Tuesday Afternoon Workshops

As part of second year, we've been taking part in workshops every tuesday afternoon. As we only have around 2-3 hours to complete these short briefs I'm usually panicking! And it's not my best work, but at least it means we get used to working under pressure!

Week 1.
We were given a large amount of jumbled up copy about an event and we had to sort out all the information into a poster, using only helvetica and no proper images.

After doing it I realised it looks a bit like a film poster, something like 'Catch me if You Can'! with all the arrows, but these were supposed to refer to 'trade'.

Week 2.

This task was all about combining type and image. Working in a pair, me and Rowan had a selection of images to choose from, and a selection of strange phrases which we had to use together in 6 postcards. It was also an exercise on cropping images to achieve different meanings, or get the best from an image. The postcards we created are supposed to be for a photography exhibition (it's not real sorry!) entitled 'Little Pictures. Unfinished Stories' which was one of the phrases. We also used the phrase 'In the beginning there was a word' which we thought related in a way to stories. We then selected prominent words from the phrases which would relate to the idea of 'a word', and paired them up with an image. Simple, but we think fairly successful.

Week 3.

For this Tuesday afternoon we had to bring in a leaflet that we thought was badly designed. As i do children's face painting for Creative Kids Parties I thought it would be fun to try and re design their A5 leaflet! Having had only 2 hours I'm not sure it's the best I could have done, but I did find the subject quite tricky as it is for children you can't go too 'graphic-y' like some of the gig leaflets other people were doing. It was a fun exercise though.

It seems to have come out a bit paler on here than on indesign but oh well! 

BEFORE

AFTER

Summer Project : A-Z

This year's summer project was called 'A-Z'. We had to create a concept using the alphabet and our summer experiences. Having spent quite a bit of time in France with my boyfriend and all his family, I had been trying my best to speak French! And so I came up with an alphabet of 'Frenglish', those French words we use in English too, for those who want an easier life when learning french! Some of the letters got pretty tricky so please be forgiving! I tried to pick pretty recognisable french words if there wasn't an obvious choice. The extra constraint I put on myself was to make every letter look like the word it was describing. Have a look and try and guess what the words are; they're all at the bottom for you to check...

Oxford English Dictionary New Words Brief

My final first year project.

Every year the Oxford English Dictionary release some new words. Our job was to select one or several words and make people aware of the new meanings. I decided to make a few short animations that would typographically use the word to express its own meaning.

My words were
Hooptie - a broken down old car
Foofaraw - a big fuss over something small
Cruciverbalist - a word game enthusiast

I had tried out a few things on Flash briefly before in workshops, so I wanted to tackle it in this project. I actually surprisingly enjoyed it!

(Apologies for the inconsistencies in size - they are all supposed to be the same but one of them would not successfully upload on you tube, hence this different file.)

Dating a Frenchman Magazine Brief

 

This is one of my favourite outcomes from first year. We had to write and design a magazine page titled 'Three things you should know about..' As many of you will know, I've been going out with my french boyfriend Joce for a long while now! So what better to write about than an article for girls about 'Dating a Frenchman'. Read the full article below...

My final outcome (above).

     

    

Some other layouts I was working on, with my illustrations.

The text reads:

3 Things You Should Know About…

Dating a Frenchman.

Over recent years they’ve brought us Thierry Henry, chef Jean-Christophe Novelli, and well, not a lot else. But with Henry as an example, I’d say it’s time for some of you women to hop over the pond, try out the French romance and find some Va Va Voom for yourself. After all Paris is the city of love…  you might just be surprised. I kissed my frog 3 years ago and he turned out to be my Prince. Ok so the long distance thing isn’t great, and let’s face it, with all the food you’ll never ever be skinny again, but I’d say it’s damn well worth it.

The Food

If you don’t like cheese you might as well stop reading right now. It’s just not going to work. The French take pride in their cheese, whether that’s from soft creamy brie or the pungent smelling epoisses that smells so strong it is banned on public transport! Try it if you dare, you will be in with the family if you can stomach it!  If you are a cheese lover, you will definitely love this aspect of French life; cheese comes with every meal and is often the main constituent of a meal too.

Now of course you’d expect most Frenchmen to be great chefs, and a lot of them are. But there’s one speciality that most Frenchmen eat and love, that’s not so hard to make. And that’s cassoulet, a dish comprising of duck, sausages and beans. But, quite frankly, it comes in a tin. So don’t be fooled and say you like it if he says he’s lovingly made this himself, or you’ll be forced to eat it hundreds of times over until you discover the truth!

So I guess if you’re with a Frenchman there really is no hope on the diet front, certainly not for me anyway! With pastries and gateaux galore, cheese coming out of your ears, and not to mention the mountains of bread served with each meal, us English girls should perhaps take a leaf out of the French women’s book, who often seem to cook feasts for their husbands but then sit down to a meagre bowl of lettuce. But then where’s the fun in that!?

The Language

You can put on your best French accent and practise saying ‘merci’ all day long but the French will still be able to tell you’re English (although I don’t think the pale skin and ginger hair really give me any advantages!) Plus your boyfriend will either laugh or say you sound cute, or both. Not the reaction you were hoping for. Luckily most French people speak English of course, so if you fancy being our typical lazy selves then this won’t be a problem! You can even watch films in Paris in the original English version with French subtitles… perfect! But, if you do want to learn more of the lingo than ‘déjà vu’ or ‘je ne sais pas’ then you can always get your man to help you with some lessons, while you pay ‘full’ attention of course as you listen to him talking with his French accent...

Learning French would definitely boost your points on the family front. Meeting the parents is always a big thing, but it’s not got to be as bad as meeting French parents; the language barrier isn’t really going to help them get to know you! You can’t go wrong with a smile though, and there are always a few actions and hand gestures along the way… perhaps a game of charades would help for some practise!

So is the language of love all it’s cracked up to be? Well considering my man has managed to pick up a lovely Bolton twang I’d say perhaps he’d be better sticking to speaking just French. You could certainly get your man to write you a poem in French and express the romantic side that we know them so well for…  who cares if you don’t know what it says, everything sounds better in French anyway!

The Country

I think we can all agree that the best part about dating a Frenchman, is getting to jet off over there all the time. If it’s a long distance relationship that you’re going for then I can’t lie that you won’t miss your man, but at least you can boast that your almost a Parisian now, and that you even take the plane more than the bus; it’s not a hard life! You will however have to get used to sitting around in airport lounges but you’ll soon learn the tricks of how to beat the security queues!

And the country does have a lot to offer. If you’re in Paris you and your man can picnic by the Eiffel Tower, drink a cold cider in the artistic area of Montmartre, or shop shop shop in the designer boutiques of the Champs Elysees. Just be careful crossing the road (or even when in the car with your man) as they just don’t seem to have any rules at all on the road! If you’re a big kid at heart you could also visit Disneyland, and hopefully his family will have a yearly pass you can borrow to sneak in again and again for free!

 If you’re in the South you’ve got the sun on your shoulders and probably a beach not too far away so what else can you ask for? Although just one piece of advice for you English roses out there: don’t go with your man to a beach just for French locals as you will be the butt of ‘Snow White’ jokes all day! So perhaps you could sit back on the beach, close your eyes, and imagine living this French lifestyle. However, if France isn’t really for you right now then maybe you’ll be lucky enough to drag your 

man over to live with you in good old England like I did! You can always go there for holidays!

Group task typography

In groups we had to consider a list of words and produce responses using these words typographically and creatively. Here are some of the outcomes I worked on...

Shrek Dialogue Book

This was a quick brief alongside our typography project.  Again using only type, we had to pick a piece of dialogue and basically do whatever we want with it. I chose a section from Shrek 2 where Donkey, Shrek and Fiona are in a carriage and Donkey keeps repeatedly asking 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet?'..
It goes on foreverrr which is what I wanted to show in this small concertina book I made. The actual book is over 5 metres long when extended, and is double sided, with Shrek's frustrated screams all
the way along the reverse. I wanted the reader to literally be thinking 'Have I finished yet?' when
reading it!

Quote Project

Project to create A3 page layouts based around a quote using only type. And so my love of type began..

''Double Double Toil and Trouble, Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble''

Taken from the witches in Macbeth.

''It Takes Two to Make Peace''

Taken from a speech by John.F.Kennedy.

Several layouts exploring the concept, culminating in this final piece where 

the quote acts as an olive branch and completes the word 'peace'. 

Storyboarding and Narrative project

This project was split into parts. First we had to find a couple of really small unusual articles you would find in a local newspaper and create and storyboard a narrative around them. I found one about some idiot who managed to pull the ejector seat on himself in a small plane, and one of a swan who was spotted with binoculars around his neck! I turned these into two hand done draft storyboards. We later went on to researching different types of storyboard, where I was influenced by an inventory style, almost a 'list' of everything within the story. And finally, (yes this project did go on a while) we could either finesse our storyboards or produce an animation. So my main piece was an animation named 'Samson the Swan' about a swan who likes to act like a spy and gets a bit overly paranoid about a lakeside visitor...
Don't you just love first year.. anything goes!

My Renewable City - Concept Project

The second project of first year encouraged us to focus on the concept behind our work. We were given a selection of random phrases to create an outcome from - some were really strange such as 'flexible glastonbury'. I chose 'renewable city' and created a city that was destroyed and rebuilt out of playdoh! This was my first ever animation. Lets just say its of my wackier creations, but it was lots of fun (and seemed to take forever!)

First ever project - Image

Wow this project seems like a while back. The first ever project on the course, where we had to select an image and manipulate it in such a way that it represented a particular word. I chose an image of a rose and the words 'transparent' and 'wet'. Im not claiming to be a great photographer but I think I produced some interesting results, especially considering I set this up in my student halls!