Another Job Interview

I've still not heard anything regarding the other job interview I had at Leeds Uni. Union even though I emailed them yesterday aswell but I had a phonecall today for another interview for a different company on Monday so hopefully all will go well!

Final Pieces

The rest of my final pieces arrived today including the t-shirts, posters and iPhone case. I'm really pleased with everything except for the notebook which I thought was hardback but instead is just flimsy cardboard so I may return that but everything else seems fine! Here are a few pics of what I'll be showing at the final exhibition as part of my pop-up shop...

Job Interview

I had a job interview today for a Graphic designer position at Leeds University Union. The role is something I would love to do as they said quite a lot of their work is designing gig posters for bands! I was even given a brief to do before the interview which was to design a gig poster for the band Tame Impala. Overall, the interview went quite well and gave me an idea of questions that I could be asked in the future aswell. They said I will find out on Monday about the job so fingers crossed...

Week 32

I've been really busy this last week designing more work for Face Away. Here are 2 designs which I've done which I'll either get printed as prints or posters. I'm still enjoying working on the project as I'm not just limited to one particular style and it's a chance to try different things.

Good news!

My chat with Cool Beans Creative went well on Monday and they are taking me on as a freelance designer to do various t-shirt designs for them. They are a new start-up company who are going to take on a few designers to design t-shirt designs for them but their website also allows you to upload your own designs. I think this is a great idea as whenever one of your designs sells then the profit goes to you minus 20% which I think is a really good rate. So, aswell as designing them t-shirts I might also look at selling my own designs on their website to earn a bit extra money.

Here are the first set of designs which I've done for them from the brief that they sent me:

Exhibition Poster

Over the Easter holiday's we were asked to design a poster for the upcoming end of year show. In today's lesson, everyone who had done one put it up on the wall and then we all voted for our first and second favourites. Here is the front of the one which I designed but unfortunately I didn't recieve any votes :(

Job Applications

During the easter holiday's, I have also been busy applying for graphic/web design jobs. I have started with the design agencies in Leeds first as that's where I live. I have currently applied to just over 50 vacancies with only about 6 replies! 2 have said that I haven't made it to the next stage, 3 have said they will keep my details on their database if any vacancies become available and I have an interview next week with the other one who are called Cool Beans Creative! This was actually a job on People Per Hour for some t-shirt designs which I sent a proposal for and they replied saying they would like a chat about taking me on as one of their designers! So fingers crossed!

Second Week Of The Easter Holiday's

This week is the second week of the easter holiday's so I've been busy working on my FMP. I have set up facebook and twitter pages for Face Away which already have 27 likes and follows and I have also produced the first piece of artwork!

Finally Decided

After changing my mind yet again with regards to the Final Major Project, I have finally decided what I'm going to do. I have made a brand up called Face Away which will be graphic design and illustration based. I am going to produce a series of designs and then have them printed onto t-shirts, prints, mugs, postcards, greeting cards, wrapping paper and then at the exhibition I will exhibit everything as a pop-up shop but I haven't decided yet if I will actually be selling the items.

This is something I have wanted to do for a while so now seems like a perfect opportunity. I would also love to set up a website for the brand if I have time and would love to carry the project on and aim to definitely sell the items online at some point in the future.

Here is the logo which I have designed for the brand:

New Website

I finally got around to updating my website today with my most recent and best work. It took about 10 hours in total but was definitely worth it as it desperately needed doing! I'm going to start applying for jobs soon and I need them to see my best work if I have any chance of them taking me on!

Essay Deadline

Tomorrow is the deadline for the essay which we were given before Christmas but I actually handed mine in today. We have had a good few months to complete the essay and I got the majority done around the Christmas period so the experience hasn't been so stressful! I'm glad it's done with though as writing isn't my strongest point, I wouldn't say I'm bad at it but I'm better at other things. I'm even more glad to say that the essay was the last one I will ever have to write in my life! (Hopefully!)

The brief was pretty open for the essay which I don't know if that was a good or bad thing but mine was titled, 'Have ways of promoting yourself as a successful freelance graphic designer altered within the last 60 years?'. I have written a few essays before but this was the longest one I've had to write even though the word count was 5000-8000 which isn't that bad I guess! 15000 would have been a lot worse! I'm glad it's out of the way now anyway!

Towards the end of the lesson we also had a talk from photographer, Kerry Harrison which was really interesting and he seemed like a nice guy. I am a fan of photography even though I'm not that good at it so it was good to look at some of his work and the videos he has made were also very impressive and professional.

Final Major Project

We started our Final Major Project today which has come around so fast! We can decide what we want to do for it but we were also given a choice of briefs that we can do if we are stuck for ideas. I am going to do my own brief, I have actually been thinking of things to do for a while now but still haven't decided on a final solution. One idea which I did have is to design a magazine showcasing some of my best work and also fill it with new work which people could pick up and take away with them but this is by no means definite yet. I think we have about 11 weeks in total for the project so I am going to have another brainstorm this week and hopefully decide on what to do.

Deadline Day

Today is the deadline day for 'The Feel Good Drinks' project. I haven't found the project stressful at all, in fact I've found it rather enjoyable so I have managed to keep on top of things. The project is a YCN brief and I'm definitely going to enter it as I think it has potential. Here are a few advertisements that I also did as part of the project.

YCN Student Awards

Just entered my 'Feel Good Drinks' project into the YCN Student Awards so fingers crossed I hear something back from them!

Week 24

I am still really enjoying 'The Feel Good Drinks' project which is a bonus! I have been busy working on the label designs for a range of the drinks which has been fun trying to get it right playing around with different shapes, colours and fonts. Here are the final label designs which I think are refreshing and still fun!

Featured On The People Per Hour Newsletter

Today I was featured on the People Per Hour newsletter as one of the hourlie's of the day. This is great because it will have been sent out to thousands of people and after being featured on the front page of the website a few months back, I have now nearly sold 20 of my logo hourlie alone! So hopefully this will keep the work pouring in.

Week 22

'The Feel Good Drinks' project is coming along nicely and I'm really enjoying it so far. I'm glad I changed my mind now as it's better to do something that you're not going to get bored of in the long run. Here is their logo and the new one which I have designed which still represents fun and happiness which is what they are after.

Roses Student Awards

I sent my Harry Ramsden's project off today to be entered into the Roses Student Awards so hopefully I will win something!

Group Work

Today we were given another group task to do. We were asked to create a series of lenticular posters with either 2 or 3 frames for one of the briefs that we were currently doing. I was with Chelsea and Laura and we decided to do the posters for LEGO. I think at first we all struggled to come up with ideas but once we were on to something then more ideas started to flow. At the end of it we were quite proud of what we had managed to come up with in such a short space of time even if the feedback we got wasn't that great. Here are the series of posters which I created showing the LEGO bricks cracking to reveal positive sayings.

Changes

I have now changed my mind with regards to which brief I am doing as the Nissan one didn't really interest me enough as to what they were after. I have now decided that I will do 'The Feel Good Drinks' project which is a YCN brief. Again, it's branding which is something which I enjoy most and the brief seems more interesting. There are actually 2 different briefs for the project, but it does state that you can have a go at both briefs which is what I am going to do. So, I am going to design a new logo, packaging designs for one of the ranges and also do some advertisements for the chosen range.

New Project

We have been given some new briefs for the next project. There are loads to choose from including the D&AD or YCN briefs. I haven't actually fully decided on which brief to choose yet, but I'm thinking the Nissan brief which is from D&AD. The brief is to basically rebrand their green range of vehicles including online material, I think this would be quite interesting as branding is the area which I prefer.

Deadline Day

Deadline day has arrived! I am more than happy with my final designs, I feel like it's one of my strongest projects yet and I am definitely going to enter it into the Roses Competition.

Week 17

One more week until we have to hand in our projects, which I feel ok about as I haven't got much else to do. All I've got left to do is make up the menu which has all been designed and finish coding the website which is almost complete. I decided to go with the menu with the wooden texture as it represents and celebrates Harry Ramsden's heritage as he started out serving fish and chips from a wooden hut. I have also based the website on this using the same texture as the background image.

New Year

Regarding the Harry Ramsden's project, I have decided that aswell as the logo I'm going to also produce a menu and a website. Here is the final logo design which I went for and my choices for the menu, I haven't decided which one to go for yet though. Overall, I'm really enjoying the project and what I'm working on and I've also started designing some ideas for the website, so I'm looking forward to getting that finished so that I can start coding it.

New Clients

I have been quite busy over the Christmas period doing work for some new clients, I thought leading up to Christmas work would be rather slow but how wrong I was! I have been doing logo designs for Blighty Disco, GIRO event which is celebrating it's 40th anniversary, Kylie Cutting Edge and logo and stationary design for Newport International Properties who are based in California.

Christmas Holidays

Finally got a copy of Ellen Lupton's Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming as my sister got it me for Christmas :)