Adventures in Graphic Design.

Since just after Christmas, I've taken on a lot more 'graphic design stuff' at work and I suppose I've felt a bit weird about it for a time now because it's not something I ever really considered as an option before. That said, I bloody enjoy it.

Here's where I think having a blog can be a really wonderful thing, I can express myself creatively and ultimately it doesn't matter all that much. I can change my header and background and the way I do things and it either looks better or it doesn't but nobody really cares. Obviously it doesn't work quite the same way when doing things 'for someone' but it really has helped me practise.

That's why, and I'm a bit nervous about it, I'd like to share a few things I've worked on with you. I've just given my blog a little spring facelift and changed a few things too but I'm quite proud of these things. Sure, they're just silly emails and flyers but I'd like to think a little part of me can shine through with them in terms of style and tone.





It's not like I want to jump head-first into freelancing or anything but I've been thinking that it would be cool to take on a few side-projects. Depending of course on whether there's any consensus that I'm even any good, it would be good to know what you think.

Oops.

I really was trying to not buy anything when I went into Kingston today, I really was. I got really nervous about this interview I have tomorrow (yes, another one, I feel like I have everything coming out of my ears), I suddenly didn't have any smart shoes for some reason... so naturally I bought two pairs. I only went to get my graduation photographs printed, in regard to Jessops, their photo-printing services have gone downhill, was very annoyed with the touchscreen.

This is what I wore to the interview I had this morning; I think it went quite well and I'm feeling quite optimistic, but the job-hunt continues anyway.

Cardigan: H&M
T-Shirt: H&M
Belt: eBay
Skirt: Dorothy Perkins
Leggings: New Look
Shoes: TOMS
So here are the fancy shoes that I picked up; the pink ones are from H&M and the brown ones are from New Look:


I've been searching for a pair like these for ages, and the fact that they were half-price was nice. I really promise I will stop spending though, the UK is a rip-off and I'm going to Hong Kong on Monday, thus, I am an idiot.
I also got this cute t-shirt from Uniqlo, which I enjoy because it has polar bears on it. I definitely prefer Uniqlo in Hong Kong, although this was only £4.99.


I'm very excited for Hong Kong, particularly after today has already proven to be so hectic and I have to go out again for the Malden Fortnight presentation evening. I'm looking forward to falling off the radar a bit, but we're staying in one of my cousin's houses so I'm sadly kind of keeping my fingers crossed that there will be Wi-Fi. A 'jobseeker' like me can't exactly afford to go completely without communication, particularly due to how cool the company I have an interview with tomorrow is... eep! I'm far too over-excited.

Job Hunt: Day 103329

I officially finished University on Friday 3rd June 2011, no more academic stuff, no more forced creativity, no anything. I was thrown out in to the big wide world without a scratch of real advice.

Okay, sure, they brought in some past-students who had either branched out or stayed in Portsmouth, but hardly anyone is really going to reveal the secrets of their success, we're the new blood, and we're competition. Perhaps that is a cynical way to look at things, but that seems to be the vibe that I have received from most professional photographers that I have encountered recently, but maybe I've just been unlucky.

The point is, I have maybe been applying for jobs seriously for around a month now with almost no success. More to the point is that I have been searching casually since the beginning of my final year, last September. I suppose in one way I have been lucky, I have covered one event through freelancing, and worked with the NUJ (which was great and so much fun) and I was asked to return to the Village Voice. In terms of experience I may not be top of the ladder, but I've had some. So why won't anybody recognise how nice or how professional I am?

I'm blaming the Digital Age. Every job that I have applied for that has been within my degree's discipline has been applied for online, via e-mail. No one ever really realises how impersonal e-mails are until their thrown into the job market post-degree. It must be all about luck, these companies must pick names out of a hat and decide who's e-mail to read that month. But then maybe I'm not as good or as qualified as I think I am, or the competition of Arts graduates seriously is as fierce as it's made out to be.

The worst thing about this entire process so far is the lack of response, the blatant rudeness of simply not bothering to correspond. I recognise that there may be some companies that I have submitted an application to that get hundreds, maybe thousands of e-mails a day, but even an automated e-mail would be nice. I have only encountered one company that promised to get back to me whether I was successful or unsuccessful, and hats off to you, ASOS.
It's the rudeness that gets me, if someone was trying to talk to you in real life, standing right by your face, you wouldn't just ignore them or walk away, that would be rude, but online, it's perfectly acceptable behaviour, apparently.

Then there's the nearly-jobs. Perhaps they're worse, you get a response, finally and it's great, but then you must some how mess it up, because they'll never get back to you after that. What did I do to make you suddenly become so uninterested when you were clearly interested before? I've actually become excited over these e-mails, thinking they were the ticket, then days pass by and you realise that you've messed up again. I feel like ending every application letter with, 'No? Okay'. Follow-up emails are also a waste of time, particularly to whatever e-mail addresses they provide you with at Reed. I've got a whole load of pent-up resentment for Reed.

Maybe I need to just get out into the real world, maybe I'm just feeling hella bitter today because I'll have officially graduated by the end of Friday and I will be no better off.
To be honest, I'm probably angry and frustrated on a personal level really, I've found out Moon is sick and like I said Graduation is close so I'm feeling pretty bad for how selfish I'm feeling. I think I'm just having a bitter day, but that's why blogs are good, because otherwise I'd be screaming at someone, just another example of how impersonal the Internet is, with creeps you don't even know reading about your life and stress. I hope some other sad, Arts graduate reads this and agrees at least, job hunting sucks.

TL;DR: I'm mad over my current job hunt, ok?

On a lighter note, if there really are some proper creeps out there, although I know that really it's mainly people I know that read this. I graduate at 2:30pm on Friday 15th July and because the University of Portsmouth is so technologically hip, you can stream it from here, so you can watch me fall flat on my face from the nerves I'm battling with over wearing heals in front of so many people..

Radio Jackie follow up.

So, I didn't hear anything back from Radio Jackie for a couple of days and couldn't find where they had used my photos and they didn't email me back to confirm that they had even used them at all.

I got a reply and was pointed in the right direction to look for images as well as being offered to continue providing Radio Jackie with images. They couldn't pay me and I can't work for free anymore, but as a radio station there is very little call for photographs/photographers anyway, obviously. So, although the lady I corresponded with confirmed that once Malden Fortnight is over they will use more of my images to showcase the event, unless further events with the Village Voice come up, it's unlikely that I'll be working for them until I'm earning and can afford to.

Anyway, the website has only used one of my images so far and the article can be found here or under the 'local news' section of the Radio Jackie website.

I felt that I may as well add it to this post, once I have edited my Glastonbury film I'm going to be making a move towards creating my own online portfolio from scratch using Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I have the knowledge to do this I've just never had the time and I have recently found most other portfolio-creating methods to be unsatisfactory. I would gather that it will be quite a long process but hopefully it will be worth it because I'll be able to have everything done the way that I want it. Watch this space, realistically I'm hoping that I'll get a job first, in the mean time my current portfolio can still be found here

E-mail.

I thought I would share this nice email with you, it does feel nice to be appreciated, it's also pretty good to see that the years that I've spent training myself visually haven't gone to waste.

To: photog_ruth@hotmail.com & others
From: Jenny Stuart (Village Voice & WP Life)
Subject: Photos
Date: 03 July 2011
"We had a great day out yesterday and the feedback I’ve had has been fantastic, congrats Jenny on a flawless parade (apart from Where’s Wally nearly mowing down some Kung Fu fighters!) – of particular note people I talked to were saying how great it was to see the increased number of floats this year. How can we feed this back to Quadron and encourage same/more next year…? Can we make sure our contact is invited to the presentation evening do you think?

Completely by chance at around 3.15pm I stopped a couple of ladies dressed as dalmations and asked if they’d heard the result of the vote – turns out one of them was Kate who organised the Burlington effort – she was SO astonished and thrilled, it was such a pleasure being able to pass on the news.

Ruth has emailed me her terrific photos from yesterday’s events – thanks very much to Ruth, they are FAR superior to my efforts and I’ve uploaded them to the gallery on the website
http://www.maldenfortnight.com/photo-gallery.html

Jenny Stuart - editor & publisher
New Malden's Village Voice & Worcester Park Life"

So please keep an eye out on the Malden Fortnight Photo Gallery as my images from next weekend are going to be on there too.

Bain of my life.

I know it's probably just a coincidence, but if this email was meant specifically for me, I bet the person who drew it up was pissing themselves.
Never had this before.....

I have quite a few photos to put up but I woke up too late to justify putting them up today and I had quite a bit to do too. I slept so badly last night, and I retail therapied myself this afternoon - very disspointed that my dissertation didn't really get off to a flying start today but there's the rest of the evening, even if it is really annoying that the Athens login for journals doesn't seem to be working.
I'm still in a better position than most and my draft deadline isn't until next Thursday anyway; still, getting it done would be great because I wouldn't have to come back to it after Paris, which is only 4 days away!!!

Ooop.

Cue about a million photos of the Spinnaker Tower, well done for putting it out there for students. I could appreciate Hampshire's beauty, if I wasn't mainly in Portsmouth.
Although, I am published now - more news later, so I do have experience in this kind of thing, har.

Video Room, Digital Age.

This is a pretty interesting commentary on the recycled and distorted nature of the digital age. The post cards of the Mona Lisa would all end up like this if everything had been digital from then on in. He turns in to some kind of weird alien by the end of it, so much effort though, it must have taken him a very long time.

A Thousand YouTube Iterations via The Creators Project Blog

On a related note, I won myself tickets to The Creators Project in London, 5 of them to be exact, the only bummer is that it falls on the same day as the Grad Ball, which I have already bought my ticket for and want to go to anyway. However, if some of The Creators Project event is taking place during the day, I may go by myself (as most people I would want to take would be in Portsmouth) and fob off tickets on people that desperately wanted to go, not that I don't, but I'm not entirely sure I won the competition fairly.

The idea was that you would comment on The Creators Project Facebook fan page and the selected comments with the most 'likes' would win the tickets, I got two likes and one of them was me, some got hundreds, maybe I just got pity tickets, I don't care, a win is a win and if I don't win tickets to any of the iTunes Festival shows I will count this as Fate's consolation prize, even if I really wanted to go to both. But then again, winning iTunes tickets two years running would be one serious fluke, especially seeing as I already got who I wanted and had an amazing time last year.

Today has been a pretty hectic day for e-mails, I feel like I've been doing them non-stop all afternoon. I stayed up a bit later than I wanted to last night sending out emails asking for work experience and I've managed to grab a position covering 'Malden Fortnight' for a free local magazine called, 'Village Voice', they won't be paying me but I will obviously get full credit and it might be fun to take in some local New Malden entertainment, I've written down the dates I want to cover in my diary already. Despite lack of payment, I'm quite excited about doing it because it goes out to all the houses round here and everyone will get to see them.
I also got an email back from the editor for The Kingston/Epsom Guardian wanting dates that I would be available, I hope to hear back from him later or tomorrow. I knew it would be a good idea to try and start small, I sent out another email to Company as well but I think I'll be left with no response like the last time. My cousin Mark also emailed me a pretty good paragraph about the mild identity crisis' that mixed race people have to go through which I guess is how I initially felt but I've changed my perspective on it a bit since thinking more in depth about the project overall.

Oh no!

I knew all this rest and relaxation was too good to be true, fml. :'(

Dissertation planning?! I really did think I was looking forward to this, but I am not, I want to hide(!)