Graphic Design - Level 6

When designing my website, I decided that I wanted to design to be minimal and not too overbearing so that it didn’t distract from the work. This decision was influenced by a consideration of form and function, and it prioritises function.   When I started uni, I thought David Carson was the best graphic designer ever, and when I read Massimo Vignelli’s cannon, I thought his modernist functional design principles were massively restrictive and too rigorous. Fast forwarding to now, I agree with them much more. One of the the things that really stuck with me from Vignelli’s Cannon was him saying that you only need 12 typefaces; to me this seemed crazy because I was enjoying playing around with all these decorative contemporary fonts. Ultimately taking all this into account, it seemed fitting to choose Helvetica Neue as a typeface for my self branding, because of the irony , but also because it shows my development and how much my approach to design has developed. Despite...

As I developed my website I made a few changes to refine the design and user experience- my name at the top did was animated to scroll horizontally but I changed this to be static so that it looked a bit more professional and so it was easier to click on it and go back to the home page. I changed the layout from having to columns on the homepage, to 1 so that the images were larger and the overall effect was bolder.   I gave coloured backgrounds to the pages for each project. The design was very minimal and monochromatic, this remained the same for the homepage, however adding colour to the project pages made them feel a bit more distinct and vibrant I added a mailto link on the contact page so that people can click on it and its easier to contact me.  

Over the course of the year, I have compiled a list of studios based in London who’s work I admire, and that I would like to work at. Its more of an aspirational list, with studios such as Pentagram on there who clearly there’s not much chance they’ll hire me, however I thought it was a good start placing to aim high and see where it gets me. I think obviously its important to look on sites such as ‘If You Could’, linked in, the dots and the design jobs board, for studios who are actually looking to hire designers, however, I think a good first step is looking for studios who’s work I really like, because ultimately, these are the places that I would really enjoy working at. Commission - I really love the work that Commission studio has done, and after pitching and winning the Rimowa project with them, I think it would definitely be worth emailing them. Having spoken to them and got feedback from them, I could email them and talk about that, and say that I’ve updated the rimowa br...

Following on from of the self branding decisions that I initially made on my website, I started mocking up some ideas using Helvetica Neue Light in simple black and white designs.   These designs for a business card and an instagram picture are very minimal and uniform. I think that for the instagram picture, it works fine, because you see it on such a small scale anyway, that it’s just important for it to be readable. However for the business card, it feels a little boring and plain. Perhaps I need to add another typeface, or perhaps do something interesting with the type, just so it feels little more considered and interesting to look at.

I picked a simpler template on cargo collective, which made it easier to start working on my website. As I have stated before, I want quite a clean minimal site design and self branding, therefore I have gone for a white background with black type in Helvetica Neue Light. The layout of this site is incredibly simple. The format of the site means it’s very easy to navigate, and my projects are very prominent.   I put one of my projects in ‘tear down the wall’ just to try it out and see if I could manage getting everything laid out correctly. It did work fine, and I put in a few images and a short rationale.   Now what I need to do is get really nice images/mockups of my work and also really airtight rationales/descriptions. I think some research into design websites that I really like will definitely be a good way to go, just to get some inspiration into how they right descriptions, and what information they put etc.   The projects I will put on my site will...

Thinking of all the things that will need to develop and produce, not only for submission but professionally for the future, I wanted to review my idea and sort of set a plan of action moving forward. Self   Branding - I have explored self branding a bit so far. I have identified that I want to develop a fairly minimal and uniform identity. I decided this after looking at and researching various designers websites and self branding, and in general I think a minimal approach is often the most effective; its clear and concise, easy to navigate and it gives more attention the the actual work, because if you have a very specific colour and style to your self branding, this might clash with the images of your work. A lot of the elements I produce will have my self branding applied to them, I want all these aspects to be really cohesive, and to have this identity applied simply and concisely.   Website - After fiddling for quite a while with a slightly more complex webs...

Chris and Ian from Commission Studio spoke to us online about their studio, and their work on re-branding Rimowa.   Some of the interesting things they mentioned about there studio were: They work mostly within the fashion and cultural sectors Although they mostly do branding projects, they like to consider themselves a graphic design studio, not a branding agency A lot of the executions of their projects focus on simple idea, executed beautifully, because it ultimately makes that one idea a lot more precious They’re really interested in unusual and experimental production techniques, and often apply them to the production of their projects in a really bespoke way. For pitches or initial design, they often substitute making mockups for psychically producing and photographing various items of collateral in-house. They have a lot of connections in the creative industry who they often work with. Including illustrators, people in fashion, and photographers such as Luke Ev...

I watched the instagram live video of Regular Practise design studio talking to Intern Magazine about advice for design students during the current period of time. There were some really useful tips and advice that were talked about: Printers are still open - Like many people, I assumed that printing services would be closed during this period, and that I wouldn’t be able to print and photograph the work that I’m making for extended practise that I want to put in my portfolio. As it turns out, printing services are still available, which means I can still utilise these services. One of the sites that was suggested was ‘ YouLovePrint.com ' which after checking it out, looks like a really good site for getting professionally printed publications, posters and more at a fairly reasonable cost.   No one is expecting you to go above and beyond right now - A lot of people have been talking about things that design students should be doing right now to utilise their time as efficient...

On our ppp zoom chat today, one of the things discussed was time management. Being stuck at home I have found it harder to be productive because I don’t have a proper work space. So far, I have been managing my time and my projects by having a big list up on the wall which I can cross things off once I’ve done them. I think writing a list is a good way to be more productive because you can set yourself a few tasks to do and then it feels good to cross them off once you’ve done them. I have been giving myself 4 or 5 of the things on this big list to do in a day but I often don’t get all of them done. One helpful method was to set 4 tasks for a day, each being in an hour time slot; you can break these up a bit, maybe have 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, but that way you are at least getting 4 hours of work done. I am going to try this method of time management and see how it goes: 10am - watch Intern live instagram talk and blog about it. 12am - PPP - self bran...

Thinking about self branding for my website I started putting some designs together. I’d previously decided I wanted the design to be fairly minimal so that the concentration was on the design, so I picked a fairly uniform sans serif font on a white background. Despite this, I do still want to add some level of visual intrigue so that it looks exciting. On Cargo Collective, one of the templates I looked at has images that pop up when you hover over the type, so I tested out what that might look like.  

Me and an illustrator collaborated on a t-shirt design in the summer, and after someone who works at ever press saw the design, they suggested putting it up there. We also got featured on the editors pick page. It was a good opportunity to get my work featured.

I started taking pictures on a white backdrop so that the focus was primarily on the designed products, however the images seemed a bit flat and boring. So I utilised light cast from a window against a white table as a background; this heavy use of light and shadow makes the images a lot more exciting and the light really brightens the surface of the paper and the designs on them. This use of natural light and shadow also gives the images a more physical quality and the bright sun light matches the natural beauty of the hotels setting.

Rob Watson from Raw design studio came in to talk about his career in design and some of the project he’s undertaken.   Rob got a job at a studio straight after uni, and then after 2 years, set up his own studio. This studio was successful but after a while he decided the way they were working just didn’t suit him and he wanted to change things up, so him and his wife who also worked at the studio, streamlined it by letting everyone go, working just as the two of them at home. This meant that they were spending less money and had time to do other things, such as self led projects and travelling. Together they have completed a lot of design projects with clients such as the BBC and the Premier League. They’ve also created products, and some interesting self directed projects. What I found most valuable about Rob’s talk was when he talked about his career progression. I currently would like to work for a studio straight away when I leave uni because I think its good to get t...

In this session practising writing about my design, I’m going to write about one of the projects I did on my placement - branding for Hell Bay, the structure I’m going to choose to write this in will be: What is the Project? How does it Work? Why Does it Work? I picked this structure because in this session, looking at examples of designers websites, I really like the one which had shorter paragraphs and less text in general, focusing more on visuals. I think this structure is quite a concise way to get all the relevant information down.   Hell Bay Brand Identity Hell Bay is a 4 star hotel located on the Isle of Bryher in the Scilly Isles. With a new focus on health and wellbeing, Hell Bay wanted a more contemporary and balanced identity that effectively communicates the award winning services they provide, and appeals to a younger target audience.  In the 18th and 19th century, many ships used to crash in the rocky bay loc...

Examples from professionals: Liz Wells:   -   Title broad description eg ‘personal project’ 2 sentences summarising, then as you scroll down there are longer paragraphs and also little captions under pictures.   ‘Design Challenges’ - is then followed by ‘Design Solutions - demonstrates her design process and problem solving skills.   At the bottom - ‘credits’ - team involved and where its featured in the press.   Pentagram: Tite 1/2 sentence intro Open on strong image ‘pull quote’ - pulls you in - a couple of sentences lifted from larger paragraphs   Very image lead Who are they communicating to? - not many clients, mainly students and designers who are interested/researching. Don’t walk us through the design process. All images accompanied by captions - v important Completely different page for bigger text paragraphs Credits   Rita Matos: very visual website Freelance focused Big leading image ‘brand ...