Nyala, ala, ala, hey, hey.

Continuing my work from last week and aiming to keep myself on track has been an enduring process. I found myself in a frustrating void when contemplating ideas for my Digipak artwork and therefore I’ve only just managed, as of yesterday, to draw a final design at full scale in my sketchbook. The artwork has been almost as hard as designing the initial logo, although this time I had the aid of my music, I still found myself thinking my ideas were too simple or that they weren’t complex enough to fall under the assignment criteria. Another way of thinking was suggested to me during class and once I thought about things, the different things I could do just kept spilling to the point where I’m now bringing my artwork together. Adjustments still need making here and there but I’m happy with the design and its relevance to the music.

Due to the delay in the artwork process, The Wire advertisement has been pencilled in for self study, but this can only be done as soon as I’ve got a completed set of artwork. By looking at the information on the wire’s website, I’ve got a layout that I want to use in mind that’s within budget. I’m not too sure how I feel about this task, advertisements are something that I’ve done during the A6 assignment, but the whole content was given to me and made things slightly easier. A lot of research into the wire magazine and how CDs are advertised is required so that I can get a better understanding of things.

My pre-flight document is currently a work in action, at the moment I’ve got a checklist version of some simple statements that should be done before the artwork goes to print. The content is a bit simple at the moment and needs looking over to make sure that I’ve not forgotten anything from it. Pre-flight has always been a bit vague to me as I’ve never done one before, so my research helped me clear things up slightly.

Due to the bank holiday next week, we won’t be in college, so I’ve got a lot of work to be getting on with as the week after that is submission week and I will only have the Monday in college to gain feedback for last minute amendments.

Therefore, next week I need to:

• Have completely finished all my artwork, including inner cover and CD body.
• Have ideas for my advertisement and post them up on my journal for feedback, so that during bank holiday week, I can be bringing the advertisement to a finished state.
• Complete the pre-flight document(s).
• Start evaluating the assignment using previous journal entries (and references).

Thanks for reading,
Sue

Indication Elation!

At this point in an assignment, I have a clear idea of whether or not I'm on top of things. Looking at my aims that I wrote last week I can proudly say that I completed each of them. As I've already said, I feel that my progress is partly due to the fact that as a seminar group we've come together to produce our productions schedules together.

I'm really happy that I got my corporate style guide and stationery completed. I really enjoyed writing the style guide, infact I enjoyed it that much that I've also done a web version of it too. Doing this meant that I could practise my web skills, so I hand coded the site using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

This week I have started to draw up some ideas for my Digipak artwork, this is the part of the assignment that I have wanted to get onto so that I can get it out of the way as usually I feel that my ideas aren't good enough to become the media they're intended for. But I surprised myself, two of the three ideas that I have drawn are good in my opinion. While I'm in this frame of mind, I'm going to see if I can develop a few more ideas and then gain some feedback on them.

So far this assignment has taught me that by planning things in advance with those around you does infact help you. The seminar groups are a great source of information and guidance and they have helped me to develop my work and produce more creative pieces.

One of my biggest flaws this week has been my ability to present. After having to do my typography presentation again, I suffered even more nerves than previous and ended up without any improvements to the time. Finally, I cracked the nerves and reached the time needed to bring my presentation to standard. Phew! Next time, I need to encounter my nerves before presenting as it really brings my work down.

So that I remain on schedule; for next week, I want to:

• Have a final idea developed fully and drawn to scale in my sketchbook.
• Begin looking at the wire advertisement criteria and draw initial ideas.
• Start writing up the pre-flight document for print.

Thanks for reading,
Sue

Change your font Sue!

The amount of times I've come close to pulling my hair out through insanity this week has made me come to the conclusion that I'm just not cut out for logo design/development. Initially I underestimated just how challenging this task would be and thus created problems for myself. During the logo development, I found myself stuck for creative ideas and suffered from designers block as I found myself thinking overly complicated. Since then I have developed my logo typographically and graphically, thanks to feedback from my peers and I’ve eventually come to a finalised design which I’m happy with. I think that the fact the whole class is designing for the same company is what discouraged me the most. As I looked around the class I felt that my logo wasn’t as good as anyone else, so therefore wasn’t good enough.

Throughout the course of the week, I have started to write up my corporate style guide, the part of this assignment I was looking forward to most, even though I haven’t completed it yet, I am pleased with the content I’ve produced so far. My main focus for my self study work is to get the business card, letterhead and envelope pages done so I can then continue onto designing them.

As the assignment is progressing, I feel that my work is coming together at a nice pace (although the logo design has taken longer than initially anticipated). The fact that each seminar group has had to decide their weekly topics to run alongside the production schedule has helped immensely as this time round each person is more or less on the same track as the next. Which is yet another reason for motivation as I don’t want to be the only person left behind.

Yesterday I received some feedback regarding A6 – Revert to Type, I wasn’t surprised at all when Steve said I had to re-do my presentation. The five minutes of content that I had prepared myself and practised to perfection at home, just went out of the window as soon as I entered the classroom. A waterfall of words just dribbled out of my mouth and I was unable to stop myself from the inevitable running under. Hopefully this won’t happen a second time, fingers crossed!

For next week, I would like to have most of my corporate identity out of the way and be well under way with the stationery designs. Therefore my tasks for next week are:

• Complete stationery pages in corporate manual, finalise design.
• Begin design ideas for business cards, letterhead/continuation sheet and envelope.
• Ensure all development work has been stuck in my sketchbook.
• Practise presentation again and again, cross fingers!

Thanks for reading,
Sue

Developed Logo - Colour

After finally coming to a final developed conclusion with my logo, I decided that as well as a black and white version there should be at least one coloured version, I chose orange. The logo doesn't lose any of its key aspects when changed to colour but enables to it to be displayed on a variety of backgrounds.

As I said this morning, please feel free to leave any feedback you have regarding the logo I've designed. All comments are welcome!

Thanks for reading,
Sue

Developed Logo

So after some dabbling in Macromedia Freehand, I've developed my logo further and above is the result. Feedback would be gratefully received as I'm struggling to find a logo that suits the company we're designing for.

I've done two different versions as the logos will be black and white, no colour as I think this suits the design I've done. I'm open to suggestions!

EDIT: the first set of logos on the left have a font that i have drawn myself from scratch. the second set, on the right, have a pre-made font that I have developed for use with my logo.

Thanks for reading,
Sue

Internet Explorer with Itunes Plugin..

When I first read about this assignment, I initially didn't think that designing a logo for a company would be as hard as it has been. Due to the whole class having the same company to design for, we're all coming up with similar ideas, therefore I find myself trying to find something unique that's never been thought of, but designer's block keeps getting in my way. To combat this, I bought myself a couple of Logolounge books and begin reading through them for inspiration, some development of the initial ideas I've had was done.. and slowly but surely, I may just be getting there with a final idea. A lot of development is still to be done though.

Being in a seminar group with a group of students who are highly motivated to do well is refreshing. I find that the motivation spurs me on more and makes me want to get on with my work even more than normal. The seminar groups are very productive, even though unfortunately I missed todays. Due to picking assignment 2, I am certainly feeling the pressure of a heavy workload which, as I keep saying, is a good thing as it will prepare me for the busy environment in the design industry.

This week we began to look at Style Guides and the content found within them. It's quite interesting to see just how stringent some companies are with the way they allow their logos to be displayed and just how indepth they are prepared to go just to make sure specific colours are used and so forth. Stationery is another element that is considered also - business card layouts, letterheads etc.

On Monday, another ex-student - Mark Feather - came into class to talk about his experiences of looking for and finding a design job. I'm starting to find that as more and more ex-students come in, the same few features are being mentioned about how they found their job. Something I can begin to put into practise in the not so distant future.

This week is going to be an extremely busy week, my targets for next week are:

• continue with developing my company logo, think about colours.
• begin writing up corporate style guide, think about layout of logo and stationery.
• incorporate my company logo into business card, letterhead and DL envelope designs.
• catch up on notes from seminar that I missed.

Thanks for reading,
Sue

Emit Ideas - Feedback Required!

Here are the strongest of my initial logo ideas, some feedback would be appreciated!

1. This logo is based on emitting sound, the word emit has sound waves emitting from it.
2. A clever (ish) idea using all the letters from the word 'emit' the M is on its side if you can't spot it.
3. Emphasising the letter 'e' makes it so that it can be detached from the other letters and used on its own within the black square.
4. My personal favourite, a soundwave behind the word emit.
5. Once again, emphasis on the letter 'e' this time wearing headphones due to it being a logo for a record company.

Please leave feedback as to which you think is your favourite and why and how these ideas could be developed further.

Thanks for reading,
Sue

Emitting Ideas

Straight back into the scheme of things and I have to admit that I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into the final assignment of this year. Deciding to do the higher grade assignment means I have the possibility of finishing this first year with a bang, all I need to do is get my head down and really perservere for the next 6 weeks until submission.

Our first major theme since returning from Easter has been logos and their design principles. After our lecture on design principles and reviewing a few case studys on logos such as Nike, we were asked to redesign the CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) logo. My group (consisting of myself, Gary and Tom) decided that we wanted to maintain some of the original features of the previous logo while incorporating the initials CND. After going off by ourselves to draw some initial ideas, we then came together to chose a final design and develop it some more. We were pleased with our final idea, it incorporated all the design principles we had been taught in our lecture and could easily work at different sizes due to its bold elements and contrast.

Yesterday we had a visit from ex-student Jonny Haynes (who works at Technophobia), who came to present his work that he's done since leaving the course. Another valuable insight into how the design industry works. With each person that comes in from the 'outside world', the more I gain a perspective of what to expect when I finish the course. The volunteer web work I'm doing outside of college should also provide me with some experience in dealing with clients which will prove vital once I'm in the design industry.

For the rest of this week, I want to really get myself stuck into designing my logo. Once I have this task out completed, I can begin to draw up the artwork for the remainder of my tasks and also begin writing my corporate identity. Which, if the identities i've seen so far are anything to go by, will be a lot of work.

So, my aims for next week are:

• Continue drawing up logo ideas, creating as many as I possibly can.
• Once I feel I have enough sketches, develop around 5 ideas further in black and white.
• Choose one design and develop it in colour, considering logo principles lecture.
• Research corporate identites and what type of things go in them.

Hopefully I can be at a stage this time next week where I am almost finished with my logo. Next week's seminar session will provide me with some vital feedback. Keep looking for my five developed ideas, I will post them up on here during the next week for some feedback!

Thanks for reading,
Sue