Friday 28 August 2009

OEG Interiors Identity

During my week of work experience at Ignition Design Ltd in Bath, I was asked to come up with a corporate identity for their client OEG Interiors. Their lead designer had already produced a finished identity but they thought it would be interesting to compare my response with theirs; so, I didn’t get to see their work until I’d finished my own.

My first attempts were based around the shapes likely to be found in an office plan drawing. Knowing that OEG offer specially fitted furnishings gave me a reason to create a sense of rigidity/interlocking shapes.










The original OEG logo used only magenta so, early on, I stuck to it until I had a drawn logo that I was happy with. At that point I could think about colour.
Trying out typefaces is always worthwhile but not obligatory; after all, you can be sure the typeface you use wasn’t originally drawn for your client so it makes sense to draw a logotype from scratch. It was suggested that this option below aims slightly above OEG’s average target customer.















By the end, I had drawn around 50 variants of the logo. The final result was something whose seamless shape would entertain the idea of made-to-measure office furniture. The logo is flexible because it can sit alone wherever it needs to while a simple piece of typography ‘OEG Interiors’ will give the full company name. Single and double-sided business cards were made, along with a compliments slip and letterhead.









You can see Ignition’s original response to the brief at the OEG website. It was interesting to see the similarities between the logos and I think, if I had more involvement with the client and their products, I’d have been better informed and made a more justified choice of colour.

Thursday 27 August 2009

Taxi Broadsheets

Here’s an interview that I did with a taxi driver in Bath (UK). I spoke to about 12 drivers and made 5 broadsheets using the most interesting material. I basically just relied on their rambling so I could take shots with my camera from the backseat. I’ve added some images but the guy you’ll see is not the driver whose interview I’ve recorded below. The broadsheets themselves are also depicted at the bottom.



Have a skim through because he’s quite an interesting guy – very proud of his work and has picked up a few notable characters since he began taxiing. 





‘I just took up driving when I retired because I needed…I wanted something to do, y’know? It all kicked off, basically…I was going to pick up a colleague of mine down at Heathrow one morning and er…he was coming in on a flight at about 20 past 5 in the morning and em…I was driving up the motorway, I had my music playing and I thought that’s nice; I’m not going to a meeting in London that starts at 8 o’clock…I’ve not got to meet anybody at Heathrow; all I’ve got to do is pick up my colleague.

So that gave me the idea because I wanted…I needed, when I retired, a flexible job. Work which…I could work when I wanted, as long as I wanted, take as much holiday as I wanted, when I wanted, without asking the chief executive or chairman of the board anymore. Right? And that fitted the bill. So it’s a job of flexibility…y’know? You can work according to your requirements. Right? Er…if you want a lot of money, you work a lot of hours; if you don’t wanna earn too much, you don’t work long hours. Em…y’know, it fitted the bill perfectly and it’s like any other job. I mean…you have to enjoy what you do; you don’t enjoy what you do…you’ll never give your best to it. And…y’know…you are giving a service to the customer. So you must try and enjoy what you do because otherwise you don’t give the best service to the customer, do you?

And…I think there are too many guys driving taxis who…shouldn’t be. Because they’re not cut out to talk to the customers. Because some people like to talk, particularly the older people. They don’t meet many people, they only meet the taxi driver, and they love to have a chat about something interesting, y’know? So…it’s a great benefit if you’ve got a bit of a rag-tag mind to be honest. You can talk about most things that anyone wants to talk about and at the same time, if they don’t wanna talk…learn to shut up, y’know? Em…but em…so…from my point of view, it fits the bill perfectly…and er, I enjoy it.


Much of my business is long distance jobs, to be quite truthful, because I run two cars and er…an s-class Mercedes and this one and em…if I wanna pop around Bath, I’ve got something to do, I’ll pop around Bath. And if I’ve got a long distance tour and I don’t wanna do it, I’ll get one of my colleagues to do it for me. Yeah?

I’ve been doin it for…what, six years? It’s not solely Bath, because I do, I operate independently; I operate in license so, I do long hauls. I mean, I’ve got a job…end of June, I’ve gotta go to Anglesey…Take someone up there; stay over night; take them around Anglesey the next day; bring them back; y’know what I mean? And em, y’know, I go to the airports a lot, take people up to the city, y’know, all over the place, y’know? I’ve been to places like Torquay, Southampton, Leeds, y’know, all over, so no it’s not confined to…purely to taxiing. But em…y’know, it’s em…I find it can be quite an interesting job and quite a rewarding job in many ways because, y’know, there comes a time in life when people really can’t climb onto buses…anymore. And they need, they need help; these people are very grateful for help. So you feel that it can become quite rewarding if you em…[Mobile rings]

Hi darling. Yep, fine sweety. Oh, great. Fantastic! Where did you get that from? Does it? Okay, well done darling. That’s fine. Hehehe. Okay, thanks darling; well done! Talk to you later! Hehe. Bye!


Sorry about that, I don’t usually answer it but at least we’re stopped, hehehe. That was my lady anyway.

No as I was saying, yeah, it can be quite rewarding because some of these older people are quite grateful for help because some of them need lots of help y’know. And…therefore, that’s why you’ve, you’ve gotta have the right sort of person…. You can’t have someone who wants to sit on their backside in a seat and stay there all day long and not get out to help people because then, y’know, you’re not giving a service to the customer. They pay good money. You should give them a good service. Y’know, that’s really what I’m talking about. And, y’know, I think we have a lot of good drivers here in Bath to be quite truthful but having said that, y’know, there are others who shouldn’t be doing it. Do I know a lot of them myself? No. I only know the good ones, for the simple reason that, well, they all own good cars and I might need their help sometime to cover jobs for me. And also, y’know, it’s vitally important, er…to be well presented; to keep your car clean; I mean, it’s a service. Y’see, if I worked to run Abbey taxis, or any large taxi company, I would make damn sure you could eat off the floor of every single car that was in my fleet. Because that’s me, y’know? I mean, I was in industry all my life; I ran big factories, and I tell you, even in a wood-processing factory, in my factory, you could eat off the floor. It had to be right, y’know? And em…it should be the same in this industry to be quite truthful.


Em…so…I mean you get, a sort of, quite a wide range of people in this business. But…somebody who has never done anything else bar drive a taxi all their life, y’know…er…who are moaning and groaning about things…but you’ve gotta get on with it, y’know, em…If one’s prepared to put the effort in and work, they could make a reasonable living. If they’re lazy, idle, and can’t get up in the morning or y’know, then…they shouln’t be doin’ the job. But then, they probably shouldn’t be workin’ for someone because they wouldn’t perform; d’you…do you understand?


For me, as I retired guy, it’s perfect, because, as I said to you before, I don’t have to work any hour of the day I don’t want to. I work totally flexible hours. It purely depends on what is required of me, y’know? Tonight, I have a customer arriving at Bristol airport at…9 o’clock. So I will go home, have some dinner, pick him up and drop him off at Bradford-on-Avon. Right? And then I’ll just go to my home. Tomorrow morning, I have a…a guy to pick up at Hilperton, near Trowbridge at 10 o’clock in the morning, to go to Bristol Airport. Gotta do it…okay? And…like…if I, I mean sometimes, I take people up to er…up to the West End, up to Park Lane, the Dorchester for various awards. I’ve gotten people up to the Bafta awards and I’ll wait ‘til they come out…half past 12, 1 o’clock in the morning and take them home. But then, I don’t need to work the next day, if I don’t want to, y’see? So that’s…I don’t have any…what I don’t do, I very, very rarely drive locally after 8 o’clock, but that’s not for no reason; I er…I’d rather get home, y’know what I mean? And sit down and see my lady for a while. Em…You’re dealing with different people at night, but you don’t get problems because the point is…if you are…I mean I wouldn’t pick up someone who was drunk. I’d just tell em…“get another car, sorry”. I mean if I pick up someone who gets a bit stroppy, I’m quite an assertive guy and I can soon turn them round by talking to them. So people aren’t a problem but it’s, I dunno, this morning, what time did I start today? I did my first job at 9 o’clock, so I will go home…have dinner about 6.30. Then I’ll go back out at about 8 o’clock and go to Bristol Airport, y’know? So it works well. It suits me. I mean if the picking up at 9 o’clock didn’t suit me I wouldn’t do it. Because again…it’s flexible.


[Omitted paragraphs]

I’ll see if I’ve got one of my own…my own personal cards. I usually keep them in my s-class but I’m sure I’ll have some about in here. Yeah, get me on my mobile. I assessed for 15 years at London Guildhall University, as an outside assessor. Yeah, so…and I get extremely excited when I see new talent, whatever it might be, whether as a soccer player; rugby player; a good presentation by a student is exciting, I think.

This is a very interesting type of job to be quite truthful. I can just name out all the people I’ve driven. All the celebrities I’ve driven, y’know? I mean I can go on and on and on. Y’know, it’s em... from racing car drivers, to actors, to politicians, to pop stars. I’ve driven all of S-Club 7 around, all, Rachael Stevens. All of them. Em…I’ve driven Joan Rivers, Shirley Bassey, Patrick Moore. Sportsmen, y’know…Jonathan Edwards. I can go on and on and on. Jackie Stewart. Pavarotti. Noel Edmunds, I’ve driven a lot of recent times. I took Caprice, the model, from Thornbury Castle in Gloucestershire up to Camden Town where she lives. I mean I was even on Holby City, not long ago, driving my s-class as a chauffeur, yeah. So y’know, it’s em…I’ve been into Highgrove many times, taking people up there to various meetings and em…I drive Tony Head a lot, the Prime Minister on Little Britain, yeah…I picked him up from Birmingham Airport last week. They talk about all sorts of things. I was talking to Tony last week about how they started up Little Britain in Sydney. He was telling me all about it and it sits well down there, and…yeah, we talk about all sorts of things, from their own personal interests and hobbies and things like that. I mean it depends. If they don’t want to talk, you don’t. If they wanna talk, fine. Some guys will sit back and work; stuff like that. Most people are happy to talk; but if not, you just keep quiet.




I picked up a guy once,; I was driving my taxi and went to a guesthouse in Crescent Gardens just down the bottom here and him and his wife got in the car and he said, “How much will you charge to take me to Congleton?” I said, “What, do you mean just south of Manchester?” He said, “That’s right, yeah.” And em…I told him. He said, “Right, I want you to take me there.” He said, “If you take me to the bank, I’ll go and get the money and I’ll pay you when you take me.” So I drove to the bank in Milsom Street, he went and got the cash and came back; gave me the cash and off we set to er…Congleton, just south of Manchester. I said a couple of words but he didn’t want to speak. D’you know something? That man didn’t speak to me or his wife all the way to us going off on the junction from the M6; we were 180 miles up the motorway and then he said, “Now I think I’ll have to give you directions to my home.” Never said a word; to me, or his wife…hehehe

Yeah I had 3 daughters; they all went on to study ’til they were 26, 24. One got a Phd, another got masters degrees so…I’m very happy to help students if I can.’


Anya Southgate Biz Card


In my last year at uni I offered to design a business card for my second year house-mate, Anya, before her end-of-year show took place. Having been given her details, I came up with the above front/back designs early on but the final product, below, was a little different. Anya asked for an image to be added as an example of her work; I still think the card makes a nice use of space and colour but I’m not keen on single images in business cards as they never represent something in its entirety and can limit the audience’s imagination.

Quick prints

I’ve added a couple of prints I did about 5 years ago now. For anybody interested in printmaking but without access to proper printmaking facilities, you can still make prints at home.

You’ll need a pane of glass, printing ink, an ink roller and a decent supply of newsprint or other very thin paper. You can buy the ink and whatnot from most good art shops (or try online – even Amazon).

Spread the ink thinly on the pane of glass to avoid waste and cover it with a sheet of newsprint. Press on the newsprint lightly and pull back slowly to remove any excess ink. If there are completely black areas on the paper try again. Repeat this until the page looks consistently gray all over (or as close as you can get it).

With another new piece of newsprint over the inked-up glass, begin drawing with a pencil as normal. Play around with different pencils on the same drawing but make sure you don’t tear the page.

Once you’re finished, peel the paper off very slowly. The ink will have stuck it down well especially if you’ve taken a while on your drawing. I would try to finish a drawing within 15/20 minutes, if that.

Et voila! Nice new print with lots of strange ink marks and stains that, I think, add to the drawings. You could even try changing the colour of the inks you use – maybe use a mix of three choices. It’s not the cleanest method of printing, but very quick and always surprising.


Wednesday 26 August 2009

www MAGMA

Magma Books Online
http://www.magmabooks.com/

For all your art and design literary needs

Poem of Alexander Pope in txt speak

thus unlamNtd pas th prwd awA,
th gAz of fools, n pagaent of a dA!
so perish all whoz brest neva lernd 2 glO
4 othaz’ gd, or melt @ othaz’ wO!
wot can atOn (O evr-injrd shAd!)
thy fAt unpitEd, n thy rIts unpAd?
No frndz complAnt, no knd domestc tEr
plEzd thy pAl gOst, or grAsd thy mornfl bEr.
by forAn hnds thy dyin Is wer clOsd,
by forAn hnds thy decnt lims compOsd,
by forAn hnds thy humbl grAv adornd,
by strAngrs honrd, n by strAngrs mornd!
wot tho’no frnds in sAbl wEds apEr,
n bear abwt th mokrE of wO
2 midnIt dances, n th pblic shO?
wot tho’no wEpin luvs thy ashes grAs,
nor polishd marbl emUl8 thy fAs?
wot tho’no sAcrd erth alow thE room,
nor halowd dirge b muterd ova thy tomb?
yet shal thy grave w/ rIsin flwers b drest,
n th grEn trf  lI lItlE on thy brest:
ther shal th morn her erliest tErs bestO,
ther th 1st rOzz of th yEr shal blO;
wIl Anglz w/ ther silvr wngs ovashAd
th grwnd nw sAcrd by thy reliqs mAd.
so pEsful rests, withwt a stOn, a nAm,
wot 1s hd bUT, tItlz, welth, n fAm.
hw luvd, hw honrd 1s, avAls thE nt,
2 whom relAtd, or by whom begot;
a hEp of dst alOn remAns of thE,
‘tis all thw art, n all th prwd shal B!

www Minimiam

Minimiam
http://www.minimiam.com/en/goen.html


This artist has done some great photographic work. Some of it reminds me of my own Words in Space project and others like it where I’d taken something small-scale and blown it right up.

John Foster Biz Card




Here’s a little project I did after I’d finished my work for uni. My brother’s guitar teacher was in need of a new business card; I think someone in his family very kindly got some for him through the internet. Unfortunately it was one of those ‘1000 cards for 20p’ places; they put whatever info you want on the card in a little list in the corner and then add a weird stock image on as the background.

So I thought I’d give him a little present and get my own work out there at the same time. You might notice his initials, JF, have been drawn in a shape that uses elegant serif-type curves and straight edges that are similar to those in musical symbols.

Anyway, those are his actual details so if you’re in or around Doncaster and in need of lessons I can recommend this chap!

Waddington Air Show

I thought I’d drop in a few images of the Waddington Air Show that I saw…sometime in the recent past…. Lots of noise, lots of awesomeness, and a guys-only competition for most enormous zoom lense.



This was the Spanish response to the Red Arrows who, ten minutes earlier, whizzed by and over-turned the port-a-loos. They were actually about an 8 on the awesomeness scale; they kept flying head-on towards each other like kamikaze psychos.



The Vulcan, at the top, took the skies all on its onesies.



Damn, the bald guy’s seen me…



Not to be out-done by jets, the copters did loops all over the place! 

At first I thought this guy was giving me the finger with an ironic smile. I quickly checked it on my camera and, finding that it was just a west-side sign, I put the stone back on the floor. 

I sat in this one…yep. My aero-fanatic pilot friend was with me that day but was somewhere else at this point and got mildly jealous when I told him I got to sit in this. I didn’t even know the name of it! …I still don’t!



Cue Ride of the Valkyries…
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