Pure Mint Design

emal ad

2011-12-22T16:05:00.002Z

Email Ad

2011-12-22T15:57:00.002Z

2011-08-05T14:29:00.000+01:00

2011-07-08T01:33:00.001+01:00

2011-03-21T15:28:00.000Z

C:\Users\Abdulmateen\Desktop\Template\Website-Template.html

2011-03-18T20:40:00.000Z

2011-03-01T18:12:00.001Z

2011-03-01T17:33:00.001Z

Folder Design for Bloomberg

2010-03-15T03:28:00.003Z

Here are some images from my Bloomberg project. For my publication design, I created a folder that will hold all the booklets together. Altogether there are 20 booklets.

Bloomberg Publication Design

2010-03-15T03:22:00.002Z

Finally, I've completed my Bloomberg project! Hooray! This was definitely the most difficult project I've done so far! But I've learnt a lot so hopefully a lot of positives will come out from it.

I couldn't believe the amount of work that needs to be put into a design for a simple publication! Layout, paper type, sizes and thickness, colour/non colour, production, print specifications etc etc...
Below you can flick through my pdf that I'm handing in for monday's assessment:

Human Spine

2010-03-11T15:27:00.005Z

Our current project is to design a publication for an art gallery called Bloomberg in London.

We've been uploading our research and ideas on http://www.bloombergspace.blogspot.com/ for our project manager Marit to assess.

There's a lot of weird and wonderful binding ideas and this is one I found pretty interesting. This bookbinding is based on human spine anomalies. What would happen to the book spine if you apply to it similar distortions? Pretty interesting concept.

Celebrate Originality

2010-03-11T15:13:00.003Z

This was a recent project for Adidas Originals. It is a 20'x5' billboard design. It was showcased on their display at the project, Las Vegas Show 2010 this month. The stipulations were to use the traditional Adidas blue and for the design to include the phrase "Celebrate Originality".

I think this illustration clearly shows that you don't necessarily need tons of colours for art to be successful. Just a few shades of the same colour is very effective.

The Designer is Jared Nickerson from Seattle, USA www.jthreeconcepts.com

Bog Roll Sculpting

2010-03-11T14:54:00.005Z

Check out these crazy origami sculptures designed by Jacquet Fritz Junior http://www.leplieur.com/
They are printed on a black sheet of polymer thermoplastic ( PVC ) covered with anti ultraviolet ray unpolished film. It's crazy how even a bog roll can be used to create great pieces of art!

Chosen Design!

2010-02-17T16:23:00.006Z

Never in a million years would I have thought that my branding design would have been chosen by the Raw Material team, especially with 2nd year students participating in the same project, but they did! Hooray! This is what Tim (the director of Raw Material) emailed me yesterday:

Dear Muhammad,

Thank you for presenting your work on Friday. We really like it and would like to talk to you about taking it further. I like the logo, this is very strong and I like the calligraphic resonances, plus the general layouts and the web pages.

Thanks for all your hard work and effort on the brief and we are all delighted with the results.

Regards

Tim Brown, Director

Raw Material Posters

2010-02-11T00:34:00.005Z

I've designed a few posters for Raw Material using the logo as the basis. The following images were individually cut to create the logo.

This is the original logo I designed:

And these are the posters:

(Ps: The wheel has nothing to do with Raw Material, but I thought I'll just do it for fun anyway! : )

Raw Material Project: Development 04

2010-02-10T19:49:00.011Z

Finally, I have completed my brand identity for Raw Material, hooray!

You can flick through my PDF below to see the design process and how the new logo design came into existence:

Coke vs Pepsi

2010-02-10T19:41:00.005Z

While I've been busting my head researching logos for my Raw Material project, I came across the subject of a 'timeless logo'. We all know an effective logo should be timeless – that is, it will stand the test of time. But will the logo still be effective in 10, 20, 50 years?

Trends come and go, and when you’re talking about changing a pair of jeans, or buying a new dress, that’s fine, but where your brand identity is concerned, longevity is key.

Probably the best example of a timeless logo is the Coca-Cola logo. If you compare it to the Pepsi logo below, you can see just how effective creating a timeless logo can be. Notice how the Coca Cola logo has barely changed since 1885? That is timeless design!

And the worst part is, I've got to prove that my logo design for Raw Material is also timeless!

Raw Material Project: Development 03

2010-02-06T18:30:00.006Z

The branding will include a letterhead, compliment slip, business card, CD design, website and t-shirt design etc. I made sure the colour and design of the brand was consistent throughout the project to give the organisation a unique feel and personality.

You can look through all the designs on http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Raw-Material-Branding-NEW/413186.

Here are some:

Raw Material Project: Development 02

2010-02-06T18:17:00.007Z

After long hard thought about the last logo design attempt, I decided not to go ahead with that style of design. Instead, I think it would be more creative and recognisable to have it typography based. Also, after recieving a reply to my logo design questionnaire from Tim Brown (Director at Raw Material), he asked to have the logo in simple, one colour palletes like black, grey or white etc.

After more exntensive research and development, I wanted to create a typographic logo based on circles. The world is round, the olympics logo is round and also the circle of life! Circles create unity and bonds within different cultures and events, this inspired me to come up with this design:

And the final logo design looks like this:

Raw Material Project: Development 01

2010-01-28T12:38:00.007Z

I've finally got some invaluable inspiration for a cultural, artistic, music related logo; the Bob Dylan poster by Milton Glaser. This poster became a cultural icon and the colours of Bob's hair represents its diversity.

I took the idea and tried to create a more simplistic style to the curls and implement it into the logo design for Raw Material, but something just doesn't seem to click! The logo seems to represent 'a' style rather than different, cultural styles.

Wild Typography

2010-01-26T17:48:00.007Z

Don't we all just love crazy typography designs? Some designers have literally taken their type off the page using materials including hair, cigarretes, toothpaste, underwear, and even condoms to create beautiful 3d typographic works. From Vladimir Zivkovic’s Google Earth project, to Arjan Benning’s pinched skin alphabet, these designers are working with anything and everything to push the envelope.

Here are some of those designs:

Amandine Alessandra (http://www.amandinealessandra.com/)

Arjan Benning (http://www.arjanbenning.nl/)

Auto Ban (http://www.autobahn.nl/)

Handmade Font (http://www.handmadefont.com/)

Juan Camilo Rojas (http://www.camilorojas.net/)

Richard J Evans (http://www.richardjevans.com/)

Stop Motion Animation Workshop

2010-01-26T03:37:00.005Z

In this workshop we were reqiured to create a 30 second animation using the iMotion software on iMac. I must admit, I wasn't really a big fan of animation, but attending this workshop has definitely opened a new door for me in the world of design!

As a group, we used a wooden manakin for our animation. Coming up with a storyline didn't take too long as everybody had great ideas straight away. To create the animation, we used a camera and moved the manakin ever so slightly and took a picture every time we did so. It is a long process, which is the only downfall, but watching the final outcome just gives you a buzz!
I didn't believe it would appear effective at all, but the final outcome was so unique, fun and creative that I was craving for more and eventually downloaded the iMotion software for my iPhone!

Here are some images from the workshop (unfortunatley the video file is too large to upload, but we're working on getting that up on the blog):

Book Binding Workshop

2010-01-26T02:58:00.006Z

For a while now, I've been keen to learn and understand the process of book binding, then I suddenly got my chance! We had a workshop with David on how to create two types of books; a perfect bound book and a single section hard-cover book. The workshop was very practical and we used many traditional materials like card and needles.

I must admit, looking back at the two books, a perfect bound book is most definitely the easier to make. The only negative that still confuses me is the need to fold the pages on the side that will be turned by a reader. It seems useless as the inside of the fold will clearly not be used anyway, but then again, you would only have to print on the side that will be folded over so it may save money on printing costs.

Below are some images from the workshop:

Tord Boontje (HP Mini 110 Netbook)

2010-01-22T00:28:00.012Z

I've just bought a HP 110 Mini Netbook for my Fiancee. There's some amazing artwork on the notebook by the newly appointed professor at the Royal College of Art, Tord Boontje, a world renowned designer from Holland (http://www.tordboontje.com/).

It's also the worlds first notebook with HP imprint 3D and the attention to detail is crazy (http://h20424.www2.hp.com/campaign/tordboontje/ap/en/index.html). There are 3 layers of floral design each on top of one another to create a beautiful and elegant 3D effect. It's hard to see the effect on a picture, to get the real feel you have to see it with the naked eye.

Here are some pics of the notebook:

African Beach Calligraphy

2010-01-15T14:36:00.008Z

If you like sand, water and calligraphy then look no further!

Andrew Van Der Merwe is an artist who specialises in calligraphy and has 20 years experience in this subject. He carves huge letters in the sand using various instruments and leaves no footprints too! Most of the forms you'll see below draw inspiration from African writing systems.

He says: "Calligraphy is the hardest part of design. Any calligrapher worth his/her salt will understand this. Even wordless writing must have a logic, a system of movement, a poetry."

'City of Melobourne' Branding

2010-01-14T13:15:00.006Z

Having just got briefed on the 'Raw Material' project by David, it seems like it's going to be a very interesting project indeed.

Since the project is a re-branding of the Raw Material logo, I thought I'd look up some recent examples of some brands that have caught everybody's attention. One that comes to mind is the Melbourne brand, which was given a $240,000 facelift and the result was a big 'M'.

It replaced the previous 'M' and 'leaf' symbol introduced in the early 1990s:

Cr Doyle said the old logo was "a bit daggy" and Melbourne needed a new design to reflect its cool sophistication on the world stage.

The Difference

2010-01-09T03:05:00.004Z

'Ads of the world' is an online archive of the best and most interesting advertisements from across the world. Today I came across an advertisement on their site that uses four simple pictures to explain the difference between marketing, public relations, advertising, and branding.

The site is a great source of inspiration and is useful if you want to see what kinds of advertisements are successful in various different markets.

Click here for the site: http://adsoftheworld.com/

Portfolios on Demand!

2010-01-07T17:13:00.007Z

Hi everybody! Hope you've all had a pleasant winters break and happy new year!

While i've been enjoying the beautiful arctic snowfall over the Tyne (not really!), I came across a selection of "at-a-click" resources for printing a professional portfolio. While we all know PDF portfolos are key for creatives seeking to maximise their reach, the print portfolio remains an important self promotional tool.

Here are the websites:

1. Lulu (http://www.lulu.com/)

Lulu is a self-publishing colossus with themed book templates where you can upload your own layouts for publishing. The prices seem reasonable too.

2. YoPhoto (http://www.yophoto.co.uk/)

In YoPhoto you can download their bok creation-software or elect to create bespoke books themselves.

3. Bob Books (http://www.bobboks.co.uk/)

Bob Books is a consumer service but with provision for design professionals. Creatives can design their own photobooks in conjunction with Adobe software like Photoshop and InDesign.

4. Diginate (http://www.diginate.com/)

Diginate is not exactly a photobook service, but it offers spot UV poster prints which would interest those keen to join the growing number of people placing portfolios on a folded poster. The prices seem a little hefty, but the prints are definetly worth it!

Die-Cut Gift Tags

2009-12-20T21:44:00.006Z

Check out these amazing die-cut gift tags designed by Jordan Metcalf from South Africa. Each one has a message that is illustrated in an animated way. I don't know much about the design and its usage as the designer didn't leave much information, but I just love the style and huge amount of hair! (Not that I like hair, it just looks cool!)...

You can see more of his work on: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sadmascot

Happy Birthday, or whatever!

You Rock. High Five!

Champ!

Get Better!

Good luck!

Get Wired!

2009-12-19T03:51:00.006Z

If you're looking to promote yourself on the internet, then look no further. I've researched and found some online resources that can help you get your name out there.

1. FormFiftyFive (www.formfiftyfive.com)

The FFF team scours the web to collect the best designs. There's tons of features on the site with great interaction and community building. Not to be missed!

2. Jotta (www.jotta.com)

Features blogs, forums, education and empolyment. There's plenty of space to upload your portfolio. You can browse through others work and use it as a business platform.

3. Behance (www.behance.net)

My favourite. Behance provides a single point of contact for anyone interested in any format of design. The talent you find here is unbelievable.

4. CarbonMade (www.carbonmade.com)

This is another portfolio host like Behance and is one of the main creative talent pools on the web. There's designs across all disciplines.

5. EveryCreative (www.everycreative.com)

A brilliant online resource for networking. Through the site you can present your portfolio and gain feedback and advice from industry professionals.

Which is the best out of the lot you ask?

My favourite has to be Behance, hands down! It has everything. You can network, pitch, gain feedback, collaborate and present all on this site. Plus your work actually looks great on the site too! I have already been asked for design work through Behance and the manner in which it is set up is fantastic. Every designer should have their portfolio on this site!

You can visit my portfolio on Behance for an idea: www.behance.net/abdulmateen

Brilliant Typographic Style

2009-12-18T19:07:00.007Z

Yesterday on the internet I came across a designer called 'Tareq Yosef' from Jordan. His typography work is absolutely fantastic. The style is elegant and gives its own interpretation. Here's a link to his website: www.tariqdesign.com

The only thing I would say is he manipulates the image a bit too much for my liking, but overall its excellent.

Poster Design

2009-12-18T18:37:00.005Z

Christmas Greetings everybody!

While many people have been enjoying their holidays, I've been stuck on my computer designing posters for various organisations.

The Centre for Sport in Newcastle upon Tyne asked me to design a poster for their late night badminton sessions. They wanted it to be simple, easy to read and effective. They provided me with all the information and I had less than one day to get it done!

Below you can see the materials I used for the design and the final outcome:

I thought it would be ideal to use a very simple, monotype font like Arial which is easy to see and comprehend. I also used a consistent colour scheme of black, white and yellow throughout the design. I replaced the letter 'O' in badminton with a crescent moon to represent 'midnight'. I think thats probably the part which makes it a little unique.

(I know its rubbish, bearing in mind I only put like 30mins into it! lol, but hey, I thought I'll post it on the blog anyway!)

Calligraphy Work 'Featured'

2009-12-14T17:48:00.010Z

I've always been fascinated by Arabic calligraphy, typography and its architecture. I just love the fluency and elegance in its style. It uses simple strokes to create complex designs.

In 2005, I had the chance to work with a fantastic calligraphy artist called Nawaz in Manchester who taught me how to write Arabic in its most elegant form called 'naskh'. I havn't looked back since and I now do it as a hobby.

I recently did a personal project on Arabic calligraphy in contemporary and traditional Arabic styles using Adobe Illustrator and two shades of gold and black. It was an instant hit on the Behance Network site and my work was featured on http://www.creativeroots.org/?p=5527 and http://designyoutrust.com/2009/12/13/muhammad-abdulmateen/ and http://www.typographyserved.com/ which showcases the best projects in the Behance Network, within specific industries.

This is the link to my featured work: http://www.typographyserved.com/Gallery/Arabic-Calligraphy-NEW/359139

Here are some selected designs:

Traffic Light Concept

2009-12-13T03:47:00.006Z

Continuing on from my speeding project, I found this interesting design on economical traffic lights called 'Eko light'. Apparently it is a simple, yet highly practical concept for traffic lights that not only helps preserve the environment by reducing pollution but promotes safer driving as well.

Some benefits of this system are:

There's less stress since you know exactly how long you have to wait you can sit back and clear your head for a while.

There's no need to keep your foot on the gas. Less pollution.

Safer driving - With the Eko light both drivers and pedestrians can be fully aware of how much time they have left before the light changes and that way reduce the chance for potential traffic accidents.

Practical & Visual Research

2009-12-11T19:11:00.006Z

On Tuesday we had an interesting workshop on 'practical and visual reasearch methods' with one of this years BA top-up students, Marta Siolkowska. It was similar to the research workshop we had earlier this term with Orlagh, but this time there was more involvement and an array of art and design materials on offer.

What we had to do was find a practical and visual way of gathering research. I decided that I wanted to find out peoples inner personalities, and one practical method I came up with was to ask people to draw a quick sketch on 'what would they do if they were invisible?". And yes, this took out the devil in everybody!

Here are some images of the outcome:

We all then discussed each others ideas and findings and the outcomes were fantastic. This was definitely an eye opener and has helped me understand how practical research could be used intensively.

Digital Illustration

2009-12-08T17:53:00.015Z

If you love vector illustrations, you need to check this out. Here are some mega illustrations by Glenn Jones, a freelance graphic designer and illustrator based in Auckland, New Zealand.

He's worked in the design industry for over 15 years focusing on packaging, corporate identity and illustration. After his recent success, he's now concentrating on his own range of T-shirt designs. Below are some examples of his work:

Interupted!

Direct Link

Cautious! Bananas

Fast Funeral!

In Disguise

Glenn's work is very professional and elegant in detail. I like the mixture of solid colours and emphasised expressions. Also, not forgetting the story and idea behind each image! For more of Glenn's work visit his blog http://blog.glennz.com/

GDF Project: Speeding (Part 2)

2009-12-07T14:40:00.017Z

OK guys, here it is! My 'Graphic Design Fundamentals' project on speeding. You can flick through my PDF research, process and final outcome below:

This was a very interesting project from the start. It became a live brief after I met Councillor Dipu Ahad in Newcastle. It was difficult at times working with a client so far away and busy, but nevertheless a great experience.

I believe my final design works well and the consistent colour scheme throughout the work also reflects the unity of the campaign material.

Here are some images of my final designs:

100 Collage Project

2009-12-07T14:19:00.008Z

I have finally completed my 100 collages! Howay!
It took a lot of time and effort but here it is, all 100 collages:

These are some of my favourites:

Overall, this was a fun, creative project that I can now fully collaborate with in future projects. During the process, a lot of wierd, funny and awful ideas came out and thats what made it so interesting.

I used cut-outs from magazines, newspapers, Computer Arts magazine, sports papers, FHM, journals and many more. I also used expensive textured paper for the texture theme. Other themes included:

Composition
Editing
Contrast
Rythm
Repurposing
Juxtaposition
Surrealism
Narrative
Humor
Texture

GDF Project: Speeding (Part 1)

2009-12-03T22:53:00.007Z

For my FdA project on a speeding campaign, I am creating and designing an unusual piece of packaging. The idea is a packaging that imitates a 'speed bump' which people would recieve through the post or pick up in a store.

My client, Cllr Dipu Ahad, loves the concept and said Newcastle City Council would love to take this idea on board and provide it to their service users if the final outcome is positive.

Below are some images of the different variations that I have been working on:

Best Movie Posters of 2009

2009-12-02T19:52:00.006Z

Here is my 'best movie poster of 2009' collection. A great poster doesn't make a great film. But a great poster sure can make a bad film look at least cool!

The Wrestler
The lighting and various shades of dark colours do it for me! It represents the story incredibly well.

In The Loop
I havn't watched this movie, but I like the pop art effect they've used like Andy Warhol's work.

Cold Souls
A very unusual style but that's why its really good.

The Informers
The style is just different to what we see everyday. The picture doesn't give a lot away in terms of storyline and title.

Camera Lens Calendar!

2009-11-24T02:18:00.004Z

This is the worlds first camera lens calendar designed by Sharad Haksar for his clients. His objective was to "create an innovative calendar that strengthens my profession as being a creative photographer".

Since the camera is the most visible sign of a photographer, I think his idea works perfectly. The biggest problem is, only his clients can get their hands on one! Aaargh!

Research Methodologies

2009-11-24T01:49:00.005Z

Recently I've been indulging myself into hard bodies of text (sad, I know!) trying to understand different methods and techniques of doing better research. I was pleasently surprised at how little I knew about these techniques.

Design Research: Methods and Perspectives is an excellent book by Brenda Laurel that interestingly explains the perspectives designer's should consider when doing research. Below I have mentioned some of those methods of research and I will be elaborating each one progressively throughout the next week or so, so stay tuned!

1. Experimental

2. Qualitative

3. Quantitative

4. Speculative

5. Experiential

6. Performative

7. Discovery-Led / Poetic

8. Formal / Structural

9. Procedural

Sliced Bread! (Notebook)

2009-11-23T17:34:00.007Z

The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread!

Could taking notes have been more delicious? This is a 12 slice/notebook set which has been packaged for convenience. Each delicious slice has a number on it (1 to 12) so you can use each notebook for the related month.

I can't wait to get my hands on one of these!

PDF Making Workshop

2009-11-23T16:45:00.004Z

In our all day PDF workshop, Mark and I created a basic and informative pdf document. We used a 3 column grid, Arial Regular and Bold in 11pt and 22pt fonts. I think our choices of composition and imagery could have been better, but overall I think the design is straight to the point. (PS: we did have a lack of time!)

You can view our results below:

Typography at it's best!

2009-11-23T00:34:00.010Z

There was a launch of a new Turkish-language edition of the New York Times' International Weekly. To advertise the launch, the newspapers commissioned this incredible animation - a typographic tour starting from Liberty Island, across various bits of Manhattan, before arriving back to a gorgeous view of Istanbul rendered in type.

The typography hangs together beautifully, and the level of subtle detail rewards re-watching. The waves, rippling banners and flags are a lovely touch, just noticeable enough to add to the sense of place without distracting you from the overall theme.

Here's a link to one of the adverts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ8CUcvPT6s

3D Workshop

2009-11-23T00:18:00.007Z

We were given an opportunity to attend a workshop involving moving objects and creating narratives using 3 dimensional objects. Jesse Wine, a 3D sculpture artist studying at RCA, conducted the workshop. We were given random objects (mostly carrots, unusually!!) and told to create a narrative using these pieces only.

Here are some of the 3D narratives I created with Dilbert and Adam:

Carrot Face (Or balls?!!)

The Olympic torch!

A mass 'carrot' murderer...

Crop Workshop

2009-11-21T18:26:00.008Z

Below are my results from the cropping workshop with David Sims. There are 11 images, each with a crop style to determine a detail.

1. Crop to Define

P: The crop defines the emotions of the image
M: Takes away the atmosphere of the image
I: It definitely makes the image more definitive and focussed

2. Enhance Emotional Impact

P: The emotive impact of the image is enhanced considerably
M: Crop takes out reason of emotional impact
I: It creates a comparison between the cyclist and driver

3. Make Look Distant

P: The blur creates a distinctive close-up effect
M: The close-up and focus is poorly defined
I: You get a good 'cut n paste on top' effect with the heads

4. Discreet

P: The crop creates a good correspondance between the two babies
M: The crying baby isn't actually discreet?!
I: Both babies share a common perspective

5. Depersonalise

P: The crop gives the impression that the man is Scottish whereas in the main image he is in fact carrying an England flag.
M: The wrong information is presented
I: It suggests the viewer is unaware of the actual theme of the image

6. Crop to Abstract

P: All the cyclist's faces have been focussed upon
M: You can't actually tell whether they're cycling or not, very misleading.
I: All the heads create an abstract image effectively

7. Bold & Exciting

P: The circular shape increases the boldness and creates an exciting view
M: The feature and originality of the image is lost
I: The crop creates a totally different entity

8. Narrow Angle Vertical

P: The crop creates a great angle of the people on the train
M: The diagonal shape is pretty weird and would be especially for an article
I: This crop works perfectly with the image above

9. Narrow Vertical

P: The crop creates an open story, it could be used for many narratives
M: The crop takes out the important factors of the image
I: It creates a very clever composition

10. Wide Angle Horizontal

P: The crops makes it more dynamic

M: It doesn't tell the full story

I: It captures the emotion perfectly

11. Close up of Detail

P: The crop gives a more dynamic effect to the camera in the image

M: The main aspects of the image have been excluded

I: The story is untold until you view the entire image

Clothes with a Story

2009-11-21T18:19:00.001Z

A clothes company that tells a 'Stori'! It's amazing how just an image says a whole story.

8 Types of Bad Creative Critics!

2009-11-21T18:06:00.003Z

Don't we all just love critics who don't know s**t?!

VCT Collage: Systems

2009-11-21T17:54:00.002Z

Our subject was to create a system using newspaper cut-outs which would somehow show us a definitive form of systems in newspapers. We decided as a group to carve ut all the parts of the front page of a newspaper each that had any form of information on it, i.e. headlines, body of text, nameplates and images etc.

We were confident this idea would bring up a good graphical representation of a system and demonstrate the relationship that newspapers commonly share in their own respective and systematic forms.

We collected all the cut-out frames and placed them on top of each other. This created a very interesting piece that formulated a connection between each frame. It almost seemed there is an inter-dependant attachment between them that has been created to visualise a very logical, but complicated order.

From this outcome, it became clear that the design of the system of all newspaper layouts are very structured and comparable, hence the similarity between the five newspaper frames in our final piece.

What we can determine from this exercise is that there is a system that works within all newspaper front pages that make them all complementary of each other. The grid system and choice of placement is very similar, despite the fact that their information and agendas may be of totally different conceptions.

Letterpress Workshop

2009-11-21T17:17:00.002Z

In our letterpress session, we were introduced to the terminology of the trade - Picas, Beards, Shoulders, EM and EN spaces etc. letterpress is harder than it looks, and very time-consuming.

But nevertheless, this was a great chance to learn a style in Graphic Design we wouldn't get a chance to study in many places. Anyway, we were assigned to a group and here are a few images of our steady development.

We used different shades of green for 'Grass Greener' and the rest of the design was a mixture of green and silver. The final outcome was excellent and it was a really enjoyable induction, albeit a little hard to understand!

TRENDSETTER - Identity

2009-11-21T17:09:00.002Z

This is an Identity and graphic application for TRENDSETTER: a small dance event/venue in London designed by Paul Hollingworth. The concept behind the identity seems to be derived from the name and nature of the event itself.

The design seems ever-changing, ever-shifting...The concept of illuminating the characters is a great idea and mimic's the crowd's attraction to the event.

Image Workshop

2009-11-21T16:24:00.001Z

In this session we discussed the process of collage and produced images that create an interesting and weird piece of visual communication.

We looked at various themes used in collage, eg. composition, editing, contrast, rythm, texture, repurposing, juxtaposition, surrealism, narrative and humor.

We picked one of the themes and produced a collage to demonstrate this theme.
Here are three collages I created, each one in response to a theme:

Narrative: In this collage, the focus was on Peter Crouch and the England team running out of steam with the World Cup in South Africa so close.

This collage carries the story on from the first one with a little satire. Darren explained how 'less is more', that being the reason for a lot of white space.

Finally, here's my collage of four pieces produced in response to Darren's "as many as you can in 20 minutes" challenge. To speed things up I chose to create a 'stressed' and 'happy' set of collages.

Typography Workshop

2009-11-21T16:03:00.001Z

In this workshop we looked at the history of typography, its forms, and how it has created a meaning over time.

What we learnt
1. Difference between fonts and typefaces
2. Font families
3. Etymology
4. Letterforms
5. Frutiger's Grid

Research Workshop

2009-11-21T15:48:00.003Z

In this session we were asked to find different ways of collecting information about other students in the class. Working with Adam, we decided to find a way to understand what other people would do if they were invisible. We believed this would alow us to understand their inner 'personalities'!

The idea was fairly basic where a student would draw a quick doodle on what they would do if they were invisible.

What we learnt from this workshop was the importance of gathering information and data and presenting it in an ideal method.

Addictive Behaviour (VCT)

2009-11-11T01:27:00.001Z

This is a poster designed by fine artist and experienced Illustrator Matthew Richardson of the Heart Agency in London.

The poster has a mixture of different media, moods, subjects and cultures. It's called 'addtictive behaviour' and was created for the Guardian newspaper.

As we know, addiction comes from every kind of pleasurable behaviour like drinking, smoking, sex and food, and i think the artist was trying to create a rendition of the film 'Mad Max' in this poster which tells a story of brakdown of society, murder and vengance, and that all these addictions lead to this style of life.

Collage Workshop (Inspiration)

2009-11-11T01:16:00.001Z

This is an interesting piece of collage design and animation from artist Igor Skaletsky and a drummer Evgeniy Labich. Stop motion animation is based on photos representing every stage of making the collage. Parts of the drummer’s live performance are arranged and mixed in one track. It's definitely worth a look.

Here is the link to the animation: http://www.selfburning.com/base/0001/14/01/

Text and Image (VCT)

2009-11-11T01:12:00.001Z

This poster depicting President Barack Obama as Heath Ledger's "Joker" character from "The Dark Knight" sparked controversy after it appeared on the streets of Los Angeles in August 2009.

An unknown person or group created this satirical poster calling Obama a "socialist" as they probably believe he is promoting a somewhat socialised theory in the USA.

Here is a link to a news report on the issue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GStMLFMdRcQ

Why Obama and the Joker?

I think they believe President Obama is destroying society like the joker does in Batman because he is promoting a kind of socialised system of health care in the USA and many people are against it. It's caused confusion and debate and some people have even labelled it racism (which I don't think it is), and others have said its subversive, or trying to create unrest, therefore making the creator the Joker!!!

At the end of the day, there is freedom of speech, but how far can someone take it? After all, Former President George W Bush has been depicted as everything from Count Dracular to a chimpanzee!!!

Periodic Table of Typefaces

2009-11-11T01:09:00.001Z

This is a Periodic Table of Typefaces in the style of all the thousands of over-sized Periodic Table of Elements posters hanging in schools and homes around the world. This particular table lists 100 of the most popular, influential and notorious typefaces today. The execution of this design could not have been any better! This is a must buy for any designer!

It was designed by www.squidspot.com

Creative Logo Design

2009-11-11T01:04:00.001Z

Some people underestimate the power of a Logo and what effect it can have on their business.
As usual, the best way to master the exceptional logo design is to learn from the best. Above is a collection of some greatly designed conceptual logos with a message in each one relating to the company/event name. Fantastic!

Have you seen better? Why not leave a post and let us know...

Clever Ad

2009-11-11T00:58:00.001Z

A great example of clever advertisement...!

Networking

2009-11-11T00:54:00.001Z

A Company that organises the creative world to make things happen...
Creative thinkers - the people with the most ideas - often struggle the most with organisation and productivity. Behance is a website that organises the creative world.

How do do they do this? Well they research the most productive creative people in the world and discover how they do it. They then translate that knowledge through the power of design into a product or service that helps push creative ideas forward. Behance is based in New York City.

I have already uploaded my portfolio and I would strongly reccommend others to do so too. It's an excellent way of advertising your work and recieving feedback from other professional creatives from around the world.

Visit my Behance Portfolio to get a better idea of how it operates

www.behance.net/abdulmateen

Inspirational Calligraphy

2009-11-10T19:26:00.003Z

This is an Arabic calligraphy piece printed on textures and arabesque which reads "peace" in Arabic. It is taken from an incredibly constructed flash website http://www.visualdhikr.com/main.html which produces unique artwork based upon Arabic concepts using calligraphy and a mixed media approach.

The design and textures are sublime and I think it's an area where a lot of people seem to forget has a lot of potential. Try and visit their website and you will be amazed!! (Link above)

Summer Project 2009

2009-11-10T19:13:00.001Z

As an introductory project to the FdA Course at LCC, we (the students) were given a task to complete over the summer that would allow both the tutors and our fellow peers the chance to see what each of us were capable of as designers.

The brief was to read through all the advice given to us from last years FdA class and select the one, most important piece of advice (in our opinion) that has been offered and produce a piece of graphic design that clearly communicates its essential message.

Our client and target audience are the tutors and fellow graphic design students on the FdA Design for Communcation course at London College of Communication.
Here are my designs (click to enlarge):