Self Branding

 After reviewing past self-branding exercises I've done I realised that my design work has improved greatly since, and my branding needs updating drastically. I decided that I wanted my logo to be my signature as I felt like it was the best representation of me. It displays my name in a style that I like (a style connotative of luxury). Here I was experimenting with different logo types and letter forms. G and B are letters that I have always disliked due to the mix of straight lines and curves.

 More experimenting with letter forms and logos.

 I realised quickly that I wanted to explore signatures, however because of how common signatures are, I would need to have an element which is unique or memorable. I have been thinking about having the first letter of each name being highlighted, or having an extra element to the signature. Also for print production, I would like to experiment with foil pressing or embossing.

My signature exploring 'outside of the box'. I have also been thinking about introducing a single shape somewhere in the design, or a symbol which I feel would reflect my personality.

Pantone Matching Blog

I found a beautiful blog recently that pantone matches random items.I can use this blog when working out what colours to use by finding examples of things related to my project. Here are some of my favourites.

Pantone 7502 colour match.
Buna-Shimeji mushroom.

Pantone 2011 C colour match.
Orange fish snack.

 Pantone 371C colour match.
 The fuzzy seed pod of Texas Bluebonnet.

 Pantone 1665C colour match.
 Stigma pads from a pink Hibiscus

 Pantone 143C colour match.
 Ticonderoga #2 pencil.

 Pantone 135C colour match.
 The inside of a Kumquat.

 Pantone 621C colour match.
Half shell of a Blue Jay’s egg.

 Pantone 5773c colour match.
 Witches’ Hair Lichen.

 Pantone 7427c colour match.
Magnolia seeds.

Pantone 161c colour match.
Acorn.

Why am I here? What do I want to learn?

5 Reasons I chose Leeds College of Art:
Great reputation
Many people from my previous course came here, said it was brilliant
Local- can stay close to family
Graphics Course was represented very well during visits
Staff were friendly and the small class size was a bonus

5 Things I want to learn
Type Design
Screen-printing/letterpress
Improve hand-rendering skills - type and drawing
Colour Theory
How to get my ideas onto paper effectively

5 Strengths
Speaking and Presenting skills
Photoshop Skills
Idea Generation
Use of type
Fast learner

5 things I want to improve
Time Management
indesign and illustrator skills
Digital Illustation
Photography
A more effective work process

5 Ways to evaluate progress
Speaking to tutors regularly
group crits with other students
evaluate each module with a written evaluation
keep a journal and compare to past work
make a manifesto at the start of a brief and see if i hit the criteria at the end

5 things that inspire me
other designers
nature and science
the modern world/technology
conversations with friends
my dreams

Logo mockup

t-shirt mockup

Essay Writing

Essay Writing to me is extremely hard. I lose concentration very quickly when it comes to tasks that I'm not particularly interested in such as writing a long analysis. This being said, Richard was extremely helpful, giving me pointers and suggestions as to where to look for inspiration and resources. Due to having to write my essay again though, I only had a few days to make a publication which was extremely poor in my opinion due to a lack of time to develop the work. Time management is crucial and sometime I've been terrible at. It must improve for the 2nd and 3rd years, and obviously onwards from there. I'm going to keep a journal, calendar and write lists to try keep myself on track as I feel that my poor time management is my only real flaw. When I have time, put in effort and develop my work thoroughly, i'm happy with what i produce. 

Photography

I've come to realise that photography is going to be a huge part of my design work since i lack the confidence and ability when it comes to drawing and painting etc. I have a great film camera, but I will need a DSLR ideally to pursue this. Even if I only use my photographs to trace a drawing from I think it'll be very beneficial to me. I'll also feel happier with my design works if I can stay away from stock photos/using other peoples images, as I want my work to be 100% my own.

A place for bad design?

A conversation with a friend got me thinking the other day, whether there is a place for 'bad design' when it comes to branding and marketing ultra-cheap goods. you see extremely cheap stores like poundstores and store-brand food and they always use minimal design and look as basic as possible to convey the idea of cheapness. Is there a way to market 'cheapness' without sacrificing aesthetic? I will set myself a summer project of looking into this as I feel that it's worth exploring.

Settling In

Settling into the course was neither easy or hard. Luckily I already knew two people, one from a previous course and one was a flatmate. This eased the process a great deal, however missing my family was a huge problem for me, and eventually made me move back home. This was a good choice. I was more happy, and was in an environment where i was comfortable and could work. I'm also always on time for university thanks to the traintimes, and i'm fully awake by the time class starts, which previously would never have happened. I'm more productive and feel much more ready for year2.

Partner Typeface

I was excited to complete this project and had fun doing it. I felt like I had done a good job, until I had put all of the letters together. Walter Tracy sums up my experience very well with the phrase '"A great typeface is not a collection of beautiful letters, but a beautiful collection of letters." I didn't take this into account. By themselves I thought they were good. They were conceptual, matched Elliot very well and looked how I wanted, but they way they interacted with each other ruined them. I'll have to take this into consideration next time.

Who I am as a designer

I'm at a time in my design career where I feel as though I need to specialist in a certain area of design. I feel like i'm a 'jack of all trades' in design and it's hindering my work. I think my best route would be focusing on digital designs as I am not confident with my drawing or painting etc. I could then utilize screenprinting more if i wish to create more personal works. I would like to create a typeface as I believe this fits my strengths well, as I am good with ideas, working technically with maths etc.

self branding inspiration

Business Card ideas

When it comes to self branding I am very weak as a designer. I find it much easier to design for other people where I can have facts etc about that person or company in front of me, and I can build from there. I've never really known who I am or whether it's relevant to who I need to project myself as, so this task is especially difficult.I would definitely foil print some elements of these, as I feel that having a shiny, crisp classy piece to the design is something i strive for.

Packaging - Food

These very modern and high class packaging pieces are beautiful and would look amazing in any modern kitchen. The gold, brown and white colours work together beautifully, whilst the modern interesting type brings the whole thing together with some intricate design and a wonderful contrast against the food inside.

Packaging - Paper Wine Bottles

This incredible packaging idea uses paper instead of glass for a wine bottle. it's 85% lighter than glass and is recycled more easily. The designs also look great, using selective colour and vintage single colour designs which match the aesthetic created by the brown textured paper bottles.

OPUSNIGRUM Vintage American Badges

Very interesting vintage designs. They feel perfect for the vintage old american era, using image and type perfectly. The colouring and grungey textures make them feel rough and aged.

Friends of Type - the B-Sides and Seasides

Cool typographic photograph created with coloured clay/playdoh and photographed using a high-res camera. The 3d effect created by the nature of the material plus the camera angle creates a very cool image, which would look great as a poster or magazine cover.

Creating our own typefaces in design principals

This was very challenging to me. Without much previous knowledge of typography, It felt like I had been thrown into the deep end; which I was happy about given the support from the staff I've had. I've learnt a great deal in a short amount of time about type and it has made me much more comfortable and confident when using type in my designs. Hopefully in the future, ideally over the summer, I will create my own typeface which I will refine over the 2nd year and possibly release or use in my own work.

Screenprinting and Bookbinding Workshops

These workshops were great fun and more informative that I thought they would be. I will certainly be producing more hand crafted piece of work after learning these skills. Screen printing was a completely alien production method to me before this course; I had always wanted to learn but never had the resources. The staff were extremely helpful and thorough when it came to explaining what to do, which made it very simple to pick up. Within a few hours I was producing screen prints that i was happy with. The bookbinding was a similar story. I look forward to learning more complicated binding techniques and incorporating them wherever i can in my work.

Confidence in my work

Due to personal issues my work has been lacking quantity and quality. My motivation was completely lost and I had lost a lot of interest in everything. It's been very tough multitasking a personal life as well as my academic one. This however is something that all people have to deal with, and it's essential that I cope with things better to improve my university life and work. My confidence in my work has been lowered a huge amount because of this, which is a big problem since graphics is meant to be seen by the masses. After contacting the university counsellors and fixing my personal issues, I feel that my work will improve as I can focus on it more and put more effort in, especially now that my love for graphics has returned.

Alternative Movie Poster Brief

As a movie lover his has been the most enjoyable brief of the year. Producing posters is one of my favourite areas of design and having restrictions such as it having to be screen printed in 2 colours has made it more challenging and fun. I got the film 'Live Free or Die Hard', which i had already seen. i was conflicted to whether i was happy about this, as it's a film I really enjoy yet it lacks a story line or conceptual ideas that I could incorporate into my design. My design I felt was rather basic, so I tried to make it conceptual in other ways. Since it was an action movie with plenty of fireballs and explosions like every Die Hard film, I wanted to print my work onto fireproof paper. Unfortunately it was difficult to get hold of, and I ran out of time as I would have to screen print onto it. I originally went to make my design orange, and through a serendipitous accident I didn't use an opaque yellow when mixing the orange. When i experimented with printing onto black card, it produced an olive green colour instead which was perfect for the design. It made the design look much more military and also digital (the digital world and hacking is a huge story line in the film).

Secret 7

I was very happy with the way secret 7 went. This brief was one of the first that I felt confident with my work in. My time management was good, and I had produced a good amount of development with a good final design I feel. Producing 30 thumbnail ideas was a great way of starting the brief. it allowed me to review many different ideas with group crits and develop my best idea. The added incentive of having my work possibly being showcased at a design museum was incredibly motivating, but i've also realised that I should carry this motivation into every brief I tackle, as every piece of my work could possibly be showcased somewhere such as blogs or in my portfolio.

Contact

I could attempt to contact my chosen idol a range of different ways. He has a twitter account which he uses daily, so I could message him via that, however there is a good chance he doesn't answer his private mails because of the amount of messages he will get.
I could write a letter or email to the Hayden Planetarium where Neil deGrasse Tyson works, hopefully to get a reply from him, but I may also get a reply from an assistant or co-worker who could help me contact him.
Hand writing a letter will feel more personal and I think would have a better chance of getting a reply because it shows effort has been put into contacting him which would be appreciated, where as emails can feel cold and uncaring.