CV

Here's a CV I've done.  I wanted it to be quite fun and not too serious, but also to have a personality that sometimes CV's can lack.  As its a CV for a designer the layout is contemporary and I decided not to include the usual information such as past jobs, experience etc etc.  I felt its not really necessary and that an email and blog address will suffice.  I have another CV that's more formal with the boring information that I could always send if requested.

Things that have inspired me throughout the year

This is probably my last post before my journal gets assessed.  Well hand in is tommorow so yes it will be.. I thought I'd list a few things that have inspired me throughout my last year at university - things that aren't design realated but have somehow influenced me as a person as well as my work...  things that have moved me, motivated me or just made my brain tick.....  Im not including pictures because there would be toooo many.  Google them if you can be bothered.

A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson

Omnipotence

Join me - Danny wallace

Stand by me /River pheanix

The black panther movement

Johnny Cash

Johnny Depp

An endeavor across the pacific ocean

Plans to travel

Oscar wilde

Pete Doherty

Frank Turner

The Dictionary

Consumerism/Capitalism

Creative writing - lots of poetry...

Anything acoustic/ guitar

Sleeping rough

oh so many more I cant think and I'm bored too

Ahh I'll do a CV, I almost forgot - that will be my last post

Last years degree show

Here are some photos I took of last years degree show that I thought were the best pieces there, or at least the most inspirational to me.  I have included a variety of different work to show the diversity of the course but also because I usually tend to be influenced by a range of different disciplines and techniques anyway.  I also liked the pieces that were a bit quirky or had some underlying concept that was unique or interesting (rather than just judging the work on face value).  Even though our degree show will be a bit different this year in that it isn't assessed and we wont have our own individual space I thought it would be a good idea to reflect on how past students have presented their work and so decided to share it.

Jonathan Barnbrook Lecture

Oyunga managed to organize for Jonathan Barnbrook to come and give us a talk.  Although I wasn't so keen on Barnbrooks actual style which was heavily typography based, I was really interested in his personal beliefs and principles.  He was an interesting designer in terms of the way in which his chose what work to take on and what to reject.  I was surprised to hear that Barnbrook had turned down work from the likes of coca cola because he believed it to be unethical.  I really respected some of the decisions he had made throughout his carer and liked how he actually cares about the consequences graphic design can have.  He would much rather take on a brief for a charity campaign with good intentions than a very commercial brief that was against his morality, despite the amount of money involved.  There are so many designers and design company that's main aim is to make money. I believe that Barnbrooks approach is one which more designers should take heed of and it is definitely one that I am trying to apply more and more as a developing designer.  I just feel that if you are a good enough designer it can allow you to pick and choose work in this way.  Much of Barnbrooks design work is heavaly influenced by political issues too.  I think that including things that you are passionate about can add a level of intelligence to your work.

Barnbrook also told us a story of how he had met David Bowie when working along side Damien Hirst and how he been able to bully Bowie into letting him design the album cover for his next album after Bowie had stolen Barnbrooks design in what Bowie described as a "homage" to Barnbrooks work - some story!  I have included the album cover below.

In the afternoon Barnbrook gave us an in depth talk about how to get work and how to get recognised in the industry.  I think the most helpful thing I took away from it was about starting straight off as a freelancer.  He said that if you wanted do go freelance then now is the best time to do it.  He said that after uni is the time in your life when you have no real responsibilities like a mortgage and children and especially if you are still living with your parents then you don't really have any expenses and therefore nothing to lose.  It is also true that because you are used to living like a student with very little money it isn't really much of a change of lifestyle, whereas if you were to set up on your own after working for years in a company then yes, you would have more experience but you would have to give up a steady wage to start up on your own initially.

Steve Smith - Neasdon Control Centre

Steve Smith from Neasdon Control Centre gave a lecture on his work and how he had set up his little company which aims to continue, extend and develop involvement with diverse projects drawn from clients, companies and institutions, and, to initiate and develop non-commercial work, both independently and collaboratively. (biggg breath!!)  The company does illustration, art direction, installation, motion and film for a varied list of clients across a wide range of sectors.  I was mostly impressed with Steve's illustrative style which was individual, interesting and expressive, which for me would be recognisable as Steve's if was I was to see it anywhere else.  Steve talked about how he had set up his company outside out London which I found inspirational as most of the work and design companies in the Uk are in the capital.  It re-emphasized the fact that you can still be successful working for yourself from home but I still think it is important to get out and about to get the most out of things.  I enjoyed it when Steve talked about using found objects as inspiration for work as this is something I often do.  He said to go on a long walk in times of low motivation and inspiration. 

Alex Ostrowski talk

We had a talk from a guy called Alex who was a freelance designer/illustrator and had done some work with YCN.  He had some really good advice about how to go about trying to get a job after finishing uni and how he had done it himself.  He talked about being a genuine, nice guy and also said that the whole "stunt" thing wasn't really a good idea.  He said that he had got work by just calling agencies up and asking if he could meet up with them rater than directly asking for a job interview.  He also said to email people a link to your portfolio and then maybe give them a call a week later to see if they got it, but try not to sound to desperate or nagging.  He gave some good tips about presenting your work to clients too... about being organized and knowing what your going to show and say next, but most of all just that if they like you as a person then half of the battle is already won.

I really liked Alex' work which he showed to us as he talked to us.  A lot of the work he showed us was from when he was at university.  His projects were often experimental and fun and things that he enjoyed to do and I think this was reflected in the quality of his work.  Things like his yellow revolution campaign, warm calling (response to cold calling) and also his happy book about his trip to Denmark which was apparently the happiest place to live in the world, were all experimental briefs that had personality and produced results that were engaging and contemporary.  Some of his more commercial work such as the re-design of signs in a hospital ward to help guide patients with amnesia showed that he was also a good practical and functional designer too.  It was obvious he was a very talented designer.

Si Scott Lecture

The lecture we had from Si Scott really influenced the direction of my logo design project for the techno label "Sa:Fire".  Si's work was mostly illustrative but used in a design context which, as he said, was 90% hand drawn and 10% done on the computer.  I think I was so impressed by his work because it reminded of how I used to do most of my art and design work back at high school and college and how I had somehow lost the element of hand craft in my more recent work.  Si seemed like a genuine and down to earth guy and I think his honesty made him more endearing than some of the other lecturers.  I liked how he took care over his drawing.  His passion for what he did really showed in some of his illustrations, especially the intricate ones that must of been painstaking to get right.  Straight after his lecture I decided to get back to drawing and took my logo designs I had done using letterpress, placed tracing paper over the top and began re-sketching out some ideas.   This helped me in a number of ways.  Not only did it help me come up with a better looking and better composed logo but it taught me that sometimes its better to go back to basics when struggling with a design, stripping it down rather than throwing things at a page, which just tends to over complicate it.

Le Ping La Pong - Photoshoot

Yesterday I directed a photo shoot for the Anomaly brief which wanted you to try and get more people to play table tennis. I chose to aim my efforts towards encouraging students to play because this is the demographic who's needs and lifestyle I am most aware of. I was supposed to have up to 6 people turning up for the photo shoot but I only ended up having four - which wasn't to bad because it meant we could choose the best vests to wear and have more accessories. It did also mean that I had to be involved in the shoot to make up the numbers. I really wanted to just direct the shoot to make sure I got the images I wanted, it just meant I had to rely more upon Ed. This wasn't a problem though because I trust him and know he is good at what he does from past experience.

After we all got changed into our outfits I just asked everyone to muck about with the bats and balls. I wanted everyone to be relaxed and less self-conscious and this seemed to work. We began shooting with all 4 of us on the same shot in a variety of different poses but I soon realised after going back and forward to look at what Ed had taken (another problem of not being stood directing), that it would be better to take shots one person at a time and then photoshop everyone together after. The reason for this was firstly because peoples shadows were getting in the way of each other and also that the compositions were not as exactly what I wanted. I thought I would get much better results if I put the different elements together afterwards so I could pick and choose how I wanted it to look. I also tried to use lighting that came in from an angle to cast a shadow across the face but soon realised that this looked far too dark and sinister for a light hearted comedy table tennis competition and went back to the original front on lighting.

Everyone was really good at throwing themselves into pulling an array of funny, quirky and some downright odd faces, especially Sam who even managed to pull a muscle in his neck on one particular gurn. I told each person to adopt a certain style or persona. For example Jake was the "ladies man" and pulled off a series of sexy and pouty poses. Sam was a bit mental and a competitive power house". Tom - "The geek" (sorry Tom) and I was a meditating hippie. The decision to do this was spare of the moment - it just seemed to fit when we did the shoot and I think it worked really well.... we were like power rangers! I learnt that you cant always plan every single aspect of something like this (although the more planning the better) and that improvisation and adaptation are key to achieving the best results.

Finally I got Ed to take portrait pictures to use for the top trump cards. By this time everyone had got into there characters really well I felt and I was really pleased with what we had all achieved. Thanks for all the hard work guys.

O2: Better connected.

I had been really struggling trying to make ideas work for the O2 brief, which basically wanted you to come up with a concept to promote that we are "better connected".  I had come up with loads of initial ideas about communication and how it has changed throughout history from the native Americans using smoke to Egyptians and their hieroglyphics to things like Morse code and text message.  I had worked out a few concepts using the idea that the native Americans have always been better connected and had some quite funny and subtle situations in which the Indians were always one step ahead of the cowboys, who were only just catching onto the Indians outdated methods.  Although they worked on paper I really wanted to make some kind of animation or motion graphics to push myself and the ideas that I had weren't really translating well into any sort of storyboarding.  I spoke to Clinton about this a few weeks ago and he told me not to rush the idea but to try and think about it and let it come together that way.  Well what happened was that just by chance I came across a YouTube video of a stop motion animation by a guy that goes under the guise of "PES" .  I thought it was incredibly creative and original, yet simple.  They gave me the idea to do a stop motion myself.

I have posted 4 of PES' videos because I think they're all just brilliant.  When I post my animation you will see how they have inspired me.  I think the sound effects are what really make PES' work shine and without them the animations would have no where near the same level of interest - in fact I would go as far as to say that the sounds are as important, if not more important than the footage.  I know I keep posting other work that isn't my own but seriously I have 8 projects and none of them are completely finished yet.

Check this crackpot

I have been editing together some footage from Xfactor auditions to try and make Simon Cowell look like he's saying really nice things about some of the most horrendous people.  I've been doing this to promote feel good drinks and to "spread feelgoodness", as the company puts it.  The idea is a simple one.  The concept is to make feel good drinks a sponsor of the Xfactor and that by cutting together footage of the good auditions feedback with the bad auditions ludicrous singing I would be able to create a feel good atmosphere with someone that is renown for being straight-laced and particularly abrupt with people.  The idea is that a feel good drink is able make anyone feel good.  I am also trying to superimpose a feelgood drinks bottle onto Simon's desk and a big wobbly arrow as if to say "look what he's been drinking".  The whole editing is going to be rough and obvious that what is being witnessed isn't really happening.  I think this will be funnier for viewing and when I spoke to Clinton he seemed to agree anyway.  Its probably only going to last 15 seconds or so, as something that usually gets shown at the beginning of these types of program.  I'll probably do a few different versions using different auditions to see what's going to be the best one.

Ok so this is the main guy I've been editing footage of.  He's called Onka Judge and he's fucking amazing, I love him!.  This is the original video that I've downloaded from youtube - I havn't finished my effort yet but I'll post that too for comparison.

I owe a lot to Gary Peploe who I thought I ought to mention because he helped me a lot with regards to how I should actually go about making my video.  He sat down and showed me how to use Aftereffects for what I needed to do as it would of been to complicated to try and learn it all.  He also showed a few options for how I could incorporate the video with the photoshop images and also went to the trouble of finding a programme to convert flv files into avi and then editing in quicktime!.. I learnt a lot that day. Cheers Gary!

Anomoly

A brief I picked up (again off the YCN website) was to encourage people to play more table tennis. The brief was quite open and gave a chance to choose your own target audience and also to interpret it however you felt appropriate.  The brief stated that at Anomoly they have no preconceived ideas of the best way to solve a business issue.

I decided to choose students as a target audience because I felt this would be the group of people I could identify with most and therefore would know how to persuade them most.  I created a competition for students at MMU involving the normal table tennis game but also leagues for other ping pong related games such as beer pong and strip pong.  I thought that involving alcohol with table tennis was an easy and fun way to promote the game, knowing that students like to get drunk the most.  I am also going to make posters which will show how to play the games and the rules.  I plan to make action movie style posters as a sort of gimmick.  I was speaking to Sam about it and it was really him who gave me the idea to do the photo shoot.  Recently I've found that just spending time with peers in and around uni, I seem to generate so many more ideas and in doing so I feel much more stimulated.  I think my work is benefiting from this.

I decided Im going to make top trump cards for the best players of the league that in theory would get published at the end of a season to give students a rewarding but not too serious goal to aim for - something that would make them laugh and they could keep forever.  I found this top trump card on google images which I know is tasteless but still made me laugh.  I want my top trump cards to be subtly funny and possibly crude too.

I have the photo shoot booked on Wednesday.  Ed is doing the shoot and I have 5, maybe 6 models and a load of gear for them to wear which me and Tom bought from Primark on Friday.  We bought different colored vests for each person and Tom has customised each one.  I've seen them and they look awsome to say the least.  Anyway I've told my models to come up with their own ideas for nicknames and special moves they want on their cards.  I think allowing them this creative input gives them something back for doing me this favor as well as making it more enjoyable for them.  I'm hoping this will give me better results.

Together

I had been looking through some work on fffound.com, which Tom had recomended to me.  Self-described as an "image bookmarking" website, fffound.com showcases a variety of different graphic design, illustaration, photography and many other types of work.  Its a really cool website just to look at some of the work but I found it really good for inspiration too.  I came across a photograph that really caught my eye and it gave me an idea to do with global warming and its consequences, which in turn reminded me of a brief I had read on YCNs website to do with engaging with 16-25 year olds, trying to inspire them to take action against climate change.  I had decided straight away that my idea could work and so without deliberation went ahead with a project that lasted 2 days, tops.  I used the photograph I had fffound and changed it in several ways to create a series of adverts that could be placed in magazines or possibly something like bus shelters.  The awareness campaign I tried to create is more like a concept project rather than a completed, followed through application of the idea.  The reason for this is that I can't actually go out to the locations I would need to take the photographs, so I had to use other peoples images and basically just add text to them to bring the idea to life.  It was a very quick and impulsive brief and something that bridged a gap during a bit of a dry patch of inspiration and motivation.

This is the photograph Im talking about, but I'll add my adaptations in a short while.

Reality hack: Hidden Manchester

Another exhibition I went to see at the Urbis was called "Hidden Manchester" by Andrew Paul Brookes.  It was a display of photos that had been taken around parts of Manchester that "catch glimpses of the world that exists beneath the polished surfaces of glass and steel." as they had put it. "Snatched glances into an open grate, through a broken hoarding, behind a door ajar reveal, if only for a moment, the hidden world that serves to support our contemporary imaginings of the city."

The photos were simply stunning.  The way they had been presented, printed onto huge canvases with light shining through from behind really brought the photos to life.  Although most of the photos where of grimy backstreets and sewers and were interesting in their own right, they had been made that bit more special through the presentation.  I think the photographer had used some sort of fish-eye lens because the perspective on some of them looked distorted - but in a good way, again making the ordinarily bland or unnoticed seem quirky and wonderful.  It was obvious the photographer had spent a lot of time thinking about things like composition, scale, orientation and framing.

I don't know that much about photography but id say this is a must see for any keen photographers out there, as well as anybody who might just want to see Manchester through a tramps eye.

Flux; Magazine design

I designed an A4 double page spread for John Walsh's magazine Flux which although was already published I decided to finish anyway just to improve my layout work and to help to understand and navigate In Design a bit better.  There was a choice of three articles to illustrate and design pages for.  I chose the "Unicorns" article just because that was the one I was drawn to most when I read them.  Actually I didn't think any of the articles where much good, I think because I couldn't really identify with them (one was about unicorns, one about Satan and the other was one of those "and then he woke up" kind of contrived piece of fiction.  Anyway, I hand drew a couple of illustrations using a biro and fine liner, scanned them in and made my layout.  I quite like the stark contrast of the two pages.  The illustration taking over one page and the white space on the other really seems to complement it well.  I based the illustration on horse skeleton images that I found on google.   I chose to keep it "dark" because unicorns are usually portrayed as being beautiful and gracious and I wanted to show a cruel and mysterious side - a sort of roguish quality they seem to have - which is also touched upon in the article. 

I made the newspaper collage style cut out lettering from a poster I came across.  I chopped away and added my own letters to form the title, then scanned it in and live traced to get rid of the punk, death threat letter look that is usually associated with this kind of typography.  I think it was Steve Smith who said it was acceptable to steal other peoples work as long as you change it enough so that it isn't recognisable anymore - then it becomes your own!

I'll add the other half of the layout later when I'm finally happy with it.

New Punctuation Mark/ Self Promotion

Jonathan Barnbrook issued about 3 briefs I think it was, and one of them was to create a new punctuation mark.  I was interested by the brief because its seemed like a chance to have a bit of fun and be creative.  Whilst being restricted to creating just one symbol i was intrigued at the endless possibilities of what this mark might be and the implications it might have.

I began looking at a variety of different signs and symbols and how they communicate and started to read up on semiotics.  I decided the best way to go about it was to think of an emotion I felt could be symbolised and then come up with a series of marks and test them on an audience to see what they gather from them.

I decided my punctuation mark would symbolise sarcasm.  I chose to represent sarcasm because I thought it would be useful in a practical sense.  For example there is a mark for a question - ? and a mark to exclaim - ! . That's about all we need to express in order to make a sentence understandable or for the sentence to simply take on a new meaning.  The exclamation mark can represent a number of emotions like sarcasm BUT... there is no way of telling in a sentence if someone is actually being sarcastic except by using our own judgement.  To create a new mark based on sarcasm, irony or simply taking the piss, would somewhat clear up a lot of confusion that can sometimes go on, especially with conversations in media like text message, facebook and MSN.  Theoretically writers, poets, novelists usually have good enough writing skill and wit that they wouldn't necessarily need the new mark but in day to day use I think the mark could be very useful, especially as I'm quite a sarcastic person by nature :/... which leads me onto my next idea.

After a while I began to think that because I am creating a new punctuation mark which portrays one of my personality traits then why not take it further to act as a light hearted self-promotion pack which could include logo, business card, badge, t-shirt, letterhead and others too.  I was thinking  that nobody would really want to hire a sarcastic person no matter what industry they are in, so Its probably going to have to be sarcastic and ironic within its self (which might be hard to pull off).  Sort of like a "look at me and how great my design skills are - Peter Saville? - Peter who? Peter can smoke me off etc etc" kind of thing. Without being too much of an arsehole of course.

Ok so I decided on what i want my symbol to look like.  After ages of showing people different symbols that I had made, everyone's opinion on what they might mean ended up being completely different - it wasn't much help.  This is probably because new symbols that don't look like anything they have already seen (which is what I tried to achieve) have no meaning or any connotations already attached to them.  Soooo... I thought the trick would be to just go with my mark and try to attach a meaning with it or force it upon people.

The mark I created I tried to keep simple so that people could remember it well but also write it easily.  I didn't want people having to try and write some Chinese like symbol or not recognising it if they saw it again because it was so obscure.  The mark is sort of based on two question marks (one that has been inverted) joined together.  My idea was that a sarcastic remarks usually bears two questions of - "did they mean that?" and "or was he being sarcastic?".  Anyway well at least the mark isn't just a complete made up load of shit. Well it is but you know what I mean.  I also tried to consider things like line weight and length and what shape the dot should be, as well as distance between the two objects.  Should the circle be perfectly spherical?  Should it be short and stubby or long and thin (no innuendos intended)?  That kind of thing.

I have recently been placing the new mark alongside the word sarcastic so that people can relate it to something.  I tried to put the two together in a lot of different ways to give maximum impact but also to be fun and interesting to look at.

I also put together more than one mark to try and form some kind of logo but I'm not sure how well this has turned out or if they cause too much confusion.  They seem to remind me of doilies, bugs and chemical symbols at the moment.  Although i quite like the chemical equation look - it gives a sense of mystery, puzzlement and something new and exciting like a new potion perhaps!

I am going to create a large fold out poster (maybe A1) that has all my designs using only the punctuation mark and the word sarcasm.  I want it to be a creative and interesting piece that becomes something more and more each time it folds out, kind of leading you on deeper into how the new mark and logo were formulated.  I suppose it will be a similar thing to the poster we were shown by Si Scott in his lecture - very conscious about layout and legibility.

Logo design

A friend of a friend commissioned me to do a logo for a techno record label he was setting up.  He had been given a grant from his university were he studies music production.  He had to do a business plan and they chose to give him the grant, anyway, long story short he wanted me to do a logo for him.

He had chosen "Sa:Fire" for the name of his label and he sent me a couple of examples of existing techno logos he liked.  Some of the things he said he wanted the logo to be were "sexy", "bold", "grungy" and "contemporary".

I decided to use letterpress to get the "grungy" effect and to try and get something a bit more unique and original with imperfections you just cant get with a computerized font.  I then scanned in and manipulated them in photoshop and illustrator.

I had a talk with Clinton about the logo and what I had done so far because I wasn't happy with it.  He told me to look at the composition of the logo from a distance and to re-jig some of the picture elements involved in it because it wasn't working.  I tried to use just the letterpress for the logo and this seemed to work in giving the most impact but I know that the client wants something more intricate.

After speaking with clinton and also the Steve Smith lecture I decided to go back to pen and paper and began sketching the logo from scratch.  I used my computer images and traced over the top of them so that I could manipulate them as I wanted to

I feel like the logo has lost its personality because I got rid of all the texture and made it flat.  All of  ink around it doesn't help either, I reckon its completely lost its impact now... :/ im gunna go back to the original letterpress i think.

I'm still not happy with the logo. Still working on it. (sighhhh)

BLACK PANTHER : Emory Douglas & The Art of the Revolution

Responses to racism and other world issues - Emory Douglas style.

Part of the exhibition was set up like a classroom.  School desks with books and magazines gave a deeper understanding of the movement and other related affairs.

A few weeks ago I was at the Urbis with Sam and James to see the Black Panther exhibition.  The exhibition was extremely well put together.  I was impressed not only by the content but also the way in which it had been constructed and displayed which made it easy to follow and understand as well as interesting to look at.  The exhibition showcased the graphic artwork of Emory Douglas for the black panther movement during the late 60's and the history and meaning behind the black power salute - the controversial fist raising at the 1968 Mexican Olympic games.

Much of Douglas' work from the period aimed to compel African Americans to stand up for their rights and to become active members of the movement to stop racism and the civil unrest.  Douglas understood the power of images in communicating ideas and his distinctive illustrative style using thick black lines and resourceful tint and texture combinations where vital to his success in portraying the conditions. His work made revolution seem necessary, giving a sense of power to those who felt powerless and victimized.  The ideas put across in his work are easy to see and understand because of his bold and clever use of text and imagery to evoke emotive responses.  He quickly became responsible for the design of the Black Panther's, Black community News Service (the official paper of the party) and used the papers popularity to inspire people to take action.  I think what was most inspiring to me was the way in which he was able to motivate the normally disinterested people through simple cartoons that where often in just black and white.  His slogans, "All power to the people" and "Revolution in our lifetime" and his use of pigs and rats for the first time to represent policemen and politicians were truly powerful persuasive devices that have stood the test of time and become part of everyday language.  Douglas' knack for portraying the poor with genuine empathy as outraged, unapologetic and ready for a fight, played an influential part in the revolutionary movement.  Although he is much less well-known I believe that his contribution had similar implications within communities as the great inspirational speeches of Martin Luther King.

In terms of how Douglas has inspired the way I think about my work is really the way in which his ideas and thought processes have been carefully realised to give maximum impact.  Although it is a cliche, it has re-emphasized the importance that sometimes less is more and that words and imagery should always be considered wisely.  As a designer or more importantly an advertiser I must constantly endeavor to understand the implications of the content in my design, which I have a tendency to overcomplicate because of a lack of confidence, perhaps.

At the end of the exhibition was the chance to create your own Emory Douglas inspired poster to be displayed on a wall, which I thought was a nice touch.  It was to allow the public to get involved in voicing their opinions, as well as being a tribute to the artist.  I didn't have time to do my own though :(