Web Site

www.victoriareynolds.com

Essay

My essay question is;

Is our history of technology design having an adverse effect on its future? Is our rate of progress being slowed by our dependency on tradition and convention?

I originally got the interest in the changing of designs from the 20th century to the present day, I am interested in design after the second world war and during the cold war, how was development of technology politically motivated? This goes way back to January when I went to the V & A Museum. I also found the rise of the 1990's interesting, the way in which products were designed were also effected by huge advances in technology. Also the huge communicative power in design was recognised from anti-consumerism, AIDS and environmental activists.

I have researched old quotes and footage from the 1950's to see what predications were made back then and too see how far we have come with those in the 21st century:

I wanted to look at why these things like some shown in this clip have not come about yet, have countries such as Japan who are the lead in future design had to stop designing due to not enough sales. I was interested in the development of technology such as telephones, home computer and television from the early days to now.

The difference in the design process, for example the discovery of streamlining which is significant to the shell and style of today's technology. Why designers design the way they do today, the problems they face such as products that don't work as mentioned in Don Norman's Book - the Design of Everyday Things. Also John Heskett's book - Industrial Design took a look at why designs were made and how this applies to today. John Maeda - Laws of Simplicity and Product Design by Graeme Vickers helped me understand how important it is to sell a product if it is kept simple. I was interested to research the marketing and advertisement changes from the past such as computer games.

The final part of the essay, I researched robots and how technology today communicates with us, do we feel comfortable with that. Technology today is starting to develop personalities such as AIBO, ASIMO, Roomba as well as NeCoRo and Actroids:

John Rimmer

Really enjoyed his talk, he spoke about the design and psychology behind it which is fantastic as this is what I was wanting to do for my dissertation. Talked alot about how can we move from physical to digital for example having books on your shelf makes an impression, websites such as facebook are recognising these aspects. I copied his PowerPoint presentation and he recommended a book called Jacob Nielson - Usability and a text book called Interactive Design also Donald Norman's Design of Everyday Things.

Talked and showed us alot of badly designed objects/machines that were quite funny. Definitely will be looking more at his stuff for my dissertation.

Saraphina Anderson

Saraphina came into see us in the afternoon to show us her work me, myself and I. Seraphina is an artist who, at present does not make any money from her work. Her work involves looking at her inner most feelings and simply showing it through video. I thought it was quite a brave thing to do and also quite unsettling. I didn't feel too comfortable watching the work but I can understand why she is interested in that side of art. Showing your vulnerable and highly emotional side through your work is quite a difficult thing to do.

Character Ideas

I got inspiration off drawings on the internet and cartoons such as Grumpy and Donald. I Like Hitchcock's face it looks super grumpy and his face shape is right. I have this image in my head of the old typical looking grump. I suppose that would come from Scrooge.

I want to add sound into my animation but only through small things like burping, slight movement like scratching head, slurping out of a glass. I would like there to be a song in the background such as Ackerbilk - Stranger on the shore. This was my Dad's favourite song and the more I animate this character he reminds me more and more of him maybe sub-consciously that is who I am basing him on, this is what I have created in Illustrator:

I've discovered a great website for sound http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/


This site was where I got my clock tic sound and rain and slurp, in fact all of my sounds. It's a great website but you can't register with a hotmail account.

Character Ideas

Ok, work has been a major pain. They have decided to have the busiest winter I have ever experienced in my time there which is great for the most important year!!. Oh well with all the set backs I am still staying focused. My aim is PMA Positive Mental Attitude. I shout that to myself everyday...very loudly so I hear it. Find that helps. So when I am not working I am at home eating peanut butter sandwiches and working on my character project. My friends will call and say are you coming out...before they finish the sentance I say NO NOT TILL JUNE!. Although I did venture to Mark Little Talent Contest a while ago and after my friends getting over the star struck thing (god knows why!) proceded to drink too much wine and heckled my way through the performances. Was quite good to see how performing arts students do their stuff.

Anyway how does that relate to character animation well as Micheal put it isn't Mark Little a character!!, that and all the other character's that performed. I actually got some inspiration from there. That being my character will daydream off into the moonlight thinking of himself playing the clarinet on stage.

I know what I want my character to look like. He will have a huge nose, grey hair, will wear, vest and shorts be very pasty white and a grumpy old sod. As he is going to be a pub landlord he will smoke and drink obviously. Although he is a grumpy old git he will be a sensitive soul too. Inspiration comes from these characters and especially Al Murray. Although mainly my experiences with landlords.

D & AD

Reading through the lots and lots of brief ideas I am torn between choosing one for illustration and advertising or one for animation. Animation would mean I can use flash again and I am just getting into that since my last project. The briefs that currently interest me are Nando's as I like the style of the current website. It comes across as very cosmopolitan. I was also thinking of keeping things simple and choosing a travel brief such as lastminute.com and Virgin, although neither mention that an airport or travel stuff need to be included.

My mind is going more and more towards the animation brief though. It is for a character animation of your choice of not more that 20 to 60 seconds. It explains that you should concentrate on animating it's personality as opposed to just focusing on the look of the character. It can be based on yourself or someone you know or simply fictional. I did a few mind bubbles and came up with various characters I have met over the years. Thinking of people I work with past and present. What traits do they possess, what annoys me about them or what do I like about them. Thinking of all these things I came up with an idea of a grumpy bloke. There was once a pub I worked in, I only lasted one night mainly because of the man who ran the place. He was obnoxious, rude and very loud when talking to his staff, to the customers it was a different matter. I have been back since and being a customer ( he doesn't recognise me anymore), it was a totally different story, I saw a totally different side to him, noticed how much the pub meant to him, it was his life and he put all his energy into that, quite humbling.



I'd like to maybe bring two sides of a character out. One side to be grumpy, fed up with his job, getting old and a more day dreamer side. I spoke with Linzi who came second in the D & AD awards last year. I showed her three storyboard ideas one based on the evolution of dance (above). Really like this clip very funny. I was thinking of animating my own character to different music. The other clip was based on a idea whilst I was out in a bar a few weeks ago, the camera basically acts as the character's eye and the only time you see the character is when she looks in a mirror or through a reflection in the window, problem with this was it didn't fully answer the brief. My final idea was the landlord slob and he smokes, drinks, fed up but wishes he had done something else with his life.