Guest Speaker: Frances Yilana (Mason Baronet)

Frances Yilana, the Creative Director at Mason Baronet, stopped by class today to give us some tips on how to get a job in the crazy graphic design world. Frances is also responsible for Good for Grasshopper, a helpful guide for student designers.

Boxsal Picnic Baskets

• Treat everyone above you like a potential Creative Director
• Sometimes the job is not meant to be. (Until it is.)
• Be likable. Have a good attitude.
• Most people don’t make a lot of money as designers, but you get to draw for a living.
• Love what you do and the money will follow
• If you can afford it, wait for the right job. The first job you take will define how you work for the rest of your career.
• At your first job: Make everyone’s job easier once you get the job
• During the 1st year: the company is paying to train you
• Make yourself indispensable
• Join networks and get involved (AIGA and DSVC)
• Be someone people want to work with
• Ask questions
• If Creative Director or Senior Designer are still in the office, stay. It looks good.

Skateboard Deck Design Inspiration

I’m starting to explore ideas for how I want Einstein skateboard’s identity to look. The best place to start is to look at what was already out there and decide what creative way I could channel the best designs to build a brand design for Einstein. I looked at skateboards and snowboards and compiled a few of my favorites.

I found myself being drawn to typographic designs, which makes sense with my graphic design and typography background. One company that I really enjoyed the designs of was Burton. This first design was my absolute favorite. It’s colorful and reminds me of the Festival of Color in India (Holi) because of the use of colorful pigments. I love this technique and like the idea of creating the design by hand with different materials and not doing it all on the computer.

These skateboards, as well as, the next three images are from Super Top Secret design studio.

This detail was pulled from the next group of skateboards (fourth one over). The overlapping text elements is something i’m really leaning towards for my design. The logo for Einsteins already incorporates overlapping text so this is a natural progression.

Anaglyph was the technique that inspired the Einstein logo, so it may be a good idea to channel that for the packaging as well.

The intricate nature and bright colors of these Zoo York skateboards are amazing. I also enjoy the way they incorporated the name of the company.

Awesome colors with realistic photographs. This skateboard was very unique surrounded by the heavy illustrated and crazy designs that are popular for boards.

The series of these LAB skateboard decks is great. They tell a story through the illustration.

This Dickies board reminded me of western woodcut letter posters. This is a cool way to use the vertical nature of the board.

Totally Tubular Sock Packaging!

Totally AWESOME packaging for Totally Tubular Socks! Wooo

Here are some images of my final concept for my dollar store product: socks. I’ve embraced the 1980’s through color, pattern, and hip copy. Enjoy my uber cool design.

Guest Speaker: Brandon Murphy (Caliber Creative)

Brandon Murphy from Caliber Creative came by last week to speak about the Good and Bad of portfolio books and interview skills.

Posters for The Rainforest Alliance

PORTFOLIO ADVICE:

• Show everything from simple logos to complex annual reports (this show diversity of skills)
• Person should not be able to tell your gender when looking at your book
• Figure out where you have holes in your skills and do things outside of your interests
• Keep resume simple, well laid out, not overly designed, use an unusual size and choose nice paper
• You don’t need to put an objective on your résumé
• Difference between good and great= time
• Don’t forget to put your name in the file name for your résumé, cover letter, and portfolio
• Speak but not too much about your work
• Write down critiques
• Don’t do a custom logo for yourself unless it’s the best logo in your book
• Book should be quite, understated gallery for your work
• Expect to change jobs 3 times in first 5 years (change to increase your pay and diversify your book)
• Only put work in your book that you’re proud of and want to do more of
• Always have your portfolio handy, you never know who will want to see it
• Build a database of names

GETTING THE INTERVIEW:

• Go through design annuals to find names
•  Then call the company and ask for that person by their first name
• When they ask who is calling: say your  name and that you want to talk about the persons work in the annual
• Don’t mention you’re a student
• Once you reach the person: praise their work and say who you are and that you are a student, then ask for them to view your book

AFTER THE INTERVIEW:

• Leave behind something with a quick resume and references to your work
• Ask: Is there anyone else you think would give me good feedback on my portfolio? (“May I say you referred me”)
• Send thank you email and a thank you printed material

Frito-Lay Football Logos

Whisper Low Font

I’ve researched Art Deco and 1920’s type faces this week. I came across a lot of frilly, decorative fonts that are too busy for me to use (See Type Faces I’m NOT Using).  Some of these work better than others and would be alright, but I know I can find better.

Type Faces I’m NOT Using

I found all these fonts using free font websites. After realizing that all these would not work I found these out of print books of type specimens designed by Paula Scher called Beautiful Faces. These were wonderful! A gold mine for elegant 1920’s fonts.

Here is one of my favorite type specimens that I found in these books: Harpers.

These are all of the typefaces that I pulled from the Beautiful Faces book.

Type Faces I’m Thinking of Using

Einstein Skateboards Logo

Here are the one color and three color logos for Einstein skateboards. The texture on the letters of the type looks like concrete. Having one e right side up and the other  upside down shows the idea of the revolving wheels on a skateboard. In the three color logo, the shifted colors creates a vibration effect that also evokes movement.

Skateboard Packaging Design

Nike packaging

Not that cool to me, but it does solve the problem of how to package a board with all the elements needed for the skateboard. The foam is a good way to keep everything in place and elevate the board above the other pieces.

Boardjunkies

This is a pretty nice package for the bearings. The glass is a nice way to allow the bearings to still be visible to the buyer.

Phases Packaging

This packing is very simple, just a belly band. The graphic on the belly band is nice. This solution would be alright if I decided to package the elements separately from the board.

Rebellious Reflections

This is another example of  how to package the board with all the other elements. This one uses plastic to hold the pieces in place rather than foam. The plastic looks a lot slicker, but would not be feasible for me to do a real life mock-up of plastic with molded spots for the pieces. The color scheme used for this gives the company a clean ritzy feel. I’m going for more of a concrete, grungy look.

Spitfire Wheels

These wheels have been packaged in a clever way. Only two of the wheels are seen when the packaging is closed which allows one of the sides to show how the wheels would look in action using an image of trucks. This is a great idea that would draw a buyer in. The other two wheels are conveniently held inside the rectangular box that featured the photos.

Whisper Low Identity System Redesign

This is my original design for Whisper Low bar’s identity system. The concept was to portray the secretive atmosphere of the bar using 1920’s/Art Deco typefaces and speakeasy phrases. The back of the letterhead and business card are meant to give the idea of what words would be whispered throughout the bar, giving the viewer the idea of what it is like to be there. The envelopes feature keyholes to further enhance the secretive idea. The paper used is a pearlized gold stock that exudes exclusivity and luxury.

For the redesign of this identity system I am going to explore different typefaces and phrases to use of the back of the letterhead and business cards. The typefaces need to be a little more understated and elegant. The phrases could be more authentic to the time period, possibly drinks from the era, song lyrics, sounds, etc. The way the logo is featured at the top of the letterhead should be changed. The rule under the logo is unnecessary and the typeface used for the name will be changed. The border may not be needed on the front of the letterhead and business card. The keyhole idea may be unnecessary as well.

Simply Holistic and Whisper Low Logo Redesign

SIMPLY HOLISTIC

Simply Holistic is a holistic pharmacy. The logo is meant to evoke calm, serenity, and a holistic way of life. The original logo concept worked, but needed minor tweaks to make sure it conveyed  the right message and appeared balanced.

After many revisions I arrived at the final logo on the right. I’ve done many small tweaks, including refining the stroke of the stems, adjusting the center to be perfectly aligned vertically, and perfected the s-shape in the middle.

WHISPER LOW

Whisper Low is a secret bar that channels the era of prohibition and the speakeasy. The original logo concept worked but needed some clarification. The martini symbol hidden in the counter space of the building was too hidden. The curved edges of the buildings was added to obscuring the martini glass shape. The windows also needed some simplifying.

On the new logo I focused on making the martini glass more clear by using straight edges on the top of the buildings and widening the base of the martini glass. I then set out on the hardest part of this logo, the windows. I did many, many versions of window arrangements and arrived at this one. This arrangement of windows allows the Art Deco vibe to come out while creating an abstract representation of buildings.

HMV Ad Redesign

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HMV is a music store like Virgin Records. The assignment was to create a holiday campaign that focused on music as the gift to give this year. My concept embraced the red and color colors of the season with a revolutionary twist. The original poster (left) was being dominated by the text, so in the redesign (right) I attempted to allow more room for the image by placing the slogan all on one line. This works better for the image but the text has become too small and will need more tweaking.

The HMV bus wraps for this campaign use a peace sign placed in the campaign slogan. The peace sign hand in the original (top) was blending in too much with the bus. On the redesign (bottom), I switched the color to the beige. This works better. The HMV is too hidden on the bus and I must address this next. Possibly it could be placed on the back of the bus larger.