London Trip

 Last month there was a scheduled trip to London which I unfortunately missed from being unwell, so I decided to make up for it and start getting into the festive mood with a trip to the capital. The original plan was to be dropped off the coach outside the National History museum, I had never been before and felt gutted to have missed the opportunity. I have also always wanted to visit the Science Museum, which so happens to be situated only next door, so I choose to spend the whole day exploring both! 

This however wasn't a trip to solely enjoy the museums and have fun, I was also determined to go with work in mind.. With the recent typography brief considering art galleries and spaces were running through my mind around the different exhibits and collected a few materials and photos of inspiration. With the V&A only across the road and limited time to fit all into my day visit I quickly scanned the building looking for possible and potential spaces for my work.

Whilst on my travels I found it important to take photos of places I could potential import my work into for presentations. A reminder of my tutor stating people from last year using the same in-situ photo for their final degree show and the level of how unprofessional it seemed rang in my mind. I snapped away whilst rushing through the tube stations and train stations.

NAP x

Prospects

This week I focused my attention on finding job opportunities through the university' prospects scheme. Whilst reading my emails i came across a few interesting roles that really appealed to me so I have decided to apply. Currently I am in communications with a possible new project for myself to be part of. The details of the project are under wraps at the moment and are to be veiled later, however it is clear that this will involve packaging design. 

I am working on a few different packaging projects at the moment to put into my portfolio from wine labels to coffee branding and packaging. I hope to have a variety of examples of projects for when I am applying for different roles and to show in my portfolio for the final degree show. I am hopeful about these new possible career moves I have applied for and hope to achieve the best outcome from my studies.

NAP x

Dissertation

A glimse into the hard work of final year was presented this week with a discussion based around the dissertation I will soon be writing. We was also allowed a look at a list of our competition briefs, which will begin after Christmas, to consider which project we would like to approach over our festive break. With recently wanting to look into more packaging projects I was happy to see a few possible briefs to consider and I hope that these projects will allow me the chance to design the kind of work I want in my portfolio. With our typography module kicking off soon we were also presented with a choice of competition briefs to consider.

Whilst over the Christmas break I hope to research further into these new briefs and gain some understanding of which is the most suitable for my portfolio and style of work I can create. I would also like to catch up and refine a few existing projects to finalize so that I can concentrate on starting new work.

NAP x

Me, myself and my freelance business

Recently I have been attending my add vantage module, a short extra course that runs alongside my degree studies. This year I choose to learn about the possible steps and knowledge I would need to go freelance as a graphic designer or photographer and setting up my own business. I have always considered working freelance as a graphic designer or photographer and have dabbled in this area before working for family and friends. I have had the pleasure of photographing family weddings and portraits of new family members and each time the results have been professional standard creating a demand. The current module has really made me think more about my future career and portfolio and the qualities I would need, not only in my work but in myself as a person, to run my own creative business. Throughout the module we were constantly reminded of how we should project ourselves to potential clients with our C.V's, websites portfolios etc.

With the thoughts raised from this module and my current reflection of my personal development planning module, integrated into my course, focusing on preparing for graduation and working in my field has lead me to focus on my personal branding. I want to start realizing what my personal style and personality in design is to communicate to potential employees or clients, so I can begin to translate this into my online portfolio. I am planning to re launch a website I created as part of a PDP module from my second year studies, as I felt the minimal and sophisticated design style I created still suits my personal style currently.

I would also like to improve my portfolio with my next university briefs and projects with design styles I appreciate and personally find appealing and attractive. I wish to demonstrate my design knowledge of trends with the upcoming briefs and some existing projects I have now. I am very much looking to gaining some packaging projects within my portfolio as I currently have no examples.

NAP x

Soundbite

I have recently been working on a live brief presented to us from Birmingham's Town Hall & Symphony Hall. This has been a group based project working within a team of four, we were asked to create a new brand and advertising campaign to raise awareness of TH SH's project Soundbite. Soundbite is run for students aged 16-25yrs promoting discounts, new events, shows and gigs with added promotional material. 

We were given the task of re-branding the currently out dated image and form a new advertising method for its new campaign and re launch. As we were teamed with two international Chinese students from our class, communication was a little bit of an issue within our team and decisions weren't made on design choices as quick as I liked. With a mix of different working styles and methods it was a little challenging to resolve our work together.  I have recently been struggling with the progress of the work we have produced as a group and found it stressful since the deadline and presentation is so close. I feel that the design of the concept from the group work as it is wasn't really what I had in mind originally to include within my portfolio.

The concept of the brand image was to be a very minimal style with a geometric pattern influence. An idea formed from the name focusing on the word bite, we chose to develop this idea into a shark to create a powerful connection to the name and to our audience. Below are the shark illustration I created and the logo for the name Sound Bite inspired by the shark and minimal style. I have been battling with trying to create a short animation showing a light show to be screened on the Town Hall building in Birmingham's city centre with no success so far. Another idea has come to create another animation showing how the general public can interact with the shark too by it chasing them down a street. The idea is to create a memorable and powerful message to the audience by allowing them to connect with music and the amazing venues through the shark.

NAP x

Holy Trinity Church

Our first group project launch was to carry on a previous live project part of the integrated design module.It was a great start for myself to mix with others in the class and get to know what kind of work can be achieved and how my new classmates work together.

Working with existing artwork and the feedback from the client, I feel I was able to offer a new and fresh outlook on the work ahead within the team. I proposed the idea of an activity sheet for the young visitors, with stickers and puzzles relating to the events from the timeline. As an added extra for the exhibition I also created a set of postcards which could be taken as a reminder of the exhibit to collect. Once the full set of 3 postcards has been obtained they will then form an abstract from the timeline, this element is something both the client and our tutor really seemed to enjoy.

The client was worried about how the exhibit would sit within the space and not feel separate or uninviting to existing visitors of the church. The idea to create some way finding or directional signs and stickers relating to our branding of the exhibit was formed within the group. I choose to expand upon this and design hexagon shaped vinyl stickers to sit on the floor of the church which could then be easily removed without damaging the distinct and valuable building to the clients.

Children's activity sheet // stickers // postcards

Timeline mock up, with all directional stickers

NAP x

BBC world service

This has been a long running brief for many years within the university now and when I received this brief I felt that all possible approaches had already been conquered by past students. I also felt a little discouraged with the prospect of what I could possibly do that was new and different. Looking through what outcomes the brief asked for and researching into the project of the BBC world service and what it stood for, helped me to form the idea of it being a 'lifeline service' this became my main concept visually to communicate. 

I originally thought working with wavelengths and radio signals would be visually appealing and similar to a current popular style used in a re-brand of a band and its music video Arctic Monkeys - Do I wanna know, AM. This lead me to the very similar lines created through a heart monitor screen. 

With the BBC world service broadcasting many different programs and giving a variety of information, for some countries this is their only way of learning through using it as an educational tool, or a way of communicating and socializing with the outside world. These different platforms are all important to many people and I wanted to raise awareness of the variety of tools that are 'lifelines' to society. I created a poster campaign in the concept style as outlined along with a video of an animation inspired by the movement of a heartbeat monitor, this idea was then applied to transform a donation box into that of a monitor. I choose to add Oxfam as a sponsor as their beliefs fit well with what my campaign was fighting to save, as a sponsor the donation boxes would sit within stores worldwide on counters to raise as much money as possible.

I also chose to update the BBC world service app and website to allow people to listen to the radio creating more of an audience and demand. This also allows people to contribute and make a donation easily through the app with a few touches of their screen. The animation will sit within the app through youtube for the user to watch it at their own pleasure and on the go.

Poster Campaign

Poster campaign insitu

App // Website

Donation Boxes

NAP x

Happy Graduation Day

This week was a very inspiring and reflecting time for me as I saw my past classmates graduate from the Graphic design course at Coventry University. It was so good to catch up with everyone and how their life after University changed and moved on from being away on Erasmus. I hadn't seen most of them since being in class with them, so it was great to support and celebrate with them on what was originally my graduation date too.

Throughout the celebrations of the day, I felt somewhat reflective and begin evaluating my studies and what was important for the final coming months of my time here at university. I couldn't help but think forward to my graduation date next year and the hard work standing in my way of how the celebration level will depend on the next few months. I began to realize the importance of my work, the methods I take and lessons I have learnt throughout the process and how all these contributing factors will affect the level of achievement in my career. The skills I have gained from my studies and personal experience from my last 4 years of university and independent living have made me grow into the confident designer I am today. I look forward to my own graduation date, but for now I intend to really push myself into creating the best final pieces for my portfolio and enjoy living the student life for my final year.

NAP x

Halloween Horror night II

So our first fundraiser event went off with a huge success for everyone involved! A huge thank-you to all involved and to those that took time out to help and make donations. In total we were able to raise £601.50 so just over £200 for each course which is great news from the little time we had to plan.

Each and everyone who contributed to this success worked so hard and I'm glad we were all able to work so well together in such a short amount of time to get so much done. I feel the support from everyone in the university allowed us all to really work hard but also have fun with the event. It was great socializing with students from other courses as we all seem to keep separate from one another on different floors of our building. It was also nice to get to know my class a bit more and hopefully organizing the event together will open up people to push their ideas forward to the group for future fundraising events.

Through out the whole night we were all praised for our efforts and told of our success which was great to hear and seemed to keep our spirits up and inspire us. Having many students in attendance from different courses made the evening refreshing and so much fun for all there. Below is a little snippet of the fun evening we all had in the Dark room and a group of us getting ready for the event by building the horror maze.

Loved staying late at uni to get to building the Halloween maze in our building! We are now professional maze builders #uni #finalyear #halloween @macafferdesign - Jamie Macaffer Instagram

I have always loved throwing and organizing themed events and parties as a way to express my creative flair and love of little details. This event however and being in charge of delegating jobs to people in such a short amount of time was something I found challenging at times. Being the main go to person in the group, as this was my idea and by proposing the event originally, I felt a little overwhelmed. I would love to be part of more fundraising events for my course in the future, but perhaps not in such a significant role. I feel that by planning with an extended time frame in the future, it would make organizing and dealing with the pressure of events a lot easier on everyone and more fair on people with such a busy schedule of work.

NAP x

Halloween Horror night

Fundraising for our Halloween horror night has been progressing very quickly, through a lot of group meetings and discussion within a facebook group. From these meetings we have finalised all of the events withing our building and come to arrangements with The Phoenix for events too, who will host some games and offers for our after party in their dark room. Each member of the group has been delegated jobs to contribute to the event and which station they will work.  With the activities confirmed we were able to create a set of posters which Tom offered to create from reusing imagery from an old fitting project of his. This will be printed very soon and displayed around our building and campus, we also have permission to put up some within The Phoenix pub too to create more publicity for the event.

 The plans for the horror maze have been drawn up by the guys who are in charge of the creation and building of the project. The full completion and construction of the horror maze will be made on the day of the event so as not to impose on any scheduled classes in our studio and also for health and safety reasons. The maze will then be destroyed in most on the night of the event once students have left to continue their night over at our after party location. 

Many donations of decorations, props, materials and food have been gathered now from members of each course. Its been very inspiring and surprising to see how much people are willing to help and give for this event. The outcome for this events success seems to be very promising now it is in the final stages. I'm sure the stress and constant worry over planning this night will all be worth it and begin to evaporate once the event kicks off.

NAP x

Fundraising

This year I am hoping to become an integral part of the fundraising for our final degree show in May, as we must raise all funds ourselves I feel its important to get involved as much as possible. I have a few ideas for how to raise money and think as a group we should start early on to use all opportunities to our advantage. I have suggested the idea of a hosting a Halloween horror night in our building, with a haunted house theme. By opening the building inviting students from all art based courses based in the building I hope more people will want to get involved or attend. With such little time to organise such a big event, gathering as many people as possible has become a must. Mass emails have been sent out to all art students in our building to help along with talking to tutors and students to gather volunteers and spreading the word of the event most of my time has been spent on setting this event up.

With a lot of help from Alex we have managed to also meet with the manager of a close by student-favourite pub, The Phoenix to talk about sponsoring our event or holding part of the event with them. They were very generous to offer us a room to hold an after party with plenty of games to play, prizes to win and free drinks. This offer will hopefully add some interest to our event for students and entice them to donate and part with money. 

Currently we have a group of graphic design students, art students and fashion students volunteers to help make this night a success. With such little time to organise and plan everything its great to have so much support from other courses, hopefully by utilising all art students more money can be raised and an impact made with the start of events. The money raised from this event will be spilt equally amongst the courses contributing but hopefully in future planning of events, students will be willing to be involved or help one another from getting to know each other from this event.

Lately I have been feeling unwell and unfortunately lost my voice, so planning this event with people has been a challenge, this has also taken its toll on my work's progress.

NAP x

Shoreditch Kitchen Launch

This week saw the launch of a project I have been excited about pursuing, The Shoreditch Kitchen. I have seen this project run the past 2 years and the outcomes are all so different from students. At the beginning of summer I saved a few examples of menus and design styles that inspired me for research into this project. Along with other re-occuring modules in mind, I wanted to have an informed outlook on design in readiness. I have also been thinking about how I want my portfolio to look at the end of the year and how I can approach each project.  

Here is some of my current research from over summer of styles I feel would suit the project.

I would still like to keep these approaches in mind for my work whilst I evaluate the projects requirements and what the brief calls for. 

NAP x

Final year begins

So this week was my first week as a final year student of Graphic Design at Coventry university. Returning into a class of new people along with some familiar faces who also took an erasmus year was an unusual experience of slight deja vu. It had been so long and felt strange but comforting to be back in the studio of Graham Sutherland. I hope my final year brings opportunities to enhance my employability for nearing the end of my studies with a vast of work to undertake for my portfolio. I would like to build up some more examples of branding in my work and attain some packaging designs. Some of my friends had decided to take a module in Cyprus to create packaging for a variety of different products, they created some really great work and was able to pad out their portfolio quickly yet with professional looking work. I unfortunately didn't take this module and wish I had done therefore I hope to create some nice packaging designs to include in my portfolio this year.  

Our first brief to break us into the new academic year was an open brief to say the least, one word was given in the brief; Ingenuity. From my aim to produce some product designs I was immediately hit with an idea of creating some kind of packaging for a tea bag brand. The sounding of the word we was given fit perfectly for the brand name and I decided to illustrate the I to look like the string of a tea bag for my logo. For this short project we was given 4 days to create our work to then show and present to our class to see how each of us had interpreted the brief. My response to the project is shown below. 

NAP x

Venice

This summer I was lucky enough to be invited to travel to Venice with my boyfriend and his family. I have always wanted to visit Italy and thought of Venice to be such a beautiful place, I have felt a desire to experience their culture. Whilst there we took a day to visit nearby Islands famous for its production of glass art and lace, Murano and Burano. It was fascinating to see the process and amazing to have bought one of pieces of art from the people we watched make them. Being a student of design I love learning about art and took the opportunity to visit a few galleries too, to my delight design students can visit for free with proof of their studies. I wish more gallery and museums would be so accomodating here in the UK or offer discounts for art students. 

Having just ended my erasmus year it was great to travel again to a new country after just returning home for the summer. I hope to continue my travels and feed my addictive need and love of travelling to new places in my future.

View of our hotel from a gondola

Lighting a candle in San Rocco Church

A tour on Murano Island & one of their famous glass blowing studios.

San Marco Square.

View from San Marco tower.

Our Venetian masks from Burano Island famous for its lace.

Bridge of Sighs

Our love lock on the railings of a bridge

NAP x

The lake district

As a belated birthday treat from being in Cyprus, as soon as I returned I was whisked away for a weekend in the Lakes Ambleside. I have always loved the Lakes since I was little with day trips for picnics and boat rides on the lake, it holds memories for me and my family. The real treat however was the hotel I was to stay in during my weekend trip, The Belsfield, a Laura Ashley hotel. A dream for any lover of Laura Ashley or interest in interior design, everything in the hotel was that of the interior and furnishings company. 

The view of the Lake from our suite

Out on the lake in a rowing boat, a real Notebook moment

NAP x

Ireland

My first adventure since returning back to the UK from Cyprus was my first ever trip to Ireland. With family connections there I have always wanted to travel and experience the Irish beauty of the country, with seems to entice people. I was able to visit the hometown of my boyfriends mother and her family, a famous small village, Sneem, in the county of Kerry. The village has become a very popular tourist destination for Americans, Canadians and Chinese with coaches appearing throughout the day. By being with a local I was lucky enough to get the local treatment from everyone in the tiny village. I loved my time in Ireland and hope to return and travel to experience Dublin next time.

River Sneem and Terrain 

NAP x