Handwriting App

I have found a cool new app.

No, it's not Temple Run 2.

It's called iFontMaker, an app that allows you to make your handwriting into a font. I'm a fan of all things typographic and I love the way that this app allows you to add some personality to your emails.
I've only had time to play with it quickly but will aim to compile a whole alphabet of my own handwriting

General Updates

I have been getting up to lots of things lately, so to save four short blog posts I have condensed it all down into one little post with bite sized pieces. Like with any catch up you always have to have a hot drink, which explains the image, obviously.

Image sourced from here

1. You may have noticed that my blog has had a slight make over recently and now has more of a personal feel. Changing the layout is something I have been wanting to do for a long time yet not really got round to, I am keen to have both my website and blog use quite a consistent theme and I think this is a good match. Over time I hope to tweak and improve both to create a better synergy between all my digital presences.

2. Post placement I have been applying for lots more jobs and Internships (as usual). My placement at Big in December opened my eyes to lots of possibilities and this week I've really had an "I've got nothing to loose" mentality and applied and emailed people about a whole range of opportunities. My aim is to try lots of different things, not necessarily design, and just gain as much experience as possible by trying new things. So far i'm enjoying it.

3. My good pal Alex is owner of Albatross Clothing; an ethical clothing company with morals at the heart of everything they do. This week I have been working up designs for a new apparel range after receiving an invite to submit work.

Apparel design is not something I know a lot about but I definitely wanted to have an emphasis of fun in the designs I created as the Albatross audience is young people. Once focus group research has been completed I will hopefully know if these designs will be going forward to be sold under the Albatross brand. Fingers crossed the designs make the cut!

4. Finally I have been working on some freelance projects. The first is for an accounting firm which really came about by lucky coincidence, hopefully I can provide something that will really work for them a their brief was quite vague and I have a few ideas I want to pursue.

So that really concludes general updates. Hopefully some exciting things will start happening next week :)

New Years Resolutions

The festivities of Christmas are gone and now people are beginning to look towards New Years Eve and with that comes new years resolutions. Resolutions are the promises we make to ourselves at the start of the new year to ensure success, happiness, health and wealth in the following twelve months. With new years nearly here I have been thinking about my own resolutions, specifically career related ones. So here they are...

From Here

1. Get a job.

I talk about getting a job a lot, but more specifically I want to get an awesome job. Gaining experience on placements shows I am willing to learn, better myself and allows me to be more aware of career choices. 2013 will be the year I land a fantastic job because I will work hard, research, learn and get there.

2. Use LinkedIn effectively.

Today I have been busily updating my profile on LinkedIn, connecting with relevant individuals and joining groups. I believe it is important to be up to date with LinkedIn because it allows you to broadcast yourself to the "right people" and meet like minded designers you admire and see how they achieved what they have. In 2013 I will be regularly updating my LinkedIn profile, to be witness to this you can connect with me here.

3. Use my SLR more

I've had my SLR for about two and a half years and in that time it has been primarily used to photograph work for my portfolio. My new years resolution is to learn more about photography, and produce great quality shots. I love the fantastic vibrancy of the photos from the camera so in 2013 I will be more snap happy.

4. Visit more exhibitions, museums and galleries

I have the V&A and The Tate on twitter and regularly hear about the fantastic exhibitions they have on yet rarely go. In 2013 I will make more effort to visit exhibitions, design related or not, in order to inspire myself and experience new things. In January I am hoping to go down to London and definitely want to visit The Natural History Museum and the V&A Ballgowns exhibition.

5. Be successful and have fun

If you have these two factors in your career you can't be doing too badly, so in 2013 I will be aiming for both.

Placement Reflection

Image via French Knot

I've just completed my four week placement at Big Communications in Leicester interning as a junior designer. I had a great time, got some fantastic real life experience and met a whole host of lovely people. During my time on placement I learnt a great deal and it helped me clarify some of my thoughts and ideas about employment.

I'm a real worrier; anyone that knows me on a personal level will know that I worry about everything and will endlessly contemplate the smallest details. My advice to myself for the future and other graduates is just don't. Don't waste your energy and brain power on worry - it's unnecessary. At times I found myself worrying about timings and tried to work on projects as fast as I could when, in some instances, time and reflection were required to achieve the desired result. If you are concerned, ask! I did and was reassured to know I was working at a good pace, which leads me on to my next point...

I enjoy getting feedback, it helps me to understand where I may be going wrong or right in order to improve and it's also nice to hear positive words about work you have done. During the placement I tried to get feedback wherever possible but still wish I had got more. In future I would take every opportunity possible to get some constructive criticism from those around you in order to better yourself as a creative.

Be interested in everything. Generally I ask a lot of questions, about everything, to anyone, on any topic. Because of this I learnt a lot of several things I previously had little knowledge of; internships, advertising, copywriting and digital, for example. Because of this I have a clearer idea of what I want from future internships and jobs and am excited by the prospect of diversifying into new areas.

I'm really thankful for the knowledge I gained in Leicester because it has helped me clarify what I want. Internships are part and parcel of this industry and it can be frustrating not to walk in to a job straight away but it is so worthwhile when you better understand and come away with invaluable knowledge.

Next up is finding my new creative endeavour, watch this space.

Digital Christmas Card

Now that we are entering December everyone is beginning to feel festive; putting up the Christmas tree, wrapping presents and sending christmas cards.

This Christmas I wanted to do something different and send cards I have designed digitally through email. I suspect most of you are like me and have far more of your friends' emails than home addresses, which makes the process of emailing your card much easier plus it's free.

Please feel free to send your family, friends and colleagues my digital Christmas card by copying the code in the box below into an email and follow the simple instructions.

All you have to do is:

-Paste the code from the box below into the email while it is in HTML mode, this is very important or it won't work

- You can usually you can change from "Rich Text" mode to "Edit in HTML" at the top of the page while writing your email.

- Be sure to change back to "Rich Text" when finishing off your message.

-Write a festive message and send to spread some festive cheer

Merry Christmas :)

<a href="http://www.alicevaughan.co.uk/index/l" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o759/aliceevaughan/christmas.png" border="0" alt="Photobucket"/></a>

Placement Update

This past week I have been enjoying my first week of placement as Big Communications in Leicester as a graphic designer. My previous blog posts had charted my application and interview so it seems only right that I post a quick update on how my placement has been going so far...

This week I have been working on emailers, livery, print work and branding so it has been a really varied few days but great for experiencing a whole range of tasks in a short space of time. I think I have been keeping up with the fast paced work place well and loved that I was working on real life campaigns that might actually be used!

I hadn't had a great deal of real studio experience beforehand so it was a steep learning curve the first few days as to how the studio functioned. Many of the people in the creative team work in pairs of copywriter and art director; something I was aware of but had never experienced first hand before so took the opportunity to quiz an interning copywriter and art director on their experiences. I was interested to find that both had studied graphic design (as I had) but diversified into their new roles. It made me feel positive about the various opportunities I could expand into in the future if I wanted.

In general I have had a productive, educational, creative and fun week. Being on placement has really taught me so much in such a short space of time and it's really satisfying to do a job that I have been trained for and working towards for 3 years, especially with such a respected and successful agency.

One of the benefits aside from the actual creative work is meeting like minded creatives and being able to have a fun work environment as well as a creative and interesting job.

N.B I didn't wan't to shove an SLR in peoples' faces on my first few days so decided to include this quote from one of my favourite designers, Saul Bass (from here) that I think is quite apt.

The poster is taken from my Pinterest board "Inspiration" which you can follow for typographic and design based pins.

Self Promotion: Pintrest, Bloglovin', LinkedIn

At the minute I seem to be joining/adding/editing everything. Today alone I have worked on a self promotional project and sent it off to print (coming soon) added to my society 6 account, updated my LinkedIn and my website. The reason behind this frantic updating of social media is to promote myself as a professional graphic designer and freelancer which will hopefully help me get employed now I have my degree.

I am relatively new to LinkedIn and Society 6 so trying make my profiles and work appear as best I possibly can. The newest website I have joined is slightly different and not something I thought I would ever be interested in; it's called Pintrest. Before I was a member I was quite skeptical, but after some persuasion from my designer friends I joined, and I haven't looked back.

The basic premise for Pintrest is that you have a virtual pin board and roam the internet "pinning" images, text, blogs or articles to your board which can be shared and "repined" with others. This is defiantly a useful service as I am always coming across exciting things on the internet and losing them, so this allows me to collate my findings in one efficient pin board. Follow me here

Currently I have a pin board called inspiration where I have collected interesting designs that may influence future projects. As a designer, Pintrest can be a really useful tool to gather inspirations and influences.

On another note I have joined Bloglovin', after some research I decided it could be a great way to interact with a larger audience and find other design blogs to read myself. I am always searching for design blogs and find them few and far between so with any luck Bloglovin' will remedy this.

Finally, I am on holiday this friday (27th) until the 3rd of August but will post about my latest projects when I return :)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Tips for Student Designers

If you follow me on twitter or have read this blog before you will know that I have just finished my BA (hons) in Graphic Design. During the three years of the course I learnt a few things: graphics is expensive, time consuming, and at times frustrating.

But it doesn't have to cost a fortune, take up all your time or drive you insane when a project just. won't. work. These are some tips I picked up during the three years that can be useful and helped me to become more professional about my design career.

Books


I find books and essential part of my design process as they can give so much inspiration from simply flicking through them. As I have said before, I love adding to my expanding collection with new examples of great design that I can come back to over again. The usual staple for online book purchasing is Amazon, but I find Play.com is equally extensively stocked with  great design books, usually a few pounds cheaper than Amazon, and always with free delivery. This doesn't sound a lot, but when I come to order five or six books the difference can mount up.

Scrapbooks


I take a lot of photos when i'm out and about (see here & here). Instead of leaving them languishing in files on my desktop I get them developed and stick them into old sketchbooks. This is another inventive way of providing yourself with some inspiration from exhibitions or places you have visited. I have a number of scrapbooks with photos from 2011 and 2012 degree shows I visited to remind me of the most influential pieces.

Cameras

My DSLR is used for many things; photographing final pieces, blog posts and just taking my own photos. The quality and vibrancy of the images far our weighs that of my compact camera, which isn't quite up to taking good final piece shots. But with them both being Sony the memory card is can easily be swapped between the two without having to purchase a second, which is extremely convenient when you are a poor student.

Printer

Admittedly my printer is a beast and takes up most of my desk (annoying) but it is probably one of the most useful things I have ever bought so I can forgive it. I have a Brother MFC-5890CN which is capable of printing anything up to A3 and anything as small as a 4" x 6". This was amazing as at uni we had A3 sketchbooks so I could print my pages straight out instead of faffing around with glue/scissors/paper/trying to make it look professional. Along with this it scans, faxes, copies and can link directly to a USB or memory card. This meant that I could complete most tasks myself without having to out source more equipment and just focus on my work.

Although it is not advised by the manufacturer, I tend to use recycled ink for day to day printing. The quality is comparable and recycled ink is SO much cheaper. I get ink from INKcredible, an amazing site where you can get C, M, Y and K for £10 and the speed, service and quality is awesome. If you print as frequently as I did during the three years then this will definitely persuade you to swap to recycled ink.

Sketchbooks


My last bit of good advice would be to always carry a sketchbook with you to note down or sketch down ideas. Some of my best ideas just dropped into my head when I was on a bus or walking somewhere. It helps clarify ideas, keep records and develop concepts into a functioning solution to a brief.


These are just a few things that I find useful to inspire me when i'm stuck with a project or just save some money on things that I use all the time like printing. Either way I hope somebody finds it useful.

Starting A Design Blog

During the summer I started to make myself a website, it's a great way to showcase a portfolio or things of interest, and web design is a useful skill to have. Although I had no idea how to even start the process it slowly came together in-between university projects. It's quite simple and there is definitely room for improvement but you can now visit me at alicevaughan.co.uk to check out some of my work.