we went to a book making workshop at salford this morning, which at first i thought wouldn’t be so helpful, but actually found it really insightful and quite fun. We started of by learning about the grain of paper, and how printing against the grain can affect the book, we also learnt about weights of paper for example 40 gsm paper, would be thin photocopy paper, were as a higher gsm of 150 would be thick quality paper.

We started off by making a “beak” book, requiring you to fold a piece of landscape paper in half and then half again, then turning it back to portrait and folding it in half. Unfold the paper, and fold it in half landscape ways and cut it to halfway, so when you open it out you get a “beak” effect. In addition to this we tried making “Trouser” books and concertina books. 

We also got to look through some artist examples using the techniques we had just learnt. i found this part extremely helpful, with our current brief, were i felt that i had to be very precise with the book/magazine that i made, so it had a Swiss graphic design feel to it, however, after looking through some examples, i realise i could be more free and creative with what i made, so i intend to experiment with different structures and shapes over the weekend to see what kind of interesting results that i can create. 

Books made by the Artist who lead the workshop. 

Lucy May Schofield.

WEEK NINE

I entered a competition a couple of months back to design a logo for Big Brother winner Josie Gibson’s new clothing range “Randymare”, i didn't think anything would come of it but got an e-mail today saying that I had won!!!! I can’t believe it!!!! The hoodies are on sale now and are all sold out.

They said they will be in contact with me with dates for lunch with Josie Gibson and they are sending me free hoodies as well!

Well you have to start somewhere don't you!

We got our new brief today, so excited as it’s an editorial project, we are are rrequired to design a series of page layouts for a publication concerned with the district of Salford (however we are able to chose a different one if we like), its history, people, and future, for the City council. We have to chose one of 3 themes to base our content on, either Music, Art or Architecture. I have decided to stick with Salford/Manchester as I love the city itself, and as we have to share our own personal experiences, i feel i can draw on them more with somewhere I love. Having done some quick research today I’ve decided to focus on the Art scene in Manchester, there are so many well know galleries such as the Whitworth, Lowry, Cornorhouse and Manchester Art Gallery along with a few less well know ones for example, Islington Mill an independent gallery and creative hub allowing artists to rent studio space. 

Islington Mill

So excited to get started on this project now, as it completely different to the previous one and will throw up new challenges and require different skills, as we will be working alot in Indesign, which i have used a lot in previous projects, and feel quite confident in using it however we did have a refresher tutorial yesterday, on the ins and outs of the program, learning the basic of setting paragraph styles, using placeholder text and basic layout properties. I’ve got a long way to go but i think i will really enjoy this project.

WEEK EIGHT

So I have been looking into our on going professional context project, where we have to create a website, for a company/. There were 4 companies to choose from: 

California Custom Cycles - An American Custom bike company coming to the UK

Philipa’s Patch - A wine bar

Silent Chaos - A Manchester based band 

Clear View UK - A high street brand of opticians 

Out of the four the one that appealed to me the most was Clear View Opticians, as i felt looking at a few websites for opticians and going through a few ideas i felt i could have the most fun with this brief, also as i wear glasses my self, i felt i had more knowledge of this than the other 3. 

The brief has asked for a website to be made, alongside a company logo, and an embedded motion piece. In addition to this a downloadable PDF brochure with a 15% off voucher, and i have been researching a few opticians websites and brands of glasses, and was greatly inspired by the Ray Ban website. The website caught my attention straight away, with the bright colours and funky illustration, which sends out a very modern and contemporary image, exactly what they are trying to get across to the audience, reminding me very much of the work of Push Pin Studios.

I also had an idea for a motion piece for the website, I’ve seen this ad many times on TV 

Look Fashion magazine ad
I know the ad has nothing at all to do with opticians, but what i liked the most is how it used images and flicked through them, and the idea i had for my motion piece was to take photographs of different people, wearing all kinds of different frames, and have them flash up one after another like the Look Magazine ad, with a strap line of something like “frames to suit everyone” and then at the end have someone with no glasses saying “or not...” to advertise the fact that they provide Laser correction surgery, this is just a few quick thoughts that i had on what i could produce for this project, and as it is an on going project in gives me plenty of time to experiment with different ideas.

Have been working hard on my essay this past week, especially this weekend having handed in my project  i was able to focus on it more than i had been doing previously. I decided at first i would focus my essay on Massimo Vignelli, however after researching into more modernist designers, i decided to go with Wim Crouwel. To me his work and the way he produces it is so inspiring, For his clean and precise posters for museums, to his grid systems and technical type make him, one of the pioneers of Swiss Style. 

So the project is finally over, and i handed everything in yesterday. I've really enjoyed this brief and found it challenging and it has allowed me to explore new ideas. One of the most refreshing things about the project was that we had to think so conceptually about the pieces, especially the Deify section, which brought in a fresh was of seeing and doing things. 

However, I have to say the most enjoyable part for me was the final Glorify part. One of the things I enjoy most about graphic design is producing print pieces so when we had the chance to promote our shrines, I feel that I excelled at this part the most, however I did find the other two briefs exciting, challenging and equally enjoyable, especially the very first project, Objectify, where we had to create 25 representations, this challenged our creativity and made us think and explore new techniques. 

Overall I found this brief very enjoyable, and look forward to starting our next project in the coming weeks.

WEEK SEVEN

I started the final piece of the project this week, to publicise the Exhibition that will be taking place to show are shrines, in a few weeks time. As you can see above i have started off with a design for a poster, the first picture is of my initial design idea, wanting to utilise that handmade look that i love so much, i initially wanted to sketch the whole piece, incorporating the hand drawn typography to give it that vintage feel, The second picture is the realisation of my idea using Photoshop. I have Incorporated, found images and my own images of flowers for the surrounding wreath, in the centre my own photo, from my 25 representations with hand drawn type that i scanned in and overlayed, and accompanied with some, art deco inspired digital type. Now the piece is finished, I am very pleased with the outcome, it conveys exactly what i wanted for the exhibition posters, and hopefully carry through to the other piece i plan to create, including one additional poster, and invitations/ postcards, each with a different design. 

Some Other Ideas...

WEEK SIX

Started the final part of the project this week, to advertise an exhibition of our shrines, in the form of posters, postcards, exhibition guides etc. I started off looking through books for inspiration for my project, and came across a book on STEFAN SAGMEISTER - Things I have Learned in my Life so Far, and was greatly inspired by the typography, and lecture posters that were presented in the book. The hand rendered type that he uses in most of his pieces was what i liked most, and wanted to take an element of that an transfer it to my own pieces. his style is striking to the point of sensationalism with a hint of humour, that in some ways makes it unsettling way, but not quite unacceptable. The beauty of his work is his ability to conceptualise and create original and stunningly appropriate ideas. 

also while researching i came across IDN Magazine - The cut and paste issue, featuring digital and paper collage. having explored this style of work before, i wanted to go back to it again, the hand made feel of the collages, was something that really appealed to me, giving it a vintage and dreamlike quality to the pieces. Collage is often dismissed by some as a hobby or a craft activity for kids, yet it has an effective way of communicating. EDUARDO RECIFE, is also an artist who uses collages in alot of his work, using a mixture of photography and illustration, in combination with handmade type to create the stunningly beautiful collages. 

"For Me Helvetica Is Just This Beautiful, Timeless Thing..."

I've started my research for my essay this week, choosing the "artist that fits into the modernist framework" question, and the artists I wanted to look at in more depth were, WIM CROUWEL and MASSIMO VIGNELLI, who were featured in that modernist period and I have been inspired by their work previously. 

I watched the documentary film HELVETICA, about the typeface of the same name and graphic design as an industry. The film, directed by GARY HUSTWIT, and released in 2007 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Swiss typeface, features many highly regarded graphic designers ERIK SPIEKERMANN, NEVILLE BRODY, and NORMAN C.PLACE of BUILD to name but a few. The feature tells the history of the font, how it came about in 1957, designed by MAX MEIDINGER and EDUARD HOFFMANN, how its was seen as a breath of fresh air in the industry, and inspired the modern, Swiss style of graphic design. Helvetica, translated as "the Swiss typeface", was renamed in 1961, from the original name of NEUE NAAS GROTESK to make it more appealing to the Americanised market, and unbeknown to anyone became the most successful typeface of the next 50 years. What I find the most interesting about the film is how the eclectic group of designers argue its credibility in the graphic design world, from Paula Scher, who deemed Helvetica as a "sponsor of the Vietnam war" as well as the "Iraqi war", to the pioneers of the Swiss style in the form of Wim Crouwel and Massimo Vignelli, who adored the the clean, neutral lines of the font. 

"The meaning is in the content of the text, not in the typeface and that is why we loved Helvetica very much" Wim Crouwel

WIM CROUWEL

  

A dutch Graphic designer and typographer, who in 1963 founded the design studio Total Design. In 1964, and onwards, Crouwel designed posters and exhibition catalogues for the Stedelijk Museum, were his work took on a systematic approach, and he started to use grids, "where you can play all your typographic games", and kept all his work within the system, giving a uniformity and structure to the pieces he produced and earning him the nickname "Gridnik".

 As well as the print work, he created a number of typefaces, his most famous being "The New Alphabet", that embraced the modernist format and only used, horizontal and vertical lines and was as wide as it was tall allowing it to fit into every grid system. The font gained a lot of attention and showed up in an number of UK pop magazines and 30 years after designing it was asked to digitise the original typeface. 

Crouwel's work is undoubtedly from the modernist era, his clear cut designs, made his posters and catalogues fresh and new for the 1960's and more important legible, a buzz word for the era, unlike that of the post-modernist artists who say just because something communicates, doesn't make it legible, however in this case the two work hand in hand together, and set the ball rolling for the next 30 years in design. 

MASSIMO VIGNELLI

An Italian Graphic designer, industrial designer and architect, and founder of the design consultancy, Unimark International in 1965, which quickly became one of the biggest design firms in the world. Vignelli Will always be seen as a bearer of Swiss graphic design, often taking his own Italian flair to it, and giving it a graceful, Mediterranean edge and almost single-handily imposed Helvetica into the corporate identity of America. Some of his most recognisable works are for AmericanAirlines and Bloomingdale's. In 1966, he created the identity for the airline and by bonding the two words together to make it just one, showed a fresh way of looking at things and reflected the modernist style making it also one of the only Airlines in the last 40 years to not change its identity. The one-word AmericanAirlines logo, half red and half blue, in plain type, stresses the professionalism, "no gimmicks" attitude of the company in the national colours, and in the words of Vignelli himself "What can be more American than red and blue?"

In 1972 he created the corporate identity for the New York department store, Bloomingdale's, the logo portrays the diversity of the department store. Not one sign, but a collection of three, the first, light for fashions, the second, medium for housewares and finally bold for men's store, is what he created, a typeface design that functions at each level of appropriateness, at set him on his way in being one of the most influential design figures of the 20th century. 

      

Received my brand new Macbook today! Very excited about it as you can imagine. After visiting Vogue on our trip to London, and seeing everyone working on Mac's I decided to invest in one, as when it comes to working in the industry, that's whats everyone will be using, so it gives me a chance now to learn the In's and outs of it and get used to it before going in to the graphic design world. 

I'm also looking into buying the creative suite, that includes photoshop, indesign, illustrator, dreamweaver and premier pro, which once again will allow me to build on my knowledge already and become acquainted with new programmes, like dreamweaver, that i have never used before.