Text and Image Evaluation
Overall, I have learnt a lot from this unit and I am pleased with the work I have produced.
Editorial Illustration
I really enjoyed this unit. We went on the day trip to Poole at the beginning of the course to take photos and sketches of our initial thoughts and reactions of the town and quay itself. I tried to take photos of shop signs with interesting fonts and shapes as well as pictures of buildings, people, the quay and interesting things around. Looking back at the photos that I taken I noticed there was a lot of “sea-side” photos of iconic items around like anchors, ropes, ice creams, seagulls, chains and boats.
The research went really well, I looked at lots of different newspapers, editorial illustrators and illustrations and so on. I thought in detail about what I wanted my editorial illustration and what message I wanted to convey. I used bright colours to attract younger people to the newspaper article, and juxtaposed this idea with using old typical images like anchors, old lamp post etc. I wanted to do this because its bringing “the new back to the old”, making vintage more interesting and get more younger people visiting Poole and getting rid of the typical “old person” stigma that Poole has.
When doing our research for this project I created a small piece of work, which was drawing with paper. I created this by getting a bright pink piece of paper, which suited my idea of using bright colours, and cut out shapes of ropes, chains and lamppost from it using a scalpel so that I could create more detailed work. I then put these cut out shapes onto a black background to make it really stand out from the page. I think it looked really good but if I had more time I would have liked to make things look more detailed like the rope image.
With my editorial illustration, I think that I portrayed my message pretty well because of the colours and images. I think that the colours look brilliant and it was exactly what I wanted in my head. I think the images I created using acrylic paints, and cutting paper using a scalpel. I think these images came out really well; especially the ice cream because I think it looks realistic. The one thing that I think I could do to improve my piece would be too add more things to the page. I think if I did a picture of a seagull or ropes or chains it would get rid of some of the leftover space.
Letterpress
This unit was the first time that I ever used a letterpress machine. I enjoyed creating the words using the printing machine and thought it was a really interesting experience. I used the word Boundary from the brief and using letters in different shapes and sizes to make the words look interesting. I also used different colours.
When doing the research I saw a lot of amazing pieces of work that people in the industry had created and I really liked the way that these people used colour to make amazing images, and also the way used to create shapes using the words that relate to each other.
This gave me the idea of using the word boundaries and putting these words into a square shape, making them look like they are bounded. I wanted to use black and white because I think it stands out well on pages and makes it more “in your face”. I messed around with words in different colours and decided that black and white looked much better.
I think that it looked really well but after finishing it, I think that I could have done more detail or maybe used a little bit of colour as well as black and white. I think that by doing this, it would have made it more interesting to look at and therefore it would make it more eccentric.
Promo Print
This was my favourite section of the unit by far. I really enjoyed learning Quark and trying something completely different.
I created a booklet on myself, and the work that I have created in my time on the course so far. I really got into researching and creating initial designs and ideas to put into the booklet and I think I came up with a pretty good design. I wanted to keep the booklet sleek and chic so I found a black and white design that I really like and replicated it using some canvas fabric and black acrylic paint, then scanned it into the computer to use. I like the vertical look of the design and thought it would make a really funky background to use. I set myself lots of grids and rulers across the pages so that I could make the book look as professional as I could. I used the Bauhaus font to make my titles and changed my photos of my work to black and white in Photoshop as well as changing the resolution and converting it to CMYK.
I did a lot of research on my favourite designer called Neil Duerden who is a British designer famous for his eccentric designs and illustrations and is fairly well known in the English design industry. I showed a lot of images in my sketchbook and looked into his life in the industry.
I think that the booklet looks brilliant and I really think it came out well, however I would have liked to add more funky designs to it and maybe if given the chance make own font to use which could have been quite interesting to do.
Visual Equations
I found this unit difficult at the beginning because I found it really hard to think of a suitable idea that was good enough and still fitted the brief. Eventually I finally thought about being in the airport and seeing the HSBC adverts, which have a lot of visual equations in it. I did a lot of research of these different adverts and decided that I wanted to do the same thing yet make my adverts more controversial and about issues that are happening around the world everyday like racism, sexism, discrimination against religions, the Iraq war and so on.
I ended up making a series of 6 images using the same style, layout and font as the HSBC adverts so that they are instantly recognisable to people who see them, but I want them to be quite shocked by my adverts.
I think that the images came out really well and my idea was a good idea. I really enjoyed creating these images because it gave me a chance to speak my thoughts about some issues that are happening in the world, and I enjoyed creating something that was controversial and different.
If I were to do it again I would have liked to create more images, and maybe more controversial images often. I think I could maybe add some more to the advert and make it more obvious that it is the HSBC adverts somehow.
Evaluation on Visual Thinking / War on Want
Overall, I have enjoyed this unit but I can honestly admit that I have had difficulty throughout it on different things. I liked the charity but kept getting a bit stuck on ideas and making myself think what the charity would want as they have a known aggressive take on their campaigns, but keeping it simple as well.
The research I found easy and interesting as War on Want has many campaigns, for very different things, all over the world. I did a bit of research on all the campaigns that War on Want are doing, using their website as my main source of information, as well as doing separate bits of information throughout my work on separate campaigns, journals and newspaper articles to enhance my knowledge on the areas around my ideas so I knew my facts and could use these to advance my posters, and to use in my poster too. At the beginning I mainly researched into sweatshops in India, because my initial idea was to make something along the lines of sweatshops and child labour in India. However, as I developed and changed my ideas, I did more researched into the factories in China, focusing on the factories creating electronics. I got some information from the War on Want website as well looking into articles done by the Mail and the New York Times of the problems found in factories in China. Whilst researching all of this, I also looked into other human rights charities including Amnesty International, and into Ad-Shells and the different shapes and sizes they come in.
After doing this research I started doing brainstorms of different ideas. I started with the idea to create a poster including some form of fashion illustration, using irony with it and keeping it quite illustrative. However, after reviewing myself and going back and looking at the brief and War on Want, I decided the idea was too light and girly since the charity is quite an aggressive and hard hitting charity and needed a different type of poster. I looked and played around with a few other ideas and ended up stumbling across some information on the internet about Apple and how they use factories in India and China, especially China, and how they aren’t in the greatest conditions, but compared to most other factories in China, they are angels. The especially do not employ anyone under the age of 16, which was a main thing I was looking into.
I decided that joining with War on Want was the best idea as they are a multi national and well thought of company that would help War on Want massively if they were to join the charity on this campaign.
With this in mind, I created a poster using a high quality image of a classic iPod, which most people would recognise straight away and use it as the main focus on the page. I then changed the text and images of the iPod to include the information that I wanted to put across to people so they understood the campaign and had some facts to go with it. I ended up changed the album pictures using Photoshop of factory workers, including children as the front image as this is what most people would be against the most and therefore this would capture their attention straight away. I changed what most people would see as the artist/album/song name into bullet points of aims which I got off the War on Want website so people know what they would be donating too, and what would be done with their money. I created the title “iPoverty” and it seemed fitting in the iPod theme and using word association. At the bottom of the page, to show that War on Want is working with Apple, I put both the company and the charity’s logo on the bottom corners of the page and in the middle connecting the logos “Working together to fight poverty in China” as the tag line, with “Donate Now” so people could see what I wanted them to do. I included both websites as well. I decided to do the text in the same font as on the iPods and kept to the black, white and red colours which War on Want uses.
I really liked my poster and I think the idea was strong. I honestly believe in the poster and the campaign I am trying to start and think if it were a live brief, it could really be successful. I also wanted to do a campaign which War on Want has started or advertised yet rather that a campaign they are already doing as if t were a live brief they would not come to me to design something they have already done before.
For my 2nd dimension, as I wanted to connect it to my posters, I kept with the iPod theme and decided that if Apple were involved in the campaign they would do more than lend their name and creditability to gain peoples confidence in the charity and the poster to get donations, instead I am having Apple create limited edition iPods which will be sold online and in some stores which I interesting and unique design and include the charity name so the people who have bought the iPod will always remember they did something good and are trying to make a difference in China. These limited edition iPods will be sold at around normal prices, and a section of the profits per iPod would be donated to War on Want and the campaign in China. If this section would be 10% and lasted a year, War on Want could receive around £41,400 at the lowest from this campaign.
I designed 7 designs for the limited edition iPods and created them in Photoshop so they look 3D and how they would be bought. I think the designs came out really well and I am proud of them.
Overall I think the unit went well, I had some trouble at the beginning but I think the unit came out well. I liked how we had freedom as it was not a live brief to travel our creative sides, and if it were a live brief it would have been interesting to see our clients and see how the final idea would have looked like with their input as well.
Words 1079
Rational
I created an animation using kinetic typography on the statistics on statistics. I have created it using Adobe After Effects CS4.
The animation has come out well in my opinion. The background and colours look very effective together and are very legible for the audience to read, which is important for such a fast animation. I am glad that I chose to use green, pink and white for the three colours as they stand out brilliantly on the page, and looks good. The dark background gives a more polished look, especially with the gradient on top making it look more sleek and professional.
The words themselves may be slightly too fast at times, making it difficult to read on occasion, however as the voice over is on top, it doesn’t look too bad. I probably should have slow down the frame rate of the words, or built the words at the same time as the words are spoken in the voice over and this would have made things look a bit better.
Originally I was going to use a fast paced music with the animation instead of a voice over, but decided against it as I found it too difficult to find a royalty free and copyright free track that was suitable for my animation and that I liked. I am quite glad that I decided against using music in the end as I think it would have almost looked a bit tacky and not suited the style that I was after.
The voice over that I used has very good quality and is not muffled, and there are not any background noises, which sounds perfect. However, I did have trouble with the timing and therefore the words didn’t match the spoken words perfectly. However, it does not look to bad, and almost looks like it was done on purpose, like having a person speaking what they were reading, or speaking directly to the audience instead. It would have probably look more professional if I had matched up the words, but I created the two halves in the wrong order, leaving me with little time to try and re do the animation.
The content that I used in the animation I think worked really well. I made sure that I used persuasive language, swaying to the negative side of statistics, which was used in the brief, and aimed it directly to the audience themselves. I did this by asking saying things like “since we” and so on.
I also included a famous quote from Winston Churchill that put the subject in to context as well. I made sure it was a relevant quote that shows people that statistics have never been trusted from the beginning.
Overall I think that the video went well and I like the final outcome, there were a few things that I would have liked to change, but I think that at the end it came out quite well and I am proud of it.
Statement of Intent
I have been given the brief to create an animation lasting between 30 – 90 seconds that is giving information about a statistic of our choice.
Instead of finding information about random facts and silly statistics, I have decided to literally create an animation giving statistics on statistics and tell people about how completely made up and unreliable statistics are. I had a look around the Internet and registered statistics websites but found it extremely difficult to find anything out about statistics at all. I ended up finding a website which had statistics given by mathematical professors and others. However, when thinking about it, I’ve realised that having unreliable statistics is a clever twist that matches my animation. I want people to watch my animation and decided for them whether or not even my animation is telling the truth.
I’ve decided to create my animation in Adobe After Effects instead of Flash because I want to give myself more of a challenge since I already know how to use Flash very well and I’d like to try and teach myself a new programme from scratch. I’ve decided to learn After Effect instead because it is supposed to be a very similar programme to Flash but can create even better animations and designs, especially kinetic typography.
I’ve decided to create a kinetic typography animation instead of a “cartoon”, hand drawn, character-based animation. I want it to look different to everyone else’s and I think that my subject would look really good. Statistics is a very plain, bland subject, so I want to use kinetic typography to visually make it more interesting.
I intend to use bright colours for the words, maybe a mixture of white, green and pink. I want to do this because I want a black and silver gradient background and I think that these three colours will stand out enough on the background that the reader will be able to read to words clearly. I think these colours will also make the animation brighter and more colourful and therefore more interesting more the person to watch.
I’m going to add a song to the background of the animation instead of a voice over, and I will try and find a fast pace bit of music, drum and base or something similar so go with the tempo of the words. I’ll need to go online and find some free music that suits what I need.
The words will be quite fast like normal kinetic typography, but slow enough for the reader to be able to read it. I will also take advantage of the cameras in after effects by placing the camera over each word as it moves along giving more time for the audience to read every word. The words will come on to the screen one at a time making it even easier to read, allowing me to speed up the tempo of the animation anyway.
I’m going to show people that statistics are bad and shouldn’t be listened to, and use a quite stern tone of voice, asking the audience personally and making it connect to the person watching so they question statistics and the use of them.
Evaluation for SBC
I think that the unit went pretty well, and I am proud of the animation that I created. I wanted to give myself a challenge and do something different from Flash. I decided to use After Effects and I think it went really well. I used tutorials to teach myself kinetic typography, and it looks better than I expected.
The video itself came out well and I liked the colours and background I used as it suits the subject matter and the content, whilst looking sleek and professional. Learning how to use the camera angles was frustrating a first, but look brilliant once finished. I think the camera angles are the best bit of the animation as they make the whole thing come to life. Statistics is a boring enough subjects full of numbers, so I chose to use bright colours and polished backgrounds, everything that statistics are.
I found the research extremely difficult in this unit, which is strange for me as usually I enjoy researching around the units. I was set on using statistics as my fact and yet there was next to nothing about what I was looking for on the Internet, apart from in random journals and mathematician websites.
We had a few flash tutorials with Neil which went well, learning how to make star boy and buttons. I enjoyed these lessons but didn’t find it a challenge as I already learnt it over the past 2 years.
Creating the video went well but as I originally was going to use music in my animation, I found it difficult to sync my voice over to it, and unfortunately the spoken words wouldn’t match up to the written words. This didn’t necessarily look too bad, but I would have much preferred it if the matched up properly.
I also think that the words might be a little bit too fast in sections, making it a bit difficult to read. However as there is a voice over reading out the words, it makes it a lot easier to understand.
I think that I put the negative side of statistics across properly as the brief asked, and it is pretty persuasive that statistics are wrong and makes people think twice about using them in certain situations.
Overall I really enjoyed the unit and I think that the work came out to a good standard. Due to personal reasons I didn’t have as much time and I needed to create an amazing animation and fix things that could have seriously improve it, but I am still proud of it and I think it is very effective.
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