Felix Muigai Fda Design for Graphic Communication Work Placement Report 2010 Projects: Snakeyman Web Design Action Reaction Web Design Royal Wear Identity, Web Design

Gaining employment in Graphic design is not easy. You have to market yourself as much as you can and increase your chances of getting a placement some-where. Therefore, we got a brief this summer for work placement in which we have to apply and a quire a 10 day work placement.

I managed to do a series of freelance design work in London with a lot of companies. The best design experience was working with Snakeyman. The actor/artist. It was a real music and design industry experi-ence. I got to learn a lot and also test my working skills.

In the next few pages, I will go through my experi-ences and the design work produced.

My first freelance work was with 3rd phase media. A south London Media

consultant company. They specialise in digital media and filming. I got this job through the Stop campaign. Which I have been involved in since Chelsea college of art 2007. Me and Alex rose went around the UK campaigning against the on going gun and knife crime campaign. And everywhere we went, Manchester, da-genham e.t.c we exchanged number with people and that way I acquired a lot of contacts and at the same time, Did something good for the community. Now every now and then, I get a lot of paid freelance work. I met 3rd phase media at a football game. I was sit-ting at the lower tier of the football stadium and at the end of the game, I spoke to camera men that was recording the game that day and we exchanged numbers and he said he would call......... Continued

Meeting 3rd phase media

Because he had a lot of work to be done. I didn’t expect a call. But two weeks later, I got a call from a Ralph Braithwaite.

He said that he got my number from one of their camera men. And that he had a look at my web site and would like me to go down to their office for a meeting. I went to their office and after the met-ing, I was offered a job to be their web designer/ developer. I would be in charge of all web design jobs as they didn’t have a web designer as yet.

About 3rd Phase MediaProduce3rd Phase Media pro-vides expertise and advice through consulta-tion with it’s clients. They produce visual solutions for a variety of appli-cations, from TV, film, corporate video, DVD and online presence.

FilmThey use broadcasting standard and high quality HDV cameras, along with professional lighting and microphones at carefully

selected locations to en-capsulate qualitative foot-age. Which was a great opportunity because i had a chance to see all the work in progress and probably get to use some of the film equipment.

Edit3rd Phase Media will ensure that the final visual product is delivered to the highest standards latest editing technolo-gies and motion using the latest media software in order to ensure projects achieve maximum visual

poten

In terms of equipment, they had some of the best equipment I have seen.

Video1/3-inch Exmor™ CMOS Professional

AVCHD Camcorder with GPSThis is the best media coverage cam-era at the moment and they had not 1

but 3 of these beasts.

Equipment

About 3rd phase media

Snakeyman web designMy experience

The first meting was arranged by Ralph Braithwaite from 3rd phase media. I had a meeting with snakey-man’s management and they came very well prepared and knew what they wanted to get out of the meet-ing. They spoke about re branding snakeman as a brand and wanted to launch him as a household name. They had a lot of requests in terms of the technology they wanted on the web site. Most of the things they asked for I couldn’t be able to do. But from what I learned in the past freelance projects, I have learned to accept and learn the technology later. No technology is hard to un-derstand if you put your mind to it.

On the first meeting, snakeyman’s management explained that they wanted something very simple but good to hold a lot of things. They showed me a web site of another artist that they like (Kano). And they explained that they would like “Just one single picture on the home page and snakeymans’s bio. This was really simple and I didn’t like the idea because I also have to think about what I am adding to my portfolio.

Knowing that I could do a

The initial idea for snakeyman’s website.

Snakeyman web designMy experience

Snakeyman’s web site before and after respectively

better looking web site than what they proposed, I went home done a prototype of what they wanted and also designed a prototype of what I was thinking of.

I presented them with my idea and their idea on our next meeting on which snakeyman was present this time. The manage-ment was still stuck on their idea but snakeyman loved my idea and re-quested that the website be built on my idea.

I’m a big fan of Snakey-man, I think he is a great actor. Especially on The Bill. I actually got to see him in Manchester on his tour for my birthday last year. After our meeting with Snakeyman, I went home and had a look at his web site and after viewing it, I could not tell you how horrendous it was. The image that they used for him was pixel-lated. See for yourself at

http://www.snakeyman.co.uk/. Not to mention the content is built in a word-press blog which is ter-rible for search engines. Being an actor, it’s very important to expand your brand, especially all over search engines. Not only was the content built in a wordpress blog, the entire site was really alarming.

I noticed at the bottom the year says 2006, that’s way too long for someone to update their site with a new layout. His facebook page and twitter seem to be updated regu-larly which is good, but he shouldn’t abandon his official site. His official site should be a hub of information which feeds his facebook and twitter. I would really like to work with more public figures on how they can improve their online brands.

From top Royal Wear website and logo.

Royal wear identityMy experience

Royal wear was a project that i am still currently involved in. I got the con-tact for it in the summer of 2009. I got a ponecall from a client that i had designed a media website for. he said he had passed my number to his friend who is starting a clothing company and that i should be expecting a call from him.

The meetingWe had a brifing at his of-fice and he spke about the feature goals and where he sees the company in the next couple of years. I also showed him my portfolio and gave him a sample cd with my online portfolio. He men-tioned that he was looking for a fashion designer at the moment but would need my services at some point later to design a website for the buisness.

In the past, i had been in-volved in a couple of fashion design projects so i decided that i would try and apply for the fashion design position.

The brand I wouldn’t say the brand identity looked good but i could tell the feature looked bright for the company. In terms of payment, they gave me two choices. To pay me the full price (£1,500) or a share of the company. And if the copmany does well, i would earn even more money than they offered.

This was something that i have never ome across. I rememebre bieng very ex-cited and trying to compase myself.

I wanted to ask if i could have some more time to think about it because you need to look at a lot of thing. ie the company go-ing bust and you loose all your money. Also if i was ti accept the offer, it meant that i would have to be more than just a fashion designer. I would end up doing promi-tion work. Advertising every-where because i would want the company yo do well so that i dont end up loosing everything.

O ther that, I had a lot of things to gain if the company done well, i would earn more and generate more revenue. Also it would open more doors to other projects.

The workAfter accepting the offer, i decided to put togeter all the fashion work that i have done and presented to them. They liked most of the work and decided to give me a chance to prove myself as a fashion designer. I deicded to do a t-shirt sample and designed something pro-vocative.

Working with Royal wear is really great because i get to work with them and at same time do my own work with them. And also earn money even when i am not working. It’s like bieng self employed.

So far i have designed a website , t-shirts, shoes and bags. We have a lot of good comments about the website and overall i am glad i accepted to take the share instead of a cash pay.

3rd Phase Media is a small media company situated in south london. It has 5 em-ployees who are really nice guys. I never got bored when i was there or felt like i want to quit.

When i got the email to go for the first meeting at thier office, i was not sure what to expect. I thought it was going to be either a very bussy place with designers running around. Or a very quite place that you can hear youself breath.When i got there, i learned that are a humble small company. Very buiesness driven. The director said

to me ”Sorry if i come across as arrogant sometimes i am very buisness driven and sometimes it can be confused as arro-gance.

He was a great inspira-tion and taught me a lot of things. Mostly how to archieve what you want

and how to go about it.

I dont see myself work-ing for 3rd Phase Media because i would love to work for a bigger company. Somewhere i am presented with a lot of manure and fartelizer in order to grow.

From my time with 3rd phase media, Gained a lot of skills that will definitely help me after I leave college. These skills are mainly technical and presentations skills.

When I first started with the company, I felt nervous about my capabilities and skill set of what I was bring-ing to the company. The tasks I undertook required a wide range of skill and I wasn’t sure if my standard of work would be enough to uphold the company’s standards.

I found working by myself quite a task although this proved useful experience in mirroring the world of freelance work where work

undertaking and problem solving is usually solitary.

My skills in digital media have also benefited from my time with 3rd phase media so far. Sometimes I am left to hold the camera and record something or monitor the multiple DVD burner. And in the proc-ess I have learned a lot about Professional digital cameras especially CMOS Professional AVCHD Camcorder. Loved working in media in a Professional environment something I have not really done before.

As well as working with digital camera’s I also gained new skills in using After Effects and Final cut pro. Using this I created personalised DVD menus something I haven’t done before.

Most of the time, I went out with one of my colleagues to meeting and sat down and absorbed how they dealt with clients. I think

this was a great opportunity to understand how different fields deal with design people.

Reflecting back on my time at 3rd phase media so far I feel that it has been benefi-cial experience in terms of Professional development. And will now try and utilise the skills that I have gained from this experience to better my feature career in graphic design.

Skills Gained

”Sorry if i comeacross as arrogantsometimes i amvery buisness driven”

My aim now is to try and get as many placements as i can. When we first got the brief, i left the brief to late and thought that i would be saved by my freelance work because i get a lot of freelance work all the time. I never thought that it would be es-sential to employer for you to actually have design company experience even when you have a lot of freelance work and worked with a lot of different people. My dream is to start a career in America so from now i will try and attain as many place-ments as possible because in the states, the design market is very competitive and therfore i would

like to be able to stand up and be able to compete with other creative minds. I will start small aplying to agencies in the UK and them when i feel that i have enough skills to compete with the big sharks in America, i will try and apply to placements in America and maybe they will i will stay on in one of the placements.

Feature Aims

BibliographyBooksWork Placements: A Survival Guide for Students by Christine Fanthome

Websiteshttp://www.arts.ac.uk/student/careers/work-placements.htmhttp://www.gumtree.com/jobs/graphic_designhttp://www.indeed.co.uk/Graphic-Design-Work-Placement-jobs-in-London