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.