PPD Presentation

After todays presentation i have had a sort of wake up call.

Iv realised after last weeks session, i still haven't really decided on the kind of designer i am! I really struggled last week as there are so many areas of interest that i wanted to look into, but now i have finally realised that even if i have an interest in some areas it doesn't mean i have to develop in it!

for example, i'm really interest in branding, i think its important part of design and something that would be useful, but as everyone keeps saying, you don't want to be 'a jack of all trades and a master of none' so now its about realising where my skills lye.

I know that this is what Fred has been trying to drill in to us for the past few weeks but for some reason it clicked today, so i need some major rethinking.

Open publication - Free publishing - More graphic design

Self Identity

We had a pin up session this morning with everyone's business cards and was great to see how everyone had approached it, there were a few really different ones where people had changed the format and the stock. I have say though im pretty happy with mine, and i think it stands out.

Will have to see what people say tomorrow.

Umbrella Statement

" Content driven designer dealing with print based layout, typography and packaging for a young audience"

This mornings session was focusing in on our statement describing ourselves as a designer. We had to come up with a short statement that would cover all our areas of interest.

I found this really hard as i am still interested in a wide variety of design and still want to develop my skills into more areas. My personal views of designers is that there are two types, those who clients hire for their specific style and approach and so are looking for their certain look. Then there are the designers who are invisible, those who can produce whatever the clients want.

But i think this statement is a good start in showing who i am as a designer and this process did make me really think about what i am good at.

Glass Half Full

I found a great competition from 'Positive Poster 2010' based on 'Glass half full . . . or empty', however I only have a day to produce something, but we all know a day is a long time for a designer . . . !

Well I got cracking, gave myself some rules,
- Use of only one colour
- Type and Image based
- Gives positive vibe

Ok so keeping that in mind, I produced a few ideas and developed a few on into resolutions. These are the first resolutions and even though they are very simple and clear, i'm not sure they are quite right for this competition.

I then looked at the actually phrase 'A glass half full' and from that have very simply illustrated it into what i think is an effective piece. Lets hope they like it.

Designer of my week - Allan Peters

Allan Peters is a art director from Minneapolis, all his work is bold and brilliant. These are a select few of my favourite pieces but his site is full of them, so defiantly check him out here

Hatch Design

Over the summer I have done a few self initiated briefs and for the last one i wanted a specific approach to it, focusing on textures and very simple shapes. I found a piece by Hatch Design which is gorgeous and exactly the style I am looking at. I just wanted to share it with everyone as its really a beautiful piece of design.

Christopher Brand

Chris Brand is a Graphic Designer/ Illustrator based in New York, he designs book covers for such companies as Penguin, Farrar and Lonely Planet. I really like the simplicity of some of his work and the layout is beautiful. I got in touch with him as im researching book cover design for my dissertation and he was brilliant, very freindly and really helpful. The Casual Optimist is where you can read his interview about the new Penguin 75 covers book.

Designer of my week - Matt Lehman

I came across Matts site and was instantly impressed with his work. I especially loved his logo designs as they had real character to them and you get such a feel of what the brand are. I found it very hard to design logos for more individual companies and look less corporate, but Matt has made it look easy. I think his use of colour, overlay effect, and interesting type has captured a really playful feel here.  Matt Lehman

My final logo design

After much deliberation and a nice long chat with my house mates, (a web designer and a surface pattern designer) I have finally decided on this logo.
I feel this logo shows my skill as a designer better than the rest, and looks more professional. I had in my head i wanted a quirky looking logo but when i really think about it, most of my work can be identified with more of a sophisticated look.

But no that i have decided on this, i now need to start branding myself with other elements, starting with a website. I have all the designs ready and now the colour scheme and logo sorted and hopefully in the next coming weeks, and with the help of my house mate, i shall have a fully running website.

Typographic logos

These images are from an article on Naldz Graphics, I have started to really appreciate logo design over the summer and really like clever once such as below. These were just a few of my favourites from this site, using punctuation to emphasise the identity.

5 final logos

Ok, so these are my 5 final logos that i have chosen. But I don't know which i like most! or which is best for me. They are all different and show a different side to my practice but some are much more corporate looking, or childish, or just simple.

I might have to sleep on this one.

Ok, I'm in a creative mood today so watch out logo, I#m going to find you . . . 

Most people will know that i can go by the name 'Bequa' sometimes. This self initiated nick name acts as my identity for many sites and profiles. The name is fun to say as well as looking a bit different but close enough to my origional name. I  just love it basically. 

So these are a few resolutions using the name, some being more sophisticated and some more playful.

More logo ideas

I wanted to experiment with some clever typographic logos as im always impressed with what people come up with so now its my turn.
I quickly came up with the idea to use brackets instead of the double 'C' in my name and so did a little development work on this, but again i got a little board with it and felt it looked a bit to corporate and serious for me.

Again with typography, I used shapes to represent letters. Iv notices that a few people have used the circle and their initials and so I wanted to try something a bit different. Im not as keen on the results that iv produced, again they are just not representing me. 

End of year show - poster idea

This is the result of another one day project, i had the idea of the finger prints one day and wanted to use it to show individuality within something. So produced a quick poster idea for an end of year design exhibition for a College or University.