OUGD406: Speaking from Experience

I began my writing ideas down for my publication, a practical guide to beginning BA Graphic Design. I need to start thinking about how this could publication could be printed, it could be a hot-dog fold, and fold out into a calendar or something. Here is a list of things I want to include in my publication.

Quotes:

• 'This is teaching gold' 
• 'Caffeine is your fuel'
• 'Blog, blog.. then blog again' 
• 'A sketchbook is for yourself not anybody else' 
• 'your final outcome is a journey, not a destination' 
• 'If in doubt play table tennis then come back in ten minutes'

Calendar: which includes module submissions etc. 

List of equipment

Managing a day-to-day routine

OUGD406: Research

Manage your day-to-day. 

I recently got this book that links very well with the brief, 'speaking from experience' and especially with time management. The book is full of quotes, advice and ways of building your routine, finding focus, and sharpening the creative mind. This book is probably something I would have loved to have had at the beginning of the year.

Speaking from Experience: Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas

I began by listing down any issues, thoughts & ideas, and experiences for the new brief. That could be help as a starting point for 'speaking from experience'. 

Initial Ideas

• Time management 
• Living away from home 
• living with strangers 
• Cooking and Cleaning
• Making friends
• Busy Schedule
• Heavy workload
• Presentations
• Crits
• Starting a Graphic Design Course
• Presenting your work on a regular basis
• Using new software
• Food shopping
• Lack of confidence
• Balancing social and work life
• New printing methods

Things I have overcome: 

• Screenprinting
• Crits

Difficulties I have yet to overcome:

• making full use of college facilities
• time managment 
• yet to sort out inductions in lighting and lasercutting etc.
• confidence when presenting
• reading design books and books in general
• organising time wisely
• keeping up-to-date with my blog

I think the main problem areas when starting BA Graphic Design is time management, crits, and a heavy workload. I also think a lack of confidence. So far I am thinking of creating a publications containing things such as

• calendar (deadlines/crits etc)
•  a list of things you need to bring in for the day
• motivational quotes
• printing methods

Yoke Dialogue

Last night, I went to the opening night of creative duo Yoke bring a week-long, non-profit screen-print exhibition to the Corn Exchange in Leeds from tonight, with an aim to create an exhibition space that spurs a dialogue between creatives through a blind collaboration

Yoke, is made up third years Eve Warren and Nathan Bolton, who asked a variety of creatives and studios to submit work that would be used in a collaborative way, to be showcased in a final exhibition called Dialogue. Each designer consented to this, with the understanding they would not be able to choose their creative partners.

Overall, I was really impressed. The amount of hard work and effect that went into the exhibition was amazing. It was good to see everybody's work.

Dialogue Week 2 from Eve Warren on Vimeo.

Brief 04: Speaking from Experience Task

This morning, we were put into groups and had to list the five things problems we didn't know when we first went to university/moved to leeds. These problems were then formed into a problematic statement to which we could develop a brief around. The main issue we found was distinguishing a statement from a problem because,  what we wrote sounded like a statement.

The problem we decided on was about eating healthy & being able to cook at uni and then wrote a brief around the problem. We asked other groups to write down on the back how they would solve this and the answers we got back really fitted with what we initially hoped for.

Our five thing we didn't know were turned into problematic briefs.

The Brief we came up with: 

Students moving away from their families for the first time often struggle to cook and eat healthy due to lack of experience. With this in mind produce a creative solution which informs students on how to have and maintain a healthy life style/diet. 

Background/Considerations

• health benefits 
• student budgets
• recipes 
• tone of voice
• informative/instructional

OUGD406 Studio Brief 04 - Speaking From Experience

OUGD401: Research/Publications I like

Behance

The publication is bundled in a hand sewn velum pouch - opaque in finishing, it reflects intentions in communicating a  tory with transparency. Timidly labeled in a simplistic typographic delivery, it displays the reserved character of a introspective personality. Each booklet borrows the title of an archived journal entry speaking on a relating topic, whether that topic is about design, travel or life. Together the publication takes form of a mish mashed collage of self instilled wisdom and advice, life lessons learned, timelines, goal and bucket lists, future thinking, reflections and tweets. The overall objective is to present myself as a whole, truthfully, unfiltered and authentically. Not just revealing the creative aspects of my life, but my travel experiences and outlook on life as well as these significantly influence and reflect back into my creative principles. This is something I would like to do about the decade of the 1960s. Reflecting on women, fashion, education, role models etc.

Edison

This is a publication about Thomas Edison and the biggest technology debate that shaped the power industry, the War of the Currents, where Thomas and Nikola Tesla became adversaries due to Edison's promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution over alternating current (AC). The editorial artefact has a contemporary and experimental layout where the information arrangement doesn't follow the usual rules and takes a rebellious approach.The artefact was printed on different paper sizes and assembled by saddle-stitched binding.

OUGD401 visual response - initial ideas

Initial thoughts and ideas

a brief history of...

•  Perfume advertisements (chanel) 
• Obsession (why we have the need for more stuff) 
• Vogue magazine covers
• Chanel through the decades
• 60s fashion (mods)

My Essay Title 

‘Advertising doesn’t sell things: all advertising does is change the way people think or feel’ (Jeremy Bullmore) Evaluate this statement with reference to selected critical theories.' 

In particular I wrote about perfume advertisements (chanel, gucci, tom ford etc) and looked into how women are portrayed. Overall, I came to the conclusion that

I was not totally inclined to agree- I felt adverts attack our innermost desires, as John Berger states (ways of seeing) ‘it proposes to each of us that we transform ourselves, our lives by buying something more. This more, it proposes, will make us in some way richer-even though we will be poorer by having spent our money’, but I think majority of advertising attempts to do change our perceptions and alter our thought processes, I think it’s a personal choice. Simply put, I felt an advert will change the way you think or feel if you let it.

Chanel perfume advertisements

Quotes:

"A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous."

"What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No. 5, of course." Marilyn Monroe

Obsession

Barbara Kruger - I shop therefore I am 

Cogito ergo sum ( I think therefore I am) 

A brief history of 60/70s fashion (mods) 

For me I would find 'a brief history of 60s/70s fashion' would be most interesting to me. Also, I would have over easter to work on this and my parents/their friends grew up in late 60s/70s would be a great help, with providing knowledge and perhaps photographs.

interim crit

Today's crit was really helpful, I gained some great feedback and some valuable ideas. Here is the feedback I received.

• 'I quite like the helicopter design you have done. Have you thought about colours? Have you tried other colours other than red? Perhaps a yellowish tone to match the spotlight and you you could invert the text so its white? 
• 'red and black are definitely the colours you should use, target and telephone, for the helicopter and spolight, it might look better not filled in. 
• 'really strong concepts on all of your sketches. I think the telephone ideas are the strongest, it makes it seem quite mysterious. Out of your two printed designs I think the helicopter one is the strongest although the spotlight needs to be thinner - looks a bit like a mountain.
• you have reakky got to grips with making full use of both colours. I really like the flying bullet idea, it could work so well as a screen print but consider how you would do the ripples
• the first design that has been done digitally (target design) is very effective! I really like this one! The other design I like is the helicopter spotlight one. However, I like the smaller thumbnail one with the red title and the fact the spotlight itself is in the middle. I really think that the colour choice works well too! The 'looking up at the buildings image could look awesome too!! However, I still think the 'target design' is my favourite!
• stick with the part in the air vent chasing after. Could look really nice with half tone, black, white, red text. Nice, clean, minimal.
• Vectors a bit too simple. The tower block one is good, develop that.The helicopter idea looks really cool, but I don't think it's obvious enough what the film is, without using text, and I think text would ruin it. I think the other poster you've produced is too generic.
• Please go for the telephone design. Visually and conceptually this is your strongest idea.
• Helicopter design colours should be inverted.I'd suggest developing the telephone concept as it would be very strong.
• I like the thumbnail looking up at the buildings. This could look really cool screen printed. Both posters you've mocked up digitally work well- however with the target it may be hard to get the colours perfectly in line. 
• I think your buildings represent hostage better but I really like the crosshair design. Maybe think of incoporating the two? Nice work.

practical investigation - from theory into practice

What is a publication?

the preparation and issuing of a book, journal, or piece of music for public sale.

How is it made? 

What format could it be?

How is the format relevant to the content?

Is this important?

What are the conventions of publication?

How do you work with these?

What are the rules?

Do you have to obey them?

Michal Krasnopolski

Michal Krasnopolski created movie posters only using the grid below. Based on the idea that less is more, with this simple grid he was able to cleverly and clearly represent different films. The basic concept was to create a very modernist, minimalist poster series for movie enthusiasts. The idea is based on a very simple grid: a circle and two diagonals inscribed in a square. It surprised me how many posters I could create based on this very simple approach. There's an enormous strength in simplicity; the fewer elements, the more we engage our imagination.

the grid

Trace Exhibition

Last night,  I went to the opening night of trace, a contemporary art exhibition featuring the work of BA Fine Art students from Leeds College of Art. The title relates to the idea of discovering something through the act of investigation. As first year Fine Art students this is particularly relevant as they are only just finding their feet in a new working environment. In this show they presented a collection of works from a range of artistic perspectives, which hope will reflect their ambitions as aspiring artists.

Even though this isn't design, I think its really important to look at art for inspiration.  Engaging with a work of art is a meaningful and a lasting experience. I was really impressed by some of the pieces I saw. Others I thought were trying too hard to be grotesque and shock... but I remember it, so perhaps it was successful because it had an impact? 

hostage title sequence

For me I really enjoyed the title sequence to Hostage, it was deep and well constructed for a film opening.  It was a just a  shame the film wasn't so deep and well constructed. So I decided to do some further research into who designed/did the motion graphics for it.

The Frank Miller's Sin City-inspired title sequence for Florent Siri's 2005 thriller Hostage, featuring Bruce Willis, places the viewer right in the centre of a high profile crime scene taking place in one of L.A's upscale suburbs. The action scene - rendered in stark black-and-off-white contrasting colors, with deep blood red as the only supporting color- is frozen is frozen in time. As the camera pans across the scene, alternating between wide and close shots, the tension builds slowly but surely, culminating in the film's climactic opening scene.

Difficult to fathom, but a big part of the work on this title sequence was done by just one man, Laurent Brett .This French title designer has since established himself as the most productive, and quite possibly as the most important French motion designers of the last decade.

The initial inspiration for the title sequence came from Frank Miller’s Sin City comics and the Panic Room title sequence. “I’m a fan of types in perspective!” says title designer Laurent Brett.

“The director, Florent Siri is also French and I’d worked with him before on several music videos and on his previous movie ‘The Nest’. Because we’re friends, he involved me in this project since the first day. He wanted to make a high pressure sequence in a high contrast black-and-white style. I went to the shoot, took 1500 photos for reference and textures. We then built the set in CG and I made a lot of shots from macro to wide. I wanted to do shots that were impossible to do in real life, but with a realistic look. I edited the sequence with 30 CG shots."

Laurent Brett is a motion graphic designer from Paris, France who has a huge passion for creating film titles. His knowledge of French title design of the past 50 years is impressive. Brett studied two years at a school for communication, which sparked his interest in video editing. He gradually rolled into the motion design business in the 1990's, working as a post-production supervisor, editor and motion graphic designer on music videos and commercials. For several years now, Brett’s primary focus is designing Main Titles for film and TV - ranging from simple "font work" to elaborate creative title sequences. He works a lot and usually on several projects at the same time.

film screen shots

Screenshots 

I screenshot really high impact visual clips/iconic moments that I felt were key and could be incorporated into a poster design.

I found the opening sequence really iconic, with the use of black, red and white. 

This was a really memorable bit, but it was so quick I couldn't pause it at the right bit! Its basically a telephone being thrown out the window and smashing onto the concrete.

Above is where the evil man (Mars) is chasing them down a vent? something up/in behind the walls. Moved like a spider. 

Evil man (mars) walking through frames of FIRE. Iconic. 

The daughter wrapped up in a towel looking like the virgin Mary. 

This demented look 

engulfed in flames

The driveway to the mansion

The mansion in LA where the hostage is based. 

Codes