DR ME Talk

Today we had a talk from the duo that make up design studio - Ryan Doyle (DR) and Mark Edwards (ME). They specialise in art direction, image making, graphic design, work shops, video and teaching.

They spoke about how they have had time apart however still made it work, one would design, other would give feedback and improve the process is back and forth and this helped me to understand how studios work collaboratively as I have always wondered what kind of system is in place for shared projects. They first met when they were paired together by their tutor in university when they first started however didn't consider working together until second year. The studio was later formed after interning with Mike Perry in New York.

 

They ran a project called 365 days of collage, which is pretty self explanatory. A lot if not all of their work has been bought by friends, family and strangers. They also have their own book called cut that out which is about contemporary collage in graphic design. It focuses on the compositions of 50 leading designers and studios from 15 different countries for whom collage has been the key in creating amazing and vibrant work. 

The talk was an inspiration in how you can make it, without having to move to London as Peter Saville once told them, as well as making it work when you're travelling and experiencing new things. They also gave us these tips on how to be sucessful:

• make good shit
• see shit (visit places/ galleries)
• be brave
• no one is going to remember how much money you made when you die
• just ask
• just be yourself

Inspiration Gathering Workshop

It is important to get inspiration from everything around you and not just other designs and trends. We were asked what inspires us from a range of subjects, here are my responses and those of the rest of the class:

Designers/ artists:

• Sagmeister & Walsh
• Smiling Wolf
• Build
• Black&Ginger
• Banksy

 

Music:

• Jamie XX
• Kaytranada
• Goldlink
• Kanye West
• Frank Ocean
• Lianne La Havas
• Sampha
• Tom Misch
• The Internet
• Corinne Bailey Rae
• Gorillaz

Poet:

• T.S Eliot
• W.B Yeats

Architecture:

• Liver Buildings
• Albert Dock
• The Shard
• Broadcasting Tower

Book:

Others:

• Nature
• Science
• Philosophy
• Films
• My peers

Brand Nu Talk

Today we had a talk from the author of Brand Nu - Radim Malinic, we all got a free copy of his wonderful book of ideas and heard about his life, how he got to where he is now and the what inspires/ motivates him to create his work.

He said he is greatly inspired by colour as it expresses so many things such as:

• meaning
• feeling
• perception
• understanding
• it is subjective

He is also inspired by his experiences:

• life
• food
• travel
• product design
• technology
• surfing

As well as information:

• science
• biology
• neuroscience
• psychology
• physics
• anthropology
• economics

I agree with these inspirations and understand where he is coming from and really like taking colours seen in nature and incorporating them into my design. Knowing things is a big part of design and everything you do must have context - there is no good something looking good without it having meaning and being backed up by information and research. A lot of my experiences also shape the way in which I design  as well as things I am interested in such as:

• travel
• music
• films
• documentaries
• nature
• animals
• food
• makeup
• colour palettes
• philosophy
• books
• architecture
• models/ fashion
• photography

Workshop - Identity Task

Todays session was focusing on ourselves, how other people see us and how we want other people to see us. We wrote our name on a sheet of paper that was passed around, each person had to add a quality or whatever came into their head when they thought of us. The result was a list of things that people think about you:

• Relaxed
• Small
• Funny
• Creative
• Chatty
• Good listener

From here I am going to start thinking about how I want people to think about me as this will be essential for my self branding. I would like people to see me as:

• Serious/professional when appropriate
• Creative
• Approachable
• Good at planning and time management
• A 'doer'
• Fun to work with
• Helpful

All of these characteristics must be shown through my self branding which will include things such as a logo, business cards, instagram, tumblr and other promotional materials. I will achieve this through experimentation with typography, illustrations and colour palettes

Workshop - Time management

In this session we discussed our wants and needs and whether we are able to fit them into our lives. The bare essentials needs like eating, sleeping, bathing, brushing teeth, washing hair, doing the washing, lists of work to do for uni etc. Then considering basic wants like going to the gym, having a relaxing weekend, buy more makeup and then more deep and meaningful wants such as wanting to be proud of my work, getting a job for an inhouse design team for a retailing company and wanting to make my family proud. 

Here are the first lists I created:

We then wrote out the next week starting from 7am and until 12am with a schedule including all of the needs. After completing this we were able to see what time we had left to do things we actually wanted to do, but after hearing about our tutors wants and needs I realised going to the gym and seeing friends are a need rather than a must to be healthy. I also realised I should be adding things on to make myself a better person such as speak to new people whenever I can, make people smile and help others when I can.

I stuck up the schedule on the wall and I'm going to do my best to stick to it, I will review how well this went at the end of next week. 

My revised lists are:

Wants

• Feel proud of my creative work
• Get another tattoo
• Make my family proud
• Go interrailing around Europe
• Get a job inhouse design team for a company such as ASOS, M&S or Missguided

Needs

• Go to the gym more often
• Eat healthier
• Do all of my uni work on time
• Keep in touch with old friends
• Sleep, shower, wash, eat 

'Dream big, do great work and live a great life'

Workshop - Project management (stress management)

Today we had a session with Penny all about stress management, how people feel about themselves, their confidence, anxiety and I found it really interesting how so many people can related to each other, we are all in the same boat but rarely talk about how we are actually feeling in case others don't agree.

Being stressed is feeling out of control of what is going on in your life - a big way to avoid stress is being organised, planning your time and not wasting time or putting things off when you know you have deadlines to meet.

We did an activity where by we each answered four questions and lay our answers on the table - next to similar ones. The questions were as follows:

1. What stresses you out?
2. What scares you?
3. How do you destress?
4. A negative thought you've had today?

My own answers were: 

1. How much work I have to do before the weekend
2. Presenting my work in crits
3. Neflix, sleep, eat
4. I look like shit

Here are some pictures I took of other peoples responses:

What stresses you out?

Having work pile up

9.30 starts

My procrastination catching up with me

How do you destress?

Sleep or netflix

Have a bath (wish I could do this but there's no bath tubs in halls!)

Talking to a friend

What negative thought have you had today?

I look horrible today

I skipped breakfast

I look too tired today

What scares you?

Not being good enough

Not being successful as a designer

Presenting own ideas in front of groups

From everyones' responses we choice 3 of our favourites from each question and then whittled that down even further to our overall 3 favourites. From this we created a Haku and gave it a title.

Lack of sleep

I feel too tired

I look too tired

to be productive today

This was what we all achieved, a number of Haku's on the subject of stress looking rather poetic we did abit of creative writing without even trying. I can see these being made into little postcards or quotes in a self help book for students, workers and even stay at home parents, anyone that lives a busy life.

They could be used to get the message out there that they aren't alone - perhaps printed on billboards or on the back of bus tickets advertising a self help book on stress. Or another idea specifically for students a pack you get when moving into halls, posters with thoughts on of previous first years so you feel able to talk to others about it you aren't alone. A pack containing useful information like bus routes, cheap shops and bars etc.

Reading list:

• The Stress Report - theDo lectures
• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear - Elizabeth Gilbert
• Upworthy - School Meditation rather than detention
• Deep Work - Cal Newport 

"feel the fear and do it anyway"

Thoughts on Helvetica Documentary

After watching the Helvetica documentary I am now a lot more informed on the typeface, it was developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger. The Microsoft typeface 'Arial' is a rip off of Helvetica, a design is only protected by intellectual property for 25 years and after that can be copied with very few changes.

Main features of the typeface is the termination of all strokes on exact horizontal or vertical lines. The letter spacing is also tight in comparison to other typefaces, this gives it a dense and compact appearance. 

The typeface is widely used in branding as it doesn't have any strong characteristics and is known for being neutral therefore can be manipulated to portray the message of a company. Designers such as Neville Brody, Stefan Sagmeister and David Carson all talk about the use of helvetica in their work. 

8 Questions

5 reasons why i wanted to come to LCA

• I have always liked the look of Leeds and thought it would be right for me as a student
• After researching and attending the open day I really liked the sound of the course 
• The facilities here are really good and we have access to a lot of help
• The staff seemed really approachable and enthusiastic about their jobs
• The students I spoke to when visiting were really helpful and seemed to truly enjoy their university experience

5 things i want to learn on this course

• About typography
• Layout/ editorial design
• How to make sure your designs have context and are meaningful
• Software skills
• Hands-on skills such as bookbinding and letterpress

5 skills i have

• Working as part of a time
• Good listener
• Taking notes
• Being creative
• Thinking outside of the box

5 things to improve on as a designer

• The amount of research I do needs to increase
• Hand draw things more as a starting point
• My skills on InDesign and Illustrator
• Continuing to develop my ideas
• Taking constructive criticism 

5 methods you would use to evaluate

• What could i improve on
• What didn't go as well as planned
• If given more time what would I do differently
• What was succesful
• Am i pleased with the final outcome?

5 questions you would like an answer to

• Is the job stability really that bad
• Is it hard to set up your own studio
• Is it better to be multi disciplinary e.g. be good at things such as illustration and photography as well as graphic design
• Do i have to move to London
• Is all of the work going to be worth it

5 things which inspire you

• Seeing good design out and about
• My peers
• My tutors
• My family's belief in me
• Books

identify 10 examples of design in your field of interest