Seminar Feedback

Seminars for design studies has been really positive for me because the discussions within the groups has been very interesting. Peoples opinions interested me because I feel sometimes people think differently to me and its quite good to learn new things that youve never thought about or thought in that way. The tasks were clearly explained and helped me a lot because sometimes I got confused looking at the handbook and actually having someone explain makes life much easier! The tasks which were given at the seminars have been quite fun. I havent had a chance to use the task skills such as the brainstorm in a group as we havent been given projects which would need a group discussion. I will definately use it later in my practice as it is a very useful and interactive way to work. Overall I really enjoyed having seminars because they are helpful and confidence boosting!

Bibliography For Essay and Research (D)

Cappo. J, 1003, The Future of Advertising, New York, McGraw-Hill

Long. P, Wall. T, 2009, Media Studies: Text, Production and Context, Harlow, Pearson Longman

Marris.P, Thornham.S , 1996, Media Studies, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press

Morris. JD, Boone. MA, 1998, The Effects of Music Emotional Response, Brand Attitude, and Purchase Intent in an Emotional Advertising Condition, Florida, University of Florida

Murphy. P, 2002, Informed Choice, EBSCO publishing

www.youtube.com

www.adbusters.org

Further Research On Advertising (C)

To further my understanding of this subject I feel that I would need to make up an experiment of my own and trust my own results. I would have to research all the different factors of advertisement rather than just base my thoughts on the two sources I have looked at. In the book by Long and Wall was a list of further readings which are very interesting and is helpful in helping me understand the subject more. One source talks about the future of advertising and how people are starting to personalise their spaces. I have also been looking at a journal called ‘informed choice’ by Paul Murphy which is about interactive technology and signage in retail. I felt this journal related to my subject quite well as adverts are directed at consumers of retail. These books and Journals can be found on my Bibliography.

My essay on advertising (A+B)

Effects of Advertising

‘Media Studies Texts, Production and Context’ by Paul Long and Tim Wall is an evidence based book. The authors of this book clearly outline the main areas of advertising including the industry, consumption and branding. The main point which the authors make most relevant to advertising is the consumption in the consumer society and how we play a role in media. Mcstay relates consumption to ‘desire’ backed up by (Bauman, 2000) saying ‘never ending search for new and improved recipes for life’ (Mcstay, 2009: 346) This shows that we as consumers are not interested in ‘needs’ but in fact for goods which we ‘want’ playing a big part in consumerism. Advertising only works and is effective if there are consumers out there to consume a product, this makes advertising a really important factor to consumerism. To help the understanding of advertisement and all the consumerism theories, McStay breaks down advertising into three definitions: Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations. Advertising being ‘a form of communication design to generate awareness of products, services and organisations’(Mcstay,2009:347), Marketing, identifying consumer needs thus producing products’ (Mcstay,2009:347), Public Relations ‘communication between organisations and publics’(Mcstay,2009:347). These three definitions help understand advertising because it shows the best way in which companies can promote their product or organisations.
Television is of declining interest to many 16-24 years olds described by the UK regulatory body Ofcom, which means that future of advertising on TV is not going to be as effective ‘comparing to 2001’(Ofcom, 2006: 353) . The UK regulatory body Ofcom continue saying ‘instead, the internet plays a central role in daily life; more than 70% of 16-24 year old internet users use social networking websites’ this shows that Online advertisements is the future of advertising shown that advertisers aim their adverts to the biggest consumer age, 16-24 year olds. The most popular social networking websites are MySpace and Facebook which consumers use to self promote. ‘As well as social networking sites most web spaces are plastered with advertisements (Mcstay, 2009: 350) this relates back to the quote by Ofcom showing internet is the future. Mcstay mentions that ‘consumers can be thought to be actively using such advertising texts as one mechanism in creating their online identities’ (Mcstay, 2009: 350). People use social networking sites to brand themselves which is a way of advertising themselves to the world. This is shown by having your own picture up and writing a blog about yourself.
Within the virtual world, there are many means to advertising such as pop ups, banner ads, videos and search engines. Business’s pay search engines such as ‘Google’ to display their advertisements on the first page of search results to generate more hits for their website. ‘Advertising on Google alone is now worth more than all the money spent by clients on the main commercial channel ITV1’ (Sabbagh, 2007). Google is a very powerful search engine which owns a very popular video sharing website ‘YouTube’. YouTube has a huge amount of footfall and is a good place to promote ‘Viral Advertising’. For example if a company decides to put a video advert onto YouTube it becomes extremely easy for this to be shared with the online world as YouTube provides buttons and links that can be clicked to add the video to social networking sites or to be sent via email. The book gives an example of a Kylie Minogue video that became very popular by this method “360 million viewings via online sites such as YouTube”. This massive number shows just how successful a viral advert can be if it takes off.

‘The effects of music on emotional response, brand attitude and Intent in an Emotional Advertising Condition’ by Jon D Morris and Mary Ann Boone is an interesting journal which explains how music plays an important role in advertisement. ‘Music is used often in advertising to enrich the key message ‘(Hecker, 1984) Hecker said that music enriches advertising as this means that it makes advertising more interesting and appealing for the viewer. Music is also used to help put a across a message to the viewer as sad music wouldn’t be put alongside a cheerful and happy subject. Sad and cheerful music can change the emotions or influence an emotion to the viewer. ‘Major (happy) and minor (sad) modes influenced the listener’s feelings.’ (Farnsworth, 1969, hevner, 1935; Rohner and Miller, 1980; Galizio and Hendrick 1972) Although these authors believe that music has an effect on advertisement there has been disagreements to whether this is true as shown in this journal. ‘Some research has shown minimal influence of music on emotional response in advertisements’ (Stout and Rust 1986) In the journal Morris and Boone design an experiment which involves two groups watching twelve advertisements, one group watching adverts with no music and the other watching the same advert with music. This experiment was to show the effect on music in advertising. For example they used a Sony advert where they used a popular song by a popular artist that was featured in a current hit movie,’ Brand attitude may have improved because pleasure improved’(Morris, Boone, 1999: 522) this is due to the viewers relating the song to their current lives. It also showed in the results that when there was no music ‘people felt nostalgic, different, awed and wonder’ (Morris, Boone, 1999: 522) this shows that the response when there was no music in the advert was also successful as the emotions were different but not negative. The music in advertising is still confused as shown in the same results based on an Anti-fur advert with music ‘the pleasure decreased when music was added to the Anti-Fur advertisement’ (Morris, Boone, 1999: 522) This shows that people pay a lot of attention to the subject of the advert so whether music is used to enhance the subject or not, it will still be a negative response. This also shows that people react to the subject as well as music. Morris and Boone conclude that ‘music may not always significantly change pleasure’ (Morris, Boone, 1999: 525) as shown in their results, they further say ‘but it can change how the viewer feels when watching the advertisement.’ (Morris, Boone, 1999: 525) Music may not have a direct influence on the viewer but using it as a tool in advertising can make an advert more successful.

After analysing both sources, it gave me a better understanding of advertisement, the way it is handled within the media and how people perceive different type of advert. In Long and Wall’s book they explained how advertisement relates to the media. They gave examples of how media reacted to different adverts such as the example with Kylie on Youtube. Although this was not their own source it shows a natural reaction in the media towards advertising. The journal by Morris and Boone on the other hand, differs to the book as their source was based on their own test results . These results were effective as it shows clearly how people react to music in advertising and if music is an important factor for capturing viewers. I felt that the results shown in Morris and Boone’s journal were very interesting and certainly gave an insight into the thoughts of real people when viewing advertisements. However, the experiment was only carried out with a small number of people and on a limited number of adverts so perhaps the results may not always be true to life. Comparing this to the book, they gave examples of past advertising results from adverts which have been popular and gave specific numbers and figures to relate to. As they gave actual facts and figures from events that have actually taken place then it is hard to argue with their points.
We can take one example from each source where similarities can be drawn. This is between the Kylie advert on YouTube and the Anti Fur campaign advert. Both of these adverts show that the subject of the advert is very important. After watching the Kylie advert it is clear that the music is not the main focus of the advertisement but is used to enhance the subject. When I played the Kylie advert without music it did not change my reaction to the advert because Kylie riding bucking bronco is the main focal point. This comparing to the anti fur advert is similar because the subject was more important and the reaction from the viewers reflects this. Morris and Boone’s music factor results helps enhance Long and Wall’s point of view as consumers are taken in by what they see and advertisers produce something that consumers want to see and uses factors such as music to better the advert. Although there are so many different factors which are involved in advertising, it seems as though the subject is the most important factor when trying to make an advert popular. After understanding all these points and factors shows that if an advert becomes popular enough then it could go viral and be seen by millions.

Last week of Semester 1!!

This is a scan of my pink knitted peice. the colours I toolk from the cherry blossoms and the holes in which i cut through in my sketch book to reveal deep purple circles.

This is my knitted piece put into context using photoshop which I though I made quite a good job of as I found photoshop really confusing and hard to get to grips with.




Its been a stressful last 2 weeks but its all worth it after this week as the holidays is near!! Christmas time! I spent the whole of last week mounting up my final pieces for my cultures project. I had a really tough time doing my knit pieces so I had to spend some of monday making a final peice but it was time well spent as it made me much happier and releaved. I ended up using my knit piece in my final boards and was actually one of my favourites. I put the knit piece into context which I thought looked really good.

The week is nearly over, I have still to do my design studies essay but Im half way there and really looking forward to getting a break!

Bye x

Websites

Textile Websites
http://www.textiledesigner.net/
This website is good for getting inspiration on patterns and colours.

http://www.style.com/
This website is based more on fashion and the latest styles.

http://www.craftscotland.org/
This website is a mixture of all the different design catagories but has a very interesting part on textiles.

http://www.johannabasford.com/
This website is Johannas own website. Her website is interesting to view because she talks about her work in the present day. Also shows what designers do after they graduate.

http://www.textileworld.com/
This website has the latest information on textiles. Its a textiles newspapers which most textiles designers read.


Design in general Websites
http://www.craftscotland.org/
I have put this website in my textiles websites but it also relates to design in general as it has articles on many different disciplines

http://www.creativenerds.co.uk/
This website has lots of different disciplines which are very interesting to look at. It gives you inspiration which could be used in your own discpline. Theres tutorials in this website which are very useful if you needed help on a certain programme and even if you didnt think of using the method in the programme it would be a good way to learn new skills.

www.bbc.co.uk/news
bbc news is very useful for an update in whats happening in the world. It is interesting to understand the world around you other than in design.

http://www.designweek.co.uk/
This website gives you information on different events and news on design within different disciplines. News which contains new technology or design awards.

http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com/
This website is full of inspiration for many disciplines.

Bibliography

Klaassen. A, 2007, Neiman Marcus builds brands via... Youtube, Business Source Premier, Advertising Age.



Long. P, Wall. T, 2009, Media Studies: Text, Production and Context, Harlow, Pearson Longman.



Morris. JD, Boone. MA, 1998, The Effects of Music Emotional Response, Brand Attitude, and Purchase Intent in an Emotional Advertising Condition, Florida, University of Florida.



Ricardo. T, Baldrich. R, Orriols. X, Sanchez. J, Binefa. X, 2006, Automatic Cataloguing of Advertisment in Magazines, Barcelona, Spain, Springer Netherlands.



Shaw. N, 2002, New Design, London, PDD Ltd



Sweeney. S, Maclellan. A, Dorey. E, 2007, 3G Marketing on the internet: Third Generation Internet Marketing Strategies for Online Success, Florida, Maximum Press.



Tikkanen. H, Hietanen. J, Henttonen. T, Rokka. J, 2009, Exploring Virtual Worlds: Success Factors in Virtual World Marketing.

Books and Journals

In our seminar assignment 3 we were to look up books, journals and films etc related to your topic from assignment 2. I chose Advertisment and below are some books and journals I found using the cross search from the library. The cross search database was really confusing and took me a while to get my head around but after watching the video posted up by Jonathan I found it much easier. The journals which i found were mainly from the cross search as the information I needed was already in full text online.

Morris. JD, Boone. MA, 1998, The Effects of Music Emotional Response, Brand Attitude, and Purchase Intent in an Emotional Advertising Condition, Florida, University of Florida.
In this source Morris and Boone examine the importance of Music in Advertisment. The research show that there is a difference in emotionally invloved advertisments such as cancer advertisments and attitudes towards brands such as Cadburys. It is important to understand music in the background of adverts as exciting music arouses the viewer and sad music makes viewers more emotional. This means that music can be used in advertising to portray and enhance a certain feeling depending on the subject matter.

Ricardo. T, Baldrich. R, Orriols. X, Sanchez. J, Binefa. X, 2006, Automatic Cataloguing of Advertisment in Magazines, Barcelona, Spain, Springer Netherlands.
In this book the authors tell us about their system which catalogues all adverts from any media. They show their clients advertisments which relate to their subject. This allows their client to produce the most effective advertisment possible. It is important to have companies like this because it gives the client an insight to future advertisments. It also allows new technology for advertisments as they know which type of advertisment are more successful.

Klaassen. A, 2007, Neiman Marcus builds brands via... Youtube, Business Source Premier, Advertising Age.
This source by Klaasen is based on Neiman Marcus and how he promoted his department store using Youtube on his 100th Anniversary. Although it may not seem related to advertising this source shows the power of online promotion. The statistics shown in this source shows that 44.2% of audience age on Youtube varies from 25 to 54. This is valuable information as the client can ensure that their advertisments will reach the correct target market. Also Klaassen mentions that the promotion of Marcus' store was very successful which means popular websites such as youtube and social networking sites are a good place to advertise.

Shaw. N, 2002, New Design, London, PDD Ltd.
This article 'So Solid Crew' by Shaw talks about 3D CAD technology. Although this article is based on product making rather than advertisment it shows what the future of advertising may hold with 3D technology becoming more promenant. This article was written in 2002 and comparing it to the current day shows how much technology has advanced. If it continues to advance at this speed 3D projection might not be far away.

Sweeney. S, Maclellan. A, Dorey. E, 2007, 3G Marketing on the internet: Third Generation Internet Marketing Strategies for Online Success, Florida, Maximum Press.
The authors of this book cover all the different strategies to make advertisments successful online. In order for the advertisments to be successful, the right websites with high traffic are used. This will make sure that a lot of people are looking at the adverts even if its just a glance. They also said that search engines, blogging, podcasting and many others are a good way to drive the adverts. As blogging is becoming so popular it is a good means of advertising. If the correct steps are followed then online advertising can be hugely powerful.

Tikkanen. H, Hietanen. J, Henttonen. T, Rokka. J, 2009, Exploring Virtual Worlds: Success Factors in Virtual World Marketing.
The authors of this journal explore the main elements as to why virtual worlds are so successful for marketing. By understanding the virtual world and how powerful it is. And Knowing there is enough space for new means of advertising shows that new ways of advertisment can occur in the future. As the virtual world is getting so big, less jobs will be out there for paper advert companies which means more jobs will be given to computer graphic professionals.

Long. P, Wall. T, 2009, Media Studies: Text, Production and Context, Harlow, Pearson Longman.
In this book Long and Wall explain consumer society and advertising. They talk about the main points of the advertising industry and concepts of consumption and branding. They make the reader think about theories of consumerism and the consumer society which is very useful in advertising because it shows what society finds sticky. Long and Wall also explore in this book the different forms of advertising and how they interact with society. This is useful as it can help companies make their advertising more interactive with the consumers.

Weaving

I had such a good week at weaving because I found myself getting into it from my first sample. I always feel if the start of the week doesnt start good then the end of the week doesnt end good, but this wasnt the case this week as I really enjoyed myself. Although the samples may not be great it felt good to be limited with one machine or skill and just experimenting with that. It was amazing to see everyone elses work which was much different from mine even though we were using the same machine (Loom) I felt that this week I thought more about my colour and technique was already chosen for me. I concentrated on gold, black and pinks this week as I felt it best related to my sketchbook. Recently I have been looking more into Japanese culture and their Kimonos. I was really inspired by the patterns and colours on them and there is one particular designer I have been really interested in, Jotaro Saito who specialises in Kiminos. His designs are beautiful and full of floral patterns and bold colours. I felt after this week on the Looms i could go back and do some Mixed media which will hopefully tie my work together.

Bye x

Mixed Media

I found the mixed media week really tough as there were so many different techniques invloved also I felt the colours I used were much different from the week before as I was thinking a bit too much on the techniques side. I made a few samples just experimenting with different materials and different techniques to find my feet but I felt one week was just not long enough. My samples involved some felting, stitching, layering, embroidering and using transfer paper on fabric. I found this week very useful because new techniques and skills were introduced into my work but I have learnt that I have to think about composition colour and technique all at once which i felt lacked on this week. My favourite technique this week was using the transfer paper because I used fabrics which kept getting caught in the sewing machine (Nightmare!) and after I transfered a pattern from my sketch book onto the fabric, made the fabric easier to manage. The above images are some of my mixed media designs. Some successful and some not so successful.

Bye x

Poster on Advertisment

This is my poster for the 3rd part of the seminar task. I chose to do Advertisment because I did a mind map for the stickiness factor which gave me a background information on the advertisement which i could relate easily to design issues and what I had to look at. I started looking at how advertisement is sticky and I found that it was through slogans such as Mcdonalds "im lovin' it" and KFC "finger lickin good" These slogans are sticky and very well known. This is what companies want as it helps stick to customers head. I also looked at the imagery/logo of companies which makes things sticky, I found that the Coca Cola red and white stripes are the most well known logo and next after Coca Cola was the O2 bubbles. These are very important for advertisment as the more well known your logo is the more successful the business is going to be. I also looked into Tv advertisments and Magazine advertisment and I came across a little foundation sample from a Vogue magazine. This helps the reader interact with the advertisment and samples are a good way to gettin the buyers attention as people love a bargain and free items. While I was reseaching Magazines I came across a really interesting article on Esquire magazine, they used E-ink (Digital Ink) on there front page for their 75th anniversary. This E ink is an electronic Ink which looks like a maving page. It reminded me of something out of Harry Potter, but it is really interesting to learn that technology is advancing so fast. This E ink led me to think of future solutions to advertisment and I looked at projectors and how there becoming more advanced and have been used in consumer devices such as cameras. In the future if they had a little project which were added onto laptops and phones etc and can project 3d images onto a space then advertisment can be taken to a different dimension. Examples which i put on the poster was that clothing companies can put there products online and project them for the consumer to try on by standing infront of the 3d image or wallpaper companies such as Timerous Beasties can project wallpapers onto a wall instead of sending out little samples. Sending out samples and sending out clothes back and forward if it doesnt suit is a waste of money and time so this projector can solve this problem.

This poster was really fun to work on because it made me think in new and different ways. I thought of advertisement before as being paper prints but looking at the bigger picture I found that advertisments are done in many different forms and new ways of advertisement are possible in future. I also found that a lot of people dont pay much attention to posters which is a waste of resources so if it was made electronically then it wouldnt be a waste of resources and would save a lot of efforts for printing and sticking. I will post videos and pictures which i found interesting during my research. Thats all for now.

Bye x

Discussion on Brainstorm

The above mind maps are done during our dicussion on the brainstorm. We only did two mind maps as we were discussing the chapters which the group were going to focus their poster on. This was more helpful in limiting as we had more time spent on each heading and ideas were easier to come up with after the ball starts rolling. Also in doing this discussion I felt it led me to a starting point of my development.n I have chosen to do the stickiness factor and in that I am going to research advertisment.

Keep posted for my poster.

Bye x

End of Print Week

On your left is me printing :) I found this week quite difficult but fun. It was hard standing all day and pulling and pushing a squigy but I liked mxing up the colours to suit my research. My hands got really messy and dyed with all the colours but its Halloween this weekend...

Below is an image which i did last thing on Friday which i thought was really succesful even though it was quick and simple. I had dyed the fabric and lifted the colour on Thursday and when i came back to work on it on Friday I quickly cut out stencils which related to my research work and printed that on top. Frances and Jo said to be brave with our work although it is very daunting to have a peice of white fabric infront of you. I decided on Friday to just do that and it apppeared that they were right, I just had to be brave with my work. :)

Research page from my sketch book where I found inspiration to develop in my print work shop. The red and white image is by Nick Knight. He makes interesting compositions which organic materials which is why it led me to making my own compositions from found leaves.
Next week I have Mixed Media so Im looking forward to learning how to use different materials and how to combine them to make an interesting outcome.

Bye x

Brianstorm - making connections

The brainstorm was based on the tipping point. I got together with some other girls in the textiles class where each of us had based our mind map on a different chapter of the book. I found this very useful as the person who looked into detail of a particular part could briefly remind the rest about the chapter. This then led us all to put our own intepretations of the chapter in. I found the brainstorming much easier than the mind map as it was like throwing ideas in the air and we got a laugh out of it. Below is a slide show/video of our outcomes in each chapter.






We started off looking at the epidemics chapter. In this chapter we started off looking at hush puppies which was mentioned in the book, this made us look at the bigger picture of trends, we linked this to GHD straighteners as they are very popular now. It started off with a few people having them and straight hair was the new look. Once your friends have them then you automatically want them too. I have a pair so it was good relating things from the book to your personal life. This is an epidemic. We also looked at how Gadgets got sticky. Game consoles were made bigger and bigger and new consoles kept coming out. The main ones which we looked at were the Wii, Xbox, and play station. These consoles got very sticky as they became interactive like the Wii remote which is motion sensitive rather than your normal play station controller. It was like going one step further to make something sticky and different.



The group then moved on to look at The Law of the Few which contained the Mavens, Salesmen and connectors. We found that when we were throwing ideas up about the connectors we were naming social networking websites such as Bebo, Twitter, Facebook etc. The same came about with the Mavens, we were looking at comparison websites which offered us information. For the mavens we looked at the highstreet salesmen and websites which sold things without actually having a salesmen, such as Ebay which is a big sales website.



After looking at The Law of the Few, we started to brainstorm on the Stickiness factor. This is the chapter which I did my mind map on in the first seminar task. We looked at how things got sticky in advertisment and we found that most companies with catchy slogans tended to stick. Companies such as Mcdonalds "Im lovin' it" and Loreal "because your worth it" are very sticky and makes the buyers remember their products and presence. Other advertisment in companies have visual stickiness from TV adverts such as Asdas pat on the bum and Cadbury's gorilla playing the drums. This was my favourite chapter as the sticky advertisment are very clever but subtle.


The last chapter we looked at was The Power of Context which we all found the hardest. We found it hard to start of but when we thought of a few ideas the ball started rolling. We came up with The Sufragettes and the Sufragists which was two groups of women fighting for womans right to vote. One group took a violent approach and the other was took a more political approach. This related to the power of context as woman in that period felt that they had the right to vote and if they didn't start this woman today wouldnt be able to vote.


I really enjoyed doing this brainstorm as a group because i found it much easier bouncing ideas of each other than sitting brainstorming on your own. Our next task was to have a discussion on our brainstorm where we then go off develop our ideas further ourselves. I will post my dicussion spider diagram up soon, so keep posted.

Bye x

BLUE ILLUSION

One night my boyfriend and I were bored and we were watching some videos and i came across this arty illusion which really amused me. So maybe this will do the same for you.

Right so on your right is a picture with 4 shades of blue and if you put your finger between the first two shades of blue then they become the same shade. If you then put your finger between the 2nd and 3rd section they become the same shade. Same goes for the last 2. Try it you'll be amazed!

Research on Cultures Project

Scanner still doesnt agree with me so I took some pictures instead...These are some of my research pages from my sketchbook. I really enjoyed working on these pages as I liked experimenting on the different colours and looking at the subject in more detail. I looked at the mussel shells because they reminded me of the paisley teardrop shape. I also liked the colours which were in them and how the shells sat with the seaweed. I took these pictures from Broughty Ferry beach the day after some heavy rainfall. I also looked at the English Chintz which is why it led me to look at leaves and flowers. I found when i was researching I was getting led from one place to another random place. I was jumping about in my skecthbook but I really enjoyed the research side and hopefully has shown in some of my research pages. I might add some more pages later. Enjoy.

Bye x

Development of Cultures Project

Through the reading week I finished off my research for my cultures project in order for me to focus on the development side of things in the coming weeks. I found that as I was researching I got over excited and covered almost everything under the sun, not always a bad thing as it means I now have more to work with but the problem is I dont know where to start my development. The tutors have put us into little groups for the textiles in practise and this week Im working on Print which im really enjoying because its a good challenge thinking about colour and composition all at once. In my research I have looked at the Chintz, Paisley patterns, Tartan, Chinoiserie, Japanese Kimonos and many other cultural patterns. I will post up some pictures of my sketchbook pages when my scanner decides to be my friend again. Also i will by the end of the week show my stages of development through print.

Bye x

Photoshop

The Above images are my final outcomes for the photoshop programme in semester 1. I started with the very basics by scanning in my mark makings from my sketchbook then experimented with the colours and compositions. As i got more confident with photoshop i scanned in my work related to my cultures project. At the moment my culture project is looking healthy as im having fun researching the Eastern and Western Patterns. At the moment i am looking at the English Chintz where the above images are influenced by. I really enjoyed using photoshop as it has taught me a new skill which i found helpful because 1) its much quicker to lay out compositions and see how things look without doing it manually, (very time consuming) 2) it is also easier to see what colours work better against each other.

Mind Maps for Tipping Point

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, is a book which describes different epidemics and how little things can have a huge impact. For this book we were asked to make up 2 mind maps in the style of Tony Buzan. One mind map containing an overall view of the book where we could work in groups firing ideas at each other. I found that really helpful as i had forgotten some of the incidents within it. For our 2nd mind map we were to work on it ourselves and focus on a particular chapter which interested us the most. I chose the 'The Stickiness Factor' as i found it related to my childhood and was more enjoyable to read. In the stickiness factor chapter, I branched off the main subjects which were Sesame Street, which related to my childhood, Blues Clues and advertisment and from them i branched off into detail.
The mind maps by Tony Buzan, i found very hard to get the hang when put into practice as i dont usually write on the spine of the line and use colour, so it was different. The mind map itself was very useful though because it breaks the chapter up into sections and makes things easier to understand. One thing which i did not follow was drawing pictures instead of words as it was hard to put into context. The pictures above show my final result.

Bye x

Lecture on Friday with Mike Press

We had a Design Lecture with Mike Press on the 2/09/09 which i found really interesting. His views on Desgin really made me think as he made you look at the bigger picture. This is really encouraging and inspiring as he also gave examples of people who did 'THINK BIG' and became very successful. We got given a book to read 'tipping point' by Malcolm Gladwell which i found very interesting and it really reminded me of the way Mike Press spoke as every point he made he also backed up his views.

I will post my mindmap of the tipping point later. It will contain one of the main subjects within the book which i found interesting :D

Bye x

First Blog and First project of 2009

The first project this year was Culture, where we have to go away and research. While i was researching i came across lots of different cultures such as the religious culture and in the religious culture how there are more cultures within! as i continued to research i found most themes tended to have a sub-culture such as fashion culture and in that were the different kinds such as punk culture and how music culture relate to that etc!

Anyways back to MY CULTURE PROJECT....

I have been researching the influences of the Eastern and Western culture but in a fashion sense. So far i have found that the famous paisley pattern (teardrop shaped pattern) was influenced by the indian culture as they used the design on their shawls and other fashion garments, it became popular in the Western countries in 1700s. Another fact, the paisley pattern is said to resemble a mango and associated with hinduism.

So far i have found this project very interesting as it is personal to me in many ways. I LOVE FASHION and LOVE PATTERNS. Perfect project :D

will keep everyone posted with updates with this project and other projects that may come up that i find interesting.

Bye x