Made by Elliot

I visited Berlin again in February 2016 to complete some of the things I wasn’t able to see in my 1st year university trip, this time checking out the Museum fur Fotographie, Neues Museum, Topography of Terror, but more interestingly just exploring the neighborhoods of Neukolln and Prenzlauer Berg for the interesting culture and design related shops, bookstores and tattoo parlours.

Dan, Henry and I formed a group for the Dr. ME and Textbook Studio visit, which saw us create a brand identity and beer label for a fictional brewery.

Our chosen name was ‘Bear Trap Brewery’, so we started by generating general themes and potential beer names. We decided we could use different types of bear in the wild to represent different styles of beer, such as a polar bear as a light, wheat beer - or a brown bear as a dark beer or stout.

We wanted to represent the feel of a jungle or wilderness but while also appearing up to date to appeal to modern craft beer drinkers. I created the logo type which was based on Acumin Pro, with texture and roughness added to make the edges look like a bear trap that could snap shut.

Dan and Henry took charge of creating the beer label, inspired by the collage work of Dr. ME - they took magazine cutouts of urban jungle-like environments and cut/collaged them back together - before using the Risograph to print the label and add organic texture to the monotone print.

As a final touch, we decided each potential brew could come with a collectible keepsake tied around the bottle. The final concept was a severed bear’s foot for each type of bear and therefore brew. We created one version for a made up ‘Polar Wheat Beer’ but created a theme that could be recreated with other beers given the time.

It was an overall rewarding experience to work on a secret brief to completion in a few hours with a close team.

This was my small studio space at AWOL in Hope Mill, Ancoats which I rented throughout 1st and 2nd year. It was the smallest space in the entire mill available for rent, and at the time was being used as an artist’s storage space. £70 pcm for a cosy space that I decided to make mine for a while and work from.

This is one of the first DIY projects I’ve also undertaken in terms of jobs like sanding and painting, so I was really proud to turn around the room into a little working space.

I sourced some decorations included the cable lights and Boskke Sky Plants, an IKEA desk and beanbag for the 2 guests that actually wanted to visit.

Eventually I left the space as I was finding it easier and more convenient to work from my halls of residence, but I really enjoyed the priviledge of having a space like it.

My interests in photography and art direction have really emerged throughout my time on the BA Graphic Design course. While I consider them separate from my communication work, I realise that this adds value to my work as a freelancer and builds my overall capabilities.

My increased confidence and ability with the camera and post-production have led to solely photographic freelance jobs and even interest from my part-time job to help plan and photograph social media posts.

In the near future I’ll be photographing a recipe eBook for a client and providing images to Google Maps for inclusion in their city guides program, so I am keen to further incorporate photography into my design skillset after graduation.

My personal website has seen three unique phases for each year I’ve been at University, with the most recent being at the top and my first in 2014 appearing at the bottom. With each change I can see I’ve emphasised photography and shots of my work more and more over excessive introduction texts.

I believe I’ve tried to achieve more of a case study approach as time goes on, where I take visitors through the story behind each piece of work and put less biographical information at the top of the site. I want my work and experience to do more of the talking.

I’m going to revise my website again soon to what I’d consider the best reflection of the work I want to attract and the experience I’ve gained on the course over 3 years.

This year I’ve been given the opportunity to plan and write a few of my own posts for the Cowherd’s Café blog as part of my ongoing work with them.

This has given me the opportunity to enhance my art direction and photography skills, do some creative writing which I have more recently started enjoying and combine my interest in food and recipe development.

The two posts I have designed and published so far can be found here:

http://www.cowherds.org.uk/the-beginners-guide-to-amazing-sushi-at-home/

http://www.cowherds.org.uk/4-foolproof-vegan-recipes-for-veganuary/

Myself, Dan Heywood (@heydanheywood ), Jake Johnson (@mytitsdontlie), Dan Teanby (@danteanbyprocon ) and Henry Zyda (@henryzyda ) were collectively the team responsible for producing the website and other assets for the Sal’s Takeaway networking event.

We created a workflow using Evernote, Google Apps (for branded email hello@salstakeaway.com), Dropbox and Calendly (for photoshoot slot bookings) and as a result our team felt like a small agency racing towards a project.

Together we created the Sal’s Takeaway website, a behind the scenes blog and created a collection of class photographs which everyone was able to use and keep.

Myself, @danteanbyprocon and @henryzyda worked closely on organising a photoshoot intended for the profiles on the Sal’s Takeaway website.

While we didn’t have the time in the end to produce an individual profile for everybody, we discovered that people were happy to have a semi-professional photo taken, which brought out the individual personalities our class has.

It was a great experience to speak to everyone who chose to book in a photo, as it brought out their individual means of self-expression as a designer. We made the photos available before the Sal’s Takeaway event and many people chose to make it their Facebook profile picture, use it on their portfolio about page etc.

Dan and Henry managed the small light studio we created, spoke to each classmate to prepare their shot and explain the process, while I handled the taking of bookings and the post-production of the photos.

In September 2015 I worked closely with Salfood to produce materials for their Welcome Programme titled ‘Bite Into Freshers’ Week’. This included an interactive PDF detailing every offer taking place throughout the 3 week event.

As a result of this work I was given the opportunity to produce the Salford history timeline which currently sits pride of place in Allerton Restaurant. It was designed to be a large scale and simple trip through Salford’s history as a city and then into the present when the university expanded to MediaCityUK.

CDS Wilman provided me with their interior design plans and colour schemes so that I could co-ordinate the timeline to complement the furnishings.

In opening their Clifford Whitworth café, Salfood also needed some simple typographic posters with quotes already selected by the team. I was asked to produce a unique design for 5 different quotes which sit framed in the café.

This intensive work with Salfood and CDS Wilman was rewarding for my professional development in that I was working for approval from 2 completely different teams, one trying to market Salfood’s new refurbished outlets and the other just trying to ensure the refurbishment went ahead smoothly. It’s also great to see work that’s in such a large scale within my university.