Moving onto level 5

Moving on in level 5 I want to continue to push myself to use traditional printing methods and experiment more. I want to concentrate on Publication Design as it is something that I am most interested in and enjoy the most. I also want to look at branding as I had many independent briefs this year from people asking me to give them logos and identity. I also still like promotional design as it is important to many areas.

Final Outcome for self branding

For my final outcome for my self branding I printed my notebook designs onto all brightly coloured papers to show the various book genres that you can read and also so there was lots of choice for people to pick there favourite colours. I saddle bound my books as it is a new method I came across that I liked. I choose the font Bromello regular as it is a type that I like as I like the Calligraphy Style. On the back of the books it reads Kate Higgins Designs in the century schoolbook font, a font that is commonly used in literature. 

I also made some bookmarks with the same illustrations and messages as I love to read and believe it is an important way to get inspiration and gain knowledge.

Overall I am happy with my self branding however next year I wish to expand with my ideas and designs depending on my interests and extra knowledge I will gain.

A Presentation on Myself

Something that has never been a strong point for me is confidence and speaking in a crowd. I am a quieter person who usually thinks that everyone else's work is better than my own. This is something I wanted to work on this year, I have been working in groups and being forced to talk and voice my opinions to others. I really struggled to get my opinions herd when doing the first group task, however since then my confidence has grown and I have been working and talking with people more. Something that I had to do in PPP is do a 7 min presentation about myself. The days leading up to it were full of nerves. I was worried I would not be able to speak or that people would not understand what I was trying to say. However after doing the presentation I was very proud of myself as I was so interested and engaged with what I was talking about I was not so nervous and people said I was really easy to listen to and my voice was relaxing and understandable. Next year I wish to gain confidence and hopefully feel more confident when presenting.

I made a presentation that had mainly pictures but included a small line of words at the
top middle like where the title is on every page of a classic book. The presentation was
black and white like a book.

Learning Trust Logo

Recently I was contacted by a school in the area I live to create the logo for there learning trust. They needed the logo to be created over a few days and gave me the guidelines to include 'Better Together', North Sunderland Learning Trust on a banner and to have an image of children holding hands to show support. I illustrated a logo and made a few colour and font variations to show them, they were really happy with the outcome and are having a meeting next week to determine which logo is best suited.

Doing this task really helped my time management as I had many tasks I had to do at the same time and I still choose to do this task even with short notice. It is also getting my name as a designer out there and the client said they would ask me to do more design work for them soon.

Branding Someone Else

We were given the task to brief someone else in level 4 graphics on our self branding so that we could see other peoples ideas and so we could experience being a client. I asked Harrison Wheatley to come up with some sketches for a logo for my self branding. 

He created a logo for me that was in his style of sharp shapes and using my initials. This task was good for me to see how someone with another style will represent me. 

I was also asked to create some logo ideas for Josh Storey. I talked to him and made some notes on some of the things he said about himself. I then created some Sketches and digitalised the ideas I liked the best. I also gave an business card idea. When I sent it to him he said he liked my ideas.

My favourite Briefs

So far in level 4 I have done many briefs so I have enjoyed more than others. One of my favourite briefs was a competition brief for the guardian to create a book cover for a Agatha Christie Classic.

I enjoyed being given an random book so I could research it and get to know the story line to inform my cover design. I also like briefs that allow us to be most creative and have the least guide lines.
I also enjoyed design principles when we got to create our own publications and secret 7.

Creating my self branding

After thinking deeply about something I could create I knew I wanted to give people something they could use and benefit from and not just something they would through away. Something that I love is notebooks. I collect them and have a shelf full, so many that I do not write in them all. I love to make notes and do sketches. It is important to write down ideas when they come to you and write down new things you have learned. You can also use notebooks to write lists to keep yourself organised.

So I decided to create notebooks as my self branding so that people can use them to benefit themselves. I decided to break down key things I use notebooks for and create 3 book styles for them. I decided to create them in a similar style to Coralie Bickford-Smith who's design I love.

I created Butterflies as they grow and develop from caterpillars. Light bulbs as gaining knowledge and puzzle pieces to represent different people coming together to create a full picture.