I think i’m alone now…….
Why should other people care about design if you the designer doesn’t?
Do you spend that extra half an hour in the studio or college, to maximise your potential, or do you skip off into the sunshine?
It is incredibly hard balancing lecturing, designing and life, but you know, I just manage to do it. I expect that any student wanting to pursue a career in design should treat the time they have in the upmost respect, using the studio, using my knowledge, using other students knowledge to help them develop as designers.
Design is a funny subject, the more insular you are the worse a designer you become. With no one to critique your work, to tell you how bad or how good a typeface is, or to tell you that red and blue spots are not the best idea for a corporate banking client - it makes you rely on your own judgement. Whilst we are all professional, we are also majorly modest in our own heads - most things we do are amazing, and it is just a blip that Pentagram haven’t been on the phone offering us a job! We need other creatives around us to drive our own imagination and designs forward.
I am just about to embark on a creative month working collaboratively with another graphic designer/lecturer to take up the 30 days of creativity challenge starting on 1st june.
This is a brilliant opportunity to work with someone that has very different, yet very similar design styles as I do myself. I am excited in the thought of learning new techniques and creating a dialogue between each others creative process.
We sat for a couple of hours last week talking about the design world and how we both find excellent creative opportunities in our jobs and how we can develop the learning our students partake in day to day. In fact she is going to come and talk to my students to discuss the trials and tribulations of freelance designing - i’m sure they will take a lot more notice of her stories than mine as sometimes it is very difficult for them to see me as a freelance designer too.
One thing I do know, is that today lots of students have really valued my opinion about their projects and have developed their concepts accordingly - the fact that students as young as 16 are willing to take constructive creative criticism and use it in a positive way shows me that I am doing something right!
The almost finished version of the final show poster for my second years :D
These will be screen printed A2 size by Get a Grip in the Custard Factory
They are, sometimes it will really help you find different techniques or processes that you may never stumble across in every day use.
If it is some comfort to you, I still use tutorials every now and then to learn new things! You should never think you’ve learnt everything
I think it is, as a designer you should always be developing and learning. Being critical about your work even of you are getting good marks just shows that you care deeply about improving as a designer.
Just remember not to be too critical of your own work, there are plenty who will do that for you!
Doing a load of branding lately. i suck balls at it but oh well.
This is really a nice concept, it would have been great to see more of the pretzel defined within it, like working to modify the typography or creating your own typography to complement the thinking behind the design.
Working with the typography of the name looking how it was aligned or stacked may also bring a different feel to the logo too!
Corporate branding doesn’t always have to be pictograms or boring, and I think this works nicely!
So our final btec level 3 exhibition is on June 18
When I got up super early this morning I may have finished up the poster for handing out
I’d love to have it screen printed
Brand Identity: The High Street Salon
The brief was to create an identity for a new development salon that will take learning out of the classroom and into the commercial world. The Salon will be part of a college based initiative to enable hair, beauty and holistic therapy students to experience the commercial environment of a real world salon. The typeface is based around Baskerville but with small typographical changes to tailor the typeface to the identity.
Do you like Transformers?
Do you own an iphone 4/4s/3gs?
Then you can find my awesome minimalist Transformers iphone case in four different characters on society6 right here
:)
Our soon to be graduating 3rd year Degree students of the BA Graphic Communication & BA Visual Effects & Motion design courses are hard at work planning this years graduate showcase exhibition. To follow their progress, get involved or simply show your support you can follow them as they regularly update their twitter feed @Sixty2Degrees or via their Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/groups/423200397709376/
Thanks for your support
Get on this because their end of year show is always brilliant!
Boooo holly! I just answered this one, but yes, I’ve worked hard ever since the age of 16!
Nope, I did my BA, then my Post Grad, and I should hopefully start my masters within the year.
I feel that a masters should be something that should be undertaken when you get to a point in your career when it is worth something, rather than a stop gap because you can’t get a job - my opinion anyways no offence!
It really depends on where you’re attending. Some universities are more experimental where as others will focus on more commercial work - the uni I went to focused more on commercial styled work, an I think I reaped the rewards as it enabled me to get immediate success within the industry.
I think you should just embrace anything they throw at you as it will always help you as a designer!
