Thoughts - 25th May 2010

25th May 2010

I have rather enjoyed doing this and will miss it. I think I am a project manager at heart - and why I was so good at my last job. Over the weekend I went through some old school books that my dad had removed from his lot. I found lists and diaries and more lists. I cannot understand why I was never encouraged to become a librarian. If I can find a way of being a project manager, a photographer, a librarian then I think I would be happy... is that role a gallery curator? I need to find out.

Things will not slow down really for me as over the summer I intend to work on the 'Overton Family' book that I am creating.

Thoughts - 24th May 2010

24th May 2010

Books had their final proof over the weekend. This morning I sent them to Blurb. Total cost £67.62. I can only have them on standard paper as the page count is over 160. I think I have slightly misunderstood something about the Blurb pricing - but none-the-less it should all be OK.

Created, uploaded and ordered 50 business cards from Moo. Total cost £15.99. I have used 14 different images from the books on the reverse side of the cards and this image on the other side.

I will display them in the business card holders and the use of the asterisk will tie in with the asterisk on the front covers of the books.

I have been asked many time times "Why does it say Helvetica* - what does the asterisk mean?" so with this at the bottom of the books it will now make sense.

The books and business cards should arrive before 2nd June - wow that is only about a week - these guys are fast.

FedEx redelivered the items from Euroffice and they look great. Seeing the DL leaflet holders reminds me that I have thought about creating a leaflet to encourage people to purchase things. I shall work on that over the next couple of weeks

Posters will be printed shortly - so everything is done as far as it can be until the exhibition spaces are created.

I am going to carry on with my blog right up to preview night - but this is as far as I can go as far as my sketchbook is concerned.

Thoughts - 27th May 2010

27th May 2010

Ordered loads more stuff just to make sure I have chucked as much as possible as I can to this project. Very excited about it all arriving and putting it all together. I now have a business card holder for each book so that the asterisk idea is on each one. I have created a 'story of helvetica' postcard and ordered 60 from Moo. I have also created a helvetica timeline which I might print off myself as a postcard. I reorganised the helvetica items for sale leaflet and ordered some double sided paper from ink2paper and I will print those off myself. I asked at the college shop if they did colour copying to get them printed at college as all the online places I tried do not do short run orders. The college shop said "Yes we do colour copying - but not for students." Well that surprised me, I shall take my business elsewhere. The college shop can do the posters too but it will be on photo quality paper and charged by the metre at £7.69 for gloss on 195gsm and £5.49 for matt on 120gsm.

Decided to list all the items I had purchased to complete this project - I will share them here ....

67.62 Blurb books

15.99 Business cards

24.98 Vinyl holders

44.50 Helvetica products to resell

20.00 Tee shirt

62.34 Printer Ink

60.00 Trip to Cardiff

28.64 Postcards

13.00 Double sided paper

I also bought 3 books about helvetica and the blue ray disc of the film was bought as a Christmas present.

TOTAL COST around £350.00

I am hoping that some items will be purchased at the show and that will help re-coup some of the costs.

Thoughts - 21st May 2010

21st May 2010

Into college for morning to share out the winnings from Chev competition around with rest of team. Arrived 8.30am to be told they cannot open up rooms early anymore because of an 'incident' yesterday neither can we stay in classroom to work through breaks or lunch. I like coming into class less and less.

Need to see if college shop can print the 2 posters. 1212mm x 304mm and 1212mm x 594mm and how much that might cost. Also my mate has a plot plan printer which I can use for free but need to check out the quality of the paper. The posters do not need to be robust or fancy as I want it to be like wallpaper, pasted to the wall and have the book holders screwed through it. Paper quality is less of an issue and I do not want to keep it after the event. Only thing I want after the event is the books and the holders. Will get a sample of the paper to see what it is like.

Had a tutorial which comprised Steve sitting and reviewing where I had got to. He has suggested that I think about getting specific business cards created that match the whole exhibition - this is something I had thought about and I still have time to do it. They would look good. He also suggested perhaps having a website that shows off the helvetica work link it to my own website. I could create a helvetica project gallery within my galleries but I do not think I want to create a whole new website. I know I do things fast and love being busy but I know that once the FMP work is out of the way I have to get on with creating my business plan. I therefore do not think I will be doing new website as I need time to concentrate on that this weekend.

Home to see if Mr Love has sent me his words and there was a FedEx 'sorry we missed you' card - think the book holders have arrived. They are re-delivering them on Monday morning.

2pm

Text has arrived from Mr Love - it is perfect. Brilliant. Right now I can complete books do final proof and send them off this evening.

4pm

Preface now added to all three books. Had a final proof read and have updated/amended about half a dozen pages. Will leave it for half an hour and then have a final look through before sending books.

Mr Love would like a copy of a book. I think the best thing to do would be to send him an image of the exhibition once it is up and ask him which of the three books he would like. And perhaps I can get another set printed up then.

Thoughts - 20th May 2010

20th May 2010

Working out how the exhibition stand will work now that I have changed the look/design of the books and the imagery. Had confirmation that the space will be 7 feet by 4 feet 2133mm deep x 1212mm wide. Now I have this I can decide how to lay things out.

The top poster (helvetica*) needs to be 304mm deep x 1212mm wide and the a b c posters need to be A2. I printed out shapes to scale to see how all the component parts would work together. Decided that I need to have more control over the letters because it is important that they sit on the same baseline and if I am sticking 3 posters onto a wall they will not follow the same line. Created the a b c as one poster and this will need to be 594mm deep x 1212mm wide.

Need to source options on where to get two large posters like this printed - costings and timescale.

Contacted Mr Love and said if I do not have his words before 2pm I would be sending the books to the printers without his preface. He replied saying could I wait until tomorrow morning as he was in London - I said yes. I will go into college in the morning and then go home to deal with Mr Love's words and create the pages for the book and then send the books to Blurb.

Ordered the acrylic holders 3 x A4 book holder; 2 x business card holder; 2 x DL leaflet holder.

Realised preview night (18th June) is 4 weeks away. I thought it was 3 - so now I have less panic. Blurb can take 2 weeks so I don't mind waiting for Mr Love. His original deadline was 10th May ... it's all about man management and you have to build in tine for people to miss deadlines. It is the hardest part of any project to deal with the intangibles.

Thoughts - 19th May 2010

19th May 2010

Walked around Burton and took the final images for the Burton Book - boy was it warm. Got home to convert the images into pages for the book. I reviewed the book to make sure the images looked good and flowed together - some were not quite right and so I changed them.

Onto Booksmart to duplicate the Ashby book - remove the Ashby specific pages and replace them with Burton specific pages. I did the same for the Cardiff book and the Cardiff pages.

I now have all three books waiting on to go. I just need Mr Love's words for the preface. I will give him till 2pm tomorrow (Thursday). If he is unable to send me anything by then I will amend the contents page and create 2 pages of images for the pages where the preface would have sat.

My favourite image from today is this:

I need to think about all the bits and bobs associated with my exhibition space now tha I have had a rethink about it and will not be using the teardrop shape. Tomorrow I need to be at home rather than college as I need to sort things out that are on my home PC and I need to get on with sketchbook which is a publisher document and not compatible or workable on the Macs.

List of things to do tomorrow:

- Chase Mr Love

- Prep final 3 pages accordingly

- Send books to Blurb and pay for them

- Order items from euroffice.co.uk - 3xbook holders; 2xbusiness card holders; 2xDL leaflet holders

- Sketchbook

- Prepare 3x posters for exhibition

- Think about Open Here comp - www.photofest.org/openhere

Thoughts - 18th May 2010

18th May 2010

Woke up to a power cut. Thankfully it was only for about an hour between 6.30-7.30am but began to really panic abnout what to do about everything!

I keep seeing advertisements for the Olympus OPEN wherethey are using an image shown through the letters of PEN - hope no-one things I have copied this idea.

Thoughts - 17th May 2010

17th May 2010

Printed off a mock-up of the Ashby book for my team of proof readers to have a look at this evening. Just waiting for the preface from Mr Love now and then it is ready.

Tomorrow I need to chase Mr Love; prepare the Cardiff book and pop into Burton to take the last few images there.

Realised that I need to complete a sketchbook so starting dragging and dropping information I had put on the blog into a sketchbook and supporting it with images and scans of notebooks. Also need to think about starting to order the items I need to make sure all components parts are in place or on order.

Helvetica mugs .... Helvetica tee-shirts .... mmm

Thoughts - 16th May 2010

16th May 2010

Spent another 6 hours fine tuning the book after proof reading the mock up I created yesterday. Completely redesigned the history pages as they were not making sense. Had a minor panic when photoshop crashed and I hadn't saved the page. But thankfully nothing was lost. Phew.

Have designed the three covers using an image taken whilst in each town. The image will be set at 50% opacity so that the title stands out the most. The back cover is the same image at 100% opacity but inverted. I am showing the mock up to a few people to gauge their reaction.

I had too many comments about what was the blue shape and everyone seemed to think it was a flower! This was my main reason for changing my mind about the covers and the exhibition space layout.

Thoughts - 15th May 2010

15th May 2010

Spent all day sorting out the shared pages for the Books. This involved writing some of the pages, checking others and redoing ones that had been created already. Was at it for more than 12 hours but really feel I have just about broken the back of it all now.

Had an email from Mr Love who is working on the Preface over the weekend and will have the words for me on Monday.

Printed off some of the pages to see how it looked and so that it can be proof read. These pages were all less than A5 size - it looks quite cute at this size.

Thoughts - 14th May 2010

14th May 2010

I am such a numpty idiot - bordering on the high levels of stupidity at times. Today I went out to take the final images for the Burton Book and after taking about 20 images I realised I did not have the CF card in the camera! Good grief I'm not having much luck these last two days. Arrived home and found the CF card still in the computer where I had left it.

I have now been into the menu function and changed the camera settings so that I cannot take photos without the CF card being in the camera.

Spent 5 hours completing the left hand pages for the Books. I used quotes from a variety of sources and made up the pages ready to add them to the Ashby book I have started on Blurb.

Thoughts - 13th May 2010

13th May 2010

All the prospectus work is now done so I can concentrate on getting everything finished for FMP. Mr Love has not responded to my gentle reminder email that I sent on Tuesday. But I don't have to wait for his Preface words before I get on with my pages. I have lots and lots of words and to be honest I do not think anyone will read them but I want them to be something I am happy with. To this end I will need to spend quite a bit of time whilst sober working on that over the weekend. I have been able to clear all but horse sorting and Monaco Grand Prix watching out of the weekend. I should be able to get it all done by Sunday.

Because of the intensity and high level of work I have given myself to create the books; design the pages; travel; take and process the images that I have not done anything in the way of a sketchbook. I almost feel that the books themselves will be the sketchbook. I have not thought about what to create to hand in on 28th May. I have of course been completing this blog to show how I am progressing and how I am reflecting on external influences and adapting my ideas. One thing I want to do with this blog is to add images to show what I have been talking about and I will do that at some point - perhaps when I have sent the books off to Blurb.

Yesterday I was considering the look of the exhibition and moving away from the blue shape on the wall. I thought about posters on the wall with my favourite 'a', 'b' and 'c' images, the acrylic book holder screwed to wall through the poster and the books placed inside. I will mock up this idea and put it on here.

Spent some time today reading through the Lars Muller - "Homage to a typeface" book and noticed he had made some mistakes with the images and the identification of Helvetica, just as I have - I feel vindicated.

It would be nice if Blurb offered other shapes for their books. I think that 10"x8" is too big and that 7"x7" is just too small...perhaps a 6"x4".

Reviewing the work that I have done I find I still need to complete 37 letters for the Burton book and will need to be out with my camera tomorrow or over the weekend.

Ha ha ... it seems that when I discover I have some time I find a massively time consuming way to fill it. Over lunch I was reading a couple of books and thinking about the fact that I would have black left hand pages in all my books. I have been asked what will appear on the facing pages by a couple of people and have always said: "blank pages". But thinking it through and looking at just how much information I have gathered for the text pages of the books .... I have decided to disseminate that information into snippets of information, quotes, jokes, facts and figures on put those onto the blank left hand pages. I now need to prepare 73 pages, phew.

This is actually going OK. I have been able to create 20 in about an hour. I will stop doing this on small laptop screen at college and get on with when I get home on larger screen and better room lighting. I will, of course, now worry about whether they should be all in the same position - I do not think so - they need to be all over the place.

Thoughts - 12th May 2010

12th May 2010

Have not been considering the FMP for last few days after the trip to Cardiff and getting the images prepared for the book - as I have been working with Sally in the marketing section at Burton College taking photographs to be used in the part-time prospectus for Sept 2010. As there was a rumour about being paid I decided to take on this commission. This is in spite of having a very tight deadline for my FMP work. This commission will help fund it and so is very welcomed. I heard today that there might be an 'Artists' Market' on Saturday 19th June - the day after our preview evening. The idea would be for us to sell prints. Now this is exciting. If it happens then I will need a huge chunk of cash up front in order to stock my stall. We have not been given details about this yet so not sure if it will happen but this is another reason for accepting the commission.

Deadline for sketchbook is 28th May and it will be marked over half term. When we are back after half term the boards will be set up and painted and ready for us to start hanging our work/creating our exhibition.

Thinking about my FMP whilst I have been photographing other students and working out how much of my schedule it has eaten into means I need to slightly rethink the end product of my FMP. I have decided that I will do 'a', 'b' and 'c' and not go to Derby for the 'd' book. The 11 hours I have spent on the prospectus work with Sally would have been the 11 hours needed to go to Derby and process the images and create the pages.

Considering if I should stick with the blue negative space shape on the wall or think of something else that shows off my photography a little more.

Also considering how the front covers of the books will look. The current design is a bit 'samey' and am worried that people will think they are looking at 3 copies of the same book. Whilst I was in Cardiff there was some lovely dragon imagery which I photographed and I think that might look good on the front cover of the Cardiff book.

Thoughts - 7th May 2010

7th May 2010

Hung Parliament *~*&*$^*

Continued creating letters at College - but I have trouble working at college on the macs. I have to make too many compromises - plus I don't think they have helvetica so I will need to recheck all my work once I get home to make sure it has not converted the page numbers to arial or futura!

Took more images for Sally - one battery ran out after about 20 shots and yet it had been fully charged. Grrr Took multi-exposure shots whilst chef flambed some scallops that filled up the memory card rather quickly.

Need to get home and onto my equipment so that I can get more work done and work more efficiently and effectively - also I can drown my sorrows about Nick's Clegg's wetness. ****

Thoughts - 6th May 2010

6th May 2010

Cardiff trip baby.

Went and voted and then to pick up my sister.

1 tank full of petrol

2.5 hours there 2.5 hours back.

310 miles

115 images on a full CF card.

Got some smashing shots of helvetica used in Welsh, which was the whole reason for going. I am so glad we didn't go to Amsterdam - that would have been an exhausting day. This was much more fun.

Going to need to juggle the work for Sally with pulling in the remaining images and then all the hard work creating jpegs for pages for FMP. Thankfully I had created very early deadlines for myself to ensure I hit the 28th May deadline for this assignment. However - the Books only need to be in my hands on the morning of the show opening - 18th June - so I am not overly concerned that I have many hours of processing for Sally to do along with many hours of jpeg creating.

I still need some more images from around Burton as I only have half the pages created at the moment. Plus I need to spend a half day in Derby to gather my images for that Book.

I will get Sally's images done and then get back onto FMP work.

I managed to prepared 37 images from the Cardiff shot out of the 73 that I require for each town. I was too tired to do anymore and went to bed dreading waking up to a hung parliament.

Thoughts - 5th May 2010

5th May 2010

Today is my birthday - happy birthday to me.

I was going to go into Derby and get images for the Derby Book - however my entire family descended on me and so Derby trip was cancelled. Plus my Mum did indeed buy me the lavender plants for the front garden so I wanted to get those planted and watered. Garden is now looking lovely.

Lars Muller book arrived - it is fabulous and perfect for what I want and it has some great quotes which I have seen before that I can use in my books. It is brilliant and full of ideas and inspiration and I have found a fellow helvetica nerd. He too has recorded uses of Helvetica and also asked for contributions from around the world. I particularly like the collections of images - they are amusing.

I'll put one up here for you to see:

Thoughts - 4th May 2010

4th May 2010

Had lots of Council meetings today plus a photo shoot for Sally at Burton College so I did not have time to do any more work on FMP project.

Thoughts - 3rd May 2010

3rd May 2010

Bank Holiday - so I did not do too much work on this project. I needed to prepare the front garden as my Mum is buying my lots of lavender plants and I want to prepare the flower bed for them. Needed to sort my horse at tea time and also pop into Burton to buy a few household items including a new microwave and some plates. I do need to come back into Burton to get a final few images so I can complete that.

Had another look at the images on Booksmart - they are looking good. I am enjoying this.

Thoughts - 2nd May 2010

2nd May 2010

Had the whole day to myself and apart from sorting out my horse in the afternoon I could concentrate on working and researching ideas for the text pages for the Books. I watched the Gary Hustwit film - Helvetica - again and got lots more ideas. Also the more I watch it the more I am learning - it is amazing how much information you miss on watching something just once. I watched it this time taking notes as I need to find words and ideas for the short, pithy introduction page that I want to write.

I started too create a list of all the companies that use helvetica in their logo. It is an enormous list.

Ordered the Lars Muller book 'Homage to a typeface' from Amazon and am hoping there will be some useful information in that along with some fabulous photographs.

Spent a large part of the day uploading my created pages for Ashby onto Booksmart software ready to go to Blurb. I did this so I could check that the jpegs I had created were not too big for the 10x8 pages. It is a good job I did this as some of the information was appearing in the pink 'trim' area so I spent a bit of time resizing the pages. It is looking good though and has easily got to the 160 sides required so that the soft cover Book has a spine.

I do need to rethink the covers for the book as I don't think them all looking almost identical will be right. People will think I have just had 4 copies of one book created. So I will think about how to make them distinguished. Perhaps a coat of arms or local icon can be used. Will think about this.

Thoughts - 1st May 2010

1st May 2010

Decided the title of the book needs to be helvetica* followed by the name of the town where the photographs are taken. Also I need to think about an image or feel for each front cover as I do not think the blue negative space is working - will think about it as I write the text pages for the Books.

Heard about a brilliant book about Helvetica to add to my library ... Lars Muller - Helvetica, Homage to a typeface. I will look into buying this as I think it will be along similar lines to what I am trying to achieve.