Water photography

As well as being really busy with client work lately I've also had the opportunity to take a 5 week photography course at Art 4 You Scotland. The tutor was the fine art photographer, Dave Hunt. His explanations of how the camera works were really good and even although I have some experience of taking photographs especially close ups I learned a lot. We spoke a lot about how to capture a subject that is moving, a concept with which I was struggling.

The beautiful weather over the Easter weekend gave me the perfect opportunity to go walking along the river with my camera and have a play with what I've learned. I was quite pleased with the results.

The Willis Wood Brand

Sometimes a project comes together perfectly. This is the case when I was asked to create a brand for new forensic accountancy business, Willis Wood.

Fiona approached me fully prepared with plenty of ideas and a great strapline "A service tailored to you". I also teamed up with Abeoweb for the first time to create the website leaving me with more time to focus on the design side.

The logo had to be sophisticated and classy in order to appeal to the prospective clients - lawyers and accountants. I'd been wanting to use a serif typeface for a while but it had not seemed appropriate for any previous projects.

I then used an enlarged version of the logo "pie-chart" to add interest to the business card, headed paper and website design.

The graphics took a slightly unusual route for the brochure and website. The tagline made me look closer at the tailored suits worn by the target audience. Photos of these representing the different areas gave the brand a modern yet sharp look with just a little bit of femininity.

June Calendar

As the summer holidays approach it's time for an update to the design calendar. The month of June signals the end of free reign on design projects for students and an opportunity to impress the industry before embarking on their chosen careers.

So for design inspiration I'd recommend a visit to Edinburgh Telford's College graduate show which is taking place from 13th to 17th June at the Dovecot studios.

And then for relaxation packing a tent and some marshmallows to toast on the campfire somewhere in the Scottish countryside.

January Blues

A busy festive period for designjr always finds her much distracted by the forces of cake for birthdays and events. January seems calmer with resolutions and plans for the forthcoming year still feeling fresh and possible.

Plans for 2012 include a wee update for the designjr website, more work on tactile graphics for Fife Society for the Blind and hopefully lots more opportunities to produce beautiful designs that speak for themselves.

As always please feel free to use this month's calendar as your desktop and if you have any problems give us a shout.

A breath of fresh air

The brief was to create a brochure website for the well established firm of solicitors, Marshall Ross & Munro. I concentrated on the idea that as they have been around for so long they have helped clients through many generations. It had to look professional but also friendly and welcoming.

My involvement included taking the head shots of the 4 solicitors working in the firm. A window backdrop isn't an obvious choice but in this case it really works to keep the site fresh.

Check out the rest for yourself at www.marshallrossmunro.co.uk

Remember remember...

It's hard to believe that it's November already! Where has the time gone? As they say time flies when you're having fun and well, that's what I've been doing here. Lots of exciting projects on the go. With deadlines looming details will be available later this month.

Please feel free to download my calendar image for use on your desktop and send me a message if you have any problems. The 20th is the important date for me this month.

Trick or treat

This past month I've been very busy working on some exciting new projects. I hope to be able to post details in the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime feel free to download October's calendar, inspired by the blood, gore and dressing up that is halloween. But while planning your costume don't forget Apple Day on the 21st!

September

September is upon us and as promised here's a calendar for your desktop. The lavender harvested from my garden is hanging out to dry and the blueberries are ripening on the windowsill. Enjoy the beginning of Autumn and don't forget International Talk like a Pirate Day on the 19th!

Botanic Garden

light
Originally uploaded by designjr

I've now completed my two day photography course at Edinburgh Botanic Garden. With around 500 photos still to go through from this Saturday's course it may be some time before I get these onto Flickr. In the meantime you can see what I took on the first day. I spent an hour in each of the rock garden and the alpine garden so these are a mixture.

I got some very good feedback on my images including that I was giving a different perspective of the garden to most of the other people taking part in the course.

If anyone can name any of the flowers I'd love to hear from you as you'll see I've named them pink, blue etc!

After a bit of a creative lull I feel like my mojo's back with lots of ideas buzzing around my head for items to sell in my Etsy shop. Now I just need to get working on them and make them available to you all!

I'm also trying to establish the best way to make my items available to people in the UK as etsy only uses US $. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas I'd love to hear from you.

Weekend away

After a rather photograph filled weekend away I've discovered that I've used up all my flickr allowance for this month. Plan B is to share the rest here so these are the "best" of the photos I took on a trip to Argyllshire (except for these ones that made it onto Flickr before the space ran out).

Hopefully I'll have more flickr allowance next month when normal service is sure to resume!

Clansmen

Clansmen
Originally uploaded by designjr

A bit of sports photography was the order of the day today. People are not usually the subject of my photos nevermind action shots so it was definitely a learning experience. I think the results look ok but I was eying up other peoples cameras with big zoom lenses. It would have been better to get close ups without putting myself in danger!

cup cake bonanza

I'm getting the feeling that some extensive cake baking is on the horizon. In anticipation of a cupcake baking and decorating session tomorrow I've been doing my homework. I found the following amazing sites all about food and most importantly baking:- Whisk the Pantry, Baking Obsession, Milk & Honey, Honey & Jam to name but a few (I have been "working" on this for a while!)

Roll up, roll up!

It's been a long wait but I've finally got the film developed from my SLR. The results are...well it depends how you look at it!

The camera definitely still works and doesn't need cleaned but the photographer needs to work on focus and basically learn how to take a decent photo. Nonetheless here's the best ones (they're few and far between and Alasdair took one of them) completely unadulterated in photoshop except the cormorant one which has been cropped.

I got two free films when I got them developed and I will definitely be out practicing some more so stay tuned.

Blipping and blogging

I've been busy working away on my photography skills. I've just got 7 photos left to take on the old SLR then I'll see what it produces (fingers crossed, photos).

I've also started a photo journal which can be found at www.blipfoto.com/designjr if you want to know what I'm up to on a daily basis (oh and if you're seeing this on Facebook you can find my blog at designjr.blogspot.com)

Can't see the wood for the trees

Still without any film for my SLR (it's on my list of things to do today) here's a couple of photos from our walk at Loch Leven.

New old toy

What better way to practice my photography skills than with a manual SLR camera. I'm lucky enough to have a loan of an original 1972 Zenit EM from my dad. So now that I've worked out that I won't see the photo on the back I need to work out what all the dials do (there are a lot) and buy some film!

Trains

On a recent trip to York we visited the National Train Museum. While following my very excited husband around I managed to take a few photos. My favourite was Iron Duke until I realised I was in it - must work on photography skills!