Were Dinosaurs Real?

Research Proposal

Brief: Collect facts, statistics, opinions, words and pictures relating to a chosen interest.


To decide which subject we would choose for our research collection we began by making lists of 15, and then eventually choosing just one interest.

15 people you find interesting

1. Jesus 2. Stephen Fry 3. Alan Davies 4. Lady Gaga 5. Cheryl Cole 6. Micheal Jackson 7. Russell Howard 8. The Queen 9. Simon Cowell 10. Harry Potter 11. Gaby (Desperate Housewives) 12. The Doctor (Doctor Who) 13. Sabrina (The Teenage Witch) 14. Holly Golighty (Breakfast at Tiffany's) 15. Audrey Hepburn

15 objects you find interesting

1. Laptop 2. Pencil 3. Books 4. Phone 5. Camera 6. Clock 7. Wheel 8. Light bulb 9. Lava Lamp 10. Plants 11. Superglue 12. Paper 13. Post 14. Jewellery 15. Clothes

15 places you find interesting

1. Rome 2. Paris 3. New York 4. Space 5. The Moon 6. Underwater 7. Heaven 8. Hell 9. London 10. National History Museum 11. Courtauld Art Gallery 12. The British Museum 13. Las Vegas 14. Edinburgh 15. Disneyland

15 subject matters you find interesting

1. Religion 2. Philosophy 3. Whats on TV... 4. Were Dinosaurs Real? 5. What Do Dreams Mean? 6. Rumours 7. Celebrity Gossip 8. Relationships 9. The Future 10. Pub Dilemmas - Would You Rather? 11. Food 12. News 13. Whats Happened Today? 14. Natural Disasters 15. Rubbish Jokes

My Subject is: Dinosaurs

I am going to collect/ record/ document: Opinions, facts, statistics, images and words

Primary Research

View my secondary research.

In terms of observation I have chosen quite a hard subject to collect primary research for, but did manage to get some interesting and varied opinions from friends.

Opinions

Words

1. Creationists 2. Religion 3. Science 4. Evidence 5. Bones 6. History 7. Fossils 8. Large 9. Scary 10. Ugly 11. Museum 12. Extinct 13. Mystery 14. Unknown 15. Evolution 16. Skeleton 17. Fierce 18. Vegetarian 19. Belief 20. Palaeontologist

Statistics

It is difficult to find statistics about dinosaurs, but I can draw statistics from my own research, based on the opinions I have gathered. I surveyed 23 people, some could name more than one dinosaur. These charts show my findings in a more interesting manner.

Most known Dinosaur

 How much people know about Dinosaurs

 How much people are interested in Dinosaurs

 Whether people believe in the existence of Dinosaurs

Photography Workshop

Photography Workshop

In today's visual language I learnt about how I can use the settings of an SLR camera to ensure I am taking good quality images. I then got to play around with the different settings, as well as lights and filters to create lots of interesting photographs. I am really pleased with the results and intend to use them as images for my postcards in the photoshop brief.

These are a few of my favourite images. I think the results are fascinating, especially considering how they have not been edited on Photo shop, and really help to show everything I have learnt in the colour theory lessons.

Final 10 Photographs on PPD blog

Photoshop Workshop

Brief: Produce a set of ten A6 double-sided postcards exploring my given colour (blue), from my photography from the visual language colour theory session. The postcards must exist as a set.

Induction: These postcards show what I have learnt in the Photo shop induction.

We learnt about destructive and constructive editing. Previously the techniques I used would have always destructed an image, as once a change was made, it would be impossible to return to the original image if I wanted to without damaging it in some way.

I have worked in CMYK as these postcards are for print. I will print them out as a PDF. 

I researched postcards to help me to decide what to put on the back of the postcard, as I don't want them to be plain and boring. [Postcard Research]

Experimentation: 

I decided to manipulate some photographs from the photography workshop as these were taken with a much better quality camera than the camera that I took the photographs in the colour theory session with. I have taken screen shots of the processes to remind myself of what I learnt in the Photoshop induction.

1. To alter the brightness and contrast on an image just by going to image -> adjustments would be destructive. One option could be to duplicate the original image, or to duplicate the layer. However, an option I did not previously know about would be to create a layer mask.

2. This is the layer with the adjusted brightness and contrast. To go back to the original image, I simply have to click on the eye next to the layer. If I had altered the image in a destructive way, it would be almost impossible to return the image back to its original state.

Ten Original Images

I re-took my colour theory photographs with a better quality camera. I took many photographs which can be seen here, but these are my ten favourite I will use for the postcards.

Manipulation Experiments

To edit these photographs, I have used techniques I already knew alongside the new things I learnt in the Photo shop induction, as well as just experimenting to see what I could create. My main concentration with the manipulation of these photographs was to make sure that I really made the colours the focus by enhancing them, as it was a requirement of the brief to explore my given colour (blue) and its contrasting colour (orange). I have included screen shots of some interesting results from my experimentation.

1. Blue Paper

- placed photograph on top of itself six times, changing opacity so all layers could be partially seen

 

2. Jewellery

- altered vibrance, brightness/contrast, exposure

3. Blue Threads

- applied wind filter

- neatened original image and duplicated, applied fibres filter, altered colour balance and changed opacity of layer. duplicated original layer again, applied photocopy filter, altered exposure and changed opacity of layer

4. Stack of Books

- experimented with distortion filters

- selected the lightest book and changed the colour balance to bring out the blue

5. Busy Scene

- altered curves

- continue to edit, altered brightness/contrast, apply photo and find edges filter, edit colour balance

6. Threads and Pins 

- altered hue/saturation/lightness, brightness/contrast, shadows/highlights

7. Sewing Box

- altered shadows/highlights, brightness/contrast, applied patchwork filter

8. Jewellery (Orange Paper)

- experimented with gradient mapping

- posterize, edit colour balance

- continue to edit, altered vibrance, applied extrude filter

9. Perfume Box

- altered brightness/contrast, vibrance, shadows/highlights, duplicated layer and applied an emboss filter, colourised this and then changed opacity

10. Drawers 

- cut a bead out of the necklace and made this into a pattern possibly for the back of postcard

- altered the brightness/contrast, hue/saturation, colour balance, film grain filter, posterize 

- cut a butterfly out of the drawers and made this into a brush, also possibly for the back of the postcard

I prefer the edits where the photographs still look real, just enhanced as compared to the images which no longer look realistic after various filters and alterations. I do really like the busy scene where I have edited the curves, but this brings other colours into the image, and so does not answer the brief of focusing in on my given colour. As the images have to work as a set, I need to choose one style that I like and edit all the images in a relatively similar way.

Postcard Backs

The style used in the edit of the drawers is my favourite, so I will apply this to all of my images, so they work as a set. For the back of each postcard, I will pick out an item from the front of each picture, and define this as a pattern, to apply as a border on the back of my postcard.

I added lines to the back of my postcard designs, but didn't like how they looked, especially as some of the postcards are vertical. When researching postcard backs, the 'Juicy Lucy' postcards I looked at worked well with only image on the back, which helped me to decide that I didn't actually need the lines.

Final Pieces
View the ten final postcard front and backs on my PPD blog.

View PPD blog

Typogateux

Brief: You are required to produce a typogateux that resembles an existing letterform or glyph.

Judging Criteria: Inside Characteristics..5 points (even grain, evenly baked, free from air pockets)

Outside Characteristics..5 points (consisten shape/size/surface, overall appeal)

Idea

My idea is to create a chocolate sponge cake J using a cake tin I already have. I aim to decorate it in the style of font 'Rosewood Std.' as I think this is an easily recognisable font.

Rosewood Std.

The Making Of...

Decorating a cake with melted chocolate and lots of sprinkles was a very messy task!

Final Piece

Visual Language: Photography - Logic

The logic that I decided to continue to develop was lights in sets of three's, because I had enjoyed my photography of light from my Collection 100 research and also because in the previous task of taking photographs of sets of three's indoors, my favourite were the photographs of lights. In my visual language session, I carried on this logic by taking photographs of sets of three light's outside. However, because it was daytime, these lights were not on, so I think these photographs would look better if taken in the dark.

Secret Leeds

This brief follows on from the research we all individually gathered for the Collection 100 brief. We had to lay out our research and choose a word which relates to something found in all of the photographs. I chose "culture". We then selected the words from our 20 words which we thought were most relevant to these images. I chose: history; mixed; education; captivating; interesting and exciting. We selected the most relevant opinion: "There is a mix of old and new architecture in Leeds." The most relevant fact: "Leeds became a city by Royal Charter in 1893" and the most relevant statistic: "750,00 people live in Leeds."

We then looked at other peoples work and chose what we believed was relevant for their photographs. For me the word that relates to something found in all of the photographs was "windows". The relevant words were: urban, busy, popular and lights. The relevant opinion: "There is a mix of old and new architecture in Leeds." The relevant fact: "Leeds has seen 3.5billion of investment in major..." The relevant statistic: "750,000 people live in Leeds."

Week 1

Brief: Create three design direction boards showing research based on our rationale.

1. Problem 2. Evidence 3. We Intend To...

Rationale

Group Members - Claudia, Chloe, Liv, Ryan, Sadie & Simon

Problem - What surprises can you find in Leeds?

Evidence - Our collective of photography and group statement evidences this

We Intend To - Discover, explore and record the surprises of Leeds

Design Direction Boards

Week 2

We Intend To:

We intend to create a map, poster and i-phone app to publicise our event to our selective audience, these people being non students in Leeds, looking for an peaceful event away from the business of the student filled city. We need to be careful about how we distribute the information so that it is kept fairly secretive, so students do not find out, but so that it is available for those who we want it to be available to.

Poster - To publicise event to the selected audience

Map - To guide customers from coffee shops to parks

App - We won't actually be able to create an i-phone app but we can plan for this

Our initial idea was to hang tea cups in trees, to guide people to our secret event. This relates to Sadie's photograph of the houses around Hyde Park, where shoes are tied to telephone wires. This is rumoured to be a sign that drug dealers live in these houses. We thought this idea was too 'fine arty', and after an illustration plan, decided not to continue with this idea.


Name Ideas

We thought of words that related to our ideas to help us create a name for our project.
- Couples - Families - Winter - Park - Picnic - Fairytale - Magical - Alice in Wonderland - Secret Tea Party - Unseen - Hidden - Secret - Trail - Residents - Non students
We decided on the name 'Picnic in a Park'.

Design Ideas

Logo

We all agreed on an initial idea of what the logo would look like it, and then created our own interpretation of this. These are my quick design ideas.

Poster

Logo Development

I decided to develop my favourite design ideas. I created the illustrations on Photo shop using a graphics tablet. I think these logos are fun and attractive, however, I don't think they would work without colour, and also, they are more for a female audience, whereas our picnic is aimed at both males and females.

Group Design Ideas
These were created by Sadie, Ryan, Liv and Simon. We decided for now that we would go with a simple black and white tea cup with text inside.

 

Message

The next step was to decide on a message to go on to the poster and map, that made the idea of Picnic in a Park appealing to the audience we are intending it at.

- Picnic in a park, find a spot to park your bum and enjoy a bun

- Enjoy your own secret tea party with Picnic in a Park

- Park your bum in the secret fields of St George's park

- Enjoy your fresh, tasty treats in a relaxing, hidden park

- Escape the business of the student swarmed city centre with Picnic in a Park. Buy your tasty treats here, and enjoy them in a hidden getaway. Lets keep this our secret. Shh!

- Hey you! Want to escape the students? I'll let you in on a secret. Picnic in a Park lets you enjoy your delicious goodies in peace. Simply buy here, pick up a map, and head to the hidden getaway. Shh!

- Tuck in to your treats in peace

- Picnic in a park - but no ordinary park. A beautiful, secret getaway perfect for enjoying a tasty snack.

Just between me and you, there's a hidden getaway just waiting for you to have your own secret tea party!

- Wondering where the perfect place for your picnic is? Picnic in a Park will lead you there.

We decided on "Shh, this can be our little secret. Pick up a picnic, take a map and discover the secret location."

Maps

Ryan created the designs for the map by tracing over an existing map, and then simplifying it. He tried different textures and colours for backgrounds but as a group we decided a very simple map would work the best. A teacup was placed over each of the coffee shops where it is proposed you would buy your picnic from. The different parks are the green areas. We later added footprints from the coffee shops to St George's park, as this is where we recommend the participants enjoy their picnic. We did this after a suggestion from a tutor to help make the map easier to use. We also tried other map design ideas, but decided that the double sided square one would work the best on the chosen brown paper, and the layout allowed for an interesting fold which would help in grabbing attention.

 

Final Logo

This is the final logo. There is a contrast between the modern typography and old-fashioned doily. This represents how we are bringing a traditional picnic idea into a modern light. The simplicity of black and white will ensure that this works well when printed on brown paper as intended.

Poster Designs

These are different poster designs created by Simon and Liv. We decided on "This can be our little secret" as a slogan to entice people to find out more about what the secret is, but also to ensure they kept the idea as it is intended by keeping what they found out a secret.

 

Final Map

 

This is our final map, which works as a set with the poster and belly bands, due to the picnic blanket pattern, use of logo and the use of typography. We added the new logo, and a simple line of text to quickly explain the idea.

Final Poster

This is our final poster. It doesn't give much away, and wouldn't make sense unless the participant also picks up the map. Yet this air of secrecy and mystery is what we had all decided was quite exciting about this picnic idea.

Final Pieces
View all of my photographs of the final pieces we created to show in our presentation on my PPD blog.

Pieces in Context

We took photographs of the final pieces in the Cool Beans coffee shop.

Final Design Direction Boards

Problem, Evidence & What We Did

For our final presentation in front of the other groups, we recreated our design direction boards as we felt the other ones were rushed and didn't explain our idea very well.

Group Presentation

These contact sheets show the slides we presented to our group in the presentation.