Pearl Fisher website review

Stella Artois Branding

Pearl Fisher are a branding company that specialize in logo design and rebranding. They have worked with big names such as Dairy Milk, Stella Artois (pictured above) and Absolut Vodka amongst others. They have been nominated for several awards, most recently for their design work for Jamie Oliver rebranding and Dairy Milk chocolate buttons.

Fortnum & Mason

While looking through the website, i came across this design for 'Fornum & Mason'. While Pearl Fisher designed a selection of products by this company, the biscuit range that they designed really caught my eye. I thought the design looked really classy and sophisticated, but also modern at the same time. I especially like the design of the clock hands and how it is a 'Five continent biscuit selection', so they point to 5 o clock. I also think the use of black and gold really helps to make the design look that bit more classy, and almost reminds me of a tin that you would see a watch or a piece of jewelry in.

Overall the work on the website really impressed, especially their designs for Cadbury and the two above. They have a really clean and professional outcome with each their rebranded designs, which is a constant theme throughout the work in the portfolio. Their logo designs really impressed me and will give me a lot of inspiration to take forward into my current logo project.

Student Union poster design project reflection

For my final piece's i decided to go with a simple design, but one that i believed would catch the eye of someone that walked past them. I decided to make my posters at first, advertise a false statement, then when read closer, the full idea is understand. Even though they are quite simple designs, i think that overall they work well, especially in a set of posters.

What i enjoyed about the project

I enjoyed this project as it was a live brief and i enjoy having to work to a set time line. It allowed me to explore into typography designs which is a route i wouldn't normally go down as i prefer to use illustration instead.

What i didn't enjoy about the project

Throughout the end of the project when i was finalising my design i thought that the idea i had came up with wasn't complicated enough and i think that held me back at first as i wanted to create something more exciting, but eventually accepted that sometimes simple designs also work as well and i need to get that idea into my head sometimes.

Problems i encountered

Being a project that the final outcome would be displayed to students i wanted to think of a design that was clever and funny as i thought that would appeal to modern students. Saying this, i found it really hard to think of something that was in-fact clever, and original at the same time.

What went well

I think once i got going with my ideas, i thought i developed them well and found it enjoyable to play around with layouts on Indesign, a program i had never used until this project.

What didn't go well

I think again focussing to much on trying to perfect one idea left me with little time to explore into my other ideas, one of which i also really liked. So if i had more time, i would of liked to develop that one further as well.

New Skills acquired

I think learnt to use Indesign quite quickly considering i hadn't used it up until this project. I really like the program, it makes the layout of pieces much easier

to manage and allows you to play around with your design quickly, which helped me greatly in my designs.

New Knowledge acquired

I think my research into posters helped me to  improve my knowledge of the way posters can be laid out or displayed, which i wasn't confident with

until this project, so i will take that forward for future projects on posters.

Time management

I think the design i decided on helped me easily hit my target, although i struggled with the development and research side of things due to missing a week of college, but in the end managed to get everything handed in on time.

"You can't design without inspiration"

I've been researching into artists and examples of posters to try and get some inspiration for my latest project. Here are some of my favourites so far:

I love the whole flow of text in this, it's simple but

works really well

Possibly my favourite so far. Love the concept, really clever design.

Again, i love the style of typography used. Makes me want to
focus on type in my design!

The colours stood out for me in this one, they all

work together really well.

Virtual Reality Project Reflection

I based my final piece around the concept of addiction within virtual reality games. My idea was to illustrate a 'dose of reality', to show that there is still a lot to explore in the real world, and we should not swap real life for a virtual one.

What I enjoyed about the project

What I didn’t enjoy about the project

During this project, I found that it was hard to create something visually to explain virtual reality without doing the obvious computer based design. I had to look to find different aspects of virtual reality within my research and try and illustrate them as a visual interpretation.

Problems I encountered

I think the main problem I encountered during this project was to take a style of art illustration that is familiar to almost everyone (pop art) and try to put my own unique stamp on it to make something more original.

What went well

I thought that my experimentation with card textures, like the ones I used to create the flowers in the piece above, went well. I really like how they turned out after I scanned them in. Also I think I eventually came up with a lot of initial ideas and had two strong concepts to go with.

What didn’t go well

I think that I focused too much on one piece, which left me with little time to explore and develop my other chosen idea, which in the end made it not as strong as I would of liked it to be.

New skills acquired

I improved my research skills within this project, as I think that the research tasks set really helped me to research more than I would have normally on my previous ND course. It made the whole process a lot clearer and easier to follow.

New knowledge acquired

I think that from my research into some different artists such as James Jean and Andy Warhol, I learnt some new styles to explore within my work.

Time management

I hit my  target deadline and was not rushing to finish like in previous years of graphics.




SMART TARGETS
Specific - Well Defined - Significant, stretching


What is the task to be done? What are the details?
I want to introduce InDesign into my work to help me create better layouts for my designs and to build my work up to a professional standard.


Measurable - Know when it has been achieved = meaningful, motivational


How well has the task been done? What will be different if the task if completed?
I will be measurable by the improvement of presentation and placement in my next project once i try using InDesign to set up my documents. I will be measurable by practicing on InDesign in my own time.

I really enjoyed this project as it allowed me to look into a topic I am unfamiliar with and really explore different aspects of it. It also allowed me to try some styles I haven’t really looked into much before such as pop art.