- Hey designers, welcome back to my series
where I'm walking you through the projects
that I worked on in design school.
We are up to my third year, which is the second
to last year of classes but for me,
I actually did my degree a little differently
because I took a break,
I took a semester off after my second year.
So my third year was kind of split across both 2009
and 2010, in the end.
Anyway, if this is the first you've ever heard this series,
that's okay, you can go back and watch the other two videos,
they're gonna give you more context on the degree
that I studied, where I studied it, all that sort of stuff,
but you don't really have to watch them in order.
So just keep watching this one for now.
(lively music)
In my third year, I decided I actually wanted
to get into doing motion graphics.
I had this vision of being someone who made music videos,
that was really appealing to me, really exciting
and I specifically wanted to focus
on doing like motion typography.
So I took some motion graphics classes,
you're gonna see some of that in here,
but some of the like, more regular graphic design work too,
as well as some typographic specific classes that I did.
So, let's take a look, my third year of design school.
Let's start with motion graphics.
So, I remember we were first like just learning the software
and learning how to animate things and we had to take a word
and like, make it do stuff that represented the word,
if that makes sense.
Or it was like having things move like it was a beat.
This one I don't think it's very good.
I think I was trying to create depth
but probably should have like blurred this stuff
as well as faded it out, I don't know.
I think we're allowed to put music in the third one.
So I finally I had had an actual beat to work to.
I still quite like this.
I think I did it like, you know, like sound levels going up.
and I had them glowing, that was really fun, really cool.
I just remember these classes would take forever
because, oh, here's some of that I did with different words.
Because each one of these things,
like you'd have to then, you do it on these slow computers
because this was 2009 and then you'd have to wait
for them to export and all that, and I don't know,
then you might not like what you ended up with.
It was fun though.
And this assignment was like exactly
what I want to be doing, learning how to animate type.
So that was cool.
We ended up making like a movie trailer.
So I did one for this movie called "Street dreams",
(laughs) which was a movie that I think Rob Dyrdek had made.
Yeah, so this is like moving the camera angles
and stuff like that.
Yeah, there is P Rod and Rob Dyrdek.
And the changing the direction of things.
Honestly, I think this is still pretty cool that the idea
of the camera angles moving, I don't think I'd know how
to do that now in After Effects.
I'd have to like relearn it.
But why was I so obsessed with this like grungy look
to everything, like literally every project I did,
I tried to make it, like grungy like this, I don't know.
This one the directed by was meant
to sort of look like a skateboard, doing flips
as it was driving along this like grungy road I suppose.
I don't know.
And then I was really
into this light effect riding on apparently.
Yeah, so yeah, that was the second part
of that motion typography brief.
Into the next part of motion graphics
so we decided how to learn to use the green screen.
So we would go and film, (laughs),
these are some of my classmates,
having a little pretend fight,
and then we had to, like composite it onto a scene.
Yeah, not very believable, as you can see.
(laughs)
And then I think we get to make like an ad of something
using motion graphics and composition.
So this was one for Telecom, the, you know, phone company.
I really like these colors, actually.
I think it looks kind of cool together.
It's just, I don't know, if you've watched more
of these videos, the early ones in the series,
you will have heard me talk about craft,
especially in that first year.
How I was just really lacking on the finishing details.
I think, that's the same here too,
like there's just, something about it
just feels slightly messy, like I rushed it a bit
which I mean, I probably did.
I was also probably lacking the skills
to know exactly how to bring the idea to life too
but like just feels a bit awkward
as this thing comes across, i don't know.
I don't think i was naturally skilled
in motion graphics let's say that.
So I loved motion graphics, After Motion graphics one
but Motion graphics two, the assignments turned out
to be mostly focused on the green screen
and that's when I realized that this course
on my degree anyways, wasn't taking me in the place
that I wanted.
And so I switched back to a graphics major after this,
but yeah, I still made some cool things in this.
Did some like experiments with more effects like writing on,
color following people.
I yeah, I don't know.
Oh, this one was fun.
This one was like, you know, as I stepped
it was impacting the ground.
Yeah, I don't know with all of these it feels the same.
It's the same, like the idea is there,
but the craft of actually like that, you know,
should look like a string of fabric,
like following my shoe, right?
And it was, it just didn't,
that was probably the closest that I got.
I think I just didn't, like with first year
have the patience to make things look exactly as it should.
Probably don't have a final version of this in here
which is a shame, but we have to make like a documentary
about, I don't remember what the brief was now,
but I made this documentary about someone
who was honestly the reason
why I wanted to get into motion graphics.
He did videos like, you might have seen
this "all time low" video
if you were into emo music in the 2000s
like I was. (laughs)
You know, these words attached to the people,
I thought that was just so cool.
Like that's the stuff I wanted to be doing.
So I made this documentary thing like about that,
which I apparently don't have the final version of.
But yeah, we had to have that reference,
I think that we then made stuff around
so that's why I was having like thing following me
as I walked.
Yeah, motion graphics two wasn't my favorite
and I didn't continue with motion graphics after that.
Just like I said about animation though, in the last video
that experimented with video in this way,
was one of the reasons why I now have a YouTube channel.
So, you know, it paid off.
Typography, now that was a great class.
This was my first projects.
Yep, I think that the point was
to make type sort of look like the thing
that was representing.
If you haven't heard of hokey pokey ice cream, by the way,
which you probably haven't, if you're not
from New Zealand or Australia.
It's delicious.
It's like a vanilla, vanillary caramely ice cream
with little like honeycomb chunks in it.
It's delicious.
And yeah, you should try it, if you ever visit,
if you ever get a chance.
The pieces are kind of like orange
so that's what these bits were.
And I think, actually, that these little blobs were made
from cutting pieces of the letters.
That's kind of what it looks like I've done.
I mean, yeah, arrange the type to look like drips, I guess.
I had a really great teacher for this class.
I remember that, yeah, she was super supportive,
and encouraging, and was probably one of the reasons
why I enjoyed typography and then like felt okay
about going back to graphics, you know.
This was a brochure or a booklet or something
for the City gallery of their exhibitions.
And I think the way this is arranged,
it was arranged to be folded, this is like page four
and 21 next to each other.
We're moving on, given all these photos,
and then had to, and I think we are given the text
to a layout as well, we had to do pull quotes
and things like that.
This is where I learned about,
like hanging the quote mark off the edge there.
This whole first typography class
was really about learning the rules of typography.
So that you could then break it later.
Like we were told that if we were gonna do a quote,
it should have these like single quote marks,
which now I'm like, I would put two
'cause I think it just looks better.
And I think that that's a rule you're allowed to break.
But apparently the person the way to do it was this.
I feel like this could use some less line space in there.
But yeah, I'm honestly quite surprised to look at this,
I thought that I would look at my early typography work
and cringe a lot more than I am.
'Cause I think typography is one of those things that,
is that extra layer of polish in design.
A lot of student work I look at or even junior designers
in like the first year or so of their career,
their typography is what lets them down.
Having, I don't know, like not enough difference in sizes
or weight sort of hierarchy,
having line links that are too long, bad line spacing,
like I said, this feels a little bit too wide.
But overall, I think I've done a pretty good job here.
And I think honestly, that is a testament
to like say, I had a really great tutor for this class.
And this was our first time really like learning,
how to work within a grid, which is again,
something that I think has been super helpful
and useful for me, as a web designer,
even though I don't do print stuff like this anymore.
That's been like definitely a skill that transferred across.
So yeah, this was probably the first project
where we really started digging in and learning
in detail about that.
It's really surprising that wasn't until the third year
of design school, right?
I don't know, that seems wrong.
Then this last project inside of typography
was a calendar for, again, the City gallery.
We kept doing stuff for calendar of events.
This one, I mean, that line spacing is way too wide,
you can fit almost another whole line of text within there.
I think I was trying to stick to the baseline.
Which meant like I should have bumped up that font
if I wanted to do that and have it look good.
So yeah, that's something that I would change now.
But there's a lot of good details in here,
the way I've created hierarchy through font pairings,
through having like, you know different weights of things,
I think that's, it's kinda good, well done me.
Oof, this part, I should take way back that congratulations.
This is not so great.
I think these line links seem a little long
and like this is all feeling a little too tight.
You know, it's too close to the edges.
That's definitely something else that I noticed
in student work and in my junior designer work.
Things not breathing enough
and that's definitely what I've done here.
So, yeah, my bad.
And now third year,
we also had this class called VCD business,
which was essentially about getting a job.
I remember you had to write an elevator pitch for yourself.
We talked about portfolios about CVs,
yeah, all of that sort of stuff.
And the output was making business cards for yourself.
Yep, you can try and call that phone number if you want,
It's not mine anymore.
(laughing)
Oh, looking inside these pictures actually of stuff
that I was putting in my portfolio,
I just found another typography thing, which now remember
that type work I was showing you
was the second typography class,
there had been a little one before it.
We made this font by hand, like we drew this out
and then had to like photocopy letters
and stuff, putting it together.
That was really fun.
So I think that was from second year
if I'm remembering correctly.
So just a little bit hot bag
that probably should have been in the last video.
But also we got in here, that I might not have shown.
Yeah, it's just that poster that you would have seen
if you watched the last video.
Also, in my third year,
I did another interactive design class,
which is essentially web design.
Let's see if I can find.
Okay, so we had to do an app for here.
Oh, this is probably one of the first wireframes
that I ever made.
Yep, I'm just as badly drawn a smile, (laughs), currently.
This is really more of a sitemap than a wireframe, isn't it?
And just like last time, I don't think I can show you this
because we did it in Flash.
And I don't have my flash player installed.
but let's see if we can see some, oh, here mockups.
Oh, look at that old iPhone set like a 3GS or something.
So I was doing an app for Snapper,
which was the bus system in Wellington.
So I think you would click on these bubbles to do stuff.
Let's see if we've got anything else in here.
Okay, I was kinda using a fish as an arrow,
but I mean, it's kind of a foul power
because I've turned the logo around the wrong way,
probably shouldn't do that.
Also, this red on black text on red is probably terrible
for accessibility.
What else have we got?
Yeah, I was trying really hard to mimic,
like actual iPhone buttons
in the apps would look more real, you know.
This must be really funny for anyone
who is a design student nowadays, studying like app design
or anything to know that this was kind of like the standard,
like I wasn't the best student in this class by any means,
but I got a good grade with this project.
And obviously nowadays,
I think a lot more would be expected from you.
Like a much higher level of polish.
I think just as the app designer industry in general
has improved and changed a lot over the years.
A lot more is expected of students
in terms of their work in it too.
I don't think that this would get a passing grade,
if you handed this in, in a project today, to be honest.
I don't know, if any design school teachers
are watching let me know.
What have I got here?
Okay, this is another one I can't show you,
cause, again, it's flash.
I put all of my eggs into the flash basket,
when I was learning web design in university.
Which meant that like the only HTML and CSS I did,
was put the website you saw in the last video.
And yeah, everything else,
I got really good writing ActionScript,
which I guess did teach me a lot about code in general,
but it's not super useful these days.
Oh, do I have a mock up?
Do I have a mock up?
Oh, dear, okay. (laughing)
You're gonna laugh, if you watch the first video.
I went back to my music piracy roots with this project
and I made a website about the real effects of music piracy.
And so you're meant to click on each one of these tabs
to learn about it.
And the main part was this, are you a pirate?
Do I have a mock up of that section somewhere?
Basically, you put in, dang, I don't think I can find it.
You put in how many CDs you owned,
then you estimate it from that,
how many were like copied, I guess.
And then it like gave you an estimate
of how much like money you've taken
from the music industry essentially.
That was the idea behind that project.
Next up the graphic design class
that I had in this third year.
One of the projects was, let me open this up
so I can spin it around.
One of the projects was making a stamp set,
like a stamp collectors thing.
I don't remember if we got given a theme for this or not,
but mine obviously was inventions
from New Zealand's backyards.
It was like crazy cool tech things that people had built.
And it was an exercise in designing
for a super small thing, right?
'Cause a stamp is tiny.
So this involves a lot of test prints
to like see how stuff was looking.
I remember I typed this on my actual typewriter
that I owned.
I owned this right up until I left New Zealand.
I lent it to a friend and never got it back before I left.
So I don't know where it is in the world now.
But yeah, I wrote this on a typewriter and scanned it in.
And, yeah I had a pairing on this classic wallpaper
cause it felt like it was, I don't know,
like someone's mom had hung these prints up.
It's like being proud of their kid
for inventing them, maybe, I don't know.
All invented by men, apparently.
If I was going back these days, I'll definitely try
and pick something that celebrated women a lot more,
but I wasn't thinking about that sort of thing back then.
Not quite sure what I was going
with a sepia like half tone thing,
but I think it's kind of cool,
I think It turned out all right.
Typography here could use a lot of work.
This is not great.
It's funny to me that I like didn't put effort
as much as into the typography here
as I did in my typography class,
just because this was a graphics class,
not a typography class, if that makes sense.
Oh, I don't know what I was thinking.
Anyway the second assignment of this graphics class,
produced one of my favorite projects
that I worked on in design school.
It was called, it was for a design conference,
we had to invent our own conference
and then create like, who the speakers were gonna be for it,
the theme for that sort of thing.
So I talked about how design was like coming undisciplined,
and that was like, you know, things mixing together,
that sort of thing.
And I think I went for this news theme
because it was like, really sensationalized stuff
in this little booklet that I was making.
It's the end of graphic design as we know it, you know,
this giant, large font, trade gothic.
I still really like this font, I think it's a great font.
Yeah, and I had this newspaper theme
for the booklet, including a Sudoku,
something like mock tears and things because you know me,
I cannot resist a bit of grunge in my design
or a bit of like, you know, realism I guess.
Yep, I had good old Jonny Ive,
speaking at my design conference, good for me.
And then the posters for it were really fun.
So these posters, I had these like pun headlines
that you'd see, like you know, outside a newsagent.
So, dies in graphic homicide like graphic,
that also graphic.
You get it?
Yeah, yeah.
So these were really fun to put together.
I remember, I don't know, coming up with the like
the subtle grungy bits to try and mimic
when you print newsprint, how they look.
But I couldn't actually print it a newsprint
because we had to have the posters
like wrapping around the booklet.
It was like a form they gave us.
So yeah, I don't know it just made it
look like newsprint though.
Cleaning the tear and stuff like that.
And I had a series of three headlines,
widow found hanging which is, you know,
you have a word, the other line, ha ha ha.
So good. (laughing)
And then I'd done the headings like kind of different
because to feel like they were different newspapers
if that made sense.
And then my last pun,
yep, sentence is justified.
Yeah, I remember my tutor being really into this idea too
and helping me come up with puns.
It was a fun project to work on.
And I still really like, like newspapers,
and you're gonna see this coming in,
foreshadowing into my fourth year of design work that yeah,
this was a cool project to work on,
I was really proud of that.
I actually kept that one in my portfolio
for a long time after design school.
So that is a look at some of the work they did
with third year of design school.
Definitely, you can start to see
that I'm getting a little better now in my designs
and finding my style a little more.
So yeah, hope you enjoyed seeing that.
Stay tuned for the fourth
and final video in this series.
We're gonna look at the work that I did
in my last ever year of design school.
All right, thanks for watching.
I'll see you next time, bye. (upbeat music)