Helvetica

Helvetica

Reference - http://www.hustwit.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/store-helvetica-poster.jpg

Within this lecture we watched the film known as Helvetica that was created in 2007, which was directed by Gary Hustwit. This film focused on the type face known as Helvetica, how the typeface has become one of the most popular typefaces to use in the world and how it affects our lives. Within the film it features the artists Massimo Vignelli, who was famous for the New York Subway Map and Rick Poynor, who is a british writer that focuses on typography and graphic design. The font style focuses on how the font style has been used for many different brands like the American Airlines, Jeep, BMW, Toyota and more. Helvetica is a sans serif font style that I think is very bold and effective, which was originally known as Neue Haas Grotesk. The font style then changed it original name from this to Helvetica.

I think that this film was very interesting because it allowed me to see how the font style has become more popular and famous over the years. I also found the documentary very interesting because it is allowed me to see which of the most famous brands have used this font style over the years. 

Year one Finale - Animation

This was my final Process and Production lesson that I had with Sara, I found this lesson was very fun and different to the previous lessons that I had with Sara because in the previous lessons we focused on Kinetic Typography, I found that this task that we had been given was very different and very fun. The task that we were given in this process and production lesson was creative collaboration with everyone in our group, where each of the students had to create a 10 second animation on the theme of objects or creatures that live in the sea, which will be edited together into one continuous sequence. I thought that this task would be fun and would defiantly look creative after the designs of each students have been put together.

Within the previous lesson, we were told to think about a sea creature of our choice that we wanted to create for this final piece, the first thing that popped into my head was Killer Whales after I had seen them in real life when I was little, so I decided that I wanted to create something that connected well to me. To create my design I had to use the programme Adobe Illustrator, which allowed me to create a professional and vector Illustration of the sea creature. I think that the programme was the best suited for this task, to create my Vector Illustration of my Killer Whale I used a photograph that I found of my photo when I went on holiday as a reference to my design. The tools that I used to create this design was the pen tool, paint bucket tool to add a fill to the design, so that it would stand out to the target audience and they would be able to understand what is being shown on the screen. The colours that I used for this design were Black and White because it would stand out and was relevant to the colours of a real life Killer Whale. 

The first part that we did in this lesson was to place my design into a new after effects document, where I was then able to modify and create an animation that I could use to for my final 10 seconded animation for the final collaboration. After I had placed my design into the the new document, i was then able to look at making my design move across the screen, I thought about how I wanted my Killer Whale to move a lot because I wasn't sure how to display my animation. I then thought about how Killer Whales jump out of the water, which got me to think about whether I could move Killer Whale from the side to centre, where it then turns and moves upwards to look like the Killer Whale is just about to jump out of the water. I thought that this was a real creative idea and was different from going from one part of the screen to the other side, as I thought that this was very basic, which I found was a little boring. To move the Killer Whale from one side to the middle of the screen, I had to make sure that the positioning on the timeline and on the screen were correct so that the design would flow in a nice way. I then had to use the rotate tool to make sure that the Killer Whale rotated upwards, however I needed to make sure that the Killer Whale Illustration rotated at the correct time that I wanted it to. To make sure that this was correct, I needed to make sure that the timing on the timeline was correct, but I needed to make sure that the design flowed well. I then changed the positioning of the whale again after the Killer Whale had tilted upwards to show the design, so that the Illustration would move upwards to look like it was about to jump out of the water. 

To add a little extra to my design, I decided to add little fish to the animation design, so that the design wasn't basic and something added to the design to make it work better and more creative. Overall I am happy with how the animation went, however I do feel that the design could be a lot better if I had a lot more time to improve my 10 second animation. Below was my final 10 second animation that I created on my own:

Killer Whale Animation from Rebecca Thorp on Vimeo.

Here is the final collaboration that was brought together when all the students in the group had created there work using sea creatures or objects:

                                 Year One Finale - Group C from Motion-go on Vimeo.

Prequel/Sequel

Within this lecture we focused on Prequel/Sequel, where we were told that the theory behind this lecture is the that nothing is original, but something's could still be original. However the idea behind Prequel and Sequel is the before and after of the theory.

We firstly looked at a quote by Salvador Dali, that said:

“Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing”.  

I thought that this quote that we had been shown was very interesting. Once we had looked at this quote we then moved on to look at a piece of artwork that by Salvador Dali known as the persistence of Memory, I found that this piece of artwork was very creative and different to some pieces of artwork that I have looked at throughout the years. The piece of artwork was created in 1931, which was created on a canvas made from a oil painting. The location of the artwork is New York City in the Museum of modern Art. 

Reference - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/The_Persistence_of_Memory.jpg

Connection

 

We then moved on to the subject of Connection, within this topic we looked at what we needed to try and create a connection with your audience. We found out that you need to create something that will allow your design work to connect with the audience that you are aiming towards. The importance of this is that you need to make sure that there is a connection between the design and the target audience that your aiming at. 

Intent

You intended the communication something specific to your audience. 

We looked at New York based writer that wrote a book called Tipping Point. A few point that he states in the book is that the law of the Few, the stickiness Factor and the power of context. I found that he had to put a lot of effort in to get something little out.

We then looked into internet meme's, which we think might be funny, however we find that it lacks the value because it is being superficial. We were told that we need to take inspiration a listen to the quote of standing on the shoulder of giants, which is scripted onto a £2 coin. I think that this quote is very interesting because we should make sure that the work we create would interest the target audience. We then looked at a movie based clip about Remix inc, I thought that this video was very good because it allowed me to understand something that I hadn't looked at before. 

"Styles, tropes, inspirations, popular culture,

language and symbols are the materials, and it is

the measure of a designer’s ability to reposition

these in the most successful way for the audience

that determines the effectiveness of a piece". - Kate Cullinane

I think that this quote is very important because we need to make sure that the things that we consider for the design will work together to make sure that the design will interest the target audience. 

We were then shown a quote that interested me lots, the quote read: 

“Don’t try to be original. Just try to be good.’ That sounds sort of naïve but it’s true” – Paul Rand. 

I think that this quote means that you should always try to be creative even if doesn't work. I think that the design that you should create always needs to be interesting a very different to other people's design to attract the target audience, to look at what you have created. I think that that this lecture was good because we were able to focus on something that I had not looked at in detail before.