Smoke Test

Test_2 from Andy Niven on Vimeo.

Trying to create a spooky cloud of smoke with text integrated. I have used the ampersand (&) which could be replaced with a logo, then the word 'test'. Keep your eyes peeled for them!

Inspired by Satya Meka's online tutorials

Motion Graphics Experimentation_1

Audio Tester from Andy Niven on Vimeo.

I have been experimenting with bringing audio into After Effects and what can be done. Really like some of the outcomes. Used the ampersand (&) as the center piece which could easily be replaced by a simple logo. More to come I think!

Digital Consequence

This was an experiemental piece which was influenced by the drawing game, 'consequence'. The idea is for a person to take a picture of their face, then let the next person take a picture of theirs and so on and so forth. Each time a picture is taken, it captures a section of your face making a new funny face when added to other peoples sections . It was displayed in our second year exhibition and went down very well (great fun).

YCN Competition

The brief was to build awareness of the Tuborg brand based on the theme ‘Live Unleashed’. After Research into the target audience (considering who they are; age, gender, background and what they are interested in), my conclusion was to get people involved. In doing this creates ‘word of mouth’ (which in todays society, is one of the best types of viral).


Considering the target age (eighteen to twenty four year old) and what personality Tuborg reaches out too (fun/spontaneous/sociable), my idea is to create the Tuborg challenge, encouraging our adventurous audience to try new things and more importantly ‘Live Unleashed’. To do this, goodie bags will be handed out to the audiences on the street and at freshers fairs. In the bag is a poster with fifteen challenges. All odd and quirky, some almost impossible and others more realistic yet exiting.

Other items inside the bag help you achieve some of the challenges. Obviously they could also be used during every day.

D&AD competition

‘A football match lasts 90 minutes, this leaves 1350 minutes a day for the rest of everyday living’

The brief was to launch Umbro’s ‘A frame shoes’ into 1350 (a new lifestyle product) targeting 16-24 year olds and branch out to a ‘new audience’. The audience 1350 reaches out to are people interested in tattoos, have the knowledge of football, are quirky, wear retro sports gear (but fashionable and trend setters), arty and into modern technologies. 

Considering the target audience and considering what Umbro’s clothing wanted to represent, I thought the best way to target a big audience is to target the trend-setters (this target audience are into shoe collection and Ltd edition gear). 

Therefore,  my idea is to create a competition to win a limited edition 1350/ A frame shoes box. Being a retro, quirky looking shoe box, sneaker/ collectors will keep this and therefore ‘set the trend’. 

Understanding that Umbro wanted their audience to feel hugely what is on their feet, I wanted to communicate that your shoes have a personality. Therefore, the audience is asked, using their camera/camera phone, to creatively show where they would/ do take their (A frame) shoes by taking a picture from their shoes point of view. They are encouraged to be quirky and creative in doing so by a set of adverts virals. 

The images that are sent in are displayed on Umbros website and digital advertising boards which will change every 90 or 1350 minutes. 

The best images win the limited edition box; see last image.

All images that are sent in are used on the final A Frame shoe box. 

Ginger Monkey

We were visited yesterday by a few experienced freelance designers/illustrators/creatives to talk about their experience in the industry and advise us how we can 'get involved'.

The first talk was by Bristol based freelance creative Tom Lane (Ginger Monkey). He explained that the way to get work is to work your socks off (overtime), use the internet to communicate with clients, only take on work you believe in, but, take risks... that's how you learn. I really liked Tom's working method as he, like me, tries to move away from the computer when ever possible to be experimental with different medium and getting his hands dirty. He then tends to finish his work off on the computer before it is sent to the client.

His work consists of mainly typography, posters, book covers or anything print based; being heavily influenced by the 1900's style decorative type. 

Here you can see the developments from hand drawn illustrations to the finished book covers made for 'Heston's special Edition' books. 

Tom's new self set project is for an urban clothing line called '1hundred'... keep your eyes peeled for this in the future.

Making the ordinary, extraordinary: (Site brief)

The brief we where given was to take the everyday object, analyze and research it in depth, then create an outcome that looks at five aspects of the object. The everyday object I used was our kitchen bin as it (in a weird way) has a lot of character.

The research I undertook and considered was…

-Other works that made the ordinary- extraordinary such as Marcel Duchamp’s readymade toilet, Tracey Emins ‘Everyone I have Slept With 63-95’ camping tent, Carl Andre Equivalent VIII 1966 and Piero Manzoni- “Merda d’artista” (artists shit).

-What is a bin?

-Measurements, dimensions and location of my site

-Materials and how it works or other ways it could work

-Hygiene, touch, smells and sounds

-Human interaction; how much each individual uses it and what goes in, how the bin feels when we individually go near the bin, how healthy is our bin?

-How the meaning of the bin could be changed: if it had different owners, if it was put somewhere else, could it be used as something else (not a bin)- is it only a rubbish bin because we are told that is what it is, when is rubbish considered rubbish

-The fear and laziness of each housemate and how we do not like to change the bin until it is really necessary.

With this in depth research, I decided communicate the laziness of changing the bin, how unhygienic it is including sounds and smells, what each housemate puts into the bin and how it differentiates between us. In a general conversation with Pete (one of my six housemates) he said “Our kitchen bin is like a game; everyone balances the rubbish on top of the pile, the person who tips it, changes the bin”. Based on this quote, I decided to communicate my aspects through a playful flash game in the style of a common time waster game, very student like.

(Story boards for the narrative of the game which came with a Disc full of sound examples and quotes that would be used)

The general idea is to pile up the rubbish whilst balancing it:

Each piece of rubbish is colour coded and has a scoring value (depending on each housemates eating habit; the healthier they are, the easier to balance their rubbish therefore a lower score. An unhealthy persons rubbish will be heavier and harder to balance, therefore giving it a higher scoring.) To begin lower scoring objects are dropped in order to let the player get used to the game.

The better you get at the game, the heavier the objects you need to drop; therefore the harder it is to balance the bin. As the pile gets higher and the bin is balanced, the levels increase. When a level has been increased, a housemate says a quote (as there are six house mates, there are six quotes therefore six levels). For obvious reasons, each level increases its difficulty (heavier objects are more often being dropped making the rubbish pile much harder to balance).

When the pile collapses as the pile is too unbalanced or not enough objects have landed onto the pile, a voice over of James Cox shouts ‘UNLUCKY’ (This is usually said in our house when someone gets the ‘short straw.’)

The scoreboard will then appear to enable you to enter your details. The score will put you in sequential order in both ‘My Scores’ and if you have a high enough score, in ‘Top Scores’.

This brief was particularly useful to us as it helped us develop a new way of researching and encouraging us to looks beyond the obvious.

Live brief

Being briefed by Mike from Elmwood via ‘Skype’, our assignment was to create a customer experience of ‘A Walk on the Welsh Side’ in Cardiff International Airport. The idea was to create a ‘warm’ Welsh identity for travelers from as soon as they enter the airport until they leave as currently the airport lacks a personality or identity and is very clinical (which we got to see after a visit).

Being a small group of four, we where assigned Aled from ‘Departures’ Design Company as our mentor who would overlook our progress during the assignment.

To begin, we explored the real Wales; what it means to be Welsh, the Welsh brand vales and current work out there. After our own individual idea generation, we concluded the concept that fitted our brief was Welsh farming/ market environment as it symbolizes real, authentic Wales and avoids clichés (e.g sheep and rugby). Putting ourselves in the customer’s shoes, we created a narrative using contemporary, sensory (smells, tastes, sounds, sights), Welsh produced (wood, stone) and new technologies (interactive media boards, 3D60 sounds) to stimulate minds.

(One of my illustrations to explain our concept to Cardiff Airport)

After the four weeks, we had to present our idea to our class, other group’s mentors (from respectable design agencies in Cardiff- Hoffi, Burning Red, Elfen, StazikerJones, Departures and Design Wales) and the client (Cardiff Airport representative).

Unfortunately, we didn’t win the pitch but being a smaller group than other groups, we still put in 110% and came up with a concept that ‘hit the nail on the head’. I learnt a lot from this brief and enjoyed working with a real design agency (especially Departures who’s work I admired before the brief was set).

Abriham Lincoln

We were asked to capture the essence of our character. I was given Abraham Lincoln (16th American president most known as the president who ended slavery, lead during the civil war and first president to be murdered).

Lincoln came from nothing, a one roomed farm cabin in Kentucky. He taught himself before becoming a lawyer. Then from being a lawyer he became the person we know (U.S President).

The fact that Lincoln could make it from nothing and do good, why can't YOU? This is what I based my interactive design on.

Company Identity

For this project we were each given a company and had to design a letter head, business card and compliment slip. I was given the task of designing the above for a Life Coaching company. Through research I came to the conclusion that my company would be called ‘Purpose’. Purpose was a company that would motivate their clients to achieve their target goal whether in physical fitness, business/ career issues, any personal aims or helping rebuild lives. The target audience are adults who are at a point or at a crossroads in life and just need that boost by doing something ambitious. As this is a company that does not like to mess around and needs to show they are serious, I went for a determined no nonsense design, as if to say ‘this is what we are!’

Penguin book cover

We were set a two week competition brief at uni for penguin book covers. The two covers we were set to design were 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Perfume'.


Alice in wonderland

I created a cover that appealed to both adults and children. To do this I asked very talented Rachel Bierley to illustrate this. I then scanned it in, did the colouring in Photoshop and finished the design. The front cover plays with size imagination colour and has that dreamy feel which is what I was after.

I want to change the heading font as I feel it is too safe and I think another typeface (much more playful) will work better.

Perfume 'a story of a murderer.'

Here I tried to create a cover that was mysterious. I photographed my friend Kat's hand in a way that it is crunching the hand full of roses. I was trying to make the viewer question why she is doing this (sexual, sense-smelling the rose, erotic, in pain- rape).

Considering we had two weeks to do both these and other pieces of work I am pleased with how they have turned out. If I had more time I would have altered a few more things for both covers

Sustainable Me

Our eight week project is finally over as today is the day we present our work to the client (Lulu).

Eight weeks ago we were given a brief with the title of SUSTAINABLE ME. We had to produce three outcomes to inform our audience (graphic design industry) about sustainable design. We had to produce an outcome via web using either flash or dream-weaver, a print outcome both with a group and a personal outcome using either print or web.

Print- We decided to target the design industry in Cardiff. We wanted to encourage them to think about the three R’s (reduce- reuse- recycle) in their daily design.
We tried to make them think how they could reduce their daily use with paper and ink. Do they really need to use that much paper/ ink to put across the same message a sustainable design would (less paper use and ink). We created a fantastic ‘little’ leaflet’ which used laser cutting to write and cut sections of the paper out to put across our message. The cover was embossed. Therefore no ink was used and a restricted amount of paper was used.



Web- We decided to target student designers so we could introduce them to a new working method at an early stage in their career. To grasp them we decided to create a playful website (using flash). The main topics of the website was in relation to ink, print and paper.
We then included a a quiz to question the viewer ‘how sustainable are you?’.

Personal- After research into current sustainable persuasion campaigns, I feel there a far to many poster and information packs which are easily forgotten about.
Therefore I feel the solution to this is to target one aspect of the three R’s (reduce, re-use, recycle) and getting people involved.

‘SILICON HEAVEN is targeted to designers from all ages and backgrounds. We aim to inform our designers about the benefits of re-using and to encourage our audience to take part in our competition (to re-use old electrical equipment which is' dead').

By getting people to get involved and get their hands dirty, the message WILL stick with them.

The theme is very playful therefore this is why I have created a lively/ bouncy website.

This website will be used to update our candidates with up and coming events, deadlines, facts etc. Silicon Heaven can also be followed via Twitter and Facebook.’







Above are some screen grabs of my website 'Silicon Heaven'. It begins with a short animation to set the scene (a computer falls and smashes on the floor). An angel then appears and takes the 'spirit' to heaven (playing along the lines of reincarnation/ life after death). The bottom right screen shot is the main page. When scrolling over each screen a heavenly sound is made. When you click on a screen, that screen zooms in and information appears.


To get things started with the competition I reincarnated a computer moniter by changing it into a fish tank. I added it to the gallery on the website....

We took a day trip to Hartley Wilprint (Cardiff Sustainable printer) where we learned about the production line and how printing works. Our tour guide (Dominic Hartley- M.D) told us to get to know your printer and other very useful tips for the industry we are preparing for.

Hartley Wilprint use vegetable based oils as the try to keep green which a lot of business' may find important when using a printer for a job.
He showed us digital printing (which is what we have use of at uni) and the difference is huge to litho printing. Litho is clean and defined but has to go through a big production (a station for each of CMYK and a 5th station for additional colours like gold/silver). Digital print is cheaper but has lines and has not just a rich clean look.
He showed us how to engrave (at the time we went their they where engraving letter heads for the house of commons.

I was extremely impressed with this company and I will have to keep them in mind for possible future jobs.

http://www.hartleywilprint.co.uk/

Origami

Last years year two class designed a poster for Film Four. They then took it to print and came back with hundreds of copies. Our lecturer Neil suggested we re-use these sheets by creating origami. However what we create with the origami must tell the viewer about being green and sustainable. Our group decided to target a new business who had just started & hasn't really thought about recycling. We firstly made an origami bin which encouraged the office to reuse the paper by making recycling bins to put their other unwanted paper in. Once the bin was full you'd put the lot into a recycle bin. This bin could also be used as a pen holder or for odds and ends.

Through this idea we thought we could create an origami chair made totally from A4 paper which is humorous yet still encourages the workers to think how paper can be used again and again.

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

A working designer called Lulu came into uni and did some workshops with us about the three R's to get us going on our new project.

We talked about sustainable practice and design as whole, e.g why do we design and what can design do!

We where then put into groups. Each group was then given a box of some ort and asked to make something NEW with it without using any any additional materials e.g paper, glue etc.

We got a triangle shaped sandwich box. To begin we had many crazy yet creative ideas. We ended up re-using the product as a cress grower as it then keeps within the healthy food theme. So the next day on the way to uni I got some 29p cress in Tesco and but it in our box. We also ripped sections from the box to create legs for it to stand alone.

Reduce- Reuse- Recycle

On our first lecture with this topic, our lecturer showed us a few videos which informed us about global warming and the Reduce- Reuse- Recycle topic.

Here is some interesting facts I'd like to share

1. US are 5% of the world population but they use 30% of the worlds resources.
2. 80% of the original rain forest's have been destroyed.
3. BFR (on of the worst chemicals used to fire proof stuff) is used on pillows and computers. This chemical can kill the brain.
4. 4 billion LBS of pollution is from the U.S factories.
5. 99% of materials are trashed within 6 months.

The production line is as follows.

1. extraction
2. production
3. distribution
   
4. consumption
5. disposal
   

And we as consumers have the most power but do not seem to be doing anything about it!!

YCN book analysis

Similar to the previous brief, we were given a magazine/ book and told to analyze this. YCN is very similar to D&AD in the way they work.

YCN was launched to inspire and showcase the most recent up and coming international young creative talent but offer you the reader to take part in their competitions by entering set briefs which are usually found at the rear of the book.

Me and Rich really liked the simplicity of this book and the consistency. It was simple to navigate with the good use of coding. The only bad part we could see was the contents page as it looked like an index page (too busy).

Using the house style we created a poster and presented our thoughts on this.

When we do our presentations our lecturers make us score each other on our over all presentation skills.
We got our marks back from our fellow peers the other day and it seems they really enjoyed it (both poster and our presentation).

D&AD wesite analysis

As I haven’t done a blog before I feel I should start by writing about what I have been doing so far in my second year on the Graphic Communication course at UWIC.

So, to begin, we were given a brief to look at an assigned website with a colleague (Rich Savage). D&AD was our given site. We looked at the branding, navigation, content, interaction with the user, architecture, function and so on.

D&AD is a company that works as a bridge between student designers and the creative industry. They give out awards to the best works from students that entered their competition. .
The site is clean and fairly simple to use however sometimes the house style is not consistent which we felt was a design fault as they should be setting the standard to up coming designers.