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Dundee / Ayr, United Kingdom
Graphic Design, Photography, Design, Freelance. 3rd Year Graphic Design, Duncan of Jordanstone College Of Art and Design

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Aviva Life Insurance


I saw this Aviva advert while I was eating my tea this evening, and I had to go find it and watch it again to see if I heard it right.

The advert completely threw me as Paul Whitehouse who usually uses comedy and impersonations to sell insurance takes on a more dramatic role. Although appearing normal throughout in the last few seconds of the advert it turns out he is dead in a Bruce Willis, 6th Sense style.

This I felt was quite a striking and effective way of selling life insurance. It was a bold direction change from Aviva's marketing team but I'm sure they will create a bit of a stir from it. As they say any press is good press.


Thursday 20 January 2011

Assignment 1 Part 1...The Deathly Hallows


I completed the online Learning Style Assessment or VARK test as some call it, at www.brianmac.co.uk/learnstyle.htm. My results were as follows:

VARK Test. 19/01/11
Activist - Very Strong
Reflector - Low
Theorist - Strong
Pragmatist - Moderate

I feel that my results were wholly quite accurate in all truthfulness. For my strongest area, Activist, I thought this reflected quite well of me, especially where it mentioned that I have trouble learning in a formal lecture and reading/writing area. Perhaps not so much in the terms of thinking though. By looking at areas of where I scored lowest mainly Reflector, I think I get the most accurate description of myself. Unlike reflectors I learn better with deadlines, when in control and under pressure. I enjoy having instructions and guidelines to follow, plus asking questions is something that I find very helpful, this would relate to my strong theorist side. As for accuracy, although i do agree with the principles of the Activist description, I would perhaps argue that I am more of a Theorist. But while I had a moderate for Pragmatist I feel unsure if I'm multi-modal.

Assignment 1 Part 2


I initially analysed the rest of my Group following my own VARK test and made projections of what are I thought each person would come out strongest in. I thought that there would be a few Reflectors and Theorists and only had one person down as an Activist and another as a multi-modal as well as two Pragmatists.

However...after our group meeting we should probably be called Team Activist from now on (well perhaps except Becca). Apparently we have a group where everybody got either strong or very strong for Activist, like myself. At first I was surprised by a few but on reflection it seems that our group are all quite similar. We gel quite well as a group ad this could be why. When it comes down to the group task, this could be either a positive or negative thing. Our similarities in learning styles could mean that we work well together in a similar fashion. Although it may be more likely that because of our dominance in the Activist area that we may have some failings in other ares. In the sense that Activists are prone to being strong in leadership then it might be the case that too many cooks spoil the broth.

We should probably look into trying different research and learning methods as to give ourselves the best chance as a group. We seem to lack on the reflective side of learning and that could be an area that as a team we try to improve on to become multi-modal. There are other areas that the group is strong in as three of us are strong theorists, this is something that we cud use to help the other members of our group.

Wednesday 19 January 2011

The Yes Men


In our first lecture of the semester today we were shown a video of The Yes Men Fix The World. From the reaction of everyone watching in the lecture hall it was widely enjoyed. The Yes Men have released the full video on a free in aim to make it as widely broadcast as possible before it gets confiscated.

So enjoy this great video now, as it might not be around for long!

Tuesday 18 January 2011

And Today's Favorite Designers Are...

Kuntzel + Deygas.

This duo of artists have put together a wealth of very interesting typographic work in video form. I came across them while researching for my new typography project for which we have to design a video using After Effects based around "National Reading Week 2011".

Here are some of my favorite works from their company Add A Dog.



Enjoy

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Soaps New Direction?

Image found Here

I found this "Soap Shaver" today, thought it was quite an interesting invention, if you can call it that. I can't work out if this is a forward progression from soap to shower gel to something else or a backwards simplification.

Hmm just a wondering.