Today I found this logo design by a French agency called Punkmat. The logo has been designed for a classical music agency called Musique Ancienne (Old Music.) I particularly like the symmetrical shaped design with slight alterations in the middle of the logo to create the visible letters A and M. The fluent shapes used to create the logo look similar to the shapes used to create the trouble clef shape used by composers when righting music.

Matt Pyke - Lecture Series 3

Matt Pyke  11.02.09

Sheffield based guest lecturer Matt Pyke visited to show his input to the design industry. Pyke works from his 'Electronic cottage' studio in the bottom of his garden following an art direction approach to design. Being the only full time designer based in his studio Pyke finds specialist designers to collaborate on his designs to bring his initial ideas to life. Pyke has produced collaborative work in this manor for numerous clients Including:

Nokia

London 2012 Olympics

Audi

George Michael 

Love Bytes Art Festival

Advanced Beauty (advanced beauty.org)

V&A Courtyard

Matt Pyke's concepts are very unusual. Using modern computer technology he creates mathematical interfaces that react to various sensitivity detected by sensors creating an image/shape depending on what is censored by the software producing very ambitious pieces if work.

Matt Pyke's work is very inspiring and has certainly made me consider thinking further than the obvious in future within my design. My favorite piece from his work has to be the lighting display from the V&A exhibition. The unpredictable elements within this piece creates a sense of surprise by producing beautiful shapes unintentionally. The fact that what is produced by the software could never be reproduced and is subject to it's situation at it's given time creates a very  power full piece.    

    

For more information and video footage of Matt Pyke's work please visit:

www.universaleverything.com

Patrick Young - Lecture Series 2

Patrick Young  09.12.08

Freelance designer Patrick Young was the second addition to our lecture series. Coming from a Graphic design background, Patrick Young also has past experiences in architecture and brand identities. 

Patrick gave an insight to his design career whilst working at

 multi discipline agency called Uniform, based in Liverpool. Uniform specialize in various design disciplines such as web, print, interactive media, and CGI. 

Whilst working at Uniform Patrick art directed numerous project using a cross medium of all the design disciplines carried out within the agency. Here Patrick explained how difficult it can be to create a brand identity covering all medium of media (film, web, print, CGI) and how rewarding the final product can be at the end. 

Some examples of projects that Patrick had been involved with include the identity of Cavern Walks shopping centre Liverpool and a project for a major pent house project based in the Victoria doc Liverpool. Patrick then discussed other opportunities that he has undertaken from his career as a designer:

Product led design

Urban Splash - Match works

This was a collaborative project with Team Impression printers.

Designer as Entrepreneur 

Patrick was involved in art directing all the design elements of  Lost Art skate shop Liverpool and it's local skate team East Skateboards. Here Patrick explained how his contacts within the industry had its impact on this project. Patrick's connections in the U.S. gave this local Skate shop the opportunity to launch it's own line of skateboards. Without his input this project would not have been possible.

Finally we were shown a variety of corporate identities that Patrick had worked with. The list included: Hain Furniture, Sinnamon Coffee Shop and Oshkosh to name a few.

With a strong interest in typography I particularly enjoyed this lecture. Patrick's work both as designer and art director had very strong qualities to the style of work that I would like to follow within my practice. The opportunities for small side projects such as the skate shop also show the possibilities available within design to develop higher responsibilities within every day life. The possibilities are endless! 

Johnny Hannah - Lecture Series 1

Johnny Hannah 07.11.08

Through out the course of my degree we have had a series of designers specializing form various backgrounds come and talk about their experiences as professionals within the design industry. 

The first in the series this year was Illustrator Johnny Hannah. Having work within the industry for over ten years Johnny has history of working for a variety of clients such as The New York times, Penguin Books, The National Opera and recently the Guardian newspaper. Johnny creates illustrations out of type and released a publication called 'Captains Alphabet' which is a box set collection of his work. Johnny's work can be found on various objects and

 was commissioned to exhibit his work at the London hospital. Johnny's passion for Jazz music had a big influence on his work with play full shapes and an unusual take on typography. An exhibition of Johnny's work will be held in London later this year. 

Johnny's lecture was very inspiring, his work was mainly produced

 using pen and ink. It was interesting to find that simple techniques using raw materials still apply within the design industry. Not everyone spend their life in front of a Mac to create a living out of design.

Intersections 35th Anniversary (Update)

Here are some more examples of work that I produced for the Intersections brief. The second task was to create a time table for the event. I decided to create an interactive design to support the subject 'Intersections,' which is the name of the event.

My first concept was to create a rotating timetable.

 Each day of the event was colour coded   and given an individual slide. Between each slide the brand pattern had been printed on transparent slides covering the text, causing the consumer to rotate the slides creating an intersecting pattern whilst using the timetable. 

I particularly enjoyed making this piece but after having a second look at the brief I decided to try and create a cheaper solution.

Second time around I decided to use a 'water

bomb base.' This would be a cost efficient and by having a poster on the opposite side would save the consumer from throwing the timetable away after use. Over all I believe that this was a stronger response to the brief because it was cost efficient and environmentally friendly. I also produced an A1 promotional poster for the event. (See Images Below)

                                                                       

 

  

Luminous Paper

Today whilst wondering through the net I came across Melbourne based design agency called 'About a friend of mine.' This multi discipline agency drew my attention for their close attention to detail. Here is a personal favourite from their collection of work called 'Lumen invitation.'

'Theis & Khan Architects designed a new multi-faith centre for worship in London, called Lumen. The central feature within Lumen is the 'shaft of light'-an etherial white rendred space which emulates a beam of light, holding a prayer room inside. It was this focus of rays of light which inspired the invitation design for the Lumen opening in late 2008.'

'The typography was lasercut out of a photograph of the 'shaft of light'. When held down, the lasercut wrighting is subtle, allowing the reader to focus on the photograph, inviting recipents to hold the invitation up to light in order to read the text via rays of light.'

This design is very elegant and I perticularly like how they have baught the architectual concept to life within the invitation. For more info Visit: www.afom.com.au

Flawless Print

Here is a great example of a self promotional Business card by printer Kyle Van Horn. Screen printed on white pearl 220 Duplex, the flawless print looks amazing. Just goes to show that there isn't always a need for foil blocking to create an effective business card. See some more of his print work:  www.kylevanhorn.com

Intersections 35th Anniversary

Here are some examples of work that I produced for a brief that I worked on over the last term. The brief was to produce a brand identity for an Art Historians conference 'Intersections' that will be held in Manchester between the 02/04 of April 2009. This conference is held at various locations across the UK every year, there fore I decided to try and relate the brand identity with some of Manchester's culture. I decided to study the club 'Hacienda' and designer Peter Saville's work at Factory Records, which led me to ideas surrounding the choice of industrial type faces and bright contrasting colours. The identity for this brief had to cover a wide range of materials, there fore I decided to create an identity based on a simple pattern that could be applied to any medium. The colour scheme was later developed to the CMYK, which are the process colours of modern society. I'm happy with the modernist look that I achieved with this design and feel that this would certainly stand out from  any previous conference Programme.   

Welcome

Hi and welcome to my Blog!

My name is Elgan Jones and I'm currently a student at Manchester Metropolitan University Studying BA Design and Art Direction. This blog will be updated on a daily basis and will hopefully give an insight to my interests as a designer. Thank you for passing-by.