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.

Self Branding - Social Networking

As I was creating a logo to link together my different 'professional' accounts online I thought it would be a good idea to set some accounts up. At this moment in time I don't have a solid idea for a name so I thought I would just use a sort of working title of TheJoshStorey. This way I could have my accounts and not have to worry about creating them in the future. I haven't yet uploaded any work but have set up a Twitter and an Instagram that I can start to follow different things I am interested in and maybe get a few friends to start following. My Behance I will keep the same as I always have but instead just change the url and display picture once I have the name set.

Deadpool

Yes that's right X Gon' Give It To Ya. Deadpool has to be my most highly anticipated films of all time. They finally did it right and it has opened up a whole new world for superhero films everywhere. I don't want to spoil or review the film but I will say it will do more than knock your socks off.

As you may know from my earlier posts I am some what a fan of comics and superheroes, also known as a nerd. I wear that with pride my pop culture references are high and this allows me to think outside the box while getting a chuckle. My own comic will hopefully be able to do this and seeing more and more superhero films will definitely spur me on to continue with my work.

Self Branding - For someone else

I took on work for Harrison, all Harrison wanted was to remake his gif. he struggled to make a smooth animation so I took on the work and produced the above. I then went onto take his logo in my own way.

We call Harrison Wheatloaf so this is what I came up with.