Presentation exercise

Old Boy is a Korean film that became very popular because of the impact it had on its audience. There was an American remake done in 2013. Hollywood wanted to carry the medal of this great script, but THIS is the movie that deserves all the merit.

Min-Sin Choi is a regular Korean businessman. One day, all of a sudden, he is kidnapped and confined for years in a cell with nothing else but a TV. The kidnappers do EVERYTHING to keep him alive, but they never speak to him. He doesn't know why he is there.

Do you know when someone says something like "it's impossible to be original... everything has already been done". Well, this film is the proof that that's not true at all. The narrative doesn't follow the genre codes. It is savage, goes very deep into the human soul. It's not a film for everyone, but it is a very powerful and perverse master piece.

After the presentation I was told that the use of type was quite bold, which is very good to keep the attention from the audience. I looked passionate about the film (which I am), and it made the presentation more believable. It seems that I managed to tell enough information for people wanting to know more about it.

Other interesting points noticed in other presentations was:

Engage with audience.
Don't focus just on the product.
Using gifs makes a presentation lighter and more humouristic.
Leaving people hanging with a black slide at the end is also a good way to end.
Adapt the content depending on the audience.
End with quote
If the time is limited, go fast explaining things super shortly and making it fun
Make a clear structure of heading, body and ending.

Bank Notes published on a website

The bank note shown in the exhibition 'Money is ___ ?' that took place at the Bank House has been published by featured by the Spanish RPS Federation of Republicans. This was after contacting them and other different entities that could potentially be interested in these designs.

The design is inspired in Pablo Picasso, a relevant figure that is well known for his political opinions and support to the Spanish Republic, and its intention is to portray how a bank note would possibly look like in a contemporary III Spanish Republic using its original currency: the peseta.

Second year evaluation (so far)

From the beginning of the course I've tried to focus my work so it leads me to the part of the industry I'm interested in working at. The COP essay I'm writing is about title credits as a bridge between graphic design and cinematography.

Although I know what I want, it's difficult for me to identify what kind of studios could be potentially interested in my work. Also, I don't see how my work is going to make them want to work with me. This is a lack of confidence that needs to be resolved, and for that I've been asking the designers in the industry if they could tell me how to improve my portfolio, but sadly no one has replied. That's why I intend to send letters or something else for a more effective call of attention.

This year is being quite challenging not only by the amount of work, but the creative constrain I'm experiencing. I feel mentally rigid when trying to come up with new ideas or improve existing ones, and not feeling very pleased with the final outcomes. I guess it's normal: we have limited time to make things we've probably never done before.

I've been assisting to three workshops during the two assessment weeks on January. They were about CVs, Cover Letters and job hunting. It was very interesting and the information will be very useful when looking for a job. Also, they offer support for this matter, so if I struggle doing all this I will contact them, which compensates the simplicity of the workshops.

I would highlight how useful was to know the different types of CV and their purposes. The specifications on the cover letter are also very useful to make sure one is making the right use of the space provided. The Job hunting workshop was more of the same of what is being said in the sessions: the best way to find a job is contacting studios and doing internships/placements. It's very important to identify one's Unique Selling Point, something I have to work on.

I've been looking into companies like Blizzard or Riot Games to participate in their internship programs, but one needs to have an American visa to be eligible for this. On the other hand, I've mailed Rockstar Games and no answers.

Regarding the trip to Berlin, I've been looking through different studios and there's one I'm interested in visiting, which is Pulse films. I've discovered it from Simon Harrison, since one day he showed a talk shared by It's Nice That of the director of a music video.

Last year I made a book about the musician Carlos Núñez and I've been trying to contact him as I uploaded photographs of it to my Behance profile and I thought he might like to have a copy of it. Unfortunately, there has been no answer yet, but it seems that I can find a way to contact him through a common friend.

No Man's Sky

Since the videogame No Man's Sky was announced I've always been amazed by its art direction, especially about the colour palettes they have used.

This game made me discover the great designer Matthew DiVito, who I'm sure will be a huge influence in my work from now and on.

Grant Duncan, the art director of NMS, gave a great talk at the Game Developers Conference in LA. It's very interesting to see the design decisions in order to make a procedurally generated universe to work with the rules they've set and how other works have inspired them.

Best of luck with the wall

This project is such an obvious response to the question that that's exactly what makes it brilliant.

Josh Begley shows in the following link how big the border of the USA with Mexico is to point out how ridiculous is Trump's idea of building a wall.

This project is very simple, but very laborious, which has made me reconsider obvious responses and give them the value they deserve.



Check it out here.

Presentation skills

These two videos go very well with the knowledge acquired at the Broadening Horizons workshop. The first talk is done by Will Stephen, and he shows how to use intonations and pauses when presenting to keep the attention from the audience. The second is done by Simon Sinek. This man has been a great discovery to learn important things about marketing. He explains the success of companies like Apple due to the fact that people buy the "why", not the "what". In other words, people buy what companies believe in.

The Marble Machine

The Marble Machine is a creative concept that consists in unifying different musical instruments in one single gadget that makes the instrument sound through the use of marbles. This has been very inspirational, because what it might seem like a crazy idea it eventually was put to work resulting in a brilliant and interesting machine. It is the clear example of "form follows function".

Branding: A fascinating topic

Everytime there's a project about branding it feels like seeing something written in Chinese: it's beautiful, even more beautiful when explained, but very difficult to do something similar unless you speak the language.

In the last months there are two examples of branding that deserve to be mentioned. One is the logotype for Nintendo Switch, which has caused discussions between designers such as David Hellman or Ian Wexler.



The other one is a project made by the designer Gary Corr, who effectively used colours for a tattoo removal studio branding.

This is probably not the type of work I would like to focus in, but I can't avoid feeling fascinated by it. If one day I have the opportunity to further develop my knowledge in branding, I will definitely take the chance.

Nintendo Switch logo explanation here.

Gary Corr design here.

Creating a Network: Strategy

How PPP is designed gives a good opportunity to come up with a strategy for making contacts in the industry that can be tested and improved for 3rd year and onwards. I took the time to look through different studios, but I realised how useless this was if I didn't know what I specifically wanted to do. After some time thinking about it, I know that I want to work doing graphic design in a studio that also does cinematography. A 3rd plan would be working in the video-games sector. Also, I would like to work either in UK or Spain, preferably Barcelona.

Going out and contacting people creates important links to the industry that can be used to find a job in the future. The opportunity of speaking with someone in the industry eventually came up, and it was very awkward to realise that the CV (or Linked In) and portfolio were almost empty and not updated. So then, the first things to do was to polish those two aspects. Also, as part of making new contacts, increasing the activity on Linked In commenting on others publications and work has allowed me to make a few new contacts.

Before this stage was completely polished, several studios were approached to see if they could say something about my work and portfolio, how to improve it, what to focus on, etc. And at this point was very plausible how important is to make real contact (and not virtual) with someone, either by letter, phone call or personally. When talking about their work (if they answered the e-mails) they were more interested, but when it came to talk about my work (even though they seemed interested) the responses ceased. Another thing I've realised is that big companies already have programs or structured procedures for people interested in doing internships, normally involving CV and portfolio.

Phone calls would be a great way to contact, but sending something unique that makes them wonder what it is could be even a better way to get their attention as it was suggested during the lessons. One of the ideas was to send 2 postcards, one of a dog and another one of a cat, kind of saying that I wasn't sure if that person was a cats or dogs person, but that's something that needs to be identified yet. For now my virtual public face is sorted to avoid falling in the same mistake as previous occasions.

Polishing the portfolio, the most relevant pieces of work were photographed and uploaded. Not every single project is shown to avoid boring the visitor. Less is more.

https://www.behance.net/AlejandroZorita


I have tailored a list of the studios and professionals that I would like to work with. To begin this research, I used a book I bought some time ago. I also created started to follow on Linked In people I wanted to contact with, but unfortunately this platform doesn't have a way to show the people you follow, only the companies.



- TV Series/Media/Film Endemol Shine Group (Kudos, House of Tomorrow) - Utopia, Black Mirror
Gaumont television
Lionsgate Television
Nomadic Pictures
Netflix
Mubi
Polar films

Pulse films (Studio in Berlin that can be visited)
Filmin
Escandalo films
A contraluz films
La fábrica Naranja
Pomp&clout
PostPanic
El Deseo
Alamo Films
Activa Films
El dedo en el ojo
Perspective Pictures

- Video games
Blizzard
Riot games
Square-enix
Rockstar games
Team 17
Nintendo
Konami
Hello Games

- Graphic Design
Far from home
Artimaña

Óscar Mariné

Mario Eskenazi

Diego freijoo
26 Keys Productions
Giant leap productions

Zoom
Erre Creativa
Only
Lo Siento
Bualá Communication
Vasava
Folch Studio
We are mucho

- Creative news sites
Código Nuevo
Yorokobu
Cultura Inquieta
Brandemia
Design Observer
Gráffica info

I've been also talking with people I already know in the industry, that is related to it or that know people in it to let them know about my interests: working in graphic design/cinematography/video-games. This is an interesting article I found that can inform what I want to send the studios to grab their attention.