Getting in Contact with Professionals, Craig Cunningham - OUGD502

Craig Cunningham is new to me in my practice, I met and spoke to him at the Thought Bubble Festival. I went back to his booth a few times to purchase work and just for a chat. He was a very friendly person and made the whole meeting feel very personal, it wasn't a scripted response. His work drew me to him but his attitude is what made me come back and want to start up a conversation. I feel people like Craig could really help to push my work further and really branch out into new territories.

1st Contact via Tumblr:

Hi Craig,

I spoke to you at the Thought Bubble Festival in Leeds this year. I'm currently studying at LCA and we have been set a task to interview or talk to a professional in our are of practice who could or does inspire our practice. I was just wondering if you had any free time we could set something up in regards to this.

Getting in Contact with Professionals, Evan Eckard - OUGD502

Evan Eckard has been a huge inspiration to my practice over the years, he taught me nearly everything I know about graphic design and anything more has been from him pushing me to be a better designer.
I found Evan through his YouTube channel and used his tutorials to learn computer based skills and overall arching design skills. His name was first to pop into my head for this task and therefore I knew exactly what to say to him so I am currently waiting for a response.

Email:

Hey Evan,

I've been a big fan since very early on in your YouTube career. You're actually the reason I'm doing anything within graphic design, without your tutorials I wouldn't be where I am today so for that, thank you.

Currently I am studying at Leeds College of Art in England, we have been set a task to interview someone who, inspires or pushes our creative practice. You, are the first name I wrote down to get in contact with. I know this could be a daunting question or may even be you don't have time but I was wondering whether it would be possible to get in contact and sort some sort of interview or conversation out.

I would be very greatful for any sort of response, I have been in contact before via YouTube so I know already you are engaged with fans which is amazing.

Kind Regards

Josh Storey

Getting in Contact with Professionals - OUGD502

We have been set a task to interview a professional or studio that inspires or relates to our practice to push us further. I have already interviewed someone (Mike Mignola) very close to my practice or at least where I would like my practice to head towards. The second part of the task is to create some sort of response from the interview.

I plan to collect as much information as possible from a range of professionals that inspire my work. An interview would be ideal form any of them but as I already have one it is not the main concern so even if I can just start up a digital conversation with the person then I could at least create some contacts from that. 

Interview ideas:

Evan Eckard

Mike Mignola

John Pearson

Dan Watters/ Caspar Wijnaard

Craig Cunningham

Olly Moss

Marvel

DC

Dark Horse

Only - OUGD502

After Only came in for a talk I was completely inspired and had a new mind about our project to design for screen. I have never been interested in UI/UX design and I still don't have a desire to enter the field but hearing someone talk passionately about work and seeing what can be done has really given me a new insight. I can appreciate the work that is put into user interfaces and understand why it is done. This means that for my project I can look into new areas I would have never even considered prior to this talk. Even if things discussed within this talk don't  directly link to my designs they have inspired pretty much all of it giving a project I would have previously pushed to the side and not been able to engage with a new life and a new priority.

Thought Bubble Festival - OUGD502

The thought bubble festival has opened my eyes to a whole new world. I wasn't exactly bored of graphic design but it has been puzzling me for a while now how exactly am I going to make a career out of this practice. My comic and all things to do with illustration and comic arts has excited me for a number of years but I have always found it hard to get started so because of that I have always put off the idea. After visiting this festival I have finally found new inspiration and feel happier about my practice as a whole, while I haven't chosen the wrong subject to study I can now see what I need to look into in the area that I am studying to get closer to my goal.

At the festival I met lots of amazing creatives, some I spoke to on a one on one basis and even managed to take some contact details for future projects or questions I might have. One person in particular helped me with my work, I showed some of my rough sketches for my comic and told him that I was struggling to move on, that I had so many ideas it was just about getting there. I think he had been in a similar situation he told me that this rang true to him and that there are people who make comics and people who say they make comics and at the moment I seem to be the latter, he said my work was a lot better than his at this stage but that he actually went out and did something with it to prove what he could do to others. P M Buchan or Bucky for short was the man who helped me with this and luckily one of his associated John Pearson works at LCA and told me to come for a chat whenever I need.

Overall the festival has helped me understand my practice better in knowing what direction I am heading in and has made me feel happier that it can actually be achieved if I go out and try.

Mike Mignola Talk, Studio Brief 02 - OUGD502

Mike Mignola is a well renowned illustrator and writer, most famous for his series Hellboy. I was asked to interview Mike for the Creative Networks, the experience was incredible I asked questions to help others discover more about a professional in the creative industry but also to help aspiring creatives. 

I learnt so much from Mike it was incredible I almost couldn't stop smiling throughout the interview just to realise that he was a nice guy, he was humble and he was normal like us. The talk and the interview helped me to realise what it is possible to do and has really helped to push my practice on. Thought Bubble also helped host the event but I hadn't really given much thought about going to the festival because I hadn't checked out pricing and just assumed it would be expensive but after this talk and speaking to my friends from Illustration I realised that I had to do it even just for a day.

Below is a transcript of my interview, read at will:

Josh:

So, the first question, have you ever had a favourite moment in your career, or your creative journey as it were?

Mike:

Huh? I’ve had some spectacularly weird ones but a favourite? I don’t know, I think there was a time when I realised I was going to be able to get continue to get away with what I was doing I think. When I did the third Hellboy story which was something I did almost entirely for myself. The first one, you know was was difficult, the second one was really difficult because I wrote the second all by myself and the third one I just had fun. There was a an old Irish folk tale I want to do an adaptation of so drew that and I had so much fun doing it with the when I was done I looked at it and went my god it's not publishable. It just didn't seem like a professional job because it just it was something I did just for fun and I I remember going to lunch with a friend of mine who looked at it while I sat there nervously like what I do am I going to do I have to turn this thing in? He said it's actually the best thing you've ever done. And so that made a little bit easier to get published and then once it was in print a couple different artists called me up and said oh my god that’s the best thing you have ever done. It was a moment wait that's the most fun I've ever had and really one the smoothest jobs I ever did as far as just blowing through it and then you know and then there was everybody saying it’s the best thing you've ever done I think well Jeez if I can get away with doing that for the rest my career. 

Then there was a story I did with my daughter that again I did just for fun. She'd made up this weird story one day, she was 7 years old which is weird story and I agreed to do a story for anthology and I know what is going to do, I picked up at school show is weird story. So I drew that story again everybody said it's the best thing you've ever done. She won the Eisner award the big comic industry award for this odd little thing, that, It was actually a real personal story not just because she made it up but because it was so odd that I could when I did my version of what she told me I could kind of make it a little bit more about something personal. I was spending a lot of time away from home and everything else and having everybody love that story was another pretty big one.

Josh:

Thank you, they’re brilliant, the next question do you or have you ever experienced any creative blocks and if so how do you go about getting out of them?

Mike:

Yeah I'm sure I've had them but I guess so much my career was working with other people writing you know so you don't really have them as far as days where you’re not doing as good as you know you want to be doing. I mean most days are like that but as far as having the kind of creative block where you’re like I don't know what I'm going to do. That, I don't remember ever having I think I always had so many ideas it was mostly dealing with I'm not doing this as well as I wanted to. Now is a very strange time because I’ve wrapped up the Hellboy stuff and really said well now I'm just gonna do whatever I want and it’s not really a creative block but is just this confused thing of well now I really can do whatever I want. What do I want to do so it's not real block but is it is a little bit of a creative confusion. 

Josh:

So what inspires you to help you create your work? 

Mike:

You know I mean I’ve just always liked monsters and ghost stories as far back as I can remember. I just went to Whitby the other day and it's the one place since I was 13 years old and I read Dracula it’s the one place I always want to go visit. So ever since then I just wanted to do that kind of subject matter. So bouncing through Marvel and DC comics for 10 years was just trying to find a place where I could do that kind of work. Creating my own comic was all about cutting out all the other stuff I didn't want to draw and making up a book where I could just do just the stuff I want and so really my whole career has been just cutting out all the stuff I don't want to draw and get down to basically just drawing you know, ghosts and fog. 

Josh:

So almost answered in the last question, how did you come up with Hellboy?

Mike:

Yeah I mean that’s ten years of doing the Marvel and DC stuff and I did a Batman story that I plotted myself it was the first you know relatively large things that one issue comic I did right it's Batman in a in a cemetery. I never could careless about Batman it was DC comics asked me to do something I made up the story that really didn't need to be a Batman story it was just a little ghost story. I did that you know it was so much fun to just do exactly my kind of subject matter and I was really thinking well it was like it was a career turning point. Like okay that was great I made up my own story I'd love to keep making up my own stories, do I make up my own stories and try to shoehorn other people's characters into the stories or if I already know what kind of stories I want to do. Why don't I make up my own guy and that it was just a question of I'm sure it's not gonna work out but if it does work out I gotta make up a character that I won't get bored drawing. My first instinct would have and make up because I love old Victorian occult detective guys so do I make up a regular human being who investigates this stuff but I thought no matter what l do I’m going to get bored drawing this regular guy. So I'd drawn this kind of clunky monster once or twice just for fun, just goofing around. No thought of making up the character and one time I drew this character and I wrote Hellboy on him, just as a goof it was just like oh there's a blank spot put these 2 words together. So I made up this name I thought was funny and this kind of clunky monster thing just for fun and I thought okay, I made up this thing just for fun, maybe if I use him. The fact that I made him up just for fun will make him continue to be fun to draw. There was no calculated I need to sit down now and make up my commercial character, it was just that thing was fun let's let's see if we can do that. It worked because actually I mean before I did Hellboy I'd never drawn any one thing for more than, a year and so here I’ve been doing Hellboy for more than 20 years and he still fun to do.

Josh:

That's brilliant yeah because I've actually started to do my own comic and you've completely just inspired everything that I was thinking and worrying about. Whether or not you get bored or if you can create your own story.

Mike:

Yeah it's as close as I have to career advice for people because you make up your own thing and there's no guarantee that it's going to work out and in most people in most cases they don't work out but I thought on the off chance it does work out, I at least want to try doing something that would combine everything I really like. As apposed to looking around saying well I think what will sell, I thought let me try exactly what I want to do and then if it sells I'm stuck doing my dream job as apposed to making up some commercial thing it sells and the you're stuck doing something you you do it just for the money. 

Josh

Was it was it hard to start up your own comic?

Mike:

No, it wasn't because I already had a falling out with Marvel Comics so I went over to DC comics I was living in New York so it was no big deal and I had really good relationships with people at DC comics. Even though I didn't care about the DC comic book characters, I'd grown up reading Marvel Comics. I knew people there and I knew people liked the way I drew Batman, so making up my own thing was no big deal because I assumed it wouldn't work, I assume that we just do the 4 issue first series and then I go back and do another Batman book. 

One last question, is there any advice you would give to young aspiring creatives to help in there practice?

Basically just what I what I said is at least try doing your thing otherwise you'll never you'll never know. I think I really do believe that you can tell when you look at somebody’s work you could tell if they love what they’e doing there's something that comes through if you're really love what you’re doing, what you really care about I mean I've seen wonderfully talented people do books and I look at and I go yeah, I see all the skill there but that magic something is missing that excitement. So we all know as commercial artists. Maybe it's not going to work, you're gonna have to do a job you don't really care about but if you get the opportunity to try to make up your own thing and these days it seems like there's so many different places to put your work to get it seen if it is just you know putting it online but at least try it because you know what have you got to lose?

Josh:

We will have to end it there. If there was any way to get in contact with you would there be anywhere to send any work?

Mike:

Yeah we have a website artofmikemignola.com send some work over to there and we’ll check it out.

Josh:

Thank you! 

Mike:

And thank you!

Identify

Identify 5 things you have learned on the course so far on the programme:

• Time management
• Kerning
• Blogger
• Design studios
• Talking to professionals

Identify 5 things that you want to know more about:

• Work after university
• What path I would like to take
• How to work in the real world
• How to get your work out there
• To turn briefs and work into things I enjoy

Identify 5 skills that you think are your strengths:

• Adobe Creative Suite
• Talking to people
• Taking lead
• Taking advice/following others lead
• Ideas generations

Identify 5 things that you want to improve:

• Time management
• Organisation
• The creative path I am on
• Exploring the world more both in design and in traveling 
• Relaxing

Identify 5 practitioners/studios that demonstrate your interest in Graphics:

• Evan Eckard
• Marvel Comics
• DC Comics
• Dark Horse Comics
• Olly Moss

Identify 5 websites/online resources that demonstrate your areas of interest within the creative industries:

• Bechance
• Pinterest
• Marvel
• YouTube
• DC

Thinking about the struggles of last year, Study Task 01 OUGD502

Last year I struggled with a few different areas within my practice and within the PPP module. I understood the importance of PPP and how it could help me develop as a designer and in the future but I couldn't understand some of the areas such as:

• Self Branding
• Presenting about myself
• Thinking about the future
• Inspirations

Self branding was something I struggled with because I had never considered myself in that way. I feel and I hope that my brand will change as my skills improve and my idea of what I would like to practice strengthens. 

I know how to talk about my practice and who I am but I do not know which areas to concentrate on my presentation was cut short and I was told to concentrate on certain areas more, I had tried to do this but ran out of time after concentrating on less important areas. 

Talking about the future is a scary but can also be a fun idea, the reason I struggle is because I don't have on solid idea of what I would like to do. I think this comes down to the fact that I need to research into more areas of graphic design to find an area I enjoy more than the rest. My comic is an area I enjoy to do but because it does not tie directly into my work at university I find it hard to commit to the idea thus leaving it to fade until I have time off. This may also be because I don't believe that I have the capability to push this idea forward, I have the skills needed and new ideas come to me constantly but they are just put into my notes and left. Really, I need to concentrate on this more as I feel it is something I would really enjoy to do but I am scared of numerous things like; how is this going to change the world, what if I'm not good enough or I don't want to have to work my way up because that could take too long and my ideas may never be seen. These are just some of my worries and people have asked why I didn't take illustration but I thought I could learn a broader understanding from graphic design, I also think it is because I thought I can create a piece of graphics not with ease but with not as much of a struggle or with the fears I have within my comic creation.

We had to talk about our inspirations within PPP, I didn't find this particularly hard and over the year I have found more than the ones I spoke of but, I feel I could definitely branch out more. I plan on visiting more professionals, exhibitions and design studios, I also plan on reading my books bought last year. This year is definitely going to be different for me and I hope to seriously work harder and knuckle down.

How I survived a terrorist attack, TED Talk

The talk started with the speaker telling us about their experience of a terrorist attack. The speakers legs had been taken in the attack and they were now supported by prosthetic limbs. She tells us she felt loved and that is what kept her alive, this is what helped her to not feel hate or vengeance. When she was saved she wore a tag that said: Unknown, Estimated, Female. In that moment she realised that she wasn’t considered as a white Australian woman, she was just simply a human and that didn’t matter. She was human and that is why she was saved, I think this is brilliant it didn’t matter about her skin colour, her race, her nationality, religious beliefs, job or anything just that she was a life. All the talks I have looked into have linked to the idea of thinking outside the box but this was not anything to do with that. Humans saved other humans without thinking it was second nature yet in everyday life we have problems with equality. This is where we need to think outside the box.

What can we learn from shortcuts? TED Talk

This is one of my biggest flaws I think I have to admit. I take away from this talk that research is key, I do feel I research but I research to fit my needs more than to fit the needs of a client or a brief. I know how to create a vector image so why not start with that and take the easy way out, I know that talk was speaking about putting these shortcuts in to help clients and customers but I took a deeper meaning. If you really look into what the client would like or what the brief is asking you to do you can take away so much more and like the other TED talks I have looked into still stay creative don’t close off your mind to thinking outside the box but also don’t use this as an excuse to do lazy mediocre work. Always give it your all and the problem might even solve itself.

Why you think you’re right even if you’re wrong, TED Talk

For starters were only human right? So when we believe in something that we have been taught or brought up to believe it is going to take more than a bit of factual information to tell us we are wrong. What I can understand from this is, as humans we are brought up to be stubborn. Like the last TED talk I spoke about I am going to bring up that we need to think creatively and outside the box we need to think differently to one another. We bounce opinions off each other to try to better understand life but we have one fatal flaw admitting we are wrong. It is so hard to stop believing in something but if we didn’t in the first place then how could we have been proven wrong. We have to think about all the different wonders of life so that we can keep moving forward. My opinion is that belief is what keeps us going and creatively thinking is what moves us forward.

How Computers are becoming creative, TED Talk -

Brains are like wiring in a computer so why not computers be like the synapses in brains. Such simple solution, from when we are young we are taught differences between animals and objects we know what a bird looks like and we know what a picture of a bird but we do not know how our brain figures that out but by using algebra we can. It is just an estimate but from such a small idea something huge has been created, something beautiful. Teaching a machine how to create is such a brilliant concept in short someone thought outside the box on a big scale and it created a whole new world. The imagination needed to bring this to our attention really amazes me and just shows how much the human brain can do. This is also a great topic in my opinion because it is showing that science and ‘academic’ are not so different from art and design you need creativity in the way you think otherwise we would all be talking in ones and zeros. 

New Designers - OUGD502

New Designers is a showcase that has a variety of work, from graduates to free-lancers to big named companies. Following on from the MMU degree show my sister had a booth at the exhibition to showcase her work, from this she gained many contacts and many job offers.

This show is an amazing experience for any creative either being part of it or just exploring the amazing pieces all around. It really makes you think about what can be achieved and that it isn't too far out of anyone's reach. New Designers has really inspired my practice and made me want to shoot higher than I have in the past it's just about finding what works best for me.

Speaking at Cardinal Newman College - OUGD502

My college invited me back to talk about the work I have been creating at university and past work from my foundation course. The talk was easy because I felt comfortable but it was difficult in the sense that I wasn't talking to creatives from the same field as me, I was talking to creatives from all different fields wanting to go on to a foundation course.

The questions asked were about my comic, about my life at university and how did I find the workload at foundation level. It was interesting to talk to people that were in a similar position to where I have been in the past, it was also great to go back to a place I started part of my creative journey at and see how much I have grown.

Manchester Metropolitan University Degree Show - OUGD502

Degrees shows are always a great place to look at all different types of new creatives, they help you look outside of your world and explore new elements. I have visited the MMU end of year show for the past few years and always love the type of work that appears there.

The reason for visiting this year was to see my sister's final piece, it was great to see it in show but also great to look around at all the different types of work. I mainly stuck to the graphic design and illustration floor but I did love to look at the other floors too. So much inspiring work all around at the show but I did manage to talk to some of the graduates who's work particularly stood out to me.

Design Strategy Presentation - Extended Notes

I’ve always been a happy jokey person from a young age.

These are some of the things people describe me as and how i believe I am.

I’ve put down some of the good qualities and some of the arguably bad qualities. I think this influences my work as it helps me to come up with some interesting ideas that often either need explaining or people have to wait till I’m completely finished to get the full picture (obviously)

Inspirations:

Creativity has always been with me wether it’s in story form or physical art and design ideas come to me and I love to get them out into the world not really for anyone else just for me but if anyone else enjoys it then that’s a bonus.

Evan Eckard has been one of my biggest influences, since I can remember I’ve loved art but never been great at the traditional painting side which a lot of high school level work is based around. It’s more because I’m lazy rather than my ability to do I just couldn’t be arsed. Teachers never thought about teaching computer based design work and Graphics was definitely not Graphics. Eckard was my teacher, Youtube tutorials were my life staying up from when I got home from school till past midnight to learn all these new skills. 

As you will discover I love comics and Marvel has to be my biggest contender for the reason I love them. I never actually got into the reading of comics till a few years ago and I have been bit lazy with keeping up this past year but I’m getting back on top and starting some new interesting series not just from Marvel. It influences my work heavily and they always help to give me a more positive outlook on life apart from the fact I’m never going to have the ability to control time unless you count turning the clocks back.

Films have to be some of the biggest influences to my work (this might just be an excuse to watch them). I’ve taken quite a lot from all different genres (mostly superhero and action) I’ve even been working in a cinema for the past 3 year but had to quit to move on with my life and grow as a designer. 

Music is the same as film for me if I ever need a release I’ll put on my favourite songs or play my guitar. Same for if I need to get work on I’ll pop some chilled out songs that I don’t need to concentrate on or that I can sing along to whilst working (I’m actually surprisingly good at multi tasking and compartmentalising).

Talk about briefs we have already done

• Logotype, rebranding

New processes learned 

• Book binding
• Screen printing
• Letter press
• Mono printing

All these processes have given me a chance to learn new skills I was aware of but never considered opening up all new opportunities to improve myself as a designer.

I really need to travel more. I don’t exactly get home sick but more like bored as I’ve never just traveled for myself it’s usually with family meaning you have to do family activities which, I do love but I mostly just miss Rose (My guitar) I get agitated if I haven’t played for a while. The image is from my trip to Scotland and I think once I have my new vehicle I will be able to travel whenever I want. I think I also don’t travel because I’m lazy I love the release and being able not to care about things at home and with work but I only remember or can be bothered with this once I’ve actually gone.

Self Branding:

I don’t yet know who I am as a designer. I think I want to go down the path of creating my own comic as this is something I’ve been looking into for years and have been very passionate about but last year I wanted to go int advertising and 2 years before that architecture. I wanted my self branding to be personal to me and help me to create an online presence that I can use to get in contact with professional creative types and hopefully get a name for myself while still being able to post personal posts on other accounts. I designed the logo so that I could link all the accounts together keeping everything consistent and meaning I had an image of me to start with. The colour was selected to fit me as a person, yellow is what I would consider as my favourite colour but it’s garish and doesn’t work very well in block colour. I’ve always enjoyed orange and think it stands out well, it also relates to my hair colour. The typeface is meant to be fun but bold to help me stand out. The mouth is to signify laughter going with the name JoKES and me as a person rather than just me as a designer.

The Time Keeper:

I’ve always been passionate about comics and superheroes, I’m often reminded by family members that it’s all not real just incase I slip into some fantasy world I can never escape. Last year kicked off my comic series and opened up a whole new world for me. This year I sort of slipped back and felt like I wouldn’t be able to finish what I started but as I went through the year learning more and more skills that I wouldn’t necessarily be using within the design of my comic it reminded me of this whole new world and opened it up even further. I started officially writing my comic a few months ago and have now moved onto the design stage after finishing the bare bones of the story (it still needs a bit of tweaking). I have years worth of ideas all written about in different places that I should probably collect together and this is why I know always carry a note book or at least have the notes opened on my phone to jot down ideas.

How I plan on evolving:

I’m hoping my online presence can help me evolve and become more in the know about design and the industry. I need to travel more and definitely get my comic done. Once I have been able to identify who I am I think it will be much easier to decide on who I would like to work with or for. I’ve enjoyed all the visits we’ve had with college but haven’t yet found somewhere I think would completely suit me. The point of my branding was to leave it open, this is me at the moment as a designer, as a person but I think I will eventually change it and create a stronger identity once I know .

Self Branding - Social Networking, Linking Accounts

Now I have my logo and a name I could link all of my social networking accounts together. I didn't particularly want to include the word 'Designs' within my name because I'm not a company and it's a self branding task that eventually once I create a following people will begin to realise what I am about but the word 'Jokes' is quite hard to secure as a name without adding lots of numbers to the end so instead I would have to add the word Designs.

I am hoping that this will help me to get in contact with other creatives and expand my my world within the design community. It will also help me to become more confident about spreading my work and receiving criticism.

LCA Fine Art Exhibition

Last night I attended the opening night of the LCA Fine Art Exhibition. As a graphic designer I was wondering about the exhibition before I went but have been to plenty in the past with my family being in the Fine Arts field. I don't want to say I was pleasantly surprised but more refreshed when I entered as I am so used to seeing digitally designed pieces that have been mirrored perfectly and made to look clean.

I sometimes forget art is about expression not who, whats and whys? The exhibition showed me this again and reminded me that art and design are one and the same and should both come from you not from a set of rules.

Self Branding - Final Logo Design

After showing my design around people instantly enjoyed it but my flat mate did point out one important feature. The tongue on the previous design did look a bit phallic like I extended the sides of the tongue and without asking about the previous problem asked around again which designs people prefered. Luckily everyone pointed to the one above.

The final design of my personal logo hits a lot of the points I wanted;

Fun

Playful

Bold

Simple

Describes me

Creates something to link my online pressence

Self Branding - Creative CV

I already had a creative CV from my foundation year. I recently updated it for a job opportunity so the information didn't need changing but I did improve on the style. The idea was to link the CV with all my other self branding work, I changed the typeface and colours to match. Using skills that I have learnt and improved on in the last year I managed to create a stronger look for my CV which will hopefully help with future potential clients and employers.

Self Branding - Final Critique

I asked around about my self branding and how I could improve it.

The idea for this project is to create an online presence for myself to get into contact with other creatives around the world and become more confident in posting my work to help me develop and understand my style.

Do you think with what I have done I am able to achieve the above?

Many people answered yes as I have kept the idea simple, easy to negotiate and to keep on top of. The people have suggested the logo ties nicely to make sure you know you're in the right place and the fact I have a name to link the accounts makes it much easier to get in contact and find out more about me rather than multiple accounts with different names.

I wanted the logo to portray me and what I like to put across in my work. I want it to be fun bold and simple. The colours and the type should both match this.

Does the logo suit me?

The logo, people have said suits me and the style I am going for. The design is bold and simple the type and the colours are fun and cheerful. A lot of people suggested that the colour was brilliant to suit my hair. One improvement was the shape of the tongue to broaden it and fill the mouth a bit more to suggest the shape stronger and make the laughter more prominent.

I have created a Logo to link my accounts, accounts to get in contact and a creative CV to send off to potential employers and clients.

Do you think this will help me to broaden my horizons in the world of design?

A lot of people pointed to points they had said above but pointed out that it was all online and the physical CV would help even further.

Lord Whitney Studio Tour

Amy Lord and Rebekah Whitney started up the company Lord Whitney together as they both thought in similar ways and enjoyed the idea of being 'Connoisseurs of Make Believe'. Two of the most enjoyable people to be around that I have met in my life. They both seem so energetic and happy in all they do and are always having incredible new ideas.

The company is now more than just the duo but they still stick to their roots using what they can to create their work giving their unique quirky style to everything they put their minds to. 

The tour was more like a talk but after a nice walk around the outskirts of Leeds we managed to find the building. Totally adapted to the quirky style I spoke of before fitting everything they mean. The pair spoke about their journey on how they got to where they are today, they didn't just talk about all the good parts of their careers and that they just came out of university straight into this amazing job. They got into a lot of the grittiness that they had to go through before all of that but what they managed to do was stick together because they knew they had something and had a style that was worth showing to the world. 

The talk really inspired me I think I will always be able to remember back to this point as I've never visited a working studio or met many designers that have had this effect on me. I first thought quick pair up with someone in the talk but then thought about how that was their style. I don't have to pair up but if it happens or if I join a team then that can work for me but what really hit me was that I need to find my style, who am I and what can separate me to become a better designer all round.

Screen Print Induction

I have screen printed before this induction but the process was done slightly differently. It also seemed a lot easier than the method I had been shown when actually on the beds to print. A lot of new ideas have been opened up to me in terms of overlaying colours, the simple process of combining CMYK didn't even occur to me but once told about colour blending it all made so much sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0q0OFaY9uY

The link to the video above is a great example of colour blending and is extremely satisfying to watch.

NEST Magazine Launch

NEST, the magazine for Leeds College of Art. This Magazine helps to showcase students work from the college and has stretched over seas to creatives everywhere not just within Leeds or within the college.

The launch event did well to showcase the latest issue showing off some of the work at the launch event rather than just having to see it within the magazine. As for the venue it was chosen very well to accommodate the style of publication and gave a great feel for it as a whole. There was a chance to talk to the current editor and chief of the magazine Josiah Craven, as always very friendly.

When Josiah came in to speak about NEST in our class I was already in the know about the magazine from discussing it in my interview but he did manage to inspire me. I would have liked to have run to take over from the magazine after Josiah passes on the flame but I instead realised I should most likely have a go at creating my own work instead. Although I have a lot of ideas of where to take the magazine I believe others will do a better job and have better time keeping skills than me. I instead would like to work on my own publication The Time Keeper, my graphic novel.

Self Branding - Design Development, Colour

Experimenting with colour further made me realise where I had gone wrong before. Changing the black all together and leaving the negative space meant that I could create a simple effective design. I used the primary colours firstly with my design this gave me an idea about how a colour could interact with it. I took the design even further adding a 3D effect to it which I quite enjoyed and it made it even more playful but I thought Black is used too much I wanted my design to stand out and relate to me. The colour that came to mind was Orange and when asking others before actually applying it they said this too some explained it was most probably because of my hair but I had already discovered this. I am happy with this design but need to gain feedback from peers.

Self Branding - Design Development, Typeface

Helvetica has to be one of my favourite typefaces as it's simple and bold, I want my design to reflect this sort of style so it stands out and is straight to the point. I used other typefaces that I thought used a similar method and even tried to incorporate Comic Sans as I thought it may bring a jokey quality to the design but I still haven't found a use for it. My favourite out of the selection is Futura, again one of my favourites so it's a great way to explain me and I think it's a bold, fun and professional design this would make it perfect for what I would like to express. 

Self Branding - Further Design Development

This is the design I went with adding in a set of teeth and a tongue to fill the mouth a bit more and add the element of the laugh into the design.

Adding colour didn't go as well as I had hoped I think too much is going on, the bottom design I think works the best as it's not too many different colours because at a small scale the design may look too busy. I chose the yellow as it's a fun bright colour to reflect the design and blue to go with the red of the tongue.

Self Branding - Design Development

Looking back through my sketches I found a tiny drawing I had created using my initials and a smiley face. I had considered just using my own face for my sort of logo as that would be literally me but this seemed like a fun design which, I think shows off that I like to have fun with my work. JoKES sounds like it needs to be a jokey fun design that means that creating a sort of smiling face out of my name would definitely work.

I did a number of variations on the design but thought it would make more sense to have the design grinning or even laughing as that's what you do when someone tells a joke or to show you're having fun. I thought the designs above reminded me too much of some sort of bowl or a logo for a maybe a sushi restaurant so I changed up the design even more.

These designs look a bit more like they're fully grinning or almost open mouthed and laughing but something else is missing. I tried to keep the line thickness the same in all of the design throughout the type as well as the mouth and moved the type from the angle to straight as if it were the rest of the face but it doesn't have to be. The mouth on it's own looks a bit too much like a shield so I need to consider adding something else.