Macaffer Design

Jamie Macaffer here. Follow to stay up-to-date on my progress as a Freelance Graphic Designer and my University Studies.

[jamiemacaffer]

Chen Si

This is a very eye catching and unique piece of work Chen Si, I love the way you dictated Big Ben out of focus whilst focusing on the traditional English lamp post which can be found in London. 

In terms of the paper around the edge, the ripped effect works very well. But I think it would be a great idea to add some Chinese language in some parts to show an integration between the British and Chinese. You could also research into the history of Chinese visitors to London and include this in some way as an extra.

Good job!

[jamiemacaffer]

SPEED Plus Residential

What a weekend this has been, learning and communicating with other entrepreneurs in a networking fashion was a unique experience that I will indefinitely try again whenever possible. 

I was very lucky to have been placed onto the SPEED Plus course, receiving presentations from experts around various aspects around business all through the weekend - staying in a top class hotel courtesy of SPEED Plus!

Coming away from the weekend, I have found that netwroking in such a manner over a residential is one of the best ways to make business with others. Having a comfortable/ casual environment to talk about my services was beneficial, whilst getting to know people on a personal level.  

[jamiemacaffer]

Keep up to speed!

An exchange programme with Changsha, China students from Central South University as you all know. Keep up to date with my current blogging account shared with the students on the programme here:

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/changsha2015

While completing the usual modular university work I have also been helping the Chinese students complete their projects specially for the exchange. They will be doing the same for me and my classmates when we visit China on 14th March. 

[jamiemacaffer]

My first meeting with Changsha students! Interesting experience with a great group of people!

[jamiemacaffer]

It's been a while!

Starting up my business has been the hardest, but most rewarding experience in my life! Blogging alongside this is difficult, but blogging is still important for me and my followers!

Here's a poster I have recently produced for my Monotype University Project, promoting Robert Zemeckis work as a Director. I have chosen to focus on three of his most influential titles, Back to the Future Trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Forrest Gump.

This poster is part of a campaign for a showing of these three films. I will also be producing a video and touching point to match.

Stay tuned.

[jamiemacaffer]

Book Design Development

After hours upon hours of planning and designing, I can finally say that I have completed my design for the Pocket Book I am producing on 'Branding in 2014'. So far I have finished the inner pages, I will move onto the cover design tomorrow afternoon, what is most likely to be messy as I will be attempting to wax stamp on the front cover serving as the focal point of the design. 

I will be using the next few days before deadline on Friday to make any further improvements to both my design and sketchbook work.

Here's preview of some pages direct from InDesign:

[jamiemacaffer]

PERSONAL WEBSITE IS LIVE

Well, its been live for about a week now but here's the official announcement!

www.jamiemacaffer.com

Its been a long road, my website is live to the public. For now I am displaying information about my services and a preview of my work to give people a good idea of the kind of designer I can be for them.

My website design has deprived from all that I have learnt in the past two years in a nutshell, from the exciting and sometimes terrifying creative world.

In the future, with a larger network of people I hope to launch a fully functional e-commerce version of this website. Making the payment process that bit easier for each and every client. 

[jamiemacaffer]

CV Winter 2014

I have been making some great progress on my CV, here is the near finished 3 page design itself! Several refinements need to be made on small things such as text justification and colour alteration in places.

I have focused on my progress as a Freelance Graphic Designer, displaying my work experience from the last couple of years. My cover letter was kept short, I don't want my employers to be overcome by information that probably won't stick! All that needs to be conveyed is what kind of person I am, what I can do for my employer and what I have done. 

By structuring my content in such a way, my CV should come as a fresh breeze of information amongst a day full of traditional overcrowded CV's that bore employers. My CV will hopefully give the reader a majestic experience as they go from start to finish. 

[jamiemacaffer]

Book Design Progress and Speed Induction

I have made excellent progress with my book design for the typography project, publishing really is something exciting. With so much freedom, allowing room to venture into so many different avenues. Publishing is definitely something I would like to move into at some point in my career! Yesterday was full of intense planning in my sketchbook involving colours, fonts, grids, layout and images in my pocket book for 'Branding in 2014'. From this planning I will be able to quickly move into designing digitally and ready to print my pocket book physical draft today. As the day goes on I will have more to post in regards to the design. Onto Speed Plus; a fantastic induction that benefitted me in many ways, with a networking session, accountant guidance and copyright/ trademark professional presentations gave me the initial knowledge and confidence I need to move my freelance business forward. Next week we will be choosing a business consultant which is provided to us as part of Speed with a total of 12 hours! I will also be registering my freelance business with a professional accountant provided by Speed. I am likely to register first as a sole trader, very exciting!

[jamiemacaffer]

Today's Schedule

Last night I made some great progress with the development of my interactive element to my multimedia module. I'm making an app simulation via Adobe Muse to display how the app would work if on a real iPhone. So far it is going well, saving time whereas actually coding a real app in Xcode would take longer as I have realised. This morning will be full of final app development, I hope to start planning my video (moving element) that will be embedded into my app. Later on today I have my SPEED Plus induction from 12-4.30, hoping this will go well! Looking forward to meeting like-minded people on the program and hearing about their businesses.

[jamiemacaffer]

Received my First Module Grade

This morning has been eventful, receiving my first grade of the year being 64% - a 2:1. This is not what I hoped for as a strive to achieve the best in all areas, but I will use this as a motivational tool to work harder on my remaining modules.

[jamiemacaffer]

Direct from my sketchbook is a rough flat plan of where my content is most likely to sit in my A6 pocket booklet for 'Branding in 2014'. This really helps speed up the design process of publishing, I have been inspired my my lecturer Dr Simon Bell to use this method.

[jamiemacaffer]

Static Poster Finalised

Here it is. After a substantial amount of improvements the poster for 'Create Live' has been finalised. The most recent improvement since last time I posted the static poster is the addition of finding the app on the App Store and Google Play.

[jamiemacaffer]

University and SPEED Plus Progress Update

Busy, busy, busy! 

What a past couple of weeks this has been, three modules running at once and preparing for SPEED Plus. Time management has been crazy, somehow I seem to have kept roughly on top of things.

First off I'd like to announce my position on SPEED Plus has been granted after a successful presentation to a board of business professionals about my freelance brand/ business 'Jamie Macaffer Design'.

Here's a link for precise info on SPEED Plus: http://www.speed-plus.org

Work is coming together well with my 'Create Live' Art School Campaign module, my static poster (after tonnes of refining) is complete! Conceptual design for my app relating to the campaign's interactive and moving side of things is well underway and I am looking to produce a simulation of how the app will work and function for my submission in December. 

Next is the typography module, Simons module is very exciting! We have been individually tasked to create a book of some form on any topic we desire. I chose 'Branding in 2014' as this is a particular interest of mine and it may help me develop my general knowledge further.

I have been working on initial design ideas for the book cover after in depth research of all different forms of books from your classic book, magazine to pocket book. I chose to use a pocket style book. 

Flat planning is fun! Getting crazy with ideas after setting out all my inner pages for my book with a brief idea of sub-categories, it gets the ideas an work flowing quicker than you can imagine.

More on Flat planning to come. 

[jamiemacaffer]

SPEED Plus Presentation!

My SPEED Plus presentation to a panel of four professional business men and women will commence Tuesday morning, and I can tell you - I am extremely nervous, but man am I excited. 

I will be talking about my idea as a Freelance Graphic Design company branded from my name, using a host of material from my portfolio and demographic findings I will be convincing them if it is right to help me in my venture and partially fund my needs. 

Obtaining a position on SPEED Plus will help me in so many ways:-

- Networking events will help build a client base.

- Funding will give me the tools to establishing a great sole trader business.

- My confidence will flourish woking with like minded students on SPEED Plus and an array of professionals at our request, including accountants, financial and business advisors.

Im optimistic, hoping to pull off a fantastic presentation to give me the best chances of entering SPEED Plus after tonnes of planning and preparation! 

I have been extremely busy over the past few days, hence the lack of blog posting. But I assure you all that I will try my hardest to post on a daily basis, if not every other day. Keeping a regular blog helps me think about changes I need to make to my working structure, notice improvements I have made and keeping a track of progress. It also keeps you guys up-to-date with my life as a Graphic Designer! 

[jamiemacaffer]

Static Poster, Art School Campaign Project

I am pleased to reveal THE FINAL static poster design as part of a fictional campaign to get people interested in going to Art School. My poster's message is simple, why live in the 'boring' ordinary world when you are creative and have the potential to release your endless ideas into the world. 

As you can see, my poster has two sides to the design:

The Left side is clearly supporting a creative style, full of colour and exciting to look at. Calligraphic type from the left side soon disappears into the right side where a plain old white background is used with simple black text, kind of portraying the style of a word document. Leading onto my aim of making the right side look corporate and boring.

Each side has a message reaching out the audience, the left "Begin your creative journey, starting at Art School" the right side "Normality looks boring doesn't it?". 

I am pleased with the final outcome of my design, starting off with the idea of calligraphic text and transforming it into something unique! Onwards to creating my app design which will have similar design traits to the poster. Stay tuned.

[jamiemacaffer]

After reviewing app designs on the web I quickly decided Xcode was the best option for making a iOS app. Not only is this software free, its clear, concise and mac user friendly. Owning a Macbook Pro made the decision for me!

As I am new to the software, I have started to teach myself how to use it. I haven't got much time to learn so I have turned to a very useful Youtube channel that provides a great tutorial playlist with an easy to follow lesson with every detail to help me on the way.

My second day of learning from these videos has come and already I am gaining a basic knowledge of how the interface works in Xcode and how I can apply it to basic app design.

Onwards and upwards, I just have to sit tight right now and be patient as I take in all this information to then begin apply my own app design for the Art School Campaign I must produce for University coursework.

Check out the channel I have been using here; 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2D6eRvCeMtcF5OGHf1-trw

Chris is definitely worth a look if you are into the same kind of stuff!