Purple Theatre Group newsletter: Pipeline

As part of the Purple Theatre Group management team, keeping the members of our group up to date with events, news etc is an important task to ensure the group keeps ticking over. To do so, we use a wide range of communication sources: a newsletter being one of them.

This month, I put together the groups newsletter. This was the result. For some odd reason, the transparency I'd set on Indesign doesn't seem to have come through despite being available on the PDF itself. Imagine the photo backgrounds are a lot lighter, enabling stronger viewing of the text itself!


 

 

Leer Logo

A logo I worked on purely on Indesign during my spare time, using someone else's sketch: clarifying and tidying the image.
The actual image itself isn't entirely finished as I was waiting for final confirmation on a detail, but I'm pleased with the image itself! (Original sketch idea not my own)

Age UK poster

This is an example of putting together a poster within 2 hours (possibly...I did numerous other priority things whilst putting this together) for a rush assignment.

My first piece of work for Age UK

My first issue for Age UK Hammersmith and Fulham, welcoming the reader and promoting the centre in general....yeah I'm happy with the result. And I think they were too!

 

Another one of my prouder copies. Annoyingly some of the graphics on the pages don't seem to be showing up clearly (the big black boxes which may look a little out of place. I have a suspicion converting from JPEG to PDF may be the cause). However, this gives you another example of the work I did at the BMJ. Cropping images, drop shadows and gradient seem to be my strong point for now.

 

 

 

 

 

I like shiny things....

and playing around to make them happen. I'm amused I called this 'Philosophy'. Maybe I should send it to the Tate Modern and tell them it's the contemporary state of a deteriorating society, desperate for some form of structure, yet automatically fighting against convention......or....something.

A sampling at The Watercooler

During my early years at the BMJ, I was approached by the company HR Director and informed she'd seen my work on the departmental newsletter I'd initiated and she was interested in using my skill and experience to create a newsletter for the company, along the same vein as the one I was presently working on.
This started what would be an awesome 3 year experience working on The Watercooler which enabled me to develop my skills on Indesign using YouTube, Google and the 'oooh what does this do' method as my tutors.
So much fun! There were days when I'd have an hour left til 5pm on a slow work day, spend half an hour working on a design then binning it completely just to rework something much better to replace it all the while, listening to Infected Mushroom on loop (this experience led me to listening to them on YouTube, and discovering a '300 and Infected Mushroom' remix. Am-a-zing!)
I had my moments of 'why won't you [insert profanity here]', but that was part of the charm. I'd get a thrill out of just staring at an article for what felt like ages, then just being hit my an idea which would form perfectly on paper.

Below is a taster (and tester) of one of the issues I was the most proud of....I'll try and rework some more issue in at a later date.
(Annoyingly some of the Indesign effects seem to be a little weird on this copies, possible the effect of having converted a PDF into jpeg, but hoping it won't spoil the effect of the newsletter to much....so...if it looks odd/wrong, that's why.)

 

 
 

 

 

Emmanuelle Beart

I really like drawing people and usually succeed when I'm giving something I can concentrate on and a few solid hours. Right eye, not amazing, but as you can see hair placement and shading meant I didn't have to worry too much about perspective.
(Is it me or does she look a little angry here...)

Mirelle

I like this one. Unless I'm mistaken, I copied this image from a magazine. My dad receives magazines through the post, containing numerous illustrations and the latest digital workings etc. He then passes them to me to have a look at. I found this and thought 'that should be interesting'.
(19/01/04 - I have a suspicion this is the date I meant to put on the coloured picture....04 not 84 as I've had been 11 days old when I created this. I know I'm good but let's be reasonable here)

Aye

This is a demonstration of 'I'm bored. I've blank paper in front of me...oooh what does this button do!'
I kind of liked the result....make what you will of it/them (I think it's the same image, played around with in the second one).

Alicia Keys (a lesson in saving work)

The saying goes 'Best foot forward', so my first impulse is to start by uploading a picture I'm particularly proud of (sketch and finalised).
With this particular image, I learnt the valuable lesson of saving every chance you get. I actually got to the stage where the copy I'd spent hours working on finally looked like the second copy below, then I pressed something and my computer died...and I realised since scanning and cleaning the image, I hadn't saved. I nearly followed the computer's actions.
It's funny how close you feel to someone when you spend over 3 hours solidly working on getting their likeness. My inspiration for drawing this? I like drawing faces but I can't draw both eyes....yup.
(24/03/04)

A Creative Publishing Professional.....

Enter my head and you'll see things that look fairly similar to the background I've used for this blog (cue me one day deciding to change it to a cute little kitten or something just as random). Many of these images/ideas make their way onto paper/computer. Some see the light of day and I go 'Look mummy, daddy! Look what I did!' whilst others, I.....honestly consider ritually burning.

Either way, since I can remember, I've always done something creative with my life, whether it be putting pencil to paper when I was just a child, working blood, sweat and tears into the company newsletters, or creating a fictional character I make run around a field with other fantasy characters and whilst battling fantasy creatures who threaten my very existence.....*cough* never mind.

Looking through a few of the works I have stored on my computer, I thought, 'hey....I'm proud of some of these!' especially considering some were the results of my having taught myself how to use the program to get the result I wanted (Self-teaching: a combination of YouTube, Google and 'ooooh what does this do' *click*....yea....I save stuff I'm working on....frequently).

Soooo, I thought I'd take the time to actually share some of the stuff I've worked on in the past. I might just fill this blog up with a couple of things I've worked on, then just let it sit for a bit just to be admired/criticised/hated/loved like a puppy found on the street, depends how inspiration hits or what work I get asked to do.

Anyway....enjoy!

Frankie