The Toaster Project Chronicles

The Toaster Project chronicles Thomas Thwaites’ attempt to make an electric
toaster from scratch – literally from the ground up. Starting with digging up the raw
materials from abandoned mines around the UK, then attempting to process them
himself at home, and finally forming them into a product that can be bought for just
£3.94. Thomas’ toaster cost £1187.54 and took him nine months to make. Photography by Nick Ballon.

www.thomasthwaites.com

Alittle bit of this ... and that!

A true designer at heart ... my best friend (mac) ... a brew ... and good food!



Everything we were ... and will be!!



What path to take now ... you might be questioning yourself ?
Well for me its not what path ... its the how and when and why of that path.
I have been luckily enough to land my feet in some incredible opportunities and continue to develop creatively and work on some really nice projects. Challenging yes ... no time off ... But who am I to complain!
So I've planned but I am also not planning .. if you get me? Because I want to keep my options open and just enjoy - have "fun" as I like to say.

INCREDIBLE 3D ART

No review - incredible!

http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/twoworlds.html

STYLIST MAGAZINE - Rob Ryan Front Cover Design

When walking to work this morning I came across the lovely...and 'lets go have a picnic' Stylist Magazine with the front cover designed by the amazing Rob Ryan.

His work is so poetic and reveals a story using visual imagery that looks equally beautiful and delicate!

Make sure you pick up yours today!

Rob Ryan : http://www.misterrob.co.uk/

Creative people are just high functioning schizophrenics

New research shows a possible explanation for the link between mental health and creativity. By studying receptors in the brain, researchers at Karolinska Institute have managed to show that the dopamine system in healthy, highly creative people is similar in some respects to that seen in people with schizophrenia.

SOME NICE WORK

Whilst being on placement I have been researching various things to do with packaging and sachet design - these are some of the highlights!

Enjoy.
Images are from various internet sources.

DNA Show After Party!

What a celebration - free wine at the show and even more booze behind the bar at Common, a great way to celebrate our marks and the end of the three years together !!!

The Manchester School of Art Degree Show

Private View 18th June 2010
Exhibition 19 - 25th June 2010

The end has finally come on my three years at MMU - a wonderful and memorable evening with great people and friends.

It was a huge success and it was great to spend the evening knowing that all the hard work had paid off! The publication/alcohol/show looked amazing and I am proud to have been on a fantastic course and shared with equally impressive peers.

Well done everyone!

Our website:
http://www.design-and.com/

ADVICE

“One sometimes learns more from a lost race than a victory.”
So criticism is often more useful than praise.
And we define ourselves by how open we are to learning and growing.
Lazy people don’t want to grow.
They just want to be told what they’re doing is right.
They’re happy to just stay on the rung they’re on.
People who are good, want to grow.
They want to get off this rung and onto the next rung.
They want to get all the way up the ladder.
So they’re not looking for praise, they’re looking for criticism.
As Eric Clapton said, “If you’re any good at all, you know you can be better.”

DNA - Designers Northern Alliance

YO ARE INVITED TO ATTEND THE PRIVATE VIEW OF THE FIRST ANNUAL DESIGNERS NORTHERN ALLIANCE (DNA) EVENT, AT THE TRIANGLE, MANCHESTER, 6PM ON 24 JUNE.

...

Join us for a drink and view the best graduate talent in Advertising, Illustration, Digital and Graphic Design from Universities in the North.

Seven Universities from across the North have teamed up with the region’s top
design agencies to form the first annual DNA two-day event, designed to develop closer links and share best practice.

The event is being organised by contributors from the University of Salford, University of Chester, Manchester Metropolitan University, UCLAN, Liverpool John Moores University, North Wales and Huddersfield, in collaboration with over 40 design agencies from across the region.

The event will also include a series of keynote speakers from industry,
roundtable discussions, a question and answer forum and portfolio surgeries for students.

To register your attendance at the event, please visit

http://www.designersnorthernalliance.org/register/.

We
look forward to seeing you there!

www.designersnorthernalliance.org

DESIGN RESPONSIBILITY : Research/Inspiration Book

"Design is a way of life.

But with it comes roles and responsibilities.

Design responsibility is something that each emerging designer should question - before working on projects, and when deciding which company to work for.

It takes the form not only of ethical responsibilities but also environmental.

What I have learnt through research and investigation is that design responsibility should be a call to action. We are in a position whereby the message we give out has an underlying impact on the rest of society and although design is visually aesthetic the communication should contain values.

This publication aims to educate and inform young designers to respect and appreciate the world of design, through a collectable poster series that graphically represent more than just a message. I hope to encourage greater understanding of the fundamental values and relevance of design to business and society.

Design Responsibility. You Decide."

My response and output for my current project I have just completed.

DEGREE SHOW IS NOW ONLINE

http://www.grafikmag.com/degreeshows/Manchester_met.html


After a lot of hassle and work the Design and Art Direction Degree Show is now online at Grafik mag. Working with the Publication Team (Adam, Jackie, Thea and Jen.C) and Sarah.B the design and copy came together to promote our degree show - and I am very pleased.

The work we chose was at random as we wanted to celebrate the various designers on our course, but as a whole the work does us justice as it looks great! Well done guys.

I think a big thank you needs to go to Adam who has dealt with all the design and images.
A big thank you to Sarah.B for the copy

PROJECT: METRO : FINAL POSTERS

As we are in the second to last week of this term/year, I have been working on finishing and tweaking the poster series taking the taglines. I have developed the concept again and another poster design I had was to great a sign off from Metro - taking the form of Metro literally signing the poster declaring themselves as true to their world.

Speaking to other peers I think that this idea will be my final design as it has potential and although it is a traditional design it has a modernistic approach that makes it more noticeable.
Here are my designs for the sign off, it has developed massively in the space of three days so I am really pleased.



The final posters still have minor tweaks as I have not been working on them for a day or so - I thought this would make me more reflective and subjective to how they will be interpreted.
Any thoughts welcomed!

So the final three posters series are as follows:

PROJECT: METRO : DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

After speaking to Liz I wanted to push my designs into a new direction, and getting out of my comfort zone to produce more energetic design was a must!!!
I have decided that a typographic approach is more suitable for this type of campaign - as it has to visually cut through the everyday noise, it needs to be bold, seen and eye catching!
I have developed the concept into various styles to generate more creative design so that I can assess what direction I want to take!
I have tried to add more of Metro's personality into the campaign and using a background image that directly relates to where the commuters will read the paper e.g. Bus and Train stations.








This poster directly relates to the distribution of Metro throughout the UK, the key decodes the different cities - whilst the shapes are in scale to the size of how many papers are distributed in that particular city. For example London has the biggest distribution, Scotland/North West and the Midlands follow.
I do like this design - more fresher than my other designs, also quite contemporary! It celebrates the newspaper and the success of it rather than just telling the viewer how great it is!!

PROJECT: METRO : DESIGNS

Over the weekend I have been working on trying to complete the Metro brief.
Whilst debating my initial concept I began to think that the approach I had taken was not what I had originally intended so taking a look back over my research I realised that I had overlooked why Metro is Metro!

Metro - USP is bitesized information, so with benefit led advertising could I create a campaign based on one element that shows why people love it so much? With a bit of creativity I began to look at Metro differently and wanted to promote the guessing game taken from the Quiz section of "Who Am I?". For example, "I'm small, but big on information" & "I save you a seat".

Although a great concept and tagline it didn't visualise the way I wanted it to and I found myself over-thinking (as usual!) and trying to create something that truthfully it may never be!!
Then I had a mental breakdown and stupid ideas of "who farted in parliament - Metro keeps you up to date", and "If you can read me in thirty, you'll think it's dirty"!!!

I Finally came to the conclusion of a rhythmic tagline that was slightly more professional and suited to my target audience!!!

"Find me at the station, I am the paper of the nation"
"Find me on the train, I will ease the morning strain"
"Find me on the train, I will always entertain"
"Find me on the bus, we sure have a lot to discuss"

"Read me on your break, I go perfect with cake"
"Take a load of your feet, I've saved you a seat"

I am much more happier and confident that this concept promotes all that I am saying, it is answering the brief...and more!!
Here are my initial visuals:









My visual aesthetic is not there yet but with a bit more work I am sure I will crack it.

FINAL : DESIGN RESPONSIBILITY POSTERS

For this project, I have designed a series of two posters complimented by a research book that will have specific quotes/advice I have found to help any young designer! The book will represent and encourage designers to question their own role and responsibility within design and will make them make their own decision....Design Responsibility, You Decide.

The new version of the posters are as follows, the branding and colour theme will run throughout the series.

PROJECT: METRO: DEVELOPMENT

The other project I have been working on these past three weeks is Metro.

The brief :
- create a strong cutting edge campaign that cuts above the visual noise of the everyday commute
- TA 18/44 urbanities who have a higher than average income, they are savvy tech!
- Promote Metro as the number one morning newspaper, creating more personality for the product rather than the brand.

This type of commercial brief has been perfect for me, it has been fun and challenging something which I need after having quite personal projects on the go, it will also look more diverse in my portfolio!

My initial concept for the brief was to base the design on creating more personality for Metro, so I came up with several ideas and the main one being the different ways you can interact with Metro e.g.

eat with metro
play with metro
hide with metro
shelter with metro
learn with metro






This then quickly progressed into a further stage - after discussing my project in tutorial it was said that I needed to focus more on the USP of Metro, which is BITESIZED news.... something that other competitors do not have.

An other idea I had was 'Metro will take the blame for your stupidity', for example...
you missed your stop, because you were reading the paper, you were late for work...again!
I visualised my idea but don't think it is as strong as could be!
Definitely needs developing.