Spend More Save Less- Day Project

Today we were assigned a day task within our new visual thinking unit. The objective was to produce a poster to encourage people to 'spend more and save less' in order to stimulate Britain's deteriorating economy. This idea is based on a principle devised by economist John Maynard Keynes who believed that instead of following the seemingly natural course of action during tough economic times and saving our money, we should instead spend more. This is based on the idea that buying more products and services keeps demand for these up, preventing the loss of jobs and keeping prices relatively static.

In groups we embarked on the process of generating ideas on how best to achieve the objective of encouraging people to spend more money. Our group brainstormed, toyed with and developed a range of ideas from which two emerged as the stronger, more workable ones; a play on the metaphor 'tighten your belt' meaning to spend less money in which we encouraged the audience to instead 'loosen your belt', with a humourous accompanying image of a pair of trousers round some ankles with an undone belt and an image which equated the economy to a human body, specifically focusing on the circulatory system, using the analogy that oxygen was like money and that the organs were like the different spheres of life which are influenced by the economy (the deprivation of money from the economy and its components is like the deprivation of oxygen from the body and its components). This idea worked to provide the audience with a more holistic view of why they should spend more, but as a consequence was quite difficult to compose and we chose the other idea as it was more attainable within the timespan. I feel the final image worked really well, It is punchy and communicates very effectively- the group seemed to agree with this as it got voted the best in the class at the end of day crit. I found this task really enjoyable and felt that the team worked together in harmony, each bringing something different to the image and coming up with various ideas which were good in their own right.


One of my initial sketches

Final Poster

Text & Image - Visual Thinking

Yesterday was the deadline for the first unit of vis-com- text and image. After completing several mini-projects, the outcomes of these were compiled in a book I designed in quark and made using one of the techniques I learned in the book-binding workshop. I was pleased with the book I made, after some massively frustrating setbacks (tearing the front cover as I was cutting it out with my scalpel, realising my entire layout needed redesigning to avoid the pages being obstructed by the binding a day before the deadline and misplacing my sketchbook on deadline day) whilst putting it together, it eventually looked exactly as I envisaged it would.

Despite finishing this unit there is no time to slow my working pace, We have been given our new brief, to design one poster adorning a double-decker bus and another for a bus shelter to persuade 19-35 year olds to become a member of the charity amnesty international. I like the prospect of this task and think it has the potential to be a really enaging and challenging brief. However, aside from jotting down a few of my initial ideas I'm not going to get stuck into it straight away due to the fact I have two other tasks going on- an essay and a live brief and I'd prefer to get these out of the way so I can really focus on it.

Deadline + Kyle Cooper+Bookbinding

With only two weeks to go before the text and image deadline and 8 days before the crit I have realised that I need to be a bit more productive, however I have not approached this project in a lax way and have completed a reasonable amount of work, leaving me with a managable amount remaining and with the pressure of the impending deadline keeping me motivated I should have no trouble meeting this deadline.

Having attended Kyle Cooper's talk on his plethora of brilliant opening credits for an array of blockbuster films last month I probably should have posted something on here about it sooner. I was reminded of the quality of Cooper's work by his sequence for the film Iron Man which I saw recently. It proved a surprisingly good watch in which the opening, though slighty less memorable due to the seamless transition between it and the rest of the film, worked effectively in setting the mood in dramatic style, captivating me right from the start.

Cooper's repute has evolved more from his title sequences for films with more sinister themes. The bleak apocalyptic beginning of Dawn Of The Dead and visceral, creepy portrayal of Se7en's serial killer are both really effective in creating a profound feeling of discomfort among the audience, especially the Se7en sequence, which actually made me wince in parts of it.

A key component of the sequence which inculcates the sinister atmosphere is the scratchy typeface used for the credits. We understand that this type has a dark feel to it because of the general atmosphere in the piece ( created by the broody music and shadowy imagery of the serial killer shaving his fingertips off with a razorblade) but also because of the raw, harsh aesthetic and the idea that this would have been created through a very physical process with a sharp instrument- an idea which is very befitting of the film.

Yesterday we had a session where we were taught some book binding skills. I really enjoyed the hands on process of doing this and was quite pleased with my results, i'd never previously achieved anything decent with tasks that demanded any degree of precision or neatness. The session also served to kickstart my creative thought process about my own book. The two types of book I made yesterday would not convey what I want to say about my experience of the text and image unit, the japanese stitch I made was quite scrappy and the circle accordion felt too flimsy- whereas I want to create something which looks abit more polished, sturdy and accomplished looking which retains a personal feel to reflect that it is my individual experience. I like the juxtaposition of a precise, neat aesthetic with the idiosyncratic, one off look of the hand-drawn so I am using my handwriting as the front cover typeface. I will have to consider my actual binding technique and the form my book will take.