Identities: Functionality

I've described the function of my web design in very basic terms in this document. I guess its a good way to communicate your ideas if your clients aren't computer literate. It shows how I plan to make a smal, cyclical site. The basic idea for each of the different pages is the same. A simple, easily ammendable set of forms with the same linking functions. The design will variate on the themes that I am about to discuss meaning that the colour scheme, images and finishing touches will change according to which of the three offshoots of Trent Media is being depicted.

View basic-site-function.gif

LIVE Performance

Well we finally got it out of the way and made time for our Ident project. I think the performance went really well. Everyone seemed confident about it and there was alot of enthusiasm. Apart from the massive cock up with the printed handouts on the day and actually missing the main performance, everything went well. I'd watched them rehearsing for ages so I know what I missed. On that note, missing Jools and Dom was a bit of a faux pas. I ended up sat on Maid Marian Way for two hours waiting for some fresh hand outs and by the time they were ready the group had moved on to another performance in Sneinton. I'd set up all the images on te street at 08:30 and it was disapointing to miss the show.

Above are two of the illustrations I used in conjunction with the poem that Sherri wrote. If you look carefully you should see the links to the verses.

Identities: Making Life Simple

In the document below you will find a brief insight into the problems I am encountering on this project and how I plan to solve them. They are mainly accessiblity issues for both the user and the programmer and if I can overcome them the project should be a great success.

It contains alot of imagery so its nearly a 3MB file. Stay patient folks.

Download MM_web_research.doc

LIVE Performance: The Setup

Alongside a verbal presentation we aim to provide a small amount of imagery that subtley relates back to Darwen. Ideally we wanted to find a location that was over looked by or in somehow related to a moon. This turned out to more difficult than we thought. We had to stray too far outside of our designated area to find one so we figured it would be simpler to create one of our own. We are heading down to the building next to our location to see if we can steal some of their power to possibly run a digital projector. Using this we will project an image of a moon onto the adjacent wall. We should be able to animate it so that throughout the performance, it slowly shifts from the left to the right. This is supposed to signify the huge lengths of time the members of Lunar Society spent together under the full moon. More to come later...

LIVE Performance: Location

Last week, we determined which area of town we will be using to host our live performance. We chose a spot on the steps outside St. Mary's church in The Lace Market (opposite the Galleries of Justice). It seemed a poignient place to hold it because of the connection between Darwen and the Church of England. The church heavily criticised Darwen's theories and also tried to have his book, 'Zoonamia' banned. I had previously made connection between Darwen and The Lace Market, citing his involvement in the Lunar Society and its respective members. Read the following document for extra clarity.

Download Live-Pefrormance-Idea.doc

This is a group project. Check the links below to see what the other group members are up to.

Alex Morgan Townley
Sherri Lombardelli
Tom Nightingale

Identities: Feedback

Before I start any real design work I want to find out what sorts of images work best. What does the eye find most appealing, a square or a circle?
The following test is potentially the answer to that question. I'll attach it to a revised version of the questionaire I showed earlier in the journal and get on the streets to score the feedback.
Help me with my studies and take my 'most pleasing shape' test. View the test and leave a comment on this post. Leave the number relating to the shape you prefer along with any other thoughts you have.

Identities: Exploration of Corporate ID

Justifacation of the Identity. I've been trying to look from Trent Media's perspective. Figuring out what works best at a commercial level. Read the document linked below for more insight.
Thinking laterally. Download Fly FM - logo-blurb.doc

Identities: Fly FM Launches (again)

Its been a while since we heard anything from the fly camp. Whatever drove them underground has certainly been beaten and they lived to broadcast another day. They've stepped up the space they have on the NTUSU site but its far from perfect. Respect to them though as in the same day, they registered a myspace page. As much of a cliche as it these days, it should allow them to find an audience and give a direct feed to the studio. Assuming they're broadcasting live, we'll never know.

Judge for yourself. Check out the FlyFM improvements

Mister Bump

For those of you who don't know, I've made some choons under the psudonym 'Mister Bump'. I had to list this one because I'm quite proud of it and anybody that says it a house tune is a moron. There's a breakbeat mix coming shortly too.

Listen To Audio Track. Mister Bump - 'Dust Funk'

Fileden: Image Hosting

For those of you who will actually read this journal, here's a quick review on how to host images properly on the web. This relates to using images and linking to documents on your blog.

Create an account at fileden.com. Its completely free and takes less than 5 minutes to set up.

You've now got access to 500MB of high bandwidth storage. This means there is very little delay on your images appearing in the place you want them to.
You can host any kind of file format and allows you to create sub folders so you can organise and keep track of you stuff. You can host music, images, word documents, flash animations, hey you could even build you own site using fileden as your server space. All you'd need would be the domain! In short, its real easy and means you can post higher quality images on your journal.

Manifesto

I came across this interesting link in my tutorial this week. Its got some really positive things in it. 'The Incomplete Manifesto' by Bruce Mau.

Identities: Web Radio Research

I've done a bit of investegation into what other university radio stations and media centres have to offer. Read through the attached document for more insight.

Download MM_ident_radio-research.doc

Identities: The Street

This ones coming along nicely. Talking to Jools this week clarified alot for me so I'm on it. I've decided I'm definately going to get out onto the street to see what the students at trent really think. The feedback I have got from talking to the people I know is that its seroiusly under-promoted on the web. Paper promotion is adequate with platform filling the gaps off the campus but I have no idea how many they shift.

Download TRENTMEDIA-qestionaire.doc
Here's a rough version of what I'll be using. \/

LIVE Performance

Here's a quick couple of links just to see what we've been looking at. There is definately alot to cover so the hard work starts now.

Brief History of Erasmus Darwen



I've been reading some of this book on screen but I could do with getting hold of a paper copy. I read slowly anyway and staring at the screen for hours is killing me I swear. Interesting stuff though. I'm mainly trying to find inspiration for where to host it. I would rather find subtle link between Darwen and Nottingham rather than finding an obvious one. Watch this space...

Erasmus Darwen: LIVE Performance

Nice project. Should have a bit of fun with this one. I'm in a group I'm happy with so its a better start than last time.
Erasmus Darwen certainly was an interesting fellow. We''l have a lot to go on with this one. There are many locations we could use within the city. I'll talk to the group tommorow to get a clearer idea of what we're up against. The group seem quite confident and know what their doing technically so I can't see us having anything but a laugh making this one.

Identities: Concept

...I'll be designing a completely new set of respective logos for Trent Media covering Trent TV, Platform and FlyFM. I'll also create a series of supporting media for the company. This will include basic stationary (letterhead, compliments slip, business cards), a small website (seperate from the NTUSU site) and various paper based items to promote the company. Because the 'Platform' magazine has quite a strong ident already I'll simply design a small, icon style logo to sit alongside the existing Platform logo.

Each individual logo should be visually similar to the main Trent Media logo. They should be logos in their own right but should still be recognisable as being included in the Trent Media 'umbrella'.
For instance;

Trent Media logo

/------------------------------------------\

FlyFM.......................Trent TV.......................Platform

Identities: Testing

Over the next week, I'd like to come up with a few basic logos that fit the criteria of my idea. Ideally, I'd like to spend a bit of time on the street getting feedback from fellow students about what would work best to represent each aspect of Trent Media. I will use this info to adjust the design so it is able to connect with the observer/user on their level. More on this later...

Identities: Progression

I was a little confused by the introduction to Trent Media. Although our breif was to come up with a new identity, it seemed that they didn't want us to change it. Fair enough, they had market tested all of their existing logos for everything covered under Trent Media respectively and had recieved positive feedback but I felt that this not only contradicted the breif but it seriously undermined where I wanted to take my project. It was almost as if they were going to wait until the end of the project and pinch ideas or even complete designs from the students. Although some would find this a perfect opportunity to showcase their talent, I do not. Why would anybody allow their designs to be openly plagurised by the university itself! Hmm...

Interactive: Continued

My interactive assignment was turning out to be pretty interesting. I had learnt alot from Dreamweaver and found out alot of little tricks to use when writing HTML. I didn't want to go overboard on the functions and links so I kept it simple. What I really wanted to do was link everything possible that was important to me within Nottingham but it seemed that it would have been obscenely crammed full of words and pictures. That didn't really suit the simplistic, Bauhaus inspired design I like to do using simple sans serif fonts.

Ambush Online

Me and Choules just spent a couple of days designing a basic webpage for our notorious Ambush night. See what you think. There's much more to come, we simply wanted to have something other than that generic 1&1 temporary page.

Go To The Ambush WebSpace

Identities: Umbrella

Read my initial thoughts for the Ident project.

Download MM_ident_early-words.doc