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. 

Spike Jonze

Spike Jonze is an American director, producer, screenwriter and actor. He has also produced music videos and done television commercials.
"Spike Jonze’s feature film rendition of Maurice Sendak’s classic story Where The Wild Things Are has hit movie theaters worldwide. The film represents years of work from hundreds of different artists, writers, photographers, musicians, actors, and creators of all degrees. This place has been established to help shed some light on many of the small influences that converged to make this massive project a reality."

When i first started researching his artist i didn't think i would like his work as i first saw that he produced jack ass and i hate that film so much. I didn't know that he helped to create where wild things are a film which i really like due to the way it looks and the music in the film. I now realize that his work isn't just the jack ass films and that he has created a few really nice bits of work and even though i might not use his work for influence in the future i'm glad i researched this artist.

see more about Spike Jonze here http://weloveyouso.com/

Scott McCloud

Scott McCloud was born in 1960 in America and is a famous cartoonist. He has written books such as understanding comics and making comics. He studied illustration in Syracuse University where he graduated in 1982. In 1984 he created the science fiction series zot!
I know very little about comics as when I  was younger I never read them and never liked them so to have to look at this artist to me doesn’t inspire me as it doesn’t connect with me. I think he is very good at drawing and to people who like comics they would probably love his work yet I don’t. I don’t want to create comics or read them, however I think in future it would be nice to create something within the same layout style of a comic as they are very eye catching and have a link with pop art which is something I like, but as an artist I don’t really like his work.

 

see his work at http://scottmccloud.com/

Peter Fowler

Peter Fowler is a welsh artist born in 1969 who is most famous for his toys called monster. He is a freelance illustrator who focuses on his monster collection which is inspired by animals, music and folklore. His art work is very unique in style and looks very postmodern and cartoony. The ‘monsters’ which peter fowler have created all live on monsterism island again a place created by peter fowler. The ‘monsters’ all have specific traits and peter fowler has set different levels of monsterism. These toys are very popular which he makes in his own company.
As well as creating toys he has also worked on adverts which has aired in the UK and japan< his most famous advert was the kia piccanto car advert.
I don’t really like the work of Peter Fowler I think it is al to bright and it looks very 60’s which is an ear I don’t really like. The repetition of the bright colours and the psychedelic feel to me is very off putting; however I can see why illustrators would like this work because he is very skilled at drawing.

visit his website http://monsterism.net/

April Greiman

April Greiman is a graphic designer born in New York in 1948. She studied at the Allgemeine Kunstgewerbeschule in Switzerland and then the Kansas City Art Institute. She then started working as a graphic designer in New York whilst teaching as the same at the Philadelphia College of Art.
IN 1976 April moved to California and opened a graphic design studio in Los Angeles, made in space.
I like the bright colours that April uses in her work as it makes it look more interesting, I also think the way the text is on the work as the way it flows is unique. The way the images are overlaid make the work look like a collage which I really like. The fact that she has studied in different counties can be seen reflected in her work as it looks very modern and slick. I think I would use her work as inspiration in the future however I don’t think I will create work that looks similar to hers.  

 

visit the made in space website http://madeinspace.la/

Danny Brown

Danny Brown is a multimedia designer, artist and programmer born in Liverpool in 1977. Daniel has a very good grasp with flash and html coding, with this and his love for design it is not surprising that he focuses on interactive multimedia. He has been recognised since 1999 as one of the top internet designers. Like most of the web designers of his era he got his inspiration from his video games he played as a child which would explain why his work it witty and full of humour.
I really like the images of the butterfly, I like how they still have the movement in the wings and the blur adds an interesting twist as most people like to have clean crisp images. The colours of the reds/yellows and oranges contract with the pale blue background. I also like how the images are shown in greyscale as well as colour, even though I prefer the colour images. I think in the future I would look at his work again as I’m interesting in doing multimedia and expanding on what I already know about coding.

 

Learn more about him http://designmuseum.org/design/daniel-brown

Kyle Cooper

Kyle cooper was born in 1962 and studied graphic design in America. He now works in the motion picture world where he does title sequences. In 1995 he works on the American crime film seven. This title sequence got him noticed by a lot of other graphic designers especially younger ones who took inspiration from his work and changed the way graphics would be seen and used. His work is often compared to the work of Saul Bass.
Since his work on the film seven he has been working on very large block buster films such as the mummy, spider-man and Sherlock Homes.
As well as working on films he has also worked on TV series the walking dead which is something that I have started watching at university. Until now I didn’t even think about going into doing title sequence industry even though I love watching films and TV. I really like the opening sequence to the walking dead as it looks grungy and the typography on it suits the feel of the program. Now that I now about this artist and designer I most defiantly look at his work in future as I’m now very interested in going into doing title sequences.

 

see more of his work at https://pinterest.com/laureetline/kyle-cooper-website/

Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry was born in 1963, and is an award winning screenwriter, film, commercial and music video director. He has been commended for his new and unique visual style, and takes inspiration from the mise en scène.
He first started his career by making a music video for the French rock group oui oui. This video was what put his career as a music videos into full swing because soon after making his first videos he was directing music videos for the likes of Daft Punk, The White Stripes, The Chemical Brothers, The Vines, Steriogram, Radiohead, and Beck.
As well as creating music videos he has worked with artist such as spike jonze and made a feature film called human nature which was released on 2001.

Michel Gondry's Levi's 501 Jeans "Drugstore" spot holds the record for "Most awards won by a TV commercial". I really like this commercial as the music builds up and you don’t get to see the face of the man until the end which gives a sense of secrecy and tension. The advert aslo has humour which I think would attract lots of people to the product which is the aim of the TV advert so it shows how good Michel Gondrys work is.

 

see more work http://www.michelgondry.com/

Hi-Res!

Hi-Res! Is a multimedia design studio and was was founded in 1999 by Florian Schmitt and Alexandra Jugovic who met at art college in 1993.Alexandra studied fine art and graphic design and Florian studied is film and music. Over the years they have combined there skills to create interesting designs in the music and post production industry. In 1999 the pair moved from Germany to London. In London the started to create websites using flash, and this lead to wide spread success, they where asked by film maker Darren Aronofsky to create a site for his film “Requiem for a Dream”.
In 2012 jagermeister went to hi-res to redesign I love what they have done for jagermiester as the photography on the website and mobile app is so striking and strong. I want to start using my photography in my graphics more than I have been doing and I want the images to be as good as the ones that hi-res have done because they are so crisp and the detail on the images are very high.

 

see more at http://hi-res.net/#!jaegermeister-re-design.html

MetaDesign

MetaDesign has been one of Europe's most respected design agencies for over ten years. This company has worked on branding some very big companies such as Audi. The company was set up in Berlin in 1992 by Uli Mayer-Johanssen and Erik Speikermann and now has offices around the world such as one in san Francisco, as well as working with Audi meta design has also worked for Adobe.

I really like the work they have done for the clients especially the work they did with Audi it looks really high class and I like how the ideas have not been overly thought and complicated and I think it goes to show that simple ideas can be just as good as complicated ones. I want to start doing minimalistic work more so after reading the book by John Maeda and now that I have found this company I feel I will get some good inspiration from them.

see more work http://www.metadesign.com/clients/audi

Susan Kare

Susan Kare was born 1954 in Ithaca, New York. She is very famous for designing some of the interface which is found on the original apple Macintosh. Some of her icons she designed are still on the software used today such as the Lasso, the grabber and the paint bucket. Another element she designed for apple was the welcome face when you turned the man on and has only recently been replaced with the apple logo. She has also worked with Microsoft designing icons that are still used on the machines today such as the notebook icon and a few of the icons displayed in the control panel.
Susan Kare also designed the playing deck for the game solitaire game. I like how the bright blue stands out from the green and how you can see that the image has been drawn using pixels which makes it look quirky and different, although I do like her work I doubt I would ever use it as inspiration as it is not the style I want to work in in the future.

see more of her work http://www.kare.com/

The Designers Republic

The Designers Republic is a group of graphic designers, founded on July 14, 1986 by Ian Anderson, and based in Sheffield. It is known for its anti-establishment aesthetics. There company shut down in 2009. The worked with brands such as Coca-Cola and Orange as well as PlayStation games designing sleeves and covers for some of the most popular games like GTA. They have also designed Cd's sleeves for the ministry of sound. In 1987 the company designed the cover for the band age of chance, titled "Don't Get Mad... Get Even! (The New York Remixes)" this sleeve was in the top 100 best record cover of all time by Q in 2001.
I like the work they have created because it is bright and vibrant in style and looks like the people who created it had fun doing it and this is reflected in there work. It looks a bit futuristic and there looks like they have been inspired by Japanese work, which personally I don’t like as much.

See there work here http://www.thedesignersrepublic.com/

Barnbrook

Barnbrook is a creative design studio located in London, over the years it has become increasingly popular and is now one of the best known studios in Britain. The company is a mixture of graphics and motion graphics therefore it is very visually strong and has worked on many different briefs for clients such as the BBC. The company has also created work for books; CD covers, websites and fonts, and currently releases the fonts they make to be used worldwide. In 2007 there work was exhibitions in the design museum in London.
As well as working for big companies like the BBC Branbrook also works with a lot of charitable organizations such as the British heart foundation and created an advert from them to promotion what the charity can offer people suffering with heart problems. I like how the camera angles around the heart in the center of the screen and how the fonts are all different which could link with how different people would relate to heart problems. I haven’t done any work with motion graphics but would like to start and feel that this advert is the type of style I would aim towards.

Link to the british heart foundation advert http://vimeo.com/8224038

 

See more of the work http://www.barnbrook.net/index.html

Yugo Nakamura

Yugo Nakamura was born in japan and is today considered the leading web designers of japan. He likes to ad humor into the work he creates and likes to create his work using his hands which explains the amount of interactivity his work involves for the users. In 2007 he won the Tokyo Interactive Ad Awards.

I like the interactivity that the features offer as it is little touches such as the moving colour boarders which will make the website popular and will therefore make people return to the page to see if there is anything else new to play with that has been added. I also like how there are noises as it adds another dimension to it and stops it being flat. With the clay work I like how it still looks rough and not as perfect as the other work as it makes it seem more real, I have always been interested in web design and the coding behind the features on pages and I’m glad I have had the chance to look through Yugo Nakamuras work.

 

See more of Yugo Nakamuras work http://yugop.com/

Neville Brody

Neville Brody is an English graphic designer, typographer and art director. He studied fine art and graphics through is life but has always had a keen interest in typography. During his time at college his tutors said his work was not good enough for commercial use as is was too safe and not experimental enough. In 1977 the punk ere was sweeping thought London and inspired Neville Brody to create a series of stamps with the queens head on the side and this nearly got him kicked out but this set up his style for the future. He then moved into creating music covers for bands. As he has a love for typography he helped co-found the company FontWorks and designed a number of typefaces for them.

I like the pop art feel the Neville Brody puts in his work however it always seems to have a twist and looks a bit darker. I also like the effects he puts on his images to make them stand out from other graphic designers, however the typefaces he has used I don’t really like much as they seem to structured for me and I like it when they look hand draw as it adds more personality.

See more of his work http://www.researchstudios.com/neville-brody/

Why not associates

Why not associates has been running for 25 years creating a wide range of projects and different media types such as projects, including corporate identity, digital design, motion graphics and television commercial direction, editorial design, environmental design, publishing, and public art. They create work for many different clients including the government. They have worked with very large companies such as Nike, Virgin and the BBC.  No matter who the clients’ are the work is known for pushing the boundaries and experiments to suit the clients needs.
Since looking at this group of graphic designers I have noticed they did the TV adverts for the BBC dickens season. These are made and look so beautiful as they have combined the feeling of the old with the modern technology to create a perfect balance to advertise one of the great literary figures. The adverts use textures that look like paper and then the change and transform into video clips and this affect is really lovely and looks delicate which relates to the characters in Great expectations. 

See the dickens advert herehttp://www.whynotassociates.com/recent-work-2/bbc-dickens-season

Vaughan Oliver

Vaughan Oliver is a British Graphics design and typographer, who has worked in 23 envelope and v23 where they produced many designs for the record label 4AD and between 1982 and 1998 created many different covers for bands such as dead can dance and pixies.  Vaughan Oliver is said to have inspired many different artists as his covers where so popular and had a big impact of the music culture, as his work is very punk looking. And with his use of experimentation has created some of the best album covers.
The bright colours and the use of the typography really makes the covers stand out, the colours are often clashing which links into the decade these where created in. They have been layered up so they are never boring and there is always something more to look at and to discover about the album covers. I also like how the typography is not just going across the image horizontally but vertically as well as this gives another dimension to the work.

See more of his work http://www.vaughanoliver.co.uk/