we were recently given the opportunity to design a series of stained glass windows, for the college chapel. We had a meeting with the chaplain, Rosie, who told us her ideas, and thoughts for the window and wanted to see if we could come up with some ideas for the windows. I started out by researching existing stained glass windows, Rosie had said she would like some maybe abstract, with a natural type of feeling and vibe to it, so i started to draw out some designs based on theses ideas. i have mainly looked at the elements, water, earth and fire, and built on on this. I think i have come up with some interesting ideas, and hope that they are what Rosie is looking for. 

I had my interview for the Vogue work experience today, and i was so incredibly nervous! I was stressing slightly before it, but to be honest, its a massive opportunity. I think it went well, although its hard to tell, its a bit of a blur, it all went quite quick. I gave solid answers to all the questions they asked, and was able to answer all of the questions. I would just love the opportunity of being able to work in such an amazing industry and one of the worlds most successful magazines, even if i’m just making tea all day i don't mind because just being in a creative environment like that you can learn so much. i can’t do anymore now, so I’ll just have to wait until next wednesday to find out if i’ve got a place! fingers crossed!

we got our new brief today, and i quite excited to be honest,  we have to create a poster(s), website and trophy for a competition, one that already exists or something completely new. After search through the internet i cam up with a few ideas, of a vegetable comp, racing comp, beauty contest and finally a flower show to name but a few. I think i’m going to settle on the flower show idea, i’ve always loved flowers, and shows such as the chelsea flower show and have worked in a florists previously, so the idea of doing something like this really appealed to me. I found a few posters for existing shows, just to give me a few ideas. 

I think i want the project to have quite an exotic feel, and i have been looking in to traditions and meanings behind flowers etc, and discovered the Hawaiian Lei, and the history behind it. Lei is the Hawaiian word for garland of wreath and is presented to a person as a sign of affection and are seen a sign of celebration and love. I think i will explore this idea of a traditional Lei further as an idea for the trophy as i think it would transfer quite well into something delicate and beautiful.

Not anymore!, I’ve been wanting to sell my work for a while, so i decided to do it through making t-shirts, i was inspired by the one I’d recently bought from Zara, and thought i wanna make something like that, so i started drawing a few things out, my main inspiration was old school tattoos, which i love, and just thought that they would transfer perfectly into a design for a t-shirt. Once i’d drawn them out i scanned them and started editing them on photoshop, adding colour, changing the levels etc, so here is some design that i came up with.... 

Finally finished all of the work for this projects, quite proud of myself gotta be said for getting everything done on time, usually by now, i’m rushing around trying to finish every thing but, i learned from my mistakes on the last project. I put the finishing touches to my sketch book, annotating my contextuals, and sticking in my final designs. All in all i’m really pleased with the outcome of this project, print design is something i love and being able to create a magazine from scratch and design the whole thing yourself is what i love the most about Graphic Design. 

here are some of the finished pages of my magazine, i have laid everything out in indesign, and apart from a couple of pages, it is very nearly finished and ready for printing, i cant wait to see what it will all look like once properly put together. Im now focusing mainly of my sketchbook work adding in contextuals and analysing layouts from existing magazines.

Cover - Picture Riverside Salford

Historical - Islington Mill

Some of the inspiration for my own magazine came from publications such as Vogue and Harpers Bazaar. I love monochrome photography, and thought the idea would work really well within my magazine, so after a bit of research i came across the cover below, these really stood out to me because of the black and white palette, with the singular colour contrasting. I chose this style for my own magazine, i wanted the test to jump out at you and pop from the page, but i still wanted it to look high class and expensive, emulating this through the black and white photography.

After doing some research for my magazine, i came across Harpers bazaar magazine layouts, in the “Art Directors Handbook of Professional Design”, beautifully and sensitively design, quite different from the pages of other fashion magazines, where high gloss images of graced the pages. Looking into the history of the magazine i came across the man that in 1930’s made the magazine what it is today. Alex Brodovitch. 

Known firstly from his work on “Harpers Bazaar, as Art Director. He brought a fresh, new concept to the world of layout techniques, pages that blended beautifully cropped photographs, typography and designs that were bold and interesting. He used photography as if to capture a frozen moment in time, succeeding in creating a flow and consistency through-out the magazine.    

His work appealed to me greatly, with being an Art director, a job that i would love to have one day, it was something that i could learn so much from. His innovation in design is inspiring, and his sensitivity to getting the message across, in anyway legible or not, is a breath of fresh air in the design world.

Just a little post, heres some of the pictures from my day trip to salford, hoping to play around with some type and how it will look on the photos next, ready for putting my magazine together. 

So, i know i have posted on here for quite a while, life has been quite hectic over christmas, what with work, and uni stuff etc, but here i am, refreshed and excited for a new year. 

I have to admit that i probably should have spread the work across the three weeks or so that we’ve had off instead of leaving it to this last week, but i know myself i work better with a little pressure. However, i have completed quite a bit of work this week. I have written the copy for inside my magazine, for the articles on the historical, contemporary parts of salford and my own personal experiences, in addition to this i have done some sketch book work, trying out ideas for layout, playing with composition and experimenting with photographs scanning them in and working into them. Also tomorrow i’m off to salford to take pictures for my magazine, so i’ll post them up on here tomorrow night <3