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/