Summer Graphic Design Visits

Part of summer project (optional?) was to go and meet a designer or a design agency, ask them to comment and critique our portfolios, and ask them general questions about being a graphic designer.

Earlier on in the holiday, I arranged a meeting with an old friend of the family called Rob Jones, who owns a small, one-man firm in the town called Whittlesey called 'The Creative Workshop', which is a small drive away from my home town. I had a meeting with him, in which I took along my updated (with selected pieces of uni work) portfolio I used used a year ago to get into university with, along several of my preferred sketchbooks. He said that, though some bits could be changed, he liked the style of my work and my way of working, and he told me that the work I would be producing for a real-life client would be nothing like the work I have to do for a uni brief, namely the work is nowhere near as colourful, clear or easy..It's easier to complete and follow a brief than it is to follow a client's specific requests. We left the meeting with him saying that, if he could, he would give me some work to do over the holidays. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, he never managed to get back in touch with me. Despite this, I am grateful that I managed to meet him.

One of my nan's neighbour's son-in-law is a Graphic Designer in Peterborough. His name is Tim Lloyd, and he owns a company called 'Lloyd Design'. I had emailed him and asked if I could arrange a meeting with him, to which he agreed. He said that he may not be able to remain in the interview the whole time, due to other projects he was taking on, so it would have to be quick. In reality, the drive down there would of taken longer than the actual interview itself. Unfortunately, I was unable to meet him due to the fact that I could not get to the meeting. I apologised to him, and thanked him for his time.

Finally, I had a interview with a small design agency ion my hometown of March. The firm is called 'Finedesign'. I met the manager of the firm, called Mark Squires, and had a very friendly chat and interview with him. Again, same as Rob's interview, I took my portfolio and a variety of sketchbooks. He liked my work, though he said some of it was quite dark, and he told me that what they do is more bright pieces, in which they use their own photography whilst getting stuck not only into the design but alos the products they are designing for. The also offered me some work experience, but due to other reasons, they were unable to get back into contact with me and offer me further knowledge and insight into being a professional designer.

On the whole, the summer was quite disappointing. I was hoping for some work experience and atleast getting into a real world design brief. Biut unfortunately that's the way it goes sometimes. And it won't stop me now. It's been good getting advise and seeing what could be done differently. You can only go from strength to strength in design, and I own't allow anything to get me down for too long. Bring on tomorrow because it will always have something new to offer.

Minimal Movie Posters : The Hangover

These are minimal movie posters based on characters in the film 'The Hangover'. I have added traits & characteristics to each character, and also details (such as scratches and cuts), that each character has/gains in the film.

Alan has a massive beard, and also gains a black eye from being
punched in the face by Mike Tyson.

Phil wears his sunglasses most of the time, and besides not shaving and
getting a cut on the lip, he also gets scratched on the neck by Mike
Tyson's tiger in the car.

Stu loses his front tooth at the beginning of the film, and it turns out this is
due to a dare by Alan to see if he is a good enough dentist by pulling it out.

Optimism!

Minimal Movie Posters

Recently inspired by the discovery of minimal movie poster designs, I have become inspired to do my own poster designs based on my favourite films.

First of all, is Hitman. A good film, and an amazing game franchise, I tried to catch the personality and theme of the film, as well as highlight who the character (Agent 47) is. I used the game's official font for the film, as well as the director's name.

Second is one of my top 5 films ever, Batman: The Dark Knight. An amazing film by visionary Christopher Nolan, who has truly brought the Batman franchise to recent greatness, it features Batman's journey to stop the maniacal Joker. I loved the film, and tried to show both of these 2 character's personalities and iconic traits through the design, which I feel has succeeded.

Third is once again, one of my top 5 films ever, and this one is Iron Man, directed by Jon Favreau. This film is so cool, and really that's the best way to describe it. Robert Downey Jr plays Iron Man/Tony Stark, and he creates the heroic character to protect the world. I loved the film, and tried to recreate the face as a minimal piece, but I feel that detail is necessary in showing how epic the character is.


More to come!

Hey, Long Time No Blog!

Hello, it's been a while since I last blogged (since February to be honest actually, so yeah a while)! Been up to so much, finished my first year of uni with good marks and I'm looking forward to getting back and seeing all my mates and again and moving into my new accommodation and meeting my new flatmates (2 I already know and 3 more yet to meet) too, so there is quite a bit to look forward to. Whilst I've been off I have had interviews with 2 design agencies, one in Whittlesey, and one in March, both are small towns not far from where I live. I have been offered work experience in September by one of the agencies, so hopefully this will become something influential in my future studies!

I have also done some drawing and doodles throughout my time off getting handy with programmes and trying to teach myself with tutorials over the internet. I even started to create my own website homepage, however, I felt I hadn't quite thought the layout through enough and I wasn't pleased with some of the parts I was hoping to incorporate into the design, so I have abandoned that for now, I may ask some friends from uni for some help and advise, 2 of which are highly proficient in the use of Dreamweaver.

I had also set myself a target of researching a number of designs/photographers/artists that I feel inspired by, and collect pieces of work for both inspiration and documentation. I have practised photography too, and trying to hone my skills even more so with a camera.

Best of all though. I have a girlfriend now and wow did I get lucky with this girl! Her name is Alice, and she is incredible, and I try not to let her forget that haha. She is both beautiful & smart, fun & happy and full of life, kind and supportive, I could really be here all day just listing all the amazing things shes done and helped me with, and all the inspiration she has given me, and really, how happy she makes me!

I'm so happy with everything in my life at the moment!

Truth is, though I'm glad first year is over and I'm ready to get back and see everyone, I am quite scared about the coming year! 1st years and 3rd years were out quite a bit last year, but 2nd years ahrdly did anything apart from work, and the reality has hit me that there is going to be a hell of a lot more hard work this year! This is where everything that I have collected through a collective of studies over multiple years really comes into play. It's all blood, sweat and tears from this point onwards. But the higher the stakes makes greater rewards. I work hard anyway, but this year I am determined to become the best I can be at this and nothing is going to stop my achieving my goal of becoming a great skilled and broad minded designer! It's on now!

I will be updating again soon, I had forgotten how much of a great way this is to document yourself and all the stuff I am have done/will do.

This is Joshua Hall, The Hall Of Design, signing off for now! (ps. my sister has managed to get into a media course at a prestigious college, so hopefully she'll become the Hall Of Media alongside me in design. Just a thought, but I like it!)

Also, I have finally designed a potential logo to represent myself. I have been struggling with this all summer, using design after design, but I finally settled upon this and I really like it, and I like what it can potentially represent about myself and the work I do.

'WHEN NOTHING IS CERTAIN, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE"

My FUNDAMENTAL Success!

I'm happy to say that my February submission for the FUNDAMENTAL SCY competition (see earlier post about the brief) has been selected as one of the winners, and will be used as posters and flyers, all over Lincoln, to promote the nightclub's friday event throughout March. This means I get VIP entry to the club through March, and only £1 drinks for the whole month! Really happy with this success! Not only can I use this in my portfolio for the future, but it's going to be amazing walking through town seeing my posters all over the place! Cannot wait!

Be prepared to see this design throughout Lincoln!

Zines : A Graphic Exposition : Part IV

The final hurdle of the Zine project is to create a master copy of my final Zine, then photocopy it 5x in black & white. This will give me a grand total of 6 created Zines, 5 of which need to be given in for the deadline, along with my research and mock up/drafts and information I've gathered over the months...which includes the stuff I've done on this blog. I need to print all 16 pages back to front over 4 A4 pages (A5 pages 16 - 1 on one side and 2 - 15 on the other), whcih I've done for my master copy, and then, once all that is done, make any necessary personal changes to the master copy (I'm going to write on my master copy and put in information gathered at christmas as well as personal quotes and sketches and other opinions that I feel need to go in). Once that is done, I will photocopy all the pages (in black & white, as this is how tradition Zines are made and it also saves us a lot of money as black & white is cheaper than coloured inks) and put them together to create my other zines. After that I'll need to bind them all, and then that should be it. 

My Zine is called 'THE COLDHAM COMPASS'.
This is my front cover (page 1 - left) & back cover (page 16 - right). 

My Zine is called 'THE COLDHAM COMPASS'. This is because my Zine is based around my local community, my home village, Coldham. When I lived in Coldham, I didn't know everything about it, didn't know a lot of it's history, and I've never fully realised what was good & bad about it. This community project has helped me realise and understand my village, and I have learnt more about it over the last number of weeks than I have done over the last 12 years of living there. The reason it is called "THE COLDHAM COMPASS' is because it is meant to represent the fact that Coldham is had so many ideas and directions placed into it and, for the most part, nothing has ever fully happened there before. Also, because there is actually more to Coldham than meets the eye. Someone who doesn't live there will think it's just a small hamlet in the middle of nowhere, but for those who live there, there are many things that the community have to deal with, not only on their own but together as well. This is the kind of style I'm trying to show and capture in my Zines. Hopefully I will.