Monday, October 31, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Client Brief - Toei Superheroes
Client: Toei (Emphasis on Tokusatsu/Superheroes division)
Background: Toei Co. Ltd is a Japanese film, television production, and broadcasting corporation. They own several sub-divisions such as Toei Animations, Toei Superheroes, and such.
Dough: Throughout the last few decades, Toei Superheroes has been pumping out almost all of Japan’s superheroes shows, their key staples being the Rangers series (Power Ranger, DekaRanger, Gokaiger etc.), and the Riders series (Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Kabuto, Kamen Rider Den-O).
From the 1950s to present, the superheroes division has produced over 100 well-received shows and series, and has been dominating shows in the same genre.
Keywords to Inspire: Sophiscated, Personality, Variety, Colorful, Reputation, Continuity
Background: Toei Co. Ltd is a Japanese film, television production, and broadcasting corporation. They own several sub-divisions such as Toei Animations, Toei Superheroes, and such.
Dough: Throughout the last few decades, Toei Superheroes has been pumping out almost all of Japan’s superheroes shows, their key staples being the Rangers series (Power Ranger, DekaRanger, Gokaiger etc.), and the Riders series (Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Kabuto, Kamen Rider Den-O).
From the 1950s to present, the superheroes division has produced over 100 well-received shows and series, and has been dominating shows in the same genre.
Keywords to Inspire: Sophiscated, Personality, Variety, Colorful, Reputation, Continuity
Friday, August 12, 2011
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Visual Communication Episode 7 - Commercial Reality
What is Agitprop? The word 'Agitprop' was created from the two words 'Agitation' and 'Propaganda'. Agitprop is defined as the following:
• Political strategy in which techniques of agitation and propaganda are used to influence public opinion. Originally described by the Marxist theorist Georgy Plekhanov and then by Vladimir Ilich Lenin, it called for both emotional and reasoned arguments. The term, a shortened form for the Agitation and Propaganda Section of the Communist Party in the former Soviet Union, has been used in English, typically with a negative connotation, to describe any work — especially in drama and other art forms — that aims to indoctrinate the public and achieve political goals.
Agitprop first appeared in post-Revolutionary Soviet Union. It was intended to promote values among the masses, and has taken on many forms, from trains and cars, poster campaigns, agitation centres, and even 'agitpunkts'. Agitprop proved to be a powerful technique to politically educate the mass of population. Books and libraries played an important role in enforcing this concept of agitprop, with many books published about certain 'educational' topics, such as ones that promote the pride in the valour of labour, or ones that enforce the memory of great moments in the revolutionary history.
Agitprop reached its peak during the Stalinist era, and was one of the most important Central Committee sections by 1946. Agitprop's role was to oversee publishing, television, radio, and sports, to control the masses and directing the agitation and propaganda work, to educate them politically and conducting cultural work with trade unions. Early Agitprop techniques included parades, spectacles, posters, scultures, films, kiosks and such, and there existed these agit-stations which were present in most railway stations, which held libraries of propaganda material, lectures and the like.
https://www.adbusters.org/gallery/spoofads
http://thebookman.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/postmodern-terms-absence-to-curtain-wall/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_jamming
http://www.answers.com/library/Russian+History+Encyclopedia-cid-1458
http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/russian/agit.htm
- 22nd April lesson
• Political strategy in which techniques of agitation and propaganda are used to influence public opinion. Originally described by the Marxist theorist Georgy Plekhanov and then by Vladimir Ilich Lenin, it called for both emotional and reasoned arguments. The term, a shortened form for the Agitation and Propaganda Section of the Communist Party in the former Soviet Union, has been used in English, typically with a negative connotation, to describe any work — especially in drama and other art forms — that aims to indoctrinate the public and achieve political goals.
- Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Agitprop first appeared in post-Revolutionary Soviet Union. It was intended to promote values among the masses, and has taken on many forms, from trains and cars, poster campaigns, agitation centres, and even 'agitpunkts'. Agitprop proved to be a powerful technique to politically educate the mass of population. Books and libraries played an important role in enforcing this concept of agitprop, with many books published about certain 'educational' topics, such as ones that promote the pride in the valour of labour, or ones that enforce the memory of great moments in the revolutionary history.
Agitprop reached its peak during the Stalinist era, and was one of the most important Central Committee sections by 1946. Agitprop's role was to oversee publishing, television, radio, and sports, to control the masses and directing the agitation and propaganda work, to educate them politically and conducting cultural work with trade unions. Early Agitprop techniques included parades, spectacles, posters, scultures, films, kiosks and such, and there existed these agit-stations which were present in most railway stations, which held libraries of propaganda material, lectures and the like.
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Culture Jamming, it is defined as a colloquialism that refers to a species of 'media activism usually presented in the form of a fraudulent mass media event'. It's a mechanism in which an activist attempts to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural material or corporate advertising; often seen as a form of subvertising. Often aimed to expose the questionable political assumptions behind commercial cultures, in other words, to reveal the unbuttered side of a toast to the audience. In this branded environment we live in, our information is usually covered with a layer of butter, disrupting us and steering us from the REAL information, the truth; culture jamming 'unbutters' this toast, or simply flips it around, to reveal the real information, to expose the lies and conspiracy behind the political decisions made to cover up some information and altering it to directly affect us, the audience. Culture jams re-figure logos, fashion statements, product images, advertising campaigns, parodying on the commercial side of things and challening the idea of 'what's cool' while giving us some freedom in what we, as an audience, and as a consumer, consume.
One example of a Culture Jammer is Adbusters, perhaps it being the most famous. Adbusters is a magazine which has made its way to the international audience, and has a website to expand the range of audience its reaching. It mostly plays and parodies on the things that exist in our commercial world. From Adbusters' website:
Culture Jamming, it is defined as a colloquialism that refers to a species of 'media activism usually presented in the form of a fraudulent mass media event'. It's a mechanism in which an activist attempts to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural material or corporate advertising; often seen as a form of subvertising. Often aimed to expose the questionable political assumptions behind commercial cultures, in other words, to reveal the unbuttered side of a toast to the audience. In this branded environment we live in, our information is usually covered with a layer of butter, disrupting us and steering us from the REAL information, the truth; culture jamming 'unbutters' this toast, or simply flips it around, to reveal the real information, to expose the lies and conspiracy behind the political decisions made to cover up some information and altering it to directly affect us, the audience. Culture jams re-figure logos, fashion statements, product images, advertising campaigns, parodying on the commercial side of things and challening the idea of 'what's cool' while giving us some freedom in what we, as an audience, and as a consumer, consume.
One example of a Culture Jammer is Adbusters, perhaps it being the most famous. Adbusters is a magazine which has made its way to the international audience, and has a website to expand the range of audience its reaching. It mostly plays and parodies on the things that exist in our commercial world. From Adbusters' website:
"We are a global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society."
https://www.adbusters.org/gallery/spoofads
http://thebookman.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/postmodern-terms-absence-to-curtain-wall/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_jamming
http://www.answers.com/library/Russian+History+Encyclopedia-cid-1458
http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/russian/agit.htm
- 22nd April lesson
Visual Communication Episode 6 - Culture
What is culture? The dictionary defines 'culture' as the following:
There is also the Counter Culture, e.g. the Hippies, for they try to introduce a different set of values into the society they live in, with their beliefs more intellectually based and backed up by rationality.
Then we have the Sub-Cultures, such as Christian culture, Gothic culture, Arts culture, Football culture, Japanese culture, etc. These cultures are different to Counter Cultures because Sub Cultures themselves are pretty much a set of rules, instead of defying those rules and trying to introduce new values like the Counter Cultures do, we instead follow these rules in order to fit in.
For example, Gothic Culture, in order to become part of that culture, one would have to follow the rules in the Gothic culture, e.g. dress code. Wear full-black clothing, dyeing your hair black, and maybe even throw some black mascara in for overkill, and voila, you're a perfect example of a Goth.
We don't really notice these cultures and whatnot in our usual everyday mundane lives, we've become so accustomed to them that we barely notice them, or barely pay attention to them. We just accept them as they are. If one's walking on the street and see a person in a gothic dresscode, and obviously he/she is going to think, "Wow, that person is Gothic." or something along the lines of that. We become so immersed in these cultures, that we ourselves sometimes forget that we're in some cultures ourselves too, whether it is our nationality's culture, our school culture, or to look at it in the simplest way, the way we dress itself fall under a certain culture.
In this fine example, pages and pages of the magazine just seems to emit the same message over and over again, "You should, you should have, you should think about, you should do it." The content just seems to be wanting to dictate our everyday lives. A 'Perfect' landscape block should have a golf course? I live in the western suburbs, it's hard enough to find a golf course as it is, but one on the block? I guess where i live is obviously not the 'perfect' place then.
I've included some examples from the magazine, which pretty much explains what the magazine is about:
Having seven donkeys will improve my life? Why didn't anyone tell me earlier? *rushes to buy twenty-one donkeys* Three times' the charm.
- April 15th lesson
- the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively : 20th century popular culture.
- a refined understanding or appreciation of this : men of culture.
- the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group : Caribbean culture | people from many different cultures.
- [with adj. ] the attitudes and behavior characteristic of a particular social group : the emerging drug culture.
There is also the Counter Culture, e.g. the Hippies, for they try to introduce a different set of values into the society they live in, with their beliefs more intellectually based and backed up by rationality.
Then we have the Sub-Cultures, such as Christian culture, Gothic culture, Arts culture, Football culture, Japanese culture, etc. These cultures are different to Counter Cultures because Sub Cultures themselves are pretty much a set of rules, instead of defying those rules and trying to introduce new values like the Counter Cultures do, we instead follow these rules in order to fit in.
For example, Gothic Culture, in order to become part of that culture, one would have to follow the rules in the Gothic culture, e.g. dress code. Wear full-black clothing, dyeing your hair black, and maybe even throw some black mascara in for overkill, and voila, you're a perfect example of a Goth.
We don't really notice these cultures and whatnot in our usual everyday mundane lives, we've become so accustomed to them that we barely notice them, or barely pay attention to them. We just accept them as they are. If one's walking on the street and see a person in a gothic dresscode, and obviously he/she is going to think, "Wow, that person is Gothic." or something along the lines of that. We become so immersed in these cultures, that we ourselves sometimes forget that we're in some cultures ourselves too, whether it is our nationality's culture, our school culture, or to look at it in the simplest way, the way we dress itself fall under a certain culture.
-------------
In Graphic Design, we have to take into consideration and notice these cultures and how they vary. We do this in order to understand our TARGET MARKETS, their culture depicts their how they act, how they react, how their mind works; and in doing so we can manipulate our designs in order to make our message really REACH OUT to them EFFECTIVELY.
In order to understand this concept more effectively, we(in groups) picked a random magazine and decided to analyze it in terms of:
Materiality:
• Jacket is a softcover cardstock, coated.
• Adhesive bookbinding.
• High-quality recycled paper, with a few mixed stocks thrown in
• Very clean and neat layouts
• Moderate amount of ads in relation to the amount of pages
• Some ads are subtle, and blends into the contents of the book. You won't realise it's an ad unless you look carefully.
• Ads also relate to a lot to what the magazine is about: lifestyle, money, etc.
• The designs of the ads are at least of the intermediate, or professional level.
Messages:
• "The Perfect Landscape Block" pull-out is too idealistic, their ideas are too focused and based on the rich lifestyle. e.g. A so-called PERFECT landscape block does not necessarily need a golf-course, or a 'Monocle" shop, or 3 basketball courts side-by-side
• The concept of the magazine is revealed on the website, www.monocle.com
⁃ "Monocle is a global briefing covering international affairs, business, culture and design."
⁃ "Developed for an international audience hungry for information across a variety of sectors."
• Monocle's team of editors and correspondents have won awards, and have been drawn from The New York Times, The Independent on Sunday, BBC, CBC, and a host of other news and current affairs outlets.
• Monocle's designed to be more of a book than a magazine, it's made to be highly portable, robust, and collectable.
• While the print focuses more the 2D stuff, the online website focuses on broadcasting videos, slideshows, and audio reports.
• Monocle's edited by the founder of Wallpaper* and columnist of Financial Times, Tyler Brule.
• In both the print and online, writers and photographers are dispatched to over 50 countries every issue to gather stories and deliver it to the audience.
In order to understand this concept more effectively, we(in groups) picked a random magazine and decided to analyze it in terms of:
- Materiality Check: Layout, typography
- Message of the book
- Target audience
Materiality:
• Jacket is a softcover cardstock, coated.
• Adhesive bookbinding.
• High-quality recycled paper, with a few mixed stocks thrown in
• Very clean and neat layouts
• Moderate amount of ads in relation to the amount of pages
• Some ads are subtle, and blends into the contents of the book. You won't realise it's an ad unless you look carefully.
• Ads also relate to a lot to what the magazine is about: lifestyle, money, etc.
• The designs of the ads are at least of the intermediate, or professional level.
Messages:
• "The Perfect Landscape Block" pull-out is too idealistic, their ideas are too focused and based on the rich lifestyle. e.g. A so-called PERFECT landscape block does not necessarily need a golf-course, or a 'Monocle" shop, or 3 basketball courts side-by-side
• The concept of the magazine is revealed on the website, www.monocle.com
⁃ "Monocle is a global briefing covering international affairs, business, culture and design."
⁃ "Developed for an international audience hungry for information across a variety of sectors."
• Monocle's team of editors and correspondents have won awards, and have been drawn from The New York Times, The Independent on Sunday, BBC, CBC, and a host of other news and current affairs outlets.
• Monocle's designed to be more of a book than a magazine, it's made to be highly portable, robust, and collectable.
• While the print focuses more the 2D stuff, the online website focuses on broadcasting videos, slideshows, and audio reports.
• Monocle's edited by the founder of Wallpaper* and columnist of Financial Times, Tyler Brule.
• In both the print and online, writers and photographers are dispatched to over 50 countries every issue to gather stories and deliver it to the audience.
In this fine example, pages and pages of the magazine just seems to emit the same message over and over again, "You should, you should have, you should think about, you should do it." The content just seems to be wanting to dictate our everyday lives. A 'Perfect' landscape block should have a golf course? I live in the western suburbs, it's hard enough to find a golf course as it is, but one on the block? I guess where i live is obviously not the 'perfect' place then.
I've included some examples from the magazine, which pretty much explains what the magazine is about:
Having seven donkeys will improve my life? Why didn't anyone tell me earlier? *rushes to buy twenty-one donkeys* Three times' the charm.
- April 15th lesson
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