Information graphics.

Information graphics are visual representations of information, data and knowledge. They are used where information need's to put across quickly, such as in map's, journalism, technical writing, health and safety and many more. The first example i am going to take notice too, is the design of the underground trains layout in central london.

As you can see the detail and illustration on the map is fantastically made, the colours on the outside clearly signify the area's in london, starting with the city, industrial, rural. e.t.c, the map indicates which train goes where and so on. there is big bold numbers to narrow it down more so its easier for everyone. There is a 'key' in the corner which has symbols next to it, but its scaled down so you would have to look close to find out what it says, so i think that becomes a downfall, also the map doesn't have any other foreign languages on it, considering london is a capital with 100'000 visitors weekly it should contain some sort of european language directory.

The next piece i will look at is a illustration piece, by the company 'bento graphics'. this is a self-initiated, an old fashioned text about manners a the table was used as a template to create these illustrations. This is was an exploration into information graphics and the illustrative style of manuals. The actual printed card was laminated, with round, and resembled for airplane safety.

The image has very confusing graphics, about the way manners are set on a plane, It doesn't make much sense, and really could do with a key, but the image doesn't have any wording, to me that signifies that it is meant to be used in a group session, i think the air hostess' are meant to read them out, and show you the pictures as a guideline based on what she's saying.

Semiotics the study of signs

For my next part of my advert project i am going to talk about semiotics. and how they are made to describe what they are used on , I will base my research around, DVD cover's, album cover's and illustrations from other artist's.
The first Album that caught my eye was ' crystal castles' with there self titled debut album, The album has no real meaning to it, but the extra detail has to be taken into account when listening to there music, the album has a very vivid title, which is doubled
so it look's like there name is repeated, this is to give of a trance look, to show that the band are found of drug's. They also
have the two artists underneath the doubled letter head, one underneath crystal and the other underneath castles, this also signifies there is only to people in the band, the way they drop like dummies, is to give of a musical impression of how they work, and write music. The photograph of the main people is cut into two part's but the lead woman in the band has a lot more space then the guy, this is to show she is the front person and gets most of the credit.




The next part to my research will be based on illustrators that have inspired me, this artist is called rowan newton. He is a london based artist, who is inspired by stereotypical sight's in london. The piece of work that inspired me was the London pride. It is an illustration of only 2 object's which signify a lot. It is the london eye( an Iconic piece of architecture towards London) with a bottle of beer, called ' London 's pride ', this signifies that london has a low pride, and isn't as brilliant as what people think , the reason the work is so good, is because the artist has experienced the good and bad times of living in london, And he is expressing his feelings in to the artwork. also The coluor in the image, isn't very experimental compared to his other work, because he only wants to show the two basic principles, That it looks good, but it is still the same as every other town. The artwork he has produced, Can work as an illustration piece and a viral advertisement as well, i think this is the reason why it is has grown so well.


For my dvd research i have looked, at the classic film and novel ' where the wild things are' the film was a top seller, and the book was a child hood story to many people, but i am more interested in the way the dvd is layed out, and what it signifies, The type face on the dvd, is really interesting and fits the film perfectly, it rules out all the straight edges, using in filming, and is based to look like a child has drawn it, it gives off a fantastic first impression, to children, The main image on the front cover is one of the beast's hiding around a tree in the fantasy world, This to me signifies that the beast is playing a very childish, game and is giving off a very happy and gentle look. Also the scruffy font that is used, can also contrast towards the slogan used, 'there's one in all of us' besides giving of a childish look it can also be seen as a wild, and jagged font.



The next piece of artwork that i noticed was a design of photoshop, by an illustrator called jericho santander. He has designed a photo montage of a face with obvious signs of a living envirment on his face, the relief on the image, brings out the head shape of the artwork very well. The outer side of the head, is in darkness but with lights this signifies that, the other part of the civilization is asleep just as realistic as the modern world, The image also has smoke around the top part of the head, to give of the more realistic look. Towards the bottom of the face, where the face has more details due to wrinkles, moles and other foreign skin parts the civilisation dies down and becomes more of a rural area, this shows a defining significant in the real world and the world he has created. As you get closer to the nose, It is white at the beak this signifies that this is the highest point in terms of relief, the image, is made with alot of thought and has the same properties as the real world, in the way we change around flat land, and high land.



The album cover above, is created by the very inspirational jordan buckley, the illustrator and musician, he created the album cover from free hand, and it look's fantastic, the font at the top signifies that the main focus is the artwork on the front, not so much the name of the band, The design of the man, gives of a free willed surrealist character, for a very vague and unique look, the colour on the album cover is also quite vague but it works in a modern pop art artistic way. The most amazing part about the image, is the in depth detail of tone and skin graph, The way the lines correspond across each other in a parallel way, is quite observe but contrast's his own artistic ability. his other work has been published on shoe's and slapped across poster's posted all over many teenage wall's, The pink dye across the wrists of the character gives of a bloody/gorey affect but in a humorous and interesting way.

Viral adverts

The next step of my research will be based on 'viral' adverts, seen on the internet, television, billboard's, and poster's. They are usually just a still motion image, without any titles or headlines, this is a technique used to make the viewer interested. The reason they are so effective is because a lot of people see the same advert, and do not know what it is then they start asking other people and before you know it, everyone is talking about the same thing.

The Image below is a viral advert for my favorite band, it is just a still image but there is also a video on tv, every now and again, and it is a viral advertising the release of the album, but it doesn't tell you what the band is called or what the song is, it just plays the best selling song. This is an advert for musical people, the advert work's really well, considering they are all over the radio, due to this advert people will start talking about it, when they relise its the Xx there is more chance of them buying the album.




The next clip i have found, has won award's for its viral advertisement's The company who created it are Danish Saatchi, and it is based on raising awareness in Scandinavia. The advert is based around quiksilver's surfboarding. The advert doesnt tell you what is going on or what is going to happen, the advert was that much of a success it gained over 20 million viewer's in just 4 days.

The advert show's people that anything is possible if you put your mind to it, but of course what they did here was illegal, and cost them alot to money to make, but with added visual effect's it look's amazing.

This viral advert, is a working and profitable idea, It is about a NASCAR being stolen on live tv, but the advert was a fix so the companies could get over a million pounds worth of advertising for free, The whole advert had advertisement's all over it, and went into a 4 minute intro sneakily showing the advert's, the video was viewed by over 50 million viewer's mainly based on spread of word. The advert was a complete success and brought in a profitable amount to the advertiser's.

The footage is about 6 minutes long, this is all part of the advert to make it look like cheap editing from a real event, it works out so well, and has influenced alot of producers.

Contrasting Adverts

Contrasting Adverts

For the first part to my contrasting advert research i am going to look at the difference between the two famous energy drink's and the way they advertise and show what the drink can do/ or improve.

The first drink "Relentless" Is one of the best selling energy drink's, and can be found in near enough every retail based shop, the advert doesn't show one person drinking the formula, but show's people reacting once they have consumed the drink, they have many sport's related people i.e snowboarders, skateboarders, and even energetic musicians, on the advert showing off there skill's. The advert is made to make the viewer think that the drink will make you more energetically balanced, and give you complete control other the focus at hand,

The video based on the internet also shows a clip of a table of fruit, with an actor back fliping of the table, to show a point that with the energy drink you wont need the fruit to be fit/healthy, just a can of relentless, but of course this is rubbish, because the energy drink contains nothing but salt and sugar. The way the advert is filmed, is self centered, and doesn't advertise people to buy the drink , It only shows you what will happen once you have drunken it.

http://www.relentlessenergy.com/pages/energy/all

The next part to my energy drink research, is the "monster" energy drink, It is quite similar to the

leading monster drink "relentless" but more controversial, and typically made. the video starts in

black and white, to set a low and morbid feel, it shows around 5 people get out of a fan with musical

equipment, then suddenly stop, and lounge about. Then out of nowhere to asian twins from "wwe"

appear with a drink, That can make you more energetic and full of life, the group drink's the energy

juice,and out of nowhere, there is colour and the people are playing a gig in front of a hand full of people,

So in a way the drink is trying to show the same effect as the last one but in a more obvious way,

I think in term's of advertising, the first drink "relentless" gives a more appealing effect to actually drink it.

http://www.monsterenergy.com/web/guest This is a link to the energy drink's website.

The next contrast i am going to observe, will be based around the two leading fast food restaurant's, M acdonald's and

Burger king, And there different approach towards custom.

first of all i'll start with the multi leading brand "macdonalds" the advert is based around different stereotype's who eat

at the restaurant, like buisness types, family types and a social types. The advert is only one minute long but ti gives off

the effect that there is something for everyone at macdonald's aged 1-100. It shows the good values and comfort

that you get from macdonalds but in reality, It is loud, and always congested.

The contrasting brand to ''Macdonalds'' would be burger king, there advertising techniques, are quite similar in terms

of stereotypes, but they only tend to use one, and it is on the advertisement i am going to show on this blog,

''I am man'' is a stereotypical term to show that the burger is meaty and only fit for a man, It is based around a song, that is

of men, walking around singing about the burger to regain there masculinity, The advert only shows, a few seconds of the

actual burger king shop, so in a way it could be used as a viral, because with/without those few seconds of filming, the

point being set across to the viewer wont be any different.

The final part of my research , will be based on the competitive games console' "xbox" and playstation

First of all the "playstation", it has had a longer and more succesful history so far, due to the PS1, & PS2.

So there advert had to be dynomite and show what it does best in a minute of seconds, The advert for the PS3 is quite

admirable in term's of advertising and animation, It show's the ps3 in many different concept's, it also shows what games

can be played on it, and what the gaming look's like, It also has, a spider at the end with a bluray logo on it,

then immediately after it shows footage of spider man , which is of course the main film and a sponsor for the game.

It has a little cut scene on the advert of where,the playstation turns into a collage of turret's and army related weapons

then show's a scene of game footage, called far cry, which is an army related game, only Made for the PS3

This is trying to make the viewer buy the console due to the games that only come's with it

The final part to my research is "xbox". The microsoft company have'nt been going as long as Play station

but from the tremendous XBOX 360, there sales have gone ski high, and they need an amazing advert to keep up with it.

The advert i found on the internet, is a viral based advert, and has a very dynamic concept in term's of what its trying to put across,

The advert start's with a shift man, staring at a passer by, but from out of nowhere they put there hand's to infornt of them and place

them like a gun, the whole area turn's into a lock down of Hand gun's, and then from out of nowhere, they all start to shoot each other,

perfectly added, they all no when to drop and when to shoot, And finally at the end of the ad, xbox' logo appears with the catch phrase "jump in"

this is to give the impression that the xbox is so good that its like real life.

Visual communication

To start off my visual communication research, i am going to write about a medical/emotional advert about smoking cannabis, and drug awareness. This video below is one i found on youtube, when researching awareness to drug's and alcohol. The advert clip isnt as emotionaly gripping as the others, and can have a humorous feel to it, the advert shows, that having cannabis slow's your way of thinking for a around the time period of a month, based upon a night's intake. The clip also, shows a sketch of someone working hard to achieve something, but failing due to smoking cannabis. failing due to smoking cannabis.
The video also has a long intro, showing the man preparing, for this big moment but

then losing it completely, The expression on the man's face does look embarrasing. And makes the

viewer, asusme that's going to happen to them. In terms of advertisement it does make the viewer think

about there actions towards drug's.

This Talktofrank advert is based on mule dog's that get used to smuggle drug's across the world.

The advert is cute gruesome and can be quite disturbing at times, But the whole point is to shock

the viewer and reach to people who use the drug,and are based around mule dog's and cocaine

getting into the country, there is also a voice talking for the dog, The advert also cover's a lot of footage

of what goes on with drug's and dealing, it shows people having a good time, but there inside's slowly dying

The advert is quite deep, but formal at the same time, which makes it stand out to people, and to me

It shows the clear picture about cocaine and how it can get to into people's possesion.

This poster, has the most morbid effect off all the research i'v found, it is a still image

but has the greatest effect on drug awareness, it is short but get's straight to the point,

It show's an image of a victim that abuse's heroin, and it almost make's the viewer feel

sick, so the advert work's because people wont want to be like that.

The advert uses, bold and thick font to get straight to the

point, it has a side paragraph with a tale of heroin and how it control's

you.