Nope-
Let the student think for himself this time guys.
Show us some ideas that you come up with and we'll pre-critique them for ya.

PrintDriver is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

oh come on.. atleast start me off on some guys.. i cant do anything unles i get a kick start which generally creates many more right away..

You gonna freelance in real life???


PrintDriver is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

right so far.. i found a picture of a japanese print of some birds on a tree.. what ive done is ive taken that idea and collaged birds layered over each other using different shades of carbon paper to get a layered effect.. the idea is that it shows how tightly packed tokyo is.. using birds as humans in simple terms.. for the background i dont know yet but soon to find out.. i got some differenet styles for that too like using a tissue paper for the birds or just plain colouring them in..

next idea i got is some thing with the budha.. mind power.. that whole mantra thing.. i dont know how i can develop that through stages into a postcard..

another idea is of the bonsai tree.. anyone know a good way in how i can use the tree to create a wierd but creative postcard..?

another one i got is of the flower arrangements they have.. ikebama i think..

thats it so far..

can i get some help now..?

Did/does anyone else hate these type of briefs? I remember having to do these in my first year of college... boy did I hate them. Every time I got one I felt like a sandal wearing hippy. I never understood what you were meant to learn from them, you should only ever be given realistic/commercial briefs.

I hear ya Reed. We actually did have old hippies for teachers in the BFA program I went to. Only the one GD instructor was hard core-been in the business-pro all the way. Suffering thru 2D class making pretty 'textures' with vegetables and india ink. Now that was helpful toward my portfolio...

Weapon R, try to correlate some of your design ideas with who you are going to send the card to. I don't think flower arrangements would be good if you are gonna send it to Bruce Lee...

PrintDriver is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

so why dont you give me few starting points on a few more..

Weapon R - the whole idea about doing graphic design is that you are a creative person, and can come up with ideas when given a brief. Fair enough in the real world you would NEVER get a brief like this, but we've all done them at college/university! I did my fair share of them, and still don't understand what I was supposed to learn about them.

I always concentrated my research for projects like these by doing images searches on the internet for your topic, get to the library and look up travel guides, art history books, books about music in this city/country and normal history books. Japan is a country with a vastly different history from the West, and there's bound to be a heap of idea generating stuff you can find by doing some research. Do that before you sit down and think about putting a design together.

It might also be helpful if you decide how many postcards you are going to make, and who you will send them to before you start designing.

Think target audience before you design.

Searching for creative juices

i have to make the postcards first and then i have to think of who to send it to.. why isnt anyone giving me any ideas for a creative postcard.. im really stuck..

Says who? Just because it says that on the brief, doesn't mean to say you have to do it in that order. I learned to play the game at university - and give them what they wanted. Who's gonna know if you chose the people before the design? What happens if you come up with a kick-a$$ design, but it doesn't connect anyone? For a real project like this, you would consider your target audience.

As for the ideas - I for one am not prepared to pass your course for you. A lot of us have been there and done that and had to come up with the ideas ourselves. Have you tried any of the things that we have already suggested, or do you want us to just produce the cards for you? Where do you think we all get our ideas for our own projects. Sure we use this forum to bounce ideas off each other, but mostly people produce work, then have it critiqued. You never bothered with this on the last project you asked everyone to help with, so they never saw the end product of the suggestions people put in.

Besides which, most people on the forum are off on the Thanksgiving holiday in the States, so there's not as many people about.

Searching for creative juices

well first of all i cant really show you.. i dont have any images at all.. but soon im thinking of getting an online portfolio made.. you can check it all out then..

no i dont want to make my postcards for me.. all i need is just some points to start of with so i can go away and get thinking myself.. i can never and never have started off something myself.. i've always got inspiration and a kick start from someone else..

Sorry, but I'm not prepared to tell you what should be on each postcard.

Again, here are my research ideas - go find these, and you should be filled with ideas. I've spent 5 minutes thinking about everything I know about Tokyo (which isn't very much) and thought of a few avenues to explore.

- Start by forgetting the whole postcard notion, write 'Tokyo' on a piece of paper and then around it write all the things you can think about related to Tokyo - Japan, Technology etc etc. Think of about 10. Then write each of these on another piece of paper. Do this a few times, and you will find the strongest of your ideas prevailing. This should give you inspiration.

- Do a Google image search for 'Tokyo'. It's amazing the different images, colours and textures that are revealed.

- Go to the library, look up 'Japan' 'Japanese Art' and 'Japanese History'. Flick through the books that you find - a huge number of images, colours, textures and facts should reveal themselves.

- Flick through design magazines in your library (your university library will have a better collection of these than your local library). There's a lot of great Graphic Design coming out of Japan at the moment.

- Look at travel websites, magazines, brochures & books for ideas about Japan and Tokyo. They will give you a flavour of the culture over there.

If you do all of these, and you're still stuck - then I don't think Graphic Design is the business for you. Good luck!

Searching for creative juices

I'm sorry if that sounded a little harsh Weapon R, but the graphic design industry isn't an easy one to get by in - there won't be anyone to hold your hand and clean up your mess when you're a working graphic designer. It wasn't supposed to be a personal attack on you, but it's a difficult world, and if you can't come up with ideas yourself now, then you need to learn, because there won't be someone there for the rest of your career who will give you the ideas you're looking for.

Good luck with the project - I hope you can get some ideas from my suggestions. And feel free to post your ideas when you put something on paper or on your computer.

Searching for creative juices

i dont go to uni.. not just yet.. im at a art and design school - part of college.. will do on to degree hopefully.. well im going to get started on my brainstorm now..

i never thougt of picking one item of the brainstorm and brainstorming that to.. nice one..