The “Passover”

Reflection

As my time here at the South London Club has nearly come to a close, I have had to start organising my work for the next designer to use, and start creating the ‘Graphic Design Notes’ document that I need to leave my successor. I was left a Graphic Design Notes document by the previous Graphic Designer Pierce, which outlined all the main fonts and styles used across the designs that he had created. I have used the document many times to refer back to the fonts that Pierce used on certain logos and t-shirts, when I have had to modify designs that he had done or to create new ones. The document that he created is simple in style and clearly shows what typefaces and effects he used across his designs. I decided that I to would prepare my own ‘handover’ document for the next designer, as Pierce’s one has been incredibly useful to me over the last eight months.

Based on what original designs I have created during my placement I have decided to create two documents, one for t-shirt designs and the other for mug designs:

Mugs Document

T-Shirt Document

Time Management

Reflection

On this placement I have been set numerous briefs and tasks for the three businesses that are owned by Thomas Page. A usual week of work consists of a conversation between Tom and myself on Monday morning, where he outlines everything that needs to be completed and new tasks that need to be started. During these conversations I also take the opportunity to let Tom know what progress I have made with the current tasks that I am working on. After this briefing it is then up to me how I manage my time and in what order I go about tackling the week’s tasks. As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, I have been able to apply the time management skills that I acquired during the first two years of University. Like the work I have been doing for Tom, our University coursework submissions required us manage several different briefs for the same hand-in date. I was already in the good habit of making checklists of what I needed to be completing using the Notes app on my iPhone and MacBook. In my Year 2 PDP submission for University I acknowledged the usefulness the Notes app, as it syncs up the notes you make in real time on both your phone and laptop. This has come in particularly handy on this placement year, as I have been able to make notes on my phone during the my travel to and from work, and have it saved on my laptop and ready to access when I arrive at the South London Club office.

I understand that in pursuing jobs as an in-house Graphic Designer, my time management skills will have to be exceptional. Very rarely will a company need one set of work doing at one time and being able to manage work loads is essential as a result. My placement has given me the opportunity to demonstrate my time management skills as the responsibility of delivering designs on time as laid solely with me. I’ve made sure to keep regular communication with my boss, whether that be in person or on our work messenger Slack. By having regular communication with Tom, I have been able to let him know how far a long the project is and by showing him work in progress shots he has been able to gauge whether I am on the right path with what I have created. Each week it has also been my responsibility to fill out my section of the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) spreadsheet. This is where all of us at the South London Club quantify what we have done in the previous week and input it into the general spreadsheet. For example I put down the number of designs and mockups that I have created, or the amount of emails that I have scheduled. This has been a useful way for us to track our progress and see if we are hitting our targets. It is something that I aim to carry on doing during third year, where I can monitor how much work I have done in the week and see how far I have come. This will be useful for when we have to present our work around submission time, where I can refer back to the spreadsheet that has all of the data in it that I need with regards to output.

A screenshot of our work KPI spreadsheet

Mailchimp

Work

At about two thirds of the way through this placement, my role expanded even further into carrying out email marketing for the South London Club. I did this via an online tool called “Mailchimp” that allows companies to send out emails to vast amounts of customers and those that have signed up to their mailing list. Mailchimp allows businesses to target specific audiences based on the information people give when they sign up to the scheme or buy an item from the online shop. For example here at the South London Club we could target “females living in Balham” or “males living in Lewisham”. Having the ability to tailor emails to different groups of customers is a crucial one. Users will receive emails unique to their area, for example merchandise of their area of South London. I have learnt and and seen first hand how this helps to drive sales of products when these emails are sent out.

My role in email marketing has been to personlise each email to specific areas of London. This has meant adapting the title and subject of each email, selecting the correct area but most crucially updating the product list to suit each part of South London. We target around 50 areas of South London, meaning that I have had to work efficiently and effectively to have the e-mails done on time. We have been selling four categories of merchandise: T-Shirt, Mugs, Prints and Hooodies. I have designed the banners for each category that can be found on the website shop and also the general emails that get sent to all on the SLC mailing list.

It has felt rewarding to be able to not just create my own designs, but upload them online and market them myself. I have been able to carry out the process of creating merchandise from the conception of an idea, right the way through to marketing it. Mailchimp is the industry standard tool for email marketing and like Printify and Shopify, I can say with confidence that not only do I know how to use it, but I have experience in using it professionally.

Mailchimp logo

New Technical Skills

Work

During my time at the South London Club I have been able to consolidate skills that I had prior to undertaking this placement, but I’ve also had the opportunity to learn new technical skills. I have always been a fairly advanced user of Photoshop and during my second year at University gained my Adobe Certified Associate Photoshop certificate to prove so through my Add+Vantage module. Photoshop is an incredibly versatile piece of software that once you know how to work can be used for a wide range of design briefs. However in the past i have had it pointed out to me by tutors that I can rely too heavily on this one software alone. A prime example of this being for my typography project in the first term of year two, I used Photoshop to lay out my magazine using artboards, when any designer would tell you that this really should have been done in In Design. I new that I should have been using a combination of different programmes to achieve the best possible results. Fortunately on this placement I have changed my old habits and made a conscious effort throughout my time here to use a variety of software on projects:

Adobe Ilustrator– I arrived at University with very little experience in using Illustrator and so I decided to undertake the “Beginners Guide” course as my add+vantage module that year. I ended picking up the skills very quickly due to the crossover many of the tools had with Photoshop and ended up gaining 85% in the module assessment. However like I said above for actual University briefs I very seldom used any software other than Photoshop so didn’t use Illustrator much after this add+vantage module. Here on my placement I have made an effort to use the software as much as possible, a key example of this being the work I have done for Incredibly British. The style of this brand is highly illustrative so I have used Illustrator to produce posters of British cakes and biscuits, as well as illustrated about Britain as social media content. I also used Adobe Illustrator to entirely produce the three infographic posters needed for GrowPro Digital. Using the software gave the infographics a playful, flowing feel that would have been much harder to replicate in Photoshop. I was always told by University tutors about the benefits of creating vectors through Illustrator and I have really come to understand what they meant. The skills that I learnt during the first year introduction to illustrator have proven to be vital to the knowledge that I now have in using it. Through a mixture of Youtube tutorials and lots of experimentation I can now confidently say that I am a comfortable and skilled user of Adobe Illustrator.

Adobe InDesign– The first task that I was set when I arrived here at my placement was to re-make a PDF using Adobe In Design that had been created in Photoshop. I definitely had SOME experience in using In Design prior to this internship, however as I have already explained Photoshop was what I used to create just about everything. I have had quite a baptism of fire when using InDesign , as I have had to re-familiarise myself with it on the job. I have used it to create multiple PDF documents detailing the services provided by GrowPro digital, as well as introduction presentations or ‘Decks’ as I now know they are called professionally. Through using InDesign on this placement I feel confident that I can use it competently and will continue to learn more and more about it in the future. I still have a long way to go with it but I have laid a good foundation to build on.

Adobe Animate– I decided on this placement to use a programme that I had never used before and that ended up being Adobe Animate. I didn’t just decide to use it for fun, rather the need to use it came about through an Incredibly British project, so I opened it for the first time. I needed to somehow turn the British facts illustrations into gifs that could be published to social media. I soon learnt that the crossover from Illustrator to Animate was an easy one so I loaded the Illustrations into the animation programme and away I went. Through some basic web tutorials and videos, I managed to add some movement to the previously static illustrations. For example I made a stamp rotate completely to show how it must always be posted with the Queen’s head up and I managed to make some potatoes appear like they were growing out of the ground to represent British agriculture. The gifs are simple but effective in my opinion and have helped me prove to myself that I can pickup new skills as and when a job requires them. Adobe Animate is a software that I endeavour to use more in the future and could even be my third year University add+vantage module.

E-Commerce

Work

As my placement has progressed my role within the South London Club has continually evolved. Perhaps the most notable change would be when Tom asked me if I wished to learn and carry out the e-commerce for the online shops and Etsy stores. My dream has always been to become a Graphic Designer in the classic sense however on this year out I have been keen to pick up as many broad digital skills as possible. I leapt at the chance to learn how e-commerce works and get involved in that side of the business. I picked up the skills quickly, and soon enough I wasn’t just designing the merchandise for Tom, but I was sorting and uploading it online as well. I have broken down what I have learnt about e-commerce into the different online tools that I have used to carry out the process:

Printify– This online tool is what I use to upload my designs onto physical products, in this example we’ll say it’s a t-shirt. The t-shirt design document needs to have very specific attributes, for example it must all be done in CMYK and have a dpi of 300 (the higher the dpi the better.) What I learnt in second year through Paul Hill about DPI has been useful this year, as I know that physical designs require a higher DPI for the best possible appearance. After loading the design onto a t-shirt template, it is then my job to position and scale it according to what looks best for that individual design. When this is done I sort out the variables for the t-shirt, for example what colours and sizes it will be available in. I then fill out the basic information such as title, description and size chart as the final stage of the Printify process. I can confidently say I am experienced in using this online tool and will definitely be putting it on my CV.

Shopify– Shopify is the next stage of the process where I now know how to edit variables such as prices and tags in bulk for different lines of merchandise. I have learnt the importance of tags as they are what drive people towards items when people search certain terms. Shopify also allows me to edit the SEO of a product. SEO stands for “search engine optimisation” and is essentially what people see when the item appears on Google. Like the tags, I have learnt the importance of SEO as this is what will appeal to a potential buyer when they see a listing on Google.

Since learning how to use Shopify and Printify, every set of designs that I now do I upload to the company stores myself. Being able to sort and publish my designs online will be a useful skill to tell future employers but also if i want to put my own designs online- i know how to do it.

Shopify online shop listings

Printify online listings

Printify t-shirt generator

Mockups

Work

Not only has it been my job to create clothing designs, but It has been my responsibility to generate mockups of the items. This has involved me selecting relevant models from a website called “Place It” and using them as a way of showcasing our merchandise. Fortunately creating mockups is something that I have previous experience with at University, where I have generated imagery of my work in situ for assessments and my portfolio.

Like with creating the t-shirt designs themselves, the mockups almost always have to be mass produced- doing up to fifty at a time. Again the mass production of designs has been a good lesson to me in how to generate imagery quickly but professionally. As the South London Club we need to hit all areas of South London, the same can be said for Chicken Shop Clothing and with Incredibly British we need to create designs and mockups across a broad range of slogans and styles.

Mockups give the audience and potential customers a clear idea of how the items will look in reality. As I mentioned in a previous blog post I have learnt a number of tips and tricks when it comes to digital marketing, and mocking up merchandise is one of them. An example of this is when I took the South London Prints created by the a previous designer and instead of just having a plain image of the print , I digitally placed the print on a mantlepiece for potential buyers to look at. The mockup I created (see below) far more visually pleasing and attention grabbing than just presenting the print on its own. People will be drawn to an image online and will have a better idea of how the image might like in their home.

Born In The NHS T-Shirt Mockup

Brockley Typography Print Mockup

Greenwich Illustrative Print Mockup

Hometown Clothing

Work

Prior to undertaking this placement I had never properly created designs for clothing. It was never something I chosen to do at Uni and never something I did as part of a freelance project. However since working at the South London Club it has formed a large part of the work that I have done.

I have created slogan t-shirts for The South London Club, where we have taken generic phrases about where one is from and replaced the word “Home” with a place name. For example “Brixton is where the heart is” and “There’s no place like Lewisham”. For these designs it was crucial that I created a template that looked sleek and appealing but that would work with all the different lengths of place names in South London- making the words “Lee” and “Colliers Wood” in the same space is no easy task!

Creating designs for mass production has been a completely new experience for me. Where at Uni i found myself creating one off designs and mockups, here on my placement I have been mass producing each design for every area in South London. This means that once I have a template design approved by my boss, I then need to replicate it around 40 times. I would be lying if I said this hasn’t been tedious at times but it has certainly been a valuable lesson in commercial design and the hard graft it takes to produce a line of clothing when you are the sole designer.

There’s No Place Like Battersea T-Shirt

Deptford orn and Bread T-Shirt

Lewisham Is Where The Heart Is T-Shirt

Link to South London Club Shop: https://shop.southlondonclub.co.uk/

90s Clothing Range

Work

Perhaps my proudest moment here at the South London Club came when I thought up with the idea to create 90s style “homage” t-shirts for all the different areas across South London. All of the other designs that had come before were solid and I was happy with them, but I knew that we needed something different on the website. Most of the other designs were black and white and more or less entirely typography based. When Tom set me the task of creating a new line of clothing I new it should be something bright, colourful and visual. I had seen these 90s style t-shirts cropping up all over social media and even just on people walking down the street. My concept was to take a few landmarks from each area of South London and create a unique design for each place based on the 90s style.

My boss immediately liked the idea and after a few different styles we settled on a template that suited the t-shirts best. At this stage of the process I was applying the skills that I had learnt from the live project brief at the end of Year 2 in that I was presenting ideas to a client and compromising on designs until we had something that we both liked. I was starting to see a concept right the way through to a finished piece in a professional environment. Like I have mentioned in previous blogs the hard graft really started when I was tasked with creating over twenty of these 90s style designs. This involved me taking an area, researching what its most famous landmarks are and finally stitching the individual elements together in a retro style that looked quality. My Photoshop skills were really put to the test as creating the the t-shirts involved photo manipulation, typography styling and compositional balance.

When the t-shirts finally went online I felt proud as my initial idea had been seen all the way through to a product that is still available to buy today. I feel as though I have personally invested part of myself into the making of these designs more so than other designs, as it was me who had the idea to take an on-trend design and apply it to the merchandise that we sell here at the South London Club. We have sold a decent amount of them so far but I am still waiting for the day that I walk down Lewisham High Street and see someone wearing a t-shirt that I have designed…

Crofton Park 90s T-Shirt

Croydon 90s T-Shirt

Crystal Palace 90s T-Shirt

Link to t-shirts: https://shop.southlondonclub.co.uk/search?type=product&q=90s.

In-House Design

Reflection

During my first two years at University I was often asked by tutors and fellow students what I want to do after I graduate. My answer would always be a fairly standard one- to work as a Graphic Designer in an advertising agency. In all honesty I had never given the question too much thought and the answer I gave is a fairly common and generic one amongst design students. Since taking this placement year I have given my future career much more consideration and have asked myself what I really want to do when I graduate. My original plan of working for an advertising agency has shifted more towards becoming an in-house designer, and in this blog I will explain why.

Studying Graphic Design at Coventry for has so far given me an idea of what it might be like to work for a Graphic Design agency. During those first two years we worked on multiple briefs for a range of different “clients” all at one time, just like a designer would in an advertising company. I enjoy balancing different briefs and the variation of outcomes it brings, but at the same time had never really given a thought to in-house design. In-house design differs from agency work as you only work for one company, doing all of the necessary design tasks that they require. This has been my role at the South London Club, where I have been doing the design work and e-commerce for one boss, Thomas Page, doing anything that he needs done digitally. I have enjoyed liaising with one boss and building up a repertoire where we understand each other’s creative vision and visual goals. By only dealing with one company I have got to know the inner workings of it inside out and have a strong understanding of what is expected of me when set design tasks. As the sole designer here I have also been able to demonstrate a wide variety of my skills, whilst learning new ones on the job. For example I came into this placement with little experience in video making, but will leave with a portfolio of different Vlogs and adverts to showcase. It was my responsibility as the in-house designer to learn how to create and publish these videos when they were needed.

I have enjoyed being the ‘go to’ man when it comes to anything design related here at the South London Club. It has been hugely beneficial for my confidence as a Graphic Designer and has left me with a broad range of new skills as well as strengthening any that I arriver here with. I am not completely ruling out working for an advertising agency in the future, I will have to to consider what opportunities come my way. However I can confidently say that I have a much clearer idea of my preferred role within Graphic Design and have eight month’s experience to back it up.

Social Media

Work

Social Media has played a huge part in my placement year. Before I started my internship I would have considered myself a casual user of platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, but had no experience in creating content for professional accounts or how digital marketing works. One of my main roles here working for Tom has been to create content for the South London Club, GrowPro Digital and Chicken Shop Clothing social media accounts. Here is an explanation of what I have been producing for each business’ social media platforms:

The South London Club – This business thrives on social media activity. Whether that is through promoting the local discount card, targeting customers to sell merchandise or posting facts about South London, the company operates almost entirely online. One of the first things I was tasked with doing when I joined was to create daily “Quotes”. These included facts about the local areas and what famous people lived in South London, but also reasons why people should be shopping locally. The quotes saw a huge increase in online engagement and likes due to the fact they were personal and weren’t just trying to sell a product. In a similar fashion I was also asked to create short Vlogs that were posted across social media. Sometimes these were factual such as “5 Facts About Battersea Power Station” but also they were informative about local businesses for example “6 Great Places To Grab A Cocktail In Streatham”. More recently I have been creating Instagram Stories for The South London Club, showcasing all the products that can be bought through the store. These are short videos with a pulsing beat and sleek transitions to try and appeal to the online audience. My boss has also asked me to create one off images for social media, for example at Christmas we put out out our “Merry Christmas From the South London Club Post” to engage our online followers during the festive period.

https://www.instagram.com/southlondonclub/

GrowPro Digital – Similarly to the South London Club one of my main tasks for GrowPro Digital has been to create quotes about digital marketing and all the benefits it can bring to a business. I used imagery from an free open source website called Unsplash that I was made aware about through a tutor at University. Unlike the South London Club quotes that were often summery pictures of nice London summers, these needed to have a professional edge to them. I used images that would hopefully motivate viewers to do something about their companies’ online presence. Everything I used was sleek and dynamic, in keeping with the brand that GrowPro Digital aims to put across. I also had the fantastic opportunity to create three infographics for this business, conveying the benefits of advertising through e-mail, Facebook and Instagram. Here I was taking data that I researched online and presenting it in a clear, graphic form.