Assessment Forms for Year II.

Completed assessment forms to lead me onto Level 05 (Year II) of the course- evaluating my skills at this point, my design knowledge and practice.

Admittedly, I feel that my confidence has been a little knocked throughout the year at University, and this has affected my work a great deal at times. Next year, I hope to utilise the feelings I had (and may return to having) into energy and encouregement to work far more effectively, and to push my work into a far more visually-communicating contemporary style- particularly paying attention to the development in my illustration skills (the field I would like to work in when I graduate).

I will come back to this form again at least during one more point during the summer break. Although little will have changed, hopefully my ambitions for summer design development may have given me a little more confidence and knowledge in some of these areas.

TF1 blog commision.

http://tf1blog.com/

Recently, I've been comissioned to create a poster design to advertise the local (to my hometown, Telford) blog, TF1, created by friend and Journalism student, Ben Nielsen.

After discussions about the design, Ben left me with quite a free reign, and few limitations. As the poster would be present in local librarys, shops, etc, I have made the concious decision to use colour (2 plus stock?) in my designs- there are so many bad, photocopied designs posted around, I would really like to create an eye-catching and memorable design which would provide more traffic for the site. Perhaps using perforated tags so people can tear off and take away the information, more of a prompt to visit?

A few initial sketches. After discussing my potential ideas for the designs to Ben, I spent half an hour drawing up a few very quick designs- just to see how he responded to them- if he liked them, or infact wanted something completely different to what I had imagined. Thankfully, he really liked the design, and our joint favourite was the design in the bottom right-hand corner, so I went on to explore this and to design in Adobe Illustrator.

I used a map of the Telford & Wrekin region (sourced from google images) to trace around for my main image on the poster design.

I wanted to encorporate more elements of the local area into the design, and make people easily distinguish the local origins and source of the blog, so I decided to encorporate the dark red/maroon tone used in the council's logo into the design also.

The final design for the poster- I experimented a little throughout the process, looking at different compositions, typefaces, colours etc. This was the first "final draft" design which I sent to Ben, which I was surprisingly happy with- I feel that I have become far more critical about my work, and now know when something can be complete, and not to over-crowd it or work too much at something to blind my final view of it. 


Fortunately for me, Ben also really liked the designs, so I went about printing them straight away, to ensure they could be delivered to him as soon as possible- providing more traffic and visitors to the blog at this early stage of it's growth.

The finishing touch- perforated tabs, an easily and accesible way for people to take down the blog information- no need for a pen and paper- so no excuses!

To be delivered to Ben by the end of the week and distributed around the local Telford and Wrekin area through shopping centre notice boards, public libraries, etc.

Wes Anderson.

I have decided that next year at Uni, if not before, I would really like to create a project based upon the films of one of my all-time favourite auteur directors, Wes Anderson. His films, each in turn, are poetic, beautiful, unique and heart-warming- he certainly has to be one of the greatest directors working today, if not ever.

Here is a list of the films he has made to date, or is currently in production- and which I could incorporate into a project...

- Moonrise Kingdom (filming) 2012

- Fantastic Mr. Fox 2009

- The Darjeeling Limited 2007

- Hotel Chevalier (short) 2007

- The Life Aqautic with Steve Zissou 2004

- The Royal Tenenbaums 2001

- Rushmore 1998

- Bottle Rocket 1996

-Bottle Rocket (short) 1994

Filmography Project.

*UPDATE*

Unfortunately, for the summer at least, I have decided to call a halt upon my self-initated Filmography project, due to work demands. I have been very fortunate to have been attracting quite a few commisions in the past fortnight, and feel that client work, at this time, may be more valuable. However, as the subject is something I am particularly passionate about, I would really like to follow it up either in my own free time or, somehow, to encorporate it into University design work in the near future.

OUPD101 Presentation.

Having just come back from presenting my PPD powerpoint presentation, I must say, I felt far more nervous whilst doing so than I had expected. Originally, I had wanted to go first (to get it "over and done with") but, typically, was the very last to present.

Although I think it went okay, the content was probably too great, which left me rambling and speaking a lot faster than I think I should have done. However, the promise of cakes saw me through, and kept the audience happy. Hooray!

A tasty distraction.

The individually intialled cupcakes for fellow classmates and tutors at tomorrow's PPD session. Hopefully a tasty bribe will distract people from my presentation...ahem. I can dream.

The Boys Book of Hobbies: Envelope and Notelet Sets.

Creating more desins for my freelance sales- as a lover of letter writing, I decided to utilise a 1951 vintage book I found in my local charity shop (£1 bargain!) to create envelope and note sets- finally creating 100 unique designs to then go on to sell ten sets of ten for sale at £5.00 each.

Each set is complete with ten white cards, and ten sticker labels to write names/addresses on the front of the envelopes.

The completed sets- optimistically ready to sell and send!

Revised PPD Powerpoint Presentation.

The revised version of my PPD presentation for Friday's session. Not too much changed, just trying to add more elements about my development through the year, and a slight tweak on some of the design areas. Trying not too fuss about it too much (I don't want to make myself nervous), but coming back to it after a couple of days has definately been beneficial...seeing my work with "a fresh pair of eyes". Now, all I need to do is run through the speaking and ensure I don't waffle on- the brief states that the presentation HAS to be be between five and seven minutes.

Obviously, the "insert cakes here" will have a picture of the individual cakes...once I've got round to making them...naturally...