my name is ruth, hello.

So here I am blogging from London at my friends sisters flat. (check out her lovely lovely blog here) in Walthamstow, East London. I like staying here as we plan on getting a flat in East London so get to see what it out there.

The main reason we are in London is for New Designers 2011. An exhibition for graduate designers to showcase our work to potential employers. The last two days, Monday and Tuesday have been spent setting up our very small space ( 4 metres by 3, but we made it work!) 

Our space

There are seven of us exhibiting ranging from apps, to maps to products. We’re mixed in with Visual Communication and Graphic Design which doesn’t best describe what we do (although it is what I would like to do) so we do stand out a bit. The other stands have prints and illustrations up all over the walls. I have had a nosy at some of the work and it is incredibly impressive. It inspires me for when New Designers is finished and I can start on my own work.

Tomorrow begins with the judging, with a lot of prizes from best stand, to the best designer of the year award. Some internships are up for grabs which is pretty exciting, but I don’t think I am in with a chance of winning any of them.

I’m looking to get out of this experience, not prizes, but advice on my unusual niche I think I am slipping into. I always say, ‘I don’t like interaction design’ but that’s not the case. I just want to involve more of my artistic talent into my work, and use my interaction design knowledge as a skill set to work with, but not necessarily be an interaction designer. I hope that makes sense! I know what I am talking about. I want to go into graphic design but without an qualifications in it, I think it will be difficult to get into straight away. That is why I want to work on building up my portfolio once uni is completely over rather than delve into a design job straight away. I need some of my own time to create my work to show the industry what I want to produce.

Map Your City© at New Designers 2011, Islington.

For New Designers, I decided to make new business cards that sort of showed my interest to be more crafty then digital. I made my own stamp with my personal details to stamp on the back of my business cards I got from Moo. I pre stamped some (to experiment) but my feeling would be when I spoke to someone interested in my project I could stamp the back of my cards and hand it over, creating a personal feeling towards the card in some ways, rather than it being a generic business card with the one size fits all method.

Ruth Tullis Business Cards front and stamped on back 

Duncan of Jordanstone Degree Show May 2011. Ruth Tullis. Map Your City.

My project Map Your City displayed at the Duncan of Jordanstone Degree Show, Dundee. May 2011.

“Maps are probably the strongest invention after the wheel” (Firket, N, 2008) 

Maps should be a tool that connects you to a city. Instead they navigate you from A to B.

Map Your City allows the user to create a personal map to interact with a city allowing the user to gain a unique experience and memory of a city. The map creates a personal interaction for the user to engage with places of interest.

Researching my dissertation in New York led me to focus and design my personal interactive map on the city. Map Your City helps you interact with the geography of New York City in a personal way.

… I have completely abandoned this blog. I said to myself, despite my last year of uni coming to an end in a couple of weeks, I would keep this blog up to date with stuff I like, and write to take my mind off uni. Well it turns out there is no time to take my mind off uni, and for the last 2 months, uni and my project have all I thought about.

But now, today, I suddenly realised I am out of the fog that was the stress, anxiety, panic, even more stress, and come out the other end with a project I am actually pleased with. Over the last few months I have written my first design proposal highlighting the areas of my project I am focusing on and what I intended to create, made sheets researching into different design aspects of my project, as well as different technologies I could have used. I spent one month simply researching my project in order to know for certain I was creating a project I knew through and through, and looked into multiple areas which allowed me to make sure I was designing something I was 100% happy with. I planned the making process so I could keep all the areas of the project I was making together, as to not let one area fall back (despite me not liking some parts!) I then I made. I made 2 maps, from scratch. Traced them, scanned them, vectorised them, then designed them. I then designed a brochure for the user to use and visualise their map. I created an animation of the online stage of my project, as well as a working prototype for users to interact with. I then began to film, edit and produce a video showing my project in action, along with 100 words de scripting my project and why I chose my project. I took 500 photos to pick just one photo for my one great image. I am now in the process of bringing it all together for Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design Degree Show 2011. Four years of practice has brought me to this stage. Words cannot describe how scared I am, but I feel proud of what I’ve managed to accomplish. 

So what is my project I have spent over a year researching and working on? My next post will reveal all! (bet everyone can’t wait…)

Today was reasonable okay today. Got good feedback with my blog I have been working on over Christmas. I was the only one who really blogged over the holidays. I only did it because it helped me with my thought process, not to get the best blog in the class, but I am happy I was told it was decent!

Have a few other things to look into my project, typography and experiences in New York which so far are really interesting to look into. Going to set myself some targets to do each week.

Now off to talk to my old flatmate who know lives in Sweden for a semester, very exciting!