Assessment 1: Personal Brand Portfolio 

Purpose:

The purpose of this assessment is evaluate your understanding of the term “personal social media presence.” At the level of theory, you are being asked to reflect on how  online presence works in active and passive ways, via image, message and affiliation, structured through the technological affordances of chosen and affiliated platforms. At the level of practice, you will be required to conceptualize a your own online brand, execute proof of concept in the form of a pitch portfolio, and produce a process document where you assess your creative choices in light of academic concepts learned from class. 

Tasks:

1.    Conceptualize and create a ‘brand presence’ for yourself online (or revamp your existing one.) 

To create your brand presence, you are free to work with any platform (s) you wish, keeping in mind the “presentation, narration, demonstration, and solicitation” categories we will discuss at length in class. This isn’t something you will formally submit,  but will be necessary to produce in order to successfully create your  pitch portfolio and process document (discussed below), which will be formally submitted.

2.    Produce a ‘pitch portfolio’ that walks a client through the brand presence you’ve developed.

Your pitch portfolio should be a primarily visual document that you might show a client at an in-person meeting. It should be loosely structured along the lines of walkthrough, with the user objective being “to determine as much as possible about the professional identity of this person as possible.” We will be discussing the walk-through technique in detail in class. 

3.    Produce a ‘process document’ linking your creative choices to classroom learning. 

Your pitch portfolio must be accompanied by a short process document (approx 1000 words print or 2-3 min video.)  We will cover process documents more in class, but in brief, it should show how you have tried to synthesize your creative ideas about self-branding  with classroom learning, which means it should reference at least two concepts from class lectures and reading.   Format:

 Portfolio Format

Pitch portfolios should take the form of an 8-10 page illustrated document/slide deck, or may be presented as a 1-2 minute video/animated slide show. 

 Process Document Format

Process documents can take the form of a short (1000-1200 word) illustrated essay, or may be presented as a 2-3 minute video/animated slide show. 

Marking:

The  marking for this assessment will be equally split between portfolio and process document.  

Portfolio Marking Criteria:

This is not a production class, and it is  worth nothing you submit (with the exception of writing) will be assessed for quality of production. Although it’s great to showcase skills in filmmaking, photography, coding, music, etc as part of your brand identity, that is not what is being assessed for this class. Here is how I will be evaluating your portfolio submission: 

1. Clarity of  vision regarding your brand message   (Can I summarize what makes you valuable  as a professional  just by looking through this portfolio?)  
2.    Cohesion of narrative throughout your brand design (Is the message you are sending to the world well thought out? Is it consistently reflected in choices made across chosen platforms?)  
3.  Demonstration of creative imagination. (Does this portfolio simply meet the brief for the assessment, or does it go above and beyond in a way that intrigues, surprises, entertains, or educates the viewer? Could it be described as compelling in some way? Does it make the viewer want to learn more

PLEASE NOTE  that clarity of vision, cohesion of narrative, and demonstration of creative imagination are different than “full execution.” Although you need to have put in some labor to show proof of concept, you don’t need to have full execution of your work to score well on your portfolio. A compelling idea for a curated feed with ten posts can be more exciting at the conceptual level than a feed with 1000 items, but no clear rationale in terms of branding. If you have any concerns about how much labor needs to be visible to establish proof of concept, you are urged to raise these questions in tutorial.

Process Document Marking Criteria:

When evaluating your process document, I will be considering how you have addressed the elements below:

1.    Presentation (of identity)

Creative choices you might discuss: site design(s), color, layout, images, sound, font, navigation choices. Theory you might discuss include: symbolic interaction theory, context collapse.

2.    Narration (of message)

Creative choices you might discuss: voice, audience, storytelling.Theory you might discuss: inter and multimodal theory, performance and performativity theories.

3.    Demonstration (of skills, services)

 Creative choices you might discuss: your choices of clips, images you’ve made, resume posting. Theory you might discuss: cultural branding theory

4.    Solicitation (of contact, mostly)

Creative choices you might discuss : email, ‘find me elsewhere,” Patreon links, GoFundme links, Kiva. Theory you might discuss:  Microcelebrity theory

5.     Curation (of affiliation, inspiration, etc)

Creative choices you might discuss : Explanation of curated feeds such as: YouTube or Twitch channel, Twitter or Insta feed,  Spotify or other playlists, Zotero linked biblio, etc. Theory: taste theory; affinity theory; spreadable media theory

6.     Evaluation (of ethical issues, platform impact, outreach, effectiveness) 

Creative choices you might discuss: platform assessment, user engagement, metrics, etc. Theory: platform affordance theory, user testing methods, theories around ethics of care, etc. 

Although this assessment involves the same tasks as Assessment 1 (portfolio and process document devoted to social media brand presence) the brief differs in three significant ways:

1.  The “client” won’t be yourself, or even another individual, but instead must be a group, institution, movement, or other entity. This client can be actual and existing, in which case you will probably be revamping or adding to existing branding, or doing away with it altogether, with a strong enough rationale. If you wish, the client could be imaginary or conceptual (e.g. an activist movement that doesn’t yet have a formal name; a festival that doesn’t yet exist, etc.) Obviously, imaginary clients require branding from the ground up, starting from scratch.  <p>
2. Whomever you determine as your client, their brand message must connect in some ways to issues and concerns for another class you are taking here at Macquarie. This is something you will discuss at length in your process document. <p>
3. Where Assessment 1 gave you complete freedom with regard to platform choices, Assessment 2 will require one platform you MUST incorporate in your portfolio, and one platform you MUST NOT include.  Each students “must” and “must not” platform will be unique, and will be chosen out of a Platform Sorting Hat during tutorial time. Beyond your must and must not choices, you are free to use any platforms in your pitch portfolio.  

Tasks for this Assessment

(This is the same sequence you went through for Assessment 1)

1.  Conceptualize and create a ‘brand presence’ for yourself online (or revamp your existing one.)  To create your brand presence, you are free to work with any platform (s) you wish, keeping in mind the “presentation, narration, demonstration, and solicitation” categories we will discuss at length in class. This isn’t something you will formally submit,  but will be necessary to produce in order to successfully create your  pitch portfolio and process document (discussed below), which will be formally submitted.  
2.     Produce a ‘pitch portfolio’ that walks a client through the brand presence you’ve developed. Your pitch portfolio should be a primarily visual document that you might show a client at an in-person meeting. It should be loosely structured along the lines of walkthrough, with the user objective being “to determine as much as possible about the professional identity of this person as possible.” We will be discussing the walk-through technique in detail in class.  3.    Produce a ‘process document’ linking your creative choices to classroom learning.  Your pitch portfolio must be accompanied by a short process document (approx 1000 words print or 2-3 min video.)  We will cover process documents more in class, but in brief, it should show how you have tried to synthesize your creative ideas about self-branding  with classroom learning, which means it should reference at least two concepts from class lectures and reading.  

 Portfolio Format

Pitch portfolios should take the form of an 8-10 page illustrated document/slide deck, or may be presented as a 1-2 minute video/animated slide show. 

 Process Document Format

Process documents can take the form of a short (1000-1200 word) illustrated essay, or may be presented as a 2-3 minute video/animated slide show.

Marking:

The  marking for this assessment will be equally split between portfolio and process document.  

Portfolio Marking Criteria:

This is not a production class, and it is  worth nothing you submit (with the exception of writing) will be assessed for quality of production. Although it’s great to showcase skills in filmmaking, photography, coding, music, etc as part of your brand identity, that is not what is being assessed for this class. Here is how I will be evaluating your portfolio submission: 

1.  Clarity of  vision regarding your brand message  (Can I summarize what makes this project important just by looking through this portfolio?)  
2.    Cohesion of narrative throughout your brand design (Is the message you are sending to the world well thought out?  Is it reflected consistently in choices made across chosen platforms?)  
3.  Demonstration of creative imagination. Does this portfolio simply meet the brief for the assessment, or does it go above and beyond in a way that intrigues, surprises, entertains, or educates the viewer? Could it be described as compelling in some way? Does it make the viewer want to learn more?

PLEASE NOTE  that clarity of vision, cohesion of narrative, and demonstration of creative imagination are different than “full execution.” Although you need to have put in some labor to show proof of concept, you don’t need to have full execution of your work to score well on your portfolio. A compelling idea for a curated feed with ten posts can be more exciting at the conceptual level than a feed with 1000 items, but no clear rationale in terms of branding. If you have any concerns about how much labor needs to be visible to establish proof of concept, you are urged to raise these questions in tutorial.

Process Document Marking Criteria:

When evaluating your process document, I will be considering how you have addressed the elements below:

1.   Presentation (of identity)  Creative choices you might discuss: site design(s), color, layout, images, sound, font, navigation choices. Theory you might discuss in your process document include: symbolic interaction theory, context collapse.  
2.    Narration (of message)  Creative choices you might discuss: voice, audience, storytelling.Theory you might discuss in your process document include : inter and multimodal theory, performance and performativity theories.  
3.   Demonstration (of skills, services) Creative choices you might discuss: your choices of clips, images you’ve made, resume posting. Theory you might discuss: cultural branding other other sorts of branding theory  
4.  Solicitation (of contact, mostly) Creative choices you might discuss : email, ‘find me elsewhere,” Patreon links, GoFundme links, Kiva. Theory you might discuss:  Microcelebrity theory  
5.     Curation (of affiliation, inspiration, etc) Creative choices you might discuss : Explanation of curated feeds such as: YouTube or Twitch channel, Twitter or Insta feed,  Spotify or other playlists, Zotero linked biblio, etc. Theory: taste theory; affinity theory; spreadable media theory  
6.    Evaluation (of ethical issues, platform impact, outreach, effectiveness) Creative choices you might discuss: platform assessment, user engagement, metrics, etc. Theory: platform affordance theory, user testing methods, theories around ethics of care, etc.