Cow T-shirts redesign...

As we are nearing the end of the course I have been looking back at projects from this term that I wasn't particularly happy with. I thought that the vintage t-shirt project would be an ideal opportunity to work differently from how I normally do, however I did not take full advantage of this.

I went back to look at a modern car which is purposefully designed to imitate a vintage style, the Nissan Figaro. The colours and the retro look make this car extremely fashionable today which I felt fitted in very well with the Cow brief.

I decided to use the Figaro badge as a logo for the t-shirt set so that they have an identity which would be used on tags or promotional material.

I am really pleased that I decided to work on this brief again, I feel that these designs are a big improvement on the last and I enjoyed developing my drawing skills which I do not often have the opportunity to do.

Today...

Anyone seen the google home page today? I LOVE it! Would have been useful when working on my DCSF project ...

Packaging...

I was given this last year when I bought a new phone I was given this relatively generic looking piece of packaging. It wasn't until after that I realised how interesting it actually was. As you pull the contents out of the right side, a 'secret' part on the left side is automatically revealed:

I think that this will provide me with lots of inspiration for my new staycation project.

Journal...

After a few minor disasters and two hours in the paper store the journal is finally done! I tried my best to make a generic ring bound booklet look different and designerly, I hope I succeeded!

I decided to create a range of dividers each with a section heading on in order to make it easy to flick through the journal and find what you're looking for. These proved to be much more difficult than I had imagined...

AA...

Recently I have been working on a project for the AA which is to reinforce what they do to their existing customers. The brief encouraged using a variety of different media in order to connect with a younger audience. I therefore researched how the AA advertises at the minute and it appears that they have used the same methods and styles for many years, therefore I decided to adapt this in order to make it stand out more. As they are so well known for the black and yellow style I decided that it was important to keep this but simply redesign it to make it seem new and fresh. In order to connect with a younger audience I began to look at film stunts involving cars, mainly those in which it seems likely that the vehicle will be destroyed. I then decided to use these images and use them along with the AA logo to imply that in desperate situations the AA are always there. It also brings a sense of humour to a relatively stressful situation.

I also extended this idea by creating a flyer using a well known quote from the iconic film, The Italian Job.

Cow T-Shirts...

I decided to come up with some designs for the Cow Vintage T-shirt brief as a side project. I thought it was quite an interesting brief to answer because the word 'Vintage' means different things to different people. Personally, the first thing that comes to mind when i think of vintage is vintage fashion and vintage cars.

I decided to research more into the aspect of vintage cars as they are very

interesting images. This led to me looking at old car adverts from the 1920's when cars were first becoming readily available. I liked the irony of the selling points of each of the vehicles when compared to those of today.

As the designs had to be screen

printed onto the t-shirts I split my images into three layers, one white, one grey and one black. This also meant that they could be put onto any colour t-shirt.

Magitiapiesosaphobia...

Last week myself and Hannah decided to create a piece for the Panic exhibition. After experimenting withe several different ideas we decided that we would focus on phobias. More specifically, magitiapiesosaphobia. The phobia of seeing a lone magpie. I particularly liked the idea of this phobia as I find superstitions very interesting but I had no idea that they could lead to recognised phobias. Originally we decided to focus on the nursery rhyme "one for sorrow, two for joy..." but we later went on to develop our idea to show the contrast between hundreds of magpies which look very threatening and one on its own.

Mini Ad...

I think I may have found the BEST car ad...

Feel Good Drinks Co...

After having a classic case of 'designers block' I have FINALLY come up with some posters for my Feel Good Drinks project. I wanted to convey the idea that this company is too cool, its a designer object and a treat. Therefore I decided to market them as if they are a fashion label by creating tags on the bottles and on the fruit. I hope to extend this campaign by creating fashion style labels to out around the bottle necks. Id be grateful if anyone had any ideas/feedback...

Business cards...

As a distraction from my Feel Good Drinks project I decided to design a logo for myself. I thought that this would be useful as I am currently constructing my portfolio. I then went on to put this onto some business cards and this is what I came up with this...

I decided to make them a bit more interesting that I would print them in a range of colours so people would have to choose one if they were taking one.

D&AD Fund Raising...

Please come and see us and bring us lots of cards and gifts!

DCSF why let drink decide?...

Last term I chose to answer the DCSF brief which was to inform children of the dangers of drinking. It stated in the brief that this would be to accompany a televised campaign which would begin this year.

I saw it the other day and as Sarah said...It's rubbish!

I'm really confused by the ad that has recently been aired as it doesn't seem to fit the brief! It stated that the techniques in this campaign should not represent binge drinking, it should merely highlight the dangers of drinking, the complete opposite of the TV ad. It also says that it should "equip young people with the confidence and tactics to effectively manage their own relationship with alcohol" which it does not appear to do.

I think the strangest thing about it though, is that it is only broadcast late at night, when children won't be watching it?! I don't think this campaign makes much sense... see what you think...

Obey the giant...

My dissertation also led to me referring to an old favourite : 'Obey the Giant' by Rick Poynor. I was first introduced to this book, as I'm sure many of us third years were, by Graham in first year.

Rick Poynor is a British writer on graphic design and visual communication. He is also the founder of the brilliant 'Eye' magazine which he edited from 1990-1997. I love his style of writing, it is easy to read and yet hugely analytical.

This time I found it to be particularly interesting due to the section on Barnardo's adverts, which later went on to be a huge part of my dissertation. I was able to back up comments made in my essay with a number of quotes taken from this book.

"Resorting to shock tactics is unsuprising: in an increasingly visually frenetic world, getting a message through the general level of noise becomes more and more difficult."

Poynor, R, 2007.

This is definately a book that every designer should own!

Citizen Designer...

When I began my dissertation which was entitled "Are controversial techniques necessary in advertising in order to successfully raise awareness of a social message or a product?" I started regretting my choice of subject! As interested as I am in this particular topic there was one main problem that confronted me. It had not occurred to me that studying a topic where new examples were constantly being broadcast limited the amount of reading material that was accessible to me. The majority of information was contained within newspaper articles and I was really struggling to find books to help me with my research.

My tutor recommended me 'Citizen Designer' by Stephen Heller. Having read a write up for it online I was sceptical of how useful it would actually be...oh how wrong I was! It addressed the problems with advertising and communicative design as well as analysing problems with campaigns and designers.

"Most designers, I believe, would agree that design has an important social role, and that design practice should be anchored in the very reality of its social consequences."

Heller, S, 2003.

I would definately recommend this book to anyone who is interested in controversial campaigns and the thoughts behind them. I suggested that a friend should read it for her dissertation even though it was on a completely different subject and she found it equally as useful! I think this is definately one to keep!

La Jetee...

I know that we saw this a ridiculously long time ago but for some reason I have never blogged about it so.....

La Jetee -

A 28 minute black and white science fiction film by Chris Marker. I have to say, I'm not really sure what I thought of this film. It was made up almost entirely of still photographs depicting a science experiment to send a prisoner back in time.

It is set in post-nuclear war Paris as scientists attempt to use time travel "to call past and future to the rescue of the present". I found the film to be slightly disturbing as it jumps through time, occasionally returning to the present to show the male prisoner lying lifeless as he is monitored by several scientists. As he jumps through time he repeatedly sees the same woman who he saw as a child at the jetty. He then jumps back to the past again and the audience realises that the event he partially saw as a child was actually his death.

"He ran toward her. And when he recognized the man who'd trailed him from the camp, he realized there was no escape out of time, and that that moment he'd been granted to see as a child, and that had obsessed him forever after... was the moment of his own death."

As I said, I'm not really sure what to think of this film, it was very confusing and depicted a rather complicated story in a fairly short space of time. The lack of speech also adds to the mystery. The only voice that can be heard is that of the narrator, the rest of the film is either silent or you can hear very muffled noises. I had certainly not seen anything like it before. However as interesting as it was I don't think I'll be seeing it again!

Helen Murgatroyd...

Helen Murgatroyd, a D&AD graduate came in to speak to us about her uni course work which was mainly based around drawing and printmaking.

She is currently studying Printmaking at the Royal College of

Art. I was suprised by this at first as it seems quite different from D&AD but when you see her work it begins to make sense...

I distinctly remember seeing a piece of her work when I attended an MMU open day before I began the course. Her year group had all been asked to produce a power-point style presentation but she decided to do something very different. She created a Macbook made out of paper which folded out to contain her hand drawn presentation. I was so inspired by this, it made me realise how creative you an be and that in design rules are there to be played with!

She showed us some examples of her third year work. Again I remembered seeing this when it was on display in the Urbis and I wrote about it in my 1st year journal. Her final project mapped human movement around the house.

Since the lecture I've been keeping an eye on her online portfolio! I love the recent illustrations she has done for the BBC. I really wish I could work in this illustrative way but I don't think it's meant to be!

These drawings for 'The Vicar of Dibley' appeared as a backdrop when the celebrities were being interviewed as well as being an

imated for a small title sequence.

I am so jealous that she got to create a number of illustrations for 'Blackadder' as well!! These illustrate Blackadder's 'most cunning moments' and were animated to introduce clips of the legendary comedy.

http://www.helenmurgatroyd.co.uk/

Hamish Muir...

I was so glad Hamish Muir came in to uni to give us a lecture on his work. I really like the way he works and I found it really interesting to hear about the techniques he used before the use of computers in the design industry.His love of air-fix models as a child inspired him to go into the design industry. He started off as an amateur photographer and then went on to study visual communication at college. I was suprised to hear that he had a photography background as his work does not appear to use as much of this technique as I'd thought.In 1985 he formed the partnership '8vo' - an abbreviation of the printing term 'Octavo'. He formed this partnership along with Mark Holt and Simon Johnston.

They went on to design a number of album covers for the Durutti Column such as this one for their album 'Circuses and bread.' I like the use of a grid, it makes the collage seem very ordered and yet complicated.

I particularly like this one which was for the album 'Guitars and other Machines.' It was made up of a photo collage separated by several sheets of glass. I love the subtle colours and the shadows that each layer casts on the next.

They designed a number of posters for the Hacienda club in Manchester such as this one which was to advertise their 4th anniversary...

As these were created at a time before computers they were all made by hand. I found it really interesting to see how he made them and I think I really benefitted from hearing about a different method of creating graphic design.

They created the magazine 'Octavo.' There were only 8 issues ever made, the first 4 stuck to a very strict grid system, the last 4 used a diagonal grid...

Again these used their signiature colour scheme and the grid system again makes the imagery seem very ordered and yet complicated.

8vo closed in 2007 as companies were becoming more of an online presence and their style of work was becoming outdated.

There was a book published in 1995 by Lars Muller, entitled 'On the outside.'

Even though this sort of work isn't particularly my style I really enjoyed this lecture. I think it's really useful to see a different way of working as we I think we all can have the tendency to turn to the computer straight away rather than experimenting creating imagery by hand instead.