Contextual Portfolio - Honda Keep Up advertisement

I came across this advert whilst watching tv and it grabbed my attention unlike most advertisements that I don't pay much attention to; in a way i'm not quite sure why it was so gripping to watch. Although I think that the overall video is quite clever in the way it was put together.

The title 'Keep Up' is well related to the content of the advert; the audience is pushed to keep up with the type that flashes on to the screen. This fast paced type helps to communicate a message to the audience, this message being that the new Honda car can keep up with your lifestyle and would fit perfectly in your life. Although you have to concentrate on what is happening in the advertisement, it is also quite simplistic in design; which is a good point as if the background was overly complex it would distract from the message that they are trying to get across to the viewer. 

I'm not an animator or video director but I respect good design when I see it; I see this as a clever design and i'm in awe of the direction of the advertisement. I have found out that Widen & Kennedy London worked with ManvsMachine who directed the advert for the client Honda. 

This is what they have to say about the commercial;

'The speed-reading inspired commercial takes you a rapid journey through Honda's manifesto and their 2015 vehicle range. It's not your average car commercial...' 

Here are some stills from the commercial and the actual commercial; 

 

 

Process And Production - After Effects - Quote

In this next tutorial in to Adobe After Effects I was taught how to create Kinetic type; which means moving typography. The ten second video is split up in to three sections and I tried to make each section different to the previous one. At the start of the session we were taught the skills required and then we were given time to demonstrate these skills by creating the ten second animation.

First I began by collecting a quote from the internet; the quote had to be long enough for three pages and to last ten seconds, therefore the quote couldn't be too long either at the same time. To see how the video may look before producing it, I created three art boards in Illustrator to test out the layout, typeface, type point size and colour scheme. I chose to used Helvetica as it has modern appearance and worked well with my chosen colours. To add depth to the type I added a drop shadow behind the pink to make it pop more and make a bigger statement to the viewer. 

When I opened up After Effects I created a new composition to the size of 1920 x 1080 which was the same size as the artwork I previously created in Adobe Illustrator. To change the background colour to the same as the one I had chosen I went to 'layer' and then 'new' then 'new solid'; I created three solids for my quote to be written on to and they were set up so that they ran after each other in the timeline. Then using the text tool I copied my text from my illustrator file to save time; on the other hand I could just retyped the text again. 

Then I begun to add effects to the three sections of the quote by using the transform tools available to me. When I was on a transform option I used keyframes to add the effect; I clicked on the clock at the first keyframe and then after dragging the time line indicator and altering the position of the text I would click for the next key frame to mark this on the timeline. To make my text move on to the screen I used the position transform tool; I would select the text and then drag it along the screen to where I wanted its new position to be and I used keyframes to record the movement. Other tools I used were the rotation and pan behind the anchor tools; the rotation tool spins the text around from where the pan anchor is and the pan behind anchor tool allows you to move the object from the anchor point it has been given. You can move the position of this anchor point. After that I carried on adding effects to the quote using, position, scale, and opacity. 

Overall I feel it was beneficial doing this workshop as it will allow me to develop my skills over time and make me more confident using the program in the future. I will be able to use After Effect in future briefs if I feel that it is suited to the brief and depending on how confident I get with the program I could use it in my design career. 

Here is the final outcome;


Kinetic Typography from Jade Irving on Vimeo.

Process And Production - Physical Studio - Typography Part 2

This was the second typography session which built upon the first workshop with my tutor; as a recap in the first session I begun producing the letters 'ANESG' in different type styles from getting inspiration from the provided sources. However, during this session it was about creating a full alphabet that I could then recreate using CAD in a later session. 

I picked three from the first session that I believed would work well when drawing out the whole alphabet; by this I mean that I would actually be able to produce every letter whilst keeping the same style typography throughout the whole alphabet. Along the way I came across difficulties in trying to create some of the letters as it was hard trying to draw the letter whilst trying to keep true to the style of whole typeface. The typeface needed to look coherent and flow, with the audience being able to identify that each letter was part of the same typeface. This process helped me to refine the typefaces and make adjustment before drawing them with a fine liner or recreating them on the computer in Adobe Illustrator. 

Contextual Portfolio - Huddersfield Art Gallery Visit - 9/2/15

This week instead of having a normal PDP session, we were informed of an exhibition taking place at the local Art Gallery in Huddersfield so I decided to take a visit to see whats on display to the public. The exhibition was relevant to what we are currently learning about in lectures (semiotics). 

On display at the exhibition were a range of art forms ranging from paintings to sculptures; it was interesting to look at the different forms and types of art on display. It also gave me the chance to look at the art in detail, looking at the skill and techniques that have gone in to the pieces which can only be seen by viewing the exhibition in person. 

Whilst viewing the exhibition we were encouraged to make comments and opinions on what we viewed, here are some of my view points; 

What different methods of visual communication can you identity within the exhibition?

- Handmade, 3D, Line drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Mark making, Sketch etc.

Which do you think are the most effective or have the most impact on you as a viewer, and why?

- Three dimensional pieces as theres more than one side to a piece.

What examples of semiotic meaning-making can you identify? Are there examples of symbolic, iconic or indexical signs at work in the exhibition? 

- Iconic - paintings of objects 




Then talking about Contemporary British Painting; 

Many of the works in this exhibition are abstract, and some appear more narrative. How might we understand the different types of painting in different ways?

- You may do this through looking for a meaning within the art; some pieces may be just shapes or in fact the shapes could be telling a story that you aren't first aware of from a quick glance. 

Select one painting and think about how you might 'read' it from an iconographic/iconological perspective - what does it 'mean' to you?

- 'Picture of shapes' - the different colours within the painting could have different meanings/ emotions attached to them.

Below are some photos of the different types of art on display in the exhibition;

Process And Production - Adobe Creative Suite - Indesign Recap

During this tutorial we had a recap on the skills that we had previously learnt to ensure that these were being used correctly; also I had the chance to expand on these skills. 

I was taught how to set up a Table of Contents; and how it can make it easier than manually inputting it (similar to the way of adding page numbers). As well as that I learnt how to add paragraph styles to efficiently be consistent throughout a document. Whilst in 'new' paragraph style you can control the typeface, point size, colour and other features/elements to the type. Once these have been set, you can quickly apply them to your document which makes it faster when setting up the document. You can also set up drop cap, titles, body text. 

Below are some screenshots of me setting up the table of contents; this included editing the typeface, size, density and colour. I experimented with the use of the tab tool which meant I wouldn't have to repeatedly add them in.

These are the finished sections. It shows how all my subheadings are the same as they have all been edited to do so, same with the body text. 

Whilst in the same workshop I was asked to create an article spread to show what skills I have in Adobe Indesign; this allowed the tutor to assess how well I can set up a document, my layout skills, typesetting and headings. We were allowed to choose any topic to base the article, then I were to collect images and use placeholder text to use for the content of the article. 

Once the visuals and text had been collected, I then began to layout the article using my skills, demonstrating what ability I currently had. My chosen topic was Orangutans as I'm quite fond of them. During this task I used the following tools; selection, crop, text wrap etc. I removed the background on some images so that the text would conform to the shape of the image; giving it a smoother appearance. 

Here is the final outcome;