How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul...

After my brilliant portfolio crit with Adrian Shaugnessy and finishing uni, I thought it was about time I got round to reading his book How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul.  My signed copy has been sat on the shelf for quite a while!

It turned out to be one of the best graphic design books I've ever read - It was so helpful and covered the kind of topics that usually get ignored, especially when your deciding what to study.  It was an eye opener, and I know I will be referring back to it for years and years to come, not just about my first years as a designer, but probably right through my career.

The Time Traveller's wife

This weekend has been spent finishing off my CPT writing (mainly because I wanted to avoid the more important work that I really should be doing).  Here are a couple more reviews I've written!

I've just finished reading The Time Traveller's wife.  After being told repeatedly that it's really great I thought I'd give it a go.  At first I couldn't really get into it but about a third of the way in I was hooked.  It wasn't at all what I expected it to be, which was a soppy romantic story.  It was a lot more serious than that, some pretty nasty things happen to poor old Claire and Henry!  The time travelling wasn't romanticised as I expected, but actually a big shadow hanging over their lives and quite a nasty reality.  Somehow the book seemed quite down to earth and believable, although I have to say getting my head round the concept of time travelling blags my head, especially since in this book Henry couldn't change what had already happened, instead he was already part of what happens.

I'd like to see the film now despite the bad reviews!

Jane Eyre

I am a sucker for romantic old stories. After reading Wuthering Heights in the summer and being totally shocked, I found Jane Eyre by another one of the Bronte sisters in a charity shop. What always surprizes me about stories from this era, especially those by classic female authors, is how modern they are. I guess that’s why they’re classics. Granted, there is no sex involved, which most people these days see as the sign of a good story, but these novels are so full of love, passion, scandel, heartache, betrayal and violence, it more than makes up for it. Once you get past the some times flowery language, really the heart of the books is just a good story that is what most modern day rom-coms and chick lit are based on! This book wasn’t as shocking as Wuthering heights, which completely caught me off guard as I did not expect it to be so gritty and gruesome, but I still couldn’t put it down. Now what I would really love is for some modern directors (namely my favourite, Baz Luhrman) to get their hands on these books and make them into incredible films Romeo&Juliet/Moulin Rouge stylee, which really revive them for a modern audience and bring out the raw genius of the writing!

The new YCN annual...

After D&AD announced they couldn't afford to give the annuals away this year it seems maybe YCN are a bit strapped of cash too...

They've printed most of the book in this hideous blue tint, with photographs so small you can barely see them. They haven't showcased any student work properly except for tiny little thumbnails which is a real shame. They've used most of the book to showcase their own work, which is fair enough, but seriously I can't tell the difference between last year and this year. And frankly if I see one more bit of 3D sans serif type photographed or doritoes brief I might explode.

For me there has always been quite a large margin between the student work they showcase, some stuff is baad and some stuff is amazing. This year I didn't find that much to inspire me, but then it was hard to get past the blue. The ones I particularly liked are below. I do wonder how some of the work ever gets chosen...

Luckily you can find the student work in full on the website!

Overall, the annual was pretty rubbish this year!

Cloud Atlas

I finally got round to reading this book which I think has been on my shelf for about 4 years. Since I went on holiday in 6th form and forgot to take a book, I bought two from the airport, chosen just because I liked the covers, then tried to start both and hated them. Coincidentally, the other book was 'A million little pieces' by James Frey, and when I've finally read them they have both turned out to be two of my favourite ever books!

I tried to start this book about 3 times, had no idea really what it was about, the blurb doesn't give much away, but as the first chapter is set in the 1800's, it was pretty heavy reading and I kept giving it up. This time I managed to persevere and realised that the book is made of 6 mini stories, 6 lives which span from Victorian times through the 21st century and right into a post apocalyptic future, and then back again so the book ends where it begins. We start with Adam Ewing's diary travelling on a ship through the pacific with missionaries, to Robert Frobisher's entertaining letters to his gay lover - a composer scrounging of an elderly musician in early 1900's Brugges, to journalist Luisa Rey on the brink of discovering a nuclear scandal in 80's America and in constant fear for her life. Then a publisher trapped in a an old people's home near Hull, to a cloned slave on the run for her life in the near future, and back to pacific islands way into the future when civilisation as we know it has ended with Zachry's tale for a big climax. Then the book works it's way back through each story until we end up finishing Ewing's diary.

Each character is linked in some way, yet each story is so different, the characters, storylines and language, you can hardly believe it's the same author writing. Each story ends on such a cliff hanger and leaves you desperate for more, but then you move onto the next one and get hooked all over again. This book was not only an exciting and thrilling rollercoaster ride but original and an extremely clever social commentary that would give Orwell and Wells a run for their money!

Advertising is dead - Long live advertising

This is a really great book of alternative advertising campaigns that I've been looking at for my alcohol awarenedd brief. There's also some amazing amnesty international stuff in there too that I didn't find on the internet. Most of the campaigns I can't find on the internet so it's well worth looking through the book.

Self promotion

Self promotion has been on my mind for a while but I haven't really done anything about it yet... I didn't really know where to begin or what I wanted to promote. Myself obviously, but I wasn't really sure what I wanted to say about myself.

I found this book at the Whitworth gallery book sale called Marketing your creativity - new approaches for a changing industry by Matt Perry and Ant Melder for £3. Admittedly its a little outdated, it was written when digital was still relatively new and not the norm, but it's an easy read with lots of advice from people in Industry (Mother, Cake etc.) and what it does is kind of simplify the importance, avenues and approaches to self promotion and 'The brand of you'.

Then we had a talk from Graham on Tuesday which was very helpful. I liked how he explained the ideas behind the self promotion and how he uses it. The Via stuff that took inspiration from the buildings, colours and textures around them was really lovely example of how to make self promotion. Attention to detail is also very important - to go the extra mile. Self promotion be a consistent brand the same as any other which represents your personality and style.

I put off doing anything before because I didn't think it was necessary yet and didn't know where to begin - now I'm starting to piece together ideas about what I can use and what I want to say. This summer I have become much more sure about what it is I want to do, and researching the kind of places I might want to work, so feel that i'm ready to start designing 'the brand of me'. I am now brimming with ideas!

Data Flow

Wow this book is amazing! I got it out the library hoping for some inspiration in the next step of my Silence project and it totally surpassed my expectations. I would recommend anyone to have a flick through it whatever they are interested in.

As I mentioned on another post (Girl Power) I have been trying to think of ways to represent how important my summer placement was to me and just how much it has impacted my work and my future. I want a way to visually document my journal and intertwine my practical and contextual and written work together. This book has given me a lot of starting points!

I stayed with my aunty when I was doing work experience in London and while I was there I found this Alice in Wonderland/ Through the looking glass book. When I opened it I found that it was my mums and her Grandpa had given it to her on her 7th birthday! I reckon it was printed between 1966 and 1968 so its over 40 years old.

Well I read it and it was crazy and totally different from the Disney film- there's this description in the beginning that says Carroll just made all the stories up on the spot for Alice (his friends daughter) and her sisters and all the poems and reciting in the book are taking the mick out of Victorian schooling and how they would just get children to learn stuff off by heart which wasn't really much use. Personally, I reckon some drugs might have been involved!

Then I saw in the paper a while ago that Tim Burton is remaking the film with Jonny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter (a lot of my favourite people) and now I am very, very excited! The pictures look super exciting!

http://www.james-frey.com/

I have just finished reading James Frey's new book Bright Shiny Morning. Of course it was amazing as i expected! Just as good as his first two books I couldn't put it down. No author has ever inspired me as much as Frey has, he is a very unique talented writer- his style could be compared to irvine welsch, it's completely real and raw and full of energy. All three of his books are full of truth and grit and reality. They are compelling and life changing and I could go on about Frey all day long i love him so much i just can't get enough!! hope he writes another book soon. All i can say is you need to read these books!!