Digital Skills Aqcuisition: Final Ideas

I feel like I really struggled with this project, maybe because I found it really difficult to evaluate myself and pick out skills and personality to show off, I'm not really comfortable doing stuff like that. But the idea that I had was that I incorporate some illustrations into the edited image to show that I'm creative etc.

I was really struggling for ideas so I decided to incorporate photos from my trip to Paris from the previous summer, so I thought it would be relevant to also include illustrations form it too. I really liked using Photoshop in this project, I thought it was really cool to change the texture of the image using the overlay and blend options.

I also really like the font I chose, it has a very handwritten style to it which I like!

For my logo design I decided to merge my initials together. I tried out different colours but I thought the dark grey looked the most contrasting with the white letters and therefore the most effective.

Paris vs New York - Vahram Muratyan

I was struggling to come up with something to blog about, so I had a quick scroll through my twitter favourites and came across a tweet I 'favourited' from @designtaxi showing a really great animation by Tony Miotto showing the many differences between the city of lights and the big apple. Check it out here

Of course this video is based on the book and blog by graphic designer Vahram Muratyan. Muratyan blogged about his travels to New York, which you can see at http://parisvsnyc.blogspot.co.uk/. His comparisons are shown in very striking graphic illustrations, which have a very simple, clean and minimalistic look to them. The colours used are bright and definitely eye catching, I absolutely love the style of the illustrations as a whole. The actual comparsions are very witty and fun, covering a wide range of topics which represent each city. A few of my favourites are...

Probably the most iconic female fictional characters to represent the two cities. I love how Muratyan has picked out arguably the most distinguishable features of the two characters, the hair and focused that as the main element of these illustrations.

Both airports are of course named after Charles de Gaulle and John F Kennedy, I absolutely love the cleverness of these, using the exhaust gas as a way to illustrate their profiles.

Finally! These iconic buildings of both cities also have become memorable due to fictional characters; Quasimodo ringing the bells in Notre-Dame and King Kong scaling the Empire State building. I love how the two illustrations have been composed in the same sort of way, with each having been aligned more to the left.

For more comparisons check out Muratyan's website http://www.vahrammuratyan.com/

(transferred from my wordpress account)

Digital Skills Acquisition Brief

The brief for this project is all about how 'People Buy People'. We therefore have to think of ourselves as products in order to find a way to really sell our skills and personally to potential future employers. We have to 'deconstruct' ourselves and establish ourselves as a brand which makes us stand out.

I think this brief sounds quite difficult as I think it's really hard to evaluate yourself and show it off, so I think this will be a quite challenging project.

STRENGTHS: I am gaining a bit more experience and confidence on Adobe programmes which will hopefully be beneficial during this project.

WEAKNESSES: Find it really hard to self evaluate which could prove difficult when trying to establish self as a brand! 

OPPORTUNITIES: A good self branding piece of work, and my digital skills will hopefully improve!

THREATS: Time, also free trial has ran out at home for Adobe software so I will have to somehow get another or really manage my time well so that I can complete it in class.


TIME PLAN:

Kasabian - Velociraptor!

I've been a fan of Kasabian's for quite some time and I've especially loved the artwork of their most recent album Velociraptor! but I never actually bothered to research it to found out who illustrated it until now! Aitor Throup is a London based designer who became Kasabian's creative director in 2011, managing the design and art direction for the band which won him the award of 'Best Music TV Advertisement' at the 2012 UK Music Video Awards. 

School of Creative Industries: Final Stationary

To create the stationary for the School of Creative Industries identity, I had to use InDesign which I was a bit apprehensive about since I'd never really used it before. However once I had set the template up I found it easier than I thought it would be which raised my confidence a bit.

We had to design a business card, compliments slip and letterhead. Once the templates were set up I decided to just do a small banner design in Illustrator to go with the orange logo idea I had:

I thought it would be handy to use on the stationary as a border or something.

I also began to play around with possible layouts for business cards:

I quite liked how the border looked as I thought it was also a nice touch that it was the same sort of style as the motif of the logo.

 This image shows my first final design for the orange logo. For my finalised idea I thought the little border I created didn't really go with it and looked a bit too much, so I decided to get rid of it and I quite like how it looks a bit simpler and cleaner without it. I think the white space makes it look very fresh too.

For my second final idea I decided to stick to the same layout as the orange logo idea so that they were easier to compare in terms of colour and logo design. Again I like the white space as it makes it look clean and fresh. Overall I was pretty pleased with how these designs turned out especially since I had some difficulty at the beginning with being so stuck on what to design!

School of Creative Industries: Logo Development

At first I found it quite difficult trying to think up ideas for the logo of this brief. Although I did want to make it so that it reflected creativity of some sort. I was playing around on Illustrator with shapes and circles and using the eraser tool to cut out some interesting shapes in the circles.

1. This shows the initial shape I was playing around with. I also started changing colours of different sections too, using different shades of orange, light red and a golden yellow which I think helps to represent creativity as they're quite exciting and lively colours which really stand out.

I then went a bit crazy with the tool doing sort of squiggles around the edges, but I actually really liked the finished effect. It looked a bit messy and freehand but I like that, and in some way I think it helps to show creativity, it has no order or certain rules about it.

3. The third design idea I had for this was to use the tool but actually incorporate the letters SCI into the circle somehow. It took a few attempts to get it looking suitable enough but I think this looks quite effective. For this idea I tried fresh looking green with a turquoise colour too, I wanted something quite bright and clean.

I tried a lot of different colour schemes for the logos but I actually preferred the original ones I had tried out with because I felt that the others I tried, didn't really reflect the look of creativity I wanted to convey.

With the 2 ideas in mind I then had to develop them further by adding text, considering how the text was arranged alongside the motif, different weights, colour and choosing the right font.

This image shows my final two logos! It took quite a long time playing around with different fonts, they both originally just had black text, but I thought it looked way too harsh alongside the colours of the logos so I had to consider using grey and if I had to use black, I had to edit it to a very low weight.

The next step in the project is to start using InDesign to start designing the stationary to go along with the logos!

School of Creative Industries Brief

After our first brief, the second half of our Branding and Corporate Image module included designing a logo and stationary for Newcastle College's School of Creative Industries. Although it's the same module it is sort of like a new project, so I've decided to do another SWOT analysis and organise my time plan ready.

STRENGTHS: I am gaining more experience on Adobe programmes, especially illustrator which will be handy for designing the logo for this brief.

WEAKNESSES: InDesign has to be used to put together the stationary, I've never used it before, and I think it will be quite difficult especially getting measurements and guidelines right

OPPORTUNITIES: Another live brief which means designs have the possibility to be chosen. Also opportunity to expand on digital skills.

THREATS: Time, because of this project having 2 briefs I do feel a little bit short of time which means I have to organise my time!


TIME PLAN:

Newcastle Music Hub Logo Designs

This blog post shows my final designs for the Newcastle Music Hub brief. The four final designs have pretty much the same concept behind them but with different adjustments etc.

My idea for these logos came from using the image of a treble clef, but I wanted to rework the shape into a more modern style which would be appropriate for the company and appealing to the market of children to teenagers.

1. The first design shows the image of a treble clef shape with lines of different weights filling in the spaces. I did this in Illustrator and it actually took a long time to arrange all of the lines, there was probably a simpler and easier way of doing it but I at the moment I don't have a lot of experience on these programmes! I added the text too which I think has a clean look to it. If the text was any thicker than the weight of the lines than it wouldn't have looked very effective.

2. For this design I wanted to try something a bit different, so I used the treble clef shape to inspire a square shaped design. I think it looks quite good but I don't think people would associate it very much with music. I also filled one of the squares in blue for a relaxed look.

3. For the third idea I went back to the idea of the semi circles and kept it quite similar to the first design, however I did change the weight of some of the lines. I also filled one of the shapes in the blue colour from the second design just to help make it pop a bit.

4. The fourth design looks pretty similar to the first, the only huge difference being that I rotated the image which I think helps to highlight the treble clef shape more. I also had to rearrange the text so that it went perfectly on line with the horizontal lines on the motif.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with how my logos have turned out for this project as I wanted to go for quite a quiet and relaxed look. 

As these projects are done we now have to consider the next part of this module, which is again a live brief, of creating a logo and stationary for Newcastle College School of Creative Industries!

Branding Alphabet

One of the first tasks we got given in this Branding & Corporate Image module was to create an alphabet composed of different brand logos, however we were given a sheet with an example showing which ones not to use which were of course all of the obvious ones...so it was a bit challenging!

I decided not to edit the colours of the logos or anything as colour can play a big part in identifying logos and brands so thought it would be better to leave them, I also think it's quite interesting to see the different colours all of these brands use, how different they are etc.

Branding & Corporate Image Brief

This post marks my first couple of weeks starting my Foundation Degree in Graphic Design!

After some ice breakers with the rest of the class we've already been briefed about the first module, Branding and Corporate image. The brief is live, which means we're designing something for an actual client which could get chosen by them to be used! It includes designing a logo for Newcastle Music Hub, which is aimed at a target market of young children to teenagers.

I've created a SWOT analysis to help me keep on track with this module:

STRENGTHS: A lot of logo and branding research will really help with my design work.

WEAKNESSES: I don't have a lot of experience on adobe programmes such as Photoshop, InDesign, or Illustrator as of yet.

OPPORTUNITIES: Gain experience from the previously mentioned programmes, and there's also a chance for logo to get picked by client.

THREATS: Time, should keep organised for deadline. 

Ideas of Music Hub logo need to be for an interim crit on Friday 5th October, so they can be put together on a computer because we also have to design logos and identity for another brief in this module!

FIRST TIME PLAN: