josh m.

I’m terrible at organisation, I’m still learning this whole – ‘doing things earlier is easier thing.’ It’s a struggle.

I feel this semester leaned toward a more commercial side of design and thats what I liked about it. Learning about the processes and elements, ‘client’ wise and creativity wise gave a good basis for the systems we choose to use. The course content is free enough for me that I can take and construct my own system of managing, brainstorming and developing ideas.

Studio Core: Branding A Food Festival.

This class was right in my line of work logos and branding, that being said I dismissed how much time I needed to invest in my fictional brand, ‘Lil Bits. I felt as if I could have put more into it to fully develop a story and identity of the brand. Chris was great at gaining my interest and explaining the backbone of the work we should to include. Each design touchpoint felt realistic to my pace. 

Studio Essentials: Stages of Client Projects

These classes we’re great I think the format to make us have a fictional client helped so much. It emulated the processes and milestones that designers use everyday. I got alot out of these classes in terms of documenting what we do, Im guilty of just going head first into a project when in reality I should invest more time into planning in order to save time down the track. I also learnt my hatred of the written word. I delayed the proposal as I prefer to speak about my processes than type them. I think it falls down to the time management and organisation once again.

Lectures: How To Be Creative.

I really enjoy Andy’s lectures. Like earlier, I think every student has the ability to take out the crucial information the need. I think andy helps me think deeper about my work and the meaning it has. Giving our work purpose and meaning it what we strive for as designers. The quote ‘”Design is permanent food” lead me to ponder about our outcomes. Things have been done before and can be traced back and it's okay that we harness that. The lectures helped me align my morals and flow as a creative. 

Summary: I Need To Work Harder.

My poster and secondary option for the #FoodFestRmit project. Lil’ Bits is a reasonably priced event, targeted at foodies and food families. Great food, mainly italian, Culinary inventors. The brand Idea was “tiny food. big taste.” 

Lil Bits is a little person that strives to do the best they can, good service, cares for you like a good friend The best quality food sourced locally

Our presentation for the food event involved creating a communal instagram. To showcase it on the day we chose to use a (small, but decent) projector. It was great to see the hard work so many people put into their projects and to have a day where everyone could get together and chill!

The final outcome of our first project was to use muse to mirror as best we could a series of screenshots and a website of our choice. Heres my copy vs the screenhot.

And then here's the website I copied: https://www.print.work/

My buddy @watsonjake is doing his type project on the fantastic font ‘Futura’. He told me that Futura is the first font on the moon, the plaque was placed carved in the geometric sans serif. I wonder if Paul Renner could’ve predicted his font created in 1927, would be used 42 years later in the 1969 moon landing.

In trying to figure out what the future of design will look like, we’re at a bit of a loss. Technology is changing at a rapid pace. In five years, mobile platforms have gone from being an emerging part of a company’s strategy to the focal point of its future. “Creativity” will become a coveted corporate leadership trait.“We’re seeing teams of people from different disciplines spending time together from start to finish on a project. How do you maximize their creative potential? The core skill is unlocking collaboration between teams.”— Duane Bray, Partner and Head of Talent, IDEO.

Design is evolving so quickly, we as the future of design can either shape it or float along with it. What will you choose?

Licenses are something designers interact with everyday, one issue is stealing content when its only for educational use. Whenever you find an image (or any online content, for that matter), there’s a good chance that it either:

has a license which forbids you to use it

has no license at all

This happens with alot of different types of media, hopefully the video below can help us all distinguish how creative commons licenses work.

Chris came in to talk about ethical design and what we can do a designers to make sure we do the right thing. One example was Saatchi & Saatchi’s surfrider guerilla ad campaign. This is one example of how we can use work to spread a message about environmental awareness.

Just over a century ago, “disposability” referred to small, low-cost products such as disposable razors and paper napkins. Today, practically everything is disposable – it is culturally permissible to throw away anything from a barely-used smartphone, television, or vacuum cleaner, to an entire three-piece suite or fitted bathroom. 

Andy talked about multiple experiences from pharmacy like clubs, patches of grass for picnics and even candy burkas. I went out and found another weird experience. 

This restaurant chain didn’t quite originate in Japan – it actually started in Taiwan (itself a frontrunner in the utterly bizarre dining experience stakes). Nonetheless, Modern Toilet has spread to Japan and is apparently a roaring success in Tokyo. As part of this culinary experience, customers eat their food seated on actual (non-working) toilets and eat their food (which, naturally, all resembles poo or vomit) out of a variety of toilet-shaped receptacles.

When we think about how many logos, combinations of symbols and typefaces there are in this world it isn't quite infinite, while the combinations are very large there are always likely to be overlaps. Andy’s talk on remixing let me to ponder yet again, are there companies that appropriate or have borrowed ideas unintentionally. Yep, there are.

In this case companies Medium, Air Bnb, Flipboard and Beats have been called out. These companies are among the business brands bearing similarities to illustrations in Yasaburo Kuwayama’s 1989 publication Trademarks & Symbols of the World: The Alphabet in Design, which is essentially a logo designer’s go-to dictionary. In the role of design and the thought-processes behind making a logo, designers will agree: nothing is original. “Logos can’t be too unique,” says Mike Hankin, product designer at London design company morrama. “Design is more of a science than an art. In the arts, you can constantly innovate and try out new things. 

When it comes to logo design, originality is no measure of success—but the ability to monopolize an industry with just a few lines definitely is. No matter how many aspects are borrowed, getting that logo formula right is much like a DJ sampling and justly requires its own unique creative thought process.

from trademarksandsymbols.com, via

Andy talked about a campaign called “Inglorious Fruits & Vegetables”

It made me wonder about how ugly things can sometimes be beautiful. Doing some searching I found a modern take of the old design era called ‘Brutalism’. Contemporary brutalism consists of intentionally making ugly and hard to use things to give a unique experience. One example is brutalism in web design a trend that some have followed. There is a certain attention factor when things arent as easy to use and make you question their design choices.

You’re not original, Just ignorant. A controversial statement. 

Hearing Andy’s talk on how design is just a system – being regurgitated and eaten again, it made me wonder. What constitutes a 100% original idea. Somewhere down the line every design choice can be linked back to a previous concept. Permanent food magazine is a zine about zines it irony and ingenuity leads reads to question what is original and whats not. Appropriation is a constant topic and for some it’s a moral dilemma. But what if the ideas we create subconsciously are simply our brain creating links and the ‘original’ thought becomes something that can be traced back. Is it stealing, parody or appropriation if we arent conscious of where the idea came from. If we choose to ignore it is it ignorance? is it morally okay?

My labels for my Enhancement Tonic! If you want to view the full labels watch the video of my rotating them here: