603: Angus MacPherson Talk & Brief Initial Ideas

Notes:

• Worked in agencies for 6 years, freelance for 4, now working from York. 
• All work falls back to branding, art direction, tone of voice, practical skills etc.
• Talk 12th Jan @ 3pm (part of employability fortnight) about client work.
• Hawthorn Advisors - largest brief, required wide range of skills, practical and directional.
  - Should reflect upon CA Spaces brief in terms of how to navigation creative strategy.

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The Brief:

CURATE.TV LIVE Play Campaign

Background

CURATE.TV is a website of video playlist curated by the most interesting people in the

creative industry. CURATE.TV LIVE is a screening event: 6 creatives introduce internet

videos that have meant something to them, that are screened in front of a live audience.

You can see an overview of the Transcend event from earlier this year and a case

study of the campaign:

In summer 2021 CURATE.TV LIVE is back, 8 creatives will be introducing videos themed

around the idea of Play.

Taking place at 7pm on the 22nd July 2021 at Outlaws Yacht Club Leeds Sponsored by

Partizan Brewing

Why Play?

"Almost all creativity involves purposeful play." - Abraham Maslow

"I love to play in my work as a creative. When I look back at the body of my work, I

realise that the more fun and more play that went into creating my work the better people

respond to the end result" - Jessica Walsh

Michael Rosen: How play changed the world (didn’t get a link for this)

Watch the videos chosen by the curators what do they have in common? What does

play mean to you? What does play look like to you? How can you be playful while still

achieving an objective?

The creatives and the videos they are presenting are as follows:

Emily Forgot

Triadisches Ballett von Oskar Schlemmer - Bauhaus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHomnumnNg&feature=emb_title&ab

channelAltorMerino Mart 14C3%ADnez

Notes from watching:

- Had the appearance of living toys and dolls, at the beginning.

- Feels very much like a kid tv program, reminds me of in the night garden (but for adults)

- The spaces in which the characters adds to this sense of being in a different world. 
- The movements are very playful, they shift their bodies in a particular way. Find the difference between slow and fast movements to add to the piece. 
- Also reminds me of anyways and the characters they have in their creative quiz

- The use of music with the movements is particularly interesting, it emphasises the motion

- Interesting and unique shapes in every character they have a different costume and way of carrying themselves.
- Bright colours help the piece feel more vibrant and playful

- The cuts in between with a round flickering typeface are quite harsh in comparison to the dynamic sections of the video. 

- Even when a section of the film is dark the movement helps it feel light and playful (like above).

Lydia Raghaven

Amaro and Walden's Joyride 

https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E3U6ALWYcg& ab channel=THELINE

Notes from watching:

- Really creative idea

- Find the combination of animation and film media to be really effective

- again creates a sense of a different world

- Has a comical tone to it

Marylou Faure

Grace Jones - I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NİN31E3DHoodi eature=imb title&ab channel Grace JonesVEVO

Notes from watching:

- Dynamic shapes, both false and within the make up 
- Making a false reality

- Simple not over complicated with the way it is filmed

- The beginning is really beautiful, love the angles and way it was shot 

Alec Doherty

Old School Rave - The Morning After The Night Before https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rYXcmVSebufeature=emb_title&ab_channel=RockSimian

Notes from watching:

- Freedom
- Movement
- Carefree attitude

- Seems as though everyone is on the same wavelength
- Odd sense of calm

- Very raw way of filming and documenting people

Nicole Ginelli

Peter Campus, Three Transitions, 1973 https:/vimeo.com/318841430

Notes from watching:

- The idea at the start is what's so exciting, the playing with perception.

- Painting and ripping in real life but then it the physical action is represented in a digital way

- I find the fact there is no speaking to be the most enticing element of the video, you only hear the sounds that are being made.  

Russell Davies

Laurie Anderson - O Superman 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkID 2H8IOE&a b_channel=NonesuchRecords

Notes from watching:

- Simple use of light, very childlike thinking about shadow puppets (at the beginning)

- Filming and lighting creates an extraterrestrial sense of being

- Shapes and digital editing and transitions are really interesting

Creative Challenge

Using the CURATE.TV brand guidelines create a multi platform campaign to

promote the event.

The campaign will exist on social media (Facebook & Instagram) as a poster pasted up

around Leeds and a printed flyer. The campaign can be extended with stickers, wristbands

or other imaginative promotional materials. Use of animation and the incorporation of

video into the social media Campaign is desirable but not essential.

All campaign assets must be recognisably part of a set, using a common design language

incorporating the idea of play, while varying enough to be vibrant and engaging

Deliverables

• 6 sheet flyposter(s). This can be a single poster or set of posters that work together 

• Social media posts Introducing a speaker 

• 3 social media posts promoting the event: these must include
  - a description of the event
  - date
  - time
  - location
  - beer sponsor logo 

• Flyer. This will be available at local bars and venues and must include
  - description of the event
  - date
  - time
  - location
  -beer sponsor logo

• Campaign extensions (optional): these can be stickers, window vinyls, wristbands. tshirts or anything that makes imaginative use of the Play concept

Guidelines:
Typefaces - ITC Clearface St

Mindmap w/ group: What is play? 

What did we agree on?

- Broken grids, not having everything so strict ad linear.

- Having type set with a sense of motion to it.

- Physical design feels more playful than digital (but there are ways of achieving digital design that is playful). 

Thoughts after watching the videos

After watching the videos we regrouped and noted down the words we thought of while watching the videos:

We discussed and felt as though the more rigid words were less playful, having too many rules and restrictions prevent the sense of play. Feel as though play and freedom come hand in hand, wanting our branding to incorporate this. 

Initial ideas sparked from discussions and videos:

• Drawing over the template of a poster (thinking back to helena presentation).
• Drawing freely in response to audio from videos (thinking back to the work from L5: https://e-n-crook1821-sp.blogspot.com/2019/11/editing-animations-to-fit-audio.html)

Drawing inspiration from imagery relating to the ideas we discussed:

Gabriella Marcella: 

For the young designer, pattern is a way to alter and lift the world around her. The aim is to “animate surface,” to transform things by “giving volume to something flat.” 

• The sense of movement within the works is what catches the eye first, the vibrant colours and contrast helps push this further.
  - The aesthetic feels like it could work for Curate.TV here since they use heavy capitalised font.
• The colour palette in the first image is so simple but super effective, I think in this project a minimal colour palette or large amount of white/black space would help it look clean and professional. 
  - With the theme of play quite often things become childlike and we want to keep our eye on being professional as well as playful. 
  
  

Kate Roebuck: https://www.kateroebuckstudio.com/

• Free, textured images, have a strong presence but the light watercolour help the images feel less aggressive adding a softness.
• The handmade sense from the imagery is what adds to the playful nature of the work. This combined with the fluid mark making provides a youthful design. 

Misc Images:

• Playful type arrangements, making the reader have to
• Use of texture
• Selective colour use

Total moodboard of work.

As a group we collated imagery and designs we felt were appropriate to the theme ‘play’ on a pinterest board, this way we could discuss the direction of the design to ensure we are all on the same page. After watching the recommended videos.

Themes:
- movement
- dynamic
- shape
- pattern

Many of the works centre around movement through the use of lines, and the visualisation of physicality through digital outcomes. 

Looking at Curate.TV presence online wanting to gauge the tone of their branding so the campaign can work harmoniously alongside it.

Instagram

Instagram

Website

Event Space Instagram Post

Event Space Instagram Post

The online presence of Curate.TV is much more refined as communicates a sense of calm. The application of brand guidelines is consistent across all elements (we need to make sure we continue with this) making the content easily recognisable as Curate.TV.

Imagery from the talk:

Promotional materials on the presentation showed a slightly different take on the branding, it's more dynamic and lively due to the text manipulation and a focus on the RGB blue colour. 

The brand guidelines were very clear on the presentation, we want to stick to these. Changing some of the fundamentals to the brand might come across as though we think we can improve the designs or that something needs to be changed, we really don't want to do this to Angus.