About me

I recently worked for a company called The Argonaut. They specialised in retail design, marketing and graphics. Their main client is Apple Inc. for whom my role was mainly orientated to providing a service for.

During my time spent working with the client (Apple Inc.) I have gained a great deal ofknowledge/experience and a wide and relevant skill setwhich makes me an ideal candidate for this role.

My role mainly consisted of designing and creating 3d visualisations for proposed Apple stores across Europe.

The 3d visualisations would be collated together into a ‘Design Kit'. This 'Design Kit' was created to present to prospective clients wishing to become part of the Apple franchise and sell the product in a Premium Resellerstore.

These design kits consisted of several sections explaining how the store would look and what products were to be displayed.
The 3d visualisations were the selling part of the kit, and the purpose of this was to show a graphic and detailed representation of how the store would look when finished. As such it was always part of my role to aid in the selling of the design by maximising the quality and inventiveness of the visualisations the company was presenting to the client.

After the 3d visuals, approved 2d plans would follow. The 2d store plans would include lighting/electrical layouts and table planograms of the official Apple products. There would also be a small section with visuals of the furniture followed by graphic panel layouts and sizes,designed to maintain the cooperate image of Apple Inc. and be true to their brand values.
These kits would be sent for approval by Apple first but would often require amendments before the final kit would be sent out to the prospective client,so there was much fine tuning and liaison with the Client directly to end up with the finished product.

Whilst the design kits were being produced they required agreat deal of multitasking. Several kits would be needed at the same time for multiple clients (e.g. a Fascia kit or a 2d plan for the design kit).
While waiting for a 3d visual to render I would prioritise and work on 2d plans to ensure that I was working through the project as efficiently as possible and was able to meet some very strict deadlines.

While at the Argonaut I also helped to create the fascia artwork for the store façade. This would also be presented in a similar kit to that of the design kit, again taking great care to maintain the cooperate image and design faithful to the client and requirements. Again these included the final fascia design, dimensions and the locality of the finished artwork.

Working with such a high profile client such as Apple Inc this meant that I had to follow extremely stringent guidelines and there was little room for error with a huge emphasis on quality and brand values.

To create the design kits and any other design I have used a variety of computer programs.
The Apple design kits were created and maintained in Adobe Indesign.
The 2d plans were often sent to us as a CAD drawing, I would then import it into Illustrator to add more detail. Sometimes we would also receive sketched plans with written dimensions.

I would draw this in Vectorworks for a more accurate plan and dimension of the space as well as creating a 3d model.

Art-lantis was then used to create the initial 3d visuals but was later replaced with Cinema 4d which is a modelling package.
The 2d plan would be imported into Cinema 4d and built as a 3d model, this would sometimes be a highly detailed model especially for the façade view.
This was recreated from photographs sent through from the client of the existing store front as many occasions the façade dimensions were never investigated.

In one of my previous roles I initiated the idea of a library for Salon furniture. The library was used for the company's designs and visualisations for Salon interiors.
I went through the process of creating each individual salon chair, or related piece of furniture in Cinema 4d and built up quite a varied collection. I was also able to export the files in different formats so they could be using in multiple 3d programs.

Recently I have been working with a presentation program called Keynote to create my own portfolio. I have found this to be an extremely useful, professional and easy program to use.

At present I am looking to further my abilities for Web Design and I am stating a course in September to start using Dreamweaver. After this course I hope to able to create and maintain my own website and be able to use my newly acquired skills to further my career. I enjoy learning new programs as they offer a challenge and give many different avenues to pursue any given task/design.

I am passionate about all aspects of design from 2d to 3d and would love the opportunity to develop my skills further. I feel I would be a great asset to the company, and I have gained a great deal of experience and knowledge of the field from my previous employments.

I feel that having worked in the past for such varied companies and Clients, I would be able to bring a fresh approach to any design practise.