DreamCreators Website Re-design

I am currently working with DreamCreators on their new website design. The idea is to make more of a feature of their DC mascot to shape the page and define the layout. This is the first rough idea I have had for the site.

3D NE-design Logo

As my logo for NE-Design is simple I thought I would see if it would work in 3d through effects. I think it does and this could lead to some sort of animation on my site in the near future.

Pictogram colour

This is a pictogram done with blocks of colour to build up an image in an illustration style. Jimmy Carr's recent promotion was based around this sort of style.

E-A Logo Idea

A logo designed for a company named EA. The 'e' is rotated to become the 'a'. The idea is also designed to look like the connection of a chain and show unity. It can also be incorporated into pattern easily which will be great for brochures and website designs etc.

My designs for O2. We're better, connected.

These are my ideas for a brief set by 02 to advertise their slogan 'we're better, connected'.

The concept behind this is the way dot to dots need connecting to be better and make sense as an image. Without connections it does not work but when connected the images are brought to life. The idea of bringing ideas to life was something written in the brief and something o2 aspire to do for their customers. The idea can work in a number of formats: as a teaser billboard campaign where you would see the dot to dot for a couple of weeks before the dot to dot was completed and you realise what it was. A teaser campaign throughout a magazine showing the dot to dot being filled in gradually over around 5 pages. An animation or a simple web or poster campaign.

Above is the final logo for the 'a thousand words' photography exhibition. As the design revolves purely around words we needed an interesting typeface. We didn't want to go with a sans serif font as it looked boring and lacked character. However we didn't want a serif font to make the exhibition to look too traditional and old fashioned so we went for the slab serif font Rockwell. The different words in the logo are in bold and italics to reflect the different styles that will be seen in the exhibition and how a picture tells a thousand words but these words can be very different depending upon the viewer. We also lined up the D's as having 'words' directly underneath caused problems with the spacing and making it unlogo like. The colour is a 90% grey which is a lot more subtle than black as it appears on white at all times. The whole of the promotion echoes this and all text is in the Rockwell font.

A Thousand Words - Final Poster and Flyer Design

At the top is the final poster design at A3 size mainly and the bottom 2 images show the double sided flyer which will be printed onto 300 gsm matt paper.

A Thousand Words - Final Website Design

This is the final design for the website promoting the exhibition of the 3rd year photography degree students from Stockport College. It is consistent with the printed work and works well on screen. It has taken a massive amount of work because of compatibility issues and images/text being sent to us in all sorts of sizes, shapes and format but we got there in the end. This site will be online this evening.

NE-Design Source of Inspiration

Whilst checking the hits to my website I came across this website/blog which has linked my site as a source of inspiration. I am not sure who they are or where they are from so it was a nice surprise. Their blog can be seen at http://theganger.tumblr.com/

DWhyatt Website Design

This is a website I have designed for DWhyatt Signwriting. It has a nice traditional feel as they create lots of signage with traditional techniques. The site will be going live very soon as soon as we sort hosting etc out.

Innocent Idea

I have sent over my advertising idea, roughly mocked up, to innocent drinks. I have been in contact with Dan Germain about the idea and he has said they get a lot of ideas sent to them but he will be happy to have a look. The concept is the screw cap seal of the bottle becomes a free gift. This is done by claiming the seal is a free halo. It costs no money but is a nice little campaign that would work well. The idea is above.

Above are some designs for an invite, flyer and a poster for the exhibition promotion me and James are designing.

Practitioner Comparison: Tal Rosner vs. Grant Gilbert

For my design practitioner comparison I have decided to write about Tal Rosner and Grant Gilbert. The reason for this is that they are both mainly involved in film and animation and I am also very interested in this area of design.

Grant and Tal come from very different backgrounds and are from totally different countries which means they gain inspiration from different places and cultures. They did, however, both study the equivalent to BA Graphic Design which is the subject that I study also.

When Grant finished the course he worked at planet 24 designing phone boards which was at the bottom of the design ladder. Tal seemed to be more focused on what he wanted to do and didn’t seem to start at the bottom but did what he wanted. Tal had realised from his course that he had a knack for movement and rhythm and Grant hadn’t been so precise in what he had wanted to do at this stage.

The way Tal speaks about his work is much more theoretical and almost scientific compared with Grant. He seems passionate and obsessive over his work in a way that Grant seems quite casual and relaxed even though his are of work brings a lot of pressure. This obsessiveness and attention to detail has brought him massive success within the industry aswell as winning a BAFTA award. Despite this I see Grant as having more respect and a bigger following within the TV world than Tal because he is well sought after by all the main companies for his renowned work. Tal’s work can be seen as very abstract and not to everyones taste and Grant’s work caters more to the masses and doesn’t do much to offend anyone. Although there was a time when him and his workers used up a £1.2 million budget on idents and a new identity for BBC. This was a total brand overhaul aswell as animation. Grant has the expereience of branding and identity from his past jobs that Tal wouldn’t have been able to call upon if he had been given the same job. This general knowledge of design by Grant could be seen as very positive by most people but for pure animation genius Tal would be the man to call as he has produced world renowned pieces including Stravinsky- Concerto for 2 pianos which combined the elements of groundbreaking techno animation with the classical tones of the piano and they work well together.         

Tal prefers to work by himself and not have people interfering with his work. He is totally self taught on After Effects which is remarkable considering the work he creates. His believes adjustment = intrusion. He always tries to make his work tell a story and have a beginning, middle and an end. This can be achieved by working alone and being given blank canvasses to do what he wanted which was helped by a grant from channel 4 which helped him express himself through film. In contrast to this Grant is usually the head of a team or works as part of a team to achieve his objective. Although, he too likes to have his independence as he doesn’t like being told what to do either. He is essentially a freelancer working under the name of Double G Studios.

         Channel 4 is a direct link between Grant and Tal as they have both produced impressive work for big projects with them. Tal produced the title sequences for the hit TV show ‘Skins’. He produced over 70 ideas for this including hidden scenes which had to be paused to see the idea. Aswell as this he, along with 5 other designers, was commissioned by channel 4 to create an experimental video. He was inspired by this poem :

 Calm down

 what happens

 happens mostly

 without you

 by Josef Albers

He is also influenced by 1905-1935 design and modernism and believes that this is making a comeback aswell as the Bauhaus and visualising music. He can come up with a concept at any time and create it without a brief which could then be used 2 years down the line.

         Grant’s work for Channel 4 was again more design based where he worked on the identity using film and image. He was involved in managing lighting, cameramen, concepts etc and created some really eye catching work which was groundbreaking for Channel 4 at the time. From this he also produced the identity for More 4 and this involved animating the logo. There was a massive amount of wild ideas created until a simple logo and animation was chosen which reinforced Grant’s idea that simple design is the best design.

         The way they both go about their work is very different. Where Tal is structured and precise, Grant will go for a softer approach to engage with a wider audience. I don’t think Tal cares much for this and is willing to upset a few people with his attitude and abstract work. If people don’t like his work he believes it’s worth it if anyone else does. Tal liked to work with a grid system where if something goes to the right it will come back to the left etc so his work always had a certain structure. He also used repetition and tiling to give effect of zooming out and pattern. He told us about the technique of grading which is the editing of an already edited film where colours can be changed. Apparently a difficult process. Grant likes to take snippets out of the brief and exploit them. This can be seen when he was commisioned by the BBC to rebrand BBC1. The current logo was a red box with BBC1 in which was went to symbolise rhythm and movement but looked boring and not special enough for the BBC. He sought to make the logo softer and show the unity and coming together that the BBC want to achieve.         

         Overall Tal and Grant are very talented in what they do. Tal is more focused on one discipline and Grant is adaptable. In many ways they have similar views to the way they work but produce totally different work and have their own very distinct styles.

New NE-Design Website

We have redeveloped the NE-Design website within the existing identity. It is still a work in progress but hopefully everything will be in place by the end of next week.

Grid Structures

At the start of the year we used set imagery and text within a grid structure. It is hard to get anything to look great as we didn't have much control over what we could do with the type and photography but it was a good exercise.

Typography Elective

I only lasted one day of my type elective as I opted to join the animation group instead because I felt I'd done the typography area before in college. I still managed to make a few typefaces with the use of cut/paste and photocopying but never got to finalise any of them unfortunately and may pick this up in the future.

Innocent Sketches

These are the some ideas we produced to advertise innocent drinks. It was a one week brief running alongside other projects where we didn't have any real restrictions and could do what we liked. They were never produced or pitched to the client even though some were chosen and we were made to believe they would be but this wasn't true.

Innocent Drinks Contact

I am in ongoing contact with innocent drinks about potentially pushing one of my ideas of advertising into production with them so hopefully soon I will be able to put the finished article on here. Above is the original e-mail I sent to find out who to contact.

True North

Unfortunately term time is about to end but I am still yet to see a couple of people who I have planned to see with my work. True North are a company I like and recently we did a 1 day brief where I came up with Christmas card ideas for them. I have contacted them with regards to showing them my idea and luckily the e-mailed back straight away and were impressed that I was not just asking to show my work but potentially assist them with their ideas.

I will be visiting them next week.

Updated Thousand Words Designs

We are now coming upto the print deadline for posters flyers and invites. Here are the designs close to being finalised. They symbolise the thousand words idea aswell as light and colour bouncing off each other in the way photography works.

Wheel Photos

This is a project that we never fully produced for whatever reason where we photographed as many different versions of the same type of object as possible. It was interesting to look at something taken for granted usually to see the different shapes, styles and wear and tear that wheels have.