Ministry of sound motion graphics

The first bit of research I did for this brief was finding past motion graphics for MoS. As expected there is tons,



This is a nice concept for a terrible CD.




rave visuals have the right feel but not a very memerably piece




Stunning!




Nice use of colour here, a much more quality, expensive feel to this.

I could go on, I think over the years Ministry has probably used every graphic style and trick there is. They have produced good stuff but some awful tat as well. There has always been a lack of consistancy in the quality of products they allow their brand on to, this is clearly reflected in the graphics.

Engage Mutual Research

Ok this it pretty dry stuff, but I have decided to make a determined effort to actual blog things that I have looked for this brief, We shall see how this goes..

First up, some links. I have been looking at other Mutual insurance/assurance companies websites for some ideas and inspiration and to compare to Engage Mutual's own site

Uk sites

http://www.lv.com/

http://www.co-operativeinsurance.co.uk/

World

http://www.newyorklife.com/

http://www.libertymutualgroup.com

https://www.gjensidige.no/no/0/Toppmeny/English/Insurance

The main thing I noticed was that none of these companies make a big thing about the 'mutuality' This is something that Engage Mutual wants to do looking at the YCM brief. The design of the sites are very plain apart from the LV site. LV has a far stronger branding and logo than the rest. Engage Mutual have used lots colours on the home page, I feel they should stick to the colours in the logo plus black white and grey as LV have done.

Another thing I found: searching Youtube I found a TV advert from Engage. This is sadly the only motion graphics relating to the company I could find.
Its a bit 'daytime telly' if you know what I mean, I wont say anymore.

DVD menu research

I have had a look round the net to learn a little more about putting these together. There is a lot you can actually do in DVD studio but I feel I cant really get to know this in depth right now as I am already learning as much as I can with after effects. Defiantly something to come back to and explore more in a different brief. Anyway this is a good read: http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/dvd_menus  A bit short of pictures but some good insights into professional production.

TCM Idents

For a bit of research I looked at some existing TCM idents, as I plan to base my own on a film season for this channel. They use quite a clean look in all there own graphics. Even better, they like to have text moving around in 3d (even on the menus os the website (http://www.tcmuk.tv/) this is great because I want to use 3d in my own idents and I am thinking these will be mostly type based.



This is one from about four years back, I like how this is technically very complex but restrained in its treatment. Black and white is a bit of a short-cut to making something look classy but it works well here. This succeeds in mixes classic stye with contemporary aesthetics which is what they were after I would say.




This one is a good example of the 3D text thing they like that I was talking about. I dont really like the layered style over the top of this one. I would have left that out.



This is a newer one. You can see they have gone upmarket, almost to the point of being a little pretentious here I would say. Again nice 3D text used in the logo graphics.

For me own I want to add a bit more energy and swagger (it is gangster season after all).

More Kenetic type stuff

Now I have decided to base my Movie Season brief around film quotes I have had another look at kinetit type for a bit of inspiration. I have come across a great blog posting with some awesome examples.
click here

The stand out ones for me are this Alex Gopher vid. Amazing!




I also like this because it is so polished and fast paced, not so origional but done very very well.




I am glad I found this one as well because it is an actual ident for a TV channel, again, fast paced and very well done.

Design for digital media

Well then, this is my first posting for this module, just a couple of clips and thoughts to start with. The focus of the module so far is on Adobe After Effects so I have posted up some example of work that was done using this program (or at least work that I think was done using this program). 

First up, an example from Fred, still one of the best I have seen because it is a flashy, clever use of digital media effects that communicates well without being cheesy. To my eyes a lot of After Effects stuff looks cheap and nasty because effects are added for no good reason, the equivalent of those nasty filters that people new to Photoshop use. This song now wont leave my head.

 

Next up is one of the better pieces of 'Kenetic Type' I have found. A lot of these are very samish but I think this one works well mainly because the original sound clip gave a lot of scope to express the words in a fun way. Tom and myself used this clip as a timeline analysis, which will be posted up on my design practice blog very soon. Sound clip is of the worst lawyer in the world failing to overcome his nerves and represent his client from the film 'My Cousin Vinny'

 

Last one is something slightly more complex, but apparently all done in after effects. I'm not sure about the pacing, of even what its communicating, but some serious 3d building skills in evidence here!

Future retro space

As part of my 'What is Good' brief (see my design practice blog) I started looking at graphics from the 50's and 60's that captured the optimism of future space travel. Well I'm glad to say I have found loads more and i'm clearly not the only one who sees something of interest in these.

This is an artists rendering of the L5 Society , a fantastic and outlandish vision of future colonies in space, the society membership topped 10,000 at its peak. More images at: http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/11/travel-distant-worlds.html

This image from another page on www.darkroastedblend.com This time old Russian and german visions from the rocket age, for more click here

Finally, click for another great link. Collier's magazine ran a series of articles in the early 50's looking at future space travel from scientific viewpoint, although these look fantastical today, they were a serious vision and apparently had quite an influence on people at the time.

Also, Collier's logo is done in a lovely typeface, if anyone knows what that is please tell me.