Changing my idea

After hitting a wall in my design process, where my idea of having dancers as the letters did not work that well for this brief I have had to rethink what I am going to do.

After having another think about the clubbing scene, and whilst I was a work, we had a fire going and when I saw the smoke from the fire in the light I really liked the elegance and smoothness of the way the way danced upwards, and that is where I then got my next idea of using smoke in some way.



And then after doing some research into smoke on the internet, I found these 2 images that then inspired me to take the route of having people dancing, men and women, and filling them with smoke, making them a smokey sort of image like the 2 images above.

My Idea

I started off with a couple of ideas, which I have outlined in my sketchbook.
However, the main focus I have is to create the typography using dancers and the shapes they are able to create with their bodies.

Here are some examples of what I am trying to create:


Each of these have been perfomed by a dance group called the Silhouettes, which performed these dance pieces on America's Got Talent.



I really like the shapes that they create using their bodies, whether that be individually or as a group, so using these as a basis I can really see what kind of things I could manage to create.



Another dance group I have found that do a similar style, just a little bit more elaborate, with the styling. They are called Le Ombre.

Research into Ministry of Sound

For the research into Ministry of Sound I have gone onto their website and found out what they say about Saturday Sessions:

"Saturday Sessions

Jodie Layton presents: Saturday Sessions. Saturdays on Ministry of Sound Radio from 7pm

Each week this party starter keeps you up to date with what’s going on at Ministry Of Sound’s leading Club night, Saturday Sessions.

Tune in to hear interviews and mixes from future and established artists as well as up front club bangers and the odd classic.

Previous Guest have included:
Oliver Hunterman, Francois K, Derrick May, Stacey Pullen, Felix Da House Cat, Speedy Jay, Lottie, Dave Spoon, Sebastien Leger, Agoria, Darren Emerson, SOS, Tim Green,
Tom Middleton, Krysko, Bart B More, Zoo Brazil, Fedde Le Grand, Paul Woolford, Smoking Jo, Filthy Rich, Will Saul, Lifelike, Freadski, Tomboy, Duke Dumont, Hannah Holland, Foamo, Joe and Will Ask?, Lee Mortimer, Per QX, Not Shy, Harry James, Severino, Unit 9, Matt Walsh and the Wet Yourself DJ’s.

Enter the weekly competition and you and a mate could see yourself on the free VIP guest list.

See you on the dance floor.

Saturday Session Radio Show New Year Special - 31st December 2011

With PBR Street Gang"
This is a review from Ben Willmott (http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/clubs/ministry-of-sound-review-9436.html)

"Arguably the most famous club in the world, the Ministry of Sound has played host to everyone from the key architects of dance music to globally renowned superstars like Eminem and Metallica. It’s even been used a location for one of the Batman films, but most impressive of all it continues to pack them in every weekend some 20 years after it opened.

The Venue
From the outside it looks little more than a large industrial shed than a club, but once inside, like Amsterdam or Glastonbury, its maze-like layout means you’ll always get a bit lost however many times you visit. You enter by the club’s outdoor smoking and food area, walk down a long, glittery corridor and into the club’s bar, overlooked by a balcony that leads to the VIP area and the intimate Baby Box, where the 60s-inspired decor and modernist sofas make you feel like you’ve stumbled onto a club scene from an Austin Powers movie. Even in the bar there are DJs and widespread dancing and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d found the main room – but once you’re in the main room you’ll definitely know it, not least for the thumping great sound system, somehow deafening without hurting your ears, the eye blistering lightshow and the sight of at least a thousand people partying harder than you’ve ever seen before.

The Atmosphere
Totally unrestrained and exuberant in the main room, certainly, where people clamber atop the speakers and on the stage to dance, dance, dance. It’s probably fair to say the real peak time slot is well after midnight, although popping in at the end of a long evening at say 4am or 5am, once the crowd has thinned out a little and you’re left with a hardcore of ravers resolute to continue to the bitter end, can also be fun. Any earlier and you can expect to be politely jostled and bumped into a fair amount because it’s invariably that full. The only dampener on the good times can be the bouncers – most are reasonable, a handful can be abrupt to say the least.

The Music
A number of different promoters take over the club on different nights, but house music is what it is mainly known for and house music is more than likely what you'll get if you turn up randomly. Some club nights, like The Gallery and Kinky Malinki, are some of the longest established names among the capital’s nightlife. The Ministry has kept things fresh by constantly bringing on new nights, and its current roster includes the more techno orientated Toolroom Knights, Funk Farm, KM, cult hero Deadmau5’s Mau5trap night, Latin get together La Bomba, Size Matters and We Love... Every club from jungle bash AWOL to fetish freakshow Torture Garden has been here at some stage, though, and often return for one offs, so check the listings regularly.

The Drink
Having initially opened as a dry club with no drinks license, it seems the Ministry is attempting to make for lost time now, charging stern prices even by nightclub standards for what is essentially a respectable but by no means impressive selection of small bottles of beer (be prepared to part with a fiver), to spirits (now we’re talking tenners). It’s just as well you’ve got a stiff drink to hand, because you’ll need one when you get your change.

The Last Word
It might not be perfect, and you’ll certainly spend a fair whack getting in and on drinks, but for house and techno fans especially there’s still plenty of magic to be found inside these legendary walls."

Research into HP

Videos from Hewlett-Packard:

Photo Frame:


Baby:


Many Photo Frames:


An example I found from YouTube:
http://youtu.be/MQJhSWDb0Zg

Research into Aviva

Videos from Aviva:

Tap Dancing:


Goth:


Football Fans:


Family Holiday:


Retirement:


Family:

Brief's I have Chosen to look at

After looking at the different Briefs for this project I have been able to narrow my choice down to just 3.

Open Brief - Aviva
Moving Image - HP
Typographic - Ministry of Sound

I have chosen these 3 after deconstructing the briefs and picking out the most relevant information.

Aviva Brief:

'In these straightened times, make saving 'front of mind'. Dispel the impression of savers as dull, miserly, unadventurous people. Inspire people to play the long game, even if it means cutting down on spending in the short term.'

Target Audience - 18 to 25.

Key Words/Phrases - 'long-term future', 'act of saving among young people - making it relevant, feasible, important, interesting, and dare we say it even cool?' and 'Inspire people to play the long game.'

Deliverables - 'The idea can be dramatized across any media channels you feel appropriate, and can include creation of new online destinations or branded utility/content. Use of emerging techniques and platforms is welcomed.'

HP Brief:

'Your challenge is to make a work of moving image that describes the idea of a station where creative work is made and produced. It can be based on reality and the way you work or it could be a conceptual visualization.'

Target Audience - Primary: Anyone using technology to be creative: professionals, students and tutors in art and design education, and anyone in the creative industry.
Secondary: Specific audiences include: animators, filmmakers, graphic designers, art directors and digital media producers.

Key Words/Phrases - 'vision of a creative work station', 'unleashing and accelerating creativity', 'Innovative, collaborative, powerful'.

Deliverables - Motion Graphics

Ministry of Sound Brief:

'We require you to produce a set of three typographically-focused A2 outdoor posters (landscape or portrait) that act as a three month advertising campaign for Ministry of Sound' iconic London event 'Saturday Sessions'.'

Target Audience - 18-30, clubbers and dance music lovers from all walks of life.

Key Words/Phrases - 'clear conceptual theme', 'often viewed from a moving vehicle', 'lose yourself in an atmosphere unlike anywhere else'.

Deliverables - Print in the form of 3 A2 posters, for outdoor use.

History of D and AD

D and AD is a world renowned organization that allows for designers all over the world to participate in competitions of various skills, ranging from the Student Awards to Professional Awards, (people who are working in the business already, whether that be freelance or otherwise).

For this project we will be entering our working into the Student Awards, where the top prize is the Yellow Pencil which is a very sort out award that only a certain few have, which will then help that person to enter into this industry with ease.
"1962. A group of designers and art directors come together to celebrate creative communication and raise standards within their industry.

Amongst the group are David Bailey, Terence Donovan and Alan Fletcher (yes, it was that cool). They call themselves British Design & Art Direction and the following year they organise their first Awards event. And they are picky. From 2500 entries they select just 16 pieces of work to receive the soon to be coveted Yellow Pencil.

2011 and British Design & Art Direction has grown mightily, but slimmed down its name. Now D&AD, its members represent the creative, design and advertising communities, not just in Britain, but worldwide.

Shaped by numerous talented, idiosyncratic professionals with wildly varying approaches but a shared commitment to excellence, D&AD is headed by an executive committee and President, all elected from the membership.

Individual and company membership of D&AD is open to all professionals and students working in or around the creative industries. Awarded membership, however, retains the pickiness of the founding fathers and is only available those whose work has been recognised at the annual D&AD Awards." (from the D and AD website (http://www.dandad.org/dandad/about/the-backstory))

Meeting with Dom from Plug-In Media

An explanation that Dom gave for his company is 'Digital Interactive Entertainment'.
Starting from the beginning...

Plug-In Media was set up by Dom (Dominic Minns) and Seb (Seb Lee-Delisle) in 2005 and they are based in Brighton.
There are about 12 people working for Plug-In Media as well as 1 full-time intern (plus 2-8 freelancers).

The clients:

• BBC - Big client with a good, sizable budget.





• Turner Broadcasting





• Nickelodeon





• Sesame Workshop





• Tate





• The British Museum





• Chorion





• TwoFour54





• MLB

Dom's History and Learning:

• Had a film Career for about 5 years (There was a film crew hirachy)





• 'Freelancing is a pain in the ass!'





• He learnt Flash (To allow for himself to be more sort out) - very important at the time to keep up-to-date with the software.





• Interactivity for adults is different than for childern - as Dom said 'Kids are ring fenced' (easily pleased)

Dom's advice on how to get into the industry:

• Use you time well - perfecting your work.





• Retain NO rights to work





• Keep busy doing other personal projects - so that your creative mind always working and learning.





• Always involve yourself in a creative.





• Have a wide range of different things in your portfolio - do not limit yourself to what you are strongest at.

What Dom looks for in an intern:

• People who stand out (has to be amazing!)





• People who are IN LOVE with doing stuff!





• People who know the background of the business (has done research before hand)





• People who make their pitch specifically driven to the company they are applying for





• If you tweet - then tweet interesting things not just random information that no one needs to know.

Project 4 - D & A D

"The Design and Art Directive (D&AD), http://www.dandad.org/awards/student is a registered educational charity that aims to represent ‘the global creative, design and advertising communities’, by encouraging growth and development in these areas. It has been running since 1962 and is recognised the world over in terms of its activities and affiliations. Part of these activities includes an annual student competition, which has become the industry benchmark for identifying excellence within the next generation of design talent. The purpose of the D&AD Global Student Awards is to highlight the best emerging talent within design, advertising and communications courses around the world and promote it to the creative industries globally. Appearing in the D&AD Student Annual or winning a D&AD Student Yellow Pencil is widely regarded as one of the best ways to kick-start your career within the creative industries."

The Brief:

Within the D and AD there are many different briefs which cover a range of different skills, which are not just Digital Media. However, for this project we have been given 8 areas to concentrate on:

• Open Brief - Aviva
• Installation - Coutts
  
• Make Your Mark - Personal Choice
  
• Moving Image - HP
  
• Illustration - Little White Lies
  
• Digital Design - Windows Phone
  
• Digital Advertising - Spotify
  
• Typographic - Ministry of Sound
  

There are a few that look interesting to me, HP, Little White Lies, Ministry of Sound, Aviva, Windows Phone and Make Your Mark.

So I will first be deconstructing each of the briefs, finding out what the client wants, what medium the project will be in and what the target audience is etc.
To do this I will be going through the briefs and highlighting the main sections that will help me come up with an idea for that brief.
I will then narrow down my search by doing some research into the different companies to find out their own style, background and any other relevant information that I cannot find within the brief.

Final Assignment - Game

Our final assignment set by Seb was:

You mission, should you choose to accept it*, is to make a simple game prototype!

Using your new found code skills, like animation, collision detection, basic logic and managing arrays of custom classes, I want you to create a fun game.

It doesn't need an intro page or instructions, it only requires a game play element, and a game over state.

The focus should be on fun and simplicity. There's no point in making a really complicated game if it's not fun!

In order to achieve fun, adjust the speed that things move, how the game is controlled, and how it looks.

It can be abstract, so shapes and lines are OK. Just try to pick nice colours, and have other graphical niceties, like trails and particle effects. Sound effects can also help. (hint : http://thirdcog.eu/apps/cfxr )

Good luck!

* you don't really have a choice :)

To begin with I went online to see what kind of retro games there were, and which ones could I tray and create:

http://www.retrogames.co.uk/
http://www.classicgamesarcade.com/

After looking through these websites I thought that I would want to create something that is similar to Frogger.

However, when I begun coding I found that trying to make that using processing in the time I had would not make a successful game, so I then made my game idea simpler so that I could create it and make it a successful game in the limited time that I had, and my idea then turned out to be a mixture of games, for example snake but the ball does not grow and you have to avoid the blue balls to stay alive.

During this assignment I did struggle with a couple of things when I tried to decipher other people's code, to see if it would work for mine, in the end I had to figure out using both processing.org and the Learning Processing book how to debug all of the problems I got, for example:

Having extra brackets or curly brackets or no semi-colon.
And then having other random errors which I then had to find out and try and fix.

Assignment 2 - Buttons

This was our second assignment again set by Seb:

Using the interactive stripes as an example, I want you to create a Button object. It can be rectangular or circular, it's up to you.

Then I want you to make an array of the buttons.

They should move around the screen and when they reach the edges, they either bounce off or loop around to the other side of the screen.

When you click on a button, it changes colour. When you click it again it reverts to its original colour.

You have until the end of Tuesday 10th January.

I did have a few issues with this however I was able to sort them out using both what I had learned and by using a book by Daniel Shiffman called Learning Processing:

Assignment 1 - Eyes

This is our first assignment set by Seb:

Here is your first assignment! Please complete it by January 1st 2012 (although I STRONGLY recommend you do it straight away before you forget your code skills!)

I want you to create one or more eyes. They can be human, alien, insect, robot, anything. There must be at least one, but you can make as many as you like! They must respond to the mouse in some way, either with mouse movement or button presses. Extra geek points awarded to those who implement both of these!

Good luck!

Hint : You may find my "Map" example sketch helpful.
(This exercise was inspired by (ie copied from) Casey Reas. :) )

And this is what I came up with:

Learning Processing - Arrays

This is a very brief example of how an Array works.



An Array works by using a list of numbers where they duplicate the object and copy i=t over the other one, creating a lot of the same object without having a lot of code.

Learning Processing - Trails

This is where we learned about how trails worked when the mouse moves and the ball leaves a trail.



This one combines using Arrays, Functions, and majority of the other things that we had learned.

Learning Processing - Particles and Funtions

This is how to make the objects move or do something by using functions:



This is a function:

void drawCircle(){
noStroke ();
fill (0, 150, 255);
ellipse (x, y, 50, 50);
}

This is how to declare the function:

void draw() {

background(150, 40, 100);

** drawCircle(); **
moveCircle();
checkCollisions();

}

Particles: we were taught how to make particles.



The mouseX and mouseY, allows for the particles to come out of and move with the movement of the mouse.



By changing a few of the elements, for example the gravity function, which is:

gravity = 0.5;

I can change which direction the bubbles will go.

shrink = 0.95; And this allows me to make the bubbles either grow or shrink as they go away from the mouse or point at which I place them.

Learning Processing - Classes

With this one we got taught how to make elements using classes. The first one is how to create an object (circle) using classes.


And by the end of the day, using classes I was able to create a lot of the same bubble using classes, by making the sizes random and the colours random between blue, red and a mixture of the two.

Learning Processing - The Basics

To begin with we were told to always start with:

void setup(){

}

void draw(){

}

at the beginning of every sketch, this means that we have got a basis at which to start processing.

This is the very first thing that I did using processing.

This is what I created by the end of the first day of learning processing.



This is something that I created for a bit of fun during the class.

Processing Explained

"Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to create images, animations, and interactions. Initially developed to serve as a software sketchbook and to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context, Processing also has evolved into a tool for generating finished professional work. Today, there are tens of thousands of students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists who use Processing for learning, prototyping, and production." (http://processing.org/)

This quote explains basically what processing is and what you are able to do with it.

http://processing.org/learning/ This website shows us the what to do from the basics to some more advanced processing.

This is the kind of thing you can do using processing:




If I could learn more about processing I would love to do something like this.

Project 3 - Processing

The Brief:

This module aims to give students experience of programming interaction in order to develop a sense of code literacy, which will enable them to push the boundaries of design to include new realms and processes. During this module you will be taught Processing and learn the very basics and begin to develop your programming skills.

I am very excited for this brief because I have never done processing before and after looking at the processing.org website at what kind of things we could do means that the possibilities are endless to what our imagination can come up with.