Presentation Format

The situation I proposed to the audience to persuade them to use Pillow Me pillow when they need enough rest is the situation of when people are tired from study/work. In order to make the presentation and the project concepts to be relevant to each other, that is why I chose to design my presentation format as a flip book.

Thoughts from guest speaker

On November 22, we had a guest speaker, Liad Baniel, come to show some interesting design works of some well-known designers. Also we could get a chance to get his critiques on our assignments individually.

I showed him my marketing spot draft and style-frames. The critiques were very helpful especially on the part of my logo, "Pillow Me", that the highlight was read as ill, which conveys negative meaning to the product. Then I decided to change the design from having highlighted colors to having one solid color for the whole identity.

His critiques for the style-frames and the idea of my marketing ads about having a microwave metaphorically represents immediate nap the product provide are, again, very helpful. He pointed out some good points such as the microwave could mislead the message of we're selling a pillow to we're selling a microwave, and showing a microwave is not convincing customers enough to feel why they really want our product. I, again, then decided to go back to my old direction of marketing spot by having a person wearing a pajamas at work to represent that person is all ready for bed though working. And once she takes a nap with Pillow Me pillow, which takes her only 5 minutes, she wakes up dressing proper attires and looks fresh.

From that turning point, I learn that each project, if working in reality, needs much more time to reinforce on every single one.

PillowMe: Styleframes

The mood and styles of PillowMe marketing ads are projecting that PillowMe can turn your tired and long day into a fresh and beautiful day within a quick sleep like cooking with a microwave.

PillowMe: Ads Inspiration

There is an advertisement for Hoover(though when I first saw it I had no idea what Hoover is). There is nothing much going on on the ads but an awaiting moment of a single deserted luggage slowly coming out from an airline luggage pick-up tray. Audience follow the ads and doubt about how the scene would pay-off.

I apply this awaiting moment to my PillowMe ads by having a clock on a microwave as the only moving object on the scenes, and the pay-off shows up when the clock counts as "0".

PillowMe "What It Does"

For "What It Does" stop motion, I generate the motion into each step occurring when the product is being used. Starting from a person gets tired, then she puts a pillow(PillowMe product) on, and the product puts this person into her deep sleep and in a stage of dream, and then when she wakes up, her dark circles surrounding her eyes disappear and she becomes fresh and ready for the day.

PillowMe: Marketing Strategy

PillowMe is physically an ordinary pillow that extraordinarily put a user to sleep and go deep into his/her dream at once with its futuristic microchipped technology.

An idea that I think would draw attentions from the audience to consider PillowMe as their useful and everyday products is to promote "a quick sleep bringing up full freshness".

I started brainstorming listing lists of things which metaphorically/visually represent "quickness/fastness". A microwave is the final answer.

Since PillowMe's target is quite mass, a house-whole for instance, especially ones involved with city life(living in rush hours and having small time for relaxation), microwave is a common kitchen tool that city people choose to cook for their meals. Thus, microwaves are relevantly connected to our audience's personal lives easily and directly.

Therefore, a microwave is used to narrate the whole ads by representing a rushing mood of quick sleep and an instant outcome of fully rest that is a pay-off of using the product.

Motion Design:Animation

Motion Design originally began with analog scenes. Each scene was created by consistent drawing or having human's consistent vision to perceive animation. It took a creator a great amount of time to create each single scene. Nowadays, since digital involves, creating animation consumes much less time. Also, other old techniques had been used in the past are still alive in the meantime. Since each technique of different type of animation has its own aesthetic, many contemporary film makers or animators manipulate them together to create their own signature in their works.

No matter how far we go today in technology involvement, number frames, smoothness or coarse of speed in films are still thought based on the same fundamental.

From Picassos to Sarcophagi, Guided by Phone Apps

Lately, there is an article on the New York Times writing to tell about an App on iPhone that works as an audio tour guide in each particular museum such as the MoMA app from London. I went to MoMA quite often since the first year I arrived until the present. I observed that on 3rd floor gallery, visitors are not allowed to talk on the phone. With this App, it would make rules even more sensitive. Normally, if I take my cellphone out from a pocket, expectedly I would be approached by a MoMA staff. They are not going to kick me out. They just want to warn me that "No Cellphone, please." What will happen if I own an iPhone and show them that I am using this App?

It seems to be a double standard among iPhone and other phones these days.

Where Are Facebook’s Employees? At the Movies, of Course

"THE SOCIAL NETWORK", a movie in theatre at the moment, can save a lot of money in promoting itself, since most Facebook, one of the world's big social networks, 's users are already excited to see how the movie would reflect their living. On the other hand, Facebook's workers cannot stay in the office working either. They all want to be out for this movie in order to see if there are any scenes they would like to edit or not!

This movie seems to have a win-win situation!!

China’s Mandatory Vacation, With a Catch

With normal lump of people in public transportation everyday and every time in Beijing, I unnecessarily have to talk about how it would turn out during these crazy and complicated long holidays set up by the official. From the interviews, most Chinese people prefer staying home or being at work to domestically traveling around, since taking a vacation on these day-offs would turn a person to be exhausted stuck in the transportation rather than getting relaxed.

Bedbugs

Bedbugs are common prehistoric creatures like roaches. They suck mammals' blood as their diet. What's uncommon is they were disappeared from American for 40 years since before the 1990's, because at that time DDT was still legal, and it kills bedbugs!!

After the ban of DDT, incorporating with the world's vibrance of travelers, New York City became a new home of bedbugs.

How much sleep do we need?

According to an article, the amount of sleep depends on many factors such as ages, activities, symptoms and so on. Toddlers need 16 hours sleep a day; while in adults, the range is waving between 5-10 hours. All in all, if you have adequate sleeping time, you will never feel sleepy during the day. If not, you may have sleep deprivation.

The recycled pillows at Rice restaurants

Lots of waste in the US came from one-time used materials. At Rice restaurant, with its other locations in the city, they found aesthetics in rice bags from India. This is where the creative idea of creating a pillow case with rice bags came from. Only 1-$20 needed for one unique pillow!!

Color

I agree with the article that our perception in colors varies depending on our background, culture, and tradition. In some cultures, they see brighter colors good meaning; while, in other cultures, those have negative meaning.

We see colors everywhere in our everyday life since the first day we opened our eyes and found that they are not blind.

Still, I think each shade of colors should affect on an individual's mood and feeling separately not depending on any theories. Once, we gather too much directed information; we unnoticeably turn the information to be our believes.

Brand Colors and Images

Do laws even matter today?

I agree with Jonathan Turley, a Public Law Professor at George Washington University, that double-standards and arbitrarily legal practices are relevantly related to both Law and Politics. Politicians write laws, and laws are practiced by politicians.

Since Democracy is run by Representative System, the people, who actually have the right to direct the country, tend to practically have less power. While those people who hold governing power tend to arrogantly adore their power and forget about who, in fact, giving the power to them, and in order them to achive what. If these people, the politicians, could recall the intuitive intentions of what democracy is and why a society needs laws, all the controversial problems would not even have been mentioned.

'Brooklyn Bridge Song'

It has been my third year already living in New York.

I firstly came here with no clues about what the next step of my life would turn to be. I gave myself a chance for one year living my everyday in New York as best as I could, since I barely could foresee whether I could get into a school or not. If I got bad luck, I would have to leave here forever. Before I knew the result from school, I asked myself if I was ready to go back home. The answer was yes. Yes doesn't mean I hate living here; in contrary, I love here so much. And the total amount of my love has already been spent on doing my best in my everyday life since the first year. New York taught me a lot, and the same it did to him, Michael Arthur, a song writer from Austin, Texas.

I truly agree with him that everything that makes living in this city difficult was almost holy in its ability to inspire.

Brand Platform: Theme

Inception

Inception turned some of my friends into weirdos.

"Youuuuu may be dreamingggggg at the momenttt."

Above is a normal sentence I occasionally heard about this movie while it was playing in the theaters.

I wondered if it would affect me, then I got a ticket and went to see it.

Inception didn't bring me to a new world or to any new ideas about unconsciousness.

In contrary, I was more stunned and impressed by its dialogue and how they sequenced each scene. Easily speaking, what surprised me was the art directing of the movie rather than its content.

If the last scene left a message telling people to live their lives consciously and to dream their dreams unconsciously, this movie might work on me. A better man can distinguish between what is real and what is dreaming.

To learn better, take a nap (and don't forget to dream)

Published in: Current Biology

Researchers report that people who take a nap and dream about the task they have just worked on will continue to perform better than those who neither sleep or sleep but don't dream.

Dream is always beautiful.

Isn't it double fun that we can dream of beautiful things and it benefits on us!

Designer of 2015 trends

"There is an underlying unity behind all the various seemingly separate things we see.", a basic assumption of Implicate Order, a theory found by David Bohm, an American quantum physics scientist during 1917-1992.

The 2015 trends for designers unawarely follow Bohm's zeitgeist. An article from the AIGA(American Institute of Graphic Arts), "Designer of 2015 trends", is written to guide the future designers to be broader, cross-disciplinary and deeper in mind and knowledge, since separate things we see today tend to globally merge together in the future.

Knowing how to get the most beautiful form and what the best way to communicate is are not enough. Moreover, designers, in the present, have to understand who their audience are and where their work is gonna present and under in which context.