David Rees PDF portfolio

Year 2 Graphic Design Semester 2 Portfolio

SEMESTER OVERVIEW

1. Type of brief: What type of project do you feel you best respond to – is it a “tight brief ” with very clear guidelines and demands or an “open” brief where the outcomes are far more open and unspecified?

Unfortunately i am kind of on the fence on this one, it all depends on what the brief is. If its a brief that i can link to my interests then i respond better to an open brief. However if it is a brief on a topic that i know nothing about i feel i respond better when it is a “tight brief ”.

2. Integral elements: Are there integral elements that often form key elements within your work – in other words does photography play an important part in you work or is it typography or illustration or hand drawn lettering or a text and image relationship. What have you identified and how do you wish to develop this?

I have found that this year photography has crept up a lot in my designs and it is something that i have started to take more of an interest in and taken more seriously. I am a fan of typography but when related to a specific genre, and i would like to try and have a go at more illustrative design through vector artwork. I would like to continue my found interest in photography and try and take it and produce design work around it.

3. Success: What are your strengths? Where have you been most successful? What do you think was the reason for that positive experience?

I think my strengths still come from my development work and my initial ideas, however i do feel that i am starting to ever so slightly improve with the quality of my finals, especially when the projects relate to my interests. I think the reason for this is i have found parts/areas of design that i really like and would like to develop.

4. Problems: Where have the problems arisen; have you been able to overcome them?

I’m not sure if i have really come across too many problems this semester, i think maybe my illustrator and Photoshop skills could still be improved. I do slightly feel like i have got worse at design in a sense. I feel that i have forgotten a lot of rules this year, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

5. Personality: What are you interested in, what are you about?

Do you feel you have been able to introduce your personality and interests in your work. In what creative direction do you want to proceed?

I’m interested in many things such as vector art, urban style design and type, extreme sports culture, fashion and magazines, photography, book design and much more. I think that i have developed a broader interest in design.

However i still want to be involved in design within the extreme sports sector. Which is why i need to start including even more personality and style into my work. I do feel that i have been able to inject more of myself into my work especially with the manifesto, summative and editorial projects we have had this year.

Photo book

Manifesto

Meltdown Poster

University Logo

VISUAL SUMMARY

D&AD Whisky Brief

DANDAD PROJECT

INTRODUCTION 1. Which brief did you choose and what opportunities and constraints did you identify in relation to the brief? Which aspects of your initial research have influenced your design work?

I chose to do the whisky brief as i had not had a go at package design before and was interested to see what i could come up with. I felt there was a lot of scope with this brief as we had the opportunity to completely re-market whisky.

In the sense that it we were allowed to break the traditions and norms of what whisky packaging should look like. The constraints that i noticed was to try and stay away from stereotypes but in the end i kind of ignored that anyway. I think i was influenced by nearly everything i looked at to be honest, but i think looking at certain stereotypes of what women like pushed me towards my final design in the end.

2. Explain the concept you have come up with?

The concept that i came up with is quite simple really. For me whisky is a luxury brand and i wanted to take that idea and turn it into something that would appeal to a young female audience. This is where i played on the stereotypes and came up with “jewel whisky” based on the idea of expense, quality and preciousness. The packaging was designed to be bright and colourful in order to stand out against all the other products on the market. At the same time i didn’t want to over complicate the design, so i don’t go for anything that was odd or strange about the way you drank the product. I wanted my product to be able to sell in supermarkets as well as in bars and clubs.

3. Do you feel you have successfully met the creative demands of the brief? Indicate how you have done this or where the flawed decisions have adversely affected the design solution.

I feel i did successfully meet the demands of the brief, i created something that was fresh vibrant and completely different to what was out there on the market. However I think maybe i played to much on the stereotypes for the final design with the choice of colours. At the same time i wanted something that would almost shock the eyes and cause people to be intrigued by what they were seeing. It took me a long time to get the final idea though and it would have been nice to be able to design something that could have been physically held or photographed.

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MELTDOWN POSTERS

University logo

INTRODUCTION

MANIFESTO

1. What ideas were you trying to communicate through your written manifesto?

I was trying to communicate the way that i live/ wanted to live my life and who i was as a designer. I wanted to try and reflect myself through my points and through the design of the final manifesto. Even if some of the points i made may seem generic and similar to others they are all points that mean something to my or points that i genuinely believe in. The points i made aren’t about a specific subject they are about how to see life in general.

2. Explain how you translated your written concept into a visual artifact? Explain how you feel you have done justice to your concept. If you haven’t, tell us what improvements you would make?

Well seeing as the manifesto i wrote was about myself i wanted a design that reflected me and who i was as a person.

I wanted it to reflect my personality and the things that i am interested in. I feel i managed this with the photos i took and the style and colours i used to complete the final piece. I wanted something that would stand out a little when opened and draw in the viewer. I think the final piece does reflect me as i tried to include all the things that interest me in design.

Improvements that i would make would maybe try and take it back to my initial ideas. I felt i had to change them all the time in order to work with the constraints i had set myself. I spent too long playing around with type and wasn’t confident with the choices i was making half way through the project.

This is something that i need to go back over and work on as a designer.

3. Having written and designed your manifesto, how do you think can: use it to inform/direct your process? to bring your own agenda to design problems? to suggest directions for future exploration?

I think that because this project was such a personal brief it changed the way i looked at it and how i approached it.

Because it was reflecting me i wanted it to really show my personality and my interests. I think i put more of how i want to design into it, which i think lead to a stronger design in the end. I felt it was important to get everything right which is why i think i had such a hard time with choosing typefaces, images and layouts during the final stages. I could definitely take the idea further as there were aspects that i didn’t get to include such as varnishing which i wanted to do on the front cover. I would also like to see if i could make it work with my original idea as i felt it had the potential to be really good if executed properly. The way i dealt with problems on this was to stick to colour and style restraints and tweak it so it always reflected me.

The Manifesto 01. Be Selfish.

Well sometimes anyway. Take the time to think about yourself and make sure your life going the way you want it to. There is no harm in thinking this way from time to time. It will probably keep you sane in the long run.

02. Don’t be selfish.

I know, I know, I’m contradicting myself a little. However you should spend 95% of your time helping and looking out for the most important people in your life. You will feel better about yourself. Its all about the karma. Spend the other 5% on yourself.

03. De-clutter.

Get rid of crap. Seriously. (Unless its too damn cool not to).

Hoarding isn’t healthy, in the long run it will drag you down and you will have to get rid of it. Do you really want to end up being on a channel 4 documentary...?

04. Haters will hate.

There will always be people who will try and put you down. To be honest, they aren’t worth it. Cut them out your life and crack on with the things that make your ticker tick. Your life will really be better without them.

05. Don’t take shit.

If you don’t agree with something then to be quite frank stand up for yourself and say something. Stick to your beliefs, you will find that the majority of people will respect you for it.

06. Spend the dosh you earn.

If you have spent hours of hard graft earning cash, then spend it.

Only save money if you are actually going to buy something with it. Letting it sit there wont benefit you. Enjoy it while you have it.

07. Chill out.

Always make the effort to take time out from work and business to play. Do whatever makes you smile, from chess to skydiving.

Working 7 days a week isn’t healthy, down time is essential. Oh and eat lots of cake and chocolate bourbons. They are incredible, enough said.

08. Look good.

There is nothing wrong with taking pride in your appearance.

Obviously there is a thin line between proudness and vanity...

Don’t take it to far. Accept and appreciate fashion its nice to look good, your body is all you have make the most of it.

09. 3 Musketeers.

Being popular isn’t all its cracked up to be, when the shit hits the fan you will soon see who your true friends are. Keep a close group of friends, you will find that they will always be there for you no matter what. Having 3 close friends are better than 100 friends.

10. Stay creative.

This is important, well for the creative folk out there. Even if being creative is just baking a cake, it doesn’t always have to be design related. Most importantly do it for yourself, time will fly by and you will always be proud of creation.

11. Skate culture.

We could all take a lesson from the extreme sports culture.

A multimillion pound industry that gets stuff done, yet stills manages to have fun and chill out. What could be better than that? Take note.

12. Don’t over think your future.

Take each day as it comes, I know what your thinking, cliché right? Well your right but at the end of the day you never know what will happen or who you will meet each day. Opportunities pop up from anywhere. Don’t let your plans for the future control who you are.

13. Hard graft.

Work hard. Go Far. Simple.

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PHOTOGRAPHERS BOOK

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

1. How will you develop and broaden your technical abilities?

I think for me i am going to spend a lot of the summer working on my technical skills and going back over layout, typography, grids to help refresh and confirm that i do know what i am doing. I am going to practice my Photoshop.

InDesign and illustrator skills so i am ready and confident to take on my final year knowing that i will be able to produce high quality design work. I also plan on doing some commission work for people to help build my portfolio and increase my confidence.

2. How will you develop and broaden you knowledge of contemporary practice in relation to your own interests?

As i said before i will set a lot of personal projects for myself, i will completely redesign my website and add more personality and style. To hopefully make it more accessible and functional. I have a few commission jobs and potential photo shoots in the pipeline that will help keep me busy and are related to things I’m interested in. I subscribe to quite a few mags etc so i am constantly looking at areas and subjects that i enjoy. This will help guide and strengthen my design.

I may try and get some work experience within a company that is related to my interests so that i can get an idea of what its really like out there and whether it is an area i want to pursue in the future.

3. How will you nurture and develop you current strengths?

To be honest the same ways that i have said in the previous question. I will try and set myself some day projects and week projects in order to keep the same frame of mind that i have at the minute. I will keep doing development work and looking at the areas of design that interest me and appeal to me the most.

4. Where do you need to strengthen your game and more importantly how are you going to make this happen. What action needs to take place?

I would definitely same the areas i need to improve on are my abilities to produce a final piece. Still. I am getting better but i think going into next year its important i feel confident doing it rather than unsure. Think the best way for me to improve on this is to do more commercial work and set myself lots of personal projects that i can put onto my website and into my portfolio. Definitely need to improve on my computer skills and improve the knowledge i have on the print process so that i can understand what can and cant be done and why. It might be worth doing some work experience at a printers in order to help understand these concepts better.

Email: daveyr13@gmail.com Tel: 07766240257 Web: www.daveyr.co.uk Instagram: daveyr13