This module has prepared me for real life employment and helped me gain a plan of action ready for future employment. It has allowed me to focus on career progressions, marketing, self promotion, internships and relevant employment. I was able to do this by creating a design cv, updating my traditional cv and creating a business card that represented me well. I also managed to create an online presence for myself where clients and future employers can find me or visit when looking at my portfolio.

I enjoyed the process of this module as it guided me on what future employers will be looking for. I enjoyed the business card task as we were able to hold our designs in the end and see what we created. I enjoyed looking at the different point companies such as vistaprint, banana print, moo, printed.com and instant print, I also watched a review on the print companies to see which one would be best for me. The link for the YouTube video I watched is below.

After watching this video I decided banana print would be the best company for me to print my business cards from. However even though I did exactly what the website guided me on in terms of bleed and the frame my artwork still came back trimmed off from the edge making my business cards look uneven.

I enjoyed the CV task because, I was able to think about my strengths rather than my weaknesses. I also enjoyed creating a design cv as it’s something different rather than the more corporate traditional cv. The design cv instantly shows the type of person you are and where as the traditional cv I believe doesn’t portray your individuality. The task I found the most difficult throughout this module was the 5 year roadmap as I had to think ahead 5 years and I personally like to live in the moment. I thought about all my ambitions and attempted to fit into 5 years, it would be a great accomplishment to make them happen. I believed this module came too close with my other FMP modules which is what I struggled with towards the deadline, however I was able to manage my time appropriately and powered through the deadline.

This posts consists of the different tasks we did as a class over the module. The images below is the paper research that I discussed with my tutors Talya and Cath during the first half of the module. We did this when creating our business cards to explore which material of paper would be best for us. we looked at the different point sizes of the paper and thickness of it. The screenshots below are of the paper company called G.F Smith.

The next task that we discussed as a class was the resume video we watched as a class. This was to inspire our thinking and what we could possibly create for our cv. The CV could be traditional or a Design CV. We could also design both. The links we looked at are below.

https://www.grb.uk.com/blog/a-traditional-or-creative-cv

https://www.theguardian.com/careers/2015/aug/17/how-to-choose-the-right-cv-format

https://www.theguardian.com/careers/2016/jun/22/arts-graduates-creativity-humanities-degree-career

https://www.theguardian.com/careers/2016/may/04/how-to-get-cv-noticed-recruitment

The next task I participated in was the draft interviews we completed as groups of three I worked with two of my class mates called Zain and Dean. During the draft interviews we would have one of us being the interviewer, the interviewee and the writer. The writer would write how well we did and what we didn’t do so well on. This would help us establish our strengths and weaknesses and prepare us for real interviews in future. The image of the interview questions asked are below.

As one of the class tasks we also looked into jobs in our field and applied for them using our cv’s. The jobs I looked into and applied for are below. I looked at jobs such as graphic designer for retailers such as boohoo, pretty little thing and River Island. I also looked at UCAS PGCE guidelines and requirements as that’s something I would like to do in future and eventually go into teaching Graphic Design.

For this task we had the option of building an actual website or a social media page as a website. I went for a social media based website as that’s what’s used the most today and it’s a popular platform to market for your company/work. Your page automatically attracts the people who are more likely to visit your page through their suggestions and through the images they look at everyday, instagram tracks what you often click on or look for and bring that to your attention on your explorer page on the instagram app. There are also many growing businesses based on instagram today which was also why I decided to go with that option.

This is the instagram profile icon. I named it Lorem Epsom during the beginning stage of creating my account as I was designing my page to see what the page would initially look like. Using my logo as inspiration, I created my icon with the same type and image texture.

I created a circle shape and created a clipping mask with the ink stain image to fill the circle.

I then added my type in and made the fill white like my business card logo.

I added an outline shape of my circle to the inside of the shape like the border around my business card. I used the gradient for the outline.

I then grouped all my layers together.

This is my final profile icon.

I then went on to adding my bio and profile icon onto my account. I also changed my name from Lorem Epsom to my name

Due to the limitations of characters I was able to place my bio on my instagram story that expires in 24 hours.

I managed to add a highlight to my page which means I could add my expired story to it, so anyone that visits my page can see it.

I then began adding my latest work to my page.

The link in there will direct you to my social media platform where you can see all my posts.

During this session we began updating our current cv’s I first began updating my traditional cv and then went onto designing one. Below are my updated traditional cv’s.

The link above was my traditional cv to begin with.

The second link was slightly updated, after speaking with my tutor David he advised me that my CV looks a lot neater when the type is in bold rather than underlined.

The final CV is my updated traditional CV. Following my tutors advice, I believe this CV is a lot more neater and cleaner to look at. I then went onto looking at other design cv’s to help me gain inspiration to design my own. The ones I looked at and collected are placed below. I also annotated what I admired and didn’t like about them.

I also had a look at the design of these cv’s as I admired the layout. It looked modern and more like an ‘ad’ rather than a cv and that’s the look I wanted to go for with mine. more in particular I went for the design seen in the bottom right corner as I admired that one the most and would like my cv to also look like that. I then began creating my Digital Design CV in adobe illustrator CC.

I began with creating an outline using the square shape tool at the top of my page and filled it in black, I then created a box and used no fill to only have the outline. I placed my name and my title using the front avenir next and aligned it to the right.

Here I am seen resizing my text.

I then placed a square shape to show where my image will be placed.

I then placed my image into the box.

Here I am seen placing a box filled in black in this I will place my skills. I used the font Avenir Next in Bold.

I then created a box where I would place what my skills are and the different languages that I can speak.

I chose to fill the shape in with the colour mustard as that colour goes well with black and it’s also my favourite colour.

Over here I am placing some text again using the font Avenir next. I placed the word softwares as I am going to explain which softwares I am most aware of and good at.

Over here I placed a guide to make sure all my text was in line and I continued to use the typeface Avenir next. These three softwares I believe are my strengths.

Over here I am seen placing a basic line, whilst increasing the point size this line will measure how familiar I am and in my opinion how good I am using that particular software. Below I am seen placing two of the same lines and grouping the shapes.

I then chose to add the languages I know as that is also a skill and would be considered useful in a workplace.

Over here I am seen looking for the character play option using my main menu. Below are the images of me placing my languages text. I then went on to creating a circle shape and filling it in black to show my levels and knowledge in the languages. I used the shape tool and the colour filler to fill in my shapes. I then sized them down and placed them along side each other, whilst grouping them so they stay together.

I then began typing the information on my traditional cv out, regarding my education and my work experience. I continued to use the typeface Avenir Next. I also made sure whilst placing my type I aligned my text with the sides of the page.

I drew out a box and filled it in black. In this I will place my contact preferences. I also used the email, phone and instagram icons that I used for my business cards in my cv. I used the circles I drew out for my language skills levels and changed the colour to mustard to use as bullet points against my form of contact.

Below is my final cv design.

During this session I went onto creating my business card, I used illustrator and photoshop to create my business cards and to mock them up. I first collected a few business cards as inspiration in order to create mine.

I then went online to look for some textures that I could use behind my text on my business card.

I created a business card template in Adobe Illustrator CC, I downloaded a typeface called made canvas to use on my business card. I also placed the ink image into illustrator and placed them in a way using the rotate tool so that they would be symmetrical when printed. I then found an image online to as I was hoping to place some gold foil flakes on my business card to give it a more trendy and modern texture.

I then placed gold foil flakes onto my business card and rotated them in different angles.

I then began placing my contact preference icons up on my business card. I found icons online and went around them in photoshop in order to paste them on to my business card. I then went onto adding my contact details using the same font I used as my name previously. The image icons I used are placed below.

As I analysed my business card with the gold flakes on I felt it could be better without them so I erased them and began playing around with text style variant having to copy and paste my name and make one into a shape in order to add a variant on it.

This a screenshot of me concerting my type into a shape, by creating outlines around my text.

I then made my text white and placed it on top of my gradient type to make it seem like the gradient type underneath was a multicoloured drop shadow.

I then went onto creating a gradient outline box as a border for my business card.

I then chose to make the multicoloured variant a black and white effect by adding a drop shadow behind the text as I felt the multicoloured variant text was taking too much attention away from the business card, making it hard to read. The image above is the front design of my business card.

Below is the back of my business card. I used the font avenir next for the types rather than using the same typeface as the title as it looked too much. I then began to digitally mark my business card up on photoshop. I dowloaded a business card mockup to upload my artwork on there.

I pasted my front design into the mockup file and placed it above the appropriate layer. Using the free transform tool I also resized my artwork to fit the frame.

I then pasted the back of my design in and repeated the steps as the front design. Below is the final image of my digital mockup.

Below is a screenshot of the frame the print company banana print uses in order to set artworks to print as I tried to upload my artwork the dimensions of my business card weren’t correct therefore I had to paste the screenshot into the illustrator file and resize my business card artwork to the same size as the frame provided on banana print in order to send it to print. Below are the screenshots of my business card resizing issue.

Once I sorted this issue out I then went onto sending my artwork to print and received a confirmation email from banana print. Below are the screenshots of my emails received from them and the different options I went with for my business card.

Below are the images of my business cards when they arrived.

Once they arrived I realised banana print had cut off the edge of my design too close to my frame making my artwork look uneven this was due to the art work going over the bleed line. I will pay closer attention to this in future.

5 Year Roadmap

For this task, we thought 5 years ahead and where we would like to be within our professional and personal lives. It’s a reflection of our goals and achievements and what we would have liked to achieve by then. I found this task difficult as we don’t stop to think where we want to actually be in 5 years time, the focus is always today or the near tomorrow. I am struggling in completing this task as I’m not too sure where I want to be in 5 years time, within my professional life.

I completed two drafts, one of which I kept incredibly vague and one with a lot more detail. I have left them both below to see what I went from to what I discovered about myself.

I do believe my final draft is much better, as I’ve also mentioned the negative impact of my personal life and how it can impact my professional life. A more specific timeframe and I have set myself more realistic goals. The advantages of this task is I believe I was able to find out a lot about myself, set myself goals to work towards and look forward to the future. The disadvantages of this task I believe is if I didn’t meet my goal I would be disappointed in myself as we don’t know what tomorrow will bring, equally the pressure to get to that stage and feelings of failure if not reached, I also believe I have narrowed myself of options due to deciding in haste for a task, in my opinion I think decisions such as these take time to think about. I also believe this task goes against nature as no one truly knows what tomorrow.

Designer Bio

Who you are and what do you do – short synopsis.

This session I focused on writing a short synopsis that presents me and my work to the world. It needs to be simple, engaging and precise. Introduce myself and talk briefly about where I live, and my education to date. Tell potential clients exactly what I do and keep it short. Once I have completed this it will go up onto my social media/website that I will create for this module. Below is what I came up with bearing in mind instagram’s bio section has a word count limit therefore it has to be short and in bullet points. I have left evidence below of that. I’ve also shown some visual research of other graphic design instagram users and their bio sections.

I will explain how I combat this in another blog post underneath my website task.

This module aims to provide me with a clear idea of how I would like to proceed professionally after graduation. Whether I am seeking an internship, further study, freelancing opportunities or a permanent position, the aim is to develop a sound strategy that will help make my goals a reality.