submitted boards

These boards were put on and handed in on my submission CD but I wanted to finish up by putting them up here as well. I had problems with issuu yesterday but should be working fine now.

Open publication - Free publishing

Open publication - Free publishing

Open publication - Free publishing

Open publication - Free publishing

Open publication - Free publishing

Open publication - Free publishing

Open publication - Free publishing - More graphic design

final calendar photo shoot

Photos for my portfolio of finished calendar: I ended up not using any cover design as I felt the minimal graphics of the calendar worked better without: it forces the viewer to try to understand the calendar themselves rather than having it explained and I like this because each month is a puzzle in themselves so it fits with the whole design to just present it as-is and let people work it out.

making final calendar

This was slightly more tricky than I expected because I needed more space between the two perspex sheets than was originally intended so I had to go to the jewellery department and beg them to drill out the screw holes so I could fit in my thick spacer.

 I had to cut out two inserts from mount-board and one from printed paper (so I could have 2012 in white) then sandwich them together to get enough thickness.

Testing assembly, I was so pleased it works!

calendar final holder

I think I have a solution now for making the final holder for my calendar, This was stressing me out a bit because I liked the graphics I had made but knew the were useless if I couldnt come up with a final product. I did quite a bit of looking around for something I could reuse to hold the calendar sheets, I even bought a a couple of display stands:

I really wasnt happy with either of these after I tested them, but I wanted the calendar displayed behind plastic so I went back to Muji and decided I could adapt one of there photo frames for my needs: link

This is the frame as sold, to make it into my calendar holder I will have to alter the legs so it stands portrait and make a spacer so the months can be slotted in and out.

This is a mock-up of how I hope it will look, the top edge of the sheets will stick out above the case so you can pull out the months.

Calendar ideas to display

This brief is now causing me more frustration now that it is just about finished, I really want to display the calendar in a way that you can interact with separate sheets rather than having it bound, I have had a few ideas but none are really what I want yet. It really need a very minimal solution that wont detract from the graphics while looking quite classy, not easy for me because I hate doing packaging design! but I am determined to make the best of this brief so I will persevere.

Ideas so far.

Some sort of clear perpex stand?

Trying to find a shape of object that 'feels' right.

finishing calendar thoughts

I had a good chat to Joe today about my calendar brief, I wasnt happy with the ring binding testers I did as it lost something when you couldn't see more than one month at the same time somehow. Joe had a really good suggestion of looking at having loose sheets in some sort of container so I will investigate the best ways I can do this. I really like how it turned out so I want to make the best of it, it really is better than how I expected  and now I have seen all the sheets printed I think it is the best brief I have done this module. Joe also questioned the idea I had for the cover, he felt it wasnt as strong as the rest of the calendar which he liked so thats something I want to look at again as well, perhaps I was trying to be too clever for the cover when something simple would have been more effective, I will do some new ones and experiment. At this brief should be a success, as I have easily enough time so sort out these details before hand in and the show.


These are the spiral bound mock-ups, these really cheapen the design, and as I said, the designs works best when you can hable the monts and see them unbound, worth trying but not the right direction for this brief.

Calendar cover and context

I spent some time today trying to tie down exactly what my calendar is, and who it is for. Although it has been an experimental brief I wanted to have a real world context for it to make it easier to explain. I realised that the layout experiments I made are to do with the way I can visualise space, I am dyslexic and i'm very good at something called 'spatial thinking'.


'Spatial thinking involves analysis, problem solving, and pattern prediction involving objects and their spatial relationships. It can involve geometry and geometric thinking, mathematical transformation of information, engineering and architecture, astronomy, geography, informatics, modeling, video gaming, and the arts.'  taken from:  http://www.neurolearning.com/spatial.htm

Not everybody will like or be able to use the calendar, and wont find it a pleasing challenge so I decided to simply call it a 'calendar for spatial thinkers'. This both gives an understandable context for the work and defines an audience. Its still a playful experimental piece so I dont want to go further with the branding.

New Cover:

Other creative calendars I have found

Unfortunately I cant find much about these as they were all from a long blog post that hasn't credited and of the sources of these.

This is a great idea, as far as I can tell you move the sleeve to set the correct days for each month

Nice layout.

cleaver idea, obviously mixing in the aesthetics of an eye chart.

This one is lovely, I found it on Behance: link

This one as well, great but far more 'illustratory' than my style, too many twiddly bits! link

Final months

At last I think I have a good set of 12, I have done 3 today so I am defiantly getting faster at doing these! but to be fair one was only a remake of the same idea.

Febuary was another early month I did that just didnt look good compared to the recent ones I have been making so I came up with a fresh idea using a grid of squares which was a pain to make but looks good I think.

I liked the idea I had for May but wanted to remake it to match the style I am using for the other months, definitely an improvement, one of my faves.

This is a new idea for July, the previous version bothered me because it didnt have as good an idea behind it as the other months so I think this fits better (and now completes the set!)



These are some of my development sketches for making the months. I started with a idea that worked on paper then recreated them in illustrator to make vectors.

This last one became the design for February.

Another March

March was another early month I did that was no longer looking good in the set so I have redone it completely. The set is nearly done now, I am going to set all the months in a square format now so I am starting to lay them out for a final calendar.

August again

I decided this month look to like the design I did for October so I have reworked it, I also wanted more months to have circular elements so I used this. The twist for this now is that the days that are Mondays are hidden in this month.

January

I have refined this one as now most of the months are done, the style has evolved quite far from this month which was one of my first, I still like the idea and only has to change the font and colour to fit the set, they are all Univers 55 now.

September

Another month for the calendar, This didnt look as good as my plan sketch so tweaked this quite a bit to keep the aesthetics of the other months, still not sure i'm totally happy with it but I can drop it if I end up doing extra months.

April

This one is bordering on being too simple, but its still an unusual arrangement for a month and definaly fits the style of the set. I am wondering now if the best outcome for these would be to make into desk calendars, brand them as self promotion to give to design studios, and a gift, 'have a creative 2012' or something.

November

Another idea came to me tonight, a bit different but will still work in the set I think

July tester

Just an idea I had, I'm sure I have seen this done before, and it doesn't have any meaning or context here so probably not a good direction, but as a visual experiment it works, if only I had a good reason for July to be so big it broke the month this would be perfect.

October

Another one done

Two variations on the same idea, I thought it looked too busy so I tried taking out most of the lines and found it gave a very different feel to the design.

December

Another month done today, this one took longer than I thought it would, I am starting to see a consistent style emerging in these now.

With and without the red Mondays

another month for the callender

An idea I had tonight,

calendar brief update

I realised I have quite a bit of unblogged work for this brief now so its yet another update post. I have been dipping into this brief on most weeks when an idea comes into my head so these have all been done at various times so they arnt totally consistent in style, that will be a task when I have all 12 months done, I can make changes to all to make them look more like a set.

Using a spiral to arrange the days of the week (unlabelled so far, might use colour code again)

These two are basically the same idea but done in different ways, the bottom one is better I thing, note tiny 'january' hidden in the middle circle of dots

using the rainbow colours again, pyramid arrangement with nice overlays on circle edges, I forgot it was a leap year so thats why the '29' looks tacked on, but maybe I could make a feature of that somehow.

Ignore the line to the left, that was just sloppy cropping. This one is my fave so far, its daft but so simple it makes sense. Strict grid arrangement but in lines of 6 meant I could skew the days of the week and it would still work, this sort of layout is what I imagined when I thought up the brief, but I don't know if I can come up with ways to make all the months work this effectively. Its the simplicity of this that makes it work.