Book Feature!

Had a request from the awesome creative book publisher Victionary that wants to feature my 'Hue' project from the last module! Excited!

I've Finished?!

So, the final deadline is here.... seems very strange!

In a couple of weeks, after the end of year show I'm going to be out there in the big bad world taking on lots of new challenges. It's difficult to concisely describe everything that has happened over the last three years but what I do know is that I have undergone massive changes as a designer and a person.

I've specialised, focussed and gained a greater understanding of the industry which I have chosen to be part of. I've learnt to work with different people, utilise different skills and become much more professional regarding many different aspects of my work. I can now more confidently say that I love print based design for identity, promotion and publication and my considerate manner of working and careful attention to detail drives my practice towards high end printed deliverables.

In terms of work.... and being a graphic designer....! – I'm very much still up for setting up a studio in partnership with Rosalind. Because of the chaos that was the FMP, it's been really difficult to do much more in terms of progress after the initial research we did over Easter. But I know Roz is also eager to get going with things. I think it's going to be really exciting to see what we can do together as I'm fairly confident in my own ability now as know the standard of work that Roz produces is really high. We have also had a number of enquiries between us regarding little jobs which is encouraging since we haven't even started promoting ourselves yet – and anyway that's part of the fun of setting up! Can't wait to get my teeth into some branding and promotion for the studio. I think it's looking increasingly likely that we'll be starting out at Duke Studios in Leeds if possible using their co-working space. It's only around £60 per month for unlimited access to some big work benches where me and Roz can meet without the pressure of running our own studio space straight off. There is also a creative community there and multiple facilities to benefit from whilst James and Laura who we met there seem as though they'd give us some great help and advice if we were located there.

Most of all I'm interested in Roz and I establishing our own reputation as a quality design studio. I'm really not fussed about trying to impress other designers and studios although I have worked hard on putting together a good portfolio for the end of year show. I'd much rather get some recognition through what Roz and I design through our Passport studio and make progress that way and I'll be excited to be doing the kind of work that I want to do straight away. I'm not naive enough to think it's going to be plain sailing but at the same time I'm going to be positive and just take a few risks and see what happens...

GO!...

New Business Cards

Finally got around to getting my business cards professionally done! I was pleased with the design that I did before on the grey board so I've kept the design the same but this time had them sent to Hoban Press, a small letterpress company ran by Evan Calkins in the States. I'm really pleased with how they have turned out... just the simple lettering and logo letter-pressed on one side of a cool grey stock... I think they're simple but high quality... hopefully reflecting my own personal practice?!

Interviews

As part of my Design Context publication I have undertaken interviews with several designers/studios from around the world. Contacting and speaking to these designers just shows that you can go out and get in contact with these people easier than you thought. Their responses were really interesting and varied and actually gave me a lot to think about. I ended up getting responses from;  Arttu Savolaara at Bond Agency in Helsinki, Finland; Yah-Leng Lu at Foreign Policy in Singapore; Rik Bracho at Face in Monterrey, Mexico; Ross Milne at Working Format in Vancouver, Canada; the internation design publication IdN magazine in Hong Kong; David Heasty at Triboro in New York and Patrick Duffy at No Days Off down in London.

Curriculum Vitae

Ok so here's my current CV.... to be tagged on the end of any internship or employment applications. I've kept it minimal and attempted to show some typographic skill with its presentation, nothing too crazy....

Homework / Email

Homework / Update

Had some random but good news the other day.....

So way back around January, I was one of several students to submit a pdf to be sent via email to Homework in Copenhagen, Denmark. We hadn't heard anything back and had pretty much forgotten about it. Then, John emailed out to say he had finally had contact with the creative director there and that he was interested in my work, as well as Ailsa's and Elliot's!

From what I've been told, it sounds like there may be an opportunity to go out there this summer, as a group, to do an internship which would be awesome.... and John has told us to get on with putting together an email to get in direct contact with Jack, the director, to see what we could work out....

Fingers crossed this comes together as it would be a great experience to see how design is approached in a different country whilst getting to spend some time in a design capital such as Copenhagen.

Design Strategy Presentation

Open publication - Free publishing - More ppd

Passport Initial Branding Idea

Quick initial idea for the branding of our proposed studio. Classical-looking colour palette and traditional serif typeface of Sabon and we're proposing to call the studio a 'design bureau'. This is only something done quickly to show for the upcoming design strategy presentation after Easter. We're already having loads of ideas to do with self-branding and promotion ideas — kind of frustrating that we have so much work to do and this stuff is going to have to wait a little while...

Branding / Context

Roz and I have picked out a few contextual pieces to show the general style and feel that we would like our proposed studio to have. We had also been thinking of some naming ideas and I had come up with 'Passport' which Roz turned out to really like... Using this we thought we could go with a whole kind of official vibe, with a mix of classic and contemporary aesthetics. 'Passport' also links to our joint interest in travel/places/countries, whilst a passport itself is a book of identification and our core practice would be based around identity and publication....

Tower Works Visit

Info on the set up at Tower Works:

Duke Studios Visit

Info on the set up at Dukes:

We will offer 3 levels of working space.  
  
Co-Working £60per month (incVAT) 
- Unlimited access to Duke Studios Co-Working area during office hours Mon-Fri 9-6 
- Unlimited access to Duke Studios Workshop area during office hours  Mon-Fri 9-6 
- Free WiFi 
- Power points for Laptops etc 
- Basic printing facilities  
- Business Registration available 
- Small discount on Laser cutting, Vinyl Cutting, Photo studio Hire  
- Meeting room hire for £10per hour (discounted from external rate)  
  
Desk Rental £180 per month (incVAT) 
- Your own dedicated desk available between 8am and 11pm 7 days a week  
- Unlimited access to Duke Studios Workshop during office hours 
- Lockable storage near to your desk 
- Key card access 
- Free WiFi 
- Power points 
- Business Registration available 
- Optional VOIP phone line at cost 
- Medium discount on Laser cutting, Vinyl Cutting, Photo studio Hire  
- Free Meeting room hire  
- Munro House entrance reception service 
- All bills included 
- Access to kitchen 
- Membership to Duke Studios Agency 
  
Studio Spaces 
*Small £299 per month (incVAT) - Approx 75sq ft 
*Medium £399 per month (inc VAT) - Approx 128sq ft 
*Large £499 per month (inc VAT) - Approx 256sq ft (SOLD OUT - WAITING LIST OPEN) 
- Your own dedicated unfurnished semi open plan Studio Space 24/7 access  
- Unlimited access to Duke Studios Workshop area during office hours 
- Access to Secure Storage room  
- Free WiFi 
- Power points  
- Free Business Registration 
- Optional VOIP phone line at cost 
- Large discount on Laser cutting, Vinyl Cutting, Photo studio Hire  
- Free Meeting room hire  
- Munro House entrance reception service 
- All bills included 
- Access to kitchen inc storage 
- Membership to Duke Studios Agency 

Networking Event

Small update on the business proposal with Roz... even though we only started discussing this recently, we saw that there was an upcoming networking event being held here at Leeds College of Art. We went along to see what was there and what information we could pick up.

We collected a host of leaflets and things on subjects from legal requirements to intellectual property rights to studio spaces so it was definitely worth visiting. As a result we're setting up a visit to go and look around the studio spaces at Tower Works in Leeds and we have a couple of other leads to follow up.

Stuff we picked up at the networking event:

Business Proposal / Roz

Been meaning to post this up here for a while now but I've had a few interesting chats with Roz over the past couple of weeks regarding us setting up our own studio once we have graduated...

We've been working together recently on the Photography Yearbook brief and kind of discovered that we work well together and pretty much like exactly the same style of work which is cool — and then Roz asked me whether I'd consider setting up with her. I had personally been thinking about setting up before this depending on if I could find someone suitable to work with, so when Roz asked me I was really pleased to have the offer. I'd feel much more confident starting up when working alongside somebody such as Roz, as I really like the work she has produced to date.

We're going to start some initial research and try and speak to a few people who can give us some direction in terms of where to start.... exciting times!

Manchester Design Symposium

Had another day out in Manchester attending another design event, this time at the Manchester Design Symposium. They had an impressive line up of speakers scheduled so I had been really looking forward it — and I wasn't disappointed. There aren't many events like this outside of London so it was great to see and hear the opinions of people within the design field but all of whom represented totally different areas. Morag Myerscough was definitely one of the highlights — she was really engaging to listen to and obviously really enthusiastic about what she does. It was very interesting to hear her views on her work and everything else and it was remarkable to see the unusual types of projects she works on. She does a lot of design for use within architectural spaces utilising colourful environmental graphics with a primary aim to improve the feeling of people that interact with the spaces. The other talk that I particularly enjoyed was that of Vera-Maria Glahn fro digital design agency, Field. Even though their work is totally different to my own I actually found what she had to say the most interesting. The inventive processes and techniques that they employ to create their digital illustrations were fascinating - so much so that I'll do a post specifically on them shortly. All in all a great day out — photos and notes from the day are below...

Note To Self

Last week Hazel, Naomi, Gemma and I headed over to Manchester for an evening of speakers from within the design industry at the Note To Self event. It was only the 3rd instalment of the event and the first time we had all attended — after finding out about it recently through Twitter.

Some great pizza and wine in Manchester got things off to a good start and it kept going at the event itself through a highly enjoyable and interesting evening. Before attending, it was only the typographer Bruno Maag that I had actually heard of but, I thought it would be useful to see/hear about the approach from creatives in different fields to myself. 

All of the speakers on the night were really engaging and interesting and they all interpreted the theme of the evening 'passion' in entirely different ways. The digital agency Retrofuzz talked about a core set of values they are passionate about as a company and how staying true to these shaped their day to day lives. Andrew Brooks talked about a number of different influences he was passionate about and how they impacted upon his practice. Trevor Johnson looked at the definition of passion and went through wide range of topics/things and the simple reasons of why he liked them or was passionate about them. Finally Bruno Maag plain and simply talked passionately. Initially about his suit — which he used as an analogy in reference to attention to detail, crafting and quality but then went on to cover a variety of things and issues affecting young graphic designers today. 

Notes taken during the evening:

Oh, and I picked up some awesome (and free!) Dalton Maag type specimen pieces whilst I was there. All in all, the evening was really thought-provoking and motivational — a bargain too at just £10 per ticket so I'll definitely be looking out for future Note To Self events.