Thursday 20 December 2012

Creation ADM: Portfolio Review #1


This week I took my portfolio to a place called Creation ADM in Manchester, a design agency who deal with many different types of design work, ranging from Graphic Design and web design to more illustrative arts. I arranged to meet the Creative Director and owner, Gary, and have a review of my portfolio with some of the design team there. I chose this place because they are friends of my Dad, he is in the same industry and building up my contacts list is very important to me. I showed them through my portfolio and explained about each piece and what kind of work it was for. I met Katie and Laura. They started off my talking about my first piece which was my designs for my BMW project. They said it's nice that I've included my best pictures from the brief, and that they liked the colours I had used because "the colours aren't what you'd expect, but they work really well together as a piece" in response to my Bag and T-shirt design. They said I had represented the themes of the brief in my work well, and they could see the message within it. They both really liked my mug design as well, they said my use of pattern was nice, but not to include so many images for one brief in the portfolio for next time, which is fair enough. Although I agreed with them, I am quite unconfident looking at a lot of my work, so I like to be safe and keep only the ones I class as 'good' to be shown to other people. Next in the portfolio was the Zine, And they really liked my drawing and the book itself but they asked why I's used so many paper textures, but after pointing out that I had actually used fabric they understood, and told me next time to perhaps have a clearer shot of the book so it's easier to see details like that, which i definitely agreed with, and plan to change. After the Zine was the Black Swan from the previous year. They commented that I am a "chameleon" and that being diverse is good, and they did bring up that it doesn't look like my other images but they said they were the strongest images in the whole portfolio, as a double page spread and as single images. On the pages were my actual swan, and the magazine cover I'd made. They said I seem to have talent for sewing and that my worked looked like surface design, which a few other people have picked up on too. I think it's because we work very closely with the surface design students. They understood why I had chosen not to include the had, but that they worked nicely as separate images. After that was my One for All Illustration and my One day brief from the end of last year. I talked about how I wasn't too keen on part of the one for all piece, but I included it because it does show that I can draw human forms in my own illustrative way, and that i'm not scared by it. They understood but it turns out that they both seemed to like the image and the mood that it gave off. I showed them the book it was published in and really liked that I had brought some physical pieces with me. They said it makes it better when you bring your things in because it's nicer to physically interact with it rather than just flick through a flat page. And the one day brief they liked too, they said for a days work it's nice to see what you are able to accomplish, although they didn't really look at that one too much. Then after that was my Age UK booklet and cards, this was their favourite because of the story my image told, and they kept saying "awwww". It was nice to see that my image had brought out a feeling in someone unrelated to the charity. They said it was also nice that I had brought the actual booklet in too. Then it was my Totem post animals, and they thought they were really cute characters. They asked about the patterns and they seemed impressed by it. They said next time it would be nice to actually take all the physical things I can, like the swan, the creatures and also sketchbooks so they can see all the thought processes I go through and initial sketches I do. I had actually planned to take more, but I was unsure if they wanted that kind of thing or just wanted to flip through quickly and have a chat. I was surprised because we spent 30 minutes  talking and looking over my work, it was really nice to see people in the industry impressed by my work. I was surprised because I was expecting a lot of heavy criticism but they seemed happy with my work! I also showed them my business cards and they fell in love with them! They liked that I had spent a lot of time making them individually and i should continue that way. I had mentioned earlier that I would like to go into teaching art in schools, and said that "the fact you have skills in lots of areas will be a positive to you because you are capable of teaching skills outside of drawing as well". One of the women took my business cards and said she would contact a friend of hers that was arty like me and had gone down the same path I'm planning to take, to give me some tips, and a little taster of what it's like. She said he was happy in his job and I think it's very important to enjoy what you do. She said that the size of my portfolio was a good choice, they said it was nice to see something that isn't an A2! She said it's very important to choose a portfolio that's the right size for you, but she prefers the smaller ones anyway because they're easier to pass around and it's not hard to carry around when travelling.

Over all I really learnt a lot from this review. For next time I will take everything  that I like and shows off my skills, and I will also do some better prints, because they did mention that my print quality could have been better. They liked that I did all the photography myself and that I was diverse. I know i need to keep my style together a bit more but they told me it will eventually and not to worry about t all too much! I kind of want to go back at the end of the year because they were so nice. I want to show them how I have improved but for now I'll just have to wait and see! 

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