Jam & Toast: Webpage

So here it is. The final series of pages for my website. As i sai in the previous blog post - i wanted to keep the design simplistic and minimal. I feel i have acheived this while keeping a very tidy design format. The sites colour pallet consists of just one colour, black. I have used tones of black (grey) for some of the other bits of text - i feel this works well apposed to using a random vibrant colour which will take the viewers attention from the work.







Im really looking forward to building this site. Work will start in this afternoons workshop.

Web Page

This year i decided to take full advantage of taking the web design workshop. I have always had an interest in web design however never fully understood the fundamentals and the language behind it. After last weeks first session we were asked to go and produce 1 or 2 web pages in illustrator or photoshop which we could work with in the next session.
I went away and produced each page I would like on my website (excluding imagery) here they are. The images below show the development of the build.
I have kept most of the rulers on the pages to show how i worked my layouts, including the type and logo. My site will have 3 sections - I wanted to keep it as minimal as possible. There will be:

• Home Page
• About
• Portfolio (which opens up further)
• Contact

Keeping the site minimal was not going to be too much of a problem - however the colour pallet did annoy me a bit. Originally i wanted to work with a black background, however i later found that when imagery is placed on black they sometimes get lost or are not complimented.








As i said above. I wanted to keep the design minimal. Where the type is concerned i tried not to use any colours which would distract the viewer from the work - however i have made it minimal and easy to follow and use. Im pleased with the design - now to put it out there.

T-Shirts (Upcoming inspiration)

I decided to include some examples of the style of work i hope to produce this year. I want my work to relate to music a lot more than it does now. I feel i finished last year at a good point where i can carry on with this design.
When producing another range of shirts this year - I will be using different colour canvas's and higher quality t-shirts apposed to primark shit.

T-Shirts (Last module)

Last years final module has been my best yet. The reason for this post is to remind viewers what I produced and the direction I wish to continue in. I really enjoy the process of screen printing and will be returning to the print rooms to produce a clothing range and series of posters and publications over the coming year.
This time around I hope to include some of my illustration work into my designs - however I dare say the majority of the designs will be type based.

Poster research

These posters from Tumbler are brilliant. Combining typography with layout in a simple format has worked very well for this series of posters. By using a limited colour pallet the peices are kept simple without complicating the design. I looked at these designs as they relate to one of my briefs which is to produce 10 screen printed posters - typographic or image based on my travels around the world. Looking at pieces like this inspires me in terms of layout, fonts, colour pallet etc.

Summer Presentation

Open publication - Free publishing - More rebrand

Re-brand (Jam & Toast) Final

So here it is - the final logo and business card. And I must admit - im over the moon with the final resolution. I feel this reflects my style of design well and that it is different from other business cards because of its laser cut finish.
Things to think about now? The finish the card will have when its printed. I really want to start playing with embossing work along with foiling and spot varnish. Although i feel the only process out of these that would work is embossing the type.

Re-brand (Jam & Toast) 4

Something to think about - Although earlier I said that I wanted my business card to be a different scale to standard cards, my final series is going to be standard format. Below is an example of what I may later produce when I have more time avaliable to get the layouts correct for printing.



Below I have experimented with the final selection of colours I felt comfortable using. Each colour I chose I produced a design which was solid colour and another which was spot colour.

I feel all the colours work well and that maybe a variation of colours would be okay to be handed out to potential clients. For the time being however I feel the solid black cards work the best with the small detail of Red in my name.

Business card research

As my Jam & Toast business card starts to take shape I thought it would be best to look at some existing unique cards to find some sort of inspiration. Im a ig fan of laser cutting and would like to incorprate this technique to my work - even my own identity. The exampls below show what can be done - simple and complicated yet both giving a very unique and eye-catching finish.




I feel that being clever with the design and its finish is essential. Above is my favorite example of work I found. I really do think its brilliant and so well finished.

Re-brand (Jam & Toast) 3

After sitting down and sketching up a few different ideas I was almost certain on the typeface i wanted to use - Helvetica. However because helvetica is so common in design (which is not a bad thing at all) I decided to try and find one similar but with more presence. After searching a fair few font websites I finally found the one you see below 'Coolvetica' ... I know, it couldn't be anymore similar.

So once that was downloaded I went on to play around with the type and scale. In the back of my mind I always had the idea that this design would represent me as a designer on a business card. It was time to experiment with the layout of the type.


The selection above gives an idea on the direction in which my experimentation took me. However the design at the very bottom is the chosen layout which I will take forward to play with colour, scale and finally putting the design onto a business card.

Re-brand (Jam & Toast) 2

In my previous post I was saying how I felt the design looked a bit flat. I wanted to put it onto a busniess card to see how I could make it work with a different layout - however I found that I couldn't. I didn't feel comfortable with this design and once again felt it didn't represent me as a designer at all. Least I can say I tried.

Re-brand (Jam & Toast)

I finally brought my head around to re-branding myself as Jam & Toast - and I'm so happy I did. I feel I will be able to be more inventive and experimental with this name than I could be with any of my other ideas. Below are the initial stages of the design process for Jam & Toast design. Because I have a growing passion for typography I decided this would be the best oppurtunity to show what I can do which is simple yet affective. I also want to play with the layout so that my final resolution can work with my business cards.

Belows examples are the initail design stages of Jam & Toast - at the time I was pleased with the progress I was making, however I felt the design was a bit flat and did not communicate my skills properly. But looking back it was a good process to try out different typefaces before I made my final decision.


As I said above - I feel these designs were too flat and would not compliment or give an impression of the work I can produce. Back to the drawing board.

Re-brand (Mr Designmann)

So after the disaster that was Mr ReDesign I decided to use the same principle only relate it more directly to where I'm from and the location of where I may take my work too. A lot of people would think that I have been an idiot and spelt 'Man' wrong - however 'Mann' is a manx God and the double 'n' is very commonly seen on the Isle of Man.
I wanted something more organic and playful from the existing Wetpaint logo - I wanted to play with vibrant colours and space.
We were asked to produce a business card for one of our group tutorials so this seemed as good a time as any to re-brand myself while producing the design to work on a business card.
I have always wanted my business card to be different in terms of shape, scale and layout - and i feel this design is halfway there.
Once again however I am not overly impressed with Mr Designmann and feel that it does not compliment the work I can and like to produce. This was a good design process - and I will be taking with me the knowledge of business card scale, layout and the colour pallet.

Re-brand (Mr ReDesign)

My re-branding started with 'Mr ReDesign' However I wanted to be clever with this design by including one of my nicknames 'Red" into the design. Below are some examples of where the design was heading - however I didn't feel comfortable with this design and felt the name didn't work and carry the message I wanted. Instead of reading Red Design which is what I wanted the eye to read - it just read Redesign. Which is not what I wanted at all. So it was back to the re-brand.

Typography gallery

While down in London visiting my girlfriends family I took advantage of where I was and looked into any galleries that were taking place near where I was. It just happened that I was in luck and that the Kemistry Gallery on Charlotte Street were hosting a gallery on typography.

Attending this small exhibition really did open my eyes to how far design can be taken. The work was beautiful and inspirational - it really did help me get back into the designer frame of mind that I had lost during the summer 'chill'. One piece really did catch my eye which was designed on illustrator and cut from a 6 inch thick piece of wood and a laser cutter or something similar. The finish was brillaint - and has inspired me to make a piece similar myself.

Wetpaint

So over the last few weeks I have been re-branding Wetpaint Design. However I was struck down when I found the web address I wanted was already occupied. I also found that wetpaint was becoming a very common design name by illustrators, painters and graphic designers.

I decided now was good a time as any to re-brand myself with a new designer name:

• Chocka Design
• Mr Design
• Mr Designmann
• iamdesign
• Jam and Toast
• Total Design

The above are examples of several which I thought about developing. However at this stage I decided I would go with 'Mr DesignMann'

Summer placement (website mock-ups)

I thought I would include some of the mock-ups I produced for the Isle of Man Post Office's new website. As I said in my previous post - i had several guidlines and restrictions. These included:

• Mail tracker search box
• Isle of Man Post Office logo
• 3 Pods
  
• The Isle of Man Government link
• The use of Red and Blue (I was given the spot colours)
  

I was pleased with all of my mock-ups. I was asked to produce the site with the elderly in mind. I tried to make the site layout simple and affective. I broke down all of the links which were previousl there (around 15) to just 4. Much more managable and easy to understand and follow. I feel with the limited colour pallet I worked the layouts well and I'm pleased to say one of the above will be gettin produced by a web-designer in the next few months.

Summer placement

Over summer I sat a placement at the Isle of Man Beauro post office. I was put in the marketing department for a week where I experienced a range of different briefs which were all live.

My experience was good one - as I said in my presentation the first couple of briefs I undertook were 'dull' however it got me into a good frame of mind to start designing.

Over the week I was asked to produce several A0 posters which would be situated in the reception areas of the building I was working in. I was also asked to produce several which could be used on the streets of Douglas (the city) that promoted new ranges of stamps and coins which were avaliable. For this task i was asked to use photoshop - a piece of software which I am familiar with, however not used in my own work in some years.

My favorite task was to produce a mock-up for a new look website. I was given a limited colour pallet and the fonts which were to be used along with several guidlines in terms of what HAD to be seen on the site. I really enjoyed this task - even though it was limited in terms of freedom I could still be experimental with the layout and mix of colours.

All in all - I found my work experience very valuable. It was great to see how the design department worked and how briefs were managed all at once. I wish to do more work experience however this time I would like to be in a design house. I think this is the direction I wish to go in. I would like to produce work freelance however a steady job with a good income and valuable experience I feel is essential in my practice rite now.

Thanks to Dot Tilbury for giving me the placement and the rest of the staff who made me feel a part of the team on my first day.




A couple of snapshots of me at my desk researching other websites and developing some mock-ups for the new Isle of Man post office website.

PPD Presentation

Final presentation which represents how my second year has gone. Throughout the presentation i look into other designers and discuss the direction my own personal design style is going. I feel the actual presentation was a success. received reasonably good feedback after and a good idea for a direction of possible designs i could produce over summer. The end of the presentation refers back to my last module of this year where i feel i have achieved some of my best work.

Open publication - Free publishing - More layout

MOD Media

MOD Media is another Australian based design agency which specialises in web design. The website reminds me of a blog layout. Very simple to understand - flows and reads well. The colour pallet used on the site is eye-catching, however some of the pages are a bit boring aesthetically.

Below: Examples of web-pages produced by MOD media. The examples are very interesting and unique. The clients seem to be reasonably successful brands who rely upon the website to attract clients.