Jane's box

New blog adresses for the course!

2009-09-23T15:52:00.000-07:00

more organisation, lets see how it goes:

Check the links on the right for the blogs, under a new email address now.

Updating blogger header

2009-08-20T07:34:00.000-07:00

Time for change. I've had my old blog header for a while now, and adapted it throughout my blogs, here is the new re-design headers for, Jane's Box and Summer 09 blog...

Before...

After...

The new designs follow the idea of clean simple character design, to allow personality from my blog but not to draw attention away from the latest posts, hence the larger margin between Header and posts.

Jamie Delaney

2009-08-20T06:28:00.000-07:00

I like Jamie's work interests and i feel the work he produces such as his publication designs fit into where i want my work to head. They are attractive and well considered. I am overly keen on his typographic work :D ahhh my love for type is growing. I appreciate traditional type faces but when i want to unwind from a project i'm currently working on or just want a break to try something different i like nothing more than sitting down with a pen and creating a few letter forms. I tend then to get carried away and start producing on illustrator... but hey its fun :P

End of year 2 evaluation...

2009-06-10T05:03:00.000-07:00

In this evaluation

! Reflect on the relationship between your protfolio of work and your creative ambitions as a designer.
! Relate your own work to specific examples/areas of contemporary design practice.
! Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses against identified intetions and areas of contemporary practice.
! Clarify areas of design, skills development and professional concerns that you aim to investigate further from this point.
! Briefly clarify the relationship between your creative practice and your proposed dissertation.

my portfolio

The relationship between my portfolio and my creative ambitions are that i want to pursue design work for print. This year i have found after completing the digital media module I'm not interested in producing moving image based work. I still want to develop my skills in web design, but more for the layout of sites and the creativity and concept building, leaving the technical side to people who know what they are doing. After my interview with Design Junkie the feedback i received on this issue, was that the industry can be quite digitally focused and although they too are interested in print, and have a print based background being able to transfer those skills digitally is a must these days. So throughout the summer i am going to work on developing my portfolio to include screen caps of how my work can be transfered digitally etc.

The briefs i chose towards the end of the second year were because of the opportunity to develop designs for print based media. I was pleased to undertake a variety of ways to work in print, from the postcards to the mail shot and the publication design. This clarified for me that i like the diversity within print design.

The aspects in print i am most interested in and find appealing are: Layout, Type, Choice of stock, Audience and interaction.

I have approached Design Junkie for a placement over the summer as when i came across their work it was the type of work i felt i wanted to produce and be involved in. I feel i can relate my own work typographically and layout to how they work. Here are some examples of the work they produce:

I feel my interest in type is developing as the more i learn about type and layout the more i want to pursue it within my own work. I still feel i have a weakness here but i am developing it to become more of a strength as i am interested in it. Here is a typeface i produced for the brief 10 things you should know...

I like works as follows, i feel looking and engaging with contemporary design practice feeds into my work and ideas...

I feel another weakness in my work is my layout of my portfolio. I feel i can be more creative with it and the feedback i have received has confirmed this, as well as the need to add more personality to my portfolio, create an identity or something for the front. I've had a few ideas, over the summer i plan to develop this. Here is an example of what I have been working on:

I feel my strengths are concept development. I think i have the ideas to create interesting and engaging design but i need to put more focus on clarifying my ideas and producing them to a professional standard.

My dissertation topic is linked closely to my design practice as it focuses on the use of grid layout in design. I will focus on analysing how the rules and system affect the communication of a design message. How the audience react to different use of grid layouts and also look at designers who rely or don't rely on the grid system within their work. I hope the information, research and knowledge i gain from my dissertation will aid my own design practice.

Design Junkie

2009-06-03T08:02:00.000-07:00

Today i went to meet Jason Haigh the Creative director at DJ - Design Junkie.
I got to know about the studio and looked + talked about the work they produce and also got to show my portfolio and got some amazing advice from both Jonny Hotchkiss (the studio manager) and Jason. It was really nice to hear complements about my work outside of the university environment. It's a really nice environment to be in a cute studio and i could tell it was full of passion for design and lots of fun! Also sounds like hard work too :P but thats a good thing! I have to up my game now i feel. If anything this visit has just made me more excited for getting out into the industry and working alongside other designers to create awesome designs :)
I hope sometime in the future i get the chance to work in an environment like DJ offers, who knows hopefully they will consider me for a placement for the summer... fingers crossed thats for sure :D

give a hand to wildlife campaign | Design You Trust. World's Most Famous Social Inspiration.

2009-06-01T06:10:00.001-07:00

I love the concept for this campaign, not to mention i love animals... if i weren't a designer i'de be vet or something i'm sure, or just work in a pet shop :P

New Camera :D

2009-05-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

Just bought myself a new DSLR camera, used Jonathan's Canon 450d for the O2 brief and just had to get one for myself. No excuse for not photographing my work now. LOVE IT!

Type Evaluation

2009-04-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

In this module I feel I have greatly improved my knowledge about typography. To have a more specialist knowledge about type will greatly improve my future design work. I have a deeper understanding of how type can speak to us and can have a personality that gets the voice of the company or designer across to the audience. To develop this understanding I learnt how to use different skills and rules within type, like altering point size, is the type san serif or serif, change the leading and simply how having uppercase or lowercase can alter the message been put across to the audience. Further rules about hierarchy and ranging the text will be vital to me when designing, I feel confident now I can design with type and communicate more effectively with it.

Type is a huge area of design and I am glad I took this module just to have an insight into it, which is what I got. A few weeks ago I would have said type wasn’t my favourite aspect in design anymore, but looking back through all the work from this module and how much I have learnt I will welcome anymore knowledge about type because it will improve my design work. I have also realised I have an interest in grids and how type works within grids so I will keep on exploring this aspect in my type journal.

I enjoy keeping a type journal for my own reference and looking back at the opinions I had from the start of this module to the end. This documentation has helped me develop further areas of interest into design. I really want to go back and do some more letterpress in the future, taking my business card designs to be produced.
Having the journal as a continuous reference is good because I can compare and contrast what I feel has worked or not in the typographic world and consider this is my own work.

I am now confident with Quark, which is valuable to know in industry.

My weaknesses I feel are my knowledge on the history of typography; I will research into this and record it into my type journal. Knowing how type has developed and where typefaces have come from will aid my communication using type. I still haven’t got to grips with the anatomy of type yet, so I need to sit down and study this, so in the future I can discuss type in an effective manner.

Ways to strengthen my skills with type:

1. Continue to record and analyse my type journal, I will learn a lot from looking at existing designs.

2. Learn the anatomy of type to benefit my knowledge

3. Keep experimenting with typographic rules, learning the rules mean I can learn how to break them if I wish.

4. Don’t overlook quark as a piece of design software it is still used widely in industry so I will benefit form keeping my knowledge of the software fresh in my mind.

Petter Hanberger

2009-04-01T19:04:00.001-07:00

NICE!

Frank Chimero

2009-04-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

Had a look through Frank's website, seen the work before. Has some good advice too...

Evaluation

2008-11-25T05:47:00.000-08:00

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN – END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

Module Code - OUGD201 Module Title DESIGN FOR PRINT

Level 02 Semester 01 Credit Value 20

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I have developed my research skills and took a more independent approach to my work. I found this quite difficult at first but i am enjoying the challenge of organising my own time and trying to keep on top of projects. I have learned a lot of skills with regards to print and colour, and the workshops have helped me apply these skills. I have developed my practical skills using print, through trying screen print, letterpress and various technical aspects to do with print in software like Photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator. These will become a key part to my future work and preparing myself and my work for industry.
Print is a really important part of design so all the skills i have learned are crucial. I know more about colour, like CMYK, RGB, Spot colour and using Pantone books, grayscale, duotone and monotone. My approach to using colour in my work will be improved because the knowledge and skills i have developed throughout this module will be a consideration in the future, so i will be able to produce more professional work and better quality designs.

2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?

Being independent has become an important aspect for me to carry out my work, organising a visit to a print company with Jonathan really enhanced my research and i gained a lot of knowledge as a result. In future i will use my independence more readily to improve my design approach.
I have developed my idea generation, getting into the habit of drawing out designs and layouts before i start using the mac. I felt i had started to fall into the trap of reaching out for my computer because it was the "easiest" thing to do. It does not help generate the ideas for me though and testing out other possibilities finds interesting results to use in my work. I enjoyed the hands-on work i produced throughout the good brief like mock-ups and test pieces, like creating type with water. Although it didn't create a resolution for this project the technique was interesting and i plan to develop it further as a personal investigation.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I think one of the strengths in my work were the different approaches to research. I took advantage of the resources available to me when finding out about print, going on a visit, Writing to print companies to get samples. Going that bit further with research helps my work to develop and enhances the final solutions. In the future i will capatalise on opportunities available to me to improve research and the design process. I think concept development and idea generation is quite strong in my work. It is a key part to the design process so i always try to have a broad range of research to develop a concept which will lead to strong designs and resolutions. I think without a strong concept i struggle to create solutions that resolve the problem being set. I also think the resolutions for design for print were quite strong, i liked the humor involved in the designs.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how could you exploit these more fully?

Again time management needs to be improved for me. At the beginning of this module i found it difficult to motivate myself and start working more independently on briefs being set. This lead to a mad rush the last few weeks of the module as i realised there was a lot i could have done and resolved a lot sooner. In future i will plan my time more to fit all the different modules in so i have sufficient time to complete them. Using action plans regularly will help me get to grips with what i have to complete, and i will set my own deadlines for completing aspects of briefs. I feel like some parts of my project could have been improved by better time management because some of my research throughout this module could have been documented better. Also some of the design sheets weren't as strong as others throughout the two briefs due to poor time management.

5. Identify five things that you will do different next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. Action plans - keep a record of what i have to do and why i have to do it, this will help me keep on track when multiple briefs are underway. I will know what has to be a higher priority at different times.
2.Make sure the quality and quantity of my work is more consistent so the resolutions are justified and completed to a high standard, to the best of my ability.
3.Be more confident when it comes to independent learning, go out, look for different opportunities that can improve research and my designs.
4.Exploit tests and experiments more throughout my work to make more interesting design solutions.
5.Talk more about my work with peers and tutors, this will help push my designs forward and bring out new ideas, approaches and direction for my work.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

Attendance = 4
Punctuality = 4
Motivation = 4
Commitment = 4
Quantity of work produced = 4
Quality of work produced = 4
Contribution to the group = 4

The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

Presentation boards - Final crit

2008-11-20T17:02:00.000-08:00

Here are the boards i presented for my final crit. A lot of good advice was thrown about which i will take on board when amending them for the final submission, overall it think it went quite well so... yey

Water is good

2008-11-17T09:08:00.000-08:00

Heres a few of the experiments i did with water and type, the font is Arno pro. I wanted to see if i could create the brand name of my bottled water in actual water. I think as individual pieces they are quite nice but not quite what i was looking for on the actual bottle packaging/labels. It was good to test this out and at least i know it is possible for future projects, where i can adapt the technique.

Studio Ghibli

2008-11-16T17:24:00.000-08:00

I've been working on my good brief and ive been listening to tracks from the studio ghibli films -Hayao Miyazaki, Joe Hisaishi is the artist that performs the tracks. Ive never put a post up here about the S.G films but i think they're awesome. Howls Moving Castle is my def. favourite. The detail in the work is unbelievable.

Studio Ghibli was established in 1985, following the success of Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind. Led by the Oscar®-winning Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki, the studio became a forerunner in animation, producing features loved in Japan and beyond. Here's where you can find out all the latest news on Studio Ghibli cinema and DVD releases from Optimum, check out a great selection of stills in the Image Gallery and read more about each of the films in the collection. (website)

Letterpress induction

2008-11-13T07:14:00.000-08:00

A very time consuming process but i enjoyed it all the same!

Screen print

2008-11-10T18:05:00.000-08:00

Here are some prints i did in the screen print induction, i found it helpful because it refreshed my memory on the ins and outs of the process, one of the images shows awful registration as u can see the type is all misaligned. This is supposed to be a three colour print, using 3 screens, however as a group we only had chance to do the two.

Print company research and sample packs

2008-11-10T18:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the samples i received from two print companies, they have given me ideas of costings for jobs and different stocks available from different printers. One print company is more specialised and they deal with printing cards, from postcards business cards to greetings cards. the other provides a wide range of printing solutions from letterheads, postcards and business cards etc.

1.)

2.)

Visit to Printforms

2008-11-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

On Friday with Jonathan, we both made a visit to his Dad's print company. Paul Chapman and some of the other guys showed us round and all the printers they use. It was really informative and a great help with the current print briefs. Paul even showed us how he estimates jobs and invoices them, because we can't actually print our work commercially for the good brief this will gave me an insight into how i should cost my job up.
I gathered a lot of examples of the types of work they print at Printforms and different paper stocks. Here are some photos ad videos of the printers. Oh yeh and the guillotine they use is awesome!

http://www.printforms.co.uk/

Old plates - the green ones - used to be used at print forms, they were metal, now they use a new plate that is plastic based (i think) anyway the image is burnt onto the plate using UV light, when described it reminded me of setting up a screen for screen print. Any way the plates are for each colour channel. The new plates are more efficient because they can be made straight from a computer. The plates are stored for a while after a job so a re-run can be done for a client if needed.

Lots of paper/stock, there were stacks of it all round the printers and i got some free samples, there were two nice samples of sticky backed stock i got one with a black cover on the back so if it was stuck to glass or a window light doesn't shine through it, the other was sticky backed but light could go through it. I think it would be good to experiment with this type of stock sometime.

Job done - storage

Jonathan upstairs in the storage part

Oldskool printer bought for £100

Four colour process printer

Videos i took:

Print college visit

2008-11-04T06:20:00.000-08:00

Went to the print college to get a better understanding about the different ways to print design. It was helpful although more time looking at the actual machines and how they work would have been great to see, that's why I've organised to go to another print company with Jonathan to go check it out in more detail. Anyway here is some photos of the print college...

Four colour process printer:

Offset Litho printer:

Metal plate roller, ink is applied to transfer the image, first to a buffer then to the stock:

Screen print roller (Very worn and tatty!):

another printing plate:

Some prints that were by the printer:

shrink sleeve

2008-11-03T05:00:00.001-08:00

For the "Good" brief i chose to look at water, i am focusing on bottled water and i am going to design a series of bottle labels for a new brand of water that helps you stay thin, this is aimed at people that go to the gym. From my research into the types of people that go to the gym, their are always people that you wish just weren't there, or you just don't quite get why they are there. For example why do some women think its ok to sit on a machine doing basically nothing gassing away to their mate? Also i feel sorry for the larger person who has basically been forced to the gym by their GP, and whats with the guys that think their God's gift and won't stop looking in mirror. Not to mention the steroid lovers! All these people have inspired me to design a bottle of water just for them, it will be fake, pointless just like them.

The processes i have been researching for print are Flexography labelling and flexo shrink sleeves for bottles. Heres a neat little anim that show shrink sleeve in production...

First things First Manifesto 2000

2008-11-01T12:01:00.000-07:00

Colour process

2008-10-28T12:00:00.001-07:00

1

Additive and subtractive colour:
An additive colour involves light emitted directly from a source. Additive colours are made from Red Green and Blue; RGB. Combining all three primary colours produces white and just adding two primary colours in equal amounts produces the secondary colour, as the diagram illustrates. As a designer the colours used from the RGB gamut, (the colour space) is for design based on screen.

Subtractive colour is like mixing paint, inks or dyes; each primary mixed with another creates the secondary colours shown on the diagram. Where as adding colours in the additive creates white, subtractive starts with white and eventually when overlapped will create black. This model is used when designers are creating work for print, they focus on the CMYK gamut, which uses the primary colours Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key Black. This offers a wide range of colours, but when compared to the RGB gamut differences can be seen because luminous colours can be possible in RGB.

Gamut = a range of colours.
- Wide gamut – photography
- Adobe RGB – special monitor
- Spot colour – mix ink separately to achieve a specific colour.
- SRGB – standard monitors
- CMYK – 4-colour process printing

CMYK:
Cyan, magenta and key black. These are the four colours of ink that printers mix to make every colour in that spectrum. CMYK have a separate, adjustable plate for each of these inks, which makes it possible to precisely control them through channels. When it comes to printing the most common method of CMYK printing is offset litho.

Spot colour: printing is where a colour is created and printed in 1 run. This colour can be straight out of the tin or a mixture of two or more colours. A document may be printed in any amount of spot colours and may also be printed in four colour process then extra colours added by spot colour printing.
These additional spot colour colours can include metallic ink, fluorescent ink and gloss or mat varnish.
The four colour printing process is technically unable to accurately reproduce spot colours. This variation may not be noticeable or may vary greatly, depending on the colour to be matched.
A spot colour is simply an exact colour of ink, mixed to your precise requirements. Firms with a recognisable colour brand (EasyJet orange; DynoRod fluorescent red) would always specify spot colours to ensure consistency of their brand colour.

colour

spot colour - pantone example:

Easyjet pantone reference 021C

Grayscale:

Print produced from a range of gray tones. Used widely as a cheaper process than colour printing. Tonal variations can be achieved by using different channels for example the Red channel in RGB will produce a different grayscale image to the Green channel.

Duotone:

Two colours used to create the piece of print work using a range of tones from the two colours, tritones and quadtones can also be acheived. Adjusting the tonal values of each colour can be achieved by altering the graph under the duotone option in photoshop. Duotones can be produced by using any two colours so spot colours could be used, so using just to colours through a piece of print design can be more cost effective than full colour process. Making use of duotones is an effective way of cutting cost with still having enough scope to create interesting designs.

Monotone:

Creating a piece of print that uses only one colour, different tints of a colour can be used and using different coloured stocks can act as a second colour when considered well in a design

Motivation is the set of reasons that determines one to engage in a particular behaviour.

2008-10-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling pretty un-organised and i'll be honest i can't seem to motivate myself, i know i have a lot of work to do but i seem to keep distancing myself from it, which of course is only making things worse.

THIS IS A WAKE UP CALL. WHEN YOU READ THIS BACK, JANE, YOU WILL START TO WORK START FROM THE TOP OF THE LIST AND WORK THROUGH IT DON'T BE A GOOFBALL IT NEEDS TO BE DONE!

I normally cry at the state of my desktop on my computer when one thing is out of place and the trash hasn't been emptied, well this is my desktop right now which kind of illustrates how i'm not feeling myself. i'll post back with a new improved Jane and desktop, now is the time to become motivated and organised!

Haha i love this, a little pep talk to myself, if anyone is reading this, i'm not quite crazy i just need to see it on screen and maybe it will be the kick up the backside i need ...

colour process

2008-10-19T17:15:00.001-07:00

Colour process

www.graphic-design-employment.com

If you look at a full color magazine through a magnifier, you'll see that all the colors are made up of CMYK patterns, as shown by the above image. If you look at an area of spot color through a amgnifier, there will be no screen - it will show an area of solid, unbroken color (unless the grayscale or bitmap image it is applied to has a halftone screen of its own).
Here is an example of 4 color process printing and three examples of spot color printing.

Don't panic - Machine

2008-10-13T06:24:00.000-07:00

Don't Panic with his machine monkey makes the world go round.

I've entered my poster design into the Don't Panic machine category, i'm not 100% pleased with the design because there was so much more i could have done with my idea however i think i'll take this on board as one of my mistakes and know to push my ideas further next time and not be shy on trying to develop more interesting imagery, which i think is what attracts people to the poster as well as a good concept.

My year book...

2008-09-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jonathan - i nearly wet myself at the site of some of those hairstyles which are on his blog. I thought ide give the site a go...

The thanks you get these days...

2008-09-03T06:56:00.000-07:00

Back from morocco, but i wish i was back in morocco, it's such a laid back country, it suited me so well as i tend to be a bit slow or as some people would say lazy. Anyway just a little reminder to myself of the the little present the cleaner left in our room, hehe the photo doesn't capture my shock as i tried to work out what she had left in our bathroom, "What the hell is that? is it a turd?" From further inspection it was in fact a croissant. This was left in our room after we had given the cleaner a nice tip for the week, we weren't even tight with our cash so i hope this present was a little joke or maybe she was hungry and forgot to eat her breakfast. It actually entertains me more not knowing why it was left there. Anyway enough ramble i must work...

The tastiest type around

2008-07-28T07:20:00.000-07:00

Decided to try a little chocolate experiment, some didn't turn out and they could look a lot better but that gives me the excuse to try again another time. This was really fun and yummy. I want to explore type in different ways while i have time to experiment over the summer and manipulate materials that i wouldn't normally use.

Pooh

2008-06-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

Got some nice little books the other day, I've picked out the best pages, the advice is pretty good, makes me reflect on things, and there are nice old school pooh illustrations, some are repeated in the other books in the series but i still think they are all nicely put together.

TGI Summer...

2008-06-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is my 3rd "day off" I've read some books like i said i would in my evaluation, pat on the back for me, they were:

Went for the summer brief yesterday, Thankfully! Stop my brain from freezing over. I plan to do some of my own stuff this summer but its good having a brief for the 2nd year, makes me feel like i'm still working towards something. I don't think i've ever enjoyed a year in education as mush as this (yes you wrote this) I feel sad saying that but nevermind, it's probably because i've learned about what i'm interested in, and it hasn't felt like education, eugh i hate that word. Saw a clip of Tony Blair on the news other day when he blabbered on about education, education, education he turned the word sour.

Anyway enough of that rant...
I've also started reading

again, which is on our 2nd yr book list. I read it at the beginning of the 1st year but i must admit it makes more sense now than it did before.

As a final note to me, i plan to blog often over the summer to keep my head in the right place, so Jane when you read this back and you haven't done, blame yourself and feel ashamed, i should say IF you haven't done. Obviously i don't have much faith in me. who am i talking to? me? you? if there is a you? i confuse myself sometimes on here. Lets just say both.

What is Graphic design

2008-06-05T17:56:00.001-07:00

What is graphic design?

Hmmmm well i could ponder on this question all my life if i wanted to, but i won't. To me graphic design is about a whole load of stuff and then some more stuff shoved in there and then some more stuff chucked at it for good measure.

No seriously now... i think graphic design is about problem solving, there are always problems to be solved and graphic design is about visually communicating a message so that it solves a problem. Without a clear message the design can get lost in aesthetically pleasing the eye or just could not work and do nothing. Well rather than writing a whole lot of babble i set out to find quotes, designs and videos and things that explore the question or Wehey problem (i love those) (and Its a problem because i don't know if there is a right answer) What is Graphic Design?

(the text in bold should be mine- if that helps whoever reads this)

There’s a quote I like from graphic designer, Saul Bass:

“Design is thinking made visual.”

Damn right it is, as designers we don't think and then decide to do a nice poem or novel we visualise stuff!

According to Wikipedia:

Graphic design is the process of communicating visually using text and images to present information.

How boring and basic, wikipedia you are somewhat crap.

AIGA, the professional association for design, gives this definition:

Graphic design is the combination of shapes, colors, typefaces, images and words that cause you to react or feel something.

So i started to search some websites i like and documented what i thought explored the question, sort of giving examples of what Graphic design is...

Typography. I Love Typography, devoted to fonts, typefaces a...

1 Design Source: Famous Artist & Graphic Design Quotes

"Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better."
   John Updike

Winners of the What is Graphic design poster competition | V...

These posters were interesting but i'm starting to realise graphic design is quite personal, even though you design for an audience each design is different because it came from a particular person, who has different ideas to another person, i guess what i'm trying to say is designers are like...

1. Authors, they can all write books, good and bad ones but they don't all tell the same story
2. Cheese, all made from the same stuff, but some stink .
3. Philosophers, all got different theories but look at the same stuff.

I dunno, this questions getting more confusing.

Design is thinking made visual - Saul Bass
Going back to this quote
Everyone can think but this shows graphic design is somethiing much more, because not everyone can put thinking and visual together and even if they can its not always successful. Graphic design is good when it works.

Got me thinking again... so here are some quotes i found and pondered over for a while...

Check out this book with quotes about design from designers: "Everything Reverberates: Thoughts on Design

"Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better."
   John Updike

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
   Douglas Adams

"I am still learning."
   Michelangelo

"Providing, meaning to a mass of unrelated needs, ideas, words and pictures - it is the designer's job to select and fit this material together and make it interesting."
   Paul Rand

"Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated."
   Paul Rand

"Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations."
   Paul Rand

If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape. The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page... When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful.
Keynote Speech/Type90
Adrian Frutiger

Losing Sleep
by Ephram Edward Benguia

“To me designing has never been a job or profession. It’s a way of life, like a priest or rabbi.”

“Doing something a long time does not mean you’re good. It only means you’ve done it a long time.”

“Doing something and getting paid for it doesn’t mean you’re doing it well. It only means you’re doing it.”

It's Nice That

US
Graphic Design

Recent design graduates Christopher Barrett, Edward Heal and Luke Taylor have setup as London design studio Us.

www.usdesignstudio.co.uk

_
Posted by Will / Feb 21, 2008

Hut Weber: Hitler vs. Chaplin | Ads of the World: Creative Advertising Archive & Community

Advertising Agency: Serviceplan Hamburg / München, Germany
Creative Directors: Axel Thomsen, Alexander Schill
Art Director: Jonathan Schupp
Copywriter: Francisca Maass

THOMAS EDISON - Tin foil poster & CD package to celebrate anniversary

E stings vote - E4.com

Your Face

YOUR FACE

" Real people don't read your blog.

A fact that I wasn't made aware of when I signed up for these things; It now seems so obvious.

If you are reading this and you do happen to be a real person then why not send me a photo (one which includes your real face) and I will draw a picture of you and post it here to serve as everlasting proof that sometimes facts are wrong. "

ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE

This project has been running for well over a year now and judging by my bulging inbox any original thoughts that nobody reads blogs have been blown out of the water. I have no intention of hanging up my sketchbook anytime soon and with 200 faces being a milestone that I didn't ever intend to reach, it feels appropriate to celebrate it in some manner. I have a few ideas that I hope to turn into reality in the next few weeks including a special portrait for lucky face number 200. Until then I leave you with a glimpse of the first printed versions of yourface. I will be making a series of these limited edition booklets, each containing around 20 portraits..

patterns - a set on Flickr

Graphic design is hard work but rewarding when you put the effort in, collecting visual material is important, and ongoing investigations and collections can build into something really nice, like...

LUDWIG
Graphic Design

The Flickr collection obsession continues – Nick directed us towards this one full of public transport seat patterns.

www.flickr.com/photos/ludwig/sets/721…

The rest of this is just me working through and picking out things that relate to the question and design which i think show the variety of possibilities that graphic design can be.

Noisy Decent Graphics: Quotes

Type for you.

Jessica Nebel bring us a poster with an alterable structure to display messages - a visually professional and attention grabbing alternative to messy blackboard writings.“Pixel It” consists of two layers of paper. Cuts on the white outer layer allow the user to fold parts out and therefore create a “Pixel-Structure” by showing the coloured layer underneath

Edhv
A new season for ALRT at the effenaar. Another 6 editions. We created a new way of dealing with the promotional campaign. Here you can see some of the sketches and tests made for the posters and flyers. Everything is cut out by hand in order to give it the analog feel. So keep an eye out for the final posters and flyers. They will be up soon.Our colleagues of HeyHeyHey and Too Much Fun Club invited 15 designers to do a design for a top layer on a limited edition silkscreen printed poster. Sjoerd Koopmans and Remco van de Craats of the Edhv team did one pos ter each. Sjoerd just couldn’t stop laughing. Remco decided to turn the poster into a party outfit. Anyways, fun we had. Check out the party pirates.

		Matthew Girard poster/calendar fall 2006 A promotional poster and calendar mailer for a D.C. area photographer. poster \| front digital print \| 20" x 26" images © Matthew Girard

		Can be torn along the perforated lines to create individual calendar cards and a containing box. poster \| back

		Diagrams provided to construct the box. The box is also a functioning pin hole camera, with exposure length and focal distance charts provided. poster \| back (detail)

		constructed box \| calendar cards and box

all content © charles calixto 2007

Matthew Girard
poster/calendar
fall 2006

A promotional poster and calendar mailer for a D.C. area photographer.

poster | front
digital print | 20" x 26"

images © Matthew Girard

Can be torn along the perforated lines to create individual calendar cards and a containing box.

poster | back

Diagrams provided to construct the box. The box is also a functioning pin hole camera, with exposure length and focal distance charts provided.

poster | back (detail)

constructed box | calendar cards and box

We Made This

The godfather of grunge graphics and dirty type, David Carson, hits London in a couple of weeks to showcase his new book, The Rules of Graphic Design. He's going to be talking at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith on Wednesday 18 June at 6pm, and tickets are £25 (£15 for concessions).

In the mid-nineties, David Carson was the very definition of graphic design, with The End of Print from 1995 and 2nd Sight from 1997; so it'll be interesting to see what he's been up to for the past decade.

The image above is a screengrab of his desktop, from the Quark promo site ilovedesign (which explains the absence of Adobe icons in Carson's dock...).

Cheers to Caspian for the heads up.

Saul Bass describes designers as to be playing with toys, so what is graphic design i say its fun!

Speaking from experience booklet mock-up

2008-06-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

Bleurgh, yes i feel ill, bloody typical being the last week before we hand everything in, ahwell my brain waits for no-one, in between being ill i put together a mock-up for the booklet me and Jonathan have designed that we will hand out to aid first years with time management.

Speaking from experience

2008-05-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

The project all first years wait for, not just because after this we can look forward to summer, but because we can direct our own brief. Working in a collaboration with the mighty Jonathan, we have decided to focus on time-management. I'm still learning how to manage my time effectively, and our project will help 1st years to realise why time-management is important but its one thing telling them so we are developing items that will aid them to manage their time more effectively. So far we have developed our concept and went from superheros to a Tempus Fugit brand. After our crit it became clear that our original line of GET YOUR CLOCK OUT is the way to go forward.

Below are the designs for the widget which i created using Dashcode. and the starting point of our second attempt at a logo after Tempus Fugit, and a design for our booklet

Travis millard... again

2008-05-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

I've posted a piece of Travis Millard's work before but i feel these give a clearer representation pf his style, also heres a link to his site fudge factory comics, theres loads of stuff on there, and if there is a real person reading this check it out cos its well worth a look!

t-shirt design

2008-05-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

I like this t-shirt design, simple visually relates to our own t-shirt designs for speaking from experience, which are purely typographical

Kerning - from type for you

2008-05-19T08:16:00.000-07:00

type for you

100 book 2 continued

2008-05-19T08:14:00.001-07:00

100 things people have swallowed - book 2

2008-05-19T07:21:00.000-07:00

Alongside the envelope idea i developed my book into a fully bound book, taking on the aesthetics of an x-ray envelope for the cover and the organisation of the chapters are the same as that of the envelope book i produced earlier. This has been an ongoing task to get the second book finished, as other briefs have taken priority. I am pleased with the outcome and from the final crit before, saying the envelope type book was hard to read, this one still fits well with th concept but makes it easier for the user to read. One downside to having the pages fully bound means the acetate pages cannot be taken out and put towards the light or a light box, so the 3rd idea i had was to create a series of envelopes with the sections in for the user to take out the pages and put up towards the light box - similar to that of x-rays on the light box when they are under a consultation. Having a series of envelope will make the individual sections easier to read. So watch this space, i hope i can find the time to see how this idea works out!

Calorie - silly

2008-05-09T04:55:00.000-07:00

Profession - Anaesthetist

2008-04-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

100 words

2008-04-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

http://st3to.deviantart.com/art/100-words-78433057

Promote public transport in a way that is new and effective 2

2008-04-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

promote public transport in a way that is new and effective

2008-04-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

Posters:

Communication is a virus

2008-04-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

This is a good example, got a lot of people talking, check out the forum on Adsoftheworld.com and its under best viral.

Book - 100 Things people have swallowed

2008-04-21T16:36:00.000-07:00

CherryFlava.com

2008-04-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

I found some pretty interesting stuff on this site including this Red Bull puzzle, showing Red Bull can help you do anything:

business card

2008-04-21T16:08:00.000-07:00

Headhunter business card completely edible - with instructions. Mmmm tasty.

Nike

2008-04-15T01:07:00.000-07:00

Thought i'de put this up, found it a while back now and found it interesting, it relates to my what is a line project through the subject matter and i think the lines created by the shoelaces make it that bit different, in my work i started to investigate manipulating the shoelaces from my shoes.

Travis Millard

2008-04-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

I like the way this has been created as well as the humor, it's always funny to see people struggling to cut grass after winter, but the noise annoys the hell of me in summer, maybe someone could make a silent mower? I'de give it a try but i just don't have the time right now. :)

Michael deforge aka King trash

2008-04-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

I really like King Trash's illustrative style, incorporating humour into the designs, quite a nice website with lots of examples of work : www.kingtrash.com

Beard Font

2008-04-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

Everyone needs a beard font!

found it on pristina.org, no title at the mo cos its in a foreign language.

shoo shoo shoo

2008-04-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

This is an illustrator experiment i have been working on for what is a line. I wanted to gain more experience using illustrator so i scan my original image and traced using illustrator pen tool. I like the vector art style but the detail the pen provided is slightly lost. Through more time i'm sure the detail can be improved.

Karlsonwilker

2008-04-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

Dani Kulture islanda

Logo and poster campaign for Islandic cultural festival

Typeworkshop

2008-04-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.typeworkshop.com - some interesting experiments

marion bastille livre 3d abecedaire

2008-04-09T08:35:00.000-07:00

popup type book:

Popup by Marion Bataille
Uploaded by jacques_faciale

Kumi Yamashita

2008-04-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Kumi Yamashita: "Shadows are a fine medium for someone who believes more in variability ... than in constancy, a stance that may be temperamental as well as philosophical."

Nicholas Galanin

2008-04-09T08:27:00.000-07:00

Book sculpture, having previously looked at shapes made from books in a 3D style i think this goes a step further and looks great.

Da-Eun song

2008-04-09T08:24:00.000-07:00

I want one! I could put the books ive made on it :)

Perspective

2008-03-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

I have been working on my perspective drawings for vis.language recently and had a gander at Dick Termes work, he paints complicated scenes on spheres using 6 point perspective...

Dick Termes: from his website:

"Imagine that you are standing inside a transparent ball suspended fifty feet above the Grand Canyon floor. You are higher than some canyon walls and lower than others. You have paints and a brush, and you begin to paint what you see on the inside surface of the ball. You paint the north face, then the east, south, and west. Finally, you paint everything visible above and below you. You move your globe to safe ground and step out to observe your paintings. Walking around the sphere, you see that you have captured the entire three dimensional landscape. In fact, you've discovered the structure of your visual experience."

view Termes website

Alex Glenn

2008-03-20T06:51:00.000-07:00

Relating to my work using x rays i found it interesting to look at these pieces:

Tennis ball by Linda Newbown - what is a book?

2008-03-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

I came across this unusual format for a book, i think it is very inventive and i think its interesting how a book can look like a book on the inside, with pages etc. but the way you bind it can disguise it.

Nebown talks about the book and what a book is in this statememt: (i think it raises some interesting questions for me to think about while i design my books)

The Tennis ball book was made in response to the dichotomy of book as object and book as information. A book is a difficult thing to define because half of it is object and half is an abstract concept. Is a book the sum of certain requisite characteristics? If a book has no pages is it still a book? If it cannot be opened is it still a book? These are the things I like to ask as I make my books. My artists’ books are a way of questioning bookishness.

(Artist statement sourced from State Library of Queensland, Artists’ books online, 2005)

Sarah Mitchell

2008-03-10T03:02:00.000-07:00

Did some book binding the other day and after Sarah showed some of her other book bindings. Her work is also showing in Leeds Art Gallery which i saw on friday.

100 things people swallow

2008-03-07T05:03:00.000-08:00

Changed the content of my book to something i could get my teeth into.
Research on formats so far have been mostly relating to circles. The research i have been looking at for 100 things people have swallowed include x rays and the eating disorder Pica

Hans Peter Kuhn

2008-03-07T05:01:00.000-08:00

SAS - BT - Charting the virtual world

2008-03-07T05:00:00.001-08:00

what is a book? Office Orchestra - Andrea Chappell and Cherry Goddard

2008-03-07T04:52:00.000-08:00

Oliver Munday

2008-03-07T03:50:00.000-08:00

Looking for images relating to 100 things people swallow i came across - Oliver Munday - Fire in the Hole created from plastic soldiers...

what is a book?

2008-03-07T03:35:00.000-08:00

What is a book?

2008-03-07T03:26:00.000-08:00

I looked at these formats when i was using circles fro the content of my book, since then i have changed the content for my book but i still thing these are nice examples of experimenting with format of a book

what is book?

2008-03-07T03:09:00.001-08:00

Here is a book i have been looking at that contains lots of different book formats:

donna seager gallery

2008-03-02T17:22:00.000-08:00

Vince Koloski

Crop Circle Book , 1996, Neon, Carved acrylic sheet, straw, wood, and fence materials

Edition of 3

The individual crop circles in the Crop Circle Book are labelled as to name, if any, location and date. It would be wonderful if the crop circles were still unexplained and possibly extra terrestrial, but that has been well debunked. The fact that they are made by humans does not in any way diminish the accomplishment or the beauty of the circles themselves.

This book was completed with the financial assistance of the Ruth Chenven Foundation

Vince Koloski

A Maze Book , 2000, Neon, Carved acrylic sheet, Wood, Circuit board, and toy mazes

Edition of 4

The labyrinth cut through the front cover may very well be the primal labyrinth. It is found throughout the world, from 5000 years ago to the present. The inside front cover is a pavement labyrinth from St. Quentin Cathedral in France. The first page is a turf maze from Pimperne in England that was destroyed in 1730. The second page is a turf maze in Saffron Walden in England which still survives. Inside the back cover is the pavement labyrinth from Chartres Cathedral in France. And finally, the back cover is a printed circuit board, surely the modern labyrinth.

Vince Koloski

Haiku Journeys, 2004, LED, Laser-etched acrylic shee, wood and raffia

Edition of 8

The covers of this unusual book are made with Raffia over wood. When open, the eight pages fan out into a half-circle, the cover latching together to hold the shape. The haiku are all from the classic era of Japanese haiku and all eight deal with travel or journeying in one form or another.

Minsky

2008-03-02T17:08:00.000-08:00

These are a few of Minsky's book bindings, relating binding to content is really strong in the designs.

what is a book?

2008-03-02T17:03:00.001-08:00

By georgia russell

What is a book?

2008-03-02T16:58:00.000-08:00

Nanotechnology lab produces world's smallest book
(Nanowerk News) Using nanotechnology to make a book you can't read - this definitely qualifies as an entry in our "slow news Friday" section.
The world’s first, nanoscale book was published as a work of fine art, April 9, 2007 by Robert Chaplin at the Nano Imaging Facility of Simon Fraser University. This book, complete with an International Standard Book Number (ISBN-978-1-894897-17-4), is entitled ‘Teeny Ted From Turnip Town’. It was written by Malcolm Douglas Chaplin and is a fable concerning the success of Teeny Ted from Turnip town and his victory in the Turnip contest at the annual county fair. It is at present the world’s smallest published book.The only catch — you’ll need a scanning electron microscope to read it.
At 0.07 mm X 0.10 mm, Teeny Ted from Turnip Town is a tinier read than the two smallest books currently cited by the Guinness Book of World Records: the New Testament of the King James Bible (5 X 5 mm, produced by MIT in 2001) and Chekhov’s Chameleon (0.9 X 0.9 mm, Palkovic, 2002).
The production of the nanoscale book was carried out at SFU by publisher Robert Chaplin, with the help of SFU scientists Li Yang and Karen Kavanagh. The work involved using a focused-gallium-ion beam and one of a number of electron microscopes available in SFU’s nano imaging facility.
With a minimum diameter of seven nanometers (a nanometer is about 10 atoms in size) the beam was programmed to carve the space surrounding each letter of the book.
The book was typeset in block letters with a resolution of 40 nanometers, and is made up of 30 microtablets, each carved on a polished piece of single crystalline silicon. The entire collection of microtablets is contained within an area of 69 x 97 microns square with an average size of tablet being 11 x 15 microns square.
The book is made up of 30 microtablets, each carved on a polished piece of single crystalline silicon.
The story, written by Chaplin’s brother Malcolm Douglas Chaplin, is a fable about Teeny Ted’s victory in the turnip contest at the annual county fair.
Considered an intricate work of contemporary art, the book is available in a signature edition (100 copies) from the publisher, through the SFU lab.
Source: Simon Fraser University; Robin Chaplin

ipod book

2008-02-24T10:10:00.001-08:00

After playing about with video ideas for the book brief i had a few thoughts on how to package them. My initial thoughts for a personal experience for watching videos was on an ipod. Linking to a book, could disguise it in a book. After a quick search on the internet i found a few examples where people had put their ipods in books:

Book of 100 ways to create a circle.

2008-02-20T13:06:00.001-08:00

30 second clip for idea of 100 book of different ways to create a circle:

100 faces - circles

2008-02-20T13:06:00.000-08:00

One of my initial ideas:

Book

2008-02-20T11:38:00.000-08:00

Italian limited commemorative edition of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea designed by Paolo Orsacchini. Printed on waterproof paper and enclosed in a clear pouch filled with real sea water. Collectors can either bust it out of its original packaging, dry it out for a read, or preserve this limited piece.

Circle

2008-02-18T16:05:00.000-08:00

------------------------- Banksy ----------------------------------------------

100 animal eyes

2008-02-18T14:48:00.000-08:00

After visiting Chester zoo i decided to find and document 100 animal eyes

Chester zoo

2008-02-18T14:42:00.000-08:00

Photographs from trip to Chester zoo. :) Went to gather photographs, ideas, research starting point.

Circles around and about

2008-02-18T12:53:00.000-08:00

Photographs i took on my trip to chester, focusing on circles i saw around the city.

100...

2008-02-18T12:32:00.000-08:00

100..

starting point: After listing lots of possibilities it became clear there were infinite possibilities to choose from. So studying the word infinite i thought about things i could do that were also infinite, continuous. So resulted in looking into the Circle.

What is a line?

2008-02-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

M.C Escher is amazing, i'm looking to develop manipulation throughout my work for the "what is a line brief" i could get lost in Escher's illustrations, they make me think about so many things.

Especially

Perspective and my brain is like the connecting staircase.

Helvetica

2008-02-05T17:05:00.000-08:00

I have primarily used Helvetica throughout my timeline designs so decided to look at other designs using the font

Designs by Experimental Jetset.

Inkblot

2008-01-27T15:01:00.000-08:00

I'm currently working on an inkblot test i created, asking people what they saw and how they felt. Using the information i have gathered, aim to graphically interperate it.

The Gnarls Barkley Crazy video uses inkblots to create images of the singer and band members.

Gnarls Barkley (aka Cee-Lo and Dangermouse), directed by Robert Hale.

Colour mug

2008-01-27T14:47:00.000-08:00

Looking at colour, how colours can represent information.

design by SUCK UK

Mix your tea & coffee how you like it.

The Design Coucil invite.

2008-01-23T15:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/

from the website:
(description taken from website aswell as the image)
The design council really wanted 45 people to attend an event that emphasised the design community working together. So we wrote a 45 word sentence, sent each person one each and hoped curiosity would kick in

I like the interaction the audience has with the design, being able to work out the designers intentions.

The design is personal to the individual who receives the invitation but together creates a design for a broader audience. For my time line designs - inkblots i hope to create a personal piece in the form of a book, and a poster allowing the audience to see all the information at once.

Camille Baudelaire

2008-01-23T14:02:00.000-08:00

Letters, designs by Camille Baudelaire, i really like these experiments with typographic forms, manipulation of shadows and developing onto 3D forms.

2008-01-23T13:41:00.000-08:00

Royksopp's "remind me" music video is made up of different infographics. By a French company team H5.

colour illusion

2007-12-19T08:02:00.000-08:00

After colour workshop i wanted to look into different ways of using colour, i really like the illusion the colour and shadows create.

Guinness advert

2007-12-19T07:53:00.000-08:00

Good how just a hand can have u glued to the screen for a minute!

Justice - D.A.N.C.E video

2007-12-19T07:46:00.000-08:00

Awesome video:

live music for silent films.

2007-11-27T16:48:00.000-08:00

Showings of silent films almost always featured live music, starting with the pianist at the first public projection of movies by the Lumière Brothers on December 28, 1895 in Paris.[1] From the beginning, music was recognized as essential, contributing to the atmosphere and giving the audience vital emotional cues (musicians sometimes played on film sets during shooting for similar reasons). Small town and neighborhood movie theaters usually had a pianist. From the mid-teens onward, large city theaters tended to have organists or entire orchestras. Massive theatrical organs such as the famous "mighty Wurlitzer" could simulate some orchestral sounds along with a number of sound effects.

(Wikipedia)

Research project

2007-11-27T16:19:00.000-08:00

Animal research

2007-11-26T17:26:00.000-08:00

Video for research brief about animals - primary research.

Research brief - Animals - My dog Bonnie - counted ten barks in this clip

Packaging

2007-11-12T15:09:00.001-08:00

distinct packaging i came across. Imaginative, strong colourful designs.

Alan fletcher

2007-11-12T15:09:00.000-08:00

2007-11-12T15:05:00.000-08:00

The Climax, Illustration from "Salome" by Oscar Wilde, 1893

Jeremy Fish

2007-10-29T17:42:00.000-07:00

Jeremy fish uses a limited colour palette which is one of the aspects for a brief ive recieved.
I think he has produced some successful outcomes using limited use of colour.