I came across this pakaging when looking on lovely package. It caught my eye as I wondered what was inside the bag shape, then I realised the watch was a handle. The product was designed by Liga design.




Here is the comment underneath the picture.

“This is a gift we created for our female clients for the International Women’s Day. The package was created to conceal a watch and look like a small bag, since we know girls love to shop. The copy goes like this: “Woman, a small gift for you who present us everyday”

I love the whole idea behind this product as it is fun, colourful and exciting, I think it is such a great way to package a gift.

How do you create a succesful design portfolio?

One thing we have been encouraged to do throughout our degree is to design a portfolio, by making your work look as well as it can. Portfolios come in different forms, not just on screen but also in print. Showing your work is just as important as the work itself. So what makes a successful portfolio? This piece of work needs to impress and make you stand out from the rest.

Since contacting design agencies one thing I hear on a regular basis is “send me over some work” the majority of people who agree for you to come in for a visit have usually asked for a digital selection of work to be sent over first of all. So, having an online portfolio is essential. This is the first piece of communication between the student and the industry. This needs to make a big impact, having work displayed online removes the geographical restraints that traditional portfolios imposed. Although essential, it is also a necessity to have a printed portfolio. To show people face to face, what better way is there to show talents.



“Though PDF and web-based portfolios are becoming more acceptable, I still believe that nothing takes the place of a well-executed print portfolio that a potential client or employer can physically hold and flip through during a meeting.” (Nubby, 2009, http://nubbytwiglet.com/blog/2009/07/27/7-tips-for-creating-a-print-based-design-portfolio/)

Print portfolio

The first thing that needs considering before the design process of the portfolio begins, is the content. The main thing to remember is the portfolio should not be overloaded with too much work. Only the best pieces should be included. The old cliché, quality over quantity is the best way to describe this. “The better quality the work is, the more likely you will catch somebody’s attention.” (Anon, 2008, How to create a graphic design portfolio, [http://www.attitudedesign.co.uk/graphic-design-portfolio] No more than 6 to 10 of the best projects should be used. Something that should be considered is using different medias, where possible, this helps show capability of working across different medias as well as using different styles to communicate messages. Portfolios originally start with work produced whilst studying. It is important to replace that with professional work as soon as possible. The reason for this is clients work is much more impressive, it shows a level of expertise and professionalism. It proves to the designer that you are able to work in the real world and are happy working with real deadlines and budgets. After the content has been decided on, the next subject to be considered is the order. The way the portfolio flows is also a very important aspect. By considering this it should make it easier to speak about when presenting. The different pieces of work should contrast or compliment one another, this will keep people interested. One piece of advice I got from my is to start and end with a very strong piece.

There is many ways for the portfolio to be presented. One thing that is essential is for the book or case it is presented in to have removable pages. This ensures that it is easy to make changes to the portfolio. It is always important to keep your portfolio fresh and up to date. With having easily changeable sleeves within the portfolio it makes it easier to customize depending on each kind of job that you apply for. Mike Carter from Orchard creative recruitment came in to do a lecture, his lecture was on how to get a job, CVs and preparing portfolios. One of his pieces of advice was to change your portfolio for each visit. For example when applying at a packaging design agency the work shown should associate to this, so moving image and website design can be left at home. It is common to see leather black folders with work presented in. This year, many students from my college started to use boxes.



I found this to be nice as it was new and most designers I visited commented on how they liked it.

Obviously when a decision is made, the next step is layout. Simple layouts are good, the pages below I found on Nubby twiglet.








An emphasis is mainly on the typography; the reason this was done is because the person this was designed for had a great interest in typography. The one thing that is obvious is the grid system, it is very simple throughout with a few lines of type at the bottom. It is important to keep it clean and simple without the use of gradients, drop shadows or patterned backgrounds.

There is plenty of information about how to and how not to design your portfolio; it should all be taken into consideration and then designed in your own way.

“This is a bold statement, but building a portfolio is quite tricky because everyone seems to have a differing opinion on how it should be done. Building a portfolio is about showcasing your work and therefore, it should be an expression of your personality and design style.” (Nubby, 2009, http://nubbytwiglet.com/blog/2009/07/27/7-tips-for-creating-a-print-based-design-portfolio/)

Mike Rigby Vs Alun Cocks

At our University we have many different lecturers take time out to come in and speak to us about different aspects of their jobs. I have referenced different parts of their talks and then chose two different lectures to compare. Not all designers work the same, never mind speak about their work the same. Some ways appeal to myself more than others. On the 26^th Novemeber Mike Rigby came in to speak to us and on the 9^th March Allun Cocks came in to also show us how he works. These two really stood out to me as they presented very differently.

Mike began his talk by speaking about his education, how he studied at Preston for 4 years on a Graphic Design course, he had a one year placement between the 2nd and last year and finally graduated in 2002. Since graduating he has worked for Imagination London, Chase Manchester, Landor Sydney, Moon Design Sydney, Pentagram, Mark Studio and True North. He continued on about this – his past work experiences. I was extremely interested to hear about Mike's experiences whilst working aboard. He advised us that taking a break is really important , as whilst he did this it resulted in him finding work abroad. Instead of showing us through his work he spoke more about his experiences. Mike had put together some of his pictures he had taken whilst on his travels, I was amazed. The beginning part of this lecture really got me interested as travelling is something I have always wanted to do. I think the importance of speaking to a group of students is to keep them all interested. I found that how he began the lecture got me engaged straight away, which is key.

Alun Cocks is a former student from Stockport College who later went on to study a Graphic Arts BA at Leeds University. He is one of the founders of Dust, a small company that was established in 2000, due to it being such a small company it is quite hands on. He began his talk telling us about the different actions the Dust team take from starting a project to finishing it. He started with a project he had worked on for Manchester United - this was a very illustrative piece using mainly mark making, figures and facts, this included goals and who scored ect. As Alun began the lecture by using a power point image of his work I was not engaged at all. However learning about different ways to work does interest me, so I continued to listen. Alun took us through the journey of his projects, which was interesting, as this is not something that we usually listen to.

I find that lectures from designers should not just be about the design process but about the life style, the ups and the downs and tips on graduation. Mike Rigby did this really well and as he kept changing subjects it kept me interested throughout unlike Alun Cocks’s lecture.

Mike went on to talk to us about the positives and negatives of working in the design world. I find it interesting to hear both sides. A lot of which we had heard before, working in the design world is interesting and challenging, you meet and collaborate with different people and are forever learning. As with everything there is always some negatives, as we are always told graphic design is a very competitive industry, with long hours with unpaid overtime, there is a lot of pressure, client interference and sometimes the pay isn't great. Though if you are passionate about the job and are willing to put the effort in you will succeed. This last comment is one that should always be thought about and it will be something that I will never forget. No matter how difficult something may be. For Mike to say this really made me think about everything. We are forever told about negatives but as he has shown us everything he has done in his life – not just design it gave me confidence.

With the lectures we have I like getting advice from different people rather than seeing their work as this part in my life is very important and I need to take as much as I can out of these lectures. As Alun spoke about his work I was interested to see how long it takes him to produce the work he does – it is all very personal. A lot of screen-printing was shown throughout his work, this is something that is not as common in Graphic Design anymore. It was different to see how he worked, as he explained the work that he does is very hands on, he selects everything right down to the paper stock used. When working in a large design agency it is proved that you don’t really see your work from start to finish. Alun explained how he liked the fact he created the whole of his work.

Mike spoke ts about placements, they are essential to help in finding a job after graduation, they increase your pace of working and you get the experience of working on live briefs with real deadlines. This is something that is said by many graphic designers.

The lecture we had from Mike Rigby was in the graphics room we study in, therefore so it was smaller group than in the lecture theatre. This may be why I enjoyed it more. We looked at the places he worked and the work he did there. He only showed us his final work. This was very different to the work showed to us by Alun as he even showed us variations of different briefs and how he got from one point to another. It is good to see this, as that’s how we work as students. Overall I really enjoyed Mike Rigby’s lecture, I really took on board the advice that he gave us. He was soon moving back over to Australia to work, which I think is great for him. It just proves how quickly things can change.

The two lectures were very different. I suppose this was to do with the work they both do and the way in which they do it is very different.



Mike’s work is very graphic, the packaging above that he did for a carpet re brand shows this where as Aluns below is more line drawing and has an illustration feel to it.




When asked Alun said that he did not see him self as an illustrator however him and his partner do enjoy this area of design. Mike spoke to us about his journey to where he is today and Alun spoke about his journey of getting from start to finish on a brief.

Sainsburys

When I was searching Packaging of the world, I came across some packaging for Sainsbury's designed by a company called the quick brown fox. I noticed that the design work they had done for food had no images of the product on there. I wanted to know the reason for this. So I emailed the company.





I got a quick response.

Marks and Spencers 125 year anniversary

I have been looking at the work from Marks and Spencers 125year Anniversary. The first piece of packaging I came across was the biscuit tin designed by Sanna Annukka. Sanna's eclectic style is based on her Finish Childhood and love of nature and folklore. Although this box was created for Christmas nothing really shouts at Christmas. I suppose the colours used do show the season.




The above image is the window display for M&S for their anniversary. It looks very much like a celebration and the colours used and the shapes look very modern but at the same time you get a feel that it is dated. This may be due to the banner shapes, as I find you don't usually see these any more.

The reason I am interested in this work is because Heals are celebrating their 200th year this year.

How to show annimations in print??

As two of mine and Amy's last projects were annimations we came across the problem how do we show this in print? We are always told to do story boards, but is this the only way? I emailed James from thoughtful.


When on our visits me and Amy also asked this question. Story boarding seems to be the only option really. We could take the file on a memory stick or a CD also. On a digital PDF there is the option to attach the file to the pdf for viewing.

Flo Bayley

Flo Bayley - Packaging Designer

"The art of good packaging design is about finding a graphic way of suggesting deliciousness. As you can't taste or smell what something is going to be like just by looking at it, my challenge is to encapsulate what's on the inside, on the outside," says Flo, who studied graphic design at the London College of Printing before going on to work for Conran's design emporium in the Eighties. "The prince of gastronomes, Curnonsky, said, 'Food should taste of what it is.' This is the basis for a good definition of packaging design: it must evoke what it is. If the product is Mediterranean, the packaging design must say 'Mediterranean'. If it's organic, it must look organically produced." One recent project that Flo feels particularly proud of is the new Waitrose own-brand Italian pasta sauces. "I like the mushroom on the label of the jar of tomato sauce with mushroom. I can taste it."

I found this quote whilst researching into my final project. I think it sums up exactly what packaging needs to do.

Scratch

Brandy is a branding and design agency I came across whilst researching into packaging design. The reason they caught my eye was due to the packaging they designed for a company called Scratch.

Scratch is a young run company who's aim is to help busy Londoners cook real food. The meal boxes contain all the fresh ingredients you need to cook a meals...from scratch. This "from scratch" slogan is what is used throughout the designs.



The fact the products used are all fresh is shown in the way the packaging is designed. Using the brown natural colours of the bx along with one bold colour also gives the packaging an expensive look. I really like how the typography used is a slightly darker variation of the colour of the label.

I find the whole design successful.

Pret A Manger

As I am currently working on Packaging design I am forever researching different products. I came across the packaging designed for Pret A Manger. Pret opened in London in 1986. Their selling point is they make sandwiches freshly made without using chemicals, additives and preservatives.





The above images shows packaging for Pret, the way they are packages emphasises the fact they are freshly made. The brown boxes gives this impression as it looks very natural - this also gives it the expensive look which is needed. You pay for quality.


The drink cans that are sold at Pret use very vibrant colours to represent the flavours. This also gives it an expensive look. I like how they have not been frightned of switching the typography to be vertical. This is something that can look really good. As proved.

Karen Vance - Future Brand

As I was working on my Heal's project I thought to send the work over to Karen from Futurebrand who I had visited in London. She sent me back a good email with ideas I should look into and also research, I was very grateful for it.



The idea about using William Morris styles I already had and had been working with. I really like this idea as it has a real twist to it.

Alun Cocks - dust

Today we had a Graphic Designer Alun Cocks from Dust come in to speak to us. Alun Cocks is a former student from Stockport College who later went on to study a Graphic Arts BA at Leeds University. Dust is a small company that was established in 2000 because of this it is quite hands on.

The talk today was merely about the different actions the Dust team take from starting a project to finishing it. He started with a project he had worked on for Manchester United - this was a very illustrative piece using mainly mark making, figures and facts, this included goals and who scored ect.




There was a lot of research that had to go into this design which consisted of watching a lot of Manchester United games and studying the goals.

The next piece of work he shown us was for Penguin books to celebrate their 70th Year. This piece of work brought a lot of business Dusts way, they found a lot of clients commenting on how they like this. Alun explained " we would rip this up if we could," this made me laugh. I noticed how a lot of the work shown was very illustrative. When asked Alun said that he did not see him self as an illustrator however him and his partner do enjoy this area of design. A lot of screen printing was shown throughout his work, this is something that is not as common in Graphic Design anymore. It was different to see how he worked, as he explained the work that he does is very hands on, he selects everything right down to the paper stock used. Many of the projects he shown experienced a lot of time just simply finishing off rather than designing.

Although a lot of illustration was applied it was obvious that a lot of time went into type setting. This was apparent on a lot of their work. I found most of the work shown was very similar. Having this range of work lead on to Dust designing a book for the king of Bahrain.

Crescent Lodge

Crescent Lodge is an independent design consultancy with studios in East London and the West Country. They are a close-knit group comprising designers, illustrators, photographers and a writer, supported by technical and project-planning specialists.

Whilst in London Amy and myself went to visit Andrew Collier at the company. We we entered the studio via a lift that automatically took us to where we wanted to go - that was an experience in itself. We were welcomed at the top by Andrew. We sat down with his and began to go through our work with him as we had done with the Stuart and Tim. The same sort of questions arose here as well - where do you want to take your career too? Andrew also said that our work was heading in an advertising way. He said that he would email us the details of someone he knows who works in advertising for the possibility for us to go and see him. He said that we work well as a team and again speak about our work very well. We got speaking about all sorts whilst at the visit - I find this to be really good as it proves there is not so much nervousness. We had a look at the annuals that contained the work by Crescent Lodge over the past few years and Andrew kindly allowed us to keep these.



They contained some very interesting ideas and designs. Andrew was very impressed by the quality of our work and how ideas based it was. This is something I find has been said to us quite a bit. I think this is the result of the way we are taught in university. Andrew had some very interesting things to say about our work and possible things to think about in the future and Amy and myself have made sure we stay in contact with him.

After the time I spent in London my whole thought of the place changed. I never really liked London but I had no reason for this. I now think it is such a great place with so many opportunities. I am glad I went on this trip as it had opened up so many different thoughts in my head.

Future Brand

Whilst in London a visit was set up by our tutors and a group of us went up to Future Brand. Futurebrand is a large design company that is ran globally, they have a network of 25 international office that allow clients to experience them collaborating over seas to reach a perfect end product. Their aim is to establish brands that "think ahead to stay ahead." They do work for large well known companies, Becks, Cadbury's, UPS, Barclay's, MasterCard and many more.

When we travelled down there we were greeted by Karen Vance and Chris Jenkins, they showed us through the work they had worked on. Chris concentrated mostly on beers - not a bad job. He explained how he got from where they were to where they are now. Which I found was a great thing to do. Usually we are shown final products and that is it. One piece of work he shown us as a finished thing was a font that Chris along with a structural design team developed. Their idea was to get the font to stand out on the bar. The font was for Beck Vier, the identity needed to be kept the same as its parent brand Becks, but this is a lighter beer, the silver metal background shows this lightness.


Another piece of work Chris had been working on was Brahma - a beverage with effortless flair. He showed us the bottle before they worked on it, his sketches and the final product. Future Brand created a new brand identity and packaging based on the creative idea of ‘effortless flair’ that captured the Brazilian energy, passion and creative spirit known as “ginga.” This included the structural design of the bottle to reflect the rhythm and fluidity of Brazil. The design specification ensured that the curved bottle could be produced without alteration to existing production lines, and removal of the label achieved significant production cost savings.




Chris and Karen showed us some of the work they have both worked on and showed the different stages of the development, they also went through the boards that they actually took to the clients to present their ideas. They have both done work for big names such as Becks, Nestle and Dove, it was a good experience to visit Chris and Karen and now I have contacts for the future.

It was a really good experience to visit Future Band as it is such a big company, much bigger than the ones that I have visited before, with approximately 70 working there, it is one of the biggest. Chris and Karen showed us around the agency and explained the work that each section did. The idea is one place, the it moves around and around and around before it is ready to go into production. This is so much different to the smaller companies as you do not see the whole production really but on a plus you work in big groups so you have the opportunity to bounce ideas of each other and work in a team.

Picture - Ltd and Give Up art

The Give Up Art studio started back in 2006, they have over 25 years of experience in the design, publishing and advertising world. There work is very graphic design based, they work for a range of clients in the music, publishing, advertising and broadcasting sectors.




Amy and myself went down to Give up art whilst in London to have a look around and have a chat with Stuart (the founder) and show him our work. We were also in contact with Tim Harwood from Picture who actually is a friend of Stuarts so he asked if it would be OK for him to also sit with us whilst speaking about our work and where we want to progress in the industry. Of Course we said this was fine.

Picture was set up in 2005 by 3 people from the design industry, it started off as a specialist design practice that focused on brand and digital work but has evolved and now their work spreads along print, TV and motion also.

It was interesting to sit with two people who work on different aspects of Graphic Design as they both had different opinions. Me and Amy travelled down their with our portfolio. Our work had all been put together in one portfolio, our idea was for Amy to speak to them about her work, we would then go on to speak about our collaborative work and then I would finish with speaking about my work.

When we got onto our collaborative work we began with showing them our E4 work - at this point it was not finished. We story boarded up the animation in it's current form. They seemed really happy with the whole idea and the style of the animation. One thing they seemed really interested with was how this idea could work as a campaign. This got us all throwing ideas around about different scenarios. After this piece of work we had our BBC booklet work - we explained how this was a pitch that we had to do and it had to work along side the work we were already working on. They said this is something that should be encouraged and it is great that we have done it as it shows our passion for Graphic Design. They seemed to like the whole idea of the booklet and how the QR code works. We showed them the animation piece we worked on together for Top Gear, they seemed pleased with the different programs we could use and the quality we used them in.The final piece of work we showed them as a collaborative piece was the Carex storyboard. This seemed to interest Tim for Picture a lot as it was more his style of working. They explained how it is difficult to show animation pieces in print but we had done well.

I went on to show them the work that I had done throughout second year. Stuart commented on my New Scientist magazine as that is the sort of work he does - mainly print. He liked the layouts, particularly the front page and how I had redesigned the logo. I shown his a piece of work that I like which is the work for fold Manchester I did. They seemed to really like this as it causes a shock and if this was to be used as an advertising project it would cause a lot of shock. They both really liked my Heals end sting and advised that maybe I should show the other two variations I did - the letter E being drawers and the H being a bed. They said they thing it would work great in a set.

After we finished with our portfolio we discussed work that the pair of them were working on at the moment. Stuart from Give Up Art, does a lot of collaborative work. Depending on the nature of the job, they collaborate with different people from - photographers, illustrators, web developers, print specialists, retouchers, stylists, copywriters etc. We also got onto the subject of what me and Amy want to go onto do after graduation. They said our work pushes towards advertising and we got thinking whether this was something we would like to do and stay together as sort of a team. We obviously work well together and both Stuart and Tim commented on how we speak about our work, they explained that we do this really well and it shows real passion.

Overall I really enjoyed this visit. It got both me and Amy discussing future plans and got us thinking about the next step. It also got us thinking about the size of company we would enjoy to work at. Here the studio was quite small and there was only a few people - this means you get to see your work from beginning to end and you get a sort of bond with it. This is something we kept at the back of our mind when going on to look at other companies in London.

London Visit

I have just returned from a trip to London, we traveled down on the 1st March and stayed there until the 3rd. The reason for the trip was for us to experience Graphic Design in London. Whilst there we were encouraged to visit a design agency so we could show them our portfolio and experience the differences.

As I have done all of my third year projects with a student at college we decided to go on the visits together. We organised two visits. One at Crescent lodge and one at picture, we organised a designer from give up art to sit in with us at the visit at picture as we contacted him also and he worked next door to picture. Our tutors also organised a visit for us at a large design company - Future Brand.

I found the London visit very influential as it opened my eyes to different options. It made me realise that London is a great place to work and has a lot of different opportunities. London has always been an option, we were advised that Manchester is very up and coming in the design world, which is good but I will not rule out London as an option.