What is your best piece of work? – Random Question #3

Posted 26 Apr 2010 - 8 Gratefully received comments

Here’s another opportunity for you to have your say, with another one of my random questions.

Design is subjective, which is a blessing and a curse. Art is also this way, which means all opinions are valid, because the viewer takes away whatever they want from any given piece of art or design.
In my mind the distinction between art and design is that no matter what opinion has been formed in the viewers mind; a piece of design has performed a function, whatever that may be.

Taking all of this into consideration, the designer or artist will have started out with an aim in mind. You could say that the designer/artist is the person best placed to judge a final piece of work.

Which brings me to my question:
What is your best piece of work?

This is quite a broad query in my mind. Your best piece of work may not be the best because the final result is the most atheistically pleasing. Maybe it is your best piece because of what you learned while undertaking it. Maybe it was the process more than the result that you are proud of.

Whatever the reason please leave a comment below. Don’t be shy, feel free to include links to work samples if they are online and explain why you think it is your best work.

I guess I should answer the question too!
To keep it simple, you’re looking at it. I believe my best work is my personal branding. This website makes up a part of that.
I mentioned in my last post that I’ll be making a few changes to the site and this has made me look at it in a new light, and helped me to realise how far my personal brand has grown over the last year.
You can also see some examples of my business cards here, which illustrate how my website fits in with another facet of my branding.
I think it’s my best work because it never ends. I’ve always had a personal identity, it started life very differently to what you see now, and it’s that sense of growth and evolution that I appreciate because it is a measure of how I’ve progressed as a designer.

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8 Comments

  • Fred says:
    April 26, 2010 at 6:12 pm

    I was only on the graphic/web design scene for about 18 months and was self taught but this is probably my best piece of work in my opinion.

    Nice and simple, conveys the message behind the word quite well and draws the onlookers in as it’s a little different.

    http://www.xenonsoft.co.uk/images/portfolio/nothing.jpg

    [Reply]

  • Ken Reynolds says:
    April 26, 2010 at 7:15 pm

    Thanks for sharing Fred.
    Do you plan to get back into design at some point?

    [Reply]

  • Andy Kleeman says:
    April 27, 2010 at 12:17 pm

    Hi Ken,

    Interesting post, I’d certainly agree with you that your personal branding is something you should be very proud of especially having seen it develop from your initial concept you posted on design forums. I think personal branding is the toughest thing to get right as you write your own brief carry out and have to try and assess your own work as designer and client.

    One of my own favourite projects is http://www.magexgardens.co.uk/ which I first designed+build about a year ago and has recently had a ‘re-launch’ with added content and a few design tweaks. I think for me one of the reasons I am so pleased with this is I feel I’ve translated some of my background in design for print onto the web.

    I’ve always felt that design for print has been a much higher standard than for the web partially due to limitations (which are now becoming far less) but also due to the fact that many clients would use a ‘developer’ to design their site rather than a ‘designer’. There can also be a valid argument to say that many ‘print designers’ don’t (or never used to) understand the web, however that’s not something I’m looking to get into…

    Another reason for this being one of my favourite projects is that it is something that will continue to grow and evolve for the forseable future and it’s always nice to feel part of a project you are proud of.

    [Reply]

  • Laura says:
    April 27, 2010 at 12:35 pm

    I’m always nervous about submitting work to such posts, as there is the chance that your simply submitting your work for ridicule. However I’ve decided to be brave and share a website that I’m particularly proud of:

    http://greystokestages.co.uk/

    It’s actually a site that I’ve work on in partnership with a developer friend of mine – highlighting the importance of working to your strengths as Andy has pointed out in his comment.

    Out of everything I created for this site, I think it is actually the logo I am must proud of. I’m not a logo designer by any stretch of the imagine, but I feel like I managed to pull something out of the bag with this one. Professional logo designers may disagree, but I’m over the moon with it.

    [Reply]

  • Andy Kleeman says:
    April 27, 2010 at 1:16 pm

    I like that site a lot Laura! & the logo is very nice! literally the only thing I would question with it would be the relevance of the photoshop style ‘transparent background’ but I might be missing something there?..

    I think it shows that you must have enjoyed working on it, the effect around the photos is nice and I like the detail that you’ve gone into on various pages with subtle gradients.

    Big/Bold site – I like!

    [Reply]

  • Laura says:
    April 29, 2010 at 12:45 pm

    Hi Andy, Thank you for your kind words – they really mean a lot to me. I guess I’m still building up confidence as a designer and so I am second-guessing my work a lot.

    Glad you like my style – I’ll have to work on developing it over the forthcoming years =D

    [Reply]

    Ken Reynolds Reply:
    April 29th, 2010 at 1:21 pm

    It is a nice piece Laura, no need for second guessing.

    Confidence is a tough thing in a judgmental and subjective profession like design, everyone has an opinion and they are all valid. I guess it’s a case of picking and choosing who’s opinions you want to listen to.

    The important thing is to know yourself and your own mind. If you are happy with a piece of work the opinions of others can be less important.

    [Reply]

  • Mart says:
    April 30, 2010 at 11:51 am

    well, i’d have to say my best was my photograph of the empire state building on my website however there is a pic very simular to this (not as good as mine) on a HUGE canvas for £9!!!
    So i’d have to say the squirrel is my best now also my late Grandma loved it.

    [Reply]

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Who's Ken?

Picture of Ken I'm a freelance graphic designer living and working in Suffolk. I've been using Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign & Quark Xpress since 1999 but I've been using pens, pencils, paper and most importantly my imagination for a lot longer. I'm always looking for new clients to work with and interesting projects to work on.

 

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