Sparks Electricians Branding

following my last meeting I have designed a stationery set for his business, I decided to maintain the colour scheme that he asked for but add a chrome texture for the stationery, I have clearly positioned the logo and incorporated other relevant information in to the footer of each piece.

Sparks Electricians Branding

After my last post I created a presentation of my designs and showed them to the client during our next meeting, I asked the client if my designs met the brief and he agreed that they did, he liked this design the most and decided that it would be the logo for his business.

This is the refined logo, the client would like this applied to his van and business cards.

I am going to design these and email a PDF of the finished logo to him to use on his business plan.

I used Photoshop to mockup the logo in situ on the client’s van, I checked what van he had at the meeting and found an image on Google of the same colour van.

I have found that it is important to get the perspective right when applying designs in situ by using cmd to manipulate individual corners it is possible to stretch the design in to place for a realistic finish. I used a blending mode also. In some cases liquify has been useful but I didn’t need it on this occasion.

Time plan

After yesterday's restructure of my time plan I'm pleased to be on track to meet my deadline, time management has been a learning curve for me and it has been something that I have challenged myself with throughout this module as it is one of my key skills to work on, after breaking down sections of work I have benefitted from the structure of a time plan and will continue to use this method in order to develop my skill in this area for future projects.

Sparks Electricians Branding

Sparks electricians…

I was approached to design a corporate identity for an electrician starting his own business so I arranged a meeting with him to discuss the details of the brief.

The name of the business is ‘SPARKS’ and the client would like the design to feature a lightening strike, and the colours blue, yellow and silver.

The logo would feature on business cards, the client’s van, and a stationery set.

He would like visuals within a fortnight as he has to apply for a business loan at the end of the month.

After our meeting I planned how I would fit this work in to the timescale I had…

I began work by sketching ideas on paper, and then scanned a couple of them in to Illustrator to develop them further...

I have arranged another meeting in which I will present my designs and talk about stationery etc.

Time plan

I have been keeping up to date with my time plan over the past week but now realise that I have not taken group crits in to account. There is a final group crit on Monday 10th, the day before hand in. Based on this I have decided to revise my time plan for the final week to allow sufficient time to complete the module.
My new plan is as follows;

Monday
•research colour palettes
•Fine tune logo and document development
•print work so far
•cover page layout development
• update blog

Tuesday
•crit
•fine tune cover
•double page spread ideas and development
•fine tune 1st spread
•Update blog

Wednesday
•2nd double page spread development
•fine tune
•Document progress on blog

Thursday
•put together presentation for Monday

Name generation

Part of the brief for the magazine I am designing requires me to come up with a name for the publication,
I have created a mind map based around typography to help generate some ideas...

I like post script, language, face type, what typ? ... Another possibility that I came up with after creating the mind map was typ Ed... Like typed but with emphasis on the 'ed' as in editorial. I have been experimenting with these names and some ideas I had inspired by my logo and typography research.

Development

I have been researching logos and typography over the past couple of days to gather inspiration for the branding of my typography magazine, I have found some brilliant examples in Los logos: compass...

Time plan...December

Skills action plan

This is an outline of the skills I will be working on during this module...

Time management (time plan)
Develop a range of editorial design skills in line with current trends. (pinterest, self directed tutorial, editorial analysis)
Develop a range of proffesionally executed design options.
Apply traditional methods to editorial design.

This will improve my personal practice and professional development. My progress will be evident through my blog and final submission.

Edinburgh Visit

This week I attended a trip to Edinburgh during which we visited three design agencies. 

The first of these agencies was New Haven...
The layout and interior of New Haven had a great, relaxed feel about it but you can tell that, operating within, is a highly professional group of people. There are examples of work, past and present, everywhere. In the entrance you are greeted by a huge perspex bin filled with awards that the agency has won, they are on view but the method in which they are displayed exudes very little importance. We were told that this is because the don't care about awards just good work... a little cliche but a good motto to work by. The 'living room area' features a pool table, sofas, and a box of props used in previous ad campaigns, walking up the spiral staircase you arrive on at the open plan work space, everyone was  engrossed in the task in hand and as we walked through admiring the pleasant working environment, everyone was conscious not to disturb the creative flow of the designers. New Haven produce a lot of work for the Scottish government, Tennents lager is also a well known client of there's. 
Tips on getting a job right for you from Gareth of new Haven...

*look for an agency where your work fits in
*be persistent
*make yourself stand out
*be enthusiastic
*show them you want that job

Leith Agency...

For our meeting with the Leith agency people we boarded their boat and enjoyed a presentation of some of their recent TV ads including this rather amusing one for Irn Bru...n
We were advised of the process and different stages that go in to making an advert like this including ideas on paper, scripting and storyboards right through to direction and set design. My experience at Leith made me wonder if I would enjoy working in advertising. The Leith guys were really friendly and quite down to earth, they strongly advised networking and using social media such as twitter to get yourself known in the design world. I loved the fact that it took place on a boat and was looking forward to the unveiling of our final studio visit so I was a little disappointed when it was just a regular newly refurbished building on dry land, 
This was our final stop on the trip... Story,
My disappointment with the building was, however, short lived as we had work to do! We all squeezed in to the room and positioned ourselves at the large table where we were divided in to teams, we were given a brief to come up with a name and advertising campaign for a midge repellent, apparently quite a problem in scotland with walkers, campers and festival goers in the summer months.

First of all we began with name generation, mind mapping everything we could think of to do with the product. We came up with quite a few potential names... BudgeMidge, Smidge, Midgeaze, I really liked Smidge until we thought of Scotch Mist and we all decided to go with that. Once the name had been decided we needed an ad campaign, we decided that we would advertise in walking/camping magazines, festival flyers, newspapers and also on the websites of festivals and events. 
We sketched some ideas based on occasions when the repellent would be used. One idea as a crowd of people at a festival and a person with scotch mist in a pool of light creating a sort of shield against the midges. Another was similar to this but with a group of walkers. For the internet campaign we came up with 'fight the bite' we sketched out a quick picture of what this would look like...

we presented our ideas to the other groups and story, story weren't keen on the name but loved the fight the bite campaign, It was good to see what the other groups came up with, I liked some of the ideas they had, it's interesting to see other people's take on a brief. 

After we had all presented Story showed us what they had produced for the client... they had chosen the name smidge! Coincidence that we had also come up with the same name as a possible choice, they also had a similar style campaign to ours. I genuinely believe that we could have produced a better poster than the one they did despite it being a low budget project but I thoroughly enjoyed the task and it was a great end to the Edinburgh trip.

Visiting the Edinburgh studios was a valuable experience as I gained an insight into industry life and got a feel for the type of place I would like to work, I can see the benefits of interesting / open plan surroundings with a view to creativity as no one wants to be staring at four blank office walls all day. I can see that the trip was geared towards advertising students more than graphic designers but I enjoyed in nonetheless and it made me consider a broader spectrum of opportunities for the future.

Editorial Design BRief

I have been set a live brief for a new magazine based on type. The magazine will be aimed at graphic designers and typographers.
Competitors include are fuse and eye magazine. It will be a quarterly magazine retailing at around £16 - £18.
The brief requirements include;
name generation,
branding,
front cover,
double page spread on a typographer of choice and a double page spread on a typeface of your choice.
Lorem ipsom will not be used so an article relevant to the feature will be required.

Alternative techniques module

I have been set a new module in which I have to choose a live brief in my chosen area, I have decided on editorial design as this is the area I would like to specialise in. The aim of the module is to improve knowledge and understanding of Graphic Design through the study of alternative techniques. I have started by creating a SWOT analysis...

New brief SWOT analysis

Strengths:

I enjoy editorial design, learning new techniques, and looking at magazine trends.
I have inDesign knowledge from previous briefs with layout, pages and columns etc. I am confident with a lot of the basic principles of inDesign.


Weaknesses:

There is a lot to learn with regards to rules of editorial design, I don't yet feel fully confident with tracking and kerning etc.
I have very little industry knowledge.
I feel that on previous briefs my research has been too computer based.


Opportunities:

This brief will give me the chance to create an industry specific piece for my portfolio.
This is an opportunity to improve my inDesign technical skills in areas that I am not yet confident in and to learn new skills, rules and techniques.
I would like to get back to basics and look at non computer based editorial design and the basic disciplines.
I need to continue to improve my time management, I am going to introduce a daily task time plan.


Threats:

Time, external factors and other commitments.
Organisation, leaving things too late and not sticking to my time plan.
Procrastination!

Time plan...

This is my time plan for the week ahead...

Monday:
Complete swot analysis,
Fill out action plan for alternative skills module,
Continue research. Update blog.

Tuesday:
Finish off initial research annotation,
Complete task one.

Wednesday:
Research grid systems and look at trend forecasts.
Update pinterest research.

Thursday:
Compile research and update blog

Colin Davies - Guest Speaker

Today we were treated to an inspirational talk by Colin Davies of 'one nine four' design studio based in Heaton. Colin is a self taught graphic designer and has learnt all he knows from books, in fact he is still learning from books and can't speak highly enough of this method of education. Colin began university education studying business but soon decided that it wasn't for him and began learning the basics of design, Colin now runs his own successful studio, one nine four, which is the number of the flat the company first originated from, today he shared 10 lessons to live by on the road to becoming a successful graphic designer...

Lesson 1: trust your instincts

Colin advised us that if your instincts tell you that something isn't right for you to trust them and not do it. Colin refers here to the fact that he hated studying business and knew that it wasn't for him. 

Lesson 2: develop your own identity

I like this one, Colin's work is colourful and fun. His business branding is fluent and consistent from the business card he gave me to the one nine four website

Lesson 3: make yourself appear bigger than you are

You don't have to run a massive organisation to take on a big job, Colin told us how he has, on occasion made out that his studio is bigger than it is to secure a job. You can always collaborate with others to get the job done, Davies is a fan of collaboration.

Lesson 4: get everything in writing

This is to ensure you get paid what you are due, as verbal agreement can often change. If it's written in black and white there can be no discrepancy, speaking from experience.

Lesson 5: have a good idea before you do anything

If the idea is good then the design will generally work. If it's not a good idea then why bother.

Lesson 6: if you don't think you can do it - do it anyway

Push yourself, see what happens.

Lesson 7: if you are using a different language, get it proof read

Don't just take an internet translation and run with it, find someone who knows an check. This could save time, money and embarrassment.

Lesson 8: if there is a problem, discuss it,  then there is no problem

Get things out in the open. Discuss issues with clients, it makes life easier. Discussing the issues with Go North East's busses with their head office lead to a big job for Colin and his team, he spent hours travelling on the busses, taking photographs of conflicting design issues and confusing displays, when he presented the findings to the head office, they asked if he would design a streamline brand to run throughout the company.

Lesson 9: be nice, clients will warm to you more as a person

It is great to build rapport with a client, they will be more likely to contact you for future jobs and recommend you to others. #befriendly

Lesson 10: develop your own intellectual property

This could serve you for life.

This talk was truly inspirational, I am keen to get my hands on some good graphic design books and expand my creativity. I will definitely be thinking about Colin's words of wisdom and taking his advice on board in the future.

I have been enjoying looking at the work on the one nine four website take a look :-)

Time Plan... November

Final Packaging Nets

These are nets of how the final packaging for Phonica would look, I am really pleased with the way my design worked on the card, it has a rustic feel that I was trying to achieve. The address is to be hand written in a black marker pen for each parcel as this adds a more personal touch. I had the marker pen idea during my research, throughout the Phonica store labels and posters have been written by hand in marker pen, incorporating this in to my design also incorporates a little of the personality of the shop in to the online shopping experience.

 

I created the black ink lines and swirls using oil paint and a plastic knife,

• I sqeezed a blob of black oil paint on to a large sheet of paper and used a roller to spread it evenly.
• I then took another sheet of paper and lay this on top.
• I used the edge of a plastic knife to create shapes on the paper, I went for swirls and wavy lines to immitate the look of a vinyl record and of sound waves.
• I then separated the pages and scanned the images in to photoshop.

Laser Cut Prototypes

These are my laser cut packages, a poster tube and a cd box, the design has worked really well and all of the dimensions were accurate. There was a slight problem, as I expected, with the fold lines due to the card being corrugated in the middle so I would need to look at other card if my designs were to go in to production, however, I overcame this problem for the sake of these models by scoring deeper fold lines using a metal rule and some scissors.

Today I drew up the nets for my package designs using illustrator and prepared them for the laser cutter, i followed the guidelines from the tutorial with Nick.

I used etch along the lines that are to be folded in order to score them. The nets looked good on the computer so I'm hoping they will turn out well. I selected quite a thick card for the packaging and have since found that, because it is corrugated in the middle, It may experience a problem with certain folds.  

Factory Records

I have been looking at the iconic record label Factory Records, during my research of the label I came across this Factory branded parcel tape. I was inspired by this to create a tape that would work well with Phonica packaging, this is what I came up with...

Phonica competitor research

I have looked at other independent record stores that also offer online shopping, I came across Rough Trade East which has been around nearly as long as Phonica and is also hugely successful. Sister Ray and Sounds of the Universe.

Rough Trade East has a similar feel to Phonica, they offer online shopping and host events instore, online shopping is more competetive than highstreet as location does not play a factor, customers could be swayed by packaging or the look of a website.

I can't find a website for Sister Ray so I don't think they will be an online competitor for Phonica but, they do take part in events such as record store day and are a hugely successful independent store.

Sounds of the universe also has a website and offers online shopping.

The websites for the stores are all well presented and the products are clearly visible making shopping easy, I want my packaging to help create a brand loyalty to Phonica, of all the stores I think that Phonica has a slightly more edgy feel, I aim to reflect this in my design.

Phonica Records Packaging

The brief is to design mail order packaging for Phonica Records that gives the customer a taste of the instore buying experience...

I started research for thiis brief by looking at Phonica records website and store, to help get a feel for the look and colours used I created some moodboards in my sketchbook, from these moodboards, a black, white and grey colour scheme emerged. The Phonica website is designed using greyscale, this helps the album artwork stand out from the screen when viewing the website.

This colour scheme inspired me to try out some patterns and designs using mixed media, I used charcoal, graphite, marker pens, fine liners, oil paints and ink to try out mark making, I wanted to create a hand rendered look as in my research of the store many of the signs and labels had been created by hand using marker pens.

Phonica Research

People shop at Phonica for a personal, unique shopping experience that can't be achieved in high street chains. Phonica website has a distinctive style and I feel that the packaging I develop should reflect this and recreate some sense of the in store experience. In order to inject the 'Phonica look' in to my packaging I have been looking at the logo and colour scheme of the Phonica website.The Phonica logo is catchy, I like the small lines and dots underneath the letters, I will try out some patterns and designs using these shapes. There is a distinctive grey scale theme with everything that is not actual record artwork on the website, this really makes the artwork stand out and creates continuity throughout. I plan to experiment with this colour scheme, I want the parcel that arrives to be instantly recognisable as a 'Phonica' parcel.

My next task is to look at the products I will be designing packaging for. Phonica offer a wide range of products for sale aside from music, the range includes:  

VINYL
RECORD SLEEVES
HEADPHONES
T-SHIRTS
SPEAKERS
MAGAZINES/BOOKS
RECORD BAGS
CD'S
POSTERS

The product range is extensive so I have decided to concentrate on just a couple of these products for my designs to create a feel for what the full range would look like.

Love Chloe re-brand

I am collaborating with Donna McTaggart for the rebrand task, we have decided to re-brand the 'Love Chloe' perfume bottle and packaging as we thought it looked a little tired and we wanted the challenge of bringing it up to date for a contemporary market.

After researching the brand I fohisund that Chloe is celebrating it's 60 year anniversary, with this in mind I was inspired to create some designs based on 1950's style, when the fashion house was founded, but with a contemporary twist...

Packaging

This project focusses on re-brand and package design.

In order to create a successful packaging re-brand I have conducted some research in to existing brand packaging design.
I looked at Benefit, well known for it's quirky 50's style designs. It is apparent that Benefit trades on it's distinctive, kitsch nostalgia and that the packaging has an emphasis on form. The idea of brands evoking a feeling is clear here and it is something I am keen to reflect in my design.
Lush was in complete contrast to benefit but equally exciting, Lush emphasise the fact that they are an ethical company, against animal testing and environmentally sound... of course this is reflected in their product packaging. Pots are recycled, plastic is minimal, and personalised stickers are added to show who made the product. There is a whole chalkboard type theme running throughout the products to create a continuity and recognition for the brand. I love the fact that although the packaging is minimal so as not to be wasteful, it is not boring! I particularly liked the innovative use of handmade scarves as a gift wrap...

Time Plan... October

Time Plan... September

Work based learning

After a bit of a panic over the past week, I managed to pull the rest of my magazine together. It was brilliant to finally see the finished product. I decided to make a couple of changes as there were elements of the cover that I felt weren't working. I decided on a new colour scheme for it and one of my other layout ideas from the planning stage. Initially I was going to design a couple of contrasting options for each feature but I later realised that this was not time effective and that it would be better to just develop one good magazine than to rush two. I found using inDesign a little difficult at first as I had only used it for smaller projects in the past however, I'm now far more confident using the software and found that I couldn't do without it since. I have enjoyed tge work based learning module as I created my own brief and it was something I really wanted to do however this was also a slight downfall for me as I spent quite a while deciding exactly what it was that I wanted to do that it compromised my ability to finish tge module on time. In future projects I plan to make better use of time planning techniques as I feel it will be beneficial to me.

Work based learning

Over the past couple of weeks i have been researching ideas for the work based learning module. I have decided to set my own brief for this module, I have wanted to create a magazine spread for a while so I am taking the opportunity to incorporate this in to my brief. I am going to design two double page spreads and a front cover for a  house/property magazine. As part of this I will be designing fabric to feature in the spreads and typography to feature in the headings. I feel that this will give me the chance to combine the skills I have learned during my first year while experimenting with a new area of design. I have started work by researching magazines with a similar feel, Homes and Gardens, Living etc, Ideal Homes, Living North, this has given me an insight in to the current trends, (editorial and design) I have also been looking at repeat pattern tutorials as preparation for my fabric design.

As this is a work based learning brief, the aim is to reflect industry as closely as possible, therefore I will have to submit a proposal outlining the deliverables and costs etc, I am going to research these areas in more depth so that my proposal is accurate and realistic.

Work based learning

It's been a busy day, but, I have managed to complete the front cover and a double page spread for my magazine. It was exciting to put my research in to practice and see it take shape. I have become far more competent with indesign over the past couple of weeks and I'm still learning. I've been sticking to a strict time plan this week so as not to fall behind on work, I have another four hours available tomorrow in which I plan to make a start on pages 4 and 5 of my magazine, I aim to have both of these pages completed by next tuesday.

Digital Skills

During my tutorial I set my self a goal to complete my digital skills folder by today and I'm pleased to say I have finished it! It is not due in until 11th but I feel I can now focus on my work based learning brief which has to be in for the 18th.

Sugar Sisters

I had a meeting with a client today about designing a logo for their cupcake company 'Sugar Sisters'. The client is looking for a 'kitch' style logo and a flyer to reflect their cupcake business. I am going to dedicate a couple of hours over the next week to ideas generation for this brief and hope to start development after I hand in my digital skills.

Digital Skills

Since handing in my contextual studies assignment I have spent a few days tidying up my digital skills folder, annotating screen shots and working through a few extra tutorials to add to it. I have included a repeat pattern tutorial that I looked at during my research for WBL and a couple of magazine spreads. After a review of my work so far, I felt that it would be beneficial to do a little more work with InDesign so I decided to work through some of the tutorials I had previously completed as a refresher and added some extra notes and annotation to my screen shots as I did so. I aim to have my digital skills folder complete by Friday 4th ready for hand in the week after. 

This is a link to the repeat pattern tutorial that I followed in my WBL research, simple but effective...

Repeat Pattern Tutorial

NHS logo brief - part 3

These are the ideas I developed, I chose the colour scheme based on the work I looked at by Damien Hirst, I think a neutral colour, in this case grey, works really well with a slightly stronger colour in contrast. I presented these ideas in a group crit and the feedback was good. The top left design seemed to be the most popular so I decided that I would definately submit that one along with the bottom right design as I also want to show two different typefaces with the design. The top has a contemporary feel whereas the bottom is a more classic look.

NHS brief - part 2

These are my initial ideas for the logo, I looked over my ideas with John and decided on a few to develop...

NHS logo brief - part 1

Over the past week I have been working on a brief for the NHS to design a logo for the medical photography department, I started out by researching camera parts, I was focusing on the shapes to get ideas for the logo design.

I took the lens shape and loosely based my logo around it.
We had a lecture on Friday morning, Nick showed us a series of work by Damien Hirst called 'the last supper' and discussed the colour scheme and layout which has a very medical feel. I did some further research after the lecture...

following this research I began drafting some ideas...

Blanca Gomez

Blanca Gomez is one of the contemporary designers I have been looking at as part of my contextual studies research.

 I love the simplicity in her designs, and find her work style inspirational.

 I read in an intersting interview for grain edit with Blanca Gomez about her work...

Blanca Gomez Interview

Contextual studies

I have been working on some notes about sumerian seals today as part of the contextual studies module, I have also been revising some points on essay writing, and came up with a mindmap of ideas based around the essay question, next step - research...

Self Branding

These are some logos I have been working on as part of the Self Branding task, I liked the strong use of colour in some of the work I have been looking at as part of my research and wanted to recreate the boldness in my own logo. The idea is still a work in progress, i'm not sure which I like best yet and I don't want to choose between the colours so I might keep them all and change them to suit my mood!

Contextual studies

Today I have been working on the contextual studies brief, I have written up all my notes from the lectures so far and written a brief history of lithography. I have chosen to answer the following question...
Using a minimum of two contemporary designers / graphic design companies as a reference analyse the ways in which historical design has influenced their practice.
I need to develop an essay plan for this by Tuesday.

Contextual studies

This week I have been working on my contextual studies module. I have in to the history of lithography in more depth and looked over notes from the typography and history of graphic design lectures. Over the past week I have had less time due to work commitments, because of this I decided to an hour each night to contextual studies research. I have also been thinking about the new briefs set out on Tuesday as part of the work based learning module, I have made notes of initial ideas and aim to build on these by next Tuesday.

New module: work based learning

I have been given a new module today, it is 60% practical and 40% essay based, within this module i have a number of potential briefs to work on. The NHS have set a logo brief for their clinical photography dept, there is a brief from bad boy mixed martial arts clothing company and the cupple brief. In addition to this we can choose an external competition or brief. Progress must be documented throughout this brief and recorded in essay format to submit with the final outcomes.

Our DandAD final pieces were judged today by the class, mine was shortlisted but did not make it in to the final 10, regardless of this I have decided to submit it to D and AD as I was really happy with the final outcome.

Self branding - Elizabeth Avedon design

Elizabeth Avedon design has a very elegant, sophisticated style which is reflected in the logotype. The words are understated, the letters have perfectly spaced tracking.

Grey and red work really well together, i think the grey complements the monochrome tones in the black and white photography frequently used in her designs and the red is a strong contrast with this.

Self Branding - Andy Perez, Alex Matveev

I have been looking at designers and and their branding, these are a few that stood out to me:
 
Andy Perez works from a strong conceptual perspective.

His work is bright and colourful which is not reflected in in his logotype, however, the typography does reflect his quirky, collage style of work.The logotype is well balanced, I think he used black and white as this would sit well on his work without being lost in the bold colours.
The letters look like they have been cut out to form his name which reflects the collage style.

 Alex Matveev's logotype reflects the futuristic, crisp, clean style of his work. He is originally from Moscow, I think that the logotype has a russian feel about it

.