A Work In Progress

This is my first digital draft of my solution for my newest brief. The project is a live brief from D&AD designing ambient media for lastminute.com, focusing on a sting/ident animation to drive people to their website and also encourage people to use lastminute.com to facilitate their use of free time or use of spontaneity. My concept focuses on colour communication of the brand, I have created a series of vehicles including a plane, train and as you can see here a camper van to communicate the brand through the use of the logo's 100% magenta colour but also by using vehicles to communicate travel. The strap line 'do more good stuff' was provided by the brief, My concept started off on paper as a map drawn from the birds-eye view with the little vehicles driving round or over to create the strapline so that at point a of my animation a hand drawn map with architectural elements from all over the world would be seen in soft pale pastel colours. Then a sound effect would play car doors closing and an engine starting. The vehicle would then go around the map and create the strapline in it's wake. I really liked this concept but unfortunately it did not transfer well onto screen. I was disappointed but wanted to find a solution so that this concept could be realised. I began looking through illustration magazines and my own collection of inspirational illustration work and happened upon a piece that integrated typography into an illustration and this helped me to create my little animation idea.
Although it is not finished yet and I have not yet began animating my work (which will of course throw a couple more creative problems my way) I am finally starting to enjoy a project and expertise that I was at first very skeptical and uncomfortable about. I hope that by deadline I will have enjoyed this process and if not I have definitely learn a lot about an expertise I have never experienced before.

Quaker's Big Creamy Oats

This is my most recent work, it is my response to the D&AD student live brief for Quaker Oats. The parameters of this brief was to create a successful brand and packaging for a new product from Quaker Oats, the product being similar to muller rice but using oats. The brand characteristics and target demographic were very important and were given a lot of description in the brief; there was a major emphasis placed upon the idea of a quick, healthy and tasty snack aimed at women aged 25 - 35 who have to eat on the go. This project falls under the packaging design expertise but the entire project encapsulated everything from name generation, branding and finally packaging design. My response was to create a contemporary piece of branding that I think would stand out on a supermarket shelf. I really wanted to create a packaging brand that broke the traditions of this genre of product, like for example finding a way of implying flavour and ingredients without using the usual fruit imagery. I accomplished this using colour to do the same job coupled with using hand drawn elements to communicate an organic feel. I liked the idea of having a quirky element so I used the name 'Big Creamy Oats' with the strap line 'One Little Pot!' this also fulfills the implication that this little pot of creamy oats is also a filling snack. However i could not decide which version of my final designs i preferred; the cream or black background. I therefore submitted both and if my work goes any further in the competition this decision could be made by popular decision.

Create Democracy Exhibition

If you read my earlier post about the create democracy exhibition then you will know all about it! These are some photo's from the exhibition that ran from the 14th of October until the 30th. I volunteered at the exhibition and did a couple of shifts. I really enjoyed designing for this exhibition and enjoyed working for it however I was slightly disappointed with the work that got through to the final 51 as there was a lot more variety on the website that unfortunately wasn't totally reflected in the final show. This however is the result of 100% democracy and is therefore inevitable. I really enjoyed the process of this entire exhibition and thought the guys at Sumo did really good work in putting it together, I especially appreciated the bright yellow letter box :)

A Fellow Blogger.Comian

I found Daniel Almeroth, of which this is a selection of his folio, on FormFiftyFive who had a featured article on his work posted a few days ago. I checked out his website, which did not disappoint both in content and design. The website itself impressed me immensely and his work carried on the trend. Really liked his use of different styles, well applied to his varying subject matter which really gave his folio variety and flare. He is also a fellow blogger.comian, a term I have coined to express a loose affiliation with rather talented people whom I hope one day will return the favour. Ahhh shucks.....

Expecto Photoshop, I mean Patronum.....

These are a selection from the 'Exquisite Photoshop Examples' of which there are 29 which I discovered on YouTheDesigner a few days ago. I could not believe it when I cracked them open, they are amazing! There are so many different styles, subtleties in colour and shape and beautiful illustrations that I did not know where even possible in Photoshop. Really opened my eyes to the possibilities of the software, now all I have to do is become a Photoshop master.....

Just Out Of The Blue

This is a selection of work from the New Zealand based Out Of The Blue, I discovered them whilst perusing Flueron - Daily Design Inspiration. I just really liked their work, it consists of a lot of things I look for as both a designer and a consumer; a quirky style made up of hand drawn and vector elements, a lot of mixed media and an amazingly tactile quality that is evident on screen. I'd love to get my hands on some!

An inside Joke Hiding In Plain Sight

I found these t-shirts on YouTheDesigner, one of my favourite inspirational blogs. They were part of a collection of t-shirts under the title '25 t-shirts graphic designers will love', and you know what I do! :) I just think they are really funny, but what is funnier only other designers really appreciate them, its like an inside joke hiding in plain sight, the best kind really.

Design Event '09 - Democracy

Design Event began in 2005 as a festival and has grown to be an organisation delivering an annual programme of design based exhibitions and events across the North East. Each year a festival is curated celebrating design across the North East region and hold a programme of talks, exhibitions and workshops with leading designers in their fields. This year Design Event '09 has been organised with the theme of politics and play and this exhibition to which I have submitted is the first event of the festival, titled 'Democracy'. The brief was to create visual interpretations of what Democracy means to us. The exhibition is completely democratic, anyone can vote, post comments online on the submission site. Then from the 14th October 2009 the best work is going to be exhibited via projectors at the Square Yard Gallery, Blandford Square and voting will carry on via text and ballot boxes at the exhibition so that the exhibition is constantly changing, just to keep things extra interesting. My ideas stemmed from the feeling that democracy in this country is not at it's best at the minute and I feel that in the current political climate the general public is having the proverbial wool pulled over our eyes. That is the theme behind the 1st and 2nd pieces. I wanted to show two very different demographics and environments to which this is occurring, the workplace, and in this case a loading bay and to the student population in there common meeting place, a beer garden! The 3rd piece stems from the idea that democracy is both cherished and enforced. The style of this piece is very different from the first two but I think this is a good thing as it creates variety in my portfolio. We were encouraged to campaign both online and by word of mouth to maximise our chances of success, and in the name of democracy!

Kleenex Live Brief

These designs are the result of another live brief from Kleenex focusing on the redesigns of their tissue pocket packs, primarily aimed at women and trying to reach a new demographic of the elusive 16-25 age bracket. The idea behind this brief was that Kleenex wanted the packaging to make a statement and become a real accessory for women. This was my first experience of packaging design and I thoroughly enjoyed it. My ideas came from vintage handkerchiefs and the delicate stitched patterns often found on them. My original idea was hand stitched but it became difficult to maintain the quality once my ideas had progressed to a digital level, however it is something I hope to revisit to see if the hand stitched route could be improved.

Newcastle College Students Union Live Brief

This was another live brief, this time set by Newcastle College Students Union to advertise an arrangement of their events; the "NCSU Sexual Health Clinic", their "Volunteer In The Community" project and the "Annual NCSU Christmas Party". I wanted to create these posters with a little humour as our target demographic, students, respond to humour in advertising quite successfully. My influences were the trend of greeting cards which use this style of photography partnered with more contemporary and funny messages.

Shmem Does Editorial

This was my first experience of Editorial design. It was a really interesting brief that was quite open to interpretation. We were given seven options to focus our subject matter and therefore our theme on, I chose London Fashion Week and in particular the size zero argument as I feel it is a very serious issue.

My First Book Cover

This was a live brief for Penguin Books. It was to redesign the cover for one of their classic novels, 'The Secret History' by Donna Tartt. I really enjoyed doing this brief and it seriously made me consider trying to get into this area of design.