Crème de la crème

The Rose on my wedding day Créme de la crème

Photography by the wonderful Belle & Beau

Learning and discovering

So for some time I have been saying to myself that I have wanted to learn after effects. I used to mess around with it at college a little. Mainly to render out my 3D projects I had created in Maya. But I wanted to get down with all after effects can do as a program on its own.

Well as part of a professional and creative promise to myself I have said whenever I get any downtime I will learn something. So I signed up to Lynda and began to teach myself bit by bit. Now what I am showcasing here Is probably very basic to the regular after effects user but for me this is a massive step and I hope to build on it slowly and hopefully one day add after effects to my skill set and produce work professionally with the tool but for now I am enjoying exploring the program at my own pace and minus a brief 🙂

The first is a simple logo ident for my website:

The next is a simple lyric video using a David Bowie track and a video I downloaded from here

I don’t just design

I have started writing posts on Linked in for there Pulse section here is one I thought I would share on here:

I just recently watched a short video about the upcoming documentary Design Disrupters It was so interesting and made me really realise how my role as a designer has changed and is forever going to evolve but this current period in time right now is so important.

Agencies, Companies, Brands and anyone who employs digital designers to create banners, websites, online experiences, emails anything that a user interacts with is starting to notice. Designers can no longer create something visually pleasing, something that has the right colour scheme, adheres to brand guidelines, follows consistent rules set by another designer – no. There is now another more important factor to think about – How it makes the user feel.

As human beings we have had the pleasure of interacting with the digital landscape for some time now and we no longer stumble through it, we know exactly what we want and if we don’t see it, don’t feel it we move on, we’re becoming more demanding and more savvy. This is clear to see if you have children and when they pick up a device for the first time whether it be an iPhone, an Android phone a tablet, they know the gestures, the swiping techniques it’s quite scary to see but it is the way we have evolved and its not going to stop.

Because of this it has forced me and many other professionals like me to step up our design game! Agencies and clients need designers more than ever now to create these experiences and we need to be more in touch with how gestures and transitions need to work and make you feel – design is getting more and more interesting for us as a profession now for sure and I can’t wait to evolve with it and keep the user entertained!

My space

So I have finally started to create my own small corner to work from in our flat. It’s not much right now but I have the desk I wanted and its next to the window so plenty of light. I have dreams of decorating the wall with my inspirations and hopefully one off creations (I sadly rarely get out my sketch pad but its something I aim to do now).

Here are a couple of spaces and creative places that inspired me so far:

You can see more on my Pinterest board here:

So I would love to spend weeks at this desk thinking and creating. but right now I am supposed to be packing as we are going to Dubai tomorrow to celebrate our first wedding anniversary 🙂 This year has flown past!

Identity

So I have been thinking a lot about my online identity recently. After getting married and having my name change should I carry on using Tasker? At first i thought yes as it was hard to secure the web domain lisataylor.com for obvious reasons but now the more I think about it and the more I network I can see the issues. People wonder am I Lisa Tasker still or am I now Lisa Taylor? New connections I make know me as Lisa Taylor so it seems viable to change to that but how can I forget the past 7 years of connections made??

So I have decided to put together a new online identity. This is something that is going to be careful process as I don’t want to rush into it but I want to get it up and running soon.

This kind of sticks with me so I think I may go with it and see what branding and ideas around it I conjure up!

Lisa Tasker Taylor Designer Spy

I like it as it is funny but also directly relates to me and what I do. A couple of friends kindly thought it up minus the Designer but with Soldier (get it) well lets see where it takes me 🙂

I will post updates of thoughts and designs as soon as I have something.

Charlotte Tasker Final show

So I made it back home to see my sisters final year Fine Art Show. She is going on to study Fashion photography at Leeds Art College and I couldn’t be more proud of her.

Her project was based around creating material and promoting her fictional band “Love The Accent”. She has been inspired by vintage photography from the 1960’s and 70’s. She has manipulated her photography to give it a contemporary feel such as 3D.

Here are a couple of pictures from her stand.

 

 

 

 

 

New beginnings

So the time has come I have decided that I am finally going to have a go at photography. I have been interested in it for a while. What with friends being photographers as well as family members and various colleagues, I have finally been drawn in. So it officially started when my boyfriends Dad kindly donated me his Canon 400D! He has had many successful years with it and produced some beautiful shots so fingers crossed it will serve me well.

Over the Eid break here in Dubai I took a trip to Dubai mall and spent several hours exploring the photography section of the book store. I absolutely love getting lost in a book store (usually in the music or design section) but this time was different I felt a little out of my depth so many books to choose from. I finally settled on one so now all I have to do is give it a thorough read and hopefully I will be well equipped to begin the first stages of exploring this amazing skill.

It always puzzled me that many people nowadays consider themselves photographers what with the endless amount of mobile phone apps available to us all these days. I for one intend to learn this art from  the very beginning and not use filters or any other type of manipulation to perfect my photographs unless it is a skill I have particularly learnt in photoshop myself. I would like to think I am part of the way to being a photographer, being an Art director and a designer for some years now I believe I have a good knowledge of composition.

So to all the skilled photographers out there I salute you and hope some day I will be able to master this beautiful skill 🙂 wish me luck!

My picks from 2012 Cannes Lions

So I have gathered together a few of my highlights from Cannes Lions 2012, Enjoy!

The Three Little Pigs – The Guardian

I remember first seeing this Ad last year and the buzz around it was crazy, everyone was talking about it when I went to work the next day and it was all over twitter so a well deserved entry.

Nike Fuel Band

I absolutely love this! Great way to get people motivated and I can see in at least a decade this becoming a way of life and more and more companies following Nike and developing their own versions of the fuel band. I must get one of these!

Charlie Sheen DIRECTV Commercial 2012

There are a series of these ads all very snappy but this is my fave. Well anything with Charlie Sheen in right now is a winner! (no pun intended) But it really grabs you in that short space of time so great execution!

Carlsberg stunts

I think public or outdoor stunts like this are hilarious! and this one doesn’t disappoint. I’d like to think I would make it to the seats also but who knows with all those big, mena bikers sat there!

Dramatic surprise

Wow again with the outdoor stunts! Love this and it had to be somewhere like Belgium! Would have been great to be there and see it in action of course and not knowing if it was for real.

So there you go! There’s some of my faves but you can go check them all out here

Living colours

This light is pretty cool! It can generate up to 16 million different colours which can be used in a series.

She’s in Fashion!

So since i have been down in London (past 5 years) I have sort of got a little bit into vintage clothing and thrift shops. My little Sister as she has grown up has shared that passion with me and actually got quite good at picking things out!

So when ever she comes down to visit we either head to Camden or Brick lane to see what she or I can find. Unfortunatly in Doncaster, where we are both from there aren’t a lot of Vintage shops, probably Sheffield has the nearest batch. This all changed recently when Revival Vintage and Audreys online shop opened!

Obviously Charlotte (my sister) was straight in there and has managed to bag herself a modelling gig! Here’s a link to some of the pics.

If you live in Doncaster or are anywhere near you should go check these places out!