Snow, Snow Everywhere!

Last week, I took some photos out in the snow when I was in York and also the Lake District. So I thought I'd share them with you! I love the snow, despite the fact that it always causes chaos on the roads of Great Britain but it just makes everywhere look so much prettier. Here are a few of the shots that I took. I think some would probably make quite good christmas cards!

The new Guinness Advert

After a recent visit to Dublin for a friends birthday in September, I found a secret love that I never in a million years thought I would have.....Guinness. I felt that I could not travel all the way to Dublin and not even try the drink that is famously associated with Ireland today. So I did! I had a half pint for my first ever one and at first found it rather bitter. After mastering the technique of 'drinking through the head of the beer' I actually came to enjoy the flavour. There's something about the taste that reminds me of like 'Weetabix' but a little bit overdone.

Whilst in Dublin we went on the open top bus, in the rain I might add - not the best of ideas, and were informed that infact the porter style of the Guinness stout originated in the early eighteenth century in London! This distinctive burnt flavour derives from the use of roasted barley and the thick creamy head is the result of the beer being mixed with nitrogen when being poured. After seeing the new advert for drink, I thought that the sheer brilliance of it deserved a blogpost. It's pretty extravagant lasting almost a minute and a half, with the slogan 'Bring It To Life' meaning the world. When you the watch you will understand what I mean... take a look!



As you can see all the men in the advert are bringing the world to life, firstly by setting off a rocket, which forms so much cloud it starts raining. I love the part where they start to pull the grass across the rocky mountains, covering the surface again bringing life to it. There's one point where you can see a tiny ladybird on some of the grass.....it just looks so realsitic. They also manage to heave a forest off the ground, which is phenomenal! All in all, an advert that is longer than the average in length but extra special. Definitely worth a minute and a half of your time I reckon. I will leave you with this photo taken when I visited Dublin.....ahhh lovely.

The Adventurous Little Fairy

I have just recently created my book as part of one of my modules for a uni project. I have tried to get across what I am like as a designer as well as showing my personality to potential employers. I have designed my book in the style of a fairytale and put a modern twist on it. Take a look....let me know what you think. Thanks

Domestic Violence Ad Campaign

I was immediately drawn to these advertising campaigns for domestic violence when I saw them online. After browsing through Design Week, seeing a campaign also on domestic violence inspired me to do some searching of my own. One thing that particularly struck me about this was the use of celebrities within the poster for such a campaign. Here are a few of the famous faces that were used, Kate Thornton, Fiona Bruce, the news presenter and actress, Honor Blackman. The shocking campaign from Women's Aid was made to highlight domestic violence, which sees two women a week killed by current or former partners.







Despite the fact that the campaign was for Women's Aid, I think these kind of posters maybe forget that men can also be victims. Perhaps shock posters of men in the same style could been a good eye opener to show this because it is not really spoken of. Maybe women who are violent towards there partner could then seek help from the campaign too. I do think that with this kind of subject, where people find it difficult to talk about, shock advertising is one of the best ways to help to get people to open up and seek the help that they need. The use of celebrities definitely captures your attention because of the familiar face. You want to find out what has happened? Why have they got bruises? A split lip? The fact that it captures your attention in such a way certainly raises your awareness and you find that you do remember so the message works well.

York Minster

If you have never visited the city of York, then why not? Perhaps you feel it's not man enough for you like Leeds or Manchester maybe? That it is predominantly populated by men dressed as macho vikings and the elderly?........well I'd say men dressed as strong and powerful vikings is man enough. It was only this weekend that I was in York killing two birds with one stone....not literally...... my mum had gone for the weekend with friends as it was her birthday, a big one at that, and I was also visiting my boyf who attends York University. I had a really nice weekend infact and it made me realise how much I actually like the city of York, despite it being the complete opposite to Leeds.

Whilst there I ate tasty food and drank fine wine as well as visiting the Christmas market and walking along the famous shambles. I also saw the Minster because for one, it is pretty hard to miss and two I think in terms of an architectural structure it is powerful and towering in height but on closer inspection the sheer detail within everything from the stained glass window to the archway entrance is incredible.

Here are some facts about the Minster itself. Did you know that it is the second largest Gothic cathedral of northern Europe? Building work of the present structure began in 1230 and was completed in 1472......over 240 years to complete, which an extremely long time you can imagine. On the whole York is well known for producing beautifully created stained glass and the Minster is no exception. Some of the stained glass in the Minster dates back to as early as the twelfth century and it is the 76 foot tall Great East window that actually breaks records. It is the largest example of medieval stained glass in the world, created in the early fifteenth century by a man called John Thornton.

I could not resist taking a few photographs whilst passing the Minster. Standing very close however makes it quite difficult to get a shot of the entire structure onto one photograph. I have created a joiner from the different photos that I took, which is shown below.

Facebook Group RMRoche Design & The Adventurous Little Fairy

I have recently set up a facebook group on my profile to promote my blog and also my website. By doing this I hope to get more and more people to check out my online presence. Here is an image of one of my ideas for my brand identity. I think I need to work more on it and perhaps make it purely typographic for my brand name.



I like the idea of using my name within my brand RMRoche, as it makes it more personal and also more identifiable for the audience. I think that the paints and other drawing implements within the image above also shows diversity in my particular design style because as well as working on computer programs I also love and enjoy drawing and painting.



My facebook group - RMRoche Design


For another part of this digital design project that I have been working on this semester, I had to produce a digitally designed book. I had the idea of creating a fairy tale that showed what I was like as a designer as well as hopefully also allowing my personality to shine through my work. Just to give you a taster of how I designed my book, below is a fairy that I produced using the program Illustrator.




Let me know what you think........comments are appreciated thanksx