Tom Hapgood

New Master Chorale Web site

The final project of the Fall 2008 Web 1 course consisted of working with a “real-world” client. We were fortunate to work with the UA Master Chorale, specifically with Web copy writer and Search Engine Management expert Rebecca Haden and with the director and School of Music professor Graeme Langager. All 16 students planned, designed and coded a treatment of the site, with the “winning” project going to Joel McCourt. Thanks also to Shane Richey of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences for moving the site files into place.

Film Festival Screenings Friday, Saturday

Buffalo Flows will be shown Friday, November 14th, at 7:00 p.m. in Theatre 1, or JBHT 216
‘Free, If Only,’ my motion short film, will show just before Buffalo Flows on Saturday, November 15th, at 1:50 p.m. in Theatre 2, or JBHT 266
Details here

The Buffalo Flows Screenings

View The Buffalo Flows web site here
According to Writer/Producer Larry Foley in the Department of Journalism, the screening of The Buffalo Flows documentary was standing-room-only at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival recently. My contribution to the film, which was photographed by Trey Marley of the Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History and edited by Dale Carpenter in the Department of Journalism, is some animation and the packaging design, a piece of which is shown above. The image on the front of the packaging is by Tim Ernst, the famed Arkansas photographer.

The next screening of the film is at 7:00 p.m. on November 14th, in the JB Hunt building as part of the 2008 Northwest Arkansas Documentary Film Festival. Everyone is welcome to come and view (and even volunteer).

‘Elements of Animation’ course’s stop-motions posted

Take a look at the Elements of Animation course’s stop-motion projects, such as this one by Jacob Bain.

Animation Class 5-Frame story

The Elements of Animation class’ first assignment was to create a 5-frame photographic story and post it into the Flickr “Tell a story in 5 frames (Visual story telling)” group, and then see what comments and feedback they get from the crowd at large. Here they are:

Fat Little Piggy
The Lonely Drunk
Directions??
Analog
Organic Architecture
Ready to Ride
Unfortunate Life of a Beet
Unexpected
Can Attack
Birth of a Bubble
Loss Prevention
The Life of a Chick Magnet

How Should You, the Student, Design?

Hello student designers! I’m excited to teach three classes this semester, Web Design 1, Elements of Animation, and Typography. I started thinking about what needs to be said to you as you enter these classes, in the interest of enabling you to get the most out of this experience. So, instead of saving it for the first day of classes, with your accompanying blank stares, I hope you read through this.

You’ll be assigned projects in each class that are designed to make you think and work through problems, initially without the computer. It’s true. As you begin to work on a design project, as well as during the design and production, keep these things in mind.

Worth the time.
Has what you’ve designed been worth the time to make it? Will it be worth the viewer’s time to look at it? Spend enough time to make it so. You’ll never have enough time, so use it wisely. Successful design graduates who stand far above their peers in both work ethic and portfolio strength, will have slept very little during their college career. These students spend every possible moment learning, experimenting, sketching, investigating and observing.

Is it new?
Is what you’re doing new? Have you seen it done before? Once? A thousand times? Has the viewer seen it a thousand times? Should you use the very trendy floral or plant-like graphics in the background of your work, combined with the ever-hanging-on subtle one-color gradient? Should you continue to use all lowercase letters, since it seems so rebellious and “designerly”? Should you run words together with one of them bold? Should you use handwritten, illustration-style letter forms instead of the “Type tool”? Look through the latest design mags and blogs to see what’s trendy, both for inspiration and as caution.

Be clever.
As you start the design process with research, word brainstorms, sketches and storyboards, keep in mind the reaction of the viewer. Are you striving to change his or her perception of an issue or idea? Very few ideas seem to be entirely brand new with a population that doesn’t read or discuss many issues at great depths, so many times with your design, you’re attempting to change or reinforce an existing concept with a very time-limited viewer. How to best do it quickly? And don’t design for design competitions. What is a design competition? Isn’t design a very strong vehicle of specific communication goals many times? When a design is entered into a competition, it tends to be abstracted from the process, target audience and success statistics and runs the risk of becoming nothing more than non-contextual, computer-based art.

A good method:
So, how do you make your class and production time work to the best of your ability? Research, discuss and critique. Look into what you’re doing. Take a little time to figure out the issue or idea. Talk with your friends outside of class about your ideas. Put your work up for critique. Listen to the feedback. Give honest, carefully worded feedback to your fellow students. Go into the design process with confidence: make word lists, do sketches and at some point, sit down at the computer and make it digital.

Web 2 Projects Posted

Check out the first Flash-animated logo project by the Visual Design: Web 2 class and pick out your favorite “andidate,” or first android/robot candidate for President of the United States in the 2048 election. View the “andidates” here.

Follow the Flickr “Tell a story in 5 frames” entries

The students of my Elements of Animation class have submitted their first pre-project, the flickr “Tell a story in 5 frames” contest on visual storytelling. Entrants are asked to submit a visual story in five photographs and the monthly winner is posted in the official Group Pool. Let’s wish them luck! Here they are:

Jessica Ramirez “Cupcakes”
Gina Waits “The Car Wash”
Jason Reid “Lara’s Wedding”
Josh Daugherty “Payback”
Matt Campbell “Cereal Wars”
Vivi Chase “Game Over”
Kirsten Caldwell “table the kitten”
Matt Meers “The Sculptor”
Dusty Zelk “Game Day”
Napoleon Dezaldivar “False alarm at the dentist’s office”
Lisa Leamons “Shadow Dragon Prophecy”
Trey Fairchild “peanut butter and jelly sandwich”

Web 2 Final Projects

The projects are in from Bertha Gutierrez, Sean Borsodi, Ali Williams, Tony Williams, Billy Pope and Anna Vernon. View them here (bottom of page).

Web 2 latest project posted (p4)

This project involved creating an interactive Flash experience that explores layering and juxtaposition of video and text.

• Ali Williams, “Sweet”
• Sean Borsodi, “Translucent”
• Billy Pope, “Sticky”
• Anna Vernon, “Shadow”
• Tony Williams, “Orange”
• Bertha Gutierrez, “Green”