50's Ads and Design

To improve my Retropops box design and advert I have listed things I would like to change.

The box needs to be bolder/brighter and have a clearer logo, I am also going to play around with the layout. It was suggested in class that perhaps my advert could be black and white so I'm going to experiment with that, also re shooting some parts and getting the audio as best I can!

I want to zone in on the 1950s as a way of focusing on what elements of my design I want to change such a type. There are some great retro and 50s adverts on YouTube which will also be useful with research and redesign.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRcRIbExrfg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q1gksqqhLU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDk_TEM257k

The 1950's ads that I've looked at are all black and white so there's a strong possibility mine will be too!

Box Design

I used a pre-designed net of a cuboid to mock up two mini boxes. The majority of cereal boxes are similar shape however there are a few which have slight variations.

At the moment I'm sticking with a basic box design but I may look at changing that later on. I like this alternative design by Jordans.

Retropops!

I’ve chosen to call my cereal Retropops. The people I asked liked the name best and it was also my personal favourite. The slogan that I want to appear in my ad and on the box is ‘Retropops, I do it daily’, I thought it was slightly cheeky and refers to the fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and should be eaten everyday.

I’ve made three variations of the collage-like picture I want to appear on my cereal box. I put text into one just to give an idea of what will be written. All the images contain roughly the same layout; a breakfast table, chairs and a framed picture on the wall. My favourite is the one with the pink flocked background because it’s very bright and I think it would stand out on a shop shelf. The images of models that appear on two of the collages are from a pin-ups calendar I had, which, I thought worked well with the retro theme. However I think it would be nice to have the same lady appear in the advert as well as on the box and therefore I will need my own model.

Retro Stuff

Many cereal boxes include images of the food inside (serving suggestions), as I’m not creating an actual food product I want to make a kitchen/ dining scene – this will relate to food but not actually picture it.

I’ve made a collage of retro household objects and furniture that I can use to put together a kitchen/dining scene. I’ve also taken photos of flooring throughout my house and collected retro patterns for backgrounds.

Cereal Box - Fonts and Colours

Some ideas for my retro themed cereal product.

I've been playing around with names, I want to get friends and family to pick their favourites.

I've made a collection of retro imagery to help in creating my cereal box. Using magazines, photos and internet images I hope to collage together a kitchen or dining room scene from a retro house for the front of the box. I want it to be really fun, fresh and bright and also a bit cheesy!

Cereal Project - Bits of Ideas!

I've been thinking about how I will put together the image that appears on my cereal box and I've decided to use collage. I've done some research into artists that use collage to create images. I was particulary impressed by those that used a wide variety of materials such as ribbon, food, newspaper etc. By creating collages with photos, drawings, text.... I can then scan them and play around with colour, tones and contrast.

Some of my first atempts

( I also want to keep in mind making an advert that will have a clear link to the appearance of my box)

These are a couple of my first ideas, I used scanned in patterns, pictures and an online image bank to create the scenes - just playing around with colours, text positioning and general layout.

At the moment I'm leaning towards doing a retro themed cereal brand, I believe it could be trendy and also fun and light hearted. I also need to look into what goes onto a cereal box food description, health benefits, weight etc so my box can be as authentic as possible!

Cereal Project - Museum Visit and Ideas

Visiting the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising was really fascinating. I was surprised at how many of the brands were still around today.
I paid a lot of attention to the cereal packaging in particular. The evolution of well known cereals such as cornflakes, Shreddies and Frosties made me very aware of the different types of image and information that are presented to you on a cereal box – I could pick out things that the designers had added, taken away or kept on the box for decades.

I have been brainstorming and playing around with some initial ideas for the cereal project. Looking at packaging and the image that surround most of the popular cereals I have decided that I would like to create something that was part of a lifestyle or trend perhaps. My two main ideas at the moment are

1. A fashion conscious cereal, something that would look good, cool but also have comedic feel to it
2. As breakfast is the most important meal of the day – a cereal that makes the meal into an occasion. A lovely dining experience, but at breakfast possibly the idea that families and/or friends get together at breakfast to spend time together and have a meal.

Cereal Project

I was really excited when we got the brief for the Cereal Box Project as I used to have a bit of an obsession with cereal and it was nearly all I ate when I was younger! I've got a small collection of my favourite boxes that I thought were unusual or not available in the UK.

Postcard Project - Mini Mail Masterpieces

During the first week of the Postcard Project I experimented with posting some unusual formats of post. Midget postcards are a novelty card sized 90mm x 70mm. My own 'Stamp Sized Postcard' failed to make it through the post however I liked the idea of creating something smaller than what is usually expected.

I decided to create my own Mini Mail Masterpieces, making mini canvases with a postcard size and format. I believe the canvases are fun and have a novelty element any image could be printed onto the canvas however I chose to put some of my previous work onto my set of postcards.

Postcard Project

I wanted to try a variety of materials for some initial ideas.

I used papier mache to make a relief of the Tate Modern. My other trial was a beaded mosaic of the Vienna tube line.

Postcard Project

Only got two of my posting experiement postcards back! I want to continue with the idea of unusual postings.

The brief for the Wish You Were Here project is to create a set of 6 postcards.

I've begun by researching and thinking of some topics/ ideas related to the postcard such as:

Materials and texture (linen, wood, card, metallic, glossy embossed, applique....)
Shape (traditional 5x7in, novelty, round, square, 3D, midget...)
Use/ Purpose (advertising, aesthetic, communication)

I've been interested by many of the novelty and non-standard types of postcards so I made some unconventional types of post to see what if any come back to me.

Matchbox Art

Continuing with a surrealist theme the brief for the matchbox project was to create a surreal self portrait within a matchbox.
The matchbox is quite restricted in terms of size but I enjoyed working within it's confines!

Some quick searches on Google returned some amazing examples of matchbox art. With wonderful and weird creations. I thought these matchbox shrines were great.

I had two main ideas for my own matchbox art. The first was to write a mini bio within the bow and the second to create a narnia-like world through a matchbox warbrode with myself as a moon. I chose the second idea to work with.

Typographic Surrealism Project

My finished film

Changes have been made from the film in the previous post. The opening sequence, running through the alley no longer has the count down superimposed over the film. Instead the scene was re shot with actual printed numbers placed in the alley.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jrYSZfBYRM&feature=channel_page

My Film So Far

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luH75XZGKQk

Surrealist Typographic Project

I have been working on my Surrealist Typographic 1 minute film. I begun by researching and playing around with various animation/ film software I found online, however I've settled with using Microsoft Movie Maker.
As I want to create a dream-like disorientating atmosphere I begun by having several story boards which I mixed together to create parts that I thought worked well together.

I've taken my camera to a local church and graveyard to take photos and film clips at night. I also experimented with writing words into steamed up mirrors and onto surfaces outside.

So far I've completed 30sec of my film. To finish I need to edit the last 30sec and play with the audio and lighting effects to give a finished feel to the 1min film.

Surrealist Typography

In class I watched Eraserhead and Helvetica for the first time. Eraserhead was an amazing film full of surrealist and abstract ideas. Despite feeling a little lost by the storyline I enjoyed watching it. I have a real interest in typography and it was inspiring to see the passion people had for the typeface in the Helvetica documentary.

After watching Eraserhead for a second time I concentrated on certain parts I found intriguing. I love the way in which David Lynch put lots of detail into every scene, as a viewer I almost felt part of another person's thoughts.

I have decided to follow the second of the two briefs - to make a 1 minute surrealist typographic film - as I haven't used film in a project before and I thought this would be a good opportunity to have a go.

I'm going to begin the 3 week project by re-watching both of the films, doing further research on typography and movie making software.

HSM Exhibition

Before the end of the last semester Graphic Design level 1 had an exhibition of the HSM project. When everything had been set up the work all looked great and it was a really nice evening!

High School Musical 2 - The Remake

In the end I decided to work with a friend from Graphics to complete the project. We used Sony Vegas Studio to remove the original audio of a section of the film. We then wrote our own script, which we thought was more relevent to teenage life and issues, and put our own voices into the our section of film. We also added background noise soundtrack and text to give the effect of a complete short film.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Igqlikf9zOw

High School Musical 2!!!

I watched High School Musical 2.............................. not my favourite thing, too cheesy and too Americanified. I've decided to work alone for the project.

I personally don't think the film promotes a positive message to its target audience- young girls, but because it Disney its acceptable. So I decided to take its sickly sweet ideas and mix it with another film that is explicitly about sex - American Pie 2

Here are my preliminary ideas....