Planning Day

In the start of today's session, we got into groups to plan the look of the flyer. Last week, my group and I came up with brief, initial ideas. Today however, we are going to develop on these ideas and hopefully come up with new, original ideas. Our objective today was to come up with ideas for our advertisement.

Our plan was to produce our own 4 ideas in our group (the ideas were just drafts). We done this by spliting a A3 piece of paper into 4 boxes for our 4 ideas. It was easy to do the first box because in the last session, we had a meeting and we all had one idea each on the meeting sheet. My first idea was milk being poured out of a carton, it gradually becomes hotter when it reaches the Shakin' Moo's cup. Then there is a slogan on the flyer. Next up was the second box. This had something on the flyer which I liked to call a 'hot udder'. So in that case, the flyer had a 'hot udder' and a hand was squirting the milk out of the udder which sprayed out hot milk/milkshake! The slogan says "hot and fresh" because the milk is fresh from a cow and it is a 'hot shake'. I discussed this idea with Mr Hind. He thought that this idea would be very effective as it is original. Then there was the third idea which was a fire-breathing cow drinking a 'hot shake'. You never know a 'hot shake' might be that hot to make you breath fire. Finally, there was the fourth idea. This box was the hardest because I ran out of ideas. However, I knew which idea to choose so I went for an idea which i knew it was not going to work. The idea was a 'explosive, hot invention' (the slogan). This only ment the idea was a bomb going off and the 'hot shake' flying towards us. Who never knows, some people might adore the idea.

In the end, I chose a idea. Mr Hind said that this idea was the best idea I came up with as it is creative and its only the hot udder! So this was on the top 3 list in our group. James was the hot cup with steam coming out of it and Matiss's was to split into to settings; a cold setting and the hot setting with the hot shake in that particular setting. So thats our top 3.

Moreover, this meant that we have to make the final copy of the draft. I tryed my best with my only drawing skills that I had. In the end, the drawing overall was reasonable, I also added some colour to my final flyer idea.

After that, we were given our final task which was the idividual background research. This was about researching about different things which related to our main task (to make a advertisement for Shakin' Moo's). This meant I looked at different milkshake companies, statistics and other things that are related about milkshakes.

Next week, we will be hopfully taking the final 3 ideas on board and will be using them on Adobe Photoshop to make the final, final copy. Our target for today would be to spent less time worring on which 3 ideas we will pick. Overall, everybody has contributed well and I have also done my bit to the task/tasks.

The Brief

In this session, we were going to receive our brief from Chris Lane (a man who owns Shakin' Moo's which is a milkshake store.) However, we were not just getting the brief on paper and just plan, Chris was going to explain what we needed to do. This ment we needed to write the brief down and take some important notes.

I was once again working with James and Matiss because all of us are effective team workers. The main things we were supposed to take notes of was the location of Shakin' Moo's, the current promotions, the competition, the main customer audience and profits. We found out that the location of Shakin' Moo's is a major issue as it is hidden in Burleigh Street and is being shadowed by a electrical shop called Hughes. On the other hand, as Primark opened down Burleigh Street, customers are crawling all over the street and sales have been increasing ever since it opened. Next, I have found out that Chris current promotions are Valentines Day (the money from the purchased milkshakes goes to a charity.) Plus, Chris has released a new shake which he thinks is the best milkshake he has ever made. It is a Tesco Chocolate Fudge Brownie flavoured milkshake. Not only that, he released something else called 'hot shakes' which are hot milkshakes which I think is completely different. Unfortunately, there is another issue apart from the location; the competition with a milkshake chain called 'Shake-Away'. Fortunately, the place is dull compared to Shakin' Moo's and sales are quite low. Overall, Shakin' Moo's is doing pretty well for a new milkshake shop. The main customer audience is children and teenagers aged 3-16. I found out that they get more customers and profits by advertising. One way they do this is with the current costume / mascot they have.

Finally, we got our brief. Our brief was to create a advertisement which advertised either the new product (the Tesco Chocolate Fudge Brownie Milkshake) or the hot shakes. This advertisement could be done as a poster or a flyer. This should have a good design as Chris told us that he is not much of a designer.

Our target would be to come up with a simple idea then progress it from there. Also, this design should be original. I am sure that we can accomplish this.

Hi Michael

Some really strong comments here supporting some excellent photography. Your technical commentary is very thorough. Well done.

Second Campaign Session

In the start of the second session, Mr Hind told us to make a start on our Research Reports (this is to research and explain about different campaigns, advertisments, flyers, etc). I decided to get hyperlinks of different websites which have various campaigns on them so I would be able to continue where I left off. One website I chose to look at later on was http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/. Click here to visit the website. Whilst I was researching, I found a number of different types of campaigns, such as campaigns to raise awareness (NHS), advertise a product(Sony Bravia), etc. These two campaigns that I just mentioned were the two I chose for my Research Report.

After researching, we were given a camera from Mr Hind. Our task was to take photos from the skills we learned. However, this task came with a twist. We were only supposed to take pictures of 1 object. Plus, the objects were given to us from Mr Hind. The objects were:

• Piping
• A lamp
• A wrench
• A block of wood with a peg stuck onto it

Mr Hind wrote the objects down onto seperate pieces of paper and folded them. 1 member of a group had to pick a piece of paper, open it, see what they got and then they have to use that item, as if it was a draw. I volunteered for my group and we got the piping which was reasonable, we could take some preety interesting photos with this object but I would of prefered the lamp. So in 30 minutes, we had to take 20-35 pictures of the object.

In my opinion, the best pictures we took were the hallway with the piping (left) and the corner with the piping (right). Matiss took the picture on the left. The picture was not supposed to come out like this, it was much darker on the display screen. However, when I first set eyes onto that picture, there was something I adored about it. The blur and the light shade gave the picture a 'horror show' effect. The piping on the floor just boggles your mind as you are trying to figure out why is it there. The light coming out of the circular windows volumises the 'horror show' effect. I came up with the idea and took this picture on the right. I like this picture because of the different light shadings on the piping, the background, the middleground and the foreground. This makes the picture look 3 dimentional as well. Not only that, this boggles your mind as you are tying to find out why the piping is there and what lies on the other side of the corner.



After showing Mr Hind the pictures we shot, he gave us 1 final task. We were either to edit 1 of our pictures on Adobe Photoshop or re-take some pictures but using a different object from the ones on offer. My group and I decided to re-take some photos because we wanted to develop where we left off and take Mr Hind's feedback (he advised us to include pictures with a less distracting background) to take some great pictures. I chased for the lamp. Unfortunatly, 1 group took the lamp so I took the wrench. I didn't want to take my chances with the block of wood with a peg on it.

These two pictures on the left are my favorites. The first picture had the head of the wrench and the fire alarm on the 3rd part of the rule of thirds. Your eye follows the brick line and then it ends on the object (wrench). It is clever because the fire alarm says "in case of fire break glass" and there is the wrench on the top of the fire alarm to break the glass. The picture mainly focuses on the wrench. The second picture had some symmetry. It is nice and simple. The clever thing is all of the gaps in the wood follow all the way to the wrench. Plus, the red on the wrench is right in the middle and red is an eye catching colour. The object is bang on in the middle of the rule of thirds. The targets for both of these pictures is to make it more interesting by adding in a little more of an interesting background. I think we have made the background boring intead of distracting. As a group, we must make the background somehow between boring and distracting.

Next week, we will be reciving our brief from Shakin' Moos which is a milkshake shop. This will be interesting as we are going to be working for a real and popular company. Our targets would be to improve our pictures by using good quality backgrounds and techniques. This would make our photographs look proffesional.

First Campaign Session

In todays first campaign session, the class and I was waiting for our first task. Mr Hind presented us the Yellow Pages. Our task was to find the most appealing plumbing advert on the Yellow Pages and to give an opinion. Plus, we had to imagine if our house was flooding because there was a pipe leak as if it was a emergancy. So in that case, we had to pick the most eye catching ad fast. I had chosen the Quick Plumbers ad. The reason why I chose this particular advert was because the colours were attractive. Also, the word 'quick' was in a bold font and that gave me the idea that these plumbers were quick and would get the job done in time. They specified the locations which are close to me so I know they are local as well. I believe that most of the class had chosen this ad as well because of the same reasons.

I have also learned where the best adverts are usally advertised in the Yellow Pages. The first place where readers start to look is at the top left corner. The bigger, the better, so it displaces a number of small adverts. Colour is key to catching readers eyes. The colour red stands out the most and I found out that this works by looking at different opinions in my class. A few people went for a large, red advert which was on the top left of the Yellow Pages. Unfortunatly, companys have to spend large sums of money to get all of these atributes.

Afterwards, we had to create a lunch delievery flyer for office workers. We had to make 4 drafts. I thought creating a original flyer was very difficult at the start. After completing the first draft, I eventually got into creating original drafts. Although, I am not that much of an artist when it comes to drawing. Finally, I finish my 4 drafts and they turned out to be very original. For our final piece, I put all of the pros of my 4 drafts into 1 final piece. I thought the final piece was very effective as it was smart and original (there is a chef tossing a pancake from the pan, the cooked bits of the pancake says "long day at work?", the smoke from the pancake says "hunger" to tempt readers, the flyer includes contact details, location services, etc). On the other hand, my drawing was still not up to scratch. Fortunatly, the drawing did not matter as we were going to make the 'final, final' piece on Adobe Photoshop.

Meanwhile, we got ourselfs into groups. I was with James and Matiss. Then, we had to choose out of the 3 final flyers. My group chose James. I felt that James was chosen because of the quality of the drawings. It wasn't even that special or original. Plus, I think mine and Matiss's final flyers were not chosen because of the quality of the drawing. The group completly ignored mine. Next, we had a tutorial about how to use Adobe Photoshop. I learned a lot of new skills about how to use Adobe Photoshop, such as how to add new layers and backgrounds. As we began starting to make the final flyer, I did not get a chance to even test my skills when I had a chance to remember them because I have never used Photoshop before. Also, there was no internet access so we were limited on pictures. The reason for this was because my group had the computer to themselfs for the whole time. I was dissipointed about how the final flyer turned out to be.Our targets would be to work as a group a bit more. Also, the group needs to take into account that it is not all about the drawing in the draft, it all about the idea. Overall, there were some highs and lows, however I enjoyed the first session.