End of Year Show - Old Concept

I did these a long time ago but just posting them up now. I was originally planning on entering the end of year show, but I completely missed the deadline, and anyway the work was, well, average at best.
My concept was that the work at the end of year show was only the 'tip of the iceberg' and there was a whole load of effort behind the tiny part of it that people get to see.







It's funny what you find trawling through your USB stick.
I do wonder whether this work could have been developed and resolved to a better extent, as the concept isn't too bad I feel, but visually it's quite bland not all that exciting.

Tutorial w/Fred

Almost didn't even post on this tutorial. I felt a lot more prepared for this one, and in terms of work a lot of it was evidently in the process of being resolved, all my briefs were in far better detail this time, and I think the tutorial reflected this preparedness.

Here is the action plan from this tutorial;



Key points:

NSM/Casio brief - almost resolved. Not such a difficult task once the brief has been written properly and a context identified. The work however still needs evaluating (via blog), a board needs to be completed and the work put into my portfolio in order to fully resolve the work for this brief.

Logotype brief - need to identify the deliverables - where is the work going? Business stationary, calendar, signage? Etc. Once these are identified the work can start to be resolved. Also mentioned was the fact that this work could be used to develop my own identity as a designer - while I feel a little cautious of doing so, the work does feel individual to me and is representative of my interests, therefore I may start to bleed it across into my PPD stuff.

Skype - I began exploring a couple of visual concepts for this brief, however while doing this I re-read the brief and felt that the work wasn't really answering what it asked for. It was asking 'why is Skype better than a normal phone' however my resolution was 'how does Skype work?'. After this tutorial, I will be completing these visual concepts however, as despite not answering the original brief, the work ties in with where my final major is headed, so completed it would be very useful in this regard.

ICM - Resolved. Higher quality boards need printing and evaluating via blog.

Europe By Designers - I realise this isn't part of the current body of work and is dp3, however during the tutorial I nearly sh-t myself as I thought the deadline for re-entering this work had passed, however it had not (phew).

Also and more importantly I mentioned I didn't feel like I had a 'grand' problem to solve, referring to Ken's library signage as an example. Fred however pointed out that I had identified one from quite early on, the idea of 'how things work.' What I needed to identify was what exactly these things are. Seeing as I was going to be on a bus to Newcastle shortly with other people on the course, he suggested compiling some lists of things from people. The lists will help me begin to identify what the final major work will be all about. You can see some of these below;















Overall the tutorial was very useful, and with 4 briefs well underway I have put myself in a good position for the post-Easter period. Next task is to annotate my original Statement of Intent for the group-based tutorial on Thursday.

Type Border Things (Rubbish)

Today I spent several wasteful hours trying to develop a decorative border for my logotype brief. The purpose behind it was to produce a window sign for the PCB Ltd. (printed circuit board limited) logo. My results are pretty much the worst thing I've done in some time, but I guess it is important to show it and how I developed it .
Very basically - I took the letter 'k' and began warping its form and removing details until it was essentially unrecognizable. Then I started arranging the forms I was left with, rotating, flipping, pasting etc. but making sure that it sat roughly within the constraints of the circle shown below.











The overwhelming response from the people I have shown this work to is that it's 'not bad'. I agree its pretty poor, and I think the reason is simply because the forms used in the border really are not that decorative. I think perhaps if they were arranged into a specific form, such as (to use a common decorative logo example) a crest, ie. a pair of lions, a crown, etc. I think that this would both be elegant and would allow the use of the simple circuitry forms to produce both type and image. Exciting, that's if I am able to execute it well.

Europe By Designers - Submitted! (again)

I submitted all my work for Europe By Designers again, this time in print quality and with the few extra elements they asked for. Looking forward to seeing how the project develops. I thought I would post up everything I submitted on here;

BIOGRAPHY:

Andy Cody is a designer from Liverpool, England. In the summer of 2009 he will graduate from Leeds College of Art with a BA Honours in Graphic Design. However he also has a vested intrest in the areas of technical illustration and information design (on which he based the subject of his dissertation).

WORK DESCRIPTION:

The work here forms my repsonse to the question "what does Europe mean to you?"
My answer is a standard design solution: Europe is a consumer product.
The result was I created a range of products under the "Europe ©" logo, including; button badges, t-shirts, water bottles and mugs.
I also developed a body of work following my personal response to Europe: my confusion over the cultures and geographical positions of European countries.

PORTRAIT:



BOARDS:









---

Drawing a line under this work, finally! Unless they ask me to adjust anything or re-submit something of course..

More Flash

Spent today trying to complete the animation I had been working on. I had shown my progress to Jimmy and he presented to me how to use what is the flash equivalent of hotspots --actionscript-- in order to get a bit more interaction into it. Unfortunately it just become very difficult and troublesome to try and implement. Essentially the animation would work exactly the same as show below, however the calculator would start closed and explode on the mouse hovering over, when the mouse is removed it would close again. This is not the difficult part, the thing that caused much stress was trying to get the calculator to de-explode (implode?) smoothly, instead of snapping back to the initial frame. There is a way to do this, according to the tutorials I have been looking at, however for now I thought it would be worthwhile to show what I was able to come up with.

V.1 (loops forever, and contains no actionscript)

V.2 (actionscript- explodes on mouse over, however does not snap back : ( )

I think perhaps this is more hassle than it is worth. Perhaps some static type based banner would be better after all, and save the skills I have learnt here for something later on in a future brief.

Research: Green Flag

Jimmy pointed me to a print ad for Green Flag breakdown cover in the Guardian. I followed it up and found that a very similar ad is on their website, this time animated. Essentially it's exploded type. The flash based ad inspired me to start doing my own flash banner (look for an earlier post for more).

http://www.greenflag.com/

Research: Ely Sarig

This designer has done some excellent work, but none more excellent than his book cover designs for Jules Verne. The work captures the essence of 19th century engineering diagrams whilst also being applicable to the story of the novel. For me this is evidence that technical illustration can be really creative and beautiful when done well.

http://www.elysarig.com/

Flash Banner - Early Stages

One of the deliverables for the NSM work is a web banner, whether static or animated. Today I decided to try my hand at animating my work. So far I'm just moving layers to simulate the 'explosion' in exploded diagrams. My skills are way behind as far as Flash is concerned so its pretty simple. Here are a few images of my progress.









I am keeping it simple at this point, although time-wise a static banner would be more convenient. More to come as it develops.

Context Board : NSM Casio Archives Brief

As a response to the crit, I've created a board for this brief to show the contexts I intend it to sit within. The first context is the National Science Museum facade (the rationale for this is quite obvious, does it need explaining?), and the second is in crowded underground stations (a great deal of exhibition related material is advertised within this context, to attract commuters, particularly parents, into visiting).



Ps. I hate the way blogger forces you to use the style : float setting on uploading images and i have to remove it from the html EVERY-TIME! There is probably a way to remove it, but it is enough work creating the work that goes up on here.

Funny Image

This reminds me of that website, photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com !

All Day Crit

Yesterday we had our mid-point crit. Literally half way through the FMP now, that's such a scary thought!
It was very useful to get feedback, although I felt that I was potentially rushing a lot of work (namely the logo type) in order to present it at the crit, and this generally had a negative effect on the quality of what was presented. However the feedback was very useful. I presented 3 briefs at the crit, the NSM Casio Archive brief, the Logotype brief, and the ICM brief. The ICM brief was near enough finished, although at some point I may wish to re-evaluate it and possibly include it in my portfolio.
The NSM work gained a lot of positive feedback, although there was some much needed contextualizing, so there were ideas thrown around about how I could formulate this. There was talk about combining this work with the logotype work, although I clarified that I was keeping them separate, as they serve different purposes.
The logotype brief was difficult to get feedback on, as my group comprised mostly of illustrators (myself included, to some extent) although Ben provided some useful feedback on developing different weights, layout and how it can still work reduced to business card size.
All in all, a very useful session, although I felt completely drained at the end! The stress induced from trying to prepare a bulk of work for the crit reminded me that there is not a great deal of time left, but if I continue to work at this pace I can make efficient use of the time remaining. I will scan the feedback forms soon and post them up here.

Europe By Designers - Follow Up

If anyone remembers my work for DP3 one of the things I did was enter the 'Europe By Designers' competition brief. I just got this e-mail:

Hi,

We have received more than 600 contributions coming from 47 countries. After several weeks of vote, you are one of the 52 contributors selected by the jury.
In order to realize the online exhibition, we need before the 29th march 4 elements :

* Your work in print quality (minimum 300dpi, CMYK, TIFF or EPS format)
* A short biography in english (use the third person of the singular)
* A text illustrating your work (in english AND in your mother tongue). This text will be presented with you work during the online exhibition.
* Your photo in print quality (minimum 300dpi, CMYK, TIFF or EPS format)


Thanks a lot for your work and congratulation again!

This is positive news, I wonder if it will just remain an online only exhibition however. At least it will be getting my work out there. The full list of people chosen are here: http://www.europebydesigners.com/ I am gonna have to look up some of the other contributors.

NSM Casio Archives & Logotype Brief (New!)

After the last design practice tutorial I've really pulled my socks up. So much so I'm probably pissing off my family and friends by being so antisocial.
One of the key issues that arose during the tutorial was the sheer lack of direction on the Casio work- there was a lack of a real brief behind it, and thus, no context, no purpose. I spent some time researching how I could use this work constructively, and eventually found that The National Science Museum in Tokyo archives all models of Casio's calculators from the 60's to the present day. I rewrote the brief to be about informing people of this fact, and decided that I would produce a series of A2 posters that would be most suitable in large underground railway stations, or airports. I chose to do the posters colour scheme in the style of the NSM's website and logo. Here is the board I produced today, resolving the brief as much as possible at this point (there is some margin for change still). Click for bigger:



A point I thought I would address as early as possible is the fact that the National Science Museum is based in Tokyo, Japan. So therefore a Japanese version of the poster would probably be a good idea. Thanks to my helpful bro Stephen Cody for translating the text, all of which is shown below to prove I'm not just bullshitting;

Casio Calculator History
カシオ計算機の歴史。

Archived in the National Science Museum
国立科学博物館に保管しているのです。

Casio calculators: More than 1 Billion sold worldwide. All models archived at the National Science Museum
カシオ計算機:世界中に１０億以上を売りました。
すべてのモデルは国立科学博物館で保管しているのです。

Opening hours:
開設時間： 月曜ー木曜までの9:00から5:00（最後の訪問者入場時間：4:30まで）
金曜：9:00から 8:00まで（最後の訪問者入場時間：7:30まで）

Hours may be extended for special exhibitions
臨時の展示会の場合は開設時間が延長するかもうしれません。

I re-did the posters into Japanese. I will be hoping to get feedback on their legibility soon, as I am unable to judge them.







I mentioned I wanted to do a brief designing type from the circuitboards I had been illustrating (see the calculator and NES pad for examples), so I wrote a brief to design the logotype for an electronic repairs store (for use in their stationery etc.). I began pulling sections off one of the drawings, and started re-arranging it into letterforms. However the result looked like shit, and there was simply no rules, no structure. See below for the circuitrey sections that I plucked, and some of the letterforms that came from it:





I decided to create a more structured type, developed from one of the best 'natural shapes' I had plucked (the letter 'a') and basing the rest of the letterforms on the rules established from this letter;

1. All lines must join or close (no lines going off into nowhere).
2. Must be legible, even when small (although the minimum size probably stands around 48pt. or so)
3. Should resemble circuitry on close inspection. (simple enough.)
4. Parallel lines must be measured accurately (this is tricky and requires a very painstaiking approach)

Development of the letter 'a':



Closeup on letterforms:



Developing the word 'Repair'



As you can see, I have only started developing lower-case letters, I can't imagine the headache that upper case will no doubt cause me. Keep watching this space.

Design Practice Tutorial

I think this is where my work for the FMP will turn the corner. Here is a quick summary of the (mostly negative) issues raised;

Fred pointed out that for my Casio innovation brief- it doesn't work. The calculator used is far outdated. There is no real purpose behind the work, there is no problem being solved. I basically have the task now of having to write and resolve this brief in the next day or so.
The circuit-board type brief idea, which I have referred to on numerous occasions, this needs to be completed within a week.
The YCN Skype brief, which I have also spoken about in the past, this needs to be well on its way by Wednesday, as the deadline is the 24th March. 
The ICM work, which is finished essentially, needs to be documented and presented/boarded up by Wednesday.

The prospect of doing all of this is terrifying, however with good time management it is (hopefully) achievable. For my own personal reference, my action plan as written by Fred is below;

Research: I T E D O - Inside Technical Illustration

Great gallery of vaious intricate technical illustrations

http://www.itedo.com/E/2373.php
Furthermore, each illustration can be viewed in more detail with a program called 'IsoView'. If this program is installed, you can view it within your browser window. I haven't got the program installed at this moment, I imagine it works in a similar manner to the flash viewer, but with more perspective options.

ICM: Chip Shop Award Concept - Viral

The feedback from ICM on our most recent efforts was surprising in that one of the ideas they initially didn't seem too fussed on (the Hovis ultrasound 'Something Good Inside'/'Born and Bread' viral) was the idea they have now deemed the strongest. Yesterday we gathered our thoughts on the concept and came up with the basic narrative for the viral. We decided that tomorrow (today!) we would produce a short video. So today, while Jimmy and Claire worked on the dubbed dialogue and finding suitable footage for the lady going in for the scan, I got to work on the ultrasound visuals. I tried my best to make the bread appear to be beating/pulsating. Keep in mind we only had one day to make this so don't be too harsh on the production values.



The response from ICM was that they liked our idea, although they felt it would be better applied to a 'family' brand like Warburtons, having the lady introduced as 'Mrs Warburton'. I'm not certain this would work as the concept behind the viral was subtly combining some of Hovis's past slogans, but the files have now been sent to ICM at their request, so perhaps they will develop it further.

Casio: 50 Years of Innovation Brief - Further Development (Exploded Views)

Some more visual development for this brief. I am thinking that the fold-out promotional print will work with the front of the casio calculator on the front, and the back on the back, and when opened it turns into an exploded view, along with details about Casio, their technological innovations, and how todays calculator works. I will present this concept on here soon.

ICM - First Pitch

Today we pitched our first ideas to ICM for the Chip Shop Awards. We made the decision early on to pick a product and brand and get the ideas flowing as quickly as possible. We chose Hovis bread and I think this worked, as we each came up with lot of good ideas. I came up with a viral campaign/advert concept for Hovis using their old slogans 'Bred' (born and bred) and 'get something good inside'. The ad consists of a lady holding up photos of her baby, which is literally going to be born and bread/bred. Although Caroline from ICM liked the idea as a viral, Claire's idea of using another old slogan of Hovis', 'As good today as its always been' together with biblical imagery (ie. last supper, feeding of five-thousand..) was better recieved, so therefore we have decided to go with that idea. Here are some of my visuals concepts;