Who let the horrendously terrifying hybrid dog out?

WHO DID IT? WHO? WHO?

So, in previous weeks one of my projects was to design a dog from a fictitious breed as supplied to us by the tutors. The project was in two parts, one of which, for the first we all had separate breeds as assigned to us, and we had to make our own interpretations of the breed description we were given.
(in a 3D model)

I was given the secret agent dog, which had a long description (of which I won't read out to you) but it included rifles in the anus, bomb disposal genitalia, telescopic eyes and in my case; great camouflage.

So firstly we'll talk about the camouflage—long story short, whilst I was making the dog I had many comments that it looked like a turkey, and I started to realise that the traditional festive feast was becoming the dogs ultimate cosmetic fate.
After a quick brainstorm I realised this project was the last one before Christmas, and it would be really feckin' hilarious if I made a dog that look exactly like a turkey.

I make the dog, all the while looking more and more like some strange handicapped paper turkey; and then to rub salt into the wounds I then painted this terrifying freak of nature like a beautifully cooked turkey.

Then it struck me.

How do you present a secret agent dog that you painted like a turkey? Like it's on a Christmas mission of course! He was presented in a foil tray, surrounded in Brussels sprouts and 'Aunt Bessie's' roast tatties.

And there I am looking gormless as ever. You may be able to stop my dog perching on a set off festive veg.

So after the whole fiasco of making these bloody dogs, presenting them for judging at the first annual Grufts—we were then instructed to create some dangerous hybrid with another students breed, and to glorify this monster of modern science with an info-graphic of the features and traits on this 'thing'.

To be continued.

Just call me 24-hour Vincent! (if you know what I mean) (wink wink, nudge nudge) (over use of brackets)

So, you may have seen that I made a post about offering to design a website in 24 hours, and just before Christmas I did it!

For my first one, I was working with a lovely lady and gent of Brisbane, Australia; who run and own Dog and Fox Creatives. I would use this post to highlight what they do, but honestly, they do so many different things I'm not sure which ones to mention.

The briefing for the site was very simple, so simple in-fact that I had to plan a little myself. which really helped me make the project to suit my time capabilities, and gave me a free reign. It's kind of a dream project but at the same time a nightmare, as you can so easily get it wrong.

Such detail! (love you guys really)

I started the site on December 21st at 12:00 and finished on December 22nd at 12:00, exactly 24 hours. The site isn't completely finished but it is actually at a working state and I'm pretty happy with it. I only really managed to get 13 hours work into the site as I needed breaks and a good amount of sleep. But with that time, as a very inexperienced web designer, I'm pretty proud of what I've achieved.

The guidelines were that it could only be colours (or shades, if you like) on the Greyscale, so it had to be very fashionable and quite simplistic. I feel at the point it's at, it isn't really quite as I fully wanted it to be, but it's close and I think I may become that, when I'm the sites web-master in the new year!

I think they are happy with the site, and I hope that when it comes to it being finished, that I can make it even better thus making them happier. Oh, and also having a great site for my portfolio.

http://www.dfsample.vincentwalden.com

If you click above you'll be able see the version I hosted on a sub-domain of my site, of which is still slightly bugged; but will be sorted, polished and neatened up when I get the chance to really finish it off in the new year!

Keep you're eyes pealed and your ears open!

Thank you sir and madam.

Too much of a good thing

I presume you've heard the say of too much of a good thing—and I have discovered exactly how that saying can ring true. 

The saying usually goes that "Too much of a good thing, can make you sick" or something to that, and although I feel it's almost correct, I am actually really excited. Instead of it being so much that I'm sick of the task ahead of me, I'm actually excited and only slightly overwhelmed.

I posted this image on Monday 15th December and now I've had to start a waiting list and will have to decline anyone else that wants to take me up on this offer.

And as you would image, but not as I anticipated; it was really rather popular. I have only made one website in my life (my current www.vincentwalden.com) and now I have a waiting list, 5 people strong.

I started my Christmas holiday on Friday, it's now Sunday and at 12 Midday tomorrow I'm starting my first 24 hour Website. I'll post about it, with a preview when it's finished and I hope I can actually make it.

If you do want a website, from what you've seen of mine, or if you see the future post and want one; please let me know. But I'm afraid I cannot do it for free, but it'll be a darn sight cheaper than paying a professional. 

As long as you don't mind it being quite simple (at the moment) and it being possibly a little slower than what a professional would do for you, and you get the satisfaction of helping a student designer.

Watermark

I couldn't think of a punny title, okay!

This post is very overdue and I'm really only posting it now after having a look through my blog and realising it wasn't actually there; anyway here goes.

Recently I, along with the rest of the designers in my year group, were asked to all submit entries to compete to have the chance to design a 'magloid' for Keswick's Lit Festival. We were all in competition with each other and we had just over two weeks to produce our proposals for the design on the 'magloid'.

If you are unaware of what a Magloid is – as I was on starting this brief – it's basically a crossover of a magazine and a tabloid, as the name would suggest. And I'm not sure if it's a specific size, but we had very strict guidelines for it's size.

The festival in Keswick is called Watermark and I believe it's hosted by a group named Words on the Water but there are so many trademarks and names for this I honestly have very little idea of what is what.

For the publication, I came up with an idea almost straight away. I wanted to make an old school 3D effect for the magloid, but I decided with would be too much of a hassle and a little inappropriate. So from there I decided I'd go have browse of the library and I came across the idea that Sagmeister did for his book, where he used coloured films to blank out areas in images to produced a juxtaposition image after the overlay.

I feel that the images don't really show what I was trying to show the effect I was trying to make but I think it worked really well and I was really happy with it. We were told we would be informed on who has won and who's designs will be chosen for the final product, but we are yet to hear, so I'll pop up my work and I'll update this if by any chance I'm the one who's selected.

By the way, the images are just placeholders.

Just finished

I've just finished off two things I'm really rather excited about, so I'll leave you some little teasers and make original posts for the pair soon!

How useful!

Colourful and pixalated—now you're excited!

I'll throw my hands up, I'm a magpie

Recently, I designed myself a résumé for the chance to get some design work as my CV just doesn't cut it for me. As strong as I feel my CV is, it has no flair, no individuality and if I was wanting to hire a designer and someone handed it me—I'd yawn to death.

So I had a browse for some ideas to make a Résumé/CV and after trawling through literally hundreds of painfully dull and cringe-worthy designs, but after my hours of fighting I saw the holy grail, the light from the heavens and I absolutely loved the design. I thought it just looked so brilliant and so like what I would like to create.

I saved that image, alone in a folder and just stared at it for a bit, and I thought of how I could make something off that idea without stealing it; but it proved challenging, this man had thought of everything. Well, almost everything.

As I scan my film collection in disappointment of lack of inspiration what am I to see, only one of my favourite all time films. "The Grand Budapest". It hit me like a train. I saw some design concepts from the film that I had fan-girled over earlier this year, and I could merge those with this design to make a hybrid of two things that I feel are perfect, or as close to as humanly possible.

It's MAGPIE TIME! (which is ironic I call it that as I Magpie'd the term from Chip Kidd)

So instead of being a straight copy, I mixed the two to make myself happier because I love both concepts, and it just made me feel better, that I wasn't directly stealing from either.

So to cut to the chance, here's the final product.

I've got to be honest, I worry a little I've treaded a little too closely on the other designers toes – making the layouts so similar – but I'm really happy with it, I've already sent it off to one possible employer and if you are ever to see this (the original creator of the Résumé) and you feel I've ripped you off, I'll put my hands up, apologies and change it all, but otherwise—thank you for the inspiration!

A few more images from Strawberry Fields

Not much to say—just in memory of Dave.

Long Live Dave, Long Live Strawberry Fields

I found out this morning from a drunken message from a friend and the news that local legend of Carlisle, Dave (David Michael McGovern) of Strawberry Fields had passed away.

This has quite touched me as for my very first project at University myself and my friend Alex Hill went to visit Dave to study him and his shop to make an e-book on the experience. We had a bloody great time going back there day after day digging through countless amounts leather boots and t-shirts to end up uncovering suits of armour and collections of broken sunglasses.

The project ended up being a great success as we loved it and so did the tutors. To add to it, they mentioned that many students had tried to interview him and take his photograph before and he has either straight up refused them or just ignored them in great Dave style. So the fact that we got the chance to spend that time with him, learn from him and understand him, makes me feel very privileged.

But to quickly side track—the best part of that project and the visit was on the third or fourth day; he sat me and Alex down to ask us to remove a large shard of metal from the bottom of his foot, as he had been walking around with bare-feet in his studio. Safe to say I left that task to Alex.

I'm not sure how the rest of Carlisle felt about Dave but I know for myself and Alex we thought that he was an inspiration of freedom and a half closed book of great knowledge of things you would never need to know; but not needing to know them didn't make them any less interesting.

I will personally miss seeing him very much and I hope whatever happens to his shop and all his stock is treated with the respect and care he would of wished as he told us "All the stock in here isn't always strictly for sale because it's all collected from my life".

Here are a few images that I quite liked from around his shop:

Rest in Peace Sir Dave!

I will post some more images when I find them all!

The resurrection of correct spelling

As a wise man said only a few evenings ago "You are churning them out so fast you don't even have time to spell-check!" and to be honest, I'm still having a good chuckle at that.

So for the most recent poster, I tried my best to actually spell things correctly. I almost managed to get the year wrong, but Mark from The Birckyard managed to help me figure out which year it was actually supposed to be.

So for this one, I was doing a poster for a Stone Roses tribute band; which means expect lots of images of citrus fruits and 'Pollock-esque paintings'.

For this poster I wanted to make the poster remeble the iconic features of the band and their first album; using the tradmark abstract painting, overlayed fruits, strips of colour and for some reason—excessive amounts of gold text.

It proved a little difficult to work all these colours, images and iconography together but in the end I feel that it stands out and gets the main information across, although aesthetically I feel it's missing something.

And is there is a spelling mistake, let me know—because my spelling is shite and I be I've missed something on this poster too.

The Birckyard

Today I was alerted of a fatal error—an error in spelling. (The worst kind)

It turns out I'm a Berk and I work for the Birckyard; as pointed out by my pal Greg Wynne. 

Lesson of the day people, check your spelling and don't be a Berk. 

Christmas Act-Stravaganza—ged'it?

Well aren't I just a punny bugger, har har!

This post is an odd one, it's something I had never tackled before; it was a poster for an acting showcase. I haven't even made posters for the Drama students on campus, never mind for a full blown acting group! (but it was a good challenge)

To start with, I had no real port of reference as I hadn't done anything like this before, so I headed to go old google and new and sparkling Pinterest; of which I am very familiar with both of these so I made light work of finding some traditional drama and panto posters.

After a bit of chat back and forth with the director of the group, he explained although they are a traditional playhouse who preform in a traditional style; they would like a modern and bright poster.

So I set to work looking at Chip Kidd and Neville Brody and large inspirations, but after a bit of testing and playing around; I found adapting my style with modernism may be the best outcome.

After some testing this is what I had made and I was really quite happy with, but I was informed by both Paulie (director of the acting club) and the other half, that it just wasn't all that 'christmassy'.

And although I personally thought the image worked really well and I was really happy with the poster, they were right—it was an image that dominated the majority of the poster and it just didn't denote Christmas at all.

I really didn't want to change it, but at the end of the day, it's the clients choice and as much as I can advice or wish something would work, it sometimes just doesn't.

And after some deliberation on my half, I changed it and they were really quite happy with it.

And although I feel it's not as strong aesthetically, it is much stronger contextually because you instantly recognise it's relation to that dreaded date in December.

Have a Motown & Soul Christmas, ya filthy animals!

So it's almost Christmas—if you didn't already know. Which fills me with excitement and dread, but mostly excitement so I won't go too far into it.

This time of the year means one thing for any designer, everyone asks for their posters to look 'Christmassy' which will almost always entail a colour scheme of Red & Green and lots of white specks dotted around the image.

But this poster, although it embodies all those terrifying traits was in fact a lovely poster to do. This was because the client actually knew a style they wanted and it wasn't strictly just the idea of Christmas.

This was the inspiration I was given from the DJ for Motown & Soul, and to be honest, as simple as it is—I really like it. I really had to make this fit the style I had created from the previous posters and without breaking any copyright laws; it was difficult but I feel it went rather well!

If looks closely you can spot Michael Jackson, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes and those lovely ladies of who's name I cannot remember.

So there isn't all that much more I can say, but I hope you like the poster. Because it's going to be in and around Carlisle, in your face, very very soon. You have been warned.

Shiny Silver, Shiny Sloth's of Silver

Hello!

It's been a while since I've posted—so I thought I'd treat you to a bit of craziness and cuteness that I've been working on recently. Which of course includes a sloth.

I was approached by talented all rounder Emma Whitaker for a new logo as I had already helped her with one of her projects before. She originally wanted to re brand herself to "Silver Linings Productions" but she was informed that it was already taken by a large company. So after a small amount of brainstorming we got to the idea that she loved Sloth's and still wanted a similar name—thus spawns the title "Silver Sloth Productions".

I started by making a Pinterest board for both of us to throw ideas on to, which began to include a range of logos, modern branding and strangely enough; sloth related jewellery. And although this had very little to do with a logo, it was made from silver and helped with main construction and shape of the logo.

So I started sketching and throwing around ideas, which eventually lead to me trying to create the logo with circles only (as I had seen a few people create logo's that way before).

.

But after a while of trying and testing, I found that it really didn't work for what she wanted and it was also a process that I haven't quite mastered. And that is when I got sent this great drawing.

I mean she is honestly an up-and-coming J.M.W Turner.

So after a prolonged chat through Facebook we decided that it should be similar to that style but still follow the idea of the circle shape, which quite quickly progressed into an almost finished idea.

I'm pretty happy with this, and I think it makes a cool logo. I also really like the versions and alterations I made to allow Emma to get some stickers printed that I will get posted on here as soon as I get on.

Thank you for the offer and chance Emma, and I hope to see this Sticker Slapped everywhere.

A first attempt at Letterpress!

So only yesterday, I had my first experience of making Typography via the method of Letterpress.
I honestly think I didn't do it as you would imagine—locking full paragraphs into cast iron frames.
I actually just printed a small quote using on of my favourite fonts in 48pt.

So after scouring around in the wooden plainchests I came across a draw with no label (as the others all had one) and it simple read "Futura" in half-faded pencil. I almost screamed, I really didn't think there would be many sets of Futura kicking around so I instantly looked for all the letters I needed.

The only problem with my Universities letterpress studio is that it's so poorly funded (if at all) that it has many missing letters and glphs, but luckily for me this set of 48pt Futura had most of it's set.

The final words of JMW Turner

I went with something very simple and only four words long; the last words of my favourite artist JMW Turner. Although this is very simple, I rather like it and as I was using one of my favourite fonts, to make a quote from one of my favourite artist; so I though I'll make an enigmatic statement with my two favourite glyphs.

Is there anything that the Swiss don't do well?

I feel the title will of already of given you a good guess, so I won't waffle on to you.
I have recently just finished a poster for an Alternate and Indie night at The Brickyard; featuring only local bands.

I got offered the poster, and I was at the time just having a look at some of my favourite Swiss Design, which was the remake of the "Gang of Four" poster.
I am quite passionate about Swiss Design, but I feel it's only really useful in some occasions, and has been so painfully overused that referencing it often just falls short of aspirations; of which I'm hoping this isn't.

There isn't much I can say other than—it looks pretty and has enough Helvetica to feed a family of Typographers for weeks.

Get yourselves there.

What I'm working on: Christmas OVERKILL Edition!

At the moment, I'm working on a tonne of things but I thought I'd let you lovely people know of a few, seeing as I haven't posted much all that recently.

Most recently I've been working on creating my website—this is a project set by the university but I'm going a tad overboard with it and started building it when it should really still be in the design stage, and it should be finished for the holidays. So as I'm doing that I though I'd share a few little snapshots.

Whilst doing this I have a few other things as well; I am working on creating a Christmas Panto poster for a local acting group, of which I'm likely to be making a large cardboard set and taking images in a stop motion style. (because clearly I can't have an animated poster) (but I would if I could)

I am also working with a class mate to set up a Christmas Zine & Print Fayre for members of the Grillust studio to sell and buy each others wares as they choose; it's also a constructive excuse to pocket some money and get intoxicated in the process. So yeah, sounding quite fun!

I'll post more info closer to the time, but look out for Grillustmas!

I am also making another Christmas poster—but this time for The Brickyard. I am continuing making the Motown & Soul night posters, but this time I get to make a Christmas one, so of course it's going to be cheesy as hell!

And as a final note, I've just finished a Swiss Design stlye Indie night poster and helped make one hella cute logo for a friend; so they'll be posted up soon!

Bad Manners, very poor manners indeed.

Recently, I have been working on a poster for the overly large, and large tongued band that is Bad Manners. And now I've been Ska'd for life. hahahahahahahahahahahahaha—I should be a comedian.

Anyway, It's been loads of fun designing this poster, and learning a bit more about the influences of Ska and the design style that came along with the genre.

As I already knew, Ska and Punk are quite closely linked—although I'm not completely sure why, so I decided the best way to tackle the poster was to work from what I already knew, so I made a hybrid of the two.

Once I had got a style and look, that I was happy with for the main structure of the image, I decided I would start by making the poster information almost exclusively out of sharpie markers and tippex; because there is nothing more punk than abusing office supplies. 

And then, I attacked it with a photocopier, like every good punk designer. And whilst operating the scanner, my good friend Nathan popped over to encourage me to mess with the settings and see what came out. After a short while I began making them into two-colour scans, which made some strange results—which were great but not suiting at all.

After all this, I looked at it and thought; "it's just too rough." What I wanted to get across is that the poster was made with bad manners, so I drew on his face and wrote over him as if there were to be little respect for him. But I felt the pens just made it too rough, that it didn't have the right impact; so once again I made a hybrid. This time of digital and manual construction and editing.

So this was the outcome, which I hope conveys that I made with poor manners, but also a respect for the culture and genre of the band, which had to of course include Buster Bloodvessle and his enormous tongue. So if anyone is thinking of going, I'll see you there as I'm planning on rocking out with my parents for one of the oddest Christmas holidays I've ever had.