#ideaconcepts

[kats-college-blog]

How to Generate Ideas workshops

We did three workshops for generating ideas. Making a food product or drink product of some kind which had an insect meat inside. Learning about art in architecture and also describing someone an object without telling them what it was.

For the bug workshop, we got into a group of four and did a mind map which was meant to help flow ideas. We had "Types of edible insects" "Marketing" "Product" and also "Product names" 

This is one of the other group's mind maps, we did something similar.

After that, we gathered ideas on a website called Moodshare, where we could all jointly put pictures and writing on a giant mood board for us to all see, and use each on different computers, this helped us After searching around for many bug snacks, we came up with BeetleJuice, which is taking the pun from the movie, where we'll get three different types of drinks with three different flavours. Our ideas generated from the film, due to being called Beetle, that and also we found out people put worms in alcohol to see if the alcohol is worth tasting. Sadly i wasnt in for the presentation.  For an evaluation of the Bug Workshop, well, it went well. However I feel we didn't do all we could, due to being online on MoodShare, people were messing about and just posting pictures. Maybe it was because being online we were less of a group and it took us quite a while to figure out what to come up with our final product. However the final product was good, and i'm happy we came up with it. Overall i believe our group could of worked better however we pulled through

Our second workshop was finding out how architects get their ideas, we looked at castles and modern day buildings, how manly architects have big huge plans for a building, and quite often have to scale it down due to logic, maths and physics of the world, otherwise there is a huge chance that the building would topple and collapse, killing people possibly. So we had to research the blueprints they make. Such as, castles had to be build so they were protective, and they didnt have people digging under them to get in, they were armed with portcullis's which were steal gates which could be slammed down, and kill those who wanted to come inside. Comparing to modern day buildings where they're built for making sure people can live comfy lives.

 Our third workshop was to do a small experiment to learn about "Four keywords to do with semiotics, which are connotation and denotation, signifier and signified." To do this, me and Lara got into a group and we were given a devil puppet. We had to describe our puppet without actually saying what it was. So for example to explain to people what it is, we said it was a doll. This would be the connotation, the association with the word. We explained that also it symbolized hell and extreme power. This was an interesting project to do, as we went around the class doing this, however one group did disappoint everyone when they couldn't even come up with any sentences for "Lipstick" 

[kats-college-blog]

Consider how they got ideas and their meanings.

Many many many things inspire artists, just seeing another painting or drawing, human anatomy, photographs, looking up to their inspirational artist.

One of the famous film animations/producers for cartoons is Hayao Miyazaki, who works for studio ghibli. He's been known to get his inspiration from western culture as well as japanese culture. Mythology plays a huge part in his animations also, taking on myths and twisting them into his own stories. Quite a lot of the meanings in his movies are, "It doesn't matter who you are, you can still change something important." "Your looks don't change who you are." "Love can save someones life." 

"Two of Miyazaki’s great loves are water and sky, and he uses them in related ways. Flight is a ubiquitous theme; he has never done a film that doesn’t involve flying of some kind, whether with gliders, magic brooms, WWI biplanes or by no visible means at all. His imagination seems to constantly leap aloft, to soar, to leave the pull of gravity behind. But water for Miyazaki is also a way of defying gravity. He has a predilection for flooding unexpected spaces with crystal-clear water, and objects floating on the surface or drifting through the depths seem suspended by magic."

[kats-college-blog]

Disciplines.

Or more to the point of, the ideas behind disciplines,the ideas behind the skills, such as fashion designers needing to figure out what to design as they cant just pull out clothing from their heads.

Such as Architecture, people can envision huge tall buildings which curve and twist, but then the laws of physics has to come into play, otherwise, the chances are the building will collapse, which could lead to lives being lost, so the rules of mathematics must come into play. Designing is only one half of architecture, physic and logic must be the other half.

Music and TV, people are able to design the songs they want, making it sound pretty to their liking, but if it doesn't add any effect to the show, or movie, why's it there? Just like horror films have jumpscares, the jumpscares need to have music backing them, as they could still make someone flinch, however the music adds to the dramatic effect, either loud booming or high pitch shrill noises. With tv, the same is the characters and their personalities, the buildings, settings could be designed, if there was motive behind the designers to create all of that, however, it's pointless if not all linked together, someone could design a house and a character, and then it never gets used. 

The point I'm trying to make, and seemingly failing to do so, is everyone needs an idea behind a concept and also to bring it into life, they need physics otherwise it could come out wrong and break. 

[kats-college-blog]

Cultural and Religious beliefs

Banksy draws cultural graffiti around the country, showing the corruption of humanity through his drawings. His most famous iconic image is his graffiti rats which he draws along with other images.

 He puts images which others would find disgusting or shunned away, not to be talked about even though it's something which needs to be pointed out, all other the walls.

His works have been tore down by the police by now, however he just repaints over it, almost taunting them all.

Religion inspired many a artist, infact a lot of the most well known art today was inspired by religion. One of the most well known medieval artists was Botticelli. He did one of the most recognised paintings, "The Birth of Venus"

"There are very few details of Botticelli's life, but it is known that he became an apprentice when he was about fourteen years old, which would indicate that he received a fuller education than other Renaissance artists. Probably by 1462 he was apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi" 

[kats-college-blog]

Semiotics

Something we all take for granted. Semiotics is everything from the Christian cross to road signs we see everyday. A logo could be counted as a Semiotic as its a sign. Out of modern day gaming one of the first symbol which comes into my head is the triforce from The Legend of Zelda. 

We as humans use signs everyday so designers create and reference symbols and signs everyday, as signs can also, i guess, be counted as body language, as they're signs of emotion, people make creatures faces turn into a deep curved snarl when the creature needs to show its angry. 

Those who create logos need to make something which those remember their company by, such as the Nike Tick. 

You see that and you know what company it is automatically, such as when you see a road sign, a number in a circle you know that's the speed limit you go at, signs and symbols are built into our way of life so designers take that into mind when creating something, as it needs to stand out. Most artists for this reason have a personal watermark on their artwork to show it is theirs. 

True for those who don't know who this is they may not be able to understand but for a lot of people they'll see this and knows exactly where it comes from, it's the Triforce from legend of Zelda, in modern day gaming, nearly every game has something which people will understand where it comes from. Such as the pokeball is fro Pokemon. 

There are four keywords to do with semiotics, which are connotation and denotation, signifier and signified.

Denotation is the actual definition of the word, such as what the dictionary standard for the what the word is.

Connotation is an association (mainly emotionally) which what the word provokes. 

"Signifier is the pointing finger, the word, the sound-image ect.

Whilst Signified is the concept, the meaning, the thing indicated by the signifier. It need not be a 'real object' but is some referent to which the signifier refers."

We learnt about this due to a workshop, me and Lara were given an item, a devil boxing puppet, and we had to write about it, using the different key words, such as it's an artificial doll which can be moved with hands but it's also known as a supreme being of evil.

[kats-college-blog]

References.

"Reference is a relation between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to refer to the second object. The second object – the one to which the first object refers – is called the referent of the first object." - Wiki.

References are used all the time in writing and artwork, as seeing other people's work normally causes a creative mind to spur on an idea. I use references all the time whilst I'm drawing, either getting an idea from an artist who inspires me, or seeing a photo of someone in a certain position i want to try to draw. 

References aren't only used to spur ideas, they're to learn how things work. Such as to be able to draw something which looks roughly human, you'd need to have a reference of human anatomy. A lot of artists who work as concept artists or animators had figure drawing lessons, or practiced figure drawing in their own time, to do this they need a model to reference off to get down their anatomy for practice. 

Figure drawing has been around many many years, infact the drawing up there was drawn by Leonardo Da Vinci. One of the most historically 'famous' uses of referencing and figure drawing was from the Renaissance period, was a book called Fabric of the Human Body which was created by Andreas Vesalius. Before that time, the human anatomy wasn't fully understood and the person who had written the laws on anatomy had been completely wrong, as Galen, a doctor who had written a book of anatomy which was accepted as law, had some extreme errors, this was due to at the time of Galen, dissecting the human body was against the law so they couldn't look inside to see how the body worked. Vesalius was a trainee doctor, and they could dissect bodies in his time, by referencing and drawing what he saw from the skeletons and muscles, he wrote a new book which corrected the mistakes Galen had made.

An image from Fabric of the human body.

[kats-college-blog]

Ideas and Concepts task One.

Understand how ideas and concepts inform art and design work.

In a method of your choosing develop a research journal investigating how designers from a range of disciplines use ideas and concepts in their own work.

References: Visual references, non-visual. Semiotics: The study of signs and symbols. Cultural and Religious beliefs: Symbols, buildings, environment. Disciplines: Literature, Film, Games. Consider how they got their ideas: What were their influences, visual, other artists, mythologies. How they use communication? Hidden meaning in the images? 

 To do this, it'll be easier to choose a few different designers, otherwise i'd be looking all over the place and not knowing what to do, so i'll choose two or three different designers to see how they work. Ranging from modern day to possibly 400 years back, but this is only to set a path for me to try to study as i don't want to be aimlessly lost trying to figure out something from a broad spectrum.