Work - Magazine (Focus Current Affairs)

Over the last four weeks I have been making a cover, contact page, splash page and turn page for a made up current affairs magazine. I really enjoyed doing all the development from collages of elements to simple thumb nailing but when I got it onto the mac I was a little demotivated however when I started playing with typefaces and focusing myself it all started coming together. My piece is about the worlds population hitting 7billion people, I feel the paper works really well with the piece, taking away that clean cut approach. Next time I really want to explore typography alot more and be more challenging with its use.

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Layout Sheets

(a couple of pages from many)

Travel - Northumberland

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Sea Life Centre

Well we went to Tynemouth Sea life centre which was cool, some really nice light and some ugly fish! I love this one below, really would not want to mess with him. Also got a video of the Seal tank with the light and accidentally got a seal swimming through.

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Great Finds

Got these two cameras for five pound, the Olympus Trip needs a little bit of work to get the light meter working. Cannot wait to get some film in these and see the photos that come out. Hope they are as good as my other cameras.

Here are some nice bits of metal I found on an old RAF site, I really like the drain cover.

I really like the backs of these photos, got some really lovely typography and dynamics on them (and some great errors). Plus some of them were taken 8miles down the road from home, which was really funny to find so far north.

Plus I got a few lanterns from China Town, been hunting for the one on the left for the last couple of weeks. So I am pretty pleased I have it now, shame I did not actually get it from China.

Work - Learning to Emboss

I went to Carlisle's most "famous" of stores Fun to Do! and got myself some stylus for embossing! Here are some of my first goes, I am aiming to emboss my front cover of a magazine with this technique. I had never done it without a press before but it is surprisingly easy and fun. I highly suggest having a go with it!

Radiator Works

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Radiator works a bit too well at the moment but thank you student housing. This pretty much the only use I could think of doing with the hot air rising today. 

Magazine - Woman's Weekly, 100 years

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Its Woman's Weekly 100th Birthday, for this they have produced the first issue from 1911 in its original form. The original is on a small sized unbleached paper with black and red print. I really like some of the compositions in this book, like the one with the women pointing down with the title coming out of hand. Also the body copy is terribly small which I think is quite fun, as I see older ladies reading these magazines but not being able to see anything because of their glasses are not being good enough. Anyway well worth popping down to Smiths to get one of these for £1.25

Work - Ipad App - The Sage (unoffical)

This weeks university project (not live) was set to create an application for The Sage - Gateshead, I wanted to play on the architecture of the building, so created my module grid from that. I got the idea for this when I visited the building and saw the light hitting the windowed roof. The grid starts out curved but I had to straighten it up to allow more data on the page and easier navigation. I was focusing my app for middle aged people to book the concerts they wanted to see at The Sage. I really like the layouts and the idea of being able to rearrange parts of the app for which artist however I wish I had focused on typography abit more.

Layout Pad

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I really enjoy working everything out on the layout pad before I get on to the computer, here is some of my favorite pages.

Work - Christopher Dresser

I was tasked to create a book spread for a craft person of my choice, I picked Christopher Dresser a great industrial designer. I am not overal pleased with my spread, there was alot more interesting work going on in my development pad, so next time I am going to go with heart not my head when creating the final piece. Also I am going to make changes to this piece, with shortening the title and putting it in a more classic typeface. The hierarchy in the stand first needs to stand out more with a heavier weight and put less leading into the captions.

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some pages (more to be uploaded)

Work - Birthday Cards

Dads Birthday Card.

Danielle Birthday Card.

When I came to create these cards I was feeling really unspired but I feel they came out okay. I like my dads one with the fish pattern in the background, when I got it printed it didnot come out as well as I want to. I like the whale card, which I created from a stamp I was using to make wrapping paper.

Travel - Longhoughton/Newcastle

This weekend I have been in Longhoughton (40mins north of Newcastle) which is by the town of Alnwick, visiting my girlfriends house. Its great as there are lots of RAF bits and bobs but also things like this phone box, looks really rusty due to the sea air.

This was in Newcastle which I thought was funny as arnt all Theatre's live performances? I have never been to a pre recorded stage performance, only a little picky.

We spotted this on a lamp post in Gateshead behind The Sage, I think it is a great idea. Light on demanding! Saving energy but also still providing a public service when needed. I hope to see this in other areas.

Inspiration - Nobrow

Nobrow is a really cool publication of illustration and graphic arts that showcases some great talent out in the world. Their aim is to renew focus on quality in print and to play as much as possible. Check them out

Inspiration - Baby Marx

I was just on the Walker Art Center website and found this, I think its really great. The project is created by an Mexican artist Pedro Reyes that looks at the potential for mass entertainment to operate as a radical educational tool. Walker Art Centre Website

New books - A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles

Here are two great books on typography, they document type from 1628 till 1938 combined. With a high quality printed pages and an online archive that you can access, these books are bargains! They are not just typography book but there are lots of symbols and beautiful illustrations. Here are some examples of pages inside (not the best pages, as there are so many).

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Volume 1

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Volume 2

Inspiration - Chinese Poster Net

Chinese Poster net is a really great resource, it archives state produced posters throughout the last century in China. Great fun just going through the site and viewing the attitudes and thoughts being communicate in the posters. Also I love the strong figures mixed in with the messages of production and technological growth. I really want to involve this kind of style and message into my own independent work.