New York Portfolio Crits

I recently went to New York with university. It was a very successful trip, and a really enjoyable time.

My first crit was with Potion Design. Their office was down in China Town. Which was an experience in itself. I went with Jack a fellow student. I walked into the office and Jared was waiting for us their. He took us into a side office and we immediately start talking about our portfolios. He was really keen to talk about my NYC identity; he wanted to speak about the thinking about the work. He was also keen on the use of colour, which indicated the different areas of New York. Jared also mentioned the layout of my portfolio was very keen on the use of white space; he really picked up on this because it wasn’t over complicated. Jared then let us talk about some of his work asking questions about his work. He also gave us a little sample book of Potions work. I was really impresses with how well the crit went. Jared was such a nice and welcoming person, which made the portfolio crit go even smoother.

My second crit was with Almeter design. Me, Jack and Andy went down to Brooklyn to meet Andrew in a small café called Smooch. We sat at the back of the café talking about every bodies work. We went through one by one and I went last. He was really keen on my New `scientist Magazine spreads. He did mention I could lose the handwriting and just make it simple text for the quotations. He also suggested tracing over it in Illustrator, to get a clean version of my typeface. Also he said why not create a poster promoting my typeface. Andrew also mentioned that fact none of us had scamps of out work in our portfolio. He said this can more interesting that the finished work. It provides clear thing showing how you come up to the idea. This is something I will be including in my portfolio, also I think it could be visually interesting, also providing the methods of my thinking. Andrew then let us, asks some questions towards his work and the way he thinks. He also told us about his background to his work and how he went on to where he is now. Andrew was such a chilled out, mellow person. Very friendly. It was nice to meet someone like him in New York where so many people can be very hard faced.

D&AD Portfolio Workshop

I recently went to D&AD portfolio workshop held at Liverpool John Moores. I had two portfolio crits whilst I was there. I had both cirts with people who work at Elmwood in Leeds. I realised by recognition that Elmwood is the biggest agencies in the whole of England, with offices all over the world including New York.

My first crit was with Simon Morrow. I soon got talking to him; he was a really cool guy. Really down to earth which was good because I was nervous. I showed him my whole portfolio talking over a few pieces of my work explaining some of the ideas. `He really like the way I presented my work as he said some students sit down and just hand the portfolio and not talking throughout the whole crit. He gave me a few pointers, such as taking out my page numbers; this is because he said you could change your portfolio around showing work in different order. Also it not that necessary in a portfolio. Simon also pointed to my New York identity, saying it a really sweet idea, but I could push it a lot further applying it to different mediums. This was the same for my Chronicles typeface. He said why not show it advertising some event or stationary. Simon also gave me some advice on my ‘Leave behind’, Simon seemed really impressed with the fact I went a bit further to create something to remember me by. He gave me in what order the book should start, with what piece and end with what piece. All in all the crit went really well. Simon told me to keep on emailing him my work in progress. Also I am going to email him a finished ‘Leave Behind’.

My second crit was with ……. A really nice person. With a very serious approach to design. He immediately commented on the simple clean layout. He said it was very well considered. He said the typography was really nice but spotted a widow on one of my sheets in my portfolio. He was really impressed with the NYC Bowling Championships logo. He was very keen to hear about the thought process behind the piece. Also he talked about my Manchester Literature Festival Poster. He said the use of hierarchy work really well. But he mentions my Gotham Magazine spread. He thought it was a nice piece of design but he could see the main body of text just working in two simple columns. He gave me his business card and told me t keep in touch.

Truth, Portfolio Visit

On Wednesday 29th April. I went to see Truth in Manchester. I found the offices really easy to find. I was really impresses with the offices. I saw Darren had a few poster on the wall from Peter Saville. Darren was really nice, Jane was in the background she come over and had a quick look, but has to go back to answering the phones. 

Darren first commented on how he has got the same carry case and portfolio box from silver print.  Darren also said how professional my portfolio looked, and was very impressed with the layout. Darren really took a shine to the logo brief. He said he liked how the ball was made up using white space and also the crown from the Statue of Liberty looked like it was impacting on the pins. He said also have a few logo brief in your portfolio, as this is one of the main things you will be doing when working in this industry. He was impressed with my typeface Chronicles, but said you should make a poster expressing and advertising the font. 

We was talking about layout of over people portfolio and was impressed how i stayed away from the fad of holding my piece of work up and taken a picture of it. Darren said in 5 years time you will look back not upon the work but what you was wearing. Darren also asked how i got good picture of my magazine spread and also the bus stop advert shell. I told him i got the blank canvases of Live Surface. Over all Darren really liked all my work saying you have a good eye for design and detail. Darren gave my his business card telling me to keep in touch. emailing my work in progress. I asked him would it be okay from time to time to pop in and see them. Darren said it was fine.