OUGD402 | Studio Brief 01 - DSLR Macro lens

I am currently trying to improve my camera skills as I feel this is a crucial part of promoting my design work. Good photography can sell design to a client so I have been regularly taking out cameras from the photo store to practice. This has been very helpful for my own personal development. 

Recently, I was photographing my self-branding work and book cover designs as practice, but I was having trouble focussing the images. I went to enquire at photography and they explained that this was due to the lens. All lenses have a different focal lens and they suggested that I use a macro lens to get good closeups of my work. I then began practicing with a macro lens, this was very large and difficult to hold for long periods of time. It was also difficult to use because it is so zoomed in, small movements are picked up very easily, and so photographing the desired part of my work proved difficult. I also had trouble will obtaining focus across the whole image. However, I did achieve some much better quality photos of my work than with a standard lens. Obviously much practice is still needed but I am gradually photographing more professional photos of my work. 

Below are some of the photos I achieved - 

OUGD402 | Studio Brief 01 - Duke Studios Leeds

Although I am only in my first year of Graphic design, I am still eagerly anticipating my plans for after my degree. When I began studying, I initially planned to enter publishing, specifically magazine design and hopefully in the fashion industry. However, after a few months of study I have become very interested in the idea of working in a studio to experience the breadth of design. I am becoming increasingly interested in the potential of starting my own design studio as this would allow me more control over briefs and the studio as a whole, it would also be a great achievement for me. However, at the moment I can not imagine how I could achieve this, but perhaps this is something to be learned in second and third year.
In order to gain a better understanding of Graphic studios, I have begun following various studios on social media. One studio that has caught my eye is Duke Studios which has two locations in Leeds. The studio itself is the main attraction, it is a creative space with designers from many other disciplines working in the same room, allowing everyone to bounce ideas off each other. Space in the studio itself can be rented and this could potentially be a good starting point for me out of uni.
You can see below how appealing the studio itself looks - this is how I envisage my future studio to look like.

I also began to look into LCA graduates from Graphic Design and was particularly interested in the success of The Hungry Sandwich Club, who have already designed for some big names such as Crabbies. There design has a playful, colourful feel which is primarily character based. I like the modernity of their website and how their works are on full display.  I am currently considering email both of these studios and more to ask questions about starting up a studio and potentially request to visit the studios themselves.

OUGD402 | Studio Brief 01 - DR.ME Loyalty Cards

DR.ME is a design based studio in Manchester. Their unique loyalty cards for coffee shop North Tea Power caught my eye. The cards are unusual in that there is no association to the Coffee shop, instead it is minimalistic, featuring only white circles and a colourful background image.
I liked how this stye was carried through to the design of the website, the logo for the work similarly features a simple circle shape, the only colours used are black and white and the webpage is framed with a thick black border - something I have not seen before. I would like to bring this minimalistic yet creative way of thinking to my own work.

OUGD402 | Studio Brief 02 - Interim Crit

As I have become quite stuck with my designs for self-branding, I organised a critique to help me know where to go next. I had felt the need to completely revamp the designs I had come up with. However, the group disagreed and felt that my current designs were successful, in particular my hand written type logo was a favourite.
The group agreed with me that the paper cut designs were too floral and suggested that I either papercut a single flower or investigate the possibility of embossing.
During the crit I came up with the idea of using a brown card stock for my business cards, similar to the design below. The group agreed this would be ideal.

The group was drawn to one of my original typographic sketches. It was suggested that I look at the work of Rob Ryan as the type I created was similar to his designs. 

Work By Rob Ryan

Finally, I stated that I liked the title I had used on my design board. They suggested that I could use this as a title on my website. They further suggested that I use the server weebly to create this. 

OUGD402 | Studio Brief 02 - Mood Board & Colour Development

I feel like I have hit a dead end with my self branding brief. To resolve this, I went back to basics and created a mood board using cuts from the magazines which I had in my room. I cut out everything that  liked and caught my eye. I also cut out colour samples from a Dulux paint book, to draw out colours from the images I had selected. The majority of the images I selected were either pale browns and greens, pale pinks, as well as brighter pinks, greens and blues. This battle between sophisticated pale tones and playful bright colours is making this brief quite difficult for me. I plan to now analyse further the images on my mood board, as well as organise a crit to get help with my designs. I may also carry out some further research. Below are some close ups of the mood board I created.