DiGiTaL wAlLpPapEr

I saw a documentary last week about a graduate-Christopher Pearson. For his degree show he created digital wallpaper inspired by a William Morris design. The owner of a London restaurent was so impressed he commisioned the young graduate to cover a whole room with it in just 6weeks.

I found the documentary really interesting as it followed Pearson through design and deveopment processes and also elaborated on the problems he encountered. However the concept was what interested me most. Its quite a simple idea, yet it is extemely effective and clever.
click to view

Tue 14th, 13:30  – 13:45
Designers Under Pressure: Employement documentary

article



When researching this i also came across this site. The site isn't particularly user-friendly but it has some interesting images and it explores more ways of creating multimedia wallpaper.

Lecture Task

ITEM 1
This interview with Dan Saffer, is very informative. He goes into quite a lot of detail and also gives good links. He gives incite into his world and some good advice to the budding designer.

His personal site
His blog has a lot of quirky posts. I find it interesting to see the way designers find inspiration.







He also has written a book: Designing for Interactive
Other links mentioned:
Stamen Design
Stimulent
Dopplr




ITEM 2
Through Joel Schafers brief answers to the interviewers questions, he parts with some quite useful links




Cap & Design- a Swedish magazine for...
Web Desiger- English magazine

Dope Awards
Kirupa
Flash kit
jsgd.se
strange fruits


IDEO
This website instantly grabbed my attention with its bold purple hompage and interactive elements. I hadn't come across IDEO before so I wanted to know who they are. This was answered straight away, by hovering over 'WHAT WE DO' giving me no time to get distracted or loose interest.
As you navigate yourself around the site, the visual stimulus depreciates some what as the site's objective turns to a functional website with informative, however interesting content; rather than design. This made me feel a bit let down to a certain extent....

The site is quite easy to navigate around although I felt a bit overwhelmed by the quantity of links.
SONY
Sony have clearly designed this site to suit the audiences needs. This site is funtional. People will visit it wanting to find information or purchase their products and thats exactly what they can do. It has some nice elements of design like the bar at the top but interactivity is minimal and I didn't feel any urges to explore the site. Like the Sony brand i'm sure its faultless in its funtionality and usability, however some elements of flare would make it more visually stimulating.
APPLE
very much like Sony's site; the design of the website is quite simple which makes the information easy to navigate to. This site is for people wanting to buy apple products and so it gives the audience the information they need and doesn't over complicate things with fancy design.
NOW
I'm not a great fan of the new VLP. The main thing that I find a bit frustrating is the layout. The areas of the site that are used the most (timetable, email etc) are small and squashed at the top of the page while the rest of the page is covered with unuseful information and white space. Its trying to be a social network, with your own profile and buzz, which is also hidden.
One benefit is the library search which takes you where you want to go quite painlessly.
The visual design is very simple and unlike the VLP you can't adjust any settings apart from the font and font size as far as I can make out.


FWA-flash content
(3) For 2 websites with FLASH content from http://www.thefwa.com/ discuss them in your online journal using the same criteria as above.

(4) Have a look and go at the FLASH tutorial available for FLASH CS3, via a link in top right hand widget on the Exploring Multimedia homepage, do this before the seminar in Week 14 28/10/08.

New Art Exchange

We visited The New Art Exchange this week which was showing the 'Next We Change Earth' Exhibition. Although there wasn't that much there; it was more a question of quality than quantity. I especially liked the white legs and 'Coloured Black' by Micheal Forbes.

The New Art Exchange is a 'dedicated cultural facility for Black contemporary art' and acts as a creative space for the local community. It is a well designed, modern space and but in a lot of ways it is too much of a 'blank canvas' in my view anyway. I am aware this was a conscious decision of the architects, Hawkins Brown; to allow the artwork fill the void and speak for itself. So maybe there needs to be more art work on display.

They're website is quite well designed. The Hyson Green area has been one of cultural differences for some time and the website reflects this with its use of visual over written communication where possible. It has a simple layout; making it easy for anyone to navigate around the site irrelevant of technical capability or culture. However this does have its drawbacks. The image is often cut off by a smaller monitor screen and there is a feel of limitation as all the information is in its simplest form. The gallery also follows this theme, with no information on the art or artists around the walls and limited info in the brochures.

Cool Websites

Narnia
This website is by mercedes viano but with a narnia background. It has a range of interactivity, all o which is quite simple but very effective. i especially like the navigation menu. The why the car travels to different locations on the central globe is very clever.


Subaru
This website has a really cool interactive photo shoot, which allows you to take, touch-up, and submit your own photos. This is a similar idea to what i was trying to ahieve with my interactive camera as well.

Wall-e

another class website

this website is for Cravendale and has lots of interactive elements and even allows you to record your own adverts which can then be viewed in a gallery.

visit: www.milkmatters.co.uk

Cool Websites

Both of these sites are for Lipton Ice Tea. Although both aren't in english the sites are mainly visual ayway so this doesn't really interfere too much with your exploration or enjoyment. Both site have very comical aspects to them which i really like and are

http://www.lipton.nl/nl_nl/

http://www.liptoncleargreen.nl/

Final Identities Project

so my second project is finished at last. well it still isn't quite! there are a few dead-ends that i need to sort out but i'm hopefully going to sort this out very soon. i'm also going to try and buy www.jacquipickup.co.uk


Identities by ~jjwp88 on deviantART

or if you are at uni visit my site through this link