Coda Website - PPRD

Coda Music is a local company offering music lessons and classes around Dorset. Coda wanted a new website to become more up to date with their online presence. I read through the brief a couple of times and decided I would email Phil Hallett and arrange a meeting.

I mocked up some layouts through the week so when we met we had a starting point. The brief wasn't very specific so I did few different options. We met the following Monday and discussed ideas. Phil liked a couple of the mock ups I had done so we combined elements of both designs and talked about how the Coda site would work.

Phil was keen on having a blog that he could easily update and linking this to a news feed on the main page of the site. We also discussed creating a Facebook group and a twitter account to increase their online presence.

The Coda website is an ongoing project and I will continue working with Phil for the next few months until the project is complete.

Professional Project Boxes

I received a couple of sample boxes in the post this morning. I had ordered samples from a few companies to check if the t-shirt will fit in comfortably with all the other bits.

These are 2 part recycled cardboard boxes in which I am going to have a limited edition t-shirt, stickers, brochure, hang tag and a little present. At the moment I am trying to get designs and drawings for the stickers and hang tags finished so I can get them off to print in the next week so it's one less thing to worry about.

Waiting for the 'pizza style' box to come so I can have a look and decide on one.

Live Briefs.

Everything going well. I am waiting on a reply from Emma @ Mushroom Marketing about the changes on the Suttles website and then I can make the final touches to the pages and that brief is pretty much finished.

I have taken on another small brief which involves laying out and designing a brochure for "Bourne Arts & Events" festival. This is an 8 page brochure containing all the information needed for the event. The design and colours have been left to me to decide so this should be fun.

I am also designing wedding invitations for my friends wedding in August. They are looking for a elegant & sophisticated look with a touch of something different. Should have a couple of examples in the next couple of days.

The other projects I am working on are coming along nicely, I am trying to get all my bits complete before I start on my professional project.

Live Briefs

I am well into my live briefs now. The Suttles website is moving quickly and with the most recent list of amendments complete I am just adding finishing touches.

I am entering D & AD through the 'Metro' brief. This is an interesting brief that I think will push me to think differently. I have some strong ideas so a couple more days refining them then to work.

Spring/Summer T-shirt designs almost finished. Aiming for around 8 main designs.

Other briefs also being worked on between these, I have pushed certain things to the back of the pile but next couple of days will catch up.

Sketch it

I am making a point of drawing more this year. A sketch a day.

I also started a new font last night. I have the idea to make a new font sketched out but haven't had time to re-draw in FontLab. Now I am making sure I finish projects I start so yesterday evening I started it again! My font is loosely based on Chinese symbols, using the curves and shapes to form letter forms.

Also my new Harmonica arrived today!

Live Briefs

With the website done I have got a few days to concentrate on some live briefs I am working on:

Coda Music Website: I am building a website for Coda Music a local music community offering lessons and classes in dance & musical instruments. I have designed the main pages of the website and have been in contact with Phil Hallett frequently to discuss advancements in their online presence. I have set up a Coda Music Facebook group which I will link to the website so Coda can communicate with a wider audience, I am also going to talk with Phil about a Twitter account and a blog for quick updates and up & coming events. Phil and I have also discussed creating a sister website aimed at 12-18 yr olds, a kind of 'urban' Coda if you will. Nice open brief, lots of freedom to experiment. Lots of fun.

Suttles Website: In contrast to the Coda brief, this is much tighter. Working with Mushroom Marketing I am re-designing Suttles Stone Quarries current website. I have completed the main landing page and the online depot pages where customers buy rock/building materials online. I am only doing the front end work for this website, I was asked if I wanted to do the coding also but my web knowledge isn't sufficient to take on such a task, but I have friends that are web friendly so I have asked one to take a look at the work involved and contact Mushroom Marketing. I just figured it would be easier to work with someone I knew rather than a stranger.
Simple.

PSSN logo : Ah! I nice little logo brief. Myself and Sophia decided to tackle this together. Subject Specialist Network was a brief handed to us by Sally and involved designing a logo for the Plastics Museum. Our original thoughts were something made of plastic, we tried laying out text in a kind of Hama Bead style but we weren't really feeling it. Our final idea is based on airfix kits you get to make model airplane. Sophia and I won that competition and the logo is going to used for all their advertising. You can see the logo @ creativemedicine

Typographic Culture : I liked the sound of this brief when I read it so I decided to give it a try. I had never really done a type brief so I thought I should. While I was sketching out some ideas it was raining like it had been doing for the past 2 weeks. This set me off thinking about using this to describe my culture. Rain. My final piece consists of the shape of an umbrella made up of all the names of English cities and counties. It can be seen on my website or @ Typographic Culture

I am also working on a number of projects through CreativeMedicine. I am constantly working on designs for T-Shirts & Hoods that I print myself when I go back to Jersey. I am in the process of setting up with new wholesalers for our garments and this is taking a lot of time away from other things. At some point we want to have the clothes made for us instead of buying pre-made sizes but this takes time which I don't have at the moment. A few other bits I have on are designing and having made re-usable Vinyl Bags, packaging for Wax-a-million surf wax and I recently designed board shorts and t-shirts for Midbay Stores in Jersey, a beach shop and cafe.

Outside of this I am working on a short kinetic typography animation using After Effects for a personal project. I decided to spend a certain amount of time per week learning new software and Adobe After Effects is a program I have never really used properly but I am about half finished and learning quickly.

In the last few weeks I have also been starting to think about spring/summer t-shirt designs. I have got together with certain friends and discussed ideas. I think Reggae heavyweights will be the first collection, followed by Hiphop Allstars, these are extremely bold t-shirts and will stand out and hopefully be noticed.

I am also learning to play the harmonica.

Typographic Culture

My entry is finally up on the site for Typographic Culture. Explain your culture in Type.

http://jeannecummins.wordpress.com/

Please let me know what you think.

creativemedicine.co.uk

Website pretty much done now! Just adjusting the gallery and laying out 'clothing' page. Lightbox & PHP mailer to come next....

Screen Based Communication 2

We had our first crit for the website last week. Discussed ideas and got everyone's opinions on the initial designs.

I have been working on the site for a week now trying to get the visuals how I want them. Next crit tomorrow to show all the front end stuff then we have until 15th Jan to build the site.

Typographic Culture

Here is a piece for Typographic Culture I am working on. Still got a few things to do but getting there.

Communicating Ideas II

I have now settled on my idea for this part of our brief. I am going to use the idea that Elizabeth Gilbert talks about in her video about 'Creative Genius". She talks about the idea that people have a kind of invisible friend that helps with your creativity, so when you produce a good piece of work you can't take all the credit but equally if you bum out your entirely to blame.

She explains that ideas & creativity are floating around free in the air. We can't see it, but if your creative you can grab these ideas and use them for your own. This is how people sometimes come up with the same ideas, and also how we use these ideas to produce something.

I am going to make a short video/animation showing somebody working on a laptop and surrounding them is the 'creative genius' which is shapes & colours representing ideas. I am still researching how is going to best to animate this as I want the final piece to look effective.

Communicating Ideas.

For the final section of this project we have been asked to respond to an idea and communicate it visually to a specific audience.

We have been asked to watch 7 short videos on www.TED.com and produce either a paper based piece with type and print specs or screen based lasting no longer than 30 seconds. I have downloaded the videos and have been watching the podcasts on my ipod for the last few days. I narrowed my choice down to 3 videos and have continued watching these to try and extract ideas from them. I will keep you posted on my progress.

New from Old 3

We had our final crit for our New from Old brief on Friday. We broke off into 3 groups, paper maquettes at the ready. I feel this went really well, I got some good feedback from the tutors and the group and we discussed ways in which I could slightly improve my final design.

I have finished the adjustments to my layout and now I just have to define my pantone colours and get my box layouts printed on card.

New from Old 2

Tapioca.

I have decided to re-brand Tapioca, I think this product is going to be the least popular, as nobody really likes it.

Initially I wanted to try and push Tapioca as a natural product, emphasizing the use of eco-friendly processes and bio-degradable packaging. I would be aiming this at people who experiment with new foods, mainly vegetarians/vegans and people conscience of healthy eating.

After discussing this idea with Justin we decided that these is the area of people who would already be buying this kind of product so all I would be doing is pushing the advertising in the same direction which doesn't really answer the brief.

Now I was heading in the right direction and knew my demo graph I started to lay down some design ideas. I wanted to promote different types of Tapioca in a slick and up to date style to attract a new type of people to try it. Many people probably don't know how much you can do with Tapioca pearls, sticks, flakes, and powder, so I would include a leaflet in each box with a quick recipe for a dessert or as an addition to a main course.

I tried black to represent slick and elegant. I will also try these packages in different colours.

Suttles Website Brief

After replying to an email sent out about a live brief to design a website for Suttles, a company that owns quarries and sells stone online, I received an email with the full details including company logo and layout requirements. Suttles had just had a re-brand so they want to incorporate this feel throughout the website.

I met with Matt Desmier and we discussed how I would approach the project and to make sure it can run along my uni work. I am now in contact with Emma Ansell from Mushroom Marketing who wrote the brief. We have organized a meeting for next week so we can discuss the project in more detail.

I am only required to do the layouts for this website as they have people in house to do the back end stuff.

New from Old

Another day, another brief. We were given a list of food items that we see as redundant and we have to re-brand one. We need to either market this item as new and improved or collectible and retro.

I haven't settled on which I am going to use yet but I am swaying towards a couple.

I recently an article in CR about Golden, a design company that has formed from the collapse of The Designers Republic and they recently did a re-brand for Lurpak.

Robert Louis Stevenson.

Our next brief for this unit involved each of us choosing a name from a hat and then designing stationary for that person. I got Robert Louis Stevenson, the author and poet.

Research research research. I have read a couple of his books but too long ago to really remember so I ventured out to Boscombe to explore the charity shops. First second hand book I came to... 2 mint condition early edition hard backs.

After reading up some stuff on the internet and reading his 'Essays of Travel' I started sketching out ideas for a design. I wanted to use a traditional serif typeface to represent his time in England so I decided on Baskerville. He also spent a lot of time in Somoa, the place in which he called home, so I included a traditional Somoan design which would be embossed on the business card.

A kind off ivory card would be used for the business cards and a heavy weight paper for the compliment slip and letter head. I have shrunk the business card down to 55mm x 55mm as a lot of the Somoan art is circular and symmetrical, and this size would still fit your wallet.

Here's a rough version of what I want my designs to look like.

Thank you!

As the first part of Visual Communication in Context 2 with were given a short brief about saying Thank You. We were given the opportunity to say thank you to someone, we have to consider why we want to say thank you and what would be the best way of communicating this.

After lots of thought I decided to thank Tim Berners Lee for inventing the internet. I thought this was fitting as most of us use the internet everyday and don't even think about it. I though the best way to communicate this message was by building a basic website showing my thanks and giving people the opportunity to say thank you for something they use everyday and probably couldn't live without.

I am experimenting with text and layouts at the moment, so once that's done I will get it ready for the web.