Career & Portfolio - Evaluation

For career and portfolio I thought it was necessary to include a portfolio of work that best represents my career aspirations . Over the last year I have been thinking of what line of work I would be prepared to pursue post university.

The style of the portfolio Is a clear representation of my design skills, using 2 colours with a conscious use of white space. This describes to the viewer that the work is uncomplicated- simplicity through a variety of design platforms. The platform for which my portfolio sits on is loosely linked to brand identity and

packaging, as well as the potential for digital design which is represented in my website.

I hope to benefit from this freedom in design when it comes to promoting myself as a designer. I was conscious that having a broad range of design work, may appear to the viewer that I am and indecisive individual and a jack of all trades, but fact is I have deliberately chosen not to pigeon hole myself. As a

result I feel this selection of work will broaden my potential for employment.

To accompany my portfolio I have included a cv and business cards that supports my intentions as a designer, again the same theme continues to show continuity throughout. I have reduced the dribble that normally clutters mu previous c.v, and have contained it into a concise piece of visaul communication. One aspect of the promotional material that sets me apart from the rest is a QR code that sits on the baseline of my c.v and business card, this barcode is a direct link to my online presence, http//: prendesign.co.uk.

As for post University my intentions are to carry on with design perhaps freelancing tailoring my work to increase my chances of employment but also I will be on the lookout for opportunities at the shows.. Come October I shall be looking for work else where in london or perhaps abroad in a major city.

Here i will use what I have learnt in the last 5 years into practice but somewhere new and exciting.

As I make my transition from university to employment its now time to make full use of design schemes such as design buddies here I will be able to gain invaluable design experience. So far I have had 2 meetings out of a possible 4 with my buddy Gareth, from Redweb. My experience of industry has been documented on my Posterous blog from which I will continue to write about my experiences. In terms of the position that design buddies has put me in as a designer I feel I have gained and insight in to the day to day running of a business in particular this company has over 100 employees who all have their own job to do.

After being shown each area of the business I felt more clear about what area of design I wanted to go into, this difficult decision I feel would not have been easy to make during my time in 3rd year Vis-com because of the diversity certainly in the course and also AUCB in general.

So as the future sees me entering a world of working in design I feel I will be more equipped, using the knowledge I have gained from 3 years of vis-com and experience of industry proving that I am a worthy graduate.

Included in the brief was the submission of a D&AD entry which would count for a large percentage of our unit grade. This project coincided with our EMP but ended half way this means we were juggling 2 major projects at one time. The brief I chose was 'Honda' " To design a environment or structure that best shows off honda as a company that society wants to exist" The project was difficult to execute with such a broad and sometimes vague brief finding the right outcome was difficult. I think all in all I struggled with the brief, after choosing it because It was the most attractive. I think the concept was a strong point but was let down by a poor visual execution.

This was only made worse when I realised that this project should have had a direction towards my career aspirations post uni. My theory on the unit was that it was compulsory to complete a D&AD brief meaning I would have to go out of my comfort zone (Brand/Identity/Print) and complete a digital brief with little other choice because the majority of the other briefs were for a digital audience. In hindsight D&AD may not have been the right choice , because now I feel that I have missed out on a whole project because it did not suit me as a designer. I have certainly missed out on a piece of portfolio work for which this project was set up for, moreover when looking at learning outcomes I will struggle to make up for this in my portfolio and promotional aspect not to mention 'Show preparation'

The final task for this brief was to document the continuation of our show preparation which we are still completing in groups. I am part of physicality which is a category that can together plan for the way the show will look but also relies on the other the groups together branding in print and screen based to decide on a name and theme.

It was a personal choice to join the physicality group mainly because branding had enough designers with contradictory and conflicting views of how they saw the end of year show as a final product.

This change in scenery will see me take a different role perhaps leading if necessary, but the ultimate aim was to get hands on by organising a unique and individual experience for the viewer at the shows. At our last meeting, we discussed how the boards would look and we also talked about the idea of having a physical user experience near the students work, this idea is certainly on the back burner for now but has real potential and could possibly increase our presence at the show.