to promote myself.

Here are a couple of photos of what we have done so far:

I'm so pleased with how it's looking so far and how much we've done. Over the next couple of weeks I think we're planning to start making our own ones for our own personal use which i'm really looking forward to. Very nervous about my exam though.

Beginning of Second Year of Uni

I have started back at uni for my second year, I have been back a few weeks now, and have been quite busy with various projects. The main one that has going on at the moment is an Advertising brief which I'm finding very challenging, but I feel i've learnt quite a lot about it already in a short space of time. One of the things I have learnt is that it is not easy, and takes a lot of thought and time.

A book from the library 'The Advertising Concept' Book helped a lot with this project, and helped with ideas, as it explains different strategies and ideas towards advertising, it explains what works, and which strategies are most effective for what type of product/audience.

Here are a few of my ideas for a mixture of products i'm advertising for the advertising brief.

The two top ones are advertising Kleenex, which is a product I chose from the list we were given.

I chose Kleenex because I know this is a very popular product which so many people use, and if they don't use it, they definitely know what it is. I saw lots of potential with ideas towards this product advert. The design on the top left is a very simple but effective idea; a smiling nose with the simple tagline 'Kleenex will make your nose smile' I was quite pleased with this idea, I think it works well as its clear, simple, with slight humour. I feel that this advert would appeal to everyone, it does not have one audience category as I feel even children would understand the idea.

The one on the right is also a simple idea, and would possibly gain children's interest slightly more as it resembles a cartoon. The idea is simple; The packet of Kleenex tissues very happy and excited to see the nose, holding his arms out to give the nose a hug because he loves noses. Quite a cute and humorous idea, might not appeal to everyone, might be too childish for some, but still could work.

The two bottom ones are for Bob Martins cat or dog flea powder which was a mandatory product.

My strategy for these two were also cute and humorous. I went down this route as I feel this is what the public like, lighthearted and funny.

The design on the left with a smiling happy cat: The idea is basically a simple example of how your pet would feel after being treated from fleas. With the tagline 'Getting rid of pests brings out the best'.

My design of the right, more humorous than the first, has a dog in the middle with lots of fleas running/flying away from the dog. This is meant to give the public the idea that bob martins will literally make the fleas run, and won't hang around any longer.

I plan to work and improve on these ideas, by getting feedback from friends, family and my classmates.

At the moment I am also working on two other products which are 'Swan Vestas matches, and Tipp-Ex.

My Goals

I have a rough idea, and plan of the goals I want to set myself, and the things I would love to achieve within the next few years.

My first goal is to pass the first year with a good grade, so I can continue into the second year, happy, and motivated to carry on.
I have set myself a goal, and I'm planning to do lots of work over the summer holidays, working on things I need to improve on.
Over the next couple of years, I would love to have my own website, which will help me get out there, and get my work online. I want to start building a portfolio of work, and update and improve my C.V.
I also set myself a goal to design and make my own business card, whether that's done at Uni, or in my own time, I would love to have some to hand out, to give myself as many job opportunities as possible.
At the end of my final year my goal is to graduate with a good degree.

Professional Practice

We started the Module 'Professional Practice' in the middle on February. I've been working on this module for about a month now and I'm throughly enjoying it. The module includes team work, group discussions and group work, along with our own individual work. I think having both group and individual work is a very good idea, and very beneficial for everyone.

I have decided to make scrapbooks for this module. My inspiration was my mum, as she has been making hand made cards for years, which all appear very professional and she covers everything. All celebrations and events, including various styles for all ages. she sells them eBay, and to many friends and family members too.

I'm currently creating a wedding scrapbook for the bride to document her wedding, including writing/photos etc. I'm also creating a smaller scrapbook for a student who has just graduated, and again they can document stories/photos etc.

I have a plan to create at least two more scrapbooks, one of which I would like to be a baby scrapbook.
I would also love to design and create a painting/drawing for this module but that depends very much on time management.

Here a few photos of the work that I have been producing over the last month.

My logo designs for the pop up shop:

Wedding scrapbook photos:

Here are a few images of the research that I have been doing for this module.