Summer Presentation

I had to do a 10 minute presentation to the rest of my class about what I did over the summer and what I intend to do in the future.

I started by talking about my work placement at Thompson Brand Partners. It was really god, everybody was really helpful and got me working straight away. I learnt lots, but the experience also made me realise how being a designer is a realistic ambition, and that professional designers aren't too different from student designers, and professional design studios aren't that different from the College design studio.

The first piece of work that I did was designing a leaflet for the National Media Museum. This taught me about layout, and I leanred lots about Indesign that I didn't know.



I also designed some print ads for the Leeds College of Music. This was quite a quick job and I had to use set photos, set colours and a set font, but was still enjoyable. They were printed in The Metro, Evening Post, etc.







I also worked on a set of young persons guide books, where I developed the front cover using magenta ink and magenta acetate to make a visual effect. However I completely forgot to talk about this in my presentation. I have no idea how.

Next I talked about my work at the Isle of Man College which was a bit of a strange job - half design/half general other stuff. Whilest it was a bit strange and not very professional I still produced lots of work and had really tight deadlines.

Also while I was in the Isle of Man I did a couple of freelance jobs, one for The One World Centre encouraging school children to buy Fair Trade, and one was a logo design for a friends website - student ratings.co.uk. As well as this I designed a poster and book mark advertising the LCAD Open Days. This was an old unused design I did that they wanted me to adapt, so this was a pretty easy job.

Next I talked about my dissertation. I want to write about ethical design, and the difficulties faced by a designer when designing for a good cause. I have been reading lots an speaking to people about design responsibility as well as world trade. For a case study I want to look at PETA who have done a lot of campaigns/poster work that is ridiculously untactful, in my opinion doing more damage than good.

My goals for the future are mainly to keep trying to get small freelance jobs, work hard and keep in touch with agencies and try and get a job straight out of college. One day though, I really want to do my own thing - set up my own studio, or go free lance.

I feel the presentation went quite well, it was all improvised so I was a bit nervous. I surprised myself by finding lots to say. I felt however though that it focused mainly on what I had done instead of what I had learned and what I found out i needed to learn.

I enjoyed listening to everybody else's presentations. Everybody seemed really busy and produced lots of good work.

Information Graphics

I'm becoming increasingly psyched on information Graphics and have been into maps and things lately, but also technical drawings and diagrams.

It's strange because Andy Cody has also been getting into technical drawings, and was showing me some work he did for a car manufacturer. Here they are pinched from his website - andycody.co.uk





He uses line really well - picking out different details and using different stroke weights.

I also found this on Typeneu.com the other day, by Valentin Adam. Both sheets fold out and fit, like a key, over each other. I really like the clean graphic style, which makes something potentially boring really interesting.




It reminds me a bit of that guy (sorry, I don't know his name) from second year graphics, who had that information graphics at the end of year show. Impressive stuff.

I have been looking at old maps recently. I borrowed this book of old maps of the Isle of Man from my Dad recently, but unfortunately I haven't got any scans from itany scans from it.

But I did by this map from the train station that had four OS maps of Leeds from different times. Here's a close up of the 1841 - 1858 map. Its crazy to think that it is all hand made.



I also picked up the book called Mapping the World, by Peter Whitfield, from Oxfam, for a fiver. There is some amazing imagery in it:






I'm entering the Don't Panic poster competition. The word is Machine, at first was going to do something 'deep' about the war-machine, or the political machine, or nature as a machine, but I thought that was a bit stereotypical and a lot of people might do similar things.

So I thought I could do about how machines could be good, or they could be bad. I want to have a poster divided into 2 sections: Good Machines, and Bad Machines. Keep it lighthearted.
I imagine it as a cleaner looking version of a Shrigley illustration. Kind of.



See you later A.C. Slater!

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Additional Extras (for my last post)

Look out for Leeds Rhinos billboards with the strap line 'support your local super heroes' around the out skirts of Leeds. Josh from Thompson did them, and I went along to the photoshoot at Quantum photography studio. It was smart.

Unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me when I spotted the bill boards, but here's some photos of the photoshoot, if you know what I mean.





It was pretty cool, they had these harness things that they strapped the players to, to make it look like they were flying through the air.

Also I managed to get copies of my National Media Museum leaflet that just been printed and distributed to museums and galleries around Yorkshire.



It has changed quite a bit since my original design, and isn't printed on the standard uncoated (nice) stock but I'm still pleased.

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Summer's coming to an end...

...and I've not updated my blog for the last 3 months. Shame on me. I've been really busy over the summer that it felt like I wasn't doing real work if I was updating my blog. However, me being busy means that I have more stuff to write about on my blog.

This post is going to be an attempt to some up the last 3 months.


The End of Year Show

This was exciting for me, not only because I was exhibiting, but because I designed the promo material (arguably my first 'real' design job). Here is some photos of my EYS work.




Here is my personal board for the show it'sen. I attached two pairs of 3D glasses underneath it. It's based on my self promotion brief - check out kylebibby.co.uk. Bear in mind however that I have been just as lazy with my website as I have with my blog, and it could do with updating. Sorry.


Thompson Work Placement

The Monday after the Show I started a work placement at Thompson Brand Partners. It was really good and everybody was really helpful - so cheers guys (and gals). I was given a brief for the National Media Museum to work on as soon as I got there, I spent the first two hours panicking that I wouldn't come up with a very good idea and they would think I was rubbish. But it all turned out OK in the end, and I'm glad that they gave me their trust and threw me in at the deep end.

Heres some type that I did for the front of the National Media Museum. I say I did it, I did the first version, and it then went through several stages of amendments.



And this is a fold out map/exploded diagram/illustration. It started out more exciting than this, but it had to be toned down unfortunately. O well.


Here are some adverts that I did for Leeds College of Music that were in the Metro, Evening Post and a couple of other papers.







The font used, which is called Oboe, was made by Rich from Thompson. However, he only made the characters in Illustrator, so I volenteered to try and make the font in Font Lab. It was a bit of a nightmare. I could only get the kerning pairs to work in uppercase in Illustrator. Hmmm.....

There was also another brief that I started working on. Which was for a charity called Metal, who had got artists to work with school kids in Essex to make 'rough-guidebooks' of the area for young people. My problem was that non of the content had been given to Thompson yet, so I had to come up with ideas for making a book, when I didn't really know what the content was going to be like.

I came up with a idea for the cover which consisted of a map with all the lines in a certain colour, lets say red. However, some of the grid lines have a bit of black mixed in with them that spells out the title of the book - You Are Here - in blocky letters. Because the lines are only slightly darker you cant see the title. The cover of the book has a transparent red vinyl dust jacket meaning that when the dust jacket is on you cant see the mp but can see the title, and when the dust jacket is off you can see the map but not the title. Clever hey? I didn't copy Sagmeister, honest.

This fabulous Photoshop representation should show how it works. I have put a magenta (with 30% yellow) block of colour over the image of the cover (which is magenta and yellow) and set the blending mode to multiply (giving it the same qualities as transparent vinyl).



Thats about it from Thompson. I also worked on various other bits and bobs and did a bit of general artworking and some of the more boring chores that happen in a design studio, but luckily these were few and far between. When I left they gave me a card and a couple fo books about print and process. Psyched.

Actually thats not it from Thompson. I've just remembered. It was Ian's (the Creative Director's) birthday a week or so ago. I couldn't make it so I made a birthday card (which I am very proud of and didn't want to put in the post). I imagine it was almost like I was there.


Leeds College of Art and Design Open Days

While I was working at Thompson I was asked by the Marketing Department at College if I could change my Be There Or Be Square designs (that they didn't use for the End of Year Show) to advertise the College. They were paying me so I couldn't say no. Here is the (long and thin) poster and bookmark that have just come back from the printer's.




Back to the Isle of Man

So I spent 5 weeks working at Thompson. Finished on the Friday, and started my new job in the Isle of Man on the Monday. Commitment, yeah!

I was working at the Isle of Man College. I was mainly doing design work, but also had to do boring jobs every now and again, also my mum was my boss. So all in all it was a bit of a strange job. I had three computers though, and a swively chair, so at least I looked pro.

Here's some work that I did while I was there:





This is an A5 (folds out to A4) card that the Isle of Man College sends out to teachers and members of staff of secondary schools with details of people that can offer support for their students. While this is informative, it's also an important peice of marketing for the College as their is often rivalries between the schools and the College. I probably shouldn't have said that.

I don't really think much of this design. O well.

The College is having a Green Week in October, for which I made a poster (below), and banner with the college logo in green.



The tree is from Neubauwelt and I have used it before at the start of last year. I have used that grass twice before, on my 3D self promo and the same design that had the tree on, and I pinched the butterfly from my 3D self promo. i didn't even pick the colours properly, they're all from the default Illustrator swatch.

I also made some sticker (or, soon to be stickers) encouraging people to be more 'green' that would be put up in Green Week, but left for the rest of the year.





I've just realised that these are old ones. The butterfly isn't there on the final ones.

Here's five posters I made in one day. So please, please don't judge me too harshly.







I am also working on a booklet that I helped write, as well as designed. It should be going to print soon, as soon as I've done the amends and figured out whether or not it can be done on recycled stock.

Photos soon.

Other than that I have just been drinking mojitos, riding my bike and kayaking with my dad.



Mojito's. Best said in a Geordie accent.

Um. I think thats about it. I've got a couple of other projects in the pipeline (?) but I'll reveal them later.

Oh yeah one last thing. I've decided to only design stuff for metal bands from now on. Drinking beer and listening to Judas Priest, while letting Satan take control of your body, really is something else.

This is a flyer (date to be confirmed) for the LS6 BMX jam (check out the new website, ls6bmx.co.uk, and the new videos).

The Bevel and Emboss Effect has never been put to such good use.



Thats about it for now. No doubt I've forgotten all sorts of stuff.

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