Study Task 5: Who am I? Who are they?

List of possible client groups:

Banking:
branding, online communication, printed ephemera to promote their products, etc.

Retail (clothing, entertainment, music, food, home, lifestyle etc):
Branding, P.O.S, Online communications, social networking

Education: (private and public, primary, secondary, college and university, open university)
Branding, printed products, online communications, promotion of schools to public.

Music Industry: (record labels, PR, festivals, agents, studios, etc)
Branding, internal and external communications, promotion, online presence, social networking, events.

Film Industry: (agents, PR, festivals, production companies, studios etc)
Branding, internal and external communications, promotion, online presence, social networking, events.

Broadcasting: (tv and radio)
Branding of the station/channel and their programming, online presence, promotion, social networking, motion graphics

Corporate and Small Businesses:
Branding, online presence, promotion, internal and external communications, events

Charities:
Branding, online presence, social networking, internal and external communications, events

Newspapers and Magazines:
Branding, editorial design, social networking, internal and external communications, events

Publishers:
Branding, editorial design, social networking, internal and external communications, events

Manufacturing:
Branding, internal and external communications

One client group that reflects my current ambitions within graphic design
Publishing

Either working for a publishing house, like Penguin or Pushkin Press, or a studio that deals with creating the editorial and covers for the books externally such as Here Design.

What skills/interests do you have and how do they relate to the needs of your client group?I am incredibly interested in writing and reading, and so I have an obvious love of books that I think means I would work well in an environment where I had the ability to create design that relates to them. I have become really interested in the design of book covers and also the editorial of books and magazines, which directly relates to publishers or design studios that work with them. Having produced a book cover for a design project at the beginning of the year, and also for one of my live briefs during OUGD503, I feel that publishing design is a skill I am developing and feel involved and invested in. I love the idea and people's ability to communicate the themes and ideas of a book through one design, making it a clever and beautiful product that people can keep forever. 
What skills are needed and what skills do you want to develop?The main skills needed to work in editorial and publishing are the abilities to create interesting, aesthetically pleasing and purposeful layouts and covers that effectively communicate their message appropriately. This means that software skills, with particular talent in Indesign are incredibly important, and this is something that I very much would like to develop more as I think that I could be creating more complex and sophisticated layouts than I do at the moment. The ability to work with a large amount of information is also an important skill that would be required as you have a lot of copy and images to deal with when designing a book or a magazine. As well as this you need to have a sophisticated understanding of culture and history that allows you to create relevant designs that reflect the themes of the book or magazine, particularly if they make reference to a certain era or visual trend. This is something that I also need to work to become more visually fluent.  Understanding and ability to use type and imagery effectively is important across all aspects of design and so applies to here also. Time management and being able to communicate ideas confidently is also a skill that would be required, and something that I need to work on too, as I am not very confident in my design skills and ideas as I could be. 
What are your professional/creative aims and how do they meet the needs of the client group?My professional/creative aims are to design book covers and create editorial for either fashion/lifestyle magazines or novels, design and cook books, making designs that communicate in a clever and aesthetically pleasing way that makes people want to read, buy and keep the product and view it as a piece of accessible design as well as something that has been created to be read. I also want to be involved in creating printed products, and using traditional print methods in my work. These aims relate directly to the needs of the client group who create printed products, and also need to promote their product (books/magazines) using effective designs. To summarise, I believe that I would be happiest in the future working for either a design studio that creates editorial and publishing design, or a publishing house with in house designers. I have a love of book covers and editorial, as well as a love of the actual writing and books themselves that I think would work to my advantage in a publishing environment. I feel that although my skills need to be developed so that they reach a professional standard, I have the ability to work with indesign creating effective layouts, as well as the ability to use type and image effectively to communicate the themes and ideas of books in a way that has purpose as well as being interesting visually. I need to become more confident in presenting ideas as this will be an important aspect of work in this and many other design jobs, and I also need to broaden my visual and cultural understanding so that my designs can be more informed. Publishing design is the area I would most like to end up in, and so I will aim to gain experience within this field by asking for visits to publishing houses and studios like Here Design.