Devloping EOYS

Bel sat around playing with colours for the EOYS stuff, i quite like the spectrum of colour as it could represent each course with a colour way and work well with all the signage around college but believe it looses the simplicity and class element in this multichannel of colour.

Creative Review Layout

Creative Review is my favorite periodical, it doesn't just look good it has the best content and easy to read, you don't have to go looking for information. These two layouts from an annual and an edition are the kind of simplistic layouts i would love for my book. Striking images with a block piece of copy, with information about the designer/agency and a brief outline of the project. Reversing out to black is also something i would like to experiment with.

Pack Shot

Pack shot is an amazing photography studio which deal with crisp photography and image manipulation, they do a variety of work for loads of agencies, including food, drink fashion and cosmetics. This Guinness shot will be perfect as it isn't pixelated so it will work on a bigger scale for my billboard brief.

Dazed and Confused

I am answering a brief set by Dazed and Confused, it's a denim based brief. It is a competition teamed with levis to create an installation for a window display.

The above pieces of ambient art were created by Jay Burridge. This form of ambient advertising will fit really well within my design context so its an exciting brief to tackle.

When researching i found that 20th May is denim's official birthday so I am going to do something associated with that.

Liquid

When researching for my Lloyds brief I came acrss the agency Liquid based in Liverpool they are a really creative agency with some interesting and innovitive design and work. I asked about any possible work placement and they said to send a CV and examples of work, so just about to send off my new portfolio.

I also asked some questions to do with Lloyds branding she told me that Lloyds TSB have created their own font but it is based on the VAG typeface and their pantones are 356 (dark green) and 368 (light green).

End of Year Show - Feedback

Unfortunatley we didn't win the End of Year Show competition but we did get some very good feedback from Frances Day the marketing Maneger. She said:

Strong sophisticated range of visuals, good concept and well delievered. Concept was very simple but consise and effective, visually nice to look at but could be more impactful, lovely presentation and sophisiticated visuals, looks good as a solution for graphic based shows. The type needs to be bigger as it may bleed into the backgroud. Good idea, visually strong but does it say art and design?

I and so are the others very pleased with the feedback it has given me confidence in both my design and concept development, the design above is an updated version of what we submitted following this feedback and a lovely piece for our portfolio, I can only hope the yearbook collaboration is as strong.

ICM and Graphic Design Year 3

This is the press release from ICM about our creative challenge, it feels great to know that we're part of a great partnership between the college and ICM, being put into a professional environment and competing against the 'real life' designers. Click here for the full article.

Portfolio

Ok so today has been a bit mental I have spent the entire past two days converting my old portfolio from Quark into InDesign, its been a hard process but definitely worthwhile, its a lot easier to place my work and as I have often been more comfortable in Quark I have learnt a lot about layout in Indesign which will be very helpful for the Interior Design Yearbook. I am now going to send my updated portfolio and CV to possibly work placements. Above is just a screen shot of what I've been working on. Click here to view my current print based portfolio.

Signage

Im just looking into typography of markets and local shops, saw this piece of signage, think its really cute and in the appropriate typeface. This is something I want to look into producing, a font in market style lettering.

Blue River

Blue River are a multi-disciplinary design agency, excelling in graphic design, art direction, brand identity, print and multimedia, Based in Newcastle. They won the Best Non Pc Award with the 'Immaculate Reception' for Virgin Mobile. Its a similar concept to that of our Hovis ads but really clever and witty, love it!

Euro RSCG

The agency has placed stickers, designed to look like the warnings on the side of cigarette packets, on smoking sites all over London. Each one has a joke on it, such as "I've got a suit made of crispy brown leaves. It's a bit last season though", and is branded with the Nicotinell "Have a joke, not a smoke" line. I really like this kind of simple targeted advertising, quirky and it makes people respond, talk about it and spread the message further.

Mid Point Evaluation - 18th March

The subject area I am focusing on is still ambient media but also the relevance of design verses advertising and where the cross over’s lie. I am looking at various adverts that use ambient media and then looking into that company but only touching the surface, it hasn’t been in depth enough with appropriate or specific questions.

The form of research is mainly blog and a few typed up interviews but to date nothing solid, I am going to create and form a good questionnaire to email to specific agencies, designers and advertisers of interest and get relevant feedback then from that choose a company to produce a case study for. Because the majority of my research is on my blog the visual material I have is mainly digital, after selecting and looking at companies more thoroughly I want to select brilliant images to use in my final research which will be print based. Any printed matter I find has been included in my visual material. Although again the majority of work is digital I fell I have been exploring the area well just not with enough clarity, I will use the rest of my time to clear up any issues with my findings.

As well as crits within the group and tutorials I have found uploading my own work onto my blog gives me a chance to really look and evaluate my work, I usually post my work a short while after completion so it is nice to see it all with fresh eyes.

I want to look more into the appropriateness of ambient media and what the designer’s role is within the placement of advertising. Is it more the advertisers role to place the ads or is it a conferred agreement? Do advertisers see designers as Mac monkeys? Or designers see advertisers as control freaks?

I want to use the medium of ambient media to simply have fun with brands rather than direct a specific audience, I feel this will give my work more variety and allow me to explore lots of different avenues when producing work for the briefs.

My intention to create a body of work that is around the idea of full service graphics, including mail drops, billboards, posters, and flyers, rather than just concentrating on billboards. To make sure my designs and briefs are well informed I will be looking at companies, which produce this kind of full service campaign.

I have moved on from my initial point which was to produce more guerrilla style advertising whereas now I want it to be more brand led as the companies I aspire to work for have the high client list and brand based portfolios. My development can be seen on my blog as well as my research file which has all the main stages of my development in. right now there are no workshops I necessarily need but I wont be afraid if it ever becomes relevant as screen print is an area which really inspires me.

JWT

At JWT they believe that 'advertising needs to stop interupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in. This I think is such a valid point right now, adverts are getting better and in some ways its what people are looking forward to.
J Walter Thompson who founded JWT produced the Guinness 'It's as long as...' campaign, which I am going to reintroduce as part of my Guinness Brief. This copy will perfectly suit the style and format of the billboard which I am putting the design on.

Peace, Land & Bread

As part of the Chip Shop awards, we have chosen the brand Hovis, I thought maybe this famous quote by Lenin could be a good source of advertisment. PEACE, LAND & HOVIS. It would be particularly relevant as it has just been used for the Obama campaign election, so people would be able to relate to it, it would be a really nice design if produced in a soviet style propaganda in Hovis colours.

Progress Print

Design Projectis a company which creates distinctive visual communications. This Branding and promotional material for ‘Re-Bag’ - an exhibition showcasing a series of reusable canvas bags by 15 leading UK design practitioners – curated by Progress Packaging, who I contacted for samples of material. I really like this form of exhibition style, something a bit different and interactive.

BBC Radio Logos

This is the before and after of the BBC Radio logos, the ones on the right are the most recent, this just illustrates where the BBC is up to in design currently. I really like the simple, clean cut design with a few quirky elements, especially radio 3 with the clef making up the 3. I will consider this form of design when approaching the privatisation brief.

Photoshoot

Today we took the photos of all the students from Year 3 Interior Design. It was a very stylised shoot by Jonny Kennedy, who is a photography student at Leeds Met, the shoot was inspired by the latest Grafik magazine interview with Lee Funnell (first image), I think the year book is going to look so sleek, now we're just going to get on with producing some layouts, after collecting all of the information off both the students and Steve.

Progress Print

After a tutorial with Joe I was speaking about the Lloyds flyer I created, he suggested rather than printing the a photo of the welcome mat, get some material which emulates the woven characteristics of a welcome mat. I have been in touch with Progress Print who are based in Leeds about sending me some samples which could be very helpful. They print on almost any material, woven, unwoven and PVC. I love their branding I think its really fresh and contemporary and the business cards look so original on the orange PVC.

Hovis Viral

After the final crit at ICM myself, andy and Jimmy decided that we most definitley wanted to take the 'something good inside' concept further by creating a viral ad which shows a woman going in for a scan which turns out to be a loaf of Hovis.

We sent it over to Caroline, she suggested that it may be more suited to Warburtons as it is a family baker, although 'born and bred' is Hovis' end line but nevertheless, we are sending the digital files over to them today including the Renaissance style press ads, so they can tweak them and hopefully get them entered into the Chip Shop Awards.

Australia Advert

This incredible commercial directed by none other than Baz Luhrman for Tourism Australia really inspires me. I love it, has such intense emotion and really makes you want to go and just get away. For the BBC Privatisation brief I want to create a montage that really creates an emotion and sets a mood for the qualities of BBC. This ad is like a mini film which is just what I would love to produce visuals for.

Araldite

This famous outdoor ad for Araldite glue is fantastic, it is relatively old and one of the first to use this shocking style of advertising. I love how the ad has stages by adding then taking away the car, it is a very clever concept, but so effective even today, it perfectly illustrates the qualities of the product but in a very fun way.

YPS Printers

Today, myself, Daisy, Nicky and Bel went to visit Duncan at YPS- Yorkshire Publishing Services, who is printing the Interior Design Handbook. He was very helpful and showed us around the premises which is now only digital print, it was refreshing not to be spoken to like a child as he wants to give us full experience and is treating us like a client which will be very beneficial. He showed us examples of binding and paper stocks, so now we just need to make a few decisions and get on with designing.

Norwich Union to Aviva

Another piece of advertising created by AMV BBDO, almost everything I am looking at currently is created by them. The series of ads created for the name change has created quite a stir, they are copy driven, which is an area I am mostly interested in. The campaign takes place in a variety of medias, the TV ad is very 'Americanised' incredibly produced and very refreshing.

The controversy mainly lies I believe with the people that don't quite get the references from the old to new style comparisons. The creative is perfectly simple and truly reflects the well known brand. Using appropriate colours and font, the sometimes ambiguous lines create a lasting impression, which often leaves you trying to work out the texts. I am interested in how the concept is well applied to all areas of the media, above are examples of internet banners, press ads and outdoor billboards.

Design Context Tutorial

I had a tuorial today with Fred in response to my Design Context presentation. It was quite an informal chat about the stage I'm at and how I am going to approach the Subject of ambient media.

I have always found myself stuck between design and advertising so my research is going to concentrate on the relationship between Advertising and Design. Using my found images of ambient media to illustrate this.

As far as my design practice goes I am going to take my set briefs to explore different avenues in ambient media and media in general, then for a final more concrete brief, take the idea of 'markets' to create a full service campaign.

To keep on track I am going to email all the relevant companies in the next week with appropriate and more directed questions.

Final Logo Design

I got shortlisted in the competition for the Music in the Mountains logo brief, both designs were well recived. The one which features the heart was popular but the font wasn't well liked and the hand drawn style logo was also popular but they wanted more icons, so I thought to marry both ideas, as I am comfortable and happy with the heart logo I decided to make to heart less stiff, more fluid and european.

I am really pleased with the final outcome of the logo and it is universal and can be easily applied to a variety of medias as well as the application to a T-shirt like I 'heart' musica en las mountanas.

ICM

ICM Creative are a leading design agency based in Leeds. Who specialise in Packaging Design, Branding Design, Marketing Consultancy and Graphic Design. A group of us went along to their agency to see who it all works, speaking to the creative team and the accounts team. We are part of the ICM Creative Challenge, taking part in live briefs. Our first brief is a Chip Shop awards brief where we have split into teams- myelf, Jimmy and Andy are 'Milk and Two Sugars'.

This is a very quick turn around brief as it goes to pitch in 1 week, it is a very open brief so we need to get up and running straight away.

The Consult- Prospectus

Again the consult produced material for the college prospectus, as we are also taking part in producing a yearbook this acts as a great source of inspiration. I really like the simple use of typography for the front and a range of colored stocks for the inside pages, it creates interest without being over ally designed. There approach to work is very corporate with creative insight, a professional practice i would very much like to work alongside.

The Consult- 500

Each year Leeds College of Art & Design hosts an exhibition to celebrate and showcase their students’ achievements.
we are taking part in a collaborative brief to create a suite of cost effective marketing literature to promote the event.

The consult are a leeds based full service design agency, i absolutley love their simplistic approach to design. The concept is great too as there are 500 students exhibiting.

"With budget in mind we designed the 8 page exhibition brochure to fold out and reveal a promotional poster. This was printed on a cast-coated stock, giving the poster a high gloss finish, whilst the brochure side remained uncoated and tactile.'

Lloyds - Ambient

For the ambient media campaign for Lloyds I have come up with the concept of home comforts, to encourage students to bank with Lloyds. My strategy for the campaign is to put actual welcome mats outside student halls with the iconic image of the Lloyds horse and a website attached, this will act as both a reminder and a fun quirky thing to receive. I would also like to turn this imagery into a leaflet. I also want to look into other executions of how to portray this idea, like home furnishings placed in quirky areas.

Saatchi Saatchi

Saatchi and Saatchi are obviously very well known but their executions in design are always interesting and innovitve a company I aspire to work for.

London Ink

This is an outdoor advertisement for London Ink, using large scale bodies with tattoos around London city, it is an execution of an idea placed by Titan Outdoor an idea originally created by Mother London, this shows the variety of work that Titan is involved in and the extent of the client list, would be such a fun environment to work in as it isn't all design for billboards.