5th October 2011
Presentation on 2D Animation
I would say that we worked very well putting the presentation together. First we did our own research on the subject and then we met up twice during the week to put the presentation together and to decide who was going to read out each slide. I think my team members were a lot more confident than me at giving the presentation. They spoke loud and clearly and had eye contact with the audience however I was a lot less confident as I am a very quiet and shy person and this is something I will need to improve on and hopefully through coming to this lesson, I will improve my confidence and learn to talk to audiences in a better way. This is something I have always wanted to do but for some reason I tend to struggle!
I think that all of the other groups did quite well at giving their presentations and there are a lot of confident people in the group who don't really need to work on much. The odd few people were a little bit quiet though and mumbled their words a bit and some didn't have any eye contact with the audience and just read exactly what was on the board and didn't add any of their own words. Also I think there was one group who had one person that was speaking throughout the whole presentation and the second member had a tiny bit to say and the third didn't speak at all, so I think the quiet members of that team need to say a bit more next time and the more confident person needs to encourage others to speak more and speak a little less himself to spread the load more equally!
Overall I think everyone did quite well for their first presentation and they were quite interesting to listen to and were quite enjoyable. I enjoyed the short movie clips although some people had problems trying to get them to work but this is something they can take into consideration for next time and make sure they test their slide show on one of the computers in the room where they will be presenting it to avoid any mishaps!
Evaluating Source Reliability of a WebsiteI think that all of the other groups did quite well at giving their presentations and there are a lot of confident people in the group who don't really need to work on much. The odd few people were a little bit quiet though and mumbled their words a bit and some didn't have any eye contact with the audience and just read exactly what was on the board and didn't add any of their own words. Also I think there was one group who had one person that was speaking throughout the whole presentation and the second member had a tiny bit to say and the third didn't speak at all, so I think the quiet members of that team need to say a bit more next time and the more confident person needs to encourage others to speak more and speak a little less himself to spread the load more equally!
Overall I think everyone did quite well for their first presentation and they were quite interesting to listen to and were quite enjoyable. I enjoyed the short movie clips although some people had problems trying to get them to work but this is something they can take into consideration for next time and make sure they test their slide show on one of the computers in the room where they will be presenting it to avoid any mishaps!
Also in this lesson we learnt how to evaluate the source reliability of a website. I know that I should check a few different internet sites and also the library if I find a piece of information and am not sure if it's true or not. If I find the same information in a number of different places, then there's a good chance that it's reliable. We did an internet research task in the lesson, and we had to view six different websites which give information on the Atkins diet, and we had to rank them inorder of reliability. I did this with the person sat next to me and we had four of the websites in order but two were in the wrong place. It was actually quite difficult to establish which ones were the most reliable/unreliable. It was harder than I thought and when we found out the order, a lot of the students in the class were quite shocked at where certain sites were ranked.
We then did a second Internet Research Task. This one was for 'The Causes of Mt St Helen's Eruption'. This time we were given some factors to consider when looking through each website. These factors could help determine the reliability. I found that URL's with the word 'org' or 'gov' in were the most reliable ones as they are organisations or for educational purposes or to do with the government.
12th October 2011
Digital Media History
In this lesson we took notes from a PowerPoint presentation about 'Digital Media History'. I found this presentation quite interesting and learnt a few things that I never knew before such as the fact that in 1827 the first permanent photographs came about. Also I didn't realise that radio's were invented so early on - Marconi invented the radio in 1895. It was interesting to see the developments of the products over time and the order in which these things were invented.
Planning Digital Media
Then we looked at another presentation - 'Planning Digital Media'. I learnt that pre-production is a vital part in this. If the pre-production process is not done correctly then the other stages will fall behind and the overall idea may not work. I learnt that post-production is the work that goes on after production has been completed and this could include editing and special effects for films, and testing/revising a website.
19th October 2011
Basic PhotoShop Skills
In this lesson we learnt some basic PhotoShop skills. I am already quite confident in PhotoShop as I studied Graphic Design at A Level and used PhotoShop for my project. Also I used it in several of my lessons on my Art and Design Foundation course. I have PhotoShop on my own laptop as well so I found this task very easy. I still followed the instructions step by step though just in case there was something I could learn however I didn't really learn anything new as it was all fairly basic.
Major Project Brief
Also in this lesson we were given our Major Project Brief. This is to develop a visual re-branding/marketing strategy for a product that has seen significant decline in recent years. We had a list of products to choose from and we were put into learning teams and in this team we will discuss ideas and then create our strategies individually after choosing which product to re-brand.
26th October 2011
Risk Assessment
In this session we had a presentation on Risk Assessment.
Here are some notes which I made:
- Hazard = the potential to cause harm
- Risk:
- the possibility of suffering harm or loss; danger
- a factor, thing, element, or course involving uncertain danger, hazard.
- Why do risk assessments?
- Working at Height Regulations 2005
- Good Professional Practice
- Duty of Care
- and simply because You Have To!
- Who can do a risk assessment?
- Identifying Risks and Hazards
- Never rely solely on common sense, as it's much less common than is assumed
- Always rely on 'Sods Law' ... if someone can do it - someone will!
- Combination Hazards
- There may be times when these can act with each other. (E.g. Trip over shoes that were left on the floor, THEN, fall onto scissors, etc)
- Common Hazards
- Falling objects
- Electric Shock
- Crush (includes knife going into you)
- Lifting and carrying
- Machinery
- Electrical Safety
- British Standards Marking (Kite Mark)
- European Safety Requirements (CE)
- Double Earthed Bonding
- Inspection of Use
- In theatre, they don't use fuses in lighting. They have a fuseboard, as it would be embarrassing if a fuse was to go and they had to get the ladders out!
- Fire Safety
- What does the alarm sound/look like?
- Where to go? Signs? Escape Routes? (Signs which say 'Fire Exit' or'Fire Assembly Point' etc)
- How do we know who is in the bulding? - Registers - Signing in books
- Fire extinguishers and their types/uses
- Chemical Safety
- These could take the form of chemicals, gases, fibres, materials, or radiation
- All products which fall under COSHH Regulations have a specific data sheet
- (hse website)
- Who's exposed to the hazard?
- Young Person - can take many forms (e.g. someone not capable)
- Types of injury
- Major injury = loss of limbs, broken bones, disablement (permanent), unconsciousness, fractures
- Minor = cuts and bruises
- No injury = walked away
- Machinery = damage to essential machinery
- It is necessary to investigate any controls that may be needed (signs, safety locks, etc)
- Help? - Go to technicians/Risk Assessment Best Practice Guide
I have worked in a hospital for three years now, so I have already had to go to meetings which have included some of the points from this presentation however I have learned quite a lot of new things as well. In this session we had to go off and do a risk assessment of our own. I was in a group with three other students, and we did the risk assessment for one of the girls kitchens in her student accomodation. I didn't realise how much there was to assess until we actually did it, and that was for one small kitchen so I cannot imagine what it would be like for a huge company!
9th November 2011 - 16th November 2011
Major Project - Research
The product that we decided to re-brand as a group was 'BRUT' aftershave.
Wikipedia gives some background information on Brut:
Brut (French pronunciation: [bʁyt]) is the brand name for a line of men's grooming and fragrance products first launched in 1964 by Fabergé. The Brut line would grow to include aftershave, balms, and deodorant. Packaged in a green glass bottle with a silver-coloured medallion, it is still sold as of 2011.[1]
In 1968, a budget range was marketed as Brut 33 because it contained 33% of the fragrance of the original product[2] Packaged in cheaper plastic bottles, it was described by the company as a "lighter fragrance."[1] Fabergé was taken over by Unilever in 1978,[1] and transferred to the Chesebrough-Pond's division in 1989.[2] There the Brut 33 range took over the name Brut.[2] The Fabergé version became "Brut Classic by Fabergé" and retained its distinctive packaging.[2] In 2003, the rights to the brand were purchased for some regions by Idelle Laboratories, a division of Helen of Troy Limited.[1] Apart from some regions, Unilever sells Brut around the world with big markets in the United Kingdom, France and Far East. Australia produces its own Brut aftershave which is purported to have a slightly different scent. In Brazil, there is a Brut branded lather shaving cream in tube with the classic Brut fragrance.
Called "The Essence of Man" in its advertising, Brut is marketed in the United States as representing traditional masculine strength of character. Sponsorship of the NHRA and of driver Ron Capps highlights fatherhood, teamwork, and courage as hallmarks of the user. It is sold in drugstores.
Athletes have traditionally represented the brand, including, in the United States, American football player Joe Namath, baseball player Hank Aaron, basketball player Wilt Chamberlain, and boxer Muhammed Ali. The star of the 1970s United Kingdom advertising campaign was boxer Henry Cooper who used the slogan "splash it all over". Motor Cycle World Champion, Barry Sheene, athlete David Hemery, show-jumper Harvey Smith and footballer Kevin Keegan also appeared in the campaigns. In Germany the brand was endorsed in the 1970s by famous football player Franz Beckenbauer. The footballer Paul Gascoigne also starred in an advertising campaign although he was later dropped amid domestic violence allegations made by his ex-wife.[3] In 1973, Allan Moffat drove a Brut 33 sponsored Ford Mustang in the Australian Touring Car Championship followed by a Brut 33 sponsored XB Ford Falcon GT in 1974.[4] Along with other Athletes and Actors is Tj Austin Aussie American Actor, Stuntman, and Former Pro Athlete.[5]
Elvis Presley is known to have used this cologne. When he acted out the role of James Bond, Roger Moore once used the aerosol version of the deodorant for self defence in Live and Let Die by touching the ignited end of a cigar he was smoking to the aerosol spray and thus improvising a crude flamethrower, since the propellant chemicals are flammable.
In 2006, after acquiring partial ownership of the Brut copyright and patents, Idelle Laboratories launched Brut Revolution, an "ozonic" variant on the core fragrance. "As Different As You Are" is the theme of the fragrance, which is housed in a blue and silver bottle, breaking with the traditional green of the original.
Apart from Brut original, the range has grown in recent years with new fragrances like, Oceans, Identity, Revolution, Instinct, Musk and Passion. The whole range is available in Roll on, spray, after shave, splash on and shower gel.
Every year a special Brut Christmas gift set is available in retail outlets in the United Kingdom.
This is a screen shot of the Brut For Men homepage. I think it looks quite modern and doesn't fit very well with the Brut image as Brut is known as old fashioned and I think that a more retro look is needed because it seems like they are trying to be something that they are not. I know that green has always been Bruts colour however I think that maybe they could change this colour to a blue shade to freshen the look and make it more attractive.
Henry Cooper (was an English Heavyweight Boxer) and Barry Sheene (was a World Champion Grand Prix Motorcycle Road Racer). Both of these men were in an advert for Brut 33 to encourage men to buy the product because basically, if it's good enough for these men then it is good enough for anyone. Brut 33 was a budget range (1968) which contained only 33% (hence the name) of the original Brut fragrance. It was packaged in cheaper plastic bottles and was described as a 'lighter' product.
Brut launched the 'Slap' campaign in November 2010. This was to target the younger males and was a play-off of the way men 'slap' the aftershave on their face. I think it was a crazy idea however it may have attracted younger males to buy the product due to the humour aspect of the campaign. There is a website where you can actually slap nine men and it will continuosly slap them to make a tune and there is a turntable to make your own beat with the slap sounds so this is definitely aimed at they younger generation, but whether they then went out and bought the product, I'm not sure.
This was the Brut 'Race for Recovery'. It was supported by Help for Heroes which a lot of young people tend to donate to and be a part of recently and also a lot of youngsters want to join the army. But also middle aged men and older men also like to support Help for Heroes so this race was aimed at everybody. Maybe the younger males that took part in this race just to support Help for Heroes were then interested in Brut and maybe went out and bought Brut products as it was Brut who organised this race. This was a good way for Brut to gain respect and custom at the same time. I really like the 'Have you got the bottle?' as it has two meanings - the bottle to do the race, and the bottle of Brut! So I think that phrase works really well.
I searched the website and found as many one-liners and phrases I could which described Brut or were part of Brut adverts. Here is a list:
Man Up
Real Men
Remember, you don't have to splash out to splash it all over
Perfect Gift For the Big Fella
Sorts the men from the boys
Remember, it's not pour homme, it's for blokes
Light Fragrance
Stand out in the pouring rain and scrub down with BRUT shower gel. Showers and baths are for ladies
Better than soap on a rope
All day freshness - A good squirt of BRUT Deodorant round your pits and bits. There you go, job done.
Who are you calling an aerosol?
Where’s the man in manicure?
There’s no such thing as diet Brut
Don’t splash out, splash on
Great Smell, Great Value
If you want floral, pick some flowers
Save the male
Advice on Valentine’s Day Gifts? Give her one.
For the grumpy old man in your life
Is your man in touch with his masculine side? Give him a real man gift this Christmas.
It’s a man’s world.
(The ones in blue are the ones that I like the most)
23rd November 2011 - 30th November 2011
Video Planning
We were given a video production overview and then we were put into our learning teams and were given a brief and had to plan a short film. It had to be around five minutes long. We were not allowed to use any sound - it had to be silent. And we could not do any post-production processes so we were not allowed to edit it in any way. We have to just shoot it and then play it from the tape. I was quite excited about this idea as I have never really created any films before so this could give me an insight as to how difficult it is - or how easy. The theme of the video was 'A Chance Encounter...' so we had to think of an idea to fit with this. Strangely my group chose to do a film about lemons...! The lemons were going to come to life and dance around and get chased by a chef with a knife. Some of the lemons would get chopped up straight away but one would get away and try to hide, but eventually right at the end, the chef will catch him. So we went to Sainsburys and bought a pack of lemons. We needed something like fishing wire to pierce through the lemons with a needle and bring back out the other end so we could move them around like puppets but hopefully because fishing wires so thin, we were hoping you wouldn't be able to see it when we play the film. Sainsburys had no wire that would be suitable, nor did the newsagents or the store that sells almost everything... We were about to give up on the wirebut then we found a fishing shop! So we bought some fishing wire and set off back to Uni to film our lemons. We filmed it in the kitchen of one of the team members student accomodation. We got a large glass bowl ready on the work surface. We only had one needle so we had to take it in turns to thread the wire through each lemon. This was harder than we thought because the lemon skin was quite tough but we managed to get it done. We had our storyboards out in front of us so we knew what we had to get ready and what order we had to film it in. We started to draw faces on the lemons to make them look like they were sleeping and then we put all of the lemons into the bowl. We decided we were going to take it in turns controlling the lemons but we had only one team member filming it so that they knew what they were doing as if we took it in turns to film then one of us might press the wrong button or accidentally delete what has already been filmed etc. We filmed the lemons sleeping and then the chef chopping up some carrots and then the lemons getting out of the bowl and dancing. At one point we tried to create disco lights and we also filmed the chef catching the lemons and chopping them up but one lemon gets away and tries to hide... In the end the chef catches the lemon and chops it in half. We gave up with drawing the faces on after the beginning because they were all smudged from being in the bowl and some of them had completely wiped off so we realised it was a pointless idea. When we watched our film back we were actually quite impressed at how our crazy idea turned out! You couldn't really see the wire - only a tiny bit on a couple of occasions, so it actually went quite well. We worked really well as a team. We planned the video the one week and wrote a list of what we needed and then the next week we went and got all the stuff and them filmed it altogether and we communicated well through texting, on facebook, and also when we were face to face we worked really well as a team. We gave each other constructive criticism for our ideas and told each other what we think would work well and helped to develop each others ideas. I couldn't make it to the lesson when the group presented the video due to me crashing on the way to uni! However I am sure that they presented it well and I'm sure it made a few people laugh!
2nd December 2011
Major Project Ideas...
Here is an image of Brut aftershave from Google images.
I placed this image in PhotoShop and edited it so that it was more of a turquoise blue colour rather than a green colour. I don't like the green colour as I don't think it looks very attractive or appealing whereas the blue colour looks more fresh and eye-catching and I believe it is much more attractive. I also added a slight tint to the lid but it isnot very noticeable and I tried to make it slightly more shiny. I think it would look good if it was a shiny silver metal lid.
Brut tried out a blue and silver version in 2006 called 'Brut Revolution'. But it was mainly the packaging which had these colours. The bottle was just clear with a slight blue tint at the bottom. I think it is definitely an improvement to the original green bottle and packaging however I still don't think it stands out enough.
I really like the phrase 'WHO YOU CALLING AN AEROSOL?' so I decided to make an advert with this phrase in it...I don't like this first idea that I did as I think it looks untidy. I don't like the grey background and I don't like where I placed the shocked face as it doesn't stand out enough... So I made a second version shown below this one.
(I got the mans' face from i Stock images and the font from dafont.com, it is called 'Market Deco'. I did a search for retro on the font website and this font came up within the search so I thought I would try it out and I think it works quite well. A more retro look is what Brut needs rather than the boring old fashioned look.
I really don't like the Brut logo. I think it looks far too old fashioned and needs a change!
Here is a logo idea that I created in PhotoShop using the splat image from the PhotoShop images library and a font called 'American Captain' from dafont.com in the retro search again. I thought that the splash would go well with the Brut website as the background on all the pages of the website has these splash marks too. Also it goes well with the 'Splash it all over' phrase that Brut use. I am not that keen on the outcome of this logo but it is only a rough idea.
Here is my second logo idea. I much prefer this one. I used the phrase 'The Essence of Man' and I used the male symbol and put the word brut along with the phrase inside the symbol. I think this logo works quite well. It is fairly simple yet stands out and is effective. I used the turquoise blue colour again for the word Brut this time as I want to get away from the green colour!
Below I have created some logo ideas for if I wanted Brut to still have the old fashioned look. After creating these ideas, it has made me sure that the old fashioned look needs to be gone! The retro, more modern look suits the brand far better.
I tried the logo that I designed on one of Bruts bottles and realised that it was not going to work as it was not possible to read the small writing that says 'The Essence of Man'. So I was going to have to change this idea...
Here is another advert which I created. I made my own line up this time. I used the word BRUTAL, because it has the word BRUT in it and I put the letters BRUT in bold to make it stand out more. I chose the word brutal because Brut are always trying to emphasise the manliness of their brand so I thought the word brutal worked quite well in this sense. I quite like this advert but it would need some tweaking as it doesn't look up to a finished standard. I got the image of the Brut range off their website and I edited the 'hue' in Photoshop to make it the turquoise colour. I think maybe the word brutal needs to be in a sentence or part of a phrase as it looks a bit odd on its own. The logo still definitely needs changing as you cannot read 'The Essence of Man' part.
Below I have used the same advert again but I have slightly changed the logo to make the text easier to read. I think it works better like this but may still need improving.
Below I have placed the advert onto a billboard using PhotoShop... I think this would look quite good on a billboard as the word BRUTAL really stands out and would be very eye catching. Also it is easy to see what brand is being advertised.
Here is the other advert I showed earlier placed on a billboard. I think this would stand out too.
I think that these below could work as flyers through peoples doors, adverts in newspapers/magazines, or on billboards. I created these on Photoshop and I am quite happy with the way they have turned out. I believe that this is what Brut needs to be more recognised. They need to do more events like this. I got this idea from the 'Race for Recovery' that Brut organised because that seemed to go quite well so I think some other event like that is needed. I think that at the event they should offer everyone a free sample of Brut and that way they could get more custom and also if people enjoy the day then it might tempt them to try out Brut aftershave anyway. I think that it would be necessary for 'Help the Heroes' to be a part of it again and this can be a charity event for them. I think the event should be communicated in as many ways as possible to enable a high turnout of participants. It can go on billboards, be posted through peoples doors, be on boards at bus stops, be in newspapers and magazines, and be on the website and on the Help for Heroes website. I think that an event like this would attract many youngsters who have been in the army or have friends/family that are in the army, or who just want to help support the heroes. Also the older generation will want to participate because they have had friends and family in the army or may have served in the army themselves. This opportunity would be very good for Brut and in a big city like Birmingham it could turn out to be a great success.
I used the 'Have you got the bottle' phrase that Brut used for the 'Race for Recovery' as I think this works very well in this context and I also made up my own one which is 'Are you BRUTal enough?' with the BRUT letters in bold again. I really like this idea too and I think they would both work very well.
This image shows how it would look on a billboard and I think it looks quite good and would be clear and easy to read and would catch your eye as it is unusual.
I am quite happy with this idea of re-branding Brut. The logo makes it look less old fashioned. The colour scheme change definitely works better and is much more attractive and appealing to the younger men that I am targetting to. I think the event would work well and would help support a good cause but at the same time would bring in more new customers for Brut.
