What have I learnt?

From this project I have learnt that personal branding is very important, whether you're a freelance designer of post-graduate searching for a job. The brand and colour scheme will stay with you throughout your work, giving the employer or client a good idea of the quality and perhaps style of work which you can complete. The portfolio will stay with me along with the logo and CV, in which I can add to as I continue to learn new skills. Colour scheme and font is important to display the information clearly and easily to read and to grab the users attention.

final website...

The website was created using Flash by a member of our group after all of the planning had been completed. The website turned out really well and gives clear information about the students, university, course, and echibition. It looks very similar to the london underground tube train website which was planned. Here is a screenshot of the home page...



Here are the shots of the various other pages throughout the site. The students page is very good as it features hover buttons, which display information when the cursor is hovered over them. Select each student and it directs you to each individual student's profile page. Which displays the work a brief bio. Here is a screenshot of this page...







As far as Aesthetics goes this website is very good. It is similar to the tube website so looks very proffesional which was planned from the start. The bright background and font colour work well together to provide a clear and easy to read website. It is easy to navigate and understand due to the menu bar at the top. The grapics and high quality photos work really well and help with the professional feel.

Final work for self branding project...

Here is the final work for the self branding project...
The logo...


The business card...


The CV...


The portfolio front page...


As you can see all of the pieces of work are following a certain theme, by featuring the same palette of colours and the same font and logo. I think this has given me a professional look as the colours work well together, but are not over the top. I have put alot of hard work into it and I believe it shows, and shows the amount of effort I'm prepared to put in for a client. It also gives the client a good idea of the standard of work which I may produce. I really like the dark coloured background and lighter shade of font. The only downside could be if I emailed my CV to a potential employer, they may have trouble printing it out as it is dark and will use alot of ink.

This asside though, I am extremely happy with my personal branding project and how it turned out. I will be using these documents in my hunt for employment when university is over.

Pages for portfolio...

Now I had a front page and info page template, I could begin to add work samples. I started with university work and then went on to inlcuded personal work which I have completed over th last few years.

The first page displays an animation, but I wanted to think of a nice way to show this. I decided to put the various screenshots on a computer monitor to show that they can be veiwed on this. When it comes to creating my online portfolio I can inlcuded it as a video. I left a space on the left hand side so it can be bound.



Here are the remaining pages which I have completed...

Portfolio front page...

I had to think about the front page of the portfolio. This is important as it is the first page that people will see and give the first impression.

I came up with a few designs concepts on Adobe Photoshop..





I like both designs and how they sit at an angle to the page. This is in-keeping with my theme throughout my work and I believe it makes it stand out compared to others.

The second design features the graphic i have included on my other work, but I think this makes the page to busy as I'm trying to keep the work minimalist style. I also think a darker colour would work aswell to make it look a bit more high quality and again, match the business card. I redesigned it again and I'm happy with the final product...

Creating the portfolio...

Creating a portfolio is also in the brief. Its always a really good idea of showing a potential business partner or interveiwer what you can do. By showing them your own real life work, they can see what level you are at, what you enjoy doing, and what your strengths are. I am lucky enough to have saved alot of my university and personal work to put in my portfolio and I believe the quality of work included is quite high.

Now I had to think of a way to display it. I quickly sketched up some designs that fit in well with my personal branding and scheme. I like the 2 coloured lines and single white line that were visible in my logo. This could be a theme that could run throughout my portfolio.

Firstly I sketched a few ideas out to see which looked good and which concept worked well with my exsiting theme.

I decided on this design as it is simple and fresh. I have kept the theme running throughout the personal branding work and it is not so busy that it distracts the veiwer from the actual work displayed. I will do some pages in white and some in black, depending on the work that is being displayed.

Here is the template I mocked up on Adobe Photoshop that I can use each time I create a page...



I have decided to use the 2 lines running down the middle then shooting off at an angle. I did this to add a splash of colour to the page to fit in with the theme. the lines act as an underline between the title, brief and analysis of the work. The line then angles off into the middle of the page which the users eyes should follow to see the work.

The work number is the largest writing on the page, this is to indentify the work. Next to this is the work title, client and programmes used. This is all the important information right at the top.

New graphic...

The new graphic i used consisted of several images that have been manipulated onAdobe Photoshop. I started by collecting a generic image of a pen, a pencil, an SLR camera, a computer screen and a mouse. These are all implements that I use and will use during my profession. I did this as it helps to give the customer an insight into what exactly it is that I do. Once I had arranged them in a cascading effect, I adjusted the saturation to 0, turned the brightness up and the contrast down, this is how I achieved the silhouette style finish...

Redesign of CV...

I needed to redesign my CV so that its inkeeping with the new theme. I liked to layout of the old CV but the colour scheme was now not matching. I added the new theme graphics and changed the colour scheme and this is what the final concept looks like...

Redesign of the business card and CV...

I decided to redesign my business card as I was not 100% happy with the final outcome. It looked good, but as a designer I believe it wasn't giving the right message across. Here is the final business card i came up with...



The card doesn't really give the message across that shows I'm a talented designer. I decided to use more neutral colours throughout my self branding documents. The colours used give a more high quality feel to the card and it also works well with the darker background colour to stand out and become easily identifiable. I decided to use an image theme which described completely what I am about and what I do. Here is the redesigned card...



Now I have a new theme and colour scheme I can begin to redesign my CV and portfolio.

The logo was also changed up aswell to suit the new theme. I keep the font the same (Eurostile) As it look very professional and clear, but I added a white curve at the top to attract the attention of the user as much as possible. Here is the logo featuring the new colour scheme...