packaging research

February 19, 2016 Alice Louise EagleLeave a comment

Due to wanting to progress down the route of creating an ‘instruction manual’, that ultimately creates a workshop experience. I wanted to briefly look at packaging designs, as all the pieces that you would need would be included. For example, paint, balls, sticks, glue, paintbrushes, sketch book, information to link to the webpage etc. Therefore, if each child/school had one of these boxes, it would not only potentially look great as decoration, it would be great for arts/crafts storage afterwards too.

I used designyourownpackaging.com to make a quick mock up of what it could potentially look like. I haven’t nearly completed the design stage and believe that will continue to progress, right the way through this semester. However, I made do with what I already had.

I decided to go with a cylinder shape, due to the obvious connotations of working with spheres, as well as looking more attractive. I believe the logo (not yet complete) would be centered, being wrapped around the box and play the main part of the design. Overall, I like how simplistic this design is, and even though this is just a prototype, it ties in nicely to my overall ideas.

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where are u now…

February 19, 2016February 19, 2016 Alice Louise EagleLeave a comment

I was recently at the gym and noticed a really awesome looking music video begin playing on one of the television screens. I decided to take note of the artist and take a look at it once I was home. I was not aware that it would be a Justin Bieber song, but all that aside, the animation and graphics are so querky.

During the music video, Justin Bieber is accompanied by doodles and animations going on in the fore/background. I believe this was done using a green screen and doesn’t look too difficult to re-create.

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Above are two screenshots of the video as it was playing. The animations move so quickly that it’s hard to really see what is happening. However, this style of work sparked my own imagination. Due to not actually creating a game for my final hand in piece this semester, but wanting to create one in time for the European Youth Awards, I have decided that alongside my ‘Digital Instruction Manual’ work, I will create a sort of advertisement, for the games future. This will tie in nicely with the progression of ‘Space Inventors’, as it will show how it started, however the future that it has as well.

I have managed to team up with a games computing student, that would like to help me create this game, ready for the awards deadline in June. I believe showing this to potential judges will provide insight to the originality and expressive side to this project. After all, the entire point of creating this project, was to encourage young children to remember to use their imagination and creativity when interacting with technology. What better way to show this, than by mixing art with technology on screen.

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KS2 Curriculum Research

February 19, 2016 Alice Louise EagleLeave a comment

I have created several small flow charts, that will enable myself and my audience to gain a better understanding with regard to how each subject area, can relate to my product. These are drafts and could potentially change, and they are subject to following the route of ‘Digital Instruction Manual’, as I am more inclined towards that particular idea. This is because I want to almost create a type of workshop atmosphere. I loved the littleBits session, as did many of my class members, therefore I think it would be an important way to enable young children to enjoy themselves and socialize, whilst learning.

Below are links to each flow chart, explaining what it is that links them and how this is related back to my initial ideas.

Game vs Animation vs Interactive Instruction Manual

February 9, 2016 Alice Louise EagleLeave a comment

Game: Ideally, I would love to create a fully functioning game that would encompass all of my ideas and enable young children, access to learning through logic and creativity. However, I unfortunately do not currently hold the skill set that is needed to create such a piece of media. In order to carry out this task, I would need to either contact another student, capable of creating games and working with the programming side, or learn it myself as I go. This is quite intimidating due to building the process, design and then making it function would be quite difficult and inflict a lot of pressure. However, I am going to do some more research, as this is my preferred route. Ultimately, creating something like this would allow me to enter my work into the EYA (European Youth Award) in July and potentially enlighten others on the importance of encouraging young children to use technology safely and in such a way that enables proper brain development.

Animation: I could create an Animation that shows exactly how the game would work, if I was able to build it. It would incorporate all of my design elements and I would use the camera tracking in such a way, that it almost felt immersive and interactive. This animation would also teach young children, all the STEAM elements I am trying to include. Ultimately, this would be OK, however I want to push the boundaries a little more and really encourage imaginative and interactive learning.

Instruction Manual: This is probably my second favourite idea, purely because it includes physically building your own solar system using arts and crafts. This instruction manual would work in such a way that would allow children to learn all the possible aspects of space, by carrying out a physical task relevant to it. For example, deciding how big the planets need to be on a realistic scale, in order to understand the distance and time frames between each individual one. STEAM is a working factor with this idea, due to being able to easily include many different aspects of the primary school curriculum. I believe this would work well as you would be able to access it at home, or at school. It could run as a workshop with individuals or encourage team work (social and cognitive development). The result of this exercise would encourage children to ‘share’ their work via the ‘space inventors network’ and other primary school pupils would be able to access/add to it.

Overall, each idea needs researching a little more before finalising on which i’m going to do. Each one has the ability to encourage building stronger imaginations as children, however some do it better than others and in a way that is more easily understood. More research to be carried out soon.

Design continued…

February 9, 2016February 9, 2016 Alice Louise EagleLeave a comment

After having a browse around ‘Behance’, I found some inspiration for the style of design I would like to make consistent throughout this project. I have decided to follow on with 2D vector images, as they look great and are specifically aimed at my preferred target audience of younger children. Although I worked with 2D vector images last semester, I think keeping near enough a similar style is OK, as long as my designs are completely different. I originally wanted to work mainly with 3D images, purely down to planets being 3D and it being hard to portray them in 2D vision. However, I can later include 3D aspects to how they are seen on screen, in order to create the biggest learning outcomes possible. I can’t create something that tricks children into thinking planets are flat, so it is important that I am very careful in handling this approach.

Below are some quick images I made up in Adobe Illustrator and I think they look the part with regard to the idea of my project and the audience I am trying to reach out too. More designs will follow as I find more and more inspiration 🙂