Friday 12 December 2008


Another logo inspired by the 1980's retro computer game 'Simon'.






It's the last day at the AIB before Christmas.  Myself and Anna have had a tutorial with Neil regarding the D&AD brief.  We have some ideas but Neil has given food for thought.  This brief is a challenge but we will come up with a solution.

Experimentation.

I created this in Illustrator to see if I could get an image or shape to change by sliding the images under the dotted grid.  It is for a possible solution to the D@AD brief for Crisis.  


Experimentation for D@AD Brief.  Trying different ways to make an image change by sliding under a dotted grid.

Thursday 11 December 2008


Friday.

Day of the crit.

The group crit went well.  Neil has given me some good sites to look at in relation to my website portfolio.  I still want to continue with 'the eye' index page, but will explore other ways of designing it.  I really need to look into the mechanics of the web design software and will do so over Christmas in preparation for the return in January 2009.  Time is flying by!

Tuesday 9 December 2008


Whilst sat here working on the Web project, I created this mood-board from a video of Paul Van Dyke's 'for an angel' track.  This is probably the most listened track in my music library.  I love the colours that the lights produce.  I have a fascination with laser lighting. 










Following my research in to retro games, I have found a website that demonstrates the 'MB SIMON' game. check it out at www.freegames.ws/games/kidsgames/simon/mysimon.htm



Still on the theme of buttons, I took a look at the computers that I was brought up with.  Mine was a Dragon 32, with a massive (wait for it)----32k of memory.  You loaded data by using a tape recorder!  Some games were available on massive cartridges, the size of a house.  You would put the cartridge into the side of the machine and there it was,  instant 'Space Invaders!'  If you didn't get the volume setting just right, the game wouln't load- aaaaaarghhhhhh! the pain!  I also had a look at the early hand held computers that were released during the 1980's, wow they look so retro!

Monday 8 December 2008


Messing with buttons.

I have been looking at different layouts of switches and buttons as a way of navigation for my website.  I particularly like the ones above as they are very clean cut and similar to the Mac power button.  As I have a severe fascination of buttons(!), I feel that by using machinery type buttons, a real element of 'me ' would be within the design.  I will be looking at other switching methods too.


A mood board for my website design.  I have a fascination with buttons!





I borrowed an Apple iPhone for a bit.

Saturday 6 December 2008


Another card for Christmas.
I wanted to get back into my photography!

Friday 5 December 2008


Another one of my ads in the Bournemouth Echo.  This one runs till Christmas. Yes, it has an element of cheese, but the client was happy! 


Thursday 4 December 2008

Flash!

Today was day of flash.  This is a real challenge.  We learnt how to make buttons move an object and how to make an action when they collide.  My one actually worked! 
I'm still working on my website design and will create some design sheets to see how it will look.

Tuesday 2 December 2008


A friend of mine passed her driving test, I'll be damned if I I'm gonna buy her a card!!!

Monday 1 December 2008

Monday!

Myself and Anna have spent the morning brain-storming some ideas for the D&AD Crisis Brief.
We have a tutorial booked with Neil at 3.30.  
Neil has suggested that we do some research into the 30-40 age range that the brief has set as a target audience.  I must adnit, this is going to be a challenge!

I sat in the dark to take a pic of this Mc Donalds Happy Meal Toy last night!  I'ts kinda strange, guess it's something to do with the fact its from the new 'Igor' film!  When you close its head down and press it's brain in, it glows!!??? Fascinating.


Another of my ads.  I'm kinda getting tired of the image!  There will be a refresh soon!

Sunday 30 November 2008


Some more photography for my employer.  The cockpit of the club's Sai Marchetti, a real Italian Stallion of an aeroplane.  Fully aerobatic and blisteringly quick!

An advert of mine for the Bournemouth Echo to be run in 6 editions over Christmas.

Thursday 27 November 2008


Thursday, day of the new brief!

The brief 'Screen Based Communication 2' is to create an online web-based portfolio.
Today I have been looking at the previous years students to gain some ideas.  I feel that a site must be really easy to navigate, not too long in loading and eye-catching enough to draw the viewer in further.  I have also been looking at the D and AD brief for 'Crisis' again.  I particularly like the rotating logo of Marco Fung.


Monday 24 November 2008



A couple of images that I found the other day on a CD that had fallen behind a cupboard!
The flag I took was in Italy (Pompei). It was hanging from a telephone wire/power cable across a busy street. Is there a message there?  The beach hut was on Bournemouth sea front.  I was messing with Photoshop at the time that the national newspaper's were reporting huge prices for beach huts in the area!

Friday 21 November 2008


The poster with the new logo applied.

Thursday 20 November 2008

It's 3am and my printer cartridge has just run out.  I have been sat in front of my laptop for 16 hours with the odd coffee break.  I need to sleep. 

Wednesday 19 November 2008



I took these shots at work.  A magazine called 'Go Flying' called me to ask if I could get some shots of night flying at Bournemouth Airport.  I took about 8 different shots of different activity.  I await the magazine!  The top shot at the top was interesting because a Ryanair 737 flew over in the background leaving a trail of strobe and rotating beacon lighting as it passed behing the small aircraft.  The pic immediately above is of a pilot getting ready to depart.  Trust me, he isn't as sinister as he looks!  I have also sent some photos to the 'Loop' magazine of some of the pilot students doing their very first solo flights.

Monday 17 November 2008

Monday.

I had a power cut last night at 7-30, just as I had fired up the mac to crack on with my work.  It came back on at 11-30 in the end and I ended up going to bed some time after 3am.  I feel very tired now!
This is the week of the hand in of the VCC2 projects.  I have been sorting out my Greeting Cards for the show.  My work will need to be printed properly this week, but all the required files are ready.  I need to print one of my cards again as I have amended it!
I also have some photography to do for a magazine called 'Go Flying'.  They are doing a feature on flying at night, and have asked me if I will get some pics in the dark.  Will need to do some long exposure for that!  They have given me a deadline at the end of this week, so I hope that the weather holds out.  I have had another advert published this week in another flight magazine.

Tomorrow and for the rest of the week I need to absolutely concentrate on getting all of my work together for the hand in on Friday.

It's the last dreamweaver session tonight.  I want to get my CSS site sorted for the submission to the Short Course Office.

This afternoon was spent helping to photograph the greeting cards in preparation for the show. I managed to cut out the printed material without loosing a finger!

Friday 14 November 2008

Friday-Day of  Crit!

I have now finalized my box design and have put together a design sheet and made the mock up of the actual box itself.  I was happy with the actual mock up but tried to destroy it by putting my laptop on top of it by accident!  I am now going to use the morning to do some more research on the actual materials for the construction if it were to be made for the purpose.  The crit session is at 1.30.

Thursday 13 November 2008


The box deisgn.

Tuesday 11 November 2008


This is an advert of mine that is now in the current Bornemouth Phone Book.


The 'Animal in U' Box layout in Illustrator.

I have spent the afternoon preparing the box for print and assembly. I created the lid separately and this will attach to the main box.  The box size has been changed to half the original width because its just too big!

A logo I created in Illustrator for The Bournemouth Aero Club (the social side)

Monday 10 November 2008

Today I worked on the box for The Animal Project.  I have been using Illustrator to do a flat version in order to cut it out and assemble.  The first box I did was a little bit oversized, almost the size of a house!  I'm trying to progress as much as I can, but I've got to work for the next two days so am going to have to put in the matchsticks and work late in the evening.  I have Dreamweaver tonight and I believe we will be looking at CSS.  I practiced on the site that we were doing last week and it works ok.  I may seem surprised, but this is a new area for me!
Friday is day of the final crit session, and need to get my box sorted.

Sunday 9 November 2008


A possible colour for the inside of the 'plain at first sight' inner wrapper within the box that you can tear off to reveal the watch underneath.  I like the idea of using a material similar to the foil that they wrap marathon runners in at the end.  I like the 'rustley' nature of the material.

Friday 7 November 2008

The Animal Crit.

Feedback was generally good with regards to the box idea.  I need to look more now at how I am going to actually put it together and what type of material to use in order to convey the product to my target audience.  Need to look at more existing box 'higher end' boxes in use.

Thursday 6 November 2008


The animal in u.

I created this poster to reveal the 'inner animal' of someone going about their daily routine in universal business dress.  The watch on the wrist is a subtle hint that this possibly very serious business man has another side to him that may involve surfing, base jumping or extreme ironing!!  The same concept can be applied to a business woman, maybe with her slightly showing the legs of a Gazelle at the bottom of her business suit.  It could also be applied to a child displaying a monkey tail! I want to appeal to a wide age group, but especially the older 35-50 age group who may still have a wild streak.



Animal 'in u' 3 (upper class).



Animal 'in you' 2.


I am toying with aiming my packaging with people who may not necessarily buy an animal watch (aged say 35 and beyond).  Maybe to purvey the fact that we all have an 'animal in us'.
Animal watches seem to be aimed at lower age groups, but I know many people beyond this age who still want to be part of an extreme lifestyle! 

animal in u.

Tuesday 4 November 2008

Tuesday.  I spent quite a bit of last night (till about 2.00am) and this morning working on Dreamweaver revision  from last nights session.  This is a bit of a jump for me as I have never done any web type stuff before. I feel that I lag a bit, maybe it's just an age thing, you know, the brain slows down a bit! I have managed to get the two sites working OK for the 'short course submission'.  I need to look into 'style sheets' as I really dont know what they are about! It's kinda exciting times as the web opens up a new element of design, and I really want to get the hang of it! This afternoon I will start the new brief a bit more! 

Monday 3 November 2008

I have spent the late afternoon looking at the briefs for D&AD and have narrowed down to the final few.  The main ones that I am drawn to are the FCUK one and the PJ Smoothies.  I am going to have another look at the all of the briefs and make a positive choice by Wednesday at least!
I have had a look at last years winners for D&AD and I am certainly impressed.  Nearly time for the Dreamweaver session.


Monday PM-I have been practicing what we learnt in last weeks dreamweaver session. I'm kinda getting there but not too impressed with my design!




Remember! RGB,72 DPI (and saved 720x460)
for web purposes.


Cubist Still Life-Quaker Oates

Gino Severini-Self Portrait

Monday morning. 
I have finally managed to get an email from D&AD in order to access the 2009 briefs.  This morning I have been scanning some images for tonight's Dreamweaver session with Neil.
I have scanned some work created by the Italian artist Gino Severini.  I am particularly interested in the artist as I am passionate about Italy.  Two of his pieces are shown above.
  

Thursday 30 October 2008

Packaging Project

Today we were briefed for the next project.  The brief is to create packaging designs for 'Animal' the surf wear company based in Poole.  The packaging is for their range of watches that they produce.  Animals first product was the velcro watch strap for surfers who previously would loose conventional watches in the water.  The watch has stiff competition from other electronic devices that we carry around with us that also give the time.

The initial task today was to research the Animal brand and to find out what they are all about.  Following this, we looked at the watch products and all the other gear that is produced.  Research was then carried out to find out about different extreme-sport activities and also the colours used for the gear associated with the sports.   The group then produced a series of 'mood boards' in order to evoke the thought processes.  The idea is to look at making packaging out of materials associated with the sports.  These could be rubber tyres or velcro gloves from a mountain bike, fibreglass from surf boards and rubber from a wet suit.  The idea of recycling for this purpose was met with great enthusiasm.


Wednesday 29 October 2008

Whilst researching for the greeting card project, I took a look at the work of Roy Lichtenstein and put together a mood board.  I particularly like the way he uses dots to colour his work.  There was recently a large poster in Poole that was advertising a top local hairdressing salon.  Roy's work reminded me of the posters on display, really stunning eye catching stuff!
This is the my amended version for the VCC2 project.  After looking at various graph layouts that represent figures in newspapers, and the graphs in The Guardian newspaper (as suggested by Sally),  I added a faint grid to the image as well as a trend line.  I like the grid because it also relates to the lines of latitude and longitude of the earths surface.  It also keeps the 'simplistic element' to the design.  I have also changed the text in order to grab peoples attention by using 'Cost Saving Excercise'.  The text at the bottom has been written more positively as oposed to my original design. 

Monday 27 October 2008

I have spent the day sorting out a C.V and six images from my portfolio for tonights Dreamweaver session.  I have also worked on my PPRD paper based folder and sketch book too.
  

Sunday 26 October 2008

Saturday 25 October 2008

I wanted to create a logo for myself.  My initial inspiration came from the Etnie trainer.  I wanted the logo to convey my name, a hard working 'put your back into it' attitude, the camera lens/human eye and 'forward thinking'.  I feel it also relates to the shape of my head!

Friday 24 October 2008

The Greetings Card Project has been a great challenge.  I have really enjoyed the experimentation with patterns and simple shapes using Adobe Illustrator.  I always enjoy looking at other peoples work and gaining inspiration.  I feel that the group has so much talent and I enjoy working with the rest of the group.  Clare has been a fantastic help with this project, and her enthusiasm and positive manner have spurred me on.  It was great to work with somebody who is successfully working in the industry.

This is updated design solution following the crit sessions with Sally, Clare and Neil.
The main point brought up was regarding the wedding card shapes.  Sally suggested a change from the 'bell' as many people have other types of ceremony.  I changed the bell to a horse shoe but felt that the design lost 'equilibrium'.  When I was playing about with the horseshoe design, Neil thankfully pointed out that a horse shoe upside down can be regarded as bad luck!  I have decided that I am going to revert to the wedding bell design.  I have put the designs to various people, and the bells were heavily favoured as most people I showed the cards to knew straight away what the bells related to.

Thursday 23 October 2008

The crit session with Clare and Neil was very positive.  Both of my sets of cards were Ok, but now I have to choose the set to go with.  I need to have a look at a couple of the cards and sort out the colour schemes.  There is another crit tomorrow!  There was some fantastic work submitted by us all.

I created this set of cards as a second set for the greeting card project.  I feel that these would be more suited to the 'higher end' cardshops.  The price of them? -you cant afford it!!!!