You say hello and I say goodbye

we say both of these things on a day to day basis and say them to most people that we meet and see. and now it's like you have never seen them before.

How a Beall-ing

Lester Beall. A man that I had not heard of since I scrolled down my pinterest the other weekend and now I consider his work most highly. In one range of posters he used very simple colours and text  to advert the needs of the American people. Rural Electrification Administration's campaign was it's name. Ostritch sans was the main font more my choices but initially he used a serif typeface. I trimmed it down to just type as an extra challenge to see if I could make it work. Setting yourself limitations makes you work harder to find a solution. I think.

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (or black)

It's fun to stay at the C M Y K as one famous designer said. A famous designer who studied on my graphic design course at the university of cumbria. He chose a song that everyone knew to pay tribute to the colour scheme and I have just made a typography poster using a font that I have never used before (world first). I am a fan of these bright colours. which make up all of the printed images in an average printers.

The Official Opening

This blog post is the official opening of the James Reay Design website. It has been constructed and coded by my good self as part of a university project. It is a portfolio website and is there to display some of my most of my personal and as well as client based work. This is something that potential clients who are looking for designers will look at...if you are one of those people don't hesitate have a look. Click on the image below and prepare for a journey into the work of James Alexander Reay.

ENTER THE WEBSITE

Fractured Magazine

 Over the weekend I gave myself a brief, I gave myself a task, to design a magazine. Just the front cover as an identity breaker. I have started editoral at uni so the next step would be to approach the inside of the magazine but above is the start.

I found a really beautiful typeface in my font gallery which came in three seperate bits. Each letter form was split between the three of them (a normal version was included too). So the idea of seperated and an almost shattered typeface lead me to the name "fractured" as title for the zine, it was based on the style of zines from Wired, Clash or Little White Lies. Hipster but not outsider.

The Images are of some cult figures of TV and music. I would love to read articles on these beautiful people all of which have a close connection to my favourite radio station; BBC Radio 6 Music. I have been influnced by all and I would like to think that if this publication was real that they would like to read it.

an electric approach was needed to reflect the wide range of styles of the people present. the two tone chessboard for the specials front man, the  warm colours for the soul man and the unique DJ listening to her self.

Interstellar Grunge Design

the library has been a great source of inspiration for me over this term it has taught me a lot about typography but as well as the different styles of design. Never before have I been exposed to so much design before.

I have really got into grunge design from the work of david carson as well as the British firm, tomato. the company did a lot of work for the band underworld on their album "dubnobasswithmyheadman". It's very dark, very rough and has hints of punk about. the feeling that photocopiers have been destroyed with the amount of strain they have been used.  The work is visually chaotic and perfectly matches the beats of underworld music.

I wanted to capture the visual chaos of their work and match it with the imbalanced world of our solar system. Using stars and galaxies and black holes as a they are so beautiful but very complex. If printed the work would be on metallic paper so that it reflects very much like a solar panel. 

Two Turntables and a Microphone

Classic Hip Hop is something that I have been getting into a lot lately. Namely a Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Public Enemy. All of which where made using the recipe above; two turntables and a microphone, is a line in a Mantronix song which was indeed sampled by the man and the oddity, Beck on his track "Where it's at". I love them bands as well as Beck and I love the idea of sampling and editing from the glorious vinyl.

Hello and Welcome

shattered (sh dooby)

CMYK a colour scheme I should use more, it can produce a lot of interesting ideas. Breaking Glass was a good idea that Nick Lowe had it some point in the late 70's and thats what this looks like in my opinion. Messing around with various shapes and colours lead me to something that looks like a stain glass window shattering into oblivion as well as into a million pieces. Chaos and design as two things that should go hand in hand in my humble opinion.

Panto-not-mine

 Festive time is here again and there is nothing like celebrating with something relevant as well as something that has nothing really to do with me. HHHOOORRRAAAYYY!!! not.

This is not my project, This is Vincent Walden's which I hijacked for all of ten minutes and managed to turn to colours up as well as break the composition, mess around and still not be picked (not that they were ever entered as it wasn't my place to enter but still gave them a good put. Vincent does not want to claim ownership of the final thing as deems it to be not very good which I think given the spectrum of the brief a good effort was made.