The Evil Within

The Evil Within is the latest and said to be last game from the Farther of the Survival Horror genre "Shinji Mikami" and his talented development team "Tango Gameworks". I say farther of the genre because of he was the mind behind the amazing long running series know as Resident Evil. 

The Evil Within is a game brimming with atmosphere and stunning visuals which are made possible because of the sheer power behind the new generation of gaming consoles. As well as having those heart in your mouth type scares, The Evil within delves deeper in to the more phycological scares as well, which confuses and plays with players mind leaving them more venerable. 

Many games critics are calling it the true follow up to the much loved Resident Evil 4 and say that The Evil within takes a step back to a more old school style of game play with new modern twists.

Taking a look at the style, the setting is pure horror environments with creepy villages and manor houses surrounded with dark atmospheric forests. 

Focusing on the box art, this is where I believe my practice (Graphics Design) relates to this product. It's a good example of visual communication because you clearly get the message that this is a game of horror. The grimy dull colour pallet emphasis the overall style of the game and the type has been cleverly placed over the characters eye which gives the box a look of terror and has also been coloured in red, which could be interpreted as danger. 

Apostle By Twelve Design

The first thing that springs to mind is how simple the overall design is. It's a fantastic example of the term "less is more". The design was created by the Twelve Design studio for a client who approached them with idea. From there "Twelve worked closely with them to create a name, strap line, identity and everything that belongs to the brand such as the look and feel of the online shop.

As I said earlier, the approach ton the design was very simple, from the logo and type face, right through to the simplify of the online shop which was designed to be simple to access by the customer and even easy to update by the client.

For more work and information from "Twelve"click the following link
www.twelve-studio.co.uk

I love the simplicity of this image and type, I would imagine that they
have applied a gradient tint and set the layer to overlay in Photoshop.

What drew my initial attention was the image of the sunlight breaking through the leaves with the tint of wine colour to it. The leaves and sunlight remind me of nature which is a nod to all things pure, I would imagine from first impressions that this product is made from natural products which would make sense with the strap line "A passion for purity in skincare. I like the way "Twelve" have carried that wine tint right through the whole brand which gives them a certain identity.

The stationary has a simple clean design too them,
as the term goes less is more.

I wasn't sure of what the name "Apostle" meant so I looked it up "A vigorous and pioneering advocate or supporter of a particular policy, idea, or cause" . After looking it up it made sense because I would imagine the client would be passionate of things pure and simple in both their work and product.

I managed to gain a few idea's of ways to take a product or brand in new directions. I like the online shop idea and the design work that would go into it and I am also interested in the main photographic image and type and I have the perfect image that I acquired from my visit from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to experiment with. 

The B Festival by "Twelve Design"

The B festival was a bathroom conference hosted by Travis Perkins. At first glance the concept of a funfair themed event for a bathroom conference seemed odd, but after reading on the hosts (Travis Perkins) requested that Twelve would change the perception of the normal day to day conference. So with this in mind Twelve worked closely with the host and developed a visual theme and branding embracing the funfair look and feel from the two sea side towns where the conference was going to be held (Brighton and Blackpool).

For more work from "Twelve Design" Click the following link
www.twelve-studio.co.uk

Twelve explained how the event had to be designed to adapt to the many different brands stands to be set up and be simply designed so it could be set up and took down because of the short amount of time the conference was. 

They carried the theme right through from the early pre-event material which I would imagine flyer's, emails and posters etc, to the way the refreshment stands, way finding signs, uniforms, bags and giveaways. 

At first glance, you wouldn't think that the event was about
bathrooms? But with clever design and branding, it put a fun spin on the event.

I like the idea at first glance it intrigued me before I even knew what the festival was about. It seemed like a fun event to attend. I realised that's the point, even though a conference on bath tubs seems a little boring to visit, the company managed to give it an injection of fun through clever design the well thought out name "B Festival" which relates to the theme

The Cafeteria Design Agency "China Journey to the East"

Lately I have been researching in to certain design companies and came a across a local company in the City of Sheffield known as "The Cafeteria". I was drawn to a Exhibition that they heavily contributed towards which has given me an insight of how much I could take my own concepts for a this presentation forward. 

For more work from The Cafeteria click the link below
www.thecafeteria.co.uk

The exhibition was based on Chinese culture which is relevant to my project but I am more interested in the visual theme. They wanted to to create a visual theme which was bright and colourful which appealed to a large audience of both young and old so they thought an illustrative approach to their visual theme was a fitting style which looks fantastic.

The attention to detail has truly paid off, they knew that the opening of the exhibition would be in time for the Chinese New Year which was the Year of the Dragon which certainly influenced the main lead image which has been clearly been influenced by Chinese imagery. From this initial image, I would of thought the whole exhibition would have come from this illustration so that the whole thing would be built up in to one big coherent exhibition. 

The Dragon illustration was created by Jonny Wan and was
 used as the lead image for the Exhibition. The image is well balanced and has been clearly influenced by Chinese culture.

Everything has been designed as one big coherent piece
so nothing looks out of place.

External hanging banner design

External bill board design.
Thinking along the lines of external Marketing, there are may ways
to think about when approaching an event. 

I love these simple designs which act as labels to the
 different areas of the exhibition 

This looks a fun idea to reach out to a wide audience to educate as well as
entertain a younger generation.

Wow, was my first impressions and my next one was I want to have a go! Thinking about designing a whole event would be so much fun and a real challenge. Instead of creating a exhibition I could create a marketing event for Asian cuisine. There's the visual theme to consider for a start, to shout out what the event is about, there is the venue to think about, the external marketing i.e. flyer's, banners, bill boards etc. There is so much potential for this idea to really snow ball into something big.

Sharwoods Go East TV Commercial

Sharwood's Go East TV Commercial

I was particularly drawn to the typography
at the end of the advert

Well I can't say that I am overly fond of this advert but it's a good example of an UK Asian food advert which has a western touch to it. The well known music has been cleverly altered to suit the Asian theme and the style is a small compilation of all sorts of different cultures. From the vibrant patterned artwork, to the many different types of cultural dances. I was particularly drawn to the type face of the "Sharwood's logo"at the end of the commercial. It has a distinct oriental look to it with sharp pointed, flicked ends to the letters which remind me of the traditional writing style of Japan with a brush and ink.

It just goes to show how much scope there is and how much research will be needed to present this theme in a professional way. Firstly there is the concept and how it stands out from a very busy market, then there's the design element which can open all sorts of doors such as illustration, patterns, print adverts, TV commercials, packaging but I getting to far ahead of myself, I need to keep on researching ideas and decide on an area Asian cuisine before I start to think about the design aspect.

Chinese Cusine

Food and drink or the cuisine of the each country is a major part of the culture and history. It's also an area that has a hell of a lot of scope for ideas with design in mind. Think about all the different Asian cuisines out there and Britain's love for them but I'm sure our versions of these national dishes are very different from the original.

The Eight Cuisines of China, Shandong and Guangdong

The eight cuisines of China are a few out of many different types. The factors that distingish them from each other are things such as the area, the culture, the climate and life styles.

Shandong Cuisine

Hunan Cuisine

Sichuan Cuisine

Jiangsu Cuisine

ZheJiang Cuisine

Anhui Cuisine

Fujian Cuisine

Guangdong Cuisine

I never realisde how many diferent and diverse cusines there was in china. There is one common theme with every one of them and that is their fresh vibrant colour, they also look sweet in tatse. Another thing to take note is how they are so different from an English interpretation. Some of the dishes look quite appetising whilst others seem a little unusual for my taste.

Website Review "www.lynda.com"

Click here through to lynda.com

Lynda.com is an online tutorial site full of usefull inforamation about all sorts of computer software programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator to even video editing software such as Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premeir Pro. Although you have to pay a subsciption service to gain acess to all the tutorials, there is quite a large amount of free tutorials on offer.

Looking further in to the website, you can start with at any level and skill and go at any pace you wish to do so. With a subsciption you cfan also have access to files which aid you in your learning and help you further by following along with the tutor. I owe a lot of my problem solving to lynda.com, there has been so many times where I can't work out how do do something in a certain program but found the answer straight away with a few clicks.

Their is some drawbacks though, I find it quite boring to follow along a whole tutorial without switching off. Overall there is some great knoledge to be found within Lynda.com but in bite sized porations tp avoid the monotomny.