Seriously f*cking cool

I liked having a talk given by a student who graduated last year as she has been in my position and I think gave some good tips on making a good portfolio, for example have an online portfolio but make sure you always have some of you work printed and laid out professionally, also a book is better as you can make a cover and that gives it a face and an identity which can make it easy to remember. I was also told to use the s facility's at university as it costs a lot to use some of the techniques so you might not have chance to use them once you have finished. You should also practice your presentation and communication skills so when you have interviews you can stay clam and not panic and they way more of your personality comes across.
As a designer it is important to stay in contact with people and social networking can be a great way to do that you also have to make sure to stay on the design trends and not fall behind.

Why not do batman?

This was one of my favorite talks as it was good to get an in sight to how a graphic design company works. The company foto fire was started 14 years ago and since then has expanded, the business started as a photography business but to make more money branched out into different areas. I liked seeing the area they worked in and how relaxed it looked, it was also nice to find out that as a team they interact with each other outside of work and it seems like a very down to earth friendly business, I was shocked when I found out the company was based in Wrexham as I didn’t think as graphics companies where around here.
The most important piece of information I took away from this talk was that you have to make sure websites work on all different formats and you have to make them mobile responsive.

The Ten Questions to ask when going for an interview

• ·      Will you be involved in client meetings
• ·      Ask who your line manger will be 
• ·      Ask if they use project management software 
• ·      Ask if it's PC or Mac 
• ·      What sort of clients you will work with 
• ·      Ask how long projects last 
• ·      Do they have social team events 
• ·      Different departments in the agency 
• ·      Ask if they provide training 
• ·      Is there scope for career progression 

I want it more potato than chip

Creative futures is a week where you are able to meet and network with all the art and design students from the first years to the third years, go to lectures that are given by people who know the creative industry and tell you about how they got a job, what they do and some tips on how to get a job once you have finished university.

10 design recommendations 

• ·      Don't limit context 
• ·      Use design to differentiate
• ·      Focus on the clients needs not the competition
• ·      Integrate design and branding
• ·      Reinforce the brand 
• ·      Introduce design process 
• ·      Trust and support your design team 
• ·      Embed design in your organization culture 
• ·      Design your work environment 
• ·      Don't let the designers role be straitjacket 

Although the talk from Barry Purves didn’t relate to my course I’m glad I went to his lecture as he is so passionate about what he does, he spoke about how having a big budget is not always important as you can make something look very dramatic just by using a black backdrop and lighting. I also liked his composition of the animations he did as it wasn’t always in the center he had used the rule of third grid to give some very theatrical and intense affects.

I really enjoyed Sid Madge’s lecture on branding, as this is one of my favorite areas in graphic design and also to do with the fact that I’m currently creating a rebrand for a law firm and I wanted to get ideas of what Colours to use. Sid set up his own company 4 years ago, which is called Mad Hen, because he wanted to be closer with his family. The drive for Sid to make his own business was also in part because he was told he couldn’t do anything so he went out and learnt and I would like to think I have the drive to not give up just because someone tells me I cant do something. I think a big part of why I liked Sid Madge so much because like myself Sid is dyslexic and even though I know the majority of art and design students are dyslexic it was reassuring to no that he has been able to make his own business and be a successful graphic designer.

Whilst in the lecture I learnt that colours play a huge role in brand identity as a certain colour can instantly make you feel something and that 90 per cent of an assessment on a product or brand is based on colour alone. 

Beautiful Losers

I didn’t think I would like the film but it really surprised me I like the idea that they all came together through their love of art and design and making things. They believe that art is for everyone its not just for the rich and upper class people its for everyday ordinary people who are on there way to work or school who see graffiti and drawings on buildings and to them that it the best kind of art, its art that everyone will see and its not boxed up in a gallery somewhere and contained to only those who think they understand what art is and can be.
There view is similar to post modernists they take inspiration from everything and everywhere usually in the places no one else would think to go, they then turn it into something beautiful, another reason why I think they are similar to post modernists is because they believe art doesn’t depend on gender or race, I think that the constructivists where very much purists in there views and thought that’s what I don’t like about them.  These people have fun with what they do they experiment with new ways of creating beautiful new things and it looks fun.  They see graffiti as street art it’s a way of getting there names out there to people and in a way antagonizing people which makes them communicate and graffiti is communication for kids and its most likely the first kind of art form we ever see, people writing there names on walls, it’s a rebellion of what everyone assumes art to be.
“As a child your always drawing and making and its totally normal and when you become an adult you have to grow up and you lose it, you lose your creativity, artists are people who are lucky enough to never lose being a child.”  To me this is possibly the best quote I have ever come across because I can relate to it, as a child I was always drawing and makes things out of paper and bits I found around the house, and I never thought I would get the chance to do it when I got older, but I never stopped drawing in school books, or making things out of stuff I found in my school bag when I got bored during a lesson.

They understand that not everything you do is going to be perfect and its about learning from your mistakes and knowing that beauty is the imperfections you have on the page. They put themselves in there art you can see all of there personality in there work because for them it’s a way of life.

The majority of the people came from poorer families and this is why I think they like street art so much, because its where they started and that why they go back to it time and time, they feel themselves and they feel comfortable being out and meeting new people. Art has no rules and its what is so great about it, you don’t have to be smart to under stand art, and that is what brings people together, its takes down the social barriers and enables people to mix.

Watching this film has made me want to start drawing more and using my own illustrations in my work because I no they don’t have to be perfect and I want to start using photography again because I love capturing moments with my camera and I miss doing the things I love because I’m to busy thinking I must do something perfect.

The Bauhaus

The Bauhaus where very keen industrialists who believed that design was for everyone. However even though they wanted to bring design to the masses they still had a very sexist approach to who should be designing, for example there was only one female Bauhaus master and the rest where men and the few woman that where allowed to attend the Bauhaus school where limited to work in certain subject areas as such textiles and colour as it was deemed the “girly” thing to do.

“Let us therefore create a new guild of craftsmen without the class-distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between craftsmen and artists”- Walter Gropius. This quote I found very interesting as Walter Gropius talks about creating a place to drop the barriers between being an artist and being a craftsman which I think is a really interesting way at looking at the problems of the time. However he fails to acknowledge that woman could being just as good a craft man as the men of that time and is therefore contradicting himself as there is now a new barrier no longer depending of if you’re a artist of a craftsman but depending on your sex which I think is a very demeaning towards women.

The Bauhaus masters believed that the building was just as important as the subject they where teaching, 

“The ultimate aim of all creative activity is a building.”And due to this they derived a system to work around the building with each student having to work on an introduction stage first where they would learn the basics and key skills, after this they would start to choose the specialized area in which to work.

Below is the crystal tower which was designed by a student from the Bauhaus in 1921, as you can see the idea was to have a building made of steal and glass which was a clash from the dust and the filth which was around at the time and the design is still very modern, as you can see parallels with the building next to it. The Urbis building is found in Manchester, again it uses glass and steel and looks like it is rising out of the ground.