I decided to create some christmas cards using layers of coloured card to create a 'scene'. To do this I created a mock layout on illustrator, using the layer tool to separate the colours.
I used a border on every layer so the visuals were connected to one piece of card.
I then made outlines of the layers for the laser machine to cut out.
I cut out the different layers on coloured stock.When layered up the image I had mocked up was created
As well as these being given to family I also produced some to send to Elmwood and The Beautiful MeMe. I posted the christmas card alongside my business card for them to look at my website.
In addition I send a package to a family friend who owns a graphic design company with a personal family joke about chicken casserole to catch his attention. Hopefully he will look at my website and get back to me with no doubt some kind of joke/prank.
I know from families like mine, that kids growing up with creativity around them more often than not become creative almost by default. Matthew Syed’s book Bounce, The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice says more than I can say here.
I therefore have a problem with people who go to college at 18 in the expectation of becoming creative. It is extremely difficult to come at it from a standing start. Being creative is in you in some way by adulthood or it’s not. You can choose to turn it off, but it won’t be easy to develop without nurture early on.
I was brought up in a tremendously creative household. It was a working class family in Morecambe, Lancashire that wanted to do things. My granddad made all my toys, fishing rods and so on and my mum and gran always had two sewing machines whirring. They even dyed their own fabrics.
Gerardine and I have four kids and they are all very creative. They were brought up surrounded by magazines and books, attended fashion and materials shows when we ran Red or Dead and frequented vintage, design shops. And after we sold Red or Dead came to visit housing developments and regeneration schemes around the world with us. We never had time to teach them, but they were immersed in design and creativity.
You can go out and learn things, but you have a better chance if you start that learning early in your life. Our son Jack left college after 18 months, for example, because he felt he was gaining nothing. He just wanted to go out and do it and was ready for that.
This is why primary and junior schools are very important. They give children a chance to indulge their passions early on. It can be too late at 18. I do though, have a problem with the lack of creativity in state schools – when we sent our younger two kids to private school they were much happier with their creative schooling.
There has been an increased demand for creative education over recent years. In my generation parents wouldn’t have seen it such a good idea, working in a bank or for Marks & Spencer being seen as better options. That perception has changed, particularly among middle class parents who see design as a viable alternative and one with “bragging rights.”
In our business we need designers who are fleet of foot and can work across disciplines. For example, our daughter Tilly studied urban design, works with us at Hemingway Design and is equally at home designing G-Plan furniture and on uniforms for McDonalds.
If you’ve got a creative mind you can be flexible, but colleges don’t generally allow for that. Design for us is a state of mind rather than a particular course of study.
I felt this partly very true, I think creativity is within you from a very young age, however some people don't discover there use for it until later in life. I never realised that me doodling, me thinking weird ideas, loving packaging and materials and images meant anything or could become something. I didn't even no graphic design existed. I thought about advertising because that was a topic that I knew about due to being exposed to it however I don't think it's an industry that necessary suits my morals and personality. If I had decided that and not discovered design then my creative talents could of gone to waste and I do a degree in something that didn't feed my brain of ideas. I think that education should teach about the creative possibilities more to you as a student because many peoples talents can be lost if they don't have the drive to discover it. Those who understand there talents and how it can be used then all hail to them and enter the world without teaching but those who don't I think need to be directed or shown what possibilities they potentially have. Wether that course even shows them that it's not there direction, it'll defiantly eliminate the option and teach them what they do like because they no what they don't like. This I think personally can be invaluable to a creative and a person.