Other job sites review.

Sadly these recommended sites came up short and nothing on these sites were of any value. creativepool despite having a freelance section it is very small, with only 1 "brief" available in Manchester.

Aiga.org was a bit of a let down with it all being USA based, and in total did not have nearly as much vacancies compared to others.

Carbonmade was also a let down, claiming to have over 1,200,000 projects available  However after signing up i could not find a way to view or see these projects, at least not with a free account.

www.coroflot.com is less of a portfolio site and presents itself as more of a general design orientated jobs site. Despite this it is more of the same as behance. With mostly staff employment jobs rather than freelance work and jobs. There was very little in terms of freelance potential work.

freelancers.net is another site supposed for freelancers to find briefs and work. In my opinion I found the site to have very little brief style work and the majority of that was web based and programming based opportunities, in total the site only had 5 smallish pages of job listings. Also the job listings where mostly staff vacancies rather than briefs.

www.freelanceswitch.com is a site which specifically has one off briefs posted, the major downside that to apply for any of them you need a paid subscription. Even though I am currently not prepared to do this, after looking through some of the briefs available they were potentially very good and professional although with a limited number. unfortunatly without paying or subscribing to the site there is no way of viewing the full brief or even contacting the poster.

Although at a glance freelancer.co.uk seemed like the best potential place for all sorts of od designs jobs and even some full creative briefs, however after trying to pursue one of the posts, I found out a paid subscription is required to make contact with the poster.

Behance.

After checking Behance a little more in-depth It was clear that it was not the type of design job website i had hoped for. Nearly all job listings where for actual full or part time jobs either in house or working for a design agency.
On top of that nearly all the job listings were for and based in America. In the entire website there was only 1 Manchester based jog offering, and this was for a PHP web developer.

Job/Portfolio sites.

After being set the task of researching into portfolio sites and job sites specifically. I have decided to look into and list a few of the more recommended sites. After having knowledge of a few different ones, I will compare the types of jobs and work offered, in both quality and quantity of the jobs as well as types of design areas.

http://www.authenticjobs.com/ 

http://www.aiga.org/

http://www.behance.net/

http://carbonmade.com/

http://www.coroflot.com/

http://www.creativepool.co.uk/

http://www.freelancers.net/

http://www.freelancer.co.uk/

http://freelanceswitch.com/

After reading through a few forums and lists, It became clear which jobs sites were apparently better for finding work as a graphic designer. After having a quick glimpse through some of them I can honestly say that these do not seem to specifically post freelance work and briefs as such, but more full and part time jobs within agencies and also freelance jobs available within agencies. Despite this I will thoroughly browse them and potentially more sites for a brief style job.  

Where to start looking?

To start this brief I have to pick a brief.
And to pick a brief I have to look for one.
I do not know much about finding singular briefs and freelancing. I feel this is a good opportunity to try and find our how freelancers get some work. In order to start looking for them I should make list of potential places to find work.

Portfolio websites such as Behance and Carbonmade.
Gumtree
LinkedIN
Up coming business's
Local business's
Notice Boards in supermarkets etc.
Social Networking
Networking events such as Manchester Chamber of Commerce
D&AD
Job fairs
Up and coming Bands/musicians and photographers
Art galleries such as the Cornerhouse and Whitworth
People, friends and family who might know someone who is looking


Currently these are the places I have in mind.
I think this is a good start to finding a brief as there are lots of leads and interesting places to look, weather or not I will find what I am looking for is another story. I think even though this is the first part of the brief, it will also be the most challenging and difficult. To learn how to find work and to learn what the client wants is precisely what I've wanted education to teach me, so far this is the only chance i've had within education to properly see what its like.

This helped me for more than one module.

What is your current practice/specialist area?
I currently would say I do not have a specialist area. Even though there are areas that I do have more experience in such as branding, editorial based work and advertisement. At the moment I am trying to develop my specialist area from a small list of subject areas I have tried and liked. After dismissing other areas of design I am not to keen on such as animation, motion graphics. It is down to wanting to learn web as I currently see web design as a necessity to some level, I also have a interest in interface/layout design as well as branding.
  

What are you passionate about?
My passions tend to lie in and outside of design. I love playing games and skateboarding, these are the two main things in my life which I can always go to to relax and have fun, regardless or what mood or situation I might be in. Design is obviously a passion of mine and it is a wide spread passion having interests in a lot of areas, this relates to my specialist area above. I have the passion to design, but I am yet to find where to put it. 

What and who are your influences/inspirations?
My first and major influence in design was the workings of Saul Bass and in particular his movie posters. Seeing them for the first time made me realise I do not need to be a technically good drawer to be good at design, sure it may help. But you don't need to be able to draw life like drawings to be able to be creative and to create a good solid piece of design.
 

Where and how do you get inspiration for work? (reading about..? drawing from observation? Listening to…? testing theories, science, philosophy and nature., architecture., automatism..)
My inspiration usually relies on the given topic I am working with. for instance if I were doing a packaging brief i would search for great looking packaging until I find something which breaks the mould of conventional packaging and has a great look and feel to it. Finding something like this helps me think outside my current box and hopefully come up with something more creative and original.

What is your working process? (research, gathering info about what already exists, direct observation, test pieces, gallery visits, talks seminars, entering alternate reality)
I have used the same process since college, I start of by researching around the given topic of area, looking at competition, target market etc.  If there are currently any seminars or galleries related, I will try to visit, however it it not priority.  I tend to work primarily with sketchbooks as it is a method i am very comfortable with, however i have used blogs in the past. I find using a blog better suited for some projects such as anything video related as it is much easier to store and show video related research. After research I will then create some concept ideas and work with a few of them till it is obvious or clear which is the idea I will go with. I enjoy having feedback on all areas and all times of development as i find the more the better. However when constant feedback is not available I make sure to at least gain feedback on chosen concepts and when I feel the project is coming to a close I will want feedback then.

What are the most exciting strengths about your work? what makes you stand out from the crowd? sell yourself.
I have been told I have good determination and i strive to get things done as best as i can, even if they are not particularity working for me. I felt this was correct as I had been through an example of this with a recent project. I worked and put a lot of time into a design and it would not work for me, however I was running out of time for the brief and was too late to start a new idea from scratch, so I had to stick with my current idea and make the absolute best out of it that I could. At the end of it, I can honestly say I came out with a piece of work that i liked and was happy with. 

Would you like your work to change/ improve something in the world with your work?
Cheap and tacky packaging and adverts.

Are there any areas of weakness that could be improved? Explain how they could be developed, consider technical and theory issues
I would definitely like to improve on my knowledge on people in the industry as well as technical skills and industry standards for things. I feel in education things like this are left out a bit. The creative side is encouraged and developed which is great, but its not use when you don't know how something simple would be published in the real professional world.
 

Is there an area you would like to investigate specifically that you haven’t had the opportunity to do before? (use of sound, graphic design theories, visual communication, semiotics, human computer interaction, interactivity, chance)
I would say I have at least touched every part of design I am interested in. However as above I want more opportunities in it to really know what I want to do. I would like to know more about going past the design aspect of things like advertising, as a whole campaign will involve more than a few posters and some banners.The things I have tried and would like to know and practice more of are;
Web design/programming.
Magazine and editorial work.
Branding and logo development.
Advertising.

What benefit would that have on your current practice?
I think having known more about these topics would allow me to create a fuller and better piece of design. Having more knowledge in the subject also allows for more creativity and experiments within the given subject. 


Even though i answered this questionnaire for another module I think it does a great job of giving me a good insight and idea into what i want to get out of this module, I want brief in an area I have already tried, but I wish to develop further. However due to the nature of the module i feel like taking on for example a web based maybe too much for me as i am new to the area and have next to no technical skills in the area. But for something like magazine or editorial work i could really push my own limits and use a variety of media such as photography and possibly illustration to really create something better I have ever done. 

Introduction

My Name is Nicholas Ainsworth and this is my blog/journal for the Professional Practice module for the BA Creative Media and Visual Communication course.
On this blog will be posted research, experiments, mind maps etc. as well as my on going thoughts about the project.