design. photo. illustrate : create

Topman have an elite clothing range known as Topman Design and after doing a placement with them, I decided to rebrand them as one of my minor projects towards my final year work.  (see older posts for their current identity)

I came up with a new name, brand identity and also a promotional fashion show handout, in the form of a lookbook/zine, which contains various spreads which then fold out to an A2 poster.  The piece revolves around the theme of unraveling the story behind the clothing range and the season trend.  Clothing tags and promotional t-shirts were some other items also created.

This was a personal investigation I carried out as my major project during my final year. It was a study into two lives, divided by over half a century, which formed an intricate editorial piece.

For the purpose of this project, I compared the life of my grandmother, Valerie Trundle, who was twenty-one in 1952, to my life at twenty-one in 2007. I felt by using these two life experiences as case studies, it gave the project an air of truth and also personality, as well as it being an informative piece.

Twenty-one is quite a milestone in any woman's life, as one encounters a range of decisions and choices that could pave the way for many years to come.

The aim of this project was to uncover the apparent differences such a time scale can have upon a young woman's aspirations and life choices. Through exploring historical and social restraints from yesteryear, my aim was to understand and embrace the impact of change over time and the grandeur of time past and present.

The final outcome was two books, bound and presented as one. The idea was that the reader was forced to read the two books simultaneously, in order to appreciate the comparison between the two lives. Each book had it's own relevant treatment according to the year (1952 vs 2007) and the design was then mirrored throughout.

Here are six out of 15 spreads that completed the book...

The following was a project set a year ago, to help us understand and explore the rule of typography.  This was one of my favourite briefs from year two, probably because it was such a concise brief.  We were restricted to one type family, one colour and one format.  We were the given a paragraph of unformatted text, which we then had to arrange into an appropriate manner - recognising the importance of hierarchy within type.  I decided to make my design very systematic and easy to read, as there were a lot of dates, names and times to be listed and recorded.
On top of all this, we also had to made the design esthetically pleasing without the used of emotive imagery.  A brilliant challenge.

Here are my business cards!  If you get one of these then you're special, I'm only doing 100 of them, becuase I'm screen printing them by hand and I only have a little press.
There are two versions, these ones are opaque white ink printed onto fluro stock - sorrieeee if you get my other "un-neon" version, they're not quite as fun...

Another typography project from my second year.  The brief set was called "the something diary" and with this we had to create a diary on any theme we wanted, with the focus being on typography.  
I chose to defeat the object of a diary and produced the "do nothing diary" with the aim to help people to remember to take time out to relax, instead of arranging more within their busy weeks, hence the black paper - no organising allowed!  
Each week had a chill-out tip and full page devoted to Sunday - the official day of rest.

This was a little afternoon project I created as a response to a breif set by my University's marketing team, to design the Summer Shows poster for all art, design and media disciplins.  My thinking behind this one, was that almost all concepts behind art and design start with paper, whether it's brainstorming or sketching.
I created this still life set-up completely out of paper (apart from the frame) upon my wall and then photographed it in a theatrical and eyecatching style.  I quite enjoyed myself, it got me away from the mac for a little while!

I was selected by local design studio Empress who are based in Penryn, to design our University's student handbook, which gets given to every new fresher just before they arrive to Uni.  I worked with one other designer from my year, and also a photographer and illustrator.
Together we took the design from concept to completion, whilst being over-looked by Empress.  For this design we decided to create a falmouth/penryn "alphabet" to use throughout the A-Z info section, by taking photographs of text around and about the university's local area.  We also decided to split the three terms into three colour ways and have an inter-changeable front cover pocket with three cover choices within the pack.

 www.empress-design.co.uk

An identity I've created for my personal work/designs/creations to fall under.

Last summer i did three weeks work placement with Topman, working with on fashion graphics and illustrations for following seasons trends.  I also had the chance to go to one of their fashion events, where they showed their Topman Design line, which is one step up in price and quality from their Topman highstreet range.  I was not really that familiar with this Topman Design range, but was pleasantly surprised when I saw it, it's high fashion with an obvious designer feel.  however one thing I felt let this range down considerably was the branding for it.  So I went away and decided I would re-brand them as one of my minor projects from my final year.

Bellow shows their existing logo which I feel does not reflect the range at all.  I decided to re-name then London Topman (branded London TM) - which reflects the London feel and look of the range, by playing with the trademark mark and the word Topman.

I then went on to create a promotional "look book" to be given away at shows to perspective customers and industry buyers.  I will post this at a later date.  

A re-design proposal for a quirky, high end fashion label based in Auckland. The main focus being their stunning range, through the use of large images, complimentary type and their trademark colour pallet.