Greta Bau

Being part of the GLP (Global Leaders Programme) I had the opportunity to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace; Stratford Upon Avon. We attended a talk & got to look around the house he was born in. This little town with a population of 120k, gets around 800k tourists a year! It’s sort of like a mini version of London in comparison to England, economically speaking.The whole branding of Stratford is Shakespeare. I took a notice to the shop signs around Stratford; quite a few names being inspired by Shakespeare’s plays - The Food of Love, As You Like it Antiques store. The city is living and breathing Shakespeare. You can’t make a turn without seeing a Shakespeare reference. So yeah I mean, if you’re a fan then I definitely recommend a visit!

Yr2 here we go

(Artist-Nathan Ferlazzo)

-ONA Coffee in Sydney, Australia

These are some album covers from bands I listen to which caught my eye. I’ve realised I am drawn to illustration, detail and minimalism when it comes to album covers, or just design in general really. Some of these covers are quite psychadelic-looking, which I think reflects the music well, especially MGMT. Ive realised that pop/hip-hop artists are more likely to use photography for their album covers, usually a profile photo of themselves. Whereas indie/alternative bands tend to use more graphic/illustrative covers, which most of the time generally look much more eye catching and interesting, in my opinion at least. I reckon these differences are crucial in communicating and representing your genre of music visually, to be able to attract the appropriate genre of fans. (Eg if the album cover had graffiti on it or a cowboy with guitar in his arms, itd definitely not be an indicator of, lets say, classical music lol) But anyway, I aim to produce work in similar style to these covers-illustrative, colourful and eye catching.

Generally I aim to be more consistent with my productivity and be more proactive- I intent to find a short placement either during spring or summer.

1 month and 2 days to go till 29th April. The deadline for both of my modules. I feel much more on top of work than I did in the first semester; this may be because I was still getting used to the routine in the first semester, and did not know how much workload there'll be. Having my add+vantage in the first sem may also have contributed. As of now I still have my catalogue to finish and my website - which I plan to have fully done over the easter break. The poster and tote bag are finished.

When it comes to education, this week I have made a weekly planner to start managing my time better, as I have fallen slightly behind due to indecision and constant change of ideas. This week I am to settle down on my ideas and move forward.

(here’s the link to the cursor I made many moons ago if anyone is interested in seeing it lol http://osricalypse.tumblr.com/cursor )

Each week we have been meeting up at least once as a team to work on our group website/mock app. This has allowed us to collaborate together and apply our various skills into our work. So far I have enjoyed working together as it has been interesting seeing the different ideas my team mates come up with and how different they approach certain tasks. Working in groups has allowed me to experience the sort of environment (possibly?) that I will be in in the future; working in groups on a project. 

So far I have found the feedback I have gotten from peers and lecturers to be useful concerning my work. The most recent feedback I have received is for my poster and tote bag design for Practice Design module- This feedback caused me to completely recreate my poster from scratch, and work on a few aspects of my design for the tote bag. Feedback is very important/useful and I will carry on trying to get as much of it as possible in the next and final month of uni, in order for my designs to be as successful as they can be.

(Oh and the snack bar itself was nice too, esp if you're looking for a healthy alt as its all made of nuts/fruit and is vegan/gluten free like the nakd bars!)

This is my final tote bag design. the design on the right, I ended up changing the colour of the “fish” from blue to orange in order to relate to the other side of the bag. I believe this design is linked well with the poster I have created (posted a while back) as I have used the same colour scheme and similar illustration. Overall I am pleased with how this design turned out as it is quite minimalistic but eye catching. This is the sort of style I find aesthetic and enjoy making- I will definitely be using this bag post submission :)

Is where I spend most of my time at University. It's where I'm at right now. We have most of our lectures here, its a place where most of the content and skills are taught/learnt. A place where we work as teams, individually, gain feedback. A place where we all connect as graphic designers. It is sad to know next year it won't be our studio anymore, but at the same time its a good thing-new year, new studio, and hopefully new me when it comes to motivation and dedication. I am very sleep deprived rn so I hope that made sense😴

Last semester we had to create a book cover for our Visual Communication module, alongside our artist book. It was for a book called “Norwegian Wood” by Haruki Murakami. The brief for the module itself was a competition by Penguin, which I decided to enter yesterday. I thought I have nothing to lose, so may as well submit my cover design. I reckon my book cover design could be improved if I had spent more time on it, but this was my final design with the amount of time I had to juggle between the modules.

The feedback for the new poster design was positive-although my lecturer insisted I include a fish in my poster as the fish is the main focus of my tale, so I have yet to do that!