Dynamic Image - Moneyspinner Animation

After Effects is incredibly powerful but seriously daunting when you get started. I jumped in with both feet and got stuck into some free tutorials I found online. While fiddling around with these I came across some nice animation tricks that procedurally generate seemingly random strings of text that weave around on the screen. This got me thinking...

How about strings of currency for my Dynamic Image movie? I created some strings of dollar, pound and euro signs and got them to move around the screen in a pretty cool way. Then I set up a camera and got it to focus on a "null object" in the center of the currency maelstrom. Then I set the null object to rotate, causing the camera to orbit the currency strings, and the "Moneyspinner" was born! I then fiddled with the camera aperture to give a pronounced depth-of-field effect. It's certainly coming together now:

So my idea for the project is to fade in to the moneyspinner animation, then bring in some captions in red as follows (one after the other):

• The banks gambled with YOUR MONEY and lost
• YOU are footing the bill through CUTS to services, such as
• EDUCATION
• HEALTH
• PENSIONS
• While the bankers continue to take HUGE bonuses

Then the screen will fade to black, pausing for thought and dramatic effect. Then the following caption will appear:

• What are YOU going to do about it?

This will hang for a while, maybe zoom towards the viewer slightly before fading out. Then the footage I took at the protest march will fade in, complete with "Revolution" chant audio. This will be the first time audio is used in the piece. After ten seconds or so of the protest footage, an Occupy logo with come into the center of the screen, maybe with a call to action beneath it, such as "Get Involved!".

Well that's the idea!

Dynamic Image - Work In Progress

For the second project of the year I get to create a short moving image piece of 15 to 45 seconds under the heading "What if...". We had to research the Situationist International movement, which was quite interesting, and lead me to draw comparisons with the current global Occupy Movement.

So I headed off to St Pauls and filmed the occupation, taking in a few of the excellent speakers, including veteran CND campaigner Bruce Kent and Gay Rights activist Peter Tatchell. They were both great and inspiring, especially the former, although I felt most stirred by "the UK's most ethical MP" Caroline Lucas of the Green Party.

I ended up joining a march on Westminster, getting some nice (albeit shaky) footage on the way, using my new Canon EOS 600d. I actually think the shakiness adds something and maybe captures the energy of the march. Judge for yourself:

Oh you can just fuck right off

Got our first brief for the year the other day - I need to look at a publication that also has a website or app (uh, so like any magazine or newspaper). Then I need to make an iPad/iPhone/Android app for it, by tweaking and condensing/editing the content so it is suitable for a smaller format.

I chose the fucking Guardian, which already has a great website and apps on every platform. Those apps probably cost them tens of thousands and were designed by teams of great designers. How the fucking fuck can I improve on what they have already done? Also, the branding/fonts/colours etc have been tweaked to perfection over many years, so there's not exactly much scope for change.

Why the fuckery did I choose The Guardian? What a dick!

So, having wasted a day and a half already on this I am now going to think of another publication, preferably one that has a shit website and no apps.

I already hate the second year...

Gainsbourg revisited

I've just added a "tricolore" smoke effect to the Gainsbourg portrait. I think it gives it that little bit extra. Not sure the effect is right yet but I like the concept...

Another portrait...

... this time it's the legendary Serge Gainsbourg. It's not exactly "alternative", so probably not valid as part of my summer project, but I really enjoyed doing it and it's great Illustrator practice.

I may even get an A2 print to go on my wall.

An Alternative Portrait of Bath

Finally finished shooting and editing my short film portrait. There are some bits I like...

Don't worry... it's Bill Murray!

I got distracted from my film-making yesterday by Bill Murray. Don't know how he popped into my consciousness, although the fact he is the greatest actor of all time may have played a part.

Anyway, I knocked up this retro poster with 35 (count 'em) Murray heads...

I'm going to print it A2. Should look pretty nice.

More ideas for Summer Project

If I am to do an alternative portrait of an actual person, then I have decided it will be either Serge Gainsbourg or Woody Allen. Or Peter Griffin. Okay, probably not Peter Griffin. Hey, if I type Peter Griffin a few more times, could I perhaps lure unsuspecting Family Guy fans to my blog?

Not sure I really want to do something based on a specific person, so I have a few other ideas, like:

America - keywords racism, greed, religious (funda)mentalists, space exploration, stupidity, violence (specifically gun crime/gangs).

21st Century - focus on how shit it has been so far. Where are the flying cars and the domestic robot servants? All we got was reality TV.

The Ramones - a portrait using just icons representing the shapes of their hairstyles.

Bath - I am thinking of doing a photobook of the really shitty areas in Bath. Or maybe photos of all the well-known landmarks, out-of-focus in the background, with various crap in the foreground. Or photos of all the generic shops in Bath, that could be anywhere in the UK. How about a book of just descriptions of the photos, in a suitably Georgian font?

I am still toying with the idea of a jazz-scored Godardesque film of the dark side of Bath. Perhaps I should stop thinking and start doing...

Bummer in the Summer

I've really had it now with this summer project. Only two weeks before we go back and I have NOTHING! I was going to do a short film or perhaps a book showcasing the seedier side of Bath but that is such a literal "alternative portrait".

No, I think that what I need to do is pick a subject and then gather extensive data on it. Then take that data and reinterpret it in a visual way. The end result needs to be aesthetically pleasing but somewhat abstract, so that when I explain how the strange forms relate to the data the viewer will be blown away.

Okay so I understand the concept behind a great piece, shame I am shit at actually realising it.

Could be worse I suppose. There's a "designer" in Dartmouth who has a shop selling his awful prints. He appears to have been commissioned by the local council to do some "down wid da kids" grafitti-style signage all around the lovely town, including this abomination outside a church:

Watching Blade Runner - Final Cut

It's set in 2019. That's eight years from now. Why hasn't the future happened yet? All we got were better videogames and cheaper tellys!

Oh and spotting replicants is easy as they all have shit hair.

Another idea...

An Alternative Portrait of Amphetamine

This will be an A2 print with the text intentionally bleeding off all four edges. Click for larger (readable version).

A couple of ideas (at last!)

Both of these will be A1 posters. I need to tweak them a bit still but they might look pretty cool.

An Alternative Portrait of Ian Curtis (yeah, student cliche #2 after Che Guevara)

An Alternative Portrait of Drug Use

I'll probably hate both these ideas tomorrow... anyway, will get on with my third idea tomorrow, which is an exciting video project!

I give up!

Well, for now anyway. On the summer project I mean. This is a really important project for me, one that will influence the work I do in the second year, so I have to make sure it is great.

So I am taking my mind off it for a while and busying myself with tutorials for Illustrator, Photoshop and After Effects. But I am also tired of those, so I started thinking about setting myself some limits for the coming year. You see, that's the problem with this damned summer project - there are practically no limitations, so I am finding it incredibly difficult to get started. You need to impose certain rules in order to create but you sure as hell had better get those right in the first place.

I have been thinking for some time about limiting my print-based work to a maximum of ten typefaces. This morning I allowed myself to indulge in some stream-of-consciousness bullshit, by the end of which I had my list.

Check it out if you can be arsed...

Sometimes...

... I look at people I know really well, like family and stuff, and it's like I am seeing them for the first time. Like they are perfect strangers.

It can be rather disturbing.

It's just not happening!

So I am now well into this extensive summer break and I have no idea what I am going to do for the summer project (see previous post). So far I have immersed myself in books about design and the incredibly cool movies of Jean-Luc Godard but to no avail.

Perhaps a visit to the Tate Modern and the National Portrait Gallery next week will get things moving...

Summer Project

So we broke up about a week ago and I am starting to the think about the project they set us for over the summer:

An Alternative Portrait.

Over the summer break produce a piece of work that can be described as a portrait. Your work could be film, photographic, drawn, collage or purely typographic. Enjoy.

I am trying to come up with a list of worthy subjects. Some are cliched but this is intentional as I could do something very different to the portraits with which we are all too familiar...

Shortlist - People
Ian Curtis
Che Guevara
Robert de Niro
Joni Mitchell
Cary Grant
Michael Jackson
Bob Marley
Arthur Lee
The Beatles
Keith Richards
Gene Kelly

Shortlist - Places
New York
Bath
Paris

Shortlist - Events
9/11
2011 Wimbledon Men's Singles Final

For the Wimbledon Final, I was thinking of maybe producing a reversable flipbook - on one side you have Nadal scratching his ass and sniffing his fingers, flip it over and you get  Djokovic bouncing the ball endlessly before each serve. Just an idea...

Wim Crouwel exhibition

Found the exhibition pretty inspiring, although I was equally impressed with the architecture in the area between the Design Museum and Tate Modern. Highly recommend walking along this stretch of the Thames. The Borough Market was a real highlight and it was also great to see the Shard under construction.

I was inspired to create my own poster for the Crouwel exhibition...

Poster Design Breakthrough

I had to design a poster as part of Professional Contexts about one of the companies I researched. I opted for Music, the Manchester-based studio most famous for their work for Man City FC *cough* arseholes *cough*

Anyway, I designed a bunch of crap before coming up with this:

When I think of Manchester, I immediately think of football and music, so I was chuffed to come up with the visual pun of a floodlight/record player. I think it works rather well. The Hacienda reference is kind of subtle but really adds something.

Introducing... The Pygmy Goats

For our Photoshop tutorials, we had to come up with a band name and then create suitable CD artwork. I've always loved the cover of The Pixies' Doolittle, so I thought I would try to create something in the 4AD style.

It's not finished but it's getting there:

Thanks but no thanks. But thanks!

I got an email from design behemoth Pentagram yesterday, just to say that they were unable to answer my questions on design ethics:

Unfortunately I am unable to help with your request.  As you can understand Pentagram is an extremely busy company and all the designers rarely have spare time to help out with student enquiries.

Pentagram is inundated with student requests and rather than reply to some we have a policy that the designers are not given questionnaires or surveys to complete at any time.

To be perfectly honest I expected this kind of response from most of the companies I contacted but this was in fact the only one. The email did however end on a positive note:

I am sorry if this is of no use to you. However, if you e-mail me your address then I will send you some promotional material if this will be of some help with your studies.

Naturally I supplied my address and this morning I got a lovely package of three little books in the post:

Not bad, eh? Thanks Pentagram!

ISO50

I love Scott Hansen's work, it is quite the opposite of shit. I really dig the faded retro palette and the fact he uses some interesting typefaces. I will try not to borrow too heavily from him in the second year, and that's a promise.

There's always loads of great inspiring stuff on his blog too: http://blog.iso50.com/

Pump Collective

I'm really looking forward to seeing the latest work from Pump Collective when I get back to uni. They are doing a private view of their newest piece a couple of weeks after we go back.

http://pumpcollective.blogspot.com/

Exciting stuff!

Ethical conduct in design

I am currently researching an essay which I plan to write next week, regarding the ethical conduct of various design companies. I sent an email round to some of the biggest names in the business and have been amazed at some of the responses from the likes of Ric Peralta (Attik) and Craig Oldham (Music).

I'll probably post some of the best bits here when I have a moment, as it will help me plan for the essay itself.