It has been a remarkably long journey to this point where I am finally getting to the end of my degree. Before, I had studied Graphic design for three years at college after which I followed my ambitions of becoming a part of the creative industry and decided to gain more knowledge and educate further by enrolling to the university. Another three years of education at the University of West London has really brought me to a new level of experience, a variety of new skills and opened up a lot of opportunities for becoming a professional graphic designer and I am expecting more opportunities in the graphic design field after graduation.
During my studies I have completed many different projects and briefs including working with real life clients where I was able to use my gained skills and show that I am capable of working on different briefs at the same time and produce high quality designs. As a graphic design student, I am well versed with marketable skills on overall production and layout designs for advertisements, branding, website design and development and having a set of skills in motion design. Graphic design skills are valuable to many industries, but as a level-entry designer I have to say that a strong design portfolio that can be developed through internships or coursework is an essential requirement before progressing further down the industry route and hence I have collected all of my best and most successful designs throughout my studies.
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My portfolio mostly consists of coursework projects and briefs, but I would like to look back at how far I have progressed and pick out one specific project outside the university, which was the very beginning of my successful start of working as a graphic designer for a construction company. I was contacted by Rapid Bee LTD and asked to design their company logo. This project was my first paid graphic design job after which I was hired to be the company’s graphic designer. I was and I still am responsible for all the company’s promotional material, brand identity and 3D modelling. Seeing my design in print and all over social media platforms has been a great accomplishment. This job has given me a great employability and the taste of time management, I have learnt how to deal and negotiate with clients. It was also a great start-off point for my further career as a graphics designer.
After graduation, I would like to work as a freelance graphic designer and offer my services for branding, website design and development and motion graphics. I feel comfortable in these specific fields and this is what I actually enjoy doing. I believe that working on what you love lets you do the job to the highest standards. Working as a freelancer would allow me to set myself my own schedules as well as work under my own introduced hourly rates. Working for free of charge was acceptable during the very beginning of my education in order for me to build up the portfolio. At this point, I am highly against working for free of charge as I respect my time and would like to be recognised for what I do. I understand that working as a freelancer is challenging and competitive and it will take some time and work to get recommended from client to client. I have also need to consider if I will be working from home or at a studio which will probably have to be rented - at this point where I am now, I will be working from home and arranging meetings with the clients by inviting them for a cup of coffee at the cafe. In order to be successful as a beginner freelancer I had also to make sure I build a successful brand for myself first.
To promote my services I have built a website which will be updated every time I produce new designs. I think that the importance of having a website to represent yourself as a professional designer is crucial in order to get hired by other professionals. Other social media platforms, such as instagram and linkedIn could also benefit for attracting people, but is not as professional as representing yourself on your own built website. I do have an instagram profile and use it for uploading some of my design work and share it with the world. Instagram is beneficial of millions of users and your work can travel around the globe. However, such platforms has some disadvantages such as the breach of the copy rights. It is super easy to take a snapshot of the work and other people might use it as their own without the original author even knowing about it. It is also essential to have printed items such as business cards - whenever you talk with someone you can just share your contacts in a professional way by handing them a business card which will also show your ability to design and it will definitely be judged by those who you hand it to.
To summarise, my perception of graphic designer professional integrity entails the safety of inherent system functions and related equipment such as the importance of using legal software, reliability, maintainability, and availability. Integrity issues in graphic design career focus on us graphic designers and how we will conduct ourselves in our profession. A graphic designer’s job is to uphold integrity in negotiating contracts with clients, digitally altering images, making decisions at their work, and in conducting themselves well with their colleagues and clients. It is also important to have a list of contacts of other creatives. Not only for job seeking, but to request other professionals feedback. During my studies I have met a lot of great artists and designers who have inspired me and I added their contacts to my contact list which I might use at some point in my future career. I am really excited to finish off this long journey and can’t wait to step into professional graphic design industry.
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