My Journal

I consider my self to be a designer, I am currently mid way through my degree course and I feel that I have started my career as I have already done paid commissions for customers. I enjoy and thrive on knowing that I have changed my life around. From the age of 16 I left school, I had got my apprenticeship in carpentry and that was my life planned out I worked as a carpenter on building sites 5 years realising that this wasn’t the life for me, I decided enough was enough and it was time for me to go back in to education. That brings me to now I feel like I have a good outlook on life and a career in graphic design.

As a graphic designer I have many influences and interests. I think that my main influence is wood. I have worked with wood for many years and I know what I am doing when it comes to using it. I feel inspired when I see drawings and imagery that I like. I find my own drawings have my own style to them although this is influenced by what is around me and what I am finding when I am researching. I love Japanese illustration. It inspires me to make my own. In particular Yuko Shimizu I find her work interesting and I feel it fits along side of mine very well.

My goals at this early stage in my career are to complete my degree with hopefully a 2:1 Then to get into a design/printing business where I can work and create a portfolio of my own keeping myself up today with all the new software and meeting others in the business. Some where along the line I would also love to start up my own business and work for myself. I had a feel for this when I was a carpenter, I really enjoyed working for myself and felt that I thrived on knowing that it was all my doing at the end of the day.

My concerns as a graphic designer is that it is a hard business to get into and in the early stages there is not a lot of money in it. If you are a lucky one who makes it higher up then there is plenty of money to be made. On the plus side this is something that I really enjoy doing and hopefully will continue to enjoy it for many years to come.

I feel I have an important view, as a graphic designer I need to be able to get my design across weather it be words or image. I feel that I can do this as I am constantly developing ways and means of doing so, for many different people, I am fully aware that people view, learn and remember things in different ways. 

To sum up, everything I look at inspires me, I feel that I am a naturally creative person and because of this I think that I can help people to see and hear what I am doing.

 

 

 

Tom Hingston

 

old tyres and jeans

 

bag from old news paper

 

Brilliant Wine Packaging Converts Into a Lamp

by Alexandra Kain

When creativity, ecology and innovation collide, packaging becomes the product. This sleek wine box by Ciclusconverts into a table lamp with no extra parts required. The packaging is made with wood from local, managed forests and recycled cardboard. Inside is a locally and ecologically produced bottle of Cava, Spanish sparkling wine.

 

 

Portable Cardboard Table from Liborius Reykjavík

by Kate Andrews

This lightweight, portable cardboard table aims to assist on-the-go creative types like designers and students, who are often limited to work on low desks or floors. Made by Sruli Recht from flatpack cardboard pieces, this lightweight, sturdy design offers creatives an ergonomic plane on which to cut, fold, draft or design. Adding even more appeal to this smart and useful design, the table is biodegradable and can easily be folded up to pack into a portable carrier.

 

 

KNOEND’S LITE2GO, No Packaging Required

by Evelyn Lee

We’re always enamored with flat pack packaging for efficient transport and minimal waste, but here’s a light design that brings a bright idea to packaging by eliminating it all together. Lite2Go’s packaging doubles as the actual lamp shade so there is almost no waste, excluding the label and the instructions for assembly which are printed on recycled paper using environmentally friendly inks.

 

 

 

Solar Power Sunglasses Can Charge Your Gadgets

by Bridgette Steffen

With the snow coming down fast this time of year, we can’t help but dream of laying on the beach listening to ouriPod and relaxing. But how to keep it charged? If we had this handy pair of designer sunglasses, we could keep our iPod or other iDevice fully charged while basking in the sun or walking around town. Designed by Hyun-Joong Kim and Kwang-Seok Jeong, these slick “Self-Energy Converting Sunglasses” feature dye solar cells that are integrated into their lenses. Although perhaps not as fun as using a yo-yo to charge your devices, this solar solution is probably a heck of a lot more practical and stylish to boot.

 

vinylux transforms vintage LPs and Album Covers into a variety of gift items – coasters, bowls, clocks, trays, ornaments, notecards, sketchbooks etc. Artist Jeff Davis estimates he will recycle 150,000 LPs and 45s in 2008 alone. What started as his design school master’s thesis project turned into a full time business.

Johnny Hardstaff

lucy mclauchlan

design venues

Tate Liverpool

Tate Liverpool is an art gallery and museum in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The museum was an initiative of the Merseyside Development Corporation. Tate Liverpool was created to display work from the Tate Collection which comprises the national collection of British art from the year 1500 to the present day, and international modern art. The gallery also has a programme of temporary exhibitions. For a time it was the largest gallery of modern and contemporary art in the UK outside of London.

Tate st. Ives

Tate St Ives is an art gallery in St Ives, Cornwall, UK, exhibiting work by modern British artists, including work of the St Ives School. The three story building, designed by architects Evans and Shaleff, lies on the site of the old gas works overlooking Porthmeor Beach. It was opened to the public in 1993, the second regional gallery in the Tate Gallery network. However, the Tate also manages an earlier property in St Ives, the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden which it opened in 1980.

 

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, USA, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been singularly important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world.[1] The museum’s collection offers an unparalleled overview of modern and contemporary art,[2] including works of architecture and design, drawings, painting, sculpture, photography, prints, illustrated books, film, and electronic media.

 

The Saatchi

The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art, opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985 in order to show his sizeable (and changing) collection to the public. It has occupied different premises, first in North London, then the South Bank by the River Thames and currently in Chelsea. Saatchi’s collection, and hence the gallery’s shows, have had distinct phases, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving on to the Damien Hirst-led Young British Artists, followed by shows purely of painting and then exhibiting again contemporary art from America in USA Today at the Royal Academy in London. In 2008, an exhibition of contemporary Chinese art formed the the inaugural exhibition in the new venue for the gallery at the Duke of York’s HQ.

 

MOBPA

The Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising is the result of consumer historian, Robert Opie, who saw the need to record the history of the products around us. From 1984, the Collection was housed in the Museum of Advertising and Packaging in Gloucester. In December 2005, the Museum moved to London with the aid of pi global who undertook fundraising and many other tasks including achieving charitable status in 2002. – http://www.museumofbrands.com/background.html

 

Design Museum

The Design Museum is a museum by the River Thames near Tower Bridge in central London, England. The museum covers product, industrial, graphic, fashion and architectural design. It was founded in 1989 and claims to be the first museum of modern design. In 2007 the museum was listed by the Times newspaper as number two in their top 5 museums of the year.

 

Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Named after Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, it was founded in 1852, and has since grown to now cover some 12.5 acres (0.05 km2)[2] and 145 galleries. Its collection spans 5000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, in virtually every medium, from the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

 

The Louvre

Located in Paris, very well known for being the home of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. It is a central landmark, nearly 35,000 objects from the 6th millennium BC to the 19th century AD are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet). The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being confiscated church and royal property. Because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The size of the collection increased under Napoleon when the museum was renamed the Musée Napoléon.

 

The Tate Modern

The Tate Modern is part of the group known simple as Tate, with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, Tate st. Ives and Tate Online. Since the museum’s opening on 12 May 2000, it has become a destination for Londoners and tourists. The building used to be Bankside Power Station, which was originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of Battersea Power Station. The building was converted by architects Herzog & de Meuron and contractors Carillion, after which it stood at 99m tall.

The Tate Collection is on display on levels three and five of the building, while level four houses large temporary exhibitions and a small exhibition space on level two houses work by contemporary artists.

 

The New Art Gallery, Walsall

The New Art Gallery is sited in the centre of the West Midlands town of Walsall, England. It was built with £21 million of public funding, including £15.75 million from the UK National Lottery. It was designed by architect Caruso St John after winning a competition and opened in 2000 replacing the old art gallery.

frank o. gehry