So part of the reason I have neglected my blog is because I have been a slave to book making! Ive been creating a set of miniature books for our degree show based on my collection of buttons linking nostalgic feelings towards personal collections and the vital statistics that are usually linked with collating collections.
Oh my goodness! I cant believe were at the degree show part of our final year! I feel I have neglected my blog in the past month, but I hope to get back into the swing of things! What better way than to invite everyone to the Manchester school of art, Design and Art direction degree show, opening night is 18th June 5pm till 8pm and runs until 23rd June! hope to see you there :)
Last week I took a trip to the screenprint studio to try my hand at screen printing bags! Clinton had suggested that I take my designs for the Ted Baker bags from paper and actually make them, as a potential project for my portfolio. Im really pleased with how they worked out and the packaging I made for them worked well. I was shocked at how simple and enjoyable screenprinting was so Ive ordered some more bags and hope to print some of my own very soon :)...
I feel I have neglected my blog in the past week but its all because ive been trying to sort out my third year journal, but I can now say it is finished! After an emotional/stressful 3 days, countless bars of chocolate and hours wasted, I'm pretty proud of my final outcome, a few things could have gone better but on the whole nothing too disastrous, (spilling blackcurrant juice all over it came close!) I came out smiling :) xxx
Yesterday I started photographing objects for my journal title pages, not exactly how I envisaged them, but I think they look ok!
Russell Hancock, a young designer, came into University to talk to us about his work, freelancing and being self employed. I found his talk so so useful. As some people know, I am interested in ‘going it alone’, and I have of late been debating with myself about the sort of money you charge people. Russell summed my feelings up by saying, he used to feel bad about charging people. How can I charge people money for something that I find really interesting and fun? He said to put this aside and assess the work we are doing for free and work that we are charging for.
Russell’s work was really good stuff and it seemed that his passion for the subject had got him return work and a string off clients. I really related to Russell as he brought up some interesting topics, such as ‘showing your mum’. I don’t know about anyone else but when I show some of my work to my mum, I get a polite smile, then o yes thats lovely, and then a couple of minutes later, ‘I don’t get it’ *blank face* So frustrating but in some ways helpful, in that she’s the sort of person that will be seeing my work, and if my mum doesn't get it, there’s not much hope for everyone else.
At the end of the lecture Russell gave us some really useful tips, on pricing jobs, terms and conditions, Fee proposals and signoffs. Along with some more really useful information I feel more confident in starting up on my own and the sort of prices I could be charging. Russell had an air of presence that worked well as university talk and the information passed on was integral to people like me who intend to work for themselves. This lecture taught me a lot and I would now feel confident in going out to the big wide world.
I am a big fan of Belle and boo, and I’m always having a nosy on their blog. The team posted this picture of the stall they held at Kids Modern. I think its just lovely! I have been thinking about starting going to craft fairs and holding my own stall, I think belle and boos table was really inspiring and I hope that mine will look half as good.
Have a look at their blog, its www.belleandboo.blogspot.com
Been hard at work today designing my new CV and business cards, I’d like to start thinking about getting them printed soon so I thought now was the time to get a move on. I’ve created my own polka dot with buttons and used a simple logo design for the front. I don’t want to be too serious of a designer so I've used a handwriting style font. I’m pleased with the outcome and hopefully they'll turn out nicely when I get them printed, so much to think about!
Yesterday, Emily Alston, a lovely, artist/illustrator/graphic designer came into chat to us about her work. Although I am still unsure quite how she produces her work it was really nice to see her pieces and the thought processes she goes through. She showed us a few slides of where she got her inspiration from which included work by Alan Aldridge and A. M. Cassandra, and then later in the lecture she showed off commissioned pieces and then personal pieces.
Her work is really modern in its approach and tries to bridge the gap between graphic design and illustration. She did mention how she preferred the approaches of graphic design rather than illustration as she felt that concepts behind work were more her thing.
Emily has done work for some really big companies and I am really inspired by her success. She has completed work for the likes of Addidas, Creative Review and twice for Selfridges. I’ve mentioned before how it is refreshing to see successful female designers and this was no exception.
Heres my new Don’t Panic response for the word TV. I wanted to base my concept on the different ways people say TV remote, after experimenting with lots of text base pieces and failing miserably, I just used the word that I use for remote control...buttons.
I’m pleased with my final design, if a little different to how I had envisaged it in the beginning.
Ive decided to tackle another dont panic brief, responding to the word TV. The theme of my poster will be based on the different names for a TV remote. Im still undecided whether to make this an image based piece or type based piece. While researching typography I found this lovely poster...
