First week back at Uni

It's Friday today, the end of my first week of year 2 at uni. Thank god it's over!

I have today off, but from now on i'm in practically everyday apart from Fridays. I suppose i'd rather have this schedule than have more time off in the week and work fridays :/

So this week i've got my timetable and that for the rest of the year, now realising that all the modules for the year have to be completed by the beginning of March. Oh dear.

At the moment, i've got a brief on Social Posters where I have to choose a social issue and create a static, moving and interactive poster. God knows how i'm going to cope with flash! It was such a nightmare coping with HTML coding last year and I just think that maybe integrated/multimedia design is not for me! Maybe I should make it a 'new academic year resolution'. I should probably make lots of these in hope of actually keeping them. I also have a live brief with a client which involves redesigning their logo which was not the most tastefully designed. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting into the briefs!

Interesting News..

A couple of weeks ago I found out some rather interesting news.
Stereohype were running their annual badge design competition that I found through the Grafik Magazine Facebook page and one friday night when I wasn't seeing Dan I decided to give it a go. After creating my designs and entering them I got a strange feeling of doubt. I now instantly hated what I designed and wrote in my more personal blog that I was getting depressed about competitions and not feeling good enough to enter.

Until, I got an email a couple of weeks ago to inform me that I was one of the winners! I actually couldn't believe it. I mean I had been following the news feeds about the competition just to see who actually won but I never expected to win anything!

It's really boosted my confidence, especially just before going back to uni. I've had so many exciting opportunities

Above is some artwork I created for an A5 leaflet, the first draft of this didn't include the title at the top which made it seem like it didn't have a focus and was all word!

Your invitation

For this project, I was asked to create an A5 leaflet, landscape for a holiday company to send out to people inviting them to an event.


Originally, I had a photograph of a boy with the mountains in the background as one image, but when I placed this on the page Warren said that there was no focus to the leaflet and suggested I cut the boy out and make him bigger on the leaflet. Here I got to use my new skill that I had learned and I could really see a difference when I added it in.


I was given an image and their website layout as a guide and a source of inspiration for the leaflet. This is the first design I came up with:

I then received some feedback that the corners of the photograph was too harsh so I made them round using another skill I learned :).

Here is the final result:

Reminder to post here

I've sort of neglected my blog which makes me sad :(

I need to update it with all the new stuff i've done :)
Soon.

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!