Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Reflective Statement
On joining the course in September 2007 I was a young, enthusiastic and naïve design student. Well that’s what I know now anyway, at the time I would have thought I was the next best thing and an asset to any university begging to take me on. As well as being about making friends, the first year provided the foundation from which my expertise in design grew. Ruth and her typography classes exploring minute details of letterforms that none of us even thought possible, bifurcated serifs, ligatures, and of course kerning now firmly cemented in my brain for the foreseeable future. Not at one point did I find a class in the first year useless, I say this complete honesty and thank all the tutors for their efforts, it was a fantastic year. My final project saw my first experimentation with Adobe Flash, although I know now that I went a very long way around creating my vector animation using hands to portray the meaning of symphony. For the final outcome I collaborated with a student for the audio, which was a very rewarding experience, giving me a taste of the kind of teamwork needed to progress in design. It was clear from this project that the best of work of more often than not produced by more than one person.
The skills I learnt in the first year are some of the most valuable of all, having been developed throughout my time in Cardiff.
Keeping in mind that collaboration and working as a team is vital to design, I have always enjoyed group projects. In particular the Splotlands Credit Union web based project in the second year where I worked with Harriet Cooper, not only were we both learning Adobe Dreamweaver for the first time, but the added ‘pressure’ of working with someone else on what previously has always been an independent project was both challenging and exciting.* The outcome was very pleasing, both in design and functionality, we were also very pleased to be one of the short listed designs by the company.
During the year I became focussed on attaining work experience at a design company, sending out numerous emails and examples of work in order to do so. Eventually I was able to spend two weeks at Clarks International (the people who make shoes) at their head office in Street, Somerset. This was a fantastic experience as a web design assistant and I learnt more about web design in a week there than I had in my whole life. With deadlines being a matter of hours, or even minutes, it was a stark change from what I was used to, but soon had me turning over large quantities of quality work. Within two days some of my designs went live onto the website, a clear sign of how fast-paced the world of web and digital design is. The Clarks.co.uk site has a weekly publish every Wednesday at which point it became apparent that at least 50% of the pages of the site would have changes made to them. When I returned to Cardiff I was filled with a new drive and from that point knew that design was definitely the career I wanted to continue. The final project worked closely with a chosen charity and saw another chance for networking and communication skills to be utilised, something I was happily getting used to and am now very happy we had be asked to do so at an early stage in our education. Networking is a vital skill that all designers need in order to progress in the industry and one I value highly within myself.
After thoroughly enjoying my time at Clarks, and keeping in email contact with the brand department, I was asked to return in the summer to carry out a month on a temporary contract as a Junior Web Designer. The knowledge about Adobe Photoshop in particular was a real benefit, as was working with an in house design team over numerous project for this extended time. I would have loved to had stayed but of course had to return to Cardiff for the final year of my degree. In addition to this they may not have wanted me to stay longer so therefore would have been unpaid!
The third and final year of the degree was by far the best, more work, shorter deadlines, lovely. Kicking off the program with a group project was also very entertaining, I took the role as group leader, but in some ways regretted it. My own time-management skills were exposed and my grade suffered due to this. Had I been simply a member of the group this may not have been such a prominent issue. In hindsight I am pleased with my efforts but can see I was not really ready to take charge of a five person team. Am I ready now? Maybe, but I would give myself more experience working in the design envirnment before committing to it. The project on the other hand went well, I had a strong team of individuals (friends in fact) who worked hard in producing an outcome which finished third overall out of the nine groups in the year. For us this was a great acheivement as we had suffered a big criticism from our mentor at Stills Design only two days prior to the dealine. A real test for all of us, we stayed in the studio until gone 10pm that night. (True designers burn the midnight oil).
Throughout the three years I took influence from design all around me, starting a blog at the end of the second year documenting daily interests. One example of this was in the design for the Jamboree talk in which I took strong influence from an online gallery called the ‘Flawless Gallery’ who’s work I was extremely interested in at the time. I mocked the illustration style in my poster design and was pleased with the outcome. Despite not being selected for the final poster it was a good experience in developing on influences and applying a small amount of appropriation where possible.
With the final year now coming to an end I can see that my skills have progressed as a designer and the experience as a whole has contributed to me growing also as a person. I am more confident in myself and my abilities as a designer, as well as being able to assert myself in any role in the workplace, desig or otherwise. One skill I am still to develop is my prowess in Adobe Flash, a program that has interested me for a long time. I am currently working on producing my portfolio website in the program, which is proving more challenging than it first appeared, but I certainly won’t give up. Matt Leighfield has always been of great help and I am very grateful for his presence throughout the years, along with Paul Jewell they are an excellent techical team for the course.
I am confident that as I progress into the working world I will be able to find a place in the design industry and begin my career. Even if at the start of the three years I may have naively thought I were ready, I now know that I am and can confidently step foot in a design studio and be an important and valuable part of the team.
The skills I learnt in the first year are some of the most valuable of all, having been developed throughout my time in Cardiff.
Keeping in mind that collaboration and working as a team is vital to design, I have always enjoyed group projects. In particular the Splotlands Credit Union web based project in the second year where I worked with Harriet Cooper, not only were we both learning Adobe Dreamweaver for the first time, but the added ‘pressure’ of working with someone else on what previously has always been an independent project was both challenging and exciting.* The outcome was very pleasing, both in design and functionality, we were also very pleased to be one of the short listed designs by the company.
During the year I became focussed on attaining work experience at a design company, sending out numerous emails and examples of work in order to do so. Eventually I was able to spend two weeks at Clarks International (the people who make shoes) at their head office in Street, Somerset. This was a fantastic experience as a web design assistant and I learnt more about web design in a week there than I had in my whole life. With deadlines being a matter of hours, or even minutes, it was a stark change from what I was used to, but soon had me turning over large quantities of quality work. Within two days some of my designs went live onto the website, a clear sign of how fast-paced the world of web and digital design is. The Clarks.co.uk site has a weekly publish every Wednesday at which point it became apparent that at least 50% of the pages of the site would have changes made to them. When I returned to Cardiff I was filled with a new drive and from that point knew that design was definitely the career I wanted to continue. The final project worked closely with a chosen charity and saw another chance for networking and communication skills to be utilised, something I was happily getting used to and am now very happy we had be asked to do so at an early stage in our education. Networking is a vital skill that all designers need in order to progress in the industry and one I value highly within myself.
After thoroughly enjoying my time at Clarks, and keeping in email contact with the brand department, I was asked to return in the summer to carry out a month on a temporary contract as a Junior Web Designer. The knowledge about Adobe Photoshop in particular was a real benefit, as was working with an in house design team over numerous project for this extended time. I would have loved to had stayed but of course had to return to Cardiff for the final year of my degree. In addition to this they may not have wanted me to stay longer so therefore would have been unpaid!
The third and final year of the degree was by far the best, more work, shorter deadlines, lovely. Kicking off the program with a group project was also very entertaining, I took the role as group leader, but in some ways regretted it. My own time-management skills were exposed and my grade suffered due to this. Had I been simply a member of the group this may not have been such a prominent issue. In hindsight I am pleased with my efforts but can see I was not really ready to take charge of a five person team. Am I ready now? Maybe, but I would give myself more experience working in the design envirnment before committing to it. The project on the other hand went well, I had a strong team of individuals (friends in fact) who worked hard in producing an outcome which finished third overall out of the nine groups in the year. For us this was a great acheivement as we had suffered a big criticism from our mentor at Stills Design only two days prior to the dealine. A real test for all of us, we stayed in the studio until gone 10pm that night. (True designers burn the midnight oil).
Throughout the three years I took influence from design all around me, starting a blog at the end of the second year documenting daily interests. One example of this was in the design for the Jamboree talk in which I took strong influence from an online gallery called the ‘Flawless Gallery’ who’s work I was extremely interested in at the time. I mocked the illustration style in my poster design and was pleased with the outcome. Despite not being selected for the final poster it was a good experience in developing on influences and applying a small amount of appropriation where possible.
With the final year now coming to an end I can see that my skills have progressed as a designer and the experience as a whole has contributed to me growing also as a person. I am more confident in myself and my abilities as a designer, as well as being able to assert myself in any role in the workplace, desig or otherwise. One skill I am still to develop is my prowess in Adobe Flash, a program that has interested me for a long time. I am currently working on producing my portfolio website in the program, which is proving more challenging than it first appeared, but I certainly won’t give up. Matt Leighfield has always been of great help and I am very grateful for his presence throughout the years, along with Paul Jewell they are an excellent techical team for the course.
I am confident that as I progress into the working world I will be able to find a place in the design industry and begin my career. Even if at the start of the three years I may have naively thought I were ready, I now know that I am and can confidently step foot in a design studio and be an important and valuable part of the team.
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Diagram Delight
Zero Per Zero’s first UK exhibition opened last week at Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch, writes Sara Martin. The highlights are their re-interpreted transport maps for cities such as Tokyo, New York and their home town of Seoul, South Korea.
(re-blog from EyeBlog)
Friday, 14 May 2010
Elephant Parade
I love London because of these kids of things, random elephants all round central! All in aid of Elephant Parade and their campaign to raise money to help save the endangered Asian elephant.
Find out more about them on their website... CLICK ME
Final Project: 'THE BIG IDEA'
'After choosing the word ‘Intellectual’ from a list of five this project quickly unfolded to be quite psychologically orientated. From my research it became clear that intellectual as a word is widely not fully understood, meaning the outcome would in some way have to indicate toward its definition, or at least the its meaning from my perspective. The particular angle and opinion I chose to take for this project rotated around the notion of ‘being an intellectual’ relies solely on the perception of others, not the intelligence of the individual. In other words, by taking on the traits, characteristics and common stereotypical attributes, anyone could act and be perceived as an intellectual.To add to the draw of the final posters (including one fold-out A1) there lies the title ‘A sandwich short of a picnic’ which implies that this is a guide, aimed at those who may require some assistance and advice on how to gain more respect amongst friends, would like to be perceived differently and may never have considered themselves ‘intellectual’ before.'
This is what I said on presenting my final posters of the final project of my final term of university. Scary!
Monday, 10 May 2010
Shepard Fairey
Found this fantastic artist through the Eyeblog. If anyone finds an online gallery of his let me know, (Google was no help at all!).
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Work Experiences and Influences
As I have stated in my reflective statement, my influences are very important to me and my development as a designer and often filters into the work I produce. Throughout the year I have made note of these influences in my blog and also spread the word to colleagues and friends. Without constantly taking influence from all areas of design and popular culture it would be hard for us as designers to produce work that relates to modern society and the desired target audience.
In addition to influences is work experience. My time a Clarks both over the Easter period of the second year and the following summer provided such quality experience and developed my Photoshop skills tenfold. What also became apparent was that being in a working environment with designer who have had years of experience gives a real impression of what it takes. Just watching them work for an hour shows their commitment, enthusiasm and expertise that can only be envied by us students so early on in our careers. You start to understand why these companies want you to have previous experience on your CV, it hones design skills, makes them habitual, defines your working method and makes for a more efficient designer overall.
Not only do I take influences in day-to-day findings on the internet, but I am happily subscribed to Creative Review, one of the best decisions I ever made as it provides fantastic up-to-date articles and case studies of the latest and greatest developments in the design world. In particular they always have an amazing page on typography with the best new typefaces and uses of type in the commercial world. Most of the time they are expensive to buy, but most importantly just being aware of them keeps my mind on the latest trends in the world of typography.
I can’t stress enough how important my influences are to me, I keep all the Creative Review issues in storage and always look out for new books for ‘the shelf’. Design is not just a profession, it’s a hobby, a passion and a life that I live and breathe. I am interested in every aspect and I ca’t see that changing any time soon.
In addition to influences is work experience. My time a Clarks both over the Easter period of the second year and the following summer provided such quality experience and developed my Photoshop skills tenfold. What also became apparent was that being in a working environment with designer who have had years of experience gives a real impression of what it takes. Just watching them work for an hour shows their commitment, enthusiasm and expertise that can only be envied by us students so early on in our careers. You start to understand why these companies want you to have previous experience on your CV, it hones design skills, makes them habitual, defines your working method and makes for a more efficient designer overall.
Not only do I take influences in day-to-day findings on the internet, but I am happily subscribed to Creative Review, one of the best decisions I ever made as it provides fantastic up-to-date articles and case studies of the latest and greatest developments in the design world. In particular they always have an amazing page on typography with the best new typefaces and uses of type in the commercial world. Most of the time they are expensive to buy, but most importantly just being aware of them keeps my mind on the latest trends in the world of typography.
I can’t stress enough how important my influences are to me, I keep all the Creative Review issues in storage and always look out for new books for ‘the shelf’. Design is not just a profession, it’s a hobby, a passion and a life that I live and breathe. I am interested in every aspect and I ca’t see that changing any time soon.
Simon Memel
Sometimes you just find someone who's work is great. Like Simon Memel, an illustrative designer who graduated from Camberwell in 2009. Check out his work on his website.
Sustainbility and Graphic Design
Reduce resource use through the design process by asking...
* Is this the best tool possible?
* Can we make it do more than one thing and fulfill more than one purpose—a pocket folder and a brochure, a brochure and a poster, a brochure and an envelope?
* Is it of recycled content and recyclable?
* Are we influencing the chain of production and requesting biodegradable glue, binding and other elements in the printing/production chain?
* Are we looking at the big picture and are we balancing long shelf life with biodegradable, meaning, we might make an item with glue that is not biodegradable, but will it hold up longer on the shelf, thus, reducing the number of reruns in the future?
* Can our design have more than one life? For example, can a long-lasting binder go on to be used for other projects in the future instead of contributing to the landfill?
Other Sustainable Design Tips
* Think about the whole package in its entirety when reducing waste: A self-mailer brochure with an insert to be detached means one piece of paper instead of many.
* Gone are the days of superfluous white space: Design that is beautiful from the inside out means making good use of the space you have. Pages of blank sheets at the beginning and end of annual reports, booklets, etc., unless they have a purpose, are a waste.
* Also gone are “like water” brochures: Sending out mass mailings as numerous as Victoria’s Secret catalogs is not a good strategy. Target and connect with your audiences in a meaningful and qualitative way, not quantitative.
* Stay on top of current trends in printing and production: They are constantly changing.
* Look at vendors and their impact on the big picture: wind power, VOC emissions, recycling and reduction of make-ready. Work with them to learn together what you can do to make less impact on the environment.
* Work with vendors to reduce waste: Use trim space for additional products, or adjust sizing of projects to reduce trim.
* Reduce your shipping impact on the environment: Use locally produced paper and printers close to the end delivery location.
* Don’t forget about the pre press impact: Working with a printer that uses a synced and calibrated monitor for pre press review reduces the need for overnight and shipping of color proofs. While this option isn’t available for everyone, it is in the works and for large corporations with long-term printer relationships, a great option that reduces project work time as well.
* Be innovative when it comes to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: Reuse can be ingenious. For example, menus or notebooks can be made from old books when bindings have been removed, most inner pages have been removed and replaced with recycled-content sketch pad paper, and new bindings are made with wire binding. Taking items with former lives and reinventing them can be unique and charming, and environmentally responsible.
------------- from http://www.metgroup.com/------------------
Sustainability and Graphic Design aren’t always two phrases that go together very well. As designers we use computers constantly, print, test print, use higher quality less eco friendly papers by choice and often neglect to consider our affect on the environment.
As stated numerous times above, we can take many routes in order to be more sustainable in our efforts, there are better papers and such to use, but sometimes not a viable option, and not one that gets considered.
With this much worry going into sustainability and our internet getting faster and larger, we might very well be headed toward an era more vastly dominated by digital design and media. The death of print? I fear there is a strong possibility, but not immediately, we rely on it far to much to away from it so soon.
* Is this the best tool possible?
* Can we make it do more than one thing and fulfill more than one purpose—a pocket folder and a brochure, a brochure and a poster, a brochure and an envelope?
* Is it of recycled content and recyclable?
* Are we influencing the chain of production and requesting biodegradable glue, binding and other elements in the printing/production chain?
* Are we looking at the big picture and are we balancing long shelf life with biodegradable, meaning, we might make an item with glue that is not biodegradable, but will it hold up longer on the shelf, thus, reducing the number of reruns in the future?
* Can our design have more than one life? For example, can a long-lasting binder go on to be used for other projects in the future instead of contributing to the landfill?
Other Sustainable Design Tips
* Think about the whole package in its entirety when reducing waste: A self-mailer brochure with an insert to be detached means one piece of paper instead of many.
* Gone are the days of superfluous white space: Design that is beautiful from the inside out means making good use of the space you have. Pages of blank sheets at the beginning and end of annual reports, booklets, etc., unless they have a purpose, are a waste.
* Also gone are “like water” brochures: Sending out mass mailings as numerous as Victoria’s Secret catalogs is not a good strategy. Target and connect with your audiences in a meaningful and qualitative way, not quantitative.
* Stay on top of current trends in printing and production: They are constantly changing.
* Look at vendors and their impact on the big picture: wind power, VOC emissions, recycling and reduction of make-ready. Work with them to learn together what you can do to make less impact on the environment.
* Work with vendors to reduce waste: Use trim space for additional products, or adjust sizing of projects to reduce trim.
* Reduce your shipping impact on the environment: Use locally produced paper and printers close to the end delivery location.
* Don’t forget about the pre press impact: Working with a printer that uses a synced and calibrated monitor for pre press review reduces the need for overnight and shipping of color proofs. While this option isn’t available for everyone, it is in the works and for large corporations with long-term printer relationships, a great option that reduces project work time as well.
* Be innovative when it comes to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: Reuse can be ingenious. For example, menus or notebooks can be made from old books when bindings have been removed, most inner pages have been removed and replaced with recycled-content sketch pad paper, and new bindings are made with wire binding. Taking items with former lives and reinventing them can be unique and charming, and environmentally responsible.
------------- from http://www.metgroup.com/------------------
Sustainability and Graphic Design aren’t always two phrases that go together very well. As designers we use computers constantly, print, test print, use higher quality less eco friendly papers by choice and often neglect to consider our affect on the environment.
As stated numerous times above, we can take many routes in order to be more sustainable in our efforts, there are better papers and such to use, but sometimes not a viable option, and not one that gets considered.
With this much worry going into sustainability and our internet getting faster and larger, we might very well be headed toward an era more vastly dominated by digital design and media. The death of print? I fear there is a strong possibility, but not immediately, we rely on it far to much to away from it so soon.
The 99% Conference
"It was another huge year for the 99% Conference this past Thursday and Friday in New York as 400+ creative minds came together to focus NOT on inspiration or idea generation, but rather on the mechanics of making ideas happen. The Times Center was charged with the energy of an audience full of creative intention as our power-packed lineup of speakers took the stage." the99percent.com
Below are some of my favourite quotes from the speakers so far.
Scott Belsky - Founder of Behance
• Generate ideas in moderation. We must not be afraid to kill new ideas that will take us off course.
• Act without conviction. We have to act when we are unsure to keep the momentum going and rapidly refine ideas.
• Encourage fighting within your team. Though many of us shy away from confrontation, conflict can actually help us hone our ideas
• Embrace constraints. It’s imperative to break down projects into small, actionable units so that we can move forward without feeling overwhelmed.
Stefan Sagmeister
• Don’t hang out of a window in a New York highrise for a film shoot without a permit. Sagmeister recounted almost getting arrested for looking like a “jumper” while dangling out of a window. And, yes, there is a moral to the story: Risk-taking is a necessary part of any creative process.
• Choose your clients wisely. You can choose clients based on how much they will pay you, based on their integrity, based on their personality, or many other criteria. Sagmeister’s preferred criterion for selecting projects is asking whether or not they will allow him to learn. As creatives, we must always push the boundaries of our own knowledge.
Saturday, 1 May 2010
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