Craig Oldam - Im not a stalker honest.

"Believes Design publications are self-centred and declares lack of interest in being in them."

Word.


What Discipline of design would you say you specialize in?

" The Discipline of Design is not important it's the idea."


Word.



These are just a few quotes I've taken from Craig's website. I've been looking at Music's work for ages and have really thought 'they know what there on about' turns out Craig emailed me back from Music about my work has very similar thoughts and ways of thinking ( I think ) about design as me and his website is also a prime example of how to self promote. It's also backed up my PPD presentations which was more about me not promoting my self as a brand as i think your work should realte to your client not your own personal taste. ( This could look like im branding my self within it's self if your get that.)

He's also only a year older than me and makes me feel like i need to achive alot more :( but he likes football ( not the best team , but we all can't support Villa so...) and he like's Prince. Winner.

So just to clear up I don't like to have a 'style' but i do like lots of styles. I think my branding reflects that and can also be changed when ever to suit what ever client you are working for.

At the moment its simple i use black , white and 1 other colour, something bright and bold. I then like to use a Sans Serif font in the vain of (oh no) Helvetica, Arial or Futura ,condensed extra bold ( i like Nike ). I think this gives of a professional, yet netrual look and hopefully translates to a number of clients/audience's.

Check out Craig's website it's very good and has lots of rambling's about "hands on poster's" and holding stuff when taking photo's and loads and loads and loads and loads of other stuff Design related and not Design related.

Top 3 designers at the mo....

1. Ollie Moss

- his work is something that i really like to look at, really simple ideas and unique execution and as a freelancer it's nice to see someone do it straight away on there own.

2. Music

- Again, there work is simple and easy to understand, but i like the fact they work across a massive range of media's including print, web and environmental/installation.

3. TDR

- Not about any more but i think there's something in the pipeline, I spoke to Ian Anderson and he sent me there portfolio along with some feedback on my work which was cool. Again there work has a influence in my practice and i also just like the whole 'BRAIN AIDED DESIGN' tag which there used to push.

I'm gonna send my work here ( and maybe try sneak into the office's)

Profile: Golden

‘Together we are golden’ is the motto of this high-pedigree Yorkshire design studio. Garrick Webster discovers why clients both small and large are joining the Golden rush

There’s no mistaking where you are when you step out of the lift into Golden’s penthouse studio in central Leeds. A fat, gilt Buddha wearing gold shades is sitting right in front of you; off to the left, some lovely parlour chairs with gold leaf woodwork and leopard-print upholstery invite you to sit down; and while you chill out with a cup of tea you can admire the fancy urns and vases, massive basket of poker chips and array of frames, chains and other trinkets – all in shiny gold.

Golden’s space is very golden indeed, but it’s not tacky, nor is it untouchable. The kitsch is just a fun expression of Golden’s own identity: shiny, tactile and optimistic. Winter sunlight, warmed by all this gold, streams in through skylight windows; chilled beats wash from speakers at one end of the studio; and the founders sit down to tell us about Golden’s aim to do great work for great clients.

“The thinking was, ‘Why not us? Why shouldn’t we be working on that? Why shouldn’t we have that level of ambition to work for that level of client and do that quality of work?’” says MD Francis Carolan. “We thought it might as well be us three in a penthouse in Leeds.”

Creative director Rob Brearley and chairman Steve McKevitt agree. Between the three of them, past employers include the Designers Republic, Attik, Love Creative and McCann Erickson. Starting the company in January 2009, there was the small matter of the recession to contend with, but through a mixture of past contacts, referrals and being chased down by clients who’ve seen Golden’s work, the studio has already attracted some major brands. Nike Football is one of Golden’s biggest clients, and the team has worked on a number of global campaigns directly with the company’s Netherlands offices.

Spreading the word
Another leading name in the Golden portfolio is Lurpak. The studio was asked to survey all of Lurpak’s communications and help improve consistency. “It became a brand audit,” says Brearley. “We started looking at everything. [Lurpak] said, ‘We’ve got inconsistencies.’ So we just tried to get under the skin with them to look at absolutely everything, and then we could say, ‘You’ve got problems here, here, here and here, and we suggest you do this, this, this and this.’”

For instance, Lurpak’s foil-wrapped butter blocks had traditionally been photographed, but Golden worked with CG house Taylor James to get them 3D rendered. That way the shininess of the foil in Lurpak images could be pushed much further, really making them glow. Golden also noticed that the company’s Pantone blue looks different printed on foil than on paper, so subtle changes were made to ensure the same blue across the board. The studio also designed a Lurpak font, and to cap it off created a brand guidebook in the style that all Lurpak’s communications will be designed from now on – with a shiny silver cover.

Silence is...
Golden is choosy about the work it takes on, but isn’t aloof. The team cherishes smaller clients that have creative briefs to fulfil. Since its start-up, Golden has been working for Route Publishing, designing an identity and all its book covers; the Piece Hall, a heritage project that’s restoring one of Halifax’s oldest buildings, is another client; as is the Leeds branch of Harvey Nichols.

The diversity these clients bring is important. “I want to stay interested, stay focused, stay challenged,” says Brearley. “If you’re doing the same thing all the time and you’re working for the same type of brand all the time just because there’s money in it, you go stale, and then the world won’t be golden. It would be... not even silver.”

Unlike the majority of design studios, if you visit Golden’s website you won’t find a portfolio of its most high-profile work. Instead, there’s a 90-second stop-motion montage of the Golden team members assembling their office, including all the necessary bling. It concludes with them forming the Golden logo from their collection of gold accessories. The cuts are in perfect time to the Matthews’ Southern Comfort lyrics, ‘We are stardust, we are golden...’

For Golden, this approach works much better than the standard designer’s website ever could . The team didn’t feel JPEGs being viewed online would do their work justice. “The website – it’s just not a tactile channel for us, so therefore we wanted to do something that we enjoyed, that we liked,” says Carolan. “It was great fun to do, it looked great, and it’s got a great track over the top. It is just 90 seconds of us. If you like it get in touch, if not, drink up.”

The future’s bright
Golden’s aim for year two is to continue working for great brands, stay realistic and perhaps take on a few more designers. This isn’t just modesty speaking; past experience has shown the studio that when design companies get too big, creative and commercial elements come into conflict too easily. “One thing that we all agree on,” says Steve McKevitt, “is that there’s an optimum size for a business like this, and it’s about 12 to 15 people.”

This kind of straight thinking runs right through the Golden method. In terms of a Golden aesthetic, the studio’s own cards, stationery, posters and books feature predictably heavy doses of the warm metallic – and black. Creative director Rob Brearley is always looking for the perfect foils, most accurate die cuts, finest stocks and best metallic inks. In client work, his motto is to keep it simple.

“I’m a huge fan of not overcomplicating things,” concludes Brearley. “That’s not to say I don’t sometimes do complicated work, but the idea behind it has to be simple. The things that work for me take something out of the original brief, or out of the problem; they take something that was inherently there at the start and turn it around into a creative answer.”

This is someone i looked at a while ago, totaly forgot due to there lack of work present on the website but i really like there attitude that is present in this interveiw. Perhaps a knock on there door and a 'parcel delivery' might be in order.

PPD presentation

Open publication - Free publishing - More portfolio

Music response....

Martyn, hello.

Thanks for sending your portfolio through, I think you have some interesting thoughts in there and it's good that it's not too hard-nosed as much Design can be these days.

The business cards are screened ink onto 12" vinyl records the laser cut, punched out and smoothed. They feature our details and we each choose six songs to have for the six cards you get from each record.

Kindest.

Craig.

Pretty pleased about this coming through ( @ 00.50 am ) It's given me a confidence boost about asking for feedback from the industry and also made me think my work is going in the direction i want it to go in. I really like the fact that he thinks my work Isn't too hard-nosed as i want my work to engage with everyone possible and not just to a elite or set section of people.

Next step now is getting my big old portfolio out and giving Craig a ring to see if there's any chance i can pop in when I'm next in Manchester ( which seems to be quite a lot at the moment thanks to Mitternacht .

Again can't stress how much i wanted music to get in touch as there work has a big influence in my practice.

Rough creative CV'S

Open publication - Free publishing - More woolley

End of module evaluation OUGD 203

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have

applied them?

Through out this module i felt i have learn't a lot about my design practice in general and feel like i have decided who i want to be as a designer. For me the biggest set of skills i have improved on is effort and idea generation, although i still need to document my ongoing idea generation by maybe using a sketchbook of some sorts. I also felt my skills in process improved looking at a number of process's rather than sticking with on and also experimebnting within that process using different techniques and stocks etc. I think this was evident in my screen printed mail pack, posters and record sleeves, i felt this was the best option for a small niche market, giving the products a little more aura. I also felt i gained skills in planning and time management which is something i need if i want to be a freelance designer.

For me though i felt producing a neat non evolving time table was a waste of time as things oftened changed at a fast past resulting in a messy planner which probably only i can understand. I suppose i proved this worked as i managed to get everything i needed to do done and did'nt have to make any compromises within my design decisions due to time managment.

2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

For me this one was tricky as i kind of knew about the audience as i am part of the audience. I suppose a method of research that i haven't done before is on a personal one to one level talking to the cleint one to one made it clear for both of us, giving us chance to make changes as i went along and trying to fit new ideas into the brief which met the requirement of the brief better. Obviosuly the above informed my design decison's as leon ( mitternacht ) had the final say, I also felt that client education was present, i was comftable enough and confident enough to say 'no' thats wont work and explained why which leon was kind enough to say 'yes' i trust you, your the designer. I feel this is something that will be present in my practice when working as a free lancer.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I felt that my overall finishing skills and photography skills were something that can be identified easily, i shall capitalize on these by using them more often. I feel that if you are operating as a freelancer you have to be able to use a number of mediums and a number of ways of presenting your work so i think keeping my photo skills up to date will not only help me present my work better but also offers a skill to potential customers that other designer's may not have.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

I felt a weakness in my practice is documentation, I have improved vastly on documenting but i am still not happy with the amount of documentation of evaluation, crit and time managment. I need to come up with a system of working where i can constantly update my planner and evaluation to my blog maybe a seperate blog for the two areas, as i seemed to update my image blog as it was not involved with my major work blog.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing

these?

1. Set up a blog for documentation keeping things clear and not mixed in will help more than a lost evaluation on my DP blog..

2. Be more creative, use extreme materials and concepts i felt that I maybe played this brief a little safe at times .

3. Create more design directions, this will help me get to grips with how much work i have to produce to impress cleints, offering a couple of design desicion's give the client more choice and makes them feel like they have control which is often what they want.

4. Get 3rd party impartial feedback, i started to feel like the timetable crit's were more of a hinderance than a development, its hard to get the truth out of people as some dont want to offend or others just can't be bothered, which is massivly frustrating when a large amount of effort is put into a brief ready for a crit.

5. Use more colour, im not a fan of colour but i think its because i dont practice there for my colours skills arnt the best. Hopefully this will enhance my design practice and lighten up my black and white work.

Attendance 5

Punctuality 5

Motivation 4

Commitment 4

Quantity of work produced 4

Quality of work produced 4

Contribution to the group 4