BP: Movie Review

After watching the three assigned movies, it is apparent that each film utilized the past, present and future to explain the design process.  Helvetica shows how the invention of a typeface has changed the face of American consumerism today. Everything is Illuminated portray a young Jewish American, who is on the search for an elderly woman who helped his grandfather in WWII. Wall-E shows the design of the future. 

The movie Helvetica expresses how the fonts originally were not cohesive and simplistic; they incorporated a variety of different elements, creating confusion for users. Through the creation of three simple letter designs (h, o, and p), topographers in Switzerland at the Haas Type Foundry were able to compose a cohesively designed streamline font. Alfred Hoffman now possesses the original prints and cuts of Helvetica at the Haas Typer Foundry. In the 1950’s, companies opted to use Helvetica to create more steam lined professional billboards instead of busy random images that incorporated words as well. Today on computers the default font setting is Helvetica, again creating streamlined words and unity. Not only is Helvetica easy to read, but it is professional and consistent. Helvetica is seen everywhere today. Day in and day out companies opt to use the font on billboards, internet, pamphlets, advertisements and labels. However, some designers believe that Helvetica is so overused that it is starting to look dull. Helvetica will continue to grow and develop in visual and graphic communication to catch the public’s attention.

In Everything is Illuminated, a young Jewish boy named Jonathan travels to the Ukraine to find the woman he suspects to have helped his grandfather during WWII during Nazi Germany. His journey begins when he hops off the train for the first time, only to be greeted by Alex, a bad translator. Alex’s grandfather to take him on his exploration. While adventuring to the woman’s home, Alex, Jonathan and grandfather come across a field with old wartime machinery. This scene is followed by a flashback to Nazis shooting the Jewish people standing in the a line, showing the past relating to the present and Jonathan’s need to find the woman that helped his grandfather during a similar wartime scene. Shortly after, the grandfather is driving through a sunflower field when they arrive upon a house with a frail woman in front of it, who is in Jonathan’s picture. Jonathan immediately asks her where Trachimbord is and the woman states that her name is Lista and the woman in the photo is her sister. She pulls out a box with a wedding ring, which belonged to Augustine. Jonathan finds out that Augustine had been shot by a Nazi, because her father wouldn’t split on the Torah. Lista proceeds to give Jonathan the wedding ring and box. At the end of the film,  Alex opens the bathroom door to find grandfather dead in a bloody bathtub. Through the combination of scenes from the past and present, the movie director portrays fluidity and interconnection of events. Events from the past can be used as teaching mechanism for similar events that may occur in the future.

The movie Wall-E starts out with Wall-E alone on planet earth. He only has one friend, the cockroach. Wall-E’s mission is to clean up earth from the disaster made by humans. One day another robot named Eve comes into his life. He falls in love immediately, but Eve continues to ignore him. Eve is on a mission of her own to find one source of life to bring to space. She finds Wall-E’s plant and takes it back with her. Wall-E decides to go back to space with Eve. In space, there are hover chairs, no walking involved, and is a place where everything is done for you. She loses the plant then realized it could save humanity. Wall-E finds the plant and returns it to the ship. The ship campaign watches a video of what earth was and realizes he needs to go back to Earth to experience the planting and singing. People have to get off their hover chairs and walk because the machine on the ship is shut down. At the end of the movie there is the one plant in a soil filled boot and symbolizes a turn back to what Earth once was.

All three movies utilized landscape to create a certain feeling or message and tell a story. Helvetica utilizes the landscape as part of the design process. The images of Switzerland go along with the process of designing the font as the two parallel each other in time. Similarly to Helvetica, Everything is Illuminated uses landscape as a way to play into history. Instead of looking towards the future, Everything is Illuminated is designed in terms of the past. The car, the costumes, the interiors and the actions of the actors all contribute to the overall feeling of hope that can be seen in Everything is Illuminated. Wall-E uses landscapes, but to emphasize the contrast between brown landscapes and white landscapes as well as the colors of various objects.

After watching all three movies, it made me realize how much goes into making a film. I was able to look further into the processes behind design instead of what is on the screen. These three movies are definitely movies I would love to watch again. I feel that if I kept re-watching any movie with the design process in mind, I would be able to pick up on more and more details that I never took notice to before! 

BP: It's FONT-amental

Bath & Body Works is the master at using different fonts to sell certain scents. Each and every design of their bottles, candles, boxes and bags is well thought out. From the color to the fonts, they perfect the design. This company is well aware that if they can create eye-catching products then they will sell much better. Even if their eye-catching design doesn't sell the customer, the customer certainly picks the product up to smell it. A perfect example of how Bath & Body Works uses fonts correctly is this design above. All these candles are Hawaii scented, therefore they have used a super fun font along with a flower. This just shouts beachy!

The Kellogg's company is another master of design! Fruit Loops is my favorite cereal and their box font sell their product very well. Adding the actual fruit loops as the O's on the box isn't just creative, but also shows the consumer what the cereal looks like without them having to open up the box. These fruit loops on the box cover are not realistically sized, but it get's the point across. Fruit Loops has to have one of the best thought out fonts and design on a cereal box!

Another product that uses similar design ideas to Fruit Loops are Cuties Clementines. The font and design on the box sells the produce in a major way! You always see commercials for kids who loves Cuties and this design will no doubt catch a child's attention. Cuties don't just overuse that orangey color to advertise, but they also put an animated Cutie on the box to show consumers their cuteness and how they are easy peel and also seedless.

Purina does a fantastic job with the design of their products! My dog is a huge fan of the Beggin' Strips and does exactly what the goofy dog does in the commercials. He is well aware when I open the bag that he is a getting a delicious treat! Purina has not only captured the emotion of an actual dog in their animation, but has also put that emotion in their fonts somehow. They have creatively come up with fonts that tie into their irresistible message. 

One of the most identifiable product logos, because of their font selection and design, is Tempurpedic. They have taken a very simple font, but added color to it, which gives it a very relaxing vibe. The company didn't just stop there. They added an outline of a human body laying on the font, like it's a mattress, to show off what the brand is best known for. The company is known for their extremely comfortable mattresses that any body will sink right into and I think their logo shows off just that because of the design selection!

Images sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempur-Pedic

http://cutiescitrus.com

http://www.commonsensewithmoney.com/free-beggin-strips-at-walmart/

http://reelgirl.com/2013/01/rajs-full-list-of-all-male-cereal-box-characters-from-big-blang-http://www.bathandbodyworks.com/category/index.jsp?categoryId=12586994&cm_sp=FO-_-HC-_-HC

Analysis 9 & 10

Analysis 9:

Holly did her informance video on Vatican City. Immediately as it began, I noticed and loved her song choice! I felt like it fit the city she was going to talk about very well. After introducing the city in a picture, she delivers cold hard facts. Nearly 5 million people visit Vatican City each year! She then talked about how Michaelangelo built it. I wish she could have used a little easier fonts to read for some of the slides because I could barely make out what they said. Holly really covered all her bases when it came to discussing the concepts we learned in class. My favorite part of her movie, besides her song choice, was the beautiful pictures she collected of Vatican City. She really used great pictures, not just any ole pictures she stumbled across.

Analysis 10:

I went to look up William Staker's blog and he doesn't have a link on the class roster page. He was on my group list (group 9). Therefore, I do not have 10 analysis', just 9!

BP: Movie Discussion Summary

Today in class we talked about 5 key questions and several ideas. I plan to talk about the ideas and questions I came out of the class with. The main focus is on design. We talked a lot about how design can be expressed and how design can have underlying messages. We can use design in our movies to portray messages about the design of an object we chose. In the movie review of the three movies, we are asked explicitly to define how design is expressed in each movie. It can be through visual cues or through animation. This can also be through the actors and the way the actors look. It is important to know if design is expressed in visual ways or through sound, such as music, or tangible items such as clothing. Understanding that will help you decide what the producer wants to get across in their film. Wall-E used several instances of sound to express the main message across to the viewer as well as several visual cues through animation. We also talked about how to identify the consumerism, process/product, business, social and cultural aspects as well as media in the films and tied this back to what we have been doing in class.

Analysis 7 & 8

Analysis 7:

Trey did his informance video on Cliff Hagan Baseball Stadium. He did a really great voice over describing all the concepts we learned in class. He really explained how each concept can be seen inside the stadium. Cliff Hagan Stadium has been open for over 45 years at the University of Kentucky and is appealing to all ages. Trey began and ended his video the same way. He used highlight clips of the baseball team, which really put you in the baseball watching mood. This was a very good technique to use because it caught the viewers attention and kept their attention throughout the entire video.

Analysis 8:

Samantha focused on Beats headphones in her informance video. Beats by Dre were invented in 2006 and Samantha has been following this brand ever since. She shared the process of making Beats. This product is endorsed by tons of celebrities and is very, very popular in the United States. Athletes, musicians and regular people use them on a daily basis. Almost every guy my age owns a pair of Beats. Samantha sort of touched on concepts we reviewed in class, but everything was very vague. Her movie was mainly just powerpoint slides and had no voice over or music playing so you had to read everything on your own and really focus on the slides. 

BP: Consumer Product

The first Sony PlayStation came out December 3, 1994 making this system 21 years old. PlayStation was the brainchild of Ken Kutaragi, a Sony executive who is know as "The Father of the PlayStation". There are 5 different PlayStations total: PS3 a PS2 and a PlayStation sometimes called a PS1. There is also a PSP and a PSP Go portable. The PlayStation Move is not a type of PlayStation , but an option for the PS3. 

"Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (SCEA) is responsible for keeping PlayStation® growing and thriving in the United States, Canada and Latin America. Based in San Mateo, California, SCEA serves as headquarters for all North American operations and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Inc."

PlayStation is sold in several places. Customers can go right to Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Meijer or any gaming store to purchase one of these systems. 

After a long process, the game console is designed. The console is designed to look sleek and modern and be fully functional to the gamer. The black color is made to look good in anyones household and not stand out. Even the controls are carefully thought out. The controls needs to have evenly spaced buttons that easily reachable as well as easy to manipulate. The PlayStation logo is placed on the side of the system and when you turn on the system you see the logo shown throughout the home page as well as in the video games. This logo is very popular and anyone can easily identify it because of the massive sales of this system and the advertising of it. 

Sources:

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/corporate/about/

http://www.hardwarezone.com.my/tech-news-sonys-playstation-3-definitive-king-gaming-consoles

Analysis 5 & 6

Analysis 5:

This informance video is all about the Titleist golfball. Austin did a great job of pulling golf clips into this video while also doing a voice over of himself as well. He shows how golf pros use this ball and how the ball is made. If you'd like to have a great golfing experience, use this ball. It is endorsed by the pros and are in high demand. In Austin's voice over, he touches on all the concepts we covered in class. It was so interesting to see how the golfball is produced. My dad and grandfather are huge golfers so I will have to show them this video! This was a very well done video and it all flowed very well. 

Analysis 6: 

Ellen did her informance video on a Gap scarf. This video was definitely one of the most upbeat videos I've watched and that's because of the great song choice! She really covered all the concepts we discussed in class in her video. She didn't just share measurements of her scarf, but she also mentioned what her scarf was made out of then showed her audience of picture of the material so we could better understand what 100% acrylic fiber looked like. This scarf can be worn as a fashion statement, but also to keep warm. Ellen also shared that Gap uses social media to advertise this product and it sells very well. I really liked this video. It touched on all the information it needed to and it flowed very well. 

Analysis 3 & 4

Analysis 3:

This informance video is all about farming. Olivia created a video mixed with video, photos and an interview with Kevin Marsh, Barren County farmer. The interview throughout the entire video was a great idea because the only way you can really get all the information on farming needed is to interview an actual farmer. This idea really impressed me and was very clever. I learned so much about farming in 4 minutes and Olivia did a great job touching on all the concepts covered in class. I also learned that the farm produces about 100,000 bushels of corn and about 40,000 bushels of soy! They also produce lots of cows that they sell locally. All of their crops are sold locally and can usually be found at local farmers markets. I loved feeling like I got to know this farmer and the video told a great story!

Analysis 4:

Katie did her informance video on Busch baseball stadium built by Hunt Construction and owned by Budweiser! This stadium is ranked in the top 5 for most enjoyable stadium! She piled a ton of photos in a smaller video with a voice over of herself. The stadium seats around 46,000 people, which is very impressive and cost $365 million. Katie really covered all her bases when it came to touching on all the concepts we learned in class. The video was very easy to understand and it told a story. This stadium is an ideal place for family and friends to come have a great time. The video was chuck full of information that any baseball fanatic would love to hear! 

Analysis 1 & 2

Analysis 1:

This informance video focuses on the United Center in Chicago. I have been to the United Center multiple times, but there was a lot of information I didn't know about this place that Ryan's video provided. He shared that the United Center can hold 23,500 people and is used not only for the Chicago Blackhawks, but the Chicago Bulls and other concerts. Ryan used a great song to play in the background of his video, which tied very well into the sports clips he used. My favorite part of this informance video was the clip Ryan used of the hockey rink transforming into the court that the Chicago Bulls play on. This video never touched on all the different categories we touched on in class, but all the artifacts he used tied together very well and all focused on one thing…the United Center!

Analysis 2:

This informance video focuses on L.L.Bean's Bean Boots. Everyone on UK's campus is very aware of what Bean Boots are! They are widely popular here so I was excited to watch an informance video made on them. John did a great job choosing a song to play in the background while video ran along with fun facts. The whole video is very upbeat and John touched on all the categories we discussed in class. I did notice some of the words got jumbled up in the video as images transitioned. My favorite part of the video was seeing how the Bean Boot is made! John picked a great clip to use in his video and all his artifacts tied together very well. I don't own Bean Boots, but after watching this video and seeing how they are made I sure want some!

BP: Informance Video

https://youtu.be/7rpgMPvlzUo

BP: Target Observation

Target has design all over their store. From the outside to the inside, design is basic yet very identifiable.

Anyone will recognize a Target as they pass it, even if it wouldn't have Targets name or symbol on it. Each and every Target store has very similar looks. The building itself is always tan colored. The Target sign is always lit up with a very bold red color. The door ways are also red, to match the Target sign.

The isle ways continue that bold red color with signs identifying certain sections of the store. The ground of the isle ways are always tiled and white. When you travel through the different sections of Target, like their clothing section, the ground changes from tile to a dark grey/charcoal colored carpet.

A section of Target that I walk through every visit is the makeup section. It is always so clean looking because the isles are illuminated with lights that show off the makeup and different makeup brands. Everything in this makeup section is white, including the lights so that the makeup colors really stand out!

An interesting section of Target is the food section. Interestingly enough, the Target in my hometown doesn't have a food section that sells fresh fruit and veggies. The Target section where I am from mainly carries food products that don't need to be refrigerated. Of course, the store still sells milk and frozen foods. The Target in Lexington displaying fruits and veggies blew my mind just because I have never been in a Target that did this!

The Target cart is another form of design that I always take notice to. Their red carts stand out from any other companies grocery carts. Target carts do have a very typical design, but they are red and made to stand out. I have seen 2 different styles of a Target cart. One is their older version and one is their newer version. I prefer their newer version because the cart itself is thicker and glides through the store better.

Image Sources:
https://cookingfordads.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/the-new-target-shopping-cart-a-review/
http://archive.fortune.com/galleries/2011/pf/investing/1110/gallery.target_stock_buy.fortune/5.html
https://www.flickr.com/photos/thetransitcamera/4313029244
http://joemiller.us/2015/11/target-closing-over-a-dozen-stores-heres-why/
http://corporate.target.com/article/2013/03/target-announces-opening-of-three-pilot-stores-in
http://beautyeditor.ca/2013/04/03/did-i-mention-i-went-shopping-with-sarah-jessica-parker-and-blake-lively-all-the-deets-on-this-new-beauty-destination

BP: Connections to other artifacts

Within my group, there are all sorts of artifacts being examined. One I thought was really interesting was a shoe. A shoe seems so simple, but you can really get deeper into the reasons people wear certain shoes and their design. The kid was going to examine the shoe as more of a "cool statement" over anything. He initially bought the shoe because it was very popular, but he doesn't wear them to exercise or anything.

My artifact really stands out from others because no one else is examining a Volkswagen Beetle. When I make my movie, I'm really going to put time into making the car stand out from ordinary cars simply because no Volkswagen Beetle is ordinary!

I can't wait to see what more peoples movies look like. I am really interesting in seeing my group members movie who is examining a ring. This is so small, but could have a huge story behind it!