16. The Breakfast Brand

So when I saw Craig's design for an iPhone case, I thought that I should do a little product design as well. Which product though? That was the question. The answer came to me from the name first rather than the product however. I thought to myself, "What is The First Thing everyone does each day?" The answer was simple - breakfast, of course. Or at least having a good breakfast is how everyone ought to start their day.

The New Breakfast of Champions

Branding is a big thing in breakfast and I'm not about to topple the Kelloggs and Nestles of this world. My breakfast products would be more along the style of Innocent smoothies and other similar niche players with a focus on healthier, premium quality ingredients - exactly the kind of thing I, myself like to eat and drink anyway. I also think there is a good opportunity to market "The First Thing" drinks and cereals to all the busy commuters I see on the train on my way to work who look like the ambitious, go-get-'em types that could afford my premium product and would hopefully also identify with my logo playing on the idea of being 1st.

So go enjoy The First Thing smoothies, juices and granola for "when you have a thirst for first".

15. Lights Camera iPhone.....

So after seeings Rex's video he created I knew exactly what I was going to do. I loved the video but felt it was slightly lacking in audio so needed a soundtrack. So I thought about this for a few days but then realised someone had beaten me to it! 

Rex had posted a link to our blog on his Facebook wall and one of his friends Stu Who kindly added some music to the video for us.

Web less
So after I had decided what I was going to do I was all ready to upload it to the blog and......
Boom no internet. 

I'm currently in the process of moving house and cancelled my internet connection, with my current supplier I had to give 2 weeks notice that I wanted to cancel. I presumed at the end of the 2 weeks they would then disconnect the line. But I was wrong I kindly got informed on the phone that I could get disconnected at any time over those two weeks. Oh well i'm back online now, but it did make me wonder how certain friends of mine would cope if they didn't have access to the web.

I kinda think there are two types of people those that live with technology constantly in their face who will freak out when they're separated from their device, as if their arm has been cut off, and people who feel really chilled when their separated from their device.

Luckily I fell into the latter type of person and wasn't overly bothered by the lack of connectivity as I had a chance to catch up on a few good books and just relax.


The Second Thing

Now Rex's video made me think about TV Shows and how they always have branded products and gifts. So I decided to create a iPhone case. Now i've been trying to convince Rex to get an iPhone for the last year or so so hopefully this will make him change his mind.

14. The First Thing Ident

In his last post, Craig Osgood created his own hand-made font on an iPad to use as a header for his baking blog. This made me think that we needed some kind of possible header or logo for our blog, The First Thing.

Inspiration

I briefly thought about creating a font of my own for this project, but because of having made a complete working font in the past, I knew that it could potentially end up taking a very long time to do so. My font is called eerie. I created it as part of my coursework for my HNC in Graphic Design from North Oxfordshire College in Banbury. Each letter was hand-drawn, scanned and then turned into individual vectors using Photoshop and Fontographer. If you would like to be able to use my eerie font on your computer, just let me know by posting a comment in this blog and I will be happy to send you a free copy.

Rather than create my own font this time though, I decided to do a little browsing with the help of Google Image search to see what I could stumble upon for typographic inspiration. In my student days this sort of research would have required a trip to the library or the newsagents to browse through various printed publications. The internet of course puts an inconceivable mountain-full of inspiration within the reach of a few clicks.

Construction

I knew right from the start that I was interested in making a typographic piece that would involve animation, something along the lines of the kind of thing that you see for the television network idents.  So, not only would Craig and I have our own blog, but now it would be growing into having a look, a logo and even a television station all of it's own. Imagine that, eh?

After collecting the individual images in a variety of styles of the letters that I needed, I was then ready to assemble and orchestrate the pieces together to create our title. I did this using a program called Motion which is made by Apple. Motion is unbelievably inexpensive for what it is in case anyone out there is interested in dabbling in this sort of work on a computer. It may look a bit complex and intimidating at first sight, but Motion is actually not so difficult once you break it down to understanding what the individual parts of the interface do and can focus on just looking at what you need for your task at hand. If you take the time to explore in Motion you'll find an incredible amount of power to create all manner of special effects and movements that you might want for a video project.

So here is my creation in response to Craig's last post. It's the first of what could conceivably become a series of motion graphics idents for The First Thing, which could of course also be used as intro pieces should we wish to make any video blog posts or that sort of thing in the future. Hopefully those ideas will spark even more ideas to come from Craig and myself as we continue our pass-the-baton game of blog posts.

13. ABC

Well after seeing Rex's last post, I really wanted to make Rex's digital design into a real life box (but thats for another day). 

What really caught my eye was the fonts that Rex had created by hand. I've always had a interest in typography and its amazing how many fonts are widely available online.


Creating my Own Font

As soon as I saw Rex's design I knew I had to attempt to make my own font. I'd never really thought about what sort of work went into creating a font. But after having a quick browse around the web I found a couple of options, which varied from a £800 bit of software, a website or a iPad application.

so I happily chose the £4.99 iPad application, which is called iFontmaker. The way the app works is quite simple you work your way through the alphabet drawing out your letters with a stylus.

Once you have finished designing your fonts you hit export and voila you have a font! Which is ready to use in any application from Word to Photoshop.

So after creating my font I needed to test it out. I'm currently planning a baking blog so created a little header to see what my font looked like.

12. Craig's Moon Pies

I have never eaten a Moon Pie, although the name is familiar to me. Additionally, I only just saw this old Moon Pie logo for the first time today after already finishing my own creation. I quite like that I didn't see their logo first, but I also quite like the similarities between them. My first impression of Craig's Moon Pie's was that they looked beautiful, yummy and were glowing with the love and tastiness that only homemade treats can have. The obvious quality of these creations needed somehow to be promoted to the world at large.

Snack Cakes

As a child, two of my favourite snack cakes were made by a company called Hostess. Fluffy, yellow ones called Twinkies and fluffy, chocolaty ones called Ding Dongs. They also had another amusingly named creation called Ho Ho's. I tend to not eat highly processed and packaged things like that anymore as an adult and my waistline is much the better because of it. I am however tempted by the look of Craig's homemade Moon Cakes, which I thought deserved an equally homemade and hand-crafted logo which could be used for advertising and packaging of these lovely treats. It came as a surprising coincidence to me to find out today while preparing this post, that my beloved Hostess Twinkies are no longer made as the Hostess company recently went out of business. What an interesting irony to discover the replacement offering called Cloud Cakes that have been dreamed up by another famous company from my childhood, Little Debbie's. I see that Craig is going to have some tough international competition when it comes time to market his Moon Pies.

Sketchbook

Without much planning or knowing what I wanted to come up, with I just sat down on my train journey and made some rough sketches of ideas. I did have an image in my head of the man in the moon from the famous Lumiere Brothers film from 1902 called "A Trip to the Moon". I loved watching these kinds of old clips on the television as a kid which provided a time-travellers look at the past while at the same time showing a whimsical world of imagination. Within a single train journey I had come up with an idea that I thought would suffice for my final presentation of a whimsical world of wonderful tasty treats.

Photoshop and a Wacom Tablet

After many, many years of thinking "Wouldn't it be fun to have one of those tablets that let you draw and paint on the computer?", I finally bought one last year. It was really my daughter Tabitha's interest in getting one that helped encourage me to finally buy one and indeed it was really bought as her birthday present, although she and I both have always known that I wanted to use it as much as her. So here was a perfect opportunity for a bit of computer painting. I sat down with my electronic pen and proceeded to  recreate and embellish my original sketches. And here is the result.

11. Moon Pies

Yum Yum Yum

As soon as I saw Rex's video I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Anyone that knows me well knows I love to cook, any excuse to experiment and make something new. So after watching Rex's video I really wanted to make a Moon Pie.

 I've attached a short video from Greyson Explains youtube channel who explains amazingly well what a Moon Pie is:

The Biscuit

The biscuits used are graham crackers the UK equivalent would probably be something like a digestive biscuit. I've tried a couple of recipes but couldn't find a perfect one so this is a collaboration of about six different recipes.

Ingredients you will need:

- 380g Plan White Flour

- 180g Dark Brown Sugar

- 1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

- 4g Salt

- 115g Honey

- 2tbsp Vanilla Extract

- 5tbsp Milk

- 2 bags of Marshmallows (white)

- 2 bars of Dark Chocolate 

Making the dough:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. 

Mix together the flour, brown sugar, bicarb & salt in a bowl (If your're lucky and have a mixer feel free) Mix all the ingredients together well. Whilst that is mixing, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla extract. Then mix together.

When all the ingredients are mixed together, Lay out some cling film and cover lightly with flour, place the ball of dough in the fridge for approximately 2 hours as it's quite a sticky dough.

Once thats done flour your worktop and roll out the dough with a depth of 1cm. Then use a round cookie cutter  and cut out your biscuits.

I then sprinkled caster sugar mixed with cinnamon on top and baked for 20-25mins.

The Marshmallow

Once my biscuits had cooled, I then needed to create the marshmallow filling. I attempted to make my own marshmallow but sadly this ended in what I can only describe as the marshmallow man from ghostbusters coming out my microwave. 

The easier alternative is to buy some marshmallows and put them in the microwave for 15 seconds. This then goes into a piping bag and spread across the biscuits which are then joined. 

The Final Result

Once this is done melt the chocolate over some boiling water and dip the biscuits in and then let set in the fridge or if your impatient like me the freezer.

And finally a quote

"A cake is a very good test of an oven: if it browns too much on one side and not on the other, it's not your fault - you need to have your oven checked"

          Delia Smith

10. Animated Astronaut

The First Thing - An Old Sony Television

Strangely enough, the very first thing I thought of when I saw Craig Osgood's drawing of an astronaut was an old Sony television. I can't really remember the actual images that I saw on that television, but for some reason I think I remember going around to a friend's house in 1972 when I was 6 years old so that we could all watch something which was far more exciting than any Hollywood blockbuster of today, but which at the same time seemed entirely normal and to be expected by my 6 year old self who had grown up immersed in several years worth of men walking on the moon. This miraculously exciting event was viewed on that small, foreign, Sony device which at the time was unusual in itself because it wasn't until many years later that it became commonplace to purchase electronics and gadgets produced by Japanese companies.

I can't remember any earlier times when I watched astronauts live on television but I can figure out the year of this instance because we had just moved from one area to another in San Antonio, Texas in time for me to start first grade at my new school and thus I know is was 1972. ( Yes, I know that I incorrectly put 1973 in the video titles. Sorry about that. I was a bit hasty in trying to complete the project. )

With a little help from everyone's favourite answer machine, Google of course, I have managed to pin down the fact that that was the last time anyone ever watched men walking on the moon. It was the Apollo 17 mission and it seems strange to think that it was so long ago. I was reminded of those moon walking days more recently when my children were excited about watching the somewhat similar, but let's face it, no where near as exciting or amazing, highest ever skydive by Felix Baumgartner which was streamed live on the internet and viewed by my children on a white MacBook. One day of course they may think back nostalgically to that event and the quaint old technology of the day.

San Antonio, Texas

My earliest ever memory is of when we moved to San Antonio from my birthplace of Denton, Texas when I was about 3 or 4 years old I think. A couple of years later, we moved to the house on the left in this Google Street View screen capture. It looks just the same to me now really, although I'm not sure if that now-cut-back tree trunk was there at the time or if it must have been planted after we left. As an added bit of trivia, after a couple of years living in this house we ended up moving only just across the street to live in that house for a few more years before we eventually moved to the Kansas City area that I now consider more the place where I really grew up. It's a real nostalgia trip to take a virtual walk around Google Street View to see the route I used to walk to school and remember some of the friends I knew when recognising the other streets and houses in that neighbourhood. My elementary school and the outdoor swimming pool are still just as I remember them although the school has changed it's name. It used to be called Sunset Hills Elementary. Whenever I think of that outdoor swimming pool it reminds me of hearing the Earth, Wind and Fire cover of "Got to Get You Into My Life" being blasted through the loudspeakers while we splashed away in the bakingly hot Texas sunshine. To this day I still don't like to go swimming outdoors unless I'm so hot I'm already dripping with sweat. Needless to say that is an extremely rare occurrence in England where I now live.

Mix It All Together

So my creation is a bit of a video mash up of the memories in my head created by seeing Craig's astronaut along with a bit of cheeky humour just because I couldn't resist, and at least it makes me laugh. Hopefully you will laugh too when you watch it.

9. Aaaaagh! I’m Getting Old!

The First Thing....

I'm going to be honest I really enjoyed Rex's post but the first thing I thought of when I had a quick glance was that I needed a cup of tea before I read it. (Which I did) I do find a good cup of tea can solve pretty much any problem.

So the second thing I thought of was when I was growing up and all those crazy ideas (some that I still have) about what I wanted to be and do.

Space, the Final Frontier

Every young boy wanted to be a astronaut at some point and I wasn't any different. I also loved to doodle and colour in when I was younger. So I found a notebook grabbed some pencils and pens and began to doodle away. 

So I began by sketching out my idea

I then inked over the design using a Sharpie and erased the pencil.

and voila, we have a astronaut (I don't know what happened to his right glove but hey)

I've been on holiday this week and have one more week left. I thought i'd do something productive so I have signed up to a series of painting classes to see what thats all about. So hopefully some of the future posts could be paintings!!!!

And as this seems to be my thing now i'll leave you with a quote:

"You have brains in your head you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose"  

Dr Seuss

8. Growing Up

Craig's Animated Gif

I was very happy to see that Craig Osgood is keeping the art of the animated gif alive. It reminded me of some animated gif's that I made from photos of myself and put on my website many years ago. The other thing that it reminded me of the fact that I quite often seem to accidentally take a series of photos which, as I scan through them on the camera, are revealed to being an animation of one kind or another. Or in the case of this animation of Maggie and Arthur, the images are the result of what happens when you give your children permission to use your camera and they are left to make funny faces as they please. I didn't know that they had even taken these photos. I only stumbled upon the images later on while browsing through all my photos and decided that it would be fun to bring them to life.

Family Photos

The other place where these animated faces present themselves to me on a regular basis in within the "Faces" feature found in both iPhoto and Aperture. As you skim your pointer over the thumbnails of each person you are presented with a flip-book style animation of all the photos you have of that person within your photo library. When that person happens to be your own child with the photos dating from their birth to the present day, then what you get is a condensed history of that person's entire life. I have thought many times that I would like to turn this accidental discovery into a proper presentation and now, thanks to the inspiration from Craig's money growing on trees, I have. I took three individual screen captures while skimming through each child's photos within iPhoto and then cropped and assembled the results in Motion 5 together with a bit of decoration for good measure. You may have noticed from the result that it becomes apparent that my children are to be commended for putting up with the number of times that I have taken photos of them over the years, but then they are my favourite reasons for owning a camera so I must thank them profusely.