John Lewis Christmas Campaign

I felt the need to post John Lewis' Christmas campaign for 2009. Illustrator and designer Kate Forrester has created these sublime paper-cut illustrations which have such a proffesional but fun aesthetic. Every time I see one in a magazine or a newspaper I feel the need to take it out and keep as a source of inspiration for both my own practice and the old dissertation! Take a look:

Images from http://www.kateforrester1.blogspot.com/

PDP

After my PDP, felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders! Becoming a little stuck with the silence brief, and only just really developing my final idea for 'Fedrigoni' I felt like there were so many loose ends which needed to be tidied up before Christmas (which is fast approaching). However talking to Sue, I set myself a few deadlines which I have been cracking on with this weekend, so hopefully (finger's crossed!) I can just focus on the essay and personal project over the holiday season!!

Task 1:
Produce final spreads for Silence, adding the chosen text to create final layouts for my portfolio. Then I am able to spend time before hand-in turning these layout's into spreads for a book!

Task 2:
By Tuesday 15th have final drawings/designs for bookmark ready to be sent to lasercut. Then create final competition boards showing final concepts.

Task 3:
Decide on personl project by Wednesday 16th!!!

Setting myself these mini deadlines may allow me to at least have Christmas day off and not stress too much, although not feeling a certain level of stress would just be weird right now.

During my PDP, Sue and I also discussed my current method of practice which seems to have developed into kind of paper cut illustrations. Choosing the correct personal project will give me the opportunity to develop and practice the skill, which will hopefully help me set on the right path after Christmas. I felt really reassured that this could be an area that I could continue working in and develop.

Paper

So it's been a while since I talked about any of my work, so thought it was about time that I talked about my current project which is the live YCN brief for 'Fedrigoni.' Took me a while to develop an idea, but after having a tutorial with Lucy May Schofield I have finally established a final idea which I am currently developing.

In the early stages of the project I made an informed decision that I wanted to make something which could be sent to people in the post. It HAD to be something lovely because 'everybody just loves to receive something nice in the post.' Initially thoughts included folded, paper calendars or a lovely, hand-made, tactile invitation which people would interact with and enjoy...

The above page from my sketchbook shows a collection of pieces of hand-made stationary (something which I have become fascinated with) After looking at these and other samples, I began to think about what made stationary unique and how one envelope would stand out from the others if it landed on your desk. Nice paper, unusual format, hand written text, colour often make an envelope stand out from the standard size you usually see. I began to play around with the format of an envelope and decided to elongate it...the shape then reminded me of a bookmark- which would be something which could be sent out to members of the design community.

The main concept behind my final idea was to emphasise the versatility of paper, I wanted potential customers to be aware of the endless possibilities, rather than just straight forward print- paper can also be used for cut, fold, sticth etc! Fedrigoni has a very corporate identity and this is something I wanted to 'soften' up.

Below are my mock up's of the final idea:

I tested out the encorporation of the identity by cutting the 'F' from fedrigoni out of the envelope, which then allows a glimpse of the content to the receiver evoking a sense of mystery. Now I have come up with my final idea's, I am in the process of trying out fonts, drawing up the final design and then sending it to lasercut.

Helen Murgatroyd

Another graduate of MMU, Helen Murgatroyd paid us a visit to show us her illustrations and drawings. She is now studying for an MA at the Royal Collage of Art. I wasn't overly keen on some of the current work which Helen showed us, but after having a nosey at her online portfolio there were a few things including some commercial commissions which caught my eye.

I remember way back when I began studying D&AD, we were shown a piece of Helen's 'mapping' work and it has been shown to us every year ever since. The 'Food Preperation Map's,' have been a point of research simply for the style and the final execution of the pieces which are just lovely. Attention to detail has been to every part, and I just love the chosen colour scheme and stock in which they have been printed on.

I have enjoyed the majority of the visiting lecturers we have had, especially because I think they have illustrated the 'less digital' aspect of design. Helen talked about how and why she had made her own drawing implimants, and looking at the final pieces there is such a personal elemant to them. I felt rather inspired after Helen's lecture, it was given very naturally, which almost put me at ease with the course (even if it was only for 5 minutes!!)

Below are some more examples of he work:

menu for 'cup'

Hand-made power point

'Ascension' T-shirts

Hamish Muir

The first lecture of December was kicked off by Hamish Muir. A throughly enjoyable lecture as we actually learnt a little bit about Muir, we learnt his places of study, his initial thoughts on art and design and went onto see the development in his work over many years in the industry.

After breaking graduating from a postgraduate course at Basel School of Design in 1981, Muir ventured back to England. Later on in 1985 he met fellow designers Mark Holt and Simon Johnston, who like Muir had influences of working within the design industry outside of the U.K, the 3 of them went onto to form 8VO.

It was the first part of the lecture which I enjoyed the most. The majority of the group's early work was collage and hand drawn type which was then photographed...this all happened long before the introduction of computers and mac's into graphic design. Seeing the earlier work by Muir had definitely helped me a resassure myself and my practice, it was invaluable to see how handmade work had such a prominent place in the design industry and hopefully still does. Below are some images of Hamish's work for the Hacienda and Factory records, which was produced as part of the 8VO group.

Taken from http://www.hamishmuir.com/

Keep Calm Gallery

(poster by Hayley + Lucas)

Quite appropriate at this stage of third year....

Found this lovely website 'Keep Calm Gallery,' full of screen prints, typography and letterpress! YUMMY

December's Arrival

Paper LAB

Origami

As part of my general liking of paper and ongoing research into the 'Paper Promotion' brief I looked at the art of paper folding and learnt how to fold Japenese styleee using traditional origami models. Here they are below, the colours of the paper are abit 'in your face,' but they came in the set!!

basic bird, frog and flower folds

star box

pin-wheel

lotus flowers

Now I have learnt some of the basics, I am a little stuck as to where and how I could apply them to the brief...