Cups of Tea 041 - 045

Just a quick upload to show you the Typography Virtue, I really don't like the pie chart (not only is weight squashed but it looks squiggly around the edges... And yes, that is the correct terminology for it) so that will be gone tomorrow (in fact, it will probably be re-uploaded...) but I quite like the simplicity of the left hand page. If you couldn't guess, it's the Adobe type tool with a heart...



But for now, gotta go sleep! Presentation in the morning and I need to get my game-face on... Nos Dar!

M x

Cups of Tea 039 - 040

Argh. My Eyes seriously burn haha... 16 hours of consecutive design work today... bringing Sins and Virtues to a grand total of 48 hours... bad times...
Second Sin of the day, Over Thinking.



And on that note, night night!

M x

Edit - re-uploaded. The circle around the brain was slightly off :)

Cups of Tea 033 - 038

5 cups of tea and I'd imagine another 5 will come after this one! A looooong night ahead I think!

Done quite alot today, now have 18 pages to print for my fashion brand and I've just knocked off the first of today's two (possibly 3 if I feel up to it) spreads on Sin's / Virtues. Again, anyone spots any mistakes / things they're not to fused on please let me know, it's all helping guys and I can accept criticism :)

So for now, I'll show you the safe design spread... not to sure about the font I've used for the title but I'll decide if I like it in the morning, looking on it with fresh eyes and that! Be sure to check back later if you're up or in the morning, it's going to be a long, design and tea fueled evening!



M x

Cups of Tea 031 - 032

Dew Dew, yet another day eludes me.

Not managed alot of work today so i'll make this as quick and entry as I can. Uber Tired. Happily In Love. Saw Paranormal Activity, thought it was quite scary personally but formulaic / not a great movie. Borrowed Jon Burgerman's book of Dan downstairs to read, going to do that now before sleep.

Nos Dar Cariad

M x

Cups of Tea 029 - 030

After today and taking things out with someone, I'm really content with life at the moment, it's great :) <3

Anyways a little bit of design done today as I had to cook food to last myself the next two days (zomg...) and purely because I need a bath... my muscles are still aching from the gym on Wednesday.

Watched two films today that I got yesterday with Martyrs, Inside (another french horror) and Orphan (American wank). Inside was twisted on the grounds it could happen and wrong in the amounts of gore / ways people die. Though wtf the whole Zombie thing was about I'll never know... Orphan was so-so, not Halloween remake bad but it certainly had the basis of a good idea and then went all Omen with it... just not as good.

So here it is, spread eight of fourteen... Possibly one of my biggest virtues and probably the most important (next to selflessness and 1337 cake baking...) Imagination. Nothing would be possible without it. Hell, even this blog wouldn't be possible without it, let alone forming opinions and emotional bonds like love...



B00p!

M x

Cup of Tea 028

This has been the most unproductive day on record for a long, long while...

I ended up going out last night, not drinking much but still having a good time with one's wonderful girlfriend :) Paying for it today though... i've got the attention span of a goat right now...

Just bummed about in Uni to help Gemma with some photography before having a little walk around town and then coming back here... Watched a french horror film that's come highly recommended called "Martyrs"... In the word's of Gem, "French Horrors where it's at at the moment"... so I'm paraphrasing, but she's hip and down with the kids so it's alright.

Did a little bit of work on the new photo book we have to produce for Phil too... The basic concept is it has to be do something with nature or a man made item around us... then take 20 pictures of different versions of that item. E.g. Take 20 pictures of 20 different red phone booths. Did a mind map while watching "Without a Paddle" (which was gash...) with the guys and had 25 ideas... whittled it down to 8 but I'm really feeling 3 of them... Guess I'll have to have a word with Phil tomorrow to see which one he thinks could work... as two of them would have me being considerably naughty...

And on that naughty note, i'm off to bed... alot to do tomorrow and gotta be up early to do it all! Night Night kids!

M x

Cups of Tea 024 - 027

MY EYES BURRRRRRRN!

Quark doesn't help matters sometimes... the program really doesn't like .eps files apparently...

Nevermind! Spread 7 is done and here, feast your eyes on it and let me know what you think! I'm off for a run



M x

Cup of Tea 023

Not an exciting day to be honest but got quite eventful all the same :)!

Went in this morning and Angela liked my Fashion Brand logo which was aces, means I can just get on with it as apposed to spending more time tweaking things about and praying she likes it... She also liked Gem's which was aces! Went out for a wander and a celebratory Starbucks after the lecture :D Going to go full out on this on Sunday so it's all snazzy looking when I print it Monday... I need to find a cheap paper bag somewhere in town I can screen print onto and maybe a clothing box! Gemma's just going to wear antlers :) haha!

Decided to clean my room up finally... took four hours of my day but at least it's finally done. Can't let it get that bad again or I'll be screwed over by it closer to another deadline... Also had the idea of getting myself a whiteboard like Tom. Means I can writing on it what I need to achieve before I go to bed every night on it and cross it off as I go along. Even if it's just a little one like I had on my door last year I think it'll be a big help with the timetable. Check me out! Getting organized at last...

Other than that I started back at the gym again... feels good to run again but Jesus Christ I can't hack my old pace... tried running at 12.5km/h like I used to and died after a minute of it... Nevermind, I'll just take it easy for the next 2/3 weeks to get back into the swing of things and hit it hard after Christmas. Also saw a bloke with a really dodgy handlebar mustache... As Iain so poetically put it, "looks like he jumped right out the pages of the sex pest handbook"...

When I got back, I dove into work and knocked out two pages of my Sins and Virtues, means I've got 8 left to do... 4 of which will be hard but look awesome (hopefully) when they're done (going to aim for two of them tomorrow so be sure to check back) and 4 I'm not to happy with... I'll probably change them alot before I do them... hopefully all 14 will be done by next Monday though... want to gauge Dave's Opinion on them.

So without further a due, I present my nights work, Fear and Punctuality! Not to sure about the fear one yet or the list on punctuality (which is taken from cnn... I didn't make those awful excuse up, they seem to be legit...) but we'll see how it pans out :)





Feedback as always, on here of facebook is appreciated and encouraged!

M x

Cup of Tea 022

Cor Blimey Guvna! Awake for almost 20 hours and only one cup of tea?

Steady on Jeffery, you silly old doddle, It's okey, I have a lie in tomorrow!

Just done some concept work for my Fashion Brand, Augustine... I've produced a letterhead but it just feels so... Simple. Did something similar last time but with lines and got told it made the work too 'cluttered' on my feedback form...

So here it is, in all it's bloody simple glory, check it out and let me know what you think (oh and of the logo in the top right...). Oh and the white border is there to stop your eyes bleeding from brown...



M x

Cup of Tea 021

Purely because it deserves its own post

Cups of Tea 017 - 020

Day of rest my arse.

After a dreadful day at work i've come home and done nothing but try to relax... as you can tell by my sour mood it hasn't really worked. Lying in the Bath with Incense to the soothing sounds of Sigur Ros, Failed. Lying on my bed reading with a cup of tea to Damien Rice, Failed. Baking cakes... Failed. Hell, even watching the Labyrinth failed to cheer me up today... I guess I just must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed. The 96 lifestyle annoys me.

Worse of all, a good friend of mine has had to start working there again because of the lack of Graphic Design work around at the moment... It doesn't bode well for my future... I guess it's relieving to think that I'll probably start my own studio anyways.

Other than trying to De-stress, I've done a little bit of work today, done my most risky layout for my Sins and Virtues on confidence... If I don't get absolutely massacred by Dave for this one I'll be very surprised, but it's all about the risks baby!



Other than that what else is there to say other than THANK GOD THOSE ANNOYING IRISH KNOBHEADS ARE OUT OF THE XFACTOR! Maybe we can get back to normality now.

M x

Cups of Tea 011 - 016

Alot of tea, what can I say? It's been quite stressful... but productive I guess!

Got 500 words of my essay polished off (even though I'm not sure if it reads properly... it's been awhile since I've essayed it up) and a new page of my Sins and Virtues! w00t w00t! Gotta knock off another 4 pages tomorrow... another 3 sins / and a virtue...

Anyways, gotta be up for work in the morning so I'll leave you with my biggest Sin...
Enjoy!



M x

Cups of tea 007 - 010

Not much time for tea over the past two days, been working my chaff off creating the Fred Diamond work... as promised, here's some of the design work :)

Now i'm off to bed, really run myself down over the past week... this amount of work x lack of sleep x lack of food is slowly killing me. Over Worked much?





Might pop the article up tomorrow if anyone want's to read it? Remember, add the blog, pop a comment on and share it with anyone you think'll be interested.

M x

Cup of Tea 006.

'Ain't got time for Tea!'... Or was that Bleed?

Regardless, deadlines are looming... panic is setting in all around me, the sensible thing must be achieved. BOWLING! Yes kids, I wasted a night bowling and it was fun! Good times were had by all (except maybe Aaron...) and I got a free burger out of it. Lovely jubbley.

So after this procrastination, some work needed to be done and work I did... I planned out a projected outgoings for my professional studies to include wages (dependent on if we MADE anything the first year)... Employing 4 people at minimum wage costs almost 10 times the office rent / bills / kitting the office out... I shit my pants when I realized our expenditure would be almost £50k if we did move the company into an office and got paid to work... If it's like that for a card company, God help how much it'd cost a design agency to get started up...

I also knocked up a playful double page spread for my sins and virtues... On which I will end this blog. I'm knackered! Hope you enjoy it!



M x

Cups of Tea 004 - 005

Holy Christ on a Stick Batman! Stressed out much?

After quite a fun filled afternoon of playing COD with Aaron on my new sexy 32" tv, reality slapped me in the face like a cold, wet kipper. Deadlines are looming and i've not done alot of work for them...

Well I guess I have... Done quite abit for Phil's 8 Word project in terms of concept work on paper but very little physical research as it was a character I created myself... maybe I'll knock up a few more pages to print with my research, just to thicken it out...

My branding project is now started and I've got the base of my logo done for it, just to vector it, knock up a quick business card and letter head, tweak my already made manual and then take pictures of the boys in suits for the catalog. Lovely. Well it would be if it wasn't supposed to be handed in two weeks from now... Apart from that you've seen my updates on Sins and Virtues and the Essay isn't started. This is of course completely ignoring professional studies. FFS.

Sink or Swim I guess. Freelance work will have to be put on hold until Christmas break but at least this is making me seriously consider my time management... hopefully I'll still come out of this with pretty good grades... that is if I pray really, really hard and don't play call of duty at all...

So alas, no design today as it's all on paper. Early start tomorrow to print on the newsprint stock I've got for my Fred Diamond article and then come home and knock out 3 double page spreads for Sins and Virtues but also do alot of facts and figures work for my Professional studies... FUN!

Beats the 96 I guess.

M x

Cups of Tea 002 - 003

God, I hate working in retail. Admittedly it's money at the end of the day, but by Christ I'm glad I've got a sense of ambition... It's probably what made me do this of my sins / virtues layouts first... Layout 1 - Virtue 1, Ambition.



Not the best picture I must say, gotta love screen grabs... but hopefully it's some insight into what i'm working on... just hope it's readable haha!

Other than that, today has been very unproductive. Got in from work at 5, cleaned my new shiny water filter (yes kids, it DOES make better tasting tea) firstly because my dorm water has that irony taste you get with meat (yes kids, in water...) which doesn't really make a good cuppa... Secondly, I want to try that tea experiment I talked about yesterday :) You will see mwhahaha.

If you are reading this, feel free to pop a comment down... i'm not sure if they're still not working, it'd also allow me to see if there's anyone reading this :p

M x

Cup of Tea 001.

Hi, How've you guys been?

Luckily, I've already filled you in about a week or two ago as to what's been going on and I've decided that Teasign will live on. They say you can't keep a good man down and by this sentiment, I guess it's true you can't keep a good blog down. So with eager fingers and a good brew, I begin again... typically on an uneventful day. Damn.

Had to work today and worked on a current project called "Seven Deadly Sins", the premise of which is designing a booklet 230mm x 160mm on seven sins and virtues of being a graphic designer... My ideas have expanded alot over the time I've been given the brief, starting as photographs with type in 3d environments, to photo-montage, to signs and symbols of navigation, narrowing it down further to hospital guidelines and now to something a little like the Feltron report... Well alot like the 2005 one in sense of layout... not its actual content and style.

I'm pretty much planning on a simple vector illustration on the left, then splitting the right hand side of the page into 4, the top left being a diagram (pie chart, graph etc.), top right being a quote, bottom left being a fact / statistic on the sin/virtue and the bottom right being my thoughts on it. Should be quite snazzy... need to start it digitally tomorrow so I have something to show to my lecturers on Monday. Completed one of my projects for next Friday based on a fictional rock star (which i'll post up later in the week) and started initial ideas for my fashion brand.

For fear of sounding like Karl Pilkinton, I'll approach the next topic with caution. Those who know me well (well, anyone that reads this blog to some degree...) will know I'm always buying new tea in search of the perfect brew... I shit you not, currently residing in the dorm is 8 different types of teabag and some twinning tealeaves... But this is the first time I've ever thought - "Is this the only variable?"

Bare with me.

I mean the tea bag obviously effects the taste of the brew... but what about the milk? The water? Hell, even the sugar / amount of it. The Brew Time? The Water Temperature... Jesus, I've though about this too much... but I smell a future project here haha... I shall experiment with some Glen Getti on monday and get back to you...

But until tommorow children, here's the new Cool for Cats flyer




M x

New Banner...

And The Start of A New Era of Teasign.

Phase 1 is complete.

Phase 2.5 starts today. Twitter account is launched for quick working edits before the blog is updated DAILY (yes, Daily...) as of tomorrow. Winnar.

Until then, Follow us on Twitter - @Teasigner

M x