Sunday 31 October 2010

Banksy exhibition!

I have now been in the delightful Burnley for 8 weeks... On Saturday there was a Banksy exhibition in a town near here, for one weekend only.  I have found a perk at last and a little taste of the city =)








Friday 3 September 2010

New Opportunities

The month of August has also been very exciting in other ways for me, as lots of new opportunities have arisen.

Firstly, I had an interview for a Graduate scheme I applied for to win a free post grad course in Creative Business Management and a 6 month paid placement, which I recently found out I'd won.  After swearing I would not go back in to education even if someone paid me, 2 months later and I will be enrolling on a seven week post grad course at UCLAN (on my birthday, no less).  However, 7 weeks is not long, and they are paying me, so it was too good of an opportunity to turn down!  Then in October I will start a new 6 month paid placement as Graphics and Marketing assistant at a textile company called Panaz.  I am really excited about the possibilities and experience I will gain from this, and hope it will lead onto bigger and better things.  The only downside is the area, an old textile mill near Burnley - but I will be living in a gorgeous house with some new people and hopefully lots of new things to explore!

Secondly, I was approached by the agency Let Loose Design and asked to go for an interview there, so I am now officially on the books as a freelancer.  Quite how I will juggle these two things, I'm not sure yet, but for the time being things are pretty busy!

So, having recently gained a car, a new house, a job and a freelance roll, and about to turn 23, I feel like a real grown up now!  Eek! I have to pay council tax!

Cheethem Bell JWT

During the DNA event at the end of term, I had a number of interviews and portfolio crits which lead to me meeting Dom Rodwell, Digital Creative Director of JWT Manchester.  After getting back in touch with him, I organised to go there for a month placement so that is where I have spent the wet and rainy August!

Working on digital campaigns for BMI Baby, The Cornerhouse and Whitbread Pub Chain, I had my first real experience of working within social media and website design.  I learned a lot while I was there, made some good friends and connections and added to the growing list of agencies I've worked in.

This is Man... This is Woman

Hello blog, It's been a while!

There's a lot to catch up on, so watch this space, but for starters, here's a few things I've been meaning to share for a while!

This is the Man, This is the Woman is a campaign for French connection that I spotted in the window of the Manchester store a few months ago and fell in love with.  A little late, so i'm sure many have seen it too, but just incase you haven't then here it is!

The campaign plays on the stereotypes of men and women, inspired by classic cinema and was also backed up by a facebook and twitter campaigns with challenges for men and short films.
























I love the whole style and attitude of this campaign, the copywriting is absolutely spot on, witty but sophisticated sarcasm and clever cultural undertones.  It reminds me of Ed Ruscha, one of my favourite artists.  This is what I call fashion advertising with substance!




Wednesday 4 August 2010

Vivid London

Since graduating I have been busy busy busy.

A few months before uni ended I was thinking, what am I going to do... each year the whole summer stretches out before me and I think, oh I'll have plenty of time to do that, and visit so and so and catch up on that and then low and behold the weeks start to fill up and suddenly it's september again.

But now September will never be a significant month in the year again.  No more first day backs on my birthday (every year since I started school).  No, now I just have the rest of my life stretching out in front of me!

Last week I finished my first placement of the summer at Vivid London, a marketing and communications agency in London.  I had a really great time here, and learned more than I have at any other placement.  I enjoyed working in a small agency and a close knit environment where everyone was working together and responsible for everything.  I got the chance to work on a number of jobs including design, writing, market research and PR lists.  I even spent an hour as a 'pretend make-up artist' - brief: touch the client a lot and make him feel as uncomfortable as possible.  All in a day's work for media training!

My logo designs for one of their clients was chosen to be used as well, so all in all it was a great two weeks and I want to thank Vivid London for having me!

You can read their blog here, which has some great articles on it, well worth the read!

Onto the next placement for now, but I do hope I'll get to go back to Vivid London as I had a great time there.

Thursday 29 July 2010

Go Ape!

For the last two weeks, I have been working in a London agency called Vivid London....more about that later... and have been staying with my Auntie here.  At the weekend, we decided to go on a bit of an adventure and signed up for a Go Ape course in a nearby park.  This is essentially a tree top  rope assault course. 

As it was just my Auntie and myself we couldn't take any pics, but here's an idea of the kind of things we did.  I'm not really scared of heights usually, but on more than a few occasions my stomach went through my mouth - especially on the tarzan swing where you had to jump completely off the platform and swing through the air into a cargo net!  



                                               




Tuesday 13 July 2010

The Ad Generator

Fascinating....

http://www.cogandsprocket.com/adgen/

Google Chrome speed test

http://www.stinkdigital.com/work/google:-chrome-speed-tests

Out of Schools Exhibitions

A few weeks ago through my work as a student ambassoder I helped to curate and hang an exhibition currently showing at the Holden Gallery in MSA.  The exhibition, called Out of Schools, included work from children all over Manchester from as young as 3 all the way up to GCSE and A -Level coursework.  This was a lot of fun and we found some fantastic work done by the kids.  The work is up until tomorrow so come and have a look!



I designed and artworked the banner and invites for the event - my first 'official' paid design job!

                                  


                                  


                                  


                                  


                                  


                                     


                               


                               


                               


                                   


                                      


                                         











Over the weekend I also worked at the Children's literature festival and helped with a workshop run by the artist and typographer Stephen Raw in which children painted and decorated their own letters which we attached together to form a giant banner reading of one of Carol Anne Duffy's poems.  We hung the finished banner in the Holden galley and I have to admit the results were quite impressive!

The rest of the degree show...

Traipsing round the degree show at MSA is one of the gallery highlights of the year for me, there is soo much to look at and it really gets the creative juices flowing.  Here's some of my favourite...