Ni hao!

Hi everyone!

I came back from my trip to China two days ago, and wanted to share with you guys some of my snapshots and tell you a little bit about the experience.

Amazingly, I've managed to beat the jet lag this time, which was a nightmare once I got to China...

My trip was amazing, a great experience that confirmed me they are so many little worlds in the world we live in. Also, it was great to live with a traditional Chinese family (my friend's) because I got to discover so many things about this interesting, yet peculiar culture. Unfortunately, I couldn't communicate with her family, which was sometimes a little bit hard and uncomfortable.

The town my friend lives in is really far from the big city called Shenzhen, therefore probably the 80% of the population who lives there has never seen a foreigner before, so when my friend and I went out to the market or to do some shopping EVERYONE STARED at me, as if I was some kind of weird animal, or a celebrity?...Anyway, I couldn't feel more uncomfortable!!

But then, we went to Hong Kong for the last four days of my journey. And that was beyond amazing! Finally, I felt like I wasn't the only foreigner on earth, it was a relief!

Hong Kong is stunning, the streets are filled with colours, lights, millions of banners and thousands of people from everywhere!

I witnessed the most beautiful night spectacle called 'the light show' which consists of lighting

up all the buildings of the Hong Kong bay accompanied with music (see the picture below). It was breathtaking!!

The weather was boiling and sticky, we couldn't sleep without the air con on, which caused me 3 days of a nose cold...

Anyway, I'm back to Manchester now, yesterday I went out and the weather was just Perfect! I'm finally going home tomorrow and I really can't wait!

Okay then, I think that was pretty much all, I could keep writing for another ten pages but I gotta go, I need to pack (AGAIN!!!) and get everything ready for the Majorcan Summer!!

It was very nice to talk to you guys. I wish you a lovely (and hopefully sunny and warm) summer! See you in September! Xxx

I leave you a small selection of my pictures!

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Brilliant animation

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Liam Spencer review

The other day I came across this artist, and hiswork really impressed me.

Liam Spencer was born in Burnley (UK) in 1964.

He studied Fine Art at Manchester Polytechnic, graduating in 19

86. After living and working in Manchester for many years, he came to public attention in 2000, with an exhibition "Urban Panoramas" at the newly opened Lowry arts centre in Salford.

When I first saw his work I just couldn't believe that they were oil paintings. His work is based in paintings of cities, mostly by night.

In my point of view, they are photographs perfectly converted into paintings. I find so interesting the way he didn't miss a detail, i.e. car lights, traffic lights, the wet floor of the street,the colours... It is just unbelievably well done.

He has done paintings of many different cities, including Manchester, New York, China, London and Istanbul.

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Review Richard Haynes, today's speaker.

Richard Haynes 05/05/10

Richard Haynes is an animator and illustrator who mainly works in stop-motion animation.
He has always been passionate about drawing and acting, so he thought animation was perfect for him. He did Art in A-levels, and a Foundation Course where he produced a live action film at the end, which helped him helped him entering the Degree course he was applying for: Arts Institute at Bournemouth. There, he specialised in traditional drawn animation (stop-motion). At the end of the Degree he did a final film called The Typewriter - which couldn’t be longer than two minutes.
Richard showed us the rough animation he did on Christmas 2002 and then we saw the final one, made in June 2003.
He sent the film to the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France, and thanks to that he is working in the industry, as he met a producer from Cosgrove Hall.
He told us that the producer liked him because of his way of presenting himself, he pointed the fact that this job it’s all about meeting people.
Cosgrove Hall proposed him to do model animation, which was a challenge for him. He did little animations for kids called: Little Robots. Richard told us that every tiny model cost thousands of pounds!
He worked for them for five years. Now, Cosgrove hall has closed, because of the recession.

Recently he’s been working in Aardman Studios, where he has been working in Shaun the Sheep for 8 months.
Richard said that with Aardman everything was very different because when the contract ended, he knew he had to go find another job.

He showed us some of his showreels, which contained a lot of model animation, such as Shaun the Sheep, The postman Pat, Little Robots, Squidge and the Hardnuts (computer and model animation), etc.
I asked him if he had ever created the puppets, but he said that his work is just focused in acting and performance.

Haynes told us that what he likes about stop-motion animation is its believability, the fact that the characters actually exist, and children love that. So do I!

Mike asked him if he thinks Manchester is a good place for animation development, and Richard said that Manchester has been fantastic for him and that it has a good future in animation. He also said that in the BBC there’s a lot of animation going on.

I enjoyed very much this talk, Richard was very enthusiastic and you could tell he love his job.
I am not sure if I am going to do animation in the future, but this talk made me think of an animation technique I’ve never thought before: model animation, and the fact that you don’t need to be good at drawing to do that.

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Reviews

Two reviews I did about High and Low culture in make up advertising (VRF).

On this first advert, the make-up brand Rimmel London promotes a new lasting finish foundation. For this campaign they have chosen a worldwide model, Kate Moss.

The technique used on this advert is “collage” which gives an informal touch.
The collage is made out of three overlapping photographs of the model; the photos actually look like they have been cut out from a magazine, as they are not properly cut. The product they are selling has the same style, it also look like a cut out.
This effect actually makes me think of a corkboard, where someone has displayed pictures of models and celebrities he likes.

The typography used for the slogan Foundation stays put, colour holds true is also very informal, it looks like a label. Usually this kind of display typography has a black background; here they have chosen to put a red one to make the label stand out. When I look at the advert the first thing I spot is the slogan and the product which is at the foreground.
The other slogan Face the day is wordplay, as face has two different meanings, face as confront and face as features, and the second one is obviously associated with the foundation. I think what they want to promote is a foundation aimed at self-assured girls. Kate moss’s poses and look confirm that, in my point of view she’s a hard-featured woman and on the photos she always looks strong and self-assured. The clear message they want to come across is, “if you want to have a London look such as Kate moss, buy this Foundation”.

Also, the box that contains a description about the product is not very remarkable. It’s located on the left corner of the advert, and the size of the typeface is really small, and I think it would be the last thing I would look at. Even The brand Rimmel London is so much more noticeable than that, which is why I think they have displayed the description box just on top of the brand, so when you look at the brand you immediately spot the box.

On the second advert, Dior Skin promotes a foundation called Nude Natural Glow Hydrating Make-up. The image of the campaign is the Italian actress Monica Bellucci.

The advert looks simple. Just two elements are put together on a black background, the model and the product. It’s not an elaborate advert.
Since the model and the product fill all the space, the advert has a straightforward message.

There’s a lack of slogan or text explaining the product, or even the name of the foundation; everything you need to know about the product is on the bottle, which is on a bigger scale for the customer to be able to read.

Monica Bellucci appears to be nude, such as is stated in the name of the foundation, Nude.
On the picture she seems to be sat down and just a part of her shoulder and leg are showing, she insinuates but doesn’t show anything, which gives an elegant effect.
She stares at the viewer with her deep and suggestive look, which she uses to convince the customer to buy the product.

The lighting is really smooth on Monica Bellucci’s body, she seems to have a spot light behind her, which makes her hair looks luminous and the contour is very sharp, that makes her stand out from the black background. The product also has a smooth light that clearly defines it; we can guess what the materials of the bottle are, glass and shiny metal.

These two different adverts clearly reflect High and Low Culture.
Rimmel London’s advert is directly aimed at teenagers and is more casual and edgy. The composition looks a little bit too overcharged, too many things are put together and you don’t know which one to look at first.
Dior’s advert, would be more aimed at women, it wants to reach an older and more sophisticated public.
The advert has a finished look; it’s pure and denotes perfection. No slogan or text is needed, when the customers buy Dior products they perfectly know what they are buying, whereas in Rimmel’s campaign there’s a lot of text going on explaining why you should buy this product.
Also the name of Dior’s foundation is much more elaborated and appears to be much more luxurious: Nude Natural Glow Hydrating Make-up, whereas Rimmel’s one is more straightforward: New lasting finish foundation.
The style of the bottle also makes a noticeable difference. Dior’s bottle is delicate, luxurious and elegant. Whereas Rimmel’s bottle is made out of bendable plastic, also it seem to be small which comes handy if you want to put it in your hand bag.

In my point of view, the boundaries between High and Low Culture are quite clear in these two selected brands. However, in Rimmel’s advert they could become a little bit blurred, because this brand has chosen a very well-known British model to promote their product, which could reflect High Culture. Apart from that I can’t see any element of Low Culture in Dior’s advert.

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Global Warming

Hello all, as you probably imagine I'm still in Spain, because of the volcano! I'm not gonna say it isn't nice to have a few more extra days at home, but well the truth is I hate missing college and specially missing the beginning of a new project.

Anyway, over the Easter break I've been working very hard on my infographics, and here is a proof of it (I think...).

As I said to Alex and Stíobhart I'm gonna post the animation so you can see I've done the work on time (sorry I couldn't post it before but I didn't have access to the internet till now!)

Ok..here it is..just enjoy it :) Hope you like it!

Global Warming from Sara Llompart on Vimeo.

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Good news :)

I just wanted to share with you a happy moment. I got a call from a restaurant where I handed a CV a couple of weeks ago!

I'm really excited because if I get it, it will be my first job, and that's like a big step for me.

The only thing is that as I'm going home for Easter, they said they will keep my CV and call me when I'll be back - I really hope they will call!!!!

I'm really happy :)!!

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Eduarda Lima inspiration

At the beginning of the brief Stíobhart showed us Eduarda Lima's infographics about Global Warming. At that moment I didn't really realize how good they were and how much they could inspire me.

After watching this series of animation several times I do know now that I want to get inspired by her work. I love mixed media work - if you all remember my first brief was all about mixing different materials.

Also, as my target audience are children I think it's a good visual style for them to enjoy!

I leave you her animations, in case you haven't seen them.

Melting Ice Caps and Glaciers from Eduarda Lima on Vimeo.

Temperature Rise from Eduarda Lima on Vimeo.

Sea Level Rise from Eduarda Lima on Vimeo.

Aviation from Eduarda Lima on Vimeo.

Meat Consumption from Eduarda Lima on Vimeo.

I love her style, simple but really effective!!

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Clark Little

Hello guys, I wanted to share with you the stunning artwork of a photographer and surfer called Clark Little. He photographs the waves of Haiti from the inside, he has even created his own camera!

His work is absolutely brilliant.

He sells his photographs on his website (check it out!)

I would love to have one of this amazing pictures in my living room!!!

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Final Version Poster design

This is my final version of the poster design. After reading the suggestions some of you made in the last post, I did some changes.

As the red color is very important in the film, I decided to include it, but didn't want it to be as important as the orange, so I put this colour on the small numbers.

I prefer it this way because it breaks the monotony created by the orange.

Also, Kitty suggested to make the name of the senses bigger, so I changed that as well, and it looks much better.

And finally I decided to distort the font used for the title, so it gives that horror movie feeling.

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Typography

As I was looking for some cool typography wallpapers for my mac, I came across this typography guy, made out of letters and words.

(sorry the image looks a bit small..just because there's to much negative space!!)

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Another one!

This is another really good - yet sad animation about Global Warming, this time the animals are the main characters.

It really does make you think about these innocent little guys...

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Global Warming

I've chosen Global Warming as my subject matter for this infographics brief.

Today as I was looking for some inspiration on youtube I spotted this interesting advert about Global Warming.

Although I'm not able to read the text at the end because of the low quality of the video, I think they've recreated the issue of Global Warming really well. I love the music as well, it gives a sad feeling...

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Cirque du Soleil

Hello!

Have you heard of Cirque du Soleil? If you haven't go have a look at their website (click here)!! Mainly is an amazing circus that contrary to the regular ones doesn't involve animals. The performances are absolutely stunning. I went to see them last year in Manchester and it was brilliant.

They have come again to Manchester, and they'll be till the 21st of March - the tickets aren't that expensive (compared to last year's!).

If you have time (and money!) I think is something you can't miss!

Am I actually sounding as I was promoting them???

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Poster Design

This is my final poster design. I'm not entirely sure about the colours...I'm kind of stuck with this, but apart from that I quite like it.

If you have any suggestions they will be much appreciated :)

Thanks guys!

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SHOES!

That is a really cool infographic about the different kinds of shoes throughout the time.

Quite original, isn't it?

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Little Red Riding Hood

I was looking for inspiration for this new brief, and found this funny yet strange infographic - not too sure if it is one, although it is said so on the description. Anyway...it caught my eye!

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Infographics-spot

Speaking about Infographics, I remembered there was a really good one on the Spanish tv. It came out on summer and advised you to protect yourself from the hot weather.

They have used shadowplay to illustrate each advice, which I think makes the advert really creative and original.

The spot is in Spanish - obviously, but I've translated the sentences, so you can get what the images suggest.

-[Contra el calor, toma medidas]

In hot weather take precautionary measures

-[Bebe agua frecuentemente aunque no tengas sed]

Take frequents drinks of water, even if you are not thirsty

-[Refrescate a menudo, mojate]

Keep yourself cool, get wet

-[Protegete del sol]

Protect yourself from the sun

-[Busca lugares frescos]

Look for cool places

-[Reduce los esfuerzos fisicos]

Keep physical efforts to a minimum

-[En las horas mas calurosas del dia]

During the hottest parts of the day

-[Cuida que niños, ancianos y enfermos sigas estos consejos]

Make sure that children, the elderly and the sick follow this advice

-[Combatir el calor esta en tus manos]

To fight the heat is in your hands

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New Designers exhibition

Hello,

I don't know if any of you guys have started to think about the third year (top up year), well I have. I have been thinking about where to go, which uni, which city, if I'm staying in Manchester or not...so many things came into my mind. One of my possibilities is to go to London, and do my third year there. It's not that I don't like Manchester, but after this year and a half here I know this isn't my place, so I thought London could be exciting- a bit scary at first though!

Anyway, I've heard they have a really good exhibition there, it starts after the Degree shows and contains all the best works from Art universities. I believe this is a good way to get to know what London's art courses are like.
The exhibition starts the first days of July. (see website for more details!)


New Designers: http://www.newdesigners.com/page.cfm/Link=1/t=m/goSection=1

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Twinings advert

Super cool and original advert! Must have taken them ages!!!

Check it out :)

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