Todd Fraser’s Blog

Today Claire reminded me to create a constant theme with everything we produce on this unit. This made me realise my business card needs to be made up of the elements on my website. Therefore i have cut a few sections that can be used as the background of the card, im not sure how i am going to arrange the information yet as i am thinking of possibly only including the website link….here are the possible backgrounds for my business card so far;

after a good start to the working week, it ended with a trip to london on friday to see the Audio Bullys and Style of eye at matter in the o2

http://www.matterlondon.com/calendar/2009/03/etienne_de_crecy_live#etienne_de_crecy_live

on the sunday i then went to see pete doherty at the troxy in easy london!

http://www.last.fm/event/924190

Now im back, this week i aim to update my website portfolio/get everything organised that im having in my portfolio and create atleast one more business card design.

Ive just been playing around with blurs on photoshop and then settled on a nice background for a business card. The object in the top left is a shoe which unfortunately serves no relevance but i think it looks cool. Ive been playing with different fonts and colours and heres the basic results so far.

heres a really quick design i just made, i knew what i wanted to do in my head but it hasnt come out how i wanted at all. This aside, its an interesting mix of colours and ive uploaded it for future colour reference!

since my last post ive been focusing my research on business card shapes and materials. Below are some of the interesting possible shapes i have found.

This morning im looking at different material ideas for my business card. So far i have been thinking along the lines of a texturered cardboard with a soft finish. Here are some different examples of the types of materials that are available;

Ive just come out of a very interesting talk conducted by Robert Urquhart, i thought id write it up now while its all fresh in my mind. The talk touched on many interesting areas of getting a job in the creative industry after leaving University. Below are a list of the notes i found relevant to take down and feel neccessary to share;

- Include a ‘hire me, inspire me, fire me’ section on my blog/website to allow potential employer interaction.

- wear a fresh pair of socks for interviews ( i genuinely found this an intriguing idea even tho it sounds eccentric!)

* remember you are providing a service. This was a key note and one of the biggest issues i will take from the talk, always remember this as people will be judging and assessing everything i do from now on, even this blog counts!

- when targeting companies for interviews/questions/work experience, send friendly, enthusiastic emails that credit the company or person on something that they have produced. Dont simply write and demand an interview.

- always get a glass of water for an interview, it can act as a ’silence killer’

links to visit; www.mandy.com , http://www.designersarewankers.com/ , http://www.psfk.com/

for any furthur information on Robert visit ; http://www.roberturquhart.blogspot.com/

I found this business card yesterday, i love everthing about it; the layout, the font, the colour, the size, the shape, the look of the material. I am going to be designing something very similar to it this week as its exactly the design ive had in my head over the last few days.

If anyone needs some good free fonts, i always use www.1001freefonts.com or www.dafont.com , they both have a good selection of fonts and have so far cattered for all of my designing needs!

Last night i watched ‘The Genius of Photography’ on bbc2 this episode was based on family photography. The work of Richard Billingham was what really grabbed my attention. His photography is scarily real and the fact that the pictures were taken unintentionally give them a really gritty aura.   I also really enjoyed the work of Larry Sultan who produced the same effect with his pictures but with a more mysterious feel as every picture manages to express a painful story through simply one pose or one facial expression. Below are 2 of my favourtie pictures from both photographers.

one of the coolest things ive ever seen!