Thursday 18 February 2010
Tuesday 16 February 2010
Presentation - After
I enjoyed the presentation. There was a deathly silence when we we setting-up and it took a little longer than we'd hoped for but when we got started everything went as well as we had expected. I didn't mess up my speech despite doing so many times during practices, Laura was nice and friendly but was also honest and fair with her opinions on what we had produced. We should have 'broken the ice' and said hello to our audience, shook hands, etc.
She commented on the packaging saying she really liked the book idea; the dust jacket, bookmark ribbon and the image in the middle and she really liked our logo but she thought the pages with the song lyrics on we too whimsical for her - too fairy tale. she said she wanted it darker. I was quite annoyed at the Hive guy whose first words were in response to this saying they were 'cliched'. He then went on to talk about the Radiohead album Kid A saying we should have looked at that for a book idea and I explained we had looked at the Amnesiac album with its book style.
Ian Mitchell commented on our decision on the layout of the lyrics pages. He thought it felt forced and wasn't too keen on our intentions. For me the lyric pages were an experimentation after briefly looking at and being inspired by Vaughan Oliver's works. Ian was fair and made some really good points that I've taken on board. He also didn't like the chosen font Edwardian Script. This was interesting as we had feedback from other tutors and they liked the choice (I think they may have actually had a hand in the choice). I didn't want to start pointing fingers of complaining as it was ultimately our decision to use the font and I know that the tutors have very different opinions of such things. I recall in first year Ian really liked something I had done for a project but than another tutor came along and said they didn't like it at all. As I value the opinions and input from both tutors I am trying to find and develop a style that perhaps will touch on some middle ground.
Mike asked us questions about the decision not to make packaging for a vinyl. I told him that we thought a vinyl was 'too big' to which he gave me the answer a 'little voice' which I couldn't have said better myself! I had to think on the spot at this point as I too did want vinyl as our format but it was overall voted against within the group. I do recall tutors telling us that we needed to be realistic in our ideas and approach and not go too OTT with the packaging as in the real world an album like Laura Grove's wouldn't have massive expense spent on the packaging (unless they did some limited editions?) With our packaging I think it would be reasonable cost to reproduce.
There were 2 comments made by the Hive guy, Laura and also the tutors that stuck in my mind and still bug me now. They wanted to see it as a vinyl and for our book to be more bookish. I also wanted these two things. But unfortunately I wasn't able to sell this idea to the whole group which is a real shame. I do recall there were times where members of the group wanted our packaging to be less bookish and there was a point where the dust jacket was almost thrown out. Thankfully, this didn't happen.
Unfortunately, the lyrics pages did take a beating and this is down to me. For me, it was an experiment and trying something I wouldn't usually do but ultimately it was, I'd say 100%, successful.
She commented on the packaging saying she really liked the book idea; the dust jacket, bookmark ribbon and the image in the middle and she really liked our logo but she thought the pages with the song lyrics on we too whimsical for her - too fairy tale. she said she wanted it darker. I was quite annoyed at the Hive guy whose first words were in response to this saying they were 'cliched'. He then went on to talk about the Radiohead album Kid A saying we should have looked at that for a book idea and I explained we had looked at the Amnesiac album with its book style.
Ian Mitchell commented on our decision on the layout of the lyrics pages. He thought it felt forced and wasn't too keen on our intentions. For me the lyric pages were an experimentation after briefly looking at and being inspired by Vaughan Oliver's works. Ian was fair and made some really good points that I've taken on board. He also didn't like the chosen font Edwardian Script. This was interesting as we had feedback from other tutors and they liked the choice (I think they may have actually had a hand in the choice). I didn't want to start pointing fingers of complaining as it was ultimately our decision to use the font and I know that the tutors have very different opinions of such things. I recall in first year Ian really liked something I had done for a project but than another tutor came along and said they didn't like it at all. As I value the opinions and input from both tutors I am trying to find and develop a style that perhaps will touch on some middle ground.
Mike asked us questions about the decision not to make packaging for a vinyl. I told him that we thought a vinyl was 'too big' to which he gave me the answer a 'little voice' which I couldn't have said better myself! I had to think on the spot at this point as I too did want vinyl as our format but it was overall voted against within the group. I do recall tutors telling us that we needed to be realistic in our ideas and approach and not go too OTT with the packaging as in the real world an album like Laura Grove's wouldn't have massive expense spent on the packaging (unless they did some limited editions?) With our packaging I think it would be reasonable cost to reproduce.
There were 2 comments made by the Hive guy, Laura and also the tutors that stuck in my mind and still bug me now. They wanted to see it as a vinyl and for our book to be more bookish. I also wanted these two things. But unfortunately I wasn't able to sell this idea to the whole group which is a real shame. I do recall there were times where members of the group wanted our packaging to be less bookish and there was a point where the dust jacket was almost thrown out. Thankfully, this didn't happen.
Unfortunately, the lyrics pages did take a beating and this is down to me. For me, it was an experiment and trying something I wouldn't usually do but ultimately it was, I'd say 100%, successful.
Presentation - Before
Before
Today Jade and I rehearsed. I wasn't particularly nervous at this point but I knew I would be when I was in the room with the tutors and clients. I had re-written my speech since earlier that morning so I was very rusty and I kept messing up the middle part.
At this point I began reflecting on the project as a whole. I enjoy thinking about the journey, the ups and the downs and how differently our initial ideas were to our final product. I was confident is what we had produced but it was only Tuesday where I had almost given up hope!
I thing I did notice was that all the other group had a large amount of work to show Laura Groves and we only had our CD package and website. In saying that, there is a lot of depth subtleties in ours and it wasn't all instantly noticeable but we'd have the opportunity to explain and show this during our presentation and the Q&A.
Today Jade and I rehearsed. I wasn't particularly nervous at this point but I knew I would be when I was in the room with the tutors and clients. I had re-written my speech since earlier that morning so I was very rusty and I kept messing up the middle part.
At this point I began reflecting on the project as a whole. I enjoy thinking about the journey, the ups and the downs and how differently our initial ideas were to our final product. I was confident is what we had produced but it was only Tuesday where I had almost given up hope!
I thing I did notice was that all the other group had a large amount of work to show Laura Groves and we only had our CD package and website. In saying that, there is a lot of depth subtleties in ours and it wasn't all instantly noticeable but we'd have the opportunity to explain and show this during our presentation and the Q&A.
Late Night in the Library
The uni closed at 9pm and we all went home but then met up again at t10pm in the library. We still had to photograph the booklet, create a slideshow and write our presentations.
I got the projection working and we were able to put our slideshow on the big screen. At this point it was only Jade that was speaking. Eventually I said that I wanted to speak also. I said this because Jade had quite a lot to say and I wasn't actually doing anything and what Lauren and Sarah was quite minimal - Lauren the slideshow and Sarah was simply handing the CD out.
Here an interesting revelation arose. Lauren didn't want me to speak because I was male. And Laura Groves was female. There was also a comment that all of the other groups would have male speakers so it would be nice to have a female in our group speaking. I said that this was quite a sexist comment and it was then commented that all girls knew it was sexist but no-one really cared. I was astonished. I'm not too bothered about sexism as I know it exists even though people say they aren't. It was the hypocrisy. If it had been 3 guys and 1 girl I can imagine there would be hell to pay. Also that the decision had been made when I was out of the room. After heated discussion it was decided that I could speak although no doubt this was simply to keep me happy.
From here I constantly made little jokes and stabs about the sexist attitudes in the group but I couldn't help myself.
We stayed at the library until 2am. We had the slideshow complete but our presentation still needed polishing. We decided to call it a night and we were going to meet up at 1oam that morning and continue rehearsing the speech.
I got the projection working and we were able to put our slideshow on the big screen. At this point it was only Jade that was speaking. Eventually I said that I wanted to speak also. I said this because Jade had quite a lot to say and I wasn't actually doing anything and what Lauren and Sarah was quite minimal - Lauren the slideshow and Sarah was simply handing the CD out.
Here an interesting revelation arose. Lauren didn't want me to speak because I was male. And Laura Groves was female. There was also a comment that all of the other groups would have male speakers so it would be nice to have a female in our group speaking. I said that this was quite a sexist comment and it was then commented that all girls knew it was sexist but no-one really cared. I was astonished. I'm not too bothered about sexism as I know it exists even though people say they aren't. It was the hypocrisy. If it had been 3 guys and 1 girl I can imagine there would be hell to pay. Also that the decision had been made when I was out of the room. After heated discussion it was decided that I could speak although no doubt this was simply to keep me happy.
From here I constantly made little jokes and stabs about the sexist attitudes in the group but I couldn't help myself.
We stayed at the library until 2am. We had the slideshow complete but our presentation still needed polishing. We decided to call it a night and we were going to meet up at 1oam that morning and continue rehearsing the speech.
Monday 8th - Wednesday 10th
Monday - Interviews were taking place today s we set up shop in Studio 4. We had all of our designs (except the dust jacket) completed and this week it was a case of making it and putting it all together. Lauren and I went to town to get our paper/card, etc whilst Jade stayed at uni to complete the website and Sarah stayed to work on the postcards.Lauren explained that she had to go to London tomorrow (Tuesday) for Professional Collaboration so she made two card wallets before she went.
We bought the paper, card and some blue ribbon although we weren't too sure if we wanted white of champagne. In the end we bought both but we did really struggle with what to do for the dust jacket. The original paper we wanted that was textured we could only get in A4 and would be too small to fit right around the CD. At one point Lauren suggested we forget the idea but I was insistant and this was the one thing that I refused to budge on. Realizing we couldn't get what we were after for the dust jacket we decided that the dust jacket should just be white or champagne.
On our paper hunt we also came across a florist that was selling Blue Roses and I bought one.
Tuesday - Today I had booked an appointment to use the laser cutter. We had played with the idea to have the logo embossed on the card wallet that would be hidden under the dust jacket.
I got the logo on wood but I decided that because it was so small and fine and that I'd have to make another CD wallet I wouldn't use the emboss idea. I was becoming very frustrated at this point as I still hadn't printed the inner booklet for the CD and I wasn't happy with the dust jacket just being white. I thought it defiently needed something more. Also, the CD had come from the dusty scene in our main image therefore the jacket should look at least though it was dusty.
I couldn't sleep the night before as dust jacket problem was on my mind so I was very tired and aggitated. I tried many ideas and none of which were working. I scanned in the wooden logo I had lasered covered in dust and it look quite awful.
I gave up on this in the evening. I was really worried about the way things were looking at this point. Jade had gone for a collaboration meeting and it was just Sarah and I left. I had finally printed the booklet and so I sat in the studio trying to stitch it all together. Because of my frustration I found it very difficult to stitch. It took me much longer than I expected after much cursing and hopelessness I finally got both booklets stitch and attached to the CD wallets.By this time I went home and had my tea. I still wanted to get this dust jacket completed so I quickly came up with an idea where I simply lightly sprinkled the fake dust onto some paper and scanned it in and this time is actually looked good. Not too murky or overdone. I then went to the library and stayed until I had completed the dust jackets and bone folded them and fitted them to the CD wallets. I left the library just after midnight but I was very happy and relieved.
Wednesday - We all met up and I showed the group the CD wallets. They liked what I had done overall but Lauren wanted to change/add a thing or two - a border on the dust jacket cover, changes to the blue ribbon bookmark, etc.
At this point, the website was cmplete and all we had to do was the postcards, the CD sticker design and script & reherse our presentation. I knew we had a lot to do but I knew we could do it in time tomorrow if we all worked at it hard all day. One thing I was concerned about was that the postcards still weren't complete. I did get annoyed at this but I understood that Sarah wasn't too familiar with Photoshop so editing and printing was quite a challenge for her.
We spent most of the day designing the CD sticker and then I went to Hobs to get it printed onto a CD sticker. I thought thus would be simple enough but in the end it took Hobs 2 hours to do. They couldn't get the design to match the circular shape and I had to put the designs into Illustrator and then into InDesign and then eventually we had something that although wasn't perfect it was close enough.
I got back to uni with the CD stickers and the card for Sarah to print the postcards on. When she showed us the finished postcards we all noticed that some things still were not right. So we had to spend another hour correcting the postcards. Although it wasn't any one person's fault I just couldn't believe that it had taken 3 days to make 3 postcards.
Thursday 4 February 2010
Thursday 4th February
John brought in his Vaughan Oliver book and I was really inspired by his work. I loved the way he combined many different elements and fonts into his designs. If you tried to explain this style to another design person they would probably think it would turn out to be a mess but with Vaughan's work is somehow works!!
I read this book with our lyric pages in mind as I am usually reserved when it comes to choosing fonts and layouts. The book showed me more adventurous and fun ways of laying out text that wasn't falling into Neville Brody/ David Carson territory which I was very afraid of doing. I don't want to mess around with text/layout just for the sake of doing it and the same time I didn't want some boring page full of text that wouldn't really entice anyone to read what was written.
I have listened to Blue Roses music but I cannot remember the beat or rhythm each song so I based my experimentation with the text what I read on the page. I emphasised certain words/lines, etc and generally just tried to make the page look a little more interesting also having a different font for the title of the track and a different font for the body text.
The team were pleased with the lyric pages and agreed that it was much better than our original boring pages.
Jade and Lauren worked really hard on our logo. It was quite frustrating for me as I thought it was taking a long time but I know that is just down to my impatience. I was unfair in my getting annoyed. I didn't attempt to do a logo myself but this was because I wanted to concentrate on the lyric pages and I didn't see the point in all of us doing different logos. I tried to help Jade but I wasn't much use.
After returning from the Mac suite I saw the logo and I thought it was great! I couldn't believe how great it looked especially as earlier I was getting fed up with the whole thing. The only thing I wasn't keen on was the Helvetica font used and this was purely down to the fact that I have learnt of it corporate logo history in America. I suggest (and insisted) upon Gill Sans instead. It is different enough without being too different but I felt it also had more suitable connotations the obvious one being the Britishness of it! The band it British and have this retro-britishness about them so I thought it was perfect. Apparently Mike preferred Helvectica because he liked the look of it's 'R'. I recalled Mike commented on the letter R in the font he chose for his Bellini poster so I think he chose Helvetica purely on this basis.
I really liked the constrast between the decorative pattern and the sans serif font (which I hear one or two other students didn't but I was glad of this!)
Despite what I just said about the constrast of decorative and sans serif I did a quick variant on the logo (which we're not going to use).
Wednesday 3 February 2010
Wednesday 3rd January
After the photo-shoot yesterday I was positive about the direction we were taking with the album. I loved the idea that we had completely stripped down our original idea (which for me is usually the way it goes!) We had new images with more focused ideas. We had close-up shots of the dusty objects for our 'postcard' or 'collector's card' idea BUT we didn't have a good enough picture of the whole scene that we feature in our center pictures. This was mainly because I had only just convinced the whole team about the 'clean-spot' idea in the dust.
We met up today and caught up with sketchbook work and then put all of our focus and attention on the logo for the band and the fonts we were going to use in the booklet and whatever else we get to create for the band. It was very slow going and Lauren became frustrated. We toyed around with the idea about having decorative/ornamental type and spoke to Jon Spencer about this and got some info on the history, etc.
After speaking to John Young about fonts and him showing us examples of Vaughan Oliver's work with music albums and his unique style of typesetting the lyrics in the booklet we we're confident and more motivated to try out different styles of fonts, combining different fonts, having small decorative symbols on the pages, etc.
John said he would bring in his Vaughan Oliver books in tomorrow to show us good examples that we could possibly use. I am looking forward to just seeing the books for myself. I am considering buying them for myself as I am a fan of his album artwork and in college tutor's had recommended I look at his work as I worked in (I assume) a similar fashion.
We met up today and caught up with sketchbook work and then put all of our focus and attention on the logo for the band and the fonts we were going to use in the booklet and whatever else we get to create for the band. It was very slow going and Lauren became frustrated. We toyed around with the idea about having decorative/ornamental type and spoke to Jon Spencer about this and got some info on the history, etc.
After speaking to John Young about fonts and him showing us examples of Vaughan Oliver's work with music albums and his unique style of typesetting the lyrics in the booklet we we're confident and more motivated to try out different styles of fonts, combining different fonts, having small decorative symbols on the pages, etc.
John said he would bring in his Vaughan Oliver books in tomorrow to show us good examples that we could possibly use. I am looking forward to just seeing the books for myself. I am considering buying them for myself as I am a fan of his album artwork and in college tutor's had recommended I look at his work as I worked in (I assume) a similar fashion.
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