How Pinteresting #3.

Halloween and Bonfire Night are over, which means Christmas is coming, and for the last few weeks I've been researching different fonts for Christmas cards and cute wrapping ideas, I can't help it – I guess I'm just the kind of person who really does love Christmas.

Christmas is going to be pretty great this year, it looks to be the first one that I'll be spending officially at my mum's house, we won't be having turkey and it will be the first time I'll be seeing my sister since August - Facetime and Skype only do so much of the job - I'm really looking forward to it more than usual and there are lot of other festive things to take in before the big day too!

As well as Christmas and thinking about how to wrap presents I haven't even bought, I've been wrapping myself up - frosty mile-long walks from the car into work don't really allow you to make a choice about that part - and thinking about all kinds of winter warming food.



1 // Wrapped + Sewed Christmas Wrapping – Love the idea of shaping gifts into fun Christmassy shapes. I don't think I'd get away with this kind of intricate wrapping with Little Doll around (she's quite the helper) but isn't it adorable?
2 // The Perfect Chicken Noodle Soup – Another easy-to-pin recipe from the delightful, Design Love Fest, I really like this simple twist on traditional chicken noodle soup, the photo-styling is pretty great too.
3 // To the Moon & Back Playroom – Pinterest is a goldmine for cute kid's clothes and great playrooms. I know I'm not at that part of my life, but actually that's not the point, I'd rather have some of these spaces just for myself.
4 // Steamy Kettle – I've been wanting to try photographing steam myself but this photo, even though I've got a (less romantic) electric kettle, sums up my feels for November weekends perfectly.

You can follow me on Pinterest: here.

Selling myself.

I've definitely been suffering this week with a serious case of a 'can't get a job, won't ever have a job' blues. So after perking up a bit after my driving lesson, as well as on the suggestion of Moon, I made this flyer.

I'm the first to admit that my graphic design skills are second to quite a few people's but I don't think that I've done a half-bad job on this. There was further suggestion, when I posted it on Twitter earlier, that I should add an image to the flyer, I guess because it would sell what I'm offering more. However, I believe that currently it's fine the way it is, I think the design is solid enough to catch people's attention, but that's just my big head. Further criticism is encouraged if you feel that it's needed.


Things aren't looking as down as they were at the beginning of the week though, having been in touch with a few promising leads this morning and with a telephone interview (I hope) to look forward to later this afternoon. I have also really made headway in scrap-booking again which will definitely help towards keeping me creative and stopping my brain from turning into mush, I'll maybe do a post about that in the next few days.

Last night on Channel 4.

Something that I really hate about Channel 4 is that usually their best stuff is on really late at night and they never tell anyone about, despite the fact that they probably still feel like they need to get over the loss of Big Brother.

But anyway, at around midnight last night they showed the Oscar-winning short, Logorama. I was pretty impressed, it had an almost perfect balance of social commentary and comedy. The animation is set within a fictional Los Angeles that is comprised of corporate logos. They have been really smart in the way that they have done this, watch out for the Adidas logo as flowers at the end.

I think it's very well put together and I've managed to find it online (demonstrating that the Internet is better than television), so I'd definitely recommend that you watch it, it's only 16 minutes of your life. I think that it's a must for communication design enthusiasts as well as graphic designers.

Official Logorama website
Logo.Design.Love blog post

Reworked font colour.

..and size.
These details are of so little importance to both me and whoever is looking at this, that it almost seems pointless. Essentially, these three JPGs are the same as the ones below, but, I do think these look a bit better and hopefully it is something that Daniel will pick up on, especially as I'll be using black foam board rather than the oddly specified white.
Let it be noted I've tried to use as true fonts as possible as well.
I think this could be my final work. To the printers - on Tuesday.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I have been left almost completely alone this evening, and after I finished up this (a task which took me the duration of Eastenders), rather than spend my time wisely working on my RDB, I was on the phone.
First to my Gran for nearly an hour, and then to my sister for two hours, ridiculous. However, I have had quite a busy day, so apart from the InDesign tweaking I probably wouldn't have been bothered to do much else anyway. It does bother me that I will still have the same pile of RDB work to do over the weekend, but if it's going to be as wet and rainy as they say - fingers crossed not for Monday - then I may as well make use of less distracting time indoors.

The band pitch went well, but I didn't get it, I think I've learnt from it though, hey ho.
I need to learn to think a bit more and worry a bit less.