01 Nov Worldskills Regionals Perth

The cycle starts again with North Perth with a solid eight competitors undertaking the Worldskills Regional competition in Skill 40: Graphic Design Technology. Stay tuned for results at the end of this week and Team WA presentations later in November. Well done Cert IV and Diploma student...

20 Oct Worldskills Abu Dhabi 2017: Closing Ceremony

Competition Ends Closing Ceremony After four intense and exciting days, the winners of WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017 — the world's largest vocational skills competition have finally been announced, during an unforgettable ceremony held in Abu Dhabi on Thursday evening. More than 10,000 people filled Yas Du Arena stadium,...

18 Oct Worldskills Abu Dhabi 2017: C4

Competition Day 4

Removing Barriers. Working together. Making friends.

With all three major assessments completed, today offered a short test project focused on ‘collaboration’ to develop an interactive PDF to showcase competitor mosaic tiles. Fun stuff. Teams of different nationalities re-configured and push aside the privacy dividers and began working with each other (naturally, interpreters are vital for this). It was a terrific morning. Smiles all round. Whilst time was short, small huddles formed and tasks divided. Competitors now work for each other, rather than against. The presentations following lunch were well considered and laugh a minute. A few rushed notes:

1. Fairness and trust is a personal responsibility. There is very little grey area for experts.
2. Presentation of completed work is worth every piece of effort. Take some tips from the Visual Merchandising skill. Practice makes perfect. Wield a glue stick and a blade as deftly as a Wacom Pen or mouse.
3. Network early, so you make connections during day one. It gives you a chance to deepen bonds with different cultures,  rather than just getting to know people during the end of the competition. Attend the Skill Out.

17 Oct Worldskills Abu Dhabi 2017: C3

Competition Day 3

Packaging is lit

Think about the typical house in your neighbourhood, or local city. It has a texture, a colour, a vertical or spread layout. It has a character. Now, let us imagine the people in this house. They clichéd, cultural aspects of the families that live in that house. Who are they? How do they look? What do they wear? Now build it. In 3D will limited time and the added pressure of a LED candle inserted into the main house structure. Successful (well, what I thought was successful) was focused on:

1. Fantastic solid colour roof and details on walls and authentic decoration (ie: curtins, doorways, tiles on roof etc)
2. Make a kid (we had a few) stop and stare at your project. If they are enthralled, you are on the right track.
3. Consider gardens.
4. Consider sizing perspective of the family / characters around the building.
5. Leave plenty of time to mock and cut out the die.
6. Refine. Decorate. Showcase an amazing diorama.
7. There should be no 'white paper' walls.
8. See number 6.

16 Oct Worldskills Abu Dhabi 2017: C2

Competition Day 2

Editorial, collage and infographic. All under six hours. All aboard the fast train.

Nick Lamatalale (NL) kicked off an amazing drumming bongo with Thomas Palacin-Danthine which kicked Anne Cappelen Grandt and Heng-Hsiu Liu into a dance off to lighten the mood of a late start on Day 2. It was perfect. Unscripted. Delightfully primal. Lengthy briefing session quickly brought back the stress of a complex brief. Starting points seem only to add to confusion and several updates extended question time, which threatened to reduce competitor open communication with their experts. Nevertheless, competition started strongly, marking continued from the night before and the day flew. A few tips and notes:

1. Learn the various ways to impose an Indesign document for a foreign printer. Use distiller, manually move pages to impose in a copied INDD document, drop in PDF's or simply use Acrobat. Practice these methods. There should be no excuse to not be able to find a workaround when it comes to duplexing or printing a booklet.
2. Info-graphics are exactly that. Spend time to make the iconography and readable text work harmoniously with noticeable legibility. Hierarchy again plays a huge role here (*see a trend?). A table of numbers and data isn't an info-graphic. It is a table.
3. A handsome and well composed montage of imagery is like oil paintings to visual artists. It is the slowest drying of all the medium's and often whilst mix-media (ie: vector elements and patterning) can come into play, the classics always look are 'just right'. They guide the eye through the work. Also, don't put a rhino hovering in a waterfall. They can swim, but generally, the way images are built up, it is best to stay grounded.
4. Swift roll out into social media spaces is vital nowadays. Don't re-invent the wheel, just take your key elements and re-configure for the difference canvas sizes of the social inter-webs. Make solid colours work a little harder. Don't have tiny images or simply scale down the cover of your magazine.
5. Your presentation board skills can always be better. Practice mounting work. Float mount, stack, mosaic tile it... Do everything you can to get better at setting square bits of paper on immaculately cut foam core.

 

15 Oct Worldskills Abu Dhabi 2017: C1

Competition Day 1 Competition Begins A hefty, externally set branding, style guide and postcard brief was laid on for 6.5 hours today as competition begun at Worldskills Abu Dhabi 2017. It was amazing to witness 29 designers slam into a logo, 16 page style guide and three...

14 Oct Worldskills Abu Dhabi 2017: C-2

Competition Minus 2 Days Familiarisation A traditional Graphic Design welcome of Worldskills 2017 competitors – who are clapped and welcomed into the briefing area, followed by intensive tool box check. Photos by Portugal expert Nuno Viana tell a fantastic story of the fresh faced (and young) competitors. [gallery type="rectangular"...

12 Oct Worldskills Abu Dhabi 2017: C-3

Competition Minus 3 Days

Assessment training

A day of solid assessment training for experts in the Graphic Design Worldskills workshop and test project discussions for Day 4. Highlights included going through and revising the Skill Management Plan, setting a timed agenda and talking about skill specific details relating to:

• Bleed (it shouldn't extend or overwhelm)
• Using Acrobat to check Layers, Overprint, Dielines, Print Production Spot Colours and ICC Profiles
• Illustration spot colours and separation previews
• Colour bars
• Die fold, glue and cut lines in & outside the artwork area
• Resolution effective PPI and DPI
• Trapping, and
• The sophisticated competitor hallmarks

11 Oct Worldskills Abu Dhabi 2017: C-4

Competition Minus 4 Days

Building the workshop, induction and the experts expert

It’s a relief to listen to a teacher who not only can instruct a class representating nearly every culture on Earth, but also in a non-native, second language. Introducing Markus Ruben Wiese from Leipzig, Germany — Worldskills’ Graphic Design Chief Expert in Abu Dhabi. Today he guided a large group of newbies through the basics and underscored each point with a genuine, authentic fair competition focus. He also completed the day with one of the best recaps I’ve ever witnessed:

1. Hand wrote what had been achieved during the day.
2. Asked for feedback and questioned the group “did you get what you needed...?”
3. Posed the question—“What about the rules?”
4. Held aloft — “and I have my presentation printed out”
5. And tomorrow we will continue with ...
6. Pause for effect, “How do you feel about that?”
7. Reflected on the fact that most of the experts took mandatory assessment training... He asked “was it okay? Did you feel uncomfortable?”
8. “You have the opportunity to do it again tomorrow”... Any comments on that?
9. And then the kicker,  “please be all on time (8:45AM) or we will have to start earlier the following day...”
10. Deftly wrapped it in a bow tie, staying around for another hour for further questions or some more assessment examination practice...

10 Oct Worldskills Abu Dhabi 2017: C-5

Competition Minus 5 Construction site, accreditation and desert experience Team Australian Experts arrived two days ago for acclimatisation at Worldskills Abu Dhabi 2017. Today, the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre opened it’s doors to experts for accreditation packs, new expert training and a quick glimpse at the mayhem of partially...