Tag: illustrator

Colouring page!

The free colouring book that was released the other day seemed to be quite successful!! So I’ve decided to release the first colouring page that I created weeks ago at the beginning of the lockdown free to download. I love to doodle, so creating these printable colouring pages for my children is a win-win for us all. I get to doodle, and they get to colour! Ava and Maia (my twin daughters) especially love to spend time colouring in printed pages off the internet. And this is what gave me the idea to create my own colouring pages, whilst incorporating my first language; Welsh. This colouring page has the word Ynys Môn emblazoned across the A4 sheet. Ynys Môn in English in Anglesey.

Once your children (or you!) have finished colouring the page, I’d love it if you tagged me in a photo of you holding it up!

The photo below is a completed colouring page, done by my daughter Ava.

Enjoy!!

Nia xx

Tags activity, anglesey, CHILDREN, colourful, COLOURING, cymraeg, download, FREE, graphic design, illustrator, lockdown, north wales, pages, relief, stress, stress-relief, wales, welsh, Ynys mon, ynysmon

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Creative Confidence

“DESIGN IS SUBJECTIVE. WE KNOW THAT MUCH. WHAT ONE PERSON THINKS IS A GOOD DESIGN, ANOTHER WILL THINK ITS UGLY OR USELESS”

This is a statement I wrote back in December 2018. It’s taken me awhile to get going on this blog post.

Because I’ve been busy with client commissions and
Because I’m a procrastinator and have dealt with serious creative confidence issues over the last few months.

Is it a good statement? possibly. But the issue here is the fact that it’s taken me almost 5 months to get back to writing this blog post. Why? I hear you ask… Well, dear friends, like I said above, I’m a procrastinator. I have so many “projects” on the go, that my head is spinning! I start a project, and quickly lose interest, unless it’s something I have to do, like commission work where it pays my bills, or watching Game of Thrones (Can that be classed as a project even?!) or the blanket I’m knitting for my soon to be born niece.

In many ways, creative confidence and procrastination go hand in hand. If you’re confident in your creativity, then procrastination shouldn’t get in the way as much. That’s my opinion anyway and confidence in my creativity is something I’ve been secretly struggling with over the last couple of months. It got to a point where I was not enjoying what I did (that lasted all of half a day!) So I did something about it, and continue to do so every day. So here I present to you a list of the “things” I did to push past this confidence block and keep building myself up.

I decided to take a really good look at what my style was, my brand, my ethos. I closed down my main Instagram page and decided to start up a new one, so that it was fresh, and clean and very very focused. I didn’t like that. I felt constricted, so I went back to my original Instagram page where you will find the odd photo of my children, some random quotes about design and Insta stories about what I’m cooking for tea. I’m not just a designer. I’m also a mum of three and a wife. I work from home, as does my husband, and to hide that side of me would be like only showing half a tv program. Pointless. and you wouldn’t get the full picture.
Stopped comparing myself to other creatives. This can be really tough, when there is so much competition in the world to be the best at what you do. Especially in the creative industries. Social media doesn’t help either. But what the hell do you do when social media is part of your job? There isn’t much you can do to be honest, apart from take a break, limit when you access social media or, do what I do. Re-frame that negative thought and send out positive vibes. Comparison is the thief of joy!
Took a break. No one can keep going without taking a break. It’s a simple fact of life so over the Easter Break, we took a trip down to Weymouth to see friends and explore the area. We stayed at the Little Sea Haven which was perfect because there were so many activities for the children to do. We also went to Durdle Door which was amazing in itself! If you’ve never been, it should definitely be on your to do list.

Bought a book. Written by brothers Tom and David Kelley – Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All I’ve followed David Kelley since I watched one of his TED Talks many many moons ago. He is the founder of IDEO and in my opinion, is one of the greatest designers and thinkers of today. Granted I haven’t ready the book yet (its downloaded onto my kindle, ready for prosecco hour tonight ;-)) But I have read around the associated website, and what he and Tom say is so absolutely true “Creative confidence is like a muscle—it can be strengthened and nurtured through effort and experience” – Which leads us on to the next point.
Made more time for practice. Its true that practice makes perfect. Or as near perfect as you can get, because no one and nothing is perfect. And that’s something we all need to remember when learning something new or practising existing talents. Mistakes do not equal failure. Mistakes prove that you are trying, and practising your craft. I have countless sketch books full of drawings, ideas, notes and more. They are all part of my creative process. the practice, the “Ideation” stage if you will. I’ve learnt so much from them, and will keep them as reference to look back on. When life gets busy, it can be so easy to forget about that little bit of time you need to just practice your craft. especially in design. We are working to so many briefs, and most of them are other peoples briefs. We are meeting their needs, their ideas, their creative input is in there. But what every designer should do is spend time on their own creative briefs. Even if it’s just putting down some doodles to turn into a sticker pack, or writing a blog post. Do it! and thank me later!

With all these steps taken, my creative confidence has improved, a lot. But it’s something that I will continually work on no matter what. I’d love to know how you get through a creative confidence block. Let me know in the comments!

Tags anglesey, branding, cymraeg, design, graphic, graphic design, graphicdesign, holyhead, illustrated, illustration, illustrator, logo, logo design, north wales, sirfon, welsh

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Logo Design – Ysgol Santes Dwynwen

Post author By Nia Sian
Post date 18th September 2018
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Following on from the success of the Ysgol Cybi Logo Design, I was asked to work on the branding and logo design for Ysgol Santes Dwynwen; the third super school to be built by Anglesey County Council, in line with the school’s improvement programme “21st Century Schools”

As with the work done for Ysgol Cybi, I was presented with a series of children’s drawings to start the process of deciding what route to take with the logo design.

It was decided, by myself, Headteacher; Ms Manon Williams and Rev Canon Emlyn Cadwaladr Williams that the love spoon design, sketched out by pupil Caitlin would be the best route to take. Caitlins simple, but effective love spoon idea, which represented the love story of Santes Dwynwen at Llanddwyn Island was a perfect fit in what would be the brand embodiment of the school.

Tags anglesey, branding, cymraeg, design, graphic, graphic design, graphicdesign, holyhead, illustrated, illustration, illustrator, logo, logo design, north wales, sirfon, welsh

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Design Inspiration – Ysgol Cybi Logo

Post author By Nia Sian
Post date 13th December 2017
1 Comment on Design Inspiration – Ysgol Cybi Logo

Back in summer of 2016, I was asked to design a logo for the new super school being built in my home town. This was a biggie for me. Not only was it possibly the biggest design job Id had up to that point, but it was something that was going to last quite a few years, be seen by hundreds if not thousands of people, and my children were going to be wearing it every day in school!

Id known roughly what the brief would be. The children had come home one day with homework to design their school logo. So after a long chat and a coffee with Reverend Kevin, who had contacted me about the design work, I set about sketching out a few ideas based on the three key themes I had been given and the few ideas that my children had thought of.

The three key themes that came from all three schools homework were

St Cybi’s Church
Holyhead Mountain
The Breakwater in Newry

The colour chosen for the school uniforms was turquoise which was in keeping with the colour of part of the new section of the school being built.

So after setting about to sketch and come up with a number of ideas, presenting the ideas to the board of governors and the headmaster, and then tweeking the favourite ideas, the final logo was decided upon.

The final design is a simple, clean and recognisable logo mark which translates easily between black and white and colour, is applied easily to stationery, signage and clothing and will hopefully last a good few decades!

I would love to hear some of your thoughts on the final design so please post some comments or send me message through Facebook or the contact page here !

Bye for now!

Nia Sian xx

Tags anglesey, branding, cymraeg, design, graphic, graphic design, graphicdesign, holyhead, illustrated, illustration, illustrator, logo, logo design, north wales, product design, sirfon, welsh

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Enterprise by Design 2016

Post author By Nia Sian
Post date 28th August 2016
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In February 2016, I was chosen (along with a few of my peers from the Bangor Design School) to take part in Enterprise by Design at the Pontio Innovation Centre in Bangor, North Wales.

I have briefly discussed it on my linked in profile, because of the number of skills I developed and acquired.

8 week multidisciplinary design challenge for students of Bangor University who took part. I was one of the students who took part in this challenge and was part of a team including and engineering student, a psychology student and a business studies student. Working collaboratively to solve issues related to user experiences of the high street using design thinking and design processes.

As a design student, you are more often than not so engrossed in your own work and making sure that your portfolio represents you as an individual as best as possible, that the chance to develop multidisciplinary or collaborative skills often gets missed, or just not thought about at all.

Design is about mapping out a distinct future.

Here is a short video explaining what Enterprise by Design is by andy Goodman (Design Director at Pontio, Bangor)

The challenge started with creating a team. And the teams had to get to know each other to be able to collaborate effectively. This was done simply by the use of advertising triangles. Participants effectively had to advertise their skills and attributes on the triangle and then walk around until they had met and linked up with a potential teammate. Teams were complete when the pyramid was created by linking the triangles.

https://www.bangor.ac.uk/bangortv/ebd_intro.php.en

For further reading on how effective collaboration can enhance the design process click here

Tags anglesey, branding, cymraeg, design, graphic, graphic design, graphicdesign, holyhead, illustrated, illustration, illustrator, logo, logo design, north wales, sirfon, welsh

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KM Decor8 Branding Project

Post author By Nia Sian
Post date 2nd August 2016
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This project was the first major project I did after graduating from university. I was asked by a friend to design a logo for his business (painting and decorating) which was a new venture for him. The customer was quite specific in colour scheme and style but didn’t know how to go about producing business cards, letter heads and compliment slips. To add to this he wanted his Renult Trafic van wrapped in the design signage. Once he and I had worked on the initial design and had finalised the business cards, I then contacted a local vehicle wrapping and signage company to print the graphics and wrap the van.