Working finally!

so nearly done with the first week of work. I am currently working on a map for the Connect music festival in Inverary wayy up north in Scotland. I started out working with industrial meshed with nature textures to play up the rock and roll factor with the scenery of being in the wild north areas of the country. I hadn't ever seen the pictures of the actual site so designing a place with no concept of the landscape in addition to not being familiar with the culture proved to be slightly more difficult than I imagined. I sat down with Steven and Douglas in the studio and they both showed me many many pictures of the site, and tried to let me get my head around it. I think Douglas is proving to be a very good teacher so far concerning the world of industry. He has been easing me into the studio hectic environment by not putting the same time constraints on me as the others in the studio. He says he will gradually start to give me more demanding deadlines to give me an idea of how it really works. SO bearing that in mind I have been trying very hard to get the quality of my work to stay the same while consciously trying to move faster to exceed his expectations. Not only that but I have drawn out a bunch of full typefaces to have uploaded into the system for later use on the other things I do to try to move things along and decrease my work time spent. I think I have also discovered the idea of compromising for the sake of time constraint and how that plays into the design that you do. I always thought that my work hours were irrelevant until recently where I watch the other designers in the studio weigh out the budget of the client, the amount of work and then decide how much they can afford to do it while still pulling enough money in to live and make a profit. Douglas has been letting me sit in on client meetings and listen to how he interacts with them to produce better products. I really find it interesting that the client does not know how to verbalize the problem they are having in addition to not visualizing it. They do not listen because they are so stressed out by the problem and they have to have their bit to talk, and then they feel more relieved once they leave because Douglas listens, takes notes, and allows them to talk as much as they feel is nessesary. He handles people way more often and with more professional attitude than Steven because of the nature of his role as Director. I find it interesting to see where the two draw the line on ethics of design in order to get the job done. Steven will try hard to please the client but he gets frustrated quickly when asked to compromise on the design of a piece. Douglas on the other hand finds baseline as a way to fund his other more creative options and is willing to get the job done more quickly. He is aware that some of the products are less than satisfactory to him, but at the end of the day the bad jobs fund the good in a way.

In addition to the map, I am designing the illustrations of the line up of the band. I can not believe how much illustration he is actually letting me do, and with as much freedom as I have I feel lucky comparatively to the experiences I had in the states. more than anything I think he wants to see the American design part of what I do, and have that influence and mix with the other two designers in the studio. Steven and I are also doing a joint illustrated advert for the new website for baseline that is set to be in publication tomorrow. We are going to do a ping pong illustration with us passing a drawing (black and white) back and forth to illustrate the role baseline has in the concert festival season and the launch of the website itself with new additions to the screen print gig art side. I am very glad that he is in addition to getting me involved with the other full designers, but taking the time to explain the rational behind what he is doing to get his point across. Steven wants to help me get some of my illustrations on to the threadless site back in the states so I can gain a bit of notoriety as well. not to mention the free t-shirts he promised! Wa-Hoo! So anyway, three projects in the works.

As for the living part of scotland, I am heading to the 2 showings of the Glasgow school of art and another art school around here whose name escapes me soon. Baseline was invited to the private viewings so that will be cool. I am going to Glasgow tomorrow via train to take some pictures with Angie for a Home magazine advertisement and after we take the pictures we are going to go out! AND she is gonna let me do my laundry at her house since the hostel makes you hand over your laundry for them to do... and I don't really like the idea of other people touching my "pants" (underwear to Americans) I also didn't like the idea of my underwear hanging out on a line to dry, as its a bit more public than I am used to... I am looking forward to moving into my "flat" on the university campus in about 1.5 weeks because I will have my own room... The girl in the bed above me is Japanese and talks in her sleep... quite loudly and I have no idea what she is saying... so that is usually awkward in the morning. I got a bit homesick night before last and went for the McDonald's menu... its 99pence menu here as apposed to the dollar menu... which sucks because with the exchange rate its technically the 2 dollar menu! everything always has a catch I suppose. anyway... map project below and Douglas looked at it and the first thing he said was "Very American color palette. That might have to change..." but to me it feels kinda like a slightly more rock and roll Disneyland map.... anyway, I am trying not to be too precious about my work over here because I know I am not aware of the design scene as much, so he is going to have to change it a bit to fit into the public awareness by default. I think that will be a really good experence for me. To see someone take something I did and muck it all up and if it turns out better or worse its the way it goes sometimes.