Welcome! I am a Visual Communication Graduate from University of Central England in sunny Birmingham, graduating with a 2:1.
I admire many things, including; Francis Bacon, George A. Romero, Dita Von Teese, H R Geiger, Rob Zombie, Vivienne Westwood, Steven Klein, Lady Gaga, Marilyn Manson and many more. An aspiring creative, I am currently working at Birmingham City University.
I've neglected my blog a bit recently, simply because I've been so engrosed in using Twitter and Tumblr!
With my website (vikkiyates.co.uk) teetering on the edge of completion I wanted to streamline my web prescence, and become a bit more organised.
From now on I will use this blog to post a little less often but on the bigger events, issues, projects and thoughts that arn't really done justice on my Tumblr blog, they deserve a little more room. :)
Ill try and do a weekly post at least as there are SO many thing coming up I'll have a lot to talk about!
Update when my webpage is sorted and if (fingers crossed) my job applications yeild anything! :)
The half marathon was held on Saturday 20th March in my home town of Stafford, and t-shirts designed by me were proudly on display in memory of their beautiful young girl.
Her family ran in the marathon and raised around £800 for local bereavement Charity's.
Congrats to them all on doing such a brilliant job for such a worthy cause.
Many have seen tonight, Gaga working the Parisian catwalk.
I'll be reviewing the Mugler show linked with the new born this way music video and my thoughts for the upcoming stripped down version. I see them as a set, a movement if you will.
However I wanted to update my blog as evil flu has struck and I unintentionally neglected it! I have finally received my S/S issue of Purple Magazine. This magazine is so wonderful, for someone addicted to print as I am, the mix of paper textures are wonderful and compliment the imagery perfectly. I am at a loss as to wether to delecatly remove pages for framing! The photography is so beautiful. Unlike mine, sorry!
This issue however carries my favourite images of MM to date.
Taken by Terry Richardson for Supreme, it further delves into the raw, rebellious, infectious energy of Gaga.
The F@!k you, I can do what the hell I want attitude, while alluding to the dirty grimy side of the world all her little monsters would love a glimpse into.
We have seen this rock n roll rawness again tonight, at her runway debut, and I have a feeling it's going to be a rough ride, but we will all love it, we "like it rough"!!
The Ultimate challenge Making something cool and popular can be the hardest job. Many campaigns have tried and had plans massively backfire with consumers being evermore savvy to techniques used to pull sales. I am going to look into how sincerity and good placement can be the making of campaigns, and create an effective project that in turn drives sales and changes perception of a brand.
You Actually CAN Polish a Turd! One campaign that sticks in my mind would be the repositioning of the Skoda brand by VW. Following the failure of an expensive and ineffective campaign for the Skoda Octavia, VW persevered and went back to basics for the new model Fabia’s campaign. Working with the existing negative brand perception within the UK the tagline;
"The Fabia is a car so good that you won't believe it's a Skoda"
This campaign was deployed in print, poster and television adverts. in additional to the request for positive stories within consumer press and a successful auto magazine competition to win the new model, the success was more than impressive. Within the year 11, 000 Fabia’s had been purchased and the failed Octavia model was seeing a rise in sales. This massive shift in public opinion lead to the need for customers being on a waiting list for a new model.
At least with a new product you have a fresh start, with an unpopular or uncool product there is a raft of negativity to fight back against. Having humility and a sense of humor backed with the new found halo effect of the VW brand taking on the company, this honest and simple approach reduced consumer suspicion and helped build up positive connotations of the brand.
Revisiting An Old Favorite The most recent repositioning of a classic household name is that of Yellow Pages – or Yell. The new TV ad features a 40-something man searching record shops, flicking through racks of vinyl, in search of a trance record. His disc jockey name, or handle, is Day V Lately. With no luck he returns home to his daughter who helps by handing over her iPhone and loads the new Yell app.
It ends with the man locating the record and revealing he is Day V Lately. This all compared to the 1983 Yellow pages advert, with an elderly man looking for a book he wrote on fly fishing in his heyday, eventually finding it with help from his daughter and yellow pages.
This brings the concept right up to date.
Making the protagonist younger to the original in order to be accessible to an audience that remember the original advert, but have a character they can relate to.
Updating the sought after item to a record, an item with an immediate link to the rise in interest in vinyl.
Updating technology and using the Apple iPhone4, massively popular therefore cool.
Using the rise in popularity in Dj’s and electronic music to relate to a large audience.
In addition the “Real” elements, the feel of real people, real stores and in turn adds to the feel of a genuine story due to the lack of commercial “gloss”. It makes real the benefit of using the service and instills trust in the viewer. This re-branding or repositioning in the public realm is a prime example of simply updating a popular campaign in a reverent and relevant way can work wonders.
In conclusion, creating relatable characters and situations are key for the audience to get behind the brand and product ethos. Having a brand persona that is reliable, trustworthy and above all shows they are "tried and tested" good at their product or service is the basic message that successful campaigns put across. The important trick is to find a method of doing so that grabs the audience. In this case, either by sending up the brand in a lovably humorous way, or echoing the sturdy rock of the past and giving it a clever lick of paint.
Have there been any campaigns you have noticed that have done particularity good or badly recently? Comment with details to be included in part 2 of this article next week!
Apologies to readers for missing a few of my scheduled posts, double shot of posts today then normal service is resumed!
Work it! I have finally had my flyers delivered! I'm so impressed with the outcome, although to improve I might have the entire bottom half as a tear off as the cutout when removed can make it look a bit messy. Many thanks to the team at Rhubarb and Custard in Sutton Coldfield for all their help.
In other news... I know there has been a bit of a movement against valentines day with the whole "Single awareness day" on social networking. I have no shame in supporting this date at all! Single or not I welcome the chance to shower those special to me with gifts! Unfortunately it didn't go so well for my gift giving, a bootleg version of Chris and I's first concert together was a bit of a flop - He was sweet enough to pretend to love it! I was on the receiving end of a XBOX Kinect!! Wow. Despite having to rearrange our lounge I love it! I have a few aches and pains now from all the exercise! A wonderful day of gaming, good food and chilling was had, who can complain!
Till tomorrow for my Wednesday Wisdom, all about cool and uncool and its recent mix of use in branding and advertising.
No not in a Jedi sense, today has been a bit of a bad hair day, generally feeling tramp like and unfulfilled - its my fault I had a lie in. I know, tut tut.
I had this unshakable feeling of doom, you know that raincloud peeing over your head that wont go away! That is until I read this...
“Feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we’re holding back. They teach us to perk up and lean in when we feel we’d rather collapse and back away. They’re like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we’re stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we are.”
- Pema Chödrön, Buddhist nun & best-selling author.
From the blog the daily love it has echoed the outlook I have, rather than feeling down in the dumps, though it might be hard understanding WHY you feel like that is so helpful.
It puts YOU back in the driving seat and allows you to avoid the same downward spiral over and over. So I'm kicking my butt into gear, getting reorganised and am getting back on that early morning work!
OK, so progress report tomorrow on how my web page is falling into place!
I’m looking at a music promo this week for Pendulum’s “Salt in the Wounds.” Not strictly an official music video, this interactive 360 video follows the band members on a journey to a derelict building to battle an unknown force.
Pros This video has a voyeuristic quality to it, with the viewer being able to look around the scene and take in the unfolding story with a heightened sense of involvement. The set up of shot and lack of tinting on the shots give a first person view, allowing the viewer to become increasingly drawn into the action.
Cons However, it seems with this piece that I was rushed, with little attention paid to the storyline itself. This is disappointing as there was so much potential to have a larger more substantial narrative to this. It sadly seems as though the technology is being used for gimmicky effect. The obvious visual theme and set up to pay homage to the ever popular landscapes of the Call of duty game series, it lacks the epic feel with the band members simply shooting at this unknown ball of badly generated green graphics from one spot, not to mention the poorly constructed frame setting.
This could have been directed in a much more exciting kinetic way to match Pendulum’s style. They could have at least MOVED– it makes me mad, WHY IS THIS SO BAD!!! It isn’t even as if they had too little time to work with the song. The actual recording is just over 7 minutes. This promo lasts less than 4 and a half! Prime example of not working with a full canvas. In fairness, this could possibly be explained by the cost of producing a 360 video.
To End... Believe me, I am the last to be actually wanting to put this down, with immersive new technology, and a quest element for fans to discover a code within the video to unlock the full version of the track in a free download, (xtrkaz for those that cant be bothered to look!) this could have been a ground breaker, instead it left me wanting to have never seen it and replace the memory with their amazing set at Birmingham’s NIA Arena last winter.
