A retrospective look at the Summer

Over the summer, we picked up three briefs,

1. To make a typographical piece based on a quotation that sums up our life philosophy.
2. To make some form of image from the following films:

• Spellbound- Hitchcock
• 8 1/2- Fellini
• Brazil- Gilliam
• The Third Man- Reed
• Moulin Rouge- Luhrmann
  

3. A series of snapshots based on the following:

• Fade away and radiate
• Life is a minestrone
• The road to nowhere
• You're so vain

For the first brief I applied the quotation "Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: This is the ideal life" across the spines of books I selected, some being my favourites, some being my friends' favourites, and some just being "literary classics".

For the second brief I modified and rewired an old radio to give it a more steampunkish feel to fit with the general look of Brazil. I liked the clash of the wood and the silver metallic parts, and of course the valves. Gotta love valves. If I had more time and expertise, I would have liked to have added more mechanical parts.

For the third brief I created a series of snapshots on a Polaroid camera for "Fade away and radiate" trying to show the amount technology has invaded our lives. We moved into a new house this year, and were without luxuries like the internet for quite a while, and our behaviour changed a lot, always going to the library or pubs with free wi-fi, having to travel quite far to get our laundry done etc.

The snapshots I used were:

1. My housemate playing solitaire with proper playing cards
2. My housemate writing out notes and filling in forms in a big folder
3. My housemate using a public payphone
4. My housemate listening to my radio
5. My housemate using a computer in the library
6. A shot of an analogue TV showing static

I wanted to add another for the public laundromat, but we didn't need to do any washing until after the project was due. Oh well.

I found the second brief the most fun, but the hardest to actualise, as it took me quite a while to find my radio.

Tea or not to Tea

One of the most frustrating briefs so far this year is over.
We had to form a campaign to make tea the Nation's favourite drink again.

As a coffee drinker, I was not impressed. Caffeine is the way forwards!
My partner in arms (a fellow coffee drinker), Sian was great to work with.

Our campaign revolved around the idea that "Tea makes everything better", and included posters about different biscuits/cups as we're all different. We also wanted to create a teatime weekly television chat show, originally revolving around tea culture, but after the critique, it was a better idea to just have it sponsored by the Tea Council.

We also had storyboards for two ads:

1. A girl brings her new boyfriend home to meet her family, he's confused and terrified so doesn't understand a word they're saying, he looks to her for support, but she's happily chatting away with her parents, just as the mother offers him a cup of tea- which he happily accepts and breaks the tension.

2. A woman is on the phone calling the police as there is a fight outside; cut to the fight, with lots of jeering etc. The police are on their way to the scene, where they break up the fight by separating the fighters, and giving them cups of tea.

Not the strongest ideas, but it was enough to earn us a C. More cohesion was necessary to make it stronger, as well as the aforementioned change from a tea centric programme to a generic chat show.

Blogging with Scissors

Greetings and welcome to my blog,

This is going to be a bit of a mishmash of what I'm doing, thinking and experiencing whilst at Buckinghamshire New University, studying Advertising and Graphic design.

Other topics may crop up from time to time, including current affairs and any other pressing issues at the time. As may some personal design projects.

I hope you enjoy reading.