Why Am I Here What Do I Want To Learn?

Promotional

This category of design can be put into any sector, and so the design is influenced by the type of client.

Promotional material can have any kind of concept and the type of brief can be open or closed, it depends on who the graphic products are being designed for. There is a lot of creative scope within this kind of design, from formats such as posters, to unusual objects such as memory sticks and tea cups. Anything can be used to promote something. Clever concepts stand out to me just as much as paper products such as business cards. There is the opportunity to use objects influenced by the company it's promoting too and that excites me.

Edibles produced and packaged nicely to promote a company. This would work best for a chocolate company, but studios of self branding would work with this concept too. It's fun, small and still promotes something.

Ro & Co Studio produced the above range of cordials for their clients as an annual gift to thank them. this promotes their business in a clever way, and uses objects instead of posters, postcards or anything else completely paper based.

Why am I Here What Do I Want To Learn?

Packaging design

Sectors

• Food
• Cosmetics

Packaging products is something that appeals to me the most at the moment, and I think this interest will carry on because I am most attracted to packaging design. I like that it has a 3 dimensional aspect, and although a flat label may be the only component required, it goes around a 3D object and so this can change the way the typeface looks or the image. Mocking up prototypes and testing designs out before they are made into the final packaging product is a skill I need to develop, however it isn't an aspect that puts me off at all. Packaging that most appeals to me is the type that just makes me smile because it just works with the hierarchy of the typeface and the image, or packaging that has been cleverly influenced by the concept behind it.

Why Am I Here What Do I Want To Learn?

Graphic design in the environment

Sectors

• Tourism
• Public information
• Food
• Retail

I have classified my areas of interest by also looking at the sectors that they cater for. The type of design that has been made for a space has to have the scale, legibility and overall aesthetic fully considered. The function of them dictates how they are seen and interacted with, and so they need to be placed where people will see them and be able to understand. They need to sing in unison with the rest of the branding with the business or environment. Museum wayfinding and signage is different to cafe and restaurant graphic, but both of them appeal to me. Museums have a much wider range of a target market in comparison to a cafe of restaurant, and so I would imagine it is harder to design for such a wide range of people.

The icon design sits well with the branding of this coffee shop, and does not need to use the English language to convey it's meaning. The natural wood texture works well with the flat icon designs.

Large window decals are something I really want to design, and this menu design reminds me of stamp design where information is broken up with boxes.

Wayfinding in museums and similar places need to look quite neutral, and they risk ending up not having as much personality as eatery signage, however the production and the material it is made from can really influence whether they are interesting pieces of design in themselves or not.

The Capital Kitchen branding is some of my favourite work that I have seen recently, and the icon design made from the utensils and objects used in store make for interesting and engaging large scale design.

This caught my eye as this makes the viewer look at the design in a different way, by looking down instead of up, giving it an interactive feel.

Companies That Are Synergetic To Me | Currently

Here Design

Here Design has been a favourite of mine since I found them in the middle of the first year. They specialise is branding, and they have mostly worked for the food and drink and retail sectors. These areas of design are ones that I am most attracted to, and I aim to concentrate on looking at a range of products to produce a branding project.

B&B Studio

B&B have a nice mixture of large and small clients, and commercial and private. Their work feels like it has been tailor made to the needs of the client, and that's why their work is so varied. That is a positive aspect to their portfolio, and I would like my work to be varied but work within one portfolio. They have designed for some well known brands and it's really interesting to see the brands from the other side in a portfolio and not in a shop.

Robot Food

This agency is based in Leeds, and are a team that I could have a real chance of working with, as they are based locally. The work is mostly commercial, but has a independent feel to it. The work fits the clients very well, and represents both the brand and Robot Food. I really want to concentrate on designing logo and identity for branding collateral, and Robot Food's work demonstrates this well to me, and so I keep going back to them for inspiration.

Re-public

Re-public are a Stockholm based company, and also design for the food and drink sectors, along with other small businesses. The Ipsen & Co project was something I saw ages ago and admired, and so it was interesting to see the design studio behind the work. Their work feel very handmade, with stamping techniques and the way the design has been applied and produced. I would like to make my own stamps this year and create work that feels handmade...and even though it will be handmade sometimes digital work printed feels very flat and 1 dimensional.

Heydays

I struggled to find the 5th company, however Heydays jumped out to me as a point of difference to the others I have presented. The green and eco friendly theme to some of their briefs really appeals to me, and if I can look at designing for an eco friendly specification then that would correspond to this kind of studio, or it could bring something new to a company that hasn't really considered this kinf of practice before. Lots of eco friendly work can look very commercial but this feels high end and well thought through. The web aspect corresponds nicely to the rest of the work at the bottom.