My Digital Signature- Final Design

The image has an ordered overall layout because as a person I live my life by order and rules, I can not stand chaos. It may also not sand out aethetically, but I do feel that as a person I don't tend to stand out from the crowd, I like to keep myself to myself.
The ‘JON’ part of the image is in a bigger, bolder font style to emphasize the uniqueness of my identity, over that of my family ‘MOORE’ identity. It is written in Arial font to show my warm and friendly nature, also it is slightly rounded as a text, not unlike myself.
‘MOORE’ is Bookman Old Style due to its long history, like my family name. The shadow was also added to show this point. Both are quite simple old fashioned font types, but that also represents my personality.
I decided on a cross shape form to represent the many crossroads I have had in life, also it indicates that there is more than one side to me. It is over to the left of frame purely for aesthetics.
I chose to use black and white as it gave the image a more stylized finish, and denotes how I tend to view the world in black or white, right or wrong. However the center ‘O’ is grey because firstly, it was a logical merger point, and secondly because in all life sometimes there are grey areas.
Although black usually represents bad, whilst white represents good, I decided to switch them around not only to make my first name stand out, but also to show that their is good and bad in everything.
For a full analysis please see all IDAT107 labels.
Some variations on the design show the light and dark the other way around, but again it doesn't make my first name stand out as much.
The second design shows the 'Jon' and 'Moore' side by side, but I do not feel myself and my family are 'side by side' in a lot of issues, so would not work.

Stonehouse future vision postcard

Building upon all of the previous ideas and research I have created an image using Photoshop to illustrate what the future of Stonehouse could be. Taking the Ann Demeulemeester store in Seoul as example for what could be classed as a totally ‘green’ building within my vision, and placing it over a run down, crumbling building, then adding an image of street activity from 100 years ago represents this complete notion of combining the best from the past and future. The Ann Demeulemeester store takes a modern, hip shop and turns it into a calm oasis in the middle of a heaving city. The building is covered in vegetation and moss:

“opportunistic plants that grow thick and green even in the midst of big-city smog while creating calmly insulated (and oxygenated) rooms within their folds.”

Joseph Grima “Go Green. Literally.”
This not only means the building is ‘green’ in an ecological way, it also brings this ‘green’ soul and aura, which was previously discussed, back to the area by having the modern structure and purpose, along with providing calm in the center of a city.
I also chose to represent the ‘green aura’ with the projection onto the side of the building, to bring the prosperity and soul from the past.

Original photo and 'future postcard' image.

My Digital Signature (part 3)

It would be easy to pick a font type for my design based purely on how aesthetically pleasing I find it and therefore the effect it would have on my design. Having researched the font types, there are many more aspects to take into consideration when picking a style like the history and connotations attached to it. There are many font types which would be technically good for the image. Verdana, Century Gothic, and Tahoma are all very similar rounded texts which were created to be versatile in the way in which they are displayed, i.e. not becoming distorted and visible what ever screen size it is displayed on. All would look good within the design but that would be it.
Impact, does exactly what it says in the name, it is a very bold font type that would make the image stand out, but I think it looks very condensed and squashed, which is in contradiction to me being a fairly open easy to read person. Therefore I have decided on the two font types Arial and Bookman Old Style.
‘Jon’ is to be written in Arial; personally I find it a friendly, warm font which is slightly rounded, all of which could be said about me. Also Arial was designed to be in tune with the mood of the last decades of the twentieth century, with a less mechanical appearance. It is the font’s uniqueness in design, along with its pleasant appearance, which make me feel it is the perfect choice to identify me.
‘Moore’ is therefore to be in Bookman Old Style. This font was created in 1858 so has a long history like my family name. It is also classified as a legible and robust text face, this links to the meaning of my surname, derived from working and surviving on harsh landscapes.

My Digital Signature (part 2)

Above are the main ideas for the layout for my digital signature, each with a brief explanation. All the designs are very ordered in appearance, which was a conscious decision from the out set, due to the fact that one of my main, and possibly best and worse, characteristics is that I am a very organised person always thinking through to the next thing, with every possible variable, to the point of being obsessive. I always like to be in control of situations and can not stand chaos. Also all designs emphasize ‘Jon’ more so than ‘Moore’ for the previously mentioned reasons of believing my name ‘Jon’ is my unique identity, whereas ‘Moore’ is just a given family name which has no bearing on my person, like my family doesn’t.
The designs on the right hand side of the page all show these qualities but I feel that they don’t show anything beyond that. The three on the left hand side have deeper meanings. Again all show the previous qualities but the bottom design is drawn to be like a mirrored reflection, showing that your family does have an imprint on your personal traits and makeup. The middle design shows a similar theme with your uniqueness being linked and merged within your family influences. However the top design represents all those ideas, but also has the added dimension of creating a cross like image to represent that I am more than one sided in my personality and that my life has had some crossroads where I have had to make brave decisions to make me a better person, and the person I am today.



The page above is the cross shaped format refined into a final layout and colour design, again with full explanations. First off I tried the design with the colour purple for ‘Jon’ as it would show another aspect of myself, with purple being my favorite colour. Then the ‘Moore’ would be coloured light blue, a colour below purple on the colour spectrum, denoting ‘Moore’ being below ‘Jon’ in my opinion. However throughout refining the design I felt that it would be better to symbolize this opinion by having ‘Jon’ in capitals, and ‘Moore’ in lower case, along with using widely different font sizes. I also returned the design back to being black and white, black for ‘Jon’, white for ‘Moore’, for two reasons. One, I feel it gives the design a more ordered, mature look, and two, it signifies how I often see the world in things being black or white. The final tweaks to the design were to make the connecting ‘o’ in the two words to be grey as this is logical to show the merger between the black and the white, but also signifies that I am only human and sometimes there are grey areas. Finally I’ve decided to add shadow to ‘Moore’ as it adds depth to the family name, and therefore represents the history. I also feel that this would make the design more aesthetically pleasing, which is the reason for placing the design to the left of frame.

My Digital Signature

Having looked at the task I have concluded that it should be broken down into three key elements. Firstly my name itself, what it means, where it comes from etc. Secondly, the choice of font(s) to represent the aspects I want to illustrate. And finally, the positioning and styling of the text within the frame.
As mentioned on a previous post I have already done a mind map of the factors which go into making me, me. However for this task I wished to simplify these influences to be as personal and identity focused as possible, so I created the following image to represent this idea.



After looking at this image I have chosen to focus in on the character traits I have, as I feel these are unique to making me who I am, as opposed to just experiences I have had.
The main points I want to point out with my name are that firstly it is two parts, ‘Jon’ being a name given individually to me, whereas ‘Moore’ is a family name linked to a large number of people. Secondly I feel that due to having a distant relationship with my family, other than my immediate family, the surname aspect of my name doesn’t define me in anyway, it just acts as an identifier. Therefore, thirdly, ‘Jon’ is the part of my name I wish to be mainly connected with.

Stonehouse aura

Going back to the idea of the aura and soul of Union Street I took a quick walk back along the street with a blank map and some coloured pencils to capture what I believed the aura of the place to be. The green represents areas of newness, life and prosperity. The red is the reverse, areas of decay and relative poverty, whereas the blue has factors of both, areas of wealth which do not help or improve the area, like the bars and nightclubs. I have left on the margin of the page showing the swirls of blue and green heading in the direction of the city centre because I believe there would have been a flip in the other direction of this aura towards Union Street less than 100 years ago. So with my ideas, it would be ideal to make Union Street a ‘green’ area again, in every sense.

My Website

As I have already discussed I do not tend to spend an awful amount of time online, and when I do it is the same sites every time. So having decided to create my site about myself I have no real problem with the content, but need to establish a basic site template with which to work with. To achieve this I have looked at some sites which interest me due to there author. I read a lot so have visited the sites of some of my favourite writers:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
http://www.eoincolfer.com/
http://www.neilgaiman.co.uk/
http://www.philip-pullman.com/
The common style between these sites tends to be a header top of page, followed by a quick links bar directly underneath, and the content with a sidebar underneath that.
Expanding my net I decide to look at the website layout for my favourite TV show, holiday destination, and a person who knows how to use the media to their best advantage.
www.fox.com/24
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdwi/en_GB
http://www.jordanfanclub.co.uk/
They also seemed to follow the same, if not similar template. Therefore I feel this will be a good, solid standard with which to base my own site on. Basics I know, but planning from the basics means a good starting point to build upon.
The picture below is a rough template I have designed for my website based on my findings.

Virtual Friendships

Yesterday I went out and bought a game for my Playstation 3 called ‘Eye Pet’.
I did this for three reasons. Firstly it was a cheap way of getting the camera which was packaged in the box and I have wanted for a while now, secondly I had a voucher to use up, and finally the game is really an advanced digital pet which you interact with through your movements captured on the camera, and anything like that has always interested me. I rushed out on day one to get a Nintendo Wii because of the immersive nature of the machine, and wasted all my pocket money on a VR arcade game when I was a kid.
Why am I telling you this? Well when I booted up the game my wife sat there for about ten minutes, whilst I waved my hands and arms about like a lunatic trying to get the monkey thing on screen to jump, before asking me,
“What have you wasted your money on that for? You will never use it again, you do know it’s not real, don’t you!”
My wife probably is right it will sit there collecting dust for a few months, before I trade it in for a fraction of what I paid for it. But she was wrong about the reason for buying it. I didn’t buy it to have a ‘pet’, I was just curious as to what level the technology worked.
The point of that massive rambling story was to point out the fact that my wife thought I had purchased the game for some kind of friendship or relationship with this piece of software, I didn’t, but with 99% of the sales this is possibly true. Little kids playing with fresh air and a TV screen instead of a puppy or kitten. People can argue that it is purely for entertainment or educational purposes for the eventuality they ever got a ‘real’ pet, and I have no problem with it on a moral or ethical stand point. However I do feel it raises an interesting argument, at what point do our friendships and relationships with ‘others’ through a digital medium become ‘real’, and what impact is that going to have with people’s social interaction skills?
What I didn’t mention earlier is that whilst my wife was mocking me for playing with my ‘pet’, named Gizmo by the way, she was sat there with a laptop on the arm of the sofa, signed into Facebook, like she had been for the previous hour and a half. On a base level I have no problem with social networking sites, I use them to keep in touch with friends who live too far away or arrange meetings with others, but that is it. If I want to talk to someone, I phone them up or physically go to see them and spend time with them, however more and more of my friends and family just use those screens to send messages back and forward to each other without actually ever seeing or talking to the person anymore. I have younger relatives who are still children, and when you ask about friends and what they do, they do know the person from school or a club, but they play computer games together over the internet not even in the same room, talking through headsets. My understanding is that 90% of communication is achieved without a spoken word, i.e. facial expressions, body language, but in these ‘friendship’ situations 100% of communication is achieved through spoken word, and that is what I mean by worrying about these people’s social skills.
I also worry that friendships seem to be becoming ‘diluted’. Everyday I receive friend requests on my Facebook page, but they are from people I once bumped into on a street whilst on holiday in 1998, and maybe said “sorry” to. I exaggerate, but my point is they are people who are not really my friend and never have been, they are acquaintances at best, yet people are willing to except them and allow them to view personal thoughts and comments at their leisure, along with 500 others. I don’t think I have even spoken to 500 human beings in my life. Yet people continue to collect others like Pokèmon, and lavish time replying to each and everyone of them but at a very shallow level, never truly building a strong friendship.
I know these views seem like the extreme negative side of products which are basically designed for consumer enjoyment, and I also know that I am very funny when it comes to issues like trusting others, especially with personal information, however I can say with confidence that this is an increasing trend over the past few years and don’t want the word ‘friend’ to only mean a name in a list of hundreds, within a few more years.


To check out 'Eye pet' visit www.eyepet.com

Stonehouse compiled area map (part 3)

Going back to the idea of the soul and aura of Plymouth I envision a merger of old and new along Union Street. Returning the area back to the thriving, fun playground it once was but in a modern/futuristic way. One half formed idea to represent this notion would be to have all the building brought up to a modern high standard, and have a purpose (i.e. nightlife), then project an image of the old historic union street onto the buildings exterior. For the buildings which can not be altered, like ‘The New Palace Theatre’ the same could happen in reverse, with a futuristic version of Plymouth being projected. This in my mind would capture the spirit from old and new, and create a new modern aura for the area.

As I say this is just one idea, but the potential is visible in works done by EMF Technology Ltd -Projection onto buildings for promotional purposes (mainly films). http://www.emftechnology.co.uk/
Or NuFormer Digital Media, they develop state of the art 3D projections. http://www.projectionsonbuildings.com/

Stonehouse compiled area map (part 2)

Picking up on an idea of the aura and soul of the location, Union Street seems to be an ideal choice due to its historical value and modern day state. It was designed by a man called John Foulston, and laid out between 1812 and 1820 as a grand boulevard to connect the three towns of Plymouth, East Stonehoue and Devonport. It was thought of as the home for the rich and famous around the area,

“…the buildings are neat and handsome, and the streets straight and commodious, particularly those of Durnford-street, Emma-place, Edgcumbe-street and Union-street. These are almost entirely occupied by genteel families, chiefly those of naval and military officers, and other persons holding situations under government. The addition of Union-street … is an improvement of the greatest importance … [it] affords a spacious thoroughfare, and presents … a succession of neat and uniform buildings”

“Guidebook to Plymouth” 1823

Union Street was considered one of the most notorious and infamous streets in the south west of England, and was often populated with sailors from around the globe due to its red light districts. Sadly however, the majority of the area was destroyed during WW2 bombings and subsequent events leaving the area in the state it is in now.

About half way along Union Street you will find a dilapidated building named ‘The New Palace Theatre’. The building is grade II listed, and was included on a list by ‘The Victorian Society’ of the UK's ten most endangered and best Victorian and Edwardian buildings, yet its last use was as a nightclub and now just stands there crumbling and broken, a long way from yesteryears grandeur. However this is not a unique example along a road which now has a massive conflict between the old and the new, absolute poverty and aspiration. Union Street now consists of council flats, derelict buildings, late night pubs and shops selling goods which could not be described as essential. The geographic theory describes this as ‘Inequality of space’ - when a geographical area is used by different social groups for a variety of purposes. This may result in conflict increasing the divide between these groups.

Stonehouse compiled area map

Having all focused on a different aspect of Stonehouse, and plotting them, as a group we have placed all these layers onto a single map to represent our combined idea of the area. The red wavy areas/lines are, as before, to represent the main areas of noise pollution and focus on the main roads and activity sites. Within the group Luke placed the black dots to show people density in the open, the blue star like shapes to symbolise quiet locations, and thin black lines to indicate the field of view along Union Street. Ben chose to illustrate the aura/soul of the area with long thin blue lines, whilst Matt represents the desirability of the area in block colour on a sliding scale of red to green. Red being the least desirable, green being the most desirable. Finally Karla symbolised the flow/movement of people through and out of the area with a series of bold lines and green markers.

After having the combined map we decided to concentrate on an area of high interest within our group and with in the area, Union Street.

Media and the ‘Social’

Within groups we were tasked with mapping what we understood by the term ‘Media’ so on paper we wrote down all the different forms media takes, and without listing them we concluded that people are influenced by media in every aspect of life. Media by definition is anything which can convey a message, so with that in mind we divided our list up into the different types of media, focusing on the way the user /audience is engaged, to produce the following mind map using free software available from http://www.mindmeister.com/.

The three main areas which represent the different ways publishers interact with the audience are,

• One to one communication




• One to many communication




• Mass media communication

As you can see both the one to one, and one to many communication routes have relatively few outlet possibilities compared to the mass media, but do offer a wide possibility for feedback/response, and are able to change their audience size to fit their needs. Mass media tends to be one way, and published by large organisations.

“The mass media have two important sociological characteristics:
First, very few people can communicate to a great number; and, second, the audience has no effective way of answering back”

C. Wright Mills “The Power Elite” 1956

Mass media also takes the form of what many would consider traditional media types, like TV and cinema, radio, photography. All of which were developed during the period of 1860-1930, when people didn’t have the opportunities like today to self-publish so media was a very one way thing. Of course there were dangers attached with this one way, one side, process. Adolf Hittler’s use of propaganda through print and radio during WW2 shows the possible dangers of mass media, but also there overwhelming power and success. During the late 17th century it is believed that early newspapers were the cause for the increased spread of literacy and education, however it is now believed with modern electrical entertainment, and people having so much freedom of speech and limitless platforms on which to be heard (i.e. blogs, facebook , Youtube etc), that we are now in the reverse of that trend.
Do I believe either form should dominate? No, I feel that both mass media and our own outlets are very important in today’s world. However mass media is heavily monitored and regulated, so maybe with everyone now having the capacity to generate ‘media’ something/someone should be responsible for the ownership of that content, because when you can look on somebody’s own website to find out ‘how to make a bomb in your kitchen’ or racial/religious commentaries on why one group of people deserves to live, the other deserves to die, what is the difference between that person and Hitler’s use of the media in the 1930’s? Both give the reasons and tools.

Digital signatures examples

Just two quick examples of digital signatures I have pulled off http://www.flickr.com/. They both seem very basic but actually say quite a lot about the author of each piece.

The first one shows not only their name but also their religion, which is a massive part of the influences which make you an individual and unique.

The second is a cool one letter approach, which shows exactly that, the person is cool, modern, and maybe a bit mysterious whilst at the same time in your face.

Digital signature

Although I have not technically started this project yet, when I do, a great deal of thought will have to go into personal reflection so that the image I create will truely represent me.
So this is just to point out the recent post I made in the IDAT 101 strand of my blog which shows a mind map I created of myself. Whilst this was not done for this project it is, and will be, a great aid in showing what makes me an individual and reflecting that back in my digital signature.

Understanding myself (IDAT 101)

The picture below is a photograph of a ‘mind map’ I made about myself. The purpose of this piece was to better understand what influences and factors shape me into the individual I am perceived to be by others. We were asked to create an image to show this, and the task was meant to be purely for ‘fun’. However, I used this as a good opportunity to create a piece which I felt would be useful to ‘self justify’ any creative decisions I make.
The centre of the image represents me. It is surrounded by the seven major influences on my life, and shows how they are linked to me. The pink lines are a lifestyle connection, the blue lines are an enjoyment connection, and the green lines represent an emotional connection. Everything else within the diagram is an offshoot from those main connections and the orange lines show the links between them. Although I see this as a good overview of myself, it is no way near as comprehensive as it could have been, but it was a logical finishing point for this exercise.

Stonehouse stage one

The task has become clearer. Using a blank map of Stonehouse as a starting point, as a group we are to plot/convey aspects of the area that make up parts of the whole ambience/essence of Stonehouse, not just the obvious day to day visual. After visiting the area to collect more data and refine any previous ideas, we are to identify these unique aspects, and possibly improve, and represent them in such a way that an audience can decipher individually and draw their own meaning.
With all that in mind my first task was to identify a factor which I felt could be correctly mapped without/before going to the area. I chose to plot the factors which I thought would produce the most noise pollution within the area. These included the main roads, recreation areas, and the military barracks. The highest intensity of noise is marked with solid red lines and the spread is represented with wavy ripples. Whether my predictions are correct will be determined when we visit and re-plot our data.

Trying (and failing) to expand my mind

After my recent posting I managed to find an hour to sit down and try to expand my experience of the internet in search of more ‘flashier’ and ‘funkier’ websites. Now possibly giving away a bit too much of my personality I try to keep hidden, I love Marvel comics, always have, largely due to the art and layouts. With that in mind I felt that the Marvel website (www.marvel.com) would follow suit and be a good place to start. However when I logged on it was up to the standard I expected with videos, online comics, art, pop up’s etc but at it’s core it was just a massive Marvel database, similar to other sites I visit, which unbeknownst to me managed to suck away all my free time. My quest continues. Hurry up Virgin and fit my cable.

First draft ideas (IDAT 107)

It may be ‘jumping the gun’ a bit, but now knowing what our final project is going to be, and having had past experience in the same field, my limited creative juices started flowing and I’ve drafted two ideas for my TV bumper. ‘jumping the gun’ a bit, but now knowing what our final project is going to be, and having had past experience in the same field, my limited creative juices started flowing and I’ve drafted two ideas for my TV bumper.
My first idea is a simple fun advert, similar in style to the latest run of the i-phone ad’s. The images which slowly fill the screen over the course of the piece are supposed to represent a collage of life’s highlights, and convey the message at the end of the piece ‘Life’s an adventure’.

The second idea appears to be more serious at first, with music, graphics, and factual content to represent this. However there is a playful twist at the end to show that side of my personality.
These are basic first draft ideas which will change as my skill set develops, so even if one should become the final storyboard idea, it will be expanded with more depth and detail.

To create you must understand (IDAT 102)

As an individual I have just been given the task to create my own website. Ok breath.
This will be a challenge as I have never done anything like this before, however I am fairly confident in my ability to learn.
As a starting point we have been asked to select sites we like and to explain why. Now I have never had my own internet connection, I have always relied on others, primarily my in-laws.
Whilst this provided me with regular access, because of the situation I would always log on and view the same few sites every time. First it would be quick stops at Hotmail, Facebook and Play.com, maybe followed by a quick couple of clips on Youtube, before finally spending the majority of my time endlessly searching through IMDB for all the facts and figures I could get.
I am a major movie fan and love useless facts and figures, so this is like a personal paradise to me. http://www.imdb.com/

From this simple task I have decided two things. Firstly I like sites that are full of content for me to learn from, and secondly that I haven't seen many sites. So quite simply if I am to make my own site it will probably be quite informative, but I need to look around more on the internet as I am going to have to get people to want to look at it in the first place, on face value, therefore I need to find out what is attractive, so to speak, in a website.

First Steps (IDAT 106)

After realising that I know nothing about the area of Stonehouse I thought that it would be a good idea to get ahead of the game with some basic research.
Using a well known search engine on the Internet I found that:

1) Stonehouse area has been used for settlement since Roman times.

2)For nearly a century before WW2 it has the city's night life capital with over one hundred pubs and clubs (music and dance halls).

3)For centuries it has been a significant naval area and the night life was a by-product of this.

4)More recently it has been through major regeneration with the government pushing development of brown field site (land which has already been developed) as opposed to green field sites. As a result the area is fast losing the perception of one of west Europe's poorest areas and turning into a thriving residential area.

I'm sure this info will help me, if no-one else, as now I at least have an idea of the area and what to expect when we visit soon.

Blog Virgin

This is my first ever post!
So just checking that it works and I haven't just broke the internet or caused a blackhole.
Fingers crossed.
J!