GD Illustration Zine - Update

The Illustration zine which i was planning to design and publish has had a lot of positive feedback and interest with 7 people submitting work for it and many others that wanted to.

I've not managed to meet my personal deadline which was to have the zine printed and ready to hand out before the Christmas break because I ran into some trouble printing. Below are a series of miss-prints that I have documented to show errors in my work.

Open publication - Free publishing - More illustration

This first print came out wrong because the pages that were meant to be facing each other on A3 sheets, were instead printed double sided on separate A4 sheets.

Open publication - Free publishing - More illustration

This second print is in the right order however it was still printed on single A4 sheets then stapled together at the spine which isn't what I designed the zine to be like. It's forced some of the pages to be too close together distorting some of the illustrations.

Open publication - Free publishing - More illustration

The third print out came out even worse as there wasn't a multiple of 4 pages to print. The result was that some pages were printed in odd places and rotated so that they were upside down.

Open publication - Free publishing - More illustration

The final print that I tried was in the correct order and had the right amount of pages to print properly. However it is still a miss print as the document setup is slightly wrong. I need no to go back and change the document size and adjust some of the content so that it wont be cut off once guillotined.

This is a good thing that these books have come out wrong as it shows I have made some mistakes which I need to address. This is one of the major learning outcomes i was hoping to get by setting myself this task.

From here I am going to:-

- rectify these mistakes

- document what went wrong and how to amend the mistakes for future reference

- reprint and publish on a better stock

- redesign/finish the design and layout of the zine

- propose the second volume of the zine

BUSINESS CARD - Ideas & Concepts

These are some initial rough ideas for some business cards.

I'm focusing on the functionality of the card mostly and how I can present the relevant information. This way I will ensure that the business card has the right content. The creative and possibly interactive or concept of the card will come a bit later in my design process.

Ideas so far (from top to bottom):-

- 'C' as a symbol/logo giving myself and brand and identity

- 'CPJC' my initials are the brand/identity - act as a logo - variations include using the letters to describe myself as a designer and a colour coded type set to show my interests e.g. CPJC = CMYK colours

- Using my whole name on the front indent of the business card.

- Using a simplified symbol taken from my illustrations

I've already begun to look at some typefaces that I like and would consider using for some of these ideas. I'm going to try out all the ideas and develop them further to see which works best and which are most suitable for mass production and communicating who I am as a designer.

Business Card - Research & Inspiration

This is a blog post which I will keep coming back to to update and add more and more findings too throughout my business card development.


http://www.toxel.com/design/2010/06/30/24-creative-die-cut-business-cards/

Open publication - Free publishing - More business cards

http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/01/22/30-memorable-and-creative-business-cards/

Things - Adam Mayer Digitally Designed Geared Business Cards from Bre Pettis on Vimeo.

Open publication - Free publishing - More business cards

http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2008/08/07/24-creative-business-card-designs/

Open publication - Free publishing - More business cards

GD Illustration Zine.

I've had an idea for a an extra curricular side project that will give the students on the course a chance to do something illustrative and completely raw. The purpose behind this is to give people a break from having a structure to their design work and being completely free in their creativity.

The form of this project is a short run fan zine which I will print myself in my own time on cheap newsprint, I'm going to plan out some specifications to make it easier for me to create the zine and not have it impact on my other briefs.

The has already been forwarded to the 2nd years and if there its enough interest then I will put it forward to the 1st and 3rd years as well.

The deadline I've set my self for this task is the week before we break up for the Christmas period.

Specifications.

- Has to be illustrated - this could be hand rendered or created digitally

- the work submitted can be either a singular piece or a series of illustrations

- it has to fit on an A4 sheet so if its bigger it will need to be photographed - if vectored and created digitally this wont be a problem but will need to be submitted as a file

- for display options, you may want to photograph parts of your work up close and then have the full illustration as well, Its up to you.

- additional information about yourself and the design can be included as well e.g. name of designer/ name of piece/ inspiration behind it

- for now the artwork must be black and whit due to a lack of funding for printing. Remember you can use tints and opacity to help get around this if your feeling limited

The above will be sent out to all the 2nd years so they can produce something suitable for this project. I myself will also be contributing to the zine to get it going.

Other specifications.

- Simple type cover

- layout very simple, lots of even blank space.

- printed onto cheap newsprint 

- printed in my own time in the mac suite

- use Indesign!

- create a Facebook page for the idea to help put word out to the students.

Considerations for extension.

Using the Facebook group to invite other courses to get involved and submit work.

- invite the other years to be a part

- run more editions with new illustrations with different themes

This all depends on the success of the idea and the contribution of the other students, I don't want to be asking too much of them or myself as we have a lot of other commitments but I want to try this and see what comes of it. Ultimately its a really good opportunity to work with Indesign and practice my software skills which are somewhat lacking.

OUGD201 - Self Evaluation.

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN		LEVEL	05
Module Code	OUGD201
Module Title	DESIGN PRODUCTION - PRINT

END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

NAME

CHARLIE CROSBY

BLOG. ADDRESS

http://c-crosby1013.blogspot.com/

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have discovered and developed a lot of new skills through this module. The most useful I found was the software workshops as they taught me lots of new ways to create simple yet visually satisfying imagery with Photoshop and Also how to apply colour in a multitude of ways over Adobe creative suite. I found the short development briefs during the first half of the module really useful to kick start the second year as the challenged me and also brought back some of the creativity and work ethics which subsided over the summer break. Although some of the tasks were a bit daunting and in places tedious it did force out much more solid designs and it was especially good practice with drawing and thinking about how to utilise my drawing tools. Moving on to the second half of the module I found myself designing more than I ever had on the course so far which I really enjoyed and got carried away with which caused me to take on too much work, sometime I’ve learnt from this is how to step back and rationalise my work and be more selective and generally sensible with my choice of response.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
Practical skills that I have developed include screen printing, which I had only done a little of before, foil blocking, duplex/double sided printing and photography. After using the screen print facility and getting such good quick results first time I feel encouraged to go back and print more for future projects and for any personal or side projects that I plan to carry out. Double sided printing I found difficult to get my head around especially when manually feeding it in the mac suites however I did learn how to send documents properly to the printers for duplex printing and different weights of stock and applications of ink. I particularly enjoyed experimenting with foil blocking because it was different to any other print I’ve ever done and produced really effect results.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
The strengths of my work lies in the amount of ideas and possibilities that I have come up with. This did make it a task in itself to actually make  choices of what to carry out for my range however I felt that my ideas and my concept development skills had massively improved in this module. I’ve been keeping up with my targets that I set at the start of the year the main one being more organised with my time. I managed to get a lot more work done because I kept making ‘to do’ lists and design plans. To improve on this I would say to myself looking back that I should blog them and tick them off as I go.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
Losing focus occasionally, I often get too stuck into designing or blog or researching and forget to spread my time across the many tasks that we have set out for us and by ourselves. For example, I’ve been so concentrated on this module that I have about 2 CTS seminars and a lecture to blog about and research as well as blogging the PPD and enterprise tutorials and the latest type session. Being indecisive has always been a weak point for me, I tried to over come this as much as possible by getting someone to give me their opinion or crit my work. Most of the time this worked nicely and helped but others left me exactly where I was.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
Think big as usual but condense my targets and goals so as not to undertake more than I can manage. After these targets are met I will be able to expand creating a more efficient and focussed way of working. Blog my to do lists and tick them off on my blog to show progress and development and the things that I’m thinking about and prioritising. Make use of the college facilities more. After using a lot of the facilities that I avoided last year I can see how easy and effective they are. I want to use them more for upcoming briefs and also side projects that I have plans for. Blog more vigilantly. After workshops and seminars is easy and second nature now, however, I need to document my work more thoroughly using screenshots of the things I’m doing using software. Pay more attention to Design Context. I sometimes get carried away with designing so much that I forget to go back into my Context blog and update it or add to it. Also I’m starting to look at work whilst designing using multiple tabs when browsing the internet so I can quickly draw inspiration or blog something interesting and/or relevant.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					x
Punctuality					x
Motivation					x
Commitment					x
Quantity of work produced				x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group			x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

'GOOD IS' - Final Crit.

This crit ran much like the others have done for this module only the work we were presenting was the mock ups of our 5 presentation boards.

I had little content to use my boards after the last crit so It was a little rushed to put together, and in so printing them off they came out black and white instead of the colour printer which I had sent it to. This wasn't too much of a set back as I still had some older print outs that should my use of colour in my designs.

We went round in groups of six again and each person presented their work in roughly 2 minutes, then after we split into 3 pairs and critiqued the others work.

Here are the boards I presented for the crit.

There are still a lot of blank spaces on the boards however, now I've seen some of the other boards I think I might simplify the and not try to include some much as its over complicating it and making it visually noisy. Some of the blank spaces I filling in by hand and made drawings of ideas or items simply because I'd ran out of time to format them and place them on the boards.

Range - Flea-Shirt, Poster, Flea Cup, Chapinabox, CD, Publication

Packaging - CD case, Chapinabox with cut outs, Flea-Shirt box, Flea cup Box

Promotion - Poster designs and variations, Flyers and variations, Give aways

Publications - Variations of cover art, DPS, layout development, extra content highlighting certain details.

Proposals - Billboards, Laser cut/printed ukulele's, Printed canvas tent or gazeebo for a pop up promotional gig, printed tweed jackets, elbow patches, tea bag hooks that latch onto the edge of your cup.

This is the feedback which I got from the pairs critting my work.

Comment on the extent to which the work presented a clear approach to the research development and resolution of a personal response to the brief.

Comments

Very personal response to the brief!

research could have been a little more in depth,

or more obvious visually in the finals.

Insufficient / satisfactory / Good / Very Good / Excellent

Comment on the extent to which the work presented/proposed demonstrates a critical approach to the investigation of content, audience context. Has this been informed by appropriate levels of contextual research?

Comments

Different take with the band, not sure exactly on the audience?

Colours need to be taken more into consideration, or made clearer.

Need to imply FUN!

Insufficient / satisfactory / Good / Very Good / Excellent

Comment on the appropriateness of the range of products/proposals with regards to their effective and innovative use of print processes, techniques and formats.

Think about promotion of the group - merchandise is good for after they are famous.

Think about the other forms of print.

Insufficient / satisfactory / Good / Very Good / Excellent

 Unfortunately I only got feed back from one of the 2 other pairs but we got a chance to sit down as a full group and go over the feedback and extend it and talk through a few ideas and suggestions to improve and refine the boards and the concept.

Comments

- need to tie it together, simplify it

- use photography on the CD

- focus on the article

- emphasise the fun

- special print processes - foil blocking, embossing

- type foil blocked

- decorative designs foil blocked

- tie products together as a package deal when buying the CD

- gift/tour poster

- either push to emphasise the Ukulele more or change your 'good' to Chaps or Chap Hop

- the P on the the tag line 'Come On Chaps' looks like a D - make the sentence bigger or manipulate the type in some way, maybe change it.

Overall a very average result from the crit which I'm not best pleased about because there is so much to address now on top of my original design plans.

Now I need to re plan again and condense what I'm doing so I'm not biting off more than I can chew, focus it down to the basics of getting the print side of it done properly then the extra design work can come after.

My boards need a lot of work but I think first I will go back to my research and concept and go over what I need to do in order for it to work thoroughly and solidly and as concept and a response.

PPD Tutorial.

I am not a student, I am a professional in training.

Graphic Design is not an industry, it is a profession.

I have to remember I am the best, I will be desirable No.1 when leaving college because I'll be fresh and up to date and eager to get a job.

Don't ever laugh off a job, give equal worth to every job - if you have a week to do something and your busy with other jobs as well, make time for it throughout the week.

Who do you know? Course mates, tutors, people from other years/ other courses, college alumni, visiting professionals, people from work placements and experience, past clients, friends, family, favourite practicing professionals...

Skype - get talking to people on Skype, don't be shy of talking face to face on a computer.

First things first - BUSINESS CARD - www.moo.com or co.uk (for printing)

Functionality comes first, make sure it communicates who you are and has a way for them to get in touch with you.

Then be creative, develop so the functionality becomes the creativity.

Creative C.V - not full of GCSE's or A Level qualifications

Should have things like: -

- previous works

- former employers and work placements

- aspirations

Make it a like your personal shop window - a glance at you - all about you - creative memory jogger

Milk carton example.

You are a commercial artist, you work for money not for free.

Portfolio comes later - needs to be built up properly and carefully.

SPELLING/ NAMES/ GRAMMAR - get these right or you wont get a chance.

Don't be selfish but be competitive.

Never lose sight of the fun - 9 times out of 10 we create our own stress.

The image makers (book)

Plan who your aiming at.

It's all about you.

Contact - telephone personal - email not as personal - postcard or letter very personal

Ask questions but not too many at once, be persistent. If your sending a file make it small, PDF shrink software.

Tim TM Marketing - youtube

Write down what you want to talk about if you make a phone call.

Don't do work they already do it makes you look pointless in hiring.

Duplicate your work - back it up in 3 places.

Always take something away from a meeting - feedback, advice, contacts, business cards, a piece of work (hopefully a job offer)

"And one more thing" - what extra thing can you offer after fulfilling the clients request - present your work then show them what they could of won.

Communication is a full time occupation.

Print will never die.

If you can think it, someone can do it.

interactive walls

interactive pool table - playing pool on a pool effect.

be aware of these possibilities, you don't have to actually use them - never stop thinking bigger.

Think of the bigger idea - do the best you can for each client.

Ideas don't go away - they just get stored away.

Ask about travel and living expenses, they may be able and willing to help you cope.

Don't react badly - ask why its bad or why its not working for them - how you can make it better or work?






ACTION PLAN


Ultimately I need to start researching into these 5 topics. I've made lists of starting points for each one to give me plenty to consider and investigate. I'm going to aim to have my first business card printed before Christmas.


Business Card
- functionality
- printing
- creativity
- accuracy
- give one to parents


Creative CV
- mail shot
- letters
 - design
- aspirations
- previous work, jobs, placements
- skills
- personality
- humour


Portfolio
- build up
- physical
- digital
- compact
- tidy
- well presented
- communicate


Contacts
- who are they?
- where are they?
- why them?
- what can you offer?
- ask questions
- persistence plan


Feedback
- ask them for some
- come away with something
- leave your business card and a good impression