Hepworth Gallery Visit

In December, I visited one of my favorite galleries, not just for its exhibitions but the architecture of the building itself. I visited the Hepworth art gallery in Wakefield to see the exhibition of Alina Szapocznikow based on her ‘Human Landscapes’ sculptures. The exhibition highlighted Szapocznikow’s work and it was developed from classical figurative sculptures. The exhibition featured more than 100 pieces of work including drawings, photography and sculptures. It was interesting to see the exhibition as what I found interesting was the development of the hand-drawn pieces to the full sized sculptures. 

Personal Branding

logo/branding from first and second year 

logo/branding now

Above is my self-branding logo that i created over the summer this is a different logo than the logo i had from the first and second year as i felt that the old logo did not work well as it was over complicated and did not represent the style of design that i now create. I set out to design a logo that was sleek and uncomplicated which is the type of work i set out to do, but also create a logo the was simple and didn't suggest to any specific disaplin like my old logo as i do not have a dedicated area of design and i consider myself as a general graphic designer with certain interests. 

The logo i created was successful for me as it achieved what i set out to do, it is a sleek minimal design that references my interests of modernist design but doesn't limit me or my branding to a set style. the most successful part of this logo is that the design works in any colour combination and is still clear when using colours that have a limited contrast. (see examples below)

I intend to use this logo throughout my social media design account such as Behance and Instagram as well as self-promotional materials such as business cards, letter heads and on a cv. 

making a zine for photography student

I was asked by a photography students to make a zine for them for their cop submission showing their photographs. For this brief i was given a week to complete.

The brief:
make a zine about common miss conceptions
saddle stitch booklet style
cover, content, end in a paragraph from her essay

After meeting grace to talk about the details of the zine after the initial briefing over facebook it was clear that the brief was not as straightforward. The photographs were of people with certain illnesses and didn't want the zine and its information out in the world. This made me ask the question of why she wanted a zine if it wasn't allowed to be seen for anything other than the submission, which defeated the purpose of a zine as they are to be read. After this meeting i seemed to have a completely different brief as she has already told the people who she has photographed how the booklet was going to look and they had signed a form to agree to it. This meant i had many restrictions as didn't have any reign for creative design just the making of the document. 

the new breif :
make indesign document of her content. 


After the debriefing, i started to create the document. when placing the photos into the document i had to photoshop them as without doing it i would not be able to achieve the brief as they would look out of place. This took more time tahn expected as they were supposed to be already edited and the same colour. 


For confidentiality as the people in the photos sign a form i cannot show on the blog the development of zine nor the final design. I was never given a copy of the final zine for my submission.

please find a printed copy in my submission fold. (something went wrong in printed and no long have files as i handed them over to the student) 

Evaluation of experience: 
My experience on this brief was very unpleasant as i was miss lead to what the brief entailed, as she withheld information till after i had agreed to came the zine. They said that they had no experience with indesign so that was why they were asking me to do the brief but in the end it was obvious that they just didn't want to make the zine themselves.
If iwas to ever do a brief for another student i will make sure to clarify the details before saying yes and if i later find that information has been with heald i will turn down the brief.  

Website services

Upon researching into well-known brands for creating a website on their price ranges are:  

Cargocollective 2 - $13 a month or $99 a year 
Squarespace - £10 to £15 annually 13 to 21 month to month 
GoDaddy - 5.99 or 7.99 or 12.99 a month and on top of that domain name pricing. 
Wordpress - Free or £3 or £7 or £20 domain included free in the first year of purchase.
Wix - Free or $5 or $25  

Out of all the website and domain services I chose to create my portfolio website on Wordpress because of the free website building service that they provide. In this service, I was able to build a website that resembled a professional portfolio website relatively quickly and I chose to stay with the service as it did not take much longer to complete it. I chose a simple layout for my website but soon after I found a more appropriate portfolio template for my website which I have yet to customize and improve.

Manchester Gallery Visits

Back in November 2017, I visited Manchester and two of the galleries in the city, the first Gallery that I visited was the Manchester Art Gallery in which I saw many exhibitions ranging from South Asian Functional Design to Industrial Revolution paintings. I found the South Asian Functional Design the most interesting exhibition at this gallery because it was relevant to see what kind of design work is been created in locations that I don’t normally see work of. 

The second gallery that I visited was at the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA) and the main exhibition that I saw was called Digital Matters: The Earth Behind the Screen. Which explored global warming and the damaging effect of a throwaway society through digital methods. The exhibition explored a slightly different perspective on the problem, I believed the exhibition aimed to explore the relationship between the rising amount of resources being used and resource exploitation as well as technology development in this current age. The exhibition was created by several practitioners with all the work being created in either Hong Kong, China or the UK. The practitioners that worked on the exhibition were: Map Office, Ellen Pau, Dani Ploeger, Unknown Fields and Yang Yongliang all having an input to the exhibition. These artists attempted to take a closer look at our contemporary digital universe through a multitude of installations. 

What I found the most intriguing at the exhibition was a piece of animation which combined four screens to create a full image that was fully an animated piece of work. This one was based around mining specifically around producing ‘rare earth magnets’ and however a single aspect of it affects the environment including the mining, refining, waste management and disposal, all have an excremental effect on the world. The installation was fully animated and contained intricately detailed within the piece of work that was visually stunning, from the waterfalls crashing from the mountains to a UFO abducting a person. 

I always enjoy visiting Manchester and it’s galleries because of its wide range of different work displayed compared to the different art and design work displayed here in Leeds.

Little black book : a toolkit for working women

I recently received the little black book: a toolkit for working women as a gift, and i can't thank them enough for it. This book talks about getting organised to money and even public speaking. After reading this book i have a different outlook on how to make the most of my final year of university and it has helped me decide to make the change to become more productive an organise. This book suggested taking one thing at a time and making a list each night before bed of this i need to do, and also to prioritise them for most to least important, this will be important as the year goes on and i start to multitask and work on numerous projects at once.

I plan on using this book as a reference to go to if i get worries about work or if i have any small questions that it could answer about the working world for a woman. 

P and H acoustics logo

I was asked to propose a redesign of a logo from the owner of p & h acoustics as they were wanting to drop the acoustics from their name as their business specialises in more than just that now. 

About the business: 

• the business makes modification to cars such as hands-free kits, in-car TVs, stereos and parking sensors. 
• local business in Doncaster 
• the company has only two employees and is self-run.

What the customer wanted from the logo:

• updated design
• something related to cars
• simple and works at any scale
• to be used on a van, letterheads and t-shirts 

Current logo

most of the logos I liked at for inspiration had representational images of thing to do with cars such as the car its self, the speedometer, and even the wheels. 

at the early stage of design, i sent these design to the client to see if i was going in the right direction. 

after this response, I started to develop further from the feedback.

Once again i develop the designs and showed them to the client, they really liked the bottom design with the full oval and suggested using a colour similar to the other designs i showed them. I then added a blue gradient and the client was happy with the design to say that it was the final design.

Evaluation of my experience: 

This brief was a nice small brief that was supposed to have a free reign of design but didnt turn out that way. The client wanted a new clean design but the only designs they liked were too similar to the original design. In the end, the only differences were the splash of colour, loss of acoustics and parts in the oval. Although the brief ended up being not what i expected i still enjoyed working on a brief for a client and having a close relationship with them through the design process made it easier. 

Response from you've got mail

you've got (real) mail presentation

How to: write about your work

To be effective about writing you have to be clear about its meaning

What is it responding to, trying to solve, improving or communicating?

(without one of these project is in trouble)

one sentence that covers 3 things, what, how and why

-what is the core idea?

-how does it work?

-why does it work?

writing about and interface design called 'amber':

The core idea of this user experience is to make buying cosmetics easier and more efficiently.

It works by showing you the prices of the product from a range of different stores including local supermarkets.

This works as it cuts down the browsing time for buying products.

You've got (real) mail

I've deiced to send mail to oslo agency and the archipelago as I find both their work is very similar to mine but also very inspiring. The aim of sending things to them is to get some recognition either on social media or just a conversation about their work to make a connection with them, which will also help with cop as these are studios that i wanted to talk to as part of my research.
I have previously spoken to archipelago last year when i wanted to interview them for ppp, but at the time they were busy with projects and said to get back in contact in the future.

What to send:
I have decided to send the studios a little package which has cactus seeds in because archipelago have a project called 'the plant room' where they take inspiration from plants and create work with a collaborator. I thought that it would be a nice gesture as it could be used in their project but also show them that I am interested in all the work that they do.
The reason to send that same to Oslo is that I noticed on their Instagram that they like to have plants around the studio and i thought that it would be a nice different way of saying hello.

Messages for inside package:

Hi Oslo Agency,

I just wanted to introduce myself
to you, my name is Katie and I’m
a graphic designer who finds your
work very inspiring. I follow your
Instagram account and have
noticed in your studio you like to
have a few plants, I too like to
have plants in my work
environment. Inside this box are
some cactus seeds for you to
have the chance to grow your
own to add to your plant collection.

I’d love you hear from you to talk
plants and graphic design.

Kind Regards.
Katie Ayers
Instagram: @kayersdesign
Email:

Hi The Archipelago,

I just wanted to introduce myself
to you, my name is Katie and I’m
a graphic designer who finds your
work very inspiring and love I the
concept of the collective projects
you do for ‘the plant room.’ As a
way to show my support and
interest in your work inside are
some cactus seeds which I hope
will inspireyou or just brighten up
your workspace.

I’d love you hear from you to talk
plants and graphic design.

Kind Regards,
Katie Ayers
Instagram: @kayersdesign
Email:


Aspects of design :
box that will have the message and seeds in 
design of packet of seeds
front of box text saying 'just thought i'd plant the seed...'


Prototype :


images of prototype 




Design of package: 

Pattern for seed packet

Seed packet design

 Net of box

Net of box with personal message

Printing : 

when it came to printing i have to consider which paper would withstand being posted and still maintain its shape. The higher gsm papers would allow the box to be more ridged.

When folding i had to be careful not to crack the ink as this would make the product look unprofessional. To stop the cracking i covered the paper in a vinyl, this not only minimalized the cracking it also helped make the box more ridged but also waterproof if the package was to get wet. 

For the seed packaging it was recommended that i use Tyvek paper, this complimented the delicate nature of the seeds as the papers fibers were visible. The rigidness of the seed packed is less important than the box as the packet is contained in the box. 

Images of final: 

Proof of postage :