Live Brief - Theatre Orb

Got a mail from Craig (Theatre Orb) in the middle of the week saying he and his collegue like a couple of my designs and asked for a few amendments to be made.

These are the designs that I have reworked with Craigs mail:

>>>>>>Hi James

Many thanks again for your designs.

We especially like the black and white one on Page 5 and wondered if you would mind having a go at reversing the colours so we would have white writing on a black or grey background to see what that looked like? Also, we had concerns that the logo would not print up as well when it is small, it seems to lose its' 3D so wondered if this could be taken into consideration?

We also liked the images on Page 8 in that the word 'theatre' was written inside the word 'orb', however, when printing this page the word 'theatre' was lost so wondered if you could play around with making 'theatre' bolder? We also really like the font but wondered if you could try it with a black or dark background with white writing, but with the background having different levels of shading almost as if the word 'orb' was emerging from shadow and/or some kind of glow in the background as if the glow was coming off the orb somehow.

Hope this is OK James....

We're being pressed by the Lighthouse to submit a logo/copy to them asap so we would need this as soon as possible, if that's possible....

Thanks again

Craig>>>>>>

Student Power

It was good to see a group of students had won a prize for "Sustain Our Nation". The students from Glasgow held meetings with resident of an estate in the city to identify areas of common interest.

It is good to know that you don't have to be a designer with 10 years experience to have good, workable concepts that can be well executed and effective.

Signing Up.

Following Emma's advice I have now created a profile on LinkedIn and also signed into designweek.

I read design week often in the library but this way I can keep up to date with industry easier. LinkedIn is THE place to be and Emma said it's important to get ourselves an account so we can find people of interest and also they can find you!

The impact of Emma

Emma from Aquent paid a visit to our course this week and with it woke a lot of people up with her attitude. She was fun, interesting and bullish from the start and I think a few students weren't sure how to take her.

Her advice on getting into industry was excellent. She simply laid down the facts of how to get noticed, how to put together a strong c.v and how to talk about your work.

She also showed examples of what not to do with your c.v and explained that many creatives cross the line of quirkiness to crap far too easily.

Keep things simple. If you have a piece of work in your portfolio that you are not proud of, take it out. Never start by saying something negative about your work and always start and finish on a strong piece design work.

I spoke with her about working abroad and she also gave me some contact names for publishing houses and and few leads for other things too.

I was hoping that she would offer me a small work placement or similar as apparently she offered a few last year, but it wasn't to be.

Having professionals form industry come and talk is something I would like to see more of. We have had two in the last week, and I know the tutors are trying for more. I would like to see a designer from each discipline visit if possible, so students can get a real inside look at where they might go to work.

To 3rd Year or not to 3rd Year

I called student financial services today to inquire about government funding for the 3rd year - should I not be offered a six figure salary as Creative Director at Why Not Associates this summer of course.

Apparently I am eligible for help from the government, although trying to get a straight answer out of them is always near impossible. I was under the impression that I was only eligible for 3 years funding and because I completed a year at Bournemouth Uni many moons ago (12years?) I would only get funding for the 2 years of this course.

I'm sure all the goal posts will be moved by the time a new government is voted in and more red tape wound around the system (things have probably changed in between my phone call earlier and me writing this) but it's great news.

I would still prefer to go into industry this summer as I'm keen to earn money and am more than a bit fed up of being a mature student but, looking at how many jobs are actually out there (in case you were wondering - very few) I might stay on another year to improve my knowledge and let the Industry get up on its feet again. It's got to be better than than job centre!

The downside is, I definitely have to complete the essay for Dr. Anna. Oh well...so, "Gender in advertising and its effect on the postmodern consumer..."

Anna Steinberg

Anna came to talk to us today about becoming a freelance illustrator. I can't draw to save my life but the general principles of her talk apply to anyone who is freelancing.

A lot of the information was a little "simple" like remembering to take a contact name for someone if they offer you work etc., but the part about exchanging contracts was interesting.

She was keen to stress too how important it is to keep all your finances in order and showed how she keeps track of her money, how much she is owed and similar. It fitted nicely in with the finance talk from the Entrepreneurs Club from Monday evening.

It was a reassurance to see how she first went about promoting herself simply by emailing art directors with a short and sweet couple of lines and a link to her site. She did say that she graduated in 1994 and these days Art Directors would be expecting something slightly more sophisticated.

She also stressed how important it was to calculate what you were being offered set against the amount of work expected. She was asked to do 22 illustrations for £1700 but refused as it worked out at around only £75 per illustration, but its easy to see how you can be blinded by the offer of nearly £2000.

Tomorrow we have someone from Aquent coming to look at our portfolios and give advice, and I think that will be more appropriate for me and I'm looking forward to getting some feedback.

Entrepreneurs club - financial workshop.

I have just returned home from a financial workshop provided by the at the Entrepreneurs Club at the Enterprise Pavilion. I missed the marketing workshop a few weeks ago, but attended this one as I need to understand the financial side of keeping a business for my involvement with Panda On A Bike and it will also be valuable for the future if I have my own company.

We covered accounts, taxation, insurance and raising finance. We also went through basic principles of book keeping, cash books and invoicing.

It s not exactly a subject to get excited about but it is essential to understand these elements for the future.