Strengths
I think my main strength in this module has been the thing i have dedicated most time to. Acceptably it probably wasn't the wisest decision to use so much of my year working on a promotion video, but i think it is something that will really benefit my practice. I wanted to showcase my animation and advertise my practice at the same time. I consider the video to be a success because i achieved what i wanted; to make an advert with animation, music, and lyrics all created by me so that i can have credits after where i am credited for everything. It gives an idea to my humour and illustration style and i think it will be a good thing to send out to agencies and companies i want to work with.
Another strength this year has been my use of instagram. Over the last three years i have made myself accounts in all the different social media platforms but i've never really got into regularly posting. I don't tend to regularly use social media anyway so its been a steep learning curve.
Instagram lead to a job doing a t-shirt design for a canadian company 'mister dress up'. I was surprised at first because it wasn't one of my finished illustrations or something i was doing for a project. Instead the picture that drew Sam (mister dress up founder) in to my practice was a small drawing i had done in my sketchpad of me looking super tired. I think this shows that my playful drawing has value in my practice too and maybe that work shows more of my personality than work for briefs. This has encouraged me to always have a personal brief along the side, somewhere where i can show my full personality in my work.
Thought Bubble went much better this year than last, i think the overall aesthetic of our table was more professional. I built a stand because it was something i realised all the professional practitioners where using last year. I built it myself because i work on quite a strict budget, but i think my choices in material and colour made it still look high quality. I spent a lot more time talking to people at the event this year, which i found really confidence boosting because I always worried that it would be really hard. I got interviewed for a video that was being made about the event and that was fun to have my face on something representing Thought Bubble. I generally think that i just went into this years thought bubble with my business mind on, i was trying to push professionalism and considering what would sell based on what i learnt last year.
I think my creative CV, although completed last, came out quite successfully. I like the design I came up with to hold the prints and make the cv a little book, i think it well represent s my practice as I make comic books and i like to hand bind. I created the pattern out of one of the idioms I was using to represent experience in the creative field. I wanted to try and keep it simple as i have a habit of over designing and creating busy unbalanced work.
On the skills section i showed both digital and analogue skills, this is because although i mainly work in digital, a lot of analogue work goes into making the final product and i think i should present that as a strong factor of my practice.
Finally I think my presentation was a big strength of this module. I didn't think it was going to be because i was under the impression that i was terrible at presenting. But once i got up there it just kind of flowed out. I had a lot of fun with it and i think my use of gifs really boosts the comedic factor, which makes the presentation more enjoyable to view. I think that is something i can take into the future, when presenting to clients i should play to my strengths and real them in with silly gifs and jokes along the way.
Weaknesses
A big weakness in my submission is my spelling mistakes. I will have to reprint my creative cv and amend it. I need to spend time putting my writing into a spell check engine because i know that my spelling isn't great and by not checking it i have made myself look unprofessional. I would have reprinted for this submission but I can't afford to print it again
I left my contacting until the last minute and i think that has worked against me because now we are finishing the year and i have much less contacts than others. But this is something i will continue to do forever so soon this will improve.
My promo pack is quite thin on the ground, i spent a long time trying to get the dimensions of my paper toy right so that it would work and therefore i didn't spend any time actually creating a full bodied promo pack. My promo pack is something i am going to expand post deadline.
My presentation boards looked messy this year. I was trying to make them look uniform and linked to my practice but i think the image i chose was too big and took up too much space. When presenting myself in the future I will have much cleaner boards, like my portfolio boards.
My presentation notes could have been better because i made them all writing so immediately after i started my presentation i could no longer read them as thy looked like egyptian. I know i have trouble reading under pressure and i should have planned for that. Like last year i had drawn pictures so i would get lost in the words. I just feel like i could have prepared a bit more.
What i've learnt
1. How to make a complete range around my brand
2. I can present well
3. My animations add to my presentation and set me apart
4. I can sell my work
5. I can use social media
6. Social media can lead to jobs
7. Contacting people isn't so hard
8. I know what i want to do in the future now
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