Reflective Self-Analysis

The prospect of working as a group with the others from the class was in fact quite an exciting thing when the brief was first handed out. As predicted, the work ethic while working as a group is far different to working by yourself. And as much as you could attain new knowledge from your fellow group-mates, you never know what kinds of stuff to expect from them. It is a fair thought that certain individuals have certain kinds of expectations on things, as much as you try to have an open mind to things with your peers, you can’t possibly aspect to receive the same from the others.

By working on this past Future Lions brief with the few others from the class is that, it was nice in a sense that it helps open up our minds as to what we should be expecting from the industry as graphic design students, not to mention having the opportunity to work with the other talents from the class. But at times, I find that it rather difficult for the group to keep the work-flow and discussions going. On top of that with the holidays peaking in at one point with myself needing to leave the country, it was difficult to keep in contact with the others despite the plannings prior the break.

As much as we have better knowledge and handling of the programmes introduced to us compared to the time when we first join the course, I was wondering whether it would be a lot more appropriate to hand us a ‘group-brief’ similar to this during the first year instead of it being over holiday season of the second year? But regardless, I’m glad how the group manage to get by at the end of the day.

Slide Images – Finished Montage

Image Pool – For Montage

Future Ideas(For this Innovation)

“AR” Codes –

By taking on the future trends in which most movie goers would have a cell-phone that possess video taking capabilities, the first step in which what the future would be like for movie goers is to introducing the Augmented Reality feature onto cinema tickets. ‘AR’ technology at this stage is quite simple and straightforward. Despite the development still at its infancy, the functions in which this innovation could provide are still quite sophisticated and would definitely benefit a large audience ranging from military individuals to tourists. This technology will further blur the line between what is real and what is not real to the way we perceive computer generated images.

The AR technology that would be implemented onto movie tickets is to have a small piece/strip of barcode attached to it. And when the piece of code is being scanned (or view upon) by an equipment with video taking functions, it will then be revealed on the screen of the device with a character from the movie (or even yourself) in which you can interact with. The different kinds of interaction range from the character providing you the synopsis of the movie to what kinds of services the cinema offers. It can even include advertisements as well. Further building onto that, it gives the audience and movie-goers to have another reason to keep the ticket they have bought.

Of course such movie-going experience could be improved by, instead of the cinema dispensing the tickets, the cinema could adopt a more environmental friendly approach to this by issuing ‘virtual/digital’ tickets.

Booths in Cinema Foyer –

This idea further takes on the earlier concept of allowing movie-goers that are waiting in the foyer for their film to have some kind of interaction with both the movies and what the cinema provides. This generic-like booth could provide all kinds of services ranging from viewing and reservation on upcoming movies. But what sets this booth different to the others is that this innovation will further take up on the ‘facial recognition’ idea proposed earlier. When entered with the ticket to the movie, the booth will have a panoramic/360 degrees angle screens surrounding the user and at the same time it will have the live trace function capturing the facial features of the user that would be uploaded onto the booth.

When the necessary information/image is being uploaded, it engages the user with various contents such as allowing them to have a feel of what behind the scenes of the movie is like to rubbing-shoulders’ with the movie stars on the set. It could even have the individual be placed in a particular scene of the movie that allows them to ‘feel’ what that particular moment of the movie is like. Whether it is the audience themselves or the ‘uploaded version’ interacting with the contents, many kinds of contents could be installed for this innovation. It will be good publicity for the makers/cinema and at the same time provide a different experience for movie-goers.

Big Screen Self Check in-Points –

By picking up certain points from both of the previous two concepts, we could have an alternate outcome to what kinds of stuff the cinema could offer. Similar to the concept of E-Tickets at the airport, the cinema would instead of issuing you a paper-ticket; you would just have to wave your phone over a scanner with the provided information (whereby the ‘tickets’ have been purchased beforehand via online or at the cinema) through the check-in points situated at the entry into the particular cinema for the show.

Upon waving over the scanner, the seat allocation will appear with your customized character/image on the big screen (that eventually shows the movie itself) which will guide the movie-goers to their selected seating. Not only does this concept promotes a paperless-environment it makes entering the movie a lot more legitimate in the event that someone else has taken your seats and also safeguard the cinema from movie-free-loaders.

This idea might not be viable to each and everyone simple because not every single movie-goer would possess a top-end cell-phone. The way to go around this is that the cinema would have an option to issuing both electronic AND paper tickets as well; and that by adopting the eco-friendly approach, paper tickets could cost slighter more than electronic tickets.

History Behind Film Studio Logos

Very nice and short article on the history/story on film studio logos. Might somehow be useful for this current module.

Week Two Ongoing

Advertise a productfrom a global brand in a way that was not pissble five years ago – to an audience you choose.

Think about what’s around now that wasn’t around then. As technology is constantly changing, this is your chance to come up with the next big thing. Invent a new medium. Use something traditional in a way that no one has thought of before. As long as you shatter conventional thinking, we don’t care!

What are some of the technologies that came to mind? -

• Twitter – Founded in 2006, is basically a ’social working’ and ‘micro-blogging’ service.
  Possible Targets: Useful for parents to track their children on a text-to-text basis or just audience in general; not only does the name sound ‘child-like’, users could SMS their messages across to the network via mobile phones.
• iPhone – Device originally invented in 2007, a hand-held device that has many functions.
  Thoughts: Embracing technologies that could be found on PDAs, the iPhone provided more solid functions on browsing the web and being able to download contents from it. By being able to ‘download’ the contents off, advertising could be intergrated into the downloading ‘contents’.
• ‘High End Video Game Consoles’ – The so called ‘high end’ refers to consoles such as the PS3, XBOX360 and Wii in which it enables user to have the luxury on playing their beloved video game while also have the option on surfing the Internet and interacting with others, all in one together.
  Thoughts: In-game advertising has not been carried out on a large scale but with occasional hints every now and then it was not really a successful method in the past. But seeing how nowadays the growth and popularity of gaming has increase to a high, in-game advertising would not be a bad idea.
• Google Map – Was first introduced 2005, it provided the general a ‘you-can-have-your-own’ satellite image novelty. Ever since its first development, plenty of other functions has been added to it already.

These ideas are mostly being thought of already but it would be good to serve as some kind of reference.

In terms of futuristic-product development, I find that the guys over at Yanko Design actually being quite amazing. It’s worth checking the site out.

Design Roles

1. What am I good at making? (web, print, moving image) What are my skills?

Over the years when you get all kinds of programs/methods thrown at you, you are more or less are capable of producing work out of pretty much all of them. Usually when I produce a piece of work, I let the others decide on the outcome whether it’s good or bad. But generally, I find myself a lot more comfortable working with photography and 2D mediums than any others.

2. Am I good at ideas generation and showing this? (Presenting, talking persuading)

Generating ideas and presenting it has never been a problem for me but whether or not having the others accepting it is an entirely different matter.

3. Am I good at design management? (Being on time, planning, finishing)

At the end of the day, is all about handing the works in on a specified deadline. Since day one I have yet to find myself missing a single allocated deadline. There are times where I find myself overdoing a task that requires simple execution and vice-versa but then again, is all about getting the work in on time.

4. What do I want to do for a living when I leave college?

It would be good if I land a job in an advertising firm or maybe along the lines of a design agency. Despite in the past having worked in an advertising agency for a short period of time, I find the fast and busy pace to be quite challenging and exciting.

Design Co-Operative

It has been a while since I’ve last made an entry on my ongoing work and seeing as I’m unaware whether we should be keeping a personal blog for research, just thought I’ll get it going, just to be on the safe side.

For starters, I’m going to add the description that could be found on the new brief:

Design Co-Operative 2008/9 -

This unit provides you with two new opportunities. First you will have the opportunity to work on an external brief, selected from a range of briefs from national and international competitions. You will also be introduced to working in a team. You will develop and refine your team working skills; you will also be introduced to the practice of peer assessment.

At this stage of the degree you have amassed a wide range of skills and experiences in both practical and theoretical matters related to the broad world of design, media and communication. Working in a team you will now have the opportunity to work from a selected brief. Your team will have been selected specifically so that individual member skills balance and complement other members and allow your team to fulfill the brief chosen.

• Interpretation of a brief.
• Role delegation within teams.
• Providing a work schedule for completion.
• Methods of design appropriate to chosen brief.
• Presentation of project to staff and peers.
• Interpreting evaluation of results.
• Performing peer assessment.