Contextual Portfolio - Typography

I'm always looking out for good design and things I just generally like and enjoy. On my way to work this week I had to take a different route due to the Leeds Half Marathon taking place; this meant I had to walk pass the Leeds market. 

I haven't been around this part of the centre in a while and was surprised to see these wall murals welcoming the public to leeds (the coach and bus station is also next to the market, hence the welcoming). These caught my eye straight as I was drawn towards the bright colours and the playfulness of the type which was so inviting. 

This reminds me of my visual appendix and how location affects the narrative. This position of the mural is important, it was placed next to the bus/coach station for a reason as the council want to welcome new people to the city or welcome people back to the city if they already live/work here. This warm welcome as soon as you arrive could affect a persons opinion on the city straight; and if the council want to attract people to the city, opinion is important. 

A similar thing has happened in the train station, before you leave the main exit/entrance there is a installation which I see as a welcome to leeds.  The purpose was to welcome visitors and illustrate Leeds as a creative and cultural city. If you have an interest in the design and thought process behind the illustration you can visit this blog that documents all the stages; http://www.designsomethingmore.com/blog/making-the-windows-of-leeds/

Contextual Portfolio - Radio Hud

Although you may not think being a presenter on the student radio has any value towards improving as a designer, I would disagree entirely. At the start of year 2 I struggled with communicating and expressing myself which is mainly down confidence; so this academic year I joined Radio Hud and I have learnt so much. 


First of all I had to create a brand for my show which was named 'Jukebox Time Machine; this gave me a chance to be creative (the logo I designed is to the left). 


As part of the show I feel that I have improved my confidence levels which as a designer you need confidence to communicate your ideas to the client and to get a job in the first place you need to be able to communicate well. My confidence has improved throughout the year from having a show, going on socials, taking part in charity days/meetings and generally meeting new people. 

Thoughts
I had my last show of the year on Wednesday and from joining the society I have a new found confidence, new friends and new connections to different disciplines and courses. For example if I needed help on marketing or anything related to the business side of design I know I would have contacts from the society who would be more than happy to help and guide me.

Contextual Portfolio - Evian

I came across an advertisement by Evian that involved using a celebrity to boost their advert and brand. Using a celebrities can help to increase sales as if consumers have a good connection with the celebrity they will want whatever they are promoting whether they need the product or not, they will now want it because their favourite celebrity has it. 

Evian have been clever with who they have chosen to be the face of their campaign; Gigi Hadid is a young model which automatically links well to the live young message. The advert shows Gigi in the present moment and to the right is a young child replicating her image. To me this is saying if you have Evian you will be more healthy and thus be youthful. Gigi is a high status model and as she is currently dating former member of One Direction, Zayn Malik she is in the limelight even more recently. This makes it a good choice for Evian as she is high profile with high profile friends.

Thoughts
When creating an ad campaign you need to think of all aspects and how you can boost the campaign so that it reaches a bigger audience; this may be achieve by using high profile celebrities. In terms of my practice I can take this on board but I don't think that this is achievable for me to have connections or financial backing to support the use of a celebrity in my work. 

Collide - Outcome and exhibition

Posters, Postcards, App

Life Lessons/ Activity Planner

The three themes of this brief were happiness, future self and the digital age; so I’ll explain how these have been considered. 

When starting the brief I wanted the outcome to be personal to me but also be able to relate to a wider audience; I felt the outcome would more than likely be personal due to the themes.

Happiness:

Before starting the brief I knew I was going to be an auntie which was something I was looking forwarded to. So when I was given the brief I thought about what makes me happy and I instantly thought about the happiness my soon to be nephew was already giving me before he was even born. With this in mind I wanted to create something around this topic or make something for my nephew. 

Future Self:

I started to think what will make me happy in the future or what I will be doing in the future; so as I was going to be an auntie soon I thought about what stuff I could do with my nephew which is when I came up with a bucket-list type of idea which developed in to the activity planner which helps you plan activities and explore what other people around the world are doing.

Digital Age:

I feel that with the app, I’m feeding the digital age as it allows you to plan on the go and is removing the stage of using pen and paper. As part of the app is similar to a scrapbook but I’ve turned it in to a digital element.

OUTCOME:  

Physical - Postcards and poster

Digital - An app

Physical/Digital

Digital

                                      
                                             Activity Planner from Jade Irving on Vimeo.

Process and Production (year 2) - Physical Studio - I am... with Nick Deakin (part 6)

This was the last session of the process and production workshops of year two; in particular I have enjoyed Nick's type workshops as it's allowed me to get away from the computer and be creative. So for this last session we were carrying on developing what we had done in previous weeks. 

So in my case I had done various experiments but my favourite was the 'party' type I did but this time I decided not to be so literal and spell 'work' as an opposite to party. This time I wanted to make the confetti string look as if it was coming out of the party popper which is why I decided that I would create a stop motion. 

I had my own camera, and then borrowed a tripod and lighting equipment which I used to set up the scene. I used a tripod for more consistency between shots, as if I were to take the photos free hand the end result would look unprofessional and wouldn't flow as well. 

Thoughts
I think the shots worked although the lighting could have been more consistent between shots; although this is the first time doing something like this so I'm quite pleased with the outcome. In future I would do a more zoomed out shot and crop it later rather than crop before shooting the stop motion. I would also like to learn more about my camera and what I can achieve with it so I can take better photos. Below is the stop motion I created with the photos. 

Process and Production - Cinema 4D Prototyping (extended)

After the last process and production session in C4D I wanted to take this further and add my own designs to the can and bottle; so I started to experiment in Illustrator using the templates Jay provided in the workshop. I thought about names etc for the branding and once I had the designs I placed them on to the can and bottle in C4D. 

Whilst in C4D I experimented with the background colours and the colour of the glass bottle to see what worked well with the designs. For the bottle I decided to brand an ale and although I tend to think they have a dark glass for the bottle I wanted a transparent bottle. 

For both the can and bottle I duplicated them so that I could show different sides of the product in the same shot. 

Overall I enjoyed creating these in C4D as I feel it looks quite professional when showing mockups of products; during the course of the sessions with Jay I have learnt a lot more about this software and developed skills I would have never have had without them.

Here are my experiments:

Contextual Portfolio - Guest Lecture - Ben Tallon

This week we had a guest lecture from Ben Tallon who is an illustrator mainly, which isn't something of interest to me as I'm not that great at it ( although I'm hoping to have some free time to improve). 

Although he doesn't specialise in something that interests me, I found the lecture very informative and useful. Tallon talked about he got the jobs he got and how to go about getting touch with companies. 

He made it clear if you want something you have to go out and get it, it's not going to come to you. A prime example of this, is when he went to London early in his career and went to agencies/ companies and showed his portfolio for advice and used the criticism to help develop his work. He used his own initiative and produced work for people like the Guardian with them asking for it and kept sending it through until they decided to commission him to provide the artwork for celebrities columns in the paper.

Thoughts
Although he doesn't come from the same design area as myself I still appreciate the hard work he has put in and has given me an insight in to how the industry works. This is useful to me as I'm still looking for a placement for next year and I need to know how to approach companies and what they will be looking for.