Placement at Beautiful Meme - Day #1

I started my placement at Beautiful Meme today in York. Very exciting stuff. Got there to have a meeting with Robyn to discuss what I wanted out of the placement, to run through my current work and generally have a chat. It was suggested I worked on current briefs, so I could utalise them for feedback and assistance, which I think is great (as three weeks off uni work would have been painful) so I've decided the 2 briefs I've done the least on, to work on over the next 2 weeks. Firstly Thrift Box, and secondly, Food for thought.

Thrift box:

It was suggested I tried to stray away from the obvious hand lettered approach to this brief and tried something different and outstanding for my portfolio, as Robyn reminded me, FMP is the last chance to push the boat out and have fun.

I did a bit of research and emailing Lauren to try and get an understanding of the process she undertakes to design and make her products. Her response related to using templates, which I felt was a good starting point. Using cross stitch templates I have made a cross stitch typeface.

Founded Placement - Day #4

So on continuation with the feedback received yesterday, I needed to figure out a clearer way of categorising the items within the clothing line. Sticking to the mathematical approach I have used an algebra as a form of coding the area of the body the attire is work - so ABC / XYZ and a number to be the item number, in a layout to form the letter being squared. 

I was really happy to hear that my concept would be used as a final outcome, and my design direction would be something they would go off from. 

Founded Placement - Day #3

Continuation with 'Product' concept trying to figure out a method of incorporating the original 'tt' logo correctly. So I decided to find words with tt together within them which were either related to math or fashion to be a proposal for the product line name. 

It was difficult to find a strong enough word which worked alongside the original cotton love brand.

At the end of the day it was decided to stray away from using the tt logo again, and to stick to the name product - the definition of pi which originated from the shape of the cotton love logo.

Founded Placement - Day #2

Clothing label 'Cotton Love' to hold self led clothing line. Come up with name, branding and identity.

Concept:

The idea of categorising, I came up with the idea of mathematically dividing the clothing into the three specified sections: Top, bottom and outfit. I came up with the idea of using the mathematical pi glyph as it also means 'product 's realise it looked very much like the original 'tt' logo. So decided to use the name product and the same logo retaining a consistency between the brand and sub brand. I then went on to continue the mathematical approach using equation formats to visually section the clothing.

Founded Placement - Day #1

Live Brief - Identity for Independent Learning 

Concept:

The Founder, Ian Gilbert, when giving conferences, motivational student sessions or parents evenings promoted 8 way thinking. A octagon shaped info graphic had been creating to show the 8 categories. The shapes I've created aim to promote the thinking process and the way many of our thoughts interlink, and bounce off each other. Taking an 8th from the octagon, this shape has been cut from the letter form to represent it further, and to also fit to the octagon shape.

A different an minimal approach creating icons from the letter 'i' to create people, situations and other visual elements to go across all of their brand - such things as way finding, seminars, team work, parents evening etc.

Placement: Founded - Summary

I was quite apprehensive about my placement, as contact with the Founded had been through email, and the emails received were very short, and to the point. They felt very formal and almost like emailing me was a hassle, I was asked to email them to 'Remind them that I was doing a placement with them' a week before I started, which didn't make me feel great.

When I turned up, they didn't have a clue why I was there, I had to tell them I was doing a placement. This lack of communication meant nothing was prepared for me. This made me question whether they had looked at my website to see the type of work I do, to know what would be best to give me.

The guys who worked there were great, I really got on with them and they tried their best to provide me suitable work, they found a print identity brief they thought would be suitable, but when the 'boss' turned up he had other ideas and just emailed me a very short brief for a motorhomes website and identity. I spent all day doing it, waiting for feedback and not really getting any. The following, the work I did was put aside while someone else constructed the site, it made me feel pretty useless and a day of my placement had been wasted.

After this brief they had nothing else for me, so I set about doing my own work, after talking to one of the colleagues he advised me on a book cover brief, spending a good hour talking to me about the importance of type and grid alongside image. I really appreciated the advice he gave me and spent the next two days designing the image and type for a penguin front cover competition brief; 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest'. 

Overall the placement was somewhat useful but the lack of communication really hindered the work that would be given to me. The help from Anthony was most useful, he made me realise that third year I really need to concentrate on improving my type skills. 

Placement: Founded - Day Five

Book cover brief: Email recieved:

I'm enclosing the idea which I put together.  (Reaper_1.jpg) and the other files which I've used to create it.
Fonts for the title and author are negotiable, basically whatever works best.  Background colour either Black or red, and the eagle should be holding the Star of David in its talons as opposed to the swastika.
The other star of david is more representative of one of the characters so this could also be inside the eagles talons.

Images included:

My interpretations:

I was next asked to put together a colour swatching system for a photography website, putting photographs into categories, finding colours for the background and text on the website. I had to consider colours to compliment the image, eachother, and be able to be legible when placing type in each colour. This system would then be emailed to the client so I had to make it understandable and to be communicated through image alone.

Placement: Founded - Day Four

After discussing my design with the designers they noted I was designing something very obvious, and recommended I read the book and designed something clever like Olly Moss in my approach. I didn't have time to read the book so i asked a friend about some of the main scenes - we decided that the water cooler in the film connoted freedom, as someone thought of throwing it through the window to escape, to find it was far too heavy. I did a simple vector illustration.

Initial Design

Content added

Content Adapted

Updated (with some help)

Placement: Founded - Day Three

Placement: Founded - Day two

Placement: Day two - Inspiration

www.ofom.com/au

A friend of mine - I was told that I need to work on type and layout skills, they recommended me this site, telling me they has conjured the perfect balance between image, type and layout.