Portfolio Review with a Post Graduate

I chose Alan Dalby as my 1st portfolio review this year. I chose him because he is new in the world and he is experiencing right now what I will experience soon, so I wanted to prepare myself. I actually had to send Alan my old portfolio since I hand't got round to updating it just yet, so after he gives me his advice I suppose it will help me redesign my Portfolio in a much better way that will show off my work for what it really is. I decided to do the review over email since everything is digital nowadays, and it will be a good experience to see how different things are to translate.

"Hi Rachel

Lovely to see your portfolio and I look forward to seeing all your work at the end of year show!

Theres a few easy things to change with your portfolio that will make you look a lot more professional.

These small problems can detract from your work but can be easily solved.

The most obvious thing I noticed, is that you've used a portrait portfolio. 

I would strongly recommend that if you're going to send your portfolio digitally, to use screen ratio.

Obviously keep using the portrait portfolio for the physical copy, but avoid sending digital portfolios as portrait. 

Let me explain a bit why this doesn't show your work to it's best!

When I open the file, I get a big band of pixelated birds across the screen as the pdf stretches the fill the screen.

This doesn't sell your work as well as you could!

It also causes the problem of having to resize the PDF. 

This makes the work small on the screen and also will frustrate people who want to look at your work.

Obviously you want people to really enjoy looking through your portfolio, so this small change will help that a lot. 

(Also, it's a lot easier to flip through pages with a landscape portfolio on screen.

Portrait makes you have to scroll and doesn't display pages as individual while pages.)

I know that will be a bit of a pain to sort out, but I would really recommend it before you start sending your portfolio out digitally. 

The second thing that I would really recommend changing, Is to put a bit of detail about each project.

For instance the second page,  "BMW WHF, t-shirt design"

I don't really know what BMW WHF is, and it would be great if you could put just a few words, explaining a little bit about each project.

Remember that you're not going to be with everyone when they see your work.

Each page design looks nice and minimal and is laid out well with a nice level of white space. 

I think I'd personally get rid of the key line around the bird on each page. It looks a bit weird in the box and takes the focus away from the work.

On that subject, I'm not sure you need the fourth page (with the three strips on birds) as they're on each page, as well as on the title page in the strips.

Photographs of the design on a mug, might be a good replacement If you feel you need it.

Right, I think I'm going to leave it there.

I strongly believe I've given you good advice and having taken an hour to write this (time slipped away), I'd really appreciate if you'd follow at least my first couple of points.

Obviously It's your decision but If you decide to revise the portfolio, and you'd like any more advice/opinions, feel fee to send me the update and I'd be glad to help you.

Alan"

I enjoyed reading Alans views, because it's completely different to the other reviews i've had. it focuses a lot on the design of the portfolio, which is something other people didn't take as much notice of, and I do think it is important. After Alan had mentioned the portrait layout is not good, I was thinking of how I could make it work in a landscape view instead. I had chosen portrait because most of my work was actually shot portrait when i was working on it last semester. It will be a challenge to get everything to fit in landscape, but I know i need to do this. I also agree with the extended descriptions of the images. I never thought that I would be in a situation where i could explain something about each image, so it's hit a key point i have clearly missed. 

I am working on getting my designs on actual products at the moment, but since i want to focus all my time on my Final Major Project i'm struggling to find a whole day to do this, I still have made no plans for this, but I have to do it. Last semester I did buy mugs & transfers, but I was told (after i had applied the transfers to the mugs) that the transfers would not be able to be glazed. So this let me down in some ways. I must schedule this. 

The lines around the work I've began to notice after Alan pointed it out. I would definitely agree. I'm even thinking as far as removing the birds completely, and just having my description. I don't want it to be too fancy or else we won't know where to look!

Thank you Alan Dalby!

Final Major Project!

Wehey to no more journals and presentations! Ha!

Today marks the first actual day of the beginning of my Final major project! I'm still feeling pretty good about the fact that I got a really good grade for my first semester, i earned myself a 2.1! I finally feel as though I'm not holding myself back, it's really a nice fresh feeling.

I've also been thinking over the holidays what kind of a topic to base my FMP (Final Major Project) on. Although I know what I want to address I'm not sure how it's going to be, because my subject isnt very specific. So far I know I'm going to base my project on Social status and Suppression within society, it's definitely linked in with my Journal subject. The indians were suppressed for many years by the Western people, and forced to be and do things that was not 'their way', which sadly we also fall victim to within out own society! What i'm trying to get at is the pressure people put themselves and others under in order to make them conform to the way people want to see them, even though people tell us we are free, we are not. How can we be free if our choices are 'conform, or be outcast'?

"We all love freedom. We all love liberty. All that I wish to be is a free bird. However strong may be our wishes, or however right may be our opinions, there are people out there who try to keep us in shackles. People who try to keep us in bound, while trying to be free themselves. People who love freedom, but don't wish to share the freedom,"

"One is either free or one is not. The concept of freedom is an absolute. After all, one cannot be moderately dead or moderately loved or moderately free. It must always remain a matter of either or."


- The Duchess

So, I'm going to address the problem, which is vary vast in a way where i can connect to the 'victims' and people who are in desperate need of help! I want to help them obtain a sense of freedom and help them learn how to ignore everyone and not be afraid to be themselves! I feel very strongly towards this subject because I have been in that situation and you can feel very trapped. In more serious cases of these kinds of things, people are committing suicides, developing eating disorders, becoming afraid to even go out because of the way people are expecting us to be, a lot of pressure is generated from the media, and celebrity role models.

I went out into the city and decided to start by asking individuals who look confident and different, because i want to know what makes them not afraid to put themselves out there in a different light. I wanted to get some really nice quotes to inspire some sketches and perhaps some ideas for later on in the project, to inspire others. The day was very successful, I met some really wonderful people, they were all very inspirational, and had very insightful chats linking to the cause and effects of the issue. 

I've only been doing some sketches linking to the quotes and issue so far, but I like where it's going.

Self Publishing

I guess this post has turned out to be a bit more personal that I had hoped but it's still a good self reflection and a good plan of action for me to have. Self publishing is very important. These past few weeks I've been trying to get myself out there a little bit more, and trying not to let my fear of other people criticising my work or insulting my work get to me. Having made 20 business cards and setting up a page on Facebook, I really have to face my fears now. In mind of setting up my own website, and the website research I did, I've set up a page, which is actually a Facebook page. Although I can't completely customise it, I've tried to make it look professional and a bit interactive. I know Facebook is though of as unprofessional, I think it's a good way to get yourself out there. 99.9% of people nowadays have a Facebook account, and you can add them to your own personal page, and spread it throughout the internet. It is very accessible. I've managed to get myself 60 followers, and hopefully as more people like it, more people will come and have a look. I have also set up a Linked In account and applied all of my work there too, as well as having a more personal twitter page that I send sneak peeks of my work before it is finished on, as well as a couple of other things too. I like to keep my pages professional but personable, so that it's easy to relate to without sounding like a child getting hyper over every thought they have during the day and writing it down. Twitter is good because you can target the audience you want with hashtags and spread your work to others very easily. I've noticed a lot of successful designers like Kath Kidston and Laura Ashley have their own twitter and Facebook pages, it's cool to think that these people we look up to are just a message away, it feels like you're getting a more personal side of the person rather than the professional front you see on adverts /  other websites, it's nice to see the human side! Hopefully  I'll be taking over the internet with my illustrations soon as well! I will eventually have my own domain set up. My dad owns a web design company so I count myself as lucky to have someone with knowledge in that area to help me out a bit and be able to make it completely my own without breaking my bank balance, and after all, what kind of a student can afford to have a website professionally designed!?

My Business Cards!

So if you're reading this, hopefully you are interested in my work, and however you have found yourself reading this, maybe you can check out these sites I've been talking about? :)

Facebook.com/RedJayDesign
Twitter.com/_RedJay

So you're probably wondering, why Red Jay?
Because because because becauuuuuuse, I think it's important to have a nice name for a business! My initials are R J F, but a few old friends call me RJ, and I love Blue Jays (favourite bird ever) so naturally it's red jay. It's my name, kind of, and it's what i'm about. I love animals!

Nikita Austin: Portfolio Review #2

This portfolio review was a bit different because this was I did over the internet. I had planned to send it to my old tutor Nikita Austin, because she is teaching a Graphic Design ND and she actually taught me in college, she also studied illustration at Stockport college so I thought who better to chose! She is in a similar place to where I'd like to be in a few years time. So I sent her my portfolio and this is her response to my work.

"Hi Rachel

Thanks for that, it is lovely to see your work and how much you have progressed at Stockport, it really is a credit to you, work looks great.

Okay here goes.... It's all very diverse at the minute. You are 'dipping your toe' into a bit of everything- drawing, 3D pieces, collage, digital etc... which I love but you might have to start thinking about which one of those best represents 'you' and what you enjoy doing and focussing on that? Maybe this will come naturally towards the end of your 3rd year.

My favourite piece is the one with all the lovely blue birds. How did you make them? It's just beautiful and I can see it working on a greetings card or even wallpaper and bags etc. I would fill my walls with this 

I also really love the Little White Lies cover.... it's very striking and the composition and framing looks great.

I do think there is something really interesting about your little 3D pieces you do aswell. They are different and quite intriguing?? The black swan thingy is very good. It reminds of some strange little abstract sculpture. A little bit Joseph Beuys drawings, the way it is quite dismembered and fluid.

Just one last thing... your digital portfolio is a bit all over the place in terms of opening up different folders/ images. Could you not set all your pages in InDesign and then save it as a PDF? That way you can add all your little bits of text where you want them and it will be nice and easy to flick through? Completely ignore this if you just sent me this in a rush, I know you were having trouble sending it!

Hope this helps 

Nikita Austin"

I definitely agree with her, I think my work does need to be narrowed down, I do want people to look at my work and be like "Yeah, that's Rachael Felstead's work" but also I want to refine it and make it really the best I can do. I think so far, with it being the end of 2012 and half way through my last year, I think I'm close to being there. I've really tried to keep myself within a certain style without restricting myself. At first with the Zine project, I looked at what I had done in the past, an tried to think how I'd do it, but I just decided to do it and it went really well for a first time. The with the BMW project at first i struggled trying to think about how to do it, and time was passing and i was becoming worried, and then i realised I should just do it anyway because I can't let this defeat me, and it sort of came together. I always had it in my mind but I didn't let it control me. Then I started on my Fishtank with NO problems. I do think I need a little more work and refinement, but I am progressing and that's what is important. I agree that at the end of the 3rd year it will be natural to me!

I am really pleased that the Mug design is your favourite! I seem to have a lot of good feedback on it. It helps me see clearer because after looking at my own work so much and over analysing it, I really get a clouded vision, and it's good to have reassurance that i'm heading in the right direction.

The Little White Lies cover is a strong piece yes, but I missed out on making it more 'me' and I think that if i knew how at the time, it could have fitted in more, but I am still proud of it. It proves that accidents really are good!

I love doing the creatures and making animals, I just feel like my sewing skills and knowledge hold me back from making my pieces as professional as they could be. In my spare time I really hope to improve these skills, because in the future I would like to have my own range of clothing, home decorations and other things like that, even if it's just for myself. 

Yes my digital portfolio is a bit of a mess! I do have the actual one on InDesign but for some reason when I save it as a PDF it doesn't open after. This is a technical issue i wish to resolve very soon on a different version of InDesign, as mine is very very old! 

Nikita has been a really great help through out my years at college and will always be a role model to me. She has a good style and continues it in her own time, and is in a teaching role which is definitely something I am going to continue with after I leave.

So thank you, Nikita! 

Some of Nikita's work.

From: http://nikitaaustin.blogspot.co.uk/

Go see her page, it's so good!

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!