.

think i'm gonna get a tumblr. blogger is pretty average at best.

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.

alphabet.
buckminster-fuller.
code.
die-cut.
ephemera.
folds.
game.
halftone.
ideation.
jigsaw.
kinetic.
layers.
metaphor.
numbers.
onomatopoeia.
perforation.
question mark.
rubbing.
showthrough.
tessellation.
unit.
venn.
wayfinding.
x.
yellow.
zig-zag.

the end of the year.

It's pretty crazy how quick this year's gone and how much I've learnt. I've learnt better ways for collecting research, and recording it, learnt new things on software and loads of small things which have helped me develop my work..

I hope this book and poster I am doing at the moment will show how far I've come since last year before starting this course.. I feel my work has improved a lot, having people around you with ideas helps this. Some work has turned out better than others but this final project will hopefully show a lot of my skills as a graphic designer.

Looking forward to next year and cracking on with lots of new projects..

paul blow.

wow this guys illustration is amazing.

workshop 4.

In this workshop everyone had to recreate a bit of London map using only type. Then when they were done paste them all together to create a large map of London. Simple. Everyone had a different style and technique of doing it so it turned out varied but looked pretty cool. We were only allowed to use Helvetica and Red.

pics from apfel.

apfelsaft.

Went for a studio visit to APFEL (A Practice For Everyday Life) the other week. Their work is quite typography based and so clean and well layed out. They've done work for Tate Britain among other things. It was a good insight into how a studio works and in run as well as how to start your own design studio up. It was good to look about and see in what kind of environment they work in as well as seeing some of their work.

..........

blogger is poop.

workshop 3.

In my 3rd workshop we used stenciling to do some prints of type, to try and transform the letters over a few prints. We used just two colours and a roller to print the word 'London'. Unsure how to go about extending this workshop apart from by doing more prints.

parra.

Got this free print designed by Parra with the 3rd issue of It's Nice That.

coat.

of arms for Harrow which we based the snake idea from.

Might go to Harrow sometime for a bit of an extension to this workshop, and do something snakey. Would be fun.

workshop 2.

Workshop numero 2 was pretty fun, a more lighthearted workshop. We had to get into groups, pick a London borough, find a load of junk from around the college and then use said junk to create a creature/character that represented the particular borough.

Our group picked Harrow. Not sure why. No one really knew much about it, must have been intrigued. Or all the obvious boroughs had been used. Whatever.

Here is a picture or 2 of the pile of junk and card we found.
















So after doing a little bit of research of Harrow we found the coat of arms and the fact that Harrow meant the word 'temple' in some language. So, being the smart graphic designers we are, we thought POW!! let's combine the two! The coat of arms contained a snake wrapped about a stick, which is a creature so we set about making a snake that lived in a temple with the cardboard boxes and rubbish we had.

Here are some photos of Harold being built and stuff. And him next to 'Louie' from Lewisham the chicken leg which another group made.

workshop 1.

The first workshop I did for my final project was a simple one to show you how to lay out the grid of the book on InDesign as well as show how the book must be bound. The book we make must be A5 and bound using two bolts and must be French fold.

The book must follow the theme of 'London through the eyes of a designer' and there must be a chapter in the book for each workshop I attend. The chapter must contain images and text from what happened in the workshop but then the ideas learnt must be expanded and followed up after the workshop to produce pieces of work.

I also need to make a poster to act as a wrap around cover for the book.


So... anyway in this workshop we got shown how to lay out the paper and the margins for the A5 book. Obviously the final grid is down to whatever you want. But for this workshop I just did a simple one. Then threw in some placeholder text and some random images on my memory stick to fill a few pages.

Then, using a holepuncher and some book binding bolts, I bound the few pages together to give an idea of how to make the book for this project.

So to 'extend' this workshop for the chapter, its basically gonna be the experimenting with the layout, paper and putting the book together which I've already started doing.

Here are some photos of the dummy pages I made in this workshop.

original collage.

This was the original collage I based my collage extension on.

100/1 photos.

100/1.

This was the name of our collage extension exhibition which we had in the Well Gallery in the LCC. There was a nice varied body of work, from posters, to video, to hearts.

The idea of my extension was to take the collage I did with bubble wrap on and make that into an interactive poster which people could pop. So I covered an A2 piece of card in bubble wrap and, to keep with the collage feel, stuck on the text and an illustration of someone 'relieving themselves'. I chose the words 'Relieve Yourself' because everyone likes popping bubble wrap and the sounds it makes, and it can relieve a bit of stress I find.

The exhibition looked good in the gallery and showed the varied nature of our course.

Some photos of my work are above.

new term.

Kaayyy so it's a new term at uni and I have my first workshop tomorrow for my final project of the year. Tomorrow I make a dummy book which is what we all have to make for this project.

Been doing my collage extension project and VCT timeline recently and they're both in this week.


I'll put some more interesting stuff on here soon I promise.

bit of bloombergage.

Thought I'd give a bit of an update to this Bloomberg Space project I'm doing.

Haven't updated much recently, been hard to put stuff up about it but when it's all done (i.e. next frigging week!!!) I'll put up the finished pieces and research work/ pdf that I have to do.

It's been quite an interesting project because it's been almost like a real life project. We got to meet one of the people that works for Bloomberg Space that would be a potential client. I've also had to be in contact with paper suppliers such as GFSmith and printing companies to make sure that the order of 750 copies of my specification would be in budget.

Anyway better get back to WORKING. The design of the book is coming on quite nicely...

bookbinding workshop.

This book was perfect bound using a glue strip and a machine then binds the pages together. It is a french fold book which gives the pages a thicker feel to it. It also allows you to do a range of interesting things with the pages such as cutouts.













































































































































































This book was made by putting 5 holes into the paper and stitching it together. Then covering some card for the cover and glueing the first and last pages to it. (Can't remember the name for them.)

The workshop will be useful for the current Bloomberg project I'm working on and also my final project which I have to make a book.

origami.

bloomberg blog.

This is the the link to the blog that everyone on the new project is adding research and interesting stuff for the project.

bloombergspace.blogspot.com

want some.

play doh.

bloomberg space.

Got given a brief on tuesday. It involves the design of a book which would showcase the Comma exhibitions which are being held at the Bloomberg Space. The Bloomberg Space in the the Bloomberg building and funded by the company. Comma is a series of 30 exhibitions by 30 different artists which are put on two at a time for a period of around 4 weeks. By the end of 2010 all 30 will have taken place.

We spoke to one of the directors there and she said that the reason they chose to do a run of exhibitions like this was to create an identity for the space which would keep people coming in to see the new artists work.

The space already has a design identity which we have to stick with but we can use it to be creative and change it about a bit. When at the space there were leaftets on every exhibiton which you could pull off the wall. This was a good way to interact because if you are just given a leaflet you quite often discard it, so this way if you wanted one you had to get one yourself.

Whilst there, the Comma 17 and 18, by Bernd Behr and Charlotte Moth were there. This work used the space in interesting ways and that is one the things the directors look for in the artists, someone that can work well in a space given to them. http://www.bloombergspace.com/index.html

For the project there are a number of things i will be assessed on;

- My participation on a blog that will be set up for everyone to most research to share with each other. I'll post the link on here when I know it myself!

- A development PDF which will track my progress over the project with my research and experimentation etc.

- A dummy book i.e. a blank book using the paper, finishing etc. I would propose to use if making it for real.

- And also sample spreads of the book design itself including; a cover, half title page, inprint page, title page, contents page and spreads on two of the artists in the Comma series.

For the dummy book I have a budget of £12,000 for a print of 750 copies, so I need to research prices on materials and inks.

This project seems like it could be really interesting as it's more 'real life' and focussed than the last one I did.

pastasaurus.

The best piece of cutlery in the world. Got it at the weekend.