placements on placements on placements.

It's been 6 months. Whoops.

A lot's been going on. In December I was invited to spend 3 months at The Leith Agency, which was a fantastic opportunity. I worked on some great briefs, had my ideas presented to clients throughout and in the penultimate week got the chance to pitch my concept to a major client myself. I was my own copywriter too, which was an experience. Really learnt a lot and developed an appreciation for crafting words.

Leith opened the door to a placement at Newhaven, which was another fantastic opportunity. Again, great briefs and had ideas presented to clients. Wasn't there as long, but I really enjoyed my time there. 

In turn, Newhaven opened the door to my current stint as art director and designer at The Union. I started this week and it's going well so far. It's open ended, so, we'll see.

I've met with a few potential copywriters over this past month as well. Everything's very up in the air at the moment, not sure what'll land and where but I feel it's all moving in the right direction. That's all you can hope for, really.

Oh, and I moved out. Growing up, innit.

#GoHomo

As a creative grad, I naturally filled out countless copy tests/applications that featured pretty oddball questions. One of which asked to create a campaign to convince a straight person to be gay.

Challenge accepted.

I created #GoHomo, a campaign that focuses on the advantages of same-sex relationships over mixed, spun toward promoting respect - and a degree of desirability - for gay and lesbian people on behalf of the charity Stonewall. Taking inspiration from the popular slang term "no homo" (meaning "not in a gay way"), #GoHomo is a positive declaration of what people would "go gay for".

By cheekily uniting genders in a battle of the sexes, the campaign calls for people to Tweet their responses of what they would #GoHomo for - whether it be the drawbacks of the opposite sex or the benefits of same sex. The approach unifies gay and straight men as well as lesbian and straight women (typically the pairings which can clash) rather than further alienating sexualities by highlighting differences.

the fear.

Just less than a month to go before everything has to be finished, handed in, degree show set up and uni is over. Expletive. Whilst I would definitely say the pressure has been on these past few weeks, I don't think "THE FEAR" will kick in until I walk into the first year hall, the venue of our degree show and the last hurdle. Or maybe it'll be tomorrow with a meeting that'll run through the protocol of the coming weeks.

Anyway, enough of that. One of my recent projects was a Levi's campaign. It kind of split itself into two directions; one a typographic experiment using the lasercutter and denim, the other a more commercial translation. This is one of the results:

Originally intended to be a clean, bright design etched into denim, it developed into a grungy, worn piece of typography which I actually think fits the context better. It looks 'lived out', achieved by distressing the  lasercut surface of the text.

YCN heinz salad cream brief.

For this (YCN) brief, the challenge was to advertise Heinz Salad Cream to young adults (whilst still appealing to those older and younger), a demographic who may have loved it in childhood but have since distanced themselves in favour of mayonnaise, BBQ sauce and tomato ketchup.

My response was to highlight the versatility of Salad Cream, whilst increasing awareness of the product itself. The outcome is a series of print ads, visualising Heinz Salad Cream as a constant within an equation whilst the foods shown are interchangeable. Whether used as a healthier substitute for mayonnaise, a dipping sauce, sandwich spread or dressing: Heinz Salad Cream is the condiment that can compliment it. The tagline is a spin on Mary Poppin's iconic "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down", which intends to be a light hearted play on the Salad Cream as the "sugar" that can make anything taste better - even, perhaps, the "medicine" of vegetables.

The imagery is slick, fresh, contemporary and vibrant, yet also presents a natural, rustic and homely visual that retains focus on the food itself. It not only connotes summer picnics, barbecues and time spent in the kitchen, but also appeals to those who are more conscious of - and value - a healthier and more natural option.

interim show + current/future projects.

This week saw Stage 4 Communication Design exhibit our Interim Show, an opportunity for the external examiner to get a glimpse of our work and to speak with us ahead of our final submission and degree show in June (!).

Didn't get much of an opportunity to properly look at everyone's display (it was only up for a few days) but there was some great stuff. I felt it was pulled out of the bag, and Vis/Com shone in particular. Well, naturally.

I chose to display a selection of concept development from my self-initiated brief to create a print media campaign that promotes and strengthens the relationship Orange has with film (through 'Orange Wednesdays' which offers 2-for-1 cinema tickets, 'Film To Go' that provides a free film rental on iTunes every Thursday, and sponsoring the BAFTA's). My solution was an all-encompassing and to-the-point idea: "See Film Through Us". The copy led to exploring various methods of visualising the concept, ranging from literal to more abstract, including experimentation of opacity both digitally and through tactile material.

At the moment the project is evolving into a different and - I think - more effective direction, but is somewhat being put on the back burner for now as D&AD and YCN deadlines loom closer (March!). I've undertaken two briefs from the former; to illustrate a Little White Lies cover for the film Black Swan, and create a 21st century whisky brand for Design Bridge that defies tradition and appeals to the typically elusive international female market. As for YCN, the briefs I've begun working on include; creating a campaign to encourage the young to like Heinz Salad Cream again, another campaign to promote The Independent's 'i' supplement to students, re-design the Graze packaging, and if I have time I'd like to work on a campaign for Feel Good Drinks too.

I have ideas in place for all of the above, it's now simply a case of implementing them. Shall certainly be a challenge, but I like to push myself and I want to get used to more intense, quick turnarounds that'll be standard in industry. March to June isn't going to be any more relaxed either, with the further projects planned (including Levi's and Pretty Polly) in addition to finishing off anything else if required.

Oh, there's also the Creative Star Student Awards which I need to get on with.

All systems go.

auf wiedersehen, dissertation.

So, that's that done then. 8318 words and 25% of my degree has now been submitted.

Hasn't quite sunk in that something that elicited so much fear and stress over the years, is not only done, but was relatively painless.

After faffing around for a while, I settled on; "Branding culture: How we claim our identity through commercial media", an exploration of what it means to be a product of our environment in todays culture. I delved into how we individually identify and aspire to obtain/allude ideals through surrounding ourselves with specific brands. I investigated the visual messages presented through; celebrity endorsement (Run-DMC's relationship with Adidas), product placement (Apple and Starbucks omnipresence within media), conventional advertising ("I'm a Mac/I'm a PC") and further brand personification (Betty Crocker and Aunt Jemima), and also explored how commercial media can dictate cultural identity as a whole using Coca-Cola's rebranding of Santa Claus and Christmas as a definitive example (Coke popularised and standardised the image of Santa as a fat, jolly man with a white beard and red coat through their advertising. Beforehand Santa Claus/Father Christmas/St. Nick/Kris Kringle etc. differed between cultures).

What I enjoyed in particular with this topic was the scope of research on the "why?". There's a frustrated sociological psychologist of some sort inside me begging to be free, apparently. Who knew? Whether it be our ongoing "quest for cool", the primitive desire for inclusion/recognition from our "tribes", or social conditioning in the vein of Pavlov's Dog where brands have trained us to salivate on command for their products; it's all interesting.

Now we can draw a line under all that. Got my semester one work back too, so all systems go on the next chapter, I suppose. This one is going to be brutal. The last hurdle.