Placement Application

1. CURRICULUM VITAE

2. Hi,
My name is Elisabeth Taylor and I am currently entering into the
third year of my degree - Graphic Design at Leeds College of Art.
I work in a very practical way, always looking for an opportunity
to do something hands on. I think there is a lot of inspiration to
be found by doing something physically: be it drawing or one of
the more analogue forms of printing.
However, for me, the real attraction of Graphic design, and the
creative industries generally, is the people. I love collaboration
and the impetus gained by working with others. More than
anything I think the work created by using more than one mind,
more than one perspective, is always best. I hope you will give
me the opportunity to show you how I can make your team
stronger!

3. L E T T E R I N G is one of my absolute
favouritethingstodo.Typography,also,
is something that I find fascinating.
I have focused much of my degree
on these disciplines, in the hope of
someday mastering them. If that is
even possible!
As well as practical work such as
brand lettering, signage and one off
pieces, I have also spent some time
examining the theoretical backbone of
typography, which has proved complex
and deeply rewarding.
B R A N D I N G comes predominantly
from my lettering. I find it a great
context in which to analyse and strip
back a design. I love the way branding
makes you consider the smallest of
details. It feeds my inner perfectionist!
Creating a brand also involves
restrictions that are instrumental in
shaping typographic considerations.
For me, these limitations create the
environs for some of the best creative
thinking.

4. I L L U S T R A T I O N Is something I
greatly enjoy, mostly because of its
freedom from the screen. I specialise in
using pen and ink with small additions
of charcoal and sometimes watercolour
but I would be happy to turn my hand
to anything. I tend to focus on natural
subject matter, such as plants and
insects,simplybecausethesethingsare
most interesting to me at the present
time.
W E B A N D D I G I T A L really
interestsme.Makingthetransitionfrom
design for print and design for digital
platforms was tricky but surprisingly
rewarding. A personal and warm tone of
voice was the by product of making my
illustrative style digital. Although I have
very limited experience with coding, I
do have experience designing for web
and am familiar with the limitations of
doing so.

5. B E L Y N D A S H A R P L E S : I spent
two weeks with a wallpaper designer/
painter and illustrator, in which I
learned about the printing processes
involved in bulk production, as well as
the design considerations of scale and
pattern behind wallpaper design. To
see some of Belynda’s work visit www.
theartofwallpaper.com
P A R A L L E L I am currently working
with parallel magazine (a feminist
magazine start up) in the form of an
online internship. This work experience
came from a hypothetical re-brand I
did for them as part of my college work
(detailed in following pages) . www.
theparallemag.com
EXPERIENCE

6. WORK
S T U D E N T S U N I O N : I am now
working as the communications officer
for the Leeds College of Art Students’
Union. This involves creating all
freshers print material and dealing
directly with printers on the behalf
of the students’ union. I will also be
working on any other material that
is required by the SU in the coming
academic year.
T H E L E E D S A R T S P A R T Y :
throughout my second year I was
taken on as the graphic designer for a
conference to celebrate arts education.
This included creating brand guidelines
and creating all of the promotional and
organisational material on print and
digital platforms.

7. REFERENCES
S T E V E P A I L I N G - B E Y O N D
T H E C L I C K
stevepailing@beyondtheclick.co.uk
I did some logo design work for
beyond the click, based on brush pen
calligraphy.
F R A N C E S B A I L E Y - T H E
L E E D S A R T S P A R T Y
leeds.arts.party@gmail.com
As previously mentioned I worked as
the graphic designer for The Leeds Arts
Party Conference. Fran, as the project
manager, was my main point of contact
throughout.

8. EDUCATION
A - L E V E L S
AS biology A
A-Level media studies B
A-Level English Literature A
A-Level Graphic Communications A*
I also gained well above the English
Baccalaureate at GCSE level.
D E G R E E
As you know, I am just entering the
third year of my Graphic Design Degree
at Leeds College of Art. In my first year I
averagedahigh2:1at68%andachieved
a first in my second year at 71.8%.

9. CONTACT
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch .
www.elittlebethdesign.com
07870747171
eutaylor1995@gmail.com

10. Examples of Lettering and Calligraphy

11. This was a self initiated project that started
simply with a small doodle that grew
into the lettering of the word adventure
shown above. The quote is from one
of my favourite films ‘UP’ and the map
background, although totally relevant to
the quote, proved the most challenging
aspect. Creating a strong type hierarchy
on such a varied background required
constant re-evaluation.

12. The first sketch is the larger of
the images. I had to re-shape the
flourishes, which mostly extend from
the curved strokes, a number of times
to achieve a smooth enough finish to
fit with the pointed curves of the serif
brackets.
The lines and shadows used on the
interior of the letter forms worked
best when they finished just short of
the edges, almost allowing the eye to
complete the line through suggesting
it. This proved a much better way of
creating the effect of three dimensions.

13. When it came to pairing something with
these dominant capital forms I knew I
needed something that contrasted, but
also fell slightly into the background
to allow the hierarchy of the words
to become established. My intention
was that the lower legibility of the
lettering would also contribute to this
hierarchy. However, it is arguable that
the flow created by the italicised and
cursive forms created a readability that
overrides the reduced legibility.

14. The ‘is’ needed to be on a separate line to
the ‘out there’ because of the space available
on the map. However, because of its smaller
size compared to the other components, I
added some ornamentation to draw the eye
to it and once again get it in the right place in
the information hierarchy. I took hints from
the letter forms themselves and made soft
plant like curls of a consistent line weight,
so not as to be too visually dense and detract
from the type itself. In the end I went for a
considerably reduced version of theses early
sketches, because on reflection I felt that they
were far too dense.

15. For the large part of the previous academic year I was
acting as graphic designer for the Leeds Arts Party
Conference. One of the pieces I designed for them was
a flyer that was used very early on in the promotion. It
needed to explain and communicate the values of the
conference (to celebrate the arts in education). I came
up with a slogan for their campaign (as shown on the
designs) and a lettered design for the flyer.

16. Because of the collaborative nature of the organisation
of the conference, the project started with a lot of very
rudimentary sketches that were done during meetings.
To start with people wanted to communicate variety.
However, I felt that the concept felt a bit messy, so
suggested choosing one lettering style and running with
it fully to gain a more coherent design and therefore
message.

17. I went with the dripping, paint-like lettering because
the visuals fitted with the celebration of the visual arts.
I played around with several textures that could create
a sense of depth. This was intended to create continuity
with their existing logo, which can be seen in the
sampled ‘Arts’ on the flyer. The very soft drop shadow
adds to this effect. However, this felt too dark and a bit
sombre, so I looked into colour changes that could help
the tone of voice fit the cause (positive activism).

18. A light blue soon evolved which fitted this tone of voice
perfectly, the main difficulties at this point were balancing
the complicated silhouette of the letter forms with the added
complexity of the texture. I made myself step away from the
design for a while and when I came back it became clear the
texture was completely unnecessary. That lead to the last
tweaks and the final designs on the first page of this project.

19. This was a branding project for a new
feminist magazine. The identity of
the magazine needed to be feminine
but strong without alienating a male
audience. The project required flexibility
of format, so I had to constantly be aware
of the digital applications the design had
to have. Working heavily with vectors
seemed the best solution, in terms of a
smooth professional finish and unlimited
scaling possibilities.

20. Sample web application as website navigation bar.

21. I started by creating small thumbnail
concept sketches to gather whether there
was any possibility of development in each
idea.
The dominant concept drew on aspects of
handwriting and a soft round cursive lean.
This had a sense of humanity and people,
while still being assertive and distinctive
enough to work as a logo.

22. I then looked at scaling up these ideas,
regulating the angle of the letters and
the width of stroke. Adding details like
the breaks in stroke, suggesting a fold or
sense of depth in aspects of the letters.
However, the legibility was significantly
reduced by this.
I looked into using the shaping of the
letter P to guide me to other possible
designs, in the hope that it could be used
as a monogram aspect of the branding.
However, this lost all the message that
the other lettering designs achieved.

23. Taking one of the more successful early
sketches into a digital format, I drew the
vector atop the design and smoothed out
imperfections. These included adhering to a
distinct base line and ensuring the angle of the
letters was consistent.

24. I then looked at how the lettering could
interact with a more image based aspect
of the logo, that I new I wanted to
incorporate for flexibility of branding.

25. Using reduced opacity created an
increased sense of the strokes used to
construct the letters, as the overlaid
aspects accumulated intense colour. This
in turn created a stronger message of
handwriting and a human process used in
creation.

26. I really felt that the complexity of the
lettering and the shape aspect were
fighting one another, so I stripped back
the design, in an effort to simplify the
visual and the message. This meant
removing all but two of the lines, allowing
the lettering room the breathe.

27. This was a brief that followed directly after the ‘Salt of the Earth’ website
design that can be found on the following page. The website informed people
about walks available along the North Norfolk coast. The brief was to create
print promotional work for the website. I made a coaster, a table sticker and
a magazine insert. The coaster and the table sticker were intended to work
in local cafés and bars where wifi is strong enough to support the Layar app
and the augmented reality software that works with the coasters. The table
sticker is a visual play on the name of the website and the context of the
sticker draws attention by creating the effect of lettering made by spilled salt
on the table.

28. To provide context for the printed
lettering, this is the design for the website
that the printed material was intended to
promote.

29. As with a number of my projects I started
with a large sheet of thumbnail designs that
I then took to crits. Bringing together other
peoples’ opinions and my own favourites,
generally proves effective.
In this situation I up-scaled a few design
options until a clear front runner became
apparent - the more whimsical cursive
lettering with distinct contrast in stroke
weight. It expressed a sense of the outdoors
in a more genteel fashion, which matched
exactly with my target audience.

30. Going from drawing to vector proved
particularly challenging because the
contrast in weight was so prone to looking
imbalanced. Re-allignment of the axis of the
‘s’ in particular had to be done so that the
incline of the baseline didn’t mess with the
overall effect of the type.
The lower case ‘r’ also proved tricky.
Eventually I found that increasing the weight
of the stem allowed it more presence next to
the other letters, improving the readability
and general balance of the word.

31. After the digital logo design had been
done for the website, I decided to create
the logo out of salt for a table sticker to
promote the website.
I started with sugar because the grains
picked up on the camera better than
actual salt. However, the larger grains
meant that accuracy when pouring was
at a minimum. I found a solution by
following the design as closely as I could
and then using a composite of edges from
the vector design and the salt lettering.

32. This was a project to explore some theoretical ideas I had identified in one of my essays for
college, looking at Jameson’s theory of ‘Pastiche’ in relation to typographic practices. In my essay I
questioned the idea that pastiche reduces our historical awareness. I took a typographic, or rather
lettering practice, that is often used in constructing pastiches and created my own piece of lettering
pastiche with the skills I had learned.
Learning a practice completely, introduces you to its limitations, and challenges you in ways digital
and other newer production methods cannot. The process is also akin to experimental archaeology
by physically placing you in a historical context, forcing you to understand the background of what
you are doing. In this sense it fosters historical curiousity on the part of the designer. This is true of
any practice emulation, not just limited to calligraphy.

33. The first of these videos is perhaps the one I am most happy
with. I like the way it clearly depicts the thought needed
to construct a pastiche well. It also shows the essential
changes that have to be made in the letter-forms of the past
to make them readable to modern eyes. Often the most
important aspects of a letter, as dictated by sans serif fonts,
are reduced in scale in original calligraphic forms and must
be accentuated to address a modern audience effectively.
This raises the question of whether these are actually
pastiches anymore? Once again this theme of innovation
in tiny increments, in this situation because of a change in
audience, suggests pastiche could be a stepping stone on the
way to something completely different and new.
vimeo.com/127413909

34. This was a slightly slower video, showing
the detailed experimentation that makes
up the majority of most projects. I chose
to experiment with the isometric grid
because this innovation came from seeking
to understand the typographic structures
closely, and therefore the process needed to
create them.
vimeo.com/127426003

35. This video details the furthest removal from traditional practice of
calligraphy, by implementing different tools. This is a more decisive
parallel of something I observed in my essay. The absinthe bottle I
analysed, by Stranger and Stranger Studios, used half tone dots to
emulate the effects of a de-bossed shadow. This time I used a large
paint brush to emulate the shapes created by a quill pen. However,
something darker, messier and more exciting was created.
vimeo.com/127465462

36. This is the end product of the videos. Although, in my
opinion, it is really not that great, learning the process and
really experimenting with the scale of typographic forms,
was invaluable. I feel that the videos express this better
than the piece its self.