Illarterate

Pot Noodle: the follow up

2008-05-02T10:10:00.003+01:00

Seems the Pot Noodle video I posted a while back uses elements from the Stakker 'Humanoid' video. Yeah, I've never heard of them but I was three years old when it was created.

Strangely hypnotic.

Quicktime Movs and Flash files now available for download at my site, for the sake of it. Not proving massively popular on YouTube yet so maybe some more web promotion is in order.

My site

Political Propaganda

2008-05-01T14:58:00.003+01:00

This guy's videos are good. Wish I'd seen them before now, more specifically when I was still working on the Analogue Propaganda stuff. Dunno if the guy actually mixed them himself or if he stole them from some mashup show but they're impressive nonetheless.

RX2008's Youtube channel

Useful links

2008-04-28T14:59:00.005+01:00

Just a few sites I've been using/bookmarked over the last few days:

How to add autorun to a CD. Definitely will be using this for my data disc and possibly a game disc for MyPlace.com.
Video Game Music archive. Plundered for my game - using Sim City tune as well as some free license stuff.
Acme Manufacturing CD/DVD templates.
Windows Advanced Installer (direct link to download)

Update: blasted autorun doesn't work on Macs. Why can't we all use the same computer and all these compatibility problems will be gone?

Analogue Propaganda DVD

2008-04-24T14:09:00.002+01:00

Visual scheme. Looking to follow the same theme with my DVD packaging.

Gough Road map

2008-04-23T19:21:00.003+01:00

Maybe a bit late now, as the mapping brief's deadline passed ages ago, but the University of Belfast have created an interactive version of a map from the 14th century. Talk about old contrasted with new - some of the tools resemble those on Google Maps, produced some 600 years later! It's also interesting to see what the country looked like all those years ago, even if the cartography didn't prove to be wholly accurate.

The Gough Map
Gough Map at Wikipedia

Improveverywhere April fools

2008-04-23T18:08:00.004+01:00

Meant to post this ages ago, but Improveverywhere's website was reskinned on April Fools day:

Click to enlarge. I love these parodies of early userpages... something I touched on in my MyPlace game.

MyPlaceland beta

2008-04-22T17:37:00.004+01:00

I'm pretty close to a version I'd be happy to post on my website. Some screenshots provided above - graphical and technical elements are all but complete. At this stage I wouldn't really have the time to add anything significant. I'm adding the finishing touches to the overall gameplay, specifically more people that may have a positive or negative effect on your points/sanity.

Apart from that it's just ironing out bugs through repeated playtesting.

MyPlaceland is nearing completion

2008-04-18T18:26:00.002+01:00

What the title says. All rooms are in place and the next week will be the time to playtest and finalise the game, including adding a soundtrack (I have yet to mix) and messing around with the graphics a bit.

Reskinning MyPlaceland

2008-04-11T18:39:00.002+01:00

Began the process of bringing more "Internetish" elements (especially graphically) into MyPlace. Beginning to work in places but looking like a nautical map in others...

Also the story has been changed to a more generic "you have to pick up bits of your corrupted webpage" collection based affair with the friends meter taking second stage.

I'm still thinking it through: I'm sure things will be sorted by the deadline.

I Wanna be the Guy!

2008-04-11T18:34:00.003+01:00

Apparently this is the hardest game ever conceived. Pays homage to lots of famous video games and is graphically very cool.

I wanna be the guy

Youtube:

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"I Wanna Be The Guy: The Movie: The Game is a sardonic loveletter to the halcyon days of early American videogaming, packaged as a nail-rippingly difficult platform adventure. Players fill the role of The Kid, a youthful, vaguely Megaman-esque protagonist on a quest to become The Guy. This inscrutable plot, however, is just a vehicle for a wide variety of inventive, well-designed and frustrating jump-and-shoot challenges that pay homage to many of the games you loved as a child. The ever-fragile Kid explodes in a shower of red pixels at the slightest brush from the game's many obstacles, from traditional spikes and bottomless pits to more unconventional killers, such as plantlife and puzzle pieces. "

Couple of links

2008-04-11T16:33:00.002+01:00

Top Ugly MySpace pages. Perfect for my room skinning.
How to get better quality playback on YouTube videos.

Also, updated my website with new projects and some better quality YouTube links.

My Website.

MyPlace: inspiration

2008-04-02T18:14:00.004+01:00

As said previously, the graphics and general idea of the MyPlace game take from classic puzzle games as well as some newer top down role-play games. In particular the graphics take from Grand Theft Auto 2:

In addition, the game borrows graphically from the SNES version of Zelda. Here's a quick video of that in action:

Now, compare to some screenshots of my game:

Spot the difference.

MyPlace: quick update

2008-03-30T20:17:00.003+01:00

MyPlace: the Game. Now has status bar, six rooms and unlockable areas. Also includes some new car sprites and yet more bits nicked from Zelda 3.

MyPlace: game progress

2008-03-24T18:31:00.001Z

The graphical elements stolen from Zelda 3 stick out a bit....

MyPlace Land: Work In Progress

2008-03-23T20:54:00.008Z

I'm thinking of applying this game to the publication brief: video game mapping. I might not be able to finish it in two weeks, however so I may need some sort of backup plan.

Some of the graphics are lifted from Zelda 3 whilst some, such as the sprites, are hand created. The above screen is the starting room in the game and thus far is the only one I have anywhere near completion. I'm going to base the map around a long street with a number of different rooms a bit like Zelda 2's houses.

I think things will have to be modified to fit the time limit: getting health from the computer idea is binned (for now) and only the friends (lives?) and score (score) ideas remain.

One other problem: the physical size of the game could potentially be massive in modern terms. It's already 30Mb and only the first room is done! At this rate it could end upwards of 200Mb meaning it would be a CD only game - no embedding into web pages.

To do:

Create box art, packaging and distinctive graphics (purple, MySpace based). Apply to the game - make it more 'social networking' based.
Change wavs to mp3s and see if the file size is reduced.

And an idea for another game:

Teletext maze game. Simple beat the clock, Pacman 'avoid enemies' style.

Book Review - The Video Games Guide

2008-03-23T20:44:00.005Z

The Video Games Guide, Matt Fox

Bought this book a while back from the Book Clearance Centre. It's actually a giant collection of reviews of some classic (and not so classic) video games from Pong to whatever you can get on the Playstation 3. Pity there weren't many images but it's a useful guide for ROM gamers.

The most useful bit of the book was the appendix which had some major game designers and a glossary of famous games from each year. There's also a useful list of 'generation' categorised consoles.

For my game, I will be particularly taking inspiration from Grand Theft Auto 2 (PS) and Legend of Zelda 3 (SNES) [which got four and five star ratings respectively in the book] in the top-down perspective and collection/exploration aspects of the game. The graphical element will be more akin to early SNES than anything due to the limitations of the game. I'll look to post some development screenshots.

Map design variations

2008-03-20T17:24:00.002Z

Not sure what I want to do with these yet, maybe some UK wide statistical data. Colour variations:

Maps - initial tests

2008-03-20T16:34:00.002Z

Done some rough mockups for visuals centring on an ascii map of Britain. Warning, rude place names ahead... HTML version above, Flash version below.

I like this idea. At the moment the links go to the Google maps page - I wonder if I could take this further/apply it to something else? Maybe a simple Game Maker game?

Maps - initial ideas

2008-03-19T16:24:00.004Z

Some ideas based on the starting point 'maps'.

Documenting a journey through film. Attach a camera to a hat and walk somewhere. Speed it up and put some daft tune to it. Really old idea.
Stupid place names - Shitterton, Dung (France), Balls (US) etc. Maybe a world map with these places pointed out. Use of Google Maps to extensively research.
Image maps - websites. Link Maps - maps of the web.

Map of the net.
World web map. Interesting - using relative land masses to compare to countries of the world.

Video game maps. Create a (Game Maker) game. Might be too similar to the MySpace game idea? Somehow try and merge the two, maybe.

Videogame maps@IGN.
Grand Theft Auto style map.
Simple maze/collection game.

Cartography - hoax maps, place names.
False entries.
Explomap. Good site.

Some less sensible ideas:

Carve a map on a chocolate biscuit.
Web browser simply states 'you are here'. If illegal, 'you are not here'.
'You are here' portable sign. 'I am here'.

Game Maker

2008-03-18T18:07:00.006Z

My first Game Maker game! You can collect the coins and talk to people. Talk to the wrong person and you lose a life. Lose three lives and it's game over. You need to talk to the guy in green to remove the blocker from the door (top).

I think I understand what I'm doing with this now. Just need to find out one or two more things and I'll be ready to start proper - in fact I could probably do that now. I might just create a small game or two to start off with - maybe a collection game or a small top down shooter - before I take on the full game.

Carry on with Futuresonic website. I'm considering sticking with Futuresonic but there's always time to change.
Make some graphics and maps for the game.
Maybe do the Superlambananas brief. Distraction in Progress? Might be worth generating some ideas in sketchbook.
Still no word on the publication brief.

To do list

2008-03-14T18:12:00.006Z

For next week.

Continue working on Futuresonic/festival site. See Pixel is Power blog for more details.
Distraction in Progress - possible idea for the degree show material. If not, use for upcoming publication brief.
Game Maker - real life MySpace game. Have got to grips with the basics and will explore the program more in the coming days.
DYSTT - be on lookout for more videos to flesh the idea out. Email Sam and ask for help with putting it together (April 1)
If time - designs for DVD cover for final multimedia disc and Analogue Propaganda.

MySpace: the game* - proposal

2008-03-13T12:36:00.011Z

*Title is a working title. I would probably want to use something more generic to refer to social networking sites in general.

I want to create a game that is primarily a comment on the MySpace culture of 'collecting' friends. If this were applied to real life, it would equate to approaching people on the street and asking them to 'be your friend'.

The overall style could be compared to that of Grand Theft Auto 2, a top-down shoot em up in which the player is set 'missions' to complete. In my game there would be no shooting (at least I don't think) but there would be missions that could include collecting items that resemble Facebook icons. The main focus would be to collect friends which would involve making contact with the sprite of another character and maybe pressing a button. I am also considering adding a timer, known as a 'sanity meter' which constantly ticks down and would be reset when the user gets to a computer to check their friend status!

The user can visit various locations in the fictional world, including a shop that sells gaudy T-shirts (reflecting the poorly designed custom MySpace layouts) and various friends' houses, unlockable by meeting the right people as the user explores the game. You start off in the information centre, a small beginner level, to ease the user into the game.

Not everybody will be your friend, however. Some people will just give advice, or reject your friend requests. In the case of the latter, your sanity meter will decrease by a portion or two.

Life - Sanity level (meter). Reduced when a friend rejects you. Vice versa.
Items - add to popularity rating (meter, percentage?).
Score - friends. Plus one for every friend. Plus 10(?) for every group (just another scoring gimmick)

The longer you stay alive, the more popular you get, the more friends you make.

Graphics for title screens, popup windows etc. will be based on existing social networking graphics, particularly the MySpace ones. Occasionally you will get messages from the moderator or the 'Tom' type figure (who I'll probably rename Bob, or something) - for example you get a MySpace style welcome message when you start the game. Perhaps people you interact with could speak leet/text language/any other Internet language.

Myspace: the game

2008-03-12T12:33:00.012Z

Characteristics of MySpace (good or bad):

Bad colour clash and generic template pages
Incrementalism. Collect things.
Rate things. Rankings - top 10s
Egotistical - add me! Vanity. Look at me! I am the best!
Makes people lazy - can't be bothered to go to meet them/phone them
Populated by children who use this as an extension of real life - cyber bullying
Waste of time. Addictive.
Slow loading times - crummy third party Javascript and Flash
Security problems - identity theft

Sourcepoints (warning: strong and/or nerd language follows) :

a. Listing and cataloguing your already existing friends, as to create such riveting conversations like, "Hay why haven't you added me yet?" These conversations don't limit themselves to the internet either, people actually talk about this shit in real life. There is something inherently sad about that.

b. Meeting random people to list as your "Friends." For f**k's sake, do you really need the internet to meet people? Especially those with a name like xXforbidDEn___aDdictionXx? There's a reason these people are on the internet and not hanging out with all the kewl friends that they have.

Film festival websites

2008-03-11T17:55:00.004Z

Two reasons for these: layout inspiration for my own festival website and also possible places to rework and submit my 'Teletext is Dead' idea to.

UK festivals in May: filmfestivals.com
iconscious - not sure if this is open submission. Interesting, nonetheless
Movement on Screen - based in Manchester and Lancaster. Video games, animation etc.
Transmediale, Berlin.

Found through filmfestivals.com

Futuresonic 2008

2008-03-11T17:16:00.005Z

The theme for this year's Futuresonic festival is Social Networking. Remember the real life MySpace idea? Now this has something to work to. I'm currently looking into creating a top-down, Grand Theft Auto style game - so why not MySpace: the Game? You go around 'recruiting' people to your friends list and you get 1 point for every one you make. Beware, though - some people don't like being confronted in the street and could punch you to the ground.

I'll work on the premise more in the week and try and flesh the idea out. Over Easter will be the time to get cracking on it.

It will feature web based work, installation, software projects, performance and other formats. Projects can involve online, mobile or offline social networking. They can enable people to experiment collaboratively with different kinds of social experience and social interaction. Or they can intervene in the forces, inequities and inequalities that shape society. How can we make visible the unspoken rules and etiquette that guide what we do in public places, online and offline? Who are the social revolutionaries? The misfits? The conformists? Who has been left outside?
-- Futuresonic.com 2008 theme

Pot Noodle

2008-03-09T13:10:00.004Z

Going through videotapes for the DYSTT showing, I found this old advert for Pot Noodle from 1992 on a VHS tape at the back of my wardrobe somewhere. Intense.

And an old blog post that made me smile recently: Never Mind the Bus Stops.

Some good quotes

2008-03-06T15:22:00.001Z

Some good themes to work to:

I do not sell products. I sell an entire civilization in a jar. - Shahnaz Hussain
Nothing is better than the unintended humour of reality. - Steve Allen
Just because it's old doesn't mean you have to read it. ~ "Jolene Sugarbaker, the Trailer Park Queen"
If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time. ~ Billy Joel

From Wikiquote.

Edited Bush speech and a similar Brown speech

2008-03-06T11:02:00.003Z

Very well edited speech to completely change its meaning. It's got obvious underlying political tones but I just think it's funny.

Britain! Interesting how politicians use a lot of repetition. Also note the glitch bits...

404 Error pages

2008-03-05T18:13:00.008Z

They can be frustrating but I will set out to see if people have actually bothered to make 404 error pages interesting. Those pages that make people forget they had the wrong page in the first place. I have come across one or two interesting ones in the past but no interactive ones as of yet... but I may do soon. If not, this is a gap in the market... as far as error screens go, anyway.

Notice that the below link is to a page on the Internet Archive... that's because I got a 404 message when I tried to access the current in Firefox! Oh, the irony.

Interesting 404 error pages
Illarterate 404

Can't drum?

2008-03-04T19:34:00.001Z

No worries - use video editing instead.

Now why didn't I think of that?

Dynamic Drive.com

2008-03-03T16:26:00.003Z

This is an interesting website that has a bunch of simple HTML/CSS etc. tools:

Dynamic Drive Tools

I used the favicon generator (I could have done it myself in Photoshop but this way was quicker :-] ) for my site Illarterate.co.uk and it worked fine.

Speaking of which, I finally managed to get Indexhibit working today, after trying all weekend:

Indexhibit portfolio (Work in progress)

I intend to fill this in the coming weeks with an archive of stuff from my blogs, college etc. as an online sketchbook.

Blogger hacks

2008-03-02T19:54:00.003Z

Since I haven't made much progress with the installation of Indexhibit, I've been exploring alternatives. One would be to use Blogger in a simplified format but I'm not really too keen on this idea.

Blogger hacks at the Blogger hacks wiki

A second idea would be to create my own HTML site but I would like to get indexhibit working because a) it will allow remote uploading and b) it's a much quicker process.

Sent an email to my hosts about database details so hopefully I can get moving with this tomorrow.

Other alternatives I have explored (with not much success) are Drupal and WordPress but at least I learned a bit about RSS.

Indexhibit

2008-02-29T18:01:00.003Z

I've been looking at this website template for a bit. Normally I wouldn't be one to use pre-defined templates or layouts but it's so simple I suppose it doesn't matter.

Anyway, I cant' get the thing working on my site. Could be a server problem, could be any number of things but the bottom line is I can't work it at the moment. I'll have another look on Monday.

If and when I can sort it, the site would be useful to organise all my ideas and work, bringing together the best of all the blogs, which can be quite hard to sift through for info.

Eatock.com, example of Indexhibit and creator's website.
Indexhibit

Kung Fu Gordon Brown!

2008-02-29T17:59:00.000Z

Yeah. This was just a bit of fun.

HAAA!

BBC Micro hacking!

2008-02-26T18:21:00.002Z

I found this YouTube clip funny. The presenter was confronted with a hacker's message when he logged into his account! Brilliant for the hackers.

Also from BBC Micro Live, a look into the future of computer music, from 1985.

Yet more glitch movies

2008-02-25T16:42:00.005Z

This one's a bit more colourful, by a YouTube user. It was created when Sopcast and YouTube messed up the video information.

You don't have to watch all 6 minutes, nothing much changes. The sound seems to disappear after about a minute.

The video above is an excerpt from a 30-minute long 8-bit glitchathon. You might recognise it as Legend of Zelda.

Web design - it's a constant battle for compatibility.

2008-02-20T13:58:00.004Z

Whilst doing a magazine/booklet inDesign layout brief, I ended up stumbling across this page at Ampsoft.net outlining and providing jpegs of some of the more common browser fonts. Some of them differ quite wildly, especially in IE and Safari.

There's some more info on common fonts at Browser News but it worries me slightly that I weasn't familiar with a couple of those common fonts.

Even more worrying is the fact that 'American Typewriter' seems to be the most common font in the world. Rubbish. Mortifying is the presence of Comic Sans on that list. Source.

Don't Watch That, Watch This

2008-02-19T14:17:00.004Z

A show that was on the BBC a couple of years ago. Mashups of archive/current footage mainly focusing on politics.

Weakest Link World Leaders Edition:

Brown vs Blair: 'Watergate'

Blair pours water on Brown at the Labour Party conference!

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Spam casserole - Delia Smith

Delia Smith makes a 'delicious' Spam casserole

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Website online

2008-02-12T15:04:00.000Z

The Illarterate web space was finally sorted this afternoon and by the time you are reading this it will hopefully be online. I'm still deciding whether to go for a less 'dry' design but at least something is uploaded.

Illarterate.co.uk

A tutorial for embedding fonts. Might be worth looking at later.

A Call to the LMB

2008-02-11T18:50:00.000Z

I think, to save bandwidth and server space, I will have YouTube host my website's videos. This will include A Call to the LMB plus some screen recorded content from the interactive stuff.

Illarterate YouTube channel

Firefox not working.

2008-02-08T10:30:00.000Z

The meta tag is dead.

2008-02-07T11:43:00.000Z

Martha Rosler is a New York based video/installation artist. The Martha Rosler library is coming to Liverpool in a few weeks time and there's bound to be some projects based on this. I found this video (Semiotics of the kitchen) of hers interesting.
I was going to add meta tags to my portfolio website today but found this article with loads of links to why they are dead. I don't think I'll bother now.
The Illarterate site should be online soon at http://www.illarterate.co.uk, whilst the Illarterate YouTube account is now up and running with some content.
Louise Gallery

Around Hope St - Photography

2008-01-30T18:17:00.000Z

I don't do much photography as I suck at it. However here's a few little photographs that might spark something for a future project.

A new Illarterate website

2008-01-30T18:00:00.000Z

Been getting back to the issue of the personal website. I'm going to try and get this sorted within the next week or so and I've been working on some possible layouts. It's going to be a long process though and I'm thinking of re-using some of the Hit Enter aesthetics, only slightly more simplified. Not yet decided on logos and links bar but I think I would rather keep it basic. Some options are shown above but I'll work on this more tomorrow.

Another idea is to use the side of a dusty van complete with links drawn in the dirt. Not got very far with this idea yet but when I find a suitable van I'll give it a go maybe.

Looks OK but might be a bit cheesy, especially since the 'hand drawn graffiti' bits were actually done with a mouse in Photoshop. I've got some more van photos I might post later.

Finally, some links:

Past portfolios from this course. What I'm up against.
Colour scheme generator. I didn't use it because it's mostly useless. Nevertheless it's fun. The site might be worth a bit of exploration too.
Uni Qlo. Never heard of them before but their grid is quite fun. I like how it's integrated with the store so you can buy t shirts with your designs. At least that's what I can gather.

Damb spellchecker

2008-01-29T14:06:00.001Z

Links

2008-01-29T11:45:00.000Z

Unconventional advertising in conventional places. And/or the other way round. Some very good inventive pieces of guerrillas marketing and advertising. I particularly like the 'smoker's maze' and the job ads (right).
The above found via Design Observer, which is regularly updated with design and multimedia related stuff.
Coudal Partners. Similar to above.
Cory Arcangel lecture on some of his work. Interesting to hear how the Andy Warhol game (now sadly removed from YouTube) arose from the fact that most pop icons are difficult to render on a 32 by 52 px canvas. Hence the other characters - the Pope and Flava Flav as well as Colonel Saunders. Very interesting.
Web design usability. Useful page which acts as a reference for web page designers. It's gonna take years to digest all that!

Links - Jodi and early web

2008-01-28T13:54:00.000Z

Jodi

Early web

Web pages that suck. Includes some designs that belong in 1995. Patronisation overload, but some of the sites are pretty funny.
And the first ever version of the above site, thanks to the Internet Archive.
Cory Arcangel's weblog is constantly 'under construction'. I love that animated gif.
Net.art, about.
Alexei Shulgin's website. Basic but some cool stuff.
And a bit more about Shulgin from Wikipedia.

Ideas for a website

2008-01-27T12:24:00.000Z

If the real life MySpace idea were to be a major project, it would encompass a whole spectrum of technologies and marketing techniques:

Humorous posters/banner ad campaign - physical and online presence
'Shop' part of the site with t-shirts, mugs and other merchandise
Something with videos to cover the vlogging side - YouTube
Blog. Combine with website?

This would, of course, be applied to the WYBMF? branding.

Some misc. links

2008-01-25T16:04:00.000Z

Vitamin - how CRAP is your website? Found whilst looking for actual crap websites
Perry Hoberman - Accept. Technology and its relation to society.
More on Hoberman at my old blog.
Top 100 websites by traffic. It's obvious that the Internet is a reflection of society, with most sites having strong connections with real life counterparts. I would say the exception to that are some of the forum-style wikis.
And more on the top ten of those sites. Mostly news, directory and social networking sites.
Two computer error albums on Flickr - One - Two

A real life MySpace?

2008-01-24T09:32:00.000Z

Following up an idea from last year in which I attempt to get as many friends as possible on MySpace within a period of time, why not twist it so that I don't actually have a MySpace page? This would involve a 'real life' attempt to 'collect friends' in the same way a MySpace user would. For example, I would simply approach someone and ask them to 'be my friend'. They don't have to do anything else, just go on my list of friends and add to my friend counter!

Some possible titles for the project would be "Will You Be My Friend?" and "MeSpace".

As a development from this, I could apply the idea to other websites, bringing them into 'real life' - what would their physical world equivalents be?

Blogger - soapboxing. Preaching in the streets. Doing it every day at the same time.
Facebook - going round collecting photographs of people.
Flickr - going round asking people to look at their photos/displaying my own photos.

I'm sure there's some potential in going round pubs and speaking in text language, if the person doing it were not me. All of the above could merge into one, a real life website for the 21st century. I like this idea of bridging the online and physical worlds.

DYSTT? Vids

2008-01-22T20:03:00.000Z

Selection of videos from which I will make up my DYSTT showing.

Don't Watch That, Watch This! Weakest Link World Leaders edition
HIGNFY - Pot Noodles. I've got this in HQ.
I wanted to use the I Shot Andy Warhol vid but it's been removed from YouTube. Boo!
Telegiffer - a project of mine. I have a HQ version.
Art Under Contract - Perry Hoberman.com
Cloudscroll - Cory Arcangel
Distraction - Simon Reeves

DYSTT Blog

MTV Virus

2008-01-15T13:37:00.001Z

Since the MTV Virus brief is open, there are lots of other people doing it also. This guy's a lot better than me at computer design type stuff and his videos are pretty good as well:

I want to get my videos uploaded to YouTube at some point - I've already got an account set up for it - but I'm having problems with synching at the moment. Gah.

Making whiteboard Pong - a YouTube guide

2008-01-13T11:15:00.001Z

Found this on YouTube:

It was added before I did my project but it seems this was made using some specialist equipment I can't work out...

Whiteboard Arcade

2007-12-20T15:10:00.001Z

I have developed, with the help of this tutorial, a simple Snake game. It isn't great as yet but the basics are there and it's quite addictive once you get into it.

Snake and the other two games I have been working on are now available to play at my website at the new 'Whiteboard Arcade' section. Note that it might take a while to load or not load at all if you have Flash disabled.

Edit: I can only get it working in IE at the moment. Patience. Here's a (working) link to the Office Pong game for now.

Decided to group the Flash games under this umbrella and remove the 'MTV' bits from the Pong game. I wanted a chance to clean it up, really and this was a good way of recontextualising it.

Wikipedia entry on Snake. I didn't know this game was so old.

Useful Flash websites

2007-12-20T15:03:00.000Z

Some good Actionscript/tutorial sites I used when researching code for the Whiteboard Arcade project:

Flashkit

The Forum is great for advice and FAQs.

Emanueleferonato.com - Actionscript blog
Gotoandplay.it

This Snake tutorial was also useful

An interface

2007-12-20T10:15:00.000Z

I have devised a simple menu navigation system to help organise and present the work I have produced in the first semester. It isn't brilliant but it will suffice for just the CD presentation. Maybe another future project would be to produce the cover for this and further to that a DVD with some of the motion graphics I have produced in the first semester:

Telegiffer and Teletext is Dead
A Call to the LMB
MTV stings
Screenshots from other projects

I will probably not use this design for my portfoilo website but it has helped me to organise the files. Total size is approximately 500Mb.

Office Pong

2007-12-20T10:09:00.000Z

The Office Pong idea has been refined and the graphics redone to look more 'clean' and not MTV-related. This can perhaps set a precedent for more whiteboard games to create a whole series of them as a spin off from the MTV project. After all, the 'virus' link has become more tenuous with this aspect of the project.

Breakout

2007-12-18T18:14:00.000Z

Been looking at more possibilities for the whiteboard aesthetic, including some more games. Managed to find a tutorial for Breakout! which I have applied the whiteboard idea to (right).

The game is not as detailed and involved as the Pong game but it would perhaps be an idea to produce a few more of these games that could keep you occupied for a minute or two. Alright for some one-day projects.

For now this will be grouped under the MTV project and will probably stay that way. Although I wanted these to maybe be separate projects they have been attached to the Virus idea and in a way are a bit of an evolution of it.

MTV Interface

2007-12-18T18:10:00.000Z

Been doing some visuals for a navigation interface for the MTV project. This is going to be the biggest project in my portfolio so I think it deserves some extra presentation. However I want to keep things relatively simple:

Pong Blogger

2007-12-18T18:05:00.000Z

I'm considering making the Pong variations I have produced into some sort of project. For now, I have created a blog documenting a selection of the best of these and made them available for download there via my website.

Pong Blogger

On the other hand, their association with the MTV brief may ensure they become fixed with that.

Phoneline visuals

2007-12-17T19:49:00.001Z

The phoneline interface is pretty much complete. I have cut the number of questions to 7 as I felt nine was bit long. Only one problem remains - I'm having some trouble with the coding; I cannot make it so that and functions work. It kind of does but constantly jumps to the same frame, effectively freezing the thing.

Probe Records - Ecard thingy

2007-12-16T14:11:00.000Z

Spent this weekend wrapping up the Probe website. It isn't complete yet and I don't plan to - this will only be a demonstration of some of the functionalities. That said I will try and work on it to the best of my ability/patience.

A portfolio website

2007-12-16T13:59:00.000Z

Been thinking about some possibilities for a portfolio website. There's a few themes emerging from some of the work I've already done but it would be good to limit those to their individual project pages. I think I'll probably come up with a new idea for an overall site design.

I set up an online bank account this weekend so I'll be able to purchase some webspace and a domain name rather than my Blueyonder hosted current website.

I've been exploring the idea of making my own Mario Flash game. This could form a navigation interface for the website or maybe even be worked into the MTV brief (though to be honest I think I've got enough material for that now). I've hit a bit of a wall with it so I think I'll leave this for now, maybe.

PAL - The Friendly Political Advice line

2007-12-16T13:51:00.001Z

The visuals for the political advice line are beginning to take shape now. I've got the interaface mocked up and tomorrow I will start to put the script into an audio file to be inserted into the Flash project.

Pong whiteboard animation

2007-12-07T09:39:00.000Z

It seems someone has beat me to the the Pong whiteboard animation idea. This is pretty basic though, probably knocked up in less than an hour as a test. I'll be looking to create something a bit better than this for my video game.

Last night I did some test shots for the Office Pong game and I plan to put these into a test Flash file. If it's good enough I will use it as my final piece, perhaps shooting some better animated bits later on.

Meanwhile, a more advanced Pong animation that is actually interactive is being developed by 'Roo Reynolds' on Flickr. In it he uses some whiteboard dusters as paddles. Looks quite fun, don't know if the paddles can move horizontally as well as vertically as suggested in the image, though.

To do checklist

2007-12-06T19:16:00.000Z

There is about a month left to get first semester projects finished and portfolios sorted. I still have to:

Updated 16/11

GARP - priority. Complete appendix and do some read throughs. Continue to expand/refine as necessary. Print on b/w printer and bind with two bits of card. - Done. Didn't bother with the card and colour print cost too much.
MTV - Space Invaders and Pong video games - create. Animations are pretty much done, only need to add some website addresses to the end of them.
Probe Records - continue to work on the interactive side of the website. Demonstrate some of the functions but don't spend too much time on this bit. Should take about a day.
Shrinking Cities - shorten the video and edit out some of the poorly synched bits - wide shots. Shouldn't take long, about 2 hours at the very most. - Done
The fourth project (Phone line). Refine scripts then record. All but done, just a coding glitch

After these are finished I will work on my print portfolio presentation. I will continue to use the A4 format and keep the same layout from second year, for now at least. I plan to do this after the Christmas break.

Proposed schedule for the next week.

Friday - Slide lecture. GARP, MTV. Probe, maybe.
Monday - GARP, Shrinking Cities (draw to a close). Begin a CD ROM presentation folder.
Tuesday - GARP, MTV. Phone line script.
Wednesday - GARP presentation. MTV.
Thurs - GARP hand in (finished). Phone line, MTV
Friday - Phone line, MTV if not yet finished.

Political vote selector

2007-12-06T19:07:00.000Z

I have decided the idea for a political phone line that advises callers on who to vote will be a project in its own right, making it the fourth of the four projects this semester. It is a Shrinking Cities spin off in its use of the phone line but otherwise is quite different.

I don't expect this project to take as long as the other projects as I am already about ready to start implementing. I need to revise and refine the script a few times, then:

Film/photograph a phone situation
Make a series of audio recordings of the script and split them into sections
Put the above into an interactive Flash file where the actual phone line can be used

Presentation will take the form of a script and visuals from the interactive piece.

Proposal for extension of Shrinking Cities project

2007-12-04T18:14:00.000Z

I want to take the idea of telephone lines a bit further. It would be good if users could actually use the phoneline.

A simple graphic layout is outlined in this diagram. The phone would be situated in the centre but people could click on other areas of the room to explore. This would be a simple way of organising and presenting some of the other work I've done for this project:

Computer: Website homepage
Phone: Rubbish phone line
TV: Call to LMB Video
Paper rack: LMB Application forms.

Of course, if I decide to go along the political phone line idea that might have to have its own simple stand alone static piece.

Breakout

2007-11-29T19:43:00.000Z

Breakout is the 'cousin' of Pong. It's a bit more advanced and involves blasting blocks rather than your opponent. Here's a video demonstrating the aesthetic of the original(?)

I want to use the game in my whiteboard anim. It might not be as faithful to the aesthetic as the Pong animation but will certainly have the essence of it.

On a lighter note, a Japanese 'human' version of Breakout. Not as smooth as I want mine to be though.

MTV 'Retro' series

2007-11-29T19:33:00.000Z

I've set myself a week to finish the Virus project, I want to get it done by Thursday or Friday, giving myself a day or two to work on the Probe and Shrinking Cities projects a bit more. I anticipate these will take a few days only so it's no big deal if I can only get this project sorted for Friday.

Project elements

Pong. I will either clean up the viral and record it or pursue the interactive element. Maybe both, if I have time.
Space Invaders (Space Invades!) The Flash animation is coming along nicely and I'll continue to work on it.
Breakout. This will be a whiteboard animation involving an office situation and post t notes as breakout blocks. I want to get this sorted on Friday, if possible.

This will make a nice series of three animations/2 anims and an interactive piece. Should the whiteboard anim fail I will pursue both the interactive and video Pong elements.

Two of the stings are currently around 30 seconds. A bit long for a sting, I would say. In addition, the Breakout one will need to be fairly long, I will aim for 30 seconds for that too in order to achieve some consistency.

I envisage these to be buffering stings/ads on the MTV Overdrive site. They could also be good for general web promotion, YouTube etc. Dunno about TV quality though, might not be good enough for that.

Whiteboard animations

2007-11-29T19:29:00.000Z

I was intrigued by some of the stuff at this week's video showing, especially a whiteboard animation.

This was the video shown. The 'Hitch Hikers Choice' is a really fast moving, throbbing animation made of weird drawings which morph into animals and other strange beings. It's brilliant, some bits are genius, mesmerising. I also like the roughness, especially the presence of the hands which interact with the animation.

This was made by a German teacher who uses the character 'Lenny' in his lessons. I particularly like the animator's presence in this, he's kind of on the peripherary almost as if the computer he's capturing on is just to the right of shot. Sometimes he moves to the centre to interact with Lenny which takes animator participation one step further. The home made sound track really fits with the visuals, as well.

This short video is a bit closer to what I intend to do - use the video game idea. Hand Pong is mostly hand animated against a whiteboard but also adds some computer editing for the ball. This keeps the aesthetic, mostly and is a quicker and easier way of adding fast moving objects. Something worth considering, especially if I can't get any help with animating.

Flash animation

2007-11-22T18:05:00.000Z

Been looking at the possibility of creating an animation/moving image piece. This would most likely be in Flash but we'll see how it goes. A few good related animations about, including this one from Weebl's Stuff which is very well done I think. Elements such as camera angles can be taken from this and placed into the glitching/virus interacting with the computer screen.

Humour Pong: a great little take on Pong.
There's a nice emulation of Space Invaders here.

I like the idea of the gun spaceship from the game smashing up a web page trying to get enemies which appear from different corners of the page unexpectedly.

Pong

2007-11-21T18:12:00.000Z

Pong, the first commercially popular interactive video game. An icon of the 20th century, so often imitated yet, some claim, never bettered.

Andy Roddick vs. Pong. A nice contrast of the real life and fantasy, of 1970s and 2000s culture. It places Pong into the real world: I will be doing the opposite of this, that is, bringing the real world into Pong, to an extent.

Plasma Pong. A new twist on the Pong theme. It's actually more akin to a game of blow football that utilises the aesthetics of modern technology to bring Pong up to date for the here and now.

An alcoholic drinks ad. Blends football and tennis in a new version of the game. Nice use of animation as well. Doubles Pong?

Boring games

2007-11-20T21:10:00.000Z

The basic idea is to take something boring and make it more interesting. Well, you can't get much more boring than mowing the lawn:

I love the British sense of humour. "Award yourself a corned beef sandwich" is one of the best lines from any game. Monotony can sometimes be interesting, you know. But, I'm not sure if 'Advanced Lawnmower Simulator' would be well known enough to be applied to an MTV advert, not least because its target audience probably won't remember the Spectrum. Heck, I'm not.

Might be best to stick with the classics.

New Brief: MTV 'Virus'

2007-11-19T16:45:00.000Z

For my next project, I have chosen to do a brief from the D&AD website, namely one for MTV. The premise is that 'MTV is a virus' and it invades a space, physical or conceptual, corrupting it.

Link to brief

Drawn up a few initial ideas. The best so far is the idea that a (relatively) boring situation is livened up by introduction of the virus. These would be applied to a series of old arcade video games or other slightly outdated technology, such as teletext, either in a series or all in one piece. The 'virus' would change depending on the format but it would be good to have some consistency there (eg. virus makes a bunch of pixellated smiley faces appear). I envisage that to be a Flash animation but I'm sure things will change as I work through the idea. I'll speak to tutors and get some idea of how effective the idea is. I could transpire that it's a bit clichéd but I think I could make it work. Perhaps some animated gifs for a web banner might work equally but I'll work through the idea first.

I want to get to implementation as quickly as possible with this project. That means this week, hopefully Wednesday or Thursday.

UK Immigration

2007-11-15T10:12:00.000Z

Since the idea of the Liverpool Migration Board is not really tight enough with regards to its message, maybe it would be easier to directly parody an existing organisation in order to convey the sense of confusion in immigration. The natural thing would be to broaden this to a UK-wide thing rather than just Liverpool. This would be deviating from the brief somewhat but it would be a case of 'rewriting' it to suit my tastes.

After discussion with tutors, decided that the automated phone line idea has some mileage, so will be worth pursuing up until the final, set in stone deadline.

Some initial research

Since I don't know much about politics and the subject of immigration I needed to look into the subject more.

UK Parties' views on immigration. This seems to be a hot topic in politics right now and the three major parties each have a unique set of views. These are great for parodying as they are all distinctly different, perfect for applying to a selection of three answers to a question. For example: what are your views on immigration? 1) let them all in (Labour) 2) stop them coming in (Conservative) and 3) don't care (Lib Dem).
Immigration rules. Secondly, what are the rules for immigration in the UK? There are actually lots and lots of rules and stipulations, the very fact of which can perhaps be applied to a very long automated phone service with endless questions. Alternatively, the different areas can be picked out and worked on to express three (or more) very different views. This idea of compartmentalising answers to very open ended questions can be developed to give humorous results.
The UK Immigration service is the operational arm of the UK Border and Immigration Agency which specialises in Border control and Enforcement and Removals. This would be the UK-wide version of the Liverpool Migration Board and would be more politically relevant.
Home Office Watch. Even the Home Office make mistakes.
Political Party views. A more extended version of the first bullet point with more topic for discussion. These can be converted to a cynical set of answers that fit into the Lib Dem, Labour and Conservative ways of thinking.

Probe presentation revisited

2007-11-14T14:44:00.000Z

Went back to the Probe project today, putting together three A4 pages for my portfolio. Of course, these will need to be reformatted to fit the layout of my existing sheets in the portfolio but at least now things are coming along. If I were to include this as a project in my actual portfolio, though, I would need to have at least five more sheets to meet the requirement!

More Probe mockups

2007-11-13T18:06:00.000Z

Spent the afternoon doing some more visual mockups for the Probe website. These will be used in my presentation sheets, which I hope to create for tomorrow afternoon's PDP session. By then, I should be able to overhaul at least a couple of the existing A3 sheets and resize them for my A4 portfolio:

Site map, including the aforementioned screen grabs. Will be more precise and technical than the previous piece, including a number of screenshots and a slightly more complex structure.
Screen explanation. This will basically be implanting one of my new screen shots onto the old idea. Will include some text to get across the reason for various decisions such as the chat box and the direct links. May spill over into two page spread or even be in A3. Could perhaps be explained over two pages with two relevant screenshots to split some of the information up.

This will at least give me two or three pages for my portfolio.

Filming and editing

2007-11-12T18:57:00.000Z

Over the weekend, got the chance to film and edit some footage. For tomorrow's hand in I have a piece that I would say is 90% complete; in parts the sound doesn't sync very well with the footage (a hazard of doing voiceovers); in addition there are a couple of continuity issues to iron out. Hopefully another day's editing will sort this but I won't get the chance to do so until the weekend: I have edited and captured the footage on my home PC and I would have to edit the whole thing from scratch again if I wanted to edit at Uni. Anyhow, I am reasonably satisfied with my weekend's work.

Phone Box

2007-11-09T14:18:00.000Z

The script I have written takes place in a phone box. To get a bit of background on shots and angles, I looked at some existing examples of this technique in film making.

Larry Cohen originally pitched the concept of a film that takes place entirely within a phone booth to Alfred Hitchcock in the 1960s. Hitchcock liked the idea, but he and Cohen were unable to figure out a plot reason for keeping the film confined to a booth and hence Hitchcock never made the idea into a film. Cohen picked the idea up again in the late 1990s when the idea of the sniper came to him.

The most recent example of a major movie featuring a phone box was Phone Booth. The idea of making a whole movie based around a phone box requires a lot of thought because it will obviously so hard to keep people's attention. The film uses many different camera angles and techniques.

In this sample clip from the film, there are lots of close-up facial shots but they still have parts of the booth visible. There are also some 'boxes' which appear in the top corner showing action on the other end of the phone line, meaning action is split and the camera never has to move from the actor's face (right).

For my piece, there would be no need to overuse this kind of effect but it might be good to see what it might look like. The background is also blurred, I will look into how I might achieve this in my version.

Obviously my version is going to be less dramatic. I plan to use a number of angles focusing on different areas of the phone box, capturing the actor's facial expressions and reactions, their body language (he will get more fidgety as the piece progresses) etc. So, I will use a mix of facial shots, side on angles and so on to give the piece some variety. Influences will include home made videos and CCTV but I don't necessarily want the piece to look like either of these - I want to keep the camera as still as possible, cutting between close ups, wide angles and of course the interior (office shots) spliced in between.

Scripts

2007-11-07T15:09:00.000Z

Wrote some scripts under the premise that I will produce a series of radio sketches/adverts. Then selected the best of these to develop into a full scale sketch. This could be presented as a radio advert, as intended, or perhaps developed into a film/advert.

Discussed idea with tutors who suggested maybe doing a short film with static shots of the print media with overlays of the telephone conversation. This could work: if I have time, I could take the recorded versions of the script (meant for the radio) and put them over the top of a Flash/jazzy filmed piece. I wonder if they use a special camera when they film those scrolling pans for Watchdog? You can't really read the thing on screen as it only ever shows part of the letter but it's great for illustrative purposes. This could go along with a few whole shots of the letter/print media and some close ups of important parts of the recording/transcript.

User feedback forms

2007-11-06T14:54:00.000Z

I hope to get some ideas for layouts by looking at some other user satisfaction forms. These are mostly in HTML but I will consider using Flash for mine. Some reference points for typical form arrangements I may look to replicate.

UBC Library
MCU Service
LSE language centre
otal.edu form

Presentation formats

2007-11-05T18:56:00.000Z

The brief states this project must be documented by at least 4 A3 sheets of paper. I have not quite decided what I will go for with regards to direction, which could be one or a number of the following:

LMB website - page mockups
LMB Official forms - variations
Charts and graphs: results of fake survey
Telephone hotline - scripts/sketches
Installation including physical telephone and forms
Script for a short informational film

I haven't decided which of these I will push forward with but by tomorrow afternoon I will hopefully have a better idea which path I will choose. I will begin by producing variations which, if all goes to plan, will form the presentation sheets themselves.

Online forms

2007-11-04T11:53:00.001Z

I could take the printed form idea further by converting them/creating them for the online format. Continuting in the same vein as the printed forms, these would start out serious and have progressively pointless and stupid questions, from semi relevant in questions like 'have you ever faked your CV to get a job?' to the totally irrelevant, such as 'what is your favourite food'. There is the potential for humour here, especially if I were to include close-ended questions with limited responses.

With these, it would be a combination of the questions and the design of the form that would make it work as a project. This could be carried out in Flash, where the form's reactions to responses could be 'intelligent', or straight Q&A in HTML. There is also the option to transpose these to formats such as telephone call centre automated lines. For example:

"What is your favourite food? Press one for steak and kidney pie. Press two for bangers and mash. Press three for some cheap foreign muck. Press four for human flesh. Press five for I do not eat. Press six if all of the above. Press seven to quit. Press eight to hold on the line and complain to someone about the stupidity of these questions..."

"You have pressed eight. Please hold. [Cheesy muzak]"
"Hello?"
"Yeah, can I order a pizza with cheese please?"

This would obviously have much fewer questions as I could see the person listening getting bored. If it were a gallery installation, however, people could 'drop in' on the situation, complete with phone left off the hook which people could pick up and interact with; only nothing happens if you press the buttons.

If it were a printed form, I could take things to the other extreme, such as in this Mexican immigration form, which asks for things like 'distinguishing marks', 'colour of eyes' and 'size of nose'!

Liverpool Migration Board - about

2007-11-02T15:27:00.000Z

The Liverpool Migration Board is a (fictional) organisation set up to manage migration/immigration in the city of Liverpool. It is a faceless corporate entity that, to the people, is represented by forms, annoying call centres and so on. It creates an atmosphere of formality, of regulation around the city's migration, much like a national migration board would.

Introduced by the city council to try and keep people in the city, the organisation would, like a real migration board, provide help to those travelling or intending to travel to or from the city of Liverpool. There is, however, a natural bias towards keeping people in the city.

The board is the result of taking the idea of migration away from Liverpool to the extreme. Should figures continue as they are heading, the city will be deserted by the end of the century. Whilst this is unlikely, the hypothetical situation is that it is in the council's best interests to keep people in the city, thus the reason for introducing formal measures to keep people in the city. As a result, though, the people of Liverpool become increasingly alienated and oppressed by these regulations, and as the travel and tourism industry takes over manual labour work poor citizens are forced to go on the dole. This will be expressed in the forms they complete, with some people counting 'television watching' as a professional occupation.

Should this be taken to the ultimate extreme, Liverpool would become a fortress with perimeter control and border patrol guards. I don't necessarily want to go that far, however.

As for the badge, of which examples can be found in this post, it's supposed to be the liver bird flying away from its position on the liver building. Yes, it may be a bit clichéd but it would suit the organisation which is supposed to be corporate and boring. I think I prefer the one without the outer circle (left).

Form - revised rough version

2007-11-01T18:12:00.000Z

A revised Photoshop version of the application form. Will link in with the statistics page, which will reflect some of the so called 'results of the survey'. Maybe I could get people to imagine themselves as a particular Liverpudlian icons and fill in the forms? These wouldn't have to affect the results, necessarily but it would be good to see what inventive stuff other people could come up with.

Perhaps the form could be recreated for an online format and people are actually encouraged to fill in the form, assuming a character leaving the city. If they participate, that could potentially be very interesting. Won't be achieving much, though, but then again it is art meant for an exhibition, which I suppose is meant to make you think.

LMB - the organisation. Thoughts, in no particular order.

Banner ads - Internet presence
Name tags and badges
Workers - guys in suits with clipboards.

In actuality, just like Men In Black. Orwellian?

Faceless organisation.
Corporate presence - formality.
Political aspects. Corruptibility.
A bunch of informational icons to be placed in various locations, designed by the LMB? Or, as a reaction to/extension of these, public parodies/parody organisations.

liverpoolmigrationboard.com - a rough layout

2007-11-01T17:42:00.000Z

Been working on some layouts for a possible LBM website. Started with the idea that the 'web is about function, not design', as someone once said, drafted a rough design for a simple web site. Above left: the original rough layout file. Above right: site taken into a GUI HTML editor. Note the Scouse language version of the HTML site. In addition, I wasn't sure the Georgia typeface was necessarily the most suitable for the site; it may be good for the forms but for ease of reading I want to go with a sans serif font. I'm not sure about the Verdana face I used here, though.

The map of Liverpool I propose to include will be simply location maps of all pubs and chippies in the city. Another thing that makes you go 'ha', then want to view another page probably. Another aspect of the throwaway nature I want the site to have.

The idea behind the site would be to house any other work I produce, such as the statistics and downloadable forms, a shell, if you like. Not sure if I'd get to do all the elements, which is one reason I want to keep the design simple.

Next week I will concentrate on producing some final media for the site: forms and graphs etc. Some discussion with tutors will be helpful in selecting what to press ahead with. On Tuesday, there will be a week left to finish the work and to produce some A3 presentation sheets for the portfolio.

Migrating?

2007-11-01T14:10:00.001Z

Website research

2007-11-01T13:08:00.000Z

Developing the identity of the fictitious Liverpool Migration Board.

Swedish Migration Board official website
[ Wikipedia entry ]

"The Migration Board is Sweden’s central government authority for aliens affairs."

It seems that other countries actually have entities such as this. Of main importance are the applications for visas and how to get Swedish citizenship. The Liverpool Migration Board will take a similar stance to people entering Liverpool but I don't think I'll delve too deep into this area.

What I am interested in are the application forms, info material and statistics. There's a whole load of lists and tables of information on people coming into and leaving the country. After all, this is one of the areas I plan to look at. The LMB will concentrate more on people leaving Liverpool, I think.

You can get the site translated into all sorts of languages. Maybe I need to do a Scouse translation version of the site like the Visit Wales website has with Welsh and English.

International Organisation for Migration

This is a more general site catering for international migrants worldwide. There's also news stories and a whole load of statistics as you might expect. This news story focuses on Internet fraud and has a whole list of fake migration board names! Some examples:

Universal Programme for Humanitarian Employment and Resettlement Agencies (UPHERA)
Global Intercontinental Exchange Programme (GIEP)
Global Committee on Refugee and Humanitarian Agencies (GCRHA)
Canadian Alien Workers Recruitment Agency (CAWRA)

This is a potentially untapped area for parody. Even though the LMB itself will be fake, and obviously so in order to avoid legal complications, it could offer advice on how to avoid fake migration boards! How ironic.

Or, perhaps it could distribute its own fake LMB letters and emails (hypothetically, of course) to those who might be interested in migrating, complete with rubbish, barely readable Scouse dialect and spellings. "A'right, la'. A's gorran offer f'yers...", signed "Little Jimmer".

Graphs and statistics

2007-11-01T12:43:00.000Z

To compliment the forms, some method of presenting the results would be good. Graphs would be a great way of doing this, even if not many of the questions on the form are actually quantitative. I'd be bending the rules a bit with this but I suppose with parody you can get away with that sort of thing. Above is a series of tests made in Photoshop and Microsoft Excel to see what kind of presentation might work.

I like the idea of questionnaires providing humour. Whenever I try to complete one I always get bored and become tempted to write silly answers. Imagine if a whole town did this and you will begin to understand what I am trying to present. The idea actually came from looking at some of the statistics on the National Statistics website. Why not spice up a fairly boring presentation method with a bit of irreverence?

I'm working on some inventive occupations which could also be presented in this manner. The graphs could be reproduced for the web, print or other media, depending on what I decide to do. It would be good to design some pages from the Liverpool Migration Board which this data and some of the other ideas can be presented in - it could bring the work together under one umbrella, if you like. One of the pages could be 'Under Construction because the webmaster has permanently moved to Barbados' or something.

Migration

2007-11-01T09:03:00.000Z

Right is a global immigration graph - positive and negative numbers moving into areas of the world.

Immigration has been in the news a lot recently, what with the recent figures projecting that Britain's population will be around 70 million by 2015:

The Local Government Association is calling for a £250m-a-year fund to help regions struggling to cope with unexpected influxes of migrants.

These stories are more centred around international migration. I wonder what the graph for national immigration figures would look like? Maybe people in Manchester and Liverpool are climbing the social ladder and getting out of the city, leaving the working class stuck there. This would actually, in part, explain the life expectancy figures being lower in these places.

It would seem most immigrants choose the south west when moving to Britain. However the north-south migration balance would not support the fact that life expectancies in the south are generally much higher. This is especially true because the immigrants come from poor countries with low life expectancy rates. Maybe the trend will begin to change in the coming years.

It also seems employment is a major factor within in-country migration. Unemployment figures are generally higher in the north, including Liverpool. People will move southwards for a higher wage and life prospects.

Despite all this, it would seem that 8 in 10 people live in an urban area - that is the wider area around a city such as Greater Manchester. This would seem to indicate people are moving to the fringes of the city also, to less built-up areas. Whereas Liverpool's urban area is decreasing (down 2.6% in 2000-2001) in population, Manchester's is growing (up 1.6% in 2000-2001). I would suggest that the Manchester urban area statistics are inflated by the presence of Bolton, however, which takes on a lot of immigrants yearly.

Sources
Migration within Britain
Migration Watch UK
Wikipedia entry
Migration - National Statistics Online

Liverpool Migration Board

2007-10-31T18:07:00.000Z

Came up with the idea that perhaps I could create my own, fake organisation that would aid Liverpudlians outside of Liverpool, or are thinking of migrating from the city - The Liverpool Migration Board. As a starting point of this I made a fake form which people would fill in when moving from the city. There's a Photoshop mockup of this to the right.

I think this idea has some legs as a series, I'd like to see where it could go.

Other media/formats:

Scouse-English dictionary for Scousers 'abroad' (ie anywhere but Liverpool).
Questionnaires, user feedback forms.
Fake humorous calls to the LMB call centre.
Scouse traveller's kit. Includes watering can to recreate wet weather, carrots and meat in an emergency scouse making kit.
Website to collate all of this.

Some useful sourcepoints:

Information on travel vaccinations. Maybe Liverpudlians would require different kinds of 'vaccinations' when travelling the UK - precautionary measures such as buying overcoat for Aberdeen, for example.
AA Travel books. Advisory books/information from a travel company that know about stuff.
Visa application forms. Maybe the forms idea can be extended a lot further. In fact the whole project could be based around it. This might be more feasible in the remaining timescale (13 days left).
RhymeZone. Useful for coming up with cheesy taglines/slogans, for example, what would rhyme with 'migration'?

Tomorrow I want to finalise some of these ideas and bring them together in some way. This may just be a case of designing some interfaces for websites but I want to keep developing ideas around the concept. Some more Photoshop mockups of forms might be good. In short, a set of definitive plans so that I can start to implement them on Friday and next week.

Book review - AA Essential Guide to England

2007-10-31T17:59:00.000Z

AA Guide to England, Amazon entry

Another trip to the library today to get some travel guide based books. The most useful of these was the AA's guide, a specialist guide for people touring the country. Contains lots of informational/instructional design and provides some ideas for formats of this project.

Some of the pages are literally full of iconography and formatted information on the country, such as currency, shop opening times with colour coding etc.

There's a special section for local variations in phrases etc. for American tourists. This could be worth making into a whole section for a poster or leaflet, maybe even a book - a Scouse -> English dictionary with useful phrases. "Aw ad like sum milk" -> "I would like to purchase some milk". There could be a special currency section for outside Liverpool - in Merseyside, chips could be currency, whereas elsewhere it would be pound sterling.

Instructional design and advertising

2007-10-31T10:16:00.000Z

Above is the Daewoo design from the Digital Graphic Design book I mentioned in an earlier post. The book states that the brief for the deisgners was to create something that reflects the fact the car would 'ease the pain of urban parking'. The deisgners got together and discussed the brief, jotting down some initial ideas for the campaign, including city riots, stop signs and wheel clamps. They plumped for an idea based on an Ordnance Survey road map and the well known 'P' (parking) symbol, which was developed into the design shown above.

The idea works because it is a format instantly recognisable by drivers - a road map. It would immediately be apparent that this is no ordinary map, though - there are way too many parking signs for that. The implication is that whilst driving the Daewoo Matiz, everywhere is a parking space. You could argue that this would also work with many other small cars, including the Mini or even the Peel P50, which was actually on this week's Top Gear programme (in fact, in the Peel's case, the car can literally be parked inside buildings, it is so small). However, having the image and name of the car in the bottom corner creates the association with this particular vehicle. Couple this with the tag line spread across all kinds of media associated with the brand and the ingredients for a successful marketing campaign are present.

The above deisgn is for a limited edition business-to-business mailer for a Tony Stone picture library image as police evidence. It was part of a re-branding of the whole package of the gallery - flyers, posters and a cover letter were also produced as well as this sealed bag. This cross referencing, or placing a particular product in another situation works well, another of these "things that make you go 'ha!'". The format is not as recognisable as the one in the Daewoo advert, unless you are a police officer, but the text 'Police Evidence' is helpful in this case. Still, this association with one particular image from the library (guy laid on the floor) works.

Instructional design and parody

2007-10-31T09:46:00.000Z

Naturally, the medium of iconography/signography (is that a word?) is open for parody, as I have already touched upon in the Sagmeister post. In order to make the idea work, it would have to offer something different such as a sense of humour or subversion. To put it differently, something that makes you go 'ha!' The above designs are by a Belgian artist known under the pseudonym "$" and are part of a set of icons relating to dogs, treating the animal as if it were a product, a type of bleach or something.

Come to think of it, I have experimented in instructional design in the past, with varying amounts of success. The Universal Remote Control is a fictional TV remote that allows the user to control time and space with the press of a button. Above left is a diagram for it in which I parody the instruction manual, even to the extent that it is used as a drinks mat rather than read properly. Above right is a silly little diagram instructing/advising how to avoid speed cameras, parodying those diagrams from 'learn to drive' manuals. It isn't as successful but this is the kind of atmosphere I could set out to create.

If I could bring these elements together in the form of a guide for Liverpudlians it would be a good reflection of the Scouse sense of humour and of city life.

Instructional design

2007-10-31T09:17:00.000Z

Instructional design is used by the teacher or person in possession of knowledge to portray it, pictorially or otherwise, to those whom it is in their best interests to know. Benjamin Bloom stated, in an influential taxonomy, that there are three types of learning:

Cognitive - what we know or think
Psychomotor - what we do physically
Affective - what we feel, attitudes we have

When an individual comes across a sign, firstly their prior knowledge of associating this kind of design with an instruction that will benefit them (cognitive). This results in them reacting to the sign, doing (or in some cases, not doing) what the sign tells them to (psychomotor). The individual then bears this in mind until it is no longer necessary to do so (affective) - for example a 'wet floor' sign would only be applicable for a certain floorspace: after this they don't need to walk carefully.

Thus, it would seem, instructional design relies heavily on pre-existing conceptions of signs, such as large, bold, capitalised lettering, or stylised iconography. It seems to me that it would be necessary to follow the code already established for the particular medium. Thus, some research into this area will be necessary. Adapting existing designs may be the order of the day.

Photography in this post by me, incidentally.

Stefan Sagmeister - Design can Make You Happy

2007-10-30T17:43:00.000Z

This was a video I saw in one of the DYSTT? video showings:

Very interesting it was, too. In particular the signage and guerilla marketing campaign caught my eye. Signage is obviously a very prominent aspect of the city, so there's an instant connection there. These signs are very clever and sometimes humorous, something I am interested in using for my ideas. Chris Sharrock recommends using humour to break from the norm when thinking creatively, so that could be something for development.

The first idea was for producing blank speech bubble stickers and placing them on posters, billboards etc. around New York. If a poster could speak, what would it say? This was conceived by an artist known as 'str8up' whom Sagmeister became acquainted with. The idea was that other people write comments in the bubbles and the artist comes back at a later date to inspect them. The result is often brilliant. Reminds me of those caption competitions in newspapers and magazines you get every so often, but placed in the public domain for people to contribute and interact with. An incredibly brilliant idea, in my opinion.

The volunteer card was given to people to wear in order to feel 'special'. Of course, the card is fake in that no company officially authorised it, but it would certainly make you feel better. This is the idea driving it: peoples' reactions to items such as this can be an interesting link between sociology and art. The final image is representative of a selection of signs produced in a similar vein - taking an already well-know symbol or concept and changing it, to humorous effect. Again, the subversion works very well, I reckon. Interesting how peoples' actions change when they are instructed to do something - we are learned, pre-programmed to take notice of the signs because from past experience we know that it will be beneficial to us. If I saw this on the train, it would certainly cheer me up.

Came up with an idea to produce something for people migrating, or thinking of migrating, from Liverpool - a tourists guide for the rest of the world, a survival guide for travelling Scousers. This could take the form of signs, or even a booklet. Perhaps I could produce content for this or maybe even make a whole book.

Tomorrow I will concentrate on generating some more ideas for development and start to pick the best for a possible outcome. It will be useful to talk to tutors about these to aid my judgement.

Book review time

2007-10-30T17:20:00.000Z

Spent some time looking round book shops and the library.

Liverpool History

Greetings From Olde Liverpool - Cliff Hayes
The Changing Face of Merseyside - Cliff Hayes
A Century of Liverpool Book 2: The Changing City - Cliff Hayes (who else?)
More Memories of Liverpool - Freddy O' Connor

The local collection seemed a sensible place to start, in order to get a bit more knowledge of the history of the city. From skimming through these books I got a bit more insight into Liverpool's industrial past and some of the major aspects of Liverpudlian culture. Some interesting pictures of how the city centre has changed, from the building of the cathedrals to the layout of the city streets.

Digital Graphic Design - Bob and Maggie Gordon

Even though this book is more print design orientated there are some useful sourcepoints and it shows how an idea is conceived and worked through before being implemented. In particular the Daewoo adverts from 2001 (page 97) with a map filled with parking spaces I found great - probably the best thing in the book. It takes Chris Sharrock's first rule of idea generation (adapt an already existing idea, something famous or well-known) and works on the concept that the Daewoo Matiz is supposed to "ease the pain of urban parking". A seemingly obvious idea that makes you go 'ha!'

The multimedia section isn't greatly helpful, though. It concentrates too much on touch screens, which I find a bit boring, actually.

Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design - Paul Mijkesenaar and Piet Westendorp

This costs £15 to buy on the web but I actually bought this book from the Book Clearance Centre for £4, so take that, Amazon! A visually attractive book, it reminded me of the Stefan Sagmeister video I saw at one of the video showings. Very useful it was, lots of examples of well designed imagery, signage and diagrams that work. If I could incorporate the idea of instructional design with humour like Sagmeister, I would have produced a satisfying outcome, I reckon.

Something worth pursuing further, I think.

Scouse dialect and humour

2007-10-30T16:49:00.000Z

Liverpool has wide ranging cultural roots, maybe one of the reasons it was awarded European Capital of Culture status for 2008. These roots, a mish-mash of Irish, African and Asian-descended cultures, have contributed to the very make up of the Liverpudlian psyche.

The Liverpudlian dialect has more roots in the United Kingdom. Liverpool, as a port city, has welcomed immigrants from Ireland, Scotland and other parts of England in centuries past. The result is a culturally rich local dialect which can be seen as 'out of sync' with many other northern accents due to this. Scouse words, and elements of the Liverpool accent derive from many sources, such as Cockney.

Selected Scouse dialect

Some of the more colourful words and phrases from Scouse:

Crogger or backie - hitch a ride on a bicycle.
Council Pop - water. I've also heard Corporation pop.
Scoop - pint (of beer)
Saggin' skewl - playing truant.
Gorran 'ead as big as Birken'ed - rather self assured.
Fire bobby - fireman . Common in North West.
Moggy - cat. In Wigan, this means creepy crawly. Interesting how words can mean different things in different places.
Dollar - five shillings.
Got de coppers - got no money.
Flies cemetary - Eccles cake (Er, can't see the connection here)
Nudger - baguette.
Kirkby kiss - headbutt. I'm sure every town/city uses this eg. Glasgow Kiss, Wigan kiss etc.

I'm sure there's some scope for humour in misinterpretations here.

Sources:
Lernin' yerself Scouse
Wikipedia article
Excerpts from the Scouse Dictionary

Quango Wangism

2007-10-30T15:33:00.000Z

Quango Wangism.com

This is an archive site showcasing some photography and work by local artist 'Tomo'. I think the site layout is worth a mention. Although it is simple - a HTML only layout with hotspot links - it performs its task effectively enough. In fact, I like the whole cardboard box and print aesthetic, the throwaway, rough atmosphere is engaging.

As for the presentation, it suits the work. Might be something to think about for this project, perhaps a collection of imagery brought together by one website.