Wednesday 26 May 2010

Speaking from experience


These are the latest things I have done to go into my diary unfortunately the digital print room was fully booked so I couldn't print onto sticker paper for the stickers below but you get the general idea so I will be adding them just on normal paper for now and possibly finishing at a later date quite ironic how im creating a diary for organisation yet cant get in the print room to finish my own project! in the crit we was explained that we have to create various products or propose to them I thought the stickers and cards etc would be classed as a product in there own right yet I am unsure so I will be creating proposal for a memo board similiar to a calender with all the details about the course and what goes on day to day such as workshops I believe this would be helpful and I would use it may even end up printing it as a final yet!! Heres the idea for it below:

Tuesday 25 May 2010

TYPE AND GRID



My design resolutions for the type and grid final ideas:

Speaking from experience

For the diary I didn't just want some pages for them to write on i also thought about life outside the uni as well i have provided them with cash sheet so they can manage there money, a map of leeds, addresses of uni halls around leeds so they can locate there fellow freshers. Taxi cards which have the three cheapest taxis in leeds! For inside uni I have put important access rooms will the floor which they are on and room numbers. Stickers which outline electives lectures libary books due book digital print which they can interact with the diary and stick in relevant places.

Speaking from experience






This is my final piece the diary: I am really pleased with the outcome! it has an illustrative feel as well as a professional manner to it

Design is about doing- VOGUE






For the vogue brief it was our first live brief and i found very exciting!! yet i always was feared of getting my work out there and once i did my first piece was going to something which i was pleased with. as we only had a week i began visually experimenting in a sketchbook with tone of voice layout and colour as the brief didn't clearly sate what vogue meant it was pretty open to anything i brainstormed all my ideas what vogue meant to me and what i thought of when someone would say the words a range of things came out of this the magazine, beauty, madonna. I have always been interested in exploring fashion illustration so immediately was going to do something girly and desirable. Here were some of the experiments which i tried before settling on my final three for the crit. I wanted to create something which was hand rendered as i LOVE illustration techniques this year ive really just been trying to find my style how i like working and potentially where i want to be as a designer in the second year of my degree. I have found it quite difficult because i have been pushing myself out of my comfort zone not trying to do what i know i already can and this has proved hard because ive not been 100 % pleased with all my work as final resolutions. Yet first year is for making mistakes and next year i plan on developing the skills i brought from foundation art use of the sewing machine and paints and using that with the digital processes.
final Design:





IN DESIGN BRIEF

For this brief we got names pulled out of a hat and that person would then follow to be your partner my partner was Sam Wallbank I have been paired up with him before for the last partner brief ! regardless we tried to get to know more about each other i find it quite difficult to get information from sam as he is quiet in the class room environment and seems to close up when discussing things about himself some would say modest! We set off answering each others questions, firstly i asked him what tone of voice he would like the feature of him in he replied it didnt matter things were getting difficult so i proceeded to ask him about things he has enjoyed doing he told me he went on a lads holiday in the summer and i could do his article on that. when asking questions about what he got up to i wasnt getting ay inspiration or excitement out of him immeadiatly i wasnt best pleased about starting this brief! I went for weeks thinking of ideas of layouts i could achieve with this infomation:

Subject matter: SPAIN
  • lads holiday
  • highlight of his holiday was jumping in the pool fully clothed.
  • went for 10 days
  • recomend for people to stay there
  • 15 lads went
  • chill out drink all day
  • loves going abroad
  • relaxed
  • expensive
  • favourite holiday
The lads that went with him:
  1. Sam
  2. george
  3. tom w (westy)
  4. ben
  5. bene
  6. tom r (reidy)
  7. tom c (clarky)
  8. calum
  9. charlie
  10. james (woody)
  11. jack t
  12. jack f
  13. edd
  14. josh
with no more infomation i asked for him to send me some photos of the occasion which never happened i couldnt go any further with the brief! We needed another interview and QUICK!!

After speaking with sam today i told him i couldnt get anywhere further with the brief without some photos so would i be able to change the subject matter and have another interview he was more than helpful and sat down with me straight away :-)

I have been told by his best friend Ben he was into running and should ask more about that as he is passionate about what he does so thats the route i was willing to take with him.

Heres the results from second interview:
  • He runs for his home club Bedford
  • He also runs for the county Bedfordshire
  • sister runs for england
  • Started main interest at 12-13 at school long distance cross country
  • Runs with leeds university whilst hes at uni
  • first race for inter-county was when he was 13
  • runs the 800 meters to 10'000 meters!!
  • favourite year to watch olympics Beijing
  • Wanted to go into the olympics as a runner when he realised the dream of a professional footballer was not going to happen!
  • Has a sporty family
  • dad competes in triathlons james works as a park ranger in the day
  • Mum is a P.E teacher plays netball and jogs karen
There seem to more enthusiam about this subject so i deffinatly knew i was on the right track with what i was about to design for him.



Monday 10 May 2010

Speaking from experience









These were three initial illustrations there mainly just of things which graphic design students can relate to I ended up using the bird on more than one page as it was effective sitting on the lines between the days gave a real visual aesthetic feel.

Today i have been placing all the final illustrations on the spreadsheets for the diary. Been struggling a little with making the pdf read the pages correctly! so been adjusting them as i went on mind boggling sometimes! yet they are all printed :-) finally got to this point! need to cut them all out and then hole punch which also could prove difficult as I have six holes in my ring bind!!

Speaking from experience





speaking from experience






Feedback from crit:
Have to design the diary from scratch so got to deal with pagination issues!
Aimed more at girls need more practical solutions!

After speaking with John about my feedback he didnt agree with either of these comments and said it was fine!
I have worked out a resolution for the pagination issues I have decided to my diary ring binded so that i can PDF the pages and then hole punch them into place!

Other possibilities from the crit was to design a fold out poster for the wall something like a calender.
I was thinking I might do this anyway as an various product in the same style as my diary.

Things to go into the diary:

  • I am going to produce a page for months sept-jun/jul with illustrated pages.
  • Map of Leeds a sattelite view so can figure out where abouts you are
  • Illustrations of tutors know who to find rather than just having a name!
  • Otley run
  • Taxi cards cheapest numbers
  • mock ups of id card
  • photocopy card
  • to do lists
  • shopping list and money management pages
  • Lined note pages
  • Important access rooms in uni
  • List of common uni halls with post codes in leeds
  • Useful website page (for graphic designers)
  • Stickers
  • Sticky notes (post its)

Speaking from experience






I began trying to find days which had something significant to the course such as presentations and typogateaux i was going to fill the book with tips on how to cope with the first year workload but it wasn't about that so much is was more giving them a visually more interesting aid to learn there own time management and organisation skills as I struggled with this and I believe that when you have just signed up for a graphic design course and the first thing that is handed to you is a boring black business type diary with no colour or inspiration puts me off entirely!


Speaking from experience

This brief is about designing something with my knowledge of the first year graphics course at leeds college of art for there upcoming first years! immediately this sounds to me like I am creating an almost survival guide how to get through the year and letting the students know what to expect as it is a course with demanding deadlines and hard work must be given at all times! I began thinking about all the things which I had difficulties in and took a while to get to grips with. Here are the things I was outlining::
  • Making friends
  • Directions around university
  • access to workshops when and where!
  • Time management
  • Directions to get to university
  • Where to eat
  • Cheapest food stores
  • How to get the most out of freshers
  • Getting on with flat mates
  • Bus routes
  • Train timetables
  • Getting organised
  • Where to get help(student services, advice clinics etc)
  • Taxi numbers - which ones are cheap!
  • Food takeaways
  • Handy websites help with research and inspiration
  • Shops with student discounts!
  • Cheap nights out in leeds
  • How to do the washing and ironing
  • Housework
  • where to purchase art materials
  • How to save money
  • Where to visit on research week
  • Good museums around leeds
  • Cheap days out
  • Choosing best accommodation
  • Booking times in print room and workshops
  • Accessing digital cameras video etc.
  • Talking to the I.T people in he bubble!
  • Missing home
  • Organisation
  • Blog!
With this in mind i then wanted to exploit all possibilities for a product I don't want to just create a poster and packaging BORING! and typical of what a new graphic student expects to see and I thought it would be much better if they got given ideas that the course is more than just designing posters! Its about innovative design and thought process and most importantly designing something which the client needs or can make use of.

With this in mind I went on to think about products:

Deck of cards- I have got this idea from students who when they go out often " Pre drink " and most of the games need a full deck of cards! Yet my set would be useful as a deck of cards but on the back have achievements or things they have to find out, which they have to target and there will be on for every week 52 cards 52 week in a year!

Website/ Blog- Students can visit give each other tips and ideas about the course where they can purchase things blog where the cheapest hardware for graphics such as wacum tablets etc.

Book- Food recipes with only 3/4 ingredients, cheapest place to purchase them.

Bingo chart- Has challenges and activities to complete around Leeds Hand in to the student union when collected things from different sites and win a prize E.G festival tickets, concert ticket, free entry to clubs.

Trading cards- With tips and tricks to make first year easier only have a set of 10 each with a poster that contains numbered boxes need to ask others there tips to fill in the poster! making friends and helping difficult situations such as software problems or where to buy things

Shopping List- From food/clothes/art materials

S.O.S fresher pack- Must do's and dont's in your first year different sets in the pack uni, accommodation, nights out etc.

Diary- Use a diary yet on the pages have tips to get on to get through each week and be able to record deadlines and organise there time.

Cards for wallets and purses- cards with comical hints where NOT to spend/ Waste your money!!

I have chosen to go with the diary idea because when I started in first year everyone was given a diary which was something I have never used to this day and my organisation has got better due to a colourful white board which is hung on my notice board. I believe this is because I can interact with it it is a check list that i can change what is read on it. The diary that I received from the college was a plain black boring thing no colour I thought I had enrolled onto a Business course not a design! I researched into diaries which are currently like the one I wanted to create for inspiration and just to see what is out there. I soon came to realise there wasn't any like mine only things that people had drew onto the pages just for fun yet wasn't practical enough to sell as there was no space to write onto. Also I decided I wanted Just to do the months of a student not the full year! So therefore was immediately grabbing my target audience.

Things may include in the diary:

Funny comments overheard in the studio:
  1. Wonder what soup it is today?
  2. Food is awful in the canteen don't know why i keep buying it!
  3. Right im deffinantly going to start making dinner from now on I cant afford to buy it everyday!
  4. Anyone want to go for chocolate?
  5. Cheese and onoin pasty again for dinner £1 from Ainsleys! NOW COOPLANDS much to my annoyance !!
  6. The walk to uni still kills me!
  7. Printing is far too expensive
  8. Print to the libary colouerd printer much cheaper!
  9. Buy your own paper and do a paper feed in the mac suites much cheaper!
  10. Signing in at half nine is stupid were not kids!
  11. Anyone got a pen?
  12. We get far too much work for first years!!
  13. My pic for the year wall is awful
  14. Did anyone see a certain someone from the year always nod off in fred monday morning briefings?!

Illustrations for diary






My illustrations i drew all in a sketch book and had them dated so it would be easier to place onto the template with the diary pages on! Yet when i have scanned the images in they have this gloomy grey around them and this was an issue for me as i wanted them just to be clear silhouettes. I photoshopped many of them but was having difficulties with the ones which i had previously coloured . Therefore decided not to use them and instead on the black and white ones fill them with digital colour this gave a really nice effect joining illustration with digital techniques. They appear quite large on here yet i was planning on reducing there size due to the pages only being A6 and being the nature of a diary would need somewhere to write!