Who is doing it right?

BYREDO

Byredo is a luxury perfume; beauty, accessory and leather   goods/accessory brand founded in 2006 by Former pro-basketball player and art school-graduate Mr Ben Gorham after a chance encounter with a renowned perfumer sparked his interest. Each scent is inspired by a specific memory and tells a story personal to the wearer.

Their visual style is very minimalist and contemporary and uses monotone colours such as different opacities of blacks and off whites with simplistic elegant type. This approach is what whistles also pride themselves on, both brands are visually modern and timeless within their design.

LE LABO

Le Labo was founded by Fabrice Penot and Edouard Roschi in 2006. They debuted with 10 fragrances. The number in the fragrance name indicates the number of notes in its composition and the name of material (Vetiver, Jasmin, Labdanum) refers to the most prominent note in it.

Designer Le Labo has 45 perfumes in our fragrance base. The earliest edition was created in 2006 and the newest is from 2015.

Le Labo is something of a perfume revolution, its creators Eddie and Fabrice aimed to reclaim perfume from what they saw as a mass market of uniformity.

Again visually Le Labo fit in perfectly to the description of contemporary, modern and timeless which is what Whistles describe themselves as. However beyond the visual appearance of Le Labo, I think Whistles admire this brand as they really are ‘doing it right’ when it comes to their fragrances. It is the care and craftsmanship that goes into their fragrances that is prominent.

COMME des GARCONS

Comme des Garçons, French for “Like Boys” and written in Japanese as コム・デ・ギャルソン (Komu de Gyaruson), is a Japanese fashion label headed by Rei Kawakubo who owns the company with her husband Adrian Joffe.

Comme des Garçons produces a line of agendered fragrances under the name ‘Comme Des Garcons Parfums*’

From Researching these brands that Whistles said were ‘doing it right’ it is clear to see that they really like the minimalist and monotone approach and strong use of typography to engage the customer. I personally have never seen a print or image on a whistles piece of clothing so I guess it it fitting that they would want to use block colours and type.

I really like the design of some of these bottles and boxes and will keep in mind this style when designing for Whistles.

Dissertation Research Topics – Street Wear (Brands)

I have got the go ahead on basing my Dissertation on Street Wear, I am still unsure what direction to take it down but it would relate to my subject area if it was about the Design behind the brands or the image of the brands within streetwear. I would also like to research peoples loyalty and dedication to these brands.

Brands to consider researching are:-

• Supreme New York
• Patta Amsterdam
• Palace Skateboards
• Stussy
• Norse
• The Hundreds
• HUF
• ICECREAM
• Billionaire Boys Club (Pharell Williams)
• Obey
• Undefeated

Each of these brands have their own recognisable designs and are seen as big players in the Streetwear scene, it will be interesting to break down the brands to see what is behind their designs and who in involved etc.

My first ‘DesignStuff’ Cardiff Talk

Tonight Ben and I attended our first Designstuff talk at Ten Feet Tall, hosted by Dan of ‘Dandidthat’.
DesignStuff Cardiff is a free event where designers all across Cardiff and apply for tickets so see other designers talk about their work and a specific subject that they want to present. We were lucky enough to see Gareth Strange from BlueEgg and Dylan Thomas from BoxUK speak.
Gareth gave a great talk one of my favourite parts about design : Typography

Dylan gave a really interesting talk on the dark patterns within website design and user interfaces, emails etc which was very true and eye opening.

I am really happy I attended this event as not only have a I had the pleasure of watching 2 really good designers talk but I have learned a lot I can take into my own practice. I will deffo be trying to get tickets for the next talk.

Christmas Holidays – Thoughts and plans

Christmas was good for me, it was a time for me to clear my mind and think about new ideas and think about how I can progress within my design journey and how I can put those plans into action when I return back to Cardiff.

However despite these plans and positive energy I failed to get a work experience placement which I am gutted about but because of this I plan to seek out work experience in summer 2015, possibly in multiple places. Over christmas it really dawned on me where I am in my career and its not long until i’m out there in the real world, so I really need to work on progressing my skills in all areas.

Having not managed to get a work experience place for January – February, I was but on – The real and virtual internet of things – course, sure it wasn’t my first choice but after some research of the area I saw how I could possibly use it in conjunction with Graphic Communication and make something work for me all whilst learning new skills. Also Ben and Ryan from GC are on the same course and can relate to me when we need to be able to approach it with a Graphic Communication mind set.

PLANS FOR 2015

• Develop a design style
• Build a portfolio
• make connections within the design world
• Stay positive
• try and overcome speaking nerves
• update blog regularly
• produce work I can be proud of
• choose a dissertation subject I can be involved and motivated in
• Try not to let personal life effect my work life so much
• Jump upon chances I will not have when I leave Uni

GET S*!T DONE!

Constellation 1

Today we had our first Constellation lecture of the year. We got introduced to the many Option choices we could take for the year.

I was most interested in Cath’s ‘Monsters’ Subject, Theo’s ‘Humour within Art’ and James Kent’s ‘Sounds beyond the concert hall’,
I eventually decided that those would be my top 3 choices, starting with James’s Sonic Arts lectures, I chose this because I did Sonic Arts last year and enjoyed it as I have never thought of music or sound in this way before. I also found it easy to understand what James Kent was trying to get across within the lectures.

Term 2 – Aims and Goals

12/01/2013

Going into the second term of my Graphic Communication course I would like to improve on a few things. I am looking forward to start being creative again and using what I have learned from the first term in the second term.

On reviewing my formative feedback for the first term I have realised that I need to improve on these points:-

• Update the blog weekly and often (especially after constellation)
• Write up thoughts and ideas on the blog as well as in a sketchbook
• Write up my aims and creative experiences often