questionnaire response from Dave Sedgwick

Hello Emma

Thanks for your kind words on the talk!
I think you've touched on an interesting topic here and certainly different! I'll try and answer your questions as best as I can!

1. Would you recommend Students keeping a record of all previous work they have produced?

Yep, I certainly do, although I didn’t! I don’t think I have any of my old university work now in all honesty! In actual fact I’m pretty gutted that I I don’t have it.

2. Have you ever personally refereed back to previous work when finding it hard to come up with ideas?

Again, certainly. I often find myself referencing old ideas, logos, scribbles etc and if they didn’t go ahead with one particular client I don’t think there’s anything wrong with revisiting them, so to speak. That said however, sometimes looking back on old ideas can cloud judgement and in many ways restirct the creative flow in relation to new ideas. 

3. Would you find idea generation more effective referring back to your old work or books and other sources?

I think that coming up with a new idea is very subjective. We all do it differently. Some do it by looking at older work, whether done by themselves or other agencies/designers. Some lock themselves away, preferring the peace and quiet of an empty blank piece of paper. Some like to get away from the whole concept of worrying about ideas and prefer to do something different altogether, hopeing for a spark of creative genius! It really depends on the person and of course the brief. If I am doing a logo for a recruitment agency for example, and I;ve done something like this before, I would possibly look back over my old ideas. But more often than not I do look at them and think they were pretty shit! So I start a fresh!


And finally, How important is it to record all your work and ideas into a journal or blog?

It’s probably more important whilst at University than in the real world as this helps with marking and explaining to your tutors how you came up with your ideas. Although, I do still keep my sketch books and back up files, so in a way I am keeping a form of journal. Speaking as someone who doesn’t have a blog as such I think they are great when they’re relevant. 


Hope some of this helps! Sorry it’s Friday and it’s been a long week! 
Dave

Fish tank phone box

I found this image in an article things to do with old objects http://www.techdigest.tv/2009/01/new_use_for_old.html

I love the idea of using an everyday item such as a phone-box and making it exciting for the viewer, as it is something different from the norm you walk past everyday. I am unsure of the designer or company that came up with that idea.

Suicide prevention posters

A few more suicide poster i think are effective.

Elastic band research

This is some more work on elastic bands i  found on this design website www.designspongeonline.com

Anti advertising Barbara Kruger

For the e4 brief me and Lauren looked at anti advertising.  The main inspiration for this was barbara kruger and the work she did for Selfridges. I shop therefor i am.

Elastic band type

One of the roses briefs we have looked at involves preventing postmen dropping there elastic bands. This is a type face i found made from red elastic bands. 

The image was found at  http://yeswecangraphicdesign.com

Roses brief research ( suicide brief )

I tried researching posters surrounding suicide helplines. Most of the excising posters are very poor and you can tell the charity does not have the funds to spend on posters. Here are some good ideas i have found. I don't think the see think act poster has a strong imagery but i love the strap line.. see think act... that strap line encourages family members to call the help line.

Below is a bag idea i found, It is not suitable for the poster campaign but i like the thinking

 behind the idea

Dave Sedwick talk

Dave Sedwick came in as a guest lecture for us on the 29th of October 2009. He works for 999 design but also does free lance work on the side. He broke his lecture down in to 3 parts- About me- How to get a job- and finally his work.  I liked the way that he focused the lecture on our benefit rather than just showing his work that is available on the website. The main thing he focused on throughout his studio was that we need to start planning now for what we are going to do when we leave. He also mentioned last year degree show and said we need to top it but by displaying the work easier. He gave us a job break down that i found interesting/funny. 

average day-

80% design

10%account management

5%calls

3% tea

2% emailing friends

I found his part 2 aimed at how we get a job the most important to me. His advise was to stat planning ad put together a list of agencies we would like to work for..remember the small ones. Keep a book of contacts and target ones with winning work. The layout of our portfolio is important and in this keep projects to 2 pages. He also suggested emailing the company after to say thank you after you have visited which is obvious but many people do not do.

Whn he showed us his work he showed us bad design and also unfinished piece. I was good to see this rather than the same old immaculate pieces of design.

 

His work can be found at www.designbydave.co.uk

Email sent to Rob at like a river surrounding the roses briefs

Alison Carmichael

Alison Carmichael  is  british designer that uses hand drawn type in all her work. As well as poster design she does advertising and moving image using her hand drawn techniques.

You can see her work at http://alisoncarmichael.com/

Typographic-taches

I found there on the creative review website and it made me laugh. The " Taches" belong to Freddie Mercury, Tom Selleck and Hulk Hogan.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/feed/september-2009/16/typographic-taches

Artist invader and his space invaders

there are a few of these space invaders noticable around manchester but there is a total of 47space invaders hidden around manchester. The street artist is called artist invader. This started in 1988 in Paris where there are 704 hidden space invaders. The link below shows a map of manchester where they are hidden.

http://www.space-invaders.com/map_manchester.html

Email contact after portfolio visit

Portfolio Visit at Like A River

Portfolio Visit with Rob From like a river.

 

Rob had said on emails that he preferred to see students as a group. This was good for me nerves wise and for the reasons why he did it. He likes to look at students work in a group crit so more than one person has an opinion.

 

As soon as we arrived at like a river he made us feel right at home and sent us to make tea while he was finishing up some important work. When we sat down in the room with him he told us about life in the design industry and a number of awards and competitions they have entered.

 

The first thing he made us aware of was that like a river does not show their work that is done for an image purpose. He was big on ideas. This was reflected on their website and when it came to my portfolio crit. The first year work was posters made to look pretty rather than holding a strong idea. Although it padded out the portfolio it was not necessary in there. He advised us to go back to them, ignore the brief and certain fonts we had to use and include an idea within them.

 

 It made me realise I needed to have a stronger portfolio based on ideas. He liked the identity group work we did and my kitchen of meaning posters. If he had some criticisms it was to benefit me.

 

He showed me how to layout my portfolio better and told us the important of typefaces. Our lack of knowledge on font was obvious and has made me want to get a better knowledge in this area.

 

He is emailing me some past roses briefs for me and Casey to work on. He has invited us to come back for help and guidance on these briefs to make our portfolios stronger. It was a very insightful and interesting visit that I have taken a lot away from.

As we were leaving Rob gave us both a copy of their Like a.... book.

little people in the city

http://little-people.blogspot.com/ 

Little people in the city, street art by slinkachu. I came across this work on a blog and loved it, such a simple idea but effective

Olly Moss

I cam across this designer while searching the internet. His work has an old style to it and uses limited colour pallet. He does design and illustration and has clients such as New york times, urban outfitters, Puma and many more. His website says he was born in 1987 so its inspiring to see someone the same age get so far. The work i have shown is black and red film posters he has re created for famous movies.

I contacted Rob at like a river for a portfolio visit. Rob said he prefers to see more than one student at a time. Here is the email sorting out that portfolio visit for Thursday the 15th of October 2009.

Email sent to like a river

This is an email sent to Rob at like a river about a portfolio visit.

Andy Warhol- Death and Disaster series

For My dissertation i have based it on Andy Warhol's Death and Disaster series. This is a series of images that range from suicide victims to car crashes. Warhol took these pictures and reproduced them using the silk screen process. The first image is from the work he did called suicide girl. The image was taken after evelyn Mchale jumped to her death from the empire state building. The second image called Green car crash, shows a man that had been thrown from his car after a crash and the impact leaving him stuck on a post. Both of these images relate to Warhol's theory of everybody will get there 15 minuets of fame. Warhol made these otherwise unknown people famous.

Roy Lichtenstein

While still researching the E4 brief I was looking at imagery that would relate to an old 50's movie theme. I came across Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein was an American pop artist. I like his work because it looks like stills straight from a cartoon or film. It was the emotions i liked for my work.. and how that could relate to movie genres.

Gil Elvergen

While researching for my new E4 brief i came across Gil Evergreen he was an american illustrator/painter who died in 1980. His worked spanned between the 40's 50;s and 60's and is famous for being one of the worlds best pin up artist.

50's Film poster Typography

 I know that the type used in  the old film poster's are all hand drawn type. I tryed to find some fonts that resembled the type used and i came up with these three. The first is to resemble the main  script used to introduce a movie.The second two is to resemble the maim type in the posters.

50's Film posters

For my new brief i have to design a promo for E4 movie night. My approach to tackling his brief was making it look old fashioned. This lead me to look at 50's film posters. I love the typography used in the posters and the illustrations used. `i want to re create the style of type and include the colour's and styles.