Client Pitch - 11/12/15

From the preparations that I have been doing for the past week, today was the day I have done my client pitch. In preparation, I have been rehearsing everything I have to say in my pitch aloud at home and in front of my friends. Confidently enough, I was contented with myself pitching in front of my peers as I believe I have done well speaking and sticking with the time limit required for us. However, as the day came and as I was about to present, my nerves have kicked in causing my mind to go blank, I have not presented and delivered my ideas for the app I am passionate about and also time ran out as I have gotten to the important part of my presentation which is the development part of the app. 

Despite, my final client pitch have gone terrible and that I believe that I could have done better, I will take this as a lesson and work on the factors where I have gone wrong. Although, I do struggle with public speaking, I know that public speaking and presenting ideas is a vital part in the creative industry; therefore I am taking this experience as a motivation for me to improve on this aspect. 

-Yvienne Ribao

Client Pitch Idea - 05/12/15

FMN App

From the preparatory work in our previous seminars and the other pitch that we have done as a group, it is now time to prepare for own individual pitch to be presented to perspective clients. For the preparation of this pitch, I asked myself few questions such as "what am I passionate about?", "what do people need?" and "what app do I regularly use?". These questions helped me with my brainstorm, therefore I came up with an idea to develop a fashion organization app called the FMN app, short for the feminine app. I came up with this idea because personally apart from digital art, I am also passionate with fashion and make up and I believe that these are a form of art in which anyone can present. Therefore, I came up with an idea of an app that can be a source of way fashion and make up enthusiasts can inspire each other with their looks. Not only that, I also thought to add in features which can also help with their daily basis e.g. wardrobe organisation which can help ease when planning an outfit at a certain event/day. Furthermore, I have been carrying out research on similar apps and even gathering ideas from them which could be added into my app and making sure that this is a unique and at the same time a usual app for fashion enthusiasts. Apart from that I have also researched on the development and costings of the app, making sure that they are reasonable. Overall, I have put together a 9-slide presentation that I will be presenting in my pitch. 

Below is a link to my Powerpoint presentation:
FMN PowerPoint presentation

-Yvienne Ribao

WEEK 10: Guest Speaker - 01/12/15

Freelance - Peter Mickleright

Today's guest speaker was by Peter Mickleright, a freelancer, who gave an in-depth presentation about freelancing. He talked about his experience as a freelancer, the skills you'll need to be a freelancer, the advantages and disadvantages about being a freelancer. His presentation really stuck to me and made me learn so much about freelancing as he touched on the topics that I was not familiar about. Despite, his presentation being very interesting and to some extent has made me consider freelancing as an option; I still feel that some of the disadvantages are striking to me e.g. clients not paying properly. I also feel that being a freelancer is a very independent way of living as you are responsible for everything, for instance when something goes wrong. Therefore, from that presentation, I feel that being a freelancer is not the path for me as of yet, as I feel that I need to learn more personal and professional skills before being a freelancer. With that being said, that is why I am aiming to get into the real world and to work in the creative industry so I will personally learn how it's like working in the industry. However, I am not closing my doors with the option of being a freelancer as I might go into that route when I have the certain skills and traits. 

-Yvienne Ribao

Pitch 3 - 17/11/15

Snow Child App

For our last group pitch, we have been given a more realistic brief to come up with an interactive and child friendly app or website which will be launched along with the Gulbenkian Theatre's upcoming Christmas show which is the Snow Child. As a group, we all chose to pick to develop an interactive app for children. We decided our app to have different features which will be useful for pre and post visit of the production and also helpful for Gulbenkian's profile, therefore we added mini games, facts about the Gulbenkian and a feedback page. This pitch has definitely improved our team working skills as we all assigned each other roles for our pitch. I've also learnt a lot in terms of app developing such as the stages and costings to develop an app, which therefore made me consider to have 'mobile app developing' as one of my choices when I apply for the creative industry. Not only did this pitch improve my researching skills even more, but it also improved my design skills as I have been more familiar with using other design software like Adobe Illustrator rather than only using Adobe Photoshop. Therefore, with all our contents ready in our Powerpoint presentation, I think that my group and I did well pitching our idea in front of everyone. 

-Yvienne Ribao

Creative Industry News: New Creative Jobs Added at Three times UK Average

NEW CREATIVE JOBS ADDED AT THREE TIMES UK AVERAGE

According to the report from the Department for Culture Media and Sport, the employment in the Creative industry has even been improving since 2011 as: 

Summary from the Department for Culture Media and Sport Report Creative Industries: Focus on Employment

Reading about this news has definitely eased my confidence because this just shows that there are roles in the creative industry that is highly in demand. However, this not only gave me more confidence in securing a job in the creative industry, but also this has made me realise that there are a lot of people like me who also desire to work within the industry, therefore there is a lot of competition. Reading this news therefore gave me the motivation to start looking for a job or internship I will be doing for my year in industry. 

Sources:

• NEWS: Creative jobs added at three times UK average
• Creative Industries: Focus on Employment 

-Yvienne Ribao

Pitch 2 - 27/10/15

Design in the 20th Century - Graphic Design 

For this pitch, we have been given a brief to present an online exhibition entitled Design in the 20th century; we have been also given a range of choices of what type of design, in which we chose graphic design. We then researched both historical and contemporary art and have identified the key trends of these. Our key trends consisted of Russian propagandas, the art movement 'de stijl', 20th century music and Japanese culture, all of which we divided the trends so we would research on it and present each theme individually. We were also assigned to know and present the copyright and ownership rights costings of these artworks for it to be able to be presented in our online exhibition, in which we have gathered from using sources such as photo libraries e.g. Getty images and from Museum websites. 

Learning from our previous pitch, I was more prepared and confident with this pitch as I have rehearsed better with this pitch. Also, after the pitch we were told that the brief was intentionally written blandly and not in detail, the reason for this was to prepare us because we may come across that situation with clients when we are out in the real world. I felt that, that was very helpful for us and made us think outside the box and widening our understanding of the brief by also impressing our clients. Overall, I think that the pitch went well and I believe that the more we do it, the better we get in terms of pitching.

-Yvienne Ribao

Pitch 1 - 13/10/15

Game show for Channel 4 - Colour wheel 

For our first pitch, we were given a task to pitch an idea for either a TV programme targeted for Channel 4 or a film targeted for BBC 1. As a group, we chose the Channel 4 TV programme option as we felt that TV programmes are more popular nowadays. The brief also stated that the TV programme will be presented on daytime, therefore my group and I conducted research on what types of programmes are presented during daytime. We found out that the daytime time slots consists of light-hearted programmes such as sitcoms and game shows such as Come dine with me, countdown and etc. Therefore, we chose to pick an idea of a game show that is different from other game shows. 

Our game show, colour wheel, consists of a combination of different aspects from other game shows and in order to win the game it will be based on knowledge and luck.

As this was all our first time to conduct a pitch in front of everyone in our seminar group, I believe that the pitch went well and we managed to deliver our idea as a group although I did struggle during the pitch. However, I learnt a lot from the first pitch, not only the presentation skills that I need to work on but also I feel that I have improved on my researching skills and also working with a group. With that being said, I will definitely improve more on these skills for the upcoming pitch that my group and I will be doing in the next few weeks.

-Yvienne Ribao

WEEK 4: Guest Speaker - 20/10/15

Dan Jenkins - Nimble Ape

Today's presentation was by Dan Jenkins, a Multimedia Technology and Design graduate from University of Kent. He talked about what he went through from his year in industry in Holiday Xtra to building his own company, Nimble Ape. Like what I am currently going through, Dan Jenkins was also unsure what to do in the future and hearing that someone went through the same process and end up being successful has gained my confidence in terms of the future. 

Dan also talked about the importance of his year in industry and 'learning industry is more than theory'. This therefore made me more enthusiastic and motivated to do a year in industry and actually learning about the creative industry. He also talked about the importance of having a real world experience and solving problems and interacting is essential in any industry. That being said, I think that my previous job experience has actually helped me in terms of interacting with colleagues and customers at a professional level but that also made me realise that I should further improve on those skills. 

But overall, I felt that this presentation was very helpful and help my understanding and my expectations about the real world. 

-Yvienne Ribao

WEEK 2: Guest Speakers - 06/10/15

Soapbox and Eurostar Presentations

Soapbox:

Today's guest presentation started with two representatives from Soapbox, one of them is the Digital production manager and the other one was the Lead Front-end developer. They both talked about what Soapbox do and these ranged from publication design to web design. I think their work compliments very well to the aim of their company which is "Creative communications that ideas that matter" as they have worked with organisations that actually have a mission to help others e.g. Guys' and Saint Thomas' Charity and IRC. Although, I am still unsure of which area of the Creative industry I would like to work in, I love how they both spoke passionately about their work as this has made me consider in working in a similar area as them which is more on Web Design and Researching.

Eurostar:

The next guest presenter was by Moritz Graf von Hochberg who is a student who done a placement with Eurostar in Luxembourg. He talked about his placement with Eurostar and the skills that he learnt from the organisation. However, from what I've seen, he wasn't too enthusiastic about his experience with his placement. 

But overall, the presentation also made me think that the creative industry is actually broad and I find it interesting how it can collaborate with other industries as well, not only in the media industry but also other industries like the Aviation industry. I also think that this was a helpful presentation as it was good hearing another student's placement experience. 

-Yvienne Ribao

WEEK 8: Guest Speaker 17/11/15

Google 

Today's guest presenter was Rajiv Arjan, a User Experience from Google, and he talked about what it is like to work in Google. He described the Google office in London as a fun working environment unlike the usual office environment; this is what I expected the Google office because of what I have seen in social media. He also mentioned that they have facilities that can help you zone out into your creative mood and it can help you think of ideas for your project. I think that this is a helpful facility especially for a creative industry instead of having a usual office environment which may actually even limit ideas in your head. 
In addition, Raj mentioned the importance of being innovative and sharing ideas even though their silly. I think that is very important in this industry as there are a lot of innovative ideas that actually work. 
Overall, I think that Google is very appealing to work at, but I think that I would also broaden my choices because I know that there are a range of companies that can also offer the same as Google. 

-Yvienne Ribao

WEEK 1: Introduction to Professional Practice - 29/09/15

Welcome to my Professional Practice blog!

This reflective blog will be used to record all my ideas, impressions and reflections from our lectures, guest presentations and the current news items relating to the industry that I am interested in getting into which is the creative industry. This blog will give you the progress of the understanding I will get from this module. 

Today, we had our first Professional Practice lecture which was an introduction of our module. We've been introduced to the module structure and the module assessments that we will be undertaking. We have also looked at the creative industries and its facts, statistics and trends. From what I learnt, the creative industry is a highly competitive industry as it employed 1.9 million people in the UK last year.This therefore has made me realise how tough it will be to go into this industry and you need to make yourself to stand out from others in order to be in this industry considering that there is a tough competition. Also, I have learn that 24% of the people that work in this industry are actually freelancers. As someone who desires to work in a macro-level(large corporation), I am still unsure about going into freelancing, however learning that there is actually a large percentage of freelancers in the industry, I feel that I need to learn more about freelancing and I might even consider going into it. 
In addition, we also have learnt about the trends that are currently growing fast and these are: mobile apps, games and film/TV industry, all of which are the things that I am interested in professionally working on in the future.  
Lastly, we have also been briefly introduced about the year in industry; we've been explained the requirements and benefits of the year in industry, although I have already been interested in doing the year in industry from first year. However, learning more about the creative industry, this lecture has made me get the real picture of how highly competitive this industry is and I need to start considering where I would apply for next year's placement.

-Yvienne Ribao