Natalie Dann

Monday 21 June 2010

End Of Year Show

To mark the end of the course, we created a show to display some of our finest work that we created over the duration of the course. We mounted our work onto the walls of the room that we was given. Although the room was very small and we didn't get our own individual space, the whole room was very overpowering as you walk in and there was lots to look at. During the week we had trouble getting people from the college to come and look at our work so we made posters and arrows to draw people to the show and we also gave out badges. Our class also had to take it in turns to monitor the room. We had a private showing where we could bring friends and family along to look at our work and make an evening of it and celebrate.

Below are the pieces of my work that was included in the show:

Here are some pictures of the room where our work is displayed:

FMP Outcomes

I have finished my FMP and am quite pleased with my final outcomes. If I could change anything about the project I would have done more work in the first few weeks as I was a bit too laid back and was panicking in the last weeks. I also think I should have tried different type and positioning in my idea generation. Although I am pleased with my outcomes, I think they would have looked better if I had them printed professionally but I didn't really have the money for it.

Below are my final outcomes.

Price Tag - Front & Back

Price Tag

Carrier Bag

Labels

Poster

Friday 30 April 2010

FMP - Clothing Brand

I am now on my FMP and have decided to create my own brand of clothing and design the branding for it. I will create the label to go in the back of the items of clothing, the price tag and a poster to promote it. Also if I have the time I will design a carrier bag. My brand will be based on beachwear, inspired by Roxy, Ripcurl etc, and aimed at 16 to 20 year old girls.

Monday 25 January 2010

Functional Skills - Refining A Google Search

Monday 18 January 2010

V&A Museum

I recently visited The V&A Museum where I met the marketing team, took photos and collected anything that would help me with my project. My brief is to create some sort of advertisement that would encourage more young people to visit the museum.

Once I arrived I met Cara, a member of the marketing team, who spoke about various things that could effect why young people don't tend to visit. With input from my class members we came up with various conclusions. At the museum they already run workshops at the weekend for young people but as none of us had heard of this we thought that this should be advertised more as this could become popular for anyone with an interest in art and design. However, they also want to encourage a wider audience and not necessarily people with an interest in art and design, but if you wasn't interested you wouldn't want to go would you? If there was a exhibition on a specific subject, e.g fashion, music etc then maybe it would it would attract people who are interested in the subject rather than the art side of it. These are all things that I need to consider when creating my design. Also if there was more things to interact with it would make it more fun, as most young people find museums boring as I found out from my questionnaire. It also seems that if the V&A was a bit more modern, like the Design Museum and Tate Modern which are their main competitors, it would attract the younger audience. Cara also said that they have designers in residence, who stay and work there who the public can meet. I think this is another thing that could be expressed more to attract 11 to 19 year olds.

After meeting Cara, I had a walk around the museum and took photos of anything that could interest young people to include in my design. I focused on the contemporary pieces and anything that stood out for me. I also collected leaflets, maps and anything that I could use as research. I was also shown some old marketing that they had in the museum.

Here is a website that shows some pictures of the workshops:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vandaschools

Monday 2 November 2009

Type Project..

For my type project I had to create a poster to advertise a book. I chose 'New Typographic Design'. During my idea generation I created various type faces and designs.

Below are some of my designs:

Monday 28 September 2009

Higher Education Options..

I have been looking around for options to further my knowledge of Graphic Design. At first I wasn't liking the idea of going to university and moving away, so I thought I could stay at Canterbury College to study the HND in Graphic Design and Advertising. This has a duration of two years which covers all aspects of design, which I think will suite me as I'm not too sure which area I want to focus on yet.

However, I am in two minds about going to university. I would like to move away and have fresh start as I think this will help me to concentrate on my education as I wouldn't have as many distractions. On the other hand, I would like to stay near home so I can still see my friends and family.

I have researched some universities that could be a possibility. I started by using the course search on the UCAS website but from the descriptions of the courses you cant really tell if it is a good course or if the place is nice, without going to an open day. So I then searched in Google for some opinions of what people thought were the best universities for Graphic Design. From what some of the people were saying it seems that different universities have different reputations, and these reputations can make a difference when applying for jobs in the Graphic Design industry. It seems that the most popular university with the best reputation is Kingston University, London. I would apply for the BA (Hons) in Graphic Design but as this is a very popular college, I would imagine that it will be very hard to get accepted and the level is very high.

Another university that looks good and has good feedback is Nottingham Trent University. But I think this would be a bit too far as it is about a three hour drive from where I live. The course is a BA in Graphic Design, and like the others, covers a range of aspects.

I am still looking at universities and ordering perspectives as I haven't quite decided yet. I am going to go to some of the open days and do more research on the internet to help narrow down my options.

Other than higher education I was thinking about taking a gap year. I would then go to uni afterward. This would be to continue my driving lessons which I am struggling to pay for at the moment, as I would get a full time job for the year, and eventually pass my driving test. Then I would save up for a car as this would make it easier to get to and from uni. I would also buy DSLR camera as this would be very useful for my graphic design career. Also in the gap year, I would love to go traveling or work/volunteer abroad on my own. It would have to be something out of the ordinary and life changing, that would make a change in me. I think it would make me more independent and give me more confidence in myself. This would then help me with my ambition to be a graphic designer as I would have more confidence in my work and presenting it. A place that I would like to go is America as the people are friendly and it is a lovely place. I would also look into graphic design and advertising there as it would give me inspiration and ideas for when I came back. The DSLR camera would be greatly used to show my experience. However, the idea of a gap year is starting to fade as if I got a student loan for university, I could buy a DSLR and car out of it. And going abroad isn't something that I need, but would just be a great experience, and I could always do that in the summer holiday if I wanted to.