OUGD402 | STUDIO BRIEF 1 | ANNE JORDAN

I came across Anne Jordan's work on It's Nice That, and her unique style immediately caught my eye. 

 The use of material for example the hair is very intriguing and almost makes me feel a bit uneasy. It's very effective though. The brush strokes on the last image is definitely my favourite. I love how the whole of the design works, and still looks geometric and rectangular even though it's made of brush strokes. 

http://www.annatype.com/

OUGD402 | STUDIO BRIEF 1 | DAVID CARSON

I don't think I have ever fully been into the modernism scene. My previous graphic design work before coming to the college was always very experimental and quite self indulgent. I would create things for the fun of it, and felt like I was good at it, which is what caused me to take this course in the first place. 

During the learning process at the start of the academic year I felt like modernism was the most popular style in the class, and I felt as though I didn't quite appreciate it as much as others did. I was most interested whenever we learned of postmodern designers, and of course the one who stuck out to me the most was David Carson. 

I find his work extremely influential, because it appears to be so chaotic and spontaneous, however Carson is always trying to communicate something in his designs with a different principle than some modernist designers would have.

Carson's designs for Audi, Germany.

OUGD402 | STUDY TASK ONE

Today we received our first Personal & Professional Practice brief. It entails an ongoing reflective journal in the form of this blog. It must contain relevant content that I am interested in and inspired by; not just a scrapbook of images.

We also had a study task in groups, and was asked to research a company and make a presentation about them. Our company was Snask. I really loved their design, they had such an interesting and fun use of colour and ideas.

Here is my presentation on Snask:

ILLUSTRATOR WORKSHOP

Today my group, DP1, had our first Illustrator Workshop today. Since I am not as experienced with Illustrator as I am with Photoshop, I've been looking forward to learning all the basics of the program.

It was pretty informative and also engaging. Even though I knew some of the functions and information during the workshop, it was really useful to learn shortcuts and have a more in depth look at the different tools. 

Practicing with these basic shapes and vectors will eventually be critical in the development of our letterforms. During the workshop I experimented with shapes and duplication.

STUDY TASK 1

IDENTIFY & EXPLAIN 5 REASONS YOU CHOSE TO STUDY ON THIS COURSE...

• Leeds College of Art is a specialist institution. It is exciting to be around those taking other creative subjects and the focus solely on art
• Graphic Design can feature many different medias which can also be combined to create unique pieces of work; for example photography, illustration etc.
• The college is not too close to my hometown, yet not too far away either.
• During my interview I found myself admiring the student's design pieces stuck on the wall and simply felt that this course was for me, especially at Leeds College of Art, something just felt very right.
• In Graphics, there are a lot of different opportunities and directions to go with it, which makes it a very challenging and dynamic course to be doing.

IDENTIFY AND EXPLAIN 5 THINGS YOU WANT TO LEARN DURING YOUR TIME ON THE COURSE

• I'd love to improve my typography skills and learn how to create super typefaces of my own.
• The ins and outs of screen printing.
• I'd love to feel the pride of having my hard work used in an exhibition.
• Meeting other creative & likeminded individuals with a drive to succeed and create.
• Learn much more about Adobe Illustrator.

IDENTIFY & EXPLAIN 5 THINGS THAT YOU THINK ARE YOUR STRENGTHS...

• A particular strength I have is working with hand drawn illustration. I enjoy creating detailed pieces of art, and due to studying fine art at A Level and GCSE I have experience with drawing and using materials.
• I think I can create visually pleasing layouts, using fonts and image.
• I always strive to create work that is as original as possible. I am a big fan of controversial and unique, quirky graphics so it is a big goal of mine to always think outside the box.
• I am quite experienced on Photoshop.
• Since I have been practicing dotwork, I have no choice but to be patient with it, since it is so time consuming! Through this I have found a massive improvement in my patience.

IDENTIFY & EXPLAIN 5 THINGS THAT INSPIRE YOU 

• Whenever I find myself buying an album, I always go out of my way to observe the cover and the pamphlet inside. I find them extremely interesting and inspiring, seeing how each artist has chosen to represent themselves using design. My favourite band Deftones are a huge inspiration, using brilliant designs for their album artwork.
• During a shopping trip, I am drawn to wonderful packaging and use of fonts and layout. I find minimal designs for packaging the most interesting and aesthetically pleasing.
• One of my greatest passions is tattoos, I am completely obsessed with researching tattoo artists and seeing their wonderful work. I love how there are so many styles of tattooing and I have taken a lot of inspiration from artists such as Robert Borbas and Daniel Meyer.
• I am very passionate about feminism, and enjoy creating and being inspired by feminist art. Over the summer me and some super people created a zine relating to feminism and other gender based issues.
• I have a huge love for Ikea, and find their advertising, prints and use of colour very appealing and inspiring.