My week in Somerset (Part 2)

Waterside

Day 2- Bristol

After having such a surprisingly action packed day yesterday we decided to go for a stroll around Bristol. Due to it being sunday we didn't think there would be much to do as everything would be shut however when we walked over Prince Street Bridge we found the Balmoral docked by the M Shed. The Balmoral in my family means a lot as my granddad was a draughtsman in his younger years, which he helped design the Balmorals diesel engine. I learnt from my gran that the boat used to sail for day outings however not many tourists used it due to financial hardship and the "lovely" english weather.

After taking some photos of the Balmoral we then carried on walking by the docks. As we walked past the M Shed we saw that it was open. M Shed is a museum about bristol featuring bristol places, people and life in the city. I have never been in the M Shed before so it was an opportunity not to be missed. When you walk around the museum you can find various artefacts such as old milk bottles from the milkmen of Bristol or the old Bristol bus where you can hop on and listen to people talking about the past. 

Front of Bristol Bus

Back of Bristol Bus

M Shed 

M Shed Upper Floor

When we finished looking around the M Shed we decided to walk down to the S.S Great Britain restaurant to have a drink and a bite to eat. Along the way you can see the new building by waterside that will soon be flats, all the buildings are different shapes. We also passed a little building called Brunel's Buttery which my gran told me was renown for the bacon butty and has been going for over 30 years.

Electric Cranes

Matthew 

Birds Nest Matthew

After lunch Gran and I got a little ferry across the River Avon to the other side of the docks. On the way to the bus stop we walked past the Matthew which was sailed by John Cabot in 1497 to North America, the boat that is docked in the harbour is said to be a replica of the original. We the proceeded to walk by the water features outside At-Bristol. I love the planetarium there as the reflections on a nice day look amazing.

At-Bristol Planetarium

Reflections

After a busy day around Bristol we headed back home to catch the sun set behind Wales and managed to get another glimpse of the Waverley leaving Clevedon pier.

Sunset

Waverley Alight

Type Design

Recently I brought the book 'Creative Workshop' by David Sherwin, which has 80 challenges to test and sharpen you designs skills as well as helping you create work for your own personal portfolio. The main feature I like about the book is that is give you a time limit to complete the challenge meaning you are working against the clock to finish the task. The most recent challenge I undertook as Easy as ABC where you had to create each letter of the alphabet with any objects that you could find which at the end to the challenge meant you created your own typeface.

Before I got stuck into this task I decide to undertake in some research about typefaces. I found out that a typeface is a style of letters, numerals and punctuation, these are normally grouped in families. For example a typeface would be Helvetica whilst the font is regular, light, italic and bold. Type design is when you design and create a typeface. A typeface used to be measured by points.

The structure of the typeface is the 'graphic element' which builds the typeface to be different.  There are two types of stroke, this is the straight such as 'k, l, x' which can be horizontal or diagonal and the rounded such as 'c, o, s' which can be open or closed. Instroke and outstroke are terms that typographer used, instroke is when the you are writing the letter it started at the top like 'c, f' whilst outstroke is when you have to take the pen off the paper at the bottom of the letter such as 'g, j, y'.

Here is some more terminology that I found out whilst doing my research;

• Stem is a vertical stroke such as the 'm' has three stems.
• Spine is a centre stoke like an 's'.
• Ascender is a stem that is normally is higher than the x height such as 'l, b, d, h'.
• Descender is a stem that is lower than the baseline such as 'q, p, y, g'.
• Arch is when a letter has an arch like an 'n'.
• Bowl is a rounded stroke such as a 'p'.
• Tail is a trailing outstroke such as 'y'.
• Bar is a horizontal stroke such as 't'.
• Arm this is a horizontal stroke that is either at the top or bottom of a letter such as 'T'.
• Loop tail is a bottom of a loop such as a 'g'.
• Ear is a short stroke on the top such as a 'i'.
• Apices is an angled stoker at the top such as 'w' which has one apices.
• Vertices is an angled stoker at the bottom such as a 'v'

After my research I had an hour to now think of what object I wanted to represent each letter and how it would look. I decided that I wanted the background to be plain and the colour black so I used some black card that I had lying around my house to create the backdrop. Then I focused on the lettering being an object that I use everyday and was important to me. At first I choose to use my headphones but this proved to hard to get the wire stay in the place and you couldn't see the what letter it was. I then came up with the idea of using pencils as they are an important tool that I use to design all my work. The pencils looked great against the backdrop so I start taking the picture of the individual letter.

I am extremely pleased on how professional it looked and has inspired me to create my own typeface when I am next creating a poster as I feel it stands out. Below is a close up of one of the letters and the whole alphabet I created.

'G' 

Pencil Alphabet

My week in Somerset (Part 1)

Every summer for one week I go and stay with my gran who lives in Clevedon. When I stay we go out every day, this varies from bus rides around Bath to shopping in Bristol. With each day being different I get to learn different things about the area that my grans lives in and where my mum was raised, this also gives me a chance to use my camera. This year I travelled down to Bristol to meet my gran on a train in first class. Not only did I have a comfy seat for the 2 hour journey which actual feels like quarter of an hour but I also had a complimentary free drink just to make my ride that more enjoyable.

  

Day 1- Weston-super-Mare

White Flags

On the first day gran and I decided to visit Weston-super-Mare. Seeing that the both of us can't drive we took the 125 bus from Clevedon to the seafront of Weston. During the journey we happen to go past a couple of places that I used to go when I was little such as Cadbury Garden Centre, my grandparents and parents used to look around especially at christmas time when I went to visit Santa. We use to spend half a day there as the adults were avid gardeners whilst I was bribed by the chance of looking at the animals in the pet section and a bag of sweets at the end.

                          

                             Octopus

Mermaid

When we finally arrived at the seafront we decided to go to the see some sand sculptures on the beach that my gran had heard about however we got there we were a bit early, so we deiced to go for a wonder along the Marine Parade, this is when we saw kites in the sky. At first we thought the kites were to do with the Aquarium as they were next to the building and there were sea animals shaped kites. When we looked closer we found out that it was a two-day kite festival where they displayed different unusual kites and had kite displays. My favourite kite was the octopus as I loved colours used and how it was grand in size, whilst my gran preferred the mermaid as the way it moved in the sky mirrored how it would move in the sea. We were lucky as that day even though it was very sunny it still was a bit windy perfect for the kites.

Happy!

Bright Kites

                                   Hollywood Sign

After spending some time looking at the kites we went to see the Weston Sand Sculpture Festival. This year the sand sculpture theme was Hollywood, this featured sculptures of paparazzi, the Oscars, film characters and the famous Hollywood sign. Now I must admit I wasn’t expecting much as it was in a small area that was cut off from view to the general public. However as soon as we paid our entry both gran and I were amazed at the height and detail of all of the sculptures. There was not one where we had to guess what movie a certain sculpture was from. By each sculpture there was information about the sculpture, the artist and what they did whilst at Weston.

                                                                                                           

Davy Jones

Hitchcock

Batman and the Hulk

After the sculpture we went for a walk along the Royal Parade until we go to Dr Fox’s Tearoom where we both had a hot chocolate. My gran was raving over the hot chocolate and wanted me to try one, now I am a bit of a hot chocolate expert but this was the first time I tried one with the chocolate on a stick and melting it in the hot frothy milk. This is one of the best hot chocolates I have ever tried and must say I will be back again. After this we went down by the marina then took a slow walk back to the bus station.

Pier

Sponsors Names

Waverley

I was exhausted by the time we got home, however I soon got excited when the Waverley sailed past close to my grans flat. It was a real treat to hear the paddles go round powering the steam boat. After the boat had gone the sun began to set and I managed to get some photos however I don’t feel my camera did the colours of the sky justice.

Sunset

Waverley silhouette

Sunset over Wales

Beliefs and Messages

Gran and Granddad came as a pair

Sadly yesterday my gran passed away after battling with cancer for 7 months as most people say that 'they lost the battle' I would rather think that they both drew and after all that fighting they were both tired. As I am currently away from home I never got to hold her hand or say a proper goodbye so I have wrote a letter on what I want to say to her. As like others I have grieved before and feel that this will help me personally cope with the lost of a loved one.

Dear Gran

Where ever you are I hope you are with friends, family and your beloved cat Jess who have all passed before you. I know you suffered like me from heights and wasn't keen on flying so I hope that the journey and the view is to your tasting. I have had the privilege of knowing you for a nearly a whole 20 years. When I look back at the time we spent together I normally think about the summer holidays when you were looking after me and we would spend the whole morning baking a chocolate cake, which was you specialty. It is going to be weird not having you around to keep grampy in check with the quick nudge and 'Oh Reg'. You both come in a pair as without one another you look lost which grampy looks like now. He has always said that 'you were lucky to marry him if not you would had been a spinster' well I think the truth be told that you were both lucky to have long loving marriage. Whilst you brought beauty and brains, Granddad brought the alcohol. Talking about the beauty and brains you had them both with you looking like you could be a model and the endless knowledge that you proved to me by completing crossword puzzles in record time or answering on The Chase. In your life you were blessed with having two beautiful children and one not so beautiful child (I leave you to figure who's who). Over the last few months you have taught me 'don't give up until the last breath'. You have put up such as battle and after calling it a draw you deserve a G&T as you bloody deserve it. I will try to look after grampy but something telling me you made the job look easy.

Love you always

The Quiet One

P.S The first crossword puzzle I will complete I will dedicate to you. 


After writing my letter it got me thinking about how certain people change your life. Along the way each special someone has told me or their actions have showed on what they believe is an important to them. I am always interested on where there beliefs originate from; this is normally from someone they look up to such as a family member.

Granny J

Zibby

"Care for any creature no matter how big or small"

This is my housemate and she said this the other day whilst rescuing a slug. Her mother taught this to her from an early age. What she said had made me today save an ant that was in our kitchen as I believe in the butterfly effect that if you change on thing it will effect other. Now I know that saving one measly ant will not change the world but it might have had an important role in the community therefore saving an important member or it might have been lazy either way it lived another day.

Carys

"Think outside the box, the more unique the better"

This is my best friend from primary school so I have known her most of my life. Now she never said any of this, she didn't have too. She is never afraid to try something new either with fashion or actual work, she is always ahead of the crowd doing things that the other haven't even thought of yet. I remember we were being taught HTML and we had to build a website for a project. Now everyone in the class built theirs on HTML whilst she went ahead and done her using Action Script 3.0, the effort she put in defiantly showed and earned her the highest grade.

Dad

"Care for others as you don't know when you might need help. It is best to put others first"

My dad has always said and done this. An example is he always made sure that my gran and granddad were ok such as doing a bit of gardening.

Mum

"Always smile, even when times are tough"

My mum was known for being a smiley person even when in the past she has dealt with some tough situations. She never let people see how sad or angry she was because she was always smiling and helping other people. When she passed away people wrote in the cards how she was a happy person and it was a joy to see her as she was always smiling.

Grampy B

"Don't touch what is not yours"

My granddad always hated people touching things that weren't theirs, such as in a shop a cousin of mine who would always pick stuff up even if he had no interest in it. I feel this saying can relate to a lot of things in life.

Granny B

"Don't let things make you bitter it is best to forgive and forget"

My gran said this to me when I was having a hard time a couple of years ago and this has always stuck in my head. Even though it is hard to let things go it is better in the long run. I have now learnt to forgive people and situations from past which has helped me get where I am today.

Granny J

"Don't give up the fight until your last breath"

When my gran found out she had incurable cancer she was give 3 months to live which led to everyone expecting the worst so we threw a big family party to celebrate her life. She actual made it to 7 months, which was very impressive given her age.

Katy

"Work hard and rewards will come"

My friend has always been hard working with both education and actual work. She currently has two jobs which means she works 6 days a week with the occasional babysitting at night. She was recently nominated and came fourth on the best nanny in Great Britain where she only started full time working as a nanny two years ago. She is incredibly talented at her job and puts so much effort that every around can see what a truly great person she is.

Granddad J

"Always have a laugh. Don't take life to seriously"

My granddad has always been a funny man and still is. He has always said stuff out load before he had time to think about what he has just said. He also has very funny moments that make the whole family laugh such as when my gran was in hospital he had to do some clothes washing for the first time. He put all the clothes in the machine with the right soap but when he had to turn it on and set the heat he was looking at the oven dials, which were next to the washing machine.

Me

"You only know how strong you are when the going gets tough"

I believe in this saying, as you don't realise your actual strength until you need both physically and emotionally. Of course my friends have been through different experiences than I, which you cannot compare but each has tested out their personal strength. I find it amazing that it is hidden away until you really need it.

Gran and Granddad

Infographic Resume

Below is my infographic resume. I first got the idea to create my own when I was on Pinterest looking at infographics. Since then I have loved the look of infographic and have even brought a couple of books that just feature infographic. Infographic makes data visually pleasing, instantly beautiful and more understandable. They were first created for maps, scientific charts and used as a learning tool for children. 

To help create my own infographic resume I got inspiration from Pinterest and created a mood board. I then looked at each individually infographic and choose what was the best feature to help design my own. I then did some rough sketches on some paper of the layout and the each individual section that made my resume. After I started to create each part in Adobe Illustrator. When each section was made I then constructed it in Adobe Photoshop.

Overall I am thrilled with the end result and would happy send this off to design companies when I start applying for jobs. One thing I hope to improve over the summer is my knowledge in the design software Adobe InDesign as at the moment I feel it is quite low compared to the other software. Also if I am lucky enough to get some work experience in the industry I hope to add this section on the top of my resume between education and bio.

Draft Layout 

Draft Qualifications and Bio

Draft Tools

Draft Attributes 1

Draft Attributes 2

Draft Interests

Final Infographic Resume

4 Occasions, 4 Cards

During my first semester in my second year at university I got the opportunity to do a project of my own choosing. I chose to create four greeting cards for four different occasions. The occasions I chose where thank you, birthday, christmas and wedding. I also chose to create two e-cards to make my project digital, I made these cards in Adobe Flash using some Action Script 3.0 to control the actions. I had fun creating the cards however I feel that one of the cards is not to the best of my ability.

Thank You

Below is my thank you card that I designed. Overall I feel that I need to improve this card as I think it doesn't look as professional as the others. With this card I chose to limit the use of colour by only using three colours. This card is in the style of a dictionary entry which I created my own definition. I want to change the colour that I have used as I feel this makes the card look bland and boring compared to other cards being sold in card shops.

Thank You card

Birthday Card

Here is my birthday card that I created using a technique of line art from a magazine tutorial. I began by using my own photo that I took last May at West Wittering beach of the colour beach huts. I then used some filters to make image 2D with the lines being flatten and changing the outline to the colour black. After I coloured in each part of the photo, I did this by selecting individual parts then filling it with the similar colours of the original image. I chose this as a birthday card as I was passionate at aiming this card at males as I believe that cards that are on offer in the shops had similar themes of golf, cars or beer as the main image, I didn't feel this was appropriate as not all males have thess interest so I felt my card was acceptable as it didn't stereotype.

Birthday card

Wedding Card

I chose to design a wedding card as one of my family members is getting married this year which is going to be in Cornwall with the reception being held on the beach. The dress code is beach themed so this inspired me to create a beach themed card. I wanted the card to have subtle hints of love and marriage so when I send the card to them it will be personal. I created this card by sketching out the camper van then creating it in Adobe Illustrator with my Wacom tablet. This was the first time I used the tablet to create anything and was surprised how easy it was to use. Seeing as I am pleased with the card graphic I am not only going to send them the card but also have it printed on a canvas.

Wedding Card

Christmas Card

During my first year at university we had a project where we had to design a christmas card. On my Christmas card last year I designed a penguin in Adobe Illustrator, one of the first things I designed in that program. As I had fun using that software I wanted to create another card that featured another character. I am pleased with how the robin turned out although I did want some other characters featured on the card. I have previously designed a reindeer, penguin and snowman that could have gone on this card.

Christmas Card

My Best Photo's of 2012

I have decided to look back at last year and choose my best ten* pictures of 2012. On each photo I have wrote why I chose them and why I took them.

1. Moon

One day last summer when I was back home, I used my dad's new telescope to test it out and get a chance to look at the moon. When we finally got the moon into the viewfinder I decided to try and capture it with my camera phone. I didn't expect much as I didn't think my phone would focus but after a couple of tries this was the result. I could have changed the composition of the moon but after much hassle finding it I didn't want to move the telescope. I am very pleased with this photo as my hopes weren't high.

2. Painting of a Flower

On a sunny May day I met up with my Dad and decided to go to some local gardens. After a while the heat got to me so I was just pointing my camera and shooting blind. It didn't help with the sun blinding my camera screen so I couldn't see what I was taking until I was home. When I came across this photo it struck me on how much the flower head looks like a painting. I am also pleased on how the pink flower contrasts the dark background giving the photo more depth.

 3. Wax Iris 

This was taken on the same day as the above photo. I choose this photo as you can see the waxiness of the petals on the iris head. I also loved the yellow and dark purple colours as I would have never put them together in any of my design work but after seeing this flower I started to experiment more with colours.

4. Metallic Mallard

I choose this picture purely as I like how the Mallard duck head looks as if it was metallic showing lovely green colours. I took this photo on the same day as photos 2 and 3. However I took this at the start when there was some shade so I could see what I was taking. I tried to align the head more to the left however as it kept moving it seemed that it was always centre.

5. St Michael's Sunset

This photo was taken on one of my favourite evenings of last year. I stayed with my Dad and Grandparents at the start of October for a week in Cornwall, I decided to go on a walk by myself to the beach when the sun was setting. I can literally say it blew my mind and I got some clarity. I wish I could go back to that evening when I was sitting on the wall watching the sea go in and out, the wind surfers reflecting the last sun rays of the day and the sun slowly disappearing behind the headland. This photo instantly brings back the memories of that night. I love the darkness of the mount and the sun hitting the harbour with the gradient blue sky behind.

6. Jersey Cow

This photo was taken on the first day of my holiday in Cornwall. After staying up 27 hours I was quite tired and got bored as my Dad kept making me wait whilst he took photos. During one of these times I was waiting, I decided to try my macro setting on my camera. I like this photo as it is natural and as the cow was sitting down it gave me time to set up the shot.

7. Sea King

Again this photo was captured on the first day of my holiday in Cornwall. I was purely testing out my cameras zoom and didn't expect to capture such as clear shot of a Sea King. I love the stillness of the helicopter as it really does capture a minute in time. I am pleased that the sky was blue that day as it makes the red stand out better than if it was a grey day.

8. Shapes

This photo was taken when I was on a bus tour around Barcelona. I chose this photo as it was simple yet eye catching due to the different shape in the image. I also like the sphere balancing on the edge of this building.

9. 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'

I saw this when I was visiting a cornish mine on a bleak grey day. Not only was the position of the quote perfect (on a wall that was half demolished) but it got me thinking wether it was true or not. I came to the conclusion that it was partly true. Sometimes when you love something so much it can overshadow your instincts and make little things 10x more worse than they really are.

10. Behind Enemy Lines

I took this photo on the last day of my holiday in Cornwall. This photo was taken at RNAS Culdrose in the afternoon where I got to see a lot of flying action. I like this photo as the colours are bleak just like a war zone and the barbed wire in the foreground to show the harshness. Seeing as I was in competition with my dad for the best photo of the helicopter I think I won hands done as this photo has emotion of a war.

11. Casa Soldiers 

This photo was taken when I went to Barcelona with my Gran last year. I chose this photo as it is one of the best memories of last year. I enjoyed it so much that I keep thinking back to it and I am tempted to book another weekend break away with my Gran this year. I love these soldiers head sculptures by Gaudi as I felt that they look abstract but you can still tell what they are meant to be. As well the view from Casa Mila overlooking Barcelona was amazing. 

*have added an extra photo that was featured in a previous blog about my time in Barcelona.