OUGD502 - Studio Brief 01 - Inspiring Artist: Natalya Balnova

One illustrator who I have been continuously influenced by since level 4 is Russian born illustrator and print maker Natalya Balnova. Her work is a favourite of mine due to it's experimental, bold inky style. 

Her prints are very wholesome yet full of energy and life and have inspired me on various level 5 projects such as the penguin books competition and the BEAR brief for YCN lending themselves to being incorporated with a range of bright and vivid colours. 

I found an interview with her on The Queens College Graphic Design blog about her work:

http://graphicdesign.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/interview-with-natalya-balnova/

She did an intern at Pentagram after graduating from Parsons school of Design in New York City, which would be my dream placement after graduating university. 

'What skills are needed to become successful in the field (either as a designer or as an illustrator What advice do you have for students on how to break into the field?

Persistence, hard work, creativity, faith in what you are doing, and love of what your are doing. Find an internship in your creative field as soon as possible, so that you can get to know the industry and get a sense of what you like and what you do not like. Try not to waste your time on jobs that do not relate to your profession, it has to connect somehow, otherwise you just loose your professional skills. Keep in touch with your classmates, because they are your support group and your first network.

You also have to know the industry and be aware of what is new in your creative field. Experiment, self-initiate projects, since a lot of your professional projects might not live up to your expectations. You have to deal with tons of restrictions and it might dull down your passion for design and art in general.

What was the most valuable advice you ever received?

Don’t give up and trust your intuition.'

The advice she said about doing as many internships as possible and finding a job you enjoy is something I'm going to try really hard to achieve over the summer and into Level 6 to prepare myself as well as I can for graduation. 

Here are a few examples of her work:

OUGD502 - Studio Brief 03 - Life's a Pitch - Collective Presentation

For our Life's a Pitch presentation, Bethan, Anna, Lallie and I all decided to work together as we are already a close group of friends, meaning that the dynamic of the group would work really well. We also have a lot of similar interests as well as different interests which would make the outcome of the presentation more diverse. The outcome of the presentation was received with a lot of enthusiasm from the tutors. The feedback made us think about making this idea a reality. Below shows the presentation and the information that was presented:

NOT the Mary Berrys...

We are a collective of young female creatives specialising in graphic design (Lallie, Bethan, Anna and me) with an interest in a broad range of disciplines including fashion, textiles, architecture, photography, fine art and illustration. 

Through PPP we have found that we enjoy interviewing creatives and being inspired by the journeys they have had to get to where they are now. We are particularly interested in creating a platform which celebrates female creatives, particularly in this male dominated industry. Our aim is to even the playing field by providing another platform on which showcases female designers and creatives work by conducting a series of interviews. Due to the diversity of our interests within the collective, there will be a wide range of content spanning from music to architecture. 

 Through this we aim to empower and inspire young female creatives around the ages of 25 and under, starting out in the industry to pursue their dreams and push their practices. 

The nature of this project would also be beneficial to us as young designers at it opens up a lot of networking opportunities, getting our faces and names out there in the industry. 

To get their attention and combine our love of baking (hence the name) we will send sassy cakes to the women we want to interview like the ones below to also convey our attitude and the tone of voice of the blog. 

Once we have the content from the interviews we will write them up on the merry berries blog, labeling each one with relevant tags such as architecture, graphic design, fashion etc. so they are easy to search in the archive. There will be one new blog post a week (4 a month / 1 done by each of us) so the content will always have a fresh perspective as we all have different interests). Thanks to our backgrounds in graphic design it will provide a good opportunity to enhance or digital design skills and maybe provide a chance to learn coding. 

 We want to interview women from different disciplines including artists such as Peggy Gou (DJ), Ashly Darryl (Interior Designer), Hattie Stewart (Illustrator/Graphic Designer), Hettie Douglas (Artist), Amanda Levet (Architect) and so on.

Us blogging:

From the blogs we will create a bi-annual publication that cherry picks the best interviews from the blog. To save money we will get them printed locally at places like precision and footprint. Crowd funding could also help with the funding of the publication. The magazine /publication will also provide us with a good opportunity to develop our editorial skills. 

The tone of voice of our collective will be similar to Mushpit magazine with a playful and young attitude that doesn't take itself too seriously. As well as the blog and magazine we would have corresponding social media. 

The final GIF summed up the whole presentation and made it clear it was the end.
Although Lallie was ill on the day, the presentation went well and Beth, Anna and I explained everything we wanted to and could cover Lallie's slides. The feedback we received from everyone was so position they suggested we should actually go through with the idea. Other feedback we received was that we were covering a really important, current issue in a fun and engaging way. Although John said we should consider interviewing men also so not to seem sexist. It was also mentioned what a good idea it was to cover all aspects of design, not just graphic design.

Our tutors were impressed with us and the idea and have urged us to follow up on the proposal and make it a reality.  

OUGD502 - Studio Brief 03 - The Brief

When being briefed on this new collaborative project, it was highlighted that the main aim was to encourage us to consider how a collective would work and could it actually inspire a real life collective?

The brief asked us to choose groups of people who we already worked really well with but also had different skill sets that may benefit us. In these groups, we would decide on what we would create as a collective which showed off our skills and got our names known in the creative community of Leeds and further afield potentially. As well as the concept, we'd have to identify practical considerations as if the concept would actually happen e.g. financial considerations or distribution.

Other things to remember: 

• What skills and services do you have to offer individually and as a group?
• Who is your target market?
• What form will your showcase take?
• What are your costs, charges and financial considerations?
• How will you structure your collective?
• Who will be responsible for what?
• How will you promote your showcase? To who? Using what media?
• Is it set in a physical location? then where?
• How will you manage communication through the group?

From looking at the brief in depth, I considered who I might want to work with. While working with people from other courses would give range to the work displayed by the collective, working with graphic designers would make more sense as the work would vary but also have some continuity. Discussions were had with some graphic designers on the course and a collective was formed between myself, Bethan Phillimore, Anna Bates and Arabella Serrels. We all like each others' work but also work really well with each other. Having an initial friendship with people helps in collaborative practice as you can have honest discussions. We also have similar interests when it comes to both design and life outside of university. 

OUGD501 - Studio Brief 01 - Paula Cher Interview - Studio Culture

Following on from watching an episode of Abstract featuring legendary American graphic designer Paula Cher I read an interview about her and her role at Pentagram, an agency who I've dreamed of working at since starting out as a graphic design student. The interview covered some really interesting topics, and also explained the dynamics within the Pentagram studios, something I wasn't fully aware of before. 

I knew Pentagram had partners from the talk we had with Justus Oehler in Berlin, however, I wasn't aware that it was a cooperative, who pooled and shared it's profits equally between partners. The partners then manage and run their own teams of designers in their offices dotted around the world in cities such as New York, London, and Berlin. 

Cher's opinions on what makes a good studio network is designers being able to experiment and push themselves whilst simultaneously working in a pleasant and reasonably secure environment. 

When looking for designers to take onto her team Cher looks for people with opinions, ideas and a sense of humor. She looks for them to inspire her, have excellent craft skills and a good sense of judgment. Designers in her teams are usually hired fresh from university and stay with her for a couple of years learning the craft and the process, with her as their mentor. 

Cher believes that 'you have to fail in order to make the next discovery. It's through mistakes that you actually can grow'. I believe in this strongly and it is a good mentality to have in the field of design as clients are constantly rejecting pitches and ideas, however it is never a personal attack. You have to take criticism and mistakes with a pinch of salt and pick yourselves back up.

She goes on to say that 'The young designers on my team can make design mistakes that are corrected by me or my senior designer, but these are craft issues, and part of any young designer's early experience. They are not major failures.' Therefore I will be more open to making mistakes and learning on them in the future of my practice. 

OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Inspiring artist Marylou Faure

One artist, I have been particularly inspired by for her use of bright colours, bold vector shapes and bubble writing is French Illustrator Marylou Faure. I recently discovered her work on instagram and was drawn to her style of colourful bold illustrations. 

I looked her up online and found a recent article It'sNiceThat about her work:

Marylou Faure moved to London three years ago having spent five years in her home city of Paris studying graphic design, typography and illustration at Penninghen. Six months ago, following internships with the likes of Andy Spencer and time at a couple of agencies, she went freelance and has focussed her attention on illustration. “I didn’t really have a style I was happy with when I moved to London. I just kept trying and did one thing for Skinny Things, an exhibition about representing the female body, and it went really well – which was the start of developing the style I have now,” she says. “I realised I was having fun.”

She has produced her colourful, often character driven, work for the likes of The Debrief, TfL (with Andy Spencer) and a whole host of digital projects. Marylou cites Kate Moross and Hattie Stewart as influences. “I really like how vibrant and bubbly their work is,” she says. In 2014 Mary Lou worked on a personal project called The Ultimate Summer that helped her hone her style, simply asking friends what made them think of summer. She took 16 answers and created a piece for each. “Most of the work I showcase is personal projects, I don’t really have a process – I think of something fun or quirky and work to put a smile on people’s faces,” she says.

This year she is working on a couple of digital projects and has opened an online shop to test her skills beyond print. Marylou is also working on a children’s book with a friend that she hopes will be complete in the next few months, when they will look for a publisher.

OUGD501 - Studio Brief 01 - Part 2 - Presentation

I don't really get nervous before presenting however the second I stand up and start talking in front of the class I sometimes tend to stumble and trip over my words a little bit. However I don't think it came across as too obvious to the rest of the group. 

I didn't use notes or bullet points as the slides on the board were enough of a prompter to remember what I wanted to cover in the presentation. The main thing I was worried about was the time limit, however I came in within the designated time slot. 

Below is an issuu of the presentation. In terms of design of the presentation I wanted to keep it simple and consistent, introducing a lot of white space, rather than full bleed images like I usually do. This is because the flash of white between slides keeps viewers engaged and looking at the board and not me. 

I was happy with the pace of the presentation as it kept everyone engaged in what I was saying. I also passed around physical copies of the happy newspaper which I had mentioned in the presentation for the group to look through. 

The bright colours, bold images and lack of writing on the slides made for a more visually engaging presentation. As the projectors in the classrooms are not of the highest quality, it is better to use contrasting colours for the background and type and it is found that black and white work best, hence why it was used.

The feedback from my presentation was good, I was told that I spoke well, covered a lot of information and that the speed and the way I spoke was suitable. I feel like I could improve my stage presence by looking at the audience rather than the screen more when I talked and not standing so much behind the computer to move the slides along but overall I'm happy with how it went. 

OUGD502 - Studio Brief 01 - Berlin

 

I recently got back from a visit to Berlin with my graphics class. We had an amazing time visiting studios, seeing the sights and generally stumbling across a load of cool places acrros Berlin. This was the itinerary: 

Dates: 27/02/2017 to 02/03/2017

Accomodation

Generator Hostel
Storkower Strasse 1
60.10407,
Berlin

Bauhaus Museum

The Bauhaus school of design, which was founded in Berlin itself in 1919 by Walter Gropius. The design ideas fostered by the pre-WWII era school covered architecture, visual design and industrial design. Bauhaus has made an undoubtable contribution to the field of graphic design and you can see exhibits of how it all began here with sights like László Maholy-Nagy’s early poster designs and Paul Klee’s colour theories. 

It was really interesting to see the building itself as it was a really eye-catching piece of architecture. The exhibition itself was really interesting and taught me a lot about the context and history of graphic design.

Pentagram

Pentagram is the world’s largest independent design consultancy. The firm is owned and run by 21 partners, a group of friends who are all leaders in their individual fields. They design architecture and interiors, books, branding and identities, digital installations, exhibitions, films, products, posters, and websites from offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Berlin and Austin.

Their offices were near the Kurfürstendamm, in a turn-of-the-century mansion block on the corner of Leibnizstrasse and Mommsenstrasse in the Berlin, Charlottenburg district.

Chloë Galea

We also had the opportunity to talk to talk to Leeds College of Art graduate Chloe Galea, who moved to Mitte, Berlin shortly after graduating. I found listening to a female speaker really inspiring as many of the visiting professionals have been male graduates. It was really empowering to hear how much success she had found since graduating and moving to Berlin and was interesting to find out that her studio was predominantly female. In her talk she covered information and advice about working abroad, life in Berlin and helpful tips on working both freelance and for a design agency after university. 

Cee Cee Creative, the Berlin-based agency she works at focuses on design, content and consulting. Points she talked about included: 

• Working in a studio can help idea generation can bounce ideas off each other.
• Can feel daunting at first moving abroad but held onto clients in London during the move. 
• Skype/Facetime makes meetings easier when working abroad.
• There is usually an expectation to work for free after graduation or after a paid internship for a favour after working for them.
• Making contacts snowballs as they will sometimes recommend others if they cannot help. Working from home makes this more difficult as working in a studio you can share contacts.
• Freelancing you have to think of every expense for taxes etc. Moving abroad, german lessons helped with this kind of thing. 

Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum of Contemporary Art

The Hamburger Bahnhof is the former rail station for trains running between the capital and the Hanseatic city of Hamburg. Its station building houses the museum for contemporary art, which belongs to the Nationalgalerie and counts as one of the world’s most successful exhibition spaces for contemporary art. Here, we found work by artists such as Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Keith Haring as well as many innovative contemporary artists.

Sight Seeing

We also visited a lot of the sights including the Brandenburg Gate, The Reichstag Dome, and the Holocaust Memorial.

One one of the days we went venturing into a different part of the city, Kreuzberg, where we found an amazing food market in an old disused train station. It was one of my favorite parts of Berlin as there was loads of cool street art, good food, independent shops, cafes, and bars. The architecture was also amazing with big trailing vines of wisteria and balconies on every building. 

 One of my favorite Bars was the Cinema Cafe in Mitte. The interior design was amazing with all cinema inspired decorations such as spotlights, and a wall made entirely out of backlit film roll with Japanese and Chinese animations on.