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OUGD602 — Archipelago

On Friday 20th of March I received an e-mail from Michael Lewis at a small local studio called 'The Archipelago' in Leeds. The wonders of instagram has hit me again, one of their team member's had found my work through that and insisted that Michael, the founder took a look.

He went on to talk about getting me in for a visit and showing my work as they like to get a feel of students from both our course and the Leeds Beckett one and see how they fit in with them. This could mean both internships or future career paths.

Michael complimented my work quality and picked out two briefs he particularly liked the outcomes of, the Mallinsons brewery branding and the fixed gear publication. Finally he said he wanted me to come in if I was interested to show my work and talk to them.



I had heard of Archipelago before but not yet seen any of their work. From what I could see from the three projects on their website, their working style was very similar to my own and they focused on smaller independent branding, a specialism I concentrated on with interest.






I decided that I'd definitely be interested to go and speak to them and show them what I am currently working on, I can imagine them to be quite down to earth and interesting to talk to. I e-mailed back that I was free the following Monday afternoon but later realised it was Friday afternoon and they probably wouldn't even see it till Monday.



OUGD602 — Made By Analogue — Round 2

Since the end of my placement at Analogue in January I have made efforts to stay in touch with Jake, the design director and even though we have both been so busy and difficult to communicate between we spoke irregularly with feedback jotting back and forth on the work I have been doing as well as mentions of meeting up and going to the pub.

I also made sure that I made enough of an effort to stay in touch on instagram to keep a dialogue going with the rest of the team and keep a lasting impression on them all.

In the last thread of e-mails, I reiterated my intentions of coming back in Easter like I discussed with Barry on my last day. This seemed to be still of interest to them when it was brought up and Jake took the liberty of checking if the dates I was free would work with them and it did.





Really looking forward to round two with them as a studio, since I was last there they have hired another middle-weight designer called Lucas Jubb, a professional whose work I have began admiring more recently when seeing outcomes for Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds Feast, and Stuzzi.

Can't wait to get back in their routine, meet Lucas and try and provide some more great work for them to put into motion. Since my last visit, where I was their first official intern, they have made it into a regular occurrence and even advertised it on YCN's job-board as a paid placement. £6.50 an hour will be useful indeed for two weeks in Easter! 



OUGD602 — Christina Bernales

On the 12th of March, I received an e-mail that was both very surprising but also very pleasant. A bridal photographer from the USA had discovered the branding and identity that I completed for Nicole Jopek while rummaging through Behance.



This was really really exciting to get, predominantly because it was from the other side of the world. I initiated some small-talk but kept it on topic before explaining my current work situation, questions I had and my rates.


This usually immediately weeds out potential clients and time-wasters expecting free/low-paid work because of my studying position. I was very pleased to see this wasn't a price bracket that put Christina off and immediately motivated and interested me a lot more in finding out exactly what Christina was looking for.



I highlighted that time-taking is completely reflected on the client in regards to what she wanted out of me, as inevery situation, it is possible to create a concept/logo in a day, but thorns' doubt it won't be nearly as well thought out or executed as one that took a week to develop.

We ended our discussion by clearing up our next stages together and expressing our excitement in the project.




When I received a reply from Christina, I was very pleased at both the direction she was heading and the efforts of clarity she went through to make it as easy as possible to distinguish, it was very obvious that Christina had worked with a graphic designer before which settled my thoughts a lot when she confirmed it. So far the apparent outcomes of this brief would be a main logo, a monogram and some business cards. I began thinking about the difficulties of sourcing a high quality printer in a different continent but felt excited about the challenge.



In my reply I wanted to be sure Christina understood I was clear with everything that she wanted from me and that I was enthusiastic about creating something amazing with her at the same time as dropping the 'contract' bomb that both protects myself and her in regards to copyrights and payment.



The response to this was as good as everything else. Christina was going to be busy on a shoot over the weekend and even though she said that she'd be back in touch on Monday, having a friend in photography has shown me that everything tends to take 5 x longer than expected a lot of the time.




It took a bit longer than Monday to get back in touch but like I said above, it wasn't far off expected in this line of work. I let her know that if one of my other jobs would be finished the next day then I would be ready to start on her project on the following Monday.




This is where the difficulties began however due to ease of payment. From Christina's research the easiest way would be to mail a cheque over, however I found that in paypal's terms, you can send money to a friend/family internationally for only 0.5% ($1.49).





Christina was really happy with my find and paid the deposit instantly. This is definitely something to remember when dealing internationally in the future.

OUGD602 — Woodrups x Restrap Film

During a meeting with Nathan at Restrap discussing possible packaging solutions, he mentioned a project that he was currently involved in as a collaboration with Woodrups Cycles.

Tim, a good friend of Nathan and I, is taking part in the Transcontinental Race this year and required a reliable, well built, travel friendly touring race bike that would carry all of his supplies from Flanders, Belgium to Istanbul, Turkey.

Because of the film that I made to document the 2014 Halleycat, Nathan asked me if I'd be interested in documenting the making/building of the bicycle through film and photo. Because of my interests and the fact that this video would be played at the Yorkshire Bicycle Show and be a spark for networking, I thought it'd be a great idea to make the time for it. We agreed a daily rate for shooting/editing and it was sorted.

OUGD602 — Process Invite

I was surprised to receive an e-mail from one of last year's graduates Mike Williams inviting me to take part in an exhibition that he is organising for the duration of the Leeds Indie Food Festival.

On 4 Mar 2015, at 12:39, hello@brewersdesignsociety.com wrote:

Hi Alex,

Just wanted to let you know that I'm curating an exhibition in May about brewing great beer and the art that surrounds it, It would be awesome if you could submit. It features artists from around the world (Invited Nick Dwyer of Beavertown, Kasper Ledet of ToOl and a heap more etc etc) and is being hosted in Tall Boys.

The brief is open but aimed at artists that specifically work alongside craft breweries, I know you love your beer so I wanted to include you. I know the course is bloody intense, deadline is 30/04/15 if you can squeeze it in. 

Full info is in a call for submissions pack I have have sent out today (see attached) and if you have any questions, let me know.

Thanks,
Have a great day.

Mike Williams
Founder
The Brewer's Design Society
Process Exhibition





I was really excited about this exhibition already due to the artists that had also been invited but also the prospect of networking with or having work presented alongside them. Like Mike said in the email, it is an obvious quality my interests lay with is well made beers and especially after my dissertation and brewery branding this will be a nice way of using the research I constructed for them in another brief.

It may benefit me quite a lot as I am already friendly with the owners of Tall Boys Beer Market as I buy a lot from them and often stop to have a chat, this might spark something further in a professional direction and I may even do some work with them.
 

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