My Panic Design at the exhibition

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Shaped by War: Photographs by Don McCullin exhibition

Last weekend I visited the Imperial War Museum North in Salford Quays, to see the exhibition on Don McCullin, one of the worlds most commended photographers. This exhibition was showing his photography of numerous wars e.g Veitnam, Ireland, Cyprus, Congo, Kenya etc.. it contains over 200 photographs, objects, magazines and personal memorabilia, and shows how war has shaped the life of this exceptional British photographer and those across the globe over the last half-century.

For more than 50 years, McCullin’s images have shaped our awareness of modern conflict and its consequences. His courage and integrity, as well as the exceptional quality of his work, are a continuing inspiration and influence worldwide.

The exhibition was arranged in five sections: the early years, discovering photojournalism, the Sunday Times Magazine, changing times and a new direction.

The images were all so striking and vivid, I was taken aback by some of the heartbreaking photographs and admired his determination throughout all this conflict and hostile surroundings.

"Photography for me is not looking, it's feeling. If you can't feel what you're looking at, then you're never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures."

He was so passionate about his photojournalism and threw himself into every war-zone with no fear and courage.

In Vietnam, Don McCullin lived among the American soldiers, many of whom, he says, thought him mad. "They kept offering me guns for my protection and, to their utter astonishment, I kept refusing. A gun has no place in a ­photographer's kit. You are there as an objective observer."

I would highly recommend going to see this exhibition, unfortunately we were not aloud cameras in this showcase, but really his photographs truly do need to be seen in all their glory. He develops all his own work himself and is very meticulous with designs.

Laterooms.com new advert

Good afternoon everyone, just a quick reminder. 

Tonight at 8:45 LateRooms.com are launching their 

New Advert Live inbetween Corrie. 

keep mum

Happy Mothers day! I was at the imperial war museum recently and I came across this cheery postcard, which I guess was a slogan during the war time. made me grin :)

well I never

ha well arent these a treat! think these are fitting as it was international women's week last week. I found these while I was trekking through the internet world looking for traffic lights would you believe. I like how such a simple object can be turned out to be something totally different. Barbie boobs = love hearts, sweet

Secret message

Recently I stumbled across this delightful little message in a ted baker box. Iv had this box for a while, as I received a gorgeous ted baker purse in it for my 21^st. while I was looking for a sizable box to use to as a gift box for Mothers day I opened it to find this quaint message “ its what’s on the inside that counts”. This can be used as a few different meanings and obviously stating that Ted Baker is good quality but I still think its darling, the font ‘Georgia italic’ suits the message perfectly. I don’t know whether ill give this away now :)

Revolution Card

Here is a gorgeous little Revolution card, my friend found it on the street and thought it was my style of design and picked it up for me, I am very pleased that she did, as it is just lovely. It is combining playing cards, 1960s style women and drinking all in one card. It grabs your attention instantaneously, it is more restrained than other promotional cards and I think this gives it an edge, it is a different direction to advertising, it is not screaming at you to pick it up. All the information is on the back so the front is not drowned out. 

my hand made cards

Noiselab D&AD Exhibition

A few weeks ago our student rep Helen Butterworth went to the new gallery and studio Noiselab on Market Street Manchester and walking into a presentation to see who would be able to use the Noiselab space form the 30^th March to the 4^th April, and without any boards or preparation she argued our case to use the gallery, and just a couple of weeks ago found out she had been accepted and so we have our very own exhibition.

So for this exhibition the class has decided to make new work for this exhibit especially so all our work coincides with one another and looks professional. As a year group we started to think of new briefs and existing ones that we could adapt, in the end we decided on one that a fellow student Shauna had thought up. Which is to decried and convey ‘Panic’ in either poster form or moving image. Everyone seems very pleased with this brief as it shows how we are feeling a this stage in our university life (as its near the end) and I feel everyone is up to the challenge to present original work as it will be shown in the public view, not just our portfolios. 

card & cake sale D&AD

Today some of my class mates and me (D&AD 3^rd year) set up a cake and card sale in the Holden Gallery café, to raise money for the degree show. We have been planning this for a few weeks and prepared cakes, biscuits and home made cards as well as some vintage jewellery to sell. So many people off the course had contributed to the sale with lovely hand crafted cards and ‘Easter’ products. The tables we had allocated were decorated and we even had a stand to hang our screen-printed bags on. It looked very professional in my eyes, but maybe I am biased. It was a long day but we did raise a decent amount and we can re sell the items that were not bought today.

Screen Printing

Yesterday I learned how to Screenprint! In my whole 3 years of university I have not learned this trade and always wanted to. So me and my good friend Sandra, decided to screen print some of our designs onto canvas bags and sell them for our degree show funding. It was such a brilliant day and even though we were working hard it was very enjoyable, and to look at our own made canvas bags was a great reward.

I learned so much in one day and quite regret not learning it sooner as the results are lovely, the texture and vividness of the prints are so much clearer and more exciting than normal computer prints.

After we printed two different designs on to 20 canvas bags, we also printed onto small brown paper bags, as we could use these to package our sale items in at the card and bake sale we had organised, these prints looked just as charming and all in all I was satisfied with the results.

Here are some pictures I took to record the day.