Tuesday 21 February 2017

Challenging the system: Footprint

The most interesting fact about footprint is that they are a cooperative of individuals with shared goals, which makes them boss-free, something I find quite admirable as it requires discipline, compromise and to be self-demanding.

It's interesting to see how their values and their vision of the world, despite having nothing to do with design, shapes the artistic work they do. Every aspect of what they do has had a consideration, and everything needs to have a cause. For example, a percentage of the salary goes to a charity, they make discounts to other co-ops, etc.

YCN and Thirsty Planet Talk

YCN talk was quite illustrative showing all the things they do apart from running the student competitions. They also help new people trying to get their piece of cake in the industry to actually do it... which sounded to me like paying for networking. Not like this is something negative, but I think is a more clear way to see it, as I found their business a bit over-explained.

In regards of competition briefs they showed, I found very interesting how a designer decided to use American accent for a piece of work as he/she found it more familiar to the audiences. Also, they encouraged us to make "shareable" content (content that people would like to share to send a message to their contacts) and go beyond the brief of what can be done in the future with it. This is something I would have liked to know for studio brief 1 of responsive.

Thirsty planet also talked to us. The most interesting part was when they explained us how important it is to reflect the values of a company in a product and in what they believe on the designs.

Buttercrumble

Buttercrumble's talk was very interesting as they pointed out what they consider the 3 most important points to keep in mind in order to be active in the industries: a good portfolio (this always confuses me, as I don't know if I have this), connections and exposure.

They also pointed out how important it is to collaborate with people out of your own discipline. In order to this, the steps are: research, identify what you can offer and excite them speaking about what you love. To do this, it's important to identify what platforms work best depending on what is the type of work being produced.

They, and also the others that gave talks that day, insisted in the importance of Twitter. That made me give it another chance, which has given me the chance to chat with the film director and writer Antonio Boneu.

The studio for the people: Studio 12

Studio 12 is a studio that I already knew about. In fact, some years ago I spent a couple of days over there asking them questions and trying out their camera. I found out about them through the project Writing Britain, which has been one of the most inspirational projects I've encountered with. Its work alongside the studio Left Eye Blind has been always very inspirational to me, so having Claire giving a talk about them was great.

I really like their approach of teaching people out of the creative industries and studies how to engage with this field, but I am not sure if it's something I would do in the future. I like to focus on making stuff, and despite I see the value in giving your time to teach and help others, I am not sure if it would be for me.

It was my understanding that they do portfolio revisions, which would be very nice in order to know how to improve mine.

After the talk, I went straight to Claire to let her know how much I admire their work and what I knew about it. I even contacted people who participated in Writing Leeds to make something with them, and eventually I made a music video with Yannik, one of the speakers in that project. She told me that I should visit their studio and that a new similar project was coming out in three months.

Sunday 12 February 2017

Task Board

This is the board I have been using to organise the things to do. After a progress tutorial I had, Simon suggested me to make a list of the things to do everyday to get them done. That solution in combination with this can be done by using symbols for the task marking them by priority (I could have used just numbers, I guess). This board is a good way to keep up to date adding and deleting content.

Anecdote with Twitter

Some of the talks we've had in the studio made emphasis on how important is the use of Twitter on the creative industry. I've never been fan of twitter, but I gave it a go.

The 7th of February I shared my project Musics and the account of fans of Carlos Núñez (the musician that the book talks about) shared the project. This was something good as the project got more views, but something else happened.

Another musician shared my project, a bit upset, and ironically posted that how come Carlos Núñez had a book edited and he didn't. He was trolled by one friend that made him believe the book was actually mass produced, which resulted in a polemic around my book and more visits.

Many people said that they would pay for a book like that. I would produce it, but the problem is that all the photographs in the book are copyrighted and the book would be about another person, which I'd assume I need his permission to publish it.

Nonetheless, it was an interesting anecdote that made me realise the power of Twitter as a social network, where everything is public and is engagement in conversations is easy and doesn't require introductions and chit chat. It is also a great place to find out about more studios. I am always trying to comment their work or publications giving a critical thought about them. I've also posted the studio brief 2 of OUGD504 and tagged Studio Only in it thanking them for the help, but they didn't reply.

Barcelona trip

Some time ago I've found out that the first years are visiting some studios in Barcelona, the city I would like to move onto once I finish my degree. I saw this as an opportunity to make a link between some studios and myself as they are going to be aware of the Leeds College of Art.

TwoPoints
LoSiento
HeyStudio
Toormix

I was already aware about the existence of these studios, and TwoPoints has offices in Berlin, which is an even better opportunity to start making links. Sadly, they seem that they are not interested in hiring or taking interns... but who knows if they'll offer something to someone with enough interest.

Monday 6 February 2017

Unique Selling Point

In some of the workshops I assisted to this year the concept of Unique Selling Point (USP) has been repeated quite often, and thinking about it, it's hard to tell straight away. It is something that requires reflection and time.

Researching on internet about ways to identify this quality of one-self, I've started to realise that the aspects of what I consider the best of me (strategic mind-set, critical thinking, multi-disciplinary, Initiative) have all something in common: I think a lot about stuff. That can be a good and a bad thing, but the USP is not to appeal to everyone, is to appeal those who think alike or have the same values as me. Besides, I think is better to be too thoughtful than to be thoughtless.

If a design it's not thoughtful, it's not mine. I get obsessed with everything!
Designing without obsession is pointless.
Get obsessed, and let the obsession take you where you haven't been before. Let the obsession find impossible links.

"I embrace obsession.


It is what made me leave my home to learn a new language and go to university 3000 km away. It is the responsible of why I play an unknown musical instrument. It is what drives my career. It is the only way I know.

Obsession makes possible the impossible."

Potential visits in Berlin

For Berlin I would like to visit studios, as right now I'm interested in arranging placements for the future. Also, I've tried to find studios that have offices in Berlin and Barcelona, so I take the chance of visiting to expand my network towards the direction I am interested in.


Pulse Films
More sleep
Hello Me
Eden Spiekermann
State
Basics 09
UFOMAMMOOT
Elespacio (with studios in BCN and Berlin)
Bytepark
B-Reel (with studios in BCN and Berlin)
Batallion
Artificial Rome
Aperto
Ape Unit
Gaul and friends
TwoPoints (with studios in BCN and Berlin)
Boana (with studios in BCN and Berlin)

I've already mailed those with offices in both Barcelona and Berlin showing interest in their work and asking about having an interview. If they don't answer I'll just go and say hello. What's the worst that can happen?

Crazily charming: Build Talk

Both Michael Place's designs and talk were absolutely mind blowing. The way he told us about his path made it so natural that makes one feel that success is possible if you work for it.

Some parts of the talk were important to me. For instance, he said he would be a musician if he wasn't a designer. That's exactly how I feel. I got into design for a chain of events that started by playing music. It was also very easy to see how passionate he was about album covers and the magic in them. I know what magic he was talking about because it happens the same to me with certain album covers, stationary design I used when I was a kid, etc.

Also, he made me think about my childhood when speaking about technical drawing (I was amazed that no one knew about what Rotrings were). I was horrible at it! I remember my teacher telling me something like I was useless at it. I've thought about it many times, it's either brave or really stupid that I am studying graphic design... because I had no notions for it. My sister was very good in graphic arts, and now she is a musician. Guess we swapped roles.

I didn't know about the Letraset catalogues, but I remember using the rulers with the letters in them. To me they looked so cool that I even considered about stop the hand-writing and use these great inventions.

He talked about the designer Neville Brody and its book. After checking it out I am getting it, it seems a great source of inspiration. At some point he also mentioned the proto swiss punk... wow! It was like a completely unexpected turn from Vignelli's theories. It was great to see that. And also that he was behind the design of Wipeout, a game I've never played but knew about it, and way before the talk I've found myself thinking of it quite often for who knows what reason... maybe the design is involved?





It was strange! But in a great way. I don't think my work has anything to do with his, but I cannot avoid feeling attached to it. I guess that's what makes him such a good designer. That and this quote I got from him: "Being cool is not cool". Interests in other things than graphic design is what is important.

Online network strategy


Since I want to end up working in Barcelona, I thought about a strategy to expand my network should either be online or in the city itself. But since I can't be going to regular events, I've thought about going to the most important one: the Barcelona Design Week. It takes place in from the 7th to the 14th June, which means that I can combine it with placements. Also, there is a website called artssspot.com which informs about art events taking place in the city.

In the meantime, I've been researching and trying different methods to meet new people online through LinkedIn and Behance. In LinkedIn I have been receiving several connections from people I didn't know about but work in the industry. I started talking to them and they were very helpful. One of them is a music producer called Rob, who works in the film industry and has been telling me about events in Yorkshire and the rest of UK to keep in mind. LinkedIn is also a good way to administrate the studios one is interested in, as they can be simply followed and that action gets registered. It doesn’t happen the same when following individuals, and the best way to get in contact with them is to write something short and interesting about you. LinkedIn will ask what is your relationship with this person, and this is where you have to “lie”. If you say that you don’t know them personally, LinkedIn won’t allow you to make contact. You should say you are a friend of that person. This was suggested by one of the people that added me and I didn’t know about. It seems to be a non-written rule in this platform.

Behance can also be very useful when making contacts. I've discovered a good way to find out people and studios I like. In the discover tab it's possible to limit the search by area and sort it and browse the most recent publications. This is a great way to comment on others people work and have yours ready to be checked as well, which might encourage them to comment back and start a conversation. I also have a Facebook professional page which I use to publish not only my work, but also other work I find around tagging the authors if I can. It's not the most popular page (only 141 likes), but it's also useful to comment on others' publications with a profile that can be checked in a professional context.

These methods have allowed me to find a great new quantity of studios I like and keeping them in mind when sending the letters I'm designing around.