Contact from a Motorcycle Suspension Company

So I woke up to an email this morning from a Motorcycle Suspension Company:

Hi Stephanie,

I hope you don’t mind me contacting you, I came across your blog whilst I was searching for information on Graphic Design.

I own a motorcycle suspension business in York and have been asked on a number of occasions if I provide any training or run courses in this field of work. I’m now doing some market research into whether there would be enough interest from customers to make training courses viable and also the costs involved in providing that training.

At the moment I’m exploring the possibilities of putting together a training manual to help get across the technical details involved, being very technical a lot of illustrations are needed.

A company in the US have written a fantastic book with great illustrations, a link to the company who did the work is here:http://levelfive.com/HTML/Illustration_Portfolio/Suspension_Bible.html

My problem is that Level Five have done such a good job that the companies I’ve spoken to so far can’t see any other way to do it other than doing the same thing but different enough to get around any copyright issues.

I noticed in your portfolio that you own a pencil which impressed me, I haven’t seen a pencil in all the offices I’ve visited, but there could be a good reason for that. Do you think it would it be possible to do those kind of illustrations as a line drawing, the lines don’t have to be perfectly straight and clinical and as a sketch it may be possible to show it as a three dimensional image instead of two. Is the pencil still a viable tool or has the computer made it obsolete?

I believe from the blog that your still at Uni so I don’t know if you’d have the time to be able work on such a project, or even if you’d be interested in working with not very interesting lumps of metal, if it is something you’d be interested in let me know.

It would be a paid commission, I’m not looking to take advantage of a poor student, I’m looking for someone with fresh ideas and enthusiasm rather than what’s the minimum effort I can put it in to get me to the next round of golf.

Best regards,

Gareth Evans
Reactive Suspension

My Response:

Hello Gareth,

Thank you for contacting me, its a pleasure to hear someone still appreciates pencils as much as I do. 

Is what you're asking me, to draw, in pencil, 3D exploded diagrams of the suspension parts which were found in the link provided? 

Do you have the suspension parts yourself that want illustrating, as it will be difficult otherwise to know how they appear 3D. I think the best way to do it, would be for me to pop down to York, if you could cover my travel costs, I could come and see for myself the parts, how they work and fit together, take pictures of them myself, to be able to draw from. This way it will give me a better understanding of how many parts you wants drawn and how long it will take me to do it. I think then I'll be able to know if I can fit it alongside university work.

I'm currently in Leicester and not back in Leeds until next weekend, but if you could send me an email then, of when your free, we could arrange something.

Otherwise, I would like to give it a go and try something different. 

I Look forward to hearing from you soon

Stephanie Lawson

Haynes Manual

Glad Placement: Report

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=519259398089925&set=a.226973153985219.77079.197055890310279&type=3&theater

Glad Creative

Glad Placement Report

Name: Stephanie Lawson

Age: 20

College/University: Leeds College of Art

Interests:
Illustration, Paper craft, Type, Typewriters and Running

Fascinating Fact:
I have lived in over 12 different houses

Placement Highlight:
I must say, the last day was my placement highlight, listening to a studio play the Fimbles theme tune, out loud, without shame is not an everyday occurrence, and one I must witness again! Aside from that, being given the Northern Design Centre Kitchen motivational wall poster brief was an amazing opportunity to work to my skills, and do something I really love. But also being challenged with briefs I wasn't so comfortable with, and pulling through gave me hope that I can do what I set my mind to. The feedback sessions have been a brilliant factor of the placement, alongside the company of the Junior Designers, Sam and Ant, and the ideas and laughs they provided. The atmosphere of the studio was something I didn't expect, although a working creative environment, its very relaxed and a pleasure to be in.

Anything Else:
The placement at Glad was the best I've done so far, providing briefs which works with your existing skills and challenges them. Everyday, even with the long commute I was excited to come in and see what the day had ahead of me. This placement has made me excited for what lies ahead of graduation, especially if there is cheesecake involved. I wish Glad all the best for the future!

Find out more about me/see my work at:
http://cargocollective.com/Slouises
www.etsy.com/shop/SLouises

Glad placement: Day 5

I was asked to carry on with the typographic kitchen designs today, I really managed to get into it, and was really happy with the final result, I was happy at how much work I'd managed to get done on the final day, considering everything was hand rendered on paper, to be hand traced on the computer. 

At lunch time Dave (the boss) took us all out for dinner as a final day thing, to ask for some feedback on how our placement was. One bit of advice I did give was to give placements more feedback, as I wasn't sure if the work I produced, was even good. I did then ask for a bit of advice about getting into the working world, he told me so many people come to him for work placements and have told him that they expect to do a year of placements before they get anywhere, which is quite a depressing prospect. He told me also that going straight into freelance from uni was a no no, that you need a lot of industry experience to be able to set up on your own.

Overall I really enjoyed my time at Glad, branding isn't something I'd really done before as I loathed it, but have come out of this placement knowing I am able to do it if I put my mind to it, the logo designs I did when from awful, to okay, which in three days is quite an achievement for myself. Branding isn't something I'd considered doing before, but its a potential prospect for after I graduate.

Final Designs:

Mock ups:

Pencil Studies:

Glad placement: Day Four

I finalised the Logo Designs in the morning, working on the idea of manipulating spot lighting to create text, and the initials of the Musical Theatre Network. The final idea needed to work in both black and white to work well as an image and logo, so with this in mind I created the bottom left image as a final.

After lunch I was introduced to a new brief, this involved producing motivational wall vinyl stickers for the kitchens within the Northern Design Centre. Glad were approached to think of ways to motivate workers to clean up after themselves. The idea was to create Geordie phrases, relating to cleaning up after yourself, to be typographically produced in the style of chalk board designs. I was given a list of ten to choose from to try and illustrate, the bottom image was all I managed to do given the time.

Placement: Glad - Day Three

Today I've been carrying on with the branding brief for a Musical Theatre Networking company. I feel I've made a lot of progress and find myself beginning to enjoy branding, that its not as scary as i first thought! Its been great, as during the day me and John (the other placement) have been sitting down talking through our work with the other guys getting feedback, ideas and a fresh outlook. This has really helped push ideas I didn't think were too strong, into something that really works. I found myself really emmersed in my work and by the end of the day had loads of designs, which I'm going to go through with Dave tomorrow morning.

Glad Placement : Day two

Todays been a very productive day. I carried on this morning with the publication cover, adding some more textures, and pushed forward the colours used within the clients work, finding a gold texture, pushing than onto my detailed vectors. Once I was happy with my result, I showed Dave who was happy with the final result and to move onto to another brief. Me and another work placement, John, were briefed on a branding job, to produce a logo for a Music theatre network company. The idea was to combine music and theatre into either an image or type based logo to represent the company, but to also push forward the idea of networking.

I first brainstormed looking at the different aspects I could push, first looking at lingo used within music and theatre but found it would be too typographic and would take the attention away from the brand. I then looked at illustrating objects which are related to the culture industry, and combining them to make one image. I came up with a few clever ideas. After lunch Dave asked to see our work and talk through it with us, giving us a few pointers and ideas to take forward and push in the afternoon. Although I'm really not a fan of branding, I did find myself getting the hang of it once I'd done quite a few designs, I think its with everything, once you do a lot, you get better.

Glad Placement: Day one

I've been looking forward to working with Glad for some time now, as a way of stepping back from vigorous uni work. I was dubious as my first experience of a placement wasn't too great so I was hoping Glad could make me feel that bit better about doing placements in the future.

I arrived at 9:30, was given a brief tour of the office, and was asked to present the PDF portfolio I'd originally sent them. After going through where my skills lie and what I'm best at, I was given a brief to design a publication for a Interior designer they had already produced some branding for. I was so happy with the brief, it was right up my street, the client had asked for hand rendered type on the front page, spelling 'On going', incorporating the style of design she using across her furniture.

I went through her website for some inspiration, finding a range of patterns and designs which I could transform into typefaces. It took me several hours to create the type but I'm really happy with the final result. I then drew over them on illustrator to give them a finished look, incorporating textures (like wood) used within her own products. 

I was given the dimensions of the publication and have started looking at the kind of layout I thought appropriate. After looking at the branding, I wanted to keep the consistency, by keeping it simple. I also wanted to incorporate the choice of words as 'on going' the idea that the words are on going, by possibly falling of the page, or going down the page. I haven't really had the chance to explore layout yet but intend on getting on with that tomorrow.

I'm so happy with how the first day went, everyone was friendly, gave me feedback on my work, and the workplace felt positive. I'm glad I had a lot to do and didn't find myself pacing the room or waiting for anything.