PDF Portfolio

Love London?

Londoners are being asked to sum up why they love the Capital in just one sentence, and it appears the city's diversity, history and energy is inspiring many of you to get creative. Those who have been most successful in encapsulating London in just a few words can now see their quote being featured on the Underground as part of an advertising campaign. Well, Tube advertiser CBS Outdoor is still accepting ideas for a new wave of quotes to appear on the Underground. To enter, all you have to do is become a fan of 'CBS Londoner' on Facebook and post your quote on the wall. Perhaps you're drawn to the capital's melting pot of cultures, its art, its resilience or remarkable people.

"Maybe it's because you can carry your designer handbag, morning Starbucks, copy of 'The Metro', umbrella and work files, all whilst listening to your iPod and emailing on your Blackberry, and still stride confidently along the station platform in your four-inch work stilettos." Suzie Bryce

"The rainy autumn days, staring up at buildings steeped in history knowing that you're wandering through the greatest city on earth." Alexander Gowing

"Each determined step through London beckons you further into its decadent web of history, art, culture and geography until you find yourself willingly entangled and stood waiting on the Tube that leads you onto your next magical destination once more. Addicted." Lesley-Jane Dyson

"London - many worlds, one epic city. History and future meets at every corner." Ziv Stadler

"In London you're always only a few minutes away from something big, be it historically, personally or just literally." Jack Benzie

"London is where you can eat your way around the world without having to buy the airline ticket." Anairda La Tana

"It's amazing how you wake up in the morning, walkout the door, see the same things/people, yet notice something new everyday. And you just fall in love with the city all over again... It's a never-ending love affair :)" Anjana Menon

"Born in London, live in London, work in London, play in London, love the buzz and all the things I can do, see, hear, taste... you get me?" Helen Bronstein

"Sorry - no time to tell you why I love London - must dash to meet up with my friends, try out the new café down the road, catch that exhibition, get the theatre tickets... and (of course) buy something to wear." Diana Rossborough

"I love London because it has an incandescent energy and multifaceted charm. It can feel elusive and infinite, but no matter who you are in this life, if you love London, it will love you right back!" Tracy Price

GDF Final Outcome

I redesigned my whole GDF PDF by just playing around with the design and layout of it. I also redesigned my final outcome which are below. 

Yamamoto Yōji T-Shirt Designs for V&A: Not that impressive

Yamamoto Yōji  born 1943 is an internationally known Japanese fashion designer based in Tokyo and Paris. Yamamoto became an influential fashion designer after making his Paris debut in 1981. His commercially successful main lines, Yohji Yamamoto (women/men) and Y's, are especially popular in Tokyo. These two lines are also available at his flagship stores in New York, Paris, and Antwerp, and at high-end department stores worldwide. Yamamoto is known for an avant-garde spirit in his clothing, frequently creating designs far removed from current trends. His signature oversized silhouettes in black often feature drapery in varying textures.

The V&A 'Yohji Yamamoto' t-shirt range features exclusive designs by Yohji Yamamoto, created especially for the V&A. Each t-shirt features one of Yamamoto's favourite items - his beloved military boots, a Mercedes Benz SL280, his Belgian sheepdog Duke and the ubiquitous safety pins that feature in his collections. I don't know if it is just me but in comparision to all the hype that this designer has around him his work for the V&A is really not that impressive. I don't think I am going to be running out to buy one!

Final Newspaper Club

This was my final Newspaper Club design, I changed from using the bright pink the whole way through to a more subtle lighter colour, and had a go with playing around with more versatile type.

Contrast Workshop Extension

Create a coat of arms for each different area of London: The North, East, South and West. I wanted to find out the common stereotypes of the different areas of London and so I asked a few people and these are the words that cropped up the most frequent.

London 

City of London - Money, Banks, Bonuses, Suits

West End - Tourists, Expensive, Crowded, Nightlife

North London - Liberal, Leafy, Intellectual, Left-wing but wealthy, Jewish, Turkish

East London - Poor, 'Ironically' trendy, home of white working class, gangster films, a  certain soap opera

South London - Suburban, bad connections, gangs

West London - Rich, conservative, Indian

COLORS

Even the colors can have special meaning in a "family crest" or coat of arms: 

Gold (Or)

Generosity and elevation of the mind

Silver or White (Argent)

Peace and sincerity

Red (Gules)

Warrior or martyr; Military strength and magnanimity

Blue (Azure)

Truth and loyalty

Green (Vert)

Hope, joy, and loyalty in love

Black (Sable)

Constancy or grief

Purple (Purpure)

Royal majesty, sovereignty, and justice

Orange (Tawny or Tenne)

Worthy ambition

Maroon (Sanguine or Murray)

Patient in battle, and yet victorious

Time: Perpetual Shift

This workshop led by Darren was probably the most fascinating workshop of the whole term. It was about exploring time through changing your point of view and perspective, speeding up or slowing down recordings or audio or using a different sense. It explored that by altering how you experience a situation you take in and experience the incoming information in new and unusual ways. 


Time as a concept is interesting for the graphic design industry as graphic design, as soon as its produced its almost already out dated. but also the study into people, their habits the way they move etc. over time is vital in creating effective graphic design. However this can be so helpful to designers, studying things such as colours, where people move, their cycles, the busiest train station, people follow and walk in natural lines and so you could disturb these lines of follow them.
Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance

This is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke. The film consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse footage of cities and many natural landscapes across the United States. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalised narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and music. Reggio explains the lack of dialogue by stating "it's not for lack of love of the language that these films have no words. It's because, from my point of view, our language is in a state of vast humiliation. It no longer describes the world in which we live."

The film changes from being fast motion to slow motion. When the camera is fixed in slow motion the position of the camera is interesting as its a head and shoulder shot and you can really study and investigate the movement of peoples clothes, facial expressions, their walk and personality but without them even talking, it highlights peoples differences in a non conventional way. However in fast motion the escalators spit out people, not one at a time as if it were first one person up and over then onto the next, but as a continuous stream, time dissolving people into a single organic mass. Outside even at night time the camera changes moving cars into red streaks of headlights, changing the modern technology and their movements into objects of the same biology as those escalator spitting out people, part of a contiguous whole. This fast-motion stream is infinite without beginning or end, no offer of rest, but only life, connected, systematic and obscene.

It made me feel really crap! It made it seem that even though we live in our highly modern life the way that each of us individuals live our lives when studied and explored at distance we just move in an animalistic manner, like ants, following a pattern. It makes each individual seem insignificant and strips away all humanity, like robots programmed to move like cogs in a machine. Its depressing as it makes you part of a number of race not an individual.