Hand In Tomorrow

I have recently handed in a Learning Agreement and Learning Record stating my aims for the year and how much I have managed to achieve so far.

Now I need to hand in all the practice work that shows my findings, observations and so on.
In this first term we should have amassed at least 400 hours of work that should be exploring our chosen subjects. My subject has been titled 'What Is A Book', I aim to look at how the book format is changing and evolving due to the digital age.

So far I have created mapping and timeline projects, setting out the broad aims of the year and when I shall be getting them done by. These were originally presented in a hardback cover (hand made of course!) in A3 size and since then they have been reworked to an A4 size and constantly updated to show what has been done, what has been moved around to suit my schedule etc.

The second part of my work has been research. My research so far has explored four main contexts, personal opinion, general consensus, historical definitions and progressions and finally looking towards the future.

For the most part these have been handled in a book, titled using the expression 'A Book Is A Book Is A Book' but phrasing it as a question by adding 'Isn't it'. It's a play on words and an attempt at giving the research my own character, but I also feel it does sum up the work well. The book shows the results of twelve interviews/questionnaires I carried out towards the end of last year. These answers are then analysed  by myself and my own opinions are added. In this way the book neatly addresses the issue of personal and general contexts, touching on the history and future of publishing at the same time.

The format of the book took quite a bit of thinking. The idea was to learn new methods of binding (I had never perfect bound a book before this) and also use different methods than usual to show how you can get variety in a printed book. So I french folded the pages, and used a red bar to carry over the edge of the page, giving the book a nice strip of red that makes it a bit different to usual. Also the way that the pages flex under turning due to their folded nature is just a bit different to usual. Simple halftone imagery in a monotone ties the whole book together. Using just one colour and two typefaces (Din for titles, contents and questions, Caslon for answers, mine in black, others in 80% black) gives the book a uniform look, letting the format make more of an impact.

You can read the online version here, or leave a comment to see the printed version. I'll upload some photos of it soon

I would like to make a version with a stock coloured red on one side and white on the other, meaning the folds of the pages would flash red when bent and turned. Unfortunately getting hold of such a stock in a weight that isn't overkill has proven difficult.

To go alongside the book is a poster showing the progression of publishing with respect to breakthroughs and advancements rather than time itself. As a timeline it may seem odd, but the chinese were using forms of letterpress when central europe was still hand scribing, with Germany coming up with what is commonly accepted as the first proper printing press. This 'Timeline without time' looks further at the historical contexts and briefly looks towards the future of publishing as well.

To go alongside these research topics is a huge stack of work for OWT creative, exploring the less commercial side of book design (are zines books?!) and also work for Adidas and The Access Project, which shows I have a wide base of knowledge and experience at creating different types of publication for a different market and so on.

Sorry for such a wordy post!

What Is A Book?

My work on creating a book compiling the interviews  carried out for my MA is trundling along and pretty much finished for now. My hand in date for this section of work is Tuesday so I'm going to be making my last mock up tonight before working all day tomorrow and getting everything lined up and organised on my allocated wall area by 11 Tuesday morning.

Click this link to see the online version.

Placement starts today

Today I am lucky to be starting a two week placement with agency Gyro:Hsr. They are a huge agency with offices all over the world as well as Manchester and London. Having done some very neat work for companies like Sony, Shell and Pitney Bowes, they certainly look like an interesting place to work. Hoping to learn more about how to work in a professional environment and more about working quickly on good ideas, rather than spending time deliberating over several ideas as we do whilst at university.

After my previous placement at howies clothing company I definitely improved. I learned how to use software better, the benefit of simple neat typography and imagery and a lot about layout. Looking back I don't think I projected myself too well and that's something I'll work on this time.

First thing learned is I don't need to get up at 7 for a job which is only 2 miles away. 

Degree show is online

I want to say a massive thanks to the team who put together the degree show brochure and all the work that  has gone along with it, it looks ace. 

Look at our degree show advert! the online work has work from myself, brandon, hoggarth, oyunga, jenny and belle it looks pretty awesome. Go have a gander, then come to the real thing.

That's my work looking rather spiffing if I say so myself

Cool Stuff

First of on my two strong list of cool things is the 'So You Need A Typeface' poster

Based on a list of top 100 typefaces the poster gives you a nice flow chart to follow through before arriving at your decision. Would love to see one up close and go through the lot and since they're only 20ish dollars I may get myself one to satisfy my inner type geek. See more about it here and here.

Second on my list of awesome stuff is an app for the iPhone that has been made for the Museum of London that uses geotagging and the iPhones camera to position you and then allow you to look at items from the museum, positioned into their natural environment. This looks like it would be so much fun, shame I don't have an iPhone really. Have a look at teh creative review article here.

Beautiful

This is single handedly the best thing I have seen recently. Give up some of your time to watch it

UP THERE from The Ritual Project on Vimeo.

More volcano stuff

In an effort to put off uni work, but still do something vaguely creative I have been decorating my sisters new place and scouring vimeo for cool videos.


Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

This is one of the better finds, lovely time lapse video with Jonsi (of Sigur Ros fame) singing in the background, truth be told I kind of lost interest in doing anything design related when i found out about the TV show Man Vs Food. 


The premise of the show is : host goes to american city, eats the regions best fried chicken/pizza/burgers/bbq/burrito at a selection of diners then goes on to do a ridiculous eating challenge that normally involves some sort of burger bigger than his head. Unlike normal food shows that just make me feel hungry, Man Vs Food manages to go straight past that to making me feel ill after watching a man eat 9 pounds of beef in about 3 minutes. It's Tv at it's best

Take that journal

Here it is, a lovely cover for my journal. An 800 word summary is also included on the back cover. Printed on newsprint paper to make it nice and crisp, type set in Futura to match my portfolio so on and so on.

More importantly, it's done. nothing left to do but hand it in. 

Journal

Finished my journal a few days back, real happy with it, just need to reprint my cover as I was far too hasty with it last time. Smudged letterpress wasn't quite the aesthetic I was looking for.
I can show a few pictures of the different coloured sections though as they are the real stars of the show, sweet.

Journal mock up

CLICK ME. Do as the link says to get a glimpse of what my journal will look like. The cover will be different as will the contents page. Thinking of printing the sections on different colour paper....Not hugely different of course, white, pale blue, pale yellow, pale grey, pale green etc. Think it would be a nice way to seperate the book out easily.


Then I need to add page numbers, print it and bind it. Done

Some inspiration

Without even realising what I'm currently working on my little Portugese friend Dal sent me this video. It's a different result but a similar approach to what I'm up to.

Nice

Now then, I'm not a fan of punk band 'The Misfits', but I am a fan of letter press typography. If you are a fan of either, or both of these things then definitely click the link for a full view of the preview image below.

Panic exhibition tonight

After spending more than a couple of hours painting, sticking, measuring and sweeping yesterday the 3rd year D&AD show is finally ready to be seen by the public. 


Hopefully there will be a good turn out tonight, I know that a lot of the people exhibiting have gone home but there should still be more than a few people making an appearance and bringing folk along.


My work has a cracking position in the corner next to some pretty snazzy work by Belle Stevens and Stacey Syer.


See you there from 6-8 

Behance

I've only gone and got myself a page over on Behance haven't I..... http://www.behance.net/View_Profile it has one piece of work on it but others shall follow shortly 

Super awesome video of NYC

I like New York, I like time lapse videos, I love tilt shift photography, put them all together and you get this gem, I would embed it but I lack a vimeo account.


A tilt shift lens bends light in a certain way so it seems that the object being shot is in miniature, resulting in the playmobil effect as I like to call it. Oddly surreal, quirky and nice to look at. Watch the video!!

AC

Today I'm going to be making my first cycle voyage since my little stumble on monday. I can now seperate my life into two distinct times, before the crash (bc) and after the crash (ac). Jokes aside Im hopping onto my sled in an effort to go watch MMU Rugby Union play Manchester University. I was chairman of the club up until earlier this term when balancing my rugby playing, chairmans duties and uni work got a tad difficult and after 3 years of doing it I had to step down as chairman.


It's a shame I haven't been able to do both as I really enjoyed the duties whilst I had them (probably a case of rose tinted lenses there, in fact it was a massive annoyance for the most part) but uni has to come first.


So, what have I been doing at uni? Well I found my niche yesterday as a departmental tour guide, if I somehow flunk the rest of the year I might try offering my services as a tour guide full time. The reasoning behind my guiding was to show some of the students hoping to get a place on first year the uni and then also to sit in on their interviews and see what they were like.


Having seen some of the students abilities make me wonder how I was able to get straight into the second year, but I'm here now so I'm not that worried....lucky me I guess.


Also Arron T has put up a second run of TeeTwelve t-shirts, this time I'm involved which is nice.


buy some, and also buy my cards which I'll put up later in the week.

Top 30 albums of the decade.....but not my choices

The Times have created a list of the top 30 albums of the decade here, I did my own back when we were still all excited about 2010 so The Times are a bit slow on the uptake. We share quite a few albums, and I have listened to about 80% of the ones they have listed so if I ever get a job at The Times it's nice to know I'll enjoy the music.

CV

Here is my CV so far, probably need to add some more bits and bobs, like the fact there is no mention of any previous employers...However, these jobs have nothing to do with design skills so maybe i will just leave them out. Ho hum, here's the 1st draft anyhow

T-shirt idea and TAP stuff

Got a few ideas for some T-shirts to try and raise some funds for the degree show, here's one for now.

The DIN typeface is mint, thanks to Jon Hannan for loaning it to me....

Also got a final version (for now) of the access project charity booklet.

Valentines day

What with valentines day approaching and the need to try and be a bit proactive in our attempts at raising funds for the end of year show we will be having a Valentines day jumble sale on Wednesday and Thursday this week. 

I thought I'd show my romantic side by making some cards for the event. So after raiding my paper box for all the red paper I could find, spending a few quid on some A2 colourplan and a few hours cutting, sewing and getting in a muddle I managed to create 17 cards.

5 hole saddle stitched, hand made cards with a heart cut out and red inlay. Wonderful stuff. No idea how much I'll sell them for. Someone else can decide that for me. Maybe a quid? If so thats a possible £17 raised. However, they might not sell at all and it could be terribly upsetting for myself.

When making the cards I had originally thought a bit about not using the traditional cliched ideas of hearts, roses and red, but then I thought about something Ian Anderson said to us during a workshop. I'm paraphrasing here but it went something like "sometimes the obvious solution is the best one, if I need someone to get me an item of a high shelf and I ask someone 7ft tall why I should get him to do it, the answer is 'because I'm tall' not 'because I have a keen interest in shelving." So, even though I could be alternative and more creative, what people want at valentines is hearts, and that's what they're getting. 

If you want one, let me know. 

Took the pictures with photo booth and havent flipped them, the actual cards do open the correct way, don't worry.