Stone Glass Concrete & Gravel – Poster

A self initiated poster design influenced by the lyrics of Jamie T’s The Man’s Machine.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meta_design/6903257072/

PressPausePlay – A Truely Thought Provoking Documentary

A close friend of mine, Tom L recommended this documentary to me. It really got me thinking about the creative industry and creativity as a whole, especially our dependency on technology. It makes the point that technology in the current age has freed up at to everyone no matter how skilled they are, and as a result there are many more people making things, which is brilliant, however does make it harder to stand out and get noticed.

Its a brilliant documentary and has certainly got me thinking and more importantly wanting to create thing!

Toy Factory Package

So I was in Bristol a little while ago and picked up this beauty of a package in local skate shop 50-50. Sat in amongst the free magazines and fliers sat this intriguing brown paper envelope. The cover art sold it to me, for the very reasonable price of nothing!

Sadly the majority of the contents wasn’t so beautifully illustrated, it comprised mostly of fliers advertising up and coming nights. However there was one double sided poster inside that raised my hopes again.

New Website!

To go along with the recent new logo I have also made a new website!
The website was built to continue the new brand that I am currently building up. It is much more clean and user friendly than the previous site and easier to maintain, meaning it will be updated more frequently!

So get yourself over to www.metagraphics.co.uk have a look at my portfolio and let me know what you think.

New Logo!

A little while ago I felt the Meta Graphics brand needed updating. So I spent some time working on concepts and sketching, trying to come up with something that is clean sharp and professional.

I wanted something that shows the kind of design I do, and this is what I came up with.

 

Long Awaited Return.

So, I havent updated in a long time, things have been a little hectic over the last year.

In that time I have studied the final year of my degree, exhibited in the college Summer Show and at New Designers in Islington, London, and of course recieved my final grades.

Lets start with the final year of my degree. About this time last year I embarked on the end of my time studying at Plymouth College of Art, five years to be precise. Over that time I realised my love for design and been shaped into the person I am today. During the final year I got to work on some exciting projects covering Commemorative design, Direct Mailing, Hand Made Gift Ware, Business Plans, Interior Design / 3D, Package Design, Branding, Promotion, Hands-on Construction, Screen Printing and many more that I have probably missed.
Quite a lot of areas to cover in a year isn’t it! Its defiantly been interesting, and hard work. Many of these examples can be found on my website. There has been a massive learning curve over the past year and hopefully that is just the beginning!

Exhibitions! Now these were fun, after a year of working tirelessly on many projects that had remained hidden from view, except to examiners it was time to show it all off. Starting with the Summer Show there was a lot of work that went into the construction and fabrication of the exhibition space. I love to get hands on when ever I can, the opportunity to be productive away from a computer always grabs me! Once the show was built there was little left to do than open to the public and celebrate. What a turnout we had!

So after a good week long exhibition it was time to tare it all down (after carefully removing all work!) and get ready to do it all again in London.
New Designers was a great experience, the set up was frantic within the one day period we were allowed but it all came together just in time. The exhibition itself was fantastic, a huge turnout of 15,500 visitors across the duration and around 3,500 fellow exhibitors and graduates. It was a great place to get people from the design industry to look at your work and also brilliant opportunity to get to see what other graduates have been producing from around the country. The whole experience was hugely inspiring, not only looking at graphic design, but illustration, product design and spatial design. So many things to stimulate you!

Ok the final section of this post. Phew!
So after all this work I received my grades. I am ecstatic to say that I now have a 1st class BA (Hons) Degree in Graphic Design!
I am just awaiting the final Graduation Ceremony in early October.

Summer Exhibition & Awards

I am currently exhibiting a selection of my work at Plymouth College of Art as part of the Higher Education Summer Show, we have already had the private viewing and Id like to say a huge thanks to everyone who came along, I feel we managed to pull in quite a crowed!

There was also an award ceremony held on the night where I received a shared an award with a fellow student from my course for a consistently high level of work and a clear progression throughout the two years so far. I am honoured to receive the award as it is recognition for something I am passionate about. The best thing about the winning the award is that I have received the offer of a week-long work experience placement at Logo Design and Marketing, I am looking forward to this greatly as a chance to learn and develop as a Graphic Designer.

If you are in or around the Plymouth area come into Plymouth College of Art and see the rising talent is being produced! This is a showcase of higher education students in the south-west from many different disciplines so there is something for everyone. The show is open Friday 25th June – Friday 2nd July 9am – 8.30pm week days and 9am – 4.30pm Saturdays. If anyone fancies meeting me I shall be in the graphic design area on Tuesday the 29th 1pm – 5pm so come and say hello!

Major Project – Day Six

It’s the grand finale, and the last reveal is something a little different. It’s the live performance back drop to be shown behind AtJazz whilst he is performing his set. Originally I intended to create a print mock-up but decided I needed to break away from print for the final outcome, so I created video to be projected behind the stage. This is the first time I have worked with video, but it is something I have been interested in for a while. I had to learn how to use a 3CCD camera to achieve quality footage, the camera I used was a Panasonic GS NV 320. Once I had learnt the technical details of the camera it was simple a task of translating my photographic knowledge from capturing still frame to motion. Being my first attempt at working with video I also had to learn the software, my choice was to use Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.

I wanted to continue the effect of the photos that I have used throughout the project with the video, I did this by filming half of my footage at night of out of focus lights and then the other half in the day. The night footage captures the movement of the lights with soft focus creating a bokeh effect. The daytime footage I tried to capture subtle movements and subjects similar to those of the photographic images. Some of the daylight footage was filmed over a long period then in the editing process sped up to create a time-lapse. With the editing to achieve a similar effect I overlaid the abstract light footage over the daylight footage, this left the lights over the top creating an almost super 8 feel. The black areas of the night footage did darken the daylight footage on the layer bellow so in some cases I had to brighten the daylight footage up.The dark areas of  the night footage has brought out the colours of the footage bellow making it more intense and the colours much deeper. The night footage was a little grainy due to the low light conditions and by overlaying this it has made the whole video look as though it was shot on film.

The video is intended to loop continuous throughout the event, the beginning and end have been cut in such a way that the loop is not noticeable.

Thanks for reading!

Major Project – Day Five

Day five and its the penultimate unveiling, the button badges. The badges are intended to be pinned onto items of clothing or your bag, they are a way for fans to express themselves but also their appreciation of the music. Whilst it is a desirable product to the fans they are a portable method of promotion for AtJazz. All the badges except for one feature the logotype as this is used across all of my strategies, which would be recognisable to fans. Two of the badges feature line based patterns, continuing the theme through from other strategies. These two badges have a grain applied to the background colour to add character but also make them sit in line with the grainy film photography of the other outcomes.  One of the badges features the logotype  laid over an abstract grainy film photographic image keeping the theme consistent and giving it style. The final badge features a photographic image only, the image used is that of the LP sleeve, this imagery alone should be recognisable to other fans.

The packaging is made up of a manilla backboard with holes punched in it to accommodating for the pin and buckles on the back of the badges,  running the pin through the holes securing the badge in place. I used manilla as it is a smooth textured board with strength but also has character with the visible fibres which are slightly different tones. The brown of the manilla gives the packaging an organic feel, it is also quite subtle making the badges stand out as they are the product on sale. The packaging has been printed using a laser printer to create a clean sharp solid black print that really stands out. I have kept the design of the packaging minimal, only telling the viewer what they need to know. The logotype on the packaging keeps the brand consistent and tells the viewer who the product is promoting, then bellow they are informed what the product is.

Thanks for looking, tomorrow is the final reveal so mark it in your diary!

Major Project – Day Four

Day four and today’s selection is the tour poster, promoting an AtJazz tour. I have kept the design very minimal. I shot the background image with a Minolta XD using Fuji Superia 400, I shot the film twice, once at night shooting out of focus abstract lights, then again in this case over a shot of blue sky. The image is grainy thanks to using expired film which gave the image character. Continuing the theme of line based pattern I overlaid 20% white lines over to break up the layout and to add detail. The pattern breaks the page up providing perfect areas to house the text. The poster has been printed A1 on 300gsm cartridge paper with a matte finish giving it a subtle appearance.

Thanks for looking, more tomorrow!