The Walker Agency and friends at Saatchi

I was lucky enough last Weds (10th Dec) to visit The Walker Agency, an advertising agency in Bournemouth (and the largest in the South of England outside London). One of my best friends is the art director there and I asked if I could pop in for a few hours and see how he works and what the agency is working on at the moment. I'm not sure if I want to go in the direction of Advertising, but it does interest me and I know I would like to be an art director.

It was a fantastic experience. I was able to see the briefs (or lack of) that they were given and also the timescales they have to work to (hours rather than weeks). There are two people in the creative department and they talked me thorough a campaign they are producing for an organic clothes company that want to advertise on the underground in London, on the posters you see on the other side of the track. They talked me through the brief and explained why they had taken a certain approach and what they were trying to say and then asked me for my opinion!

It was a little embarrassing really but I suggested a few things that I felt could be improved and they were appreciative of my input and actually changed part of the advert on my advice :-)

They asked what I was working on for my course and I showed them the brief for the Amnesty International project and they both had some good advice for me and even had a bash themselves at producing some ideas for it.

I also found out that a mutual friends uncle had in fact designer the Amnesty International logo while he was working at Saatchi's!!! So now I'm hoping to get some work experience with him!

It was a really constructive day and I learned a lot even though I was only there for a few hours. They were interested in my ideas for Amnesty and have said I can go back there anytime I want to watch them work, for advice or just to help them on future briefs ;-)

Colgate 24 hour protection

Our second chance to work in work in groups saw us have to create some visual clues for another group for After Eights. In turn another group created some visual clues for us which we concluded was Colgate (actually, not wanting to blow my own trumpet but I guessed it pretty quickly and spent far too long trying to convince the rest of the group).

Once we knew what the product was we had to come up with an advert. I found this much harder than the last piece of group work as we were restricted a little by the brand. We brainstormed some ideas but came up with the usual themes of bright, white, fresh and I personally realised how hard it can be when you have to produce an advert for something that in itself isn't particularly inspiring.

Our first idea was to use the tooth fairy looking for new work as Colgate looked after your teeth so well, but after some advice from Kit we changed our take on it. She explained that the tooth fairy was only really associated with children and therefore the context in this advert wasn't appropriate.

Short on ideas and time, we decided to go for a bouncer offering protection on a 12 hour basis. Its a very simple concept and certainly wouldn't win any awards, but it does get the point across. I was personally not pleased with our effort. I thought the group became fractioned and and one point we had 3 people working in one idea and the rest of us working on another. I enjoy working in groups a lot, its so easy to be able to bounce ideas off others but sometimes its difficult too and today was one of those days!

Poster Campaign - Group Work

Well today was a great day. The last time we worked in groups on a project I wasn't here (tape and type) and to be honest, I felt like missed out a bit. So I enjoyed today for that reason and also because of the brief we were set.

We had to create an A3 poster to encourage public spending based on the economist, John Maynard Keynes theory that, spend more, save less will help to grow the economy quickly.

We were put into groups of 5-6 and began discussing ideas. I had an idea from the day before when I looked at the brief but I didn't want to force that idea on the team so thought if we couldn't come up with anything, then I'd introduce it.

Brainstorming was slow at first and I almost felt it more responsibility (maybe as the oldest?) to get people talking and throwing ideas down. We tried to identify a target audience and thought that most young people wouldn't have a massive disposable income, equity or even savings so initially directed our thoughts towards 40+, kids grown up and left home. We then had to think of what would entice them to spend? We thought of a lifestyle. Everyone has role models and ideals so we looked for a role model of that generation. The first iconic name we produced was Audrey Hepburn. Liked by almost everyone, male and female and particularly non offensive. The image of her in Breakfast at Tiffany's is iconic in itself and easily identifiable. We also thought the theme of the film, an alleged working girl, who has a taste for the finer things in life, was very appropriate.

We then tried to think of a similar person for an older generation, 60's. Richie Rich was suggested but nobody really knew of his popularity or impact. We decided to come back to a younger audience but this was the hardest one to find. There are so many popular figures in modern day culture its hard to find one the encompasses every ones likes. The Beckhams are probably too overused and other sports personalities were not appropriate. Lewis Hamilton was suggested, but not whilst he is well respected by the younger audience, sports people in general are resented almost for the money they "earn" and most wouldn't take well to seeing a multi millionaire telling them to part with their cash. We even thought about how big the Hip Hop culture is these days, but could only identify Kanye West as a non controversial highly popular figure, but he isn't British, so the idea didn't work. The nearest thing to him is Dizzie Rascal, but he's not as glamorous, popular, famous or iconic enough for the ads to work.

Daniel Craig, as James Bond, was suggested. The James Bond lifestyle is something most men would like to buy into, money, cars, women etc and then thought of using a James Bond from each era. For the older audience, Sean Connery, middle aged, Roger Moore and youngest, Daniel Craig. This gave the impression of a James Bond box set/advert and the meaning was lost. But Sean Connery, especially as Bond, has a similar aura about him as Hepburn and we felt we had two strong icons, one female, one male to work with. Both were popular, credible, British, iconic and non-offensive.

Along with their own iconic status come with them an image of iconness, a Martini for Connery and Breakfast at Tiffany's for Hepburn. We decided to keep the images black and white and then decide on a strap line. We wanted people to spend, but to spend on themselves, not for the sake of the economy. It had to be personal than that. Immediately we came up with " When did you last have a Martini/Breakfast at Tiffany's?" But felt maybe it sounded too much like an advert for Martini, so to make it more personal, replaced "...last have" with "last treated yourself to..." as it gives a subtle idea of treating you for the good of you, not for the economy.

We wanted the text to have a dreamy, luxurious feel to it, a little extravagant but not over the top. Baskerville was chosen as its a serif font and fitted beautifully with the message we were trying to deliver. We also wanted a strap line "Save Less, Spend More" on the posters to make them more contemporary. Initially we put it in Arial, but it didn't sit right and after some consultation with Sally, chose to go with Baskerville for the strap line too and right justify it.

I was extremely pleased with the outcome. I felt it was simple, elegant and subtly planted the idea in the head of the viewer of treating themselves to a little something. Nothing too expensive, just enough for it to be a bit special, we couldn't very well say "When was the last time you treated yourself to Pearls/an Aston Martin" as this would alienate the audience.

I think I played a strong role in the group, tried to encourage the less vocal and also generated some good ideas of my own. I thought Hannah's input was excellent, coming up some really strong concepts and Luke's Photoshop skills were also valuable. Steve went through a lot of Fonts and even had a go at InDesign.

Although our idea didn't "win" I am still really pleased with the concept, from the the first stages to the final print. We were fortunate to have a strong team and no real personality clashes, we even all went for lunch together!

Again I wasn't vocal enough in the crit of others work. I think more about what I'm going to say and our team is going to present than questioning others work. I need to improve on this. On two occasions my question was actually asked by Kit, but if I had spoken up it would have looked better.

A thoroughly enjoyable day with a good outcome. I like that we were once again mixed up, I had hardly spoken with any of this team before today.

Done and Dusted

And so it passed! Deadline time has come and gone and I am sooo pleased I printed my book on Saturday. I may have made some mistakes by having some of the text hyphenated, but judging by the stress levels of some who were trying to print today, I'm happy with that!

I was actually ready to hand in at midday but someone said to me "I'm not handing in mine until the last moment 'cos I can keep adding to it". He had a point but I really felt that if any content wasn't there now, it was for a reason and I didn't want to put things in for the sake of it.

So I signed in my work with Kit around 2ish and walked away. It's all done now. I don't think I'm going to get a particularly high mark for my work but I am very keen to get feedback during the individual tutorial of my strengths and weaknesses and where I can improve. Having said that, I'm very proud of the book I produced. I never would have imagined I could produce a book in just 7 days. From initial concept, to critique through to print and presentation.

We also had our new brief today, for Amnesty International. A little daunting but very exciting and I'm looking forward to this. I need to come up with a really strong idea and develop it. I already have an idea for an advert, but it would be raising awareness rather than encouraging donations, so probably won't follow it up.

It's The Final Countdown

Tuesday 4pm is the deadline. Roughly a day and half to get everything completed and in to be assessed. I have spent most of Sunday putting my book together and now have to do the write-up and complete one of my editorial illustrations and then, I think, I'm done!

It's not been easy. I spent 9-3.30 at Uni on Saturday, finalising the content of my book. I really wanted some feedback from Sally or Neil before printing especially after I made some changes to the content after the critique on Friday. (Sally was away on Friday though and Neil was mega busy, so I went it alone). I tried to put more examples of my work in there and have also added more text about how each thing has effected me personally.

Time was slipping away so I printed on Saturday - after driving to The Range in search of some suitable paper, and then to Staples as The Range had bugger all - thinking that Monday, everyone will want to print and it will be a madhouse, not to mention, probably quite emotionally charged! I'm not really happy with some of the text in the book. I think it could have been set out better, I saw Clive for some advice but he didn't really solve the issue and his ideas were a little too radical considering the timescale.

On a side note, I'm convinced I need to buy a Mac now. If I had one at home, I could work at home and not have to be in Uni. When my grant money comes through, I think I'll have to splash out. They're expensive but it's a necessity now almost!

So tomorrow will be fun, I reckon. I haven't written anything for my tutorial with Anna. I think she should have held the tutorials next week, after the deadline. I know they put all the deadlines together to make us feel a bit more like we are working in industry, but I think we all have enough to do and Anna should have waited a week. Nobody is really going to take on any of her comments because we all have other things on our mind. We'll see how it goes.

Off to bed now to dream of scoring paper, measuring to the millimetre and cutting were I shouldn't have.

Green grass & Deadlines

This week we had a bash a book binding with Sally, which was the first time she'd actually taken us for a class, and Hannah who recently completed her MA in St Martins, London.

We saw varied styles of book binding from Japanese techniques to some where all the signatures had been left loose. Hard covers, soft covers, you name it. It's obvious really, but I guess I hadn't really concentrated on how many styles of book there are. Really interesting and since then I find myself inspecting books on a much closer level, even if it's just a small booklet. Partly for ideas for the book we have to produce to show what we've learned during text and Image, but also just through plain curiosity. It's definitely a skill and one I would like to perfect during this course. I found the sewing quite therapeutic actually, and Hannah showed me the technique whilst we chatted about learning Spanish. I was envious of her book making skills and she of my linguistic skills...the grass is always greener!

So; the book! Well we have a mini crit this Weds where we are to present out ideas, layout, thought process and then a week to produce the final piece. This will probably take most of the week so I really need to press on with the other aspects of text and image. I need to complete 1 editorial illustration, 3 examples of vernacular typography and the A3 poster...in less than a week...and I worked 10 hours today and the same tomorrow. But I don't want that as an excuse, I will have to put the effort in this weekend (again) and see where I am come Monday, when we have another mini crit with our PAL groups...It's all go!

My idea for the book, by the way, is to go for a A-Z of text and image. I saw Neil about it and I think he liked the idea, I'm just concerned about the amount of pages and how to bind it well. I have some rough ideas in my sketchbook.

Weekend progress

Well this weekend has been fairly productive.

I returned to Poole quay to try and get some more sketching and photography done and I'm really pleased I made the effort. Despite the fact it was bucketing down, I got some images that I believe I can develop for the editorial Illustrations. I was happy enough with the images from the group trip but I think I went for too much detail, so put that right this time.

I have been using Illustrator most of Sunday to try and get underway with part of the Text and Image theme and have put some interesting stuff in my sketchbook too.

Just need to complete the reading for Anna and I'm done! :-)

Time Managment!

Today I had a group tutorial with Kit and realised just how much I need to do to do myself justice. I know I'm learning and researching but if I don't demonstrate it, how can I prove it?

After the tutorial I rushed home and made a list of things I need to do, things I should do and things I want to do. I have it clear the depth required from my sketchbook now. It has been difficult because the idea of keeping a sketchbook doesn't come naturally to me. I have a pocket Moleskine where I write ideas, websites etc, but to log my learning process through sketches, photos, cut outs, writings, thoughts etc., is new to me.

I think I may have to revisit Poole for my editorial Illustrations too. I think the photos I took where too detailed and not generic enough. I have really zoomed in on my subjects and feel now I would benefit from having more "overview" of Poole style photos. Maybe I'll shoot over on my Vespa early Saturday morning. Weather permitting! :-)

Tomorrow I have my 2nd Illustrator class but I wasn't aware of this and due to work commitments won't be able to make it. I tried to call today to advise Clive but couldn't locate him. I'll have to hunt him down and ask him to run through it with me one-to one.

Work does have a lot to answer for so far. Obviously I knew before I started I would have to balance things well, but losing all day Thursday and Friday is really hard. The weekends are non existent at the moment, just a blur of mostly reading course material and the Sundays, sketchbooks and trying to have some sort of life! How selfish!

This weekend is going to be another marathon, but I like it really. It's all for my good.

A Bit Of Guidance

Today I met with Sally after deciding that I needed a bit of direction. Like most, I was feeling a bit daunted by the amount of work we were given and even more so the impending deadline dates.

She promised no boll*ckings would be given so I showed her what I had done and bounced some ideas off her. I think I was mostly unsure of sketchbook use and referencing. It was a really helpful session and I now have clear my idea for almost everything for Text & Image, with the exception of the 3 illustrations. I went away and jotted ideas down in my sketchbook and feel a lot more comfortable with the whole subject.

For the Vernacular Typography brief I want to produce my three sets with a non English feel to it. I am going to look through my photos and aim to produce one on Catalan Typography, one on Spanish Typography and another on Braille. This last one might not be possible as I'm not sure if I have enough images, so I will use Chinese typography from soho/China town in London if necessary.

Tomorrow is my penultimate session in the print room :-( I need to produce an abstract piece and my best idea so far is to produce the word Belong with a large B and the other letters printed inside of the B...it would be easier to show it than to explain! But I'm not settled on that idea and knowing me I will almost certainly think of something last minute.

PAL

During our PAL session today we were encouraged to personalise our blogs. I wasn't feeling particularly creative at that moment so I did some research instead by reading 2nd year Vis Com students blogs. I love the illustrations by Jennifer Cant for her greetings cards but what most caught my eye was her final piece for her look again/think again. I think this is excellent and one of the best pieces I've seen from someone at the Arts Institute. Strong concept and fantastically communicated. I hope I can get to that level!

Print Room - Love It!

We were let loose on the Print room today and it was great! Last time was a bit of a rush but this time we had a good few hours to play and experiment with the wording, layout, fonts and colouring of our work.

I decided not to use the Kenyan Proverb from last time, as I much prefer the feeling of the quote from Mark Twain. I discussed with Kit whether I would have time to use the whole quote and she suggested I concentrate only on one part. I decided the most powerful part was at the end with the words, "Sail from the safe harbour, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

I then decided to work backwards and started making up the words, Explore, Dream and Discover. The 1st type that caught my eye was the extra large letters and I thought if I used one letter from each word and using the large font, then the remaining letters in smaller font with a mixture of lower case and capitols. Characters are in short supply and it's very much a case of getting in first to avoid having to wait til someone else has finished. I made my text up quickly and was really pleased, although not until I had printed did I realise that I had placed the "d" from "dream" the wrong way around to spell "bream"! I tried to pass it off as experimental and then changed it quickly and acted nonchalant.

I wanted to use vibrant colours for each of my words as they a represent strong meaning. I decided on blue and yellow for "dream" and "discover" respectively and decided to use black and white for "Explore" as I wanted to have an extra large black cross for the "X", as if to donate "X" marks the spot, just like on a map (map, explore, treasure)

I was pleased with the way all my print work came out, particularly the word "Explore" with the large X and the rest of the word written vertically down the side of the X and using the symbol "3" instead of a "e". Kit seemed to like it too as she asked if she could keep one of them :-)

I tried different techniques like printing the same text again after moving the paper slightly to the left and right which I was particularly please with, giving the words almost and echo. I also tried some off printing too but the results weren't so impressive, but you have to try these things!

I thoroughly enjoyed the letter press workshop and hope to get another opportunity again soon to finish my poem and also just to experiment. My favourite exercise of the course so far without doubt.

Photoshop

Clive gave us our first taster of this huge programme today. It was fairly easy techniques a lot of which I already knew - maybe I'm not as poor on photoshop as I thought! The handout, or should I say bible, that was given out though, will take some digesting!

He certainly knows his stuff and explains everything pretty clearly. He said you just have do dive in and have a go and I intend to use it more and more often, not just at work. I thought when he explained about saving work was good too, anyone can save a document but it doesn't look good in front of a client to have search through several folders before finding what you want. We've got another session tomorrow and I've just finished 3 hours on my evening graphic design course using Photoshop too, so I should be up to speed before long!

Moday's "Drift" Critique

We were asked last Tuesday to come up with an image or a series of images to show a journey or a feeling when in a new place when you drift through it.

Most people had chosen London purely due to last weeks visit and that it's a little bit different to Bournemouth. I chose images I had taken whilst in Barcelona a couple of weeks ago.

The main image is taken from near Montjuic looking over the city. Although I know the city well having lived there, this was the first time I had looked out over the city in this way and I was confused as to the location of certain iconic symbols; such as The Sagrada Familia, Park Guell etc.

For the main background image I used a poster edges effect from Photoshop to give the image less definition and recognisable line, creating a more confusing city line, to represent how I felt when viewing this busy scene.

I used pictures of certain places purposely situated in the wrong location to give my feeling of being lost in a place I know so well. I used other images from the day and changed the opacity so that the image behind could be seen but also to reflect my poor memory...I knew what they were but wasn't sure when or where I'd seen them that day.

I placed a photo of a Gaudi mosaic effect in the foreground on a blank wall and used the Sun from Joan Miro to represent the heat of the day and also cover a small blemish I had on the lens of the camera! :-)

Neil said he reminded him of a picture from the travel section of "The Guardian", which I took as a massive complement. I've been reading the Observer for years and I can sort of see what he means...maybe the style sunk in subliminally over the years?

It made me think about trying to do something with a newspaper type article for the Poole project. I really struggling for ideas for that one!

2nd PAL Session + Less Structure = Success

Today we had another session with Vicky, Luke, George and Ringo which was quite beneficial as we were able to see some of their 1st year work and projects. Pretty good standard all round and made me realise I need to put more into my sketchbook NOW!!! I knew I was behind but realise now just how far behind :-0

Really enjoyed the flash animations that we were shown. George's LEGO one was excellent and I would like to do something similar if possible. I brought loads of Play Mobile toys from a shop in Brighton and I would love to set these to a song and make a little music video using them...not sure what our brief will involve, we'll have to see...but I've been wanting to use the toys since I brought them!

The session was a bit something and nothing, I don't think they planned the time too well but in all honesty, it worked better that way. Less structure meant it was less formal and we ended up all talking about different aspects of the course - for me personally it worked well and in the end we over ran into the next hour with a class outside waiting for us to finish!

They all have a different take on things and it's good to hear what they have to say. One point Luke made was that last year they mentioned that the critiques took too long because the group was too large, which is also the same for us I feel.

They're all approachable and friendly too, which sounds obvious but hearing feedback from others in our year, not all PAL sessions are as enjoyable or beneficial as ours.

Muse Of Fire - Kyle Cooper

Wednesday we went to London to get some images for our vernacular photography project and attend a D&AD Presidents Lecture given By Kyle Cooper.

After what seemed like days on the bus we arrived and Ollie, Chris and I shot off to get a a coffee and a feed. We then braved the elements to walk down the strand, through Covent Garden and into Soho taking pictures of any type we thought could be useful. As we all went the same way we all have very similar pictures I imagine. It was strange being back in Soho after so many years working there...bit less stressful this time around :-)

Not sure what 3 subjects I'm going to use for the Vernacular Type brief yet, so I literally shot everything that didn't move...numbers, letters, signs, billboards, posters, stickers. I should have a really good base to start from now.

Kyle Cooper

To say this talk was inspirational would be the understatement of the course so far. Kyle Cooper has produced title credits for many huge blockbuster films and is often compared to a modern day Saul Bass (more about him later). Although he tries to distant himself from this, both have produced ground breaking historical steps in film/Graphic design and it is inevitable.

He started with a speech from Henry V that seemed a little strange at first (although well remembered!) but he kept referencing lines from this piece to explain his thought process and inspiration when working on a title sequence or any new piece of work.

He refers to the term "Muse Of Fire", meaning this great inspiration to do something so well. That a title sequence needs to be a metaphor for the film using typographic wordplay. It needs to define the title of the film, although how much depends on each director. He showed examples from several films including Spiderman 3, Gattaca and Se7en. For the titles in seven he told us how he ran around his own home in search for ideas which included cutting the word "God" form a dollar bill, to represent that the serial killer thinks he is God by judging all others. The hair being pushed into the envelope is hair, he claims, from his own bathroom plug hole!

One of the most simple I thought was the titles for Wimbledon. Such an instant, simple idea, executed so well. What happens at a Tennis Match? Well, the crowd move their heads in time with the ball, giving a left-right-left motion, played upon by Cooper as if the crowd are in fact looking at the names of the title sequence popping up.

Dawn of The Dead was also fantastic. He used hand rendered graphics, painted in blood red, onto black cards and sprayed with acetone to make the effect of melting. This was sandwiched between 8-10 frames of footage that would show carnage as the Dead attacked the living, also using footage of Wars, Muslims praying...all set to a soundtrack of Johnny Cash singing "The Man Comes Around" the lyrics of which marry perfectly to the action.

A round of questions at the end was brief, with Cooper explaining about he doesn't always get to choose the music that goes with the film and that he doesn't see himself carrying on Bass's work, he's doing his own thing and was never really exposed to Bass by his Mentor at Yale Paul Rand, but is proud to be thought of in the same group as Bass.

Kyle Cooper founded companies:

http://www.imaginaryforces.com/
http://www.prologue.com/

PAL groups & Letter Press

Monday was a chance to size up the 2nd years as we were introduced to them through our PAL session. Not sure who was more uncomfortable at first, us or them!

They had decided to use pass the parcel as an ice breaker to get to know us and for us to get to know us too!!! They had put a fair bit of effort in to the game and it was all relaxed and good fun. I had to show everyone my party trick...only problem being, I don't have one! None of it was taken serioulsy though. After I stayed behind to chat with Vicky, Luke and George and they were all happy to talk about the course and anythign really. It's useful to know them, handy for tips, advice and also nice to just know more people :-)

Letter Press...

On tuesday we were able to get our hands dirty using letter press for the first time. We were asked to look for a piece of litery text that describes or details a place of a sense of journey and to use some of the content for our letter press induction.

I trawled through pages of naff poetry on the net before turing to some Lonely Planet journals I have at home.

I wanted to use this Mark Twain quote but it's probably too long;

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't dothan the one's you did do. Throw off the bowlines, Sail from the safe harbour, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

I wrote this in the front of my diary when I was travelling just as a reminder to try everything when the oppertunity comes up.

So I think I'm going to use this Kenyan Proverb;

"Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children".

Although knowing me, I will change my mind several times in the next hour alone!

I used a mixture of lower case and upper case in different typefaces to spell the words "Kenyan Proverb". It came out pretty much as I hoped. I put less ink on some parts to give a worn effect and used the letter "V" upside down for "A" and some letters back to front. I like it!

The process is pretty straight forward but it does give you an idea of how long it would have taken to produce a page or even a book using this method. But I find it quite therepuetic and I can't wait to get in the press room again and just experiment.

BCN

A little apprehensive about returning back to the course tomorrow as I was away last week in Barcelona. Whilst I'm sure I didn't miss much, I hate playing catch up at the best of times, but in this case I think it was worth it...

Barcelona is simply the best city in the world for me (closely followed by Buenos Aires and New York if you're asking).

It has such a strong artistic feel to the city from the fantastic buildings of Antonio Gaudi to the works of Picasso, Dali and Joan Miro. I was lucky enough to live in this city for 3 years and it changed my life. I went from being a naive boy from a small town in Bournemouth to absorbing all that Barcelona had to offer. For the first time in my life I wanted to visit art galleries and look at things closer. Everything is so accessible in this city and even if you're not interested in art or design, you can't help but be amazed.

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia is his most famous creation but I prefer the smaller Casa Batllo and La Pedrera buildings. These are exactly as Gaudi intended them to be whereas the Sagrada Familia has been extended using ideas from other leading architects to continue Gaudi's plan. I love the mosaic affect used heavily throughout the Gaudi's buildings and the city itself, it really helps to form an identity of the city. You know you are in Barcelona when you see this!

I feel it's the design capitol of mainland Europe, so many designers have worked or do work here or have taken inspiration from time spent here. It's an iconic city bursting with creativity and fresh ideas.

Although it was only a quick visit, intended to visit my girlfriends family, we took advantage and did as much as possible in the short time space. This time I went back with our recent introduction to typography still ringing in my ears and tried to look at the type used in the city in different ways and also some examples of graphic design that took my eye.

x height & ampersands

Typography! Can be the sort of subject to kill off a dinner party or ignite passions in certain people, fortunately I belong to the latter group. I can't explain why I like type or why I find it interesting but through this course and some self study I am hoping to learn more about it.

This week we got started on some typographic components and explored Helvetica. Through learning the component names of characters it helped me understand a lot more about type and how to talk about it. I already knew about serif and sans-serif but this week has gone a little deeper and together with reading "Type & Typography" (P Baines and A Haslam) I now have a slightly broader understanding.

The importance of type in graphic design is fundemental. A certain style of type can hold someone's interest or alienate them immediately. There is a feel to a typeface that is hard to express in words...you can feel when type works and when it doesn't, it's obvious, but to explain it...well hopefully that will come :-)

Helvetica is generally thought to be the most beautiful of typefaces. It was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger in Switzerland. It was so popular after its release that it appeared everywhere in graphic art and advertising. Sans serif, it had a bold new look from anything seen before. So high was it's popularity that it was used heavily until the early 70's when designers craved something newer, Helvetica had been over used and over done.

I find this similar in ways to some modern designer brand clothing. Loius Vuitton handbags are well designed, constructed from the finest leather with a distinctive type of its own printed onto the surface, which all together gives the assurance of a quality product. However, these bags are so over used and immitated, a problem suffered also by Helvetica in the form of Arial, that it looses it's appeal. When everyone owns the same handbag (or a copy) it loses it's identification and originality. You can't doubt the quality or style of Helvetica and Louis Vuitton, but would you want to use a typeface that has been so over used in graphic design just for that reason or a bag that is over seen in public?

There is obviously still a place for Helvetica in the desgin world as it remains as popular today as 50 years ago and a quick walk around any city or town in the western world would confirm this. Most of the signs for bus timetables, undergrounds and shop fronts use Helvetica as it's so easy and clear to read. In fact it's hard to imagine a world without Helvetica; it is everywhere you look.

Enough of type for now, wouldn't want to kill off the dinner party!

And we're off...

So this week it's down to the nitty gritty! The nitty gritty of freshers week and hangovers, but more importantly, exemption from council tax!

Last week the first years presented our summer project, titled "Look Again". The was a real mixture of ideas and some had put more effort than others. My photos were rushed through really as the class was running late, something which I have thought a lot about since. Maybe I tried to follow the rules too closely. As Paul Arden says "If something you produced wasn't successful, its probably because you followed the rules" I interpreted the brief too literally maybe and tried to get colour, contrast, texture and text into my images instead of just one or two of those things. The result was maybe that my photos were the classic "style over content". It's hard to make bus timetables interesting for the viewer. I tried to overcome this by taking my shots at strange angles and/or using a fish eye lens. the result was an interesting photo of a dull and everyday object. Still, I can learn from this.

Speaking of Paul Arden, I googled him over the weekend only to find that he passed away last April. I loved his books, in particular, "Whatever you think, think the opposite". I loved some of the advertising campaigns he worked on, mostly "Silk Cut" and "The car in front is a Toyota". I found his ideas were always clever, often had two meanings and played very well with the English language. I read two of his books again over the weekend, inspiring stuff from a clever man.

As well as re-reading Paul Arden books, last weekend I went to London with the intention of visiting The V&A and Tate Modern and ended up doing neither. A walk through Spitelfields Market was more appropriate considering the sunshine and taking a look at the latest trends in independent fashion designers. I ended up taking some pictures of the quirky things often seen in London or any big cities. A montage of brands logo's into the face of Che Guevara was excellent, if unoriginal. It would have been perfect for the "Look Again" assignment we were set over the summer. Just a week too late!

I got my result from my Open University course recently, a pass at A standard and overall mark of 86%. Delighted with the result, although when I look at the website I created I find it very amateur and conservative, although much of that was because of the constraints of the brief.

Spoke with Clive the other day about his past work in editing and it turns out he hired some AVID equipment from TVE Ltd, before I worked there I might add, and they still owe him money! Small world. Nice guy who when I bump into around campus is always willing to stop and say Hi, even if he does call me Mush. I'll presume that he hasn't learnt my name just yet :-)

First class with Anna today, which I found really interesting. I'm not the strongest on Photoshop and other software packages but I find the history and underlining knowledge fascinating. Just taken out "Advertising As Communication" from the library as not able to attend her class next week and she says it's a good read. We'll see!!!

Also took out "Looking Closer" and "Type and Typography". So some 600 pages of reading at bedtime tonight. Drunk on literature? That is what freshers week is all about right? Hmmm, I'll start reading tomorrow maybe ;-)

Impressions of Course (after just 2 days!)

Well, so far so good.

Yesterday we were suggested to to start our own blog, so here's mine. I'm just going to be blogging about my course at the The Arts Institute, how I'm feeling, what I'm learning and how I'm getting along with all.

Only 2 days in so very early to get to analytical about things, but the course content looks great and lecturers all seem down to earth and actually interested in what students are doing!

I guess things are a little different for me being the ripe old age of 30 now. Already had a few fossil jokes from some! It feels very odd to be back in full time education, although this time I'm highly motivated and can't wait to get my teeth into it.

We were shown some of last years final projects on Monday, which, although inspiring, I found a little *gulp* intimidating! How the hell am I going to be able to produce something like that?

Biggest fears right now are finances. No money through as yet and down to about £16. Need to call student loans company today!!! Not sure if photoshop skills are up to scratch and most seem a lot more confident than I was at 18-19. Work has asked me to do some 20 hours a week too - don't think I can do that many so will have to keep an eye on my work/study balance. Want to get as much as I can out of this course.

Looking forward to the group being split as I prefer smaller groups.

Anyway, today we are getting our library cards - how exciting. I think we are all a little spoon fed at this stage. I would prefer to be told "you all need to do A,B and C by next week" and then be left to get on with it. Patients will be needed. I wanted to join the library yesterday so I could queue jump for the reading material, now there will be a stampede for the books suggested. Lets see if I can lead the stampede. Hey, I'm a poet, and I wasn't even aware of it!