Working in Digital Media Wk 10
For todays speaker we had Maria Brown who works in career development.
Maria stressed the importance of proper interview preparation and good techniques.
Before any interview you should really know the company background and read the relevant company material on the website or obtain a copy of their marketing material… Always make sure your CV is up to date and accurate! It’s not really going to make a great impression if your CV is full of spelling errors or you get caught out telling a big pack or porkys!
A good way to help prepare for the interview, which should be obvious really, is to look for key wording and to ensure you understand rall the required skills…
- Ensure punctuality by knowing the exact time and place of the interview, how you are going to get there and how long the journey will take.
- Appropriate dress and good personal hygiene.
- Take examples of relevant Design work along to the interview.
One should also be prepared for the stereotypical questions that might be asked…
- Why do you want this job?
- What qualities do you think will be required for this job?
- What can you contribute?
- Why do you want to work for this company?
- What do you know about this company?
- What interests you about our product (or service)??
- Why should we employ you?
- How ambitious are you?
- Can you give examples of good bad work experiences…
- List good/bad qualities…
It’s always good to have a few questions prepared yourself, although salary questions should be avoided! A lot of interview advice is common sense anyway but it’s always good to brush up on these things… it will come in especially handy as we have mock interviews taking place very soon! Each of us has to attend an interview for a set position. We were allowed to choose from a list though so I’ve chosen photography as it’s the one I’m most interested in at the moment… I feel marginally more confident because of the lecture, I took away a few tips but I’m so not looking forward to the interviews!
Mainly because it involves grooming and a smart appearance. I’ve a tendency to just shove my hair in a bobble (gogo, what ever they call them here…) and throw on some weird-looking item of clothing… looking forward to seeing all the fellas in suits tho – lol! Fingers crossed anyway, that by the time I leave the course and have a proper interview for a design related job it will go well! It’s long way off though!
Working in Digital Media Wk 9
In today’s lecture we had Robbie Ward, from BPM Media. BPM Media are a company that provide Music and Video media that delivers music and video to a targeted audience with the aim of influencing consumer behaviour while identifying the marketing needs of an individual company.
He began with the phrase ‘Content is King’ although specified that was really more about the content itself, therefore ‘relevance is king’ would be more apt as it It can be used to a highlight a company’s objectives or simply used as a powerful selling tool. Ok it’s not quite subliminal messaging but It’s quite scary when you realize just how easily our minds subconsciously perceive these messages, what happened to free will?
Interesting Industry Statistics
70% of Purchase decisions are made at the point of sale.
Viewers are 40% more likely to purchase items promoted on digital displays.
Digital Signage has a 47.7% effectiveness on brand awareness, increase the average purchase amount by 29.5%, creates a 31.8% upswing in overall sales volume, generates 32.8 percent growth in repeat buyers and pulls in 32.8% more store traffic (Source: InfoTrends)
Consumers are more interested in video that focuses on store sales, product information, and special events.
81% of consumers regardless of whether they have already experienced in-store video are most interested in seeing video programming for the store that includes sales and specials (81%), product information (72%) and special events (68%).
If given a choice 42% of retail video viewers would prefer to shop at a store that has video displays. (Source: The Arbitron Retail Media Study-Volume II).
The digital signage and professional display market will grow to US $13 billion by 2010, a 3.6% compound annual growth rate from US$10.9 billion in 2005. (Source: iSuppli)
By 2011 the North American market for large flat panel display for signs will be worth more than US$3.5 billion (Source: Frost & Sullivan)
Importantly though you have to know the customer , make sure the situation is relevant and get the balance right, failing this would do more harm than good! I’ve certainly learned a lot from this topic and I’d never really thought about just how widespread it has become although now that it has been brought to my attention I see that I’m targeted most days! It’s relevant to many areas in the design and also brought my attention to marketing in general. The Call to Action techniques employed in the industry ‘Buy one get one free’ offers work well to persuade the customer to do a quick sell before the offer expires, can also be used in Web Design. Call to action buttons are frequently used in web design ‘Special offer today only’ or Viral Marketing ‘Tell a friend’. Careful brand management alongside a clever advertising and design campaign is vital for all companies from those mentioned all the way down to just plain old Dunnes coupons...
Fair play to the industry for cottoning on to this digital signage malarky (TO AN EXTENT…) If a person is going to buy a particular product anyway and you just instead ‘help’ them see that your product is better the rival competitor through target ads then fair enough. I’ve learned a lot about advertising through this and how the right message, at the right time will do wonders for your business! It seems we buy with our sense of smell too… I heard a saying once that if you were showing your house to potential buyers then you should bake fresh bread or biccies, would a homey baking smell really help to sell your house? Surely it’s unlikely but perhaps…? Certainly seems we can be so easily manipulated!
Randoms
After all that talk yesterday of the Japanese inspired brand that is Tokidoki, I thought I should really post this video I came across! It’s a really good animation, great use of the graphics! It was created by a Japanese girl for her final thesis project. It’s interesting anyway and full of seemingly random facts! I was there a few years ago and loved the place!
Working in Digital Media Week 8
This week, we again studied the videos in place of a college lecture. Simon Legano features in one the creative videos made by Lynda.com. Simon, an Italian designer from Rome, is the founder of Tokidoki, a Japanese inspired lifestyle brand.
The son of a painter mother, I guess creativity is in his genes! After a friend of his brothers introduced him to design software, he went to design school and never stopped sketching… With a bit of luck his personal website was seen by a couple in LA and after becoming business partners his portfolio was transformed into a worldwide brand!
His style is all Japanese inspired…it kind of has a Manga-esque/Pokemon type feel to it… all cutesy colourful characters! His advice on getting ahead in the design world is to always keep improving, continue developing ideas, stay humble, make compromises and just keep working (Remembering to be aware of the competition and that there is always someone better)!
He always travels with sketch books although sketching could be on the back of a napkin or book – inspiration could come at any time or from anything… Actually, the inspiration for one of his ranges was a cactus he noticed when relaxing one day in the sunshine… this led him to design a range of friends (best sellers!!!), dressed in cactus suits for protection! ) His designs are constantly evolving, even from a year ago they have become much more colourful and funky!
A selection of Tokidoki designs!
Simon then spoke of his typical design process. Following an initial sketch, the images are imported into the computer using his iPhone (for quickness). Starting with the Pen tool and mouse, outlines are traced using bezier curves. Some designs are started straight in illustrator but more complex designs begin life as a sketch. Once the outlines are complete, Simon moves onto colour and shape. Stroke weight is very important, as well as line ends… some might be done with a round cap etc. After the basics are completed and basic shapes are in place he plays with details and shades…. Grouping and arranging etc.
Beginning the design process!
When a design is ready for production, care must be taken to ensure the colour palette is correct. Sometimes he is given a limited palette, in that case a handy tip he gave was to just create a temporary swatch at the side of his workspace. Actually that was a simple yet brilliant tip to me, I usually end up opening a palette in separate window which just complicates things and is so bloody annoying to toggle back and forth from!
For something like a 3D model the design process would be a little more complicated…For a toy, he would provide the toy maker the character from different perspectives, approve the mould, then design the packaging. This would probably be the biggest job because not only is whatever relevant info added but bar codes and all that legal jargon!
Tokidoki Cactus friends
In the future Simon would like to continue developing his style whilst making time for himself away from the computer to do some traditional painting! He probably should as the 10 years and 14 hour days he mentioned in front of computer can’t be good for the eyesight!
A talented guy anyway with a likeability factor and decent work ethic. I really like his designs! Although luck played a part in his success, if he hadn’t have gotten his name out there in the first place then he wouldn’t have been noticed! The cactus character thingeemebobees are class – actually I may order a set, although by the time I find the time i’ll have forgotten. So seeing as I ain’t the best at drawing on pen and paper, it’s comforting to know just how much a design can be transformed on screen. It was certainly relevant to the course, no doubt we’ll be doing something similar in future semesters so it’s good to know the work flow! I’d better get practicing and will check out some more of his work… pretty inspiring stuff!
Working in Digital Media
Students were required to create a tri-fold Digital Media leaflet from a list of topics
ITB
Web Design
Ski Resort Brochure
Although these could be modified if appropriate so I decided to create mine for a festival… probably the closest thing i’ll get to a festival this year! As much as I love them they’re bloody pricey and last time I went to one I got robbed while sleeping soundly and securely next to my valuables… or so I thought – but anyway!
So the brief was to choose one a topic and an appropriate layout.
Paying attention to:
White space
Layout
Colour
Scheme
Effort
Information on the leaflet
Design
Look and Feel
Illustrator Skills
Efforts below:
Outside Trifold
Inside Trifold
The Houses of the Oireachtas and Science Museum
For our first “Working in Digital Media” outing, all classes went on a trip to Leinster House which houses the Irish parliament – the Oireachtas. Ireland is a parliamentary democracy with the Dáil Éireann/House of Representatives and Seanad Éireann/Senate.
Leinster House
One of our groups’ lecturers for this subject is Ronan Mullen. Ronan is a independent politician, and was elected through the National University of Ireland Seanad panel.
Handy! Perfect candidate to meet us at the beginning of our tour so!
So in we went, beginning with a quick cuppa, both Ronan and an official tour guide gave us a brief history and overview of Leinster house…
- Dail Chamber
Seanad Chamber
It’s a magnificent building, and was originally known as Kildare House. James Fitzgerald, the Earl of Kildare had it built as a town house around 1745-47, although due to it’s garden it wouldn’t ‘technically’ be a townhouse…
The inside is nice, not as grand as you’d expect (and the carpet was filthy in parts!) but they had a nice staircase and lovely ornate ceilings! We were shown both chambers and on a particularly busy day it would seem, as hours after our visit, in popped the Taoiseach Brian Cowen for a cabinet reshuffle…
From there we met after lunch and headed to the science museum!
Hyperbolic crochet coral
So the main exhibition was a Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef.
Hyperbolic you ask???
“A non-Euclidean geometry in which the parallel axiom is replaced by the assumption that through any point in a plane there are two or more lines that do not intersect a given line in the plane)”.
Did you get that? Oh dear, erm… Well in layman’s terms, it means something about geometry that can be better understood if you can picture the geometric lines running around/across a curved surface…
There you go, perfect sense…
The project was started by Australian sisters Christine and Margaret Wertheim, started, to highlight the perils faced by the endangered Great Barrier Reef. The project has since grown and now contributors from all over the world have added to the collection using a wide variety of materials. The exhibition is named due to the mathematical structure of coral which is known as ‘hyperbolic’. An interesting but unfortunate fact mentioned was that due to the acidity of the seas and rising levels of carbon dioxide, they have nicknamed areas of open water as the ‘coca-cola’ ocean…
All in all it was an interesting day. I remember when I was a kid, my mum took me to (UK) Parliament and we got to enter the house of commons, it was interesting therefore to see the Irish equivalent. I’m pretty clueless about politics to be honest so it was informative! I hadn’t been too sure what to expect from the Science Museum, the nerd in me had hoped for cool interactive objects and fascinating facts. I was in a Science museum in London a few months ago and it was amazing. Although I’m not too interested in Politics and I’ll be making zero English/Irish comparisons!!! I was left inspired nonetheless, it was pretty darn amazing to see the creativity and talent that went into the reef pieces. Beautiful, fabulously coloured reefs made from plastic trash, beads, wool, wire, weird fluorescent materials etc. I can finger-knit, but I doubt that’ll get me even close to being able to make anything worth writing home about!
Working in Digital Media Week 7
Todays guest speaker was Fiona Kelly. Fiona is a digital media designer with a degree in Interactive Media. Fiona began by speaking to us about ‘intelligent stealing’ and the big debate over when is copycat…ish work stealing and when is it simply inspiration?
An excerpt from the following quote by independent film maker Jim Jarmusch was mentioned…
Jim Jarmusch - Film Maker
Fiona uses many sites for inspiration, I’ve came across those sites too and they are great for tutorials and learning new trends!
Smashing Magazine
IStockphoto (stock images/illustrations…)
Fffound Image bookmarking
Del.icio.us Book marking
Digg Social News Website
WordPress Templates Site Templates
Along with a few other designers, Fiona founded Fat Kitty films and her logo for the company led to her being approached to design a new retro site for motor business Scooter Island…
Scooter Island company website
Fiona usually starts by compiling a moodboard when beginning a new design! A collection of illustrations/fonts/general layout/style/ colours and shapes etc. Whatever is relevant to her request… In her own words, she’ll then set about taking bits from here and there, but ensure the end product is of her own creation.
Other designs can be found at Glimmer Digital Design
She passed around some cool little ‘Moo Cards’ too, kind of like a mini business card… Again, the importance of networking was stressed – attend seminars etc, attend the opening of an envelope even – just put your name out there! Luckily she is at a stage now though where she can be a little more choosy over campaigns, sounds like she has come across a nightmare client or 2…
About intelligent stealing tho…I suppose if it wasn’t using other peoples ideas as a foundation for our own we’d probably all still be living in the stone age anyway! We are faced with so many ads on a day-to-day basis that surely get stored in our deep subconscious and surface on occasion. I’ve never really thought about it but it’s obviously widespread anyway. Like fashion in clothing, design tends to have seasonal trends and fashions too… Swirls, flourishes, neon vector shapes over photographed images, silhouettes against strong colours (Ipod???) are in half the posters I see! All these started somewhere, I doubt each company suddenly had the same ideas… that would be quite some co-incidence…
I agree to a degree… If a design fuels your own creativity and inspiration then fair enough, as long as isn’t a blatant rip off – but instead forms a basis on which you can go off on your own tangent. Without a complete lack of originality…
On a side note, seeing as the film maker Jim Jarmusch was mentioned here is a clip from one of his short movies starring Iggy Pop and Tom Waits, I’m a fan of both but particularly Tom Waits!
Working in Digital Media Week 6
This weeks lecture focused on Creative Inspiration videos from Lynda.com. We were given these in place of an actual live lecture, so for this week I’ve chosen to write about Ron Crab, a freelance designer.
Ron Crab began his creative career at an early age and remembers memorizing and absorbing other works of art from in his childhood… Recalling that even back then, he drew inspiration from nature – sunlight rays through wooded areas, frozen creeks and a fascination with colours! Ron began his career back as an illustrator with a fine art background. Building up connections from the ski shop he worked in, he progressed from T-Shirt design to Logos. As equipment became more sophisticated he began to learn a new application called Quantel paintbox and from there delved into computer generated imagery and motion graphics!
Although working mainly from Hollywood originally, it’s the same continuous advances in internet technology that have provided Ron with limitless options for a place of abode and it is Bainbridge island Ron and his wife now call home. Based from here Ron works on a global scale and has worked with an impressive array of clients!
Before an image has been Matt Painted
After an image has been Matt Painted
Matt painting is Rons bread and butter, this type of painting is mainly done digitally these days and involves creating the illusion of a highly realistic non-existent landscape or recreating a historical era… certainly a lot cheaper than building vast sets! His first film matt paint was Xmen 2 and he has also worked on films such as Matrix 3, The last Samurai and Constantine.
Even now skill sets have to be expanded continuously. Textures and images can be mapped onto 3-D models, to create a more adaptable environments that will allow for 3-D camera movement. Using an image as a reference a matt painter will recompose a scene using all different layers for each tiny detail for the smallest camera shift! It sounds pretty complex…I didn’t even realise this was used to such a degree, some of the clips shown were amazing, not a chance would I have ever guessed the background wasn’t real!
Further example of 'before' image...
Further example of 'after' image...
Matt painting can create some amazing effects, although I think it might be a little tedious for me… To make sure the scene is realistic, many scenarios would have to be mocked up, for example if a city night shot was used, in order to make it as close to real life as possible, lights would be turned on and off etc. Ron himself says the work can be tedious and repetitive but I’m sure the end result is worth it. For Ron it is anyway, it’s his dream job, he enjoys his works and is being paid to use his gift!
Working in Digital Media Wk 5
This weeks guest was an artist and designer named Emma Wade.
Although mainly working as a full-time as a visual artist Emma graduated from Dun Laoghaire in 2002 and began a career in Graphic Design. An important thing Emma mentioned at the beginning of the speech was when she spoke of working in a print shop. This turned out to be a great learning curve for her as she was able to gain a lot of knowledge in this side of the industry and filled in knowledge gaps of print production… In order to be really familiar with all aspects of the design process from start to finish that every professional designer would probably benefit from knowledge that side of the printing process!
Emma held numerous design jobs and gained an impressive CV working on jobs for some big brand companies and learned to cope with a large workload under stress!
Alas, as her confidence and creative input grew so did her desire to return to a different kind of visual art.. Following a 2005 exhibition she was either part of or just simply inspired by…(Ooops, I forget which…) she began a 2 year course at the National College of Art and Design and graduated in 2008. Studying here she had to adapt her way of learning from a logical way of thinking to a more philosophical approach!
A lot of Emmas work is audience focused and often requires physical interaction. One of the programmes used is Pure Data, a programming language for creating of interactive multimedia work.
The CheerUp which aims to do exactly that – cheer people up, is an example of this. This sound piece hopes to encourage positivity by applauding the user each time it is activated. The cheering is generated when the user steps on the sensor mat in which the technology has been programmed.
Another of Emma installations, which is bizarre to say the least is Rexotrek. Rexotrek is mixed media installation spread over 2 rooms. Emma created this piece to show the world from a dogs perspective and involved amongst other things, video and audio recordings which had been fixed to her dog Rexs collar during walks! Of course, this being a dogs worlds, a visitor to the exhibit must enter the small rooms on hands and knees… Interesting notion but not really my cup of tea.
If this leaves you unsettled however you could always visit another exhibit of Emmas for a cuddle! HUGS (Human Utopian Generation System) developed out of the free hugs movement and brings back some good old-fashioned bodily contact in an ever increasingly digital social existence. This is more like it, just put on a homemade suit and a pump will simulate a squeeze!!!
So anyway, as mentioned – Emma mainly is involved in visual art now although she still free lances. It was interesting listening to her ideas, nice to hear about somebody so passionate about art and who is doing well! She is also involved in a project in Dublin city called RedSpace. Red space is non-profit studio space which provides workspaces/studios etc as well as a supportive and creative environment in which like-minded, creative folk can collaborate and discuss. It’s good to know it exists, every Blue moon I get a notion of taking up mixed media sculpturing/mosaic or pottery. I even got as far as building a rather weird-looking gargoyle last year out of paper maches, sand/glue, erm – plasticine and forks… so if I get the notion again I’ll be sending myself over to Redspace…
Worthy of a mention is the fact that she was lucky enough to secure an internship at the Guggenheim museum in NY which was amazing no doubt!
Working in Digital Media Wk4
In each guest lecture the topics are varied so todays guest speaker was Ian Cudmore, a freelance editor. In to talk mainly about post production editing.
Ian began with a little of his background…
Following a degree in Product design, Ian studied at Trinity college for a further 2 years where he gained a masters in Music and Media Technology. Similarly, like our course – this followed a broad spectrum of many different digital technologies!
Beginning then with a little of his post grad life! During a short stint in a (now defunct) company he produced some of those crappy jingles and ringtones that annoy us so much… Not sure whether that left him without a job or Ian left before the company ceased operating but it was here he began freelancing(ish). Rather than twiddle his thumbs and wait for unlikely calls, he admirably set about trying to get work to come to him. Or at least open a few doors to work… paid or otherwise. He contacted Scottish folk musician, James Yorkston, through myspace. I think he made a some sort of music video of him as he was a fan? Anyway, James liked what he saw and asked him to do his EPK. An EPK apparently is an Electronic Press Kit, used to promote artists to mass media. Depending on the industry and target audience it might contain a short doc/promo reel/short biog etc.
Oh dear, I hope I get this right cos I’m relying on memory and scribble for recall… Anyway, this kinda started things sort of snowballing for him. It led to him doing a music video for Yorkston which in turn led to him meeting Donal Dineen, a notable Jack of all trades… photographer/presenter/film maker! Together they began to collaborate on a number of projects, notably one for Lisa Hannigan! An unknown then, 10 of her videos were uploaded to youtube and 1 of those ended up totalling over 800,00 views in a short space of time. Luckily for Lisa this led to a guest spot on a major US Show and luckily for Ian it brought him to the attention of Liam Mcgrath!
To shorten things, Liam works for/owns? Scratch films, a company for which Ian began to do alot of work for! Editing shows starring the likes of Maeve Higgans and PJ Gallagher…
Dependant on project size obviously there can be 3 types of editor:
- Assitant Editor
- Editor editor liase with director
- Assembly editor
I suppose it’s the pecking order of who does what…
He mentioned also that the ratio of reel from raw footage to final edit is 20:1! That’s a lot of unused tape!!!
So anyway, I found his talk very interesting! He’s a cool, down to earth guy and obviously carries a fair bit of personal motivation:-) He provided a lot of good advice and told us all he wished he’d been told before going out into the big wide world of work – such as looking into recieving Council and Arts Grants etc.
It goes to show that unpaid work really can get you places, it’s always worth your while to carry on with self projects during unemployment periods. Fire out a few letters and emails in the hope that one of them lands in the hands of the right person at the right time… I’ve did it myself plenty of times and gained experience with design and photography. Maybe you’ll be a dogsbody and poorly paid at best? Maybe not… Either way it’ll still be mutually beneficial and lead to who knows where!
I don’t really know exactly what part of the industry I want to end up in but like he says, the diversity of our course has real advantages! He’s often met great cameramen who couldn’t use Final Cut Pro and vice-versa-ish. Therefore his main advice was to really get to grips with all available/relevant technology and network, network, network!
Kurt Vonnegut 10 tips for short stories (shown to us during lecture)
He also recommended reading:
“In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing” by Walter Murch.
Oh and i’ll check out this software too – he mentioned ‘I Stopmotion’ as worthwhile stopmotion software!
In Clodaghs class, continuing with Illustrator, we created a brush in order to make a nifty retro look type poster thingee… and had a bash at creating a ‘shiny button’.
Efforts below:-)
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