Publication Crit

Publication Crit.
During the crit today with Tony Broomhead I decided that I wanted to discuss my publication as it is something that I have ideas for, although I'm not sure what I am actually going to do for it. Therefore it would be nice to be in a crit with peers who I can speak about my ideas with, but also so that I can get an opinion from an outsider of the course. Before going into the crit I had done a few different things to try and think of ideas. I thought that getting it all written down would help me through the crit.

My ideas.

I am thinking about making an animation that runs alongside a publication including image making in the publication and how important image making is to my practice. Including Branding, Packaging, Editorial, Information Graphics and Animation, I will show how important image making is to these processes to me and in general. This is my methodology when making graphic design, considering the imagery.

During the Crit.
Animation 
- could include a coversation over the top.
- use someone elses voice.
- interview over the top of me making an image/animation.
- keep it fun and laid back not too serious with the voice over.

Flip Book 
- create a flip book showing how an image is made.
- show my process with a small animation at the bottom of moving people.

Record Myself
- make an animation of me making an image, showing how I make an image.
- quicktime player.
- screen shots.
- publication and show screen shots of how I make an image, my methodology.
- live drawing something I am interested in - pugs.

Overall
Doing screen shots of the me creating a brief will show my methodology, this would link with both publication or animation, whatever I am wanting to do. Create a video of the image making process that I go through.

After The Crit
After the crit I have decided that I am slightly more clear with the idea of the brief, although I am more confused about actually what I am going to do, and the content of whatever I am going to make. I know that the publication is whatever I want it to be as it is my methodology, although I am still not sure what to do for it, and how I can get across my methodology in the best way. Overall I think that I need to continue doing more research to find out what would be the best thing for me to do for my publication.

Plan So Far.

Thoughts.
So far during level 6 I have many different briefs on the go. The first brief I started was '100 days of..' this is quite a large brief but has a large time scale so doesn't take up too much time to create 1 monster a day, as long as I keep on top of it, which I have done so far, this is somthing I will be using for my Context of Practice practical. I also started my Quentin Tarantino Boxset at the start of the year too. After starting these briefs I then received two different live briefs that need to be done to a deadline, one of which is quite small(Christmas Sushi), the other being quite large(Wide-Eyed Records). To take a break from the others I entered a competition brief for Tigerprint, this was quite a small brief and didn't take up too much time, but gave me a break from my others. As well as that me and my collaborative partner have started our collaborative brief (Pops), I also have tutorials breaking up the week for CoP, this is really important so I need to prioritize this especially as the essay deadline for our draft is on 11th December. Also we are being set different live briefs throughout the year, and although we don't have to do them, I think that it would be best if I did, as it would be doing different kinds of things and doing it for an actual design studio.

Plan.
I think I am spreading my time to thin and I should prioritize certain briefs before others. Some which have a deadline sooner and that are live should be done sooner.

• Continue doing the '100 days of' as this is not largely time consuming, it also gives me something to keep focused on an up to date with everyday, and at the end I will have a large amount of illustrations.
• Put the Boxset to the side as there is no immediate deadline and I can pick it back up after a few live briefs are done and my CoP is more on its way. I think this is something to pick back up when I break for Christmas.
• Tigerprint has been finished and submitted, it has been blogged and finished, the only thing left to do is mock onto things and create design boards for it, this is something I will do closer to the 11th Dec.
• Wide-Eyed Records is a live brief and is something that needs to be completed before the 20th Nov, therefore I will prioritize this. I will also split this brief into two as the branding and logo needs to be completed before the 20th, and the posters for later in January.
• Christmas Sushi, this is a brief that won't take up too much time, and will be a nice break for me in the longer briefs. This is also a live brief which means that I will be able to get feedback from it for doing it.
• CoP is really the most important thing to me right now, it is something I am going to set days aside for each week so that I can always have time for it. This is specific for my theory part as it is something that I struggle with, my practical is consistent and it will be done over a course of 100 days, and then more to develop the campaign.
• My collaboration with Adam hasn't got very far so far. There hasn't been a lot of communication with each other and we have only just established what the brief actually is. After my two live briefs are completed I will be able to focus more on the collaborative, starting ideas and designing on the 23rd Nov, as I should have both my Christmas Sushi and Wide-Eyed Records part one done by then.

Establishing a plan means that I can organise my time better, as currently I have too much on, and nothing is getting done on time. This will work so much better for me, and everyone else who is involved in my briefs including my collab partner and my clients.

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.