Folds.

Yesterday morning at University we were given a project with a hand in time of 5pm that evening and this was my outcome. We were given the task of using an A3 page and considering folds had to create a layout that would incorporate; a title, 5 words to describe the title and one paragraph on the title. We were not allowed to use images, just text and we were only allowed to use one typeface. Our main project in this module is a publication, in which we are split into three and put into 17 groups, each tasked with interviewing either a designer, an illustrator, or a photographer. My group received the amazing opportunity of interviewing the incredibly talented and innovative designer Richard Seabrooke (of Dynamo and The Small Print), and so to make the design appropriate I decided to create a piece on Richard Seabrooke. I used Futura Condensed as my typeface as it was one of the fonts he likes. I also decided on cutting down my A3 page to a square (29.7×29.7), and created a double sided print using a fancy fold, just add a quirky edge and grab interest of anyone whom may choose to open it up to see more. I wanted a fold that would excite viewers, a fold that they wouldn’t suspect at first glance or touch. I chose brown, pink and white as my colour palette as I wanted quite a muted palette so that it all works softly together and that no part of the design is fighting to be seen. Let me know what you think about the design!

How is looks when you first open it and discover the fold, I designed it so that ‘Richard’ ran along the fold.

Its just like a hinge then, you pull one edge and it all opens out flat.

The text wraps around the centre.

Pin Hole Camera.

I haven’t posted any of my own work in a while so it is time for that to change. These two photographs took three people to create: me, Winnie and Leah . We created them by borrowing Dark Room tutor Chris Barrs Pin Hole camera, which was made from a biscuit tin. We had been taking pin hole photos the previous week using an awful and completely overpriced card pin hole camera from Urban Outfitters. With Chris’ camera instead of capturing the image onto the negative, you place a piece of photographic paper inside the tin and the image is created by light passing through a small hole, so only a small circle of the photographic paper is exposed to the scene. I was so excited by the outcome, I am hooked on this technique, I am currently making my own tin box camera. The only downside to it is you need to be close to a dark room to take the photos, due to the fact that as soon as you expose the paper to light, you need to bring it to the darkroom, to remove it so that it is not exposed to light and the image is lost and also you need to develop straight away to get the image too, to work out exposure times etc, but all this is all just the exciting part of the process. This is definitely my new hobby, I will be spending most of the next year in the Dark Room.

These two photographs are two that we took, we brought them into photoshop and inverted them, that is why the background is black, and I think this just adds to the intensity of the overall effect of this technique.

This first image, is of a sculpture that was made up of many cubes. We exposed the paper for two minutes and developed it and then inverted it after. It is so beautiful, it looks like it is bursting out of the centre of the page It is quite abstract, it is impossible to tell what it is.

This one is by far my favourite it is absolutely beautiful. We held the camera over the 4th floor balcony and took a picture of the University Atrium. We exposed the paper for a mere one minute, developed it and then again inverted it. It turned out so soft and beautiful it just glows. To me it looks like a birds eye view of NYC, the blobs look like cars and the blocks look like buildings. It is so abstract I am sure everyone will see something different in it and to me that is what makes it so exciting.

Brooklyn Fare.

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!

Obama.

I was looking through the Logo Design Love website, when I found an extremely interesting post on it that brought you through the contenders for the Obama branding for his 2008 Presidency Campaign. Sol Sender, led the design team for the Obama 08 logo and interestingly enough he had never worked on a political logo before. These were some of the ideas that he and his team came up with that just didn’t cut it.

This is Option 1. It is an interesting idea, just using blue, with clever use of reflection. It is quite interesting how half of the ‘08 is present but it is still readable. It is quite quirky with the use of reflection, it catches your attention. I think however that it probably isn’t suitable for a presidency campaign. It is extremely corporate, and I think a bit too similar to many other designs. It is very straight and bland, it is missing substance.

This is option 2. Personally I absolutely adore overlaying colours, especially in type, it just is so eye catching and so beautiful, it just adds to text, without having to do too much. This logo has an interesting layout, the 0′8 being the most predominant, with the campaign info to the side. It is quite an interesting design, the layout would be quite interesting turned 90 degrees clockwise, I could see it being used on many different treatments either way. It is very patriotic in colour choice with the red and blue against the white, which is quite an important statement for a Presidency Campaign, it means that the American people can associate with the logo. It is a very clean, fresh and modern design, but I am not to sure if the ‘08 in scale should be so predominant.

This is option 3. I actually quite like the idea behind this logo. I love how the designers have made the O and the B at the start of the name also represent an 0 and an 8. It is very quirky and eye catching and gives equal importance to both pieces of information. Again the designers used the patriotic colours of the American Flag. It is a very clean design, that is quite modern, it is youthful enough to reach out to first time or young voters and also modern and corporate enough to speak out to an older audience. I think it would be quite an appropriate design but it is still lacking in something.

This is option 4. This is an interesting approach to the logo, clipping an illustration into the 0, of ‘08. It is in a way cheesy shown in this context but the designers presented this logo on many different treatments and in some it actually looked quite interesting and appropriate. I wonder why the designers chose to put a picture of a landscape instead of some other photograph that would represent the candidate or their ideologies, but I suppose in the same breath I can see that it could represent the future, a bright future, or even a breath of fresh air that the candidate it bringing.

This is option 5. This is quite an interesting logo, using speech bubbles to communicate the information. Again the designers used the patriotic colours; red, white and blue. It is quite a contemporary design, it is very youthful and for this reason I can see why it was not chosen. It is not very appropriate for a presidency campaign, it is too playful and looks more like branding for some sort of advertisement trying to sell something to a target audience of 18 to 25 year olds. It is completely detached from the majority of the population especially those who will vote. It is not serious enough, and does not say anything about the candidate. It is an interesting design, with interesting layout and it could work so beautifully on another project but I feel that it is completely inappropriate for a presidency campaign.

This was the winning design. The logo moves forward from the above design of the 0 with the picture in it, instead it is a beautiful logo, of the stripes of the American flag, with a sun rising over it. It is a very powerful and beautiful design, the type works well with it, using differing shades of blue. It is modern yet it is a timeless logo that will last, as it is so simple yet not bland, it invited the viewer in a communicates through image. It is beautiful, and inviting and reaches out to wide target audience. It would work beautifully in many different treatments which the designers showed throughout the entire campaign.

It is interesting to see the progression of how a logo like this is designed and where the design originated from. It is also extremely interesting to see especially for a student designer like me, that all designers go through a lot of prep work and quite a few design ideas to get to the final, perfect one.

Marcus Hausser.

I stumbled across this amazing Brazilian photographer called Marcus Hausser, when I was looking through blogs. When I saw the above photograph I was instantly pulled in. It is a powerful piece of art, a portrait photograph of what looks like an older woman, made all from hands. The same with the one below a portrait of a Punk, Mohawk and all, again all created using hands. They are so beautifully composed and lit, it is such an exciting and clever idea. Illusions have always been popular within all branches of the art and design world, but this is so different from anything I have ever seen! It is ingenious and just messes with your mind, amazing!

When I then explored more and found this SITE (which is used to showcase his work) I came across this amazing series of photographs Mark done for a Fiat Campaign. Each I think show how different Fiat vehicles are used, there is a School Bus Driver, and Fruit and Fish deliverer. Every picture is composed in the exact same way, the driver squished, holding the steering wheel with the contents of their vehicles squeezed in around them as if you are looking in through the front window. This composition works especially well in the school bus photograph, the kids add a certain amount of humour to the piece. The colours are so vibrant in all three photographs, they are instantly eye catching, they are so unusual and extremely cleverly done. At first glance you would not think that they were for a campaign, that they are actually trying to sell you something, which is a very powerful thing! I absolutely adore his work, he shows immense talent, and he has a unique way of creating each photograph to look like a piece of artwork, which are timeless. I will insure I keep stopping by his site awaiting more work to feast my eyes upon.

the Anti-Theft Lunch Bag.

Designer Sherwood Forlee has came up with a clever solution for those whose lunch is constantly stolen by co-workers, classmates or partners: the Anti-Theft Lunch Bag. How amazing are they? I really want to get a pack. Green splotches that look like mould are printed on both sides of the plastic so anyone who had previously eyed up your sandwiches will think twice when they reach for it. It is such a simple solution when you think of it, repulse the thieves. Forlee was so clever in producing this product, it is so quirky and would attract many. I love the idea but personally I was pretty excited by the packaging for the bags. It is very american, the brown paper bag we are so used to seeing on TV, which american kids and adults alike carry their lunch in. It is such a simple packaging design, a brown paper bag, with simple small black type but it is so attractive.

Bags.

I was just looking through different design sites and blogs and I kept coming across many different shopping bag designs that were extremely quirky and eye catching and it made me want to delve into this genre of design more to see what I could come up with, and here are just a minute few of the many I found:

The brass knuckle bag design for Clothes In Closets, was the first bag I came across and I was instantly extremely excited about the design. How quirky and different is it? If I saw someone carrying this bag in the street I would go straight to the shop and buy something, anything, just so I too could own one of these bags. It was designed by Leo Burnett Lisbon ad agency. The idea behind the brass knuckles was to apparently protect the garments inside the bag from others, which is quite a humorous design solution. The black against the silver too make it quite sophisticated even with the violent knuckles, it’s urban, street, chic.

This is an extremely smart design for a turkish department store chain; YKM. You do not usually see the strap of a bag being taken into consideration when a bag is being designed, it is usually an after thought and is only ever there for its function, so this is such a beautifully thought out design. It is such a sophisticated design. I love how the user interacts with the design, to provide motion to the photograph of the woman jumping over a jump rope.

This is an extremely clever and humorous design. It instantly catches your eye. It is for a German company; Stop’n Grow is a bag that is primarily for advertising the product and it’s supposed to look like a hand being bitten. I could not find the name of the company whom designed this bag, so if anyone could tell me their name I would greatly appreciate it as I would love to see more of their work.

This is a hard hitting design that would instantly catch your eye as it is such a strange scene to see, especially on the side of a shopping bag. It is for the Red Cross and was designed by Lem advertising agency. It is such a powerful statement and out of all of the bags I looked at, this is the one that hit me the most, in terms of the message that is being portrayed. It is not a shameless attempt at grabbing others attention and pulling money out of purses to spend on pointless items, instead it is a statement of life. It is trying to catch the eye of others and trying to provoke interest and feeling inside of them, to ignite interest in the cause of the red cross to help save lives.

As soon as this popped up on my screen it instantly caught my attention. It is a Panadol Shopping Bag, that is supposed to represent a headache. It looks like the mans hair is being pulled as the subject throws the bag over his back. Again I could not find the master mind behind this design. If anyone knows the designer of this bag please let me know. It is a hilarious design that begs to grab attention, it is so unusual, and extremely quirky, it is interactive design at its finest, incredibly smart and one picture instantly sells the product.

Hangerpak.

Throughout my career as a designer, I want to strive to create environmentally friendly design that do not drain natural resources, that do not release harmful toxions or pollute the environment in any shape or form, so I am constantly searching the internet and books to find solutions or inspiration to all design projects that way come my way.

Designer Steven Haslip won first prize in the D&AD 2007 student awards, with this environmentally friendly design for packaging for online clothing companies. The concept for ‘Hangepak’ came from his own previous experiences with online shopping. He describes the inspiration of this piece on his website by writing; ‘I buy t-shirts online and they always come wrinkled and I always run out of coat-hangers. So I designed a sustainable, reusable way to send and keep your t-shirts. As you open the package you create a coat hanger. The packaging could be made from recycled material whether it is card or plastic and the only waste is the green tear-away tab.’

It is completely ingenious, and in the worrying environmental climate we live in and in a world where people are starting to grow an environmental conscious, it would attract people to buy a certain product if they new doing so would help the environment. I am not too sure how to describe the concept, ‘gimmick’ cheapens the whole design. It is such a simple design, but such a smart design at the same time. It is such a simple solution to the amount of packaging that gets thrown out and with the recession the world is struggling in at the moment, it is nice to know that once you buy the t-shirt you have bought a hanger too. It is also a cheap design to produce, and could be produced in many different materials. I adore design that is interactive and that requires the user to think. This is a beautiful piece of design that would attract attention and actually encourage people to buy a t-shirt just to get the packaging.

if you would like to see anymore of Steven’s work check out his site:HERE!

MAD.

Whilst researching for my latest Universtiy project I came across some branding that Pentagram designed for the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. I instantly fell in love with the branding, it is so fresh, vibrant and modern. I absolutely adore Modular typefaces, they instantly catch my eye and they stand out in a sea of traditional typography that bombards us everyday. The typeface is not instantly easily read and I think that that mystery adds interest to it and pulls people in to investigate more, to discover the contents. The use of colour by Pentagram for this project I feel has helped it succeed. The above image is the logo that Pentagram came up with. The different patterns and colours they used to block in the typeface shows how dynamic of a design it is. The feel of the type can instantly change by altering pattern or colour; the wood gives it an environmental feel and the solid colour gives it a modern, youthful feel.

These are some promotional posters that were created, and I am so inspired from the use of colour. It is that that catches the eye and draws you in to the poster to enquire on its content.

These are some promotional postcards that Pentagram created for the museum. I again adore the colour use for each individual different postcard design, and the witty comments on each, its very clever and a great way to grab attention. If I saw these postcards I would want one of each, they are so exciting and inspiring. Modular type is recreated a lot these days for promotional means especially around Belfast, its seems to be the trend but there is just something fresh and different about this design, I don’t feel like I have seen it before, I think that again, that is due to the vibrant and experimental use of colour.

Like the postcards this follows the same idea, with the use of vibrant colour against a black backdrop and witty use of statements. This is advertising that Pentagram created for Buses in New York, if I saw this bus drive past it would instantly catch my attention, it is so big and bold and in your face, the scale and colours just scream at you to look at them.

Finally this is the branding for bags for MAD, the colours are so exciting, the pink is so vibrant and the pattern of the logo really jumps out, it is so fresh and differs from the other branding in way of colour and pattern. This is why this branding it so exciting, the colours differ, as if the branding is constantly being reinvented for different treatments which keeps it fresh and pulls you in to see how it differs and what it has to offer. It feels like a set of design that you just have to collect each piece! I am so inspired by this piece of work, especially its vibrant use colour.

Paperjam Design presents Live Draw.

I attended the Paperjam Live Draw Event tonight in Belfast for Culture Night Belfast ‘09 in the Cathedral Quarter. It wasn’t what I had expected, but I thoroughly enjoyed the night. I am not too sure what I expected but I thought it would be controlled, and an organised piece of continuous design, timed and pre-organised or prepared, but instead I was met with a large grey wall, that had a continuous circulation of illustration, none of which flowed together, nor where consistent in content and I loved it. There was no control, there was no strict design theme or style or content. It seemed it was an anything goes approach as though the designers just went with their gut, the brief was blown wide open to any interpretation. Whoever wanted to pick up the pen could, and just draw whatever came into their mind. This complete freedom added mystery and suspense, you didn’t quite know what was coming next. They projected some jpeg typography design and other work they had previously created, along with drawings of the Superman logo, t quick portrait sketches, and some abstract lines and doodles. There were a couple that really stood out; a beautiful illustration of a cupcake and an intriguing cartoon style cactus, each illustration differed in style and theme.

The artist of the cupcake was a local guy called Alan Thompson.