Emailable Portfolio

Here is the link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24666253/E-mailable%20Port%20(May%202012).pdf

With this, I just wanted to send three of my best works. I didn't want to give them all of my work, but the stuff that will grab their attention to learn more!

Portfolio Review that was not turned in to you

Taylor Snyder was supposed to be my 2nd Portfolio Review. Although, he stopped answering my e-mails! I initially met Taylor at the Student Ad Summit earlier this semester. At this event he did a critique of my portfolio. 

Here are the main things Taylor said at this initial critique:

• Show your design processes
• Take photos of your work
• Brand extension is great to show
• Make sure you print at high quality
• Show something new in the interview
• Make sure you know how to Defend and Describe your Work
• He also say I had a great attitude
• He said to keep reworking my advertisements specifically 

Overall, I got some great advice! I wish he could have given me some on my online portfolio!

Final Design Statement

SIMPLIFIED IT DOWN A LOT!

I strive to create smart solutions that will inspire the targeted audience. No matter what it takes, I will push my creations to be the best they can be. The solutions that work will be clear after multiple revisions, research, and peer critiques.

Non Profit work

I have been working with an Advertising Agency that three other students and myself created; Giraffe Creative.

Our website can be viewed at www.GiraffeMidwest.com.


I have done free work for:

• The James Arthur Albert Foundation
• 10 large scale posters for an auction to raise money
• Bandit Burrito
• Coupons handed out at the Belize Dance Marathon
• Belize Dance Marathon
• Posters, Webpage, Their logo
• Cross Point United Methodist Church
• Bus Wrap
• Drake Business School
• Presentation Challenge Post Card

Link to examples on my website: http://meganyulga.com/Giraffe-Creative-Work

Phil McCollam

I really liked Phil. He has an amazingly upbeat, yet professional attitude. He seemed to do his research and connect with the culture in Drake. I know he will bring a unique youth and spirit to the Drake Graphic Design program. He really seemed to know his audience and give a presentation that was informative, yet engaging.

I gave him a business card and he ended up following up by emailing me. I thought this was extremely awesome of him. I asked him to review my portfolio!

StartupCity Des Moines Job Crawl

Last night I attended the StartupCity Des Moines Job Crawl downtown Des Moines from 5-8:30pm. We got a chance to meet with about 30 start up businesses in the area, learn about them, network, and submit our resume and contact information. I was very dissapointed with the event. While there were a lot of openings and design and marketing positions, they were all unpaid full-time positions.

Most of the companies knew what they were looking for, but didn't know exactly what the position did. Essentially, they wanted intern with no experience to be a critical role in their start up business for free.

As a college student coming out of Drake University. I am up to my eyeballs in student loans. It would be extremely impractical for me to have a full time job that pays nothing.

I was interested in one marketing company though that I will be following up on. They were a little confusing when I talked with them, but then again we only had a few moments to speak with each  company.

If anything this experience was interesting and got my information out there. Maybe these companies weren't for me, but they might now others who are looking for someone just like me for their business!

Printer Tour

I thought this was absolutely fascinating. I didn't realize how complex a printer was. If I took anything away from it, is it to communicate wholly with your printers. There is so much more to printing that I thought. The experience made me appreciate them more and made myself be more conscious of what I'm sending to the printer because if you made a mistake, then it costs lots of time, energy, money and paper!

Now I realize why printing is so expensive, because it is an extremely extensive process. Every job goes through at least 3 machines: print, cut, and bind. The machines move quickly and with extreme accuracy. But it was amazing to me how much was still wasted.

It also made me appreciate learning the skills for myself. I think that someday in the FAR future, I want to but a heavy duty printer for myself, or my studio space so that I can produce my own materials. But there is something said for professionally printed work. The presentation of a design is extremely important and adds much more to a project then you might think.

Overall, it was a great learning experience!

Website

This is something that I've been working on EXTENSIVELY. I've had my Aunt, who owns her own resume and portfolio reviewing company take a look at my work and give me tips to best display them and HOW to word things. I've come to realize that I am really bad at copy editing. I read over grammatical errors all the time and miss things! She caught a lot of things and worked with me on sounding myself, but more professional. 

She also worked with me on navigation and helping me with being more user friendly.

I wanted to keep my logo. I also wanted to include my photo, which I did on the landing page. I am a tad worried that it is a bit too goofy, but I also didn't want it to be static. I wanted it to be engaging and thought provoking. I could only do so much because I am not a strong coder. I was able to change a majority, but I can't do the "cool" things and java script that some people have on their portfolio sites. 

Otherwise, I am extremely happy with how it turned out! 

Again its: www.meganyulga.com

Portfolio site

My portfolio site is finally up and running!!

www.meganyulga.com

Aaron G

Aaron was a nice guy, but I literally fell asleep in his presentation. I think he had great ideas, but I didn't connect with him as a person and a designer. I don't think he would have constructive things to say as a professor. I thought his ideas were more concept based, rather than designing.

While talking to other students, they all thought similar things: he was dry, unengaging, and difficult to follow. I think those would be very difficult things on this campus. We are a very hands on school and someone like him being more reserved wouldn't sit well with the students.

Next Steps

What I need/want to do moving forward:

• Get online portfolio up
• Create a leave behind piece
• Create e-mailable portfolio
• Find ways to make points

What I've done as of now:

• Resume and Cover letter
• Business cards
• Thank Yous
• Design proposal
• Presentation portfolio 

Points:

• 2 in-class speaker reviews (5+5) 10 points
• Student Advertising Summit Conference in Minneapolis 40 points?
• 2 portfolio reviews? (I don't have the paper, but I have proof) (10+10) 20 points?

Beggining of Identity System

COVER LETTER (AND POTENTIAL LETTERHEAD), AND RESUME

 BUSINESS CARD, FRONT AND BACK

  PROJECT PROPOSAL  THANK YOU CARD (5 x 7) --ENVELOPE WILL BE STANDARD WHITE (5 1/4 x 7 1/4)

Presentation portfolio

I also have gotten my portfolio review by two Advertising and Graphic Design professionals. Both were from different agencies and were Art Directors.We only had 15 minutes, so I didn't have time to ask them to fill out the critique sheet for points, but I was hoping I could still get points for it. I can provide you with their cards as proof that they did it. We were in a line and were filtered through these professionals very quickly.

Main things they suggested:

Show my process

• What is the assignment?
• What is the problem
• Your thought process - how do you think?
• Thumbnail sketches
• How did the project evolve?

I was also encouraged to create a piece that they haven't seen. With everything online, chances are good that they have seen all my work. If you leave a little booklet behind showing your process or showing something that you didn't include in your portfolio - that makes a much larger impact.

I also need to work on proofing. Only but the finely curated work into your portfolios. Check for grammar, printing quality, etc. It must be perfect!

Also USE pictures. Take pictures of you work. It adds a whole new dynamic quality to your work. For example. I have some iPhone Apps. I can take the image up on my iPhone and take an image of the phone with the app being "used". This adds more of a visual pop.

They also recommended pushing line extension further. This is exactly what we are doing with the furniture project in Graphic Design 2 -- Push your design to show that you are thinking about how your solution can work in multiple mediums.

Overall -- I gained a lot of advice and am really excited to keep improving.

I will be working on my other portfolio pieces, such as a webpage during Spring Break. They were also very adamant about being social online. Write a blog. Join Facebook and Twitter. Show your future employers that you are thinking about the best possible ways to reach people and utilizing every tool available to you.

Student Ad Summit (March 2nd Conference)

On Friday March 2nd, I went to the Student Advertising Summit. I left feeling extremely overwhelmed and under prepared to graduate. A major theme of the conference was not what you know. Don't get me wrong, you definitely have to be creative, but a majority of the job search is who you know and how can they elevate you to where you want to be. I know nobody.

In order to get these connections that we NEED to have, they suggested buying coffee and learning about professionals at the organization you are targeting. They suggested targeting 5 key agencies that you see yourself in and meeting 5-7 people in each. Now, as you can imagine, this takes time and money. I have neither right now. I suspect that I will have to take a few months off of school in order to really target agencies that I want to be at. I need to start changing how I'm thinking and be strategic.

They also stressed a good portfolio. I got some portfolio tips that I've never heard before, and it was great to have my portfolio critiqued by a few individuals. The two that looked at my portfolio really had positive things to say! They loved my work and had extremely helpful suggestions. This part of the conference made me feel SO much better about the future. I was feeling uneasy and overwhelmed, and the fact that I am on the right track with my portfolio made me feel so so so much better.

Overall, the conference was extremely helpful and I gained more insight into the industry of Advertising and Design. I would suggest going for anyone looking to get into the Advertising industry - especially in Minneapolis!

http://www.ad2sas.org/

Speaker 2 - Meredith Morrison

Meredith is an interesting person. She is very energetic and clearly passionate about design. I think she is concerned with the right aspects of design, the processes and solving problems in your own ways. This is critical for teaching. She has a wide range of design practices that are going to come in handy when she teaches. The fact that she can do painting and websites says a lot about who is is and what she is interested in.

She also seems very relateable and down to earth. It was nice to see her work and to listen to someone who is so intense about design. She deffinitely will add some spunk to the graphic design program.

Why do I think she will be right for Drake? She has the "Drake Attitude". She is confident, peppy, yet willing to work hard. She also has this ability to captivate students and come down to their level. I also think that she will create great insight and push students to create bigger and better solutions.

Overall she was extremely interesting and engaging!

In Class Speaker: Ashley H. (potential professor)

Keeping in mind that this was the first potential professor that we have gotten to see, I really enjoyed listening to her. She had very engaging content and a lot to bring to the table. I got the feeling that she was still learning and was open to the idea of continual growth, which I really appreciated. Sometimes, especially in design, we get professors who think there are right and wrong answers. She, on the other hand, gave me the impression that she will be very constructive because of her own rationality behind her work. I also liked the fact that she was African American. I realize that this sounds kind of bad, but when I look back on my 4 year, I haven't had one African American teacher at Drake, NOT ONE. She emphasized her skin color a lot throughout her presentation, making me believe that it was a huge part of her identity and important to her. This new perspective will most certainly be enlightening for future students and add more diversity into the program.

Most importantly, I was sad that I was a Senior. Listening to her speak, I realized that she would have been a great mentor, and I will never get the opportunity to learn under her. I really hope that the program hires her and gives her a chance. She seems like an individual whom students can express their deepest feelings too. I think this is really helpful because design can be a very emotionally invested field.

Objectives for Projects 1&2

My main objective for project 1 and 2 is to be proud of what I produce. I want it to exude my personality and portray who I am as a person and designer. I want them all to be cohesive, have spunk, and be simple. 

I don't want to look like I'm trying very hard. I am a very simple designer with lots of personality and sass and I want to convey that in my designs!

Design Statements (draft 2)

My relationship with creativity is fickle at best. But preconceived possibilities would ruin those amazing moments of inspiration. I strive for the feeling you get after stressful dead ends. That moment of accidental clarity is worth more than a thousand simple solutions. It's pure and honest creativity that speaks to me.

Not having a plan, is the best plan of all. I can enter a project with the best intentions, but it isn't until I've given up and been defeated that the spark of originality saves me. Rarely do good ideas come easily to me. I thrive on this challenge. When I come up with ideas fast, I get an uneasy feeling that they are too simple or too obvious. My process almost needs a struggle in order to be satisfying. 


I always wrestle with thinking differently and coming up with unique solutions. I want to be inspiring. I want to be bold and new. I want to design in a way that makes people wish they thought of it first. These challenges don't come on the first try. They come with reworking your designs until you can't possibly part with any aspect of them. Those are the solutions worth fighting for.  

This pushes my designs beyond the surface level. I try not to overthink my processes, but instead push myself to understand my goals and objectives of my pieces. I do this by absorbing critiques,  researching fellow designers, and taking steps back. I want to fully consider multiply solutions and simply play with stuff. The solutions that work will be clear through multiple revisions and reworkings.

Design Statements (draft 1)

My relationship with creativity is fickle at best. But preconceived possibilities would ruin those amazing moments of inspiration. I strive for the feeling you get after stressful dead ends. That moment of accidental clarity is worth more than a thousand simple solutions. It's pure and honest creativity that speaks to me.

Not having a plan, is the best plan of all. I can enter a project with the best intentions, but it isn't until I've given up and defeated that the spark of originality saves me. Rarely do good ideas come easily. I like this challenge.  If great ideas came easier then they wouldn't be as coveted. They wouldn't seem great because of the lack of struggle. The work that goes into them, makes them breathe with a different air. They hold themselves higher and inspire people to view the world differently.

My Timeline

Group 3

Jan 24: Class [Design Statements started]
Jan 26: Class
Jan 31: Resume Workshop [Have Resume and Cover Letter to bring to class]
Feb 07: Interview Techniques [Have project 2 started]
Feb 09: Speaker
Feb 16: Speaker
Feb 21: Group 3 Meeting [Have resume, cover letter, e-mailable portfolio and project two to bring for group critique]
March 01: Speaker [Have online portfolio and presentation portfolio started]
March 13: Group 3 Meeting [Portfolios for review by class]
March 15: Printer Tour 
April 01: [Start planning personal show with Kelsie]
April 10: Group 3 Meeting
April 26: Group 3 Portfolio Reviews
May 10: Turn in all work by 9:30