VOGUE

the brief: 'don't panic, vogue' - produce a poster relating to the subject 'vogue', enter it into the competition on the 'don't panic' website

considerations: clarity, excitement, attraction, appeal

target audience: us (students)

tone of voice: semi-serious? delicate but pleasant

mandatory requirements: register with 'don't panic', A2 poster size

deliverables: final poster design printed out onto A2 size, 2 A3 print outs of the other possible outcomes, selection of 30 possible design treatments and supporting developmental work.

End of Module - self evaluation

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I have learnt how to use the video editing software 'Final Cut', I was able to edit my footage appropriately, enhancing colours, slowing footage down and reversing it in order to create an effective video.

2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

Categorising is actually useful when researching, I can focus my research down to specific topics in order to find out what the most important facts/opinions are in order to help develop my research and relivance.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

After showing people my video they seemed to be interested in the footage itself, the close up filming of pupils dilating. I think my topic, in the short term, is found quite intreging, however I think it could be stronger. I think flamboyance is a way to attract viewers with this video.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

I feel my research could've been bumped up a bit, the initial research regarding the final video was probably appropriate, I didn't want to focus on the depth of eyes, but more of them as complete visuals. Sometimes I think my video lacks professionalism, whether this could've been resolved through more research, or just more testing out or software skills development. Although, I could've researched other video techniques, I only looked at one video specifically, the short footage from the 'Requiem for a Dream' trailer of the pupils dilating.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

Next time I will

• review more films, trailers, short films etc...

I reckon I could get ideas from these, how the video would look like

• experiment with categorising the ways of filming eyes

This way I could explore eyes through a variety of outlooks. I could look at the films becoming a series? And I may find others work better than some.

• Test out more packaging folds

I would then be able to establish which one worked best and which was most effective. The packaging could somehow represent the contents, perhaps lure the viewers in even more?

• Continue designing the packaging itself

Although I am satisfied with the design of my packaging, could more be done? I would've liked to test out designs printing them onto individual discs so I could then see how they would look as a final.

• Box set?
  

I can imagine the short films as being a series, perhaps 'arty' ways of approaching and exploring things like 'eyes' in a creative, interesting way so that everyone can become slightly interested in the topic, even if it's just for one hundred seconds. I could create 10 films, therefore 10 dvds, all individually packaged and then all in another packaging, a box set. It could just be a clean cut way to transport, communiate and contain the 10 dvds?

I have enjoyed this brief. At first things were a little dusty as I wasn't sure what I was going to be doing with my chosen topic, when I first read the brief about having to solve a problem to do with you topic, I seriously considered changing it. I didn't know how I would express 'eyes' in a graphic way, and somehow 'product&package' such an untouchable thing? I always had in mind I wanted it to be photographically based, however I branched out to using video, this way I can focus on the photographic effects but have the stills as moving image. I was also excited to print on discs, this was another technique I learnt and now have knowledge of.
I often forgot how important the research was for the particular brief, and tended to get carried away with the video itself, it feels like I haven't used much of the research I gathered, but I did learn from it that people's main interest with eyes is just how they appear. Their colour seems to be the most attractive part of eyes, whenever the topic was brought up. Being influenced by previous footage, and particular music, I wanted to explore eyes close up and then be able to show this as a video.

100, evaluation from group crit

Issues raised:

• Is the video going to easily show one hundred within it?
• What type of packaging will I design for the dvd itself?

Actions to be taken:

• Look at short films, 'director's cut', see effects, techniques, cinematography etc...
• Make sure '100' is made clear
• Start thinking about the packaging I am going to use, how it is designed, what the design will be. It must be creative!
  

Problem Analysis - rationale

Brief:

a short video of eye footage, pupil dilation, colours, slow motion etc, with good music

Who needs to know?

Anyone really, it will be appropriate for everyone, but it could be a choice?

What do they need to know?

The integrity of eyes, how complex they are and how interesting they look.

Why do they need to know?

Why not? An amazing human organ that should be explored creatively

What will they respond to?

Visually interesting footage and music

What research is required?

Mainly primary, I will need 100 eyes, with video equipment.

secondary research includes, editing the video.

Collection 100...Rational

Product and promotion/packaging/distribution?
Product and distribution?
Why?
I want to create a final piece, that in some way could actually be distributed.
Who is the audience and how do you intend to engage with them?
Whoever chooses to watch/look at my product, can be viewed by all ages as it is appropriate. I intend to approach them subtly but with impact.
What is the function of this product? What has informed this decision?
This product will mainly be to entertain, could have slightly informative qualities as well. I feel my interest in eyes is purely visual and so I want to creatively explore this through entertainment, not necessarily information.
How will the audience interact with this product?
They will watch it

One Hundred - Research proposal

My subject matter is:

Eyes

Possible categories will include:

• colour
• shape
• size
• science behind them
  

Research processes will include:

Researching the categories through the use of primary and secondary (both quantative&qualitative). I will get all my quantative research from the internet and various books, my primary quantative research will be gathered through questionnaires and forms of secondary research. I will aim to collect photographs of a series of eye shapes/colours/sizes. Hopefully I can bring in an actual eye?

What If... Evaluation

100 people could've been happier, 28 couldn't. Our primary research shows that it would be beneficial if we were to make people happier/smile. Our original general question was, 'Are you Happy?', this was problematic as it was giving us an answer that we weren't looking for. Most people said that they were happy, but what we really wanted to know was whether, we, could make them happier. Therefore, we changed our question to, 'Could you be happier?'

Our primary research was gathered through the use of a questionaire on a sandwich board. Our method seems to cover both qualitive and quantative, we were able to gather figures/percentages but also research that covered the qualitive description. This was researching into what actually made people happy. We asked the general public if they could be happier, the majority said 'yes'. We also managed to gather research on what made people happy, some of the results included:

• nice weather
• food
• friends/family
• weekends
• a good film

I found this research useful, it's qualitative primary quality made it authentic and also meaningful. The popular answer being, 'yes', although seemed obvious that everyone could be happier, surprised me at the same time. A lot of people that seemed quite happy, when it came to asking them what made them happier, said things that you wouldn't expect. It made our problem seem more of a problem, and we felt making someone smile would be an effective solution.

We also did some research into the effect of smiling/laughing. It is scientifically proven that even if you smile and you don't mean it, research shows it makes you feel better. Our aim was at least, just to make someone smile.

We originally were going to base our problem with Leeds overall, but after considering time and effectiveness, we thought it would be better to target a smaller audience, we focused solving our problem for people within the College of Art.

Reviewing our research, the majority of our results suggested that food makes people happy. Although, this was only the majority, our problem was trying to make everyone happy. We decided this was impossible, unless we focused our audience more (college of Art). For our first presentation/crit, we handed out bags of Haribo, this appeared to make everyone happy, it seemed the idea of receiving a free bag of sweets was appealing.

We then looked at sending out a small, cheery message to make people smile. There were ideas that looked at how people could get two cards and then pass one of them along, as in, spreading each others happiness. The cards could also be given out along with a little bag of Haribo. We aimed to make people smile/happier, photographic evidence shows that our cards and sweets did this.

Our problem, once recognised properly, was actually quite simple to solve. A free bag of Haribo appeared to cheer people up, and feedback like "I really liked your little cards" and "They did actually make me smile", shows that the cards that came with the sweets were also effective. However, if we were to broaden our research and it's solutions, we could perhaps branch out to other methods of making me smile/happy. Haribo was a good solution as it was quite general, but maybe next time we could focus it further to more specific groups, maybe groups/people outside of college. It's a campaign that could be addressed a number of people, but the key seems to be researching into more depth as to what makes certain people smile.

5 things I learnt about the design process:

1. You can start anywhere as long as you narrow it down effectively
2. The more you research, the more ideas you actually think of
3. Your first initial design thought is probably one of your best solutions
4. It's always good to get feedback from other people as you go along, to make sure it is communicating/working effectively
5. Normally, the simplest ideas are the best ones, as long as they work

5 things I would do differently next time:

1. Maybe try and think of a problem and act on it sooner
2. Develop research a lot further, I think because our problem was changed, we didn't have much time to research
3. I would have wanted to use the video camera at some point, I think it would have been a nice way to document the evidence
4. Focus our problem down to a smaller audience?
5. PLAN PRESENTATION (save powerpoint as correct format)