OUGD502 - PPP [ST1] - My Summer

During my summer I worked full time to save money for the coming university year. I was employed by Whole Foods Market in the beginning of July and I really enjoyed the experience. As well as meeting a load of great people, I managed to help the advertising team with some of the design elements, such as product advertising, product labelling and flyers/handouts. I managed to spend five hours a week doing graphic design for Whole Foods (however most of this work I will not be able to post due to the work not being released yet.)

PPP - Studio Brief 02 - Self Branding - Research

My initial research involved trying to create a persona for myself. I needed to establish clearly my design principles, my clear style and my personal interests. In doing this I would be able to create an identity that clearly represents me and I would be able to produce informed content that is tailored to me specifically enough that I can create something original and lasting. I decided to have a look at some personal branding on sites such as Behance and Pinterest to jump-start my research, as I find that looking at the trends in branding can usually inspire me and speed up my idea generation process.

I personally never liked self-branding that doesn't have a strong link to the designers ethos and beliefs. Looking through many of the branding identities that I found on behance left me wondering how strong the relation between the person and their branding persona was, some examples I will talk about below.

BROX GRAPHIC DESIGN

This was a project I saw on Behance that had no clear reason behind it to me. It looks effective aesthetically but had no justification for the design choices made which is something I want to avoid doing.

RUTA GRAPHIC DESIGN

This was a project I saw again on Behance that had more of a relation to the designer themselves, with the symbol of a pencil matching their design style.

This concept is far stronger than the concept above, with clear relation to the designer themselves, and presents itself with a sense of personality and playfulness which I think would appeal to a client or employer far more than a good-looking but bland in personality identity such as BROX.

ABBAS MUSHTAQ

This is another example of an identity I like as it incorporates the designers beliefs and what they want to give off to clients/employers.

A quote from Abbas' Behance project: 

"I wanted to step away from the common trend when it comes to branding - the use of initials to create a logo or badge, instead I took my first initial and added a + sign after it, which commonly is a mark for excellent. While branding myself as excellent is a clear marker in itself, the + sign has many connotations including...

+Positivity
+Health
+Progression*
+Collaboration*
The bottom two in the list are the two most important to me as an emerging Graphic Designer. Progression is close to me as I'm a designer constantly seeking to learn, improve and progress my knowledge and expertise. Collaboration is an increasingly important and vital part of my design practice, so it's now an important part of my branding. Abbas+ also creates an immediate relationship and feeling of collaboration, across my portfolio and website, so for example if I am commissioned by Nike, the project will be titled Abbas+Nike, creating much more of a relationship and essence of collaboration, even in the name. This is essential to me and my practice."

You can tell that Abbas has thought thoroughly about this project with many elements being covered. This is something I will definitely take inspiration from as it has clear connotations and will give a sense of originality when he is pitching an idea to a client or trying to secure a job position at a studio.

PPP - Studio Brief 02 - Self Branding - Idea Generation

In order to create a successful identity for myself I knew I had to look closely at what my beliefs were as a designer and the sort of mood I want to give off to people who interact with my identity. I decided the best way to do this would be to make a simple brainstorm of my hobbies and interests, and what I am interested in in terms of design specifically. With this in mind, I would be able to make an identity related to this that would convey my personality quickly to an employer or client.

I knew I wanted to convey my fascination with modernist design especially, so that was going to be my starting point for the design aspect of the identity.

I first drafted a brainstorm with information about me, to try and work out what elements I should portray to employers about myself, such as hobbies and my design ethos. I have always been a strong believer that communication is the main element in graphic design for a client. Without communication, it's extremely difficult to find a common ground in a final piece of work. I believe in creating a strong relationship with a client, by doing that you are able to create work that really is appreciated. To achieve this, I had to brand myself quite informally. I had to create a business card I could hand an employer after a conversation and get them to remember me from my business card alone.

PPP - Studio Brief 01 - Very Studio

http://verystudio.co.uk/

Very studio is a graphic design studio in London focusing on marketing. I went in to the studio to talk to the director and simply get a feel for the studio, as this is one of the many studios I am hoping to apply to for a summer internship. Their workspace was very open and casual, with people listening to music and working away on different projects on iMacs. I liked the atmosphere as it seemed people were always talking to each other and enjoying each others company, as opposed to working freelance where you would be working on your own for a large portion of the day. I got to talk to a few of the designers about their experience with the studio and there was a range of experience in the team, as there were some people who had been working for 10 years as a designer and some were still interns, but they all had one thing in common; they all really enjoyed working at Very.

Here are some past projects Very has done:

PPP - Studio Brief 01 - Secret 7

I went to the Secret 7 exhibition over easter to see what the competition was as I didn't get in to the exhbition, so I wanted to see what the standard of work was like that won. Here are some pictures I took of the exhibition (I wasn't sure if photography was allowed so they aren't the best.)

I really liked the exhibition as you could listen to the songs on actual Vinyl which was a nice touch, and you were able to speak to some of the designers that came about their work and what inspired them. I made sure to look around the whole exhibition which gave me an insight into what Secret 7" looks for, and I hope to make a new entry for them next year!

PPP - Studio Brief 01 - Experimental Jetset

Experimental Jetset is a design company that Richard has referenced many a time and after seeing some of their work that Richard showed us, I decided to have a further look as I really enjoyed their style even though I would say it was out of my comfort zone. Experimental Jetset are very postmodern in their values and design, but you can see a clear modernist influence in the undertones of their work. What this represents I'm not sure but the work blends together very well and they always come up with extremely original designs.

Even their website that shows their work is unusual and I would say it's modernist because it's stripped back to its' purest form:

Here is the bio of Experimental Jetset.

"Experimental Jetset is a small, independent, Amsterdam-based graphic design studio, founded in 1997 by (and still consisting of) Marieke Stolk, Erwin Brinkers and Danny van den Dungen. Focusing on printed matter and site-specific installations, and describing their methodology as “turning language into objects”, Experimental Jetset have worked on projects for a wide variety of institutes. Their work has been featured in group exhibitions such as ‘Graphic Design: Now in Production’ (Walker Art Center, 2011) and ‘Ecstatic Alphabets / Heaps of Language’ (MoMA, 2012). Solo exhibitions include ‘Kelly 1:1’ (Casco Projects, Utrecht, 2002) and ‘Two or Three Things I Know About Provo’ (W139, Amsterdam, 2011). In 2007, a large selection of work by Experimental Jetset was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, for inclusion in the MoMA’s permanent collection.

Members of Experimental Jetset have been teaching at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (2000–2014), and are currently teaching at Werkplaats Typografie (2013–now)."

Here are some of their best works in my opinion:

Ten Years of Posters

EP Sternberg Press

PPP - Studio Brief 01 - Circular

Advancing from the Typocircle website, they also have a multi-issue magazine designed by Pentagram. I really like the post-modern aesthetic of this magazine that is also designed informatively. I have since decided to subscribe to the magazine which features many influential designers from around the world, and is funded by Typocircle themselves. Here are a few spreads of issue 14 of the magazine.

As you can see there is a clear contemporary influence with the magazine and the spreads are individually and as a whole all beautiful pieces of work. The magazine features up and coming designers and successful designers alike and the magazine has been featured on many design blogs which is what introduced me to it.

PPP - Studio Brief 01 - Typocircle

Typocircle

What is Typocircle?

"The Typographic Circle was formed in 1976 to bring together anyone with an interest in type and typography.

We are a not-for-profit organisation run entirely by volunteers. We stage a variety of type and typography related events including a series of diverse monthly lectures by well-known industry speakers, and the annual New York Type Directors Club exhibition.

Besides being serious about type, we’re a very sociable organisation with a reputation for staging enjoyable events. We try hard not to come across as being stuffy or elitist. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in type and typography, and there are no entry tests or examinations."

Typocircle is a website I visit regularly as typography is a big interest of mine in Graphic Design and I visit multiple websites dedicated to the topic. I really like the work Typocircle promotes as the work is usually visually stunning and often gives me inspiration for my own work. Here are some of my favourite posters Typocircle has promoted so far.

PPP - Studio Brief 01 - 3fishinatree

3fishinatree

3fishinatree was a design agency I did a work placement in, in the summer of 2014. At the time I was quite unsure about Graphic Design, as I was worried I would become bored of the subject after working in the industry for a few years. However, after working at 3fish for two weeks I was sold. The director, Ricky, was a very kind person and gave me a massive amount of help during my stay (I was warned about studios that sit you in the corner for two weeks and leave you there) and gave me tons of great advice about the industry. I worked on a range of content, from websites to social media marketing. However, upon writing this I would not work in a studio that solely focuses on digital as I am very interested in editorial and fashion design, so this would not be a perfect fit for me. However, I still have Ricky on LinkedIn and often send him my work to critique and give me ideas for improvement.

Here are some of my favourite pieces of work from their studio.

PPP - Studio Brief 01 - I have NOT read and agree to the terms of use

"I have NOT read and agree to the terms of use"

This is a piece of work I saw on trendlist today that I think is very effective at giving off a message to the audience and I also agree with the message it conveys. The piece was made in light of the recent terms of use scandals such as retaining information that then gets sold to companies for advertising. It was created by a Graphic Design MA student at the UAL London College of Communication.

I really like the aesthetic of this piece, with clear and concise information that challenges the unnecessary complexity of Terms of Service from social networks today. The red is bold and challenging, and this feels like a powerful message towards social networks with messages of reform and anger. I enjoy the style of work where a designer is using his skills to try and change the modern world, which is a breath of fresh air from simply marketing and logo design.