aMeLiA's BlOgS ...

Happy red nose day - poor guys bin throo the mill today!! #InsightFilmFestival #plasticine #stopmotion

Latest batch of baked goods all set! #TheVisitor #interview #creative #baking

Today I needed to create visual representations of how my new identity idea for the company would work on the site and I spent most of the day mocking up ideas, colour variations and examples of how my new identity could be spread across the entire site and link pages. I soon realised what wouldn’t and would not work onsite but this only further taught me the difference between designing for web and designing for print.

I was to pitch my ideas for both this project and my previous Manx-based project the next day and so I needed to be completely sure of my concept, how it would work and what my objective was.

Today was the pitch of the website to the client. Whilst this was happening, I was given the task of creating identity, branding and logo ideas for this particular company. As it is an umbrella site that will cover a lot of different individual sections, the logo needs to be flexible and tie into the identity with ease. I originally brainstormed ideas and solutions with the main focus being on creating an icon that could link all the different colours together and form part of a logo.

I spent the whole day doing this and came up with numerous results. However finally one idea to run with, that fitted perfectly with the colour scheme, integrated all the colours to the pages and had the potential to be very flexible across the site. After coming up with the icon, the tricky part was to make text work with it. As never having to design a logo for a site before, it was a great insight into what did and did not work. What may work on paper, wouldn’t work on the site visually. This gave me plenty of room for experimentation and the ideas and designs were soon flowing.

Today I was working on quite a lot of the website ideas. The freelance designer had finished with us for his time and the rest of the site is now up to us. My job of the day was to introduce more themes and colour ideas into the site and think about how this could link throughout all the pages. This was a great task for me as, having not much chance to do web design before, I had the freedom to explore and learn more about how it worked and how I could make it work visually to my advantage.

I played around with quite a few colour scheme ideas, which is harder than you might think when trying to find colours that complement each other. Having at least 6 colours to use, with each needing to be completely different, meant that the colour options needed to be aesthetically pleasing and work well together.

I created different pages, linking colours together and using the spotlights I had previously created. The pitch to the client was the following day and so I needed to have all my options ready and printed for the client by the end of the day. After a brief meeting and a few more adjustments to layout, I had all my options ready to go!

Today I was mostly helping my colleague with the web design. My job was to create the spotlights to the fixed sizes and styling of the site he is building, making it relevant to the subject. I also had to create a few ideas for the background of the main site and tried to integrate the same styling throughout. So most of my work throughout the day consisted of a lot of Illustrator drawing and vector designing. I also created another spotlight idea using the same theme as the previous one, which used a lot of hand vector drawing. Drawing on Illustrator probably took double the time it did to actually create the spotlight.

Today I came into work and had a great little project lined up which was not only interesting but close to my heart. I was to think of campaign ideas of a company from the Isle of Man. I got into this straight away and was soon coming up with lots of brainstorming, copy and ideas of how to push this company further. I found a great way of  getting some interesting and relevant market research - Facebook! Since a huge majority of my Facebook friends are from the Isle of Man, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to ‘pick their brains’ about the pro’s and cons of this company to see which areas I should push.

I had a lot of great, honest responses, most of which were quite similar, which gave me a great insight into the positive areas. As I am from the isle of man also, I had a different perspective to the other designers, hence giving me the opportunity to push my ideas. I was thinking of ways that I could really push this and make it into a working marketing campaign for the company. As I have a different perspective, I know first hand the pros and cons of the company and why I particularly would or wouldn’t use them. This really helped with ideas for the campaign and I think with a bit more brainstorming and further development, I could create some strong campaign ideas to push.

After working on this for the majority of the day, I was asked to help out a freelance designer with a bit of web design. I was to design the spotlight for a website that was being pitched in the coming days. This was a great opportunity for me as web design is not had the opportunity to work first hand with before in a company. I was briefed as to what they wanted and set about  designing some spotlights with the same branding as the website. I used a lot of illustrator line drawings instead of imagery to keep it fresh and bright colours to make it bold and eye-catching. I am to continue with this tomorrow also.

Today was my first day of placement at Access Advertising and I was already on my first mission…to learn the role of an art director.. I accompanied my Senior Designer,  to a photoshoot in Sale which would take place in a restaurant. The subject of the photoshoot was domestic violence, highlighting the different aspects and the possibly hidden signs behind abuse. The photoshoot allowed me to see how the designer worked with the photographer to achieve the perfect shot and directed the actors into the correct positions and apply the appropriate facial expressions.

Its important as an art director to know what you want to achieve out of the shoot. The mood, the atmosphere and the overall feeling behind the image. This was a great way for me to learn the importance of knowing what you want beforehand, as it is quite a lengthy process.

I realised how important lighting was in these particular two shoots, as the most simple change in angle or direction completely altered the mood and the focus of the image. The actual positioning and shooting of the scenes was a lengthy process, with hundred of photos being taken to achieve the ‘perfect’ shot. I was very happy to be able to help in both shoots and be a ‘background’ model. In one of the shoots I sat in the background and chatted to another collegue, and in the other, I held a wine glass with only my hand and the glass in the image. If my graphic design career crumbles I think I’ll make a pretty good hand model!

Once the shoot was over I returned to the office where I would be given my own desk and first computer based task. An MPU graphic for a fashion website. The pitch to the client was the following morning and so everything for this pitch was quite urgent. I spent the majority of the afternoon cutting, sticking and mocking up work ready for the next day. 

Time for some overdue Tumblr updates…get ready people!!!

I am currently in my second week of placement at the company Access Advertising near Old Trafford football stadium!

Having a great time here and I have been keeping a diary…so now you will all know what I have been up to! :)

Love how beautiful you can make curse words!

helloyoucreatives:

OK - that type does say fuck off - but we kind of like it - 

The 2008 Happy Days Sound Festival

nodeberlin.com

(Source: typethatilike)

Apple Website

Its simple, beautiful and completely image orientated, which is prefect for the function of the site…to sell their products.

The site strikes the balance of simplicity, white space and strong bold type which compliments the high colour imagery. More than anything, the site is enjoyable to look around, the products look beautiful and the delivery of each product is easy to understand and above all, appealing.

The colour scheme of white and grey makes the coloured imagery stand out even more and makes the site appear clean, safe and user friendly. Almost implying a reliability, which, if your deciding to buy a £2000 Mac, is quite a reassuring thing. 

The navigation around the site is pretty simple, with each page running consistently with the themes and each one pretty much self-explanatory. I like the initial layout with the buttons at the top of the page and the image underneath, this then directs you to the different areas of the site and other mini-sites (e.g the Store). Once you are into the ‘Mac’ site, underneath the top button bar is a collection of other buttons, this time using imagery and a description of the image to lead you to other pages. Even though these too are buttons, it doesn’t look too much and makes it even simpler to get to where you are trying to find within the site. I also love the way that when the page opens, they ‘bounce’ into view. Lovely little touch.

Oast House Website

As well as being just beautifully branded, the website for the upmarket pub in Spinningfields is equally as beautiful. The logo, which is hand drawn type is perfectly complimentary to the way that the place operates, along with hand-drawn imagery that fits i nicely with the theme.

The colour scheme used adds to the rustic feel of the place and gives you the impression of quite an old English public house. Its extremely rustic and  and quite ‘old-worldly’ with chicken being served in wooden boxes and aperitifs served on wooden boards. Its quite an up-market public house, with quite pricey foods and so i think the website needs to reflect this.

Its a very simply designed site and easy to navigate around, with only a few pages on offer. These, however are the only pages you would need when searching for information about the place. On sites such as ‘Slug and Lettuce’, they are quite overly complicated and have a lot of options, pages and imagery, which sometimes makes it quite confusing to find what it is you are actually looking for.

The imagery of the food in the gallery is just beautiful. The ‘Newsreel’ takes you to an alternative site of which the pub is a chain of. This is a completely different site with an entirely different feel. The individual sites for each place enable the company to give individual ‘feels’ to them and allow them to create their own theme.

Its a beautiful site with a complementary website, really makes me want to go! (maybe once the job front is sorted!)

My next big project is creating my own website. I have been researching into tutorials and websites that i admire to gain inspiration for the layout and design of my own. I would like to make just a simple site using my own branding based on my previous business cards.

Helena and Brett are going to show me what thy have learnt in their previous WEB sessions, as i chose the Motion path. This way i have gained experience on both sides of the spectrum and can generate new skills thanks to the other students skills…

Let the web-building begin…

On my PINTEREST, i have a tonne of Helvetica based posters pinned to one of my inspiration boards. Most of which praise the use and flexibility of the font. This one however says it all in a way. Helvetica is over used in the eyes of some designers. I, however am a fan of the typeface, especially the Neue family. But this really caught my eye and slightly made me giggle at the irony of it and the opposite view of so many of the ones i have posted.

designersof:

(THIS IS NOT A TYPO)

This would have been quite a good idea for our NMP. Our posters are KIND OF interactive in the way that we use clear type to engage the audience to look closer at the individual designs. These are another way of getting the audience to interact with the posters and encourage them to touch it as opposed to just looking.

Noisy Interactive Posters by DM9DDB

Clever campaign by DM9DDB for Saxsofunny, a sound engineering company from Brazil.

Playing with the theme “Every image has a sound”, the Brazilian agency created interactive ads using different materials to simulate the sounds of objects pictured in their campaign posters.

via

(Source: designstain, via helloyoucreatives)