Communicating Ideas.

The first and foremost decision I faced in the Communicating Ideas brief was which lecture I was going to base the next two weeks of my work on. I watched all seven videos on TED.com, making detailed notes, waiting for something to catch my eye. I was initially trying to steer clear of the talks about creativity, as I saw these as the obvious choice to make, but as I watched through for a second time it became obvious that I felt a strong affinity with what Elizabeth Gilbert was saying and could deeply relate to the pressures and trials of creative minds, the drive to surpass themselves and the deep seated fear of failure. I started my personal creative journey by looking around at how other people have portrayed creativity and imagination visually, and found that there’s not really a great deal of substance in this field, and knew that I was going to have to go on alone. I took a different approach by trying to think of how I come up with ideas, where do I find inspiration? Elizabeth Gilbert suggests that all ideas come from the world around us, from outside of ones body and uses the vivid imagery of ‘Geniuses’, a small, invisible, mystical creature that follows us around and acts as a muse. However attractive this idea was to me, I felt I needed to avoid the obvious path of images of pixies and fairies and take a more conceptual route. I thought about where I get ideas, and these are inevitably the least appropriate of places. The toilet, of course! I had a strong image in my mind, and a fitting strap line, “Inspiration always chooses to strike at the least opportune moments.” Or should that be most inopportune moments? I had an image of a man on the toilet, deep in thought with my strap line, and this was placed onto a novelty door hanger. I couldn’t help but think that novelty gifts lack substance, and needed to place my work in a context. I decided to use Elizabeth Gilbert’s talk as a way to sell a product, ‘Post-It’ notes, the king of note pads. I developed the idea that instead of a man sitting on the toilet, writing on toilet paper, I would show the after effects of idea generation, a room full of Post It notes in the most obscure thinking room of the house, the bathroom. I see the sea of Post It notes covering the walls as a striking and unusual sight, with nothing but the white toilet left untouched. I chose not to use an image of a person sitting on the toilet because I thought this could be seen as too vulgar and perhaps offensive, but have still kept humorous connotations of the scene. The empty toilet lets the viewer fill in the gaps as they see fit. I have used Helvetica Bold in my poster because this is the font that is used in the Post It note logo, which I have also included. I’ve kept the writing small and understated as to not detract attention away from the image. My poster is design to be placed portrait in a magazine.

PAL 16/11/09

Inspiration always strokes at the least opportune moments.

Least opportune, or most inopportune?
That is the question.

PAL 09/11/09

It's a black fly in your chardonnay.

Ironic, isn’t it? Me, sitting here trying desperately to think of a way to visually express the idea that genius comes from outside of a person. That ideas are some kind of divine inspiration. What am I trying to say? That being a creative infers that I have some kind of direct line to God? A god? Anything? Coz I’m pretty sure there’s not even a direct link between my hand and my brain at the moment.
I feel there’s something in the idea that you always get ideas on the toilet, or in the shower or in bed at night when the lights off and there’s no pens handy and you step on an upturned plug and curse into the darkness.
I could always go expected way and draw some fairies, that’s what everyone else is going to do, right?

PAL 02/11/09

Power Pies Part II

Brilliant, thank god that’s over. I didn’t think I’d be using maths on this course, but I guess Visual Communication is a more eclectic course than I had every imagined. I completed the design for my power pie tin, and when it came to applying the design to the tin, I realised that no matter how accurate my measurements were, there’s just no way I can fit it on the original tin. For the most frustrating three hours of my life I toiled over a scalpel and managed to put together a brand new tin, well, I guess you’d call this a cardboard. Anyway, long story short, old to new, completed.
. I looked closely at the packaging of protein and vitamin supplements and have used a visual language that would be appealing and familiar to the people who buy these products.
My target audience would be mainly men so I have used a lot of manly fonts and colours. Power Pies is branded across the front of the packaging in bold Impact, a big san serif font. There is a drop shadow behind the text to bring it out and make it jump off the page. I have used the italic text to convey the feeling of movement across the page, this also applies to the rounded arrow at the bottom that follows the curve of the tin. Black and red are manly colours, and help the design to be big and bold. Red and black are also the main colours used in protein supplement packaging.