Specialist Institution Awards

I have been shortlisted for the Environmental Champion award at the Specialist Institution Awards, and I'm attending the ceremony at Canal Mills. Attending the event will allow myself to immediately be known as someone who is interested in and has worked on projects related to sustainability. 

Events to go to

Last weekend I attended an illustration convention at the Corn Exchange. A lot of the best interface designs make good use of illustration, so although my personal focus is not illustrative it'd be beneficial for me to make some good contacts and be aware of current trends. 

Events at The Lighthouse: 

The London Design Festival: 

UX Events

Studio Brief 01

Last year I think I connected with PPP more than a lot of the other people in the class, but I struggled to muster the courage to attend talks and magazine launches. 

This year I must attend at least one conference focussed on user interface/experience design. This will set a good precedent for me to make good connections for potential work/internships next year or after I graduate. It'd also be very useful for me to make some more local connections who could give me a brief for the Responsive module. 

I've been successful in creating a lot of contacts on sites like Twitter and LinkedIn, but a lot of these connections are quite physically distant. Even though I can talk to and have conversations with some of the designers at NASA or SpaceX or Tesla it'd be very difficult to meet with them in person, and this limits how close I can get with them. 

I have succeeded in one major way with a contact who used to be an industrial designer at BlackBerry - Joseph Hofer (http://www.josephhofer.com/), who did a video for The Guild series which I spoke about in a blog post last year. I connected with him on LinkedIn then sent him a message explaining how I heard about him and how he inspired me with the video he was involved with. To my surprise he came back to me and offered his personal email address. We've spoken a few times since, and continue to send occasional but very long emails to each other. The last message he sent asked if I was up for freelance work, so I replied in the affirmative. It'll be exciting to see exactly what he has in mind. 

Linking COP and PPP to a real life opportunity

Last year the former Director of Future Technology at Jaguar Land Rover followed me on Twitter, so I messaged him and asked how important UI/UX and graphic design in general was for JLR; his reply was interesting - "Very important! We lead the future UX". I showed him some concepts I'd done and he recommended I apply for an Experience Design placement at JLR. Undergraduate placements for Design (Technical) positions are for 12 months only, so I'd probably be unable to do the undergraduate one (but will still try), but will definitely attempt to do the graduate one. 

By focusing on interface design as much as I can in the successive modules of the course, particularly how it's used and can be used in transport design (cars, rockets), I'm bettering my position to gain a place. I will use COP particularly to explore the potential for what car experience design can be, and whether we're close to peak car interface design or whether we haven't even scratched the surface yet. 

Design Focus

As a designer I want to create and inspire digital interfaces that are used in products which will fundamentally change the way people do things. While my focus will initially be on web and app interface design, I intend to expand into OS and TUI development and design. I want to work in the emerging transport, space exploration or emerging technology industries. 

Whilst I was always against the idea of working at an in-house design team (due to staleness and lack of freedom), I've recently become attracted to the idea as long as the company suited my ideals. I've identified a relatively short selection of companies which would meet my perfect ideals; my plan is to seek employment at a design studio after graduating and then work my way towards one of my target companies. 

Design studios in San Francisco

One of my ultimate medium term goals is to temporarily move and work in San Francisco, and so it makes sense to do some early scouting. 

Below are screenshots taken from design studios in SF that appeal to my creative interests and ambitions. Some, but not all, are focused on interaction design. 

Only

DesignStudio

Astro studio particularly appeals to me - their space-based visuals and clean UI design hugely plays to my design interests. Additionally, they design for cutting edge technological products that, in a broad sense, serve a positive purpose. 

Moniker

Manual

Character 

A strategy: doing concepts of projects I'd love to be involved with

By doing conceptual designs for products that I would love to work with, it allows me to build a portfolio which is more relevant to my current ambitions. It also gives me a small idea what that kind of work would be like so I know whether it would fit with my skills and interests. 

Looking back: previous attempts at a personal identity

These are my previous attempts at branding myself. Most of them still utilise blue, and many of them still have a futuristic element to their design, but they never did fit the aesthetic I wanted. The typography is too robotic and esoteric, and the symbols lack precision and purity. I knew I needed a symbol which was simple, adaptable and memorable, and my pine tree device fits those criteria. My chosen typeface is modernist without lacking personality or emotion, whereas these ones are stern and aggressive. 

Areas of Interest: Games Studios in Leeds and at Home

The secondary objective in my design career is to work with and/or for a video game design company in a graphic design/design concept role.

I have identified two AAA game studios in the UK within a short distance from me - Ubisoft Reflections (Newcastle) and Rockstar Leeds. 

Ubisoft Reflections is Ubisoft's AAA game studio, and are listed as the secondary studio involved with the development of Tom Clancy's The Division, a highly anticipated and cutting-edge game for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. They offer graduate internships, but it may be worth requesting a summer internship or a tour of the site (this is unlikely due to the sensitive nature of their projects). Forming a line of communication could prove helpful.

Rockstar Leeds is part of Rockstar Games, a multinational video game developer and 
publisher known for multi-million-selling games such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption. 

Conceptual print applications of my identity

Although it's essential that my identity remains as digital as possible, there are some potential physical applications that I could get away with. I really like the idea of creating a medium sized book which would serve as sort of a mini portfolio. It would be created by me by hand, and would summarise me in a book. 

It'd be constructed entirely out of recycled and/or sustainably sourced stock, and probably be either sandwich bound or screw bound. 

This would allow me to capitalise on the industry's current interest in tangible print without compromising on my ideologies, and give me something physical which I could distribute.  

 

User Interface Design: Beauty in the Exaggerated

Traditionally I've always thought that an interface should be as simple as possible without being too boring, but StarWalk2 brought to my attention the idea that sometimes, interfaces should just be allowed to be indulgently beautiful. 

The app showcases and identifies a huge selection of extra-planetary objects, both natural and human-made, and has 3D rendered models and a variety of info pages on them. 

The home area has you stood in the middle of a lake - totally unnecessary, but beautiful and engaging. The same could be said for the responsive 3D constellation overlays - unnecessarily detailed, but unarguably engaging and appealing. 

Maybe some interfaces, those designed for fun instead of mission-critical procedures, should just be allowed to be beautiful. 

My Online Presence - Portfolio

As a companion to my Behance profile I have recently created an Adobe Portfolio; designed to be the central point of my online presence, it contains Behance-powered showcases of my current work, and links to all of my other online profiles. 

It is of course fully adaptable to all screen sizes and devices, as anything created by my philosophy should be. 

http://nickyhope.myportfolio.com/

Doing the wayfinding and signage for a £100 million factory

AkzoNobel, the world's largest paints and coatings manufacturer, are in the process of building one of the largest, most sustainable and technologically advanced paint factories in the world in Ashington, Northumberland.

Last summer I worked for them as a Documentation Assistant, and a week ago I received an email from them asking me if I could design the wayfinding and signage system both internally and externally for the entire site. 

I obviously said yes. More on this as it comes.