Indesign Interactive PDF Booklet

In this workshop we had to attempt to recreate one of the album covers we were given, i chose this one as i like the bold look and i thought it would be fairly quick to recreate. We learnt how to use colour swatches which was really helpful and we then had to make our documents interactive using the buttons and forms tab.

Seminar; The Hollywood Formula

This lecture was about the Hollywood Formula created by Marten Jonmark. 

The idea of this formula is that you need to have structure in order for your 'story' to work. 

beginning - set the story, character and setting; needs to set the scene and hook the audience

middle - action, confrontation and central theme

end - conclusion/resolution; needs to leave audience feeling satisfied

Lecture: Narrative

'A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle and an end.'  
-Aristotle

• utilisation of narrative design
• Freytags pyramid: setup, confrontation, resolution (structure)
• exposition
• narrative: description of story

designers: illustrate/demonstrate solution to a problem

story based messaging

• appeal to an emotional need
• connect
• tune message to audience

'The audience does not need to tune themselves to you - you need to tune your message to them.'
- Nancy Duarte

Toms: giving company - one for one

• imagery
• tone of voice

Massimo Vignelli - Graphic Designer

-only used 4 typefaces in his life

Workshop: AFX Character Animation

Character Animation from Jennie Chinn on Vimeo.

Seminar: Style

style: a distinctive appearance, typically determined by the principles according to which something is designed. i.e. how you work

Dr Cornel West - his style is a fusion of many other styles
-hard to define style

Henry Miller - style for Miller is a fluid motion

'style is the mirror of an artist's sensibility - more so than the content of his work'
-Truman Capote 

style or content (completely separate)
-you can never act outside a style

Marcel Breuer (chair design) 1920
believed in 'purposeful construction of logical designed objects'
'styleless' 'logical problem solving'
he designs by redaction (removing all 'fluff')
manifestation and consideration of significances, rather than problem solving

antipathy - strong dislike

there can be no acting outside of style
for example; style is a container with things in them.
philosophical enquiry
-talking concepts and using them to drive enquiries
styles work on intensities - fade in and out
fusions and mutations.

Lecture: Perception & Illusion

This lecture was all about how we see things and also how we interpret these things.

perception: meaning to us as individuals; how we interpret

how we see:

• visual stimulation
• cone cells; retina
• rod cells; peripheral vision
  this is our subconscious vision and our eye sees this in black and white, our eye exaggerates these movements to warn us of possible danger 

illusion: misinterpreted perception

we looked at lots of optical illusions during the lecture to show how people see things differently.

Physical Process; Object Drawing

This weeks workshop was still life drawing of a variety of objects arranged in the centre of the tables.The first table i was at had a collection of bottles and tubes on it which i quite liked drawing although it took me a while to get started.

The second table i went to had big 3D letters in different sizes, i decided to try using tonal markers for this to try and show depth. This was my first time using these markers so i wasn't sure how it would turn out but i was quite pleased with the outcome.

The final table had a collection of cardboard boxes and similar bits and pieces, as there was a lot of colour i decided to take this opportunity to try using the coloured markers as i'm not very good at using them. I concentrated on one box and looked at the grass drawing on the side of it.

Seminar; Abstracts and Intros

In this seminar we were split in to groups and were given the task of writing a sentence based on a 20 second clip of the film. The point was to produce an abstract; these need to be concise, exact and open strong. For example 'Mother died today.'

Seminar: Meaning and Messages

During this seminar we looked at information graphics and ways of displaying information in a visual way. We were shown examples of this and then we had a go at creating something similar ourselves.

I chose to present my family in order of how close I am to each of them and how this has changed over my lifetime. 

Lecture: Message and Meaning

 

“The difference between poetry and practical messages is that the latter are successful only when we correctly infer the intention.”
-Michael Rock

communications are only successful when your audience react in a certain way.

Message - a short communication
Meaning - what the source or sender expresses. what the receiver infers from the current context.

Sender: (encoder, designer)

• translate information in to symbols that represent ideas or concepts.
• to improve; mentally visualise the communication from the receivers point of view
• is the message urgent? is immediate feedback needed? is documentation required? inside or outside?  =  choose an effective channel

Channel: (medium of transmission)

• each medium has its own strengths dependent on situational effectiveness 

'are we sleepwalking through our waking state or wake-walking through our dreams.'-waking life

Kurzgesagt; German company that produce information films

Receiver: (decoder)

Conclusion:

• without feedback the sender cannot confirm that the receiver has interpreted the message correctly.

Workshop: InDesign 2

In this week's workshop we learnt new skills in InDesign such as manipulating text as seen below and we also used photoshop and illustrator to manipulate images ready to use in InDesign. For example in the screenshot below you can see where I have manipulated the text on the left hand page and on the right hand page I have changed the image to a bitmat file on Photoshop and then edited the colour of the image on InDesign.

I found this workshop quite difficult to keep up with as InDesign is still new software for me however I learnt quite a lot of new skills and feel more confident using it now.

Seminar: Expanded Genealogy

future genealogy - reverse family tree

Michel Foucault (french philosopher) popularised the genealogical method.

method - a way of doing something

methodology - the knowledge of doing something

genealogists examine the pre-conceived and question the phenomenon that 'we tend to feel is without history'

-looking at something that has already been thought of before

without history: things we don't think about e.g. internet (for this generation), goodness, colour, sexuality

Nietzsche beyond good and evil (1886)
-pre-conceived notions/eternal truths

genealogies are subjective

genealogy claims there is no eternal truth (no fabrication) 

-you can never have a full perspective

'purpose of history, guided by genealogy is not to discover the roots of our identity, but to commit itself to its dissipation'
-Foucault

root-eternal truth

'philosophers do not search for eternal truth'
-Zizek

use everything you have access to

writing the essay 
every film starts with an establishing shot
-what the characters are doing, where they are e.g Simpsons in their home

1. establish parameters of research: where you are, what's the 'tone' etc.
2. contingencies/conditions of the space: setting the scene
3. what has occurred? what's the concept
4. analyse this new fabrication: what does it mean

'a paranoid man is someone who knows a little of what's going on'
-William Burroughs

Lecture: Influence & Behaviour

Influence: the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behaviour of someone or something.
Behaviour: the way in which a person behaves in response to a particular situation or stimulus.

Designers need to understand the context and thoughts of their audiences in order to illustrate a problem and then relate this problem to their solution.

Many things affect out ability to make decisions; e.g.

• personal
• political
• psychological
• informational 
• social
• cultural

manipulation, propaganda..

'The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country...we are governed, our minds are moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organised. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.'
-Edward Bernays 'the father of public relations'          

             

Touchpoint: any encounter where customers and business engage to exchange information, provide service, or handle transactions.

Manipulation and deception shouldn't be the intention when designing a campaign message or story but you must consider who you are designing for an how they might interpret it.

Workshop: AFX

Motion Graphics from Jennie Chinn on Vimeo.
This was our second workshop on After Effects in which we were shown how to put together our chosen music clip and the different images we had previously created using Photoshop, and make a short animation clip which we then uploaded to Vimeo. I think the most effective part of the clip is the second series of images. I originally intended this part of the clip to look like the neon face-paint many people wear at festivals however I think given the effect I have used, it works more effectively as flashing lights. Overall, I found this task quite challenging as I have never used this software before or created any sort of motion graphics before but I thought for a first attempt it went fairly well. If I was to make another one, I would add more images to it to make the final clip look more slick and professional.

Culture and Representation

This lecture was about different cultures and what represents them, we looked at various examples such as culture club and bits of Yinka Shonibare's work. 
Culture is about shared meanings and representation is the way we make sense of and share meanings.

'We use the word culture in these two senses: to mean a whole way of life – the common meanings; to mean the arts and learning – the special processes of discovery and creative effort. Some writers reserve the word for one or other of these senses; I insist on both, and on the significance of their conjunction...Culture is ordinary, in every society and in every mind.'

Raymond Williams

culture club

Lecture: Typography

'font is what you use, and typeface is what you see.'

-Norbert Florendo 

Johannes Gutenberg

Adolphe Cassandre - posters

Jasper Johns - painter influenced by the pop art movement

Marinetti

Neville Brody (ad for Nike)

Dan Friedman

bornmagazine.org

Physical Process; Interior Drawing

Our task this week was to do some sketches of the interior of the Creative Arts building. I found parts of this quite difficult as it was hard to get the perspective right in the drawing. To help with this, I first took a photo of the area I wanted to draw as sometimes I find it can be easier to draw from a photograph than from a primary source. After doing a rough sketch, I scanned the drawing in to my computer and tried editing it on photoshop to add colour.

Seminar: Urbanized

We watched the film Urbanized which is a documentary about the design of cities by Gary Hustwit. 

I enjoyed the film as it looked at the reality of redesigning a city and the problems and challenges that can occur. For example Stuttgart 21 was featured; this was a railway and urban development project which planned to destroy a popular woodland area in order to build an underground train station. Many local people were unhappy about the proposed plans and therefore protested against the demolition. The film also included parts on the design and construction of modern buildings in big cities such as Brasília which I found particularly interesting to look at.

Seminar: Convergence

Convergence means to forcibly bend together.

During this seminar, we reflected on Mondays lecture which was on the same topic. 

To help us further understand the meaning of this word in a graphical context, we looked at William Burroughs cut up method.

We were given newspapers which we had to cut up and collage back together in whichever way we wanted. I only had one double sheet of newspaper to play with therefore I wasn't able to be too imaginative with my collage, however I enjoyed this exercise as it was something different and it gave us the opportunity to further understand convergence.

              

Lecture: Convergence

'Convergence is doing journalism and telling stories in the most appropriate medium.'

-Quinn 2006  

Convergence example; Disney.
-like their own economy as they have dvds, books, costumes etc.

Studio: Sense of Place

The theme for this week was Material/Form/Sound.

I concentrated more on Sound as I wanted to develop my ideas from the previous week in which I looked at people and conversations. 

I looked at designer Matt Booth because one of the projects he has done focuses on the visualisation of sound data which I thought looks very aesthetically pleasing and fits in well with the concept of sound and conversations within a place.

Workshop: CC Process

During this workshop we were taught the basics on how to use InDesign. I thought this was particularly helpful as I have never used this software before, I have only ever used Photoshop. 

Our task was to try and recreate some posters by Joseff Muller-Brockmann. I found this quite difficult, however I think my attempts at the various posters were fairly successful considering this was my first time experimenting with this program.

Lecture: Histories of Animation and Graphic Design

'white space is to be regarded as an active element, not a passive background.'

In this lecture we looked at a huge variety of different designers from different movements. For example; Theo Van Doesburg, Kurt Schwitters - Dadaism 1922
Wes Wilson - Psychodemia movement  1966-68

Jamie Reid - Punk movement 1976

Studio:Sense of Place

This weeks theme was people/movement/navigation.

This work is some portrait typography by Juan Osborne who is a Spanish architect and designer. I found his work and thought it could be a good way to include the conversations people have as well as just their appearance.

Because of this, I then went in to town to collect photographs and voice recordings of people going about their daily lives. 

     

Workshop: AFX Process

For this workshop, our task was to begin working on a motion graphics video clip which we would then upload on to our newly created Vimeo accounts. This clip would consist of a series of 10-20 images we would create ourselves using Photoshop in order to make a short 10 second long clip based on a book or music event of our choice. We also had to choose a short clip of music which would fit in with our clip.
I chose to do mine on Creamfields Festival as I have been to a few festivals before and this was my favourite.

Here are some of the images I created;

   

Seminar: Approaches to Research

In this seminar, we played 20Q.
The point of this was that you can't just guess at things, you need a response and context.

• being open to change
• parallax
• call and response

Seminar: Ideas/Theories

During this seminar we were asked to create an illustration of what we think our creative process is like. I tend to procrastinate a lot and end up leaving things to the last minute, however I work well under pressure even though this can be quite stressful. 

Lecture: How to Have an Idea

'An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.' 

-Oscar Wilde

 novelty is not always something new.

creativity: 'the capacity for creative thought is the rule rather than the exception in human cognitive functioning.'

-Thomas Ward (psychologist) 

• preparation
• incubation
• illumination
• verification

organising information:

• location
• alphabetical
• time
• category
• hierarchy 

consumerism: ideology, desire, advertising, social control

Studio: Sense of Place

The theme for this week was grids/frames/macro/micro. 

      

I went in to town and took photos of any kind of grids I could think of; this included the pavement slabs, tiles on the floor and drains.

I also found a selection of artists and designers who look at these sorts of things such as Piet Mondrian, Ben Heine and Lauren Wargo who looks at maps.

Physical Process; Location Drawing

During this workshop we went out in to town and were required to do sketches from 3 different locations; Market and Piazza, Gothic Quarter and New Street shopping area. 

I tried using a variety of media, including markers which I've never used before.