Promotional Fold Out Poster

Here is the promotional poster that I created to promote myself, the type inside my logo shows my key skills, my profile and the areas of design that I am interested in.

CV

Questions and Answers

Here are the questions that I asked a few companies and designers such as Seb Lester, Dewynters, Elmwood, Spot NYC, Propaganda, All good design, and Lollipop creative. I also sent them a PDF of my portfolio which I asked for feedback on.


1. What makes you as a designer?


2. What is your main inspiration or inspirations that influences your design work?


3. I specialise in design for Advertising and Promotion what would be the best way to get myself into the industry?


4. What advice can you give to make myself stand out against other designers out there who are graduating?


5. I am coming out of university in June what is the best advice you can give me for a starting point that I can furthur?

Promotional Mail Shot

New and Updated Portfolio

Open publication - Free publishing - More portfolio

Lemonade Illustration

I applied for the intership that was sent around college that was available to us the email that I recieved from Fred was:

I have just spoken to Vicky at Lemonade Illustration Agency. She was unable to make last night’s event because she is so short handed in the agency at the moment.

 

She urgently needs someone who is familiar with Photoshop and with the process of uploading images to the internet.  

 

Vicky recognises that this work is repetitive but the successful applicant would be seen as a potential new member of the team and would get the opportunity to experience the agency environment and get some much needed experience.  She hopes she may be able to link this opportunity to an Internship programme which means it would be quality assured.

 

Could any interested graduates/ imminent graduates, please send  Vicky a link to their website portfolio the email address below. If they can include a CV that would be helpful.

 

They should not attach any big files to their messages because it will clog up her email over the Bank Holiday weekend.

 

It would be great if this offer could be extended to any of your students who came to the EXIT event last night

 

Thank you

 

Bridget

 

Lemonadeillustration agency

 

I responded to the email quite quickly and replied back saying:

 

Hi Vicky,

My name is Lauren O'Neill I'm currently in my third year studying Graphic Design at Leeds College of Art. I went to the EXIT Creative networks meeting last night I have just received your email from Bridget March about the internship opportunity to do with Photo shop etc, and I was interested in helping you and also it would improve my skills and also give me more experience in a working enviroment. Would this internship be at your Yorkshire studio or in London?

I have got a website if you would like to look through my work some of its still ongoing at the moment due to my final major project.

http://www.laurenoneillcreative.com/

I have also attached a current CV.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Regards

Lauren.

 

They got back to me this week saying:

 

Dear Lauren
The Agency is looking to fulfil an intern/apprentice position within our Northern studio, which is the reason we replied to an email from Leeds Univ.


The role would involve:
LIASING WITH ILLUSTRATORS / SUPPLIERS
UPLOADING WORK TO WEB UPDATING BUSINESS NETWORKS / AND MANAGING IMAGE LIBRARIES
MAINTAINING FOLIOS
ASSISTING WITH GENERAL WORK IN THE STUDIO

Expenses will be paid, but not any salary for the 2 x week period.

If this is something of interest? then we would love to hear more and invite you to come for an interview at your earliest convenience.

Thank you for your inquiry in the first instance.

Best regards

Gary //  & all the team

Lemonade
illustration agency

 

I replied back to this:

 

Hello,

Thank you for getting back to me very much appreciated.

I am still interested yes, could you tell me the dates for the internship please? I do live in Cambridge but I am willing to commute if that was possible.

Regards

Lauren.

 

The reply to this was:

 

Dear Lauren
We assumed you were in Leeds ( at least in accommodation )

The dates are quite flexible, as we fit internships into our diary, as suitable candidates arise.

But we need to get things underway at least interviewing. Commuting from Cambridge daily would be nearly impossible.

Best regards

Gary //  & all the team

Lemonade
illustration agency

 

So the overall outcome wasn't as of expected I think if I was staying in Leeds it would have been more convenient.        

Creative Networks

Last week I went along to the Creative Networks evening where there was a lecture held in the lecture theatre. It was really helpful as there were four speakers who talked about life after university, their experiences and how to go about getting yourself out there and the best route to go.

They talked about Graduate websites such as Graduates Yorkshire, and Grads East. They also said that networking was an important thing and also recruitment agencies

The other thing was they told us to focus on our CV and cover letter paying attention to detail, tailor the letter with our own branding, spelling and grammer and also tailor your CV.

They also told us key points in what companies will be looking for, for undertaking employment which is

- Career focused
- Customer awareness
- Problem solving
- Communication
- Positive attitude
- Team working
- Self managment
- IT
- Enterprising individual
- Numeracy
- Planning and Organisation

After the lecture I went on to networking outside where I collected quite a few contacts.

Magazine Advert

This is a live brief for my Dads electrical company he had specific requirements of which I had to stick to. It is a design to help promote his business and will be featured in the St.Ives Suggestive Magazine.

Here is the final design I created for him, incorporating the light bulb design to go alongside his branding.

The brief:

Hi Lauren,

 

I have just booked a quarter page they must have the copy by the 8th June or I will have to pay anyway!

 

I have attached the rate card with the contact fetails of Gilly Jackson and the size's I have booked a quarter page.

 

Will attached some of the things I need included will e mail seperatley two logos that need including.

 

If you could do it that would be great

Love You

 

Dad xx

 

The size of the advert is show below either vertical or horizontal:

Grads East

So after university I am moving back home to Cambridge where I have a part time job over the summer I will also be working freelance where I already have a few briefs that I am working on already these also include sending work to print.

I have signed up for Grads East and they have been sending me daily updates on internships and jobs that are suitable for me in my area and also the type of work I am looking for. I am looking to work in Advertising so ideally I would like to work in an agency in London. I have also been looking at grad schemes on grad east.

Seb Lester Interview

For my Design Context Book I emailed a few designers and agencies that I thought would be useful for me and to help me with my design practice, I didnt get much feedback, people were either to busy or they weren't aloud to reply to the questions from emails. Seb Lester was one of the main designers that I wanted feedback and he did which I was really happy about.
Seb Lester is a freelance typographer. I asked him five questions about the industry and what was the best way to get myself out there and whats a good way to go about it etc, I also asked him about my portfolio which he gave me some good feedback on to help progress it.

This is what was said...

Hi Lauren,

I'm taking a break in Sussex at the minute, but have a few
minutes.

I like your work. Pages 1, 4 and 16 are the things that appeal
most to me as I like simple, strong graphic ideas. I think the strongest
adertising project you have is the lastminute one.

In terms of improving I'd just keep doing what you're doing
and learning about type/advertising around you and become more sensitive
to it and how it works. You need to know the language of type -
choosing appropriate typefaces for specific jobs -
and you seem to be making good headway in that direction.

> 1. What makes you as a designer?

The reason I'm quite successful is I work harder than most people
at what I do and am more passionate about what I do than most people.
So it's all about hard work and passion. Obviously you need to
publicise yourself, but it's never been easier to get publicity
online and elsewhere.

> 2. What is your main inspiration or inspirations that influences your design
> work?

Everything around me really. Colours, shapes, patterns. Inspiration
can come from anywhere. The best place to get inspiration from is
not other designers/campaigns today but from things outside of
modern type/advertising. Could be films, posters, clothes from past eras
or something else.

> 3. I specialise in design for Advertising and Promotion what would be the
> best way to get myself into the industry?

I' not in that industry so don't know. I'd get my portfolio/website looking
as slick as possible and try and get work experience in ad agencies, obviously.
Everything about you CV, spelling, dress sense, should be polished and
professional.
Ask questions and listen to people when you show them your work.

> 4. What advice can you give to make myself stand out against other designers
> out there who are graduating?

Get your website looking as strong as possible. Work harder than anyone else
in a focused strategic way. You should have a more professional sounding email
address than the one you have on your pdf. When I'm dealing with big clients
I have't worked with before I use seb@seblester.co.uk for example.
Use initiative to find original ways to get peoples attention. Humour
is always good.
Getting some work in magazines/blogs/entering competitions would help.
It's partly about who you know sometimes but extreme talent shines through
I think, and that only comes from focus and time.

> 5. I am coming out of university in June what is the best advice you can
> give me for a starting point that I can furthur?

See above really.

Cheers and good luck,

Seb

Question and Answers on www.graphic-design-blog.com/

Lauren at Creative Curio has set out 6 questions on being a graphic designer and asked other designers to answer them as she has to give people a little insight into the ups and downs of the graphic design industry.

I decided to take some time out and answer them here.

Six Questions on Being a Graphic Designer

Just for reference, when and how did you get your start in the industry?

I started at about 16, my first job to pay me through college was washing down big industrial presses on the night shift, although it was easy work I got to know a lot of people in the print industry and got a lot of experience of litho printing, which little did I know back then would come in very handy later in life.

Half way through my college A-Level I put myself forward to join a design firm in Nottingham (UK) to do some free work on a brochure they were doing for young people to find out about housing and benefits etc.

They had hired firms to design it before but kids just weren’t warming to the ideas it was relating to and so they decided to hire young to appeal to young.

The idea we came up with was to design the booklet around the theme of the film trainspotting, which was massive at the time, although out target audience was 15-17 year olds and the movie was an 18, everybody knew about it so we decided to go with it.

Thankfully for us it was a massive hit and we got an award for it so that was my first taste of the industry and my first lesson that in design being to literal when targeting a certain group can often hold you back.

How do you define graphic design?

I’m not the best person to ask as people are always having a go at me for calling everything Graphic Design, I guess it’s because the work I do covers so many different areas I rarely get to specialize in anything and people that do specialize in a certain area tend to what to be known for that exact skill rather than giving it a general term.

For example I call certain Illustration, Graphic Design and Illustrators are always having a go at me saying Illustration and Graphic Design are two completely different things. Which is true but I generalize way too much.

What was the hardest thing to learn about the industry?

It’s tough! People on the outside think you sit drawing pretty pictures all day, the truth of it is in this day and age Designers have had to increase their business knowledge so much you almost have to split your time between Sales and Design whereas a few years ago you had a sales person doing the selling and you concentrated solely on the design elements.

Like most industries it does boil down to money, whether people like it or not and keeping the value of the industry up has got harder with the growth of the internet. It’s allowed people to trade easily worldwide with the use of paypal etc. meaning someone in East Europe can afford to work for $10 an hour and people in the US and UK are charging $60 an hour, it’s hard to compete with the kind of rates people are offering.

The only benefit designers have over most industries is quality. It’s clearly visible even to a non-designer what is bad design, good design and great design, the standards are there for all to see and we have to embrace that fact.

What is the best part about your job?

The best part of my job is I rarely work on the same thing week in week out, we have 5 designers now and we share projects out between us and get to feed off each others ideas, logo work one day, web work the next and print the next, it keeps it nice and fresh.

It’s also a nice job to do because people who design have a real passion for it so you get to mix with others who have that same passion which is always nice.

What is the number one thing you would like to tell new designers?

Don’t get into the industry unless you’re willing to be quite poor for long periods of your working life. Even if you get the chance to start in quite a big company you have to be willing to start at the bottom, there’s way too many industry taught lessons to learn to believe that you are good enough to move in at the top.

As for freelancing, these guys have it really tough, you have to work for many years almost not knowing where the next pay cheque is coming from until you build a solid customer base, one month you could be snowed under with high value work and the next nothing, like most Industries we all tend to go through quiet periods and business periods at the same time (or at least it feels that way most of the time).

Least a quiet period in a company you will still get the same amount but for freelancers they have to ride out the slow times on their own which can often be tough.

What is something you wish other designers would understand?

Like it or not at least 80% of graphic design now a days is business, it’s a sad thing but with so many people having access to the internet and computer software you have to use your business sense to come out on top or you’ll never make the sort of money the top companies are.

My favourite example I use everyday is Web Designers, they build a site, write loads of content about how they can change the face of your company with a brand new website and using the latest SEO technology they can put your business in the search engines and get you more clients and orders etc. Now what I do is look at this guys site and say he lives in Edgewater, New Jersey which has a population of 7,677 (Roughly) you can type in google ‘Web Design’+’Edgewater’ and the guys own site appears on the 10th page of google! He’s maybe completing with about 3 other web design companies in the area but lacks the ability to put himself top of Google, so how does he expect to effect the results of another company maybe located in a much large city?

SEO with most web designers offers false hope and often very false claims, it’s something that web designers just include by default often don’t know the first thing about.

Jamie Banks Logo

Ive recently started to design logo for a client Jamie Banks. Here is the brief that I was set...

Hey heres a brief

Jay Banks is a Personal trainer and studio instructor that offers 1 on 1 and small group training sessions in Weight lose, Body scuplting, Pilates, Muscle & Strength training and Sports spicific Training

The logo needs to be something that will attract both male and female clients looking to get healthy and fit but at the same time fun.

The first logo with one the attachment with the guy holding the kettle bell and the second on that is pilates are my favs

hope thats enough

xx

Basing myself on this brief I started to research into other fitness and gym logos. I wanted to create something that looked like it was good to get yourself fit etc. I did a few sketches and this was one of them that I preferred the most. I wanted to get it into the computer to edit and see what other designs I could come up with from working from it using this as grounding.

Development Process

I set up a document and set these designs to the client to see what he thought about them this was his response...

Hey i really like the idea of the arm but i also need to show a soft side for women that like to lunch can connect with

So having 'Jay Banks' as the centre with the arm coming out the right side and the softer image on the left some how.
                      PT

Also Can the LOGO and writing will be in bright orange on black when printed.

Ive attached some softer fitness images but if you need more i can get them for google

Thanks so much for helping me i really do appreciate it.

My Website

I have recently set up a domain with dream hosting, so I am currently in the process of setting up my website using indexhibit my site is called www.laurenoneillcreative.com so it should be up and running very soon!

Portfolio

I have recently just purchased a lovely red Portfolio off of Portfolio plus. I have chosen to go for a Matt Prat Pampa Display Book which contains 20 sleeves. I am so pleased with it, and have re designed and updated my portfolio.

Live Brief for David O'Neill Electrical Services

My Dad has just started up a business with one of his friends to do with electrical services and PAT testing so I have created the branding and promotional work for his new business. So far I have created the logo, business card and letterhead.

Final Logo

Back of Business Cards

Flyer

Letterhead

Development of Logos

Work Experience

A very random meeting but when I was out one night I got chatting to a bloke called Drew who works for Don't Panic we exchanged contact details and he said that he could put me in contact with a few people to organise some work experience so we have been emailing each other a few times to see if I could get any work experience.


Me

Hi, Its Lauren I met you at Faversham on Thursday night, not sure if you remember but we we're talking about Graphic Design etc and I was saying that I was looking for a placement.

Do you know if you could put me in contact with anyone or if you have any going at where you work?

Hope you had a good night!

Regards

Lauren.

Drew

Hi Lauren,

It would probably be best if you sent me some of your portfolio. I could certainly pass on some of your stuff to some people.

I know there are placements about at the moment, if you are willing to put in the working hours without a burning need to get paid initially.

Send me some stuff and il see what I can do.

Thursday was messy!! ha.

Drew

Me

Hi

Thanks for getting back to me. At the moment I'm currently working on some work that I'm wanting to include in my portfolio, I'm currently still finishing it so if I get back to you in a week or so with it and send it to you then is that alright?

Yes I'm willing to put all the hours in and I didn't expect to get paid anyway. I'm just grateful for the experience!

Regards

Lauren

Drew

No worries, Just when ever you can get it to me and I will forward it on to some people.

Drew

Portfolio Mail Shot

So I've had a little think and a chat with John about how I could effectively get my portfolio seen when sending it to design agencies, because my portfolio is digital based I thought about packaging it in a clear wallet including portfolio cards and sealing it with a sticker showing my logo. But to make this stand out I have been looking at bright metallic jiffy bags so when its posted through the door fingers crossed they go to the brightest item like a magpie!



When I was looking around for business card research for my Nero brief I came across a really good website called Business Cards Observer not only does it show business card designs but takes you to websites of different printers and what they offer.

I came across the website Moo where you can create mini cards you can use these for calling cards, business cards, or even to create a pocket portfolio they even come in a small box. I thought this would be a good idea to use the mini cards so I can slot them inside the CD case, what I am going to do is crop the images so you only see part of the image to make it more intriguing.

It is also very easy to do you can create it all online crop them etc lay them out and there not very expensive either.

James Page CD cover and CD design

Hi Lauren!!!!

I love this colour sheme Looks amazing in that image!! I do like the cirle idea and to get where your coming from with the retro image, is there any way we could maybe incoperate that idea into like a logo or image sorry i'm being really difficult i know you have loads to get on with. maybe what could be cool would be the smaller image smaller on like the cd cover a bit arty maybe lol Not sure if you can tell i'm not quite got at the technical lingo, be cool to chat about some ideas over christmas that ok? do you have like a dead line soon??? hope the uni live is going ok well jelous!!

at work today not a fan!! xxx

Elmwood Leeds

Elmwood reply from Adam

Hello Lauren

Hope you are well. Apologies for the late reply. Work has been a nightmare at the minute with workload. Been off for a day or two to try and recover.

So I’ve had a look through your portfolio, it was like going back a few years there after seeing briefs that I worked on such as ‘shelter’. Take me back.

First things I would say would be just watch the descriptions on the pages as I think one of them doesn’t match the work, Kleenex I think...
Quite like the shelter work you did... There is a lot of varied work here which shows your flexibility, I would just make sure now that ideas like this are crafted to their fully potential. Just so they look as good as possible.

The Student time management work... Was that a document of how poorly students manage their time or is it a way of showing them how to manage their time?

Me

Thank you for looking over my portfolio really appreciate it.

The Student management work was to show first year students how to manage their time and also giving them an example of how not to manage their time at university so one side of the diary was to show them the poor time management of a student and then turning over the diary onto the opposite side was their own diary for them to use to encourage good time management.

I agree I am flexible in my work and like a challenge to push my skills and give the best that I can, this year I have become really interested in Advertising and Promotional Design and I am wanting to make this my main focus for my final year working on a selection of briefs.

I see Elmwood has a brief up on the D&AD website that I was thinking of doing another thing is it still possible to come and visit for a day or two?

Thank you again,

Lauren.

Leeds Shopping Bag - Mary Portas

For one of my briefs I decided to do the Leeds Shopping Bag Competition Brief where I had to create a festive design for the new shopping bag which was to be released at the Leeds Christmas Lights switch on. Not only if you won did you get your design produced onto the bag but you were able to have work experience with Mary Portas who was also one of the judges of the competition.
I unfortunately didn't win but I was put through to one of the finalists as well as two other people on my course Hayley and Scott where we got photo taken for the Yorkshire evening post and for the light website.
Our work was displayed at the Light where the public could view it being one of the finalists meant that I was able to go along to the business forum in the evening where I was able to network with other designers from large companies we were also aloud to sit through the debate about retail design and how they were going to make a difference and make it better. Its something I havent experienced before but it was good to see what other people thought and what they had passion in.