A friend linked me to this book the other day. I have to say it’s quite clever in it’s use of typography. It’s worth having a look if you like pop up books and typography. I found it at the book depoistry for £11 pounds roughtly $21 in Australian.
While on the subject of animated or kinetic type, I found this video to be quite engaging.
If only there were videos like this when I was a child to help me learn the alphabet.
I just wanted to take a step back from design and concentrate on personalities for a moment. Quite recently I’ve been watching a series online called “Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory “. Although the series itself has almost nothing to do with design (unless cooking is considered a form of design, which is but a different subject altogether), what struck me with this series is Willie Harcourt-Cooze passion about chocolate making.
For my last project (D2-5 My Friend) I was given feedback that it was felt I wasn’t living the project. That there was no passion behind it. While I felt it was the opposite I took that feedback on board. It wasn’t until watching this series did I realise what our assessor is talking about. While I do enjoy eating chocolate, I don’t think I would ever become a passionate chocolate maker. However I believe I could become a more passionate multimedia developer.
There are many people in the world like Willie. An example my facilitator gave me at the beginning of the year is Graeme Base. Graeme Base who was on talking heads eariler this year, admitted to leaving everything behind in order to do what he loves. Much like Willie.
Unlike Willie and Graeme who are passionate about what they do, I would like to find a balance between what I am passionate about and my personal life. While this post has nothing to do with design I hope you can appreciate what passionate people do to follow what they love.
On feburary 11th we were requested to attend an industry visit to ballistic media. For this visit we are required to answer some questions:
Ballistic’s media has been around since 2003 and have a world wide audience. Their demographic are mainly from Western Europe and the USA. However they have a growing market in South Korea and China. Ballistic media are known through word of mouth and don’t really advertise much.
What is Ballistics business model? How do the designer contribute to this model?
Ballistic’s media incorporates two businesses. One is the publishing of books, both tutorial based and artistic based. The books are a showcase of art work from the best digital artist in the world. The books help artist show off their work, gain employment and validate their need as a digital artist.
Ballistic media also focuses on a website developed for the exact same demographic. The website also showcases artist work. As well as digital workshops, forums, portfolios, and many more. The website is where a lot of interactivity happens.
Designers contribute in many ways. They organise the content, navigation, layouts of books and websites.
What is the designer’s role at Ballistics?
Again the designer’s role at Ballistics is unique. The control the content, navigation and interface of the site. They decide what is appropriate content for the site. They also have to deal with briefs and confirmation of briefs.
Who do the designers have to work with?
The designers at Ballistic’s media work with a range of people from web programmers (both back and front end), art directors, marketing managers etc. Each person is expected to put the best work they are capable of. Despite this designers at Ballistic’s are always self learning. They learn what they have to get the job done. However the designers do know the importance of knowing what you know well and focus on the skill set they need to get the job they want.
How important is the interface of the website to the company?
The interface is part of the company which sells their image to world. It also displays their global image to world wide customers and clients. The interface is part of the company and the end demographic must be considered when redesigning the site.
What are the future developments for the website interface?
A redesign of the interface is in progress. Some customers have criticisms of the website and the designers are currently trying to address that.
For a link to the Ballistic’s Media homepage:
Can’t think of a name for your design company? Then have no fear, the breadline design naming company will do it for you. Though be warned you will probably get a name you don’t like such as Blue Moose Ltd.
I was having a look at interfaces that are intuitive and found this site to a great example. Some research shows to make a website more intuitive less is needed. So by some logic this site can be consider intuitive. My blog on the other hand is not. My blog is cluttered with links and the background is interfering with the interface. However the good thing about that, I can change it.
For a link to the site click below:
Being part of Adelaide I’m always on the look out for festivals to go to. Future Music Festival happens to be one I’m going to in March.
I had a look at their website while graphically it’s beautiful. The graphics are high quality, the music player is easy to find etc. The graphics go well with what the content of the site. It all fits together perfectly. It’s something I could only dream about doing at my current skill level. However there are some things that do make me ummmm and ahhh over this site.
The navigation for me is a bit confusing. It took me a little time to find the navigation links. I thought they would be at the top or on the giant grass ball hover they were at the bottom and almost black, which blended in with the website’s background. Also I don’t understand why the major graphic moves away from the mouse instead of being drawn to it. Trying to click “Adelaide” on the venues page was hard enough, and took over 2 minutes.
Saying that though the site is still well done and thought out. The site was made by regression and they have made some wonderful sites which can be seen on their site.
For a link to the future music festival:
This has been going around the youtube circuit for quite a while now. Though this is pretty clever especially if you have a cat. If you don’t have a cat they pretty much act like this except more annoying, come to think of it your probably lucky.
This animation works so well because it is simple and based on real life experiences. From my understanding it is done in flash and is possibly frame by frame animation. Simon Toefield is simply a wonderful animator.
Here’s a link to his youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/simonscat
and the company he works for:
I decided to take a look at BMW commercials from around the world. I used you tube as my resource
BMW commercial from Europe. Here they are using sex to sell the BMW 3 series car. It’s not unusual for this to be used in car commercials. I believe the advertisement was aimed at Italy. It’s appealing the visceral of the viewer. Showing how sexy cars can be.
A BMW commercial from japan. Instead of focus sing on the visceral this advertisement focuses on the behavioral of the car. Safety is the big selling point of the car in Japan. The commercial also shows what this car is capable of .
A BMW commercial from America. Here they focus sing on the reflective going through the entire history of BMW in America. They go through the different stages BMW has gone through and what they mean to the average american.
Although all the commercials focus on different things when selling, I feel that there is a few things in common. They are selling a brand and emotion to their buyers.
The brand is BMW and the emotion is happiness. No matter what country you are from you will be happy and satisfied with this product.
Last year my partner went to the pixar exhibition in Melbourne. I wasn’t able to attend due to other commitments. However he managed to get this book for me (I believe was the exhibition catalouge) and has excellent resources on character designs.
References:
Pixar: 20 years of animation. ACMI Australian centre for the moving image, Tia Krater. 2007