Critical Report

Critical Report: Professional Portfolio Planning

Jessica Barba

Word count: 1354

With the purpose of the Professional Portfolio Planning unit being to evaluate and self reflect the representation of becoming a professional make-up artist, it was vital to evaluate and research areas of how established make-up and hair artists present their skills for employment and to investigate companies and networking tools that can help promote the artist as a strong, professional candidate for the make-up and hair industry. The progression of studying BA (Hons) Make-up for Media and Performance has highlighted that fashion and beauty make-up is of high interest to pursue professionally. However by continuing to explore techniques in level six has also created strong interest of wig making as an employment pathway and the idea of working in television. Because of this the artist did not want to refine herself to one element of which she has learnt through the three years. This has led to the decision to promote and highlight a wider range of skills through self-advertisement to become a more diverse and fitting candidate to a range of make-up job roles.

Research into established make-up artists such as Alison Dunwell and Lan Nguyen highlighted that it is possible to promote yourself in more than one area of expertise with both showcasing on their websites a well-presented portfolio in which has been sectioned into specific categories for different skills and techniques.

By researching established make-up artists and wig makers websites has also helped to evaluate what areas work well to make the context easy to navigate and to have a professional, sleek format for a website design. This helped reflect strengths and weaknesses of the artists own professional website in which was created last year. Although the artist was happy with the layout, sections on the portfolio menu were adjusted to make techniques easier to find. Another area that needed progression was the name of the website domain and website. Last year the artist used their first and middle name however research concluded that this was not done by many established make-up and hair artists and that it would be more professional to use her last name instead due to it being more unique in which can hopefully be more memorable for future employers. A domain was also invested for the growth of the artists’ promotion due to the reasoning that the free domain given with Squarespace was long-winded and did not look professional on business card designs.  Reflection on the logo chosen from last year also lead to the realisation that the design was too busy and did not give a formal look to professional branding. By identifying established make-up and wig artists such as Sameer Khozami and Sam Cox led to the evaluation that their name and logo design had a much more clean and sophisticated look. This lead to the development plan of investing into a new logo in which was more clean and visible but also had an artistic element of the decorative initials.

Social networking was another area in which was emphasised to showcase the artists professional skills and techniques. By making sure that frequent posts on networks such as Twitter and Instagram has helped identify acknowledgment of how make-up related posts can be visible by industry professionals in which can help identify the artists skills for employment.

Collaboration with other areas of creative pathways has also helped to progress the artists technical skills as a professional make-up artist. By continuing to work on collaborations has not only helped to develop and strengthen the quantity of artists professional portfolio but to also work under industry-like demands such as specific time calls for the hair and make-up to be achieved in and making sure the make-up and hair connects with other areas of expertise such as costume to fit the overall subject of the brief. It has also helped to continue the exercise to work professionally and responsibly under health and safety guidelines in which is a vital and important element of responsibility in the make-up and hair industry. 

By creating a personal development plan has helped to prepare and organise the artists aspirations to grow as a professional make-up artist. With timed goals to achieve will not only prepare the artist for the industry but to also balance their work load effectively. Goals such as investing in insurance as a make-up artist and applying for short courses to enhance technical skills are vital elements of progression to prepare and organise advanced attributes for employment. A work plan of Major Project and Professional Portfolio Planning units was also created to balance time effectively and to organise time to fit in collaborations to broaden experience in working with different collaborative parties and to expand the artists portfolio.

The fifteen-minute professional presentation helped identify both strengths and weaknesses of how the artist presented herself. When reviewing the presentation back the artist realised her body language enhanced an overview of looking nervous such as having hands in pockets in which gave unprofessional appearance. Another weakness noted was that the presentation lacked overall structure. Again a strong reasoning was the artists nerves in which led to stuttered moments of speech and long pauses in which resorted to an unbalanced presentation with the artist not relating suited work in for the job description in which they applied for. After this experience the artist concluded that it could have been appropriate to have created a PowerPoint presentation containing points in which the artist could reflect on to help have as a guideline. Feedback from the panel also helped the artist reflect and evaluate areas of the artists’ creative practice. Positive comments included that their self-promotion design and outlook was of a professional standard and clearly presented. Although comments did conclude that the artist was a fitting candidate for a television make-up artist job role further reflection on portfolio images was recommended due to some images being stronger than others. This lead to more in-depth evaluation on their professional portfolio and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses on each image in which the artist has now edited to remove the weaker images that did not showcase their skills to their full extent. By evaluating their portfolio the artist also reflected that her hair skills were not strongly visible throughout her portfolio. Although the artist does not feel confident in hair styling this would be a necessary skill of styling if the artist were to pursue wig making as a career. This has led to the artist to take the personal responsibility into researching hair styling short courses for their personal development plan in order to develop a stronger skill of creative practice knowledge in which will lead to future progression into creating more advanced skills for professional employment.

For further progression into gaining more confidence in skills and techniques for future employment the artist also made goals to apply for professional work experience with Sky TV and also emailing wig makers. If the opportunity does arise it will not only help exercise technical skills but to also to have experience in a professional industry.

A budget of £70.00 for this unit was also created for personal responsibility to invest for development into promotional branding. Although the artist did price compare areas such as domain websites and graphic designers the artist did go over budget by £20.53. Postage and packing was the area in which the artist did not conclude for when creating the budget in which did lead to the over spend. The artist however does think that the investments made were appropriate to the development of becoming a professional in making sure the quality of the branding material was to industry level.

Overall the unit of Professional Portfolio Planning has helped the artist critically reflect their body of work to fit the target market of employers of the make-up and hair industry in a professional manner. By continuing to exercise the points of the learning outcomes will not only make the artist more aware of strengths and weaknesses of practical work but to professionally plan and achieve goals and experience to make herself a strong candidate for employment in the make-up and hair industry.