PPP2 Task 1

For our set task by John we had to answer the following questions -

Reflecting on your Summer what is your most memorable event and why? 

This summer just gone I would say that the most memorable event I would say was my holiday to portugal, not only because it was a hoilday but just to see some different scenery was good. I had went with family to Albufeira and also visited Lisbon for a day which I really thought was amazing.

Have you made any contacts over the Summer that you feel could be helpful over the coming year or so and what outcomes did you feel you achieved?

How did you meet/contact these contacts (methods used or how it happened)? 

I did make some contacts this summer, mainly for corporate design work such as brochures, booklets and some poster design work. I had come across these contact through a friends business as owns a small social media and marketing company. I feel as though a lot of what I learnt in first year in terms of colour modes, Indesign tutorials and quite a lot of stuff really helped, but I think that due to the nature of what the job was I learnt how to work with other design creatives and how you would evidently be working if you was to design a booklet or as part of a studio; as I had to go to the place which we would be promoting though this booklet with the photographer and help direct the shots as I had a draft of the booklet already designed.

What methods of contacting creatives can you think of and what would you ask?

I have been thinking of contacting and hopefuly visiting a few design studios in Leeds such as Analogue, but apart from that I have not really been looking into any back at home in Leicester or possibly London.

PPP 2 - 10 things from Level 4

This was the list I had made last year at the start of the course:

5 Thing I want to learn during this programme:

1)        Money – the monetary & business side of being a graphic designer as this is one of the things that you would be taught how to do so in the second year.

I think that I managed to work my way around how and where to use my money throughout the year but did find it hard at times as I was new to having to pay for printing all the time and methods of print and production, but would say that this year I am aware of this.

2)        New techniques – new methods and forms of print, as it is an area I would love to explore more.

I definitely think that I made use of LCA's facilities and trying new methods and techniques of production, such as spot varnishing, letter press, screenpriniting.

3)        How to protect work – again linking back to the business side of things, how to copyright and protect intellect property.

This is one of the things which we are still to learn which I think we will look more into this year.

4)        New ways of using type – the theory and basics of using typography.

The first few months where a lot of the work we were doing was to do with typography which I thought was fundamental as I had learnt the basics and some advance things about how type works and the technical side of it, such as when we had to cut up and make new fonts.

5)        The fundamentals of Graphic Design – the ins and outs of graphic design.

This one thinking about it now will be ongoing as there is still so much theory that we have not done yet, but I obviously now have much more of an insight into graphic design than I did before LCA.

5 things I want to improve during this Programme:

1)        Time management

Like I had said with money, this is another thing which I am more aware of managing this year, but am definitely better at doing than I was before I had started the course.

2)        Spelling/Academic Writing

I think that the Context of Practice module helped my develop my academic writing skills especially with things such as Harvard referencing and what tense to use when writing an essay.

3)        Compositional Skills/Layout

This was one of the things which I had trouble with last year but was very interesting and crucial to learn as it was a lot more complex than I would have thought.

4)        Adobe Illustrator Skills

The creative workshops helped me to improve my skills in all graphic design software, the sessions were really good as they went over simple things which really change how you would use design software.

5)        Use of Typography

Like I had previously said the first few months and projects were fundamental in helping me improve my use of type.

10 Successes for Level 5

We had to make a list of 10 successes we wished to achieve by the end of second year on BAGD.

1. Professionalism - to achieve a higher level of final produced outcome.
2. Further Experiment with production - try out and improve on print processes, binding methods, etc.
3. Collaborative projects - to do something during a brief with a student from another course or different year on BAGD.
4. Photography of work - professionally take photos of work and final outcomes (industry standard)
5. Blogging - to properly blog and do it when we get work set
6. Time management - properly manage and prioritize my free time
7. Leave enough time for production - something I learnt that you need to give time for as you will always come across problems with production.
8. Development - developing work to a higher level, push any idea to its limit
9. Taking better notes - more detailed notes from sessions, lectures, seminars etc.
10. Presentation skills - talking with more confidence, how I present the work, how I talk about it, etc.

Studio Brief 2 - Its up to you

For this brief we have to create a promotional or informational pack for ourselves which expressed your design preferences, personality and what you have learnt over the year during PPP.

Straight away I knew that I wanted to do something which had an element of screen printing and packaging as I would say that they would be 2 of the things from first year which I have enjoyed getting into and experimenting with.

I started off by thinking of a promotional pack and what could go in it.

I then started to come up with rough ideas of logos and what sort of design I would go for, 

Once I had decided what I was going to be making I started to do some rough visuals and thumbnails. I had also started to think about how I was going to be relating everything to me as a person, as I wanted to make sure that the design was evidently mine. Some things which I definitely considered was the use of bright and garish colours which I thought reflected my personality and my dress sense as I'd say that I wear bright coloured clothes. I also wanted to reflect through this brief most aspects of my life and what I enjoy. 

I had come up with the idea to do a set of 4 posters, which would be square as I did not want to use A format, and I thought that square worked to reflect how I am a short person. For one of the posters I wanted to have a compilation of my design tools.

I then made a bit of a plan of how and what I was going to be producing.

For my business cards I was planning to create coasters which would have been the business cards, as I thought it would have been a good way to express and show how I do enjoy a drink now and again.

For a lot of my designs I looked at various different types of business cards. I initially wanted to do something with the lazer cutter but did not end up getting a tutorial to use it in time. 

Screen printing was another method I wanted to use for the cards.

 

Edge painting the cards was another thing which I wanted to do as in design I always have paid more attention to the little details and finishing techniques and I wanted this to show through.

This card linked in well with how I wanted to make a compilation of my design tools.

I liked in this one how they had used block shapes behind the text to add some colour, I also though that it made all of the words that were in front of it stand out more.

I then started to look at logo and icon design as I wanted to create a small logo for myself. I had initially thought of using a drawing of my face as it would be simple and would express my playful personality, I also think that this would work well with how I had already chosen to use a Sans Serif font, which I had chosen because I thought that it shown how I can be blunt and straight to the point at times.

I started to trace photos of my face to get a frame to work with.

Having had a rough Idea as to what the logo was going to be I did some designs for the back of the business cards.

having a look at what sort of design I wanted to with geometric shapes.

I scanned in one of the drawings and started to play about on Illustrator with layouts and shapes.

I had made a pattern which I was going to use of the bag and cards.

I started to play around with the pattern and logo visuals.

With a design in mind and knowing what I was going to make I ended up with the final designs of everything.

Bag

Pattern for inside of box, tissue paper for bag and inside of bag.

Coaster business card back and front.

Box

Posters

I came across a few issues when I was screen printing my cards, and pattern, as I had not been used to coating the screens myself I put too much on the screens and it ended up washing off the screen when I washed off the exposed image.

This meant that I could not do as many as I planned to at once, but I simply just got one of the technicians to coat it for me after I washed the screen.

I decided to go with Foiling for the posters as I think that it emphasises my interest in finishing techniques.

I started to experiment with what sorts of stock the heat press would work with the foil.

as you can see here it did not work as well with the thicker stock, such as cartridge and watercolour paper.

But I found a decent stock which was thicker than normal stock. Here are my final outcomes.

I would like to think that every design decision I made on this brief was made to reflect a certain aspect of my life, personality, design preferences and design interests. Overall I was really happy with the end outcomes, despite the box being too small to hold the posters.