Wednesday 25 November 2015


Green Screen is the largest international nature film festival in Germany. For the first time a Design Competition for the poster of the 10th Nature Film Festival in 2016 has been launched.
The poster should express strongly the connection between nature and film and act as a motivator to participate in the event. All styles of expression (for example: photography, drawings, painting, typography) are permitted.

Entries have to be submitted in EPS or PDF (X3:2002; 300 dpi). If the data volume is too high to be sent a jpg format may be send alternatively.

Single and group works are accepted.

There is no entry fee.

Eligibility

Open worldwide to students and trainees of media design, visual communication, information design and similar, agencies and freelance designers.

Prize
The winner will receive 1,200 Euro (approx. 1,290 USD).
For more information visit here

Friday 20 November 2015

Free Font Cormorant from Catharsis fonts


It's not very often that elegant free fonts are available in a massive 45 different weights, but that is the case with Cormorant by Catharsis fonts. 

Named after a long necked waterbird, Cormorant is described as display type family developed by Christian Thalmann of Catharsis. It's available in 9 different styles (Roman, Italic, Infant, Infant Italic, Cormorant Garamond, Cormorant Garamond Italic, Upright Cursive, Small Caps, Unicase) and 5 weights (Light, Regular, Medium, Semibold, Bold). As there are so many different options within Cormorant we are only able to show a selection here. To view all of the different weights and styles click on the link below
To download your free copy of Cormorant visit here

Thursday 19 November 2015

Very Own Studio - Brighton, UK

We’re looking for a junior designer to join the team at Very Own Studio. Do you have strong design ability, curiosity and drive?
We are a small, friendly design consultancy based in Brighton. Set up in 2009 we create design with insight, integrity, imagination and impact. We offer brand, digital and print design services, working in the built environment, the third sector and with start up businesses.

Are you…— Motivated, enthusiastic and friendly
— Well organised
— Interested in visual culture
— Confident communicating with clients and colleagues

Do you have…— A methodical approach to research and problem solving
— A head full of great ideas
— A good sense of typography, image, colour and layout
— Experience working across identity, print and web
— Proficiency in Adobe CC (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator)
— An eagle-eyed attention to detail
— Ability to convey your creative concepts in writing

If this is you, please send your covering letter, portfolio and CV to: work@veryownstudio.com

Salary: Dependent on experience
Contract: Full time but happy to be flexible
Applications close: Friday 4 December 2015

Graphic Design Intern - THE IDLE MAN, London

The Idle Man is an online menswear start-up based in Shoreditch. Collectively we are a young team of writers, designers and buyers that all have a genuine passion for music, food and of course fashion.
We’re currently on the lookout for a creative and enthusiastic designer to join the team. So if you are available ASAP (minimum of 1 month) please get in touch.

Main Responsibilities
• Working with our lead designer producing content for the site and other in-house projects

• Designing web pages and UX/UI elements

• Conveying seasonal concepts and themes in design work

• Designing advertising artwork for social media

• Help to establish the look, feel and functionality of the site

• Opportunity to collaborate with brands (Levi’s, Edwin, Carhartt, Hot Creations, etc)

Required Skills & Experience
• Preferably a recent design graduate

• Ability to work in a fast paced environment

• Ability to create eye-catching designs with the customer and brand ethos in mind

• Strong typographic and layout skills with an attention to detail

• Fresh design portfolio

• A strong working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator

Please send your CV & portfolio to: jordan@theidleman.com

Wednesday 11 November 2015

Introducing CPHC and Dr Chris Hill





The Centre for Print History and Culture [CPHC] has just appointed its first full time Research Fellow, Dr Chris Hill.

Chris has research interests in histories of mass communication and radicalism and the relationship that has existed and evolved between them in modern Britain. 


His Ph.D. research, which focused on broadcasters, newspapers and protest movements in the 1950s and 60s, has given him a particular interest in areas congruent with those of the Centre for Printing History and Culture, including the political economy of the press, printing unions and radical print. Chris is about to embark on a project entitled ‘Solidarities of Print: Printers and the Struggle for Press Freedom in Modern Britain'. The project explores how printing unions forged and furthered solidarities with workers, ethnic minorities, protest movements and women through the crafts of their members and the creation of objects of dissent. It challenges narratives of ‘the freedom of the press’ by placing the printer and his or her labour at the centre of a story spanning from the repeal of the newspaper stamp through to the Leveson Inquiry.

Chris's publications include
BOOKS 
Media, Movements and Democracy in Cold War Britain: Peace and Power (Bloomsbury Academic, due 2017)

ARTICLES 
Nations of Peace: Nuclear Disarmament and the Making of National Identity in Scotland and Wales’, Twentieth Century British History (available through advanced access)

CHAPTER CONTRIBUTIONS
"The Problem of Frontiers and Desert”: Non-Violent Direct Action against Nuclear Bases and Tests in the Cold War’, in Patrick Major, Mara Olive & Linda Risso (eds), The Bomb, Volume Two, Society and Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)

‘Media and Democracy in Labour History: Re-assessing the Defence Debate of 1960’ in Class, Culture and Community: new perspectives in nineteenth and twentieth-century British Labour History (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2012)



The Visual Communication Department at the University of Wolverhampton is an associate member of the new Centre for Print History and Culture [CPHC]. The centre exists to:

• Stimulates, supports, publicises and disseminates knowledge of printing history and culture; 

• Provides a local, regional, national and international means of exchanging information, skills and expertise in printing history and culture; 

• Engages in and supports ground-breaking interdisciplinary research into printing history and culture; 

• Seeks partnerships between universities, heritage organisations, independent scholars, businesses and practitioners to sponsor and encourage the investigation and understanding of printing history and culture; 

• Promotes transfer and exchange of knowledge of printing history and culture amongst individuals and within communities and institutions.

Planning Intern - mcgarrybowen - London

WHO WE ARE
mcgarrybowen is an integrated advertising agency committed to creating work we’re proud of, for clients we’re proud to work for.

Take a look at our website for more about us: http://mcgarrybowen.co.uk

THE ROLE
We’re looking for a smart, energetic and useful Planning intern to join us from January 2016 for 2 months. We want someone who’ll be impossible to ignore, and will add value with every breath.

You’ll be working with the Planning department across a range of brands, and will gain an understanding of advertising & account planning whilst you’re here.

This is a great chance for you to get a great start at a great agency doing great stuff.

Specific responsibilities will include…
• Researching, analysing and compiling reports about a range of topics including brand, category and consumer trends

• Compiling competitive reviews

• Assisting with social media community management & social media trend spotting

• Researching data for input into creative strategies and briefs

• Conducting primary research activities for clients & new business (e.g. VOX pops)

• Inputting into the weekly staff & client newsletter

• Helping the Planning department prepare for strategy presentations & briefings

SALARY
£1250/month.

HOW TO APPLY
At mcgarrybowen, we don’t believe in brands, we believe in icons.

These days, anything and anyone with an opinion and a YouTube account can claim to be a brand, so we think we should aim a little higher. If brands are symbols of ownership (rooting from branding cattle), and icons are symbols of belief and faith, icons connect with people in a much more profound and valuable way. There are 2 simple parts to being an icon:

Facts – The stories, beliefs or features that make them what they are

Acts - The way they present themselves to the world in an original, remarkable and enduring way.

To apply, we want you to write 200 words about an icon of your choice, explaining why you think it deserves icon status. What you choose is entirely up to you – it could be an iconic brand, a person, an object, a character. Try to think beyond the obvious, and if you’re stuck for ideas, take a look at some we’ve written at http://mcgarrybowen.co.uk/latest/.

Send your 200 words, along with a cover letter & your CV to Rhonwen.lally@mcgarrybowen.com.

The deadline is 19th November 2015.

Thank you & good luck.

Tuesday 10 November 2015

Graduate success - Kate Ackley and the Cumberland Pencil Company


Regular readers of this blog may remember reading about graduation awards. This years winner of the The Cumberland Pencil Company Award for Visualising (and The Canon Illustration Prize Awarded for the most innovative student work in Illustration) was Kate Ackley. Kate also was the first winner of The Orion Publishing Student Illustration competition


Since receiving her award from the Cumberland Pencil Company, Kate has been enjoying using many of the companies products within her work. She has been in touch to share some of her resulting illustrations.

Well done Kate and many thanks to the Cumberland Pencil Company and Derwent Pencils for their continued support of Visual communication Students

Monday 9 November 2015

Katie May Green Lecture


Katie May Green will be visiting the School of Art to talk about her Illustration Practice on the Wednesday 11th November at 1.30pm in MK301.

The talk is open to all Visual Communication students at all levels on the Illustration, Graphic Design & Joint course. It will provide a fascinating insight into the working world of a freelance practitioner in Illustration.

Katie's clients include Walker Books, Penguin Books, Oxford University Press, Harper Collins, Candlewick Press. She will be taking questions at the end of the talk.

Friday 6 November 2015

Young Package - Packaging competition


2016: Don't let packages end up in the trash, find their additional function!
Packaging design has a special position not only in design, marketing and transport, but also in how it affects the environment. Paper waste makes up about 25% of household waste and it cannot be recycled indefinitely. Therefore, we have chosen a topic that can help reduce the amount of packaging waste and at the same time provide an additional use for consumers - PACKAGE UNLIMITED. Let's cut down the proportion of non-recyclable packaging waste, and let's think about how to create a package with multiple uses.

We are looking for imaginative, multi-functional and detailed packages that can be used for several purposes.

Create an innovative package and show how packaging doesn’t have to end up in the trash.

Think of a package that blooms after use, a special pencil case, or a package that becomes part of the product after opening. Create an imaginative and thoughtful package for your favourite product, which could be used for better handling of the product after unpacking, or be used for decoration. Discover the possibilities of paper! Create a package so graphically eye-catching, that nobody would want to throw it away. Take time exploring design solutions and finding additional packaging functions!

To register or find out more look here
Deadline March 25 2016

Thursday 5 November 2015

TYPE TALK Yves Peters: Trajan in Movie Posters

Thursday 12 November 2015

Lecture Theatre, Parkside Bulding, Birmingham City University Cardigan Street, Birmingham.

Book your FREE ticket here.
Registration opens at 1730. Talk scheduled 1800-1930

Soon after its appearance on the font market more than twenty years ago, the Adobe Original Trajan was embraced by Hollywood. Now it seems to grace more movie posters than any other typeface. Its stately and classic character shapes made it the go-to choice for Oscar material. Yet in recent years the popular font has apparently fallen from grace, and a pretender to the throne is vying to take its place.

About a decade ago, after Yves Peters had joined Typophile’s Type Identification Board, he noticed that there was a real demand from people who wanted to know which typefaces were used on film posters. This inspired him to start writing ScreenFonts, regular reviews of film posters with a focus on the typefaces used in them. Originally published on the FontShop BeNeLux blog Unzipped, ScreenFonts was ported to The FontFeed when Yves Peters became its editor-in-chief. It quickly became one of the most popular series on FontShop’s design and typography blog. Now it has found a new home on FontShop News.

As Yves became more and more acquainted with the world of film posters through his review series, he started noticing things – picking up trends, and distinguishing specific (typo)graphic tricks. As he further explored the medium he discovered how film posters use their own visual shortcuts as a way to communicate more efficiently with the intended audience. This codified language is not limited to images and colour schemes, but is also applied to type styles that identify film genres.
However one typeface defies all categories – Trajan.
After hearing one too many times that Trajan was the “movie poster font” without any evidence to back up this claim, he went on an epic journey (pardon the pun) to investigate if Trajan truly was the most-used typeface in the history of cinema posters, and if indeed it helped films “win Oscars”. The story of his investigation will not only make you discover many hidden facets of typography, but most of all, as Yves says at the beginning of his presentation: “I will tell you very little that you don’t already know; you simply just don’t realise it yet.”

Yves Peters is a graphic designer / rock drummer / father of three who tries to be critical about typography without coming across as a snob. Former editor-in-chief of The FontFeed, he has found a new home on FontShop News. Yves writes about type and talks at conferences. His ability to identify most typefaces on sight is utterly useless in daily life.

Tuesday 3 November 2015

John Baskerville: International Man of Mystery - Lecture by Professor Caroline Archer


24th November 2015 6.00pm 
 
Room MK045, City Campus



This talk is about John Baskerville – the complete printer, who did so much to progress the industry of his day.


He created a typeface which bears his name; improved the printing press; helped produced the first wove paper; reconsidered the production of printing inks; and took a wholly new approach to the design of end papers. But he was much more than that – Baskerville was the embodiment of an Enlightenment man.

Caroline Archer is Professor of Typography at the Typographic Hub, Birmingham City University and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham where she works to promote the history, theory and practice of printing history and culture. Caroline is the author of three monographs and a frequent contributing author in the academic and trade press.

Attendance is free

Junior Designer - Brooker & Sowerby, Bath

WANTED: JUNIOR DESIGNER TO SUPPORT OUR GROWING CREATIVE TEAM

IF YOU HAVE A PASSION FOR DESIGN, A PORTFOLIO PACKED WITH CREATIVE IDEAS AND A KEEN ATTENTION TO DETAIL THEN GET IN TOUCH.

Job description
New client wins and continued growth mean we’re on the lookout for a talented creative to join our growing team in Bath. You will support our existing design team to deliver digital marketing campaigns - crafting email and web content - for leading automotive brands like Jaguar, Land Rover and BMW. In addition, you’ll help deliver a range of marketing materials for our other clients so should be comfortable working across different media - both printed and digital - taking ideas from initial concept to production.

You’ll join a small dynamic team so this is an opportunity to enjoy increasing levels of responsibility with a real chance to shine. 

Ideal candidate
A hands-on, energetic style is a must – in addition to a thorough knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign and illustrator in particular). Experience of working with HTML / CSS would be highly advantageous but not essential. The ideal candidate will be able to work under pressure across multiple projects and have excellent communication skills. 
This position will suit either a star graduate or someone with a few years of commercial experience under their belt.

Benefits
Salary: £18,000 - £21,000 (based on experience)
25 days’ holiday (in addition to public holidays)
Regular team social events
Life insurance

To apply
Please send your CV, a pdf of your latest work and a few words about yourself to mark@brookesandsowerby.co.uk.

No agencies please – unless you’re looking for a brand refresh, in which case please drop us a line...

Junior Designer - Communicate (Europe) Limited, Leeds

It is exciting times for our bold, innovative agency. At Communicate, we don’t settle for average. As a company, we push the boundaries of creativity and demand that our designers deliver the very highest levels of work.

The skill and talent of our staff is helping us rapidly develop, and as a junior designer, you will get the chance to work with a range of clients, including blue-chip corporations, across all facets of design. At Communicate, a big opportunity awaits where you can really stand out and make your mark.

You will be collaborating with leading creatives, from brilliant senior designers, to skilled wordsmiths, on projects across both digital and print. You will need to be a genuine creative thinker and highly organised, as you will be helping to build designs from the ground up and seeing projects through from initial brainstorming to completion. You will be eager to get involved and contribute fresh ideas, so you will need to be motivated and confident.

We love a good, exciting portfolio full of bright ideas. But, we want more than that. We want to see how you arrived at those ideas, and what your creative process was. So, including a combination of finished work and sketches/roughs/scamps would really help give us an idea of who you are and how you work.

Expert knowledge of the following industry-standard software is a must:

Adobe suite - 
Indesign, Photoshop, Illustrator 

A good understanding of HTML and Wordpress would be a bonus.

This sort of opportunity, to work on these sorts of brands, does not come up very often,
so send us your CV and relevant work samples immediately. 

We offer a competitive package for the right candidate.

Email Jamie Sparkes: jsparkes@communicateco.com

Blueprint - Grey London's entry level talent scheme

WE’RE HUNTING FOR HUNGRY MINDS

Blueprint is Grey London's entry level talent scheme for the people who will fuel our culture and one day lead our industry. It’s for the hungry minded with the energy to make famous world defining work.

If that sounds like you, we’re interested in your talents and where you want them to take you, no matter what your background is. We’re open to everyone so select the route you're interested in and apply. To find out more and make an application see here

"We’re always welcoming people who think the way we do.
Energy beats talent. Beats grades. Beats time."
- Nils Leonard, Chief Creative Officer and Chairman

Advertising might look like a closed shop when you’re starting out. But that’s not the case at Grey London. We’re famously open.

We welcome anyone who has the energy to forge a long and remarkable career in the creative industry. We aren’t precious about where you’ve come from, we just want people with a can do attitude.