Logos with hidden meanings

I recently came across this site about logos with hidden messages and i was amazed at how simple but effective each logo was.

A few of the logos i've seen before but obviously haven't taken in as i've never noticed the discreet but very clever messages imprinted in each one, such as; the Toblerone logo.

I've been aware of Toblerone for many years and have consumed my fair share but have never once noticed that the mountain at the top had the figure of a bear in it, i was also unaware that the arrow in the amazon logo, as well as representing a smile conveys they stock everything from a to z as it starts at the "a" and ends at the "z". This shows that logos are more complex than we think and as well as being aesthetically pleasing there is usually a deeper explanation as to why they look the way they do.

http://theroxor.com/2009/10/22/23-brilliant-logos-with-hidden-messages/

Brainstorming and Discussion

I have to admit i wasn't looking forward to this task at all, as i was a bit unsure of what was expected of me and i still am, but once i got in to it and ideas began to emerge i actually started to enjoy it.

Ten minutes was all we gave ourselves to brainstorm each topic, and within that time limit we wrote down as many things as we could which related to our chosen segment of the book. I chose The power of context part 2 (The magic number 150) and at first we struggled with things to say but after looking over my mind map words began to flow and before we knew it our ten minutes were up.

After brainstorming the other topic we decided we would discuss straight away while everything was still fresh in our heads, instead of discussing each topic individually we decided to discuss the topics together and just state the ideas we had for either of the topics. Again we struggled with the magic number 150 and the only thing we could really come up with was business buildings and their car parks having a limit of 150 spaces, we thought this was almost a duplication of Gore but decided to write it down anyway. After a long discussion in to the other topic we then began to come up with more ideas for the magic 150 and i have now been left with lots of things to think about.

Facebook used to be the place were you wrote on walls poked your friends commented on you day and shared photos among friends, now people seem to be using Facebook to play games one game in particular which seems to be the obsession at the moment is Farmville.

Farmville is a virtual farm where you begin by designing the way your farmer looks then start planting seeds. Each seed has a different price and harvest time which is in sync to real time. You can expand your farm, purchase buildings, animals, vehicles and decorations You can help out at your friends farms to gain extra cash, send them free gifts and also do various things to work towards gaining ribbons.

I began playing the game after my friends told me how good it was, at the start i found it a bit slow and not very exciting but it then became very addictive, and i found myself checking my farm every time i logged into Facebook to guarantee that my plants would be harvested on time and wouldn't be spoiled. Now after (i hate to say it) several months of playing the game i am beginning to find it a bit boring but still continue to play it, why is this? what makes a game so addictive that even when you you would probably find more excitement from watching paint dry you still continue to play it?

The truth is i'm not too sure but what i do know is that it definitely has the stickiness factor.

Cafe world similar to Farmville is virtually the exact same game but you run a cafe instead of the farm and guess what after a week of playing im already addicted. ARRRRRRRRRRRGHHHH!

"Every little helps"

Shopping in St Andrews the other day when a woman in a shop (can't remember the name of it)came up to us and asked are you students, we replied yes and then she said use this voucher the next time you purchase something from us and get 5% off. 5% is that it? Honestly why bother? The whole point of student discount is to save us some money and make items of a ridiculous price more affordable but 5% is hardly going to save you much. I don't think there was anything in the shop cheaper than £40 which means i would save £2, i'm hardly going to survive through the week knowing i've a whole £2 extra to spend. A necklace from this shop cost £90 how can you justify this when it was made out of beads which probably cost a couple of pence each to make and they think there saving us money by giving us 5% off, eh no i don't think so.

According to Tesco "every little helps" and of course it does but a measly 5% off an item priced £90 would mean you were saving £4.50 you'd be better of not buying it in the first place and saving the whole £90 than a mere £4.50. Student discount is shops is generally 10% which in most cases is a bit tight but 5% come on, why bother.

Sushi, what WOOD you do?

VERY rough mock up ideas.

On receiving the task that i had to come up with a revolutionary food source containing both sushi and wood and create the packaging for the product i was excited and also a bit stumped, but began to come up with a few ideas after looking through my original sketchbooks on both subjects.

I decided on some sort of tree which would grow sushi, but came across a lot of issues and question such as;

Does the tree grow all ingredients needed to make the sushi or does the tree grow the sushi already made?

Am i going to package the seeds or the tree?

Is there one type of tree that grows all sushi's or several different sushi trees?

If the tree grows ingredients then one of the ingredients is going to have to be a type of fish, such as lobster or crab, which belongs in the water and it isn't going to be very safe if a live crab is pincing away on a tree while someone walks by.

I then thought that if i wanted the tree to grow the ingredients then i could think of the fish as just meat rather than a living animal and it could be the equivalent to flowers on a tree and the rice could grow like the leaves of the tree. As sushi contains vinegar rice i then thought that the tree could be watered with a mixture of vinegar and water which would then create the vinegar rice. I then realised that for a tree to be able to grow a substantial amount of sushi the tree would have to be quite large, so i have decided to package the seeds instead of the tree itself.

After thinking i had my food source sorted i decided to look at all the different types of seeds and while doing this research came across tulip tree seeds which are dispersed from pods. This gave me the idea to make a tree which grew pods on it similar to the tulip seed pods, but instead of seeds growing within the pods ready made sushi would grow inside them. The heat from the sun would cook the sushi within the pods and the pods would open on completion of this processing letting people know that they were ready to eat. After the sushi has been picked the pods would fall to the ground becoming the seeds, ready to be planted to create a new sushi tree.

I'm now in the process of coming up with ways to package my seeds so far i've come up with a few ideas but am struggling to come up with anymore, need to do some thinking.

CAD

Over the past couple of weeks i have been creating a booklet to advertise and promote trainers. The purpose of the exercise was to get us more comfortable using photoshop and indesign and to experiment with the two programmes. I thoroughly enjoyed creating all the pages within my booklet and as a result have become more familiar with how both programmes work. I definitely hope there are more projects similar to this, to come.

My Website

In the process of designing my website, all is going well so far. I've managed to create both my homepage and a photos page. I've gone for a simplistic, quirky kind of look, which i think works quite well. Really enjoying it as my preferred method or working is on computers and i am looking forward to learning how to master flash.

Toy story 3D

When i heard Toy story was showing in 3D i was ecstatic, and knew i just had to see it. I felt like a child again walking into the cinema & collecting my 3D glasses, i thought this is going to be great. My first thoughts as the curtains opened was Wow! The 3D trailers were awesome, i was amazed at how real it looked. As the movie began i think the novelty of the 3D 'ness' wore off as 10 minutes into Toy Story i thought to myself this is £6 i am never going to get back. I was so unimpressed , why pick Toy Story as a movie to re-release in 3D?

There isn't enough action, nothing jumps out at you or ever feels like its there right in front of you rather than on screen. I suppose it was chosen as its well loved by all ages and genders, its a classic and therefore thought it was the ideal movie to make more money from.

The movie wasn't unenjoyable it just wasn't any better than if i'd watched it old school on a video at home. I was disappointed with my 3D experience but have not been put off watching others in the future, A Christmas CArol here we come!

The Tipping Point mind map

From doing this mind map i have learnt and understood a lot more of the tipping point, it was a very useful exercise as when reading the book it was hard to take in everything which was being said. However this mind map has helped break down all the information making it more memorable.