MARKETING OF DESIGNER'S COMPETENCE
Another period at university has ended and therefore it is time to recap what actually happened. In short, this period was all about marketing designer's know-how through professional portfolios, events and, in my case, through rebranding my Instagram and blog. This period was also in a way the last "normal" period in our studies which means that next year we will be mainly focusing on internships and writing out final thesis.
But before next year let's have a look at this last period of the third year.
Collaboration Project 3 – Rebranding Instagram And Blog
In collaboration project 3 I decided to focus on personal rebranding on Instagram and on this blog.
Instagram Marketing Study
Before jumping into rebranding I read an online book "Instagram Marketing: The Definite Guide" by Later.com from where I discovered tips about how I could develop my Instagram and through that also my blog.
These were the things I needed to focus on according to the Instagram Marketing book:
Developing the over all aesthetics and storytelling aspects of my Instagram and blog – story highlights, story background and visuality of the blog
Clarify contenct type – what kind of content I want to share and which hashtags work with my content
Target audiance analysis – who is my audiance, what my audiance wants to see
Post publishing schedule
Coherency and quality of pictures – filters and editing style
Rebranding
After figuring out some of the above I began the visual part of my rebranding process which included an updated logo, a full website update, designing Instagram story highlights and story backgrounds as well as coming up with a slightly different picture editing style for my rebranded content.
The idea of my rebrand was to make the blog feel like a luxurious townhouse which every page (home, blog, design and about) represents a different room within the house and every individual post feels more or less like a letter starting with "dearest reader" and ending with "yours truly". In order to create this idea I took inspiration from Parissian architecture, blue and white vintage wallpaper, chandeliers and vintage picture frames. These are elements which you can spot on my blog and on Instagram.
Below you can see the new visual elements on this blog and on my Instagram.
Blog Before Rebranding
Blog After Rebranding
Instagram Before Rebranding
Instagram After Rebranding
Professional English
As the course title suggests "Professional English" was about practising the type of english we will need in our professional lifes as designers and creatives. For example, one of the tasks was to write our designer statements in english.
Exhibition
Producing an Event – Prima Ballerina at Alexander Theater
Sometimes designers participate in the making of different events such as fashion shows and exhibitions, therefore, in this course we practised producing our own events.
My event is a small shoe exhibition at Alexander Theater in Helsinki where I will show my footwear collection Prima Ballerina. The exhibition will take place on September-October 2022 in Alexander Theater's audiance foyer. I will tell you more about the exhibition in a future post!
Below you can see the showcase plan for the exhibition, a flyer and a poster.
Chandeliers for the showcase
Research Orientation
This course was an introduction to what it takes to write our final thesis. Shortly, we analized old thesis writen by previous students, participated in hearing current students' thesis presentations, got briefed on how to write scientific text and how to search sources through search engines as well as started planing out our own thesis subjects. Right now, I am thinking about writing my thesis on knitted bags inspired by 1920s but it is not decided yet so everything can still change.
Professional Portfolio
Especially, for people working in creative fields a professional portfolio is an important document where you represent your best work. As many of you know a fantastic portfolio is crutial when appling for a job or an internship, which is why, in this course we made our professional portfolios with the help of our teachers. In addition, we also got to learn about Instagram marketing and how Instagram can be used as a portfolio through our Spanish exchange teachers that specialised in graphic design.
Here is what you can include to your professional portfolio:
Table of contents
Introduction
Designer statement
CV
Only your best work and most interesting projects
Internships
Something about your social media
Contact details
Remember that portfolio has to be very clear and understanable. That is why you need to explain your work and projects with both words, pictures and other visual elements. It is likely that you also have to keep editing your portfolio as you gain more experiences and participate in new projects.
Here you can have a look at my current portfolio:
Thank you so much for reading!
Yours truly,
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