In Design

I started to hand render a couple of illustrations of the fox idea i Had but when working with the images in Photoshop i wasn't too happy with the outcome, without a graphic tablet i found it really hard to shade the darker areas of the fur and the creases in the material of the jumper.

In Design Workshop

I wanted to produce a logo that truly communicated Matts interests, one of them being his interest in graffiti and spray painting. I wanted to Incorporated a fat nibbed marker pen or some suggestion of writing into the log so i played around with a few of the ideas below.

I am quite happy with the logo idea above, I definitely think that the connection between the T and the U  completes the type. This could be something to further explore, maybe experiment with colour or a different arrangement in terms of layout.

In Design Workshop

After producing some grids on Indesign and Illustrator I realized that it really wasn't inspiring me at all to produce an interesting piece of work and that the only way I'd progress is to put my ideas onto paper. Below are a few initial drawings and ideas I wanted to include. Matt had mentioned his love for trainers so i thought a theme of air max would be completely appropriate.  I found every illustration of Matt that i drew was out of proportion and just didn't represent him one bit at all. Instead I picked an Animal that i thought would give him a bit of character, that being a fox.

In Design Workshop

A few Grids + layout ideas to get me started thinking about how I'm going to lay out my text and images across my double page spread. I often find lots of columns very complicated to read and not very engaging so I tried to keep it down to around 8, but i did a couple of experiments with some 16 column girds.

In Design Workshop

After receiving the In design brief me and my partner (Matt Tucker) started to write a set of interview questions we could base each others article on. We wanted to be as open as possible so we could visually explore a range of subjects and ideas. We intended on trying to communicate each others characteristics as realistically as possible so we came up with some questions which remained very open but could be elaborated on more personally.

Our set of Questions/Answers

Matt's Interview;

How would you describe yourself?

Arty, creative, motivated when I want to be but all round pretty laid back.

What motivates / inspires you and why?

Print is really starting to inspire me, I really enjoy seeing how much of an affect print method and stock can have on the design.

What do you dislike doing?

Cleaning, writing essays& getting coaches for 5 hours back to London

What is your favorite possession?

My trainers I don’t like to pick favorites, but if I had to probably the grey suede air max 1’s.

If you knew today was your last day on Earth, how would you spend it and why?

Hmm… designing and chilling with my London and uni mates

What was the last thing you ate?

Peri Peri Chicken sandwich with Thai sweet chili crisps in it

What’s your favorite drink?

At the moment Franks alcoholic ginger beer but I go through stages, ribena has got to be up there as well.

What’s the most interesting place you’ve ever been?

Defiantly between Canada and Africa both were very different, but Elephant and Castle is also a pretty ‘interesting’ place.

Whose your favorite graphic designer / illustrator at the moment?

I don’t particularly have a favorite but I am really fond of the work being produced by ‘grand people’ and generation press at the moment. In terms of illustration I really like some of the work Eion Ryan is producing.

What are your plans for 2011?

Hopefully go to some festivals over summer, possibly inter-railing over Europe ending at Outlook festival in Croatia. Other than that get a good grade and

What’s your biggest failure?

Probably thinking that Yorkshire was in the midlands, but other than that not getting into Chelsea for foundation wasn’t to great but I loved my foundation year at LCC none the less.

 

My Interview; 

How would you Describe yourself?

A typical northerner who likes a wide spread of genres of music particularly liking technical metal/hardcore. Im about 6 foot, well built, big boned or to be honest just likes food a bit too much. Strong passion for illustration and drawing, hopefully my career will end up somewhere down the design route.

What motivates/inspires you? Why?

I'm inspired by most things creative whether its street art or typography, when you can pick out elements of design all around you its hard not to be inspired.

What do you dislike doing?

Washing up! Being harassed by club reps handing out flyers for event nights that I'm never going to attend. Waking up before 10 o clock.

What is your favourite possession?

My lomography fisheye camera.

What was the last thing you ate?

A bacon Butty and a coffee from cooplands haha.

Whats your favourite drink?

Jagermister mixed with mountain dew.

Whats the most interesting place you've been?

Alcatraz

If you knew that today was your last day on earth how would you spend it?

I'd meet up with my two closest friends Rob and Frank, go and have an enormous buffet and most likely do the same thing I do with them everyday.

What can you see yourself doing in 10 years?

Honestly, Id love to own a clothing company or skateshop selling prints and t-shirts.

What interests do you have outside of College.

Playing Guitar, making stencils, going on holiday, attempting to skateboard, screen printing, driving, sketching, sleeping, 

Who's your favourite graphic designer/illustrations at the moment?

At the moment, I really like Mark Waever's collaged posters and prints, another designer who Is at the top of my list and probably always will be is Keaton Henson. Keatons style of illustration is very dark, he uses lots of repetitive linework to add texture to his work and I think this is what appeals to me the most.

Whats plans do you have for 2011?

2011, I want to get a European Railcard and travel around Europe, smash the first year of my course and move into my new house, oh and make sure I draw more!

Fun Shop Wokshop

For the Past two Thursdays we have been taught by John and put into groups to come up with a limitless idea/plan working with the theme of uniting the people of leeds. We were giving the brief to create an event which didn't have limits such as money, space or time and would be alike to the loving festival Woodstock held back in the 1960's/70's. The event could be anything we wanted, and we were encourage to produce a detailed concept rather than thinking about our final outcome.

When split into groups we began to brainstorm our idea and note down themes to consider. 

Our idea consisted of creating a peoples holiday for the whole of Yorkshire, a day where people could all take the time to go into the city and see the event we were planning on creating. We started by thinking small scale i.e stages, music, markets but after talking over the basis of our idea john explained that the whole purpose of the exercise was to think with no limits.

We started to brainstorm further and these are the ideas we came up with;

-A free event, open for everybody to attend
-Held inside the ringroad boundary of the city
-Un-announced artists playing in different venues all over the city, from small unheard bands to big international figures. (NCP carparks, hyde park pub, mullenium square.)
-An indoor beach located in one of leed's football stadiums.
-Street performers
-Brigett street covered in canvass for people to draw on.
-Huge camping areas in Hyde park.
-All the acts and events going on would be talked about by word of mouth rather than flyers posters etc.




Ideas for the name of our event; The big weekend, Leeds Big day, The day off, City wide, street party leeds, The big day off, etc


I started to produce a guide to where the different areas of music could be allocated. For example a perfect setting for regae music/hip hop/grime etc would be a sunny day in hyde park where people could relax on the grass then stroll down into town to listen to another genre of music.

By keeping the festival/event free it would mean that anybody could attend, this would bring people to the event that usually wouldn't goto a festival due to limitations of money etc. Its more of an opportunity for people rather than a gathering, on this one day anybody can perform in the streets, small time bands, magicians, artists will have the chance to take to the streets and perform infront of hundreds and thousands of people.

Each act would be announced by around 100 people dressed as wheres whalley that would be dotted around the city telling people whats going on throughout the day. The people dressed as wheres whalley would be recognized because of wearing what they are wearing and would be distinctive when merged with a crowd. They would be acting as reps for the event and guiding people to different areas throughout the city.

Idea for music Map

The big bike ride. We intend to turn the outer roads of leeds and the main ringroad around the centre into one huge bikeride track for the people of yorkshire to cycle from one event to another.

Our plan is below.

Indesign Lorenzo's session

On a Tuesday Lorenzo has been taking us for a class looking at layout within design, dealing with magazine layouts. We collected one high end magazine and one low end magazine both sharing a similar article we could work with. I picked to use the radio time's article on Alan Sugar and the TV times article on the Apprentice both dealing with Alan sugars current opinions on the BBC show and his views on current business.

We were first told to compare the differences between each magazine looking at the kerning of words, spacing between columns, the bleed around the page and heading sizes.

Low End Magazine (TV TIMES):

Word Count: 800

 Main Differences;

-Purple Headings,

-Thin Columns

-Centered Heading

-Lots of colour

-Combination of both serif and sans serif typefaces

 High End Magazine (RADIO TIMES):

 

Word Count: 1000

 Main Differences;

-Grey, Black and Red colour scheme

-Wide Columns

-Type flows around outline of bottom image

-Title is at the top of page

-Only uses serif typeface

Some up of each Article;

The layout of the Radio times was definitely more professional, the way the columns had been layed out made the flow of the words alot easier on the eyes. They travel from the top left hand side of the page down top the bottom right corner before you take in the image and the heading. I like the colour scheme, the black grey and red is minimal and limits the amount of information you need to take in, making you more prone to reading the article. 

However the Radio Times is much harsher on the eyes, the main image in the middle shows the cast of the apprentice and has been arranged so your eyes pick out each individual person then read the sub-heading placed next to them. I dislike the colour scheme and think a halftone image or photo filter would have worked to push the image back so that the text becomes the main attraction. The way the columns have been set out confuses what you are looking at, the page appears to be broken down into two sections one image and one text. If the rule of three was applied here i think visually it would be much more engaging.

New magazine Layout Ideas;

I wanted to keep my ideas as simple as possible because from looking at the two different magazine i think this is the key element to making a page flow. My idea above is my favourite so far. The staring faces help to concentrate the reading on the words in the center because of the direction the faces create. 

The digital grid i planned my page out to.

Typographic posters

Since starting at the college Ive always wanted to properly get used to using the screen printing facilities. I picked some of my favourite lyrics by welsh comical rap group Goldie Lookin chain and took to the print rooms to experiment. I thought this would be a good way to get my head around operating the facilities for my speaking from experience brief.

Speaking from experience.....Problem Analysis Rational

Speaking from Experience......Problems and Method of Delivery

Speaking from Experience

What Is a Line? Worksheets

This is a worksheet i put together of the grasshopper Hotel and Coffee shop, I used the threshold tool and image settings In Photoshop to separate out my photograph into just black and white then worked with white paint on black paper. I like how defined the building appears on the black backdrop and how your eyes presume there's a foreground because of the white lamp posts sneaking into your line of vision.