Toys, revisited

I made a few minor adjustments to Little Red, who now looks a bit better I think (ok, maybe there's not really that much of a difference, but anyway). Other than that, I drew out an expansion idea for the toy line (in this case, Hansel and Gretel) as well as a brand/logo idea, and other images that could be used on a box.



This is a drawing that I'm considering for use in Photoshop, maybe after I add some facial features. I still need to come up with some more interesting comic characters, but I have one other (which I will post later, as the file isn't cooperating) that might be workable. I need to play around with PS quite a bit--it seems like I'm the only one who's never used it (which is mildly embarrassing). But after seeing how quickly we've all gotten into Illustrator, I figure it won't be insurmountable...it didn't take too long for people to start making kick-ass stuff with Ai, and it can't be too much worse for PS, right?

Toys -- Part Deux

I'm a little behind with the blogging. Nonetheless, I got the drawings of Little Red done on Monday, and as my dubious luck would have it, I may have to redo them; they just look a little wonky. If I were to summarize the problems, they would be as follows:

1) I think her eyes are too close together in the front view.

2) I wonder if I should have made the body uniformly gum drop-shaped instead of how I have done it (see profile drawing).

3) The profile just looks distinctly odd. Actually, I think I've succeeded in making 'Little Red Riding Hood' into 'Little Bit Creepy.'

4)The hood and cape are throwing things off somewhat. Until I decide whether they would be molded or made separately out of cloth, I can't accurately draw the pictures. Maybe I should get rid of the hood temporarily for this purpose, i.e. make it a separate entity. Maybe I'm just obsessing; who the hell knows? Anyhow, input would be appreciated, but I'm not sure it will be forthcoming, as I highly doubt anyone reads these regularly. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Toys Inc.

This week we continued working on our toy projects in class. I had a few ideas, two of which are shown in the picture on the left. The first was the subversive fairy tale character (far left), and the second was the mythology personality key chain.

I'm going with the first one, which has Little Red Riding Hood saying uncharacteristic things. Actually, she was originally intended as just a figurine with a rude sign, but that didn't seem very toy-like, so she's evolved into a talking doll. As you can see on the right, she's been streamlined quite a bit...the first version would have been a bit hard to mold etc. She also looks more like an innocent and cheerful child, which would create a funny kind of dissonance with what she would say.

Now I'm working on some other aspects, such as the mug shots, colour schemes, etc. for Phase II. I'll post pictures in the next installment.

Tracing, and toys (and perhaps tracing toys)

I spent most of this afternoon up till around 8pm working on the latest project for DMA101: the sketch trace. I'm using my Egypt material and although it's taking a while, I'm looking forward to seeing it to completion...I think it has some potential. I guess what was the most interesting was its evolution from a collection of rough ideas to the sketch itself, to the final concept, which was really Joe's idea.

This got me thinking about ideas and how we come up with them. The Egypt work started with a brainstorming session in DMA179, and everyone derived something unique from it. We all came out of the class with at least a couple of expandable concepts. Coincidentally, brainstorming was the subject of Daria's class on Friday. We spent part of the class working on initial ideas for advertisements; the process of thinking aloud let us pool ideas and gave us material to play around with and modify. We found ourselves throwing out random things and making connections that worked.

On the subject of concepts, we're also working on toy ideas for DMA179. Somehow I arrived at these subversive fairy tale figures and mythology keychains. Maybe it's because we had expandability in mind, and the easiest way to do that is to start with a large pre-existing group of characters. Anyway, I'm not sure what we'll end up developing further, but it's going to be interesting.

Studio Tour

This past Friday I went downtown to tour a few of the prominent interactive studios in the city. The day began at the FITC headquarters on Augusta Street, in what I have to admit was a pretty non-descript building--you could easily walk past without noticing there was anything in there; once you went in, though, there was a display of design books, magazines, t-shirts etc. (the front of the unit is a store). Following a short intro by Tim, a former DMA student, we split into groups and set off for the studios.

I was struck by the open and friendly work environment; everyone seemed really relaxed and happy, very laid back. This was especially so at Organic, our first stop; there were toys and action figures on a lot of desks for inspiration (which is what Joe has been pointing us to since our first class).

Outside Teehan+Lax

Despite the toys and the fun attitude, these places obviously meant business--all of the studios we visited were really impressive physically, sometimes taking up several floors of a building, such as at Blast Radius. And at every place, they were doing some really amazing work. Teehan+Lax showed us some particularly innovative projects, one of which was a Facebook application commissioned by Telus--it involved creating a fishbowl on your page, decorating it as you wished, and inviting your friends to join. It was a fun way to advertise their Fave 8 plan.

I'm really glad I went on the tour--it was a great way to see how current employees in the field are applying the skills we're learning in DMA. Also, it gave me a more detailed response to the constant query I get ( 'What will you be doing once you've finished your studies?'). Hopefully two years down the road I'll find myself in a workplace similar to the ones we visited.

On a completely unrelated note, I saw this giant thimble sculpture in the fashion district (I'm sure it's nothing new to most, but it's HUGE).