I think that I'm going to focus on Brothers cider because it has a younger target audience that makes it easier for me to relate too. I also think that my initial design thoughts would work better with the Brothers brand because of its festival heritage, which would also give me a broader subject scope to work with. I also like the fruit aspect which could work really well within an app game as well as visually.
Ideas revolving around Brothers Cider
Rotten Apples: Explode the good apples to make the cider and avoid the bad apples.
(The glastonbury aspect) Stage: Throw the rotten apples at the stage (in place of rotten tomatoes).
Fire the rotten apples into the cider bottles.
Since they make ciders in various flavours I could use different fruits within my app.
Most of my ideas revolve around my app being some kind of game and having an entertainment value since I think its the strongest purpose to get an app. As well as this specified recipes are hard to obtain so it would be harder to generate an app revolving around this aspect. Making a location finder also seems pointless because its a well known brand and it pretty much focuses solely on making cider so its not like they have other lesser known drinks that a location finder could be useful for.
Thursday, 14 November 2013
Alcohol brand Initial Research Ciders
I decided that I would focus first on ciders since I feel that I've got stronger ideas on this particular type of drink. I googled brands of cider and found three big brand names that I was already familiar with.
The label for Brothers cider is one of my favourites, the variety of fonts used is reminiscent of a carnival/fun fair poster, which gives it a playful quality, I love the swirly writing which contrasts against the bold brothers font, and there is a remarkably homegrown aspect to the label itself.
Brothers was one of the first brands that I looked into that had a visually appealing website. Its very fun bright and focuses on the fact that it sold a large amount of its pear festival cider at Glastonbury- something that would enable me to generate a fun visual style.
Brothers markets to a younger target market and according to its website over 70% of consumers were between 18-34 years old. It also has a very strong student following and has a strong link to music and festivals due to its glastonbury roots. There are a variety of fruits and flavours to the brand which would allow me a broader scope within m app.
http://www.brotherscider.co.uk/
Bulmers has a more organic styling to brothers, it focuses more on the orchards which is probably because Bulmers stresses on using 17 different types of apples within its cider. Bulmers also has a variety of flavours like Brothers although I think that Bulmers is aimed at a slightly older target audience something more akin to y 20s-45's simply because Bulmers has a more rustic feel to it and a heritage that is iconically related to Ireland which to my mind seems more synonymous with a slightly older generation although the vibrant colours of the labels and the beverages arguably also hints at a younger market. I would also suggest that due to the colours and the flavours that Bulmers is aimed at both men and women.
http://bulmers.ie/
Magners is actually the base company of Bulmers, Bulmers is a spin off from Magners and I was surprised by how different the two have been branded considering that they originate from the same creators. Magners is definitely aimed at an older target market 30's to 50's and I feel that Magners is aimed more at older men than women which is not only suggested through the same rustic Irish heritage but through the more subdued website which focuses more on a bar style as well as textures.
http://www.magners.co.uk/home.html
So far out of the three brands that I have looked at I am currently more drawn to the Brothers cider brand since its history with festivals and music could be used to generate a more fun and vibrant app.
High West Whiskey and Hardy's Wine brand Initial Research
High West Whiskey
I decided to look into Whiskey's because I liked the idea of a Wild West, cowboy's and indians style of app and game. High West Whiskey has a heritage that goes back to the 1800's (the era that is considered to be the Wild West). And its clear from its website that High West Whiskey has branded itself in the style of the Wild West. Im instantly reminded of the old Wanted posters and again there is a clear textural element, and the rich browns that have been used remind me a great deal of leather.
Although I am particularly enamoured by the Wild West styling and generating a shootout cowboy style app, I dont think that this idea really matched the target audience which to my mind is older men. As well as this I think that this idea might also be too cliche and unoriginal.
http://www.highwest.com/our-story/our-saloon-history/
Hardy's wine is an Australian wine, I wanted to look into Australian wines because of my Kangaroo initial idea and Hardy's was one of the first wines that came up within my search. From the look of the website the wine looks sophisticated and luxurious which could create a very dark and sleek app. Since the wine is very much aimed at the older generation (35's-60's) which can be determined by the whole styling of the wine and its labels. I don't think a game would be appropriate considering the market and the sophistication of the brand.
I plan on investigating ciders since I think that they will have a younger target audience that would enable me to generate an app or game thats more fun.
http://hardyswines.com/uk/grape-types/shiraz/
I decided to look into Whiskey's because I liked the idea of a Wild West, cowboy's and indians style of app and game. High West Whiskey has a heritage that goes back to the 1800's (the era that is considered to be the Wild West). And its clear from its website that High West Whiskey has branded itself in the style of the Wild West. Im instantly reminded of the old Wanted posters and again there is a clear textural element, and the rich browns that have been used remind me a great deal of leather.
http://www.highwest.com/our-story/our-saloon-history/
http://hardyswines.com/uk/grape-types/shiraz/
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Alcohol Brands Initial Research...
The brief that we've been given is incredibly broad, we can choose any brand of alcohol, and the app can be devised for one of two purposes to inform and or to entertain. Initially my first response would be to develop a game since I think that would be more fun for me to develop and I think would make an app designed to promote a brand more interesting. Although I plan on looking into some existing informational apps before I fully decide on the angle that I'm going to develop for.
I have 5 initial brands of alcohol that instantly spring to mind that I'm going to use as a starting point for my research. Below I've taken these brands of alcohol and started to use word associations to generate some ideas.
High West Whiskey- The Wild West, cowboys and indians, saloons, shoot-outs, pirates.
Game ideas for Whiskey: Shoot-out game between two characters, shoot the whiskey off the saloon bar using the tap motion.
Hardy's Australian Wine- Kangaroo's, aboriginal art, cork hats, cave paintings.
Game ideas for Hardy's: Tap the kangaroo to crush the grapes, the faster you tap within the time limit the more wine you make, cork the bottles of wine by tilting the cork hat into position.
Crabbies Ginger Beer and Ginger wine- 50's style artwork, christmas, women, flared dresses.
Game ideas for Crabbies: recipe game? steeping the ginger, possible getting the ginger into Scotland- ship/pirate game.
Absinthe - Green fairy, 1800's, prohibition, speakeasies, 1920's, jazz, deco, gangsters and flappers
Game ideas for Absinthe: smuggle the alcohol into the speakeasy, gangsters, flappers perhaps a Bugsy Malone style game.
Brothers Cider- Bulmers, Magners, Brothers- Some form of apple based drink, country, hippie, farmyard, orchards, 60's 70s.
Game ideas for cider: fling the apples, squeeze the juice, rotten apples Vs good apples, angry apples style game. Possibly explore the hippie art style.
Im not entirely sure which angle I'm going to look into now I like the richness of the culture to the Australian wine but the cider would also be interesting due to the hippy aspect. I'd have to do more research into both brands before making a decision.
I have 5 initial brands of alcohol that instantly spring to mind that I'm going to use as a starting point for my research. Below I've taken these brands of alcohol and started to use word associations to generate some ideas.
High West Whiskey- The Wild West, cowboys and indians, saloons, shoot-outs, pirates.
Game ideas for Whiskey: Shoot-out game between two characters, shoot the whiskey off the saloon bar using the tap motion.
Hardy's Australian Wine- Kangaroo's, aboriginal art, cork hats, cave paintings.
Game ideas for Hardy's: Tap the kangaroo to crush the grapes, the faster you tap within the time limit the more wine you make, cork the bottles of wine by tilting the cork hat into position.
Crabbies Ginger Beer and Ginger wine- 50's style artwork, christmas, women, flared dresses.
Game ideas for Crabbies: recipe game? steeping the ginger, possible getting the ginger into Scotland- ship/pirate game.
Absinthe - Green fairy, 1800's, prohibition, speakeasies, 1920's, jazz, deco, gangsters and flappers
Game ideas for Absinthe: smuggle the alcohol into the speakeasy, gangsters, flappers perhaps a Bugsy Malone style game.
Brothers Cider- Bulmers, Magners, Brothers- Some form of apple based drink, country, hippie, farmyard, orchards, 60's 70s.
Game ideas for cider: fling the apples, squeeze the juice, rotten apples Vs good apples, angry apples style game. Possibly explore the hippie art style.
Im not entirely sure which angle I'm going to look into now I like the richness of the culture to the Australian wine but the cider would also be interesting due to the hippy aspect. I'd have to do more research into both brands before making a decision.
Af202- Designing Apps and Promo Brief...
The Brief
Design an App for iPhone, and iPad promoting a brand of alcohol, the app should be entertaining, useful and or informative.
Develop a 15 second promo that advertises the app.
To Research
Look into alcohol brands
Visual graphical style
Cultural focus and a set of values suitable for your brand
Music
Interface/Interactive design- usability, wireframes, flow diagrams, technical specs and resolution sizes
To Produce
An Animated demonstration of the app, a teaser, storyboards, animatics and wireframes.
Design an App for iPhone, and iPad promoting a brand of alcohol, the app should be entertaining, useful and or informative.
Develop a 15 second promo that advertises the app.
To Research
Look into alcohol brands
Visual graphical style
Cultural focus and a set of values suitable for your brand
Music
Interface/Interactive design- usability, wireframes, flow diagrams, technical specs and resolution sizes
To Produce
An Animated demonstration of the app, a teaser, storyboards, animatics and wireframes.
Tuesday, 5 November 2013
Evaluation
I uploaded what I think is going to be my final animation onto youtube after making the changes highlighted in the Crit.
I am very proud of my work, and I love my visual style (I think Illustrator work is probably one of my strengths and it made sense to apply it to this project.), I think my idea is very strong and imaginative although I'm worried that the concept itself is a little convoluted its supposed to be viewed as something light and something fun, because reducing our carbon footprint is such a serious topic matter it needed something light and fun to make it seem like less of a daunting task. This lightness is also congruent with the brief which specifies a lighter general message (the animation should focus on what we can do to change it not necessarily on what we are doing thats causing global warming). The animation principles that I've used are subtle- theres the characterisation on the hamster - giving him thoughts which references the principles. I've also utilised humour which is initiated through the lightheartedness and the concept- a hamster powering a light. As well as this there is of course the cartoon element although my visual style is more complex than basic children's cartoons.
Its the first time I've used After Effects so I have kept the animation simple, however now that I know the basics of the software I would love to add some more complicated effects and movements into my animation. I really really like the After Effects software and I had a lot of fun making my animation. Its was easy to use and reminded me of Photoshop so it seemed more familiar to me. I generally just stuck to transform keys although I did apply a stoke mask to certain bits to make them draw themselves in and ventured into the mirror tool and drop shadow tool to help really elucidate my paper hand-drawn theme that was heavily inspired by the Paper Planes animation. By in large I can't wait to explore After Effects further.
Using compositions made making my animation much easier because it enabled me to group everything so I didn't have to work with hundreds of layers, although putting it together at the end of the project did mean that my timing was very tight. Which could have been rectified by sorting out the timing specifically beforehand. Despite this using compositions actually helped to organise my scenes a lot and gave me more of an idea of what transitions I needed when and where.
If I could change anything I would introduce some more complex effects using After Effects but I think I would also really hammer out my timings to the second before animating, I used my animatic as my basis for my timing and made my compositions generally to that length, however I don't think my timings were specific enough in this and although I'm pleased with my project and like the timing (after I made the post crit changes), it was very tight when creating it and even now I wish I had half a second extra to allow my end to breathe.
Despite this I do really like what I've made, the animation is fun, and I had a lot of fun making it and I look forward to making more animations in future.
I am very proud of my work, and I love my visual style (I think Illustrator work is probably one of my strengths and it made sense to apply it to this project.), I think my idea is very strong and imaginative although I'm worried that the concept itself is a little convoluted its supposed to be viewed as something light and something fun, because reducing our carbon footprint is such a serious topic matter it needed something light and fun to make it seem like less of a daunting task. This lightness is also congruent with the brief which specifies a lighter general message (the animation should focus on what we can do to change it not necessarily on what we are doing thats causing global warming). The animation principles that I've used are subtle- theres the characterisation on the hamster - giving him thoughts which references the principles. I've also utilised humour which is initiated through the lightheartedness and the concept- a hamster powering a light. As well as this there is of course the cartoon element although my visual style is more complex than basic children's cartoons.
Its the first time I've used After Effects so I have kept the animation simple, however now that I know the basics of the software I would love to add some more complicated effects and movements into my animation. I really really like the After Effects software and I had a lot of fun making my animation. Its was easy to use and reminded me of Photoshop so it seemed more familiar to me. I generally just stuck to transform keys although I did apply a stoke mask to certain bits to make them draw themselves in and ventured into the mirror tool and drop shadow tool to help really elucidate my paper hand-drawn theme that was heavily inspired by the Paper Planes animation. By in large I can't wait to explore After Effects further.
Using compositions made making my animation much easier because it enabled me to group everything so I didn't have to work with hundreds of layers, although putting it together at the end of the project did mean that my timing was very tight. Which could have been rectified by sorting out the timing specifically beforehand. Despite this using compositions actually helped to organise my scenes a lot and gave me more of an idea of what transitions I needed when and where.
If I could change anything I would introduce some more complex effects using After Effects but I think I would also really hammer out my timings to the second before animating, I used my animatic as my basis for my timing and made my compositions generally to that length, however I don't think my timings were specific enough in this and although I'm pleased with my project and like the timing (after I made the post crit changes), it was very tight when creating it and even now I wish I had half a second extra to allow my end to breathe.
Despite this I do really like what I've made, the animation is fun, and I had a lot of fun making it and I look forward to making more animations in future.
The Crit
Feedback from the Crit was generally good, they seemed to think that the visual style was strong and that the animation worked as a whole.
Things to change:
Andrew had issues with the beginning (the first 8 seconds) he said was a bit clunky in comparison to the last 20 seconds- in order to rectify this I plan on making my hamster wheel move faster (since I think that this is the problem - it runs for a second too long) and I also plan on making the hamsters leg movement match the underlying beat of the music.
The message should be on for slightly longer- maybe a second to a half a second extra to fully allow the message to be read and absorbed, making the message longer will be easy but it will also be tight time wise so I'm literally gonna have to hope that shaving 1 second of my hamster is gonna be enough time for me to make the message clearer it's the only extra time I can really allow.
Despite these small issues my animation was well received and I am very proud of what I have managed to accomplish.
Things to change:
Andrew had issues with the beginning (the first 8 seconds) he said was a bit clunky in comparison to the last 20 seconds- in order to rectify this I plan on making my hamster wheel move faster (since I think that this is the problem - it runs for a second too long) and I also plan on making the hamsters leg movement match the underlying beat of the music.
The message should be on for slightly longer- maybe a second to a half a second extra to fully allow the message to be read and absorbed, making the message longer will be easy but it will also be tight time wise so I'm literally gonna have to hope that shaving 1 second of my hamster is gonna be enough time for me to make the message clearer it's the only extra time I can really allow.
Despite these small issues my animation was well received and I am very proud of what I have managed to accomplish.
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