Helen Murgatroyd

Helen definitely has a unique way of working, which I found really intriguing, as it seems that she does work for herself and not to please anyone else, which is nice to see also she has a clear style to her work, something I think I’m generating. She came to speak to us about her time at MMU and progressing to study at the RCA in London and explained how the gap between MMU and RCA where she worked as a post lady got her back into drawing.

I found the mapping work she produced while studying D&AD the most interesting and purposeful because I can clearly see where she began, developed to what she produced which was more engaging for me to see than her more experimental work she is currently doing. I see myself as a more of a commercial designer, I’d rather work on answering a specific, concise brief then experiment and ‘find myself’, that’s where I see myself in the future at the time being.

My two favourite pieces are her food preparation maps and the mapping drawings of her home from a person’s point of view. Her work is incredibly personal and beautifully crafted it makes me wish I had more patience with hand-made projects.

If this lecture was meant to help us decide if we wanted to study a MA after graduating then I guess I probably wouldn’t, it’s just not for me, I think I’m almost ready to jump into the world of design and gain experience that way I feel it would be more beneficial to me.

Graham Jones

Graham talked about ‘personal identities’ for freelance designers and stressed how it’s the one aspect of design which can’t be taught because it’s so personal and unique to each of us. It made me want to go away and make a start/gather ideas for an identity which would reflect my own personality to sell myself visually.  The key aspects of setting up a business as a freelancer or studio is a clear identity, polished portfolio, engaging website and clear written literature to promote yourself and what you do.

He began by discussing a name for a studio/freelance designer, how it should be more interesting, memorable and abstract than simply your name.

Graham talked us through the beginning of his career at a small design studio in the Northern Quarter they called ‘Via’.  They created a promotional stationary pack inspired by aspects of the studio they’d just moved in to; a striped pattern taken from the carpet, an image of rafters and colours taken from left over pots of paint were included in the designs. It’s this attention to detail I found really inspiring when he showed us how when the back of three letterheads lined up they created a flowing image. 

Graham told us how important business cards are to a designer, showing us his set he made for himself freelancing as Gman, he gave his potential clients a choice of six coloured business cards to choose from, I found this clever because it initiates a dialogue and interest immediately by allowing them to choose instead of just being handed one. Every small detail contributes to being successful because it shows you're passionate and care about what you do, little stickers on envelopes create a personalised and professional finish which differentiates design mail from junk I believe.

When freelancing it is important to keep a list of clients who need graphic design work who you can regularly contact and keep updated with what work you’ve been doing creatively which could land you some more work because they know you’re willing to take on work, creatively active and passionate in what you do.

Sending out gifts to clients is a way of getting more work if your contact details are in front of them everyday, one year Graham sent creative rulers out with information on such as paper sizes and lists of common file formats with an explanation so the clients could refer to it if they didn’t actually know the technical language etc it made communication between the designer and client easier.

I found this lecture really helpful, like a checklist of how to go about setting up on your own, how to go about it and stay successful. More lectures like this please.

Johnny Hardstaff

I loved Johnny’s sketchbooks, full of drawings and ideas, which looked like a work of art in itself, leading to the development of his infamous animation of “The History of Gaming’. It mesmerised me how he’d graduated without any software skills yet managed to make this retro animation just by using Photoshop.

What caught my attention in this talk was when he questioned how orthodox we are as designers and how we're playing it too safe and don’t have fun with what we do.

A topic he raised which I found interesting was about ‘corporate manipulation’ with a fine example of a Whisky advert. 

One of my favourite pieces of Johnny's work is the orange 'paint pouring' advert and how this is also very much centered around 'corporate manipulation',  showing us how Orange as a Service Provider can give to consumers so much more which is uncontainable. 

You should watch this - amazing attention to detail.

Peter Saville

It was shocking to hear that Peter Saville entered the subject of graphic design on a misunderstanding of what graphic communication actually was; he explained how he liked the look of it rather than the reality of actually doing it. He was drawn to designing mainly aesthetically yet naturally must have sunk into the concepts/ideas behind design to become so successful.

He described how from 1976-1977 he designed record covers and said it didn’t matter what was on the cover as long as it was fun, it wasn’t intellectually challenging as no research, pitches or arguments were involved. This was until the 80s when music videos became a serious medium. 

Kamikaze Pilots

Brief: "Equilibrium gymnasium for males, tee shirt design must include text 'Kamikaze Pilots' with related imagery. One colour as will be screen-printed."

I don't know what this has to do with a gym but this is what I came up with. I like it. 

During my placement I hardly received any feedback, which annoyed me because I didn't know if they liked my work or not, just a simple yes or no would have done. I still don't know whether they used it... 

Work Experience - MRP

Everything has kind of fallen into place for me this Summer. I didn't think I'd get a summer job so quickly but doing so, meant talking to Matt, a boy who was in A Level Graphics class and getting work experience at Midland Regional Printers in Basford, Nottingham where he works. 

Of course during Summer they were really quiet for business which meant I could sit down with them and see how they went about design for printing. They explained to me how printers and designers generally don't tend to get along because apparently designers make their lives quite difficult when it comes to printing their work... unauthorised font licenses,  CMYK/RGB and spot colour confusion, bleeds etc... but although I didn't do much in terms of design I learnt quite a lot. 

I didn't have a clue what printing plates were... a different metal plate for each CMYK and spot colours, amazingly precise, obviously. 

I was very tempted to borrow the pantone solid coated swatch book forever, but I didnt :) 

What annoyed me on this placement was how stubborn people can be when it comes to personal tastes, because it was quiet they asked me to mock-up a calendar for them to print and give out to clients. I mocked up a simple colour-coded calendar and wall planner relating to the seasons and temperatures which they didn't seem sure about. They showed me their past calendars which were absolutely awful - basically 12 stock images they'd brought. What the fuck? I wanted to be sick.  

PC to Mac

Thanks to my lovely friend Nia, I got a job in a pub in Deansgate with her during my second year's last term. This was the only reason I could afford to buy a mac. I was getting really desperate because my PC was beyond shit, crashing all the time, making it really difficult to actually do simple things on it. Obviously I took major advantage of the student discount available from apple welcoming a macbook, free printer and ipod touch into my life :)

I've got everything on it I need, and in the coming few weeks I'm going to attempt to teach myself (with a little help) how to make websites, before basing my dissertation on them. Not quite sure how yet...

From now on I'm going to stop being so damn lazy. 

I've got a new job at Clarks which is going to take up a lot of my spare time but I'm desperate for money. In the process of leaving my current job because it's terrible hours and denies me of a weekend.