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

A few more ideas for the flat

A few more.

Right! i know what the colour issue is now. I am officially an idiot. I will fix these tomorrow and repost them. I always forget the whole, RGB vs CMYK thing when i post on this site.

Things for the flat

So, i'm sick of living in a flat with bare walls.
I have a few sketches and paintings up but it is mostly just work i have left out of projects from last year so i have decided to make up some very quick, simple designs in illustrator.

Got a few done in between jobs, this is literally an hours work so i will keep coming back to it over the next few days till i can pick out 4 or 5 for print.

And, once again, the colours are off. Every time i post to blogger it changes the colours :/ probably something i'm doing lol

HSC posters again

My last attempt was pretty poor but i have touched up the design.

here they are, looking a bit more professional.

The band wanted something brighter so i added the orange in the first design. I still sent the blue one as i personally think this is the stronger of the 2 but this is mainly because of my own personal colour preferences. They work quite well together though so i am not complaining too much.

Kris Davidson

I thought i would take some spare time to talk about one of my favourite artists who has really inspired me to focus my illustration and artwork.

KrisD is an American artist and tattoo artist who mostly uses isometric drawing for his designs and artwork.

From complex patterns such as this which i used for inspiration for the album artwork for Human Sacrifice Club which can be seen on this blog.

To much more complex pieces of artwork like this that takes isometric drawing to a whole different level.

I have been really inspired by his work and have used it as a spring board to move onto other kinds of pattern drawing such as Mandalas like this one:

I have really enjoyed designing in this style and find patterns really therapeutic. Hopefully i can learn to produce work like Kris's more recent work, i just need to find out how to put my own stamp on it.

Final module jitters

Well, we come to the end of another year... My last year as i am not staying for the third year top up.

The aim of this module is to gather all my work over the last year and a half to organise a portfolio.
This is also a chance to re-do a lot of the final pieces that i have been unhappy with which, for me, is moat of them. Up until this point i haven't had the skills to do any of my work any real justice.

First up is a project from last year that i was really unhappy with. A live brief from penguin books, a competition to design the cover for the Brothers Grimms' fairy tales.

I spent the whole time painting an illustration for the cover and left my actual cover till too late to do it justice. It was aweful. I would post it but not even my hard drive wanted to be reminded of it apparently :p

Anyway, I have used the skills that i have picked up over the last few months to completely redesign the cover. I used my painting as a guide (i will find the painting and post it soon) and completed the design in Illustrator, using Photoshop to add texture as the design was looking awefully flat.

Here is the completed design, I'm not sure about the font so may change that but it will not be too much of a change.

For once, I am actually pretty happy with the outcome. It actually looks like it could be used.

As an aside, i just noticed a mistake in the vector art. I'm not going to say what it is as i don't want to draw attention to it lol.

I know she doesn't look right but i put so much effort into the original painting i was loath to redesign her...

Hopefully it is a suitable representation of the darkness inherrant in Grimm brothers stories.

Making things.

Nothing quite like getting your hands dirty.

A few in progress shots to show how it is going together. It will be on a transparent floating base.
Below the WIP shots is the image of the graffti that inspired it.

Quick poster for HSC.

Had a really, incredibly tight deadline as this was just a favour to go with the album cover which is still in progress.

Not great, i know. But i got to try a few new things and play in inDesign. Obviously  rush job so i'm not happy with it.

HSC poster

So, while i have been working on the album cover mentioned before i have also been asked to knock up a quick gig list poster.

To tie in with the album i decided to use parts of the album artwork.

But....

Im stuck, having real difficulty deciding what to do with the text. Here it is so far, i will have a nap and come back to it with a fresh head in the morning.

Also, im still doing a drawing a day but had to call it off for a few days due to issues with a faulty boiler and total lack of heating in the house :/ I will start posting them again soon lol.

Day 4 of picture a day

Well this this was too much i think. Got this far and realised the right eye is in the wrong place.
Looks less like a pug and more like ET....

Not sure i can be bothered to finish it now i know it's wrong but i guess you learn lessons from mistakes aswell :/

DeviantArt

Opened a deviant art account. Nothing on there that isn't on here but if you fancy a wee nose around my user name is missing-linc. :)

Day 3 cont...

Sorta finished it. Couldn't sleep with it half finished lol

Still a bit to do

A picture a day, Day 3.

So yeah... i got a bit ambitious.

This is my offering for day 3. Unfinished because 5 hours is not long enough.

Tomorrow is Friday so i will get this finished before i start day 4. It looks rough as hell but should turn out nice... Hopefully :p

A picture a day, Day 2.

First, an excuse lol.

I had the gas man round this morning who told me that my boiler/heater is giving off dangerous amounts of gas and CO (carbon monoxide) so i am sat in the freezing cold for the foreseeable future :(

Sooooo, that means i'm shivering, just so you know why all my lines are shaky :p

On another note, I've been asked to design the engine cover paint job for a friend. It's an incredibly awkward shape but should be a fun job.

Here is what it looks like now:

Awkward.... But he wants something Blue and psychedelic so it should be fun to do.

A picture a day.

I have been inspired by quite a lot of blogs to try drawing a picture a day.
Pretty self explanatory and i could really do with the practice. My technical ability has always let me down.

Anyway, day one. I started off light but am quite pleased.

Terrible camera pic because my lens for my 40D is currently being borrowed by someone :(.

Last post of the night

Just a quick one to show how it's progressing.

Its still a work in progress obviously so give me atleast some credit lol

HSC cover art.

Still going with this one.

Nearly ready to import into photoshop for the fun stuff, i just need to tidy up the paths and make sure it is geometrically perfect. If it isn't and i see it on an album cover i will go insane knowing the lines are out.

Why doesn't Illustrator have an Isometric grid? It would make my life a lot easier considering most of the illustration work i use utilises it in some way lol.

For some reason Blogger is uploading images and changing the colours... If it appears green to you, trust me, it isn't.

More Human Sacrifice Club cover art stoofs.

So yeah.

Work in progress is an understatement but i just thought i would prove i do actually digitise some of this art work lol.

Lots to do on this but i'm just having fun playing with the colours tonight.

The colour palette was borrowed from colourlovers.com. As i always find it is best to use palettes arranged by people with the time to come up with them rather than just picking colours at random.

Maybe when i have the luxury of time i can come up with my own for illustrations? Who knows?

My first album cover.

Well. Christmas wasn't great. My PC blew up during a power surge and i lost everything, hence why i did not manage to get any of my final pieces for my last module posted up here :(

So i took so time out too get over it (and buy some external hard drives and a subscription to Dropbox premium lol).

The modules we have done this year so far have been fairly uninspiring. An essay followed by digital skills meant that i had a lot of work to do and not much to show on here.

But i have been given the opportunity to design a logo and album artwork for a college bands new EP which i am very happy about doing.

I got to finally do some geometric designs and experiment a bit. Here are the 2 designs that the band have decided they want to use. (ignore the band logo as i will be redesigning it as part of their brief, i just needed something in there for layout purposes)

Wow, they aren't very clear at all. Never mind. When i merged the images i washed them out quite a lot but you get the idea :p

Work experience

I have managed to organise work experience through college.
One of my tutors is a freelance designer who focuses on 3D design using Cinema4D which i am very interested in. At the start of this blog i posted a few images of things i have designed in C4D but i have not had the opportunity to further develop my skills with this program.

Paul at Real 2073 will hopefully be able to help me develop these skills further than just building simple product designs. We share similar tastes which is a real bonus for me.

Work experience will hopefully take place over the summer after our modules have been completed which gives me the opportunity to focus on it without any outside factors affecting what i can take away from the experience.

I am really looking forward to this opportunity and i hope i can be as helpful as possible while on placement.