Sounds Like An Almost Bang'n Tour!

Here is the tour flyer i created for my old band Soundslikelazerfire! for the "Sounds Like An Almost Bang'n Tour" that we take part of every summer with two fantastic bands Sgt Wolfbanger and The Almost Super Heroes. The tour has become something of a tradition over the past 3 years as we all help to organise, promote and fund the entire thing ourselves. Some of you might be thinking "yeah that's just a walk in the park man, anyone can organise something like that" but trust me, it is far more difficult then it sounds (if any of you have ever been in a band you will understand what i am talking about) So i thought this year i would help out and go one step further by creating a flyer to help promote the events.
It was such a wonderful feeling turning up to the venues with my flyer pasted up on the walls while people were queuing outside, almost felt like we were all professionals. For about a week i felt like a right "hip, cool designer" kid ha ha.

To create this I used mainly vectors with elements of Photoshop CS3 added in later for a distorted effect. I pen tooled around a photograph of a gay biker guy with a rather awesome looking moustache then vectorised it in Illustrator and dived into 3 different coloured layers, that once were placed together created a very interesting effect. Overall it was a very quick process to design for and i was very happy with how it turned out, although the text might have been a bit hard to read for some people, but balls to it...... I liked it.

Because Everyone has got their little tune

I know this is rather old news (well in terms of my course anyway) but i thought i would upload the Magazine spreads i did for my Editorial Design Brief earlier this month.
Basically we were asked to design a grid and then explore its use and effectiveness in laying out images, typographic display elements and text matter. We had complete freedom on subject matter, so i decided to take a risk and try something that was a little different to the stuff i normally churn out. So i had a look into the wonderful world of fashion, and After flicking through many photography books in my university i stumbled upon a truly fantastic Photographer named Norman Parkinson who's portrait photographs are truly breath taking. (i would advice anyone who is into fashion to check him out) Any who here are the final magazine spreads i created:

These look a little weird and warped after i re-sized them, and i should have really put a solid edge around the spreads as most of the white bleeds in the web page. But you get an idea of what i was trying to produce and the kinda look i was aiming for.
(and for those of you who don't know what's what) The first page is the front cover, the second is the contents and other two layouts are the splash page and turn page. Overall i was very please with the outcome and i got a 2:1 with 2 marks off a 1st. I may refine these in the future and correct one or two things for my final portfolio, but at the moment lets just say its a work in progress.

Some Kind of Video

Earlier this year i was playing around with the idea of making a short video or film just for fun. Sadly i never got around to making a full film, however over the summer months i experimented with some ideas for a short promotional video for my band. The whole concept was of a very mysterious and dramatic images that didn't necessarily link with the band, but yet had a whole creative aspect of its own. I was inspired by many different videos on youtube.com, mainly videos of "people watching" and movement, when i stumbled on to this one video that really did take my breath away. I really loved how all the movement was sped up and how a sense of time was captured in the film, i must have had this repeating for days.

Here is my attempted at my own after being inspired by the previous:



The typeface i chose for the text at the beginning and end were completely wrong and not fitting with the film, but i did have a lot of fun playing around with my computers video editing software. Sadly not many people got to see this short video, and to be honest i am not really that proud of it. But you can see what kind of theme/idea i was working towards.

We're Gonna Need A Bigger Carpet

Well, today i finally sold out and acquired my very own online visual blog. I am very new to this experience so its all a bit touch and go for the moment until i get everything sorted and figured out. But in the long run i hope to be constantly updating this in the future and keep it more as a visual record to myself that others can hopefully be a part of.

Any who, i think i should take this moment to explain a bit more about myself and what i do. I am currently in my 2nd year of a BA Hons in Graphic Design Degree at The University of Cumbria based in Carlisle and i am really enjoying it. I have a huge passion for music and the people that make it, i am hugely inspired by music and design, and i love when both elements work together. I also write, record and perform in many terrible punk bands, but it's something i seriously love to do. (if your interested you can check out and listen to one of my bands here)
Slightly drifting off topic there, but this blog is mainly to showcase my design work and to share it with the world.

Here's to the future