Project 9 - Top Trumps

For this project we had to make ourselves into a Top Trump card. I used to love that game! I'm a complete newbie to all the design programmes used on the course, but this wasn't too bad as an introduction.

Project 8 - Wing of a bee

For this project we had to design a butterfly wing based on a concept. We could choose the concept ourselves, so I went for something I immediately think of as one of my favourite things - Tattoo. I used a fleshy toned background to give a 'skin' base for my design. I then added tattoo themed imagery and a tattoo gun to visually represent my theme.

Project 7 - Brick

100 drawings of possible uses of a brick. after a while it gets quite difficult, I ended up with some really strange ideas such as an  unmeltable bath melt and a brick burger.

Project 6 - Matchmaker

This was my favourite project so far. It was based on fashion and as soon as I knew this I was super excited to get started. It was also our first 'live brief' with opportunity to have our designs used in christmas window displays for Matches fashion. We were asked to create a design for 'wrapping paper' which could be used to adorn boxes for a Christmas display. The designs were not supposed to have too much stereotypical Christmas imagery as the large wrapped boxes would give a feeling of Christmas alone. We were also warned not to use too much red, as this can prokoke feeling that there is a sale on from shoppers! I wanted to create a feminine design that evoked the fun of the festive season. I came up with the idea of using a carousel horse as carousels and traditional rides and stalls are a feature of the holiday season, but are not too 'stereotypically Christmas'. I am very pleased to say that my design was chosen for the display! seeing this photo for the first time made me ridiculously happy! Its really amazing to see my design amongst all those gorgeous shoes and bags. Wouldn't mind getting any of those as a present!

Project 5 - Pay to play

For this Project we were told to bring in a pound coin. We were told to re-design it to represent today's global economic climate, and that who ever created the best design would win all of the money. I think we were all pretty motivated during this task! This is my design. The meaning behind it is that money seems to be more trouble than it's worth nowadays, and everyone's obsession with it is causing awful and disgusting things to happen. The diamond covered in blood represents that wealth ( or lack of it) can cause terrible things.

Project 4 - Meet me on the corner

Project four involved running all around London to find 40 different places. It was exhaustingggg! There were quite a few places that I didn't realise existed and will definately go back to, so it was well worth the effort! And we did treat ourselves with cake from Patisserie Valerie which if nothing else, made the day a success! I made a collage from all of the freebies we picked up along the way, and did some doodles of the things we saw, these helped to create my map for the second part of the task. I've included some of my favourite photos of the day. Definately couldn't resist putting the one of Niketown in this post, purely for memory of the response from the shop assistant when he was asked where we could find the adidas trainers. 'yeah we sell those on the third floor.' What a good sport he was.

Project 3 - Brand me up buttercup

For this piece, we were set the task of being paired up with a random student from the class, then conducting interviews to find out who they are as a person. We then had to 'brand' them using the information we'd got from talking by creating a logo which we felt represented them. I was paired with April, who has many interesting stories, likes and dislikes. This actually meant that making a logo to represent her was really difficult, because there were so many things that I could have done! What stood out to me most from what she said however, was that she loves nature, travelling, and in particular visiting Japan. I tried to combine these by using a stamp (travel), flower (nature) and japanese text (which goes without saying.... Japan). I like the piece, but think it could be simplified, so will probably have a go on illustrator and see if I can develop it a bit more...

This is my developed logo. I have taken two aspects of the original and transformed them into a bolder and simpler image. The japanese symbols spell 'harmony' and the flower represents nature. I remember asking April what her favourite thing about nature was, and she said 'all of it, in harmony together' So this logo represents her favourite place and nature in harmony - two of her favourite things.

Project 2 - Stairway to Helvetica

This project was challenging and a bit scary to say the least! Singing is not a great talent of mine, and neither is presenting in front of a large group of people. This included both. We had to create a song in groups based on a font which we were randomly given. We were presented with Zapf Dingbats, probably then strangest font ever since it doesn't actually make sense in any language, it's purely symbols. We had the idea of making a song literally from the symbols themselves, saying words in different tones and to a rythm. This was somewhat inspired by 'The potter puppet pals' from youtube, which a few people actually noticed ( I honestly didn't think they would!) Performing it was the horrible bit, making it up and doing the video was actually quite fun.

Project 1 - Hello my name is

This was my first taster of Graphic Design at UEL, being the first assignment set. This project was fast paced and had to be started and finished in studio, under instruction from the tutors. We had a few minutes for each drawing, so had to work really really quickly! Working under pressure like this can lead to pretty bad mental blocks, so definately not my best work! However it was a fun introduction to the course, and was probably set to get us used to working fast. Will be funny to look back at this and see what my 'favourite things' were when I started the course.