Japan.

For the cubicle design.. looked to see if there were any differences between here and Japan. They are big on cleanliness, they remove their indoor slippers before stepping into their bathroom slippers! Even their toilets are hi-tech, they have heated toilet seats. 

I found this quite interesting, the typical flat in tokyo is very small, as accommodation is so expensive. Even if i was just to impose this onto the lift walls, to portray the small flats that some people live in. The image of traditional interior of tatami floors, mutted clay walls, shoji screens and empty spaces is little evident in the average Japanese home. 

So, my research topic is Japan. Quite a broad one! But i think the best direction for me to go to, is to look at everyday life there, concentrating on Tokyo.

I have got lots of books and have started to scan in some visuals. These are the ones i have found most interesting so far. I am going to concentrate on the lift environment first. And then look into cubicles and telephone boxes. Then go onto the poster design. Me and Jai have both decided to work in this way on our separate countries.  

Japan is a land saturated in juxtaposition, where the traditional world continually meets and melds with the modern. The long history of simultaneously adapting and distinguishing the native from the western is a markedly singular Japanese trait. 

Ever since Japan opened its shores to the outside world in the meiji era in 1868, it raced to catch up with the west. The country grew at a remarkable rate.

Our chosen enviroments..

A bit of Primary Research.

Today, we went into Town with the aims of doing a bit of research into O2 and other phone networks/companies. Also to take photographs of our chosen environments (lifts, telephone boxes and cubicles)

As we are doing some print based work, we need to start looking at more existing print based work, to start weighing up how ours will look, what we need to keep the same and what we need to change. Here are some examples.
As i have already mentioned, they always use the gradient in the background, so we have to include this somewhere I think. Another thing they always use is the oxygen bubbles. I think we have decided to go for a bit of a change and not use them. We want something that is going to stand out, which is why we have been considering guerilla advertising.

Another advertisement, for the older strap line, see what you can do. I prefer this to their newest one, it is just more intriguing. However, for our work we have decided on doing print based design, we might consider documenting some of our work with video, but not to create a motion advertisement.

An O2 advertisement in a bus shelter.

This is the work of another student that i found on their blog (above) I just found it interesting as at first I thought it was just another example of some work by o2, and we were looking at playing with the connect 4 idea too.

This is an advertisement from one of their older campaigns - see what you can do. I prefer their new one, the word connect allows for lots of graphic possibilites! Its good to see how they stick to their theme, with the gradient in the background. That should be something that we definetley include, its part of their trademark really.

The I-phones is their sponsor really, its the only network you can get this phone on. Which is part of the reason O2 is such a popular network and so well known.

The most recent advert.

This is O2's most recent advert for 'we're better connected.'
To be honest, I am not too keen on there animations, mainly because they are not very realistic, which makes it harder for the audience to relate to it. I think they are really good, and has obviously needed skill and talent to create, and it does look good. But personally, It does not appeal to me, and i think with advertising, you need to find something that could appeal to everyone, on different levels.