A year of travel ahead

Recently, I have been planning on taking an enhancement year whilst deferring my third and final year at university here in Coventry. This will allow me to gain some international experience studying or working in a placement and aid in building contacts, my portfolio work and my self-confidence.

I have officially applied for my year studying abroad and narrowed my choices down to Cyprus and (my second choice) Madrid. It has become clear that I will more than likely be studying in Cyprus therefore I feel some language skills would come in handy. As the university doesn't offer the chance to learn Greek the second option will be to learn Turkish, with classes starting this week hopefully I will be able to build upon learning the language in hopes it will come in handy whilst living in Cyprus.

Recently meetings have been arranged to talk about the China exchange trip and what we can expect and what arrangements need to be made. Some information about the trip is as follows:

Central South (CSU) Chang Sha, 2 week exchange likely to be last week of term in March and first week of Easter holiday. Taking part in lectures, seminars, exercises, activities such as exhibitions/workshops etc whilst in China, following their typical schedule, which will be in the studio everyday 8/8.30am - 7pm. Some excursions to villages, tourism sites new and old China, trips to studios, exhibitions etc. will be scheduled and published however these plans do get changed and altered. A short video was shown of a past trip filmed by a student. Here is the video part 2, which was shown to us. I have also watched part 1 and part 3 to see the whole film and trip. A blog will be set up for us to document our experiences relating to all aspects of the trip.

This year is looking like a year full of once in a lifetime travel and work opportunities for myself.

NAP x

A Hard Rain

For this project I created a book based around the title 'A Hard Rain'. I focused my 1000 word story around Storm chasers Tim and Paul Samaras and Carl Young and the final events from their last chase.

I decided to show the movement of the storm and its power by combining the typography with the ink-like stained illustrations of the tornado and rain. I kept all colour to just black and white for a very bold contrast representing the the dense clouds and dangerous sense of the events unfolding.

I stitched every page edge together to create a concertina format, so the reader may follow on to each page uninterrupted. Each page has been perforated so as the stitching is hidden, the front and back pages perforation have been purposely left to keep a sense of fragility.

 

The only requirement in the brief was an A2 piece of material must be used. To comply with the brief I used an A2 piece of white tissue paper to keep that sense of fragility representing the lives of the storm chasers. The very thin and opaque characteristic of the tissue paper also creates the sound of rain and a storm above when unwrapping the book.

 

NAP x

A year of possibilities

The last week of uni before the Christmas break and already I'm starting to make plans for the new year ahead. This week I have been talking with an adviser, part of the international experience faculty, about the opportunities and offers that are available to me whilst at University. I also wanted to find out more about the module spoke about recently in one of our lectures on ERASMUS and the possibilities of placements in a working studio abroad or studying at a faculty in Europe.

He suggested to research some potential opportunities in Europe suggesting to look at Scandinavia, Finland, Sweden, Cyprus, Madrid, Milan and France in particular for Graphic Design. With a link to the application needed to fill out and return by January, this will be task to complete over Christmas as well as applying for a passport and emailing my portfolio and CV along with a covering letter to possible work placements to undertake.

Many students on the graphic design course have been talking about an up coming visit to China with our course. I wish to find out a little bit more about this chance to experience their culture, universities and the creative industry out there. I believe that taking part in this trip will help me get to know my peers and tutors more, develop myself and work and help my CV and experience of graphic design globally.

NAP x

Portfolio & CV

With my recent plans in the making I have redesigned my creative CV and put together some portfolio pdf's which I aim to send out to creative agencies and studios in the UK in the hope to gain some work experience or feed back on my work. Below our my details such as online portfolios, contact details, skills, experience and how I have displayed these in a pleasing format to represent myself.

I have yet to compile more portfolio pages such as these below.

NAP x

Making plans for the future

Our second lecture was based around opportunities abroad, a talk from IEMS (international experience for students) explained the process of their work and showed previous students trips. I am already familiar with the program as last year I enquired about a course at Shillington College in Australia. (I briefly mentioned this in an old post in my PDP last year). This lecture gave us information on the ERASMUS scheme and the possibilities of studying in Europe, with fees paid by the university with grants.

As well as thinking about making plans to study abroad, I have been focusing my time on creating some personal branding for myself so that when the time comes to apply for work experience to undertake in the last few months of my second year at uni. I will have a cover letter, CV and portfolio to showcase. This will also help me in applying for international experience studying or working abroad.

Today's seminar focused on our CV's and the experience and skills we have and are developing, I had previously wrote a CV this summer in preparation for the year ahead (below). I plan to add to this and strengthen through out the year and my journey through projects, placements and work experience, I also plan to add to my skills audit.

(My first draft for my creative CV)

We were also asked to think about possible professions/ career objectives and bullet point some actions/plans to take. I would like to explore the idea of teaching vs. working in a settled design team for a company. I would also like to think about possibly freelancing, to make a little extra money this year at university.

NAP x

... Many more to go

Our longest running project will be focusing around technology and increasing our knowledge in a variety of platforms to create our artwork. With a moving, static and interactive poster to create a campaign we have been set a revolutionary movement each to use as our subject matter. All posters created by the class will work together to advertise an exhibition. So far with this project we are in the research and development of ideas stage, I plan to showcase my posters and concept when finalized.

A new brief was set this week with the very open brief of creating a book based upon the name 'A hard rain'. No other requirements other than the title and the materials size - A2. In the next few weeks before Christmas lectures on typography will be held to help us visualise our ideas and aim to be a source of inspiration.

It has also been revealed to us that more briefs will be set before Christmas, with many projects and plans to juggle this festive season is going to be a very busy one!

NAP x

One down....

Our first deadline was yesterday and here is what I have been working on. I was asked to create a first class set of stamps which would be issued around the time of the Brazil 2014 Fifa world cup, along with a manipulation of the first class set to achieve a second class set. I choose to focus on the positives of what the event could bring to the locals, I found a project called 'Painting the Favela'. This project focused on updating the slums of Rio with vibrant colours and patterns on the exterior of surrounding buildings to give hope to its residents and onlookers. I chose to illustrate the buildings and the whole street for my subject matter on my stamps with a strap line 'Brazil 2014 World cup' to create a link back to the event.

NAP x