april promotional poster

Long time no typing! I have just submitted my April piece for Lilla Rogers assignment bootcamp and once again... could not be happier with the way it has turned out. I honestly thought that taking this course would be a good idea in terms of creative development but I had no idea that I would absolutely love each final piece so very much.  This months mini was all about hand lettering, although hand lettering has always been around it seems to be quite on trend at the moment. This mini really took me back to studying graphic design (in the early 00's!) in my first year of study we had quite a few hand skilled classes like life drawing and some of which i can't remember the names of... but I certainly remember painfully mixing gouache and painting a million dot shapes to make a colour chart (scarred for life) but one of my favourite subjects from study days would have to be typography.  I guess I was really lucky to have two very amazing and inspirational lecturers in this subject, both of which really motivated me. Becky Chilcott from Chil3 and also Jude Bunn from The Glow Studio, it was also really uplifting to see two wonderful women in graphic design who were successfully running their own studios, in what sometimes feels like a boys club industry. I started by looking at letterforms and drawing a few conceptual sketches. The subject matter for the text was  'the global art gathering' which is an event to be held in Brighton UK in June presented by Lilla Rogers Studio. The major assignment was to create a promotional poster and postcard for the event, the brief detailed quite a few possible areas for imagery exploration including; brighten landmarks and art communities/related arts materials. This month we had to work with a specific colour palette which I absolutely loved and could really relate to.  This brief was actually live, so whoevers artwork is selected for use will be compensated by the studio.  I really love the fact that Lilla has so much faith in her students to produce amazing work. So here is what I came up with, I hope you love it as much as I do!

february wall art

I have just finished my february piece for Lilla Rogers assignment bootcamp, like January I found it a little tough at first to do the mini because I didn't know what the end piece would be! This time around the mini was something I was quite familiar with, enter.... Vintage plates depicting scenes! I have always loved the figgjo flint range of ceramics and have spent many (too many?) hours eyeballing the beautiful designs, as much as i love them they arent really in my style of drawing, dont get me wrong it would be AMAZING if I had those skills! I also discovered Bjorn Wiinblad and the arabia finland pastoraali collection how could I have missed these? I sketched quite a few concepts and I am so happy that I did because I intend to use these to make a few giclee prints, this is not really a theme as such that I would have really thought about drawing, but it something that I am so glad that I explored, definitely more exploration in the future too, it is so open ended!

The major assignment was to create a piece of wall art for the home decor market, but the twist was that it had to be on wood!  It would have been great to be able to have painted this assignment (if I could actually paint?) but I couldn't source any actual slices of wood so I mocked up digitally. This assignment was a huge challenge because I used photoshop to work up my final, I am usually quite a vector girl (lady? now over 30...)   I think being a graphic designer and having it always drummed into me that 'this needs to be scaleable, 300dpi at final size blah blah blah' I have never let myself really explore photoshop for designing? sounds a little crazy but seriously I was having this conversation with a fellow friend designer the other day and she felt the same about always having to have crisp scaleable graphics! anyway I thought that I would feel a bit bummed about not trying to paint the final piece but I really got SO much out of this assignment and learnt so many new things that it doesnt even matter.  I am completely happy with the final piece and cant wait to get cracking on a little series of these, enjoy!

MATS Manifesto

I was asked to create an entry for the MATS manifesto competition for Lilla Rogers Studio, below is my entry. Basically the brief was to "create a piece which embodied and reflected your MATS experience"  My entry is about being 'ready to grow' which I guess is why I signed up for bootcamp in the first place! I definitely have grown so much already. I know we are only one assignment in, but I really  think I have altered the way in which I approach and generate ideas. Enjoy!

done & done

Well, I have finally finished my assignment hooray!, I actually started out working on a totally different design concept and colour scheme but I felt that it wasn't really me.  After a rethink and a little more exploration I arrived here.

I have to say that I am pretty happy with how my interpretation of the Edwardian brooch theme turned out, the gallery goes live on tuesday 27th January so make sure you check all of the lovely work done by my fellow bootcampers.  But for now you can still swoon over last years gallery here

Lilla Rogers assignment bootcamp

Wow the deadline for bootcamp assignment 1 is fast approaching! I am almost finished and I can honestly say that I have enjoyed myself so much. The way in which the assignment brief is revealed is great... First Lilla releases a mini assignment which is just really about exploration/drawing based upon a theme and the first theme was Edwardian brooches. The second part of the brief (the major?) is released a week later, I am pleased to say that I did guess correctly and it was a journal! So basically we had to design a journal based upon our exploration done in the mini assignment.

I felt a little weird at first about this structure to be honest, as a graphic designer you always know what the end goal/application is and whom you are trying to target, so to go in and draw blind felt a little strange at first but it was actually amazing because I was really able to just explore drawing freely without an end product or application in mind.  Had I known that the major assignment was to be a journal from the beginning, I think I would of predetermined a direction after only a little exploration and gone with it without allowing myself to just really concentrate on drawing, from which some many other ideas grew.

Below is my mini exploration in full, I can't wait to see everyone elses journals. There is an amazing bunch of talented people in my ecourse, producing some amazing work, a little scary at times but very inspiring. Enjoy! I seriously can not wait for assignment two.

Welcome 2015

Happy new year! It has been a VERY long time (2 children and 4 years later) since I have blogged. Nevertheless, I am back and ready to go for 2015. It is going to be a really great year and I am very excited to be taking part in the Lila Rogers Studio assignment bootcamp ecourse for 2015.

I have always loved surface pattern and I thought that it was about time that I delved a little further into this beautiful printed patterned area of design! I hope to share my journey with you.

Yikes 2012 fast approaching!

Wow! I cant believe I am already thinking about 2012? Luckily I have some beautiful calendar eye candy to help me cope with the reality of all that next year holds. Shivani from My Owl Barn and a team of fab designers have done it again, a fantastic little free calendar for you to download and print, take a peek here. Just gorgeous!
image by Petra Boase