Introduction

What is character?

Definition of character?

Structure

The structure and categorisation of design context:

-Introduction
-History of Character
-Legends
-Contemporary Character design
-Response

Tutorial

After discussing my design context with Lorenzo i feel like i have a more solid structure to work with and feel more confident in producing final resolution. I need to to post all of my sketch work of initial ideas and development for my design context, also all the production research and development for how and what i will be producing. Lorenzo has advised that i produce a mock up of my context book by bull clipping sheets of paper together to allow me to drawing onto them quickly and add notes and annotation to it without worrying about be precious, the layout and organisation well be the most difficult thing so if i produce a solid structure for that then when i move on to produce the final resolution everything with be in the right place.

Things to do:

-Upload initial and development of the production of your design context (the making of it) to my blog.
-Produce scrap mock up of design context, drawings photocopy's annotation to ensure a solid structure.
-Look at format of book/comic?
-Look at variety of stocks that could possibly use for this.

Legends-Winnie the Pooh

Winnie-the-Pooh, commonly shortened to Pooh Bear or simply Pooh, and once referred to as Edward Bear, is a fictional bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Milne also included a poem about the bear in the children’s verse book When We Were Very Young (1924) and many more in Now We Are Six (1927). All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard.

legends-Tom & Jerry

Tom and Jerry is a series of animated theatrical shorts created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that centered on a never-ending rivalry between a cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry) whose chases and battles often involved comic violence. First appearance 1940.



Classic episode:

Legends-Felix the cat

Felix the cat was considered the first true movie cartoon star. His first appearance was in a short film in the early 1900's called "Feline Follies". Soon thereafter he made the transition to print. King Features syndicated Felix in over 250 newspapers in a multitude of languages, reaching practically every corner of the globe. He's now published through Felix Comics, Inc., in various magazines and publications. Little did anyone know back then that this rather angular Felix would metamorphosize into the rounder, more lovable character he is today.

Legends-Garfield

"He's a human in a cat suit" 'Jim Davis,Creator'



A Brief History
Garfield was born on the comics pages on June 19, 1978. The mastermind of cartoonist Jim Davis, Garfield is a humorous strip centered around the lives of a fat, lazy, cynical orange cat who loves lasagna, coffee, and his remote control; his owner, the long-suffering Jon Arbuckle; and Odie, a sweet but dumb dog. Garfield was introduced to the world in just 41 newspapers but quickly became the fastest growing and most widely syndicated comic strip ever. Today, the strip appears in over 2570 newspapers and is read daily by 263,000,000 people around the globe.

Legends-Charlie and snoopy

A vulnerable and lovable icon, Charlie made being neurotic cool. First appearance 1950.


Charlie Brown and his creator have a common connection in that they are both the sons of barbers, but whereas Schulz's work is described as the "most shining example of the American success story", Charlie Brown is an example of "the great American un-success story" in that he fails in almost everything he does.

Charlie's dog Snoopy:

Legends-Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is a character that is known world wide, this year he is eighty two years old!!
I grew up watching him as did every one else around the world, he is one of the most popular and recognizable characters ever created and still continues to be.

Oswald the lucky rabbit:

A Joyful, vulnerable, lovable Mouse, Mickey was created in 1928 and actually arrived from a rabbit character called 'Oswald the lucky rabbit', Universal bought the rights to oswald and had hired away all of Disney's employees so they went to the drawing board, shortened Oswald's ears, added some extra padding around the middle, and turned the rabbit into a mouse and named him Mortimer. It wasn't working and didn't receive a positive response, it is said that Disney's wife hated the name and suggested its replacement, this changed to what we know him as today 'Mickey' and he's been in all of our lives since. The first appearances of Mickey Mouse didn't receive much attention however when the animation 'Steamboat Willie was made it was the first animation to feature synchronized music and sound effects:

Steamboat Willie:


The second animation to follow was the crazy plane:


The mouse was a national fad by the end of the year, and it wasn't long before the real genius of Walt Disney kicked in: marketing. Walt quickly started up a line of Mickey merchandise, and within two years the Mickey Mouse Club, a fan club for children, was up and running.

Legends-Pop Eye

Created in 1929, first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre.



Voice of Pop Eye:


1938-1940:

Feedback Evaluation

After receiving feedback from my presentation/crit today, i have made some key points which i need to address for the resolution of my design context.

I spoke about how i felt that designing a book would be to time consuming for me as my strength is not type and layout and i would end up taking time figuring out how to lay out a page. I expressed the idea of designing a pack for each designer as an alternative resolution, but after feedback this idea seemed too scattered and i need something to tie it all together.

I need to select four or five categories to make the content more specific and focused and look at where character arrived from, the history of character. I have to look through the interviews i currently have and be selective and just take key points from these to put them in the appropriate sections the design context will have.
The idea of me creating a character,narrative to narrate throughout the content of my design context was discussed during the crit, i will develop this idea as i feel as did Lorenzo, that my personality will come through in the resolution and the project can become fun and more appropriate to my design practice.


Feedback Summary:

Breadth of research- More needed, look at personality of characters as well as placement/market.

Level of analysis- Edit what is relevant within the interviews you have.

Organisation of material-Needs greater level of evaluation.

Design development- Lacks its own character, a danger of it becoming a paper blog.


Things to do:
-select categories for content
-order the content of your context
-break down interviews
-design narrative character
-make it fun & exciting (like characters are!)

Stickers

Sticker sets from Jon Burgerman, gamma go and Jeremyville.
This customizabe sticker set below is the direction i am thinking of heading.

Wall stickers

Giant wall stickers by Digs Digs:

Design Context 'packs'

Initially i wanted to produce a book for my design context, however i have realized that the type and layout of the book will be very demanding for myself as this is not my strong point within design. I feel i will spend more time figuring out how to lay a page out in indesign than actually producing something that is more relevant to my design practice.

I currently have 11 interviews and have an idea of basing my design context on these by making each designers interview a part of a pack that will also consist of poster, interactive paper toys, 'colour me in' and vinyl stickers. Each package will be the same across all designers however the content of that pack will vary on the bases of what that designer produces, for example Jon Burgerman is known for his mind blowing doodling skills so his pack would have a colour me in poster!

The idea of having vinyl stickers in the packs is to allow 'you' to use them to customize any product you wish to.

Friends With You

Friends with you are brilliant at applying character design to an array of products both small scale and large to even HUGE!

Rainbow Valley is an example of the scale to which they take their characters, this is a 'playground' for young children.






Tiny zipper pulls, available to purchase:


TOYS: 'wish come true', 9 to collect.



more toys, the good wood gang:

Laptop skins

Character being applied to laptop skins, an illustration or repeated surface pattern are most common with these
products because they are consisted when applied to another product or the scale of the design is reduced or enlarged.

Zack Madrigal:



Zutto:



DPGH:

imakethings

Skateboards by 'imakethings' for foundation skateboards.

Mad Toy Design

MAD aka Jeremy Madl founder of 'mad toy design' who produce a high standard and popular range of different toys and apparell products.

MADL: DIY vinyl toy product.






Booya Ghost: Vinyl toy range







Dolbee: DIY vinyl toy
I love the packaging that 'Dolbee' comes in, brilliant how the toy is visible in the section where the tape would actually sit.





Apparel: