John Lewis christmas campaign...

I came across this beautiful campaign for John Lewis today. Created by illustrator Kate Forrester the paper-cut illustrations are based on their big christmas campaign slogan 'Give the Perfect Gift.' They involved the creation of 10 different typographic images. I really love the attention to detail in these designs - paper cut illustrations are so delicate and intricate and I only wish I had the skill and steady hand to be able to do them! They are currently adorning billboards, buses, underground stations and newspapers all over the UK until Christmas.

There is some other nice typography work on Kate Forrester's website -

The house on Deeps Lane...

So last Thursday I spent the morning in book binding making the test for my final silence book.

I was actually quite surprised at how relatively easy the process of casing in the book was, although getting the high quality on the craft side is a lot harder! I have to say thanks to John for his help! I am pleased I decided to make the mock up first because actually seeing how the final document will look and feel has allowed me to see a few things that I want to change for the final book.

The process...

The finished mock up...

Putting in some of the wallpaper from the house - really giving people the feel of what it is like to be in the house and how it has been neglected.

Little Bit intriguing??

The past few weeks I have been really busy working on the competition brief I chose LBi.

'Use typography across any medium to explore the possibilities of the meaning behind the LBi name.'

I chose this brief because it was typography based and this is an area that I enjoy working with and something that always attracts my attention. I did quickly find that this brief was not as 'easy' as I had first thought and it has been quite a challenging brief! After discussing the brief Kathryn and I decided to tackle it together and work as a partnership, having always worked on my own this was something that gave a different take to the brief and two heads are better than one! Beginning by brainstorming we quickly came up with a number of different ideas and angles at which we could approach the brief. Picking main things out from the brief, we knew they wanted something different, it could be in any medium and required insight and inspired design and we had to use the acronym LBi.

LBi are a marketing and technology agency but they weren't asking for us to tell people that, anyone can easily look on their website and find out what they do, the brief was more about communicating who they are as an agency, their personality. We had to make creatives and clients want to work with them and be a part of 'LBi.' My initial thought for most briefs is to create something print based as this is what I enjoy doing, but for this brief this was not the case! I feel this brief has challenged me to work outside my comfort zone and do something different to what everyone else would do (which I hope is what we have done!) It was about thinking outside the box and not going for the simple option.

The aim was to rebrand LBi in the loosest sense possible - they didn't want us to re-design their logo or anything like that, we had to communicate what they stand for as a brand, they are a fun,eccentric and diverse group of creatives who say they 'fuse strategy with creativity' and are"slightly mad."

Our main aim was to show LBi as the fun agency that they are, and be entertaining and engaging.

The possibilites for the LBi acronym are endless so we chose to create pieces which we could then apply a range of acronyms to rather than working with one - this also shows that they are a diverse agency.

Narrowing down our ideas quite quickly we settled with three main ideas to start experimenting with: 1. being obsessively LBi - seeing words beginning with L B and i every where you go (which this brief did make me do!) - 2. bringing an interactive element in to the design with a 'game' that could intrigue people and involve them and 3. creating an installation piece that could be taken into different environments/situations to show their fun side and that they aren't afraid to have fun with what they do.

Numerous experiments later and a few stop frame animations (something new that this brief introduced to me) we narrowed down our ideas again to the two which we felt were the strongest and had the most potential.

Developing the ideas more our cocepts were based on;

1. Developing the idea of interaction and digital channels with an LBi game, inspiring their target audience to think 'what else could it stand for.' With players picking an L B and i card which when flipped over reveals numerous different acronyms - some fun/random and some more about the meaning of the agency.

This idea has also been developed as an ident/sting for the agency which would be a quick pop up of three cards being turned over to reveal a different acronym each time, creating intrigue. We used stop frame to demonstrate this however realized the quality of stop frame is not that high but it worked to show our idea. I have tried to upload one of the idents but blogger won't let me!

2. Take LBi into the environment as an installation piece - arousing interest in a fun and engaging way. Using a different acronym to explain what each situation is - something different from their competitors which captures their personality and creates conversation.

We have handed both ideas in as we feel they both show different elements of the brand.

Below are some of the experiments and final images:

cards for interactive game:

L is for...

B is for...

i is for...

Requiring interaction from the audience - what could the i stand for? it is left up to the viewers imagination and interpretation. The client is the i, the individual that is needed to make up LBi? Using different typefaces to represent them being diverse.

(the colours should be as bright as the card below but blogger keeps chaning them!)

Card idea development - using one of our initial experiments of being obsessively LBi - the letter L made up from word beginning with L relating to LBi.

Installation experiments:

Whilst out taking the photographs, we did find that it was the 'out-takes' that were the most interesting, such as people looking at the letters in place - people being intrigued - and also the group of Boxer dogs that came over to have a look!!

I have really enjoyed working on this breif and although it was very challenging at the beginning I think it was a good challenge because it did make me work in a different way and out of my comfort zone. Both Kathryn and myself have produced work very different to anything we have produced before and we also had a bit of fun doing it! We have had no input or feedback yet on the work we have produced, it has been a very self directed project so I am hoping for some feedback at my upcoming pdp.

Silence continued...

Speaking of silence this is still an ongoing project but one I feel is very near the end and producing a final piece. I have to admit in the early stages I was finding this project really difficult, I think down to the fact that it was so open and it did require a lot of experimentation which isn't really me. Over the past few weeks and since my review I have really got into this project and have been experimental testing numerous outcomes and design styles for my final piece.

Below are a few of the final shots I have worked up and I am using in my final book;

Testing very many different layouts and book styles over the past few weeks, my final piece is a hard back book in which I have tried to convey the sense of silence in the way the book has been laid out. Taking poignant words from the interior monologue I wrote whilst in the house I have developed a book that takes you on a 'tour' through the house, cropping in on specific detail, with each image followed by a piece of text on the following page. Using single words and having white space around each image, I feel portrays the sense of silence to the viewer as they are also open to draw their own interpretation of what each image shows. I have produced a mock up of the final piece testing numerous different paper stocks and transparencies to get the correct feel of the final document. I am going to make my first hard back book tomorrow of the mock up with all the different stocks, 1. to collate all my experiments in one document and 2. to test my book making skills and get a feel of what the final book will look like so I can make the finished document next week before we break up. Wish me luck...

Tarkovsky Polaroids

Continuing with my silence project Mac mentioned to me in my review a few weeks ago that I should look at the book 'Instant Light: Tarkovsky Polaroids' to bring more contextualization into my research. The book is very similar to the style of photographs I have taken and showed in my review and how it has developed since. There are some really nice shots in the book focusing on shadows cast and the idea of watching people with shots looking in through a window. The sixty polaroids taken by Andrey Tarkovsky in Russia and Italy between 1979 and 1984 show a reflection of this time and how Tarkovsky wanted to stop time by capturing it on a polaroid.

Hamish Muir

"Design is all about content, but sometimes it's nice to work on something that has no content at all."

Continuing our lecture series Hamish Muir came in to talk to us yesterday, giving us an overview of his design career. Hamish was very detailed in his explanation about his career and it was good to hear about the process he went through when starting out. As one of the founders of '8vo' Hamish talked about the work they did there and the processes they had to go through, working with type and type based design. The 8vo studio was classed as a workshop and not an office because it was the place where all the work was created. The team (Hamish, Mark Holt and Simon Johnston) all worked together, no single one of them had an idea it was about them talking and discussing their ideas and development that made their work successful.

It was really interesting to see how design work was produced before 'Macs,' as they worked at full scale with real hand set type and collages and had to photograph each stage of the design to record developments and ideas as there was no way to 'save' it like we do nowadays. I think it was the hand rendered process of the work at 8vo what really made them successful as they were involved in every little change in the design as they had to physically do it themselves and couldn't just go to the computer - as Hamish said "the computer is in control of us, rather than us in control of the computer." - it allows you to do anything you want which isn't always a good thing. I totally agree with this as sometimes the quality of a hand rendered piece of work cannot be reached by a computer and it is that attention to detail of working the piece yourself that can really make it. One piece of 8vo work that really stood out to me was a cd cover (top left on the image below) which was built up in layers, using glass to carefully and precisely place each element and see through all the layers. I thought this was a great process and sort of takes photoshop into the real world with the idea of working with different layers of materials.

I personally liked the initial work produced by 8vo much more and although the whole range of work was very inspiring I felt the later work produced on the computer took away some of the detail that hand rendered work produces.

Below are some posters produced for The Hacienda nightclub. It was great to hear about the printing processes involved and the clever attention to detail such as making the poster below glow in the dark as it was for a nightclub.

Octavo: International Journal of Typography

A journal existing of 7 issues first printed in 1986, with the content of each dictating the layout. Print designs are something that really stand out to me and in my own work I enjoy producing layouts with typography. I liked the idea the Octavo was only 7 issues, the final issue was a cd/digital issue which can no longer be viewed because technology has advanced so much the software needed to view it no longer exists. I really like the idea of this as no one can ever view this piece now and Octavo has become 'extinct.' As Hamish said. " print exists in physical time and space, it will always be there unlike digital work which needs to be constantly updated." I really agree with this as there is something about being able to touch and feel a piece of design work rather than just look at it on screen, maybe thats the designer element in me!

I found Hamish's talk really inspiring and his earlier work at 8vo really appealed to me, and it has made me want to step back from the computer and produce more hand crafted work like I did on my foundation course. I think the LBi brief I have been working on has allowed me to do this, and printing processes such as letterpress and screen printing really do have that added quality that a computer cannot achieve.

Helen Murgatroyd - Drawing & Printmaking

"the idea itself, if not made visible is as much a work of art as the finished product itself."

Ex D&AD student Helen Murgatroyd came in to talk to us abut her time studying at university and what she's upto now at the Royal College of Art, studying Printmaking. I have heard Helen's name mentioned quite a few times throughout my time on our course so it was nice to meet her and listen about how she approached third year and see the style of work she produces. I remember seeing the mapping work she did for her degree show back in first year. Helen's work is very illustrative and experimental and I have to admit it's not really my cup of tea, but it did show how third year really is very personal to each of us and it is upto us how we approach our work and the briefs we decide to work on. Helen spoke about her time in third year experimenting 'mapping' things she did as this was something that interested her and is a subject that is still influencing the work she is doing now at the Royal college. You could tell Helen is really passionate about the work she produces and this shows in how experimental she has been working with the basis of mapping and how many final solutions can be produced. I have a very different style of working to Helen and much prefer to know where my work is going. I think the Silence project has seen me produce much more experimental work with one idea. A good piece of advice from her was that sometimes the ideas that don't make it to being a final design can be just as successful as the final piece itself.

Commissioned work: 'Cup', a tea and record shop in Manchester .

Accession for Topshop

Degree show work: