FLUX500

Several weeks ago I competed in MMU's inter-faculty Flux competition and was
selected to join a team to compete in the finals. I've just returned from the Flux500 Inter-University Business Competition in Nottingham. 33 Universities, 43 Industry experts, 1 Business challenge and.....about 30 hours.

I'm absolutely exhausted after a brilliant and intense three days in Nottingham. Our MMU team performed extremely well amongst strong competition. Where do I even start? The event is one of a kind and offers individuals the opportunity to develop key skills which overall build employability. These skills include communication, presentation, team work, creative problem solving, business plan development, negotiation, selling and leadership.

All 33 teams were handed the exact same business scenario, using an existing business and a current and relevant topic (developing training and working opportunities for the disabled.) At the end of the 30 hours each team pitched their entire business idea in a five minute pitch to an audience and several industry experts ('dragons'.)Followed by seven minutes of questions ('grilling'.)

The top four teams then went onto compete in and extended challenge, resulting in the winners taking the title of The FLUX500 National Champions of 2010, oh and also £3,000, cash. Most importantly for me it boosted my confidence and self-belief. It was a great experience and I gained valuable skills, met some great people and contacts and discovered things I didn't think I was capable of.

Push.

A lovely lady called Marissa from Push print came in today, she brought with her a selection of (beautiful) examples of print work which Push has produced (mainly litho). With clients such as Adidas, Kurt Geiger, The V&A, Levi, COS, The Tate and a selection of High end property agencies and jewelers, Push can produce almost anything to meet your needs.
We talked about print specifications, relationships with designers and printers and with paper suppliers. Here is just a selection of the samples she brought...



We learnt a little more about terms such as Foiling, Flockage, Flood-colour, Die-cut, Flouro, Duplex and Pagination/imposition.

When writing a specification or approaching a printers for a quote, Marissa recommended that we:

- Title the project in an email
- specify the format
- specify the size
- specify the print process (e.g. 4col? 5col? dbl page printing?)
- specify the stock (or ask for a recommendation)
- Finishing
- Quantity to be produced

Finish with a deadline and specific dates, perhaps some examples of similar work, and follow it up with a phone call explaining how you are awaiting a quote.

The all-round clear favorite piece of the day was the...**magic book** wow was this a mystery, ok so imagine a beautiful glossy brochure for a new office build 'Wells & Moore' If you flicked through the brochure one way (e.g. front to back/left to right) it revealed all the information/details/type, however if you flicked the opposite way (e.g. back to front/right to left) you could see large scale photographs and images. The book is absoleley genius and my photographs do not do it justice. Pure magic? the trick is in the page sizes - as is revealed below.

The Surgery...

Ian Anderson Portfolio Surgery
On Thursday I had my first ever portfolio review with Ian Anderson
(of The Designers Republic)

Like everyone I was nervous and I didn't realize it would be feedback on our personal presentation, not really the portfolio work. I like to think I can take constructive criticism but we discussed in the studio how hard it is to have an emotional detachment to our work, so I did take it a little to heart. It took me until the evening to fully understand the feedback and to really take it all on-board.
I now realize its a really different language you have to use, I'm so used to presenting my work to tutors I'd mistakenly mentioned I'd worked with Rachael and Jenny (don't mention people you worked with, just mention once that you have collaborated to give the impression you can work with others.) I talked about "my most recent project"...or talking about projects in relation to time (this is not relevant.) Among other things...

- My portfolio was too small
- I didn't talk enough about each of the projects, I should have gone into more detail
- It had too much work, with too much variety

Despite my presentation being full of errors I did do one thing right and this was showing my rather large A2 day-glow Don't Panic poster which ticked the box of a 'memorable piece of work' to close my presentation with - thank god!

I feel I have such a variety of work (film, animation, branding, print, photography..) It's hard to show my best work and not look like I'm a 'Jack of all trades' I get that and I think its going to be hard to give the portfolio a 'style'.
I hate the fact that because I'm interested in a variety of disciplines it puts me at a disadvantage almost? It is quite hard to look at all the work you have done and think which ones are the best and which ones say something about me as a designer?

Ian Anderson gave us lots of advice about presenting to potential employers what they're looking for, and the most common mistakes people make. I'm really grateful we had this opportunity and having the feedback now is only going to help us improve.

Design Mark

On Thursday I represented the University as a student ambassador at a workshop at the Big Bang fair at the GMEX. The workshop was organized by The Design Council and Design Mark.

The Big Bang Fair is mainly a Science fair for primary and secondary schools with walking robots, chocolate structures and a Formula One stand! - I was quite jealous that I never got a chance to go to something like this.

Design Mark is an organization which awards specialist schools a Design Mark status. A school must demonstrate a high level of design teaching to obtain the award. During the day I worked with four girls from a Design Mark school.

Working in a group of four we were given the Design Councils 'Design against Crime' brief to tackle. The designer Andy Walmsley (Creative Director) from Wash design was there throughout the day to help the two groups towards finding a solution to the brief. It was really interesting to meet Andy, his design studio work on many different projects some in the field of architecture, animation, advertising and others. His websites pretty cool too.

I never really thought of teaching or working with children but I found it really inspiring. The girls in my group were really smart and came up with a great range of concepts in response to the brief. Keen product design students they really thought about our 'product' a solar powered roll-up mat which charges and backs up data for a variety of electronic devices (camera, USB, mobile.) The girls chose the name 'The Core' and here were some of their sketches.


and some of my logo ideas!


It was really strange performing this supportive role. I had to really stop myself from leading the ideas and being the designer. I had to really identify the moments where the girls had an idea and then encourage them to develop it, push it and question it. Andy gave me some great advice, being a Creative Director he is leading and pushing his team all the time, keep looking back at your ideas but always move forwards. I was quite proud of the work the girls did and they pitched it at the end of the day.

The design and idea process is really incredible and I felt reassured looking at the result of our conceptual development and the mess which we'd made that we'd really pushed our ideas.


A great opportunity which I enjoyed and I'm glad I said yes to.

A workshop with Gary

Thursday 26.11.09

On Thursday Gary came in to help us with some of our projects. I'd been in touch with Gary about my Silence project - as it has taken me down a film path. Gary helped me figure out exactly what equipment I required to gain the best audio from my Interviews. Gary talked to us all individually and he actually sat down with me and taught my Final Cut Express, which has been useful - apart from it doesn't work properly in the Mac suite! So I'm just working on cutting up my footage and audio (I had over 50mins of footage to cut down.) Over Christmas I will be hiring the same equipment to get some better footage, now I'm more confident using all the equipment.