Freelancing it.

I recently got contacted by a florists based in Manchester, Verdure Floral Design, asking me if I could help them out with some design work they needed doing. I have to admit, we initially began our communications while drunk on a night out, but the less said about that the better; I was just very lucky to be in the right place (a bar) at the right time (about 2 in the morning). After this encounter with Adi - the director of the company - I wasn't completely sure if I would hear from them again, but fortunately a few days later he contacted me and was really positive about wanting to work with me.

The brief was quite short notice; to re-design their business cards and produce a flyer to be situated against their floral display at  the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show that was being held this week. A fairly simple task, but I really enjoyed communicating with Adi and Kai (the managing director) in order to fulfill what they wanted. What's even better is that they were so happy with how I responded to their requirements, that they've asked me to continue working on more projects with them. There's a lot they want me to do, and I'm chuffed to be able to continue working freelance while I hunt for more permanent jobs. Keep your eyes out for more from me and Verdure! Below are some images of what I have already done.

Visit Verdure Floral Design's site (soon to be updated by myself) to check out what they do: www.verdure.co.uk

Hand drawn type

Experimenting with some hand drawn lettering, wanting a more crafted aesthetic for my latest project, (but also because I've wanted to be able to enjoy the sunshine and unfortunately the glare on my screen has limited me from creating anything digital...)

More...

punctuation marks

Here are some illustrations I have produced for my latest project. They need a lot more development yet, but looking forward to where this project is heading. I've been looking at punctuation and grammatical errors (as it is one of my biggest pet peeves) and a way in which I can help people to overcome their mistakes in a light-hearted way. NB: I am aware that I too can make mistakes, I'm sure you'll find some on this blog!

ready to bind

So the book, or "visual journal", I have been slaving over for the past week is finally ready to be completed. It will be perfect bound with a hardback cover, fingers crossed all goes well once I'm in the book-binding studio.

Visual Journal

Diving against vivid woodlands looks static. Time is the image of unchanged motion. 

Marina sat in the library then discovered the future message: approach changes confidently and create desire. Rigid graphic images took over and vanity was there. Reflections across chaos built revolution and hand-written rebellion was ablaze. 

Nature celebrated a hidden underground environment. The end is nothing was whispered The final plan was once credible but can it be trusted? 

Personal texts and numbers are metaphors and ahead of the times. Ghost towns, troubles and the sound of the rejected were being discovered.

Focus was on reason but stayed lack-luster. Fear captured imagination as dystopia took control. Sounds, texture and information is all based on assumptions from a select audience.

April beauty holds eye and the direction. Moving can change communication but optophobia will influence.

Mutant propaganda orders a clear structured movement to promote change.

The boundaries of seeing bleed with the spirit of perspective. Poetic translation touches the subverted and creates pixies that enjoy the horror.

Maps do not exist above the water but directions are clear.

*NB: This is a visual journal of my time during my third year at MMU. Not all of the imagery used in the collages is from my own work. Some are representations/small sections of other work that I have viewed/been influenced by while on my Design and Art Direction course. I will gladly remove them if this causes issues. Each piece used will be referenced in my final outcome (these are just developments). 

Hello Again...

It's been a while since my last post, I am afraid I have been a bit lazy with my blog lately. It's been a very busy last month or so, with my mid-term hand in, dissertation hand in and various new projects underway, but from this point on wards I promise I will try and keep up to date with everything that goes on!

So, yes, to fill you in, last month was a stressful one. All of the projects I have completed since September (Summer project, Static, Fleurons, M&S brief, Johnny Hardstaff workshop) had to be handed in for my interim assessment. It was a horrible time finishing everything over Christmas - I encountered too many problems along the way - but it seems that it was worth it as I am really pleased to say I managed to gain a decent first class grade for my work. This has definitely made me realise that I perhaps need to believe a bit more in myself! Let's hope I continue to do well for my final term... scary.

I also managed to complete my dissertation, called "To Have and To Hold: What is the Future of Print in a Digital World?" I really enjoyed exploring this topic, and discovered so much from it which has definitely renewed my love and passion for printed matter. I want to also say thank you to those of you who participated in the study I set up to help me research the topic - 90 people took part and everyone's responses were brilliant and helped me massively! So thank you again!

I'm just cracking into a new brief, which I have set myself. It's a little hazy at the minute if I am completely honest, and I am struggling a little to get into it but fingers crossed once I pick up the pace a bit it will be an interesting one. I want to explore Avant Garde page design, or design in general. A lot of my inspirations come from the early 20th century European Avant Gard designers, for instance El Lissitzky, Kurt Schwitters, A M Cassandre etc. and I often try to incorporate elements of their aesthetic into my own work. But the whole purpose behind what they stood for was to produce work that was different; pushing the boundaries against the norms of society. There are many artists today who try to achieve the same thing, which I don't deny can often be shocking and controversial, but when this philosophy was first explored it was completely radical and new. Can the same thing be achieved in our modern society, or is it less relevant today? It is a mammoth idea to explore, and I am not sure if I will actually achieve the answer or not! More on this later I think.

I HAVE [A] PLAN

Over Christmas, I worked on a live brief set by YCN. The brief was for Marks and Spencer, in which I had to "create a visual identity for our Plan A campaign and develop campaign elements to bring your identity to life." This was a bit of a change for me; I don't often pick 'campaign' or 'branding' project briefs, as it is an area I am not so comfortable with, but I wanted to try something different as a challenge and to add more variation to my overall portfolio.

M&S's 'launched Plan A in January 2007 – ‘committing to change 100 things over 5 years, because we’ve only got one world and time is running out.’ Three years on, we have made good progress against our five Plan A pillars: Climate Change, Waste, Natural resources, Fair partner and Health and Wellbeing – achieving 62 of the original 100 Plan A commitments. So, in March 2010, we unveiled and expanded a more demanding Plan A, setting out 80 new commitments for the next five years and our ambition to become the world’s most sustainable major retailer by 2015.'

I really struggled with the brief. I found it difficult to get the ball rolling, and I feel that I spent far too long worrying about branding "Plan A" than I did actually promoting it. Because of this, I was really pushed for time when it came developing my format. I chose to create an identity for the plan, as the existing logo didn't seem to stand out from the rest of M&S's branding, and I felt it wasn't memorable enough. Working with the idea of the plan having "5 pillars of change" I created a design that incorporated 5 triangles and reflected the shape of a letter A. I then used the tagline "I have [A] Plan" in order to draw the customers in. 

I chose to create a concertina book, featuring postcards that can be placed around the home as a reminder of what the plan is about. The booklet explained 5 ways for each of the 5 pillars of improving the way we live and becoming involved with M&S's campaign. I was quite pleased with the aesthetic of the piece, and even created a magnetic backing so that it could be placed in the home on fridges, for instance. I also created a set of stickers to work alongside the booklet, which can be placed around the home or in the car, to act as a reminder of the plan to the customer. 

However, during my review, John (my tutor) and I both agreed that it seemed a little clumsy; the booklet opened awkwardly and I am aware that it is not my best piece of design. With this considered though, John felt that it was a really nice attempt and that in the future I should perhaps stick to briefs that are more suitable to my style and interests - which couldn't have been a more welcomed piece of advice if I tried! I am relieved to have finished this brief, it's a shame I didn't get into it more.

New

Some images of a mock-up of a booklet I have designed for my latest project. Entitled 'Patterns' it explores the importance of mathematics - most significantly the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio - in nature. The final piece will be properly bound  (so no tape will be visible) and printed on translucent stock so that the pages form layers of type, shapes  and patterns. I intend to produce a cover with letterpressed type. Really pleased with the results so far; lets just hope the final outcome actually prints successfully!

'Mr Toshiba dies in an freak yachting accident', and other events.

This week I was fortunate enough to participate in a workshop with designer and director Johnny Hardstaff. He has created many innovative moving image works, and has represented many leading brands including Toshiba, Sony and Orange.

Our brief was to develop a new identity for the brand Toshiba. We had 24 hours to develop our strongest idea, with the focus not on a final, crafted piece, but the generation of our concept. As Johnny explained "original ideas are the only valuable currency now. Great ideas are everything".

It was an intense couple of days: with frantic brainstorming, energetic group crits with Johnny and constant updates to the brief - which included the budget of the campaign being frequently reduced and the owner of Toshiba dying in a "freak yachting accident". Johnny would introduce more and more (somewhat ridiculous) changes, for instance we were told not to use the colour blue in our work, and that "Mr Toshiba" hated Alsatian dogs and lions, and therefore did not want these to be included in our ideas. Although it seemed ridiculous, he explained that we will face similar restrictions and changes when entering the industry, and this is something we will need to be able to work around. Clients will know what they want, and how they want it. It also made the whole process really exciting and fun.

My concept developed around the idea of creating a Utopic experience for the customers, with Toshiba as the means in which to achieve this through the use of their products. I was one of the individuals picked to pitch my idea in front of the group, and it was agreed that this was quite a strong concept. I chose the phrase "THIS IS NOT A DYSTOPIA" as something to draw my audience in, and this seemed to be quite a successful ploy. However, Johnny felt that my application of my concept (of getting the public to create their own idea of a utopia, through interactive and visual effects) was somewhat not defined enough. I completely agreed with him and the rest of the group; I liked my idea but really struggled with producing something that I felt worked well at presenting it.

It was a really valuable - if tiring - couple of days, and Johnny was brilliant at motivating us and making us aware of different sides to design. I really enjoyed it, and feel that the exercise will benefit the way I approach my work, and employment, in the future. It's definitely good not to be scared: "it's really good for your brain / self reliance / confidence".

Graphic Nothing.

Some amazing work by Graphic Nothing; a Manchester-based designer. His posters are created using the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio. I really love his work, it is bold and interesting with a very complex concept behind them, yet the designs are all minimal. I would love to have these on my wall!

Fibonacci numbers used to produce colour values.

Segment size related back to the numbers in the sequence.

Triangle tessellation created through following the sequence.

1.6180339887...and so on

I've been looking at the Fibonacci sequence and the golden number (1.618 0339 887...etc) during my research for my latest project. Really interested in the relationship this series of numbers has on plants and nature, and life in general. It's a very powerful and influential numbers and appears in the structure, layout and design of many things around us. Examples are pine cones, petal and leaf arrangements in flowers, trees and plants, branch growth and the proportions of many life forms, to name but a few. The Egyptians also used it to create the pyramids and it can even help to explain population growth in rabbits and other species.

I created the above typeface by using sections of a Fibonacci spiral (see illustration below) and rearranging them to produce the letter forms. I quite like how it has turned out, but this is only a starting point for this brief as I feel my outcomes need to be a lot more developed. I want to show the importance of this magical number in life. It's a tough idea, but one that I hope will be interesting!

Cabinets, envelopes, boxes and tins.

Today I visited the Herbarium at Manchester Museum, in order to gain a wider insight into the world of plant matter while working on my most recent project "Not Just Fleurons". The work in the Herbarium is based upon the extensive research and reference collections of preserved plants. There are about one million specimens, from all across the world; and some of which are the first ever specimens to have been recorded from that particular species.

I was in awe at just how much there was to look at; it was all fairly overwhelming and I really wasn't sure where to begin. I was also quite aware that the majority of the specimens were extremely fragile, often only one-of-a-kind and much of them up to 200 years old, so handling them was quite a daunting experience. 

Although the plants were fascinating in themselves, I was more intrigued by the way in which they had been collected and stored. There were hundreds upon hundreds of carefully filed boxes and cabinets - some of which featuring some really beautiful old stamps and type. There were also boxes of small packages containing moss samples, which had been intricately folded up in old newspaper sheets, old letters and envelopes dating back to the 1800s. The type on the paper and tactile quality of these little packages were really intriguing and fragile; they seemed a lot more precious knowing that they were wrapped in fragments of the past. A lot of these were then stored in old cigarette tins and old packaging, which featured some really lovely type and illustrations. 

Maybe I missed the point of this visit slightly - I ended up spending more time looking at the packaging than I did the actual plant matter. However, this was possibly a valid activity too. My brief is to come up with a way of showing the importance that plants have on our lives; and the way in which they are so carefully stored shows that they are treasured by many. People have spent a long time collecting, referencing, studying and curating these millions of specimens. If plants weren't important to us then this wouldn't be done. The way in which they are stored becomes a part of how we treasure these species; time is taken in keeping them in decent condition (mercury solution is used to preserve and reduce the risk of insect infestation - which is extremely poisonous to humans) so it is clear that these are highly valued fragments of information.

More than just fleurons...

I love the textures and details that plants / plant fossils can produce when photographed closely.