1950s Designers

As part of my Work Based Learning Module, I have decided to research well-known designers from the 1950s (as this was when Hitchcock's Rear Window was released) to get a feel for the design styles and techniques. The designers I chose to research are: Josef Muller-Brockmann, Saul Bass and Max Bill.

New York City!

This week FdA Graphic Design and Advertising jetted off to the USA to visit the big apple! While we were there we visited design agencies Pearlfisher and Droga5 as well as being typical tourists and doing some serious sight seeing!

Pearlfisher was the first agency we visited and we were given a talk about the company and shown a presentation on all of their latest work. Pearfishers approach was simple and effective: we are designers, we believe, we create. From the work we were shown, my favourite was their branding and packaging design for Go Macro, organic protein bars which help to boost the immune system and provide the body with essential nutrients. The packaging had friendly illustrative style images which really reflected the 'innocent, no-nonsense' organic ingredients. I also really loved the logo, which used the infinity symbol to represent an infinite healthy lifestyle, thanks to these tasty bars.

Next up was Droga5. This was the largest design agency we'd visited, with studio's in New York, London and Australia. We were given a tour of the studio (after having to prove our identity at the buildings entrance!) and a presentation on their latest advertising campaign: Newcastle Brown Ale, No Bollocks. They'd played on the Geordie word 'bollocks' and created a whole campaign on the basis of humorous honesty.

 Take a look at the TV ad here: http://www.droga5.com/#/work/newcastle/nobollocks/nbgreattimes

New York was full of culture with something to see on every corner! My favourite part of the trip was seeing a break-dancer on the subway, dancing for tips. We crammed as much sight seeing as we could into the four days we were there and managed to visit: Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central Station, Macy's, Rockefeller Square, Bloomingdale's, SoHo, Central Park, MoMA and Ground Zero, as well as the design agencies! It's safe to say I was absolutely knackered by the time we got home and slept most of the weekend. I would highly recommend New York to anyone and would love to go back as I feel there is still so much more to see!

Work Based Learning

I've just received my latest live brief for the Tyneside Cinema as part of my Work Based Learning Module. We have been asked to recreate a famous Alfred Hitchcock film poster and the best final designs will be displayed in the cinemas café. The Hitchcock film I will be recreating is 'Rear Window'.

As part of this module, I will be required to work alongside a third party within a professional working environment and will be art directing a photoshoot in order to recreate an appropriate image for my final poster design. Things I must consider when it comes to working professionally with a photography team are: organisation, clear aims and outcomes - I must have a clear idea in my head of what I need and want from the shoot, and team work.

I began the module by creating a time plan that would help me to organise my time effectively:

 

 

Editorial & Typography Module - Final Design

These are my final spreads for The Society of Publication Designers live brief:

 

I really enjoyed this live brief, editorial design is something I hope to do in the future. I will definitely be entering next years Society of Publication Designers student competition!

Editorial & Typography Module

The live brief for this module was to create a two page editorial spread for The Society of Publication Designers, choosing one of the following categories: entertainment magazine, city/regional magazine, how-to magazine, innovations magazine, or a sports/adventure magazine. For me, it was a toss up between the city/regional magazine or the sports/adventure magazine, in the end I opted for a sports spread for Ice Hockey.

I started my research by looking at sports magazines, which I found to be very generic and uninspiring. Each sports magazine I looked at had very similar layouts and were designed with no imagination. In my mind I wanted to create sports editorial spread that targets the younger generation and has a contemporary feel. I decided to widen my research and look at a variety of editorial spreads, rather than just sport. Here are a few I found inspiring:

 

 

A lot of my research included a grunge vibe, which I decided to pursue...



  

InDesign Digital Skills

Today we had a digital skills session focusing on InDesign, in preparation of our Editorial & Typography module. We created some pretty cool stuff using the 'effects' panel. Here's what I came up with:

Inspiration - Alan Kitching

As part of my typography module, one of my tasks was to research a typographer. I opted for Alan Kitching: old school typographer and letterpress printmaker. I chose to research Alan Kitching because (not only is he from the North East!) his fantastic typography work is bright, bold and all round brilliant. Alan Kitching is internationally renowned for his expressive use of letterpress type, process and materials in creating typographic designs. Each piece of Kitching's design work is a totally unique explosion of brightly coloured type.

My favourite piece of work by Alan Kitching would have to be his San Miguel campaign. I love the colours used and the varying fonts/font sizes. The overall advertisement is fun, happy and eye-catching. I would imagine seeing this on a wall would instantly lift your mood. The stroke on the word 'Fresca' works really well. Although the text is in Spanish, its understandable through use of colour and image. The overlaid 'Hola' text adds depth to the overall image




Bright, fun, friendly, fresh, appealing