Kirsten Lepore

When looking up certain show reels and agencies I have come across the American animator Kirsten Lepore after seeing some of her work when I visited Banksy's Dismaland earlier last year. The pieces she produces are all intricate and mostly containing stop motion or physically drawn animation. She has recently been well known for the first ever stop motion film version of 'Adventuretime' and prides herself on her adaptive nature when it comes to creating props and scenes for animation.
She is very much to me an animator of inspiration with her physical elements that she looks into and constantly collects through the aspects of her work developments. Her style is pretty varied but always falls back on her physical creativity which is also a skill I base my work ethic on to begin with, with the development and creation of my ideas.
The first work I came across of the animator was her work named 'Bottle' in which was a stop motion of a character made of a variety of materials travelling around a beach etc. The piece was played on loop as a film in the Dismaland cinema that I visited when the attraction was open.


The things that I liked about the piece was the intricacies of the stop motion involved and the fact that there is a build up of emotion between the characters despite the fact that they don't possess any facial features that represent certain emotions for this. I have researched into this further and found the Making Of for this stop motion also quite quirky and interesting to see how she developed the animation as a whole.

Oscar Wilde's The Nightingale & The Rose Animation

I've come across this film produced by Aquarius Films, a film company based in Australia. This piece is a collaboration of the children's story 'The Nightingale & The Rose' by Oscar Wilde. It explores the spoken text beautiful with delicate links to the work. It reminds me of the style I wanted to capture with the RAF animation for the Connections brief. The style of the animation is something that I really like, the way in which it is colourful and withholds certain characteristics, and quite illustrative is something I really like. I watched the whole film on the plane to New York and it was so

inspirational, definitely a well thought out visual piece. Alike my RAF project, the narrative of the written story very much predicts the overall images that is shown on screen, which is a nice way of making these things synchronise together as a collaborative piece. Artist Del Kathryn Barton collaborated with animators and the producers of Aquarius to produce the piece and I really like how her style of her usual illustrations is captured in this piece. I like how our Discussion Forums on Style have been linked to this, as despite being given a brief to produce an animation for the story, the illustrator has been able to keep her original style.

Portfolio Crits

For the collection of critical feedback for my work, I have contacted various artists, designers and agencies to ask for some feedback in regards to my work. As an introduction to my work via e-mail, I have sent a link to my Vimeo page in which I currently have a couple of pieces of work to show. I have uploaded my 'Feel Good Drinks' Animation as well as my 'RAF War Story' composition as a nice variety of a couple of my pieces. These I shall get feedback for via email. However, for the face to face visit, I shall actually bring my sketchbooks and other forms of support work to show how I present my idea generation and my work ethic to the designers who view my work, therefore these will be two very different ways of having my work critiqued.
RAF Narrative Story from Hannah Langfield on Vimeo.
I think that this will be a valuable experience for me as it allows me to delve into what professionals find positive in my work, and how to develop the work to more of a professional standard in order to help my personal development as a Motion Designer.

Feel Good Drinks from Hannah Langfield on Vimeo.

Feedback Over Email

Design Bridge Agency, London 

John Sherwood - Graphic Designer

(www.designbridge.com)

"We combine a healthy dose of intuition with intelligence to bring brands to life through great ideas that reach out and connect with people." (quoted from their site)

I have contacted a Graphic Designer from design agency 'Design Bridge' as I felt that the aspect of branding and marketing is something that I creatively like to reach out to in my work, and something I briefly touched on in the sense of the 'Feel Good Drinks' brief in which branding and marketing was involved.

Design Bridge Work for Guinness Rebranding

Design Bridge describes itself as an independent brand design agency, who have worked with big brands such as Cadbury's Chocolate, Dulux, Walkers and Guinness.
 I like the aspect of the variety of collaborating designers in this agency in order to work together and rebrand the product in a way that the client wishes it to appear.
John Sherwood, the designer I have contacted and received feedback from, is a Graphic Designer within the agency, and despite him not being in the field of Motion Design himself, he has collaborated and worked with projects involving Motion Design and the idea generation behind it, so I still find his opinions on my work valuable.
I was able to collect valuable feedback from him on both my 'RAF War Story' and the 'Feel Good Drinks' Animations and hope this feedback can help progress my work for my future e-portfolio. Here is the feedback he has sent me via email:

'RAF War Story' Feedback:

'Good story! I thought the figure becoming the tear is lovely. Executional, but if the figure was lying down it might work better. Less sinking, more symbolic of death? Love the tear falling into the sea. I didn't notice it was the sea the first time, so this could be clearer.
A great twist at the end, I feel like there just needs to be a visual surprise to support the surprise in the story. Could you see a silhouette of the man holding the urn and when the twist is delivered, could the urn erupt making the whole screen go white? You could even put in a sound of a clatter and a whoosh!? Something a bit unexpected!' 

smile emoticon!Feel Good Drinks Feedback:

'Really lovely. “Happy and fun” is quite an open brief (and therefore potentially quite tricky), so I think to make it work harder as an advert you could make more of a link to the brand equities. They could have a bit of fun, and make the advert more ownable. Because your focus is around the circular fruit and their logo is basically just that, perhaps there is the opportunity to make a visual link here?
Is it the logo that breaks up at the start? Or do the spinning piece make the whole logo at the end?
It’s got a really nice visual style and that works well with the naïve musical style.'


Face to Face Feedback 

Holdens' 

John Hind (3D Animator) Jack Maguire (Motion Designer) 

Peter Holden (Creative Director)

(holdensagency.com)

" (on Holdens) fizzing creative culture. A primordial ideas soup. One that creates amazing brand experiences – guided by insight and strategy – that will do wonders for your business."- (quoted from their site)

As a starting point, I decided to contact Jack and John from Holdens' who pitched the Wham! brief to us, I felt like I was inspired by both the brief and the agency itself, allowing a form of contact between us. Jack had previously explained that he was into more of the 2D and stop motion animation whereas John was more into the 3D side of the animation, so it was good to get feedback from two individuals within the industry that had varied techniques. 

We were introduced to the team at Holdens' as well as given a tour of the studio, and it was interesting to see the set up that they had, with the alternate desk spaces and work set up. I visited the studio with my peer Rachel, as we felt it was best to present our work to them in a small group. We showed the pieces to both John and Jack as well as the Creative Director Peter Holden, who were impressed with our range of work and gave plenty of feedback.  Overall the feedback was good, and Peter Holden was impressed by the fact that I didn't shy away from physical elements such as ink, paint and other resources to produce my work.               

'Sketchbooks':

As another visual display other than my work on the USB, I brought 2 of my sketchbooks, one containing the Competition Brief and the Live Brief and Ident, and the other the beginning of the year work with the RAF prints in it to show them my mono printing in person. They were really thrilled with the sketchbooks, but think I should include them more in my making ofs.

'RAF War Story' Feedback:

They were really impressed with the overall medium used with the World War I collage effects and gave some great feedback. John suggested that I should insert some movement in the waves of the sea to add more movement, and intricate character as they liked the small movements in the first opening image used. Jack also noticed that the final scene with the plane needs more movement, as the plane doesn't possess much animation and he suggested it should include more of the mono printed clouds passing the plane as well as the plane bobbing up and down more. They also said I could neaten up and put more action into the character that gets shot down. Peter was very positive about the interesting image to begin the animation and liked the use of my mono-printing  Jack then mentioned that the centre piece of the first image could also possess some movements as well as maybe being stationary for a bit longer to allow the audience to notice the animated characters subtly moving.

'Feel Good Drinks':

They were really happy with the slogan that I used with the voice over 'Bring Fruit to Life' however Peter says it's such a powerful slogan that it needs to have a supporting text also showing the slogan to make it more memorable. John also analysed the drawings in the animation and mentioned that the blueberry jumps a frame slightly so may need an extra frame adding into it. Jack liked the pan out of the fruit flowers, however he said their should be more of them as you pan out and maybe more variety. 

Things You Notice Film:

They liked the intricate shots of this film and the way in which the camera focused, however Jack recommended using a warp stabiliser on After Effects to even out the wobbles on some of the footage which is a tool I haven't come across yet. He also mentioned that colour changes could be made in order to make the film match up together more, maybe include text for more context behind the wind.

'Void, Life, Void':

Although I wasn't able to show the animation to them, I explained this piece of the installation and John mentioned that he had actually seen my Void, Life, Void in the end of year show and it had caught his eye, he recommended that I document this in a Making Of and put it in my portfolio so the audience can experience the Installation without actually being there.


I've found the studio visits and feedback of my work really helpful and helps build my confidence of speaking about my work to the client.

"Unpacking Samsung"- Samsung TV Advert

Still from the Samsung 'Unpacking' Ad.

Again through watching television I have unearthed this really clever advert from Samsung, it combines a mixture of techniques to produce a smooth transitioning movement through the technological history of Samsung, showing the progression to the contemporary newer models. The advert includes a variety of set designs and transitions as well as VFX and stop motion and I think it blends beautifully for the flow through time, and has a nice quirky tone to it too, showing the modern edge to Samsung no. Directed by Asif Mian & Bob Partington of 1st Ave. Machine, the piece shows a 'dazzling' mixture of techniques to evolve the technology through the advertisement. The campaign was to show Samsung's overall pride in the evolution and progress of their products over the years.

Design Books

"It's Not How Good You are, it's How Good You Want to Be"

By Paul Arden

I have just finished reading this book after seeing it as being a bestseller. The handbook contains important advice from Advertising Designer Paul Arden who is described as "a creative genius, albeit a wayward one" (Roger Kennedy, Saatchi & Saatchi)
I think that there are certain ideas in here that are pretty influential, such as the thought process behind design work, and how it's always important to share ideas, with it being that if you're in the same studio environment, and having the same atmosphere around you, all the ideas in that room are to be shared. Arden explains how it's an important factor to know how good you actually want to be and how to achieve this, he gives a scale of 'Quite Good' to 'The best in the World" allowing the reader to make their own choices all the way through and adapting rhetorical questions about the design work to the chapter involved.
Something that I really admire is the humorous yet informative nature of the book, as it allows an inviting atmosphere for the reader with humour, yet withholds some clever advice for generally having a better attitude and therefore better work ethic for the design industry.
He speaks of how competitive the advertising Industry actually is and it has allowed me some further insight into the nature of the industry such as the studio space, the colleagues he has had and the statistics behind financing such adverts.
I like the fact that reading this book helped reassure my fears of not thinking I am good enough with technical skills for the industry, as all it needs is a change of attitude towards such a thing, I may not be good at it now, but it's how good I want to be and how I'll learn to achieve such goals which is the most important part of the process.

'Typography Sketchbooks' 

by Steven Heller & Lita Talarico

Matt Luckhurst Final Work

Inspired by the Bruno Maag lecture that we had and wanting to learn more about typography in terms of using it in my own work and developing animations with the creative use of text, I decided to read and look through this book which is a collection of typographic sketchbooks from a range of typographers. I found it an interesting read as it meant that I was able to view a range of sketchbooks with all different styles and pick out some of my favourite typographers to look into further. The book contains more than one hundred of 'the world's leading typographers and graphic designers' and I was intrigued as to what ones would spring out to me.

Matt Luckhurst Sketchbook

Katie Lombardo's work after sketchbooks prep

I think due to the fact that I have always relied on my own sketchbook work, it's interesting to see professional designers' sketchbook work and how they evolved from sketches and random drawings that they produced. I think it was nice for me to delve into a new sort of medium that I'd only learnt the basics about and I loved that I could see the original work instead of the polished, finished versions, it was good to see the detail and intricacies of simple sketches that lead to these more polished ideas, and helped me believe more in my own idea generation through sketchbooks as I believe they're a powerful tool in terms of idea generation.

"The Way Forward" Carwow Advertisement 2016

Finishing off Lasercut Layers.

When watching television, I came across this advertisement and instantly fell in love with the physical paper effects it seemed to possess and instantly wanted to find out more information about it. Narrated by filmstar Sir Michael Gambon, the bespoke piece includes an intricate layering up of various frames made up of paper and applied to a wheel, relating to the aspect of cars within the advert's theme.
 Felix Wetzel, marketing director, decided to collaborate with a design team to make up a series of paper formats that would reflect the overall values that they wanted to show within the company. Creative Director Kevin Keenan found that with car wow they almost changed the wheel, and that the company itself depends on the car wheels, and therefore he decided to explore whether they could base the whole advertisement upon a simple aspect of a wheel.
Using a team of designers as well as a laser cutter, Keenan analysed the speed and movement of the wheel in order to produce a spinning mechanism that would make the advert seem like it was revolving around the wheel, inspired by the classic animation technique of Zoetropes.

Although it seemed at the time like a simple enough idea to layer up the paper upon paper in order to produce such an effect, I think there needs to be some recognition to the hard work and intricacy that went into the production of the advertisement, and I feel it's definitely one that stands out against other adverts, especially with it's physical characteristics.
The Making Of Video for the advertisement and the finished product are shown below.

Abbott Mead Vickers

A famous advertising agency AMV produce an array of advertising campaigns for alternate clients including: BT, Guinness, Sainsbury's, Lotto, and Snickers.

Screenshot for Snickers Advertisement

I like the fun side that this agency seem to explore, such as using pre-existing characters in their pieces such as Mr Bean in the Snickers advertisements that they have worked on.

Mog the Cat for Sainsbury's 2015

The agency use a variety of medias to produce their work but generally it includes the use of live filming and footage, as well as some combinations of animation and CGI, such as the work they did on 'Mog' the cat in the Sainsbury's advertisement that they produced.
Personally, although I think the company have produced some of the most memorable adverts, especially seasonal, my favourite of their adverts has to be the more 2 dimensional elements. An example of which is this Financial Service Compensation Scheme (FSCS) Film that they produced with the media supposedly made to reflect the security that the company wants the customer to know that they provide.

Stephen McMennamy

When researching my aspects on Film4 it's made me realise that a lot of the work that I will produce will depend on perspective, I like the idea of luring the audience into thinking something is something else and it adds a quirky edge, just like McMennamy's work.
McMennamy is an artist and photographer that combines photographs together in order to line up to quirkier pieces, adding an alternate viewpoint to objects we may see everyday and not make reference to, such as lightbulbs and eggs, tomatoes and boxing gloves and a cigarette  chimney.

'Home' Gallery Visit

During our Manchester Trip, we visited 'Home' Gallery, a more of a modern gallery with digital sorts of media.
There was certain piece that really stood out to me and that was a futuristic piece developed in 3D aspects.

Manchester Art Gallery Visit

Visiting the Manchester Art Gallery, was an influential trip as it not only allowed me to gather information and example pieces relating to my keyword of 'Silence' it also allowed interpretation of the Channel Ident Brief and being able to select pieces of interest to me in general.
Due to having visited the gallery before I went to the recently altered exhibitions to see what would appeal to me.

'Microphone' 2015

Pat Flynn's Exhibition-
Half-life of a Miracle.

Pat Flynn was one of the contemporary artists that really stood out to me as his pieces retained the isolated composition that I was looking for in order to link the art to my keyword. In particular there was one piece there that really appealed to me of Flynn's and one which I felt directly linked to the theme I was looking for and that was 'Microphone' 2015 a piece that seemed photographic but either way resembled a microphone. The plaque that was next to the piece says:

'Flynn's microphone is permanently suspended, waiting to be heard and yet has nothing to say'

I like the metaphorical and symbolic aspect that this piece explores as it delves into the fact that even though an object is drawn, painted etc. that doesn't mean that it becomes the object. Flynn's microphone may be a drawn picture of a microphone, but it will never truly serve it's purpose, and despite being an obvious representation of a microphone, it will always remain silent, linking my keyword directly to this piece. In addition to this, the negative space around the piece adds to the isolation of the silence, with having the microphone suspended in such a space adds more of a silent, isolated tone.
I think it's an interesting concept to consider that objects represented using art materials will never be or function as the object does, making even loud representations of objects quiet, as essentially, when constricted to visual forms, all art is silent.

Film4 Inspiration

Shira Karumata - Revolving Cabinet

When looking around the gallery, the Channel Ident project was also on my mind, and that of the red stripe type patterns that I have been looking out for. Generally, after having not known for definite which idea best suits me, I have learnt to absorb whatever seems inspirational to me. Generally speaking, there seemed to just be the aspects of red that caught my eye, especially in line form, which goes to show how much an audience would actually connect the red line idea with the aspect of Film4 as I found that with both me and my peers, we were reminded of Film4's design aesthetic by looking at such pieces.
There was  tower of red plastic trays which really stood out to me the 'Revolving Cabinet' By Shira Karumata, was one which was fascinating as I've liked to look into the idea that some objects of the same colour can look in place when placed on top of each other etc. I think this is an aspect to be considered in the making of and the animation/film itself that I produce for the Channel Ident for Film4 and ensuring that the recognisable and memorable aspects of red, which for me represent the glamourous side of film as well as otherwise with it reminding me of: Red ribbon to be cut in opening ceremonies, red carpet, red stripes on popcorn wrappers, red seats in cinemas etc. as well as more genre based things such as red representing love or blood in some cases.

Garry Cook Lecture

Garry Cook is an alternative photographer, who has developed an element he calls 'Performance Photography' where he interprets photography through performances. Using an array of photographs, he uses his performances to use more interaction within the pieces. An interesting piece of his was where he had produced a slideshow of images through Northern History 1910-present day. Within such famous images such as Hiroshima Photography, 9/11, Margaret Thatcher's reign, Nelson Mandala freed etc. were more benign images of friends and family's own photographs showing their place in history, such as their children's birthdays etc.
He spoke of how he feels more supported by the theatre industry in contrast to the photography, as he spoke of financial impacts this decision of taking up performance photography has in fact made to him. Interestingly he spoke of how being a photography requires you to be non biased and open to both sides of the story, however he says it's increasingly hard to not have an opinion within society these days.

Interactive Illustration Animation Book

By Virgilio Viloresi & Virginia Marci

When browsing through a very inspirational site: thisiscolossal.com I was able to come across this effective use of a serrated material to manipulate the eye into thinking that an image is moving, therefore being quite a primary way of animating something, which I personally love. I like the physical element behind the technique, and the fact that it allows us to question what animation truly is, and such manipulation is a good example of this, the artists manipulate the viewer's eye into the thought that there is movement. I also believe it's a quite refreshing edge to have to a book, and an exciting installation when filmed too.
The illustrations themselves retain a gothic sort of style, which I believe adds to the overall ambience that this technique helps to develop, an almost edgy, black and white jerky TV sort of feel is something I get from the technique, and I think this works beautifully as a book and with the physical aspects that this then presents to the viewer.
As a film, as the camera views the images as they progress, I think the editing of the video to have the sound effects to add to the animation definitely produces again, that television effect, with the stark piano sounds and creaking noises etc. I can image such a prospect being produced into a larger scale piece, not just a book but a large installation with a similar material usage but all double the size, allowing a completely different experience, something that could maybe viewed in a cinema type of set up?

Whitewall Art Gallery Chester

Outside of the Whitewall, Chester

Whitewall Gallery Visit
Over reading week, I've visited the Whitewall Art Gallery in Chester, where they have a range of art forms, in a nice space around the city centre. I liked the various forms of colour and media that are shown within the gallery and within the alternate pieces.
 The actual layout of the art gallery was well kept I think, with the more surreal art together whereas the landscape and urban paintings and pieces were on the parallel side of the gallery. I loved the aspect of movement that was within the composition of the pieces in the gallery, although each piece had it's own energy there were a few that really appealed to me, as looking at them, they seemed to show movement within a stationary form, something I was pretty interested with as I could imagine the piece animating before my eyes, and this was pretty successfully thought out by the artist in showing an aspect of movement.

My Favourite Artwork
Paul Kenton

London- Paul Kenton

One of my favourite artists that featured within the exhibit was Paul Kenton, an artist originally from Derby who likes to capture movements and energies of certain people and places through his art work, he particularly enjoys visiting cities as these reflect a lot of movement and colours that reflect the energy that can be contained within his work.
Paul Kenton uses an aspect of paints, inks and varnishes to add streaks of what seems to be movement and light, something that appealed to me as I think it beautifully shows the energy and movement of each of his pieces to reflect the city he has captured within the piece.

There is also the aspect of dark outlines that are then enhanced by small aspects of colour, something I think is a very successful aspect of enhancing the movement and energy. Personally I can see these urban landscapes being animated especially the New York piece that I viewed within the Whitehall Exhibit. The New York piece really enhances the energy that New York represents and I think this is one of my favourite pieces that I saw within the gallery, especially after having visited New York myself, it really gave an insight into the energy that needed to be captured in the aspect of Times Square and the reflections and track lines he has shown.

New York Piece By Paul Kenton

Tom Butler

Paris, Tom Butler

 An additional artist I found appealing was Tom Butler, who uses a mixture between collage and paintwork media, particularly this piece of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which I found was a beautiful autumnal blend of colours and successfully effective use of collage with paint. Alike to Kenton, Butler captures an energetic feel to the city particularly with the text and colourful element that the collage pieces represents.

Hattie Newman Lecture

Hattie Newman is a set designer who solely uses paper to produce intricate structures for a variety of creative formats and clients.
As a guest speaker, she spoke about her personal favourite projects as well as things she disliked or finds daunting as well as the change in the industry that she worked in. Being a very physical artist with all her pieces, it came as a question to her of how she keeps her original style, and how she could be competing with digital techniques that could capture the style in half the time.

Newman spoke about how maps have become a very popular form of media and things that are often asked for, and she spoke of the sheer scale of her pieces, that have to be photographed professionally by an array of photographers.
Although her technique is a more expensive one for the client, with the physical material costs as well as the weeks or days it takes to construct the sets, she said how she doesn't personally feel like she has to compete with the more digital aspects as she knows that most clients like the raw aspect of her designs and therefore wouldn't want that.
 Additionally to this she spoke of how the aspect of CGI is a smooth and too polished version of what she does, and the imperfections and the physical work is shown within the pieces and becomes the quality of the piece.

Personally I think the pieces she produces are absolutely stunning, and would make beautiful animations, although she studied Illustration as a degree, she spoke of how you can branch out into alternate creative forms, and how she's worked and collaborated with different roles in the industry, such as animators and photographers around the country, further showing the importance of collaborations, especially in her role with photographers to ensure that they capture her pieces in the best possible way to present.

Series of Paper Dresses. Pencil Sharpener Dress.

The neat, clean-cut set up of the design is also thought through as she spoke of how she has to study photographs of the buildings to ensure the right structure is applied. She also spoke of the difference between Advertising Clients and general creative clients, and how she prefers the creative clients and personal projects, as for these she has more freedom, whereas the advertising is a strict approach to design, and doesn't allow much freedom to make decisions for the client, or work exclusively with the client to produce a certain piece.

She gets challenges with every piece she has to do, such as her speaking about having to produce a series of paper dresses which she was pretty confident about until she actually attempted to make the pieces, but with many trial and errors finally was able to work with the client and photographers to produce the series.
 In addition to an example of how her physical elements can be exaggerated with the paper is an installation that she produced for Canon, she produced a 'world city' where there were landmarks for cities across the world in one city, such as the Eiffel Tower etc.

Canon Installation

Bruno Maag Lecture

"Typography Technician"
We've had a talk from the Swiss Typographer Bruno Maag, who went extensively into his personal career and his processes he undertakes when producing typography for a client. He is well known for his variety of client pieces and has successfully set up his own business Dalton Maag which works with clients worldwide. Example clients of his he gave within his lecture, but some examples include:  Lush cosmetics, Amazon, Puma, Intel, Oxfam, Samsung, BMW, BT and Burberry.

Example work for LUSH Cosmetics company.

As someone who describes himself as a typography technician, Maag says he favours black and white elements rather than the colourful implications of other designs such as graphic and motion design. He implied that he is "not an artist, I am a designer" developing his thoughts that he designs for the money, for the client, and for the portfolio overall.

Sketchbook work Dalton Maag for Rio 2016

He spoke about the transition between physically producing typefaces for aspects such as New York Newspapers, to producing digital aspects for online merchandise as well as using digital formats to print onto products. He joked about the fact that his training was very different from the training that he gives his interns and new colleagues today, as when he started out in the business as working for Monotype in England, he had to draw a precise line all week till it was perfect, and if the measurements were off by 1mm physically, he'd have to try again for a new week, slowly and strictly training their precision. He described that such precision CAN be taught, and says that now for his own training scheme within his business of Dalton Maag, he trains his employees with physical as well as digital elements, to strictly inform them of the precision needed. They begin with calligraphy, which then evolves to painting typography and restricting the size of such font to 10pt to ensure the trainees are able to produce a font that will successfully be shrunk down or enlarged and still convey the same language and understanding to the reader.

Final Rio Olympics 2016 Typeface by Dalton Maag

He analysed the fact that you have to be able to understand that the client you could work for may not be a national format, they may need alternate designs to tackle alternate countries and civilisations. Maag gave an example of working on a piece where he produced an arabic variation of the font he produced, and brought it back to the client who enjoyed the font, but thought it was the wrong way round, however, it was the client who hadn't correctly facilitated the different culture and how they read right to left rather than left to right, so they had to redesign the whole campaign. He used this as an example to show that you need to be more precise and thoughtful within new nationalities, to make sure that the mood of the font isn't lost by school boy errors in design.
 The mood is also something he described that I can fully understand, the fact is that they need a certain mood and font is how they do that in certain instances, and I feel this is something that can also be applied when producing Motion Design, because of the fact that you need to be thoughtful in the type you select in order for it to produce a certain mood or feeling that you want producing.

BBH London

Bartle Bogle Hegarty
BBH for short, this studio is an agency based on marketing and advertising, an area of the industry I am interested in.
"When the world zigs, zag"

Mentos gay pride poster for social media.

Being an international studio, BBH also has connections to Los Angeles, Mumbai, Shanghai, New York, Singapore and Stockholm, so withholds a variety of styles and medias. They have produced mostly advertising and commercial work, work that would definitely appeal to me in the industry, examples of which are work for companies such as KFC, St John Ambulance, Mento's and Barclay's. They also produce a range of influential poster designs for different causes, the example being a Mento's poster designed to coincide with the 'Pride' march in London as well as to support the debate on whether or not same sex marriage should be legalised in the USA.
They also produced an advertisement for the Barclay's coding programme for children and their parents to learn how to code better. The piece includes a bit of humour as well as the animated coded dinosaur that was created for the programme itself. I think the way they show the diversity of the ages using the programme shows that it is one that wants to be appealing to both ages, as Barclay's wanted the aspect of coding to be something that isn't as scary to most parents now that it has become part of the curriculum for children of 5 years old to begin learning.



I think one of their more successful campaigns was their St John's Ambulance baby campaign, where they asked BBH to produce a safety awareness video for parents with babies to stop them choking and to save them when they are, using miscellaneous objects such as pen lids, dolls, and jelly babies, BBH paired together aspects of fun characters but an important set of instructions in order to help prevent deaths of babies via choking.
As well as the video to spread awareness for the parents, they also paired up with the idea of having a book about a pen losing its lid and being choked on, showing how it's the little things that a baby can easily choke on and put in their mouthes.


I think the nice plastic look to the objects is beautiful with the textures, and although I myself don't see Cinema4d or 3d itself being an area of strength for me, I think it's something I could look into and be interested in such campaigns as advertising things for informative purposes rather than more commercial work.

Cubs Animation & Motion Graphics Studio

Cubs Studio- London
http://www.cubstudio.com/portfolio/
When finding studios, I came across this Animation and Motion Graphics Studio based in London, they pride themselves on keeping up with the times, tracking softwares and technologies that best equip their outcomes.

The studio produces a wide range of animations, whether they're info graphic
s, advertisements or general animation stories, they like to produce colourful and dynamic animations, mostly in 2D. They generally use quite simple shapes and colours, which adds a nice futuristic feel, and also seems to resemble a familiar style within each, linking back to our discussion forum on style and trends. Cubs ensures that despite the range of work they produce, there is still an aspect of style that can be recognised over the pieces effectively. I personally feel this is a good trait for the studio to have as it gathers a recognition and further client interest.

For me, I've found this studio particularly interesting with the range of colours and textures added into the animations, I'd like to explore their work further in the future, as I've looked into their show reel and online portfolio.
Looking at the portfolio makes you realise how important it is to explore your online presence as they mentioned that the internet was key to their success.
Cub Studio 2016 Showreel from Cub Studio on Vimeo.

Our Discussion Forum- Motion Design's Identity Crisis

We have been given our discussion forum for the Identity of Motion Design to research into the aspects of Motion Design and why there is confusion as to how it is defined and recognised in certain areas.
Rachel and I have discussed that firsthand we personally feel we have to discuss and explain what we are studying to other people as when presenting that we study Motion Design to the general public they don't understand what we mean by it, therefore we find we have to compare ourselves to graphic designers and animators in order to elaborate on our course and get them to understand. Therefore we'd like to start discussion on how we compare ourselves to other designers and where the lines between them are.
We've looked into what classes as Motion Design, and how this is different from Visual Effects and Animation.


The Language of Motion

"Adding motion to the mix doesn't simply broaden the skillset of graphic designers, it redefines it. Photography becomes cinematography. Illustration becomes animation. Even the essential skill of layout morphs into something else, something more akin to understanding the rhythmic structures of music than the solid forms of print. Motion design is, in other words, a new language. And designers have only just begun to test the limits of its expressive power."

(http://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/discover-language-motion-design-11410269)

What You Need to be a Motion Designer- Digital Tutors' Blog

When researching for my PDP I came across a website (http://blog.digitaltutors.com/10-essential-skills-need-motion-designer/) that elaborated on what skills and things you'd need in order to be a Motion Designer. The blog goes into the range of things that they as people in the industry believe you need to have experience of in order to be successful, and gave relevant examples of such things according to these things.
Elements that have been included within the blog list are:

• Graphic Design Skills-In order to produce high quality products and work, a knowledge of graphics as well as skills within it are pointed out on the blog. I agree that graphic design is a core element to our course and therefore needs to be a skill based around the animation. Due to the graphics being a huge part of the Motion Graphic Design course, it's also important to study what else is out there in terms of trends, competition etc.
• Traditional Art Skills- Some work that will be produced does need initial plans, sketches and drawings. In order to actually get your idea across to a client or a storyboard artist, they must first understand the concept of what your idea is, and this can be helped with visual aids that can be easily developed by pre-existing traditional art skills. In addition I believe knowledge of art medias and history allows further insight in the best way to carry out a creative task.
• An Understanding of Animation- Pretty self explanatory really,  but the blog entails how the animations can be applied to new ideas, and the fact that different medias can be produced from existing materials or made ones through art production. An important highlight for this is the animation principles that are something that need to be familiarised with in order for success.
• 3D Design Skills- Due to the expansion of technology 3D is something in the height of popularity and therefore should be attempted or mastered in order for some sort of success, it shows variety and durability as well as showing that you're flexible with your medias so can have a wide range of outcomes.
• Colour Theory- Colour theory is an important aspect of any design form, as it allows the designer to make visual decisions as to what works. As well as this, it's important for the designers to be able to pick up on colour decisions that will not work aesthetically such as red font on a green background or visa versa as these are an issue for colour blind etc. It also applies to what mood you want your piece to produce, with knowledge of cool tones and warm tones this helps to analyse what is an appropriate colour choice. 
• Typography Skills- From a range of serifs and kerning, it's important as a designer to know the aesthetics and meaning behind text and font as well as reasoning behind using certain typography to represent alternate things. The blog speaks about the importance of getting the right typeface as this can implicate your whole design and make it work or not.
• Creative Thinking-
• Technical Skills- Throughout our careers software will be constantly evolving and changing, so there's no way we can learn everything at once, however, it's important to have knowledge of a range of softwares as well as a range of methods to ensure there is variety and confidence in our work. Some softwares although different resemble each other, therefore getting to know certain softwares will assist the using of others.
• Interpersonal Communication-  Ensuring a good relationship with your client or creative director ensures the work is being carried out effectively and efficiently within the time and allows communication for amendments and adjustments to take place without dispute.
• Originality-As hard as it is to be original, the blog speaks of how important it is to try to carry out your own creativity and reflect your own style within your work, in order to attempt to make a refreshing piece of work rather than a regurgitated piece.

I think it's important to assess such things in order to know what would be expected of you within the industry as well as allowing these skills to fall into place in terms of practice.

Discussion Forum II- Steph & Jamie- Free Work

Should Designers have to work for free, or should they be paid?
Steph and Jamie began a discussion forum on the aspect of having to be paid as a designer starting off in the industry, and where it should be acceptable to work for free. Overall they discussed the aspects of free pitching, internships, volunteering and work placements and how these could effect your career overall. Rachel brought up the fact that it is best to show that you are willing to work for free, as this will help to supply experience for your CV, as well as ensuring reputation.

In the discussion we all agreed on the aspect that volunteer work is an important aspect of gathering experience and reputation, and indeed in some internships this may be necessary. We additionally discussed the aspect of free pitching, where clients will bring in a range of designers and ask them to pitch an idea, but they do not get paid for the pitch, and therefore can be faltered by this. They showed us a video clip that showed the aspect of free pitching being applied to other scenarios, and showed how ridiculous it would be for any other business, however, we couldn't conclude how else we would personally alter this system, as clients want to know what they are getting before they invest. The video includes an actor going into a sandwich shop and asking to taste the sandwich before he eats it, applying the aspect of free pitching to another business. This clip was helpful in ensuring that Steph and Jamie's points were reinforced.