TASK ONE

What skills do I have and who needs them?

In terms of being a creative person I have many positive attributes. I work primarily as an illustrator, I enjoy working with shapes, colour, and the message behind the image. This course has secured my identity as a designer. I know what I do best and what I enjoy doing. I feel as if I can only truly identify with designers who have their own personalised style and adapt that to whatever product they are commissioned to produce. And it is because of this, I have always had a great interest in packaging graphics and design. The idea of applying a message and image to a shape that will contain something that has a use. I really like the process of packaging.
The design giants Pearlfisher (http://www.pearlfisher.com/) are the company I idolise. They believe in making something beautiful, something that meets demand, something fresh that the customer wants. Working to achieve a fresh look for every product is like a never ending cycle.

Aside from creative skills, I have been lucky enough through my personal work to spend time directing and managing a team in a creative environment, albeit music. I take pride in my organisational and managerial skills, when I’m serious about something I will do anything I can to make it work.
With these two aspects of my personality, I feel I could be a valuable member of any creative -based team.

What are my professional /creative aims and how do they relate to the needs of the world at large?

In the foreseeable future I want to gain as much experience in design for print based media as I can. I am planning to spent two weeks with UK Greetings based in Dewsbury next year. I spent a few days with them in 2006 and found it challenging and interesting. Although I’m not interested in designing for greetings cards, the experience is valuable. It’s a large studio space with a close-knit feeling. Seeing the process from initial design through to the finished print on the shelves, is in essence something that I hope to be doing in the future, but with a different media.

The main thing I can establish from the list of my professional and creative aims is that I need to be providing something for someone. I would like to be using my illustration/design principles and applying them to products that the consumer needs. It could be packaging, advertising, branding. The idea of making a visual mask for a product or a face for something which would be a boring object is what I enjoy. Making a product that without its pretty outer shell would look boring and might not be that exciting in itself into something that stands out and looks enticing.

In the future I would like to be part of a successful design team who strive to deliver innovative, exciting and visually stunning product packaging. It would be to do with the broader meaning of packaging, a poster to package an idea or an envelope to package an invitation.