Friday 30 September 2011

Alphabet Soup Type Research.

I have now researched into some possible typefaces that I could base my designs on. I decided I wanted a font that was already condensed so that it would still fit into the theme whatever the rest of the design was. Here are some examples..

Sourced from: http://www.dafont.com

This example is called 'SF Movie Poster,' I like the simplistic style and elongated appearance, but I think that maybe it's not bulky enough to fit some of my heavier design ideas inside.

Sourced from: http://www.dafont.com

I then looked at this font, 'American Purpose Stripe.' I chose it because of it's thicker appearance and I liked the look of them as a set. Although, when I just viewed my chosen letter A I didn't feel it had the narrow look I was going for.

Sourced from: http://www.dafont.com

Next was 'Headline.' I was really considering using this type as it had all the qualities that I was looking for. My only problem was that maybe some of the letters were a bit to heavy and bulky.

Sourced from: http://www.dafont.com

Finally I found 'Alegre Sans NC,' I am really happy with this font. It has all the good points of the previous type but slightly thinner and clearer.

I was considering using a collection of typefaces and having a different one for each design, but now after thinking about it because all my ideas are quite different I would like to use the same initial font to base them all on in order to tie them together.




Alphabet Soup Initial Research.

This morning I have been gathering some initial research together to help with some inspiration. I have decided to look at some fonts the already explore a condensed theme, so I have something to base some ideas on. Some examples are...

I love closely spaced condensed type so much. But not as much as I love high contrast modern typefaces.

I really like this piece. The elongated appearance looks very effective especially when the letters are stood alongside each other. I also like the subtle texture that has been created, maybe this is something I could include in my designs?

typeverything:

Typeverything.com
Agency sign by Oscar and Ewan. Made from white doweling rods suspended on nylon thread.

This example has inspired more of an abstract idea, rather than the letter itself being condesed it follows the thought that the pieces that have been used to create it are condensed together to create the form.


This is a photograph I took after using the shower, I think it demonstrates a really interesting concept I could develop. I like the handwritten quality and the water drips also add an unusual quality. I then developed this thought and gathered some condensation imagery...

Condensation in window

http://www.motorhomesdirect.co.uk/

After researching this it took me onto the idea of something I learnt at school in science, states of matter. I think I could really develop this idea to demonstrate liquids and gases in a simple, symbolic way...

Sourced from: http://www.daviddarling.info

Next I looked at one of my definitions, 'to make more concise.' To begin with I was quite confused about how I could portray this, but after reading the definition of concise which basically is about reducing anything unnecessary to portray something in its simplest form I came up with an idea I could use. I first looked at really cursive and elaborate fonts...


I really like the curved, spiral design of this font and I think it is an aspect I could work with.


This letter is extremely decorative, I really like it but I don't think I will take my idea this far.


Here is another example, again I really like the additional elaboration.

For this idea I would like to demonstrate these cursive elements I have shown being removed from the basic letter to hopefully show the letter becoming more concise.


Thursday 22 September 2011

Crit Feedback.

Today we had a crit with blog group two, I found it really helpful to get an opinion from a different group of people who haven't been involved in the project. We asked them some questions at the end of our talk and here is what they said...

Q. Do you think our project will be useful in a real life situation?
A. Yes.

Q. Where do you think is a suitable place for freshers to pick it up is?
A. Freshers Fair, clubs/bars/pubs

Q. If you made instructions for freshers what format would you put it in?
A. Posters, something to stick on a wall.

Q. Do you think the imagery and style is attractive for freshers?
A. Yes, quite cool. Doesn't take itself to seriously.

Q. Do you think our outlet serves its purpose?
A. Yes, it's funny and memorable.

After asking our questions we wrote five action points on how to progress...

  1. Sort out printing.
  2. Think about more comical text.
  3. Create a presentation.
  4. Finish final piece.
  5. Apply feedback.

Presentation Idea.

Here is something I made up last night. We decided that we liked the idea of having a poster but we also wanted it to be easily transported around. With this the size is easy enough to fit into a purse or wallet but also has the poster folded up inside for easy viewing...



Wednesday 21 September 2011

Photo Collection.

Today our blog group went out into Leeds to gather some primary research for our project. We walked around the city to different areas to gather imagery to represent some different scenarios. I found it fun to do and I also think it will be really helpful in inspiring the illustartive side of the tasks. Here are some examples...

Flagging A Cab




I think these photo's will be really helpful as introductory images to help set the scene for our final piece. I also think that the second one could also be linked to 'charming the taxi driver' if we needed some picture link for that topic.

Drunken Mess


These images portray the theme well and I think they would be successful when turned into illustrations too.

Eating Food


This set of images is really funny, I think this will be good for setting a humerous note to appeal to the target audience.

Taxi Cabs






These images will be really helpful for just the basic research into taxi cab appearance, as you can see there are lots of different styles so we have a lot to choose from.

Taxi Man

Finally, this is our taxi man photograph and is my favourite from the day. We all really liked the idea of having a character like this incorporated into out piece so I think an image like this will be perfect!


Tuesday 20 September 2011

Initial Ideas.

Our group have had a few discussions now since we first received the brief and we have come up with a few possible ideas of what we could create. This has led to a few topics for possible research. To begin with we kept it quite general, here is our mind map that we wrote out to display our ideas...


Taxi Research

Over the past few days I have been collecting business cards from the taxi drivers I have been using, here are some examples...


All of the cards have a similar format where the name and number are pride of place. There is also very little imagery or none at all and they all use basic font types.

Whilst gathering these I have also been talking to the taxi drivers, about what might annoy them and what may make them decide not to pick up particular customers, the main points they said were...
  • Don't let in people eating food.
  • People that look dodgy have to pay in advance.
  • Don't like vandalisation, so they watch people in their mirror.
  • No sick
Other things I have noticed and thought of whilst travelling in cabs are...
  •  It is a bad decision to admit to being a fresher as it usually results in overpriced fares.
  • Charm the driver.
All these points I think will be a big part in our final piece, but we will need to think of how to word our title to make it describe how you could struggle to flag a cab.

Design Research

Our main idea or design has come from aeroplane safety cards, they are a big inspiration for all of the points we have been talking about. Here are some examples...

Sourced from: Rohini Rathi

I really like the simple illustration style in this example, I think the limited colour palette looks really effective and helps to link the images together to form a set.

Sourced from: Next Nature

This example demonstrates humour within the piece, I think this would be a good technique for us to use as I believe it will really appeal to the target audience of students. The design in this I think is less effective though as I don't think the colours and layout work very successfully.

Sourced from: Flyer Goodness

I think this is my favourite design style from the 3. The line style illustrations filled with a block colour looks really effective, I also like the choice of colours used in this as it creates a really retro look that is quite popular at the minute, so I think it will appeal to people easily. The composition is also successful and I think it is a structure we could easily base our ideas on.

Sourced from: YouTube

This video demonstrates how the safety card idea an be developed further. I think it is really entertaining and is a clever concept.

Vice Student Guide Research

THE VICE GUIDE TO UNIVERSITY

From the archives
ACADEMIC SUCCESS
Don’t worry so much. A 2:1 is the most common grade. Nobody gets firsts except weird brainiacs or Chinese people. This looks great on graduation day but understand that straight A students have endured years of overbearing parents, endless maths tests and “educational toys” for Christmas presents. For the men, when they get to 32 they spend thousands on rare Stars Wars figures because they never had them when they were young. The women? It usually manifests itself in a huge dildo collection, prostitution, madness, suicide or becoming a sexually voracious, piss drinking slattern. Good six-month-girlfriend material if you can handle the suicide attempts.
BED SHEETS
A lot of students, especially the boys, are little wimps struggling to understand life away from the comfort of mummy’s bosom. This is why they don’t wash their bed sheets for a whole year. They sleep on gallons of dried cum, piss, vomit, spilled beer and tiny particles of Original Cool Doritos. This is how they get “fresher’s flu”. It’s because they can’t take care of themselves. They invented a thing called the internet a while ago and if you type in www.google.com and enter “healthy diet” you can probably stop all this happening. Also, don’t be scared of the Launderette. Just ask the immigrant lady how to work it. Or do a service wash. It’s more expensive but time-wise it’s a lot more economical.
COCAINE
Forget this until you get a job or you attend university in Liverpool or London. If you get into it (mistake) just make sure you do it properly. No Scarface posters or Hawaiian shirts. Do quick bumps off 20p coins instead of 5-minutes-to-prepare lines off toilet seats. Also, no bumps after 4.30 A.M. as 99 per cent of the time nothing good is going to happen after that time in the morning. Getting a girl back to your halls is easier if you’ve got some coke there. We know a guy who was so desperate to bang this girl he got her back to his dorm on the promise of coke. He didn’t have any so he faked it with sugar. To cover up the fact that it was sugar he put it in the microwave to “dry it out” before chopping it up into lines. It didn’t work, but you have to appreciate the ingenuity.
DEBT
Hahahaha. This is why I never went to university. Even if you’re thriftier than a person who recycles their own toilet paper you can expect to be in AT LEAST £20,000 worth of solid gold debt by the time you graduate. If you can get your parents to pay your rent you’ll still be in about £10,000 of debt. Unless you’re a millionaire and can afford to have that debt hanging over you for about 40 years, ask yourself this question: is that three year course in 3-D Digital Design really worth the effort? What are you going to be qualified for? Being an intern at a computer games magazine while all your friends who fucked their A-levels up are making £25,000 a year selling mobile phones?
EGGS
As well as noodles and spaghetti, eggs are all that you cunts will be eating for the next three years. You can’t make them in the microwave but you can throw them around your halls when you’re drunk (hilarious). These are the basis of the classic student dish, Spanish omelette. Boys who think they’re classy invite girls over to their house and give them £5.99 wine and a Spanish omelette when they want to impress them. Most of the time the girl is thinking: “He promised me a ‘chilled cordon bleu sesh’ and he’s serving me an omelette with potatoes in it.”
FRIENDS
As much as you want to be the moody outsider Ian Curtis guy, you’re going to need friends to get you through all this shit. If you’re shy, have a few drinks then be loud and gregarious at as many parties as possible. Eventuallly something will fall in your lap. People will spread the word that you’re funny at parties and you’ll get invited back. Eventually you’ll have so many potential friends that you’ll have to go through the editing process. See viceland.com (Happiness Issue) for more details.
GAYS
University is where a large majority of people experience their first dabblings in the exciting world of homosexuality. The best thing to do is to experiment as freely as possible, but be careful, don’t bow to peer pressure. The LGBT Society is huge in all the universities but that doesn’t mean they’re not annoying self-satisfied pricks who have swallowed so much mid-90s liberal dogma that having a conversation with them is like talking to an insane 90-year-old woman. It’s barely-remembered catch phrases and blank expressions the whole time.
They’re the ones self-righteously handing out sexual advice leaflets and free condoms while you’re waiting to get your lunch. Like anybody who’s old enough to go to college doesn’t know how to avoid sexual diseases and buy their own condoms anyway. And sorry, men who like dressing up in women’s clothes does not qualify as a social group. It’s a sexual foible. Should we have support groups, pamphlets and long public meetings about empowering people who buy underwear three sizes too small or people who like fat hairy Greek taxi drivers who dollop ladels of yoghurt on their gigantic hairy balls while they’re waiting to pick up a fare?
HALLS
More rules. Don’t eat other people’s yoghurts. Or any of their food. Conversely, if somebody steals your food from the fridge, don’t leave gay little outraged notes for them in the fridge. Track the fucker down and confront them directly. Poke them in the eyes and kick them in the crotch.
Also, don’t set the fire alarms off at two in the morning. What are you, eleven? Most importantly, don’t have sex with the people you live with unless you’re going to marry them. University is a chance to get laid as many times as possible with as many different people as possible. Leave commitment until your 30s.
INSANITY
Year two affects some people like a mini mid-life crisis. There’s the realisation that you’ve pissed away your first year and that now, all of a sudden, you’ve got to start getting yourself together or the whole thing will be a gigantic waste. This is where the weak-minded and the druggies start to wobble and develop signs of madness, like not coming out of their rooms for days, cutting themselves, crying out of context etc. These people need your help. Talk to them honestly about how much they’re fucking themselves up and if, after six months, they show no signs of responding, then force them to quit university, rethink everything and go back to real life. Unless they’re setting fire to your house or killing animals, DO NOT take them near any NHS psychiatric units. If you get sectioned (detained against your will under the Mental Health Act) you are fucked forever. Rember Angelina Jolie in Girl Interrupted? The reality is a million times worse. You’ll be plunged into a twilight world of really strong sedatives, cigarette-smoke-filled dayrooms, constant yelling, farting, puking, crying and people who are thirty years older than you waking you up in the middle of the night crying and asking to borrow your clothes. Flirting with heroin and burglary is less risky than flirting with the mental health system. You have no fucking idea.
JOBS
Unless you’re a leech with rich misguided parents, you have to get a job at college. It keeps you in touch with the real world outside of student life and gives you a sense of perspective in between the all-night wine drinking and three hour lectures about social media trend predicting. FACT: if you have a job, internship or work experience while at university, the chances of you getting a job when you leave are quadrupled.
KNOWLEDGE
The pursuit of this is the main reason you’re at university. Just a reminder. Like we said before, it’s costing you at least £20,000.
LOVE & MARRIAGE
No time for this. You’re in a three-year sprint. Don’t let lust and sentimentality get in the way of the ONLY REASON YOU ARE AT UNIVERSITY. Working. Doing your exams. Touching strangers beneath their underwear night after night. Forming bands so you can get backstage blowjobs. What with 9/11 and all the envrionmental disasters, getting married seemed like a good idea three years ago. The reality is it takes maturity, patience and a steady job. Not for you.
MEDIA STUDENTS
They have courses where you can learn how to be a TV presenter but the people who teach you how to do it are failed TV presenters who wear cancer wigs in bed. The people who teach you how to be a journalist are bitter hacks from the local paper who became alcoholics and couldn’t hack it on the newsdesk any more. If you want a job in the media, the key is to have ideas and to be prepared to work for free in shitty offices for months. People think working in the media is a carousel of comfort, huge pay cheques and glamour. Fact is, 98 per cent of media shitworkers experience that kind of thing once every three years. One of the only valid things that the first year feminists talk about is that media is still TOTALLY DOMINATED by rich white fat guys who like booze, whores, coke and paying their employees shit. You can forget waltzing through the doors with your piece of shit media studies degree and requesting a job starting at £25,000. It won’t happen.
NEWSPAPERS
Fuck those catamites who still walk around the Student Union with The Guardian poking out of their bag as a way of announcing to the world that “I’m clever and open-minded”. They are reverse chavs. Fundamentally, there is no difference between that person and a working class moron wearing a fake Burberry cap. They’re both walking around with a bogus status symbol trying to accumulate some identity.
People like Julie Burchill got it wrong when they did those hasty documentaries about “in defence of chavs”. The stigmatisation of chavs was not an attack on working class people. It was an attack on morons with bad taste. Go and hang out with all the people from Islington queueing in line to go and watch Talvin Singh play a concert. They’re not working class but they’re all fucking morons with bad taste. People who work at daily newspapers don’t have time to distill simple truths like that though. They just get a big whiteboard and write words like “Racist” “Celebrity” “Cocaine” “Paedophile” and “Football” and create stories around them. Make sure you get a fast internet connection from your university and read as many different news sources as possible. That way you can form your own opinion about things. Again, make it easier for yourself.
OXFORD
If you get in here and don’t totally fuck it up you’re pretty much made for life.
POLITICAL SOCIETIES
A total waste of time. Run by boorish losers with dogma breath. Take a course in political science or read some books if you’re that arsed.
QUAD VODS
Selling quadruple vodka shots is illegal but if you give the student an empty pint glass and two smaller glasses with vodka in it then it makes it OK. And it’s not vodka. It’s distilled surgical spirit with flavourings in it. Amazing for breaking the ice with new people but in the long-run? Enjoy going blind.
RATS
These are what you get if you live near a pub or a restaurant and are a messy cunt who never cleans the kitchen or living room. They may be a source of amusement for a while and the Crispin Glovers among you might protest that they’re living beings with as much right to life as humans but bear in mind these fuckers carry myriad disesases that can kill you. If you let them live they will breed and then you will be charged about £150 by a pest control service who will douse your house with poison. Maybe they’ll kill some of the rats but they won’t stop the stench of their decomposing bodies that’ll start coming through your floorboards for the next nine months. Suuur-WEET!
SOAP OPERAS
No time for this either. If you get to a point where you can remember watching Neighbours twice a day more than five times in two weeks then you’re probably fucked.
TATTOOS
Go nuts. Traditional is always best though. No Chinese tummy tattoos for girls. No logo of any band unless it’s Crass, Eyehategod, Black Flag, Misfits or Motorhead. Bands like that designed their logos so they’d look good as tattoos. No graffiti tattoos. No mystic symbols. A red devil on the arse of a drunken 35-year-old swinger mum of three is a million times better than getting an AK-47 on your leg because you’re trying to divert attention away from the fact that you’re the biggest fucking dweeb in the world.
VENEREAL DISEASE
Register with a doctor. Like all the things we’re saying here, just be smart and don’t be scared of life. A wart on your penis or vagina can be cleared up in five minutes. Just next time be more careful. However, AIDS can be a bit more difficult to cure.
WIM WENDERS
You’re probably going to have to sit through one of his films during your time here.
XANAX
If you find an American exchange student, make friends with them. They will have Xanax. Also ask them about Oxycodone, Percocet or Vicodin (overrated). Google them. Erowid.org is a good resource for drugs information.
YELLOW SKIN
If you have this you’re either Oriental or you have jaundice. Eat some fruit and vegetables. Peel it, put it in your mouth, chew and swallow. There you go little baby!
ZERO
Ending up £20,000 in debt, failing your exams and endless feelings of guilt and regret just so you could be lazy, play computer games and network with other drunk losers is just fucking stupid. If you’re unsure about university then fucking quit straight away. Save yourself the fucking bother. If you’re not serious about using university as a way to better yourself and instead treat the next three years as a gay social club then you should be gassed. They send videos of people like you to the Muslims in Bradford. They watch them in between the footage of the World Trade Centre and the London bombings. They’re laughing at you, you lazy, privileged, Western piece of shit. You are the reason that World War 3 is happening.
I think this extract would be good to base any language that we use in our final piece on. I really like the humerous tone and I think it will appeal strongly to students which will help our product relate to them.


Induction Week.

On Friday we were assigned our first brief! It was slightly daunting but at the same time exciting to be getting on to some design work after all the induction lectures that had taken place that week. We were split into our blogging groups and assigned a series of tasks before we were even aware of what the brief would be, which consisted of coming up with fifty problems we have or will encounter throughout this year. This then led us to seperate them into categories and select ten from the group to write into a list in a 'how to' format. They then got tore into seperate pieces and placed into a hat with the ten choices from the other groups. Each group then took it in turns to select a random five and choose one. Our choice was 'How To Flag Down A Taxi.' We then recieved the brief...

 
After first reading the brief we were unsure whether we had picked the right statement, I thought that maybe the focus for what we could create was quite narrow and that it would be hard to think of interesting concepts, but after a group discussion I think we feel a lot more confident with the task. We spent the remaining time of the workshop thinking of initial ideas,writing mind maps and suggesting what we could do to move the project on over the weekend.