Oscar Wilde

It is very much more difficult to talk about a thing than to do it.......


Exactly! Trying to do my presentation now.
When I came to the college in September I was convinced that I was going to specialize in typography. I would always look to David Carson for inspiration as I thought he had a unique typographic style, I enjoyed the way the way he played with the relationship between the letters and would continually push the boundaries and break the rules of traditional text layout. Having come straight from A-level, I felt I had a lot to learn in my first year. I lacked in confidence, organization and time management. This pretty much showed through in my very first projects.


I felt the turning point for me in my first year was the Timeline Brief. (top of slide) I think the fact that it was a long brief abled me to really get involved with the topic and work out my best way of working. It was with this brief that I realized I had an interest in the exploration of media. I was not happy with my final piece of this project, but I felt I learnt a lot from the development work. I realized I need to pay attention to the little details. I spent too long experimenting and would have benefited from making snap decisions and setting aims to complete certain aspects of the project. I think as a whole, this project would have been a whole lot more successful with better organization. I also started to realise that my strenghts were more in image than type. Next was the Photoshop brief, (bottom of slide) I really enjoyed this brief and I think it shows in my final pieces. I started to realise to important of message and chosing the appropiate media to get the message across clearly and successfully.


The project that I enjoyed the most was the book of 100 keys. I enjoyed the experimenting with materials, even if I knew it would not be included in the final resolution, I aimed to explore as many different materials as possible just to see what results I would get. I like the final piece here as I think it shows that I am a conceptual thinker, as I really challenged what the definition of a book is. I felt a book of keys would only get the message across if it were to be displayed in this way. From this brief I also learnt that categorizing lists will always make better design. As I started off by just having a bunch of keys, but I then split them into two groups - fantasy and realism. The realistic category represented in a way keys normally would be. And the fantasy category is represented in an unusual way for keys to be displayed.

I have had very little experience and practice in drawing (shown on left) and I think this is still an issue and something that I need to work on next year. However, towards the end of the visual language module I started to enjoy experimenting with different media and methods of creating line. However, I think the problem is that I am still experimenting trying to find my own style and technique for drawing. On the right, is my final piece for the calendar brief. I think, also like the books of 100 keys, it helps to sum up my style. That I am a conceptual thinker. The year that I designed the calendar for was 1929, the year of the wall street crash a financial crisis. Once I had decided on an audience, and message - that it was a year of financial crisis, at first for America but then this spread worldwide. The design for creating the calendar onto dollar notes just followed as I had clearly identified the message –money and the Audience – America/a.


A book that I have been constantly referring to throughout the first year, Is one called all messed up by Anna Gerber. As a whole the designers within in it push the boundaries, and consider message and audience to be an important factor. It looks at graphic design that goes beyond pen and paper. But it’s not just designers that give me inspiration; often films and music inspire me. A film called, My Blueberry nights, helped me with my keys project. As the opening of the film is based in a café, where various customers had left their keys for someone else to pick up but more than often the other person would not pick them up. So the café owners is left with a jar of keys, each key having a story behind them as to where they came from. Therefore making me realize it was the identity of keys that I found interesting.

A design group that I have found very inspirational is one called usdesignstudios. They are newly graduated and formed studio who strongly believe that designs stems from good ideas.
The images left were created to show the resemblance between many office working conditions and battery farmed hens. The fact that a human has been packaged and labeled as if a chicken would be, makes the message so much stronger and clearer. I think I work in a similar way to these designers, or at least I aim to, as I think message and audience is the most important aspect of design. Once you have a clear message and audience set up, the design just follows.

I have started to create my own personal sketchbook/notebook. I quickly started to realize the importance of keeping such a sketchbook. It is something you can carry with you everywhere you go, collect materials, record and note anything you find interesting. Keeping this notebook also helps me to keep organized as all my notes are kept together. I have also started to create timetables, and set deadlines within projects in order to help me complete a project successfully.