Poster Campaign - Group Work

Well today was a great day. The last time we worked in groups on a project I wasn't here (tape and type) and to be honest, I felt like missed out a bit. So I enjoyed today for that reason and also because of the brief we were set.

We had to create an A3 poster to encourage public spending based on the economist, John Maynard Keynes theory that, spend more, save less will help to grow the economy quickly.

We were put into groups of 5-6 and began discussing ideas. I had an idea from the day before when I looked at the brief but I didn't want to force that idea on the team so thought if we couldn't come up with anything, then I'd introduce it.

Brainstorming was slow at first and I almost felt it more responsibility (maybe as the oldest?) to get people talking and throwing ideas down. We tried to identify a target audience and thought that most young people wouldn't have a massive disposable income, equity or even savings so initially directed our thoughts towards 40+, kids grown up and left home. We then had to think of what would entice them to spend? We thought of a lifestyle. Everyone has role models and ideals so we looked for a role model of that generation. The first iconic name we produced was Audrey Hepburn. Liked by almost everyone, male and female and particularly non offensive. The image of her in Breakfast at Tiffany's is iconic in itself and easily identifiable. We also thought the theme of the film, an alleged working girl, who has a taste for the finer things in life, was very appropriate.

We then tried to think of a similar person for an older generation, 60's. Richie Rich was suggested but nobody really knew of his popularity or impact. We decided to come back to a younger audience but this was the hardest one to find. There are so many popular figures in modern day culture its hard to find one the encompasses every ones likes. The Beckhams are probably too overused and other sports personalities were not appropriate. Lewis Hamilton was suggested, but not whilst he is well respected by the younger audience, sports people in general are resented almost for the money they "earn" and most wouldn't take well to seeing a multi millionaire telling them to part with their cash. We even thought about how big the Hip Hop culture is these days, but could only identify Kanye West as a non controversial highly popular figure, but he isn't British, so the idea didn't work. The nearest thing to him is Dizzie Rascal, but he's not as glamorous, popular, famous or iconic enough for the ads to work.

Daniel Craig, as James Bond, was suggested. The James Bond lifestyle is something most men would like to buy into, money, cars, women etc and then thought of using a James Bond from each era. For the older audience, Sean Connery, middle aged, Roger Moore and youngest, Daniel Craig. This gave the impression of a James Bond box set/advert and the meaning was lost. But Sean Connery, especially as Bond, has a similar aura about him as Hepburn and we felt we had two strong icons, one female, one male to work with. Both were popular, credible, British, iconic and non-offensive.

Along with their own iconic status come with them an image of iconness, a Martini for Connery and Breakfast at Tiffany's for Hepburn. We decided to keep the images black and white and then decide on a strap line. We wanted people to spend, but to spend on themselves, not for the sake of the economy. It had to be personal than that. Immediately we came up with " When did you last have a Martini/Breakfast at Tiffany's?" But felt maybe it sounded too much like an advert for Martini, so to make it more personal, replaced "...last have" with "last treated yourself to..." as it gives a subtle idea of treating you for the good of you, not for the economy.

We wanted the text to have a dreamy, luxurious feel to it, a little extravagant but not over the top. Baskerville was chosen as its a serif font and fitted beautifully with the message we were trying to deliver. We also wanted a strap line "Save Less, Spend More" on the posters to make them more contemporary. Initially we put it in Arial, but it didn't sit right and after some consultation with Sally, chose to go with Baskerville for the strap line too and right justify it.

I was extremely pleased with the outcome. I felt it was simple, elegant and subtly planted the idea in the head of the viewer of treating themselves to a little something. Nothing too expensive, just enough for it to be a bit special, we couldn't very well say "When was the last time you treated yourself to Pearls/an Aston Martin" as this would alienate the audience.

I think I played a strong role in the group, tried to encourage the less vocal and also generated some good ideas of my own. I thought Hannah's input was excellent, coming up some really strong concepts and Luke's Photoshop skills were also valuable. Steve went through a lot of Fonts and even had a go at InDesign.

Although our idea didn't "win" I am still really pleased with the concept, from the the first stages to the final print. We were fortunate to have a strong team and no real personality clashes, we even all went for lunch together!

Again I wasn't vocal enough in the crit of others work. I think more about what I'm going to say and our team is going to present than questioning others work. I need to improve on this. On two occasions my question was actually asked by Kit, but if I had spoken up it would have looked better.

A thoroughly enjoyable day with a good outcome. I like that we were once again mixed up, I had hardly spoken with any of this team before today.

Done and Dusted

And so it passed! Deadline time has come and gone and I am sooo pleased I printed my book on Saturday. I may have made some mistakes by having some of the text hyphenated, but judging by the stress levels of some who were trying to print today, I'm happy with that!

I was actually ready to hand in at midday but someone said to me "I'm not handing in mine until the last moment 'cos I can keep adding to it". He had a point but I really felt that if any content wasn't there now, it was for a reason and I didn't want to put things in for the sake of it.

So I signed in my work with Kit around 2ish and walked away. It's all done now. I don't think I'm going to get a particularly high mark for my work but I am very keen to get feedback during the individual tutorial of my strengths and weaknesses and where I can improve. Having said that, I'm very proud of the book I produced. I never would have imagined I could produce a book in just 7 days. From initial concept, to critique through to print and presentation.

We also had our new brief today, for Amnesty International. A little daunting but very exciting and I'm looking forward to this. I need to come up with a really strong idea and develop it. I already have an idea for an advert, but it would be raising awareness rather than encouraging donations, so probably won't follow it up.

It's The Final Countdown

Tuesday 4pm is the deadline. Roughly a day and half to get everything completed and in to be assessed. I have spent most of Sunday putting my book together and now have to do the write-up and complete one of my editorial illustrations and then, I think, I'm done!

It's not been easy. I spent 9-3.30 at Uni on Saturday, finalising the content of my book. I really wanted some feedback from Sally or Neil before printing especially after I made some changes to the content after the critique on Friday. (Sally was away on Friday though and Neil was mega busy, so I went it alone). I tried to put more examples of my work in there and have also added more text about how each thing has effected me personally.

Time was slipping away so I printed on Saturday - after driving to The Range in search of some suitable paper, and then to Staples as The Range had bugger all - thinking that Monday, everyone will want to print and it will be a madhouse, not to mention, probably quite emotionally charged! I'm not really happy with some of the text in the book. I think it could have been set out better, I saw Clive for some advice but he didn't really solve the issue and his ideas were a little too radical considering the timescale.

On a side note, I'm convinced I need to buy a Mac now. If I had one at home, I could work at home and not have to be in Uni. When my grant money comes through, I think I'll have to splash out. They're expensive but it's a necessity now almost!

So tomorrow will be fun, I reckon. I haven't written anything for my tutorial with Anna. I think she should have held the tutorials next week, after the deadline. I know they put all the deadlines together to make us feel a bit more like we are working in industry, but I think we all have enough to do and Anna should have waited a week. Nobody is really going to take on any of her comments because we all have other things on our mind. We'll see how it goes.

Off to bed now to dream of scoring paper, measuring to the millimetre and cutting were I shouldn't have.

Green grass & Deadlines

This week we had a bash a book binding with Sally, which was the first time she'd actually taken us for a class, and Hannah who recently completed her MA in St Martins, London.

We saw varied styles of book binding from Japanese techniques to some where all the signatures had been left loose. Hard covers, soft covers, you name it. It's obvious really, but I guess I hadn't really concentrated on how many styles of book there are. Really interesting and since then I find myself inspecting books on a much closer level, even if it's just a small booklet. Partly for ideas for the book we have to produce to show what we've learned during text and Image, but also just through plain curiosity. It's definitely a skill and one I would like to perfect during this course. I found the sewing quite therapeutic actually, and Hannah showed me the technique whilst we chatted about learning Spanish. I was envious of her book making skills and she of my linguistic skills...the grass is always greener!

So; the book! Well we have a mini crit this Weds where we are to present out ideas, layout, thought process and then a week to produce the final piece. This will probably take most of the week so I really need to press on with the other aspects of text and image. I need to complete 1 editorial illustration, 3 examples of vernacular typography and the A3 poster...in less than a week...and I worked 10 hours today and the same tomorrow. But I don't want that as an excuse, I will have to put the effort in this weekend (again) and see where I am come Monday, when we have another mini crit with our PAL groups...It's all go!

My idea for the book, by the way, is to go for a A-Z of text and image. I saw Neil about it and I think he liked the idea, I'm just concerned about the amount of pages and how to bind it well. I have some rough ideas in my sketchbook.

Weekend progress

Well this weekend has been fairly productive.

I returned to Poole quay to try and get some more sketching and photography done and I'm really pleased I made the effort. Despite the fact it was bucketing down, I got some images that I believe I can develop for the editorial Illustrations. I was happy enough with the images from the group trip but I think I went for too much detail, so put that right this time.

I have been using Illustrator most of Sunday to try and get underway with part of the Text and Image theme and have put some interesting stuff in my sketchbook too.

Just need to complete the reading for Anna and I'm done! :-)