Unusual Typography

www.johnsonbanks.co.uk

I have just come across an interesting blog on Johnson Banks website that shows lots of great examples of hand made typography. I found the blog fascinating as it shows typography made up of pretty much anything to represent each letter of the alphabet.

Starting with the Audi advert that uses various different road signs to create the slogan for their latest billboard advertisement. I think this is a great concept and definitely gets an audience to have a good look at it to try and make out each word but I think people will become inpatient and maybe not read the whole thing.

Another great example is of the typography that is made up of everyday objects such as envelopes, books and paper to create the word 'samples'. I don't know exactly what this was used for but I think a similar idea could be used to advertise maybe a library, a book shop or a stationary shop.

The last example that I found interesting was the alphabet that is made up of photographs that look remotely like letters. This has used examples such as a cross to represent the letter T, a photograph of a bridge to represent a P and Ferrari badge turned on its side to represent the letter D. I really like the idea of this but it is quite difficult to read and make out some of letters. As a multimedia student, it would be great to see something like this in an animation, maybe even for a children's animation to learn them the alphabet or learning to count.

No Legacy Blog

www.nolegacy.com

Whilst having my portfolio critique with Leigh Hibell from De-Construct in London, he mentioned a blog that they created showcasing their work and various influences they had from around the world including design, art, fashion and photography.

When I got home from the London trip I decided to look at the blog and found some of the work really interesting. I saved the blog as a bookmark and have only just come back to it now.

The blog is really useful and it has been split up into different sections such as 3D, advertising, branding, film, graphic design, motion graphics, title sequences and illustration to name just a few. The easy layout of the blog is really useful and can guide you straight to outstanding pieces of work that maybe you wouldn't of come across before.

Another good thing about the blog is that it is not packed with lots of text about the pieces of work, it just simply shows a picture or a video of the piece and describes who made it and where there from in one short sentence. The bonus of having this is that you get to see various different pieces of work without being over loaded with text and if you were interested in a certain piece of work they have provided a link to each designers website. This is really handy as you don't have to search for the web to try and find more information about the piece of work you are interested in.

What I love about design blogs is that you start looking at inspirational pieces of work and then find something else you love and by the end of it you find something completely different that you would of never of found before. This happened today as I click on the link for Geoff McFetridge who creates animations, title sequences and advertisements. After clicking on his work I found out that he created the title sequence for the film, 'Where The Wild Things Are' which was directed by Spike Jonze and is released later this year.

I couldn't believe that there was a film on, 'Where The Wild Things Are' because I had been a massive fan of the book as child. The trailor looks fantastic and brings back memories of the book. I was really pleased with my findings and it just goes to show how useful blogs as and how you can end up from one source material to something completely different.

Here is the movie trailor for 'Where The Wild Things Are' for anyone who is interested.

http://www.wtwta.com/trailer/

LG Arena vs iphone

Lg Arena and iphone next to each other.

Iphone Advertisement

Lg Arena Advertisement

My research side of my blog so far is all about design that interests me and that could or have inspired me in the past. I have been quite positive with my responses and not really talked about design that I dislike until now.

I have recently come across the latest TV advertisement for the new LG Arena mobile phone and I really disliked the product and the advertisement to put it nicely. The advert promotes the strap-line, 'Touch everything' (remind you of anything?) and focuses on how you can literally touch everything on the phone with the large touch screen.

I think the advertisement and the product has completely ripped of the iphone. The LG Arena looks like a fake iphone and the advertisement has just copied areas of the iphone advertisement. Whilst apple were not the first company to make a touch screen phone, they changed the face of mobile phones by making them fun with lots of useful gadgets. The iphone adverts justify this buy explaining all the useful things it can do such as maps and 3G internet whilst having a huge storage space for music and films. At the end of each iphone advert, it ends with the phone ringing which shows that the iphone has all the cool features but it is an actual mobile phone aswel.

The LG Arena on the other hand, use a very similar interface as the iphone and many similar features such as the maps and storage for music and films. The advert also copies the iphone by showing maps and directions and to end with has the man in the advertisement answer his phone just like the iphone adverts.

The only thing I actually liked about this LG Arena advertisement was the footage of the dancing baby moving dancing to Michael Jackson's, Blame it on the Boogie. I think they have gone for a funny film to show how much fun the phone could be.

Whilst on Youtube looking at the advertisement again I came across users who only talked about the dancing baby rather than the phone such as user salvatic who says "i cant find boogie baby! :( but nice and i love boogiee baby!" and user, xpoundy101x saying "sumone please tell me where tooh find the full boogie baby vid this thing leaves me in stitches lol"

Although the dancing baby is actually a good of idea to promote the phone, it also has many people just wanting the footage of the baby rather than the actual phone itself.

To back up my points about my personal comments that the LG Arena is a complete copy of the iphone, some other users on youtube explain their thoughts on the topic such as user gypsycatcher101 who argues, "Just buy an Iphone. "Simulated Features"?!? So this advert, designed to make it look "good", is faking features that makes it at best look "w***". Final result. Its a s**** attempt to be a far superior product than it actually is. Dont buy it. Want a touch screen phone with GPS, MP3 and Video Capability? Dont kid yourself...just do the bad thing and buy an Iphone. And that comes from someone who hates Macs"

The user divitya also has similar views, "WOW listen to the punch line,"TOUCH EVERYTHING" - Like come up with something new LG !! Wannabe iPhone !!" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XPPlEETjTY)

Although the comments are quite strong, I have to agree with them and once again argue that the LG Arena is a copy of the iphone. There will be many different opinions on this topic around the world so I know I am being very harsh towards the product and the advertisement but it is just my own opinion and I will be buying the new iphone when they decide to launch the new one.

Deviant Art Account

http://aaronnicholas32.deviantart.com

Last week I decided to set up a deviant art account to gain some feedback from other students and designers around the world.

"DeviantART is an international online artist community. It was launched on August 7, 2000. DeviantART aims to provide a place for any artist to exhibit and discuss his or her works. As of June 2008 the site consists of over 7 million members and over 57.5 million submissions, and receives around 75,000 submissions per day." (www.deviantart.com)

As I am in the process of creating my final major project, I thought it would be a good idea to add my illustrations to the site to see what sort of response I would recieve as I had been working on them over easter with no feedback from anyone.

Although my illustrations have only been up for about a week, the response has been really encourageing with some postive feedback and people adding them as favourites, which I an delighted with. So far 9 people have added the illustrations as their favorite and I have recieved 4 comments, which say...

Angeline Jolie Illustration:

haitam posted a comment on Angelina Jolie: April 19, 2009, 12:06am
i like the style ,i'v tried it myself too but failed T_T
(fav)

DarkAngelFleck posted a comment on Angelina Jolie: April 18, 2009, 11:41pm
Another good piece, you did a good job at matching the faces. This is alot smoother than the others. Your joker is very exploding and aggressive, the rhianna is like a get wild. Very good work.

The Joker Illustration:

DarkAngelFleck posted a comment on The Joker: April 18, 2009, 11:39pm
I really like this alot. I love the splatter effect you have going on.

Rihanna Illustration:

DarkAngelFleck posted a comment on Rihanna: April 18, 2009, 11:37pm
Another excellent piece. I personally recommend you consider putting a background on it. Nothing too advanced. just like a fade on it with some corresponding colors. Just my opinion.

I was really pleased with the response and my confidence has grown alot since revieving this feedback. I think the idea of showing your work to designers from around the world is a great source to get your work seen at by many different designers. I also find the site as a good research tool as I find myself looking at the site on a regular basis. I will continue to add work to the site to gain some more feeback and advice.

http://aaronnicholas32.deviantart.com/

Free Pitching

Free Pitching

“Imagine a world where you head into work and put in a seven-hour day – heck, lets make it a twelve-hour day- trying to create some artwork or a design so freaking kick-ass that it’ll melt the brains of anyone checking it out. Now imagine not getting paid for it. Welcome to the world of the unpaid pitch.” (Jason Arber, Computer Arts Issue 153, Page 25)

I have chosen to produce my issue and practices debate on the theme of free pitching and discuss how it affects contemporary multimedia.

As a multimedia student, I am quite aware that the design industry is very competitive and you have to be at the cutting edge to go far within your chosen field of design. In the near future, I will at some point come across free pitching so to help prepare for when this happens I will gather a range of resources describing companies and designers views on this controversial topic.

On a recent London trip, I had a portfolio critique with Leigh Hibell from the design agency ‘De-Construct’. After I had shown him my work, I asked him what the companies procedure were regarding pitching. He explained that the company had lots of clients who continued to come back to them such as Adidas but also described how they would also do free pitching to other clients. Leigh was very generous and shown me an example of a pitch they had created, which involved a PowerPoint presentation with details about the company and a short show reel to show the client what they have produced in the past. The PowerPoint then moved onto to the idea behind the pitch and included in-depth storyboards and short rendered animations of their idea.

After viewing this pitch, I was quite shocked to be honest, as I never knew how much time and detail actually went into pitching an idea to a client. Leigh finished off by saying that their pitches do not always win but when they do he puts this down to the idea of the pitch and the amount of detail they go to with the storyboards and the short tests.

Not every design studio agrees with free pitching, such as Purple Penguin Design, who are another design studio who I had a portfolio critique with. I asked Rik Kirk, the director of the company what their situation was when coming to free pitching. He explained that their company are only made up of two people and if they were to do free pitching then they would loose out on money. He said he did not believe in the idea of free pitching as it takes up too much time, which results in not getting paid. Rik went onto say that Purple Penguin Design tend to use the same clients on a regular basis such as Polish Vodka company who they create the illustrations for their bottles and promotional items. Rik added that its mainly the bigger companies that go for the free pitching as they have a larger team of employees who can generate ideas quicker and spend a little time on it between them all, whilst still creating paid work.

After researching more into free pitching I came across a forum where a freelance designer feels he has a unique idea but it is actually too scared to pitch it to someone because he feels the idea will be stolen, “My problem is, I'm almost too afraid to pitch my idea to just anyone. My business model is what I consider to be innovative, but the implementation of it could be done by any good web developer.” (http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=571860)

After hearing a storey like this, I think something needs to be done and maybe a change in the law or some sort of copyright system being introduced for free pitching. As like this designer, he could show up to a company and pitch his idea for free, they would turn him down and employ someone else to create the idea for a lot less money.

After researching into free pitching I have come to a personal conclusion that it is well out of order. Designers can spend weeks generating ideas and developing these, yet come out with absolutely nothing. I have gathered a range of opinions on the topic to support my points and in the future I will try and avoid the topic as much as I can. I will sum up my point with a quote from Jason Alber from Computer Arts Magazine.

“Let’s make no bones about it, free pitching is morally wrong. It’s right up there with drowning puppies and setting badgers on old people. The only people who benefit are the clients who get this amazing brain dump of ideas at no cost to them”. (Jason Arber, Computer Arts Issue 153, Page 25)

Practitioners Report: Grant Gilbert & Tal Rosner

Tal Rosner

Grant Gilbert

Practitioners Report

I am going to compare and contrast the processes and practices of two design practitioners who came into Stockport College and describe how they are defined by the external rigours of the industry they operate in. I have decided to talk about Grant Gilbert and Tal Rosner who were both guest lecturers earlier on in the academic year.

I have decided to talk about Grant Gilbert and Tal Rosner because I felt their design work related to my Multimedia degree course more than the other guest lecturers as the work that they have created are similar to briefs that we have had whilst on this course.

There are many similarities between Grant and Tal beginning with how they both studied a graphic design degree at University but found themselves developing into the motion graphics and moving image side of design. Another similarity is how they both thought they had found their dream jobs after graduating but the lack of creative freedom led them to becoming freelance designers.

Grant studied a graphic design course at Birmingham University before landing a job working with Planet 24, where he designed and created title sequences and TV identities. His work with Planet 24 led to what he thought was his dream job at a design agency in New York City called Attick. However Grant felt that his creative freedom was restricted and moved back to London to become a freelance designer.

Tal explained a similar story to Grant’s and explained that he studied a graphic design course at university before completing an MA degree course at Central Saint Martins and graduating in 2005. The success from his course landed Tal what he thought would be his dream job working in the heart of London with a post-production company. However, Tal explained he disliked the whole experience of having people tell him what he can and cannot do and wanted his own creative freedom. Tal decided to leave the company and also become a freelance designer.

I can see the problem that both of these designers had with the design companies and understand how they both wanted to have their own creative freedom. I think if I were put in a similar position in the next couple of years, I wouldn’t take such a big gamble on becoming a freelance designer, with the recent credit crunch it would be extremely hard to find work. I would probably stick with my existing employers but continue to look for work elsewhere and expand on my portfolio in my spare time to show other design agencies.

After becoming freelance designers, the success of both Grant and Tal has been immense to say the least with both the designers having worked for some impressive clients. However, their success stories have been formed in a completely different way with Tal working completely independently, whilst Grant works with a range of different design companies.

Tal explained that his final major project for university was an abstract film that he created in after effects called ‘Doppelganger’. The idea behind the film was to create an abstract film using strong synchronized audio and visuals, which is similar to what we created for our ‘Rhythm in the City’ brief last year. ‘Doppelganger’ was filmed out the front of train and edited in a kaleidoscope effect using repeated and over lapping footage. I thought the piece was stunning and each frame was thought about in much detail explained Tal.

After his time working with the post-production company and becoming a freelance designer, Tal was approached by two French pianists, who wanted him to create visuals for their music in a similar style to ‘Doppelganger’. He jumped at the chance to create a piece that he had complete control over but explained it was much harder to create than ‘Doppelganger’ because the music was completely different. Following the success from this, Tal was then asked to create a title sequence for an E4 drama called Skins. They wanted something similar to his previous work but with the characters from the drama included in the title sequence. Each episode had to have its own sequence because they were about a specific character each week and had to reflect the characters from the drama. I loved Tal’s response, which were various 30-second sequences that used live footage of the characters with overlapping abstract shapes and colours to what I think ties in with the spontaneous and the rebellious characters of the drama. On the whole, Tal worked independently throughout his projects, which is quite the opposite for Grant Gilbert.
After becoming a freelance designer, Grant decided to work under the name of Double G Studios as he felt that companies would prefer to work with a company name than a freelance designer. Whilst Tal Rosner has always gone by his name and never talked about working under a company name. I personally think that the portfolio and show reel should do the talking for you regardless whether you go by your name or a company name.

Grant worked on a few projects on his own including the branding for More 4 before being contacted by Red Bee Media to pitch for the BBC One rebrand. Pitching being another difference between Tal and Grant, as Tal explained his work has always come through past projects being seen, whilst Grant said he had to pitch for many of his jobs.

Working with Red Bee Media, Grant managed to win the BBC One rebrand but described the initial idea was abandoned but still managed to win the pitch if they came up with a new idea. Working closely with a team, Grant explained they came up with the idea of coming together using various objects within a circle. Grant described the job as being very difficult as there was not as much as freedom to the ident as More4 because the BBC is payed for by the taxpayers. After several months and working with lots of different teams of people, the final idents were shown and have been a huge success and are still being shown on TV now.

In conclusion I feel that I have compared and contrasted Tal Rosner and Grant Gilbert and described how they have both been defined by the external rigours of the industry they operate in, whilst also discussing how they could be applied to my own practise. I enjoyed both the lecturers a lot and since Grant Gilbert’s lecture, I have wanted to create my own channel ident and is the reason I am creating one for my final major project.

Shadowplay: Juno Title Sequence

www.shadowplaystudio.com

Shadowplay Studio are multimedia design studio based in Los Angeles who work on a range of media such as motion graphics film titles, advertisements and promotional videos. Since they were formed in 2003 they have built up an impressive client base including Nestle, Safeway and the title sequence for the film Juno.

The title sequence for Juno was the reason I came across this company as I think the title sequence is amazing. It starts of as live footage of Juno walking down the street as it blends to a stop frame animation of the continued walk. What I admire about the title sequence is the unusual colour scheme and the hand drawn effect. The colour scheme uses lots of black and white with a selective colour palette of mainly light blues and yellows with Juno herself being in black and white with a red jacket on. The hand drawn effect animation looks to me as if some frames have been cut out which adds to unusual but effective title sequence. To finish the stunning sequence, the stop frame animation blends back into live footage as the film begins.

I would personally love to have a go at something like this, It would take alot of patience and skill to come up with something similar but it is definitely a technique I would love to use in the future.