Augmented Reality Games

Um, WHY did I not know about this before? ARG's sound like the coolest adult real life video game I've ever heard of in my life. In lecture this week we talked about the ARG that they did for the Dark Knight.... Wow. I am definitely down for the usual scavenger hunt, heck, even an Amazing Race... but this is just way beyond that.


What happened was the creators of the Dark Knight ARG made it looks like the Joker had hacked into everything! Took over websites, playing tricks on people, leaving cell phone numbers in baked cakes and having the cell phone baked into the cake, having the participants in the game follow the clues to solve the mystery...

To make a long story short: ARG's as defined by Wikipedia: An alternate reality game (ARG), is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions.

Here's another example of an ARG that took place a few years back:
http://www.thelostexperience.com/

This one promoted the coming of season three for Lost.
What all these ARG's have in common is that they are an innovative, fun and interactive way to not just market and advertise, let's say, an upcoming film or video game, but it incorporates different forms of digital media and technology. They use websites, cell phones, video cameras, etc...

I want to take this idea and make an ARG of some sort in the near or far future... Hmmm...

Alex Steinweiss

Also known as the man who invented the album cover. He definitely took another aspect of music and made it marketable... and not in a bad way either. If anything, I truly believe music provokes visuals. That's just the type of humans most of us are. We listen to something that is gracing our ears wonderfully, and we can't help but close our eyes and imagine some sort of visual accompaniment. The development and evolution of the album cover is what helps listeners and fans gain a greater perspective into what kind of people or person this is that is producing this music.

Here are a few album covers of Alex Steinweiss':



And here are a few album covers of some recent bands that are out today:

and Radio Head

You can definitely see a lot of Alex's influence. The big chunky and random shapes, like the triangles used in the Keane album. The typography that is used is very simple sans fonts, some look hand written... What I like about these album themes is that it uses very primary and basic colors, and it doesn't look like it really has a color scheme that it follows. It's still very eye catching and appealing.

What shall I do, What shall I do?

I loved the animation on title sequences that Laurie showed us last week. The ones from Saul Bass were pretty inspiring and I'd love to be able to make something of his style. I actually do videos -- some are just montages of my friends and I, many of them are from trips that I've taken, but most recently, my room mates and I have been discussing doing some online web series that is a reality TV show take on our lives together. We can ourselves the Granby Girls. I think it would be amazing if I could create an opening title sequence using picture cutouts of us and quotes in animated text following along to the clips of our voices. I've always liked Cabbie On The Street's little opening bumper:

Finished Product.

The end result of my first time really getting to know how to use Photoshop.

Here is my artist statement:

My poster showcases the classic black and white contrast with the text shaped against the right side of the canvas. I took this photo through the reflection of my compact mirror against the screen of my bedroom window. The collage of words that I chose to put on my poster reveal my passion for documenting every moment in life.

Through my photos and videos capturing the memories I make, I leave behind my legacy and the story of who I am.

Initially, I wanted to create a poster using some of the photos I took in Queens, New York, of graffiti on these buildings that I passed by on the subway. The poster was going to be about a mock graffiti workshop. After much trial and error, the poster ended up looking too busy, with too many components clashing together, much more, the text I wanted to include only added to the graffiti writing that was already in the photos. I also realized that what I wanted to create was very challenging to do because I am not at that particular skill level to produce what I envisioned. I ended up having to scrap that idea and starting from scratch with something brand new.

I decided that keeping it simple was much more effective in producing a great result.

I’ve always loved playing with black and white contrast, especially in photos. My target demographic would be anyone from early teens to older adult. This is the type of poster one could hang as inspiring wall decoration.

For future, I would definitely like to learn better techniques on how to create smoother layering finishes. By layering, I mean the different images and components of the poster. I found that what I was attempting to do looked too choppy and unprofessional. As an end result, I’m pretty satisfied with what I created and I think the poster artistically reflects the poem written.

T-T-Typo-Typography.

Words. Words are shapes, too. The power and meaning in a word to relay a message is incredible. How those words take shape onto a page, much more, the shapes of each individual letter, is an art craft on it's own.

Check out these posters I found:

James Brown -- I love how the different colors and shapes of the words actually create his face. The type of font used is very soulful and funky, just like James Brown's era. Considering this is a poster that is promoting his concert, I think the font chosen is very effective.

This poster is by my friend Bozack Morris. It's promoting a party he does with A Good Life and Brink entertainment. The font used here is very futuristic, as well as with the smaller font used to accent, is the same font that's used on digital clocks. I think the 3D use of the lettering, along with the bright white contrasting the dark starry background makes it really stand out. It gets it's message across quite well.

This last poster is of my friend's band, the Styrofoam Ones. The font used here is a hand written all capitals lettering that goes well with the cartoon caricature drawings of the faces in masks. The use of this font reveals a very grungy hipster kind of band/show, which is exactly the type of group that the Styrofoam Ones are. It definitely does a good job in reflecting the central theme.

These are great inspiring bits to think of for future poster making.