New Blog

I've started a new blog for my final year, enjoy x

http://lisa-finch.tumblr.com/

To sum it all up

My aim for the year was to experience different fields of design, I have always been a open minded designer and wanted to strengthen my knowledge and abilities in other fields so that I could go back to uni even more ambitious.


I began the year interning with surface designer Daniel Heath, he opened my eyes to the endless possibilities of salvaged materials.

Then I interned with textile designer Laura Perryman, I was drawn to her work because she specialises in the innovation of new materials.

My third internship was with one of my favourite London fashion labels - Beyond the Valley, I have always loved their striking illustration style and wanted to learn how they came up with their designs.

My fourth internship was with Nexus. One of my most enjoyed second year projects was a stop frame animation, so I jumped at the chance to assist the stop frame master - Johnny Kelly.

My fifth internship was with my new favourite book publishers Visual Editions. I have caught they're uncontrollable desire to put a twist on everything.

I joined the Picture Book team at Walker Books for my sixth internship. It was really insightful to go from a really experimental publishers to a more traditional one.

I took part in the Barbican's "Do Something Different Weekend" with the Crafternoon Tea Club. I designed their poster and pamphlet.

My seventh internship was with the pop-up gallery Outline Editions. Met lots of interesting graphic artists and illustrators and learned how to run a pop-up shop.

My final internship was with the remarkable paper artist Su Blackwell. Her creations are painstaking and relentless but she never stops, a really inspirational artist.

As well as internships, I've freelanced throughout the year, designing posters and promotional material for several people and events. 

For more details of all these projects look back through my blog.

I gained so much from the DPS year, I've grown so much as a designer, I can't wait to put everything I've learned into my final year. See you all soon!

Finchittida Finch

This is the lookbook, logo and business cards I designed for my sister's new fashion label.

4.3 Miles

This is a poster I designed with illustrator Kyle Platts. It is for a play called 4.3 Miles from Nowhere, by the theatre company Fine Chisel. It's showing at Edinburgh Fringe festival throughout August.

We had the chance to go up last week to see it, the play showcases some amazing skills; song writing, puppetry, choreography and acting. And we got to see our posters plastered everywhere! Tres cool

Compositions No.1

Visual Editions third book is out! It's called Compositions No.1 and it's a book in a box! It's been another long journey for the team, and I'm stoked to have played apart! 

A year of my life

I just handed in my industry report for assessment, i didn't think it would take that long, but turns out writing up a year of your life actually takes a really long time. So here's some spreads from some of my fav placements

ideas worth spreading

My 100th post and its a gooden, a talk from Sagmeister about sabbaticals - time off to rejuvenate and refresh your creative outlook.

With graduation approaching many of you, a sabbatical could be on
the cards. I consider myself as currently being on sabbatical, undertaking a year out of uni to explore the creative world, I definitely feel like i have a new outlook on design. Really looking forward to going back to uni to vent it!

99th post

I started my placement at design agency Bunch yesterday, and in two days I've gone from an Adobe Illustrastor novice - to pro! Loves it

another designer in the family

Today I was helping my 9 year old cousin with his homework; he had to make a pamphlet about Andy Warhol - loving the freestyle grid system and typography!

Dissertation Time

Still fresh in the memory of the dissertations just completed by my housemates, it is now time for me to start mine! I've decided to write about South-East Asian design, as it is a part of the world that is of great significance to me, although i know very little about it. 

I would like to write about Lao design in particular, as my family are from Laos, but there seems to be little information out there. So it looks like I might have to focus on the global giant that is China!

If anyone has any knowledge / books / website / exhibition / video recommendations related to south-east asian design then let me know!

fight the LOL's and OMG's

I had another chance to work on a Johnny Kelly animation recently, unfortunately I was tied up on placement. So I put forward my friend Will Coutts for the job, who ended up suggesting a few lines ("fight the LOL's and OMG's) and hand modelling in this brilliant commercial for Bacardi.


Bacardi "Manifesto" from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

left overs

With some left over paper from the VE brochures, I made a card for my friend Emily who is 22 today!

Brochures complete!

Voila! I finished making these babies last night!

A VEry special brochure

I have been asked to do another project for Visual Editions to promote their new book Composition No.1 by Marc Saporta. It's a book that can be read in any order, and will be the first ever book in a box! VE have set out to make a thought provoking book, making readers question what it is that makes a book a book?

Here's a sneak peek at the brochure I've designed for them - just finished printing, time to get binding!

3 minutes, months or years

Last Summer I helped Visual Edition's, make their ground breaking book Tree of Codes. Me and a few other LCC students worked together to make the prototype, cutting each page by hand with a scalpel! Although it was a lengthy task for us hand cutting the book, it was an even lengthier task for VE trying to find a print company that would say yes to producing the book, they were repeatedly told “the book you want to make just cannot be made."

But their postive determination found them a printers in Belgium who relished the challenge of making a book with a different die-cut on every page.

This stunning video shows how the book is made, it takes 3 whole months, but here it is in 3 minutes. (Probs would have taken 3 years if we were still making it by hand!) 

Pencil Power

Last night was the first installment of Pencil Power, at The New Gallery, a drawing night set up by my friend Thomas Slater, to raise money for the disaster in Japan.

It was a really good night, just drawing for the fun of it! Tom's drawing tasks and the happy hour cocktails made the night for me! Make sure your there for the next one!