WHEN THE CATS AWAY

BMX

2009-09-16T11:25:00.000-07:00

I made a little bmx video the other day. Using my skills with final cut and after effects. Not really graphic design but i think it is quite creative and adds greater depth to my skills plus I really enjoy doing it!

Untitled from gusto on Vimeo.

(Long overdue) Blog Update

2009-08-24T07:08:00.000-07:00

Well I should have probably updated this about 2 months ago but better late than never.

The summer has been amazing; I should probably start from the begining. On the day we handed in our final project of last year I got a phone call for a friend in York asking if I wanted some work over the summer, at a place called company of cyclist, doing some graphic design work, some phoography and a bit of other random work. Although I kind of wanted a break after working pretty hard that term I thought this was a good oppertiunity and took it. It turned out to be good experienec and well paid. Some of the photos I took for them got printed in this brochure which was pretty exciting.

Then I went to Lismore for a week with some mates which was definately a highlight of my summer, perfect weather and a chance to spend some quality time with my best mates.

After scotland I went down to London for two weeks to do a placement at 19-77 which overall I would say was an awsome experience. Living in London was loads of fun and made me think I probably want to go down there when I graduate. They also used a lot of the work I did for them which was really exciting.

I designed this album cover of KPM which is a music library, they changed all the colours and stuff and made it lookn a bit garish

This is what it looked like before they made me change all the colours

When I got back from London I spent 2 weeks at home doing nothing and got so unbelievebly bored, that starting a new internship in York came as a massive relief. I am at the end of my first week now and it is going well.

I've set up a new blog to documnt stuff I like HERE

PPD Evaluation

2009-06-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

I have found the PPD module this year really useful. Jane was really helpful in terms of getting a placement and gave me lots of good advice and confidence to go and approach companies and be quite forward and direct about asking for a placement. As a result I got a placement relatively quickly and easily over Easter and was able to concentrate on other things.

I think getting a placement and talking to a few people in the industry really gave me confidence to approach other companies about doing design work for them or other more peripheral jobs related to design. As a result as well as the 2 placements I have in London in July I've also secured a few days a week at a design practice in York in August and September and I managed to get paid work over the summer at place called Get Cycling as their in house designer. I have done a few photography jobs for them as well, which is really exciting and great experience.

Doing the presentation was a chance to reflect on the year. I feel that I enjoyed the second year more than the first year and I kind of found my position as a designer, in terms of what I like to do and what I'm good at. When I came to actually sit down to work on the presentation I realised I knew exactly what I wanted to say and I think I covered all the points well in the time I had to say it. The only thing I would have done differently would have been to give myself a bit more time to make the slides look a bit more polished.

I still have some more work I want to do over summer, working up some of my favourite pieces from second year for killer portfolio pieces, but overall I am really happy with how second year went and feel like I learnt a lot from it. I intend to keep my head in the graphic design world over summer as I can honestly say I have a real passion for it now, I find myself looking at all sorts of design/type blogs and thinking about what I can do next. I'm looking forward to hitting the ground running in the third year with a hardworking but relaxed attitude and doing some work that I am really excited about.

OUGD203 Evaluation

2009-05-31T11:06:00.000-07:00

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

I think I have really improved my time management skills during this module. I’ve never had to juggle 3 projects simultaneously and it really forced me to consider how I was going to get the most out of my time. I think I have also improved my organisational skills during this project, I have realised how useful it is to be organised in the way you work and how much time you can save. I think I have used and honed a lot of the typography skills I gained during the type elective especially in my Crisis direct mail and the brochure I did for the type factory.

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

During this module I have tried to be very structure in the way I work, generating a range of initial ideas to start with then developing one until I am happy with it and then producing the final piece. That sounds obvious but by making sure I stick to it rigidly it stops me getting bogged down with unnecessary work.

I also found it very useful doing first hand research on the ground for my crisis brief by actually going out and talking to a photographing homeless people. I felt I found a lot more about them by doing that than simply by reading on the internet and it made me more determined to get the project right.

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

I think I am good with type and layout, and enjoy doing it. I like to keep my work fresh and engaging. I also think it is always important to have fun and enjoy the work you are doing and I hope that comes across in my work.

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

I can be disorganised so I have to make and extra effort to stay on top of things. Sometimes I feel that I am not that confident at working with colour creatively and fall back into my comfort zone. This is something I would like to work on in the future.

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

With this module I realised that the presentation boards require a lot of work and I shouldn’t just look at them as something to do quickly when I have finished all the other work but I should actually plan time to make sure I can get them right and printed well.

I think I could have bitten off a bit more than I could chew with the type factory. Giving myself so much to design, I feel I didn’t get everything finished the way I wanted. Next time I will set myself more manageable goals, I can always take them further if there is time.

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

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Attendance 4
Punctuality 4
Motivation 5
Commitment 5
Quantity of work produced 4
Quality of work produced 4Contribution to the group 4

Screen Printing

2009-05-20T10:31:00.001-07:00

This is the final screen print for the ISTD 3 Minutes brief. It was my first time doing screen printing and I learnt a lot of stuff. I am really happy with how they came out.

A1 poster on black stock with white and brown ink

I made a fastening to go round the poster.

Above are 2 other colour variations I tried out. Pink and brown ink on white and black stock. I'm not really happy with how the pink came out. If i where to do it again I would spend a lot more time and care mixing the colours.

Signs of the Times

2009-05-14T02:42:00.001-07:00

I came across this interesting piece of work by DJ Stout while browsing the pentagram site. Good research for my crisis brief.

Biodegradable Plastic

2009-05-04T07:32:00.001-07:00

I recently bought some new shoes and they where packed in this biodegradable plastic. We have to start thinking about our dissertations at the moment and we are supposed to do our dissertations on something relating to our design practice. I plan on doing my dissertation around sustainable design. This could be an interesting material to work with in the future.

Typography Elective Evaluation

2009-04-03T06:36:00.000-07:00

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

I think I have a gained a real understanding and appreciation of type. I feel that I look at typefaces and the way type is set with completely new eyes as a result of this module and consequently the way I approach the setting of type in a specific project has been dramatically improved.

I am much more knowledgeable in the more technical aspects of type such as column width, point size and leading and the effects they have on legibility. I think I have been able to apply these new skills effectively in all the exercises we have done in the lessons but also this knowledge has informed my general graphic design practice outside of the typography module a huge amount.

I think I have gained a much greater understanding of the more creative and experimental aspects of typography. I like to think I have applied this knowledge well and can effectively communicate an mood or image through type.

Before I started this module I wasn’t certain that I wanted to do the typography elective, but now I am very glad I did do it. I think it has confirmed to me where my interests lay within graphic design and also where and how I want to specialise my skills and the way I work in the future.

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

Using letterforms to create patterns was a way of generating images that I had never really considered before, it has a huge amount of creative potential and I have started to use it in some of my projects.

I have always known that things like capitals, bold type, italics, serif and sans serif typefaces communicate a certain style or mood but now I feel as though I really understand why these communicate in different ways and as a result I have much more control over them and am able to use them to communicate in a much more precise manner.

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

I think I have a good eye for layout. I think I am quite knowledgeable about typefaces and good at identifying them. I like to think I that I carefully consider things like point size, leading, typeface, column width and words per line etc. and use them appropriately when setting type for a particular project.

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

Sometimes it is hard to remember every aspect of typography that we have learnt about when setting type and I will realise that I have put too many words on a line or set the leading too tight, I like to think that I am getting faster and better at noticing these mistakes.

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

Be slightly more experimental with my work. Now that I more confident with the technical aspects of typography I think I could afford to be a little more experimental and creative.

Time manage slightly better so I don’t have so much to do at the end of the project.

Experiment further with the exercises we do in lessons.

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

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Attendance 4

Punctuality 5

Motivation 4

Commitment 5

Quantity of work produced 3

Quality of work produced 4

Contribution to the group 4

New Blog

2009-02-27T10:47:00.000-08:00

I set up a new blog for the Professional Practice Module >>>>> CLICK HERE

Music in Mountains

2009-02-26T09:41:00.000-08:00

This is my final outcome for the Music in the mountains 1 day brief. I am fairly pleased with how it turned out, I am happy that I didn't use cheesy cliches like musical notes or mountains to communicate "music in the mountains". I think the coloured tiles give the vibrant and fun feel I was going for however I don't know if the logo is "musical" enough.

I am happy with how the type itself has turned out as this was my first attempt at making a typeface from scratch.

Typographic poster

2009-01-22T04:35:00.000-08:00

I made 2 typographic posters for my typography elective one for Calisto MT and one for Garamond. I had to analyse the typefaces in relation to number of different criteria and pick out one of their unique or defining characters.

Media Blog

2008-12-03T09:57:00.000-08:00

I have set up a blog for the design for digital media module. It will be where I am posting over the next few weeks. Click HERE.

Sticks and Stones

2008-12-01T07:58:00.000-08:00

Sticks and Stones Magazine was produced my a friend of mine Robert Loeber. Normally I'm really reluctant to read any of these online "zines" mainly because I waste too much time on the internet anyway. But once I started reading this I didn't stop until I'd finnished it. It has interviews with Yokoland and Alex Bec amongst other features. I checked out some of Alex Becs other work and was really impressed, I did his hand lettering style.

Module Evaluation

2008-11-25T03:31:00.000-08:00

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have improved my skills on Illustrator in this module and I think I applied them to fairly good effect on my poster designs, although I think I could have pushed myself to use Illustrator in a slightly more creative way. I have really improved my skills with Indesign in this module, using it to layout my A2 boards for the “what is good” project and my A3 spreads for the Colour 4 print brief, I have grown to really like the program and I think I can use it quite effectively. In a way I think I have stayed within my comfort zone a bit too much during this module, sticking to things I already know. For my next module I want to move away from Illustrator and relying on my computer so much.

2. What approaches to methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
I really treated the summer brief as a research project which I really enjoyed, it allowed my to take loads of photos using my film camera which I learnt a great deal from. I also did things like recording all the songs I played over summer and documenting typography from all around my house. Unfortunately we weren’t able to use a great deal of this research to inform the development of our designs as we moved on so quickly. I also carried out questionnaires to gage people’s views on politics for my “good” brief. I made a lot maquettes to research and inform the development of my point of sale. I spent a great deal of time reading and researching different print methods, colour models and the costs of printing. That was really useful and informed the development of many of my designs especially in terms of the use of colour.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I think that I am good at using type but I have definitely further improved my skills in this area during this module. I think I am also quite good at dealing with fairly complex issues and ideas that other people might shy away from in their projects, such as political policies and creating a questionnaire to help people learn more about politics, that was quite difficult. I think I am fairly good at identifying my target audience and being able to make work appropriate to them.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?
It is very easy to stick to what you know and do best, which I think I may have done to a certain extent during this module. In the next module I intend to move away from the computer screen a bit and use a lot more photography and things like that, I want to push myself to experiment with new methods and techniques. I can be a bit indecisive when it comes to making important decisions about the direction of my project, which I think can slow the progress of my work down a lot. Towards the end of this module I had become better at quickly making good decisions about which direction to take my work in, I hope to keep this up in the next module.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
1. Not use Illustrator vector graphics so much, I don’t think I am especially talented at using vector graphics but I always seem to come back to them because they are easy and usually look pretty good. However things like photography and typography may offer a more appropriate and visually effective solution.
2. Be more committed from the beginning of the module, so I don’t have to rush so much to get it all together at the end.
3. Try to time manage better so that if two deadlines clash again I will be more aware of it and more prepared.
4. Be more effective with my decision making so that I don’t waste so much time wondering if I am doing the right thing, I would be more effective with my time and get more work done.
5. Work harder, although I have worked very hard this module I think there is room for me to more constantly put in the hours.

Your Vote is Good

2008-11-24T07:40:00.000-08:00

These are my final A2 layouts for the what is good brief

First Things First

2008-11-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

This is the 500 word essay I wrote for my critical studies presentation, I think it expresses my views on the First Things First manifesto quite well.

Michael Bierut 10 Footnotes to a Manifesto

Michael Bieruts essay 10 Footnotes to a Manifesto is a response to the First Things First Manifesto 2000, which was published by Kalle Lasn and Chris Dixon in Adbusters in 1999. First Things First 2000 itself was an updated version of Ken Garlands 1963 First Things First manifesto. The journalist Rick Poyner rewrote the statement updating the references and sharpening the argument but keeping the original sentiment largely intact: that graphic designers should reverse their priorities and instead of using their talents to generate demand and sell commercial consumer products should focus their attention on projects with a more worthy social cause.

Michael Bierut breaks down his critique of the manifesto into footnotes. In his second footnote he picks up on the overall make up of the 33 signatories to the manifesto. Most of them have made their reputation doing cultural work at the fringes of commercial graphic design, for clients like museums and publishers. Specialising in work for the cultural elite, they have resisted manipulating and selling to the average man. Therefore Bierut (2000) stingingly points out “A cynic, then, might dismiss the impact of the manifesto as no more than that of witnessing a group of eunuchs take a vow of chastity.”

First things first says that graphic designers shouldn’t waste their talents selling commercial junk however Bierut (2000) counters this by saying that “Good design is not simply an esoteric ideal but a tool that can be used to ennoble the activities of everyday life” In fact the history of graphic design is full of people who have transformed humble products into something beautiful and intelligent.

The First Things First Manifesto 2000 states that “too an extent we are all helping to draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse” by this Adbusters (1999) are referring to “a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact.” Bierut (2000) counters by saying that “humans have always used the market place as a place for communication and culturalisation” he backs up his point of view with a quote from Susan Nigra Snyder and Steven Izenour (1999): “If your model is the cultural mish-mash of the everyday landscape then commerce is the very glue that holds it together” Micheal Bierut makes the point that if the best designers where to be removed from this landscape what would happen? And who would benefit?

Matt Soar (2002) calls Michael Bieruts response to the Manifesto “ stinging and facetious” I believe that the only reason it could be seen as stinging is because of the weaknesses and over simplification of the Manifesto. Monika Parrinda (2002) says that “(the manifesto) is ultimately reductionist in the way it sets up socially responsible work as something separate – something in opposition to the commercial sphere of graphic design”

According to Micheal Bierut the biggest promise of graphic design is about common decency and identify and treating the ultimate end user of our services, the public, with respect. Soar (2002) actually concurs with this viewpoint “at the very least designers should perhaps work to address their many audiences as citizens rather than consumers.”

Paul Rand

2008-11-17T14:59:00.000-08:00

I have been reading Michael Bieruts book seventy nine shot essays on design. I read about Paul Rand who I'd never heard of but apperently is godfather of american graphic design. I had a little search around the internet to find out a bit more about him and i came across this video, in which he says some pretty interesting stuff about graphic design.

Nice monochrome prints by Crush

Wow

2008-10-27T04:55:00.000-07:00

I saw this just now and thought it was amazing

Reel / 2008 from Universal Everything on Vimeo.

More Printing

2008-10-20T04:41:00.000-07:00

A nice example of a CMYK print from Studio Mikmik

Another nice CMYK print from Ill Studio

This site FormFortyFive has some nice work on it and looks like it is updated a lot

Tings and Tings

2008-10-19T06:01:00.001-07:00

Right its sunday and I've been a bit lazy this weekend but thats all about to change. I'm working on my "Good" project trying to get the concept right which is coming on pretty well. I also submitted my poster to Don't Panic which in the end I was pretty happy with, I spent a large amount of time feeling pretty demoralised with it just beacuse I spent ages tracing it and colouring it and then I thought it was shit. So I'm glad I got it to work half decently in the end.

For the "good" project i have decided that having your own opinion is good. So I am trying to promote people to think for themslves and be more interested and open minded towards other peoples opinions.

I was looking at the Adbuster website and particualy like their One Flag campaign I really like some of the abstract designs and how they represnt diversity and unity like this one by Kate McIness.

Tou can see more of the entries and read about them by scrolling towards the bottom on the link above.

Colour Techniques

2008-10-04T08:16:00.001-07:00

OK I'm back at my parents for the weekend and with it being cold outside and me still recovering from a (freshers) cold that seems to have gone on for weeks I thought it would be a good time to do some blogging.

I've been trying to find some good examples of different print techniques from around the house which has yielded some pretty unusual results. None of them are particularly interesting in terms of design, but it was interesting going around the house trying to work out how a whole lot of different things had been printed.

CMYK - I've noticed a lot of flyers around Leeds that use pure Cyan, Magenta and Yellow as there main colour pallet a bit like the one above. I'm guessing they do this because using pure Cyan or Magenta etc. will give them pretty much the most vibrant colours available using this printing process because it is a subtractive colour model, and maybe because it is trendy at the moment.

DUOTONE - I found a couple examples of what I'm pretty sure are duotone prints around the house. I imagine both are from pretty small print runs and they chose to print them in duotone to save money rather than for any aesthetic reason.

GREYSCALE - The Guardian is usually printed in full colour. But for this edition of G2, from yesterday, which focuses on the current economic crisis they decided to print it in greyscale to represent and evoke the gloomy mood of the economy and recession. I think this is a brilliant idea from the guardian which is consistently well designed, especially in comparison to other daily newspapers.

SPOT COLOUR - I came across a couple of examples of spot colour around the house the first one is the Graphic cover that everyone will probably have seen, which is printed with a spot neon pink and another special glow in the dark ink only printed on the 'ink' of the 'pink'. The other example is a book of my dads which is printed in black and red (i don't know weather this is a CMYK red or a spot red) and a spot metallic silver which definitely couldn't be achieved through the CMYK process.

Thats all for now I will try and find some examples of RGB and monotone soon.

Summer

2008-07-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

Well with it being more than half way through the summer holidays already I thought it was about time I did a post. I seem to have hardly done anything this summer, I have been working a lot and have earned quite a lot of money which I suppose is the plus side of staying in York and not getting up to much.

The summer project is going OK, as always with a project I only really enjoy it once it is all coming together and I can see that I have made all the right decisons. At the moment I am still agonising as to whether I'm doing the right thing. I havn't really got anything to show yet it is all a bit of a work in progress. I have, however, been shooting a lot of film lately on my old SLR which I have been really enjoying. I basically learnt how to use a proper camera(SLR) shooting digital, now I know how to expose and compose a shot properly shooting film is a lot more satisfying. Here are some of the fruits of my labour:

I got my reading list which was quite exciting. I've read about half of 'How to be a graphic designer without loosing your soul' A lot of it is more relevant to someone who has graduated and is just starting out on there own as a graphic designer. I think it's a testement to how well written it is that I am still going strong half way through even though a lot of the book isn't relevant to me now. It has given an interesting insight into what it's like to be a graphic designer in the industry.

I also found this little beauty hiding in my dads office. The Penguin Book of Kites, Its full of brilliant modernist, very minimal illustrations. I really like its style, it was published in 1976 so to think it was all done long before computers is pretty cool.

To finnish off here are some of the designer/blogs/websites that I have been looking at recently:
Andy Chung
Leslie David
Jonathan Stuart

I always check Manystuff, they usually have a lot of interesting design work - Manystuff

I also came across this site that has load of shortcuts and tips for Illustrator, they are the kinds of things that are really useful to know, you can save so much time.
Adobe Illustrator Shortcuts

What is Graphic design?

2008-06-06T07:39:00.003-07:00

I don't know if it ever possible to answer the question "what is graphic design?" because it will inevitably mean something different to every graphic designer. But with this buzz I will try and describe what graphic design is to me. First to understand what graphic design is I think it is important to know what "design" is. this is the introduction/definition of what design is from wikipedia:
Design

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaay not know about Wikipedia

Design, usually considered in the context of applied arts, engineering, architecture, and other creative endeavors, is used both as a noun and a verb. As a verb, "to design" refers to the process of originating and developing a plan for a product, structure, system, or component. As a noun, "a design" is used for either the final (solution) plan (e.g. proposal, drawing, model, description) or the result of implementing that plan (e.g. object produced, result of the process). More recently, processes (in general) have also been treated as products of design, giving new meaning to the term "process design".

Designing normally requires a designer to consider the aesthetic, functional, and many other aspects of an object or a process, which usually requires considerable research, thought, modeling, interactive adjustment, and re-design

What is Graphic design?

2008-06-06T07:39:00.001-07:00

Graphic design

The term graphic design can refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines which focus on visual communication and presentation. Various methods are used to create and combine symbols, images and/or words to create a visual representation of ideas and messages. A graphic designer may utilize typography, visual arts and page layout techniques in varying degrees to produce the final result of the project. Graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created and the products (designs) which are generated.

Common uses of graphic design include magazines, advertisements, product packaging and web design. For example, a product package might include a logo or other artwork, organized text and pure design elements such as shapes and color which unify the piece. Composition is one of the most important features of graphic design especially when utilizing pre-existing materials or using diverse elements.

What is Graphic design?

2008-06-06T07:38:00.007-07:00

Work by Massimo Vignelli

I think this epitimises graphic design to me in terms of it being systematically done, organised and timeless. I like the idea of good design being a joy to use and interact with, good design should make peoples lives better.

This is the American Airlines corporate identity which has been in use and unchanged since the sixties. This reinforces my view that good graphic design should be timeless. It should be beautiful because it offers a solution a problem in an elegant way.

To me information design is very interesting. graphic design in this sense can be approached in a very intellectual way and the aesthetics of a piece are directly derived from its meaning and function.

.

What is Graphic design?

2008-06-06T07:38:00.005-07:00

Information Design

From the site barcode plantage, These are barcode visualisations.

More examples of information design from the site infosthetics.com

What is Graphic design?

2008-06-06T07:38:00.003-07:00

In the notes below are pieces of design that I have chosen with my head: intellectual, organised and functional. here I am going to look at MM Paris, I think it would be true to say that I am choosing these pieces of work with my heart. I think graphic design should be a balance between heart and head, creativity and organisation.

I love the expressive nature of MM's work.

What is Graphic design?

2008-06-06T07:38:00.001-07:00

This is from Florian Ludwigs site I would say I have chosen this with my heart. Its graphic design and I think it comes from the more creative expressive end of the spectrum.

What is Graphic design?

2008-06-06T07:37:00.001-07:00

Andrea Koch

What is Graphic design?

2008-06-06T07:36:00.001-07:00

This is work from Letman i really like his style. I love expressive typography. I think this is graphic design from the more expressive artistic end of the spectrum.

What is Graphic design?

2008-06-06T07:34:00.001-07:00

This is work from Experimental Jetset, they have been a really big influence recently. I love the simplicity of their work, I like the fact that they approach every project from an intellectual angle but they still do it with humor and wit. To me their work epitimises what graphic design is about.

Artimo Catalogue Poster

Speaking from Experience

2008-06-02T02:38:00.001-07:00

I finally seem to have managed to work out the format and content for the speaking from experience final pieces. They are going to be A2 fold out posters possibly with some A4 fold out versions that would fit in your wallet. I decided on the fold out format because it would allow me to do my original idea of poster campaign but I could add a bit more depth of information. It would also give the object more of a role or purpose: The posters could be given out to the first years and they would give them ideas and information on things they could do to unwind that don't involve drinking.

This is an early test piece investigating the fold out format. The content hadn't really been finalised at this point. I found deciding on a format helped me pin down the content. I had been looking at fold out pieces like this from Monica Nelson. Also a lot of things from experimental jetset like this.

Once I had got the format I designed its contents. This basically contains a little drawing exercise showing you how to draw a hand. It will be part of a set of 3. I had got the content and format sorted... just a few more tweaks to get the front and back cover right.

Unfortunately I was tired while I was doing this so I forgot to remove the grid before it was printed. Its quite interesting though as it gives you an idea of how the layout is constructed.

This time I thought I had it. I got another piece of paper out and set it off printing again... only this time I forgot to put the paper in the right way when I was printing the second side! Great work! It gives a pretty interesting finish although it is completely useless.

By this time I'd run out of yellow paper (and patience) but i managed to get it printed out properly. This is just an A4 test piece the final posters will probably be A2.

3d Alphabet

2008-05-24T01:20:00.000-07:00

I came across this video while researching 3D lettering its really cool and gave me some interesting tdeas about how i could construct letterforms.

I also tried to find some places that sell 3D letter for, I found this website that sells acrylic and foam 3D letters but they cost around £5 each so its not really practical for this project in terms of buying a large number of them.

http://www.bhma.co.uk/3dimensional-lettering-for-signs-c-55.html?gclid=CNXG-ObdvpMCFRSO1Qod0hGACw

I also tried searching for nets for 3D letters and i couldn't find any on the internet so I decided to make one myself, I quickly realise why there arn't any on the internet: because they are complicated as f**k and very fidly to make.

This is a net for an M

This doesn't look to bad but when you look at it close up it is quite scruffy and it took a long time to make, not really practical to make a lot of.

I tried making them out of card this was a bit better but again very time consuming and when it came to doing curved letters it didn't really work.

I may have to scrap the idea of actual 3D lettering. I have some plans which are simpler and more appropriate.

Helvetica and other things

2008-05-21T04:22:00.000-07:00

So after spending most of yesterday watching Helvetica and all its extras, which are almost as good as the movie itself, I thought I would check out some of the work by the designers featured in the film. I came across the website for Experimental Jetset which, although it hasn't been updated for a while, has some really good content on it , talking you through in great detail a lot of there projects up until 2005. While being a brilliant resource it also helps you understand the process and thinking behind a lot of their work.

Coming from from a pretty different end of the design spectrum I got out "Hand Job" from the library. I am really into hand lettering and would like to incorporate it into my work more, However I have come to realise that it is incredibly time consuming and not appropriate for a lot of projects. I think in the future this will probably make up more of a hobby rather than a central part of my practice. Here are a few pages that initially caught my eye.

Everyone has seen the Sagmeister piece on the left, But the one on the right where the lettering is made up from bacteria would have been interesting and appropriate for the 'bacteriologist' mail shot brief.

Finally here are some of my designs for the speaking from experience brief. I wanted to incorporate photography and hand lettering. I don't know if I've set myself too bigger task and I don't really know how appropriate hand lettering or photography is to my chosen subject which is Ways to relax without getting wasted. Anyway I've tried to base all the hand lettering on an appropriate source and tried to get the photography right. This is where I am at, at the moment, the idea is that these would be A2 posters.

Here I based the typography for "eat out" on the typography on the window of Cafe Rouge which you can actually see in the photo which is clipped into the type (click the image to see it larger). This idea of European cafe culture i.e. drinking and coffee and maybe and glass of wine kinda of relaxing and treating yourself rather than getting drunk was quite appropriate.

I didn't base this typography on a specific source, however i tried to play around with the copy height to give the type a jarring unpleasant feeling kind of like how it feels to be in college with a particularly nasty hangover. I set it in caps to emphasise the how loud and overbearing things can seem in that situation.

Well that was pretty long I have been meaning to do a proper post here for a while now. Until the next time. Bye!

Freemont

2008-05-18T02:29:00.000-07:00

Rad

from the lotek zine

Screen Print Book

2008-05-17T01:54:00.000-07:00

Squeeze Me

2008-05-10T00:20:00.000-07:00

Amazing This music video made with flick books

Calendar Brief

2008-05-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

This is where I'm up to on the calender brief

Calender Design

2008-05-01T02:55:00.000-07:00

I came across this page on infosthetics with lots of really interesting calendar deign

stick and stones will break my bones

2008-04-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

I came across this online magazine by a guy in his third year at huddersfield uni. It has a really nice feel to it with lots of great photos and typography.

http://www.sticks-and-stones-magazine.co.uk/#

BMX video

2008-04-30T05:47:00.000-07:00

BMX Video I made for my other site Tricklist

Park Edit from gusto on Vimeo.

Job wanted!

2008-04-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

I tweaked the two posters we did on monday.

My i Like

2008-04-26T06:31:00.000-07:00

This is quite an interesting project I came across during the my research for the creative partnership brief.
www.myilike.co.uk

Train Chain

2008-04-26T06:24:00.000-07:00

This is the website we made as part of the creative partnership project: www.trainchain.tk

More Hey Vu

2008-04-26T06:19:00.000-07:00

I posted about this guy a few weeks ago, but this style of contextualised typography was a real inspiration for our most recent project. see more: here

M/M paris

2008-04-26T06:11:00.000-07:00

You can download the the m/m paris poster catalogue from their site which is full of awsome typography and lovely stuff. I saw this a couple of weeks ago but never got the chance to post it.

Mail Shot

2008-04-20T05:55:00.001-07:00

Photos of the finnished piece from the mail shot brief

Zorro!

2008-04-20T05:26:00.000-07:00

Book of 100

2008-04-20T04:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos of my final piece for the book of 100.

research

2008-04-17T11:58:00.001-07:00

I always come across the most amazing piece of research a few days after the brief has finnish. From the yale shool of art show.

Bacteriologist!

2008-04-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

I really like this piece by "moonlightoutcast"

I for some interesting images of bacteria on deviant art

simon morris

2008-04-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

this is a crazy piece of conceptual art by my foundation art tutor. I'm not sure if i like it very much but I think it had some subconcious influence on some of my visual language. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/fine_art/events/2004/0419/index.html

David Carson

2008-04-15T05:46:00.001-07:00

ALPHABET

2008-04-13T13:33:00.001-07:00

I found this site with about an exhibition of hand drawn type and lettering, really cool and very interesting regarding my visual language and our recent poster brief.

hey vu

2008-04-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

I found this 3D modular type very interesting click here to see it moving
http://www.weeboo.org/portfolio/projects/3d-modular-type/

Letman

2008-03-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

I found this video over on Letman his style is actually amazing it is worth looking through some of his archives.

Today

2008-03-05T01:26:00.000-08:00

"Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process, we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good." - Vince Lombardi

Visual Language

2008-03-04T02:05:00.001-08:00

Going from one of my least favourite modules to one of my favouite, Visual Language is something I have been really getting into lately. These are some of the things I have been working on.

A2/SW/HK

2008-03-04T01:38:00.000-08:00

Ok this doesn't strictly answer the question "what is a book?" but I came across it in the latest issue of Graphik and was rather impressed. A2/SW/HK was commisioned to create a new corporate image for Faulkner Browns Architects which had had a big restructuring within its business model, they wanted their new identity to reflect the remodeling that had occured within the company. The designs main building blocks were created out of the negative space from Brown Faulkeners name and the identity as a whole was all about simplification and reduction, it included the creation of a bespoke typeface. They used this 'tool kit' or visual language right across the companies idntity from coffee cups to screen savers to completely overhaul the companies image. I think it is a brilliant piece of graphic design and like the way they took some very simple elements and aplied them creatively across a huge range of media to create a very sophisticated and strong identity. Your can look at more of A2/SW/HK's work here.

Caleb Everitt

2008-03-02T03:24:00.000-08:00

Caleb Everitt is a Graphic Design and also a BMXer. He does a lot of work for BMX companies and I really really like his style. In terms of graphic design within BMX I think his work is some of the best. He pushes a strong graphic design aesthetic with a lot of interegrity. A lot of BMX brands rely on some guy within the company with a bit of 'graphics' experience and a copy of photoshop for there art direction. Caleb Everitt is a really refreshing change. Check out his work here: http://www.ceveritt.com/index.html

There is also a really interesting piece of book design here

pudl

2008-02-26T12:09:00.000-08:00

ok continuing the theme of 'what is a book' I thought I would make a post on nizky pudl I actually posted about the site a couple of months ago. But I will highlight some of the most relevant work here. To Do Book This is a book that is made up from a large selection of the designers to do list bound together. It is visually very pleasing and I also like the idea of collecting over time a large number of things that you would usually throw away, I think it brings your attention to the interesting aspects of something you would usually pay very little attention to.

Rough Book Again a lovely and very interesting piece of book binding.

Whats on a (Typo)Graphic designers mind Is this a book or a 'folder' either way it is a really nice piece of work.

what is a book?

2008-02-25T07:59:00.000-08:00

So I thought id make a post tonight, along with pretty much everyone in the year as well! First i thought i would show you some of Sam Winston's work. He takes the idea of what a book could be pretty much as far as you can without the object loosing all resemblance to a book. The book is no longer a functional object but has become a beautiful art piece. I also really like the idea of actually cutting out typography I think the resulting delicate objects are not only beautiful but intreeging. I basically really love his work and his amazing use of typography! over and out. more updates to follow.

whale hunt

2008-01-27T07:04:00.000-08:00

Another totally incredible piece of work and VERY relevant to our current project. http://thewhalehunt.org/whalehunt.html

fictional radio spaces

2008-01-27T06:53:00.000-08:00

I came across this today via the infosthetics site, which by the way is absolutely essentially reading for our corrent project. I thought it was a pretty interesting idea and nicley done. It kind of relates to our current brief but I really just liked the different images and way of visualising raidio waves. but yeah you have to check out the infosthetics site for our current brief, it is an absolute wealth of information!

BMX

2008-01-01T04:24:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos i took a while ago but I really like.

Passiveaggressivenotes.com

2007-12-04T11:53:00.000-08:00

Came across this gem in the guardian the other day. Loads of entertaining notes on there, you really need to look at it to see what its all about, enjoy.

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

Hoot Hoot

2007-12-04T11:40:00.000-08:00

Hello long time no post! I came across this just after we had finnished our packaging project and thought it was pretty funny. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2344/2055904112_5e1bfdafb5_b.jpg

Nizky Pudl

2007-11-10T10:37:00.000-08:00

I came across this site the other day http://nizkypudl.net/ it has some amazing work on it. I haven't managed to look through it all but I particularly like the creative use of book binding here and here also there is some other stuff that looks really interesting like this work exploring dreams. Loads of good stuff on there go and check it out!

3 Questions

2007-11-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

What were you?

Someone who liked to make stuff look pretty.

What are you now?

Someone who wants to learn what graphic design is really about.

What will you become and how?

A good designer and successful through hard work.

FIT x LRG

2007-10-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

What your seeing here is a collaboration between LRG and Fit which is one of the best respected BMX brands.

In my slightly geekly opinion as a BMX obsessive these bikes are HOT! and go some way in combining 2 things I love bringing a slightly greater design focus to the aesthetic of a BMX.

You can read more about it on Defgrip.

BMX

2007-10-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

Well this being my second post and I thought I'd share with you a bit of what I have been doing over the summer. Firtsly this is my website/blog thing; http://tricklist.fateback.com/ its where I post all the picture and videos of me and my pals riding BMX, which beside from graphics is what I'm really into. Also this is 1 of many videos I have filmed and edited of me and my mates riding. enjoy!

First Post

2007-10-26T04:29:00.000-07:00

Ok after getting terribly confused about passwords and logins etc. and setting up a completely new blog i'm finally here and ready to post. I came across Aurel Schmidt this moring and was totally blown away by her work, I love the detail and work thats gone into each piece but also the way she can make very simplified versions of he pieces equally as effective. This is what it says about her on the supertouch blog:

"Emerging from the East Village art scene with a style as distinct as her name, Schmidt is the rare artist with profound imagination, sheer technical power and a fantastic sense of humor who is able to switch between hyper-detailed obsessive/compulsive technical rendering and fun, simple, Pop-inspired imagery with ease. Her medium of choice remains pencil & crayon on paper but the incredible detail and complex tones of her tightly executed imagery give her fantastic tableaux’s the depth of oil paintings."

You can see more of her work on the supertouch blog. More posts soon!