My Preseeeeeennatatttttiooon =]

 

its the FINAL COUNTDOWN…….der der der der…….der der dur dur dur……

Welcome back web folk! did you have a good summer! Ok, formalities over…. Arrrgggghhhhhhhhh!!! its my last year!!

Well this is it folks, the “Big Kahuna” ! Make or break time for Davey Boy! All the results rest on this years work, so better make it a good one!

So what’s coming up? a Thesis (thats a posh essay to anyone reading this in Basildon!), and a BIG last year project!  Are you feeling my pain?

I have decided to go out with the MOTHER of all projects! I’m gonna choose an idea i can ACTUAL bring to market and hopefully compliment the other companies i hope to launch this year. As well as developing this idea, i hope t get it too a stage where i can Market it next year, possibly PATENT it and use innovative and exciting solutions. This should touch on quite a few areas, including corporate identity, Website and Phone Application, Marketing, Copyrighting and ossibly product manufacturing and design.

As my background is in Health & Fitness, it seems pertinent to put this knowledge to good use. I guess i am in a fortunate position to canvass opinion from clients in regard to their training needs, and hopefully fill a gap in the market. I have always had a flair for designing innovative solutions, hopefully this time i havent bitten off more than i can chew!

For anyone following this, i guess the first step is to understand some of the products in the market and our main competition. I am going to post a video from NIKE and then come back in a day or two and tell you guys more about our product!

Ciao!

Somebody has made a mistake……..there CANT only be 4 wks left!!!!

Well this year has been somewhat strenuous! No excuses, just hard work and an upcoming business venture have conspired against the amount of hours i could dedicate this year, however hopefully enough cogs are falling into place to set me up, not only for next year, but also for my future within the industry.

Over the course of easter, i have mainly been focusing on my presentation for profesional practice and my essay.

After a few sleepless nights, i have come away extremely happy with the results of both, i think my essay reads well and i’ve done some dedicated images for my presentation which i think look really good and add a theme to the whole design.

The project is city based and hopefully shows where my interests lie. I think i may have dwelled too long on my own logo design and not enough on what i have planned for the future, altho i dont want to release too many details at this stage!

1st image created to depict city architechture

Hopefully this still encapsulates city landscape but shows of a creative side

Moved on to corporate logos as i talk about my own sector of interest

I reeeeeeeeeally like this design! hopefully it shows where i stand in the future!

Laptop Crisis!!

Finally back online now i have my Laptop back from APPLE! After 2 weeks of not being able to do course work at home, i can finally get back on track and sort out my unfinished projects!

D and AD

This is finally coming to an end, i have got all the Photos i need (hopefully!) and now i just need to create the cover i need! Im starting to get frustrated and its showing in my work ethic as with everything thats going on, i’m struggling for time to commit and get these things looking the way i want! I have come to the realisation that im a great ideas man, but the finishing should be left to someone else! (maybe this bit should be in my “self Promotion” section! lol!)

Essays

Handed in a 1st draught to Tony and Nick, however dont think it was meaty enough for Tony and i agree with his sumise that it reflects too much on the history of Technology within Graphic Design, but i’m hoping to sit down on Friday on my day off and go through my essay alot more thoroughly.

Self-Promotion

Started the presentation and written out a nice script, now need to convert it into a more formatted POWER-POINT display, adding a few nice links, i’m not too sure if i’ve waffled on too much (can you believe i would do that??!!) and need to make sure its relevant, altho my experience working alongside Anthony from GRAFFITTA has been nice and made me look forward to starting in the industry!

On reflection, the last few months have not been my best, mixing course-work, with my own start up business, and work and my placement! hopefully it shall all come to fruition in the end!!

D and AD Awards

Well project for the D and AD is finally coming together, after weeks of speculation, the chosen subject is………………….MINI!

Although i shall be gutted not to be developing my other ideas through to fruition, as i think there were a good few ideas, i think this one relates closer to projects closer to my heart, besides, i may re-visit some for ideas for my own brief.

Anyhoot, moving on, ive now fully developed the idea from just a basic idea, into obtaining a “Guess Who” board game from a freind and visiting a MINI Dealership to garner opinion on the current ways of showing the MINI range of cars.  Generally, they confirmed that the web-site was mainly used and that as i had already assumed, they thought that it didnt really correlate between the different vehicles, with new vehicles looking like an addition to the web-site, rather than an integral part of it.

They’re brochures and flyers also looked pretty standard for a car showroom and didn’t convey the “fun” element that is emphasised as a brand. Im hoping that my idea of using the “Guess Who” board game to convey the multitude of vehicle choices to prospective customers, will add the FUN and RETRO touch in keeping with their ethos.

Tony has said to take the concept futher and create the actual packaging, re-shooting the models and the board game which i think is sound advice. Hopefully time permitting i can get all this finalised in the next week or so!

A basic version of how i want the playing cards to look.

Barnardo’s Project Reflection

Six weeks ago, David O’Sullivan presented us with the basic ideas that Barnardos were looking for in their affiliated project along with the Cardiff Half Marathon.

Too be honest, I think that everyone was left a little ambiguous as to what was required and the parameters we were working within, but the basic principle was to create a logo that incorporated an essence of both Barnardos and the Cardiff Half Marathon. We were to use only the green and grey already used by Barnardos and for it not to resemble current “pic-art” representations.

I initially found this project intriguing and I have come to enjoy these logo-based projects. My original research centered around basic ideas such as arrows and footprints, and I came up with some simplistic ideas.

The development of the footprint idea led me to what I think is my strongest conclusion, which incorporates the Barnardos logo as part of its design. The fact that I have finally managed to break down my thoughts into simpler forms and actually stand back and enjoy them means that hopefully I’m finally getting to grasp with taking my ideas down to basic solutions that truly represent the brief in hand.

Developing and reaching other conclusions however, proved slightly trickier as after my first idea, the rest seemed clumsy and either too extravagant or over worked. I decided to go back to my research, which had incorporated either the footprint or castle as part of the writing. Obviously I had used the footprint so decided to develop the castle further and used my arrow but in a different way to give a feeling of movement and an extra dimension to the image. This worked quite well although I have a feeling it may be dismissed by the panel as it involves manipulation of the “Cardiff Half Marathon” text.

For my next two ideas, I focused on my original renderings of using the charity box as a relay baton in an abstract way, and also the idea of the medal replacing a coin as it goes into a charity collection tin.

My original idea of the relay race came by accident as I was looking for pictures of a collection tin and noticed that the way it was held out for people to put money in, is very similar in essence to how a relay baton is transferred from one runner to another. The problem I had initially was that the design was extremely complicated and difficult to simplify down without losing the essence of what I was trying top convey. I think I managed to pull this off successfully by just using basic outlines and not all of the runners bodies.

My last logo for proposal I think works well as it consits of the suggested outline of the carity collection lid and the text acting as the coin bein placed in it. After a few early sketches, I was able to get this simplified at an early stage and I think this helped in the fruition of a genuinely different idea.

Again I have a feeling that this idea may be rejected due to the manipulation of the text, but on the whole I think I have provided a good selection of logos based on genuinely different ideas.

I don’t think it helped that we were told in the last week that the dynamics of the project had changed somewhat, and I undestand that in “The Real World” your client is likely to do this, but in that situation, you would also have the benefit of a changed deadline if they did this to re-present your ideas.

All in all tho, I thoroughly enjoyed this task and look forward to the next as I feel these are areas I would like to be involved with in the future

Overview of 2009………or………..the best damn excuses i could come up with!! =]

Well where do i start. Settling into the 2nd yr of a Degree has been pretty damn hard (excuses start from here I’m afraid!!).  The transition form 2 days full learing a week to 3 days has brought a heavy cost with condensing my ACTUAL working week at the gym into 4 days, doing 3 full days here, and somehow trying to fit in some home learning and Personal Training exams!!

It all seemed to start so well with a multitude of ideas for each agenda and great solutions to problems. In theory however i would say a MEGA busy schedule has led to ideas not probably being developed as thoroughly as i would have liked and things like my self promotion taking a back seat whilst i build a WEB-BASED company with a colleague and hope that some of the design skills that I’ve learned start to come in handy!

Thankfully Tony has been fully supportive and indeed has allowed me to use this input as part of my professional practice module and happily the placement i have secure as part of my dealings with GRAFITA trying to build up the back-end database for our web-site.

Back to the workload and the projects keep on coming! Eeeeeek!!  The GROVE FRESH one was a delightful project that i thoroughly enjoyed, altho I see I have a tendancy to over engineer everything! I had great feedback and enjoyed my final outcome including the see-through packaging……….you could say im finally seeing “outside of the box”!!  LMAO!!!  (theres a little guy called Dave Nathanson wetting himself in a corner somewhere with that one!!)

The historical context pieces havent been my best work I wouldn’t have said! The poster designs were shockingly good!! and the game was different and used some nice design cues, however I think I could’ve tied the projects all in together slightly better and harmonised the concepts. I have struggled on the animation for one reason and another but mainly because i think i looked for an opportunity to push myself which I didn’t necessarily have to take! I HAVE put in some hard work on the project and i guess its annoying as i think others have taken an easier route, however i have no one else to blame but myself for being so busy and loosing focus!

The one thing I was pleased with (and i seriously can’t believe I’m saying this!!) is the essay which i got in ahead of time and enjoyed the subject matter. It’s the first time that ive done an accurate written piece so i kinda shocked myself! lol!

Well all in all i guess it could have been ALOT worse this year, and i have taken steps at work to get things changed!  My job at the gym changes its description and hours somewhat from FEB, plus i think if i can survive this yr, i should have my OWN company developed enough to stand up for itself and concentrate more on my degree for the final push!

This year has started moderately with some good ideas for D and AD, plus some cracking ones for the BARNARDO’s Cardiff Marathon.

Don’t worry viewers, I’ll keep you posted as to how this all pans out. In the words of my old friend mr Sherlock Holmes………..”THE GAMES AFOOT!!”

2010……..is that a space odyssey??

well lets see…….wat excuses have we got this week!!   =]      ok ok ok, unfortunatly work is my only real excuse for a low par performance this week! 

I have refind my “self-promotion logo” but not much else! luckily its a quiet day today so sat down and working on my animation!

Freezing temps and a flu that i cant shake off mean no asessments this week so hopefully i can improve my books and further my designs on my D and A D stuff! the problem with presenting your lecturer 101 designs for an awrds brief is that now i have TOO much choice! lol!

Anyhoot check out the designs below and let me know wat you think! 

Ciao!

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……and now for something completely different!!!

Xmas Break………….NOT!!

Oh Great! the time for giving……………well at the moment im giving blood sweat and tears as i’m the only one in at work and my mom gave me flu for Xmas after a 700 mile round trip!!! Lovely!  Spent 2 days in bed like a dying fly then straight back to work so as you’ve probs guessed, not much course work has been done!!

Only two bits of news thus far listeners! Have spent some time developing “LOGO’s” (see below) only for it to be inspected by a DESIGNER (great!!) and its been confirmed that if i want to do any placement days then they’ll be on a weds! Awesome! 

D and AD projects not finalised, still need to choose which one im gonna do! eeek!!!   Hopefully will feel better soon and can finalise some projects!   

HAPPY SILLY SEASON ALL!!

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Which one gets your vote then folks????

Library fines and great times!!

Well “APPARENTLY” putting library books back into the free-standing book deposit thingys on the day they’re due back is a No No!! lol!! Yours truely picked up a 30p fine for late books as they dont “empty” them till the day after!! well how the hell am i supposed to know!! lol!!   Anyways all was good, i turned on the charm with the 90yr old librarian and got away with wryful smile and a “awwww, it wasnt ur fault dear”!!   So job done!

Of course this is all leading to the fact that i had to rush back to the library to get the books out again i used for referencing for my lovely essay cos sum idiot in HARVARD thinks we should reference our essays!!  Can you believe it?? all this from a country that cant even speak the Queen’s English (Gawd bless ya ma’am!!).

Had little sleep last nite as had to try to make progress on my MOVING IMAGE project and after 200 further animations i think i’m making progress…….well ok, ive probs just created about 2 seconds work, but HEY it all helps! Paul has re-formated the films i need so hopefully i can change them and use the footage for my background, so hopefully i can crack on with it 2moz!

Looks like another late nite 2nite! think its gonna be a bargin bucket from KFC and late nyt watchin TOP-GEAR with the cats till the early hours trying to get the last bits done!!

Sleep Well viewers!!! x