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!

Decision

I've been struggling to decide which idea to go with and I feel that I just need to choose one and push it forward or I will end up not having enough time.
So I've decided to push the Facebook idea forward.

Initial ideas

My first poster designs roughly showing my thoughts and layout.

(Colours have changed for some reason!)

Amnesty Progress

I'm beginning to develop my ideas and I feel I have to strong ideas which I would like to explore. I think the best way to address the target audience is to use something as powerful as Facebook or Myspace as they seem to dominate a lot of our spare time and is a good way to keep in contact with everyone. So my idea is to use a Facebook styled layout which would grab the attention of the target audience (especially when they're bored at a bus stop) and they would want to read it almost to find out what is happening and look at the 'Status Updates'. My piece would be very much based around the tone of language and the layout of the design.
My other idea is to use phrases associated with going out and socialising such as "Planning a night on the tiles?". This kind of copyline I feel will immediately engage with the target audience and they will relate the question to going out and socialising with friends. Then the image below the copyline will be a dark, foreign prison cell with a lonely figure in the corner of a prisoner of concience. So the image contrasts the first thoughts the viewer has when they read the top line. At the bottom would be a 3D styled set of buttons related to the "Accept" and "Decline" butoons you see when using networking websites. I feel that this would put the viewer on the spot and want them to make a decision whether to help this person in need or leave them in these terrible conditions. The poster would be reinforced with the Amnesty logo and website.

Lecture - Barry Tempest

I thought that the lecture from Barry Tempest was interesting. Though I found it difficult to get the most out of the lecture as I wasn't sure on what to ask him in relation to his line of work or his thoughts on my ideas.

'Black Box' Group Project

My group were given Men's Gillette Razor to create clues for, so we made an origami game for the other group. The game had different images related to the product.
We were given a cross-word with a set of clues accompanied by a Photoshop rendered image. The words we found were 'Doors', 'Set', 'Sea' and 'Ariel'. We spent several hours trying to work out what the product was, and completely thrown off by the Photoshop image. But eventually we combined the words to produce "Dorset Cereals". We researched the brand to gather ideas and thought that we should make a design based on the transparent panels which shows the cereal inside of the box. We thought we could use the idea of looking through the panels to see a view of Dorset, looking fresh, bright, clear blue skies etc. But somehow that idea was scrapped and used the Cerne Abbos Giant as an idea to develop. We all agreed that we should make a chalk outline of the logo using Illustrator and replace the image of the giant with our logo on the hillside. Our overall image was more conceptual than the finished piece and I think that this idea works really well as the image is recognisable and the viewer will hopefully relate the product straight to Dorset. Altogether it was a great team excercise and really enjoyed the day.

Spend More Save Less - Group Project

The kick start to the new project, Spend More Save Less. This was an ideas generation project where we had to produce a solid idea for making a poster to encourage spending your savings to help the economy. Our group started off by brainstorming, and linked everything to the idea of spending more. We looked at different iconic characters that are related the subject of money. So we looked at Mr Monopoly and the idea of involving a piggy bank within the poster. We also liked the idea of incorporating a Scrooge type character spending money. The famous World War 1 poster: "Your Country Needs You!" was considered and we spent a lot of time thinking of how we could manipulate the image to get across the point of the poster. Several ideas were pushed forward, but we decided that there wasn't such a strong sense of unity and passion within Britain when you compare it to that of the unity during the first world war.
As there are so many different cultures with the UK we ended up looking at how we can address the various communites on a personal level. So we looked at involving all cultures and ethnic backgrounds in one poster. Which was difficult as it could over crowd the poster. The group came to the decision to have a series of posters aimed at different areas and communties that would relate to them still on a personal level. We felt that this was a strong idea and created two layouts that would represent cash flow and how you need to play your part within the economy system. We made 6 boxes and 3 were used to show the consequences of your actions, such as purchasing food from your local general store in a village, that money then being used to buy stock and produce from a local farmer. So the other 3 boxes were used to show the complete opposite and what would happen if you didn't spend money. This same style we would apply to different areas such as rural and urban. Our tag line was "YOU CAN'T AFFORD NOT TO" which we all agreed was the strongest tag line we produced during the day.
I enjoyed the experience of working as a group and felt we designed a good poster with a strong idea. It was interesting to see our idea development which I have only touched on within this blog. I look forward to the next group project as it's good to bounce ideas off each other.

Text and Image round up

I really enjoyed the Text and Image unit and thought that it was a good starting point for the course. Picked up some great new skills during the project. The one problem I had was being introduced to so many different software prorams in a short time period.