Blog #3

This is a piece done by Chia-Ying Lin. She was a finalist for the Mobile Design category in 2008. The service being sold here is a Mandarin learning app used as an educational and language assistant for the Nokia series 60 mobile devices. It allows travelers heading to China to look up words and phrases to be translated to Mandarin. The demographic for this piece would be male or female ages 16-30. Specifically people who like to travel and do not speak Mandarin.  It features thematic character design, with pronunciation and translation tools. This entry is playfully engaging the audience through it's simplistic design. Just by looking at the design it makes me think it is very easy to use. Translating things in different languages can be tough for most of us who don't have the first idea of where to start but this puts it all in the palm of your hand. It could be very useful for all kinds of translation not just Mandarin. The Illustration is clearly the means of expression here. It's fun, playful, engaging and very simple. I think this piece sticks out to me because it's simplistic design and it seems user friendly. I think the advertisers would judge it's success by it's simplicity as well. 

The second piece I choose was done by Cole Neilson from the Motion Graphics category. The product is the opening credits for the Typophile Film Festival 4. I think the demographic for this motion piece would be both women and men from the ages of 18-40 who are interested in typography and motion graphics. This is the first I have heard of Typofile and I really like the concept of the film festival. The story he tells hit me on a personal level as well. The objective was to show the life cycle of one man using the typography that we interact with throughout our lives. The creative use of text and story telling clearly connected me to this piece. As a student of typography I can appreciate the amount of work that went into this. All of us can relate to this because it covers most aspects of life from birth to death. The Illustrations and motion of this piece are what stood out to me. I loved It. I think the success of this piece can be judged by how well he tells his story through different styles of type. It makes me want to see more short films from the festival.