Best ideas this year...

Just thought before I went out celebrating with the gang from back home I would say a Happy New Year to all of you.  Lets hope 2010 brings some great opportunities for us all. 


I also thought id share with you two links, the previous post and this one. 

This is one of the best idea's I have seen this year, so simple and yet elegant design work and you just cant believe this product hasn't been developed before!! I fully expect Apple to do something similar this year - They are meant to be at the forefront of cool things right!? Take a peek at the icon magazine review and also at Min-Kyu Choi's own website. 

Great resource...

Hilman Curtis is a guy who goes around and interviews designers. On his website you have a range of videos from Carson to Sagmeister, from Pentagram to Glaser and also a few illustrators too. They are a fantastic resource to see these people talking about their work and their approach to design - think of it as an extension to the society. Check it out.  

Our own creative talent...

I thought it was about time i stopped talking about others we admire and look closer at our own creative talent. For the lecture just gone two third year illustrators designed packaging for our Plymouth Gin presents. Certainly got the designers excited and what a fantastic way to get students work up and out there and on show in a studio in london!


The photo shows the two illustrators Xander Lee (left) and Kate Mowbray (right) standing with Joanna Pierce (middle left) and Mark Lloyd (middle right) who both work for Webb Scarlett deVlam.

Happy Christmas!

Just thought I would wish you all a fantastic Christmas break.

Thank you for all your support this year in helping us get off the ground. I know from speaking to a few of you how much this has helped and I hope we can continue year after year!

Hope you get all the presents that you want and even though Christmas is fast becoming a load of commercial rubbish (except spending Christmas day with my 3yr old niece does make christmas again!), its a fantastic excuse to spend time with family and friends so enjoy :-)

See you in the new year,

All of us on the DS Committee x x

Snowflake Competition!

You all remember how to make paper snowflakes right? Well theres a competition online at the moment to do just that, take a photo before the end of Jan and submit that online and then you could win a load of goodies! sounds easy doesn't it! check out the competition and who your up against here. Its a vote system too so just get all your mateys to vote - or comment and say which one is yours and you can have over 100 members voting on your design! how cool is that!!!

Rules of work...

Something I stole from the graphic exchange website...

When you feel really inspired, drop everything and work! a good idea is often gone the next morning. Make inspiration a priority. this means that if you have a favorite band, a favorite magazine or a favorite blog you make time for it, guilt free! small breaks for inspiration are always worth it when followed by a good creative workday! Surround yourself with positive people. find the people in your life who love you AND your work and make you feel really good about what you are doing. avoid negative people during busy work times! Make friends with other artists you admire. this is a must! friends in your industry will keep your inspired and challenged. Find a new obsession as often as you need to. Find little things that you can fancy that make your day and cause you to think in a new direction.

Dolls.

DAHRA (Designers Against Human Rights Abuse) had an auction earlier this month as part of their christmas party of 30 unique, signed Munny dolls customised by some of the most prominent graphic and product designers in the industry, as well as some limited edition goodies.

One of these extra goodies came from our very own second year illustrator Claire Latcham!

See the different doll designs here. 

Harry Pearce book!

This will be on sale when Harry Pearce comes down for a lecture on 19th Jan so I thought id give you prior warning! Follow the link, take a good look and doesn't it look interesting... any graphic designers wet dream!!!


Here's a bit more about the book...

“Sometimes the more cornered you are the more fun you have.”

Designed by Harry Pearce, Conundrums is a new collection of elegant typographic puzzles constrained by three simple rules: one box, two colours, a single typeface.

In the introduction to the book Harry writes: “I grew up in an age and a home where the words of Spike Milligan, Edward Lear, Peter Cook and Monty Python, among many others, filled the air. Nonsense that made sense; irreverence that became pure pleasure. Words became images, images words, and where was the line between the two? It didn’t matter as long as they gave you a smile of recognition. So, visual games with words have stayed with me. And, strangely, these little games seem to have a life of their own. I started them years ago, a love affair between typography and phrase, and they’ve been one step ahead of me ever since."

How to get commissioned by Creative Review...

When I first saw this post it really made me laugh. This blog link documents how Johanna Basford sent her work into Creative Review's editor. You obviously need an innovative and fresh approach, such as this, as it worked and now shes working for them!

Check out her portfolio of work too. Although it all follows the same style its some fantastic work. Must have taken a very long time considering its all been done by hand with a pen!!

CV Advice...

Patrick Baglee from Navyblue has been in touch with one of the members to give advice on their CV which we thought to pass on...


"I asked for advice about my website and he came back with some really useful ideas about improving it, one particular suggestion which may be helpful twas about my 'inspiration' section:


make your inspiration about things I might never have seen. I know Alan Fletcher IS inspiring - but I'd like to hear about things that are really different and very personal to you - or - about which page in Fletcher's book inspires you most - not just the book itself. Everyone is inspired by him... but what makes it resonate with you in particular?" 

Wow. 21 days without posting anything! It wasn't that creativity dries up... just work prevails!


Here is something I found two years ago. Its an experimental project by japanese artist Kentaro Nagai which is really interesting. He took a vector image of the world map and manipulated the positioning of the countries to form animal shapes. Whilst some aren't that great there are a few which are fantastic such as this cow. The intro page is really cool where you get to see a flash animation of the animals merging into one another and its the point between chaos and the shape forming thats really interesting.

something to do with an apple mouse...

something to do with an apple mouse...

Hello Monday have a really cool flash website for their portfolio of work. including these...