s a m .

YEAR 2 BLOG

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:32:00 -0500

http://samhodgsonyear2.tumblr.com/

Photo

Tue, 29 May 2012 09:22:53 -0400

Photo

Tue, 01 May 2012 14:26:49 -0400

Photo

Tue, 01 May 2012 14:25:49 -0400

Some examples of my final spreads

Tue, 01 May 2012 14:21:00 -0400

Some examples of my final spreads

For was struggling with the layout of the last two pages. The...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 06:47:00 -0400

For was struggling with the layout of the last two pages. The text was not really working with the image. I tried to mirror the gaps between the pillars with columns of text but it wasn’t really working. The bottom right image shows one idea with small columns of text across the page, but it looked to thrown together. I then tried with three columns which gradually got shorter echoing the gradual slope of the pillars in the photo. This looked better but still didn’t balance very well on the page. So I used two simple text columns which seemed to sit better on the page.

After a crit i decided to resize my document as a the photos...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:45:00 -0400

After a crit i decided to resize my document as a the photos lent themselves more to a portrait configuration. I wanted to scale it up as well as a bigger document would emphasise the feeling of getting lost in a city. I started experimenting with the cover. The cover will wrap around the document (so the page with phillipe on it will be the back page and apeloig on the front). I quite like the idea of having the first question on the front cover like this as the question sort of gives an introduction to Phillipe. The staircase’s vertical structure has been loosely mirrored with the column of text.

I also started to incorporate some of my black and white photos...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:43:00 -0400

I also started to incorporate some of my black and white photos with the “type buildings”. The pages need a lot of simplifying at the moment. There is too much going on on the page which clashes. I am going to simplify my work by just sticking to the black and white photos and a simple text layout.

I started experimenting with the text by trying to create...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 06:57:00 -0400

I started experimenting with the text by trying to create cityscapes. I used different sized text, bold and regular fonts, and different shades of grey to create a basic depth to the text buildings. I like the idea, but i feel that the outcomes down really work. They were working better on the American airlines campaign because they use famous building shapes such as the empire state building, where as mine are just rectangular shapes. The different fonts and colours also leave the pages looking pretty clumsy. I would like to go for more of a clean design look, and allow the text to breath more.

I’m now starting to think how the body text will sit on...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 08:02:00 -0400

I’m now starting to think how the body text will sit on the pages. During a crit I was advised to look at an American Airlines campaign which used the text illustratively to create building shapes. I may try and incorporate this into my work.

Here are some of my photos which I have taken for my project. I...

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 07:45:00 -0400

Here are some of my photos which I have taken for my project. I used my dads old film camera, with black and white film, and ventured into Bournemouth town. As my project is to do with the city, I looked for buildings and structures which reflected this. It was quite tricky to keep the city feel in a sea side town, but I was pretty happy with my results. I like the grainy quality the film camera gave to the photos.

I started to add some imagery into inDesign to start thinking...

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 08:18:00 -0400

I started to add some imagery into inDesign to start thinking about placement of my text. I still haven’t yet taken my photos so the image was dragged off of google to play around with the placement. I Also used scans of letraset scraps to create a city scape looking image. I used some basic lines to make the image flow through both the spreads, but I feel these look a bit clumsy. The type at the moment is a bit of a mess too. There are too many different fonts which aren’t really working together so I need to consider changing these.

I really like these photos by a photographer called Weegee. His...

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 07:45:00 -0400

I really like these photos by a photographer called Weegee. His use of dramatic black and white photos are very striking and interesting. His photos are more figurative than how I want mine to look, but the dramatic tones maybe used in my work

Here I started to use the idea of photography into my work. This...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 08:18:00 -0400

Here I started to use the idea of photography into my work. This is just an image which i pulled off of google to experiment with as I have not yet taken my photos. I put the image in photoshop and played around with a two-tone effect which looks quite nice. However I think I want to stick to more of a black and white effect during my project as I want to keep it away from Phillipe’s style (which is quite colourful) and I want to explore black and white photography.

During my research stages of this project and generating ideas...

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 08:26:00 -0400

During my research stages of this project and generating ideas with my sketch book, one of my ideas involved cutting out words out of city maps. I came across these images which also use maps in an interesting way. The top image has arrows between the various sections of maps - which could represent the “movement” that Phillipe talks about.

I have chosen to Phillipe Apeloig as my designer to base my...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 06:42:00 -0400

I have chosen to Phillipe Apeloig as my designer to base my editorial project on. We have been told to steer clear from making our work look like theirs as we must respond to what they say in the interview rather than the work itself. Phillipe talks a lot about the city - about how he couldn’t live outside of the city, and how he likes the movement, the dirt, and the noise of it. These are some aspects that I want to try and respond to during my project.

To start this project our tutor showed us a slideshow of images...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:25:00 -0500

To start this project our tutor showed us a slideshow of images as inspiration for our editorial piece. I was particularly struck by this image. I like how the text sits on the image like rain. I also like the use of black and white photography. We have been encouraged this project to explore new techniques and mediums that we may not have used before. As I don’t usually use photography as part of my image making process, I may explore with it this project.

Day Project - We were put in groups and had to respond to the...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 08:25:00 -0500

Day Project - We were put in groups and had to respond to the “First things first” manifesto. We decided to respond to the idea of sustainability, as the project was about designing for the future. So we picked up on the idea of animals going extinct - such as cod fish which is being over farmed. We responding in quite a humorous way but the message was still pretty striking. I was happy with the concept of our project, but the execution was rushed as we took two long coming up with the idea.

Final animation evaluation - After making changes to my first...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:33:00 -0500

Final animation evaluation -

After making changes to my first major draft, and chopping it down by 10 seconds, I noticed some changes that needed to be made (which I talked about in my last post). In this version I have made the start less static by animating some of the words. This gives it more flow and I feel it fits pretty nicely with the music (1009 by Bonobo).

Overall I was really happy with my animation. I feel that it has a pretty strong graphical style and flows well throughout. I was most pleased with the segment with the gun made up of type, as well as the scene talking about life expectancy, as I felt these had the most originality and are the most aesthetically pleasing. My least favourite part is the ending as I feel its a bit cheesy and I was a bit rushed for time so I couldn’t make it more visually striking.

I feel that on the whole the type has a fairly good balance throughout. I used two typefaces - Helvetica and Neou (a font downloaded from Dafont.com). They seem to work pretty well together and there wasn’t any particular sections that I felt looked put together clumsily.

I was aiming this animation at the general public and I think that the simplicity of it helps get across the message. However i’m not sure that the style particularly reflects ‘happiness’ at all. Its quite clinical and sterile, but i’m not sure this matters. Like I said I didn’t want it to come off too cheesy.

I stuck to my storyboard pretty loosely. Some areas I completely changed without re-storyboarding. This may have been a bad idea because if I took the time to draw out how it should look then i could have spent more time perfecting the animation. However I felt that using a storyboard too much felt to rigid. Some of the best parts of the animation came from just improvising and playing around with the ideas on screen. My storyboard was pretty good but it wasn’t as detailed as it could have been.

If I was to do this project again I would spend more time creating thorough storyboards as I found that a lot of the time it was fairly improvised which made some parts take longer to animate. I would also try to keep it under a minute - this is a bit picky but its nice to keep it to the brief specification, and at the moment it clocks in at around 1.05. I could also be nice to introduce a few more graphical images such as the heart and the turbine near the start of the animation to keep things interesting.

My project was too long. It originally clocked in at 1:16 and we...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:24:00 -0500

My project was too long. It originally clocked in at 1:16 and we were briefed to try and keep it under a minute. So I cut it down in this one. However it still needs changes. The start now looks to static (it was originally moving much more but I had to cut some of this to save time). So it would be good to attempt to make the start flow better with the rest of the animation. I’m also not too happy with a couple of parts. When the word “Costa Rica” fills up red to represent a 1/4, it should only come up to the 2nd letter as it looks a bit tacky. The font right at the end also would probably be better in ‘Neou’ (a font I downloaded from DaFont) rather than Helvetica.

Overall though, I’m pretty happy with the flow. The colour scheme really works and it looks pretty slick, which is the style I was hoping to achieve.