LinkedIn.com

The other day I was getting my network on, trying to find if anyone in the UK prints snowboards, that search came to no avail, I did however find something else pretty interesting.

From finding out a name, Brandon Ramirez, the creative director at Ride Snowboards and typing it into google, found this site Linkedin.com

Big thing in America for businesses of all nature, kind of a social site where people can contact fellow colleagues, apply for new jobs, get recommendations, message other people, all sorts! But yeah found Ramirez on there and now have a direct line of contact with the head guy at Ride snowboards, now this is pretty exciting for me. I'm putting off getting in touch straight away as I would like to send him a portfolio I felt confident with and that would be a portfolio with the work I'm doing now, so may leave it until christmas to send Ramirez a message.

Aswell as this on peoples profiles they have boxes of similar people in similar fields of work so from finding Ramirez I found all the guys at Super top Secret studio along with people at Burton and K2. winner.

I've made my profile but have yet to really do anything with it! Something I need to get to grips with and understand the nature of more.

My profile:

Aaron Sather, STS / DEATH & TAXES:
Brandon Ramirez:

Super Top Secret

"Super Top Secret is an Interactive focused creative shop with unique capabilities in Design and Advertising. If we were an animal we’d be a Tuatara. It’s got 3 eyes and 3 rows of teeth. Look it up."

"Our business model is simple:

Do awesome work for awesome clients. If you’re an awesome company who wants awesome work, let’s hook it up."

Came across this website for an American design agency based in Salt Lake city.From what I gather, its a team of young guys who love boarding and biking and produce work for some of the biggest names in snowboarding. Mostly doing the artwork for boards. The set up is a bit odd as two of the people who work for STS (SuperTopSecret) have got their own design studio, Death & Taxes. However they seem to share work, both having the same work on their websites and such.

Either way, looks a sick place and I'd love to see myself in a studio like this.

On the site they have a section about applying for a job and also interns, i plan to send them a cheeky message seeing if i could do a cheeky over-seas intern or something, I plan to wait till after christmas to do so because then I should have a body of work that I am proud of and feel truly represents me as a designer.

Feedback, 1ON1

Had first one on one meeting with J.D earlier this week, went fine, going over where I'm at with the briefs, how I am with the work load etc.
Come out with an on-going action plan, covering all areas of my practice and development.

. Concerning Brief One, have to carefully consider the colour palette for the illustrations. Doing my best to match the rider, showing their personality. Researching into the rider, looking at the interview again. Finding what board they ride at the moment, what they wear etc Match the colours to what outfit they wear out on the slopes.

. Personal Identity, in reference to my current identity it doesn't read MRG, not easily anyway. The 'G' is a bit weak and looks a bit more like an 'a'. So I need to re-visit this at some point in the not too distant future.

. Competition briefs, I have yet to decide on a competition brief to include so need to do this sharpish. Did have down wait for D&AD briefs to come out which they did on friday. So need to read them like.

. Talking about the stuff I've got going on with the Snowbombing guys and how I got the chance to do work with them. Considering this, Jane told me to really keep the process up of getting in touch with companies based around boarding and music, get my name out there, whether I'm just emailing to say hi or asking a favor, also whilst doing this, building an address book of emails and specifically names. Building contacts.

Design Strategy: Feedback

Open publication - Free publishing - More graphic

Got my feedback for my presentation (Above). Overall Pretty good.

Positives:

. Organisation of material was simple & effective
I didn't want to just read off the screen so left it very clean and minimal.

. Clarity of delivery was concise & articulate.
Im quite a confident person so speaking aloud isn't an issue but at times I feel I don't get my opinions across as clear as I want muddling words and what not, so to be marked down as articulate is pleasing.

Things to work on:

.Level of analysis was ok but could be more active & critical.
I dont know whether this is aimed at my work I showed or general context stuff, I think the active point is directed at whether I am networking / researching into the work / areas of work I see myself in. Something I've been picking up more on since starting back.

.Personal reflection was vague at times, but perceptive at other
This will have to be discussed with Fred I think as I'm not to sure what exactly I've been vague about.

Additional Outcomes:

.I will need new approaches & broader content in terms of my focussed outcomes.
I think this is a valid point, Fred roughly said that if im serious about designing for snowboarding I need to be on top of my game, and more importantly not just produce stuff thats already been done. Need something new, need something to stand out from the crowd.

Thats what I want to keep in mind with all my briefs, not just creating bog standard stuff, even if it does look aesthetically pleasing and is functional.

Snowbombing

For one of my briefs this term I am coming up with some form of promotional design for the Snowbombing festival next year. With this in mind I was going through their website collecting images and the like, stumbled across a contacting page, so I thought I'd leave them a quick message,
I said something along the lines of,

Afternoon!

Im a graphic designer in my final year, looking to produce
a new promo campaign as one of my briefs, just wondering
if you guys would be kind enough to send me any promo
stuff you have, flyers / posters / stickers / brochures
etc

Anything would be greatly appreciated! and if you want
to throw in a free ticket that would just be wonderful,
cheers,
Mitch.

About Half'n'hour later got a reply from a lad called Alex and this
was our line of discussion...

'Hi Mitch,

This is definitely of interest for us. To confirm, you
would be free to design some items for our promo campaign potentially, is that
correct?

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,

Alex'

_____________________________

Hey Alex,

Well my initial plan was to create / propose some form of promotional campaign for Next years snowbombing as part of my final year project.

I've brainstormed some ideas, focussing on new, innovative ideas that may not have been done in the past,

So far I've got things like a limited edition piste map, holiday style brochure in form of a flyer including all info needed then maybe something with Metro newspaper, series of snowbombing covers or something.

However if you have any specific design briefs I'll be more then happy to work on them!

Cheers

Mitch

_____________________

Hi Mitch,

We are in short, struggling with our design promo work. 2 designers recently left our company, leaving one, meaning we are potentially looking for someone to help with a few web-banners, print adverts etc.

If this could be incorporated into your course, we would be able to throw some snowbombing bits and maybe a holiday your way.

Would be able to send me a few examples of some bits you have done before?

From receiving this I went to send them my portfolio, then
realised that I haven't really got a strong one! So I spent
a bit of time producing a new and updated version, its
still not great, but gives a fair reflection on what I can
do...

Open publication - Free publishing - More portfolio

Now just waiting to hear back from them, fingers crossed they'll like what they see or at least enough to give me a chance / trial brief or something. If this comes off Id be fucking stoked.

PPD Presentation

Open publication - Free publishing - More graphic

Desired Cliental

Ride Snowboards is my favourite riding company. The designs are always tight, and mostly Type based, which suits as a designer. This goes across the range of their visual identity from the hardware goods like the boards and bindings to advertisement / editorial / website.

I'd love to one day design for this company and to be fair any snowboard based companies. I found from the last project that i tend to get a lot more out of my design if i am doing it for something / one that i have a passion for. For me i wanna design in the world of Snowboarding and or music. cheers.