Thursday 27 January 2011

Play-doh adverts



These images I found when looking through a DNAD book. Found them very aesthetically pleasing so I looked them up on the Internet. They represent in a way my project. My idea revolves around a child's mind and these images visually portray that. The excitement, the colours, the adventure, these images are great at showing the endless possibilities that a child's mind can imagine.

Play-Doh!!!!



I LOVE play-doh and now I have a reason to go out and purchase some- my Major Project.

I have finally decided on creating my own children's programme rather than a children's channel as I believe with a programme I can be more specific on how I want it to be, regarding its context and visual. A programme gives me the flexibility to approach the visual in any way I want as it would be my own programme.

I really liked the idea of creating my own characters and modeling them through some sort of material. I instantly thought of play-doh, its easy to mold and looks child-friendly. The images above show the play-doh I bought. They came in packs of four and varied in colour. I chose the specific colours you see as they are light baby colours and remind me of pre-school.

I love the texture of play-doh. It's very soft and squidgy and thought it was the perfect material to mold characters out of. However the play-doh will have to be restricted to a research/development stage as for the final I would like to exhibit, alongside my animation, my characters and Play-doh will dry out and loose its flexible-looking texture. But this stage will contribute to ideas on the look and feel of my characters.

Sunday 23 January 2011

Playhouse Disney Ident






After looking at a few Cbeebies idents I thought about broadening my outlook and have a look at some Playhouse Disney idents. The Disney channels are internationally known so if my channel were to reach immense popularity, Disney would then become my main competitor.

The Playhouse Disney idents tend to use live actors within what seems to be a computer generated environment, unlike Cbeebies which are completely animated and consist of their own squidgy- looking characters. Most Disney idents I've seen do not include any of it's characters, especially Playhouse Disney. There will always be the iconic mouse ears to promote the channel but there is no reference to Princesses or Princes. I actually think is a good thing as it's not pressurising children into thinking this is what they should want to be, when at such a vulnerable age. The idents include the average looking boy or girl exploring a different magical World, which I think is the idea Disney are trying to put across with their channel.

Playhouse Disney idents generally look more high-tech and advanced. They are miniature- looking movies. This probably comes from the fact that children and also their parents expect the best from the Disney Company. The Disney company does not just lie within the area of television, it covers areas such as merchandise, product and feature- length films, so has a high level to maintain. I think this has to be proved to the parents possibly more than the children as the parents are the ones who will choose what their child will watch, especially when at such a young stage of their life. If Disney drop below their standard barrier the parents are a click of a button away from changing the channel.

Cbeebies Ident






Cbeebies is the main childrens channel I have been researching because if if I were to take on my brief as if it were real, Cbeebies would be my main competitor.
I spent a good amount of time watching Cbeebies yesterday and the ident you see below is the one played at the current time, almost every 10-15 minutes between every programme. The one at the top is a mixture of two idents.

After researching many on youtube they all consist of these yellow blob-type characters representing the font of the Cbeebies type. The characters are portrayed to be very flexible and bouncy, reminding me of playdoh. Every letter of the Cbeebies title I think is supposed to be one of these characters shown, which gives the audience the automatic link between the characters and the channel. Never forgetting them both as one reminds yourself of the other. I like this idea and could be something to look into.

Monday 17 January 2011

Identity: Disney Channel



I thought it would be a good idea to compare how the identity of a channel changes when delivering to a different age group.

Here we have the same company 'Disney' though different channels. The original Disney channel and Playhouse Disney. The original caters for children from 9-13 I would say, and Playhouse Disney is for around the ages 3-6.

The font and colours are completely different however both maintain the iconic image of the mouses ears, to keep that instant link the company needs to be recognisable to its viewers. This is also apparent in the classic Disney signature both identities show.

The font of the word 'Playhouse' is very bouncy looking and varies in colour, except for the purple the colours are basic primary colours which are normally associated with the younger age group, from pre-school to infants.

The original Disney channel has more mature colours and not as many and the word 'channel' has a font that is seemingly straight to the point and not very stylistic. However the shape of each letter is slightly curved, diminishing sharp corner. This represents a font that is more adult (as children of that age group like to believe they're verging on adulthood) though still child friendly.