Sk-etchbook

This is great, it really shows creativity has no bounds!

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Here is my final piece produced for the 2020 brief. Overall I am happy with the image, there is definitely room for improvement however I feel I have managed to impersonate the 1950's style and communicate the purpose adequately. Admittedly the message could be a little clearer but as this is an ad for the future we have to take into account that 12 years from now the public will have a different knowledge base so they will be more familiar with the relevant technologies. I ended up leaving the image as it was instead of applying effects to reproduce the poster print style. I did experiment with several filters, effects, brushes & adjustments but I preferred the image as it was originally, plus as it was an advert for vision the clarity of the vista image acts a relevant signifier. My major crit of this project was time management, I was in Barcelona for a week then had to find a new house and move all in the fortnight before the deadline. Although some things were beyond my control in future projects I am going to try do as much work as I can earlier on and leave myself time for contingencies.

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Just Imagine (1930) film (insta babies clip)


Man and the Moon Filmstrip


Power Macintosh - Jet Pack (1994)

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So I chose to do my piece on cybernetic upgrades. Now at first I thought this sounded very far-fetched but after researching the issue and discovering what was already possible it started to sound more viable. The main issue at the moment seems to be peoples opinions about how unnatural it sounds and the general paranoia involved with any technologies the conspiracy nuts could accuse of being government spying/mind control devices. There are also numerous films which warn of a future where humans have been enslaved by robotic forces, another issue which doesn't help promote the idea of replacing bits of yourself with machines however societies do evolve. What seems incredible today will become everyday in the future, at first cybernetics will have medical benefits but then there will be people who will be happy to pay enormous amounts to gain superhuman abilities. Once the first few hop onboard the normalization process will begin, the price will lower and the ever fearful general public will become less freaked out by the idea, undoubtedly there will continue to be sceptics but this remains true for most things.

So why is this relevant? Digital media can be applied to a plethora of mediums at the moment but with the evolution of technologies like this where people could be capable of full spectrum vision, night vision, tele/microscopic vision or even live streaming internet TV and 3D environments the possibilities are endless. Advertisements could be heat or sound rather than visual, microscopic commercials could be on the rim of a wine glass or web popup in full 3D colour which would appear to surround and interact with the end user... I could rant on with many more possibilities but so sum up, in my opinion any technology like this will most definitely be relevant to any future digital designer!

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The cybernetic eye idea I had may not be commercially available by 2020 and I was afraid I may have strayed from the brief however after chatting with Mike I have decided to continue with the idea. As it is a litte far fetched I'm going to do the poster in the style of a 1950's "House of the Future" commercial. I also think a reto style would be suitable for a future advertisement because fashions and trends come round in loops so it is likely that 50's design could be popular again.

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Spent my well earned birthday cash on a new digital camera. I bought the Casio Exilim EX-Z1050, it's not a high end digital SLR or anything just a compact point and shoot but it's main purpose is to capture images for online use anyway. It had good reviews, I haven't had much time to play with it yet but the images seem good quality and there is a reasonable selection of features (not that I know what most of them do).

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My poster will be advertising cybernetic eye upgrades. A basic cybernetic eye that helps blind people to see by pluging directly into the brain has already been developed so in the future there will be several ways to artificially improve on normal human vision.

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Barcelona!
I'm pretty lucky here because as soon as we were handed this brief I knew exactly what I was going to do my piece on. Earlier in the year I had convieniently booked to go to Barcelona to see some friends. I've only been once before but the place is a truely enchanting cultural and artistic hub. The buildings are amazing, the streets are filled with artists & performers, there are random sculptures everwhere and atmosphere is just intoxicating. Perrrrrrfic...

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This is an interesting site. A light installation & computer tracking software is used to follow members of the public.

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Absolut : Absolut Design
Signifiers – bottle, style, text.
Signified – work of art, genius, more then just a drink, created by thought & passion.

Wallis : Dress to Kill
Signifiers – Woman, woman’s dress, crashed car, car driver, scenery, text.
Signified – Beauty, Glamour, Desirability, attraction, lust, refinement, luxury, empowerment.

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Image manipulation with photoshop

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Shoulda bin postin this as I went along really but here is how I went about reaching my final design for the about me project.

1)First my rationale...
After receiving the brief these were my first thoughts:

• Brainstorm – factors to include personality, likes, films, music, hobbies, etc…
• If you were a *** what would you be…
• Styles – doctored film poster or graphical montage, should choose a style to reflect me.

Hobbies – the things people make up to put on the end of their CV’s

Hmmmm…. what are my hobbies? Well for the couple of years I’ve been learning web design (html, flash, dreamweaver etc.) and Spanish but I wouldn’t really class them as hobbies. I go running a couple of times a week but that’s definitely not a hobby. I like many things, films, music, food, cartoons, bad jokes and good books but that’s all pretty matter of fact stuff to put in a poster about me! I love my friends and most social events, be it hedonistic weekends away or chilling out with a dvd and some food, people in general amuse and fascinate me. I like sun and enjoy travelling but most people do so that’s not a very interesting thing to focus on.

In regards to my past I’ve had a diverse life so far, I’m from York, I did media studies for a year at college after leaving school but then left to work full time as a chef. I did that for about a year then got made redundant when the company was sold so started working in Ibiza over the summer working as a PR and entertainer. After 3 years I needed a change so I moved to Leeds and after a brief stint working for a stockbrokers took an office job with ATTIK a design and branding agency which had recently moved to Leeds. Two years later and here I am…

So to sum up I think I should focus on my personality and what type of person I am. I will either edit myself into a version of a movie poster which I think reflects my personality or do a montage in a style which reflects my personality.

2) Then some research & inspiration online...






3) And this is how the total thought process went in general...
After receiving the brief I had a good think and a little brainstorm jotting down aspects of what makes me what I am. I also text 5 friends asking them to describe me in one word, the replies were “Imp, fun, fabulous, playful & bent”. Not sure if that was much help or just says something about my friends.

Next a bit of research, I went online and viewed a few poster sites.

Finally I decided on 3 options, shown below.

Route 1
Choose one of my favourite films and comp my face onto the relevant poster.
Pros – should not be too complicated to do in photoshop
Cons – might be hard to get print res poster to work with

Route 2
Montage
Pros – probably best way to showcase everything about me
Cons – might not have enough design skills yet to get my ideas across

Route 3
Choose a style of poster which best reflects me.
Pros – relies upon graphical communication of a thought not just showcasing objects
Cons – design ability


Initially I decided to follow route 2 and make a graphical montage but my design & artworking skills are still pretty basic so I ditched this idea after struggling to illustrate my ideas effectively and followed a different route. While researching I had seen a Looney Tunes poster and thought this would be a good theme to represent me so I started to play around and came up with my final piece.

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I got a little sidetracked while researching for this one, pretty amazing what they can already do! There is a full list of the sites I've been looking at below but I think the first link about cybernetic upgrades gave me the most to think about regarding this brief.

Cybernetic upgrades
http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/?p=288

Tooth implant
http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10328750&

Super Senses
http://www.battelle.org/news/99/2020forecast.stm

Quantum Computer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computer
http://www.tomorrowproject.net/pub/1__GLIMPSES/Media_and_technology/-387.html

Mobile Phones
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/magazine_future_of_mobile/html/1.stm

Holographic Technologies
http://www.corbinball.com/articles/art-teleimmersion.htm

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So we're nearly a month into the course now, there is a heap of briefs already and I need to get into the habit of adding regular posts to this blog...

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The description goes "An explosion of colours and shapes form different shapes and faces". Intended to attract new customers and drive awareness of this revolutionary new product range. Personally I like the the fluid movement of the animation, the vibrant colours & the psycodelic overall feeling of the animation. I also think the music is a good choice (Van She remix of Gravity's Rainbow by The Klaxons) as it seems to compliment the animation style

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This is my rock, I shall sit here and think.

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