Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Quick mock up

Playing around with designs, what do people think of this? Would be cool if we could foil block! Design team meet tomorrow?

Friday, 19 February 2010

Research

RIck Poyner, writer of 'Obey the Giant'

Neil Cummings writes 'The value of things'

Mark Dione - excavation

Thursday, 18 February 2010

Literature

Ok, I have finally narrowed it down to five. I have tried to choose literature that wasn’t all girly.

Goosebumps
Horrible Histories
Smash Hits (don’t know if it’s very 90’s tho? It first came out in 1978)
Girl Talk
Jacqueline Wilson books, especially ‘Bad Girls’

I don’t know if I should put in ‘one-hit wonders’ books like,
Flour Babies and The Rainbow Fish.

What do you think?

Audio & Visual Options

Sorry slightly late post, internet playing up last night!
Obviously a lot a lot a lot to choose from in this category! Some really great things, I'm going to put down some of the ones I've chosen and started the write up on, but I was thinking I may just carry on the write ups with some different ones as well if have time, just because there are so many great things to choose from.

Spice Girls
Take That
Gladiators
Fun House

For now those are all I am certain, Im going to finish writing them up, and then tomorrow was hoping to get an opinion off you guys as to what to do, there are just too many to choose from! There are also some great ads, but then a lot of the time Im not sure if they will come under another title, like food/toys etc so don't know if they are appropriate

Wednesday, 17 February 2010

Stationary

There's only really one item thats worth talking about for stationary, and that I have a bit of research on:

SMELLY GEL PENS.

There's also these but there really isn't much in the way of research on them:

-Mini Highlighters
-Pencils with different coloured-nibs that you can pull off and stick in the top
-Scented rubbers
-Stamp felt tip pens (that had a shape instead of a nib)

Toys & Material objects

Hey guys,

Here are the choices I've narrowed it down to. Been pretty difficult!

- Pokemon
- Yo-yo's
- Tamagotchi
- Scardox Aliens
- POGs
- Football Stickers
- Shag Bands

I think that's a good mix of different material things, but let me know if you think otherwise. Some that were up there but didn't make the final cut were:

- Crazy Bones
- Trolls
- Big headed football things
- Polly Pocket/Mighty Max

Narrowing down Food Case Studies:

Suggested final ideas for the catalogue within food and drink:

  • B'N B'N
  • Sunny Delight (lots of scope for information from news articles etc.)
  • Opal Fruits (specific to 90s due to name change in later years.)
  • Cereals+Toys (Had a couple of stories that would be relevant for this subject however need a specific cereal to base it on)
  • Alphabites/Potato Smiles (This would allow a link to main/evening meals not just snacks as most fads were)
  • Nerdz - specifically Dweebs (iconic of 90s)
  • Pez (and their many containers based on popular cartoon characters of the time.)
  • Lunchboxes (Would like to include this as it is linked to the subject, unsure whether this should appear in another section.)
Please add comments if you think there are more important fads I have missed or whether you think an of the ideas listed are unnecessary.

Fashion choices

Hi guys so I've narrowed it down, let me know what you think:

-LA Gear trainers
-Scrunchies
-Chokers (I don't really remember this as a big fad though)
-Butterfly hair clips
-Nike ticks and shaved eyebrows
-Platform shoes (spice girls influence)
-Baby G


Things to do

Wednesday- By the end of tonight each member is going to choose 5/6 case studies each from their subject to concentrate on. Post up your choices tonight so that other group members can see and agree/suggest on what the choices are.

Thursday- Finish off case studies from the editorial side (personal stories can still be on going).

Friday- Meeting with Kieron, try to produce some sort of "mood board" for style/design, anything you like or think would be appropriate for the visuals. We should have meeting afterwards to figure out what we're doing next.


GO TEAM!

food myths

Dr Pepper kills your sperm / is made of pig sperm

the red smarties are made of crushed beetles

Thursday, 11 February 2010

Proposed chapters

Here follows the porposed chapters of the publication. Eesearch should now take place by looking at our designated sections in the light of the chapter headings written below in bold.

It has been decided that the publication will feature two voices. firstly that of an Editorial voice focusing on the facts/historical information (though it will not be boring, think more along the lines of the "things that make people gay" post). and a personal voice which will rely on primary research talking to people about the fads and asking them the sort of questions which are written below in quotation marks.  


The life and death of a fad

Dual voice approach - Personal and Editorial

The start of a fad
Earliest memories of a fad, “when was the first time you heard about/saw …..” doesn’t have to be date specific could be in relation to an event in life.

The rise of a fad dissemination 
When it was at its peak , What extents did you go to? Cost increasing? Demand crazy? Any anecdotes or stories that are relevant?

Copies of fads imitation

Any rip offs coming afterwards. Counterfeits? Did these work? Stories?

Myths of a fad
Scardox Aliens, Tomb Raider nude cheat etc. Statistics. How many people tried these things, anybody actually succeed. Different approaches, geographically? Different methods in different areas?

Physical and verbal fads
Sayings, rhymes, games. Any changes for location? Vernacular? How they evolved? S drawing?

Death of a fad
When it fizzled out. Loss of enthusiasm, anybody still playing? Banned in school. Why banned? Stealing cards, cause injury etc. Growing up, realising it’s not actually as cool as you thought it was.

Fanatics / revival.

Anybody still playing in the current day? Extreme fanatics. Organised play, leagues. World championships. Revivals in school? Fads coming back a couple of years later?

school ting

Short tie at school

rip the pockets off peoples shirts

Wednesday, 10 February 2010

Amazing Pog Website!



http://v1.milkcapmania.co.uk/WPF/WPF_Home_Page.html

Check this site out! So many good Pog images!

Update

Hey guys,

I think everyone knows what they're meant to be doing, and hopefully it's going well. Just in case you don't here's the list we made of different sections we're in charge of researching in more depth:

Fashion - Jenny
Food & Drink - Emma
Literature - Chrissie
Physical/Verbal - Jed
Toys & Material things - Dan
Stationary - Marine
Television/Film & Audio - Kitty

We just need to try and get as much stuff this week as we can, then we can move onto the more rewarding stages - layout, design etc. Ask your friends if they have any interesting/funny stories. If people still have the things at home see if you can persuade them to send it up.

Within all the sections we're looking at doing a 'Fanatics' sub section. So look to see if the fad is still going, had any funny/shocking stories, featured in the news, any old men taken it too seriously and now are organising UK Pokemon play...

Me and Jed had a quick chat with Kieron and Ben last Friday. They seemed positive about how things were going, and think it could turn out really well. I think we're going to have to meet again this week to have another brainstorm session about how exactly we're going to present the thing, both conceptually and visually. We're on the way though!

They suggested we maybe look at what the whole fad thing says about our society, material culture etc. Having this angle really anchors down the projects and gives it more of a reason to investigate if that makes sense?

So some other things that we should all research over the next day are:

- Fetishism
- Phenomenon
- Material Culture
- Taxonomy

See if you can get an overview of these topics, how they would relate to what we're doing and if there are any interesting points/arguments that we can bring into the publication.

They also suggested a couple of artists:

A book called 'The Value of Things - Neil Cummings'

And an artist called 'Mark Dion' who had something called 'Excavation' on at the Tate Britain, where as I understand he excavated things from the north and south side of the Thames and then anally catalogued, it something along those lines..!

Hope it's all going well! When's good for people to meet this week? Maybe after the Lecture tomorrow?

Wednesday, 3 February 2010

Pokemon League

http://www.cliftonroadgames.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=633&sid=e204bbb2b6cc605e19a37b5c5d25235b

Road trip to Exeter anyone? Yes!