Study Task 1 - Brief Selection - What is the Problem? Part 1

For our first studio brief, we are to respond to a minimum of 5 live and competition briefs that reflect our emerging creative interest and professional ambitions within Animation (This does not just include full animations, but also character designs, concept designs and storyboards). To start off however, we are to select 3 briefs before our next session, one of those three shall be the main brief that will become the focus of the taught sessions and studio workshops for the duration of the first part of the module. 

In addition to that, we will have to select a number of smaller/quicker briefs that will allow us to demonstrate our ability to develop effective response within professionally realistic deadlines.

There were some issues when it came to picking briefs from only YCN and D&AD, for YCN there aren't that many applicable to us animation students, and for D&AD, the briefs (Even right now) have yet to be released (It also doesn't help how NOT user friendly their site is), and so unfortunately I don't have that many choices to choose from.,

I do believe however that I will get much better choices from the other sites provided, such as MOFILM and 11 Second Club, and so I will make my other choices later this week, but for now… here are the three friends I chose from YCN:

1. Macmillan Children's Books - Create new illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland's 150th Anniversary Year

Definitely the easiest brief, we are already given very specific requirements (1 Cover Design and 1-2 Interior Page Illustrations in PDF) for this competition, it also helps that Alice in Wonderland is a fairly interesting subject to work with. They did not specify any particular style they would prefer us to use, and so, while it might seem like much time is required to work on these illustrations, it really also depends on the style used for it. In terms of this brief being applicable to Animation students, I suppose it is the narrative aspect of it that is of importance to us. The only issue I foresee are the large number of competitors I will definitely have to go up against, seeing as this is one of the easier and more popular briefs, still, I will just be glad to have something new added to my portfolio and resume.

2. SYFY - Get the Sci-fi audience to love the Syfy brand for being the most passionate home for sci-fi

I don't watch this channel often (With the exception of catching random episodes of the first Star Trek and the 1960s Batman series), but I would be more than happy to do research on it for this brief. As the requirements for this one is a lot more open than the Macmillan Children's Books one, I believe I will be allowed to create some concepts for a campaign or promotional product, such as storyboards, character design, etc. This one will require a lot more research as well, and I will admit that it will be quite a challenge thinking up of a decent enough campaign for them (As advertising isn't really my forte), but I will prevail.

3. WHISTLES - Design a concept and campaign for the first ever Whistles scent

Much like the 2^nd brief, I will be able to storyboard a campaign idea for this one as well as create several concepts for their. While I have never shopped from Whistles, it might be interesting to work on something for a clothing brand nonetheless (And it definitely seems more open in terms of its creative challenge compared to other briefs available). I am however quite unfamiliar with this brand, and this campaign for their first ever 'scent' (They are being literal... right?) still baffles me on some level, and chances are I might have to seek help and collaborate with others to be able to successfully respond to this brief.