week 40 - monday

Today I have focused on creating web forum for the nordic animal t-shirt contest and working on it's design guide and the description we are going to right in my Behance profile.

Behance is a social media from Adobe company where designers post their artworks in different projects in their profile and every one can appreciate the artworks and comment on them.

We have figured out that instead of creating a new Behance profile for Valo tv and presenting our contest to the designers, We are gonna use my own profile which already have followers and I can introduce our contest to the people as the company's art director.

Here is what I have considered to write in my Behance profile when I'm uploading the poster of our contest:

Project title : Join Nordic animal illustration contest

Dear amazing artists

Currently I am working as intern at ValoTV in the role of an Junior Art Director. I am really happy to beone of the creators of this illustration contest. ValoTV is an non-profit organization aiming to cover much about Nordic culture featuring artists, events, design and innovation through videos, images and it's articles.

NowValoTV is looking for a nice design for it's official T-shirt The illustration should demonstrate one or more nordic animal. ValoTVwants the artwork to be unique and cool from a creative artist like you!
ValoTV can not afford to pay Money or the prizes to the winners, but we have considered more interesting awards instead :) which include handmade silkscreen printings and public exhibition of the winners illustrations.

Check the link bellow for more information on the contest

"The link to the article"

Credits: Illustrations by Arash Abedin. Graphic Design by Rafael Rybczynski.

week 39 - friday

In this week we have mostly focused on the screen printing technique and how our entrants can understand the technique and consider it when designing for our contest. 

Among all the methods in e-design i have inspired from mental model the most. We as a contest maker should make our users understand about our delimitations and facilities when designing for the contest, but we need to know that they have less time to study and focus on the printing techniques. 

As far as I am also an illustration, I've found it easier to user research, creating personas regarded to the entrants.

Week 39 - Wednesday

Today I have studied on the screen printing techniques and preparation of graphic images considering that techniques. We have found that our design guide is still not sufficient and we need to give more advices and guidelines for our contest's entrants.

We have also determined the limited design area that designers should consider before submitting any artwork.

week 39 - monday

Today I have researched on what a design guide could consist when it's about an illustration contest for a t-shirt contest considering our limited printing technique which is screen printing.
Normally when preparing a design for screen  printing the designer should be aware that they should minimize the use of colors in the design to make it easier to be printed.
Here is what I've written so far related to the design guide :

• Your attachments should be 2 images which are : The .png illustration file + the design placement on the t-shirt. ( You can use our t-shirt sample as for the placement).

• Your final illustration can be both vector and pixel.. But remember to keep the original file if you design technique is digital.

• As far as our printing technique is screen printing, use maximum 3 colours or less and don't combine the colours with each others.

• If your illustration tool is photoshop or other pixel based softwares, separate the colours you are using in different layers.

• Your design shouldn't blow over the border we have determined on the t-shirt. ( check the attachment)

• The resolution of your artwork image that you are submitting should be 640 * 480 pixels. 

• You are free to chose the t-shirt's background colour, ValoTv would take it as your suggestion but remark we might change the colour.

week 38 - friday

Today We have created the graphic image that we are going to use in our Tweeter account about our t-shirt illustration contest and also worked on the final look of our posters that is going to be released on our website, Facebook and Behance account. The posters are in 2 different colors.
This week we have mostly focused on creating images and identifying our contest's visuality. The next week we need to write a design guide for the entrants of our contest and find out what to write on the description of our event.



                                                      Posters

   
    Image for Tweeter

week 38 - wednesday

Today I've created a cover photo for the t-shirt illustration contest event, for our Facebook fan page. beside that I tried to to figure out what would be the best option to create a web form where entrants of our contest subscribe our artworks by a web form instead of using email.  I've found a good platform using podio that enables us make a free web form specified for design contest which is "https://help.podio.com/hc/en-us/articles/201019628-Webforms"
these images bellow are the process of making our Facebook fan page new look.

week 38 - monday

Today I have worked on the t-shirt contest project, starting step by step in the priority list that we have been created with Rafael which is:

Priority list

1. Rules of Contest
2. Deadlines External / Internal
3. Submission page
4. Internal bookings eg. Beboerhus, possible expenses for colours and T-shirt
5. Design Guide

Here is a brief of what I've been figured out on the rules:

Rules of Contest

For the entrants

Like Valo Tv on Facebook.
Submitting more than one artwork must be done separately.
Remark that we need to have the right of the artwork you have submitted and if you have won the award you can not use your artwork for any other purposes.
Entries submitted without an illustration automatically will be disqualified. Only attachments with formats of .JPG and PNG will be qualified (read the design guide).
All designs must be 100% original and cannot include any trademarked images or unauthorized illustration or graphic.

Judging

Your art work will be judged on these criteria:

Innovation, simplicity and composition
After your submission we are representing your artworks on our Pinterest and Behance profile the attitude of the audience will be influenced in the judgement.
Please do consider that we are using screen printing method for the t-shirts, so your design must be capable with this printing technique. (read the design guide).

week 37 - friday

After creating the images and graphics required for running the nordic animal t-shirt contest we are one step more close to run the contest. In this week I've worked with planning and concept developing the contest considering the limited budget of our company.

images bellow are the images that are designed by me which should be presented and utilized when we are running the contest.

week 37 - wednesday

Today I made the concept of implementation of our T-shirt design contest. First of all Im gonna describe you what are the goals of this contest for Valo tv:

- Promoting ValoTv to the artists in different social media.

- Concerting the entrants to our potential users by sending them newsletters and our latest updates.

- Opportunity to collaborate with new artists.

 - Gaining new designs from different artists all over the world and having the right to use them.

And who are our target group for the entrants:

Primary: Artists and designers living in Nordic countries.

Secondary: Professional artists all over the world.

here I am going to describe how I am planning to create and manage the contest:

Step 1) Creation of contest

Creating a blog on Valotv which describes the contest and rules and the prizes with details. 

The designers should attach their art work to our email with some required information. the images they are sending should be with a specific resolution plus an example of how the illustration should be placed on the t-shirt. We are going to use Podio web forums for the entrants to subscribe their artworks.

Step 2) Inviting people

Creating an event on Facebook where we can describe about the T-shirt contest and link the blog in valotv's website. I have a good connection with illustrators all over the EU whom might find this competition interesting to enter. So it would be a good idea to invite them in the event. 

Some methods for promoting or contest on Facebook:

- Promote the competition on our cover photo. Utilizing the biggest space on our pages functions like a billboard and attains too much attention of the Valotv audiences and our Facebook friends.

- Using Facebook ads. That's very effective but it requires purchasement.

Step 3) Promotion

Sharing a poster of our contest on Intstagram , Behance , Pinterest and Linkedin in order to promote our contest,

It could be intereting if we make if we create a placards with nice graphic on it about ValoTv and our illustration event. So we can spread it in many places, e.g. Cafe retro that I am working there as a voluntary, Christianshaven Beboerhuset etc.

Step 4) Choosing the winners

We are evaluating the winners of our contest by our self but in the same time we can submit every artist's artwork that we have received in our email on Behance.

Behance is a website by Adobe where every visual artist post their projects and artworks there and get feedback so quick. and we can gain too many followers there in the same time. 

You can review my profile there to see how people are communication in my page: https://www.behance.net/arashabedin

week 37 - monday

Today I've worked on the project of the contest of illustration for t-shirt for Valo Tv. I've started doing research on where we can promote on contest and here was the result of my research.

1) Facebook (To inform our Facebook fans about the contest)

3) Pinterest 

4) Google plus ( To in form our google fans about the contest)

5) Instagram ( To inform our instagram fans about the contest + promoting our contest using different hash tags)

6) ValoTV's Blog (to introduce our contest on the website)

7) Behance (On Behance we can find a lots of creative designers and illustrators who can be interested to join our contest).

8) Sharing a brief of our contest on our Linked in profile to let our connection know about this competition. There is a program called Tweetdeck where we can post to Facebook, Tweeter and Linked in with one click. https://about.twitter.com/products/tweetdeck

9) Inviting designers to our contest.By creating an event on Facebook we can invite all the highly potential designers we have our friend connection to our contest. 

and here is an image that I've created as an example of how it the designs could look like:

As far as our company is still doesn't have too much budget, the prizes of our contest for the winners won't be money. But we have considered alternative prizes that would be interesting for the entrants to achieve. 

here are the list of the prizes for the winners of our contest:

Our Prizes / awards are for selected designs

1.
Silkscreen Print, T-shirt and being exhibited on public cultural events
(we should limit / specify mailing costs for EU only)
- allow max 5 winners. 

2.
Silkscreen Print, T-shirt
(we should limit / specify mailing costs for EU only)
- allow max 5 winners

3.
T-shirt
(we should limit / specify mailing costs for EU only)
- allow max 3 winners

All winners will be presented on ValoTV micro website

4.( Nice to have)

(In the Event we will have in dome of visions we can sell some of our prints and hand made t-shirts)

So we could consider a commission for the winners if sold any.

week 36 - friday

After working a lot on the video of Helsinki design week, I've finally finished the project today and the video has been approved by Kari Korkman. In this week I've learnt how to encode files from after effects that could give you the best result of rendering.

I've also get to know too many platforms on the internet that could help you creating an online design contest. The links bellow are the examples of platforms that helps you create an online contest:

https://www.binkd.com

http://www.offerpop.com

http://www.snapapp.com

http://new.social-candy.com

http://www.shortstack.com

http://apps.tradablebits.com

In the link bellow you can see the final video of Helsinki design week which we have released:

http://valo.tv/portfolio-type/helsinki-design-week/

week 36 - wednesday

Today we have found that there still are some problem in the video of Helsinki design week. The quality of the video is fine but it still needs color correction and some problems on rendering of the moiré pattern in some parts of the video.

Here is an example of the advices on the video I've received from Rafael on Podio:

0:22-0:32 instead of any flares you could simply change to black & white, when he says “the concept..

- would do the trick !

0:34 never mind the moire comment, is ok

0:39 colour adjustment - the graphic is very pale…

0:53 colour adjustment - the image is too strong…

1:06 colour adjustment - the graphic is very pale…

1:14-1:15 colour adjustment - the video is very unsharp.. try switching it black&white

1:58 moire - try to De-interlace it (see below)

2:01 colour adjustment - the graphic is very pale and grey… or find another image

2:41 try to blink in his name in yellow - same way as you used in the beginning (like e.g. for 4-6 sec)

2:57-3:02 use another example, fx when they walk down the stairs - this aint go better due to moire…

3:32 poor edit - ideas. why dot you use for example one of his press photos as slide in to slide our like from left to right - when he says “..ja ja that true until you know that is .. 

4:01 - you can drop in your award drawing here quickly  

4:21 - this flare i added - is here a chance get it bit more pale, the like 20% less so strong yellow to soften it?

I've fixed the bugs and encoding the final video again. So we can ask for the approvement from Kari Korkman before releasing the video online.    

week 36 - monday

Today I have been struggled a lot on encoding the video of the Helsinki design week since I most of the time faced a bad quality video after exporting the video. After exporting the final video I have delivered the file to Rafael which the deadline would be on wednesday in order to transfer the video to Kari Korkman ( the founder and director of Helsinki design week) to approve our video.

The other project I am working on at the moment is the t-shirt competition concept. Here is some investigation on the concept that I have done until now.

Valo Tv T-shirt competition

The competition description:

Entrants are asked to draw an illustration of one of the nordic animals and an example of how it fits in the t-shirt.

Nordic animals that are entrants can chose to illustrate:

- Polar bear

- moos

- elk

- Danish horse
- wolf

Rules for entering the competition:

• Entrants have to like your page or enter competition via FB interface.

• User has to tweet a message or follow us!

Prizes:

• A handmade print on the t-shirt of the illustration of the owner of the designer.
• A handmade poster using screen printing method  of the illustration of the designer.
• Creating an article in valotv related to the designer.

week 35 - friday

Today  I've made a new teaser for the video Helsinki design week since I've already learnt too many new methods in video editing programs where I can created better and more dynamic videos and motion graphics. The Helsinki design week is one of the biggest events in the scandinavia therefor the video of it should also be really nice.
Working with Adobe After Effects took a lot of time of this editing process cause I always need to render the video and it takes too much time.
You can see some screen shots of the the teaser video in the images bellow.

This week I've learnt

• How do create create visual elements for videos in order to maximize the flow of the users.
• How to create interview videos and what is so necessary to remember when we're creating this.
• How using podio helps us to communicate with the Valotv's designers.

week 35 - wednesday

Today I've been worked on graphic elements of the Helsinki design week's video. I made some illustrations which I can put in the video in order to create a better user flow of the video. with these graphical elements the viewers of the video could understand the concept of the interview clearly would create a relationship with them.
I used the color scheme "yellow" for these graphical elements so we would see repetition in the design and the visuality of the video. You can see two examples of the visual elements in the images below.
after the illustrations I made some editing in the video using my graphic elements.