Assignment 3 - Task 5 - Social Media Case Study

Case Study- 

Olly Gibbs Via Twitter

Olly Gibbs is a Freelance Graphic Designer. He uses social media to interact with followers and potential clients. The communication has an informal friendly style. He regularly updates and posts photos of his work. Unfortunately, he was not available for an interview.

My Twitter Page 

Assignment 3 - Task 4 - Meeting With The Assessor

Meeting with Assessor

The meeting with the assessor was in order to make changes and extensions to my materials to meet the needs of the client. 

No changes to design work was needed. The only extension to current work was to add a tag line for my company in order to give more information about the service.  

I met the needs of the client by inventing the tag line 'the possibilities are endless'. 
This lets the target audience know that the graphic design company can design anything for them and the possibilities are endless, for example; logos, shop window signs, wedding invites etc. The company is broad with a wide range of services available. So I thought this would be an appropriate tag line. 

I also made a few changes to the poster in order to make it look more professional. This was discussed in the meeting with the assessor however it was an optional adaptation not a necessity. Here are the simple changes to my poster:

I added an overlay which is the same as the overlay used in the business card. I also added a few other colouring effects. 

Assignment 3- Task 3 - Design Work

Task  3- Design Work 

Logo:

This was my first design. I decided not to choose this one as it then limits the colour scheme to have to involve red and I thought that black and white looks more classy and bold.
















This was my final choice of logo design. I like this design as it is simple, futuristic and bold. This is relevant for a graphic design company as my research shows that most graphic design company logos are black or white and simplistic with font. I didn't want my logo to look too busy or unprofessional.

Sample Webpage : 

This is a sample webpage for the graphic design company. The homepage is simple and again, black and white. This relates well with the logo and looks professional because it follows the same theme of the logo. It features the same colour scheme, theme and text font.

Poster: 

The poster I designed is very simplistic and not too busy. This is an example of a featured ad that would be placed in magazines such as Apple Mac, technology and design mags. The insert features the same theme as the webpage and the logo. It has a web address and features the logo. It is simplistic so it will encourage people to visit the website for more information and designs. It allows people to be curious when seeing the ad so people will be encouraged to take a look at the website. 

A few changes made to poster:

I made a few improvements to the poster following the meeting with the assessor. The simple changes help improve the over all look of the poster and give it a more professional outlook. It gives a more 

accurate representation of the company. 

Business Card: 

I designed a business card which would be given out to potential clients. The business card is simple and effective. It has all of the key and most important information about the freelance business including an address and contact details. 

The business card design contains the same logo and the same overlay found on the poster above which links and relates to previous designs. 

Assignment 3 - Task 2 - Assignment Planning

Assignment 3 Planner

Instead of making a timeline for my progress, I made an excel spreadsheet grid in order to make adaptations and changes easily. 

I planned out the list of things I had to achieve and the weeks which I was going to achieve them. 

Assignment 3- Task 1 - Brief Terminology

Brief terminology 

Competition brief- 

• Strict time limit
• Formal brief of what client wanted
• One winner
• If you lose, no pay
• Risky/Gamble

Commissioned brief-

• Much less rules
• Freedom
• Time requirements to meet
• Specific to you (no contest)

Tendered brief- 

• Specific
• Formal
• Not dissimilar to competition

Formal brief-

• Written down
• Specifics
• Money
• Timescale needs

Informal brief-

• Spoken
• Very loose
• Negotiation

Co-operative brief-

• Informal
• You and client negotiate terms of project
• Materials produced, budget, timescale
• Regular meetings

Contractual brief-

• Formal
• Legal implications if contract not met
• Strict timescale/ Budget
• Strict guidelines to what you produce

2. In my opinion I believe that the commissioned brief would be the best to get because theres no competition, yet the brief allows you to have freedom with design work. The brief also has a laid back element. 

3. When reading a brief it is important to pay attention to detail or easy mistakes can be made. First of all the product has to be acknowledged. Along with this there are the issues of; payment details, resources, time limit, home, relevance, target audience, and where it will be published. Along with this you need to know exactly what to do and a knowledge of what the client wants to communicate. An in-class example of this is the chocolate bar exercise-which was a competition brief- where the client had specific needs and some groups made classic mistakes by not taking it into consideration. 

4. If the client makes any changes to the brief as you go along you have to be wary of time management and allowing time for other projects etc. For example, when dealing with a few projects, you must allow for the client to make slight changes to the brief by having good time management skills.
The timescale and the payment details can be open to negotiation with the client. 

Assignment 2- Task 3 Trade Journal

Trade Journal 

How can a trade journal help you?

Trade journals can be a key source of information about people, businesses, and industries. A trade journal contains news and items of interest in a particular trade.  A trade journal will also help improve efficiency as it keeps track of the trading day. It keeps track of what went well and what went wrong, so it can help you to improve. 
An example of a trade journal is Forex Smart tools. Forex Smart tools helps to: 

• Records every trade from all your brokers
• Reduces losses by identifying weak points in your strategy
• Increases profit by analyzing entries and exits
• Sorts trades to see what's working and what isn't
• Stores screenshots and video of each unique trade
• View equity curves for any parameter you set up, such as strategy, currency or timeframe

Forex Smart Tools is designed to improve efficiency for workers. It helps to carefully analyse trades in order to keep on top of business. 

The importance of keeping up with industry news

It is important to keep on top of industry news and trends. This is in order to keep up to date in your chosen industry, which is forever evolving and developing. Threats will be easily spotted from an early stage when knowledge of competition is kept up to date. 

Keeping up to date in your industry is key for building expert power. By developing expertise in your job and industry, trust will be earned as well as respect for good jobs done. 

Assignment 2 -Task 2 Skill Set Website Evaluation

Website evaluation

www.creativeskillset.org

What do you think of the layout?
The layout is easily navigable and easy to locate chosen topics. The search bar also helps the audience to find what they are looking for. Key text is highlighted in bold so navigation is particularly easy on this website. The colour scheme keep the website looking professional and not too cluttered. The colours also

Can you find what you want easily?
The website is very helpful when it comes to navigation. There are links to chosen topics such as careers and apprenticeships which helps the audience find what they are after quicker than searching through the text. The search bar is also specific which means the perfect match can be found.

For your specialism, is the info useful?
My chosen specialism is Graphic Design. Graphic Design does not come up as a chosen sector under the search bar. However, when graphic design is searched, there are a lot of choices which come up. The site enables you to refine search into level of education e.g degree. This was helpful. However there wasn't any further information on the site.

Training?
Skill set offers help to find various training and courses. There are also pages giving information on funding for training, in TV in particular. There is lots of information available when it comes to funding. Skillset also has a search bar to find the best training available for you.

Contacts?
Skillset has links to email, social media and contacts. This means the information can be shared or further help can be found. The course search also enables you to find contacts you would need if you would be interesting in signing up for a training programme or educational course.

What other help?
If at first the website does not have what you are looking for, then the search bar will help to find the best help available on the website. This is a very useful tool on the website.