Evaluation

Throughout the PPP module the way I design and the way I see my practice has changed, I have broadened the way I research for projects and also where I draw inspiration from, these skills have helped me identify my own personal design interests and approach to my work. During this self branding project I have struggled with how to approach it, feeling pressure once seeing my peers work and feeling I was doing something wrong, not being able to find confidence to express myself in fear of doing something wrong. As I progressed through the year my confidence grew and I realised how to approach it and a number of concepts that I could go down, the strongest concept to show me through self branding was my interest in music. I initially wanted to produce a multi platform logo but felt that this didn't show me as a designer, I am more of a hands on designer and like to produce something hand rendered (mono print screen print, traditional methods). I had to consider different methods of self branding and how others network with other creatives in the industry, considering social networking, business cards, logos and other such things, I wanted to produce something that showed both my personality and practice  which lead me to consider screen printing, a process I am well versed in and confident doing. Whilst in the screen printing room at vernon street I was given inspiration when the head of the studio told me a story about someone printing onto dish clothes to promote his band, they were easily scrunched into a pocket and can be unravelled without the product being changed or ruined, which lead me to consider a cloth based product and someone suggested a tote bag, as I am known for wearing them.

I attempted a number of designs working with logos yet felt I wanted something interest to print onto tote bags, so I thought to compile a playlist of songs I like to listen to while I am designing, a mixture of different songs that are easy to listen to while working. I compiled this on Spotify so that it can be accessed publicly by anyone. Using InDesign I wrote up just 12 of these songs and there artists (12 because that is the average number on an LP) and struggled to put them into a good layout, so I experimented further and using the research of music cover art I tried out a style used by the band Vampire Weekend on there album 'Contra' by justifying the type to make it for a squared column of text, which looked to complicated when I used all 12 songs so I split it down to an easier size which made it work so much more successfully, the type was legible and looked neat. I prepared my screens for screen printing using these designs yet struggled at the beginning as I had never printed onto fabric and did not know it was a slightly different method to what I was used to, it required a different screen than the regular methods of printing and the beds were a fabric covered table which made alignment of the screen and the tote bag uneasy which resulted in a number of prints looking very off and wonky, these results were still interesting and unique, each bag turned out different which is why I chose to screen print, the unexpected and unpolished styles of design.

I felt my solution to the brief fully shows my practice and personality, letting people get a taste for the music I enjoy and design to as well as having a practical product. The Spotify playlist I compiled 'Songs to graphic design to' is open to the public and is getting requests from my peers to add songs which they design to, it is growing daily and is gaining more followers. I have been able to put my designs on social media which is good for my image as people will recognise my style and hopefully check out the playlist too.