aaaaaa Home Archive Random Ask Theme

Firstly, I’d like to wish all my followers, readers and clients a very Happy 2012! 
I hope it’ll prove to be a great year for you all! :D

Although I don’t actually return to uni until January 12th, I thought now that all the celebrations are over, it was about time I got back into the swing of things. So today, I will continue working on the Scotia Gas Networks ‘PlaySafe StaySafe’ campaign.

There’s still so much to do! Backup work needs updating, characters need finishing/more development, background images need drawing and I need to make a start on the lettering…. Oh, how I love my job!

HawkinsDesigns is officially closed for the Christmas season and business will resume in the new year.

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!!

Stay safe x

I’m pleased to announce HawkinsDesigns finally has it’s own little home on the web!

There’s still a lot to sort out, I’m still fairly new to all things CSS, I’m currently “shopping” around for good deals on hosting but the URL is - www.hawkinsdesigns.co.uk

I’m so happy! :D

I’m currently working on a ‘PlaySafe, StaySafe’ campaign for Scotia Gas Networks, a Scottish gas company. 

Their aim is to raise awareness of the dangers surrounding Gas and any sites which have been worked on and left unattended.

The age range for this project is 5-11 year old, and my initial idea is to produce a colour/sticker book.

The idea is that the company would send a team of Safety Experts into schools who will inform the children of the ‘PlaySafe, StaySafe’ campaign and the dangers surrounding Gas and any sites which have been worked on and left unattended! As a reminder the children will take away a ‘kit’ which could include stationery i.e pencils, pencil cases, rubbers etc with the ‘PlaySafe, StaySafe’ logo on, badges, an A4 poster which will feature one of the campaigns characters and my sticker/colouring book. 

I will produce detailed and well developed scamps of the additional items to show the client how I imagine these items to look, however, my main focus will be on the sticker/colouring book. 

As the age range is 5-11, the images will not be highly detailed. I will produce them in Adobe Illustrator and they will be purely made up of a bold outline and solid colour, including little elements to introduce shadow and light! 

The image I have attached is a sneak preview of a current character. All characters are in the very early stages and still require a lot of development!! 

Got any comments or questions? Head over to the HawkinsDesigns FB page, or follow me on Twitter! 

Are you a solo artist or part of a group with your own original music? Fancy winning a promotional package worth £5,000 which includes studio time, live shows, vocal coaching session, photoshoot and a professional music video.

Get your entries in before Oct 24th for your chance to audition at the last NXLevel auditions held at The Music Cafe on Thursday 27th October!

Enter by sending us your contact details and the track you wish to perform at your audition to….. nxlevel@live.co.uk and get ready to take your music to the NXLevel!

My time at Leicester College has sadly come to an end!

It has been an amazing 4 years and I have absolutely loved it. Looking back to the person I was when I started college way back in 2007, I come to realise that I have thankfully come out of my shell and become a lot more confident. Granted, I’m still not confident with my work, despite the amount of praise I have gotten over the years but I guess that is something I can work on in my own time.  

There’s been huge highs and thankfully, not that many lows! I’ve meet some great people, fellow students and tutors, and some not so great people.
It’s true what they say, college is completely different from school, the whole atmosphere is completely different and so are the people! They may say “School is the best time of your life”, but they couldn’t be any more wrong. In my opinion, college is the best time of your life and there’s quite a few moments that I’ll never forget!

So, I’ve just finished my BTEC National Diploma in Graphic Design with 3 distinctions which gives me a grand total of…. 3 A Levels!!! 
If you had told me in July ‘07 that in 4 years time I would have 4 As at GCSE level and 3 A Levels under my belt, I would’ve honestly thought that you’d lost the plot!

With results like that means I will be returning to Leicester College at the end of August to enrol onto the Foundation Degree in Graphics and eMedia. Although it is based and ran by Leicester College, it is in fact a De Montfort University course and therefore I will be a poor uni student rather than a poor college student! However, with that said, this course is only part time and is ran 1 night a week which means I will be spending my days looking for work and hopefully getting HawkinsDesigns out there and recognised!

So if you’re looking for a graphic designer, or know someone that is, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

I am currently in the middle of teaching myself CSS in preparation for September. I’m getting there slowly, but finding it very frustrating as not only am I learning a completely new way of coding a website, I am also having to relearn HTML as it has been such a long time since I built a website.
With that said, I’m enjoying (nearly) every minute of it and I’m pleased to say HawkinsDesigns already has it’s little home on the interweb, so watch this space!

Having said all that, I am currently taking a break from learning CSS and building a website for HawkinsDesigns for a couple of reasons. 

1. Having learnt the basics and now having a rough idea about CSS, I am going to have a serious sit down and think about how I want the website to look. 
2. Once I have the money I want to start looking into deals on hosting packages.
3. I am working for the entire week next week at Popularis and then for a week at the beginning of August. 
4. I also have a lot going on at the moment in my personal life, nothing serious just nothing graphics related so don’t worry, but they need sorting out first! 

In other news, I have a huge update regarding simplygym.co.uk; If you follow HawkinsDesigns on Twitter and Facebook you would already know that the website has finally gone live! So feel free to head over there now and check out my logo, which looks great, even if I do say so myself!  I’m currently planning a trip down to Cheltenham in August so that I can finally go and see my logo in all it’s glory. It is definitely something I am very excited about! 
It is quite a big thing having something you created being chosen out of 15+ other designs, let alone it then being used as a companies corporate identity. I don’t think it has sunk in just yet and will be quite overwhelming when I see it on the side of the building! 

Seeing as I have already given them a mention, I had better explain how I got involved with Popularis. As part of my course, we were given industrials which were assignments we had to complete within a 2 week period. 
Anne Hock, from Popularis, came into the college and asked us to design a poster which would promote anti-racism. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I found out that my poster had won me First Prize!!! An achievement I never thought would be possible as there were so many great designs by my fellow classmates.

As well as my poster being used all over the country, displayed in schools, work places, police stations etc, I have also been offered a couple weeks work experience at Popularis. 1 of those weeks begins on Monday and although I’m not 100% sure what will be asked of me, I am looking forward to it. 

You can see my anti-racism poster by heading over to the HawkinsDesigns Facebook!

While you’re over there why not view the album entitled “Final Major Project - Nat Dip Graphics, 2nd year!” where you will see all the final pieces I produced for my last ever college assignment and the reason I received double distinction for my Final Major Project.
This now leads me to my final update of how I created Ben Mills’ official logo! 

The subject for my Final Major Project was originally to rebrand a 5* restaurant. However, from the start I knew it was something I had no interest in whatsoever although I had already completed a great deal of research. Upon returning to college after the Easter holidays I knew, if I was going to change my FMP subject I needed to do it now as the Final Major Project assignment only ran over 5 - 6 weeks and I have around 11 final pieces to create. 

I had my worries and concerns, of course I did, but I was in a much better frame of mind and I knew from day 1 of changing my FMP subject that it was the right thing to do. 
To cut what could turn into a very long story (as I get far too carried away with anything Ben Mills related!), I will forever be grateful for him helping me with my project. I know it sounds cheesy and very cliché but I really couldn’t have done it without his help as my photography element played a huge part in all my final pieces. 

With that said, it seemed only right to allow Ben to use the logo I created for my Final Major Project as his official logo. I was stunned that he liked it enough in the first place and after a change of typeface at Ben’s request, I believe it is a very successful logo and a piece of work I am extremely proud of.

And if you’ve managed to stay awake up until now, well done! You deserve a big pat on the back, as I do tend to waffle. 

Once again I would like to take this opportunity to thank a very close friend of mine, and of course Ben. You both are very special to me and I will never be able to thank you enough! 

I’d also like to say a huge thank you to Mel Jeffrey, for believing in me and giving me that place on the Introductory Diploma in Art, Design and Media back in July 2007. If it wasn’t for you, I’ve no idea what I would’ve done these past 4 years. I hope I’ve managed to prove to you that you did the right thing in giving me a place on that course!! 

And to my other tutors (new and old) thank you to each and every one of you. You’ve had to listen to me whine a lot over those 4 years but you pushed me in the direction I needed to take, one that sometimes I have to admit not being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. You didn’t give up, just told me to shut up and get on with it! 

There’s only 2 other people I need to say thank you too. 1 being my mum, for knowing there was something wrong and for taking me out of school, for being there for me when I needed her and for putting up with me taking over the entire downstairs of our house with my Final Major Project for the past 4 years.
And lastly and no means least, a huge thank you to Jackie from Connexions Leicester. Who helped me fill in the forms and apply for my Introductory Diploma all those years ago! We wouldn’t have had a clue where to start or where to go if it wasn’t for you.

Thanks everyone!!!! 
Here’s hoping 2011 continues to be a great year for myself and HawkinsDesigns.  

Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist. Much of her work consists of black and white photographs overlaid with declarative captions—in white-on-red Futura Bold Oblique or Helvetica Ultra Condensed. 

My current Photography assignment is to produce a piece in the style of Barbara Kruger’s work.
After doing a decent amount of research, I’ve kind of come to the conclusion I don’t really understand the meaning behind her work. With that said, that doesn’t mean that I don’t like it. I do.

It’s just… weird.

For my piece, I’m going to create a collage of photographs from my time meeting Ben Mills. 
So rather than having the same “evil” and “politic” meaning behind my work like Barbara, I’ve decided to use memories instead. 
With the lyrics “Faintly On My Clothes, Is The Scent Of A Fast Fading Memory, Of The Time I Spent With You” - I’ve very excited to see how the final piece will look.

I’ll most definitely post a picture on my Facebook page, so keep your eyes peeled! 

Happy 2011 Everyone!!

Yes, I realise we’re now a few days into 2011 but I thought I’d start my first blog post of the year off by wishing you all a great 2011.

Mine has been extremely eventful so far and it’s only 17th January!! 
Where do I start?

I finally got my grade for the memory stick assignment; DISTINCTION!!!
This has defiantly made my mind up. I want to go into advertising.
It’s something I really enjoy and the subject/unit I’m getting my best grades in so why not stick with what I’m good at?

Today, I got my grade for the Urban22 assignment; MERIT!
If I had done a little more development work on my brouchre cover etc, I would have gotten a DISTINCTION!! But I’m not too disheartened. I’m happy with my MERIT and at least I know what I need to do for next time. 

I’m not sure if anyone remembers; A while back I mentioned a guy came into college and gave us an assignment which was to create a logo for a gym which he was opening after Christmas?! Well, it appears he’s (might) chosen my design!! 

Yes, that’s right. You are looking at and reading the blog by the girl that created the logo for simplygym.co.uk (website not available yet!), how chuffed am I?!

Hmm.. What else do I need to update you on?!

Oh yes!! I’ve been offered 3 days work experience at Astley Marketing.
I’ll be heading off there this week. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I’m rather excited yet really nervous as I’ve no idea what to expect, nor do I have a clue where the company is based. Around Leicester, of course!

So yeah, my next blog will be about my work experience I guess.
Wish me luck!!

Oh and remember you can find HawkinsDesigns on Twitter and Facebook.

Hi guys,

I’m not aware how many people actually read this blog.
But for all those that do, I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and an extremely Happy New Year.

May 2011 bring you happiness, health and wealth because lets face it we’d all love a bit of money uh? ;) 

xxx

Ps, head over to HawkinsDesigns© and check out my latest work.
Feel free to leave comments and spread the word about HawkinsDesigns©. If you know someone who wants a logo, website design etc making send them my way and I’ll see what I can do!  

I am a 21 year old Graphic Designer based in Leicester

I studied Graphic Design at Leicester College for 4 years. Currently studying Graphic Design & eMedia at Foundation Degree.

As well as Graphic Design, I have a huge interest in Web Design and Photography. I'm a self taught HTML coder with a basic knowledge of Adobe Dreamweaver. I have a rough understanding of CSS. I am nowhere near a professional Photographer and it is mainly a hobby at the moment, however, if I can integrate my photography with my Graphics & Web Design, I'd be very happy.

If you'd like to know anything else, feel free to ask. I hope you enjoy having a look around and if you (or anyone you know) are looking for a Graphic Designer, please don't hesitate to get in touch!

Following:

Likes:

See more stuff I like