Wes Anderson Book

For christmas, I received the Wes Anderson Collection book, he is my favourite film director. Wes is one of the most influential voices from the past two decades of American cinema. A true auteur, Anderson is known for the visual artistry, inimitable tone, and idiosyncratic characterisations that make each of his films Bottle Rocket,Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, andMoonrise Kingdom instantly recognisable as Andersonian. The Wes Anderson Collection is the first in-depth overview of Anderson s filmography, guiding readers through his life and career. Previously unpublished photos, artwork, and ephemera complement a book-length conversation between Anderson and award-winning critic Matt Zoller Seitz.

My favourite scene

Its a really well designed and thought out book to its slightest detail, with its amazingly wide and deep offering of visual documentation

Crit

Today we had a crit on our initial research into our given word, mine being cutlery. 

• "You could look at how silverware is advertised" 
• "History could work well, perhaps look if wealthy familiws have any famous brands for example. Maybe see if any family members have any cutlery they use on special occasions?"
• "Silverware tends to be a social status in terms of wealth or a family name. Look at their importance? (as you mentioned class" 
• "Look at advertising and branding" 
• "You could look at the difference between cutlery within classes? Within history? How it would change for wealthier families?" 
• "Interesting idea, look at modern hallmarks/more classic/traditional- interesting to see the progression/differences-Industrial revolutions? - How hallmarks  are produced." 
• "Look at the origins of cutlery-where they came from/started as (the history) or knifes-weapons (hunting)" 
• "Look into the phrase 'silver spoon" 

I think looking into the origins of cutlery could be interesting and looking at different cutlery across the world. Overall, the feedback has got me thinking! 

Forks, Spoons and Knives

As this is a research brief I've decided to research into the different forks, spoons and knives there are. This will broaden my knowledge about cutlery.

forks 

• Asparagus fork
• Barbecue fork
• Beef fork - A fork used for picking up meat. This fork is shaped like a regular fork, but it is slightly bigger and the tines are curved outward. The curves are used for piercing the thin sliced beef.
• Berry fork
• Carving fork - A two-pronged fork used to hold meat steady while it is being carved. They are often sold with carving knives or slicers as part of a carving set.
• Cheese fork
• Chip fork - A two-pronged disposable fork, usually made out of sterile wood (though increasingly of plastic), specifically designed for the eating of chips (known as french fries in North America), fried fish and other takeaway foods. From 7.5 to 9 cm long. In Germany they are known as Pommesgabel (literally "potato fork") and "currywurst fork".
• Cocktail fork - A small fork resembling a trident, used for spearing cocktail garnishes such as olives.
• Cold meat fork
• Crab fork - A short, sharp and narrow three-pronged or two-pronged fork designed to easily extract meat when consuming cooked crab.
• Dessert fork (alternatively, pudding fork/cake fork in Great Britain) - Any of several different special types of forks designed to eat desserts, such as a pastry fork. They usually have only three tines and are smaller than standard dinner forks. The leftmost tine may be widened so as to provide an edge with which to cut (though it is never sharpened).
• Dinner fork
• Fish fork
• Fondue fork - A narrow fork, usually having two tines, long shaft and an insulating handle, typically of wood, for dipping bread into a pot containing sauce
•  Fruit salad fork - A fork used which is used to pick up pieces of fruit such as grapes, strawberries, melon and other varies types of fruit.
• Garden fork
• Granny Fork
• Ice cream fork
• Meat fork
• Olive fork
• Oyster fork
• Pastry fork
• Pickle fork - A long handled fork used for extracting pickles from a jar, or an alternative name for a ball joint separator tool used to unseat a ball joint
• Pie fork
• Pitchfork
• Relish fork
• Salad fork - Similar to a regular fork, but may be shorter, or have one of the outer tines shaped differently. Often, a "salad fork" in the silverware service of some restaurants (especially chains) may be simply a second fork; conversely, some restaurants may omit it, offering only one fork in their service.
• Tea fork
• Toasting fork - A fork, usually having two tines, very long metal shaft and sometimes an insulating handle, for toasting food over coals or an open flame

spoons

• · Bouillon spoon — round-bowled, somewhat smaller than a soup spoon
•  Caviar spoon — usually made of mother of pearl, gold, animal horn or wood but not silver, which would affect the taste
• Chinese spoon a type of soup spoon
• Coffee spoon — small, for use with after-dinner coffee cups, (usually smaller than teaspoon)
• Cutty — short, chiefly Scot and Irish
• Demitasse spoon — diminutive, smaller than a coffee spoon; for traditional coffee drinks in specialty cups and for spooning cappuccino froth
• Dessert spoon — intermediate in size between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, used in eating dessert and sometimes soup or cereals
• Egg spoon — for eating boiled eggs; with a shorter handle and bowl, a more pointed tip and often a more rounded bowl than a teaspoon
• Grapefruit spoon or orange spoon — tapers to a sharp point or teeth, used for citrus fruits and melons
• Horn spoon — a spoon made of horn, used chiefly interjectionally in the phrase By the Great Horn Spoon!, as in the children's novel of that title by Sid Fleischman
• Ice cream fork — sometimes called a "spork", this implement has a bowl like a teaspoon with the point made into 3 stubby tines that dig easily into frozen ice cream
• Iced tea spoon — with a very long handle
• Marrow spoon or marrow scoop — 18th century, often of silver, with a long thin bowl suitable for removing marrow from a bone
• Melon spoon; often silver, used for eating melon
• Parfait spoon — with a bowl similar in size and shape to that of a teaspoon, and with a long slim handle, used in eating parfait, sundaes, sorbets or similar foods served in tall glasses
• Plastic spoon — cheap, disposable, flexible, stain resistant, sometimes biodegradable; black, white, colour or clear; smooth, non-porous surface; varied types and uses
• Rattail spoon — developed in the later 17th century; with a thin pointed tongue on the bottom of the bowl to reinforce the joint of bowl and handle
•  Runcible spoon — non-existent object referenced in the nonsense poem The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear; various suggestions for its definition have been put forward 
• Salt spoon — miniature, used with an open salt cellar for individual service
•  Saucier spoon — slightly flattened spoon with a notch in one side; used for drizzling sauces over fish or other delicate foods.
• Soupspoon — with a large or rounded bowl for eating soup.
• Cream-soup spoon — round-bowled, slightly shorter than a standard soup spoon
• Teaspoon - small, suitable for stirring and sipping tea or coffee, standard capacity one third of a tablespoon, unit of volume.
• Tablespoon - volume of three teaspoons. Sometimes used for ice cream and soup, unit of volume.
• Seal-top spoon - silver, end of handle in the form of a circular seal; popular in England in the later 16th and 17th centuries

knives

 

• Bread knife: A knife with a serrated blade for cutting bread
• Boning knife: A knife used for removing the bones of poultry, meat, and fish
• Carving knife: A knife for carving large cooked meats such as poultry, roasts, hams
• Chef's knife: Also known as a French knife, a cutting tool used in preparing food
• Cleaver: A large knife that varies in its shape but usually resembles a rectangular-bladed hatchet. It is used mostly for hacking through bones as a kitchen knife or butcher knife, and can also be used for crushing via its broad side, typically garlic
• Butcher's Knife: A knife designed and used primarily for the butchering and/or dressing of animals.
• Electric knife: An electrical device consisting of two serrated blades that are clipped together, providing a sawing action when powered on
• Kitchen knife: Any knife, including the chef's knife, that is intended to be used in food preparation
• Oyster knife: Has a short, thick blade for prying open oyster shells
• Paring or Coring Knife: A knife with a small but sharp blade used for cutting out the cores from fruit.
• Rocker knife is a knife that cuts with a rocking motion, which is primarily used by people whose disabilities prevent them from using a fork and knife simultaneously
• Table knife or Case knife: A piece of cutlery, either a butter knife, steak knife, or both, that is part of a table setting, accompanying the fork and spoon
• Ulu: An Inuit woman's all-purpose knife

Studio Brief 02

For studio brief 2 we have been asked to create a body of research including 20 photos, 20 words, 20 facts, 20 opinions, and 20 statistics around a theme inspired by a given word and the number 100. The word I was given was 'cutlery'. After everybody received their given word, as a table we passed round our word and everybody wrote down the first word that came to their head. 

Feedback:

• Silver-Hallmarks 
• Knives
• Food
• Class (upper/lower comparison) 
• The Borrowers: use weird stuff to eat with. 
• Silverware, treasure,rich, wealth, retro
• Hallmarks-signs of quality
• Food, Dining, Eating
• Silverware- Upperclass. Selection of different ones.
• Family/Special sets
• Layout of cutlery 
• Weight of cutlery
• Worth? 
• Sporks
• Sets 

My initial thought was to get a dictionary definition: 

Wikipedia: 

Cutlery refers to any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in the Western world. It is more usually known as silverware or flatware in the United States, where cutlery usually means knives and related cutting instruments. This is probably the original meaning of the word. Sincesilverware suggests the presence of silver, the term tableware has come into use.

The major items of cutlery in the Western world are the knife, fork and spoon. In recent times, hybrid versions of cutlery have been made combining the functionality of different eating implements, including the spork (spoon / fork), spife (spoon / knife), and knork (knife / fork) or the sporf which is all three.

My initial thoughts for 20 words were: 

1. Sharp
2. Feel
3. Balance
4. Set
5. Disposable
6. Smart
7. Silver
8. Stainless steel
9. Dish washable
10. Engraved
11. Starters
12. Steak
13. Blunt
14. Dirty
15. Tray
16. Drawer
17. Sheffield (used to be famous for cutlery manufacture)
18. Quality
19. Plastic
20. present

Studio Brief 02- Design Process- Research

Final Crit: Frame Feedback

Today, we had our final crit feedback. We were asked to leave our final frame designs as well as three questions to get clear formative feedback. Questions asked: 

1.What do you think about the frames? 
2. What is successful/unsuccessful?
3. In your opinion, who is the target audience? 

Feedback:  

• 1.  I think the frames work really well, the zigzag frames really works for the design, its quirky and fun. 2. Successful- The photos work well with glasses its very funny and in my opinion high end. 3. Young adults- Appeals to them with the glasses eg. 'Hipster Frame', its very relatable. Could see it being sold in Urban Outfitters. Clean and fresh design
• 1. I really like how you make the frames different types of people, makes it relatable. 2. I don't think there is unsuccessful points in this NESSA. I really like the drama frame. I think its a good play on frames too. 3. There's a range of audiences because you've picked up different types of people. But probably young adults would look at these first. 
• 1. I like the look and glasses frames in picture frames idea is a nice touch. 2. Successful: the look is good. Unsuccessful: Needs more? Align the type a little. 
• 1. Like the different frames in each frame. 3.  Young target audience: 16-24
• 1. Photos work well with glasses ! Certainly for young people due to the element of humour 2. 'The Nerd Frame' does remind me of John Lennon but I'm not sure you intended that? Could work really well in stores such as Urban Outfitters. Blur in the 'drama' frame works well because the glasses stand out! Try this on the others? 3. Target audience is for teenagers/young adults. 
• 1. Looks like something I'd see in Urban Outfitters. 2. I'd like the idea of the blurred background, it seems to limit with the glasses theme well. I'd say it's all good, but it didn't surprise me or doesn't engage with the buyer much. 3. 15-25, Urban Outfitters clients 
• 1. There good. Not sure about the glasses though. 20-40? 

My feedback was mainly positive and people liked the frames and said they fitted the brand of Urban Outfitters. However, I've highlighted some of the feedback which is critical and they have suggested how I could improve my frames. After looking at the frames, my type needs to be aligned, so this is something I can easily improve on! Also I will experiment putting more of a  blur on the other photographs. My last piece of feedback 'there good. Not sure about the glasses though.' was sort of unhelpful, what were they unsure on? 

COP Lecture - Advertising

This morning we had a COP lecture on advertising by course leader Fabio. Advertising is often considered as a tool used by capitalism to change and establish values within society. It changes the way we think and has a large influence on our day to day lives. Advertising changed the view of woman (no longer as a passive object) but now dominating and some seen as an sexual objectification. Advertising is also considered influential in changing our perception and what we we may need and what we want, for example, clothes, cars, make up etc. 

Barbara Kruger 1987

We looked at a poster by Barbara Kruger, "I shop therefore I am" written in white futura bold on a red card (very bold and eye-catching), Barbara Kruger takes that sentence to a materialistic level - in other words, a person is defined not by what they think, but what they own (through shopping and advertisements). She is saying that we don’t just shop for the things we need.  We shop to gain an identity and certain status and we do this so that we feel that we fit in to a certain group in society.

We often link adverts with sexism, and the exploitation of women. Here is an example of Tom Fords fragrance posters for men. 

I'm kind of glad at least some ad agencies aren't pressured into making safe, bland ads. Clearly Tom Ford is a very edgy and sexual advertiser. Many of his other ads (for clothes or accessories) feature fully nude women and men who are totally nude and exposed. His fragrance ads are defiantly targeted to a male audience demographic. We live in an increasingly sexual culture where images such as this are becoming less taboo.

Advertising is often accused to explore sexism treating people as cultural stereotypes...
1. It drives global economies
2. It drives creativity- the 1st wave of creatives were revolutionaries who were creating a utopia
We looked at Alexander Rodchenko (one of these revolutionaries) he was a russian soviet graphic designer, below is one of his posters. 

Rodchenko was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design. Constructivism is a style/movement in which assorted mechanical objects are combines into abstract mobile structural forms. The movement originated in Russia in the 1920s and has influenced many aspects of modern architecture and design. Rodchenko was one of the most versatile Constructivist and Productivist artists to emerge after the Russian Revolution. His work is still largely influential today, for example, Franz Ferdinands album.

Advertising is a very powerful form of art, art feeds advertising and vice versa. A good example of this is Andy Warhol.

Andy Warhol (a pop artist) made Campbell soup popular through advertisement. Reflecting on his career, Warhol claimed that the Campbell’s Soup Can was his favourite work and that, ‘I should have just done the Campbell’s Soups and kept on doing them ... because everybody only does one painting anyway.’ 

Main points taken from the lecture: 

• Advertising can enlighten and inspire
• Advertising reflects values, hopes and dreams 
• Advertising challenges you to do something, for example 'challenge yourself' campaign by nike Nike: Just Do It 
• Advertising questions social norms and attitude
• Advertising raises social awareness, for an example this poster by charity organisation, Childhope Asia Philippines 

Type Journal

I contacted Fontsmith to see if they had any extra type specimens lying around. Not expecting a reply, sure enough two days later they sent me a wide range of type specimens, from posters to mini booklets, which I was really pleased about!

really nice embossing 

foiling

I love the stock they print on it, it has a really nice feel to it. So much care and attention has gone into the presentation its very successful. After spending time looking through all the type specimens, I was left feeling inspired and motivated! 

Experimental Jetset

Experimental Jetset is a small, independent, Amsterdam-based graphic design studio, founded in 1997 by (and still consisting of) Marieke Stolk, Erwin Brinkers and Danny van den Dungen. Focusing on printed matter and site-specific installations, and describing their methodology as “turning language into objects”, Experimental Jetset have worked on projects for a wide variety of institutes. I decided to look at the work as it as they are really minimal but look super nice and really effective. 

I think this could work really well with photography and image as well. All of these posters are successful. I love the use of opacity and colour. I think helvetica would be an ideal font for a frame backing paper.

Crit Feedback

Today's crit we laid our design sheets and the other half of the group left written feedback. We were asked to leave three questions to help people give formative directed feedback. My three questions were: 

1. What concept works well/not so well? 
2. What methods would you use to illustrate the concepts? 
3. Finally, any suggestions? 

Here  is some feedback I found most helpful.

• "I think the paperclip one is the stronger of the two. But is there a link between stationary and photo frames? Maybe if you make the branding like staples or WHSmith
• "I think arranging objects as paperclips within the frame is strongest. Although would be a stronger concept if the quantity related to the frame size EG. 7x5 = 35 paperclips" 
• "Concept of back to uni doesn't work. Why would you want to buy a photo frame when going back to uni" 
• "Try Hand-rendered type"
• "I think with the back to uni ideas it would work well if you had a supporting caption as 'take your memories with you" 
• "I'm not sure about the last concept 'back to uni' doesn't connect with new photos for me..." 
• "I think that the little illustrations work well and represent holidays successfully. As people usually frame special occasions this is appropriate"

I found today's crit really useful, with this style of crit I find I get a lot more formative feedback. From the feedback I received,  I need to re-think my branding if I am going to be looking at doing stationary, it will be better to look at WHSmith or staples. One comment that kept coming up was the link between stationary and frames, but I think this will be more obvious if the brand was WHSmith. Then there could also be a link between school photographs and school equipment? On my design sheets I didn't make it clear that I meant for students to take frames to their uni rooms to store memories... eg. 'taking memories with you'. 

Photoshop Workshop

In this workshop we will mainly be working with photo manipulation. It is the main editing program that manipulates photographs. Photoshop works with pixels, which is a square of colour. With pixels things can blur and distort (pixelation) things begin to appear 'blocky'. 

One thing different to vector graphics is that working with pixels we need to think a lot more about size and the quality of an image. Pixelation is a common problem unique to bitmap. Early graphical applications such as video games ran at very low resolutions with a small number of colours, and so had easily visible pixels. This then resulted in sharp edges that gave curved objects and diagonal lines an unnatural appearance.

Resolution is a word to describe the amount of pixels given and information about the image. The most standard resolution given is 72, which is the standard all digital display, as well as a resolution of 300 which is the standard used for print. This is because, it is of high quality that the eye can interpret easily (especially for magazines) however, for a massive bill board alongside the motorway you could probably get away with using a lower resolution and it will still look of high quality. 

Optical Colour Mixing is created through our perception of colour. When we look at two small amounts of different colours laid down side by side the two appear to create a different colour. This colour usually is something similar to the result when the two are mixed in pigment. The only difference is that when two colours are mixed in pigment, they lose some of their intensity. When two colours are mixed optically, they retain their intensity and sometimes appear a lot brighter.

 

When working in Photoshop the colour mode is pre-set to RGB (red green blue), deals with light and works digitally for the web. CMYK works for print and pigments of inks, when working in this colour mode in Photoshop, you would find not all the filters and options would not be available to use. CMYK refers to the four inks used in some colour printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black) To look for different colour modes and change them, you can find them on image-mode-colour mode. 

The RGB colour mode is an additive colour model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colours. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three additive primary colours, red, green, and blue.The main purpose of the RGB colour model is for the sensing, representation, and display of images in electronic systems, such as televisions and computers, though it has also been used in conventional photography. Before the electronic age, the RGB colour model already had a solid theory behind it, based in human perception of colours.

Gamut

With a colour gamut you can see the complete range and scope of colour. One thing, that is really noticeable is that you get a lot more of a wide range of colour when using RGB colour mode, especially a lot more greens. CMYK is a lot more restricted. For example...

CMYK

RGB

From the image examples above, one thing you can really notice, is that the green is a lot brighter when in RGB mode. 

Finally, Photoshop useful shortcuts: