Road to nowhere - a celebration of 'Road Movie'

I decided to look into the three film genres in more detail and found particular interest in the Road Movie option;

'A road movie is a film genre in which the film's plot focuses around a road trip. A kind of bildungsroman, a story in which the hero changes, grows or improves over the course of the story.'

Wikipedia

I thought there could be several different ways of expressing this idea of a journey and growth visually.

Concept 1 - light/movement

An obvious place to start my research is 'traveling' and 'movement'. I travel down to Leicester most weekends and brainstorm my ideas while driving. I've often tried to take reference of things I have seen while driving to add to my 'Professional Studies' module. Only last weekend I made a note of the movement of the shadows caused by my headlights when maneuvering.

Concept 2 - life is a journey

When I first read the brief I had an idea of an impact image lead poster. I thought using the audience as the 'star' in the film. By showing a weathered face that suggested the subject had been on a journey themselves. Although this idea doesn't really fit the target audience of the poster,18-28 year olds, but I still think it could be worth pursuing. 

Possibly by having two images overlapping, like a hologram. At first glance the figure may appear young but then as the audience moves the picture changes and the figure ages.

Graphic Projects - The Brief

Today we received the brief for our new module, 'Graphic Projects'. The aim is to produce an A2 poster design to advertise an event.

The Event - A new film festival created by the UK Film Council and Sponsored by FilmFour is designed to attract and celebrate filmmakers working on independent productions and offer them a platform to screen their work.

We are required to select a genre from the list below;

• Road to nowhere - a celebration of the Road Movie
• Cinema from the edge - a celebration of Art House Cinema
• Noir - a celebration of Film Noir

The Audience - The UK Film Council and FilmFour's primary aim is to develop the audience of the independent films. To attract a young and sustainable audience. 18-28 year olds who perhaps already have an interest in film, fashion, music, trends etc

Film Club - Neo Noir

A few weeks ago we were told that the movies we are going to be watching from now on in Film Club will relate to our next module, Graphic Projects.

Today we watched Sin City, a Neo-Noir based on Frank Miller's graphic novel series. I actually have one of the novels on my bookshelf. I really like how the director (Robert Rodriguez), and Miller himself used the novels as the films storyboard.

There are several scenes that match very closely to the origional. A similar approach was used in the making of Watchmen (2009). An adaption of a graphic novel created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

Before the movie started, our tutor again spoke about the idea of film neo-noire and implied that the theme will heavily influence our Graphic Projects work. I can't wait now to get the brief and get going.

A Career Case Study on Peter Saville

Below is a copy of my notes and the slides used in the presentation. I tried to show a general overview of Saville's work, while focussing on what inspires him and his influences. One of main reasons for choosing Saville was his theories on design; why create, who for and what is its purpose?

I felt the choice of designer applied really well to the brief as we had to investigate a designer who could influence our career direction. Some of the ideas Saville talked about in various interviews really affected me and made me think about my own designs and my own design education.

Some of the interviews I found very interesting can be seen here;

Peter Saville Q&A: What inspires you?

They are taken from the D&AD President's Lecture - 12 March 2009

Case Study - Presentation

Today I had my presentation on Peter Saville, for the professional studies module. I think it went really well and was pleased with the reactions from my tutor. He praised my research and said it was obvious I had worked hard on the order and content of the presentation.

He did however mention the way in which it was presented. The brief stated we should create a PDF in InDesign. As Saville became known originally for his album covers at Factory Records, I thought it would be nice to present my slides as album covers.

I thought it showed his work in a unique way but its downfall was that the carousel couldn't be viewed at full screen.

Case Study - Research

This term we have been researching and gathering information on a designer of our choice. The designer has to be of relevance to me and my potential career direction.

I originally started looking into Pixar and John Lasseter as I thought his work ethic was amazing and he really loves what he does. Some of the work he and the designers at Pixar have created really makes people feel and affects their emotions.

During a lesson with our Tutor we were shown work from last year and I realised John Lasseter wasn't 'Graphic Design' enough. He didn't really apply to the work we were creating on the course. 

Next I looked a Jamie Hewlett, the artist behind the identity of the band Gorillaz. I've liked his style for a while and particularly liked how his traveling and research had had an impact on his work. Again he didn't really apply to the course and my 'career direction'.

During the history module, we looked at the work of Abram Games. A designer who created propaganda posters during the war. I was inspired by his work and the meanings behind his pieces.

I thought it would be interesting to look at designers who use their designs to get across messages and influence others. I ended up going back to my Top 40 research and looked at lists of top 10 graphic designers. The same names kept appearing: David Carson, Neville Brody and Peter Saville. 

After reading an interview with Peter Saville I became very interested in his theories on design and design education. 

UKFSEG - Branding

Along with the logo we had to create a web banner and poster that portrayed this message of education and forensics. Both had to contain specific copy and the logo. I originally created the web banner below using this idea of education as growth and progression. It related back to the idea of a student adding to a collection of books as they progress through a university course.

The web banner was created in Flash and used a 24 frame per second frame rate. It was my first time using flash but I enjoyed using it can see it becoming very useful in the future.

Next was the poster, I wanted have a similar brand through out the two pieces but it was very difficult to create a poster based on the colour schemes and background used in the web banner. I ended up creating the image above the night before the hand in. It came from an idea of DNA as building blocks. I was trying to create a visual expression of a 'forensic profile'.

If I had time I think I would go back and try to work this poster idea into my story board. Possibly having the building blocks/DNA pieces moving and forming a profile and then light from the left creating the shadow.

Client Reaction

Yesterday our logos were put forward to UKFSEG. They chose mine, along with 3 others that they thought were worth pursuing. We have now been given a bit of feedback from the clients via the tutors.

They mentioned that the company don't like using their full name and wondered if I could work the initials into the logo.

When I first submitted the logo, my only worry was that they would think it looked too much like a barcode. But in actual fact I was told that barcodes are used everyday in forensic crime scenes on evidence bags.

I felt a lot happier with my logo after the talks today and can't wait to start working with the group.

Finished Logo

After a break from blogging over the holiday I realised my final logo design is very different to the previous posts.

Just before we broke up, I received a new brief, this time we were to use the logo on a poster and web banner. These banners/posters came with a new 'message' to portray. Again UKFSEG wanted to get across this idea of Education in Forensics.

My preferred logo at the time didn't really fit with this new message so I decided to go back to the drawing board and came up with this:

The way I described it in the pitch was that a student adds to a collection of books as they progress through a university course. Their bookshelf now describes the type of person they are, it shows what they are studying and it forms a profile rather like DNA profiles used in forensic science today.