Essay Advice

Today I wanted to go into the studio practice time for some advice about my book cover and any other suggestions that would improve it.


However, instead of this I managed to seek some advice on the essay about transparency and comparing different sources. I wasn't part of the seminar group, but I found that listening in to Phil's point of view about the essay will give me some interesting pointers for my essay. Then my seminar with Simon next week will offer me more information which should allow me to complete the essay easily.

Peer Review Day

Yesterday we had to show the rest of the group all the visuals created on Photoshop, all colour schemes and some of the writing that would appear on each of our pages. I printed off everything we have done so far so that others could see the development that we had undergone for the final design.


For the last few days, we've all been comparing ideas and what we were thinking of doing for our own pages over our Facebook group. I felt that we needed to talk about ideas and gain opinions on each others work so that we could make important changes before we showed the work today. Our ideas so far are to each have the same left hand navigational system and border but with different colours which represent the tube line - This will make each of our designs different and unique.


We even managed to generate new ideas the night before, from this I was able to create another sample of a page to show today. Here are the samples of our latest ideas we came up with, incorporating station tiles into the design using my first individual page idea of using a train ticket and displaying the information and pictures inside:

This design used white bricks in the background with the opacity changed
so it blends in.

This one uses the distinctive green tiles found in a station in London, there
is no opacity change which makes the design look garish.

Our peers said that the idea of the tiles in the background was better than the original plain white background and agreed that the green was too much in the background for the design.


When they were commenting on my page, they described the red theme of my page to clash with the train ticket in the main section. I never really noticed the clashing before and am going to choose a different colour for the final design. They also commented on the clever idea of using a sideways scroll bar, this made the page seem more journey-like.


The other idea was to make it seem like the viewer was watching a train journey, the images and text would scroll through the window using some HTML coding.
Here is the sample that I showed today:

My peers seemed to prefer the other idea, as it would be hard to get this looking professional which I definitely agreed with. I think I will be sticking with the other idea.


Today has really helped us develop our design, hearing feedback about what needs doing and how people see our website was really useful. All the feedback that they have given us will definitely be used, since these are the people who are going to be looking at our website, it cannot be poorly designed otherwise people will not stay and appreciate the rest.

Winners of the Poster Competition!

In Monday's lecture, The Spine Team were announced the winners of the Poster competition which we were very pleased about. It means that our poster will be displayed all around Coventry promoting the Fashion Show and can go in our Portfolios. We have seen the final version of the poster on Facebook, and by the looks of it they've made it a bit lighter and added a few more logos to the bottom which shows they liked the design as a whole - Here is the final design:

It will be really good to see our design around Coventry, and will definitely be looking out for it. I have already seen the design featured at 54 (The SU) on the door for people to see when coming through the door:

Other Updates:

For the website, I have come up with a few ideas to show to the team tomorrow for us to discuss. I think this meeting before Thursday will be a good opportunity for us to discuss the  main theme and colour schemes. This is what I have so far:

 Hopefully from this, we will be able to decide on a design that we can use on all our pages. Or develop it further to work for everyone.

General Updates..

We received a phone call the other day about our poster being shortlisted with another in the competition!
I actually didn't think our poster was going to get this far but looking at ours and the competitions, I can see why they have chosen them. Both posters follow the brief, they include orange and black and show that it is a fashion show. Ours has followed the brief more by using continuity and the same fonts they requested but still, I am proud. Now it is up to people on Facebook to decide which poster wins, I'm going to make sure people vote for ours but I do think it is fair that the public decide as they are the people who are going to see it.


Speaking of Facebook, I like the fact that our group has its own Facebook group so that we can ask questions and share ideas. It's almost like having our own little discussion group without everyone else seeing.

Even got our own symbol saying Spine Team on it in an underground sign style. I feel like our group works really well together, this showed in the poster competition and I am very happy with our work and ideas so far!

Also it's study week this week, I have to admit, I have come home but as there is nothing to do during the day I am getting lots of work done! I find it easier to concentrate here than back at uni, think my room is too small and distracting! Maybe start doing work in the kitchen? Although there is no internet so that might be a bit difficult :/

As if I found my blog on Google..

I actually feel so famous right now.

One Day Project - TwistedFashion

Yesterday we took part in a one day project/competition with a client to produce an advertising poster and flyer for a Fashion Show. The fashion show was organised by TwistedFashion.org to promote fair-trade clothing. The winning group would have their design published around Coventry promoting the event.


First of all, we were asked to listen to the client introduction and make notes - These notes would then be used as part of the brief. I think this was a good idea as it made us listen to the client and pick up on things we felt were important - which is a good skill to have as a graphic designer.


I worked with my Spine Team, which was a good training for us as we were able to bounce ideas off each other and work as a team in preparation/continuation of our group project. We came up with the idea of using the man from the fair-trade logo and changing it into a woman. For the project, we could not use images off the internet or copyrighted images. This was a huge change for us as we easily go on the internet and use pictures in our designs without even knowing. It felt almost like having a handicap in the design process, which is weird to say. However, it was a huge lesson as when we get into the industry we can't use other people's work.


We decided to draw the simple shape in Illustrator, which I did. The team all felt that I had done a good job which made me feel better because previous attempts at Illustrator did not go down very well. Here is the outline I drew:

We wanted the figure to look as though it had been sketched without drawing it and scanning it into the computer. Drawing the figure on illustrator allowed us to easily remove the background so that we could work with it on Photoshop for the poster and flyer.

The rest of the team got on with the poster design, all of our inputs were taken into consideration and everyone got a say in the final design. We wanted to continue some of the design features from the previous poster so people would recognise it was the same event. Here is the previous poster:

We looked at this poster and discussed the main aspects we liked the most, this included the important information in bigger letters and the way the information was set out. In the brief, the client stated that they wanted orange to appear on the poster so that when people looked at it, they would be able to tell it was their poster design. Later on in the day, they decided that we could chose whatever colours we wanted after someone asked why they chose orange. We decided to stick with it, as it was part of the brief and the client may feel that ours had more continuity about it. We wanted to adapt ideas from the poster and make them into something new. 

After the poster was designed on Photoshop I made the flyer by re-arranging the information slightly and using the woman figure more. The poster and flyer both looked like they were for the same event which was the main idea. I feel like I had a good input into the designing and outcome, I felt that everyone else's efforts were on par with this and we made an excellent team. No-one slacked off and the job was done on time.

This is the final poster design:

This was our final flyer design:

 We found that when we printed the poster off the first time it turned out very dark, we think this was due to the background being to dark and orange. When the team realised this I changed the background of the flyer to make it much lighter and a more grey colour, I also adjusted the lighting of the figure which made the flyer a lot more fresher looking. If we had time, we would have altered the poster's brightness a lot more but we had to meet the deadline and show the client the design on time. I suppose they could get a better idea of what we could do from the flyer, and if we won, we could edit the poster to have the same bright feel as the flyer.

All in all, we had a good day, it was nice to work in the studio all day and spend some time with my group. I had a really enjoyable day even if we don't win the competition, and it was my first experience of working with a proper client on a project that could have some of my ideas published for the first time.

Realising that advertisements need Tracking and Kerning!

Just looking at my Carnage T-shirt for tonight thinking that they didn't do a very good job of the tracking and kerning of the "Carnage":

The 'AR' and 'NA' letter are too close together and should have a gap in them, then the 'C' is too close to the 'A' and the 'RN' and 'GE' are too far away.

Also, the type used for the Action man vs Barbie bit does not suit the rest of the T-shirt - It just looks odd and doesn't match the theme!

After criticising my T-shirt, I am very much looking forward to tomorrow's one day project involving a live project. It will be nice to have something done in one day whilst working in a team and will be a very good experience, it will also help me tonight as I will not drink as much so I can be more focused tomorrow!

Interim Critique

This afternoon, I attended the critique set up for my book cover group China.
I've come away from it not feeling too confident in my ideas and that everyone else seems to be ahead with their ideas and concepts.


When we were taking critique from each other, I found that no-one had much criticism of my work or anyone else's work - Everyone is too kind for their own good! This made me have false confidence when we were having a group discussion about the work. I felt like my work had the most to work on, it didn't really have much to do with China which I had realised and knew I needed to improve but there was so much more that I need to bring into it.


Here are some of the main points I need to focus on:

• Do China have salt and pepper shakers?
• Knife and Fork idea, do the Chinese know we eat like this? Is it obvious it is an American Diner?
• China colours, what does black mean?
• Introduction of a third character?
• Thinking about thin, sans serif fonts for the cover.
• Thinking about rivers in the blurb, justify text.
• Ying and Yang?

Comments made were that I needed to do more research, I believe that I have done a lot of research so far but I need to be more specific now. Or maybe I've just been doing the wrong kind of research for the project. Perhaps I should look over what I have done so far and think what else needs doing.

Very Pleased :)

This evening I'm very pleased with myself, I have completed everything on my to-do list and even more. Went to Wilkos and bought the props I needed: envelopes and salt and pepper shakers (like Diner style ones).


However, one thing I did learn today was how frustrated I get with myself. Before I went out to buy my props, I tried to do some simple designs on Photoshop to get me going and I ended up being really angry with myself because I couldn't resize the image properly. In the end I just felt like I needed to get out, but I ended up being quite down walking around, but when I was in the library and looking at China Designs I started to feel better.


I needed the time away from my desk to collect my thoughts and channel them into a design, now I've ended up with 3 designs that are half decent. Nothing particularly amazing but it is something to show at the critique tomorrow that i'm not completely embarrassed about!


Now I'm going to concentrate on my sketchbook and showing how I've come to the ideas I'm presenting tomorrow, as well as putting in the research I've collected today.


All in all successful day.
Just wish everyday was like it.

One-Day Action Plan

Tomorrow, I have a critique for one design that I have created so far, I found this out last night when I saw on Facebook that everyone on my course was suddenly doing work? So I checked Moodle and it turns out we have a lot of work to do!

As well as finishing off my action plan from last week, I have to come up with one finished design. I want to beat this and come up with 2 - 1 involving imagery and concept, and the 2nd one just using typography to display the message.


So today's action plan:


1. Look over previous design visuals, maybe add to this with new designs.
2. Go to the library and return books which are due today, then find some research and books about Advertising in China
3. Go to Wilkinsons and buy objects that can be photographed, i.e. Envelopes
4. Come back and do designs.


I'm hoping that I can do all the points in my action plan, if I feel like I can't, I either pull an all nighter or just stick to one design!


Hope I can do it :/

12 Ways to Become a Design Visionary

Some good advice I found whilst browsing Twitter:

1. Make at least one design breakthrough every two years (that’s not too much to ask). Breakthroughs might include, on a sliding scale, everything from developing a new typographic language for the post-digital future to a sustainable alternative to Post-its to a theory on how to monetize creativity.

2. Write a design manifesto with enough bullet points so that design teachers can assign a different poster to at least ten undergraduates at a time that typographically and pictorially illustrate each point.

3. Answer the “what is the future of design?” question without referencing a new computer operating system, program or app.

4. Design at least one novel product that enables designers to design better design that will make the world a better place—iPad apps are acceptable.

5. Never use in a lecture, essay or conversation about design the terms “design innovation” and “bandwidth” (in any context, even a derisive one).

6. Get invited to a conference, congress or gathering that is not organized by design organizations. The Economic Summit at Davos is acceptable, but a little old hat. A real visionary should be invited by an emerging nation or NGO that caters to emerging visionaries.

7. Mentor not one but three future visionaries, who must, during the course of being mentored, make a minor breakthrough that will be recognized by the design and mainstream press.

8. Publish at least one book (not self-published through Blurb or Lulu) that condenses all your beliefs and wisdom into a collection of visual aphorisms that are at once witty and profound, and use neutral typefaces to avoid being identified with any style that could be deemed trendy.

9. Turn down all offers to speak at conferences, congresses or gatherings (other than the one noted above) unless your payment is referred to as a “fee” and not “honorarium,” signifying you are receiving a significant rate.

10. State categorically that you no longer make things, because making things is no longer innovative, and designers make too many things anyway. Then six months later end your moratorium by declaring that making things is “what designers do.”

11. Do not associate with other design visionaries (even if they are old friends), lest you be considered part of a clique. A design visionary must independent and above the fray.

12. Take a year or two off from being a visionary, and give others a chance. You can always return—it’s like riding a bicycle.

I think it gives a good insight into what life is going to be like, maybe I should do some of the things it says, to prepare myself. Or maybe I should wait until I finish University and attempt some of these at my own leisure whilst undertaking tasks in my job.. Maybe it will help in my job? Things like publishing my own book might never happen, or not happen for years to come so not all the points can be done - Would be nice for it to happen though!

I've already done the manifesto one, in the first module of Visual Communication - Came up with a nice illustration of a crossword which received good feedback.

How my action plan got on..

Well... The action plan was not fully completed, there were a couple of things I hadn't seen to but I believe this is because I set myself too much to do. Maybe instead of 4 tasks a day it should have been 3 and maybe I should have considered the length of the tasks. Next time I set myself an action plan, I will definitely pay more attention to how long it will take for each task along with what other lectures and plans I have on the day.

Making Links

Today, we had a one day (well maybe an hour long) project to do which would help us to find links in a subject.


The 'Spine Team' were a group today, we had the subject - Colourful which instantly brought to mind bright colours on objects and clothes. However, we had to dig a bit deeper to come up with some interesting links. So looking through the newspapers and magazines we were able to link bright colours to Rainbows, Gay people, Fat people, Cake, Cartoons, Life, Tarot Cards, Colourful Language, Colourful fashion, Food logos and a few more.


When presenting our find link sheet, our pictures filled up the wholeeee page - No blank spaces at all which most of the other groups had. Phil said that ours looked the most interesting and colourful, but as we were going through the links, some were getting very confusing and we needed the homepage to link everything back up together. There were other groups who had done a better job at linking their ideas which was the point to the project, but ours was most visually appealing - which is the course itself so.... :)


Here is the final piece:

Just a quick update on the progress of the action plan for this week:


All tasks for Monday and Tuesday are complete but as Tuesdays tasks ran over to Wednesday, it means i'm currently doing wednesdays tasks today. I'm sure I will be able to get this done by the end of the week and will post another update tomorrow night/Saturday morning.