For brief 3, ‘Message Delivered’, like any good ol’ project I start it off with an annotated brief and taking apart the brief itself and its questions to come up with ideas for a solution.

There is a lot of good places in Worcester that I think could represent the character of this town and its cultural and historical value, so I made a mind map of all the perks of the different locations that could symbolise the character of Worcester.

The more I thought about it, a lot of these places were very well known among the locals and visitors alike, however I realised the Museum of Royal Worcester was underappreciated. It has a huge impact on Worcester’s social and cultural history, what with the city being once a hub for luxurious porcelain and had one of the most well-established porcelain industry in the 1800s. Though people may not think much of it at first, they would change their minds once visiting such a place, and I’ve gone ahead and got myself an annual pass to the museum and visited the area to explore more about it and if I want to do my project based upon this.

The following gallery block contains photos I have taken in the museum itself. It’s incredibly colourful and wonderful to see that all these famous pieces were crafted by talented locals and artists of 250 years ago.

Because of this, I was incredibly inspired to do my third brief on this place. I think it could be appreciated more, its just not many people know about it or they presume its closed, just like the Royal Porcelain Factory next to it. It is located in a quieter area of the city centre, so I’ve decided to run an outdoor campaign of sorts to raise awareness of its presence and for people to also become invested and know more about Worcester’s cultural history.

Worcester may not be a big city or town, but it definitely has a way of bringing people together. I’ve met so many wonderful people, from different areas of the world, but they find themselves drawn to Worcester for its cosiness and safety, there’s something about that seems very welcoming and this same exact feeling of embracement and diversity was reflected over 250 years ago with the porcelain scene, in which many creative artists and crafters moved to Worcester to join the community. I want to portray and signpost people to this attribute of Worcester that I believe defines one of its many charming characteristics.

Again, I attended a peer group session with Alan and Kristian, both very proactive members of the cohort and are always very welcoming and collaborative, I really do appreciate them for this and bringing more people together! I shared with them my Pinterest board inspiration for brief 3, as I had to started to look into outdoor-based advertising campaigns. I particularly liked the idea of projecting onto buildings to represent campaigns or just to make a very interactive advert move. What I find is the people of Worcester really like interactive outdoor campaigns.

Sharing these ideas with my peers, they did suggest why don’t I try to depict an image the way I want people to see it? So for instance, drawing over on top of a photo to make it even more appealing. This then inspired me to look into photography, and making use of the photos I had taken at the museum.

I then looked into ad campaigns locally and what was very popular with the people is the Digital Totems. They are interactive billboards, scattered around the town centre as well as the County, and also located by bus stops. They seem to have a limited 30 second timer for ads, so I took several photos of them to create mock-ups with.

The library also had them too, The Hive, which is a cultural landmark for Worcester and the first hybrid university and public library for both students and the public. It was also opened by the Queen herself in 2012. The Hive is a cultural magnet for people who want to know more about Worcester and expand their knowledge in general, they also have a digital totem ad, so having an ad of the Museum featured there would also be ideal!

I wanted to create an animated advert to go on these digital totems. Though I’ve always been interested in Motion Graphics and I have started taking basic classes of After Effects (I’m hoping to join the ACP for After Effects in January with Falmouth Learning), this was quite a challenge for me and a learning curve. So I started mapping out my ideas and the characteristics of the museum.

I liked the concept of making a storyboard for the animated totem, but also I wanted to create a waymark/sign posting of sorts for people to find the museum easier. Because of this, I turn to my sketch book for sketches and conceptualisation. The porcelains have always been so detailed and intricate, I thought about ways I could simplify or even modernise these by perhaps creating icons to resemble them.

I then made some porcelain icon myself on Adobe Illustrator, using my sketches and some of the porcelain I saw within the collection and the museum’s own collection on their website.

I’ve vectorised my sketches, and I made a pattern as well depicting how porcelain is made as well as the different shapes and sizes it goes by. I wanted to illustrate this and place it upon a spinning vase. I was inspired by greek vases, and how they tell a story narrative in their craft.

I put elements of what I’ve done together, and used the plate as a waymark/floor decal of sorts inspired by visual research from my Pinterest and my feedback from my peers.

I then proceeded to put all my assets together unto After Effects, after making a mock-up on Adobe Illustrator, which I’ve taken pictures of static versions of and used it as a basis to animate.

I also have a static mock-up of the digital ad on a totem image below, and the animated version is uploaded here on my dropbox, which can be viewed at 1080p HD and full screen.