At around about Christmas time, perhaps just before, we were all given a brief a choice of 6 projects that we would want to take forward to the next year as they were competition briefs.
I decided to work on a supermarket sweep brief that was created by the Roses Awards. I worked on this with my partner in crime Lisa Baines as I have said previously we really enjoy working together as we just bounce ideas off each other.
This was a long winded project and we had another in between this and our final major projects, yet we thought this was the strongest and decided to go with it. We went in to the supermarket and had to choose something that needed re-branding. After a lot of deliberating we decided we would work with pro-plus.
We had idea after idea, some were complicated with the use of hard materials to support the design, yet during closer to the end we came up with the idea of keeping the cardboard but using a sliding mechanism and a die cutting machine to create some eyes so when the box was closed the eyes were droopy, and when the box slid open the eyes were alert and open which worked well with the meaning of the actual product as it is a stimulant that has caffeine in it.
All was going well until we realised that we had to make the packaging ourselves and it really did have to be professional and be to perfection. Panic set in because we hadn't done anything 3-D before or made anything to a professional standard within a week!
However, we had a lifesaver... Guy Lawrence. He was our tutor at the time and dealt with us every Tuesday. He really did help us out. We were worried about how we were going to cut the eyes out perfectly since die cutting is an expensive job and most places only do it in bulk. Just when we thought we were screwed Guy told us about one of his dearest friends that he still keeps in contact with that works very well freehand with packaging. Andy Mairs from The Chase. My eyes nearly popped out and I think Lisa's did too. Guy asked where I lived so I told him and Andy Mairs ended up living in the same area which was quite unbelievable!
Guy gave me his mobile number and wanted me to ring him up to see if he could meet me on short notice to see what he made of our boxes. Nerves kicked in as I thought it was probably the most cheekiest thing I've ever done, but I did it and he also spoke to Guy on the phone and all was well I was to meet with him the next night in a pub close to my house.
I decided to ask Lisa to come with me as I thought it would be great experience for the both of us to meet somebody from The Chase and to perhaps make a contact. We decided we'd both take our portfolios and if he had time to see them then it would be a bonus and if not at least he met us to help with our work.
Me and Lisa spent most of the day at college and then went early to my house so our mock ups were ready, our portfolios were spotless and we had enough time to get there preferably before he did.
My nerves were really bad even after to speaking to him on the phone I was to actually meet him in person and show him my work, and he is from The Chase one of the most prestigious creative agencies in the UK.
Not long after, we met at the pub and he seemed to like our idea about the pro-plus box. He wrote down some measurements and told us some facts about the weight of paper and the gloss and how it couldn't be what we wanted it to be because the ink would bleed on to the gloss paper and that's not what we wanted. He said he'd take it away and have a go the next day at work for us then come round to my house the following night and drop it off for us!! Lisa and I both felt absolutely privileged to be able to work with Andy Mairs a man that has won many awards and now he was helping us. It really did seem unreal.
He took a look at our portfolios and to be honest I felt a little shot down. It was not the fact that did didn't like the work it was that his eye for detail was incredible. Some things he was picking out in our work were so small that only to the untrained eye would you not notice it. However, constructive criticism is something that I have learned to deal with over the past 3 years and if you do listen to it and you do things differently the next time you do see a huge difference in what ever you are trying to aim higher and it's really nice to have that sense of achievement when you do listen and take what others say on board.
Some of the things he said I wrote down to make a difference on how to present my work better in my portfolio. He told me to use the same typeface throughout the portfolio as it looks cleaner and don't forget to kern. Make some of my posters bigger to A3 size just to possibly get a better image of it. Sort out my drop shadows on some pieces of work and take off the pink line. Since then I have taken on board what he has said and have changed my portfolio and it does even to me look better and a few others have said the same.
He gave us a few tips as well just about portfolio visits in general which is something that me and Lisa are still thinking about here are a few things he said:
- Take a disc and leave some work behind at visits so the agency can look back at your work
- Make our Ted Baker visuals in to actual bags (something we are currently looking at)
- Doesn't matter which way round your work is it doesn't all have to be horizontal/ vertical
- Don't put anything in you're not happy with
- Look at your target audience
- Keep type the same all the way through
- PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL!!
Andy Mairs has helped Lisa and myself immensely and I am very much looking forward to keeping in contact with him. We are both looking to try and arrange another visit with him soon so he can see the corrections we have made to our portfolios and to see whether it appeals to his standards, which I am very much looking forward to!
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