Durham Fashion Week poster

So i have recently been obsessed with drawing mandalas because i'm a secret Hipster and obsessed with patterns.

I drew the image and realised it looked like stained glass. Which led me to do this poster for a short Durham Fashion Week poster brief that came up in class. This won't be submitted, i just wanted something minimal for my port folio.

For me, this is minimal lol. I stopped myself going overboard in the background anyway.

A little piece to go on my wall.

Since i had already spent an age doing the outlines for this in illustrator and only using it sparingly in the album artwork i decided to colour it and mount it for my wall at home.
Hopefully you can see the influence of Kris Davidson here who is an artist i mentioned in an early post.

I'm really just experimenting with editing illustrator images in photoshop as i have found a lot of my illustrator work can look too flat. I know that is a fairly obvious risk with a 2D image but i need to learn to polish my work. I feel that everything i have done looks a little unfinished. This is something i need to improve on if i want to produce any work worthy of being used by clients.

I would also really like to produce more artwork for sale to subsidize my existence, i have a long way to go.

Final album art mesh

Final, final artwork aslong as the band doesn't hate it.

This has been printed out and mocked up with a blank CD and case and it actually looks pretty good, it takes a lot to make me happy with something i've done so hopefully this will go down well with the client.

I will get some pics of the CD case to give you all an idea of how it looks.

There was a little nightmare when i realised the orientation of the back and spines was wrong which meant i had to re-organise all the type to keep everything in the right place. Just waiting for the actual track list and copyright info which just need to be typed in.

Now i can move onto another project :)

After going back over this piece i can't helping getting over the fact that it needs refinement but i can't for the life of me work out what i need to do to it.
As a font, i find Garamond Pro a little unnecessary for this but it was one of the few things the band really wanted so i was limited to what i could do there. I think my main issue may be with the parchment background, while there is nothing immediately wrong with it i think it could have a little more going on with it. It looks almost like an afterthought which is sad because it really wasn't.
 Next album cover i design will definitely have a more involved background if the band allow it.
All in all, i really enjoy designing album covers and i definitely want to do more in this area.

HSC album art

Finally got round to putting the album artwork together for Human Sacrifice Club.
Still haven't gotten the track list so i improvised, there is some other text needed aswell that i'm waiting for the label to provide.

Not sure on the text colour or the use of 1 font, i think it could look better with 2.

Anyway, have a wee look.

I'm quite pleased with this, hopefully the band won't want a thousand changes haha

Shift Live - Happy birthday Shift

Last night was the Shift live meet and greet event - Shift Northeast

We had live talks from product designers, typographers and other industry professionals who talked to us about their backgrounds, work and how they got into the industry. I found it very informative and inspiring to hear how they found and then grew into their roles as designers.

 I find that getting to talk to professionals in a relaxed environment can really help to learn how to get started in the industry.
 While not necessarily involved in the exact area i am aiming to be involved in, talking Allan Smith, a print consultant at Trust was particularly helpful. When he left his original workplace to start Trust he found it very difficult to get clients and spent the first 6 months of his freelance career trying to find work. His dedication to his goal kept him going through this time and he was rewarded for it. As i ideally aim to work freelance this was especially inspiring for me. He will also be one of the mentors at Shift which i believe will be very helpful for graduate students to see just how important dedication can be.
 While it may seem easy to give up when things get difficult, you can often be rewarded by sticking to your guns.

Before the event i was very worried about whether i had a future in design and whether a freelance career was really for me. All of these worries have gone now i have had the chance to talk it through with people who have been in a similar position and managed to succeed in such a performance driven profession.

 The event was held at Think Tank in Hoults Yard Newcastle which was a very cool venue (although really cold) and having such a small venue really forced people to get involved and have a chat. All of the mentors were happy to answer any questions no matter how spurious, which helped everyone open up.

 Live music and a bar were provided and, as usual for a shift event, it was a very enjoyable evening. If anyone in the North East reads this i would definately suggest you attend at least one Shift Live event if you are interested in design as a career.

More (see last post)

Realised i needed a business card to go with everything else :/

Anyway... Half an hours work but it is coming together. Type isn't nice but the layout works for the brief in that it is pretty straight forward.

The top left corner will be cut out, as will the holes in the cogs. I really don't like the type so this will be changed pretty sharpish but i'm hungry right now so that will come later :)

Doberman stationery

Just a quick post today.

Needed to have more branding and stationery work for my portfolio so knocked up these using the Doberman knives logo i did. I still need to do a business card and some t-shirt designs but i thought i may aswell post what i had done today.

This really isn't a style that i like to work in but it was what the client wanted, the logo is too old fashioned and "console gamey" for me.... Contempory, it ain't lol.

I think the cog/dog graphic (Cogdog) needs to be a little smaller in relation to the type but i am pretty happy with the logo, even if it isn't my usual style. I say usual style, but it is more like the style that is slowly, gradually coming to the fore as i gather ideas via osmosis :p