BMX

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

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

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

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

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

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

Biodegradable Plastic

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.