I attended a D&AD University Network meeting last week at Edinburgh Art College. along with tutors from Glasgow School of Art, ECA and Gray's.
Laura and Rhiannon from D&AD presented samples of the new D&AD website, and talked us through some important new features that Network members will be able to use. These included the portfolio resource where we'll be able to upload and exhibit up to 14 pieces per project!
D&AD are very keen that we exhibit at New Blood in London, where there will be 175 stands (including ours) and 1000's of agency people. They also brought up a couple of useful pointers about submitting briefs -
Firstly, that the judges are looking for something that's never been done before, and which takes risks without alienating the client.
Secondly, try to steer clear of the obvious briefs - posters and big name clients. You are more likely to get your work noticed on the more unusual briefs, particularly the digital ones. Great advice!
Archiving for Web
20 February 2010
You should be archiving all your finished print work as 300ppi PDF files. These files should go in the assessments Drive under assessments/designarchive/your_HND_year.
You should also get into the habit of preparing web-formated JPG copies of your work so that they can be posted here on the blog, or uploaded to your own portfolio website. This is important, because your final project, and all future projects in Years 1 and 2 will contain a requirement for this process.
The link below goes to a detailed set of guidelines on how to resize and save your work for the web - Archiving Guidelines.
You should also get into the habit of preparing web-formated JPG copies of your work so that they can be posted here on the blog, or uploaded to your own portfolio website. This is important, because your final project, and all future projects in Years 1 and 2 will contain a requirement for this process.
The link below goes to a detailed set of guidelines on how to resize and save your work for the web - Archiving Guidelines.
Probably the Best Job in the World...
19 February 2010
The BBC only launched their customisable website last year, and are currently getting a grilling about the way they spend our money, but they still have the budget to hire Neville Brody's Research Studios to overhaul their digital output.
The collaboration will see a huge re-design of the BBC's online presence, which they are calling a 'Global Visual Language'. The brief is to take the organisation and its users into a more compelling digital space.
Brody has been tasked with re-inventing the typography, colour palette and iconography of the BBC's online branding.
The studio is currently in the process of consolidating all the work into a styleguide that can then be used across the whole range of BBC output - in effect a new set of branding guidelines. As part of this monumental re-vamp, it looks like Brody has also been tweaking the BBC's established typeface - Gill Sans.
On the Research Studio website, Brody called it 'probably the best job in the world ', and said that 'the core approach has been to find a simple, modern and compelling experience based around dramatic and scalable editorial concepts.'
Research Studios also posted up some brilliant examples of the work-in-progress, including typographic studies, colour wheel samples, layout ideas and an amazing array of vector icons. Check out some of the examples:
More:
Research Studios BBC work-in-progress
The collaboration will see a huge re-design of the BBC's online presence, which they are calling a 'Global Visual Language'. The brief is to take the organisation and its users into a more compelling digital space.
Brody has been tasked with re-inventing the typography, colour palette and iconography of the BBC's online branding.
The studio is currently in the process of consolidating all the work into a styleguide that can then be used across the whole range of BBC output - in effect a new set of branding guidelines. As part of this monumental re-vamp, it looks like Brody has also been tweaking the BBC's established typeface - Gill Sans.
On the Research Studio website, Brody called it 'probably the best job in the world ', and said that 'the core approach has been to find a simple, modern and compelling experience based around dramatic and scalable editorial concepts.'
Research Studios also posted up some brilliant examples of the work-in-progress, including typographic studies, colour wheel samples, layout ideas and an amazing array of vector icons. Check out some of the examples:
More:
Research Studios BBC work-in-progress
Non-Teaching Week
20 January 2010
This is the last week of Block 1, and next week the Design Team will get a chance to enjoy some staff development sessions, and to plan some of the delivery options for Block 2 at NC and HN levels.
Today I sat in on the HND students as they presented interim work for their YCN briefs to Helena. There are some great projects this year - e.g. Castrol, Fedrigoni and Cartoon Network - and some of the work the guys have come up with is really creative and well-thought out.
Once the work is finalised we'll try to post some of it up here.
I should also mention that Year 2 are all going out on placement during February, many of them to great Edinburgh agencies like Hush, Lewis and Redpath, but some are going further afield (and I mean further!) - Bournemouth, Amsterdam, Poland and even Thailand. So good luck to them all!
Just a pity the tutors don't get a funded trip to see each student in their workplace...
Today I sat in on the HND students as they presented interim work for their YCN briefs to Helena. There are some great projects this year - e.g. Castrol, Fedrigoni and Cartoon Network - and some of the work the guys have come up with is really creative and well-thought out.
Once the work is finalised we'll try to post some of it up here.
I should also mention that Year 2 are all going out on placement during February, many of them to great Edinburgh agencies like Hush, Lewis and Redpath, but some are going further afield (and I mean further!) - Bournemouth, Amsterdam, Poland and even Thailand. So good luck to them all!
Just a pity the tutors don't get a funded trip to see each student in their workplace...
Sketchbook Talk
13 January 2010
Helena Good has struck gold again, this time by tempting Telford graduate and YCN winner Gemma Rundell back to her old stomping ground to deliver a talk to the NC students. Gemma will be looking at research, concept development, sketchbook work, and the general approach designers need to take to interpreting briefs.
The talk will take place on Monday 17th Jan at 2pm in R310.
The talk will take place on Monday 17th Jan at 2pm in R310.
Calling All Pencil Pushers
10 January 2010
With a new set of D&AD briefs circulating amongst the students, you may have noticed that the print visuals for the 2010 awards materials are pretty awesome. That's because they have been created by none other than Neville Brody and his team at Research Studios.
The new concept is a real celebration of teaching and learning, and features a brilliant double-sided Wanted poster “tutors with extra oomph” for the academic audience and “students with excess talent” developed for those of you applying your creative skills to the briefs.
Check out the great locations map - the spot in Scotland includes Edinburgh's Telford College!
You can check out a large selection of the work at Research Studios.
The new concept is a real celebration of teaching and learning, and features a brilliant double-sided Wanted poster “tutors with extra oomph” for the academic audience and “students with excess talent” developed for those of you applying your creative skills to the briefs.
Check out the great locations map - the spot in Scotland includes Edinburgh's Telford College!
You can check out a large selection of the work at Research Studios.