WEEK ONE - TWO (30.01.17 - 12.02.17)

This will show the development of my branding, as part of my employability pack, that will define me as a creative artist. My aim is to produce a professional looking, clean brand that will give a good first impression to potential employers, whilst also trying to stand out.

My employability pack will consist of...

- website

- showreel

- CV

- business cards

- logo design

I am tailoring my showreel towards architectural visualisation, specifically focussing on interiors. From researching visualisation jobs I narrowed down key skills that companies look for in potential candidates, these include...

- skilled in 3DS Max, Vray and Photoshop

- an eye for detail

- understanding of technical drawing

- produce high-quality work

- ability to work within a team

- ability to meet deadlines

To gain further knowledge of the visualisation industry I reached out to some companies, asking for tips on breaking into the industry and what they like/expect to see in a showreel.

I took away some key comments from these industry professionals, which include using camera moves and edits for a finished development, only include quality work in a showreel and convey my brand. My showreel will represent me, beginning with an animated logo and my name and ending with my contact information. A lot of feedback suggested keeping my showreel short, roughly one minute in length. I will only be including two pieces of work in my showreel, my loft apartment (bedroom, bathroom and kitchen) and a kitchen diner, also showing wireframes of each room.

WEEK THREE (13.02.17 - 19.02.17)

When creating my brand I want everything to be the same style, colour scheme and font, this also includes this blog site which matches the design of my professional website. Prior to this module I did create a portfolio when looking for a potential internship, see below...

As you can see from this image, there is little that makes me stand out or represents me as a brand. It's a generic black and white website that would quickly get lost in the crowd. I don't feel like this represents my work or me as a person, as it is lacking any personality . From this design I realised I wanted something light and fresh, which would be more appealing to an employer.

You can see that this is starting to become my brand as it is the same as this blog page. I am still to produce a logo which will be added to the website and will be used on my business cards and showreel opening. I am much happier with this colour scheme as it is a little different from black and white but is still reasonably neutral so not to distract from my work. Whilst producing this new brand design, I looked into colour psychology...

My colour choice is a subtle teal colour, which I think portrays my brand as reliable, trustworthy and still ambitious, based upon the image above.

My previous showreel was very vague in the area I wanted to work in, this was partly due to me not knowing specifically what I wanted to do so I tried to cater to everything. This then resulted in the showreel being 3 minutes long and also included text which wouldn't be appealing to an employer and would come across as boring. My showreel this time should be clear as to what area I want to work in and shouldn't require any explanation incorporated in. It will only include interior visualisation pieces.

WEEK FOUR - FIVE (20.02.17 - 05.03.17)

As part of my brand I want to have a logo, which can then be shown at the beginning of my showreel and will animate to make it more interesting. My first thought was to use my initials, BB, as opposed to a whole name as it would be more versatile, whether it is big or small. First I started with some logo research on pinterest ...

From this mood board and research, I then started my own rough logo sketches which you can see below...

As you can see I tried a few design based around my first name, which, in my opinion, doesn't work well. I also toyed with the idea of having the B's back to back, however I am not a huge fan of the butterfly vibe that it gives. From feedback, the favourite of these designs was the top left, since a B could be seen as the shadow or possibly make it 3D. I then took this design and came up with some variations...

As you can see, I did variations of the double B, playing with shadows, which works reasonably well on paper however I'm not so sure it would work very well in different sizes as the shadow could get lost in smaller sizes. I then tried combining a B and b, since they fit together when layered up well. I quite like this design and think it has a clever spin on incorporating the two B's into one by detaching the top half. So I am going to take this design and work into it digitally, trying out different colour concepts and potential borders.

First I did a few variations just in black so I could focus on the design rather that any colours distracting and asked some people on their preference.

I tried to do some colour variations based upon this design, but it just wasn't working for me. The logo seemed too basic and a little boring and the whole logo idea didn't appeal to me as much. Because of this I decided to base something off of my website design and make something a little more compact that could be used on business cards and profile pictures for professional social media accounts...

So I guess this is kind of my logo, which is very much in keeping with the rest of my branding.

WEEK SIX (06.03.17 - 12.03.17)

I wanted to design a CV that has a creative aspect to it, whilst also sticking to my brand, as opposed to my last CV which was too long and had no design to it. Preferably I want this CV to fit on one A4 sheet of paper since a lot of companies want CV's submitted in a PDF format. Again I looked at pinterest for some design ideas...

I like that these CVs have some style, colour and personality, which would also tie into their branding. This is what I want to achieve with my CV. I also like how these CVs have a lot of space so they don't look crowded and overwhelming, which I would like to incorporate into my design.

Since I don't have much experience for my chosen career path, a skills based CV would be more suitable and effective at selling myself. After doing some rough sketches of layouts, I figured the best way to make the most out of the space I have would be to split the page in two columns, like many of the examples above. With this in mind, I think the main section should contain my profile and skills, which is the most important information and where your eye will be drawn to. I also want my CV to be in keeping with my branding which is a blue/teal colour. Here you can see the design that I am going for...

As you can see, the main body of my CV consists of my profile and skills which are the most important aspects. I am happy with my design, although I need to update my website link once I have bought a domain, update my social media url's and incorporate my logo to finish it off.

WEEK SEVEN (13.03.17 - 19.03.17)

This week I focussed on designing my business cards, using pinterest for my inspiration in ideas and layouts (see below). I like the idea of it being double sided to show some of my work and make it more interesting and appealing to potential employers.

I am drawn to having a business card with rounded edges, I think this gives a little something different yet still affordable. I also like the embossed look, however this then causes an imprint on the other side which would maybe look messy and get in the way of contact information, since my business cards will be double sided. Taking into consideration my branding, I came up with these designs...

Obviously they are pretty similar designs, however the one on the right is more similar to my website banner and fits in with my branding style. As you can see the example above is using my bedroom render for the background, although I will be testing other options...

After seeking some feedback it was decided that the kitchen background was most appropriate and professional looking, which works well with my branding as well.

Then I did designs and variations of the reverse side...

It was thought that having a bathroom on a business card wasn't the best idea and could be seen as unprofessional to some, however the contact details don't look very visible over the top of the bedroom, which is the most important part of the card. Although I do like the bedroom as the background, which led me to change the text to make it more visible...

By lightening the back ground to make it slightly more faded and making the text bolder the contact information is instantly more eye catching. Although I originally wanted rounded edges, when I tried it in the design stage it didn't quite work as well as I thought it would. So here they are..

WEEK EIGHT - ELEVEN (20.03.17 - 30.04.17)

Since my brand is mostly developed at this point, I have taken my time to focus on my master project and animation and VFX module where I am producing content for my showreel. The development of these projects can be seen at the top of this blog site under the relevant tabs.

WEEK TWELVE (01.05.17 - 07.05.17)

This week I have started developing my showreel, where I need to revisit some work from a previous module, in which I modelled a kitchen diner, and make some tweaks to make it showreel worthy. I also want to develop my opening sequence for my showreel, which will include my logo.

WEEK THIRTEEN (08.05.17 - 14.05.17)

Continuing with my brand, I wanted to set up some professional social media sites, which include Twitter and Instagram, to help get my work out there and seen my industry professionals. Twitter will also be used look for a job prospects and to connect with career sites and potential employers.

As you can see, both pages are still relatively new and are still building up, particularly my instagram site. I use the twiiter account more to keep up to date with job opportunities.

My Instagram page has given me the opportunity to get my work seen by industry professionals and given me some online exposure and getting me some recognition, which you can see below as an example...

WEEK FOURTEEN (15.05.17 - 21.05.17)

Since this is the final week working on this module, I have designed and produced an A2 print of my work to display at the end of year showcase to make my area more appealing and draw people to my work...

Thinking and researching future job possibilities I have noticed a theme when looking at job requirements. Many architectural visualisation companies are looking for candidates to have a background in Architecture or Interior Design, which I don't particularly have. This has lead me to looking into potentially doing a masters in one of these subject areas, however from this research it has become apparent that to do a masters in Architecture you have to have a degree in the subject, or have relevant experience in the subject, which I don't have so Interior Design seems a more realistic approach. From this I have reached out to UCLan, Manchester School of Art, Institute of Interior Design and the National Design Academy enquiring about their Interior Design master and diploma courses available.

This summer I will be spending my time in America as part of the Camp America program which is included in my CV. Whilst I am there I am also researching and enquiring into possible internships in architectural visualisation/ interior design in order to gain some experience in the subject area.