Digit London and the rest

I looked at digit London agency on a project called typographic tree they exhibited at the institute of contemporary art. It explored the relationship between sound and vision. The users were encouraged to speak into sensors on a life sized tree stump and the programme then converted what they said into virtual trees composed of type and visuals,that grew before their eyes on a giant screen. Different tones caused the tree to evolve, twist and contort. Each creation was added to an online gallery where visitors could go to identify and cultivate their tree.
This really does give me a lot of inspiration. I was thinking along the lines of doing some which the user would use a mouse to click to interact, but by reading about this project it has given me a lot of ideas that the user could interact by sound. In my project the users noises could indicate the object/graphic to move.
Digit London also teamed up with Nike to launch their new trainer in 2001. This was an installation display which featured an exploded layered weave of animated type and images to create a pattern inspired by the fabric the trainer. The project was called “The Nike weave window”. People on the street were encouraged to interact and contribute to the exhibit by texting a message to the display, which was then integrated into the animation.
This I feel is another form of interaction that is thinking out side the box. They are getting people to use a device (the mobile phone) that they use on a daily basis to interact with a piece of advertising and it will look like they have contributed to a piece of art. A very clever idea.
http://www.digitlondon.com/

Variousways is an American based company. I like the project they did for the Borne Magazine. It is a gripping website with haunting music and the distorted background images that change over time. The interaction process is also very different. The paragraph of writing is not fully displayed so you move the cursor up and down were your able to see more of the paragraph. So the user was in control of the text they read.
http://www.variousways.com/greetings/flash.php
http://www.bornmag.org/projects/nevergrow/

A UK based company Hi-Res have worked with clients such as 20th Century Fox, Diesel, and the Ugly Betty TV show. I like the work that they did for the band. The whole website is very different than any other I have ever seen before. The buttons have been constructed to look like they are on a piece of paper. The whole site is a mixture of black and white photographic images, cut outs and film. It also has a very simply navigation system that work effectively. The side menu hides but not fully so your able to back to it very easily. The feel of the site makes you want to stay on it. I like the gallery were you get to see pictures and artworks that they have been. I particularly like the robot photographs.
http://www.hi-res.net/
http://www.beck.com/

22-10-78 is an Argentina based company. What I like about their flash intro is that they have maintained simplicity as well developing a strong idea. The pictures of the human head, brain scan and type flashes through to show what services they offer. They have also used sound very well by giving you the feeling that you are being sucked in when you click on something.
http://www.iwantmyflashtv.com/movies/content/

Chris Cunningham

I love the Chris Cunningham video “All is full of love” he made with Bjork. It is about two humanoid robots kissing and falling in love with each other. The robots despite their awkward rotating components perform delicate gestures of human intimacy in a pristine white environment. Their emotional intensity and sexual tension is gripping because parts of them mimic human behaviour so strongly. Both of these robots really do look like they are alive. The whole look of the scene in the video is a white porcelain look which gives you the feeling of a futuristic look. It is this style that has really influenced my work. I like the simplicity of the whole video. Although in this video Chris Cunningham has artificially made it beautiful and elegant. He has done so by setting the machine in slow motion at the end to capture human emotion.
What intrigued me the most about this video is it felt like I was watching stages of an artificial intelligence. Chris has chosen a subject which makes his audience think. When I first saw this video I could not take my eyes off it and it did cross my mind “I wonder if it will be like this in the future”. I will take from this research the feel of this mater piece video. I love the simple pristine white environment and also the organic nature of the humanoid robots with their eggshell plastic white parts. Here is the link to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxBO28j3vug

Book Research

Photographer -Guido Argentini Silver eye book.
This book is about sculpture and dance. The women he photographs are dancers athletes and gymnast. He creates photographs of intense expressiveness, in which the sensuality the body is formed. The desert landscape background adds stillness and a deserted feeling while his subjects have silver paint on their bodies which adds a touch of futurism.
This reason he inspires me are because the photographs are crisp clean and simply. He uses the space very wisely and this affects his subjects. I like his futuristic approach in this collection. It has made me think about where, what and how I would photograph landscape and elements for my project.

The Online Branding Book
I looked at the absolut vodka website in the above book. It had a bottle of vodka to the left hand side with multicoloured stripes to the right. The stripes cover the rest of the page. The design team who created this website said “this website intended people to think” “You must never underestimate your consumer’s intelligence”.
It is important to take from this how will the user interact with a website or a multimedia interactive solution to advertising or branding. After looking at the website in the book I went online to see what it looked like. The website has now been updated and re-branded and has a more modern feel to it. It has a clever way in the beginning of the flash intro to catch your date of birth. This is probably to see what really there market is. The link http://absolutdrinks.com/

Art Direction Annual 84
A designer was asked to design an editorial page using bags and shoes to convey wildlife scenes. The designer made a frog, eagle and deer using these items in a very ordinary way. My favourite is the frog were he uses a round purse opened for the shape of the frogs body and mouth. The animals were place outdoors in various scenes around New York. This work inspired a wildlife special in the National Geographic.

One Show Interactive
In this book I looked at the Nike website. It celebrates a freestyle that the athletes bring together. It gives users the opportunity create, personalize and participate. What I like about it is the simplicity of space that defines the freestyle mode. Here is the link http://www.nike.com/g1/eu/index.jhtml?lang=1,1

The Book -Rewind Forty Years of Advertising
This advert for the White horse Whisky is intriguing, simple and clean design. The poster was one of a series depicting a white horse, advertising a brand of whisky made by White Horse Distillers Ltd. What I like about this poster is the image of the white horse and the word 'Scotch' were all that were used for brand recognition, which has been done very simply.

This film poster for Trainspotting has bright orange graphics which give it a nightclub feel and a flyer look. The photos have been done in a fashion editorial style. On another advert I saw for trainspotting it had more boxed information panels in orange which I think was a good follow on from the main poster.

Second Life

Second Life

I read an article in the Observer about Second Life. A world you can access through your PC in a virtual reality mode. Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. They pay through credit card for the use of the service. Since opening there are more than 1 million residents who have subscribed. This digital world is teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. You have the opportunity to buy your own land to build a home or business, you can even make money from the game.
When you first arrive you create your own name and chose a character that suits your personality.

What I will take from this research is that user is in control of their own destiny on the site. The user chooses their own story and their own wife/husband, write their own emotions and it is really down to the imagination of the users fantasy. So the user become the avatar. I think this idea concept combines elements of Big Brother and ebay. This is an interesting concept and it has given me a few ideas for my interaction project. I could design something that the user puts the object/graphic through certain modes with different outcomes. So the user/audience is engaging more into concept more. They could also be getting something back from the project. Maybe a sense of achievement because they got the right outcome by putting the graphic/object through these certain modes.

Here is the link http://secondlife.com/

Website Examples

The Studiotonne flash introduction is an good example of engaging the audience in using a conceptual and haptic approach to interaction. They have storyboarded their movements in still photographs and used sound very effectively to enhance the show of movement. I like the way that they have done this it has given me ideas that I could do a series of photographs on my project instead of animation. http://www.studiotonne.com/

The Monsterism website approaches interaction in a different way to Studiotonne. It lets the user create there own character. The user chooses which head they want with what body and you can chose also the scene you want your character in. So the concept of this idea is that the user is the creator/aviator. This is something for me to bare in mind when designing mine, because their so many paths to take interaction. Is the user going to be the creator? Are they going to learn something from this project? Is it going to be a story? Will they get something out of interacting with the project.
http://www.monsterism.net/monster.html

I love the cardboard characters on the website Readymech. They have given me a few ideas to do stories based around a characters adventure. I like the fact that they are made out of card which is simply way of using an easy assessable material to build a character. http://www.readymech.com/

First Inspiration

I looked at book Groovisions and in particular the chapter on the Chappie project. The whole book was written in Japanese so I got my inspiration from the images. This project was about life size mannequins that looked like Manga characters. These mannequins were produced in a variety of media which were poster campaigns, record sleeves, art installations, sculptures of heads, chair furniture and digital responses. After looking at this book from the library I decided to go down the path of using some form of mannequin in my project, because I feel they make a strong visual impact. The book has given me ideas of what media I could use. I am now thinking about photographing mannequins outdoors and putting these images into a flash interactive presentation. I will be able to put this versatile object the mannequin into a variety of different scenes, modes and situations.

I then looked at Groovision website to get a bit more background information on them. They are a Tokyo based Graphic Design team who created Chappie. The character Chappie can be customised by hairstyles and different outfit choices. It also been used in numerous advertising campaigns and debuted on a CD. There also have been various exhibitions across the globe on Chappie. I then looked at Angus Hyland work on “The Pocket Canon Bibles” this was a series of book design covers for the bible. He captured each chapter of the bible by a beautiful thought provoking photograph and simple type underneath the photo. I like the visual impact that each photo gives you. Also having a subject like religion gives it more powerful message, which leads me onto thinking about what message should I convey in my assignment? Will it be a political one? Informative? Environmental? Should I do an advert that is focused on a subject which is trying to sell a product?

One that springs to mind is my favourite advert of all the Guinness commercial of Evolution. This gives the audience a strong message about history of evolution and makes people think. What is the human origin? What is our history or purpose? This advert does all of this as well as conveying to the audience that we all should buy Guinness. You are also left with the feeling that Guinness has been around for a long time because that is the message they are trying to convey.
I also found on Youtube that Dove very cleverly did an advert on evolution as well. They used this subject to sell their projects by showing you what a model looks like before make-up, lighting and Photoshop. They completely change the look of the model in Photoshop by altering her eyes, neck and jaw. They had a strong message at the end which was “no wonder your perception of beauty is distorted”. This was a very powerful advert. It captures the essences of women putting pressure on themselves trying to look beautiful because society says so. I am sure it sold a lot of Dove projects because the advert was the strong voice for women.

Dove Advert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT4dpFpiTgk

Guinness Evolution Advert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEG-jhLAnMg