this is the new sh*t

Cape tshirt- Primark

Eyelet vest- Topshop

Crazy sun protectors- Primark

Shorts- Topshop

Knotted tshirt- Primark (they have amazing basics!)

purse/necklace- H&M

So I went on a bit of a shopping spree on thursday. Right now I'm really into basics with a twist. Got my cape tshirt, my tie up tshirt and my holey vest... I like flags as well- representing with these sweet americano topshop shorts. I bought some sunnies as for a whole THREE DAYS in Manchester it was super sunny- but since i bought mine the sun's nowhere to be seen. How cute is my necklace/bag from H&M- don't think anyone is going to dare try pinch my blackberry on a night out when it's hanging from my neck!

I've realised that on wednesday I will be actively participating in 5 briefs simultaneously!! This week is going to be ultra bizzay in the hizzay.

Quixotry

I just heard today that I have been selected to participate in a design workshop run by the founder of Designer's Republic, Ian Anderson.  In order to covet one of the 14 spots in the workshop I had to complete a brief set by Ian Anderson himself: Rename Ian Anderson. I had to think of a way to rename the designer as if he were a product and his name was reflective of his functions or characteristics.

It was quite a tough brief to get my head around as I have no idea of what he is like as a person...I decided to settle on the word "quixotry", the highest ever scoring word in scrabble. This fact obviously means that the word has value, but it's meaning as well as the situation it was played in makes it even more worthy:

By definition “quixotry” means an act that is idealistic or ambitious yet impractical. In competitive scrabble, players would usually drop the letter Q as although it is high scoring, it is not very compatible- the player who waits for the miracle word loses. Cresta (the man who scored with quixotry) held on to the elusive Q throughout the game, dreaming that he would soon pick up a T and a Y. In a 513/1 chance, Cresta picked both a T and a Y in the same turn and played the legendary “quixotry”. His actions are perfectly reflective of the word’s meaning. 

Ian Anderson explained he was looking for designer's with the ability to THINK and solve problems, so for the duration of the brief I was more concentrated on the idea rather than the design itself. But at the end of the day, I am happy with the quirky outcome. Graphic design is tougher than you might think peeps! 

Feelin' It

I don't blog as often as I should, mainly because my life constantly revolves around design briefs, but also because I am a slight perfectionist. I seem to be quite careful about what I deem suitable to blog about, to reveal to the entire online population. I think I need to get over this, and even though it may be vain/narcissistic, just post about whateverrrrr I want. So this post is simply about fashion photos/clothes/outfits I have recently come to adore. I think, subconsciously, my fashion tastes are telling me I want to road trip it across the US...plus I'm also loving basics with that little something extra- straps, holes, tails, you name it. I bought a taily t-shirt the other day, soon to come. Enjoy.

Photos courtesy of: 

autilia.blospot.com

fashionising.com

fashiontoast.com

Unlikely Coalition II

A magazine insert/ fold up poster I made to promote the 'verses' festival. A mash up of bieber/swift/jay z/kiss.

unlikely coalition

This is just one of a series of outcomes for a week long group brief to promote an unlikely coalition. The week was crazy intense as we had to try develop a strong idea conceptually, visually and physically! We used the filter of an event to promote an unlikely coalition; a one time only music festival that would involve musicians of contrasting genres coming together to perform on the same tracks. For example taylor swift and daft punk! We managed to think of some pretty weird and wonderful collaborations, cliff richard and slipknot was a personal favourite of mine. We were inspired by musical mash ups (thank you Glee) and named the event 'verses' a musical play on words of 'versus'- musicians are kind of pitted against each other.

So this device to promote the event is essentially a stack of posters wherein half of the poster can be torn away to reveal posters underneath. This results in a mash up of musician's names reflecting the mash up of the festival performances! Some of the mash ups were pretty funny, I definitely enjoyed 'daft spears'.

I made a lot of mistakes, in my mind, in my mind

Collectable flyers, also for the Topman Chicago brief. I designed 6 flyers each brandishing a letter from the word "topman", a set to entice people to want to collect all 6 and learn more about the store. They need a lot of tweaking but I like the concept; throughout the brief I stuck to the idea of ways to entice people back into Topman to spend all their monies. 

I was in love with the place, in my mind, in my mind

This little design was created for a recent brief to hypothetically promote the opening of a new Topman store in Chicago, USA (in Autumn, or should I say FALL 2011). Since the Windy City (I've done my research) was practically the birthplace of the skyscraper, I wanted to concentrate on expressing structure/architecture through my designs. Thus, the pyramid invitation was born! My aim was to design something that could be easily reproduced and handed out, yet would be memorable and draw people back into the store. The pyramid folds out into an invitation to the store opening. It was ridiculously easy to make, yet comes together so nicely.

After a solid two weeks of hearing Sufjan Stevens' "Chicago" in my head whenever I even thought of the word, I am glad to be moving on!!

bargain hunt

So it seems I was good in 2010 as Santa brought me a Nikon SLR D3100 for Christmas. I'm super happy as now I can finally take really high quality photos for my blog. However now I don't have any excuses for slacking off and not posting for long bouts of time (yikes)! So look forward to lots of blogging in 2011. For my first post of the New Year I know I should have blogged about my wonderful Christmas gifts and holiday fun, but I am just too excited about today's bargain buy!

My mum, sister and I participated in a car boot sale at Safa Park in Dubai, pretty prestigious in terms of Dubai sales. Amidst the hectic selling at our own stall I managed to sneak off for a little look around and amazingly found this little gem, a vintage YSL mini rucksack. I found it quite late on in the day so was sure that the reason it hadn't been sold yet was because it was outrageously priced, but to my absolute delight it was priced at 10 dhs (equivalent of £2)!! I didn't even bother haggling, just grabbed it and ran. So yeah, although still in disbelief I am pretty psyched.