When in Rome.........

The subject of the photo practices slavery and human sacrifice, regards women as subordinates, punishes severely those who brake the law of the community, pierces their own tongue, genitals and extremities to nourish the gods with blood................and the other is an exhibition of the Aztecs at the British Museum!!!!!!!!! Mr.Hudson wanders into, what he thinks, is the biggest pub in London......

Feelin' blue.........

Ian Jeffries' (Level 3 Graphic Design at staffs) Design Futures solution looks at the language of 'blueprints'......in a rather unique way.........

The writing's on the wall

Level 3 Design Futures crit wall........students commenting on each others presentations makes for interesting reading..........

A Mother of a trip!!!

Level 3 students relax over coffee after visiting their Mother.......

The main studio at Mother

Mother reception

...even the rain was creative............

Level 1 students prepare to embark on olde London Town....

.......head accessories were order of the day!

Level 1 and Level 3 Graphic Design & Illustration students from Staffs headed towards the big smoke recently in order to soak up the culture, atmosphere, food and possibly lager. Third year students managed to squeeze in agency visits to Pentagram, Esquire Magazine and Mother in addition to attending a talk by Paula Scher of Pentagram New York. Also in attendance at the talk where several first year students who also trotted around Tate Modern, V&A, British Museum, Science Museum, Natural History Museum to name but a few.......everyone was in good spirits despite the 5 1/2 hr coach journey back to sunny stoke- on- trent.....

The truth... A lecture to Year 3

I've been asked to give a lecture to Year 3 about making the jump from education to industry from 2 - 5pm, Friday 16 October 2009 in Room S010, Mellor Building.

I'll cover a range of issues that affect Year 3, and will answer as many questions you have about things like...

• Getting your portfolio together
• How to get your foot in the door
• How does the current economic climate affect your chances of employment when you graduate

All the information will be based around giving you a true, honest and realistic insight into getting into the design industry.

I've also designed a poster to promote the talk, which hopefully you should see around the studio.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Week 2 - Hit the North: 2nd year trip to Manchester

Our second week on this 'Sense of place' project was spent in my home city, Manchester. After a cold start, for once the sun shone in the rainy city, making it a great day to mooch about, take some pictures, soak up the inspiration and wash it down with a brew.

After meeting in Piccadilly Gardens, we headed towards Magma, the fine Oldham Street design bookshop. Plenty of inspiration in there. Then it was on through the back streets, towards the craft and design centre. Again, loads of craft based, hands on delights. We briefly watched paint dry with one of the resident artists, Kathryn Edwards. She kindly explained how she created some of her fantastic work, as seen below.



I also got chatting to photographer Edward Chadwick, whose studio was packed with atmospheric architectural prints. After barking at the students for taking pictures of his pictures, I explained that we were from Staffordshire Uni and this seemed to pacify him! We briefly chatted about how business was for the both of us, and let him get on with his day's work. Nice bloke though and some great work.



After a brew and some sunbathing it was off to take some more pics (it's amazing what you see when you open your eyes!) So much of this Manchester has been redeveloped over the last decade that a lot of the old signs that existed from the rag trade have now disappeared forever, which is a real shame. Managed to get a couple of snaps though, I love this kind of stuff.



Then we flitted around a couple of other places which I won't bore you with.

One thing that did come to light was how few of the students actually read the brief. A worrying sign indeed. As a designer, the brief is the cornerstone of any project. If you don't digest it, how do you expect to provide an accurate response? Anyway, there's my sermon for this week (in the style of He-Man at the end of the cartoon (Jesus, I'm really showing my age!)



It was good to get to know at least some of the students a little better and I hope that you were all inspired by the greatest city on earth.

Pantone and typography on the iPhone

After my initial fear of my iPhone, I've actually grown quite attached to the little thing.

I was browsing the 'App store' the other day and wondered if there was anything on there for designers, when I stumbled upon my dream app, a Pantone book in my phone called 'My Pantone', genius! Problem is it's £5.99 and I'm skint. But if you're looking to blow your grant on something why not give it a whirl.



The other one was 'The Typography Manual'. I've given it a quick scan it seems pretty informative, so there's no excuse now for bad kerning (not that there ever was!)

Week 1 - The second years pull the short straw

Yes, that's right, those poor souls that are Year 2 have been cursed with having yours truly for 2 consecutive modules. Never mind, at least I have more of a chance to get inside your heads.

It was good to see you all and some new faces, especially our friends from Cork, birthplace of one of United's greatest players, Roy Keane.



Anyway. Our first lecture introduced the 'Sense of Place' brief, and for those that stayed awake, hopefully this provided you with an insight into how to get the most from the brief.

My advice for this project is to read the title, 'A Sense of Place', and there's a massive clue of how to answer the brief in one of those 4 little words.

As Ben Casey, Founder of The Chase once said to me, "the answer is in the problem... now get on with some f*****g work you lazy b*****d!"

Happy New Year

Well, academic year anyway. I've been pretty hopeless at writing posts for this blog so far (cheers to Mark for keeping the fires burning), but I am going to make amends this year.

My plan is to do a weekly post after each session in addition to any other stuff I see fit to share with you. So, here goes...

Caught up north........

spot the lecturer...................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uCYNHtU2Aw

Fur your inFURmation...........

Gemma Brownhill, who will be moving into her 2nd year on the Graphic Design Degree course at Staffordshire University, has been awarded a Special Commendation in the UK & Ireland round of the 2009 Design Against Fur competition. 

Her work will be displayed on both the Respect for Animals website (www.respectforanimals.org) and on the Design Against Fur website (www.inFURmation.com) from August.

In addition, it will be exhibited in London throughout September.  “Design Against Fur at dreamspace” will run, Monday to Friday, from 1 – 30 September: www.adrem.uk.com/dreamspace   The exhibition is a partner event of the London Design Festival, which will take place across London from 19 – 27 September.

Gemma will also be attending a prize presentation in London, in September. Well done!

Graduation 09

A fond farewell was given to the class of 2009 at Trentham Gardens in Stoke on Trent on Friday 10th July, good luck to all!!  pictured is Andy Poole, doing his best to keep his thumbs cool in the heat of the day.

Award Bored???

We forgive the reader for being slightly 'yawnfull' of hearing , yet again, about the triumphant Staffordshire Uni Students' performance over the past few months in National and International competitions. To be frank, we cant keep up either!!!  

The latest graphic darlings were Matt Forrester and Mark Johnson (D&AD best student work in London in July), this , together with awards for Animation and Advertising & Branding, gave Staffordshire University pole position in the 2009 D&AD New Blood Exhibition, with 5, yes, 5 awards!!!!  

Following hot on the successful coat-tails of these was Ben Fantauzzo who received a commendation at the prestigious D&AD awards ceremony. Not to mention our Shelf Award winners and let's face it, the whole class of 2009 who, in their own special way have all been winners! So, we are clearing the mantle for next year's awards as we speak-and striving to build on this year's success. Well done to all. Pictured (top) Ben Fantauzzo and (below) left, Mark Johnson, right, Matt Forrester.

Northern Exposure

Simon Pioli & Jia Ying Gnoh from Staffordshire University mixed with professional designers, fellow design students, rock stars (yes-rock stars), TV presenters and over 250 guests at The Rose Bowl, Leeds...which hosted the award ceremony for the Northern Design Competition.

After enjoying roast beef, yorkshire pudding (& gravy of course), the 50 selected students were introduced (out of over 3,ooo entries), and awarded their prizes (one of which was given out by Riki Wilson of The KaiserChiefs......(former graphics students at Leeds). Simon & Jia were 2 out of 7 students in the Graphic Design category which was won by a student at Lincoln. It was still a great achievement for what was Level 1 and Level 2 work, as most students had already graduated, or in some cases, were doing PhDs.

So, after the awards, the band kicked in and the remaining free beer

& wine polished off! An excellent night and a lot of interest was shown towards Simon and Jais work. Better luck next time guys. You can view some of Simon's work at www.simonpioli.com

(Is that Margaret Mumford recruiting for the next Apprentice??)

It's Win up North....

Simon Pioli and Jia Ying Gnoh, both Level 2 Graphics Students, are finalists  in the prestigious Northern Design Competition  - which hosts its Award Dinner later this month. 

In each of the six main categories, there will be £1,000 cash prize for each category winner. There will be four runners-up per category who will each recieive £100. The overall Competition winner will receive £2,000. Other cash throwing itself about includes £500 for the Young Northern Designer Winner, with £500 going to the college/university, plus, £100 for the runners-up. Judges include Wayne Hemingway and from Elmwood, Richard Sholey. Pictured is Simon's entry, a piece designed for a Visual Communication brief at Staffs.

Fruit of our labour

A reminder that the Staffordshire University 3rd year BA Hons Graphic Design show opens on Friday 5th June.

If you're looking to cherry pick the best in design talent then I implore you to widen your net and give the students at Staffordshire your full attention.

For more information visit http://www.staffs.ac.uk/faculties/art_and_design/showcase/art_and_design_show/index.jsp

Friendly advice from a design legend

No, not Alan Fletcher, Peter Saville or Milton Glaser... this philosophical gem comes from none other than Bruce Lee.

In my own little way I think this is great advice for any student trying to get their foot in the door at a design studio. It also remains true throughout your career as you have to adopt this philosophy with every brief you undertake. See what you think anyway.

Thats gotta hurt like HELvetica.............

MY TYPE OF TATT.

Well, someone beat me to it and got inked with the immortal typeface...........the beauty is that when you put on weight, it becomes helvetica extended and slimmer - more condensed. 

Ah the beauty of it....living type. Some people on this guys blog daren't comment on the kerning....so I won't.......

Can you tell what it is yet?

Level 3 Graphics & Illustration Students at Staffs, begin to put their final show together. By time of going to press, this is now up and pretty much ready for June 5th Preview Evening.

The Show runs from Fri 5th June - [6-8pm] to Sat 13th June.  

So, if you're after some fab new talent....there's a glutony of it  in Graphics......everything from print, branding, ad campaigns, paper sculpture, packaging, publishing, craft, illustration, info design, p.o.s., in every conceivable format, awaits your gaze.....

Harry caught in the Chase

A small sherry shall be raised to Staffordshire graduate (2008) Harry Heptonstall who has been snapped up by those lovely people at The Chase.

Ironically enough, I worked on a project for Harry's father, Duncan, whilst I worked at The Chase in my formative years. Spooky!

Best of British to Harry and I'll try and get him to add his thoughts and early experiences to 'The Sponge' in the near future.

P.S. Note to The Chase, Rach - give him what for, Pete - make him squeal like a pig!

http://www.thechase.co.uk

Websites a go-go

Several students have been busy creating their own websites and very good they are too.

First up is Second Year Andy Cooke. An industrious fellow to say the least. Here's a pic I robbed from his site demonstrating the noble art of screen printing. You can see more of Andy's work at www.andy-cooke.com

Next is Linsey Black's site, which you can see in glorious technicolor by inputting the following cryptic message into your computer http://www.linseyblack.com

For what it's worth, I particularly like this piece. Now you see it, now you don't.

It's been a long time

A thousand apologies for not updating the blog, I've been up to my eyes with little things like running a design studio!

It's been mad busy recently what with going into partnership, moving into a cool new design studio, taking more work on, United getting to Rome and ehm... Pearly Pops our 17 month old baby! Apart from that its been pretty quiet recently.

Anyway, enough of my lame excuses, I'd like to first congratulate all the students who entered the Roses brief, Staffordshire pretty much wiped the floor. Both I and my new business partner, Paul Haworth, attended the awards ceremony at Urbis in Manchester and it was great to see you all. I was delighted to see so many turn up and hopefully that should give you all a great spur on, especially the third years towards the glory of graduation.

There are a load of other things I need to catch up on (most incredibly out of date) so I'll try and add these in the next few posts.

Ta ta

Level 1 set the stage...



After 24 gruelling weeks of blood, sweat, tears & tantrums....Level 1 Graphics/Illustration & Publication Design students at Staffs Uni finished their year on a high with the completion of a 12 week Visual Communication Module, based on theatre & stage production promotion. 

The graphics studio was filled with everything from giant dusters, miners' lamps, communist banners and scorpion flavoured lollies!! An excellent standard of work was delivered with several students achieving firsts. 

Among the examples shown are pieces by Jessica Sidaway [Dust] , Josh George [Burnt] , Sophie R.Williams [Manon] , John Ellis [Sunset] and James Wood [Bridge].       

more!.....more!........  

Students Rose to the challenge..........

MPA Roses Student Creativity Awards 2009

The Urbis, Manchester, recently hosted the 2009 Roses Awards in which Staffordshire University swept the board!

In total, 3 students were selected as winners [Chris Welch, Tom Edwards & Tom Vardy] with a further 11 students shortlisted for awards.

'Credit Crunchers', 'Piss-Up', 'Language' & 'Bahookie' were 4 of 8 briefs that Staffordshire dominated in, with design work that was creative, innovative and highly crafted. 

The winners will receive placements and have their work 

published in The Drum Magazine, as well as the Roses Advertising 

Supplement-circulated to over 20,000 marketing professionals.

The winners go onto compete for Gold, Silver or Bronze Awards at  a Gala Dinner in Manchester on 30th April.........watch this space for even more winners! 

Pictured are Chris & Tom with their awards, their winning entries,  

plus shortlisted work from other students. 

Murphy's law.......

Jason Murphy, a Level 2 Graphics student at Staffordshire University was among the top 10 winners of a brief set by Hugo Boss to create a poster linking music with the world wide brand.

There is a new brief set every month and winners get their work published. Links to briefs/work etc can be found at:  www.hugocreate.com. Jason's work among the other winners : www.hugocreate.com/en/winnersR4.php.

Kings of Leon T-shirt design competition

I was sent this link by a friend which is basically to design a logo/T-shirt for popular beat combo The Kings of Leon. I hear they are flying high in the hit parade.

Obviously you have too much work to do, but seemingly they offer a cash prize and the winner is selected by the Followill family themselves.

Here's the link if anyone fancies it anyway. Submissions are due in by 22nd March.
P.S. I will expect 25% of any winnings!

http://www.designbyhumans.com/special_contest/details/18

Design Futures mapped out

I was asked to do a talk for the 3rd years recently as part of their 'Design Futures' module. Consequently I put down as much info, advice and discussion points as I could think of based around the challenges design graduates face when leaving education and entering the big bad world of design.

I think there's a lot on there for students to consider and hopefully it might provide some food for thought for not only the 3rd years but for students on the other levels.

When I work out how to upload a PDF I'll post it here.

What's that squiggly bit?

Emma, currently on the first year graphics course at Staffordshire brought a recent print ad for the British Heart Foundation to our attention asking, "what's that squiggly bit?"

Well Emma, that 'squiggly bit' is the slightly less technical term for a ligature. So what's a ligature I hear you cry? Well, basically they are specially designed pairs and trios of characters which are linked together to form a unity. Ligature actually means 'laced together'. When certain combinations of characters appear, parts may invade the space occupied by the character it sits next to. Look at the image above, the 'fi' ligature is set in the fonts Caslon, Baskerville and Bodoni. Without the use of a ligature in this case the arm of the 'f' would clash with the dot on the 'i', consequently a specially designed ligature has been created to banish this unfortunate occurence and restore beauty to the happy marriage of the letters 'f' and 'i'.

Hopefully this will give you a very (and I mean very) basic introduction to ligatures.

Most of this was cribbed from the excellent book, 'About Face' by David Jury. Definitely worth purchasing where you can find out more about the weird and wonderful world of ligatures, leading and all things typographic.

Brown is the new black

Graduate from Staffordshire University, Lyndsey Brown is a confident and enthusiastic graphic designer looking for an opportunity. She enjoys working as part of a team. With a passion for combining a range of disciplines which includes photography and typography, producing concept driven design pieces. She has strong ability to produce excellent design ideas through a range of print processes.

To find out more from Lyndsey please click here.

Graduate for sale

In these times or recession, design companies need great graduates. So here's one and her name is Selina.

A graphic designer with a blend of qualities and ethical values, who has a special appetite for challenging briefs as well as being a little type geek! I suffer from bouts of passion for design and would like my work to make an impact in the design world or beyond. I'm available for placements, junior design jobs or just freelance. If you are intrigued and want to see my portfolio, contact me by email.

Listen up cloth ears

Right then you 'orrible lot. What you need is a dose of good ole' Yorkshire common sense and I know just the man to administer this. His name is Craig Oldham. A Barnsley boy, Craig graduated with a first in Graphics from Falmouth and is now working at The Chase in Manchester.

He put together his thoughts on 12 things he learnt in his first 12 months in industry. I strongly suggest you visit his site where you can purchase the document that the whole nation is talking about for the extraordinary price of £3.50, he's practically giving it away!

http://www.craigoldham.co.uk/projects/12-in-12/

Nice one our 'arry

Here's just one example of Staffordshire Graduate Harry Heptonstall's typographic muscle.

See Graduates looking for placements/employment for more information.