"Real Life"

My first quote was taken from the Guardian article "Relationship Maths". My concept is based around the saying 'Life isn't all lollipops and candy canes'. I like the idea of creating a typeface that contradicts the subject of the text. I think that 'real life' is a phrase used more by children than adults, as it suggests an element of imagination going on in order to reflect back to reality. I want to embody this dreamlike quality in the type I create. I have taken my inspiration from other playful styles of typeface I have looked at as well as including things like candy canes, hearts and rainbows.

This is my first attempt which was just a rough sketch. I like the texture and detail built up by the close together lines, but I think it would work better if I had based it on an existing typeface to start with.

I decided to loosly base this design on the typeface 'Lobster' which I really love as an image based font. Here I have tried to create a fun, playful image based type... I wasn't happy with both of the 'E's... 

I re-designed the 'E's, giving them a more regular pattern as I think it needed some systematic, more structured patterns to balance out the more irregular hand rendered style patterns....

This design was inspired by candy canes... I love it as a typeface on it's own, although it doesn't really work as it is in context with the brief....

I tried out this candy cane colour scheme... I was going to use red and white, but I think that will give the impression of a barbers shop!

I have also tried out a mulicolour rainbow style colour scheme.... Its hard to tell which works best without seeing the whole phrase like this...

Candy cane without black:

Multicoloured without black :

Full candy cane design :

With pale pink background  : 

Full rainbow design :

Rainbow design without black :

More muted colours :

Muted with grey replacing black.....

Falling cow keyframes

I am joining the sequence, between the cow jumping over the moon and the next section by using the cow falling through the air to bring the scene wherever I want. The cow spins as it falls while the clouds move slowly upwards. This very successfully gives the impression of a camera following the cow falling through the sky. Unfortunately I am having some problems uploading this video to Vimeo, even just this section so I'll have to post it here at a later date.......

ideas for 'Type as Image' brief

Type as Image brief

Feedback from Editorial illustration brief

First 10 seconds of animation BOOM

This is my first 10 seconds of animation for my title sequence.... well proposed first 10 seconds! The concept from my story board was merging a couple of different children's stories (fairy tales or nursery rhymes really) and make them into one animation. I chose "Twinkle, twinkle little star" and the cow jumped over the moon from "Hey diddle diddle". I want the title sequence to be a journey through a few different elements of children's stories. I liked the idea of the beginning of the sequence being set in a nights sky...
I am pleased with most of the design elements, but I need to consider what text I am going to use and finalize my next story boards before continuing with the animation.

crit wednesday 19th

After Effects WORKSHOP 5

designs for assets

storyboard development

sound experimentation....

Sound effect :


In this first video I tried out a twinkle sound effect that I sourced from the internet. It was not as long as I wanted, so I had to repeat it. It is not perfect, but it is good enough for me to get the impression and make a design decision based on it.

Soundtrack :


For this one I experimented with a hip hop version of 'Twinkle, twinkle little star" by Will Smith and Jazzy Jeff. I think that it is slightly inappropriate for the style of the animation, however I think that that a more adult soundtrack, rather than a children's nursery rhyme say, is more appropriate for the target audience.

Soundtrack :


This was really just an experiment for fun... but I used a creepy version of "Twinkle Twinkle"...

What I have found so far is that I think I need to animate more before deciding on whether sound effects or a soundtrack would work better.... however now I have a better idea of how it works I will be able to actively consider sound whilst I'm animating, rather than thinking about it as a completely separate thing which I admittedly think I have been doing.