Olivia Greaves

END OF 2nd YEAR EVALUATION

2009-06-09T10:35:00.001-07:00

I can't believe 2nd year has come to an end. Time seems to be passing by very quickly at the moment. I seem to be constantly questioning my self as a designer and where my skills lie. From 2nd year I have learnt that my passion lies mainly in design for print and I want to become a better illustrator and image maker. I have enjoyed creating my own illustrations this year and have tried to develop a style I can call my own. I have been challenged and worked harder than ever. I have found myself struggling at times to keep my head above water, with the pressures of modules, critical studies, enterprise and innovation and PPD to juggle. At times it has been overwhelming but has been a big learning curve for me in how to manage my time. I have taken away with me a lot to reflect upon over this summer.

I am more aware of my strengths, my weaknesses and what I want to strive to become. I'm ready for my 3rd year and eager for it. I just know I need to keep this enthusiasm and thirst going over summer so I'm going to try my best to keep active in my practice, even if it's just a little here and there that keeps my ticking. I'd like to try and do some t-shirt designs over summer. Some friends of mine on the course have expressed an interest in wanting to produce some and I think it'll be a fun little project to become involved in over summer so when we get back we can hopefully get them printed up. The printing process too will be a learning curve for me and I'm excited to see where that could take us. Next year I would definitely like to do screen printing. It has been something I have wanted to do all this year but never got around to doing. Next year even if i don't use it for a course project, I will definitely give it a go. There is something about print that I have taken a shining too this year and want to become more involved in. I want to know more about it and become better at it. I have managed to try out digital printing, which is a process I will use again. It was very enjoyable to experiment with and very satisfying to see an end result.

I have realised that I would like to become more involved in the corporate side of design and try my hand at letter heads and logo design more. I feel my designs have been too fun and I have been too precious about them this year. I need to push myself until things go too far so I know I can develop my work better. I find I often have an idea, stick to it and then don't explore it enough to get the most out of it I perhaps could. From that, I know I am lazy and need to push myself harder.
I would like to develop my skills in InDesign so that my layout skills are better. I am still very much a novice to InDesign and only know the bare minimum. Summer is my chance to play around with it and test my hand to it.

I have been lucky enough to do a work placement at the end of my 2nd year with a print and design company however I am currently on the look out for a couple more and are in touch with some designers. This is all still very much in the process however. I gained an awful lot from doing a short placement with them. Just a few of the things I did for them were, help design a double sided business card, deliver work to clients, sit in on client briefings, give my opinion on page layout of a 200 page lighting brochure and help in and around the studio. I was able to speak to all the team and shadow them. I learnt a great deal from just talking to them and being able to observe what they were doing. Watching how they manage their time and the pace they worked to was a big eye opener and I didn't have to make tea or coffee! My time there has really inspired and informed me and kept me eager to find more and learn more over summer.

I hope 3rd year isn't going to finish me off, however I can feel the stress and soul ripping of it brewing already...
Quite what my plan for 3rd year is going to be yet I do not know, though this summer I am going to try to maintain my design practice through, type/visual journals, live briefs or independent practical research. Hopefully by doing so my plan will be ready and prepared to get the ball rolling as soon as I'm back in September. I just need to stick to it!

Work Experience

2009-06-05T03:02:00.000-07:00

For the past two days I have been having some work experience at a graphic design and printing company in Leeds called Print Ideas and Printing.com. Both have been really useful I have learnt so much over a short space of time.

Evaluation

2009-05-31T04:57:00.001-07:00

Module Title:Design Practice 2
Module Code: OUGD203

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Time management has always been a battle and I feel that knowing I had three briefs on all at the same time and all for the same deadline made me very much more aware of the fact that time had to be managed. Deciding how long to spend upon each brief was the hardest. I didn't focus upon them for the time allocated for each at first and struggled a little to get all projects back on track. I feel I have got a better understanding of researching through this module and really researched thoroughly in the time I had. This is a skill I feel lax with at times and have always wanted to work upon. I also feel I am more focused with where I want my work to go and that I am still enjoying working illustratively. However, saying that I did try my hand at using type in my Street Talk Brief, how successfully it came out on the other hand is left to the viewer...

2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?

I have learnt with my Don't panic Brief to work faster and be less precious about my work. I did get good feedback from my crits on how I could improve upon my resolution but felt that it was best to utilize the time I had left to try and resolve the Street Talk Brief the best I could and tie up any loose end on my Sainsbury's brief. I found myself trying and testing my illustrations and layout more in my Sainsbury's brief and really trying to develop my ideas. I experimented with stokes, colour out with text and reversing my illustrations. Perhaps i spent a little too much time on doing this however as I found it difficult to make a decision on the final one after all that! I definitely need to work upon sketching out my ideas and visuals quicker though, like I did better in my last Feel Good collaborative brief.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I feel my strengths lie in image making, illustration and layout. I will capitalise on these by focusing my work practice on these skills in future projects. I will carry on working in an illustrative and image way and try to develop the strengths of my illustrations. I would also like to develop a style that is recognisably my own. I felt that the resolution for the Sainsbury's brief worked reasonably well. I have kept my canvas digital print and need to go back and steam it, however I would like to mock it up into a bag for life eventually and try to incorporate that into my portfolio. I would also like to try and develop it further and perhaps try screen printing the design onto canvas. The canvas I used for the print was as near to a real canvas material that I could find and i felt the final one used worked really well. The size that the illustration came out on the required canvas size looked ok too as the strokes looked strong and didn't get lost into the bag as I originally felt they would. Making the stroke of all the animals varied and bolder worked far better than had I left them all the same weight. That was through experimenting with my illustrations and good feedback in crits!

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how could you exploit these more fully?

I need to address how well I work to a timescale and become more focused in my way of working. I also feel that I need to practice my illustration skills. I don't draw enough outside of projects and modules in my spare time and would like to begin a notebook of my own illustrations and sketches.
My development work needs to be organised better and I also should continually evaluate my work as I progress. I don't do enough of this and will start to put more work on my blog showing my development and how my resolution takes shape.

5. Identify five things that you will do different next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. Try and stick better to my time organisation for each brief. I found I didn't stick well to the time I had allocated to each brief.
2. Motivate myself better at the start of each brief and steadily work through each to start them off rather than neglect one or two and find I've lost interest.
3. Try screen printing or other print processes.
4. Don't spend too much time on researching and distracting myself from getting ideas down.
5. Be more experimental with my illustrations and not too precious about them. Show development of them and explore stroke, layout, tints etc.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

Attendance - 4
Punctuality - 4
Motivation - 3
Commitment -4
Quantity Of Work Produced - 3
Quality Of Work Produced - 3
Contribution To The Group - 3

SAINSBURY'S - Final Designs

2009-05-29T05:42:00.001-07:00

The two below are the full and final illustrations that I have produced for the Sainsbury's brief. Above are photographs taken of the illustrations printed onto canvas material for my mock up.

STREET TALK - Final designs..

2009-05-28T17:10:00.001-07:00

The following are my final designs for each of the 3 drugs. ECSTASY, CANNABIS and COCAINE. They will go in the upper part of the telephone box advertisement.

The following are the 3 final images I will use for the bottom half of the telephone box advertisement for FRANK.

DESIGNS IN OTHER CONTEXTS

DESIGNS ON TELEPHONE BOX CONTEXT

Sainsbury's Illustration development..

2009-05-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Research on FRANK

2009-05-25T11:10:00.001-07:00

After looking into different areas of knife crime and alcohol campaigns I have decided to do my Street talk telephone box adverts on drug awareness for 'talk to FRANK.' I have chosen 3 of what seem the most popular drugs on the scene at the moment and researched into the effects of what they can do to you. I shall produce a poster for each of the three drugs.
They are:
COCAINE
CANNABIS
ECSTASY

COCAINE RESEARCH

Cocaine powder, freebase and crack are all forms of cocaine. They are stimulants with powerful, but short-lived, effects. Stimulants temporarily speed up the processes of your mind and body. ‘Freebase’ cocaine and ‘crack’ cocaine, can be smoked, and so can reach the brain very rapidly in high dosage. Snorted powder cocaine is absorbed more slowly. Hence, smoked freebase or crack tends to be much stronger and more addictive than snorted powder cocaine. However, all forms of cocaine prepared for injection (whether powder cocaine or crack) can also reach the brain rapidly in high doses and so can be very addictive too.

Slang: Street names for drugs can vary around the country. For powder cocaine – coke, Charlie, C, white, Percy, snow, toot. For crack – rocks, wash, stones, pebbles, base, freebase

Cocaine and crack are Class A drugs - illegal to have, give away or sell. Possession can get you up to seven years in jail. Supplying someone else, including your friends, can get you life and an unlimited fine.

CANNABIS RESEARCH

Cannabis is the most widely used illegal drug in Britain. Made from parts of the cannabis plant, it’s a naturally occurring drug. It is a mild sedative (often causing a chilled out feeling or actual sleepiness) and it’s also a mild hallucinogen (meaning you may experience a state where you see objects and reality in a distorted way and may even hallucinate). The main active compound in cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Slang: Street names for drugs can vary around the country and with different forms: Bhang, black, blast, blow, blunts, Bob Hope, bush, dope, draw, ganja, grass, hash, hashish, hemp, herb, marijuana, pot, puff, Northern Lights, resin, sensi, sinsemilla, shit, skunk, smoke, soap, spliff, wacky backy, weed, zero. Some names are based on where it comes from... Afghan, homegrown, Moroccan etc.

Some people may feel chilled out, relaxed and happy, while others have one puff and feel sick.
Others get the giggles and may become talkative.
Hunger pangs are common and are known as 'getting the munchies'.
Users may become more aware of their senses or get a feeling of slowing of time, which are due to its hallucinogenic effects.

Cannabis is illegal; it's a Class B drug.
If you’re caught with cannabis the police will always take action.

ECSTASY RESEARCH

This is often called the original designer drug because of its synonymous relationship with rave culture in the early 90s. Clubbers took ecstasy to stay awake and dance for hours. The effects take about half an hour to kick in and tend to last between 3 to 6 hours, followed by a gradual comedown.

Slang: Street names for drugs can vary around the country. E, pills, brownies, Mitsubishi's, Rolex's, Dolphins, XTC.

An E gives people an energy buzz that makes them feel alert and alive.
Ecstasy makes people feel in tune with their surroundings – sounds and colours are more intense.
Users often feel great love for the people they're with and the strangers around them. On its own, it’s not a drug that makes people violent.
Lots of people feel chatty on E. (These chats don't always make sense to people who aren't on an E).

Ecstasy is a Class A drug - illegal to have, give away or sell. Possession can get you up to seven years in jail. Supplying someone else, including your friends, can get you life and an unlimited fine.

www.talktofrank.com

YCN - JCDecaux Street Talk Brief...

2009-05-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

Extensive coverage providing access to an urban youth audience.

Oxy used the street talk advertisement space to advertise their products on the side of phone boxes and found it to be very successful.

'Increased time out of home is challenging advertisers to find new, effective ways to reach consumers. Situated on high streets and in urban locations across the UK, JCDecaux StreetTalk offers advertisers direct access to a desirable audience via street-level opportunities on BT's 23,000-strong network of phoneboxes.'

People

Coverage of 72% of UK adults every 2 weeks*
90% of Londoners see StreetTalk ads*
Londoners are 55% more likely to see phonebox advertising**
15-24 year-olds are 70% more likely to see phonebox advertising**
Twenty-somethings are 47% more likely to see phonebox advertising**
Mums with young children are 37% more likely to see phonebox advertising**

Place

Great sites right in the centre of the UK's towns and cities
34,000,000 adults see a StreetTalk ad every 2 weeks*
90% of Londoners see StreetTalk ads*
45% of all London phoneboxes are in Zones 1 and 2
Access to West End entertainment and retail and the Square Mile

Proximity

72% of Underground stations are within 150m of a phonebox
5,500+ phoneboxes within 75m of CTNs
6,000+ phoneboxes within 75m of banks and building societies
1,800+ phoneboxes within 75m of mobile phone stores
530+ phoneboxes within 75m of UK mainline stations
3,000+ phoneboxes within 75m of entertainment centres, such as cinemas
1,900+ phoneboxes within 75m of chain and independent bookshops

I am still really unsure what topic to chose for these poster ads. I want it to be something that's really bold and really communicates an educational message with the viewer. So far I have been looking into raising awareness on knife crime in the UK. Here are some existing images and campaign work that I have found on knife crime.

I have also looked into alcohol awareness campaigns for some inspiration...

Just a little something...

2009-05-05T09:55:00.001-07:00

This was something that caught my eye on the Hyperakt Design Group Blog. The write up that comes with it is as follows...
http://www.hyperakt.com/blog/tag/graphic-design/

Design vs. Life
Matthew Anderson | Books, Graphic Design | Monday, July 7th, 2008
Over the weekend I picked up Michael Bierut’s book Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design. Number one in the volume is a must-read piece called Warning: May Contain Non-Design Content. The essay, which was originally published on Design Observer, makes some noteworthy comments on the importance of design that is informed by life, not the other way around. I applaud Mr. Bierut’s words.

On a similar, less tasteful note, I ffffound this commentary over the weekend too. “Pardon my French,” states the author. “Really, I’m not usually such a potty mouth. [But] is anyone else thinking this?”

YCN - Sainsbury's Bag Brief...

2009-05-05T03:52:00.000-07:00

YCN Sainsburys Brief

I have chosen this brief because it allows me to experiment with illustration and possibly work with screen printing. I will use this as a short 2 week brief to create innovative illustration.

The Brief:
Create a piece of design or illustration for a limited edition range of Sainsbury's shopping bags.

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/home.htm

Existing bag design...

Sainsbury's Logo

Existing bag design commissioned for Sainsbury's by...

Paul Morrison

Michael Craig-Martin

Anya Gallaccio

Sainsbury's Illustration

Issues Sainsbury's Promote

The interactive store on the sainsburys website highlights the areas in which they are encouraging healthy eating and recycling, amongst other projects.

Facts on Sainsbury's Shopping bags

"Sainsbury’s has taken the most substantial action yet on the issue of plastic bag usage. We invite any business that would like to use its influence to make a difference to any other social or environmental issue to contact us. However, please consider the terms – substantial investment of resource, no financial return and the risk of backlash."
Eugenie Harvey Co-founder, We Are What We Do

Fizbag

'Established in 2007 by director Amanda Overland, the Fizbag product design and development team is managed by Amanda Overland herself, together with Emma Ogilvie, and Sabena Gallichan. Together we specialise in stylish, everyday, reusable shopping bags for life, and recognise the validity and practicality, of all our reusable bags being designed in house, by women, for women. We are passionate about our bags, and are always keen to develop new designs to make Fizbag even more special, and enable them to remain fresh, exciting, and extremely popular.'

'Our Fizbags are created in response to the potential banning of all plastic carrier bags. We specialise in stylish solutions to everyday problems with a twist. The main philosophy behind the design of our reusable bags for life, was to help protect the environment and wildlife through the reduced use of plastic carrier bags.'

Company Belief:
'LITTLE EFFORT, BIG DIFFERENCE'

Just 4 Fizbags should cover the average family's weekly grocery shop. This is why we offer FREE P&P on this particular purchase. The compact 'bag in a pouch' design means you can keep one in your handbag, key ring, or even in your car glove box! Our convenient and stylish lifestyle product means forgetting your 'green' bags is never a problem again!

Fizbags are VAT FREE and our bags for life cost just £3.99 each.
If you buy 4 or more Fizbags then postage and packing is FREE in the UK!

Competitors

Marks and Spencer

Greenpeace

Greenpeace's 'little green bag' for Shopping
Cut down the number of plastic bags you use by picking up one of our handy new shopping bags with a smart design. Each bag is very durable but small enough to carry with you in your hand-bag or your pocket - just pull it out when you need to use it! Our bags are made of 100% organic cotton which is fairly traded from South India. Each bag measures 35.5 x 41cm (14 x 16")".

Organic Hemp Bag

The bag is really cute and comes with sturdy round built-in handles and is made from the finest organic hemp available, which means the bag is strong and sturdy.
“Envirosax Organic Hemp bags are printed with a rich chocolate brown vegetable ink. The Envirosax Organic
Hemp bag is packaged in a recycled cardboard box that has been printed
with organic soy-based waterless inks”.

Walmart

Out of the 3 different themes, I have chosen to design for the theme 'Sourcing with integrity.'

Definition for 'integrity.'

in⋅teg⋅ri⋅ty [in-teg-ri-tee] Show IPA
–noun
1. adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.
2. the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished: to preserve the integrity of the empire.
3. a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition: the integrity of a ship's hull.

Integrity

In*teg"ri*ty\, n. [L. integritas: cf. F. int['e]grit['e]. See Integer, and cf. Entirety.]
1. The state or quality of being entire or complete; wholeness; entireness; unbroken state; as, the integrity of an empire or territory. --Sir T. More.
2. Moral soundness; honesty; freedom from corrupting influence or motive; -- used especially with reference to the fulfillment of contracts, the discharge of agencies, trusts, and the like; uprightness; rectitude.
The moral grandeur of independent integrity is the sublimest thing in nature. --Buckminster.
Their sober zeal, integrity. and worth. --Cowper.
3. Unimpaired, unadulterated, or genuine state; entire correspondence with an original condition; purity.
Language continued long in its purity and integrity. --Sir M. Hale.
Syn: Honesty; uprightness; rectitude. See Probity.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/integrity

D&AD - Don't Panic Brief...

2009-04-29T04:43:00.001-07:00

RESEARCH

Boomerang Media - Postcards

EXISTING POSTCARD DESIGN

POSTCARD DEVELOPMENT

FINAL DESIGNS AND PRESENTATION BOARD

Poster illustration

2009-04-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

Saw this awesome poster design on myspace. It's produced by the Leeds based illustrator Neil Women 158. I also hope to go to the even this Friday at The Faversham. Looks like it'll be fun!

Brief Selections...

2009-04-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

I have selected 3 briefs to answer over the next 5 weeks that I have left of 2nd year Graphic Design. They are as follows...

JAZZ BABY..

2009-04-24T04:21:00.000-07:00

I've got a growing interest in old skool jazz record and poster design. I recently bought this amazing book of Jazz Album covers rather appropriately named, 'Jazz Covers,' by Taschen.
I liked the type so much this is the typeface that I chose to use on my birthday invitations. Some of the covers date back to the 60's and have such a vibrant retro feel. I'm not much of typographer myself but I love the type layouts and fonts used and then way in which they use colour. Very inspirational!

Party Invite..

2009-04-21T05:24:00.000-07:00

These are the two final designs I came up with for my party invites. I chose to print the white in the end however I'm still particularly fond of the black version. I feel it looks better on screen though that how it would if it were printed.

Invitation Design..

2009-04-16T03:20:00.000-07:00

Hifi work..

2009-03-23T09:33:00.000-07:00

This is some examples of the style of work I am currently interested in a would like to aspire to. I have always liked the work done for the Hifi club in Leeds and would love to one day get my own work in there! These are just some banners taken from their website that heads the night descriptions.

Sauve BOX!

2009-03-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

Joan of Arc

2009-02-21T11:45:00.000-08:00

Who is she? I have no idea. I get the feeling I should..
Anyhoo I've been asked to research her as part of my Illustration optional module over reading week. So here are some of my finds...

Saint Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d'Arc[1]; c. 1412[2] – 30 May 1431) also known as "the Maid of Orleans," is a national heroine of France and a Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, claiming divine guidance, and was indirectly responsible for the coronation of Charles VII. She was captured by the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court, and burned at the stake when she was nineteen years old. Twenty-four years later, the Holy See reviewed the decision of the ecclesiastical court, found her innocent, and declared her a martyr. She was beatified in 1909 and later canonized in 1920.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc

Digital Media Module

2009-02-04T15:21:00.001-08:00

I am currently working towards finishing my digital module. I have been investigating into digital media to find out just what it is. The majority of my work has been focussed on my Digital Media blog which you can find a link to on the right hand side of this blog. Please visit to see other work. I have mainly been posting research onto it and anything that I find inspirational. I have also been producing my own animation in Adobe After Effects and my own website in iweb. These are a few screen grabs that I have posted up onto my digital media blog to show my progress and development on my iweb work. I have also posted the different stages of my animation that I am currently working on too. These are posted in a QuickTime format.

Random finds..

2009-01-26T03:28:00.000-08:00

This work was taken from http://www.crosshatchling.co.uk/ on Anna Garforths collaborative website. I wanted to post it up because it is so original and unique to anything else Ive seen or am looking at at the moment. Despite being mostly type and not image I still very much enjoy it.

"After graduating from Central Saint Martins with a BA Hons in Graphic design, I have freelanced as an illustrator. Recently I have become more interested in environmental and social design. Due to my latest collaborative work (moss art ) I have been commissioned by environmental agencies such as CABE (The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment), and received a lot of media interest."

The bottom 3 images were produced from a weeks worth of waste collected by two second year graphic design students to make into letter forms. Quite why you would want to do this I don't know, but i liked it never the less!

PPD thoughts...

2009-01-20T06:05:00.000-08:00

Today I have had my second PPD seminar where we had to give presentations of the work of others that we find inspirational and any design companies we would like to work for. I came across a Leeds based design studio called SBT or 'Studio Belly Timber.' After looking at their website and some of the work that they have done for previous clients, I feel that they could be potentially the kind of design studio I would like to work with in the future.
The description of their studio is as follows:

"Well, we are a fresh, independent Leeds based graphic design studio and the birth child of two talented Yorkshire designers. Behind our baby (and beardy) faces are eight years experience in corporate and commercial design.
With a desire to be different, creativity and diversity are key to us. However these priorities share the top spot with honesty and communication. A great design is only truly great if it fits the client’s brief and achieves its potential. It is essential for us to believe in our design solutions!
Our design commissions come from a broad reach of clients ranging from brochures to posters, adverts to corporate branding; and we are always looking for new challenges.Oh, and did we mention we LOVE what we do!
Studio Belly Timber: Substantial design!

This is an example of some of the work that they do...

http://www.studiobellytimber.com/index.php

What is Storyboarding?

2009-01-19T02:31:00.000-08:00

...a sequence of pictures created by a production illustrator to communicate the desired general visual appearance on camera of a scene or movie.
...a form of shooting script common for animated films for many years and now usually used for commercials, even live-action ones. It consists of a series of sketches showing key positions for every scene, with dialogue and descriptive notes below.
...a series of rough sketches that show the plot, action, characters, and setting of a film, used before actual filming begins.

The process of visual thinking and planning allows a group of people to brainstorm together, placing their ideas on storyboards and then arranging the storyboards on the wall.

...a production tool that consists of sketches of scenes and actions that map a sequence of events; helps the author to edit and improve the presentation.
…. graphic organizers such as a series of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of previsualizing a motion graphic or interactive media sequence, including website interactivity.

So there we have it. A few definitions of what I am meant to be doing at the moment. Something I'm not very comfortable with yet or have a great deal of interest in wanting to do - despite it being a chance for me to illustrate... hmm perhaps I will warm to them the more I practice.

iWeb Workshop..

2009-01-14T07:40:00.000-08:00

Today I had a workshop in iweb and this is a screen grab shot of what I managed to produce. I think I'm going to enjoy learning how to use it and be able to personalise it how I want. Doesn't seem too tricky - yet.

LP/EP Record packaging..

2009-01-09T13:02:00.000-08:00

Amazon use a make/company called wrapro to package anything bought and sent from them to their customers. Wrapro produce cardboard casing to protect products sent out. They are available for a whole rang of products from books, cds, dvds, records to books. Amazon use Wrapro to send out typical 12" LP?EP records. They are described as follows:
Multi Depth from 1 to upto 12 Regular LP Records
Extra strong corrugated construction with buffer zones
Self Seal strip closure
Handy tear strip opening
Ideal protection for sending precious or rare records

Product Description
The Wrapro Vinyl Record Mailer is made from High Quality corrugated cardboard, and designed to give superior protection to vinyl records in the post. The universal design allows for between 1 to 12 Vinyl Records, with handy creases to allow for folding in the right place. With other mailers, a pack dropped in the post can often damage the sleeve or record within the pack due to no space to cushion the impact. With it's extra strong buffer zones, the Wrapro Record Mailer protects vinyl records during such impacts, a feature most other record mailers do not have. This feature alone protects against damage to some of the most precious of records being traded in todays marketplace. The ideal choice for anyone who may often send more than 1 vinyl record at a time & needs a tough and reliable packaging mailer. The multi-depth feature of the mailer enables a packer to load anything from 1 to approximately 12 records. The ease of the design means that it adapts to contents inside without compromising stability or strength. Every Wrapro mailer has an easy self-seal strip, and convenient tear device for fast and secure filling and easy opening. The convenient tear open strip enables the end receipient to open the pack quickly and effortlessley, no need for knives or scissors which may damage valuable records.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wrapro-Inch-Vinyl-Record-Mailers/dp/B000LXPJDY

Turntable Design..

2009-01-09T10:31:00.000-08:00

The new Rega P3 - 24 coloured turntables.
WHAT HI-FI? product of the year 2007 and now WHAT HI-FI? product of the year 2008.

High gloss High performance P3-24 turntables.
.
The new P3-24 coloured models will be available in these
stunning new Finishes.

http://www.rega.co.uk/html/main.htm

http://www.linn.co.uk/home

What is an LP?

2009-01-08T13:45:00.000-08:00

Long play (LP) record albums are 33⅓ rpm vinyl Gramophone records (phonograph records), generally either 10- or 12-inches in diameter. They were first introduced in 1948, and served as a primary release format for recorded music until the compact disc began to significantly displace them by 1990.
The long-playing record is an analog format. The digital recording of sound was only made practical by the technical advances in microprocessors and computing which occurred in the 1970s and 1980s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LP_album

What is an EP?

2009-01-08T13:41:00.000-08:00

An extended play (EP) is a vinyl record, CD, or music download which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as an LP. Usually, an EP has around 10–28 minutes of music, a single has up to 10 minutes, and an album generally has 30–80 minutes. Mini-LPs generally contain 20–30 minutes of music.[1] In the United Kingdom, the Official Chart Company defines a cut off between EP and album classification at 25 minutes length or four tracks (plus alternative versions of featured songs).
EPs were released in various sizes in different eras. In the 1950s and 1960s, EPs were introduced as compilations or album samplers and were typically played at 45, then later 33⅓ rpm recordings on 7in (18cm) discs, with two songs on each side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_play

EP Cover Design..

2009-01-08T06:52:00.000-08:00

Best/Worst Research..

2009-01-07T13:51:00.000-08:00

What is a record?

A gramophone record (also known as phonograph record, or simply record) is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove usually starting near the periphery and ending near the centre of the disc. When made of polyvinyl chloride they are also known as vinyl records.
Gramophone records were the primary medium used for commercial music reproduction for most of the 20th century. They replaced the phonograph cylinder as the most popular recording medium in the 1900s, and although they were supplanted in popularity in the late 1980s by digital media, leaving mainstream by 1991, they continue to be manufactured and sold as of 2009, still used by DJs and audiophiles for certain types of music, especially electronic dance music, hip hop, punk rock, and heavy metal music.

Packaging..

Singles are typically sold in plain or label-logo paper sleeves, though EPs are often treated to a cover in similar style to an LP. LPs are universally packaged in cardboard covers with a paper (usually additional artwork, photography, and/or lyrics) or plastic liner (or "poly-lined" paper) protecting the delicate surface of the record. Few albums have had records packaged inside with a 3 mil polyethylene plastic sleeve, either square or round-bottomed (also called "U" shaped), and an accompanying 11x11 paper insert with the additional artwork, photography, and/or lyrics as described above. The insert could be single- or double-sided, in color or grayscale, and glossy or matte.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramophone_record

A Shit Box!

2009-01-07T13:35:00.000-08:00

HA how cool and obscene is the design for this!! It is alaso design by Maxwell Paternoster.

Shitbox is a lightweight portable cardboard toilet, made specifically for outdoor use. The box pops up from a convinient 14 inch flatpack to a rigid, reuseable, cardboard toilet.
I think the illustrations are great!

Damien Weighill..

2009-01-07T07:53:00.000-08:00

This guy makes me laugh..

I wish I could incorporate wit with illustration like this. Not only do I love the illustration and style but the comic value that goes along side it is priceless. Again I found this illustrator when browsing some of the Super superficial clothing online. The link to his site is as follows:
http://damienweighill.com/

Maxwell Paternoster..

2009-01-07T05:31:00.000-08:00

I discovered Maxwell Paternoster on the T-Shirt design company Super superficial. They collaborate with local and international artists and illustrators on a shared-profit basis, to produce highly original and limited edition garments for men, women and children.

"Maxwell Paternoster completed a National Diploma in Art & Design, then earned a BA Honors in Illustration and Animation at University of Westminster.
Maxwell was commissioned to do character design and cartoons for various magazines and publications while attending university. His art has adorned 3d objects such as skateboards, street art, BMX bikes and customised trainers."

New Toy..

2009-01-06T16:09:00.000-08:00

For Christmas I got a Record/LP player. So much fun! So I've spent most of my time digging out my Dads old LP's and passing hours trying them all out. This has given me some inspiration for my Best/Worst project and I have been looking as LP history, design, packaging and how they are produced. It's so weird how technology has gone from such a HUGE vinyl record to the ipod..

Best/Worst..

2009-01-06T15:49:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas holidays and i'm currently working on a brief called, 'Best/Worst.'

Optional Module..

2008-12-03T08:13:00.000-08:00

We have to choose an optional module on Thursday. Either Typography or Image and Illustration. I'm confident I would like to do image and illustration. So hopefully once that starts I'll be posting some of my image/illustration work up. Yay!

Inspiration..

2008-12-03T08:06:00.000-08:00

I think I have briefly mentioned this guy before when looking at his artwork for my 'What Is Good?' brief.. He is as Leeds based graphic artist/illustrator named 'Neil women158 Parkinson' and the link to his myspace site is..

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=66581504

This is some of his work and the kind of stuff I'm really into at the moment.

Evaluation of Design For Print and Colour For Print Module..

2008-11-25T06:17:00.001-08:00

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN – END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

Module Title: DESIGN FOR PRINT/COLOUR FOR PRINT

Level: 02 Semester: 01

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I have learnt a surprising amount throughout this module. I only knew a small amount about colour modes and gamut’s so it has been quite an eye opener as to what possibilities there are with regard to editing an image. There have also been a few rules about designing for on screen that I had never thought about before or taken into consideration. For example, I knew design for on screen had to be produced in RGB however when I designed my poster for the ‘Don’t Panic’ brief I designed it in CMYK with the intention to print out the final resolution. However, I wanted to use the colour overprint effect, which allowed other colours to pass through one another to give a mixed colour effect. So when I tried to upload my poster design it was fine as I had to convert it to RGB to use the effect but when I wanted to print it I couldn’t print the over print effect because it was only visible in the RGB colour mode and the colours were out of gamut for a four colour printer. Little problems like this occurred throughout the module and I really have learnt rather a lot by my errors.
With regard to software, I started the 2nd year with very limited skills in Adobe Illustrator, having spent my whole time shying away from everything but Photoshop in my first year. So I have learnt my way around it reasonably well and well enough to apply those skills in my final product for the ‘What is Good?’ brief. Other skills I have learnt were predominantly in print. For example I knew hardly anything about Letterpress and after having a workshop on it I felt able to do my own work, albeit at a very basic level. I found the workshop interesting but quite laborious and time consuming when in today’s day and age I knew I wasn’t very likely to ever use the process, however I knew it was very beneficial to have the basic understanding about it. The other printing workshop that I had was in screen print. This is a process I have used before and had a basic understanding about, but once there I found I needed to refresh my memory! I wanted to apply my skills in this print process for the Design For Print part of the module but I didn’t feel it was appropriate for the type of resolution that I was trying to produce.

2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?

Again my problems occurred mainly in print, however I also came across some other problems when trying to edit my images in the Colour For Print part of the module. When trying to transform my images to various colour modes out of the 6 variations I found it difficult to understand the channels and how they affected the final colour resolution. Splitting channels were also challenging for me. By coming across these problems though I learned from my mistakes and over came them. I have generated most of my work through researching into colour modes and print processes, however for the ‘What Is good?’ brief I generated most of my work through trying and testing illustrations or using photography and found images.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

Right now I feel that I am more of an image-maker or illustrator than a typographer. Although I am interested in type I am beginning to feel that it isn’t quite my bag. I have tried to develop my skills in illustration throughout this brief by trying a new way of working. For example I produced all my illustrations by hand, scanned them into illustrator and then pen tooled them all. This wasn’t a process I had used with my illustrations before. By doing this I became a lot more confident in illustrator and grasped a better understanding of layers and grouping. I felt by capitalising on these skills my work took a more comfortable route than it has done in the past. I would like to continue working with image and illustration in future projects and develop my skills as an illustrator.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how could you exploit these more fully?

I need to do more in depth research and read into things a lot more and become better informed about y subject areas. I feel that due to my own laziness this lets me down. By making sure I get that done first and steadily throughout a project I feel that my work would be a lot stronger and I will be able to produce better and more exciting resolutions.
Adobe InDesign is also a weakness of mine, I feel in future I need to try and work in the application more often.

5. Identify five things that you will do different next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. Time management – Not leave things until the last minute and use my common sense to start things earlier.

2. Try out different paper stocks – Not going the easy route and going with the easy accessible.

3. Research better – Looking back I didn’t do nearly enough in depth research. Primary or Secondary.

4. Consider rules when designing for on screen and print – This module has taught me a lot about designing for both so hopefully by taking them into consideration before working will help me to produce better work.

5. Force myself to use InDesign and not just use Illustrator or Photoshop to produce things in!

Screen Printing.. What is it?

2008-11-25T02:39:00.000-08:00

Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate. A roller or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil forcing or pumping ink past the threads of the woven mesh in the open areas.
Screenprinting is more versatile than traditional printing techniques. The surface does not have to be printed under pressure, unlike etching or lithography, and it does not have to be planar. Screenprinting inks can be used to work with a variety of materials, such as textiles, ceramics, wood, paper, glass, metal, and plastic. As a result, screenprinting is used in many different industries, including:
1 Clothing
2 Product labels
3 Printed electronics, including circuit board printing
4 Thick film technology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen-printing

Screens are made by putting a chemical emulsion on a mesh surface. Vector artwork is taken from Adobe Illustrator or Freehand and printed out on a film type paper or vellum. The screen is then exposed on a light table with the artwork under it. The light solidifies the chemicals around the design, and where the light failed to pass through, the chemical breaks down. The screen is then rinsed out and what is left is the area where the light hit.
When you place an order for screen printed clothing there are two charges:
The first is a setup charge which covers the cost of having the design made into a screen. This charge is 'one off' as the screen is stored for future use. Therefore, if you wanted to place another order in the future with the same design there would be no setup charge.
The second charge is a 'per screen' charge which applies to each item that is customised. This charge basically covers the cost of labour, materials and our other manufacturing overheads.

http://www.indigoclothing.com/screen-printing/

Flexography.. What does it mean?

2008-11-25T02:30:00.001-08:00

Flexography (often abbreviated to flexo) is a form of relief printing and is the method of printing most commonly used for packaging (labels, tape, bags, boxes, banners, etc.).
A flexographic print is made by creating a positive mirrored master of the required image as a 3D relief in a rubber or polymer material. A measured amount of ink is deposited upon the surface of the printing plate (or printing cylinder) using an engraved anilox roll whose texture holds a specific amount of ink. The print surface then rotates, contacting the print material which transfers the ink.
Typical products printed using flexography include brown corrugated boxes, flexible packaging including retail and shopping bags, food and hygiene bags and sacks, flexible plastics, self adhesive labels, and wallpaper. A number of newspapers now eschew the more common offset lithography process in favour of flexo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexography

Flexography is the major process used to print packaging materials. Flexography is used to print corrugated containers, folding cartons, multiwall sacks, paper sacks, plastic bags, milk and beverage cartons, disposable cups and containers, labels, adhesive tapes, envelopes, newspapers, and wrappers (candy and food).

http://www.pneac.org/printprocesses/flexography/

Gravure..What does it mean?

2008-11-24T14:14:00.000-08:00

gra⋅vure [gruh-vyoor, grey-vyer] Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. an intaglio process of photomechanical printing, such as photogravure or rotogravure.
2. a print produced by gravure.
3. the metal or wooden plate used in photogravure.
gra·vure (grə-vyŏŏr') Pronunciation Key
n.
A method of printing with etched plates or cylinders; intaglio printing.
Photogravure.
A plate used in the process of gravure.
A reproduction produced by gravure.
A plate used in the process of gravure.
A reproduction produced by gravure.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gravure

Rotogravure (roto or gravure for short) is a type of intaglio printing process, in that it involves engraving the image onto an image carrier. In gravure printing, the image is engraved onto a copper cylinder because, like offset and flexography, it uses a rotary printing press.

Lithography..What does it mean?

2008-11-24T14:01:00.000-08:00

Lithography (from Greek λίθος - lithos, "stone" + γράφω - graphο, "to write") is a method for printing using a plate or stone with a completely smooth surface. Lithography uses oil or fat and gum arabic to divide the smooth surface into hydrophobic regions which accept the ink, and hydrophilic regions which reject it and thus become the background. Invented by Bavarian author Alois Senefelder in 1796,[1][2] it can be used to print text or artwork onto paper or another suitable material. Most books, indeed all types of high-volume text, are now printed using offset lithography, the most common form of printing production.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithograph

Litho printing is also known as lithography or lithographic printing or planography or planographic printing. Litho printing works on the basic principle that oil and water do not mix. Unlike relief printing and intaglio where the image and non-image areas are at different levels, in lithography there is only one surface.
In lithography a flat stone is treated in a manner so that the image areas attract the oil-based inks and the non-image wet areas repel the oil-based inks. When the stone is pressed against the surface to be printed on, the oily inked image areas leave an imprint of the desired design.

http://www.whatislithoprinting.com/

what is a lithograph?
Basically, it is a print made by using a press to transfer an image that was created initially on stone or metal plate to paper.
Aloys Senefelder, who invented lithography in 1798, preferred to call it "chemical printing", since the process depends on the chemical interaction of grease, nitric acid, gum arabic, and water, rather than the stone from which the name lithography is derived.

http://www.unm.edu/~tamarind/process.html

li⋅thog⋅ra⋅phy [li-thog-ruh-fee] Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. the art or process of producing a picture, writing, or the like, on a flat, specially prepared stone, with some greasy or oily substance, and of taking ink impressions from this as in ordinary printing.
2. a similar process in which a substance other than stone, as aluminum or zinc, is used. Compare offset (def. 6).
noun
1. a method of planographic printing from a metal or stone surface
2. the act of making a lithographic print

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lithography

Sticker Design..

2008-11-24T07:59:00.000-08:00

Theses are found images of sticker design that I have researched for inspiration as part of my 'What Is Good?' Brief. I have found them really inspiring even though my final stickers were very different to their style. I love graffiti art and loved the way in which it has now expanded to sticker graffiti. I find it really fun and something I'd love to do in my spare time The illustrations again use the simplicity of plan black line drawings experimenting with different stroke weights against bold, vibrant colors. I love this effect.

I had to go back an edit this post. After i read it back i just realised how much I said the word 'love.' ...slightly worrying, obviously my vocabulary is more limited today due to the stress of my deadline!!!!

Final finals!

2008-11-24T07:06:00.000-08:00

The following are photographs I have taken to document my resolutions for my 'What Is Good?' Brief.

I used these images to document the journey of my project on my 6x A2 presentation boards. Hopefully they capture my product well enough for you to understand what it is and how it works without me having to explain!

Poster Finals!

2008-11-19T11:01:00.000-08:00

So here they are as promised. The poster designs which will be printed back to back on my leaflet booklet. The booklets will come in 3 different coloured paper stocks. I have done this so that it adds variation to the booklet. It also means that each colour booklet opens out to have a different poster design on the back of each. The designs are as follows...

Poster Illustration..

2008-11-19T07:36:00.000-08:00

I've been looking at various poster design recently and love poster illustration. I was browsing the New Bohemia gig lists when I came across these posters..

I thought they tied in well as part of my research for my what is good brief as not only are they poster illustration but they all revolve around music too! I love the choice of vibrant colour and how effective the bold black line drawings look on them. It's a style that I'm really into at the moment.

The website they are on is: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=35893307

This is the link for the illustrator that produced one of the posters also on that myspace site link above: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=66581504

He's a Leeds based graphic designer, illustrator and graffitti artist.

Chek it :)

Good Brief Mocks..

2008-11-18T14:52:00.000-08:00

These are some pictures I have taken of my final resolution mock ups. Hopefully you will be able to get the gyst of the way in which it works. Once folded out it is also a poster. However the pictures only show the boklet and the way in which it works. I'll post up pics of the poster side asap!

Photography for what is good...

2008-11-17T05:01:00.000-08:00

Just some pictures I took for research for my illustrations...

Suave Sites...

2008-11-15T12:16:00.000-08:00

Been wasting a lot of time recently on the internet and these are few of interesting and useful sites that I have discovered:

http://www.underconsideration.com/
(This site is dedicated to the progress of the graphic design profession and its practitioners, students and enthusiasts. I found it very useful and quite interesting.)

http://www.designobserver.com/
(Quite an academic site, about critical writings on design and culture.)

http://www.knickerbockerdesign.com/
(This website is very original and works in a way completely different to any other. As soon as you click onto it I felt automatically drawn to engage and want to learn more about them.)

http://www.uchu-country.com/
(Difficult to understand in parts but shows a good array of works.)

http://www.emigre.com/
(I loved this website, it was really engaging and had a fantastic display of works to navigate through.)

Chek them and enjoy wasting some time on them :)

Colour 4 Print Brief...

2008-11-13T09:33:00.001-08:00

Over the past few weeks I've been working towards producing my final images for our colour 4 print brief. It requires us to take an image we collected or took over the summer and edit it to one of the 6 colour modes. I have been experimenting with two pictures as I did a lot of photography for my summer brief and also collected a lot of clothes tags.
The first image is of one of my clothes tags and the second from Switzerland where I visited during our time off.
Here are some of the images I have produced so far...

Letter Press Workshop..

2008-11-13T09:14:00.001-08:00

Had a letter press workshop today which was quite interesting. A very time consuming process and I doubt if it'll be something I would ever use but I found learning the process very useful and fun to set up. These are some pictures I took at the workshop showing the different stages...

Mac Book Pro..

2008-11-12T12:50:00.000-08:00

Just perchased a mac book pro..yeeeee..so hopefully it will give me more opportunity to bust out work..once i get my head round this new touch mouse pad!

Change of good...

2008-11-11T10:40:00.000-08:00

So after much development I have changed my what is good from specifically alto saxophones to horn instruments in general. I have decided to try and produce a print based product of primarily illustrations and they will all depict humorous alternative uses for horn instruments. The horns that I have chosen to do are: Alto, Tenor and Baritone Saxophones, Trumpet, Flute and Clarinet.
Here are some of the illustrations i will be using...

What is 'GOOD' Brief..

2008-10-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

I'm currently doing a new project at the moment entitled 'What is good?' for which I have to chose a subject which can be personal or literally anything that I perceive to be 'good.' This was quite a challenge as I could come up with 101 things that I thought were good and yet I kept coming back to one thing - the pub. However I have chosen Alto saxophones. As I play the Alto sax and personally find them well good ;) I'm currently researching them and trying to find out as much as possible about them for Thursdays crit, which I am not looking forward to...

Poster designs...

2008-10-21T10:32:00.001-07:00

My friend Alex has just started his own radio show with a mate, Louis and asked me if I would design the shows poster for them to go on the radio website and to put up around Leeds College of Music.
The show is called 'THE SOUL SOLUTION' on www.LSRFM.com (Leeds Student Radio) and is on every Tuesday 11pm-1am.
You can listen live by going on the above website and then clicking on the 'listen live' icon on the top right hand side.
They also have their own facebook group:
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=29454936475&ref=mf
They play a mixture of funky grooves, soulful vibes, hip-hop and the latest news from the Leeds music scene. Check them out!

Here are the final poster designs... I hope you enjoy!

Books books books..

2008-10-16T05:43:00.000-07:00

Bought a couple of new books yesterday. Dead proud of myself. Had 20% off all books in Borders. Amazing. I got 'Latin American Graphic Design' by Taschen and another on vectored images all of musical instruments. I'll post the name of the 2nd later. I definately recommend! I came across a graphic designer that I found very inspirational in The Latin American one called MASA.
www.masa.com.ve
Check it out.

Jack Wills clothing..

2008-10-14T06:07:00.001-07:00

I posted this video for the beginning of it really however its quite short...but I love the way the illustration at the beginning is encorperated into the video and animation. I've been trying to find out who it is that does the illustration for the Jack Wills seasonal catalogues but havent been able to yet. It's really bugging me because i really like them! Here's the link to their website, which features a lot of it on there.

http://www.jackwills.com/Default.aspx

Things to do..

2008-10-14T05:07:00.000-07:00

Back into the swing of things.. good or bad??
Either way I'm being given briefs left right and centre. Started a new module in 2nd year called 'Enterprize and Innovation,' this being the business side of it all, time and finance management. What to look out for in invoicing and sending statements etc.
For which we need to give a presentation on around Christmas.
The next is our on going PPD, for which we need to prepare a presentation for later in the year and develop our print side of our portfolios. Later I'll have to start developing a digital one too. Fun.
I have also returned to 2nd year Critical studies which I don't enjoy. At the moment I am looking to find an academic write for which I can write a critical and analytic response to for our essay. That'll be great..
And for the rest of the course I've also got my other on going core modules such as the 'Colour4print' brief and a new one 'What is good?' for which I need to research into something I perceive to be good. Im still slightly unsure about what I'm going to do but have a sneaky feeling it might be music inspired!
So yeah other than that I just need to keep going with this blog malarky and keep my eyes peeled for placements.

Busy Busy!!

Don't Panic competition..

2008-10-09T14:59:00.000-07:00

This week i was set a one day brief, to design a poster for the 'Don't Panic' pack using the word 'machine' as my theme. I decided that I wanted to try and do something in an illustrative style. A style more like the type that I am interested in myself and inspired by. I came up with a couple of final designs and had difficulty chosing which one to enter. I chose the cogs pattern in the end, however still liked my juke box idea. The juke box idea came about by trying to think of machinery that played music as i wanted to encorperate music into it somehow as that is a big inspiration of mine. I chose the juke box just to be different and have the slightly retro feel that would contrast with the vibrant CMYK colours. I chose to do the CMYK colours to keep it simple and limit my pallet. It made it easier for me to use them and also was inkeeping with my other current project, 'Colour4print.' Here is my final design..
Cant seem to get the juke box one to upload now so will try again tomorrow, but for the mean time - enjoy :)

I stumbled across some problems with printing my final design however, this being that you cant print out the 'over print' effect on a 4 colour CMYK printer. Something I hadn't taken into consideration when i produced it. I thought I was being successful in working with a limited colour pallet and experimenting with effects in the CMYK mode only to find that the effect would only show up in RGB on screen. Oh well. All part of the learning process!

PS VOTE FOR ME! x

TV ads...

2008-10-06T15:35:00.001-07:00

I've seen a few tv ads recently that I really like and have found really interesting. Here are a few of them which I have found on YouTube..
This first one is from The Carphone Warehouse which I stumbled across at the weekened while my mum was watching XFactor! It's the advert that comes on at the beginning and end of every break to say that they are sponsors of the show. I like the way in which the illustration is manipulated and transformed into animation..

I also quite like this guinness ad thats on at the moment which features the music machine..

And finally an old ad which I saw again the other day. It completely fascinates me as to how someone could have thought to produce something like it and how they did it. It is made by the brilliance of SONY which advertises the Sony Bravia LCD tv. I also found it quite fitting to what I am currently looking at now at college - Colour..

Colour systems..

2008-09-29T05:53:00.000-07:00

At the moment I'm learning about colour systems and print processes. These are a few definitions for the different terminologies.

CMYK (cyan/magenta/yellow/key black – 4 col process)
This is used in the most common printed process called litho or offset litho.

RGB (red/green/blue – screen based)

Greyscale (Black and white continuous tone, any shade of grey such as a black and white photograph)

Duotone (when a continuous tone image is printed in 2 or more spot colours – this
term is also generally used when describing tri and quadtones.

Spot colour (one or more specially mixed colours as opposed as a result of a CMYK or RGB mix)

Mono (one colour only plus the colour of the material it’s printed on)

Summer Project.. TAXONOMY

2008-09-29T05:35:00.000-07:00

Over the summer i was set a brief to develop a set of visual journals that document/record and catagorise my summer through an investigation of colour, type and/or image. I had to select a colour and its appropriate complementary. These 2 colours were the chromatic focus of my visual investigation. I had to use at least 4 methods of recording e.g drawing/photography/collage/3D and it could only be documented in a set of A6 or A5 notebooks (no bigger).. So i set about collecting image and type in the colours yellow and blue. The majority of my collection was done through photography, however i also did rubbings and colleted found material, such as flyers, menus and clothes tags. The main focus of the brief was 'TAXONOMY.'
Definition:
‘Taxonomy – the science or technique of classification.’

France et graffitti fest..

2008-09-14T11:00:00.001-07:00

Also while i was in France I was amazed to see graffitti was as popular as it was, on walls and shutters etc around the city and out of town. Some of it was amazing. Ive taken a real interest into it and found myself getting excited everytime i found a new piece! (i must be getting sad) but its completely different to the work that ive seen in america..I guess there must just be a slightly different European style to it. I photographed lots of pieces but these are just a few of them. I hope you enjoy looking at them a much as I did!

France..

2008-09-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

My next adventure was to Montpellier in France last week where I also found myself snapping away, so heres a few pics from france :)

Switzerland..

2008-09-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

Over the summer I visited the summer camp in Switzerland where i worked last year and as ever i took a million photographs while i was there. Here are a few.. enjoy :)

2008-09-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

ive recently been out and about in Bridlington with a friend and took the ole cam with me (as usual) and snapped a few shots here and there. Im still tring to work out how to do more moving lights shots.. i havent really worked it out on my camera, but none the less i gave it a whirl and these are a couple that i did..

New finds..

2008-08-25T04:46:00.000-07:00

I was recently chatting to a friend about placements and the like and bits and bobs about graphic design when i came across a name i recognised but didnt know anything about...SAGMEISTER. A graphic design company in New York. This is a link to their amazing website:
http://www.sagmeister.com/index.html
I found myself browsing and reading on there for ages. Finding out more and more about their company, other designers and answering alot of questions i had myself about graphic design as a whole. It has a lot of information on it for students and budding designers, all of which i have found quite an eye opener! chek it.

Summer..

2008-07-29T08:56:00.001-07:00

Sooo it's summer jollies and ive kinda neglected my blog for a while now.. thinking i should really do some work as I'm begginning to lull into lazing around all the time and forgetting im actually a graphic design student - opps

So here's some pictures I took the other day whilst feeling arty - dispite the summer i'm still snappy happy..

My find..

2008-06-27T13:17:00.002-07:00

I found this illustration by my dad recently when I moved my stuff home for the summer. I love it. It includes all the thigs about illustration I like. Using the outlines of objects and adding shade by using different thicknesses of pens. Overlapping images and playing around with frame. I havent found the final piece he used it for but I believe he produced it as a design for a brochure advertsing the different types of transport in York. I think I might have to go in search for some more!

What IS graphic design???

2008-06-06T04:42:00.000-07:00

The way I feel about my blog today...

2008-06-06T04:17:00.001-07:00

Vids n Pics..

2008-06-06T04:04:00.000-07:00

The last video is quite a long one. It was a real eye opener for me when I first watched it. It's the kind of thing that really makes me tick and to have someone explain how they illustrate and then manipulate their work using a computer was like woah I want to do that! Really helpful. Maybe eventually I might be able to do that kind of stuff! ...Maybe.

Photography mixed with a smidgin of other things I like...

2008-06-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

There's just so much stuff that I'm drawn to, whether it's typography, illustration or photography, but when they're incorporated all into one together this is when it really stops me in my tracks. Some of the stuff above is what I enjoy. Perhaps something to aspire to in my 2nd year. I'm sure I could achieve it, just need to be pointed in the right direction and be able to incorporate it into the briefs I get set. This is what I struggle with...being able to produce things I like to do and not just produce resolutions that I feel are fitted to the briefs I'm doing. Does that make sense? hmmm well I know what I mean. I don't feel like I've managed to produce one thing I'm proud of this year. Nothing that stands out and makes me wanna go woah I did that! unless you count my photography, I think some of the images I took were ok..nowt spesh tho. Perhaps now I'm just rambling...and seem to have an obsession with doing dot dot dots on the end of all my sentences...

Typography that tickles my fancy...

2008-06-05T09:38:00.001-07:00

The above is also work that I've collected from various sites and just put away in a folder entitled 'inspiration.' I feel it's time they were seen!
I love typography and creating my own different types of fonts. I haven't incorporated any of it into any of my work this year though apart from my very first brief. Maybe thats why I enjoyed that one so much...
I think some of these images are really clever and find them very inspirational. It's definately a style of working I'd love to be able to do. I always feel my work is too clean and bold or outlined to get a look like this. I'm gonna have to find a way of working that I'm happy with and that other people like me thinks!

Illustration that tickles my fancy...

2008-06-05T09:24:00.000-07:00

For a while now I've been browsing various websites and looking at illustration and collecting images that really catch my eye. These a just a few of them. Unfortunately theyre from random sites and not neccessarily the site of the illustrator so I can't label whos done what! opps, but anyway theyre just a few examples of the kind of stuff I'm into..enjoy :)

Update...

2008-06-04T02:27:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update to empty my mind of all the things I've got left to do before my final submissions..
Portfolio: Something I've been working on for a week or so now. I've got a few reasonable pieces of work in and development etc but still needs a fair bit of work before I'm happy to submit. Submission is this Friday. 2 days to go!

Buzz It: This is this wicked thing online where I can reference where I've been and what I've been looking at, I was completely amazed by this when we found out a few weeks ago how to use it, however I'm still a little unsure how it works...A lot of work needed on that I'm reckonnin!

Speaking From Experience brief: This is a brief I don't think I've mentioned yet...I've taken something that all year I've never really understood and tried to break it down and inform next years 1st years. This being the word 'concept.' I'll keep you posted about this later...

Other than that still looking into 'what graphic design is' and ploddin on with the work load, bit of a stress on though with this module I must say!

Quote...

2008-05-30T05:47:00.000-07:00

"Graphic Design is all around us, from the packaging that your food comes in through to the receipt you received or bus pass you used today; colour, space, image and type make up the core elements of design. These elements are what create the unique look of a product and are the building blocks for the whole brand: get the brand right and other marketing components will follow. Each of these elements creates the design by reacting with the others, for instance, the colour of the type has an effect on the image, as the space has an effect on the type and so on.

Graphic design has been with us from the beginning of time and will continue to be with us as we move forward into a digital age."

Something I found when browsing on the Grafik website. I like it, I'm forever trying to find out what Graphic Design is and this inspired me to look into it more. I think that it's a nice definition.

Promoting the colour RED...

2008-05-30T05:17:00.001-07:00

I don't think I've mentioned that we had a creative partnership brief set a few weeks ago and I worked with a friend from our year called Lauren. It was a real eye opener as I'd never worked in a partnership before. The reliance to produce and stick to your part of the plan was quite demanding and I was worried I might let her down. I found myself working harder as I had to stick to my part of the bargain and it was also only a 1 week brief. I find myself producing better under pressure and working to shorter timescales as I'm so lazy and always end up leaving things to the last minute. Time management always seems to go tits up with me...

Anyway here is some of the work we produced. We chose from a few options to produce the colour red and in effect made an awareness campagin to promote safety to young people through the colour red. It was aimed at students, particularly between the age of 18-26. The 3 most important messages we wanted to put across were,
Safe Sex
Don't Drink and Drive
Date Rape

To do this we produced a set of posters, flyers, leaflets and wristbands.

Calendar Brief..

2008-05-30T05:08:00.001-07:00

Something I struggled with and didn't really manage to get my teeth into..
My intention was to design a calendar for the year 1981 representing the year through type and colour. I don't think I really achieved this and if I have time it's definately something I plan on going back to to improve on and try and produce a better resolution! These are the 3 pages I was asked to design..

Presentation..

2008-05-30T03:35:00.000-07:00

Just a quick word to say I had my power point presentation the other day. I think it went OK...nerve racking but not half as bad as I was expecting and all in all I found it really quite useful to see what everyone else did for theirs and was nice to see a selection of work too from over the year by us all. It made me feel a little more confident and realise I can do it, I just need to focus more and put my mind to it.
If only that was easier done than said..

Also this is some work that I included in my power point.
The first two images are something I produced for my visual language brief that I lost before the hand-in so never actually submitted to be assessed. It started out as just a doodle and compilation of images I'd drawn but then I decided that i wanted to try and do more with it so I scanned it in and started to manipulate it. I had real fun with it and really enjoyed it. It's definitely something I want to try more of. Doesn't feel like working to me at all, simply the freedom to express myself through image and colour. :)

Phil Dunne

2008-05-26T09:12:00.000-07:00

Now this guy inspires me!
Amazing, illustrations and combination of photography, I don't know where to look first. I'd like to briefly touch on him in my presentation and showed slides of his work, these are some I find most inspirational...
I've mentioned Phil Dunne's work before on here right at the beginning of the year. I first came across his work in the March 2007 edition of Computer Arts Magazine.

Photography Elective Cityscape Finals...

2008-05-13T08:04:00.001-07:00

These are the other final 3 that I also submitted as my finals. Again I printed these out on photographic A3 gloss paper and mounted them up on A1 mount board. Hopefully they'll be ok. My only criticism was that they weren't all black and white. However had I edited the other sepia image in Photoshop I feel it would have taken away the quality of the picture. I chose to capture it in sepia mode for a reason and felt it should be kept as the original image. The other two were actually taken using the colour accent mode on my camera, not black and white but it's very hard to notice this as the colour which is in them is very subtle.

Photography Elective Portraiture Finals...

2008-05-13T07:58:00.000-07:00

These are the four I used as a set for my final portraiture images. I printed them out on A4 photographic gloss paper and then mounted them on A1 mount board. I also printed out the last of the 4 images on A3 photographic gloss paper and mounted that up on A1 mount board because it was my favourite image and I liked it as part of the set but also on it's own.

First Year, First Term, First Brief, Favourite project...

2008-05-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

At first I was like oh my god what the hell am I going to do. How am I going to design the numbers 0-9 with the word 'ugly.' However looking back I quite enjoyed doodling and messing about with this project and it just might be my favourite project from this year so far. It has to be my most memorable because it was my first proper project. Looking back at this reminds me how I felt at the beginning of the year, receiving my first brief and wondering what to expect with the worry of what I was going to do. If I was good enough. If would manage to make the deadline. I don't think I can use it for this new Speaking From Experience brief but it made me smile looking back at them and remembering my first experience of the course. Such funny looking birds!

100 Flips Video promotional poster designs...

2008-05-13T07:11:00.001-07:00

These are the posters that I produced as part of one of our day projects. I decided that I wanted to design some to work as a set and then explain what they were all about on the last poster with just a subtle bit of text in the lower right hand corner informing of the release date and duration of the video. However I chose to call it 100 as opposed to 100 flips because I also wanted to include the element if mystery to make the audience want to find out more about what the posters are advertising. The film strip that runs along the middle of each is slightly off center so that if they were lined up exactly together they would all work as one long poster. The objects included within the film strip are all objects featured in the video.

Visual Language work...

2008-05-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

These are some of the drawings that I scanned into photoshop and played around with for part of my visual language module which I handed in a few weeks ago. Hopefully getting our marks back soon. Hope I've passed!

I'm still alive...

2008-05-13T06:13:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since I last posted on here, i guess it's time i put some more stuff up.

I've finished and finally handed in my photography elective. I submitted all notebooks, research and 5 finals. I chose to use the black and white and sepia image from my trip up to Edinburgh and one of the Sage and other bridges in Newcastle. However after much deliberating about whether or not to use just city scape images or portraiture images for my finals i chose to include them both.
I shall put up a separate post of my finals later.

So now onto my final four weeks of the first year. Scarey stuff. I need to pull my finger out and socks up...
We have our final brief - 'Speaking From Experience.'
To produce a graphic response/graphic product/piece of work that makes a statement, comment, observation, instruction or gives advice about my experience of the first year of the course. Should be interesting. I have no idea what to do, there's a few ideas spinning round but nothing I've decided to go with yet.
I know how intimidated I felt and daunting it was for me starting the course. I can imagine how the newbies must feel knowing that they're going to be starting here in September.

I also have to think about what I'm going to put into my portfolio. This is gonna be hard! I'll have to root about and hope theres stuff good enough to whack in. I've got my first tutorial for that this coming Friday.

Errrrrm not much other goss really. I found this wicked illustrator though in a book hanging around the studio. He's called Tom Judd. He studied at Manchester Metropolitan Uni. Here's some his work. I think it's awesome. Totally fascinating and engaging to look at. He started doing notebooks and began a notebook one day that he wanted to do a page in every day for a whole year. Just spending aprox an hour on a page per day. He never prepared or planned just had a go every time he had some free time during the day. Some of them are observational and some are just completely random and weird. He just went with the way he felt that day. This is what I loved so much about it. His freedom to just express his feelings through drawing.

This is a link to his website

http://www.tomjudd.co.uk/

Typography...

2008-04-22T05:01:00.001-07:00

Reason for posting this:
It's awesome. Everything I love about type all wrapped up into one ace little video. Informative. I learnt loads from watching it. It's so clever. Humorous. Interesting. All sorts. But I like the way in which they move text around to fill the frame. I quite like moving things around with frames and playing with where things go. Finding the content is another ball game for me all together but once I know what I want to put and say or for choice of better word, communicate, I like playing with where it goes. And there was something similar about this video which I liked for the same reason.

Edinburgh Trip...

2008-04-22T04:41:00.000-07:00

Recently went to Edinburgh for a friends birthday/camp reunion and i took some photos (naturally) while i was there. I hope to use some of them for my photography elective finals which is due to finish in a couple of weeks time. I just need to decide on printing sizes, papers and how to present them now. Finally think I've got enough images to work with now though. Here are a few from the weekend...

Finally my video of 100 Flips!

2008-04-15T06:07:00.001-07:00

I hope it finally uploads this time and you can see it. What a mission to find out a way of posting it. However, it hasn't come out quite the way I wanted it and the quality isn't very good for the first 3 clips. This is because I transferred cameras half way through after discovering the clips were distorting.

lingo...

2008-04-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

Oh and I've just thought of something else that would be good to put on here for me to look back on because I know I'll forget...
Found out today that 'stock' in graphic design terms means the type of paper/card that you're printing onto.
E.g.
If a brief states you are only allowed a limited colour palette say 2 colours and adds (+ stock) it allows you to use the two colours but also the colour/stock of the paper in which you are printing onto however, that doesnt count as another colour. Clever of what!

Or atleast thats what I think it means...praps not a good post after all...

Elective news...

2008-04-14T13:53:00.000-07:00

Been to my elective again tonight. Not long left now. Think it's about 3 weeks before submission. Got a lot to do...as ever. Had a mini crit with my tutor to chat about where I'm at etc and what I plan to do for my finals and so on. I've come to the decision that I want to submit two landscape/cityscape photos and two portrait photos along side my development and research notebooks. At first I wanted to do just portraiture however after my trip to Newcastle and finding the amazing cityscapes there I found myself wanting to do try more of them too. Perhaps I'm just getting a little carried away. This is an image I took this evening. I'm not sure why I like it so much but from all the ones I took it stands out most to me...
I used the colour accent mode on my camera, which I've been experimenting with more. I quite like the way it enhances the image and highlights tones in contrast with the black and white.

P.s I used my Canon digital camera, ixus86015, 8.0 mega pixels for the majority of my elective photos.

Video...

2008-04-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

Still trying to find a way of uploading my flips video. Not entirely positive on what im doing...will try again tomorrow!

What is graphic design???

2008-04-08T13:37:00.001-07:00

I have no idea.

"[Graphic design is] an ongoing examination/conversation between the dynamics of personal exploration and professional practice." - Matt Owens, Volume One.

Which Brief for me...?

2008-04-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

Favourite types of briefs:
Short sharp or long and meaty, something to get your teeth into?
This is my debate. Recently I've been doing this 'book of 100' brief and I've had it for the best part of 8 weeks and yet I'm still not happy with it, still havent pulled my finger out and done enough work, and still havent got any further in packaging it. Thus not got it finished. Might I add, I now have to design a set or series of posters for the 'release of my book' which is this friday ontop of finalising the book itself. Not feeling overly confident about it...however since my last post I have FINALLY finished the video.
I'm beginning to think that perhaps short, sharp briefs are more for me. After having a few long briefs set at college, I find myself wasting my time, not getting in depth research done and basically fannying around. This had made me think perhaps theyre not best suited to my way of working. Maybe the short snappy ones are more me. That aside though, I dont always feel I work to my potential when I do short ones so perhaps I'm just being difficult and am somewhere in between of the two...

Vogue...

2008-04-05T07:56:00.000-07:00

Whilst browsing through Vogue I came across an article on beauty products and product packaging design. The article was about how illustration is being used on certain product packaging, such as the lancome juicy tubes which have been illustrated by Christopher Kane. It showed examples of many products today that are being produced and feature illustration as part of their packaging. I was particularly interested by the Swedish artist Stina Persson's design for ethical brand Face Boutique. Here are a few photos taken from the article...

Photos...

2008-04-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

I found a new site tonight called http://www.flickr.com/ and a made myself a profile so i could be uber geeky and upload my photos to it as aposed to trying to cram all my favourites onto here. Here is my profile url if you care to have a peek...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25273248@N03/

It's not that interesting yet, but I shall try and develop it more when I get some spare free time.

Flipping mad...

2008-04-02T17:12:00.000-07:00

I've actually lost the plot. Who'd have thought it would be that hard to find 100 objects or things to flip and video. Dear god. All i can think about is flipping things and trying to find objects that will be good enough to video. The sooner this project gets finished the better...it's taking over my life! will post the finished video once i eventually get it done...thats if i can work out how to put it up on here! Lets just see if I can upload a small taster for you...

On the Quay Side...

2008-03-31T11:07:00.000-07:00

Whilst passing some time in the afternoon waiting for the evening jazz music to start we crossed to the quay side for something to eat. This is where I came across this gallery and its work... I found the work incredibly engaging and very useful as inspiration for my 'What is a line brief?' im currently doing in visual language.
The exhibition is by American artist David Choe, this is the link to his website, if you care to have a look:
http://www.davidchoe.com/