Evaluation of week ending 24/1/10

Sum up week just gone:

I felt that there were productive stages within the week including filming the green screen for video elective however my luck changed as it took me one day just to put it on a computer, and a whole day trying to edit it. The video was just one problem after another, eg we didn't set the white balance so the green screen is to dark and picks out details on the bands clothing which makes it look pixelated. Also after that it took a while to convert the mpeg4 music to mp3, so it was just as soon as i felt i had just jumped over one hurdle there was another one straight after. I managed to make the vinyl market on Thursdays market near the bus station and bought 11 vinyls ready for destruction... "VINYL IS DEAD?" However from the problems i occurred i can know learn from them so i know next time around. The main concern i have was my collection of 100 artwork albums didn't build up still on 38. But now videos out the way i can concentrate on the 100 again.

Targets for weekend:

1. 100 album artwork albums I like

2. Photoshop postcards

3. Contextual Essay (Richard Tuesday 9-50)

If all done i should be ready to put work together for 100 project and to produce the final in two weeks will be enough. The longest time spent will be collecting my information and making sure it is relevant.

Problem Analysis - Rationale

Brief:

Produce a set of 100 album artwork covers with information about the designers or method/ process being produced. If possible do a flash video to show 100 because for the cost it would be cheaper to mass produce than a printed book.

Who needs to know?

Research book that people look at for a designer, inspiration or people with an interest within album artwork.

What do they need to know?

Who designed the artwork and concept behind it.

Why do they need to know?

Educating and be a good source for designers researching into album artwork/ designers/ concepts. Also from opinions research i found out that the older generation said the artwork was just as important than the music artist.

What will they respond to?

Flash film with 100 best of the best album artwork on with image and information. Also could do with a bit more understanding of flash to keep me on my toes. The CD will act in a vinyl cover.

What research is required?

Research 100 interesting album artwork covers/ designers/ images but only that relate to designers for inspiration. Got to be interesting and something that people can learn from to help create ideas. Research colour schemes and layouts for flash???

Rationale - A statement of reasons:

Many people argue is Vinyl dead? Like artists work becomes more valuable when they die, does this apply to to vinyl? From the 100 opinions i spoke to people in there 40/50s and a few said sometimes they would be a vinyl because of the designer of the artwork rather than for the music. I have researched into artwork/ designers and have found out loads of new interesting information about the artwork. I have looked into over 100 album covers but only selected 38 so far as i feel each selection should have something unique about it i feel that the final 100 will offer a strong research resource of album artwork without looking into several books to find similar information, but my research will offer the information for the pacific eyes of a designer for inspiration. 

Collection 100... Rational

Product & Packaging

Based on records i feel that the packaging will be useful and can make the product relate to the project more and be interactive.

Who is the audience and how do you intend to engage with them?

I want to share the interesting information i have found out . It is based on album artwork, concepts, designers and artists. So i feel it would be targeted at promotional advertising, fine art or people who have interests, or need resources in album artwork design.

What is the function of the product - it is supposed to inform/ educate/ document/ entertain/ instruct? What has informed this decision?

I want to inform people about the artwork used on album covers, because from talking to people for my 100 opinions i learnt that the artwork used to sell the album more than the music artist. Also there are loads of interesting information and methods/ processes i want to share as a research resource. 

How will the audience interact with the product?

Read about album artwork researched , maybe on a cd as it can relate to the product of a vinyl connection using the product a vinyl sleeve with cd in. Also the new age format that i researched and cheaper than printing, so considering costs of production.

Collection 100 Research Proposal

My subject matter is beer mats.

Possible catergories will include different ranges of mats, history of mats, why they were invented.

Research processes will include researching the history, are they being used as much today, what pubs use them more than others.

How will you research?

Primary methods: collect beer mats, a range new and old. Look to see if any stand out more than others. Ask people about are they successful consumers and beer companies who spend money designing them.

Secondary methods: Research the history of them, look at forums.

Who/Where/Will you research?

Primary sources: In bars, second hand shops, car boots. Beer companies. 

Secondary sources: internet books adverts

Research processes will include:

Primary Material: See what pubs use alot of beer mats, what companies produce them ie genre of drink. History of the beer mats exhibitions. Questionnaires.

Secondary material: History of the beer mats, the founders, the designers are they successful

What If ... Self Evaluation

Group 

Charlotte Kirsty Emma Paul Ellis

What problem did you identify?

The problem we found out was that people in the city of Leeds (Bridgate) were either not aware of where bins were located or that they were to lazy to to use the bins.

What evidence did you find to support your decisions?

From our questionnaires we discovered that there was a problem with litter in Leeds centre. Also form the two maps we found that people were dropping rubbish in the centre when there are bins metres away form where they dropped it.

What methods did you use to gather your evidence and what forms did you take?

We made a questionnaire basically asking if people thought there was a problem with litter in the centre of Leeds, and asked questions more in depth about rubbish in leeds such as do you think the bins are well located... ect. I also sent a copy to the Leeds council to find out more information, ie when is the worse time for littering in Leeds centre, day or night? what day or the week ect. Also as primary research we also took photographs of the litter as visual evidence. And Ellis and charlotte walked around Bridgate with two maps off google and marked all the bins on one and marked litter found on the floor on the other. As secondary research we collected information of the internet including facts and figures, and found out that Leeds came second in the uk for giving out littering fines. 

What methods of research did you find useful and why?

I thought that our primary quantitative research of marking the bins and litter on the floor in Leeds was really useful as we could identify where the problem occurs most often. Only thing we could of done to develop this research if we did it on different days or times to make the research more in depth and there might be one day of the week where litter occurs more than others, it could even be somewhere else than the bins we thought were the most problem, littering at a different time. However this would of taking along time if we did it seven days a week and every few hours.

How did these inform your response to your problem?

Knowing there was a problem we knew that people had littered within metres of the bins, and from our questionnaire people said they littered because they didn't know where the closet bin was located. So we decided that we wanted to make the bins more easy to find and make people use them.

What methods did you counter as problematic?

I sent a questionnaire to the council however they sent an email back saying they would respond with in ten days, however when you have to collect the research with a week its not to helpful. They still haven't got back yet either. Also as i mentioned the method with the two maps could of been more accurate if we did it for seven days a week, at different times in the day, because saturday could be more of a litter problem than tuesday for instance.

How did you overcome this?

We didn't because it would of taken too much time a whole week and every few hours of each day, however if the council would of responded we could of found out the busiest time for littering and could of gone out then and compared it to the research we collected.

What research could you have carried put that would have proved more useful?

The two maps.

List five things that you have learnt about the design process over the last two weeks?

1. Quantitative Research

2. Qualitative Research

3. You don't always have to produce a poster

4. "Everything you do should be easy and interesting"

5. Analyse research throughly to then develop an outcome using information gathered 

List five things you would do next time?

1. Develop broader research methods 

2. Get on the streets more to discover more of the problem

3. Use research to develop our outcome

4. Produce a better outcome (more professional)

5. Work as a team rather than individuals 

Photography

Only five photos out of the twelve i wanted to put online are jpegs the remainder are saved as RAW files.

I will have to change the format and upload them soon.

Whilest learning the functions of the camera i also consider the composition and light, shadows and highlights in each photograph. I didn't think that the coloured film over the light did to much to the pictures because you cant control how saturated the filter will be. No control.

25 Photographs on Blue

We were asked to go round college and take 100 photographs of the colour blue, but we decided to set some restrictions. Our main aim was to try and produce a colour swatch of the objects with individual texture, however on close up photos the image would look blurred so instead we had to take pictures of the whole objects and in photoshop select colour swatches to produce a chart of blue coloured textures found around college. Before i did this i didn't notice how many items were actually blue around college i thought that there wouldn't be alot however soon found out there was. I have selected these 25 because they are a range of different textures we found with the use of blue. Colour swatch will be uploading soon. (when finished)..