Ok, so maybe one more before Christmas!

You all secretly knew I'd be back on here, I can't seem to get enough of the place! Anyway, I thought I'd let you know that my CV and past three months worth of newsletters are now live and available to download at www.liannamaydesign.co.uk/downloads yay! I apologise for it taking quite a while but they're there now, call it an early Christmas pressie. Somehow I've had around 10 downloads of each file today so if you have been one of the lucky ten, please let me know what you reckon to them and if you have any constructive feedback to give me. I know they are rather simple but that is the look I am trying to aim for; bold, corporate and modern with the small twist of flashes of bright colours and quirky language which represents who I am as a person. Once again, I've been working on the pdf booklet today for our Online Promotions brief and with each page I do, I tend to add another to the minimum of 15. So far I have finished around 9 pages and you make think 'wow, nearly done'. No way. I've ended up with around 7 final outcomes due to the expansion of my online presence (website, blog, Twitter, forums, flickr, tumblr, cv download, newsletter download) so now I feel the need to create development pages for them all properly. At the moment, I'm estimating that I'll finish up with around 20 pages (including the reflective report, not including contents and cover) which is scaring me. Anyway, in order to get a bit of feedback, I thought I'd post a few of my completed pages on here for all to have a gander at. Once again, very simple and following formal grid structures. Finding it very hard to achieve high quality print screens which I might have to deal with again later (has anyone else been having this trouble?). Just hope they aren't seen as boring and given a bad grade!

Website Portfolio presentation page

Blog presentation page

Twitter presentation page

CV download presentation page

Newsletter download presentation page

Forum Participation presentation page

Others (Flickr and Tumblr) presentation page

Pondering...

I know, I know, I should be having a short break before getting back on the working bandwagon but I've ended up stressing over my online promotions project tonight (what can I say? I like to be extremely efficient haha). Anyways, I've been looking at some layouts and griding bits and bobs up for my 15 page booklet but feel I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place in making it interesting and innovating rather than a mundane 'I love Helvetica' graphic design piece. Also contemplating totally revamping my website with new logos and layouts and everything as I've got myself under the idea that currently, it is rather boring (although the new things I keep coming up with also seem a bit generic). Another issue I'm having it matching my design booklet to the website/logos etc. Do I have to do this you reckon? Is anyone else doing it? I feel like I should but when put together, I start not liking my website as it restricts booklet designs. I need to stop moaning haha! Anyone fancy dropping me a few comments/ideas/inspiration? Would be very much appreciated!

Kinda hard to see as there's no border. What do you reckon to the layout and logo? Boring? Argh!

Another example page from my current website design

A new little idea for a logo but I feel like I've seen it hundreds of times before and I don't really think it's me :/

www.liannamaydesign.co.uk

(there's a little link if you fancy popping over there, having a look and giving me a hand...please?)

In other news, I've decided if all else fails in the world of graphic design/teaching for me, I shall become a cook. I made a mean Christmas dinner today, amazing when I don't even eat veg and had to cook tonnes!

Ooo, whilst I remember, has anyone seen the new Andrex puppies advertisement (which has conveniently just come on TV as I typed that, creepy!)?



Is it just me who doesn't like the new CGI puppies?! Bring back the real, cute ones please Andrex!



Crit Tuesday 8...IT'S ALL OVER NOW!

Sorry for the delayed entry guys, had an evening of utter relaxation as I handed in my pasta work a day early. WOW, all over until 2011 now! I'm sure you'll all miss my crit entry blogs but they'll be back eventually and hey, you might even get the chance to crit some of my personal work over the next few Tuesdays in the Christmas period! In terms of the final crit, despite the morning class being cancelled and only less than ten people turning up, it still went ahead. The tutors said they wouldn't give any detrimental feedback as we had less than 24 hours to make changes and print/bind but it was painful! s with previous weeks, they loved my idea and the poster adshel designs but now they reckon that my magazine advert would have been bettered via the use of purely text and the same images as the adshels. Something which I'd avoided to prevent repetition. One thing I've learnt over this semester is how much tutors change their mind, with two of them really liking my magazine ideas of the past two/three weeks so I'm not letting it get to me, I handed the piece in anyway, o well! Funniest thing about yesterday? They've now all gone back to loving my brand name! Talk about changing your mind guys!

GOODBYE PASTA!

Would very much like to feel better but in the meantime...

...here are a few pictures is a picture of my final bits and bobs (seemed silly posting loads, you get the drift with one picture). Not exactly beautiful or exciting but fingers crossed for a good grade. For some reason, the morning group haven't got a crit tomorrow but our afternoon session has so hopefully the flu will have gone by then and people will be able to understand me! I've got everything finished now (apart from the online stuff what's in for next semester) so I should be able to stop panicking. Should being the key word...oops!

Messy? I know. Good grade? I hope. Fully filled two sketchbooks? Yep *gulp*

So it's Sunday 8...

Apologies for the lack of entries this past week; it hasn't been the best one in history to be honest. First there was the evacuation Tuesday night, faffing about sorting out my binding, 3rd year anniversary with my boyfriend (which was lovely but led you with no Friendly Friday) and then I've been (and still am) ill all weekend. Typical all this comes in time for hand in week. Luckily, I'm all done! I have been for quite a while but you know me by now, nothing like a little bit of wittling in between! Booklet for pasta is all finished and as I mentioned the other day, I managed another media piece. I'll post some photos of the booklet tomorrow in the pre-crit entry. My workbook is also finished, turns out I'd already finished it but thought there was more to do; silly moi! So today's task are burning and labelling CDs and the painful task of reducing file sizes. Then I'm free! Apart from a deadline on the 10th of January and an exam on the 18th but we deserve a break for a while (I'm sure all the other 2nd year G&CD guys will agree). Going to try and sort out some work experience, either in teaching of graphic design (or both) over Crimbo but I'll leave worrying about that till later. In the meantime, here's a little guy from the workbook that I had to work up on Illustrator, I've started to think of him as cute rather than creepy!

Crit Tuesday 7 (on a Wednesday)

Sorry for my lack of entry yesterday guys, had an extremely hectic evening. The apartment block I live in lost power from half 6 till 2.30am so I spent most of my night evacuated into the Refectory at University. Don't think I've drank so much tea in my life!

Anyway, enough of my rambling, I'm warm and home and dry now so here's the overview of yesterday's crit!

• Well...it went well! Again! After changing my type sizes, there were no more suggestions or changes to be made to my designs! Yippee!
• The particular tutor we had yesterday wanted to see my third media (and everyone elses for some reason). Which confused everyone as the brief states at least 3 outcomes over 2 media channels. And I've done 8 outcomes over 2. So I got confused...

See, if I'd have had my blog on hand last night, I would have asked you guys for you opinions. But sadly I didn't. So I created a third media anyway!

Althought I found that flyers were kind of a bad idea during my research, I decided to run with a flyer idea which could change this. After spending the entire afternoon on the internet trying to find out the name of the technique I had in my head, I finally found it. Lenticular printing. WOOP! Since then, I've quickly created four extra flyers, working on the idea that when you tilt them, you can see an alternative image eg. bow tie from one angle, farfalle pasta shape from another angle.

In terms of the rest of the project, I've finished the booklet now apart from the new development page for the flyers and a bit of back up work for my sketchbook. The end is in sight though people! I'm thinking, if the snow is a little better by tomorrow, I might go print in the afternoon and get it totally out of the way by tomorrow evening!

I might post up some jpegs tomorrow but at the moment, I'm on a bit of a role with the booklet so I'm not going to disturb myself haha!

Crit day tomorrow...if I'm not snowed in!

Wow, I don't know what it's like where you're reading this from but it's belting it down with snow here in Leeds! Great way to get into a Christmassy mood but bad times in terms of getting to the crit tomorrow. Which happens to kind of be the final crit as by next week's final crit we need to have already printed! Anyway, I'm not going to bombard you with posts and images for tomorrow, need to keep up that sense of mystery (plus I'd need to save loads of files as jpegs from pdfs and I've got more things to be doing than that haha).

As you know, I haven't really changed much since last week, just changed the font sizes slightly for each media and added better pack shots. Been messing around this evening putting things into situe (aint sure whether we definitely have to do this but I always enjoy this section the best) and I'm nearly done. Need to get cutting and sticking all the pages in my sketchbook but in the meantime, have a gander at a select few of my pieces and let me know what you reckon!

Magazine double page spread (with slightly larger text from last week's entry)

Magazine single page spread (double sided)

Magazine single page spread (double sided). Conveniently placed next to a pasta recipe in a woman's glossy magazine!

Adshel/poster design with slightly larger text

Poster in situe (not sure if I really like this one)

Gunna get a move on now, stick a few more in situe, get some cutting and sticking done and wrap up!

Crit Tuesday 6

GOOD DAY! Had some really positive feedback today on both my magazine spread and adshell designs. So good that the only suggested improvement to be made was to potentially make the fonts a little larger so people can see them easily from the associated distances. Yay! I was expecting a need in changing the copy but Jim and the gang seemed to really like my tagline and concept and nothing was mentioned about the small copy at the bottom of the magazine pages so I presume that sounded ok! Printing meant the packaging examples on the magazine pages didn't show up very well so I shall have to get that sorted but other than that, all is good! In other Lianna news, the group marketing report is pretty much finished! We're aiming to print it and hand it in tomorrow before the Thursday deadline. Hopefully our content and outcomes go down well when being marked! Once that's in, it seems to be plain sailing, with the pasta project and illustrator workbook in before Christmas and my marketing exam and online self promotion coursework in after. I say plain sailing...ha!

Thought I'd share this with you guys aswell, caught a glimpse of it earlier:

Dell have a new logo! Having 700 creative agencies working for them got a little confusing, with their logo being slightly different and varying slightly in typefaces used etc. To solve this, they've created one single logo (very similar to the original) which will be used across the board an coloured in 'Dell Blue', a colour not available in any colour book. I really like it, ties in nicely with the circular designs they have on their products. Plus I love Dell, my beast of a graphics PC (I know, I know, I should be loving Macs but you've seen previously blog entries by now ha ha)!

It's Monday, that can only mean one thing...

...Pre crit entry! Well, it hasn't half been a stressful week. I've come up with a new concept which I'm not 100% confident with but I reckon that's because I'm waiting for tutor approval (so I hope I get that tomorrow afternoon!). The marketing deadline is this Thursday so I've been very pre-occupied with that and I've only just really got round to knocking out some visuals for the crit. My sketchbook is also pretty lacking at the moment in comparison to my previous brief but after Thursday I'm 100% back on the pasta (and Illustrator but the less said on that, the better). Anyway, enough of me ranting and rambling about work, here are some of the visuals I've got ready to present tomorrow.

Concept: You don't have to dress to Impress. My brand of pasta is all you need to impress. Don't need to spend stupid amounts of money (reflecting the cheapness of the brand also even though it looks expensive). Slightly reminiscent of original packaging. Comparison of pasta shapes to items associated with dressing to impress. Plays around with male/female dressing up, slight idea of romance, dinner dates etc...

MAGAZINE SPREAD: BOW TIE/FARFALLE

MAGAZINE SPREAD: CUFFLINKS/PENNE

MAGAZINE SPREAD: NECKLACE/SPIRALI

MAGAZINE SPREAD: EARRINGS/FUSSILI

Feeling slightly ok about the magazine layouts, have a feeling the copy might be in question tomorrow but I went for a formal and clean layout to reflect the brand values and give the feeling of a jewellery/perfume advert etc. Thinking of placing these in women's and men's glossies (so the paper it is printed on also aids the look of the design), appealing to my target marketing and also attracting their attention (works nicely in terms of the male/female dinner date kind of feel.

ADSHELL: FARFALLE BOW TIE

ADSHELL: PENNE CUFFLINKS

ADSHELL: FUSSILI EARRINGS

ADSHELL: SPIRALI NECKLACE

Little unsure about these adshell ideas (placed in adshells at bus stops and on daily commute routes to attract my target market). Kept the same tagline and concept but limited the additional information given. Unsure on whether to include an image of the packaging again? Or would this be a little pointless? Rather than picking up on the comparisons, in these instances I've merged the images so the same idea is translated across yet in one image. Do you still understand the message and see it?

My only issue with these pieces is I don't want people to think low of them as they are rather simple but I wanted to get over a sophisticated and minimal look like the packaging. What do you guys reckon? Drop me a comment and let me know what you think! And fingers crossed for me for tomorrow, I can't bear changing my idea again and to be honest, it's growing on me a little...

Crit Tuesday 5

Ahh feedback. Didn't shake as much today! Anyway, got a bit of feedback for my few ideas. Pasta filled adshell went down the pan which is a shame but to be honest, it was only really a pie in the sky idea. As I explained to the group, I didn't really have a strong concept yet and they really picked up on that. This week they LIKED the name! Amazing how they changed their minds. So now they want real emphasis on the name in order to create a concept (Make an Impression, Only takes a few minutes to make an Impression etc). Hence this very short blog entry. I am currently brainstorming a few ideas and trying to think of something new. Something similar was mentioned in the crit today and I'm potentially working on the idea of how you dress to impress, incorporating the pasta shapes into certain items (eg. earrings, bow tie etc) with some sort of tagline that you don't need these items to make the best Impression. All very wish washy at the moment so I'm going to run off now and work on it.

(UPDATE: here's a quick mock up of the little idea, let me know what you reckon)

Does it look like an earring vaguely? Reminiscent of my packaging in terms of size and placement? More info and text to be added obviously

In other quick news, I've also been looking more into my options after university. As you all kind of know, I have been looking into the MA course in Advertising and Design at Leeds University but recently I've been wanting to look more into teaching and maybe art therapy. Shall keep you all updated on how this little research experiment goes. And actually, whilst I'm at it, I'd like to thank all the regular viewers of my blog, I've cranked up well over 1000 views in the month since I opened it and amazingly I've attracted a regular flow of viewers from America so hi guys!

So it's Sunday 5...

Wow, been rather stressed out recently, feel like I have tonnes to do and very little time! Enjoyed a loooong weekend at home in the lovely Sheffield and now have that Sunday night Syndrome. Kinda looking forward to tomorrow, we're getting a new workbook to work through for our online promotions. Apparently it's just lots of sketches for us to trace in Illustrator, something quite up my street hopefully as I did tonnes of that over summer. Hopefully, it will be nice and lovely. Marketing is getting rather stressful, there are pieces missing from some members and it's sending me loopy! O well. In terms of pasta, I've had a kinda ok campaign idea but I'm a little scared of the tutors thinking it's too simple and boring. But simplicity works in the world of advertising doesn't it?!

Anyway, enough of me wittling, I'm keeping tonight rather short and sweet as Take That are performing as a five-piece for the first time in ages. Yeah, I'm a sucker for the X Factor haha! Keep an eye out for my blog entry tomorrow as I'm hoping to upload a few sketches and ideas for you guys to crit before my Tuesday session!

Crit Tuesday 4

I didn't go, oops.
Wasn't feeling very well so I hope I didn't miss much.
Off to try and get some rest so I feel better for tomorrow via excessive viewing of

(A programme which has excellent titles by the way, a very nice thread of blood sweeps over the gorgeous font and drips through the 'canine tooth' V. And is generally a wicked programme haha)

Sorry about the boring entry today, I'll make it up to you guys I promise!

I can't imagine tomorrow is going to be a crit...

...so I'll keep this short and sweet. As you guys know, my latest brief (as predicted) is to now market and create campaigns for my new pasta brand. One week in and I'm currently in the research stage (trying to not go too over the top like I did for the last project - whoops). I have a few ideas but I'm not going to reveal them yet (for one, I want some approval, two, they need development and three, I fancy keeping them to myself for a while hehe). My blog wasn't born when I was going through the early stages of my previous projects so the next couple of Tuesday entries might not be too exciting but I shall try and keep them as entertaining as possible. Anyway, I shall leave you with my newly found fact of the day:

It isn't the best idea to wear your skinniest jeans during a day of torrential rain

They end up being very hard to get off

Or get back on!

And on that note, I shall love you and leave you and go get my spaghetti on toast (tinned variety of course, if I wasn't a hater of dried pasta enough before, I certainly am now!)



Crit Tuesday 3

Well, no more crits for the pasta branding brief! Today was the last one and, well, it was pretty interesting I suppose. After (eventually) stopping my legs and arms from shaking and turning to jelly, I got feedback from all three of the tutors (who in turn, have seen my work each week). Here goes:

• Layout and rendering was to a professional standard, they liked how I had rotated the cylinder to show all aspects of the product
• Windows and their sizing was great and didn't need to be altered
• New text size and colour was much better and don't need to be changed
• Worked extremely well as a brand and delivered a strong corporate image

However

• Despite it being liked for the past two or three weeks and the tutor last week saying how well it worked, the name is no longer liked. It was seen as the weakest point of my product and the teacher who liked it so much last week now said it reminded him of a hair salon or brand of chocolates. It was suggested that I change it to something more pasta related or Italian which is exactly the thing I wanted to avoid with my brand as I wanted it to be different and approachable to those who feel put off by the Italian language. I wanted it to be a more generic brand name, like Heinz etc, and it ties in well with my brand values and potential marketing ideas. I thought Impression was short enough to be memorable and phonetically, sounded approachable and nice

What do I do?
I really like the name Impression but our next brief is (as I thought it would be) to market our brand and create media campaigns for the new product. Impression gives me potential to a lot of predictable catchphrases but also speaks for itself if I want to avoid them. However, if they don't like it now, I'm unsure if this will affect my grade on the next brief if I continue with it. It's such a pain as I was really excited about the new brief until they decided to no longer like the name!

What do you guys think to the name?

I NEED YOU OPINIONS
I am really stuck on what to do. At the moment, I can't think of any alternatives for a brand name but I'm not letting my liking of Impression to stop me from doing this. Please drop me a few comments on what you think to the name, any potential alternatives, whether I should change it or not etc. Any comments will be extremely appreciated guys!

Ooo, final pasta crit tomorrow...

...and new brief! Ahh nerves are setting in! I really hate having to stand in front of a class and present, purely because no one ever understands my accent and I shake. Alot. Anyway. So far feedback has been pretty good so I'm hoping it stays that way tomorrow. I made all the adjustments that were suggested last week and put the pieces in situe which I'm not really too happy with (I don't think they look realistic but let me know what you think) but here you go anyway:

One of the close up shots. The other one didn't want to upload ha

Full range of pastas available

Pasta in situe. Really don't like this one, it's kind of messy but I'll sort it out

Pasta in situe again, like this one a little more. Least it shows my pasta moving off the shelves and being bought!

So yeah, there's a selection of my final pieces. I have a piece showing the side view, lid etc but it didn't want to upload (shy I reckon haha). Really worried about tomorrow so if you guys have any suggestions or pointers, leave them in the comment box below, you can be anonymous if you want!

Moving on to different news...

My website might be going live tonight! I've practically finished the thing and bought the domain so I just have to buy the server space now and publish. Really exciting! It isn't the most extravagant website out there but simplicity seems to be my thing if you go by the images above! Want a preview?

Very limited and blurry preview I know! But stick around, it might be live later! I'm jogging off nah to sort it out, yay! 

Crit Tuesday 2

Told you I'd be back with my crit feedback mwa ha ha. So yeah, was rather nervous today, crits always get worse towards the end of a brief, especially when a different teacher views your work every week so you're never quite sure if they're gunna hate your idea and turn round and say change everything. Luckily for me, that didn't happen (they must have to pity of my shaking whilst holding my creative log...yup, I get ridiculously nervous). Crit went well. Really well. I came out smiling for once and knowing where to go from here! You saw my proposed final piece I posted yesterday (if not, shift yourself back one blog and have a gander, you'll need to keep up!) and I presented that today along with my development work (if you're lucky, I might post some of those images up with this entry). My teacher, who I must say is the wackiest person I've ever seen, seemed pretty impressed, he thought I'd had previous studio experience (sadly not, currently looking)! AND I managed to change his opinion on PCs! He presumed I'd produced it all on a Mac (controversially, I don't like Macs - don't all go hating me at once, I just like my PC and Windows) and was shocked that the work could be produced on a PC (since when does a PC affect your work that much?!). Anyways, enough of me rambling about my compliments (tries to cover inflating head) and I'll get onto the good stuff: Where I am going from here. The suggestions I got were:

• Research sizing of the logo - make sure it doesn't compete with the window too much (although some said this wouldn't be a problem as the windows are part of the brand identity too) and see how large other companies have their logos, adjusting where and if necessary
• Sizing of the information on the back - same as the above really, just make sure it will be legible
• Colour of the information on the back - it was suggested that the writing on the back should be white. I'm a little apprehensive about this as I don't want to lose the corporate look and produce a cheap look but I shall give it a go; printing the pieces at full size should help me with this sorta thing
• Put the product in situe - my fave part of design briefs though this might be a little tricky with my piece (especially sneaking my camera into supermarkets to get the initial image ha)

And that my friends, is pretty much all I have to do over the next week. And you know what? I'm on such a buzz, I'm going to make a start now. Tarra!

Oh, go on then, al upload me final design again! (For those of you who didn't quite get my Yorkshire lingo there, that was 'Oh oh, I'll upload my final designs oncemore'. I'd forgotten that I was writing to an audience for a second ha!)

It's almost that time again...

...Crit day tomorrow! And wow, have I had a mad Monday once again leading up to it. Amazingly I am still awake after only having two hours sleep last night (the downside to being an insomniac designer), I have sorted the basic framework out for my group's marketing report and everything is printed and ready to be stuck into my sketchbook for tomorrow. Argh, tomorrow. Here's a sneak preview of what I intend to present...

Yep, that is how my pasta brand, 'Impression', is looking atm. Unsure whether uni want Illustrator images or actual mock ups but that's something I'll ask tomorrow. I ended up doin ALOT of development pages to get to this point, I wasn't sure on any aspect of the design and I'm still not 100% happy and I can't figure out what's bugging me. What do you guys think? Anything you'd change? Favourite aspects? Like the logo? Windows too large/small? Really appreciate any feedback I get back!

Another I'm trying to work on is a tagline. You might not be able to see it from those images but on the back, I've placed a little tagline beneath the logo saying 'make a good one' (playing on the whole, make a good impression). I don't like it. I think 'good' is a bit of a mundane word, not like 'wow' or 'amazing'. But I want to keep it short and sweet and linking in with the brand name. Any suggests before I take it to the crit session?

What kind of impression (pardon the pun!) do you get from this sort of product? I intend to market it as a rather cheap brand due to the cheap production etc so would you buy it? Would you be embaressed if someone saw this on your side/in your cupboard?

So many questions for you lot to try answering there! I'll update tomorrow with how the crit goes (fingers crossed for me, I worked my bum off without trying to get too attatched to the design and if all fails, I have a week to re-invent!)

Crit Tuesday

It's that day of the week again, crit day (obviously not a regular occurrence for you guys but from now on, I intend to keep you updated each week on how they go). Our session groups are so large we didn't really get that much time each today so feedback was pretty slim (and hard to hear, I've never known tables to be placed so far apart!). Anyways, as you know, I was going in today with a brand name, "Impression", rough ideas about my packaging and info on costs/manufacturing (see my blog from last Sunday and the following sketches).

(Please excuse poor quality of the scanned sketches - my scanner is pants and so are my drawing skills haha!)


Here's what I got back:

• The idea of a pasta shaped window was better received than an embossing of pasta on the cylinder. People said it would allow them to see within and further identify the product (especially due to my desire to only have the window shape representing the pasta rather than the pasta type name being printed) and even though it wouldn't be as high class looking as the embossing in gold, it would work on a better level to those everyday shoppers who want a premium look without the price. Only negative was the idea that the name might not be as relevant in this case but the name still stands for other things so it wouldn't be lost. Do you agree?
• Another suggestion was to have portion measurements inside of the tube rather than devising this on the side/back via a clear strip and printed measurements which the teacher thought would bring down the premium look. I'm a little unsure about this as surely you wouldn't be able to see the measurements deeper in the tube? What do you guys reckon?
• The name 'Impression' went down rather well but seemed to get lost amongst the discussion. They liked how it tied in with the idea of an impression of pasta on the tube, the good impression the box creates, the positive impression it would have on the environment as it is completely recyclable and the impression it would make on your pocket due to its low price from manufacturing yet high quality look. A classmate commented that he could see it as a real, believable brand name which cheered me up a little :)
• It was suggested that I should look into the positioning of the window and brand name (something which I'd intended to do anyway this week). After discussing the logistics of placing the window at the top (wouldn't see pasta for long), bottom (would affect stability of packaging) and central (how long would the pasta be behind it to be seen through it), the main two suggestions to be followed was placement either 3/4 up or down the packet. How does this sound?

Other than that, I didn't really get much back so I was left feeling a little unsure on what the teachers felt about the piece (other than one mentioning that it was a simple package shape, something which made me hmm a little but since when have you seen other pastas come in a tube, I'm being innovative in the most simple ways haha). So yeah, it's left me in a weird mood so some comments would be greatly appreciated. I'm gunna get to work on the logo pretty soon and now feel a little apprehensive of something simplistic, don't want this bringing my grade down but premium products generally deliver a clean, minimal look.

Anyway, enough of me moaning about pasta!

I finally got round to revamping my Twitter page last night! I promise I will eventually get round to designing this place all nice. Will probably be easier once I've finished my website (which I have yet to start, uh oh, pasta and the online brief has been getting in the way) which, by the way, I bought a domain for! I am now the proud and official owner of www.liannamaydesign.co.uk (wouldn't advise clicking on it yet though, there is nothing there...). At least that's some positive and exciting news, only cost me 7 quid for the next two years too, something I will definitely keep up!

Ooo, I have more news too (see, I shouldn't let pasta overtake all this other important stuff)! I heard back from Nicholas, the photographer who wants to work with me (see my Monday entry...you all must think I'm daft posting hyperlinks to blogs just below this but oh well!). He's sent over a tester image for me to play with, free reign. Ahh free reign, something which I thought was great until I saw it. Don't wanna give too much away but it is practically an outline of a female head and neck looking to the sky (which is pretty white). I have no clue what to do. Initial thoughts is to play with curves and get rid of the background completely. But then where from there? Add text? Brushes? Colours? Eek! If anyone has any good ideas or sources of inspiration, drop us a comment, I reaaallllly want to set up this job so I need to impress!

Wow, lots of info for you guys there! Whilst you mull through it (and comment *wink*), I'm off to make myself some tea (the Yorkshire word for dinner/evening meal in case you didn't know hehe). I'm thinking something really classy and tasty......chips and eggs it shall be!