Contents Brief 01: Rudiments of Design Brief 02: 3D Text with Images Brief 03: Kinetic Typography Animation Brief 04: Stop Motion Animation Brief 05: Feedback infographic Brief 06: 17th C Oil Painting Animation Brief 07: Desktop and Mobile Wallpapers Brief 08: Placard Brief 09: Design Issue Brief 10: “There You Are” Ad Anti-Script Brief 11: Book Title Sequence
Key: Brief info: Runtime Number of layers used Number of photos used Photoshop Illustrator
After effects
Premier pro
I’ve used certain applications, tools and methods for my work so far. These icons throughout the booklet helps identity what kind of work each brief contains at a glance.
Aperture
3DS Maxx Paint
Pen/pencil
Wacom tablet
1-3 4 -5 6-7 8-9 10-13 14-15 16-19 20-23 24-27 28-29 30-31
Brief 01
This first brief had us looking at and understanding some of the rudiments of design, looking at the use of colour, type and layout.
01 Anologous relationship Started with #73191b from the shop sign, with the other colours derived from that. Rule of thirds Achieved using strips of colour from the palette, and the simple train track graphic. Standard type
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02 Monochromatic Variation Started with #063b70 in the sky, and the other ‘tints’ are a result of that. Symmetry Symmetry is evident in many areas, such as in the Laster Bowden heading and the Union Jack-esque shape in the centre. Vernacular type
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Seeing as it’s difficult to photograph and edit text that could be called ‘abstract’, I wanted to go down the route of making my own. The lettering used in my composition are of musical instruments that relate to a song called ‘What Would Love Do?’ by Jason Mraz. The four colours are matched to the four letters of the word ‘Love’ . The album artwork for Mraz’s newest album is quite similar, but instead just use shapes.
03 Double complementary Four colours that are double complementary, and almost match that of the album by the musical artist Rule of odds Abstract type
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Brief 02 01 This word doesn’t really fit the serene picture seen here out of context. It’s a small care home within a lovely big garden, and the word relates to how the relationship between the younger members and older members of a family can deteriorate once the elderly aren’t as self sufficient anymore and have to be looked after elsewhere. It’s an interesting alternative way of looking at a place that would otherwise be considered picturesque.
Brief two was an introduction to some 3D, incorporating realistic 3D text into a scene in a way that challenged the viewers
imagination to understand the meaning behind the combination.
02 This piece acknowledges an idea that we all leave little fingerprints as we go throughout our days that effect the next person in a way that often goes unnoticed. This example shows leaving a seat table left down.
03 A place like this would usually be seen as a never ending expanse of water, making us feel free. But you could also look at in the aspect that this is extremely restricting, as there’s nowhere you could possibly go in this image by yourself without getting out of your depth or in danger, other than the small piece of land in the foreground.
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Brief 03 My first piece of animation came in the form of a kinetic typography animation, combining a self-recorded duet with the lyrics of the song.
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01-02 I mapped out my vision for the animation with sketches as well as small Photoshop images to get an idea for the fonts and sizes to use. 01
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The original song comes from a special musical episode of the US comedy Scrubs, with the two best friends, JD and Turk, singing about their love for each other. I tried my best to present my animation in a way that fit with the lyrics and keeping the humorous nature of the lyrics. Tom: “Let’s face the facts about me and you, A love unspecified. Though I’m proud to call you ‘Chocolate Bear,’ The crowd will always talk and stare.” Aaron: “I feel exactly those feelings, too And that’s why I keep them inside. ‘Cause this bear can’t bear the world’s disdain, And sometimes it’s easier to hide,” Tom & Aaron: “Than explain our... Guy love, That’s all it is, Guy love, He’s mine, I’m his, There’s nothing gay about it in our eyes. Aaron: “You ask me ‘bout this thing we share”, Tom: “And he tenderly replies,”
with audio
Aaron: It’s guy love Tom & Aaron: “Between two guys.”
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Brief 04 This stop motion animation uses the lyrics from a Florence & The Machine song called “Lungs,� looking at the journey of a breath whilst incorporating typography.
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Between two lungs, It was released, The breath that carried me
I really enjoyed this first experience with stop motion animation, it’s a labour intensive process, but the end result is something that’s really interesting and surprising, and it’s a fun medium that’s new to a lot of people.
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Brief 05
This brief was more of a research piece to get feedback on my work compared to comparative professional work. To get some answers I asked 17 questions to 5 people.
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The work I showed these people was my abandonment piece from brief 02, compared with a snapshot from a Nike advert. I chose to display my findings in an infographic, as this would let the viewer read for as long as they want, or skim read it. Q - How did your opinion change as you looked at the piece? The first piece I liked more as I looked at it, as I started to notice more and more detail in the background picture. The second piece held my attention for a while, as I read the text and took in the surroundings but it became less interesting. Q - What do you think inspired this image? I think the first image was inspired by the artist sense of restriction and rules around the things that are said to be free, as even in natural environments there tends to be man-made rules. Q - In what way was your imagination challenged? The first one inspired imagination by putting a seemingly juxtaposing image and word together, this makes the viewer think deeper into the meaning of the piece. The second seems to get you to imagine the words as people using the equipment
Q - What didn’t work about the piece? The first seems a little bit dark, and it is almost hard to read. The second is fine as part of a video but as a still it is less interesting Q - What did it remind you of? The first piece, the word reminded me of a barrier, also it reminded me of modernist and minimalistic art.
Q - In what way do you think the scene and text could be matched better? I think it matches well, however if the artist made it look more man-made, like a fence or a wall it could project the assumed meaning easier. Maybe if the text was human shaped it might work better
“The word reminded me of a barrier.” Q - What’s your favourite aspect/ detail? In the first piece my favourite part is the mixture of colour, shadow and light and how well the words match it. In the second I like the contrast of red and white.
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Q - What was your opinion of the piece at first? I liked it as it was very striking and the colour and text caught my eye
Q - If the image or narrative wasn’t as engaging or powerful as it could be, what elements would you change? For the first the text could be made to look more man-made to transfer meaning easier. Q - What was it about the image that kept your interest? The depth of the first picture kept me interested, as you have to think about the piece. Also it is pretty. The second kept my interest but not for half as long because it’s part of a film.
Q - Who do you think the main target audience is for this? I think the first does a good job at applying to anyone. The second more specifically aimed at those interested in sport.
Q - What more do you think could be added or taken away to make it more interesting? I think both pieces are interesting enough, however piece 2 is possibly less interesting as a still.
“It projected the assumed meaning easier.”
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Q - What was interesting to you about the narrative? The first piece is very deep and you kind of make up your own narrative using the image, which is very stimulating for the imagination, this means that interest for the piece is kept much longer. It’s hard to say for the Nike video because it’s a movie with a longer narrative and different medium.
“The colour and thick font suggests power, energy and strength.” Q - What does this image tell you about the creator of it? The first image tells me that the artist feels restricted or bound by rules. The second suggests that they are interested in sport. Q - What kind of mood or impression does the piece have on you, if any? The mood is mixed with the first one because of the beautiful scenery but negative text. The second has more of an empowering feeling to it, with the colour and thick font suggesting power, energy and strength.
Q - How would you change the text’s font, colour or any other aspect to make it stand out further? Making the first image a bit brighter could make the text easier to read. The Nike text doesn’t have enough shadow to pass for 3D. Q - Do you think the text and setting work well together or would something else be more effective? I think both settings work well with each piece, I wouldn’t change either one because they compliment each other nicely.
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What I learned: This questionnaire-based brief actually really helped me understand what it is that sets certain work apart from others. From what I gathered, spending time to get the quality as perfect as possible is a huge benefit, especially in pieces like this where you want the effects to be as realistic as they can be. It also seems that people like their imagination to be challenged by using text that doesn’t obviously fit with the image.
Brief 06 Brief 6 led me to take what I had learned in animation from brief 3 and apply it to animating a 17th Century oil painting. I chose Belshazzar’s Feast by Rembrandt as I could see right away a simple way to add surprises, suspense and humour.
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Rembrandt
Belshazzar’s Feast 1635 Oil on canvas 14
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Brief 07
The purpose for this brief was to create 3 wallpapers - 1 for a desktop computer and 2 for a mobile device, each of which have to live up to certain criteria including rhythm, colour and different objects. Custom Brush
01 Flowing rhythm/ Black & white/ Polyrhythmic After looking through albums of images I found this one to be one of the nicest, a large crowd lined all along the coast of Swanage at a firework display. Desaturating the image makes it less of a distraction while working with lots of applications open, and applying a custom brush emphasises the idea of rhythm in this image.
My image 1920x1200
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02 Progressive rhythm/ Colour palette/ Polyrhythmic My first mobile wallpaper is made to the resolution of an iPhone 5 screen, an I think it incorporates the above criteria well. The image really fits the iPhone acting as a backdrop for the columns of apps.
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Object (candelabra)
Brush (lamp)
Edited image
Base fill
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03 Regular rhythm/ Colour palette/ Monorhythm The second mobile wallpaper has a beach and surf theme, as well as a brush that gave the opportunity to have a much more diverse colour palette, giving a really beautiful effect.
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Brush (surfboard)
The line through the middle changes to differentiate each board in the image.
Image of rough water
Base image
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01 Desktop Wallpaper in situation on a MacBook. Having experience with the image acting as a wallpaper, I found the black and white to be less distracting than a busy colour image.
02 Mobile wallpaper in situation on iPhone 5. I think it works best on the home screen, lining up with the columns of apps.
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03 Second mobile wallpaper on iPhone. The mostly two-tone image doesn’t distract from the app icons on the screen.
Brief 08
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Issues 03 I did a quick mind map of issues that I feel strongly about and could use for my placard, and found social interaction to be a major thing I think a lot about. This thought initially came from my observation of people at restaurants who would rather be socially involved online rather than the partner that they’re actually with. The thing is, this just completely ruins the idea of human interaction - do we find each other so boring that we have to resort to social networks to be interesting?
This brief had a focus of making a real life placard that talked about an issue I found pressing, but also had to think about the process in which I made it. The placard had to convey this issue and be readable at about 20m. 02
01-02 Looking at the process in which you do things is interesting - it’s visible here that the same image drawn with two different mediums gives dramatically different finishes. Both work well, it just depends what look is desired.
With this in mind, I set out to make a few preliminary ideas that are simple, could be read at a distance of 20m, and also just one colour to make this a believable placard with a lot of impact.
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Final placard In the end I chose the second design for my final placard over the others for two reasons. Process Because the placard is A2 sized and needs to be readable at a long distance, I chose to draw the design by eye with acrylic paint because it can be a very colour-intense medium. Simplicity The simplicity of this design makes it more effective, especially with the vivid red colour on white background. It’s also faster at getting the message across because there are far less distractions. I asked a few people which design they preferred, and they found it easier to associate with this one
because they recognised the app icons. Below is the final placard. I found it really difficult to get on with doing this by hand, having been able to get such accuracy on the computer, that’s just not possible with brushes and acrylics. Because my design was quite a definite one that had to be nice and clean, the medium used made replicating that hard. But still, I’m happy with what I’ve made, but my favourite part about this piece are the ones that I did on the computer.
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Brief 09
This brief’s intent was to highlight an issue that we find interesting in design and hopefully get some answers to help with our own work.
Question “Why do people enjoy seeing past fashions in new designs?”
Eg. Skeuomorphism old Textures, Effects
I read around a lot of design and technology websites, books and sources, and something that’s been quite pressing lately is about using past fashions in new design. The most prominent aspect to this discussion is the use of Skeuomorphism - creating a derivative object which retains ornamental design cues*, and
whether it’s appropriate or not. Skeuomorphism is mostly seen in websites, desktop/ mobile apps and even some print products. A lot of people have a very strong opinion that it’s highly unnecessary, adds clutter and confusion and that it’s ugly. But are these people wrong? If it didn’t work for everyone, then
* - Dictionary definition from Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorphism
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surely it wouldn’t be used to the scale that it is? I wanted to find out what people around me thought about this, so I picked a small group of people to ask and showed them some examples of old design in new design to get their reactions.
Examples of new design with old design
Poster for Schaefer beer
Podcasts app by Apple
Business website
40’s style 2012 Games poster
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Methodology
I wanted to get honest answers to my question, and from a varied audience. So, I asked two younger people, male and female, and two older males, all of whom are friends or family. I didn’t let either one see what anyone else had written as I wanted it to come from them. Here are their answers:
Matt
Vino
Web designer, 45
Student, 18
“Nostalgia is something everybody likes to see, but some designs are just strong and work no matter what is trending or what the decade is. It’s also a challenge for a designer to make all the older elements work in a new design which anyone who is design minded can appreciate!”
“Trends and old fashion design in new design is very symbolic and can really bring out what the piece is trying to say. I think this is such a simple technique in design that can give great results and give the design such an impact, if done well of course. Also it’s just good that the history of what our new design works off is remembered and used to still aid our design.”
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What I think
Charlotte
Make-up artist, 22 “I prefer new designs as they take a more minimalistic approach but also make tasks easier. Sometimes new things try to be clever and that’s confusing which I don’t like, but most of the time, I’m personally not bothered whether something looks old but is new.”
Simon
Landscape Gardener, 47 “I think it’s because you can get feelings across like romanticism and simplicity, because it was an era that’s now viewed as romantic and simple. It’s more approachable for older generations coming into the digital world - they know what the physical and functional traits were of the original object so they would feel more comfortable. Some people just like the retro style - it’s cool.”
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My opinion is a mixture of those already discussed. Of course, the question really just boils down to personal taste, but I think old fashions serve a purpose in new design in making things feel accessible to everybody no matter what they’re age, but still functional enough for those who are up to date and know what they want to do. It also just gives a bit of originality, differentiation and identity to a new design, rather than just gradients and textures that seem to be the new norm. It is definitely interesting to hear different people’s point of view on this topic as it’s something that’s not really spoken about in design.
Brief 10 This was an opportunity to show how fragrance companies use the most irrelevant material in their adverts, and only showing the actual product for less than
10% of the ad runtime. The ad I chose to look at was the Chanel No. 5 ad, starring Brad Pitt. I re-wrote the script to make my subtitles match the length of the sentences that Pitt says to make it more like a translation of what he’s thinking as he’s talking.
Original Script Anti-Script It’s not a journey It’s hardly an ad for a product Every journey ends but we go on Instead Chanel paid me $5 m to stand and talk, The world turns and we turn with it About unrelated things to waste a bit of time Plans disappear, dreams take over Plans disappear, dreams take over Like the one last night with the unicorn dog What the hell was that? But wherever I go, there you are Wherever I go, is where I am, My luck, my fate, my fortune My luCK, my faTE, my bullsh*t Chanel No 5 At least it’s in a nice bottle Inevitable Pretentious
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Brief 11 This final piece of work is a 60+ second long animation that could be used as a title sequence to the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. I used images and my own illustrations, combined with the soundtrack of the 1968 musical “Oliver!� I was really surprised how well the music and animation work together to create quite a professional animation.
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This provided just the right amount of time to introduce all of the main characters in the story: Oliver Fagin Bill Sikes Nancy & The Artful Dodger. I was also able to highlight some of the key events, such as the workhouse, Fagin and Sike’s dealings, and the streets where Fagin’s gang pickpocket. I thought a good way to end the sequence would be to have all the characters jump into the book and have the cover open up to introduce the reader to the book, after having a brief introduction.
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Credit Some of my work was possible thanks to inspiration and resources for these sources: Brief 03: Kinetic Typography Animation Original video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL4L4Uv5rf0&hl=en-GB&gl=GB Brief 06: 17th C Oil Painting Animation Original image from Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/V00LVL Brief 07: Desktop and Mobile Wallpapers iPhone frame: http://bit.ly/W0FytB MacBook Air frame: http://bit.ly/ThYwkz Brief 09: Design Issue 1948 style 2012 poster: http://bit.ly/108gcAJ Prahba: http://www.prahba.com Schaefer poster: http://bit.ly/V01vdz Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/podcasts/ id525463029?mt=8 Brief 10: “There You Are” andi-script Original ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGs4CjeJiJQ Double page spread image: http://bit.ly/108dFqe Brief 11: Book Title Sequence Oliver! movie (Music at the beginning) http://bit.ly/V01FS4 Images used in animation: http://bit.ly/VAFbp7 http://bit.ly/SThStM http://bit.ly/SThZ8K http://bit.ly/SThZW6 http://bit.ly/STi0JI http://bit.ly/STi5xc http://bit.ly/STibET http://bit.ly/STigs4 http://bit.ly/STiiAs
Thank you.