Design concept, style and artist research

"Design is thinking made visual."

Saul Bass

Design concept

Style of website/podcast interface - Rough (possibly hand drawn) graphics mixed with photo images as collage, with very crisp Web 2.0 style icons for navigation/all tasks.

Trying to steer away from standard header-footer-left menu kind of deal, whilst still maintaining good usability.

Also considering:

• Movie posters
• Silhouette
• Big fonts alternating with small fonts
• Strong / pale/ neutral colours

Style research

As our subject of the website and podcast is a combination of a murder/mystery night and radio drama, we started our research within this ‘field’.

The time setting for our website/podcast is the 50’s and 60’s. We search on the internet relevant spy movies of that time and had a look at the poster movies as well, for inspiration.

Our movie list includes:

1. The spy who came who came in from the cold, a 1965 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by John le Carré.

The plot summary:

Alec Leamas, a British spy is sent to East Germany supposedly to defect, but in fact to sow disinformation. As more plot turns appear, Leamas becomes more convinced that his own people see him as just a cog. His struggle back from dehumanization becomes the final focus of the story. (www. imdb.com)

2. James Bond 007: Goldfinger, (1964) represents the third film of the James Bond series. Investigating a gold magnate's gold smuggling, James Bond uncovers a plot to contaminate the Fort Knox gold reserve.

(www. imdb.com)

3. Murder at midnight, was an old-time radio show featuring macabre tales of suspense, often with a supernatural twist. It was produced in New York and was first heard in syndication between September 16, 1946 and September 8, 1947 on radio station WJZ. The show's writers included Robert Newman, Joseph Ruscoll, Max Erlich and William Norwood, and it was directed by Anton M. Leder. The host was Raymond Morgan, who delivered the memorable lines of introduction over Charles Paul's effective organ theme: "Midnight, the witching hour when the night is darkest, our fears the strongest, and our strength at its lowest ebb. Midnight, when the graves gape open and death strikes."

A total of 51 episodes were produced, though the last two were never aired. Ten shows were syndicated and rerun on Mutual in 1950. Though very entertaining at its best, the series' failure can perhaps be attributed to some wildly implausible stories. (www.wikipedia.org)

Artist research

Our group wanted that the one artist that we should focus on should be a graphic designer. The main characteristic of his/her work should be silhouette image, both image and picture and massive font. We found the following artists ‘sharing’

the wanted characteristic: Saul Bass, Abraham Gamse, Armin Hofman.

Our group chose the one artist to be:

Saul Bass (May 8, 1920—April 25, 1996) was a graphic designer and Academy Award-winning filmmaker, but he is best known for his design on animated motion picture title sequences, which is thought of as the best such work ever seen.
During his 40-year career he worked for some of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers, including most notably Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Amongst his most famous title sequences are the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm for Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm, the text racing up and down what eventually becomes a high-angle shot of the United Nations building in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, and the disjointed text that raced together and was pulled apart for Psycho.
Saul Bass designed the 6th AT&T Bell System logo, that at one point achieved a 93 percent recognition rate in the United States. He also designed the AT&T "globe" logo for AT&T after the break up of the Bell System. (www.wikipedia.org)

Night podwalk in Berlin

Here we start:
History...mystery...danger...
The concept
Combination between a murder-mystery night, a radio-drama and a hunt. Spy story fit it into 5 minute podcast. Possibility of having the the flash-Packer to have some interaction with the environment and involved in to the trip/game. "Spy music" as a background track.
Synopsis
We were given the challenge to create a Pod-walk that can relate in some way to Berlin. We chose to focus on the cold war in the 1950´s as this was the heyday of east-west espionage. The atmosphere of that era is something we thought could be fascinating to translate to a Pod-walk, as it has so many aspects and angles to it.We discussed how to tackle the idea and came up with a radio drama, a story or a combination of stories sown together with a narrative theme based on the listener (Pod-walker) playing a central role witnessing the story first hand and taking part through direction given to them as the play unfolds.

Production plan
The location will be filmed and photographed and documented when in Berlin and then the material will be sent to the 5 team members who will then piece it together.
There will be voice actors, sound effects, various forms of music, flash imagery based on an east German style from that period. We want to captivate the spy universe of 1950´s Berlin. The podcast lasts for only 5 min but intended as an appetizer as we have planned to extend the story through our website to the full version where listeners can get the story in its entirety. Espionage is the second oldest profession it always has an edge of intrigue, cold blooded murder, a touch of glamor ,betrayal and usually a hero/heroine lies at the end of it. The true Berlin and what went on in those days may never really surface but we can …imagine

The message
The general idea of creating a radio style play fits the format of Podwalking as the listener is the story He/She is physically there where the event took place a witness to a time long gone….

For example
”Georgi stepped behind the man, a tall quiet figure, he could hear him breathing intensely, nervously, knowing that he had not that much long to live. He reached into his coat pocket grabbed the long cool blade and without a whisper of hesitation stabbed the man repeatedly.. the man fell to the stone cold floor, his body violently shaking in spasms, blood trailing profusely from under his coat. The general smiled at Georgi, a smile that would freeze that October night sky, You have done well..he said the Kremlin will be pleased, I will see you are rewarded in the correct fashion.”

Target group
From 18 till 88. People interested in history, mystery and adventures.
Berliners and tourists. People who looking for new experience, adventures and willing to see Other side of the Berlin. Pod-walk for people who tired of typical guided tour, for people who miss adrenalin.

Iconography and visualization
Style of website/podcast interface - Rough (possibly hand drawn) graphics mixed with photo images as collage, with very crisp Web 2.0 style icons for navigation/all tasks. Trying to steer away from standard header-footer-left menu kind of deal, whilst still maintaining good usability.

Slide 5

The lesson about colours

The lesson starts

The logo concept

Meeting place : Cafe Den Røde Hund

Ieva draw some logo for us





Found a story about an American/British spy tunnel discovered in 1956. Are we still gonna use that?

We also checked this websites
rockersnyc.com
razorapple.com
worshipworthy.com

And the inspiration for the logo

A new workshop: Berlin

First let me mention the members of group people.com: Ieva, Travis, Steve, Pip and me Veronica
Our group started from this first concept:

an artist or musician who lived, created or had a concert in Berlin

Follow his road from home to cafeteria, to his workshop or to visit his friends

The category chosen:Art, Music and Architecture

First brainstorming: we change here and there

No more artists, now we have radio drama and mystery

Iconography/Visual - The Berlin Wall

Style of website/podcast interface - Rough (possibly hand drawn) graphics, with very crisp Web 2.0 style icons for navigation/all tasks. Trying to steer away from standard header-footer-left menu kind of deal, whilst still maintaining good usability.

Time Setting - 1950s/1960s

Place - Berlin

The Concept -

What we discussed today is some kind of combination between a murder-mystery night, a radio-drama and a skavenger hunt. The idea is that we find a spy story (internet, book, relative - whatever) to take our "factual" elements from. We then write a "podplay" (see - screenplay) for the story, finding a way to fit it into our 5 minute podcast. We talked about the possibilty of having the flashPacker go into a bar to order a drink, where upon they will receive instructions about what to do next (NB - This is a VERY loose example, please don't get hung up on it. The point is that it would be interesting for the flashPacker to have some interaction with the environment).

50's/early 60's is the time, so it's all Trilbys and trench-coats, people. Steve has a firm grasp on the "spy music" that will be our background track. The idea is that the "tour" should be done at night, to help add to the atmosphere.