David Gentleman

For over 40 years David Gentleman has been one of the country’s leading illustrators and graphic designers. He has worked extensively in book illustration, producing the covers for the Penguin Shakespeare series; in postage stamp design, revolutionising the way stamps look in this country; in poster design, working for the National Trust and also designing the ‘stop-the-war’ posters that were such a feature of the massive demonstrations against the war in Iraq. He also designed the Eleanor Cross mural that adorns Charring Cross Tube Station.

Currently there is an exhibition on at the MMU library which features the work of David Gentleman.This exhibition concentrates on Gentleman’s book illustration, drawing on MMU Special Collection’s extensive holdings of his work which is displayed alongside the artist’s own archive of working drawings, sketchbooks, photography and design layouts. However the exhibition also includes his work in other fields to reflect Gentleman’s strongly held belief that the common principles and practices of drawing and design apply across the mediums to which they are applied. I had been meaning to go for a while and was recommended to go to study the way David draws and adds colour to his work.

After looking at his work I could see that we share similarities in the way we draw. Trying to be as accurate as we can. I love the illustrations and freehanded work and the way the water colour has been added brings the illustrations to life. 

Marcio Kelmanson

Love the art direction of the pages in this the CD cover

More can be seen by clicking on his name: Marcio Kelmanson

Gerd Arntz: Graphic designer

I WANT THIS BOOK!!!! £34...bit steep! :(

Dan Collier

Typographic Links

YCN

Last week Zoe Barret from YCN cam to speak to us about the Student Awards and explain what YCN is and what new changes have been made.
The Student Awards have now been going on for 10 years working alongside major brands such as Ted Baker, Warp Records and Boost. These brands set briefs which give the students an opportunity to create designs which are new and fresh.

When they first started it was all about the presentation but the biggest change is that last year the main focus was on students. This is carried onto this year and the company are defiantly keeping the students in mind. This is shown in this year's YCN Annual as this is focussed around the students work and is created by a designer who is placed with Illustration graduates. I remember lasts year's annual being quite boring but this year's art direction is much more appealing. It's much more appealing to students and it also has inspirational quotes from the top graphic designers!

Alongside YCN, Propaganda design agency attended the talk. The company which is based in Leeds, spoke after YCN about the brief they have set this year, concerning the energy drink Boost. This proved to be a bit pointless to me as I had already done the brief but it was still nice to hear what they had to say about the brief and some of their work was really good!

 

Minimalism in packaging design

Is minimized packaging the way forward?

 I think the minimal packaging look quite eye catching actually!
More can be seen here

Boost

The boost project was the 4th project handed in.
The outline of the brief was to make Boost the energy drink of choice for a new consumer sector. Focusing on the redesign of the label and then the promotion.

BOOST: Age range 20-25 females.
New Boost Smoothie flavour: as the current smoothies aren’t advertised in the UK.

OUTCOMES:
-1 A3 Poster
-‘On the go’ bottle label
-Small prototype for a smoothies box to sell in supermarkets