I've decided that, as a design website, blogger just doesn't look snazzy enough and I don't know enough about HTML to fix it, so I've moved!
http://designinateacup.tumblr.com/
You'll have to go there from now on for your, somewhat irregular, posts :)
Current Project
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Friday, 12 February 2010
Barbie, end.
After three weeks of mild confusion, briefing illustrators, and quite a bit of photo manipulation, I have finally come to the end of the barbie brief!
I found working with an illustrator interesting. Though I had known him for a while, I still found it difficult getting my ideas across and I think I may have left one or two details out. Knowing that he already had several projects on the go, including university work, I couldn't help but feel bad when I pressed him for the work. I guess it's good experience for the future when I have to deal with outside sources for projects.
Both final outcomes are roboots of retro monster b-movie posters. Part of the rationale behind this is that you would not allow young girls to watch horror films (unless you were a particularly irresponsible parent/guardian) in a similar way that people probably should not let their children play with barbie. As I've said before, if there's so much controversy abut Barbies possible influence on body-image, self confidence, etc. why do parents allow their innocent young children play with her? I chose to only change the main figure in the imagery and the typography because I wanted the posters to keep some of their original 'cheesyness' as barbie is seen today as somewhat outdated, despite Mattel's attempts to modernize her by cloning the look of Bratz dolls.
Typographically, I edited the posters to have satirical titles and parody production names. I also included the name of the illustrator I employed (Ed Fairburn) as a cameo. I even went to the extent of changing the fineprint on 'Beasts are Blonde' to relevant information, e.g. 'a tacky plastic doll production', etc.
Image wise, I'm rather pleased with how both posters have come out. I managed to burn the warmth into Barbies skin tone in Attack of the Plastic Woman so that she resembles the tanned Amazonian woman from the original. As for the figure in Beasts are Blonde, the slight pixelation on the figure adds to the decomposition of zombie Barbie, and could also be said to be a comment on how the quality of the original Barbie dolls isn't exactly brilliant, seeing as she was made out of reportedly toxic chemicals.
I found working with an illustrator interesting. Though I had known him for a while, I still found it difficult getting my ideas across and I think I may have left one or two details out. Knowing that he already had several projects on the go, including university work, I couldn't help but feel bad when I pressed him for the work. I guess it's good experience for the future when I have to deal with outside sources for projects.
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Poster RebootsBoth final outcomes are roboots of retro monster b-movie posters. Part of the rationale behind this is that you would not allow young girls to watch horror films (unless you were a particularly irresponsible parent/guardian) in a similar way that people probably should not let their children play with barbie. As I've said before, if there's so much controversy abut Barbies possible influence on body-image, self confidence, etc. why do parents allow their innocent young children play with her? I chose to only change the main figure in the imagery and the typography because I wanted the posters to keep some of their original 'cheesyness' as barbie is seen today as somewhat outdated, despite Mattel's attempts to modernize her by cloning the look of Bratz dolls.
Typographically, I edited the posters to have satirical titles and parody production names. I also included the name of the illustrator I employed (Ed Fairburn) as a cameo. I even went to the extent of changing the fineprint on 'Beasts are Blonde' to relevant information, e.g. 'a tacky plastic doll production', etc.
Image wise, I'm rather pleased with how both posters have come out. I managed to burn the warmth into Barbies skin tone in Attack of the Plastic Woman so that she resembles the tanned Amazonian woman from the original. As for the figure in Beasts are Blonde, the slight pixelation on the figure adds to the decomposition of zombie Barbie, and could also be said to be a comment on how the quality of the original Barbie dolls isn't exactly brilliant, seeing as she was made out of reportedly toxic chemicals.
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Hopefully all will go well during the presentation. I'm not sure what exactly I'm going to say as they pretty much speak for themselves, and it's your own fault if you haven't read the rationale conveniently positioned right next to the designs :p
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Barbie update
Things have progressed pretty quickly with this project and pretty well, if I do say so myself.
Since my last update I've completed my research, produced thumbnails of my initial ideas, had a group tutorial, did a bit more research, had another tutorial, and briefed my illustrator (more on that in a bit).
While researching, I found that the majority of information on Barbie spoke about her negative impacts on body-image, potential cases of eating disorders, and the numerous and highly varied forms of torture tween-age girls inflict upon dolls that were once their best friends. I realized that Barbie isn't exactly the perfect role-model mattel would have us believe. Girls from about the age of 9 begin to mutilate their dolls, almost as if to reject who they once were as they begin to move into another phase of their lives (secondary school, puberty, etc.) this results in Barbie's primary target audience being girls as young as 4 and 6! I thought, 'If there's so much controversy abut Barbies possible influence on body-image, self confidence, etc. why do parents allow their innocent young children play with her? Is Barbie a roll-model, or a monster?' This thinking allowed me to produce a series of thumbnails (images to come) depicting Barbie in a bad light. In some, she literally morphs from herself to a mythical beast/monster, e.g. giant squid. and in other's she's the abusive character in different situations, spouting her stereotypical catch-phrases such as 'let's go shopping', and 'math class is tough!'
After feed-back, some thinking, and an individual tutorial, I chose to bring forward my 'Barbie as a monster' Idea. I looked at classic horror b-movie posters, and thought of how to put Barbie in these situations, showing her as the flesh-eating zombie, or towering beast.
I could visualize my ideas to an extent, but I realized that I would need to bring in someone with illustrative expertise in order for my reboots to have the right visual impact. I called upon the help of Ed Fairburn, a brilliant illustrator currently in the 2nd year of his UWIC course.
Currently, I have been able to brief him on what I require and have arranged to meet again on Monday to see how things are coming along.
Since my last update I've completed my research, produced thumbnails of my initial ideas, had a group tutorial, did a bit more research, had another tutorial, and briefed my illustrator (more on that in a bit).
While researching, I found that the majority of information on Barbie spoke about her negative impacts on body-image, potential cases of eating disorders, and the numerous and highly varied forms of torture tween-age girls inflict upon dolls that were once their best friends. I realized that Barbie isn't exactly the perfect role-model mattel would have us believe. Girls from about the age of 9 begin to mutilate their dolls, almost as if to reject who they once were as they begin to move into another phase of their lives (secondary school, puberty, etc.) this results in Barbie's primary target audience being girls as young as 4 and 6! I thought, 'If there's so much controversy abut Barbies possible influence on body-image, self confidence, etc. why do parents allow their innocent young children play with her? Is Barbie a roll-model, or a monster?' This thinking allowed me to produce a series of thumbnails (images to come) depicting Barbie in a bad light. In some, she literally morphs from herself to a mythical beast/monster, e.g. giant squid. and in other's she's the abusive character in different situations, spouting her stereotypical catch-phrases such as 'let's go shopping', and 'math class is tough!'
After feed-back, some thinking, and an individual tutorial, I chose to bring forward my 'Barbie as a monster' Idea. I looked at classic horror b-movie posters, and thought of how to put Barbie in these situations, showing her as the flesh-eating zombie, or towering beast.
I could visualize my ideas to an extent, but I realized that I would need to bring in someone with illustrative expertise in order for my reboots to have the right visual impact. I called upon the help of Ed Fairburn, a brilliant illustrator currently in the 2nd year of his UWIC course.
Currently, I have been able to brief him on what I require and have arranged to meet again on Monday to see how things are coming along.
Monday, 25 January 2010
Taking on Barbie
Our next project is a bit of a strange one. The brief's a bit wordy, but I think we have to produce a portrait of one of two people we were given. I just so happened to have a choice between either the man of steel Super Man or the plastic monster Barbie, neither o which I'm particular fond of to be honest. Seeing as I didn't fancy trawling the depths of the DC universe, I've chosen to look at Barbie... though I'm probably going to regret it in like a week.
I was never really one for barbie, I was more of a tom-boyish action man kind'a girl, so it might be fun to catch up on some of the girly stuff I may have missed out on. I'm doubting it a bit though :p
I've already had a look at the Wikipedia article it seems to me that Barbies creators, Mattel, seem to be rather bully-like in their approach to lawsuits. They take every opportunity to attack the little-man at the tiniest hint of copyright infringement or slander (I'm not even sure if it's safe to type this). The only time their legal ventures have been successful is after MGA Entertainment's release of the Bratz dolls. According to Wiki (so I'm not 100% sure how reliable this information is) Carter Bryant was working for Mattel when he first designed the Bratz dolls, and later pitched them to MGA while under their employment. This was apparently in breach of his contract with Mattel, forcing MGA to stop production and trade of Bratz in 2009 and pay Mattel $100 million in damages! That's a bit extreme don't you think?
I have a feeling I'll either really enjoy this project, or I'm going to hate it pretty quickly.
I was never really one for barbie, I was more of a tom-boyish action man kind'a girl, so it might be fun to catch up on some of the girly stuff I may have missed out on. I'm doubting it a bit though :p
I've already had a look at the Wikipedia article it seems to me that Barbies creators, Mattel, seem to be rather bully-like in their approach to lawsuits. They take every opportunity to attack the little-man at the tiniest hint of copyright infringement or slander (I'm not even sure if it's safe to type this). The only time their legal ventures have been successful is after MGA Entertainment's release of the Bratz dolls. According to Wiki (so I'm not 100% sure how reliable this information is) Carter Bryant was working for Mattel when he first designed the Bratz dolls, and later pitched them to MGA while under their employment. This was apparently in breach of his contract with Mattel, forcing MGA to stop production and trade of Bratz in 2009 and pay Mattel $100 million in damages! That's a bit extreme don't you think?
I have a feeling I'll either really enjoy this project, or I'm going to hate it pretty quickly.
Sustainable: ME! overview
I swear this project has to have been the most stressful one I've ever had to endure! I'm sure if you spent weeks on any topic you would get to a point where you just didn't care anymore, and by the sound of it, that's where the majority of our course ended up.
I should probably start by saying that, despite being exceptionally frustrating, this project wasn't too bad. I learnt a lot of new things about recycling, sustainability and such, that I really didn't know before. The main thing I think I've taken away from it is an odd feeling of being guilted into recycling and using recycled paper. I recycled plenty before, but now I just feel bad if I use too much of it, and angry if someone/something causes me to waist more than is necessary, e.g. the print studio screwing up my work.
I should probably start by saying that, despite being exceptionally frustrating, this project wasn't too bad. I learnt a lot of new things about recycling, sustainability and such, that I really didn't know before. The main thing I think I've taken away from it is an odd feeling of being guilted into recycling and using recycled paper. I recycled plenty before, but now I just feel bad if I use too much of it, and angry if someone/something causes me to waist more than is necessary, e.g. the print studio screwing up my work.
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Print
I found working with my print group to be a really enjoyable experience. I had never worked with the majority of my group before (I had worked with Charlotte on the warm-up projects) but we really seemed to gel well. We were exceptionally lucky to have Pete, who is a brilliant public speaker, and took up the role of the main voice for our group during interim presentations.
Our idea initially progressed really quickly. We came up with the idea for t-shirts that would both inform about and advertise sustainable design practice, and everything blossomed from that point onwards. We developed our designs over a few weeks and even used the presentations as an opportunity to have our course-mates select the images, out of our initial sketches, that they were most likely to wear. After that, the idea of our labels simply fell into place, giving us an opportunity to include more information than our t-shirts would allow.
I was really pleased with our final outcome, especially because it apparently has 'legs' and we could possibly make quite a bit of money out of it. Though I'm not sure how much of any potential profits would have to go to the uni... I must find out whether we actually have any ownership rights over the work we do whilst in education.
I found working with my print group to be a really enjoyable experience. I had never worked with the majority of my group before (I had worked with Charlotte on the warm-up projects) but we really seemed to gel well. We were exceptionally lucky to have Pete, who is a brilliant public speaker, and took up the role of the main voice for our group during interim presentations.
Our idea initially progressed really quickly. We came up with the idea for t-shirts that would both inform about and advertise sustainable design practice, and everything blossomed from that point onwards. We developed our designs over a few weeks and even used the presentations as an opportunity to have our course-mates select the images, out of our initial sketches, that they were most likely to wear. After that, the idea of our labels simply fell into place, giving us an opportunity to include more information than our t-shirts would allow.
I was really pleased with our final outcome, especially because it apparently has 'legs' and we could possibly make quite a bit of money out of it. Though I'm not sure how much of any potential profits would have to go to the uni... I must find out whether we actually have any ownership rights over the work we do whilst in education.
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Web
I honestly don't think I've ever been more unhappy with a project ever in my life. Our group was poorly put together, as none of us had any real experience with either Flash or DreamWeaver. I would have thought this wouldn't have happened as, at the start of the course, we were all asked what programmes we could use and how well and seeing as we haven't had any real training in using the mentioned programmes I would have liked to think that we would have been arranged into a more logical grouping.
Grumbling and technical problems aside, we did have a pretty good idea behind our mediocre website. We planned to use the myths of sustainable paper, etc. as a spring board for conversations on a forum, dedicated to sustainable practice. Unfortunately, our final outcome was far from how we imagined it to look, and our grades seemed to reflect it. Apparently our good idea didn't account for much.
I honestly don't think I've ever been more unhappy with a project ever in my life. Our group was poorly put together, as none of us had any real experience with either Flash or DreamWeaver. I would have thought this wouldn't have happened as, at the start of the course, we were all asked what programmes we could use and how well and seeing as we haven't had any real training in using the mentioned programmes I would have liked to think that we would have been arranged into a more logical grouping.
Grumbling and technical problems aside, we did have a pretty good idea behind our mediocre website. We planned to use the myths of sustainable paper, etc. as a spring board for conversations on a forum, dedicated to sustainable practice. Unfortunately, our final outcome was far from how we imagined it to look, and our grades seemed to reflect it. Apparently our good idea didn't account for much.
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Personal
I was exceptionally pleased with my personal project! I decided right from the start that I would use it as an opportunity to learn how to use Flash, or at least gain some knowledge of it. By the end of the project, I did gain a basic knowledge of Flash and the evils of action script. I'm not 100% sure that I would choose to use Flash in a future project, but I would defiantly chose it over DreamWeaver any day!
I was exceptionally pleased with my personal project! I decided right from the start that I would use it as an opportunity to learn how to use Flash, or at least gain some knowledge of it. By the end of the project, I did gain a basic knowledge of Flash and the evils of action script. I'm not 100% sure that I would choose to use Flash in a future project, but I would defiantly chose it over DreamWeaver any day!
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Failing to update
Despite being determined to post on this regularly, I've really let this slip. I'm going to put it down to a ridiculous amount of work and a terrible memory.
Therefore, the next few posts are going to have to be mass dump updates to get you all back up to speed with the general goings on.
You have been warned...
Therefore, the next few posts are going to have to be mass dump updates to get you all back up to speed with the general goings on.
You have been warned...
Saturday, 10 October 2009
Week 3: The Early Poster and more sustainability.
Now that this, rather stressful, week is over, I like to think that I have a better understanding of what's actually being asked of us this term. If nothing else I defiantly know more about eco-friendly design and have a new found seance of guilt for buying so much paper in the past. I've actually taken quite a bit on-board and I'm now refusing to buy anything that doesn't even at least have the FSC logo on it. Even toilet paper!
CCS: The Early Poster
I couldn't really take many notes in this weeks lecture, Kedge seemed to be trying to take us away from the slides and encourage us to talk about things. He did however, take us through the text we were supposed to read for the lecture, which made my reading and summarizing the night before more or less useless. We did however, look at quite a lot of Lucian Bernhard's work. His designs were so simple, I couldn't help but have a 'I could have done that' moment. But I guess he got their first, being born 106 years before me.
For next weeks lecture on Wartime Propaganda, we've been asked to read an exceptionally lengthy essay on psychology and how the media can create a need that humans wouldn't necessarily have naturally. I'm about half way through it so far, and I think it's going in... I think. I've substituted a highlighter for a yellow pen, so hopefully my book will start to look a bit more tidy, and hopefully look like it's been read. I take far too good care of my stuff.
Sustainable Brief
We finally met our rather uniquely named client, Lulu Kitololo, this week. I have to say that she's one of the smileyest people I've ever met! We spent an exceptionally long day watching Miss(?) Kitololo present about sustainable design and ethics and eventually hear what or brief is. Though I still don't think I'm 100% clear about what we have to do exactly. I think we have to find ways of promoting sustainable practice to the design community.
Thankfully, my worries on organizing the entire group around one person were voiced by Jo Black, who suggested that we all do print on Tuesday and Wednesday and web on Thursday and Friday. A plan which every one seemed very pleased to agree with.
Now, I really must get on with looking at the large amount of websiteswe've been given to look at, and maybe finish reading that giant essay...
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CCS: The Early Poster
I couldn't really take many notes in this weeks lecture, Kedge seemed to be trying to take us away from the slides and encourage us to talk about things. He did however, take us through the text we were supposed to read for the lecture, which made my reading and summarizing the night before more or less useless. We did however, look at quite a lot of Lucian Bernhard's work. His designs were so simple, I couldn't help but have a 'I could have done that' moment. But I guess he got their first, being born 106 years before me.
For next weeks lecture on Wartime Propaganda, we've been asked to read an exceptionally lengthy essay on psychology and how the media can create a need that humans wouldn't necessarily have naturally. I'm about half way through it so far, and I think it's going in... I think. I've substituted a highlighter for a yellow pen, so hopefully my book will start to look a bit more tidy, and hopefully look like it's been read. I take far too good care of my stuff.
-----------------------
Sustainable Brief
We finally met our rather uniquely named client, Lulu Kitololo, this week. I have to say that she's one of the smileyest people I've ever met! We spent an exceptionally long day watching Miss(?) Kitololo present about sustainable design and ethics and eventually hear what or brief is. Though I still don't think I'm 100% clear about what we have to do exactly. I think we have to find ways of promoting sustainable practice to the design community.
Thankfully, my worries on organizing the entire group around one person were voiced by Jo Black, who suggested that we all do print on Tuesday and Wednesday and web on Thursday and Friday. A plan which every one seemed very pleased to agree with.
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Now, I really must get on with looking at the large amount of websiteswe've been given to look at, and maybe finish reading that giant essay...
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