Witty Business Card.
March 8, 2011
I randomly found this business card online, and I love it. I love the witty and informal approach it has, it would definitely catch my attention. A nice change from the usual stuffy, corporate design business cards. Alexander Parker created it as a temporary business card.
ISTD Brief.
March 8, 2011
Next year I will be choosing my ISTD/ D&AD brief and so I have been looking into work that previous students have created. I found this beautiful piece by Rishi Sodha, I was instantly pulled in by the presentation, the beautiful, chic black packaging, and the explosion of the individuality wrapped posters. A beautiful controlled and executed piece.
Rishi is a very talented, award winning designer, I’m sure Rishi’s career will be very successful. On Rishi’s website Rishi explains the thoughts and process behind the concept:
“The original brief was to explore the concept of 100 and its significance.
As such, in this project I decided to answer the question: If we are defined by the people we know, can you be defined by your relationships with 100 people? 100 people were each given 100 seconds to answer 3 simple questions about an anonymous person, referred to as X. These posters look at their answers & invite the viewer to make their own judgements of the anonymous subject.”
Reily Says Roar!
January 14, 2011
Introducing the newest member of my family, the very friendly, Mr Reily.
Buchstaben Museum.
November 7, 2010
The Buchstaben Museum (The Museum of Letters) was one of the highlights of my visit to Berlin! This museum is hidden in the corner of Berlin Carre Shopping Centre across from the TV tower at Alexanderplatz and is a mere €2.50 to gain access to this heaven of type. The musuem which is a non profit organisation was created in 2005 by Barbara Dechant and Anja Schulze, under a passion for typography. They wanted to rescue threatened letters from public spaces. The museum preserves and restores type not only from Berlin but from around the world too. Each letter in the museum has a card with its identity and information. The museum strives to document the history, origins and stories behind each of its pieces.
Every corner of this commercial space is overloaded with type, it is lying on the floor, piled one infront of the other against walls, hanging of string from pipes. This is only a temporary space for the museum until the owners can find somewhere permanent, and hopefully bigger.
No space is left unused, even the bathrooms are off limits as type is placed in there and showcased. I absolutely adore this. They just have so much to offer but just not enough space.
Some of the type on show is still in working order, which only adds to the exhibition. Some of the pieces have been plugged in to show them in their working glory.
I adored the organisation of this museum, lack of space does not prevent them from being creative with their presentation. The museum is split into many small rooms and some of these rooms are colour coordinated, there is a yellow room, a blue room, and a red room! The red room was my favourite room as it had the most eccletic taste in type styles, some quite coporate, some highly decorative.
This is a must see museum for any type geek or just general design lover. Check out the Buchstaben Website for more information…www.buchstabenmuseum.de
I shall definitely return on my next trip to Berlin. It is hard to describe how amazing this museum is, it truly is something you have to see with your own eyes. The owners are doing an amazing thing, rescuing all these amazing specimens of type which would otherwise be destroyed and forgotten about.
The musuem accepts donations and sponsors, to help keep it running. You can also adopt a letter, which is something I am very tempted to do, in order to help this project grow. You can also help the museum grow… if you have seen a display letter worthy of rescue send photos, contact information and information about the location to the museum via their website.
The Buchstaben Museum current location:
Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 13,
10178 Berlin,
Alexanderplatz,
Berlin Carre,
1.0G/1st Floor
Opening Hours:
Thu—Sat, 1—3pm
Entrance:
€2.50
Jam Jar Tees.
October 3, 2010
I had previously posted some of my advertising for a tshirt project I had completed as part of a project, but I just realised I had not posted the actual tshirts. I made three t shirts each with the slogan ‘Orphan’ or ‘Bold Face Orphan’. Two where hand painted (yellow ones) and one was screen printed (blue ones). As part of the project we also had to create tags for the t-shirt and also packaging, and this is mine below.
Pecha Kucha Tees.
October 3, 2010
This was a collaboration between myself and a fellow designer Winnie Shek. To promote the first Pecha Kucha in Belfast which I have previously posted about we took the elements we designed to brand the night (our hand drawn typography and illustrations) and we created a tee, that we wore on the night and the lead up to Pecha Kucha. We chose to leave it simple and allow the type to be the main focus, so that at a glance people could read what we were advertising. I absolutely adore these tees.
Illustration Roughs.
October 3, 2010
I have folders upon folders, and sketchbooks upon sketchbooks of my illustration roughs, that I either do as prep for a project or just for my own enjoyment. I felt that it was about time to brush of the cobwebs of some of these pieces and allow them to see the light of day, as I spend just as much time working on these roughs as I do on the final, polished products. I love looking back at my old work, each piece has so many memories.
These below are a stage further than the above storyboard style roughs, these were my first attempts at finessing the above pieces into a more pliable style. Throughout all of my work I feel that my style is coming through stronger and stronger, I adore to use bold colour and think black lines in all of my work. I take the approach of less is more.
Jam Jar.
August 8, 2010
This is how the piece below started, this was my first ever attempt at bringing my hand rendered type into Adobe Illustrator, I adore experimenting with hand rendered type, it is a great way to produce personality, and express meaning. I adore using pen and paper. The contrast on the blue against the black on this piece I feel really works with the pop of the white in the background. I have more experimentations with this technique that I shall put onto the blog in the near future. Let me know what you think.
Barbara Kruger.
January 9, 2010
As part of a photography module this semester we had to create photographs in the style of Barbara Kruger. It was a group project and I worked with Leah Batchelor to create this photograph series based around chairs. We had a lot of fun creating these, as it is quite difficult to create something that is so restrictive. Although her style is quite unique, harsh black and white photographs with high contrast, with red stripes, containing Futura Bold type. Let us know what you think of our work and check out Leah’s page, she has a lot of her own beautiful work on it.
Sketchbook 2.
January 8, 2010
After looking through the first sketchbook, I looked through my other sketchbook. In this one I experimented with collage and acrylic paints. I experimented with different techniques of creating stationary items. I had fun with these sketches. I am obsessed with colour and I showed that through this sketchbook as I experimented with colour throughout. Again let me know what you think. Mundane everyday stationary made beautiful.
Acrylic paint with ink lines. A light bulb experimenting with lines.
Acrylic paint and inks. I created this pen top using inks for an outline and acrylic paint background with collage to add texture.
Acrylic paint, inks and collage.
Acrylic paint, inks and collage.
Acrylic paint, inks and collage. Using more ink than previously.
Colouring pencil and ink.
Acrylic paint and inks. A comic style, simplified illustration with typography.
Digital Entrepreneurship.
December 11, 2009
I am currently studying a Design Entrepreneurship module, and it is absolutely fascinating. We had a truly inspiring talk from lecturer and entrepreneur Chris Murphy, who explained the whole entrepreneurship ethos to us, and the idea of making money whilst you sleep. He asked us why we were not making money from our designs and this hit home to the entire class. It has got me thinking and inspired me to go out and find my place in the world of entrepreneurism. Chris directed our attention to a website called Etsy that could be our first footing into this world. It is a beautiful site where artists from all fields come together and sell their designs to a global market. This site could make you broke, there are so many beautiful items on it, I always go onto it and find atleast 10 things I just NEED! I have picked out a few of my recent Graphic Design favourites from the site. I love beautifully crafted typographic pieces and these three pieces I would buy in a heartbeat, not for any practical purpose, just purely for the the design quality of each piece. I am a nerd when it comes to typographic pieces, they just excite me, no matter how plain a design the type always speaks for itself!
I wish they made these as purses as well as wallets as I absolutely adore them. This is just a beautiful and quirky crafting of helvetica on a practical everyday object. Personally I am not one who has sold into the whole helvetica hype, but that does not make this design any less exciting for me. I love humour in design, I love when it is designed to be enjoyed as the soul purpose.
This was the designers sales pitch, short and sweet, it is a wallet designed for a target audience; designers and type enthusiasts:
” I am not one to Who’s the original and who’s the impostor? I think we all know the answer to that one. This wallet was designed to further the debate between the Arial and Helvetica camps, while firmly stating its own position.
Wallets come in two flavors-Helvetica Good (white) and Helvetica Evil (Black). This is the evil (mwa ha ha) version.”
Again another take on helvetica with a humorous treatment. It is a beautiful layout on the bag. Tote bags are just part of everyday life, they are just like plastic bags, every supermarket, clothes shop, music shop etc have jumped on the Tote band wagon, so it is nice to see something different and exciting done with the design on them. Again this piece was crafted with a target audience of typography lovers in mind. It is not a generic design designed to sell to a wide audience. It is carefully crafted and thought out and this is what attracts my attention. I adore that effort has also been put into the production as the totes are silk screen printed.
This is the designers sale pitch:
“silkscreen some days feel like helvetica tote
be green while making a statement!
this tote is inspired by helvetica. playing on syllables, words & meaning while creating visual interest with typography. perfect for any font savant, designer or typoholic.”
These are created by the same designer as the above totes. They are beautiful, playful cards and I want to collect them all. I would love to receive one of them. They are letterpress printed which gives them a beautiful quality and texture. They are beautifully designed and the lay out uses debossing and negative space. They are designed with the designer or type enthusiast in mind, and they really speak out to this audience not only through design but through the quirky humour.
This is the designers sales pitch:
“letterpress futura card
4bar letterpress card
i’m a type zealot… officially in fact, it says so on my business card. my type obsession has been the inspiration behind many of my creations; this card being one of them.
this card is part of a series. the series is based off some of my favorite & maybe even one not so favorite fonts. playing on words & meaning while creating visual interest with typography. perfect for any font savant, designer or typoholic.”
Bicycle Film Festival ’09 Trailer.
November 25, 2009
I adore this video, it is absolutely amazing, I was so excited when I first saw it. The Bicycle Film Festival ’09 trailer was created by Marco Mucig. It is such an innovative and interesting way of presenting type, and presenting a title of an event. The layout and flow is effortless, and it looks so simple but this is what makes it so visually appealing, it just pulls you in right up until the final second. The set up of the frames are gorgeous, the use of light adds to the vibrancy of the scenes. It is just a highly polished, quirky piece of video, that is exciting from start to finish. Marco Mucig has a very ecclective selection of his work on his website, which is a visual explosion of colour and illustration it is absolutely stunning work, check it out HERE!
Brooklyn Fare.
October 28, 2009
New York based Mucca Design created the branding and design for a new grocery store called Brooklyn Fare. The store sells healthy, environmentally friendly food. Mucca designed a custom typeface, color palette, and in-store graphics from packaging to uniforms to interior design. The above diagram is how Mucca summed up this project on their website, it is quite quirky. Mucca said their goal in this design was “to position this smaller, neighborhood store to be able to compete with the national grocery giants.”
The typography Mucca designed is called Fare Serif, and it was designed to be used in large formats. It is such a clean, fresh and playful typeface. The type is only ever represented in white or black which looks extremely fresh and predominant upon the four colour palette. I absolutely adore this branding, it is so fresh and innovative. There is no over design, there is not too much information, there is no logo, it is just simple, plain text that is so easy on the eye that it just begs to be read. The slogans on the in store design are so quirky and fun and extremely friendly. Me being me I would have to collect each piece of the design, just to have it all.
The napkins are so quirky ‘wipe that smile on your face’, ingenious, it communicates with the customer, something that almost all grocery stores fail to do. Just reading the napkin would make you smile and feel good. The layout and spacing of the type is so cleverly done, it all just fits so perfectly together, throughout all of the treatments. On the napkins the type is all in the same typeface, in the same weight, but in differing sizes but even at that you still know that the smaller font is the logo, or the shop name.
I want to work in this store, who knew orange could be so beautiful. The quirkiness of the uniform just adds to how inviting the store is. ‘We know our store front to back’, which makes the employees so approachable, the uniforms again beg for you to go to the wearers. It is such a simple yet such an extremely powerful piece of design. The designers went straight back to basics, and have succeeded. They have created an extremely exciting and innovative piece of design that I believe will stand the test of time. I want to hop on a plane to Brooklyn to see this design in its environment.
Check out more of Muccas designhere!
James Datz.
August 5, 2009
I found these t-shirt designs by a Brooklyn designer called James Datz, he is a free lance Art Director, Designer and Illustrator. I instantly fell in love with is work because I love how he uses typography to create illustration. I think that this is a perfect example of how illustration and typography can intertwine. My favourite out of all the pieces is by far the first one. I adore it, its so crazy and busy it just works so well. I feel completely inspired by his work, it is so organic, I love how he plays with words to give such meaning.
When looking through his website I also found some branding work he had done for The Lucidity Suitcase. He is extremely thorough in his website and for this one design he shows the numerous ideas he came up with. For this one piece of branding he wrote beneath “For those who might be interested in what a full investigation of a logo for a client (even a small practically-not-for-profit independent theatre company) might entail…” I love his honesty. All the designs are so different, some are extremely simple and others complex. His brainstorming is obvious he did not stick to one idea, he flourished from many.
This one example shows how motivated James is, he puts his heart and soul into every design, providing the client with the highest quality of design, whether it be for a multi national corporation or for a local theatre, the same amount of effort and skill is utilised and from all of his work this is the one piece of inspiration I will carry with me throughout my career; His want to create amazing work despite money. People in this business or so driven by money, that it is figures that determine the effort put into design not a true yearning to constantly improve on ones work and continue to create bigger and better design, the world of graphic design in this light is disgusting.
These pieces are excerpts from a typographic investigation he was commissioned to do by Fortune Magazine. I just love how different all of his work is, none of it looks alike, he has an extremely creative mind. You can see 1920′s style, 1990′s style all wrapped in on one page, its truly breath taking.
He has been commissioned for many different companies, creating both illustration and typography, there is some amazing and inspirational work on his website so if you want to see some more and I highly recommend that you do go on to HERE!
Font Designs
June 16, 2009
These are a selection of my font designs I created for a university project in which I was given four modular shapes: a square, a circle, a pill and a triangle. These are the fonts I created by incorporating those shapes.
Cheese Mouse.
This was my first design, I decided to keep it simple by just using a circle and cutting out smaller circles for the counters, I feel it is quite a useable font, that would work well for titles and such.
Squarmetric.
This font I created by using the square as my body and using the pill to cut out the shapes of each letter. I was quite pleased with this design, it’s not as predictable as the first and I think it all fits well together, like a jig saw. It again is a very useable font, bold and slab in style it would make quite a statement.
Ice Lolly.
This font I created using the triangle and pill shape to create the letter shape and then I incorporated the pill for the counters of the letters. I think the choice of two different colours really adds to this font and makes it font, it splits each letter up into sections but pulls the entire font together. It a more abstract font from my previous fonts, the letters would read well in a word or sentence but some on their own might be a bit too difficult to decipher. All in all though I was very pleased with this font design, it’s playful, it’ s different, it’s unique and it is very useable.
Click Fit.
This font I created by using the triangles by altering the sizes and fitting them together to create the letter shapes. I used a different colour for each triangle and I think that that makes this font very successful, and the use of white space, the triangles are not tight there’s air between them that makes it flow better. The colours aren’t bright and cheerful, they are very useable and this makes it professional. It’s a very sharp, industrial, masculine font that would work well as signage for trucks and such.
Bubblegum.
I had so much fun creating this font, it is such a fun font; the colours, the fonts. I created this font by using the pill shape, each of different colours and all over laying each other. The colours are playful and I think this font design would work so well for branding for something fresh and fun, and I created a mini logo by using the pill shape and I think it worked so well. The ‘v’ needs some work it looks tiny in comparison to the rest of the fonts. This is a very useable font and I am so proud of it.
