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

FMP Evaluation

This module has had some definite ups and downs for me but on the whole I feel pleased with the body of work I have produced. The biggest highlight I feel is my spatial calendar brief. I really enjoyed the process of thinking up ideas and creating the layouts for this brief. It was started as a purely experimental project and at the start I didn’t expect it to be as good as it turned out. I was also pleased the final end product looks great as well, as this has sometimes been my downfall: finishing off good ideas to high quality production. The other major success I feel is my design context book. This was another labour of love: I found researching this really interesting and enjoyed creating the page spreads for each typeface. I was also determined not to let the final production let this down, so I am pleased that quite a major effort I put into making the book paid off. The stock choice was perfect and the ring binding also worked better than I could have hoped. I wanted to create something I would like to keep and refer back too, and I achieved this… to such an extent I don’t really want to hand it over for marking!

On to things that went slightly less well, or ‘learning experiences’: A couple of briefs I wanted to do never really got going. The film posters brief fell by the wayside once I realised how much time the context book would take to design, this was purely down to bad time management, I put if off ‘till later until it was too late!  Also a few briefs I did could have been pushed further. My exhibitions brief worked fairly well, there were some good ideas behind the graphics I feel, but I found myself labouring over them for too long, and getting a bit sick of the project by the end, so it never really reached its full potential. Documenting decisions and blogging research and development has also again been something I haven’t really done enough of if I am honest with myself. I don’t enjoy writing or blogging so I never got into a good regular routine like others have for this side of the course.

I learnt a lot by tacking live briefs this module. The timeback brief was a two week live pitch which I am still pleased with, I worked in a slightly different way for this brief: I decided on a design style I wanted to use (ornamental typography) and the researched this and developed it into something more contemporary, this was very successful I feel as a design pitch. I am also pleased with my pitch for 2020, they wanted to updates the DVD packaging they use to hand over work to clients and I think I hit the right tone of creativity and professionalism that would serve the company well. (Its far, far better than the current design). I also learnt a lot from some live briefs that didn’t go quite as well; the Creative Networks flyer should have been quick and easy but wasn’t because I has to deal with a silly amount of emails cc’d all over the place and lots of revisions that I didn’t feel in a position to turn down –defiantly a learning experience: I cant let a client get in the way of the creative process to such an extent in future. The KTP brief was also a live brief that I decided to discontinue, I’m really glad I stopped this when I did because I would have been chasing my tail with this one if I had tried to take it further. The project wasn’t really at a stage where it would have been appropriate for a designer to be involved, and it didn’t really interest me.

All it all, I think the body of work produced for this module is (mostly) done to a high standard, quite a bit of this work I am happy to use in my portfolio, and I have now completely pushed out year one and year 2 work from this, proof I am defiantly still improving as a designer. My typography skills in particular have improved in this module, I think the context book layout especially is pretty tight in this regard.  

I am glad to say I am ending on a high for the degree with some work I can genuinely say I am proud of.

Paul Mitchell – 3/6/11

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.

cards have arrived!

At last, they came this morning,

They look good as well really pleased with the quality. The only slight issue is because they are matt laminated, they look like you should be able to write on them but the pen ink wipes straight off. Next time I might go with an uncoated stock, but these will be great for the show because they feel nice and are virtually indestructible!

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.

My cards and stationery

My own cards and invoice. The cards were sent to print over two weeks back so hopefully they well come back soon. The design uses a QR code that can be scanned by a mobile phone and will add my contact details to the phone. I hesitated about using this as it dominates the graphics but I have had positive feedback from people I have shown this to so far. These are growing in popularity and i'm not the first to use QR codes on business cards but its still fairly uncommon so should get me noticed. I think using QR code might quickly become passé, so best to milk them while they are still fresh I think.

Also, its not just iphones that can use these, android phones, blackberry and even my cheap pay-as-you-go Nokia can scan it so I would say at least 50% of phones should.

No Mr Bond Poster

This is the reworked version of this poster, keeping the same basic idea. The composition of this works far better I feel and I redrew the laser cannon, changed the typeface and made it more obvious that the laser is drawing the text.

creative Networks brief pitch board

I had some comments out of the final crit to expand this brief, but design wise its not really got a strong concept I could run with so I dont see the point in inventing more context for it. It was a frustrating brief so I'm a little disappointed with the end result, the typography on the back is shocking, I was given the final copy quite late and I just didn't care at that point to correct orphans in the text, ah well, it is what it is.

Open publication - Free publishing - More graphic design

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.

Drop banner and tickets

Just a couple of pics to show this brief in context in the real world. My drop banner photoshopped into the Science museum lobby, and my ticket designs printed and photographed.

final tickets and banners

I have now finalised (I hope) the designs for these now after a lot more fiddling about. Most of the changes are minor but I have changed the font on the motorsport exhibition to a sans small caps italic. this gives a racey, slightly retry feel which I think works quite nicely for this, but the ticket works better than the banner  I think.

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.

drop banners test

I also want to make drop banners as well as posters and tickets for this brief so I have had a go at adapting the existing designs for this format. To make these look half decent I have had to do a lot of changes and I dont think they are quite working yet so I will need to refine these more. Hopefully by tomorrow I will have these working well enough to drop into photographs to make the work appear in context.

finished tickets

I think these are just about done now, these look better than the posters so I need to revist them to make final improvements now, then I need to show this work in proper context to finish the brief.

Age of print Exhibition

 Technology in motorsport Exhibition

The history of computers Exhibition

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:

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.

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.