Sunday 19 March 2017

PPP Final presentation planning

TO COVER:

When I started this year I had 3 goals to achieve: Trusting my ideas (had a time with a huge lack of confidence and creative rigidness, but eventually I realised that the best ideas are the ones that have work), Try out different stuff (done it with the book and GameDen) and Networking (done it trying to contact the people I am interested in instead of going to events I am not interested in). I think I managed to achieve these three requirements I've set myself in my own way.


Overview engagement with real world

First try to engage with professional work was to participate in the workshop Broadening Horizons. At the end of it, we had to pitch an idea for the Leeds Film Festival staff. The winners got to work in the event filming and doing interviews. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. But I knew people from other universities, disciplines and learned a lot in 2 days.

On November I thought it was time to update my LinkedIn profile and establish contact with the people I already knew. That allowed the system to use my profile and suggest it to other users, which made other people to contact me. Also, it allowed me to find people I'm interested in and start a conversation, like Gemma Solana, the co-author of a book I used for my COP essay. In extension, I also worked on my Twitter and Behance. This allowed me to reach Antonio Boneu, film director and co-author of the book previously mentioned. They are both in Barcelona, the city I would like to work in.

Working on my different profiles in social media made me realise that for the future I will need a website to link all together, as I was starting to find out that some people I am interested in don't have websites or they don't clearly show how to connect with them in different social media. I created my website, linked it to my Behance profile for more convinience and bought the domain with my name: alexzorita.com

One of the things I started to do is to create a list of the studios and companies I would be interested in working at. There's a risk in following them on Twitter or LinkedIn, that they can always delete their accounts. Besides, it's not possible to follow someone on LinkedIn and to keep track of it. It's only possible with companies.

I've been assisting to three workshops during the two assessment weeks on January. They were about CVs, Cover Letters and job hunting. It was very interesting and the information will be very useful when looking for a job. Also, they offer support for this matter, so if I struggle doing all this I will contact them, which compensates the simplicity of the workshops.

E-mailed everyone: doesn't work. Coming up with a plan of origami letter for studios abroad and I will turn up for local studios.

But e-mail has been useful for other stuff. For instance, I mailed the website of spanish republicans about the work i did last year and they published it, giving me exposure.

Twitter made an anecdote to happen. I shared my book there, the group of fans of this musician found out about it and shared it on Facebook. A musician found the book, and he thought it was a mass produced copy. He got a bit upset, and published this on his profile:

"With all the work we put into music and now they publish a book of Carlos Núñez... How disgraceful is our generation", complaining about how difficult is to be a musician with such a figure.

In every talk I've always tried to ask interesting question or to stay at the end of the talk to have a chat with the speaker. I did it with Claire from Studio 12, Dan from Saul studio, Chloe in Berlin, the Portuguese girl at Pentagram... sometimes you just have a nice chat, and sometimes they refer you to someone else, give you a contact, have feedback on your work, etc.

Another interesting anecdote happened in Domestika, a Spanish website for creatives. They have a forum and I posted a thread in the Graphic Design section called "From LCA to Barcelona" asking if it's a good idea going back to Spain considering the work conditions and salaries. NO ONE REPLIED! I thought that maybe changing the name of the title would encourage people to give me their opinions. I renamed it as: "I left Spain and I don't know if I can come back". It suddenly became, by far, the thread with more interactions and likes in the forum.

Thanks to that thread I met and interviewed a professional for SB2.

There has been a lot of try and error, but thanks to all this I've been able to find out about placements, strategies, etc.

At the beginning I wanted to move to Barcelona when I finish, but after talking with many professionals from different parts of Spain, UK and in Berlin I now know that the best thing to do is to gather experience and clients here and then move somewhere else.


Overview of practice


I firstly focused on cinematography, as it is my original passion. Projects like COP, focusing on title sequences, allowed me to find bridges between film and graphic design, which has made me approach graphic design from a different perspective. More conscious about what I want to do.

With other projects, giving a step back in my practice and trying to do new stuff that I wouldn't normally do has helped me to identify what is the practice I want to focus on... maybe not entirely, but now when I see a job offer I know how appropriate it might be for me. For instance, now I know that I want to work not only in jobs related to cinematography, but also in branding, art direction and strategy.

One thing that Austin Kleon says in his book "Show your work" is "notice to be noticed". I use twitter to share things related with design, but also to share other peoples work. I always make sure I let them know I am sharing their stuff. They might get back and say something about it or not, but just visiting my profile and having my website accessible is a way of inviting others to see my work. Also, when I speak to someone for a while I always ask that person to check my work. Basically, I try to show my work without being weird about it.

Some weeks ago I decided to identify what my Unique Selling Point was. This was suggested in one of the workshops I attended to. After doing several exercises to find out what it is, I can tell that my USP is... obsession. I get obsessed with stuff, and that is what makes me thrive. 5 years ago I got obsessed with studying graphic design in England, and here I am. Obsession drives my career. When I get obsessed about something, I don't stop until I learn quite a lot about that subject. The downside is that I am sometimes too ambitious, but I am happy being too ambitious rather than being not ambitious at all.

Overview of my learning (compare work between 1st year and 2nd year)

I learn something new everyday, so it's quite difficult for me to make a list of all the thing I've learned during this year. For some reason I really enjoy design theories, so COP, which in principle seems the most boring module, is the one I enjoy the most. Although, I got quite obsessed with PPP this year, which has had a positive impact on my understanding of how the creative industries work.

I started updating the information I have on LinkedIn, and like i said before, it took me to work on my twitter, website and so on. That obsession of getting it perfect, bridged and working made me learn a lot about how I can use the different platforms for different purposes. For instance, Twitter is a great place to start a conversation without being a weirdo. If you comment something in other people's content in Facebook... well, you are a weirdo.

If I had to highlight one skill I'm becoming aware of is Art Direction. I've started doing it by accident in responsive and the others in my group appreciated it whilst I was doing what I liked. Maybe I will not be one the greatest graphic designers, and that's fine by me. Because I really like others that are better than me making stuff with my ideas.


Overview future (summer, L6)

With all I have done this year (making sure I have presence online) I feel more confident to go out "in the real world" and start moving around. I've started to experience how well it works to give away your website on a business card or writing it down. I've applied for several placements and when they ask for your portfolio it always creates a good impression to give your name followed by "dot com".

This summer I will keep trying to find places to do placements, and since I'll have more time, I intend to make phone calls or turn up personally. If not, the letter I have planned can always do the job. I have a huge list (image of donald trump saying "It's a huge list, folks") of designers and studios I am interested in and one of the things I want to do before contacting them is to shortlist my favourites so I can put more time and effort in them.

On level 6 I have the temptation of focusing of branding because it is a field I am really interested in, but I am not sure if it is "my thing". I might find another approach to cinematography, but I don't know yet. I really want to take advantage of the program "What next" as 3rd years have priority in booking those sessions in.

Tuesday 7 March 2017

Domestika: The Graphic Design in Spain

A couple of weeks ago I was starting to wonder how benefitial might actually be to move to Barcelona once I finish uni. I had many doubts about the work conditions and salary, since those aspects are normally much better in the UK and the rest of Europe. In order to find out about this, I needed to speak to professionals in the sector. After doing research into Spanish graphic design platforms, I found out one that is very relevant, which is Domestika.

In Domestika, there's a forum for graphic designers which seemed quite active. I decided to write a thread asking questions about salary, work conditions, etc. The title of the post was "From Leeds College of Art to Barcelona". No one replied. After giving it some thought, I changed the title of the post to: "I left Spain and I don't know if I can come back". Two days ago the thread was hot topic and is, by far, the one with more views and interactions. On the picture right below, it is the one with the red heart.



This allowed to get many views from many different people. These are the conclusions I got from this.

Spanish designers normally encourage me to stay in UK, since the salary and work conditions are better. Plus, it is much easier to progress in your career. They say that there are good companies that pay and treat workers well, but they are unicorns. The advice I've got from creatives working in the UK are very different: they encourage me to go wherever I want to go. That if I get too comfortable here, I might never leave.

Eventually, a designer texted me privately. He has worked in places like London, New York and he is now working in Spain. He said that the smartest thing to do is to get clients in countries like UK and then go to Spain. That allows a designer to have a high salary and live wherever they want. Plus, you are a more desirable candidate to work in a studio in Barcelona if you have experience in the UK.

I think this is the best advice I've got and it's very similar to what Chloe was talking about in Berlin. At some point she said that it doesn't matter where you want to leave if you have your clients. This whole process also helped me in identifying who I wanted to interview and how relevant it was for me. Having a conversation with this designer (his name is Oliver Sanz) has given me many answers that have actually unconsciously made part of the interview for Studio Brief 2.

Matthew DiVito Presentation

The 23rd of February I made a presentation about Matthew DiVito and his work in No Man's Sky.

The presentation started talking about the designer work, based in geometric shapes, old-school look and patterns of movement. This designer has a very unique sci-fi feel and uses special colour combinations and concepts.

Each slide had a gif of an animation in a loop to keep the audience engaged and kind of mesmerised with it while speaking over it.

The final slide was reserved to show the work, which was also an animation and the most impressive one. It was a work that, in my opinion, sold an entire game and made it attractive to people that was eventually disappointed with the content of the game. The design meets the aims of the game: infinity, making one to feel small.

The peers said that the presentation with the gifs was very engaging and they couldn't stop looking at the screen. They also recognised the value of the designer, whose design was better than the product he was designing for and it happens in the video-games industry quite often. Also, the fact that I related his work with my personal opinion made it more engaging.

Other feedback I found quite useful is that leaving an open end and saying the intentions of the design for the future is a great way to finish a presentation. Another thing to end is with a bit of criticality, doing some evaluation of the work that was done, which works as a transition for the audience back to the room and the speaker. It is also important to remember to use neutral words, such as inspiring, impactful, etc instead of good, bad, etc.

Monday 6 March 2017

Charlotte & Danny (Iris) Advertising agency

A very exciting presentation done by the advertising agency Iris. After the presentation, they were willing to talk to students so I took the chance to ask for feedback about my portfolio. These are some of the bullet points I highlighted from the talk:

- If you can't sell yourself, you can't sell others. You are a brand.

To do this you have to:

1.- Be yourself
2.- Get Social
3.- Get to know the internet
4.- Get your work online
5.- No team - No problem

#1 With the portfolio, less is more. Short lines of text, a maximum of 140 characters.
#2 Why would people care?
#3 New media vs old media. Treat social posts like billboard.
#4 Creative entrepeneurs. Show initiative.

Getting placements.

#1 Go to events and talk to people
#2 Keep your eyes pealed
#3 Go to book crits
#4 Action feedback. Be keen and willing.
#5 Don't wait until graduation
#6 Loads of agencies

To get a job

#1 Be pro active. Do work inspired in others.
#2 Have a voice, an opinion.
#3 Recruiters
#4 Make friends
#5 If you don't know, ask


Once they finished the presentation, they checked my website and this is the feedback I had.

- It is lacking conceptual thinking. (branding, advertisiment campaign, etc). As an advertisement agency, they look for that stuff.

- Ideas: make a subtitle explaining the concept. Simplify text (I eventually made a short 140 characters explanation about the concept at the beginning of each project and then the long text can be found at the end for those interested).

- E-mail them for more ideas.

This feedback was very useful. I also had the chance to speak to Fabio, the Creative Advertisement tutor and share opinions about working here and at southern Europe.

The one man design studio: Saul Studio

From this talk I would outline that Dan is an individual that has evolved as a designer focusing on his passion: coffee. That has lead him to understand that attitude is very important to make work and once you find your position you will find people that understand your work.

The other thing I would highlight is that he made internships with Left Eye Blind, one of my favourite studios. I took the chance to ask him more about it and how I could do the same as him.

Finally: my very own website

Some time ago I decided to update my Behance profile and only leave what I consider really relevant to my practice. Once I did that, I decided to take a step further: to have my own website.

I decided to use the platform myportfolio, from Adobe, since it links the content from Behance and what is changed in one place reflects into the other, which is very handy.

After spending too much time in the design this is the final result. Once the design was done, I decided to pay for the domain with my name. There's always an unconscious assumption that just because a website has its own domain it is more professional, so why not taking advantage of it for some pence a month. It is also recommended by everyone I've known.

The website not only shows my work, but it has links to my other social media profiles. It also has sections about who inspires me, an archive of awards or mentions, a link to this blog and an about section.

Looking for placements

In the last month I've been contacting different studios looking for placements during Easter, but so far there has been no luck.

Some studios have been hand-picked by me, like Blind Club, Typeform, Zoom Agency, etc. I've send e-mails pointing out something about their work and linking it with mine to show interest in what they do, but there hasn't been any luck.

I've also applied for a placement posted in Domestika, a Spanish site for designers, taking place in Design Studio 88. They answered saying that they gave the placements to someone else, but they think my work is really good and they wanted to keep my contact details for future opportunities. I answered that e-mail asking for feedback to improve and to start a dialogue, but haven't had any answers. Not sure if it was an automatic response.

When applying for typeform I even made a video introducing myself.

I thought getting placements was going to be an easier process, but it seems as hard as getting a job. I will put more focus on the studios I am really interested in and insist over and over again, either by phone, in person or however I can.

I became interested in a job offer about Art Direction in Barcelona, and asked questions about it to the poster but got nothing back.

Sunday 5 March 2017

Berlin

Before going to Berlin, I had a meeting arranged with the studio Boana which focuses on digital design.



I made some research about the studio and the person that I was going to talk to. I was also going to use this conversation for the studio brief 2. Had questions about his definitions of things, his travels, his studies about grids, how he sees the future of Boana, who inspires him, etc. Unfortunately, a while before the meeting was going to take place I got this e-mail:



I'm sure he was busy, because he wanted to meet me the 28th (Tuesday) and said that we had to cancel our meeting on the 2nd (Thursday). I answered to clarify if we could meet on Tuesday, not on Thursday, but never got an answer... so my guess was not.

I understand that studios might be tired of thoughtless students, I would be too... but it's just not nice when one gets thoughtless answers either. It makes me lose interest in a particular studio when I see how they handle their communications.


Chloe

The Berlin established designer and formerly student of graphic design at LCA gave us a great talk of life after college in another country. These are some of the points I found very interesting:

- Even in a city like Berlin some people will want you to work for free.

- Phone works 10 times faster than e-mails.

- Cultural shock. This is something I experienced (and sometimes still experiencing) when I moved to the UK, so it made me feel more related to her point of view.

- She moved to London because she didn't want to stay in Leeds. There was no independene from business at that time.

-This might sound very obvious, but if you don't want to be freelance you have to learn how to collaborate... and even being freelance one has to collaborate.

- Easy to move to another country because she already had clients from UK (something really useful if I want to move back to Spain and keep a high salary)

After Chloe's talk, I stayed and had a long chat with Chloe, John and Hannah sharing points of view and asking more about the professional field. At some point, she became interested in my work and asked me to show it to her. I wished she could have given me more details, but she only said it was very professional. We eventually interchanged business cards.

It was also very interesting how she actually talk about her experience as a designer and not so much about her work. I think that's what we need to hear from professionals. Their work might or not be interesting to us, but I think it is much more interesting to know what goes on behind. Also, Chloe has been the only one that embraces clients as part of the design process instead of being too bothered about them.

As a male interested in feminism I took the opportunity to personally ask her if she has had to deal with a client that treats her with less respect than a man or if the client has looked for approval of a male college. Her experiences have been positive so far, as Berlin has a strong feminist movement.


Pentagram

I didn't expect Pentagram to be how it was: that human. It has been one of the best talks I've had.

These are some of the key ideas Justus Oehler told us in his talk:

- You need to let luck find you. In other words, be visible!

- Branding was a part of the talk. I found very interesting how he used colours in the culture of Serdegna to make the logo, as well as using useless parts of old logos to make them the main identity of a brand. Deutsche Kinemahek is another great logotype made with simple elements that have different readings. (It's an M, to screens and a house). A logo is the foundation of an identity, some designers add meaningless features (AT&T) whilst other remove the name, having to add it somewhere else (nike, starbucks, etc). People are born everyday and they have to associate what the name and logo of a brand is.

- Avoid design trends.

- Good design has to clearly communicate, not confuse.

- Something I didn't know, but the human eye see vertical lines thinner than horizontal ones. So, as designer, we sometimes need to make vertical lines thicker to compensate.

- Speak about your work telling a story of the production.

- Present designs step-by-step treating them with high respect. Clients appreciate this.

- You have to accept that you can't get everything.

At the end I asked a couple of questions.

The first one was: when you look for new people to hire, do you focus on who has a stronger identity or potentially flexible individuals?

- Present work that is related to that studio you are presenting to.

- Be normal, don't pretend. Be humble, no one is finished and polished as a designer.

I was also interested about why every client works with a partner in Pentagram. His answer was simple but powerful:

- Because we love designing.


There was a girl with him in the room, and she was an intern. I really wanted to ask her many questions, and when we stood up to leave I took advantage and started a conversation with her for the few minutes we had left until leaving. She had a very interesting story, she was accepted at Pentagram after insisting 5 times. It was once that she knocked on the door and with a smile asked for a job that she was interviewed. It made me think that if I were the person in the studio, I would respect that passion. The fact that she wanted to work with them and only with them is very valuable. I forgot to ask her name because I really wanted to know more about it. We also spoke a bit about the difference in working in Germany and Portugal.