YCN Student Award Winner 2009 - Prudential Brief

This is a winner from the 2009 student awards from YCN, this is a collection of ambient media designed to make people think more practically about their savings and pensions with Prudential. I really like the concept created and very effectively executed by the designers involved (Peter Loulianou & Ollie Agius), I love the hand drawn style of illustration carried throughout the concept and how they have tried to catch the attention of a younger generation of people by using this style, re-enforcing the idea that it is never too early to start thinking about it. i really enjoyed reviewing the YCN winners archive, but this piece really caught my eye.

D&ad Student Award Winner 2009

A creative circle is a square. So this awards annual for the Creative Circle is square (which is also a good shape to show both portrait and landscape format work). And the target on the cover is a square. The bullet holes drilled into this target relate to gold, silver, bronze and inbook winners. Next to the winning work inside, we see special gold, silver and bronze ink swatches in the shape of the holes in the cover. The number and type of swatches relates to the number and type of awards won. Every piece of work featured has its own page. And all the winning work is shown in situ.

This is the description of the winning piece by Paul Belford in the 2009 awards. I don't think the description does this piece justice although the award does speak for itself. I love the use of layout, white space and the intriguing and eloquent way this annual for Creative Circle uses a subtle yet fantastically effective concept to showcase the winners in their categories. This piece is a fantastic source of inspiration on many levels and is a well deserved winner.

Just Us - this cheers me up no end.

This is a post from the Just Us collective blog, I have began incorporating Just Us into my weekly online adventure for inspiration as they catch beautiful pieces that are unusual and always with character and personality. This piece is from Adorn a Brooklyn based design studio started by Eric Elms. Adorn aim to make people think and smile by creating visually interesting and conceptual solutions. Their work has a nice sense of joy to it, and along with all the illustrative and installation work, Adorn has done some really nice layout and publication work to fit alongside. Worth a look to get your taste buds tingling.

Kerry Venus - Northern design competition Graphic Design winner 2009

This is a review of the 2009 Northern Design Competition winner Kerry Venus. Kerry Venus is a graduate from the Lincoln School of Art and Design who's entry won her the top prize, and contributed, along with her other work, a job as an in house designer for Morrisons Supermarkets. I love Kerry's entry, her style and her reasoning behind it is something I am also passionately interested in promoting and her piece very eloquently and more so interestingly showcases not only her talent as a designer but also her dedication and love of design. Kerry's manifesto is very aesthetically interesting, with a fantastic application of her idea. I also took the time after reviewing her manifesto to check mild peril media which is the brain child of Kerry and illustrator Colin Mayhew. There is some great work up on the site and the site itself is a fantastic representation of the work to be found there. Below is Kerry comments on her entry.
"The Handmade Manifesto is a policy I wrote about how all designers should turn off their computers and get back to doing their work by hand." I couldn't agree more.
links - http://www.mildperilmedia.co.uk/Mild_Peril_Media_Home.html
http://www.northerndesigncompetition.co.uk/archive/index.php#graphic_design

Toontastic Typography

This is a collection of typography I found whilst out and about in Newcastle. I have noticed over the last few months an influx of stylish and out of the ordinary design and especially typographic use in and around Newcastle. These are some examples I really liked in particular that will serve as really good inspiration for any branding projects I do in the future as well as any typographic based solutions to any brief. I think it is really important as young designers to look for inspiration everywhere and speaking for myself making a conscious as well as a subconscious effort to gain this inspiration can only make me a better designer.