Another Self initiated piece

I wanted to keep illustrating as well as completing uni work. Since I've been back at uni I've been incredibly motivated and had loads of ideas for my own work that I want to achieve when I can.

Post Hand-in

After the hand-in there was a few days off until the launch of the next brief. After a couple of hours I found that I was being attacked by boredom so I put together a few ideas for my own self iniated work. I illustrated my thoughts towards John and Edward a.k.a Jedward/ Twincest with this self explanatory piece. I think illustration is the only way this could be portrayed unless there was a Zombie apocalypse. Please note in the event of a Zombie apocalypse I will be more than happy to decapitate the twins.

Mushy Pea Package

Here is the final outcome to the 'New from Old' project, where I chose to re-brand Mushy Peas. This is a label is designed to wrap around a plastic tub of fresh refridgerated mushy peas. I'm surprised that I enjoyed this part of the project as I wasn't warming to the idea of designing packaging for a food product.

Genghis Khan

This is the final outcome for the Letterhead I designed for Genghis Khan. It came down to the wire with the hand-in as I was multi tasking all the projects and I hadn't pushed the outcomes as far as I could. After discussing with my tutor and a couple of mates I focused on the stationary and I'm thrilled at how it's turned out. The design displays his notoriety, presence, wealth and a hint at his brutality with the well placed blood splatter.

Thanks Alan!

This is my final outcome for my "Thank You" project which I chose to thank my hero Alan Partridge. I designed a Toblerone box as Partridge developed an addiction to Toblerones. I think if I were to give this Partridge he would appreciate the light hearted joke. Obviously I couldn't hand it to him in person so I would just leave it behind the desk at Linton Travel Inn in Norwich!

1 Week 'til Hand-in!

This week I'm finishing the 4 parts of the project. I've devised a schedule which should see me finish all my final pieces for Wednesday evening, leaving me Thursday for any sketchbook work and print. Friday is the hand-in so fingers crossed I will have everything done. I'm feeling fairly confident as the last few days I've really worked well and ticked a lot of boxes on the schedule!

London Trip - Paula Scher Talk

London was a as hectic as ever and I can't see how anyone can live there! That aside I enjoyed it more than when I was last in London, the tube system I'm still trying to get the hang of but it was all an experience. I hadn't seen much of Paula's work before the talk and others had told me it wasn't all that good but I thought she had some good pieces of work. Admittedly her earlier work I didn't really appreciate. I really liked her hand rendered map designs. When she was taking us through her work I was getting flashes of inspiration for my own work so it was definitely of benefit.

Sound as a pound

I've chosen to design a piece that sums up the talk on the "4 Ways Sound Affect US". I had a few ideas which I kept pushing forward. The concept of my piece is to make the British public more aware of sounds around them by exposing them to 2 contrasting sets of sounds whilst attempting to complete an interactive puzzle. The first booth will play sounds of a loud open plan office. The second booth will play morning bird songs which would calm the person and increase their concentration level. There will be a short time limit on each booth.

The puzzle will be displayed on a futuristic screen which will be projected. The interaction is based around the film Minority Report where the user moves his/her hands much like you would use a mouse on a computer. Alongside their will be a panel within which your pulse rate is being monitored to provide a visual display of the partakers stress levels. This would identify the health risks caused from exposure to sound thus making the audience aware of sounds around them and how it affects them.

The puzzle is a sliding block puzzle, which is an image divided into blocks and jumbled within a grid, the user will then have to slide each block around to form the original complete image.

Communicating ideas

The final part to the 1st unit is "Communicating ideas" where we have to respond to an idea and communicate it visually. I've been given several video links to watch and then choose one to communicate to the British Public either through a paper based outcome or a Screen based animation lasting no longer than 30 seconds.

Now that I have watched the videos I've filed down my options to two ideas (I think...) which are:

http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_the_4_ways_sound_affects_us.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

I found that these two videos I can relate to and have some rough ideas floating around in my head that could potentially communicate these ideas. I'm undecided whether I will create an animation or something paper based. I'm leaning towards some sort of illustration as I've recently found that my knack for drawing has temporarily vapourised, maybe I'm not in the right frame of mind but I'm sure my drawing skills were much better 6 months ago!

I'm waiting for that "genius" moment to come strolling past.

Final Mushy Critique

I had a good response to my Mushy Pea design in my final critique. I pointed out that the nutritional ingredients and the product information needed work to fill up the space correctly and logically but that can be easily altered. The overall design was fairly successful and I'm really pleased that I really pushed forward my work from last week to produce a sound design. No more Mushy Peas! Well at least for a while anyway...

2nd Dreamweaver session

I found the 1st session really easy to get into and it's certainly benefited my concentration by having the session on a private study day. The 2nd session we went through some of the basics from last week and went from there. It was a bit more challenging this week with the html but I think I've coped reasonably well and my notes should help me when we go into the next session.

Mushy Pea Development

Since my crit on friday I went back to Waitrose to gain more research and understanding of other products, product placement and define my target audience. All of which have now become resolved, I hope. I've pushed forward a new design which I think ticks the right boxes for the criteria of the brief. I'm going to work a bit more on my logo and see what the tutors think in my tutorial tomorrow.

The Interim Critique

My interim critique wasn't the best as my idea looked too much like a copy of the Waitrose brand and I didn't have an image showing of where my product would be situated and no obvious target audience. I spent most of the morning really working on the type which shouldn't have been my main focus. In the critique I was hoping I had the opportunity to take everyone through my thoughts and ideas vocally but I felt shot down immediately which was justified but I'm now completely unsure of where to take my ideas and I don't feel I received much guidance on where to take my work.

Mushy Pea concept

Yesterday I found myself stuck with several ideas and just decided to go with one and develop it before it's too late. So I went for a design that I felt sticks to the brief the best suited the brief. I've gone for a design that is clean and should hopefully re-brand Mushy Peas successfully.

The product would be packaged in a sachet that would be refrigerated in the chiller next to the fish products in such supermarkets as Sainsbury's and Waitrose. The reason for its new placement is to reintroduce Mushy Peas unsavory reputation in the food market. Being a refrigerated product it probably won't last as long as something in a tin but the peas will be fresh and preserved in the packet. I was thinking the name "Original Mushy" could be a brand name that would have a range, like "Original Mushy Carrots".

Below is my initial idea of the look of the typography.

More New from Old

Looking at the various Brands and designs of Mushy Peas out there it's clear to me that Mushy Peas haven't been shown in the best light. I think the designs currently out there could compliment the actual product so much better. The images that are used on the packaging aren't appealing to the consumer. I feel that Mushy Peas could be given a real fresh, natural and perhaps local approach. I mean in the sense of how Dorset Cereals is branded and has become very successful. Sainsbury's Mushy Peas didn't seem to have their own Higher market brand of Mushy Peas and perhaps that's what I should aim for. To create a much more refreshing, natural and rich look, perhaps design a limited edition with a golden colour palette.

New From Old

My latest project is based around re-branding a food product from a list. I have chosen to re-brand Mushy Peas. I've developed several ideas but I need to select one and push it forward. The idea that I feel has the most scope is to make a Mushy Pea flavoured crisp that would be accompanied by a mint sauce or some other kind of sauce. I envisage the crisp to maybe be part of Pringles and contain a small section that would be within the Pringle tube and could be detached from the main part of the product. I'm unsure whether a flavoured crisp is too far fetched and not sticking to the basis of the brief.

After the tutorial thoughts were raised as how to push the idea forward, it was suggested to design a Fish shaped fritter/ crisp that could be dipped into a potato sauce and a separate fish sauce. The idea being to flip around the traditional concept of Fish and Chips with Mushy peas and making the Mushy Peas the key part thus creating a playful and fun snack/ meal. I think the idea could work but I'm worried that it's too much of a novelty and it might be a product that wouldn't sell.

I prefer the idea of building upon what Walkers have done with some of their crisps with which they have combined random flavours together to form a new crisp, such as: Chili and Chocolate but push it even further and find something even more obscure that could combine with Mushy Peas.

I still feel that I'm behind with this work and need to settle on one of my ideas and just push it otherwise I risk my final outcome not reaching its full potential.

HVW8

This is a link to HVW8 which is a Production House and has some really wicked work that always gives me inspiration!

http://www.hvw8.com

Business Identity

I was given a random name of a person for whom I had to create a set of Business Stationary. I landed Genghis Khan which I was thrilled about as I knew that researching this person would be really interesting and it had a lot of potential for a great set of Business stationary.
After extensive research into Genghis Khan it was apparent to me that I should either create stationary that would reflect his brutality and the presence the conquerer created or to design a set that would represent his efficience and overall power. I originally explored the 'brutality' option with a business card but soon found that my work was becoming cliched and obvious, so I moved onto a more contempory design that still had underlying messages of his notoriety, ambition and the typography subtly resembles the time of Khans existence. I have produced a Business Card, Compliment Slip and Letterhead whioch still needs more work to the layouts and typography which I will develop alongside my next brief.

1st Project 'Thank You'

The first project we were given was 'Thank You' where we were given the opportunity to thank a particular person in visual way. So instead of thanking a family member or friend I chose to thank my comedy hero Alan Partridge/ Steve Coogan which I thought would allow me to create a piece that would stand out from the others within my group. I felt that it could lead me to a very interesting final outcome. We only had a week to realise and produce our final outcome so it was a great brief to get me kick started into the new academic year and get me ticking over once again. Originally I chose to make my piece into a personal "Thank You" from me to Partridge himself, which after discussion before the final critique I decided to change and make a thank you which almost shows appreciation from other Partridge fans and a way in which everyone can share their recognition of the 'genius'. I was under a really short timeframe to change my idea before the critique so I came up with the idea of putting together a Bumper sticker design that contained a classic quote/ catchphrase from the series. The reason why I chose to use a bumper sticker design was that it represents a real passion, appreciation and a sense of pride for that particular subject. You often see football logos and other such related signs within cars that almost make a statement of that persons character and admiration for that particular subject. I chose to use the quote; "Back of the net" which at the time seemed a good idea, but after the feedback from the tutors and students it became apparent that it may be a quote that has too much of a football reference and the message could be lost and project the wrong meaning.

So now I will look at other ways I can show my appreciation to Partridge and push a concept that I might not necessarily be able to achieve due to resources and cost. I want to provide a really clever outcome that relates to Partridges' character and series.

This is one of the original concepts.

The Return to Uni

After months of inactivity I've returned to Visual communication for my second year. It's been a strange Summer which has flown by and now I'm looking forward to pushing myself and hopefully producing some wicked work. Over the Summer I was involved in the Larder exhibition at 60 Million Postcards which was running for roughly a week at the beginning of September. It was my first proper exhibition aside from shows at uni. I really enjoyed the whole process and was extremely pleased with the work I produced. It also allowed me to meet some other artists in the local area which was great. I will look to obtain the photos of the exhibition and post them shortly.

Below are the works I displayed in The Larder Exhibtion at 60 Million Postcards.

"Talking In My Ear"

"Drift"

"Life Restraint"

Transcription

I've got the transcription finished and edtied down. I'm not going to experiment with layouts on InDesign, so I can see what works and what doesn't. I need to think of more interesting ideas for my illustrations to accompany my article.

Group Project

I thought that the group project was really good. It was cool to get to know the others that were in my group a bit better and we produced a great poster advertising the Type Radio website.

New project

The new project has been launched and I've got Christian Schwartz as my artist to transcribe and design two double page spreads for. I've already listened to a part of his interview and I can't say I'm feeling too enthusiastic.

Flash round up

The last Flash session was pointless because he was pretty much helping the others who for some reason couldn't meet the deadline at 12:30. So I sat there trying to work through the second project, designing the 5 page Website but I didn't progress at all well.

Finished

I've got all the written work completed and my skecthbook is pretty much there. I just need to put my Flash animation onto disc and fingers crossed I should be finished. Still got to the last Flash session at 5 though.

Quality day!

I went into college today to ensure that I meet the deadline next week. I was concerned that I had a lot of animation to do. I have managed to get up to college for 9:30 which is pretty good for me on a day off. I worked really well on Flash and made up a good 30 - 40 seconds of animation. It still needs work doing to it but hopefully just some tweeks, I will try and download the trial version of Flash for my computer but I'm not sure my PC has the RAM to do it.

Flash Sessions

The Flash sessions aren't very well put together. We turn up on time for 5pm and every week we don't seem to start for at least another half an hour after. I think the sessions would be better if he taught us a section of Flash and we follwed each step at the same time as he demonstrates it. At the moment he shows us too many steps at once and it's a bit too much to take in especially after a whole day in college. I'm sure he knows Flash inside out but I feel the teaching methods should be different.

Interim Critique

The crit was really helpful and a few areas of my animation aren't quite there. I need to consider how to display my statistics better. At the moment I have a football scoreboard which updates for each "Erm" which I think works fine but I need to decide how the main stat is displayed at the end of the video.

Stats

Statistics: Wayne Rooney scores 14 "Erms" and Gerrard scores 10 "Erms". Gerrard earns £130k a week and Rooney earns £100k a week.

Flash Sessions

I'm finding that the Flash sessions after college are going to lead to my head exploding! I'm even grasping how to create a motion tween, probaly the easiest thing to achieve on Flash!

I'm extremely pleased how my characters have turned out and most people seem to be able to instantly recognise them which is an added bonus!

I'm going to design three different heads for each character so I can exaggerate their facial expresseions when they talk. I will be emailing the owner of of each football interview to ask whether it is possible to use the audio from the video for my project.

Now I will start storyboarding my ideas so that it will be easier for me when I use Flash.

Character design

I've chosen to use Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard as my two characters to exploit in the animation. The animation will focus on their redundant language ("Ermm's" and "Y' Know's"). I'm feeling confident that I can produce a real funny video.

I'm looking into caricature designers for inspiration, I'm thinking of designing the characters like the Big headed footballer figures that you would get in little a Kinder egg styled pod. (no idea how to describe it!). By drawing the characters with huge heads it shows their arrogance and egos.

Idea to push forward

After a lot of thinking I feel that the strongest idea is to analyse top players such as Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard by using Youtube vids, I can note their grammar skills in post match interviews instead of their skills on the pitch. I aim to make a light hearted animation highlighting their inability to express themselves so that even people who are disinterested in football can enjoy the animation.

I've also been looking at football quotes that contain stats that are funny and also highlighting the lack of intelligence within the 'football world'. Quotes such as: "It was a game of two halves".

Screen Based Communication

The new project has just been launched and I'm feeling daunted by learning Adobe Flash as I've heard it can be hard going. The animation has to be based around a statistic so I'm going to try and find some obscure stats.

initial thoughts

I was thinking of leaning towards a football theme for my project. By basing it around football I can maintain motivation and should hopefully give me more enthusiasm to learn Flash. I am a keen supporter of Newcastle United and they are pretty much regarded as the Comedy club of the Premierleague so I was considering looking at statistics that could display their dismal seasons of the past.

Finished!

Worked hard to get everthing done. I'm really pleased with my final outcome and I think that it pulls together various thoughts and ideas from my development through the project.

Interim Crit.

The general feedback from the critique is that I should make my piece as close to the Facebook layout as possible to engage the target audience better. They also reckoned that I should go with the news feed style instead of just a Friend request. I agree with the comments and feedback though it it's a bit risky doing a piece of work that is very close to the real website, though the concept is that Amnesty would collaborate with Facebook.

lack of motivation

Over the x-mas period I have admittidly relaxed too much and let the work get on top of me. I feel I lost my enthusiasm due to the x-mas break. Though I'm not far off finishing my essay!