OUGD602 | Studio Brief 01 - Who am I?

As a beginning to the personal branding brief, I have created a mind map exploring who I am in a number of ways including physical appearance, interests, personality and who I am as a designer. 

As my audience is graphic design studios in Liverpool, I would like to evaluate how I can use these broad explorations to best communicate myself to this audience. The audience is looking for someone who has a professional attitude and comes across as employable but can also demonstrate their creativity and fun side. The places where my branding will be most relevant includes my CV and portfolio as this is what I will be sending to employers for Job applications and will be the first impression formed of me. Secondly, I would like to focus on a social media presence as I have already found myself connecting with lots of studios in Liverpool, in particular I gave interacted with studios where I have interned. Ideally, I would like to focus my efforts on studios that specialise in branding, packaging etc (my specialisms) however, with a tough job market, I expect to have to expand my search. 

Looking at the mind map, the elements I most want to communicate include -

• organised
• good-time keeping
• Colourful
• illustration/graphic designer
• professionalism
• girly
• Morning person/on-time
• Kind 
• Giggly
• Sporty
• Potentially physical appearance
• Creativity

However the elements I most need to include involve transferable skills for employment such as organisation. 

OUGD602 | Studio Brief 01 - CV workshop and finished CV

I was lucky to attend two CV workshops as a part of the career track Tuesdays sessions. During session one the presenter walked through the basics of writing a CV. The main points I learned from this session included -

-Fill the space on two sides. You don't want it to look like you've struggled to fill the pages.
-Use positive and affirmative language.
-Target the employer (adjust your CV for various applications)
-Presentation is important - you should be able to find each section quickly and easily within 30 seconds. Use typographical hierarchy.
-Consider the order of each section, what is most important?
-Basics of what to and what not to include in each section
-Be specific about achievements and provide evidence
-Don't be too creative with the formatting - A4 paper is easiest to file!

The second session lead on from this and involved the production of a final CV with the help of 6 members of staff. This meant that I left the session with confidence in my CV knowing it had had approval from so many, especially from those involved in recruitment. The final result is far more professional than my previous CV and is far more design targeted. I feel far more confident that it highlights my achievements and I was able to realise that I had more design related experience than I realised.

The session also provided a cover letter template. I learned basics such as what a cover letter is, how to use it, when to use it and what to put into it! I will refer to the template for future applications.


MY FINISHED CV -