The Peapod foundation

http://www.plantandinspire.org/peapod/

I found the pea pod foundation website on thefwa.co.uk whilst looking for inspiration on building, structure and environment. Although the main website is standard and a part form the good quality photography quite dull I thought it's advertising website http://www.plantandinspire.org/plantyourideas/#/CreateFlower/Main/Home/ was inspiring. It brought together the goals of the organisation to give children with underprivileged backgrounds access and opportunities to multimedia tools.

As you can see from above the website is highly interactive to give grab the children's attention. By interacting with the object that they are creating a flower it is showing them what they can become if they take the opportunities that the foundation is offering them, e.g. a symbol of a laptop represents technology they can use, a microphone shows that they can become musicians if they plant the 'seed' with the company they will become a flower of society. Also they can view other peoples work and become apart of a network so they don't feel alo

In terms of building, structure and environment the website others children the chance to build their own structure that will grow. The background pavement photo has a sense of the "streets" that they can relate to. It works well with the virtual 3d images of the flowers because it brings a sense of reality to the project.

As far as inspiration goes towards my own work it has made me realise that bringing in an interactive object will make the audience feel like they are making the website their own, they feel more involved.

Yellow Sticky Notes

I really like this animation. I love the simplicity of it and the personal nature that he reflects on his work as an animator. I found this animation on YouTube whilst reflecting on my own work process and how to get organised. His animation is creatively reflecting on how his work practice has changed/developed as his life has taken a different path.

Lynee Cohen: Sense and Nonsense, the Ordinary and Dreamlike

http://www.wipnyc.org/blog/lynne-cohen

Lynne Cohen's work is based on seemingly 'normal' spaces, such as waiting rooms, health spas, waiting rooms etc. She provokes a sense of suspense, uneasiness and sometimes even a sense of humour to the images. She often creates black and white photos but the colour images have caught my eye. She often uses similar distancing in each photo with blocks of intense colour to give the image a constructed feel.

In each of the images below I feel that she has taken a photo of the mundane and turned the atmosphere into and a physiological message about the purpose of that space within society. She mainly focuses on the function these places have in our lives-“I feel as if the world can’t be like it is. It seems full of finished works of art.” Personally I agree with her. From an artistic point of view any building structure or environment connects to some-one. There's always a hidden story or experience that some-one has had there that may be lost forever.

To me the image above is quite childish its it's bold shape but it suggests urgency and war due to the black submarine shapes. Also the yellow draws in your attention contradicts it's usual happy meaning with the organised grid of the tiles. It' s a planned message.

This image reminds me of James Bond. Although that is irrelevant it gives the viewer a sense of the era and sophistication. The lighting and shapes are kept simple. The image leaves me wondering who, why and what would be going on in a room that look so simple to begin with.

Finally, these is my favourite image out of the three because of it has a vivid sense of prey vs predator, man vs nature, good vs evil. Both the military gear and tiger are separated but connected with the simple layout and colour green. This puts me on edge thinking about the wars that have been and still going. Also the blue lockers suggest that there are hidden details , which there are always going to be in these life changing situations.

Journal Task: Social Networks

What does it look like?

I have chosen the following three website as they are all passions of fine in some shape or form but i haven't been on any of their social networks before. As far as all 3 sites go they are all well organised and easy to use. This is helped by the intense colours that attract the users to different sections. The colours also provide a reflection of what the sites are like e.g. the skydiving one is firey and intense compared to the digital artists website which has more subdued colours due to its thought nature.

I have found that all 3 websites use photos and film in different forms to attract the users and let them know quickly what the site is about, for example the artist website and music festival site use slide shows of pictures and logos. i think this is a a good way of attracting people as the more eye catching the image the longer they will stay on your site.

Is it easy to use?

All three are easy to use as the links are clear and presented near the title so that you don't have to look very far.

How relevant is the content of the site?

http://www.welovefestivals.com is mostly relevant as it suggests festivals, ratings, peoples opinion of it etc. In all all you'd need to know about a festival but some of the pictures are a bit irrelevant as to me they are just random peoples photos of each other. if I was to change anything about the site I would add more about the DJ etc.

http://www.visualprogression.com- I found some of the content surprising. There was a lot on the home page about how to write dissertations and where to find fake ones however that was a small amount of the site. I enjoyed looking at peoples work.

http://skydivernetwork.ning.com. As for this website I found nothing on there very unexpected, it all connected well and led on to more extreme sports.

(http://skydivernetwork.ning.com/)
http://www.visualprogression.com/
http://www.welovefestivals.com/

Design Interviews

Dan Saffer: 'Interaction design is an applied art'

The first thing that stands out to me from Saffer's interview is the passion for the combination of disciplines he uses to define his work (e.g. film making, anthropology, art science etc) but his base is mankind. He makes it for the people and is grounded by that. In my opinion this is very important because to create a successful website you have to constantly think about how the websites going to be used and what will draw in. He also has a mixture of inspirations that constantly keep his ideas flowing.

From reading about Saffer he is continuously growing as a designer, always looking at new designers, inspirations and challenges that keep him disciplined, for example he has suggested looking at new technology (in particular touchscreen devices). Interacting with the technology gives you a basic knowledge of it's function therefore you can improve it.

Joel Schafer: 'I'm into minimalistic clean design'

Whilst Saffer describes his work form a creative point of view and how important research etc is Schafer relies heavily on planning. He plans it down to the last detail so that he knows what coding relates to what page and what possible problems could occur.

From reading both articles I think that your design process has to be intricately planned, however you need to know what you audience want/need to do this. The only way to go about this is to research, experiment and (for me) draw.

MY NEW GRAPHICS TABLET!

I experimented with layering photographs. The photo was originally of a fire that I think works well to separate the characters.
This is the first illustrations I have created on my NEW GRAPHICS TABLET. I was really excited to use it and mess about with drawing again. I think for my first go after a few scribbles It worked out pretty well. I enjoyed layering the colours and line thicknesses to create depth. One of the best things about using the graphics tablet was how I felt I could create a more free style through digital art.

Whilst experimenting with the pen I felt that I wanted to make characters out of the 2 women so I could see how colour, line, tone and texture work together. I think the vivid red tones give an bold, feminine feel to her. Whereas the other 'earthy' character allowed me to experiment with blending but I dont think it was as successful as it looks too scratchy for my liking.