laire EvisonSemester

2

Overview of semester1. Type of BriefsI feel I respond to tight briefs better than open briefs, although this is probably because I have more experience with briefs with clear guidelines and demand then with open briefs. However, when given the manifesto project, although it took me a long time to find a direction and to feel comfortable with the project, I ended up enjoying it very much.

2.Integral ElementsIn my manifesto project I enjoyed working with simple typography and wish to use more typography as well as develop my hand drawn type. I also enjoy working with image but prefer typography.

3. StrengthsI really enjoyed the short briefs - meltdown festival and university logo and feel I did best with these rather than the longer briefs. I feel that research is a strength of mine, as I enjoy looking into different things and I feel that the major-ity of the time I can generate quite a lot of ideas. I also feel that my Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign and Dreamweaver have improved significantly this semester.

4. WeaknessesI feel that time management is one of my biggest problems, but on longer projects I feel things change too much to be able to stick to a strict schedule.With open briefs I felt that I had so much choice that I had no idea in which direction to go. Only after setting myself some perameters did I really start to focus properly on the final pieces of my manifesto project.

5. PersonalityAs we have done so many different types of project and not really more than one of each type, I have found it difficult to determine what I am about.I enjoyed the packaging brief, but of all the projects I’ve done this semester, I feel the outcome is one of the weakest. I like to experiment with new things and so really enjoyed the meltdown festival projext and also really enjoyed the simplicity of working with type and exploiting typographic characters.I am unsure as to which creative direction I wish to proceed in, however, I do know that I wold like to continue to work with type.

Photobook

Meltdown Festival

UO

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D&AD

Manifesto

D&AD1.I chose the D&AD packaging brief which was to create a modernised brand of whisky, aimed at women.It gave the opportunity to change the tone of voice of whisky, as it is very much considered a mans drink. The container still needed to adhere to the whisky labelling rules, but the container itself was open to interpretation as long as the whisky was unaltered.

2.My concept was to make a more feminie brand of whisky and so after some research I came up with the name ‘Sti-letto’. I felt that this was a very appropriate name as Stiletto is not only a femine icon but a whisky based cocktail. I took the name and used it as a theme, creating a logo and a shoe box as the packaging of the bottle. The labels were on tags wrapped around the neck of the bottle to keep the design simple and to allow the whisky colour to show through.

3.I feel I have successfully met the creative demands of the brief by creating a brand of whisky that is specifically aimed at women,. By associating the brand with an already famous female icon - the Stiletto, women will know that this product is forthem. I feel I have modernised the brand by keeping the design elements simple andsleek in only three colours.

Investigate

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Meltdown Festival

UOC Logo

Manifesto

1. My manifesto is a set of points that I live by and believe in. It is not to be taken too seriously but is a reflection of my personality and beliefs. I believe that learning and travelling are really important in life, as well as having a sense of humour, which I wanted to come across in my written manifesto.

2.I tried a lot of different routes of investigation before settling on typography as I decided that it was unnecessary to use imagery. I wanted to keep the points simple, deciding not to use the brief descriptions I wrote out in my full manifesto and to just use the points as statements instead. I challenged myself to only use one font with the text mostly in black and white, but wanted my manifesto to be colourful as I feel that this better represents my personality. I feel I have done justice to my manifesto and that I’ve learnt a lot about what I like design-wise in the process. The one thing that I think I would change is the cover of the postcard book I made. Although at the time I thought having a more professional approach, with the title and my website on the cover, was the best idea. Now though, I think I could have used the opportunity to do something more interesting with type, or more humorous to get the readers attention.

3.Sitting down to write my manifesto took a lot more time than I thought it would, as it made me really think about myself, what I believed in and what I thought was the most important to me. I found the experience very interesting and learnt quite a lot about myself that I hadn’t really considered before. It was also the first completely free brief that I had done and I found it difficult at first because of this, but it led me to put my personality into the project and focus on what I liked in design. This is something I feel I should do more often in my work.

Written Manifesto1. If you open your mind too much, your brain will fall out -It is important to keep an open mind, it allows you to experience new things and learn new methods but but remember not to believe everything you read, take it all with a pinch of salt.

2. Your beliefs don’t make you a better person, your behavior does

3. Adopt, adapt and improve - Don’t give up at the first hurdle. Keep going, change your tactic, try again and if it doesn’t work, change your tactic and try again. The more times you try, the more you’ll learn.

4. Give generously - And don’t expect anything in return.

5. 3D is overrated - Just look how stupid you look in your glasses.

6. Learn as much as you can - Knowing things, useless or not, is never a bad thing. Learn things outside of what you should, genetics, geography, music and store it all away, you never know when it’ll come in handy. Plus it makes you good in a pub quiz.

7. Experience - Don’t just say you’ll do things, see it through and do it.

8. Read more - You get more from a book then you could ever get from a film.

9. Learn to laugh - Learn to accept things as they are, if things are bad, think about how much worse they could be.

10. Health and safety occasionally gets in the way of evolution - As someone with a nut allergy I have never needed to refer to the ‘may contain nuts’ sign on the back of a packet of peanuts to know not to eat it and I worry for those who do.

11. Travel - Travel when you can, not necessarily abroad. You’d be amazed what you can learn on a train, and who you meet.

12. People who think they know everything, usually know nothing - Don’t be afraid to ask questions, no matter how stupid they may be. Also different people see things differently, by asking questions you’ll learn things you may never have realized on your own.

13. You’re your own worst enemy

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RefineShape

Articulate

Photobook

Personal development plan

1.Over the summer I hope to gain a work placement to gain professional experience, I also think that this will help me gain the finish that I think my projects lack. I am also going to try to create my own briefs as well as look into competitions to take part in. I also want to develop my analogue techniques, as I have been doing digital work mainly and miss getting my hands dirty.

2.Over the summer I intend to look into typographers more specifically than designers in general. I will continue to read design books and magazines and should I get the chance I would like to visit exhibi-tions and museums, specifically at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as I am hoping to go this year.

3.I want to keep up project work, by setting myself short briefs and updating my blog as well as looking at various competitions. I wish to continue looking at typography and develop my hand drawn type as well. I will also continue to develop my software skills and hope that if I do gain a work placement, that it will improve both my strengths and weaknesses.

4.I feel that I do need to improve my time management on long projects, but need to find a way of doing this that works for me. I also think that working on more open briefs would help be to tackle them bet-ter. Another thing I feel I have to do is improve my confidence. Even though it has improved over this semester, I still feel unsure and hesitant about my design choices a lot of the time.

contact details

cevison2@googlemail.com

www.addalittleginger.com

www.cevisonsketchbooks.blogspot.co.uk

laire EvisonSemester

2