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

A potential change in direction?

Like a nugget, I was up until 5am this morning pondering over a new direction in branding 'me' as a designer. As you all know, I've run this blog and the corresponding website, Twitter and forums for a while now but I'm starting to feel they're a little boring, especially when it comes to presenting them in my fifteen page booklet. I uploaded a couple of snippets yesterday and got some lovely feedback via Facebook so I've decided to upload some better quality images for you guys to have a look at and let me know what you think. As a person, I'm really colourful and energetic and I'm starting to lean a little more towards my new design to represent and project this. However, the new design to me feels like I've seen it before. Anyway, enough of me rambling on and on, here are the images; let me know what you reckon!

Current website design, very plain and simple but I'm only really liking the homepage, the others seem really boring

Apologies for the poor screenshot, not created a particular layout here, just exampling a potential new logo and colour scheme? Can you read the logo?

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!



Designer of the Week 7: Lianna May Wragg

I know, I know, shameful plug here. I've been sat working on my pasta project all night (which I've finished but keeps wanting to crash on me as I make the file sizes smaller) so in the meantime, have a quick visit to my website, it's getting lonely!

www.liannamaydesign.co.uk

And also keep your eyes on it over the next few weeks. There are some big changes and updates in store as soon as pasta is out of the window! Some coming on here too...

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)!

Friendly Friday 3 (a little late, I know haha)

Well, what can I say, last night was Bonfire Night so I might have just neglected my blog a bit (I'm sorry blog). Anyways, it's getting hard to recommend a friend every Friday as some are still establishing their blogs and sites (if you want a recommendation, drop me a comment or message btw). So, seeing as it got set up this week, I shall recommend myself for one week only (please don't see this as being big headed guys, pleaseee).

Lianna May Design

 

WEBSITE IS NOW LIVE CHUCKS!

www.liannamaydesign.co.uk

Exciting times!

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! 

It's been a bit manic to say it's a Monday!

After my blog entry yesterday, I ended up on a very productive spin and really got my name out there! I joined a couple of design forums, finally uploaded things onto Flickr, began sorting out my website, made a couple of logos, blah blah blah! And WOW did I get some results. I had literally been on the forums for half an hour and I already had over ten replies and helpful comments, my Twitter went mad with new followers and this blog, even though it's only just started, went from 3 or 4 fews to almost 40 in one hour! As they say in Yorkshire, I was dead chuffed! Even more exciting was a post I noticed from a photographer up Newcastle way who required a graphic designers help. I thought 'o yeah, al av a go pushin me luck whilst I'm on a roll' (yep, I have a very broad Yorkshire accent) so I dropped him an email about his request for a designer to edit all his photos for him. Went to bed and didn't think nothing more on it until I checked my emails this morning...HE'D REPLIED! He said he'd looked at my work and was very impressed and wanted to know if I was willing to edit a tester piece for him before we went serious (I talk about this as if it's a romance haha, kinda feels like it at the minute!). So yeah, good mood today despite the masses of work I have to do. Whilst I'm waiting for a reply, please head over to his site and check him out:

Nicholas Ainsley Photography

and keep your fingers and toes crossed for me on that one :) Anyway, onto other things...

As I said before, I've been creating a few types of logos for my self branding task. I ended up sat doodling in my marketing lecture this morning and came up with a design that was simple yet memorable and captures the essence of my design brand (clean cut, modern designs, efficient etc). Decided to colour co-ordinate logo to the applicable site they are to be assigned to, with hopefully this reflected on my website in links such as liannamay|twitter in the associated colour for example. What do you reckon?

And I'm thinking this for my main website logo? Too girly? Boring? Crit me :)

I'm off now, I've rushed through my pasta sketches today so I've got more time to research establishing a website/getting a domain name etc. Crit day tomorrow so my mood may have changed by the next time I blog...