Month: May 2021

Portfolio Blogs (ALL in One)

Portfolio Blog:

 

Finding Companies to work for:

• Find Your Intern – I discovered the Instagram account ‘Find Your Intern’ through my friends on my course a few years ago. The appeal of this company’s database of jobs is that they promote only paid roles; they have a strong ethical front on the fact that unpaid internships and jobs within the creative industries are corrupt and unfair, that people should deserved to be paid for their work no matter how big or small. As I agree with this, and I would not be in a position to be able to work without getting paid for it in terms of financial survival, I will only look into websites similar to Find Your Intern which also share paid roles only. Find Your Intern has a membership option which allows extra help on your CVs and cover letters, exclusive tips and lots of webinars, meetings and one on one conversations to aid your professional practice. This is something that I could see myself doing as I aim to work after I finish university, while hoping to gain some more skills to complete some freelance work in the future. Being able to get someone to go through my own CVs and cover letters to really analyse the information I’m putting out there versus what I would like to portray myself as, would be incredibly helpful as it would be an induvial tailored service, as opposed to a class room which has a lesson catered for everybody. This website is very useful in finding opportunities specifically for graduates that are entry level roles, as some other websites I have been browsing on such as Linkedin Jobs, usually has a surplus of job advertisements for mid-weight or heavyweight designer roles with a lot of experience, whereas this is specifically catered for the average creative graduate or student. The pages on the website are very student friendly and encourage us to work while studying which is an incredible useful skill.
• Run The Check – Run The Check came to my attention when I was studying my art foundation diploma at Ravensbourne University London. A friend of mine showed the Instagram page to me which also has the same premise as Find Your Intern, hence the name “Run The Check”. This page was mainly of use to me when I was studying in London, as I assumed I would be staying there indefinitely but changed my mind to come to Brighton. Most of the roles placed on this website differ greatly from Find Your Intern, even though they have as similar premise. This is useful in searching for a multitude of jobs, because I feel as if the actual company and role matters more than anything else, therefore gaining some research from multiple job posting websites would higher my chances of finding a creative job. The roles featured on this website are mainly full time roles within London or surrounding areas, which is why I do not use this website too often as I plan to stay in Brighton for a little while longer but could potentially move back to London a few years along the line. Another thing I like about Run The Check is that they frequently post calls for commissions or competitions which is something I had not thought about prior to reaching their website. After university, in my free time when I am not working, I would love to attempt to enter some creative competitions or the calls for submissions and commissions. This is because it would be a great way to get my designs out there for a multitude of audiences to discover. Not even for the joy of winning a competition, but the be able to work on live briefs and submit work of a completed finished project could slot in nicely to my portfolio, especially if the project differs from the rest of my portfolio. This would be very helpful as I feel like I need to diversify my content, as I mainly produce mixed media collage work, but when applying for jobs I would need to showcase my skills in marketing, social media, print, writing etc.
• Creative Opportunities – This website is ran by The University of the Arts London (UAL) one of the highest ranked arts universities in the world, which makes this a very reputable source for finding work placements, internships and jobs. These jobs differ from the previous websites as these are more one-off jobs; there are lot of two month projects or fixed time contract roles which could be useful when in between jobs, or trying to discover what works for me and what does not. I think that in the near future, instead of getting a graduate job straight away as most people do, it would be nice to take part in several internships back to back, or a few part time internships at the same time with fixed contracts. This would allow me to be able to network with a variety of people within different sectors of the creative industries that I had gained experience in. Not only that, but I would be able to discover the parts of the creative industries that I enjoy and don’t enjoy, to help aid my future process of seeking out jobs that are appropriate for my skill range and interests.
• Fashion Workie – Showcases mainly internships, very fashion based compared to the others
• Indeed – large range of jobs, harder to gain a job from there due to the high range of competition; everyone is using Indeed to search for jobs which means more applications and less chances.

 

Researching jobs that look appealing to me:

• Oldstrom – Sales and Marketing Apprentice
• I found this job on Find Your Intern, and the fact that it was catered to grads is what sold it to me. The role gains insight into a different role within fashion like buying and merchandising which I have not previously delved into that much yet. However, as the roles on here are all entry level roles, the fact that I have studying fashion communication would allow myself to have enough experience to apply. The brand seems very sophisticated and luxurious which would be such a nice way to learn how to work for a different style of brand than I am used to.
• Jori Papa – Social Media & Marketing Coordinator
• This role was discovered on Find Your Intern as well. I love the photography from the brand; the studio shoots seem really full of character and the actual products are so unique. I love the idea of the role, to work within social media. As I enjoy engaging in conversations with people and communications, this role would suit my interests greatly. I’ve seen that a job role like thus requires the candidate to know the software or program Klavyio and HTML design, and as I am very unskilled in these areas, it could be wise to start some online training courses on these to ensure I have up to date skills for the types of roles which are being put out there. The more of these smaller skills I have, the more likely someone would be willing to hire me.
• Science to Skin / All Things Nails – Marketing Assistant & Content Creative
• Seed Marketing – Campaigns Assistant
• Virtine Art Commission 2021, New Covent Garden Market
• Studio Voltair – Operations Coordinator
• LIFT – Development & Marketing Assistant Internship

 

 

Researching companies and they way they present themselves:

• Fruity Booty – This brand stands out to me due to their very strong aesthetic and the way they present themselves. They seem like a very inclusive and supportive brand; showcasing women of all shapes and sizes, with mainly unedited content, especially what they post on Instagram. This is very important as a brand being transparent with their audience on the realities of their shoots and the models is enabling the consumers to feel the same way, to feel connected to the brand as well as represented. There are few brands which solely sell underwear which do this, for example, Lounge Underwear are a luxury underwear brand with prices similar to those of Fruity Booty. Yet Longue Underwear had advertisements all over snapchat a few years ago, and I distinctively remember all of the models being extremely slim in size with a huge lack of diversity. Therefore, being able to work for a brand like Fruity Booty would be great! Especially as they hire graduates and placement year opportunities.
• Moontrap London – This is a smaller brand also based in London which sells high quality luxury jewellery. The designs are of such a high standard and I have not seen anything like it! The use of fun background such as the purple checkerboard emphasises their playful and fun personality which is tied together sophisticatedly through their design and products. They find the balance between high quality content and products with a playful and approachable design scheme.
• House of Sunny – This brand has such a nice aura about them as they promote sustainability, mindfulness and all their products seem very comforting and luxurious. The show that they’re luxurious through the design of the website and the Instagram content. The Instagram is full of very high quality professional photographs which differs from Moontrap London’s Instagram which mainly has cute edits and bright colours with close ups of the products on their own. The difference shows that House of Sunny clearly has a bigger budget as all their content is high quality editorials. I would not mind working for either brand because they present themselves and fun, friendly and approachable with the most amazing products.
• Peachy Den
• Jaded London

 

Building Concepts for my own work

• Visual Inspiration – I am mainly inspired by my Instagram explore page, Twitter and TikTok. This is due to the fact that I changed all of my personal social medias into more art based accounts, this means following only friends, family and inspirational content, therefore when scrolling aimlessly through these social media channels (which I tend to do fairly often, like most people) the content I would be taking in is mainly creative, inspirational project. This is technique I have learned to motivate myself more and become inspired, as I find I frequently have creative blocks and negative days where I do not feel inspired. This also changed my social media habits and allows myself to create a database of images on Instagram in the ‘saved’ pane. This is me essentially creating a mood board of everything I get inspired by which I add to daily. Accounts like @hel717 and @savemymind are some of my favourites for inspiration. David Carson and Neville Brody.
• Conceptual Inspiration – Philosophy in books like “The Power of Now” and Mitch Albom books

My plans for after university:

• Learn more
• Freelance
• Work
• Brighton
• Masters

 

 

 

FMP WEEK 23 (WC: 03/05/2021)

In one of my tutorials it was recommended that I used Adobe After Effects to produce some content that contains moving image or animated fonts. As a result of this, I went onto LinkedIn Learning, found some videos and began to learn. I thought this would be a very successful idea for the Instagram page because it would mean the content that I am putting out there switches up a bit; video content is always good at pulling in the audience to spend more time interacting with the post as there is the moving visual element to it. Learning Adobe After Effects was proving to be a great challenge; I am extremely proud of pushing myself out of my comfort zone to make some content using Adobe After Effects as this is a program I had been aiming to learn for so long. However, just because it was recommended to me by a teacher I attempted to make some content (some good, some bad) and after a lot of bad attempts I managed to animate don’t, create moving backgrounds as well as learn things like making a moving font banner, learning how to make a shape move, and masks and multiple images at once. I was very pleased with my actual results however because the program is extremely complex, it meant that it took me a very long time to be able to come to terms with the layout, process and technical buttons which I am still not completely confident in. I followed an Envato+ Tutorial for Adobe which taught me everything I needed to know. I was recommended a course which was paid but I found this on YouTube for free with 4 hours worth of content to learn from. This has proven to have been useful in expanding my technical abilities within moving image while allowing myself to branch out of my comfort zone and produce work which has a lot fo time and thought going into it. On the other hand, in terms of practicality, learning how to use Adobe After Effects after never using it properly before only right before my deadline was not my most logical move within this project as a lot of time which was spent learning different techniques could have been spent by making work for the magazine. This has led me to make more Instagram content but lacking in the actual Sentient Magazine content which has pushed me back a few steps.

I have began writing up my articles for my magazine, there is also proving to be very time-consuming and difficult resulting in me having to cut down a lot of the written content for my magazine in order to get everything done on time. I have adapted the visual side of the magazine by making the decision to scrap the articles on the 12 laws of karma and just use quote pages for them because realistically, I would not be able to get them all done in time. This is another decision which is logical for me to make at this point, even though it is slightly disappointing, I remember the complexity of making a magazine is a huge thing to master and the fact that I have created any content at all is extremely good news for my personal development.

The interviews I conducted for the magazine will be placed at the front; the whole point of my magazine is to uplift people, present interesting insights into people’s lives and opinions and to positively influence someone’s day as shown in the choice of articles I have researched and written, therefore placing the interviews first allows there to be some engaging written content to pull in the readers initially. The interviews are all done with people that inspire me, which is a relevant choice for a magazine catered to people like me.

FMP WEEK 22 (WC: 26/04/2021)

Although deadlines are approaching, I have naturally found it difficult to keep my motivation levels up as I felt like it was hard to progress my work. I decided to take the images from last week, edit them all using the inspiration of all the work I had previously made in the past and used my technique of just producing a lot of content in one go to make a large range of work to refine. Using Photoshop, Illustrator and other applications like PhotoMosh and PicsArt, I produced a range of imagery which suits the style of my magazine.

The first set of images I had edited were pictures I had taken on a walk around the race course in Brighton. The edits were made on Photoshop using the photoshop blend tools which allow images to bleed into each other and highlight different elements of the design like the hue and colour, brightness and contrast or highlighting the texture and composition. I chose images which included a lot more open space on the page, as I had altered my style to suit a more refined and calm manner than the previous hectic designs, and I used colours to emphasis the atmosphere I was portraying. The use of these abstract colour palettes make the images seem more questionable; they seem as if they’re part of a series now, that they flow together to tell a story of a certain place. The fact that these are edited subtly enough that they are still very clear landscapes but also enough to stay true to my style and the style of Sentient Magazine show that these would be very successful in the magazine.

The images I had taken of myself worked very well initially in the contact sheet, however, I produced a variety of edits but I felt as if they were not of a decent enough quality to not only suit the magazine, but to form enough of a series that the images would be placed within an appropriate context, and not just randomly placed in the magazine. As i was still working on flat plans I was becoming aware of the importance of creating a series of work for the magazine that is made up of several different images that have one original point. However, I found that although these edits were strong individually, I could not produce enough content that would differ from each other. This is potentially due to the images taken, although I was pleased with the variety of poses, they were all from the same angle, position and have the same crop, which has led to me not being able to experiment as much as I would have hoped.