On My Radio

BREIF:

Listen to the radio show you have been given, ideally we would like you to listen to it on an analogue radio. If it is a daily show you must attempt to listen to it for the week, if it is a weekly show be sure not to miss it, ideally we would like you to tune in to listen when the radio show is programmed. However if you do miss it you can catch it on BBC iplayer.

Strict Guidelines: You must listen to it.

Consider: Why we have asked you to listen to it.

PROGRAMME:

Gardeners’ Question Time

RESPONSE:

This is a programme that I have listened to a lot before so am already quite familiar with it’s contents. From listening to the programme, the thing that stood out for me the most was how many more people have taken to gardening this year during the pandemic, the programme would often reference that there are an estimated 3 million more gardeners in 2020 due to lockdown. This reminded me of my own experience in the spring when we were trying to get seeds and found it impossible to find any seeds for the usual veg varieties and so had to buy alternatives that didn’t work out so well. APPROACH:

I wanted to create a screen printable design that featured all the strange and unusual veg that people must have been growing this year due to the seed shortage. I was aiming to print tea towels with this design on it.

RESEARCH:

There were 2 main areas of research for this project, how the design was going to look and also what veg were going to be featured.

After searching through many articles about gardening and it’s popularity, I couldn’t find anything about the more peculiar veg that I assumed would have been grown in 2020. Most articles covered the main veg that was bought in that time but there was little to no mention on any of the alternative veg or growing in general that I could use as the basis for the design. Furthermore as I was hoping to screen print this design onto fabric I would be limited to a single colour which means that any alternative veg that looks the same but is a different colour (yellow courgettes for example) wont translate in the design.

In the end I had to abandon that idea and move onto a different approach. I did some research into veg grown from scraps and thought about creating a similar outcome but with scraps instead. Again my research did bring up some examples of veg etc but nothing that sparked anything that I wanted to pursue.

RESEARCH:

Next I started to research gardening design in general to see if there would be something that would generate an idea beyond my own notes etc. I found some pieces that gave me the idea of the radio as the watering can.

DEVELOPMENT:

I began to create these poster ideas that focus on the how long the show has been running for and that it is always been there to help you grow.

Tea Towel design idea

However after discussions during a tutorial, it was highlighted that this was more an advert for the radio show and not an interpretation of the programme, it was also mentioned that many of my design outcomes had been print based so it may be better to do a moving image based outcome for this project. Finally, with campus facilities closing early due to COVID, it was impossible to get it screen printed in time.

DEVELOPMENT:

I decided to carry forward the idea of the radio as the watering can and make a series of images that I could then animate. I also adapted the phrase ‘Helping you grow since 1947’ to ‘It’s Never Too Late To Start To Grow’, this is in reference to the length of time that the programme has been running but also to the number of new gardeners that started in 2020.

I decided to create the illustrations in the ‘rubber hose’ style as another nod to the longevity of the programme it is also a fun animation style which hopefully matches the light heartedness of the programme.

Initial development set.

DEVELOPMENT:

Rather than just creating a set of stills I wanted to try my hand at After Effects for the first time and make this into a short motion piece to accompany the illustrations. I learned some basic effects, movements and transitions.

With my initial attempts I think I was trying to animate too many elements but without having the skill to make them look good, so I focussed on only a couple of elements for each illustration and really simplified the movements so they look more like illustrations “brought to life” rather than amateur animations.

As I got more familiar with the programme I added a couple of extra elements and changed the colour and saturation to give each illustration a sense of time to highlight how long the radio has been running for.

FINAL OUTCOME:

Although I didn’t continue down the path of the tea towel, I feel these square could make a good set of coasters instead to continue the idea of something for the home. You could make a cuppa and listen to GQT and pop your mug on one of these.

O N M Y R A D I O : R e c a l l

AFTER LISTENING TO THE RADIO...

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MOOD WHILST LISTENING TO THE RADIO SHOW? DID IT CHANGE?

There was a very cheery nature from the get go, which became quite infectious. I found myself falling into the audience laughs and smiling quite a lot.

WHEN YOU WERE LISTENING TO THE RADIO SHOW, WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU HAVE LIKED TO HAVE BEEN DOING?

I was working on some illustrations while I was listening, to be honest I would have liked to have been doing nothing while I listened, the show is on at 4pm which is always a point in the day where I feel least productive, so having a chance to take a break and just sit and listen would be great. RECALL THE MOST MEMORABLE SOUND YOU HEARD.

The amalgamation of all of the virtual audience members cheering or laughing with that low bit rate distortion. It’s probably the first time I’ve listened to anything with a virtual audience in it.