OUGD602 - Module Evaluation

At the start of this year my main aims were to focus on branding, motion and music, complete some placements and plan life after University. Overall, I feel that I have achieved all these aspects in this module. The three areas that I wanted to focus on this year informed my brief selection in the OUGD603 module, which has allowed me to produce a portfolio of work that reflects my interests and areas that I would like to specialise in after University.

Completing two placements that revolve around branding and motion, alongside gaining the opportunity to do some music-focused work experience after University, has put me in a very confident position. These aspects have strengthened my CV and improved my knowledge of various industries drastically. The personal branding project has also given me a lot more confidence to apply for jobs and placements as all my work is in one place for people to see. The website and CV will be extremely helpful when travelling as I want to apply for jobs when out their before I move to London.

From this module I have learnt that I want to specialise in either branding/creative motion work or music after University. I have identified that I enjoy creating ideas and being in charge of the projects I work on much more than being given snippets of jobs to contribute to. Because of this, my main goal is to become either a full-time self-employed freelancer, a creative director or own my own agency, whether it be design or music related. Initially, this is unrealistic as I will need to build up a variety of contacts and gain experience; however, my aim is to try and do so within the next 5-10 years. After University I am going to take a few months off and enjoy my time travelling before hopefully starting a full-time job in London from September onwards.

OUGD602 - Poster Jam Feature

In the OUGD603 module I completed a brief and submitted 5 posters to the monthly competition Poster Jam. They have a fairly large following with just under 4000 followers on Instagram. My posters have been successful and made it onto the Poster Jam website. These can be seen below.


One of my posters was also uploaded to their Instagram. They only selected 9 to upload; therefore, I am very happy with the outcome of this brief as my work has been promoted to an audience of entirely new people. I am going to continue entering live briefs after University as it is a great way to promote my work to new people, which could lead to potential clients.

OUGD602 - Design Strategy Presentation Feedback & Reflection

The feedback from the presentation was all positive. I managed to present between 8-10 minutes and covered all the points that I wanted to focus on. I was initially quite nervous as I haven't presented for a few months; however, I feel that I got into the swing of things as I progressed through the presentation.

OUGD602 - Design Strategy Presentation

The final presentation produced can be seen below. As I have a lot of digital/motion work I used Keynote to present. This allows videos to be shown with ease. A recording of the presentation can be seen below. This will be presented much slower in the actual presentation as I will explain each slide. Furthermore, presentations need to be 8-10 minutes in length, therefore I aiming to hit around the 9 minute mark.

OUGD602 - Paid Client Work

Dazed asked me to do another outcome for them. As I told them that I am very busy, they offered to pay me for the first time for my services. For this, I sent over an invoice, charging £40 per hour. I felt that this was representative of my time and used the concept of aiming fees high to start with to inform this decision. The invoice template used in the personal branding project was used.

They asked me to design a banner for an upcoming event. Some inspo imagery was sent over and I created two rough designs. These were sent over to Dazed.

Dazed asked me to change the type content when I sent over the designs. I sent them the following desktop and mobile layouts and they approved them.

This brief only took me half an hour; therefore, I charged them £20 for my services. Whilst this is not that much, it is a starting point for further work. More substantial projects could lead to more being made in the future. For this reason I aim to continue working with Dazed after University.

OUGD602 - Design Strategy Presentation Plan & Creation

For the presentation I used the brief sent out:

You will deliver a 10 minute presentation (powerpoint or similar) that communicates and summarises your individual creative ambitions, career plans, design strategies and professional activities.

These may include although not limited to:

Studio visits and open days

Industrial/work experience/placements

Professional activities

Live briefs

Visiting professional talks/workshops

Portfolio surgeries and creative CV workshops

Information of conferences, talks, exhibitions...

Timetables, schedules and strategies 

Individual external engagement appropriate to your studies

When considering what plan to take I thought that it would be easiest to start with the aims that I had coming into this year. I knew that I wanted to focus on branding, motion and music this year and my other two aims were to get a placement or two and plan life after Uni. This is the focus of the first few slides.

I then plan to expand on the aims, moving through the 3 main areas that I have focused on this year. In terms of branding projects I have completed many this year, such as Creative Conscience, Sierra and Deceit. At the start of the year I stated that I want to focus predominantly on live briefs to get my work out there, build communication skills with clients and prepare myself for working on real-life projects after University. Therefore, I am going to highlight that I have tried to meet my aims, as these are all live briefs.

I am also going to talk about the benefits of my personal branding project in this module and how having my work online in a clear, consistent manner allowed me to get a placement at Smith Dawson - a branding studio in London.

I then aim to move on to motion, how I managed to get a placement with an editing company and how I learnt that corporate motion work is something that I don't want to pursue. Motion examples of my work will be included in this stage by using Keynote.

The last area of work that I will talk about is music, and how it has helped to benefit my design practice - particularly in regards to time management, organisation and professionalism. I am also going to talk about how I have incorporated my music interests into the OUGD603 module this year, and how a talk by Nana Goldbaek inspired me to get in contact with a music production studio in London called Brains & Hunch - who have offered me the chance to go and work with them for a few days after University.

The final section of the presentation will focus on my last aim of planning life after University. I will highlight my travelling plan that has been booked, my aim to move to London in September and ambition to get a job in either design or music.