Black Friday

The big focus this week for me has to be the Black Friday sale event. Yet again it's another new cultural event which has come over from the USA where shops slash prices on a limited amount of stock. The idea of the pre-marketing build up through advertisements that give little away gives only adds to the customers intrigue. From a design point of view, I like this idea of giving little away to the consumer so they feel inclined to investigate which ultimately leads to more sales. I think it's all about confidence in your message meaning that you have to be willing to make a gamble in your advertisements as opposed to cram all the deals into a advert to make sure you know what you are communicating.

On the other hand, I feel this kind of event brings the worst out in people. Customers are willing to take things to far when trying obtain one of their material goods. People get hurt and in one case in the USA, even killed. I read a news story where people stampeded in to a Wall Mart and killed a worker and when the paramedics where trying to save the poor souls life, shoppers just kept on shopping.

Overall I can see two sides to this event, I can see it as a clever way of advertising by attaching a cultural build up to it, then I can see the selfish side of both the consumer and the businesses.

Life In Miniature

Paper Cities
By Hattie Newman
www.hattienewman.co.uk
Information Sourced from Computer Arts Magazine Issue 232

Hattie Newman is an artist who has worked on various creative projects for a variety of high profile clients. among theses and one of her personal favourites is a piece she made for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park map. She created a geographical accurate, small scale recreation of the park out of paper. 

The detail is staggering and the novelty must make it an instant hit with a young and older audience. I ask my self the question who wouldn't love something like this? 

I'm seeing this more and more in the creative industry, meaning companies are seeking to actually create things instead of creating them on a computer. Take the 2013 John Lewis  Xmas Advert, rather than create a landscape on the computer that actuality created it for real on a small scale! Recently I created a video for my Asian Twist presentation with the same methods in mind.

The point being is that there is no limit to how you create a graphic message and usually these novelty, unique ideas, are the ones that stand out from a very busy crowd. Overall it reinforces the fact that you have to be willing to try new ways and processes and as for this method, it's one that I will be exploring further in the future and looking forward to it!!!

Click her to view the video which is related to these methods!

The Asian Twist Evaluation

Looking back at the project I feel that I have learnt a totally new way of working. I have found it interesting working towards an idea rather than an actually final piece which has allowed me to be more ambitious and because of that, it made me learn new skills and a better understanding of things along the way. For example, I knew that choosing to take on the challenge of branding and planning an event would be a real challenge. I knew that it would make me look deeper in to aspect of design such as marketing and merchandising, to planning skills, such as a choice of venue and health and safety. All these new ways of working and life skills are essential if you wish to work within a creative industry so I'm glad I choose something that pushed me into these new territories.

Taking in from what was said in the feed back, I do agree that my event had a strong cultural theme. I chose everything from the colours, animals and the nature of the twisted design to communicate the key message of the event. I'm not one to judge but, I do believe that my idea came across clear to the audience which is down to the passion and confidence in my work. A key highlight for me was my youtube video (although I agree that the advert was too long) and it's an idea that I wish to take further with more time an planning for future projects. One of the major things that I'm proud of is my management with the time that I had. I must say I could have managed it better but I thought I did quite well taking into account the scale of the project I set my self.

As I said, I feel like my video was the highlight of the whole presentation. It has opened up new and exciting ways in approaching film making. I also learnt how far you and how powerful the laser cutter can act as a design tool and process. 

So what went wrong? Well time was a major issue because I just ran out of it. I knew it would be challenge but every piece of new research unearthed more and more questions that would need answering but I must say that this idea wouldn't be created as an individual, it would be created by a team which leads me to my other regret. I wish I had worked more within a group, I managed to gain research via the Padlet, mind mapping and discussions but I feel I needed to involve myself in group more. Spellings are a major factor, I need to have things checked over by other eyes before giving it the green light. My timing was way off because I was repeating information that was already on the board. A more realistic budget would be important which would mean more looking deeper for information.

Another small regret was that I should have explored more possible routes before I decided to take on the challenge of branding and planning an event, but I do question the fact that would it have been as good of as an idea in the long run if I spent more time looking for a better one? Either way whats done is done and that small initial idea did spark my imagination which turned into various others, in fact I could have kept on going with it and developed more ideas to go with it!

Looking back at my process, I feel like it worked well. From a one small initial idea in the beginning, the idea managed to turn into various other ideas which supported the main one which came down to my confidence and trust in my own personal process, but I do regret not keeping it in one place because this sometimes added unnecessary confusion which led to the wasting of time, which could have been put to better use in the visual development. 

Overall I'm happy with the new knowledge and skills I have acquired, I'm also pleased that I have gained a quality piece branding to go into my portfolio with a strong idea to back it up. I have highlighted some key weaknesses which only makes you stronger if you take the criticism and look to right those wrongs.

The Asian Twist Presentation

Stage 1

This is my final presentation of my ideas towards The Asian Twist Event. The idea was for me to use the key points from each page to use as a base to talk from.

The first two slides where there to highlight exactly what my idea was and to whom I would be presenting it to.

Before heading into the actual event planning itself, I wanted to show where the project started which was through group discussions, mind mapping and drawing ideas from the group padlet wall.

From that I fed those ideas into my own personal mind map which grew in to many different ideas of which I could start to research into.

The word "Event" kept on popping into my mind so I stated to look into various branded events which is what started this whole idea of branding my own event.

Visual identity was a very important factor because it's the face of the event so, I decided to start looking into artists styles and techniques to draw inspiration from and develop my own branding.

At this point, I wanted to go into the development and research into the actual event. I wanted to start with a welcoming message so I created an invitation to hand out at this point

Trying to take into account the limited time, I needed to highlight key information from my research that I thought was essential to the businesses I would be pitching to.

Stage 2

At this point, the idea was to show stage 2 of the presentation to give the potential sponsors a look into what type of promotional materials they would be getting in return.

Once the main visual identity was complete, It gave me the opportunity to use it in many different ways using photographs and photoshop.

Pre-Event Marketing

The intention was to show thee potential sponsors what publicity they would be getting. The images that follow are just a hand full lifted out of the final presentation.

During the Event Marketing & Merchandising

The idea was to brand certain objects that you would receive whilst walking around an sampling the produce in the form of cups, paper plates and takeaway boxes.

Merchandising

Once again, I used a combination of photos and my visual logo to show the variety of merchandise that could be potentially made for the event.

Stage 3

After stage 2,  I wanted to finish off on a high so the idea was to end the whole presentation off with a youtube video 

Click here to view the video on Youtube

Making My Youtube Video

This idea was a last minute attempt to show a different way of advertising via youtube. The idea was to take this idea of a 2D object look 3D. So with this in mind I tried to create a party scene with all different cultures mixing together and celebrating. My first port of call was the padlet wall space and a look back at my own research. I picked out images that I felt worked with the cut outs I had in mind like the Holi festival for example. I also looked back near the start on my research into some other youtube adverts for inspiration and lighting techniques.

From there I gathered all my images and started to manipulate them in photoshop and illustrator using channel masking methods and shape building. After a long night of experimenting and creating, I managed to build up a scene (see below) ready for cutting on the laser cutter.

You can see how I have used the colours that are related to the visual identity, I tried to keep the theme through out the project.

Once cut, I slowly built the scene up ready for filming. Things changed as the project went along, the live piece of music that I had sourced from Sheffield wasn't lively enough so, I changed it to a more party feel tune. Lighting it was a nightmare, I must have changed my mind so many times until I was happy. I brought in disco ball to create movement and tried moving  the lights around whilst filming to almost animate the scene.

Once finished I took the raw footage in to Final Cut Pro X where I edited the final video and exported it ready for the presentation.

Costs

Costs are an important aspect when approaching any business model even more so when working on a scale of an event. I have been working out budget that I would be asking from the people who I would be pitching this presentation to.

The Amount I Would Be Requesting

From the two main sponsors, i would be requesting the sum of £35,000 from each to fund the majority of the event. In return their company logos will be on all the Asian Twist main branding before and during the event.

For all the local business that I would be inviting, I would be hoping to raise a further £5,000 which would work out at around 50 businesses paying £100 to set there stands up and show off their produce to a wide audience for the whole day.

Which in total would raise a grand total of £75,000

Spending

• I would set aside £10,000 for the venue.
• For a team of thirty staff to run the day, I would set aside £6,000 (£200 per person for the day).
• £10,000 would be set aside for entertainment.
• The whole marketing Budget would be £30,000 for pre and during the event.
• £3,000 for Insurance taking into account wet weather insurance.
• £5,000 for merchandising.
 Bringing it a grand total of £64,000 in costs leaving a total of £11,000 for in case we went over budget.

As I stated this would run as a non profit event aimed at injecting growth in the local economy with any profits made going to a chosen charity and the St John ambulance service who would be in attendance.

I must add that these figures are just based on a very simple model, I understand the amount of research that would need to be done for a event of this size but for a mock presentation, I believe its enough.

The Right Place At The Right Time

I was in Sheffield last week looking around some art galleries when we visited a small establishment along Chapel Walk. Inside there were a man playing some music with a distinct Asian theme to it which set the scene nicely. 

After some gentle persuasion from one of my fellow students, I asked if they would let me take a recording on my camera for a few minutes. I was delighted that they agreed to go along with this and managed to come away with an actual recorded piece of live Asian music which will be perfect for a backing track to my presentation. 

Further more its has inspired me to give an actual promotional video which promotes the Asian Twist brand and event.

Asian Inspired Music

This weeks stand out moment has to be the kind people who let me record a piece of their music at the 30 gallery along Chapel walk Sheffield. The music was perfect for an Asian theme video piece that I have been working towards within another project.

It's funny how music can spark the imagination, As soon as I got back home I just sat there and listened to it and from that ideas began to flow. When I approach a video at work. music is the first thing that I think about, it sets the tone, the theme and most importantly the pace.

Overall it was a surreal moment that defines the term "in the right place at the right time" and one that I won't be forgetting soon.

The Visual Identity

Taking in from what I had learnt from Eiko's style I decided to play on the word twist. I drew out a sketch and inked it up before scanning it into illustrator. I was originally going to include symbols of many different cultures and cuisines but decided to focus on the three creatures that are a symbol of the area.

Once I had scanned it in, a carefully created paths of each shape and coloured it in a simple monochrome colour to let me know which areas where light and dark.

Once I got to that stage, I started to colour it in just flat colours using my colour research as a guide and produced a more flat colour version which you will find in my Sketchbook.

The flat example didn't do it for me, I wanted the image to really pop out so I coloured it again with a more emphasise on light and shadow in the colours.

For the logo or type face, I wanted to continue this twisted theme. I typed out the lettering in Helevetica for it's readability and impact but then started to manipulate it by twisting it to make it a more original looking piece.

After I had finished I stood back and looked at it. The letter "T" and "I" just seemed to add confusion although In my mind it worked. I decided to change this so the public would get it straight away.

Finally I messed around with other coloured background but found that black worked the best. I created a simple striped pattern for added interest before settling on this as my final visual identity.

Now that I have this, I can start applying it to other means of marketing materials which will be shown within the presentation.