And Partners,
Waulk Mill,
Manchester,
M4 6LN
Tel. 0161 237 1573
Email. kate.reeve@andmail.co.uk
And Partners are a Manchester Design based group who specialize in logo design, branding and ideas. I work for the Village Hotel chain and I came across this group as they designed the logo and certain aspects of the chains new look.
This image is from their website, and it makes clear there biggest goal is to generate ideas, an important part of what a designer does.
Just like the purpose of our Final Major Project, to develop ideas to and unique solutions to a problem seems to be what they do most. This image from their website shows the different jobs that And Partners develop ideas for, e.g. launching three hotels, creating inventions. They seem to have humour behind them as well by placing the odd, learn to ski in there.
From the looks of this, they have a large client base, although there clients aren't extremely big companies. Vimto and NSPCC seem to be the most well known.
What this site lacks is an actual portfolio of work, which makes it difficult to understand what other work they do besides logo design. The message about ideas seems to be a constant throughout there site, which means there information they could provide me on my work would be very valuable. It will be interesting to see what other work they do.
I made contact with Kate Reeves, who is our liaison at the Village -
| From: | Adam Greenwood (adam_greenwood22@hotmail.com) |
| Sent: | 09 March 2009 15:20:18 |
| To: | kate.reeve@andmail.co.uk |
Hi Kate,
My name is Adam Greenwood and I work as senior in the Verve at the Cheadle Village Hotel.
I also am currently doing a degree in Multimedia Design at Stockport College, working on print work, 3D animations and web design projects. My design portfolio also includes done some freelance design projects for the Village in the past.
I was emailing in hopes that you may possibly be allow me to come visit with my portfolio and provide me with some feedback of my designs.
Thank you for your time.
Adam
This was the reply I had -
| From: | Kate Reeve (kate.reeve@andmail.co.uk) |
| Sent: | 10 March 2009 09:39:23 |
| To: | 'Adam Greenwood' (adam_greenwood22@hotmail.com) |
Hey Adam,
Thanks for your email below.
I’ve spoken to our Creative Director and he’s more than happy to invite you in to take a look at your portfolio.
To arrange a date, feel free to give him a call on 07753 743356.
Thanks and regards,
Kate
This was the reply I sent
| From: | Adam Greenwood (adam_greenwood22@hotmail.com) |
| Sent: | 11 March 2009 16:20:36 |
| To: | Kate Reeve (kate.reeve@andmail.co.uk) |
Thank you very much Kate, really appreciated your help
Adam
After getting in contact with Lee from AndPartners, we set a date to meet up which unfortuatly got cancelled as they were busy on the day, but was eventually rearranged for Thursday the 7th May.
This portfolio critique was a fantastic experience. Unlike the first one I had with AHD Imaging, I was a lot earlier this time, which was a good start. Lee , the creative director, who looked at my work was very young and pleasant, which made it much easier for me to talk without feeling under pressure.
We began with just a general chat where I discussed my course and because AndPartners do work for the Village Hotels where I work, we found some common ground due to the people we both know.
First off he wanted to look at my Village poster design work as that is more the area that AndPartners deal with. He was really good in his approach, picking out the areas that worked well and what he liked before discussing the areas that need improving. This was great for me as it allowed me to feel proud of my work, and more eager to learn how I need to improve in my designs. The newer designs where I had a limited pallet and worked well with space is what he liked the most. I told him some of the stories I have had with my clients before, which is discussed in my Issues and Practices report. He was fully understanding about problems with working with clients, and how they are, "always right." Suggestions he made about approaching work like this again is to make sure that I include more information like web addresses, even if its really small, just so that theres a path for the customers to follow. Some of my designs lacked a logo for the hotel, which was because they were designed for in house use, but the importance for this is if I flier is to be taken out, a reckonizable symbol can work wonders, even its just for remembering your design. For example, someone could drive past the hotel and see the sign and instantly be reminded of where they have seen that logo before. One example of my work was a grey scale piece, which in style he is also a fan of, but he recommended that to work with grey scale would be better in promotional material where a logo can be used as it gives it just a bit of colour to give it that extra boost.
Even though AndPartners don't work with moving image, he wanted see some of my designs. The first piece I showed was my Synaesthesia piece, which I could clearly see he was very impressed by. He wasn't able to comment much on the technical side to the work, but enjoyed the concepts and ideas. After viewing my 3D portfolio he was eager to get me in contact with 422 - Web Link - 422, who deal with 3D and post production work. AndPartners tend to work with them on occation so he has made some contacts and said that he would have a word with them and get them to get in contact with me. This boost of encouragement had a great effect on me, and made me feel less like a student and more like a proud designer. Lee said my 3D work is what pushes my portfolio and reckons if I was to turn back to poster work again that I should think about using a few more 3D imaging.
To finish off he told me to keep in contact and let him know how the final piece for my major project goes and asked me to send a link to my YouTube Channel. Overall this experience has been fantastic and really encouraged me to push myself further. I definitly have found now I have the experience to approach companies and be more confident in myself for after I finish my degree.
From:Adam Greenwood (adam_greenwood22@hotmail.com)
Sent: 07 May 2009 13:52:37
To: lee@andmail.co.uk
Hi Lee,
Just wanted to say thank you again for your feedback this morning. The advice you can me was very helpful, I really appreciated it.
Here is a link to my YouTube channel -
http://www.youtube.com/user/AdzMultimedia
I'll let you know as soon as my final project has been uploaded.
Adam
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