LCNR by Lacnor

This step by step shows how easy the branding process can be achieved. It is not a fantastic idea but is relevant and looks great when applied.

Parking Made Easy

This is a great concept that gets the point across of how easy the cars are to park.

Water Splashes/Flowers

These water splashes are slightly contrived but make great pieces of artwork that would look great in a magazine article for gardening or something similar about watering flowers etc.

Renova Illustration

This is illustration of a very different type that is everywhere at the moment. It makes a refreshing change and looks superb. The vibrant colours really stand out and the technique supports this whilst portraying the brand 'Renova' in a very positive way.

I have just come across this amazing art direction on behance.net. These ads are for a Sat Nav company and get their point across perfectly with humour included to make it memorable.

Jonathan From Spotify

He ruined the world’s playlists. Now the world has begun its brutal revenge in the form of a totally pointless website. You can upload your own comment that begins with Jonathan from Spotify...

Everytime you refresh the page the comment changes and there are lots of funny comments on there. Some of which you can see above.

You can see the site at: http://jonathanfromspotifyruinedyourplaylist.com/

Working at Mccann Erickson

Over the past week I have been working at Mccann Erickson in Prestbury. It is a great place to work. This is much to do with the settings and working environment. It is a refreshing change from normal office block buildings. Set in its own grounds you can walk around to clear your mind and think of new ideas. There are numerous meeting rooms, seating areas outside or the bistro where you can go to talk over ideas. During the week I have been sat having lunch with people sat by the side of the pool in the sun with wild rabbits roaming around the grass. It was surreal and felt more like a holiday than being at work! This makes for a better atmosphere between all the staff which can only help people be happy about coming to work and coming up with fresh new ideas.

I have a desk and Mac in the middle of the creative offices and the people have been really friendly and helpful. There are also 4 graduates on a 6 month contract which is reviewed at the end to see if they are upto the job. I have been working with them on ideas for a project for Sainsbury's and was involved in a number of meetings on the first day going over the brief and our ideas. I am impressed by the positivity that these meetings bring. Even the worst ideas are turned into something good which is a different approach to what I have come to expect. On the second day I was meant to be developing the better ideas for this but I was given another brief for a logo design for a collaboration of big companies in Buxton. A selection of ideas was to be pitched to the clients that evening so I had to work quickly and I came up with a few strong ideas. One of the designers was also working on the project so we had a lot to show them.

The next day we were told the meeting went well and they had narrowed their choice down to 2 logos, 1 of which was mine and one which was created by the other designer. I then needed to develop that idea with different fonts and colours. These are now going to be show to the clients for the final decision to be made.

Next day I was back involved in the Sainsburys work coming up with ideas following the final concept that we had decided to go with. This led to a meeting in the boardroom to go over the ideas. There was around 10 people in the meetin with only 3 from creative. The rest being from media, marketing and strategy. This is a good learning experience in itself as it shows research that goes into getting projects to work across all levels. The meetings are key to getting the best idea and we had a lot more of an idea what we wanted to go with.

The last day of the week involved me coming up with a logo for the concept. A name for the main idea and designs for the media output. Then I was set the task of typesetting a card for Mccann Erickson. I have thoroughly enjoyed my first week and look forward to seeing what the next week brings.

Mccann Erickson Portfolio Visit

I have been in contact with Mccann Erickson for a while now sending in PDF's of work and CV's etc. I kept being put through to different people within the agency and had my details forwarded a number of times. I didn't feel I was getting anywhere but wasn't surprised as they are a massive international award winning agency who are extremely busy. However because of this I persisted and luckily ended up getting the chance to go in and show my portfolio.

I had been to the agency before just after it had first opened. This was for my school work experience with Bowker Sadler Architects. We were checking the building that Bowker Sadler had designed for any faults and changes needed. I was amazed by the building which looks like a spaceship in the middle of the countryside. With it's own swimming pool, greenhouses, allotments and bistro etc. it is like no other agency. I noticed the work people were working on whilst I was there and I was very interested in the ideas people had come up with. Ever since then I had wanted to go back and took the route of Graphic Design at college.

The meeting was with the Managing Creative Partner who I had been contacting. We went for a coffee in the Bistro and sat down and talked about the company and what I had been doing with University etc. After a while we went through my portfolio which she was very positive about whilst giving me some good advice. She even rang the MD on his mobile to see if she could show him my work too! He was very busy at the time but she picked out my best pieces of work and went over to the offices to show him anyway. Luckily the feedback was good with them both particularly liking the Great British Blood Drive work and Berghaus Ad Campaign. I was then unexpectedly asked if I could come in and work for the next two weeks which I straight away said yes to and I am looking forward to showing them what I can do.

Working at Pravda Advertising

I have recently completed a week of work at Pravda Advertising in Manchester. I worked with James Clancy as a creative team and we were given our own enclosed office to work in with 2 macs and workspace. The agency is very big with a lot of employees working there. The decor is of a different approach to what I have seen before with beanbags instead of chairs, astro turf deck chairs etc. We also had a table tennis table to play on whenever we wanted, aswell as this there was a football table, dartboard and numerous footballs/rugby balls scattered everywhere. This makes for a relaxed atmosphere. On the first day we were given a brief during a meeting on the sofas about a new range of fishing tackle that specifically targets predator fish. This was at the top end of the fishing equipment market. We covered the wall in our office with lots of initial ideas, some of them bad and some good but by the end of the day we had visualised a couple on the mac and had a large range of routes we could have gone in. We then met with the MD to go over our ideas sat on the beanbags. It started to become clear that a number of our ideas were too crazy and shocking for this brand and they were dismissed straight away. However some were picked out as good ideas to expand on. These were the more subtle ideas which we developed the next day aswell as coming up with new ideas.

Myself and James have a tendency to try and go for big crazy ideas and this has taught us that we need to adapt to brands and agency styles more to suit them. This involved toning down ideas. Coming for a graphic design course we haven't really been taught this and this is why we have delved into the advertising sector to get more of an insight. The second meeting went much better as we had come up with some more subtle ideas which were developed again in the 1st half of the third day. These were then put into consideration and we were involved in a meeting for the next brief for Great Rail Journeys. 

Lessons learnt from the previous brief helped steer us in the right direction and after a lot of research we came up with lots of good ideas which we feel were on brief, subtle and suited the brand. On the last day we explored these further before going to the pub for lunch with a lot of the staff. I didn't get to speak to all of the staff during the week as there was so many there but the ones I did were very helpful and made us feel welcome. After lunch we brought all our ideas together and I arranged a meeting with the other creative team working on the same brief. We sat down and talked through all of our ideas and used the process of elimination to get all of the best ideas which we then left for the MD to look over as he had to leave earlier for a meeting.

I still don't know if our ideas were chosen but I have been invited back in to go over our ideas. I was also welcome to work for a second week but unfortunately I had other commitments with the Thousand Words exhibition opening night looming I had to devote my time to that as we had been designing it and James was going travelling. I was then asked if I could come in the week after to work but I had already arranged some work at Mccann Erickson. Hopefully sometime in the future I can go backto work but I will definitely be going back to go over the last brief work very soon.

Tempa Pano Designs

I was recently approached by a representative of Tempa Pano who are a worldwide electronic enclosure production company. They needed some double sided A4 flyers/datasheets designing within a very short deadline. The design needed to be consistent with the existing style and look professional and attractive. These will be handed out on a tour bus showing potential and existing customers new products. The designs so far are as above.

A Thousand Words Exhibition

Last night was the opening night of the 'A Thousand Words' photography exhibition. Myself and James Clancy have designed the logo, promotional items and website for this.

After winning the pitch for this work a while ago we have put in a lot of work on designs for a website, posters. flyers, invites, e-vites and booklets. We have had to deal with printers, the clients, web hosting companies etc so it has been a rewarding experience. I have also been doing all of the invoicing and prices whilst interacting by e-mail and phone for delivery times etc. All this effort and hard work came together in the end to promote a fantastic exhibition full of strong work that made the ' a thousand words ' concept work really well.

The opening night was a success with the gallery being packed out by people enjoying the excellent photography produced by the degree students. We were thanked by a number of the students for our efforts and help with putting together the exhibition and Paul appreciated the work we had produced.

I hope we have contributed in a small way to these students being portrayed professionally, which could help them to go straight into work. We would like to thank the efforts of the students and Paul for the time they have spent during meetings and ideas we have talked about.

Images from the opening night can be seen above.

Also check out the website we designed.

www.athousandwordscube.co.uk