Flame digital portfolio crit

On Monday the 16th of march 2009 i went to flame digital in Manchester to have a meeting with Nicky who is the head of design, i was quite a bit more nervous about his critique compared to the last one as this was the first that was not meeting with a friends relative who happened to run a company, this was my first time presenting myself to someone in a completely professional way, and so i was expecting this one to be less relaxed and possibly much more critical but on this front i was also looking forward to it and the feedback i would get.

i arrived at flames office which was a large open room with a large raised area where several people were all sat around a large table all working at there computers, this was immediately different to storm as there was three times the amount of people there and i was greeted by a receptionist who introduced me too Nicky who then took me to another part of the room away from where everything in the office was happening which i was quite relieved about as i would have felt quite awkward to have been sat with a group of professionals while talking about my work which was the case at storm even though there were only 3 people at the time it still made me more nerous at the time, but fortunatly this wasnt the same at flame.

I sat down with nicky and begain to explain about the multimedia course and how i cover i wide area of mediums but have a paerticulare interest in graphics design and film, and started of by showing my 3d lynx can and explained how that was the first step of learning 3d and then showed my kerrang ident and explained how i had been constantly coming back to it to make it what i originally wanted it to be and explained to her about how i had handed in something i wanted to explore more and that it was slowly becoming what i wanted it to be and she thought it was a good thing that i had this feeling towards my work and wanted to carry soemthing on instead of just finishing with it when a deadline came around.

Next i showed my concept studies work and talked about my love for graphics work and how i like to play around woth compostion adn the way something looks on a page and how i was influenced by vince frost and this was something she releted too and talked about the importance of practising exerceises for things like composition and not to just be constantly learning the new programs becasue its the core design skills that are important to understand before you can start anything else, next i showed my own illustrations that i do in my own time and i think this was the work she enjoyed the most and said she really liked the style an d the minimalism of them along with the minimalist colour schemes and thought they worked well as a series and were something that are very current in design.

The final piece of work i showed was my advert for personal safety that i made for my self directed project and this is where i think i had learned something from my last crit i had decided to bring some headphones along becasue the speakers on my laptop wernt great and the office sounds at the last crit made things hard to hear and so in this crit i wanted to make sure the person got everything from the advert, and i also didnt go into detail about what it was about so they could draw there own conclusions from the advert and see what it is about an di think this worked really well as nicky understood what the advert was about and my concept for it and she liked the advert but what she was really interested in and comented on was how real the voice overs were and i explained how i had had trouble with scripting and so got people to just watch it and make comments with no information about what they were watching an dshe reall yliked this approach and thought it worked really well.
After showing her the video she said she sould like to see what kind of work i could come up with working for a specifically film brief as this one was i open brief and i just ended up in the direction of film and so thought it would be good for me to see what kind of thigns are involved in this kind of brief and said she would try to get a example of a film brief and send it too me too see.

After i showed my work nicky asked if there was anything i wanted to know about there work and i asked about there viral advert with paul kaye and explained how that had drawn me two them and she explained the process of makin git and how it was a new outing for them to make a viral and that itis something they are looking forward to doing more off, i asked about there appproach to research to which nicky took me to another part of the office and showed me a huge wall that had been turned into a huge mood board and explained it was all for a new website and people just have to stick up there ideas and how they will all gather o discuss what they have added, which is just like at college which is some thing i am noticing in thses crits that proffesional offices are not to dissimilar to how my class works.

On a whole i really enjoyed this crit and felt that i got enven more out of it than the last one i felt i got much more opinion on my work and felt more confident about what i was showing and defintly feel more confident about meeting people, and comparing the two different crits and thee way the companys were different i can say i would definatly like to work in a place like flame as it had a pleseant atmosphere and they way they worked was really nice and the way they researched and compare ideas seemed like a good enviroment to be a part off and being part of a large group seems to make a big difference in how they office feels as a place.

peugeot 407 advert

The Peugeot 407 created by perfectionists, i recently found myself thinking about this advert whilst trying to think of adverts i had seen on TV that i thought were clever and had something different about them, after having a discussion with friends about adverts.



What i really like about his advert is the way that it makes fun of being a perfectionist and how insane people can go into alterations on a piece of work because of the technology we have to hand, the advert starts of like any other car advert until we here i director call for the action to stop and everything pauses and he asks "what is that on the headlight?" and this is when we see what the advert is about when all the editing software appears on the screen and the screen zooms on on the cars headlight to reveal a small fly which he asks to have removed and so it is deleted out of the shot which in its its self is a humorous poke at the extent of editing because there is no way the fly could have been seen, but then when he asks "whats that in the background?" the camera zooms out for miles into the background to reveal a small carving in a tree which is editing to an insane degree and really emphasizes the fact that you can change just about anything if your that much of a perfectionist even if it makes no difference what so ever and i think this perfectly represents the ideas the car maker was going for, that there car is perfection and has had people like this meticulously scrutinizing every detail and comparing the editing of videos to the design of a car i think is a perfect metaphor.

The Lick

The Lick

I found this piece of work which is an advert for a urban music and lifestyle show on MTV base, i noticed this video while looking through the design company mainframe's website and i was instantly drawn to it amongst the many thumbnail images of bright, colorful, busy CGI animations in there portfolio page, the image was a simple very clean black and white frame of the show title, the text that has been created for the advert and conveys the feeling of movement even in a static image, to me what is really interesting is that it seems to have a contrast when you look at it, it looks 3d while also looking flat, the style iscartoony yet sophisticated in design.



The actual animation in the advert is extremely effective is holds its simple look but is very strong, it is made up of different shapes and flowing patterns and line that build up across the white canvas background behind sir trevor nelson who is doing the introduction to what the show is about, the movement of shape has a cath me if you can style in the way that it flows in 2d space branching out from one shape into another and at some point the pattern almost looks like a trail being left by sir trever as he makes his way across the screen.


Another part of the animation that i noticed and i think is a key point in the flow of the design that stands out is when the flow goes from behind sir trevor to infront of him, although they are only three drops of white ink and are very minimal they really stand out it makes the animation seem like its interacting with the characters and not just be a nice pattern that has had a piece of live footage placed on top because that would still look good becasue of the effort put nto the animation but once again like i have noticed in so many other pieces of work its the littl edetails that count.

Sour Bones

Nick Carroll or sour bones as he is better known is a illustrator from Leicester who says he has a simple goal in his illustrations which is to create an illustration that look as good in a book or magazine as they would on a skateboard deck or t shirt, i came across his work in computer arts magazine and was really drawn to his style and so checked out his website.

www.sourbones.com

He has a really clean style to his work that use allot of strong black outlines and are very minimal but have a very strong yet subtle colour scheme often only using 3 or 4 contrasting colours that is very carefully matched with large amounts of white space which is really effective and this is something i can relate to as i enjoy creating simple work and trying to make the most of a small image with placement on a page to make it balance perfectly. in his brief interview in computer arts i noticed something he said and it really made me think about my approach to work, in regards to the cat illustration above he said " the spatter i am particularly proud of as i splashed some ink around and scanned it in to help make it look life like" and while the technique is nothing new or innovative it just made me think more about the attention to detail and how i am sometimes lazy in my work and instead of experimenting with inks and scanning in my own textures i Will just look for a photoshop brush, so in the future i wan to spend more times on the little details just to add that extra personal touch that cant be re created by anyone else to my work.

His particular style is something i personally notice in design, his illustrations remind me of japanese cartoon style but mixed with a urban graffiti look which is something i always associate with kid robot vinyl toys which is a design style that i find always catches my eye amongst others.


While i enjoy a lot of his work there are some that i think can look a little tacky specifically these pieces are the ones where his alias "sour bones" is featured in them as they look more like tags than a piece of thought out design and the wording is always very prominent and take away from what is a interesting illustration and when i see this i really think why have you done that?, and it reminds me that you can add the tiniest thing to a piece of work and it is ruined but personally i like to think that this is something that i can notice when doing work but also can find myself constantly going back to pieces and tweaking bits and making small alterations and this is something that can make the most difference which is not always a good thing.

cadburys adverts

What is the point of the latest Cadburys adverts? Instead of writing about work that i like and interests me i have decided to write about an advert that i actually cant stand, the latest Cadburys advert starring the children with weird eyebrows i find this advert extremely irritating and i have often brought up this subject with friends who are designers and Friends in class about how it doesn't advertise anything it just seems to be there to annoy some people, and the majority of the time the only answer i get as a pro for the adverts is "well they get you talking" which is true but is that really the point of an advert?, to get us talking about the advert.



An advert should create awareness of products or what a company offers, so this adverts technique i thought would be more suited to virals as they create publicity for a company by word of mouth by showing something weird that people will pass on to one another, so what is the point of this advert? so i have been trying to understand why this advert was created is it designers who have the luck to work with a huge client who are so well known they can do any advert they want throw a bit of purple and a logo in and it will sell there product?personally i think it works in two ways one is simply aimed at the masses at people, the fact that it gets to people so much that out of all the adverts on tv its the one that has to written about, and the second and what i think it could be about is its about the joy of being creative and every now and again proposing a "stupid" idea, and i think this is something we should all remember to never cast ideas to one side because they seem stupid or irrelevant always be taking notes and writing down our thoughts and not close our minds to other possibilities because one day they could be exactly what a huge company is looking for.

Supinfocom short film "Gary"

GARY

After finding the animation "the end" from the french design school supinfocom i did some more research into them trying to find exactly who they are and what they do and i came across this film again made by students from the school the film is cgi much like the end but it is stylized in a cartoon illustrative style, so at first it doesn't look like its 4d and the only time you can really see that it is 3d is when the camera moves and we can see that the characters are actual 3d models.


Gary from Gary on Vimeo.

The style of the animation is made to look like a children s book drawn in a simple line style with out much detail in the drawings using characters that are quite simple and alsmost chillike in there design and not really proportionate but only look wrong as humans if your being picky, the use of colour is minimal with many of the items in the animation being the same colour and only distinguishable by there outline and it has a bit of a collage look to it but i think this works great as it is a very inviting style in its self but also doesn't take away from the main characters in the story, other than the main body of the animation i really like the end credits, they have a realy simple flow of lines to them and animate in a saul bass catch me if you can way and it just makes the text interesting in the way that it moves and you find yourself reading all the names that you wouldnt normally read.



The actual story is a bit of a contrast to the image style, while the animation to look at looks aimed at children but actually the subject matter is quite abit risque at times, the story is about a young boy who was feelings for an older girl and so creates an imaginary older friend to seduce her as he can be with her through this imaginary friend but things start to ge abit out of control as his imaginary character almost looks to start to want his way with then disposes of the boy and this is what i have read in some review on the animation that people are praising it for not being too sweet and nice just because of the way it looks and i agree with this i love the iea that a beautifully drawn cartoon can have a quite disturbing story and message to it, but obviously it cant be all completely dark and eventually the evil imaginary friend is beaten and the young boy gets the girl, so i think it is a nice take on the typical Hollywood cliche of boy likes girl and gets her in the end but with an added element of darkness too the story.

Big or small jobs for all?

The reason i chose this subject was the fact that i had a portfolio critique lined up at flame digital in Manchester who i thought matched the description of one side of this issue, they are not a large company but are quite well known as small company's go so i thought this would be a perfect opportunity for me to get some insight into the issue from someone in the industry, specifically a smaller company dealing with these issues and there opinions on the pros and cons and how they feel it effects them as a company.

This is the information i got at flame from Nicky who is the head of design at flame when we sat down to talk about the issue.
First thing i thought i felt i should find out was as a company what are there hiring policies to see if they fitted the description of a small company that don't hire specialists and i found out that as a small company flame like to hire designers who have a broad range of skills, so i asked about there reasons for them hiring this way to which i found out that by hiring this way they can take on a wide variety of different jobs that might be offered by smaller clients because as a smaller company they would not get offers for work from large clients if they started out as a specialist company and doing things this way helps build up a portfolio of clients and work. i was also told that they do not hire specialists because one of the cons surrounding that Nicky explained is that "if you get a job that is not in a area one of your specialists then you are stuck with someone sat around the office with nothing" to do so by hiring there way people always have something to do, so the office is constantly busy and doesn't become an assembly line where people are waiting for something to do, Nicky said that the cons for hiring people who have a broad range of skills is that "you have to know the limitations of your company" so when looking at what jobs to take and that the skill level of your company relates to the size of your clients and that by choosing not too have specialists you will not get the large big name company's so you have to spend more time building your reputation through lots of smaller jobs rather than one big job.

Next we went onto the subject of specialists and what she thought of them and if and how they used them at flame and she told me that they will sometimes hire a specialist if it is a necessity for the job, they will contact there client and pitch them the reasons for hiring a specialist and find out if the client is willing to pay the specialist, so they will work with specialists if they can avoid paying them themselves as this takes away from the money they take from doing the job and so overall the job wouldn't have been worth doing because the obvious cons of hiring in specialists is that they are extremely expensive.

So overall i have found that the pros of a small company hiring designers with a broad range of subjects are that you can get more jobs from a wide range of smaller clients, designers at the company always have something to do and that they have the option to hire in specialists if the job requires it. but the cons are that you will not get many opportunities to work with the big company's, personally i think that the most desirably approach to working would be the opportunity to work with the larger clients and become well known as this seems like the best way to get work and become known in the industry but i think of myself as more of someone with a broad range of skills than as a specialists because i have a wide interest in the subjects, like graphic design and film and i have always thought that i don't want to get myself labeled as a certain type of designer so i think that i would have to go for the option of going for the smaller company's and getting the chance to experiment while i can before possibly picking a area to specialize because i would have to be sure that it is an area i would enjoy.

The End Animation

The End

I came across this strange film through stumble upon and i really liked it, the film is titled "The End" and is created by "Supinfocom" who are a renowned french design and film school who have a reputation for producing great work and this is a there latest film by the students.

THE END
Uploaded by Premium-films-Tv

What i really like about the film is the visual style of it, it has quite a dark theme to it and the characters in it seem like they have been created to scare people rather than tell a story of friendship, the look strikes me as quite Tim Burton Esq and has the look of his films like "the night mare before Christmas" with the tall spindly characters who look quite menacing, each with there own specific details that make them unique in this case all the scarecrows are built of different materials that create different sounds as they move, the fact that it is all black and white really helps the story and emphasizes the sad and bleak world that surrounds the main character and the situation he is in being cast out and imprisoned for not being like everyone else.

The use of sound is perfect as well again the music when used emphasizes the sadness and makes you feel for the main character and it is nice to see it used quite sparingly, you get more of a feeling for the surrounding by hearing the various sounds instead of focusing on a character while listening to a music track play through, instead you find yourself looking for what is making that noise or waiting for whatever is maing the sound to appear on screen for example the sound effects for the movement of the characters adds to there individuality and adds to the tension and fear that we feel the main character going through, the sounds they make as they move and twist which almost rusty movements and sounds make them even more intimidating and more like monsters, and oneof the most important things anbout the sound in this piece is that there are no voices and this always makes messages much harder to get across to people but in this it really works in there favour the bond created between the characters without even speaking makes it seem so much stronger

I think that the film is about the expectations of social groups and is a comment on the world we live in today how we seperate ourselves from others through fear and judge one another and are constantly fighting with one another and being labled because of race or beliefs which typically would try to be shown with a black person and white person being friends in a racist time but i think this works even better the fact that these are two character that one is made to specifically scare the other and has no other purpose can still create a bond is a much stronger message than showing two characters who have no reason to dislike one another become friends.

practitioners report

Practitioners report

As part of this section of my blog i have to compare two of the practitioners who have given lectures at Stockport and compare two designers looking for similarities and differences between there working methods and also in there backgrounds and where they are in the industry today.

For my report i have chosen to look at Tal Rosner and Grant Gilbert, i chose to write about them because they were the two practitioners that work in the part of the industry which was closest to the type of work i do on the multimedia course.













Both grant and Tal started there careers on graphic design courses, Tal on a BA graphics course where he worked on posters,magazine layout and compositional based work and grant began with a graphics course at Stockport college before moving onto a print based degree at UCE Birmingham, after this both designers developed interest in motion graphics and started into the area of moving image, Tal particular spoke of his reasons fro making the move saying he wanted to translate graphic design flow into actual movement, turning the flow of a magazine layout into actual moving image this shows that the two had the same instincts and both had the same ideas of wanting to give movement to there graphic design work, and this is something I can relate to up to this point in my career as i had only ever worked in print based mediums since school doing art courses and a foundation degree in graphics but eventually finding my way into moving image and wanting to experiment in other mediums than 2d.

After finishing there degrees and courses the similarities between Tal and grant continue when they began to look for work they both believed to have found there dream jobs, Tal got a job in post production at a company in London and grant got a job at Attik new york but both encountered the same problems leading them once again in similar directions, while working for the company's they realised there dream jobs were not what they wanted, the both found themselves working to other peoples demands and not having any creative control and this is something neither designer could Handel and this lead to them both quiting and starting to work freelance.
This is where the similarities between the two designers start to end in the way they work freelance Tal stressed in his lecture that he likes to work alone, he goes out and just films for himself and doesn't really like to have anyone around him when he works and this is how he created films such as doppelganger which is an experimental piece of video using mirroring and compositional editing accompanied by a piece of music and this is the video that got him where he is today, the style of the video lead on to getting more jobs purely on the look of that video, he was first approached by a couple of french pianists who had seen his video and wanted something similar for there music video and this is something he would not have been able to do if he had stayed in post production he wouldn't have been able to experiment and create the videos that have become his signature style, and now most notably he creates the title sequences for the extremely popular skins series.

Grant on the other hand after working freelance for a while but eventually set up his own collective company double g studios so while still working as a freelancer this title gives the large company feel to clients when hiring him and instead of working alone like Tal he brings in designers he feels are best suited to help him on particular briefs, where Tal has created a reputation for himself with his films grant has continued to experiment in all types of mediums and taking on different projects so he has been able to broaden his portfolio and has also built up relationships with many different clients such as channel 4 who he started off creating idents for and eventually was hired to completely re brand one of there channels which lead to him being hired by even bigger channels like the BBC where he was hired to completely re brand there whole channel which in itself is a mixed blessing as the size of the channel gets his work seen all over the country but also he said they were not the easiest clients to work with.

I can completely understand the reasons for the two leaving there "dream" company's to go freelance but personally i think that it is something that could have easily gone wrong at such and early point in there careers, and i think that i would like to get some experience working for company's and getting a feel for that kind of environment and make some contacts before trying out on my own especially after some of my portfolio crits where i was told about the difficulties of going freelance and the importance of making contacts and establishing some kind of name for myself first because companies are less likely to hire a designer with Little work to there name compared to a company or a freelancer with a large list of clients.

Overall i think that both designers have come along way in there careers and i think that i have shown that even though you start of in exactly the same place and study the same things the possibilities are completely different and that we can all go in different directions much like Tal and grant depending on the choices we make along the way, while both paths have good and bad points to them i personally i feel that the route i would take is that of Grant Gilbert i think that his choices were more professional where as i think Tal got some luck in his career that he maneged to create something people loved because if doppelganger wasn't the success it was his freelance career would have gone a completely different way where as grant was always going to be building up clients and trying to get the work not going of a reputation to begin with to get work.

http://www.illustrationweb.com/

http://www.illustrationweb.com/

Illustrationweb is a online directory of illustrators and illustration agency's from the UK and the USA the website main aim is to find the perfect illustrator for your needs, you can browse the style galleries by category or the type of illustration, styles including 3d, childrens illustration, collage, lettering and many others, once you have chosen the style you are interested in or have seen a interesting piece of work in one of the thumbnails for the different catagories, you get a brief description of the type of work you are looking at and a list of artists with several images of there work so you can get a good idea of there style across there portfolio, another feature of the site is the scrapbook where you can select your favourite pieces from around the site and add them to your own personal scrapbook so you can check on your favourite artists updates and there is also an option to have your scrapbook printed which is a go dfeature for if you are looking for a certain style from artists you want to sork with or to present a particular style to a client.



Personally i really like the look of the website it has a clean simple layout that is easy to follow, the artists personal pages are laid out nicely with a short but clear desription of them and there work along with a choice selection of there pieces which makes it easy to find out whos work your looking at and how to contact them and there is even an option to get a quote from the artist, right now this is a site that i would only use for inspiratiuon from other artists but its is definatly something that could be used later for its scrap book feature when pitching to client, and the way it makes contact specifically for hiring artists for work an easy process.

Depthcore

http://www.depthcore.com/

Depthcore is an online collective of graphic designers, illustrators and modern artists from all around the world who gather to promote themselves, and answer briefs set by the site.

The website works like an online portfolio for the artists where they can post work and have there own profile with information about themselves, another of the sites features is featured artist so this gives artists the prime position to get some coverage.

While there is the option to just the simply look through a list of artists by name on the site until you find someone that interests you, one of the more interesting ways in which the website works to showcase the skills of the artists is the "chapters" feature, chapters on the site are a gallery that is built up of different artists work that have answered the brief in that particular chapter for example one of the chapters is "NOIR" and the artists from the site all submit their interpretation of that subject in there own personal style and medium and this gives you the chance to find out about allot of different artists as you can look through the pieces of work until something catches your eye.



The site also has updates about the artists on the site with there work and also events and news in the design world, overall its a great site that can keep you up to date with current goings on but more importantly will expose you to a huge range of different artists and all the work they and the company's they work for are creating.

Video copilot tutorials

As part of my research i was trying to find a way to create a 3d glowing line like the one used in the ipod nano advert, i came across this website www.videocopilot.net which is a tutorial website run by a special fx designer called Andrew Kramer, the website specializes in after effects editing but also has some 3d.

The website is really useful because all the tutorials are in video format and are taught step by step watching on screen what Andrew is doing as he talks through the tutorial, and this is much more effective than following a step by step guide that someone has written because he explains the reason for doing certain things and this makes you understand exactly what you are doing as well as just following instructions, the website also provides downloads of all the specific videos and images you will need for the tutorials which is a real help because watching editing done to a certain video and trying to follow along while editing a different video can make the tutorial hard to follow first time around.

the website also has a blog updated by Andrew where he discusses work going on around him and what he is doing, and also his opinions on work that other people are doing like movies and the special effects used and he gives his opinions on them which are interesting to hear from another professional.

Overall it is a very helpful site that i would highly recommend checking out.

http://www.videocopilot.net/

Audi rhythm of line advert

As part of my research for my final major project i decided to relook at the rhythm of line advert that audi made for there A5 that i looked at during my rhythm project.



There advert is about the movement of line in association to the lines on a there cars, the lines represent the way the lines on the car flow and the shape it creates, my advert the line is to represent the flow of movement in extreme sports the flow of a line which is riden, the line of objects and obstacles in a journey.



i wanted to look at how the lines flowed in the Audi advert, how they were filmed and the kin do music that is used and think about how my advert should be different becasue it is giving a different message, in the audi advert the lines are slow and calm in movement they twist and turn in a very calm way as if they are blowing in the wind, they represent class and elegance, that you are buying a luxury car and the lines represent that and i think that what helps this is the music which is classical and this is something that is assosiated with class and the finer things and this is what really makes the advert. and i do really like this advert becasue its simplicity at its best, they have not overpowered the viewer with cgi and special effects we just see the very basic of design whihc is line and follow the journey as it creates.

so in my advert i am trying ot sell excitement and and a fast paced lifestlye and i'm going to show this with my lines being more dynamic showing the excitement of the journey, to show the twists and turns of the lines as an exciting journey not a easy flowing smooth journey like the audi advert, and also the music in my advert needs to be more up beat becasue the calssical music in the audi advery only added to calm and slow the lines even more and i want to make things seem fast and exciteing. i am also going ot use different camera movement to the audis advert as it is only seems to follow where as in my advert i want the feel of the camera chasing and playin gwith the line.

Low-Fi Sci-Fi

I came across this article in creative review on a series of book covers that had been created for a a series of science fiction books, the book were designed by Sanda Zahirovic who is a graphic designer who graduated from Kingston university in 2008.


The series of books are a low tech take on the world of science fiction where everything is about space and the future and new technology that are unheard of today. i really like this series because they do exactly what they set out to do which was to bring sci-fi to a wider audience and they do this with the designs on the cover which have have kept to the subject matter which is science and complex theories but instead of showing numbers and experimants the designs use a series of complex images made out of paper which give a more hands on feel to the design that engage people that might think that science is something they wouldnt understand, but these images look complex but are somehting everyone can look at and understand.


What i really like other than the idea behind the images is the simplicity, the series are paper made structures and collages which are then photographed and then used as the book covers, the thing that is really striking about them is that the photographs when put on the covers dont loose the 3d look and the images seem to be leaping out of the cover like a page ina pop up book, and its this that draws you too these books out of anything else on the shelf, these books really stand out even though they are only black and white, the initial 3d grabs you and then the complecity of the paper design and different idea on each book only increases your interest in what you are looking at.

The Gatelab website

After i had my portfolio crit at Flame digital i asked if i could be shown thought some of there work and get some designer input about the process to making it and the thought behind the project and this is when i was shown a website they had created for TheGate Films who are a tv commercial production and advertising company.

What i really like about this website is the ideas behind it and the service it provides ro people in the design industry, the website is kind of a take on the the social networking sites mixed in with ideas of a site like deviantart where people can post there art work for other people to see and other people can comment on, the gatelab site is different because it is aimed more at writers and people in the industry, the way the website works is writers can post ideas and pieces of work to get feedback and constructive criticism from industry proffessionals the ideas people can post can be a concept for a advert, a idea for a tv sitcom or even a finish script from a movie, and other members on the site will read your ideas and leave feedback and say what they think works and also writers can give you an idea of there own and suggestions of how to change things, and the idea of the website is to make an idea grow and this is where the visual style of the website ties in really nicely with the site.



With the idea of the site being about planting an idea and making it grow the website has a gardening feel to it with the use of flowers to represent a growing idea, when you first join the site and go to post your first idea you start with just an image of a plant pot and even the terminology ties in with the theme where it asks you to "plant an idea" and once you have planted your idea other members can start reading and leaving feedback and they also have the option to click a button to "water the plant" which is what a member does if they like your idea, and the more people that click this button the picture of a plant pot you start with will grow into a flower and get bigger and bigger as people comment and "water" it, which is a really nive simple way to see how your idea is being recieved, and an excellent way to get some ideas and feedback from people who can really make a difference to your work.

Damien Gascoine

Damian Gascoine.

Damian Gascoine is a illustrator animator, he studied illustration at Kingston University and currently teaches animation at the University.
His lecture was set into 4 sections research but he mostly spoke about his research methods and how he views the world and specified that he wasn't going talk about his commercial work because he wanted to talk about his work and ideas and the thought process he uses to create the work he does for himself because when working for a client you get an outcome that they want.

I really like his work and the style of his drawing, he has a very sketchy Biro pen drawing style to his illustrations and all his characters seem like that ll have story's too them and they have not just been drawn, they all have a look like they have a back story and have more thought that just how they look put into them, and when they are translated into animations they don't just look like a static 2d images that are now moving the character look like they have come to life and this makes his work really nice too watch.



His lecture was full of really useful statements and pieces of advice that i found i could completely relate to and just take on board straight away and live by in my own thought process and way i want to go about my own process for working, one thing he said was that "computers enable professional work, but don't help come up with ideas" and this is something i find myself thinking about more and more, the fact that we spend so much time on computers and forget about drawing and just sitting down with a sketchbook because we have technology that is so easily accessible and produce great looking work straight away and we completely skip experimenting and trying to find some inspiration by taking the time too look around and this is where his lecture was the strongest and was probably the most inspiring talks about researching i had ever heard he said " somethings happening everywhere, all the time" "always draw, always doodle, always sketch, be nosy" and this is something i found myself doing straight away after his lecture i found myself looking at everything around me and noticing things that i hadn't before, looking at the people around me differently seeing the different characteristics in people whether its the way they talk or move, the way that someone is dressed or there physical presence and appearance seeing ways in which characters could be created form those people and just wishing that i had sketch book there to draw and take notes before forgetting about them completely wondering if they that certain person could have been a part of some work i might find myself doing one day, other than drawing he talked about taking photographs and how he would not only sit in one spot for hours and just draw people around him noticing things about people, he would take note of obscure little things he would notice when he was out like a scrunched up piece if rubbish that looked like a face and how he would just take a quick photo, one of the photos he showed was of a cup with a face drawn onto it that had been thrown away but was slightly hanging out of a bin which to anyone else is no more than rubbish but to him it was another character, a little man trying to climb out of the bin, he talked about a time where he watched and photographed a couple sitting in a restaurant and began to imagine and create a conversation between the two and imagined what kind of people they were from how they were dressed or how they moved and its little things like that i found to be really interesting, that we can see things differently we can see a story or a character in something that most people will never even notice in the first place,and this is something i plan on doing from now in to try and write down my ideas no matter how stupid they seem at the time or if they have no relevance to anything i am doing at that time because one day they might be completely relevant, and finally to pay more attention to the world around me and not just sit at a computer screen.

Justice d.a.n.c.e music video

JUSTICE : D.A.N.C.E.

This is the music video for dance by justice, the video was nominated for video of the year at the MTV Europe music awards in 2008. the illustrations were created by french designer "So Me" and directed by french directors Jonas & Francois, who have also done videos for Kanye West and Justin Timberlake.

I didn't actually know about this video for a while and i was only made aware of it after bringing up in conversation with friends how cool some editing was on a skateboarding video that had the justice music track on it, which turned out to be an homage to the justice video by one of the skateboarders on the video who was a fan and so parodied the style of imagery in the video, after finding this out i sat down and watched the justice video for myself and was really blown away by it, i love the simplicity of it in a world of over the top multimillion pound music videos.

i really like the simplicity of just animating illustrations on t shirts as 2 people walk through the club but is all the other details that really make it for example when there are illustrations on the back of one of the shirts the other guy yanks the bottom of the shirt and the illustrations fall off as if shaking a board with magnets attatched to it, and when the girl is walking with keyboard on her shirt it travels across her shirt before eventually falling off and a real keyboard falls to the ground, these touches make it that bit more ifascinating to watch becasue instead of just having a point where you just begin to think its just animations added to look as though they are on the shirts those changes that jump you out of the illustrations and back to live action keep your interest and make you wonder whats going to happen next.

the video is also really original in the way that the illustrations are placed, we see layered imagery alot and cartoons layed over live action to look as though a cartoon character is in the real world but i hav never seen where images are tied into a small specific are for a duration like this is on the shirts and they could have gone all out and gone out of the borders of the shirts but keeping that boundary is what makes it interesting and not over the top.

Flame digital company research

After having my first portfolio critique i was feeling more comfortable about arranging another and showing my work to someone in industry so i started looking into more company's that would be interesting to arrange a meeting with, this time i wanted to find a company's that had more diversity in the work after my first crit was arranged set up through a friend and the company i went too was mainly print and advertising work, so this time around i wanted more of a chance to relate a wider range of work to what they do and also get information from a company that has more specialist areas.


After looking around i found a company in Manchester called flame digital who specialize in web design and also make viral adverts for company's, and it was this in particular that drew me to the company, with one of my pieces for my final major project being a viral video i thought it would be perfect to find out how they created there viral, what thought process went into creating it and share my ideas about my project to get opinions of a company who do this type of work.

Website for the gate lab where people can upload film ideas and have them reviewed by industry professionals.

I really liked the viral advertisement they created for holiday extras because it didn't hold back and had a clear intention to get noticed by offending people, the viral was made to make people aware of the company and the extra services they provide with a professional approach, in this case storage of your car when you leave and also traveling to the airport, the advert is good because it shows the opposite of what they provide which is a "professional" service but in the advert we see a shady looking character played by Paul Kaye of "black ball" and "mtv's strutter" rambling in a drunken state and having every other word he utters bleeped but with subtitles translating everything he says into a professional speech, visually it is the same the company's set up is not professional at all as it is set in a field and there are children smashing parked cars, the thing that makes the advert seem like it is trying to get complaints is the stereotyping which are of drunken Irish people and shady travellers and Gypsies trying to scam people and do dodgy work along with some stereotypical accordion folk music that works perfectly to emphasise the strange characters on screen.

Cinéma vérité

While researching for my viral advert i found that my advert was not looking the way it was supposed to, in my storyboards it was built like an advert to look like a amateur hand held video but with the way i had planned the cuts it was looking more professional than it was supposed to.

So to solve this problem i started looking at types of filming techniques used in films and adverts to make them look like they have been filmed by average people and not been cut together in a editing room so i started looking at films i new about that looked like this, films like "the blaire witch project" and "Cloverfield", films that are supposed to seem like they are being filmed by someone who has been caught up in a huge event or crisis and has filmed it on whatever device they have to hand and document the events that are happening around them.

The Blair witch project,1999

And this is where i found out about cinema verite a term which in french means "cinema of truth" the technique itself is a style of film making in a documentary style, but using staged set ups and and the use of the camera to provoke subjects in a situation with the camera being a character in itself interacting with the environment and people around them and giving a different perspective on there reactions, the techniques also creates more tension in a film because the audience only get the perspective of one camera being held by a character in the film, for example in a film like cloverfield when the monster attacks and characters begin to run chaotically the character with the camera may just run holding the camera so all the audience get is blurred shots of feet and the floor as characters running and no nicely set up shots to show us everything that's going on in the scene and this builds more tension for the the viewer because they are desperate to see what people are running from but cant see anything.

Cloverfield, 2008

love creative

LoveCreative.

love creative are a design company from Manchester i didn't really know much about them until i started looking into them after having my portfolio critique at flame digital and they mentioned that they were a company that i should look into because of the type of design i was interested in.

Their work is very strong in a graphic way with the look and the style, allot of illustration and photo manipulations the work is mainly print based but is also translates really nicely into moving image but still looks like a piece of graphic design rather than film, the company have some very large clients like Nike, Sony, umbro and the BBC, most of the design work is very simplistic and really clean using minimal colour and but using it in the most effective way to balance out a piece.


I found out that the company actually did one of my favourite pieces of work that is out right now which is a piece to advertise the new Sony psp and this advert is everywhere including all over Sony new online virtual world which can be logged onto by anyone in any country, i think the advert they created was perfect, the brief was to show the possibilities of the new psp and all the things it is capable of like games,TV and Internet and the idea they came up with is the whole world in your hands which as a strap line is perfect it shows that the psp does everything imaginable in one small handheld device, and they created a series of posters not just simply showing the product being held by somebody they took the actual product away and replaced it with all the possibilities that the psp offers and placed them where the psp would be, so literally showing the whole world in your hands, whether its games or movies, i really like the composition in these posters because they build up a very busy part on the poster using allot off images that if done wrong could just look a bad collage of images but it is well balanced and central with the use of the hands and arms like a border holding the images in place of the psp and they also provide a flow to the piece and draws your eye from one corner to another and they also take just enough away from the collage so that its not overpowering, it makes that part of the images strength equal to that of the arms.