Vagabond

New blog

chrissynoir — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 14:49:46 +0000

Probably less design-related stuff and more photos of cats.

Future

chrissynoir — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 21:01:08 +0000

I’ve left Falmouth with a high 2:1 and right now I’m in London to kick off the future starting with an internship at Spencer Du Bois tomorrow. In light of this I’ve decided to retire this blog and leave it as an archive of my education from Foundation through to the end of university.

I’ll probably start a new one in time as I start to figure out what I want to do with my life. Watch this space.

Over and out.

Final year round-up #2 – Final Major

chrissynoir — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 20:22:22 +0000

Most of the process and thinking behind this project can be found here: chrissystylesfmp.wordpress.com, so I’ll only post the final outcome.

Basically the big idea was to find a way that the internet could be used to enhance people’s offline interactions. This final outcome is a reinvention of the band-tshirt.

Music is a universal topic — everyone has a music taste — and it’s not so personal as to be weird if you were wearing it.

In the past, wearing a band t-shirt was, aside from a good conversation starter, a pretty good indication of someone’s music taste. Now, however, with the rise of things like Last.fm and Spotify, people are able to access a wider variety of music than before and so have much more varied music tastes. A variety that one band t-shirt couldn’t convey.

I have created a concept for t-shirts that have patterns containing QR codes that when scanned, would lead to one of that person’s Last.fm charts: weekly/monthly/overall top artists/albums or recently listened to tracks, and then hopefully onto a conversation. The point is that by wearing QR codes you are effectively inviting people to scan them, and so would be open to the possibility of a conversation afterwards.

I also created an accompanying website where customers could customise their order to make it more personal to them – all the while keeping in mind that the QR code still had to be legible.

I think it’s still too early for me to honestly say whether or not I’m completely pleased with this – I spent so long on this project that right now I never want to see it again! I loved the textiles part of it though and this is something I hope to do more of.

Final year round-up #1 – The Foundry

chrissynoir — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 20:09:09 +0000

I’ve been really lax with getting round to this, but now that I have finally finishing university, here it is. A round-up of all completed third year projects that I haven’t yet put on the blog, starting with The Foundry which was the first one I started way back in October.

This is the branding and identity for a shop concept that sells upcycled goods. All of the branded items, packaging etc are made from repurposed materials.

The branding for The Foundry reflects its recylcing ethic. All of the items re-use old materials, and they are all linked cohesively using parts of the logo that have been block or screen printed, giving the branding a handmade, personal aesthetic that fits in with the products in the shop.

The invitations for the launch event are printed on scrap paper, using elements of the logo block printed onto the front to keep them linked. They are made from a single sheet of paper that doubles as an envelope and the invitation itself in order to save on paper.

Like the invitations, the labels are made from scrap paper offcuts and have the logo block printed onto the front.
The tokens (that the customer receives in return for donating goods) are made from flattened bottle tops. They feel more substantial than a paper token so the customer is more likely to keep and use them.

The bags are made from recycled t-shirts with the Foundry logo screen printed on the front.

This project probably let me down the most this year, I sort of lost my way with it and it ended up dragging on right until after Easter but I might pick it up or rework it at some point as this kind of environmentally-conscious design is what I want to do in the future.

Comic Sans biscuits are going to RSA

chrissynoir — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:54:53 +0000

They’re keeping my business cards company. Food bribes are kind of my thing.

Business cards and portfolios

chrissynoir — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:56:16 +0000

I’ve updated my website

chrissynoir — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:23:38 +0000

Take a look!

WANTED: Volunteers

chrissynoir — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:58:59 +0000

I’m looking for guinea pigs for my major project. Right now you don’t have to do anything, I just need your name. After that you might not have to do anything else, or I might get you to answer a few quick questions in the near future. That’s all! Let me know if you can help.

New blog for my final major project

chrissynoir — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:36:00 +0000

I’ve created a separate blog for my final major project as a place to collect all my research/experiments/thoughts/findings and to prevent things from getting confusing on this one.

It’s looking pretty bare but bear with me.

http://chrissystylesfmp.wordpress.com

Final major project brief

chrissynoir — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 21:32:10 +0000

I started this a few weeks ago but only just got round to writing the final-ish draft of the brief:

Can we learn from our virtual interactions? Are there aspects of the internet that can translate to the physical world to enhance and improve our relationships and the way we network and connect with each other?

By working on a series of short, mini projects, I want to explore this relationship between virtual and physical.

1. Facebook is replacing traditional methods as our preferred way of communication. Rather than denouncing it, or persuading people to move back to traditional ways – letter writing, face-to-face contact or even phonecalls – are there any aspects of Facebook that can translate into our physical interactions to change the way we think about communication?

2. Every day most of us create content online without thinking about it – we tweet our thoughts and feelings, upload videos onto Youtube and check-in to locations on Foursquare. But do we realise how much information about ourselves is out there and readily accessible? Would we be willing to walk around handing this information out publicly?
Is it possible to construct a profile of someone using the information only found online – and would they recognize it if it was presented to them? Could this information be shared with new people as we met them to create connections and conversation starters?

3. TBD

By the end of these mini projects I will determine an area of interest to be further developed or have identified a problem to be solved which will become the final conclusion to the project.