OUGD602 Final Evaluation & Plans

OUGD602 Final Evaluation & Plans

Evaluation

I have found PPP very rewarding this year, its been great to begin getting EQUIP noticed through Leeds Print Festival and Creative review, holding our first screen print workshop that went very smoothly with future plans for more over the summer. Printing the Leeds Print Festival posters from something more allowed us to make a step in the right direction when it came to providing commercial screen print services, producing someone else's work rather than doing self indulgent projects we added much more thought and focus into the outcome. 

Doing a lot of live briefs and exhibition work has for me allowed me too really push external presence while launching the equip website will allow an online output of our work.

Personally though within my own practice I have lacked focus, putting all external effort into PPP, towards the end of the year it began to dawn on me that I needed to start getting some clients. A good portfolio of work was needed to obtain this, so I spent a few days compiling together and reproducing work to professionally shoot it ready to prepare a portfolio for surgeries to help me develop it to gain more work. Freelance work will always be something I take on wether I'm employed or doing Equip there will always be personal freelance work to as a whole gain recognition of you as a person or Equip. This and carrying on self indulgent projects and the pushing of a Risograph printer puts me or Equip firmly into a position within the creative sector that merges experimental print and print distribution. The end goal too be like Ditto who provide print services and a publishing company the difference been here I want to sell my own work as well as providing a vessel for other creatives products.

The visiting professionals who set us live projects and briefs gave me a taste of timescales and requirements for real life working practices, Im really looking foreword too scrapping the in depth documentation of every detail within a design process and focusing on my outcome without all these distractions diluting the idea. I feel I will get a lot more work done and make better use of my time and really begin to push my practice and potential employment.

I could have done a lot more research into studios I aspire too work for or aspire too be like when starting my own thing, focusing on the work I have been producing has been the distraction away from this while COP and the heavy theoretical approach I have had this year hasn't helped either, the manifesto we planned for EQUIP didn't go as smooth either due too the work and time balance but its something we will carry on pushing as its a very important element of the brand, it will be nice now not to rush it and really focus on creating high quality pieces with even more focused concepts to resonate our practice.

The final point that really benefited me this year was the DBA Hyperloop brief, allowing me to work with a number of creatives that had a range of skillets we produced a very well informed outcome that showed good time management and delegation between us showing another element of collaboration along side mine and Joe Lindleys Equip studio. The feedback we received from the DBA directors was priceless too, giving us all a shock when it came too the delivery of an idea, what we thought was the cutting edge and perfectly refined and delivered was shot down but allowed us to learn a lot about how we approach and present a problem.

Overall though throughout the 3 years from all the visiting professionals and live briefs and competitions I have really developed and focused the area I want too be within and have a real direction for the next few years for myself and for Equip. Its going to be really busy but these 3 years have certainly prepared me for that.

Plans

Through a number of upcoming portfolio surgeries I hope too develop all the best work I have created into a well developed outcome and fully understand how to present it too the best of its abilities while communicating the story of the brief and the resolution both with how the portfolio is presented but how I present it verbally to studios. The end goal will be too get an internship so I can begin applying everything I have learnt over my 3 years at university too a real world environment. mainly the;

Interaction with clients

Doing live briefs for commercial clients

Expanding on how too solve specific problems that are not directed by me and what I want but what the client needs.

Learning about the professional delivery of jobs, not just printing it out using the facilities at university. Contacting printers or contacting other production companies for example its not always about packaging an indeisgn file with the colours, fonts and images for a printer to produce. You could need something physical making like a sculptural outcome or maybe something screen printed on a mass scale. All these interactions from the sourcing of the printer too the dialogue are things I need to learn

I will be continuing pushing EQUIP with Joe with all these things I learn when I get an Internship, I say when very hopefully but I feel continuing pushing the presentation of my current work and pushing my freelance work to produce more work I will gain a better chance of employment.

The plans of providing experimental print and design services will be carried on if I don't get this placement within a residency at LCA, and whatever else happens I will still be buying a Risograph printer as the start of us offering print services. We got a taste for commercial printing within the LCA poster printing so we want to carry this on within other avenues as well as gaining exposure and selling our work at print fairs and holding mini exhibitions and more workshops through mine and Joe's contacts at areas around Leeds.