Hughes.J.LiveProjects by Design for Graphic Communication

Company

Alex Swain Creative Director

Chrysostomos Naselos Creative Director

Gernot Preslmayer Senior Designer

Alex Studied Graphic Design at Hertfordshire Arts College and Multimedia at the institute of Arts, Bournmouth. He worked as a senior Designer for the Illusionfactor in London, for clients such as Daewoo Cars UK, BT and Emap fashion. In December 2005 he completed the MA in Graphic Design at the London College of Printing, before co-founding Company in 2006.

Chrysostomos studied Graphic Design at Vakalo School of Art and Design in Athens, where he also completed a postgraduate Programme in Graphic Design Research in 1999 and taught as an assistant professor. He worked as a senior designer for the Image and Identity department of the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games Organisation Committee. In December 2005, he completed the MA in Graphic Design at the London College of Printing. He co-founded Company in 2006.

Gernot studied at the College of graphics and Communication Design and the Linz Business School before working in advertising and direct marketing for Ogilvy Vienna. Gernot then joined Landor Associates as Senior Designer in London and Dubai, working for clients such as BP, Nokia and Batelco - one of the largest telecom brands in the Middle East. He went on to work at renowned studios, such as Meta Design and Wolff Olins, before joining Company.

www.company-london.com Unit 206, 24â&#x20AC;&#x201C;28 Hatton Wall London ECa1N 8JH

Joe Hughes

The studio is shared with two architect companies, Diversity who have studio in Greece and Satellite who have a studio in Japan. Interesting to see the cross over in styles and studio space and how they work together. Below is my temporary desk and setup. Laptop = necessity now-a-days if your interning. Along with all your regular tools of choice.

After close to a year of E-mails I managed to secure a month long placement with design consultancy Company. I met Chrys and Alex early February 2011, presented my portfolio and agreed that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d begin at start of March for a four week internship.

5. 1. 2.

6. 3.

1. Company sign

4. My desk for the day

2. Company studio desks

5. Company studio space

3. Company door (OMG)

6. Bird eye view desk

Company - Promotional project

Html Newsletter

My First briefing via Chrys was to work on the promotion of the studio - Company. Initial through a tabloid print of selected works and information to mail out. This extended into a cheaper quicker method of customised Html newsletters. The project began by analysing Company’s visual language to convincingly communicate their aesthetic in new formats.

Initially the idea of a printed tabloid of select work was planned. I had to then phone various printing companies to find out the cost of 3 A2 back and front full colour prints. In both digital and litho processes, and also where the cut of point or tipping scale of the quantity to cost ratio was. After extensive calls all but one replied with the same answer: “ they don’t do digital that big - it will have to be litho.” Similarly the cost reflected that at around £600 - £760 for 200 copies folded twice to A4 size. The plan now is to print these annually and to start on Company’s 5th birthday in November.

Twitter and Facebook. If your messages, mails or even newsletters aren’t socially equipped for linking and liking then your loosing out on the social revolution in marketing and promotion. All good businesses (and bad) have their profile broadcasting their messages to the masses. I decided this might be a O K feature to implement.

1. Image lifted from the Company website

4. Draft newsletter 1

2. Variation Sketches for Html newsletter

5. Draft newsletter 2

3. Examples for analysis and concepts

6. Draft newsletter 3

Almost good but not quite. The mail message to opt out of subscription seems to become confused in the composition of the newsletter itself.

O K much better focus is regained. Horizontal rules aren’t adding to this design in anyway, remove please.

Nearly there. Added sign up to our newsletter as another call to action. Perhaps a little more balanced with footer text but still seems Clunky. You know?

Company - Promotional project

1. Newsletter final draft

Below is the final PSD Html Newsletter. This was designed in Photoshop and I’m more used to working in Illustrator. Took me a day to get used to using it again and the different rules and commands I had previously forgotten. As it’s a Html design the pixels need to be perfect so that it can be cut up in Fireworks and implemented in Html Email format.

Laurence King draft deliveries

2. Analysing Company site 3. Printer and accessories

4. Simple advert for Gumtree 5. Wikipedia hassle

Simple Company logo and title. Date: Month and year. Clean, minimal.

Display area works in four split grid, one large image, slide show and two portrait images. The composition of photographs influences the text spacing and area size.

Two text columns to balance the images using helvetica bold and regular at 12pt. Social media icons Further forwarding. Click to view on browser Call to action.

Another couple of menial tasks I was entrusted with were to find out about setting up a Company Wikipedia Page and to get ride of their extinct A3 colour laser printer via Gumtree. I’m not sure which was worse the levels of bureaucracy in Wikipedia article writing and permission dialogues or the amount of time wasters contacting me for a full two weeks before some one actually arrived to collect the printer. Either way I learned something I wouldn’t usually and that seems to satisfy some part of me.

Menial tasks

Document setup Over a week I started feeling more comfortable in the core Adobe programs. (PS, AI & ID) I was learning short cuts and specific document set ups for bleeds, margins, guides, grids, canvases and art boards. Revalation some of them such as multiple art boards within Illustrator, which also has the same short cut as Indesign to copy and paste specific location to every art board. Excellent time saver.

Lunch was at any time very relaxed, seen as though it was mostly spent in front the computer while checking on your designs or other peoples social activities, posts or the news. Also eating out is bad and making pack lunch is good.

Multiple Art boards Why did I not know about this ages ago?

Menial task three watering the plants. There are a nice selection of office plants and it came down to me to keep them alive.

3. 4.

1. Art board revelation dialogue box

4. Eating nice food at desk

2. Example 1-9 copy and paste

5. Eating nicer food at desk

3. Eating at screen

6. The office garden

Attire

Logotype book - Laurence King

As a Graphic Designer for Company - London the right attire is absolutely necessary. I was lucky enough to be informed by highly fashionable duo, Chrys and Gernot. They explained that if I did not own a navy shirt, jumper or cardigan along with Khaki Chinos and adidas sneakers then I just wouldn’t make it in the industry. Their words are gospel.

Gernot

Chrys

Glasses (Optional) Navy Shirt (Compulsory) Cardigan Navy (Compulsory)

Khaki chinos (Compulsory)

Adidas Sneakers

The logo bible, this book provides graphic designers with an indispensable reference source for contemporary logo design. More than 1300 logos are grouped according to their focal form, symbol and graphic associations into 75 categories such as crosses, stars, crowns, animals, people, handwritten and illustrative type. To emphasize the visual form of the logos, they are shown predominantly in black and white. Highlight logos are shown in colour. By sorting a vast, international array of current logotypes - ranging from those of small, design-led businesses to global brands - in this way, the book offers design consultancies a ready resource to draw upon in the research phase of identity projects. The logos are indexed alphabetically by name of company/ designer and by industrial sector, making it easy to piece together a picture of the state of the identity art in any client’s marketplace.

This book features over 1300 symbols, organized into groups and sub-groups according to their visual characteristics. Each category includes a short introduction, with expanded captions providing information on who the symbol was designed for, who designed it, when, and where appropriate, what the symbol stands for. These sections are interspersed with short case studies on both classic examples of symbols still in use, and exceptional examples of recently designed symbols. Angus Hyland is a graduate of the RCA and a partner at Pentagram Design London. He is the author of ‘C/ID’ and the best-selling ‘The Picture Book’. Steven Bateman is a freelance writer who has worked with some of the UK’s leading design agencies. A regular contributor to ‘Grafik’ magazine, he also writes for ‘ISTD Condensed’, ‘Nico’ and ‘Varoom’.

?? ?????? ????? ????????????? ?????? ??????? ?? ?????????? ????????????? ?????? ??????? ???? ????????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ?? ?? ??? ?????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ???? ????????? ? ????????????????? ????????????? ??? ?????????? ????????????? ??? ?????????? ? ??????????????????????? ????????????? ???? ?????? ??? ??????? ??????? ????? ?????? ?? ??? ?? ?? ??????????? ????????????? ?????? ?? ????? ????????? ???? ????????????? ???? ????????? ??????????????????????? ???? ????????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ???????????

Logotype - cover ideas

Logotype - cover ideas The brief here was to mock up various routes for Laurence King’s (LK) new book ‘Logotype’. It will be the third instalment of its kind and will comprise the two previous books into one, with more focus on the logo and type composition. I started mocking up a few draft drawings to then realise them on the computer with the various logo files, dimensions and notes form LK. This book will belong to the same family as the two previous publications and they both feature a very simple aesthetic treatment on the covers. Logo is simply a logo, focusing more on the shape and weight. While Symbol uses an asterisk to explain the point precisely with great wit. It seems Logotype is a bit of a mouthful and was quite hard to reduce to a simple concept while retaining a quality that the brother and sister covers have. Regardless there were many iterations and they still aren’t signed off. At this rate it will just be Helvetica bold 12pt. Ha.

During this draft I had to learn how to ‘crush the blacks’. A term used to check and create a mono layer of pure CMYK zero level black across the elements in the document. The mock had to be as convincing as possible for the first draft review and preview.

1. Logotype within the letter mock

I created a grid for the front and back cover and masked all the various logotypes supplied from LK into the grid zooming in and focusing on the details within the shape of the words and imagery. Keeping it simple in black and white, at this point me and chrys both thought the cover sticker would be yellow, which would make sense in consistency with ‘Logo’ (blue) and ‘Symbol’ (red).

3. 2. 1.

2. Logotype cropped layers illustrator, 3. Complex detail of mask crop 4. Font usage weight, colour and size 5. Tiled grid and selected logotypes

Logotype - draft covers

Logotype - draft covers After the first review of the cover LK still wanted to see more routes exploring the typography within Logotype and so I used a serif and sans font with large crops of the detail within the letters in the title to give a more abstract feel. I kept the grid but reduced it to four and played around with the composition of the characters and how they would look both front, back and also on the sleeves of the slip jacket. Placing the sticker details and printing them helped both me, Chrys and Gernot to cast opinion and judgement in which to print ‘properly’ for Susie at Laurence King. Two serif’s and two sans where finally chosen for round two of draft reviews.

Ultimate designer‘s reference 1300 + Logotypes in 75 categories indexed by sector

Logotype Michael Evamy Laurence King Publishing

1. First draft cover designs 1.

2. Didot close up crop drafts

3. Print outs of all variations 5.

4. Akidenz Grotesk close up crops drafts 5. Logotypes close up crops drafts

Logotype spreads

Susie from Laurence King seemed to like the covers but was waiting to hear back from Angus Hyland Partner of Pentagram and Author of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Symbolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to give us more direction. Also mocked up were a few key spreads for the content and layout for various pages. A few routes of draft options were of course presented and variation of colour and type in keeping with the front covers.

1 MONU, category, Country, Design company, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet, ex et, velit landis iust qui rerovid eliquia qui ut ipiet a simpora denescil estiam, quossin verumet. 2 HOVE, category, Country, Design company, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re. Us volum volorrum. 3 cOrridOr, category, Country, Pentagram, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet, ex et, velit landis iust qui rerovid eliquia qui ut ipiet a simpora denescil. 4 SOrG, category, Country, Pentagram, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet, eont quis ent aliquiassi suntinc turiti voluptu ribust, sit et ad estiam, quossin verumet. 5 BOYD BAKER HOUSE, category, Country, Pidgeon, Country, 2010. re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet.

6 ENA, category, Country, tomato, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita abori ut quamet, ex et, velit landis iust qui rerovid eliquia qui ut ipiet a simpora denescil eossint quis ent aliquiassi suntinc turit. 7 HOVE, category, Country, Design company, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet, ex et, velit landis iust qui rerovid eliquia qui ut ipiet a 8 MONU, category, Country, Designcompany, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet, ex et, velit landis iust qui rerovid eliquia qui ut ipiet a simpora denescil eossint quis ent aliquiassi suntinc turiti voluptu ribust, sit et ad estiam, quossin verumet. 9 cORRIDOR, category, Country, Pentagram, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet, ex et, velit landis iust qui rerovid eliquia qui ut ipiet a simpora denescil. 10 MONU, category, Country, Design company, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet, ex et, velit landis iust qui qui ut ipiet a simpora denescil estiam, quossin verumet.

4 SORG, category, Country, Pentagram, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us vol, eont quis ent aliquiassi suntinc turiti voluptu ribust, sit et ad estiam, quossin verumet. 5 BOYD BAKER HOUSE, category, Country, Pidgeon, Country, 2010. re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet. 6 ENA, category, Country, tomato, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita abori ut quamet, ex et, velit landis iust qui rerovid eliquia qui ut ipiet a simpora denescil eossint quis ent aliquiassi suntinc turit. 7 HOVE, category, Country, Design company, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet, ex et, velit landis iust qui rerovid eliquia qui ut ipiet. 8 MONU, category, Country, Designcompany, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet, ex et, velit landis iust qui rerovid eliquia qui ut ipiet a simpora denescil eossint quis ent aliquiassi suntinc turiti voluptu ribust, sit et ad estiam, quossin verumet. 9 cORRIDOR, category, Country, Pentagram, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet, ex et, velit landis iust qui rerovid eliquia qui ut ipiet a simpora denescil.

Ulla doloreribus, estiis autatia et officiat repre, inctis moluptaectas re voluptatet vollecte pa sum facilla volorep restias nos soloreicium unte nos a quaesci llabor miliciur magnatempor repedit quodit, optatia quiberrovit iniscip sandaepe por atem re et, con repudae riosandae eture ea sint et il il ilis eos eum fugit, aligenem dit expliquis repudaeribea nia ventur solore aut ma pra quos volent evendentem eos magnis ium expedip saepelles que nobitaquis erum quaeribus idebit illorpo restrum dolorerunt, simodip saeperibus disimus, sandi quaeped et eaque nus eaquo mossit qui derrovid milia delligendis et ventia desecer ationsequi vel eumquam qui rem remquas ium apelibe reptus. Magnihil magnien ducimus apere, excea nonseribeat lab ipsam vere sinveruptati res sunt ut et ullabor uptatibea volum con peritas pidun tiatia doluptatis iliquam acerat. Catatur reruptatae debis reprorem ipsapis del moluptatur?

Lecat issunt, simus cus soluptat quam cone et, consequas as cus excesti solorro te none et earchicabo. Nequodiae. Nem hillam adigenissim rero blandigniam voles sum faciis volupturi di qui alitate etur andis aspedit eum rem am faccaerum voles ut ut opta cum quiae nis ullores evenditem quamSinvera erumqui ationse niendia sam etusdanto ipiendio omnis et laborempor alitatur autem aut et plaborum solupistiae velenistrum idest dolorpostrum sus, sum qui corepudit, tene voluptat quaecum in ra estrunt acerrovide ad moluptibus ad quat earios idi rendis aute posam, sit ati officilique sitia il iuntemp orporat empelestio. Aquamus moluptatis endae nobissit mod quo blaccum quo inulpa doluptatem. Xererro tem derrorio. 2

7 7

Nem. Ut ut ut quia et omnimpore, ipsam et dolores que vendipsandi te cupite pa dolorem dolore, tem facient orehendaerum et, si commo ditature licaborrum, quam faciis venet et ad maionem et vero dicienda inctur seque sunt harum quiaectias dolest porero. quas ium apelibe reptus. Magnihil magnien ducimus sit apere, eea nonseribeat lab ipsam vere sinveruptati res sunt ut et ullabor uptatibea volum con peritas piduntiatia doluptatis iliquam acerat.atatur reruptatae debis reprorem ipsapis del moluptatur?

3 FRAMED 124

9 FRAMED 124

FRAMED 124

CURSIVE 124

FRAMED 124

CURSIVE 124

PREFACE 5

1 MONU, category, Country, Design company, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet, ex et, velit landis iust qui rerovid eliquia qui ut ipiet a simpora denescil estiam, quossin verumet. 2 HOVE, category, Country, Design company, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re. Us volum volorrum. 3 cORRIDOR, category, Country, Pentagram, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet, ex et, velit landis iust qui rerovid eliquia qui ut ipiet a simpora denescil. 4 SORG, category, Country, Pentagram, Country, 2010. Tempore ne volessum quatem re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us vol, eont quis ent aliquiassi suntinc turiti voluptu ribust, sit et ad estiam, quossin verumet. 5 BOYD BAKER HOUSE, category, Country, Pidgeon, Country, 2010. re litiscita volupta tatectur se aut labo. Us volum volorrum abori ut quamet.

Howe Ulla doloreribus, estiis autatia et officiat repre, inctis moluptaectas re voluptatet vollecte pa sum facilla volorep restias nos soloreicium unte nos a quaesci llabor miliciur magnatempor repedit quodit, optatia quiberrovit iniscip sandaepe por atem re et, con repudae riosandae eture ea sint et il il ilis eos eum fugit, aligenem dit expliquis repudaeribea nia ventur solore aut ma pra quos volent evendentem eos magnis ium expedip saepelles que nobitaquis erum quaeribus idebit illorpo restrum dolorerunt, simodip saeperibus disimus, sandi quaeped et eaque nus eaquo mossit qui derrovid milia delligendis et ventia desecer ationsequi vel eumquam qui rem remquas ium apelibe reptus.

Magnihil magnien ducimus apere, excea nonseribeat lab ipsam vere sinveruptati res sunt ut et ullabor uptatibea volum con peritas pidun tiatia doluptatis iliquam acerat. Catatur reruptatae debis reprorem ipsapis del moluptatur?

MINIMAL CHARACTERS 124

Enem dit expliquis repudaeribea nia ventur solore aut ma pra quos volent evendentem eos magnis dolorerunt, simodip saeperibus disimus, sandi quaeped et eaque nus eaquo mossit qui derrovid milia delligendis et ventia desecer ationsequi vel eumquam qui rem remquas ium apelibe reptus. Magnihil magnien ducimus sit apere, excea nonseribeat lab ipsam vere sinveruptati res sunt ut et ullabor uptatibea volum con peritas piduntiatia doluptatis iliquam acerat. Catatur reruptatae debis reprorem ipsapis del moluptatur?

Just Type

Framed RA

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Italic UPPER and lower Mixed fonts Outline Cursive Handwritten Stencilled Divided Cropped Blurred Stretched Vertical Angled Circular Stacked Minimal Brutalist Baroque 3D

Circles Squares Other shapes Retro Symmetry Reversed Ambigrams Double meaning characters Partial characters Joined characters Combined characters Pictorial characters Ampersands Speech bubbles Meaningful punctuation Mathematical symbols Numerals Bilingual

3. 1. Content daft pages one 2. Layout draft spreads 3. Content daft pages two

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Ut dolor apeles Cusro soluptatur Ita quam Cid eos et ipsam cum Officium velia Aeculliquo dolores Cid eos et ipsam cum Officium velia Aeculliquo dolores Cid eos et ipsam cum Officium velia Aeculliquo dolores

Title

Monograms

Title

00 00 00 00 00 00

00 Single letters, A-Z 00 Letters within letters 00 Joined characters Crests

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Ut dolor apeles Cusro soluptatur Ita quam Cid eos et ipsam cum Officium velia Aeculliquo dolores

Ut dolor apeles Cusro soluptatur Ita quam Cid eos et ipsam cum Officium velia Aeculliquo dolores Ut dolor apeles Cusro soluptatur Ita quam

See How You Feel Ulla doloreribus, estiis autatia et officiat repre, inctis moluptaectas re voluptatet vollecte pa sum facilla volorep restias nos soloreicium unte nos a quaesci llabor miliciur magnatempor repedit quodit, optatia quiberrovit iniscip sandaepe por atem re et, con repudae riosandae eture ea sint et il il ilis eos eum fugit, aligenem dit expliquis repudaeribea nia ventur solore aut ma pra quos volent evendentem eos magnis ium expedip saepelles que nobitaquis erum quaeribus idebit illorpo restrum dolorerunt, simodip saeperibus disimus, sandi quaeped et eaque nus eaquo mossit qui derrovid milia delligendis et ventia desecer ationsequi vel eumquam qui rem remquas ium apelibe reptus. Magnihil magnien ducimus apere, excea nonseribeat lab ipsam vere sinveruptati res sunt ut et ullabor uptatibea volum con peritas pidun tiatia doluptatis iliquam acerat. Catatur reruptatae debis reprorem ipsapis del moluptatur? Lecat issunt, simus cus soluptat quam cone et, consequas as cus excesti solorro te none et earchicabo. Nequodiae. Nem hillam adigenissim rero blandigniam voles sum faciis volupturi di qui alitate etur andis aspedit eum rem am faccaerum voles ut ut opta cum quiae nis ullores evenditem quamSinvera erumqui ationse niendia sam etusdanto ipiendio omnis et laborempor alitatur autem aut et plaborum solupistiae velenistrum idest dolorpostrum sus, sum qui corepudit, tene voluptat quaecum in ra estrunt acerrovide ad moluptibus ad quat earios idi rendis aute posam, sit ati officilique sitia il iuntemp orporat empelestio. Aquamus moluptatis endae nobissit mod quo blaccum quo inulpa doluptatem. Xererro tem derrorio. Enem dit expliquis delligendis et ventia desecer ationsequi vel eumquam qui rem remquas ium apelibe reptus. Magnihil magnien ducimus sit apere, excea nonseribeat lab ipsam vere sinveruptati res sunt ut et ullabor uptatibea volum con peritas piduntiatia doluptatis iliquam acerat. Catatur reruptatae debis reprorem ipsapis del moluptatur?

MINIMAL CHARACTERS 124

3D 124

CONTENT 9

1. .

Variable + Animated Logotypes

INTRODUCTION 7

These were then printed off without crop marks, (just to make it easier for me) cut out by yours truly, folded slipped into a pristine manila envelope and hand delivered to Susie up at Laurence King in Angel. We awaited here next communication.

Logotype - Laurence King draft deliveries

Susie got back to Chrys who informed me that we need, or I needed to present some more options for the cover including all specific dimensions now confirmed for the book in question. To the right is a inaccurate drawing with accurate dimension details in millimetres. Tisk tisk. So I played around with the word, which is actually two words really... I decided to just use the logo of ‘Logo’ before and place type in helvetica bold, just as symbol is set in. The results were then varied and adapted to the dimensions with the sleeve jacket to offer a sense of variety in which to pick the strongest.

3. 1.

6. 4.

1. Work space/ design

4. Quick and dirty prototyping

2. Cutting out drafts

5. Books work poster

3. Logotype book dimensions

6. Delivering the LK

The art boards set up of the document all precise in millimetres.

Naturally I do not need crop marks and can cut a straight line with my eyes closed in the dark. No I can’t, but I did get rather good at using a metal rule and scalpel something I haven’t don’t in a while.

LK office is up quite a few flights of stairs just so that you know I was keeping fit. Oh and look - ‘Books work’ didn’t you know?

Translate Media - Logo kit Alex gave me a task to sign off a logo kit for one of his clients - Translate media. He had already signed off the final design(s) for the logo and they got back to him asking for a logo kit with a few variations of colour and file directory. Principally it was my task to complete this sign off while Alex liaised with the client and forwarded me the mails.

The files needed to be in both RGB for screen and CMYK for print. Matches in suggested Pantone swatches had to be O K-ed by the client as well.

CMYK

CMYK - low-res

RGB

RGB - low-res

Accurate. Punctual. Confidential.

Blue RGB 0, 127,211 Pantone 285c

Red RGB 237, 28, 36 Pantone 185c

Green RGB 34, 177, 76 Pantone 360c

4. 5.

1. Logo Lockup options

4. Organisation of files/ folders

2. TM shortened Identity

5. Example Logo kit folder one

3. TM logo lockup & Pantone

6. Tm Shortened Logo RGB/ CMYK

The examples above were sent to be signed off and on agreement all other colours would be created in the logo kit and then sent to the client for final checks.

Marika & Malachi ‘M’ Monogram Chrys briefed me quickly on this project as he needed to produce another option for the client. The client was an engaged couple from Ireland and Greece who met whilst reading the same poem. Apparently. She briefed Chrys on what she thinks she wants which consists of two M’s for both their names - Marika and Malachi, as birds flying. It had to be subtle and romantic without too much over kill on the stereotypical marriage monogram.

7. 1.

2. 5.

6. 8.

1. Celtic mock up

5. M free hand

2. Close up merge

6. Letter application

3. M entwined detail

7. Final submission

4. Various routes

8. Box application.

After drawing hundreds of squiggles I developed two into one clean form and mocked it up on a letter head and also the wooden box to the left. The box is a sample and will hold a hand crafted flute for all the guests of the wedding. This monogram signifying and celebrating their life together would be just one of various applications.

Marika & Malachi ‘M’ Monogram Some other explored routes that didn’t make the final cut for Chrys. But I quite like them and the process I went through.

Examples of other routes for the monogram. This is my favourite but then I’m not getting married and perhaps it isn’t that romantic as corporate with a tinge of cult thrown in for good measure?

This just remind me of the Marriot hotel ‘m’ it seems very commercial in sense but I dig the authority and sensitivity of the letter form although I believe they might want something more abstract. Next.

Delicate and sweet little loops and flicks. Much more feminine. They have just reminded me of spiders legs, but ignore that comment and appreciate. I like the loops the best, transfer those.

Hmm. Not quite sure the reflection is working to an advantage. Reads ‘m’ and ‘w’ interesting working with the negative spaces and symmetry but this just isn’t clear communication.

O K I know what you must be thinking one of three things. McDonalds, birds, or boobs/bottoms. A little curvy yes but there is a delicate touch with the smooth curves if you forgive the associations.

45 degree symmetry works well. The shape needs retouching as it really is starting to look like bums and boobs. Not the desired effect at all.

And here it is with out his better half. I think on it’s own it’s not bad, a bit of a moustache curler. But I think it’s going in the right direction. Even though the design in the last PDF page was chosen to present.

Greece is for Lovers

Promotional publication

GIFL have been passionately designing, producing and promoting their products, limited editions and one-off’s as well as exhibiting throughout the world, since 2006. Inspired by the stereotypical notion of what is widely held to be “Greek” their designs comment on habitual activities and behavioural patterns both of the past and the present.

Click logo to URL.

Chrys briefed me on GIFL and how they needed a draft publication for their exhibition in New York this summer (2011)I decided that it would be nice to combine the publication with the practicality of a poster promoting the various products they create. This would be integrated with the booklet and form a tangible and collectible promotional

Very interesting products and beautifully crafted. GIFL like to play with modern and traditional concepts of culture and often blur the lines between high end and low end affiliations with materials and products. I think that might be a great route to explore for them. Something beautifully crafted but with some clichéd aesthetic attached. After intensively reading through the branding guideline PDF for GIFL I set up my art boards, indesign document and character styles. It’s just a game of playing with their guidelines and knowing what style their going to go for.

2. 1. Greece Is For Lovers branding guidelines PDF 2. Indesign GIFL document set up, baseline grid shown

Greece is for Lovers The front cover of the A5 booklet would be attached to a A2 fold out double sided poster. The booklet would contain information on GIFL, their history, their products and contact details. The poster would provide a display for selected products and the reverse would be a typical cheesy poster playing on the name of the brand, featuring a Greek Lover.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Chrys insisted this favourable route.

These are the final iteration of the design for the client. Clearly showing the application of both formats and intended imagery, typography and compositional arrangement. 5. 1.

2. 6.

1. GIFL cover route one

6. Front cover poster one

2. GIFL cover route two

7. Front cover poster two

3. Illustrator screen shots

8. Selected products poster

4. InDesign screen shots

9. Greek lover poster - reverse

5. A5 booklet spreads

Setting up the art boards and checking the dimensions and scaling of objects relative to size.

All documents and clear heading of sizing, ready for export as PDF and sending off to client for approval.

Variation draft options for choice. All based around the poster and booklet combo.

Reflection After A month Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m glad to say that I was pleased with the time spent at Company. I tried to do as much as possible, learning by practice as well as observation and social interaction. Saying yes to everything has helped me to learn about stuff I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know and in exchange learn by a process of doing and enquiring. No point in keeping your head down and being quiet now is there? There were a lot of small bits and ongoing bobs and I was quite happy to drop everything that needed more attention even if not as creative or involving. I suppose the best thing from my perspective was to observe the language and communication in word and action from Alex, Chrys and Gernot toward each other and clients. I suppose they have a clearer level of formality and business tongue that I have yet to tame, master and fine tune. I learnt a lot of both practical and social skills through the time I spent at Company, which has given me the need to experience more and fine tune my capabilities in the industry. Working 9:30 to 6 does take itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s toll and doing any extra design work for yourself or freelance would prove to be a task in its self. Nevertheless a positive experience and one of many more to come hopefully.

Enjoy our Company www.company-london.com

studio@company-london.com T +44 (0)20 7209 4407

Title

Coffees a day E-mails a day Cursor = URL link. Useful links are displayed here.

↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓ ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓ ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓ ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓ ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓ ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓ ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓ ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

Timetric build economic data and analysis services. Developed by a team with experience at Thomson Reuters, the Financial Times, the Press Association, and research at universities of Cambridge and Frankfurt, they aggregate the best data in the world, whether public or private, and build databases and interfaces to help the best writers and analysts use it to explain our world.

48 This is the Timetric team whom I met on the first day. All extremely welcoming and intellectual, which was a bit intimidating, at first. Simon works part time and writes for the Timetric Byline section, dedicated to news on statistics and economy. Needless to say I got on well with all members of the team.

Simon Briscoe, VP Product

Jon Turner, Data lead

Toby White, Platform lead

Olga Pavlovsky, Business planner

Dan Wilson, Interface lead

Andrew Walkingshaw, CEO

Simon leads product design and data strategy. Prior to joining Timetric, Simon was the Statistics Editor at the Financial Times. Before that he was Managing Director of Research at Nikko Europe and a senior economist at SG Warburg and HSBC. He is an advisor to the OECD’s “Measuring the progress of societies” global project and is a director of Straight Statistics, a pressure

Jon leads the development of Timetric’s datacollection systems across all of their products. He studied computer science at the University of Manchester, and between graduation and Timetric, worked for Thomson Reuters as a senior developer designing and implementing systems for the collection and a distribution of real-time financial data.

Toby leads design and development of the Timetric Platform and its APIs. He is a global expert on using XML as a data interchange format in physics and chemistry (as a result of which he’s no particular fan of XML) and received his PhD in theoretical chemistry from the University of Cambridge in 2002. He writes (and releases open-source software) at eaddrinu.se.

Olga leads the business development activities at Timetric. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a telecoms industry analyst and business development manager for a start-up research firm. She was previously Sales Manager within the Press Association’s business information division. Olga is currently studying Economics at post-graduate level at the University of London, and holds a degree in Politics from the University of Sheffield.

Dan leads the design and development of the front-end of all Timetric products, across both web and mobile platforms. He received his PhD in computational chemistry from the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 2005. His website’s at dan-wilson. co.uk.

Andrew sets Timetric’s overall direction. He received his PhD in mineral physics from the University of Cambridge in 2007.

group that aims to detect and expose the distortion and misuse of statistical information. He has published several books, most recently “Panicology” (Penguin). He has been on the councils of the Royal Statistical Society and Society of Business Economists.

He’s @covert on Twitter and blogs at withpretext. com.

Meetings

There is a weekly sit down meeting where the team discuss the progress of their work and what they need to focus on in the coming week. A schedule is created there and then with post-its on a white board. Things to be brought up in the meetings occur in sequential order of priority. Toby and Dan usual lead the meetings. There’s also a stand up meeting every Wednesday around the studio desks. Everyone stands up - to make it short and sweet and quickly says what they’re working on currently and where they hope to be by the end of the day. I thrived off of this structure and it was great knowing what everybody had to do, so you knew how focused/ busy people where and when.

Essential post-it notes, these were usually carried over between weeks as there’s always more work than expected and it seems to take longer than you think. Timetric are highly organised team, I had my own shared Google calendar with Dan and Toby so they knew when and how long I was in for throughout my duration.

Location

23 The building is also shared with IDEO design consultancy who have the first and second floors. Other start up business who share the third floor with Timetric are:

I got the internship through Darren Raven. He befriended Dan Wilson who was my mentor throughout the placement.

http://smarkets.com/

We agreed on a flexible internship of a few days a week as I had other projects alongside and also because I could only do so much for them within a week, there didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seem much point in being in every day.

https://picklive.com/ http://www.stylistpick.com/

To name but a few.

After our initial meeting and showing him a selection of my work and projects, he told me about Timetric and what they do.

The placement was for three weeks and during that time I adapted and adopted as much as possible. Working surrounded by many start up businesses was a great way to meet people outside of your specialism. It had a electric atmosphere and ethos of work, or perhaps that was the vat of coffee keeping everyone jacked up and working early to late hours.

Aesthetic Analysis

5 Dan seemed to like the logo below comprising of the four key circles in the Timetric logo, but with a slight opacity and molecular structure it begins to look more scientific than economic.

After introductions and familiarities I had to learn the aesthetic language currently used by Timetric. Dan sent over some files for reference so I could gain a better understanding. I began by noting the swatches and building a branding document with all necessary details. I played around with their logo and colour scheme to see how far I could push their aesthetic before it was unrecognizable. The fonts on the Timetric include: Header text - Helvetica 24pt and 14pt for sub headings, while their main body text is Palatino 12pt.

Core colour scheme in Timetricâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s branding. #1B95D9 Blue #86D1E4 Light blue #F05E27 Red/ Orange #BFD855 Light Green

Icons for saved web pages and iphone/ ipad application.

Icons Looking at many pages I noticed a distinct lack of icons to Timetricâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s text heavy website. I decided to analyse what pages would benefit from having icons and where in the site they could be most useful. I started with some key terms and tried visualising them into comprehensive images. I looked at key user friendly sites such as Flickr, Tumblr and Vimeo to examine their icons applications.

26 The Icon below shows a simple world wide exchange or recycle of transmission. I hope.

Icons These are the final icons I create for specific marketing pages and information pages within the Timetric site. I enjoyed the process of trying to capture a meaning or words into one graphic visual. It involves a lot of reduction and clear imagery. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve done a bad job. All in black and white, but should be applied on the site with specific colour gradients in accordance with colour palettes. Name: Set - dataset

Name: Scale wesbite not budget

Name: Index - Indexes

Name: Byline - data in the news

Name: Attract new readers

Name: The best graphs

Name: Who is Chartroom for?

Name: Deliver insight to customers

Location: Chartoom

in real time

Use

Location: Benchmark

Name: Share data worldwide

Name: Our universe of public data

Location: Benchmark

Name: About Timetric platform - Cloud

Name: About Timetric platform

Location: Chartroom - General

Location: General

Name: Share data with partners

Name:

Name

Name: Share data with partners

Location: Chartroom

http://www.thenounproject.com/ http://www.kare.com/

Name: Keep Audience coming back

http://www.all-sorts.biz/ http://helveticons.ch/z Name: Share data worldwide Location: Benchmark

Name: About Timetric platform - Cloud Location: Benchmark

Name

The best graphs

Location: Benchmark

Name:

Feel free to zoom in to the icons.

The best graphs

Location Use

Visual Landscape A big part of my time was initially spent analysing Timetric’s aesthetics or lack of and what they would like to see and naturally what they would not. This was essential for me to be productive and produce work for them that they would actually use. I didn’t want to waste my time or theirs! So I asked for a competitive landscape list of URL’s so I could cross analyse them with what they need or could use. Dan showed me a great application called ‘Littlesnapper’ - great at organising your screen shots.

9 From: Andrew Walkingshaw <andrew@timetric.com> Date: 8 February 2011 14:36:17 GMT Subject: Competitive landscape Closest, in style if not visual positioning: http://datamarket.com/ http://chartfacts.com/ Wider space: http://finance.google.com/ http://finance.yahoo.com/ http://ycharts.com/ http://markets.ft.com/ I quite like the corporate styles of: http://factual.com/ http://simplegeo.com/ http://cloudmade.com/

SVG Buttons

After analysing Timetricâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visual landscape Dan briefed me on a change in the button interface for all their graphs. The old graphics used for the buttons needed a little refresh and more consistency with Timetricâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visual identity and colours scheme. The old buttons are pictured below and are pretty ordinary to say the least. Playing round and noting the various states of the buttons to make sure that the variation between selections was clear I began to inject a little life and colour into the design. Only a little though.

Vector vs. bitmap graphics at arbitrary zoom level. The joy of designing in vector means you get to consider more on the design and less on the restrictions of pixels or bitmap graphics.

http://www.streamhead.com/ vector-vs-bitmap-side-by-side-svgpng-in-flash/ http://www.itk.ilstu.edu/faculty/ javila/svg/SVG_overview/svg-vsbitmap.htm http://www.ibm.com/ developerworks/web/library/wasvgbitmap/ Zoom out

Full screen

Help menu

Graph menu options

SVG Buttons

These are the finalised buttons for the Timetric SVG graphs. How sexy are these now aye? I never though I would be saying that about a minute piece of pixel graphics. But yes a little improvement. These we’re all made in Illustrator and converted to symbols attaching the scale position to top left, so that when Dan implements them in Adobe Flex. This turns the symbol into an SVG - scalable vector graphic, that is easily manipulated for web and interactive use.

Appearance Rollover Selection Revert

Click on the embed link to view buttons.

Mocking up web buttons with gradients and bubble 3D effects is quite a lot of fun. But it made me question why everything needs to look tangible and ‘glossy’ to temp users in clicking or scrolling? It’s quite interesting designing with the user in mind, as their end user of the design interaction or system your producing.

Illustrator symbol buttons make the conversion process and application of SVG images much easier.

Design

Before I left Timetric I expressed to Dan that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to try my hand at some web design and coding. What a fool! Ha no, it was eye opening and naturally a lot to take in for a novice such as myself. Timetric needed a marketing page for a new smart phone report that was being produced for them to sell and they wanted a specific page for that. I got briefed by Andrew and Olga who were both writing content and organising the imminent report. I sketched out a few plans and created a 24 column grid from blueprint CSS to base the whole design onto which would make it easier when coding.

http://w/ http://960.gs/ http://www.thegridsystem.org/

Above are the specific icons for the call to action buttons used in the marketing page. Again these where transformed into symbols and edited into SVGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s.

Css

The next stage was to butcher, sorry I mean code my Illustrator design into Html and CSS. Html sets up the page and CSS styles the graphics within the Html. I was lucky enough to have a huge screen attached to my tiny little Mac this and my Waccom tablet helped a lot. On one of my screens was the program Textmate and the other was CSS edit a relatively easy program for creating and editing CSS content. Using these two programs back and forth I managed,to get something appear on screen and start building up my page.

The various windows I had open while designing between programs. The actual page beginning to take shape. I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t expect you to be as excited as I initially was.

Coding

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m no where near good or even O K at coding. I found it a huge challenge and great to learn more about (there is so so much) I guess it was a test for me to partition my brain between programmer and designer. The void between these two vocations (if you can call it that) seems quite distinct and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to know more about stuff I have no idea about. To put it simply. Coding was painful but so rewarding once you start clicking and realising what stuff does and means and how to manipulate it the way you want. Trial and error and all in good time are the two most vital pieces of information I can offer.

http://raphaeljs.com/ http://jquery.com/ https://github.com/djw/raphlot Turning my designs into code proved hard at first but like many things it gets easier the more you do it. Also staring at a screen of text no matter what colour the background i not great for my eyes or brain.

Page Some minor tweaks later and this is my final design, currently operational. Please click the image below to be whisked away there. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s simple and clean and user friendly, I wish it was more but Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m proud to say that I designed and coded it all. I guess I have caught the web bug I want more people to see/ use my page and also to make it more user friendly. This will take some time.

17 http://macrabbit.com/cssedit/ http://macromates.com/ http://www.panic.com/coda/ http://960.gs/

Full page layout above. Image left is creation in progress.

Glossary

API -

Application Programming Interface

SVG -

Scalable Vector Graphics

CPI -

Consumer price index

RPI -

Retail price index

OECD -

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

NDA -

Non-disclosure agreement

HTML -

HyperText Markup Language

CSS -

Cascading Style Sheets programming

ONS -

Office for National Statistics

FRED -

Federal Reserve Economic Data

PYTHON -

JAVA -

A interpreted, general-purpose high-level programming language, whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability.

A programming language released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystemsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Java platform.

http://www.eggcorns.lascribe.net/ http://www.matisse.net/files/glossary.html

CRAWLER -

http://www.sharpened.net/glossary/ http://www.netlingo.com/

This process is called Web crawling or spidering. Many sites, in particular search engines, use spidering as a means of providing up-to-date data.

http://www.webopedia.com/ http://timetric.com/help/acronyms/

TRAWL -

Trawling means to fish from a boat with a net, but we also troll the Internet to hook some tasteful tidbits of information.

DRILL -

In information technology, to move from summary information to detailed data by focusing in on something.

http://timetric.com/help/economic-glossary/

Dan Wilson Joe worked with the Timetric team for three weeks in February, as our first in-house designer. As such, his first tasks were to help us improve the user interface of some of the unattractive, yet highlytrafficked, areas of our site. The first of these was our graphing component, which is currently viewed by 100k+ users per month on sites such guardian.co.uk and ft.com. Joe refreshed its various icons, which made a substantial improvement. He also spent some time considering the user experience of the component, specifically on how to improve the intuitiveness and discoverability of the widget’s features. Joe then spent some time learning about the products we offer, and produced graphics for their marketing pages. Joe’s final project was to design, from scratch, a page for the launch of a new product, from Photoshop designs through to graphics and mockups using HTML and CSS. The results of this (after some minor tweaking) are live on the site now. Despite being here for only a short time, Joe integrated himself into the team, understood our products and the problems we were facing, and managed to help us in a number of key areas.

Reflection Learning something that I have had no training, education or much experience in, is daunting at first but rising to the challenge and progression usually follows. This is what interests me, the challenge and the learning. I find my experience in timetric has given me the chance to mix with a different crowd, on a fundamental level, but significantly I’ve made connections out side of the typical circle of design. The little bits of information I picked up on helped me piece together a better picture of the way in which back end and front end design for the web coexist. Revealing this mystery myself by challenging what I know and building upon it will help me relate and communicate the needs for web based design to the client, audience and the developers and programmers who I will be working with to achieve the results. I was fortunate with the colleges I got to work with, who understood my position and where very happy for me to work alongside them and ask a lot of questions. It is definitely a field of the design industry that has consistently been growing rapidly, mostly due to more commercial ventures, start up businesses and products or services. These more lucrative fields offer perhaps more money than creativity. That might not win you a yellow pencil, but as a source of bread and butter in these times of economic impotence adaption hasw to be made.

“I really like the stuff you did for us... do keep in touch. Sorry to land you with the brainfuck that is CSS at the end. At some point I guess it’ll just click, so stick with it!” - Dan