Boomer's PPD Blog

NEW START

Just been asked today - by my mum - to do some logo and identity work for....my dad ha. He's a self-employed joiner and with the old recession work has dropped off somewhat of late so, as my dad can't even turn a computer on, they've asked me to design some business cards, letter-headed paper, compliment slips, local paper advertisements and some form of website. That's the first week of my summer gone then...

Not been too pleased with, or thought much about, my personal identity for my website and other materials. Then I drew this (see below). Now I'm a pretty simple kind of guy, and pretty easy going so I thought this was actually quite fitting to my personality. Plus i've always wanted to call my first son Sonic (it's gonna happen!!). I think the hidden reference is rather obvious, and its has quite a ring to it, and besides I've already bought the domain name. So it's a done deal.

For me, this module has been an extremely successful one. With our PPD presentations coming up, a lot of what I've learned about myself and my practice has come in this last module. First of all, the collaborative project I think worked out very well. Our partnership was based on mutual respect for each other and each others individual skill set, and we worked very well and very hard together. In both this and the product/range/distribution briefs I feel I produced very high-quality end products and design, and this is where this module has differed to modules past (especially in the first year). I had a habit of making lots of ambitious plans and never leaving myself enough time/planning time effectively/putting in the effort to get a final product finished, and then some. In both projects in this module I have planned to have a final product done and finished with a week left till deadline (both being 5 week briefs) leaving me enough time to make any adjustments or still be able to get everything done should anything go wrong. This has meant not only have I been able to finish, but to a standard I'm happy with.

I gave myself the opportunity to try out different print processes this module, with varying degrees of success but overall its come out exactly how i wanted. Screen printing is a process I've used before and enjoyed immensely, so i was more than happy to use it again, and the results were very satisfying. Using a similar process I got the chance to also spot varnish, print on t-shirts and flock, all of which I'm convinced I'll be using again. The spot varnish i had a little trouble with, probably because i used the wrong type of screen (fabric instead of paper) and the flocking was really only tested - I'm going to try and do some larger more experimental testing with it soon, the same going for t-shirt printing. I also was able to make use of the digital print room and test stock and colour for the collaborative brief.

The majority of the module has played out like most of my longer-term projects have - a week of research and ideas, 2 weeks of faffing about not getting anywhere (that's not to say I didn't work - just not a lot of it was useful), then 2 weeks hardcore crazy work to get done in time. My general planning of tasks has been much better though, and I've set myself goals and dates to achieve them, and generally stuck to them. The usual stubborn one-idea-mode featured prominently in the second project, but once I knocked that out of the park and started to just do work rather than over thinking in then the results started to show. I have tended to get too bogged down on one idea and with one direction too early, run out of steam and lose my way in the middle. The biggest boost was when I had my tutorial with Fred and he told me to look at work I'd already done, stuff I wanted to emulate and go from there rather than a blank piece of paper. This needs to be my approach to work from now on, and not get stuck on blank-white-paper syndrome. In the collaborative project it wasn't so much of a problem because as soon as one of the partnership had an idea or started working on something the other would then come in and work out how to take it forward further.

Something I learned from my image module that I definately applied to the work I produced was to take an idea or concept, work it out a little, and then go for it. With my book cover designs, I could've spent an age drawing sketches and moving this around and adding this etc but when I stopped and just started producing stuff is when the best results came about. They could then be worked on further, but the premise of just getting stuff made was the same. I've not made any secret about the fact that I don't like long briefs, and I much prefer the short sharp get-it-done projects, and I've had to break myself out of treating the longer briefs as long briefs and start treating them like lots of mini-briefs to make the workload more manageable and to motivate myself.

There were quite a few product ranges I would've liked to have done but didn't have time to finish such as packaging and point of sale for t-shirts, bookmarks, a single purpose website and other t-shirt designs (both design and make). Some of these I think I may continue over the next couple of weeks anyways, particularily the t-shirts, just for the sake of it really. Which is another thing this module has taught me, which is to enjoy the work I do to a point where I want to continue it even in my spare time, which isn't where i was at before. Alot of the work I'd do was more because I had to do it as opposed to a desire to do it, but I think that's started to change now.

How would you grade yourself on the following areas(5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor)

Attendance: 5
Punctuality: 5
Motivation: 3
Commitment: 3
Quantity of work produced: 4
Quality of work produced: 4
Contribution to the group: 4

I was screen printing some t-shirts the other day, when I met this guy, Ryan. He was screen printing some t-shirts as well with his own brand No Brakes Fixed Gears. He had some pretty sweet and rather complex screen prints going on, and to cut a long story short I bought 2 of his t-shirts. The wife wasn't happy but they were cool so I was. He gave me his business card with a view to collaborating at some point too so overall it was a success.

The wife and I went to london this weekend and amongst the many awesome and fantastical museums and galleries we went to one of which was ArtRepublic Soho, a small contemporary art and screen print gallery and shop which sells prints from artists such as Damien Hirst, Banksy and others. Their website has quite an extensive selection artists works and prints for sale, and we bought one from an artist called Graham Carter, which came in a bespoke frame painted to match the print. This is the print we bought, entitled Cloud Catcher


And this is his website with links to where you can buy his prints. He mostly does illustrative type work which is then screen printed.


Now when we were in there we had a good long chat to the gallery manager, Sam, and talked about the work they sell and how to get work in there, and he said if I wanted to sell my prints with them I could, to just email him, send him a copy, and if it fits in with the stuff the sell then they'd sell it! Which I must say i was quite surprised, but rather happy, with. Good times!

This module has been quite a nice surprise for me, in terms of the briefs set and also my own responses to those briefs. I have been able to explore a more personal approach to my work than i feel i have been able to in other modules and briefs, and uncover a number of skills I have yet to develop in other areas. One of those is photography, of which i am by no means a master, but i have enjoyed the processes of finding suitable locations and subjects and being able to manipulate these into a final outcome. I've also been able to attempt some more illustration based work which i've really enjoyed. I think the main factor behind this have been more open briefs which, while unrealistic in a professional work environment, has made me want to put more time and effort into personal projects that i can develop my various skills, which can then influence my working practice.

Another factor has been the issue of time - obviously with limited 3 hour sessions, week long deadlines, and running concordantly with other modules, for me, there has been a greater emphasis on thrashing out ideas quicker and more exactly than on some other, longer briefs/modules. It seems to suit my way of working better than a large amount of time dedicated to research, and, while it's still an important part of any brief for context and to inform the final outcome (which i still need to work on), it has felt more like a work environment with short deadlines and quick turnovers, and i have enjoyed that.

I have come to realise through this module that I am quite a multi-faceted designer; my skills are broad and sit within many mediums and methods of working. However, i also realise my limitations, and would like to work more in certain areas to imrove myself and my practice. At the moment it feels like i'm OK at many things, rather than great at a few, and i would like to develop the skills i've been able to explore in Image to become great at them. Time is, again, always an issue, however less so than in recent past and i feel like i'm getting the hang of setting an effective timeframe for multiple modules and briefs and working towards them. My blog is a weakness, and is one that i started to work really well with but have slacked off recently in. Documentation of work is fine, and i have all the imformation/images/evaluation of work gathered and collected, its just the process of uploading that seems to have slipped by me, and is definately something that needs to be addressed.

5 things i would do differently:

1. Managing many projects at once. I've been much better at this than before, yet when deadlines for modules come i lose focus on one to concentrate on the other rather than having a measure of each.

2. Do more research. By this i mean more in depth research in a shorter time.

3. Don't be afraid to express myself through different mediums and techniques.

4. Record and evaluate as i work rather than in chunks at stages.

5. Have fun with the work i do.

Attendance = 5
Punctuality = 5
Motivation = 3
Commitment = 4
Quantity of work produced = 2
Quality of work produced = 4
Contribution to the group = 3

I saw this on the tv program Reaper which quickly became my new favourite show...until it got cancelled :( anyways basically the devil gives jobs of capturing escaped souls to a guy whose parents sold his soul when he was born. It's actually quite funny. So, in one episode the devil presents his business card - 9 red coloured circles, spot varnished on top, on a white background, the back being all red. Representing the 9 circles of hell. Well I thought it was genius anyways...

This is my PDF portfolio to send out to potential peeps/homies/other dope folks. Now at this point in time i'm really not happy with a lot of the work that i've done. Quite a few projects i've done I never actually finished and so I don't really have a lot of finished product to put in. Plus some of it has turned out terrible. To a point where one of my pieces is something I did years ago. So i'm almost embarrassed to send this off to people, but hey, it is what it is, and it can only get better right? In fact with quite a few of the image module projects i'm currently working on I think will be really strong so they should slip straight into my portfolio. So watch this space.

Quick update on the website front...I've kind of stripped what I had down to the bare bones. So gone is the colour, the strips, the format and now its just icons and some kind of logo/identity. Very simple.

One of the first things they told us in our dreamweaver sessions is to come prepared with a design before trying to put it together, because if you come unprepared it'll be twice as difficult to put together. So first off here's some quick sketches of what I want mine to look like, then after will come some Illustrator mock ups before i start to code.

What will happen when I come to building my own site is first - design; second - mock up in illustrator; third - create the individual elements and save them in one folder; last - coding and building in dreamweaver using the individual elements.



I'm planning on using some form of icons instead of titled tabs/buttons for navigation - it seems to me that my personal work swings that way and I want to try and embrace that but also I think it's easier for someone to navigate through. These are the links I've settled on for now...but I'm maybe not so keen on the "shop" icon, some people have found it a little confusing (some think its a sim card...a fair comment)



Aaaand here's a couple of illustrator mock ups from my first designs...




I've kind of tentativly settled on this design below; I like the simplicity of the design, not too many colours and should be easy to navigate.

As part of the image module we had to design and create a set of 10 books for the Leeds International Artists Book fair held at Leeds University. Here's the queue's waiting to get in at the university...


I decided to play on the idea of what a book is and go for a set of cards featuring one of the 26 letters of the alphabet screen printed on each in both upper and lower case. These are then held in a specially screen printed box. These are the designs...


And this is what they look like once they're made. To be honest I was pretty damn happy about the final outcome, they took forever to make and a lot of effort but they work really well. And I sold one!! Just the one like, but still, it's something! Apparently the guy who bought it really got the concept, he was all like "Hmmm...it's interesting because it challenges what a book is...". Totally didn't expect it, but it's nice that your work can be appreciated.
Oh yeah - i'm a professional, selling graphic designer. BOO-YA!

So we had our first dreamweaver workshop today. I won't lie, it was a PURE MIND TRIP. Like craaaazy-ass mess-with-your-head. You stop listening for one second in there and BOOM! - you're so far behind it's impossible to catch up. So here's my notes for the first session...


Ok so I know this is pants but its the first attempt with dreamweaver to create something. Basic basic coding. BASIC. Now i know there's not much to it, but its got the makings of a GREAT website. No? oh ok then...


Some quick ideas about web designs...

As part of the personal project i'm working on with a couple of friends for the t-shirt company Fallen Heart Clothing I re-worked a logo that had been sketched out originally and then printed onto vinyl a set of stickers for use as promotional material. I've also set up an online shop with some very basic designs on that can be bought should you wish!Basically what you do is create your designs (in RGB format) and upload them as PNG's onto your online shop. Then you choose your products and where you want your design. Simples. It's quite limited in that you only have a 10" by 10" square on the front or back (or a 4" by 4" pocket) but they print anything you want and there's a whole host of products from t-shirts to hoodies to hats, bags, clocks and even video cameras.

Stickers:



Now i've rushed a few of these designs but for me this is definately the easiest way for me to see how my product might look online and on t-shirts, and its a great tool for me to correspond with my friends in business about new ideas and possible directions.
And so if you go on my online shop you'll be greeted by this wonderful sight...



And then if you fancy a particular shirt, this is how the t-shirts look on the cafepress website to order...




And that, my friends, is the bomb.

For me, business cards seem to be where the most interesting leeway lies in design terms, and I think they can be really interesting and unique, something quite special. So I want to put a bit more focus into mine when it comes to identity design and stuff.

Business cards don't have to be flat and boring - they can have some unique properties that relate to the subject matter. I want mine to have something interactive with it.

Simple logo design and layout.


Interactivity.




Contextual link

The main skills i have developed this module are my software skills with after effects and dvd studio. I really think that i have come to grips with the software and its uses, and its seems to come really easily to me. I've spent a lot of time working within the software, and although my final idents are fairly simple, i hope that comes through. This software is definately something i would like to explore more and use in future projects.

I've really enjoyed working with motion graphics, and if ever on this course i were to find a subject to look further into and further my work in it would be this. Film and moving image is a big part of my personal and now professional life/work and it comes naturally to me.

Also i have been much better at uploading and using my blog in the way it's meant to be used than in any other project i have done, to an extent that for once i don't feel like it'll be a hinderance to my final grade. This might be due to the digital nature of the work (both practice and context) and that it is then simpler to upload etc, but whatever the reason i have definately improved greatly in this area.

In a similar respect i've been much better at dedicating time and efforts consistently throughout the brief to the work at hand and not getting distracted. There's still room for improvement in the first, say, 2 weeks, but generally my organisation has been much better.

Because of the digital work, and because i already have a great affinity for film, research has been much easier. I have been able to draw on past/prior knowledge of film/film media and not necessarily have to research new items, which has been a big help. A lot of the pacing, sound and general aesthetic in what i did has been drawn from/inspired by stuff i'd already seen. It makes me realise that i need to been constantly 'updating' my own knowledge of graphic design so in future i won't have to go searching new items.

One problem with my work has been (again?) the 'design for' aspect. I still struggle to get out all my ideas on paper before selecting which to continue with. I tend to have a few ideas and sift through them in my head, developing them on the way, and when they get onto paper, they then get taken forward. The silent movie brief is a case in point - i couldn't help myself developing all the storyboards i drew, and similarily those i didnt do for the idents brief i still want to develop. I think the answer to this is obvious, however i'm not convinced that my way of working is necessarily 'wrong'.

5 things i would do differently next time -
1) get more ideas on paper before setting about developing them
2) not be scared of changing half way through. Fortunately this time i followed my instincts and continued to develop, where previously i have just got stuck then forged on with something i wasnt happy with.
3) my dvd packaging suffered as being left to last, and while not the main focus of the brief, could still have been much done a lot better. In future i'll need to give thought to the 'small' things in good time to do them as much justice as the main brief itself.
4) make sure everything is up on the blog. Even now, knowing i have done better in this than in the past, it still feels like there is work done that i've not put up.
5) continually going back to the module/brief criteria to make sure i'm fullfilling them correctly. i think its fair to say i didn't do this really at all during the last brief, which could help me get a better mark.

attendance - 5
punctuality - 5
motivation - 4
commitment -4
quantity of work - 4
quality of work - 3
contribution to the group - 3