Logo Designs

This is the first time I have done some logo designs, I quite enjoyed it although the client did have specific requirements. I sort of ignored them sometimes just to see what I could come up with on my own along with the designs that met the requirements.

I was asked to create this shape for the 'a' and transform it into rolling hills, although they aren't the best rolling hills I think this one looks the most professional out of them all.

This was one that I wanted to design from a different angle, I joined the r and the a together with a circle which I made to represent a seed and then have the tree and roots coming out of it. Bit messy and complicated for a logo but I thought i'd fully investigate my idea just incase there was any aspect of it that could be used.

The client asked for a swoosh in the logo, this simple line isn't exactly a swoosh but I thought it was a nice trial. Maybe a bit too simple and the type is horrible.

I quite like this one, incorporating the leaves into the actual lettering. Adds another layer to the style which is nice.

Another attempt at the swoosh.

Another one of my trials.

Using the seed idea again but just with the roots.

These two ideas came about using the ball of leaves as an icon or as part of the lettering. It was hard trying to make the leaves as realistic as possible.

Found a badge design competition

Which I entered and now a couple of hours later, i'm not particularly happy with what I entered...

I wanted to play on the idea of the moustaches and bring something new into it. I might see what I mean by the design straight away but someone could come along and think what the hell is that?

Well we'll see won't we, at least i've actually entered something.

Improving skills in Illustrator

For the last few weeks I have been helping my mum out with some poster designs and I designed some basic characters in Illustrator:

I started to design the above image and showed my mum (sounds really kid like but still, almost like a client) and she said she didn't actually wear a nurse hat and wanted short and spiky hair like her own. So I came up with the illustration below:

I placed the information in a box with the same flat colouring that the illustration has. She loves it and will be posting it up in her school for people to see.

Good result.

A bigggggg catch up!

I miss my blog :(


And I feel like i'm neglecting it, i'm putting off writing down my experiences in it because i'm not happy.
But now i've decided that i've just got to go for everything and be grateful.


So, here we go.
I started my work experience at Work Creative last week and on the first day I was given a job. I was like wow they're actually trusting me with a job, then it hit me - doubt. Am I good enough to do this? What are they going to say if they don't like it? This is good practice for my new 'embracing criticism' rule which I did not do at the time. So I spent ages doing this quite simple design, probably about 6 hours which was way too long but I was so scared of getting it wrong, I wanted to make it perfect. Then when he suggested ways of changing it I didn't embrace it. This was a big mistake. I wish I hadn't been put off by this but I'm only 19, people changing your ideas is still going to hurt after one year of uni. I still came away from the day with a positive experience, I still loved it. I got to see how everything worked, how they handled clients, how they avoided people on the phone! I even got some tips on Photoshop about things I had no idea how to do but really should have. It made me realise how I taught myself Photoshop and probably don't do things the same way as everyone else.


I said at the end of the day even if I had been sat there all day doing nothing I still would have learned something and that is what the experience is all about. I guess i'd sort of lost that and felt like giving up. I wish i'd written this reflection post sooner.


I went in the second day, I felt happier with what I had to do, well more confident as I was asked to do a Photoshop mock up of a website for a business builder. I thought to myself that I would do something quirky to show what type of things i'm in to. But I left at 1 which meant I didn't have time to finish it. I loved getting a written brief, something so simple in black and white that you could do anything to.


Got to remember it's a work experience, I am grateful for anything I get. I didn't think I would get a job to do and I can't imagine other agencies going to these lengths for me to get a good experience. I really thank them and am returning next week after I get my shifts from ASDA. I think i'm going to get them a card too to thank them... Maybe some chocolates or something for their office because it seems as though they haven't been there very long. Perhaps a plant?


A list of things I have learnt from working at Work Creative:

• How important client meetings are - The client was very involved with the designing and making suggestions about where things should go and how it looks in their mind.
• How to make a gradient in Photoshop which I then used for a leaflet
• How to do actions in Photoshop which change loads of files without having to do everything multiple times.
• Not to try and dress up as everyone was quite casual.
• Everyone has been in the same boat as you, so they understand you.
• Where big companies find these massive clear images from. Istockphoto.
• How well I manage to design quickly in small notebooks.

Talking about the last point, maybe I should consider this for next year - Using smaller notebooks and take less care about the presentation of my work.

Here is a screen shot of the work I did on the first day:

The photoshopped website I created on the second day:

At the end this will be a positive experience that I will learn from, because I am going to make it a positive experience for myself and learn so much from it. I also got a Tumblr account, I love it. It's much like when I got Twitter, it's opened up a new world of accessing people. Plus since I have no followers and don't follow anyone else it's like an online diary of my thoughts. Love it.


Jennie... GET OVER YOURSELF.

Work up in the Exhibition

In the corridor of our building the First Year Graphic Design Students have put up a mini exhibition for the public to look at as part of the degree show.

Here is my entry of 'Interjections':

I had a moment when I saw my work on the wall, made me feel proud of myself, probably for the first time this year.

Over Organisation!

I actually love this, just for the design aspect of it.

It's amazing how many designs I think 'wow that's amazing' when they are actually really simple.

The dresser is hand crafted and packaged with care in Eastern Washington by the crew Mountain View Cabinetry. By designer Peter Bristol. Via Design Don't Panic

Secrets of the Super Brands

Last night, at about midnight I turned on the TV and started watching 'Secrets of the Super Brands' which I was just about to turn over but it started getting interesting. I was soon becoming fascinated with how these brands came about. Especially the most historic ones like Adidas and Puma, two brothers had a company making shoes and after 60 years they fell out making a company each which would rival - Adidas and Puma. I just found it interesting really. 


One thing that did catch my eye was when the presenter talked about Superdry and asked people what country they thought it came from. Everyone said Japan - I would have said America but I don't really shop there. But in fact, Superdry is from England - The most unexpected country. Looking at their designs now, I see there is a Japanese influence and the idea stemmed from a visit to Tokyo and the idea that they are trying to copy America but are a bit behind - hence the American gas style signs you used to see in America.

It showed the offices that Superdry designs in, it was quite small but there was a little corner with a man designing the logos. He had a massive poster full of little designs which made my eyes widen, it was amazing how he had come up with loads of versions of practically the same thing. His office was filled with inspiration, the old American signage, Japanese toys, photographs and general thought provokers for the designer. 

It made me think, I could be in a job like that one day - He looked as though he loved doing it which was nice and made me excited for the future.

Finding things to design

As part of my mum's job she has to under go a diploma in child protection (or something like that I don't really listen) For this she is creating a resource for children and parents about the dangers of children being online. She has asked me to come up with a cartoon strip that parents and children can look at to highlight what is dangerous and what is safe on the computer.


She is acting as a client in a way, I volunteered to help her but she's still bossing me around and changing her mind every 2 minutes! Just like a normal client would do!


I've been coming up with some thoughts on characters and we decided that children relate well to characters like the Simpsons. It would be blatant copyright for me to just copy Lisa Simpson so i've been onto one of these Simpson Generators and made up my own which doesn't really look like one. I've also done a tracing of it on Illustrator which takes away the copyright even more. Here is the practice on I have done:

I think I will be experimenting with drawing to as it is a lot easier to put these characters into a situation rather than making one up on Illustrator.


Hopefully it's going to turn out alright :) Almost like having a proper job!

Reply to my Work Experience E-mails!

I have a reply to one of about 10 emails I sent out to design agencies in Doncaster!
They are willing to take me on for a couple of weeks in the summer at Work Creative... They mainly focus on Brand Identity which is an area we haven't really covered in the first year so it's going to be a good introduction being able to see how things work!


The only problem is my job at ASDA, I'm starting work there from the 7th June which could include day shifts, I think that the work experience is going to have to be the priority really as the company is so kind to offer me some. At the same time I want to keep my job as it's the only thing that's paying for the summer! I'm sure I will be able to work it out with them.


Just waiting on the man to ring me back with more details about the experience, so right now i'm doing some research about the company. Found out they designed a magazine for the Doncaster Chambers, so i'm going to see if I can find one to look at and get a feel for the company. I want to go really prepared as I'm not sure what I will be doing or whether I will be good enough to be there! It's exciting though and makes me feel really grown up to be entering the world that I am aspiring to be in so early!

Should I start a new blog?

I said that I was going to start using this blog to post things that I was interested in and some of my work that I am going to be doing over the summer. The only thing is I feel like because I have started it for a module, it's a bit impersonal to me.


Perhaps I should try wordpress or Tumblr?
Maybe i'll try Tumblr and this blog to compare both.


Anyway, for the moment I found this illustrator, David Meldrum who has illustrated all the food he has eaten in a year!
It made me think I wonder if I could do this for a week... Or even a day!


I think the idea of it is to show the different patterns that people have when it comes to food because nowadays it has become an important part of people's lives. It may show things that you never thought you ate that much of, and might be a good exercise for those with eating problems.


Here are some of his images.
I like the way they overlap, sort of reminds me of the food in the stomach as that is what it would look like. I think that he has used a mixture of photography and drawing, although he could just be a very photorealistic illustrator!

Getting Experience

In the next few weeks I am going to be sending some e-mails out to some local companies in Doncaster asking for any unpaid work experience. I'm asking for unpaid because I think that they are more likely to take me on rather than me giving the option! And I don't really need the money as I have my ASDA job that I can do in the evenings and weekends. I need something to fill my time up in the summer days so I think this will be a good opportunity (if I find anywhere). It is going to prepare me for my placement later on in year 2 along with my Add+Vantage module which I am also really excited about!

I need to keep up with the business as much as I can now that I am away from University not learning, maybe it's a good opportunity to look at design at the moment and buy some more Creative Review magazines. Make an effort to buy them rather than when I see it or when I can afford to.

I might invest in some new books too, after receiving 'The Art of Looking Sideways' for Christmas I am suddenly very interested in similar books to this. Maybe I should spend my wages on things like this rather than clothes and alcohol!

Trends for logos 2011

I heard a rumour that our first module of the second year is about logo design.
So now i've handed in all my work for year one I might as well start preparing for year two!


I found a website with the new trends for logos in 2011. It says that in 2010 brightly coloured logos were fashionable and now simple designs with more toned down, neutral colours are in fashion. The boundaries of logos have become less strict too, meaning less 2D rigid designs. Other fashions include:

1. Items relating to win - bottles, corks, glasses, corkscrews.
2. Sticking with a light theme, lots of sunrises and sunsets.
3. Single, double and triple line ribbons
4. Trees.

For future reference:

http://www.logolounge.com/article.asp?aid=lnPf

Presentation Day, submitting tomorrow

Today we had the presentations for the integrated design module. I think it went well and I was pleased with our team's performance during the presentation and throughout the module. I can remember first looking at the brief thinking how on earth are we going to do this? Coding a website, seems impossible! But now, even though it took a lot of effort to do, it's finished.


Throughout the module I feel our team has worked together really well and we have ended up with a really good end result. We have many stages of design that we've developed into the final thing. I think that we needed to develop these ideas to make them more refined and attending discussion/review days has given us good feedback that we have been able to apply to our design. 


After the presentation we had some feedback from Phil and Cassie which was positive and made me feel a lot more confident in our website. There aren't any drastic changes that need to be made before tomorrow which makes me feel really prepared finishing the day before.

Last Post?

This is my last entry before submitting the blog to be marked.
In a way i'm really sad, but this doesn't mean the end for my blogging. I can't believe how useful I have found it and how much I have enjoyed documenting different aspects of my life. It's even spurred me on to try Tumblr and make a more personal blog which I think will help me grow as a person.


So, in the last year I believe I have achieved many things.
First of all, i've nearly finished the first year of university, this time last year I was worrying about A-Level exams and a prom dress! Now i'm finishing the final module and am a third of the way to gaining my degree in Graphic Design. These next 2 years are going to fly by, be gone before I know it. But I am always going to have my blog to look back on and remind me how much i've grown in 3 years, how i've gone from a shy girl with little confidence about her work to what I finally end up being. 


The question is, what do I want to be when i'm out of uni?
My mum went to see a clairvoyant a couple of weeks ago who said I was going to do a Masters Degree. I thought about this when she told me and thought that this is another year or two paying university fees where I could be out in the industry gaining experience, doesn't matter whether or not it's paid - This is what I need to do in order to build myself and my portfolio more. I'm glad my mum said this to me though, because it did make me stop and think for a second about what I want to do when I leave university, I definitely think that my job searching in previous posts is certainly going to make the process easier!


At the beginning of January when I bought my mac, I set myself a challenge to be more confident and efficient in the design programmes I bought with the mac. The computer sessions with Pete were probably the most important lessons I learned this year. Without them I would not have been able to complete work up to a good standard. I also I think that completing my modules using all the different programmes has definitely helped me to improve my skills as well as what I have done in my own time. Some evenings I just sat there drawing shapes in illustrator to get used to the pen tool. Now, nearing the end of the year I can say that I can use these programmes, something I might not have been able to say if I hadn't of bought my mac. It has changed the way I design.


I also believe that I am more able to time manage now, especially after learning how I deal with deadlines the best - with to-do lists with a crossing off system. I have also started dating the crossing outs so that I can see the progress i've made.


This year has definitely changed my life, and now there is actually no going back to it, designing is here to stay!

S.W.O.T Analysis - End of year Review

One of my first posts was a S.W.O.T Analysis which I said I was going to re-do at the end of the year to see how I had developed and changed as a designer.


Strengths

1. Adobe Photoshop - Intermediate
2. Adobe Illustrator - Beginner/Intermediate
3. Adobe InDesign - Beginner/Intermediate
4. Development
5. Producing Ideas
6. Collaging
7. Researching

Weaknesses

1. Drawings
2. Accepting criticism

Opportunities

1. Local life drawing classes
2. Second year placement
3. Briefs found in a book I bought

Threats

1. Other Students
2. Marks

From this analysis, I can see that I now have a lot more strengths than I do weaknesses. I have also changed some of the weaknesses that I had at the beginning of the year into strengths which is what I should be doing. 

I still have one weakness that I need to work on over the summer which is drawing, I just need to practice and learn to love it again. I've also found a new weakness which is accepting criticism. I think that I will learn this in time but every designer has some sort of attachment to their design so it is a little bit heart breaking when they get criticised.

Opportunities that I am going to take in the next year are my placement and some classes that I am going to take in the summer. I will also work on some briefs from a book I bought a couple of months ago.

I am still threatened by other students, but maybe this is a good thing as it will keep me on my toes.