Annnnd the work begins......

After an amazing summer, a lot of alcohol, sun and traveling I'm back to college tomorrow. How deflating. However rather exciting at the same time. I've moved into a new flat and am feeling quite optimistic about the year ahead. I've got two, all be them short placements under my belt and one to look forward to this coming October. Hopefully my plan for this year is coming together. I STILL need to make a start on my dissertation which is starting to stress me out but then that's the story of my life.......
Hello college.
Goodbye summer ;(

4 Briefs to do by December 16th, Dissertation to start and placement in October. Best get crackin!

Work Experience day today!

Today I'm going over to Selby to spend a day at Space Creative. I think it's safe to say I'm very excited. I don't need to take anything with me other than myself however I think I'll be making notes every second I can! I'll update you how it went as soon as I'm home :D

Development sheets...






















The two final logos I produced for the company to choose from...





The brief that was set to me was to design a completely new logo for a company in Malton for their 8th International symposium on wild boar and other suids. Last years logo was in my opinion and Space Creatives, SHOCKINGLY bad. Quite what went through their minds when creating it is a little bit beyond me...
The brief said up to two colour in their specifications and a minimum of two designs. The logo is to be used predominantly for print based work however they also require a version in RGB so it can be applied to their website. I chose these shades of Green and Orange because the Fera website which they are closely associated with use shades of them. I took the pantone colour codes they use and used not the same but similar ones on the solid coated spectrum.
I'm not particularly proud or happy with the resolution I came up with during that afternoon, but it stuck to the brief and they seemed happy with it. I couldn't make my mind up if they were just being nice to me, or genuinely pleased with my resolution. I suppose time will tell if I see it being used! It definitely got me back into the swing of things and my mind ticking over again after the summer 'break' and the gap between my last placement.

Also....... If I'm honest as much as I liked it working for a day at Space Creative I'm not so sure that I liked it as much as Print Ideas and Printing.com in Leeds. Their way of working, studio environment and atmosphere was completely different. I wonder what FPP Design in Newcastle in a couple of weeks will be like........

Work Experience

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.

Design is...

"Clutter is a failure of design, not an attribute of information." - Edward Tufte

I like this :)

BOOKS!

I've had a treat this morning... 4 new shiny books arrived from Amazon :D haha they are as follows...

100 habbits of successful graphic designers
Pictograms Icons & Signs
Case Study Research - Design and Methods 4th edition
Information Design Workbook

A Design For Life

The legend aka weirdo = Philippe Starck.



The competitors.

I watched an amazing programme lastnight on BBC 2 called A Design For Life. It was the first part thats going to be on over a period of weeks. The description goes as follows...

"In an effort to find a new generation of British design talent, Philippe Starck, one of the world's best known product designers, invites 12 hopefuls to a school of design he has set up in Paris. Over coming weeks he will whittle them down until one fortunate student wins the opportunity of a lifetime - to work alongside the master for six months at his agency in the French capital.

Ranging from unemployed retail worker Jess to college lecturer Ilsa, the students meet Starck for the first time and discover what a larger than life character he is. And they face their first challenge - to head to a local hypermarket and find examples of good and bad design. When they explain their thinking to Starck he critiques them and selects the weakest five for a further nerve-wracking test. When it's over the group of 12 is now 10 and the school of design can begin in earnest."

It is far more about product design than anything else, but i found it really interesting, seeing how people work and explain their concepts. I sat critically analysing their work without even realising it and understanding their 'lingo' it was great! I got really annoyed when the first two out of the selected twelve had to leave because i really didnt agree with his reasonning on getting rid of one of them. What an amazing opportunity, I think I'm going to be glued to the next few episodes and follow it to see who win. Check it out! :)

Definitive Creative - Leeds

http://www.definitive-creative.co.uk/

Dhanank Pambayun

http://evergrunge.com/

The Dreaded Dissertation...

So, as most degrees require you to write a dissertation of some form there is no surprise that my course requires it too. The question I have posed for mine is as follows...

How effective are colour coding systems and information graphics for disabled users?

How successful this is to be I'm not too sure. It was something that came to my attention while on my work placement back at the end of May when I worked at Printing.com and Print Ideas in Leeds. The design team had done some work for a disabled home where they had a coding system that helped the people who lived there navigate from room to room. They used three simple codes. Colour, symbols and words. By combining the three together people would use one or more of the codes to understand where they were going and why. This opened a whole new can of questions for me and really interested me how design for disabled people is considered.
Anyway... I havent spent much time yet in looking into my question, however these are some of the books I have looked at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/1412960991/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-page
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/0500286353/sr=1-4/qid=1251868997/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=266239&s=books&qid=1251868997&sr=1-4
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/3899552172/sr=1-1/qid=1251869122/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=266239&s=books&qid=1251869122&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/1592534104/sr=1-5/qid=1251869177/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=266239&s=books&qid=1251869177&sr=1-5
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/0500513791/sr=1-9/qid=1251869249/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=266239&s=books&qid=1251869249&sr=1-9

General books on both communication theory and information Graphics I have found are also of assistance.

Space Creative - Selby

http://www.spacecreative.co.uk/

I've organised a day's placement at Space Creative for Wednesday 16th of September, which I'm really looking forward to. They currently have a student in working for them on a two week placement and couldn't fit me in before I go back to college but said they could manage a day. A day is better than nothing and can only lead to better things. What they did say however is that if I could give them some dates I'm also more than welcome to do a two week placement with them when it's convenient for them and my college timetable. So fingers crossed something might work out and lets hope it's the kind of work that I want to do!
I'll keep you posted with developments! :D

FPP Design - Newcastle

http://www.fppdesign.com/

I have managed to set myself up with a weeks work placement at FPP Design in Newcastle on the 26th October. I am very excited to be working as part of their team and can't wait to see what it's going to be like! I will keep you posted on what happenes nearer the time :D

So close to a Canadian experience...

Annan And Bird - Canada
http://www.annan-bird.com/

RJ Multi Litho Inc - Canada
http://www.rjmultilitho.com/

A friend from Canada informed me over the summer that both her parents worked for printing companies in Toronto. I got very excited about this and she said should it be what i was looking for i was more than welcome to come over and stay and get some work experience. Unfortunately it wasn't really what i was looking for and didn't work out. Never mind. What an opportunity it could have been though!

Converse T-shirt designs...

I decided while I was away that I wanted to try and develop some T-shirt designs, something I've always said I'd do in my spare time but never motivated myself to do. These are a couple of converse designs in the making that I would like to develop into possible prints when i get back to Leeds. Purely illustrative at the moment, but I'll see where they go...

Logo Design, Switzerland

Olympic Museum - Lausanne Switzerland

I went to the Olympic museum in Lausanne today and found these delights awaiting to inspire me. The current temporary exhibition is called 'Heros' and the design for it is pretty spectacular I must say. As soon as you walk in you're hit with a burst of colour and some rather sweet illustrated wall murals. Parts of the work is 3D and physically stands out to you which adds a great effect. The style of illustration is clear and the kind of style that I'm really into. They also interpret 3D illustrations that hang as well as free-stand. It was interactive and clear for people of all ages to understand about the various heros in the exhibition. They have some fabulous displays at The Olympic museum but this being my 2nd time there, I can definitely say it's the best exhibition I've seen to date.
The Olympic museum describes the exhibition as follows:
An original and colourful exhibition with a cartoon background, which gives a youthful, light-hearted and dynamic tone to a subject as fascinating as it is topical.

Switzerland.

Ahhhhh.... SWITZERLAND.





Possibly the most beautiful country in the world and I am fortunate enough to be spending the majority of my summer here :D Everything about the place is immaculate. And that's before I even get to their graphic design. Clinical I suppose could be the word to describe it. Or again immaculate... Despite the majority of my time being spent on working here and researching for my 3rd year design 'strategy plan,' I have still found time to relax and have a good time. (Naturally) Mostly by doing the following...



I have come across a few new names that I was completely ignorant to until my time here. Those I feel I should really know about due to their status' within Swiss design.
Firstly, Josef Müller-Brockmann, a Swiss graphic designer and teacher. He studied architecture, design and history of art. In 1936 he opened his Zurich studio specialising in graphic design, exhibition design and photography. Müller-Brockman was author of the 1961 publications The Graphic Artist and his Design Problems, Grid Systems in Graphic Design where he advocates use of the grid for page structure, and the 1971 publications History of the Poster and A History of Visual Communication.
He is recognised for his simple designs and his clean use of typography, notably Akzidenz-Grotesk, shapes and colours which inspires many graphic designers in the 21st century. Many of his works can be found on the gallery Blanka.





I have also discovered an amazing site called Blanka. Wow. This is how their description goes...



BLANKA IS A COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL, VINTAGE AND LIMITED EDITION POSTERS AND PRINTS. OUR EVER-EXPANDING WEBSITE INCLUDES ART, DESIGN, PHOTOGRAPHY, FILM AND MUSIC, BROUGHT TOGETHER BY COLLECTORS AND LEADING CREATIVES. WE COLLECT PRINTS TO SELL OR JUST TO INSPIRE, AND WE ARE CONSTANTLY ADDING NEW, HISTORIC AND UNUSUAL WORK TO OUR PERMANENT VISUAL ARCHIVE.

Their tabs include:

DESIGN
PHOTOGRAPHY
ART
T-SHIRTS
VOUCHER
BOOKS
MUSIC
FILM
EVENTS

One word. Brilliant. I have thoroughly enjoyed looking through the majority of these tabs and been greatly inspired. It gave me the familiar exciting buzz that I get when seeing new work that makes me tick. Check it out :)

One designer/illustrator that i took a shine to was GREGORY GILBERT-LODGE.





HE LIVES AND WORKS IN ZURICH, SWITZERLAND. HIS WORK HAS BEEN EXHIBITED AND PUBLISHED WIDELY THROUGHOUT EUROPE. HE HAS NOT ONLY WON HEAPS OF PRAISE FOR HIS TALENT BUT HE HAS ALSO PICKED UP NUMEROUS AWARD FOR HIS ELEGANTLY CRAFTED DRAWING STYLE AND APPROACH TO HIS ARTWORK.
Check his work at: WWW.GILBERT-LODGE.COM

One thing. I'm worried that I'm not doing anything that's practical myself. Finding time to draw is near impossible unless it's a mere doodle. So my mission is to try and get some work on the go and get it up on here. That's the plan Stan.