Sat, May 18 at 5:15 PM

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Yesterday was quite a surreal day! 

The D&AD Results day was marked in my calendar for several weeks before - the closer it was getting, the more nervous I began to feel. It wasn't nervous because I felt confident that I would be awarded, neither was it because I was nervous that I wouldn't be awarded at all. I felt nervous because I knew that Friday had the potential to be an amazing day but it could have easily just been like any other. 

I had worked myself up all morning, refreshing my email constantly and checking the website now and then. Then I read their Tweet revealing that all successful students would be notified by email at 5PM. As they did with me. 

I COULDN'T BELIEVE THE NEWS - I WAS ABSOLUTELY BLOWN AWAY

I didn't know much more about the details of my award until my tutor told me that I had been been awarded 'Best Of Year'. I couldn't believe the news - I was absolutely blown away. I feel honoured to have been awarded by D&AD and I would like to thank everyone who has supported me over time. 

More details about the other successful submissions will be available to view online on Monday. I am looking forward to seeing the talent that I am honoured be recognised amongst. 

See the awarded project here : steffancummins.com/blueskyproject

& here : www.dandad.org/awards/student/2013/categories/3/branding

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Tax Payers' Alliance

I was given the opportunity during an internship this Easter to create a video for the Tax Payers' Alliance simplifying the Income Tax and National Insurance situation in UK at the moment.  

This video went live Friday morning at 8am. It was exciting to see my work in the public domain. See the video via the YouTube link below. 

youtu.be/C9ZMgG9NiUs

More updates due soon! 

 

Mon, Mar 18 at 7:32 PM

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(Click above to see project)

I have been working on this project over the past 3 months. I've really loved getting deep under the skin of Nissan and Sustainability and developing something that fuses the two together. 

'The Blue Sky Project' was developed upon the idea of providing the potential for an idealistic future, aligned with the demand for innovation, conceptual ideas and sharing knowledge to help achieve this. 'The Blue Sky Project' encourages participation by providing the space for people to share their 'Blue Sky' ideas. By establishing this forward thinking initiative people will then associate Nissan with forward thinking, innovation and conceptual ideas, which is a desirable quality in this conceptual age. 

I have developed the brand to support a Car Sharing service and hold events and workshops. This helps people see real-world evidence of this initiative and really trust that Nissan have established 'The Blue Sky Project' for a reason.

The visual system has been developed from the idea of providing a space for people to share their ideas and to be flexible and adaptable in many different situations. The illustration style has been developed to provide an open representation of urban or future objects and to provide the impression of an idealistic future. 

'THE BLUE SKY PROJECT' HAS BEEN BUILT TO ADAPT TO THE DEMANDS OF THE FUTURE

'The Blue Sky Project' has been built to adapt to the demands of the future and support the power of the individual at present. It's a brand that has been developed so that people would be proud to participate. It also allows for simple access and exposes some of the key models that will help us achieve a sustainable future.

I have submerged myself in a world of sustainability, conceptual ideas and creative business models for the past 3 months in order to build a new brand for Nissan's Sustainable range. Since this is a brief for D&AD Student Awards, I did submit the project on Saturday just before the deadline on the 20th of March (Wednesday). So now it's just down to waiting to see what happens. 

Wish me luck :)

SAT, MAR 02 AT 4:47 PM

I have some great things lined up for this summer! I'm really lucky to have been offered these opportunities.

I spent the beginning of this week in London - it was nice to have a couple of days away. After having spent Monday and Tuesday morning at the 4Designers conference (#4designers) I decided to make the most of my time in the capital. I spent some time at Sonaa (sonaa.co.uk), a really friendly digital communication agency in Shoreditch. They're a great bunch of people, and I'm planning on spending a couple of weeks with them this summer, which I'm really looking forward to. They even offered some professional advice on a project I'm working on at the moment. 

SO I PHONED 'SOMEONE', A WELL-COMMENDED BRANDING AGENCY ON LEONARD ST.

Following that, stood in Liverpool St station about to catch the tube, I had a moment of realisation. I realised that I should really make most of this time I have in Shoreditch. There's so many great agencies based there. So I phoned SomeOne (someoneinlondon.com), a well-commended branding agency on Leonard St. I told the that I was interested in talking to someone about their Internship opportunities for the summer. After some pressure they invited me to visit the studio that day and meet with one of the senior designers. I met this really friendly guy, and we really hit it off. I have been offered a 2 Month placement at the studio over the summer. I can't wait, and I'm really looking forward to this great opportunity! 

To top all of that off and really round off the summer; I'm just in the middle of organising an inter-railing trip with friends. We're going to visit some great cities. I really can't wait to do some traveling. 

2013 is going to be a great year! 

After having spent several weeks on this project, alongside others, I have released the pretty much final outcome. The Idea behind this piece of work means capitalising on Yahoo!'s best bits. It operates many well respected, useful websites that play a key role in many peoples lives. Yahoo!'s position amongst its competition is it's weakness.

Yahoo! is in a unique position having considered its competition. Each of it's rivals offer a selection of similar services, but the majority also have their own Operating Systems and Devices. Think about everything that Google, Microsoft and Apple offer. One major problem with these ecosystems, however, is that if you were ever to opt into another then your digital world is so easily fragmented. 

Yahoo! is in a unique position where it has the ability to offer a consistent experience across any OS and any device. Imagine owning a Chromebook, an iPad and a Windows Phone. There is currently no way of keeping them seamlessly synchronised. Yahoo! is often used to 'Start your journey' online. People rely increasingly on Search as a starting point. What this design is trying to achieve is to allow for Yahoo! to be that one destination to 'start your journey' and offer a consistent and synchronised experience between all of your devices. 

What do you think?

 

Any feedback is welcome. 

The 2012-2013 YCN Student awards briefs were released a couple of weeks ago. I kept going back and fore to the briefs to see which stood out to me. Whenever I would consider the Yahoo! brief I would tell myself "well, that's impossible!"... and since saying that to myself a couple of times, I soon realised this was the brief for me. 

"Make Yahoo! the world’s most popular homepage" is the title of the brief. I feel in this case it's necessary to consider my task more along the lines of "Transforming Yahoo!"

Yahoo! has a lot to offer - with a huge amount of subsidiary sites, each with a good solid structure - we just need to bring them all together; make the Yahoo! experience less fragmented and more assembled. 

I will be working on this brief over christmas and several weeks into the new year. Wish me luck!