TYPOGRAPHY RESEARCH - START OF YEAR 3!

Posted by Jenn | Posted in , | Posted on Tuesday, August 18, 2009

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Over the summer holidays, I have been researching and collecting images and films that represent typography that catches my eye and imagination.

I decided to start off by looking at film titles, as type in motion is the main area I wanted to looker deeper into.
I thought a good starting point was to look at the older films, and how the designers back then accomplished type in motion. I have also realised that these film titles I have looked at have a certain charm to them, a rough old-style design which really appeals to me.

Anatomy Of A Murder is just one of the films that Saul Bass has created the titles for. He used graphic symbolism to transform film titles of that Era (1959). This is an example of one of his earlier titles which shows a traditional animation that uses cell drawings or cut forms. This example shows hand cut shapes of body parts which move in and out of the space and shift in scale. different parts of the body are juxtaposed to create abstract relationships with one another before they finally come together at the end of the titles to represent a body at a murder scene. I feel like this kind of typography is very playful and yet still represents the content of the film perfectly.
Saul Bass uses the shapes of the body to draw attention to the actual typography, it all ties in perfectly together - the timing of the edits emphasise the drama which is the intention to draw the audience in. I think it is very clever how simple shapes and typography work so well together.

ALL MY CONTACT REPORT EMAILS - END OF YEAR 2

Posted by Jenn | Posted in | Posted on Friday, May 08, 2009

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This post contains all of the emails that i sent out to all the companies i wanted to get replies from. Some were successful but others were not.
I tried to keep my emails as short as possible, and there is a repetition in the kind of questions that i asked just to see if i would get a response from them
Overall i am very pleased with the replies i got and i intend to keep in touch with them by asking more questions but i will not over power them, i will try and be subtle.


FRIDAY 10 APRIL 2009 16:07

Contact for production.london@the-mill.com

HUTCHINSON 3 QUESTION: JELLYFISH

Hello,
My name is Jenny Huddart and I am a Multimedia Student. I have just been looking at your 'Hutchinson 3' campaign which involves the jellyfish you did in 2004.
I am extremely impressed with the modeling of the creature, and is very similar to the jellyfish I have just created for a brief in Maya.
We had 4 weeks to work on a 10 second 3D channel ident by ourselves, and the question i wanted to ask is how long it took your guys to answer the Hutchinson brief? And how many designers worked on it altogether?

Thank you for your time.

Jenny Huddart: BA(Hons) Multimedia at Stockport College, Manchester.


FRIDAY 10th APRIL 2009 19:00

Contact for talk@day-light.co.uk

808 State QUESTION

Hello,
My name is Jenny Huddart and I am a 2nd year Multimedia student.
I love the piece 808 State due to the style of editing and materials used.
The atmosphere you have created is brilliant!
I would like to know how long it took you to produce and with how many people on your team?

Thank you for your time

Jenny Huddart: 2nd year BA (Hons) Multimedia. Stockport College, Manchester.


FRIDAY 10th APRIL 2009 19:22

Contact for Iceni Productions

'It's Well Good' QUESTION

Hello,
My name is Jenny Huddart and im a 2nd year Multimedia student.
I have just recently seen 'IT"S WELL GOOD' for the Transpennine Express Franchise. I was extremely impressed with the motion graphics and high standard of quality to the style of footage.
I would just like to know how long it took to produce? And how many people worked on it?
Thank you for your time

Jenny Huddart 2nd year BA(Hons) Stockport College, Manchester

FRIDAY 10th APRIL 2009 20:45
Contact for paulpeppiate@sumners.co.uk

SUM CREATIVE QUESTION

Hello,
My name is Jenny Huddart and I'm a student doing my 2nd year in Multimedia.
I have just seen your showreel of logo's, titles, and effects etc and was extremely impressed!
This is the kind of work I am aiming for when I finish my course.
I would just like to know how long it would take your team normally to produce television titles, and how many would normally be in your team?
Thank you for your time
Regards
Jenny Huddart 2nd year BA(Hons) Multimedia, Stockport College, Manchester.

SATURDAY 11th APRIL 2009 16:37
contact for enquiries@monkey-puzzle.net

MONKEY PUZZLE QUESTION

Hello,
My name is Jenny Huddart and Im in my 2nd year Multimedia degree course.
I've just been looking at your site, and was extremely impressed! Especially the BMW Animatic.
I was just wondering if the animations for the adverts were tests for the companies to turn them into live footage?
And how long does it take to produce the animations?
Thank you for your time
Jenny Huddart 2nd year (BA)Hons Multimedia, Stockport College, Manchester

FRIDAY 1st MAY 2009 22:27
Contact for gorgeous@gorgeous.co.uk

GORGEOUS ENTERPRISES - PLAYDOH BUNNIES

Hello Frank,
My name is Jenny Huddart and I am a 2nd year moving image student.
One of the main reasons why I am exploring a course in moving image is partly because of the rabbit playdoh ad, which I admire and absolutely love the stop motion style of the ad.

I was just wondering how long it took you to complete this brief? Taking into acount how many people worked on it etc.

I already know about the large amount of animators you used to make the ad possible and have seen a 'making of' style video focusing on your work. It looks like a lot of fun, to be part of a creative team - This is what I aim to get to in the future, and I admire your style and dedication to produce a different look.

Thank you for your time, it would be lovely to hear from you

Jenny Huddart Ba(HONS) Multimedia, Stockport College, Manchester, UK

ABSOLUTE POST PRODUCTION COMPANY

Posted by Jenn | Posted in | Posted on Friday, May 08, 2009

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I have finally found out who has made the twinings advert after a lot of searching! It is a post production company called Absolute, they are situated in London and in New York. By researching into them a bit more i have also found out that they did the Trainline advert with all the sheep in it! I have always like that advert, where instead of people in a train station, there are sheep instead playing on the pun that everybody are being sheep if they dont buy their train tickets from trainline.com.
The guy who worked on the 3D section says: ' I had to composite numerous sheep in many shots to give them a human feel. The train also had to be completely re-worked to look more modern. We used CG doors and windows as a vehicle for reflections and shadows. The train station had to be dressed to look British so we created a dot-matrix animated billboard and composited it into the live action.'
I still find it quite surreal just how much complicated work and effort go into these types of projects!

NESCAFFE - MORE BEANS, MORE TASTE - THE MAKING OF

Posted by Jenn | Posted in | Posted on Friday, May 08, 2009

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This advert has always made me wonder how they produced it, and before watching the making of video i believed they had done it using CGI and that they weren't real coffee beans exploding.
I came across this advert when i was originally searching for the most recent twinings tea advert where a pair of hands creates images such as eyes and scenery with a sun by spreading the tea leaves around the blank canvas. It is really my kind of style of advert but because it is SO recent i cant find any examples of it anywhere yet, no images or videos and so instead i broadened the search of hot drinks and remembered this Nescaffe advert.
It is representing a celebration of the coffee bean.
The production company behind this ad are called 'Mindshare' and they are located in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.
I love things like this that show you behind the scenes into movies, TV programs, adverts etc. It is what first interested me in this course. I had watched behind the scenes on the Lord Of The Rings films and was blown away by what they did. I want to be apart of something like that one day.

Vanessa Arbuthnott - Fabric Designer

Posted by Jenn | Posted in | Posted on Thursday, May 07, 2009

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I watched a program where the presenter was decorating her own house, but creating all of the interior herself, for example using second hand furniture and producing new covers for them using screen printing etc. She would go to antique shops to gather objects that would fit in with her homemade home style.
The presenter visited the house of Vanessa Arbuthnott who also designed her own home. It was absolutely beautiful, mitch-match fabrics were everywhere but they all tied in together and flowed lovely throughout the rooms. It all began when Vanessa moved into her new home but realised she couldn't afford to buy curtains and so decided to make them herself. 7 years on her passion for creating these lovely styles of fabrics is still burning. The Cotswold countryside hugely influences the look of her fabrics. Fashion at the moment in interior design is reflecting simple patterns which reflect a basic and rustic way of living - and her fabrics mirror this fashion beautifully.

I have included this post as fabrics and textures really do influence my own style. And when i saw this house on the TV i was drawn to absolutely everything in it, i love how authentic it all is.
But the fabrics that she produces i could imagine using myself in some of the designs for my work.

1000 WORD RESPONSE COMPARING TWO PREVIOUS PRACTITIONERS I HAVE LOOKED AT.

Posted by Jenn | Posted in | Posted on Thursday, May 07, 2009

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QUESTION:
Compare and contrast the processes and practices of your two chosen practitioners, to what extent are they defined by the external rigours of the market place/industry they operate in? Upon this analysis what lessons could be applied to your own practice?

The two practitioners that i will be comparing and contrasting are Tracy Kendall and Tal Rosner, mainly because these two lectures i really did connect with and in my opinion were the most enjoyable. These two practitioners are extremely different from one another, Tal is an artist/filmmaker and Tracy mainly works with surface design. Two completely different areas, but as i have mentioned these are the ones that caught my imagination and are the ones that i was drawn to the most.

To begin with, Tal Rosner mainly works with rhythm and footage and mixing them together. His experimental work consists of split screens, shapes, movement and sound.
Basically my favourite brief throughout this whole year was the rhythm brief and this lecture fell nicely in the middle of that, i think it influenced me into making my own work that much more experimental.
Tal mentioned the processes he goes through whilst working on a project, especially the ones where he works with music. His interpretations of both Stravinsky and Debussy captures their style of rhythm perfectly but using image to represent the music. His examples of works that he showed us include landscapes and architecture, especially the more urban scenery and uses this imagery intertwined with a certain piece of music to make them both relate to one another.
He mentioned that the footage he edits together can get a bit tiring with a lot of versions being pumped out to make sure he gets the final piece exactly how he wants it. For example, the title sequence that he produced for 'Skins' was the 72nd version he had compiled. It obviously is a lot of hard work, but it is worth it in the end as this piece got him recognised for awards - He won a BAFTA for it in 2008, and has been nominated for many others which helps get his name out in the industry for sure.
He produced a piece of work called 'Central Saint Martins' in 2005 and recieved an MA for it, and since recieving the MA, a lot of commisioned work has come his way which has helped him learn how the industry works and how to cope with the large quantity of work.
Both of these practitioners use other influences in both their works, as i mentioned before with the musical compositions of Stravinsky and Debussy, Tal was influenced by their music to create his own piece of work to fit with the style of the music. It is the same with Tracy Kendall, one influence she commented on was Sharovsky Crystals, and how they inspired her to work with sequins as an experiment for surface design. She used sequins mainly because of another influence on her - Fashion. A pice of work she showed us was hand stitched sequins onto wallpaper (For that sparkle effect - Sharovsky). She also sewed black sequins onto a wall, it is so simple yet really effective and the atmosphere it must create - I think for both of these practitioners it is all about creating an atmosphere with both of their range of works. Most of Kendall's public work in the industry relies on good editorials in books and magazines. She uses it to validate her work for clients, it is a chance to show the positive that the same piece of work, works in different ways, in any way the client wants. This is very similar to Tal Rosners approach to a project also, i mentioned before about the amount of versions he produces to get it exactly right, well the client who has commisioned him must like it also, so he produces these versions for the clients also just as Tracy produces the same piece of work over and over to whatever the client wants it to look like.
I also think there is a link between these two practitioners and what they actually use in their work. Tal uses footage of urban landscapes and architecture, he didn't build these, they are not his own pieces of work, however the footage that he has filmed becomes his work. Also, Tracy Kendall mentioned that for one of her projects she found a piece of lace at a flee market in France She didn't create the lace, but she used it in one of her pieces of work and turned it into her own style and put her mark on it. She paid 3 Euros for the piece of lace and yet Tracy's piece of work earnt her £40,000 - £50,000!
Rosners progression starts by listening to a piece of music, then going out and finding resources (landscapes etc) and filming them, he edits the footage to flow in time with the music and adds effects that represent his style such as typography or shapes that break up that flow of imagery. The final piece is then created.
Kendall's progression starts with finding the resources first by looking at the fashion industry, or old photographs and marks on the pavement, even random conversations. She creates an idea from these influences, gets the perfect object and takes it into silk screen or screen print etc. The object is then transformed to an image and is turned into wallpaper or a piece of furniture etc to create the final piece.
I think both of these practitioners works have had a huge influence on my own way of thinking and how i look at my own style of creating work. I have always had a huge interest into surface design and textures and it was extremely interesting to see how Tracy went about creating them and the design process she explained was a good source for me to sit and think and try and understand how her type of industry worked. It was exactly the same for Tal Rosner, we were in the middle of a rhythm brief which i embraced so much and went into his lecture with great expectations and i wasn't let down. He also explained how his type of industry was accepting him and his work and it was good to sit and listen and to take in how he approached that world with his designs.
Overall i was extremely impressed with both practitioners, both of their works have had an effect on my own style and way of thinking about textures and rhythm and how experimenting with whatever enters your mind and combining influences be it music or fashion is the best way for creating a good body of work that represents who they are as people.

WORD COUNT: 1,096



YVAN MARTINEZ & JOSHUA TREES - FAKE I.D LECTURE

Posted by Jenn | Posted in | Posted on Friday, May 01, 2009

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Fake I.D are an independant Graphic Design Company, they work with artists and brands depending on the style of work. Their work represents a wide range which include independant projects, comissioned projects, and texts.Their motive is to expand the possibilities of Graphic Design, they have worked with brands such as Sony, Nike, Urban Outfitters and MTV, these are just a few of the range of works they have produced.
The lecture basically showed their influences, they didn't show any of their work. If i'm honest, i was very confused at the beginning of the lecture and throughout the whole thing really until they got to the very end answering questions and explained in very little detail that non of the things they had just shown us for an hour were any of their work.
They showed us random images to link in with what they were talking about. Their influences mainly consisted of Language and Sound. I did relate to what they were talking about, for example the sound of the letters when they are spoken or typed out on a typewriter and the experiments of rhythm using your own handwriting. Things like that do intrigue me. They did say one thing that caught my imagination, the idea or fact that when you speak a piece of writing, the words will hold a certain tone - be it anybody who is reading them. They showed an example of an old man reading out a funeral notice in a sombre tone, then played a clip where a small boy was reading out a funeral notice for his pet tortoise and it had the exact same sombre tone. I had never thought about words in this way, the idea that maybe thinking about words like this takes us back to our baby routes using phrases such as 'Ba Ba' etc.
In the middle of the lecture, i had written down in the middle of my notes 'The lecture is confusing, it's difficult to understand if what they are showing us are influences or their own work??' ... And then at the end of my notes, i finally have the answer as to why i was so confused - they wanted the presentation to be different, not to show their own work, they chose to do this because they wanted the audience to form a relationship with any subject they show to make it more interesting.

They then gave us their website a hint that if we were really interested in them as a company then we could look up their work in our own time. I suppose it is a clever technique, however i can't hide the fact that i was slightly disappointed with the presentation. Comparing it with all of the others i have made notes on, this one is possibly at the bottom of the list.

I have had a look at their site, and discovered that they have done some commissioned work for Urban Outfitters, if i had known this when they gave their presentation, i would have asked them a question based on that, as it is a really big interest for me because i have always loved the style and individuality of the shop Urban outfitters. That was a bit of a blow for me, i have spoken to some other people and they feel the same way i do, if they had included some of their work then maybe more questions would have been asked and the general atmosphere of the presentation would have been less confusing.

I did like the fact however that they said they 'Embrace student work', that student heads aren't 'formed' yet which is a great advantage, they are not restricted in their thinking, they are not close minded.
Some brands are attracted to their way of communicating, their ideas and style of representation which the audience can then relate to. That is how the presentation work is linked to their commercial work.

Overall i was disappointed with this lecture, comparing it to the others i have seen, i was expecting to at least be shown some of their work, i find it a bit odd that they decided to do the presentation in this way. They even admitted that they were bored showing people their work - What impression does that give out to people who are going to go home and look up their work? Maybe they shouldn't bother because we couldn't be bothered showing you ourselves?
Don't get me wrong, some aspects i did relate to and looking at some of their work, i do like some of it - it is just their technique that has thrown me a bit.
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