More placements and Bristol (Part 1)

I visited Taxi Studios in Bristol for another portfolio review earlier this week.  

Taxi are only 9 years old but already considered to be amongst the top 10 creative agencies in the south west with a huge collection of awards and this was a fantastic opportunity to meet the designers behind the work. They have recently moved location and so the studio space is not fully set up yet however there is still a great working atmosphere present. 

Although meant to be only 20 minutes, there was a continual stream of input from several designers on my work and folio for almost an hour eventually leading to be offered a placement. Great news!

Thanks to Gareth, Marie, Matt, Roger and Terry!

More placements and Edinburgh

With all the good advice and feedback from creatives in London ringing in my ears, I journeyed to Edinburgh at the end of July to tour creative studios with my portfolio. Whilst studying, I have heard a lot about the creative industry present in Edinburgh and it really is no joke, there is a great vibe going on up there.

Two of the studio's really surprised me. The first, Navyblue. They are a company I know a great deal about being good friends with their Director of Creative Strategy, Patrick, and also having visited the London office on numerous occasions. What surprised me was that the Creative Director is also the brother of one of the designers I worked alongside on the rebranding of Plymouth! I had also visited Jeremy at Lloyd Northover only the week before in London! What a small world the design world is! What is great about Navyblue's studio space in Edinburgh is they also rent out the ground floor as an exhibition space to artists with some really intriguing work on display. They also design all the exhibition guides and they really are something special!

The other really exciting surprise was a design company, Threebrand, who work in a two level studio... on a boat! Great!

Thanks to Simon at Navyblue, Nick at Threebrand, Neil and Emily at Redpath, Gordon at Whitespace, Samantha at Eskimo and Fiona at Tsuko for some fantastic advice and feedback.
Edinburgh is an old city and hence, there is a lot of exciting bits of worn type around the city.




Old scrolls at the castle






Did they forget to put a 'b' in originally?

 

I know many designers who do not value looking at other disciplines for inspiration and they really miss out. The vast array of sculpture on show I found to be really inspiring! If only I had such skill...

It was recommended that I should visit two design locations whilst in the city, which if you get chance, you should too. The first is a book store called 'Analogue'. This has an even more unique array of illustration and design books than 'Magma' in London and somewhere I could spend hours (and a lot of money) in. The second is 'Owl and Lion'. They sell limited edition letterpress and silkscreen prints. They even have their own facilities in shop and offer workshops too. 

Edinburgh is a really vibrant city surrounded by beautiful countryside. It is very proud of its heritage and history with many exciting old buildings, millions of churches and the castle overlooking the city - something I feel Britain is fast losing over recent years. Its creative culture really does deserve its reputation and I look forward to returning on placement.

Just another reason to stay mac...

Why is it just as you pass the warrantee dates everything starts to go wrong. Electrical goods were just never built to last.


I approached Apple in Solihull trying to get costings to fix each problem (a hefty sum I thought) however  
even though my 3 year applecare plan ran out a month and a half ago, with no questions asked they have agreed to do all the repairs for free due to how close I am to the warrantee. Now that is service and why we are all so loyal!! They understand and put us first.


Why would I ever want to go with Microsoft? (except to play a collection of old games)

More placements and London

During the middle of July I had a successful three day visit to London, touring studios with my portfolio, securing many more placements and networking. Not only has the feedback and advice been really beneficial and positive but it is really encouraging to have so many creative agencies willing to give extremely generous amounts of their time (with some far more than originally agreed) to students. It is nowhere near as daunting as people would think with each creative really friendly and welcoming and something I would recommend doing. 

Thanks to Alex at Hat-trick, Jeremy at Lloyd Northover, Nick and Mark at Bostock and Pollitt, Christian and Asa at Design Bridge and Fiona at Gabriele Skelton for sparing generous amounts of time and feedback.

Whilst at Gabriele Skelton (a top creative recruitment agency) I was extremely excited to find there was an old fashioned lift with wrought iron pull doors! Although seen in films (Such as Casino Royale) I have never come across one before and although only on the first floor, I just had to use it! 

I also visited the RNID head office to present my final major project to them. After approaching them in April regarding research for the project this was altered to become a live brief tackling two problems. Firstly to celebrate their 100th Birthday taking place next year and secondly to meet their primary aim of increasing their volunteer base. On revisiting, they liked what I had produced and have agreed to use elements of it. Fantastic! The work produced will soon be available to see on my website.

Working as a creative is not just about the job but also the location and the inspiration found there so I spent my evenings sight seeing. I visited the Magma book store (the last stop on my own personal list of must see's which if you ever go to London should be on the to do list!) which show a wide variety of exciting and intriguing books and illustrative artwork. It may not look like much from the outside and I walked past it the first time but it is worth the visit. 

I also visited Greenwich. Although the Cutty Sark was still under covers being rebuilt, the town itself has a great atmosphere, and feels almost like a little village. There are many independent shops and the park is always clean and open with the view from 'One Tree Hill' across London with the sun setting on the horizon - great!

The Big Lunch

On 18th July the Eden Project hosted 'The Big Lunch' with some free local food, good music, a great atmosphere and a great excuse to get down there.


Nature and patterns formed is something I find proves a valuable source of inspiration and what better place to explore plant life than the Eden Project!

My next great excuse to get down there is running the half marathon on 18th October!!

Placement no. 1

I first met David Jones, Creative Partner at 'Buddy', at the 'Industrial Liaison' day at the University of Plymouth in January when he viewed my portfolio.

Several months on and through keeping in touch I had the opportunity to visit their studio and show my portfolio once again to David and his colleague Mark and as such, secured my first creative work placement. They are a great company producing some fantastic and innovative work and it is really exciting to see what input I can give. 

It was also great to visit Exeter. Whilst having visited the surrounding area many times I had not ventured often into the city. It has a really friendly and welcoming atmosphere (it’s almost as good as Plymouth!) and I really look forward to my two week placement there.

I also visited DNA Advertising in Torquay later that day, again through a contact made at the Industrial Liaison,  Jon Price, where he was joined by Matt and Paul to give me some really fantastic feedback on my portfolio and its overall presentation. Thanks Guys!

Results are finally in!

2.1

OK, so the result came about a month ago but still! 

I feel that my best achievement on grades point of view was receiving a 1st on the dissertation module, documenting and discussing Emigre magazine through its 21 years of being published. Emigre has been a topic I have been very interested in since discovering the magazine in my first year and something I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know more about. 

I have collected several copies of the magazine and type catalogues, travelled to the British Library to view the whole collection and lucky enough to receive some fantastic input and feedback from a range of creatives such as Adrian Shaughnessy - Graphic Designer and writer, John Collins from myfonts.com, Luke Hayman - Partner at Pentagram, Massimo Vignelli - Vignelli Associates, Rick Poynor - Design writer, Rudy VanderLans - Emigre, Steven Heller - Design writer and Stuart Bailey - Founder of Dot Dot Dot magazine.

It is horrible to think that three wonderful years have been brought down to two numbers and a period. Still these have been three very successful years watching projects I have worked on go live, the Designers Society, having a great studio culture and generally helping and watching other students grow too. My passions for the entire world of Graphic Design through from paper stock, typefaces and across all areas of creativity have leaped from strength to strength! Success!

The Designers Society goes abroad!

Slight delay in updating the blog but we finally get back on track!

In February this year I invited Justus Oehler of Pentagram, Berlin to visit Plymouth and the Designers Society as the first lecture of the new academic year in October. Due to no longer being Chairperson at that time he invited myself and a select few to visit his studio in Berlin for a week at the start of July. 

Having already visited the Pentagram office in London where Domenic Lippa discussed the past, present and future of Pentagram our expectations were high. It was refreshing however to have a completely different presentation, not focused on Pentagram and its achievements but this time about Justus’ own thoughts on the design landscape with a focus on branding. A really open, honest and friendly man and with such an engaging and interesting talk, let’s hope when he visits Plymouth in October he discusses more of the same!

During our visit we also visited The Typographic Museum (who opened just for us due to being half way through moving location). This was set up by Barbara Dechant, a Graphic Designer, in 2005 and showcases an extraordinary range of collected type ranging from small 30cm display type to 8ft display letters! 

We also found some exceptionally large letters just around the corner too!

Whilst in Berlin we toured a number of studios. Alex and Ralph at UV2 showed a variety of their work and discussed the different culture and approach to design within Berlin, with a large amount of their work still trying to overcome the east and west divide. 

Daniel and a number of his colleagues at Research Studios discussed the best approach to getting into design studios, the language barrier for an english designer in Berlin and again, the distinct design culture present in Berlin and how it differs to the UK.

Our last stop was with Nadine at Edenspiekermann who discussed their unique structured approach to design. Erik also spared time to come and say hello! 

It was really interesting to find out how the German culture affects design.

We also managed to fit in a few touristy elements too and another highlight to the visit was spotting Audi celebrating the new A1 and being given a car to test drive for an hour. Having never driven on the wrong side of the road or left hand drive it was certainly an experience!

One of my favourite inspirational visits was to the Berlin Zoo which houses one of the largest aquariums in Europe. The patterns created by the jellyfish against the UV lighting really inspired me. 

In all, a successful visit and gives hope for where the Society will go next year and hopefully open to all! :-)