Christmas Cards

Here are the final six designs for my Christmas cards:






And this is how they look when gridded up as cross stitch patterns:







Now all I have to do is actually cross stitch one of these!

Update

Chris from The Cafeteria was actually nice enough to get in contact with me right away and sent me the actual .eps files. And he even asked to see the work when it is finished, awesome!

MuseumSheffield Brand

Urgh I just spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out the font used on the MuseumSheffield logo! Thank god for whatthefont because identifont is crap. The body copy on all the publications is set in various weights of Futura but the logo is set in Filosofia Bold. This font is distinct for its 'ffi' ligature. I managed to get my hands on a copy after needlessly writing an embarrassing letter to The Cafeteria (the agency in charge of all of their designs) begging for the logo eps's. Unfortunately, my copy then lacked the ligatures so I had to spend a while reconstructing the logo. Heres how they turned out...

The original:


My version:


The original:


My version:


Oops, needs more kerning & the double s needs to be bigger:


Not too bad! Now I have two lovely .eps files to use for all my exhibition branding, yay.

Exhibition Location

Yesterday I went to both Sheffield and Manchester to check out some of the galleries there. I needed to find a place to hold my grids exhibition and I got loads of research on exhibition booklets, type sizes and spaces. The gallery I have decided to host the exhibition at is the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield. It is ideally located as it is close to Sheffield station and therefore easy to get to. It will take place in the Crafts & Design room as I felt this was most appropriate. The room is basically a very tall rectangle so I will be able to design 4 wall panels and maybe fit some free standing ones in the middle of the room. Unfortunately I couldn't get into the actual room because they were just about to put up a new exhibition, but I went once before in the 1st year and can remember what it was like. Look at my post on the design context blog for more on this.

Ring Cards

After trying some of the food and song concepts out, I think I'm gonna go with the food one because I think I could illustrate food well using type as image. Songs would be a bit harder as they don't really have definitive imagery. Now I need to design the other 5 cards in the food set.

Pudding Card Colours

Pudding Card Development

Practice Cross Stitch

I bought a couple of the kits from Subversive Cross Stitch to have a go at following someone else's pattern. They were delivered in a plain white envelope with just a printed sheet of paper, the fabric, a needle and the thread I would need. The plain, boring way they were sent me made me realise that there is a lot of scope for creating a well designed kit containing my own cross stitch patterns. Heres how they came out anyway:

Cross Stitch Instructions

From Subversive Cross Stitch:

FIRST, make SURE you have separated the six-strand embroidery thread and you are stitching with only TWO strands. SUPER IMPORTANT!!

Embroidery hoop: You'll need an embroidery hoop to hold the fabric taut while you stitch. Believe me, it just doesn't work without one. It doesn't matter what material it's made of - plastic, wood, whatever. Just make sure the hoop clamps the material all the way around.

To Begin: Find the approximate center of the pattern. Then, find the approximate center of your fabric. Begin stitching something that's near the center of the pattern. Working this way (from the center out) will ensure that you don't stitch right off the material.

The stitch: Our patterns are very simple and almost always require only the basic "X" stitch. If your pattern has any straight lines in the design - stitch those exactly as they are on the chart. Remember, cross stitch is a lot like connect the dots!

To begin stitching, bring the threaded needle up from the back of the fabric leaving about a 1" tail of thread behind the fabric. Stitch the next 5 or 6 stitches over the tail. Clip off extra thread. To end off, weave your needle back through the last 5 or 6 stitches and clip the thread short so as not to leave a loose tail. Alternate method: You could also just make a knot if it's easier for you, just make sure the knot isn't too big and lumpy.

Figure 1

Stitching Tips: There are two methods. The first method is to work a row of half stitches (////), then work back (\\\\) to complete the "X"s (Figure 1). Use this method for most stitching. The second method is to complete each X as you go (Figure 2). Use this method for vertical rows of stitches. The main thing is that each "X" crosses in the same direction. That is, the top thread of the "X" should always slant in the same direction (either \ or /). It doesn't matter which way they slant, but if they're mixed the finished piece will look uneven. Remember to relax as you stitch. Your stitches should lie flat on your fabric and not distort the holes or the fabric.



Changing Colors: Sometimes a color will have only a few stitches and then "jump" to another area. Most of the time you should end off and start again, other times you can carry the thread along the back. Be aware that sometimes the thread will show through the white fabric. Finishing: It's a good idea to wash the finished piece. Just hand wash it in some cold water with Woolite or very diluted detergent. Let it dry fully, then press with an iron. I'm kind of informal about these things, just be careful not to burn the final product! If it scorches, it will wash out. A scorch looks like a light burn. Like toast. (Mmmm, toast. Not good in this instance, though.) Try to wash it out, you'll be surprised.

Cover on booklet

I took this photo of mine and Jane's cover design to show how it would look when made up as the brochure.

Beauty In The Ordinary

These are the sample cover, spreads and flow chart that me and Jane are submitting for Leeds City Council's public art strategy. I'm happy with the spreads, especially with the full bleed images which I enjoyed working on a lot. The cover is pretty good considering we had to go out and take some photos ourselves but I'm really not happy with the flow chart. To begin with we just had the bubbles laid out in a grid but then we came up with the arrow to show hierarchy. It looks a bit better but not really that good. I don't think flow charts are really a strong point for either of us so we really struggled with coming up with a good enough idea. Hopefully Vanessa will like the spreads anyway.

Cover & Spread designs

A couple of design sheets for the LCC brief. We have decided to use purple as our colour scheme as it is also the colour used on the 'Leeds, Live It, Love It' logo and the fonts Chaparral Pro for headings and Georgia for body copy.