Nikki Farquharson

I love mixed media and found these pieces rather appealing.  The use of vibrant colours and patterns make the work very eyecatching and intriguing.  The work uses marker pens, newspaper cuttings, photography and fineliners.  All of this work looks like it has been done by hand rather than produced on the computer.

nikki farquharson portfolio

Another piece of work by this designer is a book called 65 modern proverbs.  In this she modernises a proverb book to make it more appropriate to modern culture.  For example, 'Hell hath no fury like a woman on a diet' and 'The blog is mightier than the sword.'  The layout is very simple; an uppercase sans serif typeface is used on a plain white background.  

Blog

the apple and the egg

This is a blog that I came across when I was researching childrens book design.  It has some really interesting and creative pieces of work on it.  

Using such sites has helped me to further my research and discover designers and illustrators that I would probably not have discovered otherwise.

Finished Narc... I Hope

 

These are the finished Narc spreads which I only had a few days to complete.  I found this quite stressful as I only got all of the copy and retouched photography at last minute but I feel this has been good experience and got me working at a faster pace.  The magazine is out in a week and a half and it will be good to see it all in print and see how it looks on the paper that they print on rather than the printer papers we use in college.  

Fur Brief Shoot 2

These are a few of the shots before editing.  Next Jill has to take them into photoshop, cover up the black gaps, whiten the background and edit out the ceiling or bits of equipment that have appeared in the back of some shots.  The photos will then look abit more like this...

Next I take this into photoshop and turn them into our posters :)

This was my first layout which still needs working on and another logo on the bottom.

YCN

I chose this YCN commended piece because I thought not only was it quite funny but it was also simple and a nice idea.  The photos of fruit are printed onto coasters and given out with any purchase of the drink.  The customer then draws onto the fruit and posts the final design into the ballot box.  When this is full the boxes are sent to Feel Good to be judged.  Winners win one Feel Good drink free everyday for a year.  I like the fact that it involves the general public and encourages people to be more creative, imaginative and playful which is part of the characteristics of this brand in particular.  I love the use of clean, white space- this suggests purity and naturality and portrays that this product is good for you.  

D&AD

I chose to look at this entry to D&AD as it is similar to a piece of work that I did in National Diploma.  I love these magic blocks and think that they work well to get people to actually look at the item.  People enjoy playing with things and by actually getting the public to pick up your item is the first hurdle.  The magic block reflects the concept of a vicious circle really well as the block doesnt have a start or an end, it just keeps going and going and going...

I think this is a really clever and simple idea.  

Just Us

This is a piece of work from Just Us Design Collective.  I chose this piece because I liked that the designer was doing some experimenting with monoprinting.  I like how it looks as though she has gone over the top of the print with marker pen or felt tip and the overlapping of the pen shows through darker.  I like how rough and loose the illustration is and that the designer hasnt gone for a really realistic looking panda.  I think the fact that the hair lines on the pandas face arent finished down to the bottom makes it look like it is shading.  I also like how the monoprinting has left dirty marks on the page which makes the illustration look more hand created and original.

Northern Design Competition

This is the piece of design that won the 2009 Northern Design Award in the Graphic Design category.  The concept behind this is that designers should spend less time on the macs and more time doing work by hand, the traditional way.  She chose to portray this by writing parts of her manifesto onto the back of her hand.  All of the copy is handwritten.  The reason why I have chosen to look at this piece of work is because I personally agree with the message the designer is trying to communicate- I too believe that everything does not have to be created digitally.  This piece of work has not been done digitally and this reflects the manifesto well.  

Fur Brief

Last night my photography partner Jill and I did our first shoot for the fur brief.  We used an actual skinned rabbit for the shot.  The rabbit was really heavy and it was a pretty gruesome task for me to do especially being vegetarian.  Our concept is that, contrary to what some people think, fur is not a byproduct of the meat industry.  Our strapline is 'no animals were eaten in the making of this... (fur scarf, fur jacket, fur shrug).'  This is just idea no.1, we have several others that we would like to do and we will be trying to do as many as we possibly can as I like them all and think they will all make good adverts against fur.  Although this poster ad is abit graphic, we do have a variety of different approaches to show ways of communicating the underlying message that wearing fur is wrong.

SO FAR... (still needs editing)