K. I. S. S.
CONT E NT S,
Intro, Geometry, Hat Trick, Quotes, NB Studio, Printing, 2B, Grids, Installations, Penguin books, Space, Colour, Photography, Swiss Design, Remix, Collaboration, Coding, Architecture, Nature, Art Gallery’s, Handmade, Process, Vintage, Publications, Blogs, Playful, A - M - Z,
P06-07 P08-09 P10-11 P12-13 P14-15 P16-17 P18-19 P20-21 P22-23 P24-25 P26-27 P28-29 P30-31 P32-33 P34-35 P36-37 P38-39 P40-41 P42-43 P44-45 P46-47 P48-49 P50-51 P52-53 P54-55 P56-57 P58-59
I N TRO,
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This publication documents some of my inspiration and influences I have had over the summer of 2011. It includes a critical reflection on my own work in comparison to others. I hope to use this knowledge and experience in my own working practice, to develop myself as a designer.
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SIMPLICITY I try to incorporate interesting shapes to my work
G E OME T RY,
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Fun with creativity The talk Gareth Howat gave was hugely inspirational
H AT T RICK,
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In the latest issue of Eye magazine features Hat Trick. A London based studio which I greatly admire. The work featured is a collection of stamps to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the UK’s Royal Mail Company (RSC). Gareth Howat of Hat Trick previously visited our university (U.C.A) and I took an instant liking to their quirky and fun approaches to briefs. This is something I believe I can do in order to succeed in the design industry. They make design look so simple which is the best complement I guess you can make for designers. The Natural History Museum project ‘bringing learning to life’ is one of my favourite of theirs. The way one sheet of paper can be made into a fun interactive piece is to be admired. Through careful cutouts they make learning fun of which children would love. Minimal imagery and carefully placed text is something I want to develop in my style. I really used to enjoy making things using the environment just like two
years ago when a group of students helped graphic designer Vaughan Oliver to create the title pages of the magazine ‘Elephant’. However since then I have decided to focus more on improving my design techniques such as page layout and typography which I felt where weak. This would put me in a better position by learning and developing key aspects in design. I feel now I am heading in the right direction for my last year at university and will build on developing my skills so that I am fully equipped when I am looking for work within the industry. Gareth strongly emphasised when showing Hat Trick’s work that you need to enjoy the work your doing, otherwise what is the point? This made me think much about the work I now produce and I feel this has impacted recently on the standard I have set myself. That talk Gareth’s talk would have been hugely inspirational to everyone and hopefully one day I can be part of a team like his. 11
Inspirational quotes Alan Dye from NB Studio said that you should always look to create something new and gave the example of 1 + 1 = 3
Q UOT ES,
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Inspiration Makes challenging briefs look easy and fun
NB ST UDI O,
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One day I would love to join somewhere like NB Studio. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit their studio earlier this year. It is everything I dreamed a design studio to be. Full of inspiration, a social workstation and in the heart of London. A group of us from university met the team in their studio and Alan Dye the creative director talked through some of their projects with us. They cover all media’s from print to web and their work is hugely inspirational. Their approach to projects as explained by Alan are very clever and interesting. Alan was full of jokes and reflected on his time with NB Studio. Sometimes I feel I need to relax when I get stressed out about projects. This will not lead to any success. I need to reflect and look on the bright side always. This will hopefully then come across in the work I create. Alan said to ‘make effortless work’ and ‘don’t think about the ending’. For whatever reason I sometimes do this
and it leads to less effective work. I need to let the ideas be the main focal point and not think of how I can get to the end. Hopefully in the future I will do this always and become a better designer. There were four points he said NB studio use when approaching a brief: great idea clear thinking crafted expression collaborative approach If I apply these four simple points to each project I get in the future hopefully I will produce better work. After I left that day it gave me such a buzz to go out and start designing my own stuff. Alan Dye was such an inspiration and would love to be part of their team one day. That dream will never come true without hardwork and to continue to develop as a designer. The most important thing I learnt was to ‘make effortless work’. 15
Experimentation From proof printing to screen printing, I enjoy investigating different outcomes
PRINT ING,
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There’s nothing like a pencil I enjoy sketching out designs and layouts before I take it to the computer
2 B,
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They make your work look nice I always try to keep my work to a grid
G RIDS,
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Bigger is better I don’t like being confined to a sketchbook and try to take some of my ideas onto a bigger scale
I N S TALL ATI ONS,
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TIMELESS DESIGNS I recently was given the history of the penguin front cover designs which I love
PENGUIN B OOKS,
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I was very fortunate to recieve the ‘Penguin by Design’ cover story 19352005 as a gift. I have always been fond of their logo and modern book designs but I didn’t know much about their great history. Flicking through the publication, it is laced with fantastic design work and a ray of vibrant colours. This is something I want to introduce into my own work. At times I have been almost scared to use colour as it is such an important topic in design and can easily select the wrong colour for the work. My favourite Penguin book covers are from the around the 1940’s, where grids, colour, and typography where most emphasised I felt. ‘Keep It Short and Simple’ fits this kind of work. Looking over these covers the artists make design look so simple which is the best complement I guess you could make. They use a simple horizontal grid to lay out the information and images. After read through the book over the summer Penguin have kept their covers
fresh by appointing different designers and artists. I need to create a unique style which forever adapts to keep my work fresh and current. My work within the last years has always been away from computers and sketchbooks and to create spontaneous things in the surrounding just like the work I did with Vaughan Oliver. However now I believe I can mix this with the skills I am aquiring now with strong use of grids and typography. I have always been fond of shapes and structure since studying architecture in at college. This is still something I like to incorporate in my own work. Penguins designs I feel are like architecture themselves with strong use of shapes to build a great covers. I would like to see myself create a unique style just like Jan Tschichold’s had and took design to the next level. This will be done through hard work and developing my knowledge of type and layout.
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Room to work I like to work in spacious areas
S PA C E,
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Gives work life Adding colour brings life to my work
COL OUR,
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Goodbye novice, hello semi pro Became frustrated with blurry pictures and lack of knowledge
PH OT OGRAPHY,
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Over the summer I I purchased a DSLR camera. Since I have been at university I have created what I felt where strong visual pieces of work. However the way in which I photgraphed it did not live up to the work itself. I felt that perhaps if I brought my own personal camera I would learn tips to get the sharpest and best photos to show off my work. I have learnt most things from my peers such as Justin Devon Moore who has a wide knowledge of photography. I would grab my camera out when he was around my house and ask him: what does this do ? what would happen if ? how do I ? Along with trial and error I feel I am better equipped to take crisp pictures. I have also looked at people’s work and thought, (they must have done this or that to create that image. It’s still a topic I am learning today. I didn’t realise how much there is to learn about a camera
to create professional images. I now take my time when photographing work as I appreciate that it is such a key aspect in design. When I look back through portfolio’s most notably two years ago when I just started university. I included out of focus images and pictures which have not been edited. This was because I guess I just didn’t know how to use a camera properly. I have tried to improve on my weaknesses, which did include: photography, coding and typography. Three key topics in graphic design. By reading up and trying to experiment with each I now feel I am heading in the right direction. I now use software such as Adobe Bridge where it makes it so easy to organise photos. Looking through all the meta data I understand now there is so much to photography and wish I started to take it more seriously earlier on in my life. I hope to develop my skills and have a wider knowlege on the subject. 31
Design at it’s best Ultimate inspiration through typography, layout and colour
S WISS DE S IGN,
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Creating something unique I like reinterpreting other people work to create something new and excited
R E MIX,
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More the merrier I particularly enjoy working in groups and sharing ideas
C OLL ABO RAT ION,
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Time consuming Building a website from scratch is one of the hardest challenges I have set myself
CODING,
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I set myself a goal in the summer which was to create a wesbite. Although it is still not up and running it is almost finished. Just a bit of tweaking remains. Coding was a very daunting subject before summer, something I felt only ‘geeks’ could do. However I felt it was important to get a portfolio website to show off my work in order to gain work. I took advantage of the summer holidays by reading over website software such as Dreamweaver. I was told prior to using it, that it is fairly easy to use and would be a good way to build my website. After an introduction to html and css I didnt waste any time. I soon sketched out and designed how I wanted my website to look. When building my website there were so many times where I just wanted to give up as I became stuck or something just was not working right. However I perservered and am very happy I did. Hopefully all of this will get me a full time job. Although I didnt particularly enjoy creating my website I
felt it was vital I made one. I plan to use the wesbite to show off my best work. Any work which I feel is not good enough will be replaced so that the quality is high.It will also give each piece of work on there greater importance. Although I don’t see my future being in web design I still am going to try and learn more and hopefully be able to build a wesbsite from scratch. Perhaps again next summer while looking for work I will try to study it full time on my own. I would now feel quite comfortble helping someone to build their own in order to gain a better knowledge myself. I plan to make another website when mine is up and running on the web to try and make it better and continue learning.
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Design is everywhere I get just as excited at seeing beautifully built strucures as I do with graphic design
ARCHITE CT URE,
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God’s greatest creation I enjoy making work in the environment
NATURE,
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Mull over design I enjoy discovering new artists and buying pieces of work
ART G ALL E RY’S,
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Finest flair I like to mix handmade design with digital
HANDMADE,
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Attention to detail I very much enjoy using a variety materials
P ROCESS,
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Still remains young I admire timeless designs
VINTAGE,
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Keeping up to date with design I enjoy having tacticle publications, rather than seeing them on the internet
P UBL ICATIONS,
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Endless inspiration I scroll through a vast amount of blogs to get motivated to do my own work, such as Boooom, Ignant, Twitter, Tumblr, The Dieline, Design You Trust, Swiss Legacy, Many Stuff, Creative Review
BL O GS,
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While over the summer I tried to keep up to date with work creatives had done. This is made so simple through blogs such as: ‘It’s Nice That, ‘Ignant’ ‘Boooooooom’ etc. Any time I had free, I would scroll through work and admire the wide range there is to see. I myself have a ‘Tumblr’ blog where I upload my own work and also reblog things of interests to me. My friends on there are constantly posting up intersting things I may have never seen. It also widens my knowledge of not only graphic design but art in general. Photography, typography, design, architecture, fine art are all things that I like to look at. We no longer have to go the lastest exhibition or show to see someone work. We can sit at home and view in our own pleasure while also reading up on the artist. Blogs such as ‘Twitter’ make it easy to see what professional designers are doing and what they like. Writer Adrian Shaughnessy is always posting interesting things online. Many gallerys also have
blogs of upcoming events and interesting pieces of work. I posted a print up not so long ago and was later re posted on seperate blog, then someone psoted it on a ‘we <3 print’ website, which was fantastic. You get instant exposure to the world. This last and final year is all about externalising your work and this is a great, quick way to do so. Visiting websites such as ‘Ignant’ has broadened my mind to whats happening in the world. The website itself is updated every day and so makes the next day visiting just as exciting as the last. I have made a favourites folder in my web browser under the name ‘inspirations’. Many of the wesbites where through blog sites where I found artists and designers which I like. Where will blogs go next. It’s quite scary as it has already taken over the world. Hopefully one day I may feature in many blogs I visit or even better perhaps to be the founder of popular one. 55
Having fun with design I try to make play around with processes to create new and excited projects
P L AYF UL,
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Everything I like A list of things I enjoy in my life
A- M-Z,
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A Adobe Suite, Alan Fletcher, Alcohol, Architecture, Ampersands, Arrows, Apple, Adidas, Alan Fletcher, Acetate, America, Acronyms, Athletics , Art, Australia B Blue, Base, Bars, Baths, Black and white, Billboards, Business Cards, Beer, Bed, Bauhaus, Bubbles, Buildings, Bricks, Books C Cards, Clubs, Courier, Circles, CMYK, Chat shows, Cash, Concerts, Clean, Bookcases, Computers, Creative Review, Camera, Cars, Camping, Collaboration, Creativity, Colour, Commas,Cake D Digital, DJ, Design, Dessert, E English, Emboss, Everything must go, Eye Magazine, Editorial Eating, Experimentation F Flickr, Form, Football, Films, Friends, Finland, Full stop, Futuristic G Gallerys, Green, Grafik, Graffiti, Games, Grids, Graphics H Highlights, Hairlines, Halftone, Heat, Helvetica, Handmade, Home, Hip Hop, Hat-trick, Holiday, History, Hue I Ikea Illustrations, Invert, Indesign, Idents, Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Nice That, Ignant, Interviews, Information graphics, Ideas, Ice, Internet, Installations, Imagery J Japan Jack Daniels, JWT, Jeans K Keyring L Lines, Left alignement, Libary, Letterpress, Leading, Love, Logos, Liverpool f.c., London, Leather, Lino, Lenses, Levis, Laughing, Laser cut M Messing around, Milton Glaser Microsoft, Meat, Mother, Macro lens, Magazines, Mobile phone, Moon, MF Doom, Martin Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neill, Music, Modern, Mono N Numbers, Navy Blue, New, NB Studio, Nike, Nas O Olives, Outside P People, Pubs, Pencils, Paint Perservering, Pentagram, Packaging, Posters, Print, Pick Me Up, Paper, Paracetamol, Pictures, Pens Q Quiche, Queensbridge R Raw photos, RGB, Running, Roast Dinner, Rock music, Relaxing, S Stefan Sagmeister, Saul Bass Spirits, Structure, Showers, Socks, Shirts, Samsung, Screen printing, Supermarket, Swimming pool, Simplicity, Space, Sports, Sticky toffee pudding, Stars, Snowboarding, Style, Swimming, Sitting, Serif, Sans serif, Slab serif, Shape T Tripod, Typewriter, Typography, Tupak Shakur, Trainers, Technology, Typographic Circle, Television , Talking, Tesco, Time, Twitter, Television U, Underline, Umbrella, U.C.A, Urban Outfitters V Volume,Vimeo, Video Vans, Volkswagen, Vibrant W William Shakespeare, Websites, World, Water, Warmth, Watch, Wim Crouwel X Xmen Y Youtube, Yellow Z Zoo
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keep it shor t & simple.