☀️ ATX ☀️

Howdy, Y’all!

It’s crazy to think I have just had my first week in Austin, TX – here is a summary of what I have been up to, and why I am here.

I have been involved with Bundle for 18 months. Back in 2014, I was still in university and coming close to the end of my studies. I jumped at the chance to get involved in a very early stage startup. We were bootstrapping at first, it was difficult. I certainly doubted myself – it was problematic designing a product without the technical support.

That’s when Bernardo and Milos came along.

Bernardo is our iOS Developer and Milos is our Software Engineer. It blows my mind to see what they have achieved in 6 months. They are the smartest guys, and I am proud to work alongside them.

After running a successful campaign on Seedrs, I was given the opportunity to leave agency life. Right now, I am giving my all to a startup life.

---

WEEK ONE HIGHLIGHTS

Sat 17 Oct – Touch down! I flew via Toronto, and only had to wait a couple hours for a connecting flight. I’ll be stopping over for the night on my way back. I can’t fly via Canada without saying hello.

I knew I had come to the right place when I spotted Crossy Road on a massive screen in the airport.

We are staying on 6th East Side, in a lovely new condo. It’s the perfect size and location.

The kitchen is to die for.

Sun 18 Oct – I went for my first run, and nearly died. Turns out running in the heat is not my thing. 


The Colorado River is stunning, apparently it’s popular for paddle boarding and kayaking. Added those to the list!

The team took a trip to the famous Juan in a Million, and wow. I don’t know what Juan is more famous for, his incredible food or his epic handshakes – it’s an excellent combination. I had the Don Juan and it was 10/10 brunch.

Mon 19 Oct – I popped around to the store just around the corner from our apartment. They have an incredible selection of craft ales. I was drawn to the gorgeous labels, obviously.

Tues 20 Oct – Kelvin and I attended the Hacks Hackers meet up. Held in an amazing office space, just behind City of Austin Power Plant – Which has a rather fantastic sign.

It was the 5th birthday of the international event – and so we were joined by founder of Hacks Hackers and Storify, Burt Herman and Trei Brundrett, from Vox Media. It was an excellent evening, and I look forward to Hacks Hackers Connects in London in the new year.

Wed 21 Oct – We spent the morning working from Cuvée Coffee.

I have a feeling they will be seeing a lot of me.

Thur 22 Oct – We started to feel the effects of Hurricane Patricia. We were lucky not to feel its full force. My thoughts went out to those in Mexico.

Fri 23 Oct – Kelvin and I made our way to Tech Ranch for their “Camp Fire” networking event. I really enjoy the ‘pay it forward’ attitude that a lot of people seem to have around here, everyone is so willing to help out and are eager to share knowledge and experience. I know I will be taking a lot of good advice home with me, and make loads of friends on the way.

We headed up the road to Whistlers to celebrate our first week.

The artwork dotted around Austin is mind blowing, so much talent. It’s definitely an inspiring city.

This one really spoke to me 😏

Sat 24 Oct – I cooked for the team. Empty plates all round.

It’s embarrassing how much time I spent deciding on what type of rice to buy at Whole Foods.

Sun 25 Oct – Caught up with The Walking Dead and American Horror Story. I also listened to a podcast by Funsize, while sketching out some ideas and playing around with hand lettering. I will be heading to the Dribbble meetup in November, hosted by Funsize. I look forward to meeting them all.

We found an amazing food truck in the Stay Gold beer garden.

It’s only been the first week and Austin has exceeded my expectations. We’ve made some excellent progression with the app, and I look forward to what next week has to offer.

The Final Frontier

I saw ‘The Martian’ this weekend at Genesis Cinema in their amazing Studio 5.

I’ve had space on my mind ever since.

Then I came across this flickr blog post.

The Project Apollo Archive has just uploaded more than 8,400 astonishing, high-resolution images to Flickr from the NASA moon missions and from training operations on Earth. The collection includes original scans from the Hasselblad cameras the astronauts used to document their missions, including some of the most iconic space photos in history.

The photos are stunning AND public domain.

Here is my cute little astronaut with some experimental type.

My Last EVER End of Year Show

Tomorrow (Friday 13th March) will be my final Digital Media Show.

I have spend the last couple of weeks tying up loose ends in preparation for the Transmedia Show 2014.

We will be filling out the Guildhall in Winchester taking part in Dragons Den style ‘Pitch your Project’, Augmented Reality, Gaming and Networking.
I am taking part in an Art Work competition, in which the winners work will be displayed in the Guildhall’s cafe ‘Eighteen71’.

In place of the work that is already there:

My entry is the Low Poly Artwork I have posted above.

I am really  hoping that my artwork is liked by those judging, as I would absolutely love to have my work displayed in public. I only have been published online, never in real life. It would really make my year.

I have printed a few postcards for people to keep when looking at my work, I am pretty proud of how they have come out as the colours are lovely and vivid. The finish of the card is also very professional, I look forward to people choosing their favourite work to keep.

I have been working on my branding, and I have new business cards to hand out on the day. I am extremely happy that my art work, cards, and website now all match. I have finally found a style to suit my personality.

I look forward to tomorrow morning, and setting everything up. Hopefully my stress levels go down, and I can really enjoy the day.
I can’t believe it is my final year at Uni, I am really going to make the most of my last few weeks.

 

Rollercoaster of a Day

Once again Monday morning has come around and I am back to my Internship at Surface.

I was lacking confidence as I don’t feel I am certain on how well I am doing. Going straight from Uni ,where you gain constant feedback, to diving straight in the deep end is pretty scary.

I really wish I was able to work faster and be more productive. I think these feelings are very common as a creative as I just feel such a massive need to do well and to produce beautiful work.

To make myself feel better I bought myself a new pair of headphones before work. I felt I deserved them and they would help me focus and prevent too many distractions around me.
I rang my parents to catch up and my dad made a very good point ‘it’s only your 4th day’. I am also comparing my work to professionals that have been designers for 5+ years, and I’m not even a graduate yet!

During our weekly catch up, Jason showed me how they are moving forward with the app. He mentioned how he really wants me to be involved but at the same time doesn’t want me to be involved in only small parts and would rather me have my own project, so I will be helping with creative input in the game and with character development before the game is shipped.
Today I focused on the process page illustrations, I have a idea of style that Jason would like me to achieve so I started creating the assets in Adobe illustrator.
I feel that spending a whole day illustrating is going to help me build my speed up. I also am starting to feel more comfortable using illustrator and found some features I did not know where there before. This made me realise that I truly am learning and developing my skills and I am producing artwork that looks clean and professional.
Jason seemed happy with the direction of my work, and I felt the more I communicate during the project the more comfortable I feel. Tuesday morning I will be illustrating the robot parts and then maybe watching some Adobe Edge tutorials to prepare me for the animations.

Lust

The second piece of Seven.

Mood Typography

I wanted to play with layers and colour gradients mixed with typography. The colours moved me onto the word ‘Wrath’. I may work with doing a seven deadly sins style collection as I enjoy creating art which creates and plays with emotion.

Conflict

Here is another 3D typography piece I have been working with today. I have been able to pick up my speed and discover more effects within 3D rendering software. I don’t feel like this piece is finished, there is aspects I am keen to work with, but here is a sample of my progress.

Slowly beginning to love 3D art after pushing myself to see what I can create! Once again, feedback is much appreciated. Need all the help and direction I can get!

3D software

I am taking some time to start to become very fluent and learn a few things in types of software such a ‘Cinema 4D’ and ‘3Ds Maxs’ and ‘Maya’.
It is hard work, but I am really starting to enjoy it!
Currently attempting typography, as I love the range of ways you can manipulate type in 3D.

Once I have got the hang of 3D typography I am going to import the files into Photoshop to have a play with colour and textures.

Fine Art

I am spending the evening trying to pull together sources and looking through very old files to try and pull together some kind of info-graphic CV.

I came across this old photo from my first year in college.

The title for the AS Fine Art assessment was ‘Cities’. This took me in the direction of advertising, and fashion in London. This is an spray paint and acrylic canvas of Kate Moss, with the famous Rimmel slogan, “Get The London Look“.

Originally, I was very interested in fine art, and this has lead me to graphic illustration and digital media.

Unfortunately the college decided to throw away all my work, including my scrap books and sketch pads into the bin the second I dropped art and moved onto IT, Media and English Language.

The feeling that your work had been disregarded and not cared for really made my heart sink, and I will admit that it knocked my confidence quite a bit. I put so many hours, effort, and love into those pieces of work! I stopped drawing and painting for a while and concentrated on my ‘academic’ studies.

I am so glad I am finally back on track with my art, I most definitely have a passion for it and understand that this is the path I want to follow. I feel one day it will take me places. Finding this picture reminded me of my love for fine art, if and when I have some time over Easter break, I may whip the acrylics out.

Christmas Card

We had to create a Christmas Card ready for print, I used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create this picture. I am trying to use Adobe Illustrator as much as I can, This is the second drawing I have ever done on the software. Instead of scanning in an image and tracing I did this freehand straight in Adobe, I am proud of the results.

 

I am still currently trying to finish my ‘Pirate Illustration’. I feel I have challenged myself with the sketch and so I am working hard to try and get some amazing results for my first completed Digital Illustration.