Miguel Molina Design//

Stumble:upon has come up trumps again. 


A project for the incredible French electro duo that is Daft Punk. Simple but beautiful, and a gorgeous set of illustrations to boot.

Fonts//

Just stumbled across this gem of a website. Getting back into the swing of things, needing new fonts. Good place to start!

http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/

Cashier Noº9

  Arrived in Belfast yesterday, 3 days to shoot a video for the song "Lost at Sea".  This up and coming band are currently being aired a lot on Radio 6 and have just released their album "To the death of fun".  Today most the shooting for the video was completed, tomorrow we hit the streets of Belfast to shoot the outdoor scenes. 

Fancy a listen to the track - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6L2D4RLn_8

Finished video should go live sometime early July!

Learning by collaboration//

The Exhibition - Porno*graphics


The class recently held an exhibition of artworks based around the theme of Porno*Graphics, originating from creating sexy graphics. This was set up mainly by two students from my class but proved to be a popular idea. It just seemed to me to be a release from university work, and less of an ideas driven bit of work. I originally planned to do some screen printing for my piece, but rapidly ran out of time with all the other projects i had to complete. I still went ahead producing a very simple display of work (pictured under Update//). I went against the grain slightly with this work, with it being less based around shocking pornographic images, and leaving the viewer to work out how it was related to the subject. I really enjoyed doing work separate to the course, and having such a successful night, where the standard of all the participants was very high. A few local design agencies even turned up to look at the work.  It served to give me a confidence boost in my own work, and also let me work in a style that i dont usually work in.


There has been talk of another exhibition, something that i would definitely get more involved in.

Learning by collaboration//

The Placement

First of all a decided that a placement would be a good idea as i have little or no experience in a professional design studio. I therefore collated a PDF and sent it out to a few design agencies in the local area. I began by sending it out to three reputable companies, Nonconform, Uniform and SB Studio's. I managed to secure a weeks placement at Nonconform. The aim for me during this time was to gain valuable experience within a studio, seeing how the working methods differed, time constraints, working to a clients needs, technical/printing knowledge and just general feel for the job.

The interview was a very informal meeting with one of the junior designers on the team. He first of all let me talk my way through the folio, not really questioning the projects until the end of the folio. His comments were generally positive, complimenting the layouts of the work, the standard, and how i spoke about it. He did however give me a few pointers on how to improve, for example, taking out the physical pieces earlier and showing them off to their full potential and not rushing through the projects so quickly. This gave me a big confidence boost, and he offered me a placement there and then.

 The placement itself lasted for a week, and an additional 3 days after being invited back for a second week. Within this time I was mainly asked to work on web layouts for various companies. One project was to produce three different designs for the same online print management company CDP. This was more of a background project, with it being an on-going thing, instead of taking priority.

I was then asked (on the first day) to produce a website layout in 2 hours because they needed to send three different design proposals, and they only had two. I managed to get this done, and to quite a satisfactory standard in my eyes. The design director seemed happy to send it off as a proposal as well.

Also within the first week i was asked to reduce a 16 page booklet for the Bluecoat, and condense it to 12 pages. Although it doesnt sound too difficult, it took a lot of decision making on my level to make it work, and therefore negotiation with the clients. 

The reason why i was asked back for a second week was to help with a branding project. A new company, Financial Services Company (FSC) had asked for a facelift and Nonconform had already had inital contact with the client and come down on a new logo. I was then asked to design and come up with an identity for the company, which involved business cards, moving postcards, recommend a friend postcards and posters advertising their services. The designs that i handed in at the end of the third day were taken on and printed as actual pieces.

This experience has definitely taught me the value of producing work quickly, instead of worrying whether or not your idea will look good. JUST TRY IT! I also learnt all of the things that i went into it wanting to come out with. It has given me a more enlightened view of how to work in a studio and how to communicate with other designers and clients. 

Packaging//

http://www.fsdesign.de/feature.php?id=1&nr=1

Just stumbled across this new packaging from Feldmann+Schultchen design........very, very jealous.  Check out the site link above! (I quite enjoy the translation)

Update//

A sneak peek of the work that i have produced for our 2nd year exhibition of "sexy" graphics called Porno*Graphics. Screenprinting was the plan but time management let me down again, i will however be doing that in my spare time. Anyway, the exhibition open tonight, a little nervous these aren't "porno" enough. Oh well, enjoy.