C.V variations

Here are some c.v design mock ups not sure which is the strongest... if any. Overall I am happy with the typeface and layout.

Its a big improvement on the last design maybe I will sleep on it!

Peace.

Updated c.v

D&Ad

www.dandad.org

So D&Ad is back, can't believe its a been a year since I submitted the last minute boards for the ambient advertising brief.

Our course was invited to a talk from Riannon James at D&AD. After explaining a little about what she does and what d&AD can offer us as students, she showed us past work from last year the winners and the losers and more importantly why a particular entry succeeded or failed showing us 10 pieces of work that was entered for the Nokia connecting people brief.

Riannon also tried to explain what the judges were looking for and apparently it's a spark, and that spark is:

A good idea

Originality

On Brief

Well executed

Professional standard

Going back to that term spark, apparently its that piece of work that makes you go wow!

So next month when I choose a brief, tackle it and present the finished product it will have to tick these boxes.

Design Buddy!

Today I met with my real design buddy at Redweb.

Gareth Evans, senior designer of the company. We sat down for a quick chat and to get to know each other, he had missed the lunch meeting I had with David last month and it was important that we met to talk about my aims regarding the expectations of me as a student.

We talked about things like a portfolio, blogging and c.v which are all important aspects of me having a career in design.

I was asked what area of design do I want to go down, I was like being asked the single most important question of your life, I stumbled to find and answer.

Perhaps one of the negative aspects with my course may be that i have never had to settle for a particular discipline which in turn has meant I have never branched down a particular path.

I am also aware that this effects most of the people on my course, but for this situation I worried that not having a route will effect my overall buddy experience.

I appreciate that most 40 year olds still don't know what they want to do in there lives, but it wouyld be nice to have some direction.

On the other hand the aims and objectives could be set more generally meaning my goals could be more tailored toward particular aspects of my design.

I doubt this will be a set back and it will require me to do some real thinking about me as a designer

in the future.

After the session I agreed to take to send my blog so that Gareth could get a better understanding of me and my work.

Number Critique

My final idea came from staring at my alarm clock, still with the idea of representing perception in my poster. I looked at how the digits changed minute after minute then hour after hour. I could help but notice the transition of numbers to from the next.

The number space is made up of 7 lines, each one of these lines either appears or disappears according to the number it represents. This beautiful transition i felt could be visualized in my poster.

The design starts off with 7 lines to make up a box and the digit 0. this number is filled with a 30% transparency, I then layer the following numbers 1-9 over the top each time adding another 5% after each number. The idea behind this adding of 5% on each number is that when I finally finish no one single number appears in any other priority than the others.

The quote in the black line is a quote from william Blake about perception.

After presenting the idea and visual it was clear the design was intriguing , but the text didn't

quite marry with the concept

It was nearly there just need a rethink with regards to the typography.

Numbers

On Friday we had our first critique of 3rd year, it had been a whole summer with out one and I was a little anxious if Im perfectly honest.

The week long number project had been going very slow for the first 4 days, with my mind running back and forth trying to come up with this amazing idea surrounding numbers. My initial idea explored the significants of numbers in religion for example the number 12 occurs in religion on 20 different occasions, but trying to create a visual response on a poster for that was driving me insane. So it was backto the drawing board several times before I was visualizing anything.

My ideas or lack of lead me to the perception of numbers, and how no single number was more important than the other.

My initial designs were very complicated and there was no guarantee they would work until they were finished. By this time I only had 3 day left and things were getting desperate, but I then started to think how complicated and technical does this have to be and was I over thinking the brief.

Design Buddies

Early last week all that were selected for the design buddies pilot scheme were asked to come in for a lunch meeting with our potential design buddies, to basically meet face to face so we knew who are partner was. My designer was David Burton, head of innovation at Red Web .

He is part of a massive web based company along with another 100 staff all in different areas from accounts to design to coding. So many different areas to find out about over the coming sessions. We had lunch and talked about the kind of area he was involved with, he told me but I still wasn't fully sure what he did by the end of the lunch, all I did know is that I had been offered a great opportunity to find out a lot about the design industry.

After the lunch I was told by Neil that George Beverly from last week had spoken to him about our meeting and was very impressed with the way I talked about and presented my work, so much that we would like to work with all three of us over the year instead of one person.

Oli, Ben and myself have since met up and decided we would do it in groups so we get more from the sessions.

On Yer Bike

Last week we were given our new brief from the ISTD website. Whilst they were primarily typographical briefs, the outcomes that we design did not have to be typographical, which was nice to know.

The briefs ranged from exploring the word fakery to the beauty of plants, to a complete restaurant brand identity. The choice was broad each offering a wide range of outcomes.

I ended up choosing the 'on yer bike' brief which was asking you to design some kind of information system for cyclist in cities like london. Just like cars in cities have sat nav, at the moment there is nothing for the everyday cyclist. The target audience is anyone who is interested in cycling, wether it be a tourist of the local who goes to work every morning.

For this brief my intended area of research will be with in mapping journeys, way finding, user experience, user centered design, signage, alternative means of communication, practicality and usability of design, just to mention a few.

I shall also look at swiss design, simple but effective user systems in the world for example the Tokyo and London subway system. Also user systems closer to home like the college library system for locating various subjects.

Design Buddies

This morning George Beverly a designer came in to see a few of us to eventually make a decision on who he would like to work with over the next couple of months, kind of like a mentoring scheme including one to one chats on our current and future work also any problems that my arise over the year.

This will be a great opportunity to work with someone who is in the field of design. George was formally part of the design agency Marketing Matters which is a well established agency that has produced advertising for many companies around the world.

He had a look at my work over the past few years ranging from the text and image to the most recent branding/packaging project last year.

After that we saw some of the work that he had been a part of and there were a few big company names in the mix including Blackberry. Although I was very impressed with the style of work its not the line of work I see my self doing in the future.

But at the same time if the opportunity arose, I would have to jump in and gain this experience.

Tips I got from the meeting was that I need to express what kind of designer I am, i.e what field of design I want to pursue.

This is important from an interview perspective and defining yourself as a designer.

What am I?

Numbers

Back for 3rd year today and the briefs are back in action... Its like we never left!

Our first brief is only a week long and its all to do with numbers, using any media to design a piece of work that demonstrates the significants of numbers.

The work will be presented on an A2 poster in 7 days.

My initial thought was murder by numbers and the film poster to accompany the film, I have no idea why!

After a while thinking about just one number out of the millions of combinations I could of picked, I ended up with the number 12 and its significance within religion. I have research alot around this number and its has a huge presence in religion.

for an outcome I would like to present a piece of work that explores this coincidental or calculated explanation behind the number 12.

Inspire me... Cointreau

http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2010/7/30/cointreau-noir.html

Inspiration!

http://www.thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

Really like this website found by a close friend, coolest photos of people!

The Brand

Here is the final outcome for my Professional Project it has been photographed for for the final Bournemouth and London shows in July which I will post later on. I am really happy about the look of the containers I was worried from the start that they would look a little shoddy considering I struggle to finish projects to a high standard. It wasn't until I poured the cream coloured mixture in to the bottles that I realized the logos that I printed on to clear vinyl actually looked really professional.

With some decent photographing and soft lighting its pretty much finished!

Folded Poster!

Wrapping paper!

Soap Packaging!

Final labels for back of containers

Final Logo Label!

New Logos/final

Professional Project!

So thought i would update you on how things are going below is the recent logo for the moisturizer, butter and soap I think I have the typeface sorted after much consideration.

As far as the logo goes it is 90% there, with a credible rationale the problem is that it doesn't scream dairy which is what it is supposed to do. This is proving to be a difficult task with losing its sophistication and cosmetic esq finish. I intend to work on this logo right up until the print deadline in the hope something shouts out at me

The containers for the product will be an old glass jar and bottle I have ordered this week (below)

and the soap will be packaged in a pillow box all wrapped and sealed for authentication.

Paper Handling!

Just ordered some Japanese paper from Lawrence & Son online catalogue.

Its for the top of my cosmetic containers don't actually need much for each but had to buy standard A3 size, was V expensive!

Heres the link for future reference.

http://www.lawrence.co.uk/acatalog/Imitation_Japanese_Papers.html

2nd Crit Mood Board!

Tut, Tut!

D&AD final boards

Here are the final last minute boards!

D&AD Last minute

Andy and myself met last week for the final time to try and finish the last minute brief for D&AD.

Here are the designs so far, it starts with the info graphics that represent the process of booking a holiday on line. The design its self is self explanatory. The design primarily sits at the bottom of a pedestrian crossing on top of the button. The other way of presenting the design was to print it on a pillow that would sit on each of the carriages on the underground tubes. Both these examples explore the idea of connecting lastminute.com with peoples spontaneous use of there spare time.

The Bag that dissolves!

Found this really good video on the Creative Review, they sent there monthly magazine out in a

bag that is bio degradable!

Cyberpac, a UK-based packaging company, has developed a range of products – called Harmless – that use a hydro-degradable plastic that is up to three times stronger than polythene, lighter and leaves no damaging residue after dissolving in water. A bit skeptical of this promise, we’ve taken a look at the dissolving bag’s actual disappearing act.

Inspiration!

Here a good website for some interesting packaging!

http://www.thedieline.com/

Final Cocktail menu!

Here is the final front and back design for the cocktail menu after having them sent to the client for approval. The simple gold on pink for the front and then again on the back gold on white, I was quite happy about the choice especially the back design, it was simple but slick.

In terms of the colours, it was not my idea of a perfect colour 'Pink' but you have to understand its a girls 21st birthday sooo I let it go.

The typeface for the front cover is 'Renaissance-Regular', the cockatail names are a font called 'Riesling', and finally the 'Ingredients type are in Baskerville a lovely serif Typeface.

Cocktail menu!

This week my friend informed me that we would both be hosting a cocktail party for another friends 21st in late March. He is the experienced one when it comes to making cocktails but I have also had some experience.

I promised him that I would design a cocktail menu for the event so it looks all professional and of course it will make the girl happy. So this week he sent me the cocktails and there names, and as I am the creative one I thought I would have a go.

Below are some idea I came up with they are inspired by her love of pink but are still in teh style of a classic cocktail menu. I plan to send these off to my friend and the lucky birthday girl to see what they think!

Professional Project!

Below is the presentation board from last week but it has been refined to some key areas that i need to focus on over the next week, so that my aims and objectives are clear!

Professional Project!

Research in to my professional project is coming along well. I have been looking at some really nice packaging related to food and cosmetics.

This week I had a presentation for my research of the project, I was pretty sure a I had sufficient research going in to to the session, because aside from looking at some really interesting packaging and trying to think of how I can move in to the development stage of the project. I have had the idea of of looking closely at teh history of Jersey dairy and how it originated, in particular the old fashioned process of producing the dairy, perhaps the packaging could be influenced by this.

We will see...

Below is the presentation board with all my progression of thoughts!

Inspiration!

http://jessicawalsh.com/

Inspiration!

http://www.tomburns.co.uk/

Inspiration!

http://justcreativedesign.com/portfolio/

PPRD 2 GOODBYE!

Blogging!

PPRD hand in today thought I would reflect on the use of a blog.

This year I have been using the blog as a platform to express my thoughts and processes through out 2nd year of visual communication.

I'm not one for keeping track of the days especially in the form of a day to diary, but must say this idea of keeping a blog is very useful. Not only has the blog allowed me to keep on top of deadlines, it has made me more critical during and after projects.

I have gone from despising a blog last year because it pointed out my insecurities design-wise, to this year actually finding it quite refreshing, even finding my self looking forward to my sundays evenings where I have my marathon blog sessions.

I hope to continue with my blog posts after hand in today so that it can be kept up to date.

My blog will be particularly useful as I progress in to the professional project, as time planning and development will be key factors in creating a well constructed project. Other areas of design that i will post on my blog for this project would be research and inspiration websites and sources in books magazines. I will document these things in a blog and go back to them if necessary.

With regards to next year I assume we will be doing PPRD 3, where a blog will become an integral part of my third year learning. I may decide to divide various blogs in to the different sections we cover for example one for the theory, one for design based projects and maybe a third blog for reflection.

Inspiration!

Here is a website that I hope will help me in my Professional Project!

www.lovelypackage.com

PPRD!

The hand in for PPRD 2 is in Monday...

I have just been gathering all my paper based development and updating my blog ready for the hand in. I've also been looking over the unit hand book and there are some things that I need to make sure I hand in for the requirements section.

I have listed some points below:

* Up to date blog

* Paper-based file of progression

* Assessment sheets+evaluations

* Live brief and supporting work

* Competition brief development

* Portfolio presentation

* Learning agreement

* Link to website

* C.V

* Theory unit

Professional Project!

So I finally have a working title for my professional project, and have written my learning agreement which I am fairly happy about. The project will involve me rebranding the company Jersey diary and repackaging some of the products I have rebranded in to a health and beauty range; much like the products you see in the shops across the country today.

This way I can explore advertising and and it's persuasion on society.

Visible signs!

This book will own me for the next couple of weeks because it will be the main source of research for the professional project and my essay for theory based unit. I will be exploring the semiotics of design and I think this book will help me progress in the projects.

Sign up here!

So after the talk with Emma, my blog post contained some key links to design forums and job sites. I have decided to sign up to linkedIn and Designweek

LinkedIn because it will give me a better understanding as to what jobs are out there and also the right area of design to pursue after I graduate. The other is designweek this site is a great source for finding out what is hot in design this week!

C.V pointers

C.V

• Take your time
• Handle type and space
• Addition to detail, spelling, grammar etc.
• Make it concise, two pages is a limit.
• Do not mix quirky with creative.
• Leave out unnecessary details.
• Keep it simple.

Aquent Recruitment!

Emma Barrette form Aquent recruitment who are one of the biggest recruitment agenecies in London and have clients ranging from Apple and HSBC - Disney.

The company act as a middle man for the design jobs in the Uk, in other words when designers apply for a position they would apply through aquent first.

Today Emma went through some examples of c.v's and portfolios, and some key guidelines when creating and presenting my work, the do and don't of presenting.

The Arts Council

(Linkedin) Network for design

Pages of the PdF should contain:

Alternative images/workings and roughs and the final piece.

This talk was great to learn about the design industry at the top end and what it takes to work for a leading agency. I presented my proposal for today, a portfolio in the style of a PDF A3 ready for Emma to view and critique!

Anna Steinberg (AOI)

Yesterday we had a lecture form a member of the 'Association of Illustrators'. the talk was all about self promotion as a freelance illustrator. There was particular focus on the step by step process of finding work. For example:

* Contact Art director of magazine/newspaper or publication

* Send letter email wait for reply.

* Contact with client emails Phone calls.

* Description/theme timescale, Paymount

* Price for commission

* Price for the work could be determined by the distribution/copy-write

* Invoice end of job

Invoice table below

Date of commission / Details / Invoice / Total Recieved / Date recieved /

Anna Steinberg Web folio

http://www.annasteinberg.co.uk/

Animal Farm!

It has nearly been a week since the event animal farm and I was just looking on the website to find some photos of the event to put on my blog. Looking through the various stages of the event from the afternoon to the night-time, seems like there was a lot of people coming down to have a gander.

Regardless of whether the event smashed the profit margin or not i think some real positives can be taken out of it, like the hours of effort and organization put in to the night to make it a success. I suppose we should give ourselves a pat on the back for creating the prints, because with out them there would be no event.

On another note it was quite refreshing to see my own work hanging up, I have not had my work up in a public space for people to view or bid on before. these small steps all come under the idea of promoting my self as a designer!

To do list!

Really Busy week this week got so much to do before friday.

* ABC dreamweaver finish online c.v.

* Anna's session need a focused idea on semiotics.

(For Mon)

* Wednesday Anna Coming in for illustration lecture.

* Thursday designer coming in to see portfolios on PDF.

* Friday, Learning agreement handed in. £!@!$!

Professional Project!

So have been thinking about a new idea for my project after the presentation disaster last week. After having a tutorial with Sally about my area of study, we came to the conclusion that I should explore the ways in which advertising can make people believe or consume anything no matter how how ridiculous.

We covered the problem a vehicle when I decided that it may be nice to explore packaging, this kind of packaging would represent the typical advertising we see today.

Some other ideas included finding something more close to home that could be rebranded. One example I had was Channel Island Milk and the the fact you can't get it in the mainland. If there was away of re-branding/re-packaging the milk as something completely new, perhaps having essence of the milk in to a beauty product and make people think it has health benefits.

One example of this persuasive advertising would be the anti-aging wrinkle cream which states the cream can stop wrinkles that appear 20 years later, these claims are ridiculous but people buy in to it. Another example is a story of people in Ireland canning air and selling it to America.

Presentation for Professional Project!

We had our individual presentations for our final project on thursday, and as you know I wasn't very happy about the prospect of having to present my idea.

We spent the whole day listening ti the other students and their ideas and by the time it came to my pitch I was pretty sure it was going to be a disaster.

On reflection my idea had some interesting points and I was taking a deep and meaningful perspective. The problem was I didn't have an outcome or a vehicle to move the project forward. I was trying to focus on advertising and it's manipulation on society, but it is clear that this issue is very broad. Time to go away and rethink the idea, along them lines.

Thankyou!

This illustration I created this week for the cover of a thank you card for a one of my uncle in Ireland. Took me a couple of days and it has significant meaning behind the design, which I won't go on about it, but it represents the shop our family owned generations ago. I have put my website address on the back of the card just incase people are curious, this is also my way of getting my work noticed.

learning not agreed!

So we had an email yesterday saying that there will be a presentation on thursday regarding out professional projects our ideas thus far.

* 3 minute presentation.

* You are asked to project an A4 landscape PDF that clearly details the following:

Statement of intent (a brief description of what you intend to create)

* Field of study (the area of design you wish to investigate, you may demonstrate this by showing similar work and projects by other designers )

* Audience (an overview of the audience you wish to communicate to, and how you intend to do this)

Easy right!

Found out yesterday, Birthday today, presentation Tomorrow!

I really don't know what I am going to present, I have an idea of what I want to create but it has huge gaps, where explanations are missing. presenting will consist mainly of talking and no visual aids, and I will probably be torn apart about my idea.

I have already voiced my opinion to the tutors, who will reply saying is in the timetable!, which it was but we all make mistakes right!? Regardless of whether I am unorganized or it was late notice, I am not prepared.

D&AD Last minute

Yesterday Andy and my self had another meeting about D&AD following the tutorial I had with Neil the other day. Because Andy wasn't there I explained that the ides we had this far were not directly answering the brief and. For example we had an idea of creating of promoting a company which was away from traditional means of advertising, i.e a poster or web banner,and we were right to think that way.

The problem with our postcard and key ring idea is that they were ideas that didn't fit in with the whole spare time issue. The brief asks for you to promote last minute as a a site where you can book more good stuff in your spare time. So now we know that we need to find out when people are most susceptible to the offers and promotions. Capturing these spontaneous moments are key to a successful project.

We have another idea that pretty much meets the requirements and will update when it has progressed.

I have more pressing issues at hand.

Cv

When we were creating our websites I asked for my c.v I handed in months ago for some feedback. The copy was one I found last minute from a file on my laptop called general c.v. Well it was basic and black and white, but still had all my relevant details like education which was up to date and work experience from the summer.

The feed back was simply the words "Boring" which was a fair comment to be honest, we will call it constructive criticism.

So this week of all weeks to start re-designing my c.v, and D&AD crying for attention! What did I do?

Here is the new and the old, its not perfect yet but this is how I want it to kind of look like, Can u tell I like shapes.

.

MADD Update

Here is the final logos I chose to present tho the MADD team the other week, I sent them off via email and am yet to hear some feed back. It has been over a week and looking through James and and Claire's blog, they seem to have taken charge of the job, which is cool, it would be nice know what the team thought after all that time spent.

Time to move on I think!

PPRD Presentation!

Last Friday we had a presentation for our PPRD unit thus far. Just like acrit for a practical unit we were asked to present any work completed for this unit, we had 3 minutes to go through each project and describe our thoughts what we gained form each of our projects. Taking on board what Kit said about being more reflective than descriptive in my explanations, this was key to the presentations.

In terms of the content I had a varied amount of work including a small christmas card brief to a couple of identity projects for the arts and events course at the aucb.

When reflecting open these projects and explaining the relationship between the clients and designers needs, I didn't really have a lot to say because there wasn't a lot to be honest the christmas card brief was passed down to Jo, then given to me with simple requirements of keeping it Marine themed and festive.

The identity briefs form arts and events again very little contact with the first, created a letterhead and it was fine and that was it!

The most recent brief for and event in March was to design a company logo whcih would then follow on to an event logo and other promotional jobs for the event, possibly flyers and posters. As this project is in motion it means the feed back hasn't been returned as of yet. I will post when it does.

The presentation its self went ok, at least i had some jobs to talk about for the 3 minutes, also there is nothing wrong with a bit of comedy when presenting as long as I get my point across. One nice thing that happened after when we were discussing peoples work, I was told that I had a strong body of work which was refreshing to know.

I have realized that a lot of the exercises that we are doing this year are really getting us to think not only as designers but about how we really want our work to be perceived. Presentation and communication skills are key for me, and something I will be trying to master over the next year.

PPRD-D&AD-LASTMINUTE.COM

It was just last week where I had a few live briefs in the pipe line, having already created a Christmas card brief, some animal prints for the Animal Farm Event in February, and more recently in the process of working with Arts & Events. As far as live briefs were going I was in control taking on projects and meeting people, just like it would be in industry.

During the tutorial last week I was told that it would not be ok to skip a competition brief for example D&AD. I was not aware that we had to carry out a comp brief for our PPRD. This was a huge problem for me and would mean I needed to start on one as soon as possible, as there is only a month left.

When asked how this had happened after all this time, I simply replied by saying it was never my intention, but the fact is the D&AD project with the group, kind of took a back seat in October after we chose a brief, purely because we had so much time until the submission. Our plan was to meet up every week and discuss progression of everyones ideas, just like a normal brief.

The problem with this process is that, a brief with no regular crits or tutorials to measure progress and encourage development.Is like doing a project and not knowing if you are going in the wrong direction. The group met up a few times at the start but time went on and with no development meant we all lost a lot of interest.

So I am starting out again going alone or possible with someone else. I have chosen the Ambient Advertising brief for lastminute.com which is:

"Use ambient media to connect lastminute.com to people's spontaneous use of there free time".

"Communicate the message, to do or get more good stuff at lastminute.com

"Target audience adventurous wealthy, any age group"

PPRD! MADD EVENTS

Earlier this week we had a live brief come through from a group of second year year BA, Arts and Events Management students. They will be organizing an event to celebrate Bournemouth's 200th Birthday in March.

The company is called "MADD events" which stands for Music,Art,Drama,Dance. They require a a company logo, event logo.

Also posters and flyers which will be showcasing "Bournemouth's performing arts on a journey through 200 years".

With the brief being so open, the team had no specific idea of an identity so it was really up to us which direction we took wit the designs. I first started to look at the company logo its self, The company were called "MADD" so I decide to take each of the four elements of the company, Music, Art, Dance and Drama. For each area of the company I created four different symbols that would sit together on blocks or shapes.

The first symbol represents music for this I created a music note. The second symbol is a paint palette, the third a film reel and the forth, a abstract dancer.

On the mood board there are variations in the symbol including colour and alignment. I think some of the designs the more plain black and white and grey on white I feel looks professional. Other variations include typography alignment, and either using the initials or the full company name.

So Yesterday we had a meeting with the team to talk over ideas. The meeting was one of the first I had with members of a company which was quite refreshing. This also meant i was under pressure and on a tight deadline, which is all very positive because professionalism is key in P.P.R.D

I have presented the potential logo designs and am now waiting for some feedback so I can adapt the designs if necessary.

If all is good, come next week the designs of the flyers and posters will have to be considered.