"this is the end…"

Those that know us here at NDGD, will know that we love magazines, and we love free stuff - so you will have heard us mention at least once, the marvel that was Rugged magazine, because it ticked both those boxes! Produced by the Carhartt clothing brand, Rugged was always a good source for finding some cool new gadgets, clothes, and more importantly for us, photographers, artists, graffiti crews and designers. It was also designed well, with some great page layouts & typography. We keep referring to it in the past tense because after 19 issues & 7 years, Rugged has decided to make issue 19 its final print! So we just wanted to say a fond farewell to a great piece of print, & to give you a heads up if you want to try & grab a copy before its gone forever… keep on rolling!

"let's talk about…"

Last night saw the official launch of the Ladvice scheme from the Brook sexual health clinic, based in Blackburn & Darwen. The programme is aimed at young men & provides advice & support involving all areas of sexual health. Running alongside the programme is also the Text Mad service, which is a confidential text-in service providing the same advice & support.

After being disappointed with a professional design agency response to their brief, the team from Brook approached us here at NDGD, hoping that we could successfully design them an identity for this new initiative. We of course said yes, and set our second years loose on the brief.

In a record quick turn-around for us we were calling the Brook team back into college to view what our students had come up with - and we are proud to say they were blown away!! They decided to run with a logo designed by Adam Hunter, and after a couple of tweaks, Brook have now started using the two logos by Adam to help promote Ladvice & Text Mad around the Blackburn & Darwen area. We want to say a massive congratulations to Adam for having his work selected & for once again making the NDGD team feel like proud parents!!

"holidays are comin'…"

NDGD Xmas Bash - Thursday 17th December 1pm - 4pm

Sue, Mandy, Kate & Tim can't wait…we are in serious need of some christmas spirit(s)…

we're big on the internet!!

We are on the current news stories list for the official Blackburn College website, in fact we are on the front page of the website at the moment!!! Featured is the story of Rob Dignan and his two prize winning logos that he has designed while being in the second year. We have already written about his ARC project logo, but we have been keeping the Crem International design under wraps until it goes into productive use, so watch this space for further on that. Another well done to Rob…future logo designer/internet celebrity!

Read the Blackburn College article about Rob's design success here

Visit the Blackburn College website here

Young Northern Designer 2010

The Northern Design Competition 2010 website went live recently, which followers of our blog & the NDGD adventures should be familiar with, because in the 2009 Young Northern Designer competition, we had three of our students shortlisted into the final!!! As such, when you click through to the 2010 Young Northern Designer category, you are greeted with a fantastic picture of ex-student Alex Hindle, all suited & booted, being presented with his award for his advertising project. We are of course, now gearing up to enter the 2010 competition with our current second years…the submission isn't until April, but watch this space for any developments. No pressure guys, but we want at least FIVE finalists this year…

You can visit the Young Northern Designer 2010 page here…

See the YND 09 archive with Alex & Jake's work here…

See the YND 09 artwork from Alex, Jake & Jack here…

it's all part of the act…

The heat is on for the 2nd years. Team A and Team B are fighting it out in the weekly Great Big Advertising Quiz, and it has to be said that Group A are trouncing Group B so far! The T.V. ad re-enactment week was one to remember though, with some great performances! The oscar went to Tom Eccles for his excellent role as the little girl in the Haribo 'sign the confession' ad - he even sported a cute ittle pigtail…bless him.

We're not sure about graphic designers, but we reckon you are a bunch of frustrated actors…walk-on parts & movie roles surely await…

So, watch this space for the final results of the advertising quiz…come on Team B - pull it back, pull it back!

design winner number 1…

Recently we here at NDGD were approached by Blackburn Cathedral, and we were asked to design a logo for the relaunch of one of their community support projects - the renamed ARC Project (Asylum & Refugee Community). We were visited at the college by some of the people that the project has been supporting - people who have literally had to escape their home countries in order to save their lives - it was a very moving briefing for many of our students, and this definitely helped inspire them to create some outstanding logo designs.

All of our second year students submitted a design, and three were shortlisted - Gemma Anderton, Rob Dignan & Sam Norris. These designs were then put to a public vote at the cathedral, with Rob Dignan's design being chosen as the winner. So a massive well done to Rob, and we look forward to seeing his logo in use soon. We here at NDGD are proud to be able to represent such a good cause!

busy, busy, busy…

As far as blogging goes, we have been pretty quiet so far this year at NDGD…but don't let that fool you!!! We are super busy, as always - there are quite a few external jobs going on for our second years, which we are keeping under wraps until they go to press - but watch this space! Word is obviously spreading about good we are as designers, so thanks again to our previous couple of graduating years - hope you are keeping up the good work out in 'the world'. The first years are settling in nicely, we are just waiting for enough embarrassing evidence to post about them online!!

Be safe out there kids…

"you gotta have…"

We wanna say congratulations and give a pat on the back to NDGD graduating student Faith Thompson, she has been making a name for herself, and our course, in the local papers! Waaaaaaaay back in May this year, when our then 2nd years were busy working on their Final Major Projects, Faith had chosen to do a campaign aimed at young women to raise awareness about the cervical cancer vaccination. Faith told the Clitheroe Advertiser “We had to write our own brief and I decided to do a campaign and chose this subject because it was of particular relevance.”

 

Since finishing her Final Major Project, and graduating from NDGD, Faiths posters have been on display at Clitheroe Health Centre, helping to promote the cervical cancer vaccination in her local area. Above is a clipping of Faith posing with her posters for the Clitheroe Advertiser…

year 1 image manipulation tutorial

 just Ctrl and click on the image above and scroll to Save Image As… to use it for our tutorial…

"i predict a riot…"

Thursday night was the private view and awards ceremony for the Northern Design Competition 2009 at Leeds Metropolitan University. Our three nervous finalists got suited & booted for the occasion. Alex, Jack, and Jake were three of thirteen people shortlisted for the Young Northern Designer category. There were to be three winners selected for prizes, and the rest were to be given runners-up awards. We are very proud to say that both Alex Hindle & Jake Holt were selected as winners of the category, being presented with a trophy, a certificate and cash prize monies of £500 each, which was presented to them by Ricky Wilson, lead singer of The Kaiser Chiefs!!! Very special indeed…Jack Townsend was awarded a runner up prize of £100.

The award was judged by world renowned designer Wayne Hemingway, who had this to say about Alex's advertising project;

"This student certainly has an eye for advertising, coupled with a flair for graphic design, this entry shows a good understanding of the range of skills required to be successful in the creative industries."

Wayne Hemingway also passed comment on Jake's theatre poster project;

"This is an excellent range of posters which have demonstrated a high level of expertise in the field of graphic design. The theme and style of each is both creative and eye-catching."

All-in-all a fantastic night for Alex, Jake & Jack, and our little graphics course from Blackburn!!

lights…cameras…action

Its Showtime!! National Diploma Graphic Design Final Show 2009…opening night :)

as the lights go up…

The lights are up in place…the day of the show is finally here. The staff are scurrying around finishing up the absolute last little jobs that need to be done to help make the show look perfect. It's looking good…hopefully see some familiar faces at the opening private view tonight!

always watching…

salford school of art & design college competition

As part of Salford University's School of Art & Design end of year exhibition, they decided to hold a College Competition, where art and design students at a Further Education institution could enter work and have a chance to exhibit at the final show. We put forward some of our students work, and two of those students have been shortlisted in the competition. Jack Townsend has been selected in the Graphic Design category for his advertising project, and Rebecca Morris has been selected in the Digital Design category for one of her illustration projects. The students are to make an appearance at an awards presentation on June 10th at Salford's School of Art & Design.

keep rollin', rollin', rollin'…

Everyone is hard at work preparing for the exhibition opening night, sanding & painting the exhibition space, although I think the smell of paint is going to some peoples' heads…

northern design competition 2009

Recently all our second year students entered a favourite piece of work into the Northern Design Competition 2009, which is hosted by Leeds Metropolitan University. Art & Design students from all over the north of England have entered, and out of the 13 finalists for the Young Northern Designer Category, we have had three of our students shortlisted. Alex Hindle was selected for his advertising project, Jake Holt was selected for his theatre posters project, and Jack Townsend was selected for one of his illustration projects.

They are now due to appear at an awards ceremony down in Leeds, on the 18th June, where there will be a private viewing of all the finalists work, and there will be an awards ceremony to determine an over-all winner from all the finalists. We are keeping our fingers crossed for our three students to be among the grand prize winners…well done lads!!

You can view their work online, along with all the other entries for the Young Northern Design Competition at;

http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/northerndesign/finalists.html

"it's a date!"

Not that we are trying to get ahead of ourselves, we still need to put the exhibition up on display first, but we have a date planned for you! Our final show opening night is Wednesday 17th June 2009, and doors open at 6pm. Many parts of the college will be open on the evening, showing off the final work of many of its great students…just don't forget to come visit us! We will be exhibiting work on the third floor of the Art & Design building, St. Pauls Street…hope to see you there!

back to the script…

Busy, busy, busy - thats us! We are now back at college after our week off, in fact we were back yesterday, but we have so much to do, we nearly forgot to say hi…

We have started preparing for the exhibition already, the rooms have been transformed, and the exhibiton boards are in place, so now the painting begins!!! It feels like it was only yesterday that we were doing this with last years graduating students…

1st years…designer of the week 18/05

Our final 1st year Designer Of The Week award went to Louise O'Hare this week, because all her class-mates thought that her portfolio pages were rather good, especially her typography work! Make sure you share cookies with her…

That is the last DOTW award for this academic year, we now have to wait for a whole new bunch of 1st year students to start in September before we can start giving out awards again!

the end is nigh…

All the 2nd year Final Major Project work is done, and they are in the final stages of 'signing-off week' as we speak - where they all cram into the computer room frantically finishing off outstanding work, while all the staff point fingers at the best and worst work from their two years…the 1st years are going through a similar sort of gauntlet test with their progression interviews…and in the background to all that us staff-members are secretly preparing for the final exhibition, where we turn the studios into a construction site for two weeks & work with the students to turn them into an amazing exhibition space for all our graduating students final work! We hope to see you there on the opening night…invites and details coming soon…like we said - it's nearly showtime…

1st years…Designer Of The Week 11/05

Every week our 1st year students vote for their favourite designs from fellow class-mates during the past 7 days - so being the proud crowd that we are, we thought we would give everyone else a sneak peek. This week Gemma Anderton was voted best designer for her work on the Self Contained brief. This has been a really exciting brief, with lots of nice stuff being produced by everyone, so well done Gemma!!

somewhere over the rainbow…

We were recently approached by Blackburn With Darwen Borough Council to design a new logo for their Children & Young People's Trust. We set our second years loose on the brief and they all submitted a logo to the clients.

After much deliberation, Blackburn With Darwen finally chose Sarah Thain's logo as the winning design. The logo has already been put into print across Children and Young People's Trust literature, and all the other logo entries even got an honourable mention…oooh we are proud! A bit like new parents, but without the dirty nappies!

coming soon…

"If you're not on the list, you're not coming in…sorry!"

the start of something beautiful…

Hello…hi there…'ow do.

Welcome to the NDGD blog. We hope this will be the start of something beautiful, a way for us to keep in touch and inspire each other to great things. We'd like to say we will write every day, but we are very busy people, who like to lie, drink tea & tell jokes, so we probably won't every day, more like once a week…but that's where you lot come in!! If you want to show some wonderful designs you've found, or that you have produced. If you have read an excellent book (design related preferably), surfed an interesting site, bought something cool, or just want to pass on a message…join us! Please be nice though, and be careful out there!

The NDGD team

National Diploma Graphic Design @ Blackburn College

P.S we are always watching…