The personal Journals of Mario Minichiello

You can find a more indepth commentry of  my research my InDesign file.

The sources of inspiration in my research are the following: Mario Minichiello, Scott Tucker, Tom Judd, Andy Warhol, Julia Midgley, misprintedtype.com, Typogrpahy Now book and the Lodnon Underground Map

Tourist

Minchiello, M., Tourist[online], available from http://domain742622.sites.fasthosts.com/mm2001/journalframe.html

[accessed 12/12/10]

Waiting

Minchiello, M., Waiting[online], available from http://domain742622.sites.fasthosts.com/mm2001/journalframe.html

[accessed 12/12/10]

Street Night

Minchiello, M., Street Night[online], available from http://domain742622.sites.fasthosts.com/mm2001/journalframe.html

[accessed 12/12/10]

I've decided to place Mario Minchiello in my research because I like the way his work is not in proportion. 

As I'm not a good drawer, I have took inspiration from his work when I was drawing my continuous line drawings.

post office 1st December

Today the college was shut due to the bad weather, of which I was not pleased about. I needed to finish my business stationary. I decided to work from home, working from home is never as porductive as working at college, as I have to many dictraction at home. I've completed my 3 sets of busniness stationary on the computer, ready for me to choose one to for my final stationary set. As stated in my folder I will be using set 1 for my final Business stationary. I feel set 1 has a modern feel, I think it is the best designed one for the Post Office

30th nov niel

The goal I set myself for the next two weeks was for me to finish my commentary for the chosen designer we studied and other outstanding work.

I feel I have structured my commentary in an appropriate manner, after several consultations with Neil. I have started to realise whilst reflecting back to previous Journal entries, how my vocabulary has dramatically improved, I feel that it has taken me up the present date, to adjust to the way the course is taught and the work that is expected of you.

Post Office 24th november

Starting today's lecture made me realise that we only have two week until the deadline, I think with briefs in the future I need to prepare a plan for my work and spend time at home working though a brief as i think i did not allocate enough time for this.
I think I now have sufficient research into bar/cafe/restaurant menu and websites as a was lacking this before. Its good that I have have this research in my folder as it will provide guidance into what colours and type is required in my design system, from analysing the research I gathered, I have established that most menus and website for the bars/cafe/restaurants use light friendly colours and a welcoming sophisticated typeface that is usually condensed to medium bold. I have spent the majority of today's finishing my first business card and i now have a finished logo for the Post Office.

Thsis is my finished logo.

Before I applied it to my first draft of my business card, i removed the background. by having the background it gave my logo a square outline which did not look right.

Post Office 17th november

My main goal for today was to have a completed logo for the Post Office. I initially decided to try different formats and layout with the wood block prints, I have chosen to continue using the wood block prints in my logo because I believe they show a sophisticated and modern look. I originally considered the notion of wood block prints when I was reflecting back on the visit we had from Kerry Ostermeyer. Kerry works for a design company called KO creative, which is based in Stafford, They have produced work for companies across the country, big and small. The one piece of work that interested me the most was that of Mr Popple's. Mr Popple's creates chocolate from organic ingredients, he approached KO with the idea of a new brand for the company. KO came up with the idea of printing the logo on to the packets using a rubber stamp. You can find my blog entries overlooking the talk under "KO Creative talk - 12.10.10".

I think this brief will help me in my future work and studies, using traditional methods like the wood block prints has made be realise that the computer is not a essential part of designing but a tool in aiding designs.

Individually we also received the aid of ex-students who studied the Foundation Degree last year, who are currently working freelance along side their BA Hons in Graphic Design at Staffs Uni. I considered this to be a advantage and appreciated their help from the start. They also brought with them their folder and design work for the Post Office which we are currently working though. Having analysed their folder work it  made me realise that it was essential for me to progress in my research work and further my annotation and initial designs skills.

niel 16th november

Today I presented my PowerPoint presentation on the German designer Erik Spiekermann, a presentation that I had been working on for some time. Ive always been very nervous when participating in presentations, especial when it includes talking to a large amount of people, I feel I reacted very well when presenting my PowerPoint, I had a well structured PowerPoint which held minimal bullet points on each slide, allowing me the option to expand on those point through out the talk.

If I was permitted to make a second attempt at the PowerPoint I would diffidently attempt to expand more on the bullet points include in my presentation as I feel I lack in this, I would also contact at least two other designers using a wider range of communication techniques as I did not receive an answer to the questions I asked.

What is a success in Graphic Design? 23rd november

My opinion on this issue is that Graphic Design itself is a success, everything around us is a piece of Graphic design, without it
  Everything would have to be painstakingly written by hand. Without designs process and ingredients - structure and organisation, word and image, differentiation - we would have to receive all information by spoken word. We would enter another Dark Age,a thousand years of Ignorance, prejudice, superstition and very short lifespans.
(Newark, 2002, p6)

Meanwhile other memebers of the group agreed that Graphics is successful by revenue, its how good you are and how your reputation is seen to others. Many current graphic designers follow designers of the past to influence their current work.

Another argument was raised on the concern that i perviously made, over time graphics has been a success itself but we have lost the traditional methods used in graphics and designers use the aid of computers when approaching thier work.

Iain/Simon 15th November/ 22 Novmber

I was not enthusiastic about the first format I discovered from the "Magazine Design" so I decided to change to a different idea similar to the picture on the left. The layout below consists of a grid system,















I started off by creating a grid in InDesign itself, and I made sure the picture and text stayed in line with the grid. Every page in my InDesign document is fairly consistent, keeping the text in the bottom right within the grid system and the having the pictures and main headers bleed off the page.

This is the initial pencil drawing for my layout

I feel it was worth spending time trying out 2-3 different layout for my page as once I had the layout implemented I could easily place all of the text and imagery into place.

extract from plan for Journey book

I felt it appropriate that I should start a plan for my journey book, so that I would not be designing the pages from memory. I acknowledge that this has helped me from the start, I think that I should implement a plan for all of my future briefs to aid me with time management.

Overall I feel I am on target to finish for deadline for my experiemtal and Journey work, but Im behind on my InDesign document.

niel 9th november - semimar - Is Graphic Design art?

The point I indicated in this seminar was the Graphic Design can be Art, but it depends what type of Graphic Design it is portrayed as. For example, the work of Neville Brody can be seen as art. I personally think Graphic Design is a form of Communication, informing people about service available.

Post office 3rd November

Started today by trying some new design ideas by experimenting with wood blocks from the print room. I started to experiment with 3 different types of wood block, a condensed typeface, a serif type and a sans serif typeface. I experimented with all of these typefaces in different formats and layouts, but i stayed with the condensed style typeface that you can see to the right. I decide to call the venue No.35 as i thought it showed the sophication of the venue as to calling it "The Post Office"

During my 1-2-1 tutorial with Barney, he talked about my logo being to similar to the one of Jack Daniels and that people who would be going to the Post Office may not want to be associated with Jack Daniels, he suggested that I experiment with different typefaces and layouts. In next weeks lecture he said we would need to do a presentation of our work to date, he gave me a checklist of things i needed to complete;

1. layout the different section of my folder in accordance with the brief.
2. Reference system so i only have to reference once on a single page.
3. Annotation of logo research.
4. Annotation of Initial designs.
5. Research into artists that influence me.
6. complete market research.
7. Play with logos more.
8. research business stationary.

niel 2nd november

Don't really have much to reflect on from today lecture. I started to prepare some research and questions to ask my designer. Ive decided to study the German type designer Erik Spiekermann, Ive sent him an email explaining who I am, what work of his I like and if he had some spare time, would he mine answering some question i had. Below I have attached the email I sent him.

I feel I have structured the email in an appropriate way  and I hope I receive a reply from him.

simon/iain 8 november

Started today's lecture by considering different formats and layouts for my InDesign PDF book, After searching different websites, I was unhappy and could not find the right format for me to express my InDesign skills to a future employer. I decided to visit the library to further my investigations into magazine  and book layouts and formats. Whilst in the library I came across fantastic called "Magazine Design" from this I then discovered a layout that suited my work.

I think that using books from the library, especially the "Magazine Design" book will help me in my future studies.

This is my proposal for my concept of the "Journey"

In Iains part of the lesson, I completed a 1-2-1 outlining my faults and what I would need to achieve before the next lecture. He planned out that I would need to complete my experimental work as soon as possible and start my plans and preparations for my Journey book. 

Scott Tucker Sketch Book work from 2007 (iain/simon 1st november)

After re-reading the brief I realised that I had not research into other artists that inspired me enough, I decided to go back to the list of artists, and came across a designer called Scott Tucker. Scott Tucker works with pens to create doodle pictures, he also tries colour pencils and pen with the aid of photoshop to create good pieces of artwork. I am not the best at drawing in detail, so I think that Scott Tucker is a good artist to take inspiration.
In Iain's lesson I feel I have gradually improved my skills in my experimental sketch book, I have started to experiment with bus tickets by enlarging them to the point that the picture becomes grainy. I thought this techniques created a good effect and I may use it in my Journey sketch books. I thought using bus tickets was appropriate as my journey would be a bus trip from my house to Stoke city centre.

2.17.07 - ink, photoshop
- dinner, after life drawing at SF Art Institute, North Beach

Tucker, S.(2007), ink, photoshop

- dinner, after life drawing at SF Art Institute, North Beach[online], available from http://scotttucker.com/sketchbooks/feb/3/

[accessed 11/11/10]

3.5.07 - doodle -ink
Tucker, S.(2007), doodle ink[online], available from :http://scotttucker.com/sketchbooks/march/1/
[accessed 11/11/10] 

1.21.07 - on break from recording arts class
felt pin
 Tucker, S.(2007), on break from recording arts class felt pin [online], available 
fromhttp://scotttucker.com/sketchbooks/jan/3/
 [accessed 11/11/10]  

KO Creative talk - 12.10.10

Today we had Kerry Ostermeyer from a design company called KO Creative come into talk to us about what graphics design is really about, she showed us some of KO's work and how they go about setting out and working their briefs. I thought it was really appropriate having Kerry come explaining her thought process and how they generated their ideas on a live brief as the brief we are working on now, is near close to a live brief as we are working with a real client on a venue is going to open in the future. I think analyisng Kerry's folder work will help me in my current work and my future work as a designer, it has given me an idea on how graphic designers work though a brief from Intial sketch work right though to showing the client the finished design. 

KO Creative are a small design company based in Stafford manged mainly by two graphic designers Kerry Ostermeyer and Oliver Shenton with between then hold 18 years of experience, with big clients ranging from reggae giants UB40 and Selfridges&Co to The FA. But they have also worked with clients based in Stafford for example; The MET Studios, Hills Coaches and Katharine House Hospice.
started to look for more logos and past post office logo, presented work to group

KO Creative UK Ltd. (2010) Available from:http://www.kocreative.co.uk/themetstudio.html

 [accessed 26.10.10]

KO Creative UK Ltd. (2010) Available from:http://www.kocreative.co.uk/mrpopples.html [accessed 26.10.10]

KO Creative UK Ltd. (2010) Available from:http://www.kocreative.co.uk/mrpopples.html [accessed 26.10.10]

KO Creative UK Ltd. (2010) Available from:http://www.kocreative.co.uk/ub40.html [accessed 26.10.10]

KO Creative UK Ltd. (2010) Available from:http://www.kocreative.co.uk/ub40.html [accessed 26.10.10]

KO Creative UK Ltd. (2010) Available from:http://www.kocreative.co.uk/ub40.html [accessed 26.10.10]

kocreative.co.uk 

niel 13 october

After 3 weeks of hard-core Harvard Referencing i can now say I have mastered it, Today we were presented with a new brief to take us through to mid November. The brief was to research a German Graphic Designer, with enough research to be able to produce a power-point presentation to present to the rest of the group. The idea of researching the German Graphic Designer was that whilst on our trip to Berlin we would be able to track some of their work down in museums and galleries we visit, which for me could be an advantage as the designer I have chosen is the Graphic Design and Typographer Erik Spiekermann who has offices based in Berlin. When given the task of researching a designer I automatically chose Spiekermann as i know a vast amount about him having written an essay on him before.


Spiekermann has featured in many journals for example; Computer Art, Computer Arts Project and Creative Review, this proves really significant as the designer must be academically referenced. 

After reflecting on the choice of my designer, I think that I have chosen the easy option my choosing a designer that I'm already familiar with. I think in the future I should broaden my chose, if i continue to use the same designer for all of my project I will not learn about new designers working in the industry. I am still yet to email Erik Speikermann, so i may need to research other designers if I do not receive an email back from him.  

Iain/Simon 20th September 2010

Over the past two weeks we have started a new brief with the theme linked to the idea of "Journey".
My initial idea for my journey would be a physical journey I take regular to my Sisters in High Wycombe, but as I would not be visiting my sister over the Half-term break, So I decided to base my journey on a train trip to a totally random place and gather an archive of information including leaflets, flyer's, tickets, souvenir, plenty of picture of scenery. But also how I feel on the day, what the weather is like and what people on the train are saying. 

I have now started to look into the work of more artists that inspire me, for example Tom Judd, Julia Midgley and the typefaces from designers on misprintedtype.com, I have some examples of their work below. In Iain experimental lessons I have experimented with the methods of Tom Judd and Julia Midgley. Julia Midgley uses newspaper, pen & ink and paint in her work. I have used this method on a number of my experimental piece.  

Midgley, J.(2004)Newspaper Drawing Walker Art Gallery 
Acrylic Ink[online], Documentary work, availble from: http://www.juliamidgley.co.uk/documentary.html
[accessed date: 21.10.10]

     Moksha typeface(2007) [onloine], availble from: http://www.misprintedtype.com/v4/
[accessed 21.10.10]

 Pastalaria(2007) [onloine], availble from: http://www.misprintedtype.com/v4/  [accessed 21.10.10]




Judd, T. (2007) Refinery oil on collage with digital photo[online], availble from: http://www.tomjuddart.com/site/painting#/site/images/stories/paintings_image/robin.jpgOverall, we were slightly confused with the how Iain and Simons's lesson's are connected and needed this clarifying, once clarified we understood. I have significantly improved my skills in my experimental sketchbook, I am breaking away from what I think a sketch book should look like and attempting different techniques and ideas. some pages from my sketch book are below.

Sketch Book work


Here Ive attempted to turn the image into a collage, quite similar to the work Tom Judd, but it didn't work out. So I thought arranging the segments of the picture like this, would be more appealing.

The picture above is a copy of a national rail map, covering all key train stations in the West Midlands area. I have used the techniques of Julia Midgley, I have applied pen & ink on top of tea stains.

The Above is an example of a 1-point perspective drawing of Lloyd's Bank in Stafford Town Centre.

'Post Office Brief' 06/10/10

In today's lecture we started our initial research into the history of the 'Post Office', history of the building itself and logo designs. I decided to look for existing logos and example of design systems, Looking for example of design systems was more difficult. I focused on researching into existing logos, the logos I found were from design books from the Library, I have attached some example to the bottom of this blog. I have placed an example of a design system into my research that is wine orientated I deiced to research into this to remind myself with the concept throughout my designs.

REFERENCES: Carter, D(2002) The Big Book Of Logos, Harper Collins, USA

Overall having analysed my research I have designed 8 logos using traditional methods, but I feel need more examples of logo and type design to enable me to create a logo the client is looking for.  

 REFERENCE: Morgan, L.C.(1999) Logos, A Rotovision Book, Switzerland

Learning to analyse reflective writing

For once today we were not doing Harvard Referencing,thank you Niel
In this weeks lecture we were analyse reflective writing

Richard Branson.

I personally think that the extract from Richards book Business Stripped Bare is a very good piece of reflective writing. He talks about how some of his business ventures have not worked according to plan and he reflects on how he has made money from his failures for example one venture mentions in the extract is his plans to
   " put a truly innovative upper-class seat on Virgin Atlantic's planes in 2000"(Branson 2008) Richard claims that this did not work as they left it to long to develop the seats and British Airways got hold of their plans and out innovated them(Branson 2008), they dumped future plans with a cost of £100 million. But that was not the end, the benefits to them were, they had the best business-class flat beds in the world designed by their own team.

Albert Speer.

Speer knew what he had done was bad and that there was no excuse
   "for which one is guilty even if one might offer excuses - simply because the scale of the crime is so overwhelming that by comparison any human excuse pales to insignificance"(Speer 1966).

Having read the extract I now feel that Albert Speer has successfully reflected on his past, he know he has done wrong and is prepared to suffer the consequences. One significant reflection I found in the extract was whilst Speers was in prison the guards held no grudge against him, Speers claimed that he encountered un-corrupted feelings of sympathy, helpfulness, human understandings, feelings that bypassed the prison rules.
  "Many of them mourned loved ones who had dies in the war - in particular, every on of the Soviet guards had lost some close relative, brothers or a father. Yet not one of them bore a grudge toward me for my personal share in the tragedy; never did I hear words of recrimination."(Speer 1966). 

Alan Partridge

In general Alan comes across as a smug, emotionless person who puts everyone down and always ends his anecdotes with the prase "needless to say I had the last laugh".
In this video he is a guest on a radio show along side a recovering drug addict. The recovering drug addict is constantly reflecting on her past mistakes and talking about how she has changed, whereas Alan thinks he is the only person who has changed and always put the other character down for the past. 

The Russian Constructivists

In today's lecture we looked at Russian Constructivism and the Russian Revolution. I have learnt that the Constructivists were a art movement in Russia connected with what was happening in Russia at that time, their key aims were to preserve the past and may way for a new type of art. After the revolution art was being made that had never been seen before.

The objective of this lecture was to get us to properly use the Harvard Referencing System.
For me, the most important aspect of the lecture was not just practicing the Harvard Referencing System, which I am still quite confused about, but learning how the Constructivist Artists worked and wanted to change the face of art after the Revolution.

Having read the papers on the Contrusivists i have now realised that their work may influence me in my designs in the future. I have attached some work by the constructivists to the bottom of this post that i like.

Notes from Post Office visit

• Restaurant/bar/ conference facility/full functional offerings.
• first floor -  restaurant 200 seats available, hoping to offer European style menu, Spanish,french,German,Italian.
• Ground floor  - cafe area(during day) and a separate bar area open in the evening.
• modern style cafe selling Penni's, croissants etc.

Target Audience and purposes:

• Bar - young people 18-24
• Restaurant - families, special occasions, wont to create a nice and friendly environment.
• Conference area - for business, weddings and other big event, capable to hold 120 people

The Post Office

• The building was used as a Post Office for 60 years, calling the entertainment venue "the post office"  would be ideal as people in the town and surrounding area know it originally as "The Post Office"
• good location within the town centre.
• Originally it was, what is know today as a Stately Home.
• Then owned by the Chatwynd Family formally Chetwynd House.

The client wont the new entertainment venue to thrive for years to come, to move with trends and time, this needs to be in mind when branding "the post office".

Colours:

• bright red for bar with white round table.
• a more toned down contemporary style approach for the restaurant, he wants to create an environment that fit everyone needs. 
• For the conference and wedding facility there will be a more business and formal approach with natural colours being used for weddings and special occasions

Have all of this in mind when designing. 

The front left of the building on the inside is grade 2 listed as well as the main front gates. 

Notes on Russian Constructivism 1919 - 1924 Tuesday 28 September 10

• Russian Constructivism was an art movement connected with what was happening in Russia at that time, after the revolution made art that had never been done before, they wanted to leave the past behind.
• Russia was under a Autocratic leadership.
• In the late 1800 most people in Russia were Serfs who were owned by the Tsar and factory workers, as Russia was mainly a underdeveloped agricultural state.
• In 1905 there was a mini revolution which formed the Emancipation of the Serfs and they became lower class citizens.

• The First World War.
• Russia left the war in 1917 because they lacked in technology.
• 1917 was the Russian Revolution, the revolution happened because the country was left flattened after the war and it was time for a new leader.
• New leader of Russia in 1917 was Vladamir Lenin (1870-1924)

• Russian Civil War 1917, between the Bolsheviks and the White movement form by soldiers from the West.

My Journey Monday 27th

To begin with I was confused with the "Journey" brief, as the idea of the journey could be the concept of the Journey as a metaphor or literal. Here are some of the ideas I came up with:

1. Journey of the seasons.
2. The process of product design.
3. The process of a Designers career.
4. The process of everyday life, from this point I researched into the work of Tom Judd, a lot of his painting are of everyday life and scenes.
5. Journey on a train to a unplanned place, that you have never been to before.
6. A train journey to a friend or family member that you have taken before.

I think I may take the approach of a train journey that I have taken before and implement everyday life, scenes that I see whilst on the train, maps, posters, conversations overheard on the train and artifacts collected throughout the journey.

The work of Tom Judd may influence me in my future work. His work will help me use other techniques in my design work. He still uses traditional methods like oil and collage, but incorporates modern methods like Photoshop and Illustrator.

Refinery, Oil on collage with Digital Photo
Judd, T. Tom Judd Art[online], Available
from http://www.tomjuddart.com
[Accessed Monday 27th September 2010] 

Crane, Oil on collage
Judd, T. Tom Judd Art[online], Available
from http://www.tomjuddart.com
[accessed Monday 27th September 2010 

IRE Tuesday 21st September

My initial reaction to the Harvard Reference system and the Learning Journal was that I felt confused, but once reading and re-reading the idea of them both I understood. I completed some brief research into the Italian Futurists to help me start a short essay outlining there key aims and who they were, these are the references I used:



I was given this essay to enable me to familiarise myself with the concept of the Harvard Referencing System. When I was given the brief for this essay, I already had a understanding of the Italian Futurists from a brief I was given whilst studying on the national diploma. The brief was to design a poster for cafe depero in the style of the Futurist painter Depero. I like the style that the futurist work in and i think there were may influence me in my future studies. I have attached a copy of my short essay on the future at the bottom of this blog.

Conclusion