Trunk furniture sketches - update

I posted some illustration work I did while on placement at Wonder stuff studio, for a furniture company called 'trunk reclaimed'.

Happy to say they're live on the site now!

Here is one section -

Time plan 14/5/12

Monday - PPD file

Tuesday - Placement

Wednesday - Placement

Thursday - Hand in PPD

Friday - Work on portfolio layout

Useful advice on graphic design

I was browsing through youtube recently, and found a great channel all about graphic design. Tim from TM media shares a great selection of videos with advice on the graphic design world. I particularly liked this video about identifying what you want to be, a graphic designer or an illustrator. Tim states that he gets a lot of job applications from designers, claiming they are graphic designers, but their portfolio shows that they are actually more of an illustrator. Tim's advice is to choose one or the other, and be great at your chosen discipline. This is especially good advice for me considering I do tend to dip into both disciplines quite a lot. Certainly an interesting watch, as are his other videos!

http://www.youtube.com/user/tmmediainc

Portfolio Website

Portfolio Website

What I enjoyed about the project

I really enjoyed the designing process of my website. I am becoming more and more fond of designing flat visuals, and would like to try more.

What I didn’t enjoy about the project

I didn't enjoy the actually building of the website in dreamweaver. Coding was much more difficult than I anticipated. 

Problems I encountered

The main problem i encountered was building my website. I found dreamweaver really difficult to use and it took me a while to build my website, even though it looks quite simple.

What went well

I think the design process of my website went well, as I created a layout that complimented my personal branding, and displayed my work clearly. 

What didn’t go well

I had a lot of trouble with Dreamweaver, and kept accidentally changing my code, which completely changed the view of the site. It took me a while to get all the code right, and the website working.

New skills acquired

After a lot of trial and error, I feel that I gained new skills in Dreamweaver, becoming more comfortable with the program as the weeks went by.

New knowledge acquired

I gained a vast knowledge of current web design, as well as the importance of planning a website using wireframes and site maps.

Time management

I felt that I handled most of my project well and kept up to date with the research tasks and development. However, my difficulties with DreamWeaver slowed me down, but I still managed to hit my deadline.

Candy Room

At Wonder Stuff Studio, I am currently helping a client with a rebrand of her cupcake shop. She wasn't entirely clear on what she wanted for her shop, so I decided to make a research file full of potential routes that she could go down.

While doing this research, I stumbled across an amazing sweet shop design in Melbourne. The shop is called 'Candy Room', hence the reason it is a sweet shop. I was amazed by the interior design of the shop. Clearly they had carried the loose, hand drawn style across into the interior and created a simple, yet brilliant shop floor which made all of the colourful sweets look that more tempting!

Here are some shots of the shop to give a better idea of the design

Time plan 7/05/12

Monday - Portfolio module

Tuesday - Placement

Wednesday - Placement

Thursday - Hand in digital skills

Friday - RELAX

'Wonder-ing' what I'm doing?

I have been on placement at Wonder Stuff Studio for three weeks now. The placement has been exciting, but very challenging. My main problem is trying to get myself up to speed with the pace that Paul works at. I find myself spending more time than I probably should on designs, which Paul, through years of experience, can achieve in half the time. Having said this, I am slowly starting to become faster in creating my visuals.


I have also had the opportunity to use InDesign more, with Paul showing me bits and pieces on the program. I'm still not 100% confident in using InDesign, but I know that if I want to get a job once I leave University, I need to be able to use the Adobe Suite to a high standard. 


This week I had the chance to work on some illustration pieces for a furniture company. They wanted some perspective sketches of their furniture, so they sent me through some photographs from their warehouse for me to draw. Having never done a perspective drawing before, it was a challenge, but I think I managed to produce professional quality work, which the client was happy with, which of course is what matters in the end.


These illustrations were worlds apart from my usual illustration style, but I enjoyed doing them and I think the outcome was much better than I thought it would be.


Here is a screenshot of the illustrations.