The Loft - Christmas Card Development

After going over the Christmas card again, i quickly came up with this, really simple clean and slick design that for me could work for many different audiences. The colours are from the loft logo so in keeping with their identity but hopefully showing the creativity of their space.

The Loft - Christmas Card

I designed a Christmas card really quickly to see what I could produce in a quite turnover brief. This card has a few good elements but the whole design isn't quite right for a creative Christmas card design.

Jon Smith was happy with elements of this card so i am going to spend another hour or so and just develop this more into a suitable card for The Loft.

Glue Marketing - The Loft

Jonathan Smith came in today to talk to us about business and getting jobs after we graduate, some of the main things that i picked up on while he was talking were these :

• Design yourself a creative CV and when appropriate add personality rather than just the dry facts and figures.
• Always carry a portfolio with you, weather this is on CD or USB or paper based, just something that you can easily pass on to someone if the chance comes about.
• If there are any part time courses to develop your skills then this is great to put on you CV and any extra skills or qualifications will separate you from the rest.
• Find out a bit about the company you are applying for a job at, why do you like them, why do you want to work for them and why are you appropriate to their team.
• Networking is essential, attend Creative Networks and get your name out there and start talking to the right people.
• Sign up to 'LinkedIn' as this is a site for networking online with other professionals, have all CV uploaded and a small portfolio so people can look through your work.
• Think about freelance, the best time to set up a business is now. Getting the right group of people together that compliment each other. You have nothing to loose right now so do it.

So far i have signed up to LinkedIn as this was also mentioned by John Watters, so if you want to see my profile go here.

Im also part of the Creative Networks team so i go to these networking events as staff but i have done a bit if networking aswell.

When john came in he also set us a quick brief to design a corporate flyer for 'The Loft Leeds' and a creative Christmas card. He gave us about an hour and a half to come up with something for the flyer and it was interesting working so quick but i managed to get an idea quick and developed it a little before showing him.

Here is my first attempts (and keep in mind that i hadn't mastered Illustrator CS5 at this point)

Over the weekend we had change to finish this up and to design the christmas card but the main thing was not to spend ages on this. He wants to see what we can do with a quick turn over so i gave it my best shot and even though they are not the best designs i could have done they are DONE which is the important thing. As Fred says "its not what you can do, its what you can do to the deadline".

So here are the final designs that were sent of to John.

The flyer

Crit 3 - OUGD301

We had our 3rd group crit today to showcase the work we are up to date with, this was a chance for me to get some opinions on what others in the studio thought about the resolved designs i had been working on. I got some great feedback, lots of constructive comments and was good to hear some positives as well so I understand what people actually react to when they see my work.

Points that were raised:

• Consider the legibility of the custom made typefaces, 'constellations' is not readable without looking hard.
• Do your postcards need to be custom, e.g. do you need to be able to write on the back of them? This may come with your context, where are you selling them and who to?
• Need to consider stock more, how is this going to inform your design?
• More analysis needed on Design Practice blog
• Need the written briefs more dominant on your blog
• Make sure you keep your specified audience in mind when designing
• Keep your blog up to date, dont fall behind in recording your work
• Check the position of your planets on your postcards, they dont seem all be centred. 
• Check grammar and spelling on your work e.g. 1 moons should be 1 moon.
• Your blog is OVERWHELMING, needs to be organised as its impossible to follow.
• Do you have any live briefs or competition briefs on the go?
• Balloon project, the image needs to be reconsidered on the front cover.
• Would it be possible to spot varnish the planets as well as or instead of glow in the dark? 
• We really like the crinkled constellation design that you did, could this be something your develop?