Wedding Book

Posted: Thursday,5th January, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: freelance, graphic design, photography, Project, typography | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I was very happy to hear that two good friends of mine were getting married and even more honoured to be the photographer at their wedding. The day went very well and the photographs turned out quite well despite being in the harsh Queensland afternoon sun.

As an extra special present to my two friends, and their family, I took the best photographs and created a photobook for them.

cover of wedding book designed by Kassandra

cover of wedding book

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I had a lot of fun taking the photographs and lots of fun creating the book but the most fun was the reaction of the new bride, she loved them. I have already been told that the people she has shown it to have really liked that I captured the feeling from the day within the book – my aim exactly!

Flower Tag design

Posted: Friday,18th March, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: graphic design, photography, Project, typography | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I recently bought 10 different types of flowers and pots to plant them in so I could add some colour to my backyard. After planting I was very upset at how crappy the flower tags were. I will not show the originals because they were that bad. They were all red, had a crazy huge logo and the text for each flower was small, upper case and white on red. These tags were more about the company who grew them than about the individual flowers. I had to change this – design tags that were all about the flowers and not me.

As a graphic designer and photographer I started with photographing my new flowers. After getting the photographs off my camera I had to select all the best photographs, about 10 minutes. I spent about 15 minutes getting a rough template together that has the shape, clipping mask all ready to go and the text in place. Using the ‘template’ and the selected photographs, typing in the name, changing colours etc took about 20 minutes for all the tags. So basically I made 10 flower tags in about 45 minutes. Below is 8 of the 10 tags:

flower tags designed by Kassandra

New flower tag design (on black to make the colours pop)

Once I printed them all I cut them out and laminated them and then cut them out (again). Below are the flower tags as they are displayed in the pots:

photographs of the flower tags designed by Kassandra in situ

photographs of the flower tags on display

I have already had some friends and family mistake these flower tags for being the tags that came with the flowers since they are so well designed and professional looking. I smile because this is what I do.

Urban Tile Company Stickers

Posted: Friday,18th March, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: freelance, graphic design, photography, typography | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Freelance job for Urban Tile Company to design transparent stickers for boards with which they display tiles in their show room. This job is for 50 stickers in three different colours totalling 150 stickers. I also print brokered the job, learning more about sticker printing. I got the brief through email and went in to meet them when some of the details didn’t work out. Below is the pen to paper sketching alongside the rough done in accordance to the brief:

Urban Tile Company sticker design pen and paper with rough design based off design brief

Pen and paper alongside the rough

Once the size of the sticker and the typeface and its treatment was selected I could go ahead and design the artwork and get quotes for printing. The actual artwork took half an hour to do. Below are the three stickers:

UTC - Sticker Artwork by Kassandra

Sticker artwork for all three colours

 

With the artwork approved and the print quote accepted the artwork was sent off for printing in the format the printer preferred. (PDF with all three stickers on one page with trim marks for each sticker) I strongly suggested to the client that the stickers be individually cut by the printer for ease of use and to save their time. Below are the three bundles I delivered to my client:

Urban Tile Company bundles of stickers printed and trimmed

Bundles of stickers printed and trimmed

When I was delivering the product I asked the client if I could come back in two weeks to photograph the stickers in situ. I was granted permission to do not only this but to put this job on my website. Below are the stickers on the display board in Urban Tile Company’s show room:

Urban Tile Company sticker design in situ in their showroom

Stickers on display boards in Urban Tile Company's showroom

This was a great job to do and I was very happy to have such a happy client.

Gold Coast Big Day Out 2011 – sign design

Posted: Friday,11th March, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: festival, graphic design, photography, typography | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I worked at the Gold Coast Big Day Out – making signs.

To start my job I did inventory:

 

Inventory of signs at Gold Coast Big Day Out

Inventory of signs at Gold Coast Big Day Out

 

The biggest job was 10 new signs that said “Surf the ocean not the crowd” below is a visual of how this job was done:

 

Big Day Out Surf the Ocean not the crowd

Big Day Out Surf the Ocean not the crowd

 

I worked on some other signs too:

 

Big Day Out Other signs Gold Coast 2011

Other signs made at Gold Coast Big Day Out 2011

 

While I was at the festival I tried to hunt down the signs that I made – I walked through a different entrance to the ones that I made signs for and as we were locked in I unfortunately did not get to take photographs of all my signs in situ. I did however find these three in situ:

 

Gold Coast Big Day Out 2011 - Signs in situ

Signs in situ at Gold Coast Big Day Out 2011

I had a great time working with the set up crew and it was great to see this festival come together over the three days that I worked on the set up.

 

Woollen … thing

Posted: Thursday,15th April, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: MiSC, recycling | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I felt like making something with my hands. I remember making these woollen things as a child – on a much smaller scale with paddle pop sticks. To begin I went into my backyard to find a couple of good sized sticks. Then I went through my mum’s wool collection and found rements of wool to use. Then I started securing the sticks and looping the wool around the sticks, over and over again until I finished.  I quickly made an information graphic (using Kassandra Designs Signature Typeface I have designed) to explain what I did.

Kassandra design illustrating method

How to make the woollen thing.

I have taken plenty of photographs of the final product. Here is two – one is how I suggest it is displayed (stuck in the ground) and a close up of the centre.

woollen thing by Kassandra - photograph and design by Kassandra

The Woollen ... Thing.

I used purples and blues and a row of black between the two. It looks great and I kept my hands busy for a few hours while I made it.

Woodfordia Induction

Posted: Wednesday,31st March, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: MiSC, recycling | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

I spent the weekend 26th of March through to the 28th of March at the ____________ ___________ _______ Woodfordia site. There are way to many words to describe Woodfordia and I simply say experience it for yourself and you tell me how to describe it.

At the Woodford Organisers Group conference referred to as “The Big Chat” I got to:

Day 1

  • camp wherever I wanted to on the Woodfordia site (Woodford Folk Festival grounds)
  • meet my supervisor in my next role:

    job offer for sign making at the dreaming festival

    Sign maker for Dreaming Festival job offer

I will be making signs for the Dreaming Festival in June 11-13th. The role also involves placing the signs around the festival. The department head of Signology was happy to have me on board as I am a graphic designer and have typography, map making, computer based design (printing and laminating) and painting skills.  As a true leader eager to induct an enthusastic new team member I was told about the new printer and laminator, Bubbles and Bobo respectfully; shown where the signs are stored; how to brave the cold Woodfordia climate during winter and a basic overview of operations before the festival (set up).

  • Welcomed to the Woodford Organisers Conference by the Queensland Folk Federation President, with whom I just met through my department head not 1 hour before he took the stage.
  • Alan Glover and S Sorrensen made the whole room vibrate with laughter the whole time they were on stage. I don’t remember laughing so loudly for so long in a long time.
  • I was oustide and “this bloke” comes over and says:
                               “Hey you lot, get inside now the band is about to start.
                               Come on get inside the band starts in five minutes.
                              Come on you lot, stop smoking and get inside you don’t want to miss the band”. . . . 
                              *Chuckles to himself*
                              “How often does the lead singer of the band usher in the crowd?”

                                                       – John Schumann

 

  • John Schumann, Hugh McDonald and Alex Black performed some amazing music acoustically.
  • The group stayed up late catching up over some drinks in a relaxed setting surrounded with trees and amazing down to earth loving friendly people.

DAY 2

  • Breakfast.
  • The General Manager gave an overview of the finance for 2009-10 Woodford Folk Festival.
  • I learnt how the overall enterprise is structured, makes money and spends money.
  • The Executive Director and a Foresight Practitioner discussed the myth of the “500 Year Plan”.
  • We had a tea break and moved onto separate more specific workshops. There was a choice of three.
  • I met the Children’s Festival programmer who held a workshop called “A million ways to save a dollar”. We discussed ways that each department of the festival could save a small amount of money by being more efficient.
  • I stayed in the Organisers Club Bar for the Setup Department Head session and it is about the issues faced during the set up – I will be part of the set up crew and want to go into a department head position at some point in the future.
  • We had a lunch break.
  • I had a message passed onto me about where one of my favourite Woodfordians was cooking up fish he caught the day before. It was beautifully cooked. The company up at the undisclosed location was worth meeting and missing out on the Speed Meet session where we only had a few minutes to meet each other. We bonded over an hour.
  • The next workshop I attended was entitled “Getting involved as a new organiser – are you up for being a part of the WOG?” It was interesting how the Volunteers and Department Heads manager facilitated the start of this workshop. We sat in a circle, introduced ourselves (first name and last name) and briefly summarise our involvement in QFF so far and what we want to do now and in the future. When it got to introducing myself I said “I am Kassandra with a  k.” then I am cut off and told I do not need a last name as Kassandra with a K is enough. We were told to find where we felt we belonged and be mentored by a department head and get into a key offsider position. When the department head wants to step down you are already trained for the role.
  • “Many hands make light work” was the motto we heard. 8 people packed sand into 1000 recycled white boxes and placed a tea light on top. This was for Earth Hour where we all ate our two-course Annual Organisers Dinner under candle light.
  • We all got to chill out and bond some more after a full day of workshops.
  • I met one of my new favourite bands: A French Butler Called Smith outside the “Duck” I explained I saw them live in Maleny and we bonded over the badness of the poster design for the event (I later remade it – Kassandra Bowers Poster Remake Design). They seemed pretty excited to hear I am a graphic designer.
  •  The candles were lit and we were dressed to impress (dreadlocks and suits is a very good look) as we ate our delicious meal. On the table plan my name was misspelt. I got out my pen and changed it quickly while noone was looking. When everyone was sitting at the table and we were all meeting each other they all said they noticed I changed the spelling of my name.
  • Since I was sitting next to the Foresight Practitioner I asked about a quote I heard countless times at university: “we are training you for jobs that do not exist yet”. Basically I am trained to encounter change as an given and be adaptable to it. I now think it has to do with the transdispiclinary learning that took place at university.
  • John Sullivan Federal MP introduced John Schumann as the Guest Speaker at the dinner. John explained the whole story about the song “Nineteen”.
  • The Annual Organisers Awards took place.
  • A French Butler Smith took the stage, warmed up the dance floor with a tango and then had us all dancing our feet off. At the end of their set when everyone was asking for an encore I reasoned them into it by saying “but come on, the instruments are here and sound checked, the lights are going, your on stage and you have us all dancing here” we got not one but two encores – we were truely spoilt. I did not let them leave without giving them my contact card and having a much longer chat to at least one group member – the saxaphone player.
  • Since we would all not catch up again for about a month we all braced ourselves for a long night of just living and taking it as it happens. It somewhat drizzled on us, the circle got smaller, the bar closed and we were told not to waste all the wine (don’t let it go in the bin it was purchased for you to consume). The next thing I remembered it was 6am, the sun was appearing and there was only three of us standing. I crawled into my tent for a couple of hours of sleep.

    • Day Three

    • Most people were a little worse for wear today but we perservered.
    • We kickstarted the day with breakfast and a talk about the aspiration campaign.
    • There was a brief update about department heads.
    • There was a discussion about new software developed to facilitate all the issues arised during events.
    • We were told about the large storm approaching the site and were instructed to do the group photo and go home early if you wanted to. The group photo becomes history as it is archieved as proof that a group of people organised and ran all the festivals that QFF does – The Dreaming, The Planting and Woodford Folk Festival.
    • I went home after spending 20 minutes with my department head learning about the department.

    It was great I can’t wait until I get to see my family at Woodfordia again soon.

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