PORTFOLIO 2013
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i'm j
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jordan
(BUT YOU PROBABLY KNOW THAT BY NOW) I am a graduate of BIAD’S (Birmingham Institute of Art & Design) Visual Communication course. Over the three years of study I have been involved in various projects over multiple specialisms to broaden my skill set and versatility as a designer. This book features a collection of work for my interview with EMC design. It consists of projects created in my final year of University, competition briefs and other work.
PROJECT
01
“Create an original cover illustration for Little White Lies magazine, depicting the main character of one of our five favourite films of 2011”
This brief challenged the designer to create a unique magazine cover for one of the films provided within the brief. The films that Little White Lies gave as options were Black Swan, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, DRIVE, The Tree of Life and Super 8. Each film Little White Lies had chosen to be in their “favourite films of 2011” had soared in box office figures and was a controlling favourite within consumer ratings. So naturally, being an absolute film geek, I had seen them all prior to the briefs announcement and was instantly drawn to it due to its nature and demands. The illustration had to represent and personify the lead character of the film. This brief was appealing as I had set myself the objective of refining my drawing skills and practising the different techniques incorporated in both illustration and digital illustration. I decided to produce 4 magazine covers rather than one to ensure that I tested and refined my skills thoroughly.
Little White Lies
PROJECT
02
“... produce a set of three typographically-focused A2 outdoor posters (landscape or portrait) that act as a three month advertising campaign for Ministry of Sound’s iconic London event ‘Saturday Sessions’...”
This brief required the designer to produce a set of three typographically-focused posters that acted as a three month advertising campaign for Ministry of Sound’s ‘Saturday Sessions’. The blurred imagery is used to give a sense of movement & motion in an attempt to recreate the hazy atmosphere that you experience in clubs and the vagueness of your memory the morning after, we all have hangovers. To create the imagery we built a fire (probably could have used a regular light, but where is the fun in that) and used a slow shutter speed on my digital camera to force the creation of M, O and S characters. I also had to use the brand colours of the Ministry of Sound as well as provided copy and their logo.
ministry of sound
PROJECT
03
“Create a magazine that appeals to student culture in order to assist with answering my dissertation title of ‘Has digital publishing caused the downfall of traditional print publishing’.”
SPOILT magazine was an original brief created for my negotiated Project. I wanted to produce a magazine that had a replicable theme throughout, which in the end was represented by colour and shape relationship with a consistent typeface throughout. By incorporating these factors it would make the magazine more navigable and visually appealing for the reader. The content within the magazine has a wide variety which account for music, arts, fashion and world problems that were apparent at the time. The identity and content were created to portray the audience in which the magazine is aimed at, and this gritty street theme is represented throughout the magazine through photography and subject theme. Upon reflection, this was the first piece of editorial design I had created so looking back at it now there are a lot of factors that I would change, such as sizing of type, family typefaces and layout consideration.
spoilt magazine
PROJECT
04
“Making myself stand out in the crowd�
Like many others, I am looking for a job. It is a very tough and disheartening time for many people, like myself, and everyone is looking to make a lasting impression on the companies they are applying too. This is where I used my head, for once, and decided to create a self promotional style booklet that would not only give the person reading something different to look at after flicking through countless C.V's and also give the reader a more in depth insight into who I am and what I do. Immediately after creating, I sent it off and applied for a very exciting job opening. I had very positive feedback of both my work and the effort I had put in which makes the time and effort more than worthwhile.
self promo
sweetheart clothing
PROJECT
05
“To create a new unisex clothing brand based on Fliss Morse illustrations”
This was a collaborative project that required us to create a brand for a new clothing company. The brand orientated around illustrations created by my partner which were then to be transferred to clothing. Due to the style of the illustrations, it was decided that it should be an alternative clothing brand with a vintage element represented through the photography and advertising. The garments were created and photographed, using models representing the alternative lifestyle and existing stock photography of suitable models. Baby garments were also created to show the flexibility of the brand. The advertising designs were created for both large format and editorial style publishing. The landscape designs could be incorporated into a billboard or a double page spread design. The website needed to remain very simplistic with a cute feel to it. The navigation is very straight forward and it makes it very easy to purchase the clothing. The layout and the user experience is created to respond to the target audiences needs.
alternative prospectus
PROJECT
06
“Magazine redesign for Birmingham Perspectives Magazine”
This prospectus was designed for Warwickshire College. The client wanted a complete re-design of the existing prospectus. As it is for Higher Education students, a sophisticated yet stylish design and layout needed to be used. This was a collaboration with other students who were asked for my advice and help. Below are just a few examples of pages that I created for them that were used in the final printed prospectus. The prospectus had information about the college itself and the course centres, as well as the night life and student life they could expect if they decided to attend Warwickshire college. As there were 6 different centres to cover, it was important to give even coverage. The front cover image is of the halls of residence available for Higher Education students. The overall look for the prospectus was to deliver the usual information is an aesthetically pleasing way so that the student would not just throw it away, but actually be tempted in to reading it. The purpose is to inform and be useful for those that are away from home for the first time, hence providing the reader with a list of takeaways.
penguin publishing
PROJECT
07
“Students are invited to design a whole new cover look for Grimms Fairy Tales, in order to reinvent this classic for a new generation of readers...”
Penguin Publishing set the brief of creating a new children’s book cover for Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. I was aware of the horrific nature of the original German fairy tales prior to reading them again (nothing better than a gory fairytale) and wanted to exploit this through the imagery used. However, the English version of the fairy tales are given a magical twist which is more suited to the Disney version of princesses and fairy’s. I decided to create a cover for both the dark origin version and the child friendly version. For the original dark covers I incorporated aspects of tradition and death using iconic imagery which represents the stories within the book. For the magical version of the book I wanted to create a design that was both suitable for children and demonstrated a story within the book.
endangered species intl
PROJECT
08
“Design a poster for a running race to raise fund for our Philippine tarsier project in Manila, Philippines.”
The original brief asked me to illustrate a Philippine Tarsier running ahead of a pack of runners participating in the fund raiser. I had no idea what a tarsier was and after countless Google searches I still had no idea what it actually was. I came up with the conclusion that it was an endangered ugly miniature monkey, I think I was pretty accurate. I played around with this idea but no matter how I drew both parts it always looked as if it was a hunt rather than a run. So I soon realised that it wasn’t going to work. Instead I decided to illustrate it as if they were lining up at the start line of the race and the tarsier was the focal point of the poster. Painted the original illustrations by hand and touched them up digitally to produce the final outcome.
Illustration I started my journey through design as an illustrator, a skill that I have further developed and practiced constantly throughout school, college and university. Although illustration takes a back seat professionally, I still draw everyday.
Thank you for taking the time to look through my portfolio.
goo
o d bye I hope to hear from you soon
07747021218 www.jordansteeds.wix.com/design