this is amazing.

http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/flash/cntower_timelapse.swf

the interaction of this website is pretty interesting

Going down the route of classic British comedy was looking to be one of our favourites. Seeing this has sort of put a downer on it since they seemed to have covered it, but it's good to know that we identified the kind of comedy they are likely to refer to. i.e. only fools and horses.

More examples of collections of objects, quite old ones aswell possibly to add a sense of history. I like how the books have been used to hold up the table, it's quite playful.

Not sure what the over arching themes for these concepts are, but it's good to see there are several different examples of media being used for them. Going from props, to vector art and photographic.

Past Theme - London

Some more examples of past themes and how they've been used in store. The theme of London, red buses etc seems to be done a fair bit now so I want to avoid this sort of resolution.

Some images from their 21st birthday. All of which are typically British, and quite fun.

Some images from a past store opening, supporting the idea of Britishness. Both Royalty and morris dancers were ideas that we had already thought of to represent Britain, so it's good to think that we are thinking along the same lines as the store, but perhaps we need to be less obvious to avoid doing something they have already done previously.

Past Theme - Alice in Wonderland

This theme is quite an interesting one, although we had brainstormed it as an idea the other day. Also it's interesting to see that they don't just go for props to support the theme, and that they do use illustration as well. I don't think myself nor Charlotte want to go down the route of objects/props if it's not necessary.
The tagline read 'a world of wonders waits upstairs', hinting at the idea that the wonderland referred to in Alice in Wonderland is in fact the Ted Baker store.
Looking at how the actual illustration for the window has been used, and considering that all the different windows we have seen so far, it might be an idea to produce something which is long in length and for it to be scalable they can use different sections of it.

Look Book - Ted Baker

Some samples of images from Ted Bakers male mainline collection Look Book. This gives us more of an insight into who their target audience are and more about what their idea of 'British' is.



Pubs seem to be quite important to this particular image, suggesting their audience are quite sociable people. I don't think I've ever been to a pub with this particular kind of wall paper on though, so I think this is a design decision they have made to try and communicate a pub which is a bit more upmarket. Symbolic of their brand perhaps? Slightly more upmarket than high street.




Again, another cultural reference, this time to cafe's. This seems like the kind of cafe you usually see in films or on TV where it's full of workmen on their lunch break or for people who are on the go.



Here the use of a hat stand to show the products, communicate tradition and an element of class.



This is the image for the menu associated with the Look Book. The fact that it's a selection of objects helps to say a lot about their target audience.
This is how I read it:
Headphones - an interest in music, possibly on the move
Condom - sexually active
House keys - independent
Chewing gum - cares about breath/appearance
Ticket for DJ+club flyer - specific taste in music, aged possibly in 20s +
Train ticket - possibly for work/socialising, lives in the city maybe?
Wallet + change - some disposable income
Wooden surface - lives in quite a traditional style home

Ted Baker Autumn 2009

Charlotte and I have been trying to find out some information about this years Autumn collection. Unfortunately it's looking as though they don't release information about it until it's in the shops. It's a shame because we don't want to produce something to promote a new collection and have it clash with the clothes. Here are some samples from last year, we also had a look through their look book to see what kind of locations they were shot in.

Selfridges

Some examples of in-store designs for Selfridges. I think the pot calling the kettle black is particularly useful, since this seems to be the kind of humour Ted Baker have.

British Humour

Carry on films, seem to offer that very British humour that Ted Baker strive for. Not only this, but it doesn't seem to isolate audiences. It's obvious what the jokes are and possibly thats the key. Trying to communicate humour in such a short space of time is either going to have to rely on things consumers already have knowledge of, or using a more slapstick or absurd approach. There isn't time for a build up, it's got to be there straight away.
The other examples here also demonstrate a type of humour which is immediately obvious, and especially 'Some mother do 'ave 'em' and 'Only fools and horses' are culturally specific.

Ted Baker, Collections

Since the brief we're looking at is to promote a new collection, it seems a good idea to see how other collections have been promoted. So here's a sample from their website. Although not in a 3D environment it's more important to be thinking about the sense of humour that they want to communicate and their visual identity currently.













Looking at these as a set there is a clear identity they have. The first thing I notice is the selection of bright colours, which are very attention grabbing. The colours are quite fresh and seem clean. Perhaps to reflect the quality of their clothes. I think they would like to consider themselves to have quite an ironic and quirky sense of humour. Most of it relying on props and play on words. This may work well for the window display, since it states we only have about 4 seconds to grab attention.
The typefaces they've used on the majority of the images connote quality and combined with the illustrative 'swirls' do give the impression of a prestigious brand, which contradicts what they want people to think of them. The fact that they advertise free delivery over £100 and looking at some of the prices of their products suggests that they do expect their customers to be spending a fair bit of money. I think as it is currently they would sit somewhere between the mainstreet shops and the more up market (designer) shops.
It's striking this balance between the two that may perhaps be difficult, but a lot of that will be helped by using their own sense of humour.

The latest copy of NME has had a 2-Tone makeover. Brought out 30 years after 'Too much too young'. I was really happy when I heard about this because I thought that if the programme I was producing titles for was being broadcasted this month (as planned) then this copy would act as advertising for the label and perhaps after reading the articles more people would be interested in watching the programme. I see this as a bit of free advertising.

It's interesting to see how the magazine have represented the label. They have a similar task to m; combining the design of the label from 30 years ago with a more modern design. Their audience however is probably not the same as mine so they may need to make the article seem more contemporary and accessible to younger readers, I don't need to worry too much about bringing mine up to date as the purpose of the programme is to remember the past.

I need to design a logo for my programme, the format they have used isn't really suitable for mine as it's vertically high and I need to work more length wise due to the format of my timeline.

'Riots, racism and reggae'. It's interesting reading this now that I have already chosen and produced the content for my timeline, as these are probably the 3 things that I have included myself.

Here are some of the example frames that I'm going to use for the summary of the bulletin. For the Thatcher coverage I overlayed the images onto a textured paper. I plan to do the same for all of the society related stories, as they are all from the same source continuity is important. It also helps to link the images together so the style of image becomes a signifier for the meaning. I am applying the same methods of continuity to the images of members of the band and the records artwork.

Original footage of the SAS siege on the iranian embassy.
The second video offers more information about what
happened if you're interested in knowing about it.

Images to be used for the steel workers strike, I'm not sure how obvious the images represent the strike, which is why I've included the signs that give an explanation to what's happening.