Duffield Printers Leeds

I live just up the road from 'Duffield Printers' on Kirkstall road and i have driven past it hundreds of times and have been meaning to contact them for ages. So i finally did it this week and lucky they got back to me and were very interested in me coming down for a visit when i rang them up. They are quite a small printers and they are ethically driven to use environmentally friendly materials and processes. 

I'm currently a 3rd year Graphic Design student at the Leeds College of Art and so I'm very interested in the printing process. Its important for me to understand the print end of industry as to design appropriately and make sure that documents are set up right and we both understand what is being printed.

I'm also really interested in coming to see Duffield Printers as you deal with sustainability and less harmful processes and materials, which I also feel is an important issue today. 

I understand that you are very busy but i would love to come down for half a day or so and come and see how your business works. I want to gain and understanding of the process from first receiving a design to the finishes applied to them.

If there is any chance that someone would be able to spare a few hours to show me around i would greatly appreciate it. 

Thank you very much

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HI Rebecca,

Re your e-mail, we would be pleased to see you anytime to suit

Please ring me to arrange

Regards  

Clive Elston

Stone Soup Work Experience

We got an email from Amber this week about placements at 'Stone Soup' design agency, this would be a great opportunity to get some professional experience with these guys. They work with print, layout and a real attention to details such as print finishes and stock. Even from seeing a small selection of their portfolio I get a real sense of their approach to design and feel i could really learn a lot from them, and hopefully they would gain something from me aswell.

I submitted this small portfolio of two pieces of my work that i though would best show what im about as a designer aswell as being appeal to them and lucky he loved the work that i had sent. So we will be arranging a time next week so that i can go over to their studio and we can a have a chat and hopefully will see where it goes from there.

Jonathan Smith - Glue Marketing

Jonathan Smith came in today to talk to us about business and getting jobs after we graduate, some of the main things that i picked up on while he was talking were these :

• Design yourself a creative CV and when appropriate add personality rather than just the dry facts and figures.
• Always carry a portfolio with you, weather this is on CD or USB or paper based, just something that you can easily pass on to someone if the chance comes about.
• If there are any part time courses to develop your skills then this is great to put on you CV and any extra skills or qualifications will separate you from the rest.
• Find out a bit about the company you are applying for a job at, why do you like them, why do you want to work for them and why are you appropriate to their team.
• Networking is essential, attend Creative Networks and get your name out there and start talking to the right people.
• Sign up to 'LinkedIn' as this is a site for networking online with other professionals, have all CV uploaded and a small portfolio so people can look through your work.
• Think about freelance, the best time to set up a business is now. Getting the right group of people together that compliment each other. You have nothing to loose right now so do it.

So far i have signed up to LinkedIn as this was also mentioned by John Watters, so if you want to see my profile go here.
Im also part of the Creative Networks team so i go to these networking events as staff but i have done a bit if networking aswell.


When john came in he also set us a quick brief to design a corporate flyer for 'The Loft Leeds' and a creative Christmas card. He gave us about an hour and a half to come up with something for the flyer and it was interesting working so quick but i managed to get an idea quick and developed it a little before showing him.

Here is my first attempts (and keep in mind that i hadn't mastered Illustrator CS5 at this point)

Over the weekend we had change to finish this up and to design the christmas card but the main thing was not to spend ages on this. He wants to see what we can do with a quick turn over so i gave it my best shot and even though they are not the best designs i could have done they are DONE which is the important thing. As Fred says "its not what you can do, its what you can do to the deadline".

So here are the final designs that were sent of to John.

The flyer

The Christmas card

Giles Cook - Conversation

I contacted Giles cook this morning and he got back to me straight away, I was really glad to read that he has invited me over to his studio to chat to him and look through my portfolio. Its great that he can take the time out his business to talk to me and help me out after just one email, it really shows how genuine some designers can be. So hopefully will be popping in next week sometime, very exciting.

Hello 

I've been on your website and I am really interested in the work that you do, your very clean crisp approach is something I admire.

I understand that you are very busy but I have put a link to my portfolio blog and would love to hear anything you have to say. I want to gain a more professional insight into my work so if you could give me any feedback or suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. If you could also suggest other designers/company’s that might be interest in my work that would be very helpful as well.

http://rebeccaligginsportfolio.blogspot.com/

I hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you very much 

Rebecca Liggins

BA (Hons) Graphic Design

Leeds College of Art

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Hi Rebecca,

Many thanks for the mail you sent, always good to hear from other people in the industry. I have been working now for over 15 years and you can easily fall into doing the same type of work, for a similar type of client, so it is always nice to see what people are doing when they come out of college.

Your work is nice, very illustrative, and interesting with some great touches. Your next challenge is to find a market you could operate in to use your skills, what drives you to do what you want to do, do you want to stick to an illustrative style, or aim for a more corporate direction? it's a case of looking where you want to get to.

If it is of use to you are welcome to pop in to the studio for a chat sometime, just give me a bit of notice! 

I really like the letters you had cut and turned into badges, what are they made of?

Regards

Giles

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Thanks for your quick reply Giles, 

The brooches are lazer cut from perspex, so quick and easy to make but people seem to love them which is great.

Would love to pop down to you studio for a chat, would be very useful to see a professional studio at work as that's one think they cant teach us, even if they try. Is there any days that are better for you or shall I just pop down at any point (with notice of course) 

Thanks again Giles 

Regards 

Rebecca Liggins

BA (Hons) Graphic Design

Leeds College of Art

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Hi Rebecca

no probs. I am not a traditional studio, as I work as myself often remotely with bigger companys - it was a lifestyle choice a few years ago. I have worked in bigger agencies, but got a bit fed up with it.  I am based in the old YTV Emmerdale / Heartbeat TV studio in Farsley Leeds, I rent space out of a large commercial photographer here which is good - nice to have other people around!

Fridays are pretty good, they tend to be a bit quieter. Would be happy to look through your folio and chat.

Giles

Christopher Brand - Conversation

For my dissertation i have been looking into book covers and the designers behind them. from this i contacted some graphic designers who design book covers and here is the response that i got from Christopher Brand.

Hello Christopher, 

I really like your work as a book cover designer, I have been looking through your website and been reading articles such as the interview, yourself and Paul Buckley did for 'The Casual Optimist' and would love to ask you a few questions. 

Well a bit of context first, I am a 3rd year Graphic Design student in Leeds, where I am currently researching for my dissertation. I am very intrigued by the design of the book cover and so I am using my dissertation to delve into the art of it and find out about the designers behind them. 

If I could ask you a few questions about your practice I would love to get your insight and personal experiences in this industry. 

When you are designing a book cover, how much contact do you have with the author, if any? Do they find it important to oversee the whole process or are you pretty much able to have free reign over the design? 

This may be a silly question but do you ever read the books before you design for them?

I'v been looking at 'Glover's Mistake' by Nick Laird in particular and wondered what was the process when you started designing this book cover? 

As a designer, have you ever re-designed any book covers or are they all first edition designs? 
I know you are very busy, but any input you could give me would be much appreciated.
Thank you so much for your time.

Rebecca Liggins

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Hi Rebecca,

It's nice to hear from you, thanks for getting in touch. Let me try to answer your questions for you:

1. You almost never deal directly with an author. The author works with an editor of the book and the publisher of the book. Those two people work for the publishing house. There is also an art director who works at the publishing house and he/she is the person who works directly with designers. The Art director will maybe get some suggestions from an author before the process of designing a cover starts or throughout the process, but for the most part the cover is run by the author at the end of the process, once the art director, editor and publisher all decide on the cover. Some authors have the rights for cover approval built into their contracts, so they could reject your cover at the end of the process, author authors don't have that ability.

2. It's really important to read fiction. For the most part I would say you cant really design a cover without reading the book. Something could happen in the last 20 pages that could change everything for the cover. But, for nonfiction, I don't think it's always as important. You can get away with reading a little bit or researching the subject matter.

3. You can read a little bit about this cover here : www.faceoutbooks.com. I talked about the process in an interview there.

4. As a book cover you will find yourself redesigning a lot of book covers. I've worked on some classics that have dozens of different covers. A lot of times covers will be redesigned when a book goes from hardcover to paperback, especially if a book doesn't sell as well as the publisher was hoping that it would, then they like to blame it on the cover and they will try a new one. 

It's nice to see you taking an interest in book covers though. They can be a lot of fun. Over here, they are kind of a little niche in graphic design where you have to specialize in them to get the work. If you're interested in getting into book covers then I suggest you try to look for an internship at a publishing house or with someone who is designing them on a freelance basis. 

Good luck with your studies.

Best,
Chris

Handmade III

Really looking forward to Handmade III next Sunday and these are a few of the cards that i will be selling. 

Even though we are really busy at the moment at Uni, im really looking forward to this. Its a great way to get my name out there and make a few pennies. 

These are just a few of the designs that i will be taking with me on the Sunday. Made one for my friends birthday and he loved it so decided to make a few more and see what people think of them. Its nice to do some design just for myself thats quick and retentively painless, that people are going to see.

Creative Networks

Last night I joined the Creative Networks team at Leeds College of Art, thanks to my sister Aidie who is already part of the team and showed me the ropes.
It was a busy event with over 170 people attending to see guest speaker Chris Osburn talk 'from streets to tweets'.

I had the job of event photographer and camera man and so got to meet the Chris Osburn and the 3 pitchers that advertised their businesses before the talk. It was great to talk to these professionals in this environment and even though i wasnt there to network, i did manage to exchange business cards with one of the pitchers. 

I found Chris's talk very relevant to my own practice and really useful on how to use social media to promote yourself and get out there. One thing i found important was how he tags his work. The more tags you have the more hits your more likely to have, and it made me think about how i tag my work on blogger, behance and flickr which i will be re thinking now. 

Thanks Chris

Re thinking my direction

Who am I?


Editorial layout and typography for print and web with interest in packaging design.


Photography
- Use to document my work and to capture content for my designs.

Technical Typography
- Use in layouts within publications, body copy to a grid.

Typeface
- Designing and using typefaces.

Editorial
- Use layout skills to design a page of text and image.

Print
- Designing for print, different stocks finishes

Web Design
- Being involved in designing for the web, websites and understanding formats and usability.

Packaging.
- Designing onto nets, how it fits together and experimenting with different folds.


Ok this might seem really simple but this has helped me to identify the areas i have skills in and that i want to progress with rather than trying to develop other skills in other areas.


I want

- I want to produce publications with exciting layouts.

- I want to produce interesting packaging with a type based design.

- I want to produce typefaces that can be used within publications.

-I want to produce usable websites for users.

-I want to understand how print runs work properly.



After all this, i feel that i am a bit more focused on what i want to do and where i want to go, so now its off to look over those briefs of mine and see where they come in!