my portfolio content ideas

1. Mock FMP
2. Brand ID and packaging.
3. Bus station
4. Metamorphosis

these are the 4 project i think id like to include in my portfolio simply because i can talk to most about them and have the most work for. the numbers do not represent any order as of yet i just wanted to list them down first before creating any kind of order.

Mock FMP-has all photography work. From editorial screen shots, pre-production, action photos, lifestyle photos, work criticism and improvements, techniques, settings, research, environmental changes(travel), adaptation, leadership, communication.

Brand ID/Packaging- product and graphic design. initial ideas, general packaging and logo research, first net ideas and tests, worksheets showing mainly my logo and brand development with a little bit of packaging design, concept sheets at key stages of the project, more direct research, refining my logo, well thought through packaging ideas, legal requirements for my product, sketches of packaging both 3D and net views, information graphics, more direct research for my logo, poster design, the building of my packaging, research into poster photography, slight changes in logo, POS tests and finalisations, presentation techniques.

Bus station-graphic design and illustration. work for a client, small and large scale work, working on a project for a long period of time, coping with pressure, abstract and stylised work.

Metamorphosis- 3D/sculpture. working with multiple materials and tools, getting used to the properties of each, safety, altering my idea development to be relevant to 3D work, working from a source, researching into that source, abstract and traditional work, combining and altering materials to make them 3D.

portfolio research (UAL website)

These are segments from the portfolio advice that UAL give you on the website 

'The portfolio should contain examples of research, development of your ideas and final pieces. 

It might include drawings, paintings, sketchbooks, colour studies, materials investigation, design development (2D and 3D), construction, consumer and market information, written notes, design presentation sheets, or any other types of work you choose.

Sketchbooks show your research and help us to understand how you think. They form the background to the more finished work in your portfolio and, together, these tell the whole story of your creative journey.

If you have 3D pieces you should photograph and present these within the portfolio and bring one or two physical examples with you if you have a face-to-face interview/portfolio review.'

This section goes into some of the generic key factors of what they are looking for in a portfolio. In this it gives you some key ideas in how to present certain pieces such as, 3D/sculpture work etc. 

'There is no limit, but you might need to transport the portfolio to an interview (if selected), so be practical.

Five projects, plus sketchbook plans, is a manageable amount of content.'

this was the most relevant point for me as its gave me a exact number to work from. 5 projects and sketch books! this now give me a target and a challenge in war to include because only taking 5 projects will make me critically analyse my work thoroughly. 

Acrurate sculpting using callipers

This is my first attempt at using callipers to create a more accurate sculpture of the vertebrate. To use the callipers effectively you have to place the callipers on either side of a surface and then translate that measurement into the material your working with, in this case clay. Although, the piece isn't 100% accurate as it was my first attempt in happy and continuing to practice with the callipers is only going to make my skills more fluent. Personally, I didn't really like his technique because it basically teaches you how to copy the whole reason I love art is because it doesn't have to be mm perfect to mean something big.

prompt sheet

influences
logos from high end brands (vivian west wood, chanel)
logos from the leaders the audio and tech market (Dre.beats, apple)
brand images and early stages of the leaders in the tech market

colour- the colours correspond with the audience of each of the 3 products. example, kids are primary colours, outdoors are black and dark grey, pro version is all white.
typography-logo connected because my whole brand persona is to connect people with music
logo-is a picrow symbol with an e in it because of my brand name
imagery-took it all myself, made it appropriate for the one product i was advertising.
graphics-
illustrations-sketched out everything before id did it, allowed for multiple changes and alterations until i got to a final piece.

shape and function of packaging-my shapes represent the 3 primary shapes of bauhaus and the packaging itself gets more intricate as the products quality gets better.
infographics and legal info-looked up legal information for earphones and what they need to have on them and illustrated my info graphics to add that none robotic touch to my products packaging
POS and advert-the POS is simple however, I've added photography and my logo and some simple photoshop techniques to add to the whole persona of a high attention to detail I'm aiming for my product to have. my adverts photo also shows off the same traits.

how to present well!

1. write notes containing the main ideas, interactions with the audience.
-start with the research. where i got my idea from, how it developed, why i researched into what i did etc
2. practice so that your used to talking about your product. this will make the presentation flow better.
-family
-on your own
-friends
3. confidence
4. make eye contact
5. hand gestures
6. conclude
-show my 3 final designs, poster, pos etc

Presentation techniques

-read blog from bottom to top rather than top to bottom.

Design finalisation 1 (pre-presentation)

This is the final stages of my development in the graphics and text on my ADV packaging. At the start the packaging was called elemental but after much frustration in how to label it and place it on the packaging properly I came to the conclusion that the name was to long and didn't really have a ring to it. 

This was my brainstorming for the new name. I basically wrote down abbreviated words which described the target audience of the product. In the end I chose ADV which stand for adventure or advance either fits the out doors adventure, progressive, creative mindset. 

This was before I changed the logo to the new one and added a city scape graphic. 

I decided to go with a city scape silhouette graphic because the fact that it's got no detail so it slows the mind to wonder and promote that creative mindset I mentioned earlier. The viewer can create a personal mind map of how it'd look in detail.  

In this not much has changed from before or than the fact that in this one I added the ADV text. I decided to go with a outlined text and tried to get as close to a army classified don't as I could. This is because the army text will tell the viewer that the product will be durable which is key for the adventure, explorer personality I'm aiming for. I decided to put it directly behind the pilcrow embellishment text because it gave it a slick and quality look which will give the buyer confidence because he product won't be of a bad quality.  

POS 1st attempt

This is the first attempt at a POS and I've catered it towards the elemental product in the range of 3 I've made. As the elemental product is for the adventure, outdoors people I've incorporated my own photography in the back drop. In the photography I've show off an 'element' of the adventure lifestyle with the grind box, janky ramps and graffiti (basically a DIY skatepark). Even down to the clock in the top left hand corner it makes the whole thing feel timeless and out there. I've chosen a fairly simple POS style because I wanted the product to speak for it's self and the POS's colours and photography to compliment it. 

Thing I am going to add and change. 

First thing is I want the photo to reflect on the shelf play form where the packaging will sit because I want to show a puddle kind of effect to add to the asthetics of the piece. Secondly, I am going to make he whole thing 1.5 maybe even 2x bigger  just so that it can have maybe two pieces of packaging on it rather than one. Thirdly, change the colour of the whole platform to maybe a shade of gray to complement the photo further. 

Cilinder packaging-Elemental

This is the near finished cilinder packaging however the product names been changed to elemental because each of my products has different target audience. For this product I've tried to push it towards either teenagers but more so adventure type people (outdoors type). The packaging itself is tailored so that it makes the buyer find it help full and functional rather than intricate like my icosehedren packaging. I've made it functional by creating a platform inside the packaging where the earphones themselves will wrap excluding any chance of the earphones knotting up. In the lid of the packaging I've put my warnings and my info graphics so that I didn't take away any of the visual aesthetics of the piece as we want the buyer to keep hold of it as long as possible. The functional properties of the piece is that the lid slots inside he base snug enough so that I creates a vacum and so that the buyer will not have the problem of the lid coming off the base whist it's in there bag etc. 

  

Icosahedron packaging-Akoustica

This is my first full completed icosehedren packaging and although it hasn't got any proper function at this stage it's been helpful just to see how it's going to look. In this one I've only got my logo on it and nothing else but in the actual thing it will include my info graphics, QR code, warnings, product name, brand name and colour variation. For this one I've also thought about it being made out of different opacity and density plastics for example the bottom 2/3s of the packaging is solid opaque plastic (white) and the top 1/3 will be either clear with a matte logo or matte with clear logo. The target audience for this product is mainly business class and is the most professional product in the range I've created. 

final PS (4100)

Photography has become one of the most influential and exciting things in my life in the past few years. This course would not only broaden my understanding of the principles of photography but would give me an idea of the direction to dig into.
In my opinion I'm the right man for this course because I'm an open minded individual with the ability to grasp new concepts and techniques quickly. Although I do have my own style of photography, which i tend to link to my lifestyle of BMX and urban action sports. Since I was roughly 6 or 7 years old, I've pretty much ridden my bike everyday and have stayed hooked on it by the atmosphere and lifestyle through out my life. However in the past 1 or 2 years i have decided to capture it by both photographing and videoing what actually happens and my achievments. By learning new techniques and different styles of photography which i'll gain from this course I will be able to apply them straight to my lifestyle, documentary and sports photos.
I've recently created a Facebook page where I have 135 likes and climbing! The aim of the page is to advertise my work as much as possible enabling any future clientele to view my progression and hopefully give them confidence in myself and my passion for future jobs.
Expanding more on my bike riding, i ride as often as the british weather allows me to (and in many cases even when its not at its most glorious) i frequently ride my bike. Riding in many different areas for example Sheffield, Nottingham and Liverpool has given me the chance to observe different lifestyles, architecture and the diversity of culture in each place I travel to. It goes without saying that, Sheffield has a faster pace of life and has a higher volume of people in comparison to Worksop but its interesting to see the differences in architecture between a city and in the countryside which greatly intrigues me. This again relates back to my urban action sports interest where we simply don't see a bench as a place to sit or a rail as a safety precaution, I see those place as obstacles and opportunities to put my personal stamp on wether that be a photo, video or even memory. Even without the physical proof you gain a feeling self accomplishment when you learn something new.
Personally, my ability to learn, adapt and overcome situations quickly and efficiently is one of, if not the greatest transferrable skill i could take away from riding my bike and photographing it in the process. Although it may be seen as irresponsible and reckless it has taught me some of the most valuable lessons in life. For example I have been able to improve my communication skills by visiting many places I've been to and the new people I have met through out the many trips I've been on, which is a key as i must be able to talk and comfort my future clients. Moving away from BMX and into my current work, i have to work on my own accord and manage time well as I don't actually have to communicate with anyone to complete my tasks at work. therefore i need no guidance from my boss although if i ddi need that guidance or had any queries i wouldn't be afraid to ask. this is important for not only this course but its important for the world of work because a worker that needs help constantly and has to rely on other people to do their work for them are more of a burden than not acing a worker at all in my opinion.
In the long run I'm hoping to complete my degree etc but during any holiday times rather than going back home to enjoy my time off and reminisce on my situation. id like to use this time to further advance any skills I've come to learn, id like to be able to travel abroad and immerse myself into other cultures. by doing this ill be able to gain experience of different lifestyle and give myself a new outlook on the photos and to keep myself open minded which promotes the creative mind set. After my degree I'm hoping to create a freelance photography business based around documentary and lifestyle, whilst on the side ill be continuing to ride and take photos for a commission like a magazine, website etc.

photography from the london trip

these are the photos from our trip to London in november 

2D into 3D

this is an experiment to try change a 2D form into 3D. 

this is the second maquette i made using the measurements on the sheet below, i also tried to spiral the antlers more to give it that bit more elegance. i was extremely pleased with how well the measurements went and how the end product came out with the spiralled antlers but it was far to simplistic. to solve this i tried looking at other ways to make 2D into 3D sculptures. the first one which came up was origami, i was extremely surprised that i didn't think of this earlier but researched on a couple of youtube videos first and then decided which type of stag i like best visually. 

this is my first maquette i made with out measurements and just simply did it as a test sample. the positives of this piece is that the front legs are in preparation to the size of the piece and the head is a good size but id like to slightly change the shape. the negatives are the body is slightly thin, the rear legs are fatter than i wanted and although you can't see it on the photo the tail is none existent so id like to alter that when drawing up and making measurements, the ears/antlers are also far to big in comparison to the size of the piece.
these are the drawings and measurements i made after making the maquette. i based these of the positives and negatives of the maquette which i explained earlier. i also cut out the smallest triangle twice so i could use one for the tail and on for the head.

before making the stag i decided to make a simpler origami sculpture of a dog or hound just to get used the technique and the amount of times i needed to spend folding each bit because i was using extremely thick paper to do origami. the test went ok but really allowed me to get used to the creasing and folding techniques of origami.
taking the knowledge from the origami dog i made i knew that going up in scale will make it less fiddly but i will have to make the folds more defined and maybe use scissors.
the process itself was hard at all but towards the end i found it became very stiff to fold and pieces like the back legs were being pried open. the overall piece went better than expected and i really enjoyed doing origami for the first time but i didn't like how its very easily found on youtube so pretty much anyone can do it. i want my final piece to be something much more original and a process where the outcomes differ when using the exact same steps.

Abstract plaster wire and scrim

this sculpture combines scrim which is the brown fabric you can see in the picture below, one coat plaster and chicken wire. this test was to utilise positive and negative space in sculpture. I'm just interested in the effects that positive and negative space have on peoples views of sculpture. 

i started off by understanding the compositional factors that goes into sculpture so how it will be presented in an exhibition. for example i looked at the shadow work of Kumi Yamashita who creases paper in a specific way so the shadow makes a shape. this also lead me into looking at tim noble and sue webster do the process the other way around so they draw on the wall a shape or form they want to create and then place objects down in front of the light source to fill the shape they've drew. 

looking at those artists it gave me a knowledge of ways abstract work can be presented in a recognisable form. even though in this piece i didn't use and light source or create shadows using the sculpture i was interested in the pure forms of the tim noble and sue webster sculptures. 

within their sculptures it varies between high and low densities. 

so before starting my sculpture i had in mind that i wanted to balance between the high and low density areas. 

in the piece i combined two separate sculptures one very dense and the other very empty showing a good contrast between positive and negative space. in the much more dense part of my sculpture i

Moulding with excess plaster

here we used the excess plaster from our casts to create personalised moulds of our hands. we did this after having a discussion about how sculpture can hold different emotions, thoughts etc. basically, the idea with this is to both experiment with how the outcomes will look and to signify this moment in time. this helped me understand the use of sculpture because sculpture needs to have a meaning away from the physical form. 

niki de saint phalle

niki has been a massive influence to my work as she had a different perspective on how to create her sculptures. she shot them. polythene bags filled with pint and plaster human forms were the base of the sculptures, she then shot at the polythene bags to create an image on the plaster.
after the shoot paintings she then went in depth into different roles in which women take, making life-size dolls of women. example, brides and mother giving birth etc. made using mainly a wire frame and an overlay of plaster. painting them all white.

Reliefs, plaster and scrim

these pieces/experiments were inspired by both jackson pollock and niki de sant phalle. i used multiple sizes and quality of brushes for the splatters which was influenced by jackson pollocks as he used multiple utensils to splatter the paint on his work. he chose utensils that represented things like feelings and seasonal changes. so me using different grades of brush shows that I'm representing creativity and the colours used are to symbolise the scenery surrounding the poem metamorphosis. i also imbedded multiple twigs into the plaster so the when i splattered the paint id have a varied texture. it'd also make the paint drip into the gaps and make for an even more varied range of splatters. 

degenerate art-when Adolf Hitler declared war on modern art

George Gross was a fearless man in all aspects, art, politics and for that reason the most famous communist artist in Germany at the time. he used his art as a weapon. he basically took the piss out of every political party at the time because they were different to his opinions, he even caricatured Adolf Hitler. He threatened the Nazi's in such a way they weren't going to forgive him. it was said that they were banging on the doors of his studio asking for 'that pig gross'. He was sly with his escape as he made them believe that he was the cleaner. when the Nazi's declared war on modern art it was no surprise that Gross was number 1 on their list. the list was based around many other artist who were doing the same thing and all there work was banned from all museums. They were put in their own exhibition which was labelled the degenerate art exhibition. modern art was seen as a threat to germanys persona. the exhibition was seen by an estimated 2 million germans. in the last few years the art was brought together again in new york. in the exhibition its the first time there was art which was and wasn't condemned by the nazi's.

alginate casting

gilbert and george

gilbert and george in todays age would be know as performance artists but in the 1970s it was seen as living sculpture.

Plaster casting and destructive sculpture

Clay casting

logo and text experimentation (not actual logo or text)

this is another variation of my logo and text for my created brand. I've decided to go with the jagged finish and spots on the logo and text. this is because my target audience changed from just high end, upper class people, that are 18+ to outdoors, adventure people from 16+. this change wasn't as sudden as it looks on my blog, i actually started altering it towards that target audience just after i made my info graphics. the reason I never posted anything about it is because i didn't full commit to the change until now. 

after further review of this change I've decided to make this one of the variations of logo and text because my 3 product entail 3 different target audiences. An example this would be appropriate for the elemental product in the range I've create because its in perfect and looks generally messier then the others which fits well with the target audience of the elemental product. 

However I liked the fact that each of my had the same logo and text on and the product name was the thing that differentiated each one into the said target audiences. 

packaging/brand ID criticism

Complete a second bilboard/advertisement with the long exposure effect with your camera, do a POS (point of sale) stand as another form of advertisement for your product. Then just do a final clean of work and make everything up to scratch, and think about how your going to present your work to the class. constructive criticism by Jess.

Winter canch photos

In these photos I was aiming to show the struggle of winter riding in the UK. These photos were took roughly between 3-5pm and i purposely didn't use a flash because I feel like a flash would of completely changed what the photos meant. Another thing I aimed to achieve from these photos was to get better and taking lifestyle photos and when it's appropriate.  

In the two above photos I've used the ledge and the puddle as the focal point these photos were basically to set up the scene for this series of photos and the really show just exactly how us riders see the skatepark in winter. 

The top photo I used:

F/3.5 

1/500

ISO 3200 

With the standard 18-135mm lense @ 18mm

I didn't really change much other than the slightly increased the brightness and contrast. 

The bottoms I used:

F/4.5

1/125

ISO 6400

18-135mm @35mm 

Again increased the brightness and contrast slightly. 

Here is the closest I got to getting an action shot in this series of photos. However, an action shot wasn't what I was trying to achieve, I wanted a shot of him just rolling around but as I was just taking photos without directing at all I captured him just as he was setting up. 

The settings I used in this are: 

F/4 

1/250 

ISO 12800

With the 18-135@27mm

I'm not keen on this photo because I had to use a ridiculously high ISO so the quality isn't great but the fact I wanted to steer away from using a flash for these photos, pushed me towards the high ISO. 

Another dumped bike photo however, in this one I really think you can see the meaning behind it as the photo itself looks cold and dark. Which I intended. 

I focused on the colour of my frame as its already a cold colour anyway. 

Settings: 

F/4.5 

1/125

ISO 3200 

18-135@42mm 

In this photo I captured a moment which only riders who go to the canch will know. The time where it's to dark to ride and your waiting for the lights to turn on. 

I messed around abit with the settings on this photo just to simply see how the photo would turn out so excuse the odd settings, it was extreamly dark: 

F/3.5 

1/8

ISO 12800

18-135@18mm

In this photo I admit I've used more editing techniques than I'd of liked to but I was simply doing it for experimental purposes. I cropped off a scooter rider which was on the far right side of the photo and used a warm filter to see just how warm I could make it before it started to look tacky. 

In the photo itself I've captured two skaters talking whilst riding in the near dark. 

Settings although they don't seem it: 

F/4.5

1/200

ISO 12800 

18-135@35mm

In these two I've shown the contrast between a bright and dark focal point as in the first one I've shown that at that darkness of day the skater isn't very defined. so if I again resort back to using photoshop selecting the skater and brightening and lowering the contrast slightly you can see him much better and really show off the focal point. 

Top settings:

F/4.5

1/500

ISO 6400 

18-135@35mm

Bottom settings:

We're exactly the same other than ISO was at 3200

In this photo I wanted to capture a landscape essc lifestyle photo. Again capturing the moment that we are all waiting for the lights to turn on. Therefore, the ISO is high and the quality isn't the best. 

Settings:

F/4.5 

1/80 

ISO 12800 

18-135@42mm