"Know Your Onions" by Drew de Soto

You might remember me talking about this book in a previous book wish list post. It's been something I've been meaning to get for a little while then went ahead and purchased it earlier in the week.

The book contains tips, useful things to remember and fantastic advice that I think all designers, no matter how talented they may be, can benefit from.

I think this book will definitely be on my work desk as a source for assistance and guidance on a range of matters - well worth buying if you're a relatively inexperienced commercial designer like myself.

This week I have been having a few problems with difficult requests from the printers,which can be stressful when you aren't used to performing these tasks a lot. "Know Your Onions" covers a whole wide range of useful topics, including printing and I'm sure it will be my go to reference on design matters from now on.

Graphic Design Valentine

It's just over a week until Valentines day on February the 14th. Choosing a present can be tricky, so to solve this I created a gift guide for graphic design nerds to give to their other halves in order to inspire them to be creative or vice versa.

Creative Valentines suggestions include:

Pantone mugs for the caffeine addicted designer. Set of 6 £54.99 from The Gifted Penguin

"I love CMYK" T-shirt by Supreme Being.

Cool screen printed alphabet (with lots more great designs) from The Keep Calm Gallery from £22

A fantastic invention; The pixel ruler from UI Stencils from around £17.50

Adobe Software cushions to brighten up the studio (lots more design nerd cushions available) from Mysuitestuff.com around £10 each

Funny typographic iPhone case from Society 6 (lots more designs to check out) from around £22.50

Interview Creative Brief

As this post title would suggest this is about the creative brief I worked on as part of my application for the job at The Air Ambulance Service. Luckily I got the job so decided to share my efforts at this design task :)

The interviewers positively encouraged a creative outlook on this brief which which was so refreshing as it allowed a lot of freedom which is always exciting.

The brief itself was to design a postcard for the TAAS promoting the benefits of longer hours of sunlight in the summer months in regards to the air ambulance operating longer. I decided to go for an illustrative style as it was such a departure from the existing style of TAAS and I could really put my stamp on it. The concept is quite humorous and adds an element of fun, which moves away from the more shocking tactics of some charities.

This are my versions, one for TAAS and one for The Children's Air Ambulance.

Amazing Studios

This is quite an unusual post for me but it's quite fun so I decided to just go with it. The topic is really interior design for designers; taking a look at some cool spaces and studios to inspire you to be more creative with your own work space.

In general I prefer the cleaner desks but there are some good ideas on how make your work space a source of inspiration whatever your tastes are. I think my favourite is the top middle picture on the edge of the river and the one with the slide. Both would be really fun but I don't think I would ever get any work done.

I have collated some of my favourite images into quite an extensive Pinterest board of amazing studios, for image sources or more examples see here.

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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.

Pinterest Picks

I love Pinterest; It's a great way to collate a digital mood board of inspirations and interests that can be simply updated, edited and shared. Many times I have been lacking ideas and turned to Pinterest for much needed inspiration, plus it can link you back to the original source, which is generally very useful. 

I am a big fan of typography, hand rendered type and anything remotely retro, which is shown in my Pinterest picks below. If you want to see any of these pins and other similar images follow my "Inspiration" board here.

Possibly one of my favourite pins to date, this simple design showcases type and photography together in a lovely nostalgic way. Although cheesy, I think the message within is also useful to remember.

Similar to the design above, this image touches on the "Hipster Branding" fashion with beautifully constructed type and simple vector shapes.

This image has a Nike feel about it to me, I like the offset effect used to suggest this has been screen printed or similar.

I so wish I was talented at hand rendered type like this image above. I like seeing the pens and paper scattered around the side of the page which shows that great design is not always reliant on digital methods.

I just like the simplicity of this hand painted sign and the angle of the shot.

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.

Graphic Designer Games

My friend Nic has recently started her MA in Design and to showcase and organise her research has begun blogging her notes. Her blog is packed full of fascinating articles (see it here). One particular post about a logo guessing game (see it here) really intrigued me and got me thinking about other graphic designer games that were available (and also everybody likes games).

Nic spoke about Logo Quiz on her blog which is available for iPhone, iPads and Android devices, the premise of the game is to guess the famous brand from a fragment of the icon. A similar online version of the game is "Famous Logo Quiz"; It's quite an easy game with 30 logos to guess that everyone should be able to get a few of.

Similarly is the Sporcle quiz of corporate logos where you are given 6 minutes to guess all 36. I managed to get 23 if anyone thinks they can beat that, see it here. Sporcle is also a great quiz website for thousands of other genres and well worth checking out.

"Type Connections" is my favourite of all the games and works like "Blind Date" for type. You choose a "main character" and a partner then send them on a date to test compatibility. The funny commentary that accompanies the game really makes it entertaining but educational too as you can see which typefaces go together in "meet the pairs".

The font game, as you can probably guess, is about guessing fonts and I found this game really really challenging. If  you're a typography nerd and you think you can guess all 34 have a go here.

A much easier version of this game if the font shoot out game where you have to shoot the type the game asks you to select, unlike the font game, you have 3 lives and it's a bit more "game like" with a score board and the shooting element. Play it here

So have fun procrastinating with some useful and fun design games.

Five Interview Tips

If you follow me on twitter you will know that I have been job hunting since I finished uni this summer, and you may also know that I had an interview on monday. With the meeting still fresh in my find I decided to compile a list of "tips" and advice for graduate designers also going to interviews.

1. Research

An obvious piece of advice but you will be glad you know all of the companies' clients when they ask you which examples of their work you like the most and how much you know about the company (they will almost certainly ask). It is a great opportunity to show how serious you are about this role and the company.

2. Be prepared

For my previous interviews and meetings I not only took along my portfolio but some physical examples of my work and my iPad with lots of extra photos of projects I had not included in my printed portfolio. I found that it can be useful to take actual pieces of work with you to better explain your work but also create a talking point plus show extra images from my iPad.

3. Location

What seems another simple yet obvious tip is to research into where you going. Sat navs are not always reliable and don't allow for any potential traffic you may come cross so always google map your route so you are aware of the estimated time and location. Add on an extra half an hour to allow for error and always arrive 10 minutes early. 

4. Ask Questions & Get Feedback

Always ask questions about the company, your interview technique and how you can improve. Although it can be hard to take constructive criticisms it will strengthen your confidence for any future meetings and shows that you are willing to improve.

5.  Leave Something To Be Remembered

I think it is a good idea to always leave something with your interviewers so they can contact you back and you will be remembered, I believe this also shows fore thought and preparation. Be it an example of your work, a business card or a self promotional pack; leave something that will remind people of your great interview.

These are just a few of the pieces of advice I take note of when going to any interviews or meetings and I hope they are useful.

Good Luck!

Graduation

Yesterday, four months after finishing university, I eventually graduated along with my class mates at Chester cathedral. Before the ceremony I had been nervous about being on stage because I am really clumsy and not much into being on a stage, but thankfully being on stage lasted about 8 seconds and I didn't trip.

Halloween is quite an unusual date for a graduation as most others tend to be in the summer, however, it did give us all a chance to catch up with each other and discuss what we had been doing since June. It is quite nice to finally have some closure on my uni time, although I loved it, it's definitely time to move into a career in design.

I managed to drag my boyfriend and parents to the event without them complaining too much despite it being cold and the ceremony being quite long. It's no secret that I hate having my photo taken so here are a few awkward shots I took on my phone.

Also this is my 50th post which seems pretty appropriate :)

Nic looking forward to graduation

Lorna & I before we were seated

Me looking like a tool in Starbucks

Sam & I posing in a sports hall

"Scripts" & Hand Rendered Type

Last week I got a copy of "Scripts" by Stephen Heller and Louise Fili, it was a book I had wanted for a while and eventually decided to buy from Amazon as it was pay day. The book is a fantastic example of vintage typefaces and elegant lettering from what the book describes as "design's golden era". The book itself is a whole selection of ads, notes, book covers and hand writing complied with useful notes and information to put the designs in context.

Another reason I decided to get a copy of "Scripts" was for my own personal project of developing my hand rendered type skills. I will be the first to admit that I am not naturally talented at drawing typefaces, but after looking at little more into the work of Jessica Hische I was convinced it was something I wanted to be good at.

A few months ago I created a campaign about lemons to send to design companies I really liked and admired. Although I received some positive responses I still don't have a job within the design industry, however, I have been playing around with ideas for a new self promotional campaign and I am hoping hand rendered type will give the project enough of a "wow factor" to land me that perfect job.

These are some photos of "Scripts" by Steven Heller and Louise Fili, a much recommended book. You can get a copy here.

Fashion Brief

I have been having a bit of a blog break recently as applying for jobs doesn't make for very interesting reading and I'm starting to bore myself talking and obsessing over applications, emails and CVs. Although I haven't been actively seeking employment for a really long time (about two months) it certainly can be demoralising when people don't call back and you need to come up with renewed enthusiasm.

With this in mind I was very pleasantly surprised to find an email in my inbox last week asking me to participate in a brief as part of the interview process for a well known clothing company that were known for their boots (which I now want a pair of) and their links to New England. The brief was to creative five t-shirt designs, two heritage themed and two illustrative "earth keeper" designs that related to the importance of the environment.

The brief sounded perfect as the heritage part of the brief was typography based and influenced by vintage signage, two things I really like and use in my own work. So I set to work researching, sketching and coming up with some designs that would reflect the nature of the company; something I could visualise on their t-shirts.

With this brief I tried to give the "client" what they wanted and reflected their company and then some designs that were a little more outside their comfort zone in the "earth keeper" illustrations as I was encouraged to be a bit more inventive. The deadline was this morning so I sent a PDF of the designs and explanations to the company last night, I think the designs I created were suitable and creative but wether I'll be invited to go further in the interview process? I'm not sure.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the designs and works in progress.

Liverpool & Interviews

This blog has shifted focus slightly over the past month as it has gone from my design work to my search for a design job. I find this change interesting as it allows me to chart my progress from this time last year when I was entering my final year of my degree to now when I am seeking employment and going to interviews. Anyway, onto the focus of this blog post...

Yesterday I was lucky enough to invited to an amazing studio in Liverpool for an interview, I had been aware of the work of this company for some time before as they had been the focus of a lecture in my third year and I had subsequently researched into the exciting and innovative work they do. This was to be my third experience of a "real" interview so I felt confident that I could talk about my work but still nervous that I wouldn't come across well or my mind would just go blank when asked any questions. Thankfully this did not happen.

The interview itself lasted about 30 minutes which allowed me to talk about my work, show my portfolio and answer some questions before getting some constructive feedback. I am a big advocate of constructive feedback as I think it allows you to improve and this surely can only be a benefit, as I was also applying for a junior role I was quite prepared for comments that may be made.

In general I think (hope) the interview went well but was flattered to even be invited for the first round of interviews as the company is quite prestigious. I was informed that a second round of interviews with a set brief would occur and I am desperate to be part of the next step!

In the mean time these are some photos of Liverpool docks which we visited post interview. Despite living only a 45min train ride away for three years at uni I had never been to Liverpool and actually really enjoyed it.

A beautiful sunny day

My windswept parents who insist on coming to interviews with me to get the day off work and

 eat lunch in cool places.

The famous "Liver Bird" in the distance which I had never heard of. See here

Updates & The Tate

My blog has suffered a little lately for a range of reasons, one of said reasons is that I had been preparing for a busy week of interviews and meetings and have been working hard to make my portfolio look the best it possibly could.

This week I visited a company that wanted to discuss ways they could promote their 20th anniversary through branding, packaging and promotion and invited me to pitch for the job. This was really exciting as it was something I had little experience of at uni but would definitely be useful for a future in the design industry.

On Tuesday I made my way down to London for an interview about an internship in South Kensington with a small agency that worked with a number of large clients. The interview was more informal than I had been expecting but the interviewer gave me some great feedback which has helped me improve my interview technique.

On Wednesday I got the chance to meet one of the fantastic companies that I had sent my "Lemon Post" to when I was kindly invited to their studio to discuss my portfolio and learn more about the company. Having been to an interview the previous day in London I felt much more prepared and took several work examples, my iPad full with photos and my portfolio. This might seem quite excessive but I was happy to feel that I could answer any question and talk with confidence about my work and my ideas. I felt that the meeting went well and I left a few promotional items with them in the hope they would email me back with some feedback.

It really helped me to research the company in detail beforehand as I could compare my own work to theirs and find similarities and common interests. I think this also shows how much you want to work for the company that you take such an interest.

In general the past few days have been quite successful and I feel that I am getting somewhere with my job hunt and that perseverance and dedication will pay off in the end.

In the mean time these are some photos from The Tate Modern. I particularly enjoyed the new exhibitions in "The Tanks" which you can see here. I do enjoy art but some of the pieces I saw did throw me a bit, but see what you think for yourself and please excuse the iPhone snaps. 

St. Pauls

"The Tanks" new Tate exhibition

Jeff Keen's vibrant pop art instillation  

 

Picasso 

My mum enjoying the work on show

One of the pieces I found hard to understand...

Cheeky Krispy Kreme at the end of the day