Preliminary Research

The impact of colour in design….

After thinking long (yes past the deadline) and hard as to what it is exactly I would like to base my research project on I have finally come up with my response. At first I was thinking typography would be the best direction to take this brief, as I have found a new interest in the subject triggered by a recent brief which involved creating my own experimental type face. However there is something else that I would like to delve into and explore further and that’s the use of colour in design. I would like to look just how using colour well can make something look so much more interesting and change the way people look and perceive it. Colour can effectively make the difference to whether a piece of design works or not and plays a massive part in design, this is something that I have known for quite a while, but only recently just started to really recognize. I feel that colour is a skill that I am only just beginning to understand and scratch the surface of and it is already starting to have a positive effect not only on the way I present work but on the way I think about my work too. Thinking more in color is beginning to make my work (in my opinion, and in comparison to last year) a great deal more visually interesting and giving my work a whole new edge. So therefore I would like to take this opportunity to research this area not only as I find it an interesting topic but to also develop my understanding of colour and better myself as a designer.

Pong

The original Pong arcade unit was released on November 29, 1972. Pong is a video game by Atari based on the sport of table tennis, and the game consists of nothing more than a ball and two paddles. Once again another very simple game and commonly thought to be the world’s first video arcade game, where actually “Computer Space” preceded it. Considered now as very much a classic, more complicated versions of the game have evolved however the original idea in my opinion cannot be faulted. The pure simplicity of the game in contrast to some of the games that are out now days is huge, but still like ‘line rider’ they possess the same playability and addictiveness which shows that a game doesn’t always have to be complex beyond imagination to be played and enjoyed.

Line Rider

Once again a very simple yet highly entertaining, not to mention addictive program. I don’t think that the word simple is expressed enough here. The basis of the game is that you draw a line and a little man on a sledge (I guess technically he is the line rider) will attempt to slide down your creation, and the aim of the game is not to let him crash or fall off. Simple as it sounds it is highly addictive, which I think is one of the games best qualities, as a result people have taken it to the extreme creating really quite complex tracks and posting them on sites such as you tube. Tracks where the line rider jumps over a series of gaps, shoots around loops and even goes backwards. A little bit over the top I know, however the videos are quite entertaining and just show how something so simple can be in a way so complex.

Coke m5/ citizen bird

"The Designers republic has been invited to be the European representative of Coca Cola’s M5 project: a strategic initiative that aims to take the Coke to another level. Over the past decade, the Designers republic has built a reputation as one of the world’s leading brand advisors: with recent projects undertaken for Nokia, Sony, Deutsche Bank, Swedish Telecom, Nickelodeon and Paco Rabanne.
Initially working with Coke on a limited edition bottle: tDR developed an entire brand vocabulary and attitude called ‘Love Being’ which has become part of a much broader, global campaign including events, multi-media, a range of merchandise and above the line marketing activity.
The whole ‘Love Being’ slogan gives Coke the opportunity to forge a direct relationship with their consumers. The message is simple: spreading love around the world; but the channels of delivery are brand new."
With the bottle design TDR have created an animation/advert which is why I have chosen this particular piece of work from TDR. The animation uses pattern and color similar to that on the bottle with the sound of “joy” a track by citizen bird in the background. I found the the relasionship between pattern and colour was a combination of some of the simple animations of the Noodelbox and color use of the BDD, which is one of the reasons I found this animation so interesting.

Noodlebox

Noodlebox was originally created in 1997, and has spawned a whole host of computer 3D and animations that creator Daniel Brown has made. Unlike the BDD tool Noodelbox is a tool that focuses more on the play word and a little less on the outcome, it has more of just a fun aspect as apposed to than a learning feature. However the project is to create a plaything, something that is fun to make, do or create, and noodlebox fits that bill. It has many games with in it such as a lava lamp, matching pairs, a glowing ball and a bunch of other stuff. But to me there are two of its features that really stand out, firstly the main page. The main page is a series of building blocks which serve a dual purpose, not only can you move them around and build different structures of buildings but they are also used as links to other games. Not often does the home page of a site have a play aspect, and I think this really works well, was one of the features that I actually spent time playing with. I also like the loading pages that appeared while your selected game is booting up. Just the use of colour again I think is really nice and is something that maybe the noodelbox creator should of used more in the design of his games.