OUGD405 | Studio Brief 02 - Superlambanana Opinions

After collecting my opinions I realised that I could have gathered a wider range of opinions on specific themes related to Superlambananas, however, now it is too late to try and gather more as I need to focus on creating my presentation.

Although, I did gather opinions on the subject in general in a wide range of sources including BBC interviews, facebook groups, comments sections and family/friends.

Below are the opinions I gathered -

1. The leader of Liverpool City Council and deputy chairman of Liverpool Culture Company, said: 

"The Superlambanana has grown into a much loved symbol of the city and this deal works on all levels, for the artist, for the city and for art lovers everywhere.”

2.

''The Superlambanana is a symbol as synonymous now with our Capital of Culture success as with the city and modern art." Phil Redmond

Opinions of friends and family when asked "What do you think of Superlambananas in general?"
Along with opinions found in comments sections on various web articles-

3.”Superlambananas confuse me. I don’t see the appeal.”

4.”I dont know what they are!?”

5.”They were a waste of money, I quite like them now though.”

6.”I think they are weird but a really unqiue way to attract people to the city!”

7.”When I was younger, when they were in liverpool I loved them! But Now I think they are just a bit odd.”

8. “The Superlambanana Trail was a really fun idea. I enjoy trying to find them around liverpool today”

9.”I think its a shame that they were all sold at auction. Now only a few are left in Liverpool. I prefered it when they were dotted around everywhere”

10.”I really don’t understand its purpose, or meaning. What is the meaning behind a lamb and a banana?”

11."Thats one strange looking sculpture!”

12."To be honest,I find the big one a bit of an eyesore, but the little ones are cute, and the SLB trail during the culture capital year were great fun.”

13."I thought it was a dance!”

14. “ They look like horses, like you can ride them!”

15. “They are memorable for Liverpool. When you think of Liverpool you think of Llambananas”

16. "I am simply amazed with the idea of creating superlambananas"

17.”I loved the idea of them scattered arond the city, why did it have to be temporary?”

18.”I know these will only be temporary and this is what makes it more exciting, but I wonder how it would go down if these were all permanent features in Liverpool. I think the trail would become one of the most popular things in the City.”

I found a post on a Superlambanana group on Facebook asking "What is your favourite Superlambanana??" So I gathered the following opinions from there-

19.”It has to be the Supergrassbanana it looks so cuddly!”

20.”Got to be the glow in the dark one by the docks!!!!”

21. The majority of group members voted “Peel” as the favourite Lambanana.

At one point I was struggling to gather opinions and so I asked various people "If you could design a Superlambanana what theme/design would you give it?"

I later dismissed these answers as I felt they did not fit into the category of opinions. However, here are the answers I received-

“I would design a Rudolph Lambanana”

“Probably something really unoriginal like putting loads of bananas on it?”

“Princess Lambanana!”

“Raising awareness of food poverty”

OUGD405 | Studio Brief 02 - Superlambanana Statistics

For this theme, I found statistics pretty difficult to find. I also became unsure about what defines a statistic. The line between statistic and fact became quite blurry for me but I knew that the statistics should contain some numerical form. Because I found the statistics quite difficult to find, I allowed myself to use the numbers of Superlambananas as a statistic (although I am still unsure as to whether this counts!).

Below are the statistics I gathered - 

1.In total the Go Superlambananas sold for a combined sum of £600,000 or approximately £7000-£8000 each.

2.The highest bid on the night was £25,000, paid by the Chairman of National Museums Liverpool for 'Mandy' Mandala Superlambanana

3.125 Gosuperlambanana Sculptures made for the Culture Capital Experience.

These required:

4 .30,000 Mosaic Tiles

5.80 sponsors

6.30 community groups

7.20 schools

8.110 artists

9.400 litres of paint

10.100 litres of varnish

11The original Superlambanana cost £35,000 to build.

12.During the Capital of Culture Experience the total visitor spend in Liverpool was in excess of £41 million.

13.The event spend was estimated to have supported 1,243 jobs.

14.68 Superlambananas went up for auction.

15.25% of the 2nd internet Auction proceeds went to charity.

Statistics relating to Go Penguins (A similar event in Liverpool)

16.The Go Penguins event attracted £4.5 million of media coverage.

17. 0.5 million visitors

18. It achieved an economic impact of £5m.

19. It featured more than 200 penguin sculptures.

20. It engaged 102 schools in a schools programme for Year of Environment sponsored by Home Bargains.

I did not plan to gather statistics about Go Penguins but time meant that it was easier for me to do so. The events are still related so I felt it was acceptable to use this illustration. 

OUGD405 | Studio brief 02 - Superlambananas Facts

I found gathering facts about Superlambananas fairly difficult because I was unsure if certain facts counted as a single fact or two. Also, the 'facts' seemed to vary in different sources and it was unclear which sources were more reliable.
I would have sourced more books as research, however due to my location over the Christmas period, this was too difficult- so regrettably I had to rely on websites and the museum of Liverpool.

Below are the facts that I gathered -

1.Original designed by an Artist named Taro Chiezo.

2.Original model was only 4 inches tall.

4.Large scale created by sculptors Andy Small, Julian Taylor, Tommy Reason and Ray Stokes.

3.This larger sculpture made its first appearance on the streets of Liverpool in 1998 as part of the ArtTranspennine98 exhibition.

5.The sculpture is 17ft tall.

6.Spin offs of original sculpture are called Go superlambananas and were created as a part of the Capital of Culture celebrations in partnership with 'Wild in Art'.

7.The Go Superlambananas Parade saw 119 scaled-down models hit the city for 10 weeks in the summer and was hailed as one of the key highlights of the Capital of Culture celebrations.

8.8 Superlambananas were created later in 2010.

9.The Gosuperlambananas are 2m tall.

10.The Gosuperlambananas were decorated by artists, schools and community groups.

11.The models were eventually auctioned and raised £600,000 in one night for a Lord Mayor's Charity Appeal.

12.The original Superlambanana is currently located on Tithebarn St outside John Moores University Library

13.It weighs almost 8 tonnes.

14.It is obviously a cross between Lamb and Banana.

15."The sculpture is both a comment on the dangers of genetic engineering and also heavily influenced by the history of Liverpool: historically both sheep and bananas were common cargos in the city's docks."

16.The sculpture was modelled from a wire mesh frame and covered in concrete and steel.

17. The original was once vandalised and had to be repainted.

18.The Original has been pink,green and purple to raise awareness for various campaigns.

19.Go Superlambananas was voted the most popular event of Liverpool’s year of European Capital of Culture 2008 by the readers of the Liverpool Echo. And, still, in 2011 it is the most recalled event of the 08 programme of events.

20 .Go penguins were a group of similar sculptures also organised by 'Wild in Art'- Go Penguins won the Best Tourism Event Award at the Merseyside Partnership Awards 2010.

OUGD405 | Studio brief 02 - Superlambananas Photographs

I planned a trip to Liverpool in order to photograph the Superlambananas in their 'natural environment'. This did however, come with its difficulties. I had forgotten to bring my camera charger and unfortunately the battery failed before I could take a single photo. So, I had to use an iPhone camera as an alternative. Fortunately, the quality of these photos wasn't too bad.

The other difficulty was that despite there being around 125 Gosuperlambanana sculptures, only a few of these remained in public areas and it was difficult to find out where the last few remained. There was still around 7 sculptures in the docks, and 2 in the Museum of Liverpool, plus the original Superlambanana. So with these combined I was able to gain more than 20 photos - although it would have been nice to have had 20 different Superlambananas photographed. 

I tried to focus in on the details of each Lambanana. Unfortunately, the reasons behind each design were not always clear. One of the most spectacular designs was Mandala or 'Mandy"- which featured a mosaic design with glass eyes. 

Below are a few of the photos that I gathered -

A close up of the mosaic on Mandala the SuperLambanana

A GoSuperLambanana

Original Superlambanana

Edible Type

Above is an explanation of the whole process of creating or Edible Type smoothies. 

OUGD405 | Studio brief 02 - Superlambananas Crit and Words

In response to the brief of '100' and the theme of collections, I have decided to research a collection of sculptures representative of the culture of Liverpool named "Superlambananas". I selected this as my topic due to the location of the subject. As the sculptures are close to home, it will be easier for me to photograph.
I had really been lacking ideas to present in the interim crit. My ideas were limited to this, and an origami theme which I dismissed due to the difficulty with transporting anything that I might create as an example. It was suggested in my crit that I ask teach others how to create a certain type of origami and photograph the results. I was fond of this idea but as mentioned the difficulty with transporting these could not be ignored.
Further ideas that I considered were magazines and Starbucks cups as these are items which I tend to hoard. However, I felt that the Superlambanana idea was my strongest. Due to the positive reaction in my crit it seemed the right way to go.
It was suggested that I research the artists of the sculptures and create my own version.

I began my collection of research by gathering my 20 words. I came across a website which gave all the names of the GoSuperlambananas, so I selected 20 of the most interesting...

1.SuperSgtPepperYellowLambSubmarineBanana

2.Twinkle Malmaison

3.Supercottonwoolbanana

4.SuperLoveBanana

5.Superlambananaleaves

6.SuperLawbanana

7,Superlordmayorlambanana

8.SuperRoyalambanana

9.Baa-Nitez

10.Superfive-a-daybanana

11.Ba Ba Braille Sheep

12.Superbeezbuzzbyawildlambanana

13.Superchaiselonguebanana

14.Supergrassbanana

15.Superlambgranada

16. Superconnectedlambanana

17.SuperWagBagBanana

18.Superfitbanana

19.Twinnylambanana

20.SuperStudentlambanana

Edible Type

To begin the brief, myself and the group began to research existing cakes and other foods. We also looked at entries of the edible type brief from previous years to gain an understanding of what is expected. I collated an 'Edible type' board on Pinterest to gather all my research and to help me brain storm ideas.

I then opened up the font book on my Mac and simultaneously researched cake names. I looked at both lists to see if there were any good combinations of type and cake. Myself and another group member both thought of the idea to have a "swiss roll" designed in the style of swiss typography. However, we felt a swiss roll would be too difficult to make. We came up with some other weak ideas but were still struggling.

 One group member came up with the idea of using smoothies as an alternative to food. I liked the creativeness of this idea but was unsure about how we could translate this into type. We considered using type shaped bowls, however we felt this would be awkward to drink from, even with a straw. We then came up with the idea to somehow mark the glasses with paper, spray paint or otherwise, leaving a letter shape through the glass. The smoothie would be visible through this letter shaped hole. The letterforms would then spell out a word such as 'smooth'. 

To research potential flavours, we visited the smoothie company and analysed their menu and ingredients in each smoothie. We did some taste testing by purchasing our own milkshakes. 

This led on to considering whether we should use plastic smoothie cups for a more authentic feel, rather than glasses. These are still initial ideas but at this moment in time we plan to continue developing our smoothie idea.

OUGD405 | Studio Brief 01 - Final Crit & Evaluation

The overall feeling that I got from my final critique was that my designs were successful. However, it was suggested that the text on the designs with the smaller triangles was too difficult to read. In practice, this would be too difficult to read and customers may avoid buying the frame as there could be a confusion as to whether it is a piece of artwork. I had originally placed the text on the lightest line in the pattern so the text would stand out against the complex pattern, however, I can understand that there was still some improving to do. It was further suggested that the colours of the text should contrast with the background rather than harmonise to help the text stand out.
Despite this setback, the group felt that it was an innovative idea to have the size of the triangles coordinating with the size of the frame. The group challenged me as to why I used Arial rather than Helvetica. I explained that I dislike how commonly Helvetica is used in design. I feel that the rebellion of using Arial ties in with my target audience of younger people. I explained further that to make the font my own, I always use Arial bold and increase the line thickness even more. I will also reduce the kerning and occasionally the character height. This style is becoming personal to myself and marking my style.
I felt that this was one of my more successful projects in terms of experimentation. I challenged myself to try other medias and although these were not always successful it has helped me consider new skills and new angles to tackle briefs. I was pleased with the success of designing my own textures and the positivity I received from feedback about these.
There were, however, several areas for improvement. I feel that my planning really lacked. I came up with two vague ideas/target markets and dived straight into designing for one without really considering all my options and brainstorming about the brief. I feel that this was because after being inspired by artwork, I was too excited to get designing and eventually got carried away with that idea. I had originally planned to explore two ideas design wise but this failed as a result of my impatience.
Furthermore, my time management was lacking. I had several ideas for experimentation but did not have time to try these due to distractions. One of the ideas I wanted to explore further was the idea of gems and precious stones. I am disappointed that I did not give myself time to explore this but I feel I can tie it in to a future project. What did set me back from exploring this idea was the fact that I had not yet had a photography induction. This lack of camera equipment meant I could not take good quality photographs of the gems I had sourced. I do have my own camera but the macro setting and focus appears to be faulty, thus I could not take any good photographs.
For my next brief I aim to improve my time management and note down all the experiments that I am considering.

OUGD405 | Studio Brief 01 - Potential Final Designs

I decided to develop some more experiments from the photographs I took of textures. I selected 4 images which I felt were interesting, colourful and unique. These included a plant, cutting board, towel, paper and a blurry photo. For each individual photo, I made some minor adjustments on photoshop to make the colours more interesting- such as adjusting the brightness, contrast, hue and saturation. I tried to vary the colours between light and dark and use these to emphasise the texture within the photograph. I then began to cut triangles from these textures and create a pattern similar to my previous designs. My triangles were no perfect shapes which gives the pattern some character. I finally added some colour block triangles to bring the design together and add another alternative texture. The design originally began as only a section of the pattern, but when I zoomed out to analyse my design I felt that smaller triangles looked more detailed. So I used the larger triangles to create the final pattern.  I only later realised that I accidentally created a larger triangle with the pattern, I decided to keep this as the white only pattern is unique and it makes the design more playful. Below is the original piece... 

Original design

 I then began to adjust the colours using only the hue/saturation tool. The reason I used this is because the hue tool has to ability selects a variety of bright, vibrant colours which work well with each other. It selects colour combinations which I would otherwise not choose. Below are my results...

Pink and green hues contrasting with a fiery orange

Harmonising purples, greens and blues

Black and white - A contrast to the brighter colours

I feel that by exploring a range of colours, the photo frames will attract a wider audience. I am naturally drawn to certain colours when buying products, so if a wider colour selection is available, the customers will naturally increase.
I then began to add text to my designs to visualise them as actual backing papers. After my previous font experiments, I have chosen arial bold with a tight kerning for my text. I feel that this text is easily readable against the complex background and it looks clean, crisp and professional.
For my first set of designs I chose to create these as 6 x 4 inches- the first size in the set of 3. I feel that the smaller triangles reflect the smallest frame size. I placed my design within a frame I found online as this is a part of the brief, but it also enables me to envisage the design in practice. I selected a turquoise colour for the text in my greyscale design. This really pops against the background - both text and image compliment each other well. I placed the text for the measurements on two lines as this fits snugly within one of the triangles. I used a darker turquoise for this to distinguish it from the title.

Black and white design within a frame 

Final black and white design

I felt that the colours of the original design worked well together, so it felt appropriate to use this alone - without editing the colours. I thought I would capitalise the text for the word "photo frame" for variation and to make the text stand out. The green colour naturally blended with the image and I used a contrasting bright pink for the measurements to stand out against the pattern. I feel that I need to ask other students whether this clash is successful.

During the process of fitting the design to the frame, the image pasted to the background of the frame on a large scale. I decided to then use this to display my designs as it bounces off the image within the frame and zooms in on the details of the design.

Original design within frame

Original design with text

For the purple/blue/green design I used a dark teal for the text as these seemed to be most readable against the background. I placed it on that particular row of triangles as these colours were the lightest and allow the text to be read. I used a more tone down pink to the previous design but still allowed it to stand out against the triangles.

Purple/blue/green design in frame

Purple/blue/green design with text

Since I was happy with the look of the triangle designs, I moved on to the next size 7 x 5 inches. I began by increasing the size of the triangles within the pattern to represent the increase in frame size. I repeated the previous process by adjusting the hue and more so the saturation. I tried to make sure the colours were not too similar to any other design.
I increased the size of the text for the frame size as a contrast to the other designs and to compete with the detail of the pattern.
Again, I placed the design within a frame to visualise the product. I used a black frame as a contrast to the first whiter frame. This seemed to make the colours really pop.

Final design with text

Design within frame

I tried a more sophisticated and muted colour palette consisting of earthy browns and reds contrasting with a brighter purple.  I feel like this design has a more masculine feel and would potentially appeal to this market. I used a the same deep red from the triangles for the text as this was easy to read and another shade of brown for the frame size. The text and image do not compete here but work together.

Earthy tones - design with text

Design within frame 

I feel that the next colour palette felt rather botanical or even scientific which I personally liked. I used a brown  colour for the text and a larger pt size to make the design feel a little more serious.

Botanical feel design with text

Botanical design within frame

I finally moved on to the largest frame size - 8 x 5 inches.  Again,  I increased the size of the triangular pattern representing the size of the frame.  For a change, I increased the brightness of the design so that the paper triangles nearly disappeared. This made the colours of the other triangles stand out when I adjusted the hue. When playing around with the colours I came across this palette which I felt resembled apples with the reds and greens. This matched the wooden frame which I selected for the final designs to add another variant to black and white frames. I feel that these designs successfully make these boring frames much more appealing and therefore they could be sold at higher prices.
The larger design behind the frame was fairly grainy and perhaps a low quality. However, I liked this effect as it adds to the textures of the design.

Apple coloured frame design 

Final apple coloured design with text 

I then did the opposite to the previous design and lowered the brightness. This meant that the paper triangles appeared far darker which scared me at first, but once I played around with the hues- it gave that triangle a new look. I decided to be a bit braver with the colours and go for some really bright turquoises. This is successful because it is brought down by the new darker paper triangles. 

I used a dark blue and large text to match the louder design. I especially like the close up background of the turquoise triangle with bright pink lines across as well as the patchy lime green-  I feel this looks quirky and interesting.

Brighter design with frame

Bright design with text

I then completed my final set of 3 with a brighter version of the purple/blue/green design. I find it interesting that the neon blue triangle began as a plant from ikea! I flipped the design upside down for this back paper to add another element of variation. This provided a flat edge within the larger triangle for the text to sit on. After trying a few colours - dark brown appeared most readable against these hues.

Brighter purple/blue/green design within frame

Brighter purple/blue/green design with text 

I am pleased that although these designs are simple, the frame still appears far more appealing. I feel that it appeals well to my target market (teenagers and young people) more so the female side but I think that these design would appeal to either gender as geometry doesn't particularly shout male or female. I can imagine these frames on a shelf together and as a set I think they would sell each other.

OUGD405 | Study Task 1

This afternoon we were challenged as a group to use a concept to rebrand the sandbag company Hesco. At first glance, designing for such a company seemed challenging as it is not a company that I am particularly interested in. However, I was pleased with the results we came up with. 

From our research we found out that Hesco was about more than sandbags but about life saving products used in war zones and during natural disasters. We felt that we should communicate the real Hesco through its branding. 

As a group we struggled to come up with a strong concept which reflected all elements of the company. Hesco already had the slogan "defend, protect, secure" which we liked as a group. So we decided to leave this unchanged and use it as out concept. 

We came up with the idea of using vectorised symbols to communicate the work of Hesco. These symbols tied in with the 3 words of the concept. For defend we used a bullet to represent war zones- this later changed to a shield upon the advice of a tutor. This was in red to highlight warning/danger. We use 3 lines to represent waves and flooding for protect- this was in a blue as there is a safe feeling about the colour. We finally created a padlock for secure in gold - a colour commonly used for locks. We boxed the symbols to make the images clearer.

Hesco was written in arial bold caps to emphasise the solid defence and reliability offered by the products. 

We played around with the composition of the squares including the thickness of the strokes and the position on the page. I personally feel the smaller, thinner symbols work best. 

We developed our brand by creating letterheads. These designs were good, however, due to time constraints the quality was not perfect- for example the word HESCO is difficult to read. 

A tutor also suggested we consider packaging for such a company. We created a pattern for the brand which could be used in a variety of situations. We also created a tape design which would be used for packaging the larger products on offer from Hesco. 

Overall I was pleased with how the branding looked. It seemed to have a professional and unique appeal. The group all worked well together and we bounced ideas off each other well. We could have prepared our verbal pitch better but this was due to poor time management meaning we focussed too much time on the design itself. 

OUGD405 | Studio Brief 01 - Experimentation

I began to develop the designs I had made including font, colour and composition. One of the made changes I made was adjusting the original space texture to blue/green tones. I feel that these colours work just as well as the pinks/purples but would appeal more to men. 

I felt that with this design it was easiest to delete a row of triangles to place the text. The text was too difficult to read otherwise. I experimented with the placement of both text items in and around this free row. I generally stuck to sans-serif fonts as this appeals more to teenagers and young people- I also feel these fonts are more legible so customers can spot them across a shop floor. In terms on composition I played around with adding new triangles of block colour - a style I had seen on Pinterest. I also began to take triangles away so the design appeared more patchy. I feel that this worked well but since my triangles are slightly irregular it was difficult for me to cover the colours without leaving a small line- although this did make the design more interesting. I finally experimented with whether there should be one, or more, or none of the larger triangles within the pattern. I feel that I works well with either on or two. 

Because a lot of the work I was inspired by consisted of line drawing I began to bring this into my designs as an experiment. I layered a variety of colour triangle outlines randomly over the top of the design. I felt this worked really well and made the overall design a bit more interesting. I chose to use the design with a few triangles removed as there was now space for more detail. 

Since I had previously been inspired by the shapes within gems and precious stones - I began to very roughly sketch these using the pencil tool on illustrator.  I do not feel this was successful as the time and effort the design took me is visible in the quality of the work. 

I then began to develop the drawings from my photographs of 3D triangles. To do this - I opened the traced version of the triangles on photoshop and deleted the space within the triangles. I then transferred this back to illustrator where I added white lines similar to the artwork I was inspired by. 

I liked the result of this experiment however when I placed it into the frame I was unhappy with the shape and size of the design within the correct frame size. 

To see if this technique could be successful, I tried it with the other image using the alternative blue space texture. This worked well but I did not feel this style was as good as the triangular patterns.