The second of two projects that I’m finishing at the end of my 2nd year. This project started off as packaging type but soon turned into more worthwhile ways of making people appreciate type more. The problem is that the only magazines that are about typography are very serious and a little pretentious. The result was The Character Journals, a selection of articles about typography that are aimed at everyone, alienating no one.

The front cover has a flap that you can flick over to see the entire contents of the magazine.

The welcome editorial summing up the magazine and what it stands for.

A feature called Why Did I Start A Type Foundry? on Commercial type.

Towards the back are profiles on typefaces written by the type designers themselves.

In the middle the pages get thicker for the reviews section.

The main article of the issue details the store of Johnston, the London Underground typeface

So the first project of two is a campaign for Ikea and their new 2010 catalogue. That pretty open brief lead me stumbling upon a site called Ikea Hacker. It’s a pretty crazy blog that posts the weird and interesting concoctions that people devise from Ikea products. This could be simple things like turning a Billy bookcase into a pantry or the smart things like turning an Expedit into a hamster’s dream.

I created a mailer (seen above) that features five of the more ingenious hacks from the site.

Between every page is a sheet or two of red acetate. The acetate cleverly masks any of the yellow print, while leaving the black to shine through. The user is then allowed to reveal the hack between each page. For example…

…at first, with the red acetate on top, the page just showcase’s the original Ikea product…

…then as the reader turns the red page they start to reveal ‘sketches’ for the hack…

…the detail what the hacker has done to the product. The text on the left takes the story (from the blog post) and adds a bit more detail to the whole thing.

Here’s a great example of the red acetate at work, it’s quite effective.

These would be mailed out and allow people to return a strip of paper to Ikea in return for the full catalogue (otherwise known as ‘your canvas’). At a future date I’ll probably work a website into the campaign where people could submit their own designs straight to the Ikea site.

Spent an hour practising crafting something today and this is what I came up with. A few guys from uni are working on a project called Various Artists, which is calling for people to start trading music through mixtapes (or CDs). Now as I’ve previously noted I hate Jewel Cases, so instead of simply handing in one of those dreadful things, I made something from scratch. I probably spent way to long on this but it kind of adds a lot to the whole personal theme I think they’re going for.

I created two CDs. One for each genre I listen to, Hip Hop & Indie, in blue and yellow respectably.

The insides are very white but I only spent an hour on it and the coloured band that holds the whole thing together.

The pocket on the left holds an A4 sheet of the tracklistings (which I’ll post at a later date)

I didn’t intend for them available past the two I made but if someone wants one, hit me up with your address and a quid or two for postage and packaging in the comments below.

Now that the veil has kind of been lifted on Daniel Lipscombe’s (Former Reviews Editor at Nidzumi) upcoming project, why don’t we blog about it? Naturally I’ll be covering the design of the whole process but I’m actually more excited about the prospect of writing for the site.

Back in the early days of Nidzumi I occasionally wrote features called Back In Time. Now BIT were short retrospective reviews of old games – basically just an excuse to indulge in a little nostalgia. I only wrote a few of them but the time spent going back with a critical mind on games like Blade Runner, Omikron and SimCity were some of the most enjoyable moments while running Nidzumi.

I’m really relishing the opportunity of going back through the years and reminiscing with some classics, digging out some diamonds in the rough and having problems getting old games to work. Alright maybe not that last pint but it’s an exciting time, a brand new site and all.

I made a promise to myself that when I redesigned Nidzumi earlier in the year that I would not re-design it for the rest of the year. For the record, tweaking doesn’t count, that’s why when I tell you to go to Nidzumi to see the minor tweaks – this doesn’t count. Check it out let me know what you think, better or worse?

I’ve just passed the half way point on my degree in Graphic Design and I’ve finally come to the conclusion that design shouldn’t be taught within these academic parameters. The main problem is that design is subjective. What resonates with one person might not with another, so who is to say whether work is good or bad – it might not be aimed at them.

That and essay writing doesn’t lead itself well to design and the arts in general. People should be made to improve their writing and do case studies on important designs or events but essay writing doesn’t seem like the logical choice.

Personally I would like to see a private design school set up, similar to one in Scandinavia (the name escapes me). There every month, new designers come in, impart wisdom, leave and repeat. You get multiple points of view, variation every month and make more contacts with people working in the industry. If a similar school was set up outside the parameters of the BA or MA system, it would quickly get a good reputation with consistently good work that isn’t based on academic grading.

I don’t have buyers remorse or anything but the more I think about it, the less this structure makes logical sense. How can you apply a traditional degree structure to a non-traditional subject?

Picture courtesy of IDN’s infographic special.

In the last week uni has stepped up and then some. Instead of having one project that I’d ignore for a few weeks, I’ve been given 4 at once. Normally this would be quite an easy juggling task, after all I’ve done it years ago at college, but since those days I’ve opted to spend my free time blogging and managing websites. Foolish, I know.

That’s all I’ve got, I’d rather be telling you about Mass Effect 2 or something but that’s all I’ve got. Nothing thoughtful or worthwhile to say about the subject. I guess life is just a constant struggle to find free time.

You see? I shouldn’t do the thoughtful bits, they just sound pretentious.

Don’t worry this isn’t going to be of those I can’t be bothered posts, I would never do one of those. It’s just that after the rush that was our Nerv iPhone application – that we presented last Friday to a seemingly great response – it’s nice to get some time off. Normally between projects we get a good week off after the final deadline day rush, it’s quite lethargic.

However because this project’s deadline was at the end of the week we only had this weekend off before moving onto the next one. Actually I don’t mind that so much as it’s made me appreciate this weekend. Not that I’ve done anything interesting except for failing to go surfing, receive Stewart Lee tickets in the post, getting tipsy on way too much wine for a Sunday morning and making some damn good saves at football.

Oh, and Football Manager… but let’s not talk about that.

For the last five weeks we’ve been working on a hypothetical iPhone app that intends to teach the user First Aid through quizzing and mini-games. I don’t want to reveal too much as we’re still yet to finalise a few things and haven’t presented it yet but the whole process has been intriguing. I mean today, we argued / discussed whether a specific feature should be made out of a button or a slider – very odd.

But it’s been fun designing games using the iPhone’s features; when you sit down and think about it, it’s no surprise that the device is a massive success. Other than the picture of an Apple on the back, it’s actually cleverly designed with tons of possible functionality.

Knowing the ins and outs of that functionality helps to no end, it almost justifies me selling my Zune. Saying that, I’m thinking about upgrading because of some Twitter recommended headphones are having a few problems with my iPod Touch headphone jack. Well it’s not just my Sennys, it’s all non-Apple headphones. Thanks Apple.

Its been a busy day from planning prospective articles for Nidzumi to launching a new site-wide design for Nidzumi. Oh, and I also had to impress a lecturer at University today – somehow. All in a day’s work, huh?

I’m not going to tell you about the new site design, well not on this site anyway, let me tell you on Nidzumi’s blog.

Let me know what you think, I’d really appreciate any feedback.