Anyways! While I was on holiday, The Fort had an official launch party at Karen’s bar and restaurant, with press and everything! I was pretty bummed out about not being able to attend, but on my return I got some great news from Karen; The Fort has launched its own website, www.thefortyork.co.uk, and it also got a nice little mention on The Drum, which is a cool, creative resources website! How awesome, eh. I can’t believe that it’s done! Well, I’ll have to make sure that it’s not the last we see of it. Maybe an overnight stay in York has to be planned in the future..

And because I hate a pictureless post, here’s some holiday snaps:

I spent the afternoon tidying up the vinyl installation with a craft knife and taking pictures. There were extra pieces of vinyl that had to be cut out, a natural error of the vinyl printer. It was time consuming, but it felt gratifying to be perfecting my own work. As I was finishing up, I felt both insanely proud and sad that that was really it, I was pretty much done. What an amazing journey. Hopefully it won’t be long before I (or you!) can check-in for a night or two.

What do you guys think?

In the end, I decided to work with photographer, Tom Rhodes in supplying and printing the vinyl. It was a restless wait for Tom and the materials to arrive. When they did, I was both excited and nervous at how big the prints turned out. I guess I just didn’t prepare myself for the actual scale of the project until my own illustrations were laid out before me, the smallest one dwarfing my sandals. Piece by piece, the artwork went up in panels and started to form the concept that started on paper. It was actually quite emotional!

We got about halfway when I had to leave to catch my train. I was devastated, it was leaving my baby behind, but was pretty confident in Karen and Tom in getting the job finished without me. Besides, when I left, the room looked amazing. You’ll have to wait until I next go back down to see how it turned out!

You can see the paint samples I put on the wall! It’s nerdy, but I was so excited! It wasn’t just because of the decorating thing, but it’s just this whole project. I’ll suddenly remember that I’m working for a real client, who’s given me free reign to choose what I want and how to do it as I please. It’s pretty exhilarating.

And did I mention that Karen owns a bar and restaurant below the hostel? While she ran some errands, the staff gave me as much coffee as I could hold (lots), and made me the most glorious lunch. In all seriousness, I do admire Karen for everything she’s achieved and wanting to achieve. It’s a pretty gutsy move to let 5 or 6 youngsters hold the fate of your hard earned money, your home, your new business.

Since then I’ve been busy still trying to figure out how the hell I was going to supply the vinyl for my artwork. I got in touch with some people and been bartering time and money, and hopefully everything’s in place. It better be, because I’m heading back down tomorrow morning. Hopefully there will be walls and they should be painted. I’ll then spend a few hours getting my hands dirty. And I can not wait.

Sketchblog is being put on hiatus. It has become clear to me now that trying to up an image every Thursday is going to be difficult. I was a bit naive in thinking I could carry on doing what I did, after 60+ hours of my week is taken up by my new job. And in all honesty, I haven’t really been making the time. In fact, I still don’t have a work desk and half my stuff is still packed away in boxes. Like I said though, there’s no excuses. Realistically, it could be another month or two before things resume to normal.

In other news.. I did take a trip down to York a couple of weeks ago. I had the opportunity to meet the client, Karen Waugh, who owns the hostel, as well as the other designers involved in the project, who were very lovely indeed. We were given a tour of the building and also got to choose our rooms to decorate, which was great. Although some rooms only had three walls, the flooring had holes, and there was no ceiling, it was very exciting to stand in a space, which we, the designer, were basically given free reign. Since then I’ve been working on how to get my idea from screen to the walls, and I’m thinking I’ve got less than two weeks to get everything sorted and ready to be installed. I have every intention of being as involved as I can be in the process of making decisions and most definitely want to get my hands dirty, however as a heads up, I have some pre-commitments with work that may clash with the opening of the hostel, expected in late May. But already, I’ve selected colour samples for the walls and have a supplier in mind to reproduce the artwork for wall application, and I’ll be doing what I can to get involved first-hand in York because this project has awesome potential and I want to document the whole project. Expect a photographic post showing the before and after mayhem once the hostel has been opened to the public.

At least this all means it won’t be long before you hear from me again, eh!

I do have some design-related news. First up, my hostel concept got chosen! Here’s the catch-up if you missed out. I’ve been told to expect some follow-up instructions in the next month or so from the client on how to actually implement my idea, which is pretty exciting! I think I’ll also be given the opportunity to go down to York myself to oversee some of the work. I can not wait to see it being pieced together, it’s gunna be absolutely amazing!

Another awesome piece of news is that a couple of my illustrations were chosen by a consultancy company to use on their website, and as a result, I got paid an incentive. A small incentive, but an incentive nonetheless; My first paid job! I took this as an opportunity to design my very own invoice. I remember reading somewhere that the invoice is usually the last piece of contact the client receives, and generally not the kind that they enjoy. This stuck with me, so why not make it pretty to look at!

Using District Thin, grey and pink, I matched my invoice with the identity of my portfolio. Like the re-design of my portfolio, I enjoyed creating the layout for this too. I think I’ll have to conjure up some layout projects for myself in the near future.. Until then, I’ll try to keep up with posting. Although getting this job has been awesome and part of my new year’s resolve, design ignites a part of my mind and heart that no other can. So be it a little sketch, a project update, or even a creative book review, design will continue to be apart of me, and my new, working life in Newcastle.

It felt a bit silly at first, but once I had a collection of keywords, several images immediately came to mind, as opposed to coming up with one or two ideas off the bat and running with them straight away. The process of elimination looks at as many possibilities as possible, and it’s this exploration that strengthens the eventual final concept. As well as trying to be more aware of the thought process behind the product, I’ve actually really enjoyed going back to pen and paper. I’ve always admired the clean, cut, boldness of vector images, but there’s just a charm that comes with using analogue instruments; The rough edges, uneven spacing, even the mistakes. What do you think?

So the next time you hear from me, it’ll be from the other side of the Irish Sea, which will be a first for my blog, I think! I haven’t got a flat sorted out yet, so I’ll be doing the gracious thing of squatting at Le Éléphant’s flat while he is away working. Ahh flat-hunting. It’ll be refreshing viewing places that don’t (I really hope they don’t) have mould on the curtains, slugs in the sink, ants in the drawers, and brown paisley carpet.

Have you been going analogue this week?

So the last three days I’ve been pretty under the weather, but there is still much to tell. Mizi’s visit has been the highlight of an otherwise shady week. It’s been a long time since Mizi’s been in Northern Ireland, mostly because she’s just spent 18 months in Japan! So it was very lovely to see her. While she was over, it was also Chinese New Year, a time of sugar loaded cake and red envelopes. I went out clubbing with family to celebrate, which turned out to be very messy, indeed! I shall think twice about ordering in quadruples to “beat the bar queue” next time.. What I thought was an unusually long hangover seems to actually be some sort of bug, so many pills and concoctions have been ingested! This is not boding well with a new logo project I have just undertaken, but I won’t let it dampen my scheduling spirits.

Last and not least, I’m moving back to Newcastle next Thursday. I could have announced it earlier, but I only found out a couple of days ago myself. I was meant to go to Manchester next week, but obviously this is of higher priority. Still means having to fly for the 5th time this month though (grumble). And I’m afraid that’s all the details I can reveal at this moment in time. Frustrating, I know!! But no doubt, exciting times lie ahead :)

Been on any adventures this week?

I decided my portfolio was in need of a re-design, and the result is minimal and image-orientated – my favourite combo! Since freelancing on various projects, it’s been a while since I really sat down with my portfolio, so when I did I realised it was in need of a little Tender Loving Creativity. I removed the bounded header and footer so space was better utilised for images to make the work the focus and to give each piece room to breathe. To compliment the new minimal look, I exchanged Hit The Road for District Thin, and I swapped rich blacks for a muted grey. I really enjoyed the process of this re-design as layout design is not something I often get to do, but am really interested in. I’d love to know what you think of it.

Sparking off the portfolio re-design was the end of the Hostel concept project, which has been upped into the portfolio section. The concept has been submitted for approval with many other graduate designs. I heard that the client was considering concepts based on York primarily, which came to light when I had already submitted my concept in. But no matter, as I’m quite pleased with the end result and enjoyed going back to my roots of doodling characters.

Last and not least, Happy Chinese New Year and Valentine’s to one all. I wish everyone good health and prosperity in their lives. This is the year to overcome any self-doubt and really go for it, in anything and everything that you do. I’ll leave you with these soppy pictures of what I received from le Éléphant; the best Valentine’s card I’ve ever seen, and my first ever bouquet of flowers, a dozen red roses :)