music visit feed back

On Tuesday 12^th May I met with Anthony Smith for a portfolio visit; I was really nervous about the actual visit, so much so that I took a black cab to his office despite knowing where it was so that I wouldn’t be late. 

 

When I arrived there I was very excited to see the studio and see how the team worked together as a group.  As I was walking up the stairs Anthony met me half way and gave me warm handshake, which instantly calmed me down, he then offered me a drink as I waited for him, as I was early. The office had a very warm feeling to it; it was small yet spacious as the design of was very minimalist and modern.

 

 

While I sat on the couch waiting for Anthony as he got on with some work at his desk I took the time to look at the books on the table; most were music related.  Each book on the table was chosen carefully, some were about album cover design while others were about the production of music itself.  The other interesting thing was how each book was different in weight to the other – some pages were light where as others were quite heavy; this illustrated how important paper gsm was in design.

 

Anthony was very friendly and pleasant; he asked me a lot of questions about myself, at first I thought it was odd but then I realised it would help him inform him better about my work.  I also realised this informal chat about me was another way of helping me to relax before discussing my portfolio.

 

While looking through my work Anthony was constantly giving me feedback about it.  He also suggested a lot of artists, designers and books to take inspiration from and to help inform my work better to make it stronger.  He was very positive all the way through, he didn’t make feel like I was at an interview; it felt more like a tutorial session at college.  He suggested a lot of changes I could make about every piece in my portfolio but he did like the way I laid out my work. The most important piece of advice he gave me was to look at other people’s work, which would help strengthen the quality of my work.

 

After looking through my portfolio we discussed the workings of the studio; how they function as a team, how they approach a brief and tackle it, who gets to do what. He informed me that a few of the team would go through the brief or they may each go away and think about it individually and then discuss it as a team.  It differed each time depending on the brief.  Anthony personally likes to work with people as it brings diversity to the work as well as giving him the opportunity to really celebrate it at the end of each brief.

 

After the meeting with Anthony I realised that my portfolio could improve dramatically if I took inspiration from other peoples’ work and pushed myself a little.  All in all it was a very enlightening experience that gave me a small confidence about my and the encouragement I needed to put in more effort.

type poster

I really like how effective the poster is, how dramatic and communicative it is with out using an image

Print technique effect

While researching for techniques and typefaces i came across this poster which i really like.

I really like how the letters are de stressed by the print technique .

ELVIS POSTER

In my editorial piece the most important thing was to choose a typeface that represent my main idea effectively and to communicate legibly. while looking at different posters and magazine designs i came across to Elvis's poster which has influenced me in my choice of font (FRANKLIN GOTHIC)

Looking at Carson's work

David Carson

David Carson is one of my main influences.

I always go back and look at his work in any sort of projects. I look at his ideas, concepts, visuals and techniques that he uses in his designs. 

This particular piece was a big influence to me in the Editorial project.

DNA

I have emailed DNA design Agency to arrange a portfolio visit.

I will upload their replay as soon as they email me back.

My Replay to Music

Music (the visit date)

After emailing my second email to Anthony Smith, with in few moments he replayed back to me. 

I am really pleased that he agreed to see my portfolio as it will be very valuable for me to se him and get some feed back. 

Music once again

I have re emailed Music company as I really liked their work, i also liked the lecture that Anthony Smith gave us in Stockport college. 

CONTACTS DEADLINE

The deadline for the contacts on 8th of May.

I got Reza Abedini to see my work which I am really pleased with, he gave me loads of tips in how to improve my work. I am really happy because I am still in contact with him.

Non of the agencies got back to me yet, I will keep trying un till I get some one to see my work.

I have the whole summer to contact agencies, I will also try to get a work replacement.

Reza Abedini

I have been in contact with Reza Abedni, Iranian Designer who lives in Holland.

I have showed him my portfolio and he fed back me in how I should develop my style and work.

he also said he would like to see some more work from out side college.

I will not be able to attach our conversation because he asked me not to do but I will print out all the conversations and hand it in.

Studio North

I have contacted studio North again as I have not heard from them yet.

I would like to them to see my portfolio as I really like their style.

Studio North

I have contacted Studio North as i like their way of working and style.

I really like this typeface (franklin Gothic)  its mostly used in posters and magazine. 

I like the way the each chracter is destressed  in this poster. the colours are really effective and work together really well. the use of white space is very clever and helps the eyes to follow the text

Music

Part of the course is to get in touch with the design agency and arrange a visit to show them our portfolio.
I have emailed music as I really liked there work. |I got to know them through a lecture that they gave in Stockport college.

I am still waiting for their replay, as soon as I get it I will up load it in my blog.

Gillian Bliase’s lecture VS Brouno maag lecture

¬Friday
O7th Nov 2008

Gillian Bliase’s lecture VS Brouno maag lecture
www.gillianblease.co.uk
www.daltonmaag.com

Gillian Blease studied in Castlefield for four years after which she moved to London to become an independent artist. Unfortunately it wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be. She stayed in London for a year but then decided to move to Manchester as she couldn’t reach satisfaction in terms of her design.

She studied at Stockport College doing a typing course, which she passed successfully. She took her career a step further by going to Japan for six weeks to enrich her mind with their culture, art and designs. In fact Japanese art has a great influence on her work.

Blease is more of freelance illustrator than a designer, she emphasise her creativity in newspapers e.g. the Guardian and books.

During the development of her career, she looked at lots of different images and designed with no rules or restriction. She looked at every little thing around her for inspiration and designed freely.

What I like the most about her designs is that they are fresh and have a glossy effect which is very common design wise. Her illustrations are very simple, flat and two-dimensional yet bold and narrative. In most of her designs she tends to use bold and vibrant colours to draw attention yet she uses clear graphic imagery to make it interesting to look at and still easy to read. However, this is not a restricted rule that she follows as she treats each client individually by looking at their history and previous designs whilst considering the main themes her clients want her to bring out.

In her presentation she used many to show where much of her inspiration comes from. She focused on her influences more than her own design, which I thought, was a little boring. Her main influences are illustration generally and logos, which she claims are ..‘fascinating.’. I think it was exciting to see how much research she does along with designing, and how important it was for her to look at different images to become what she is now. As a student that tells me that designing is not only about drawing skills, but also about generating ideas, researching, getting inspiration and by searching for any influential materials.

Due to her simple, colourful, stylistic, flat designs she was asked to design for the Guardian as an illustrator, where she to designed an illustration for the recipe page every week. She also worked in different columns in the Guardian e.g. food, relationship and health. After working for them she spent some time working in her own style but she was offered other work by the Guardian.

Blease likes to work with white spaces in her design work as she states ‘Space strengthens the design.’.

During the presentation Blease showed her work from when she first began designing to very recently. The work shows a dramatic change in her design as it gets more colourful and intense with a stronger stylistic touch.

The reason I chose to compare these two particular designers is firstly because of their incredible design work in their specialised area and secondly, the completely different ways that both have presented their work. Blease’s talk was the first presentation by a professional designer that I have attended.

Blease’s talk was in Stockport College with free admission. Maag’s design symposium was in Liverpool with £5 entry fee.

I thought that Blease’s talk was negative rather than positive as the artist looked shy and didn’t seem confident enough to talk about her work enthusiastically. She was looking at the screen and her computer most of the time rather than facing the audience. Through the talk I had the impression that she was putting her self down by using certain phrases such as ‘Luckily I have been offered the chance to work for the Guardian…’. During the talk she maintained the same low tone of voice, which didn’t really represent her excellent standard of work. On the other hand Maag showed how enthusiastic he is about typography by animatedly explaining each slide that appeared in his presentation. The talk was very positive and fun as Maag was making jokes throughout it. His tone of voice was changing showing his excitement about a certain piece. He also kept questioning why you would or wouldn’t do something and this involved the audience. He started his talk by questioning designs found stacked on shelves, which I found very evoking. He showed lots of examples o typography e.g. logos, brands, campaigns etc. These were not necessarily his own work but were shown to emphasise good and bad fonts. I enjoyed this as it made me aware of type. Attending both talks has raised my awareness of how much design work is affected by the way it is presented.


I found both lectures very useful as there were extreme opposites. In Blaise’s lecture, Gillian Blease was very genuine and emphasised how hard is it to find a design job after graduating as its one of the most competitive fields at the moment. She also discussed what the designer would have to go through to become recognisable. Her work was very effective and very stylistic; this is what illustration is mainly about.

typography effects on posters

looking through websites and researching i found these comparison articles between remake movie posters where typography play a big part in how good each one is. I picked few of them to be put in the blog because i liked the contrast between the modern and the old version.

smoking ads

anti smoking adverts campaign is one of my favorite campaign.
I find it very interesting and creative they are shockingly straight to the point.

These are some of the ads that I really like.

Each advert contain different fact about how bad smoking is and what could it lead to.

Dan Ingham and Steven Owen

On the 28th of November, two of Stockport college graphic design’s x –student came to give us a talk about their experience after leaving college and establishing their career life as graphic designers.

They highlighted the different between being a student and being an independent graphic designer as in what would it be like in the actual industry.

I personally found this particular talk very useful out of all of all talks , as they talked about their experience in college and how fun it was for them; in term of briefs and atmosphere, yet emphasizing how fun it is comparing to the stressful and busy environment out side college.

They have also emphasized how important it is to come to college every day and make the most of it and most importantly they highlighted ‘working hard’ which they found out from their experience own experience firstly in college and out side college.

One of the main points that they have emphasized on is that a designer is not only about having a good idea but it is about being enthusiastic and a hard worker.

They also have gave us tips on how to prepare ourselves for our next step journey, after college.