Print your own fabric

http://www.spoonflower.com

Professionalism, Online Presence & Applying for Jobs...

You should all read this... http://www.salford.ac.uk/news/details/1283

Self Promotion Series - 10/10

Hand carved stamps
Embossing
Rubber Stamps

Self Promotion Series - 9/10

Engraved Moleskines

Self Promotion Series - 8/10

Folksy

Self Promotion Series - 7/10

Etsy

Self Promotion Series - 6/10

La Fraise

Self Promotion Series - 5/10

Threadless

QR Codes

What is it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code

How can I make one?
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

How can I read it?
http://www.mobile-barcodes.com/qr-code-software/

Bit.ly

Shorten your URL's http://bit.ly/

© Copyright

On a Mac: hold down at the same time Alt+g
On a PC: hold down Alt and type 0169

More typography advice

Line length, leading, hanging quotes, vertical rhythm, widows and orphans (example), emphasis, scale and rags.

Typographic Alignment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographic_alignment

Widows and Orphans

Read, remember and apply please: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widows_and_orphans

Portfolio: Neue

http://www.neue.no

Editorial Inspiration!

http://www.klasherbert.com/project/short-story-poster/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nkeppol/4080110872/sizes/o/
http://www.forgotten-hopes.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/dimo-trifonov-4.jpg
http://bit.ly/cT9hUA
http://www.qubik.com/zr/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/27_prive6.jpg
http://www.bibliothequedesign.com/uploads/projects/dc_id_2_2_1.jpg
http://bit.ly/blwfnQ
http://www.buamai.com/image/37004
http://www.cobbenhagenhendriksen.nl/site/assets/pictures/VBDB.07.jpg
http://tarakelton.com/

Self Promotion Series - 4/10

Optimise opportunities...



Nobody has pitched an idea to me for the cover!

Tadpoles to Frogs

CLauter

Consider the tadpole halfway through his transformational journey into a frog. Poor little fellow has 2 legs and a big tail. We can see the potential in him to be able to hop around in the future, but he's not there yet. He wouldn't survive on land. He's not fully developed.

Reviewing your design work yesterday, I came up with this analogy to help you understand how I see some of your work. It's so sad when your work is underdeveloped, I can see the potential within what you've done, but alas you don't develop and refine it into the stunning piece it could be.

Why is that? I think there are a number of causes.

Firstly time management, in a three week brief, only working on your designs the day before class means that you have 3 increments in your design before the next assignment. Work on it for 45 minutes a day, and you'll have 18 increments in your design before the next assignment. You know that sleeping on the design gives you perspective on it - the next morning you can clearly see what's working and what's not. 18 sleeps means you're more likely to hand in a frog for submission, not a poor two legged tadpole.

Secondly, I think some of you are struggling to apply yourself. You need to discipline yourself. Create an environment where you can focus - switch off your mobile, don't answer the phone or door, put music on to drown out other noises if required, close Facebook, log-out of any IM services, close your email - focus. If you get a job in a graphic design company, you're going to be expected to sit at your desk from 9-5 (usually longer) and churn out the goods. If you can't apply yourself, you need to do some serious soul searching as to why.

Thirdly you are all still developing your ability to construct and deconstruct messages. The more you immerse yourself in brilliant design, illustration, typography, advertising, packaging, editorial design etc, the more you are going to learn what works and why. You'll learn to interpret messages accurately and fully understand if they work for a specific audience. These analytical skills need to be worked on and refined over time. Your analytical research and your honest reflective writing on your work is critical to helping you realise your potential.

When the hand-in day arrives, I really want to see frogs. Lots of frogs. Please don't let yourselves down.

Ask questions, Ask more questions, and then Ask some more questions

- Who said your logo had to be your name?
- Who said the business card or letterhead had to be standard sizes?
- Who said the letterhead had to be single sided?


The most important part of any design project is the initial negotiation/conversation with the client. Making assumptions instead of asking questions can lead your design response down a road unnecessarily. There's nothing more wonderful than discovering - after questioning - that you client is giving you some creative freedom to design something extraordinary.

Self Promotion Series - 3/10

Pop-Ups - an article in The Guardian

Counter Culture Project

Empty Shops Network

Pop-Up Culture

Self Promotion Series - 2/10

Colourful Morning by Concreterocket on La Fraise

Self Promotion Series - 1/10

Tokyo by Andrew Joyce on Poolga

Inspiration

I've previously talked about my hoarding instinct - I keep beautiful images and quotes and refer to them for inspiration. Out of curiosity  I had a look today at how my hoard was developing - over 8500 images in just over a year. That equates to finding approximately 23 stunning things a day!

If you hadn't already gathered - I'm extremely picky - liking roughly 1 in 50 things that I see. So I've consumed a vast amount to build a hoard of this size. I find it no chore to digest massive amounts of visual information, it's a pleasure. Rather like the Victorian butterfly collector, I cherish rare beauties and pin them in my book to reflect on later.

I frequently revisit the hoard and delete anything that no longer 'speaks' to me. This is a natural evolution of my taste and eye. This analysis helps to identify trends in my collection: colour spectrums, light and shadow, atmosphere, nature, kawaii, minimalism etc.  

I hope that soon the right platform will exist for me to have my entire hoard in a cloud based archive (rather like delicious) where I can use my own taxonomy to tag the images. In the meantime I'll keep collecting and digitising my paper hoard...

Wall painting by Supakitch and Koralie

Rymdreglage: 8-bit trip

Honk if You're Human

BBC Knowledge - Honk If You're Human from Sean Pecknold on Vimeo.

Cityscapes Inspiration Series 10/10

L.S.Lowry

Cityscapes Inspiration Series 9/10

Liam Spencer

Cityscapes Inspiration Series 8/10

Laputa (Castle in the Sky) by Studio Ghibli

Cityscapes Inspiration Series 7/10

Udronotto

Cityscapes Inspiration Series 6/10

Zutto

Cityscapes Inspiration Series 5/10

Shuichi Nakano

Cityscapes Inspiration Series 4/10

Hort

Cityscapes Inspiration Series 3/10

Retro Futurs

Cityscapes Inspiration Series 2/10

Tiny Media Empire

Cityscapes Inspiration Series 1/10

Always with Honor

Optimise your Exposure

Hopefully you've already seen this as it's had tonnes of coverage. Well done Happiness Brussels and Anthony Burrrill - this is the perfect example of optimising an event/news story to promote yourself and your business.

People will Always need Plates

Have a look at the products available on the People will always need plates website. The Baltic plate (featured here) shows good use of the contours of the plate. Allowing the building to break out from the inner circle and the perspective both also add another dimension to this design.

Self Promotion & Location Promotion

The Tate online shop is a great source of inspiration for your latest project on optimisation and self promotion.

Pictured here is Peter Blake's Limited Edition Tin Plate. You'll also find Natsko Seki's London print, and whole host of comissioned Tate souvenirs.

Light Graffiti

One of Iain's recent posts shows some interesting light graffiti experiments. This area has quite a history - take a moment to look at the amazing photo taken by LIFE photographer Gjon Mili in 1949 of Picasso.

Kyle Saxton graduated in 2009 from the BA (Hons) Visual Arts programme at the University of Salford, his work (pictured here) is a really stunning. Watch him at work in this short film on Vimeo. Kyle also has a website, flickr account, deviant art account and facebook account.


This video about Michael Bosanko is worth watching too:

How to 'sell' your design work in your portfolio

Rob Millington graduated from BA (Hons) Graphic Design at the University of Salford in the summer of 2006. Rob designed the promotional material for the show the cohort had in London to showcase their work.

From the images above the viewer immediately understands that these promotional items weren't just designed - but they went to print too. The viewer has a sense of scale (person holding poster, shoes in top image) and an understanding of the print finish (gloss finish on the invite). The top image shows the scale of the items in relation to each other - the layout is well considered so that they aren't competing with each other and there is a sense of balance. There is a separate close-up celebrating the detail in the typography too. This is an excellent example of how to 'sell' a design project.

Portfolios & Self Promotion

A fantastic article on self-promotion and portfolios on the All Graphic Design website.

Business Names & Letterhead Design

As a freelance Graphic Designer it's important to provide a professional service to your clients. This means that you should know your area of business inside out and stay up-to-date with changes that effect your line of work.

Providing clients with business advice is sometimes necessary to prevent problems later on in the design process. For example start-ups aren't always aware of the legal obligations with with regard to stationary and occasionally even the company name. Developing long-term relationships with clients is important to your business, so giving clients great advice in the beginning is a fantastic way to cement the relationship early on.

Have a read through these:

Letterhead Legal Requirements post on StartUps.co.uk
A report on the Business Names Act 1985 on Link4Business
Business Names Act 1985 on the Government website
A guide about Incorporation and Names on the Companies House website
Naming your Business Guide on the BusinessLink website

Logorama

Logorama from Marc Altshuler - Human Music on Vimeo.
This award winning film featuring over 2500 logos (contemporary and historical) and mascots has been circulating a little while now, but if you haven't seen it before I think you will enjoy it. See if you can spot the Obey posters!

David Petersen

Have a look at David Petersen's blog for a fascinating insight as to his process for creating this illustration for the Mouse Guard RPG box set.

David's video on the models he makes to help visualise perspective and angles in scenes is particularly interesting.

The Sandpit

The Sandpit from Human Music & Sound Design on Vimeo.
Stunning tilt-shift video

Rob Ryan

Check out Rob Ryans's website showcasing his distinctive screenprints and beautiful paper cuts.

Rob also has both a virtual shop on Etsy and a physical shop in London.

Between Bears

Between Bears from Eran Hilleli on Vimeo.
 A hauntingly beautiful piece by Eran Hilleli.

Kozyndan

Uprisings, (pictured here) by illustrative duo Kozyndan (Dan and Kozue Kitchens) is a personal favourite. Referencing Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai this modern surreal version never fails to raise a smile.

Apart from their own shop, Kozyndan also have limited edition pieces over on ClickforArt.

Sketchbooks & Illustration

On Flickr you can use the slideshow option (see Tom Gauld's sketchbook here - located by searching using the word sketchbook) to show your sketchbook and the development of your ideas in a chronological order. There are also Flickr groups called Illustration and Illustration Now.

Issuu is another free platform you may wish to use, this is Will Scobie's sketchbook

Open publication

Search for Illustration on Issuu and you'll find - among other things - the IdN Illustration Special

Jon Burgerman

This is Jon's mural (located in Allerton Studios, where the BA Graphic Design programme is located) which he kindly did whilst visiting Salford Uni last year.

Check out Jon's website for some inspiration as to how an Illustrator can diversify and optimise his talents.

Gallery 2D 3D
Animations
Sketchbooks

Shop
Flickr
Twitter
Iphone Ap
Downloads
Competitions
FAQs

Made of Manchester

 I couldn't resist these laser cut clear acrylic (with mirrored backing) badges by artist Clare Knox-Bentham.

Have a look at the other materials that can be laser cut on the Heritage Inlay website.

MediaCityUK Talk

Just in case you haven't spotted this opportunity...

Mikroman

Sam Buxton is the talent behind the Mikroman series of sculptures. Mikro the Deep - Deep 01 (shown folded out here) is only 170mm high x 135 wide x 85mm deep!

Check out the Mikroman and the Mikromart websites.

FFFFound

FFFFound is a fantastic site for finding inspiration!

Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair

Looking for some inspiration as to how some of the most talented craft makers, designers and illustrators are promoting themselves?

Visit the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair (Friday till Sunday), it'll be £6 well spent!

Apart from purchasing a few treats and gifts, consider how each exhibitor is promoting themselves. The stall, the objects, the marketing material and brand. See something you like? Talk to the exhibitors and get some tips.

If you don't have time to go, have a look at the website - especially the exhibitors list.

Comic Sans

Interesting article over on the BBC website.

Typography

Have a look at Sebastian Lester's fantastic website showcasing the breadth of his work and his passion for type. Inspiring stuff!

Creativity

I mentioned that I'd like you to watch a video regarding Creativity and sleep... please watch it, try out the advice and post your comments on your blog.

First Gap now My Space

First we had the Gap conspiracy theory (unveil a new dismal logo and withdraw it following online campaigns and tonnes of free publicity), now I can't help but wonder if myspace have done the same thing... no new logo on their site, no mention in the press or news section...

Business Cards

As a Graphic Designer, your business card should be a memorable item that truely reflects your style/business whilst also being something that your target audience will want to keep. You should consider size, shape, material, special inks, printing finishes etc. Have a look at Inspiredology, Creative Bits, CardObserver and The Design Cubicle for more information and inspiration.

Have a look at the JungeSchachtel website too.

Tin Eye - Reverse Image Search

TinEye is a fantastic tool that helps you to locate the source of an image - brilliant for your research! Watch the video to see how it works.

CoolBrands

Have a look at the CoolBrands website - apart from listing the top 500 UK brands, they detail the judging criteria:

1. Style
2. Innovation
3. Originality
4. Authenticity
5. Desirability
6. Uniqueness

Consider these in relation to your chosen logo to develop.

Hello!

Regular doses of inspiration will be posted here! Please feel free to comment.

The photo is of a piece of artwork by David Burrows & Simon O'Sullivan called Plastique Fantastique which featured in Tatton Park's Biennial 2010.

I have a tendency to attribute human characteristics to animals or non-living things, in this instance the guy looks a little surprised!

Read the definition of Anthropomorphism