Visiting Professional - Footprint

Footprint
"small ecologically minded printers based in Leeds"

- workers coop
- set up in late 90s by environmental activists
- only ship within UK
- recycle everything
- don't associate with the big 6 gas companies
- all to reduce footprint 
- coop company means its owned by the workers, no big boss figure
- this contributes to the sustainability of their work
- decide own conditions and how they work
- all 5 workers are directors, so every decision is done by consensus
- 50p per hour per worker gets put aside for charitable donations
- they all choose how much they're paid each year, have just decided to give a pay rise to themselves
- if one of us isn't happy with the ethics of a job, no one will partake

With a growing interest in publication design, I could see myself experimenting with various forms of printing and so these guys might be of help to me in the future

I have really liked the examples of zines I've seen recently and am keen to produce one myself

One possibility of producing one would be for the interview task.

It was very interesting to listen to professionals who have strong ethics as this makes a change from some of the other studios that have given us a talk.

Visiting Professional - YCN

YCN - 'Now You Casince 2001'

YCN beyond student awards...

- curated creative network
- see huge value in the role of creativity
- based in East London, Shoreditch
- events space downstairs
- host loads of events
- used to be a portfolio factory
- broad spectrum of individual members
- "connect, learn, and do more things"
- insights and intelligence play large rolls in what they do
- helping to source creative talent
- Also work with agencies, the last element of company members
- thriving events calendar throughout the year

Student Awards

- not just about production, it's a lot to do with the thinking behind it
- what market research did you do?
- get a breadth of thinking into the response
- thinking how best to approach the brief
- ask questions about brand
- the more info on the brand gathered, the better

Presentation Exercise

I took this opportunity to practice my presentation skills as I hadn't presented to a room full of people since the end of last year and so I was in need of some practice. 

As my audience would be graphic designers, I picked a film that I could speak about and relate back to our discipline. The director of the movie Drive uses a clever quadrant system in a number of scenes. This is something that us as designers use in terms of layout and composition and so I thought it would be a good way to interest the audience.

My feedback included that I remained on some of the slides for slightly too long and so the audience didn't have enough visuals and so all the eyes then turned to me or else where. To tackle this, I should make sure that as I am explaining the slides, I have a number of slides with visuals that I flick through whilst explaining myself. This would both keep the audience interested as well as keeping the eyes off me and so less pressure.

Another criticism is that I spoke to much about each slide and I could have cut it down a little. This is something that will be easily fixable when it comes to my main presentation.

Visiting Professional - Build

Studio_Build

Some of there work...

Studio Build has produced an incredible amount of inspiring Graphic Design over the many years they have been in the industry. Above is just a few examples of their work that really interests me and make me want to push my work further. What I admire most about these projects is the professionalism in which they are presented, this making them look incredibly impressive. Poster design and publication design are two areas that are really interesting me at the moment and ones that I try to work within with each brief.

//Notes...

- He started the talk by explaining where his passion for GD started

- His early experiences

- He explained that these early experiences and influences are what make each individual designer different and interesting

- Record sleeves were his main focus

- At the time he thought of it as just art

- Didn't start to appreciate the design until he had completed various years at college 

- "I'm not an amazing designer, I'm an interesting designer"

- "Keep being interested in design"

- "I'd rather have a student that is passionate"

- "Being cool in uncool"

- Look further than things like It's Nice That

- Look up at what is around you

- Recommended working for someone before starting up own