Collective Evaluation

Working on this collective I found myself analysing my work and how it would fit with others. Looking at our strengths and weaknesses helped us to come up with the whole collective idea. I was able to find strengths that the others had which was something I am less confident in. This collective is something that could happen in the future. However I am a want to work in publication design so forming a collective may be something to do on the side. In the future I see how it is beneficially to not just get feedback on work but to also collaborate on creating the designs to get the bet outcomes

Branding and Presentation_ The Pub Collective

We choose the name The Pub Collective to show we are interested in publications and to play on the idea of going to the pub for social reasons. The logo shows this with the use of type as a pint.

We also created a mock up cover for our mag called Pint which features traditional print and interviews with creatives.

We created a pitch together were we each talk about the collective and this is what we had to say.

Thea introduced us by talking about how we came up with the name.

I say

I like to design for a cause. This example of my work is a protest poster made by a 2 layer screen print. I only enjoy designing for things I am passionate about and I am a huge lover of publication design.

It is important ti have an understanding of the history of design to be able to really appreciate design today

Our target audience is young creatives. This is because young creatives can in some cases automatically go to creating things digitally. This may be due to them having less availability to traditional printing methods therefore we will show that it is accessable and educate creatives on techniques.

We want to interview creatives who focus their work on traditional print and promote traditional works through a quarterly magazine called pint.

The publication will be traditionally produced to demonstrate how traditional methods can be valuable in industry.

The content will be made up of interviews conducted in pubs.

Then Joe talks about finance such as kick starter where our publication would be found and about making a traditional print studio that does workshops in the future.

Overall the task of looking at collectives was beneficial as I was able to look at how creatives from different disciplines work together for client and freelance work and how people are able to work with each other as a successful team. I think 'The Pub Collective' could have a chance at being successful if it was to actually be made real.

The Presentation on issuu

Making a Collective _ The Pub Collective

We got into a group of 3 made up of me, Thea and Joe to create a collective that we will pitch.
We began by discussing what our specialities are, I said I enjoy publications and traditional print such as screen print. The said she enjoys Publications and letter press plus other traditional print and Joe also enjoys publications and traditional print such as mono print. looking at our specialities we found that we all have an interest in a form of traditional print and publications. Looking at that idea we brainstormed some ideas for a collective name. The name we decided on was The Pub Collective.

Thinking about what we have to offer we discussed a seasonal or monthly publication. We thought our publication could feature traditional print methods and interviews with creatives who use traditional print. We thought it would be good to have the publication called Pint as it links to pubs. We thought we could hold events, exhibitions and interviews at pub locations and feature the information within the magazine. The Mag would be aimed at Young creatives and focuses on the discussion on the importance of traditional print in Industry. Therefore as a Collective people would come to us for marketing and social aspects such as us promoting there work. Thinking financially we would probably use crowd funding such as Kickstarter taking inspiration from Dan Saul with Coffee Shop North. Our Collective would be based within the UK. Working together would benefit our practice as although we have similar interests our styles are very different and working together to create a publication would be a challenge but it would be rewarding to be able to learn and see work from many different creatives that we would interview and talk to.

What is a collective ?

What is a Collective ?
_Done by people as part of a group
_A cooperative enterprise

Within the arts a collective is a group of people who work together with similar interests creating and documenting art as a group.

A popular collective in Leeds is the Goat Collective. They are young and are a collection of visual artists. They are a multi-disciplinary creative collective who are socially aware. I think they are a successful collective as they share interests are represented well through many social media platforms and are well known within the Leeds area. 

Dust is a multi-disciplinary collective based in Sheffield in the UK. This collective has done some amazing work and have a great website displaying this. The name of the collective is unusual and the abstract logo stands out not being fully recognisable as the word dust.

The Bread Collective is a network of creatives working across a variety of disciplines, based in the East London. We specialise in illustrative typography, murals and installations, as well as art direction, graphic design and branding.  The collective is made up of 4 male and 2 female creatives.

Loose Collective is an independent design studio based in Manchester. They believe that great design and effective communication should always be built upon good ideas and not by succumbing to visual trends. They prefer not to follow the herd. They have a interesting logo made with their own typeface.

Oh so Pretty _ Punk In Print 1976 - 80

I went to the opening night of the Oh so Pretty - Punk in Print exhibition held at Village Bookshop. In the exhibition was a selection of artefacts from Toby Mott's extensive collection of gig posters. He was also there talking to people and signing books. I enjoyed looking at the old posters because I enjoy some of the music and I like looking at the style and type of the posters. It relates to one of the competition briefs I did when I created indie rock themed cards. I had a flick through the book and the content looked really good. Overall it was a good event to socialise and I enjoyed looking at the old poster collection

Play it Loud

There is currently a event at Monroe house called Play it loud. It features Gig posters from New Analog. I decided to go on the opening night, he was live screen printing posters and talking to people. I found his prints amazing how detailed the screen prints were. The colours he uses is very vibrant and I loved the overlapping of the colours and shapes. I listened to some of the songs that the posters were for and found they fit well with the songs. Overall it was a good event and I enjoyed looking a these screen printed posters.

Layout development and pattern design

I began ideas for patterns by taking inspiration from coralie's Book The Fox and The Star. She only uses a limited colour scheme therefore I will try and create a pattern which uses little colour. She is very traditional in the way she works therefore I want to show that in some way. Also a common pattern she uses is stars and dots. In her book has a lot of nature in such as leaves, dirt, sky etc.

I began by doing some initial sketches of what I could have in my pattern. I want to include a book as that is the design I am interested in and what she is known for. I also want to include other things I noticed about her work.

I created this pattern which includes Books, Stars, pencils, leaves and dots. I also included the colours in her colour scheme for fox and the star. I tried putting them on the bottom of my publication pages but I felt it didn't look quite right so I decided to ask for some peoples opinions.

People felt like the colours used took away from the content of the book and may be seen as very childish. Although the fox and the star is a children's book I still want the interview and the rest of her work shown to be represented more seriously. I am going to try the pattern with only navy and white and then begin ideas for the cover design.

Creative report development and critique

 I decided on a size of the publication (100mm x 140mm) that would fit my type in a readable font size. I began designing with the font Minion Pro as it is a traditional looking serif font. To separate my Questions from my answers I did not want to change colours so I decided to change the size and alignment. For each picture I used is from Coralies Website or from The William Morris Gallery website which I will put at the end of the book. On the first page of the book I write what the book is about and when the interview was done.

I decided it would be beneficial to have a critique at this point as I was unsure on a few of my decisions. I am questions such as 

• What do you think of the font used?
• How Could I layout my interview without changing colour?
• I am thinking of creating a pattern to se on the pages, what do you think?
• Do you like the title and cover idea? 

This was the feedback

• Play around with layouts, More of a grid system 
• Love the name it links well to her book
• The interview type layout works well
• Only have one question on each page as the negative space works well.
• The pattern idea is good, you could also consider start and end patterned pages
• Cover idea is fun, make your own pattern idea linked to students.

Overall I am happy to carry on developing my small publication and work on some patterns.

Coralie Interview Creative Report Plan

I began my creative report of coralie by making a lose plan of what I want on each page. I want to layout my book with images on one side and interview on the other so that it breaks up the text. I want to use a traditional looking font as coralie enjoys more traditional and historical design. I came up with the name 'The Student and the Designer' due to the name of her current book ''The Fox and the star' and her second book 'The worm and the bird' This way it links to her work and explains loosely what the small book is about. 

Creative report ideas

After I recieved two replies I began to think about how I could make them into a creative report, something that could benefit mw but also that I could share with other people including the person I interviewed.

For Warren Tales I can make the interview be inside a card in some way as she designs cards and stationary. I have multiple questions and answers what I could either try fit into one card or I could design a card for each question along with a envolope keeping them all together.  

When it comes to Coralie Bickford Smith It would be most wise to create a book as she does book cover design for penguin. I want to create a book that resembles and takes inspiration from her own book 'The Fox and the star'. I want to include I notes that I took from her talk and many pictures of her work so that people who see this book who don't know her or know the work and not her name will learn more about her. I want my book to be small and compact so I could send it in the post to coralie herself and so the smaller information can take up more pages as I want to have either a hard back foiled like corals cover or screen printed like the inside of her book.

Quote from Experimental Jetset

Looking through a book of graphic design quotes I came across a quote that I liked and stood out to me. It was a quote by Experiemental Jetset (Marieke Stolk, Danny van den Dungen and Erwin Brinkers) It talks about the use of typography and how people suggest that by using helvetica it is the easy way out. This made me laugh as that is a common misconception and I find typefaces that hardest thing to justify and work with.

FemFest 17'- Hyde Park Book Club

Last week I went to Hyde Park Book Club to FemFest 2017. There were stalls that included Zines, Prints and other items available to buy. They also had workshops and events that linked to art, design and feminism. I enjoyed going and seeing peoples work. Especially the zines. I think it is important to make everyone aware of feminsim and encourage people other than artists to come to events such as this and take part.

See Red - Exhibition

 Recently I went to the See Red Exhibition at Village Bookshop which displays Feminist Posters 1974 - 1990. I really enjoyed looking at the prints and they gave me inspiration for my 505 studio brief 01 A3 poster and My COP political posters. I like the bold colours used and the stand out illustartion style. The messages of feminism are powerful and effective. Overall the exhibtion was inspiring and gave me inspiration for my own practice and it was fun to see how design has changed.

Footprint Talk

We had a bit of a different talk by hearing from a printing service.
Footprint is a workers Co-operative which means there is no Boss and everyone is equal in the work place. When talking to us they said we should never make something you don't want to make as they go by the saying
_ If we don't like the content we don't print it
So even if just one member of the team does not like it they will not print it.
They pride themselves on sustainable printing, paper, inks and materials. They also recycle materials.

Overall it was interesting to hear a printer point of view on design and think more about how to be sustainable within my design.

Saul Studio Talk

We had Dan Saul come in to talk to us about his design experiences. It was good to hear from him about how he became a studio and how he used Crowd funding to do a project he really wanted to do.

• He started the Yorkshire Boast publication
• They were struggling to find work so made t-shirts that said 'We Haven't got any work'
• He started crowd funding on Kickstarter for his Coffee Shop North Publication
• He encouraged us to use Instagram to communicate 
• Other work Salvation and colours may vary.
• Large Scale Infographic

Saul's Advice

• Your attitude is important to make it work
• Get yourself in the right position 
• Find people that understand you
• Collect Graphic Design
• Find your Niche
• Its not as pretty as it looks
• Do/dont move to London

Overall I found his journey interesting to hear how he starting with a friend and then was on his own and how he come to get the jobs he did. 

Future Rising Talks

'Contribute to promote your talent'

We were able to sign up for a talk by Future rising. They are a career network that focus on Industry sector, Job Role, Company size, Location & Opportunity. Basically you use them to get career advice and mentors and you can apply for jobs.

We also had a talk by Charlotte and Danny and they gave some good advice.

My notes 

• Young Creative Council
• Iris advertising agency 
• Good Ads to look at, Nectar and Fruit shoot (Mini Mudder), Snapchat Neo Adidas

Getting a placement 

• Go to events
• Keep your eyes peeled 
• Go to book crits
• DO the feedback given in crits
• Don't wait until graduation 
• There are SO many agencies

You and your branding (Yes you are a brand too)

• Always be yourself
• Get social (Linked IN and Twitter)
• Get your work online
• No team, No problem
• Your portfolio - less is more - New v Old - Why will people care.

BE PROACTIVE

Overall I found there talk good even though it was aimed at advertising it helped to hear there views on portfolios and other areas.

A Trip to Berlin!

I went to Berlin on the class trip and did many things that has inspired the way I think about design on this post I will talk about all that I did.

Bauhaus Archive

 I visited the Bauhaus Archive to see all of the art and design featured.  The thing I liked most about going there was the architecture and the overall vibe of being in the place.

Holocaust and Library Memorial

I have always been interested in WW2 when it comes to reading and museums so being able to go to Berlin and see these memorials was amazing. Seeing the holocaust memorial was a surreal experience as only when you see it in person and walk between the sculptures you can really feel what the tone is suppose to be and it does an amazing job at representing the nameless people who were lost.



 The library memorial was interesting to see as unless you are educated on what the meaning is you could be confused by it. It is also hidden in the ground and hard to find. But I like the the empty shelves are white and look clean. Also it is good how far they go down and being a lover of books I was touched that a memorial was made due to the loss of books.

Ampelmann 

 Walking around Berlin I kept seeing the green crossing man in places other than street safety lights. We came across a shop were I found that the this sign was the Ampelmann. He is a really popular symbol in Germany and is now branded on everything. In the shop was all imaginable things with the red and green Ampelmann on them. I was confused at why it was such a famous figure and found a book explaining about the history of the design and why it is so relevant.

The Ampelmann was a symbol created in 1961 by Karl Pehlau. He wanted to create a Perky and Cheerful man inspired by a summer photo of Erich Honecker in a straw hat. The man was featured in Cartoons, it was made to make people feel safe but now is a national icon and it featured on 600 products that is still expanding.

I find it really interesting that a practical symbol has become so popular and fashionable and is getting stronger as time goes on.

see more -  http://ampelmannshop.com/History

Hamburger Bahnhof

We visited the Hamburger Bahnhof were we spent a few hours looking at the art. I pieces that stood out to me was the Andy Warhol and his use of colour and contrast. Another thing that I loved about visiting the gallery was the more interactive parts. The architecture was amazing and I loved looking at there range of art and design books.

Pentagram

We were able to go to see the Pentagram Berlin studio and listen to a talk by Justus Oehler. He was very inspiring and passionate about design. He talked about how it is important that we play a positive contribution into design as there is design out there and we need to think about our morals and what we think is right to design. Something that stood out to me within his presentation was the quote he listed by David M. Ogilvy. He talked about how every design you do should have a story and you should make people love your design by the story of how you made it. Overall it was very interesting hearing from Justus and being able to talk and ask him questions about Pentagram and overall design.

Chloë Galea

A fellow graduate from our course Chloe was able to come to talk to us about her experiences. It was helpful as she talked about leaving the UK and moving to work in a new place. Although everyones experiences are different it is still interesting to here how she is able to work with people who speak in a different language and work in a different way. Overall hearing her point of view was interesting.

Ace & Tate + Anthony Burrill

 There was a small exhibition by Anthony Burrill showing his type designs. It was strange to see his type in a glasses shop but I do like the boldness of it and the atmosphere of the exhibition. His posters were all for sale and were made using letterpress with wood and metal. I really like his letterpress fonts and the colours he chooses to put together.

The Hostel and out and about

 When arriving at the hostel I loved the area of Mitte and the designs I found in the hostel. Next to the hostel is the well known mural on the side of Tacheles building. The building used to be the Central office of the SS during the World War 2, but after the Berlin Wall fell, the building was taken over by Artists and became a well known place to host exhibitions and performances. When socialising on a nighttime I really liked the design of the hosel. The design of the Kupfer Bar was interesting with its use of two typefaces and it is on paint that looks put on by a roller and very handmade. This made the bar feel quirky, young and stylish. One night we came across a zine shop that had many design magazines I thought the signage was clever because it was the question Do you read me?