Signature Balloons

Recently for my final major project I purchased some balloons what illuminated in the dark.

Now these was purchased from a company called Signature Balloons.

I've never used this company before never mind hear it so I didn't know what to expect.

Upon arrival of the goods I opened the packaging and found that they had sent me some free chocolate coins. Straight away this put a smile on my face.

It made me feel like they appreciate my custom, it's not like you go out buy something and people will give you a little freebie as a thank you because you've bought something from them.

With my custom feeling appreciated so much I will make sure I use them again in the future.

David Sedgwick Vs. Mike Rigby

In the three years of studying Graphic Design at Stockport College we have some a fair few practitioners come in from the outside to speak to us about different things such as; their work, life after graduation, how important placements are and what it's like working in the industry.

Deciding who to do my last design comparison on wasn't an easy task considering the amount of designers I've seen over the last three years. When thinking about it, I decided to choose two designers who stood out to me more than the rest. One of these designers was Dave Sedgwick, Dave is my favourite designer to date and the other was Mike Rigby, I chose him because of the impact of his talk with us.

Dave is an ex Manchester Metropolitan student during his time there he worked as a freelancer to get a bit of extra money in which is always a bonus. David has been on placements with Flux Magazine in the Northern Quarter, Splinter in Liverpool and Dinosaur.

Mike is an ex Preston University student. Mike has worked for companies such as, Imagination, Chase (Manchester,) Moon Design, Pentagram and Landor Sydney.

When Dave did his talk he spoke about how serious we take things. This to me is something that stood out and was very striking. As we are students the majority of us are very laidback people who don't think that far ahead, but as we are all trying to make it into the design industry this is something that we should do, the people who are more serious about it have that advantage straight away. Dave's tips was that 'we should be more determined to be successful and being more involved.' Certain things Dave did when he realized this was how he researched into design companies so he could try and get portfolio viewings etc.

When Mike did his talk he approached it very differently to how everyone else. Mike did his talk about the good and negative points about being a designer. Some of the good points about working in an industry like that are; easy to work for yourself, easy to work abroad, all the free parties and people in the industry are very helpful. Although as we all know with everything there's bad points to it, the negative points about being a designer are; long hours/unpaid overtime, poor quality of work and the pressure on you.

Overall these two designer's did their talk differently. For instance Dave did his talk in a big lecture theatre, this resulted in there being more people in the talk, more pressure on us to ask questions, whereas Mike did his talk in the classroom which I found was more relaxing and when at the end we asked questions it was a lot more relaxed we didn't feel like the question was going to be daft and embarrass us or something like that.

In the end both designers did their talks very different, but both was very enjoyable. It didn't matter to me where the presentation was because each talk is interesting and their is always something, big or small, that amazes you with what is said in each presentation.

Portfolio Visit

Recently I went on a portfolio visit with a free lancer called Angela Woosey.

I came across Angela through word of mouth and the fact she lives relatively close to me.

Unfortunately Angela doesn't have her own website where she puts her work on.

The feedback I got from Angela was really impressive. She really liked the posters I have created for the British Literature Festival, how I use space and I'm not scared to be minimalistic on my designs.

One thing Angela recommended was, that I should try and further my projects so they well stand out even more, also it allows people to show that I don't just do the brief and think it's finished.

Portfolio Visit

Recently I went on a portfolio visit to Reform Creative in Manchester.

Initially I was suppose to see Paul but unfortunately he had to rush out in the morning due to a business meeting, which meant I had the portfolio visit with Jamie instead. I had no complaints with this because I still got someone to look at my portfolio.

When Jamie was looking through my work he seemed to be really impressed with my final major project (MOSI promotion) the flyer for the Brass Band Museum in Birmingham and some other pieces I've done.

Jamie spoke about how he liked how the idea of each piece of work was there and mentioned how it tied in with a company like Reform.

The feedback was really good from Jamie, his feedback of detail was really impressive and very helpful.

Overall the visit was really good even if it didn't go according to plan.

Crazy Old Spice Commericals

Whilst on Facebook recently a friend of mine shared this video with the Facebook community.

When I watched this video I actually thought what the?!

What kind of commercial is this?

Who would actually want there product being promoted like that!

I've never seen something so bad in my life, I don't know who actually came up with the idea for the body wash to be promoted like that but if it was me I wouldn't be proud to admit to it.

If I was Terry Crews I would of asked myself, what made him do that commercial. Are you that skint to want to do it?

Maybe it was because he's an ex-American football player, and an actor (he's been in the film White Chicks, Friday film series and Everybody hates Chris) that the only reason the commercial got done like this is because he's somebody people already know.

I don't know what it is but this is something what is actually horrendous!

Lemonade Illustration Agency

On my FMP (Final Major Project) I'm doing some work which involves illustration.

Whilst researching into some illustration I came across an agency called Lemonade Illustration Agency.

On here there's over 40 different artists portfolio who all do illustration. All of these are of a high exceptional standard. They vary from cartoons, to illustration vehicles, to illustrated people, to illustrated objects.

The one's that stood out to me (just for the relevance) was the work of David Swang, Todd Graveline (he's got an awesome website!) and lastly Gary Swift.