My Blog

boom :) on Twitpic

2011-04-27T15:12:00.000+01:00

Spring time!

2011-04-09T11:35:00.000+01:00

Placement fail

2011-03-25T14:39:00.002Z

A couple of weeks back I applied for a internship, I got through to the second round, it was for a new mag in Manchester and the second part was to design something for the magazine for when its published. Unfortunately I didn’t hear back but Im proud of the work I produced.

So here it is

I decided to do a magazine feature on the Northern Quarter, using InDesign I created a 2 double page spread design.

I thought of doing this because it’s probably one of the most popular places in Manchester right now and it won Great Neighbourhood of the year 2011 in December last year. I used some copy from my own guidebook, and I found an article on the MEN’s website about it also so I just used that to be the copy for now.

So first off, I created a logo to use throughout the design, which consists of the initials of the northern quarter, a crown and a human heart. This is because it was ‘crowned’ the best neighbourhood and it is the ‘cultural heart of the city’.

The images are all my own and I have edited them in Photoshop.

I decided to do a magazine layout as it is probably the most useful way to show what I can do, which serves the best purpose for the magazine.

I have attached 3 different designs – 2 spreads each, and the NQ logo.

Manchester Tunnel Tours

2011-03-25T14:26:00.000Z

Manchester Tunnel Tours

Last Saturday I ventured on one of Manchester’s Underground tunnel tours for my sisters birthday. It was suppose to be a Haunted tour but it was more tall tales rather than spine tingling and petrifying. But even so it was a great couple of hours, bumping around in the dark passageways, learning about countless tunnels, caverns and canals that run under Manchester and the World war II bunkers and basements of the 1800’s.

Our tour guide, really tried to bring the shock factor with quirky recorded noises and eerie music and forbidding us to use our own torches. Which in a group of about 25-30, made me more anxious than anything, if you’re at the back then your in pitch black, groping and clutching around.

It was about 2 hours long (little longer than I expected) but it was enlightening and interesting and at the end of the tour we travelled up 7 floors to the top of the Barton Arcade, and there it was - the most beautiful view of Manchester. It was such a lovely day to be up there (not raining – score!), looking over the roof tops at the city. Great finish to the tour.

£12.50 per ticket You can book on Manchester Confidential

http://www.manchesterconfidential.co.uk/Entertainment/Events-and-Listings/All-new-Haunted-Underworld-Tours_905_p1.asp

I have moved to Tumblr!!

2011-03-25T14:20:00.000Z

I have now got two Blogs, I have moved over to Tumblr aswell, I will probably still use this one too. But I heard that tumblr is the cool 'In' thing right now ;)

Nah I joke I joke, I just wanna spread myself alll over the world wide web and maybe someone out there might wanna give me a lavvely job.

(pssttt: I make The Best brews, honest)

eye spy

2011-03-14T20:17:00.001Z

With

little

eye

Shake Your Money Maker

2011-03-13T21:56:00.001Z

Just having a play around in Photoshop,

trying to inspire myself.

2011-03-04T14:00:00.000Z

While I was out for dinner last week with a good friend, they got their phone stolen from right under our noses, I was fuming to say the least. If I ever see that w**ker again I will attack him with my own phone and leave it somewhere .. well use your imagination.

Oh and this is just a doodle to lighten the mood

Fiat 500 - Print ad design - Leo Burnett

2011-02-25T14:34:00.000Z

Fiat 500: Black bear

Fiat 500: Black panther

The commercial titled 'Black bear' was done by Leo Burnett advertising agency for Fiat 500 in France. It was released in the September 2010.

I saw this ad in Computer art projects magazine, and I love it from the first glance, doesn't need any explanation, its just brilliant.

Another reason why I love Leo Burnett agency

2011-02-25T14:19:00.000Z

WHAT ?

2011-02-25T14:16:00.000Z

Couple of nice layouts, icons, adverts and such in numerous magazines:

Helvetica Clock

2011-02-23T21:55:00.001Z

all I can say is - Brilliant

A website dedicated to telling the time in Helvetica.

Alan Aldridge

2011-02-20T13:58:00.000Z

Alan Aldridge

The other day while I was working in the shop – bored out of my brain, I brought in an old GRAFIK magazine to lighten my spirits and stop me from going insane and counting the hangers again. While I was re-reading it I came across feature on Alan Aldridge. And I loved him instantly; I’ve seen bit and snippets of his work before but never put a name to the face (as they say). I am just amazed at his work – its all just so diverse, intense and psychedelic but gorgeous, captivating and engrossing.

His style in so in your face and every bit of the design is filled right up to the corners – he seems not to be a fan of the ol’ white space.

Bio: Born in 1943 in east London, he currently resides in Los Angeles

http://www.palazzoeditions.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=166:alan-aldridge&catid=39:artist-a-author&Itemid=2

“THE TALK; Ink-Stained Wretch New York Times, September 17, 2006  

He designed posters for the Rolling Stones; was best friends with Jimi Hendrix; and served as the creative director for the original Hard Rock Cafe and the House of Blues as well as for the opening of the Playboy Club in London; he even penned a best-seller. Yet despite his staggering rsum, the graphic design guru Alan Aldridge is little known today. If anything, you're more likely to be au fait with his eldest son, Miles, a fashion photographer, or his daughter Saffron, a model turned writer. ''Yeah, get that quite a lot: 'Oh, you're Miles's dad, didn't you do something in the 60's?''' admits the 63-year-old Aldridge, who follows the comment with his trademark ''aww-shucks'' snigger.

His voice possesses the mid-Atlantic timbre of a man who left London in 1980 in search of Hollywood fame; his all-black attire, his handsome, compact features and his horn-rimmed specs give Aldridge the allure of Jack Nicholson playing an aging Beatle.  Back in the 1960's, Aldridge was as deified in the world of graphic design as the Fab Four were in music. John Lennon even appointed Aldridge the group's official design consultant. Like the band, Aldridge seemed to be rewriting the world in which he lived and worked.  

His art embodied classic 60's graphic design: campy old-fashioned lettering, faux-nave images, warped reworkings of Alice's trip into Wonderland and big, bold psychedelic colors. He was not a pop artist, like Peter Blake or Allen Jones, but a commercial designer whose vision trickled down to the masses via advertisements, posters, record sleeves and, later in his career, a best-selling children's book. Aldridge, like such other swinging Londoners as Vidal Sassoon and Terence Stamp, was raised in the working-class East End.

At 14, he left school to slog away at the docks, leaving little opportunity for any formal training in the arts.  He admits, ''Had you have asked me who Picasso was when I was 14, I'd have thought he played soccer for Italy.'' Still, he established a lucrative side career by selling doctored tracings of corset and bra ads that he'd found in Vogue magazine. ''Unfortunately, my mum found a hoard of them under my bed,'' he recalls. ''She then told me the story of my Uncle Sid, who'd gone to Africa to work as an artist. He came back with a dose of syphilis and died soon after from constant boozing. My mum warned me, 'If you carry on doing ''fancy'' stuff like drawing, you'll end up like him.' And I thought to myself, Well, that sounds a damn sight better fun than sitting in a council house for the rest of my life.

''  After a chance meeting in 1965 with the art director of London's premier publishing house, Penguin, Aldridge started illustrating book covers for the company. In two years, he'd taken his boss's job, brought in his bohemian mates to assist him and transformed the buttoned-up British institution into a riotous art house. Where Penguin covers had previously been somber, his designs flirted with Surrealism, nudity and revolutionary statements, which fit in perfectly with the whirling mood of the time.  

In 1968, Aldridge opened his own graphic-design firm, INK, and its first client was the Beatles' new record label, Apple. Aldridge would often confer with Lennon and McCartney at Apple's Savile Row headquarters on new commissions: apple-shaped radios and record players, posters and even ''Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds'' wallpaper. (''If it'd ever been put on a wall, you would have got stoned by just looking at it.'') Soon he was getting design gigs from the Rolling Stones, Cream and Andy Warhol, for whom he designed the poster for the film ''Chelsea Girls.'' (His idea of using an Advent calendar with different windows opening out had originally been proposed as the cover for the Beatles' ''White Album.'')  Before Aldridge, so-called commercial artists were behind-the-scenes grafters in braces and Brylcreem; after him, they were prima donnas who drove sports cars and made magazine editors and ad agencies jump at their imperious whims. I

ndeed, when the director Peter Whitehead started filming his documentary on 60's culture, ''Tonite Lets All Make Love in London,'' Aldridge starred alongside Mick Jagger, Michael Caine and Julie Christie.  In 1969, Aldridge masterminded the seminal art book ''The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics,'' which mixed his own illustrations with works that he'd commissioned from artists like David Hockney and Allen Jones. ''The only illustration the publishers rejected,'' Aldridge says, ''was one I did of John Lennon as a giant hypodermic needle, scattering pills over Manhattan.'' So symbiotic had Aldridge and the Beatles become that, when the band broke up on the cusp of the 1970's, he took only one more job before he closed down INK: a campaign poster for the Labor Party, which subsequently lost. He bought a huge rectory in the English countryside and spent his days ''being a professional hippie,'' looking after his kids.

It was during this time that he stumbled upon an 1807 children's poem, ''The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast,'' which featured wild creatures and insects as the central characters. Aldridge created a modern version that evoked John Tenniel's work for ''Alice in Wonderland.'' It won the Whitbread Literary Award and became the best-selling children's book at the time. Aldridge's creative universe appealed to animal-loving children as well as acid-fried rockers.  Elton John had admired Aldridge's work for some time, and in 1974, he asked him to illustrate the cover of ''Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.'' Aldridge created a Boschian smorgasbord, complete with Elton flying on his piano. When the album went platinum (Aldridge earned a Grammy nomination for his artwork), Aldridge proposed developing the album art into a feature film -- part animation, part real life -- starring Elton himself. After a studio gave the green light, Aldridge spent the next 18 months in Beverly Hills at the newly formed Captain Fantastic Enterprises, working on the ''Captain Fantastic'' movie.

Hollywood put the kibosh on the project, however, when Elton admitted his bisexuality in the American press. As Aldridge ruefully explains, ''All of a sudden, no one returned our calls.'' This was the mid-70's, and no studio could sanction a children's story with such a hero.  The ''Captain Fantastic'' trauma signaled the start of a long period of depression for Aldridge. Having become disillusioned with Margaret Thatcher's England, in 1980 he relocated to Hollywood, where the allure of the movie industry suggested a fresh start to his career. However, the dream projects failed to materialize, and for as much as he worked on new characters, scripts, books and even plans to construct a Hard Rock Cafe theme park, few ideas went further than the drafting table.  ''It's a crazy place here,''

Aldridge explains of Los Angeles, the city that he's called home for nearly 30 years. ''There're no rules as to what will be successful in Hollywood and what will flop. I've seen so many people -- myself included -- driven to drink because of the cruel nature of the business; I guess that's what makes it so special. I remember seeing Spielberg on the brink of suicide after he'd completed 'Jaws,' and he's doing all right now, isn't he?''

  Ever the optimist, Aldridge is making the most of his numerous abandoned projects from over the years, saying, ''Right now, I've got more work on and I'm more financially endowed than in the 60's.'' This includes ''Nothing Is Real,'' an animated fantasy film based on the childhood of John Lennon ($(3$)It's got Yoko's blessing''), fabric designs for clothing lines and FeeFiFoFun, a solar- and wind-powered portable children's playground concept. There's also ''Pipedreams,'' an illustrated autobiography in the works. ''Thirty-one years on,'' he says, ''and they're still dangling the carrot in front of my eyes.'' ”

Bit 'o' packaging design

2011-02-08T20:49:00.000Z

Love this packaging design for M&S, my sister came home with this the other day and I was like a magpie straight away “Don’t you Dare tear it! Be Careful!!”

It’s just a bit different its not like all the minimal packaging design of ready meals, with the image of the food on. This actually incorporated the theme of Thai and Chinese without being cheesy and typical supermarket trashy. Even the part, which is covered by the product, is designed with either a bamboo leaf or wood, a lot of consideration has been put into the thought of this design – well done M&S.

Pencil art

2011-02-01T20:22:00.000Z

This incredible work is by the artist – Dalton Getty.

His art is created on the tips - inside and all around the simple form of a pencil, using just a scalpel to etch and create wonderful sculptures from the wood and the graphite.

He has worked for over 25 years on these intriguing mini creations and it shows in his craftwork.

In one of his projects where he created the whole alphabet, he completed it in two and a half years.

This is not in my field of design work at all but I have to give credit where it is due, his work is amazing, astounding and creates beauty where there is none.

David Foldvari : I think I love you

2011-01-16T20:47:00.002Z

I discovered David Foldvari when I was in college over four years ago now and I still adore his work just as much as I did when I first exposed myself to it.

His work is direct and has a hint of dark humour to it; he definitely has a strong opinion. He turns the quintessentially British ‘stiff upper lip’ on its head and expresses his attitude to life and design wonderfully through his work.

Lil bit ‘o’ background for you:

He was born in Budapest, and has been living in the UK since 1986. Since graduating from the Royal College in London in 2001, his work has gained international recognition. His Eastern European roots influence  He, his work often suggests alienation, identity and belonging

"Dealing with negative issues in my work helps to keep me balanced in real life"

Recently his work has become more monochromatic, stark and melancholy whilst still managing to retain its humanity and humour.

David Foldvari has exhibited widely in London, New York, Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Slovenia and Hungary. Some of his recent commercial clients include Nike, Penguin Books, Random House, Mercury, Levis, Greenpeace and Arena. In 2007 he earned a D&AD award for involvement on Nike Run London and for his input on Beck’s The Information.

taaa darrr

2011-01-15T20:13:00.000Z

If you wanna see any of my work, have a gander at my flickr or my website

www.abimilnes.com

www.flickr.com/photos/abimilnes

mmm Tat

2011-01-15T20:05:00.000Z

I really want a tattoo, I wish I had the balls to

get this but I don't think I could pull it off. Shame.

I was going to be an A0 poster with gold foil block & embossing but times are hard

2011-01-15T20:03:00.000Z

I don't remember where I found this but I just love it.

Its what we all are thinking. And yet it still looks gorgeous.

Superhero Smoothie

2011-01-08T15:48:00.000Z

Superhero Smoothie

Soo you have probably seen the advert by now but I thought I would share it anyway. The new Innocent Smoothie advert. Where a cute little bottle flies around saving people from hunger and bad food. The idea is witty and really works for the time of year, because of all the binging at Christmas people will probably take this into account and watch, as well as it being hilarious and immediately appealing with the choice of soundtrack and direction of the advert. Using a famous Queen song written by Brian May, Innocent have done a switcheroo with the words and instead of “FLASHH AHH AHHHH Saviour of the Universe” they have cleverly said “FRUIT AHH AHHHH Saviour of the Universe”

With the bottles being whooshed around by straws and with little capes on ( I soo want a cape now) I think this advert is brilliant and appeals to all ages, and each time its on, I have to stop what Im doing and watch it. Not only do I love the song but I love the smoothies so its ticks all round from me.

Copy from their website:

“We've made a new advert for the telly, featuring a superhero smoothie bottle, who flies around saving people from those perilously peckish moments between meals (especially relevant in January, with all of its resolutions).

http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T12:43:00.000Z

Santa Champers

Merry Christmas everyone

xxx

Belvedere Vodka

2010-12-12T15:40:00.001Z

My sister got a promotion last week (well done Sal) and to celebrate this, she got a present in the form of Belvedere Vodka. If you haven’t tasted this vodka before then your missing out and I’m not even a vodka lady.

But anyway, I just want to share the lovely form of the bottle itself, its just gorgeous. With its long neck similar to a vino bottle but elongated and more elegant. With frosted glass and its white creeping tree pattern this spirit has it all, no wonder this Polish sensation costs around thirty English pounds.

The thought and attention to detail of this design is splendid, even the clear glass on the front of the bottle so that you can look through to the vodka to the illustration on the inside of the bottle is clever and rousing the consideration to round off the design is beautiful.

let it snow let it snow let it snoowww

2010-12-02T21:45:00.004Z

Got a bit snow happy the other day, oh and I put my christmas tree up in November :)

Creative Boom

2010-12-01T19:46:00.000Z

Check me out, I am now in the Creative Boom Directory for the North West.

I just love their website, its so informative about the creative industry - ranging from graphic design to film production to jewelry design.

"About Us

Welcome to Creative Boom, an online magazine and network community that aims to celebrate, inspire and support the creative industries throughout the UK and the rest of the world.

Launched on the 24th July 2009, the site is run on a completely voluntary basis, covering everything from music, design, photography and fashion to film, PR, marketing, media and animation.

The magazine includes 12 main regions - also known as 'Hubs' - as well as a national UK home page, to bring you creative industry news, features and events no matter where you're based.

Our entire ethos for Creative Boom is to offer free support and help freelancers and businesses both large and small to be inspired, raise their profiles, attract new business and effectively cause a creative industry boom across the UK.

So if you're keen to collaborate, network, get noticed, attract business, learn new things, be inspired or find out what's happening in your creative field, Creative Boom is an organic e-zine that has been designed especially for you and will continue to adapt and improve to suit your needs. Thanks for stopping by!"

Beards - aint they just lavvvely

2010-11-30T20:48:00.000Z

I dont remember where I found this but by god it is good, just puts a smile on my cold cold face in these frosty times Brrrrrr-illiant

Pink Pigeon

2010-11-28T19:36:00.001Z

Just look at this gorgeous bottle design!

I’m a fan of Rum, any rum for that matter, but this really floats my boat.

The Pink Pigeon Rum is new on the market and has an attractive design to boot.

Bit of copy from their website:

‘Some of the world’s finest sugar cane is grown on the  Medine Estate in Mauritius.  It is from this natural source that we make our rare,  golden rum.

Uniquely, we add hand-picked vanilla from orchids  that grow in the rainforest canopy of nearby Madagascar.  Combined with the exotic, tropical flavours of spice  and nutmeg, this makes our rum as exquisite and rare  as the Pink Pigeon itself.

The Pink Pigeon can be enjoyed on its own, over ice,  or as part of a distinctive cocktail …”

The bottle itself is matt black with a white logo design stretching the length of the bottle, with a classic bold font and thick simple traditional ‘emblem’ design. It really stands out within the crowd of competing Rum bottle designs.

illustration Xmas ideas

2010-11-11T15:36:00.006Z

here are some christmasy Russian doll illustrations, ideas for xmas cards and wrapping paper etc.. just playing with colours and outlines at the mo.

175 years of Kendals

2010-11-09T12:37:00.001Z

Today I came across a gorgeous Kendals plastic bag. If you don’t know what Kendals is, it’s a department store in Manchester, probably the oldest one. This year it marks their 175^th Birthday.

1796 was the year John Watts a Didsbury Farmer opened the family business on the corner of Deansgate in the centre of Manchester. And in aid of this celebration, there have been giveaways, live music, competitions and complimentary gifts as well as Russell hobbs collaborating with Coronation Street to celebrate 50 years of the famous street.

This is not what I wanted to blog about though; I want to share their gorgeous plastic bag they have produced for this occasion.

It’s a collage design of iconic buildings of Manchester, not to mention Coronation Street, the Hacienda classic yellow and black stripes, LS Lowry’s illustrious people and Manchester United and City scarves.

With Kendals the prominent figure of the design to show how far Manchester has come since Kendals was built.

The design is simple in colour and in design but it is so striking and edifying. The type itself is laid out like old Victorian typographical posters, which is fitting for the age of Kendals itself.

I cannot find out who designed this bag, which I’m gutted about because I do love this design, it reminds me of my collage design style which I adopted for my Manchester guide project.The design mixes vintage with modern but makes it work and flow.

David Fullarton

2010-11-05T13:12:00.000Z

I was looking for some inspiration the other day and I came across the work of David Fullarton. His journal style illustrations are hilarious and really well executed in a doodle style but still convey his feelings amazingly. He uses a Moleskine notebook to create his art, doing doodles, sketches and typography to document this odd thoughts and feelings. Sort of like a map of his day to day life.

“I was never a big fan of Moleskine notebooks. They always seemed so damn precious and overpriced with their pretentious history printed inside and that fancy-dan knicker elastic to keep your place. But someone gave me one for nothing a couple of years ago, and since it was free I used it. A lot. And I have to admit I ended up liking it. Almost enough to actually pay for the next one”

My new business cards have come!!

2010-11-04T11:52:00.001Z

ooooo I don't half love MOO.com
When I first started making business cards last year I always wanted a selection of different business cards. But that wasn't possible until recently, now you can choose up to 50 different designs for one pack of business cards. Brilliant. Now I just wish my phone had a better mega pixel.

Illustration book ideas

2010-11-01T17:15:00.005Z

I am in the process of creating a book of illustrations, right now I am just in the ideas stage, making numerous illustrations a day, using the computer and hand drawn methods and seeing what will work and what style to focus on.

New Monopoly

2010-10-27T13:55:00.001+01:00

New Monopoly

Round Monopoly?!? Debit cards? Music?! What’s going on!

Hasbro the creators of the classic game are celebrating their 75^th anniversary of the game by unveiling the new one. "Monopoly: Revolution Edition" is slick and round instead of square, with debit cards and an ATM instead of paper money and a banker, clear plastic representations of the classic tokens: the boot, the car, the dog and the iron have gone L

And music like Beyonce's "Crazy in Love with be played after certain actions.

Plus when you pass go you don’t get £200, but £2,000,000 to account for all the inflation and the change in real estate prices since 1935 when Monopoly was first released.

I don’t know whether I like this or not, for the new age teens I guess its great but people still use real money not just debit cards these days so I don’t know why such a big change, I like the round board, its cleaner and sleek but is the technology is a bit over the top?

the social network

2010-10-27T11:15:00.000+01:00

I don’t really blog about films iv seen but I just have to blog about ‘The Social Network’ I went to see it last night and I was soo impressed, it was enlightening, fascinating and had humour to it.

I am a BIG fan of Facebook and have never really thought of how it became or the story behind it. I don’t know whether some of it was fabricated or not but I’m guessing the main story line is true. I actually cant believe it was created by a Harvard student, in my student days all I thought about is the next deadline and when’s the next cheap student night, not codes and ‘traffic’. All I can say is Thanks Mark Zuckerberg.

If you’ve not seen it I recommend it highly, it kept me engrossed the whole time, and the way the story is conveyed is brilliant and well thought out. Plus Justin was unexpectedly a great actor.

ooo Fun Fact: facebook is blue because Mark Zuckerberg is Red/Green colourblind and blue is the strongest colour he can see.

Watch the trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53OUHupfqws

Recreate

2010-10-19T14:31:00.001+01:00

An object is no longer being used for its original purpose in life! That purpose has expired and I have recreated a beautiful 'something else'

Katie Thompson

Oh my Days I want this Sooooo Much!!
Interior / Furniture Designer Katie Thompson has made this. It is from her Recycled furniture collection called Recreate. the range of products shows antiques in a new light, unconventional but beautiful. She marries suitcases with chairs, cola crates with tables, cushions with buckets, typewriters with lamps! I want the whole website! genius

Tattoo work

2010-10-19T14:10:00.000+01:00

These are a few of my illustrations iv been working on as tattoos.

"Sailor girls R Us"

Sandrine Estrade Boulet Illustrations

2010-10-19T13:59:00.000+01:00

Sandrine Estrade Boulet Illustrations

Wandering around the worlds of blogs (looking for a dress I saw on a celebrity) I came across some darling illustrations and thought I would just have to share them. They are the work of Sandrine Estrade Boulet a French artist; she is inspired by the simple everyday items, the environment that is setting of her life. Her work is ironic and playful, she uses sarcasm and emotions to create her work. I love these illustrations, they are just lively and quirky.

http://www.sandrine-estrade-boulet.com/sandrine_boulet/Home_Sandrine_Estrade_Boulet.html

Armed to the Teeth

2010-10-09T14:23:00.000+01:00

Small ongoing project - finding interesting quotes and illustrating them.
This is my first quote I have done:
Armed to the teeth :

Re(collection) exhibit

2010-10-05T13:09:00.001+01:00

Last week 28^th September 2010 my wonderful friend Alessandra Mostyn and her friend Zara from MMU had their opening of their Re(collection) exhibit in the Holden Gallery Café. It was to celebrate the history of our Manchester Art School and Sandra’s design work for all the exhibits she curated last year. It was a gorgeous exhibit and delightfully insightful into the 1920s life of teachers and students of the time. Showing video footage of the courses that were on at the time and teachers/students messing around and playing up for the camera. If your in Manchester do go have a gander.

http://recollectionexhibit.tumblr.com/

http://www.amostyndesign.com/

IKEA Cookbook

2010-10-05T12:43:00.001+01:00

Ikea has found a new niche

Ikea has developed a Cookbook: Homemade is best

The Swedish Super-duper store has commissioned Carl Kleiner to design a distinctive style for their cookbook.

It is reminiscent and echo’s the idea of Ikeas “Do it yourself’” philosophy, using the idea of flat pack furniture. Carl worked with food stylist Evelina Bratell to create this superb minimal effect.

The book is a 140-page coffee table recipe book containing 30 traditional Swedish baking recipes. Each recipe includes two images: one of the ingredients and one of the finished product.

Ikea states “we let ourselves be inspired by high fashion and Japanese minimalism”

This book is gorgeous and corresponds superbly with the IKEA way of life. I think they struck gold with working with Carl Kleiner.

Oh and they have produced an app too, working you through the recipes step by step.
http://www.carlkleiner.com/

I love Snes

2010-09-20T17:01:00.001+01:00

I don't know what made me think of the classic Super Nintendo maybe it is the new advert celebrating their 25th Anniversary ?

Anywho I just thought I should reminisce about the good old days, and the fact it wasn't as traumatic as the video games of the present. You could use Mario Paint and basically draw with your snes but not as well as with actual paper. Or you could make sweet Music with the compose game, using: dogs, love hearts, mushrooms, houses and Mario heads to compile a indescribable 2 minute sound that resembles a song.

These games don’t sound that interesting to you probably but I loved them! They didn’t make you cry and you always win, I can’t handle high stress. I panic even when I’m watching someone else play. Games like Tomb Raider are not for the faint hearted; I’m even apprehensive when the butler is following you around her house. Anyway go watch the advert it made me recall some right good times, back in the day when I used to carry a plastic turtle around and wear snowsuits.

To the Queen

2010-09-13T17:37:00.000+01:00

Lover of everything quintessentially British I bought a gorgeous cushion recently with a brilliant pattern on it and I thought it would look wonderful as a illustration - so here it is, well I edited a tiny bit.

Pac man re-invented

2010-09-12T22:05:00.001+01:00

watch on Youtube >>> Pac Man

Trawling through the world wide web today and I stumbled across this little gem on 'BuzzFeed':

"111 human pixels play a stop-motion game of auditorium Pac-Man over the course of 4 hours as part of the GAME OVER Project from the French-Swiss artist Guillaume Reymond. In France, Pac-Man says “glouglou glouglou” instead of “waka waka”."

Genius and has a great great attention span! 4hours!

Hello Sailor!

2010-09-12T15:09:00.003+01:00

New Illustration of mine, bit 'o' Nautical Niceness

Coca Cola

2010-08-26T21:09:00.002+01:00

Filling my time doing illustrations, this is a development of a Coca Cola poster.

2010-08-26T16:15:00.003+01:00

2010-08-26T16:05:00.000+01:00

Illustration play

2010-08-24T17:16:00.002+01:00

This is a illustration I have made recently, to just warm myself up again, this is a timeline of how i designed it. Angry Old Owl Lady.

Morgan Spice Website

2010-08-24T11:48:00.004+01:00

This month from 2^nd August through to the 22^nd Morgan Spiced Rum brought out their very first advertising campaign on the TV.

It was designed and made by Grey London, who has also created wonderful adverts such as the Boss Orange ad with Sienna Miller and Country Life Butter.

The ad was called the ‘Modern Adventure’ and features a group of men undertaking a succession of eccentric adventures on their way to their local bar, it is to encourage people to take risks and adventures in the everyday.

At the of the ad it promotes their new can of Rum and cola that you can get a free sample of if you enter their website. And I love a freebie so I had a peek and I love their website, it is what you would expect from Morgan Spice it is dark but inviting and has a quirkiness to it, it has some great flash design and is very very entertaining, telling you interesting ‘ice breakers’ for meeting new people. ‘Golden attire’ :what to wear on your adventures. And the best of all, you can type your postcode in and it will find all your local bars and pubs.

I love Morgan Spiced Rum and I always have, maybe I’m a bit biased but I don’t think so. Have a look yourself…. As Tony the Tiger would say “Its greeeaaattt”

www.morgansspiced.co.uk

http://www.grey.co.uk/

Wallpaper pattern design

2010-08-16T19:51:00.001+01:00

March of Magpies

wallpaper pattern design

2010-08-16T17:35:00.002+01:00

Dino Army

Wallpaper pattern design

2010-08-16T17:12:00.001+01:00

Animals

2010-08-14T17:08:00.003+01:00

This is the first installment of my animal design project, I thought of this a few weeks ago, to make me brush up on my drawing skills, so I think I will make it into a extensive project. I will be exploring illustration and patterns to create maybe a sequence or wallpaper pattern design. So here is my first go at an animal. This is the quintessentially British Bulldog.

sexy colours

2010-07-25T23:07:00.002+01:00

mmmm people say green and pink dont go..... Your wrong. Look at my gorgeous clas ohlson cup and straw mmmmmmm

Unis over & Mother design london

2010-07-08T18:48:00.005+01:00

So uni is finished, 3years has flown by and I have received 2:1 which I am pretty damn pleased about!

So now what to do what to do……

Well Job hunting is a big point and keep myself inspired and maybe do some personal projects to keep me sane.

But another is to keep on finding interesting, funny and brilliant design. This week I’m just going to go through past adverts I love, that may not even be that designerly but just great!

This week I have just discovered Mother design agency. I have seen some of their work in the past but looking on their website I just cant believe how much they have done and that I know or recognise all of their advertisements.

Talk to Frank - Pablo

^ view advert here

For starters mother has created Pablo the Dog for the Call Frank drug adverts. Which I think is just genius and is positively hilarious. Mother London created Pablo the drug mule to deliver a range of messages uncovering the truth and revealing the darker side of cocaine. Whether it’s a pair of disagreeable nostrils, an out-of-control human heart, or a customs official’s rubber glove, no-one is safe from Pablo on his quest to find out more about cocaine and to arm young people with facts while he’s at it.

Oasis for people who don’t like water! Rubberduckzilla.

^ view advert here

The story was told across several media; from the augmented reality experience at Rubberduckzilla.com, through to the manga-style comic of his back-story distributed with Zoo magazine. The campaign has generated an overwhelming response, contributing to Oasis’ impressive growth while the rest of the category shrank. You can play the online game here; http://www.rubberduckzilla.com

Coca Cola - Yeah Yeah Yeah La La La

^ view advert here

Developed at Christmas to connect coke to summer, Mother London created ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah La La La’ to encapsulate the hazy, laid-back feeling of the summer months with Coca-Cola. Brought to life in an original composition by Calvin Harris, illustrations by Ronald Kurniawan and a TVC directed by Dougal Wilson.

This advert is so different to the coca cola brand and that’s why it works so well. And how cute are the gismo look-a-like creatures! La la la

Pot Noodle the musical

^ view advert here

After several years of trying to simultaneously please both a youth audience and their mums, Mother London decided it was time to give the brand back to its consumers. Taking inspiration from YouTube pastiches, Steve and Digger were created; a pair of wannabe musicians and avid fans of Pot Noodle.

This campaign wowed the British audience and made everyone sing along to cheesy and mocking lyrics.

Pimms The call

^ view advert here

Created by Mother introducing the Pimm’s 8, a gang of eight different characters that represent all the ingredients needed for “the perfect Pimm’s serve” has proved a winner with the public.

‘The Call Up’ was aimed to retain “the brand's unique sense of humour and the juxtaposition of its perceived posh credentials.”

The anthem the Pimm's 8 rally to is the ‘New Avenger's theme music aiming to bring about “a sense of energy, fun and anticipation of the fun filled summer event ahead.”

Once in tight formation they storm a local BBQ releasing ‘Pimm’s O’Clock’ on the unsuspecting party.

I personally love Mint man, flying down and shrugging off his hand gliding suit… hes a bit mint.

Degree show June 18th - June 24th

2010-06-22T14:43:00.008+01:00

It was D&AD's third year degree show this week and it is showcasing everyone in our years work, it was a wonderful success and the opening night was amazing. all the work looks very professional and fantastic. I may be biased because Im in it but I think this years work is sensational and the publication and advertising has worked brilliantly. The photographs of us all in knitted beards brings comedy to the show. above is the work that i have presented and my sorted guide book is on show in the book room also.

visit our website at:

http://www.design-and.com

DNA

2010-06-22T14:27:00.004+01:00

24th & 25th June 2010!!! DNA EXHIBITION AT THE TRIANGLE come down to see.

About::::

Universities from across the North have teamed up with the region’s design and communications agencies to form the first annual DNA (Designers Northern Alliance) event, taking place in Manchester this June.

The event is being organised by a number of contributors from the University of Salford, University of Chester, Manchester Metropolitan University, UCLAN, Liverpool John Moores University & North Wales, along with a substantial number of agencies from across the region. It will be taking place at The Triangle (the old Corn Exchange) on the 24th and 25th June.

The idea behind the event is to showcase the newly graduated creative talent from the region’s universities. The event has been designed to bring together representatives from the industry and academia to develop links into work and to share best practice – whilst highlighting the work carried out in the advertising, animation, illustration and digital media and graphic design courses from the universities.

Jo Greenhalgh, communication pathway leader in graphic design at the University of Salford, explains: “Over the two days, the event will include an exhibition of the best of the graduate talent from universities in the North of England; we will be hosting a series of keynote lectures from industry and academia, a roundtable discussion, a question and answer forum and portfolio surgeries for students.

“We have been really heartened by the levels of interest in the event, and feel it will be a really worthwhile event that will be mutually beneficial for both the students who attend and the agencies who will be the first to meet the best graduates from our region’s institutions.”

The two day event will have a series of talks and portfolio surgeries with over 30 professionals from 15 agencies (to date), giving advice and feedback to students on their work. There will be a round table discussion and a question and answer forum with industry experts as well as a space for selected students to offer a private view of the best work to the industry.

Speeches will be given by high profile members of the North’s design and communications industry including Warren Drumm of GyroHSR, Chris Arnold of Creative Orchestra and Si Scott, the prolific graphic designer.

Support for the event has been impressive, with confirmed input coming from The Drum, Tayburn, Hyper Island, LOVE Creative, Vivid, Raw, Severe, KMP, Cheetham Bell JWT, Uniform, GyroHSR, Code Computer Love, Elmwood and Kernal.

Sorted - guide to manchester

2010-06-01T15:31:00.004+01:00

This was my most enjoyed project, out of the whole year.

It was a self-written one and I think I have produced a great outcome. It was a long project but I think my finished product is better than I even expected. It is a 50-page guide to Manchester, aimed at 18-30 year olds. Informing about the typical and not so typical Manchester. It is to compete with the current tourist guides and I think it is more personal and inviting than any of them. It is colourful and experimental with design, it is to entice the viewer as well as teach them. As well as the guide I have put together promotional products also: I have created 6 postcards, 4 posters, 4 badges and numerous designs for I-phone applications.

french stitching my guide book

2010-05-25T20:50:00.005+01:00

24^th May 2010

Today I learned to French stitch!

So I am in the final leg of finishing my guide book! Thank god, and after a lot of deliberation I decided that French stitching it would be the way to go as it will look very professional and like a proper magazine.

I had to figure out how to layout out the pages to make it open up like a perfect bound and then I chose my stock and double sided printed on the A4 colour printing in the mac suite, I had a bit of drama with printing but after two hours it was ok.

Then I went to the book binding workshop room to speak to Hilary about how to do it and she set me off on the ins and outs. I was a bit overwhelmed at first but once you get started its fine. After I had stitched it, I pressed it and glued over the spine so it stays strong and doesn’t wobble about.

All I need to do now is put the cover on and guillotine it, but I am not inducted on the scary machine so I have to wait till Friday when Hilary is in and then glue my cover on.

The cover is double sided printing on to Cartridge paper 200gm, so it is thicker than the pages but still has a nice textured feel.

So when I have done all that I will take photographs of it in real life situations and with a plain background. And make it presentable for my portfolio and degreeshow

My work is now on Rainy City Stories website

2010-05-20T13:28:00.009+01:00

Remember my project for March/April. It was a self-written project to produce five designs for five stories on the website Rainy City Stories. I used collage, photography, mapping and information graphics.

The aim of the brief was to show the designs with the stories. Well I have finally emailed Rainy city Stories and they have put my designs with the stories, which is bloody fantastic! I am so pleased and it has happened so fast. They look great and my website url is with them so its promoting me.

http://www.rainycitystories.com/2009/05/26/the-busiest-bus-route-in-europe

http://www.rainycitystories.com/2009/08/13/not-yet

http://www.rainycitystories.com/2009/02/23/the-victoria-baths

http://www.rainycitystories.com/2008/10/20/rusholme-ruffians

http://www.rainycitystories.com/2008/11/03/narcissus-the-double-daffodil

Cow Project - t-shirt designs

2010-05-16T15:45:00.004+01:00

These are my designs for a brief from yonkers ago, for Cow Vintage. It was to create four t-shirt designs for their new shop in Manchester. And I have finally got around to screen-printing my designs, now I am not the best at screen-printing but they have come out preeeetty well.

The idea behind the designs is to combine, British behaviour and saying with vintage items. Very simple idea and very simple designs. 1. Vintage mirror frame and the word Glamour ( to hint at the page 3 lifestyle of today) 2. Vintage chandelier with the words Nice one Bruv (slang and G-talk) 3. Gramophone and the song lyrics “Play that funky…..white boy” and 4. Grand old chair with the most use term “Have a brew” “tea&2”.

My business cards

2010-05-15T12:33:00.003+01:00

So here are my business cards, I designed them last week and sent the designs off to Moo.com to be printed and they have been delivered today! and ooof they look gorgeous.

the main focus is the front of the card and it is a photograph I took on my travels around manchester for one of my projects and I instantly fell in love with it and new I had to incorporate it somehow.

I had two sets printed with different colours on each design, I chose blue and yellow/green because they are unisex colours in my eyes and plus they are just striking and make the design.

self promotion illustrations

2010-05-09T23:17:00.001+01:00

self promotion illustrations

2010-05-09T23:09:00.000+01:00

awesome chair

2010-05-08T13:41:00.003+01:00

This chair is amazing! I want one right now! It was created for an advertising campaign by Jules & Jeremy. More than 30 highly respected people from the Dutch press and advertisement world have been photographed in this chair for the campaign. The advertisements have been printed in marketing and ad magazines.

You can buy it I think but for god nos how much. I just love it, I can just picture myself in it for days, not having to move. Brilliant.

the neon museum

2010-05-08T13:30:00.003+01:00

I really want to visit the Neon Museum aka the boneyard, it is a collection the old Las Vegas signs, from the most famous hotels in the world. It exhibits over 150 historic and non historic signs and is inspiration for artists, students, designers and historians.

It is a non profit organization in 1996. “The Neon Museum's mission is to collect, preserve, study and exhibit neon signs and associated artifacts to inspire educational and cultural enrichment for diverse members of our international community”

The pieces range from the 1930s to the present day. I think this would be gorgeous to see in person and great to photograph.

Inventive business card

2010-05-08T13:28:00.003+01:00

So Ive been looking into making a business card and the great researcher I am came across this naughty and hilarious design for a Divorce Lawyer. Apparently lawyers can’t really advertise so this ambient piece of design is brilliant. It’s a business card that opens up to reveal a condom and a Kama sutra card. And it was left at the front desks of hotels and motels in America, to promote the lawyers, this is because most affairs happen at such places. Its very tongue and cheek and put a smile on my face.

Bryan Edmondson: SEA

2010-05-06T14:44:00.002+01:00

4^th May 2010

Bryan Edmondson came to our university to give a talk about his design company Sea. He probably was one of the quickest lecturers we have had to date. He briefly talked about his early career and his university life, he graduated in 1992 and has worked at numerous design company’s: Roundel and Imagination, before he co-founded Sea with John Simpson in 1997.

His work touches on many disciplines from corporate identity and art direction to print, packaging and information design. He has combined a diverse and impressive client list and produced a wide range of acclaimed work for clients such as Matthew Williamson, GF Smith, EMI and the contemporary furniture brand, Beyon.   

“He used those weird things called pens!”

His work has been widely published and has received recognition in numerous national and international design awards. During his career he has lectured at many UK Universities and at events such as D&AD, Typographic Circle and the Annual London event, Four Designers.

They base their work on simple ideas, you could tell he knew what he liked and he has reasons for everything.

He also spoke about there re-design of Grafik Magazine, they were asked to design ten of the covers and a 150year anniversary book, I was really impressed by this and the work was just gorgeous, they worked with a screen print company for this and made 15,000 individually screen printed editions of Grafik to celebrate there anniversary.

He has obviously had a lucrative career and is proud to be at Sea, keeping his company to a 10 people maximum even with bigger and bigger clients each year, which is brave and probably a lot more work.

www.seadesign.co.uk

Russell Hancock

2010-05-06T14:39:00.010+01:00

Visiting lecturer - Russell Hancock 27th April 2010

Russell Hancock came to our uni to give a brilliant talk about his journey from college to present and he came to give us a similar lecture like his old class mate Craig Oldham gave us. He wanted to help us transition from a student to a designer, easier than he did. He was very charismatic and funny, he kept us all interested with the fast pace and fascinating stories.

Like I have said, he was in the same class with Craig Oldham, at the university college Falmouth and graduated in 2006. And he has worked himself up in the short space of 4 years.

He described his mistakes and his success when he first left uni and he got ‘shafted’ quite a lot, but also put himself out there. He made connections in his town and graphic designed for basically his whole town. He did what ever he could big or small and made connections in the industry while doing this.

He has had internships in studios as well as jobs but is a freelance designer now. And I have learned that ‘self-employed’ means you work for yourself and ‘Freelance’ means work for studios and companies.

He was going through some of his design work and he started to talk about a old derelict art deco cinema. And you could see he got excited, this was a cinema in his town that was owned by a awful guy. And Russell brought it on himself to design the boards that cover up the doors of the building, just to make it intriguing and to bring back some of its magic.

He pitched this to the awful guy and he turned it down, but months later some else bought the building and he pitched it to them and they loved it, and now they have asked him to design all their promotions packaging and design for the inside as they are making it a cinema again. This is an amazing achievement and he should be very proud, from a small illustration design to a huge campaign is brilliant.

This shows that you don’t just have to work for big companies to get up the ladder. But he doesn’t knock London and its wide variety of design. He has worked fro ASHA http://www.ashawebsite.co.uk/, an amazing design company, and has produced some winning ideas with them, like the ‘gadgetshop’ campaign which was to produce posters, packaging and business cards that all represented a gadget. He showed us some of the fantastic work he did at ASHA.

He also told us how in the past he was over working, working very long days and weekends, which isn’t a life.He warned us of the danger of over working and how he had become ill form it. He was very strong on his opinion that life shouldn’t all be about work and it was such a relief to hear, as some designers are too focused in my eyes and live eat breathe design.

“life and a work balance is so important”

After working at Asha he became self employed and told us some GREAT tips on how to go about self employment, hourly rates and terms and conditions.

No one else has Ever told us or spoke to us about these kinds of things, not even hinted so this was awesome.

Hourly rates- £25

Freelancing Day Rate - £100-£200

Web/flash designs - £300 or more per hour.

As well as these valuable tips he also was very voiced about keeping in contact with everyone and anyone, if you have done past work with a client, keep in touch, they might use you some day. And to Listen to clients, they don’t see the way we do and sometimes cannot see the potential in ideas. Even showing your mum would help; if she cant get it then you need to re work it.

When working for a client, get the money up front and a signature, assess your designs carefully before presenting, if you act like a pro, you will be treated like a pro, remember people and you will be remembered. Become organized get out and socialise and remember some clients are just plain bad.

During his career he has worked under Marksteen Adamson at ASHA, for clients such as JCB, Gadgetshop, Tearfund and The Duke of Edinburgh Award. Also for Jamaha and Digital Vision with Freeman Christie and The Royal Mint and London Olympics 2012 at Fixel.

He is now based in his studio in Clifton, Bristol, and works as a freelancer for clients such as The National Autistic Society, Stratford Armouries, Blue Mouse Disability, Research Media, M.U.S.E., Lumiere Kinesis Cinemas, Mentos Mints, TL&G and Made London.

After his marvellous lecture he came to our studio to speak to anyone who wanted. So in small groups he had a chat with us. He has given us basically gold dust to any student. He has produced a: proposal, cover letter, terms of business, fee proposal and invoice. These are invaluable pieces of paper work that we need when we leave and I had never even thought about it, because no one ever said anything about it. He talked us through the paperwork, what to do and not to do and things that should be written into your contracts.

He has reassured me as a designer and has helped me immensely with the paperwork that is essential, he was a brilliant speaker and was very approachable, I think I will keep in touch with him as he is just so straight forward and a brilliant designer.

http://russellhancock.blogspot.com/

Emily Forgot

2010-05-06T14:34:00.003+01:00

20^th April 2010 visiting lecturer

Emily Alston aka Emily Forgot came to give a informal lecture for the 3 years of D&AD. She was a very charismatic woman and spoke to us instead of at us, unlike other designers in the past.

She is a illustrator mainly and a part time graphic designer, but wants to be more focused on graphic design as there is more freedom in designing unlike illustration where the client tells you the colours and style of the piece.

She graduated in 2004 from Liverpool School of Art and Design and had been designing ever since, she has now moved down to London because she thinks being in London makes being in the industry easier, not the creatively but it has opened doors for her.

She is influenced by A.M. Cassandra who was a illustrator, typographer, designer and set designer of the 1920’s.

And by the surreal artists Salvador Dali and Alan Aldridge.

She has done work for the likes of Selfridges and Adidas, and by the looks of her website she is well known in the community. She has designed a cover for the Creative Review and from this got work from Yamaha.

Her work is very 2D and illustrative, using A LOT of gradients which I don’t favour but hey it works.

“I like busy things like Where’s Wally”.

Although I think she is freelance now she has in the past worked for creative agency’s, she worked for Village green for 6 months. But from what she said she felt restricted.

“Be self indulgent”

she got very giddy and excitable about her work in the lecture and made everyone laugh, she like to get things in her designs that she likes, like legs and tea pots.

She has also screenprinted for the If You Could website which focuses on Working with established designers and illustrators as well as emerging talent they produce work for publishing, exhibitions and events. If You Could has been featured in international design and style press including Creative Review, Grafik, Design Week, Computer Arts, Wonderland Magazine.

Along side commercial endeavors Emily produces personal work in the form of limited edition prints and ceramics. Her work has been exhibited both in London and abroad most notably in 2007 at the “Fragiles” show as part of the prestigious Miami Art Basel.

She has clearly done well for herself with her career. In the space of six years she has definitely made a name for herself and still seemed grounded and young and fresh, she didn’t take herself seriously and doesn’t with her work either, her work is fun and visual it doesn’t have to have specific reason or meaning, she just makes it.

Scratch n sniff

2010-05-06T14:25:00.003+01:00

Hi all, I no Ive not been blogging for a while but Im not a great mutlitasker when having to write my uni journal and my Manchester guide book….too many words.

But today I feel I must blog as I was walking down oxford road and was handed a free bottle of water, but it wasn’t just any kind of water……. It was Calvin Klein Water….. yeah I no I was impressed too. But no they are not opening up a new market it’s a promotional item for their new male fragrance: Eternity Aqua. It’s a small bottle and is designed like a typical bottle of water but with a great extra. It has a ‘Scratch & Sniff’ patch on it, which smells of the fragrance. And it is a pretty nice smell too! I felt I must share this, as is a great use of marketing. I wouldn’t of thought Calvin Klein would do such an ambient advertisement.

cheeky cheeky

2010-04-15T20:54:00.004+01:00

Just been scanning through design agencies I like for my journal and noticed the homepage of TBWA London, explaining about themselves and there company. But what really caught my eye is the very mischievous picture they have put up of the Saatchi & Saatchi building and in front of the scaffolding is a plug for TBWA. How very naughty of them :) I dont know how long this has been there but it put a smile on my face, so I thought I would share.

Rainy City Stories project

2010-04-01T13:42:00.007+01:00

Brief: Editorial

My idea to create images for the website RAINY CITY STORIES

(http://www.rainycitystories.com)

This website is for Manchester based writers who submit short stories of Manchester memoires and their own narratives.

“What’s Rainy City Stories?

This site gathers up a wide experience of living in, remembering and imagining the great city of Manchester. It uses a map of the city to organize stories linked to particular places. If you click on a place marked by the little cloud icon, you will be able to read a piece of writing associated with that spot. Anyone can submit writing to the site.”

Pick FIVE stories off this webpage and illustrate them appropriately.

Photography – Not Yet

By Paul Capewell

This short story is situated in the Deaf Institute on Oxford Road, and it is a simple narrative about two people waiting and longing for something to happen but it seems as if time stood still. For this I took a trip to Trof (which is the Deaf Institute) and took some photographs with a fish eye camera and a digital. I have played around in Photoshop with them and based my designs on a phrase used in the story “silent comrade”. And with this I thought of the military and how correlated the armed forces are with each other, how in-sync they have to be to fight at their best. I liked this idea and though to present this in the design. I drew my own comrade and played around with layout, my final design is my favourite and it looks worn and as if the ‘comrades’ were projected on to the building.

Collage – Narcissus. The Double Daffodil

By Anne Beswick

This short story is about nostalgia and the lower class in the 1960’s, and it is situated in Moss side, Manchester. For this story I felt that collage design would be suitable as the story is about childhood memories and dark times, with these thoughts I think the design would have little or no feeling if it were to be illustrated in Photoshop or Illustrator. So with this I started to design typical ideas with daffodils and crumbling windowsills, but this was so uninspired and gave no sensation or emotion. So I thought about the time period and what was going on in the surroundings of the narrative and decided on creating a scene using dark colours to instigate the hard times and using a bright yellow in the little girls dress to illustrate the idea of the daffodil being the young girl. And how the tale revolves around her positive attitude and young, optimistic outlook on life in her working class lifestyle.

The Busiest Bus Route in Europe

By Emily Josephine McPhillips

This story is located on Oxford road near the BBC building. It is a classic love story but with a twist, between two people on a 142 Magic Bus travelling to University. They connect subtly on the busy bus journey, not knowing anything about each other but there is a strong bond being formed, they could relate to each other without even forming a sentence. From this narrative I formed a design instantly in my head, I knew I should create this vision with collage as it presents a delicate touch and sentiment into the design. I wanted to capture the unknown/mysteriousness of the two characters but also centring them to be the focus. In a sea of anonymous people, they are to stand out and relate to one another.

The Victoria Baths

By Aiden Clarkson

This narrative is located at the Victoria baths, Hathersage Road. It is a combination of two stories, one is the history of the Baths and the other is a narrative of a mans content memory of a man hitting another man with a mountain bike. I was having trouble deciding which route to take with this story, as there are two different directions to go in. I chose the history of the Victoria baths as I think the Baths are so interesting and beautiful when you compare them to the average community swimming pools of present. I felt like I wanted to tell the history of the baths as well as create a visually pleasing design so I produced a timeline of the history and combined this with a side and floor plan of the baths itself. This design is information graphics and I think the colours work and blend well with the website as well as the actual design. Again I have not ventured into this design style much before and I like the simplicity of the design I think it suits the story in an unobvious way but tells the narrative clearly and not to overpower the actual story.

Rusholme Ruffians

By Matthew David Scott

This story is full of emotion, it is set in Rusholme and is centered on student living and gang culture. It is an insight into a thieves/muggers way of life and how they chose their victims. This story is a lesson to all students and to young people being pressured into a lifestyle they don’t want to be in. it is about two teenage boys in a crew stand waiting in an unlit door way on the busy street of Rusholme waiting for their unsuspected prey. They have been tracking a certain student for a while and had decided that tonight is the night to jump; they follow him home and violently let themselves in after him. The older one of the two is the obvious leader and calls all the shots, he is the instigator and what he says goes, the young of the boys clearly has to follow strict orders. The younger boy feels sympathetic to the victim and is confused about is sexual orientation, he doesn’t want to be in the crew but feels he has no way out now.

This is such a strong story line I found it difficult to create a fitting image, I wanted to show how the muggers follow and track their victims and for this I decided to create a mapping design. I have used images of rusholme at night and edited them into three sets of footprints; each footprint is allocated to each character in the story. The design is to create a narrative in itself, ‘stalking the prey’ it is a very different way of designing than I normally do and I think it is refreshing.

With these designs I have developed some postcards, to be used for the tourists side of Manchester. As this whole brief is centred on Manchester writers, Manchester stories and designed by a Manchester designer I thought this would be fitting.

My Panic Design at the exhibition

2010-03-31T12:49:00.000+01:00

Here is my work for panic & blurb :

Don’t Lose Your Head

This design encapsulates my adaptation of panic.

It is trying to stay calm and not losing self-control, in a very

characteristically British way not showing our true feelings.

But sometimes you are overwhelmed by apprehension,

anxiety, and pressure and it has to be released.

My design is using distortion, pixilation and separated with the

idea of a sliding puzzle game, to emphasise the idea of chaos

and confusion, using a vivid blue to convey hesitation and

uncertainty. It expresses my state of panic and inner emotion.

www.abimilnes.com

www.abimilnes.blogspot.com

Panic Exhibition opening night 30th March 2010

2010-03-31T12:36:00.005+01:00

Panic Opening Night!

Well the Panic exhibition opening night was a tremendous success and all the fear and …well panic I had running up to the event disappeared on the night, I was so anxious for people to be judging my work other than our tutors but it was brilliant and each time some glanced at my work I got a bit excited!

Sandra and Helen did an astounding job last night and setting up the exhibition, it was lovely to see the teachers thought so as well. Last night the turn out was astounding, I know everyone brought family and friends like I did, but when I was meeting and greeting there were people who had heard word of mouth about the event and had turned up also which was great to see.

I hope the rest of the week is just as successful and I am so proud of everyone who presented their work, its all so diverse considering we were all working on the same project. I feel like a proper grown up now, it wasn’t a school/university event it was organised by students for students and it was brilliant to take part in. The space for the exhibition worked famously, and was curated well, I think everyone’s work was shown in its best light, the space itself was a bit sketchy at first but when it was filled with the designs I think its blandness worked and the mirrors everywhere were used to present work on instead of being left.

All week I have been dreading showing my work, as I think I looked at it too much and started to dislike it more and more, but I think this was just an irrational fear as my tutor had not seen any of my work for this project and I was going in a whole new direction with this piece. It is unlike any of my designs from this university year and this is was I feared, I moved out of my comfort zone, but now I see it in the exhibition I am content with my decision.

Here are some photos of us setting up the exhibition, last night in all the excitement I totally forgot to record the night and didn’t take any pictures, I hope other people did.

TV

2010-03-28T12:50:00.004+01:00

Ok so in the last week I have done a small project for a Don’t Panic Poster; TV.

Like all Don’t Panic briefs its very simple and just clearly states the word they want you to design around.

So for this design I wanted to base it on the retro 90s television, with low-tech gadgets and cheesy symbols. This is because it was such a simpler time, nowadays I have trouble even turning on a TV never mind changing settings to movie screen or the DVD player. So I want to bring back buttons and knobs, old satellite aerials and analogue TV, colour testing and classic logos.

I didn’t want to create revolutionary design I just want to celebrate the easier times, when there were only 4 channels not 300.

And this is my outcome, which I am really pleased about, it is half digital editing and half collage. I do a lot of collage as you can see from past posts and I want to move away from this slightly so I can branch out into other aspects of design.

The design consists of subtle colours expect for the phrase ‘lovely jubbly’ off Only Fools & Horses: I chose this quote because it optimises the 90s to me and probably the nation. I didn’t want to overpower the image but I wanted the text to stand out so I have double it and used vibrant UV like colours to also connect to the colour test. In the back drop of my design I have used the retro symbols of old weather forecasts and repeated them over to create a pattern which I think Is appropriate and isn’t too vociferous as I have played with the levels. I have used collage and Photoshop to celebrate the simplicity of the 90s television, I think its hands on approach is appropriate for my take on this brief.

I have submitted it to the Don’t Panic competition now and people can vote for their favourite design, so if you fancy voting for me that would be just lovely.

http://www.dontpaniconline.com/designtheposter/TV

http://www.dontpaniconline.com/designtheposter/TV/entry/421

Push Print Talk

2010-03-23T21:19:00.007Z

Today Push Print from London came to give a talk to the third years.

Push print is a printers that specialises in Litho printing.

The company is 12 strong with 3 partners. The woman who came to give the talk was very and interacted with the group asking us how much we know about print and how the process works. She brought a selection of books, concertina and magazines along to show what Push has designed and to show the quality of their printing.

It was very interesting to see, as I am a total novice when it comes to the print side of things. I always print digitally even though I know that litho is a better process. Some of the magazines and style of print were spectacular and I was shocked to see how some of the designs were made. She also gave details to us how to approach a printers and what information to say and explain about the format.

When emailing the printers, you need to clearly state the date you want the product done, the name and estimated budget, after sending the email ring to check with the printers because this is an important relationship to have.

As well as this, when sending the work to be printed you need to know the format, size, how many colours, stock, weight of paper, finishing, quantity, date to be finished and title.

Aswell as this valuable information she named a few paper stock merchants who she thought to be of significance:J F Smiths, Fenner paper, Fedrigoni, Robert Horne, Independent paper and Dixon & Row.

I learned a lot from this talk and it has opened my eyes to new and different ways to print I think this was a very valuable lecture. As I doubt we would get this much information when we leave education.

Panic work

2010-03-22T18:29:00.001Z

Panic panic panic

For this panic exhibition coming up next week 30^th March 2010 at Noiselab, I have been developing an A1 design piece. The theme is to recreate our version of ‘panic’ in any media, stock and layout. I have opted for an A1 poster, which is daunting to me, as I have never printed at A1 before; my designs have never been so large. My idea for this is created around the phrase ‘Don’t lose your head’, when I think of panic I think of trying to stay calm and in a very British manor, not losing self-control. This doesn’t always happen and sometimes you have got to get your anger, stress, worry out of your system to carry on living. My design is to show someone breaking down with panic and being so overwhelmed everything is distorted and barely legible. I will not blog my work just yet as I want to showcase it at the exhibition, but its coming soon.

Laterooms.com new advert

2010-03-22T12:38:00.003Z

So the new advert for LateRooms has now entered the television world. It has been created and designed by their design agency that they use for their website and other adverts: BMB agency. You can see their work here (http://www.bmbagency.com/#) and their work for LateRooms here (http://www.bmbagency.com/#/clients/laterooms/6)

When I heard there was a new campaign coming out from laterooms I wondered what it would be like, as all the other adverts were all very similar, trying to keep to the style of the Lateroom logo. Clinging onto the deep purple and very type based and using a 2D style. So when I saw this new advert I was taken aback, it was very different using a whole new theme and approach to advertising the company. It was revealed on 19thMarch 2010 at 8.45pm on ITV1.

The new adverts theme is all to do with bubbles, it starts off with a bubble falling out of a calendar to instigate the beginning of a holiday. The backdrop is a kitchen but is slightly blurred so you focus on the main idea, this bubble then creates a setting inside. More then appear and have different destinations/hotels inside, this idea is to draw on the fact that LateRooms have more than just hotels they cater for all sorts of stays and have very diverse locations e.g.: coastal, city centre, farm houses, cottages, bnb’s, guest houses, manor houses, hotels… the list goes on. I think their concept for this idea is wonderful and is very dreamlike and a ‘cute’ advert. Although being different to older adverts and campaigns it feels like a LateRooms advert and to me puts the company in a good light and should be respected, I think this design is memorable and fits to the concept , without overpowering the viewer.

Hopefully if you haven’t already seen the advert you will do soon as I’ve seen it at least three times since Friday, or when it comes onto the Youtube radar you may google away.

Heres Laterooms while I’m at it www.laterooms.com

To connect to this new theme LateRooms have edited the website accordingly and there is a new section that is influenced by this idea and its interactive and is really refreshing to see on a accommodation website.

Website so far

2010-03-21T20:14:00.004Z

My website so far…. At the moment I am developing my own website. Each week I am attending a tutor group at uni to learn new and wonderful ways of progressing with web design. I don’t want a big flash high tech website, because if you knew me, you would know Im not high tech and gadget filled. I want a decent website that shows me through the design and is easy to travel through. Right now we are at the complicated part with all the codes! Which I thought I wouldn’t get my head around but slowly but surely I am, surprisingly.

At the moment I have only got a handful of my work up on there, but I want to take photographs of some of my work as I feel it will look more sophisticated and will show my book designs in a better light. Remember it is still being played with but here it is so far ….

www.abimilnes.com

Victoria Baths

2010-03-21T19:52:00.005Z

For my last project I did a lot of research for numerous stories I was designing images for and one of them was about Victoria Baths. I’ve always been an admirer of the baths and when they won the BBC Restoration programme in 2006 I was over the moon, as I have wanted them to reopen for years. Sadly I wasn’t around (or was too young) before they closed and never got to experience them. But I have visited them and I just think the building itself is wonderful. So much detail and thought went into designing such a magnificent construction. Henry Price was the architect in 1902, and he was appointed as the first City Architect. He became responsible for carrying out this ambitious public building project, which would include 3 swimming pools, 64 wash-baths, Turkish and Russian Baths, clubrooms, boilers and calorifiers and a substantial 4 bedroomed flat for the Superintendent of the Baths and Wash-Houses.

Recently I had a wander round when there was a vintage market on, and I took some photographs to record the day, give me inspiration for my story design and for my own personal satisfaction. Even though It is a bit worse for wear it still is grand and beautiful.

Imperial War Museum North

2010-03-21T17:59:00.005Z

As well as seeing the Don McCullin Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum North I also had a wander round the rest of the sectors. Learning about women’s role in wartime and the different uniforms. Also there was a slide show that was projected onto all the walls, which talked us through what it felt like and veterans of the wars spoke about their time and what they went through. It was a very interesting a moving presentation opening my eyes to what must have been an intimidating

and unnerving period. The exhibition showed old time war clothes and present day, and I must admit the older clothes were so much smarter and dapper compared to the camouflaged uniform of today. But my favourite part of this was a darken room, which was filled with old filing cabernets with information of people from the certain wars, some had memorabilia and old photographs of families, others had makeshift gravestones to commemorate soldiers. This was so touching to see and the art direction of this section was fascinating it was unlike the rest of the area, filling from floor to ceiling with the filing cabernets and light boxes.

I have been to this museum when I was a child, but never really took in what I was looking at. I think I have definitely found a new respect for these wars and all of what I saw was seen through new eyes that day.