Inspiration - David Carson

As part of my Typography and Editorial module, I have been asked to research an editorial designer. I have chosen to research David Carson after having seen his work on the documentary ‘Helvetica’. Carson’s work really stood out to me, totally experimental and against the grain. At the time of RayGun (Carson’s magazine), he was criticised  for his chaotic looking spreads, but he stuck his guns and went with what he thought was right, which I find admirable. These days people are too focused on what other people think of them or their work, often loosing themselves along the way.

 

My favourite piece of work by David Carson is his cover for Little White Lies, a British film magazine. Carson designed January 2011, The Black Swan issue. I love how the text overlays Natalie Portman's face and fills the whole cover, this is telling you it's The Black Swan issue, you can't look anywhere else. Although it's busy, there's a sense of simplicity, a full face shot of the leading actress and the title of the film in black and white. In the words of David Carson, "There's a very thin line between simple, clean & powerful and simple, clean & boring." This particular piece of work rings true to his quote.

A close second favourite is his cover for Surf Magazine. I absolutely love the mismatch type and the bright colours that compliment each other so well. Another commanding piece of design from Carson that was sure to put the other magazines on the selves to shame. It has a 'tropical grunge' vibe that should be so wrong together but it's not and it just works. I also really like the background illustrations that add a great touch.

  

Inspiration - Seb Lester

Seb Lester is a London-based type designer, illustrator and artist, most well known for his calligraphic style of type. Throughout his career, Seb has produced work for some huge companies, events and publications, including the likes of Apple, Nike, The New York Times and Intel. He is currently working in East Sussex on his limited edition prints which reflect his passion for letter forms.

After following him on Instagram, I love his cheeky calligraphic sketches, what better way to break some bad news than with a soft, elegant script:

Digital Skills - SWOT Analysis

My tutor has asked me to create a 'SWOT' analysis, which will help me to identify personal strengths and weaknesses as well as areas for improvement and possible threats, specific to this module.

Here it goes:

Digital Skills - Self Branding Module

The brief for this module was to brand ourselves ready for future employment. I had to create my own logo and slogan as well as a poster containing my digitally edited self image. I found this module particularly hard, I was definitely the hardest client I've ever designed for!

These are some of my ideas for my logo:

Inspiration - Emma Hack

I stumbled across this whilst flicking through the Daily Mirror (yes, I'm a flicker!). It;s not quite graphic design, but it's amazingly creative. Emma Hack (photographer and skin illustrator) transformed 17 naked people into a mangled car as part of a campaign for the Australian Moto Accident Commission. This lady had an amazing vision which came together as a fantastic, eye-catching piece of art. Hats of to you Emma Hack.  

In the process:

End result:

Take a look at her website to see the other projects she's worked on: www.emmahackartist.com.au  

Newcastle Music Hub Logo Revisited

So this week I found out that my logo (design number two) has been chosen as one of the top two to go forward into the next stages! As this was my first ever live brief, I'm extremely proud that my design has been chosen to go forward.

Feedback that I had received was to 'minimise the 3D effect so that the logo was neater and more compact'. I was also informed that the Newcastle Music Hub had changed it's name to 'Music Partnership North' and that there were in-fact going to be four 'Music Partnership North's': Newcastle, Newcastle College, The Sage and Northumberland. They asked that each Music Partnership North had their own logo with the areas assigned colour: Newcastle - black, Newcastle College - blue, The Sage - grey and Northumberland - red.

First of all I amended the companies title on my original design - Music Partnership North was actually much nicer to align within the square as the words music and north contained the same number of letters. I then decided that I would incorporate the colours into the '3D' section of the logo. Here are my amended designs:

 

 

 

 

Wish me luck!

 

 



Illustrator Digital Skills - Watercolour Technique

If you liked the watercolour effect I used for my Newcastle College School of Creative Industries logo, take a look at this link for a step-by-step guide on how to do it: http://www.gemznunn.com/?s=watercolour

The watercolour effect is a great way to add a human touch using texture, shape and colour mixtures.