Fatigue Friday

So we are back at Friday! Wow weeks sure flies by this year... I felt like the year just started now we are heading towards christmas again! Anyway, this has been a crazy week. Let me give you a summary.
Monday; no sleep, typing proposal for thesis. Tuesday; still no sleep but can see the light at the end of the tunnel for this proposal... Wednesday; luckily slept like 5 hours and still did a mind map and info-graphic and ran to the printers. Dropped off my proposal with prints and rushed to the other side of town to help my dad paint our new home with just 5 hours of sleep... Thursday; luckily got my 9 hours of sleep but had to wake up SUPER early to...well... go pain the damn house! Today; woke up like 11am and decided to sort out mail, problems at class, and sort out my music selection. (I know music selection doesn't count as hard work, believe me, if your music library looked like mine after a month, well...)

So from today I am officially on holiday for like a month! I got an internship I am super excited about which I will keep you guys updated on. Furthermore I will be spending some time working on my blog so don't leave too soon, great things are coming your way! So enjoy the weekend and go have fun!

Till Later!
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LIVE Campaign: ODF

In mid 2012 a group of us received a project looking for a cause that we as young graphic designers can help support. The criteria was to find a NGO who are struggling to find support and help them out buy designing a campaign which will turn out to run as a live campaign if the NGO is willing to put their funds towards a campaign.

Our cause we chose was the Organ Donor Foundation (ODF) which helps donate organs to patients in need of organs. We saw this as a potential problem in South Africa because of the lack of donors and the need for organs. We approached the ODF and proposed what we want to do, they where excited to help and supported us all the way throughout the process of the project.

After 6 weeks of planning, designing, and refining some minor details, we presented the final proposal to the ODF and to our department. The concept of the campaign was a success, unfortunately the ODF couldn't run the campaign because of limited funds. In spite of actually running the campaign, we got to experience what it is to plan, design, and present a campaign proposal. Working with the ODF was amazing and we gained experience in working with live clients and understanding the principles of communication.

So here is how it rolled out;

#1: Poster for the 7 day campaign. What the campaign is all about and what activities will happen in 7 days time.

*Click on image to enlarge

#2: Created a hypothetical website that will be launched before the campaign for the campaign and future use. This would be the face for the campaign but still linked to the ODF's official website.

*Click on image to enlarge

*A mobile site will also be launched which will be accessible to a larger audience and draws more traffic to the website self.

#3: We also designed T-Shirts with some humorous quotes to lighten the seriousness of the topic.

#4: There is also a brochure that has a magnet at the back so you can post it on your fridge and be reminded of the cause. But to make it more interesting to have is it can be used as a bookmark, you can fold the brochure over the edge of you page, and be reminded of the cause when opening a book.

#5: Last but not the least, we made 2 videos which shows how you as an individual can save 7 lives one day by signing up as an organ donor. We made use of silhouettes so it applies to everyone out there. It is also effective because any person can relate to it, and of course some humour was incorporated to keep the audience attention and make them feel good.

- KINETIC TYPOGRAPHY -

- WE ARE ALL CONNECTED VIDEO -

This was an amazing project and one of my best team efforts I ever dealt with. I enjoyed it tremendously even though we didn't sleep much! I want to give recognition to my team members; Nadia, Gina, and Robert for working together on this project. We are a well oiled group which can take on any challenge.

So please sign up and become an organ donor! Even from 6 feet below, you can make a difference to 7 above.

Till Later!
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Changing Perspective

So I've been wondering how to be more creative every day. It is hard to maintain a creative mindset when you design. This is something I have been struggling with a lot lately. Since I started with my 4th year of studying it kind of created the sense of 'lets do research and ignore designing for a while.' Even though there is a lot of work that goes hand in hand and time management can become quite difficult to control, there is still this voice inside of me screaming to pic up a pencil to draw. Which is weird because drawing is not my strongest skill. And when you hold that pencil you realize how out of practice you are and you are stuck (designers block).

To get into this habit of designing new innovative things, you have to lay down some ground rules for yourself which will help you in being creative mentally and physically. Here is some things that can help you motivate yourself:

1. Reading graphic or any type of creative material. Even if it is a good novel or just reading comic books. Magazines and creative blogs is what keeps me going. I either get inspired by something and hop onto illustrator and experiment, or sometimes I just get an idea that I would make a note of and later follow up. N.B.It's good to take notes!

2. The second thing I would recommend is to subscribe to a YouTube channel and Facebook community pages. This is just another way of motivating yourself. You might see a photo on Facebook that has been done by another designer which interest you and you want to check out his/her work. That leads to more ideas for yourself!

3. Listen to music. Maybe you are one of those people who doesn't listen to a lot of music or may none. I would recommend to hop onto iTunes and just listen to the top10 at least. Music helps to stimulate you mind and also helps you relax. Even if it is alternative, pop, hip-hop, classic or rap it is GOOD to listen to something. Sometimes you might not even realize where you got your next great idea from. Music does play a great role in either expressing or motivating yourself.

4. Another important thing is to have a twitter account... This might not sound relevant but I assure you it helps! Following famous designers or reading the latest trends and news helps A LOT! REALLY! Just go and try it and you'll see what I mean. Staying up to date with the real world has a great impact on the way you think while designing.

5. Last but not the least it is important to have great designer circles. What I meant by this is plain simple Friends. Friends plays the biggest role in your designs because you have discussions about things that bothers you and always seeks to find something new to do. That new stuff helps making you see bigger pictures and well, create new ideas! As for my group of friends we would always reminisce how we can change the world through improving bad designs.

So remember next time when you are out with your friends discussing how bad that coffee shop menu looks or you get a tweet with a link to a new trending video on YouTube, take notes for next time you are bored and messing around on illustrator or photoshop. Who knows, it might just be the next big thing!

Till Later!

*F

Long Lost Blogs

So I've been thinking the other day how one can make time to write a blog entry daily. I mean, I barely get time to visit the bathroom! But how do people do this? Well, since I had time to update my blog I decided to start blogging again. Yes, after 6 months it hit me that I have to make some effort and work on my freelancing. So what I am proposing to do is to post something every week, does that sound good?

Anyway to get back in the game I have to get some new stuff going. I am planning to post some digital designs for your personal use, ideas and then some tutorials to help everyone that are struggling with Adobe software. So keep an eye out for posts and like me on Facebook to get the latest updates!

Till later!
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iTunes 11 - a designers review

Hey guys! iTunes 11 is here and it is AWESOME!

Yeah, yeah, I know it this is a random post from what I usually post but hey it is always good for change, right? I thought it was part of design, new look, new way of making things work better which is my slogan now, have you heard.

Well, let's get to it then. The BRAND NEW iTUNES 11 has AWESOME new features where you can sync your music, apps, books, movies, etc., to your iCloud account. This makes it easy to access your personalized iTunes anywhere and everywhere. Here is how it looks now:

PRETTY, RIGHT? I just love how they managed to simplify it more even though it is already very clean and minimal looking. Some people are confused on where the sidebar went and WHY they took it away. Well, from a designers perspective I think they just wanted it out of the way, making the music library look more clean and easier to access. It is all about the music and when you open your library your beautiful artwork jumps at you. It's just right there for you to click on and play!

Anyway, to get your sidebar back you just hit ALT+CMD+S (MAC) / CTRL+ALT+S (WINDOWS) and TA-DA! But personally I prefer the new look better. Problems start when you want to sync your iPod or other devices with playlists... So just turn on that sidebar and do it the old fashion way. Can also be switched on from the menu: "View > Show Sidebar"

Enough technical stuff lets talk about the design of the new interface!

Apple has manages to design this amazing feature with the new iTunes 11 when you download an album with an artwork the library extracts the colours from the cover art and changes the theme of that album window. As you can see in the picture above from the latest Rihanna album (LOVE HER!) the window extracted her skin colour of the art work and replaced the text in the window with that colour. AMAZING! Here is another example for you to get the picture:

The new mini player is a big change in iTunes and I think many people will start using this more often now. You can search and add songs to "up next" playlists from the mini player. This is an awesome new feature that I think is very handy when working and don't want the big iTunes window to open.

Furthermore you can change the views of your library that I am in love with!!! They limited it to Songs, Albums, Artists, Genres, and Playlists which is SO much easier to handle. The sidebar with all my hundreds of playlists made it confusing and difficult to find stuff. Thanks Apple for making this so awesome!

Now you just have to go download the new iTunes A.S.A.P!!! It is really a must-have that will make your life off organizing your music MUCH easier and well pretty to look at while browsing your library.

Till Later!

*F