Last weeks plan was to pick a brief that I wanted to do for my WBL. I managed to complete all the goals that I set out to do in last weeks plan. I picked a brief and started researching it.
The brief I picked is being held by a company called 'Poster for tomorrow' the brief basically is to design a poster. Every year they hold this brief they pick a different humanitarian topic to draw attention to. The best 100 posters will be displayed in multiple locations worldwide on December
10th
which is the International Human Rights Day.
This year 'Poster for tomorrow have chosen the topic gender equality. On there website they state why they have chosen this topic.
"But why gender equality?
What makes gender equality, well, different from all the other possible topics?
The condition of women has undergone undeniable improvements during the last century. But these improvements haven't happened everywhere and even where they have been the strongest, well, they are far from being strong enough."
The brief doesn't have that many limitations just that the poster needs to be portrait in layout and it must be illustrated so that means no photographs. So as far as briefs go its pretty flexible, I'm looking forward to trying my hand at illustration again as I've only done one brief this year that specialized in it and that was the Penguin book brief which I loved, so lets hope this brief goes just as well.
So this weeks plan, researching deeper into 'Poster for tomorrow' there history, previous years briefs, researching gender equality and what its like around the world for women. Just lots of researching truth be told.
Lets hope it stirs up some ideas.
30 April 2012
24 April 2012
D&AD
So how to explain the awesomeness that was the D&AD trip.
Well for the people who don't know what D&AD stands for it's Design and Art Direction, it is a British educational charity which exists to promote excellence in design and advertising. The D&AD Awards are highly respected and regarded as a major event in the world design and advertising, and it was the judging for these awards that I went and observed.
They were judging for four awards...
-Black Pencil (very special only one or two given every year)
-Yellow Pencil (are recognized the world over as a symbol of true creative achievement)
-Nomination (this is being nominated for a yellow pencil)
-In Book (this award is when you get your work published in the D&AD annual)
Upon arriving at the Earl's Court Olympia each student was given a discipline for them to shadow for the day, I was given Typography which I was quite happy to get.
The juries considered the following three criteria,
- the work must be a highly original and inspiring idea.
- it must be exceptionally well executed.
- it must be relevant to its context.
There are three rounds of judging. All voting is private, never by a show of hands. After each round, juries discuss the preliminary results before the final selection is made.
In the first round, In Book awards are given to pieces of work that receive votes from at least 50% of the jury. In the following rounds, Nominations, Yellow Pencils, and Black Pencils are given to pieces of work that receive over 50% of the votes.
Before I went to the D&AD judging I thought it would be really busy and that there would be loads of people, but when your there you realize just how few people outside of the judges get to see the work and the judging process. Luckily I got to wonder around the entire building and see all the work (about 20,000 pieces) from all the categories not just Typography.
It was a real privilege to go and witness something so private and i can say to any students who might get the chance to see the judging process next year that it will definitely change your perspective about the field of design.
p.s I took hundreds of photographs of the event which I will put in another post for everyone to see.
Well for the people who don't know what D&AD stands for it's Design and Art Direction, it is a British educational charity which exists to promote excellence in design and advertising. The D&AD Awards are highly respected and regarded as a major event in the world design and advertising, and it was the judging for these awards that I went and observed.
They were judging for four awards...
-Black Pencil (very special only one or two given every year)
-Yellow Pencil (are recognized the world over as a symbol of true creative achievement)
-Nomination (this is being nominated for a yellow pencil)
-In Book (this award is when you get your work published in the D&AD annual)
Upon arriving at the Earl's Court Olympia each student was given a discipline for them to shadow for the day, I was given Typography which I was quite happy to get.
The judges for this category were...
Erik Spiekermann, founder of Fontshop and type designer
Alan Kitching typographer, established The Typography Workshop in London in 1989.
Kutlu Çanlıoglu, Senior Creative Director - BBC World Service
Philippe Apeloig, Graphic Designer - Apeloig Design
Rian Hughes, graphic designer, illustrator, comic artist, author, and typographer.
Sonya Dyakove, Art Director - Frieze magazine.
Zoë Bather, Creative Director & Founding Partner - Studio8 Design.
The juries considered the following three criteria,
- the work must be a highly original and inspiring idea.
- it must be exceptionally well executed.
- it must be relevant to its context.
There are three rounds of judging. All voting is private, never by a show of hands. After each round, juries discuss the preliminary results before the final selection is made.
In the first round, In Book awards are given to pieces of work that receive votes from at least 50% of the jury. In the following rounds, Nominations, Yellow Pencils, and Black Pencils are given to pieces of work that receive over 50% of the votes.
Before I went to the D&AD judging I thought it would be really busy and that there would be loads of people, but when your there you realize just how few people outside of the judges get to see the work and the judging process. Luckily I got to wonder around the entire building and see all the work (about 20,000 pieces) from all the categories not just Typography.
It was a real privilege to go and witness something so private and i can say to any students who might get the chance to see the judging process next year that it will definitely change your perspective about the field of design.
p.s I took hundreds of photographs of the event which I will put in another post for everyone to see.
23 April 2012
Plan of the week
So this plan of the week explains what I'll be doing for the next week.
Well its the start of a new brief, the course is almost over and there is just one more brief to go. Its called Work Based Learning or WBL for short. Work based learning is basically all about either doing a brief that the tutors have given you (so this could be Cupple or Badboys) or choosing a brief to do yourself.
I've decided that I want to try something new, I don't want to make up a brief so this week will consist of me going on line and researching what briefs are out there that I think are interesting and that I would like to have a go at.
Well its the start of a new brief, the course is almost over and there is just one more brief to go. Its called Work Based Learning or WBL for short. Work based learning is basically all about either doing a brief that the tutors have given you (so this could be Cupple or Badboys) or choosing a brief to do yourself.
I've decided that I want to try something new, I don't want to make up a brief so this week will consist of me going on line and researching what briefs are out there that I think are interesting and that I would like to have a go at.
Placement time!
So I wanted to publish this post when I had completely finished me placement so here it is.
My placement was at The Point Design www.thepointdesign.co.uk a design agency in Newcastle quite near the Baltic actually. They have just moved at an amazing building The Toffee Factory.
Right about the placement, it started at the beginning of the Easter holidays and was for 3 weeks, luckily the College was closed so I didn't miss any digital skills lessons. So my day started at 7o'clock when I had to leave to get to Newcastle. The working hours were from 8:45 to 5:30. Throughout my time at the Point I kept a detailed diary everyday based on what I did which I won't post on my blog as it talks about the company and there clients and thats private to them, I will however have to hand it in at College as I will get marked on it. But her are some pictures of some of the stuff that I did at the Point.
My placement was at The Point Design www.thepointdesign.co.uk a design agency in Newcastle quite near the Baltic actually. They have just moved at an amazing building The Toffee Factory.
![]() |
The Toffee Factory |
Right about the placement, it started at the beginning of the Easter holidays and was for 3 weeks, luckily the College was closed so I didn't miss any digital skills lessons. So my day started at 7o'clock when I had to leave to get to Newcastle. The working hours were from 8:45 to 5:30. Throughout my time at the Point I kept a detailed diary everyday based on what I did which I won't post on my blog as it talks about the company and there clients and thats private to them, I will however have to hand it in at College as I will get marked on it. But her are some pictures of some of the stuff that I did at the Point.
![]() |
Icons for a baby event |
Right so what did I learn?
Technically I had used all of the software they they have on the Mac's (Photoshop,Illustrator) so I didn't really learn anything new there apart from on Photoshop I learned about creating paths on pictures and clipping masks which was handy as I will probably use them again instead of the wand tool which is a lot less accurate.
I learned quite a lot about what it actually takes to run a successful design agency, its not just great design all the time. Jane Sadler the creative director said that good design is only 50% of a good agency the rest is keeping all work done for previous briefs, managing time wisely and getting to know your clients, and its kind of true, what good is it to start your own graphic design company if you don't have any clients.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)