UAL: LCC Graphic Design Graduate Show '13

Been a bit quiet this month but making up for it, I promise this post is gonna be a great one...
Last week Thursday I headed down to the private view of my uni's exhibition, showcasing the design fruit of this years design graduates, including a few of my friends and peers. It was quite a packed night so it eventually become difficult for my friend and I to take all the photographs we wanted but here are a few of the pieces that caught my eye...(tried my best to credit)



Illustration Pathway -----------

Simon Phan and his 'Flower Girls', these illustrations and wall mural carry a cheeky 60's vibe!


(Google Zeitgeist 2012) Illustrations by Susan Yan Mach



Hiphop inspired series by Jasmine Sehra







Illustration by Claudine O'Sullivan



Again by Susan Yan Mach (Children Careers 2012)



Interaction & Moving Image Pathway -----------

A pun and reversal on exhibition signs; every avid museum and exhibition goer know these signs all too well.



Definitely one of my favourite pieces of the show; that awkward moment and anticipation that takes place just before popping a balloon. An installation exploring the suspense of sound by Jeff Chun-Hee Luu.




Advertising Pathway---------




Live branding project for BumbleBee BKRY by Shuhena Begum




More from Interaction & Moving Image Pathway---------

This interactive swing brings back the nostalgia of childhood, with film clips typically associated with childhood memories projected on the wall in front.


Another one of my favourites; the mastermind behind this hanging installation, that is Romain Meunier, uses the interaction and touch between humans as a conductor to make the connected guitars play, and depending on how soft or hard you pressed against the other person, controlled how forte the guitars played. Now that's what you call true music conducting; haha see what I did there.



This was a fun installation memory game which certainly captured Google's brand. The letters light up in a particular pattern which you have to remember and correctly press each letter in the right order. Who else can see this in Google's HQ?



Typo/graphic Design Pathway---------

Social commentary on consumerism being the new religion, married together with religious architecture. A closer look reveals images of models, media, fashion brands and basically everything materialistic in western culture. By James Sanderson


What caught your eye?

See More Design Fruit:
lccgraphics2013.com

Design Goods: Review

I received this book 'How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul', as a Christmas gift last year from a best mate; it was on my design book wishlist. Realised I hadn't gotten round to writing a review on it yet, thought now would be good.

This book really is a good and straight forward read, once I had started it took a while before I could put it down. Shaughnessy guides the reader through the many aspects of the graphic design industry, taking a look at how graphic design has evolved, and where it sits today in our modern and digitalized world. He provides potential solutions to the various questions up and coming designers would have, what to expect being in the industry, how to carry one's self professionally, and covers scenarios that veteran designers know all to well - the classic case of the client who is unwilling to cough up what they owe. He also addresses important issues such as sustainability, design responsibility and concludes with interviews from leading designers. What I find useful about this book is that, it gives practical as well as philosophical insight and balances creativity with business (yay for freelancers).

Working both as training wheels for the first time rider and a reminder for those who may have lost sight being well into their career, this is a must read not only for the young graphic designer and freelancer but for designers in other commercial art & design fields, as a lot of his insight can be applied to some of these areas too. Have you read this book?

The Great Gatsby Branding

The Art Deco look and feel certainly shines through everything Gatsby, from the set design, costumes to the soundtrack and promotional visuals. Created by Like Minded Studio & Bazmark Team, the geometric formations, retro typography and overall brand work is simple yet wonderfully bold and done. This is what they had to say:

"Like Minded Studio was honored to collaborate with Baz Luhrman, Catherine Martin & Bazmark team 

on the branding of  "The Great Gatsby". Our aim was to realise Baz's vision and develop a bespoke Deco

styled logo reflective of the roaring 20s and Fitzgerald's masterpiece. We also created a display typeface 

to acompany the main branding. The letterforms were customised and refinined to reflect the design of the main logo. This included developing a system to combine solid and pinstriped characters in sequence when typing out words. Inspiration for the typeface was from the deco alphabet designs of K.H. Schaefer. The final titles and logo were further rendered in 3D by Deva Studios to create the signature Gatsby style.The process and final branding is showcased below."

Looking forward to this film hitting the cinemas next week; who will be watching?

See more:
Gatsby Branding

Saul Bass

As the internet (google doodle) celebrates the birthday of filmmaker Saul Bass; let's remember his work and visual style. Bass was known for his iconic film title sequences - below is a sequence he did for one of my favourite classic films, 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World'.


'Design is thinking made visual.' - Saul Bass

Pick Me Up 2013 Exhibition

Last Wednesday, I and a few friends headed to Somerset House to visit the annual, Pick Me Up Graphic Arts Exhibition. There was a lot to feast your eyes on, if you have a chance go see it, the exhibition ends tomorrow! Here is a little taste; please excuse some of the low quality snaps!

illustration

I've been meaning to share a lot more of my own work on here. This is an illustration I created back in 2009 for a college project (#FlashbackFriday). It's inspired by artist Julian Opie, can you guess who the face is?

Answer: Barack Obama. More of my own work to come!

Design Goods: Haul

Back in October I was at my university's freshers fayre, London Graphic Centre were there giving out free goody bags and boy was I happy to get one...comon who doesn't like free DESIGN stuff hahaha. Here is what was inside:

A. Winsor & Newton, Heavy Weight Case Bound Sketch Book. A6 (48 sheets). Heavy paper, good for pencil, pen & ink and water colours.
B. Animal Clips: 6 Page Markers
C. Classicolour: 2 colour pencils
D. Winsor & Newton, Heavy Weight Wire-o Sketch Book. 12"x 12" (50 sheets) Heavy paper, good for pencil, pen & ink and water colours.


Peace =)

Design Goods: Wishlist

Who needs a re-stock or expansion of design tools? I do!
1. Book: Tangible: High Touch Visuals
2. Book: Copywriting: Successful Writing for Design, Advertising and Marketing
3. Book: Fundamentals of Fashion Design
4. Uni Pin: Assorted Tips, Fine Line drawing pens
5. Art & Craft's Knife
6. Technical Pencil
7. Muji Acrylic Desk Top Storage Unit
8. Good Old Brown Craft Paper
9. A3 Size Cutting Mat

Design Goodies Haul

Friday night I met up with a couple of mates at Zizzi; just because! To my surprise, Brenda (also a creative) presented me with goodies 1 & 2, which she said were (very) belated birthday gifts. It was a very nice gesture =) . They're on my design book list, so you can only guess how excited I was, and I can't wait to get into them. Goodie 3 was also a gift I received at the actual time of my birthday from another friend. Read on to know my initial thoughts and where to buy them.

1. Lettering & Type: Creating Letters and Designing Typefaces by Willen, B & Strals, N (2009)

How-to, meets visual typeface candy, with relevant design history, theory and short sporadic exercises.

2. Typography Sketchbooks by Heller, S & Talarico, L (2012)

This book is a visual feast of all types (pun not intended) of typography and a look into sketchbooks from a broad range of graphic designers and type artists. If you're looking for type-spiration, then this book ticks that box.

3. Fifty Dresses That Changed The World by Design Museum (2009)

Starting from the 1915 Delphos pleated dress, ending at Hussein Chalayan's 2007 LED Dress, this book looks back at design history's most signature dresses. It showcases each dress and gives us a short summary on what made them so iconic. It's almost an A to Z of well known dresses & styles.

Will hopefully do another one of these more often!

Summer 2010 Over

The summer is over and it's officially back to university for me; exciting, but I know there is going to be a truck load of work with my name on it.

Print and video ads for a paint-maker company designed by 'McKinney' ad agency.

Bionic

Christina Aguilera will be releasing her new album soon, titled 'Bionic'. It has been 4 years since her last album and finally on her website they have put up a sneak peak of new artwork designed by Street Artist D-face. I love how he uses a range of music related objects to construst the bionic side of her face. It also has and conjures a Metroplis vibe.

EDIT: 25/3/2010: The reveal of her official album art work

Funky Patterns

Was just watching Titanic on television for the umpteenth time. Despite the amount of times I have seen it, it's such a really good, depressing film. Easter is round the corner and I'm finally on holiday, for 4 weeks...good times!! Found these lovely, funky patterns by artist Arnaud Loumeau. Nice how each design starts off with one mini squared space and expands into visually impacting and colourful patterns. Pretty cool huh?

  

Uni Graphic Design #1

So its the end of term one & I'm officially on my 4 week Christmas holiday, here are some pictures from some of the work we have done during our first term at university... Firstly here is one of the final pieces I made inspired by a fashion designer I love; Jean Charles De Castelbajac.

The rest of the pictures I took are of some of the final pieces that I really liked by other students on my course.