This week I quickly designed a poster for a friend who ran for course rep. They wanted to include an image of a girl reading which I found and then added the words ‘rise up’ to add intrigue.

Task: to create an A3 landscape orientation mood board

Time duration for tasks → 15 Minutes:

1.Write a short paragraph about yourself and your practice
(including your name).

Write down words that define yourself and practice:

• Good quality
• New ideas
• Typography (hand rendered)
• Portraits
• Witty humour 
• Vintage 

Key word: New

My practice is changing as I develop my visual language and I come to understand the foundations of graphic design and how I, as a designer, can add a new perspective.

I love the feeling when a new idea arrives in my head and when the possibilities are endless whilst the realisation is in sight. What (hopefully) follows is the satisfaction of a great idea coming to pass.

I am ambitious with my projects, striving to deliver my best for each brief, during which I am ready to learn new names of designers and new ways of creating.

2. Collect 3 images that reflect the tone and mood of your practice.

The reason I chose each image:

I chose the first image of a portrait that my Grandpa draw of me when I was younger. He was an artist and potter which meant that growing up I was shown that having a creative job was a viable career. His pottery designs have been influential on my practice so far as I have used some of them as inspiration for my work.

The second image is a photo of a card that I have in my room by Simon Drew who creates humorous greeting cards. I enjoy watching comedy and witty play on words and this card made me laugh when in the illustration the bar is literally too high. I want to introduce some playfulness into my work.

The final image is a picture I took in Houtaud, France of a reflection of the sky in water. I love being outside in nature as it is a time where I can be present in the real world (off screen) and snatch quiet moments of reflection. What is interesting about this photo is the symmetry as the way the picture is orientated doesn’t change the image.

3. Collect the work of 3 designers, practitioners, agencies or such like that inspire you and your practice.

https://www.typographicposters.com is a a platform for inspiration, research and promotion of good design through the poster medium.

It’s a great resource that I use for visual inspiration for posters, type and layout. It also is a space that leads onto looking at other designers and further inspiration.

A maker and artist who inspires my practice is William Morris. His work consisted of naturalistic patterns which still prove to be popular today. He was associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement which was a group of artists who looked to traditional crafts and this way of hand rendering designs interests me in a time when much of design is digital.

Another designer that inspires my practice is Lakena

4. Choose a palette of 3 colours + black

For my colour palette I chose predominately blue tones as blue is a colour that my friends associate with me because I often wear blue and in winter I wear a bright blue coat.

5. Choose 2 typefaces to use setting the text and any captions.

Typeface experiments:

I chose the typefaces:

Heading – Roboto, Medium Italic

Body – Grotesque MT Std, Regular

The body text is in sans-serif to be understandable and modern. The headings compliment the choice of body text.

6. Choose 3 key references from your growing collection that reflect you and your practice.

Remember that a pattern is either right or wrong. It cannot be forgiven for blundering, as a picture may be which has otherwise great qualities in it. It is with a pattern as with a fortress, it is no stronger than its weakest point.

William Morris

Be a servant in every situation. I’m not trying to be the best, I’m trying to be the best servant .

7. Design and layout your mood board using everything from no’s 1—6.

This project  includes developing skills of InDesign, image editing and selection

Keynote – easy way to make presentations and add in videos 

Indesign – tool for bringing together content -Publication for print

Task: Experiment with these softwares. How and why to use them.

I watched this video entitled Figma UI Design Tutorial: Get Started in Just 24 Minutes! (2021)

AJ&Smart (2020) Figma UI Design Tutorial: Get Started in Just 24 Minutes! (2021). 8 Dec 2020. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTFaQWZBqQ8 (Accessed: 11/10/21).

 

Task: to research and collect evidence of grid systems to use as reference for your project.

I have looked in the library at some magazines, books and newspaper to look at and analyse grid systems used.

The grids used in publications are obvious when you learn about them but I can’t remember noticing them before. This means that they work well and integrate into the design well and allow for an easy read.

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I find the layout in Bookforum simple yet effective. It shows that using three columns and text can still work well and be effective.

In the examples above and below, white space is utilised and full bleed images, yet the text is still in alignment and the use of grid is evident

I really enjoyed looking at the physical publications in the library, rather than looking at layouts online. As a result of this task I will use the library as an import resource when not only researching information but for visual inspiration as well.

Guildhall Art Gallery

On Saturday I went to Guildhall Gallery with my friend. While I was waiting at bank tube station I saw this building that I really liked the architecture of. What interests me is the detail that was carved into the top of each pillar for decorative purposes as well as the patterned borders that decorate the writing.

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The museum had several interesting exhibitions, we looked at the Victorian paintings, modern art and the Roman.

I noted the graphic design that was used as part of the exhibition, such as the design of the copy about each section, which includes type choice, layout and a stylised illustration.

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I really liked the artwork by Mark Titchner (b.1973) entitled ‘Plenty and Progress’ made in 2012. It was made from polished stainless steel, fittings, acrylic spray paint and lacquer. The reflective quality of the material used adds something unique to the piece and the overlay of type is done in a really interesting way.

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I like the graphic quality of this painting called ‘Good form and Nice style’ 2003 by Joanna Price as it uses only one colour and has a great use of white space.

I particularly enjoyed the modern paintings as they capture moments in a different way to photographs. I was struck by seeing a painting from this time of something I see in everyday life as it subverts the norm of seeing paintings of old scenes. When walking around St Paul’s Cathedral after the museum we noted that we were where the painting was set, which I found very exciting!

Walking around I saw these large words dotted around the area, which spelt out a sentence. I think it’s a really good way to engage members of the public in art and design as I heard people around me saying all the words they saw and making a sentence out of it. I also like the physical aspect of the word (rather than being put in front of real life in photoshop). 

When starting a document:

• Add 6 columns – easier placement on a grid 

• 12pt gutter (space between the columns) 

• 24pt margin 

• bleed: the amount an image bleeds off the edge of the paper  

Set up:

• Essentials- typography 

Tips:

• Shift and command, keep in proportion 

• Eye drop- take a swatch of different type design 

• Text edit – make plain text (to remove colour and settings from text) 

• Link text columns: click red square (when there is overset text) and then put into into a different text column

In response to this workshop I created these 4 pages using a grid. I used place holder text and used different layouts to see the possibilities when making a document with InDesign.

V&A Museum

Fragmented Illuminations (2021) V&A Museum, London, Viewed: 16/10/21)

I went to the exhibition on Fragmented Illuminations in the Museum which looked at medieval and renaissance manuscript cuttings.

The books had jewel-like illuminations and were valued for their beauty and relevance to the history of painting.

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I really liked looking at this exhibition and seeing how intricate the artists made the letters how they combined letter forms with illustrations. I can definitely take inspiration from these manuscripts by choosing to take time and precision to create documents.

What did you learn in year 1 that helps inform your practice? 

In year 1 I was introduced to the design progress and got to know how I myself work at each stage. I learnt the importance of the beginning stages of a project as researching and experimenting can help shape a project. I also discovered my interest in moving type as my favourite project last year was making kinetic type in After Effects.

Questions:

• What sort of designer do you aspire to be? 
• Where do you want to work? 
• Who do you want to collaborate with?

Malcolm Galdwell 10,000 hours 

Can be completed with 20 hours a week over 10 years 

MISTAKES 

ARE 

GOOD

Questions to ask myself:

• What sort of designer do you aspire to be? 
• Where do you want to work? 
• Who do you want to collaborate with?
• What am I doing here? (think about the year ahead)
• Why graphic design?
• Why communication?
• Why art school?
• Why university?
• Do I think my idea connects and communicates?

www.designcouncil.org.uk

www.designeconomy.co.uk

Reporting absence:

www.moodle.arts.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=62363#section-2

• Aspire to integrate what you do away from college into the work you are making at Chelsea.

• Your work, interests and personal work can all be part of the same practice, your practice.

London is your resource 

No matter what project you do, it’s important to find something you care about in it

The submitted outcomes should be representative of you,

your work and developing design practice.

Mirror – look at yourself, what you do and what you want to do?

What do you like? What are you (not) interested in?

What inspires you? What do you want to do? 

Reflect on you 

A manifesto for yourself – This is me 

What are my ambitions for this year?

I want to spend more hours developing my practice and skills and to dedicate more of my time to surrounding myself with design. I agree with Malcolm Galdwell’s  10,000 hours and how it takes time, hard work and dedication to become an expert in a chosen field. I have chosen to study graphic design and therefore I would like to become an ‘expert’ and immerse myself in the space. 

Achievement is talent plus preparation.

The New Yorker (2012) Complexity and the Ten-Thousand-Hour Rule. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/complexity-and-the-ten-thousand-hour-rule(Accessed: 11/10/21).

Design is like a game of musical chairs. 

Make your own chair. 

Find your community.

Find your agency. 

What does your colourful story look like?

What are your values?

How to serve using graphic design and also good communication. 

Communication : enables us to develop relationships with others 

Artists to look at:

• Sue Webster (sculptures which make shadows of faces)

• Alice Neel (portraits)

Looking on the ‘Let’s be brief’ website I came across this interview with Vicky Simmon, the ‘Mean Mail’ founder.

Reference:

Ansel Neckles (not dated) Let’s Be Brief Attention: You’ve got Mean Mail Available at :https://www.letsbebrief.co.uk/vicky-simmons-mean-mail/  (Accessed: 30/9/21)

I like the tone of voice of these cards

Task: To create a poster with visual language and tone of voice that is appropriate to you and your practice.

I found reflecting on these questions a good starting point for my design.

I was on the tube and noticed this advertisement for The National Wedding Show. Just as the tube doors closed I took this picture to remind myself of one thing not to do when making large scale posters (especially those intended to be read far away). The one problem I have with the poster is that the words ‘The’ and ‘Show’ are outlined as opposed to filled in which the words ‘National Wedding’ are. This use of typeface means that the reader who reads from far away can only make out half of the information.

I drew this commission (for me) after having practiced all week drawing portraits again. It took me a while to find the style I was going to use. I found that leaving more white space on the face meant that the faces looked more life-like as the features would then be filled in by the viewers as opposed to more trying to shade them in, getting the lighting wrong and looking the likeness.

The British Museum

On Saturday I went to the British Museum. It was the second time I have been. After going with my younger brothers visiting London and having a quick scan of everything and then leaving to do something more ‘interesting’, I wanted to go back and read the information more purposefully. I decided to go to the section dedicated to Ancient Mesopotamia from 1500 to 600 BC.

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I was really interested in the writing on the tablets, which I saw in a display of the first library of the King Ashurbanipal. The language (The University of Cambridge, no date) has ‘come down to us in the “cuneiform” (i.e. wedge-shaped) script’ which was written onto predominantly clay tablets.

For me it reminded me that communication, in a written and picture form, has been an integral part of civilization and community in order to get across a message or information. This links to what I’m studying as it grants me a wider historical context of the ‘communication’ part of ‘graphic design communication’.

I also noticed that the murals designed to go on walls of palaces were designed to communicate a narrative to the audience, which is similar to some of the work I do.

Next time I go to a museum on Saturday I would like to take more photos and take note of different design elements incorporated in the museum.

Reference: The University of Cambridge (No date) Mesopotamian Languages . Available at: https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/about-us/mesopotamia/mesopotamia-history/mesopotamia-languages (Accessed: 4/8/21)