Analogue is another studio based in Leeds, as these are ex studios from the university I want to contact them for advice and even work placement. They look like an exciting and creative studio who do a range of work that demands different skills, as they are situated in Leeds it would be ideal to get some work experience whilst I am still here.

As I'm trying to get myself more exposed as a designer, I have created a Behance account to showcase my work. Although not all of my work is on there at the moment I am hoping as the year progresses it will gradual become a collection of work that I am proud of. This gives me opportunity to get my work online for other creatives to critique and give me feedback on.




Here is a website I built on WordPress in September. It showcases the work I have made so far giving descriptions of the briefs I have made and how I have found the solutions to the briefs. This website is gradually gaining more traffic although I have not made a post in a while, this is something I am going to pick up and add too once university it over. I feel its a good platform to show my work at the best possible quality, it also helped me find my first client who wanted to buy a print for her friend.

This was the first time I had been approached from a member of the public to design something for them. This proved a good experience as I had not communicated as a professional before therefore it gave me the perfect opportunity to act as creative and address the client in a professional manner. Lindsey had spotted a design I had made in second year of uni on a website I created back in September, this was when she contacted me to ask for a print. I gave her the option to pay via paypal and offered a variety of sizes for the prints, this was useful as Lindsey did not know the measurements I had gave her (A4, A3, A2, A1) and me forgetting that I'm a designer who's been conditioned to know these dimensions gave Lindsey more understandable measurements for her to choose from. The process I chose to do was screen printing, I felt this would give the design a more hand crafted feel and giving Lindsey the best quality she could get for her money, it also reduced the cost of me making the brief so there was more profit to be made.

One concern I had was I did not realise the client was from America. I had included the p&p with the print which caused concern when I researched into the prices to send a package to America, this was solved however as I contact Lindsey and explained the situation, she was a very understanding person and wanted to help me as much as possible.



The print screen printed and ready to send!



Lindsey eventually got her print which I am pleased that it got there in one piece.

I visited Something More studio to get some advice from industry professionals. Jon greeted me and we sat down with a coffee and discussed everything his studio had to offer and how they got to the place they are now. Jon was very informative on the process they take starting from client to execution, as it seemed a similar creative process to the one I do at university it was a relief to discover that I may be able to handle work experience in industry. I asked Jon what they look for in other creatives to which he responded with: confidence. He explained how they look for creatives with a spark of some kind that can think and react differently to others, that they must be confident about their work and ideas.

Although the logo resembles a pencil rather than my name, I think it's stronger than the previous logo. With that in mind I want to continue develop the logo until I am satisfied, so far the 'v' and 'a' are clearly visable however, the 'e' is gets slightly lost as the extended crossbar touches the bottom of the 'v' making it look like a 'y'. This can be used for now but will be developed in the near future. A the pencil represents myself as a designer, I felt the colours needed to communicate my physical appearance, therefore I simply went for yellow to reflect my hair and green as I have green eyes.

Elmwood are another studio that is situated in Leeds. After visiting our university for a one day brief I thought it would be beneficial to research into the studio and see what they did. As it stands they appear to be a very established agency that have multiple studios across the world. They offered services such as branding and packaging which looked very creative and professional, this is something I want to focus my practice on so will look further into contacting them to seek advice.

Something More is a studio situated in Leeds. After noticing their work in Leeds train station I decided to investigate into the studio that made it. Something more are a three man studio that has recently opened in the past year, their work consists of various projects including print and branding. This was something of an interest me so my plan is to contact them and get some advice and learn more about what they do.

- First year: How overwhelmed I was with the work load, intensity of course, living independently.
- Learnt new skills such as screen-printing, book binding, InDesign, embossing.
- Always used a form of illustration in my work
- Second year: Very lost and confused as to what I wanted to do
- Lost sense of direction when it came to briefs, struggled to keep on top of work load and produce outcomes I felt confident with
- Explored too many different fields within graphic design, I enjoyed this but it left my more confused as to what I was good at and what I wanted to do

- More stability with health, meaning more stability and foundation for work
- Always been pulled towards the illustration side of briefs
- Found what I am good at to utilise in briefs.
- Better understanding of graphic design and illustration
- Enjoyed the opportunities to collaborate with other students in the college and answer briefs I would not usually go for.
- Helped me get bette at communicating with other creatives to share ideas
- Experience gained with difficult collaborations
- Self promotion improved from last year
- Finally designed a logo and business card I was happy with
- Feel more comfortable using programmes such as Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator.
- Myself as a designer, always been pulled towards illustration and branding.
- Have a love for creative, clever and bold design that tells a story
- Heavily concept driven which sometimes affects the outcome of my work.
Intentions before I leave
- build a portfolio with a body of work that represents myself as a designer and offers a variety of skills.
- Visit more studios, get portfolio feedback from other studios and hopefully some work experience
- Get more experience from live clients
- Utilise the uni's resources, screen printing!! I am going to miss having the university's facilities so accessible and free to use, therefore the briefs I have left to do will hopefully make use of the facilities.
- Have fun whilst I can! Not long left and so far third year has been my favourite year yet therefore I want to keep on top of my work and enjoy it as much as I can whilst I can.

- Looking into studios in Leeds as I would like to continue living here once graduated
- Visiting Berlin over the holidays so it would be useful to visit some studios

1.Complete a short statement about yourself.
I'm an independent designer who loves to collaborate. Using illustration and mixed media has formed many skills to reach the solution to creative problems at a professional standard.