Almost done!
Im in holiday mode already, which has made this week more difficult than usual from a motivation point of view. I handed in my "What I'm doing on my Summer holiday" project last Monday along with my sketchbooks and have spent this week looking at my PDP. Feels a little weird having the crit tomorrow and having not worked on the project all week. Not much else to report...Really looking forward to some time off.
Sunday, 15 June 2008
Review - 5th Avenue flyers
These 5th Avenue flyers were handed out late last year. Unlike most flyers for clubs these caught my eye. Both are so different from each other, respecting the different purposes.
The flyer below uses the very popular silhouette effect on the people dancing and on the shapes representing speakers. The organic feel of the graphics below the people is very popular and is linked with fun and enjoyment. The other popular effect is the Ben Day Dot and "splatter" effect used in the top left hand corner, which frames the 5th Avenue logo. The text uses a san serif font with a distinctive line through all the letters, both upper case and lower case. The use of the black shilhouete on a red background is striking and the purple splatter surrounding the logo suggests 5th Avenue is a classy venue.
This flyer has a 50's feel to it. The use of the black and white image of a woman in the bottom left corner of the flyer has her lips highlighted with a pink colour suggesting lipstick. The over exaggerated expression is typical of advertising in the 50's. The white san serif text with purple back colour is used to provide a quote, written in the same 50's style. "...my Johnny's jeans looking whiter than white!" - a proud housewife. This links nicely in with the purpose of this flyer, which is a foam party. The choice of typography for the foam party is in direct contrast to the play on design with the mother figure. The typography is messy, chipped, smudged - all in need of a good cleaning. The 5th Avenue logo is again surrounded by a purple shape, consistent with the previous flyer. The contrasting colour of the orange background, with sunbeam styled graphics (again, typically 50's advertising feel) work well and isnt too over powering. The use of the bubbles to provide further information about date and time continues the theme of washing.
The flyer below uses the very popular silhouette effect on the people dancing and on the shapes representing speakers. The organic feel of the graphics below the people is very popular and is linked with fun and enjoyment. The other popular effect is the Ben Day Dot and "splatter" effect used in the top left hand corner, which frames the 5th Avenue logo. The text uses a san serif font with a distinctive line through all the letters, both upper case and lower case. The use of the black shilhouete on a red background is striking and the purple splatter surrounding the logo suggests 5th Avenue is a classy venue.
This flyer has a 50's feel to it. The use of the black and white image of a woman in the bottom left corner of the flyer has her lips highlighted with a pink colour suggesting lipstick. The over exaggerated expression is typical of advertising in the 50's. The white san serif text with purple back colour is used to provide a quote, written in the same 50's style. "...my Johnny's jeans looking whiter than white!" - a proud housewife. This links nicely in with the purpose of this flyer, which is a foam party. The choice of typography for the foam party is in direct contrast to the play on design with the mother figure. The typography is messy, chipped, smudged - all in need of a good cleaning. The 5th Avenue logo is again surrounded by a purple shape, consistent with the previous flyer. The contrasting colour of the orange background, with sunbeam styled graphics (again, typically 50's advertising feel) work well and isnt too over powering. The use of the bubbles to provide further information about date and time continues the theme of washing.
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Website review - davehum.com
http://www.davehum.com/
Dave Hum is a freelance flash and web designer based in Hampshire. His entire site is flash based and is continually growing with examples of his games, portfolio, artwork and photos etc. It is a very good example of an online portfolio of work.
His overall design feels alittle confused. He has a fantastic background image of weathered wood but then has overlaid it with some very stylish, very flash looking, graphics. I wonder if the interface could be better matched to the background, alternatively choose a more appropriate background.
Navigation is easy though the use of buttons along the top and destination windows leaving the main window available, making it easy to get back to the main index page. The website uses pre-loaders and all text on the website is easy to read.
My favourite game is Bricks which can be found under the Flash Experiments and the most annoying part is the music resets its self every time you go back to the page. Im not a fan of music or other sounds on websites in general unless they are promoting a band's music.
Dave Hum is a freelance flash and web designer based in Hampshire. His entire site is flash based and is continually growing with examples of his games, portfolio, artwork and photos etc. It is a very good example of an online portfolio of work.
His overall design feels alittle confused. He has a fantastic background image of weathered wood but then has overlaid it with some very stylish, very flash looking, graphics. I wonder if the interface could be better matched to the background, alternatively choose a more appropriate background.
Navigation is easy though the use of buttons along the top and destination windows leaving the main window available, making it easy to get back to the main index page. The website uses pre-loaders and all text on the website is easy to read.
My favourite game is Bricks which can be found under the Flash Experiments and the most annoying part is the music resets its self every time you go back to the page. Im not a fan of music or other sounds on websites in general unless they are promoting a band's music.
Film Review - Renaissance
Paris, 2042: a dark Rotoscope world of shadows and right angles. Ilona Tasuiev (Romola Garai), a brilliant young scientist, is kidnapped, and her employer, Avalon, a major health and beauty corporation, wants her found. Karas (Daniel Craig), a jaded police captain, is assigned to find her, fast. He seeks help from her sister, Bislane (Catherine McCormack), and they are soon uncovering identify theft, missing files, and hints that something back in 2006 may explain what's going on. Ilona's mentor, Avalon's vice president, a Japanese researcher, an underworld boss, and Bislane's drug connection all figure in the mix. So does an attraction between Karas and Bislane.
This has won two awards and was released in July 2006 and is the second film by director Christian Volckman. The strength of the visual style is reminiscent of comic book adaptations and takes a little getting use to, but then the audience is drawn into the plot.
Although I like the unusual style and recognise the work and effort going into the making of this film, the story wasn't particularly strong and some of the facial expressions were lost in the rotoscoping process.
Review - Damages' title sequence
Damages is an American legal thriller series. The initial season's plotline revolved around a brilliant yet ruthless lawyer (Glenn Close) attempting to win a class-action lawsuit against the former CEO of a corporation (Ted Danson) on behalf of his former workers, by any means necessary. The show ran for 13 episodes.
The title sequence runs after an initial recap of the previous episode and, except for one part towards the end, is highly stylised using a black or dark blue tint. Occassionally using an excentuated colour, for example the gold statue, where the gold contrasts with the blue tint. The editing is fast and uses both a speeded up frame rate and normal panning shots. This works well with the music overlay and together with the visuals gives a good feel for what the series is about.
The chose of typography works well with the legal contents and the no nonsense storyline. Everything feels minimal and not confusing even though the editing can be very fast.
The one area where it falls down is towards the end where the use of black or the blue tint has been dropped and the images use real colour. It is noticable and does stand out of the rest of the sequence.
Sunday, 8 June 2008
This weeks reflections - w/e 8 June 2008
Well, it's done, complete, finished. The final project of the year is, well, was due tomorrow and so I have met that deadline. We have been given a weeks extension due to other activities at the college. I did think about taking that week and using it to "muck" about with what I have been able to do so far, thanks to Stuart of course. I have decided not to, in an attempt to learn to control myself and my fantastically lacking design ability.
It will be interesting to see what is made of this at the crit. I have only had one meeting with Alex and she liked what she saw with no revisions etc. Stuart has made a couple of suggestions, trying to break me away from my fall back position of a corporate feel. This raises an interesting point. I have shown this project to a number of people and on a whole people like it. They like different aspects. One of my friends said it was good but it didnt come over as very professional or corporate. And he is right, it isnt very professional. If there really was a Lambshire they wouldnt go for this look or feel. When I did have more corporate feel to it I was encouraged by Stuart to change those elements. This project was meant as some fun, which it was despite Flash's attempts to confuse me. I have lost count the number of times I have said to myself "it was working last time!!" This makes me wonder if I could do a commercial site, do I have the design ability? If I'm totally honest with myself I don't think I have created anything this year that is anywhere near professional. I have been assured that 3/4 weeks into the second year it suddenly happens, if I make it to second year.
Next week I am going to concentrate on finishing off the PDP elements and look at sorting out my online portfolio with an idea of then approaching companies asking for placements/work experience. Now that it's written down I had better do it and not be tempted to go into holiday mode.
The final piece can be found at
http://www.sharyne.co.uk/test_site/sharynetromanslambshirefinal.html
It will be interesting to see what is made of this at the crit. I have only had one meeting with Alex and she liked what she saw with no revisions etc. Stuart has made a couple of suggestions, trying to break me away from my fall back position of a corporate feel. This raises an interesting point. I have shown this project to a number of people and on a whole people like it. They like different aspects. One of my friends said it was good but it didnt come over as very professional or corporate. And he is right, it isnt very professional. If there really was a Lambshire they wouldnt go for this look or feel. When I did have more corporate feel to it I was encouraged by Stuart to change those elements. This project was meant as some fun, which it was despite Flash's attempts to confuse me. I have lost count the number of times I have said to myself "it was working last time!!" This makes me wonder if I could do a commercial site, do I have the design ability? If I'm totally honest with myself I don't think I have created anything this year that is anywhere near professional. I have been assured that 3/4 weeks into the second year it suddenly happens, if I make it to second year.
Next week I am going to concentrate on finishing off the PDP elements and look at sorting out my online portfolio with an idea of then approaching companies asking for placements/work experience. Now that it's written down I had better do it and not be tempted to go into holiday mode.
The final piece can be found at
http://www.sharyne.co.uk/test_site/sharynetromanslambshirefinal.html
Sunday, 1 June 2008
This weeks reflections - w/e 1 June 2008
Yet another week gone, and by my calculations only one more week to go...9 days til this last project is to be handed in. I think its coming along nicely thanks to Stuart and his powers and patience with me and AS 2.0.
What's to be done apart from the tweaking? Videoing Lamby, creating and printing the little booklet, revise the text. Im sure it can be done in a week :) wish me luck cos I'm going to need it working with Flash. Don't tell this to Stuart but I actually enjoy working with flash, especially the coding.
These are my drawings that have been put into the CD-ROM. Obviously was in the "zone" when I set about drawing these.
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