EXTENDED PRACTICE // STATEMENT OF INTENT

Throughout Extended Practice, my main objective is to concentrate and produce work within my intended area of specialism. My chosen area of specialism is digital design with a focus on User experience. With Extended Practice, I hope to produce work with a heavy focus on web and app design. Overall, the work produced will be of high quality and will benefit me when applying for further study.

To achieve this I will create and stick to a time plan to ensure my management skills are as organised as possible. This will ensure all projects are completed on time and to a high standard.

I plan to increase my skill set within digital design on software such as After effects and Cinema 4D, whilst also improving on my presentation skills. 

EP // BRIEF 10 // RESEARCH BRIEF // DICTATORS // PRACTICAL MIND MAP

The diagram below demonstrates a number of ways I can create a graphic design response from my research. Some ways are:

• Information pack
• Educational posters
• Infographic
• Video 
• Top Trumps
• Museum promotional material

The two I find the most effective are a collectors pack and museum guide and posters. The collector's pack would be for people who have an interest in the subject and the museum idea is to create a contemporary publication, posters and video for a museum about dictators.

EP // BRIEF 10 // RESEARCH BRIEF // DICTATORS // NAME IDEAS

Below are some names which will be used for all collateral including publication, flyer, poster, website and so on. It will essentially act as a brand. The name needed to represent the characteristics of dictators and come across as eerie and Gothic to give a sense of oppression. The name also needed to be consistent with the style and aesthetic of the publication and other collateral (so, no comic sans for a contemporary publication)

Some naming options were:

• Dicktators (humorous twist)
• Dic.
• Leader
• Brutal
• Control
• Persuade
• Eye
• One nation
• Peoples champion

The name I liked, in the end, was 'Heil'. The word Heil is most infamous for being used by Adolf Hitler with the saying 'Heil Hitler'. Therefore, you instantly get a link to a dictator. It's striking and has its Gothic roots. The word 'Heil' means salvation so it doesn't mean anything racist or controversial and salvation is what dictators promise their people. A better, prosperous life and nation, which often is a lie. 

EP // BRIEF 10 // RESEARCH BRIEF // DICTATORS // INTIAL IDEAS

The first idea is situated around the theme of 'Dick-tator' highlight the dictators in a humour light by portraying them as dicks. They would be in an illustrative style and would be used on a number of collateral such as publication and posters. The idea is to educate the public about five dictators but in a houmous way, in a way where there is little chance for anyone to be offended. Below you can see the sketches of three of the dictators with an infographic chart. The infographic chart will give a visual representation of how many people each dictator has killed. Keeping with the theme of 'dick' each 'sperm' will represent a million deaths. However, the 'sperm' symbol to represent innocent lives killed maybe slightly offensive.

The second idea is based on a publication which would be distributed to contemporary museums such as the Topography of Terror in Germany. The museum used to be the headquarters of the Nazi's Secret State Police. The book would have a contemporary and modern aesthetics with an overall dictatorship theme running through the book. Characteristics such as oppression and torment but also a contrast showing the love people had for their dictators through poems or songs. Whether this is shown through imagery or strategic design implementation is still to be decided.

EP // BRIEF 10 // RESEARCH BRIEF // DICTATORS // ADOLF HITLER

Height and weight

Adolf Hitler weight.
172 lbs (78.0 kg)
Adolf Hitler height.
5' 8½" (174 cm)


Facts about Hitler

• Despite becoming the dictator of Germany, Hitler was not born there. Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria on April 20, 1889.
• In November 1923, Hitler spearheaded an attempt to take over the German government through a putsch (a coup), called the Beer Hall Putsch. When the coup failed, Hitler was caught and sentenced to five years in prison. It was while in Landsberg prison that Hitler wrote his book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle).

Weird facts about Hitler

• In his youth, Hitler had a crush on a Jewish girl by the name of Stefanie Isak.
• There were 42 known assassination attempts on his life.
• When Hitler was a boy, he wanted to be a priest.
• Times Magazine announced Hitler the Man of the Year
• Hitler invented the concept of blow-up dolls
• Hitler had a nephew named William Patrick Hitler, who fought against him as part of the U.S Navy.

Auschwitz

Auschwitz-Birkenau became the killing centre where the largest numbers of European Jews were killed during the Holocaust. After an experimental gassing there in September 1941 of 850 malnourished and ill prisoners, mass murder became a daily routine. By mid 1942, mass gassing of Jews using Zyklon-B began at Auschwitz, where extermination was conducted on an industrial scale with some estimates running as high as three million persons eventually killed through gassing, starvation, disease, shooting, and burning ...

9 out of 10 were Jews. In addition, Gypsies, Soviet POWs, and prisoners of all nationalities died in the gas chambers. Between May 14 and July 8,1944, 437,402 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz in 148 trains. This was probably the largest single mass deportation during the Holocaust.

Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nazi Germany's largest concentration and extermination camp facility, was located nearby the provincial Polish town of Oshwiecim in Galacia, and was established by order of Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler on 27 April 1940. Private diaries of Goebbels and Himmler unearthed from the secret Soviet archives show that Adolf Hitler personally ordered the mass extermination of the Jews during a meeting of Nazi German regional governors in the chancellery. As Goebbels wrote "With regards to the Jewish question, the Fuhrer decided to make a clean sweep ..."

EP // BRIEF 10 // RESEARCH BRIEF // DICTATORS // RESEARCHING INTO POEMS

Dictators are controlling and manipulative. Through a state of control, people of the country are often brainwashed. Through this indoctrination, people become obsessed with the dictators. Often, seeing them as Gods. It's a complete contrast to the reality.


Letters to Hitler
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2178229/Letters-Hitler-written-ordinary-Germans-revealed-time.html

Book letters to Hitler
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HXJt8H8t2YQC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=german+letters+to+hitler+translation&source=bl&ots=1j_M6evrjn&sig=JWAfZUxa1lOOclsNqEnmDKBjifo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwir98v1u9HTAhVHJ8AKHTVhBEkQ6AEIOjAE#v=onepage&q=german%20letters%20to%20hitler%20translation&f=false

Biography of Hitler
http://www.biography.com/people/adolf-hitler-9340144

Poem to Stalin
http://molossusexperiment.tumblr.com/fall1/stalin

Poem to Kim iIL Sung
http://www.korea-dpr.com/lib/9006.pdf
http://ndfsk.dyndns.org/kuguk8/pym/nr0404-8/Poem.htm

EP // BRIEF1 // CREATIVE NETWORKS // WINNING

To our great surprise, we were told that we had won the Creative Network brief. Upon hearing the news we met with Joshua to discuss any final changes or queries he or his team had before sending the final creative off to print. This gave us a good opportunity for discussion surrounding any feedback we had about the brief, any questions we wanted to ask. We enquired about the sizes of the posters and other pieces of collateral along with an estimation of the budget the Creative Networks team had as this would play a crucial role in decided the scale of things and application of the promotional material. Joshua then asked us how the Brief in the class was received, in terms of clarity and the way it was set up and presented. We suggested making the requirements more easy to understand and that the majority of the class was slightly confused to what needed to be mocked up for the presentation.

After this brief discussion, Joshua gave us clearance to book prints lots and to discuss among ourselves what we need to print and how many to print whilst not going over budget.