A brief foray into politics here, folks.
Firstly, I want to stress that I did not invent this idea - I read it in the Guardian a few years' back.
Secondly, I want to stress that I was up until 8am and have had about three hours' sleep.
The system of electoral reform I am about to fling out there to the masses was devised by a group of mathematicians and its beauty is in its simplicity. I cannot find the original article and will amend this blog to post it should anyone be able to find it.
It goes like this: You walk into your polling station and you take your ballot paper and you mark a cross next the the name of every candidate whom you find acceptable. You may mark as many or as few boxes as you wish.
All the votes for every candidate are then added up. Each cross in each box on each ballot paper carries the same weight in the count - there is no preference.
The winner of the election is the candidate who has been voted as acceptable by the most people in that constituency.
Example: I put a cross next to Labour, Liberal Democrats, Green - these are the parties whose policies I find tolerable. You put a cross next to Lib Dem, Conservative. Someone else votes Lib Dem, Labour and Socialist Worker Party.
In the above instance, the Liberal Democrats are the party acceptable to all three voters, and so they win the seat.
Beautiful, no?
Any feedback by cleverer/less exhausted people welcome. And I should say that I don't call the above system proportional representation because I was told last night (by someone who knows more about maths and statistics than me) that it isn't strictly PR. Willing to be corrected on that, too!
Happy hung parliament, folks.
Friday, 7 May 2010
Sunday, 2 May 2010
Well, hello there stranger!
I know, I know, it's been an AEON and I'm a terrible, terrible person. There are a few reasons I've been lax - mostly I've been thinking about the redesign of my website from this to a handsome, slicker Wordpress thingumyjig. I've been playing around with Wordpress and CSS for a client's website and am astounded by the beauty, power and simplicity of both. I'll be able to incorporate this blog as part of my main website, and updating my portfolio will be so much quicker.
The trouble with redesigning my website is that because I'm a graphic designer I can do as I please - there's too much choice. I guess it's like doctors being the worst patients or some such - I have to sit with a pencil and paper and pretend I'm my own client and try to think up words that sum up who I am and the service I provide. Tis a bloody nightmare! The ideas I get for my work with my clients are clear and true, but the possibilities for my own branding are so limitless, the ideas so many and so varied, that they clash and fight and it's a real struggle to get a clean, structured feel. I think I'm getting there, though - watch this space...
Another excuse for my tardiness is that I've been pondering upon the purpose of this blog. At first, as I'd so cleverly used time-consuming Flash to create the portfolio section of my website and then didn't have the time or inclination to update it, I took a blog on as a quick way to upload my newest work to teh internets so that the masses could continue to gasp in joyous awe at my opuses (opi?). But the blog is now wanting to be more than this. I find that, as in everyday life, I want to occasionally inform people of my opinion on a relevant subject. I get sent thought-provoking emails and think about publishing them; I get asked for advice by newly-qualified designers about how to get into the industry. Sometimes I might just want to publish a photo of a nice bit of architecture I see, or some clever design. This blog wants to be more of a diary - what goes on, what inspires and provokes thought.
So expect the following in the near future (I hope by the end of May, when my birthday is, should you wish to send me vintage Champagne and/or a new pair of hot pink Converse All-Stars (size 5, ta muchly):
The trouble with redesigning my website is that because I'm a graphic designer I can do as I please - there's too much choice. I guess it's like doctors being the worst patients or some such - I have to sit with a pencil and paper and pretend I'm my own client and try to think up words that sum up who I am and the service I provide. Tis a bloody nightmare! The ideas I get for my work with my clients are clear and true, but the possibilities for my own branding are so limitless, the ideas so many and so varied, that they clash and fight and it's a real struggle to get a clean, structured feel. I think I'm getting there, though - watch this space...
Another excuse for my tardiness is that I've been pondering upon the purpose of this blog. At first, as I'd so cleverly used time-consuming Flash to create the portfolio section of my website and then didn't have the time or inclination to update it, I took a blog on as a quick way to upload my newest work to teh internets so that the masses could continue to gasp in joyous awe at my opuses (opi?). But the blog is now wanting to be more than this. I find that, as in everyday life, I want to occasionally inform people of my opinion on a relevant subject. I get sent thought-provoking emails and think about publishing them; I get asked for advice by newly-qualified designers about how to get into the industry. Sometimes I might just want to publish a photo of a nice bit of architecture I see, or some clever design. This blog wants to be more of a diary - what goes on, what inspires and provokes thought.
So expect the following in the near future (I hope by the end of May, when my birthday is, should you wish to send me vintage Champagne and/or a new pair of hot pink Converse All-Stars (size 5, ta muchly):
- snazzy new website that will bring unconditional love and world peace to each and every one of us,
- advice blogs - how I got into the industry, went freelance, recommendations,
- more random photos of stuff I like,
- more vaguely-relevant musings,
- more short but frequent postings.
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Spring is sprung!
Just dropping by to show you a little illustration I've done for the cover of the Pulse publication I do for the IISP. It's all about green shoots and hope and such - and incorporates the arrow of the IISP logo into the design. Brush work in Indian ink, scanned in and then manipulated in Photoshop, much like the Welsh Music Foundation poster here.
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
The Ten Commandments of working with Graphic Designers
1 Thou shalt present thy graphic designer with a well-thought-out brief, considering target audience, likes and dislikes, brand guidelines if relevant, photography & illustration commissioning budget, amount of text and schedule. Thou shalt have this sorted before requesting a quote. Thou shalt present the same brief to all the designers from whom thou art requesting a quote, so that thou art comparing apples with apples and not oranges.
2 Thou shalt consider all the time, thought, hard work, expensive hardware and software, training, skills and creativity involved in the commission before whinging about said quote, sayingst things such as 'my nephew said he couldst design it in MS Paint for twenty quid'.
3 Thou shalt not supply photographs or graphics in Word, Powerpoint or any other Microsoft package. Thy designer has the right to the soul of thy first-born child if this Commandment be broken.
4 Thou shall supply high-quality, high-resolution images if thou requirest that thy publication not look like the dinner of a dog. Heed thy designer's advice on this, for verily, s/he is learn'd. Be prepar'd to pay for such venerable things from istock and such like for they are not that expensive really when thou thinkest about it.
5 Thou shalt NEVER request that thy designer use the typeface known as Comic Sans, for it is the work of Satan.
6 Thou shalt not ask for work to be done for free, on the off-chance that thy bizarre business idea takes off and thou becomest a millionaire.
7 Thou shalt appreciate that now and again thy designer might declare a day off, of which thou willst be told well in advance, and thou shalt not bitch about this. Thou shalt especially not bitch about this when thou decidest to bugger around with thine own schedule and thus suddenly discover that thy designer is busy surfing/snowboarding/knitting kittens whenst thou finally decidest that thou wouldst like to go to press.
8 Thou shalt know that thy designer does not, and will not, use Microsoft Publisher. Requests to do so will be met with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and the star Wormwood shall fall from the sky and poison one-third of the land and one-third of the oceans and the seven-headed serpent of Babylon will arise and everyone shall be made to listen to the Lighthouse Family for thou hast Sinned Mightily.
9 Thou shalt check all proofs very carefully for spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes, as thy designer is employed to make thy marketing materials and so forth look pretty, and not to check whether thou is able to tell the difference between their, there and they're, or indeed if thou hast the presence of mind to correctly use a possessive apostrophe.
10 Thou shalt pay thine invoices on time and thy loins will be sure to bear much fruit*
*not guaranteed
2 Thou shalt consider all the time, thought, hard work, expensive hardware and software, training, skills and creativity involved in the commission before whinging about said quote, sayingst things such as 'my nephew said he couldst design it in MS Paint for twenty quid'.
3 Thou shalt not supply photographs or graphics in Word, Powerpoint or any other Microsoft package. Thy designer has the right to the soul of thy first-born child if this Commandment be broken.
4 Thou shall supply high-quality, high-resolution images if thou requirest that thy publication not look like the dinner of a dog. Heed thy designer's advice on this, for verily, s/he is learn'd. Be prepar'd to pay for such venerable things from istock and such like for they are not that expensive really when thou thinkest about it.
5 Thou shalt NEVER request that thy designer use the typeface known as Comic Sans, for it is the work of Satan.
6 Thou shalt not ask for work to be done for free, on the off-chance that thy bizarre business idea takes off and thou becomest a millionaire.
7 Thou shalt appreciate that now and again thy designer might declare a day off, of which thou willst be told well in advance, and thou shalt not bitch about this. Thou shalt especially not bitch about this when thou decidest to bugger around with thine own schedule and thus suddenly discover that thy designer is busy surfing/snowboarding/knitting kittens whenst thou finally decidest that thou wouldst like to go to press.
8 Thou shalt know that thy designer does not, and will not, use Microsoft Publisher. Requests to do so will be met with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and the star Wormwood shall fall from the sky and poison one-third of the land and one-third of the oceans and the seven-headed serpent of Babylon will arise and everyone shall be made to listen to the Lighthouse Family for thou hast Sinned Mightily.
9 Thou shalt check all proofs very carefully for spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes, as thy designer is employed to make thy marketing materials and so forth look pretty, and not to check whether thou is able to tell the difference between their, there and they're, or indeed if thou hast the presence of mind to correctly use a possessive apostrophe.
10 Thou shalt pay thine invoices on time and thy loins will be sure to bear much fruit*
*not guaranteed
Illustration & poster for the Welsh Music Foundation
Production music is the music you hear in the background when you're watching a TV drama or such like - royalty-free music that helps add to the on-screen emotional effect. We're making a lot of television in Wales at the moment, and will be making a lot more - but the Welsh Music Foundation is concerned that only a tiny percentage of the production music used in Welsh programmes is actually made in Wales. It's coming up with a guide to help labels, composers and general musical bods create homegrown music for Welsh programmes, and commissioned yours truly to come up with an illustrated poster for an event they're holding to promote said guide. So I thought, how can I illustrate music on TV?
I started off with a doodled pencil drawing of all this drama coming out of an old TV set. Detectives, guns, dogs, children playing, robots, people kissing etc. All this drama would be loosely contained in the five lines of a musical stave (if that's the right term - I only have grade 1 piano).
Once I was happy with the doodle I got out a paintbrush and commenced inking the drawing. Inking allows you to define lines quickly, giving a hierarchy to the illustration and allowing you to scan, clean up and manipulate the drawing in Photoshop a lot easier.
So then I added the stave, colours and textures - I went for a kind of pink/orange/brown look at first but then changed to green to fit the WMF's logo:
You get a really nice texture with ink that I think is difficult to replicate with vector art. I added half-tone patterns for a little roughness and depth. Am particularly proud of the gun and the robot:
So here are the finished posters, in English and Welsh:
I started off with a doodled pencil drawing of all this drama coming out of an old TV set. Detectives, guns, dogs, children playing, robots, people kissing etc. All this drama would be loosely contained in the five lines of a musical stave (if that's the right term - I only have grade 1 piano).
Once I was happy with the doodle I got out a paintbrush and commenced inking the drawing. Inking allows you to define lines quickly, giving a hierarchy to the illustration and allowing you to scan, clean up and manipulate the drawing in Photoshop a lot easier.
So then I added the stave, colours and textures - I went for a kind of pink/orange/brown look at first but then changed to green to fit the WMF's logo:
You get a really nice texture with ink that I think is difficult to replicate with vector art. I added half-tone patterns for a little roughness and depth. Am particularly proud of the gun and the robot:
So here are the finished posters, in English and Welsh:
Friday, 12 February 2010
Robin Redbreast
Thursday, 11 February 2010
See You Next Tuesday
The organisers of the above event, organised in collaboration with Eve Ensler's V-Day, had a bit of a panic on when they were left without a graphic designer a week before their programme was due to go to press. Yours truly duly stepped into the breach and made them something rather nice.
It's a concertina programme/flyer that folds down to A7 (half a postcard). My brief was that it should be dramatic, colourful and generally "badass" - and that was pretty much it - I had a free rein.
I had to come up with a design that I could put together quickly and that would be coherent and vibrant. I was supplied with some awesome images including the above portrait taken by the very talented Emma Jane Richards, and, using a couple of strong typefaces, the colours orange, turquoise and gold, and a bitmap halftone pattern (those would be those dotty things in the background of the headline in the above), I got going. I used the panels of the concertina to differentiate between events while still making it feel like a big happy family of shows.
One side of the flyer was pretty much taken up with a group of shows organised by Funny Women so I wanted these to feel slightly different but still part of the whole. Hence, still the coloured panels, same typefaces etc but a slightly different header style...
And the most important event of all, the performance of the world-famous Vagina Monologues, would go on the back of the flyer when folded. That was the play that started the whole V-Day thing off - a day to promote the end of violence against women - and is, I guess, the proud parent of this whole festival.
The beneficiaries of the festival are the women of the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, specifically, the women of the City of Joy camp - a place for female victims of violence to recover, physically and psychologically, from their experiences; a place for them to become empowered with the ability to help others in that situation.
Naturally I am proud to have been associated with this heart-wrenching cause - if you can get to see some of the fantastic events at the New Player's Theatre please do.
It's a concertina programme/flyer that folds down to A7 (half a postcard). My brief was that it should be dramatic, colourful and generally "badass" - and that was pretty much it - I had a free rein.
I had to come up with a design that I could put together quickly and that would be coherent and vibrant. I was supplied with some awesome images including the above portrait taken by the very talented Emma Jane Richards, and, using a couple of strong typefaces, the colours orange, turquoise and gold, and a bitmap halftone pattern (those would be those dotty things in the background of the headline in the above), I got going. I used the panels of the concertina to differentiate between events while still making it feel like a big happy family of shows.
One side of the flyer was pretty much taken up with a group of shows organised by Funny Women so I wanted these to feel slightly different but still part of the whole. Hence, still the coloured panels, same typefaces etc but a slightly different header style...
And the most important event of all, the performance of the world-famous Vagina Monologues, would go on the back of the flyer when folded. That was the play that started the whole V-Day thing off - a day to promote the end of violence against women - and is, I guess, the proud parent of this whole festival.
The beneficiaries of the festival are the women of the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, specifically, the women of the City of Joy camp - a place for female victims of violence to recover, physically and psychologically, from their experiences; a place for them to become empowered with the ability to help others in that situation.
Naturally I am proud to have been associated with this heart-wrenching cause - if you can get to see some of the fantastic events at the New Player's Theatre please do.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
