Final Show Committee...

I am one of seven students responsible for organising and branding the final show, this is a huge responsibility as the show will be a chance to show our work to industry professionals, family, friends and potential employers. 
Sam as set up a Facebook group for correspondence between members of the committee and Keano has made a pinterest board to act as a group mood board where we can post visual ideas and inspiration.

Exhibition Board

We have discussed themes for the show and agreed on Black and White as this is a straight forward, no none sense approach, it will work well with a diverse range of work on display and has a strong connection with the North East/Newcastle.
The next item on the agenda is a name for the show, we have decided to meet up during the Easter break to discuss this and other jobs on the agenda.

UCAS applications and Uni Interviews

In January I submitted my UCAS application for the fin al top up year of my application for the final year of my degree. At this point I was still unsure as to whether I wanted to progress to the Top Up year or not but I did want the option to be open so I decided to apply.

My choices were Northumbria Uni – this was to join the degree course for the final year. Sunderland Uni  - this is a specific year in Graphic Design & Newcastle College  - this is a specific top up year in creative practices.

Following my applications I was invited to attend interviews at all three of my choices, although in the invitation they advised the students can only join at the start of year two, this was not an option for me so at this stage I decided not to attend.

This left me with Sunderland & Newcastle. My Sunderland interview was first. I prepared my portfolio proper to the interview showcasing pieces of work I felt would have shown my my style & skill level. Sunderland conducted group interviews. I gave Maddy & Donna a lift in my car. We were taken on a group tour of the art & design building before the actual interviews.

During my interview I was asked why I had chosen Sunderland to study at. I had heard about the good reputation of the Art & Design at Sunderland from friends & relatives during the past couple of yearsand decided that it would be worth travelling a little further everydayto take advantage of the facilities on offer. We talked about what field of Graphic Design I would like to land, I discussed my design &  creating visual experience on the page as we looked at my portfolio. I talked through my work explaing the theory behind my editorioal pages. I asked about the flexibily of the course bearing in mind that I have two children & I was informed that as long as I was in most days they are fairly flexible. This was good to hear & will make a huge difference as to whether I can consider Sunderland as a firm choice should I be offered a place.

After the interview we were taken on a tour campus. I was impressed by the facilities particularly the library and can see that Sunderalnd has a lot to offer. I felt positive about the interview after leaving and I am hoping to be offered a place to start in September.

I also have my Newcastle College interview to come, I feel more prepared for it after the Sunderland interview and although I’m already familiar with the college it will be interesting to hear what they have to say.

5/5/13  Follow up...

I have been given a conditional offer for Sunderland providing I pass my FdA I can start in Septemeber. I am delighted with the offer as I feel that I can make an informal decision and choose the course that’s right for me. My newcastle interview is next week so I will await the outcome of that before making my decision.

Mahas Classics Brief...

I have decided to work on a live brief for an independent fashion label...
Mahas Classics by Saira

The client requires a logo, flyers and business cards, she would also like visuals of how the logo could be applied to labels etc.
The client described her range as east meets west, it is a mixture of traditional Pakistani style with a western influence. All pieces are 'prêt a porter' and Saira would like this information included in the flyers.
Saira said that she uses pastel shades and neutral colours a lot so this could be something to think about colourwise.
I have started my research for this brief by creating a moodboard on pinterest...

Please click here to view my Pinterest Research Board

my initial ideas and sketches based on research...

Website Development... Internal Hyperlinks & positioning

These are the two pages of my website, the first is a 'splash page' my logo contains a hyperlink to the second page.

Creating an internal hyperlink was really simple, I clicked on the image so that it appeared in the link box at the bottom left of the screen then dragged the arrow next to it over to the second page displayed in the files tab on the bottom right of the screen and clicked save.

To position my logo in the centre of the splash page I had to calculate how many pixels wide it was then deduct this from 960px (width of the page) then divided this amount by two, I made this the width of the padding either side. I repeated the process for the height.

Time Plan... April

Work Based Learning talk

Today we had a re cap on everything that needs to be submitted for work based learning, Some of the stuff mentioned I have well underway but there others that I will need to look at in greater detail to ensure that I am meeting all of the learning outcomes.

Dan and Nick told us to gather evidence of everything we do so here is a picture I took of them giving the talk...

These are my notes from the talk...

Seb Lester - Guest Speaker

Seb Lester - Typography talk

Seb began by showing an A to Z in calligraphy.

Seb was interested in Art and BMX’s as a child, it was the BMX name stickers that sparked his interest in typography and his first experimentation was to recreate this. At college Lester became interested in photo-realism and thought that this would be his vocation, however, Lester stumbled upon ‘The Graphic Language of Neville Brody’ and became captivated by typeface design. He noticed a link between one of Brody’s typefaces and the BMX typography.

Ambigrams read as a different word from another perspective

Lester began looking at ambigrams, he tried some out Love/fuck, Life/death etc.

Audio Visual Student Work

Seb made a video of typographically styled lyrics to a drum and bass track, this was his first experimentation with animation.

Seb showed an interest in experimental font families, they were often quite unusable but Rolling Stone magazine bought one of them.

He also did quite a lot of work around 3d fantasy style scenes and this was what got him a job as they were looking to use this sort of work in their marketing.

After college he got a job designing album covers before getting a job at Mono Type, this was his first step in to the corporate side of the industry.

Neo Sans was born, this typeface became the Intel font of choice, Lester also created a full typeface for Waitrose based on their existing logotype, which was a mixture of future and gill sans.

Another big job was for The Daily Telegraph, they wanted to modernize without alienating their existing customer base, Lester opted for a more robust and simplified version of the original masthead, which was well received.

Other clients include British Airways, Barclaycard and H&M where he was required to make a full C E character set (including all symbols, upper and lower cases and numbers)

Lester stated that the key to font design for retail is to be distinctive but not to over do it, as it must also be highly functional.

Neo Sans and Neo Tech are fonts designed to be futuristic and modern by Lester, they have been adopted by many large brands including Specsavers, Washing powder, The Winter Olympics, Cars, The Labour Party branding. He has also spotted his typeface next to Angela Merkel, Condoleezza Rice and Arnold Schwarzenegger, his childhood hero.

When designing Soho Lester asked himself What would look good on a cool magazine or brand?

GQ magazine ended up using this font, as did Angler Magazine, which shows the versatility of a good font.

Soho and Soho gothic include over 40,000 characters and are the product of three years work for Lester, he also created a sans version.

Lester also produced some video advertising for Soho gothic ‘a new typeface – works at all sizes’ to promote it’s versatility.

Type design is an anonymous profession, Lester told us ‘ my work was everywhere but no one had heard of me’

Lester began work on some promotional pieces of work featuring his typeface design depicting the meaning of the words, these pieces feature 3D design, Lester also worked with illustrative letterforms, which he animated. His idea was to make words emphasize themselves by the way they look, eg How can you make the word beautiful more beautiful? He adapted this concept to ‘Brutal’, ‘Faith’, ‘Evil’, ‘Love’, ‘Danger’, ‘Future’, ‘Nature’ & ‘Freedom’. This work is fantasy style, virtual reality. Lester told us that ‘almost no one liked my 3D illustration work so I went back to the drawing board looking for a new direction.’

Lester decided to strip his work back to basics and began creating limited edition prints of expressive words.

Lester has spent the past two years immersed in calligraphy, he is a self confessed addict. He told us that calligraphy, although an ancient art form is relevant today, there is an appetite for hand rendered design.

Lester has used Shakespeare quotes in his calligraphy, he is also fond of expletives in his work.

Lester has found recent fame through calligraphy when he uploaded a video of him working on his calligraphy, it has currently had over 800,000 hits in three weeks. He has also had marriage proposals and a request from a Lady in Africa for him to design the sign for her sex shop.



Sketchbook, February 2013 from Seb Lester on Vimeo.

(There videos of Seb Lester calligraphy on vimeo)

Lester advised that, as long as you are producing good work, people will find you. He also stated that design is ‘a lifestyle choice, you don’t really stop thinking about it’

He showed us some of his preparatory work for a BMX company design he did for the ‘emer swift’ bike, ‘people like to see drawings’ the drawings documented his journey through the design, finding out what works and resolving problems.

The design for the BMX must have been significant for Lester as he told us at the beginning of the lecture that this was his first type inspiration as a child.

More recently Lester has completed an illustration job for penguin, the designs were being signed off by JD Salinger himself, which was intimidating for Lester as Salinger is known to be a recluse. Lester described this as a culturally significant project that it was an honour to be asked to do.

Seb Lester’s talk was inspirational, It was nice to see the journey of a designer from childhood to success. I love the attention to detail in his typeface design and I am fascinated by the enormity of designing a 40,000 character set. I will definitely be taking his words of wisdom on board and applying them to my work in the future. I am also intrigued by his calligraphy and I will be taking a look at his tips on getting started in calligraphy on his blog.



"Ladies and gentlemen, Seb Lester"...

CV

After researching different CV styles I decided that I would like mine to be clean and simple, I sketched out some layout ideas then began to experiment in InDesign.

This is the design I decided on as I felt that it was clear and displayed my work in an effective manner...

I received some good feedback about my CV, after a crit with Nick I added a paragraph about myself, I later spotted a typing error and corrected this also, I have had it proof read and now sent it to Clare Hughes for approval.

Starbucks, Village Hotel Newcastle - flyers and loyalty cards

the final product...