Summer and the briefs

This summer for me has been about research into areas of design that interest me, and then has left me questioning where I want to be and what I want to be doing as a designer after I graduate. From the research I have been doing in conjunction with the briefs that I did during second year there are a few possible avenues that I want to go down. Here's what  I have been up to this summer.

First of all, a few changes made for the coming term  -
I have worked alot of overtime this summer in order to build up some money to buy essential tools and stuff for next term. I have also recently handed in my notice so I can prioritise 100% on the course which I regret not doing last year, I do feel because of my job I have missed out on alot of oppertunities regarding research visits and seminars from visiting designers, but I suppose this way im only in three grand debt as opposed to twenty. I can also now totally embrace this course which is great because Im leaving work with a referance which says I have been with the company for two years and done design work for them. So! Without further a do,

 Summer craft fair -
Early on in the summer, me and jess went to the summer "handmade" fair in ilkley which jess wanted to get a stall at for the next one which is in december, talked to the staff there and got an entry form. This got me and jess talking about things we could do in order to make the most of this oppertunity. Jess decided she needs an identity which speaks about her as a designer on a more personal level and would be the glue that holds her design and products together for the craft fair. This is going to be one of my briefs that will need to be done fairly quickly in getting back for the new term. I nearly forgot, I might be promoting one of the stalls that was at the last fair. (Possibly.)

Ben& Ken's Shape of tommorow Zine -
I submitted an entry for the first zine, circle. I did an illustration which I attempted to vectorise, but I wasn't that happy with the results. I bought a Wacom tablet after doing alot of artist research into this area realising it is a tool that is going to be quite important to my practise in illustration to make my illustration more robust and versatile.

Live brief Visionz Logo -
I have also done a logo for a Dj During the course of this summer.

Getting to grips with my illustration skills-
Prior to buying a wacom tablet I have been inspired to draw alot more over this summer because it seems such a waste to not do it and be constantly improving and refining my illustrative skills. I understand what illustration I want to be doing and what it would be for,(Being T- shirts, promotional material for bands, events etc and other media related stuff.) irrespective if its cliche or very niche, i think i am capable of doing it alongside other things. I have submitted my first entry to a T- shirt company, in order to start showcasing my work and I have also been looking into a submission based zine called designer violence which I think I would be able to make a successful submission for. Im thinking about using these two avenues as mini briefs alongside the 10 briefs which I could complete intermittently between project briefs, these two options are both platforms which could possibly lead to other things.

Varied research -
My research lead me to a designer called Pierozagami, Who produces publications to a very high standard,which look great on his online portfolio and are about interesting subjects. At the end of second year I knew I wanted to design a publication, but I wasnt sure what about. I am interested in space and know probably more on the subject than your average joe, So i was thinking about producing a publication on the topic of space, and after talking to ollie about it we realised that a good context for this design would be a supplementary publication in young scientist magazine. This idea is why my summer practise blog is so saturated with information graphics and publication spreads, as its these areas I am likely to utilize when doing this project.

My identity and website -
Obviously in order to be in control of myself and my design I'm going to need the platforms every good designer/ illustrator and every other craftsman has, this being an identity  - but within that, the website, the business cards, and whatever else would be applicable and relevant to me and my practise. I have been putting off doing any identity work for myself up to now because I didnt feel like there was enough meat on the bones of my practise to even bother considering promoting myself up to this point. However now I do feel like it would be worth it so I would like to do myself a website, business cards and all the rest of it as a brief for next term, ideally having this brief completed about half way through the year. So I can start putting work up on there.

Working around the Dissertation -
I am aware that this dissertation is going to take up a considerable amount of time, fair enough it isnt ideally what I would prefer to be doing with that time, but I'm ready for the challenge. Because of this I thought it would probbably be wise to engineer a brief that isnt too huge so I can do that as well as do the dissertation. I have a self directed brief which is solely focused on illustration and print to be doing which I will elaborate on in another post. I also want to mention here how my dissertation research is going quite well, as I keep finding sources that I can relate to my chosen subject all over the place.

A new interest -
I have become interested in growing plants over the summer and I also realised that I couldnt really find much help in my area of choice which is bonsai trees. There are care guides and little grow your own kits, but it seems like you have to go all over the place just to get all the bits you need to start from scratch. I ended up buying a developed tree even though it defeats the object of growing plants. I want to design an all in one bonsai care package of some kind. I will elaborate more on this in another post.

Acollaboration and competition brief -
I would be looking to collaborate with somebody in the coming term, after the success me and ollie had with our cartoon network brief (im not talking about winning, just how well it went and what we came out with at the end of it all) I think it would be really good to apply that level of teamship to a new collaboration. I mean, obviously what I would be bringing to a collaboration is illustrative ability so I would like to work with somebody who is more confident in other areas to this, maybe like type or idea generation. I would love to be given a totally off the wall idea to illustrate for.

Im also going to pick a competetion brief and hopfully win! (ha ha ha..)

There are a few more briefs im toying with, but they arent all as realised as this yet so ill post them up in a later post. Thanks!