Trends

Now that 2012 is over, what's up in 2013?!

I was researching for trends on everything for 2013 to get a better glimpse of where design is going and what's going to be more popular. And it seems like the winner is typography. I see informational blogs talking about type is going to step in and take a big role in especially web design. Oh and a bit of illustrative style too. They expect to see more simple innovative ideas for web design. More white space to be used.

Typography and layouts are big part of this too. They want to get rid of flash because some mobile phones like Apple don't support it very well to see on screen. In my opinion I don't think that's very important because it should be about the website and not how much stuff your phone can do. No one needs to be addicted to their phone that much. 

Large images are to be used this year to make more of a visual appeal to the website as background and have typography flow with it. Sound very modern and chique already. there are many websites out there could use something like that. For example, some spa's have ok looking websites but big picture with nice type on it could make it even better.

Since our society lives in the Facebook and Twitter world creeping people away, looks like we are going to see more of that. Everyone on earth is going to be on these social media websites. At some point, they do get annoying though. It's like, really?

Besides that, we have been seeing a lot of bright colours here and there especially in fashion. But for web design, we are expected to see calmer colours to modernize everything and make it flow better.

Well, I hope to see some cool looking websites out there this year!

Thai Express Ad

Ok, we all know good, amazing advertisements and then the terrible, horrifying advertisements ever made. Well, I took a picture of this one advertisement that was on a bus while I was on another bus. First thing I said when I saw it was "....oh my god".

Sorry it's a bit blurry thanks to crappy phone camera of course. No joke, Thai Express has nice boxes for their take out. I really like them with colour designs and shape wise. But, what on earth is going on with this ad?? I saw it a few months ago and just remembered as I was going through the phone. Why is that box bigger than her head???? If they want to advertise th box and not the girl, they should've just done a shot of the box since they obviously suck at laying it out and photoshopping that box there! My eyes hurt when I look at this ad. One of the worst ads I ever saw in the area I'm living in.

Good Cause

If I were to design for a good cause, I would want to design for the Breast Cancer Foundation. If I was rich I would also donate. I would want to design for them because I feel like you could do so many different variations of typographic designs for it. Big posters playing with type. Of course you can always do layouts with pictures too, but no one really plays around with type. I would want to try and see how the society would react to it. I know that their signature for Breast Cancer Foundation is the pink ribbon, but you can do so much without having the ribbon there and filling it in the shape of the ribbon with type. My ideas are endless for this topic but can't really explain what I really picture.

Type and Song

I was looking at some fonts and listening to some songs while working on projects. I came across this song called Primadonna Girl by Marina and the Diamonds. What a name huh, pretty long. It's a great song, not going to lie, I have been listening to it a lot actually. I was thinking, if I could match it up with a font, what could it be..? I decided on the font called Andes.

It's very Madonna like I think. The way it kind of look like those older fonts they used back in the 70s and 80s. I really like the font though. I think its a very nice font to use for maybe some kind of vintage poster or magazine spread. Listen to the song called Primadonna like I said at the beginning but people will have different opinions to how they feel like what type of font it could be like.

Francois Leroy

Those of you who are close to graphic design probably know a lot of well known graphic designers. I thought I did too.... I was researching graphic designers and their works to see what kind of style I would more consider doing for a project. I came across Francois Leroy. He is a self-taught freelancer in Paris, France. After seeing some of his illustration work, I couldn't picture a self-learner to be this good. His work is inspiring and very edgy and smooth in some cases, oh did I mention awkward looking works in some? But, they are all very well-done. I cannot wait until I can learn more about illustrator to inspire other people like he inspired me.
I also think that for some reason, European countries have "better" designers. As in better, I mean more variety, more creativity, inspiration and passion in their work. It could be from all the different cultures there where you can create something that's very rich. Make sure to check out Francois's illustrative work, you will be amazed!

Pencil Drawing

As we know, there are different mediums to make art with. Well, this man draws with pencil and his drawings look like real photos. How does that happen? His name is Diego Fazo. If anyone wants to learn how to draw, try find him and learn from the expert. I am amazed and now I feel like I'm no good at drawing compared to this guy. At one of my earlier blogs, I mentioned a man painting on people to make it look like a painting, but I think Diego just beat him with this mad skill about drawing like its a photo!

BIG CITY vs small city

There's always the question big city or small city when it comes to thinking about the goods and the bads as a graphic designer. I think being a student in a small city is sometimes inconvenient because there aren't many agencies around here you could try getting into after school. Personally, I am hoping to get a good agency to work at after I graduate but how likely is it? In a small city, you can be known well eventually but with the amount of people even living here in Waterloo, you're never guaranteed for a nice design job. Well, it depends on your portfolio as well. 

When you think about the big city, I personally feel like its full of opportunities. You could succeed but then again the number of people living vs you to go up high as a designer, seems really hard, even impossible. You would need to have a rocking portfolio that will turn heads around. But, they could pay you better than the small city and better companies would have better clients and projects to work with. All these things when I'm considering between here and some other big city make my world stop and it's like wow I'm stuck and I can't plan out my future. My ideal choice would be big city for bigger opportunities but then I kind of feel like you wouldn't get the right appreciation there than here. I don't know why and I don't know how exactly to explain but I'm sure I'm not the only one when it comes to deciding for the future.