After completing the online portfolio, C.V and business card i can now apply these to any future work, employment possibilities or freelance work that i take part in, giving me a good basis to achieve in the creative industry.

I feel the first aspect of my portfolio of work is that of the logo, this is what kickstarted my ideas and gave me a branding or an image. This allowed me to branch out and apply this to the various different media that was to be created.Having created the logo using some simple yet effective techniques, and using contrasting colours in a subtle manner i think the logo works well and fits into simple designs such as the C.V really well.

I wanted my C.V to show a creative side to me as a person and therfore wanted something that would stand out but also remain subtle and not overdo and bombard the employer with crazy designs. I wanted to keep it elegant and sophisticated, which i believe has worked quite well. I feel the simple layout and use of colours give it a proffessional look, and the colur and light effect help add to the relevence of photogrpahy in a subtle round about way. The other positive aspect of the C.V is that it can be printed in black and white to the same effect whilst keeping its core aesthetic. If i were to re-cretate my C.V i might look into basing it around photography a little more, and including more relevance, however i wanted to stay away from ‘tacky’ ideas and feel that it will impress photography critics with the light channels running down the left of the C.V.

The business cards were meant as a way of promoting the website and to hand over in any possible emplyment or working situations. This meant that i wanted to keep the theme of the cards the same as that on the other artefacts. Therefore i used the same logo idea on the front of the card, and created two different versions. One being a white/light copy and one being a dark/smokey copy. This then helps to show people a contrast of ideas and is likely to draw their eye also.I then coupled this with a sleek back of simple lettering and contact information coupled with a small montage of my photography work. If i was to recreate my business card i would use the ‘o’ in the ‘James Alford’ as a viewfinder similar to that in my research as i felt this was a good idea, however when implementation was finished i believed that as i was creating them myself it may look less proffesional, however it is something i will work on in the future.

My website is probably the artefact in which i deem most successful in terms of production and aesthetics. Although it works as an online portfolio for all of my work not just photography, as i made a specific photography site for my dissertaiton, i believe this helps as photographers are more than ever having to be savvy and multi talented when it comes to creative technology. I feel it fits in well with my C.V and business card well which is important as people can relate to it, and remember it. The site was built in photoshop and saved as images so that different fonts could be used and so that a more aesthetically pleasing design could be made. I feel it is simple yet takes nothing away from the work on the site which is important. If i were to redesign the site, i would quite possibly use a whole different layout and theme as i had many ideas when creating the site, and sometimes you find yourself getting tired of the same designs after you have spent so long implementing them. Other than that i believe it works well and will promote my work in a very effective manner that should hopefully impress possible emplyees.

My website is probably the artefact in which i deem most successful in terms of production and aesthetics. Although it works as an online portfolio for all of my work not just photography, as i made a specific photography site for my dissertaiton, i believe this helps as photographers are more than ever having to be savvy and multi talented when it comes to creative technology. I feel it fits in well with my C.V and business card well which is important as people can relate to it, and remember it. The site was built in photoshop and saved as images so that different fonts could be used and so that a more aesthetically pleasing design could be made. I feel it is simple yet takes nothing away from the work on the site which is important. If i were to redesign the site, i would quite possibly use a whole different layout and theme as i had many ideas when creating the site, and sometimes you find yourself getting tired of the same designs after you have spent so long implementing them. Other than that i believe it works well and will promote my work in a very effective manner that should hopefully impress possible emplyees.

Coupling all of this work with my WordPress blog has helped me to keep all of my creative thoughts and processes in an online manner, meaning it was a lot easier to pull up sites or links that i needed and to share these with other people. It also linked in well with my website as it could be linked to the blog so that other people can see some of the design processes themselves also. Overall i am pleased with the outcome of the work that has been created and believe it will serve an invaluable purpose when trying to find any types of work or emplyment as it shows what i can do and also shows my portfolio of work.

STRENGTHS

My advantages are that I have some great experience within photography via my degree in Entertainment Technology. This included putting on an exhibition of my work which included all of the planning from taking the shot to displaying it on the wall in the gallery.

I feel that I can plan and organise well, which is vital to professional photography work as it is important to be punctual and have all of the equipment ready and organised. I feel I also have a good creative eye for what makes an effective photograph.

I want to enter the photography side of the industry as you have the creative freedom to express yourself, whilst working within a company or professional team; also I have a huge interest in photography and a willingness to learn.

I am motivated by the shots that people see in newspapers, magazines, television: anywhere. It’s these great photos that I hope my will soon emulate.

I feel my biggest achievement was putting on an exhibition of my own photography, whilst being fairly new to the field of photography. Learning and adapting to the equipment and software so quickly was a big achievement in my eyes.

I believe I can bring a creative outlook on the whole of the photography company bringing many skills not only behind the lens but other design skills.

Weaknesses

I feel my point and shoot photography could be improved, as sometimes I can have a tendency to leave it for the digital darkroom. Also I have never before worked in a darkroom; even though they are being used less and less it’s something I have no experience of.

I will likely avoid the technical side of certain equipment when using all of the aperture and shutter speed as of on a professional shoot I could not always trust my judgement 100% yet.

I would feel my leadership qualities would be lacking if I had to lead a team as I can tend to not take a stand if something hasn’t gone the way I would have hoped.

Opportunities

I feel the opportunities when leaving university are quite large; gaining freelance work, possibly unpaid, expanding my portfolio in my own time, assisting other photographers.

I feel photography is leaning towards a more general designer ability, thus meaning photographers have to be savvier and have a larger arsenal of skills and a larger toolset available. I am working on this by trying to create films and also graphic design and web design work.

It can be tough to gain a foothold as a professional photographer, but constantly looking for job opportunities to add to the portfolio will always help to add to the exposure your work gets.

Threats

Photographers face many obstacles, the main one being that there are a lot of good photographers out there. Therefore sometimes it is useful to have a creative edge, or a niche about your work. This could possibly be a set of photography or the way in which it is taken e.g. all on an iPhone. This is something I will be looking into within the first few months of leaving university.

As stated before a threat on photographers is that designers in general can have a good repertoire of photography work and sometimes filmmakers too. Therefore they have a better skill set to succeed, which is something that I can work on.

Funding can also be a problem to keep up with the cost of freelance work, equipment and maintenance for unpaid jobs is likely to be a lot which could have an effect on the outcome of the work in the future.

After finalising the business card designs in photoshop i took them to get printed on highgrade glossy card. They were then printed on both sides and trimmed to size. There are two versions dark and white, with the same content on the back as shown below:

Business Card Evaluation

This is a short screen capture of my final online portfolio. It shows how each part works and all of the tabs and pages that it contains. Hopefully this will give a better insight into the portfolio that just screengrabs, it can be found at www.jamesalford.info.

Having completed the C.V business cards and online portfolio designs i need something to make use of them. Therefore applying for some photography and cinematography type jobs and looking into any placements is a must.

Graphic Designer / Photographer

Recruiter Intelligent Employment UK Ltd

Location Barnet, Hertfordshire

Salary £18,000 – £19,000 per annum

Sector Media, Digital & Creative – Graphic Design

Job Type Permanent

Date 18 May

Applications 49

Job ref no 18994499

A new and very creative role for a confident and creative person to join leading Jewellery group based in North London.

TESTING

I ran some usability test on the site to check every possible button, link, image, and page of my site. I provided an expected outcome and the actual outcome. These results are shown below:

Only a feew errors needed to be changed, this is partly due to having implemented the site as i went and checking each page as i worked on it. This was very successful, however it now needed to be uploaded to the web.

UPLOADING

Firstly a domain name was registered, jamesalford.info, however this is currently used for my photography based site, i will purchase another donaim for that so they can run parralel to each other.

In order to upload the site i used a program called ‘Filezilla’ this program connects to your FTP server and allows you to fairly easily upload files to your hosting folder. After logging in with my details i then uploaded all of the files onto the server. At first it couldn’t find the ‘index.html’ file therefore i moved it to the first openable folder so it was easier to find, which worked. My site is now available to view online at www.jamesalford.info, opening it up for people to see accross the internet.