DOWN TO THE WIRE
Omar Little
DOWN TO THE WIRE
Prologue
Why am I here? Not like, what’s my reason on this planet, but like why graphic design. Why design, that’s a better question. I’m not like these people you hear about who started drawing at five, tracing book covers at ten and all that with the complete support of their parents. I had to fight for design, in a family of practical people, not saying my parents aren’t supportive but they just wanted me to do well, use the same formula as them because it works. The truth is that’s boring. I found Design quite late, fifteen. I’ve always been creative just never explored it until then. I could tell you what colours work well together and what looked right in terms of design, I just didn’t know it had a name. When I found out about graphic design I knew that’s what I wanted to do, I wanted to be a designer, being here now I’m just trying to figure where I fit into it all, because I know I fit. It’s like having a piece of a puzzle with a couple of pieces left you know yours fits its just a case of where p.s I really like the wire
Season
1
One-word poster Typographic collection Type and image booklet
One Word poster The outcome for this brief was to produce a one-word poster without using photography or illustration to subtract from the meaning. This topic was a great introduction as I felt it challenged me creatively and technically. I came from a background in which I only really knew how to use Photoshop. This meant an outcome in which I would need to create vector art was not as apparent to me as it should have been. That being said I was able to do some digital artwork for my final piece.
I came to the conclusion my final design should be the word ‘soft’ covered in fur, an effect I achieved through digital retouching. I was able to find a fur texture that was white but to take the word soft a step further I changed the colour to baby pink. The whole process was interesting as I need to create my own brush pre-sets to achieve a hair like stroke. With this brief, I felt I was able to showcase my technical ability without the use of illustrator or InDesign that being said my main focus for the next brief is to familiarise myself with programs such as InDesign and Illustrator.
Typographic Collection This project was the first instance where I would need to use InDesign due to me coming from an art background I found this a little daunting but, with help from my roommates and tutorials, it allowed me to gain the skills I required for this project. My typographic collection was based on match boxes, and their varying designs and typography. This project offered a great introduction to layout design, in the future, I want to explore more complex layouts and vary my use of fonts and colour palettes. This project also taught me about paper stock and how selecting the right paper type and thickness can affect your overall outcome. The only downside is I now have an obscenely large collection of match boxes, but that being said designers are collectors.
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Type image booklet
With this project, I want to explore Illustrator a bit more as well as expanding my knowledge of InDesign. At first, Illustrator was tricky due to its reliance on vector points and shapes but after discovering tools such as pathfinder and shape builder I was able to take a hand render drawing and turn it into a vector image. The wave was my first vector image. The texture idea came from work I had done in Photoshop in the past so I looked at how to bring that across to illustrator. I chose to add texture as it adds a different element to simplistic graphics. The layout design was a push in the right direction, towards a more compelling layout. I still feel I have some way to towards my goal but I’m on the right track. The photography for this project was taken over a three-hour period at Great Yarmouth beach. I can remember it being very cold but some of the photographs I got made it worth it in the end. Great Yarmouth brought back memories of going down my nans in Southend-on-Sea and its pleasure beach. The main thing I took from both experiences is that places like these have lost the magic.
BA1
My first unit has come to an end with a large amount of success on the most part. Where I was in September to where I am now I can say Iv progressed more in the last three months than in the three years that came before.
Evaluation
My main area of progression has been in my technical ability and note taking. This has gone from knowing how to use Photoshop to a high standard to a collective knowledge of the main three programs; Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.
Typographic Collection is where I found most of my struggles due to my limited knowledge of paper types, GSMs and InDesign. I did, however, find my self-learning very quickly through the tutorials on InDesign and my fellow peer’s knowledge of the program. I drew inspiration from the cleanness of Swiss design and carried that forward with the written section of my Typographic collection.
1a
The One Word Poster task was a great starting point due to the nature of it and its grounding in idea thinking. My approach to this was to play to my strengths use Photoshop in the poster creation. In hindsight, I feel this was limiting to what I could achieve, but due to my limited knowledge in the other two programs, it was the only way to move forward. My end result showcases my technical ability with Photoshop and digital re-touching. My use of clipping masks and brushes to create a realistic fur texture work quite well and the coupling of baby pink and baby blue colour scheme only went to enhance the final outcome.
The final project was my most expansive in terms of the progression of my work and thought progress. I felt this was due to the two crits I attended where I was given work specific improvements and ideas that allowed me to further expand my work. In this project, I decided to create a vector image as I wanted to improve my illustrator skills. This helped in my learning of pathfinder and shape builder tools. I can know use these to expand my drawing and illustration skills. As a whole, I have found NUA a treasure trove of information and creative energy from both lectures, tutors, and peers alike. This coupled with a nice city has led to an incredible and insightful start to my university life. I can honestly say from my friends that are doing graphic design at other universities we are by far the hardest working bunch of future designers.
It’s all in the game
Season
2
Visual identity Collaboration Advertising
Visual Identity The branding identity brief was a great insight into an area of design I felt myself leaning towards before even starting the course. I’ve always like the idea of creating an identity for a company, a brand.
From the list we were given a few societies stood out to me; table football, puzzle, board games and competitive eating. I was drawn to these for different reasons be that a forgotten passion or an interesting idea I wanted to pursue. I ended up choosing to take forward my ideas for the Puzzle society and competitive eating society. I wanted to try out some paper craft skills so I looked into pop-up books and some of the mechanics they utilize. This resulted in me creating a pull along envelope. The puzzle society was where I saw my mainstay of my ideas. The brief allowed an out of the box approach, meaning as long as it made sense to do it I could. I came up with a concept of making the envelope into a puzzle board and then through that create different brands that were the influence from the puzzle itself. I also wanted to add a function to the business card so I came up with the idea of removing a piece from the puzzle and adding that to it. This project was my first use of the laser cutter as well, a rather expensive process but well worth it in the end as it meant the puzzle pieces were as accurate as possible. In all I was quite pleased with the final outcome, if I was to change an aspect of my project it would be to use a thick card stock that would closely resemble puzzle card. This would give my envelope more flex allowing its functionality to be improved.
Collaboration
This was a very different project than any I’ve come across before due to its creative brief asking us to package an idea or emotion. This being far from the passed project, where I know exactly what I want to package and how. This lead me down a path of really simplifying my creative thinking. I had the idea to either packaging collaboration or contagion. I started off thinking of really obvious ideas like; salt and pepper, arm and leg, rhubarb and custard or, in the case of contagion zombies and medical supplies.
I felt this to be a bit contrived and forced so I took a fresh approach and looked at different objects that wouldn’t normally be considered collaborations but had the idea of collaboration in their essence.
This landed with me packaging water as collaboration due to it being made of hydrogen and oxygen elements. I found this quite refreshing as it allowed me to again brand water in a scientific manner.
What made this so different to my normal idea was due to me coming from an illustration background ideas had to be very fleshed out and complicated, which you can see is a polar opposite to my finished product. A simple logo on a bottled water, the logo is even slightly lost in the water as I wanted it to seem like it was a part of the water. This was because I liked the idea of clarity and pureness that water comes with. I found this one of my projects where I built an idea up then stripped it down to its bare essentials. This was inspired by a quote I found “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”. I felt this was my first time really getting what design was about.
Advertising This project was my first ever partner project, in design. The brief was very much idea driven in the sense that what we did, the design was secondary to the message being put forward. This was a very challenging concept for the both of us. We found ourselves playing around with a multitude of different concepts. These ranged from chicken farming to children’s education, overfishing to child depression. We took most of these ideas to the mock up stage which gave us a large body of work to select from, the decision ultimately came down to what we felt was the most powerful idea and the most important. We ended up finalising our idea for child depression, we wanted to mimic the tonality of adverts such as Bernardo child support advert. We ended up taking traditional children activity’s and putting a negative vibe on them. We went to a children play park to capture the images we needed. We even made a short TV advert showcasing the same idea. This was fun as I got to learn new software, Adobe primere pro. We filmed a swing moving on its own, this was symbolic of a child missing due to depression. This is a perfect example of Applying design to an idea, the absence of the child is what brought home the message. This was used throughout all of our posters as well.
Season
3
I wish I had Infographic Event magazine
I wish I had I wish I had was a reflective project looking at things I wish had done or things I wish I hadn’t done in my first months at NUA. I like this project as it allowed me to explore selfexpression through design. I found my self-creating an illustration piece based around Rick and Morty a popular TV show currently available on Netflix. This was my reflective point, I had watched too much Netflix, so I played on the idea of what I watch when I was on it. This allowed the nature of the show to factor in on my style. This lead to the poster you see now. This was a rather short project but it was needed as both projects either side were both three week projects so the difference in speed and amount of work was welcomed.
Infographic The infographic brief was one of my best as it allowed me to showcase data creatively. It showed me a door into graphic communication and made my decision at the end of this year a little harder so thanks for the brief. This was a long project I felt but, that did allow me to collect very interesting data, for example, the usage of mobile phone application by my friends and the death rate of different viruses throughout history. I found myself exploring the slightly more morbid side of my two choices for some reason. My research showcased to me that the recent Ebola outbreak hails in comparison to outbreaks gone by. I focused more on Ebola as it was a more relevant virus but I still did research and created an infographic for all of them. The project showcased my ability to translate complex information into understandable imagery. I was committed to Graphic Design at the beginning of the year, but I’m more open to explore the different avenues the course has to offer. I feel communication allows more creative idea exploration as well.
Event Magazine This was a very fun project for me as it fell just after my trip to Los Angeles with my friend from back home. I felt this meant my passion for photography would play a key part in my magazine as I would be exploring a very photogenic topic, Los Angeles. This was a welcomed return to layout design as I hadn’t really used it since my type and image booklet in BA1a. I wanted to be more creative with my layouts in this project as I found my other booklets a little too basic and not an accurate reflection of what I was capable of. I found myself playing around with title locations and paragraphing, this helped breath more life and flow into my overall design. This coupled with very high quality and interesting photography from a cool city meant I created something I’m very proud of.
I would say this was one of my best pieces of design as I really enjoyed every aspect I had to go through to bring it to fruition. If I was to go back a change a few elements it would be to capture the people of LA and their stories. It has always been an idea of mine to explore shooting people in photography as I find it quite emotional. This was a good final project as it reminded me of how interesting layout design could be. It also showed me that simplification of design can be very rewarding when it comes to the final results.
BA1b Evaluation
My second unit of work has come to an end. The unit was larger than the first and presented new and exciting challenges for me. I had to learn new programs and solve new problems.
The briefs all showed me a different aspect of Graphic Design, and the challenges associated with it. I have progressed so much as a designer, I’ve created complex layouts blending type and Image. I have responded to briefs with a creative and thought out process, allowing me to produce a large body of work. The visual identity task was my first insight into the world of branding. The briefs wanted us to create a stationery pack for a club or society from the list. The only thing was, we were not allowed to use a logo. The branding must come from colours, typography, and concept. I really enjoyed this project as it made me think outside the box with a more conceptual mindset. My outcome takes inspiration from child puzzle pieces rather than the more generic adult ones. I wanted to create a fun brand focused around puzzles.
This lead me to create an envelope that doubled as a puzzle, the only thing being it has a missing piece which could be found on the business card. This furthered the connection of my brand. This mentality transferred to my compliment slip and letter which again fitted together like puzzle pieces. I found this project really responded to creative thought out thinking, and in turn, it was this thinking that produced the results you see. i wish i could on taken this concept futher as well. The packaging task was again centred around creative thinking, the idea was to create packaging for an idea or concept. This project has the weakest backup work of all my projects, this being due to the quick nature in which I found the solution. That being said i do think its still a great concept , that clealry responds to the breif.
My final result was a response to the world collaboration. I responded by packaging water, this was due to the combination of hydrogen and oxygen to form water. I found this a rather rewarding task as the idea is really simplistic in nature, but still a well throughout and creative response. This project took inspiration from my love of logo design and how a logo can influence a brand’s image. With my logo, I went down the scientific route using the technical drawing of water broken down into its elemental form of hydrogen-2 and oxygen-1. This influenced the bottle I chose as well I opted for a glass bottle as I felt it coincided with scientific instruments such as beakers and test tubes. It these conscious design decisions that show me how I’m progressing as a designer. The advertisement brief was a great insight into professional design, as it was a partnered project. It encouraged us to explore the roles of art director and copywriter. The project produces a lot of ideas which we were able to take all the way to the mock up stage. This was a conceptually different brief to the ones I’ve had before as it encouraged us to put the message and the forefront of the idea. I think we produced an outcome I’m really proud of, explore the nature of child depression in a creative and respectful manner. The idea behind our project was to get people to sign a petition about introducing mental health to the natural curriculum. The concept focuses on the absence of a child in each of our poster and video, this being linked to child suicide, we took inspiration from the Barnardo adverts and how their use of the absence of colour creates an uneasy and depressing vibe. This project was one of my strongest outcomes because it allowed me to bounce ideas around this my partner and ultimately come to a great concept for a problem. The I wish I had brief was a welcome reflection on the things I would have done differently if I could go back to the start. This lead me down a path of self-reflection, looking had what I did that could have hindered my progress. It ultimately came down to my love
of TV shows and Netflix that I felt was my major point of concern. This lead me to create the poster about Rick and Morty and them watching TV. The infographic brief was one of my best as it allowed me to explore visual communication. How can I take information and produce a clear means of communicating it? I chose to showcase scientific data surrounding virus outbreak through human history and their devastating impact on population deaths. I created my outcome in the same style a movie infographic would have been made, I did this because it was a stack contrast to the information. This project stems from different aspects of design, typography, iconography, branding and copywriting. It’s for that reason I enjoyed it so much. If I was to go back and add to my infographic it would be to look into motion graphics and how I could enhance my infographic. I feel the nature of my design would lend its self to motion graphics. I want to set myself a goal of using after effects more next year to produce my outcomes. As an extension of that, I want to look into new technologies and how they can be explored in design. The event magazine was my best example of layout design. My magazine was based around Los Angeles, the booklet was in turn influenced by LA its self. The cover was one of my best uses of subject matter based inspiration. I took what I saw on my travels and applied it to my design. When shoe shopping in LA I came across the Air Jordon 1 laser, this was a laser etched shoes focussed around Michael Jordon’s career. It’s that concept of using icons related to LA that o found so rewarding. This unit was massive, the largest gathering of work in that time period I’ve ever produced. That being said the work was different, I got to explore new avenues of design using the briefs as my excuse. I found myself growing as a designer, learning new skills I can bring forth to year two. I’m so excited to continue this journey.
Season
4
Lecture series Karren House Rob Lowe Super-Mundane Jack Renwick
Karren House
Karren House has been a graphic designer for the last 40 years. Her first job was working at Pentagram, which kind of makes her a big deal. She later went on to found the partners which again is a big deal. She’s basically the Wonder Woman of the design world. Her client consists of Toblerone, Sun bites, and Aricotvert. She left me with a very important message, “be intelligent and trust your intuition. I found this amazing advice as it sums up what a designer should be and do. Her work with Toblerone was one of the best as she showed a great compromise between the designer and the client. The company wanted mountains in their logo as they were based in Switzerland. Karren found this boring as most chocolate companies had that. She then took the mascot of the town the bear and intertwined it with mountains, and you get the iconic logo you see now. A great example of client based ideas being turned into a design.
Rob Lowe
Super-Mundane His lecture was one of my favourite of the lecture series. His delivery was fun informative and just not mundane at all. He once worked for the company that invented the lava lamps which I found cooler than I probably should of. His work is a mixture of colour, shapes, and lines. A lot of his work follows this super-mundane style. This prompted me to ask him ‘when can you start designing with your style and not what the client wants’. His answer was very interesting, he said the clients you choose are the clients you will get in the future. I felt this meant if you choose clients that want you to explore your style more, the more client in return will allow you to do this. During his lecture, he said “a horizontal career is ok” this was cool as it showed if you love what you’re doing its ok to keep doing it.
Jack Renwick Jack is a professional Graphic designer from Scotland, she is a former partner at The Partners and the founder of Jack Renwick Studio. Her start to graphic design was not the typical start and a little hard.
She didn’t know what she wanted to be until Graphic Design was explained to her. She found a graphic design job but it turned out to be at a training centre where people learned different skills. One of the teachers then found her another job designing party cards. She was then fired from that job. She left the field for a while until meeting a student who was studying graphic design at university which started the fire again. She went on to work at The Partners, this was where she learned important skills such as talking to her peers and learning from her mistakes. At The Partners she learned that honesty is powerful, that it was more useful to tell someone their work is bad then to just lie. That being said constructive criticism must be given too or its just mean.
She later decided she needs a change so she founded her own design studio, Jack Renwick Studio. Her company puts the client’s idea at the heart of the design. She also stresses the importance of sketching out ideas and posted-noting ideas before even trying to design them. This means the best idea is taken forward. Some of the key points she made were; don’t lie, see opportunity in everything, honestly is powerful, keep it simple and GIVE A SHIT. I like that last one because when designing you should become and expert in what your client is about, this allows you to produce the best designs possible.
Season
5
Adobe Creative meet up Books Designer critique Los Angeles
Adobe Creative meet up I was really lucky to have gone to this event as it allowed me to meet industry professionals in a professional environment. It all start because my favourite designer was the main speaker this year, due to him being based out of Portland, Oregon he didn’t come to the UK much. Oh yeah, he’s called Aaron Draplin. The event was being run by adobe and featured speakers that used their programs in their daily life. The event was pretty sick, it was set up in The Bike Shed, Shoreditch. A really cool venue that combines bikes (motorised ones), a bar and a barbershop and good food, like really good food. Oh yeah, there was free food and drinks which were a complete bonus. The event speakers were supposed to be Dan Munford, Jack Renick, Rufus Deuchle and of course Aaron Draplin. Jack Renwick had to drop out so Photographer Patrice de Villiers stood in. Such a cool name too, Silence of the Lambs anyone.
The first speaker was Rufus Deuchle, adobes senior Evangelist for the creative cloud. He talked about the future of design through adobe and how 3D design and user design is becoming more prominent than ever. He showed off some of the new program features from Creative Cloud such as Experience design cc and project Felix. He also talked about people’s creative potential and how we can meet it through adobe new innovation. Patrice was a fill in for Jack but she still brought some really creative thinking to the table. She is a commercial still life photographer. She became a photographer because she couldn’t draw. She was once told by her college professor “Patrice whatever you do, do something that isn’t ordinary”.
Her major inspiration was one of the greats Erving Penn. Her artistic vision for still life is not traditional at all, she likes to convey them in a different manner, almost like they had personality. Her photographs are very playful as well. She worked with clients such as M&S, Morrisons, Selfridges and The Teenage Cancer Trust. I found her talk great because it showed me that I can photograph ordinary objects in a new way and bring a different sense of life to them. I’m looking forward to using what I’ve learned and applying it to my photography work over the next years or my lifetime I guess.
Dan Munford Dan is Freelance illustrator based out of based out of Studio 100 in London. He mostly works in the realm of pop culture; like a movie poster, album artwork and video games. His work is mostly screenprints working with about five colours, his artwork also tends to be rather vivid. He grew up loving music and even toured around the UK before university and through his music and he made a lot of connections with bands. Just has he came out of university a band called Gallows were just becoming big and they needed an album cover designed for them. Due to the nature of metal and hardcore pop-punk, he found himself at the centre of a new trend, which was these really heavy graphic based album covers. He later got called up to make movie posters, one of his posters was for a film called The Wicker Man. His artwork later got used for the official movie poster for the re-release.
I found Dan along time before attending the event as I listen to a few of the bands when I was growing up like A Day to Remember. I really do love his style and how he uses Photoshop on the computer but still screen prints his artwork. This goes on to affect how he works in Photoshop creating each colour layer as you would a screen (screenprint). He has recently been commissioned for artwork for the new Star Wars film as well.
Aaron Draplin This man was a legend. The most humble of people, he’s done it all designed for big clients, small clients, friends, and family and paid off all his bills with graphic design. I’ve followed him for a long time and was one of my major influences in becoming a graphic designer. To quote him “hi I’m Aaron James Draplin, I’m 42 years old, tired as shit, seeing double at this point and I’m a graphic designer... and I tricked graphic design into hiring me’”. He worked for free sometimes which is something you don’t see a lot. He found himself without clients so he couldn’t generate portfolio work, so he did it for free. He’s worked for clients like his mate, where he designed a Cobra hotdog logo because his mate was getting sued for copyright infringement. Oh yeah, he also did work Nike for $15,000. Fucking Nike man. This is a man that just goes 100% all the time, he is and will always be an inspiration for me. I highly recommend checking out his podcasts and videos on YouTube, oh shit yeah and buy his book.
How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul
I found this book by Adrian Shaughnessy a rather good read. I don’t read much so that’s a compliment I guess. The book focuses on graphic design from a different perspective than most books. This book focused more on the business side of design and how you should go about sourcing clients finishing work and paying bills. This was a good read as it helps sooth some of the worries I had about job prospects after university. The chapters on; How to set up a freelance or studio and finding work and self-promotion where great insights into graphic design.
Draplin Design Co. Pretty Much Everything Aaron James Draplin
I’m not going to apologise for not writing a report on this book as its Aaron Draplins book. So it has pretty much been sold to you already. Just buy The goddam book now its fucking amazing. End of story.
Kate Moross
Kate is a graphic designer who primarily works in the music seen. Her studio is called Studio Moross its been around for about two years. She believes in great problems and great answers. Or she would put it “good briefs and great concepts’. She doesn’t believe in inspiration, she’s a gut reaction kind of designer which is very different to what you would normally see. Her artwork uses a lot of colour and is the complete opposite of what I thought was graphic design. She takes an almost alternative style to design perfectly combining colours shapes and insanity to create these amazing pieces of design. Her combination of text and image through illustration and typography. She is a designer for change but commercial at the same time. In her words ‘I’m not really sure what I am as I do everything’. I think she is an amazing designer that shows me that design doesn’t need to be boring and you don’t need to follow the rules.
Aaron Draplin Aaron’s work is reminiscing of a time gone bye. A time in which logos were big, small and on everything. His logos are great as they are clearly recognisable in small scale or large, on a business card or billboard. It’s with these principles he designs. His artwork does tend to use a lot of colour which can limit its uses as some companies would like a cheap logo they can print on anything, meaning only two colours max. that being said Aaron does have a few logos that fall into that category. I believe he’s a great designer as he really listens to what the client wants and will never give them a logo he’s not happy with. One of my favourite designs of his was the space shuttle poster he did in 2011. This was to celebrate 50 years of the NASA space shuttle. In the poster, he uses thick lines and bold colours to great effect. The simplistic nature of his designs really adds to their ability to be understood. Yes, I really do love his work the guys got three shout outs for fuck sake.
Los Angeles These are some of the photographs I took on my travels in LA with my mate in April this year. This was my first holiday without my parents and was such an amazing experience. I really think I found a place I could live in. that’s a little soppy but you weren’t there, you didn’t feel that place.
all images are Unedited
After credits
As a designer, I felt my journey over the last year has been massive. I’ve gone from what I would consider a pretty basic knowledge of design to someone that could be capable of doing most things thrown at him. I started the year with my major skills being idea generation and Photoshop, and I’ve went on to add tools such as InDesign, Illustrator, after effects and primer pro. These programs have given me platforms in which I can create designs I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, bring on next year. Going to set myself a goal of at least one piece of commissioned design in the next year, let’s kill it. I might even learn to do a backflip. I know it’s not relevant but it’s a childhood dream.
This Journal was written mostly on the 8th of may. This journal was designed mostly on the 9th of may This journal was printed and assemble on the 10th of may This journal came down to the wire.
You come at the king, you best not miss