New Website: www.emma-price.co.uk

Since summer I have been fighting a losing battle with my website. Although I made progress initially, technical problems seem to stop me from getting to a point that I was happy with. Over this last weekend however, I wanted to ensure that I had at least a website up and running that I was happy with and that could be developed further over time.

Update portfolio - print and online

to come

Internships

to come

Numiko

Over Easter I spent two weeks at Numiko working with their UX team. During this time I didn't really take a designing role but more research. The time spent there was focussed on evaluating work and thinking of questions for user testing, reading up and writing personas and learning about user journeys and user testing. I learnt a lot about the important of user needs and how thinking about this can start to identify problems that need designing for. Writing the personas was particularly useful because it meant we had specific characters that we were designing for and instead of making presumptions we could start making real judgements.

After speaking to the guys there and evaluating my placement the opportunity for another longer placement over summer was mentioned (minimum of 6 months). I did however specify that although I enjoyed the user experience aspect of the design I would like to be involved in the actual design itself. At the moment it looks as though if I were to go there then I would take on a role that encompassed both of these aspects. Currently they have a UX team and a design team but no one that does both. And so it seems like quite a unique position to be in. If I were to go for this I think it would help me develop my understanding in user needs and how to make design accessible for different types of users. It seems like a good opportunity to further my career aspirations.

Leeds Chamber

One of the projects I was working on for Chamber. An infographic to show the percentage change in cost pressures.

Creative Milk Round

Registered to go to the creative milk round back in December but it was cancelled because some of the visiting professionals couldn't attend. This meant that I was able to get a spot when it was re-done in March. I registered and asked to speak to those involved in design and digital design and managed to get two interview slots. The first interview was with Hannah from Leeds Chamber of Commerce.

The interview with Chamber was very different to other interviews I'd had with people. Mainly this is because when I've been talking through my portfolio with people before they have been designers and so I've been quite confident in using terminology that designers might use. I also usually talk about what the brief was and why that made me make certain design decisions. When talking to someone from a more commercial background it felt that a different approach was probably needed. The discussion with Hannah went well, she liked the work for the Natural History Museum where I had used design to break down information. She mentioned that because the Chamber do a lot of different things for a variety of businesses its difficult to communicate what they do and they have a lot of information that needs breaking down.

I was in touch with Chamber a couple of times and went for another meeting with one of Hannah's colleagues. I've been in to work there a couple of times doing one day briefs. Last time I was in we did discuss perhaps working on a larger brief that I could get stuck into more so I'll pick that up in a couple of days.

At the milk round I also met with the managing director from Numiko, I talked through some of my portfolio but as I did I felt that my portfolio was a bit long so I need to address that. We discussed more about user needs and how to design for different audiences and it was really interesting. We discussed a potential placement and decided that two weeks working with the user interaction team might be useful. To learn about how they design for different users and their methods of research/user testing.

Portfolio Surgery - James from Thoughtful

The portfolio surgery went really well, I came out of it feeling really positive although it was also a bit scary. I got some good feedback that related more to my career aspirations rather than specific briefs although I did get some more specific feedback as well.

The first piece of advice was rather than display my work in a standard portfolio the layout of my portfolio would perhaps suit a box which is available at silver print:

I quite like this idea however I'm unsure how well it would travel and it might be better to spend a bit more money and get one of the more professional looking portfolios that last years third years had.

He wanted me to push the scuba diving brief a lot more, and take it through to digital. Something that has been pointed out before and something that I need to do.

There were also a few tweaks to do with my butterfly effect brief which I may or may not go ahead and do, depending on time etc and whether it would be worth it.

The main thing that stuck with me from this talk was that James thought that I would do better freelance rather than going to work in a studio. He seemed to think that with the work I have I would perhaps get bored in a studio because he couldn't think of any that do everything I want to do. This has sort of strengthened my feelings that I'd had previously but at the same time I don't believe I'm ready to make the jump from college to being freelance. I don't feel like I comfortably know the industry well enough and there is so much I still need to learn, that will come from working with other designers.

I spoke to Fred regarding all of this and we had a discussion and it seems that it might be a good idea to have a sort of goal for in 5 years time and the time leading up to that can be spent working in different studios and perhaps doing some freelance on the side so that when I feel more comfortable and know more about the industry I'll be ready to think about having my own studio. Obviously the financial implications of this would be difficult and so as well as learning the skills I need for this, the next 5 years are also a time for me to be saving so I can afford to support myself while the business is setting up.

Business Cards & CV

to come

Behance Network

While I'm still struggling to put together my website I've been conscious that other than my pdf I don't really have anything that I can refer people to, to see my work. To address this issue I've now set up a behance portfolio. Currently I only have 4 projects on there but it is at least something that people can view online.

Portfolio Surgery - Andy Lodge

Today I had a portfolio surgery with Andy Lodge from Brahm. I got some really useful advice from him regarding specific briefs and the portfolio over all. Some of the things he said had been mentioned yesterday as well and so they are definite considerations to make.

For the scuba brief Andy suggested that it would transfer really well across to digital media, so that people could share their experiences over forums and it could become interactive. I think this is definitely something that I need to show, since it was something I really wanted to do. Especially developing it into an iphone format so that it could be linked with gps and suggest dive sites near the location.

In regards to the EE website he liked the deep green used and he said it was a good layout however he suggested using an accent colour to make it feel more contemporary. He explained that often they will have a neutral colour palette and then an accent colour palette that might be use for roll overs etc. This just gives it a bit more life and plays into the sort of accents that horse jumps often have.

He also suggested that I go back to the icons for NHM and tweak details so that they are more consistent. So that line weights are all the same and the icons for the red zone are like silhouettes like the others. For future reference he said that I should begin with the most complicated and the easiest and design for those and from that set rules, by testing the maximum size and the minimum size they need to work at.

For the newsletter brief he thought it would have been better to challenge how to include the college logo since it is a problem that no-one really likes it, and to think of a way that the design nods towards the identity of the college. This could perhaps be that the masthead uses the mosaic/pixelated design direction and that the tiles then filter through into the main copy.

If I am to keep it as just one page then I need to make it more of a story.

He also suggested that I juggle the order round a bit so that the same skills aren't displayed immediately after each other, and to break up the nature of the work a bit more.

When I asked about any suggestions for studios to look at he suggested that I look at design studios who deal with quite tight type and mentioned a few which I will look at.

As a general piece of advice he suggested I thought about another way of presenting the portfolio whether it was in a box or I bound it, just to make it more considered and more professional.

Portfolio Surgery - Tom Eales

Yesterday I had a portfolio surgery with Tom Eales, a designer for plus minus. I managed to get a lot of feedback on how to present my work, brief specific and also as a whole. Main points:

- he liked that there wasn't much text on each page, but if it was a portfolio I was leaving behind then I could include more

- for live work it's good to show how people reacted to it, maybe by including a quote. By including their opinion it shows you can work professionally to real deadlines and real restrictions and deliver.

- as a way to show the butterfly effect poster, photograph it against a white wall, people won't be able to judge the size of it. The photographs work better than vectorising it and the exhibition mock up breaks the grid like appearance.

- ensure all the gaps are the same - referring to the gap between the postcards and something else.

- if you get a chance to actually screen print the tshirt then do it, so it's real

- if you're working on a commercial brief make it more obvious that it's commercial

- select better images for EE, to make bigger.

- maybe don't need the tech page or just half it

- one image of mac one page, the other page have more webpages

- communicate as much as possible in as little space so it looks like there's more.

- when emailing out as a pdf showcase 3 or 4 best bits of work, as a taster. also this keeps down file size

- use photographs of stickers for NHM way finding

- draw attention to the fact you pitched for the Leeds Art newsletter

- i could print my portfolio out on a heavy stock and short edge bind it, using stitch or spiral bound and use heavy black card on front and back which is slightly oversized (by 2-3mm)

- maybe make a smaller version of it that can be left behind (e.g. a6)

- make the pictograms into badges and pin one to the front of the leave behind

I also asked some questions about my dissertation regarding research and feedback to make things more usable.

He mentioned that they used a loop which was design - feedback - refine - feedback etc etc

he also said that it was the client who would find the users for user testing and give demographic information. Anthropometrics and ergonomics (people studies) were mentioned as being really important and Henry Drafus' book: The measure of man, was recommended as being useful.

Tom discussed the importance of knowing who will use it and what's best for that person and what that person expects to see. I asked if it made it harder to use products if initial expectations were different to reality and he explained that these expectations effect how you mentally approach products and so yes it did make it more difficult. On the issue of instruction, he commented that a good product doesn't need a manual. He also agreed that the interactive displays within museums should be instinctive and that especially in museums people don't want to read how to do something. He said that the new media museum was a good example where you walk in and there are two very different styles of interactives but work in a similar way.

Print Portfolio

Open publication - Free publishing - More design

Holmes Wood

Over Christmas I spent a week at Holmes Wood consultancy. I had previously spent 2 weeks there over summer and been working on a way finding project for Roehampton University Library. Since then they had made the presentation to Roehampton and waiting to hear back about which direction to go with. I had a look at the presentation that they had given the client and it was really good to see that a lot of the ideas/concepts that I had come up with and been working on over the two weeks had been included in what they had developed. Seeing some of my ideas within the presentation was really great and gave me a bit more confidence in my work.

The stuff I was working on this time was a bit different. Since previously I had been asked to come up with concepts and initial ideas, whereas this time they had already come up with some design directions/concepts and they asked me to develop one of the routes they were considering. I was asked to develop the pictogram route for this particular project which I spent a couple of days doing. Initially I was thinking of obvious picto's and icons for each of the 'words' but it was then suggested that I think of more abstract/lateral solutions. So I started trying to develop more obscure designs. We then had a team meeting and the design direction I'd developed wasn't to be taken any further because they thought it might not be as accessible as other routes.

After this, I spent some time helping out with audits and putting presentations together and contextual research for another brief. I much preferred working there this time because I felt more comfortable initially and also there was more contact with the other designers. It felt more like a collaborative way of working and I really like the chance to discuss the designs with the designers and listen to how they bounce ideas off each other. While I was there I also got the chance to discuss some of the topics for my dissertation and managed to get a couple of contacts which might be useful to talk to.