Work Experience

They say that obtaining a work experience placement these days is as essential to a graduate as it is difficult to obtain. Finding a willing director and studio to participate in this most important of processes requires great effort - and perhaps a bit of luck.

I always envisioned my email as another unwelcome disturbance in a petulant director's mailbox. Baby sitting a student is probably the last job they want to take on as they struggle to reach their real world deadlines. Despite the possibility of a week's free work, there is no guarantee that the student is either a competent designer, or even willing to put in the effort. In spite of this, I persisted to badger studios until I received an offer.

Firstly I want to acknowledge the effort of Elevator for not only sending a reply - which so many others failed to do - but also for understanding the situation of a third year student and giving me the chance to experience the industry. I was aware of Elevator's work from the Link project. Although I was not part of their team, I felt that they had a strong portfolio of brand communications (for me, one of the most interesting fields of design).

During my week at Elevator, I was pleasantly surprised how Steve trusted me to work on live briefs with the rest of the team. It made the placement a valuable experience as I participated with real clients and real deadlines. I emphasise the word 'real' in the previous sentence, as the placement contrasted alarmingly with the projects and processes of the Graphic Communication course at CSAD. We are made aware of this difference by the tutors, but it becomes difficult not to question why the difference exists.

In conclusion to my view on the value of a work experience placement, I have to admit that I have changed my opinion. I have heard stories of students pointlessly trawling blogs for weeks and calling it a placement on their CV, but my experience was extremely valuable to me. If you are lucky enough parcipitate in real work in a studio then it is certain to have a positive effect on your progression as a designer. The success of such a placement appears to be down to the student. As I had taken the time to learn how to use Flash and other software to a high standard, I found that I was equal to the challenges set before me, and am grateful for the positive comments offered to me by Steve Braham. I would like to thank Elevator for replying to my email and making the placement happen, it was a worthwhile experience.

i-zone | UWIC

Entry coming soon...

Illusion and Dimension

I am about to embark on an exploration into the mathematical and philosophical theories of infinity. There are many paradoxical and barely imaginable concepts related to this field, and for my self-set brief I want to communicate the intellectual stimulation and disorientation that I felt when I began to explore infinity. When discussing the idea of infinity in relation to the universe, ideas are raised regarding parallel worlds and multiple existences. One angle argues that if we keep counting, we will eventually hit the highest number - a number so large that it can not be imagined -and subsequently reach zero again. We can visualise this as a journey around the world; you can keep on travelling endlessly across the circumferance of the planet but you will inevitably reach your starting point as you continue to move.
While considering imagery that can visually translate the theme of this idea, I turned my attention to visual and perspective illusion. While it is only a starting point for my visual exploration, I like how the interactive function of the image challenges the viewer to spend a bit longer with the piece and experience the unexpected.

 

  

 

Mabinogion Rough Work

The Mabinogion brief that is currently featured on my website has been developed and edited since the original piece was finalised. As it was a second year piece, there were improvements to be made in both image quality and typographic treatment. Although I am pleased with the revised visuals, I recently opened my original imagery and can't help but feel that something was lost in the translation of the update. The images are hand drawn and painted whereas the replacements are entirely vector rendered. For this reason, I wanted to feature examples of the originals which possibly have a more intruiging quality:

 

 

To see the updated imagery, click here.

Visualising Sound

For a recent design investigation, I decided to express music visually. It is an interesting challenge as there are established images such as the equaliser and musical notes. If we want to avoid the cliche of these visuals, how do we translate the dynamics of sound on to paper? As a musician, I have a knowledge of sound production that I drew on to experiment with visualisation. Here are a few of my experimentational images; the type of sound represented varies with the appearance of the vector.

The Meat Market

2010 CSAD Degree Show
Fast approaching is the class of '10 design degree show. As a matter of course, our program leaders asked us to pitch our ideas for the show visual concept. In the past the theme has always been centred around the idea of growth or flourish... perfectly acceptable outcomes, yet not without a touch of the flaccid and drab. My group wanted to express the idea of the graduate show as a metaphor. An example that mirrored the experience in a both true and humorous realisation.

We observed that the show is essentially an arena where the graduates show what they can to gain approval and ultimately attempt to sell themselves. This idea of a transaction struck a chord with our group. We have been nurtured and guided as we have grown over our three year period at university to the point where we are ready to be introduced to the industry. The facilitation of the choice is down to the employers, who browse the show and offer to take on (or bid for) the desired student.

What better description of this series of events than the meat market? Where we compete in an arena based on merit and appearance showing the fruits of our education where we aim to gain recognition from the visiting industry.

Simon Page

Geometric Design
Simon Page is a self taught designer from a corporate design/ mathematics background. It is this foundation that inspired his brand of geometric modernist design. While the following examples have not been designed to communicate an idea, they are visually rich and sit very nicely on the page.

 

The treatment and rendering of the images looks great and really draws the eye. In spite of us being discouraged to value readability above the communication, it is still important to practice self initiated works for designer indulgence.