Contacting Designers, Little Message Contact Books Part 1

This year is an important year for contacting people. I wanted to be able to contact people in a way which will stand out and resemble me a a person. My idea is inspired by Michael Lester's Worlds Smallest Portfolio. It was his portfolio made into a tiny book with small images and one sentence for each and it was hugely success because it was so different.

I want to represent my love of publications by sending a letter in a small books, but not the worlds smallest book! This will catch the attention of designers and be something they can keep on their desk to keep me in their mind.

My first go at creating a small message was for Alecs task which gave us a week to contact someone. I wanted to contact Australian book cover designer Allison Colpoys asking if she could give me to feedback on some of my cover designs. I could not find her address so send it to the Jacky Winter Group who represent her as they are also based in Melbourne were she is from.

I felt it was a good and interesting way to share a message but felt it lacked look wise therefore for the next book I changed the size up slightly and used the same stamps I used for self branding inside.

The second book I created was for designer at 72&Sunny Wendy Depart. She is based in Amsterdam and I asked her if me and the PUB collective could come and interview her for our first issue of our zine in February. She said that would be okay so I wanted to send her a little message in a book to say thank you. I felt the style of the stamps made the book feel more personal as it relates to my branding. I like to start my books by Saying hello and including a picture of the designer and myself as this makes the book noticeably more personal this is something I want to continue. I also created a Belly band to hold the book together which is decorated with my fingerprints which also links to myself, I want to continue this so the contact books look more like a collection.

My Self Branding

Now I am in my Final year and am promoting myself more as a designer I need to figure out how to brand myself. This is something I have always struggled with but now I feel like I really know what I am interested in and what about myself I need to promote. 

 As a designer I am very personal. I always try and add handmade elements into any work and use interesting methods that I can scan and edit digitally. I also put my most care and effort into the projects by knowing as much as I can about the project and believing in the message I am communicating. I want to show this by creating a handmade logo. I have never been able to choose a colour that describes me perfectly. However after working on a project I found two colours that represents me together. 

After a talk with my tutor I found that when people ask what type of a designer I am I will say Identity, mainly within book covers, publication design and campaigns.

In one of my previous projects I created an art piece on identity within disability using finger prints. I loved this small project and wanted to use the finger print to resemble my own identity in self branding. I also wanted to show my hands on creativity by using stamps to create my name/type.

I used the colours red and blue as it was used within that project but also because the colours 

contrast. I love to travel and in the future see myself working around the world, however my

 self branding resembles the British flag with its colours which shows my pride for where I am 

from, but only subtly.

Glug, Things I wish I knew at 18

Last year I went to the Glug event and really enjoyed the atmosphere and listening to designers talk useful. So this year I knew I wanted to go again especially when I heard it was on the topic of 'Things I wish I knew at 18' I thought it would be interesting to here some advice from older designers to younger designers starting off. I made some notes on all the talks of what was interesting and useful to me.

Lisa Maltby

 

• Its okay to be different 
• She is on Kickstarter, with a children's book
• Being Cheeky will get you everywhere 
• Absolutely everyone is Winging it!
• Feel the fear and do it anyway.

I now follow Lisa's Instagram and have been keeping an eye on her Kickstarter projects.

Kyle Wilkinson

• Embrace all the briefs and projects that you do
• Just because its successful doesnt mean its right for you.
• Time is your enemy.

This man gave good advice and it was fun to hear about his journey

Ashton Wesley

• Embrace the challenge 

• What uni is actually for....

> Leave your comfort zone

>Fill your tool box and create stuff

>Build a support system

Lou Mycroft

• Brene Brown
• Work is a lot more than about money
• Change the world
• Look for the positives

It was interesting to here from someone older as she talked about what design used to be like and how much different it is

Russ Poulter

• Web designer 
• Flo design
• Push for it to be better

A funny man with a funny presentation

Eleanor Snare

• Relationships are everything, (you are never alone)
• Boring stuff is surprisingly important
• Dont ignore the causes of mental health problems
• Lighten up, find joy in moments
• You are worthy of love and belonging

Overall I love going to Glug events because I get to learn about people I have never seen or heard off the themes are always helpful and fun and the atmosphere makes it very approachable to talk to all the creatives who talk and are in the audience!