TASTE

My god! there is some trash going around by supposed ‘designers’ and ‘designers in the making’ okay so you’ve been to college, and you’ve been to university, just a tip YOU CAN’T LEARN TASTE. Yeah maybe i am getting on my high horse with this one, but i just wish some people will give up, if you’re not good now, you will never be good. Get a grip and move on, this is not for you.

It’s the QUALITY not QUALIFICATIONS!

Why are we being judged on qualifications in the industry? It’s SO stupid, who’s to say someone who has just left college with a ND can’t be as good as someone who has just left university with a BA? It annoys me so much that companies will just throw a CV in a bin if those few letters aren’t on there? BA.

What makes good design?

After researching what people seem to believe ‘good’ graphic design is, i am completely stumped, why is it good? why does it have the right to be labelled ‘inspirational’? okay so i might be going on a bit of a rant here but what the hell.

Why is the McDonalds ‘M’ so famous? yeah, okay so it’s iconic, but it’s only iconic because some rich person is sat at their desk counting the millions. It’s nothing fantastic! It’s only so supposedly ‘inspirational’ because we are made to believe that.

So here is my answer, good design is what rich people want.

It’s Easy To Teach Design, But Impossible To Teach Good Taste…

The day I decided I wanted to do graphic design for the rest of my life was when I was 14, sometime in September of 2003. It was my first graphic design lesson and the only reason I had chosen to study it was because I had been convinced I would love it by my parents. They were right, it was nothing as to what I expected, it was so much more.

I left school with very poor grades, not enough to get me into sixth form. I wasn’t ready to leave education yet so applied for a college, they judged me on my work rather than my grades. When I left there I had learnt so much, something I learnt, and I will always remember this, it’s so easy to teach design, yet impossible to teach good taste. I’m always meeting people who are really good at using design programs, yet the graphics they produce are just really poor and don’t seem to have any artist direction whatsoever. Good taste is something that comes naturally, i believe you either have it or you don’t. I left my National Diploma Graphic Design Btec course with a full distinction which is still one of my proudest achievements.

I think what makes me a designer is how I am always analysing everything I see, from billboards to food packaging, the fonts they have used and what program they designed it on. Design is such a big part of my life, a lot of stuff I do relates to my creative side in some way, whether it’s tidying my room or making dinner. I am constantly thinking of new things to do, at the moment I am trying to gain as much experience as I can while I have the chance. I do a lot of work for Newport University’s Student Union, I am graphics manager for Radio Noize, designer and assistant editor for fortnightly newspaper NewsPort, I also help out with the designing for NTV (Newport Television) I feel this is getting me ready to leave university and go straight into work.

I enjoy looking at other people’s work and being inspired by great designers and illustrators, one of my favourite illustrators is Genevieve Gauckler, I think her work is so good, her style is very similar to mine, very basic and bold with lots of flat colours. She knows what fonts work, which colours to use and how to place things in an eye catching way.

As a designer there’s one thing I really despise about the industry at the moment, and that is how they judge you on the qualifications you have, this is going back to my point about not being able to teach good taste. There are so many things out there that have really bad graphics on them, I am lead to believe that is due to the companies not interested in the quality of your work but what qualifications you have.

So I believe this is what makes me a unique designer: Process, communication, analysing, visualising, function, purpose, relevance, planning, idea, abstract, point of view, concept, enhance, typography, research, achievement, inspiration but above all TASTE!

Ansel Adams

Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West and primarily Yosemite National Park.
For his images, he developed the zone system, a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs. Although his large-format view cameras were difficult to use because of their size, weight, setup time, and film cost, their high resolution ensured sharpness in his images.

David Bailey

In 1959 he became a photographic assistant at the John French studio before being contracted as a fashion photographer for Vogue magazine in 1960. He also undertook a large amount of freelance work. One of the most notable points about the portraits within the box is that Bailey cut off the tops of the subject’s head or cropped in closer than most traditional portrait photographers would have done at the time. This gave an impression that the pictures were bigger than they actually are, and has since become a common practice in portrait and fashion photography.

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson (born September 26, 1962) is an American photographer who is best known for elaborately staged, surreal scenes of American homes and neighborhoods.

Robert Dann

 

Andrew Gransden Photography

Andrew Gransden Photography is contemporary photography of the very highest standard. Against the stunning backdrop of the rugged Scottish landscape, Andrew Gransden creates compelling images of weddings, celebrations and the natural world. Driven by a passion for photographic excellence and possessing years of experience, he is one of Scotland’s leading wedding photographers. His photographs capture the emotion and joy of the moment whether it be of the happy wedding couple, your family or the natural world.

Annie Leibovitz

Anna-Lou “Annie” Leibovitz (born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer whose style is marked by a close collaboration between the photographer and the subject.

Photograph of Chef Alice Waters from New jersey

Photograph of poet Jorie Graham from New York