These are flyer designs I did for my dad’s partner’s sister who is starting a small cupcake business. Their old flyers didn’t have a professional appearance so I asked them if I could come up with something. I offered to do the flyers for free as long as I could put the final pieces on my blog and in my portfolio. I think that all four designs I produced work well and any one of them would make an excellent flyer for a starting business.
Book Review: Type & Typography by Phil Baines and Andrew Haslam.
This book covers all the principles of typography, including the key topics of definition of function, form, manufacture and design, structure and conventions. In essence, it covers the vital elements of type and typography, though is quite an in-depth book and perhaps more suited to intermediate level designers or students rather than complete beginners. Text heavy in places, there is a lot of complex technical vocabulary, and it is not the kind of book to dip into lightly for basic information.
It is perhaps best suited to a professional in the field of type and typography rather than the more general designer looking into elements of type and typography. As befits a book on this subject, the text is presented using different fonts for the main text and smaller sections of subtext. However, since different sizes are used and some full pages are presented in the font used for subtexts, I feel this breaks up the continuity of the book and makes the layout confusing in places. I personally think that the use of different typefaces would be more justified if they limited it to one font used per section instead of using multiple fonts and sizes per page. This shows a lack of thought and quality in the overall layout of the book. Images used add an interesting feature that breaks up the bulky bodies of text.
Overall, this book is a good tool for finding out more about the fundamental principles of type and typography but due to its complicated nature makes it a book that I am less likely to read as there are books just as comprehensive and easier to read than this.
Hi every one hope your having a great holiday. This post is about my personal logo
whilst designing the concept for my web presence I noticed my logo wasn’t following the way I wanted it to, so I decided to tweak it and the 2nd photo was the result.
I was just wondering which you guys thought was better and if there should be anymore tweaks.
My Alter ego: Isabella Flockhart
Hi,
My name is Isabella and I am 20 years old. I live with my brother James who is 21. The rest of my family consists of (on my mom’s side) my grandma Barbara, my grandad Gordon, my uncles Michael and Paul, my mom Tina, my stepdad David, my half-siblings Erin (16), Ashley (14) and Elijah (10). On my dad’s side, my family consists of my grandad Richard, my grandma Susan (who left my grandad when my dad was 19), my dad Barry and obviously my brother. My older brother James has severe learning difficulties that make it difficult for him to carry out everyday tasks and activities, even though he copes well with reading and writing. My brother lives with me because with three younger siblings, the youngest six at the time, my mother, who also had cancer at the time, decided that she couldn’t give James the full care that he needed. James and I moved out and ever since then I have taken care of him. He currently goes to Walsall College and does Art. Me, my mom and dad agreed that this would be a good option for James because it would keep him busy and possibly provide him with a job that he could do from home as it would be impossible with his difficulties to have a mainstream job.
I am currently studying towards a Law degree at Birmingham University and my main focus areas are environmental law and family law. Unfortunately, due to my current situation, I don’t have much of a social life. The only time I get to go out is when my mom can have James for the day. This only happens once every two weeks, when my half siblings are visiting their grandparents in London for the weekend. This is the only time when my mom gets enough free time to give James the attention he needs. Unfortunately he cannot go to visit my dad very often as he lives in Devon. My dad owns a graphic design practice which means he cannot visit us very often but takes every chance he can to see us. I have been offered care for James but he does not deal well with new people and I believe this would worsen the problem. I would rather give up all my free time to make sure that James is happy and healthy than to have him suffer in order for me to have a social life.
My drawing skills come from helping James with his college projects. Any project that James does I try to do in my spare time so I can learn the same disciplines just in case he needs my help. James and I are very similar - we both like the same things and have the same interests. James will always know what to get me for my birthday. James is quite fascinating in a sense because tasks like remembering birthdays, remembering things for class and things that we don’t do every day are things that he seems to cope with. It’s the small things like cutting vegetables, and how to put a video in the machine without getting his hand stuck that he can’t seem to remember.
My day starts at 5 am when I have to get ready and eat my breakfast before I even get James up at 7. We must be out of the house at 8 in order to get James to college by 8.30. After that, I must be at Uni for 9 to start my lectures or sometimes trips to the court. I don’t finish until 3 and then I must be there to pick James up by 4 otherwise he gets scared. The next thing in my day is to have James’ meal prepared by 6. James usually has pizza or spaghetti bolognese and I just usually have a salad. After we have finished eating we go to my mom’s to spend time with her. We ususally get there by 7 as she only lives a couple of miles away. Whilst we are there James plays with the younger kids and we work on his college projects. We must be home by 10 so we can get James in bed for 10.30. Finally, it’s me time! This is when I read a historical based book. This will usually be a book by Phillipa Gregory. This week I am reading ‘The White Queen’.
This is my life as my alter ego.
Great Gardens of Italy by Monty Don and Derry Moore: Book Review.
Based on a BBC TV Series of the same name, Great Gardens of Italy details major large gardens in Italy and their history and development, influences and styles. It is a well laid out book in a large portrait format but one which seems to struggle to find a balance between text and images. It is describing the author’s journeys around the gardens, spread all around Italy, but since it is a visual subject text seems intrusive alongside the many colour photographs.
The actual photographs give the impression of being taken by a tourist or guide, and complement one another to show the most striking aspects of the gardens - they give the feel of walking through on a journey. Some of the photos are quite stunning, with full colour throughout and some double page spreads that really give the feeling of being there.
Alongside the photographs the text seems a little out of place as it is quite detailed. The author seems to have tried to write in a literary style and succeeds in giving the “M&S advert tone” in his writing:
“Look across the maze through to the parterres beyond, dip your head and squint a little and the scores of hedges dissolve and multiply into horizontal rows of green, leavened by the orange terracotta. It is astonishing how this is always pleasing, never goes wrong.”
However, the text tries, it can never convey the feeling of being there in the same way that the images can, and perhaps this shows that it is based on a TV series - as narration, the words would compliment the images, whilst in a book, they tend to get overlooked as the viewer flicks through between the photos.
Nina Hunter
This Blog post is about an artist I found through www.illustrationweb.com Nina’s work is very much the style that I like to accomplish. I love to use simple illustration that incorporates type that is perfectly matched so they dont fight each other for the viewer’s attention. She incorporates these elements beautifully. In the photos I have included a purely typographical piece that is a tribute to the late CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs. I think the typefaces used work beautifully together the mixture of Garamond or Baskerville serif and the scripted typeface. I think it’s a fitting tribute to Steve as Apple is known for its simplicity in its packaging and sleek products.
The next piece is a Christmas card design that incorporates text and image but the main focus is the image. Overall it gives the feel of a modern 21st century view of Christmas. Not only does the imagery make it modern, but also the bright and muted dark tones of the colours, a million miles away from the traditional red, green and gold that is typically seen around the Festive period.
I feel that the target audience for this piece is people aged between 20 and 40 and it could possibly be sold in more of a trendy shop like Paperchase, House of Fraser or Selfridges. Some of my favourite design elements are the font and the hot air balloons. These are elements that normally wouldn’t be seen or work on an average Christmas card. It has a slightly avant-garde feel about it but does contain some traditional elements.
The website layout is not a multiple page spread but rather a one-page continuous index of her work which enlarges the selected piece when clicked on. Hunter’s bio, qualifications, specialisms and previous clients appear on the index page to begin with, and this space is then taken by the selected image. I really like this style of website layout as I believe it is very user friendly - it cuts out the need for complex navigation and menus.
http://creativebits.org/cool_business_card_designs
http://stocklogos.com/topic/ultimate-creative-business-cards-collection
Here is a link to a site that shows unusual business card ideas. I love the ones that are made out of different materials. Thinking about it, does a business card have to be on paper? If so, why not emboss it or use various types of paper? As a designer why limit yourself to one method or material? A lot of the time your personal stationery will leave a lasting impression on your client: a good business card or letter head could be the key to your next job. Be imaginative - don’t just stick to a 8.5cm H x 5.5 cm W rectangle: think outside the box. For example, if you’re designing for a catering company how about doing an oven shaped business card, or if your working for a record company why not make a mini CD case with a mini CD inside? You’ll be surprised how far a little imagination can take you. Be bold, be brave, be daring.
This is the final outcome of the exercise all crushed up in one ball. We have called this monstrosity ‘COB’.
These are pictures from the String drawings we did in Justin’s session we had to using drawing pins, insulation tape, bed sheets and string to create a piece of work based on artist Marcel Duchamp “Mile of string . At first I was confused on what the session was for but as I participated in the activity I realised that we had to use a lot of team building skills to be able to hold up the web of string. It helped me to cultivate team building skills and learn to navigate through obstacles.
