communication pathway.

So far during this last brief, which I've just loved! I feel this is the brief I've enjoyed most and got the most out of and I know that I definitely want to take the communication pathway.

I've been thinking a lot that this is probably the direction I want to go in, I've loved re-branding my chosen store, The Sewing Lounge. I really think this could be a good way to go for me.

website works and finally finished!

Here are some screenshots of my final website, all done and finished! Yay! A weight off my shoulders at least.



sewing typography.

I've been doing some of my own sewn typography for the latest re-branding project, which you can see in my sketchbook. I think they look really nice, and might look even better scanned in and used in some collages. It's also a definite for hand-made collages, keeping the materials related to the main purpose of the store. I'm really pleased with it!!

publicity.

As part of the Versus debate, we have to construct our presentation and I'm finding it realllly difficult to try and find information! I just have no idea where to start. I've tried looking into some reliable internet sources on online versions of The Guardian and The Times, but unfortunately nothing has turned up that I thought would be beneficial. Hopefully I can find something somewhere. It's strikes up the fact that I don't really think issues within the design 'world' are publicised very well, maybe because people think all we do is design stuff and that's the end of it. Well it's not helping me anyway! 

sewing machines.

Quick update on The Sewing Lounge. I got some image of Singer sewing machines to make some line drawings from, and I'm hoping out of these I might be able to find some interesting shapes to use in my logo. As I've decided the name might be too long, but if I created a pictoral identity, this could be used instead of the name on things were there is little space for the whole name of the shop.

Alan Fletcher.

I'm thinking of maybe doing something a bit collagey with my re-branding project to make it a bit more appealing to the younger, "prom" market, which is the direction I'm going to head in. Taking inspiration from Alan Fletcher, I'd like to make it out of found materials, and wallpaper, to give it a vintage feel.

D&AD.

After the Directions lecture at Salford the other week, listening to the Communication pathway, I heard that part of the second year of the course incorporates work with D&AD. So I decided to check them out...

D&AD is a non-profit charity that awards the best worldwide in the creative field. It was set up in 1962 but a group of designers to "celebrate creative communication and raise standards within their industry". This group of designers included David Bailey, Terence Donovan and Alan Fletcher (wow). Now, D&AD has a  very successful education section in which students and emerging creatives can be recognised and develop professionally in the real world.

They also now offer a 'Graduate Academy', which offers people who are graduating the chance to respond to a communication brief, and the top 50 of these receive paid placements at some of the top design companies. I think this all sounds amazing and I'll be keeping my eyes peeled.

dan mountford.

Found a photographer online, who produces these absolutely gorgeous double exposure portraits. I really really love them!



cath kidston.

After talking to the owners of The Sewing Lounge, I thought about the homeware designer Cath Kidston, which has the kind of "Keep Calm and Carry On" feel, which is really fashionable now. I want the rebrand to look modern, but still a nod back to an era where this was the norm for women to make their own dresses and clothes etc. 

the sewing lounge

Today I went to meet the owner of 'The Sewing Lounge', the retailer that I am going to re-brand. It was a lovely little shop on one of the main roads that runs through Haydock, easy to reach from the centre.

It turns out that the shop is ran by two women, both sisters, who had been worked in the industry, in factories, before going onto different things. Then, about four years ago they opened up The Sewing Lounge. The shop is very busy, and as the owner said, she said that it is always busy, which actually, I was quite surprised about, seems as I thought that the demand for hand-made dresses was pretty low. The shop is small, but it seems the women's talents are in high demand.

After asking them a few questions it became clear that the business was not just headed in one direction, but very much they do a bit of everything. I asked if the women were busiest around the prom period, but they said they can't really say that because of the demand for them year round. They also make fancy dress outfits. I've decided, from the info I gathered today that because the women are pretty open to the direction and there is no specific "best-seller", I'm thinking about focusing on the "prom" side of things.

finally nearly done!!

Finally! Nearly finished Philipa's Patch today. Everything is pretty much ready, I just need to get all my links working. Although I don't completely love my website, I think it's amazing how much I've learnt on just Dreamweaver and how far I've come from not knowing ANYTHING about making a website, to using what I think is an incredibly difficult programme to use! Anyway, everything will soon be finished for the half term as I won't be able to work on it then because the programmes are different to the version I have at home. Can't wait to have this load off my back and solely concentrate on re-branding though! SO EXCITED. 

new client.

Today I managed to phone the place where I'm thinking about re-branding, it's called 'The Sewing Lounge' and is in Haydock, which is a bit far away from me, but still accessible. It was probably the closest one I could find that made it's own dresses! I'm really looking forward to the brief and can't wait to start, because the owner said the shop gets pretty busy, I've only been able to see her on Monday morning at the earliest, but I'm looking forward to it!

blip!

Today we did a mini half day project to get us into the right frame of mine about re-branding our shops, as we'll be on Sring Break, so pretty much on our own for the first two week of the brief!

For this mini-brief we had to re-brand the drink "Blip" which is made entirely out of peas and would be advertised to children, but should still appeal to mum's because of the health benefits.

My idea for this came from thinking about some tag lines, and getting "GIVE PEAS A CHANCE" from the John Lennon song, "Give Peace A Chance" and from this I thought up of the concept of the advertising campaign, with a tv advert being kids banging on tables and singing along to the original John Lennon song. The posters, in my eyes would be quite hippyish, with rainbows and flowers, very natural, inkeeping with the theme.

All of the visuals for this mini project can be found in my accompanying PDP sketchbook.

philipa's patch menu.

Just a quick update to let you know that I have finally finished my PDF for the Philipa's Patch menu. I'm very proud and all print outs can be found in my sketchbook! 

pathways lecture.

Today we had a lecture about the pathways we need to be making a decision. The pathways will determine what we do in the second and third years, and what I found today is that they all quite easily cross over. The different pathways are Communication, Illustration and Motion and Interactivity. All pathways seemed interesting at the lecture, however I think I'm going to go with my initial instinct of Communication, although this is the biggest pathway, with the most students on, I think this is the right choice for me. I'll also be answering this brief with that pathway in mind.

feedback.

Today we got our results back from our previous brief, which I managed to get a 2:2 for, which is a grade lower than what I usually manage to get. I would be gutted, but I was expecting this, because I knew my sketchbook wasn't as up to scratch as usual. I'm not disappointed with the result I got, as I think it's fair for the amount of work I put in, but I'm gutted with myself because I'm usually really good with time management and organising myself and I seem to have lost my way on this brief a little bit. Hopefully I can pull my grade back up with some serious effort in this new brief! I really enjoyed developing my logo for my magazine in the second unit, and hopefully this will be something just as enjoyable!

progress...

Today I worked really hard on my Philipa's Patch website, I was really trying to have a mess around with it and get to grips with exactly how it all works. I also did some more left hand sketches to accompany the work on my website, which I thought would be great to link with the logo, which was designed from a left hand sketch of a bunch of grapes (please see my sketchbook for these pages). Hopefully tomorrow I can get started on my menu which will be on the website as a downloadable PDF.

philipa's patch...

I can't believe we're entering into the last phase of our first year, as in a few days we have to go to our lecture about our new directions brief, which i'm a little excited about, but also a little worried about too! I can't believe nearly a year has gone, already!

In the meantime, I have this time now to really concentrate on getting Philipa's Patch up to date and making sure my group is on tip top form for the Versus debate. I'm finding it quite hard to think of things to research for the debate, as I think our argument, that graphic designers SHOULDN'T have a social responsibility is really hard, as personally, i haven't made up my own mind on whether I agree with this or not, but for the purposes of the debate, I need to start believing it! I've been looking at a few articles online, but nothing too substantial yet, still lots of work to do even though we've only just handed in our last brief. Very excited to start on the next brief though!

3d typography

Today we had a one day project in which we had to render our own 3d typography. I decided to make my letters out of single pieces of paper, making folds like in origami, to make my own alphabet. I was very pleased with the results, and I think they look really pretty! As i mentioned in my last blog, I did get a little stressed half way through the day, trying to make certain letters, but overall I think it looks really good and I'm really happy. I'll get some pictures up soon! 

beginnings of animation...

Today we did some preparation work for tomorrow animation tutorial, which is a deliverable on our Proffessional Contexts Brief. I thought working in motion would be hard, but after just a small part of our prep today (saving the same image, deleting a little bit, then saving again) it seems pretty easy - we shall see tomorrow!

I'm also pretty excited for our one day brief tomorrow, to create our own 3d typography, I think i'm gonna' do my alphabet out of origami, taking different elements of different pieces and making them into letters, I know already how demanding this will be, as in our first project, Visual Communication, I did some origami, and I got pretty stressed, so it will be hard work tomorrow, but I definitely think it'll be worth it as the outcomes are always so simply beautiful! 

more philipa's patch work.

I've been starting to get together some more work for Philipa's Patch, and actually started attempting to make something that looks the tiniest bit like a home page. I made some backgrounds from watercolours, which can be seen in my sketchbook, scanned them in and then used them as backgrounds for my website. Below is just a screenshot (of course, this is a work in progress)



I feel as though the background works really well, I'd also tried one in red, which I don't feel looked as good. However there are still a few adjustments that need to be made, the logo looks a little lost at the moment, and so needs to be bigger, and the text on the website needs to have a block colour background (seen here in the white) because otherwise it's hard to read.

Today I've also been thinking about the motion piece that needs to be embedded in the website, and I was thinking of doing something with photographs of the restaurant. I wasn't really sure what kind of feeling an animation would give off, and if I were to do an animation, I'd definitely try and do one completely hand rendered on acetate rather than on the computer, which gives off quite an "organic" feel. After seeing examples of this, I think the technique is really nice, but not something I envisaged for Philipa's website.

where does inspriation come from?

I was just wandering the Creative Review website before and I came across this article: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/march/cr-survey-inspiration which got me thinking about where MY inspiration comes from? I'm not really sure. It says in the article, that they found most people got their ideas while travelling, which I kind of do, when your on a train and let your brain go for a wander. I think though, that as a student I feel a bit pressured into thinking up and idea straight away, so I tend to stare at an awful brainstorm for about 3 hours and get nothing from it, but then when I talk to people about some ideas, they kind of start to come together, and then it's like a domino effect, one idea leads quickly onto another. I get ideas from pictures in books too, sometimes, I can just be flicking through an artists' book and something will trigger something in my mind, which will lead onto something else. It's really funny to think were ideas come from. Wish I knew where that place was right now though so I could go and pluck one out of my brain!

more philipa's patch work.

Today I spent a bit of time on my Philipa's Patch work,  tried my chosen final logo in some different colours, I didn't want something too vibrant, I wanted to use some muted tones. Below is a screenshot of some of the colours I tried on InDesign.

I also did a little bit of experimentation with Dreamweaver, just trying to figure some things out, below is just a screenshot of some of the work I did today, (it doesn't look like a lot, but took me ages to figure it all out again after such a long time since the Dreamweaver Sessions!)



Obviously, this still needs a lot of work, but it's a start!

more essay feedback.

Today I managed to get my essay back from my tutor who had looked over it and said it was excellent, which I am really pleased about! I just need a few more quotes and hopefully I'm finished which is what I've done tonight. It's in for next week, so I just hope I can finish it by the weekend and then I don't have to worry about it other than to hand it in next week! Finally feeling like I'm actually on top of something.

Meanwhile, today I just did a few quick sketches of a site map for Philipa's Patch website, which I need desperately to start creating and I also did a few sketches of what the home page might look like, in terms of how I'll lay it out, these pages can be found in the supporting sketchbook to my PDP.

Also, been doing a bit of character development, been trying to get something together for my Graphic Design in Context brief, which needs to start coming together a lot quicker than it is. I've been doing some little sketches today, which I've been pretty proud of, considering I can't draw at all! Really pleased with how these have come out and hopefully I can start finalising them very soon. 

Si Scott.

On Friday we had the opportunity of going to a lecture at the University; which was taken by the graphic designer and illustrator, Si Scott.

I was really excited about this and I feel I learnt a lot. Si made some great points and even showed us some of his college work! This felt good because I could see the progression, and it brought me back down to earth a little bit, realising that everyone starts off the same, no one is any different, everyone goes through art college or uni and progresses that way, which was a bit of a confidence boost really. It also showed us his progression as an artist, and he said himself, he didn't just start with illustrated type, but actually learnt what works and what doesn't, and obviously, this is why he's so good! He's been through the trade and learnt from his mistakes and these have influenced on how his design is now.

Another really interesting point Si made about work from students that he receives (he is also a part time lecturer at Huddersfield Uni) are mostly PDF attachments to emails, which have been sent to about 20 other designers or firms, he says this makes him dis interested, as if there has been no thought that has gone into it, it's not been handled, or had that time to think about it how it's going to be sent. There is no contact. I thought this was pretty interesting because soon enough I'll be in my second year, and obviously I'll need to start getting my work out to designers and companies in order to get some work experience. Obviously, if you go that extra mile and do that extra bit of work you can be noticed. Si also mentioned in his lecture, about how he got his work, is you make your own luck. I am solely responsible for putting my work out there, and if I don't do it, no one will ever see it, and no one will ever give me work. Si Scott also said that now, he doesn't get so bogged down by the concept, he said you could have an amazing concept, but if it doesn't look good, then your not doing your job. Which is so true! However, he did say that when he looks at young designers, he doesn't look so much at how good they are, but that they've got the ideas in their head, and the concepts (which is slightly contradictory, but I think he meant to not get too bogged down about concept, it might come when the design looks good). Also talking about getting a job or work after Uni, Si said that people will very rarely pay for something they've not already seen, and this is how he gets a lot of his work, because one company see the typography for another company that Si did, and they'll like it, and ask him to do something similar for them, a bit like a domino effect - one thing triggers the next.

Scott has an incredibly wide variety of work, corporate, charity (which he said he likes doing), music, fashion, 3d work, a bit of everything! He said he likes to exhaust every avenue, and goes through different phases in his work. He also owns a shop in Leeds called Paper, Scissor, Stone, a boutique store that sells mens and womens clothing and artworks.

Overall, I definitely learnt so much and I absolutely loved it, It's great to hear someone talk about the industry you wish to go in, and the fact that that person has made it, he's done it and can speak with the benefit of experience.

positive thinking.

Today we had a group crit where we all each talked about our work so far for the Graphic Design in Context Brief, at first, I was a little bit nervous because I don't think I've done as much as I should have, and I'm getting abit worried I'm running out of time. However, it was also a bit of an exercise to start learning how to talk about my work confidently, which I think I have issues with because it's very rare that I'll think any of my work is good, but I definitely think it's something I'm going to work on.

Also, I handed in another draft of my Persepolis essay today, whilst my tutors have the time, and not lots of essays to mark, I want to take the opportunity to get some more feedback, after getting feedback from my first draft on Tuesday, which was incredibly positive and said it was an excellent first attempt. Hopefully, if I can get that out the way as soon as possible that would be better.

Also today I've been doing some of my own drawings from some of the Alice in Wonderland drawings I posted previously, I'll try and get these scanned in and uploaded at some point, I think they're really successful!

Tomorrow, it's Si Scott's guest lecture which I am verrrrrry excited about! Can't wait, I'll let you know about that soon after!

John Tenniel

Seems as I've been lacking in creativity and motivation for the past week, being in uni today gave me the boost back on track I think I needed. Tonight I've been looking at some images I can lightbox and hand render myself, and I came across the work of John Tenniel, whose works are displayed in the Alice in Wonderland books. Hopefully, I can lightbox these to a similar quality, and hopefully they can form something of a basis for some posters or the website design. Below I've shown a few examples of his work.

I also received some feedback today from my first attempt at my Persepolis essay, my tutor said it was a very good first attempt and I've made a start today at collecting quotes in order to improve my essay. My tutor said i've not got a lot of work to do, which takes the pressure off seems as I'm feeling a bit snowed under this week - with no promise of anything slowing down until I go to the final show (which feels ever-imminent). I still can't believe how fast this year has gone.

unorganised.

I keep posting stuff about being so unorganised but don't seem to be doing anything about it! This week, while we've been off, I've got to admit, I've done hardly anything, I've had a truly lazy week and I don't know why I'm lacking in inspiration! I need to make myself a proper timetable for the next few weeks to make sure I'm getting stuff done. Eep. Scared!

On a bit of a better note, we're going to see a guest lecturer on Friday, Si Scott, up at the University. I've done a bit of research into his work, and it's really beautiful. He's a pretty high ranking graphic designer, and has worked for some famous names like: Adidas, Alfa Romeo, BBC, Coca-Cola, Conde Nast, The Guardian, NY Times and Tiffany & Co. Scott also judges prestigious design competitions including the D&AD Awards. Below is some of Scott's work from his website: www.siscottstudio.com

Si Scott's work is beautiful and I love the unbelievable attention to detail, something that Scott obviously prides himself on. I can't wait to see what he has to say.

John Stezaker

I've been flicking through Feb's issue of Creative Review, and came across the name of John Stezaker, I read that he was a collage artist that started in the 70's and has work up to the present day, which is being shown in a retrospective at The Whitechapel Gallery. At the moment, I've been struggling to gain any form of inspiration for the current project, and I want to take it in the direction of collage, so I just did a quick google search and I love his work (which I've put below)

Although I love the way he's manipulated these photographs, I don't really think it's completely suitable for my current project, but he's definitely an artist I'd like to take inspiration from again if I was having trouble manipulating images.

colour.

Yesterday, I made some studies into colour, in order to help me try and understand colour choices better in order to make good choices in my website design, and also to see if I could inject some colour into my logo designs, which you can see in my supporting sketchbook to my PDP.

I think often I've overlooked the importance of colour, and understanding exactly the connotations and theory behind colours. I feel as if I need a full background knowledge before I start building my website.

concept cupboard.

I've just joined up to a website called: conceptcupboard, which allows me to apply for briefs that are posted on the website, and I can respond to them. I think it's a really good idea, and a good way to build up my portfolio and get a bit of money!

I also handed in my designs for the stained glass window yesterday, it would be amazing if I could be picked, to have something in the college I studied in is lovely, and a lasting memento of my mark on Carmel College! 

finally (nearly finished) logos.

Today I've been working on some logo ideas for Philipa's Patch, I feel as if once I get the logo done, I can finally start to tackle creating the website. Below are some of my Illustrator rendered designs.

A first try out, including other pieces of text. Not completely sure about this one.

Some fully rendered logo designs

This is my favourite logo idea, and so I've tried it wit different typefaces. I think this logo works well.



wirral egg run.

On Friday, we had to complete a one day project that was set in which we had to create designs for a trophy for the egg run and a possible logo that could be put onto t-shirts. The egg run had been going for over 20 years, and people with bikes and scooters can participate every Easter to take Easter eggs (though now it's money) to sick children in nearby Clatterbridge Hospital. Below are the design sheets and pictures of my final trophy. 

Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas

Trophy and Logo final ideas

Plasticine Trophy

Plasticine Trophy

I found this one day project incredibly useful but challenging, during the course I am always striving to do something that I believe looks professional and would sit in the real world, and that the idea has been completely worked through, but I had to learn to put these ideals to one side and solely concentrate on getting ideas out and creating something in a short space of time.

philipa's patch logo designs.

Got the kick up the bum I needed regarding to the Professional Contexts 1; and so today I've been scanning some of my drawn initial ideas into the computer, to upload on here. Some of them are just rough ideas, and I've decided on a few to render on Illustrator and InDesign, so I'll upload them as soon as I've finished them. Soon hopefully...

Some designs to fully render



stained glass.

We were recently given the opportunity recently to do some work for the college chaplaincy, to make some stained glass for some windows that will be installed in the new chaplaincy. I've drawn some basic ideas, and then transferred these ideas onto the computer, in Illustrator, not only is this a great opportunity to work for money, but it's also good for me, because I'm beginning to learn Illustrator by playing around with the functions etc. A design will be submitted next week and chosen by a panel of judges. This work will be paid as well, which is even more of a good opportunity! Hopefully I'll be able to scan some of my ideas in to upload soon.

feedback.

We recently recieved feedback from our Exploring Graphic Design project, for which I recieved a 2:1, which I am incredibly proud of, seems as we had 3 weeks for Christmas break off, in which I couldn't recieve any feedback on some of my designs, which I was worried about and had to 'go it alone'. But I am very pleased with myself, and I've learnt so much already from both sets of feedback, both for Visual Communication and Exploring Graphic Design. I've learnt to ensure to include plenty of contextual references, and to take note from these, and try and incorporate things I've learnt from them into my work. I've also learnt to become a little more self critical, and not just accept my work because it's so close to deadline day, anything will do. And also, to be confident enough to ask my peers what they think, and to use this informal feedback creatively, and use it to help my work become better. I'm going to try my very best in this new project, and hopefully (fingers crossed) I'll get a first for all my hardwork! 

more books, again...

So I've chosen my idea for my competition for this new brief, I think I'm gonna' do a children's book competition, or a writing competition, where the trophy is a bit of a rag doll of a character that I'm going to hopefully be able to invent, to pull through the posters, and the magazine etc, and then the end product would be the rag doll. I've decided to go with something more illustrative (even though I can't draw) and try and do some collages, but working in lots of different textures, and maybe bring some textiles into it, as it's a children's competition, I want them to get involved and take a hands-on approach. I just need to start researching artists, which there are plenty of Children's Book's illustrators out there, and I need to start working out exactly what I'm going to do. I'm really excited about it though!

Today we also had our interviews for the vogue work experience, and although I was very nervous, I tried my best and I think that the answers I gave where honest, and showed my enthusiasm and excitement to go, and how I would take that opportunity with both hands and absolutely run 1,000 miles with it! What an opportunity of a LIFETIME! Amazing. We find out a week today, and I'm keeping all my fingers and toes crossed!

new brief!

I really can't believe how quickly the briefs are passing me by, and how quickly the year is going. And yet again, today we recieved our new brief, for Graphic Communication for concept. The brief is pretty exciting, and will help us to explore our creativity. We have to design promotional material for a competition, either invented or already established. I definitely want to try and do something quirky and a little bit off the wall, but my brain is absolutely dead! My initial ideas were more about a village fete, but doing a really quirky slant on it, the trophy being a golden turnip or something silly, a bit fun. However, recently I'd saw some really lovely, vintage looking homeware designed for H&M, very traditional looking illustrations on pillow covers, or as tea towels.



I think a little more research into possible competitions is needed, or maybe a chat with other people to see what more ideas I can come up with. 

organisation.

A skill I clearly wish I still had. I used to be so good at organizing my time, but now I've just got out the routine. After hand-in on Friday, and feeling crappy because we had to take a hour out to do a workshop, so I thought I wouldn't finish in time made me realise that I can't keep working on the 'main' project all the time, I need to loosen up and be multi-tasking. I think my problem is, that I'm good at focusing on one thing at a time, and only when that is finished, can I move onto something else. Clearly something that needs to change! Eep.

underwater.

Recently, I went to visit an exhibition I saw advertised on the internet called 'Underwater' at the Bluecoat, where a range of artists where displaying work that focused on being submerged in water and the world of water, and being underwater.

Firstly, I watched a video call 'Jellyfish Lake' by Dorothy Cross (2002) in which a woman, whose head is above water, but not held upright, but floating, is floating in water, with lots of jelly fish floating around her. There is no sound, which I found incredibly eerie, and because you don't see the woman's face, you begin to ask questions about her physical state - is she dead? and her mental state - is she okay? Why is she floating in the waters like this? However, even though all our questions are about the woman, the video focuses very much on the jellyfish, how they move, their patterns of movement, as they duck and dive in front and behind the camera. Even though it seems quite eerie, it is also very calm, the water in which she's in is calm, and settled, and although "spooky", it doesn't seem to alarm us to any danger.



Still from 'Jellyfish Lake' by Dorothy Cross



Secondly, was 'Submarine II' by Cut + Scrape, and my initial and only thoughts about this installation piece, which had a motion sensor on it and emitted submarine noises, was what is the point? The dates on the information said 2007-10, and I couldn't comprehend what they'd spent three years doing.

Another video was showing, called 'Becoming Light' by Bill Viola (2005) which showed two people (possibly lovers) half submerged in water, but unlike Cross's woman in the water, these two looked as though they were struggling, the video was in high definition and slow motion, which looked really interesting, but I thought the video represented a different side to water, the more dangerous, imposing side of it, which could possibly symbolise the love of these two people? Just some thoughts...

Some more pieces that I loved where two photographs by Daniel Gustav Cramer, which were called "Untitled (Underwater) nos 17 and 18" (2009). These images where incredibly appealing to me, but also incredibly spooky looking, I think Cramer has really taken on board the aspect of looking at the underwater world as another world. The waters he depicts are murky, not the picture perfect seas we see in the travel brochures, but I absolutely love these images of his, I think they are beautiful.



From the Underwater series by Daniel Gustav Cramer



Finally, I looked at some illustrations done by Ed Pien, from a set called "Two Worlds" (1999), these images seem to depict aspects of our world, above water, with those of the underwater world. These combined, present us with a kind of morphed character, which sometimes look ugly and scary. Could this be symbolic that land and sea can never be one? They are two completely different entities and cannot and should not be combined?

An image of some of Ed Pien's work for 'Two Worlds'

ways of seeing.

The deadline for 'Exploring Graphic Design' is Friday, and I feel a bit more relaxed than I usually do. Today I went to visit the crypt in the Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool, which I think will help me tomorrow when I'm putting my magazine together. I've not been able to do much work on my magazine at home, because I don't have the programmes on my laptop. This might start to become more of an issue as I start to work towards the final deadline, but for now, I've done most of my background work at home, and using my time in university to use the computers and other resources I don't have at home.

Today I also finished the book I was reading called 'Ways of Seeing' by John Berger, it is a a book of seven short essays, four of which combine words and images, 3, are just entirely images. The 7th essay interested me the most, because it was about advertising, an industry that is highly associated with Graphics. Below is a passage from the book, which I found quite interesting:

"Publicity images also belong to the moment in the sense that they must be continually renewed and made up-to-date. Yet they never speak of the present. Often they refer to the past and always they speak of the future. We are now so accustomed to being addressed by these images that we scarcely notice their total impact. A person may notice a particular image or piece of information because it corresponds to some particular interest he has. But we accept the total system of publicity images as we accept an element of climate."

I appreciate that as a Graphic Designer, this information is incredibly important, possibly worrying, maybe designers are finding it much harder to be influential and make an impact, when the society we live in, including ourselves as graphic designers, are not actively noticing advertisements. Or is it worrying that we are doing this, and frighteningly, are picking up the messages these adverts send subconsciously, which is an altogether more powerful thing.

new year.

So it's the new year, but only two weeks left before the Exploring Graphic Design submission. I can't wait to finally put together the magazine i've been working solidly on for the past 5 weeks. I was in need of a tutorial, which I managed to get today, and between me and my tutor, we worked out what I now need to do to get the brief finished. Over the Christmas holidays, I felt like I lost my way a little, and was just doing any kind of work I could think of, just to make sure I was doing something. Sometimes I need reigning in, and go back to the point of the brief. I'm back on track and I'm feeling bright about the submission.