Flash Experimentation

This is a final idea. I plan to use this technique in my final project. This is a combination of the other techniques I have tried, from the flash animation of the hand drawn text, the one page notebook, and the notebook with pages that rip out.

I showed it to my tutors today, they seemed to like the idea, one commented that it was too long, and the frames should be faster. I shall take this advice on board, and make the next one run a bit faster.

I am happy with the over all outcome, and have received allot of positive feedback on the animation, I feel the animation was successful and definatly is a firm building block to base my next animation around.

Flash Experimentation

Following the previous idea. I felt it would be a good idea, if I could symbolise a page getting ripped out after the current drawing is finished, and being able to start fresh on the next page, to give more facts and opinions. I therefore devoted quite some times to editing a photo of a notebook in Photoshop. Breaking it into pieces, and figuring out a motion path, to make it look like the page was being ripped out of the notebook.

Original notebook

Pulled out page

Animation with motion tween

Flash Experimentation

For my main part in the group exhibition, I will be making an animation. I plan to use photos from, my collections and from friends and redraw them with a message behind them. From being on a mission trip to Romania, I have a few life changing experiences from mission trips and helping kids in need. I spent 10 days helping out with orphans in summer camp, helping them have a great week and at the same time, helping teach them about God. I noticed from my experience how much the smallest gesture means to them. From kids having nothing, and someone giving up their time, to come play with them, talk to them, listen to them. It is a very powerful experiance, it makes you pause for a moment, and apreciate everything you have been given in your life.

I therefore want to make an animation, provoking thoughts with facts, opinions, questions and imagery, relating to poverty and others that need our help.

This is my idea, put onto flash to see how it would look.

I used hand drawn lettering, to make it look like it was being written down by a child, drawn onto a notepad, and then drew a portrait of a child I met in Romania. I like the effect of the image allot, that it is being drawn while the view watches the animation and tries to figure out what the image is of while it is being drawn. I am quite proud of the outcome. I feel it gets the point that I am trying to express across, and works well. I plan to develop this idea further.

Brand Research task

Animal brand research. We had to gather all the items we could for our chosen brand. From choosing Animal, I went around my house and collected all my animal items, asked friends and family if they had anything with the animal brand. I gathered quite a large amount of stuff, with a wide range of animal merchandise and designs.

 I found Hoodies, t shirts, school bags

 Pencil cases, belts, scarves

 Wash up bags, Sunglasses, sleeves for ipods etc.

 A variety of hats, beanies and caps

From all the stuff I have gathered, i noticed a similarity, but yet also a difference. lots of the items are branded with simple straight forward text and clean logos, and some have the complete opposite, with hard to read text, random shapes and designs, and grunge effects on the logos and branding marks. I found This exercise very interesting, how a company uses such a variety of ways, designs and medium to promote their brand. Animal started as a watch company, because surfers were loosing countless watches while out in the sea, and now it has evolved into a mass clothing company for normal street wear, extreme sports wear and sports gear.

Flash Experimentation

Flash experimentation. Starting to think about asking thought provoking questions to make the viewer feel emotion for the topic of poverty through globalism. I like this hand drawn approach of typography. I build it up frame by frame, to give the impression of it being written down as the view watches it. I plan to use something similar to this effect on type, in my final piece.

Flash Experimentation

Flash Experimentation. I played around with Tweens again, along with warping, and twisting images slightly, to give an almost 3D look. The start section worked very well in trying to show this, the way the eyes and hair move, was very successful, it gives the impression that the character is turning his head.

Group project - week 4 Research

From reading the "Sex and money" book, I have decided to focus my research on the poverty second of globalism, and how design can be used to express poverty. I did some research and found some posters, based on poverty, starvation, aids, war, and so on. I found these designs have very powerful messages, and communicate the problem or issue very well.

The following 2 images are from Armando Milani.

I find them very powerful. They are simple, yet express their message very well.

 The next image is by Leonardo Sonnoli.

It is an Aids poster, heavily focused on typography and imagery.

It too shows a very clear image, of the pain and trouble that goes with such a disease.

Image by Lourdes Zolezzi.

It clearly expresses death, and starvation. In a very direct way, using a skull and crossbones, and basic colours.

A piece by Massimo Vignelli.

I find it very different, and interesting. The flag is made up of what looks like old newspaper cuttings, logo's and brands. It isn't exactly poverty or aids, but it is interesting none the less and I felt the need to add it to my findings

Two pieces by Woody Pirtle.

The are focused heavily on guns and gun trafficking, both for amnesty international.

I especially like the second image, how it is slightly abstract but forms a very clear gun shape.

Flash Experimentation

Experimentation with Flash Bone tool. A character can be made into objects and connected with bones, using the bone tool. Then items of the structure can be moved, and animated with ease. Rotation, and stretching can be restricted, and edited, so the character stays intact and doesn't warp or change.

Group project - week 3 Research

From seeing Miu Ling's "one laptop per child" book, I decided to research design in that area.

How design is used to speak for the countries and people who cant speak for themselves.

I decided I would track down where Miu Ling's inspiration came from. So I went in search of the book made in USA, taking photos of kids around the world, and trying to show people the problems they live in.

I found the book Miu Ling was refering to. The book is called
"SEX + MONEY: a global search for human worth."

I have ordered the book, but seeing the book was made in America, I have to wait 2 to 3 weeks for it to arrive.

The book is a soft cover book with 88 full colour pages.

The book is all about a team of random students from 8 nations travelling through ever inhabitable continent over the last year, driven by their love for photography and passion for justice.

On the inside cover it says:

At first our experiences seemed diverse, even random. However, as we continued to travel, we started to notice trends emerge. In every nation that we visited (20 in total), there were painful stories of human suffering set against the backdrop of hunger, disease and loneliness.  

But there was more. We began to see an even uglier trend reveal itself in the places we went: human trafficking. We saw that the abuse of sex and money is a potent concoction. It costs $0.50 to buy sex with an Ethiopian child. In Thailand the going rate was $20. In Amsterdam the price was $70. In our world children are being bought and sold, women ravaged for pocket change. The innocent suffer. Once born into poverty, escape seems impossible. 

Upon returning to the United States we produced Sex + Money: A Global Search for Human Worth, a collection of photographs and stories from our trip. Some of the stories reveal the suffering and alienation that the poor experience, while the majority of stories explore the realities of human trafficking.

I am Looking forward to getting this book as I know it will be highly inspiring and very interesting. Seeing 8 random students from around the world pushed to help explore and expose the horrible situations and problems in some of the most inhabitable countries in the world, using their love for photography and passion for their fellow man. It will be a very interesting piece of design that I cannot wait to read.

As the book states, we need to be "A Voice for the Voiceless"

The Group are now taking the fight to America, and exposing the abuse and problems through sex and money in their home country.

Flash Experimentation

Further Flash experimentation. Using two photos, a black and white one, and a colour one. Masking sections of the colour photo, along with motion tweening amination in flash, to produce this effect on a photograph.

Flash Experimentation

I experimented with flash, we have used flash last year briefly for a project, but I figured if I am going to aim to do something in motion graphics, I should try and develop my skills. This is a short piece I made, to experiment with motion and shape tweening, a built in part of the program that helps make animation smoother, easier and faster
As I plan to make an animation as part of the group exhibition, I have decided to experiment more with flash, and become more familiar with the tools and techniques that can be achieved through flash

Group project - week 4 Research

Slightly off topic, I stumbled across a campaign by The Body Shop. The "Lend a hand campaign" is a petition to Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People. The goal is to raise this issue to the national agenda, they hope to pass the Safe Harbor act in every state, so that everyone under the age of 18 will be protected from being persecuted for prostitution.

They have even generated some products to help promote their petition, and help raise money to help their cause.

(Below) Is their online petition form, that can be filled in simply in seconds. Hundreds have already played their part in the petition, it also shows the counter in the top right hand corner, showing how many people have already signed it.

Brand Research task

 We were asked, over the next 2 weeks to pick a brand or company we were interested in research how they brand their company. Using packaging, media, labels, as much information as we could find on that one brand.

The brand I decided to research is Animal. Animal is a brand of clothing, surfing, snowboarding, biking and general outdoor activities.

I started by going onto their .co.uk website http://www.animal.co.uk/

instantly I was impressed by their intro to the website. the short animation along with the relaxing music playing in the background, instantly makes the customer feel comfortable and welcome.

The animations starts with a scene of the sea and the sun coming up, then a surfer paddles across the sea. A line begins to be drawn around the scene in a circular motion and a wave forms. The sun and an island are visible through the centre of the wave. the circle is then complete and fades into the animal logo, which rotates like the wave previously, and comes to rest at a slight angle. The music plays on loop, waiting for the user to pick their destination from the menu below the animation.

Once into the website, the style and creative skill doesn't change. With powerful photography and typography, the animal website looks professional, but at the same time, young, modern and appealing. Clearly to appeal to their younger generation of surfers, snowboarders and general active youth.

Each section of their website has unique headers, with strong photographs and very well used typography and style. Each with the header showing the animal logo and some drawn graphics and patterns to add a professional look

The Little touches

There are little things from the animal website that add to its graphic appeal and professionalism. For example when you click on a link and the page is loading, a little animation shows up again, to show you exactly what the website is doing and how long it is taking to load your desired page.

There is also an Audio player on the website. It plays relaxing music, if the user desires as they browse the website. It too is very well designed and looks like car radio, with all the play, stop, volume control, and even help if needed.

Overall Animal have a very impressive and well made website. It has great use of photography, typography, easily navigated through, and has animations and music that add a little bit extra and make it professional.

Group project - week 2 Research

When researching Miu Ling i came across another one of her pieces.

ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD

one laptop per child is a book, it was based on a project started in the USA. Its objective is to help the children from poor countries to be able to connect to the world. Based on this idea, Miu Ling made a project related to this topic that focuses on the poor children in China. It is full of beautiful photos and inspiring words.

This could be a very interesting way to tackle the project, looking into global matters like poverty and disease, seeing how design speaks for the countries and people who cant speak for themselves.

Group project - week 2 Research

As I continued searching for Chinese design, I came across Miu Ling

Miu Ling Leung graduated from the Art School of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Miu-L is her design studio, which specializes on Graphic Design. As a freelance designer, she has experience with and can be hired to work on different sorts of projects: concept design, editorial design for books and magazines, web design and photography.

She made a book called CHINESE OPERA / LOLITA

Chinese Opera / Lolita is a conversion of Wikipedia information into a book. The essence of the Wikipedia, text, was applied to the essence of the book, which is also main text. But based on the text and information, she gave it more typographical elements that make it more interesting to read. It is a very powerful piece of typographic and design work seamlessly joined. It is a very inspiring piece of design.

Group project - week 2 Research

Following my research in graphic design I came across a Chinese designer called Cao Fang

She is a Graphic design professor at the Nanjing arts institute.
She has a distinguished profile in design research and teaching.
She has also published more than 30 articles with topics ranging from Chinese characters to the cultural role of women in advertising.
She is currently a Nanjing Arts Institute professor and has lectured at AiChi Art University, Japan and Kassel Art Institute, Germany.
Mrs. Fang’s work has been published extensively in design books and magazines around the world and some of her poster designs have been included in collections like the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and the Zurich Design Museum.
A member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI), Fang Cao is also the recipient of numerous awards collected in China and abroad.

These are some of her pieces of Design.
I particularly like the first piece below, It looks like ribbons folded to look like a birds flying across the sky. it is a very effective use of both computer graphics and real objects.

I also like this piece below, I have always been fascinated by Chinese characters, how each one looks like a small piece of art. This piece uses lots of sizes, colours and effects, and overall looks outstanding, it has a real grunge feel to it. There is allot going on in the piece.

Group project - week 2 Research

To start research, I decided to pick a country and research that countries use of graphic design.

I decided to look at graphic design from china to get a feel for the project, and find somewhere to start from.

I typed it into Google images to see the variety of work out there.

These two pieces (above and below) really interested me, I couldn't find out a source of who made them, but I found them very different and interesting. I particularly like the bottom piece, it has a communist look about it and is very powerful with its use of colour and shape.

These two images (above and below) are from the a book: Chinese Graphic Design of the Twentieth Century by Scott Minick and Jiao Ping.

Photography was part of the Progressive Movement in Chinese graphic design of the 1930's, especially the influence of the Russian Constructivist Rodchenko.

This is a piece by the Society for News Design Chinese-language affiliate, SND chinese, has opened registrations for the Infographics Design/Asian Boot Camp, March 27-29 in ChongQing, China.

I then stumbled across this piece of Japanese art.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa also known as The Great Wave or simply The Wave, It is a woodblock print by the Japanese artist Hokusai. It is and example of Ukiyo-e art, it was published sometime between 1830 and 1833. It is the first of Hokusai's series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji and is his most famous piece. This particular woodblock is one of the most recognized works of Japanese art in the world.