New Premises

http://http://blu-kid.tumblr.com/

My new blog space. Enjoy.

Thank You

New project which means a new sketchbook. Say 'Thank You' to someone, anyone. It's a very broad brief with a very short timeline- 1 week in fact. Welcome back sleepless nights and raging at Adobe. I've missed you.

So, who do I thank? There's a number of designers and artists that inspire me, authors, etc. I tried to find the person who coined the phrase 'thank you' but i've come up with nothing so far. And then I started thinking about Gillian Wearing- a fine artist who once upon a time invited strangers on the street to write a secret on a piece of paper and took a photo of them.

How about my thank you is to everyone? I could thank anyone who comes up and helps my project by writing a little thank you themselves. Photo. Slap in sketchbook. Done. Audience participation. I need to think more into this. Time plan- have a solid idea by Monday. Sorted maaate.

Back To Uni and Back To Work...

So, checking out my previous blog (May time) I've decided to update on what I've been doing. This includes no design work. Whatsoever. I got a job throwing pasties into a bag and saying "£1.20 please" and spent my wages on going to London, Birmingham and drinking my way to September 25th where I now find myself buying a diary and getting back to the real world (describing university as the 'real world' is a little shaky I know). And to my slight worry seeing classmates with work from design experience and things. Oh my.

Right! So back to work- including PAL training and checking out AimHigher peerwork and lets try to ignore the fact that it seems I wasted my summer.

Case Study? Grand!

So this is the good ol' case study booklet for work experience. Isn't it pretty? What's not so pretty will be the 2 and a half hour drive for the hand-in. I haven't been posting in a while, due to the lack of internet, but hopefully I will be able to drop by every week or so. My next issue? Finding a job. Awesome.

Update- Sat 24th April

The 2nd year vis commers were having an exhibition at Boscombe Beach and as I live literally five minutes from there, I figured it'd be rude if I didn't show. To my surprise, there was hundreds and hundreds of people there, all the way down the beach taking advantage of the sun, including a man dressed as a cow... I really enjoyed my arty day (I also grabbed a bus to Bournemouth and chilled out with a band playing pop- I was meant to get to the Stop the Bus! art thing but shops got in my way...) and figured I'd show some photos of the goodness...Enjoy.

I am now the proud owner of two pieces of art- the first a drunk bear, the second a barely there zebra made of the repeated word 'zebra' which I adore.

98%

This is it. 98% finished with everything checked and double-checked. I was told not to have double carriage returns, but I can't seem to get rid of them without changing the text's spacing looking odd. Me thinks a quick chat with the ol' tutor...

Apart from that, I think we have a finished product Miss Moneypenny. Have a screenshot of it. I'm a proud parent of a (hopefully) finished layout design. Let's toast to Paula Scher.

Illustrative Decisions...

A choice of three different illustrations for my final piece. And I can't decide. I'm hoping, putting them on here might sway my mind one way or another...

Illustrative Days (wishing I was in the sun)

Following my love of Darla, I figured I'd bring her into uni for work today. And look at the progress she did!

(Above) Where I'd left off from last night

(Above) Changed the folios (page numbers) and sorted out the text- however leaving me with widows

(Above) Two illustration ideas photo and line drawing

Not best pleased everyone likes the photo more but we'll sort it...

I'm going to make a badge- 'I nerd out with InDesign'

Now that the thankless monster that is PPRD is out of my life (and outta my hair) I can put my full concentration onto good old Paula whose been sat patiently waiting for me to finish. I have a tutorial tomorrow (one-to-one instead of the planned crit) and I wanted to show what I had done so far. Better yet, let's blog it too.

(With grids 2nd Page)

(Without grids- 2nd page)

(Without grids- 1st page (w/o illustration on right-hand))
*grammer question- is there two closing brackets in the above sentence??

I gotta say, InDesign is a rare joy in the murky waters of Adobe. It's a happy Tasha you find on her (new!!) laptop (Sony Vaio called Darla) listening to Gogol Bordello...

PPRD List

PPRD List of things to be done- deadline is Friday 16th April

Evaluations
-Unit 1 Thursday
-Unit 2 Thursday
-Unit 3 Thursday
-Year Evaluation and Hopes for 2nd Today
-DaDa Today
-Anna's unit Today

C.V
-Order thoughts and trials Today
-Write evaluation Today
-Photocopy trials Thursday

Images
-Scan Unit 1 and 2 Thurday
-Find final animation Today
-Find Stop-animation Today
-Burn all onto disk Thursday

Blog
-Give link (on front page) Today

Presentation
-Front Page Today
-Contents Today
-Pocket for CD Thursday
-Buy Bulldog Clip Thursday
-Print Out Thursday

Gravy Baby.

Blurgh- Ill Catch Up Day

Yes, the rumours are true. There is no internet connection in Devon. Not one I can afford anyway. I spent two weeks with no broadband and climbing hypothetical trees in literal woods. Meaning, the wood was there, but I resisted the urge.

Bright and early Monday morning we went to Dayfold Print- a printing factory in Verwood, Dorset, so that we could have a deeper understanding of the printing process. It was interesting- especially the creation of plates and spying the Lib Dem's new manifesto...

I'm with the understanding that we're doing our summer project on Dayfold so I tried to pay attention and wrote some notes. However, when we hit the factory floors, if you weren't up in his face, you couldn't really hear him. So I may ask around for notes...

Have some photos of the day;

Final CV- whoop!

Layout Designs

Have a look at what I did today... designed my first layout. The image IS NOT MINE! It's just a stock image I swiped off the internet. But it looks pretty class and it's made me want to do typography portraits a little more...

(Without grids)

(With grids)

And Paula Scher portraits I'm gunna draw from:

CV Final Photos

In Franklin Gothic Book.

Headbutting your laptop is not advisable

Henry's harddrive is now malfunctioning...good times (!)

And the work load I believe has just doubled. Time for one of my 'Get-Your-Ass-In-Gear Lists'.

Typeradio

- Get ready for crit on Wednesday:

- Write short presentation- Tues

- Draw initial ideas on layout paper- Tues

- Research illustrators/photographers (drawing with type?)- tonight

- Write up expressive type brief in sketchbook- tonight

- Decipher transcript- Tues

CV/Placement

- Tonight- Create final photos and words to fit new CV plan

- Blog photos- tonight

- Create final CV (show Kit/Sally)- Tues

PPRD

- Find all previous self-evaluations (new file)- tonight

- Check spelling/grammer- Wed

- Make notes for each unit to bulk it out (pictures/initial ideas/idea development/self development)- Wed

- Find notes on book-making- Wed

I want this all completed before the Easter holidays...so...Thursday. All this must be completed by Wednesday night...

When completed, object will be coloured BLUE.

New Contender

I like this one too. This was done as an experiment and now I can't choose...

CV Finalisation Goodness

So I finally have two photos to choose from for my final CV. Out of a first batch of seven, three were ignored due to my own mistakes (my reflection, the undeniable mark of a flash against a window- school boy errors) and two were removed due to failed composition. The final two I chose are now saturated slightly and levels played with in Photoshop. The photos overall didn't have a lot of colour or light, so had to shop them.

The one above was chosen for its simple design- it's face on and slightly aggressive. Not necessarily a good thing.

This one was chosen for its angles and the background- the movement of the lines. Less aggressive too...

I guess its that time to make a choice...

Cracking On and Moving Up

On my travels this weekend I bought some high-market, stupidly-expensive magazines to do layout research. These were; Bizzare Issue 161, artsprojects Issue 134, Dazed and Confused Issue 83, Volume 2 and Creative Review March 2010 (30th anniversary). I wanted to explore their use of magazine layouts when dealing with numerous subjects. So, trusty Post-its at the ready- let's get cracking.

On another note, I've just had a tutorial with Sally where she told me not to get too bogged down with it and, again, to crack on with it. It's a beaut of a day so I'm holding out for a sunset. I'm using Bookman Old Style to create my name with tape (Natasha? Tasha? Tash? Nat?- explore) onto my window, then cropping it into a square and writing my CV, like a border, around the image on A4 using InDesign and Photoshop (using PS to alter and crop the image and InDesign for layout). I want it to come across that I'm experimental, aware of myself and the space around me, that I can use software with confidence and that my work should speak for itself (where the emphasis is on the image rather then the CV border). I've thought a lot about this.

As for Henry? As long as I don't need to use a CD/DVD anytime soon, during the easter break he will be more then likely used for scrap but for now I can work on him. Just. As an extra precaution I've backed up everything on a separate hard drive.

What A Genius

My laptop is a magician. Watch as he makes my CD/DVD drive disappear...

A Tad Slow On The Uptake

On Tuesday we were given our new brief. I know what you're thinking. It's now Friday- what have I been doing if not updating this thing? But, hold the pregnant pause. I've been opening my mind a little.

Layouts and grids excite the hell out of me (as we discovered with Quark in Unit 1) and we've been learning Adobe InDesign, meeting a number of guest speakers and transcribing parts of two Paula Scher interviews...

Today, I've been doing some research into my designer (chosen with the that old scientific trick- pulling a name out of a hat) and those of you with keen eye sight would know that Paula Scher is the designer I and my class went to see in London all those months ago at D&AD. I admired her in that lecture and what she spoke about (her design work and refusal to be pigeon-holed as either a designer or a fine artist and the concepts behind her work) but after transcribing for a good five hours, having to listen over and over again for 'ums' and 'ahs' I'm...can I say it?...a little sick of it- those interviews I mean, not Scher herself of course.

So, instead, to rest my ears (oh yes, and today I had to buy new headphones as mine broke which I completely blame this project for...) I decided to check out some of her work today. AUCB didn't have her book 'Make It Bigger' so I've ordered (for a pound charge!!) for the library to have a nose around to see if anyone else has it and had to lean on the internet and a book which she's mentioned in for my research today. I'm uploading the Youtube videos here and chucking the pictures in the ol' sketchbook.

I Highly Doubt My Landlord Will Be As Excited As Me If He Saw My Floor Right Now...

What a stunner of a day...which I spent brainstorming my CV and staring at my floor. A little housekeeping first though- a change of look for the old blog. New top image (still with the sunflower though- fighting to keep that little beauty in) and a little changes around. Play a game, see if you can spot them..if you're really that bored. Although, I do like them. It needed a spruce up.

So, to the news of the day- the CV. Armed with some masking tape, Gogol Bordello and Toots and the Maytals, I set about experimenting for my CV. Note- Experimenting. None of these will be the final product...