Online presence

Website — www.joewarburton.co.uk
Tumblr — www.joedesign.tumblr.com
Behance — www.behance.net/joewarburton
Twitter — www.twitter.com/joewarbo
Dribbble —www.dribbble.com/joewarburton

Formula - Holding page

Until we can set aside a time to complete our branding, we have put up a holding page for Formula, simply showing a sneak insight into the work we do as well as a brief explanation as to who we are. As soon as FMP is out of the way, we aim to solely work on the development of Formula to ultimately produce brand material for the end of year show.

Current portfolio

This is my portfolio as it stands — I've been unable to incorporate work from my FMP due to time but this is the template I intend to use once I get the time.

Design blog

Trying to up my presence online, I was informed about a feature on The Design Blog. This was after I uploaded my work to Behance so this idea obviously proved fruitful — really chuffed to have been featured as it gives me a great platform to showcase some of my work.

www.thedsgnblog.com

Live work - T-mobile

I am currently unable to post any design work in relation to this project due to contract agreements but I was fortunate to be asked by a design and advertising agency in Los Angeles to create an iconography set for T-Mobile. Although a quick turnaround (2 days), it was a great project to work on — and I was able to create designs I feel most comfortable producing. I asked how they came across my portfolio and they seemed to remember it was from Dribbble (turns out an online presence is vital, really!)

Live work - Simplex

Over the past few months, I have been developing a website for SimplexWebs — a company that offers web hosting solutions. Despite being a more corporate design, it was an invaluable experience and I have hopefully invested in useful contacts (I devised their web layout around 2 years ago) — great to see your own design live and interactive.

www.simplexwebs.com

Behance

I thought I should finally get round to using Behance more extensively and I am more than happy that I did. I uploaded some new work completed within my FMP and was fortunate to be featured on Typography Served with the typefaced used within the Nicole Holcroft Emmess branding — I seem to be getting more followers from the back of this so all in all, really chuffed!

PPD Presentation

End of year show pitch

As me and Luke are ultimately opening a collaborative studio upon graduating, we knew we had to get the ball rolling by making the most of every opportunity that is available to us. After the prospectus, we decided to pitch for the end of year show artwork and promotional materials on the chance we were chosen. We were extremely chuffed to find out they selected our work to be used! Below are our presentation boards along with some reference images (excuse the poor quality, it seems to have altered once uploaded).

Promotional material

Current promotional material using my monogram logo design. I used a monochromatic colour palette to best reflect my practice. I always aim to achieve simple, clean and concise outcomes to ensure clarity so hopefully my logo design is representative of this.

Website — www.joewarburton.co.uk
Tumblr — www.joedesign.tumblr.com
Twitter — www.twitter.com/joewarbo
Dribbble —www.dribbble.com/joewarburton

Formula - Studio space

Luke found a cracking studio space on Gumtree, sharing the space with a marketing company. At £130 a month including all bills, we couldn't refuse and have now had the space for a couple of months. Although we haven't been there as often as we'd like due to uni commitments, it's been a great push in terms of the development of the business.

As we, along with Max and Niall, won the pitch for the LCA prospectus, it's been a great opportunity to use the space for meetings and project development. We had a meeting with GFSmith using the board room available — it seemed far more professional than the university.

BCN:MCR

Last week, I was fortunate to be able to get a ticket for the BCN:MCR event, curated by Dave Sedgwick. The event was to showcase the work and hear from the designers themselves, of 5 design studios based in Barcelona. Both cities, Manchester and Barcelona, host thriving design scenes and encompass certain parallels between the two.

The talks were brilliant and offered great insight into the studios practices. The designers showcased their previous, current and future work and it was great to hear how different studios, albeit very close to one another, typically approached a project. I didn't get to take many photographs but the following are taken by the house photographers.

Image sources: thisiscollate.com

Portfolio (Jan 2013)

I had previously got some of my portfolio up and running for a studio visit before Christmas but needed to add new projects and adapt the content as a result of the feedback I got, ready for the portfolio surgeries ahead. I tried to use a simple grid to ensure primary focus was on the images and tried to limit distractions whilst still retaining enough white space. I chose projects I was most engaged with so when talking through the briefs, this was evident.

Formula - Studio visits

Over the past few months, me and Luke have been researching into various potential studio spaces for when we graduate. We chose Leeds due to our mutual appreciation of the city and what it has to offer.

Umbrella —

We first looked at Umbrella who offer various sized spaces fairly close to the city centre in Holbeck. The rent started at £150 a month for the smaller spaces though the studios themselves were not as I hoped. For the larger spaces (which would be ideal), the rent is £285pcm.

Tower Works

Next up was Tower Works which had been our favourite from the get go. The studio spaces looked fantastic and they were situated in an idea location — directly behind the train station and therefore within in the city centre. Although more expensive than Umbrella, at £300pcm, it was fair for what they had to offer.

Formula - Plans

Me and Luke have decided to start a collaborative practice upon graduating as after working together on a few projects, we have realised our direction and approach to design works parallel.

We have named ourselves, Formula — the name comes from our methodical and logical approach and after looking into mathematical terminology, Formula stood out. A formula is a process that leads to an end result, much like design and we believe the two marry with one another.

Designival

In November, me and Luke went to Designival — a 2 day design festival in Liverpool. As we'd be setting up a studio together, we thought it'd be useful to hear from the 4 speakers, particularly Lance Wyman and Simon Manchipp due to their specialisms in brand design.

Day 1

For the first day of Designival, a few studios around Liverpool opened their doors. We selected a few we wanted to visit in particular — Mercy, Uniform, SB, Black & Ginger and Smiling Wolf. I think we only managed to see 3 of these (Mercy, SB and Black & Ginger) but all in all, a really insightful day and interesting to see the environment in which these studios work in. (Also got a mean brekkie this day, as you can see below).

Day 2

Day 2 was the day of the talks and portfolio review sessions. Although we had booked for these, there must have been some confusion with timing as we didn't get seen to in the end. The talks make up for this and first on was Sara De Bondt who talked through the development of her career. She discussed in depth how she approached, created and resolved a project which was extremely insightful.

PPD Workshop [2]

Task 1 — Identify 5 companies/studios which you consider potentially synergetic to you personally. Write a short explanatory paragraph and reasons for each.

Heydays
heydays.no

Heydays is an Oslo-based design studio who specialise primarily in brand design. They "remove noise to add value" to ensure clear and concise resolutions. I hope to specialise within branding and identity upon finishing my degree and the work of Heydays has been a huge inspiration throughout the past few years. Their clean aesthetic is evident throughout their portfolio and is something in which I intend to emulate within my own work. The branding, however, is also based upon strong, visual concepts.

Because Studio
becausestudio.co.uk

Because studio is the professional practice of Loz Ives.

The Consult
theconsult.com

The Consult are a leeds based brand agency who produce crafted and well considered resolutions. After contacting them prior to summer last year, they offered some extensive and insightful advice in regards to approaching branding; something I will take on board for the rest of the degree and beyond.

Lundgren & Lindqvist
lundgrenlindqvist.se

Lundgren & Lindqvist are a Swedish brand design studio who offer services including "branding, design for print and digital, illustration and Art Direction". Again, much like the others I have selected, their work is based on an understanding of how a brand works and and ultimately that the message dictates the media. I aim to explore brand identity in more depth through my FMP so they will offer an invaluable contextual resource.

Task 2/3 — Identify the top choice and WHY you feel that they may have synergy with your practice now, or in the near future. What is your choice based on?

As aforementioned, The Consult are a brand consultancy based in Leeds who I got in touch with a few months ago asking for some advice / direction. They got back to me with some insightful feedback in relation to branding and identity which ultimately spurred me to pursue a direction towards brand design. Their work is well-crafted, concise in its form and well-informed — producing extensive, high quality outcomes. I always try and approach a project methodically to ensure clarity and I believe The Consult has a similar approach which I want to try and emulate.