The reasoning behind 'taste:hk'....

I came up with taste:hk at the start of third year...the reasoning behind it is quite basic but I think it is quite unique and sums me up as a graphic designer.  The reasoning behind the word 'taste' is basically because I love cupcakes and I love drawing them and ever since first year I have managed to involve a cupcake in alot of my work, a cupcake has always been associated with my name in presentations etc. so I decided to keep this as an on going thing... the taste emphasis's the tasting a fresh creative designer...and the fact that I love cupcakes just emphasis's the tasting! 

So the heading of all my blogs involve this 'taste hk' ...hk obviously asscoiated to my name Hayley Kavanagh.  

I have made 'hk' slightly more creative by playing with the type and making my initials look like a heart.  This is on my business card also and although people may not get it straight away once they turn to business card to the reverse it is clearly explained.

T-shirt brief...

After consideration and talks in tutorials with Justin I decided to split my t-shirt brief into two sections... one section being the range of 1o womens and mens t shirt designs inspired by Lady Gaga and Lupe Fiasco and the second part of the brief being the packaging and promotional side to it designing labels, tags, gift wrap,bag packaging, promotional stands etc.

This will then in turn widen my variety of skills that I have aquired in this module instead of all my briefs mainly focusing on illustration which relates to my statement of intent and rationale.

This is a questionnaire I carried out on survey monkey on the internet...I think it was a good quick professional way of presenting questionnaires but I think it is better to just produce print based ones that you can personally give out to people and get quick responses from them to then get on with creating your work.

1. Do you wear screen printed t-shirts?

Yes

 

2. Is there any clothing company that you like or regularly buy t-shirts from?

 

1. www.buytshirtsonline.co.uk (gildan and fruit of the loom)

 

2. jonny cupcakes

urban outfitters

h&m

 

3. Do you prefer quite simple or complex designs on t-shirts?

 

1.simple but funky illustrations/prints..

sometimes a lil complex but fitting in with a cool unique style

 

2. simple

 

4. What shops do you like do go in on the high street?

 

1.Very rarely primark for a blank tshirt to print on if I'm skint.

 

2.urban, h&m, exit, chimp

 

5. What price would you expect to pay fro a screen printed t-shirt?

 

£10 to £20

 

6. Where would you think screen printed t-shirts would fit on the high street? For example could you see them in boutiques or big stores?

 

boutiques, especially if designed and printed by individuals artists/illustrators/printmakers or small collectives. People enjoy being unique and having clothing that can't be found elsewhere which is why I don't like high street shops. I work at River Island but will never buy a top from there. I enjoy selling my own eldavo brand tshirts. I hope to sell mine in a boutique sometime where I can keep limited runs of tees sold so that my cool funky designs will be hard to come by, better still, you'll be the only one wearing it! H&M on the rare occasion for a blank tshirt to print on if I need it urgently.

Another important issue about this brief is that it initially aimed to be a collaborative brief with Olivia Greaves but after looking at the work we were both producing we decided that we both had different intentions for the brief and wanted to do different things with it so we decided to go solo...that way I could work with the type and image combined that I initially thought which again refers back to what I stated in my rationale and statement of intent.

Resistance brief...

I have chosen to do the  Resistance DNAD brief... I want to have this as a short brief along with the Christmas festive bag brief that I did.

Although this brief is again very image based like the other briefs I have chosen I think this brief gives me an option to elaborate and maybe involve some information graphics into what I produce.  I want to focus my resistance brief around resistance to domestic violence and produce a hard hitting illustration based campaign raising awareness to the issue...

I wanted to produce some like this and really try and communicate with my audience and I think this is a great opportunity for me. 

Design for print lessons...

I know that I am not that confident in Indesign but I think these design for print lessons have definitely made me more aware of Indesign and how it can benefit my work...I had a chat with Mike and basically I think that I can work better in Illustrator and as long as I can produce professional high quality stuff in illustrator it doesn't matter what software i use...the software shouldn't hinder my designs or get in the way of what I am trying to do. Seeing as I am illustrative based I think it makes sense that I am using illustrator to be honest.

Evaluation of my design practice against my SOI and Rationale...

I have taken a second to evaluate and look back at my statement of intent and rationale and see if the design practice that I am doing now is reflecting what I have stated.  

I think overall I have been very precise when picking briefs that are going to benefit me and are relevant for what I want to get out of third year.  I think one immediate change is that I didn't state that I wanted to be able to create my own website and I think I am going to extend one of my existing briefs being the T-shirt brief and take it further to actually producing a website for the designs to be sold which is then putting it into the relevant context, I could have just placed it on Facebook but I want it to communicate to a wider audience and I want to aquire the skills for web design.

I came across this front cover for one of the creative review magazines and I thought it was very relevant for my PPD. The question is right out there...getting straight to the point!

Paper Stocks

I have emailed this company to see whether or not they could possibly send me some samples of the paper stocks that they have available for me that would help me aid my Penguin Book cover.

Progress tutorial 5/11/09

Overall I am happy with how my tutorial went today, i feel like I am on top of my work and could confidently talk about what stages I am at with each of my briefs.
What I think I have to think carefully now is what my last brief is going to be, I want to pick some thing that is going to help me develop my skills in in design, I have seen a brief on the ISTD website so i think i may look into that one.

No-Title magazine 5/11/09

I recieved an email through saying that No-Title were looking for new illustrators for their magazine so i got in touch with a lady called nadine and she has put me on the mailing list so any jobs that come through that she think I will be interested in will be mailed to me to see if i am interested and if so I have to send samples of my work and they will assess from there!
I got an email through today saying that they were looking for someone to design the front cover of the magazine so i have sent them some samples of my work and hopefully hear back from them as that would be great to get my work out there!
There are a few examples of past magazine front covers here and I think the style is really suiting to the work that i produce so i hope i have a chance with this one.