Business cards - revisited

I have finally got chance to edit my business cards and get the layout nailed! I have slightly changed the colour and have changed the typeface for the back but i am now really happy with them and they look much better printed on the coated matt stock rather than the uncoated stock i had before.

Stone Soup - Day 3

OK so after the wonderful 2 hour journey in to York today with the beautiful snow, I arrived with 3 minuets to spare and quickly had a cup of tea in my hand.

So I started off with having a talk with Ben and talked about where I am up to and getting on with. I showed him the leaflet and the concept of it being interactive and getting people to move the leaflet to navigate through it, but it wasn't quite working right so i had another go with the layout and how it would work as well as a few type issues that had arose.

Halfway through the leaflet, Ben threw me a quick turn over live brief to re design a button and banner on the imove website, so i didn't this within an hour or so and got it sent of back to Ben who set it to the client.

I then got back to the leaflet where I showed Ben and Andy a few adjustments that i had made to see what they thought. We decided that it still wasn't quite working, the images made more of an impact when they were sat together rather than on their own, so i started playing around with different layouts and formats instead.

By the end of the day i got some great layouts and now its just getting them all put together and mocked up on Friday, so should turn out really great.

Stone Soup - Day 2

Today was a really busy day in the Stone Soup studio as they had a photo shoot and meetings with clients so Ben was out for most of the day, so i got on with work from Monday developing ideas and producing mock ups and visuals for them.

Both Andy and Rhian were in the studios all day so i got a chance to talk to them, i also pitched my designs to them at the end of the day which was great to see what they thought and get their feedback. I have so far produced an interactive leaflet and some ideas for ambient advertising but its just difficult to keep within the budget.

It wasnt a massivly productive day which was quite annoying as i really want to exceed at stone soup and wow them, but think today was just an off day so hopefully ill be back on for Monday.

The day did finish on a high as we finished early and went to the pub, there was an intern who was finishing today so was good to meet the whole team as there is whole group of people downstairs who deal with public relations and promotions.

Rejuvenate Productions Visit

Today is the day when I and going into Rejuvenate Productions in Leeds to talk about what they do and what I do and see how I could fit into their team. 

Leon who co-owns the business with Richard and Joel showed me around and talked to me about what they do and the considerations with working with web. This was really useful as something i had never considered such as working to a grid (which seems obvious) but it wasn't something i had thought about before.Also he talked to me about typography and how point size shouldn't be under 12 and considering the screen resolutions that people view sites. 

It was great to see it from this side of the business, Leon is the only designer in house so all the sites are designed by him but he use to build sites so he understands what is needed. He took me through his process of designing a website starting with a navigation map which was again such an obvious thing to do but i had never had thought of it. 

I also took in my portfolio again for them to have a look through which they really liked some of the pieces, so they have said they would defiantly be interested in throwing a few design jobs my way which would be great, but they also said that if i want to send any designs into them to have a look through then they would be happy to do this. 

All in all it was a pretty great day really. Really feel like im starting to get the contacts that i need.

Stone Soup - Day 1

Today was my first day at Stone Soup for my Intern ship, i am the first of 4 to go down from the college and so i had no idea what to expect and was really nervous about what i would be doing and if i could actually deliver.
BUT
It all turned out brilliantly, we first ran through my portfolio and then Ben gave me a project that they have been developing for the past 6 months and have another 1.5 years of the contract left, so its a pretty hefty project.

It's for the arts council in conjunction with the 2012 Olympics getting people aware of events and get them moving. It's called imove and, and basically its a campaign to get people moving and to blur the lines between art and sport.

Ben gave me the outlines and limitations of the brief and I set to work with it just coming up with concepts and ideas to develop further. It was a different way of working as all the contend was provided and it was putting it together into a resolution that had the most impact or that could be most useful. Also I had a budget of £500 for a quantity of 5,000 so i had to be careful with any design finishes or techniques that would push this budget up.

By the end of the day i ran through with Ben what i had been doing and he seem to like what he saw. Out of the 4 concepts i had been working on, im going to be developing on Friday and even though there were a few mistakes when using the logos and sponsors, the concepts were strong.

Cant wait for Friday :D

Rejuvenate Productions

I have some how been unbelievably lucky with my housemate who works at Rejuvenate Productions, a web design/developing company. i happen to mention to Chris that we were doing a Web design module and how i wasn't getting out of it what i hope, so he kindly put in a word for me with his boss and took in my portfolio for them to see. 

Basically i don't want to develop websites on to the web, i simply want to design them (which we don't focus on within the web design workshops) and so Rejuvenate would be prepared to let me design some of their sites under supervision of Chris and some of the team so that i can gain an understanding of design for web. As I will be doing this along side Chris (a web designer/developer) i will fully understand what is possible and what rules and restrictions there are. 

So here are a few examples of some of the sites that Rejuvenate Productions have design and developed that are my personal favourite and just show what a great team they are.

Duffield Printers Visit

My visit to Duffield Printers last week was so useful, I learned so much about printers and how they work and the process they go through when a design comes through.

I was able to pick the mind of Jon Mcgill who works primarily with preparing design to go to print and preparing the plates. He showed me the whole process and what software they use and the problems they encounter with designs. One thing i didn't realise was how flexible they can be once a design has been sent through, they can change a document size, change RGB images automatically in to CMYK (not that this is something i should rely on) but it was good to see how much they can actually do that side of things.

Another point which i found extremely useful was how designings specify any print finishes they want and i was surprised that most of it is actually done face to face at a meeting with them where you specify what you want and what stock and finishes and then it all gets sent onto a form.

I then spend a while with Clive Elston who took me around the print factory and explained to me what it was about them that was environmentally friendly with the stocks and materials they use.

All in all it was a great day and I'm really great full that they took time out their day to show me around and answer my questions.