Day 47: Creative Review Tweet Up

Last week I wandered along to Tate Britain for Creative Review's Tweetup evening. Yes I'm on twitter @northernmonkee1 as well.

It was an amazing night with private view of the new Vorticists exhibition and the opportunity to meet other creatives and have some fun.

I spent most of the evening sat on the floor with the lovely people from NeonNiche drawing heads, bodies or feet with felt tip pens. Rather unsurprisingly I drew the football boots. As you do. A pretty good 'goodie bag' was included. No luck with the lucky dip lotto ticket though.

Day 46: Graduation

And so I'm done. All graduated and the like. The last couple of weeks as we rushed to get our portfolio's complete were 24/7 hectic with a few late night/early mornings but we made it.

I've had the best three months in terms of getting to know a whole new bunch of cool, fun people and spending the day designing with them.

Now I need to find a job as a graphic designer. Whoop Whoop!

Day 45: Wooden Toy Magazine

Had a guest lecture from Timba, an ex-Shillingon grad from Oz today. He illustrates, designs and self publishes Wooden Toy magazine. He's pretty cool and it's definitely a labour of love. He kept it straight, gave us honest sound advice as well as being inspiring. Especially with my illustrator/designer hat on, it just made me determined to have something of mine in a future issue.

Also finished my last brief today. That makes 38 over the two and a half months. Very strange to look back and see how things have evolved from the start and where I am at now. Have to keep reminding myself I've only been doing this for such a short space of time and that I'll only keep improving.

Tomorrow it's just the one-2-one with a tutor to work out what I'd like to put into my portfolio and what should go in to make it great. Then what looks and feels like will be ten days of no sleep....

Day 44: Fashion, turn to the left..

It's Fashion brief time. It's been a full on tough two and a half months. Time's a ticking and I think we're all getting a little crazy. There's so much to do with what feels like so little time before we graduate on the 15th. I'm still loving the course, kinda sad it'll be finished in one respect, but looking forward to finding a design job. 

We all got a little kick up the arse ("be creative, it's fashion..") this morning and to be fair the reboot worked. I wandered around Brick Lane for inspiration while the sun shone then cut into Gotham Light, to create my Acolyte title and pulled this together.

Day 43: Lovely Bones book cover

Redesign a book cover. In a day, (over a weekend). Sorted.

Into the last five weeks of the course. I'm too tired to blink at the moment. We've spent the last week working on email marketing and website design. To come is a packaging brief, a branding project and everything but the kitchen sink.

The last two weeks is all about taking briefs that we have done over the last two months and re-working them into our portfolios.

Day 42: I am your Father

Here's the BFI Film Festival poster I've been working on the last few days. Vader needs a bit of tweaking but for the moment, I'm pretty happy with it.

Day 41 - Saul Bass

This weekend I'll mostly be working on a Science Fiction Festival poster (between cups of tea) but I saw this quote and thought it was spot on. There always has to be a good idea behind everything.

Trying to work a Saul Bass angle into the Sci Fi poster somehow. His work especially for Hitchcock and Kubrick was brilliant. I love the way he used shape, type, and colour. 

Olly Moss is also rather cool and nails it in a similar way. 

Day 41 - National Geographic

One of three double page advert spreads for a travel expedition company. The main brief here, a little like the earlier theatre briefs was to pull together a 'series' of adverts for the client. 

My other two, for Peru and Mongolia are complete apart from some minor amends to the maps. We had a day to do all three. Walking around class as part of the critique at the end, I think it's fair to say everyone hit the mark. 

Day 40 - Melbourne Parks Newsletter

I'm reasonable happy with things at the moment. Aesthetically I feel ok with the visual side of design. There's also a book cover brief next week which is pretty open so I'm planning to get some illustration into mine. 

Layouts and I have, however, been trying to work out what we like about each other. It's the bread and butter of being a designer and yet somedays it's a little of 'you push and I'll pull'. Then we play rock, paper, scissors to settle things.

Having said that I think I'm starting to get there. It just takes me a bit longer than I think it should or I'd like. Practice makes perfect.

Day 39 - Snowboarding Brief

It's been a little while since I posted anything I've been working on. Tomorrow is the end of week seven which means there's five left, then two weeks for pulling our portfolio together.

The briefs are flying in at the moment. As a rule we tend to be given four to five photos, article copy and client requests, demographics, art direction and hierarchy. 

Here's a three page spread (the first two are the double spread) that we were briefed on for Transworld magazine. 

Day 38 - Jagger Lips

Jagger lips in er, interesting places. Aceness.

Day 37: FA Cup - The Final

At last something to hold, though I've not actually managed to get my hands on it just yet. Next time I'm home maybe. For now though this feels like the start of something exciting. Let's be honest, it's about time. I've waited long enough.

Just a brilliant, wonderful, awesome, shout myself hoarse day spent with friends watching City win the cup. 

Day 36: King of Limbs

Check out the King of Limbs Newspaper showcasing Stanley Donwood's artwork. Just awesome.

Now if the exhibition I went to the other month had looked half as great as this...

Day 35: Come with me let's be..

I think I'm gonna use this as my day to day philosophy...

Day 34: Normal service will continue..however..

Once again I've missed a couple of blog days. I've just been so busy with the course. As such I've decided to temporarily stop trying to blog every day for fifty days on the bounce.

The pace of the course has stepped up in the last week. It's too important to me and I need the time in the evening to really study and practice what I'm learning in the day.

I'll carry on blogging until I get to the 50 but it's not going to be every single day.

Day 33: Black Sheep

Day 32: Cool Girl

Thirty Two days on the bounce. Eighteen to go. Almost there. It's been a struggle but fun to try and get something worthwhile to post here each day. Have to admit, there's been a couple of things from my sketchbook. This is one of them..

Day 31: Captain America

I heard something about Marvel Comics being fifty years old on the tube. 

Day 30: Bridget Riley

There's a free exhibition of Bridget Riley on at the National Gallery. I saw it today and it begs the question..is art there just to be enjoyed on a visual, emotional level or create debate. I think it's role is to fulfil both in whatever way works for you.  

The exhibition is more an introduction to Riley's work and having been introduced I'm not sure I'd pay to see more. There were a couple of paintings that I enjoyed, but it was purely visual. She certainly didn't rock my boat on an emotional level like Edward Hopper, Pablo Picasso or Mark Rothko. 

In fact I think I agree with Will Self's take on her art. 

Day 29: E=MC2

You just can't keep a good man down. Looks like Einstein was right after all. 

Day 28: Tiger balm..

The side effects of using too much Tiger Balm made Paul realise the error of his ways..

Day 27: Randoms..

Randoms from my iphone..

Day 26: Theatre Brief

We spent most of today (when not getting a lecture on Colour Theory) working on these typography briefs. The aim was to create a 'family' of typography posters for an Oz theatre company.

I think I got these critiqued three times in all as I worked though various ideas and options. As we all did. These are my 'final' versions. The last two weeks of the course are set aside for us to revisit these briefs, select a few and re-work them for our portfolios. 

Tomorrow I will mostly be...working on my first 'colour' brief. 

Day 25: Vote Yes..

The electoral reform issue is back with us this week. My distaste for the weakness showed by the Com-Dem-Nation coalition continues to grow. Every day is another example of why we need a fairer, more equitable method of making sure our vote counts.

Canada woke up yesterday to a conservative government with 39 percent of the vote making promises not to follow a right wing agenda. Heard that one before?

Jonathan Freedland nails it here and if you haven't figured it yet, I'll be voting Yes to AV.

Day 24: Computer Love

Day 23: Arcade Fire

Here's one I made earlier.. a press ad for Time Out, New York for the brilliance that is Arcade Fire.

Day 22: Say WHAT one more time..I double dare you..

I'm away for a few days so will forward post for Saturday and Sunday.

I love this. Old skool for most people possibly but I spent yesterday completing Typography briefs.

Day 21: Oreo anyone..

Dead or Alive anyone? Classic 80's pop, tacky video's. Awesome.

We're still working in black and white at the moment which is good as I get to grips with InDesign. The brief was the lyrics, be creative for a bottom right hand page spot in the Metro - product shot if you can.

Oh and my thumbnail ideas.

Day 20: This side of the afterlife

A couple of ideas I had for a short film dvd cover.

Day 19: 11 Trees

The world's 10 most threatened forests..

Day 18: The People who grinned themselves to death..

I can't wait for the Royal wedding. Like, seriously can't wait so I'm blogging this today.

Love this for so many reasons. Simple design and funny. Of course these are the luxury versions. Well, you'd have to, wouldn't you.

Day 17: Rear window