Module Evaluation

In my opinion, this was one of the best modules to have. It was a combination of theory and practice.
I have never experienced making an exhibition, however always liked to visit some in London.
I think our exhibition looks very nice and interesting. I also heard some feedback from my friends coming to see our woks and being amazed with the work we have done. I was a little bit tired in the evening as we had to be in the mezzanine all day, but it was useful knowledge to know that in real life it might be even more difficult making some bigger exhibitions.

Also personal branding was very useful task. When I was 17, I was thinking about my own brand as Anna Lapo but I never had an idea how to make it properly. The tasks were very useful to define my personality and through that to choose the colours and shapes of the brand. I am happy with  my final results, however looking back to the beginning of semester, I had a totally different ideas. Now, when I see my first examples of CV I am smiling, because I find them unprofessional in a way. I think, when you go through the whole process and struggle, or have difficulties, sometimes thinking that it is impossible at all, but the final result is great, this is the real way to learn something.

I am very happy to graduate soon and especially this last semester was the most useful for me as a designer, I learnt a lot during this time and feel more confident about my future as a designer.

Monday-Exhibition!

We met in the morning as it was arranged before and moved the boards to the M. Ashcroft building. Later guys started to make them in the mezzanine while we with the girls were cutting the Pac-man floor dots with fruits and faces. It was a little bit busy day, but the exhibition worked very well. I thought it would be more people coming on monday, but probably many people are busy especially on monday. Anyway, it was a nice feeling to have an exhibition and being proud to present own works :)

Here are some pictures of our exhibition. We made the area of entertainment, set up the screen with animations. The floor looks really great. Each board has a holder for business cards, so the visitors could take the card of the designers they like. The Rubik's Cube looks absolutely amazing!

Week 11

This was the last week to have a lecture, so I continued on contacting the companies as it had to be done by the end of the week. Also we discussed what should be done for the exhibition for the last time. Later we discussed the dress code and other small details on Facebook blog, so everyone would know that we are wearing black top and everyone have to be in Marconi building at 9:30 on monday.

Also, I invited more people  for our exhibition. I was in the library and offered people to come and see what we are doing.

Week 10

Helen brought all the sweets, so we were putting them into the bags and sticking with labels.

Steve was showing us the cubes he made. As our boards are changed, we still have to contact Eliot and Olly for the floor planning to change, hopefully will be done by this week. I started to contact some companies as I got the invites today.

Group meetings

We had some meetings during the vocation where we discussed all the job which should be done in nearest opportunity. We decided to order some sweets from internet and put them to small bags sticking with pac-man lable. Helen organised all this. Also Steve said he has some comics which he could bring. Our group spoke to the graphics team about the invites and posters, it should be ready and put over the university and outside on week 10. I have to contact some companies searching for design employers and invite them.

Business Card design

This is the style of the business card, I checked with the printing service and they said I have to make sure the size is correct. I made it 55 cm x 85cm but they advised me to add some more cm as it will be cut from the sides.

The final variant is like that with correct sizes as well.

Did not see that I made a mistake in word 'design', will be changed.

CV changed variants

I changed the bubble and also the arrangement of the information. This is the variant with watermark but as I already mentioned it, I will take it off.

Portfolio main page

I was designing my portfolio main page and here are two examples: with watermark and without. I decided to make it without as well as CV.

I came to the printing service and found out that I have to make sure my sizes are correct and the information on the page is placed properly so it would not disappear or be cut while printing.

During vocation I was working on my portfolio ideas and here are some pictures, showing the process:

I made some stickers to stick on each envelope and show the section, like a theme.

Tried to stick the label to the envelope and as it was just a testing paper, tried the stamp as well. Everything works.

Also, I made something like booklet which would be in each envelope.

When you open it, you would see the pictures of certain theme....here are paintings for example.

After that was done, I had another idea of cutting this booklet and making separated cards also laminated, maybe it would look better. I will test it in printing company in nearest days and lets see how it works.

Week 9

We almost solved everything with our group and decided to have some meetings during Easter vocation.

I made a hand made example for my portfolio just as an idea.
Later I realised that it really does not follow my personal branding shapes and style. Has to think more about it.





I also ordered a stamp ''Re-use me please'' from a company which looks like this:

Week 8

We have organised our floor planning during the lecture, so it is done and we chose the style we are going to use as a guidance on the floor (Pac Man).

As we have a dissertation presentation on monday we thought to meet on week 9 all together in a group and start testing this idea sticking the dots to the floor and see how it works.

I was also working on my Blog design and here is the link:  http://annalapodesing.blogspot.co.uk/

Portfolio Research

I found some portfolio ideas, which looks interesting.

1) http://www.nathanhinz.com/index.php?/portfolio/

This is a small book which has pictures in small, kind of, envelopes.

The reader can easily take the card with picture and hold it in the hands while observing.

2) http://meiss-group.ru/portfolio/z-card.html

Some ideas of the Z-card.

http://meiss-group.ru/portfolio/z-card.html

3) http://www.triadaltd.ru/about/press/33/

Another idea, to make a calendar as a portfolio, so people will keep it for at least one year :)

4) Could be also some other ideas of transformable portfolio.

5) http://www.artbasecompany.ru/portfolio_single_events.html#

On the picture there are hands holding a tissue, I could use this kind of technique with hands holding each of my design peaces, just developing this idea as here it is a bit primitive.

Portfolio ideas

I made a list of ideas for the portfolio to include and separated my designs for the sections:

Week 7

Changed variants of my CV and B.C

BLOG EXAMPLES

I think at the moment it is too early to create a real website and I also don't want to rush, so my decision is to make a Blog.

I also found some nice examples of the Blogs.

1) This blog is interesting, because it attracts and is very understandable. There is something like Rubik's cube clicking which you will always go back to the main page and never get lost :) I like the organisation and the colours used. From this website I got an idea to include not only the pictures of my projects, but also some pictures of the process they were made, because it is always more interesting to see, maybe some prototype creation pictures, or my pictures in the studio doing some works. I remember on the website of Philip Stark I saw that he has a large gallery of his different artistic image.

http://veerle.duoh.com/

2) This Blog of a designer is interesting, I cannot say he used something outstanding, but it is very clear. He used the top left side menu how it should be in a good Blog, also the main colours are black and white and because the background is white and he has large pictures of his designs the reader does not get distracted and pays all the attention the the design pictures what should be the main.

http://blogof.francescomugnai.com/2011/12/the-30-most-expensive-elegant-and-crazy-watches-ever/

3) This is also not bad variant. Very clear and calm blog using muted colours. Also the owner of this blog was using some illustrations showing that he is half British half South African showing the pictures of African animals near Big Ben :) I might think about some Russian things as well......

http://www.markforrester.co.za/

4) I really like this kind of Blog or website styles, where everything is in harmony and accurate and looks nice and presentable. It is not a Blog, it is a portfolio, but I took just an idea in general. The colours are nice and the pictures are shown in a big format.

http://99designs.com/print-design/contests/portofino-yachts-brochure-redesign-garanted-100099/entries/35

Website examples and thoughts

1) I found this website quite nice as it is very clear and has calm natural colours. Also, the organisation is good, very easy to read. However it does not have any animations, it still looks good.

http://www.austineastciders.com/index.html

2) This website is very interesting, maybe because it is the first time I saw this kind of websites. All page turn happens like in i-phone. Also I like this kind of typo and style, however I would prefer more clear website and the movement of the pages happens too fast and sharply.

http://www.lamaddalena.pl/

3) This website also kept my attention as it has a big photo gallery what I like a lot, because as a designer if I need to show my projects, i would prefer this type of gallery. Also it is well organised and easy to read. The black colour always looks good, but in my situation I will try to experiment with green to follow my CV and B.C style.

http://ascensionlatorre.com/home

4) This is interesting variant of the website because going to the window HOME the information is changing clicking the arrows and everything is animated, I like this presentation of the information and the colours looks nice, but I would better use yellow with gray-it is one of my favourite combinations.

http://thepenthouseproject.com/#/everywhere