Process and Production - Typesetting Two: Posters.

For the second session with Aiden, we were asked to create 3 posters. The rules where to only use 3 sizes of type, and the posters had to be typography based, without creating any vector work for yourself with the pen tool etc. We were given 

The first poster i created was for the acoustic club. I decided to create a guitar out of type. This is probably my least favourite of the trio i created.

For the Wilson Republic poster, we were given the logo as well as the text that should be included on the poster. It has to match the brand of wilson republic based on the examples that we were given. I think that i have created a strong simple poster in this case, which works with the brand. 

Finally, we were asked to create a poster based on an artist or collaborative group that we like. I decided to base my work on a piece by Experimental Jetset who is a small, independent, graphic design company based in Amsterdam. I used glyphs in order to create a more interesting background, and used Helvetica in upper case as well as lower case.

Process and Production - Cinema 4D logo

This was the first session with Jay, looking into a software that I do not know a great amount about. I was excited to get into some new software, as I have always liked 3D design. To begin the session, we were instructed to create a logo out of outlines, having at least 3 different objects. I saved the illustrator file as an Illustrator 8 file in order to make it compatible with cinema 4D.

This was the logo once a floor and background had been added to the cinema 4D document, allowing a coloured background to be added. I also added the text "Design" in the application with the use of motext. 

After this, it was time to use cameras in order to look at the logo from different angles, as well as incorporating lighting into the design to create the shadow. 

First Cinema 4D Logo from Jack Pomfret on Vimeo.

Finally I animated the scene that I had created, using simple keyframe techniques which reminded me very much of after effects. I have been improving my knowledge in this area, and it was nice to have something that seemed at least slightly familiar in the cross over from after effects to Cinema 4D. I am looking forward to going into more depth with the Cinema 4D program in future tutorials. 

Fredric Jameson and Specluative fiction

Culture isnt science - don't need to prove how film or culture work, you need to look for different levels of entertainment of films. This is what is involved in the making of new films, as they will be veered towards the demographics and ideologies in which people like. References to earlier films in the new can help the discussion.

Fredric Jameson

The logic of cultural creative practices is the emergence of new things. Creating a platform to talk about things in different ways and be entertained in a different way. Needn't confuse it with the truth. Fredric Jamerson sidesteps this by talking about everything being unconscious. Dealing with things that are invisible as creatives, asking the question... How do you know that something on screen presents a certain point?

The master narrative is revealed by literary theorists in correspondence to broader social structures from which the empirical text derives meaning.
Empirical texts - distinctions between SAYING and SHOWING. Overly didactic, showing is visually sophisticated and indirect. didactic description closes the film down (what was the point of the film)

In cultural industries, 5 years later there could be an alternative reading of the film and therefore can be seen in a different way and creates more theories and arguments. Bringing life back into the old. In a way this is what starts to help us close the distance between fiction and reality.

Think of a film as a refractive thing which affects the way we talk about things. In a post-modern view, there is a very refractive relationship in a film and what it tend to address.

WHAT DIFFERS IS THE ATTITUDE OF THE PERSON LOOKING INTO THE CONCEPT.


Speculative fiction

Any animation that involves a story has to be integrated into a plausible world where the narrative can exsist, creating something called a SPECULATIVE FICTION (meta-genre ) , where it could speculative that it is something that could happen in the future, or you can imagine it being slightly true.

Take something from a new genre and give it a new gloss. The first Star Wars films are basically a western with political backgrounds that have been changed from pistols to lightsabers and hats to stormtroopers etc. Appealed to a future opposed to history. The archetype is very close to structures of that genre of film.

Godzilla - King Kong poster - holding hands, with the Japanese flag/sun in the background. Been constructed thinking about the symbolic resonance of the image and the ambiguity of what it represents building into the invisible semiotics.

Hello kitty 

No background or story, there was nothing there in the first instance. No real cat, no real story, however, has had massive effects on children's reality in particular. Simulation is a creation of a thing with its own hyper reality. It may have multiple-narratives supporting it that will engage with different cultures and demographics.

GDP

We started by looking at the GDP in relation to land mass across the world. It was not a direct correlation between the larger land masses and where the wealth was, however. More wealth was congregated in smaller areas of the world where the weather people are living and setting up businesses. Looking in capita terms is a more accurate way of looking at, however, both of these have been affected by historical events.

Emerging markets - Problem areas

- Countries and markets that are now developing / potential markets for new businesses.

China
India
Russia             BRICK COUNTRIES  - high potential, high growth, large resources etc.
Brazil

Middle east
China / Taiwan        PROBLEM COUNTRIES - Problem reasons.
Russia

Interconnectivity of Technology

The reason why these things are important is because these countries may be investing in the UK. Some of your clients may well be from these investors who will be a new economic powerhouse.

Key issues with China


South China Sea - Chinese navy has been becoming exceptionalist, taking over land and islands by force.

Donald Trump - Not respecting of china, but with some reason. China needs to adhere to world issues.

India - Much more westernised. better trading with the world.

Budgeting

Budgets 

In today's lecture with Peter, we looked into organisations using budgets.

A budget is an allocation of money (or resource) in order to undertake a particular task. Maybe a project, or a time period, or both. An allocation is only proposed however, therefore a budget is usually inaccurate as it is a guess.

Budget - proposed resource allocation.
Actual - Actual resource used
Variance - Difference between the two.  (Positive, negative, neutral)
Cumulative variance - All of the variances added together.

They are there to help understand where and how your money is being spent which then help to save money the next time around. Over time the information gathered from previous budgets will help to create a more accurate budget for the future.

It is always good practice to create a safety net out of the budget that you receive. An example of this would be getting a £100,000 budget and taking 10% of that as a reserve. You would then have a budget of £90,000 to work with, and if things go wrong somewhere along the line, you will still have money to fix the problem. Your data sheets should always be up to date, always taking the variances that you accumulate off of the budget.

Business planning

We first discussed the purpose of business planning. This was what you as a person want out of the business. Some of the reasons could be things such as having a healthy income, wanting to make some good profit or even having enough money to give to charity and help other people. It is important that you are truthful with yourself about what you want to achieve through the company. 

We then discussed the type of businesses. These include Freelance, Ltd, Semi-partnership / partnership. 

It is also important to know what nature the business is. Obviously, you can not be starting a business that is illegal. You should be thinking what you can be doing and not just what you want to do. As a designer, for example, you may move into other markets and not just advertise yourself as a graphic designer, but as a general designer in general. 

Finally, its is important to think about where the business is going to be located from a geographical standpoint. When starting up a business you need to be realistic, therefore it is a good idea to start in the UK and prove yourself in that market first before moving over to somewhere such as New York. It is a realistic goal to want to open a practice in America, however, that would be more realistic further down the line. 

All of these things need to be carefully thought out. These aspects are fundamental to success as if you have no direction, you will drift and unlikely be able to succeed. If yo have the knowledge of where you are, it will allow you to plan where you want to be. You should not start a business if all of these aspects are not hammered into place. 

Plans should deal with 3 distinct scenarios:

GOOD - What you hope for works. 

BAD - You are making enough to just survive, breaking even. Struggling to keep afloat. 

UGLY - Open for business and nothing happens. 

It is important to address what you would do in each situation. 

You should always split your needs into two groups. 

Group A - Personal life costs 

Group B - Business costs

Co-mingling these figures can make things confusing and can loose your money with the tax man.

To conclude, these things help you to realise when it is time to kill off the business.