RM141709 Digital Media Falmouth

1. Personal Development Portfolio
Robert James McLeod
RM141709

2. Core Learning Outcomes
On completion of this Module you should be able to: To achieve the learning objectives, you must demonstrate the ability to:
2 Demonstrate the relationship of the key theories, Understand and evaluate the ways in which the social, economic, cultural
concepts and structural determinants, as applied to your practice. and technological changes and contexts are shaping your chosen area of practice
9 As a reflective practitioner, take responsibility for your learning Reflect upon your own learning and achievements in order to become
and self-management, and make informed decisions about future . more ‘self-directed’ in determining your future learning needs and aspirations
career or postgraduate study opportunities.

3. As I understand, this project is to select an area of ones choice, in a field,
within media, that the person is interested in, or has a certain desire
towards. Then with that particular media, develop the skills and techniques
required within it.
With this in mind, I have decided to break down my options to, what I
believe are the three areas of this degree.
Audio, visual and interactivity.
As I came from a photography background, I have particular interest in
visuals and have thought to develop my current photography portfolio. But
I chose Digital Media to steer away from photography.
I have always been interested in creating music, either via; reason, logic or
similar, but have never really had the opportunity to do so. Perhaps this
could be the time.

5. I am still very much drawn to the visual side of media, but do not wish to
continue with developing my photography portfolio.
I am particularly interested in developing my skills with ‘Illustrator’ and
‘Dreamweaver’. Which leads me to web design.
I see website design/development as a valuable skill to obtain through university.
Maybe one day, I will be able to use it to my own advantage.
Web developers can earn a lot of money for designing and coding peoples web
pages. I have mainly been looking at musician’s websites and how they are
designed. One that I took interest in was this one, www.jayzhitscollection.com/
This web page is based on the career of musician, Jay-Z. It was sort of like looking
at a digital biography. I like the layout of it. It’s not similar to most other websites
that I have seen, but this is probably because it isn’t selling merchandise.
If I am to follow this route, then I want my website to be more interactive and
aesthetically pleasing to its users.

7. I find myself being drawn to starting a clothing company.
Through this I will not only be able to further my skills with ‘Photoshop’ and
‘Illustrator’, but also with ‘Dreamweaver’.
How? Through Illustrator, I will be able to create my designs, logo and some elements
of the web page. With Photoshop, I can create advertisements such as; flyers and
business cards. Then with Dreamweaver, the website.
How did I get to this decision? Fashion is all around us. Everywhere we look there is
probably going to be some branded piece of clothing either worn by someone else or
yourself. Fashion is so much part of our society that it became apparent to me that I
could use this opportunity to develop this idea and, I might be shooting into the dark,
maybe, one day, I might have something.

8. Every good idea has to start somewhere. That start for me is the brand name.
I have done plenty of research into one name especially.
I drew the inspiration from ‘Outkast – So Fresh, So Clean’.
“I love when you stare at me I'm dressed so fresh so clean”
The name shall be ‘Clean Clothing’.
Realistically. If I am to pursue this idea, then it should be broken down over the
three years.
Hopefully, with motivation on my side, these should just been predictions.
PDP1 – Illustrator: Logo
Print designs
PDP2 – Dreamweaver: Website
PDP3 – Photoshop: Photoshoot with products
Advertising: Flyers, stickers, business cards

9. Leading Competitors
Fashion, as it does, is constantly changing. These are a few of the leading
competitors, who’s brand gets pushed in my face most days of the week. Why
are these so popular amongst the modern day shopper? What makes these
brands so much better than the rest? Quality? Style? Or presentation?

10. The problem with trying to compete with huge brand names, is that they have
established themselves as the said ‘huge brand name’. This means that people are
more likely to buy a t shirt with a little penguin or pheasant on it because it shows
style and possibly wealth.
Some people don’t even care what the clothing might look like it they buy it by the
recognisable logo. It has come to the point where even a word can link someone to
think about a particular brand. Not necessarily just within clothing. If I was to say
‘Crocodile’ to someone, their brain might think of ‘Lacoste’.
This shows that not only do you have to create a style that a large audience will like,
the company also has to make their brand recognisable by a symbol, sign or slogan.
Maybe even all three. Look at ‘McDonald’s’ for example. They have all three. The very
identifiable golden arches. The red and the yellow carried through on to their
‘mascot’, Ronald McDonald. All followed by the simple slogan, “I’m lovin’ it”.

11. These are smaller clothing companies I have found through the power of
Facebook. I have purchased a tee from W&W. It is decent enough material, but
the printing on it isn’t the greatest. I have noticed that shapes are used quite
often for logos, rather than, for example, the Conceeded logo.

12. Logo Research
In looking at these company logos, I have a better
idea of how I want mine to look. I have noticed that
a lot of them are just shapes and symbols. This
must be a method to help to their customers define
the brands they like.
A lot of people, myself included, choose products
on what the logo looks like. So creating a good logo
is key to progression.

13. Logo Ideas
My initial thoughts were to try and create the logo in a similar style to others that can
been recognized today, but then I thought, why would I want to do that?
So from there I drew up a few simple ones and came to a decision on which one was
of particular interest to me.

15. This is my first concept for the logo The text says, or I believe it says,
design. I’ve had some positive “Always remember to stay clean and
feedback from a few peers, but wash behind your ears.”
personally thought that it was I think this give the logo a bit more
missing something. character and I could see this on a
Another one of my peers suggested label of some sorts.
that I could add text in Latin on the This is still very much the concept
bottom half of the circle. So, I did stage, as I think a few tweaks could
just that. be made.

16. I thought that comparing my logo with the ‘Small Victory’ logo might prove
beneficial to the development of my design. If I am to pick out a couple of
elements of the ‘Small Victory’ logo, I like the use of roman numerals for the
established year, I think it would go well with the Latin text on mine.
Also the white text. I think I might play around with it and see what I can
muster up.

17. I am happy with the change to the design. It still retains some of the aspects from
the previous design but, in my opinion, it now looks a bit more professional and less
like a bottle cap.
I was able to wrap the text around a circle using the ‘Type on a Path’ tool within
Illustrator.
The ‘L’ is made of two straight lines rather than a larger font of text. I found this to
be an easier method of achieving the required result.

18. When I came up with this design, I was actually looking in the trash. Not out of
curiosity, I was just emptying the bin. Anyway, I came across a Jelly babies packet
and that is where I took the inspiration for this design. I call it ‘Maybe-baby’.
I did three templates of the design to see which composition worked the best. I
have had mixed responses from people. Some like the grid, some like the five and a
few like the three.
The colours were used from images of Jelly babies that I found in Google.

19. These are a few ‘Mock ups’ of what the products could potentially look like. I
wont be printing on the same material though. I have bad passed experiences
with ‘Fruit of the Loom’ clothing. The quality isn’t the best and the fabric either;
rips, fades or becomes unstitched.
Out of the three, I think the ‘Logo tee’ looks the more eye catching, despite
having a lack of colour.

20. My first target audience, to whom I would advertise, would be students and
teenagers. I believe that the reminiscing provoked by the products would appeal to
the consumer. Even if they, for example on ‘Maybe-baby’, didn’t notice that the design
was based upon Jelly babies, the persons subjectivity would pick up on the shapes and
colours, thus making the clothing aesthetically pleasing to the potential buyer.
Once I have established a clientele. Whom buy the clothing seasonally, then I can
expand into a larger market and try to reach to a wider audience, hopefully generating
more profit to improve on the quality of the products. Even adding little things to the
each item clothing, such as; custom branded garments, tags or maybe even custom
stitching.
Generating enough profit so that I could sell the clothing seasonally is very appealing
to me. Constantly up dating the companies stock so that its fresh is how larger brands,
such as; Jack Wills, All Saints etc. make the most money. Essentially the clothing
quality is generally the same, but the design or style has been changed in a minute
way so that they can create more custom.

21. Other Work
After showing a few friends my work. One of them commissioned me to design a logo
for his company ‘Strike Promotions’. I gladly took upon this task and tried cater his
needs.
He gave me a description of what he wished it to look like, then I gave him a few of my
ideas to what the final product would look like.
This is the type of logo he was looking for. A relatively
simple, professional design.
My initial thoughts were that, I was going to have to
create the letter ‘S’ and ‘P’ on illustrator then put them
through photoshop to stylise and colour.

22. Using my previously aquired skills. I got to work creating the template of the
logo. It took me a while as I was using the track pad on my laptop, but got there
in the end and I would say I am happy with the results. I showed this image to
my client and he really liked it too.
From here I asked him what sort of
colour scheme he would like.
He chose to have similar colours to
those of the superhero ‘The Green
Lantern’.
This is the image I sourced the colours
from. It seemed to have the largest tonal
range, so I dropped this image into
photoshop and picked out some colours
for the logo.

23. This was my first coloured design. The client said
that he like the use of colour, but would prefer
more blacks and a bigger tonal range used.
This was my second attempt. I personally really
like this one. I think it looks very professional. Its
bold, but not too ‘in your face’. I imagined it
being in the header of an overhead or some
other business document. The client was please
but wanted me to add some smoke/mist around
the edge of the logo.

24. Here is the third and the smoke/mist I was on
about. It looks cool granted, but it isn’t
professional enough in my opinion. The client
was please but after a long chat about the
potential final logo he asked me to add more
green and a large glow around the design.
I think we have taken a step backwards with
this one. Its too garish, too full on. I told my
client this, he agreed and then I tried to
incorporate the previous ideas into the final
design.

25. This is the final design. The client is
very pleased with it. I personally
preferred the simplicity of the second
one I did, but it isn’t up to me.
I am glad I took this work on. I would
have even if I wasn’t studying at
university but this experience has
made me realise how much I enjoy
designing things.
I got a huge sense of a satisfaction, like
I do when I finish a piece of course
work, but I got paid to do this.
This experience has also helped me
with my personal logo ideas. I am
happy with the one I have designed at
the moment, but I wont be afraid to
improve it.