Intro Issue
December 2018
THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE FILLED WITH CREATIV GOODNESS & THOUGHTS FROM A FEW FOLKS AROU WELLINGTON CAMPUS.
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PAPER + PIXELS INTRO ISSUE Special thanks to: Tilleigh Ultra - Logo Design Logan Fuldseth Juliet Powley. Maria Wen Ni Rose Yoobee School of Design, Wellington
EDITOR PROLOGUE Well, here we are, at the end of the year and pretty much page one of our first issue of Paper & Pixels. Let me tell you that getting to this point has not been easy. There were distractions, setbacks and pauses in motivation to get the momentum together to get this to print. This highlights an interesting aspect of being in the creative industry; it’s so important to finish project even if it’s not perfect. This issue is the result of an idea with all of you in mind. To celebrate all the mark makers, storytellers, and the visual communicators. The creators of worlds, letterforms, and recorders of moments in time who paint a spectrum of colour across our world to solve complex problems and transcend language. I’m aware this issue will not be what many of you are expecting and I’m ok with that. It’s not perfectly aligned, trimmed or probably the right on-trend Pantone. But it’s out and ready for feedback to evolve and grow in 2019. So, why is it important to finish stuff? Straight to the point, it’s about growing and developing our skills to make us better visual communicators. We have to overcome challenges, bask in our ‘ah-ha’ moments and get to see our idea(s), with cultivation and hard work, grow into complete deliverables for clients and portfolios.
Then eventually, we will see not only progress and success in bringing the idea to life but in ourselves. I know that during this time we all fall in and out of love with our ideas, compare them to others and question whether they are ‘good enough’. Whatever the result, we have always improved which wouldn’t happen if we gave up when things get challenging. I hear you asking, well what can I do about it if I find this happening to me? So I’ve had a think and based on some experience, reading and people watching here are some tips. Make a decision and stick with it. It’s ironic that what can stop us from starting is not a lack of ideas, but having to choose a direction or one of many. Like having to choose off a menu, too much choice can stop us in our tracks. We are all driven to create something original, dynamic and ‘gram’ worthy. However, this can lead us to question if our idea(s) are good enough and flip-flop from one thing to the next, without any real progress on our project(s). I know it seems obvious. Choosing one idea and sticking with it can mean the difference in finishing a project and start-stopping 10 different things. You could set yourself some parameters by asking the following:
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What do you actually want to get out of this project? Are you hoping to develop a particular skill? Is it about promoting yourself? What are you specifically trying to say? How much time do you actually have? Can you do it by yourself, or do you need to recruit someone with a particular skill set to help? How are you measuring your progress and success?
Hopefully, your answers to these should help you gain a better insight into picking a direction and best idea to move forward with. If you are hesitating, you could talk to your colleagues and classmates to vote on the most valid idea or flip a coin. Ok, let’s break it down. Awesome, you have settled on an idea. The deadline is ages away, or so it seems. Your mind floods with grand expectations and visions of the end result, but the reality is you still have a long way to get there and the weight of the task ahead starts to weigh you down. This is where the creative process will become your best friend. A key to progress that many creatives live by, is creating small tangible and actionable tasks or goals that we tick off. When these are plotted out between your start date and deadline, it will provide you with clear steps to complete the grand picture. It will also help provide you with a sense of process and ultimately maintain motivation and interest in the project.
WE HAVE TO OVERCOME CHALLENGES, BASK IN OUR ‘AH-HA’ MOMENTS...
Done is better than perfect. We all want that picture perfect finished outcome for our project. A shiny, sparkling example of how good we are. However, when we get hung up on the mantra ‘it’s gotta be perfect’’, this often gets in the way of actual progress. I’m often guilty of spending too much time on visual research rather than just getting started and getting content on a page. Oh also procrastination, but that’s a whole other topic. We all get to a point and realise that a project you’re working on may not turn out the way you hoped. It can be pretty disheartening and to be honest, it happens to the best of us. The final word. Couple points here on this part. One; just because you don’t think it’s perfect, doesn’t mean it’s rubbish. Two; part of doing creative projects is to grow and improve our skills. We all have to start from square one. And I know a vast majority of you will look at your work and go, “could have done better”. You will likely be right, but you are only going to get to be a better, faster and stronger designer, artist, animator, filmmaker by putting the work in and finishing! So to round off my sage words of wisdom, plan your project, stick to it the best you can and finish it! Ignore the little voices telling you to doubt yourself and grow your creative confidence, one project at a time. Candice Phelps is a L6 Creative Digital tutor with a passion for typography, tattoos, her two cats and second-hand books. (It is my aim to see the pages of this magazine, filled with student work, and created, edited and produced by students. So if you want to be part of this next year, please let me know. Also personal note: just in - coral is in for 2019!! So on-trend)
By Maria Wen Ni Rose L6 / UX & Web Student
STRING THEORY
My introduction into the realm of Design sparked a hunger, and after finishing a year of Creative Digital Design, the mysterious and the unknown realm of web development is another outlet in which I realised I could explore my untameable, creative disarray. Despite the fear, I made the leap and enrolled in Level 6 Web & UX; and to be honest, it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Here’s why. There’s a common misconception that coding doesn’t require creativity. I can tell you first hand that’s false. Both disciplines (Design and Web Development) require a unique and lateral approach to problem-solving. There’s a perfect harmony that exists between the chaos of creativity, and the rhythmic nature of logic. This is where, in my opinion, effective design is born.
YOU WAKE UP, & JUST BEFORE BREAKFAST - ALL YOU’LL WANT TO DO IS CODE; IT FEELS DELICIOUSLY FOREIGN. Learning four languages in one year takes immense focus, but there’s nothing more exulting than combining all three to create a website. Having the ability to traverse between two facets offers both flexibility and creative freedom... it also makes you comparable to a digital Swiss Army knife - someone who can communicate with elegant design, but also understands the parameters of then having to translate it all into code.
When it comes to replicating it in code, the choices you make as a designer earlier that day might just leave you hurling verbal abuse at your screen several hours later as a developer. Especially when a deadline is looming and you realise all these elements you so lovingly created, add absolutely zero value to the functionality of your website. The assignment isn’t about what it looks like, but how it works. Despite the identity crisis you might inflict on your left and right brain from time to time, the browser (i.e. Google Chrome) becomes your new artboard, and the enjoyment of watching shapes and colours appear under your written instruction is something that never gets old. There’s nothing more satisfying than bringing a design to life through code. Instead of a pen tool, language becomes your new weapon of choice. There’s an immense joy to be had when something you’ve written manifests in the form of a clickable, scrollable website. Something that, unlike paper, doesn’t get left forgotten in a drawer somewhere; or tossed into the bin after it’s been used.
LIKE ANYTHING YOU LEARN FROM SCRATCH, YOU’RE PROBABLY GOING TO BE TERRIBLE AT THE BEGINNING. DON’T LET IT GET TO YOU.
My Personal Experience The Unedited Story Like anything you learn from scratch, you’re probably going to be terrible at the beginning. Don’t let it get to you. Things break and columns collapse. Hitting your head against a wall is also considered a form of catharsis - or so I’ve been told by other web developers. At the start I used to feel like throwing up; every pixel off centre from my original design felt like a kick in the stomach. But you’ll get there. There comes a day when you wake up, and just before breakfast - all you’ll want to do is code; it feels deliciously foreign. As time passes your mindset shifts, there are internal compromises to be made. Function becomes a lot more important than form and some days, you have to check your designer ego at the door. There is no time or place for “pixel perfect” here. In some ways, it can be a relief. You become a lot better at decision making. But in others, it feels personal. The lack of iteration hacks away at you. But that’s the trade, isn’t it? Designer; the noun of this era. And with that title comes an innate enjoyment to solve the problems put in front of us, whether that’s paper or pixel. At night when I drift off to sleep, I watch my subconscious swim and linger lovingly on the word “<div>”. I dream a symphony of invisible boxes, snapping together in perfect symbiosis... and then like wayward lovers; they fall apart. If you think UX & Web could be a great skill to have in your career, book in to talk one of the enrolment team for more info! Or check out yoobee.ac.nz
FROM THE TUTOR LOUNGE A quick-fire round with one of our team. Words from Logan Fuldseth, Campus Manager.
Could you please tell us a bit about yourself and your current role at Yoobee? Originally growing up in Blenheim I moved to Wellington 8 years ago to study Graphic Design at what was then Natcoll (now Yoobee). I had wanted to pursue a career in digital art or retouching but I fairly quickly fell in love with the design process and the problem solving aspect that it promotes. I changed my direction slightly to follow more of a designers path and, after graduating, entered the industry as a graphic designer with Printing.com. During my time studying I had started helping with some college workshops and teaching of software through Yoobee, this grew into facilitating regular short courses and eventually I ended up back at Yoobee as a full time Tutor. I have now been teaching at Yoobee for the last five years and recently moved into a new role as Campus Manager. It may sound cliché, however I genuinely believe I have the best job on the planet. I am incredibly proud of what is accomplished every day on campus both by staff and students, I love our culture, and I’m extremely excited to see what awesome thing we do next!
What do you believe constitutes ‘good’ visual design? I tend to avoid the term “good” when it comes to anything design related. Not to sound too pretentious but design should be judged on it’s effectiveness rather than whether an individual thinks it’s good/cool/awesome/ sick. Effective design comes from it’s ability to solve a problem and effective visual design does this while matching an aesthetic appeal. It’s always the balance of form and function. If your visual design looks great but does nothing, then it has no purpose and if it does something but looks horrible it has no appeal. Your design should always be a consideration of it’s job, it’s audience, and the language/lens you are using to communicate. Get all that right and you’ll make beautiful design. What have been some of your biggest creative challenges and how did you overcame them? I think one of the most valuable challenges for any designer is learning to fail. Often our lack of external validation and our reluctance to make mistakes stop us from progressing creatively. I’ll often say to student’s “make
every mistake, just don’t make them twice”. Design is a field that allows and requires you to learn, and education without mistakes will only let you be as good as you are right now. Be prepared to fail, see value in getting it wrong. The only true mistake is one you don’t learn from. Do you have a favourite designer or visual artist at the moment and why? I’ve always been a huge fan of how Massimo Vignelli discusses design. As a bit of a modernist at heart, I’ve always thought that his thoughts on intellectual elegance I’ve always thought were a great topic of discussion. If anyone isn’t familiar with Massimo check out his thoughts on design in his book “Canon” which is a free download online. I also think Max Huber is a designer that needs a lot more of the spotlight. Do you have any words of wisdom to share from your experience as student at Yoobee School of Design? Trust your gut! Much of your creativity is defined by the things only you have experienced. These are the events that make you and your work different. Everyone can use the same software but the mind behind each idea is completely unique. When you’re unsure of where to go next, listen to your intuition a bit more and take a leap.
EFFECTIVE DESIGN COMES FROM IT’S ABILITY TO SOLVE A PROBLEM & EFFECTIVE VISUAL DESIGN DOES THIS WHILE MATCHING AN AESTHETIC APPEAL.
Time for future sight, what do you think is the next big thing for the creative industry that students might want to watch out for? I think we’re already starting to see the next big shift in creative industries and that’s the value of critical thinking skills. Companies are already starting to place a high value on creatives, in all kinds of roles, as the problem solving ability is hugely valuable. More people are becoming aware of the value that someone adds if they are able to use design thinking, even in roles where visual design doesn’t usually appear, like banking. Tell us about one piece of creative work you are really proud of and why you think it was successful? I developed this personal brand a couple of years ago as a bit of a personal challenge. I wanted to have a better defined direction for the freelance work I was producing while also challenging myself to develop some type. The whole project took about 18 months to complete as I would often change my mind or feel I wasn’t really capturing everything I wanted to say. I think the success came from finally getting to a place where the design’s voice matched what was in my mind. In the end I am quite happy with what I produced. Though, looking at it now, maybe the colours need a change.
CLASS CREATIVE HIGHLIGHTS 2018
BACHELOR OF ANIMATION
T-B/L-R: Shannon Singleton James Truscott Jake McCahon Rebecca Ross
Te Reo Maori Alphabet Chart AROHA
EKE
HAU
IKA
love
embark
wind
fish
KOHA
MAUNGA
NANAKIA
ONEONE
gift or donation
mountain
Better than expected
earth, soil
PIKITIA
RA
TOI
UA
picture
day, sun
art
rain
WA
WHANAU
NGARU
time
family
wave
T-B/L-R: Matt Fretwell, Krystal Barker-Anderson, Alexis Araza, Kayliegh Strachan Dominique Scott, Tilleigh Ultra, Molly Rowe Sarah Ward
WEB & GRAPHIC
UX & WEB
T-B/L-R: Hannah Wehipehana, Jiah Kwon, Katie French
CREATIVE DIGITAL DESIGN
T-B/L-R: Nikita Sharpe, Aaron Baker, Shay Wellington, Josh Mills, Jodi Walker
GAME ART T-B/L-R: Siriah Steele, Cody Weaver, Melissa Haydon, Shannon Kirk
SCREEN PRODUCTION T-B/L-R: Samantha Carr,, Ashley Brown
ACCORDING TO JU: INSTAGRAM, SNAP IT WHILE IT’S HOT Sharing some of my tips and knowledge with you cool cats on the what’s what with Instagram. This column is all about self promotion and branding yourself! Did you know Instagram images get better user traffic on Google images and your potential audience get a clearer understanding of your unique aesthetic, allowing a more memorable impression of your brand, art and creativity. Let’s start with answering these quick Q’s! What is the goal of your account? Is it to share, sell your work, get noticed for that dream job etc? How will you show this off? Colour, style, language, etc? Who is your target audience? Like your assessments, who are you hoping to engage with your work, brand, posts? How are you going to achieve this goal? What steps or milestones do you need to take to get there? Remember, it won’t happen overnight and it takes work. Evaluate and get posting. So let’s begin!
Create and post consistent and engaging content. Research! Understanding how traffic times work to maximise visability is key. Use the same hashtags as much as possible when posting your original content. ‘Regramming’ and sharing ‘inspo’ posts, from accounts you love that have similar morals and aesthetics to your brand can help you connect with your audience. It’s about supporting your community! Pro tip: Make sure your colour palette matches nicely to each image posted. If posting a black and white image, post three black and white images. This aligns your feed aesthetic. A visually pleasing page (as the layout is 3 across) and rule of thirds is practiced! Try and post at the same time daily, this will feed you audiences social clocks and develop a want for your content. Everyone gets creative block! If you leave it until the last minute, chances are it won’t be your best, fun, and engaging content.
Make a content plan, think about each post in advance. Make sure variety is used, but still follow the rules and tools you have set in place for your brand.
The one editing app I do use is called Whitagram. This app is great at creating clean cut images, borders, and cropping tools to produce sharp and clean pics.
Follow people that fit your brand values. If you’e promoting art, follow artists, keep your feed creative! This can influence your next post, encourage you to be different and support your brand and others with the same attitude!
Regramming. A “regram” or reposting is when an Instagram user posts a photo from someone else’s account to their own. This is going to give you fresh content, it should support a fellow artist or business and is great when you aren’t prepared! An easy way to give credit is using the ‘camera emoji’ in your caption and tagging the person you are sharing from. ALWAYS give credit, either by tagging or using a ‘regram’ app.
#HASHTAGS Don’t over-do it! Keep them consistent, but maybe 5-8 tops per post. Do this in the first comment below your post. It’s prettier. It is collapsed. It looks less wordy and less intimidating. A useful feature Instagram offers, is that it shows you how many people use certain tags. This is useful to reach a wider audience and helps when you are struggling for the right words. Just start searching and drop down choices appear for your choosing.
When someone mentions you or your brand either in a story or post, respond. This is an easy way to get noticed – show support and gratitude to them by responding with a repost expressing your thanks. We don’t steal other peoples stuff!
Filters and add-ons (Boomerang, music, polls, mentions) All of these features encourage social engagement. The use of polls and asking your audience questions gives them an interactive element that you can share commonalities over, respond to and build that want and need to keep following.
Stories. Keep it on theme, if creating a new story, keep it on par with your feed. You want your viewers to see the likeness between these, keeping the content linked to the same themes that is current to your page. Stories strengthen your brand, but unlike posts, are not permanent. Keep videos under 15 seconds long, when too lengthy people flick through, if they expect this to happen, they will no longer engage. Mix it up! Use the features, Instagram is always updating and bringing out new tools. Try them out! Look at your insights, see which post and which tools perform better or get more action, then keep ‘em coming! LOVE TO ALL!
I am not a big fan of filters personally, I prefer to enhance my photos by editing the colours, shadows, highlights and contrast manually, but you do you!
Not only is Juliet Powley our go to gal on reception, she is a self-professed mirror selfie queen & you can follow her on Instagram @jupowley
WELLNESS WEDNESDAY FLASHBACK
Who doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t love PUPPIES! The wonderful team from Wellington SPCA visited the campus with some cuites to help stress & anxiety. Students took some time to relax and enjoy colouring in some art to go up on the campus walls.
GRADUAT E
EXHIBITION DIGITAL DESIGN, WEB & UX AND SCREEN PRODUCTION
W E D N E S D AY 12 DECEMBER
SUMMER CREATIVE CHALLENGES #DRAWITINYOURSTYLE We all have a favourite artist, painter, illustrator and designer that help influence our own unique visual voices. This challenge is about choosing one of your favourite artists work and using that piece to inspire you to create the same composition with your own flavour or twist.
ONCE A UPON A TIME Journey into the woods if you dare. Travel the the road less trod and see what waits for you in the path. We all have a fable, myth or tale that has left an impression on us and this challenge is about reinventing a favourite fairytale character, mythical beast or creature.
30 DAYS HATH SEPTEMBER, APRIL, JUNE & NOVEMBER Get a head start on planning your next year with creating a 12 month calendar and/or planner. Consider strong typographic elements and hierarchy to help build your layout. Explore formats, colour and grids to support your final solution.
TICK TOCK, GOES YOUR CREATIVE CLOCK Young, professional creatives are always on the lookout for unique tools to help them manage their projects and deliverables for clients. The task is to create an intuitive app to help streamline creative projects, manage deadlines and overall expenditure. Consider usability, easy navigation and current design trends for stylistic direction and colour palette. The second part is to develop a set of illustrative icons to enhance the overall design. Think about your design process and aim to mock up your solution on a desktop and mobile to show it in action.
SHARE YOUR WORK WITH US, TAG #PAPER&PIXELS
USE THE CREATIVE PROCESS TO STRENGTHEN YOUR OUTCOMES & TO HELP YOU MOVE FORWARD
2019 KEY DATES Important dates to remember: MONDAY 21 JANUARY Wellington Anniversary Day WEDNESDAY 6 FEBRUARY Waitangi Day MONDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2019 Classes Begin FRIDAY 19 APRIL Good Friday MONDAY 22 APRIL Easter Monday TUESDAY 23 APRIL Easter Tuesday THURSDAY 25 APRIL ANZAC Day MONDAY 3 JUNE Queens Birthday MONDAY 28 OCTOBER Labour Day 2019 COURSE HOLIDAYS Monday 22 - Friday 26 April Monday 8 - Friday 19 July Monday 30 September - Friday 4 October
IN 2019, WE WANT YOU TO BE INVOLVED IN PAPER + PIXELS WITH MORE CREATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS THAT SHOWCASE ALL OF YOUR TALENTS GET IN TOUCH WITH US AT: PAPERANDPIXELSMAG@GMAIL.COM