The Disseminator Unmasked

Here the Disseminator talks you through the papers.

Vlog on Blog

Here we feature the first ever blog post for a book review. Hopefully this will be one of many more to come and that people find it informative and useful in their day to day practice?

Household Wrinkles can be purchased on the internet at various prices depending on age and condition as can Schott’s (not so original Miscellany).

&y's Office

A brief tour of a creative tardis, by the man himself.

Packaging

Graphic design first years have recently submitted their most up-to-date prototypes in their packaging project, before final designs are crafted on the correct stocks and printed with the appropriate inks or other processes. There are some lovely thoughts and observations, as ever all designs will benefit from more craft and production time.

Simply, the brief is to take a low value product and add value to it through the design of the three dimensional pack, as well as utilising creative surface graphics. As Andy said in the yesterdays’s crit : “If it used to cost a quid, would I pay two quid for it now it’s been redesigned?”

Have a look below and see what you think…

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Cotton buds:

Fire lighters:

Beef jerky:

glasses wipes:

weed killer:

fly spray:

yellow dusters:

Children’s tissues:

Pack of pencils:

multi purpose filler:

Children’s plasters:

Introspective Retrospective Takedown

Here we feature a short time lapse of the take down of the recent ephemera exhibition in the PR1 gallery. The exhibition proved very popular with staff and students alike, it will return one day in some other guise.

Three Hours Required: An Introspective Retrospective

Andy B’s latest exhibition is now ready to seduce you. Drawing from his vast array of collected design, objects and ephemera, there are examples of top drawer ideas, thinking and crafting; not to mention the fascinating, the never-seen-before and collections of pure wonder.

As Mr Bingo said last week:

“It’s nice to collect stuff, it’s nice to feel useful. It gives you purpose in life.”

The exhibition is on until Friday 1st March with a Private View from 4pm to 7pm on Wednesday 27th February. Andy is also offering guided tours from 12.30pm on 25th, 26th & 27th February, simply congregate on the ground floor. We’ve featured some quick photographs below, but they go nowhere near towards doing the content justice.

Enjoy. (Thanks Andy!)

(PS Mr Bingo’s talk is up on Facebook along with those of our other Conference Week guests, for those who want a double dose.)

Type & Grids

A wall of inspiration

The first year graphic design students have recently completed their primer project in typography and the art of layout, simply known to Preston tutors and alumni as Type & Grids. The project is an opportunity for students to immerse themselves in the work of typographers and designers from the late 1800’s up to present day, and offers a starting point for the young designer to start to comprehend the craft and rigour that typography of the highest order demands.

It is a particularly pleasing project as the leaps in design ability can be registered throughout the timeline of the project and seen visually from the initial pencil sketches to initial layouts to finished artwork. Simply, the innate ability of the young designer could not produce the standard of work at the final crit on day one.

It is also a project of no shortcuts; the main component is time, time taken to understand, collate, design, redesign, redesign, edit and amend. So on and so forth.

All tutors - from graphics and beyond - have commented on how strong the work looks, and how well it has dressed the room for Conference Week 8. All in all a great body of work and start to semester 2.

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The first pin up:

INTERIM PIN UP:

FINAL CRIT:

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MOCKED UP:

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STUDENT EXAMPLES:

Paper Amy

For any students embarking on a packaging or paper-engineering project, here is Paper Amy, who’s work we recently came across in Belfast. It’s very good, super intricate, and though more model-making shows what can be achieved with something as (seemingly) simple as paper.

An overview of the design of Conference Week 8

As Conference Week is about to begin we thought we would post a few examples of how the overall design for the event was developed.

Early - 1

Early - 2

Early - 3

Construction

Finalised Black & white/reversed

Colour- Large & Small

The three lines

Love Knot motif design

Wood Block prints - Limited edition

Profile image frame idea

Click to play

Ticket - front

Ticket - Back

300 - Hand produced

Love Heart - Badges

Bespoke labels

Programme, badge, sweets combo

New profile: Mike Potts

We’re starting to gather some new profiles from ex-students across industry, and we’re excited to present the first of the next batch! Our first is Mike Potts, who works for NextBigThing (some of you will now recognise him after he spent some time with the second year recently); he’s kindly answered our questions and sent us some select cuts of his work.

Read all about it here, and finally just to say a big thanks to Mike for taking the time out for TDOD, it’s much appreciated.