I aim to update this blog as often as possible, not only to keep everyone in the loop with my work, but also to keep those creative juices flowing. I have been soaking up as much as I can during my time at work; meeting new people, working on new projects, and seeing new things.

A larger update will follow in the coming days when I collect some links, and images of things I have come across recently that I think are inspiring and interesting, and hope you will share similar thoughts!

Happy Holidays!

It has been a long year filled with many unique experiences, and many ups and downs. I have met lots of new people, and I have been able to share ideas and thoughts, even with some debating involved. I have grown a lot throughout this year on so many levels.. emotionally, professionally, and individually. I now have a sense of who I am in this world, and have a foundation to continue to build upon.

I am truly excited to begin a new year with my career on track, exciting new projects to work on, and people to meet.

I also look forward to showing more work here, and in my portfolio. I plan on making this blog a part of my new year’s resolutions!

So here’s to a new year filled with inspiring, exciting, and even life-changing design. Be safe, and happy new years!

I have learned so much during this year, and have come to know some really great people. From posts on the blog, meeting people in the cafe, late nights finishing assignments.. it has been an amazing experience. I am anxious to find a job after grad, and a little hesitant to leave. VFS has become a bit of a bubble, and I’m not ready to pop it yet!

Right now, we’re working on our portfolios, and that includes working on our personal identities. Honestly, this is one of the things I’ve always had trouble developing. I think I’m too worried about how I’ll be perceived by other people, that I try to make it perfect. But something I do today, I am more than likely to hate tomorrow. It’s a hard battle to win. I’m planning on keeping track of my progress for my personal identity here on the blog. I will also be updating the look of the blog to match! So keep an eye out for that, too!

More to come!

Also! Some of you may not have heard, but VFS was on the front page again with Michael Lewicki’s short ‘Happy’. I loved it and have since downloaded one of the wallpapers as my desktop! Check it out here!

Now that we’re in term 6 I am taking some new electives! I decided to take the Branding 2 elective that is being taught by Jessica Leigh Clark . I was wondering how this elective would differ from our first class of branding in Term 3. Apparently this class is going to focus more on the product, or the end result of the project rather than the process. The process of course is still something we are expected to do, also so we can create a case study at the end.. but also so that we have a great portfolio piece at the end of it. I am REALLY excited to do this project, and I’m looking forward to working on it now that I can put more time and energy into it.

I am absolutely in love with Japanese toy design, and almost anything japanese, quirky, cute, and strange! I’ve decided on doing some sort of toy/apparel asian online import store brand. As some of you may know, I am obsessed with Tokidoki and this may give you a peek into the type of brand I will be trying to design.

So far I have been doing some initial research on direct and indirect competitors. Finding out what they are about, and trying to position what I want my brand to be about. As deliverables I will be creating some lookframes of the online website, a logo, a brand guide, and a case study.

Here is my first board of some of the competitors I have come up with so far. If you have any comments, suggestions and/or know of any cool stores out there like this… let me know!!!

I took the weekend off to decompress from the project and it felt great to wake up without the sudden panic of ‘what should I be doing right now?’ Accompanied in my grad project deliverables was the versa magazine website, my blog process documentation, my versa blog, my versa branding, and my huge versa process book. My process book had 9-10 tabs with about 15-20 pages each of documentation. All of my devlierables do not get returned after submission, so I had to make many copies and scans of original notes and sketches to put into the book. I think a lot of trees cursed my name that day.

Although the project is handed in, it is not perfect. There are lots of things I’d love to have time to change/fix/add, but this is also something a designer must learn and that is to let go. I have spent several months dedicating my life to this grad project. While you might read that and think that it’s a bit overboard to do that for a school project… It is something I felt I had to do to truly feel my project was going to be a success. I had to put the time and effort in. Overall I am happy with the end result, and even more happy with my process. (Clients want to know you would be able to do this type of thing again, so yes, process is key!)

I hope that when I find some energy that I will make a case study of this project to include in my portfolio. I think that will benefit the project a lot when I showcase it in my portfolio. Right now we’re in Term 6 and working developing our portfolios. Versa onscreen will be a huge part of my portfolio, and I’m excited to find a good way of presenting my work to potential employers. We’re also taking career development classes, and we’re learning how to effectively and appropriately write Cover letters, resumes, and do interviews. I’m VERY excited and nervous that graduation is coming up in December. It all went so quickly!

Anyways, I am losing my direction with this post…mainly because my stomach is grumbling and I’m starving..so I will end it here for now. Best of luck to those of you in Term 4 of DD who are pitching their grad projects today! Feel free to ask me any question you might have! I’d love to lend an ear, or help out!

Cheers

L

It has been a while since I have updated my blog, and for that I am truly sorry. I have been living, breathing, and sleeping my grad project for the past few months. It is finally coming to a close because it is due November 1st!

Now this means that the project is due soon, but it does not necessarily mean it will be done by then! I had a bit of a rocky stage of this project near the end. I feel as though I was trying so hard not to be self-referential in this project, and be true to the audience needs. This is what we’re taught in the program, but I also feel I was listening to so many people and not taking my informed approach and making the right decisions..

Long story short, I ended up doing an almost complete re design close to the end. I feel a lot happier with where it is, but it was a tough road to get there. I have learned a lot this year, and even just in these past few months of this project.. I believe I am a stronger designer, as well as a stronger person because of it. Ultimately, that is one of the most important things to take from this experience.

I had kind of been avoiding writing a new post during the time I was redesigning because I was so busy, and I knew I had a lot to update on. But here are some screens of the project. Feel from to visit the site.. but keep in mind it is still in development, so there are bugs, bugs, bugs, as well as huge spelling/grammar checks etc etc.

Just another concept I wanted to have to round out the idea of this being an online magazine. I needed to start thinking about other ways of reaching my audience.

A great turn out, with new faces -and as always we had great food too. Besides all the introductions and the chit chat between meals, we also got a chance to talk about some concerns that different class reps had and wanted to bring to the table. One of the hotter of these topics was the very famous VFS karaoke night. There were some concerns about many students not being able to get in because there was a huge line. The capacity for the VFS cafe, because of liquor licensing and fire codes is 150 people. All I have to say about that -which is exactly what Liz told us is to make sure you come early! This lead into talk of holding the event at another venue and possibly charging people admission. I can see how that might be something they might do in the future, but honestly, it’s great to have a night out when you have to spend next to nothing and still have a ton of fun.

The karaoke night is not just a night out with cheap beer and wine, though that is pretty freakin’ awesome.. It’s a great place to meet people from the other departments, albeit they may not remember you the next time you meet because of the cheap beer and wine…but seriously, it is a great time to party with people who are in the same crazy student-life-boat-ride as you. Not only that, but in all the VFS Karaoke nights that I have been to - which have been all since I started in January.. there have been no fights, no people behaving badly..maybe just some bad singing -but hey, it’s karaoke!

Here’s some photos from the most recent shindig…

I’d like to say ‘hey!’ and a big thank you to Lee, Jeff and *Jennica! over at VFS taking care of the VFS blog -thanks for the plug, but most of all thanks for listening..err, reading! I didn’t get a chance to talk to you personally, but I think it’s great that you guys are so open to suggestions and an input from students. So thank you again!! You guys rock!

What else can I say about tonight.. Let’s see.. Oh right, I have a ton of work to get done for my meeting with Mark Busse tomorrow afternoon, so I will pulling an all nighter, as per usual. I fear I may become a zombie, or vampire -whichever one sounds more bad-ass. My sleep schedule has been completely out of whack lately, and cannot seem to break the habit. Plus, my most creative times seem to now be late at night. So maybe if I keep up these hours for the rest of my project, I will be okay, but as soon as it is done I hope to become a semi-functioning human again!

By the way, I just got a new external monitor at home last week, and I am in geek-heaven. It’s a Samsung 21.6 widescreen with some kinda crazy resolution that blows me away. Keep in mind it is in comparison to my 3 year old 15′ Powerbook g4 with the darkening screen :S

The reason I got it was cause I was fed up with working between my laptop and the school computer. I REALLY wish that the program will switch gears a bit soon and start working on Macs. In my year at Langara College in the Electronic media design program (EMD) we got our laptops (the now 3yrd old powerbooks) plus the software. Even if the program could give the option between a PC or Mac laptop to work on and have the students purchase them or something? I don’t know, maybe have it included in the tuition fee..err? Mainly, my issue was that the desktops in our classroom are so limited. We have no permissions, or the ones we do are very little. I just want to be able to use my huge font collection mainly.. nerdy I know. I realize that there are many reasons why we cannot load our own fonts on the computers. Licensing. Designers share a lot, or re-appropriate things constantly, and fonts are a huge part of that. I know, I know, this isn’t so easy for a school that has partners and legal matters and etc, etc.. but atleast if we had our own personal computers, or laptops we would be able to do what we wanted with them and VFS would not have to be held accountable for that.. ? I think it’s great that the school is open 24hrs for our access, but trade some of this up for getting personal computers or something GAHHHH!!!! It drives me crazy. Anyways, so because of this, I have opted to work at home during my final project, because I cannot be restricted to using Comic sans, Times New Roman, and Courier New!
< /endrant>

Here’s another iteration of my logo after this most recent meeting. I am very happy with it, and it feels more like mine now, more than ever.

Not so sure about the reversed version, but it’s good to play around and see how it will look. It was suggested that the logo needed to look a little less finished, and that I should try rendering the logo myself. I printed out the other page with the font Bello Script, and traced over it with a regular ball point pen. I did a few different versions, but this one seemed to work out the best.

I am in the beginning stages of Development which feels really good. I am a little behind schedule, but this seems to be pretty typical of everyone in my class right now. I have purchased a Flash component for my magazine which I plan on fully customizing to my own designs and specifications. IT’s fun to see this thing finally coming together.. but there is still much work to be done!

More to come!

L