Noisy Decent Graphics

1.40

Making the tea.

1.30

Back in office.

Lunch from Diana's of course. Will now trawl through emails and read a few specially chosen blogs. And  BBC News of course.

Expect quality of posting to improve dramatically with the addition of always on broadband and a qwerty keyboard.

12.20

Not enough length of journey to do anything constructive. Remember 3 people I need to email. Wonder about having a quick nap.

11.50

Finished meetings. On the train back to our lovely studio. Not much to do directly relating to meetings this afternoon. Need lunch soon though. This must be a very exciting day for you, my beloved listeners.

9.30

First meeting of the day. In Maidenhead. Discussing projects for next year with Claire.

9.00

A correspondent tells me Flickr is top left. Not top right. Bloody internet.

8.30

Waiting for a train down the M4rketing corridor.  Breakfast is a bacon butty and a Fast Tractor. In a thrilling update I'm also sending pictures to my Flickr. You can see that by clicking on the about bit, top right.

7.30

Heading to Paddington to meet our Account Manager and catch train. There's a nice colour to the morning sky.

A Day In The Life Of A Graphic Designer

You lucky people, today is the day, chosen by you, that Noisy Decent Graphics will follow a graphic designer for one whole day. There is no big point to this, no hidden meaning. Hopefully it will give you an insight into what it's like to be a graphic designer. That's all.

This is painful

This is like pulling teeth. It's so slow. I hope you appreciate what I'm doing for you lot.

Right then

This is a bit clumsy, but it's better than nothing. OK for tomorrow's thrilling Day In The Life I will try and send regular updates from my mobile. That way I should be able to give you real time updates. However dull.

Twitter is rubbish

Lets see if this is any better 10.12pm

yet another

damn test trying to get mobile blogging to work

Pacman in our office

And some of his friends.

And his lunch.

Posters

This is a poster for a talk Michael Johnson did.

We're speaking at 3 things next year and I think that from now on we should do a poster everytime w speak. We'll upload it and send it to the organisers.

Everything I held

Last Monday I was in Cardiff.

We were asked by the Cardiff School of Art and Design (or UWIC or something) to come down and give a little talk. Cardiff was dark and wet, just like Torchwood.

First off we had to dissect a brief with some of the 3rd year students. Fairly simple stuff, no harm done. They were about to enter a brief set by the ycn, who I'd never heard of. Looking through the book of last years winners I noticed a list of design consultancies at the back. I was just about to go mad because we weren't in it, when I noticed we were.

The college looked a lot like ours. Lots of rooms that are obviously well used, but that no one calls home. Lots of out of date but strangely comforting books lying around.

I guess the problem with Art Colleges these days is all the modules.

And the IMPORTANT MEETINGS.

In the evening we were 50% of the Cardiff Design Forum. The other 50% were the design team from Torchwood, so no pressure there.

I think Kingsley and I did OK. Essentially we ran through our work, how we started and stuff we've learned. Not dissimilar to this. At the end we threw in a bonus slide called, How To Get A Job. That's a slight over claim, but we thought it would be helpful to say all the things that graduates do that piss us off. Helpfully, I'll list them for you.

1. Don't ring up and say, "Hi. Have you got any jobs?" Firstly, we probably haven't. Secondly, the person you're speaking to probably isn't the person who gives out the jobs. Thirdly, don't you know that sales people never ask questions that you can say Yes/No to. Try harder.

2. Don't do your CV in Word. Straight in the bin.

3. If you come in to see us, act like a human. Be yourself, be normal. Don't just stare at the walls.

4. Apply, apply, apply. Getting a job is very hard. It's the ones who try hardest, not the ones who are the best designers, who get the jobs.

5. When we ask who your favourite designers are, have an answer. And not Saatchis. They are not designers and this is not the 80's.

And some more stuff. We got asked lots of questions and quite a few people came over to talk to us in the bar afterwards. The heat sensitive business cards were a big hit.

The Torchwood people were brilliant, and I'm not a Sci Fi kinda person. They have a team of 100 designers in Cardiff working on Doctor Who, Torchwood and another one I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention? Edward Thomas runs the team and obviously knows his stuff.

The detail they go into is staggering. If they get asked to design a lever that an alien wil pull they ask why the alien is pulling the lever, what sort of hands will the alien have, why does it need hands, has it ever used a lever before, and much more. That's a pretty good way of dissecting a brief.

At one point someone asked why the lift has pipes running along the side. Edward replied without hesitation that the pipes were needed to take water into HQ to cool the alien brain that powers the lift.

There was a pause.

And then one of the team said to Edward, "You've no idea how funny that sounds". Dedication and belief are no bad thing.

We had a good time in Cardiff. Thank you Cardiff. Thank you Olwen.

This picture is one of many reasons why you should go to Art College. You get to paint "Everything I held" on the window and no one is troubled. In fact you could probably hand it in for one of your modules.

By the way, is anyone reading this an art student? Please leave a comment if you are.

 

Mind the all of it

Here's a design for new interior of a new Tube train.

Question: Why, oh why, does the seat fabric always look like that?

Answer below please.

Elevenses with the A list

One of the things I like about blogging is that it gets you out of the office every now and then.

This morning to The Breakfast Club (which is becoming a bit like the Coach and Horses but with planners) where I had coffee with 0.4% of advertising's A list. And some other people. I love those Coffee Mornings. If you haven't been please try and make the effort before the year ends. You won't regret it. Lots of nice people sat around chatting about whatever.

You do not need to be a planner. You do not need to have a blog. You do not need to have a Phd in Brands. You do not need to be there at 11 on the dot. You don't even have to say anything. Just turn up.

On the way back I spotted this on Earlham Street.

So I had a look inside.

It's small but interesting. Graphic designers (or maybe just Airside, I'm not sure) have created screen prints of song lyrics. And you can buy them for Christmas. Particularly good if you're loved ones have this. 

Posh Plans For Exciting Urban Living

Fan-bloody-tastic.

Howies get /// bought /// investment /// from Timberland

Read about that here.

Then look at this.

And read about the Little Big Voice Lectures.