The Neighbourhood Portfolio Crit

This portfolio visit was a little different from the rest that I have had over the last year or so, as it was the first return visit that I had made to a studio and it was also the end of mine and Steve's 2 week placement. Me and Steve sat down with Jon, (one of the companies directors) and Stuart, (3D artist). It was great to sit down with both Jon and Stu as it was them that we saw along with Sarah, (studio manager), before Xmas.

As we knew that we would be showing our working to them at some point whilst we were there, we decided to put together a new showreel that was shorter and had some sort of opening and closing to leave an impression in someone's mind.

Where we were sat in the studio we were sat opposite some tenants that are self employed and rent studio space from the Neighbourhood. It was good to sit here in the studio because as we were working on our major project, as well as chipping into meeting etc we were able to get a sense of proper studio life. I think we found a nice balance between working on our own work, whilst also being able to sit in on meetings and join in on discussions. One of the tenants was an animator called Jonathan who gave us some great advice. We had already added him as a contact on Vimeo and he had taken a look at our work. He said that he liked it, the only thing with our showreels is that he suggested that we made them slightly shorter and concise. Taking this on we decided that we would re-edit our showreels.

I've struggled to find a music track that I felt was the right pace and gave the right amount of energy to showcase my work. However, at the beginning of the placement I came across a track which I thought had potential. The first thing that I showed them was my new showreel and both Jon and Stu said that they liked the edit, then music choice worked well and was upbeat and that they thought that it was much tighter than last time that they saw my showreel. I was really pleased with this and it made me feel confident about the content that I had included. I still want to change elements within my showreel, however this is mainly the parts of my major project. So, with this in mind, when I finish my major project I will include aspects from it.

As mentioned, during the placement we sat in on a few meeting. In a few of these meetings they had prepared presentations. Therefore, we decided that it might be a nice way for us to present our major projects to the Neighbourhood. Below is a link to the presentation that I presented to them.

PRESENTATION TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

It was great to hear their feedback on my major project as they seemed to like it. Personally I feel that this project has allowed me to use lots of the skills that I have learned over the last few years and utilise different things where appropriate. I think that in terms of a full process, from initial ideas, research, through to production as a whole it is the project that over the whole course I have got the most out of. This is why I was happy with the feedback that I received.

I think that the best feedback that we received was when they liked our work last time, however they could definitely see improvement, which was really nice to hear. They said that they are looking forward to seeing the work when it is finished and that they would like me and Ste to go back in when it's finished to show them. Having this crit on the last day of the placement was a fantastic end to a brilliant placement and is definitely the portfolio crit over the whole year that I have got the most from.

Portfolio Visit: Blue Zoo

I arranged to go an see London based company BLUE ZOO when down in London recently. The type of work that Blue Zoo create is primarily work for children's TV with their own animated series. Although character animation isn't something that I personally see myself going into, with my major project in mind, I felt that it would be helpful to see a company that could give me feedback in relation to my major project.

All of the portfolio crits that I have had up until this point of the course have been great in terms of looking at all of my work and getting feedback on how to improve aspects, things they liked and helpful in terms of promoting myself. I decided that whilst in London it would be great to utilise the opportunity and get in touch with BLUE ZOO in order to help progress my project.

When I arrived at the studios it was a little daunting at first as I wasn't sure that I'd found the right place or not. However fortunately it was the right place and they buzzed me up. The studio itself was a really nice/modern feel to it. When I got up to the studio I was met by Ollie one of the companies directors, who I had arranged the visit with, however he appologised as he had been called into a meeting last minute. However, he had arranged for two of their senior designers to sit down with me which I felt was a great opportunity.

First off all Damian and Mike showed me around their studio, before taking me into their meeting room to take a look at my work. I showed them my showreel and they said that they liked how it included a variety of work. However, they suggested that it was possibly a little too long, as generally you are able to tell within the first 20 secs whether the content of the work is going to be of a high standard.  This was good to hear, as I definitely agree that having a concise showreel would be appropriate and something that I should consider.

This was the first portfolio crit in which I was able to take my Flipbook for my Discovery channel ident. They loved it and said that they wish that more people took something that they could hold. I was really happy with this as I've wanted to get a flipbook made for a while now and I think that it is something different that when visiting companies, they could remember me over someone else. I think that it is important to stand out when there are a lot of people within this competitive industry, however I think that it is important to do this for the right reasons.

I showed them the work that I have done up to this point for the major project. I liked the fact that I am currently working on my project and able to show my ideas an initial tests. They liked my ideas and felt that it was a strong idea. I was pleased with the fact that they liked my idea, as I think that its important to have a strong idea behind my work.

They gave me some great advice about getting into the industry and how to approach this and were more than happy to answer questions that I had. One thing that stood out to me was that they said if possible its good to personally get into studios and if possible sit down with designers and show them your work. They felt that being able to physically sit down and actually being able to speak in person about the work is much better if this is possible, so this is definitely something to keep in mind.

Portfolio Visit: Matt Davies

Last week me and Steve had a portfolio visit with Matt at our flat in town. Just before Christmas we went to see Matt do some filming for a web advert, which was great to be able to see. At the time we had a good chat with Matt about the industry and our own stuff. He said that he would like to see some of our work so we decided to get in touch and organise a crit.

We had a good chat about the industry and some of the stuff that Matt had been involved with. He said he was currently working long hours at the BBC and him and a few people that he works with as a production team, had just won the contract for 10 music videos, for an well known artist, (however he couldn't tell us who!) Here is a link to his work, (Matt Site). I thought that it was great that he worked as freelance camera man, however also was able to mix between the roles of director and producer for projects such as creating music videos.

I decided to show him my Discovery Channel Ident, my 'What Not to Flush Brief' and my 'Morph London' animations. He said he was impressed with the work and really liked the 3D work.

We got onto talking about one of the companies that Matt freelances for and he said although he does the filming and editing for the projects that he works on,  they have someone else that does their animation for titles and any added extras. He gave us the details of the company and said that based on the work that he had seen, that he was more than confident that we could produce animations for them to the standard that they require. This was great to hear and a nice confidence boost. It's also interesting in terms of possibilities in getting some freelance work in the future.

Matt has been a great contact up until this point and I think that he could be a great contact for the future, especially considering looking future plans after graduating. It's good to start to see how its possible to start to utilise contacts. I look forward to hopefully doing some work with him in the future.

The Neighbourhood Studio Visit

Yesterday me and couple of others went to visit 'The Neighbourhood' for a portfolio visit.  A friend from last year recommended that they would be a great visit to arrange, so when we decided that we were interested in the studio we felt that a joint visit would be a appropriate.



When we arrived we shown to there waiting area. Whilst we were waiting for Sarah, the studio manager and Jon, (the companies creative director), we had a chance to get a feel for the studio. Out of all the studios that I've been to visit, this one felt most homely and inviting. They had only been in the studio for 6 weeks and there were still boxes around and frames ready to hang up on the wall. The building itself had been restored, however they had decided to keep a few features such as the original wooden doors, and some of the architecture. They had decided the keep this feel throughout their studio and had traditional style chairs and table. The way that the studio had been designed was a great first impression of the studio and looked great. One of the first things that I spotted whilst having a look around was that in their meeting room their windowsill was full of awards that they had achieved, this gave the impression that we were in one of the studios which were at the forefront of design in Manchester.


Sarah, Jon and Stuart, (one of the companies artists/3D designer), soon came across to us and took us through to their meeting room. After telling us a little about themselves as a company they started asking us about our course and how we felt it was going. We told them about how we were doing and about the course itself, which they seemed very impressed with. When we told them about the types of briefs that we work on and the facilities that we had available for us to use they were impressed.


We took it in turn to show them our work, when it got around to show them mine I decided to show my showreel first. This had worked well when I had started off by showing my showreel at other visits so I decided that it would be appropriate to do so. I wanted to show the new brief that I had been working on for the 'United Utilities' brief. As I hadn't had any feedback on this brief yet I was happy when they liked it and liked the method that I had chosen to explore what not to flush using typography in the way that I had.


The feedback that we received was extremely helpful and since the visit I have used some of their feedback in order to help with the process of refining my piece. Out of all the portfolio and studio visits that I have been to, I felt that this was the best and most helpful experience. The studio environment was relaxed in terms of the atmosphere and the people were so friendly and happy and seemed happy to help. To say that they had only been in the studio for 6 weeks the feeling that I got is that they could have been there for years. I think that this only shows the strength of the agency as a team.


Just before we left they showed us a piece of their own work. Stuart had been exploring the use of 3D and creating animations giving the 3D experience, so when they asked if we would like to watch it on their new 3D TV with 3D glasses I was really excited. The piece was great and I think only highlights that they are ahead of the game.


Here is their latest (apologies for it not being in 3D)!

Studio showreel. 2010. from The Neighbourhood on Vimeo.

Portfolio Visit - Chris Toole

I had my second portfolio visit on Tuesday with Chris Toole, who works with a variety of mediums from print based platforms through to online media. I decided that I would show him my showreel first as I felt that this worked well as a starting point, in my previous portfolio visit earlier on in the week.

I showed him a few of my pieces. The first piece which I showed him was my Morph London Ident, which he felt was professional and seemed to really like the look of it. I think that this was because he spends a lot of his time creating brand identities. This was exciting to hear because recently I have found it quite exciting looking at advertising and identities.

I then showed him my title sequence, he said that the use of live footage worked well and he liked the overall look of the piece.

The last piece that I showed him was my Discovery Channel Ident. This led to a conversation about the use of 3D and how I really like 3D, but we discussed how its appropriate to consider where to use it in order for it to be most effective. With the Discovery Channel Ident I tried to use 3D, but still with a line based vector style. He liked the way I had used 3D in this piece. I feel that this is one of my stronger pieces, so it was good to get someone else's opinions on it which were positive.  He said he'd never touched 3D before himself, so he was impressed with what I'd shown him.

I think that there is definitely potential to go back for another visit at some point and when I asked him if I was to send over an email asking for feedback he said that it wouldn't be a problem.

Design By Day - Portfolio Visit

 

This morning I went to a portfolio visit at Design By Day who are based in Salford. On first impression the building that their studio was based in was a really interesting place, with a live music venue and bar in the basement, along with a garden area and exhibition space. I went on this portfolio visit with Olivia from graphics. We arranged to go and see Design by Day last year towards the later part of the year, however due to deadlines etc it wasn't really convenient on both sides. So when we got in touch a few weeks ago about rearranging it was great that they were able to make time for us.

The company itself is a small company run by Angela and Louise, Angela who has a background in Moving Image and Louise who has a print background and now enjoys creating brand identities. Their skill sets allows them to use their talents in both aspects of design and create both print based and digital moving image pieces.

I really like the work that they produce. Here is their current moving image showreel:

DBD Showreel 2010 from Design By Day on Vimeo.

When we arrived at the mill building Louise came down and let us in and took us up to their studio. Their studio was a nice, small bit quirky office space. It had a very homely a personal feel about it and she made us very welcome. Angela joined us soon after and they looked through both of our portfolios.

I decided that I would show my newly created showreel, as I felt that it showed a broad range of the work that I have created. It allowed me to include pieces of my work that I didn't necessarily feel were the right ones to show in full in order to get feedback, but I would still like to show the range of pieces I like to create. Before I went I was unsure before I went whether or not to show my showreel, however I'm glad that I did because in terms of how I decided to present my work it was a nice ice breaker in terms of introducing me and my work . On reflection their feedback suggested that they liked what they saw.

I decided to show them a few pieces in order to get feedback on them.

Self Initiated Project: Title Sequence
This was the first piece that I showed to them. They liked the aesthetic of the piece and its overall look. We talked about the way that I had played with depth of field towards the beginning section of this piece and felt that this worked. They thought that the colouring worked well and the way that I had explored the use of live action footage in a way that wouldn't appear cliche worked, looking at voyeurism.

D&AD Competition Piece: 'The Ever-changing City Brief'
In terms of this brief I discussed how I felt that for me that this was an ideas driven project and that although I am happy with the concept of the piece, that I would like to rework it. They liked the idea but with a similar feeling to me they felt that I could look at the use of the books aesthetic and play on this more. They thought that the books looked quite illustration based and maybe I should make them a little more realistic. This feedback was really helpful in terms of this piece because this is definitely a piece that I intend on reworking the get it to a stage that I am happy with.

 Discovery Channel Ident
They seemed to really like this piece. They liked the way that I had used 3D in a way that wouldn't necessarily be the expected way. They liked the way that I had chosen to use the vector line style and how you were able to see the working parts. Louise said that she also liked the use of smoke and felt that it complimented the rest of the piece. We talked about how I would like to rework the end section when the Discovery channel logo comes in and they suggested that maybe reducing the logo in size might help to so this. I was happy that they like this piece as I feel that it is one of my stronger pieces of work.   


Door Project
I didn't really think about showing them this piece originally however after we started talking about the way that the collaboration project worked and how both me and Olivia felt that it was one of our favourite and most successful pieces of the year. They were really intrigued about the way that this brief worked and said how more universities should adopt similar real-world briefs. We talked about our own experiences of project managing and how we thoroughly enjoyed it. I therefore thought that it would be appropriate to show them this brief. They liked the way that we had used metaphor to show the life of a person and the way that although we felt that we weren't necessarily driven by production but working in a collaboration that the final outcome was effective. They liked the jerky feel of the stop motion and the way that we split the project up as a team.

Overall, this was a great experience for me and I came away from the visit excited and motivated. They said that we should definitely keep in touch so with this in mind as my work progresses I would like to get back in touch with them and show them my work as it evolves.

Portfolio Crit

I had a Portfolio Crit this morning with Malc. Malc does a lot of graphic based work, however he also creates animation. He said that a lot of the animation work that he creates revolves around animating logos and idents, to be used in things such as presentations. He's also been working on something which I found really exciting recently, which is flash animated cartoons. A lot of the major newspapers are going online and in sight of this they are transforming the classic comic strips into animations.

I think that it's interesting as it shows how aspects within the field that we are learning are developing and the way that different areas within graphic design and illustration are moving into the field of moving image. After discussing some of the things that he was involved in I showed him some of my work. I decided to choose a few pieces of work that I have created over the last year. The feedback that I recieved was really helpful as he spent quite a while talking through my pieces with me and I managed to show him quite a few of my pieces of work.

Discovery Channel Ident:
The first piece that I showed Malc was my recent Discovery Channel Ident. I started off by talking about the background behind the piece and how I decided to choose what I did for the Discovery channel. He liked the piece and was intrigued to know how it was created. When I told him it was made in 3d, but that I still wanted to achieve the line vector style, he thought that it worked well.

Competition Piece: "The Ever Changing, Mutating City"

I then went on to show my competition piece. This was one of the pieces that I really wanted to get some feedback on. I spent, what seemed like, so long creating and reworking the piece that I wanted to know what someone in the industry thought of it. He loved the parallels that I had used between the bookshelf and a city. We discussed the way that I would like to revisit different elements within it and pay more attention to the way that I execute introducing the book names, but he thought that it was a great idea.

Where will you draw the line, (10 Second Ident):
After explaining the background to the 'Draw the line' event, I showed him my 10 Second sting. He liked the simplicity of the way that the piece ran and offered some suggestions on how to enhance the question mark at the end. He suggested that maybe I briefly introduce an additional circle below the logo to emphasise the question being asked, definately something to consider.

Water Project:
Although there are things that we as a group have already decided that were going to change with the piece I decided to show this piece anyway. I felt that as we took this project on as a group project and it was different to the other briefs we have set, that this would be interesting to have a talk about. He loved the work and asked me to pass the feedback onto Steve and Luke. He said that the piece works really well in terms of narrative and telling the journey of the process. Interestingly, he thought that the length of the piece wasn't too long and if we chopped it up too much that it might loose something. He liked the music that me had used, but suggested that we consider the use f font and the way that the type is brought onto the screen. Maybe that it animates on either letter by letter or word by word, to fit with the flow of the piece. We were considering editing the length of the piece , however maybe its more important that we asses the way that the type is used.

Personal project, (Pedicabs 3D animation):
As it's a little different, I decided that I would show him the modeling that I did for the guy in London, (http://mattgeelingmi.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-edit.html), at the beginning of the year. He thought that this piece worked really well and we discussed the way that the model could and has been used as a way of quickly mocking up new designs, with different advertising panels on it.

I decided that although I wanted to show him the work that I've created this year, that I would also show him my 'New Way of Looking' video that I made last year. I decided to do this as the rest of the work that I showed him was animation based and because I think that my new way of looking video has strong idea and concept about it. He liked this video and we talked about the potential for taking the idea further as a campaign and the ways that the piece could be extended into other mediums, such as viral, print etc.

Although he really liked the production quality of the pieces one thing that we talked about was ideas and how important having a strong idea for a piece actually is. He said that one thing he liked about some of the work I showed him was the ideas behind the pieces.

Overall the experience was great. I was a little apprehensive about showing someone my work, however I found the experience to be a positive and quite motivating one. I found the feedback useful and it's made me want to go back to some pieces and re-work them.

Thoughtfull Portfolio Crit

A couple of weeks ago I got the chance to spend the day with thoughtful upstairs in their studio. It was a great opportunity to see the way that a real studio environment works. As a result of a chat on the day, they were interested in the work that I was producing in Moving Image. It seemed that they hadn't worked with anyone from Moving Image before, so they were intrigued to see some of my work at some point.

Last week I decided that it would be a great opportunity to get some feedback on my work and interesting at the same time getting feedback from people who work primarily with a graphics background. So I emailed Thoughtful and asked about the possibility for a Portfolio Crit.

Here's a copy of the email I sent them and their response:


First of all I'd just like to say thanks to James, Chris and Stuart who all sat down with me when I turned up in their studio last week. This was a little daunting at first, but nice to get all of their opinions. When I sent the email last week I wasn't expecting such a quick response, which meant that I had to spend the majority of last week finding a range of work that I could show them!

After creating our websites for Kodak last year I've been wanting to have a play with creating a portfolio site, so last week I put a little one together in order to present my work. I came to the conclusion that if I didn't put all of my work in one place, that I'd turn up and would be searching frantically for work and not knowing where to look, (which I didn't think was the right impression give!)

I decided that I would show them a range of the work that I have created both on the course last year/early this year and some of the things that I had the chance to get stuck into over summer. Work that was 2D, 3D and also the Video project that we worked on towards the middle of last year.

The feedback that I got on my work was good to hear. They liked the range of pieces that I took to show them and told me that they could see the amount of time and effort that I had put in on the pieces.

They asked me whether I felt comfortable with the the technical side of my work, as this is obviously an important element in the production of work. Ensuring that if they were asking for work to be created, that it could be produced at the right size and in the right format for example. I felt comfortable in talking about my work in terms of the technical side because I think the technical aspects of work are one of my strengths. But it's interesting to hear how important that is in the considerations of getting someone to carryout a brief.

They gave me some great advice, to make sure that don't just primarily just rely on working on screen. To actually get involved and create some stuff myself. Which was nice to hear because I really like organic and handcrafted design and for a while now have wanted to bring a bit of printing into my work. For example using printed background as backdrop for example.

It was insightful to have people who aren't moving image based give their opinions on my work because they probably look at it from a slightly different point of view, being print based.

Cheers again to Thoughtful!