We had our first & final critique on the 'THANKYOU' brief on Friday. I was extremely impressed with the ingenuity of some of the ideas from my classmates, & being one of the last to speak I was feeling increasingly apprehensive. In the end I received some positive feedback from Sally, she seemed impressed that I had managed to glean a response from Hamish Muir & I now think I should primarily focus on well known or well established designers rather than your average student, as getting stories from them would make my blog more well reputed. The responses I've had from students are much shorter, basically saying "Thanks for the iPod" or "Thanks for the Mac," & although I'm glad for the input I don't think it makes the most interesting reading for anyone who comes across my blog. The best response I've had so far was from Janice Henninger O'Brien, a graphic designer who must have come across my facebook page on one of the mac groups I posted it to. This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to get & the sort of thing I think Steve Jobs would enjoy hearing about, should he ever read it. He is obviously well aware of how superior Apple products are to anything else on the market & I think accounts of how his work has affected people on a personal level would touch him more than any other praise.
I've now been thinking about how I could attract traffic to the blog through design rather than the usual facebook groups, twitter accounts etc. People receive so much junk on these sites that they are unlikely to pay much attention to it, so I need to think outside the box & do something more unusual. I have decided to design a sort of business card / flyer for the blog as a starting point, which I will leave in between the pages of design related books in the university library & Bournemouth library, as well as outside the apple store & around galleries / anywhere else I can think of that designers would be likely to visit.
As well as continuing with the 'THANKYOU' brief we're now starting to work on the "Business Identity" section of VCC2. I have to design a business card, letterhead & compliment slip for the author John Fowles. The only work of his I have heard of is 'The Magus', although I managed to withdraw eight of his works for the AUCB library alone. Three of these are fiction, & several are factual or historical. I am now going to research him thoroughly & read some extracts from the book to gain a rounded view of the man himself & his work. At first I was slightly disappointed with the person I was given, but quickly realised that in industry I will have to take the work I am given, which could be designing for the most dull people I have ever encountered. I also need to get a good idea of him & his work before forming any opinions.
