Toy Sketches and Sculpting Research

Here are the preliminary sketches for one of the toy pieces:




As you can see - it is going to be a little alien dude packin a big gun and also in a running pose as tho he is carrying something

i have those cork/rubber/felt stoppers that will be mounted on that top hand - and if everything goes well - you should be able to arrange about 5 or 6 of these guys in a formation that they will be able to carry something

it would be a interesting decoration piece and might still be cool for kids to play with



as for research into sculpey techniques:

all i did was type 'Super Sculpey' into Google and I got sent to the main Sculpey site

they have tutorials and tips right there - which is great because they range from beginner to advanced

the best piece of advice (for my purposes) that i read was that one dude says that he uses index cards to put his pieces on and even puts the index card in the oven when he cooks it - and the index card does not burn

since these are going to be small pieces, i am going to employ that technique as well



the sculpey site is so ridiculously thorough with the tips and tutorials that i dont really see myself venturing too far away from it as far as research goes

if i have time tomorrow i might peep the site that the Instructor showed us in class (i have the link in my notebook)

Toy Project Rough Notes

Yeah I got kicked out of the library.

TIme check: 5:28 pm


here is my rough notes for the upcoming Toy Project in Sketching for Communications class:







i was actually on my heels for this one until i had a talk with my sister who reminded me about my natural inclination toward aliens and robots

so i am sticking wiff aliens and robots

as it stands right now:
it is going to be a series of small toy figures approx 1 - 2" high - i am thinking about putting together about a dozen of them (as long as it doesnt take a decade)
and
i am going to put together some sort of simple small space ship vehicle

i was hesitant about this project at first - but ive already warmed up to it

the cross-over it has with my other projects is that i seem to be cultivating a consistent style - or at least noticing a theme in the work i put together


there is some underlying commonality behind it all which is cool



all media conveys a message - even something as seemingly trivial as a toy is a opportunity for communication

tho it may be indirect - it is still there

you are what you eat, and you are reflected in what you produce


more on this in the next post --

Skate Tag Developments

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah some nice progress going on

just about ready start layin it down in Photoshop

finna do some watercolors for the backgrounds - and i got some other ideas going thru my head to work on

but this is how things are looking right now -

here is what the notebook is saying:






and this is the earliest prototype of the tag

if you can follow the notebook scans - these images should make sense



here is the tag broken down into components:



basically im looking at 4 sections to be printed front and back with some innovative assembly

i got a ill idea for transparency use - and if that comes together then this might actually turn into something to look at

still a fair amount of work to be done


- need to choose a font
- need to illustrate some vector images
- need to settle on a color scheme (i have one in mind - will save that for next post)


will be posting more soon

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Notebook Session

Had a good brainstorming session this evening.

Here are the pages from my notebook.

My tendency is always to orientate myself, and I find benefit in dragging all pertinent knowledge into the situation.

There is a reason why psychology class is part of this course, so I make a attempt to incorporate some of that shit into my methodology.

Discounting knowledge seems stupid at this point.


There is no reason to feel obliged to create something that has already been created.
BUT
There has been successful techniques used in the past.



The intended demographic side of things is a bit of a pain in the ass to me.

I hate targeting only a certain group of people - then again, I'm not much of a salesman.

It is looking like my intended market for this thing will be for people who do not generally use in-line skates or perhaps have never really even considered in-line skates.

I wouldn't mind developing a tag that is cool enough that kids would steal it off the product on the store shelves.

That's not a bad marketing technique, as far as I can see.

Logo exposure is logo exposure.



This was some research on the various brands of in-line skates that are currently on the market. Also some quick sketches of their logos.

Here are the brands and their websites:

K2
Salomon
LandRoller
Fila
Rollerblade

There was this other company called 'Roces' which had one of the most horrifying websites I have ever seen in my life. I am sure there was some good intent behind it, but that joint suffers from some serious communication issues and may want to invest some more time and resources into their net development.

Here is a example of their verbal mastery:

These are the goals for wich we work hard 365 days a year.

Improving our product, our quality, our services to customers and consumers, our image. Improving in order to deliver you the best product yu may need to perform perfectly in the sport we all love: skating.

To do this we develop all of our products with the different types of skater in mind, and we are almost sure we didn't forget any!
Our aim is to give to every style of skater it own product. This may make the line a little broad, but it's a necessity to reach our most important goals: skater satisfaction.

To make this happen we are always out there getting input, we are always living, eating and breathing skating. To do this we have The Spirit and Soul of skating

yikes

Anyway - I'm leaning toward taking on this LandRoller company because their product seems to be the most innovative and their advertising seems to be the most hokey among the other companies. A bit of a challenge. Could make sense to try to advertise this to my target demographic.

K2 might also be a good candidate because their logo could fit what I currently have in mind.

Fila looks cool too.

Also: I couldn't find any info on the Salomon site about in-line skates so I'm wondering if they even produce them anymore.



Things are looking good.

Although I don't think a product tag can tilt the world on its axis, this seems like this will be some good creative exercise.

It's all about creative problem solving.

That's today's lesson boys and girls.

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