AuthorBen

Neglect of the blog

This blog has been neglected for far too long and as shocking as it sounds I’m well aware of it but haven’t exactly taken the time to keep on top of it.

So how do you combat not spending five minuets of your time to fill in a little text box and paste a few images of what a day has consisted of? Simple answer is, just bloody do it! As soon as the day is over it would take 5-25 minutes to compose and publish an article of said day. To factor this into my schedule from now on is a goal I’m not going to take lightly.

So what of today I hear you ask? Stefan Stagmiester. I’m not sure if it’s his accent that captivates me or his well articulated words I hang off but I could literally binge watch his speeches like episodes of a good TV series. There is a nice six part series of short videos on YouTube which covers a range of subjects produced by Computer Arts and their Design Matters sub section.

You can watch the mini series here.

The subject that sticks out the most for is part one in which he talks candidly about “Design & Happiness” stating how he feels when he isn’t happy he isn’t much good for his friends, family or surrounding, especially in terms of design. It sticks in my mind so well because I have often felt that way myself and makes me realise in order to “be useful” changes need to be made not only as a lifestyle choice but a mental state too. How do I go about this and proactively ensure it takes place is another thing and cannot answer as of yet as it’s a work in progress but overall as of right now compared to months ago I’m better off for it.

If you’re unhappy or feel as though you just aren’t up to scratch, sit back and think what can you do about that? That’s what I took from that interview at least, I dunno, it’s possible that I’m a little off base but upon reflection it is relevant to my current status.

Be sure to check out those videos, if you missed the link click here and enjoy.

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Interesting docs

I often look to video tutorials and documentaries for more information past the written word. During a search for how illustrations changed graphic design, this little gem popped up. Helvetica is a really good watch, the music and presentation is nicely done while introducing you to some big names within the design industry and their own opinions on typography.

I’ll have to watch the rest of these.

Source: http://99designs.com/designer-blog/2013/07/09/12-documentaries-every-graphic-designer-should-see/

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A reflection on time management

On our course we need to review and analyze what we are doing, thinking and or inspired by. We should be doing this 4 times a week to help aid our thought processes, increase skill, or even identify the flaws in our work with critical thinking and analysis.

With poor time management, this simple 5-15 minute task is being overlooked regardless of how often it’s thought about or planned for, too many mistakes are being made on my part when it comes to the planning of my time out. After leaving college there are 4 hours available at the very least to push ideas and concepts or write annotations and such but it’s not being done, is it down to laziness or have I given myself too much to do and that in result is causing such an oversight?

Given that my enrollment to the course was a late one and I’ve had to play catch up, money has also taken my time when applying to jobs or completing outside sourced work such as websites. As it stands there are 3 sites requiring my attention 2 of which are 90% complete, so after they are complete it’s time to put outside work on the shelf as I just won’t be able to manage my time properly in order to meet the requirements of the course.

As simple as it sounds, I just need to plot things out but it’s not, I need to make time to plan time.

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What’s a “Craft Beer?”

Unlike major beer brewing companies along the lines of Carlsberg, Heineken and Budweiser etc, Craft beers are made in small quantities and normally have higher ABV (Alcohol By Volume) not to mention a better overall taste. A Craft brewery is another name for a micro brewery, the definition is that a craft brewer only produces around 6 million barrels of beer or less annually and is 75% or more, independently owned or controlled by themselves.

So where did it all begin? According to a quick Google, Microbrewing “movement” began in the 1970’s and spread further across the pond to the USA. Litchborough Brewery founded by Bill Urquhart in 1975 in the Northamptonshire village of the same name started commercial beer brewing, training courses and apprenticeships were offered. Many of the movement’s early pioneers passed through Litchborough’s courses to setting up their own breweries in time. After a lot of growth the concept “Craft Brewing” as we know today came to replace the term Microbrewing but is essentially the same practice. (source)

In order to be spotted down the beer aisle at your local shop, they need to stand out, below are some example of bottles and their relative designs to distinguish them from the rest of the herd.

Brew Dog examples:

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Minimalistic movie poster

Typography and minimal designs are one of my weakest points as a student, given the abundance of readily available examples by other students, I wasn’t very excited. However, given the challenge has changed my opinion and made me realize just how important Semiotic value is in my desired profession.

The 16 of us had been given Jaws to illustrate in the most minimal form possible while retaining the key elements to the film. My original concept fell flat given I had put a blue rectangle over half my work space and a shark fin, once my tutor had spoken to me about how it could be any film about any shark or possibly a documentary. Quickly scribbling down a mind map it dawned on me, iconic scenes and quotes from the film. Everyone who has ever seen the thriller flick knows the line “we’re gunna need a bigger boat!” and when Deputy of police chief Martin Brody is sat on the beech, he sees the fin as Jaws swims across the shoreline.

The end result:

JAWS3

Ah, now all that’s needed is to print it onto a shirt!

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Clever Paddy Power marketing!

I was wondering how long football fans would go without the banter of Manchester United’s retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson. You could argue that with him gone the team might not be able to keep up their standards. I’m not a massive fan of football myself but I keep an eye on the news now and again to see what’s what so when the news of Ferguson’s retirement was in full swing it got a lot of people asking the same question, “how well will they play now?”. Well as of January 2014 they’ve only won one match and on the 19th of January, they lost to Everton 3-1 which to say the least is incredibly disappointing.

So how did people react within the advertising and marketing world? Paddy Power unveiled this;

wax-twitter1Ooooo that’s just down right cheeky but it has grabbed them a lot of attention! And rightly so, the box contains an accurate wax figure to mimic the legend, whilst the box itself clearly showing their brand’s colours and logo. So why the wax figure? There are rumours being passed around on his return after the current coach has failed to seal victories for the team. Who is responsible I hear you ask? According to this source, Lexis are the masterminds behind this stunt. Just goes to show that thinking outside the box generally is the best way to create a lot of hype.

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Subaru – shocking or not?

I follow a lot of good sources for advertising and marketing on facebook and over the weekend one of AdWeek’s posts really stuck in my head. The item in question is Subaru’s “They Lived” TV ad. Initially there wasn’t much shock evoked at the sight of the complete wreck that was left over and what killed it for me was the very apparent American dramatization.

Here is the video via YouTube:

After actually watching it several times and analyzing the amount of damage sustained during the crash, if indeed it was real or  simulated? and after giving it a second shot, it does make a bit of an impact, however for it to be more effective the soundtrack would need to be a little more sombre with some violins and the “they lived” to sound a bit more sincere rather than surprised. In fact, that last comment is what kills the Ad for me, it just doesn’t make it believable, if I was stood in front of a totaled car my rational thought would be one of disbelief combined with sorrow. (I have actually done before and believe me, when you question the mortality of the occupants, it isn’t a tone of surprise you use).

 

(Source)

CREDITS
Client: Subaru of America
Spot: “They Lived”

Agency: Carmichael Lynch
Chief Creative Officer: Dave Damman
Executive Creative Director: Randy Hughes
Writer, Associate Creative Director: Conn Newton
Art Director, Associate Creative Director: Michael Rogers
Head of Production: Joe Grundhoefer
Executive Producer: Brynn Hausmann
Business Manager: Vicki Oachs
Account Service Team: David Eiben, Krista Kelly, Kate Moret

Production Company: Park Pictures
Director: Lance Acord
Executive Producer: MaryAnn Marino
Line Producer: Aristides McGarry
Director of Photography: Lance Acord

Editing House: Whitehouse Post
Editor: Stephen Jess
Assistant Editor: Tim Quackenbush
Visual Effects: Steve Medin, Volt
Telecine: Sean Coleman, Company 3
Audio Mix, Sound Design: Carl White, BWN Music

“Clear Moment”
Composer: Miles Hankins, scoreAscore
Music Supervisor: Jonathan Hecht

On-camera talent: Tim Lane, Diane Luby Lane, Millie Lane, Charlie Burrows, Aaron Norwell, Frederick Lawrence, Stephen Taylor, Kevin Bowers
Voiceover Talent: Tim Lane, Justin Beere (announcer)

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FOX pranks Norman Reedus

I’m not going to lie to you, I’m a massive The Walking Dead fan. Zombies have always been a massive fascination of mine since I first saw Night of the Living Dead the 1968 black & white film by George A. Romero. At present the 4th series of the show is on a mid season break cuing the outbreak of Ads and social media posts, but we expect this so FOX decided to add a little spice to the already bubbling cooking pot that is fans collectively gossiping and speculating what will happen next by releasing a promo. Like stated we already expect this but they also decided to prank one of their cast members, the incredible crossbow wielding bad ass that is Norman Reedus AKA Daryl Dixon.

It’s quite genius really, they use a social star named Nick Santonastasso who is best known for his zombie pranks on the public via Vines as part of the “#getFOXed” campaign. This is where fans of their shows get the all star extraordinary fan experiences by meeting the cast and getting involved in so as Nick is a massive fan and his pranks combined it makes a perfect opportunity to help promote the shows revival come February 9th. They send him all the way to Tokyo, get the incredible Greg Nicotero to apply his award winning special effects on to him and then set the stage for the prank to begin.

I’ll let the video give you the rest of the explanation, enjoy!

Currently the fan base of the comic book (sorry! “Graphic Novel”) gone TV show is incredibly strong, the series is shown in over 120 countries and often averages 10.40 million viewers as of season 3.

Never ignore the power of a great prank to get people talking, it makes for incredible marketing. I like

(source)

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5 creative typographic images

1. Derek Ma – “Hair Types”

‘Hair Types” is a typography illustration of lettertype created out of hair and facial hair. It was shown in May 30-June 2 2013 at the Toronto Creative Type Exhibition 5 at Cooper Cole Gallery. I really enjoy the playful nature of this one, while the letters may not be as noticable at first a double take can give you the full picture. This is a great reminder that typography doesn’t need to be rigid and can be quite fluid in form.

2. Thomas Yang – “Feed your imagination”

Typography in the calligraphic style, the type gives a nice humorous description of what the colour of smarties can represent in everyday life. I can’t say for certain what font it is or maybe the type is hand rendered?

3. Aushiel Design – Typography Creative

A nice little selection of words that draw heavy enphasis on their meaning, yellow for lemon, lemon section for the “o” etc.

4. Alison Carmichael – “There are some places…“

Great image based typography to illustrate a point with brilliant colour choice.

5. Bob Cruz – Adobo Magazine

I couldn’t find much information on this. It appears to be a campaign showing insight into the world of advertising via graphic design. You can clearly see care has been taken to mold each letter into the shape of what they are being used to represent. The curl on the lid for the Haagen Dazs is brilliantly formed to create the illusion.

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