Personal Skills Audit

Education

I have five GCSEs, an AS level in Art and Design, a Btec First Diploma in Art and Design and a Btec National Diploma in Digital Art and Design.

Professional experience

My professional experience is lacking, though I worked part-time at a charity shop for free while attending college.

During this time I learned such skills as punctuality, customer service, management and using a cash register.

Strengths

I can make use of multiple different visual styles to adapt my artwork to suit almost any situation.

I work efficiently and can complete briefs on time, quite often ahead of time.

I understand what makes an illustration entertaining, and how to make it entertaining (though this point is purely subjective).

I can take criticism well, and will always change or even redraw an illustration to accommodate the criticism.

I am punctual, to the point where I am borderline obsessive about arriving at appointments on time.

I have a reasonable understanding of computers, both PC and Mac, and can competently use creative programs like Photoshop and Flash.




Weaknesses

I tend to lack personal initiative, needing a ‘brief’ to bring out my ideas.

I am somewhat apprehensive about trying out new ideas and techniques.

I can be easily distracted from work.

I have a lack of patience for and engagement with research.

Design philosophy

I swear by two key characteristics: clarity and entertainment.
When I draw, I try to make my imagery as clear and easy to understand as possible, so that as many people as possible can relate to and appreciate my work.

As well as clarity, I make use of exaggerations and cartoony visual quirks to make the illustration entertaining. I have found that if one of my drawings makes me smile, it usually makes other people smile.

Potential Target Audience

My style has a lot of flexibility and a lot of universal appeal. At the moment I want to appeal more to young children, but my style at the moment seems more appealing to preteens and young teenagers. If I can adapt my style accordingly, I should be able to expand my client base exceptionally.

Employability and Enterprise: Nando's Activity Pack brief

For this brief at university, we have been tasked with designing an activity pack for the Nando's restaurant chain. We have to decide on a theme, whether to target the activity towards children, families or adults and then to design characters and activities/games to fit both the theme and the demographic.

I have decided to target my activity pack towards children, with a carnival theme. In my preliminary research, I found out that Portugal, one of the countries which Nando's is based around, has its own carnival culture, so the theme I am going for is relevant to the theme of the restaurant.

A carnival theme will allow me to make the activity pack more exciting for children, since the colourful and festive nature of carnivals is very visually stimulating. So long as I can present character designs that are to an acceptable standard, I should pass this brief in a satisfactory manner.