coleen fitzsimmons a|design blog

9 Qualities of a Successful Freelancer

2010-08-17T01:35:00.000-07:00

Just a cool little stop motion.

...

2010-07-21T02:36:00.000-07:00

I WILL find time to update this... hopefully, Right now I'm concentrating on a new blog about my adventures in the design industry. I've made it private for now, but I may integrate them into this one... they will be random ramblings of my day, they may not make sense... and they will no doubt be boring as hell to most. (hence why I haven't decided whether to put them up or not)

So for now, they will remain anonymous as I wouldn't want to piss anyone off, I need to make a name for myself after all. Expect a new blog, in some shape or form soon.

Feltron Report 2009

2010-05-08T04:27:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting for months for my report to arrive and finally It's here! and it's so pretty, well worth the wait. Even the stickers on the front have been letter pressed. I've spent hours tracing looking at every word and line individually, maybe that's a bit obsessive but it's kind of hypnotic.

Just little snippets, I don't want it ruin the experience for people waiting on theirs to arrive. (sorry if I did)

Everyone loves giraffes!__ get invloved!

2010-03-10T09:55:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the internet is too serious, I came across this a few weeks ago and just thought it was so random & fun! so of course I wanted to have a go... but didn't have time, until now.

So these are my giraffes__ espeacially for mother(ship)s day on sunday.

There may not be any real point to it, but it's just about being creative and having fun.
so why not have a go! Giraffes don't bite... and if they do, I'm sure you'd have enough time to run away before they get near you

One Million Giraffes
Twitter__1000000giraffes

You always need somewhere to hide away!

2010-02-28T09:33:00.000-08:00

I got bored, and decided I needed an office... instead of using my bed as a desk. I've been planning this for awhile, so after many hours of swearing and cleaning (many of which were spent trying to dislodge the bed after I got it stuck.) I now have a home office ... with a bed, for those late nights.

It's not a penthouse suite with awesome views, but I'm pretty proud of it!

Shepard Fairey

2010-02-04T16:23:00.000-08:00

Shepard Fairey. He's not everyone's "cup of [green]tea" but he has been one of my favourite designers/illustrators/artists/thinkers for a long time now. Long before his Obama fame, back in my unsuccessful skateboarding day's, when I had Obey stickers on my school binder instead of a skateboard ... anyway, He covers every aspect of design that I love; prints, murals, paintings, working on different materials such as wood or metal and graffiti He's able to take one thought and illustrate it beautifully. I have always been fascinated with the amount of detail he can put into his work, it all looks so effortless, and honestly who doesn't love a bit of politics and controversy...is this just a shameless hint on what my essay will be about?... I think so

obeygiant

so long hard times?

2010-01-27T14:51:00.000-08:00

Thought this went perfectly with yesterdays news, but is the credit crunch really over? who cares... could be worse, could have been called the iPad! :P

...Oh Dear.

2010-01-22T13:48:00.000-08:00

Currently designing flyers and album artwork for a DJ friend of mine. He sent me his logo in a word document! and extremely low quality Jpeg photos pasted in that document. oh dear, this is a sign of things to come. Why are people still so computer illiterate in 2010?

Despite this, I'm really excited to get started on this. It's an area (music) that I've always wanted to design for and also it's going to be quite a challenge as I'm not really into the music genre, so i'm excited to see what I can do.

Top 10 Movies of 2009

2009-12-31T07:10:00.000-08:00

I love Movies so much, I'm sure everyone does and this year was a great year for movies... it had everything, animated wonderlands, science fiction, fantasy, scary stuff, Nazi killers, magic and most importantly... vampires! So this is my top 10 movies of 2009

(There’s a short list at the bottom so you don't have to read my crap explanations of why I liked the movies, if you don't want to)

10 – The Twilight Saga -New Moon
New Moon was the one movie I had been excited to see the whole of 2009 and that is really the only reason I've featured it in my top 10. I wasn't disappointed with it but it wasn't as exciting as Twilight was for me. I admired how true to the book this movie was, but I really didn't like New Moon as a book to begin with so I wasn't expecting much from the movie. I was entertained and did enjoy my time watching this movie, I stayed awake ... and I guess that's all that matters... right? (Can't wait for Eclipse though)

9 - Watchmen
I'm a huge superhero movie fan! Spiderman, Xmen etc, but Watchen was so different to all the ones I’d seen before. It was the most real and believable superhero movie I’ve ever seen. I loved how the 'heroes' are portrayed as the bad guys and they make no excuses for it. I love all the back stories, the 10 minute intro really sets the scene, crime and controversy. The visuals were awesome, really gritty. It was great to finally be able to cheer on the bad guys. The story was quite unexpected and the visuals were so awesome, I loved the dooms day comic book look of the whole thing.

8 - Paranormal Activity
I know a lot of people really didn't like this movie as it didn't live up to the hype. They had been told what to expect and what was going to happen, well I seen it before all the hype and really didn't know what to expect when I watched it and honestly, it scared the absolute crap out of me! Seriously, it haunts me to this day; I'm finding it hard to sleep with doors open. I generally don't get that scarred watching horror movies. They're always so obvious and predictable. I didn’t know what was going to happen in Paranormal Activity and the fact that you can’t see the thing attacking people is horrible, to me it means you can imagine it happening to you in real life, something coming out of nowhere and attacking you... horrible! So I recommend trying to watch this by yourself in a dark room with the door open slightly and maybe you’ll see why I found it so terrifying. It’s the only movie I wish I could un-watch, or maybe I’m just a big baby.

7 -Harry Potter – The Half Blood Prince

I’m not ashamed to admit that I love all the Harry Potter Movies. I love movies about magical worlds we will never get to experience in real life and out of all the Harry Potter movies, this was by far my favourite. Mainly because the actors learnt how to act! But also because the story was well written, very mature andthere actually seem like there was a point to the story. It didn’t end with Harry defeating Voldamort and they going on with his life as if it never happened like the rest of the movies. There was no happy ending either, and this time Harry lost. I also loved how this one will carry onto the next movie in the series. I also loved this movie because it prompted me to try and read all the books so I could find out how it all ends, which is a huge feat considering I’m not really into reading. (p.s I failed that reading endeavour, I did get to book 5 and it was so rubbish I couldn’t bring myself to finish it)

6 – District 9

Aliens and other worlds always make a good movie. I expected to see a movie about an alien invasion, threatening mankind like every other alien movie I’d seen before. So to see the tables being turned, seeing humans threatening the alien’s existence, treating them like prisoners and controlling them was very odd to watch and also quite sad. I wanted the aliens to win. District 9 showed the true devastation humans have on the world; we always want to control everything. And think we know everything, but no doubt it will come back to bite us in the ass in the sequel... because there better be one!!

5 – Coraline/Up

I found it too hard to decided between these too epic animated movies... so I put them together on my list (yeah it’s cheating... so what)

I’m a big kid when it comes to animated movies, I’m always so captivated with the dreamlike stories and adventures and these two were some of the best i’ve ever seen. Coraline is a beautiful and strange adventure that seemed like it was honouring the great Tim burtons crazy imagination. Everything was perfect; the design, the style, the characters, the set and the story of a little girls crazy ‘Alice in Wonderland’s’ down the rabbit hole adventure to a new and magical would – kind of my ideal movie when you think about it.

... and Up. It took me a long time to watch this movie, I was excited to see this for so long until I heard all the hype around it. I’m usually let down by movies that everyone else thinks are totally brilliant so I didn’t want to watch Up and be disappointed, the story I imagined in my head was to amazing to ruin... but obviously I caved and just had to see if it really was as amazing as everyone said it was. Clearly it was! A magically story of an old man’s promise to his wife; Which leads him to attached balloons to his house and fly to a crazy land with his little fat pal, a mad ass bird and a talking dog... how could I not love this movie? Truly breathtaking... the only downside being that it made me cry from start finish! So I’m glad I never went to the cinema to see it!

I recommend that every one watches these movies! You need them in your lives!

4 – Moon

Looking at this list it’s clear to see I love fantasy movies and science fiction, so I’m sure you can guess why I loved this movie, and I’m always up for helping out the indie movie scene. Moon is a captivating and unexpected story about being trapped in your own mind and learning the truth about your existence with a hint of a conspiracy theory... perfect. Love this movie, needs to be seen to know understand the beauty of it.

3 – Avatar

This was another movie I really didn’t want to see because there was so much hype around it that I thought it was going to be all show with the special effects and no substance but I was totally wrong. The story was magically, a man having to learn to be one with nature and learn the ways of the Na Vi while showing the devastation of war and the government... and like District 9, showing how humans always have to control or kill what they can’t understand. The graphics were perfect, totally over the top but it worked perfectly with the story which captivated the audience intently... even though my ass was totally numb by the end, I’d sit through it for 3 hours any day.

2 – Inglorious Basterds

This was another movie I wasn’t really looking forward to for the simple reason that it starred Brad Pitt and was directed by Quentin Tarantino, two of my most hated people in the movie industry (after Tom Cruise of course) ... but yet again I was totally wrong, this movie blew me away, completely unexpected, A new take on the traditional World War 2 movie. Tarantino rewrote history featuring a group of bad ass Nazi killing rebels, what more could you want in a movie?

1 – Star Trek

I loved Star Trek as a kid, but as I got older I realised how crap it really was, the “special effects” were rubbish and basically nonexistent. All the story lines were repeated so often I grew bored of the whole idea so quickly. So when I heard they were making a movie, of course I was excited but I’d made up my mind on what was going to happen, but by 10 minutes into the Star Trek movie, I was on the edge of my seat and glued to the screen. It was amazing. They actually dragged little old Star Trek into the 21^st Century, and rewrote it all. It was perfect. The story was awesome and believable and I loved every minute of it.

Other awesome movies this year

Where the Wild Things Are, Transformers 2, My Sisters Keeper, Underworld: Rise Of the Lycans, a Haunting in Connecticut, Orphan, the Forth Kind

So That's my list. I never realised how much a geek I was until I wrote this list, but I guess that’s just because it was a very geeky year for movies and that’s fine by me.

(And the short list for your sanity)

10 – The Twilight Saga – New Moon

9 – Watchmen

8 – Paranormal Activety

7 – Harry Potter – The Half Blood Prince

6 – District 9

5 –Coraline/Up

4 – Moon

3 – Avatar

2 – Inglorious Basterds

1 – Star Trek

Happy New Years movie fans!

Periodic Table of Typefaces

2009-11-25T13:54:00.000-08:00

Thought this was pretty awesome, This particular table lists 100 of the most popular, influential and notorious typefaces today.

Paper Font

2009-11-13T18:21:00.000-08:00

A really beautiful and fun way to create type by Jozef Ondrík.

Flash Mob's are Awesome

2009-11-13T15:49:00.000-08:00

Just like the banana video this is totally off topic and very old but it's the first time I've seen it and I thought this was amazing, flash mob crowd (like the T-Mobile ad) break into dance to black eyed peas. Awesome!! I wish I could see a flash mob close up.

You Learn Something New Everyday?

2009-11-07T04:03:00.000-08:00

If not you should! Awesome video that really encourages you to think differently about everything.

Objectified

2009-11-05T11:50:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday I went along to the Black Box in Belfast to watch a screening of Objectified. I'm a big fan of documentary's especially one's like Helvetica and when I heard the same guy was making Objectified I was so excited it's unreal. (yes, I really am that much of a geek).

The movie is about people and their relationships with objects. It's all about design, the process behind designing objects and the psychology of how objects and their design make us feel. This documentary really opens you're eyes to how much our subconscious takes over when we're making purchases. It really makes you think about how people become obsessed with design's, why we are attracted to certain designs and how design influences every aspect of out lives.

I know it may not be for everyone but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think it's a documentary that any one in the design world would learn something from. So I highly recommend checking it out!

(Also features Jonathan Ives (guy who designed the iPod etc) for all you Apple
Fans)

Trailer
Official Website

An Awesome Week For Design!

2009-11-05T11:21:00.000-08:00

So this week has been pretty hectic, lot's of running around, long days with not much sleep and a few car problems, but despite all this it has been amazing, fun and totally insightful all at the same time.

Here's what i've been up to;

Monday - So first the was my meeting with Iain Slater of Slater Design. Amazing guy, super nice and honest. Really greatful for his time and answering all our silly little questions. Learnt a lot from our little chat.

Tuesday - Then the screening of Objectified . Amazing mockumentary (movie documentary). Much like the Helvetica Mockumentary, extremely entertaining and motivating, I shall post a review blog about that soon!

Wednesday - The ICAD Exhibition, some very beautiful designs on display, good to see so close to home. Then of course there was An evening with Airside wonderful company with unique ideas, concepts an inspiring work ethic. Also got an awesome calendar and DVD thanks to a few friends!

Thursday - Build Conference. amazing web conference run by the fantastic Andy(Good)McMillan. Fantastic day, lots of inspirational speakers basically just telling it like it is. Very fun day, also expect a blog about this.

I wish all weeks were this fun.

I Love Presents

2009-10-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

(late blog)

I'm extremely excited for the Airside and Objectified events next week as part of Build (which i'm also attending) and my lovely friend Andy who's running these events gave me some presents to go home with two lovely posters! They are printed so beautifully they actually feel like velvet! very happy!

(bad photos)

Paperjam Design presents live draw

2009-09-26T09:23:00.000-07:00

If anyone knows when this event is actually going to happen, please let me know.

...In other words I was highly disappointed in last nights event. I went to Waring street hoping to see something exciting and innovative in Belfast, digital graffiti, a live tutorial even and I would have been happy to see a showcase of Paperjams work, but after waiting around for an hour and half of watching four aimless doodles on a wall, i'd had enough of waiting about. The event didn't happen, it was poorly organised and falsely advertised in my opinion.

I loved the idea of this event and hope it happens in the future with more enthusiasm and better organised. I'm not even going to post the pictures, they would have been better off using microsoft paint.

Jennifer Trouton

2009-09-17T04:45:00.000-07:00

I wanted to move away from illustration posts and art posts but I found this artists work when i was staying at a friends house, she had recently purchased some prints and a coffee table book while at an exhibition of work by Jennifer Trouton. I loved her style. I think her work is fantastic. I really love the worn, vintage look of her work. you can imagine finding images like these in an old victorian house especially the patterned wallpaper she creates. I love images or sketches that look likes random thoughts in someones head translated onto paper.

I also love the graphic quality of Trouton's work, It's very precisely drawn and created you almost can't be sure whether it was hand rendered or printed on. I love art with typography.

And also she is from Belfast, and is a University of Ulster graduate... gotta represent!

......

Portfolio

An update would be nice?

2009-08-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

O.k so I know I said I was going to update more often, well turns out I lied. It wasn't deliberate i've just been super busy with work at the moment.

I have been designing more, just making sure I get myself ready to start uni again. I'm currently looking for some new design books so any recommendations please let me know.

On a happier note, I recently designed a logo for a new company in Belfast and they have just started launching this week. My logo can be found on their office, operating system, leaflets and banners and was recently on display at a business expo in the waterfront hall. very happy about that. I'm not sure if I have their permission to blog about the logo yet so I shall find that out and if I am I'll post pics up.
It's nothing major and I don't feel it's my best work but it was interesting to see my own lil creation out in the big old world for everyone to see, hopefull it's a small taste of bigger things to come.

I will only be posting my personal work on my own blog as I feel your own blog should be used to showcase your work and become an online portfolio and the vis com blog should be a refernce point or communiety... just my opinion.

more exciting update soon

Jones Soda Design

2009-08-16T15:18:00.000-07:00

I am totally obsessed with Jones Soda, its awesome and yummy so when I found these bottles in my local shop you could say I got a little bit ever excited and bought all three (even though they're the same flavour) I love quirky little designs and brands like Jones, I think they make products more interesting and well thought out.

They also reminded me alot of our modular world project.

Belfast Vis Com Vs. Banksy

2009-08-14T05:09:00.000-07:00

(one of many banksy blogs)

After a long day of travelling from Belfast to London then to Bristol we finally arrived to a very large queue welcoming us to the back of it. Not really the first thing you want to see after a long journey to get to this point. But we soon entertained ourselves with complaining about the wait, shaking hands a guy trying to break the world record for hand shaking (weird) and lots of games of Eye-Spy. Awesome!

Then after 2.5 hours waiting in the queue we had made it to the entrance... and then to another small queue, But this moved on quick enough. standing inside the entrance you could see small glimpse of the exhibition ahead, statues and the amazing ice cream truck. The truck looked like a part of a cartoon, quite surreal in the middle of a traditional museum. We spent the next few hours looking at every detail of his amazing canvases and sculptures.

I have been a huge fan of Banksy's work for years now, I love everything he does. His work is very controversial especially by people who still don't consider graffiti as real art. But Banksy has a way of capturing things that seem like a really obvious idea in such a simple way, yet we all miss it until we see his work. He seems to know how the world and people work. I was blown away by this exhibition, I never imagined how well thought out and quirky it would be. well worth all the hassle of travelling and waiting around.

More Photos

The banksy mission

2009-08-12T05:10:00.000-07:00

So we left for london from belfast @6.30am, one 1 hour flight, to a 45 minute train journey, onto the tube, then off that and on to the right one (silly people got on the wrong one), then another 2 hour train journey ... then finally a 20minute taxi ride and FINALLY. ... we are now waiting in a 2 hour que to see the banksy exhibtion. Really long day but we'll soon see how worth it all this travelling has been.

Picture up date soon.... if I survive the waiting

you call this a blog?

2009-08-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

...so work has taken me hostage, i havent had much time to look at much design stuff, and definetly havent had time to write down the small amount i have seen. I will try much harder.

i am currently looking for new design books to fill my beautiful ikea book shelf that i built all by myself!! ... any suggestions please let me know!

Stop Motion Video

2009-07-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

I randomly came across this video on youtube when I clicked on the wrong link by accident and I was pleasantly surprised by my find. I think this is a wonderful video, very imaginative. I also thought it was a great find as it relates to our daydream animation project we were assigned.

Fun Facts:
* The video was shot all stills - roughly 3225 still photos for the entire video, using one camera, hanging from the ceiling for the main body of the movie.
* It took 4 weeks before shooting to create an animated computer generated storyboard for the video, with 3d dummies for the characters.
* It took only 2 days of shooting for the live actors on set to re-create the 3.5 minutes computer sequence, frame by frame.

Yet more illustrations...Matthew Woodson

2009-07-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

I found this illustrator while looking for work similar to the style of Russ Mills, an illustrator I really admire.

At first I just briefly glanced at a few images from Matthew Woodson, It didn't excite me at first, the images seemed quite plain, until I came across this image of a woman smoking a cigarette in which the smoke takes the form of a skeleton with it's arms around her
I thought this was a really powerful image with a subtle message. Like I said before I love illustrations that tell a story, ones that make you wonder what happens next and alot of Matthew Woodson's images make me think this way. The illustrations are all very cleanly created using illustrator, and they look like they were all really well thought out.
Woodson's illustration style reminds me a lot of the movie A Scanner Darkly it's very weird but I recommend people having a look at it as the style is awesome.
Matthew Woodson
A Scanner Darkly Trailer

Local Artist - Ryan O'neill

2009-07-12T05:37:00.000-07:00

Here is some work from a young up and coming local artist/illustrator Ryan O'niell, who actually happens to be a friend of mine.

I've admired his work for sometime now. I'm always in awe when I see a new piece of work he has created. Although he would mainly be praised for his beautiful, realistic oil paintings, I feel his illustration work is just as dynamic. They're so simple yet powerful and imaginative, each one tells a unique story. It may not be to every ones taste, but i'm a big fan of quirky illustrations. Illustrations that you could look at for hours wondering what is going on and what will happen next. Ryan brings a sense of humour to his work, so you don't have to take it too seriously.

I love the amount of detail in this particular illustration. It is drawn with such precisson and attention to detail using only pens and markers. I think its funny how he incorporates Belfast into his work, it makes me think of someone sitting at city hall waiting for their bus and day dreaming about this event. I think the illustration is trying to show how much people are like zombies on their way to work.

He is also a big fan of the sketchbook. He always has his with him at all times ready to sketch out his ideas.I believe his work is just as strong as the number of illustrators on the illustration agency website we have come across. I think it's great that there is still such strong talent coming from Northern Ireland and many new artists that have still to be discovered.

Sadly his online illustration portfolios are limited but I think they are worth a good look around and i'm sure he'll add more soon.

About-Things
DeviantART

Progression.

2009-07-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

Thanks to twitter, I found a link to this post showing how far a select number of designers have come in the design world. I thought this was really interesting and quite inspiring as it reminds us that not everyone starts out as a great designer with dynamic ideas, It takes years of practice and dedication to develop unique ideas and designs.
Enjoy

Logo Designers Share Their First And Last Logos

My love of nature and typography, together at last

2009-07-05T14:05:00.000-07:00

I just stumbled upon an article in Creative review (from Feb 09) about an artist named Russel Coleman and a team of collaborators who have created a series typographic tree sculptors for a library.

The trees have paragraphs of text carefully selected by the users of the Crawley Library carved into them in a font that the artist felt best suited each particular piece of text. I think this is an amazing idea they're so beautifully created with care and attention to detail. Maybe not the most eco-friendly project in the world but beautiful none the less.

Creative Review
Why Not Associates

looking back

2009-07-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

Since I have completed my first year of Vis Com, I thought a little reflection was in order.

Over this year I feel I've learnt a lot of new skills that I'll need to succeed in the design world. I still have much more to learn but I'm excited to get started again. The following are pieces of work that I enjoyed working on most and am pleased with the finished result.

Book Cover Design;

Create two covers for each book, one must be an image one must be type.

When I began this project I wasn't exactly sure where to start. Considering I didn't have enough time to actually read the books (I'm not one for reading books) I search the internet for brief summary's of the books and picked out the main themes and words that were associated with the books. After that I began to sketch out my ideas, one thing led to another and I ended up with these covers. I really enjoyed this project. It was challenging and something i'd never done before. I'm happy with my finished covers and had a lot of fun making little brains!

Guardian Project;

For this project we had to create a guardian supplement in the same style as the guardian.
I thought this project would be really easy, but it was quite complicated when I listed out all the changes that where required to make my layout fit in with the rest of the newspaper. This was surprisingly very fun, I really enjoyed making all the small changes such as selecting the right font, creating the same quotation marks, organising the paragraphs. It took some time but I think my outcome is very successful.

Modular World Project;

This project consisted of creating fonts and characters using only modular shapes.
This was by far my favourite project that we were assigned. At first I found it quite difficult but once I played about with the shapes and began to develop my ideas I began to really enjoy the freedom we were given with the brief.
I loved creating these fonts. I found them quite easy to create, the shapes just made sense as letters. I think my fonts are quite simple but still dynamic and original. I also thought they were very legible in the form of words. Really pleased with the out come of these.
Moving onto characters, I started with a very basic human shape and began to create clothing and accessories using the shapes to make the characters look like playful cultural stereotypes such as punk, grunge etc. This took quite a lot of time and effort but it was very fun to do.

Some small examples of my first year work. I shall upload a few more to my deivantART account and post the link in another post.

It's funny how quickly first year has come and gone.... scary actually. Roll on second year!

Start Something (again)

2009-07-02T07:46:00.001-07:00

So i’ve created my fantastic blog.

A place were my epic random thoughts come together in paragraphs that probably wont make much sense, and for that I apologise, but I shall try my best to keep the design world entertained.

Design wise, my blog isn’t looking to good. At the moment I have about 4 different blues going on, and the headers blurry… but it’s my first attempt.

I've decided to use blogger mainly but i'll still update the wordpress blog with the same crap. follow which ever one you like best

Wordpress or Blogger?

2009-07-02T05:46:00.000-07:00

ok, so i've set up a new blog with Blogger.
Wordpress is VERY hard to use and I don't like how it's too hard to customise.Cconfusion.
I'll keep both blogs to see with one I like best and simply delete the one I like less! Great idea I think.