Firstly, I hope everyone is having a good new year. Welcome to 2010. That’s “twenty ten” and not “two thousand and ten” according to the American National Association of Good Grammar (NAGG).
To kick off January, here’s a new identity for Impossibly Stupid, a blog run by Doc O’Leary. Doc writes about many things, but with a particular interest in some of the mindless things that people do that make you think “Well what was the point of that?”. Here’s his original logo:
Impossibly stupid original logo.
It’s not actually that bad of a logo, but it was lacking communication between it and the blog name.
This was a very short project, but one which still required the sketching of ideas between any digital work was done. I started by trying to incorporate the ‘i’ and ’s’ of ‘Impossibly Stupid’ into one solid logo and I think this is where a lot of logo designs start from. Some are fantastic, others don’t work at all. I also tried to play with the idea of taking one step forward and two steps back to reinforce the idea of something being stupid.
Initial ideas for Impossibly Stupid.
That wasn’t really working as well as I had hoped it would so I moved onto something else, playing with the simple equation of 1+1=3. Something so obviously wrong that everyone knows it’s wrong. It was a simple equation, but one which I felt reflected the tone of voice of Doc’s words perfectly.
I tried a number of variations of the equation, trying to design it in such a way that it looked more like a graphic, rather than numbers but I found that the message became too complex, making people look for the connection between it and the name.
Initial ideas for Impossibly Stupid.
I also tried different placements of the equation, including a vertical alternative.
Initial ideas for Impossibly Stupid.
But in the end, I came back to something much simpler – I+I=III
The final idea used for Impossibly Stupid.
Using ‘I’ instead of ‘1′ and using ‘III’ instead of ‘3′ helped the logo to stay unique and relate back to the name. With three ‘i’s in the name, it just gives a little nod, but not so much that it’s too obvious.
From the final sketch design, I then worked in Illustrator to refine it, trying different varations. The final logo:
The final logo for Impossibly Stupid.
I manually kerned the equation using VAG Rounded as a basis for the numerals. I also enlarged the plus/equals symbols and tightened up the words a little bit so that the logo as a whole wasn’t too elongated.
Doc was very happy with the final result and was kind enough to leave a permanent credit link back to my site, which I appreciate.
A quick, but enjoyable project to work on and one which had a very simple solution!
Written: 3rd January
Comments: No comments
Tags: 1+1=3, design, doc o'leary, equation, Identity, impossibly stupid, logo, math, sketch, two steps backwards, vag rounded
As mentioned in one of my Tweets, me and my University of Chester graphic design class had an exhibition on June 18th to show off our finest work to design agencies and the public. As part of the promotion of the exhibition, I was tasked to produce it. This included invitations, posters and a website. You can view the work here.
Producing an entire exhibition is certainly a different experience than simply creating a one-off piece of design. Producing an exhibition means taking everything into account and being responsible for it all fitting together and I have to admit that there were times when it didn’t seem like it was going to be done on time.
It all started at the beginning of March, when the class were told about the exhibition and the need to form a design committee to help organise and produce the show. A group of seven students originally volunteered to help steer the production in the right direction. Over the course of the next few months, we’d slowly begin to develop the show. To help with this, I set up a Facebook group and liaised with the tutors to send out an email to everyone asking everyone to join it so I could keep the class up to date with developments.
Facebook group for the exhibition
We invited the whole class to begin coming up with themes for the show. Something that the design committee could work with to develop invitations, posters and anything else that was needed. We gave people two weeks to develop their ideas into A3 boards and then discuss them with the rest of the class. This proved to be incredibly successful and from this, the idea of using exaggerated facts and figures was chosen.
The committee begin coming up with a range of facts that could relate to design students and their three years at University. This included ideas, hangovers, swearing, paper pads and computer crashes. These facts were then given large figures, based on one person’s experiences, multiplied by 60 (the number of people on the course). So where the average person may have 20 coffees a week, 60 people will have nearly 200,000 over the course of three years. What was clear after coming up with these facts and figures was that there was one fact that would always remain at 1 – the design show itself. This realisation helped to steer the project into the interesting direction of thinking about the exhibition as a culmination of three years. A filtering of ideas, good times, bad times and arriving at one design show, hence why the show was given the name “One Design Show”.
The idea of the past three years being filtered into one show made me think of how it had been tapered to a point – the point being the show – and this gave me the idea of making the invitation a triangle. Something that had a (literal) point to it. Using a triangle for an invitation would give added impact when sending out to design agencies and colleges because how often does someone recieve a triangle-shaped piece of mail?
One of my tutors had mentioned in passing that the previous year’s students had managed to make the invitation its own envelope and this was something that I also wanted to do to so I began to experiment with triangles and how they could fold up into an envelope to keep it secure.
An initial idea for the invitation for One Design Show
The first idea consisted of a hexagon, with a cut from the centre to the edge. The invitation would then fold up into a concertina, leaving a triangle shape. The problem was that in order for this to work, there needed to be enough copy/image to fill 12 pages (six triangles on one side, six on the other) and this proved to be too much and not necessary. This design also meant that a separate envelope was needed. Additionally, because there was a lack of bleed area between the triangles, it meant that some of the artwork was bleeding into another triangle. In short, the idea failed, but the concept was there.
Sticking with the triangle idea but simplifying it, I decided to try it with three panels next to each other instead. This was much easier to handle and it meant that by adding a tab at the end of the triangles, I could fold the whole thing up and the tab would secure it in place, thereby forming its own envelope. I went with this shape and started on the design work.
The numbers for each of the facts were quite big. I wanted some way of trying to relate these big numbers back to a digital medium and the obvious choice was pixels because that’s what any piece of artwork is made up from at some point or another before being printed. I have always enjoyed the work of people like eBoy and their method of using pixelation as an art form. I wanted to take this and try and make it work on a larger, invitation and poster-sized scale. For this reason, I decided that iconography would be great to use.
The original set of icons and one blown up.
I love working with iconography. It forces you to be economical with your design because you only have a 16×16px area to work with. Communicating a computer crash or a hangover in such a small space is quite an interesting project on its own but I had to make the icons work at print resolution. When a 16×16px image is printed at 300dpi, it is less than 3mm in width. This meant that the icon would need to be blown up if it was to be seen. However, by blowing something up so small to such big sizes, it was inevitable that they would look blurry and messy. Photoshop’s default method of resizing images is “Bicubic”, which is useful for things like photos. However, Photoshop also has another resize method called “Nearest Neighbour”, which allows pixels to stay sharp at larger sizes even when resized to ten times its original size.
The icons that I designed, although nice lacked colour and so a few of them were eventually redesigned including a red coffee mug instead of a white coffee cup and a few of these icons were using on the invitation that can you see on the project page.
Once the invitations were designed, it was then a case of finding a quote from the printers. The design department didn’t have a large budget to spend on promoting the show and tasked me with finding a suitable printers to print 400 copies of the invitation. Luckily, the invitation was small enough that two would fit on one A3 page, which meant that it immediately cut the costs in half. Unfortunately, due to the unusual shape of the invitation, they could not offer diecutting for price inside the department’s budget and this meant that I, along with a few other people were tasked with cutting them manually.
400 invitiations manually cut and ready to be sent.
After the invitations were taken care of, the next thing was Moo Minicards. At an early stage of producing the show, I had remembered a great website called Moo. They offer business card-like cards, slightly smaller called Moo MiniCards. I thought these would be a great addition to the show, allowing someone to take something away from it and keep a piece of student’s work with them. My idea was to put a piece of student’s artwork on a total of 100 cards and order 5 packs of them. Each pack costs just £10 so it was well worth it. I requested that all students send me three pieces of their work with their full name and website address. These cards were then scattered all over the tables between each student’s portfolio, making the tables come alive with colour and inviting people to pick them up and look more closely at the work.
Moo MiniCards scattered all over the tables.
The next thing to design were the posters which would help direct people to place in which the exhibition was being held. Originally, the idea was to produce 5 x A1 posters that would be easily visible around the campus. However, after walking around the campus and figuring out where the posters would go, it was clear that more than 5 would be needed. The budget didn’t allow for this. Instead, the posters were designed at A3, which meant that more could be produced and a fraction of the cost of 5 x A1 poster. A series of 8 posters were designed and printed twice, giving me 16 posters to place around the campus in preparation for the opening night.
So as to identify each piece of work on display, nametags for each exhibition stand were designed in the same style as the invitation and placed above each stand. Although a very simple part of the whole production process, these triangles, like the invitations had to be manually cut out of card.
The exhibition, ready for opening night.
Finally, a simple website was designed by myself and built by Liam Gallagher, another student on the course, that housed a few student’s work, descriptions of it and information on the show itself including when it was open and how to get there.
A few of the students who exhibited and/or helped with the show.
Overall, producing the University of Chester’s graphic design show was a really good experience. Liaising with so many people about so many different aspects of the show proved to be very difficult at times due to other coursework-related committments, but I believe that the end result was executed well. In particular, I was really happy with the quality and popularity of the Moo MiniCards that I had designed. As mentioned, I had a total of 500 cards printed and by the end of the seven day opening period of the exhibition, there were less than 100 left. Also, I was pleased to overhear some of the public who attended the opening night of the exhibition express their approval of the posters I had designed. It’s always nice to hear that something you’ve designed has been met with praise.
I’ve really enjoyed working on such a large scale project and I hope that I can do so again in the future.
Written: 4th July
Comments: No comments
Tags: design, exhibition, invitation, invitations, minicards, moo, one design show, poster, posters, show, student, students, University of Chester, website, work
Every year, the University of Chester’s graphic design department holds an exhibition of the third year student’s work. In order to produce, promote and advertise the exhibition, a committee was formed consisting of third year students who were responsible for the design direction.
The committee encouraged full class participation by allowing all third year graphic design students to pitch their ideas, after which one idea was chosen and worked on further by the committee and then further refined by myself.
The idea behind the promotion of the exhibition was to communicate how much effort had gone into the three years of a design student’s time at University through the use of exaggerated figures such as “197,100 Coffees” and “10,800 Glue Sticks”. To communicate this further, a name for the show was developed, “One Design Show”, with the tagline “A Culmination of Ideas” to show how through countless coffees, glue sticks and allnighters, the students had arrived at one show, presenting their finest ideas. These extravagant figures were also illustrated with pixelated iconography, blown up to a size at which the pixels were apparant.
The unique invitation was designed in the form of a triangle which also folds up into its own envelope. This invitation was sent out to 400 design agencies, schools and colleges, inviting them to the show.
Secondly, a series of 8 posters were developed for display around the campus, directing people to the room in which the exhibition was being held. The posters used the same pixelated iconography that could be found on the invitation.
Thirdly, to advertise the student’s work and to allow people to take something away from the exhibition to carry on the experience, a set of Moo MiniCards were designed with the student’s artwork, name and website address on one side and thanking people for attending the show on the back.
Fourthly, name tags were designed in the same style of the invitation for each of the exhibition stands.
Fifthly, a website was designed to promote the show. It includes three pieces of work from each student displaying at the show, along with information on each project and contact details for the show and the student themselves.
Along with all of the above, responsibilties for producing the show included liaising with design staff, external printers and the class as a whole.
Written: 4th July
Comments: 2 comments
Tags: chester, design, exhibition, invitation, moo minicards, poster, posters, produce, production, show, student, university, website, work
As part of David Pache’s efforts to create awareness for the many graphic designers in the world, he presents part two of his 100 Brands of Interest series and in it, you’ll find my logo. David contacted me a few months ago, out of the blue about adding my logo to the list and I was very flattered. You can find the article here.
There’s so many excellent logos on the list from simple logos to the more complex and beautiful. I feel honoured to be included in the list.
Pache is an excellent logo designer and one which I’ve followed for many years from my time at LogoPond. His logos are always well thought out and reflect the company they’re designed for accurately. I thank him for the time he’s spent compiling this list and for featuring me in it.
Written: 7th April
Comments: No comments
Tags: 100 brands of interest, dache, david pache, design, logo, logopond, neil martin, the work of
Would you order pizza from this guy?
In my last post about fast food leaflets, I wrote about how clarity of information is key to getting as much business from your potential customers as possible. This post is about how to turn them off.
Last week, I recieved this leaflet through my door and it certainly stood out from the usual fast food leaflets I recieve. Would you really be attracted to food with spiral eyes and a mouth, serving what appears to be a slice of himself to you? I find that quite off putting. Disturbing, even.
And then there’s that header. “The pizza delivery expressperts”. Perhaps it’s just me, but trying to combine two words like that while worth a try at the design stage, is certainly not good enough to put on the front of a leaflet, regardless of what it’s for. You do have to wonder who designs these things and, more importantly, why the client signs off on it.
To their credit, “Krazy Pizza” have one of the clearer menu designs inside, but the leaflet’s cover would put me off. It just doesn’t look healthy at all, does it?
Written: 3rd April
Comments: No comments
Tags: bad, design, flyer, leaflet, menu, pizza, unhealthy
Let there be light.
The Work Of has finally launched and this version is here to stay. Completely redesigned and now fully automatic, my site is going to see a lot more attention over the coming months. This version has been in the works for over two years on and off now and it’s fantastic to finally be able to launch it and begin regularly updating my portfolio with the many clients I’ve been working with over the past few months and indeed years.
As I said, everything is now automatic, which means adding stuff to the website is now so fast and easy. This includes everything in my portfolio, this blog and, if you’d like to scroll down the page, you’ll see a nice list of interesting links, which will also be updated regularly. As you can probably tell, I’m like a kid with a new toy. This is my favourite toy. My thanks goes to Colin from XAdvance for developing it with me. I’m no coding expert but he is.
You might find a few errors here and there but don’t worry, I’ve already spotted them and they’ll be taken care of ASAP. It’ll take some time to get things back up and running so you may find that my portfolio is looking a bit empty as you read this, but give me a few days and everything will be back up there along with some fantastic new projects that I’ve been working on. I’m really looking forward to using this site more often and your feedback is as always very much appreciated.
Let me know what you think of the new site and thanks for stopping by!
Written: 24th March
Comments: 1 comment
Tags: coding, design, neil martin, new, Portfolio, the work of, website, xadvance
For the most part, I actually prefer to find my design inspiration online, simply because there’s so much of it about. However, there are some times when you need not only high quality images to really see the detail in something, but also, a range of pieces that a professional has chosen, rather than a small collection that a blogger may have chosen to write about – which is what I’m about to do! My book collection is very small, but those that I do have are not only informative, but also a great resource for various projects. I’d recommend these books to anyone interested in design. All links will take you to Amazon, simply because Amazon have all of the books on this list.
Area
Author: Anthon Beeke, Nick Bell, Ken Cato
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Area is a great book for when you’re looking for some inspiration from all over the world. Area doesn’t just focus on one country or culture, but an incredible amount of them, sourcing images from Tehran and Berlin to Amsterdam and London and back. Curators of the book include the likes of Stefen Sagmeister. What’s really nice about this book is that because it’s physically big (measuring in at 29×25cm), you have a great view of some of the most detailed work. It’s hard to call this book a ‘coffee table’ book simply because it’s so big (445 pages) but there is a lack of detailed information. The book chooses instead to dedicate its space to the visuals. So, if your aim is to find out the reasoning behind something, then this book isn’t for you, but if it’s pure inspiration and enjoyment of graphic design, then by all means, consider Area as your next design book purchase.
Visual Research
Author: Ian Noble, Russell Bestley
Publisher: AVA
Considering this is a list of books that I own and wish to write about, this one is one that I regret purchasing. I don’t find it particularly useful because it’s written with the graphically and technically minded in mind. I suppose you could argue that since I am a graphic designer, I should enjoy and understand this book, but it’s just not enjoyable to read. The book is made even worse by the strange layout of it, shifting from serif text to sans serif throughout. In some cases, some of the informative text looks more like a piece of artwork. This is fine, but for a book that’s meant to be informative, you do tend to skip over some of the visuals and therefore miss out on the information you’re search for. So, while I do own this book, my advice is to avoid it.
A Smile in the Mind
Author: Beryl McAlhone, David Stuart
Publisher: Phaidon
If there’s one book on this list that you’ve probably heard of and/or seen in your design library, it’s probably this one. The book’s opening chapter begins:
Thank goodness the brain is designed to be uncreative. With eleven items of clothing to put on there would be 39,916,800 ways of getting dressed. The brain is designed to make patterns, to use them and to stick to them.
With an opening like that, it’s easy to tell that this book is all about being creative, but creative in a way in which makes people smile. Creative in a way in which people ‘get’ it. Where the previous book fails in explaining this smile in the mind, this book succeeds. Not only does it offer a good in-depth overview of the methods and executions it discusses, it also gives pages and pages of great examples. As many other designers would agree, A Smile in the Mind is a book which should be on any designer’s shelf.
Creative Advertising
Author: Mario Pricken
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Where the previous book deals with how other people have created fantastic and creative pieces of work, Creative Advertising shows how you can do it yourself, giving numerous small tasks you can set yourself. This book doesn’t deal with the technical aspects of things like colour and composition, but rather the methods in which you get to that stage, asking questions such as “What if the product could defy gravity?”, “What if the product could make animals talk?” and other such questions to spark an idea. This is definitely a book which needs more than just a passing glance in order to get the most from it. However, if you do decide to spend time not only reading this book, but following its tasks, it’ll certainly be worth the price you paid for it.
The Creative Handbook
Publisher: Creative Review
This isn’t actually a book you’ll find on Amazon, but rather one which strangely came free with my subscription to Creative Review. It’s not even really a book. It’s more a Yellow Pages for creatives. An entire book dedicated to finding top design agencies, photography studios and other creative outlets. What is really interesting about this book is the way in which these companies choose to advertise, showing some of their best work, some of which is stunning. The Creative Handbook is published yearly and so each handbook is different, but if you happen to come across one, it’s worth keeping a hold of, especially if like me you’re interesting in applying to a few agencies.
1000 Graphic Elements
Author: W. Harvey
Publisher: Rockport
Out of all of the books I own, this is definitely my favourite. This book has an incredible amount of creative bindings, finishes, packagings and other truly impressive ways of presenting an idea. Although there’s no detailed information on any of the executions, the photos are so perfectly shot that it’s hard not to instantly understand what’s going on. The book is separated into sections including Printing, Manipulated Surfaces and Unique Materials. Each section has a wide range of agency work, with accreditation at the back. If ever you’re in the need of an original way of presenting something, this is absolutely the book for you. I can’t recommend it enough.
How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul
Author: Adrian Shaughnessy
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
This is another book that should be on the shelves of every graphic designer. The advice given is advice which you would never get from a University tutor (and some could argue that this is what University should be about – Getting real advice!), but rather, a honest look at the industry of graphic design and what you’re up against if you choose to be a part of it. Shaugnessy does an excellent job of explaining things like how to find a job, working freelance and self promotion. His words are not filled with technical jargon, but simply written from his perspective, along with contributions from the likes of Neville Brody scattered throughout. The book itself is beautifully presented with plenty of small footnotes and afterthoughts which are just as interesting as the main articles themselves. This is definitely a book you should own.
Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design
Author: Michael Bierut
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
I’ll be honest and say that I’ve still not had a chance to completely read through this book, but it’s a book that you don’t need to read completely in order to enjoy it. This book become part of my collection after Ben Terrett suggested it on his blog. As the title suggests, this book is made up of small, easy to read essays about various elements of design. While the author of the book may be Michael Beirut, there are contributions from a huge number of designers and all of the articles are worth reading. What’s also really nice is that each individual essay is set in a different typeface, making the essay stand out more. What’s more is that information on how it’s been set out can be found at the back, along with the author of each essay. The size of book makes for easy reading when you’re not busy at the computer, with its small size and hardback cover. A really nice book and one which I still need to read thoroughly!
It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be
Author: Paul Arden
Publisher: Phaidon
As with the previous book, I haven’t had a chance to read all the way through this because it was only given to me recently by Thoughtful. However, after flicking through it, it’s going to be a very easy read as there’s less than a paragraph of text on most of the page. That’s not to say that the paragraph is undeserving of being read, however. In most cases, what I’ve read so far is quite interesting. The book has a fairly light-hearted feel to it, with lots of humorous lines in it. This kind of book can be read in less than a few hours, but the advice contained within it will undoubtedly stick in your head for many months to come. It’s definitely a worthwhile purchase and one which is less than £5.
So, there’s my list of books that currently adorn my shelf. As I said at the beginning of this post, it’s not a huge collection, but I consider these books to be worthwhile purchases and ones which far outweigh the cost of buying them. Many people could argue that the art of a printed book is declining, but there’s something about a physical book that can never be replicated by viewing it online. Sometimes, it’s all about holding it and turning pages. It’s that tactile action that makes you enjoy the book even more and perhaps even help you remember what you read. I would recommend any of these books to anyone interested in design and in the coming years, I have no doubt that my collection will grow much larger than it is now. At that point, my next book list post may be considerably longer!
Written: 13th March
Comments: 1 comment
Tags: 1000 graphic elements, a smile in the mind, adrian shaughnessy, advice, amazon, anthon beeke, area, ben terrett, beryl mcalhone, binding, book, creative advertising, creative review, david stuart, design, essays, finishes, high quality, how to be a graphic designer without losing your soul, ian noble, idea, information, inspiration, it's not how good you are it's how good you want to be, ken cato, list, mario pricken, methods, michael bierut, mind, nick bell, packaging, paul arden, printing, professional, recommendations, research, resource, russell bestley, seventy-nine short essays on design, tactile, tasks, the creative handbook, thoughtful, visual research, w.harvey
The URBIS looks great from the outside
On Wednesday, I went to the URBIS in Manchester. It’s a great looking building.
There were two reasons for my trip to the URBIS. Firstly was the D&AD exhibition of all of their annuals since its beginnings in the 1960s. It was interesting seeing how it had envolved over the last five decades but because the annuals were encased in glass and only one page displayed, the exhibition felt a little…stunted. Here was an opportunity to display 50 years of work, but it had been reduced down to just a few examples. The others from my class who had also come to see the exhibition felt the same way, asking “Is this it?”. It felt like a bit of a let down.
However, more importantly than the exhibition and the main reason I had decided to come was because I had been selected for a portfolio surgery. A portfolio surgery, as I found out a few weeks ago, was a chance to spend 20 minutes with someone from the design industry and simply get a chance to talk about your work and invite comments on it. An opportunity that I didn’t want to miss out on. After signing up for one, I was happy when I recieved an email saying that I had been chosen to have my work looked at by a company called Thoughtful.
I hadn’t heard of Thoughtful before so I spent some time doing some research into them, getting to know them via their website and their blog. I think it’s so important for someone like a design agency to have their own blog because it makes the company so much more accessible to the public and those people who may potentially hire them. Thoughtful’s posts were interesting to read and I left a number of comments to which I recieved a nice email from Stuart Price, one of the top guys at Thoughtful saying thank you for the comments.
Putting my portfolio together prior to the surgery was a relatively easy task as I had already done it a few months ago for Univeristy. However, I had been wondering how to organise it so that it was in an order that would create the best impact. In total, I had 18 pieces in my portfolio, but since I only had a maximum of 20 minutes with the guys from Thoughtful, I knew that I had to trim that down. I managed to get it down to 15 instead, with more emphasis on my better projects, allowing me to spend more time talking about them and less time about some weaker projects.
CD packaging
In addition to my work, I wanted to leave Thoughtful with a copy of my work. However, just handing over a CD seemed a bit of a missed opportunity and so I created some simple packaging for it, along with including my business card and some of my stickers. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to show that I already had my own brand.
Lots of goodies inside
The interviews were being held in a large room, full of other design agencies. This included elmwood and The Chase. I could see into the room through the full length glass windows and managed to spot the Thoughtful team. It’s quite strange recognising someone you’ve never actually met before. I also noticed that Thoughtful had chosen to bring some students along with them who they were currently working with as placements. I think it’s such a great idea to give them a chance to see so many people’s work.
Just before my interview, there was a talk from Ben Casey from The Chase about the D&AD exhibition. While it was very interesting to listen to him, as said before, there’s only so much you can say about such a small exhibition. Plus, I had to leave half way through because it was time for my interview.
I have to admit that I was a little nervous about the interview. I suppose I was treating it like a job interview in some respects. I’d shown my portfolio to other people before so it wasn’t the first time I’d done this, but every time is always different.
I sat down and Chris Jeffreys introduced himself to me, one of the guys from Thoughtful. He asked me if I minded if the three students sat in and looked through my work and I said I didn’t mind at all. It was quite interesting showing my work to four people instead of one.
As I began talking about my first piece of work – my Oxfam posters – Chris interrupted me saying “I’m sure I’ve seen these before”. “You have”, I said, “On my website”. “Oh, you’re Neil!”, he said, referring to the fact that I had been commenting on their blog. It felt quite nice being known without having met Thoughtful and even nicer that they had taken the time to look through my work on my website.
Chris critiqued my work for 20 mintues, saying what was good and what was bad. He noted that one of the things that I could possibly add to the portfolio was the actual artefacts that I had produced, such as my 10×10 book. I very much agree with that and next time I have an interview will definitely bring it with me.
The 20 minutes flew over so quickly that it felt like I had only been sitting there for a few seconds. I think I was right to reduce the amount of work in my portfolio and ideally, perhaps should have reduced it even further because it did feel like I was rushing towards the end to make sure I got through it all. I think next time, ideally, I should have about 10 pieces of work instead of 15.
A Thoughtful gift
At the end of the critique, I thanked the four of them for their time and Chris gave me a book called “It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be“. I think it’s such a nice gesture to offer everyone a free book, especially one which had obviously been thoughtfully selected. In return, I gave them my CD with my work on it, shook the hands of all four of them and said goodbye. My only regret is not being able to spend more time talking to them.
Thoughtful seem like, well, a thoughtful design agency to me. They come across as a company who are very easy to approach and I think that was reflected in my critique with them. I’ll be continuing to read their blog and see what else they get up to this year. Having the opportunity to discuss my work with them was a really useful experience and one which I hope I have many more of.
Written: 28th February
Comments: 1 comment
Tags: annual, ben casey, Blog, cd, chris jeffreys, comments, d&ad, design, design agency, elmwood, exhibition, industry, interview, it's not how good you are it's how good you want to be, Manchester, packaging, Portfolio, stickers, stuart price, the chase, thoughtful, URBIS, work
A quote that I’ve just come across:
What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?
Found via here.
I think that’s such an interesting question that graphic design on many occasions fails to answer. So much design follows trends instead of starting one. No one person can be blamed for wanting to look like something else, however. Afterall, we as a society are comfortable with the familiar, while casting out anything that can be considered unusual. You only have to look at the likes of the London 2012 logo to see how that was unwelcomed by the world.
It’s hard to be different because it’s scary being different. The more you stray from the realms of familiarity, the less people there are to give you advice on how to progress because if they’ve never done it, how are they going to help you? And if they’ve never done what you’re trying to do, they’ll always want to direct you down a path on which they have an understanding. But just because someone isn’t there to point you in a (right or wrong) direction, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t always do it regardless. At the worst, it’s a failed experiment, giving you valuable lessons for whatever project you work on next and at best, you design something that leads the rest of the industry, seperating you from those who are content just to follow.
Written: 16th January
Comments: 1 comment
Tags: design, inspiration, logo, london 2012, new, trends
www.theworkof.co.uk is now up, running and ready for business.
The design, while very simple is aimed at showcasing my work, rather than being impressed with the website itself. Web design is not something I’m interested in, but I’ve made sure that the work is presented in a way which is easy to view and easy to navigate.
You’ll notice it’s currently snowing over there, too.
I’m really happy to finally get my site redesigned. It means I can now continue to upload any new work to it, whereas with my previous design, I was holding off on doing so. On The Work Of now, you’ll find many of my University-related projects, along with a good dose of freelance work. When I upload new work, check back here for a detailed rundown of what it took to create it.
The design, while at a finished stage will undoubtedly undergo some tweaks over the next few weeks, but for now, I’m quite happy as it is. How about you? What do you think? Leave a comment here or send me an email via the site. Thanks!
Written: 19th December
Comments: No comments
Tags: design, launch, the work of, university, website
