Mud Graffiti Stencil

I have decided to attempt some mud graffiti for my second dimension so using card I have cut through the shapes based on one of the poster designs I have created. I then coated the stencil in plastic so that the wet mud would not ruin the stencil or change the shape. It was very difficult to keep the lines acurate and the shapes strong but the design worked well and looked distinctive.

Black Boxes

This final group project before Chirstmas asked us to create a piece of visual communication that promotes a particular product. Each group was given an envelope containing the name of a product. Then, as a group we put together clues that hinted at what our given product was, in our case it was Dorset Cereals.

Our cryptic clues to give away what the product was, was to draw a door + a person sitting down then the eye to represent seeing and reel, as in a feel of film. If said aloud correctly this would become Dorset Cereal.

The clues we were given we worked out to be Aquafresh toothpaste. We created a poster advertising the toothpaste using their logo of the three stripes to replace lips. We created this using Photoshop and a photograph of Matt smiling.

Our group worked well together brainstorming ideas successfully before we all committed to an idea that everyone agreed on. The only place we fell down on was the presentation. We spent a long time designing the poster and deciding each detail of the layout that we had not considered who or how we would present, so did not appear particularly professional.

Tutorial

In today's tutorial I showed two ideas, I personally preferred the other in my previous post, however, it was agreed that my other image had more potential. I am now going to attempt to create a series of posters, one for each letter of the word 'help' and finally another to use the whole word help, bringing everything together showing what War on Want do.

War on Want Continued...

This is another development of the War on Want poster. I think this idea is strong as it manages to convey a short message while also containing a lot more information. I will take this to todays tutorial and see how it is received.

Text and Image Grade

I got my mark back for the Text and Image Unit today, and I'm very pleased with it. I worked hard for it, and I'm happy with the mark I got.

In the discussion of my work I was told that my sketchbook work needed improvement when following the process of coming up with ideas. I had written in my PPRD that this was something that I needed to work on so I'm glad that this was something I agree with. I will try to make sure I work through my ideas better for the Visual Thinking Unit.

Ideas

I have decided to use War on Want's work in Palestine to be represented in my poster.

These are a couple of images I have worked on for the War on Want poster, they are strong in the simple shapes and colours but I do not think they work as final images.

The wall shown in the first image is the wall that has been built in Palestine that is splitting families, stopping people from working and gaining an education. I think the wall is a strong symbol of the occupation and events that are happening there. However, without a further knowledge of Palestine and what is happening a viewer may not understand the connection, it might make them want to look into what is happening more but chances are they will just look away.

The second image is of a child with chains around it's wrists, something an adult actually did for a protest against what is happening. The image is visually strong and emotive, however I do not think it is enough just to show the image of a child in distress as it does not say anything about what is actually happening.

Uninspired

I'm really struggling with this project. Having not been in last week has made me feel so behind. I can't get any ideas. I've researched, and researched for hours into everything I can think of in any way I can find but I just can't find that spark of idea. Now the more I worry the worse it gets. the initial crit is on tuesday and so far I have nothing to present.

I mentioned a couple of my ideas at the tutorial on wednesday but because I was behind I just got humiliated in front of the group. I was asked to come back to another session later in the day but I could not think of any ideas throughout the previous week so unsurprisingly I could not come up with anything over lunch so didn't attend.

So now, what is my choice? To somehow think of some ideas.

Bond & Coyne

Yesterday we had a talk from someone from the graphic communication consultancy Bond & Coyne Associates. He was very informative and it was interesting to see the work that they had produced. Strangely it was very encouraging to hear him admit to his mistakes, an instance when a mistake with neon inks cost them £3000, (which to the client, they blamed on the printers...). It was also interesting to hear him say that he is still learning, that through every project he learns something.

I would have liked to have known more about their research process and how they come up with their ideas, as I am struggling on this project. He did say it was important to receive feedback from the client, unfortunately I cannot do this so I will need to make sure I take any information I can from tutorials.

Democracy For a Day

Today we had a day project called 'Democracy' in which we had to create a poster about democracy within groups. Our group decided to take a different stance suggesting that democracy may not be such a good thing. We used the quote, 'Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide' by John Adams. We used an outline of the body of a child from an image that we had found, to create the idea of a chalk outline. We produced two ideas, one hand made using newspaper cut letters and another using Illustrator. Within our group we decided to use the poster created on Illustrator as it looked more professional. We realised there were problems with it, the text was slightly too small and later in the crit we realised we had not authored the quote. However, we all worked well within our group, delegating tasks and researching individually.

Pen & Ink Drawings

Ok, now back to the brief...

Research

For the Visual Thinking unit there is much more emphasis on research techniques. I have spent a long time looking into past and currently running charity advertising campaigns, trying to see what works and what does not. I have also looked into War on Want's past marketing campaigns to try and keep themes consistent and to see what they have emphasised and decided was less important.

Something I have found interesting is guerilla advertising. War On Want has a very limited budget therefore this technique, if done effectively, could be very beneficial. Something cheap to produce, like the stickers in the example above would be a clever way to attract attention and make people aware of War On Wants work.

Anish Kapoor

I queued for over an hour to get into the Anish Kapoor exhibition, although it was extremely cold I'm glad I did. It was not a large exhibition but his use of colour, form and texture was very visually interesting and impressive. My favourite piece was 'When I Am Pregnant' because it was so subtle. I also enjoyed 'Shooting in the Corner' where every twenty minutes hot wax was shot from a cannon into another room. I'm not sure what artistic purpose this had, but I liked the loud noise...

Ed Ruscha

Fifty Years Of Painting

After coming across Ruscha in the 'Text and Image' unit I was pleased to see he would be exhibiting at the Hayward Gallery. It was a great, varied exhibition with works spanning throughout his career. I think his simplest works were the most impressive, particularly those created in the 70s. It was interesting to see how one phase moved into the next, and how later in his career he returned back to painting styles and ideas he had used almost fifty years ago.

Everything.

A Series of Unfortunate Events...

Visual Thinking

After missing a whole week, through no fault of my own, I'm beginning to fall behind... I now have the brief for the second unit titled Visual Thinking.

War On Want is launching a new advertising campaign to raise its own profile, particularly with the younger generation. The brief requirements are to create a transport campaign, a poster or series of posters and an Adshel (bus stop). In additio

n, to design a second dimension to the campaign.

I've been looking through other charities' advertising campaigns, Amnesty International in particular has an incredible amount of moving and thought provoking advertisements. It seems that the only way to get the message across is to connect with people emotionally or to find a clever new angle to approach the message.

UK Tourette Syndrome Association