Girls Club Zine

The summer of 2016 i submitted a piece for a small publication called 'Girls Club' a zine celebrating and publishing art and designs by female creatives across the country. 

Yesterday i received an email saying how my design is going to be included in the 4th issue, available April 4th.

I'm really pleased about having some exposure of my work, I've also worked in collaboration with a journalist student in Manchester to create a zine focused around young emerging designers and artists. 

During this summer when i have time away from college i'm going to create and sell a zine of my own. 

Not only could this have the possibility of gaining exposure to my work but it will also act as a demonstration of my work at this current time, which i feel will be beneficial to the growth of my designs; being able to reflect on previous skills and approaches. 

Reflective Evalution

PPP has really engaged me throughout the course, it's provided me with time dedicated to thinking about what i want out of my life, acting as a point to gain inspiration and motivation. 

If i could change how i went about engaging with ppp it would be to take a risk, and use my time to find out about new methods and new designers who i enjoy so that i'm able to develop my work, but having said that i feel like ppp has made me confident with my current style, and has now engaged me and informed me to step it up and essentially create exciting work that is progressing from my current style, not changing. 

That's something I've learnt, that trying new methods of producing work is not creating a whole new style, rather it's developing your current style in to one which is evidently mine, but with an innovative, advanced touch to it. 

Inspo : Music

Inspo : Film

Design inspiration

Mangitt Happ - UK based illustrator

jordyn mcgeachin

Here i have began collating images that i have gained inspiration from within my current and upcoming design ideas.

New Orleans-based Instagrammer @joythebaker - Drake themed cakes.

Alice Bloomfield, Brighton based illustration student

Jeff Östberg

Design Strategy

The final presentation was titled 'Design Strategy' in which i presented what I've learnt this year upon reflecting, and examples of my work throughout the year. 

I went in to this presentation fairly confident, i felt like i knew what i was going to say, i knew the slides i will be presenting and my skills have increased and my nerves have decreased in terms of presenting in front of a class, however this presentation was perhaps my least successful out of the three I've done. 

Based on the feedback i received I feel that it was the content and the approach to the presentation which made it less successful. 

I took a hand drawn approach to the presentation slides, much like the previous presentation. However it was safe, and upon reflection quite predictable. The content i included in the presentation was good, i believe, the lack of imagery and exploration of different mediums is what set me back. 

Upon reflection it's becoming apparent that i need to advance my approach, i can't just continue illustrating the same lines in the same colours or else my work will be predictable. 

Inspiration: bryant giles

I first came across Bryant Giles' pieces on twitter which he frequently uses as a platform to showcase his work.

Above is his piece titled 'Migraine'. I really appreciate Giles' use of layering and the different mediums he uses throughout his work. Although he uses a vast majority of colours, materials and line qualities, the delicateness of the drawings along with the serious themes which run through them work really well together. 

Inspiration: Polly Nor

London based illustrator Polly Nor's illustrations of 'Devils and Women' have been a source of inspiration for me recently. 

The simple use of lines and flat colour work are effective and provide impact due to the subject matters of her pieces, which i believe to be lust, reality, sexuality, gender, mental health. 

The themes of Nor's pieces are what intrigues me the most, she has the ability to address serious issues in a way that could be interpreted in a number of ways, and softly at that, theirs no, i believe, forcefulness to Nor's work despite the theatrical recurring elements (devils). 

Self Branding

Devising self branding for my self wasn't as difficult as i thought. I know what materials i like to use, i know what work i produce, i know my style and i know who i am as a designer and person right now. 
I chose to reflect my main hobby; drumming, along with design, the two creative outlets in my life. 
Coming up with a colour scheme wasn't hard either, i want to have self branding which can be interchangeable and adapt depending on how i feel, always using bright colours but not limiting my self to one colour pallet from the beginning. 
I wanted to ensure my self branding reflects my hand drawn approach to graphic design and so all imagery and typography were hand drawn by me, to give more of a personal touch and true reflection of my practice.  

After having to give a brief presentation for the reflective practice A2 poster I was slightly more calm going in to the presentation. The presentation received good feedback, the design of the presentation was aiming to reflect who i am (at this moment in time) as a designer, staying true to the work i produce and i believe this concept was understood and appreciated. 

To improve for the next presentation i believe i can enter the situation more calm, speak more confidently, speak slower and remember to bring some water.  

reflective practice

For the reflective practice brief we were to create an A2 poster demonstrating what we've learnt over the course. 

I chose to approach this brief by hand as it's what i feel most comfortable in doing and what is most reflective of my self s a designer. 

Using A2 paper in a bright mango colour (i tend to use bright bold colours in my work) i sectioned off a smaller rectangle within the center to show how (reflecting back) i tend to give my self a smaller time limit to complete things in than originally set.

The poster is made up of hand drawn typography which is something i use across most of my work, presenting what i have learnt over the past months such as hands > mouse, waking up at 7am isn't fun and making shit work is also okay. 

The feedback the poster received was positive with comments that the style and hand drawn approach was something that i should carry on doing in my work as it gives it a point of difference. 

NEST submission

I submitted a piece for NEST magazine, based around the theme of 'focus'. 

'absorbed in it all is based off of the focus of body image in todays society. focusing on the way our image and how we choose to scrutinise or adjust it, consumes us and obtains our focus regularly.'

Self Branding

Following on from the task in which people i'd only known for a month wrote down a list of words to describe my identity, i created my own list. My list of character traits, both positive and not so positive in order to gain an understanding of what identity i have, how i could portray that, and what aspects of my self i wish to present to the world.

i am (at this point in my life) 

• messy 
• give off mardy vibes 
• easily distracted 
• a fan of lattes, small dogs and brie  
• bad at sticking to plans 
• a drummer 
• a fan of drawing with a lot of lines 
• sarcastic 
• clumsy 
• easily distracted (it appears i put that twice...maybe not perceptive should also be on the list)

Planning My Time

Creating a weekly timetable of my day to day activities and following it for a week has proved successful in bringing more structure in to not only my college life, but everyday life, and in doing so has reduced my stress levels as i'm beginning to be more strict on when i do work; ensuring it's not left to the last minute. 

Spread out during my free time in the week, i was able to create a list of 10 things i want out of life. 

• join a band 
• hold own exhibition 
• work within the media 
• buy own apartment within a city with a lot of space 
• live in Berlin for a bit 
• live in France for a bit 
• get a tattoo 
• change my hair 
• learn a new instrument
• visit Italy 

Although some of these 'wants' may seem a little trivial, they focused my mind on my goals, both big and small, and put in to reality how one day i could achieve them all...if i plan out and use my time wisely.  

Stress

Today's session started off by writing down some rather personal truths about our stresses and how we cope, or in some cases, don't cope with them. 

What scares you? 

. failure 

What stresses you out? 

. letting my work pile up 

What do you do to de-stress?

. drink coffee and sleep (not a winning; or successful combination) 

What negative thought have you had today? 

. i'm never going to get all my blogging done in time 

Once everyone's responses were collected (anonymously) i found that i could relate to most if not all of everyone's answers, with seeping being a very common de-stressing method, and the doubts and anxieties i have about not being good enough for the course, or not creating work innovative enough for the quality around me, being concerns that almost everyone was experiencing, which was comforting in the way that it made me realize that i'm not the only one feeling this way.

what scares you?

I then made a list of other peoples stresses and solutions which i could relate to, and then created a little haiku, which again showed me how likely it is that whatever stress i'm feeling, someone else is experiencing it too.

We were then set a small task in groups to come up with a concept, be it a website, a device, anything really that we believed could be used to share the stresses that we're feeling to show people that they're not alone and try and find some solutions.

One of my groups ideas was an app which acts as an alarm, and the only way to turn off the alarm is to take a picture of the sky. So that when you wake up in the morning, rather than checking Facebook or your emails, you look at the natural enviroment surrounding you.

This app can be suitable for any ages and genders, we believe that it would be effective in the way that it would slow down, if only for a minute, everyone's chaotic lives and give them a chance to appreciate the world before they log back in to the digital one. 

Identity

Asking 5 people you've known for less than a month to describe your identity is strange. I felt awkward, although i'm not sure why. The realization that i was going to see how people perceive me; and how i present myself for the first time is quite daunting i suppose. 
Below are the descriptions i received...

I do tap on the table when i'm bored, i was covered in bruises having fallen over several times that week, and i had just finished a falafel wrap; so i suppose my description was pretty accurate. 

Although these descriptions were quit limited, at least the perception from strangers was positive. This task was revealing and reassuring, however describing other people was slightly more difficult. 

When it came to giving a description of the identities of the five people around me, i resulted in listing traits that are quite cliche, such as 'friendly' and 'good listener'. Although they're positive, they're boring, and not individual or representative of anyone's actual personalities and identities, but i just felt awkward trying to describe someones identity, when i don't really know them at all.

This task has got me thinking though, about what aspects of my identity i want to communicate to people, and how to go about doing it...