Studio Brief 2: photographs

I've taken a lot of photos for this brief, so I waited to take them all before putting them on here. It's going to be hard to wittle them down to 20...

I most enjoyed photographing the records together in piles because the bright vivid colours of all of them together look great. It took me ages to photograph the records individually from birds eye view because of the lighting and my shadowing getting in the way so i had to hold the camera at arms reach, so I didn't know how they'd turn out. I also kept thinking of photograph ideas to do so I just took so many photos in the end. Next I'm going to cut them down to about 50 and then hopefully it'll be easier to pick 20 from that. I want to pick a range of photos that will show how we have changed as a culture from using records, CDs and tapes. I also wanna show the difference in each of them, and their album designs. The emphasis is on vinyl sleeves being amazing to look at.

Studio Brief 2: Survey

I created a survey on SurveyMonkey.com so that I could get 20 opinions. I asked a range of questions so that later I can pick and choose which opinions to use, and use some as 'statistics'. I am trying to discover trends in the answers, and I am expecting that the people who like to own physical albums will be more likely to have a favourite album cover, or think of a lot of album covers easily. I am also expecting that most people listen to music digitally with a minority who buy CDS or vinyl, because of money issues or because digitally is easy and they don't feel the need for a physical copy.

1. How old are you?

How old are you?  16-21 22-26 27-35 36-45 46+

2. What are you usually doing while you listen to music?

What are you usually doing while you listen to music?  Working Reading Socialising Browsing the web/playing games Travelling/walking/exercise Nothing - I listen to music as a sole activity eg while trying to fall asleep or relaxing

Other (please specify)

3. How do you listen to most of your music when listening on an mp3/computer? 

How do you listen to most of your music when listening on an mp3/computer?  Shuffle A playlist By album By artist I don't listen to music digitally

Other (please specify)

4. Do you like to own a physical copy of music? And if so, in what form?

Do you like to own a physical copy of music? And if so, in what form?  CD Vinyl No, I only listen to music digitally

Other (please specify)

5. If you answered yes, what makes you buy a particular PHYSICAL copy of an album/single?

If you answered yes, what makes you buy a particular PHYSICAL copy of an album/single?  I am a big fan of the artist I already really enjoy the album/single The album/single is particularly special to me I really like the album artwork I don't listen to music digitally

Other (please specify)

6. Are there any album artworks that stick in your mind?

Are there any album artworks that stick in your mind?  I can think of quite a few One or two I can't think of any

If so, can you please name the most memorable in your mind?

7. Do you have a favourite album cover? Could you name it below if so?

Do you have a favourite album cover? Could you name it below if so?

Studio Brief 2: question ideas for opinions

Music is so broad, so I'm not sure yet which path to follow with it. I've thought of questions I could ask people in different areas:

Genre

What genre(s) do you listen to?

Do you have a favourite genre? If so, which?

Least appealing genre(s)?

Buying/listening to music

How do you buy/obtain music?

How do you listen to music?

Instruments

Do you play any instruments?

If not, are you interested in playing any instruments?

Album covers

Is an album cover something you take notice of when listening to music, or when buying music?

Do you have a favourite album cover?

Favourite songs/artists

Do you have a favourite song? If so, what is it called?

Do you have a favourite artist(s)? If so, who are they?

Is there a song that you hate and comes to your mind straight away?

Is there a music artist that you really dislike?

Studio Brief 2: Album covers

• Recently I have been looking through my parents vinyl records, and looking at the record player.
• It made me realise how listening methods have changed in the last 50 years, records are now seen as a novelty, and a form of nostalgia for all ages.
• Technology has become so advanced and has made listening and discovering music incredibly easy and cheap (if music is illegally downloaded).

Vinyl > cassette > CD > digital > mp3 players

I want to try and gather research on listening methods of music, and the album artwork and how necessary it is in each form of listening. Album artwork is really interesting to me, especially on vinyl covers decades ago where it seemed to be much more creative than it is nowadays, and more iconic.

Studio Brief 2: Music

I've decided to look into music as a potential path, but I need to pick a more specific route for my research.

• Record/album covers, could be to do with how they've evolved over the years
• How buying/listening to music has changed and evolved - records, CDs, digital etc
• Different genres and their popularity/significance, or the popular artists of each genre
• instruments, I have a guitar and piano in my house
• vocals and singing
• people's favourite songs
• bands (because of the band Journey)

I have to bear in mind that I need to collect:

20 opinions

20 facts

20 statistics

20 photographs

20 words

Studio Brief 2: 'Journeys' google search

I've done this experiment just to open my mind up a little bit from a different perspective to help with ideas.

Top five results when googling 'journeys':

1. A clothing company called 'Journeys'
2. A journey planner for London transport
3. A support system for people trying to recover from depression
4. The official website of Journey the band
5. A bus and coach company called 'Greener Journeys'

What I take from these results (that are linked to the word):

• transport
• mental recovery
• music

Seeing as this brief should stem from personal interests, transport doesn't interest me in the way that music does. Mental recovery, or mental illness, could have potential but I don't have as much access to things surrounding the topic, nor have I any idea what mental illness is like. I also don't feel much excitement for it like I do with the idea of music, where there is endless possibilities and its something I really care about.

Top five image results when googling 'journeys':

These images don't help me much, but show that journeys could be related to a map of the earth, transport and mental/spiritual journeys.

Studio Brief 2: Interim crit

For the crit my ideas so far are travelling or movement as I explored in my last post. I am still looking for new ideas as I don't feel inspired yet.

• You could make this really specific to something else you are interested in, eg. if you were interested in music you should look at the journey how a specific genre has evolved and the journey it has taken.
• I like the travelling idea it seems like it would be easier to gather research for. Also don't forget Journey is a band - that'd be pretty cool to research.
• I like the idea of travelling and transport. Recording things you encounter could be interesting - document things on a daily basis. Could be interesting as each journey would be different.
• I think this would be good too it would cool if you walked somewhere and did a stop animation of where you went.
• Perhaps over Christmas go on a journey say a walk and record your journey through photography and drawing? This could help lead your ideas further.
• Orient express and notoriously long/dangerous journeys. 'Skipping' the Mexican border etc.
• Research the journey's you take? Map them out. Could do research into tickets (trains/buses etc) and map your journey/travel experience over Christmas, and then map it out.
• I like the life as a journey thing. Potentially interview and photograph any old people/couples, get their story, could be sweet. Old people photograph great, get their family photos too. Perhaps it could just be photographs?!? Very exciting.
• Could create a journal of the journeys you take in one day, get others to do the same.
• Depending on whether you wanted to go down a different path with your theme, you could research the transport used for journeys and how it has changed over the years.

I have made the helpful feedback bold, as they have introduced new ideas to me. Journey is a band, which obviously relates to my word 'journeys'. I have no interest in this band, and the research would be pretty boring and one dimensional, however music is interesting to me and is an important part of my life.

'Journeys' could also be linked to music because a song itself can be a journey.

Studio Brief 2: Research brief

The word I was given for this brief was 'journeys'.

The definition of journey:
- an act of travelling from one place to another.
- travel somewhere.
trip, expedition, tour, voyage, trek, cruise, safari, ride, drive, fly

Here are the results of my first brainstorm:

• walking
• journey through life
• continents
• travelling
• movement
• transport - plane, bus, bike, public transport systems, trains, boats
• outer space - spaceships
• routine - daily routine
• change 
• spiritual journey

From these ideas, so far I'm most interested in the following:

Travelling

• walking
• abroad
• transport
• wheels
• people's journeys to work/college/uni

Movement

• life
• lines
• marks
• grooves
• shapes
• geometry
• light
• energy
• lightbulbs
• electricity

To narrow these down I need to start thinking about which will provide thorough and broad research.

Studio Brief 1: Final crit

The three questions I asked in the final crit were:

1. Do they fit the target audience of young adults well?
2. Is the colour scheme appropriate?
3. Is the type the right size etc?

Q1 Feedback:

• Yes, I really like the look of these, and the colours compliment each other.
• Yes it does - arty young adults
• Definitely, although theres definitely room to be even more playful and cheeky.
• I think so yes. The strokes are beautiful
• Designs would work for a young audience who are "arty".
• Yes, very eye-catching, the colours used are very effective.
• Yes, the simplicity and combination of effects is suitable.
• Yes, it is not too playful that its childish and not too basic.
• Messy, more like a child.

Q2 Feedback:

• They're quite calm and soothing colours which reminds me of a landscape, which I think is the background image? So they're appropriate and work well.
• Nice mix of colour, nothing too bright or dark
• I love the colours and I sort of wish there was more, why not paint the whole thing? The textures are fantastic but make the rest look very flat.
• Yes, I love them.
• I don't like the shade of purple you have mixed - its too dark. The blue is quite beautiful however you could of linked the colour palette to the landscape design?
• Yes makes them stand out from the background.
• The colours give an idea to what the scenery could be without seeming cliche
• Yes, however I would have left the background white so the colours stand out more.
• Not really.
• Yes, appeals to both male and female.

Q3 Feedback:

• The type is a good size. You can clearly read the measurements and other text. Why isn't there a 'insert photo here' on the 6 x 4?
• Type seems to fit well and is a good weight
• Not a fan of the type. It's legible but has no life/personality when put against the expressive brush strokes.
• Yes.
• I'm not sure the use of a san serif modern type has worked too well, the point size is good though. Your designs could suit an 'arty' audience. Although not sure why you have put 'insert photo here' on two out of three? The font however is quite corporate and lacks in the general personality of the artwork behind.
• Yes, clean and minimalist to fit in within the designs.
• The type works well and fits with the piece.
• Yes but I'd have used bold as the letterforms are quite fragile.

I have made the constructive/useful feedback bold.

• I agree that the purple colouring may be a little too dark, but it was difficult to brighten that area of the paint without ruining the natural look of it.
• I now agree about leaving the background white, I think I was trying to add more personality but it hasn't been that successful darkening the background. White would be more clean.
• A couple of people asked why I didn't label the smallest frame with 'insert photo here': I felt that the frame would be too small and too cramped with another piece of text in it that wasn't vital. However people noticing this and having skepticism maybe reflects that I could have worked around this and still included it. I don't think it's necessary for the frame designs to stay in synch as a set, though.
• Some people think that the type is unsuccessful, as it is too cold and personality-less against the expressive brush strokes. I hadn't seen it from that angle before, as I have been so immersed in the work and got used to it so I'm glad I've received this feedback. I see what they mean, I think that I just saw the type and thought it appealed to my audience but without thinking through how it woud work with my artistic design. Taking this into account, I still would not want to use a serif font as it would not be successful either.

Lecture: Advertising

Is advertising prostitution?

Advertising is seen as something that is used by capitalism to change valued views in society. It is considered influential in changing our perception and what we may need and want, it influences the way we feel and behave, but we are unaware of it.

"I shop therefore I am" - Barbara Kruger

Often accused of exploring sexism, treating people as cultural stereotypes of their sex.

Does sex actually sell?

Diesel campaign, 2010

Diesel campaign, 2010

Advertising can be positive in the way that it drives global economies and creativity. 

The first wave of creatives were revolutionaries eg Mayakovsky and Rodchenko, who were both Russian. The second wave were persuasive communicators eg Bernbach.

A theory is that art feeds advertising and vice versa - there are many adverts out there that are inspired by well known art, for example a Volkswagen advert based on the work of Magritte:

and Andy Warhol's Campbell soup work that is based on advertising, and was advertisement in itself:

Advertising shapes popular culture. Santa Claus was green before Coca Cola changed his clothing to red.

It can be endlessly entertaining:

Challenges you to do something:

Questions societal norms and attitudes:

Studio Brief 1: Interim crit

We were split into two groups and gave written critique to the other group who laid their work on tables. I like this style of crit, as I personally give more detailed feedback this way as opposed to in spoken crits. It's also really good to get so much feedback from a big group, as you can get a better overall idea of what the 'public' thinks of your work.
I gave feedback to 15-20 people, which was hard work but I gave critique on how good the concept of their ideas were, and how they could improve. Some people needed to do more detailed research. I found that it was easier to give feedback on actual digital mock ups of ideas, because its a lot clearer than sketches this way. I focused on people's weak points more than the strong points as I was limited for time and criticism is useful; compliments aren't. I found it useful even for myself to see everybody else's work, as it is refreshing and inspiring for my own work.
I laid out my sketchbook with my four concept ideas in it and wrote three questions:

1. What target audience is best for these ideas so I can develop them accordingly?
2. What concept is the strongest? Which could catch the eye of customers?
3. Should I stick to focusing on image or should I use type more effectively? (any particular typefaces)

Useful feedback for question 1:

• Embrace irony, I do like the cut outs. Your target audience seems teens/young adults who like a good ol cheeky joke.
• Maybe play on the cliche and subvert the classic image adding something weird or sinister but funny to traditional family photos.
• As you are doing a set of 3, you could make each one aim at a different market.

People mostly said that I should go for a target audience of young people that are around my age, judging from my concept ideas.

Useful feedback for question 2:

• The cut out/silhouette image are the strongest, you could look at adding actual cut out marks to indicate that they should fill the gap with their own images.
• The stickmen because it establishes an aesthetic and a jokey tone to match.
• I like the idea of media within the watercolour/paint with type. I think it depends on the target audience you are looking at as to whether it would work.
• I'm not sure people in general would be drawn towards the 'ironic' feel in the first page of frame backings? Could be considered slightly uncomfortable?
• I like the outline idea. It gives off the idea that you have to insert the memory.
• The outline idea is strong "insert your own scenery" almost or like its been left to be filled.
• First concept as it could be inspiring and motivational for the audience making them want to fill the blank spaces.

The concept with the outlines of images seemed to be the most popular judging from my feedback, and it is also my favourite. I feel like the other concepts may be too try-hard with irony.

Useful feedback for question 3:

• Image alone works well for these, the stick men could be great with more personality, or is the lack of personality the joke?
• I really think the image based one is strong and interesting. It definitely works at making an impact. Make it from layered coloured paper? Stick to flat, block colours.
• Focusing on not personalising the frame designs is good, it entices the buyer much more because they see the potential there. I'm not so sure about the heart in '6 x 4' design though, it seems fairly generic.
• Images work great by themselves. Extra text - something short and catchy could illustrate your point well.

Studio Brief 1: Further primary research

I looked on the Zara Home website to have a look at their photo frames. As seen below they are extremely simple in terms of the backing paper, which I really like. The colour scheme is anything but harsh, and suits all sorts of frame designs really well. They are designed to look very high-end but in reality they are sold at an affordable price.

Studio Brief 1: Research - paint

Below are some paint designs I have found, which I think could work in a plain frame... I'm opposed to certain plain designs that have dull colours, such as seen in my IKEA research. The frames are simple and basic so there is nothing to catch the customers attention from far away: which is why an artistic background may work.

Michael Manning

photo I took of paint

Castrophia by Chad Wys

This piece of artwork is brilliant, as there is an effective contrast between the messy paint strokes and the beautifully carved statue. It could be perceived as ironic, which is something I'd like to try out for this brief.