Character creating module

This module was really exciting when i first got the brief. I liked the idea of creating something out of just a single, or multiple ideas. The idea of creating characters that are new original gave us a lot of creative freedom. As i started the research it became clear that this module was going to be harder than i anticipated. I have learnt that my research is improving. My research files are becoming more and more developed as i do it more. I am beginning to understand what it means to create a good research to only research things that re of relevance and not research it for the sake of researching.

I began by researching The Proms as i believed that The Proms would be the harder one as i have not heard of that event before. When i researched the festival i found it was more complex that i originally thought therefore my character would be more complex that i may have liked. Researching was easier during this module as i have had practice, also i am starting to research that would benefit me, not researching "blindly".

My characters for the festivals kept changing. I was really confident with some, for example "Dirty Cow" but after talking to Kaye about ideas she told me how to do a self analysis of my work.

I also found that a lot of people were coming up without he same ideas for characters due to people looking at the research found in a similar way. I know that in advertising you need to stand out from the crowd in order to make your advert memorable and unique. Thinking of this i decided that i needed to develop on my Glastonbury idea of using a butterfly as my character as it was a suitable character for the festival however it was also a popular option in the class. When i was doing more research i saw an image of a woman with butterfly wings, this image inspired me to develop my butterfly character. I had ideas of using a butterfly or an eagle, seeing this image made me think, "Why not use both, the butterfly wings on the eagle". This embodies more messages of the festival and makes my character more unique.

After explaining to my tutor "Kaye" she told me, "why stop there" why not develop it further. This is when i created Rosstifer the 1st. This character had the head of an eagle, body of a cow, legs of giraffe and wings of a butterfly. Each animal gives off a different message and the character in total shows a sense of diversity and craziness to the festival, which from research is exactly the message i wanted to give off. My character kept the same qualities but so the character was on all fours, not standing to make it a more versatile character for promotional pieces.

My Proms character was also a rather difficult one, however, with this character once i had the idea i stuck with it. For The Proms i chose a Russian doll. a lot of people were adding facial features and arms and legs initially for the characters, i wanted to step away from that and i thought about what i believed was the message of the Proms. I believed that the festival was about being Open. I researched this phrase and found the Russian Doll.

Once i got my final idea i thought about how i can chug them to be more fitting to the festivals, how they could stand out better and become more unique.

I created these characters on a mac. With previous modules and i would not have developed them using a mac but more Photoshop and illustrator skills have improved more also it was required to create the characters int he style of my chosen Illustrator, and my chosen Illustrators used computer graphics.

The marketing ideas was one i was not looking forward to, but nice i started i found it ok. The marketing aspect of the module was to hit the public as many times as possible in one day. For this i looked at my daily routine and what that was, when and where i used media types or potential promotional places. Then i broke down the different target audiences and looked at how i would visualise their day. This was how i created my marketing strategies and one piece of feed back that i had received for my marketing was that he believed that i had hit the public as many times as i could have, it showed i thought it through.

Feed back from my presentation as a whole was very positives, because:
* I appeared confident
* My Glastonbury did shock the class, which was what i wanted although there was some puzzled faces
* My characters embodied the messages i wished to have given out
* My reasons for choosing my Ilustrators were justified well
* My characters were unique, no one else had the same characters as myself
* People understood my thought processes
* I wa informed that i have good potential to create strong marketing campaigns despite the appearance quality of my work being poor, for example my drawing skills.

i enjoyed this module as it pushed me more despite it being stressful.