Change

And breathe.

I feel like my life has completely changed over the past 3 months. In a very good way. When I've asked friends who I haven't seen in a while what they've been doing and they answer "not much" I find it hard to believe - how can so much change in one person's world but not another's? 

The glaringly obvious change is that I've now finished uni (in Australia…), that I've been settling into a new house, a new job and a new church. So much else though, so many little things that I guess would never have happened if I hand't moved physical locations. My whole schedule has changed because living in the city has allowed me to cycle regularly groups, and I've seriously fallen in love with it! Maybe I'm still in the honeymoon-phase of road riding but I love the adrenaline rush and the camaraderie with fellow riders. Going for a very early ride and watching the sun rise over the ocean puts me into a good state of of mind for the rest of the day (until I start crashing again around 9pm…). I wrote a really 'down' post earlier this year after my heel injury, and I'm truly thankful for this unexpected silver lining.

New friendships. Meaningful ones. A support circle and the feeling of genuine care and love.

Realising I've become so much more sure of myself, my faith and being comfortable in my own skin this year. A really awful thing happened a few weeks back but I think I'm coping okay, and I'm going to take that as a sign of becoming more resilient. Maybe I'll make a zine about it these holidays.

Oh yeah, I'm another year older! I think my perception of age has also changed though, and I no longer feel like I need to ask someone's age straight away and then write-off potential friendships if they aren't within a few years of me. 

I'm excited for what I think the next couple of years might have in store, for now I'll  be putting more effort into writing more on here. I've missed it.

PS. These ^ are some shots from my major project. Have a look at  more here, at my and my colleagues' work here, and at some of my other stuff here. I'm currently available for freelance work, projects and collaborations for anything to do with design, linoprinting or photography - I would love if you or anyone you might know want to get in touch!

Write

A series including a journal, notebook and card covers that I designed recently for a stationery competition. I must have been in a weird mood when making these, I  think I definitely didn't make them commercial-looking enough. I still it like it though.

Textile

Last week I photographed Rouse Phillips Textiles for Broadsheet - apart from Anastasia and Tim being absolutely lovely, I was so impressed by their designs - their prints are exactly what I would love to have in my dream home one day (at the moment that's a high ceiling apartment somewhere in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, but it changes weekly). Organic with a slight African and 90's feel, I loved all of it. Tim also studied Visual Communications as I do now and it was good to chat and be reassured that I don't need to know in what exact field I'd like to go in yet. Have a look at the Broadsheet article here.

MOTION ONE

Music: 
1. Alt-J - Fitzpleasure
2. Flume - Sleepless
3. Polographia - Righteous Hit
(I do not own this music, please support these artists)

I always thought Motion Graphics / animation wouldn't be my thing - and it still isn't really - but in hindsight I quite enjoyed this uni assignment. The task was to create 3 clips, each not over 10 seconds long. The first was to show 'Concealing & Revealing' with a word or phrase, the second 'Repetition & Movement' and the last 'Type in Motion'. It was the first time I'd ever used Adobe After Effects which I found quite a challenge, especially with production time being less than three weeks to learn and create everything! These are super simple & I'm looking forward to exploring the world of motion graphics more in the future.

REVERIE

Series of design magazine covers. The task was to decide on a name for a magazine, design a masthead and generate original imagery for a Typography, Colour and Technology Issue.  My rationale explains it better than I can right now:

" ‘Reverie’ means to daydream, and through the masthead I tried to communicate a feeling of movement and flow, as if daydreaming. The idea of my magazine was to present something that designers would want to look at in their free time; that introduces broader design thinking through a well & interestingly designed magazine. All three covers of my magazine somehow challenge the issue topic or article, the typography issue cover dealing with the ‘crystal goblet’ Beatrice Ward writes about, the colour issue with the Chromatic Diet article and the technology issue compelling the reader to view technology in a new way. I imagined the target reader to be a well-educated designer, and as a result of the aesthetic nature of the covers, it is a higher-end, slightly more expensive magazine, yet still feels down to earth with an off white, uncoated paper stock for the cover.  I think the fact that the cover images aren’t blatantly obvious in regards to the issue name is effective as it creates initial interest & curiosity, and then understanding after reading the feature article (how the broken glass relates to ‘The Typography Issue’, for example). In the covers, strong emphasis is placed on creating a series look, in order for Reverie to establish a strong brand. Through the fact that the masthead is always in the same position so that it forms a continuous line, both when facing upwards and on the spines, readers would feel more compelled to buy every issue in order to have a complete collection. However, every issue still looks fresh and exciting through considerably different imagery and the changing colour of the masthead, while still maintaining the Reverie branding. "

I'm actually quite happy with these covers, considering that I can still bear to look at these a few weeks after I handed it in (this is almost never the case with uni assignments). One day I can hopefully work in food magazine design (one can dream...).

And yes, I did hold a motherboard up against the sky and balanced my camera in the other hand.

EXPORT

On Wednesday night I attended the opening night of 'Export'- the UTS Visual Communications 4th year graduation show. Man, do I have a long way to go.

It was held in the former Carlton United Brewers' warehouses in Chippendale, a really industrial setting which added to the overall 'designery' feel of the exhibition. I found the branding of the show also very well considered. I'd really encourage you to visit if you're at all interested in design but you'll have to be quick because it's only open till 6pm today (26 November) at 50 Kensington Street, Chippendale (very close to Central station). Otherwise be sure to check out the rest of the UTS grad shows happening in the next week or so, the standard is very high (...and I'm not just saying that because I go there!).

Free drinks, cheese, salami, olives & fruit- what more could a designer want?

Taken with a Canon 600D

PS I've made these photos slightly larger- do you think this size is better or do you prefer the smaller sizes I posted images before?

YEAR IN PROJECTS: PART I

I'm free! I finally finished my first year of Visual Communications last Friday, and despite really enjoying it, it's such a relief to know I've got the next 3.5 months to catch up on sleep and relax. Here are some of the things I did this year:

This was our first ever uni assignment and seemed like such a daunting task at the time: identify two typefaces (Bembo & Futura), select their identifying features, arrange parts of the letterforms in a typographically interesting way. Laughable now, but definitely not at the time.

These little illustrations are part of an assignment we had to do on any object's design history - I chose electric mixers (...domestic goddess in the making). This is probably the full extent of my drawing abilities- even teachers remarked that I have a 'naive' drawing style...

At the start of the year we went on a 3 day excursion to Cockatoo Island. For the first project my group decided to map the textures that we could find in our section of the island, and how the cracks combine all the different elements of deterioration.

DEAR MUM

I actually didn't know it was possible, but I somehow managed to finish an assignment a full 48 HOURS before it was due. For this assignment we had to create some postcards with a visual metaphor on the front and an 'insight' to do with something we learn throughout the year on the back. I really liked the materiality of the postcards when actually printed on thick-stock watercolour paper - hence the photos instead of the straight files.

Done with pastels and probably the most 'artsy' out of all of the postcards, but I think it really communicates my attitude towards coffee/caffeine this year. Coffee has become much more of an everyday 'need' than something I just enjoyed over catch-ups with friends (the presence of a cafe serving Toby's Estate about 5metres from uni doesn't help either). This I really intend to change over the summer- all those takeaway cups are so bad, not to mention all that money!

Was intending to do this one with old Letraset transfer-letters but succumbed to laziness and just whipped it up on Illustrator. Notice how Gill Sans becomes Comic Sans at the bottom?!

Quickly did this about 5 minutes before I got it printed, but I still like its simplicity and message. And the pretty colours.