| brush in hand |

This post is going to contain some of my make up work, which is few and far between at the moment because I have focused all of my attentions on my current degree. However, I do have some interesting pictures from some of the work I did last year and a couple of experiments that I have dabbled in this year. I've decided that all posts related to make-up and hair styling will be in a different typeface, in order to distinguish between the disciplines. 

This was done with photographer Mark Freebs for a personal porfolio.

Model: Jenna Upton

Make Up & Hair: Amy Olivia

Photographer: Mark Freebs

Model: Christina Lubushagne
Hair & Make Up: Amy Olivia
Photographer: Matthew Schrire

Kirsten Bing
Springfield Matric Dance 2010
Hair & Make Up: Amy Olivia

Model: Megan Petrie
Hair: Tandem Constantia
Make Up: Amy Olivia

 Thats that for now. I have a couple shoots coming up, so I will be sure to add some more. I also have editing to complete on other photographs, so those will be joining this lot.

| zine infested |

For our final brief for the semester we had to create a zine. What is a zine? A zine is a less-influenced-by-popular-culture-conventions form of a magazine. It's purpose it to advertise you as a person, agency, organization in any way you see fit. It is generally something that is put together in a format that is as cheap as possible and then photocopied and distributed as need be.

We were briefed with the task of creating a zine in a group that was metaphorically a design agency, had it been in the "real world". We had to come up with an agency name for our design agency, use a specific theme and run with it throughout "issue one" of our zine.

My "design agency" came up with the name Flint, the conceptual link behind it being that we are instigators of great things. After a long process of finding the right way to conceptually design our zine, we arrived at the ever so marvelous point of using lemon juice to write secret messages on the paper. People would then have to hold a flame underneath the page to reveal the message. Therefore, when you received our zine, you would receive a "blank" book with a box of matches. We decided to go with the theme: a world ruled by designers. We put our own spin on it and altered it to read LITTLE TRADE SECRETS IN A WORLD RULED BY DESIGNERS. 

Below are some pictures of the already burnt book, we had to hand in one blank one and one already "burnt".

This is the front cover [we named our zine issue one HUSH HUSH to extend the concept]

Page One: The theme page [designed by Adeline van Eck]

Page Two: Design Secret One [designed by Natalie Retief]

Page Three: Design Secret Two [designed by Adeline van Eck]

Page Four: Design Secret Three [designed by Lara Heley]

Page Five: Design Secret Four [designed by Amy Soule (me)]

Page SIx: Design Secret Five [designed by Genevieve Chorn ]

We thought it came out pretty well, and I am so glad I got to steal Adeline's camera to take some decent photos for a change.


So long.

|something that I covert|

As I might have mentioned, I was a serious dancer for 12 years of my very short life, towards the end, it became very intense, to a point where I would have been professional (by South African Standards) if I had been paid and was part of a company. Anyway, I had to make some choices and ended up giving it up in 2008. Over the past two years I really have missed it and regret the choice indefinitely.

However, what has this got to do with this post? We had to dabble in the art of printing methods but with two colours. I choose to go the route of Lino cutting. Our theme was: something that you covert. Hence, that's where the dancing comes in.

Here are some of the images from my process. (Please excuse the hideous picture quality, I am in between camera's right now)

This is a series of dancers. I found inspiration in images that were taken of a good friend that I used to dance with, Mila de Biaggi.

These are the final prints in the various colours and layouts that I experimented with.

The above blocks are the printing blocks. You have to carve away the surrounding negative space in order to be left with the image that you want to print.

The final product.

I enjoyed working with this medium. It was definitely something different for me and, in my personal opinion, I really like the way that they turned out.

|to maintain a healthy level of insanity|

Something that I found pinned to my bookshelf. Here's to laughter being the best medicine:

1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.
2. Page yourself over the intercom. Don't disguise your voice.
3. Everytime someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
4. Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
5. In all the counterfoils of your cheque book, write "for marijuana."
6. Skip down the hall rather than walk and see how many looks you get.
7. Order a diet water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
8. Specify that your drive-through order is "to go."
9. Sing along at the opera
10. Five days in advance, tell your friends you can't attend their party because you have a headache.
11. When the money comes out the ATM, scream "I won, I won!"
12. When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot, yelling "Run for your lives! They're loose."
13. Tell your children over dinner, "Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go."
14. Pick up a box of condoms at the pharmacy, go to the counter and ask where the fitting room is.

I hope you laughed. xoxo

| bodoni love affair |

I thought it would be a nice idea to add some of the work that I've worked on during my first year at AAA. Bare in mind when you're taking a look see that all the type, imagery and basically everything is hand rendered, traced or drawn. Painstakingly I sit every Thursday night before deadlines, hand tracing qualifying lines and logos, pay off lines etc. Though, I have found a strange love for letters and typography in particular. One typeface (note non creatives: typeface; not font) that I have absolutely fallen in love with is a serif typeface called Bodoni, existing way back when block printing was still being used. Unfortunately, I have to bow down to Helvetica and Gill Sans every once in a while, but my love affair will still continue with Bodoni.

This is one of the first logos that we designed with an emblem. Mine was for an elegant country farmstall. The typeface is Bodoni, incase there was doubt.

This is a t-shirt design that was designed for an environmentally friendly company. 

"No Ice. No Life."

This was a skills brief when we first started working on typography. We had to create a type monster.

This is not the finished product, but basically we had to build a 3D object and apply a pattern that we designed earlier on in the year. The concepts obviously had to fit.

I can't really seem to find the rest of the works right now, some of them haven't been photographed yet, but they will be at the end of year exhibition, and then I'll be sure to add them.

Unfortunately, I can't go into too much depth about what it is that the concepts are or the specifications for the brief, as other schools steal, and ad agencies who are cheap, steal too. It's a shocking world. 

I promise, there is some more stuff that is far more intriguing than these, but this was all I could find for now. At the moment, we're working on corporate identity. I'm quite enjoying it.

[first in line]

The first post. Some would still ask what a blog really is, others are far away into the social networking and blogging world. So, therefore, I thought I'd give it a try and see where things take me.


I must admit, there's something eerie about writing into thin air (really); who reads it? Who cares? I guess I'll find out shortly.


As I have mentioned in my bio box, I am currently a student at AAA in Cape Town, South Africa. [All design students note: Helvetica was one of the few choices I had at choosing an appropriate typeface. Coincidence, I think not] We are nearly finished with first year, and what a climb its been. All the work of the first years is done by hand; no computers allowed. Some would call it ingenious, others are slaves to their Apples and wouldn't know what to do without the fruit. I've really enjoyed the year so far even although its been a little rough at times (which could be a huge understatement).


My other love is photography and make up artistry. I plan on furthering my photography skills in the next while, and I already have a Diploma in International Hair and Make Up Artistry which stands me in rather good stead for the industry I'm running towards.


I've had this template sitting here for a while, I was waiting for the right moment to update it, and what better a time than after handing in a logo for a corporate identity brief and not having enough cap to last the whole month anyway. Those international visitors, ignore the latter part of the last sentence.


Anyway, it's the weekend. Enough said.