This year I submitted 3 postcards to The International Postcard Show, here they are in all their glory!

You can visit the exhibition at The Surface Gallery, in Nottingham, from now until 11th Feb 2012.

Surface Gallery
16 Southwell Road,
Nottingham
NG1 1DL

Photo by Paul Lockton.

“Diamonds” Illustration – available as wallpaper. See Creative Commons License below for restrictions.

Pack contains 6 sizes;
1600×1200, 1280×1024, 1152×864, 1024×768, 800×600, 640×480

Click here to download.

Diamonds by Lee-Ann Donaldson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

A couple of years ago, former student and Graphic Designer Mark Andrew Webber visited the college I was studying at to give us a talk on his career progression since he’d attended the college. The main focus of the talk was on his “Where in the World City Maps” – huge typographic maps cut into linoleum and printed – which were hugely inspiring not only because I’m a typography nut, but because I admire the more traditional method of design.

As I’ve progressed from Graphic Design into Illustration over the last 2 years, I’ve found myself stepping away from the security of Photoshop & Illustrator to develop my drawing and work in different mediums, while also exploring different areas of design. Printing is something that’s always lingered as something I’ve wanted to attempt – particularly screen-printing, as I’ve done 2 mini modules on the subject over the time I’ve spent in education and love the process that goes into it. Recently I went back to look at the work Mark has on his Flickr page and from there looked into the process behind linocut printing. I bought a kit online and when it arrived yesterday I thought I’d give it a go.

The first cut I done was a lettering piece I’d drawn up while I was away last week, which was pretty small in terms of size but quite time consuming as it was my first attempt. Despite stabbing my finger (which hurt, a lot.) it all went smoothly and as I’ve seen mentioned several times, the finished cut block is just as interesting as the overall print.

I’m going to carry on with linocut printing and see where I can take it from here, I feel like I need to experiment with different inks and papers because the overall finish on mine – while quite interesting in texture – doesn’t give as smooth a finish as I’ve seen while looking around online.

“Balloons” Illustration – Available as wallpaper. See Creative Commons License below for restrictions.

Pack contains 6 sizes;
1600×1200, 1280×1024, 1152×864, 1024×768, 800×600, 640×480

Click here to download.

Balloons by Lee-Ann Donaldson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Our final project for the Packaging & Branding module was to create our very own Boite en Valise under the title “The Things I Have Learned So Far” to show – well, what we’ve learnt! I absolutely love the design of the box, and spent more time on that than I did considering/placing things inside. I was quite put out when our tutor announced he wouldn’t be grading us on the past projects, because they weren’t projects, they were exercises – so my Cravendale carton was useless, I thought. I decided that I and the contributors to that project had put too much time and effort into creating it for it not to be considered at all, so I put that in the box, along with a few little wrapped objects (as part of our wrap it exercise where we looked at Christo and Jeanne-Claude) and a little indicator that I’d grasped some understanding of Semiology. I also put together and printed my own zine which contains small summaries in note form of what I learnt from each of the exercises set for us over the 12 weeks.

As for the design; I wanted to combine different elements I use in my own work to create a “brand” for myself that’d be placed on top of the box lid. I used custom lettering, illustrated the emblem, and then after transferring these onto the lid I decided to cut it into the greyboard. I took the idea used in Sagmeisters book cover and built a little shelf which was attached under the lid, and I put in a few different pattern illustrations I’ve done so the box design can change. I’m hoping I get this back in one piece because it’s one piece from this year I’d like to keep (maybe minus the contents!)

Anyway, here’s a few pics, you’ll find more over on Flickr!

I’ve always liked the works of other artists where they seem to have taken something that’s been discarded, or is no longer in a usable condition, and have turned it into something else – and I’ve often wondered if I could come up with ideas for recycling something in such a way.

A few weeks back, I spotted the numbers ring of a dart board hanging on the wall at my brothers. When I saw it I immediately thought it’d make a nice – if different – clock. So I took it away and started planning, and left it with the lovely gent at the local metals workshop. Today I picked it up, and other than breaking the battery socket trying to put  the battery in (seriously!?) it’s exactly how I visualised it. I’m really happy with how it’s turned out and love that it’s so different to the average clock you’ll find in a shop. Once it’s had a quick respray and a new battery socket fitted it’ll make a great – and rare – design feature somewhere in the house.

Another overdue giveaway! I have 5 mini copies of this Rupert print, printed at 5″ x 5″ with a matt finish.

All you have to do to enter is follow me on Twitter and tweet the link to this page.

You can use this to tweet:

Win one of 5 mini Rupert prints by @MsSoprano, find out how here: http://wp.me/p10EYs-px  – please RT

You can enter via Facebook & Tumblr too by following these links and either 1) on Facebook, like or comment on the competition status, or 2) Reblogging the post on Tumblr.

Facebook

Tumblr

Entries welcome until next weekend (15th May) then I’ll announce winners.

A few weeks ago I was given a new brief in which we were given an artist to use as inspiration to redesign the Cravendale milk carton. I was given Peter Blake, and took inspiration from his Face Dances album art. As posted on Tumblr, I asked for designers, illustrators, and anyone else with a spare 10 minutes to contribute to the project, with the intention of creating a packaging design in the style of the Face Dances album. The brief was simple; draw – either digitally, or by hand – a cows head in any style, using any media, and send them to me. After a slow start I finally got the drawings in and started to put the work together to create my final carton design. Below you’ll see the net plan I made, a compilation of all the cows heads I was sent, and pictures of the mock up carton with the final design. You can click on the net plan and compilation to take you to a higher res file. (Right click > New tab/window to see it fully)

Massive thank you to everyone that took the time to send in drawings, in the end I had too many to use so I just took a pick of them so unfortunately there were a few left over.

Contributers.

Adam Araujo
Ahmed
Alexander Walker
D. Bob
“HiggledyPiggledy”
Amanda
Andy Lord
Angie G
Anthony Kinson
Stuie Parr
Beverly Ealdama
Brooke D
Tom La’Bomba
Charlene Dixon
Chulo
Darren Crawley
A. Daley
Dave Williams
Deltia
Pete Ward
Duode
Eileen F
F. Lex
Foos
Colm Frogs
T. Funke
Gates
Helen McDonnell
J. Balls
John B
John Castle
Sophie Drinkwater
Katey Ng
Kayleigh Black
lobe
Louise R
Marcus
Mr chimp
Nathan G
Nick Chainey
N. Cuts
P. Dar
Q..MD
Rob Barker
Roi Perez
Rosa Edwards
Rudy Brewster
Sam L
Dan Sherratt
S. Disco
S. Paddy
Ste M
Steve Grant
Theo X
Becky Bryant
Charlotte Spencer
Peter Weston

For our Character Design brief we were given a few options of what to create: one of these was a designer toy, so I opted to make a plush toy. Just to note I’d never used a sewing machine before this, nor have I ever attempted to make a toy of any sort, so it’s pretty rough around the edges. And there’s another finger in there somewhere; not sure where that got to..