The End

As I was progressing through the sequences and my project was nearing the end, it started to dawn on me that I hadn't really though about the ending. Although from the beginning I had decided that I wanted the animation to follow no set narrative, I still felt that it had to have some sort of ending. I didn't want to just run out of footage and it just end there. From the beginning I had looked at the mind and documenting thought processes on referral of personal opinion and also from analysing peoples behaviour, and the telling detail towards the end of the footage is a women sitting on the bench in front of the camera, and to me it looked as if she was debating whether to stay or whether to go. From personal experience and witnessing others around me, I know this is one of the biggest battles that commences inside ones head whilst drawing towards the end of your patience/ concentration span within the library.

GOOD VS BAD.. WHO WOULD PREVAIL?

I decided that this battle would be a great way to end my animation, and as the footage ended and the screen turned black, the winner would be portrayed. I felt it creates a nice cycle to the idea of time.. If she chooses to stay it opens a sense of a cliff hanger and anticipation of what would happen next time round or if she chooses to leave it opens up the varied exciting thoughts of other more entertaining ways of passing time. The sense of leaving one journey and heading into another....

The hardest mental battle that faces every student whilst in the library. GOOD VS BAD, WORK VS PARTY. Everyone has felt it, everyone has succumb to the dark side, whilst everyone has prevailed as a angelic and dedicated student.

Musical Symbols in animation

Another event that I wanted to emphasise through my footage was the constant use of music within the library and in numerous times during my shoot, people are caught walking through the shot with their headphones in, looking oblivious to everyone and everything around them.

To incorporate this into my animation, I wanted to use musical symbols, as they are obviously the best and most recognisable way to visually portray the cocktail sounds of various music coming out of peoples personal mp3 players. Below are a few images of how they have been used in current cartoons/ animations.

Viewing these images, helped me to see how subtle manipulations in angles of the symbols can suggest greater movement and also how by making some symbols smaller creates a sense of distance etc.

I then thought, I would combine this idea with my idea of illustration and thought I would physically draw the symbols on Photoshop using my new Graphic tablet and then manipulate them once they are in Flash. The image below inspired this idea;

Text Message Effect.

Once I had captured all of my images, I proceeded to go through them all and pick out weird, interesting or entertaining movements, events etc that had happened during my shoot and then began to work out how I could incorporate this into part of a creative and interesting animation. One of the best events that I captured is when a boy sits on the bench in front of the camera and proceeds to look to and from his phone and growingly ever so impatient waiting for the person he was obviously due to meet. This linked well with my documentation  of ow a lot of people pass time on their mobiles in the library, and I wanted to highlight this use of social and communication through animation.

It was failing to come to me in how I could achieve this in a way I found creative and entertaining. This was until I was casually watching one my new favourite Tv series 'Fresh Meat' on a hungover, typical rainy afternoon in Brighton. Below is a few print screens of how the show portrays a text in animate form and I came inspired to create a similar effect.

Editing a batch of images.

Obviously with such a large batch of photos captured for my project, it would have been ridiculously time consuming to individually go through and edit each photo and thankfully this wasn't going to be the case as I was introduced to the technique of creating my own 'action' within photoshop that would apply all of the manipulations and tweaks created to each photo once selecting 'automate'-'automate batch'.

If you look to the tab titled 'actions' in the right of the above image you will see towards the bottom the action I created named 'Project photo edits' and below that you can see the steps photoshop will run through on every image within my batch. This setting saved me so much time, whilst also ensured each image maintained an exact consistency with its edits, throughout the batch.

Introducing myself to Time Lapse

After deciding that Time Lapse would be the most effective and practical way for me to capture the time passing in the library, whilst also leaving me with all of the individual images, which would make editing within photoshop and flash a whole lot easier than if I captured time passing in movie form.

I felt that it was essential to look into the technicalities of using time lapse and seek some professional advice via between in the Media department and also experts online. I came across a fantastic website called "Digital Photography School" and located the page titled 'An Introduction to Time-Lapse Photography'. This seemed to clearly be the place to start and gain some knowledge into how I would go about and capture my footage.


Eclectic 3.0: The Roads Less Traveled from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

This video immediately struck me on the website and consequently cemented my new found love for Time lapse photography and inspired me to go out and start filming. I just had to firstly find out how...

I created myself a step by step guideline to follow whilst on shoot that would ensure I captured the time lapse to the best way and quality possible:

1. Choosing the right camera- D1000.
2. Search for built in interval setting. Set the camera to take 9 photos every 10. This would ensure I reached my total of between 100-1200 images.
3. Ensure camera is in solely Manual setting, with no auto white balance etc.
4. Set the image size to as small as possible as it will help ease the load onto the computer and into Flash.
5. Ensure the tripod is level, framed well and in a solid and protected position.
6. Have something to occupy me, as its a long two hours doing nothing.
7. Ready to go....

Illustration on people.

I was really starting to get into illustration, and felt it was time to step up progress with the technique. After researching and viewing the images of illustration below and researching into a few blogs I decided that purchasing a 'graphic tablet' would be the next best step for me, as it would enhance the quality of my final pieces and give me more creative freedom.

For experimentation purposes ahead of my project, I decided to have a little play with my new toy and practise adding illustration to humans within photographs I have stored on my Mac. Below are my best attempts;

Time lapse

I started to delve deeper into the concept of my idea and began to think about what would be the most effective way of structuring and capturing the original footage within the library. I was naive to think that I would be able to use video footage and then be able to edit with illustration on top of it. I realised that this was not the case and I would have had to break apart the whole video etc.

I started to think of alternatives of capturing a period of time passing and remembered the technique I had previously used- time lapse. With time lapse, I would be able to sit a camera next to me in a static and solid based position and set intervals for the camera to take pictures. I would then be able to individually edit and illustrate the certain sequence of images I wanted and then import the image sequence into the stage of Flash. The clip below, is an example of time lapse that suits the context of my idea and captures the similar atmosphere and environment I will be capturing in the library.

Kinetic typo- clock

I came across this kinetic typography during my research, and although most of the animation and the subject means nothing and has no relevance to myself, I pinpointed the use of the animated clock as an element that would suit the context of my footage of time passing in the library. Instantly when you think of time passing, the fast-forwarded clock is an image that is instantly recognisable and I feel I could use a similar idea than they have to add some animation that focuses around a clock (as shown below).

Inspirational kinetic typo

I cropped this sequence from the film Limitless as it contains an example of a kinetic typography, that I find really interesting and that also suits the context of my footage within the library. My next step is to go out and try to re-create this similar style of animation. Firstly practising on still images and then moving onto moving, video footage.  

Illustration in adverts.

I came across this advert whilst browsing the Internet and it caught my eye by incorporating some of the ideas i want to use in my project. Although the illustration isn't over-laying physical objects the idea is still there, and it is good to see examples of how other designers have used the idea of the physical and animated/illustrative world interacting. This is show in how the words "knock knock" and "who's there" break apart as the man walks through their path.

1984- George Orwell

One of my favourite novels and a book that never seems to get old every time I read it. Orwell's 1984 was a forerunner for the idea of the 'Big Brother theory' and that in our society someone, somewhere, through one of the million computers is always watching you. The notion of surveillance was key to my project, as my real life footage with present the audience with a chance to become an ambiguous voyeur of peoples lives within the library and Orwell covers this topic fantastically in his dystopian fictional society in which everyones movement is monitored and controlled by the 'Big Brother'.

Limitless- Fictitious but based on a true concept.

Limitless is a 2011 thriller film directed by Neil Burger and starring Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, and Robert De Niro. It is based on the 2001 novel The Dark Fields by Alan Glynnwith the screenplay by Leslie Dixon. The film was released on March 18, 2011. The film focuses around the myth/idea of a new nootropic drug, NZT-48, that has the ability for humans to access 100% of the brain's power, as opposed to the normal 20%. Although these stats are yet to be scientifically proven, there are many strong myths and beliefs dating back hundreds of years that support this claim and this is what Berger focuses the novel upon.

This theme is very similar to my idea of inner thoughts and the logic that the brain can create and receive a greater mass of information in a state of sub-consciousness or solitary mind set that I connected to after my experience documenting time passing within the library. 

Telling Stories

This weeks task was by far the most enjoyable and profitable in terms of directing me towards my final project. We were told to document a boring event in detail, or document time passing through drawings, textures and words. The idea of telling an unexpected story has always interested me and been in the back of my mind when thinking about what to do in my project and this task gave me the opportunity to experiment with this idea. Whilst I sat in the library on a cold and wet sunday afternoon, I decided to document every specific detail I noticed in a ten minute time period. Below are my findings;

During the time period, it felt I had lost control of my mind and body. It seemed as if I was unconsciously noticing things and noting them down, without even registering their existence. I was amazed with how quick I became lost in the library and was shocked in how quick the 10 minutes went, considering I expected it to be massively boring and drag on. Whilst reviewing my findings there was one drawing that caught my eye the most. I had referred to the ceiling lights of the library as spaceships. I looked up at the lights again and couldn't really see it, had I hallucinated the idea of spaceships? Did my mind make up this new identity for the lights as a form of entertainment? Questions flooded my mind about how and why I made this assumption during the 10 minute period but then failed to really reconnect with the idea after.

I began to think about 'day dreaming' and the power and control it can assert over ones mind. I liked this idea, I began to feel that this could be the platform for my project. All I was doing was sitting in the library, a building with a chilling silence and sense of concentrating radiating from the wall, yet I had picked up on so many details. Something as simple and non-existent as aisle signs, that we usually look at but fail to take in, interested me. I imagined lights as spaceships and the subtle whispering of noise as peoples brains speaking out loud and interacting. A task so simple and a venue so boring has led me on a tangent that I feel will work as the platform for my project, all I need to do now is develop the story/ idea.

Theoretical and critical inspirations

The notion of surveillance:

Furthering on from my previous blog, I started to think and develop my 'telling stories' idea and investigated the theory of the 'notion of surveillance'. In a society so transfixed with the idea of the 'big brother' theory I felt it was an appropriate and up to date critical theory to look at. 

The birth of 'the big brother theory stems from a fictional character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, named 'Big Brother'. He is the enigmatic dictator of Oceania, a totalitarian state taken to its utmost logical consequence – where the ruling Party wields total power for its own sake over the inhabitants. In the society that Orwell describes, everyone is under complete surveillance by the authorities, mainly by tv screens. The people are constantly reminded of this by the phrase "Big Brother is watching you", which is the core "truth" of the propaganda system in this state. Since the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the term "Big Brother" has entered the lexicon as a synonym for abuse of government power, particularly in respect to civil liberties, often specifically related to mass surveillance.

Mark Dice expanded the idea of 1984 and wrote a book titled Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True published earlier this year. Within the book, Dice details actual high-tech spy gadgets, mind-reading machines, emerging artificial intelligence systems, and government projects used within today's society that have a direct correlation to the details of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.  First published in 1949, Orwell's famous book tells the story of a nightmarish future where citizens have lost all privacy and are continuously monitored by the omniscient Big Brother surveillance system. These fictional characters are manipulated and kept obedient to a totalitarian government. In Big Brother, Mark Dice illustrates how what was once considered fiction has now become reality due to societies obsessiveness and reliance of digital technology. Marketing tools through facebook, smart phones and other social media/ networking sites are highlighted and convey to the reader the sickening amount of personal information that is leaked and in the hands of large media business's and organisations.  Dice shows you the scary documentation that Big Brother is watching you, and is more powerful than you could imagine.

Telling Details:

As documented previously, I was keen to look further and delve deeper into the idea of 'telling details' and how certain details, words, pictures could summarise and paint a whole picture. I came across Ernest Hemingway's short story; 'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place'. Hemingway is known as a master of short fiction and his attention to detail and beautiful language used to describe an object is quite prefect. In the story, there was one description that stuck out to me as a 'telling detail'. 

"A girl and a soldier went by in the street. The street light shone on the brass numbers on his collar".

The description of such a simple and often unnoticed detail of the brass numbers is brought to life my Hemingway and in doing so instantly paints a picture of a soldier in my in my mind, in full suit with brass numbers, badges and medallions glistening in the street light. This is a prime example of the effect and influence of the 'telling details' that I want to pull out and include within my animation.

Relationship between the animated and physical world- Developing my idea

As the weeks have progressed and my research and experimentation has delved deeper, I started to think and develop on the idea of the relationship between the real and the animated world. Through my inspiration of illustration drawings over images, I recognised that this juxtaposition of real and digital creates very interesting viewing. I started to feel like this was an area I would definitely incorporate into my final project amongst my animation as it provides images/ videos with an interesting and heightened visual appeal. Below is a few examples of me playing about with using photoshop to place illustration drawings over the top of images of the physical world.

Self Ethnography

Our task for this week was to go out and explore the world, and document our experiences with sketches/ drawings, note takings etc. The task was inspired by the opening of the film 'Stranger Than Fiction' shown below and we was encourage to try to capture a set of data, similar to the film that we could then play and experiment with way of potraying that cycle of information in a digital form.

Throughout the week I decided to focus on; my Facebook usage and interaction and the time I spent driving around Brighton. Once I reviewed the data I collected I was surprised with the relationship that had clearly formed between the amount of times I looked at Facebook, to the amount of times I used and interacted through it. I found that I looked at Facebook on my phone almost 100 times within the week, however, I only acted used it as a form of communication through; status's, comments etc 7 times in a week. Practically once a day compared to the 15 times I looked at Facebook. What I started to think about was the effect Facebook is having upon us in today's society. With 24 hours, 7 days a week access through apps on our phones, we can access Facebook whenever and wherever we like. However, If my data is anything to go by, although we can access it, we don't seem to used it to its full potential. What I noticed during this task was that if I was bored or my mind was heading towards a day dream, my body would seem to unconsciously look and scroll through my news feed on Facebook. I came to the conclusion that for a lot of people that I spoke to about my findings is that we use Facebook as a past time. Its quick, easy access and harmless entertainment to scroll through peoples lives in photos, comments and hash tags. This leads on to a common topic that today's culture is heavily reliant on social networks, digital products and user-generated content.

Here is how I decided to illustrate my findings;

Urban Flaneur- Walking the City

Our homework task for this week was to allow our self to become an urban flaneur and document our experiences and findings with images. We were told to trace a journey we often take at our home town, onto a map of Brighton and go out and take the journey. Although this should have been effective to help us find things as we would have been walking around roads unfamiliar to us, the only few routes I ever took in my home town, when projected onto a map of Brighton only seemed to take me along popular roads like West street or along housing roads that failed to inspire me on my wanders. I was unsatisfied with my findings, so I headed out on my own accord into the lanes and told myself to just aimlessly wander around and search for exciting, quirky, strange objects, colours, textures that caught my eye.

To document my findings I went out and bought a disposable camera, rather than using my own digital slr camera. I felt a disposable camera would be better suited for this exercise and it would encourage me to not look through the view finder and frame my images, and instead just snap photos based on reaction rather than precision.
Below, our a view images I took on my phone which focuses on textures, and then a selection of images of the processed photos from the disposable camera.

Urban Flaneur Take 2- Walking the Lanes:

The rest of my images are photos I got processed from a disposable camera and will appear in my scrap book, however, when playing about and viewing the photos I came across some cool ways to document them onto here by taking a photo of a series of photos. I feel the photos came out surprisingly well, as the range in colours, textures and styles within the batch of photos all seem to be competing to stand out and attract the viewers eye the most.

Examples of illustrative art.

For further research I looked into examples of illustration that we come across in our everyday life. Before i never really acknowledged it, however, once I set out to find it, I came across numerous examples of its use in CD covers, as shown below and also how it is used in a few adverts. The one that struck me the most was its use in the nationwide advert that appears on the screen of a cash point (pigeon hole), however, the photo of it didn't come out well and I struggled to find it online, which was a shame, but never the less it shows that the use of illustrative art is current and appears around us a lot more than we originally think.

Kinetic Typography

I began to delve deeper into the realms of animation and began to explore the range of endless means and techniques of producing a piece of animated work. Mary gave us an insight into what is known as 'kinetic typography, so I felt his would be a good place to start.

Kinetic typography to use the online definition is "is an animation technique that requires the mixing of motion and text to express ideas using video animation. This text is presented over time in a manner intended to convey or evoke a particular idea or emotion".
Kinetic typography instantly hit me as something exciting, fresh and inspirational. I enjoy the sense of freedom that is giving to the words as they move about the screen in an array of transitions and how the text can add so much more meaning or emphasis to quote/ phrase taken from the audio. What no doubt helped my enjoyment of kinetic typography was that a lot of the better examples I came across were from some of my all time favourite films; Snatch, Lock Stock and Pulp fiction. I found that knowing the film, made the motion graphics even more fascinating, as they provided me with the same data/ audio that I have experience numerous times by watching the films in a new, fresh form of media. Although our society is not known for our adaption to change, I feel within the digital world, being able to adapt and take in change through different forms of media will only make you enjoy and appreciate how good and inspiring pieces of work are, and that is exactly what has happened for me.

Below are a few examples of my favourite pieces of kinetic typography found on Youtube.



This is one of my all time favourite scenes in Lock Stock and I feel the use of motion graphics really emphasis the dramatic and cutting edge tension within the scene. The use of splat graphics to portray the idea of blood being spilt is so simple, yet so effective and also the transformation and rotation of the explanation marks, to create the allusion of them daggering into the screen is incredible and a technique I would indefinitely incorporate into my work, if I chose to follow this lead of animation.
I also feel the choice of colour scheme is spot on and really adds to the cutting edginess of the scene. The harsh contrast between the rough black font and the bright yellow background ensures the viewers eyes are transfixed on the motion of the text, it then reverses half way through to black background and yellow text as the subject of the audio becomes deeper and darker. I feel this is an effective and simple way to use colour to emphasise the change in tone within the subject of the audio.



I find this one of the most interesting examples of kinetic typography because of its subject. There is a range of mediums within this, first of all a film about the development of a website, which a scene has then been adapted into an animation film of motion graphics, oh the digital world of today.
Focusing on the animation itself, I think its excellent. I like the attention to detail of matching the colour schemes, its simple but it adds that house style and continuity through the range of media forms. One of the aspect of this animation that I really enjoy and would love to experiment and try to incorporate myself, is the fast paced, whip style movement that adds to the vibrancy and excitement of the audio and also how the words interact with one another by fitting within each other, moving and breaking off of one another, solely one word dropping from one sentence to fit into the next and how some words are brought to the forefront to add and accentuate the specific points within the audio.



I carried on searching around youtube, looking at hundreds of typo animations in the hope of picking out little details/ transitions/ effects etc that grabbed my attention. The above animation is from a Jay-z song, which again shows another incorporation of a different medium. What stood out for me in this animation and inspired me to think that kinetic typography is something I really want to get into, is the way the words seem to whip out towards the audience and trails behind a blur to add emphasis to the speed of the lyrics.
I think its a clever and effective effect as it plays on the shock factor within the audience and consequently captures their attention instantaneously.

Illustration

I have always had a growing interest in using illustration within digital media. As my editing confidence and skills has developed and my accessibility to better software, I have been able to experiment more with illustration and experiment how I could incorporate into some of my digital media work. I have a connection with a design student at LCF (London College of Fashion) and during the summer I visited one of her exhibitions. All of the work was fantastic, however, what really caught my eye was the simple use of illustration within pictures that just added some eccentric and stand out to her photographs over other peoples. Below are a few example of the images that caught my eye;

I loved the effect the illustrative drawings had upon the photos, therefore, I asked for her to teach me the process and went ahead and had a play myself. Below are a few examples of my first attempts;

Beauty and the Beast- A major stepping stone in animation

We were sent to go out and research the film 'Beauty and the Beast' due to its amazing animation that aided as a stepping stone in terms of the production of computer aided animation movies. 


I thought I would go about some background research into the production side of the movie, Beauty and the Beast and see long, what problems aroused and what was needed in order to created such a masterpiece of animation. I found that the film took nearly four years to produce with the full time help of over about 600 animators, artists, and technicians. There were over 226,000 individually painted cells and over one million drawings. Over 1,300 backgrounds were created for Beauty and the Beast. This stat truly amazed me. Before I read this information I understood and appreciate the skills and time and effort it takes to create an animation, however, when I came across this information and saw the gastronomical amount of drawings and backgrounds that are used, it truly dawned upon me the ridiculously high expertise and true amazing-ness of animation. I was inspired, shocked, almost overwhelmed to find that a film made and targeted for a young audience was actually a life changing and dramatic step in terms of the expertise and exquisite attention to detail needed within production of animation.



Beauty and the Beast mixed traditional animation and select scenes of computer animation together to create new visuals of grandeur for the audience. The computer animated assisted scene that seemed to capture people's imagination the most was the ballroom scene.


"The ballroom sequence features the first computer-generated colour background to be both animated and fully dimensional," says Jim Hillin, CGI Artistic Supervisor forBeauty and the Beast. "What this means is that the background is literally moving and the animators had to animate to it in much the same way that they worked with the live action composites in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This gives the advantage of sweeping camera moves and perspectives as well as theatrical lighting that would otherwise be impossible. It introduces live action techniques into the animated world. Here the camera plays a very important role in establishing the mood and helps us to experience what the characters themselves are feeling."Hahn saw the ballroom sequence as a defining moment in the movie.

"The ballroom sequence is the bonding moment of the film when the two main characters finally get together," says Hahn. "For us as filmmakers, the computer offered us a way to get heightened emotions on the screen and more dramatic effects than we could have gotten conventionally. It allowed us to move the camera around and take a look at the room instead of just looking at a flat piece of artwork. Technology as a whole is an extension of our fingers, hands, and minds. Computer graphics let us go beyond what we can currently achieve with pencil and paper or paint and a brush."
Computer artists and technicians worked alongside the layout, art direction, and background teams to achieve the results of the ballroom scene. Even the dimensions of the ballroom played a major role in creating the final look.

• 72-foot high ceilings.
• 184 feet from door-to-door with a width of 126 feet.
• 28 wall window sections.
• A 86 X 126 foot dome with a mural (that was hand painted then applied as a texture map)

But the ballroom wasn't the only extensive use of computer-assisted animation in Beauty and the Beast. The movie's climactic song, "Be Our Guest," also made use of computers. Dancing plates, forks, goblets, bubbles, and the chandelier were created with computers.
"The main purpose of CGI is to build and animate things with the computer that will aid and enhance what is going on with the hand-drawn art," says Hillin. "Our biggest challenge is to incorporate the two things and make it seem as if they belong together. If we get too real or the perspectives are too perfect then it doesn't fit in with the rest of the film."
In the case of Beauty and the Beast both the traditional and computer animated environments melded near flawlessly to create a magical and enchanting environment for millions of people worldwide to enjoy.

How?

During my searches around the web looking for cool animations, pictogram's,illustrations etc I came across this new short film by BLU an ambiguous animation painted on public walls on Vimeo.





I was mesmerised when I saw this animation, the idea is hugely ambitious but the visualisation and quality of animation is fantastic. I am attracted to the idea of journey of 'MUTO' as it travels, transforms, fades, becomes reborn etc. Much like my first task of my journey from my house to uni, the idea of a journey interests me and I feel it works well with animation. It encourages the audience to lose themselves within the flow of the animation and just follow the journey of what is on screen, whilst forgetting everything else around you.

This playful animation, certainly had my head spinning though, even now I cant seem to fathom how the animator was able to perform this within a 3d space. Hopefully someone can help soon before I go mad!!!

Whilst in class, we spent time looking through each others findings and research material, which led me to come across Jan Svankmajer a Czech filmmaker and animator, prolific in the computer generated world of animation. Svankmajer is a self-labelled surrealist, known for his surreal animations and ways of portraying character. What I notice was the above animation that I found seems to be directly influenced by the work of Svankmajer.




'MUTO' in BLU's video seems to take a direct inspiration from the developing journey of the clay formed character within Spankmajer's above animation, in how the body grows, transforms, develops and how body parts, like the head of MUTO morph and grow out of one another's mouth. all of these techniques used by BLU show how he was clearly influenced and inspired by the surreal nature of representation used by Spankmajer.

Luxo jnr- Pixar

Luxo Jr. is the first animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios in 1986. The film was released to mark Pixar's establishment as an independent film studio and to demonstrate the kind of things the newly-established company was capable of producing.
What inspires me the most in this short animation is the simple, yet extremely effective use of personification of the two desk lamps. the use of stereotypical head shakes and dominating stance of the larger lamp is an accurate and easily recognisable characterisation of a parent or guardian, whilst the smaller in size, more vibrancy and erratic movement of the other lamp is effectively characterised to portray a baby/ young person.
Similar to why I like and appreciate the artistic merit of pictogram's, the simplistic movements and creative decisions within this film are so simple and easily recognisable, yet they carry such heavy connotations and descriptions.

Dora the Explorer

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

To get the course started, we were sent away to explore the world around us. To think and observe the world in a way different to how we are use to, and look out for patterns, themes, colours, texts etc that caught our eye. Recorded below is some of the items, themes etc that caught my eye.

"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being...Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of apple".

Transformed the digital age of life changing technology and software.

I then decided to record my observations of the car journey from my house to Uni. What struck me the most during the journeys was the traffic signs and the symbolic meaning behind them. The simplicity of pictogram's used in road signs inspires me. I find it amazing how, although, as a society we take them for granted and barely register them into our thought process, their importance and value is high. Pictogram's are so simple yet have created a worldwide code/ language, which when we think about it, is truly inspiring.

I went on to develop my idea of pictogram's used in car signs to look for pictogram's used for humour in public places, on the web etc. Below are a few examples that caught my eye;

What I realised when I was investigating into road signs and the use of pictogram's in commercial and public places is that pictogram's are often used to convey basic messages and almost always without any sense of expression. I started to think that this is most likely a reason for why we often notice road signs but never fully take them in. As there are often no expressions to take in, our mind seems to just register the basic meaning, function and then forget.

What I like about adding humour into pictogram's is that it gives the designer an opportunity to add a sense of life, to basic black shapes and negative spaces. Such subtle humour is something I love and I feel by incorporating humour into a pictogram can result in a wonderful thing.