Tuesday 18 November 2008

The beauty of an idea...

First off I have to say, this is work from my first year, you hear me? No? Right...LISTEN CAREFULLY, THIS IS INCREDIBLY OLD WORK AND NOT THE STANDARD OF MY DESIGN SKILL THESE DAYS! THIS WAS DONE IN 2002, WHEN I WAS IN MY FIRST YEAR OF UNI! PLEASE FORGIVE THE SOMEWHAT CLANDESTINE DESIGN SKILL, I AM TRYING TO MAKE A POINT ABOUT A GOOD IDEA!

Rant over...

It's mad to really look back at your old work and think how bad it looks visually, it has to be that way, otherwise you are just stagnating as a designer, and who wants to do that? NOT ME!!! But I think the magic of looking back over old work is the little bit of satisfaction you can derive from a good idea. If the idea was good, then you know you were onto something.

This brief was to create an advert for Playstation (2?), that would be used in a "lads mag", and somehow, with the combination of stories of deep vein thrombosis from long haul flights, kids getting fatter because they aren't as active as they used to be and Charlton Heston's speech in "Bowling for Columbine" as he proudly held his rifle above his head and prolaimed, "FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!" and I stitch the two together to get the following...

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I can look at this idea now and see all manor of things that I would do to it now to present it better, but that's not the point I'm getting at though, it still remains a good idea, technical execution aside, I think the idea stands up still even now.


Perhaps this is a question of guilting the lily? Or in the case of my first year work, uncovering the lily...I've done it, now you try it!

Peas oot...
Michael

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Uni project that I love!

Well I do love it!!  I think it is a really great idea, the brief was to create some form of promotional material that discourages people from dropping gum. It costs so much money to clean up!! It costs approximately, if memory serves, 17p to remove each piece from the ground!! And when you think a pack costs 30 something pence (don't know don't buy it) it is an insane amount of money being thrown at a problem.

I am really proud of this result as it was shear research that got me there, research into disposal methods, solutions that have been trailed, comparative solutions....and most of the solutions that were in effect were stupidly expensive, plastic pouches, some really disgusting posts/walls covered in gum...

I've always been aware that negative slogans/advertising don't have any effect whatsoever, look at the average smoker, you could put pictures of brutal deformed lungs fill with tar (wait they do that now) and it does nothing to stop them smoking, I found a completely random study done in Holland's public toilets where they printed a fly on a urinal. I won't repeat the statistic as I can't believe that they measured it, but it's safe to say it stopped people pissing on the floor as much because they were aiming for the fly! So here research said something funny...

Roll on the alternate uses for chewing gum, I knew full well that these would probably have to come with an idiot warning on them, but I love the idea. There was an abandoned idea involving superheroes. So I tried my best to come up with as many ideas as possible, I think I got to 20 something, but to be honest I was clutching at straws past 10.

So I focus on the few that would make the best visuals, and did my homework into instructional images, that usually come on planes and warning cards...

And this is what I came up with....

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Somewhere in the final stages, this went from just being a postcard, to the idea that you could stick the gum on the postacrd, doubling its usefulness! This came up when I looked back at the research, realising that it would costs roughly 5p per card, thus saving 12p on cleaning costs.

Please don't judge the quality of some of the drawing to harshly, I wanted to learn how to use illustrator at the time and this was my baptism by fire, I can see things I'd change now, but I still think it is a great idea and that's what counts! I still think the back is a lovely combination of colours and style, it's formal enough to be a government thing, but funky enough (colours and logo) to be cool!

Other things to do...
Michael

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Monday 17 November 2008

I've joined Emptees!

Heard of it? Yes? Good! No? Bad you! Well maybe not bad, you are still here aren't you! So maybe you should click on the inevitable links that will appear in due time...

Right back to the point, Emptees, t-shirt website where you can post and sell your t-shirt designs! Now I joined and the first thing I did was have a look through my external hard drive (only work that is on right now is on my computer) for old/long forgotten good ideas that probably deserved some airing/re-thinking/somewhere to be seen!

Well this is my first submission!

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It is something I did in my second year in the development stages that just ended up being forgotten about, which is sad, because I think it's fun! Well anyways if you like it, you can contact me and BUY IT! Check that shit out! But seriously, you can! I can add some logo/branding and away we go!

Roll on a whole new set of challenges, I'm am so used to working in square frames, this is going to be rather interesting....

Love
A smiling Michael!

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BUY IT!!!
Emptees

Sunday 9 November 2008

Bad day?

I've just done this, they liked the Kris Roe poster I did, and wanted me to make a myspace layout for them that looked similar. Not a particularly complicated brief, but still a brief none the less. In truth a rather complicated brief, how do you do something similar, but different at the same time? Well my answer was to use the same colour palette and just the idea a bit...
They gave me a logo that they wanted to use, and their name is bad day, so I started thinking about bad days, bad situations etc. I've just finished reading Dave Gorman's "America Unchained" (read the book, forget the documentary), and without going into too much detail he drives across America, trying to not pay any money to Big business chain stores, and one of his worst moments was running out of petrol, seeing an independent "gas" station and then arriving closer to see it was closed down. So a bad day? Chasing a dream and the lack of something making it impossible, thank you Dave Gorman!
Anyway, this is what it looks like...

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This is the image as I made it, it was interesting as I layered the top banner on and made the background image alot bigger and then set it to repeat, you can't really see it there, but click on the link down (keep going...) and it'll make perfect sense. It was a good idea that meant the back ground wasn't completely static.

After a rough of the myspace layout they asked me to do banner, and this is it.

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I was tempted to bring the TV image back in, but its only a small space, so would have been a nightmare or more to the point, a messy nightmare.

A good day!
Michael

Links make a chain...
Bad Day?
Dave Gorman - Look at it, the guy is a legend!