The Chosen & Final Invite Design

This is the final design that Samantha has chosen for her birthday invitations:

So now we can get these printed on high quality paper so she can get them sent out to the guests.

Although this was a very small brief I have really enjoyed it and I love the idea that alot of people are going to see my work and ask about it. I feel that this was defiantly a worthwhile experience to do but I would like to work with a professional client next time so you don't have the closeness you have when working for a friend. A good thing that has been developed is my time keeping.  I had a very short time to get these done especially as it was over the christmas period, but everything was successfully completed on time to high standard despite this which I am very proud of.

Initial Designs for Invites

I have used both images and a selection of layouts for Samantha to choose from. I have also experimented with different font colours so she has a variety to have a look at. I am aware that time is now running out and she needs to get these sent out asap.

Catella Ronca

We have received an email today informing us that Illustrator Catella Ronca will be coming in to do a presentation and talk to the group.

I have had a quick look at her website and examples of her work. Her style is very bright and colorful giving it a fun feeling. I am really looking forward to having the opportunity to work alongside an Illustrator and have her their to get feedback on my own work.

 

Information for Birthday Invitations

I am really pleased that Samantha liked the images I submitted and that she is happy for them to be used as they are on her invites. Although we only need one design she has said that she doesn't have a preference so I am going to design the invites using both images which should hopefully make the decision easier. 

Here is the information that will need to be displayed on the reverse:

Hi Lauren,

Here is the information as requested.

You have been invited to Samantha Kingsburys 21st Birthday 

Date: Saturday 10th January 

Time : 9PM

Venue: Upstairs in Suju, 28 The Highstreet, Swindon

RSVP: 07763839405

& a place for me to write the name of the guest it will be sent to. 

I am going to need around 60 printed off at the moment but if I need anymore after that I will let you know.

Thanks again,

Sammy 

Initial Artwork for Birthday Invites

Here are two images which I have produced for the Invitations which work as a pair. 

I feel that these are defiantly fashionable and girly, but have a much more stylish look to them rather than 'pretty'. I have submitted these to Samantha so now I just have to wait for her approval, or see if she wants anything alternated.

Live Brief - Birthday Invites

One of my friends have asked me to design the invitations for her 21st birthday. Although this will involve working with a friend rather than a professional client I am still eager to begin working on briefs that I could potentially be interacting with in the Industry. As it is going to be held on the 10th of January this is going to be quite time pressing as I need to get them done preferably in about 10 days which is going to be a experience timetabling this in with my uni work. 

I haven't really been given anything to work from as a basis but apart from that they just need to be pretty and girly and fashionable. The first thing that springs to mind is a bit Barbie related but I defiantly wont be designing anything along that line. 

Jonathan Doney

A visit from this typographer a well respected designer and member of the ISTD I felt very privileged to be part of a small group who sat in his presentation then got the chance to have a group discussion with after.

Although I am undecided on whether to progress with the Three Minute ISTD brief I still wanted to sit on on this talk as all information from any professional in the design industry is valuable.

I found the talk very inspiring and helpful especially towards the presentation of your work for any competition brief not just ISTD. 

Presenting to Proffesionals: Present as if you would to a client. 

From the samples of work he showed from other existing ISTD members - Alan Fletcher, Alan Kitching, Michael Johnson and Mike Dempsey I am going to look at their work further.

A Weekly Plan

I have alot that I want to do before I move home for Christmas as I will be working full time for the full three weeks which makes me worry about how much time, or how little time I am going to have to concentrate on my Website and on a competition brief. So I need to make the most of this week.

Monday - Researching for the Website 

Tuesday - Working on Competition Briefs 

Wednesday - Produce some initial ideas for the Critique

Thursday - Talk from Jonathan Doney & Critique

Friday - Developing website ideas using feedback for the Critique

Saturday - Traveling home for Christmas

Hopefully I will manage to stick to this. I will defiantly be prioritising developing my initial ideas using feedback from the Critique whilst the ideas are fresh in my head.

 

I LOVE Hand rendered type!

I have always enjoyed using hand rendered type, but more so this year I am addicted to it. I am noticing it everywhere. I think that as an Illustrator it is such a strong part of your identity, when designing my website I will defiantly be using hand rendered type as much as possible if for everything. 

I have been looking at Illustrators who have also used hand rendered type, and there is alot. Here are a few that have really appealed to me.

Talya Baldwin - www.talyabaldwin.co.uk

Chris Ede - www.chrisede.com

Sara Fanelli - www.sarafanelli.com

Because hand rendered almost sketchy type is quite dominating and bold I will have to keep the rest of my website very simple as to avoid over complicating it distracting the viewer from my work.

Flash Workshop - Making Buttons

This workshop was one which I really paid alot of attention to as I will be using buttons on my website linking to pages such as:

Blog, Portfolio, CV, About me etc...

From initial ideas that come to my mind these buttons will either simply be links from the above in Hand rendered type, or I am thinking of designing tabs which almost look along the lines of luggage labels.

These are from Sara Fanelli's website:

This is the kind of thing I would like to design for myself. Although I am very wary of making my wedsite look to busy so alot of experimenting is to be had I think.

Talya Baldwin

I have spent the after noon looking at the Websites of exiting Illustrators, and I came across Talya Baldwin. 

I was completely intrigued by her work, I love the pencil sketches and the delicacy of some her illustrations. I have never heard of her before so I'm not sure how well known she is but I will defiantly be using her as a source of inspiration from now on.

The simplicity of her website also appealed to me. I am finding the use of hand rendered type and thumbnail collages very appealing. This also seems to be a very common design trait for illustrators.

Competition Brief???

I am starting to have second thoughts about my choice of competition brief! Not really a good sign as I should be at the stage where initial ideas are getting well under way, but then on the other hand I suppose that now is the time to change my mind sooner rather then later.

I really wanted to do a typography brief because last year it was something that I was very interested in and wanted to develop my skills as a designer. Initially I was going to produce a piece using hand rendered type which is why I thought it would be a perfect brief to incorporate illustration into it as well.

This is an example of the style I wanted to develop my own work in:

This is an example of text from Sabrina Ward Harrison's website, this ink script is beautiful, i love the freeness and the mixture of the different sizes of each letter.

Although the letters are all different sizes, upper and lower case they all work together perfectly as a piece.

However the brief for 'Three Minutes' requires non hand rendered fonts with style sheets which is where I am now undecided if this is the best brief for me to do, when I want to pursue my degree as an Illustrator.

A little Bit Of Web History

What a better place to start the research than look at how the web came about, as part of Learning Outcome it is essential to get an understanding of the history of the web. Once I have discovered the basics I will further my research into looking at:

- The impact of the web on culture

- What impact will the Web 2.0 and other developments have on the web and does it have any broader implications?

I want to be really thorough with this project as I need to up my grades higher than that of Visual Context 2. Instead of drifting off on my own which I seem to have a tendency to do, I am going to follow the learning outcomes alot closely to make sure I cover all the necessary elements.

New Brief - Screen based media 2

The Online Portfolio

Today we were set the new brief, and I have to say that I am really looking forward to designing an online portfolio that will reflect me and my style of work. I think this is going to be on of the most important briefs we have done yet because it will an opportunity to get myself noticed and make available to anyone who comes across my website my style of work. 

Whilst I don't feel overly confident in Dreamweaver and I especially need to get my head around CSS I think that I will be able to teach myself enough to produce a quality site that will represent me. 

I am aware that I am going to be balancing this with a live ISTD brief so that is going to be a challenge for me, when managing my time - something that I haven't always proved to good at in the past especially when deadlines get closer. 

Live Competition Brief - ISTD

I am feeling the pressure that I know really need to get underway with one one of the live ISTD briefs. I would have started this earlier but because of the amount of work that I have had to complete in the last 2 weeks I just haven't been able to find the time to commit to one of these briefs.

I think that now is going to be a very good time to catch up and crack on with researching into one of these briefs now, whilst we don't have any looming deadlines ahead. If I get a good idea of what I want to do over the next two weeks I will then be able to get on with it over the christmas period. 

Visual Communication in Context 2 Overall

Overall I have had a lot of mixed feelings about this unit. Firstly I found the way that it has been taught very different to the way in which we were taught last year in the way that I didn't receive much help or guidance through them even when I asked. The briefs were set and then we were expected to go off on our own initiative get on with them and then hand the work in, I found that the only time I got some needed guidance was during the critiques. Im not sure if I can decide whether this is something that I will find useful at the end of this course because that is how we will be working in the industry or whether it has reflected badly in my work as I haven't had as much confidence in my ideas.

The first two briefs I worked solely in sketch books and then the third packaging brief I decided that I would work solely on design sheets, as I wanted to determine which style I worked best on. I think that the design sheets looked a lot more professional and I was nice to have everything laid out in front of you, but then I do love a good sketch book and the messiness of being able to just chuck everything and anything into it. With the design sheets I felt that they needed to be all immaculate. 

I think with my next projects I will work with both these different styles, doing all my research in sketch books and the developing my design ideas and final working drawings on design sheets. 

The greetings cards was defiantly my favorite brief as I was able to excel myself in an area of design that I am passionate in, it was also a vital part of work that I will be displaying in my Portfolio. The Packaging project I really struggled with as again I think the brief was really vague and very confusing on what outcomes we were supposed to be producing for it. I found the initial research very enjoyable and the group project was very successful as we worked very well as a team but towards the end of the project I did struggle on what I was actually supposed to be producing by means of final working drawings and mock ups. 

1st Critique - Animal Packaging

This week I have struggled to get into this brief and I wasn't 100% on what was expected of us, It seems that it is our ideas and thought process then presentation techniques that are what is important not the actual final outcome of the project, by means of making it. 

I had a few rough ideas to show for the Crit by means of shape, however I have of yet to discover the templates for these ideas. I'm not going to be adventurous and design some whacky packaging in the sense of shape and materials etc, but keep my template design simple - a cube, and then focus on the illustrations as the selling point. 

I was looking through designs in a packaging book from the library and found a stencil based design which set my brain going in creating my own stencil designs for this packaging. I will now research into stencil designs, existing work to then enable me to develop my ideas further. 

Overall this idea got good feedback and in the words of James McMorrrow I now need to 'take it to the next level!'

Our boy Will

This is Will and he is the person we created as the type of teenage boy that we are aiming our packaging at. 

This is a slide from our presentation, I've never really enjoyed speaking out in front of people in things like this I would much rather sit back and let everyone else do the talking. However this was one of my things that I wanted to improve and build my confidence up in. I did actually enjoy doing this pitch as I was confident we had a good solid idea and I was keen to impress the tutors with it, and I think that we were sucessfull as a team in doing that.

Animal Group work

As part of the criteria for this brief we had to work in a small group to cover initial research and begin developing initial ideas. I was a bit dubious of today as I haven't had very good experience of working in a group so far on this course. 

However today couldn't have gone better, I was selected to work with a really good group of people that I know are hard workers and would put in alot of effort. By lunch time we had completed a couple of brainstorms, agreed on a target market and assigned each other areas to research in pairs.  How organised!

Being this organised defiantly paid off though, by the end of the day we had cover a huge area of research and put together a humorous but in depth presentation. I felt very on track and inspired as I knew exactly what I was doing and couldn't wait to get into the designing stage. 

Our agreed target market is teenage boys aged 10 - 16, who are going to be moving up to secondary school. They are boys who are beginning to become more independent in their choices and are feeling the need to fit into the current trends. We chose this target market because we wanted to do something different, we guessed that alot of people would be aiming their ideas on the surfing side to Animal, we wanted to steer away from that in order to produce something more unique. Animal do produce clothing and merchandise for this age range but it isn't well publicised, therefore we are also targeting a gap in their current campaigns. 

Animal Watches - The Packaging

Today we were briefed on this live project which is going to challenge us on producing and displaying ideas in a short time period. We have to define a target market within Animal which we want to aim our designs at, then move it forward using appropriate research, mood boards and rough designs to gain understanding of material, processes. It seems that it is not the final piece that is of importance in this brief but the understanding and research behind it, and our concepts along with the presentation of ideas. 

I am very aware that this project is going to be very in depth and I think that I am going to find it challenging as it will be requiring me to work in areas that I don't normally. I am also very aware of the timescale that we have to work to and how small it is. The final crit for this project is in 16 days, and the deadline for this whole unit is in 21 days. Oh my god!

Evaluation of Greetings Cards

This brief was one of the best briefs that I personally have enjoyed the most, I think it was perfect for me to show my true illustration skills in an area that I want to progress further in which is Fashion Illustration. I found this a great opportunity  to really push myself and produce a great set of greetings cards that will suit my defined target market. 

I found this brief alot better that the first one as I could determine what exactly we were required to produce at the end of it which gave me a clear path to begin researching and illustrating. 

The end result of my cards I feel are very good, and I think that they would defiantly be purchased by my target market and displayed on a Topshop counter. The only thing that I think I could improve on is the quality of the print as they look a bit grainy, but then on the other hand people did comment and say this gave them a vintage look so maybe that isn't such a bad thing as that would defiantly reflect Topshops image as a brand. 

The Layout

This is the layout that I have chosen for my cards, on the front of each design in a corner there needs to be the Topshop logo, and the logo of the collection that the card is for. I didn't think about this when designing my designs so I have had to place them in different corners on different cards as the I didn't leave free space for them. Something to think of before hand next time....

I will present these at the first Crit tomorrow, and hopefully get some positive feedback on them. I am hoping there I will be given a few suggestions about the reverse of the card as it seems a little to blank at the moment.

Punk Couture, Pagan and Wonderland

The final three designs are done!! I am so pleased with all of them, I think they all work so well together and a set and really reflect each collection. If I was buying a present for some one, or a gift card I would defiantly purchase one of these cards to compliment it.

Punk Couture is defiantly one of my favorite designs out of all six, the tartan background behind the rock n roll model looks brilliant and then again with the ink runs and surrounding collage images it really is a strong design.

Pagan was a really fun one to do because the style of this collection is quite vampy, so lots of lace and creams, pinks, blacks and grey's. I enjoyed looking at different samples of lace to use as a background. It is another of one of the more unique collections.

Last but not least is Wonderland. This collection basically reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, with the bright harlequin patterns, then bright and colourful bow and heart accessories. It has a fun and cheeky feel to it which I think I have created within my illustration.

Now I have all the designs completed I will need to put them into indesign and get a layout created. I need to add the necessary text and images such as a bar code as they would need this all included when there sat on the counter in Topshop. I feel that I am ready for the Crit tomorrow and look forward to the feedback on my designs, before the main one on Friday.

The Boutique, Kate Moss and Scout

I have now successfully created the illustrations for my first three greetings cards. These are for the collections ' The Boutique', 'Kate Moss' and 'Scout'. I have produced them using the same media and style so they are linked and look like a collection. I have based each illustration on a centered image of a Topshop model wearing this seasons clothing from that collection. I have then built up a collage of images, from sketches of animals and photographs of accessories, with watercolour added to the background. 

The Scout collection is Knitware in earthy colours such as Tans, Forest Greens, Burgundys etc. I have reflected this in my illustration by using dark green water colour runs and sketches of woodland animals such as a fox and a barn owl relating to the word 'Scout'. 

The Kate Moss collection is all designed by the model herself so this really reflects her style of a rock n roll girl. Her clothing range for this season is mainly made up of chiffon blouses with feather print, leather jackets and light pearl pink colours. 

The Boutique collection is very varied and so I did struggle with finding and assembling the correct imagery to reflect its style. In the end I decided to keep it quite simple and neutral. The model is wearing a dress from the Autumn/ Winter collection, I kept the colours to navy, pink and cream which are the dominant colours from this collection. I added the letter B in some gorgeous letterset which I brought over the summer in Laura Ashley.

The Designs - TOPSHOP

I have began producing my illustrations for the 6 collections and I am very pleased with the way things are going. I have done a lot of research and feel confident that I am meeting the brief and am working with a stye that reflects Topshop and will appeal to everyone that shops there. I have decided that I am going to leave the cards blank so that they can be used for a number of occasions as its not just birthdays that people would buy the electronic gift cards for.

During my research I have looked at alot of the existing designs that are out there, I have mainly looked at designs in Paperchase, M and S, Next and other high street shops as this is mainly where the Topshop client will also shop. I have also looked a number of existing fashion illustrators who's work I have been inspired by. I especially like the work of CocoPit and Stina Perrson, who uses mainly watercolours. 

  

Idea Number 2 - TOPSHOP

Ok, after a chat with Sally I have come up with a new audience that I can produce my greeting cards for using my preferred style.

I am going to use the fashion chain, Topshop as my client. I have noticed that they don't actually have a card range like most stores do, they only have plastic folders to put the electronic gift cards in. So I feel that this is defiantly a gap in the market for me. Luckily they also have 6 different collections.

Pagan

The Boutique

Kate Moss

Scout

Punk Couture 

Wonderland 

So I will be producing one card for each of these collections basing them on the Autumn/Winter collection. I am going to use an image of a Topshop model dressed in items from that collection as the main focus and then build up a collage of relative images, using mixed media and water colours. I will have to get a good idea of the types of clothing and colours used for each collection and then reflect that in my designs. 

Crit of Initial Ideas.

I am really enjoying these Crits at the moment they are so different from last year, everyone seems so much more confident and are much more willing to discuss their ideas. 

I produced a small illustration as an example to show Neil and Clare they style I would be using so that they would be able to give me some good feedback on wether my style will suit the Client - Pop magazine. And I am glad that I did this because the point was made that Pop magazine is very Photographic and not really Illustrative so my style wont really reflect their image and that wouldn't meet the brief where we are required to define out target market.

So I have to change my idea, and find a new target market... I am very conscious of the fact that we are now a week into the brief and I haven't really got going with it yet!

Evaluation of Look Again/ Think Again

I was always looking forward to this brief being set because of not really involving myself in the Design world over the summer. However when the brief was first set I struggled to determine what was actually expected of us and found it quite vague, which didn't give me the confidence to go of and begin brainstorming ideas and research as I didn't want to be wasting time heading in the wrong direction.

After a chat with Neil I had a much clearer idea of what we were supposed to be doing and I got stuck in. Because it was such a short brief I was very aware that we had little time to so I planned my time so I wouldn't over research and not leave myself enough time to produce the actual poster. 

Although I struggled with the concept to begin with,  and changed my final piece quite alot I am pleased with my final out come and I think that I have met all the requirements of the brief. 

Cards, Cards, Cards

I have began to research into my idea for the greeting cards. I want to produce them on fashion illustrations, as this is the type of illustration I want to head towards so this will be good to show my work style in my portfolio. 

I have decided to use the fashion and culture magazine 'Pop' as my client, and then the target market will be all of Pop magazines clients. They can use this set of cards to send out to their clients. I am going to be leaving them blank so that they can be used for a number of occasions.

I have always read Pop magazine so I have a nice little collection of them to get an idea of ther style that I will incorporate into my illustrations. They will have to reflect the present season, which is Autumn/Winter and then obviously the fashion and trends at the moment. I have noticed that Pop always seem to use animals in their editions, so as it is a British magazine I will look at using British winter animals such as a Stag, Foxes.

Final Poster Crit

This was the final critique for our poster campaign Look Again/Think Again. I was quite disappointed that Sally did not understand mine, when everyone else has. But apart from that I didn't really get any new feedback other than what I got in the main Critique. There are a few changes that I need to make but I am going to prioritise on the Greeting Cards project at the moment and put some time aside at the end of this unit to come back and make amendments to my poster.

Look Again/ Think Again Crit

I felt a bit nervous about this as it was our first one of the year and I wasn't really sure what to expect. There had also been rumours floating around that the course leaders were going to be really harsh and challenging. I don't mind this as I know we are going to have to talk about our work in the industry and in some case will have to fight our corner, but at the moment I'm not that confident, give me a piece of paper and I could write everything down perfectly but when in front of a lot of people put on the spot I tend to not be able to get out what I want to say in my head. This is some thing that I am going to have to overcome! I think that confidence is at quite a low in our group generally as everyone is quiet, and not very willing to have a debate or voice their opinions. Maybe this is some thing that we will be able to over come together this year?

Anyway.. the Crit!

When I printed out my poster I instantly thought it didn't look right, and that the type face I had used and the layout of the text really didn't work that well with the image. Also when it was up on the wall, the 13's were so tiny you couldn't see them unless you went up close, so this is a problem that needs to be amended straight away. 

Over all though when it to my turn I enjoyed explaining my idea, and afterwards everyone did have a discussion about superstition which was really nice. I got some feedback that I had a good strong and viable idea, but it just needed some tweaking, mainly with the text and sizing of the 13's which I already knew. Overall everyone seemed to like my idea and found it quite humorous, as I have completely contradicted and idea which is what I was aiming for. 

I know want to get this finished over the weekend and get my sketch book up to date, ready for the next brief which I am very excited about!

Greeting Cards

This brief sounds brilliant! It is defiantly going to be very good for me as I can produce my own illustrations using pretty much any media that I can. We have got a visiting lecturer who has set the brief and will be supporting us throughout the duration of it. I have got a few ideas of what I want to do already and I think that some good brainstorming and looking at the work of others will really define and develop my ideas.

Clare made the point that we will need to really pick and research out target market well, I will be aiming my cards at a young to middle aged female market. The other thing that we were advised to do was to really look about at what's out there and the trends, that are about at this time. Clare made the point that PATTERN is MASSIVE and this has really stuck in my head.

1 Day to deadline PM..

I have had a really good day today finally and I am pleased with the poster that I have produced. Along the way I have got another couple of designs which I was tempted to use but I am going to stick with my original Illustration.

I have cover the illustration of the lover in the number 13 all of different sizes following the depth of the illustration. I think it has worked really well and I have quite enjoyed doing it. I haven't ever been that confident on the computer and so I was a bit anxious that I had forgotten everything I learnt last year over the summer, but it all seems to have come back to ok!

I have used the slogan " If this isn't your lucky number.. then it should be"

I think I have defiantly met the brief as a lot of people have commented and praised my idea, and when I have asked them if they understand it they have said yes. The slogan confirms the illustrations, its direct and clear giving the viewer no chance to side track.

I have done a bit in my sketch book so far, but I do need to concentrate on getting that up to date as I DON'T want to get behind on that already. I seem to have been developing my ideas on lose pieces of paper and then all my research is mainly print offs and photocopies, so I have a million bits of paper to stick in an annotate as usual!

1 Day to Deadline AM..

Well there is now one day till the Critique and I feel that I am on target, I am pleased with the Illustrations I have produced and have a number of rough layout designs produced which I will be developing throughout the day.

I have gone for producing my illustration using a mixed media of paper and water colours, I will be then importing it into illustrator to add the type. I need to make sure the gradient of the images is light enough for the number 13's to stand out, and that all type is legible. 

Its going to be quite an experimental day as I know that as I go along more ideas will pop into my head and I will changing little things to my designs. 

Its all coming together now

The last two days have been very productive and I feel that I have moved forward alot. I have now got one solid and well researched idea, I also have an image of what I wan my poster to look like which is always a good thing.

After an initial panic because I had hit a slight mind block I am confident that I am onto a good idea which is going to meet the brief well. After producing some rough layouts I asked a handle full of class mates to give me feedback on my idea and thankfully everyone seemed to generally like it and gave me some good and helpful feedback. I was glad of this because I think you  need to test your idea to others because if they hadn't of understood it then it wouldn't have been successful. 

I have decided to focus on illustration this year as this is defiantly my strong point and to be honest what I have found that I enjoy producing the most. I produced two simple images of Lucky charms which I can then manipulate. 

The idea that making people think that 13 is actually a lucky number will be portrayed through a clover leaf/horse shoe made up with or covered in the number 13's, images that people will instantly relate to luck, but then when they notice the number 13 it will make them look twice and think about it from a different angle.

I now need to think of a catchy slogan or quote which will just perfect this idea to a T.

Researching and Brainstorming

I went into University today to begin researching into my strongest idea of producing a campaign on making the public believe that 13 is actually a lucky number. 

I looked at all the different superstitions surrounding the number 13, to get a clearer idea of what I'm up against. This not only gave me all the background knowledge I needed but got my brain ticking and thinking of how to progress forward and develop the original idea.

As always I went from webpage to webpage and found out some really good and some really random information regarding the number 13. I also came across this illustrators blog which i made note of as I loved her illustrations - Poppytalk.blogspot.com. 

I am very aware that we have only 2 days till the critique and I haven't produced any planning or visual ideas which is slightly worrying. I have began my sketchbook though so I'm hoping that this will get the imagination flowing. I have found this project as of yet very challenging as it is so broad and the guidance from tutors has been minimal, although I can understand this is only to get us to begin being more independent. 

Critique of Initial Ideas

I was looking forward to this because I felt that I needed a bit of brainstorming from other peers and I wanted to hear the thoughts of others on my idea to make sure I heading in the right direction. 

I was also very confused as we had received an email from Sally which i felt contradicted what Neil had said, and both of what they were now saying didn't really relate to brief? 

So on clearing up the confusion we are: 

• Selling something - an idea.
  
• We have to convince we are right and that are object is right, it might have sentimental value that only means something to us, but as long as you can convince that is ok.
  
• Can be done in any media.
• It mustn't be left open to interpretation.

So as long as I follow this then I will fine! 

During the Crit we were talking about numbers and the idea came to me that I could produce my poster on making people believe that the number 13 is actually lucky. I'm not superstitious at all, however my house mate won't have her car stereo on 13, she didn't want to live at our house as its no. 13. Does anything bad actually happen on friday 13th more than it would any other day?  I feel this is a stronger idea than my other one and that I could defiantly bring humour into it which is always a good thing. Number 13..Lucky?!! I think this will defiantly make people look twice.

Look Again/Think Again

This is 1st brief that we have been set this year, I'm getting the idea that this is a nice little warm up project to get us back into the swing of things. It is only supposed to be a day project even though we have a week to do it, but still this is good practice for having a quick turn around. 

This project is going to build my skills on making a campaign to solve a problem within a appropriate context. We will be bringing understanding to the viewer, the campaign must do this in order to be successful.

We either had to (a) Choose a social issue that in our opinion has been overlooked and needs addressing, or (b) Choose an object that often carries values that go beyond its intended purpose or everyday use.

As soon as I read through the brief I knew that is was really open and we could pretty much do this on anything we liked, we've been given the freedom to develop what we want into a final piece using tools of our choice. I began looking up social issues and was pretty stumped as I couldn't really find anything that hasn't been addressed, anything that I found on the internet etc has already been addressed otherwise it wouldn't be on there. 

Soo.. i turned to the second option and my first initial idea was to use my name. It doesn't mean anything to anyone else but it is me! I thought about basing this project on typography, by collecting media with my name throughout my life e.g Birth tag, Name badge from inside school uniform etc which then meets the sentiment section of the brief.

What I am going to do differently this year

This year I have come back with a much more positive attitude, last year I did apply myself but I think  when it came down to I didn’t push myself as much as should have. I have always been really keen and found it very easy to get stuck into new briefs but when the going gets tough and deadlines approach, if I’m behind I just seem to lose the will power and just do what I need to to get myself through rather than doing as much as I possibly can to keep and even raise the quality of my work.

Over the summer I have neglected design, its not that I havent kept up with it I just havent really had the time to produce any of my own due to working full time. So because of this I am very excited about the new brief being set tomorrow and being able to get stuck into  it.

I have high expectations of this year and I am really looking forward to all the oppourtunities that I think will be arising. Like I said in my previous blog, you have to make things happen for yourself and this year I  intened to make the most of all oppourtunities coming my way. Last year I didn’t get involved with any extra briefs other than those that have been course related, this year I want to get and identity and get noticed in the industry, by doing live briefs and taking place in competion briefs to gain feedback on my work, build up my portfolio and show other designers the best of my ability. 

I’m not really sure where I want to be at the end of this year, I am going to concentrate on my illustrations as these are definatly my stronger skills, I also love typography and would like to get more involved with that, especially letterpress. Photography is another area which I would like to build up my skills in too.

Over the summer I have looked at a couple of London Univeristys such as Kingston and LCC which have both got me very interested in doing my third year at. I think that having the oppourtunitie of being a designer in the capital would be  great experience and put me in a good situation to build up my career when finishing my degree.

Oh and one more thing… after the first day back and a good talk from Neil I he has stressed the importance of PPRD and givin me the drive to put 100% into it this year!

Viscom Year 2 - The Beginning

So the summer is over and I’m back at the Arts Institute ready for which could be my last year here.

I have been looking forward to this and find myself eager to get back involved with the student life and the briefs that I will soon be getting stuck into. I am very keen to excel myself a lot this year, as I know that this is the year that will either get me into employment or a third year. I know that I have to make things happen for myself so I will be making the most of every opportunity that comes my way.  

I have learnt a lot from last year, and from those lessons I am now confident that I am going to push myself  and get I what I want out of this year.