Lee: The process of the final blog.

The following a brief transcript of how this blog came into being, involving both Tane (as joedivola) and myself.

Lee says:
ah yes

Lee says:
its all coming back to me

joedivola says:
my wife never did tho

joedivola says:
after the pecan incident

Lee says:
pecan incident of 89?

joedivola says:
yep, 89 pecan incidents in the summer of 43

joedivola says:
thirty three casualties

joedivola says:
thats when i became mute

Lee says:
my herion adiction didnt help either

Lee says:
during the incident

joedivola says:
i was pushing wheat on street corners at the time

Lee says:
wheat is pretty chronic

joedivola says:
you mightve been shooting up my high grade wheat

joedivola says:
actually it was just self-raising flour but it made coin

Lee says:
you gotta do what u gotta do

joedivola says:
when duty calls you stop drop and do it

joedivola says:
when nature calls you stop drop and do it

joedivola says:
i like duty but i always put nature on hold

joedivola says:
nature gets my answering machine

Lee says:
nature rides shotgun with me

Lee says:
urinating everywhere

joedivola says:
malls

joedivola says:
civic centres

joedivola says:
bowling greens

Lee says:
old mans hats

joedivola says:
sunbathers

Lee says:
prostys

joedivola says:
petrol tanks

joedivola says:
windscreen fluid canisters

Lee says:
alexander the great

Lee says:
police cheif cruthers

joedivola says:
architects

joedivola says:
blogs

Lee says:
AH BLOGS

Lee says:
still got that freestyle one to do aye

Lee says:
fuckery

joedivola says:
haha

Lee says:
what u do urs on?

Lee says:
i dont recall seeing it

joedivola says:
a really long blog without using full stops generally discussing the creepiness of mimes moths and a teddy bear named gustav

joedivola says:
and the like

Lee says:
sounds like a winer

Lee says:
winer?

Lee says:
winner!

Lee says:
WINNAH!

Lee says:
WEINER!

joedivola says:
it was a whiner

joedivola says:
you should blog up a really whiny blog

joedivola says:
'why i hate my life'

Lee says:
haha

Lee says:
oh ssheeet

Lee says:
thats reminds me

Lee says:
i had a real phat blog idea to go with

Lee says:
oh yeah

Lee says:
people who apologise for shit they dont care about

Lee says:
was at work and i realised that every "older" class upstanding citizen apologises whenever they ask for a plastic bag. or i ask if they want one

Lee says:
or they say unfortunatly yeah i need one

Lee says:
etc

Lee says:
because it is trendy to hate plastic bags

joedivola says:
do they make a point of being embarassed about using plastic bags

Lee says:
embarassed

Lee says:
i wouldnt go that far

Lee says:
more like they dont want the pople around them to think there a bag using prick

Lee says:
50% of bag users

Lee says:
use the excuse "im walking"

Lee says:
as an excuse for taking a plastic bag

joedivola says:
what an absolute load of shit

joedivola says:
fakes

joedivola says:
as if they give a damn

Lee says:
they dont

Lee says:
but its trendy to care for the environment

Lee says:
which they arent doing. but pretening they want to!

joedivola says:
they probly get home and hit sheep or throw pesticide around

Lee says:
frolick in the blood of another human being

joedivola says:
would you breach the subject of the trendiness of cigarettes?

joedivola says:
its disputable and highly controversial

Lee says:
its plausible

joedivola says:
or is it busted

joedivola says:
do you think cigarettes are actually still trendy but everyone pretends they arent?

Lee says:
ohhh when you put it that way

Lee says:
yeah

Lee says:
"cigarettes are so gross.

Lee says:
give me 2 packs of PJ Gold plzzz

joedivola says:
i think people trying to quit are apparently even cooler because theyve decided they dont even need these to be cool

joedivola says:
but once you quit youre no longer cool

joedivola says:
thats why not many people can get thru the quitting stage

Lee says:
that is an extremly valid point

Lee says:
it must be looked into by the proper authorities asap

joedivola says:
raise it in your blog

lishy tiles

at first it was hard to decide what to do, so many ideas but where do i start? thats what i was asking myself. so i got my self ina little confuffle but than i finally sorted my self out. i learnt alot along the way with the tiles teaching me alot. It was a slow process at first but once i figured it out i was sweet as.. I am happy with the out come but near the end i was stressing about getting it done at time, once it was taken to the dodgy printers in burleigh n afta i had to sell a kidney to pay for it, i seen the changes i should of and wanted to make. so over all happy with what the outcome was .it was what i wanted to achive.

Wolff Olins vs Pentagram

Pentagram was founded in 1972 by five partners who all specialized in different areas of design. Pentagram is an organization with broad skills with many different specialties. They are design focused with seven partners each responsible for separate projects in their own specialised field. Pentagram is now one of the most well known design firms in the world. They provide a service across all forms of graphic design, from architecture t products to interior design.

It is a multi-disciplinary structure, organised around the equal partners who all practising designers. There is sometimes collaboration between the partners on projects, but they mostly work individually and one of the partners is always in overall control of each project. Their organisational structure resembles a spider’s web with the partners in the centre and working closely with the other staff. This allows for speedy decisions but can cause problems if the partners are inefficient.

Wolff Olins was founded in 1965, and is also, one of the most well known design companies in the world. Wolff Olins is primarily focused on corporate branding. Staff are grouped by job function and work on multiple projects simultaneously. There are three separate departments who work on separate floors (project managers, designers and consultants). All departments are interdependent. The organisation of work is task based. Value is placed on expertise and talent. Individual workers can therefore charge high prices which increases running costs.

The main difference between the two studios seems to be the delegation of power. Both are effective and both fit accordingly for the way each runs.

to.pitch.or.not.to.pitch - a forgotten shakespearean tale

It has been said that ‘the best things in life are free’.

It has also been said that you ‘don’t get anything for nothing’

So which is true?

Free pitching. Good idea or not?

I can’t say that I am with either polarity. I don’t entirely agree with it, and yet, I find myself unable to disregard it completely. We live in such a technologically advanced world, almost everyone owns or has access to a computer, and a rather startling majority of these, if not superbly technically proficient, can use Photoshop or some other imaging program to a basic degree. Even my own mother can cut out an image and put some text on it. I am constantly awed and surprised by the amount of talent out there, sites such a deviantart are inspirational as well as a humbling to me, reminding me just how competitive this area has become.

It is easy to turn to free pitching to attain that much revered leg up in the GD world. Older accomplished designers find it easy to sneer at it, but free pitching is a tempting route for the young and passionate looking for anything and anywhere to channel their creativity. When your young, perhaps still in school, entering these sort of things to kill free time and perhaps win something in the process, it seems harmless. A bit of fun, with the lure of a something nice at the end. But I see the other side, too, how it devalues the Graphic Design industry and most likely costs jobs. After all that I find myself sitting on the fence about the whole thing.

And I think I like it there.

http://archive.agda.com.au/dm/studios/FreeP.html

Paolo- last blog

First of all I must say that has been a great and intense experience and I have learn a lot during the year. About this post I would probably recommend everyone to subscribe to a magazine. There are many good ones out there and sometimes they also come out with good cd full of useful fonts, photoshop brushes and other. They are reach of inspiration and they offer you a window to see what is going on out there in the graphic industry. I haven`t done it yet but I think I will, maybe just for next year. I always find a lot of inspiration in movies I just wanna recommend  a few that i really liked: FIGHT CLUB - DONNIE DARKO - LOCATIONS FOR AMELIE (LE FABULEUX DESTIN D`AMELIE POULAN better watching it in French with subtitles), GOOD WILL HUNTING, CLOVERFIELD, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, SCHOOL OF ROCK.

JOSH - free pitching

FREE PITCHING

Free pitching is a interesting topic because it is so easy to have a half half opinion.
Im so torn because in one point i agree with free pitching.
If i was an employee i would use the free pitching idea, that way i would be getting a few different ideas and methods with out having to pay for hours spent with each design. Also this could work in my benefit if i was to make the design job open to anyone that wanted to free pitch. i would also be getting alot of new and fresh ideas, something i may not get if i was using the same old employees overtime.
Although if i was the employer i dont think free pitching is very fair because not only are you not receiving any money for your ideas, your also competing for your ideas to even be used in the first place.
BUT if i was one of these people entering my ideas to a company i wasn't part of, i could receive future employment from doing so.

so in conclusion i can still see it from both sides.

:)

Jade's last blog for 2008

For this last blog I just wanted to share with you guys two of my favourite illustrators. I get a lot of inspiration from these two ladies and have been looking at their work (old and new) all year round.

BEC WINNEL (MY CHARLIE GIRL) http://www.mycharliegirl.com/work.html#






KELLY SMITH http://www.birdyandme.com.au/ 

JOSH-graphic design

To some up a year at kingscliff tafe studying graphic design is hard to put into words.
this year would have to of been my worse year since i was a little tacker.
- car accident at the start
- glandular fever
- cancer scare
-getting kicked out of home
to name a few
but i can honestly say that coming here mostly everyday and seeing everyone made me keep going.
i was always the kid that handed in the late assignments and spent most of the lesson talking.
but it helped alot :D
ive learnt alot of valuable things that have helped me broaden my creative horizons.
i think the biggest advantage of being in this class is the creative inspiration we all got from everyone.
i can't wait to see what the future holds for everyone.
i thank everyone for the rememberable experience.
cya sooooooonnnnnn

Tracy: follows on from Rossie's

Tracy’s thoughts on parenting.

 

If you follow Rossie’s advise on child rearing you will, all things considered, end up with a well-adjusted adult who doesn’t mind sharing important-even fun issues with you. At times this can get a bit uncomfortable, especially when their friends get together and they are discussing things that earlier generations may not have dreamed of sharing. Of course they think it’s hilarious if they see you becoming frazzled by the content, so in my experience it’s best to keep a straight face and accept what is being offered unless it is dangerous to themselves or others (then advise may be necessary). Quite often they will resolve these issues amongst themselves and they may just be bouncing off you in order to gauge your reaction.

 

Although we may not like to think about it, girls and boys are different in certain ways and as girls may be closer to their mothers through the adolescent years, boys can become distant, especially if they are fiercely independent. I was told that this would turn back around by about the age of twenty-three, and who-ever told me this was correct, as my little angel has become a likeable young man who shares. 

Gemma: The end of 2008

What was a daunting start to the year is now coming to an end; an end of a much anticipated and exiting year in which I hope to safely say, on the whole of the class, that we would feel that step closer towards our new career pathway.

Straight from high school and the de-stressing of the HSC, I felt as though this course would be the ideal option to landmark the start of a career in Graphic design. Now nearing the end of the fundamentals course I feel like it has done just that.
It’s a good feeling to finish off the year with some new skills, friends, teachers and inspiration to take away with you over the break and hopefully put to good use next year. With this all said, there are certainly some things that I have learnt which I hope to apply to next year in terms of the work load which I understand will be much greater than now.

This year I have learnt:
- Time management is the second most important key to completing any design, creativity and inspiration is the first
- If a design isn’t working, most often its easier just to start over with something new
- Indesign & Illustrator
- The more fonts you have, the longer it will take you to finish a project
- Crop and Bleed marks!

Things I hope to stick to in the future:
- Try to do thumbnails on the first day you get a brief
- Keep things organised – both on computer and in folders
- Have a time management plan
- Balance design with everyday life
- Have social time when it fits

ROGAN : My road to Kingscliff TAFE

Why i chose to study graphic design...

It all started in primary school when my dad brought me my first skateboard, i was blown away by the graphics it was a Santa Cruz deck, a bit of a retro throwback, it had big old Bones 'bomber' wheels.  I used this new toy to begin terrorizing my neighborhood. Soon the neighborhood was not enough, i began broadening my horizons, catching the train all over Brisbane in the unending search for spots.  It was then that i started noticing the graffiti along the train lines it was thoroughly inspiring.  I began taking paint and pens with me when i went out on skating missions and writing my name all over the city, at every opportunity.  Soon enough i was painting pieces on the lines and graffiti began to take precedence over skateboarding.  I began to build a name for myself even though few knew who i actually was, which was a really amazing feeling for me.  I would ride the train during the day and hear kids talking about my pieces, unbeknownst to them i would be standing right behind them or sitting in front of them.  When pieces of mine started getting published in globally distributed magazines i was able to network with other writers across the globe and it has given me some great opportunities to travel and live in a number of other countries and paint and party with kids from different cultures that are doing the same damn thing i started out doing all those years ago.  So basically it all started with skateboarding, i am still blown away by skate graphics and they have always influenced my graffiti art and design immensely.  So skateboarding lead to graffiti and i'm hoping graffiti leads me to a career as a designer.  Anyway, i'm not trying to promote graffiti even though i have definately gone off on a self-rant, but i am rather just trying to promote skateboard graphics as a wonderful branch of design, just check out work by Ed Templeton or Mike Giant, or even graffiti artists turned fine artists like Barry McGee or Todd James.  These guys have been great influences on me and their work speaks volumes.

www.toymachine.com

www.mikegiant.com

www.toddjames.com

http://giantmonster.com/twist/

ALEC shares thus cares

Don't know where to begin. This year has been an epic onslaught of fun. Having said that I still managed to learn some things along the way (both on and off the graphic design pitch) 

A little list of things that I love/respect now that I didn't 12 months ago - all thanks to Graphic Design Foundation 7890

InDesign 

InDesign

InDesign

Fontology (thanks Kurt) 

Photo collage

Mac computers 

Teachers can be down with graffiti too

Browne's Choc Honeycomb Thickshakes - often on special at Kingscliff Woolies for $2.20

A clean desktop

A clean desk

A clean pencil case

The value of art galleries

Crop marks - still hate them but respect them (sort of)

Woolies dropping the price of pizza rolls from $1.80 to $1.30 - love that value

Free print media

The amazing live trace tool

The amazing history tool

The amazing Adobe Suite

Partying can not only be fun but a great source of inspiration

www.hipsterrunoff.com - an hilarious form of procrastination

Graphic design can be hard work

You can never do too many thumbnails

The virtues of carrying a little black book every time you leave the house

Blogs - music or otherwise

FONTOLOGY- Kurt-

Well after all is said and done it,s been a great year and i've had lots of fun learning about all the different sides to Graphic Design. I don't know why but i guess i can say i've got a problem, that i really dig Typography and i,m a Fontoholic.
So as a present to you all if you go to my drop box on the College server there is a massive Font collection (sorry Mac only)
for you all to copy and use in the future (make sure not to just drag and drop this, hold the option key when dragging and dropping).
Yeh so Enjoy!! cheers thanks for a great year!!

Govinda - The Forgotten Tiles Blog Post

The first tiles blog that I forgot about

I’ve been having a hard time trying to come up with a concept for this tile project. The whole visual metaphor thing is spinning me out. I wanted to explore a medium that either I’m not familiar with to challenge myself, or use photography.

I couple of my ideas:

1. Use typography and colour to explore the roles of members in a design practice. Use a variety of fonts to represent the different roles. For example, a clean, bold and mature font representing the art director.
2. Use photography to explore developing strategies to stay abreast of industry trends and directions.
3. Use ink and paint to explore the journey or process of design.

I am leaning towards number 3 as it will be more interesting than the 1 and easier than 2.

Rosalind -Something to share

I've had a little think about what I'd like to share with everybody and decided on ... useful facts on how to bring up a child because aside from Tracy I'm the only other one in our group who has a child, unless any of you have any secret love children out there that none of us know about.

1. Talk to your child in proper english, no goochie goo rubbish, believe me they are not that stupid.

2. Don't make idle threats unless you intend to see them through; children are experts at winding you round their fingers and getting their way.

3. Let them watch lots of animal documentaries so when the dreaded "how do you make babies?" question comes up, you can relay it back to the animals, much less confrontational.

4. Remember, up until a child is around 10 years old their brains don't judge distance and speed very well, no walking to school by themselves.

5. Laugh a lot it keeps everyone happy.

6. Last but not least never stop watching cartoons.

So hopefully some of these pointers may be useful later on in life. Have a great Christmas and New Year everyone.

Cheers

PS Boys if you want to have children don't wear pants like these!!!!

Graphic Design

Is There A Future

Every one is talking about the credit crunch, a looming depression, an economic downfall. What ever happens, it is obvious that we are in for some harder times. Money will be tight. People will not be spending like they use to and some industries will be hit harder than others. This brings me to the question: will people still need graphic design?

This could go two ways. Companies may, in all the reclining money dilemmas, begin spending more on advertising and marketing to try and keep their sales alive. This would keep up a sufficient amount of work for the competitive graphic design industry.

Or the workload will dry up. Advertising budgets could be cut and with many companies going bust and closing down, there could be a huge decline in the need for graphic design.

Were does this leave us. Young graphic designers just starting out in an already established and competitive industry may find it hard to find any work.

Hopefully the effects of this financial crisis wont hit too soon, and we will have an opportunity to get ourselves going in the industry before it all goes sourer.

Govinda -

Graphic Design

Is There A Future

Every one is talking about the credit crunch, a looming depression, an economic downfall. What ever happens, it is obvious that we are in for some harder times. Money will be tight. People will not be spending like they use to and some industries will be hit harder than others. This brings me to the question: will people still need graphic design?

This could go two ways. Companies may, in all the reclining money dilemmas, begin spending more on advertising and marketing to try and keep their sales alive. This would keep up a sufficient amount of work for the competitive graphic design industry.

Or the workload will dry up. Advertising budgets could be cut and with many companies going bust and closing down, there could be a huge decline in the need for graphic design.

Were does this leave us. Young graphic designers just starting out in an already established and competitive industry may find it hard to find any work.

Hopefully the effects of this financial crisis wont hit too soon, and we will have an opportunity to get ourselves going in the industry before it all goes sourer.

Abby’s interests

I am very interested in graphic design in a wide range of areas - web design, photography and general graphic design. “DG magazine” is very good. They always have tutorials for photoshop. They have good descriptions about graphic design techniques. They have advertisements and information for software and mac computers, which I love. Every year they make a Portfolio of people’s work, it is very interesting work they also include web design too. This is good because I want to learn ideas for web design to make a photo web gallery on a web site. They advertise events like design conferences and festivals. I have sometimes been to some of these interesting events.
I like another magazine “Desktop” it is similar to DG, it also has good links and good information to give me ideas. I love both magazines and any magazines about photography. I like to learn from them, they show a lot about people’s work and give me ideas for the future.

Have a look web site DG http://www.dgdesignnetwork.com.au/dgdn/tag/graphic-design/ and Desktop http://www.desktopmag.com.au/

Abby’s Hallway Project:

I researched and brainstormed what the eight different panels could be about. I did thumbnails for all the ideas from the brainstorm. I talked to the client and they suggested that maybe I could do a visual communication with sign (Auslan) about Graphic Design methods and so I researched to look for the right signs and updated my thumbnails. I took the photos of my hands making the signs, then traced the sign photos using the path tool in Photoshop then sent them to Illustrator and added colours. I feel happy with my work. It looks good and is a good visual representation of sign language. It shows people interesting things about Deaf culture sign language for Graphic Design. I didn’t have any problems with my time management and planning. I am happy that I found a good print shop, Dynamic Digital. They make sticky paper. I am very impressed with the print quality. All the colours look lovely. I made a little mistake with the wrong size for the trim and bleed. I will do more practice to get the trim and bleed size right at home.

In work by the class: I like Kurt’s work. It was good how he used bananas to guide through the panels. I also liked the photos of gorillas. Roz is very good at drawing with colours. Paolo had a clever idea of using his face in different contexts. Leilani had nice drawings with very interesting titles. Tracy’s background texture is very interesting. Rogan did good drawings of his face. Tané’s circus titles were very interesting. The people appeared 3D. In Alicia’s work, the lady’s face with different colours and textures on each panel are nice.

I enjoyed that course.

Its like this

The most astonishing reason why street mimes are generally creepy is that they refuse to accept the current transport system or even acknowledge that blue vein cheese is such an essential part of our diet alongside the recommended daily intake of awkward silence (bus stop or otherwise) and public confusion which are both just rebellious outcries against the tyranny of the so-called blimp industry which is, as we speak, just realising that lamb is obsolete and should be replaced by tantalisingly crunchy grasshopper snacks as soon as we get rid of the fascist moths in the attic who seem to be watching my every move which wouldn't be too much of a fun hobby as I am reading a newspaper and how long would anyone want to watch someone read a newspaper for is the question scientists have been asking for decades only to be answered by a phone recording repeating 'please check the number and try again' or the big hairy chef guy behind the counter giving them a narrow eye and demanding that they try the shifty lunch specials or get out, which isn't a very logical way of presenting himself to the scientist he was attracted to at the time who had run away from the circus to join a catering firm, but could never forget the salad days at the freakshow circus where they point and laugh at the helpless midget in the bear suit who always wanted instead to be a sketchy fat chef standing behind the counter and giving the tourists that look which they misinterpret as a tough guy threat look but which is actually a misguided way of saying 'I love you, but get your foot off my toes because after a while my ingrown toenails will actually extend their range to ingrowing toes and even my whole foot seems to be ingrowing and has it really been six years?' he says through his puppy dog eyes which begin to leak from lack of vitamin F which astoundingly, can be found in 'Corn Bag', the new edible product range from Mattel but which is only sold in a remote part of Mexico, a place called 'El Muncho' which translated means 'if it's brown flush it down' in Spanish but seriously, consider this: their language should be called Mexican not Spanish because it just isn't Spain and anyhoo, why would anyone want to live in a place called Spain which sounds like 'pain' or 'slain' but actually means 'the road to el dorito', to borrow a cliche from an entirely different book titled 'El Dorito: The Road To' which amazes politicians as to how it remains unrelated because in reality, everything is related and we are all just dirty inbreds scrabbling for a piece of the big pie, yum yum; of course, not every reality show host has that opinion and I cannot stress this enough that people don't get stressed enough or have enough stresses to appease their pagan gods who are actually two neurotic kids in a hot air balloon with a megaphone singing 'oo la ley' which was a song not invented at the time so in a twisted way those kids were worthy of the sacrifices made by their people but hot dang, little did they realise that global warming would eventually pop their hot air balloon and they would shoot around with a funny high-pitched squeal before plummeting to the earth in horrid wreckage to which the village chief would react by saying that the gods weren't happy, maybe they were churning the butter wrong so they imported specialists to do it for them and that seemed to do the trick and the country prospered for yonks ever after, yet meanwhile the jealous neighbouring countries were silently plotting against them but they did it so silently it began to get awkward and they quickly moved the conversation on to other things, like contemplating how ancient Egypt got broadband coverage when they couldn't, it's so unfair, boo-hoo, luckily their fluffy pets rubbed up against their legs and they felt all better so that one of the most annoying wars in history was avoided, which could have taken on a pathetic reputation as the 'Nerd War' involving lame virtual conflicts and viruses being sent back and forth and bad comments being put on ancient Egypt's myspace to which they reacted with a hack into Pakistan's public relations webpage and modified it to include excessive swearing and references to the 'infidel white race' which ensured that their tourism industry was fatally damaged and the poor guys in the Pakistani pizza carts relying on the tourists for business went bankrupt, and the bank itself rupted as the entire economy fell into ruin because those poor pizza guys constitute 95% of the Pakistani food industry but it wasn't all that bad, because without all the chubby sunburnt english tourists the locals had more time to pursue their ACE courses in curry studies in piece, I mean peace, damn those simple mistakes to Heck because I remember being told one time about a small child who worked for one of the largest newspaper companies in the world, who had been found murdered soon after he let loose the worst typo in history, a front page header written originally as 'Mucking Up On The Beach' but when the kid edited it, a letter F came into play but we shall leave that story to the mists of history as I seem to be avoiding the real issue here, the troubling fact that you are staring at my crotch with a hungry look in your eyes which is beginning to frighten me and my teddy bear Gustav, the bear with attitude and a thick German accent who likes to dance and gosh darn it, they say he is a damn good dancer but only when he is happy and he knows it and claps his hands which gets me to thinking: is the happy a result of the hand-clapping or are you really only happy when you know it - but deep thinking like that always lands me in front of the psychiatrist who stares at me with a moustache before writing something on his notepad which I later found out was his 'dear diary' entry for the day, detailing what he ate for breakfast and how it tasted and how many molecules were in each crunch and why, all the while thinking to himself 'I never wanted to be a psychiatrist, i wanted to be.... a lumberjack' but he tried that bit already and the pay maybe wasn't too great, but on the plus side you could be okay and work all night and sleep all day, hang on, that was another darn typo which I would rather blame on the pen because last time I blamed myself for something, I ended up in front of the same psychiatrist who seemed a little different to before, a little hairier and scratching his bum and repeatedly offering me peanuts, which after I turned down for the fifth time, let loose an ear-piercing shriek, attacked me with his teeth and ran out of the room in ape-like fury but don't give me that look, he wasn't really a monkey because how many monkeys get to go through university to get a Ph D in psychiatry and how many monkeys can fake qualifications like real psychiatrists do when in fact they are actually janitors in disguise getting some side cash and while they're at it, getting in on some of the psychiatrist 'free love' communities and conning some more people into they's pyramid schemes which were originally devised by ancient Egypt while a drug raid was going down next door and it was a good tafe course I learnt a lot and had lots of fun amen.

Tracy_Hall panels_Thoughts

This project was really interesting to do. I chose some things that I wanted to learn more about and found that while I followed the original plan closely, some of the images came out even better than I expected.

I was going to make the text effect more scientific - like a procedural drawing, although this only stayed in effect for the first image, which ended up working in the overall scheme of things.

In the end the panels created a zig-zag effect when hung, this was achieved via the colour selection of alternate earth and ocean tones. These pieces took a long time as I expected but I had no idea of how much I would learn along the way, which was a fantastic amount. 

ROGAN : HALLWAY PROJECT

For my visual metaphors hallway tiles project, i chose to chose to explore the responsibilities of a designer and what it takes to achieve success in the industry.  I began by brainstorming several possible outcomes, but i just couldn't escape the correlation between graphic design and person hygiene/presentation.  Stuck on this idea i began preliminary sketches and thumbnails, i started out with a more animated comic book vibe, but then came to the realization that comic art did not really relate to the subject matter.  So i rethought my strategy, i thought of possibly making my tiles look like instructional signage with a clean, clear design rather than going for something to 'fine art', which isn't really what i believed to be to relevant to the project.  However i still wished to use illustration in my project, i was at a crossroads.  Until one morning i staggered upstairs to slop together some breakfast goodness, i sat down at the table to eat my goodness,and i saw it...a 'Bunnings' catalogue of all things. In this catalogue (below) the products were all shown as black and white illustrations rather than the usual deep etched photographs.   Genious! i thought...

    

The catalogue, the inspiration.

After eyeballing this amazing catalogue i began work straight away, deciding that i would use illustrations of myself as the model or demonstrator in these tiles.  But i didn't feel comfortable drawing myself in such a glamorous light, so i decided to make a hybrid model of myself and a 1984 Michael Jackson.  The illustrations came together tremendously well.  Now all that was left was to add a single color for each tile, similar to that in airplane safety manuals to highlight the point. I also added some design to spruce it up a little more.  Printing was a breeze, i took the finals into Dynamic Digital at Tweed Heads as a multiple page pdf and had it printed in a matter of hours for the small fee of $20.  That was all she wrote i believe my project my project came out very well and it became almost exactly what i imagined it to be in my head on that fate-filled morning.

VISUAL METAPHORS.. the unstable truth

What an…interesting project.  As always, I ‘put off today what could be done tomorrow’ and ending up rushing the final tiles. Funnily enough, I am happy with the final outcome, which is not usually the case. A perfectionist with procrastination tendencies… never a good mix. The concept for the tiles was definitely the most time consuming and mental incapacitating part of the whole thing. It literally took me weeks to actually think of something that was even worthwhile putting all that time and effort into. With so many different avenues to pursue, it should have been easy, right? And yet, sometimes freedom is the fast-track to destruction.

Yes, Mental blocks are always fun.

Once I had the concept, everything else came easily; the process of translating what was in my mind onto a computer was quickest and most painless part of it. I had originally planned to scan the illustrations in and then digitally colour them, but I changed my mind. Partially because of running out of time, but also because I did like the way they looked in black and white.

The synopsis here? Crazy. Stressful, and mentally asphyxiating---

But definitely worthwhile.

ALEC - hallway tiles

A challenging project to say the least!

I chose to explore the relationship between big corporate style design studios VS the smaller grass roots style studio and their relationship to money making and success. While idea generating I ran into many design cul-de-sacs, forcing me to re-evaluate my direction and what I wanted to say. In the end I chose to take the simpler approach by letting the typography do most of the talking. My intention was to create designs which were really clean and fresh and I used this project as an excersise to explore the ideas of creative typography. 

By using Jamie as my star I was trying to give of the 'grass roots designer' vibe because my tiles tried to illustrate how money/success can influence which direction you take in the design world. 

At the printers I gave them an 8 page pdf to print but one of the tiles was not showing up fully but luckily I had the single tiles on my usb as well so they were able to print the troublesome tile from that!

All in all fun project, my only setback was not being able to fully explore the text tweaking capabilities in illustrator.

PAOLO - VISUAL METAPHORS finish

This was a nice challenge, even if I have chosen a theme already used in the past

it was very difficult to come out with fresh, different ideas and concepts and trying not to be repetitive. It took me about 3 weeks to get the 8 metaphors, than because last year illustrations have been used , I have decided not to make it totally illustrative, just to be different, so I  started playing around with photoshop and doing a sort of  blended collage. I wanted to give it a sort of mysterious and confused apparence but also

having the viewer reflecting on the metaphors and drawing  personal conclusions. Then I thought that I was not gonna have all the time necessary to make it looking like I really wanted to,  time was really running out so I decided to keep the darkness , not to much, but also give it a funny look and putting my face on alice`s body. I must be honest, I am not completely satisfied  at the end but it`s been a good experience and I have learned a lot and I` ve also been struggling a lot to get the job done............ adding bloody bleeds was a problem too.

JOShH - tiles prodject

picking a topic was rather easy. i chose to do "staying abreast of trends"
because i thought that made the most sense to me.
i wanted to reflect the trends of each era from 50-to now (08) then in on tile i would do a question mark page
to create the question. what trend is next?

im still yet to decide on a particular design for each tile.
so i have just been researching every era intensively
and starting to get ideas for graphics

JOSH -8 panels

This was actually one of the most challenging projects for me.
I found it easy to choose my subject, (staying abreast of trends),
but after that i had real trouble in deciding what i wanted to do and even how to do what i had in my mind.
I found for me research was the key.
I spent hours on hours researching different eras.
finding out colours and fonts, icons and graphic elements that represented the era.

Because of my intensive research i was able to come up with my end creations in quite a short amount of time.
Which i am really happy with.
In all this prodject was fun and forced me to really research before i created.
I learnt alot about different eras and the best ways in which to research.
As far as the set out of the project over the series of weeks, i thought worked perfectly

:)

Visual METAPHORS PROJECT Finish Kurt

So after all the work is done, i,m really happy with the outcome of this project, I think for me the most difficult part of the whole thing was to come up with metaphors that really connected to the images i had planned.
The process went relatively smooth and easy, I made sure that my plan was good from the start and that i stuck to my guns and didn't change my mind mid way through. I did 2 photo shoots thanks to my mate Mat a photographer from the Bulletin Newspaper and my girl Melissa, I was in the gorilla suit, and the rest i illustrated or used Typography.
I did how ever learn a lot about the different techniques to deep etch hair and fur,
and thanks to Rosalind i found that the photoshop plug-in Fluid mask is a very powerful and useful tool for this.
I was happy with the final prints thanks to another good friend Paul at Sign Makers he did a great job for me and printed to a contact type plastic and it was then laminated and stuck to the foam core board (which was a bit thick to cut out) but was no problem in the end, i would have maybe gone back and done a little image correction as i feel the photography has come out a little dark but it,s really a minor thing. The main thing for me with this project was that i had fun!! and i can only hope that in the future i will get the opportunity to do similar things. ((>8)

Gemma: Tiles Project Evaluation

For some time at the beginning of this project I found it hard to come up with an idea that would not only pay attention to the brief but an idea that would also be able to be reflected over all eight tiles.

Because I felt as though I was wasting so much of my time trying to think of an idea, I decided to just pick one of the topics from the brief; this was ‘how to stay abreast of design trends.’

From here most of my inspiration came from research. I looked into books, magazines and Internet sites and then had the idea to represent each 10-year period in graphic design onto each tile.

I completed all tiles in Photoshop as I was using mainly images and shapes in my layers and I found this was the best way to do it. I didn’t come across any major issues through the designs, although one aspect I needed to get my head around was the bleed and crop marks that needed to be set for printing. I found it very useful go and talk to the printers that were going to print the project about what they prefer you to do and set up for them on the document.

I was happy with my end result and the prints that I got from them. If I were to get a similar project printed like this one I think I would have gone for a thicker paper, just to make it stronger and more durable which therefore would probably allow them to withstand more contact and make them last that bit longer. Other than that, I thought they all fit fairly well together as a design composition and do the job in representing each time period in design which is what I intended to do.

LEE: HALLWAY IJ THE FFHALL

So basically, my hallway project was going to be based on the G-team, which was a mild rip-off of the A-team, with the G standing for graphics, and several visual puns based on the different jobs in the graphic design industry.

That was about as far as i got with that idea so i decided to just do whatever came to me without thinking about it much. and ended up with a fairly decent outcome. My final 8 panels are basically a "how to guide" to enjoying a productive relationship with graphic design.

All of my designs are drawn on paper first, scanned in to the computer, live traced and colored in, in illustrator.

the 8 panels are thus:

-Title: Introduces the collection

-Stay positive: stay positive in the industry or it will devour your soul.

-aim high: Basically saying that you should try to be your best.

-Think outside the box: be creative and dot adhere to social norms.

-Use your imagination: don't be afraid to do something really stupid. Accompanied by a picture that i made by just drawing whatever came into my head without thinking about it, and ran with it.

-Be nice to others: If you are not nice to people, you are a douche. and no-one likes a douche now do they?

-try new things: a picture that is completely different in style from the other 7. don't be afraid to branch out.

-Never give up: if you are having difficulty completing a task, try your best to see it through to the end. the picture is supposed to be of a half finished drawing but no-one is yet to understand it without me explaining it to them first).

And that's the gist of my project. If you have any questions please forward them to my secretary.

Jade's reflection on tiles.

My initial idea for my tiles was to have a bird in every tile as well as a girl, but after i drew all 8 girls i was feeling pretty exhausted and over it so it didnt happen... and plus i thought having both a girl and bird in every tile would be too repetitive. Before i began drawing i had the themes and meanings set out for each tile, but when i selected all of the fashion photographs i wanted to draw, matching the images with the meanings was harder than i thought, so i eventually ended up changing the meanings to suit the pictures, this ended up working pretty well anyway. i like the way my illustartions are done in just lead and no colour, but i still wanted to have some colour in my tiles, black and white would be far too dull and plain...... i was either going to add colour to the background, or the type, or put some kind of transparent colourd texture/wash over the whole tile(s) in photoshop. i decided to put colour on the type using water colour. i was pretty happy with how that turned out because it made the type more lively, and seemed to liven up the actual illustrations too. Every tile has differnet colour to give a bit of variation.
The easiest photographs to draw were defnitely the photos taken more close-up. it was just way easier to see the detail and copy the tone, shadows etc. my worst and least favourite tile is definitely “parade” which was probably more of a mid-shot more than a close up, i just wish i had more time to draw her again, but i guess i’m pretty happy with all 8 tiles. i think my illustrations really improved because of this assignment too.

Govinda - Tiles Reflection

Tiles reflection

I really struggled at the beginning of this project trying to come up with an idea. I found the visual metaphor a difficult concept. I ended up settling on the topic of the design process, a journey of design, expressing it through an expedition to a new land. I hand drew the images and then edited them in Photoshop.

Once I had scanned them in, I felt that they where too bland and needed some colour. I was too scared to go over the originals in water colour so I searched in Photoshop for an effect that would give the same look as hand painted. I managed to create a brush that gave a watercolour look, which I was hoping to share with you all but now I have forgotten how I did it! Anyway, I’m happy how it turned out.

I had the tiles printed at Dynamic Digital, a great printing centre and had a good experience there.

Although at the beginning of the project I was struggling, I ended up enjoying myself and learning new skills along the way. I wanted to use a medium that I was not familiar with and experimented with ink pens. I had fun and I’m happy how the tiles have turned out.

Rosalind - My Hallway Tiles

Well what can I say? I took my little woodland creatures on a journey and naturally drew my birdman "stress" first, because thats how I was feeling at the time. I then became a maniac and drew all my animals one after the other over a few days with lots of breaks and wandering out into the garden which is always a welcome distraction.

I had an image in my head of how I wanted the tiles to turn out and pretty much achieved that vision, thank god. This assignment became extremely important to me, one because my work would be on display and two because I created little characters that I want to continue creating and working with. I am happy with the end result, which is a good thing because I am a perfectionist by nature and can sometimes be my own worst enemy.

What did I learn? Luckily I am organised and I followed my little time sheet that we filled out for Clea, otherwise I would not have achieved what I wanted.

Problem = find the key to your solution

Wisdom = see the wise owl

Stress = don't let your feathers fall out

Instinct = be cunning like a fox

Copyright = watch out for the copycat

Unique = stand out from the crowd

Confusion = the mind maze

Unveil = the final curtain 

Tiles Projectings - Tane

The Project In Which I Made Tiles For The Tile Project That I Did

Tane Richardson

first off, I'm actually really happy with how my Flea Circus tiles printed out. Word up:

What I Be Liking:

- The colors came out really well to my exact intentions,

- The lines on the images are vector clean,

- They were cut to the right size,

- It make happy.

What Not I Be Liking:

- The gradients arent entirely smooth, a tad on the blocky side,

- Up close, the header font is a little pixelated, and tastes like dog food,

- The font for the Audience is different because i missed outlining that one, (But its fine because the audience is separate to the circus, all the more effective),

- Its not edible. >swears<

That's about the print job. Now let us delve deeper into the whole flea circus shebang. 

The method I used to come up with this idea was to write all the random words that came into my head, and among pirates, pappadums and gherkin-related concepts, the term flea circus stood out. I liked it. And I rolled with it.

(I dont know if anyones noticed, but circus themes are all i seem to push out these days.)

So then i decided that the panels had to be unified by a certain color palette, and i thought up orange and purple. I think this was a good choice because those colours look good together and give out a nice novelty circus effect. They turned out well on the printouts.

So i mapped out the metaphors between design jobs and circus roles, and i think theyre the best i can do, i like them...

I drew everything with a mouse in Illustrator, and they each took A LOT of effort and time because i was constantly seeing how good i could make them. So each tile you see is when i reached the limit of my patience and Illustrator skills.

Yep, i like it! cant criticise much of it except that i apparently didnt outline the Audience header for print, but hey whaddyagonnadoboutityaknow? fughedaboutit.

ROGAN : VISUAL METAPHORS

My concept for the visual metaphors tile project is Graphic Design = Hygiene/Presentation.

The idea is that how you present and carry yourself as a person is directly related to your design output.  I will be making a series of comparisons between graphic design and personal hygiene/presentation.  I think at this point i will use hand renderings to convey my metaphors, however im still tossing around ideas.  I was also considering using photography or perhaps a combination of the two.

VISUALMETAPHOR; leilani

My idea is to do with the different roles of the Graphic Design Industry, and the hierarchy that exists there within. I will be portraying these roles as hand drawn illustrations, digitally coloured. And will be relating each to positions in a band, with the Senior Director as the Lead singer, Creative Directors as guitar and bass, and so on through to the audience as the client and printers and other tech support as Roadies. I will use the same text style and general colour scheme throughout to unify the tiles and project as a whole.

PAOLO - VISUAL METAPHORS

For my project I have chosen to pass through  the mirror of Luis Carroll  and dealing whit the role and responsibilities of designers. The visual metaphors  will  be represented by using the Alice in wonderland theme in order to make it looking like a sort of trip into the graphic design world, there will be a sort of parallelism between the surrealistic  world of Alice full of symbols  and paradoxes and the real world of graphic design. I know that someone already used these subject in the past, but this time it will be different, not only illustrations, it will be not looking like the classic representation seen in Disney`s cartoons which has bean a failure in my opinion, whit the exception of the Cheshire cat maybe...... What I want to do is trying to make the philosophy of the absurd of Carroll emerging but at the same time maintaining  the  peculiar  and narrative imprint that only that philosophy would justify.

Tile Project... Jamie...

For my tile project i am thinking of doing it on the design process. Though for my metaphors i am going to base it around a common theme of pirates. The idea is to have slogans saying each stage, then having realistic sketches of almost a pirates take on it. i.e. "collect the pay" is a picture of a treasure chest. Also i had the idea of having one picture that comes together it makes a subtle picture of a treasure map, this being a metaphor of the journey to become a graphic designer.

Its not a lot but i really think that the idea will come together really well. it is up my alley theme wise and i look forward to drawing the slides.

Thank you.

VISUAL METAPHORS PROJECT Kurt

I have decided to go and have a heap of fun with this project with a gorilla suit, I am Discussing the Roles and Responsibilities of a Designer through my Visual Metaphors, and as part of my research i have looked at the design process narrowing it down to 8 key words in order.

1. ANALYSIS
2. SYNTHESIS
3. APPRAISAL
4. DECISION
5. INNOVATE
6. COMMUNICATE
7. CREATE
8. RETURN LOOP

So I,m also thinking that this process is a cycle so it maybe displayed in a circle.
I,m in the process of brainstorming the metaphor ideas that i can relate to each of my key words, and somehow use my Action Ape Character to communicate each of these.
I want to use a combination of lots of media to keep it interesting but somehow tying
each panel together with the character, i,m thinking that photography will be mainly used to get the scenes that i,m planning. I think it will be visually captivating to see images of a gorilla in scenarios that just usually don't happen.

Govinda-Design Studio Comparison

Red Graphic is an international graphic design agency with a long and impressive list of clients including Mercedes Benz, Nivea and Coco Cola. Even though this company represents such large clients, it has retained its friendly, humorous and unique attitudes. Tropixel, on the other hand, is a local graphic design studio situated here on the Gold Coast. There business approach is simple, professional and friendly.

Both design companies pride themselves on their wide range of skills and ability to understand the client’s needs.

Red Graphic, even though being a well known design studio who deals with large, multi million dollar companies, presents itself like a small, unique and somewhat quirky studio. Their approach is very fun and different. Tropixel, being a small, local design studio, tries to present itself like a big reputable company. Professionalism is a priority. This is something that Red Graphics does not push.

It is interesting to see how these two companies, one large and one small, portray themselves. The large company acts like a small one and the small company tries to act like a large one.

Alicias tiles

The Elements of Graphic Design
0. My idea is to have drawings of faces pointing out all the different elements of graphic design such as the following. Than once I have the drawings I will put them in Photoshop and make it all flow in together adding little bits of info about each element.

The elements of graphic design are used, and often combined, to create graphic works. They should not be confused with principles of design, such as balance and white space, but rather components such as color, type and images. Presented here is a list of the most commonly used elements in graphic design.
Shapes
From ancient pictographs to modern logos, shapes are at the root of design. They are used to establish layouts, create patterns, and build countless elements on the page. With graphics software such as Illustrator, creating and manipulating shapes is easier than ever, giving designers the freedom to create them at will.
Lines
Lines are used to divide space, direct the eye, and create forms. At the most basic level, straight lines are found in layouts to separate content, such as in magazine, newspaper, and website designs. This can of course go much further, with curved, dotted, and zigzag lines used as the defining elements on a page and as the basis for illustrations and graphics. Often, lines will be implied, meaning other elements of design will follow the path of line, such as type on a curve.
Color
Color is an interesting element of graphic design because it can be applied to any other element, changing it dramatically. It can be used to make an image stand out, to show linked text on a website, and to evoke emotion. Graphic designers should combine their experience with color with an understanding of color theory.
Type
Type, of course, is all around us. In graphic design, the goal is to not to just place some text on a page, but rather to understand and use it effectively for communication. Choice of fonts (typefaces), size, alignment, color, and spacing all come into play. Type can be taken further by using it to create shapes and images.
Art, Illustration & Photography
A powerful image can make or break a design. Photographs, illustrations and artwork are used to tell stories, support ideas, and grab the audience's attention, so the selection is important. Graphic designers can create this work on their own, commission an artist or photographer, or purchase it at all price levels on many websites.
Texture
Texture can refer to the actual surface of a design or to the visual appearance of a design. In the first case, the audience can actually feel the texture, making it unique from the other elements of design. Selection of paper and materials in package design can affect actual texture. In the second case, texture is implied through the style of design. Rich, layered graphics can create visual texture that mirrors actual texture.

Rosalind - Roles and Responsibilities of the Designer

I’m going on a quest with my little character; he is going on a journey, through the different stages of design. He meets various characters that help him with the problems and choices that we come across as designers.

Along this quest he meets characters that help him makes choices that will help him achieve his ultimate goal the book of design the key to a successful product. I intend to use a mix of media pencil, Photoshop, Illustrator and maybe a bit of collage, stir it up and hopefully come out with a nice set of tiles.