Instant Print/ Digital Skills

This week we have started our first brief/ live brief of the year. It is called Digital Skills Application. We are required to complete a range of different tasks, one for every week of the module. We then should apply these skills to a template for an online print company (Instantprint). This can be anything from business cards, to banners or even a poster. We can also choose our category as well and I have chose to do food and drink. This live brief did have a number of restrictions, as this is just a template to go on their website. We had to take into consideration the number of layers we used and the colors/ fonts we chose to use. 

Final Essay

At the beginning of the year, my first project was entitled Branding and Corporate image. I joined the course a month after it started, so I missed all introductions to everything etc, but I don’t think this has made an effect on my work. In this project I think my final piece for the School of Creative Industries logo was done to the best standard I could achieve, however my final logo design for the Newcastle music hub could have been thought about more, as I just went with a generic headphone idea, which I don’t think I thought outside of the box for. I learned in this project that to come up with a good logo, you have to think differently to designers, otherwise if you don’t have something that makes you stand out from the crowd, then clients won’t be attracted to your work.

Digital skills were a chance I had to apply the stand out the crowd note, and that’s what I tried to do. The idea I had for the logo was a scribble behind the T.M. and it all in lowercase letters so that it looked like a child had wrote it. The final piece that I came up with didn’t look like that at all. The fancy typography I used underneath for the strapline was too big and looked out of place. On my poster, the photographer didn’t listen to what photos I wanted, but didn’t show me so I didn’t find this out until I had been sent the photos. I think if I had of known how to use InDesign properly at the time my poster would have been laid out better and I would have liked my final outcome. I learned that in order to get something you like you have to make mistakes in the process.

By the time we got too after Christmas we started Typographical and Editorial design, this project taught me how to use and apply the grid system to lay out a magazine page properly. I also learned how to use photo captions, headlines, subheadings and by lines. A headline being the main title, subheading being something that makes it stand out, and by line to tell you who the story is by. I did achieve the learning outcomes in the project. I felt my time management worked well, I kept to the time plan in the brief and did everything weekly so that I didn’t fall behind or get lost, or confused in what I was supposed to do that week. I completed my project on time and handed it in before the deadline on the 22^nd of February.

Work based learning 1 was the first brief I found that really challenged me this year. It wasn’t focused as much on the portfolio as normal, but on how you work with 3^rd parties, as in the photographer, and the client, which in this case was Tyneside Cinema. We had a briefing off the cinema, and the woman told us that they are 80% specialised film, and 20% mainstream films, which is what keeps people coming to the Tyneside cinema, as they have a reputation for being ‘weird’ and also that when the cinema first opened in 1937 it was a news theatre. She also told us their creative process for between them and their graphic designer, a lot of people like to have a say in the posters etc so the designer has to go in circles before he gets everything right. I took all this into consideration when I was designing my final idea. Me and my photographers had the same idea of what we wanted, so we didn’t have to do different shoots. I wanted some different expressions, which I got, but I found it hard to communicate with the photographers as they didn’t really listen well. If I was to do anything differently in this project I would try and communicate better with the photographers and the model, to get a better picture to work with. I wouldn’t make any changes to my final piece, I like how it turned out. I like the typography, although feedback from people has made it clear you can’t really see the slight gradient which I put in the background. I completed this project on time, and I learned from it that working with other people and bringing more people into the project makes it harder to work as you have to communicate between yous.

The final project of the year is called Practice Enrichment, and this project is an illustration module. I like this module, because it means I can do a lot of cartoons, and hand drawing things, as it means messing around with different illustration styles, mixed media etc. I chose to do The Wind in the Willows, and the first thing I did was buy the book so I knew the story. I’m not quite finished but I understand what the story is about. I have kept to the time plan for this module, and did everything by the week that it’s stated. This project had a clear flow through the whole thing. And I could put all photoshop, illustrator and indesign skills into use. Photoshop was used to apply different styles, and change pictures around etc, Illustrator was used for typography and indesign was used to put everything together. I wouldn’t make any changes to this module. This module has made me sway more to this kind of style for what I want to do as a career.

This Week

This week I am going too develop my ideas for my final illustration piece. Once I have done that I will create the final. This should only take a couple of days as I know exactly what I am doing.

Digital Skills (Self Branding)

These are the finals I came up with for this project. The original idea I had for my logo was so it was child like and scribbly. I don't think the final represents this. I ended up changing my logo to this: 

Which I think it more simple compared to the other logo, and represents my idea better. For the poster I think I could have chosen better colours for the shadow behind me, it's all bright and in your eyes.

Branding and Corporate Design

These are all my completed finals from my first project. I wanted to keep things simple, and not over complicate them as it was a logo for Newcastle Music Hub, and The School of Creative Industries at Newcastle College. The colours I used I chose because they're generic and not stereotyped with being too girly or for boys. 

Talk from Ceremicist Helena Seget

So today we had a talk off a Ceremicist. She didn't set up her company till about 5 years ago. Her parents immagrated from poland after the war as Germans used them as slaves. 

When she was young she studied foundation art. After that she specialised down south in photography, where she would overlay photos to get final images and she didn't have photoshop. 

In the 80's after graduation she worked in theatre as a costume designer. After that she decided again for a career change, and worked in Barcelona and Poland as an english teacher. This was in 1989.

She then returned too england, and studied Advertising in Watford. She kept a visual board of wrappers, tickets, sand etc as a diary for 10 years. In the midst of this she won a competition to design a t shirt for a company called Droog, where she designed a t shirt that looked like it had been cleaned and folded constantly. 

Not long after tyneside cinema were selling off their old seats, so she bought some and used them too take pictures of for a project. 

Another project she did was take notes that her mam wrote, and put them on tiles, they were exhibited at Northumbria University, but all of them were sold, which taught her to be careful what she exhibits. She used to have a rat, who would do random things, which she called art, so she kept a photography portfolio of the rats work. 

Again after this she decided for another career change, she started making chairs, and shelves which are held on with screws/ string to give an illusion they're hanging by screw and string. She also designs porclain paper which you can write on etc, and maps etc for wedding presents. And subsequently from this she was in the culture awards 2012 for the journal. 

This was a good presentation, it's great to see how people can have so many different career paths before they choose the one that suits them the most.

Inspiration

In the top two images I like the use of few colours. It's not too overwhelming for the eye to look at. In the bottom image I just like the facial expression on Trident.