Holly O'Connor Personal and Professional Practice: February 2017

Wednesday, 15 February 2017

Concept

Creativity at your Service

Holly O'Connor

Creative Mentor for Children

Keeping Small Minds Alive

The concept for my self branding is to base all my design decisions around answers from children, therefore they become an integral part of not only the brand identity, but also account for all design decisions.

Questionaire

I undertook a questionnaire, which I passed on to Mum who works within a primary school, which she then passed onto all the teacher of the different classes and age ranges. The questions asked were designed to specifically gage how much children understand about design, colour and art, which I could then use to inform my design decisions and my self branding in general.

What are Colours?

Colours are ways to show moods.
They make a picture look much nicer.
Vibrant things that can be anything you want it to be.
Colours are the beauty of the world.
Colours are things that make your pictures look nicer.
Things you see everyday around you.
Colours are things that when you look at them you feel a different way.
Colours are different things that are coloured in with different colours.
Rainbows.
Flavours
Colours make things feel more real.
A bright/dark colour
They write
red, blue, green, purple, black
red
all sorts
Just colour
Colours are colours
A rainbow colour
Things in the air that change colour.
colour is colour
Colours are everything that you see.
Colours are colours you see.
colours are dye

Favourite Colour

Red is vibrant, bright and it stands out.
Red, very bright and reminds me of a rose.
Red and Brown mixed together.
Green
Blue
Black
Gold
Yellow
Blue and green
Dark green
Bright red
Purple
Blue
Black
pink
gold
green
Pink
red
green
turquoise
blue
turquoise
blue

Why is it your favourite colour?

Because it’s cheerful and looks good.
- Bright colours.
Velvet red.
It is refreshing and bright and it makes me feel relaxed.
Cold, quite bright and makes me think of the sky.
Dark, personal
Shiny, Sparkly
Reminds me of the sun and happiness.
bright and dark, beautiful.
It is the colour of lots of my things.
Makes me feel like I am looking at a close up of the sun.
Nice to write with
because it is
it’s dark
nice and shiny, I like it so much
because there are two colours of it
because it’s dark
it is the third rainbow colour
because it is pretty
I just like it
pretty

Sad Colour

-Dark Blue

Blue because it reminds me of tears.
Purple
Blue, represents water and it feels like you’re drowning.
Blue
Purple
Black
Blue
very dark colours
dark colours
red
grey
Green
yellow you can’t really see it
black
white because you can’t see it
red
blue
black
grey
blue
red
dark colour
grey
black

Happy Colour

Yellow
Gold and yellow, because it reminds me of starts and sunshine.
Yellow is a happy colour.
Pink
Yellow
Black
Green
Yellow
Bright colours
yellow
blue
light colours
blue
blue
gold
purple
yellow
red
yellow
purple
yellow
yellow
bright
yellow
green

How does art make you feel?

- Art makes me feel inspired and excited.

Very relaxed and entertained.
It makes me feel happy and like I am free from chaos.
Art makes me feel open and joyful.
Really Happy
Ok
Happy and excited.
Art makes me feel like I am what they draw.
happy
relaxed
Happy
happy
happy
happy, I like doing it for mummy and daddy
happy, I like making with my friends
happy
happy
happy
happy
interesting
happy
confident
happy and relaxed

Why do you like drawing?

Makes me feel relaxed and happy.
Because it calms me down.
Because you can draw what you feel and it lets me be creative.
It expresses my mind and makes me feel creative.
Makes me happy and relaxed.
Calms me down a bit.
It’s really fun.
It makes me feel proud.
Makes me happy.
proud
makes me feel relaxed
under the sea
it’s fun
for my family
My dad loves my colouring in
I like drawing pictures form my mummy
I like drawing cards and making my family happy
because I do
because we draw all the time
because it makes my mum proud
peaceful
because it is fun
it’s fun
happy
you could be an artist when you’re older.

What do you think graphic design is?

When you design something on a computer.
When you design your picture before you do the real picture.
Where you create art using electronic devices like if you were making an animated movie, like Moana or Toy Story.
I think it is art and designing something on a computer.
A design that you have to be very careful with.
A 3D model.
A picture made from shapes.
That the picture is HD.
3D pattern
The graphics in a game
Drawing on computers.
designing for games
don’t know
making something
pink
designs of pictures
different colours
art
designing stuff
something colourful

How would you feel if art wasn’t a subject?

I would feel a bit downhearted.
I would feel sad.
I would feel trapped in a bubble, an invincible bubble.
I would feel lost and have no creativity in my mind.
All right
Bored
Angry and sad
bored
sad
sad
sad
sad
sad
sad, I would feel like I want to go home.
sad
sad
very sad
sad
bored
sad
very very very very sad!
very very sad
horrified

How do you think emails and texts are sent?

When you press the send button it uses the wifi.
They go through the wire and go to the other phone.
Through technical transporters.
I think they are sent via wifi.
By hand and people pressing different letters.
Over the internet
Through a signal
Magic
satellite
signal poles
internet
Write a message and it will blow away to who ever you send it to.
by things
space
special button
pressing a button

How much money would you like to earn?

£100,000 per month
Depends on how good your drawings are.
£50 per month and a half.
About £65,000 a year.
£50.00
£10
£40 or £20
£20 a week.
£70 a day
£10 for half an hour.
£99 billion
enough to get by
£150, that would be a lot, I could go to pizza hit and buy lollies.
zillion
100000
100000
£79 a week
2p a year
£50 a day
£100 a month
£99
£100 a year
millions per minute

Friday, 10 February 2017

A2 Research Poster

Things I have learnt:

- What weed smells like!

- Skills in all Adobe Software, Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign

- I have learnt how to cook, very important life skills

- Learnt how expensive food shopping is, especially cheese.

- I have learnt how to make a doctors appointment and how collecting prescriptions work.

- I have learnt how to do my own washing.

Things I have engaged with:

- I have engaged with and become more open minded to fine art and conceptual art, and using new techniques and process away from the screen within my work.

- I have engaged with all the visiting professionals, including Build, DR ME and Brand Nu.

- I have engaged with all the workshops that are available to us, especially so in the print room, with the likes of letterpress and screen printing.

My ambitions for the future and aims for Level 05:

- To step outside of my comfort zone, both in everyday life activities but also within my work.

- To travel the world, experience and embrace new cultures.

- I would like to achieve my life long ambition and become a primary school teacher.

- I would love to graduate with a 1st.

What I haven't enjoyed:

- Missing my dog.

- Being away from home, I have found very difficult, however I think it has made me a much more independent and stronger person.

- I haven't enjoyed being stressed all of the time and also meeting deadlines.

- I also haven't enjoyed long hectic journeys on the train home, as it has been the first time I have been on a train on my own.

Brainstorm - About Me

Thursday, 9 February 2017

End of Module Evaluation OUGD405

During this module I have began to grasp the concepts of both objectivity and subjectivity and how and when they can be used within design. I have also discovered many new different designers, such as Van Toorn and Wim Crowell after reading their argument on their different approaches to design. Other designers include Mijksenaar, Experimental Jetset, Build, Dr Me, Lance Wyman and Otl Aicher, who have all had influence over my ideas and work and will continue to do so throughout the course. I have learnt and produced graphic design away from purely print based designs, I have enjoyed branching away from his and designing using new ideas and techniques to practice and focus on communication that design can involve. Within both briefs I have discovered a range of new research approaches and have stepped away from my comfort zone to become more experimental and conceptual using new materials and techniques.
Especially so within the object project, I have spent a lot of time within the print room, learning and taking advantage of the resources and facilities that are available. Producing pieces both final and experiments within mono printing, Letterpress and book-binding to become more confident working within these areas. I have enjoyed stepping away from the computer and realising that better and design work with more depth will be created if a range of ideas and materials are explored rather than producing digital iterations. I have become more of a creative thinker and developing my ideas further each time trying to push each idea.
Both briefs I believe have turned out well, I prefer the object studio brief outcome more to the way finding outcome. The concept for the object brief was stronger and I enjoyed being more expressive and stepping away from the screen, using analogue techniques instead, as I enjoy the outcomes and practice of these techniques more and believe that more engaging and thought provoking pieces are designed as a result.
Within the way finding brief I enjoyed being more conceptual once again and producing more subjective design as a result of researching the opinions that other designers have on this subject. It brought me away from producing objective and obvious designs.
To improve upon this module, I believe I should have done further research and look at more different designers, which could then influence my designs to produce better work. Other improvements would mainly be in Studio brief 1, to produce a better range of ideas, using different approaches, therefore my design development would be more detailed and give my signage system more depth.
To conclude what I have learnt from this module is how to research using a range of techniques through study tasks and designers and their work. I have learnt to think more conceptually and to push my ideas to the extreme and out myself outside my comfort zone, therefore all my work isn't the same. I have realised that I enjoy spending time in the print room, using the many facilities there that are available, in future projects I will continue to use a variety of media and both digital and analogue techniques and not just stay at the computer.

Wednesday, 8 February 2017

Who you are talking to?

- It is extremely important to make connections with people in the industry as soon as possible, be that for design work, feedback or just life advice in general.
- The most important thing I brought back from this session is that email is too over used and there is a much higher percentage that the person you are trying to contact will either ignore your message or just not see it and therefore will not give you a response.
- A more personal approach is needed; be that a letter, a handwritten letter is a lot more personal and could then become a from of a pen pal relationship, and then they will respond with either an email or letter back, as different, unique approach is needed to make you stand out from the thousands of emails that people receive on a daily basis.
- Another way to grab someone's attention is to visit them directly, and pass on contact detail that way.
- One of the most important things to do as a designer in the industry is to network and find as many contacts and keep these contacts, and not just people who are related to your industry; it could range from make up artists to photographers.