OUGD602 - Uniform studio summary

After spending the week with Neil Sheakey at Uniform studios in Bold Street, Liverpool, I was able to meet plenty of professional designers, advertising specialists and marketing team members. The aim of the visit was to understand the structure of a graphic design agency, how teams work together and the projects that they work on. As I enjoy branding identity, campaign design and other commercial forms of communication, I felt that my time at Uniform was well spent. Here I met firstly with Neil, who got to know me by interviewing me on my arrival. We spoke about my own practice, what sort of work I would be looking for in the future and how the studio could work to my benefit.

Throughout the week, I was then introduced to other members of the design team, including John Barton and Pete Blake. They provided me with work similar to the projects I had recently been working on, as this was the best way for them to see what style my work was. Towards the end of the week, I spoke with Pete about my own independent clothing brand and how I was considering changes to the identity. He then gave me advice on his own experience with freelancing and put me in contact with another designer who had been selling branded clothing of his own.

Overall, I feel that Uniform studio was my favourite work experience to date, as it was a thriving design space that felt more involving and busy for all people. This is exactly what I had been looking for, and as a result I feel confident in searching for a career within design agencies. Working together on a project was what attracted me most to this studio, but working independently with other designers around you also felt welcoming. I think that having experienced the work at Uniform and the people involved in the design structure, I am also confident that independent studios such as this are more attractive in terms of my career prospects. This is because there are many studios like this in the north-west that could potentially be of interest to me in the near future.

OUGD602 - Uniform Internship - Day 5

Today I began developing some of the research ideas I had found yesterday and presented them to other members of Neil's team. They then gave feedback to me on the things they were working on and how my work could be tied into their project. I felt this was good for understanding how each team communicated with one another on different tasks within a project.

I was also able to meet another member of staff who explained to me how he had ended up working for Uniform and the small independent businesses he knew from his time as a free lance graphic designer. He put me in touch with another colleague of his, who owned a part-time clothing label similar to my own. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet his contact but he did send me his details, which I plan to use soon when asking for advice about going freelance. I could also ask him what he would recommend for someone in my position and whether going freelance would be a good idea early in my career.

Overall, I had thoroughly enjoyed my time working for Uniform agency as I was able to meet plenty of friendly designers and creatives from different specialties. One thing that I planned to get out of the experience was to find out what life is really like at a design studio for someone who has recently graduated. Although there weren't many recently graduated members of staff, I did get advice from the people I had worked with on ways to break into the industry. It was also a bonus opportunity meeting someone with insight on freelance business and side projects, who was able to put me in contact with other creatives.

Work
The client they were designing for were looking to improve areas of their business through employee awareness, environmental impact and international communication.
Therefore the work that was required included sketching ideas for iconography, ideas about training employees and how well the business communicates between different sectors. They wanted me to illustrate these ideas in different ways, so that a A0 poster could be printed displaying all the information.

OUGD602 - Uniform Internship - Day 4

Following on from yesterday's task, I continued to gather source material for the visual approach to a client's business. As the promotional poster would involve a central component it was important to first try to visualise different sectors of the business and then compile different elements of each to summarise the look of the business in the middle. As the focus of the business was around environmental sustainability among other things, I began by visualising this in relation to the centre image.

Feedback from a Uniform member of staff gave me further ideas on ways to improve this visual and we then re-evaluated the brief so that I could better understand what it was that the client wanted. This also gave me the chance to look at the client's website again, so that I could gather research about their core ideas and aims. This also made the visual approach different as the website showed the business as a specialist in bespoke design, making the colour palette more elegant as a result.

OUGD603 - Personal Branding Brief

In order to extend my portfolio and online presence, I plan to work on a visual branding project that can sell my specialties as a designer to potential clients or employers. This will mean creating content that can be applied to online portfolios either on my own website or to professional portfolio sites, such as Behance.com. The aim will be to design a series of visual outcomes, that will present my personality and aesthetic as a designer. This may include printed content, such as business cards, invoice documents, project proposal statements and introduction documents. These will then be used as presentation of my practice and presence both physically and online.

Considering particular colours and typefaces that I frequently use may be one way to create an identity that best reflects my interests within the graphic design industry. Using visual research from websites, designers or existing online portfolios will provide inspiration for the design of the content, layouts and appropriate methods of production. Overall, I hope to create an online identity that can show my enthusiasm for commercially driven projects, collaborations and branding identity.

OUGD602 - Uniform Internship - Day 3

Morning
Following on from yesterday, I began sourcing more ideas for my own brief and beginning several initial preparations for my personal project. As the research began to look at the opportunities in sports for young aspiring athletes, I decided that the project would focus on ways to promote young footballers to clubs. The idea also involved giving coaches and scouts the option to manage and actively seek out new players, based on the personal profiles and reputation of the players.

As the research for Uniform focused on the uses of sports data and analytics, I started to incorporate this into the project I was making for myself. This allowed me to work on projects while further tasked were being gathered for me by the studio.

Afternoon
The task set for me in the afternoon involved interpreting a brief someone had been working on. I was then tasked with sourcing ideas and coming up with visual input for the project and ways that this could be displayed on an A0 sized promotional board. This meant I would be looking into the history of the client, the jobs involved in the business and then visualising how they deal with sustainability, manage employees, communicate and work with the community. As a result I spent the afternoon visualising the different sectors of the business using infographics, pictograms and sketches.

OUGD602 - Uniform Internship - Day 2

After the first day of collecting visual research and sports data analysis, the findings were discussed with a group and how they might be used to inspire the project at hand. As the aim was to mix multimedia formats, we discussed how these actions could be implicated and what styles would need to be looked at further.

One way that I found the work to work to my own benefit was to use the research as a starting point of my next personal brief, while following on from ideas of my last brief. This way, I can manage my time here at Uniform more effectively in the run up to my university deadline. This may also give me the chance later in the week to receive feedback from industry professionals and understand what direction they would recommend I take. So far the project has involved using the sports research and visuals to explore football based app design. The majority of the day was spent making initial icons and designs that may work in a wire framing for a sports based app.

OUGD602 - Uniform Internship - Day 1

Starting off the week internship at Uniform agency in Bold Street, Liverpool I was first given the task of collecting research for a brief they had been working on. As the brief required confidentiality, I was only given certain tasks to avoid any leaks of information.

My task included collecting visual research and making notes on the uses of sports data and analytics. Therefore, I started by collecting images from sports data websites and studying the layouts/visual elements of them.

The task itself was quite beneficial to the rest of my studies as it gave my the opportunity to add research to another brief of a similar kind. Working closely with Neil Sheakey, I was able to explain some of my current projects and interests, which allowed him to set a task that would help my ongoing work.

The most recent project that I completed was a football based rebranding brief, which made the task at hand easier to manage and more enjoyable as a result.