Wow! So.....it's been a while!

Well into 3rd year right now. Got a few briefs on the go, plus my dissertation as well. we've finished one little project we've done already. For the brief we were in pairs and given a piece of paper........and that was the brief!

Basically we could go with it in any direction. Strangely it was more challenging to be honest, as it was our first project back (let's face it! it's a little difficult to get back into the frame of mind).

In the end we decided to look into what is made from wood which ends up more paper based. Stamps, envelopes etc....

We concentrated on how much of each you can make from an average sized tree. Seeing which is more.

Below is the image that we used to produce our poster for the hand in.

Turns out thought that the piece of paper we were given was made out of cotton........LOL!

I thought PES only stood for Pro Evo?!

After effects session today where we learnt how to make photo's into filmstrips and then edit the effects in photoshop and after effects. As well as learning how to convert existing footage and editing it. I thought the session today was awesome! I've seen certain effects before i had no clue as to how you could create it yourself, so today i had fun!

Rich also introduced us to a piece done by PES called 'Rooftop' which was a hilarious stop motion video. I was browsing youtube for more of their work and found this which is quality!

Post-It!

Today was a group tutorial with Kirsten where she really wanted us to make headway and have a decision on our essay questions. It began a few reluctantly saying their idea for questions and then we would all pitch our ideas on where they could look or the problems they could have. This type of help always feels awkward to me as whether your trying to help or seeking help, it seems like you must have a well thought out thing to say otherwise you sound stupid. Plus within those types of scenarios you always only get one or two people helping whilst others sit quietly. So i asked whether we could all just put our potential questions on the wall, where others can write advice or issues next to them. We did and it worked! Everyone was a lot more at ease i found, as they could all put what they thought up without being under pressure. After which i had a lot of conversations with people about their work. I put up my question

'Are the rule of typography important within newspapers?'

I'm planning on taking it down in a week, hopefully surrounded by help!

Above is post-it notes art I found on:- http://www.cvrick.com/cv_rick/2007/09/great-art---pos.html#more

Part 2 Critique

Still tired during the critique today... but it went well! We got positive feedback from the tutors as well as their advice on how they would change it and make it clearer. On the whole i think it was a 'thumbs up'. I liked some of the others presentations but i felt ours really exhausted all that power point had to offer, which surprised others to what it was capable of!

After the crit we looked at a rough example of what phil wanted us to do for part 3. In this stage we have to produce a visual narrative of a text based on either the journey, opposing forces, balance or breaking in/out.

Should be an interesting brief!

...........Tired!

I am so tired! but we are done! I swear if I ever use garageband again it will be too soon! the sound clip editing was so tedious! Saying that... the power point is finished! It looks good actually! I'm proud of it! the animation isn't terrible the sound works well, the overall look is clean and the navigation is good! I'm confident of the critique later on this morning! Here's a few more screenshots, but I'm off to sleep! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Heads Down!

After earlier today meeting up, we decided on a formula for scenes.

• Each character has their own font
• Sound with each animated text slide
• All of the 9 events will have a summary page at the end

We all met back at mine and used an entire wall to map out what was going to happen in each scene, as we had already decided on what the text in each was going to be. This was very effective in deciding how to animate the text. We also made a decision on having a quick summary on the background of the characters, what type used for each

characters perspective and the navigation.

The navigation itself will be like a phone layout in a sense, where the user has 9 buttons in the centre which each go to an event. As well as an option to see the ending or go to the character summary at the start.

Animating each scene and adding sound to all was my task... and a huge one! Below is a few screen shots of out power point so far. (Tomorrow is going to be a hell of a day!)

Wow! Didn't see that coming!

Today so far has been eventful! This morning our group went in to a screening of the David Lynch film "Mullholland Drive'. If I'm honest the film is very difficult to follow with the characters, but...it's a brilliantly shot film with regards to the emotions!

Yesterday I finished in rough on power point a few of my animated text scenes and also incorporated some sound from the film, which i hoped would give more atmosphere. We all showed what we produced with power point and felt that the sound with the text worked! So this would be the formula for all of our slides!

A potential problem we thought that might occur when looking at mine, was that the text would be too quick for anyone to read. If we slowed the animation down it would detract from the pace of the film at that point. Time is running out on this! so we need to get a serious crack on!

Type Type Type Type Type!

Project wise at present.......is on track! I've decided upon my text that i want to use in the screens for the power point. Its working out quite well as i am concentrating on getting the most vital perspectives in my scenes. The next challenge will be to show that in power point, which i am soooooo excited about! Nope can't do it..... I am not that amazingly clued up on power point, but that is by choice! I just want to animate the text without it coming across as completely naff! My task today will be to tackle this, play around with the text in power point so I can show the rest of my group tomorrow.

I'm becoming a bit obsessed with type at the moment, on youtube i found a short film created by Chris Gavin using pegboard letters which i found to be awesome!

I've found people that agree with me! hurrah!

I was surfing round (as you do!) and found numerous chat rooms and forums that are discussing the lack of typography skills and rules used in newspapers. i was taken by surprise at just how many people were wondering the same things as me!

Hyphenations!....Widows!......etc...

Brilliant! lol

Below are so more pieces I found and really like. The first is from Vlad Studio's and I like the way that the whole world is made up with huge type!

The second piece is very simple... but its meant to show the rules of typography, which I believe is very effective. Made by Evan Stremke, he has since re-designed the piece, but I like this one the best. You can see that or some of his other stuff, it is well worth checking out! http://www.evanstremke.com/

Divide and Conquer!

Group Project has been frustrating all of us at the moment! but we are determined not to let this beat us! So we decided upon dividing the story up into just nine key events which can tell the plot. Each of us got 3 each, (3 from the start, 3 in middle and 3 at the end) within each of our events it was up to us to decide on what contributed to them.

For example...

One of mine was the 'Car chase' scene, I would include Tom Barnes seeing the footage, stealing a car and being shot at.

With that i need to decide on the text that will be included so that the story can be followed. My other two scenes are the 'Underpass' and the 'Crash'. I think that we are pretty much decided on the fact that we'll leave the ending of the film in, but it will be added on at the end and not included in the key events. As for setting up the key events we'll leave that for now after we determine the navigation.

I reckon I'll most probably trying to visualize how I'm going to animate my text in the power point as well. Game On!

Research Skills

Today we had a research induction to the 'aucb' database's. So basically it was a run through on how best to research, with regards to our essay and then we surfed through to see what could help. The database's were actually quite vast!

I latched on to 'The Times' newspaper database and it was surreal in a way. Looking back at all the newspapers from the early 1800's and seeing that the style of the articles haven't really changed! So that made me wonder whether newspapers are keeping true to a formula from the past and the type has to fit into that?

Are newspapers an exception to the rules of typography? or do they have their own?......

Are texts performed?

Studio day today with another seminar! what do you think? 'Are texts performed?'

Of course they are.....duh! :)

All texts perform, as that is what they are designed for! whether it's simply communicating your ideas, or on the script of a huge budget feature film! It's still performing text.

It's the degree of the performance that needs to be measured i think or the extent of the understanding. Otherwise you have a text there that is doing its job.....but not well (it's not performing well). To be honest you can scribble anything down on a piece of paper, if it doesn't mean anything....great! Its done the job.

As for the group project, at the moment it has kind of lost a little of its steam. We have ideas! but we aren't really sure which ones to go with and what direction to take this power point. We want to show only the main events and links but feel we can't loose the story or it will fail.

I think i have an idea!

ok...... so for a while now I have been ragging my brain, trying to figure out what I could concentrate on for my essay and what my question could be. I now think I have a solid idea that I can progress with! (fingers crossed).

Whilst mulling about today I picked up a newspaper that was lying around and for some reason I began looking at the typography rather than the article (I know....I'm loosing it!). I realized that basically all i have been taught about the rules of typography throughout my degree and how to utilize them to improve work are somewhat disregarded when it comes to newspapers. Even magazines don't necessarily need to use them. I want to know why! As graphic designers we constantly see work and type on certain adverts, signs, menu's etc.. which are terrible. I personally think it's the same when looking at a newspaper. Below aren't the articles I was viewing, but they are great examples as to what I'm on about. I'm definitely going to look at this further!

http://daybreakalmacollege.com/Daybreak%20Newspaper%20%20Archives%20001.jpg

http://tregilgas.com/download/Messenger-May05.jpg

Nikos T.

These are images of an illustration for the 10th anniversary of the greek magazine '+design' created by Nikos T. I really love the use of colour in this piece!

If you like any of his work u see, you should definitely check out some more from his portfolio - http://www.behance.net/tilboy

Vantage Point Stripped!

Above is a timeline i produced after watching Vantage Point....i don't know how many times now! I've narrowed it down to 6 perspectives and focused on key events recording them chronologically. At the moment our group is working well, and the tutorial today was very constructive with our ideas of trying to show the link between all the characters. So we are planning to use tomorrow as ideas on how to show the links regarding what to focus on.

Apple from the past!

I cannot believe this was the first Mac! We've come along way baby!

Recently I was asked by a friend to design a tattoo, as she had been looking everywhere and not seen one that she would even consider getting done. Below is my design i made for her (she likes stars), and she is going with it! yay! Will definitely put images up once she's brave and it's been finished.

Reid Miles

Do i need to say anything? Reid Miles .....Masterclass! Haven't yet seen an album cover that he designed which I didn't like!

Vantage Point

Today i am beginning the marathon of watching Vantage Point...... followed by Vantage Point..... and if i feel up to it later perhaps I'll watch....Vantage Point!!! My God!!

Whilst getting background information on the film though i found a the movie poster which i think are brilliant!

I like the simplicity of the design, from the figure to the gradient of the text.

41 answers to 1 simple question

Tutorials went well today for our group (Jeff, Shelly and me). We have decided to choose the film 'Vantage Point' which looks at an incident from 8 different perspectives. I have seen the film before but I think I'm going to have to watch it couple dozen times now to really strip it down! Game On!

"Peace" by Daniel Chang

Ever wandered what design is? check this site out, some of the pieces are really light hearted and interesting!

http://desizntech.info/2009/05/do-you-know-what-is-design-41-answers-to-one-simple-question/

Typography? serious?!!

Studio session with Kirsten today! where we focused back on the essay, getting us all involved as usual which is great. Some people went up and as a group well helped with their question ideas and on possible avenues in which they could go.

As for me, I'm still not sure as to what my question will be. I am thinking perhaps about doing it on Typography or some form.... I know what's wrong with me?

What is text?

Studio day today! where we had our first seminar taken by each other. The topic was 'What is text?' although i think it was? After a while you could be forgiven for getting lost as the discussions, you definitely needed to pay full attention!

I thought it was great group exercise where it really got us all involved and thinking 'bouncing' opinions about.

Later on we all arranged ourselves into groups for the second stage where we have to take a story, whether from a book or film etc.... and without using images (from the film), show the themes and plot using power point.

No really..........POWER POINT!!!! watch this space.......

Old Pieces!

Day off?!! Maybe.... but still I'm randomly surfing through work and came across some of my pieces from foundation. I think every now and then i'll post some old work up! :)

Both are the pieces a made for my timeline brief in foundation. I was looking at the Olympics and decided to focus on the 100m final in 1988, Ben Johnson's 9.79 world record. (seems like nothing compared to Usain Bolt now!).

String Brief Hand-in

Hello again! Today was the deadline for the first part of the unit or 'beginning, middle and end' brief with sting. I liked the pieces i saw today in the crit. Some i can be honest in saying, a lot more than others. Below is my work, where i show a beginning, middle and end or '3 step guide' to kite flying (a bit of a p*** take).

On the whole with the feedback was very constructive and helpful. The main point that one of my tutors wanted to see more narrative in the piece (with regards to the brief), and to take into account variable (i.e weather). Definitely looking back i can see there is room for improvement on this piece with perhaps the changing the layout among other things. I think i'll probably revisit this piece before my hand in. :)

Troika + work

I went to visit Troika along with Johnson Banks, back in December. Today i found myself back on their website looking for inspiration and realized that i haven't mentioned greatly on how amazing they actually are! Honestly i was very impressed with their studio set up, and ethic! They have created some incredile pieces and installations, most notably the 'cloud' and 'firefly' text in terminal 5!If you haven't seen their website then it's a must!

http://troika.uk.com/

As for my progress on the string project. I feel it is going really well i am in the process of creating my piece to present, but i'll show and comment on that tomorrow! see you later!

David Foldvari

David Foldvari - http://www.davidfoldvari.co.uk/Site/home.html

Research/Experiments

Hey! Not feeling great at all today so I didn't head in.

Instead it's a recover from illness day! (which will probably spill over the weekend) :(

I've been playing about and trying to get my head around this string brief with a few different ideas. It's going a bit slow to be honest, but better than nothing! I'm just unsure as to how specific i have to be.....

It's the same sort of thing for my ideas for a question regarding my essay! Still plodding along, trying to keep open minded. Saying that I found out who produced the piece below which i was wondering for an age, well since foundation! Alan Fletcher you Legend!

Look what i made!

This i what i made in my first after effects session! Which i took to adobe premiere aswell (1st time using that program too!)

After Effects

Finally! I've been so eager to start learning After Effects! I'm always seeing loads of stuff on Youtube etc.. of the stuff you can do on it!

Today i finally got started on learning! it was an effort, but any new software is always a mission at first. In the end i actually produced something! It probably is only using like 1% of after effects potential! I'm happy with it though!

The best way i can compare it at the moment is probably flash combined with photoshop! Even if your great with those two programs, doesn't mean you'll get this! Fingers crossed i can F this in the A!

Awlrite String!

Today was interesting! we have a new (but quite short) brief involving string!

Basically it's about showing a visual representation of beginning, middle and end. I wasn't too sure about this to begin this but after pondering it for an initial 3 minutes in class it kind of resulted in messing about with the string making lassoes etc. Although it sounds unproductive, it was quite helpful!

when u (intensely) think about it and stripped it back the string is the beginning, the middle is the knot and the loop is the end.

I'm hoping i haven't gone mad! This is just how I'm getting to grips with it.

Should be an interesting brief!

'Celebrating the Poster by Philippe Apeloig' http://www.onclass.cn/Art/UploadFiles_6922/200703/2007030111394117.gif

I was flicking through different websites and came across this earlier, i think it's great!

Essay :(

hello! been a wHile (H is emphasized!). In short, christmas back home....Awesome! New Years......Awesome! now back in Btown.....Awesome!!

Just been set an essay............bad times!

Actually its fine, no-one ever likes writing essays, unless they're weird!

This one is concentrating on 'Defining and refining themes and issues'. I'm gathering that i need to look at a certain area of graphic design that has interest to me, without it being too predictable in topic.

At the moment I'm not really thinking too greatly about it, as there is literally loads to choose from. i tend to focus on one area immediately and i don't really want to do that this time. For now i think i'll research different pieces and artists until i find something that stands out to me.

Anyways that's me for now!