Why design?

British people love to shop. Fact. Whether we have enough money or not is a secondary thought for some people. So what's the first thing that goes through your mind when your out and about?

Well to answer this question, we have to ask ourselves. When we're in a shop, we see things we like, decide we want it, then look at the price and negotiate how we can afford to get the item, even if it means sacrificing other things.

It's this stage that's the most difficult. When a new product comes out, such as the iPod touch, or a new fancy laptop or mobile phone, we admire the product for what it looks like, what it can do and how well it'll match our personalities or dress sense.

Apple now create their iPods in a variety of different colours. Pink for the more feminine people, blue for the more "boy-racer" people, silver for the trendy people and now even black with the iPod touch for those who want to flash their cash. So why are we more willing to spend our money on products that look good as well as perform well?

There's several answers to this, firstly, the recession is a time where people don't have as much money and therefore it's now more socially important than ever to get these products to make us look rich and well off, as if the recession isn't bothering or affecting you in anyway. Secondly, we're willing to pay more as we have confidence and trust in certain companies. When we're investing in a laptop for example, we trust that Dell will create a well made machine that will do exactly what we want and well. As do we trust Apple to create MP3 players that sound great and look funky.

But why do we want these products to do more for us than just function properly? It's all very well having a laptop or mobile phone that runs fast and makes calls and texts, but that's not why we pay £300 and over. If we wanted a phone that did just that, we could get one that costs around £20. However, we invest so much into these gadgets because they look great and to be seen with the latest object of desire is sure to boost your street credibility. There's a growing pressure upon us as consumers to invest into these gadgets as they can do so much for us, and by pushing this, we invest into what we believe will make our lives easier and more convenient.

The companies who make phones, such as Nokia, are always telling us that you basically can't live without it. For example, the new N96 has satellite navigation tools built in, and Nokia are able to promote this as "you'll never get lost again" which is virtually telling us that we DO get lost and that THIS phone will stop that happening. What did we used to do when we get lost? Either get out a map or go ask someone, which is a much cheaper option of course. However, Nokia are saying that you no longer need to do that as it's all included in this one phone, alone with the usual calculator, calender, camera, sound recorder, music player, address book, mobile television etc.

Final Version: Girls

Finaly! After 3 painful weeks of renaming, filtering, re-filtering, rerenaming and nameing and refiltering and putting together and taking apart and adapting and moving and cutting and squashing, I can now unveil the final version for my pixilation animation project!!

This dance mix of "Girls" by the Sugababes is an excellent track to experiement with pixilation effects. I took an original remix and cut it down to about 6 minutes and then decided to add into it all the filtered photos as well as utilising the originals. The outcome is a pretty sweet dance video that's fun to watch and keeps the pace up.

There's no real meaning behind the video other than a journey, and it's deffinatly been an eventful one through the creating of this video! So sit back and enjoy, while i go nurse my throbing headache!

I know what!

As usual, the best ideas smack me in the face just as it's too late!!

Just listening to Sam Sparro's album, there's a track called Recycle It! and it's given me such vision to do the pixilation project on recycling. I could've made a really funky and cool video about recycling things which would address today's concerns in society about recycling and making an effort towards C02. Damn!

I may do this as part of my next project instead, or film it anyway as a video to add to my collection.

Pixilation Project: Another Version

I was never fully happy with my first attempt at my pixilation project and tried to find a way of improving it. I decided to film more of the train, and include our group work. I've now made a second version, using the song "They" by Jem. I feel this version has more of a spiritual feel to it. It's more about finding out who you are, why we do things and where we want to head in the future.

I also applied a "warm" colouring to the original outside photographs which is clearly evident in comparison to the Bright Idea video. I felt that its given the new video a more colourful feel, and makes the video seem more optimistic and fun, rather than gloomy and depressing, which didn't really match the Bright Idea song.

In total, the new version took me over 12 hours to produce using over 4,000 photos.
Hopefully, I'll try and make another video, using a more prominant filter on the photographs.

Bebo: A Small Idea

Just a quick thought, after reading a report about how Bebo was created and sold to AOL for over £523m, it's amazing to see how far a little idea can go and expand.

The creator, Xochi Birch, spent hours in her bedroom playing around with various ideas for companys including LemonLink and BirthdayAlarm. But after persistance and selling some quite profitable companys, she stumbled across social networking sites. After creating Bebo, she found that people had joined, but were not returning. Once convincing them to return and upload pictures, this turned around and Bebo is now the most successful social site in Ireland, second in the UK and third in the US.

I guess what I'm getting at, is that if you have an idea and it doesn't work out, keep trying untill you hit your goal. Determination and talent is the key to success.

Nokia - The Morph Concept (300 - 500 Word Essay)

Nokia Research Centre have been working with the Cambridge Nanoscience Centre to create and invest into Nanoscience technologies.

The Morph Concept technologies could take the mobile phone and increase it's usability and functionality with various new ideas including flexible and transparent materials which will bend and shape enabling to wear your phone like a watch or wristband. Other technologies include the ability to self-clean, self preserve, and even charge the battery through absorbing solar power to charge smaller and long lasting batteries. The concept's technologies also hope to include various sensors which will tell us about the environment and enables us to make more informed decisions about our diets and what the weather is like for example.

All of these new technologies are going to let us communicate in more exciting ways, in a smaller space by enhancing the usability of such a small device. By stretching the phone, the user can create various shapes like having a more square design for a music player, rectangle for the phone or even bend then phone back on itself to wear as a wristband.

One of the most exciting aspects of the Morph Concept is it's ability to sense the surroundings, a good example could be taking an apple and eating it, but the phone will alert you that the fruit requires washing before consumption.

A similar project that Nokia are working on is the Aeon concept. These phones aren't as aspirational as the Morph Concept but I see it as bridging the gap between the two, and one day in the future, our phones will no doubt be just like the Morph Concept. Not much is known about the Aeon concept other than the phone is touch screen and possibly splittable into two parts. Nokia labs are experimenting with the technology and design so there's no definitive answer.

The impact these two concepts has on the industry, mobile or not, could be incredible. The ability for electronic devices, especially portable ones, to be able to guide us in our every day lives could prove essential in the future as we become a nation cautious about health and well being.

I believe the impact the phones will have on the market could be massive. The iPhone has rocketed in success and that only offers the ability to surf the Internet where ever you are and includes touch screen capabilities. The Morph Concept offers so much more than that, and if this is the way technology is going, over the next 10 years, we could have computers telling us who to be friends with by analysing our phone calls and face to face conversations, the possibilities are tremendous.

Sources:
Nokia: http://www.nokia.com/A4852062
YouTube: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IX-gTobCJHs
Ubergizmo: http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/05/nokia_aeon_concept_goes_live.html
Mobile Whack: http://www.mobilewhack.com/nokia-aeon-concept-phone/
Engadget Mobile: http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/10/08/nokias-aeon-full-surface-screen-cellphone-concept/

Pixilation Project Progression

Due to difficulties in my private life, ive not been able to update my blog as much as I wanted. But that doesn't mean I've stopped thinging about my project.

Having put together the first draft of my video, no sound, it seems really hard to watch as the camera's moving all over the place and it gives you a headache fairly quickly. I found myself really stuck as to what to do, then my mum suggested that I filmed a model train set. Showing it started at the shed and working through the track and arriving at a station.

I decided to integrate the two ideas and add the Orson song, Bright Idea. The video now represents the hectic student life, the hustle and bustle of a new city with the direction of trying to find your way back home and to some familiarity. I chose Bright Idea as it's a perfect song to kick start my portfolio at Uni as you can relate it to all the Bright Idea's Multimedia students will have and their creativity that'll be expressed.

In other words, it's very relevent to now and looking forward to the future to come.

Pixilation Project Thought

My first thoughts for the video were to go from my room in halls and take photos of the entire journey back home to my room in Derby.

I've finished the shooting for it and I'm just putting together the "prototype" now. After a motivating lecture today, I'm wondering whether or not to scrap that idea and focus on another idea of mine involving stationary and create more of an advert for NTU or even focus on creating words with socks and promote an advert for Primark or something.

Lots to think about, maybe i'll just do all those ideas and see which looks best!

Still wondering what sound to use though, a song isn't really creative enough, however i'm a bit limited as to what I can create audiowise as I don't have much background knowledge with it.

Time to whip out Dance Ejay!

Pixilation Project

A projet for us to work on has come at a good time. I was beginning to feel a bit lost, a bit lathargic with Multimedia. We hadn't really started anything and I looked ahead at the assignment and thought "what the hell is it asking me to do?!". I even showed my mum, who works at Derby Uni and she was unsure. Since my lecture today, I was pleased to hear we'd be given more guidance in future lectures, which was very welcome news!

Putting my anxieties aside, the pixilation project sounds like fun! We began shooting it today. Me and two other guys, Tom and Nick went outside and filmed various shots on the grass, no real aim or story to it, which at first made me a bit apprehensive, but using this as a starting base, I will take it, utilise it, and progress with an idea of my own, with a bit of an idea from Nick. Using my own camera, ill take my journey from my halls, all the way home to Derby, sort of documenting the journey, focusing on things I see and notice as I walk through the two cities. Hopefully this will be a good introduction into animation and multimedia as I will be introducing myself through the journey from Uni to Home and using a modern song (currently undecided) which I like, to express myself.

We'll see how it goes, at least this idea has more of a focus and structure to it, and of course, ill be using bits of the already filmed stuff along the way!

Sex and the City

My partner, his flatmate and myself decided to have a relaxing night in and watch the Sex and the City film the other night. We're all quite different people so I thought it would be interesting to blog their different reactions.

The film's basically about 4 different women living mainly in New York.

My partner is quite a cynical person and his view on the plot was quite interesting. His favourite character, Samantha, is quite promiscuous, portrayed as someone who indulges in a lot of sexual activities and would never get married. This reflects his own beliefs almost exactly. On most of the romantic scenes or anything relating to a love emotion, his reaction was usualy to say "bah, get me a bucket", "puke" or "don't worry love, you'll get over him eventually".

On the other hand, his flat mate (male) would tell him to jokely "shut up" or make comments such as "aww, that's so sweet". His favourite character would probably be Carrie, the one who's finally fallen in love, and is getting married, only to be left at the alter by her fiance. In a discussion afterwards, it turns out that he would love to get married and thought it was going to happen quite recently.

Myself, on the other hand was stuck between the two. Whilst I like the romance and intimacy of a relationship, I also love the promiscuity and enjoyment of the single life. Therefore, the character I related to would've been Miranda. The one who's got a full time job, trying to run around her children and making sure everyone's happy, occasionally slipping up and saying the wrong thing. She loves her husband, but when it goes wrong, she's hard to convince that she should take him back.

An interesting set of prospectives and I think Sex and the City has something for everyone, a character for all of us, no matter what level of cynism your on.

Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy

Family Guy creator, Seth MacFarlane, has crashed into the advertising world with his brand new short clip comedy sketches.

Written and produced in the same style as the hit TV show, Family Guy, MacFarlane has managed to tackle the advertising world head on and has made adverts seem fun and exciting through the use of pure humour.

Not all of MacFarlane's videos will appeal to everyone, but if you "get" Family Guy, you'll no doubt love and enjoy his short comedic sketches, including characters such as Mr and Mrs Sticknipples and an Angry Scottsman.

I think the appeal of the videos is that the comedy is so "normal". In many of the sketches, you can imagine having the same conversation, but it's just because MacFarlane takes these situations a step further that they really become entertainment, and if these situations are so normal, surely we're just laughing at ourselves?

http://www.sethcomedy.com/

Pizza/Pasta Hut

Interesting to see Pizza Hut are re-branding big style to keep up with the growing concerns in society about healthy eating and what is actually entering their bodies.

Pizza Hut, launched 1973, are changing their name to Pasta Hut in a £100 million six-year refurbishment programme where they are currently revamping the interiors and changing their menus to be pasta based with the pizza as an option for the unhealthier customers.

Ever since a few years ago, the UK have become increasingly worried about their food intake and how healthy their lifestyle is. It's no wonder that food chains have decided to jump at the chance to cash in on the craze. McDonalds seemed to be well ahead of the game as they've had their salad bowls and healthier alternatives for Happy Meals on their menu for a good 5 or 6 years.

I think it's great companies are taking the step to make the UK healthier, however, is it really going to work? At the end of the day, we're the ones who choose what we eat. Maybe we're just choosing to be healthier, or have we been victims of covert advertising?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/name-change-for-pizza-hut-953000.html

Whiteboards

Using a white board, we had to produce a stop-motion video of about 120 frames for 10 seconds of footage. The principle was to get a box from the left hand side of a house, to the other side, by drawing each frame as it happened.

I found this fun and exciting to see our creation come together and to work with other people to share their thoughts on how to move the box. A very time consuming process which is physically draining, but the end result will look great!

The box opens up, and lets out a few balloons, the house's roof cracks open and a stick man climbs out of it and a tree grows at the side where a bird takes rest and smokes a cigarette and lays an egg, which then hatches into another box.

I've experimented with stop-motion video before using, quite simply, my bedroom carpet and a few trucks and blobs of blu-tak to create the scene of an airport. Very simple stuff, but was invaluable to see how stop-motion pictures work.

Ka-Boom!-!!

Bang! We've landed. Into the world of... "huh?"
So many new things to learn and people to meet. Now is the time to make an impression, to start our futures, to make our own decisions.

And here's what I want to do get out of Multimedia, in addition to passing of course...
I think it's important to remember that Multimedia is a mixture of different areas and I'm excited about all the aspects. Multimedia was generally my hobby anyway, always creating videos and I even had my own radio station, but I thought it was about time I got some education, rather than experimenting around the subject. So yeah, in addition to passing, I'm wanting to become a more educated person within Multimedia and enjoy expressing my creativity.

My first week has been pretty good! Living in Derby means it's never that far for me to return home or see my partner, however, you still miss them like crazy! Flat mates have been approaching me when they've needed hugs or felt a bit down, which is nice to know I can help. My room's looking very homely and warm, which is nice when you feel a bit alienated. Been out almost every night so far, including a horrendous night on Sunday, which involved being dragged out of the toilet, into a cab and up to bed by a student rep (Thanks Thunder Thighs!) and undressed by Ash. (Thank you, but let's not tell everyone about what you saw!) So far, an eventful week and it'll hopefully only get better!