Monstery Bloggery

Soooo long!

2011-02-20T00:33:00.001Z

Not in the goodbye sense, of course, in the "I can't believe how long it's been since my last blog post" sense. Seriously, August? That's just ridiculous. It's not like I've been doing nothing, I've literally created a website from scratch in that time. Sporadically, of course, but it's still quite an achievement for someone who, this time last year, knew nothing about web design!

This is going to have to be short, unfortunately, as it's 20 past midnight and I'm falling asleep after an epic four hour stint of updating HTML and CSS on said website. Tomorrow I will mostly be sorting out images for the still bare illustration section, which ultimately terrifies me because of the sheer amount of images I will need to sift through. I think that's why I've been putting it off.

Zach and I, from next weekend, are co-habiting on our own, without his mother, which has been a distant thought until recently; it's becoming all too clear that we're about to enter "adulthood". It's both scary and exciting, I love our flat and the things we've started buying for it (sofa, table and chairs - although those were free!) and can't wait to rearrange and really make it our own. I went a bit craft crazy last week and discovered all sorts of things I want to make, mainly this amazing xmas wreath (only 10 months early...) posted on life through the lens blog.

Anyway, it's bedtime now, I need to sleep before another days worth of staring at my screen.

New wood

2010-08-19T10:28:00.000+01:00

So the grandparents visit was nice, we didn't get lost on the way to Warminster, and we even managed to get a free recliner for the flat. On the way back we drove past Stonehenge as Zach had never seen it, but seriously, no matter how awe inspiring and wonderful they are, the smell that crept into the car on the way past them and refused to get out was not worth the sight. It smelt like a cow had literally defecated in my car. It was horrendous. Then, we got stuck in rush hour traffic on the A34, which I should have known would happen. But we had a nice drive about, explored some of the nicer parts of Wiltshire, oh and my Granddad also gave me a big piece of wood that I can paint on.

My friend from work Elly told me about some screenprinting and gocco classes in a print studio really close to my house so I think she's trying to get a gang of us to go, which will be good, can always do with more printing skills! This is their blog, if anyone is interested...

http://badgerpress.org/blog/

New things

2010-08-14T22:31:00.004+01:00

So, I haven't updated in forever, but all that's about to change, as I'm going to make a conscious effort to have an online presence! I have just finished designing the layout for my new website and I think it's looking much nicer than my segregated one that I have currently. I can't wait to get it online!

Here's a sneak preview!

So anyway, I have a week off now, so hopefully my time will be spent well, I want to try and get some more things to add to my CV, not sure what yet. I'm loving how much I'm learning at work - Flash, Indesign, After Effects, Dreamweaver etc, but I'd quite like to do some therapeutic live painting again, or something to that end.

Zach and I have a full week planned, IKEA on Monday for a sofabed and bookcase - we need storage and a bed for Vic and Lewis for when they come down on Thursday! Tuesday will be hopefully relaxing as we have yoga, Wednesday we're visiting the Grandma :S, and Thurs-Sat Vic and Lewis will be here! I can't wait to house them for once!

Good news all round!

2010-02-19T15:59:00.004Z

:D Since the last time I blogged I have had brilliant news, in pretty much every aspect of my life..

Starting at the beginning, I went through the process of the IBM assessment day, and I pretty much ballsed it up straight away, I could tell I wasn't going to get the job when I saw the calibre of people there, most of them were super intelligent, not saying that I'm dumb, but these guys were like Oxbridge grads, and knew how to bullshit.

I did ok in my presentation, but it went super wrong during some random role play gig I had to do. I pretty much had to be spoonfed the info that I was meant to be giving :S Anyway, I could tell that I wasn't going to get the job, I think they kind of sussed me out, and saw that I shouldn't be working somewhere quite so uncreative!

So they left me hanging for 9 days, after 5 of which I got sent through an email from One2Create, a creative agency about a five minute drive from my house. They had found my CV and profile on monster.co.uk, and asked me to come in for an interview with my portfolio for a junior training scheme in their design dept. Obviously I was really excited, and said yes, and after the interview went really well, was pretty much rooting for that one to be a yes!

After a few days I got an email asking me to come for a second interview and was also given a task in the form of designing 6 logos and 2 adverts for a company that they had dealt with in the past. I really enjoyed the task, and I assume it showed, because I got the job! I was so happy, still am! It's exactly what I've wanted since I left uni, a junior position in a creative agency learning all the CS4 programs and CSS etc. I'll be learning graphic, multimedia and web design, which sounds brilliant. Seems like it all fell into place, and was the reason that IBM didn't work out! The other good thing about it is that I'll be working with Zach, as he works at One2Create too, which is spookily coincidental.

Everyone in our group managed to get RATM tickets too, so we'll all be going up to Finsbury Park on the 6th June for a free gig! As well as that, Zach and I have plans to go visit his family in Washington State in the Summer, and the gang are planning a skiing trip for this time next year, both of which should be awesome and do-able now I have a job! :D

Going for a thai meal tomorrow night with Zach, Vic and Lewis, so the boys can meet and get to know each other, I have a feeling they might be seeing a fair bit of each other :)

Oh, and I've been pretty productive with my drawing recently, so will be putting them up on my website or here soon......

New Year

2010-01-14T10:50:00.003Z

So I haven't actually blogged about anything for ages, mainly because of Christmas, it being the worst time of year for me, it was the first anniversary of my mum's death on the 28th, and creative was the last thing I was feeling. So, with the new year settled in, I have been applying to all sorts of things, I found some people looking for artist graduates in the South who want to do an exhibition about home, and coming home after uni, so have been in contact with them. I am going to try and become a volunteer at a really nice gallery in Portsmouth, and I have some illustration work on the go for a company in London doing a bid for the British museum. All exciting stuff.

Along side this, I have been going through the graduate recruitment process at IBM, for a role in Information Development (considered their most creative role). I am at the final stage now, so all that is in the way from me becoming a corporate adult is a day long assessment centre where I have to take part in group and individual activities and do a presentation :O !

I haven't really made any work for ages, the last piece I did was this,

which I did in late October. Thats awful isn't it? I got a bit fed up with the whole process of making work for myself, and not being any better off for it. At the moment Claud and I are attempting to create 1000 peace cranes to release somewhere epic in memory of our mums. So far I have about 150 done. Need to get on that really.

2009-09-04T19:41:00.003+01:00

So these are some of my latest bits, the first is being used in a Tixe image, of which we will have printed soon, and the second is a t-shirt graphic I'm sporadically trying to get printed at Threadless. An earlier version is also being used in a Tixe piece, so expect to see them in about a week!

I feel my past obsession with glitter returning, which is no bad thing in my books! This will make sense soon.......

Jelly

2009-09-04T19:11:00.005+01:00

For the past week I have been helping out at Jelly, an illustration/design company near Goodge Street. I'm going back in a week, after the Inky Goodness exhibition, and so far it's been pretty fun. I've done all sorts of things, delivering packages around London, photoshopping images, uploading images to their sexy site, creating story boards for a Sainsburys ad(!) and researchy stuff.

Even more exciting - I'm featured on their blog here with an image that I did for them - a Jelly cupcake! My next challenge is to make said cupcake, which shouldn't be too hard, considering it's my job! Here is my cupcake!

Have really enjoyed being in London this week, especially staying with Vic. Have also enjoyed walking around, have been making a daily commute from Goodge St to Baker St to pick up Vic from work, which is about a mile and a half! Am gonna be super busy now with the Inky exhibition, but Claud and I are on it, we have 4 images, which I will post soon!

Inky Goodness

2009-08-13T11:21:00.008+01:00

I am in a group exhibition with Claud as Tixe, on the 11th September at the Custard Factory in Birmingham. It's called Wonderland, and has been organised by Inky Goodness, which is pretty awesome as it means we just turn up with our work and have loads of fun.

We're both working on stuff individually, and then hopefully we'll be able to sort it into something resembling a collaboration. Am working with paper cutouts at the moment. Need to make some business cards too, have almost run out :O

Some new bits

2009-08-07T19:56:00.003+01:00

I did these this past week, am having fun with my normal blob shapes but messing about with gradients and layout....

I want to do a massive one of these and get it printed on my laptop!

More to come later, am working on all sorts of things that aren't on my list of to do's. This always happens.

Books I want

2009-08-07T11:32:00.005+01:00

Reeeally want this book, actually, both of these. Tactile is my most favourite book in the world, but I just can't seem to get my head around the £30 price tag.....

I'm sure one of these days I'm just going to order them both and ignore the £60 removed from my bank.

The first post

2009-08-06T21:32:00.000+01:00

So, I thought I'd give this bloggy thing a go, I think it might be a good way to organise what I'm doing, planning on doing and procrastinating about.

I have many things on the go, at the moment they look like this:-

- Inky Goodness exhibition with Tixe

- Prints ready to be put on sale in Lilly's

- Reorganisation of website

- 2 weeks of work experience/general helping out in September at Jelly Illustration

- Bulking up of portfolio

- Card design and sale

- Cupcake business expansion

So you see, I have rather a lot of things going around in my head, and they very definitely need structuring.

It doesn't help that my studio is a total mess at the moment, as I can't find anything, but I quite like it because it's pretty. Look!...

My favourite part of my studio is the artbookshelf, which i am constantly trying to not expand too exponentially.

So that about sums up my first post, obviously it's been pretty exciting.