Module Summary

This is just a summary of what I thought of the module as whole; to report what I have learned throught the module. I believe that this module has improved many of my skills in digital media and how to communicate them effectively. I have learned about different ways of presenting your ideas and work in engaging and exciting waysby usign a range of digital media from video editting to simple presentations. In powerpoint in particular i have learned the best ways to showcase my work and many different techniques in displaying the work using links etc.

I have developed team work skills and therefore groupd communication whilst taking part in several group tasks. I have also learned how to be critical in other people's work as well as my own, which is important for the improvements of everyones work. No body can make their work perfect but can improve their work with input from peers. I have learned skills in creating blogs, creatuing films, photoshop etc. I have also learned how to generate ideas, analyse my designs and notice mistakes in them and eventually improve them. The peer assesment was a great way for me to understand my strengths and weaknesses. I recognised that creating a blog was a very good idea because it allowed me to reflect on my work and allow others to view my work to give me constructive criticism. However I also realised that I could improve my work.

If I had done this module again, I think i may have chosen a more varied approach to my work. A large majority of my work is completely digital and I therefore have no physical (paper based) which means I did not give myself oportunity to improve hand drawn work/communication and have nothing to collect in a portfolio (except printed digital work). I think I would have made a sketchbook, collecting research in it and initial drawing prior to didgital work because in all of the assignments given I jumped straight onto a computer to start the task. Sometimes it is better to begin with hand drawn ideas followed by digital work to show prgression and development. This might have been a good idea for the Babycham assignment. But in general I have enjoyed these tasks set and will use the knowledge I have gained in the future. I am pleased with my progress in this module and have acknowledged what I have improved upon in myself and what needs improvement.

Babycham Presentation

As part of the assignment, we had to make a gorup presentation showcasing the 'new image' for our product of choice. We decided to do the presentaiton on Microsoft Powerpoint and began by assignning each individual slide of the presentation to a member of the group. I was assigned to slides 5,11,12 and 13 which was about the research in general and my part of the assignment (the internet advert).

I think the presentation went quite well, the information was clear and precise and everyone understood the concept behind our work. Everyone in my group knew what they were doing and the presentation ran smoothly. We gave handouts of our work includign a bottle of Babycham with the new proposed logo which people were impressed with. A few people said they liked my internet advert too, they liked the animation and the overall colour of it. However there were comments on how the light on the text was too overpowering and the slogan didn't even need to be implemented. In generall I think this presentation and assignment went quite well and we worked well as a group.

FIlm Project

Link to video: http://stage.phenotype.net/samcollett/2011/film-project/ 
(it is the first video, group C)


We were given a group task to create a short film with the title 'A Chance Encounter'. The rules were there culd be no sound and no video editting, just plain recording. We were put into groups and began the task, the first thing we did was a simple  mind map of ideas we all had for this 'chance enounter'. We all had good ideas and eventually settled on a superhero theme.

The ideas was that a superhero had lost all of his skills and has become an alcoholic. He decides to go to a rehab centre only to find it is a prime target for villains who go around causing chaos. The main superhero decides to put a stop to this and with the help of the other superheroes, puts a stop to the villain.

Now we knew our story, we came up with a storyboard to make the recording process quicker and more effective so all of us knew what we had to do (the storyboard was not drawn by me but we all helped with ideas for each frame).  We then began recording the film in various places around the university and we dressed up in superhero costumes for extra points (of course).

 The video as a whole turned out quite well and recieved good feedback from our peers when we showed it. However, there were several things that could have been improved upon. For example, the scene changes are not very smooth in places; there are sudden changes of light in rooms and the image is jolted in a certain direction. But these are just little things which could have been removed if we had more time and more freedom for what we could do.

If we could have editted the video afterwards, this would have improved the film a lot and it would have given me the oportunity improve my editting skills and use new programs but the purpose of this task was solely in the planning not production and I believe we mangaed to plan and execute the task very well.

Final Design (Internet advert)

This is the finished design of my part of re-branding Babycham. I went with the decision of making it an animated .gif file compared to a normal image because it is much more likely to catch the attention of the viewers when scrolling down website pages. The advert, when clicked on, will direct the viewer to the Babycham website created by one of my teammates.

The actual design itself is quite similar to my previous one. However, I have changed many things to improve the overall design; firstly I chose to change the overall colours to make them look brighter, I also changed the slogan to make it stand out more (considering it was a lot harder to see in the previous design. I then centralised everything important (instead of putting the main things to the left as I did before. This creates more of an impact and makes the viewer remember things more clearly as people naturally look at the center of an image.

I also changed the main logo as well as moved it to the central-top of the advert. This was because the previous logo didn't stand out too well and the colours used were a bit bland and didn't really fit in with the whole Christmas theme. It was also a group decision to have the same logos to make things more consistent in our adverts and publications.

Overall I am quite pleased with the advert and I think it will work well on the target websites I have chosen. However there are somethings I would like to have changed:

• The Babycham logo needs more refining around the edges because white is showing and it doesn't look naturally placed.
• The top of the tree should have been showing (maybe putting something significant to the brand on top would have improved it).
• I would have improved the animation a bit more to make it look more professional. E.g. smoother snowfall and better glow on the text, maybe swaying trees?

I think that it will be very appealing to the target audience. Contributing factors would be the use of colour, the Christmas theme and the shining light all appeal to women. Combining this with well chosen websites to show the advert on will make it successful.

Further design

This is another design for an internet advert for Babycham. When I met with my group they all had good ideas on how we could have a unifying theme throughout our designs. We decided to choose a slight Christmas theme in our adverts and we chose the colour scheme of purple and green for the logo and just a general colour scheme that would appeal to females for the advert as a whole.

As a result this is the advert I came up with in response to these conditions:

 

I like the colours used and the Christmas theme fits really well and the logo is well placed. The best thing about this image is how I have placed the lit up tree to make it seem like it is coming pout of the glass when in fact it is in the distance.

However there are also problems; the slogan, although good, is very difficult to see in these colours and may not attract potential customers the way it was intended to. If I were to change the colour and/or position it somewhere else in the image it will improve it a lot.

I added the moon to the image in an attempt to more ambiance and also to add the mascot of Babycham: a deer, although in the case it would be a Reindeer. It does work however you won't be able to tell it is the Babycham deer without being told which lessens the effect of the whole idea. In my group, we decided to remove the deer from the adverts because it was not helping the image of the product; it made it look childish (not a trait our audience are appealed to).

Intended Audience

Now that I decided to make an advertise on the side of a website, I need to choose the intended audience so I can advertise on websites that appeal to them. After meeting my team that I'm working on the project, we agreed aim the product at females (young adults). Therefore I thought that women's magazine websites were a good idea. Websites like: 

www.ok.co.uk/

http://www.hellomagazine.com/ 

http://www.heatworld.com/


Although Babycham will be mostly directed at women, there is still scope for families. This is why we have decided to have a slight Christmas theme in the advert to maybe appeal to older women (parents) who may have remembered Babycham from their time. This is why I think it may be a good idea to show the advert on food websites (from recipes websites, to supermarket websites):

• http://allrecipes.co.uk/
• Sainsburys
• Tesco
• Asda etc.

 I also think it would be a good idea to advertise on youtube.com because of its popularity. It attracts a wide range of people including my target audience who will go on Youtube for makeup, celebrity gossip etc. Youtube is also good at showing adverts next to videos. The adverts are selected to appeal to the viewer based on the video they are watching. Therefore if someone clicked on a celebrity gossip video, a Babycham advert could appear next to the video.

Initial Ideas

 These are some of my initial ideas for re-branding Babycham. The first thing I did was create mindmap of the best forms of promotion/advertisement. I looked at Print Marketing, TV advertising,Radio Advertising and Internet advertising. In the end I decided to create an Internet advertisement for Babycham because of how many options of advertising available:

• Flash Animation
• Pop-up
• Standard small advert (on the side of websites)
• Youtube advert 
• Interactive Advert (game)

I have also decided the advertising method. I want to create standard side advert for a given website, It might include slight .gif animation but this is still undecided.