TONY DAVIDSON

Laurence Blume told me to research Tony Davidson separately as he is famous for his own work as well as WK. Consequently through this I have found out that he has worked on many major clients, for example Levi, Audi and Honda. He has written articles for Campaign Magazine, The Times and The Guardian and has a vast knowledge of the Industry and how to become absorbed by it.

What a fantastic inspiration and designer.

See the articles:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/article4944062.ece

http://www.nmauk.co.uk/nma/do/annaViewJudges?year=2005&id=4184

CONTACT WITH WK: WEIDEN AND KENNEDY

For my essay I have been in contact with a freelance copywriter Laurence Blume whom has helped more than any other creative I know. I originally got in contact with him in October, as he was a student at the Manchester Polytechnic in 1978 he was eager to help out with my essay. Since then, he has been keen to respond and get me in touch with fellow Creative Directors that he knows. He forwarded my email onto two top Creative Directors: Tony Davidson from WK: Weiden and Kennedy and Nick whom I am still waiting a reply.

I am hugely grateful and the responses were just what I needed to develop my investigation into the Bill Bernbach quote.

So, after getting the responses I wanted to find more out about Tony Davidson, who is a Creative Director at WK. Weiden and Kennedy is a creative advertising agency that has offices in New York, London, Tokyo, Shanghai, Portland, Amsterdam and Delhi. I looked on the London page only to find out they have done some incredible work. Isn't it funny, you see an advertisement and wonder who created it, but never really find out who did it.
Well I'm proud to say that WK: London designed the Honda Effect Campaign last year, this creative work celebrates the credit crunch and how it affected Honda, but the ways they overcame the recession. I love this campaign and remember telling my tutor Liz about it!




Some info from their website:

The Honda Effect
June 15, 2009
"The Honda Effect" was an expression coined in the early 1980s as part of the exploration of Honda’s entry into the motorbike market in the USA. Back then, Honda took potentially risky and swift business decisions which were perceived to be taken against the grain—but which ultimately paid off. This year, Honda shut down their Swindon factory for four months to prevent making permanent redundancies in the face of the financial struggles of the car industry—which turned out to be another expeditious yet sensible strategy.Temporarily shutting down a factory was no easy decision but in typical Honda style they used the "downtime" to totally reinvigorate the facility and put in place new technologies that were planned long before the market tumbled. Furthermore, Honda associates themselves painted, tiled, plumbed and scrubbed the Swindon plant to create the feeling of a new workplace come June 1st. The campaign celebrates the associates and the knock-on effect we hope will occur now that they are making cars again.

They also just recently designed a piece for the Guardian on the Second World War:

The Guardian marked the 70th anniversary of the World War II outbreak with a seven-part editorial series free with the newspaper.

The work they create is effective and such an inspiration to look forward to when graduating this year. Still having doubts about where I want to go/to do this brought it all back home that this is where my heart lies and maybe the connection I have with Tony now could come in handy in June. Crossed fingers.

TV ADVERTS: British Gas "Your home is our world"

Released in February 2009, this superb animation is a favourite of mine. There are so many adverts competing for the same product that is it no surprise British Gas succeed.

The animation connects with us on a human level, clever with the narrative and how they promote themselves, I love the world they create and how we can depend on them.

Visually it is stunning, British Gas have touched upon this in previous TV adverts but never on this scale. Created by agency CHI AND PARTNERS they excel themselves, and I hope to see more of this in the future.

FILMS: AVATAR

What an incredible film that captures your imagination from the very beginning...

I saw this recently in 3D and it really lived up to what the critics said "best film of the decade".

The costing figures are in excess of $200 million, maybe higher? I have heard it took 100 hours per frame (and there are 26 frames per second) and that it took a ridiculous 10 years in the making.

This spectacular film is a definite must see, the story is not as great as the animation but it is here that it excels. The 'avatar' bodies are incredible, so human-like and effortless. The love story of avatar and human is a bond like no other, as reality becomes the dream like world.
The characters and scenes are just as impressive, the graphics are unlike any other film I've ever seen.

The 3D aspect of the film made it even more effective, it really draws you in to the surroundings and you become part of their world. Although it was 3 hours long, time passed ever so quickly and I almost wanted to see how they recovered from the devastating blow to their home.

If you haven't seen it, you must.

It is a film not to be missed.

NEW YORK BABY

As my hard drive recently passed away, the photos I took in New York were thankfully saved on my laptop. So I thought how better to cheer myself and reminisce in what was such a fantastic experience.

New York...wow...having never been nor did I have any expectations was a truly magnificent city that had worlds within worlds of endless touristy and off the beaten track experiences to discover. We only had 5 full days so we jam packed as much in as we could.

We couldn't have asked for better weather, cold but brilliant sunshine greeted us everyday as we walked around the city. Staying in Uptown New York was a perfect location, 10 minutes from Times Square and looking onto Central Park was amazing...the view was priceless!
Our itinerary included:

• Wednesday
  Times Square and Broadway walk
  Smoothie cocktails in a Broadway bar
  An early night for the next day.
  
• Thursday
  Walk through Central Park
  Went to several Galleries:
  -Cooper Hewitt Gallery
  -Met Gallery
  -Neure Gallery
  -Museum of Modern Art Gallery
  Sushi with a crazy but lovely American lady.
  
• Friday
  Went up the Rockefeller Centre
  MoMa Gallery
  Walk down 5th Avenue saw:
  -Grand Central Station
  -Chrysler Building
  Went to China Town for food.
  
• Saturday
  Went to Central Park again, found the Zoo and Ice ring.
  Took the subway to Ground Zero
  Took a ferry ride to Staten Island, saw The Statue of Liberty.
  Took subway to Brooklyn, went to Williamsburg, visited Vintage Shops
  Took an extra long walk over Brooklyn Bridge.
  
• Sunday
  Took subway from Times Square to Chelsea
  Found the High Line
  Went to an Artists Book Fair
  Went to Hells Kitchen Flea Market
  Saw Mama Mia on Broadway
  Went for drinks with the group.
  
• Monday
  An early start to get packed up for the flight home
  I walked to find Dylan's Sweet store
  Flight home.

It really was a fantastic holiday and I had so many inspirational moments to help with work and life. It was great to explore with friends and to see what most people haven't.

Here are some of the highlights:

Times Square.

Subway Advertisements.

Brooklyn Bridge .

The view from the top of the world: The Rockefeller Centre.

We are The Statue of Liberty.

Installation art for Campbell's Soup.

The ice ring in Central Park.


The largest children's book.

Our view from the YMCA Hostel.


The Financial District.

A beautiful man hole cover.

The magnificent Toys R us.

Grand Central Station.

One of the lakes in Central Park.

FLASH MOBBING

Whilst researching for flash mobbing I came accross these poster designs, they are very basic with little or no information on what is the event.

As flash mobbing is usually viral: social networks, email, texts I suspect that the actual poster is not their priority, however I may make mine the main focus as I see the event being organised for around university.

Questions of: What, Where and When seem to sum up all that needs addressing.

INSPIRATION AT CHRISTMAS

Manchester in all its glory on a bright and snowy day.

I really do love the atmosphere of Manchester, I spent quality time trying to absorb it and everything around me.

Whilst looking for a number, I came across this random space in the Yellow pages.

I have never seen it before but I thought what a genius and amusing idea, I just really liked it.

This is taken in Victoria train station, Manchester.

It reminded me of my proposal for the personal project.

Communication is the biggest, most important aspect in our society and it should be respected and understood. This is advertsinig a safer environment for everyone, physical abuse is not tolerated on train lines.

THE BAD NEWS....THE GOOD NEWS

Sadly the bad news is that at the weekend my precious hard drive died. Unexpecdedly it died and after taking to a repair shop it is literally brain dead, the work is still there but it needs to be recovered by a data specialist....It literally had the past 3 years of my life on...music....pictures...first and second year work....everything. Thank god third year work was saved on my laptop and usb stick.
I have never felt so destroyed or sick with myself, so I warn all of you
BACK YOUR WORK UP SEVERAL TIMES...PLEASE.

The good news.... I bought a Mac, and it will arrive to me on the 6th January.
Money well spent!

XMAS WORK

Over the festive period most of us will most likely be spending it doing uni work. The joy of relaxing and spending quality time with the family will have to wait till next year, as now I am wayyyy to busy.
Projects to complete by January 20th:

• Kino4 poster developments
• Competition Brief re-work, consider continuing the balloon idea including flash mobbing. Set the event up which will become the poster, I could even stage the event in Manchester with friends showing the whole stages from start to finish.
  Flash mobbing was recommended by Hitch, after looking it up on Google, basically someone sets up an event e.g. 'meet at such a place, such a time', people would turn up and do something e.g. New York Grand Central Station Freeze
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo (see link)
  
• Do personal project, make cutting edge graphics.
• Finish essay, re-structure and design.
• Amnesty Project. Me and Sarah discussed this before we finished, we are going to work with the idea we had, do poster designs for it then meet first week back in January to share designs.

Could that be it....probably not.
I will just have to see how it all goes.

Hopefully I can make progress and be ready for the big deadline in Jan.

PERSONAL PROJECT: VISIT TO SPEECH THERAPISTS

As part of my personal project, I had a week prior to my PDP to visit speech therapists. These visits would confirm my doubt of where I wanted to take the project.

I had been in contact with the Speech Therapists at Tameside Hospital, my visit there was eventful. Mainly they deal with Dyspraxics patients, whom basically are elderly and they have to teach them language with what they already have, rather than teaching a young child from the beginning. So in many ways they couldn't help me, but they did refer me to a Paediatric Speech Therapist, Alex Wormall and a therapist with an articulation point of view, Julie Hand. I have consequently been in contact and a joint meeting has been arranged for January.
(To be continued).

They did also refer me to get in contact with the Deaf Society in Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University Speech Therapist Tutors and Student whom may want to help.
So off I went with my work.

I got in contact but unfortunately the Therapist team at MMU have not got in contact, I therefore will pursue that in January.

The Deaf Society in Manchester have been fantastic. I visited them on Monday the 14th and the team were very eager to help out. I talked to a member of the Sensory team, Sarah and an actual Lip Speaker, Beverly.

• The advice they gave me was essential, maybe alittle too informative for what I want to produce. They recommended talking to Hearing Therapists, Audiology and visiting clubs for the hard of hearing and people who suffer from Tinnitus. This way I would be able to speak to patients to get their opinion.
• What I also am concerned about is the fact that since the 1980's there has been NO knew material on Lip Reading/Speaking for patients or Therapists. What you will find is most material to be outdated and well past its sell by date. Thus I want to re-design and re-introduce it into society. Making people more aware that people sometimes cannot hear you or understand you.
• They understood that I have only touched upon a massive subject so some of my research is not correct. They were very pleased and interested in what I had to show and where I could take it.
  

Extremely eye opening for my personal project.

After speaking to Liz and Hitch I need to be aware of and designing cutting edge graphics. So for January deadline I am mainly going to focus on the graphical aspect of where it could potentially go e.g. an interactive digital poster that could connect and pick up conversations, imitating what people are saying but showing it in the shapes I have created.
Thus, the tag line 'can you understand...because I can't', making society more aware of the problems deaf people have.

PDP Evaluation.

Tuesday 15th December 2009.
Having spent the last several weeks on Silence Part 1&2 and the Competition Brief it was time to discuss my progress. I wanted to mainly ask about developments for my Kino4 Poster Designs, as I wasn’t sure if any were necessary, also, comments on the Competition Brief hand in and my plans for the Personal Project.

As Liz has been my main point of call all term, she already new the work I was to discuss. For Kino4 posters she pointed out that in my reasoning for making them more conceptual, I had lost the essence of each film thus they all had become to uniformed. She advised to work on bringing more focus of each film in, still keeping my logo design and colour scheme as this would allow viewers to recognise when a knew film was being showed.

For Silence Part 1&2, all is going well and I feel like I want to close this chapter and move on now. No problems there!As this is what I want to continue for my Personal Project, I wrote two Learning outcomes to justify why I want to do it. I have stated that I want to not only produce a graphic poster of the Lip reading mouths, making it more interactive and re-introducing it in to society, but I want to create a booklet for a deafened/deaf person. After speaking with Liz, she confirmed my doubt that I need to illiterate a “cutting edge design” at all times. I must not forget this; otherwise it will not be graphically strong enough. I agree with her.The Competition Brief poster I handed in was not what Liz expected, as she had seen my initial ideas she thought I was going to create a more emotional piece that would connect with the audience, instead she thought my design was too obvious and biblical. I was more than defensive. For me, I had created a scene around a strong visual; I did however see her point and she preferred the ‘balloon idea’ which I did want to develop but as I new I would be able to create the image I wanted I pursued another idea.

Overall, this term has gone more superbly than expected. I have had a great time doing what I love and exploring areas I have not considered previously. My progress and studentship is one that the tutors recognise, and I only hope I can continue what I love to do and just do more of it. A great start to what will be a sad but memorable final year.

PERSONAL PROJECT

Also this week, speaking to Hitch and Hamish Muir it was advised to re-do the Mechanical shapes so they are more symmetrical and official looking. (Prior to this they were hand-drawn).

What I have noticed through-out this project is the development of my skills on Illustrator.

It is so true when people tell you 'the only was to really learn a program is to spend time on it'.

I now feel confident on the program and are learning essential skills necessary for now and in the future. I am not saying I am a whizz, but I am definitely proud of my determination and the time spent.

These are the final mechanical drawings comprised on Illustrator.

(enlarge to see in detail)

SILENCE: Revisited

As part of the Personal project I wanted to continue my idea of visual communication: lip reading. After speaking to Hitch he advised that I spend this week planning and deliberating if I saw the potential for it to be worth a 3 week project. As he said if the tutors didn't see it viable, it would look like I'd just continued the work not finished from the start of term.

Basically the brief I am setting myself for this week (8th-15th DEC) before my PDP includes:-

Brief: Visual Language.

Take my initial ideas and show them to Speech Therapists.

-Get feedback

-Ask if actually factual

-Where can I take it now? Is a poster needed to promote lip reading?

What material is available for deaf/hard of hearing patients?

What do Speech Therapists do/hand out to patients?

Visit The Deaf Society Manchester.

Visit Elizabeth Gaskell Speech Therapy Department.

Get more info on what available.

This will then allow me to take the info to my PDP to show the potential of what I want to achieve. I have from the very beginning felt very strongly about my project, in the first stage the research and personal development of third year has made a massive impact on what I want to do in the future. I feel like this is where I strive to do more, the aspect of getting a brief, fully understanding and taking the time to get to grips with it is where my skills excel.

But that was then, now I want to take it the next stage further and allow it to develop into a promotional piece and information booklet on Visual Language. All the material for patients was last designed in 1978 and looks very out dated, it needs a re-vamp.

A new design that not only will help patients but will make everyone aware of it.

I had a dream.....

Last night I woke from a terrible dream, I do not know where it stemmed from or why I am taunted by it but it has made me realise that it is my subconscious telling me to act...I need to act...

EXHIBITIONS: Archiving time and place

Conor McGrady

Mary McIntyre

Rita Duffy

Sandra Johnston

Conor McGrady

Conor McFeely

The Holden Gallery has been home to 'Archiving time and place' exhibition for the last four weeks. It is based on artists from Ireland and how their experiences have influenced their artwork. I have been invigilating the exhibition along with a few peers and it has been a great place to do some of my own work whilst being in the vicinity of artists.

One of my favourite artists was Conor McGrady whom did the two Gouache on paper pieces and Mary McIntyre. The exhibition was full of history and memories, mostly haunted with some form of war and hatred but it was very interesting not only sit and stare at, but to absorb the sounds that some artist's work included.