Sketchbooking!

Wanna see my sketch book cover?! no? ok... ill show you anyway!

I usually just buy a sketchbook from DoJ but recently in class we have been attending a book binding class at the DCA! its all to do with our project and lets us have one-on-one time with Emma Fraser our client. Its good fun... and at home while i was ill and bored i decided to have an attempt of making a cover for my sketches... i used paper mache! simple stuff then tore out different colours and textures from magazines and newspapers and made a wee collage!

Assignment 4- Interviews

I chose to interview people about how celebrity culture effects branding of products!

I started thinking how these interviews could help me in the proposal writing process so decided to focus on a sub-topic of the branding culture.

I started off asking people who their idols were. who they looked up to... almost like a pre-interview attempt... i found that this varied depending on the gender and age.

The experiment

The question

I asked 3 people who their celebrity idol was. I also asked why and if they would buy a product endorsed by that particular person. Who wouldn't they buy a product back by...

An eleven year old female was asked the question, she responded Miley Cyrus because she is pretty, young and successful. She also started out singing when she was around the subjects age and looks up to her. She said she wouldn't want anything advertised by a man as it wouldn't be girly enough especially not a sportsman, such as david beckham.

20 year old male, was asked the same questions, he responded obviously different than subject one. he said he looks up to "the usual people" so when i asked who they were he struggled to come up with a name which i found quite strange. Maybe because he was on the spot i don't know but he struggled! eventually he said he looks up to music bands especially pop/ punk bands such as muse. When i asked why he said he wasn't sure just because of the way they dress and likes their music. He said he wouldn't buy products endorsed by younger singers such as Justin beiber...

19 year old female, was asked the same thing, responded quite interesting actually... she said she would buy a product from a man and a woman. i found this interesting as my other subjects had a clear dislike to a certain person or image. She didnt seem to mind. what she said was interesting as she said if a girl was selling you a product like cheryl cole she would buy it because if she thought a successful woman would buy it and use it then she should! She also said if a hunky man was telling her to buy a certain perfume or something she probably would because he would like the smell and she would appeal to him more... this got me thinking a lot...

There are some things that cant be done! Say if Gerard Butler was to advertise tampons?! Would women run out and buy them?! probably not... they wouldn't because he doesn't understand what a woman needs and wants. but if he was to advertise say a t-shirt then they would probably buy it! As subject 3 said she would buy something to get the attention of the celebrity. He obviously liked it enough to advertise it so people respect this and want to buy it because they want him.

I then asked them what they thought about interior design in general... i asked them to sum up my discipline in 3 words. what i got back was pretty expected... "pillows, throws, wallpaper" not "ground breaking brilliance!" i asked myself why?! why do people not understand what interiors is about?! i realised i had to admit ok... it is a tiny proportion to do with wallpaper and cushions and throws... but it is more to do with emotion and expression! Peoples needs and wants. Architecture, historic features, design for hotels... Design is about people, my discipline is no different, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen is the reason people believe interiors is a about decoration. flamboyant patterns and faux fur galore! Its not... Even when i tell people on the street what i do they say to me ... "oh i need my living room decorated ill give u a shout!"... Its quite annoying how stereotypes are fueled by hundreds of TV programmes. don't get me wrong i loved watching changing rooms when i was younger but it has totally destroyed peoples opinions on interiors in my opinion.

Pre-essay posting!

= ) (some of my notes and workings)

Just as i was writing my essay proposal i noticed that my previous post really is almost the same thing im saying in my proposal... on the same topic anyway!

I am actually enjoying writting my proposal, i never thought i would... (sorry Jonathan!) but as i started writing my introduction and also thinking what to include in my plan i realised it's a dead intresting topic and relates to design a lot... even interiors!

By reading articles and bits and bobs online i was really inspired and ready to rock and roll!

With radio 1 playing in the background and 3 cans of diet coke later i found myself sucked in and ready to put myself in a brandy markety mode!

bigger is better?!

So recently i got a digital SLR a huge camera which cost a fortune! ha ha! It got me th-th-thinking about products we buy and relating back to what Jonathan said in the final lecture about the business of design i thought id think about it further...
Personally i am a bit of an innovator and an early adaptor! (if i do say so myself!)... Usually the things i buy which make me an innovator do not usually become a big trend! But occasionally they do... for instance i was one of the first idiots to buy a mini-disk player! so hard to use, it didnt take off... The ipod nano though! the first one... the first credit card sized ipod out there at the time, i bought which caught on. (Don't know if that's because i bought it or not!... only kidding!)
Ipods became huge because of branding and advertising. they were made to look cool! and by people buying them they revolutionized music, and turned it into something easy, download-able tunes! So if i was to advertise a smelly old sock? and have advertising with everyone who is anyone wearing it on their head as a hat... everyone would do it? maybe... Lady gaga might be seen with one soon! I wouldn't be surprised!

but anyway back to my mighty nikon camera! I recently saw David Beckham on an advert with a huge camera up to his face, he then gave a cheeky wee grin! i was just wondering if maybe i am an innovator/early adopter for the slr revolution! ... i know what you are thinking, SLR's have been around for a long time... but digital SLR's are quite new things to have especially for teens... is this because of the price? maybe because they aren't seen as, for being cool?!

I predict that big is becoming better! people are starting to prefer having chunky good quality things! for example a cheap table from ikea and a gorgeous solid oak table... people would usually prefer the oak chunky, more expensive yes... but something that will last forever and not break and fail instantly! fashion's change and new things become popular and come back into style all the time! recently chunky jewelry has come in... and looking back to one of our lectures at the start of the year where Jonathan pointed out that everyone is wearing stripes! stripes are so in right now you are a no-body without stripes! that's what this advertising has done to us! we think we are being independent and new! but in fact these decisions have been made for us!

What a world! I just hope i can be proven right! and if lady gaga has a sock on her head next week! ill be sure to post about it!

Task 3 - "Design safari"

For this task i decided to observe somewhere i am quiet familiar with, the bus stop! As i get the bus into uni through the week and work at the weekend i am pretty familiar with the process in which my 45 minute - 1 hour journey takes! So usually what happens is i leave my house in Carnoustie at around 8 each morning which then gets me into Dundee at about 9...

Today i am the first person at the bus stop i have approximately a 5 minute wait for the bus. As i wait it becomes clear that the bus is late... 5 minutes pass to 10 minutes and eventually it comes. What i noticed though is that when people walked towards the bus stop they stood around the corner behind a building... It was a very windy day and at this particular stop there was no shelter... So one by one they crossed over the busy main road and gradually popped their heads out from the corner, to see if the bus was coming...

I found this quite clever as the were almost creating a new bus shelter that i hadn't been aware of. As i stood and waited in the open being blown about and sand blowing in my face i felt quite silly that i hadn't thought of that before! for me i am a regular super bus-goer! and these pensioners out-smarted me!

So eventually the bus came and the pensioners raced to hop on the bus but what i noticed was i was almost the decoy! because i was standing there the bus had to stop and let me on... but if i wasn't there would they have waited that couple of meters away?! Quite a crucial distance for their zimmer frames!! ... So i decided to test this..

.The next day at the same time... I decided to do what they did the previous day, so i left my house that little bit later and lesuirely walked out to get the bus. There was no one on the corner so i thought to myself... "mmm that interesting!" as i walked around the corner i saw that there were 3 old ladies at the bus stop (2 of which were their the day before)... so i decided to wait on teh corner untill teh bus came... i wanted to see if the bus driver would treat me any differently than they would treat a pensioner! (obviously it would be a different driver and maybe it wasnt that much of a windy day... but in general i did wee experiment) so as i saw the bus appearing in the distance i gradually started to walk towards the bus stop when the bus passed me, the pensioners got on and the doors shut! I had to run and flag down the bus before it drove off without me...

As i got on the double decker bus i noticed there was a teenage boy sitting at the front of the bus on the lower floor. I decided to sit at the back of the bus and observe how people reacted as they got on the bus... (note: the boy had a cast on his foot/leg? so he must have not been able to get up the stairs) I found this interesting because as the oldies got on the bus they glared at the boy as if he should move but in fact he deserves the seat as much as they did, if not more... i found it really funny as well because he was wearing adidas track suit bottoms with the stripes down the sides and a grey hoody... so maybe this posed as a threat to the oldies! no one sat next to him until they had to and even then they turned their backs and talked to their friends. he struggled to get off the bus and no one helped him. I have witnessed hundreds of times people helping frail elderly people up but what made him so different? was it his clothes? if he was wearing something else would he have gotten a help? Maybe his body language showed he didnt want to be helped? Everyone completely ignored him even the bus conductor...

Update on 12 week interiors project...

Just a quick update on my line of thought for this project...

Although half way through i cant seem to get very motivated(probably because its such a long project i tend to think... oh i have plenty of time!) . So i think if i update on my blog every so often just so i can see and show my process almost like a written sketchbook!

Just a little background on the project first of all...

We need to re-model and develop a Victorian house for a book conservationist, Emma Fraser. She requires a work space and a studio within the large house, this needs to be 40m2 and somewhere within the house. There are all sorts of restrictions as books need to be kept in a constant low temperature, somewhere without direct sunlight and so on.

As well as a studio we have been asked to design living quarters for her! especially somewhere to relax and entertain her friends!

Emma has spent a lot of time travelling, throughout Europe, China and South Africa where she studied and lived... As different cultures are oobviously quite interesting to her i decided to adopt the feeling of different traditions, and almost merge them together subtly... i started off looking at African design and styles (quite stereotypical objects and prints)... I found that a lot of dark ebony wood is used to create bowls and structures. I came across a lot of stereotypical thing as well such as bone, shells and rich colours.

different prints + textiles...

Activity 2E- Adding text

I felt i didnt need to add text to my photos as my subjects were quite clear on the story...

I dicovered that people can tell a lot through photographs that dont belong to them! At first people look at you and say "oh god i dunno!" but when you tell them to look at anything in the image they can start to reveal little stories and try to uncover what is actually going on in the photo! its amazing how personal photos are to yourself but probably could be understood by an on-looker!