Work Based Learning - Durham Fashion Week

The final design I chose to use was a mixture of all the styles I experimented with. I used a high fashion image and a very stylish logo which I felt met the brief requirements. I added texture and experimented with the levels and effects of the photograph in order to give a slight grungy look to the overall poster, making it stand out and also keeping it in trend. I also cut up the image to create an almost collage-like effect, which also added to the grungy tone, without taking away the high fashion and stylish effect,  I feel the overall poster design is very modern and meets the brief requirements most out of all of my designs. I kept this sleek look throughout the website designs, making the main focus the fashion photography. I also designed two landing pages one male and one female, which again makes the designs more gender neutral, rather than focusing mainly on women. 

During this particular project I learned a lot about time management due to a short time span to complete the work in, As well as this I feel as though I have further improved my design programme skills. In addition, fashion graphics is an area I have yet to complete a brief in therefore I feel as though I have learned a lot about that area in graphic design in particular. 

Portfolio Production - Re-working

In order to make my portfolio look as good as I can make it and really reflect my personal style I wanted to tweak a couple of my old projects just slightly in order to make them look how I want them as looking back I feel some of my work is not as good as it could be. Rather than completely re-doing my old projects that I'm not 100% happy with I just wanted to tweak fonts or colours or other small elements to improve the final designs.

I began with my Ministry of Sound Saturday Sessions posters, which were designed for a D&AD brief last year.

original designs

edited designs

For these I just edited the layout slightly and changed the colours and fonts as I felt the previous designs weren't working. I prefer the newer designs as they seem much neater and 'trendy', compared to the
originals. They also stand out a lot more with the brighter colours.
If I had more time to work with I would probably have a go at completely re-designing these posters and creating a whole new layout. However, I think these small changes have really improved the original designs and I am much happier to put these into my portfolio.

in situ

in situ

Work Based Learning - Durham Fashion Week

The final design I chose for my Durham Fashion Week project was a mixture of all the styles I experimented with. I used a high fashion image and a very stylish logo which I felt met the brief requiirements. I added texture and expermented with the levels and effects of the photograph in order to give a slight grungy look to the overall poster, making it stand out and also keeping it in trend. I also cut up the image to create an almost collage-like effect, which also added to the grungy tone, without taking away the high fashion and stylish effect,  I feel the overall poster design is very modern and meets the brief requirments most out of all of my designs. I kept this sleek look throughout the website designs, making the main focus the fashion photography. I also designed two landing pages one male and one female, which again makes the designs more gender neutral, rather than focusing mainly on women. 

Current Time Plan

In order to try and stay as organised as possible in the run up to my final hand in I've created an overall time plan of everything I need to do and when it needs to be done by.

PPD:  Keeping this blog up to date, as well as creating my creative CV, business cards and a cover letter. As well as this I need to identify opportunities and requirements in future employment, continuing education, competitions and festival submissions.

WBL: Placement work and evaluations, time sheets (typed and formatted), work related presentation (analysis of sector worked in , discuss roles in the agency, dealing with clients, pitching, time sheets etc) and a written skills analysis (knowledge gained about the industry and skills gained.).

Portfolio Production: Putting together and presenting all finalised work from the past two years as well as any successful WBL work (magazine spreads, durham fashion week and placement work). As well as this I need to produce written documentation of tutorials and advice given and an evaluation of my portfolio, analysing each individual project.

Work Based Learning - Magazine Spreads

This was a very open brief. I was asked to design two; double page spreads for a magazine of my choice. I chose to design for a music magazine due to my personal interests; throughout this brief I wanted to really improve my editorial skills within magazine layout design, as this was an aspect of design I am yet to explore. 

I considerably improved my skills within Adobe InDesign, and working with grids and general layout design, which proved very interesting. Both designs have a very abstract and geometric theme and work well with the white space. I edited photography to use throughout my designs in order to add my own personal twist and make the final layouts aesthetically pleasing. This brief improved my skills in all area throughout graphic design, including programme and thinking outside the box.

Portfolio Production

I am now onto my last module for the year which is all about creating the best portfolio I can and preparing for my final show.

I plan on tweaking some of my older designs which are currently in my portfolio so I am completely happy them, then adding whatever is missing.

After looking through my portfolio with my tutors I decided I wanted to do more work on editorial, in particular, magazine spreads. I was given a brief which was to design 2, double page spreads for a magazine of my choice, in which I chose a music magazine.

Alongside this brief I am also keeping my blog up to date and will be taking part in a two-week work placement which will go towards my work based learning module.

As well as my magazine spreads I also want to try and complete another live brief. The current two briefs I am looking into are:

Maha's Classics by Saira

-An independent fashion brand that fuses Pakistan dress, luxurious fabrics and detailed hand embellishments with contempary Western styling.

-Complete branding solution required for business cards, letterheads, websites and brochures.

Deliverables 

-2x logo submissions

- Business Cards

- Letterheads

- Generic flyer

Durham Fashion Week

- 1 week event in October with 18-50 y/o target audience. Range of events throughout the week.

- Design a slick/stylish logo, not too feminine and no pink. Shouldn't look out of place in 'Tatler Fashion Magazine'.

Deliverables

- 2x Durham Fashion Week logo routes

- 1 Web page front design

- 1 A2 promotional poster

Seb Lester Visits

Today we we're given the pleasure of a lecture from the well-known type designer and calligraphic artist, Sebastien Lester. Lester gave us an insight on his life growing up and discussed how he got involved in the industry and how he got to where he is today. 

Lester has worked with a whole range of huge brands such as The Rolling Stones Magazine, Intel, Waitrose, The Daily Telegraph, British Airways, Barclays, H & M, Ariel, The Labour Party, the list goes on and on. 

Lester discussed how as soon as he picked up a pen and began designing his first type he has never lost his passion and any second of the day he has spare he will be working on his projects. A lot of his inspiration came from his personal interests such as BMX'ing and sci-fi, as well as the famous Neville Brody. As well as working on his type design he also began to teach himself motion graphics and animation, in order to give him the ability to bring life into his designs and experiment with moving type. 

HAMBURGE - Typeface used by British Airways

NEO SANS - Extremely popular typeface used throughout many big brands including the Labour Party and Ariel. 

SOHO - Seen throughout GQ branding and the New Scientist.

Iconic design for Penguin Books

More recent calligraphic work

Lester mainly works now on more detailed letter forms and gives them his personal, contemporary twist. 

The talk its self was very inspiring and would have given even those without an interest in design, the urge to sit and experiment with calligraphy and start experimenting in typography.

Typography has more recently become an interest of mine so the talk was extremely informing and inspiring and certainly gave me a lot more motivation.