Day 31

Third Meeting with Adam

Ice Pops Brief.
Going into this meeting I wanted to discuss the initial brief with Adam as I was unsure what the actual brief was. As Adam came to me with this brief and idea, I didn't want to change it too much, therefore I wanted to know what the initial brief is. After discussing this for a while and going through all of the different ideas we both had, we settled on an idea which we are both a lot happier with and an idea which is more achievable.

The Brief.
Create an ice pop shop and propose it. This will include creating the branding and identity for the shop, packaging for the products being sold, information graphics on the walls and the menus, signage. Also photography of the ice lollys being made. This will be a proposed shop.

Further Development.
I am a lot happier with this brief and think it makes more sense and is more achievable, I also think that Adam is a lot clearer and happier with the current amended brief too. As we are both interested in similar things we have decided to come up with some initial illustrations for the shop and the murals on the walls and bring them both together to see what works best. We won't be doing this throughout the brief as it may just waste time, both doing the same things, but for the initial identity I think that this is important that we both have a say. We also started to think about names and have currently come up with 'Solli' which I am happy. This will be the starting point of this brief, I now feel like the brief has been established and I know what I need to do and get on with.

Day 30

Day 29

Ditto Workshop 1

Ditto Press.

The Method.
For this brief I have decided that I will look into what people do to research their subject. Doing this means that I will find my own personal research methodology, and create a plan as to what I do when I am researching a subject. To do this I need to find a methodology that would work for any subject matter. After doing this I will test out my methodology with different subjects to see if they will work for each of them. This will be very interesting and will help me greatly with my research methods in the future.

Research Methods.

• Interviewing people, interrogating the subject.
• Googling the subject to see what comes up.
• Reading Books on the subject.
• Reading articles on the subject.
• Finding other things related to the subject.
• Looking at existing design around the subject.
• Photography on the subject.
• Experiencing the subject in some way.
• Asking different audiences about the subject, which will find different view points.
• Find and read different forums online about the subject.
• Mind map my thoughts and what I already know on the subject, what comes to mind.
• Find an audience and what they would like to see on the subject.
• Analyse the brief.
• Focus groups about the subject.
• Structured observation, watching people and how they react to things and their behavior.

Things I need to think about with my methodology.

• How I work and how I think.
• Something that is interesting and works for me.
• Doesn't have to be printed.
• How do I want to work?
• No individual topic - research anything.
• The methodology must work for everything, all subjects I use.

My research process (first thoughts).

1. Analyse the brief.
2. Pinterest/Behance the subject matter.
3. Collect books from the library to read and make notes on.
4. Photograph the subject/Experience the subject.
5. Make a mind map of different ideas.

Anaslysis.
When we were first given this brief, I was confused a lot between the research process and the research topic. This is something that I have been made more clear on. The brief itself is based on working out what our own individual way of researching is, regardless of the topic or theme. I first thought that I wouldn't be able to use the same methodology throughout different topics as I would approach them in different ways, although I have found that I do go through the same process to starting a brief. After reading through the brief I do have initial thoughts and ideas for an outcome, and usually form the research around the outcome I have in my head. This is something I need to stop doing, I need to research further into a certain subject before I find out what I am going to do for a brief. This is how my research methodology will help me. In the future if I use my methodology I will find out more information about the subject before researching my end outcome.

Action Plan.
For this brief I will figure out what methods I use and in what order I use them in more detail than my initial thoughts. I will also try to communicate this in an interesting way that works for me and that is most helpful for me. This will help me with future briefs also.

Tutorial.
The tutorial was really helpful as it clarified why we were doing what we were doing, and that how we currently research isn't wrong and we don't need to change how we do it, but we should be using a methodology within this process, this is what I need to think about so I am aware of what I am doing and how. This will fulfill this brief, and will be something I will think about leading up to the next session of 'The Method' with Ditto Press.

Day 28

First Crit

The Crit.
We were put into groups for our crits, which is good as it meant that we would get different opinions than those of our friends and people we may usually show our work to. My group was very ranged which was also good and having the crit meant that I was able to see the work others have been producing that I wouldn't have seen before this point. Our group was quite big and we found that we couldn't hear the other side of the table, therefore we decided to split the group into two. We also decided as a group that we would give verbal feedback for the crit rather than writing anything down for others. The crit was very informal and between our group there was a wide range of quantity of work, as it was clear some people had produced quite a lot of work so far and others has produced hardly anything for the amount of time we have had.

What I took to the crit.

I decided to take my screen prints to the crit, also showing some of the original monsters that I have produced so far. For my "100 days of..." brief I decided to create a monster a day for 100 days, for the second part of this brief I am still unsure what I am going to do for it although I know that it will be a social campaign, which reflects advertising positively, to go along with my essay, this is something that I am am doing in two parts as it makes it easier for me to manage. Therefore I decided to explain in my crit some of my ideas and see if anyone had any suggestions or thoughts.

My Feedback.

• Could create a series of screen prints and sell them, including all of the monsters, also some larger versions of a few of the monsters.
• Create a publication including all of the monsters.
• Top trumps and give each of the monsters different powers and strengths, this could be related to children or even childish adults.
• A campaign for people to be creative and take the "100 Days Of" challenge.
• Could tie the monsters to the brand 'monster' energy drink and create promotion for them.
• The two colour screen prints work really well and look good as a set.
• Send some of my prints and some of the monsters I have done to The hungry Sandwich Club.

All of this feedback is really helpful and I will think about this further as my brief progresses as I am only on day 27 at the minute so I have a lot more time to decide more of what I can do, when I have a better and more solid idea I will take it to a crit and see what people think, as I really want there to be a purpose and achieve something through this brief, rather than just proposing something. As for the comment about the hungry sandwich club, I am flattered that it got mentioned in my crit as I admire them so much, and will be getting in contact with them at some point soon. I will take more ideas about 100 days of... mainly to CoP crits, although it has been helpful for me bringing it to practical crits.

What I took to the crit.

I also decided to take in my current brief of the Quentin Tarantino box set. A few days ago I was really stuck with the aesthetic of the box set and the covers of the films, although I am a lot clearer now. I think that the illustrations on the covers of each film should be clear enough without having to put the title of each film on them. I also think that the illustrations as they are look too standard so I thought I would try experimenting with zooming in on the images, so they are still identifiable but more interesting.

My Feedback.

• Definitely use the illustrations zoomed in as they are more interesting, they also clear about what film they are without seeing too much detail. This would only work though with iconic scenes.
• Love the colour scheme, works really well for Tarantino.
• Consider the stock I am going to use.
• Consider the packaging for the actual box set and the material used.
• Maybe have the name of the film on the spine of each film so that they are clear when they are all in the box set and you know which one you are going to pull out.

The feedback from this was quite helpful, although it just justified my ideas, although that makes me feel better. I have found that I have been spreading my time too fine, so I am doing too many different briefs at the same time, for example my '100 Days Of..', 'Box Set', 'Wide-Eyed', 'Pop' and extended essay research. This is something I need to manage better I am not getting as much done as I thought I would. I need to prioritise the live briefs as this is most important as it is for a client. Keep up to date with my '100 Days Of...' and set at least one day a week for extended essay only.

After the crit I decided to go back to the other half of the group to see the work they have been doing as our group finished slightly early. I think that this crit has been really useful as I got some feedback and was able to see other peoples work. Although the crit went quite quickly, and the feedback was all verbal and quite informal it was helpful. It was most helpful seeing what everyone else has been doing so far, I was able to see how much people have done and the range of the work that has been done. I was also able to see how little some people have done, and in some cases how much people have done which gives me more of a drive to do more. 

Day 27

Day 26

Day 25

Day 24

Cover Development

DVD Packaging Covers.
After starting to illustrate Pulp Fiction scenes and Kill Bill scenes I found that I need to think about the layout and overall aesthetic of the box set itself. I have decided what kind of packaging I am going to use for the box set, so it would just be the layouts and aesthetic that I am going to use.

I decided to use Pulp Fiction as an example for the layouts, as it is my favourite Tarantino film, and it is the film I know most about. Considering using film quotes on the inside and illustrations, representing a comic strip type effect as that is something that Tarantino is really into.

I think that having a zoomed in version of the illustration on the cover might work well, experimenting with the different uses of type. Such as maybe not including the film title at all on the front cover.

Digital Experiments.
I have decided to move digitally for now as it is easier to experiment with the different layouts to see how they would look using the different illustrations that I have already created. I have decided to experiment with different layouts and colours, trying to fins a colour scheme.

After trying a few layouts I decided that I need to initially find a colour palette to use throughout the box set. This is something that is really important and it will send a message through the colours.

Going through the different colour schemes that I am considering were all brought from what I consider represent Quentin Tarantino. I have noticed that a lot of Tarantino films have the colour red, this represents violence, danger and power which I think Tarantino films show. 

Cover Layouts.

Trying out different layouts for the Pulp Fiction cover meant that I could see what it would actually look like rather than just drawing up thumbnails. The type on the cover looks awful in my opinion, I also think that its not necessary to have the title, as the illustrations should be enought to establish which film it is.

Testing out some of the colours from the colour scheme I have chosen on the background of the cover to see if it will make a difference. I prefer it on the black, it looks more classic and Tarantino, and less tacky and desperate.

I know that I want to have the close ups of the most well known or most memorable scenes in the film, but there are many different layouts that I could choose from, its just finding the one that works best for each film.

I also started to look at Kill Bill Vol. 2 where the most iconic moment was when she was breaking out of the coffin when she was burried alive. I really like the close up on the hand, arm and body shot, although I'm not sure about the other, I don't want to use the same image twice, I also want to use a detailed vector image. For this one I think that I will create another illustration, maybe of the knife in the boots in this scene.