Unravel the Mystery - evaluation

So it is done. Its been a long time in the making, but I've handed in my work, all completed.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/1/10/1690508/unravel%20the%20mystery.swf

(swfup has disappeared and I'm at a loss to find a functioning uploader, so I'll just have to provide the SWF to download)

This post is basically all the extra bits that I couldn't fit into the limited 1500 word report.

Firstly, as with the last time I encountered Flash, I experienced the see-saw effect; going from hating Flash to really liking it! The learning curve this time around was far higher than before, although the basic 'gotoAndStop' was still used a lot!

I am very happy with what I've made and think it's a good standard for an entry piece. My favourite bit is the home scene. It looks good to me being quite shady, especially with the shadow being cast on the wall. Furthermore, the idea of using a folder to contain all this, and making a character profile sheet just gives it that more 'confidential document' type look. From being a complete 3DSMax novice at the start of '08, I feel pleased in the progress I've made.













What worked well (once I managed to sort it, quite simply really - use a stop function at the end of each video!) was the video glasses, and being able to select what video to watch. I was restricted in Identities Part 1 as it was a straight forward AVI, whereas this time it was all about user interaction. We are beginning to enter an era of on demand video, and so I thought it quite a nice touch to be able to choose. Add to that the fortune of being able to maintain watching using the glasses viewpoint means it is all the more cooler.



One slight downside to this though is that a few of the intros used the letterbox effect, and meant that it sort of looked a little odd having the two black bars across the top and bottom, and then the fading grey effect on top. Never mind though -people might not notice anyway?!
Another favourite thing of mine was the logo section. Not only was I able to doodle and play around with quite a few designs, once I had hit on the design I liked, I decided to implement a style that is popular now - the faded reflection.

Strangely enough, the sketch for my final logo was a last minute, just chuck it down on the page one. This seems to have happened a lot in this project - ideas at the top of my creative output weren't always the ones I selected!



I feel the reflective technique gives it a sleek, shiny, glossy, modern look, and does so in quite a subliminal way. Of the examples I perused to practice this technique (Apple, AVON TV ad) I had never in my head been able to nail what I liked about it. It was only once I noticed the reflection and the way it imposes a sort of surface for the item to be sitting on that I thought I wanted to implement on my own logo. I really like my logo, the colours and circular shapes all blend and interweave nicely, and the bold 'ae' stands out, drawing attention. In addition, the sources of inspiration were of a good standard anyway, so by combining predicted a good result (hopefully!)

I really like playing around in Powerpoint and inserting motion graphics. Sometimes though it was quite frustrating: I'd find a look that all looped in, and synced on screen nicely, then I'd change something slightly and it would all knock it off and I'd already Saved the new version over the original. Luckily I'd recorded a copy of it so could refer back. This is one pointer I need to remember - save many, many times, under different names! I've been stuck in the habit of just pressing Save for the last how many years in my computer life, meaning it overwrites the good work. So like back in school, I'll set myself a target: Use Save As and append the file name!

I would have liked multi-faceted audio to accompany the motion, but as there is a lack of good quality and free sfx online, I edited on Audacity - reversing, slowing it down, fading it in. I am now content with the finshed AVI, and intend to continue developing my work in this area.



My favourite section of all is 'Crack the code'. I think it is an ingenious way of revealing aspects of my Identity. On the one hand you were required to sift through the information, using the descrambling method (something that I find fun and intriguing and really appeals to me). The poem also individually helps sell another fragment of my Identity (I like being creative with words and writing, probably due to being a fan of reading) and then once you find the word, it reveals another fragment of my personality! But what?! ...you'll have to find out!

For the main piece I included background sound from a mystery/detective genre (if at all there is one!), which hopefully helps building and signifying the theme of the piece. However, as the music isn't fundamental I decided to make available the choice to turn this on or off. - In my own experience, background sound can get annoying and tedious. User testing comments similarly shared this point of view, in that, if you need to focus, you don't want it on auto repeat and playing the same thing seven times over.

I did encounter a few downsides for Identities part 2. In my original designs for the MINI game, I wanted to use a countdown clock which would reduce the score awarded, depending on how quickly the user responded. - Pretty much a standard feature in online Flash games. However, I think I was slightly over ambitious in trying to achieve this, as the coding was complex and not really what you'd expect a noob to comprehend! As a result, I decided to leave this out, but if I were to do this project again, this is a feature I would definitely attempt to implement, so to reflect the standard of what competitors in the market are doing.

My intention for the code section was to be that the user found the letters, dragged them onto the answer area, and once all assembled it would display 'Complete'. Coding wise, this required using hit target areas or calculating x and y co-ordinate areas. I did try to get this to work, and received no 'Compiler Errors', but it simply wouldn't happen for real. The letters would just sit there! I managed to make a work around, a different input method - a text entry box, which works adequately, but it would have been nice to achieve what I intended.



Lastly, as we were loading our interactive pieces onto disc, my first trials of executing a working preloader just wouldn't work. It would just go straight to the main home page, completely bypassing the loading stage. It escaped me, as the coding was all correct and nothing erronous. On browsing through several preloader tutorials, I found the reason to be that the disc required no downloading! It wasn't on a server! So code with some var figures, posing as data that needed to be downloaded, meant that for the sake of the disc the preloader would work!



I tried to include a little animation of some finger prints appearing, or footsteps walking up the page, but my motion tweening technique are not as up to scratch as I'd like. The shape tween would let the heel of the shoe and ball of the foot appear, but it filled it in a peculiar manner, so I removed it altogether. I know that there is a technique of altering how it appears, but at this stage in time, felt that the interactive sections needed more focus.

As a side note, I chose to use the wording 'the answers you seek are LOADING' as other sites that I've visited used an enticing message and it spurred me on, increasing my interest. So hopefully using this technique on my site will have the same effects.

So all in all, I feel I have learnt a lot through this part of the Identity module - techniques, design processes, software skills. And add onto that my completed site! It has spurred me on to carry forward what I have learnt and experiment with Flash, making more sites, which I feel have the potential to be better than the standard html format. The interactive site has also confirmed (initially it made me seriously question!) my ambition to take up the Online Environment pathway next year. So here's to bigger and better things to come!

@

with the good, must come some bad

OK, so a few days ago I mentioned that I was nearing completion of the interactive site.
Needless to say, the perfecting I mentioned has resulted in some good (the final piece), and some bad (namely errors).

And these errors just don't make sense, which is frustrating!

I had a count down clock to use in the MINI section. In my test runs on a seperate Flash file it all worked with no problems. Bring that code over to the main project, insert the dynamic text box and what do ya know, it doesn't work. There were no compiler errors whilst exporting the movie, but it didn't work. Why? I don't know.

The solution I've had to implement to deal with this is probably the worst of them all - leave it out. Grrr!

Elsewhere in the troubled land of Flash CS3 AS3 is frame rate at which the videos are played back. I initially paid no attention to what fps they were imported and embedded with, but on watching and finding clips cut short, or sped up considerably I investigated and updated all the files.

Still though, I can't quite seem to get the fps exactly right. 25fps you think would do? What about 24.9? What about just play as original? I've tried them all and I still can't decide which is as it should be!!

The whole reason for this post is because with the evaluation approaching, it's good to get some cons down. And a few more days down the line, I'd no doubt forget this stuff and wear my rosetinted glasses, praising every pixel! lol

So reassurance for all, Flash doesn't always play nice. Suggestion: don't play back nice either, give it a lot of stuff to process and see it suffer! Ha ha

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Meanwhile user testing is underway, and I'm finding it very useful. Having sat with this work for hours and hours and hours upon end, I unknowingly see over what's not so obvious or what doesn't do what you'd expect. And here is where user testing reveals it's wonders.

The questionnaire was pretty simple enough to make, I have done enough myself to know what's worthwhile asking.

Once I gather in the last few questionnaires (obviously the more you do the better), 'Unwravel the Mystery' will be given one last polish and then published for good. Oh and then there's the evaluation report which wants to know about part one and two, and all in under 1500 words. Oh dear. Limited wordcounts pose problems for me!

@

national television - online web analysis

Today I came across a site, and I think for the first time, a site actually hit me and made me think: 'this is amazing.'





NATL


It is very much a graphic design site. For a AV company. On the homepage there are no pictures, borders, columns etc. There is a simple bright red background (a favourite colour of mine) and uppercase typefaces are striking and eyecatching and I liked this snubbing of traditional web design. in fact I really, really like NATL.


Moving your mouse over the site results in the mouseover effects on the textual buttons fading on and off, even this, a simple roll over, add to the visual appeal, the aesthetics for the site.

Being a keen fan of motion graphics, on clicking the buttons, it sweeps down more options, with no stutter and in a smooth, controlled manner. Again, another tick in the box.

Navigation wise, things motion on and off in a crisp, quick way, whether that be horizontally or vertically. You click a link, which then move to then make way for the newer information, whilst still remaining on screen (handy for when you want to choose next where to go.) And importantly, you can see the little arrow which takes you back to the main options. (Although on this dark background, some of the links weren't visible. A quick move of the mouse though and they glow, so not too bad.)





I think one of the reasons I like this site is because it's big (font and typeface) bright (red and contrasting colours), it's bold (for going pictures and typical layout structures). Funnily enough, I couldn't find any information on the site initially (whether that was due to not giving it enough time to load? Pre loader maybe needed?) but regardless, the basic design elements were enough. Who says that the web is only for holding information? Why not a digital gallery with some very nice looking pieces as well?


It actually reminded me of the Kook's artwork. They use this type of look in their band branding (try saying that quickly three times in succession!).


But all in all, I think I've found my FWA. Period.


@

titone - online web analysis

It's always the case, you wait for one bus and along come two. The SPP1 task I blogged about before saw us finding a practitioner. I today sat down to analyse another website for the Identities module and got both.

Matt Titone is the winner of the FWA today (Sun 20th April), and of the sites that I looked through, I fought that this is the nearest I've seen so far to a traditional website. However, it isn't that close to traditional when you look at it, really.

There are two navigation methods: the familiar point and click, which automatically you tend to choose, but then he has also included the option to navigate using keys. There is no exclusivity to the choice you make, you can swap between them at any point. Most computer users will be in tune with such a set up, for example, when writing a document, you flick between mouse and keyboard several times, so I think this is a worthwhile inclusion.

The menu options he uses are clear, it is easy to understand a distinction between print work, film work, interactive work.

The purpose of the site is to showcase his work, and as it is done by a graphic designer, as expected, it presents itself in a visually stylish way. The in colours nowadays are quite neutral, natural ones, so the browns looks quite suave. Also, when you want to look at the product he's created, most of the time it's a decent sized image - not a tiny thumbnail that requires you to squint. This is something I like, personally.

When navigating through the pieces of work he's made, your natural instinct is to click and wallah, on clicking, it swishes on to the next item, vertically. No need to scroll or follow a link (although the links are discreetly available). One suggestion that I could make, as noted before, is to let people know what to do, perhaps by a little note. You could just sit there and not see or know that there is more work.

The online portfolio, as a genre, is something reasonably simplistic. You put on what you've made, and just let people have a look. What is important though, is the overall presentation. It needs to be clear, and it needs to look good, as a respresentative of what you can make. Also, it needs to be easy to look around. Otherwise, the short attention span of web users will cast it aside if they can't click and see different thing, easily.

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As a quick side, I looked at the coke zero game and haagen daaz site, liked how they loaded their site slightly differently. For coke zero, instead of counting up to 100%, they count down, which for some reason gives it a slightly different feel. I liked it when I saw it, but now, I can't decide which I prefer, counting up, or counting down?! People are used to waiting a little now for a site to load, they just have to endure it. But a slight variation adds a little interest, breaking up the monotony. Be it a little line of text or animation, as in the honeybees site, where they say "hang in there, the bees are worth it".

@

stop motion - double meaning

With two weeks to go until I expect to start user testing you'd think that Flash would be getting attention left, right and centre. Unfortunately not. The wheels have fallen off that wagon for a few days as I have hit the wall that is Action Script 3 and it not doing what I want it to. Nor does it help that I don't know any code, or know what the code can do, so I can't sit at it and work through everything cos I have nothing to start with!!

So, being the intuitive students I'm meant to be, I've turned my attention to the actual contents of the 3 interactive pieces. (This is one noticeable change that I can acknowledge between Narratives and Identities, there is always something that I can be doing).

I've now written the coded message which hides the word associated with me. It took a few goes to try and get something that sounded alright, and not just a random offshoot from my imagination.

-I tried a character profile form, where it basically gave biog details, but I didn't like that. So then
-I tried making an obscure witness statement about a man whose actions aren't clear from the text, but he hints towards the mystery word. But alas, I wasn't feeling that either.
-So in the end, I went back to my former English ways and made a poem. It's not that bad, maybe a bit cliché, but it does represent another side of my identity - my way with words.

I’ve reason to stay, you may not know why,
I’ll stand by you friend, not have you cry.

The new, all inviting, may tempt some away,
But I am devoted, I’m here, I remain.

To boost every high, and replenish the lows,
Friends are forever, never more alone.

I’ll defend, I’ll challenge, any would be assaults,
Regardless of flaws, detriment or fault.

So I’ve got your back, no daggers from me,
The truth remains; this is what friendship should be.

Next, I got round to making my stop motion piece. Secretly, I hadn't been looking forward to it. Memories of 'killer shoes' brought back a sense of frustration, and wanting to bang your head on the desk cos it wouldn't sync with the music, or I the camera work was shaky etc etc. However, this time it took just over 2 hours to shoot and amassed 665 photos, almost double what I'd been anticipating.

Something was on my side this time cos there were no real glitches at all, apart from the macro on the lens not focusing enough on some of the very last shots for a close up. But all in all, it went pretty smoothly. The edit required a couple of seconds of footage to be sped up/slowed down, but the soundtrack I sliced and put together sounds good, it synced almost perfectly on it's own and so now I give you, the final product -



I've sent for help on the AS3 front courtesy of Amazon.co.uk, so in the next few days I'll hopefully have some good news to post.

But for now, chao.

@

showcase development

Wowser, what a busy few days its been. I came back from Easter with not that much in terms of part two completed work, but after ploughing out through I've now got quite a bit sorted.

To start off with, I went with the detective office. I tried the starry starry night scene, but felt that I couldn't really put that much into it. There was some nice grass, a picket fence and then the dark night sky.



On the other hand, the office let me get my teeth into it, and model quite a few thing, recalling skills Andy taught us about 2 months ago!

Last time, for Super Paper Mario World, I didn't have to worry too much about lighting, as games of that style are all brightly lit. This time though, the lighting was essential for capturing the type of picture I had in my head. So after much playing about, I managed to get the desk top lamp to shine onto the desk, meanwhile, the blinds in the window cast shadows onto the wall - that shady, dim look being what I wanted.



The next issue was getting the right frame for the image. I tried a dark photo frame, an old aged piece of paper, and thought 'mmmm it's ok', then came up with the idea of a manila folder theme and the 'confidential' red stamp look. That way, I can also use tabs for the navigation - something that Internet Explorer 7 users are now really familiar with.



Of all the analysis I've done so far, I always comment that jazzy navigation schemes that for go the traditional nav bar may risk losing an older generation of viewers. So by using a home tab I can attempt to please both demographs. It could even be extended so that all the links are available in tabs, as websites do do this - possible improvement idea.

Once I started making the buttons in Flash, there were all sort of problems revolving around size and quality after compression. Plus, I had to choose the 'over' and 'down' states, as from my web analysis, being able to locate a button and also, it looking right with the overall theme, is important.




Of the two above, I decided eventually to go with the dotty one. I thought the line look made it look a bit amateurish, OK I'm not that much of a pro, but still, when you see it in the whole frame, I think they look better.

In a seperate part of the showcase, for my gadget glasses, I am including the AVIs of my favourite TV shows. The buttons here, I decided to design quite like that used by the very popular BBC iPlayer. Instead of just a contrasting coloured border, they use a illuminated gradient fill.



I do have concerns over whether this is in keeping with the overall design theme, but it is only a very minute part, and I do think that the gadget glasses are quite modern, and flashy, so why not have buttons the same?!

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I've also added motion to my logo along with audio. I got my inspiration through a combination of the new BBC one ident, with the swirling circle and then also the colours from the Wii adverts.




(11 secs in)

So here's my ae motion piece:


That's pretty much all for now, I've got the pixilation to do soon, and I meet that with a feel of fear and apprehension - it is a very long process and can get complicated. But to make what I want, it's a must, so gotta do it!

Adios,

@

Let Your Worries Go - online web analysis

It's been a while since my last post, but we're all back at uni now, so it's time to get my butt back into gear and plough on. There's a lot to do... here's hoping I don't have a mental breakdown when Flash won't play nicely!!

One of the ideas I pitched for the part two showcase was a night sky over a landscape. This site which I found today, by Northwest Mutual, I think pretty much nails what I had thought up. If I could pull it off, it would be AMAZING.

You are given a free roaming, horizontal landscape. It all looks very picturesque, and colourful. There is an evident depth to the image, making it seem more realistic, and not just a flat image. The detail, even in things like the grass is what caught my eye. Overall, it just builds up a very nicely crafted piece. The precision to detail is right, the colours are right, the images are right and in keeping with the design.

Placing the mouse towards the extremities of the picture slowly pans the viewpoint across. To me, this was all very natural and intuitive. Regardless of where you are, a few lines of text hover in the centre of the picture, which provide you options.

Firstly, you select what sort of vehicle you want to use, to 'let yourself go'. Options include a catapult, rocket, hot airballoon and submarine. Choosing one of the options from the drop down means the camera pans instantly to that location on the horizontal plane.

You then have the choice of what type of topic you wish to deal with. You can either choose this from the next drop down menu, or click and drag the respective character who appear at the bottom of the screen. Doing so is quite fun, as the person follows your mouse, and flails and flops their arms and legs all over the place until you drop them into the vehicle.

You then get a launch button, which on pressing, launches a little animation of the button being pressed, or a level being pulled and it cuts to an impressive render of your chosen form of transport blasting off, or submerging.

Finally, the real purpose of the site is revealed, you are presented with the 'business' side. The company are trying to sell you a product/service related to their bank/building/insurance services. So, from there, you are provided options which link to the main official company site.

Northwest Mutual have gone about selling their product in quite a different way in this promotional piece. When considering the relevabce, instead of just saying, save for retirement, here are our policies, they have gone about it in a more emotive, personable manner - are you worried about retirement funds -> blast them away -> here's the policy to do it. It sort of disguises the fact that they are trying to sell you something! I like this spin they have put on it to sell their product.

However not all is perfect. The last page of letyourselfgo.com, to me, was quite overpowering in information, compared to the calmness and spaciousness of the previous screens. It isn't that well laid out either, seeming sort of cluttered in the centre.

You get a statistics table telling you the %s that have the same 'worries' as yourself. But the main get me to the site to buy it links aren't that clearly set out. They tell of what you need, but not in a way that works 100% efficiently on the eye, which is a shame.

Navigation wise, the selection process is how you make your way through the site. You don't even get a traditional bar displaying navigation options, apart from legalities that must be shown. Again, I've commented on it before, this could make or break a site. Certainly for younger, more entertainable market, the site is fine, in fact it's fun and interesting. This method may actually be their means of attracting a younger market, trying to seek them out. However, for an older user, this site may seem a gimmic, and become irritating by not being able to access the information without waiting for loading screens and aniamtions so on.

In terms of the interaction elements, I am impressed. It doesn't do anything that hasn't been seen before, but the overall semblance of it all, is what I liked: the side scrolling, free nature of it, in particular. It looks nice also, the detail in the blades of grass, the depth portrayed by the layering.

This has presented me with a difficulty now. I was planning on going down the detective route and using a 3d rendered office piece inside a frame. Now though, this site has shown me that the star constellations idea could be technically savvy and look good too. Hmm.... dilemma...

@

Publicis & Hal Riney - online web task

After persuing a few more favourite web award sites, some good, some ok, I have decided to plump for a comment on this site - HRP, or Publicis & Hal Riney. These guys are a new media group, just generally wanting to showcase some of their work and unique (so far in my experience of the online world) experiment with the navigation methods.

And so, the unique thing with this site is that you can navigate by mouse, or... webcam and hand gestures!



So rather than just the traditional affair of click here, click there, instead you can wave your hands about like a goon playing Wii, or using the Eyetoy, and try to find your way through.

I did try webcam, and I can see how it would work, but unfortunately, the site needed more bandwidth than what I could offer, so had to give in for the trusty desk rodent (that's a mouse.) Plus, for me, websites shouldn't be frustrating, they should be alluring. And this alternate method would probably have annoyed me, by being an unneccessary gimmic (and that's coming from me, the Nintendo Fanboy who loves the motion sensitive interactivity and navigation of the Wii!)

Once you are in, you are shown a visual animation of something which instantly strikes as being blood! It oozes onto the screen, floating around as if diffusing through water. It is a very nice looking animation, quite captivating really just watching it float around.



The site oncemore ditches the traditional left hand side, or top navigation bar (hey, it's the future) and instead creates it's own solution - it embeds links within the blood. You hover your mouse over and the link associated with that area of the image appears.

This is where I'd criticise the site, though. When you first start, you are given no indication of what to do. You have to guess, and what with the subtle colours schemes used (beige, and white) it is quite hard to see what you're doing. Add to that a slow connection and this thing would be a nightmare to look around.

When you get through to the leadership section, again, the site has something a little different. Instead of just a still picture of the person and their biography, HPR have a video which sits on top at the right of the screen, and actually shows the person doing something. OK, it isn't fundamental to the piece, but it's a nice little extra. It hints at the things that we might see in use, in future new media pieces.

On first look, you might just think that they simply have one page, which is about one man. However, clicking on an arrow on the right hand side of the page brings the next biography onto show. It does this by horizontally 'swishing' (technical term) the information onto the screen from the right.

->

Looking at these screens, you can very much see that the site is similar in looks to what you'd see in a graphic design magazine. It is all quite minimalist, with striking typefaces and layouts used, along with the unusual graphic of the blood, splattering at the bottom. Personally, I think it's not perfect for a website, as I've already mentioned, it's hard to find the links to click on the navigate around. This is fundamental to the success of a website, so perhaps a stronger contrast, colourwise, would work better.

Having explored the site though, there is some familiarity in terms of navigation. HRP have a sort of progress line in the bottom left hand corner (hard to see again, courtesy of white being more or less indeterminable with beige), which allows you to navigate to, for example, home - work. These are working links and I really like how hovering over 'work' brings up the other menu options. Obviously this sort of exanding menu is now often used in websites, but the geography of it, how it was in the bottom left, and the menu expanded upwards, is what I noted and liked in particular.



When considering the branding being reflected in their product, I would say that certainly HRP know how to make a good looking, attractive, and somthing visually alluring. However, the issue to do with navigating means this site would, within 10 seconds, lose a number of inexperienced users by not knowing what to do. OK, there is a help button, but who wants to read instructions on using a website?!

In terms of target market, I'd expect customers wanting a high calibre of graphically acute design to be able to manage to get through and find the information they want. Yes, it makes a site so much more when it looks stunning, but not being able to see the other amazing techniques used and so on, because you simply can't see the arrows, is a real error of ways. Therefore, colour schemes and seeing what you are meant to do is fundamental, to the successfulness of a site... so memo to self: bear this in mind!

@

logo creation

For the presentation at the end of part 1, I made up some doodles of possible logos. Some were just playing around with shapes, some with letters... and results wise, some were good some were bad!
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First though, I put in some market research, looking at proper company logos etc. And being as I've done one for pretty much everything else, new craze and all, I made a moodboard!
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Of all these, I liked the SKY logo - reason being that the glassy, shiny effect always catches my eye when it's on tv etc. It looks nice. And this seems to confirm to me that I'm like a magpie - attracted to shiny objects and wanting to steal them! (but in Multimedia terms it's not stealing, it's a form of inspiration!) OK, the actual graphology of the letters is pretty basic, but I would note that the k and y join up, so I looked into this technique when sketching.
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Of these, I like the pitchfork one, it reminds me of a devlish brand or something (Bacardi maybe, with their bat?) and then the digital joined up, (almost neon shop light type) ash. The other one I can see as potential is the circles with little tails, making an a and e. Andy too picked up on this, saying that it could be make quite funny, with eyes in the middle!

So to help confirm a decision in a logo to go with, I 'digitized' the potentials:
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These are very simple forms, a step up from their paperbased cousins - just simple black lines.
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The problem when making a logo is that you tend to focus too much and after a while you see past what the actual image is and just see a hash of lines that don't have much semblance.
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So I did a little survey asking for preferences and the curly ae logo came back the most popular.
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This is when I stuck a wall. What could I do with it? Should I work in a symbolic object that is reminiscent of me in some way? Should the logo just be letters, but in different colours? Should it have a background?
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I basically started playing around. The first results were rubbish, but when I hit on something I liked, it fitted instantly.
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With these going nowhere, I went back to thinking again. I came up with thinking of some of the recent and popular design schemes used. The one that hit me was the Wii one. They use a three colour palette: striking light blue, grey and white, and then applying these colours to circles that resonate from the text. From the sample I made, I knew I was definitely going to use this route.
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I really like the way that the circle's edge tapers out at different points. The whole thing has a ripple effect feel to me, or maybe when water goes down the plug, that little cyclone.

I continued playing and made several other variations. Some have had the circles shifted so the 'opening' is in a different place. I included a few more shapes to add a different point of focus. One I've emphasised the a e by making it bolder and hopefully drawing the main attention there.
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It's really quite hard to choose a favourite. Each time I look at them I find something I like more in one, and then something I don't in another. Next look and it's gone and I prefer this over that one! It was totally unintentional, but I think the star logo above bears a very slight resemblance (typeface, icon) to the macy's logo?

I like the whole contemporary look, something sleek, modern (perhaps slightly minimalist). It was suggested in my progress presentation that I should try and garner/develop my style. If anything, the above description I think suits me extremely well.
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Any comments or suggestions from you, I welcome! I'm more than happy to try something if it means making it better.
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However, after reading Bryan Lawson's book How Designers Think and reading about the evaluation stage, he says that work doesn't have "an identifiable end" and it's always possible to do better, until that better is not negatable much more!
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So for now, that's one task of part 2 completed and I'm very happy with it. I've found I have enjoyed the logo making process; the market samples, the doodling, the putting it together on the computer and playing around with shapes.
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It'l be just my luck that a brief comes out, or I read something that makes my logo seem inappropriate.
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