Cher Cheng

After spending two late nights in the editing suite, the presentation video was finally done last night. And today, each group showed their video to the class as well as guests from Lentara today. Although I left uni at 12am last night and I was exhausted, I was still quite excited to see other groups’ videos because they represented a lot of hard work among each of us!

I was touched when Jeff from Lentara said it was him standing in front of the class introducing what Lentara is in week 1. And now in week 12, it was our turn to give presentations to the class. Time flies!

Although each presentation video was around 3-4 minutes only, it concluded everyone’s hard work in the semester and I was proud when showing our video to others. It is probably not the best, but it is definitely a good experience to all of us – working with clients in the reality. It was also a really great encouragement when our clients said the service/campaign we designed would be launched in the coming months.

This is our group’s presentation video.

https://youtu.be/RFE9m5qsbYg

Apart from showing the presentation video, one of the studio members Ti was also responsible for preparing a publication for the studio. She showed the class how the booklet was like and it was amazing. When I looked back to the work we have done since week one as well as some images that were taken when our group was having discussions during class time, I was really proud of my group of doing such a great job. I would say this studio is one of the most interesting classes I have in my degree, and I would definitely recommend this to my friend if this studio will be held again in the next semester.

We have an issue!

Today is Wednesday and the final video presentation is due in two days.

Our group has decided to change te style of our video from cut-out animation to a 2-D digital animation yesterday. This is because we think that the style of cut-out animation is not formal enough for an Australian wide organisation to use. Therefore, we abandoned the footages we had and started to ingest the illustrations to Premiere Pro (a video editing software) to start doing a new animation video. We knew that this would be much more time-consuming so we dedicated a whole morning and afternoon in the editing suite. When we were working vigorously on the animation, our tutor Seth passed by and he asked us about our video. After some discussion and clarification, we realised that our the way we were structuring the video was WRONG. We stopped everything we were doing at that moment and started to make a summary of what we had to do. We then came up with a new video idea as well as the script. We completed these tasks in 2 hours then we immediately started another new video.

We were panicked because we were not sure whether we could finish a new video within 2 days.

Although this was a big issue for our group, I am really thankful to my group mates, who always stay positive and bring the group with good vibes. I have also learnt how to work under pressure, and to be flexible because we needed to make use of the illustrations we had to come up with a video with entirely different contents. Another thing is I learnt how to appeal to clients when pitching an idea. Our tutor Seth told us to refer to the client’s feedbacks in the video, so that they would feel involved and they were significant to us. We realised that we didn’t mention our client at all in the previous version of the video, what Seth told us was really important and was a great reminder to our group. I believe that learning how to appeal to clients is also essential when I am working in the future.

In today’s studio, each group presented their prototype for feedback and final edits. Although it was an informal presentation only, some groups were well-prepared and the presentations looked really formal. For our group, since we dedicated most of our time to finish illustrations and filming, we prepared simple slides only to inform and update the guests from Lentara. Fortunately, we receive positive feedbacks as well as some suggestions that we can improve in the final presentation next Friday

Our group has finished filming and editing the first five scenes of the video in a day yesterday. It introduced our prototype – Community Wardrobe, what it is and the user journey of this initiative. Before showing the video, we also talked about our brand language and design principles. We came up with four logos and four designs of the truck for the guests to give us feedbacks. It was lucky that the one we were using was the same as the one Lentara has chosen.

Some suggestions we received are:
– to brand clothing bins, op shops and the Community Wardrobe truck all under the name of ‘Community Wardrobe’
– to create a tagline/slogan for this brand
– to empahsise this service is 100% benefited locally

Click here to watch our ‘trial’ video

Behind the scene

It is week 11 already and the video presentation is due next Friday. At the moment, we don’t even have 1 second of footage. I am bit panicked because other groups seemed really well-prepared when they were presenting in class last week. For this week’s tasks, we need to finish all the illustrations by the beginning of week 12 as well as to edit a snippet of the video presentation to show on this coming Friday as guests from Lentara will come to give us feedback. Since today is Tuesday, it means we only have three days to complete illustrations, filming, and editing.

In today’s meeting, we first reviewed the list of characters and objects we made last week and we organised them into categories. We all agreed to use two-dimensional drawing because it is more simple and time-saving. Another Prof Comm student (Rachel) and I helped to draw some easy images such as the sun and a house, while Grace and Catherine (Comm Design students) drew our main character Jane and other more complicated images.

At first, I thought we were going to draw on our laptop using the Illustrator. I had no idea how to use it at all and all the functions confused me. Later my group mate Grace told me that I could draw on a paper first, the drawings could then be digitised after scanning onto her laptop and processing the hand drawings by using the ‘image trace’ function. This is SO AMAZING! This ‘trick’ is so useful for me to add contents to my personal website.

There were tonnes of illustrations need to be drawn. We will continue working on these and film on Thursday. Hopefully, everything will be alright on Thursday when filming because there is a feedback section on Friday morning with guests from Lentara. They are coming again on next Friday to watch our final video.

During these 11 weeks, I have an opportunity to work with Communication Design students, which is a really precious experience. Although sometimes we have different working styles and principles, I am sure all of us have learnt a lot from each other, such as copywriting, designing, typography and editing. We have known each other for nearly three months, we meet twice a week outside class time and I cannot believe it is nearly the end of the project!

Today we had an informal presentation to the class telling them the progress of our final project. To be honest, I felt like our group is a bit behind because we spent some extra time to restructure our storyboard, to craft brand language as well as the creative direction for the prototype.

In the first half of the today’s studio, we were asked to draw a poster before presenting to the class. We drew almost everything that we came up with this week, including the user journey, payment scheme, the storyboard and brand mood & language, etc. We also told the class about Michael, a local artist in Melbourne and he has created an artwork for us to design the bin wrap. Cut-out animation would be the style of our video because some of the elements in Community Wardrobe (we re-named clothing bins as Community Wardrobe to make it more appealing) do not exist, such as the Community Wardrobe truck and the new design of the bin. Therefore, we choose to go for cut our animation to present our idea.

We received positive feedback from tutors and they said everything was pretty solid. They also appreciated our user journey, brand language, and payment system.

In the second half of the class, we were given some discussion group within each group. We came up with a list of characters and objects required in the video and there were tonnes of them. We had also considered using found images/royalty-free images in our video so we could save time from drawing them one by one. However, it was hard to find images in similar styles and some of their qualities were not good enough. We decided to draw all the illustrations by ourselves. In the meantime, we need to do some visual research on the characters in the video.

In the meantime, we need to do some visual research on the characters in our video, e.g. colours used, styles and outlook, etc. We will also meet up next week and continue on the illustrations together.

Photos taken by Ti

Based on the storyboard that has been developed last week, in this week we have come up with a list of materials and images we need in order to film the video. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we have found some good examples of stop motion videos on youtube as an initial research of the creative direction of the prototype. However, we realised that what we were trying to do were a bit different from what we were expected to do. We were confused and went a bit off track.

After discussion with Seth and Peter in class on Wednesday, we came to know that the video prototype was kind of like a presentation, which should be consist of most of the details of our prototype. What we thought was the other way around, which is the video is just a part of the presentation so we don’t need to cover all the details. Therefore, we decided to change our story idea as well as the storyboard in order to include more details in it.

We have written our script and it is around five minutes long, which just fit the project requirement. A new version of the storyboard is also done so we are going to show the class tomorrow. This new story idea covers the background of community wardrobe, what it is and does as well as a customer journey to show how it works. We hope that there will be positive feedbacks of the storyboard so we can start filming the video next week hopefully.

Apart from the community wardrobe as our main focus, we also hope to help Lentara to design a bin wrap for the existing clothing bins. We have asked Michael, who is a local artist who loves to draw sketches around the café in Melbourne, to design a new wrap for the clothing bins. My group will also be presenting this artwork to the class tomorrow.

This is the sketch created by Michael. The bird symbolises the logo of Lentara and the clothes hanger is part of our brand language. 

It’s the second workshop of week 9 today. Although there’s no class, my group mates and I have booked a study room and we have decided to meet up during the normal class time. I think we were quite productive today because Rachel (one of my group mates from Prof Comm) and I have already come up with a storyboard of our prototype. Before actually drawing what would happen in each scene, we have created a table in the google doc that included the rough story ideas and also a timeline, which gave us a clearer sense of what we need to draw the scenes. We soon came up with a more solid idea and had make some changes to the video idea. We have also asked for other group mates feedbacks. Hopefully, we can start preparing for the materials we need for the video and start filming by week 11.

However, we are still not too sure what medium we should use to present our idea. We want to present Community Wardrobe as a welcoming, down-to-earth yet modern service. I think our group still needs to make some more efforts on figuring out the creative direction of the video.

Apart from working out the storyboard, the other two group mates were responsible for visual research for the brand. They came up with a few ideas of the logo as well as the design of the wardrobe, which were fascinating to me because I don’t have much knowledge in design and illustration. When they shared their findings and art directions to the rest of the team, I actually learnt a lot such as what secondary language and colour scheme are. I have learnt that whenever we need to design something, we are not going to draw it out directly. We actually need to go through certain processes like deciding on the typography, colour and visual references in order to come up with a nicely crafted design. Although I am not going to be a designer in the future, learning how to create a design is probably one of the things I find interesting in this 12-week collaborations.

         timeline of the video

In today’s class, our tutors allowed us to continue working on the project. The main tasks in this class were mainly deciding on the brand mood and language as well as developing the story ideas of the video. In addition, we also planned to actually contact some local artists to ask if they can give us some ideas on the design of the bin stickers. We are hoping to provide some designs to Lentara and to see whether they will really adopt our ideas or not. I believe that this will help to develop our personal portfolio as well so I am looking forward to it.

After some discussion, our group has come up with an initial idea of how the video will look like and what will be covered. We also decided to use stop motion or animation to produce our video. Working alongside with the branding and and moodboarding, I think we are pretty on track and harmonic. One of the things I have learnt when my group mates and I were thinking about the story ideas was keeping things clear and simple. We have to assume our audience and tutors know nothing about our idea and we have to inform them in a few minutes. Get rid of unnecessary details and simplying ideas by having a flow chart or diagram is a good idea.

In the meantime, we are going to research some stop motions video ideas so we can decide on the art direction of our prototype. Besides, we all agreed on redesigning the logo for our initiative and make it more ‘down-to-earth- by having handwriting typeface and using fabrics and different textiles to meet our theme – clothings. We have also decided to meet up on Friday during class time although there is no class on that day. We willl further develop the story ideas and start storyboarding in the next meeting.

After the panels’ discussion, our group will focus on the Community Wardrobe in our next project. All our group members like this idea and we are excited to get it done! However, the time frame is really tight and there are a lot of stuff need to be done, e.g. decide on the brand personality and target audience, logistics and budget, etc. We will also need to contact Lentara and ask them for further comments and feedbacks.

In today’s workshop, our tutors talked about how to plan the project and works towards to the prototypes. There are three main steps, which are 1. Clear concepts (by client expectations), 2. Production Plan and 3. Clear about what will be produced. I have also learnt that a good concept is somehow more important than the story. As Kristen mentioned in her persentation on Wednesday, do not jump to the execution before you have created a concept. This kind reminder really inspired me. Therefore, my group mates and I have decided to do some more research (both text-based and visuals) before actually making our prototypes.

To clarify roles and deadlines for our project, we have written a to-do list on a weekly basis so it is easier for us to plan what to do next. In class, we also did a Gantt Chart suggested by Seth and Peter. I found the Gantt Chart useful because it shows all the tasks that need to be done as well as their deadlines in a page. It is clear and easy to use. However, I am not sure whether the Gantt Chart is too ideal or not. I am a bit worried that we cannot follow the Gantt Chart strictly. Nevertheless, we have booked a group study room for the next few weeks, so we will have 1-2 meetings outside class time to discuss on our project. In regards to the roles and responsibilities of group members, we pretty much divide the work as same as before. The design students will take care of the visuals research and design, while media students will be responsible for video production and other text-based research.

After the intensive presentations by all the groups last Friday, we had an alumni working for the World Vision giving us a presentation about creative design today. I think it is a really good arrangement because we as students can learn from what the past students did and can learn from their experiences, as well as the transition from uni to a workplace.

In my opinion,Kristin’s presentation was engaging and easy to understand, especially she often showed us videos whenever she was trying to explain ideas. The act of showing videos is engaging, interactive and easier to gain attention, which helps me a lot when I’m trying to understand the ideas.

The ideas that Kristin talked about were useful. There were things that I haven’t considered and learnt before, such as the segmentation of target audience, human-centred design and some story-telling techniques.

To target our audience in a more specific way, we can divide them into categories, e.g. demographic, attitudinal and behavioural. I believe that this is a useful and easy techniques that I can make use of over my other courses. I found that this is one of the most useful things that was presented in class. Kristin also talked about a quote, which was ‘If a story is not about the hearer, he will not listen’. This quote was inspring because it reminded me that I should always tell a story about the audience and make them care about the story. This skill is useful when I am doing the next project which is testing ideas by doing prototypes, because I have to remind myself I need to fequently gain insight from my target audience and to design something that appeals to them in a right way.