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I had a lesson with Ellie on the 29th of January 2016 which involved looking at various ways that people have made their own creative CV's. She shown us how a piece of origami could be our CV where our potential employer would have to unfold it to see our CV and then got us to do an activity in class where we created our own boxes. This got me thinking about how I would like to present myself which brought me to the conclusion that my CV would be a box of cards. I thought that this box could represent me as a person as I may look plain to others but on the inside; I have a lot to offer. I was playing around on illustrator trying to come up with a character that would be present throughout my CV and I ended up making a plain white ghost-type character. This is what I managed to accomplish in that lesson which I was really pleased with. I wanted to use a text type that looked similar to the font used in old retro games. I also intend to use the simplistic colour scheme of black and white to relate back to my theme.

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I got home that night and I began creating some of the cards that I thought would look suitable for my CV. I wanted to be consistent in keeping my CV game themed.
I gave my character different expressions and different variations of itself for each card to give it some personality as well as a cute representation of my funny side as well as showcasing my skills in Illustrator. To show the complex features that I can use within Illustrator, I made a 3D apple that would be presented subtly throughout my cards as it is something that my character loves. I did this to add to my characters personality. My inspiration for this was taken from the Minions who have an extreme love and obsession for bananas. I thought for my InDesign card; I would incorporate my Daily Dreamer magazine cover but I was unsure about it as it didn't fit into my theme. I felt this way about the large apple as well.

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30th of January 2016:
I designed my Photoshop card. I wanted to keep my design simplistic in a way that it still relates to my theme. I wanted to make this card funny by incorporating my character taking a 'selfie' on an IPhone. I based my phone design on an IPhone as they're quite simplistic in the way that they look and the fact that it was relatively easy to create on Illustrator.

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1st of February 2016:
I removed the apple and the magazine cover from my reverse card illustrations as they looked out of place in regards to my theme. So instead of having a 3D apple, I thought that I would add an image of something being drawn and a pixelated sword instead to stick to my gaming theme.
I spent a large amount of time creating the mini game on the 'My hobbies' card. I decided to make it a basic platform game like the original Donkey Kong and Mario games. I don't think anyone will think much of it but in my illustrator reverse card image, it shows a pencil drawing the character that is in the platform game. It’s a representation of the fact that a simple drawing could be expanded upon and eventually go as far as being included in a game that could earn someone a lot of money. For the character featured on the 'My hobbies' card, I made it so that they had a proud expression on their face. I did this to represent the fact that I am proud of what I do and the work that I produce. I also fixed my spelling mistake of Illustrator which I spelt as Illustrator.

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2nd of February 2016:
I was stuck as to what I should add for the reverse of the 'My qualities' card. I added a really simplistic face which I wasn't really happy with but I couldn't think of how to improve it at that time. For my 'Contact me' card, I wanted it to feature all of the characters that I had made in my other cards and I decided to make a pixelated representation of myself holding a paintbrush.

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4th of February 2016:
I had college and I got some feedback on the prototype that I printed off to show to my peers. It was recommended that I change the design on some of my cards to follow my theme more with its pixelated design. I changed the pencil drawing on the paper to a more pixelated HB pencil and I also had it drawing a funny 'sexy' version of my character. I also made it so that my character was featured in the mini game illustration on the 'My hobbies card. It may be a small detail, but I also made my apple and camera lens pixelated. I think this will be the final design for this set of card as it all ties into my theme.

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I completed my second set of cards. I changed the smiley face to a pixelated version as well as adding images and content to my other cards. I was quite particular with my 'work experience' card. I decided to use a floppy disk instead of something generic like a CD, USB or any other storage device because prospective employers will hopefully look at this card and say to themselves "Oh! I remember those!” For my reference illustrations, I wanted them to be really simplistic and convey communication. I also changed my 3D apple to the pixelated apple. With this set completed, my CV is finally finished and I am pleased at how well it went. I can now go on to do my evaluation.

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Below is an evaluation of my work overall. Before conducting my evaluation, I printed out my work as a prototype to see if any mistakes were made in the production of my work. There were only two spelling mistakes I found within my work which I rectified.

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3rd of February 2016:
Title font: OCR A Std
Title size: 26 pt
Reverse box text font: OCR A Std
Reverse box text font: 11 pt
I chose this font due to its game text appearance with it being slightly rigid and pixelated in appearance. I thought this font was the most suitable than the majority of fonts contained within the Adobe Illustrator package as the others either looked too formal e.g. MS Reference Sans Serif or too informal e.g. Mr Big SF. I thought that the OCR font group was most appropriate for my assignment.

For the final design, I added another computer on not only the bottom box fold but the top box fold as well. I did this to give the box more character and to make it more fun to look at. With my text, I wanted to make it amusing and informal as a means of making me stand out against other applicants for my selected job role. I also incorporated two game references as a a means of sticking to my theme of retro gaming. The reason why my main colour scheme is black and white is due to the fact that it naturally ties into my theme of retro gaming but it is also easier to produce. Also; if I were to mass produce this CV, it would be much cheaper for me to print my CV in black and white than it would in colour. If I really wanted to save money; I could get away with producing my work in Grey scale but for the sake of quality and commitment, I would prefer to present my work in the given colours.

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3rd of February 2016:
Font: OCR A Extended
Font size: 12pt

Education card:
I kept to my theme of black and white but I thought that it would look good if I had little pixelated hearts next to my grade to represent what I got for my GCSE's. Overall, I think that it looks really good and I like the contrast of the red and white being engulfed by this black background. I don't have any particular comments for this card in regards to improvement.

Illustrator card:
In this card, I introduced my characters favourite fruit. I wanted to try and show just how much he loves this fruit simply by his facial expression. In all of the other illustrations, he had pure black eyes but in this illustration, I added a white circle to look like a slight glimmer in his eye to represent the extent of his happiness. For the reverse image, I thought it would be amusing to have my character lying in the 'paint me like one of your French girls' position. I think in doing this, I have successfully portrayed my sense of humour. I’m still unsure as to wither I am happy with the pixelated pencil I made. I feel that it might look too jagged in comparison to my other illustrations but I feel it is a vast improvement when compared to the other pencil I made. I think if I were to improve it, I would probably make the pixels bigger like the sword's pixels as well as to use less yellow pixels.

InDesign card:
This card required the most thought. I was at a loss for thought in regards to what to do for my character expression as well as what to do for the reverse image as the magazine in the first draft looked totally out of place. When I wrote my personal statement about my InDesign skills, I thought that I sounded quite cheeky so I decided to make my character do a cheeky wink. I also decided to use a pixelated sword instead of the magazine cover as it is something that often appears in games as well as it commonly represents strength. I wanted an illustration that would show that InDesign is something that I am confident in. After all the thought that went into this card, I am really happy with how it turned out and I don’t have any suggestions or suggestions towards how I could improve it.

Photoshop card:
I thought that for this card, I would be completely honest in saying that Photoshop isn't one of my strong points as it would be completely unrealistic if I were to say that I was skilled in all fields of Adobe software. I wanted to convey my willingness to better my skills and show that I am eager to learn new things. I added a touch of my humour to this card by saying that I can do more with a camera than take pictures of myself (selfies). I then proceeded to add an illustration of my character taking a picture of themselves on a mobile with a cheeky expression on their face. I’m still unsure as to if I am completely satisfied with the reverse image on this card. I could only think to pixelate the lens because I didn't think it would look good fully pixelated. I think if I were to redo this card, I would explore various methods as to how others have created pixelated camera illustrations without making them look too complex as I want my illustrations to look simplistic.

My hobbies card:
I was really happy with this card. I feel that I successfully captured the pride that I have in what I do with the expression I used on my characters face. I take great pride in my work and I feel that I successfully conveyed that in my illustration. The reverse illustration on this card is one of the more complex images that I made. I wanted to make my own take on a retro mini game similar to that of Donkey Kong. I incorporated my character into the mini game to make the card more personal as well.

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3rd of February 2016:

My qualities card: If I’m honest, I was really unsure as to what expression I wanted my character to have on this card. I got really stuck with it so I just ended up copying him from my Illustrator card, rotating him slightly and horizontally reflecting him. I think that this was a good decision to make as my character is showing a positive expression in regards to the qualities I have. In the beginning, I was really confused as to what I should use as my reverse image. In the end, I settled with a pixelated smiley face. I think it look a lot better in comparison to the first illustration I produced as it fits more with my cards' theme. I think if I were to improve this card in the future, I would probably give my character a slightly different expression so that it’s unique and it isn't mirroring the character expression on my Illustration card. I would also explore more ideas for what I could do for the reverse image as all I could come up with was a smiley face.

Work experience card: I was really happy with what I did for this card. I wanted my character to have an inquisitive expression as a means of showing interest in the experience that I have had in various work environments. I was very pleased with my floppy disk illustration because I think it appropriately fits into my theme as well as people will look at it and think 'I remember those!' as they were widely used as a storage device in the 90's and early 2000's. I incorporated it as a means of possibly sparking a memory for the person looking at my CV. I can’t think of any way that I could improve this card as it fits my CV's purpose of being unique and causing me to stand out slightly.

References part 1 and 2 cards:
I wanted my character illustration to be put into two parts as my references cards were in two sections. For this reason; I made my characters mirror each other and made it so that they were sharing an apple. I thought this would be interesting to do as when flipping thought the cards, you may not notice it but when you place the cards together, the characters mirror each other. I made my reverse image on reference part 1 an old pixelated telephone and on the reference part 2 card I added a pixelated e-mail icon as a simple representation of forms of communication that could occur between a potential employer and the referee. Overall, I was really happy with how both of these cards had turned out and I couldn't think of how to improve them.

Contact me card: This was my favourite card in the set! I wanted it to be the card that stood out the most as it contains my personal information that would be necessary if a potential employer were to ring me with the intention of giving me an interview. I added all the characters used in my pack of cards to represent a group of people who are urging for my success in getting a job by being there. The most difficult aspect of this card to produce was the pixelated image that I created of myself on the reverse of the card. It took me an hour and a half to create but I think that it captures my image perfectly as a cheerful individual who loves to be creative. I can’t think of any way to improve this card as I am simply thrilled with how it turned out better than I had imagined.

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I am really happy with my work as a whole. I think that it stands out from the CV's created by others in the creative sector. I think what makes my CV so unique, is the fact that it is interactive whereas the current trend for graphic designers is to have their CV on an A4 sheet of paper as shown in the image below which was produced by a simple Google search. I also found that the majority or creative CV's follow the current trend of being produced in soft pastel colours. The main purpose of this CV was to be unique and stand out. I think I did this successfully by thinking outside the box (pun intended) and using my imagination. In my head, I envisioned a game themed set of cards that listed all of the reasons why a potential employer should hire me. I managed to turn my vision into the work I have presented in this progression journal and I am really thrilled at how well it turned out. The entirety of my CV was produced using Illustrator where I made use of the shape tool for my pixelated images and the pen tool for my character. I felt more comfortable using Illustrator as it enabled me to easily create vector based illustrations which meant that I could resize my images when necessary without hindering the quality of my images. This wouldn't be the case if I had chosen to format my images in a raster format. I attempted to create my pixelated images in Photoshop but this didn't work out due to the fact that the images were raster graphics meaning that they lost quality when enlarged. For that reason, I created all of my pixelated images in Illustrator using the shape tool which was more time consuming and difficult but it was all worth it in the end.  With the use of trial and error, I discovered what worked within my CV and what should be changed for my CV to match the purpose of it being unique and what made it stand out from the work created by others. I consider my creative CV to be a huge success as it stands out and leaves a good impression of my work as an aspiring graphic designer.