I attended another glut event on the 4th of may as i have been enjoying being active in the community of design and i find that it is a good way of making contacts with designers within the industry.
Whilst at this event and got talking to John from Kilogramme and was able to show him some of the work i have been making and he gave me his business card to send over more of my work and this is a clear example of how attending these events can break the ice and make connections. He also told me about some of the work he was working on and showed me some new pieces which is good for me keeping up to date on what people within the industry are working on.
There were 3 talks on at this event as well which i found very interesting.
Callum Peters is a UX Designer for BBC Children’s, working across responsive web, games and interactive experiences.After graduating with a Graphic Design degree, he worked agency-side as an interaction designer and in 2013 joined BBC User Experience & Design.Working on BBC iWonder, Callum helped to create a new way to discover amazing factual content, and co-lead the design of the BBC Bitesize App which supports children and adults with their education. In Children’s, he is helping to shape the next generation of experiences for the BBC’s younger audience.He is exploring what conversational UI can offer and is curious about the future of automotive UX. He is passionate about creating opportunities to bring young talent through, both at the BBC and through his role as a youth work volunteer.
Designing for children at the BBC
Callum from the BBC was the first to talk. He explained that he has work for BBC for 3 years and that he has been working on website and games design for the BBC for children.
I found his talk very interesting and inspiring as he was discussing how when considering an audience for your work it is important to actually try and gather feedback from them as it can be inspiring and make you approach and view your own outlook in a different way.
He went on to explain how when they were designing games for children that using the children's imaginative drawings for their ideas of characters gave a better and more appropriate to the audience form of inspiration to create the characters from. This is a good example of how as a designer you can not expect to know everything even the audience you are creating the work for and doing research and gathering information and recourses for an accurate and appropriate way of reaching out to the audience is a really good way to break these creative boundaries.
He explained that he was working on a game for the bitesize app on re designing subtitles in the game and approach a school for deaf children in lancaster to see how they interacted with and viewed the subtitles. He called tho eco creation.
I thought that this is a really important thing to consider my self as i would like to continue with my growth with regards to my creative idea development on my work and seeing things from another persons point of view is always a great way to look at things in new ways.
The next talk was by a freelance designer Jane Bowyer - Designer & Illustrator working at islington mill.
She spoke about how working on personal projects is important for self development and fuelling passion for work which is defiantly something i will do especially now that i am on the verge of finishing my degree as my major project was incredibly and enjoyable for me and important i think in my finding of self as a designer as it was something i was passionate about and so a delved into new areas of style and design and skills and i think it was a very rewarding and important part of my development as a designer, so i agree with her ideas on this.
She explained how as a freelancer it can become lonely and un inspiring by working as a freelancer as you are not able to have the option to communicate with other designers as much and said that it is important to stay active with other creatives still, even if its just meeting up for lunch to still have that creative flow and communication with other which could inspire ideas for work.
She said that perfection is a monster that is never full and is scared to fail and will not take risks. This is something i should consider with my self as well as taking risks is how to grow and expand.
She said that passion isn't scared of failure and drives the creator forwards and will push the work approach to new limits.
I liked how she was talking about love of work and evolving forward doing things you like as feel like i have found a big appreciation in my self and my work whilst studying this courses and feel that i have more respect for myself to not just take whatever comes my way but to grow as a designer doing what i love and i am passionate about. I also have more confidence about pulling my weight within the industry because of this.
She also spoke about amen in print which is personal project she explained she had been working on and getting other female designers involved with as she was passionate about addressing the social issues of women in society and celebrating women as artists and representing them more.
I found this and the way she spoke about it very inspiring and will start my own personal projects my self and expand my own passion for work.
18/04/17
For this brief I had to contact someone within the industry to set a brief for me to work on and treat this a live brief as though working for a client. When i met up with Matt Geiling from fuzzy Duck i requested if he could give me the live brief for this project and this is what he sent me:
Brief:
Create a 30-60 second motion graphic based on the following theme:
"visualise the state of mind of a man who will do anything to keep his family legacy together, but by keeping it will destroy it. Or should he give it away, to no longer own it but to allow it to be preserved for others to enjoy.
This is the fate of the last squire of Eddrig Hall in Wrexham, Wales. Feel free to take any direction you like with this, and most importantly have fun with it.
It was in 1973, that Philip Yorke, the last Squire of Erddig gave the house and estate to the National Trust as neither Philip or his brother Simon married there were no direct heirs.
Philip Yorke was born in 1905 the second son of Philip Yorke and his second wife, Louisa. His brother Simon born in 1903 was the heir. His father Philip was born in 1849, the son of Simon and Victoria Yorke. Philip was Mayor of Wrexham in 1896-7. When their father Philip Senior died in 1922 the estate began to decline. Income from the estate never high began to decline and staff were laid off and the house began to decay. Problems from mining at Bersham colliery caused the house to sink more one end than the other. Simon became a reclusive and visitors particularly officialdom were not welcome. However it did mean that the house although decayed was not altered. Philip inherited the estate in 1966. Before that he had lived a rather hand to mouth existence. He had been an actor/manager; holiday tour operator. He is remembered for riding his penny farthing around the district. The gift to the National Trust was worth 3 million but negotiations were protracted. Philip Yorke died in 1978.
The other prominent member of the family was the first Philip Yorke. 1743-1804. He inherited the estate from his uncle John Meller in 1767. He took part in the social life and local government particularly the Militia and sat in Parliament twice for pocket boroughs. He was the author of the Royal Tribes of Wales which brought together his genealogical and antiquarian research. There is a room in Erddig which features the coats of arms of the chief North Wales families. He set about improving the estate and house and dining room where his portrait was one of his improvements.
A Lovespoon is a wooden spoon decoratively carved that was traditionally presented as a gift of romantic intent. The lovespoon was given to a young woman by her suitor. It was important for the girl's father to see that the young man was capable of providing for the family and woodworking.
Sailors would often carve lovespoons during their long journeys, which is why anchors would often be incorporated into the carvings.
Certain symbols came to have specific meanings: a horseshoe for luck, a cross for faith, bells for marriage, hearts for love, a wheel supporting a loved one and a lock for security, among others. Caged balls indicated the number of children hoped for. Other difficult carvings, such as chains, were as much a demonstration of the carver's skill as a symbolic meaning.
I decided that this could be an interesting way to tell the tale of how Philipe York of eroding hall has no offspring to inherit the hall and how this effected his keeping of the hall as well as the coal mines crumbling beneath it.
The building was sold to the master of the Chancery, John Meller in 1714. John Meller refurbished and enlarged the house (including adding two wings in the 1720s), and, on his death in 1733 unmarried and childless, passed it to his nephew, Simon Yorke (d. 1767) (first cousin of Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke). The house was passed down through the Yorke family until March 1973, when it was given to the National Trust. This followed the collapse several years earlier of a shaft from the nearby coal mine (Bersham colliery) under the house, causing subsidence of 5 feet (1.5 m), which seriously affected the structural security of the house to the extent that, without suitable underpinning, it would have become a ruin. It was strengthened using the compensation of £120,000 the National Trust was able to extract from the National Coal Board.
welsh mythology and symbolisms`:
Birds are usually used to represent prophetic knowledge, (Davidson, 91) bloodshed, and skill. In an omen, birds can be either the message or the messenger. For example, Morrígan came in the shape of a bird to warn the Brown Bull (Kinsella, 98). The interpretation of their calls and movements can lead to knowledge of future events. Birds, especially ravens and crows, usually presage bloodshed and battle, when they are associated with it, sticking with the theme of prophesy. Deirdre's dream of three birds drawing blood foreshadowed death and Lleu Llaw Gyffes was shedding rotting flesh and maggots while in the form of an eagle. The Irish war goddesses were said to call the ravens down to battle fields to feast on the flesh of the slain (Davidson, 98). Even normal, modern crows and ravens descend to feed on corpses along the road.
Serpents and dragons symbolize trouble. Whenever they appear, strife and infertility follow. King Arthur's troubles with the future of his kingdom are presaged by dreams of dragons and serpents at the time of Sir Mordred's conception. King Arthur drives them out, but is wounded (Baines, 36). King Arthur is finally devoured by them in his last dream, subsequently his next battle is when Sir Mordred kills him. It is interesting to note that it is the appearance of a snake that initiates the battle. The swine herders before the Tain, Friuch and Rucht, ruin each other's land with snow during their magical fight, while in the forms of dragons (Ford, 48). Dragons should be particularly troubling to a king, because the king is the symbol of the fertility of the tribe and its land and the dragons are the counter symbol, laying waste to the land and preventing new growth.
I like how this video encompasses al the elements of what defines leonardo and his work but in a college format and in a way that is also visual entertaining without going into too much detail so as for it to become drawn out or boring.
This is something i would like to incorporate into my pice.
I like the style of this video and the cut out sillhoueette shapes and transitions and flow between scenes and aspects of the video and again i like how it is visually entertaining and symbolic. which is a quality that is reflected in welch culture, again making this style relevant as inspiration for my own work. The Sacrifice from Grasshorse on Vimeo.
I also chose to use this video as a means of inspiration for my piece as it is a showing a narrative for historical events in an entertaining and creative way and looking at the mind set and emotions of the characters as well which relates to what i am trying to do for my work.
Coal mines under the Hall is an important factor of the story i am trying to express and narrative the emotions of as it was one of the reasons that Philipe Yorke had to give up his legacy.
to tie my piece together i have decided to use a welsh song for the duration of my animation as the theme and events of erdig hall and philipe yorke are based in whales:
Looking at snake movements for when i animate my snake:
modeling:
cell shading for stylised effect:
I chose to use the cloudy circle to frame the majority of this piece to symbolise the mind set and the story of philpie yorke in a dream like manner.
The animation starts of showing him starting at Erdig hall to represent the stem of th problems that he is encountering. It then show a love spoon that i have animated with a snake weaving round it. The love spoon then breaks and disappears. The love spoon is to symbolise love and family and as it breaks this shows how these dreams were shattered or never happened at Philip did not have an children to inherit his legacy. The snake that i have made weave around the love spoon is to symbolise misfortune or a bad omen with this aspect of his life and to bring in some welsh cultural mythology references.
My piece then goes on to show the lamp which is a symbol of miners and the coal mines and the falling rock represent how the mining cavern beneath the house started to cause the house to become too difficult for him to upkeep and was one of the reasons that lead him to have to sacrifice it.
The chair with the cloak over it is a welsh symbol of sacrifice and shows him giving up what he thought to be his legacy.
i used a welsh song to bind my piece together and tie in the cultural historical placing of the events as this was all in wales. The song also has a tone of sadness to it which amplifies the emotions of the tale.
My Idea Development:
Subject Area:
This
is a personal project based on a client driven brief that was set for me by
Fuzzy Duck Studios in media city after I contacted them regarding the brief.
This
is the brief I was give:
Create a 30-60
second motion graphic based on the following theme:
"visualise
the state of mind of a man who will do anything to keep his family legacy
together, but by keeping it will destroy it. Or should he give it away, to no
longer own it but to allow it to be preserved for others to enjoy.
This is the
fate of the last squire of Eddrig Hall in Wrexham, Wales. Feel free to take any
direction you like with this, and most importantly have fun with it.
How i investigate the subject:
I
have done research on Erig Hall and Philip York who owned the property and had
to give it away due to coal mines making the building crumble and no children
to inherit his legacy.
I
have done research on welsh culture and mythology of symbolisms and iconography
that I can use in my piece to make it relevant to the cultural setting and the
historical time zone of the events.
Nature Of Inquiry:
The
fact that the brief mentioned to imagine the mind set of Philip made me want to
take a slightly more abstract approach to creating my animation and displaying
this story to the audience and I have decided to create quite a dream ;like
representation of Philips troubles.
Outcomes:
This
will be taking the format of a short film and story. I want it to be
interesting and intriguing and potentially interest people in research more
about Philip however it will not be intended to be informative I will just be
using the research of the events to fuel my ideas and my inspiration.
Medium/Media:
I
plan to be using cinema 4D to model and animate my ideas as I have been
enjoying this process a lot and would like to explore this process further as
this will be my last project i would like to have the opportunity to utilize
this again. Based on my research I would like to create potentially a mostly
black and white piece with cell shading visualize to create a stylized and
visually interesting piece that make the mind wander.
Rationale :
I decided to take the path of creating a more abstract story piece as I wanted the chance to be creative with my creations for this last piece and even to add a bit of my own personal style into my creation and taking the symbolic abstract route was a good way for me to do this as opposed to trying to inform people on the events. I also wanted the option to delve into 3D animation again but with the new process of using 3D program to create a 2D animation using cell shading so that I had a new skill set to explore and experiment with.
Client Feedback:
I explained my idea to matt at the alumni night for my animation and he told me that the idea of creating an abstract and imaginative piece was a good idea and a nice creative approach to the brief. He said that the idea of having silhouette style elements for my piece and bringing in welsh cultural references was a good idea and he liked that fact that i was taking a 3D approach with the use of cell shading as well as he has seen my previous 3D work and said that he was defiantly interested in seeing more.
He mentioned that It is a good idea to use the idea of going inside the mind set of Philip york and said it would be a good idea to think of how to communicate this realm i am trying to display to the audience which is where i came up with the idea of using the smokey cloud effect to frame my animation.
My finished piece:
Erdig Hall2 from rachel on Vimeo.
I feel like i do really like the flow of this piece and how i have connected each of the scenes and ideas to that opt the symbolic reference of my ideas connections to the events of erdig hall. I do think that this piece might be a little bit confusing with regards to content for a viewer who did not know about the events of philip and erdig hall however that was not my intention for this brief, my intention was to utilise the freedom that fuzzy duck gave me for the brief to creatively create a piece that was fun and intriguing and maybe getting people asking for more.
