Category: Finished - Craicin Designs

BOOM!

31/5/2016

A LOT HAS HAPPENED THIS MONTH!
So, where to start. Logo design for M Mahood Music is done, currently still designing flyers but I am incredibly happy with the outcome, even my client is over the moon with it! Which is the most important thing!

Hopefully my watermark isn't too over powering. But yea, this is what we came up with in the end. Very impressed it I don't say so myself ;) created using Illustrator and Photoshop.

Here's a few of the logos that I played around with, before coming to the final:

As you can see some a lot better than others. But there are many different stages that you go through when designing a logo. I had a lot of fun doing this!

My Silversmithing course, has been very off and on, as I am getting to the stage where, to be honest I don't feel like I'm learning. I have noticed there is a huge difference from being at university and doing a part time course. If you basically showed interest in learning a technique and asked tutors in university, or if it was a tutors specialism. They got super excited and were pretty much awesome with showing you how it worked.

So yea, I am getting to the point that YouTube is probably a better educator that any college or university, as well as cheaper! Which is a bit of a shame, but at the same time, it has made me hungry for knowledge! I've recently been experimenting with copper. Actually been very impressed with all the amazing colours and although I'm kind of doing it to waste time, I’m actually learning a lot from it:

The above is just little pieces I have been experimenting with. Still lots of other stuff I want to experiment with but I have to admit, even experimenting with the different colours that come from the copper. Is amazing, and all I am doing is applying heat in different areas and even experimenting by heating the metal through other pieces of metals.

It’s all still very small stuff, but I am starting to think about making sculptures, so who knows my next course could be a wielding course, or my YouTube will be full of wielding videos.

I've also been doing more patterns, I have already started my 2nd in the series. I haven't yet put these up on my red bubble, as I am wanting to have at least 3-4 different series of patterns before I do, so here's the first it all it's different variations of glory!

So that's basically what I've been up to this month, I have to admit June may be a bit slow as I am mainly just finishing off work and continuing to experiment with metal work. But I am also off to Glastonbury! So I shall also be putting up lots of pictures of that when I get back, But I think I will do my June blog before I leave for Glastonbury, we will see.

Thanks guys for stopping by, keep your eyes peeled for more pattern designs coming soon and more experiments. Please follow me on Instagram, as I am aiming to try and start posting more things on there!

The End Is Nigh

8/6/2015

So, today I have been seriously finishing things off. I also have so many sketch books that I even weighted them all... 10 sketch books weighing in at 10 kg.......Mental.

So I went back and had a look at my shop, now if you were to click the shop tab on my website, it will actually take you to another website called "Red Bubble". This site is basically where I upload my images and I can apply the images not only as images them selves, like posters and things. You can buy my designs on mugs, t-shirts, bedding, pillows, scarves, leggings, phone covers. The list goes on! So today I went through and decided to put up an image of my cupcakes. I decided to actually put up the mixed image.

The image is all of the elements of all the suits as well as their symbols. I wasn't happy with the original image so I changed the colour of the back ground to blue, pink and grey.

So the top 3 images are of what I uploaded. the single image above is the original.

This is just a screen shot from the website after I uploaded the pink image, you can see all the different products I can apply my work to. So yea, it's pretty interesting. I also have my final done for my main project. the final for the magazine cover:

Im actually so happy with this, and just to really scare you here are all of the finals from all the projects I did this year:

So yea, I have done a fair bit of work this year, and although it was by no means an easy year, I have actually enjoyed it. I want to keep experimenting and doing art. This is just a stepping stone for where I want to be, and yea I'm freaking out about leaving uni and being a real adult. So that's it from me today, Tomorrow will possibly be my last blog on university work for at least a week.

I am hoping to keep my blog up, however I feel my life is very boring. We'll see though.

Tidy Up Time...

7/6/2015

So I went into uni today due to my Photoshop and Illustrator prescription being out of date and as I am a poor student, soon to be just poor. I couldn't really afford to keep my subscription. Not going to lie, pretty heart broken about it. So anyways, I had to re-do my portrait of the eyes open bar-code image. I have 10 different versions of the same image and some really funky looking edits from making the image. So here are my 10 different versions:

Some are very similar and there are little changes, but I am glad to say I have my final, although I know things aren't spelt right, I will make this right tomorrow when I go back to uni. here is my final though with all of the incorrect spellings:

I also want to do a little more detail with the type and make it more glossy and even 3D looking, as I want to give it the effect of it being a glossy gold.

The rest of my day I have been writing up sketch books and making sure everything is in order, I am sure that tomorrow will be no different with getting my work to a standard that I am happy with.

Three Projects Down, Two To Go.

22/5/2015

So I got a hell of a lot done today, I am almost there to having everything finished up, it's just a case of getting things printed and mounted for the degree show. Today I spent mainly drawing up my jokers for the Monster deck and the cup cake deck. I also went back and fixed my traditional deck of cards. I have now gone online and have managed to find a quote to get them printed. I am just not too sure at the moment whether or not to get multiples printed off to sell, as I am a poor student. At the moment I have worked out that I am able to at least get 3 of the cupcakes and 3 of the monster decks printed. I have looked at my traditional deck of cards and although I do like it. I have realized that they more than likely will not be very interesting to others. I would prefer to get all of the one deck of cards, So I am going to ask around and see what others suggest. I have basically until Sunday to decide. As I had hoped to get them printed out for my hand in. But looks like it's going to take roughly 3 weeks to get them sent here, so yea. Anyways here are my jokers I designed:

I have also decided on which backs I want to have on my cards:

I am not too sure about the cupcake backing, I am hoping to use the jumble of cupcakes, although I am unsure. I have however decided to go with these blue and red backs for the Monsters and Traditional decks of cards. The red for the Traditional and the Blue for the Monsters.

I am hoping to do more research into the photography portraits I previously done and get them all prepared as well as my cards above for print for the degree show, I am currently thinking of having the below as my exhibition:

obviously With the Cup Cakes I am planning on just choosing one of the suits and I will do the same with the other two suits, then on the fourth line of the cards I am planning to show the jokers choose one of the backings. to display. I was also thinking about even having some vinyl gold coins around the portraits. I also want to experiment again with words at the bottom or along the top of the portraits with facts. Although I already have a feeling that these may be stronger on their own. However I am still planning on experimenting further.

Even as I look at these now, I have realized I haven't yet bought the piggy banks, I am hoping to also go to hobby craft. Maybe find some cheaper Piggy Banks.... Anyways, to get to the point, I may even experiment and see if I might be able to write facts about how companies exploit people out of money or even just the facts of how money in big businesses are corrupted. I knew my dissertation research would come in handy now!

That's it for me today, hopefully more to show tomorrow.

Monster Mash

17/5/2015

So I have completely finished the monsters deck:

TAAAAA DAAAAA!!!!! Ok, so these go in the order of Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, and Hearts. I also went back and fixed a few things I wasn't too happy about within my original, or should I say first design. I am not too sure about continuing on with a 4th and final design for the end of year show. I will plan to, I am just unsure of my time left. Tomorrow I will be focusing on my photography and using the projector. I feel like I am at a really good stage with all of my projects. I am more or less finishing off all of my projects and fixing things that need fixed. In truth, I am actually starting to shit myself. This is go time and time suddenly feels like something I don't have much of.

Brain Overload

1/5/2015

The pressure is majorly on! Everyone is beginning to run round like headless chickens. I have been super productive today in the hope that my head won't explode. So I have been re-designing yet another story board and started to design all of the elements for that so here is a few small things I did today for the video:

So the first image, I thought would be funny to have, as he was designed to look like he is struggling to hold up a title within my video, I did however draw him with no reference and was more or less just messing about. The second image I used a reference for. I am still not too sure I like him, I think it is probably the structure of him as himself, as well as me being very picky. The third image is just to be a background image, I am however very tempted to give the queen a Mohawk, and a pint and maybe a cigarette. Although I don't want to over complicate the image, I may do this anyway though for a bit of fun and also, just to see how it would actually look.

I wanted to get more of this done, although I realized I sill hadn't fully finished my cupcake cards. So I went back and made a little design for the middle of all my cards, then went in and added the suit symbols and the letters for each card, now officially finished. I am hoping to get started on the next theme which is monsters for my deck of cards. Here are all 12 of the cards:

Going back through my research on the monster theme of cupcakes I can't help but think about my tea towel portrait I did of myself and how that might look for this theme. I will hopefully have sketches up of it tomorrow. As well as more images to show within my main project. I also have a ViewBug competition I am still to take images for. It is all rather chaotic at the moment. I have also been talking to tutors about the development of my small video for my main project. As it have been well over a year since I last used the program, so a wee refresher on the program would be amazing. I mainly need help with how I will export the video and how I will render it so it is small enough to go on the likes of You Tube etc. aaahhhh so many things. I'm going to leave it here for tonight, more info and more colourful things hopefully to show tomorrow

Cup Cake Madness

23/4/2015

I have missed another day of blogging due to illness, I was so determined to go to uni yesterday, despite feeling unwell. I got ready, got the bus and began to feel worse. I got three stops away from my flat, got off and walked back home. I have to admit, I am so happy I got off and went home when I did, as I got so much worse. I did however manage to get a few illustrations of my cupcake done yesterday for the diamond suit. Although I have to admit, these aren't brilliant and my heart really wasn't in it. I just felt so ill but I wanted to do what I said I was going to get done yesterday, done.

There is a lot of different variations of the same sort of design, there are at least two designs here that I really like and I want to use in my final designs, such as the 1st cup cake on the 2nd row and the very pink cupcake also on the 2nd row. I also really like the elements of the very first cupcake. This cupcake was actually the last cupcake I made of this set before I really started to take a turn for the worse. These cupcakes are in no particular order, just the order that they have been uploaded on here in.

Today I still feel very much under the weather, so I have decided to continue with my cupcake design suit. finishing off the diamond suit and continuing on to the spades and clubs suit.

So, I have finished the whole set of cupcake cards. It took me a little while, I started on the spades and clubs and got a little confused on what I was doing, so I looked up chocolate and coffee cupcakes for inspiration, warning this may make you hungry:

So here are all of my designs from today with the club and spades suits:

So with the coffee and chocolate cupcakes as my inspiration, I created all of the above, there are of course some that I prefer to others. But I am just so happy t now have two different themes of cards pretty much done. Here are the finals, the following orders and in threes, So they will be in the order of King, Queen and Jack:

So yea, these are my cupcakes, of course a few need wee tweaks, here and there. Over all very pleased with my results. I am hoping to continue on with my cards, my next theme will be monsters. I have previously spoken about maybe merging cupcakes and monsters together.

Tomorrow I am going to continue on with my main project. I am going to go back to the drawing board with the website and really draw out how I want everything to look. Then I am going to experiment other website builders to see if I can really recreate the look and feel of what I want my website to look like. I am also hoping to go out and do some photography, depending on weather and hopefully feeling a lot better tomorrow also. That's all from me today.

Getting Back On Track

28/3/2015

So I have been pretty productive, so productive I didn't even notice I missed another day of blogging. So firstly. My survey is done, so if your a student or a past student. Please, please, PPPPPPLLLLLLEEEEEEAAAASSSSSEEEEE do my survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S2C6VY3

I have also finally completed my first set of cars in the traditional style.

I have also been playing around with the idea of having little characters around the answers and advise I get from my surveys, here are some illustrations I have been looking up, for inspiration and ideas in general

I have been trying to identify stereotypes that everyone sees at university. Like everyone knows a few of them and can even identify to these stereotype characters. I thought this would be interesting, although it's all still very early days. The character idea could end up being a total flop and not work at all. Hopefully I will have sketches to show tomorrow. That's all from me today.

ViewBug Finals

22/3/2015

So today I have been mainly focusing on my ViewBug projects . I have been looking back at my most recent underwater images:

So, these are just a few of the images I took. I have to admit the paddling pool was a little disappointing. I didn't really have anymore space that I had before when doing the last underwater images in the kitchen sink. I really need something deeper, I am going to start aiming for doing underwater photoshoots in the summer. I think this is more in reach of the kind of ideas I want to do. I also think it'll be more fun. Here is the final image I have chosen for the underwater portrait challenge.

I really like ho trippy this image is, and how surreal it is. I also really like how the colours are almost dream like. I also really like how my hair has almost made a slight heart shape under the water.

I have also finished another challenge, although my final for it was very unusual for me. It was a bit of an experiment. I think I had mentioned it before, when I went out to photograph the stars. I got the idea from my "assistant" as he was making shadows in the torch light on the forest. So as I hadn't really made it out to photograph this for the past few nights, I improvised.

So here are a few of my hand shadowy shapes. I then drew out a wood scenery, but I felt it all looked a bit too illustrationy, rather than more of an illustration and photography mix. So I got an old photo I previously took at a forest a few months ago and photoshopped my animal shadow shapes into it. I then decided to make the whole image Black and white, so the shadows would fit in a little more. Below is my final image for the ViewBug challenge, playing with light:

Thats all from me today, tomorrow, I will hopefully get talking to a tutor about my main project and see where it is going.

Randoms

6/3/2015

Short blog for you's today. Well, this will be my last even post about my dissertation!
Happy days, handed it in today, so happy :D it's all officially over, now to get on with studio work.

So yesterday I had a few friends from back home come to visit me, hence why there was no post made yesterday. We showed them the sites and I even went to a new bar in Aberdeen called "The Boozy Cow", I have to admit I do not recommend this place, as I had envisioned boozy milkshakes. But there wasn't any, that and if your a huge fan of saw and want to be in the next one, then this is the place for you!
Meat hooks hung from the ceiling, the bar smelt like a butchers and there was very dark red light. We had to put the torch mode on our phones, just to read the menu's.

A rather blurry picture of the meat hooks and cage that were attached to the ceiling.

Surprisingly the image on the left was the tastiest of the drinks we had. It also had 0 alcohol content in it. I got a "Nutty Cow", It was a total struggle to continue drinking and to be honest was just awful. But the company was good and the bar staff friendly.

Again, I may not be able to blog tomorrow as I am going home for a week and travelling home tomorrow. But we shall see, it could maybe be a late one :)