Off the back of completing probably the longest term in the sense of workload, pressure to deliver to a level and the meaning of the FMP grade. We begun the summer term with our final unit under the name of professional trajectories. This unit essentially aims for us to prepare ourselves for the next few vital months of our final time at university as well as the first few months in the industry. It aims to allow us to mould and configure our personal brand and portfolio to get it into the strongest and most effective position possible for when we leave. Below you can see the brief which we had been set for this unit under the code: Professional Trajectories.
It was quite difficult to go from handing in the FMP and then receiving the grade to then shifting ourselves back into work mode to get the next few weeks drilled out. The first phase of this research stage was for me to review and evaluate. This meant me going through my bio’s website about page, what projects I had on my website, sieving out all of the shit parts basically. I begun by sorting out my bio on my LinkedIn, Instagram and Website so to with my CV about section as I had things to add to my CV such as the making it to the last 20 candidates for an Apple Europe designers job. I read through and figured that my Bio did not reflect the creative individual I am now, I wrote that old bio a fair few months ago and a lot has changed. In my old bio it said that I was into my branding, but as projects have come along it has made me realise I am not as much of a fan of branding anymore, so straight away I deleted that element as i did not want to give off the wrong impression. Other parts I added in there was the important ingrained parts about myself such as my consistent involvement with strength training which is where my self discipline and work ethic comes from. I decided these personal elements were important to state as potential employers would know exactly what they are getting on the tin, no fluffy bullshit like” I love graphic design “.
Also I re considered my instagram biography also, It was a bit boring and samey samey. It went something like “Multi Disciplinary Unit”. I mean what even was I thinking when I wrote that last year. So again I thought about myself, what do I offer and what could I call myself. As a creative you are able to do a lot of different things, think on your feet and solve problems. I decided to call myself a creative swiss army knife, this perfectly sums me up and is the first thing you read when you land on my instagram page, a perfect head scratcher in my opinion. I also added in as you can see below a one liner saying I make stuff happen and people go wow, this suited in with the pencil I received from D&AD. As that bacardi boom really installed a lot of confidence in myself being a solo piece of work, I heard too much faffing around from fellow classmates not knowing whether to enter. This statement of myself making stuff happen and impressing people is what I live by in all honesty. So overall this new bio really does nail myself and my attitude straight away to anyone viewing and also to impress the industry I aim to enter.
Following on from the initial clean up of my Bio about me, I closed my laptop and used the usal pen and paper method to visualise the types of work and projects I have present on my portfolio. I did a series of diagrams which allowed me to see what different areas I had touched upon. This helping me decide on which direction I would take the new project for later on in this unit to essentially fill that missing gap. As you can see below I have a range of different pieces which have been in areas such as Experience Design, Branding and Events and Creative Copywriting. I initially thought copywriting was a strength which I had never realised I had. Soon after a 1to1 with Derek, He made it clear to myself that I was in fact not a copywriter. This was a big shift in my vision of where I wanted to go as It made me open myself up away from just restricting myself from just copywriting.
Once I had written down the areas I had done already, I went and had a one on one with Steve Stacey and we spoke about what i could potentially do for my new project. In all honesty we both sat there not knowing what to do or where to take this. This at first was quite worrying as I needed to decide on something to get the ball rolling. I put together a list of ideas of the top of my head and they involved copywriting lead ideas such as Satellite Nevergation. But this concept had already been done before and I did not want to re do something. I then spoke to Derek again and he said to me I need to focus on harnessing a solid idea and using my ability to tell stories.
So I then wrote up a rough brief revolving around storytelling and communication. I even did some research on the effectiveness of storytelling through communication. I found a reference which helped me think about ways I could tell stories simply.
Again I used my pen and paper to do a series of scribbles and spider diagrams to help me pick my brain apart. I came up with an idea to use a drunken thought I have always brought up in conversation, that we all live in one massive capri sun. I figured I would try and use this to branch a who story to reposition capri sun in the soft drinks/juice market.
Below is the other areas I went into in terms of writing down thoughts etc and getting them down on paper. A hugely important stage to any brief in my eyes is to write down as much as possible, and something will shine through.
Next stage is concept and Ideation….