OUGD402 - The Sharp Project Manchester

The Sharp Project in Manchester is a digital production complex which hosts multiple different events and meetings all year round. It holds offices, stages, studios, room hire and event space for various fields within the creative industries. This particular event which I attended was all about graphic designers, in industry and education, showcasing their work using Behance portfolios and networking with each other. We firstly had a talk about the history and founding of the complex, followed some inspirational speakers, and then was divided up into different groups where we critiqued and viewed each others work. It was refreshing to see how diverse each person in your group was and how industry professionals really took your feedback seriously. I spent the afternoon viewing work from college students, university students and from new professionals all the way up to managing directors.

After the event, Mark Stringer, the managing director from the company 'Ahoy' approached me about my portfolio and gave me a business card. He said he was impressed by my work as a whole at this level but has given me the email address of his head photographer and has suggested that he could possibly use me as an assistant. I will email him and see if he could use me, even if nothing comes of it at this stage, it still proves the importance of networking and it could be a useful contact in a couple of years time when looking for a placement.

I have blurred out his details for confidentiality reasons

OUGD402 - Mural Graphics

 This particular job was issued by the company 'Bumble Bespoke Murals' who usually specialises in unique personal house murals and more commercial murals for nurseries and other businesses. The design work above was briefed to me by my mother who is a qualified hand sign writer and artist. She asked me to collaborate with her to create a design for a mural for a new nursery. The task asked of me was to create an underwater themed mock up design for the owner to have a visual representation of what the painted mural will look like. I had to also take into consideration the budget of the job and how much each element of the design would cost on the overall price. The children knocking the walls at a lower level was also taken into consideration so I arranged the contents of the design at a high level so that the painted mural would not be chipped away at a later date. It would also have cost too much to paint the whole wall blue so I devised a plan to use splatters of blue and yellow to represent the underwater theme. This also allowed the rooms to stay bright and justified there being a larger quantity of fish making the design as cost effective for the manager of the nursery as possible, allowing her to get better value for money on the mural.

The design utilised as many non copyrighted images as possible however, the images of the fish would turn out bespoke on the final painted mural so this was not a huge issue.

The finished painted mural is photographed below.

OUGD402 - What Inspires You - Podcast

Recently, I have decided that I want to try to listen to more creative podcasts on the walk from college. The first one which I found was 'What Inspires You', this relates directly to the work which we are currently doing in PPP sessions.

The main advice which I have taken away from this podcast is all about not forcing creativeness, when you hit a mental block, put down your work and do something else. This way your subconscious will automatically come up with ideas when doing other chores or activities. The woman in the podcast talks about her experience of making lists when she is inspired. She explains that if she gets inspired at night and makes a list of things to do in the morning, she will usually not do it then next day. When inspiration hits you, do it. Do not wait until the next day because the inspiration might be gone by then.

OUGD402 - Pro Hair Live - Photoshoot / Event

Below is a photoshoot taken at Pro Hairdresser Live, a nationwide barbering event in Manchester. This public social gathering is such an inspiring way of boosting publicity of other creative thinkers and businesses. It is a chance to showcase work on the spot in front of thousands of people and press. I aspire to take part in similar events in my career as I have seen just how beneficial it can be to advertise yourself in the creative industries. It is also an example of engaging with social media and getting more followers to your public profiles and therefore meeting more contacts.

OUGD402 - Preparing for my Future Self - Presentation Reviews

At first, I really thought that these PPP sessions were quite pointless however, as we get more in to them I am really taking an exponential amount of inspiration from them. Getting a background in to co workers ambitions and plans actually helps build on your own aspirations and even helps build friendships with students with similar field and general interests. The preparing for my future self presentations opened my mind to other interesting design companies. Some of the visuals were also very inspirational, particularly the interior design and locations which have truly inspired me to research some of these places further in a hope to plan to visit them.

Things which i would add to my presentation now after viewing the presentations are setting up my own company, learning to rally drive, getting into the music industry and making a real change in the world.

Even small things which I noticed on images such as having a big black board in your room are inspirational ideas which I can implement right now.

The main places which i am influenced into visiting are Amsterdam and Oslo

OUGD402 - Leeds Print Fair

The Leeds print fair was on Saturday at the corn exchange and I thought that it would be perfect to get an early insight into print for our upcoming print culture & distribution context of practice lecture. It was also good to see how a variety of different print processes can be used. There was everything from letterpress to digital print located inside which was ideal as I have my upcoming digital print induction on Thursday. It was great to see a variety of prints where these techniques and processes have been incorporated in diverse contrasting cases.

This print caught my eye the most as it relates directly to my previous blog about grid systems in architecture.

OUGD402 - Yorkshire Sculpture Park - Inspiring Sculptures

Below s a list of some of my favorite sculptures from Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I feel as that their abstract shapes and interesting textures could inspire me n future graphic design briefs. That's why I am cataloging the the images in my blog for future reference.

OUGD402 - Preparing for my Future Self - Study Task 2

Our second study task was to answer 5 questions which will determine what we think our future holds in 10 years time. The questions were

What is your job title?

Where is your job?

What type of company do you work in?

Where do you live?

What personal and proffessional acomplishments do you wish to achieve?

To which I answered that i wanted to be a motion graphic designer, living in Sydney city center, working in a close knit company ( around 10 people ) working on motion graphics for festivals and music events. I would like to own a modern penthouse apartment overlooking Bondi beach and go on to co-design my own house and interior design. I would like to travel the world straight after university, visiting Gambia and Thailand. I also want to work in Ibiza for a season and go to Hideout Festival in Croatia. Skydiving and skiing has always been a big ambition for me and I intend to own a Douge De Bordouex dog and start looking into having a child at around 30.

It is important to have ambitions in life in order to realize what you are striving for when university  can get quite long and tedious at the moment. Reflecting on ambitions keeps you focused on your goals in life and keeps you working hard on your work at this moment in time.

Study Task - Why am I here? - What do I want to Learn?

Identify and explain 5 reasons why you chose to study on this course - My uncle studied Graphic Design in Leeds and recommended it for its galleries, events, culture and nightlife. - The university has a very high ranking in the Guardians annual university listings - The facilities astonished me when I visited the university on an open day - The tight knit community of the university made me feel as though I would get more one on one intuition from tutors - The location is extremely close to Manchester and is a 40 minute train home Identify and explain 5 things that you want to learn during your time on the course - I would like to be extremely talented and proficient in using motion graphics software - I want to learn how to confidently stand up and present my ideas and designs to an audience - I want to become an asset to a creative company in as many different ways as possible - Become capable of producing sharp and polished sketches and manual forms of graphics - Be intelligent in the history and origins of all creative fields Identify and explain 5 things that you think are your strengths - Photography is a key strength as I studied it at A level and became one of the most successful photographers at my college, it has been used in various examples of my previous graphic design projects for A level - Photo manipulation was one of my strengths all throughout college. For example, the image to the right is various photographs taken on a self timer of me with tights pulled over my head. It has ten been manipulated to create the following poster for a clothing brand - Magazine and double page spread layout and composition. I feel that this is a strength because for both my Unit 3 and Unit 4, I created full magazines which were both allocated %100 marks. Without creating magazines I would not have achieved an A* A level for Graphic Design. - Photoshop, I have studied 3 A level subjects for the last 2 years, all of which used Photoshop on a daily basis. This has resulted in me being skillful in three different areas of Photoshop, Graphic design focused on vector and typography, Photography focused on photo manipulation and photo editing and 3D creative design used Photoshop for 3D design, composition and layout. - Sculpture building, 3D creative design has given me experience creating and researching architecture, sculpture, jewelry, bridges and model building. This has given me hands on training in creating manually using all methods of creating such as using a welder, soldering iron and pottery. Identify and explain 5 things you would like to improve - Adobe Illustrator is defiantly one area which I intend to improve as I was never taught it at A level - I wish to learn how to use different print media and bindings as this was never taught at college - Typography, even though I have a good understanding of it, it seems to be a massive part of all graphic fields of work. - I have always been interested in Motion Graphics but never got chance to learn it at college. - My contacts within the creative field which will allow me to collaborate with photographers ect. Identify and explain 5 things that inspire you - Music really inspires me when working as it helps me keep focused without distractions. -DJing, I have DJ decks and intend to use it alongside motion graphics to create the background music. - My dad has always given me amazing inspirational advice, without him I would have never chosen to do graphic design, photography or 3D design in the first place. He is also an architect and has always inspired me to be creative from an early age. - Traveling and mixing with different cultures is such a massive inspiration. Having lived in Australia for a year of my life, I am aware of so much more sources and inspiration which sound alien to many of my friends. My experiences, the people met and the conversations I had would not have been possible in this country. The world is so much bigger than England and seeing these places open your eyes to so many new ideas as a creative thinker. - I find the art of barbering remarkably inspirational even though it has few similarity's to graphic design. The blank canvas which every barber is faced with on each different person is admirable and the interior design and theme of barbers are also exceptional. I wish to learn this profession at some point in my life. Identify 5 examples of design that demonstrate your fields of creative interest - Marc Hayden is a photographer which i have always taken lots of inspiration from in my shoots. Danny Baldwin is another photographer which I find incredibly inspiring because of his unique style. - Vsauce is a youtube channel which i regularly watch which mainly focuses on mind blowing inventions, the universe, art, story's and science - I am also inspired by Mixmag which is a DJ magazine and even based my Unit 3 project around creating my own Mixmag. It includes some graphics and layout which i find incredibly inspiring. - Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid are some of my favorite architects which both have unique styles. Zaha Hadids curved buildings are really influential to become individual in your creative work. - Computer games such as Fallout, Elder Scrolls and Total war have some incredible character design and imagination in their graphics