Plan of the week

So the plan last week was to finish my NHS logo so I could move onto other briefs and I am happy to report that I have indeed finished the logo. Actually I did more than one logo but still its done and I can move on.

Here are some of my logos I did the bottom one first, its a bit obvious and you can clearly tell what my inspiration was the top logo is a bit more subtle and based on the shutter mechanism of a camera, I like the colors the blue and yellow especially, the green could be tweaked a little but when I always look back on work I've done I always see what I could change to make it better which is not a bad thing I suppose, just a fact of life you can always see your mistakes when looking back.

So this weeks plan, well there really isn't one because its the Easter holidays and I'm starting my placement so the next post I do will be all about my time at a real design company. Wish me luck.

Plan of the week

So my plan for last week was all about getting into the new briefs I've been given, updating my blog and trying to do a few posts, which I achieved. I had a contextual graphic design lesson today so that means that this week I'm ready to pick an essay question and start writing a rough draft. 

As I have a lot of different things going on at the same time for the course I have decided that this week will be dedicated to the NHS brief and designing a logo, I hope to have this brief done by the weekend so I can move onto the next brief. Next week I then plan on moving on to another brief this way it is not much of a juggle between a lot of projects. 

A work placement update, I talked to the course leader today as the dates and company that I am going to have changed. My placement will be on the 2nd of April, so next month which gives me more time to devote to the course briefs.

Kerntype - a kerning game?

So as I was aimlessly stumbling from one website to the next, my procrastination rearing its ugly head. I happened to come across a link to a nerdy kerning game no less. (I though this couldn't possibly be true, but alas a wonderful man called Mark MacKay had made it so)

Your mission should you choose to accept it is simple: achieve pleasant and readable text by distributing the space between letters.

http://type.method.ac/?again

I got 89/100 on my first go, why don't you give it a go?

Brand yourself...

So last week the tutors gave the whole class a task to research some examples of personal branding and then to try it for yourself and come up with a logo. During the research I found that the people who use personal branding most are usually fashion designers. The reasons for this is that nowadays fashion designers use branding a lot to help market and sell their designs, so having a brand identity similar to what large clothing company's have makes sense. Also I've seen a trend that some very big name fashion designers take Vera Wang for example use their brand to help them move into other retail areas such as home furnishings, footwear and luggage (weirdly enough).

I've found that personal branding it is very important when it comes to succeed in any field. The only problem with the task of branding myself is that I don't have a clear graphic identity yet, I'm in my first year on this course so compared to other graphic designers who have had years to perfect their craft I'm just a novice barely starting out. It might take years for me to finally be able to fully understand my own graphic style and maybe then I can truly look into my own personal branding, but until then I still had a go at the task just to see what my mind could come up with.

And I have no doubt that 5 years from now when I'm doing my real personal branding I'll look back and cringe at what I came up with...so here it goes it started with rough sketches.

Maybe just initials?
Am I a little retro?
Perhaps more casual with an asterisk?
Or slightly resembling the M&S logo?
Maybe I'm bold and eye catching, how about cursive?

So I did the task and branded myself and I can honesty say bring on the next 5 years because I don't have a clue. Maybe just initials?

Very random but cool pictures...

  

  Mario, the Man, the Legend!

I would so love this costume, screw Halloween I'd wear it everyday

  Lego humor, gets me every time. ^^

Old camera lovin'...

Who doesn't like pictures of cameras, its a bit like typing google into google.

As promised...

I said that part of my plan of the week was to do some posts on some cool stuff I've come across on the web, most images are from Tumbler.

Briefs aplenty! + Plan of the week

Sooo in this post I’ll be telling you all about the new briefs I got assigned today and also what my plan of this week is.

Firstly today was very busy, it started out with a contextual graphic design lecture on the subject of ‘interactive graphic design and multi-media’ it was really interesting actually. The lecture covered a wide range of things from the invention of printing and how it changed graphics to the amazing people who made the very first programmable computer. I took lots of notes during and typed them up straight after so that job isn’t on the ‘to do’ list.

Later on Paul one of the tutors talked to the whole class about what we’ll be doing for the next 8 weeks, there will be 3 briefs that are available.

The first is to design a logo for the Medical Photography Department in the NHS. This is a department I’ve never heard of before but basically it produces photographs and video that is used to diagnose and/or monitor diseases, medical conditions and for teaching purposes. This brief seems quite straight forward they want an edgy and fresh logo, there aren’t any colours that they would prefer so it’s pretty open to interpretation.

The second brief is for a company called Darling Dash. They are the company behind a new an exciting app called Cupple, which is a private sharing mobile app designed specifically for two people in a relationship. Think a confidential Facebook only you and your partner can access, all the sharing without none of the privacy issues.

I haven’t yet got the official brief from this company yet but it will be based around their app, I think they would welcome any ideas that could help further advance the app and they also expressed that they would like ideas for there sticker packs that they sell through the app. I know they are also interested in promotional materials and especially t-shirt and poster designs that would help promote the brand.

The third brief is for a brand that I had never heard of before today Bad Boy. Bad Boy is an alternative sport and lifestyle brand revolving around mixed martial arts.

They are notable for their presence in both fashion and performance equipment for this sport. This brief although not usually my thing does sound quite good, I’m not into sporty clothing and have never owned a pair of joggers myself but never the less I think I could come up with some good designs and ideas for a line of products for the Bad Boy brand.

So now that I have got my third brief, this week will consist of getting into some early research for all of them but I have to juggle this with starting my contextual studies essay which I want to start writing soon. I also want to make sure that this week I update my blog a bit and publish a few more posts on some cool stuff I’ve seen. Next Monday I will be starting a work placement for a few weeks so I have to start to learn how to juggle multiple projects as I will be going to a company during the day and in my own time I have to start making head way on the 3 briefs so learning to manage my time will be crucial. ­