Lecture on Alfred Leete by Steph

In this lecture Steph spoke about one of the most influential graphic communicators of all time. This is where we were introduced to Alfred Leete, a practitioner who has inspired many more of his kind. Alfred was described to be a very talented individual, who created the most iconic pieces of work of all time in the history. At just the age of 16 he was recognized by The Daily Graphics company, who accepted his cartoon illustrations. This is due to the talent he had; which you can see all throughout his work. After kick starting his career so successfully he was noticed again by another company and they also wanted him to work for them. Alfred then started to work on a series of magazines, one of them being the punch magazine. Punch magazine also agreed on accepting one of Leete's illustrations which I will show below.

Above you can see a illustration designed by Alfred, which was chosen to put in the punch magazine. The concept behind the illustration is to encourage young men to volunteer to fight in the war and become a part of it. The drawing was purposely designed to appeal to people who may be wanting to join the war, however did not have the motivation or courage to do so. This illustration was meant to show the divide of young men who had joined the war to those who hadn't. As you can tell from the image the person on the left hand side on the page is standing alone, where as the man in the middle is accompanied by two women, as he is a soldier with great pride and dignity. This stresses that the man on the side will be alone and therefore degraded as he is not a member of the war. 

This would create an impact on the public and hopefully, make them want to take action, to make a difference and join the army. The reason as to why I like this illustration is due to the fact of it being so clear and powerful, in terms of stereotyping. I think it is clearly shown that if you don't volunteer for the war you will be perceived as not so much of a great person by the public. I think this has been portrayed so simply yet so effectively at the same time, that the audience will digest the message instantly. By looking at the illustration you will see the divide between the soldier and the man on the left, obviously no man would want to feel lonely or be down graded by the public- therefore this illustration encourages you to become a soldier as then you will be attracted by women for your braveness and get more attention. This will give them the motivation to join. 

Another poster Alfred is famous for is his poster of 'Your Country Needs You', which is a poster of Lord Kitchener. This poster has encouraged so many young men to volunteer to join the army and help their country in 1914. This poster design was very inspiring to many individuals; as its got such a strong firm to it which many people all over the world knew about. The gesture of Lord Kitchener pointing his finger at you almost makes you feel like he is actually pointing at you; which instantly makes you think about yourself. and you may ask yourself questions such as, 'am I helping my country', 'what can I do to help', 'why am I not a part of the army'. Just the gesture of his finger alone, gets you involved in the visual so quickly, making you think about joining the army straight away. The use of typography along with the images creates further impact on you, as it say's 'JOIN YOUR COUNTRY'S ARMY' in black, bold capital letters, which instantly grab your attention. I like the way the image and text compliment each other and together, create such a powerful poster encouraging young men to fight for their country. Also the positioning of the text and image along with the use of white space all work together so well. 

As the work of Alfred was very successful, many other practitioners around the world started to copy his style and characteristics by implying them to their own work. Below you will see another poster which has very similar characteristics to Leete's poster above. 

Straight away you can see that the poster has some sort of connection with Alfred's poster. In this poster there is also a very intimidating looking man, who is doing the same hand gesture as the man in Leete's poster, this shows the poster is implying the same message as the original poster by Alfred. The facial expression on the mans face in this poster also is very stern and looks as though it is focusing straight at you. This also reminds me of the poster by Alfred as the man on his poster also portrayed this look- therefore the response from the audience for both poster would more than likely be the same. The font used in this poster in also big bold and stands out to grab your attention. The word 'YOU' is written in block capitals, the font has been changed to a different colour to the rest to create an emphasis on just that one particular word; this is because the 'YOU' in the sentence is the main focus as the poster is there to mainly get 'you' to join the army. 

By creating that extra emphasis on the word 'you' the audience will be prone to arouse emotion and react accordingly as they will feel as though they are being targeted. I think the poster mimics Alfred's poster greatly however with a deeper meaning; as there are uses of bolder font and the colour red has also been incorporated into the work to show anger. In conclusion I think Alfred's work was very inspirational and powerful as it has attracted many other practitioners all around the world. I admire how he visually communicates with people through such strong pieces of work, encouraging them to take action and help their country. I think he did a exceptionally good job as his aim was to make a difference, which he did. One of the main ways a practitioners work is successful is if it is seen and gets the correct response from it's viewers. When viewers act upon your work, you have achieved something which you should be extremely proud of. 

Stop Motion Animation: Tim Allen

"I've been playing with dolls 'professionally' for some 13 years & stubbornly refuse to get a real job. For the most part, I can be found locked in a dark room with my puppet friends" Tim Allen was always fascinated by art, however he never quite knew what career path to take. This all changed when he went to an open day at University, he was enlightened by a course called animation; which he then went onto discover more about. This was then, the career path Tim chose to take, as it was exactly what he  wanted to do.  Tim is now a specialist in stop motion animation, which consists of a series of photographs in which each photograph will create an illusion of motion, to its viewers. Tim spoke about how he creates his work and he said that you need about 25 frames per second in order to provide that natural movement per each motion. This sounds like a fair bit, right? Tim is a very hard worker and said this can be highly time consuming, however he loves doing it, as its his work, his hobby. As it can be very time consuming to do so many frames per second, this is usually the reason, as to why the series of clips are of such a small duration. Stop motion is usually used within kid's TV programmes, to animate cartoons, this is where Tim Allen started his first project.  Tim did his first work experience here, after graduating. He worked on the famous kids series of Bob the Builder; where he had the role of animating the characters using the stop motion technique which he specialized in. In order to be recognized by employers and even to get a job you had to create a showreel of all of your best work. Tim said the work at the beginning of the showreel had to be excellent as its the first thing your employers will see. Likewise the work at the end of your showreel also had to be of the same standard as it will then, leave a good impression and therefore your work will be memorable in their eyes. This is why its vital to ensure you include all your best bits within the showreel. Building a strong portfolio within an art industry is a very important thing to have, as this is the key to getting noticed and getting a job.  Allen has gained alot of experience throughout his years within the animation firm. He now is a very good director and animator whose work is noticed by many practitioners out there as it has it's own sense of unique style. Tim Allen also animated for other well known kids series such as, Shaun the Sheep, Postman Pat, El Nombre and Fireman Sam. Tim told us how hard it can be to develop a character, his style, his set and everything else which comes along with animating a successful character. Tim also stressed the importance of over-casting shadows and bad positioning when it comes to animating your character. Although its not easy, Tim made a great impression from his work and that if you put your mind to it, you to, can do it! Overall the talk given by Tim Allen opened my eyes, giving me an deeper insight into the world of stop motion animation. I was shown some great work which Tim, himself animated. This greatly inspired me. Most of all I was inspired by Tim's dedication and hard work which enabled him to produce work of such high quality; not only that but he also had the great privilege of working for such well known companies and animating for famous kids TV series'. I greatly respected Tim's sense of humour as it showed through his animations and created that different element to it- which made the public laugh. I can say this as all of us in the lecture room laughed at one or two of his animations as they were so funny and cleverly done.

Design Hero's by David Osbaldestin

In this lecture David showed us a wide range of practitioners, who's work he found highly inspiring. One of the graphic designers he mentioned was Tony Arefin, who was an influential graphic designer who designed many fine art catalogues in the 1990's. He was also the chief art director of the famous contemporary art magazine called Frieze. 

Above you can see the photographs which were photographed for a pregnancy awareness campaign. I found this very influential as it's so different and an eye opener to many of the viewers out there. It is such a sensitive issue which most of the public avoid talking about; therefore I admire the way the campaign have portrayed themselves in such a powerful way, which is more than likely to leave an impact in their lives. I think the posters are very good as people can relate to them as if it were them themselves and this will make them feel more of a connection to the posters and what is being said. The use of such strong vocabulary such as 'cheap', 'dirty', 'nobody' and quotes saying 'all it took was one prick, just one prick to get my girlfriend pregnant' all capture the public's attention and make them think deeply into the issue itself. By using such word's you get such an emotional response from your viewers. 

Many people stereotype teenage girls who become pregnant calling them 'cheap' as they may have had a one night stands etc. The images used by Tony capture how these teenage girls may feel and I am sure they will be able to relate to them exceptionally well, which is the main aim. All of these pictures above create an emphasis on the thoughts of them seeing them self as cheap uneducated human beings, the use of body language and facial expressions all impact the way the viewer thinks of themselves; as they are constantly comparing themselves together. Through the images you can clearly see the guilt and disgust in their eyes and the use of correct typography just gives it that extra meaning; which arouses emotion in the viewers. The words written in bold red font make them stand out much more than if they were to be dull and smaller in size. This emphasizes the main message behind the images and creates emotion and deeper meaning beneath the image itself. 

Tony was very well known to use bold typography in his visual work along with the sharp eye-catching colours used to instantly grab peoples attention. The use of the bright colours in the image above automatically develops an eye catching visual. I am inspired by the way something so simple such as colour can change the whole perspective and the response you get. The image above is a great example of a eye-catching visual as it draws attention to the typography straight away. Likewise the use of a big, bold, bright typeface helps give that powerful dramatic element to his work. Finally the use of 3 minimal colours and white space help maintain all of the attention of the typography in the middle, rather than distracting you from the main issue. Overall my visit to the Ikon Art Gallery in Birmingham was a great success and an eye opener to some of the Tony's work which I found very beneficial. In the future I will explore more openly as Tony was so open minded this has also influenced me to not be scared and try out things out of your comfort zone- to create something out of the norm!

Lecture on Animation by Ranveer Nandra

This lecture was on Animation by Peter Chung, which was delivered by Ranveer Nandra. Peter studied animation at degree level at California Institute of Arts. He is an South Korean based animator and is best known for his unique style of animation as the creator and director of Aeon Flux, which is a television series for children. Chung has worked on many other famous children's TV series such as: Rugrats, Transformers and the Ring Raiders. As almost all of his work was dedicated towards children he felt limited as to what more he could create. Peter then went on to creating his own animation series which he called Aeon Flux, which he is well known for. This series had an older target audience which enabled him to work outside his comfort zone and try something different. 

Peter Chung originally began creating short clips of the duration of 5 minute, without any dialogues. This was to imply the clear message to its target audience in its most original form. The series was dedicated more towards adults as it had alot of sexuality and violence implied within it; which was the complete opposite to what he used to create before. The TV series consists of the main heroine who is named after the series itself. Aeon Flux, was a self motivated spy you are introduced to her appearance towards the middle or end of the programme. This was not a good thing that Chung did, as he broke the main 3-act series rule.The way Peter dressed his character was simply due to the fact of grabbing his viewers attention and seducing them to carry on watching more. 

Another rule Chung broke was that at the end of every series the character of Flux kept dying, this was a tragedy which was not meant to happen; as the main hero usually always overcomes his/her obstacles and survives- that is why they are called the 'main hero' of the film. However Peter also failed to do this. Gradually the series expanded into 22 minute episodes which also included dialogues to create extra emotion and arousal in the audience. In these episodes Aeon Flux also started to survive rather than die in every episode which impacts the way the audience responds to his episodes. The main purpose of his series was so that the audience can feel a connection, with the character and feel involved with whatever's going on. 

In conclusion I gained knowledge on how to animate and become successful in what you are portraying out to your audience. I also feel that Peter Chung had a fresh feel to his work as it was not seen before and this was due to the fact of him breaking the rules and experimenting with different things. By listening to Ranveer talk about this lecture on animation, it opened my eyes as to what you can create with the power of your own hands and how you can visually communicate that with your audience to get such an exciting response from each and every single one of your viewers (if done correctly that is). I was also given knowledge on all the hard work which goes into building a character, just one character, all the drawings, sketches the characters style, what type of environment they live in, who are they, who do they hang about with, what are they good at all influence the response of the audience; so it is very important all these things are taken into account and done correctly in order to get a positive feedback from your viewers. 

Information Design by Colette Jefferey

So what is information design?

 Information design is the practice of presenting information, in a way which will be efficient and effectively understood by the public. As there can be alot of information to share, keeping it simple is better for your audience to digest that information easily. The more inviting it looks the better, as people would want to read about it so design is very important when it comes to promoting information. The use of colour, typography, structure and layout are all essential parts of successfully creating information design. Attraction leads to invitation, which then leads to the public reading what you have got to say and that is a must, as that is the main aim of designing information. 

blog.crazyegg.com 

Information design can be any form of communication which has been designed to simply inform. The info-graphic above of a Carbon Footprint has been designed by Stanford Kay. The footprint is composed of various different sized circles all making up to form into a shape of one big foot. The circles describe how big the carbon emissions of each nation are and all are colour coded according to each different region. I personally thought this was a very creative way of putting the whole concept together as its very informative and eye-catching at the same time. 

I think the black background was a really good colour to use ,as all the colours on top stand out much more and attract your viewers. Although it looks abit over-crowed with all that information, I thought it was still a very easy piece of visual communication to understand because it's all pretty much self-explanatory with the colour codes and colour key chart on the side.  Stanford has said that he will be designing another version which will be the final version to this footprint design and i'm looking forward to see how that will turn out. 

T Y P O G R A P H Y. .

Typography is another vital element of information design. One designer which came to mind when thinking of typography is the very well known Neville Brody. Brody is known for creating his own typefaces and they all have his own sense of unique style to them. I cannot stress how important the legibility of a typeface is, if it cannot be read why do use it? By having a bold, clear cut font it makes it 10 times more easier for your audience to read what you're saying than to use a complicated font; which may impact the way your audience reads that particular message. 

I believe all letters/ words must relate to the theme of your product and create an emotion or feeling within the audience according to the type of product you are promoting. Steve Jobs knew the power of typography and used it to differentiate his Mac from his competitors. He knew people that were looking for a simple way to communicate and express their feelings. Therefore, Steve Jobs asked Susan Kare to design a bunch of fonts (Geneva, Monaco, San Francisco) that were legible on the computer as well as in a printed version. 

Overall from this lecture, I gathered an insight to information design and what it's associated areas. The research will now be stuck with me for future reference and whenever I do get to do some of my own information designs, I will be able to use my existing knowledge to create something full of creativity and effectively use these skills to form some great designs!

S I M P L E

FUN

MEMORABLE

   

Great Art Direction: by Ros

In this lecture Ros spoke about advertising and branding. One of my most favorite areas of Graphic Design. We learnt that in today's society there are tons of messages communicating with us, however only a small minority are noticed. In this lecture Ros stressed the importance of simplicity within advertising; as it can be so powerful at portraying a message across to you if it has been done in the correct way. Simple messages are often way more clearer to understand and therefore the message will be successfully received to it's appropriate audience. Although simple can be effective, you still have to be careful you do not state the obvious; as this can be boring for the audience and  therefore they will not be engaged enough as to what is being portrayed, because their brains will switch off. When delivering a certain message practitioners must ensure that the message is being delivered in it's original state; as otherwise the visual will not be successful at saying what you would like it to say.

However if delivered in the correct manner, the message will interact with the audience on a emotional level, engaging them and arousing emotion. This will then lead to a positive response, which is what the practitioner is looking for as a outcome. During this lecture Ros showed us a variety of different practitioners work and advertisements, one which stood out to me was the work by Helmut Krone. Helmut has an advertising campaign whose work I found very inspiring. This was because of the fact that he always simplified his designs so much, however they still remained so effective at delivering a message across to its audience. I was greatly intrigued by his capability to do this; as often simple things can usually be very plain and boring, this was not the case in Helmut's adverts. Whilst looking through his work, I noticed the way he lay out his work with exceptionally 'weird' layouts. This automatically made me remember his visuals as they were different. One of his advertisements I really liked was the poster for Volkswagen ( image shown below). The use of white space has been so effective in this advert and the positioning of the small black car just makes everything look so perfect!


                                 'S I M P L E     B U T      D I F F E R E N T'                                                                

The use of white space helps deliver the clear message of 'Think small' as the main attention is on the quotation rather than anything else. This is a perfect example of a powerful, simple advertisement. Throughout his work you can see the passion Krone had for visual hierarchy; as he was very concerned about the positioning and layouts of his work. The bold black font half way down the middle of the page has deliberately been put there for maximum impact. This will straight away draw your consumers attention and then they will go on to looking at the image of the car and then, reading the small text on the bottom of the page.

 This has been very cleverly done so that the message is portrayed in the correct order and the audience do not get confused. In this lecture I also learnt that by implying a visual hierarchy in your work, you have control over what you want your audience to digest first. By delivering the main powerful message first, the audience will then want to read more about the smaller text at the bottom of the Volkswagen advertisement. Overall I like how Helmut has done something different to his competitors and produced such a successful piece of advertisement. This will inspire me in the future to use simplicity within my work and give me ideas on how to make simple work look effective at the same time, just as Helmut has done here. 

Another advertising campaign which caught my attention was the campaign designed by BBH agency in London. This was amongst one of the most successful advertisements I have ever seen. The visuals were so effectively portrayed and made great emphasis on the emotion of the targeted audience. The advertisement is for Audi and I love the way it is so different and quirky and not just of a simple car. This makes the advert more interesting rather than obvious and boring. I also love the way the Cat and Cheetah have both been emerged together to create such a strong piece of work. '8 cylinders when you need it', '4 when you don't' this saying on the sides of the animals face implies that the cheetah has more power than the cat, I think this relates very well within the theme. 

The advertisement is so simple yet, again, so effective. I admire this piece of work alot, as the simplicity and effectiveness inspires me widely; also the colour, layout, typography and the use of white space have all been put together so correctly and look so sophisticated, just like the personality of the owners of Audi and the style of their cars. I love the way BBH agency have thought outside of the box and not even included the logo of the car company of the visual. This intrigues the viewer even further and instantly makes them want to find out more about the concept behind the visual, automatically engaging them into your business and forming that attraction, that bond, with your audience is vital. Overall from this lecture I learnt the importance of stripping down the most obvious aspects of the company/product you are advertising for, to think of something powerful, unique and something which will make your audience think. I also learnt that sometimes less is more, in terms of advertising and the special skills associated with promoting simply but effectively, so that your product actually sells. 

I certainly do anyway! 

Lecture on Matt Pyke by Johnny

Matt Pyke is the famous owner of a well known digital creative studio, called Universal Everything. The work he creates is very different; as he seems to explore the movement though sensation, abstract forms of sound. Through his work you can see the flow of sound as it is effectively shown through a wide range of human like figures. I also found that he works in 3-D making his work more textured. The study of humans, their life and culture also reflects through his work. Matt Pyke explored many different disciplines of visual communication and became a very well known Visual Communicator. All through out his years he has gained great knowledge on materials, disciplines of communication and technologies. Below is a short clip of Matt Pyke's - Hyundai Vision Hall, Made By Humans. 

Matt Pyke is available to contact through the internet. He also likes to keep in touch with alot of other visual communicators, which keeps him updated with the latest trends and about what's going on in the world. He is also well aware of what kind of work other practitioners are creating, so that he can create something different which will make him unique and stand out from the crowd. I admire Matt's capability and confidence to push boundaries to try something new; which instantly intrigues the viewers to find out about his work into more depth, thus creating his own positive responses from his fans.

Through researching his background and his work, I have come to find out that he is greatly motivated by what the future holds and what new technology can provide this world with. One of the main influences within his work was Anthropology. Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present. In Pyke's work you can see this has influenced him as the vibrant colours represent the rapid movement of humans and their speed. Universal Everything have put through all the work so effectively with such vibrant colours, which instantly grab your attention and draw you in. The use of sound within just makes it that extra bit special and adds soul into the work, so instead of just watching his work, it also relaxes you.

Universal Everything also took part in designing the London Olympics 2012 Logo, I personally thought they did an exceptionally good job at bringing it to life. Through the use of shapes, colour and meaning behind it, I think it linked in very well with the Olympics. The vibrant colours of the logo helps bring it to life and give it a interesting, exciting look. You can also see the emotion of speed in the logo and all other elements of the logo which the Olympics was all about, have also been portrayed through the logo in some way or another.

Overall after this lecture I gained further insight to Matt Pyke's lifestyle and the type of work he creates. He has inspired me to look outside of the box and think big, also to not be afraid of exploring new methods and  techniques, to break boundaries in order to create something new, out of the norm. I strongly believe Matt Pyke's work will aspire me to challenge myself and not be afraid to experiment with new things in the future.