NEST Magazine Submission

For this issue, the theme for NEST magazine is focus. With this theme in mind, I wanted to create a simple piece of graphic work for my submission.

My submission is based around the idea of spirituality in Indian religions. Om is a mantra or vibration that is traditionally chanted at the beginning and end of yoga sessions in order to help focus and achieve a state of calm. It is said to be the sound of the universe.

I wanted to create a very simplistic informative piece, featuring just the symbol and its definition. I have used colours traditionally associated with Indian culture and kept lots of open space to allow the text 'breathing room' and allude to the idea of calmness.

                        

PPP Session 5 - Self Branding Introduction

In today's PPP session, we began talking about the self branding project that we will be doing alongside our other modules.

Firstly we looked at the idea of the Kray twins, and then how their identity was copied by The Stone Twins, who were trying to create their own name for themselves.

We then looked at Stefan Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh, who have used some very 'out there' techniques to brand themselves, including naked pictures of themselves to 'bare all' and allude to the idea that they are very open and honest.

Penny also talked about her own practice, Studio theGirls, and discussed how herself and her fellow colleague and designer branded themselves in order to get their name out there.

One thing I found really interesting is when we looked at Christopher Doyle's self branding from 2008 - a profile of himself he sent out in order to apply for jobs/use it as a CV. I absolutely loved this idea and thought it was really effective. The way Christopher had designed this made himself really memorable and came across as an interesting guy.

We then looked at branding ourselves, and we wrote our ideas down on big sheets of paper. We looked at 4 things:

1) word association
2) purpose/focus
3) audience
4) tone of voice

I asked my friends and other people who knew me to give me words that best described myself, some of which being sassy, funny, realistic, honest and approachable. I think I need to be careful which words I use to portray myself as I do not want to come off in a negative way!

Ideally I want my tone of voice to be fun, friendly and lighthearted, as I think this suits my personality well.

I struggled with the audience and purpose sections and did not manage to record any ideas down. I think these areas definitely need a bit more thought before I can develop my ideas. This will help refine exactly how I want to come across within my self branding.

PPP - Session 4 - Lecture from Radim Malinic

Today we have had a talk from guest speaker Radim Malinic, founder of design company Brand Nu.

Radim spoke to use about his career journey and how he ended up where he is now - I thought it was really interesting how he started off playing ice hockey, then became a chef and was actually applying for a chef job when he came across an advertisement for a printed t-shirt company.

He decided to instead take this job, and this is where his interest sparked within graphic design - before this, he had no prior knowledge or education within the creative arts.

He also talked about a quote that inspired him - “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” He spoke about how he felt this was relevant to certain client briefs and how you should not always deliver exactly what the client has stated, otherwise the project may not be as successful as it could have been with  your own personal input as a designer.

Another thing Radim mentioned was the 2012 logo, and how the it was designed in a way to attract attention to it - the 'naff' idea was chosen instead of a more effective one, purely just to get people talking about the Olympics and get the word spread round.

He also mentioned that in design it is useful to have another skill - he talked about how Heston Blumenthal is a chef, but also a scientist - this helps add a new dimension and extra angle to his work.

I was also very grateful that we were given a free copy of Radim's book - 'book of ideas'. I personally think this is a really great book with lots of useful tips and tricks to help your own design work develop properly.

Overall, I really enjoyed this talk and found it very inspiring!

PPP Session 3 - Time Management

Today's PPP session was based around time management. We were asked to create a list of things we have to do, and things we want to do. The 'have to do' list included everyday things that we must do to have a functional life, such as eat and sleep. The 'want to do' list then obviously consisted of things we do for leisure, such as go to the gym etc.

My list of have to's consisted of:
- eat
- sleep
- food shop
- go to uni
- shower
- relax

My list of want to's consisted of:
- go to gym
- relax more
- read more books
- go on holiday
- online shop

Personally, I found this task quite difficult as it was hard to think properly about my wants and needs, I do things every day without even realising it as I am in a routine. This made it hard for me to recollect exactly what my needs are, as I usually do them without thinking. On the other hand, thinking about what my wants are was also difficult as I have so many! It made me realise that sometimes where is a blurred line between my wants and my needs - I initially thought that relaxing would come under my 'want to's' but I then realised it is more of a 'have to' for me as I don't believe I would be able to function without it.

After this, we then drew out a timetable on a large sheet of paper and filled it in with our daily activities. This made it apparent when and where I have any free time to allow me to do some of my 'want to's' as well as my 'have to's'. I then stuck this sheet above my bed in my room so that it is clearly visible. Hopefully this will help structure my day and help me use my time better in the future.

Martin Parr

One of my favourite artists is photographer Martin Parr. He is a British documentary photographer and photojournalist. His work is heavily based around aspects of modern life, documenting social classes and cultural habits.

I have recently discovered two of his books; Think of England and Real Food.

Think of England:
"Think of England is a comic, opinionated, colour-saturated essay about the character of England. It shows work shot in the late 90s and features Parr’s projects on West Bay, British food and flowers. His tour of the clichés of England takes in such subjects as seaside resorts, village fetes, and cups of tea."

I love this book because it depicts England in such a great way, from the images of Brits in sandals at the seaside, to cups of tea and classic cream cakes.


                

     
                     
                            


Real Food:
"A fun collection of Martin Parr's food pictures, which documents the simple notion that 'we are what we eat'.

Real Food celebrates all things food through the eyes of the renowned British photographer Martin Parr - a kaleidoscope of foods the world over, from hot dogs to sticky buns and langoustine to lemon meringue pie.

Featuring photographs taken throughout Martin Parr's prolific career to-date, Real Food will comprise the very best of Parr's iconic imagery - a collection of close-up food shots, in typical garish colour, taken by Parr throughout his travels across the world.

Introduced with an essay by Fergus Henderson, British chef and founder of the restaurant St John's in London, which considers Parr's photographs in the context of global cuisine, and Parr's fascination with the social aspect of food that is at the heart of these photographs."

I just love the garish imagery in Real Food. I like how Parr documents even the worst looking meals -it gives a broad and varied representation of food around the world.
 
 

PPP Session 2 - Dealing with stress

 Today's PPP session was based around stress and how to deal with it.
Penny asked us to write an answer on a piece of paper to 4 questions:

- What scares you?
- What stresses you out?
- What negative thought have you had today?
- ?

We then looked at everyone's responses as a group and we came to the conclusion that we all shared very similar if not the same worries and stresses. This was reassuring and made me realise that opening up to people about stress is a good idea as everyone is feeling the same way and has their own advice. See images below for group response.

  
                                         

We then had to take our thoughts and make a haiku out of them. This was my haiku:

Stressed out to the max
Work piling up around me
I watch Netflix

Everyone came up with a really great response and there were some very entertaining haikus! See image below for examples.

PPP Session 1 - Describing each other

For this session, we had to sit in groups of people who we didn't know too well and ask them to describe us/each other with as many words as possible.

The list of words I received was:

- Irritable
- Outspoken
- Friendly
- Funny

I felt this was quite an accurate representation of me as I agreed with each adjective given - even the irritable one! I realised the main purpose of the task as it highlights the importance of first impressions and how you come across, which is extremely important not just in daily life but in the industry, when making contacts and attending job interviews. I would like to work on coming across better, as I certainly don't want to come across as irritable to important professionals!

Overall this task has been very insightful and I will definitely take what I have learnt to help myself improve as a developing designer.