Monday, 24 November 2014

LIVE BRIEF 4 / Intern - Workshop

INTERN

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We started off with Alec giving a small presentation in which he spoke about himself and examples of work that he had done. 

Then we started the workshop.

We were put into groups of four or five and in the first 25mins we had to think of ideas for what our own independent magazine would be based on and include and how the concept would filter through everything. 

Alec had bought a number of magazines with him for us to use as inspiration to help us get a feel of what we might want to create. He also handed out a sheet, on which had a list of different magazines to refer to and also the independent magazines which had used Kickstarter to fund their magazine. On the other side it had the areas we needed to answer and cover with our own proposed magazine. These were
- Concept
- Audience
- Aesthetic
- Strategy 
- Lifespan
- Progression

I was in the group with Ewan, Lizzy and Priyesh. One of the first thoughts was film, as Ewan is a avid film wacther and we all enjoy watching them, we felt this was a topic we all had something in common with. 

After long discussion and feedback from every member of the group we eventually decided and agreed on the idea. 

Concept_
- Independent film magazine focusing on a director each issue, released bi-annually

Audience_
- Avid film watchers, Students of the Arts, 18 years plus

Aesthetic_
- Tactile, collectable, high end, mature

Strategy_
- Each issue would focus on one director, including the films that they have directed and a bio on them. With a 'One to Watch' section at the end. This way our content would be different every issue but consistent within the theme. As the magazine would be a collectable, even if one didn't hugely like a specific director they would still want to buy the magazine as it would go with all the others. 

Lifespan_
- Until we run out of directors. Keep it alive as long as possible.

Progression_
- Obviously we would want our readers and buyers to keep expanding, and potentially ship abroad to other cities such as New York or Europe. We would also like to include interviews with the directors themselves if we got big enough. 

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We then had to come up with a name for our magazine. We wanted something that represented the stem of an idea and like the core of the director. 

- Nucleus
- Core
- Seed

These were the main names we came up with and we all agreed and were happy with SEED. So this became the name of our independent film magazine. 

The next step was to create an image of what our proposed cover would look like. The magazines Alec bought in were very helpful for this as it allowed us to get an idea of what we wanted and what we didn't want. 

Priyesh had his laptop and started mocking up ideas. We all agreed that we wanted an strong image of the relevant director as the cover along with the his/her name and the name of the magazine. 


Here were some mock ups Priyesh made, we all gave feedback and comments to work it down to final cover we were all happy with. 


Alec came round to speak to us and to see how we were getting along, he saw that we had named our magazine SEED, and said that when he reads the word seed, he won't think of films, he would think of gardening and when your magazine is getting stocked in a store, it needs to be clear what section is should be shown in as if it got put in the wrong section such as the gardening section, you would inevitably loose sales. 

However we all really liked the name seed and the fact it wasn't an obvious name, however we agreed that we needed something to make it more clear that it was a film magazine, so we decided to add a bi line. 

While Priyesh carried on making mock ups, Ewan, Lizzy and I tried to think of a good bi line, We thought of using the phrase, 'The Directors Cut' however the meaning for this didn't make sense in terms of a bi line for the magazine. Ewan then thought of 'A look behind the author of the film' as that is a term that is used to describe directors. We still weren't quite sure however. 

We thought again about 'The Directors Cut' and thought that maybe it didn't need to be seen in the literal meaning, but actually we could create a play on words with the phrase, as our magazine was all about a director and thus fitted with this very well.












These were the final covers we decided on. They included, the image and name of the specific director, the title and bi line for the magazine, barcode, issue and price and a list of the main films created by that director. 




How would it get funding?

We needed to think about what we would create to aim to get funding for the magazine. Alec told us to look at the kickstarter website and gave us a list of examples that had good videos and ways of getting people to fund their project. 

I went onto the website to watch some of the videos and see what ideas others had come up with, one video I watched was the DAYJOB magazine one which I really liked and it did make me want to see the magazine become a real thing. 


So taking inspiration from this I thought we could propose a similar video in which would show snippets of the directors directing and snippets from the films we would be writing about, with music in the background and type across the page explaining the magazine. 






Tuesday, 11 November 2014

LIVE BRIEF 3 / Something More

SOMETHING MORE

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Briefing
- 'Why brands need your help'
- worked at Elmwood for 10 and 20 years
- How can we make things better
- What is a brand? - Logo/identity
- standing for something
- Roy Sullivan - Ted Talks
- Design is an opportunity to make a difference
- How many brands don't really care about their audience


BRIEF - RETHINK THE BRANDS OF TODAY TO MAKE THEM BETTER

Take an option out of hat: 
- Train operator 
- Water Supplier
- Retirement Home
- Library
- City Council
- Recycling Scheme

I got RETIREMENT HOME

Within the brief that Something More sent us, they gave us questions to think about and consider when trying to come up with ideas for next crit. 

I addressed these questions_

What should it stand for?
- A safe place where elderly or retired have no worries, can live a stress-free, comfortable life.

Why should it exist?
- To care for people who don't have anyone to care for them.
- To create a sociable and friendly society.

Why should people care?
- These are our relatives our elders, we should want their last years to be some of their best.

What's missing?
- Excitement

What do I want to stand for?
- I want to create a place where people are still getting something out of life, they still have something to live for, they still have something to look forward to. It is just about waiting until time is up. 

This led to some initial ideas_

- Make a wish foundation but for the elderly
- Bucket List for Retirement Homes
- Beautiful setting, a place where they want to be, not just somewhere they have be put
- Visits - family and friends
- Day out to see grandchildren etc




CRIT_

In our first crit, we were split into our groups of topic. And we simply sat with Something More and each spoke through our initial ideas. It was interesting to hear everyone else's ideas and my ideas got a good response. It was a very brief meeting, but what I did think was that although everyones were different in their own little ways, they were mainly about making the actual home better. I thought that maybe I wanted to create something that wasn't directly improving the actual home, but something outside of it that could be exciting and fresh. 

Right after the crit finished I suddenly had a new idea, this was to create a dating service for retirement homes. I wanted to explore this idea more as I thought be really sweet and actually potentially make retirement homes a better place. After all its not about where you are that makes you happy, its about the company you are with. 


DATING SERVICE_

I liked this idea a lot because a lot of the time someone is placed in retirement home because they don't have anyone else to look after them or to just keep them company, a lot of people are widowers or simply just not married or with anyone. It makes me very sad to think that someone may die or live the last years of their life without someone special in their life. Thats why I thought this brand could be popular. 

Taking a concept that is widely used by younger audiences and placing it in the environment for the older audience. This is something I really need to consider. 

The dating service, wouldn't only be promoted romantic relationships but focus on true lasting companionships instead, in whatever form they come in. 

Ideas_
- Speed dating
- Online profiles
- Love letters
- Supervised dates set up 
- Not only for one retirement home, we would try and pair people with others from near by retirement homes so that in a world where they might not meet, we could change that. 

Names_
- Young love
- Serendipity 
- Endearment 
- Sweet Nothings
- Camarederie 
- Amity

Mottos_
- In young love age is irrelevant 
- Don't let last years be the lonely years
- It's about creating companionships in whatever form desired,  whether it be a loyal friendship or a lustrous love affair, our brand is about joining people together
- It's not about where you are, its about who you are with



















Thursday, 6 November 2014

SELF DIRECTED 5 / Deck of Cards - Brief (DISCONTINUED)


DECK OF CARDS

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Research_












































































































































(PENCIL PIC)

I wanted to create a pack of cards that wasn't conventional and I wanted to experiment with illustrative type.  

I started the brief by drawing out numbers and basically doodling around then and trying to produce illustrative type. 

I then scanned these in and placed then in illustrator before going round them with the pencil tool. 




I then decided to just play around on illustrator with the pen tool, taking inspiration from the style I had drawn out, but doing it free hand with the mouse. I then placed the number I drew on a card template to give an idea of what it would look like. 

Instead of have the number of suit icons to represent the number, I would have the illustrative number as the main focus and face of the card. 

I decided I needed to go back to drawing the letters by hand first. 



Instead of drawing out each number myself, meaning I would be creating my own typeface within the decorative parts, I decided it would be quicker and neater to print out the outline of the numbers so that I can just concentrate on the decoration around them. So thats what I did. 


I was much happier with these outcomes. I felt they were beautifully decorative, however still very readable. Which is imperative for a deck of cards. 




For the Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Joker I did the same thing however tried to make the decoration more elaborative as these were the royal cards. They have a higher status and value. 


These were the final outcomes:


I now needed to figure out the most effective and efficient way of transferring these letters and numbers into digital vectors.