New Promo Pack mock up

Really pleased with the mock up, though I think I might add another design to go on the back of the book mark. Also I think I'm going to try printing onto a different stock just to see if this improves the quality of it. Also, business card in the picture isn't mine. Just using it to test things out!

Promo Pack

I've decided to go with a 3 fold promo pack, so I don't waste too much paper!

OOOOOOH!

checked my phone to see this cheeky Instagram promo! I'm so excited now! its happening for realssss! It's so nice to know that people out there actually likes your work :')

 

Dreaming big and thinking only positive thoughts! I'm going to try and do a little bit of networking with people over there, a little bit of exposure outside of the country - hoping this would lead to the start of something rather significant in my creative career!

Also! I just got told my booth number!

Work Samples

I plan to select just 4 different pieces of work (different media, contexts etc.) to put in my promo pack - this is a good amount to enable me to showcase the breadth of work that I do and also to get potential employers, hopefully, interested in seeing more.

I plan to present my work in a form of a photo card/post card (smaller than A5) with a short description of the work on the back. Because I don't have a lot of relevant work experiences, the work samples and descriptions should enable them to see what I am capable of doing, my skills, the software and media that I can use - so I don't have to rewrite these elsewhere.

Examples (front and back):

My only concern is that these samples will vary in sizes - it might look a little untidy. But I think as long as one of the sides are kept the same throughout, it shouldn't look too bad..

Promo Packs

I decided to give a little more thought on how I'd actually like to present my promotional materials. I collected some images on how others have done it for inspiration:

Follow Aghnia Mardiyah's board Promo Pack & CV on Pinterest.

Sometimes I try to go with the simplistic approach whenever possible because it usually works out the best (for me anyway). Instead of making a box to put everything in, which I think would require more time and money, I decided a little folder/envelop type thing would work just as well. Not sure how much easier it would be to make this but I saw the promo pack below and I really like the little pockets that hold the business card, work samples etc. 

I decided to make a little mock up of this:

I like the idea of printing my profile/cv onto the 'folder' - if I did this I wouldn't have to print a separate thing just for the cv, reducing printing costs, which is very good indeed. I would limit the size to an A5, maybe even just a tiny bit smaller so I can print onto A3 - which is still pretty reasonable for size and cost for print.

Business Card

I want to get my promo pack complete as soon as possible, hopefully before I leave for MEFCC (6th April) because I actually want to take some with me to the event (incase I bump into some people haha - gotta be prepared) 

I looked back at my first set of business cards that I created for the Off The Page exhibition and I realised that I made these at the US standard business card size, which is slightly narrower than the UK one and, I don't know it might just be me, but it really bugged me so I decided to resize them. 

Then I thought about how my promo pack would look as a whole (including intended products/things to go in it) and decided that it wouldn't really look like a set - too much different styles and colours that I feel would make it look a little all over the place - there isn't really a particular thing unifying them together (except maybe my name). This doesn't necessarily mean its a bad thing, but I decided because my cv and business card are going to be the main products, I decided to make them carry the same underwater theme, to make it look like they belong together. - Additional promo materials can then be whatever I want because they're additional products to work as 'work samples'.

Below is my new business card design - I just want to keep things simple - standard size, standard format - I want it more to be about my illustration than anything else. Also, I am just going to make one edition of the business card.

Prints! Prints! Prints!

Started printing some prints to sell at MEFCC!!

Very important to keep a record of your costs so I worked out how much it cost me to print and pack my prints and its sooooo good! What am I going to do when I leave uni?! Need to find myself some affordable printer people or something..

MEFCC: Notebooks

I decided to make the patterns that I made for Tigerprint (since I didn't win) into notebooks to sell at MEFCC. I am going to make these into A5 notebooks to reduce printing costs.

Printed and folded mock ups:

I think I will try printing on another stock as I found this one just a little too thick, and so it kind of damaged the paper and the artwork when folded.

I just had a thought of maybe making these to go in my promo pack as well - maybe add more of my contact details on it - but I think this would clutter the design actually. Maybe my name is enough?

Creative CV: Update

This Easter break, I will be on my way to Dubai to participate in this year's Middle East Film and Comic Con! They offered me a free stall to exhibit and sell my work! I just couldn't say no to that! - what a waste of networking opportunity that would be! They've asked me to write an artist/exhibitor description and I thought I could use this for my CV as well! Below is what I wrote for them:


Aghnia Mardiyah, also known as Aggie, is a UK based illustrator with a passion for animation, visual development, and children's books. She has been drawing for as long as she can remember and is currently studying Illustration at Leeds College of Art. Brightening people’s day and making people smile with fun, playful and beautiful images have been her main purpose as an artist. But when she is not disappearing under piles of paper, she yearns for adventure! She loves to travel, to experience and explore foreign places, exciting new sights and sensations!


I think this is a much better version of my profile - although still quite formally written, I think it sounds less cold, and a lot friendlier which is ideally what I want - the right balance of personality and professionalism.

I also updated the 'About me' page with my new bio on my Tumblr page!

Reflections

I got some feedback today from John about my creative cv so far!
The format of the cv itself is good but in order to grab more of the attention of potential employers etc. I was advised to make it sound less like a cv, less formal and cold so it feels more personal and more like myself. I do agree with this 100% and feel that the content, so far is lacking in personality! It needs to be a little more fun and playful because that's what I am and my work is all about! So this is what I will be working on next - trying to bring more personality into the written side of things!

I also asked about whether I should make a completely new Tumblr account for my work only, and John said that there is no need to, because actually the collection of other people's work that I have on my blog would enable other people to see the type of work that drives me, excites and inspires me. So that is well good! - But I am thinking of maybe creating/having my own website, which will act as a kind of official professional online portfolio, the entirety of it consisting of only my work - I will have to get researching and planning if I want to set one up though! I think I will ask my web developer friend if he could help me out!

Things to do (if making a website is a go):

• Look at how other creatives have laid out their websites
• Look at how they have applied their identity to it so that it is consistent with their type of work, tone of voice and everything else that they do
• Analyse what I like and don't like and take that away so I can start building up the structure of my own website
• Need to research more into registering a domain name and all that jazz!

Creative CV: Mockup

Laying out contents in Photoshop - I decided to use my underwater themed illustration as the artwork for my cv as I absolutely love to venture out into foreign places, to experience and explore exciting new sights and sensations! (I went snorkelling in Bali once and the underwater world has hooked me!)

I think I will put some pattern design on the back of this to show my versatility. I think it's a good idea to have as much work on show and make it appear as beautiful and well designed as possible - make it seem like there is value in it even if its only just a cv - maybe it can also act as a poster/art print so then people will be more inclined to keep it for future references (psssst, so that I will always be in their contacts book. hehehehehe sneaky)

Creative CV: Formats

I want to keep my cv to an A4 size, but I don't want it to be just a straight off flat piece of paper because that not very interesting. I decided to look at some brochure/pamplet type designs as they are usually A4 in size and I thought that the format would be quite interesting for a cv. Below are quick experiments/mock ups of my initial cv idea:

I decided to do some more research into formats, to see if I can push the design:

Follow Aghnia Mardiyah's board Format Ideas on Pinterest.

Creative CV

Thoughts:

• Must catch the eye and begin to 'sell' a potential employee
• Contain specific information such as experience and understanding of personal goals and achievements.
• Communicate quickly, that include something interesting about the applicant
• Must stand out
• It is important to communicate both visually and with the written work in a professional presentation.

Initial content for my CV:

Profile:
I am a productive, self-motivated, enthusiastic and creative individual. I am both organised and work well to deadlines. Although generally quite independent, I also work well alongside other people and is reliable, responsible and have good communication skills. I have a friendly and open personality, enjoy challenge and acquisition of new skills. I am interested in children’s illustration and working for visual development/concept art for animated feature films and television.

Education:

BA Hons Illustration

Leeds College of Art 2013 - present

A-Level: Textiles (A*), Art (A), Business Studies (Pass)

12 GCSEs, 3 A*s, 2 As, 5 Bs, 1 C, 1 Merit

Patchway Community College 2007 - 2013

Previous Employment and Work Experience: (ask john if just creative work experiences or general as well)

May 2010 – Admin at Atkins Aerospace Department. Working with different people and performing different admin tasks such as booking courses, finance tasks, quality check, preparing a staff conference meeting, travel and marketing.

May - June 2012 – Event Organiser at Patchway Community College. Organising and running (in collaboration with other people) a Music and Arts Fusion Festival which aimed to bring the community together. I was involved in a number of different tasks, from visiting and working with primary schools to producing posters and programmes to manufacturing large windsocks which was brought down and was a part of the 2012 Olympics water sport opening ceremony in Weymouth. 

Creative Skills:

• Good computer skills
• Familiarity with Adobe programs (especially confident in Photoshop)
• Quick to learn
• Attentive eye for detail
• Good eye for layout and composition
• Good drawing skill

Attributes:

• Good time management
• Effective problem solver
• Approachable personality
• Responsible
• Team player

Interests: 
When not disappearing under piles of paper or sitting in front of the computer, usually found reading, travelling, visiting, photographing, walking, watching, drawing, spending, sewing, talking and sleeping.

References: Available on request

Online Presence

As part of our creative presence brief/promo pack we were encouraged to set up our own blogs separate from our uni blogs. I have already a Tumblr that I use all the time - but its content is a collection of both other peoples work that inspires and excites me as well as my own work. There is a link at the top of my page which will enable people to see and browse through only my work, however, I am not sure whether to actually create a blog where it is purely my work on show. I will ask John what he thinks about this in our next PPP session.

Like the Tumblr I have now, my Instagram is also a mixture of both my work and more personal stuff although I think my Tumblr is still sort of more professional in content than my Instagram; I mostly use it to post work in progress/behind the scenes of my work but I also like to post other bits and bobs happening in my life.

Very bare right now, but I've also created a LinkedIn!

Off the Page!

I was part of the hanging team, but unfortunately I wasn't able to participate in the hanging when the time came as I had family matters to attend to, which I felt really guilty about but I have said that I am willing to help take down the work at the end of the exhibition on the 13th of March if my help is needed.

The night of the launch of the exhibition was pretty hectic! The turnout was really great!

Thoughts:

• Great turnout
• Bar created a nice atmosphere - busy and sociable
• Quality of work was great
• Work was hung and displayed well - very straight
• Our end of year show has got to top this!
• Pricing wasn't totally clear
• Work to buy (separate editions) aren't available for customers to look through