hi folks.
for various reasons –which i shall elaborate on, when you start back again– i've decided to switch the blogging software that we use from blogger to tumblr.
this blog will still remain on the intarwebs as an archive and i'm working on the best way of importing posts from here to the new PDP blog but, in the meantime, if your creative juices are flowing and you're working on a post, can you save it 'til next week and then we'll get it uploaded to the new PDP site.
also, this year we're expanding the PDP blog to include the FD graphic design & advertising and FD jewellery & applied arts courses as well. this should please some of you who've asked us in the past whether you'd be able to see what people on the other pathways are up to.
the new PDP will be at: http://mancol.tumblr.com
cheers!
stíobhart
25 September 2010
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22 September 2010
BBC
With the big move to Manchester, BBC are going to have a huge amount of opportunities for new jobs. So I thought I would get myself right in there and apply. I had to go through an application, once I was successfully through that stage, I had to complete an online test. It took over 2 hours and had to be done in our seating. It was timed and quite tense if I am being honest. Felt the pressure! Well a few weeks later I received the email explaining I was successful, hoorah! So, now it's just waiting for the right opportunity to open up...
21 September 2010
All abroad, the last train home...
I have been contrastingly thinking about films, docs and animation over the summer (plus placements..) Anyway I was wondering did anyone saw the doc on 14th September, Last Train Home by the talented Lixin Fan.
This documentary was set before the Beijing Olympics 2008 and is based upon migrant family and their each year struggle against other 130 million migrant workers and the rush to get home for Chinese new year.
This captures not just the society hardness of working and living in factories to make money but the camera doesn't stop when the family has arguments, which creates the audience feel a little uncomfortable.
16 September 2010
Cyrus - the moooovie
I took a little trip to Cheltenham this week with work (adidas) and what a very quaint place it is. Very lovely. The Tuesday evening we decided to go the cinema with Cyrus being the chosen film. I'd actually not heard of the film and for some reason the word Cyrus signifies horror to me. I was wrong. It was a comedy and a very good one at that....
To cut a long story short - it's about a guy who meets the woman of his dreams. Her son however has other plans. He doesnt want to lose his mum and so sets out to break them up...
That quick plot makes it seem very cliche and over done but it was acted in such a wonderful and intimate way that it felt like no other film I have seen. It was shot in a very indie style. Hand held cameras and quick zoom ins - almost like a documentary. This made the film seem very real and as if we were watching in on their lives. It was actually extremely effective. The length of the film was perfect. Sometimes a film goes on for that little bit too long. You start looking at your watch wondering when the credits will roll. Not with this one. Another major bonus point for me was Marisa Tomei who plays Molly. She had the most incredible hair. It was big, curly and full of wonderfulness. I found myself falling in love with it more and more with each scene. Super it was. And as for Cyrus - I'd go far enough to say, one of the funniest characters I've watched in a film this year. Timing was spot on, and his facial expressions were epically priceless.
This film ticked off many of my 'you know its a good film when...' boxes;
- I laughed...out loud!!
- I would pay to watch it again.
- I would buy it on dvd.
- I rein-acted some of the scenes with my friends afterwards for sheer comedy.
- I loved each of the characters.
- I remember all of the characters names!!!
I think this could be a marmite film. Audience split down right down the middle of love or hate it. But personally...I am partial to be a bit of marmite!
To cut a long story short - it's about a guy who meets the woman of his dreams. Her son however has other plans. He doesnt want to lose his mum and so sets out to break them up...
That quick plot makes it seem very cliche and over done but it was acted in such a wonderful and intimate way that it felt like no other film I have seen. It was shot in a very indie style. Hand held cameras and quick zoom ins - almost like a documentary. This made the film seem very real and as if we were watching in on their lives. It was actually extremely effective. The length of the film was perfect. Sometimes a film goes on for that little bit too long. You start looking at your watch wondering when the credits will roll. Not with this one. Another major bonus point for me was Marisa Tomei who plays Molly. She had the most incredible hair. It was big, curly and full of wonderfulness. I found myself falling in love with it more and more with each scene. Super it was. And as for Cyrus - I'd go far enough to say, one of the funniest characters I've watched in a film this year. Timing was spot on, and his facial expressions were epically priceless.
This film ticked off many of my 'you know its a good film when...' boxes;
- I laughed...out loud!!
- I would pay to watch it again.
- I would buy it on dvd.
- I rein-acted some of the scenes with my friends afterwards for sheer comedy.
- I loved each of the characters.
- I remember all of the characters names!!!
I think this could be a marmite film. Audience split down right down the middle of love or hate it. But personally...I am partial to be a bit of marmite!
15 September 2010
Physical colour picker pen
So there must be at least a few of you here who have seen 'Total Recall'? ....remember that scene where the receptionist is using a pen to pick colours from a palette and then painting her finger nails?
Behold.....that future is nigh!
RGB concept colour picker pen
Behold.....that future is nigh!
RGB concept colour picker pen
14 September 2010
Can you guess what I am thinking?
Google is always expanding, growing and quite frankly taking over the world. Whenever is there a day that does not include 'yeah I'll google it' or 'I don't know, why don't you google it?' I am rather embarrassed to say that I don't know what we did without Google. I somehow don't think Encarta or the Encyclopaedia CD rom scrubbed up to anything in comparison.
Today as I was using Google, its new feature suddenly forced me to sit back and think. Not only does it give you a drop down list of what you may want, it now also finishes the word off you are saying in grey and the huge list of results updates as you type.
This is very useful yes, however we are taking yet another step to finding things quicker. Everything has to be quicker, easier and simpler. It made me think, will there be a time where we just look at the Google homepage and it can guess what we are thinking?? We have to put our hands on the screen and it will give us suggestions of what we are looking for? It's all getting so fast paced that Google is quicker than we are to think. I find myself competing with Google to write my word down before they can finish my word in grey. I hardly ever win....
The future of Google interests me. I think I would definitely like to delve into this more and find how it evolved over the past few years....maybe I'll google it.
Today as I was using Google, its new feature suddenly forced me to sit back and think. Not only does it give you a drop down list of what you may want, it now also finishes the word off you are saying in grey and the huge list of results updates as you type.
This is very useful yes, however we are taking yet another step to finding things quicker. Everything has to be quicker, easier and simpler. It made me think, will there be a time where we just look at the Google homepage and it can guess what we are thinking?? We have to put our hands on the screen and it will give us suggestions of what we are looking for? It's all getting so fast paced that Google is quicker than we are to think. I find myself competing with Google to write my word down before they can finish my word in grey. I hardly ever win....
The future of Google interests me. I think I would definitely like to delve into this more and find how it evolved over the past few years....maybe I'll google it.
12 September 2010
Inspirational Device
Whenever I have a creative block or need some inspiration I always watch this very, very well animated little film;
9 September 2010
Advert?
Can't work out whether this is highly creative and fun or disturbing?! I dont think it makes me want to buy the drink??
8 September 2010
Summer
Hello folks!
Not long till we are back! Hope you all had a good summer. I havent put much onto the blog over the summer, I have been playing a lot of golf and Ive been in London a lot with adidas, but as any designer I never stop getting creative. So thought I would post a few pieces of work I have done.
My friends dad has a driving services company and he asked me to create his logo and letterhead. I made around 7 variations of this but here is one of them.
For my friends 21st, I created a save the date invite which I think I posted a few weeks ago. Well it was time to create the final thing. We went for the drinks timeline design;
I also did a lot of work for my Secondary Schools PE Department. Every year I do their timetables, posters and other design work for the department. I have included all this in my printed PDP.
I have sent a lot of emails to companies regarding internships but didnt get much positive response. I had one interview with a company which I was offered the job however it wasnt what I wanted. It was far too technical and over an hours drive away so it seemed silly to accept it. The interview however was great experience and it allowed me to collate some of my work together.
I researched into courses for third year too nd I have narrowed it down to 3!
Hope you enjoy your last few weeks off. See you soon in our big shiny new building!!!
Not long till we are back! Hope you all had a good summer. I havent put much onto the blog over the summer, I have been playing a lot of golf and Ive been in London a lot with adidas, but as any designer I never stop getting creative. So thought I would post a few pieces of work I have done.
My friends dad has a driving services company and he asked me to create his logo and letterhead. I made around 7 variations of this but here is one of them.
I also did a lot of work for my Secondary Schools PE Department. Every year I do their timetables, posters and other design work for the department. I have included all this in my printed PDP.
I have sent a lot of emails to companies regarding internships but didnt get much positive response. I had one interview with a company which I was offered the job however it wasnt what I wanted. It was far too technical and over an hours drive away so it seemed silly to accept it. The interview however was great experience and it allowed me to collate some of my work together.
I researched into courses for third year too nd I have narrowed it down to 3!
Hope you enjoy your last few weeks off. See you soon in our big shiny new building!!!
7 September 2010
completion of work
URGENT!
you should be aware –because we've told you often enough, in person and through emails– that you cannot pass the first year of your course, unless you have completed all the units.
the deadline for having all work handed in was monday last week, as you were all informed on at least two occasions by email. the absolute latest, down-to-the-wire final deadline ever ever is tomorrow [8th september], before 10am. we are having a meeting with the exam board at MMU later that day, where we pass them the list of names of who has or hasn't completed all units.
anyone who has not completed all units by 10am on 8th sept will FAIL the first year and not be allowed onto the 2nd year!
there is no way round this. it is not anything your tutors have any control over. at least three people we know of still have work outstanding. i will not embarrass anyone, by naming any names here, but if you are one of those three people. you MUST get your work in to us at the fielden park campus by tomorrow before 10am, or you will not be able to enrol for the 2nd year.
2 September 2010
Azur and Asmar: A Prince's Quest
I saw this film last week, it's the kind of film i'd loved to have seen growing up along with other fantasy films like Labyrinth, Krull and The Thief of Baghdad. It's about two guys (one caucasian, the other middle-east asian) who grow up together under the same carer; who tells them stories of an old myth about the Djinn Fairy and how she promised to marry the person who freed her from her glass prison.
The boys become rivals from the get go, each claiming to to seek out the Djinn Fairy and free her. What follows is that journey....
This film is another from director Michel Ocelot, whom also made my previously reviewed film 'Kirikou and the Sorceress'. The style is very much the same, however, this film has been created in 3D and the use of bold colours with almost no shadows at all gives it a vectorised look.
I'd say that it probably wasn't a great film worthy of a dozen awards because it looks pretty good and the story is about average, but this is the kind of film that I would want to show my children. What I really love about Ocelot's work is the message that it carries, both this film and the Kirikou film contain an important (and simple to understand) moral message which the storyline ultimately drives towards, and I hope that he continues to make more films like this in the future.
They are French movies dubbed into English so unfortunately there are other works of his which are available only in the native tongue (without subs) and I hope that the various film councils and committees out there will be able to bring those works to us.
If any of you have access to the Sky Arts channels (they're free channels so should hopefully be on freeview, etc.) then keep an eye out as both 'Azur and Asmar' and 'Kirikou and the Sorceress' are often listed on rotation.
The boys become rivals from the get go, each claiming to to seek out the Djinn Fairy and free her. What follows is that journey....
This film is another from director Michel Ocelot, whom also made my previously reviewed film 'Kirikou and the Sorceress'. The style is very much the same, however, this film has been created in 3D and the use of bold colours with almost no shadows at all gives it a vectorised look.
I'd say that it probably wasn't a great film worthy of a dozen awards because it looks pretty good and the story is about average, but this is the kind of film that I would want to show my children. What I really love about Ocelot's work is the message that it carries, both this film and the Kirikou film contain an important (and simple to understand) moral message which the storyline ultimately drives towards, and I hope that he continues to make more films like this in the future.
They are French movies dubbed into English so unfortunately there are other works of his which are available only in the native tongue (without subs) and I hope that the various film councils and committees out there will be able to bring those works to us.
If any of you have access to the Sky Arts channels (they're free channels so should hopefully be on freeview, etc.) then keep an eye out as both 'Azur and Asmar' and 'Kirikou and the Sorceress' are often listed on rotation.
Photogram workshop
On sunday I went to the 'Noise Lab' in Manchester as a magazine group called 'One Five Eight' were holding a workshop on how to produce photograms, initially I thought I was going to be the only one who turned up as I was sat alone for a while composing my first experimental piece, but when I came out of the dark room after producing my first piece a few more people had arrived.
It was quite fun, there was a good mixture of people my age and also children getting involved and when I was talking with one of the team in the dark room she wasn't sure if there would be enough supplies to last the whole day....in other words it was quite a success.
Essentially we were all sat around a long table with all sorts of items in bowls at its center, marbles, toys, light bulbs, stationary, buttons, and more random things which we could just grab and compose our pieces with and then one-by-one we took our boards (steadily...trying not to wobble the items on top) into the dark room to develop the photogram.
I have done a little work in a dark room before, when I went to college first time around about 10 years ago we had the chance to take a short course from a given list and Photography was one of them. During my time at high school and also this college I had been refused the opportunity to study anything art related because the curriculum forbid both music and art to be studied together and I was forced to choose one....so I jumped at the chance to do some photography. It was a lot of fun taking photos and then developing our negatives into actual prints in a dark room.
Sunday's workshop reminded me of this.....
As we each put together our pieces we had to wait until the person currently in the dark room had finished before we could then do our own again, I had put together another wreckless piece whilst waiting for my turn again but because the wait was so long I decided to wipe the board clean and create something properly. At that moment when I was looking for things to use I spotted a toy lion and an image from a video game sprung to mind, so I decided to make a piece relative to that. I quite like how it turned out.
It was quite fun, there was a good mixture of people my age and also children getting involved and when I was talking with one of the team in the dark room she wasn't sure if there would be enough supplies to last the whole day....in other words it was quite a success.
Essentially we were all sat around a long table with all sorts of items in bowls at its center, marbles, toys, light bulbs, stationary, buttons, and more random things which we could just grab and compose our pieces with and then one-by-one we took our boards (steadily...trying not to wobble the items on top) into the dark room to develop the photogram.
I have done a little work in a dark room before, when I went to college first time around about 10 years ago we had the chance to take a short course from a given list and Photography was one of them. During my time at high school and also this college I had been refused the opportunity to study anything art related because the curriculum forbid both music and art to be studied together and I was forced to choose one....so I jumped at the chance to do some photography. It was a lot of fun taking photos and then developing our negatives into actual prints in a dark room.
Sunday's workshop reminded me of this.....
As we each put together our pieces we had to wait until the person currently in the dark room had finished before we could then do our own again, I had put together another wreckless piece whilst waiting for my turn again but because the wait was so long I decided to wipe the board clean and create something properly. At that moment when I was looking for things to use I spotted a toy lion and an image from a video game sprung to mind, so I decided to make a piece relative to that. I quite like how it turned out.
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