This week is the last week before the Christmas break, and so far this term has been probably the most worked term ever in my educational lifetime. I have never stayed up so many times in so many consecutive nights in so few months.
And this is me right now struggling with doing any work whilst this mind of mine is trying to drift off into dream land.
A very odd title, I know, but once you read this brief I got given last week from my tutor from the Experimental Communication module, you’ll understand:
The ones with the arrows is what I chose to do. We had to interpret it in any way we thought would communicate the phrases.
And this is what I came out with:
I wanted to do the “Beer in bottles” one and take a photograph of beer bottle sweets, but they’re really hard to find… So my “Love in hearts” used the same sweety idea, by using the well-known Love Hearts which always have a message of love in them, which goes well with the “Love in hearts” phrase.
Unfortunately the photograph isn’t as bright as I wished for it to be, but with a simple digital camera, indoor lighting and numerous minutes trying to adjust it on Photoshop, it can’t be helped.
So what would your interpretation be for one of the phrases? ^_^
My sister received a parcel today delivered through packaging service UPS.
This is the box it came in (ignore the twiglets packet on the bottom right corner):
And this is the packaging inside it, along with the product my sister bought (some headphone/music thing she said it was??):
Bad UPS! BAD!
I subscribe to a weekly newsletter from visual communication magazine Creative Review. There is always something on there that piques any designer’s interest. I received their newest one earlier and thought I’d share some of it with you.
If you still have yet to bring out the Christmas tree and decorate it, how about considering this as part of your decoration:
Yes, when you look at them you do notice that they represent a very red pair of testicles. But hey, it’s for a good cause.
As said by Creative Review:
“Our Christmas Bauball is in fact one of a number of such handmade items being sold by ad agency Fallon to benefit Orchid, a charity fighting male cancer. As well as raising funds, the idea is that the baubles will encourage men to check themselves for possible signs of testicular cancer – ho, ho and indeed, ho.“
Care to know more? http://www.checkyourbauballs.com/
It’s an interesting way of getting the male population’s attention and making sure they check that they are A-Ok all round.
They even made an illustrative/GIF guide to tell you what to do, in a not-so-exposing-way:
There is also another company, called Albion, who has done a similar project with more festivity added:
Proceeds also go towards male cancer charity, Everyman.
If you wish to read more, you can see the whole article here.
Out-of-the-ordinary festive products that go to very worthy causes.
There have been plenty of changes to the projects in the modules.
For the calendar, I had to do these things throughout the past weeks:
Next attempt:
Well after that it was said that the images on the box front does not reflect the drawings that are inside, so place kids at the front and back instead, with the text at the back set in columns.
Did that and came out with this Calendar design. You can also see them below. But in my opinion, the front does not work well compared to the back of the box. The tutor agrees also. So the design needs to be planned out again. It might be the colours, the poses, both, or something else. But it definitely needs sorting.
(The recipes in the calendar are only examples and are from books or the internet — just so the client knows what it looks like and that each month has a recipe based on the occasion linked to that particular month).
In case you wonder, this is the box design with the cards:
The box is tied through an elastic attached to the back which comes around the front and ties around the fastener.
The musical posters have also changed, with these notes taken into account:
Closer Than Ever:
And The World Goes ‘Round:
And these are the final designs. Hopefully they are the final designs.
For the Between The Lines project, the idea was really liked by my tutor, who advised me to add hair to it.
That’s it for the Design Portfolio module. There is a new project that’s just started, so there’s not much to it really.
As for Experimental Communication, a lot has been going on. From developing projects more to new ones. From when I did the postcard/Foutaises project, I developed it a bit more by attempting to post out a tea bag (which from my ‘Likes’, was: I like watching a tea bag expand as you pour hot water onto it.
My first attempt in posting it resulted it coming through, but with no tea grains in the bag. When I looked at it, it was deliberately cut. As well as this, it did not get stamped on to certify that it was posted, so I had to send it through again. My second attempt resulted in tea bag not even coming through and torn off from the address tag. Again, no certify stamp so I’ll have to send another one again, fully stapled and on a bigger address tag. Hopefully third time’s a charm.
Another idea I did for the postcard was a scroll which placed all my likes/dislikes written in calligraphy writing, and tied up with a ribbon. Pretty and personal.
A new project we had to do was visual instructions, with no text. And the instructions cannot be anything simple like how to make a cup of tea. Can be anything fun or ridiculous.
This was mine: How To Take Candy From A Baby:
We have another new project, which I’ll have to read through again as it’s a bit….. I’ll just say riddle-like, but isn’t at the same time :/
For Concept Development and the Sabbatical project, in the end I produced a thaumatrope. One side had a cage and the other had a dog. When spun you would see the dog in the cage, indicating it being trapped with no freedom. When no longer spinning, the dog is free.
A new project was given, where we have to produce a 32-page book on images based from our research and development of our sabbatical. Each image, however, has to be in some form of print, whether it be photocopy, digital print, lino or screen print. The images can be found in my blog for this module.
The other day I had an assessment with my tutors from the Design Portfolio and Experimental Communication. I’m doing well so far and my research is well prepared. The main thing they told me was that I lack ‘edginess’ in my work and need to tap into my ‘dark side’. Also, although my drawings are good, they’re old but not old and needs to tap more into a contemporary form. Hopefully that made sense to you readers. But it was basically like my instructions: although in a similar drawing style to the calendar drawings, it was more contemporary due to its format and black and white style. I don’t know how I’m going to do make my work more edgy, but hopefully it will work out. I do know that they like the way I work with proper materials/objects. We’ll just wait and see.
So that’s about it until the next time : )
~ Me in cartoon form.
~ Love anime/manga/video games, especially Sailor Moon, the 'Tales of' series and all things CLAMP!
~ My blog talks of the work I have done in university, and goes forward into the new world I will be taking!
The Fox Blog 