My Reflective Journal

If the idea is at the heart of everything, then I would like you to think of a movie that you love. Then look at its current title sequence and come up with a new one. 

Sketch up the rough idea in the form of a storyboard. Your storyboard needs to be at 30 frames and should be for at least 1 minute of motion design.

Draw a diagram of your preferred workflow and explain why you take certain steps.

I always take my photos in RAW and se Adobe Bridge to import them. I personally like to use Bridge because I have better overview of photos, which one are trash and which one I can use. I have a habit of not deleting images right away from the SD card and have them there as a back-up just in case I completely delete one or multiply photos.

Create a checklist for your workflow.
My checklist

Import images

Back-up the RAW images

Sort the images

Edit in preferred editing program

Save/ export the images

Back-up again the new edited images

Take a screenshot of your folder structure and explain why creating backups are so important.

It’s important to have a backup just in case a program crashes and you haven’t saved, or deleted something that shouldn’t be deleted.

I have a main folder that consist of other folders where I have RAW photos and the edited photos. I don’t like long names on folders so I try to keep them as short as I can.

Having read the basics of surveys in detail, choose someone you know and create a logo for that person according to the two steps below. The person may be a family member, a friend, a fellow student, a celebrity or anyone you could physically interview and who would be able to participate in your interview.

1. Look at the Core Interview Questions on page 103 and conduct an interview with your chosen individual.

Interview with Andrea Sletta Larsen
What business are you in?
Dog kennel business (Baroniet hundepensjonat).

What is your mission? What are your three most important goals?
High quality of service, safe and professional space for both dogs and owners, create a safe and fun work environment.

Why was this company created? Describe your products or services. Who is your target market?
Dogs are humans’ best friend, but from time to time things happen and we can’t bring them with us. We love dogs and want the owners to leave them in safe hands while they are gone. 
We are very flexible when it comes to our service. Your dog can stay with us while you’re at work, like a daycare center, a few nights, or weeks. Whatever your needs are. We have all the supplies your dog need, but some clients will bring their own food for their dogs, whatever you prefer. If needed well also give them the medicine they need, and also exercise them. We also offer baths, haircuts and trimming of their nails.

Our target audience are dog owners in the area around Sandnes/ Ganddal. Since dogs are for almost everyone, we have clients of all ages. They do care a lot about their dogs as they are willing to spend money on keeping them with us, but we are often more capable of handling your dog, compared to family members with little to non-experience with dogs.

Prioritize your stakeholders in order of importance. How do you want to be perceived by each audience?
We want to come across as a homey/cozy place, where the clients can feel safe leaving their dogs with us. We also want to come across as trustworthy and that we do have a lot of knowledge around dog care.

What is your competitive advantage? Why do your customers choose your product or service? What do you do better than anyone else?
We have strict rules when we choose who we work with. Your dog needs to be vaccinated in order to stay with us, we have zero tolerance if you’ve forgotten to bring your vaccination card. We get out food from trusted suppliers, and we also have an “on call” vet in case something was to happen to your dog. 

We also offer flexibility to suit your dogs need if there should be anything special. Your dog can have its own room or share with others. All the rooms have a door to their own outside yard, and during the daytime they can go in and out as they please.

Reasons why dog owners come to us is because we have a lot of experience with dogs. We offer flexibility and will suit the dogs stay to its needs.

Who is your competition? Is there a competitor that you admire most? If so, why?
Hundens Vertshus, Harmoniet kennel and Viking kennel. Right now, our business is doing great, there isn’t a lot of dog kennels in our area that’s been around as long as we have.

How do you market your product and services?
We have a website where new clients can find us, but most of our clients are loyal or have heard about us through others. We have a big network in the dog community after breeding dos and competing with them.

What are the trends and changes that affect your industry?
There isn’t really any trends that can change a dog kennel, we are pretty much the only option when you leave your dog, unless you leave it with someone you know.

Where will you be in five years? In ten years? How do you measure success?
Right now we are at full capacity, and we don’t really plan on expanding. The business is doing really well. Our success will be measured in how many returning and happy clients we have. It is also fun to see how many different dogs have been since we started in 2008.

What values and beliefs unify your employees and drive their performance?
The biggest value they have is their love for dogs, and animals. They are friendly and effective. Seeing good feedback and that the client’s returns are always motivating. Connecting and getting to know the dogs and see them grow are also a fun part of the job.

What are the potential barriers to the success of your product or service?
Easily transmitted dog diseases are the biggest hinder for at dog kennel. The health care center will recommend dogs to be kept separate and at home. It’s only when these diseases get an outbreak that the business is hit.

What keeps you up at night?
Not much, I’m confident that the dogs are in a safe space.

Place yourself in the future. If your company could do anything or be anything, what would it be?
It would be a dog kennel like it is today. We are really happy with how things are going and would like to keep it that way. It’s important to not have too much on your plate.

If you could communicate a single message about your company, what would it be? We are caring and professional.

2. Now use this person’s name to create a logo for him/her. Remember to keep the previous criteria and guidelines we’ve covered on logos in mind. For the purposes of this assignment, you should create three logo options.

Preparing for brand development
1. Refer to the Brand Brief Schematic on p.121 and write, in detail, the following about your client from Assignment 1:

Attributes – caring and professional, trustworthy and knowledge.
Vision and mission – Take good care of your dog while you are away and give him the most fun day at “day care”.
Key products or services – Keeping dogs healthy, give them freedom and watch out for them with the knowledge the staff has. (like a daycare)
Key competitors – Other kennels, bigger and better and kennels offering similar service but maybe cheaper.
Competitive advantage – Experience, the kennel been around for a while and many trust the staff with their experience with the dogs.
Key stakeholders – the owner and employees.
Value proposition – Good service and satisfied customers.
Target market – Dog owners in the area around Sandnes/ Ganddal.

2. Gather your findings and analyze the one or two interviews you’ve done. Then type up your findings and create your own brief.

Client: Baroniet Hundepensjonat (dog kennel)
Brief: The dog kennel is a local kennel in Sandnes, Norway. Since their web site is not up to date, and neither they have a logo it was time to develop a new logo and visual identity to suit their new and old customers. To keep up to date with the new technology and social media, they need a logo to put up and some photographs of the dogs that are visiting.

A knack for names
Consider the tips on Inspiration given in your prescribed book and create a name for an ice cream. The ice cream has a range of different flavours, but the unique aspect it should communicate is the fact that it is the coldest ice cream in existence. Now come up with five name options for this product using inspiration from:

Latin: Frigida glacies (ice cold)

Colours: Snowy white

Metaphors: Cold breeze

Science: 0^o Celsius

Myths: Barbegazi (mythical creatures from Swiss and French mythology. A barbegazi resembles a small white-furred man with a long beard and enormous feet.)

Getting to grips with the components of visual identity
1. Name the three most important components of visual identity.
The three most important components of visual identity are logo, colours and typography. Logo is the most powerful and familiar visual expression of a brand. The logo should capture and translate the company´s values and mission.

Colours and colours combinations can send a message, for example bright colours as it will stand out and evoke strong emotions while more faded colours will instil quieter and calm.  

Typography plays the main role in developing a logo, and many designers may neglect that. Typography can add or detract from the overall strategic goals of the product or company.

2. Describe the difference between logotype and signature.
The difference between a logotype and signature is that a logo is a symbol or emblem that acts as a trademark on a company’s name or product, while a signature is a name written by a person used to signify approval.

3. Using Kuler create a colour scheme (using only three colours in each set) for the following products:
A rich chocolate cake that is made from real chocolate. The keyword here is “quality”.

A courier company that delivers internationally by air, land and sea – their main focus is fast delivery.

An international insurance company that focuses on family values.

4. Write your name in four different typefaces, according to the following criteria. Use a typeface that:
Expresses a unique quality about you

Is inspired by your favourite food

Makes your name look sophisticated

Is drawn by hand

Do you think the movie provides insight or detail into what drives product placement in entertainment?
Yes, the movie provides insight and detail into what drives product placement. What drives most of the product placement is the economic part of it and money as the movies are sponsored by those who make the product. By doing that they are kind of are helping each other, the products contribute to the movie economically and the product itself gets more exposure. And if you start to notice the product placement once, you going to be more aware of it now. It’s a “hidden commercial” and the product don’t get “pushed” on you as multiple commercials on the tv would. Marketing the product by having in a movie is a smart move as fewer and fewer are watching television commercials.

What have you observed about presentations of visual strategies/brand identity?
The brand identity presentations were as if the sponsors of the product were concerned about retaining they brand identity, almost concerned about having their reputation damaged by having other “bad” brand compared to their product. It´s important for the sponsors and the creators of the movie to be clear about the target audience. The product has to meet the target audience the movie wants to focus on. If the product can´t reach the target audience, the product placement is obvious and may influence the product and movie.

Let’s consider this movie as a form of research. In other words, it was done to see what the effect of branded entertainment would be, a case study of sorts.
I think the more normal the product placement is, the less it looks like an actual 20 – 30 seconds advertisement on tv or internet. In that way the product may have more influence (without the audience knowing). The more the product placement blends with the movie, the less you will think this is an advert for it. Before I knew that product placement was a thing I always thought “what a coincidence it is that they are using the same product as me” and without knowing I kept buying that product because “that famous movie used it”, but in reality, it was sponsored.

From the findings above imagine that the international coffee brand, Starbucks, is your client. Give one complete strategy for a small activation campaign to advertise Starbucks on airplanes.
Conduct research – you can visit the website http://www.starbucks.com as part of your research. Also think of quick research methods, such as surveys done on family and friends.

After reading a little about what Starbuck has to offer, I found the following:

• Starbucks is more than just coffee. They offer a selection of premium tea, fine pastries and other delicious treats to satisfy every taste bud.
• The music they have inside their coffeehouses is selected by their art and appeal.
• The Starbucks cafés are a neighborhood gathering place, a part of a daily routine for some. Some work, chat or just meet up and be present at the café.
• Their mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.

Clarify the strategy – Once you’ve conducted quick research, do a write-up of your findings and create your own brief.
The target audience I would say is between 25 and 50 maybe. As there is staying up late students that want to work on the plane or just to wake up, or just someone who want to spend the time relaxing on the plane with a cup of coffee and the busy business travelers who want to spend their time wisely. What brings all them together is that they may log into the airplanes Wi-Fi, to do research or for pure entertainment. But let’s not forget the “traditional” marketing, a poster or small banner on the seat in front of you. At some point you may be just staring on things in front of you and reach for the catalogs or brochures. The more they see the advertisement the more one wants coffee.

Design the identity – Here you do not need to go into lengthy design but create sketches of your ideas.
I made a quick poster for the advertisement for Starbucks. I focused on the part of their coffee being someone routine of the day. As there are going to the office, a meeting or to school.

Create touchpoints – As this is a focused campaign, you may have one touchpoint only; describe how you would activate your campaign using this touchpoint.
With that poster I want the person to reach for a coffee cup, as you may have an early flight and didn’t get to buy a cup of coffee before boarding the plane, you can do it on the plane or after landing to keep it in you routine. You don´t need to let go of an important part of your routine; you can always buy it somewhere. And connect to the internet for work purposes or entertainment. The QR-code is at the bottom of the poster and when you scan it, the code brings you to the Starbucks site.

Manage the assets – As this is not a prolonged campaign, briefly describe how you would use the possible outcome of your campaign for future use.
When someone scans the QR- code it brings them to the Starbucks site. There they can see all the news but also give the coffee a rating, they must choose which drink they had and give it a rate. By doing that, Starbucks will get more information why some drinks are popular than others.

Describe the steps that you will take to ensure that you take a high quality photograph in low light conditions. Refer to exposure, lenses, tripods, colour temperature, flash and ISO.
Start looking at your camera and all the functions it has. To have full control over the setting you want to choose, set the camera to M or Manual. Different cameras have different names and settings, get to know you own camera and try out a few different options. In low light conditions it is all about getting enough light and keeping your camera steady. To get more light into your camera you can rise the ISO, it will make the picture noisier, as that is a good thing and bad thing. ISO can also set the mood in the photo, but let’s try to keep the ISO as low as you can get and play around with shutter. When the ISO is very low, the cameras sensor is not very sensitive to the light compared to when ISO is higher, then your camera can collect more light and get a better exposure.

You can try to use a slower shutter speed to take better photos in low light. By doing this you need to keep your camera steady, preferably on a tripod but any hard and steady surface will work. The reason behind that is that when you shoot with slow shutter speed, your camera gathers more light, and if the camera shakes it can ruin your photo. The camera rally needs to be steady while your shutter is open longer, especially when you use 20 or 30 seconds.

Another thing you can do to let in as much as possible light inside your camera is to use a wider aperture. It helps you gather more light and the better lens you have, the lower the f-stop number you can use. To keep it simple: The wider the aperture, the lower f-stop number. The smaller aperture, the higher f-stop number.

Shoot your photos in a RAW format if your camera allows you. The RAW format has more information saved, what gives you more freedom to edit the pictures afterwards in Photoshop or Lightroom. As a mentioned earlier the RAW format versus the JPG format has it differences as the RAW format preserves much more of the information from the camera, as it will not compress or process the image as the JPG format would. You can edit more of the exposure and light balance, also enlarge the picture and still keep a good resolution.

Take four low-light photographs.
– One should be a sharp photograph that focuses on a static object, like a building or statue.
– The second photograph should showcase moving objects, like cars or running water.
– For the third photograph, take a moody portrait of a friend and use high ISO settings to your advantage.

Fun With Slow Shutter Speeds

– Wait until it’s almost dark outside. Take your camera and go and sit in a busy tourist area. Choose a building or statue to photograph. Place your camera on a tripod and set the shutter speed to 30 seconds.

– Wait until it’s dark. Go and stand on a bridge over a busy street (or look from the window of a high-rise building). Place your camera on a tripod and set your shutter speed to 30 seconds.

– Choose a dark room in your house and switch off the lights. Place your camera on a tripod and set your shutter speed to 30 seconds.

Draw up a list of the most important aspects of a product photograph. Refer to shadows, lighting, quality, ISO and editing in your answer. Mention at least five things.

• Try using as low ISO as possible, it reduces noise in images.
• Don´t use a wide angle, it can give away wrong proportions of the product.
• Use a light with a softbox or direct the light through something similar to get soft shadows.
• Use large aperture and a lot of depth. White balance and shutter speed depend on how much light and what type of light you have available. See how the light affects the product.
• Shot pictures in RAW format to have more data to work with while you are editing.
• Product photo should bring out the product and not the creativity (to a certain point) so while editing focus on exposure and white balance.

Make your own DIY light tent
I followed this tutorial: http://www.boostyourphotography.com/2014/02/DIY-light-tent.html
And this is how my setup looked like:

Here are the edited pictures. I edited the photos in Adobe Lightroom. I mostly focused on the exposure and white balace. I used the same editing almost on every photo, had to play around a little bit with the exposure and contrast on some of them.

I made this magazine cover inspired by the swiss design, with a little bit of a modern twist. The name of the magazine is the first four letters of my name, and the 1999 is the year I was born. This magazine is about new trends and new clothes coming out. I like to play around with this kind of style since there is so much you can do with the typography.

Define the term “typography” in your own words.

Typography is the arrangement of type. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing and letter spacing. Typography also may be used as a decorative device, unrelated to communication of information. Typography can be looked at in different levels. There is the holistic view: this involves looking at the page, layout, composition, number of columns and interaction of text and images. And there is the detailed view: the choice of typeface, sizes, letter-spacing, word-spacing, line length, line-spacing, use of ligatures, small caps, drop caps and so on. Typography is also bound by the medium or technology through which it is distributed. For example, the typography on a movie poster will be approached differently from the typography of a newspaper article.

Write a few sentences explaining what typography is not.

Typography is not handwriting, lettering, carving letters into stone or wood by hand, sign – writing, graffiti or building letters out of matchsticks. Typography does not involve producing letters uniquely and one-by-one by hand (or tool). It also has similarities to lettering, but it is not typography neither is it symbols.

Find a case study on typeface development on the Internet. Explain which medium the font developed is best suited for and why. Keep legibility, size and style in mind.

Document one day of your life acting as an observer of typographic design. Produce a comprehensive diary of the typographic experience of your day from first thing in the morning to last thing at night.

Use your design software to design a double-page spread (DPS) for your favorite magazine.

I worked more with the DPS for the magazine assignment that we are working on right now. One of my favorite spreads so far.

This week and last week life got a bit hectic, so I haven’t done all the task but tried to do most of them. I been focusing most on the assignment that we have.  

Define, in your own words, the printmaking terms. Find examples on the Internet to represent each of those terms.

Wood engraving
An imagine is carved out of hardwood. To take a print of the engraved imagine, ink is rolled on the surface of the block, paper placed on top, and pressure is applied with a press or by rubbing by hand. Cuts that didn’t have any ink on comes out as white, the surface of the block prints as black and the image is reversed.

Linocut
Linocut is another type of relief printing just like wood engraving. A linocut is the same as wood engraving but the plate isn´t wood, it´s a piece of linoleum. Because of the softness of the plate, it is easier to crave. When you carve your lino you are cutting away the area that will be whit and leaving area that will be black or a different color.

Drypoint
Drypoint is another engraving method in where the design is scratched right into a copperplate or a soft metal plate with a pointed tool. These lines create a burr that holds ink. This method is a intaglio printmaking which is the opposite of relief printing as the sunken areas of the plate that print rather than the raised areas.

Etching
Etching is another method for making prints from a metal plate, usually copper, which the design has been incised by acid. Wax is applied to the metal plate and then the wax is scratched away to form a design. The metal plate is placed into an acid bath to eat away at the exposed metal. These lines hold the ink, and the design can be transferred to the paper.

Engraving
Engraving is putting a design into a hard, flat surface, by carving into it. The result may be a decorative piece in itself, or give a printing plate of copper or another metal, for printing imagines on paper.

Lithography
Lithography is a method of printing by wax applied onto stone or a metal plate with a smooth surface and creates a “negative drawing”. A drum is rolled across the plate with the image before transferring the ink to paper.

Screen-printing
Screen- printing is a printing technique where masks are made up before ink are pushed through a fine silk screen using a rubber squeegee or blade, past the masks and onto the paper. The mask prevents the ink from reaching certain areas of the paper.

Monoprinting
Monoprinting is a form of printmaking that the lines or images can only be made once, unlike other printmaking. The ink is draw on to the plate of glass and printed off without need for a press.

Digital printing
Digital printing refers to methods of printing from a digital-based image directly to variety of media. The difference between digital printing and traditional methods is that there is no need to replace printing plates. That results in a quicker turnaround time and lower costs. Digital printing is used in innovative ways to produce limited edition digital fine-arts prints.

Use your graphite, eraser, eraser putty and blending stub to sketch spheres using the following techniques: hatching and cross hatching, blending, rendering, squiggly lines and cross contour lines.

Find a poem that inspires you. Follow the exercise in the lesson above and illustrate your poem.