Tonight T-Bish, Dani and I attended the University of Lincoln School of Art & Design Postgraduate Private View Evening
The exhibition is being held at the Greestone Building, which none of us had been to before but Glen was quick to point us in the direction of the Print rooms…
… unfortunately locked now but I will be going to have a play about in there sometime soon!
The building has quite an impressive view over the city…
… but anyway back to the exhibition! The idea of doing a Masters is quite scary considering I’ve only finished the first year of my BA degree, but the work was very varied and interesting!
I particularly loved the papercraft work by Kelly Fisher…
…including a beautiful book of various paper folding techniques and textures – just lovvvvvvely!
Arranged on the floor were little programmes which each had unique illustrations/scribbles/drawings on the front
I was attracted to the triangles by Justin Tagg I love triangles!
Martyn Smith’s work was really intruiging…
It was a series of (without trying to be rude) scribbles. Sounds weird but these weren’t just any old scribbles – scribbles created by movement; a parachute, a treadmill and a balloon:
We helped do our bit of the drawing and set off the fan sensors to move the balloon with pen attached!
Me and Dani enjoyed a cheeky glass of white wine as it was a grown up event
The infographics by Ben Willers were right up our street…
A series of canvases breaking down his life – money, sleep and calories to name a few
We chatted to Chris, Glen and Mike but since there was no sign of Tim so…
…T-Bish, T-Nutts and a T for T-Fab!
And to finish off I had a bit of fun with the mirrors We had a good time looking at the work and chatting to tutors. Can’t wait to be back at Uni working!
There was a lot more work… some interactive things which obviously I can’t do justice so if you’re about Lincoln, go have a look! The Greestone building is on Lindum Road and open from Monday 12th to Thursday 15th, 10am to 4pm!
My University tutor asked me to be a guest contributor on the course blog, Discourse and you know me – I love blogging so couldn’t pass down the opportunity! My first post is one that you might recognise as J’adore LetterMPress App for Ipad but I will be doing some other posts about current designy things exclusively for Discourse! (I will let you know though!)
Looking forward to filling some of my time with this over the summer
I haven’t posted in ages so just to warn you… I probably will ramble on and make up for lost time!
Yesterday was the finale of the TALKS series hosted by the third years to raise money for their end of degree show! And what a way to finish; hat-trick are ranked #1 in the 2010 Design Week Creative Survey!
Here’s Sam, Tom & Dani getting excited about the talk next to the screen printed poster designed by Jim Sutherland himself for the talk!
… and a quick ticket pic outside of the lecture theatre whilst waiting. We were in the confusing maze Architecture building again and the queue was massive – the biggest turn out to any of the talks I think!
It was April fools day yesterday, but it was also the 10th birthday of hat-trick!
Jim Sutherland, creative director and co-founder of hat-trick, started with some simple facts & figures…
10 years old today
9 people
49 live projects at the moment
990 projects so far
49 live projects at the moment!!! That is just crazy & there was a bit of a gasp when he explained that!
He then talked through 20 projects – all quite different but all quite brilliant – here are my favourites (it was hard to choose):
hat-trick have done quite a lot of work for Land Securities…
A massive light switch in the middle of London… why not?
My favourite of the 54 maps created for the Land Securities offices… this little piggy went to market!
A poster to celebrate 200th birthday of Darwin:
When I saw this next project I got really excited…
Typographic playing cards – a personal project by Jim Sutherland… eeek! I love typographic playing cards (as you may alreadyknow) and own 3 sets!
hat-trick love/ are good at/ royal mail love hat-trick designing stamps…
hat-trick are responsible for the funky branding for Natural History Museum…
… and also for the branding of SOS (Sumatran Orangutan Society)
I think that the series of trees created for Oxford Brookes Uni is interesting…
What I loved most about Jim (& hat-trick) was the enthusiasm. When he first began the talk he explained he wasn’t the best of public speakers but once he got into talking about the projects his passion shone through. I found these descriptions on the New York Festival Grand Jury website where Jim is on the advertising awards jury: ’Jim loves designing and does it more than is strictly healthy.’ & ‘Hat-trick has a habit of over-delivering on every project. This is down to an enduring enthusiasm for design’. I know this is a bit big headed of me but I think/ would like to think that kinda sounds like me – enthusiastic. There have been many occasions where I have looked like a loser because I got over excited about design related things, but I don’t care. Design is what I do, what I love and it’s my life!
This week I have been reminded twice that it’s a tough struggle to get a job in the industry with so many graduates and only the best will survive. I hope my enthusiasm and passion will get me there one day! ( but until then I will just be the girl who loves her blog!)
Jim concluded the talk with a Q&A session and he even offered prizes(Check out Tom with his pencils and typographic playing card poster - SO JEALOUS!!!)! Here is a summary of Jim’s advice:
- Jobs with the non-obvious clients are rewarding (e.g. for hat-trick Salvation Army)
- Share ideas in teams – at hat-trick they put all their ideas together and then go through what could work. Jim said he wouldn’t be able to remember whose original idea any of the projects belonged to.
- The design industry gossips! If they are looking for new talent they will ring other agencies and ask if they have seen/had anyone intern that is good. So making a good impression is important!
- Be the best placement they have ever had. This will make them remember you and recommend you if they get a phone call (see above point) OR maybe even offer you a job! Lucky!
- When showing your portfolio, don’t be arrogant or over confident… unless your work is amazing, then you have reason to be
- When showing your portfolio, don’t make excuses up – ‘I wanted to do _______ but I just went with this in the end’
- When showing your portfolio, show work you are passionate & enthusiastic about
- Do lots of placements for experience
- Stand out from the crowd! Don’t just email saying ‘Can you look at my website?’ – how many other students do you think will have done the same?!
- Be an ‘all round’ talent! Nowadays you need to be good at a bit of everything to be an asset to a small design company team like hat-trick!
Lastly, a point which Jim made about hat-trick not having a ‘style’ made me happy. The other week when the LSAD Japan poster campaign was being set up, the task was to design a poster in your ‘style’ and a comment was made about how I don’t really have a ‘style’. Not going to lie, it did worry me a little bit: ‘people won’t instantly recognise work as being mine?’ But then Craig Ward posted his thoughts about ‘style’ and it made me realise; yeah, I don’t want to be a one trick pony? hat-trick’s work is all brilliant, but there is nothing that immediately links it to them. I think this is a good thing because every piece of work is individual to the company they are designing for needs!
I know I have rambled quite a lot in this post, but it was the last talk this year Boo! I attended 5 of the talks but I think this one was the most helpful/inspiring/meaningful out of the series for me. I definitely got a lot from it, so thank you Jim! And thank you to the Talks team!
Warning: This is going to be a long post with a lot of amazing Graphic Design – get a coffee, sit comfortably and be inspired!
Studio 8 came to visit us Lincoln Students on Wednesday! It was held in ‘our’ Faculty building(Art, Architecture & Design), but I think I’ve only been in there once on an open day so it was a new experience! What a maze! Anyway, back to the important part…
Studio 8 are a small, Graphic Design company based in London with a big passion. You know all the sayings about size doesn’t matter etc(wink wink)? Well this is one of those times it’s true – there is so much creativity and talent in the small group of 4 designers at studio 8! Zoë Bather came to talk to us, bringing along Steve Fenn who graduated from LSAD in 2009 and has been working at Studio 8 for 18 months now! Quite scarily/ interestingly, Zoë started off explaining that roughly 95% of the work Studio 8 has undertaken has been through contacts. Networking – this is something I need to work on. Obviously I’m still only a first year now, but soon to be a 2nd year and I’m sure that will fly by too!
Onto the design, Studio 8 are ‘best known’ for magazine & brochure design and they do a really good job! I love their creativity with typography – I think that is something they really have down to a T in terms of control but at the same time with experimentation! Really, there was so much I loved I have had to heavily edit it down, so here are my favourite bits and bobs: RA Magazine has hands that grab!
Graphic Magazine issues … I love the idea of the customisable cover! When this was shown on screen I didn’t really like it but then I saw the acetate part and now quite keen on the idea! I don’t know how I would get on customising my front page – I would have to plan it out incase I ruined it, that’s for sure!
I’m getting more into sketchbooks and I’ve been trying to be more daring – I do have a problem with making a mark on a page because I’m too cautious to whether it will be perfect or not! The whole point of a sketchbook is for it to be rough, I know! But I can’t help myself when it comes to trying to keep it neat and structured! This contents page makes me smile…
I made a quick doodle of this next spread when it came on screen So innovative – I never would have thought of this in a million years… eeek! Love it!
Oh and I’ve saved my fave until last! Plastique Fashion Magazine! Not just because it’s spelt similarly to Graphique Fantastique, but because the style is just so interesting, engaging, edgy and typographically beautiful.
Above is a mixture of the 4 issues they designed – Plastique is one of those magazines I would buy and never read – it’s too nice to read, so I’ll just ogle over the design! Zoë said that Plastique and fashion etc isn’t Studio 8′s thing at all, but they still did an amazing job of it in my opinion (Something which all Graphic Design students can definitely learn from; There are projects you don’t like, but you need to try your best regardless)!
Fedrigoni Paper 2010 Calender – Regular readers will know I’m a bit of a softie for paper & cut outs etc so when I saw this I actually said ‘Oooooh’ out loud!
For people who don’t know, Fedrigoni is a paper sample company so this idea is just perfect & genius here! Memorable and something I would definitely keep on my desk, but I don’t know how I would feel about throwing away the old pages…? Haha
Circus Space Annual Report – I like how the colour scheme is quite unexpected – it’s not a cliché circus palette! My favourite part of this design is where the ‘R’ has been suspended – just a nice, quirky touch I thought?
D&AD Design Awards Gala 2010 – I’m such a sucker for Yellow pencils! In class I’ve been the girl obsessed with Yellow Pencils since we introduced ourselves way back in October – But I wouldn’t change it! Although Zoë said that the catchphrase ‘But is it a pencil?’ was supposed to be a jokey comment about how people design work with the aim of just getting a pencil/award, I can see myself saying it in the future. I think it’s good that the design industry can joke about itself because when it starts to get too serious then all the fun is gone?
Thankyou to Studio 8 because I really enjoyed the talk, my favourite so far! I found Studio 8 to be really inspiring, not just because of their work but from their story too! I really want to be successful in my career, and it’s just nice to hear real stories to reassure me that it CAN happen.
In the Q&A section Zoë and Steve’s advice was to ‘Take Opportunities and say yes to everything’ and also that ‘you can’t rely on Wikipedia!’ – well, I already knew about Wiki but that is a chance I think every student takes haha In terms of taking opportunities, I need them first! I have heard the beginnings of a summer project about meeting up with a designer to chat & show your portfolio to so I might be able to tick a box there… who knows?
But for now I need to complete the year, always with the same question – ‘But is it a pencil?’ in the back of my mind!
Other Lincoln-ers, what did you think to Studio 8? What were your favourite pieces of work? Or anyone reading this and learning about Studio 8 for the first time… check out their website and get back to me
I’m following these guys on twitter now so I can keep an eye on what they’re up to & you can too! I’m pretty sure I will be featuring more of their work at some point! Let’s face it, it’s pencil worthy!
After the Airside lecture last week, I decided I definitely wanted to go to more talks and luckily for me the third years have got quite a few more lined up! Guest speaker for today: YCN!
I had heard of YCN before because of the YCN awards but I didn’t realise they actually design too, so that was a nice discovery!
Today was a free lecture and we even got free samples of energy drink Boost – Students love free things!
The main reason for this talk was to help the people doing the YCN briefs but it was still useful to go anyway, just to see what YCN are about. They have produced quite a lot of work for Becks:
They’ve painted pubs with cool illustrations – really love the piano keys on this one!
And they’ve used CDs on billboard adverts!
They also collaborated with Graduates on the re-branding of insurance company Endsleigh:
Really love this illustration by Leeds Graduate Jay Cover aswell as this collage style vector image….
Companies that are involved in the YCN briefs include British Music Experience, Boost, M&S, Green & Black’s, Ted Baker, P&O Ferries and Fairtrade – some big names!
I’m glad I went as they showed us some interesting work, all from recent graduates and the information about the awards will come in handy in the future when it’s my turn to enter!
There was also a presentation from Propaganda representing Boost energy drink, with an insight to how they created the Boost brand with pointers.
Before the lecture I found some neon pink post-it notes in my notebook with Typography jokes on (which I had prepared for my Uni interviews this time last year!!!) and they ended up being passed to the other side of the lecture theatre….
Why did the Graphic Designer go to see a psychic? – To see what was in his Futura
What does a Graphic Designer eat for breakfast? – Kern flakes
You can see its neon-ness in the distance with the 3rd years getting all excited! Note passing never gets old! I wonder where it ended up….
Boo! I attended 5 of the talks but I think this one was the most helpful/inspiring/meaningful out of the series for me. I definitely got a lot from it, so thank you Jim! And thank you to the Talks team! 
