Non-Format

www.non-format.com

"Non-Format is the creative team of Kjell Ekhorn (Norwegian) and Jon Forss (British). They work on a range of projects including art direction, design and illustration for arts and culture, music industry and fashion and advertising clients. They also art direct Varoom: the journal of illustration and made images." (www.non-format.com)

I have been a huge fan of the work of non-format for a number of years and their book 'Love Songs' shows the whole range of their beautiful work to date. They tend to work in mainly black and white with a hint of colour in selected pieces of work. Their abstract style is a mixture of shapes, objects, colours, lines, photographs and typography.

Their minimalist approach is something I really admire and as you can see there is a theme of influences throughout my blog of minimalist designers. I feel as if though there is more thought about the layout, composition and colour if it surrounded by lots of white space because this emphasizes the importance of the subject that is shown.

Over the years Non-Format have created work for huge clients such as Nike, Coka, LG and Orange. What influences me so much about this company is that their unique style is reflected in every piece they do, which I feel is important when you can be recognized by the style you work in.

Although I am in an early stage of designing, trying to create my unique style is something that I want to try and incorporate into my future pieces of work starting with my final major project.

Studio AKA Studio Visit

www.studiaka.co.uk

Studio AKA are a BAFTA Award winning animation production company based in London. They produce Commericals for LLyods TSB, Guiness and Bupa and Channel Idents for BBC 2, CBBC, Disney- Recycling and Nick Jnr Idents to name just a few. As well as this, following the success of the short animated film, 'Jo Jo In the Stars they have created the short film, Varmints.

Once arriving at Studio AKA, we were shown into a small seating area by one of the the member of staffs there and were shown a DVD of some their work. This was amazing to be in a studio where they create such beautiful animations in various different styles. One animation really stood out for me, which was the 'Sing Up' campaign which encourages children to become more involved with singing and music. The animation is really simple with lots of positive space around each musical note. The musical notes all had their own personality, including one who seemed to be too shy to sing in front of the others. With some encouragement from his peers, the musical notes joins in with the rest of them as they all sing in tune with each. I just felt the simplistic and humorous advert was beautifully animated and goes to show you don't need to be a technical expert to create a good piece of work.

After watching the various pieces of work on the DVD, we were told some important things about the company such as showreels and employment within the company. We were told to keep our show reels short with just the best pieces of work on it, this seemed to be a common theme throughout all the studio visits. We were also told that they employ students as runners to begin with, who get to learn all the software and technical side. If the runner is then successful in their 'training' period then they will be offered a job at the company. I found this very encouraging that even if you haven't got all the skills in the world, you can still have a chance at such a large company. Another thing that I found interesting about the company is that all the directors pitch against each other when coming to creating a project. I found this quite surprising but understand that if there is lots of competition inside the company, then it will bring the best ideas through.

We then were shown the DVD of Varmints, which is a short animation based on the award winning book. The film is about a create who struggles to preserve a world in danger. The film took over two years to create and I was amazed at the quality of the animtion. It was like a Pixar or Disney film! It was pleasing to see such as quality animation being produced by a relatively small company.

I really enjoyed our visit to Studio AKA, the work that comes out that place is amazing and inspiring to me. I would of liked to maybe be shown around the studio and have a look at the working environment but I understand how busy they are. On the whole I thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

Mainframe Studio Visit

www.mainframe.co.uk

Earlier this month we visited London with University to look around Multimedia design companies. During this trip we visited Mainframe, who describe themselves as,

"Mainframe is a creative production studio, specializing in motion graphics and animation for ads, promos and branded creative content. Most of the work is for broadcast but output included projects for cinema, online and mobile media".

Before the visit, I checked out their website and was amazed at the work they created. As I am creating a channel ident myself for my final major project, I found their idents fascinating especially for the MTV UK Rock Chart that had lots of watercolour effects on it, something that I have been interested in within my research.

When we arrived at the studio, the founder and MD of Mainframe, Adam Jenns greeted us and shown us around the building, which was very spacious considering the amount of people that worked there. The place looked relaxed feel about it and looked like a university room to me the way the staff were dressed and interacting. This is something I took as a pleasant surprise because taking a dramatic change from university life to a working environment wouldn't be such a change.

We got shown around each room and explained which each area was for such as full time staff and freelancers who had their own room. The whole place had a wide open plan which seemed to give a great feel and I didn't feel uncomfortable what so ever.

From this, Adam took us into a smaller area and shown us the current Nickelodeon ident that hadn't even been on television yet, which I really enjoyed. I loved the ident they created, the way the mixed live footage and animation was amazing. On the mainframe website, I found the making of the Ident which I have included at the bottom of this. It just shows how much work and effort went into the making of it, from the sketches right through to the final piece.

Adam then gave us some advice when coming to creating showreels and when contacting studios regarding jobs. He explained how companies such as themselves get hundreds of emails a week with showreels and links to websites on them, he said he expects a showreel to be short with only the best work on. He said he gets bored and frustrated with long repeated showreels and websites that take forever to load or find the work. He said for us all to have our best work on our online portfolio home page so the user doesn't have to navigate throughout the website. Another thing that he disliked was students who use 'company names' instead of their full name, for example www.redbanana.com instead of www.aaronnicholas.com. He described this as a pet hate and that only companies should use company names.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of the visit and the advice was very useful. I could see myself working in a place similar to this and I may even contact Mainframe in Manchester to see if they would like to see my work.

Double Negative Studio Visit

www.dneg.com

Whilst on our London trip we visited Double Negative, a visual effects studio based in the centre of Soho. I was looking forward to visiting this company more than any other because of the films they had worked on. When arriving at Double Negative, the whole place caught me by surprise, with the size and the layout of the building itself. The place was huge and very posh and clean inside with signed film posters everywhere including Hot Fuzz, Harry Potter and Batman Begins.

When we got into the cinema room, we were shown a half an hour DVD of the making of the, 'The Dark Knight'. This was amazing! I have been a huge fan of Batman since Batman Begins but to see behind the scenes footage, that only a handful of people would of seen was wonderful. This DVD shown us the process of creating visual effects, from the green screen filming right through to post production with lighting and effects being added on. They explained how getting the angle correct whilst filming is crucial because with visual effects you can not change the angle once it has been filmed.

I was quite amazed at how much of films is actually special effects. I obviously knew that the Wayne building wasn't real but after watching the DVD I realized that most the film is actual special effects. Scenes such as when the Batmobile crashes and the Bat-mobike comes out, is all made up in 3D and the scene where Bruce Wayne enters his party by Helicopter, all of that was made up in 3D also. I found all this overwhelming and was very surprised and excited about the company even more so.

The young lady who was explaining parts of the film to us, then told us that every showreel that is sent in is watched by a team of people and is shortlisted if it is successful. She also explained that when coming to showreel, they'd rather see less and more creative work then lots of projects that aren't very good.

She also explained that many students become runners when they first start of at Double Negative such as Paul Greenwood who graduated from Stockport College last year. He was a runner for 4 months in which he learned all the software and gained lots of experience and knowledge and is know working on the latest blockbusters such as Harry Potter and The Fast and the Furious.

The whole experience of visiting a studio as big as Double Negative has made me realize that it is possible to get your dream job if you work hard at it. Although I do not want a job at a 3D company, I am still aiming high and will put everything I have into my final major project.

De-Construct Portfolio Crit

www.de-construct.com

After hearing about our trip to London, I was speaking to my cousin who lives there and she told me her friend worked at De-Construct and gave me his email address. I emailed Leigh Hibell who is a a designer at the company about a possible portfolio crit and he was very helpful and agreed to this. (See Above)

De-Construct are a digital creative agency who have created work for Adidas, BBC Radio 1, Panasonic Europe, Debenhams and Amstel. They specialize in web design, branded content creation and online brand development.

On the day of the visit, I rang Leigh to check it was still ok to come and visit and he said that anytime after half 1 would be great for him. The company were situated in Hackney so I made sure I got there in enough time. Once arriving at the place, Leigh greeted me at the door and he seemed liked a young guy not much older than myself. The company was set out over two large and spacious rooms and he invited me into one of the offices.

Leigh explained that he had only been at De-Construct for 3 years and that he got the job through work experience whilst still at university in Leicester. He described the job as being great fun and that most of the work is done in teams to generate more ideas and techniques. He also said that the experience of having working their for a week whilst still at university helped him gain an understanding of what a working environment is all about.

The conversation was very informal and we discussed both our interests in design. I explained I was creating a motion graphics piece for my final major project and he gave me some websites to look at which was very helpful of him. He then shown me their most recent website which is for Adidas Football. I asked if they had to pitch the idea but he explained that they teamed up with Adidas on many occasions and they went straight back to them with the brief they wanted. He mentioned that when creating websites, many issues are raised such as language and screen size. These issues had to be resolved and the website was created so that all the text boxes and images sized would work with different languages in them. Leigh then showed us one of their pitches that they have won on in the past, this was a great experience because I hadn't seen a pitch before and was curious of how it was presented and what was shown. He explained that for each pitch there will be a powerpoint and will start of with the companies logo and a little about themselves. It then goes into the brief and the ideas they had and they would also show storyboards and mock ups that were created in photoshop. I found very interesting and reminded me of when we had to pitch our idea in then second year when we took three ideas to mock up level.

As De-Construct are mainly a web design company, I shown Leigh my Online Portfolio and my New York City Museum website I created in my second year of the degree. After the feedback from my other crit with Seven Communications, I decided to delete the opening page so that the audience can go straight into the website and also deleted the sound I had on each button. I told him about this and he agreed with what they had told me. He said that he liked both the website because they used lots of white space and it was easy to navigate around each website. He said he would maybe change the typography on the New York website because it was hard to read in parts and choose a darker shade pink on my Online Portfolio to draw the audience in.

I found the whole experience of visiting the company very enjoyable and educational. Leigh helped me out with some pointers about my websites and I learned some very interesting things about how a company is run and how the pitching side is done. Leigh is very keen to see my final major project and I will send him a link to my work once I have completed it.

Tracy Kendall

"Tracy Kendall creates new and innovative wallpapers using hand techniques and modern technology to expand the vocalulary of possiblity for wall covering. The wallpapers are all starting points, often from elements aleady within a room or space, and convey a strong design concept, one which interacts with an interior's identity, but without dominating it" (www.tracykendall.com)

Tracy Kendall was a visiting lecturer at Stockport College. Before the lecture I wasn't exactly looking forward to it because 'Wallpaper Design' doesn't sound like the most exciting lecture in the world. However, I went in with an open mind and actually enjoyed it. She started by explaining about her fine art background, where she studied at Manchester before working at the Royal College textile department as a technical support technician.

In 1996, Tracy designed her first wallpaper for her Kitchen which consisted of a large cutlery set. Since this Tracy has dedicated her design life to wallpaper and create hundreds of design including flowers, books stacks, feathers and abstract art just to name a few. She also mentioned on a number of occasions her fascination with sequins which she tends to use quite often on her wallpapers.

Tracy also creates three-dimensional wallpaper which is used by a stitch and cut technique. This is quite an unusual way to create wallpaper, as most people tend to hang pictures on the wall. However I think its a unique decoration for a room and would add warmth and comfort to maybe a living room.

Tracy also explained how her inspiration is like any other designer as she gets her initials ideas from resources such as books, magazines, internet, photographs, exhibitions, newspapers and photographs. I find it interesting that no matter what sort of design course or area of design you are working in, everyone seems to use the same resources to create designs in different mediums.

On the whole, I found Tracy Kendall's lecture very interesting because of the unusual methods, techniques and materials she uses to create her wallpapers. This just goes to show that in design you can literally create anything out whatever you like. It has opened my eyes to try and look out for unusual things and try and incorporate them into my own work.