Ladybird Ladybird - Society6

Taaa Daaaaa! So I was supposed to be meeting a friend yesterday but that didn't really happen so I spent the day catching up on boring admin work, making a flag for my uncle and doodling! Out of the doodling came this new ladybird pattern! Its the first pattern I have made in aggggges. Actually to be honest its been a long time since I've made anything because of all my holidays and then catching up I've had to do. I'm not going to lie, I'm actually quite pleased with this one. I hope you like it too!

As always it is available via my Society6 shop! If you'd like to press the promote button on there I'd be forever grateful! This pattern is available in the form of prints, canvas', iPhone covers/skin, ipad skins, laptop skins and cards! :)

Google - Jubilee

Have you seen google.co.uk today? Its not interactive like many of the others that they have done but it's still a great page and is not at all tacky like much of the other jubilee stuff I have come across in fact I quite like it. I wonder if there will be a different one for each day of the jubilee celebrations? I hope you're all enjoying your long weekend! :)

The Graphic Spectacle

Its that time of year again when all the third year students hang their best work for the end of year show! Which also means that its coming to two years since I left uni. Sad times :( This is the promotional video for The 3rd Year BA Graphic Communication Show at the Cardiff School of Art & Design which of course I really like! If I can make it I'd like to pop up and have a nosey at their work and speak to my lecturers but unfortunately I think I already have other plans. Boo! But if you're in the area you should pop in! Its always a treat and they're a talented bunch :)

The Show runs from:
9th June (Sat) 11am - 6pm
10th - 14th June (Sun - Thurs) 10am - 6pm
15th June (Fri) 10am - 12pm

Its here!
2nd Floor, N Block,
Llandaff Campus,
Western Avenue,
Cardiff,
CF5 2YB

Business Boom Collective

Yesterday I was featured over on Business Boom Collective's blog! How exciting! Why not pop over and read the whole feature and have a closer look at some of my work :)

My beer mats

Remember those beer mats I kept wanging on about on facebook and twitter and never actually showed you? Well here they are over the Inkygoodness Facebook page. I chose to design my characters to fit some oval shaped beer mats. I did this because they reminded me of portraits and so this is what I did. The character choice was easy. I simply drew what I love. Woodland animals! It was a no brainer really. The best thing about this exercise was that I discovered a whole new technique to adding texture to my work and have since used this in another piece. Now that I am back from my many holidays I have time to be creative again and will be putting this new skill to good use. Once this competition is over I may even re use these little characters for other things. I hope you like them :)

Creative Insight - Paul Randall

Lets get the ball rolling once more and get these Creative Insights back up and running! This week we have something a little different for you. Let me introduce you to Paul Randall, a web designer from my neck of the woods! South West of England. Over to you Paul:

I am a Web Designer from the South-West of England and have been creating websites full time since 2006. I currently work at Screwfix as a Designer, and have been featured by Smashing Magazine, Channel 4, and .net magazine.

This is my desk at my workplace. I have a Mac for the majority of my design work as well as a PC for testing, as well as a few iPads and iPhones to hand whilst I am developing sites.

The journey of my typical process for designing a website always start by doodling and sketching. It's quicker than going straight into Photoshop and allows me to focus on the content.

Once I have decided on the content, and have an idea for a layout only recently I have introduced a step of producing basic wireframes of the site showing what it will look like on different devices. There has been a massive increase in mobile browsing and so it is worth optimising your site to accomodate these devices if possible. For this example, I have shown how the layout will adapt on a mobile, tablet and regular desktop view.

Then I will open Photoshop and begin work on the composition, colour palette and typography. This is typically a very quick phase so that I can go straight into the coding, although for client sites these designs will be sent to a client for approval at this stage.

During the hand-coding process I will use a simple code editor like Notepad++ or Dreamweaver. This is where the HTML and CSS files will be created, and for more complicated sites these will then be developed further into a Content Management System (CMS) such as Wordpress.

The final phase of development is seeing the files in the browser. I have found it useful to view these on iPhones and iPads at the same time, so that tweaks can be made to optimise the readability. Usually this phase goes back and forward between design, coding and testing throughout the whole process. On larger projects, these prototypes will be demoed to colleagues or clients at all times before the site is complete.

So that is just a little creative insight into the design of a website. I hope it's been interesting!

I regularly tweet about design at @paulrandall and occasionally blog on my website.

Thanks Paul! I have very little clue when it comes to web design so its always interesting to have a little sneak peek into how it is done! :)

Inspiration Monday - Communication and Social Networking

1. Twitter Necklace - The Pendant Factory
2. iPhone Case - Hello Nutcase
3. Facebook Cushion - The Geeky Giraffe
4. Dear Facebook - Anrol Designs
5. Macbook Wolf Sleeve - Boutique ID

Annnnnnnnd we're up and running with the Inspiration Monday posts once again! I decided to do this one on Communication and Social Networking for one simple reason. Whilst I was away on holiday I had very little access to the online world and do you know what? I actually didn't miss it! My phone contract is a little odd and so I couldn't text people. Did I care? Nope. In New Zealand, the concept of free wifi doesn't really exist. Unless you purposely went to McDonalds which we have renamed McWifi. So we had very little access to the Internet which meant that Facebook and Twitter became quite redundant and I really wasn't that bothered. I didn't want to give up on Origami Chicken so I made sure I sorted all of that before I left. At one point we went to a place called The Blue Duck Station which is incredibly remote and so there was definitely no way of communicating with the outside world which was really quite nice.

Before I left for NZ I was really quite addicted to the online world and spent way too much time online. And so when I got back I didn't really know what to do myself. I was on it for about 10 minutes before I was bored. I guess I managed to get un-addicted if you like. You don't really realise just how hooked you are until your access to it is severely limited. I don't really want to become hooked on it again so I've changed a few settings on my phone to stop me having the odd cheeky check at work and at breakfast. There is no need for me to be on Facebook or checking my emails in my lunch break. Hopefully, once I become more immersed in my new creative plans I won't need to spend so much time sat here. But don't worry! I'm not going to neglect Origami Chicken anytime soon :)

The picture in our head...

I spotted this over on Pinterest and was like 'yes! I can totally agree with this'. If I know exactly what I want to make in my head and it doesn't go to plan I get incredibly mad with myself. Its so tough getting what is in your head out on paper. Its like your hand doesn't do what your brain tells it or as if there are missing bits that our pens can't quite fill in. Sometimes the best things come from a blank mind and are unintentional because then we are not hindered by how they are 'supposed to be'.

Pantone Chip Door

I WANT ONE OF THESE!! Such an amazing idea especially when the sun shines through and creates little coloured blocks on the wall. So pretty :) Created by the clever  Armin Blasbichler Studio

Armin Blasbichler Studio is a multidisciplinary practice based in Brixen/Bressanone, Italy specialised in cross-linking the fields of architecture, design and visual arts. The studio is committed to developing innovative projects that are built on critical research, transgression and the experience of chance both physically and conceptually.

Via: Design Taxi

Masks of friends

Its not often that I post personal photos on here but this went down so well with my friends I thought that I might share a few with you. Before I went to New Zealand I had bit of a crazy idea. Since my boy friend was not traveling with us I thought it would be really funny to make a mask of him and his best friends face and take photos with them in various places in NZ. I thought my friend was going to think I was crazy when I told her especially since when I first had the idea I couldn't even tell my mum because I was laughing too much. The two lads who we made masks of tend to pull quite a few funny faces and so we didn't exactly choose to go with sensible pictures of their faces. We got some absolutely hilarious shots but you kinda need to know us to understand them so those won't be going up here!

I just thought that in a round about way it was also a kind of nice present too. An album of them in a country that they've never even been to! I'd be interested to know if anyone else has done anything similar to this? I think I might even do this again on my next long haul flight as it was so much fun and we got some really funny looks. Some people even took photos of us on their own cameras! I hope you enjoy these as much I did taking them and don't think I'm too crazy :)