Dynamic Communication Advertising

Recently I've also been thinking about how my brand would advertise in mediums like posters. I've cooked up a few ideas for .EXE but nothing solid - just some sketches.

As my mascot's main purpose is to be in danger - I thought that situations like that would be perfect for posters advertising aid;

Because he mascot's design is so simple, it's really easy to put in to a lot of different, dangerous situations - with it's small legs and arms giving it an inferiority complex. Gaining some empathy because of this, but still remaining humorous.
I've always liked the tongue-on-cheek way to advertise aid, just to show something that's wrong as to say; "We could fix this." Like you're friend who's annoying you when you keep on dying on a game. Just a thought.

Here's another few for good measure:

I went for the .EXE name as it related a lot with Computers and gaming as a whole. As I'm meant to brand myself, I only thought it fitting that I base it on my greatest hobby.

This is the final .EXE logo I decided to go for, as it keeps the same colour scheme and pixelated theme of the advert - which is great for a logo, having a tactile relation to the mascot and advert itself.

Dynamic Communication The Animation

The animation: After many a mind-map and logo designs, I decided to go with the "whacky" advert scheme of things. Á la E4. To have an advert that's nonsensical but leaves the watcher with a comedic value is a hard thing to do, and it's a niché. Because comedy is subjective - we need to appeal to a wide majority of people. "Things blowing up is fun, let's have that." I thought. It's a primitive display of comedy, to watch something fail and/or die - but it works. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-ug0X4W8J8&feature=related. This advert works because it plays on a naive sense of curiosity and the display of something dying (trying not to sound too morbid). That's what adverts need, a change within them. To tell a very short, 4-6 second story.

Me: To not completely plagiarise the nice people at E4, I need to have new sense of style in my advert. Again, after much deliberation I decided to go with a pseudo 8-bit art style. (I'll upload pictures of my sketch book later.) But, as adverts need change - the entire thing won't be in 8-bit, I'm going to have one of the characters explode and turn in to the logo, flying at the screen. This impacts the viewer, keeping their attention.

As the 8-bit style is tied to computers, I've decided to go with the company name ".exe", it's short and memorable - two traits of good company names.

Here's my advert idea: An 8-bit character is walking towards another, the other one is shaking violently - almost glitching in a way. This character then explodes in to a vectorised version of his old self. He then runs away, leaving our 8-bit friend on his own. The one left then tried this technique, only to explode in to the logo.

Dynamic Communication Logo Design

First of all, for my logo to have any effect or memorability whatsoever - I need to look at existing logos and how and why they work.

The apple logo is a simple design and it's literal to the name of the company.
Not only is it simple and easy to remember, but it conveys a playful image - which coincides with their computer's function, to be the more playful and friendly desktop computers rather than Microsoft's PC.

Again, the design is very simple - in fact it's something we're all familiar with, and with positive ideals. But it's the image it conveys that is imperative with the sports company; speed.

Good and successful logos have something important in relation with the company, reflecting on the image of said company.

Now, wanting to design my own logo I began to look in to how shapes can affect design. The round curves of logos can give an elegant and clean look about something. With straight and stagnant lines, it can give an imposing look but if used right it can look welcoming - and with triangles, because they are the geometrically strongest of all the shapes correlations can be drawn from that to the strength of the company it represents.












After looking in to logos, I started to delve in to the realm of Mascots - and how they can represent a company.

"Domo-kun", or just Domo to us Westerners is the mascot for Japan's NHK TV-Station. But his popularity spawned spin off TV shows and a whole Domo-themed toy line. "Why is he as popular as he is?" I thought. But it's simple, his design just works. From the simple curves of his body, to the fact that he has no defining features apart from his small beady eyes and mouth. It's the fact that it puts a spin on the small-and-cuddly cliché by giving the mascot features that are considered to be evil, such as an open mouth with sharp teeth. But because of his design he doesn't seem threatening.

Here we have everybody's favourite car-related mascot (perhaps the only one) ;  The Michelin Man. Look at him, he's subtly made completely from car tyres, and along with his cute eyes and welcoming smile it gives the impression that these tyres work  - and work damn well. Because if a living creature is made out of them, they must be good - right? The design choice to have him white and not black was chosen because he would not only stand out more and appear more of a "good guy"  -if he were black (like the tyres they sell) it's an unpleasant colour for your mascot to be, it gives the image of dirt and evilness.

So here's me looking at shapes again, but with a mascot in mind. I've decided to look at pseudo animal critters as they are popular with the right character design.

So, going with the 8-bit style (see previous post for more details) I explored with both mascots and logos. As the 8-bit theme is tied to computers, I thought a mouse would be a good logo to have, but the idea of an 8-bit character as a mascot kept on creeping up in my mind.

After developing the idea I settled on the simple character design of this little guy as my mascot, the simple lines and cute build make for a perfect mascot:

Dynamic Communication Brainstorming

Beginning the task to brand myself, I had to think of what makes me, well, me. And to do this - mind maps were beyond essential. The first one was created to try and get a sense of what style my advert would be in.

When trying to figure out what styles I like, and are somewhat correlated to myself - I realised that it would go in the direction of games. I wanted to create something manic, something different and something blue. Actually, scratch that last one.
 I also looked at the power films can have just with the cover art. My favourite simplistic covers for films being Reservoir Dogs and Tim Burton's Batman. They are both easily recognisable stellar in their quality, the subtle things make them stand out. Werther it be Batman's small light reflection or the Dog's blood splatter - both conveying themes or the film. (Batman being a small ray of light in the vast darkness, and Dogs having such an oldschool grindhouse attitude on violence and the exploitation of.) . But with my flash knowledge and time schedule limitations were the thing I had to keep an eye on. So a simple design for the advert was the direction to go in.

Now, simple designs need to be consistent - and if there is a change in them they would have to be justified. Now, a change in a short advert is a very good thing (more on this later). It contrasts with the world it inhabits and gives a great impact on the viewer. This is where I decided to go for an 8-bit style, as I'm one with the stance that it will never die, it's been refined to the point where it's an art-form, and not just a choice because of the limitations of the software it inhabits. My influence map (older blog post) played a big part in the choice of this decision, as it made me realise what art directions had had an effect on me as an artist.

Text Character Worklog *COMPLETE*

 "History is, it's just a nightmare. Cut-off tongues laying everywhere"


Now, working on the character of the scene - one that has been beaten and defeated by history.

First of all, I wanted to play with the idea that a character has ulterior motive. How somebody high up in the food-chain can lie and kill to secure their seat up there. This, again, is playing on the idea of the old History books and how they are written by the victor of whatever bloodshed happened beforehand.


I was going to play with the Uncle Sam stereo-type, but I thought it would be a better idea to just experiment with nameless figures, and how I could make then have an air of distrust about them.

Stepping away from the first characters, I began to work on the second character - the one who has been defeated and broken by history. The one who did not write in the History books. After working on several ideas I decided to depict a skinny male, a completely vulnerable creature that's lost all hope because of things that have happened in the past - things that were not rightly his fault. To get this point across I began to look for newspaper headlines that could be used to paint a picture of betrayal and bloodshed.

Still working on the idea of a defeated man, I decided to run with the notion that he has been starved of his victory and literately. This is the story of the man who lost the good fight and who will be lost in history.

 For the final I began with newspaper headlines that depict a tragic event and cut them out to make them look like a collection of linked events - almost like a detective's findings.

 To give the impression that the headlines are aged, I layered them under a blank parchment. Turning the capacity down on the drawing of the character also helped him blend in to the scene, becoming part of the news stories. With the headlines towering over, almost crushing the man - he is helpless

The King will send his army.

Text Scene Worklog *COMPLETE*

"History is, it's just a nightmare. Cut-off tongues laying everywhere"


This is the text I chose to concentrate on. From my favourite book Rant - the book is basically a collection of interviews and leads you with unreliable sources constructing the narrative - and this quote pretty much sums it up. To be lead astray, deceived and pushed and pulled.






Working on the idea of being lead astray and deceived, I thought of the act to be lead and instantly thought of a family - more specifically a father and son. For a son to be brought up in his father's ideals and not his own - conveying the deception by hiding his face. 


Toying with this idea was fun, but there's not much of a variant with the family stature - so I moved away from the Father/Son relationship rather quickly.

Still working on the idea of being lead astray, I began to think about how people in history have been betrayed and back stabbed all in the sake of leadership. I mean, the victor get to write in the history book right? So rather than trying to look in to that, I looked in to what lengths a human would go to to accomplish this feat. In this sketch, the wearing of masks symbolises that one of them is trying to imitate the mannerisms of the other, to become their ally and hence forth gain trust.

Trying to find a different angle to tackle the text from, I started to think about instead of being lead astray, to be push and pulled in to something that goes against your beliefs. In this sketch I tried to show that, but in a greater scale perhaps the arms would have suit sleeves to show that the metaphor is tied to business stature.

Here I began to work on the idea that an ideal or way of life is enforced. Disputes and disarrangements being my subject point. So now, instead of the motives being hidden away in the dark - they are brought to the fore front and are the main focus of this piece.


I quickly made the connection of disputes with the thought of riot police, enforcing and upholding the law - mainly protests. (The recent protests of tuition fees sparked this thought) And mainly about how easily they can get out of hand. Also, about how the people who are protesting believe that this is the right thing - violent or not.

Going back to the idea of being dragged astray, pulled into an ideal you don't agree with - I looked at the aftermath of this and how redemption is possible. The hand represents a fight back from being enslaved and enforced in to something that isn't you. Working on the final I brushed some dust and cut out the hand on to a desert and turned up the saturation of the desert sky to give it a might brighter feel.

Reach for the sky.

Communication Worklog *COMPLETE*

Word 4; Communication.

When I began working on the word of communication I started with the idea that modern communication is a contradiction - as it isn't really "communication" as we know it. Everybody can wear a mask of ambiguity. Who do we know who we're talking to, how can we react to stoic text on black and white, and not have any feeling or facial expression put behind it?

This sketch is of one man, communicating as we know it.

For this sketch I wanted to convey the power both the users have in modern communication, the person on the giving end can say anything and get away with it - a free pass to becoming whomever you want to be. But with that, the person on the receiving end also has power to subconsciously control what they read. As the text is black and white, without any hint of tone, character or a face to read - he reader need to fill in the gaps and can interoperate what they see fit to be the message given to them.

Here I was working on a character design for the one wearing the mask of ambiguity. (see above)

In this sketch I was working with the idea how we take communication for granted - not thinking about all of the back-breaking work and evolution of technology that allowed us to communicate this way. Because of this, I gave this picture and "eye-hole" sight view to give a tunnelled-vision impression. And the poles, slightly leaning different ways to show the strain they've taken - representing communication as a whole.

I began to juggle idea of having this final a politically charged piece of art. Still working with the theme of the mask of ambiguity, what if I take one form of communication and turn on it's head with this idea? I chose graffiti as the form of communication I will use, as it and the mask of ambiguity go hand-in-hand. As graffiti artists use aliases, this theme is perfect. But to turn it on it's head - I needed to take it away from the norm, to do this I sketched out a person in power (police officer) graffitiing a question related to himself.
"Who will guard the guardians?" The guardians in question, being him. The subject of his own question -  posing it anonymously

Beginning with a blank slate, I cut out an image of a man on a ladder and gave him a make-shift policeman's hat using the lasso tool and just filling it black. The same technique was used to give him an outstretched arm and bucket of paint (below) 

A mono-chromic colour scheme was used to give the piece an almost newspaper-print feel - used for the sake of being a politically charged piece. To give the man the police logo on his back, I used the magic tool on a front view of the logo - cut it out and skewed it until it was in line with the angle of his back. Below I used the downloaded paint and splatter pack to give life to the grafitti'd phrase - using comic sans as almost a parody, as the font is normally used to convey a sense of carefree-ness and humour. 

It's okay, we've got the police on the matter.

Chaos Worklog *COMPLETE*

The third word; chaos.

To start with, I began looking at chaos in society - how it can effect the economic situation of the world and escalate in to war.

This image is all about what chaos can destroy, and how it does it so easily. With a simple gun-shot the height of man-made technology can be brought to it's knees. Here, the blimp represents man's achievements and how easily they can, literately, be brought down to the ground. It's this split second time between life and death of the aircraft that wanted me to sketch this - a marvel brought down with the itch of a finger. Also, the city below in flames gives the impression of scale - with the debris falling on it, man's creations can also literately fire back. Chaos goes both ways, it seems.

Now rather than concentrating on the cause of destruction, I looked at what the destruction can cause. The answer; being panic and, well, chaos. With the airship close to the viewpoint, about to charge in to the city - it gives an air of impending doom. The fate's inevitable for this city, it's lost.

Bored with the idea of materialistic destruction and it's consequences, I began to look in to the destruction of the human mind - and how it causes chaos from within. Ragged lines in this sketch mirror the subject's mental state - giving the idea of pain and an unsteady mindset. The unsure identity of the drawing also mirror the subject's mental state - as if he is having an identity crisis.

Still working with the idea of the image conveying the character's mindset  - I began to work on how the subject's body, instead of it's art style, in to consideration. I had the idea of using hair and facial expression to to show an unleashed anger. I had the idea to use colour to convey the subject's emotions.

Continuing this overall idea of conveying mental issues - I began to sketch how I could alter the character in photoshop to further convey mental instability.

For my final, the chaos I will be look in to will be an inner battle between one's life and mental state. With both the art style and body giving impact to this idea. The character is purposely ambiguous (with the lack of eyes or defining features) and it's meant to give the impression that any person can become this wreck. The use of colour will be used to convey his inner-struggle.

To begin with I cut out my shot of the man and layered him on a black background. Nothing hugely special yet.

I used the polygon lasso tool to shatter the lower-torso, copying parts and moving parts, and downloaded a paint and splatter brush pack and played about with the brushes for a while until I created a pattern I liked.

After changing the hue and saturation of the paint splatter, I settled on the rainbow gradient as it greatly contrasts against the character.

Break down, every single one of you.

Fall WorkLog *COMPLETE*

The second word, Fall.

I began looking at the fall of man from two view points, how a society can be crushed and exists as a wreck, or how man can thrive and build a new life for his race.

I sketched this out and thought of how man can find hope through creation in his final hours - and said creation can help them, be the turning point. But giving this idea a twist, what if it was his own creation that brought this terrible reign upon mankind?
But after realising I was just drawing robots again, I quickly stopped and began working on different ideas.

I began to work on the idea how man could survive in this said dystopia (after the fall of man has happened)- how they could maybe even redeem themselves. Working on some designs for towers to watch over, maybe to govern a law. And how humans would react to this new worlds. Or rather, how children who don't know any better would react to this world - as to them, it will be normal as it is and always has been this way.


Working with this idea was fun, but I couldn't accomplish a lot with is - so I moved on to how people could remain optimistic in this drastically changed landscape. (picture below)

Playing with the idea of an almost morbid optimism was a change from the norm of my fall work - just the idea that somebody could find a a new home and be content in a nuclear wasteland was a fun thing to work with. The character in the picture is doing a normal photo pose, acting like nothing is wrong one bit.

Still playing with the idea of living in the wasteland like ordinary - I drew a family photo of two survivors. Just the idea that a family photo would be a thing done in this future dystopia is a funny idea - human ideals still survive although the crops don't. This drawing has kind of a historic feel I think, which made me think about how this fall could have went about, so I looked in to the bomb scare of WWII.

After looking in to the bomb scare of WWII I worked on how such a thing can be excused for protection. Air ships were called "Liberators", kind of a morbid thought when you truly think about it. But not wanting to get political with this piece - I focused on how the species of man can deteriorate outside of his world. (see below)

For my final, I thought of working on the idea of the emotional and mental fall of man, after the "fall of man" (eg. nuclear wipe-out.) What a person can and most probably will become. This man in the sketch, representing the last human on a desolate plain. Mountains stretch on to a band of desert - with the sun beating down, there's nothing to do but to cower. I wanted for this piece to be a complete photoshop work - no drawings implemented.

I know I said "no drawings implemented", but this is alright - this is a prototype. Just to see how things will fit and what I want to achieve with this. Here, the colour is far too dry and dull - and the aspect ratio isn't well done at all. So first of all, these things have to be changed.

After playing about with the hue and saturation of the landscape's pallet, I found a nice colour scheme that fitted. The sun is just really two different brushed circles with vastly pumped up outer glow and effects. Now it's time to add in the subjects. To create the feel of a decaying world I wanted to give the scene a landmark as well as a character. (As landmarks are easily recognisable, giving it a closer-to-home feeling.)

I used the lasso tool to cut out and "destroy" the Statue of Liberty, and gave the man a small outer glow so show that the sun is beating down on him. Now with the dying man and statue of liberty in place in a 1,2,3 diagonal line placement - for viewer focus reasons, I need to add shadows to complete the piece. Shadows were down (for the statue) by brushing black and turning the capacity way down and (for the character) copying his image and stretching it across the cliff edge.

With his dying breath, the human reaches up to ask for the heavens - like the atheist he is.