Self Branding Evaluation

After so much confusion and swapping of ideas, and a few mistakes along the way, I feel my self branding outcome has a strong style to it which I wouldn't want to be any different. I feel it gives off my feminine flamboyant style with hints of retro and bold colour, and a touch of glitz which all relate back to my style as a designer.

 Feedback was extremely beneficial in this brief as one of my biggest downfalls I'd say is defining who I am as a person and designer. I find it hard identifying these, and would say I'm quite an unsure person about how to represent and present myself through graphic design and presentation. Getting the amazing positive feedback that consistently was that I was a warm positive person who they'd visualize as a glitter bomb really delighted me and helped me start to see which way I could go with my self branding conceptually, being more than just a business card and logo.

I pondered on my ideas too long I think, which lead to confusion of the delivery of my branding and the concept behind it. I began with thinking of the things I loved the most such as when a pizza arrives, as that was the feeling I wanted to give the client I'd want to work with. This soon became an uproaring issue amongst peers that if I didn't actually send pizza, the client would be disheartened as would I. Then, a cake. Everybody loves cake: 'The Icing on Top' I thought. The finishing touch that makes a cake delicious. From that, I thought, me as a finishing touch to any big idea, or the client to mine. Party theme. Amazing, I thought; everyone loves being invited to a party! And people who know me know I love trying to make people have fun at parties. There, my concept was born. It excited me and fitted so well. The glitter, the pink, the variation of the concepts uses. I finally felt it made sense.

I focused primarily on my names concept and the shades of pink that best represented me and the typeface. The outcomes of these were finalized by accepting what I liked the most, not trying to make it fit perfectly with the idea of cherries or party invites- and it still worked. At the end of the day, this is your self branding and it needs to be for you and not to suit everyone else. Ofcourse, I want it to be enjoyed and admired by others, but being a louder design would attract those I'd want to work with anyway. Due to its strong look, this is the kind of design that would be likely to be stuck up which is why I made posters along with my party invites. I wanted them to be positive, distinctive and exciting which is how I want to be as a person.

Ideas I had planned, such as polaroids of my inspirations/collectives inspirations and to have a very professional shoot with party rings and to possibly make a cake with parts of me which I had sketched in feedback sessions, and a special exclusive envelope for my invites, were all ideas I still love but unfortunately did not have the amount of time to make. This is entirely my fault, and I have learnt this module is so important for myself and how I want to represent myself, and I should have spent more time on it. Although I am disappointed in myself, this is a start to something that could be a lot bigger. This could in future become a party with cakes and polaroids and party rings. That is what is exciting and as a personal and professional practice, I am on the right track for my future. I am happy I can at least say that and feel the self branding does represent me, and others have said 'that is very you' which is a relief.

Ofcourse, it is not perfect and needs a lot more work. For example, I had predicted the printing would run very smoothly as I was not printing on any crazy stock, like I had planned to screenprint on glitter paper (which I then used as a backdrop for the photoshoot, which was a fun DIY shoot) which wouldn't have gone down well with the printers facilities as the glitter shed EVERYWHERE (ideal for the shoot though...). However, the stock I ordered 'Parlour Majestic' which had slight shimmer detail was actually a little textured and the inks didn't print in full which can't be seen from far away, but if upclose this is not ideal. This is a learning curve in when choosing stock, you have to consider how the texture will affect printing so through this I learnt something valuable. I also could have made stickers of my self branding or contacted fellow students or professionals and got them involved somehow, party related. The considerations of stock for my posters could have been thought out more and I have to consider how these would be sent. Although these would all fit in a standard envelope package they could be delivered in a more exciting way to match with my theme and the posters in the future could have a lot more added to them and be a lot bigger and done on typical poster stock and be rolled up. This is tricky to send but if they were handed out at an event, they would be extremely worthwhile as creatives love sticking art up and often seem to have posters/flyers up in their workspace. Despite these hickups these amendments are still possible in continuation of my self branding and I feel I have a great start which is satisfying to say.

One of my points in my presentation is that it's important for me to learn from modernists, from those who have a sharp professional look about their work. For example, my photoshoot was done on my bed using a lamp at different angles taken by my camera phone, but I tried to edit them to set the party atmosphere which I think was very succesful due to props! My work isn't always flawless and absoloutely perfect, but that gives me a purpose of being on this course; to mashup my more out there style with important considerations of representing it well and professionally, and I am being inspired by designs I see all around me day to day wether it be my style or not. It is a craft I am slowly but surely. With this brief my time management and confidence in myself let me down slightly but I am here to learn!