Portfolio Building.

Well I just handed in for my second last deadline, the module was to build up your porfolio and hand it in the be marked. I chose to brand myself and to do some branding for a company called Mahas Classics by Saira.

Firstly I branded myself I decided not to call it after me and came up with a name to represent me which was Itty Bitty Designs. I did this as I went around to a group of friends and asked what they thought of me when they seen or spoke to me and they came up with me being short. I did research into some nicknames and came up with logo design.

My second project was the Mahas one which was for a pakistani clothing company, we had to design a new logo, stationary and a flyer for the owners fashion show, this is my first proper advertising piece I think it came out pretty well, After doing a good bit research in to pakistani fashion and traditions I came up with a henna tattoo idea. Here are my final pieces.

Hope you like them!!

 To produce my final piece I spent a day doing a page of henna patterns this is the original drawing!!

End of an Era (Nearly)

Well we have gotten a new module which has made me realise that its all coming to an end  (SOON)
this module is basically to build our portfolios we have to pick a few different live briefs by ourselves and work on them to build our porfolios up for what we are doing after this weather its to go into the big bad world alone or do what I have done and do the top up year.

...Which I have realised I have not blogged about so I will give you a brief update on that...
BASICALLY
I have applied at a few places to do a top up year which will either allow me to spread my wings a bit and see what is going on at different universities or just allow me to do another year where I am and help me further my experience and give me that extra bit confidence I need to get into the working world of a creative!!

So at the minute I will be working on both interviews and topping up my portfolio for them also any future placements that may come along!!

I'll keep you up to date though!!
Thanks for reading :)

BIG APPLE!!

I. LOVED. NEW. YORK. !!!!

I had an amazing, AMAZING time.

We got there and the first night just walked around like starstruck kids it was just so shocking everything was just like WOW.   Had some food and got some sleep (slept like a baby with the jet lag)
Woke up the next day at like 6AM and bought our first starbucks which was even an experience!!
(They spelled my name wrong but was so tasty)

Anyways that day was the day we visited two agencies, and took the scenic root getting there it was such a sunny day and we just got too walk all around new york spotting different people and things!! 

The agencies we went to were ...

AND

We went to Pearlfisher were a really great group and gave us a wonderful presentation and showed us a lot of the work they were involved in.

One being the rebrand of the packaging of the Starbucks coffee beans that you can buy to take home for yourself.  They went for a shiny look with different images to distinguish the different roasts you can get for example the dark espresso roast they have an image of two espresso shots for good reason but say the dark italian roast has a image of a moped on which has nothing to do with coffee but mopeds are very famous for being used in cities in italy!! I have put the pearlfisher rebrand images, if you just go through and take a look at the name of the roast and the image used you will see the cleverness behind this idea.  

Another piece they showed us was for Go Macro which I really enjoyed hearing about as it had a story behind it, the story was about a really ill lady who had to eat all this healthy bland stuff and one day decided she would make her own treats which stuck to her healthy regime but tasted good as well, and that was how go macro was born, Pearlfisher rebranded for the company and did a fantastic job doing so I love how they came from such a simple story and are healthy and not what a lot of people would think of buying but pearlfisher have made it look delicious and will make people want to buy it, they have took the flavours of each bar and made a collage of healthy looking/ natural looking small images into one giant image of the ingredients in the bar. I am a massive fan of this rebrand and would definitely want to buy this if I walked past it in a shop. 

After pearl fisher we went to Droga5 which was a lot of fun as they were just as interested in meeting us as they do the branding for the famous drink Newcastle Brown Ale which come from the place we came from and were interested to hear our thoughts on the drink and what its like at its hometown I suppose.

Over there they call it Newcastle which is pretty bizarre as in Newcastle they call it Brown Ale (A few people asked me if I was from the place Newcastle was from (meaning the drink) which to me was quite funny) 

But anyways back to the rebrand they have this massive campaign running for Brown Ale

They called it the No Bollocks campaign which is basically taking the mick out of other lagers such as stella where there is a gorgeous man or woman in the countryside of some really hot country explaining where it came from etc... and are basically saying people drink it because they enjoy and/or want to get drunk after a hard week at work.

Here is one of their posters which says "Who uses the word chalice?" which is interestingly placed underneath a certain brand thats whole campaign revolves around there drink being drank in not a glass but a chalice.  

This is another campaign they do, a bar light which says "A $400 sign to get you to buy a $6 beer", a lot of people will be thinking do they want people to buy it but I agree they aren't just giving a load of bull to there target audience they're actually being really truthful which is actually a refreshing change and I think a lot of people will connect with that. 

 I enjoyed both of the companies we went to see in a lot of different ways I enjoyed the variety of work that Pearlfisher has to show us but I also enjoyed the depth we went into at Droga5 and how they found it exciting to meet us as we did them.

Unfortunately we were meant to visit another agency McCann which couldn't do it but I am sure they would have added a lot more interesting work to the day.

The next couple of days we sort of did our own thing and just went sight seeing and ATE a lot haha food was amazing but anything but healthy haha!! Got interviewed by fuse news which was interesting haha.   It was such an amazing wonderful trip minus a few hiccups with luggage, but certainly one of a lifetime and I really really hope I get to visit again soon!!    

Thank you to Neil who organised it and to everyone who came, also to Pearlfisher and Droga5 for seeing all us!! 

Heres a few pictures of the trip enjoy!! 

 On the plane..

 Our Hotel

 The New Year Ball!!

 Top of the Rock View - Notice the empire state right there!!

 Empire State Building (SUN)

 The Group!!

 View from the Empire State Building!!

 Street Art (Made with Powders)

 At the top of the Empire State Building (It was REALLY Windy)

 Binocular Thing!! 

 Our New York Street!!

 Times Square

Droga5's Bar Notice all the Brown Ale stuff!!

I have more pictures but not really to do with my blog but thought a few would be a nice little taste of how my trip to the big apple was. 

Thanks for reading.

Type Soon!! 

Sorry been gone for a while!!

Hello I apologies it's been awhile since I have blogged its been a bit hectic really.

For the past few weeks we have been doing digital skills and documenting it which I have just handed in.
The module was basically to do the task given in our digital skills lessons and annotate it to show the skills which were learned it doing the module.

I am a little worried as I have got a little behind with this and do not think I put the effort I could have.

But I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

Anyways I am off for a while now we have a week of for assessment week then half term and then...
NEW YORK BABY!!

I will be her with a full report afterwards!!

Thanks for reading as always.

Essay - - CHECK!!

I finished my essay!!

I am quite proud of it actually I did use my 300 word leeway I was given but apart from that I actually got very into it.

I am not sure if it was any good yet but I did put my heart into it which I am proud of myself for.

I am not going to uploads my WHOLE essay to show you but I will upload the way I started it as I said in the last blog thats my big struggle!! 

HERE GOES NOTHING...

Augmented reality gives us the feeling of being computer generated it allows us to be within the graphics as time goes by it is allowing us to not only be in gaming its allowing us to be in all fields of design including advertisement.

Well thats it for now.

Thanks for reading Bye :) 

Its that time of year again!!

We're back to the dreaded module for us creatives.. well me.. ESSAYS!!

Its not that I hate writing them its starting them once I am started its a one or two day job but starting it has took me ages and picking a subject at that. 

We have had this module a little while and I have sat down for an hour at a time and thought of different subjects and just STARED at the computer screen thinking how do I start this...Seriously!!

I have finally chosen my subject which I am FOR DEFINITE writing about and that is... (drum roll)

AUGMENTED REALITY!!

I will talk about: 

the past

the present 

the future

and how it comes together it advertising and branding companies!!

Now I just need to start it which is were it all becomes a struggle for me!!

Wish Me Luck!! 

 

OH I WISH YOU IT COULD BE CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY!!

As I am currently off for Christmas holidays I thought I'd just let you onto some good news which I forgot to mention in past blogs which is...

A TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY!! 

I am so excited that our course are planning a trip and me and a friend Gordon decided to save up and go!!

Its not till March which is such a wait but its my first time there and it's going to be A...MAZINGGGG!!

I will obviously blog you about it once its over and done with and tell you about all the exciting stuff we get up too but for now its just a waiting game!!

As you all know its only 3 more sleeps till the big guy in red come so I just would like to say...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too you all!!

Enjoy!!

 

DON'T WANNA TOOT MY OWN HORN!!

Hi, I am in a very good mood and I hope you guys are too!!

I have finished my project I spoke about and I am really proud of it actually!!  (NOT TO TOOT MY OWN HORN)

HERE THEY ARE...

I went with "The Liquid Alarm" for the name I thought it was a little bit weird, a little bit unusual and different which I like from a company, I like a place to intrigue me, which drives me to go somewhere so I thought this name came from my interests and hopefully would interest others also.

My logo is pretty simple to work out I have basically combined the two key factors the fact its a cafe and the  word alarm, I did this by merging together a coffee/tea pot and an alarm clock together to get the silhouette.   I added these two colours as they're warm and comforting as well as a little bit of a strange combination and clash slightly, which comes together with the quirkiness of the name.

My contact card the front of it is very plain just the logo on a white background. For the back I used the teal/green colour from the logo for the background colour and had a very simple image of a cup of coffee which I think pairs well with the coffee pot of the front within the coffee cup is the details of the cafe and how you can get in touch with the company.

This instantly sprung a great idea for my loyalty cards which would come with your purchase the front would be exactly the same as the contact card...

BUT the back is spout from pot of the logo, which on the original has one drop coming from it, this time there would be four which at the end would drip into the coffee cup from the contact card, the drops represents the four coffee's you have two buy and the coffee cup represents what you get free at the end.

I have definitely put a lot into this project and I hope it shows my love for branding and corporate identity.

I hope you all love it and would love to hear some feedback thanks!!

Speak Soon!!

MOTIVATION!!

Hi.

I am very excited about this project I have done my research into logo's and cafe's etc..

and now I am at the point of starting my logo and thinking of NAMES!!

Which I am enjoying I like to try and be really clever with stuff like this.

My plan is to go with something completely simple and cool OR something clever and quirky so I am just writing this quick post show you the pages I have for my project with a few of them names :)

Enjoy, Type Soon!!

SWOT!!

Hey Everyone
I have a new module on the go at the minute and it has a lot of freedom to it which I love, I love choosing my own brief it calms me a bit which is good,  we got given a lot of different live briefs to choose from and I have chosen to go with a company called Hippo.   They basically told us to imagine that a person said "I am opening a cafe in the area and I want you to choose the name and totally brand it"  
I loved this as all the other briefs were like companies with names and a full list of things they wanted, do's and don'ts you know which all my projects usually have, this was total freedom and totally mine apart from the fact it was a cafe which I do not mind at all.

For this project we had to create a S.W.O.T Analysis which allows me to write down my Strengths,  Weakness', Opportunities and Threats at first I will admit I thought oh god as I am not good at describing myself but in the long run I think it will help a lot so heres a copy of it which I wrote down for my project.

I'll be back in touch once I get more into the module!!

See you soon

Merry Christmas Fortnum and Mason.

Hello!!

I know your thinking Merry Christmas bit early it's only November.

But I thought it was appropriate with my current module.

My last post was me basically telling you about how my new module was allowing me to try something new.

It was really good for me but at the same time tested me and was challenging.

I researched and I wanted to modernise F&M and add a splash of colour to them so I did a few colour texts on their original wicker hampers they send out to people.

I looked at the site a lot and noticed there Christmas Hamper was there most elegant to me and would be the one I would splash out on if I ever was able to buy one of them. But for a younger generation could be a bit more fun!!

So I came up with this!!

A basic run through it that,
The wicker basket would be there traditional shape however would be red with a christmas pattern on with a basic brown lid, it would be lined with black silk for a luxurious feel and would have all the products inside with a separate packaging a brown colour box, packet,or label with an image relating to christmas in a silhouette using the pattern on the wicker basket, on top of the separate products would be a handwritten scroll from the company basically thanking them for buying the products and wishing them a Merry Christmas, this would give a personal feel to the product and allow customers to feel warm and happy for the purchase.  A lot of people might disagree with this idea, but my idea was to appeal to a younger range of people as well as their traditional audience.

I hope you all love it and if you don't I would love some advice on how it could have been improved??

Thanks Everyone.
(Image Below of finished piece)

Welcome Back!!

Hello World.

Firstly I would like to apologies, not been blogging over the summer been a busy bee working a lot and generally enjoying the time off.

But now back to the serious stuff...this is the start of my second year and I have received my first brief which is really interesting as this time its packaging design which is not my usual thing but its always nice to try something new, we got to choose a company to design for and I have chosen Fortnum and Mason which is a high end, really classy food/gift company I will post the website so you guys can check them out and there products to get more of a feel for them.

http://www.fortnumandmason.com/

I am currently getting on with that I apologies this is a pretty short blog but I am sure I will have more to say once I get stuck in to the situation and I will keep in touch and make sure you know what's going on.

Hope everyone had a lovely summer and its nice to be back 

Type to you soon :) 

Done and Dusted

Well I have finished my four final logos and got them mocked up onto a google website setting.


Here they are and I hope you love them: 


Autumn - The idea with this is pretty simple, autumn is one of my favorite seasons and it is most famous for the colors and how the trees change. Basically I have made a image on the computer showing the stage of the leaves falling from the tree with the left over leaves spelling out the google logo.

 Summer - I went for a more cartoon feel for summer. Summer is a very colorful bright time and I thought the best ways to bring out them colors would to be in cartoon and also summer is when all the children are of school and it will relate a lot to them. What I have done hjas taken little aspects of summer and placed them carefully to spell Google. G - Swimming Pool, O - BBQ, O - Beach Ball, G - Sunflower, L - Ice Lolly and E - A sail boat.

Spring -  This was one of my most simple ideas but also one of my favorites, when I think of spring I automatically think of bumble bees and daffodils so I took both of them aspects straight into the logo, but how was I going to get the typography into those aspects, I wasn't I basically just did a small dotted line showing the bees track to the daffodils to get the pollen in the shape of the google font.

Winter - This idea was inspired by my research of passed google logos and was my first initial idea. The idea is that the word Google is a cloud and the cloud gets more and more blurred to the point where the snow is coming out of it. I played around with it being a nights sky first and it looked to much. I decided to make the O the sun behind the cold clouds to give it more of a weather feel.

Well what did you think?


I really enjoyed doing this project and got really into it, I hope my logos do it justice.


Well that is my first year over and done with. I will try and keep blogging and updating you on my interests and pieces of work I love.


See you in September NCL College :) xx

C.Y.O.B

C.Y.O.B - Create your own brief.


I was saying in my last blog I was going to create a brief for my final project, I also said I was thinking about going down the rebranding route. 


Well thats what I did... I racked my brain thinking of logos I really HATE and thought immedeatly of Google. I use Google a lot in my life and the logo is really ugly and boring so I though REBRAND. However Google is a very famous and well known brand so I did not want to change it completely, the company is known for there colorful logo. 
So I came up with... Google Seasons.
The plan is to rebrand Google for 2013 and create four different unique logos that will run through out the seasons. There will be a logo for, Summer, Autumn, Spring and Winter so you will never see the usual logo ever throughout that year. The only exceptions to this will be famous dates through out the year which will carry on to have a logo made for them dates.

I will look at some past famous logos and take inspiration from them and see how far I can go with this. 


BEST GET ON WITH IT THEN.


I will be back with my final logos :) 


BLOG SOON xx

I actually COMPLETED an essay!! :D

I have just handed in my essay which I am very proud of, not sure its gonna make sense to the people marking it but the fact I researched and actually took a lot of interest in it is good enough for me. (but I am hoping for a good mark as well, that would be nice too)

The question I chose to do was: 

Examine the way in which graphic designers (a minimum of two) have explored environmental issues in their work – what is their approach to materials, print and production, how is technology changing the format / aesthetic of graphic design? 

This question interested me a lot because eco friendly packaging is becoming more and more popular and is very stylish when done correct.

In my essay I show examples of eco friendly designs and designers.

My biggest interest was in Eduardo del Fraile - I loved his style of work and how just because he was making his designs green, he didn't jus tout his logo on some brown paper and call it a unique eco design.

If you fancy checking out some of his work here is his website - www.eduardodelfraile.com

For the future I am now starting my final project in which I will create my own brief. Everything is in my hands and I am excited because it will defiantly be something I enjoy doing. 

I am most defiantly going towards a rebranding project, but I will keep you updated!!!!!!!!

Talk to you soon :) xx

Long Time No Blog!!

Hi Everyone

Sorry I have not blogged in over a month :O 

I was off with flu for a while and had a lot of catching up to do.

Anyways

I'm Back so from last time I was telling you that I was upset with my Ministry Of Sound project and my final pieces but I was just happy I finished on time.

(Below) This was my first poster which was so awfully rushed and unprofessional.

I had words with my tutor basically telling him about how I had a panic about this project and new it was terrible and looked like I had done it in 2 minutes and he gave me an extension to make another final poster in the style of my original ideas.

(Below) My improved final poster which I am so pleased with and am so grateful that I was allowed the extension so I had time to make my poster to its full potential.

________________________________

When I got back after being ill we had two new briefs, one in which we had to design a new logo for the Newcastle Medical Photography Department.

I sat for ages doodling pointless logos, when I decided to go onto the internet and get some research done as inspiration was not gonna hit me doing NOTHING.

I looked at different photography equipment trying not to fall into the trap of doing a logo for a hospital (e.g blood or needles) , the one rule we did have was we were not allowed to just submit a picture of a camera with the company name below.

(Below) Examples of me playing around with the lighting umbrella.

(Below) I chose a silhouette of the top of the umbrella added a shadow and a gradient, put my chosen typography onto it which I edited on InDesign.


I showed this in the crit and was told the idea was nice but was to much like a logo for a photography studio.

 (Below) I went back to researching camera equipment and found this image of a fluorescent light head 

I put this image into Photoshop and changed the opacity to really low,  I created a new layer and using a graphic tablet and the brus tool I roughly drew around the image to get a hand drawn effect. I left the image in it with a low opacity and put the dissolve effect on so the shadowing was still included. 

I added my font to this logo and it looked far to organic and sea like so I played around with colour and gradient overlays, I kept my font the same as the first logo I tried as I loved it boldness and technical look it had.

Here is my final piece (below) 

OH DEAR!!

DEADLINE DAY...
Lets just say the word STRESSFUL is a bit of an understatment.

But for some good news ... I got everything done and handed in ON TIME!!!!!!!!
I am not gonna lie I am glad its done and finished.

This project seemed fine at the start but I fell into the trap of forgetting it was a typographical based project and took a very artistic approach.
I was very happy with my design...UNTIL it came to adding the type on and it went down hill slightly.

To be honest I sort of expected as much with this project as I had trouble in the beggining (as I said in a previous blog)

I will update the images of my final pieces later on.

Bye Bye xx

Lets get started...

Hello.. Again.


Second blog in one day!! 


Right I have found an image I am basing my piece around...  
<<<<
I like how its got a bit of wiring in the picture and looks slightly tangled (which is not a stranger when it comes to headphones)
I am gonna draw it out a few times before I add some info on the event. 


Toodles xx

Whats Happening??

Hey World!!


After weeks of tension over this project I am finally getting stuck in.. I know its the last week of the project but all my worry and experiments have been added to the work I am handing in. 


I don't really know what got me worried I think I dove in feet first a bit this time (NOT GONNA HAPPEN AGAIN) 


Anyways I have been wasting my time experimenting with an idea which just wasn't working so best thing to do CHANGE IT.. I am now working on a different design based around headphones.  I will upload my VERY ROUGH sketch for my initial ideas to give you's a little idea of it.  (don't judge the roughness haha)


I will keep you updated when I have played around with the idea a bit.. WISH ME LUCK 
.
.

AGAIN!! :) xx

January 10th 2011.. First ever post, wish me luck!!