Newcastle College Final Show 2013

Its nice to finally have a little time to write up about the last few hectic months. We've all graduated from the FdA course now, and our final show was almost a month ago. Nevertheless, there was alot of work done that we're really proud of, so heres a rundown of what myself and the Final Show team got done through May and June.

Our first big job was to get the show noticed. Myself and Keano Ross (who took all of these photographs) created the branding for the show. Entitled LOOK, our theme was to take Graphic Designs core principles and represent them in a contemporary style. Therefore everything was black and white in its tone of voice and visual style, but still with a bit of personality!

Promotional invites were produced and sent out to agencies around the area, and we managed to leave some around Newcastle in places like The Tyneside Cinema and the Newcastle Arts Centre.

As a course we'd all chipped in to fund our show, but we still had to be resourceful with our budget. Two of the key things we wanted to produce for people coming to the show were Tote Bags and a Newspaper, showcasing our work. We spent a couple of days in the print department applying a vinyl design to the tote bags. Having to cut out and apply every element of the design by hand, I can assure you it was some effort to get the 150 bags printed let me tell you. But because of that, every bag was bespoke, which looked great.

Producing the newspaper was also another big challenge, but its something we're really proud of. We had less than 2 weeks to turn this 24 page publication around, and with the help of Newspaper Club we were able to just get it in on budget. The newspaper was full of Students work and Q&A's, giving an insight into themselves as people and potential employees. Seeing something which we had made be produced in bulk was a really cool thing. All 200 copies were handed out during the show.

The show itself ran from June 10-14, and the turnout was great. It was really reassuring to receive lots of positive comments and emails from professionals and the public that came down to have a look. It was also a great way to finish the two year course, working along with other students to produce an event like this.

Magazines & Books #1

I've been meaning to write about this subject for quite some time, because it's one area of design i'm particularly mad about. From since I can remember i've loved books, loved reading them, making them and buying them. Whilst books and print in general appear to be on the way out, I don't think its a thing that will ever completely die out. Well it better not.

Whilst I've been on this course, i've been slowly building up my own collection of design books. There is a ridiculous amount of design books out there, some are awful, some are incredibly pretentious, alot of them are ridiculously expensive, but theres a loads of great ones too. The same applies to magazines, and as a student, it's pretty difficult to regularly buy them without blowing your student loan.

I've realised recently the importance of looking further afield for inspiration. It's very easy these days just to look to design blogs for inspiration, particularly ones that are image heavy. Whilst these are a great sources to use, and easy to fit into a daily routine, I can't help but think it can be so restraining just to look to these sites. Its difficult to find true inspiration from these blogs, but rather you just end up copying what you see, even if its subliminal. I've done it and probably will do it many times, because its lazy. Rather, looking at photography, the natural world, paintings, architecture, whether in printed form or actually going to visit places, these are sources we can use to really push our creativity in Graphic Design.

Here's a range of magazines and books that I either own or have looked at whilst at Precept, my current work placement.

Mark Magazine

Mark magazine, first and foremost, is a very cool, contemporary looking magazine. It's content focuses on architecture and its place in society, looking at work from all over the world, and gives first hand information on its current state and what lies ahead for it. It also features alot of up and coming architects.

Weird and wonderful buildings make great pictures, so visually this magazine is always stunning. The layout is very engaging, you can either flick through it or pour over it's very readable content. It'll have a strong impact either way.

I'm not much of an expert on Architecture, but i've always been interested by it, particularly from a graphic perspective. I love just looking at the lines, and shapes found within buildings, whether they're old, new or refurbished, theres alot to be inspired by visually from architecture.

Aesthetica

This is a new magazine to me that I recently read whilst at Precept. It covers Art and Culture as a whole, but the issue i've looked at focussed mainly on photography. 

Retro and Vintage style stuff is kind of in vogue these days, ( but perhaps as its now so popular, its viewed as being a bit pants again) but this magazine's content particularly struck me with the realisation of just how incredible the technology and capabilities are now within photography. 

Michael Eastman's photography of shop interiors, exteriors and buildings in places like Havana and Paris are filled with so much texture, history and vivid colour. The flat subject matter of the images also has a very graphic element to it, which really appeals to me. Kevin Cooley's takes intense, moody images of America's suburbs at night, using light and colour to create images filled with detail and intrigue. They remind me of some of Hopper's work, the american painter, who also dealed with similar themes.

Theres so many very good photographers these days, and whilst everyone has a camera on them almost 24/7 these days, its particularly inspiring to look at the true professionals work, and see just what is capable these days.

Advertising For People Who Don't Like Advertising - Kesselskramer

I bought this book almost a year ago in a shop in Manchester. It appealed to me partly because of the title, which is exactly how I felt at the time, but also because it was by Kesselskramer, who had done a little work with Anthony Burrill, a Graphic Designer I was particularly inspired by then, and still am now.

You could read the book in a day if you wanted too, its chapters are short, concise and filled with comments and thoughts from prominent people in advertising and design.

It gives a very candid, straightforward evaluation of advertising, why alot of people hate it, why it can be incredibly awful and cliched, and more importantly why it doesn't have to be this way. It really made me think again about advertising, for the better. I should probably read it again.

Type Matters - By Jim Williams

Typography is a bit of an art form. You can't just 'do it' properly, off the cuff. Because of that, its often a very pretentious, snotty subject, which can be particularly frustrating for anyone enthusiastic about it, but also a bit clueless, like myself.

Step forward Jim Williams, and his book 'Type Matters'. Its a short, concise book on Typography, what it is and how it works. Its not just a book for designers and students, but for anyone that cares enough about how their school report looks or even their shopping list. It's full of clear diagrams and illustrations, and really helps you to learn the basics, without a snotty remark in sight. I should probably read this again too.

Inspiration #3

For this post of thing that have inspired me, I've decided to look at Agencies and freelance designers work that I particularly admire and that influence my work. I wouldn't mind working at these places, or along with these people, basically.

Hey 

The Hey Studio is found in Barcelona, and a small company, who work on a number of personal projects along with their commercial work. This means they're really trying to create alot of fresh, innovative work, but they also care just as much about the clients they work with. Their portfolio is consistently excellent, and they've produced a wide range of work from branding through to printed pieces and sets of illustrations. There work is filled with bright vibrant colours, and they love to work with geometry also.

Spin

Spin are one of the best design agencies in this country, producing a huge amount of successful branding, web design and print work for some big, innovative clients. There work is always clean, on trend and visually arresting.

Below: Channel 4 Dispatches, Michael Evamy's 'Logo', 'Herb Lubalin' Unit Editions & V&A print work.

Two Times Elliott

Based in Notting Hill, Two Times Elliott are producing lots of interesting multi disciplined work, and have received quite alot of attention from Design blogs this year. There work again is very minimal orientated, sometimes using alot of photography alongside clean layouts particularly in their print work, or by just using alot of whitespace accompanied by beautiful typography.

 

 

Final Show 2013

I'm almost at the end of my second year at College, which means that the final show is just around the corner too. The final show gives us all the opportunity for the whole Mandela Building to showcase the work thats been produced over the last academic year. The exhibit runs from June 10-15.

For the final show to go ahead, there has to be a team to get everything sorted and looking top notch, and i'm part of that team for this years final show. We're a team of 7 and my job is to help with the branding of the final show, which is a really exciting thing to be part of.

We met up a couple of weeks ago to discuss the show's 'theme', the concept we have decided upon is 'Black & White'.

"The purpose of Graphic Design is to communicate and inform. It is not ambiguous. It is black and white."

We also felt there were a number of connotations we could play on around 'Black & White'.

We've began working on initial visual ideas for the branding of the event as well. Our goal is to let the work on display have all of the focus, but our branding will quietly flow nicely throughout the exhibit. Our visual style is also going to be used for the overall advertising of the building's exhibit, so we need to get the posters and leaflets made within the next week or so. Exciting times!

Penguin Book Cover Revisited

In order to get my website and portfolio up to scratch and ready for submission, I had to go back to a few old projects. I actually really enjoyed this process, as it was a great opportunity to see and evaluate how i've improved over the last year or so.

One of my favourite projects from my first year at college was my Penguin Book Cover for Ken Kesey's novel, 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'. My rationale behind my original design was to work with the themes of medication, control and rebellion. I represented this with a clean, structured graphic approach, reflective of Penguin’s book covers of the 1960’s, when the novel was written.

Upon going back to this work, I realised there were lots of areas for improvement. I felt I could improve the colours, going for brighter hues. The layout of the illustration, although at the time had real thinking behind it, wasn't particularly well executed. Instead of trying to improve that layout, I changed it completely, adding more pills and making it look like they'd been spilled onto a table. In terms of structuring the layout, I looked at some classic Penguin book cover sleeves from the era the novel was written, and I tried to recreate that with how I structured the copy. I feel I really managed to clean up the layout, and I think the overall cover now flows very well.

My Website

My Printed Portfolio hand in is on Tuesday. So because of that, i've been trying to put the finishing touches to my website. I've developed it on Cargo Collective, which has been a great platform with which to create a really clean website. 

This week i've been fortunate enough to have a couple of kind of friends to photograph some of my work for my, so it looks that little bit more slick from a professional stand point. 

Hopefully the website reflects my own visual approach well. The main aim was to make the content imagery the key focal point of the site, so that nothing distracted from it, hence the minimal layout. I've also began designing the printed version of my portfolio this week, which has been a surprisingly difficult task. It's quite difficult to create a consistent theme throughout a portfolio, whilst also making sure that again, the work is the sole focus point.

I also have a CV now which you can access and download on the right hand side of my blog.

www.samuelpetyt.co.uk

D&AD Student Awards: Student Poster, Thing

My latest project was my first crack at a D&AD Awards brief. I really wanted to push myself with this one, particularly with the view to entering, and because of that I initially struggled to pick a brief. There were too many interesting ones! However, I settled on the slightly safe option of the It's Nice That brief under the Graphic Design bracket. However, as I was the primary source of research for the brief, I knew I could make something worthwhile. The brief was:

It’s Nice That’s audience has developed dramatically over the past few years – reaching everyone from freshers to creative directors. However, students have always been an integral part of the organisation’s DNA, and It’s Nice That now want new and exciting ways to stay engaged with their original audience.

This project gave me the opportunity to look back at my College studies, and identify what would appeal to students, specifically, what were they missing? One particular area immediately popped out. Graphic Design is a huge subject today, and it can be particularly difficult to cram it all into a couple of years. This has often meant, I feel, that important areas of design theory have been overlooked. Courses are so focused on getting students ready for the workplace, teaching them digital skills, explaining ways to structure projects. However, the theory behind why things are the way they are, is often brushed to one side. It has been touched on, but could we name who name who first used the grid system? Or who created Pantone? Or why does font sizes go up in 'Points'? 

Therefore, my idea was to produce a piece of free print, that would be made available to students that would cover areas of critical areas of design that are often overlooked, or may just appear downright boring. The 'theories' and history explained within would then be displayed in-situ today, showing modern, cutting edge design work that displays all those boring pieces of theory invented long ago. I felt it was particularly important to give evidence that all this 'boring stuff' was so vitally important today.

The idea would be produced in two formats. One would be a double side leaflet that folds out into a poster. The other format would be a Phone App that would compliment the printed version, giving additional sources to pieces of great graphic design, as well as biographies and blog links to work that relates to the editions theme.

Examples of my research into style and functionality

Because it was a subject that I was particularly interested in, the research process was very exciting. Obviously I had to try and make the leaflet on trend stylistically, but it also had to be functional and engaging for the reader. I explore a number of areas but decided upon the concept of a small leaflet folding out into a poster.

I then began to draft out how the leaflet would look, working with grids first on paper, then in InDesign. It was quite a long process. As i'm not particularly experienced in editorial design, nor do I really know the principles that well (ironically) there was alot of changing back and forth. In many ways however, I was pleased that it was a project that I was so enthusiastic about, that was a basis for this experimentation.

I also created a set of illustrations to run through the leaflet. After recently working on my illustration skills in Illustrator, I felt quite confident about creating these, and I was very happy with the outcomes of these clean illustrations.

Stylistically, I tried to keep it very clean and simple, but I also tried to push myself where I could with the composition of text. I added small pieces of information  to the composition such as paper dimensions which added to the on trend styling. I struggled with applying imagery to the written content side of the leaflet, and i'm disappointed with that. Designing the poster side of the leaflet was a far swifter process as I was able to be more expressive with the images of work I used, and create an interesting, fresh layout.  I regularly printed out prototypes to gauge the size of the copy and the layout also.

I then began creating the digital app mock ups to go with the leaflet. I again carried out brief initial ideas of how I envisioned the app looking. Again, it would follow the same visual guidelines as the leaflet, and keeping simple, clean and colourful were key areas to consider. I'm very pleased with how the app looked, as It was my first effort at such a piece of design. Key areas I encountered were thinking about how big the copy needed to be, as well as how big buttons would be, as well as keeping the overall interface balanced, so that content was the key focus.

 

My main disappointment with the brief was the printing process. Initially, the idea was to print the leaflet in A2, which in hindsight was far to big, however the printing process needed to create a double side A2 piece of print were hard to come by, and very costly. Therefore I had to redesign the leaflet for A3. I also struggled with the weight of stock. The stock had to be thick enough to not bleed through when printed on both sides, whilst also being thin enough to fold several times. I only had laser and inkjet papers at my disposal, which made for a less than satisfying finish, however, with better suited professional stocks, I would have found a satisfactory weight to use.

A photographer at my work placement, James, kindly helped photograph the print work for submission to D&AD which was a great help. Overall, I was happy with the project as a whole. I felt very happy with the concept, and in reflection, that was probably the strongest area. I probably would have looked again with the way the leaflet folded, particularly when it was in A3, but I feel that I have definitely improved my editorial skills, and feel more confident at attempting more complex pieces of layout work.

Future Plans

As my time on the FdA course is coming to an end, my future plans have become ever more pressing an issue. Of course, i've had to start putting a number of plans in place so i've got all the basis covered. I'm not one for focusing on one route and sticking to it, I like to have back up plans. Because of this, i've looked at all my options and there are three routes that currently have place. 

1. Get a Job at an Agency

I've been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work at a design agency, and fit my time there around my College Studies. Precept have given me the opportunity to acquire bags of experience, which hasn't just prepared me for working full time, but its also helped to take my college work to the next level. I've been surrounded by people with a wide range of skills, and its been so beneficial to watch them work, be inspired by them and listen to what they have to say about their experiences in the industry and their future goals. Working regular on areas of projects has helped me to gain a valuable insight into working in the industry, from meeting clients, to pitching ideas and meeting tight deadlines. I've learnt that its rarely an easy, or straightforward lifestyle, but it has many rewards.

My time at Precept has helped me to realise that getting myself a place in a design agency is my ideal next step. I took a year out of education after Sixth Form, and now after completing this course I feel ready to get back into full time work.

2. Work Freelance

This is probably the scariest option of the three currently available to me. Freelance work can be an incredibly successful career path, but it can also be filled with many pitfalls. Whilst i'm not so worried about the financial side of working for myself, finding worthwhile work and having the confidence in my own abilities to liase and pitch ideas successfully with clients does frighten me a little. Without work I simply won't earn money, and to find work I need contacts.

That is the key stumbling block for me. I currently believe that in order to make a success of going freelance, I need to have a good few years experience under my belt, and the contacts required to make a natural transition into freelance. I don't believe I can do this without working at an agency first. 

Of course, freelance is an option for me to do on the side of a full time, or part time job I may acquire in the design industry or elsewhere, but having it as my primary source of income, currently, feels like a big risk.

3. Stay in Higher Education

My final option is currently my back up plan. That isn't to say its an option i'm not taking seriously, or i'm not enthusiastic about, on the contrary in fact, but I do prefer to find myself some full time work.

The option i've taken to stay in education, is for me to do a third year top up at Newcastle College, studying a Creative Practice top up. This year would hopefully be spent mainly on work placement, and my dissertation would fit around that. My UCAS application has been processed and I have had a conditional offer on this course, providing I pass my third year.

The interview for the third year gave me the opportunity to present my portfolio to one of the course leaders. The portfolio i'm referring to is the brochure I produced and wrote about a few weeks ago. It was a valuable experience to sit down with someone and go through the work I had produced, not just because I was showing it someone, but it was interesting just to reflect upon what i'd produced myself. The interviewer asked a number of provoking questions, some of which I wasn't expecting, which gave me the chance to think more about what I want to do in the future.

Long Term Aspirations

As far as looking long term, I'd love to be able to run my own small agency. Whether that is based locally in Blyth, Newcastle, or further afield, i'm not yet sure. But being able to work for myself, probably along with a couple of others, is something i'd love to be able to do. However I know that just isn't a realistic option at present. 

I still feel I have alot of mistakes to make, and having experienced people around me, will help me to come back from these mistakes more successfully. I want to learn from people with bags of experience as well, and I can't do that if I'm just working for myself. 

Portfolio Development #2

I've been working on a number of areas over the last three weeks to get my portfolio ready for submission and also with the final show in view. The main area i've been concentrating on is my own branding. This has involved website development, a printed portfolio as well as a logo and business card. Whilst it is all still in development, this is at least an idea of where I am.

Today I received a first draft of my Portfolio book that i'm going to use for my final show. I decided it would be useful to create one firstly for a College interview coming up, which gave me the opportunity to try out the online printing company Blurb. In order to get it printed and at my door in time, I realised I had only a day to produce it, so I deliberately kept it basic. I'm pretty pleased with the initial concept, and i'll improve it for the final show, using better stock, and creating a bound book rather than a basic saddle stitched brochure, as used this time.

I've also been working on my website, via the publishing platform Cargo Collective. The platform allows me to customise one of their 40 or so initial themes, and i've been able to edit and develop the site from there. CSS and HTML don't come naturally to me, so i've spent many an hour staring a screen wishing my life away. But with persistence, a little online help as well as some sound advice from Dan at work, i've started to get my website into shape, and i'll be finished for my final show.

Finally i've been trying to create some kind of identity for myself. I believe that as a designer, its not really that essential to have a particular logo of sorts. More than anything, its difficult to find something that you really think represents YOU as a designer. It's a job you might never be happy with. Currently, as you can see i'm using that diamond logo, whether it stays i'm not so sure. But it's lasted longer than most ideas have done.

Precept Placement

I've been on work placement at Precept for almost a year now. Its been an invaluable source of experience for me, particularly with it running alongside my studies. There have been a wide range of projects that I have been able to work on, and this has helped to significantly broaden my skill sets and understanding of working in a professional environment.

Precept regularly recruit interns and work placements, from a range of backgrounds such as design, illustration, copywriting and film and animation work. Working alongside peers from different backgrounds has really been an excellent source of inspiration to me, particularly with regard to learning a little about what they do, as well as being able to work alongside them in projects, allowing us all to create a level of work that we didn't think we'd be able to do so early in our careers. 

In this blog i've already gone into a little detail on the projects Precept have organised in conjunction with their   project shift, an ideas lab that promotes collaboration amongst professionals and students from all backgrounds. Here is an overview of the work i've done primarily at Precept over the last few months.

Shift

Whilst i've already talked about what Shift is and how i've helped with their events, I haven't yet shown the design side of things that I have done their. For example, after developing brand ideas, we started to look at how the website would look for Shift. As shift was an in house project, we didn't follow as strict time plans as we would with an outside client. Therefore there was periods when Shift's purpose and identity changed and adapted as we started to greater understand its position within the business and in the creative community. 

However, I still had a go at developing web visuals for the site. We knew the importance of functionality, as well as creating a site that would be visually appealing and exciting to students. We drew initial inspiration from websites such as Wolf Ollins and I was able to develop my use of grid systems in Photoshop to create mock ups that I believe were functional and attractive, and went some way to informing the actual Shift site that was create 4 months later.

For Shifts first event 'Open For Business', I developed a typeface alongside another intern Kieran. We looked at Shifts core goals and values of collaboration and innovation, and created a graphic representation of that, using a range of abstract lines to construct letterforms. The typeface was used throughout the printed and online material to promote the event and in the event itself.

Following on from that same visual style, we wanted to create an object for the event that visually explained what we were talking about when we meant 'collaboration'. Therefore Shift and a local bespoke furniture manufacturer Raskl developed a 3D tetrahedric heart using wooden rods and plastic connectors. We thought this was the perfect way to show how collaboration can be used to create really exciting things. The heart also linked with Precept's slogan #Lovewhatyoudo.

Viveras


Viveras enables Erasmus students to make the most of their year abroad by providing them with a user friendly, versatile platform. Users can connect and socialise with other Erasmus students and find out about their destination, explore and discover the latest hotspots and share their own tips and reviews.

This has been the largest project that I've worked on during my time at Precept. The client needed a large website, and phone app designed and built for them, as well as a brand identity and tone of voice. My key roles in this brief were to help develop a brand identity for Viveras.

One of the key things that impressed me about this project was the attention to detailed involved. With it being a fairly large client, there was the budget available to incredibly thorough with regards to research and evaluation of current competitors and what Viveras stood for. This laid the ground work for the rest of the project.

 

Above are some of my first initial sketches that I drew along with two others at Precept. We needed to create three possible routes to show to the clients for their next meeting, so at first we all worked together to generate some ideas. The initial ideas we played around with were how to use the ‘V’ intelligently in some way, along with using a globe , a pin on a map, and other ways we could get across the ideas of travel.

The ideas process was quite intensive. We worked hard to develop three strong routes, each giving a different, but strong message about the viveras brand. I particularly enjoyed being able to fully develop a route, as shown below. It was really beneficial to me to work very closely alongside the whole Precept team to develop my own route, as well as help with the other two. Once we'd created three logos, we then also created mock ups of our identities in situ for the client.

Since then, a brand identity was chosen and a website was built in house. With the website being built in house it was really interesting to look at the quantity of coding and effort needed to create a website such as this. With the site functioning like a social network, there were a huge range of things to consider from functionality, through to security and the tone of voice needed to make the site come together.

You can view the finished Viveras site here.

Shoreline

Shoreline is the project that I am currently working on at Precept. This is the first project that I have been given complete control over design side of things. Shoreline are a local North East brand that require a form of brand identity created for themselves that includes marketing materials as well as an art direction for their album art and live performances.

Following on from the Viveras brief, and other smaller branding briefs I have helped out with, I now have a much clearer understanding of how Precept operates with regards to the design process. Therefore I've found the research and design process to be pretty straightforward and an enjoyable experience to be able to do independently. I developed three visual routes based on the themes of 'Adventure', 'Atmosphere' and 'Precision. 

To represent the routes in situ, I created mock ups of album covers, merchandise and supplied images of how the style could translate to their live performances. The band decided that using both routes 2 and 3 would be their favoured concepts (I do not own the images used in my mock ups, and were used only to showcase visual ideas). Because branding a band is a little different to a commercial company for example, merging routes together is a far more straightforward process, because to some extent, their can be that air of ambiguity about a bands visual image, which is completely the opposite for a business, which needs to be clear and direct.

Since the band have chosen their desired route, I've been developing the route with the help of another Intern at Precept, Alex. Working with her has helped me to develop another skill, Art Direction. Its quite fulfilling to give direction to someone else and see your ideas come to life, particularly in a way that i'm not able to do myself. I also intend to work with a photographer to develop album art in the near future.

Reflection

My time at Precept has been, and continues to be a really important step for on my journey into the professional world of design. Whilst not all agencies are the same, i've learnt some much just from talking to the team at Precept. Things like asking them about their design education, their interests and inspirations, learning digital skills constantly and understanding what agencies are looking for when recruiting new members has been incredibly useful.