Today I went to Newhaven...

... to collect a parcel from a delivery company's depot.
Newhaven Harbour has got to be one of the bleakest stations to get off at. Ok, the sun was shining today which improved it, but you're basically in the middle of a half abandoned industrial estate. Here's the 'station concourse'...
I made a panorama because I'm trying to improve my photoshop skills - it's 4 photos stitched together (not very well, but I'm learning)
Click for a big view!

And here's me waiting for the train back to Brighton again. It has been a beautiful day.

A post apocalyptic wonderland

Well... maybe Wonderland is going a bit far. More like... landfill and a billboard.
This is what I did today. (Click to view big)

Stuff! I have stuff to show you!

Well now.
It's about time I showed you a worky kind of update.
I have been doing quite a lot in my spare time, but for most of it I've not been in a position to show you.
I'm currently on an internship with Crush, and this is some work I've been doing with them.

This project is to design the cover for a fairly new publishing company's bi-annual catalouge, this one, spring 2011. As I mentioned in my previous post, I do feel quite out of my depth with Crush. They're really very good, and I'm still learning. I've really figured that I'm unlikely to get a job with them, so I might as well spend my time there experimenting and pushing myself, and maybe I'll produce all rubbish, but maybe I'll produce one thing to really impress them.

Currently... I don't think I've done either rubbish, or something amazing... but I'm quite enjoying myself, so that's ok.

My first idea was illustration based... basically just a mass of books. Here's the illustration, and a couple of variations on that.

Another idea began considering the combination of spring, and books. I started creating flowers based on open books on their ends, but in the end they didn't look much like flowers. I quite like it, but it's not really good enough.

Another little idea, simply creating some interesting abstract forms out of book pages.

Finally, this idea, of wrapping objects in pages of books. The objects would represent the varied subject matter of the books put out by the publisher - for example, a rose for romance, a gun for crime, a plane for travel, and so on...
Ultimately this would be a 3D construction, which would be photographed, but as this is just the ideas stage, we needed some visuals to show to the client which would express the idea without us actually having to build the thing. This was what I tried to achieve here (twice, because I was enjoying it :D)... I'm not sure how well it works, but I've learnt some new things doing it, and I think the results are interesting.

So there we go. More to come soon, on different projects.

Crush

Another quiet time for blogging, but not through lack of work!

This week (and next) I am interning with Crush, who are delightful. While I do feel that I have a long way to go to reach the high standards of their work, for once, I feel that it's technical skill rather than lack of ideas that is holding me back. Photoshop, metaphorically speaking, is a bit like an iceberg, and the bit above the water - that's the bit I know. There are vast, unfathomable depths to that program that I have absolutely no idea about, and that distresses me, because I really want to be good at what I do.
I know that in the last three years I've learnt a lot, but not nearly enough. Today? I learnt how to lock and unlock layers, which I now realise is a mind numbingly basic function. Oh, and how to select multiple areas of the same colour. (Yeah, that would have been pretttty handy during my exam project. Facepalm)

Anyway, enough talk about my lack of photoshop skillz. I've produced some work I'm pleased with, although unfortunately I can't show you just yet.

But here's some of my current surroundings.

And here's a sneaky tease of something I've been working on.

Strange times.

I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front recently.

Suddenly with the vast expanse of the rest of my life spread out in front of me, I'm faced with lots of difficult decisions. And blogging about difficult decisions is difficult.

This isn't a personal blog, but I am going to mention that me and my long term boyfriend Martin split up a couple of weeks ago. I mention this because he's been by my side throughout my whole university experience, and he probably averted several minor nervous breakdowns on my part, not to mention being an unexpected source of creative inspiration at times, and a completely honest critic of my work.
We're still friends, so I hope to some extent that can continue.

But now the time comes for me to decide where I'm going to live and with who, what I'm going to do to pay the rent, and how I'm going to fulfill my ultimate dream goal in life - happiness!

The most obvious and direct route to happiness for me is to get a job doing design malarkey in Brighton. However, this is much easier said than done, because Brighton is expensive, and design jobs here aren't exactly ten a penny.

I am extremely fortunate to have got myself another placement, for two weeks at Brighton studio Crush. AND, as luck would have it, they're looking for a new designer/illustrator at the moment.
I'm not getting my hopes up, because they are RATHER good, but I'm hoping that if I try and be as genuine and hard working as possible (which is basically what I always strive for) they might possibly perhaps consider employing me. Maybe. We shall see.

Even if they don't, I'm still really looking forwards to spending a couple of weeks with them, doing design and stuff. Yeah!

Anyway, a while back I promised you a blog about our London show.
So here are some lovely pictures :)