Presentation & Installation - Research, Clarifying Context

Starting to look at presentation strategies.
How do I want to present? There are a range of options

• Presenting a bunch of work 'in-house' to the production team on the project (design-savvy people), more technical information and less emphasis on 'polish'
• Presenting a bunch of work in a pitch to producers or investors - would perhaps prefer 'wow' images
• Presenting work in a catch-up meeting with producers or investors - deeper into the project, progress of work
• Presenting at a convention or expo - to get people interested in related merchandise
• Presenting in the lobby of the design office for clients and employees to see
• Presenting on the wall in the design space to inform other team members and give a space where things can be talked over in an informal standing meeting

Things to consider include the arrangement and presentation of the images within the space as well as the arrangement and presentation images' individual pages and how appropriate these methods of presentation are for the specific chosen presentation context.

Talked with Rebecca - should think about it as a balance between presenting in a way appropriate for our context and presenting in a way that's appropriate for an end-of-degree show. So it's alright to present fancier and tidier than you would in your actual context.

There's a sense that if you're presenting a solution to a client in person, you'll talk about the process, what you did, why you did it, alternate things you looked at, etc, to give context and a well reasoned explanation of why you made the choices you did. I am only doing a physical presentation though.

Research:

Source 1

Some research I did in May of last year can be found at this link. I had posted on the Conceptart.org website about how concept art is displayed. Jeffx99 replied. Jeffx99 has done video game work before, but not since 2002 (link to his biographic page).

Here's what he said:

There are different levels of "concept art", with different purposes, audiences and presentation methods. Most often it is displayed on a screen, printed out and put on boards or tacked up on a dedicated wall in what is often called a "war room". Concept work can also be presented via PowerPoint or some other projection during a review meeting. 

Concept art runs the gamut from simple sketches between AD and artist all the way up to what are called "production paintings" which help set the mood and tone for a project. There's a lot of variation between and whatever makes most sense is how it is displayed. 

So basically the answer is concept art is displayed in a variety of ways. And yes, "animatics" are a good way to show some things.

Edit: You should always work at print resolutions because most of the time it will be printed at some point, either to put on a wall, a board or to be included in a design doc.

I said to him:

is there a definitive summary of the job(s) a concept artist would face, how the concept artist operates in the workplace, etc? I'm trying to find out as much as I can about the job through searching the forums and running it through Google but everybody seems to have slightly different ideas.

To which he replied

There are different ideas because it is always very different. Studios are different, teams are different, individual projects are different, genres are different, entertainment forms are different...so roles, responsibilities and the workplace are different across companies, projects and artists. 

Source 2

I've also gotten in touch with Pati AhSue who did a similar project during BVA4 a couple of years ago to see what knowledge he can give me from his time at Weta.

No reply from Pati yet.



Source 3 - on-the-page examples from various artists


FZD images from his website

Images from FZD students

talk about presentation here
http://simonfetscherweekly.blogspot.se/

From Paul Richard's site:

Death armor by Brian Jones with callouts.

Definitions: 'Callouts' - arrows and notes that further define or explain certain elements

A brief look at the use of callouts in Industrial Design sketches with links to Industrial Designer Rhett Miles
http://www.core77.com/blog/sketchnotes/a_better_way_to_do_drawing_callouts_25311.asp

Source 4 - Feng Zhu Design School 2013 graduation show

Spatial layout of presentation is really tight - it looks like they have a tiny amount of room to show in so there's no wall showing at all! Looks like a range of images from their individual projects, with both 3/4 view designs as well as production painting

Source 5 - Hobbit Production Videos

Stills from Peter Jackson's video blogs of The Hobbit production. Artists John Howe and Alan Lee showing Peter Jackson some work. Not sure of the exact context of the meeting, or whether it's staged for the purposes of the blog. But we can see what looks like a work space.

Images all blurred out in the video for non-disclosure reasons. Looks like it could be pencil drawings sitting beside final paintings. OR could be drawings and photographs/references from locations.




Source 6 - Logo Design Presentation


5 Tips for Presenting your Design Concept (logo design) by Nathan Sarlow of CobaltCow (link)

• Not all that useful in terms of visual presentation advice; mainly just stuff regarding conversation and interaction with client.
• A focus on minimalism in presentation of logos - white space around the logos so that they can be seen without distraction. Relevant in my context? Perhaps when presenting to somebody who doesn't really understand art and ideas (a non-artistic client) then minimalism would be best. But perhaps art-directors are able to see and process the ideas much better even when given a quite full and information-heavy canvas with many callouts
• As a designer you can leave out or change things that the client requested if you feel that it was detrimental to the design. Always explain WHY you left the element out so that ensure that you appear intelligent and thoughtful and not lazy.

Source 7 -  Richard Baird's The Designer's Guide to Presentations
http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=290

• Side note - interesting point about branding - the logo doesn't have to carry the entire message - let it work as a team with other aspects of the branding.

http://www.idsketching.com/toolbox/toolbox-levels-of-sketching/

Clarification of Context

Looking at the work I've produced and how it's already layed out and rendered, I've decided it feels much more like an in-house presentation of designs, likely to other members of the design team.

Spoke to Glen, the producer from my internship and he agreed, saying that for a pitch to investors he thought you'd more likely create a film poster or similar image.

So the chosen context is:

 prop designs presented to the rest of the design team and art director for discussion. The stage following this would be revision and then, I believe in most cases, the creation of diagrammatic top, side, bottom and front views of each design for prop-makers or 3D modelers to create the actual object for use in the film.

Presentation Discussion:

1. Mounting on Boards

Norman Foster manually placing boards on an easel in architecture pitch

 http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2012/nov/19/architects-zaha-hadid-norman-foster

Mounting on solid boards - easier to carry to meeting, can be passed around, etc
http://www.gavinelliott.co.uk/2010/02/how-to-present-your-designs-to-the-client/


However, mounting costs and TIME taken to mount is gonna be difficult for me - 2 weeks left and maybe not enough time to get everything polished and printed with labor day taking up that monday as well ?



Foam board mounting options

Outsourcing labour:
http://www.pcl.co.nz/Services/Mounting++Laminating.html


DIY materials
Gordon Harris products incl. self-adhesive boards (about $12 for each A2 image)
http://www.gordonharris.co.nz/foamboard-c-83.html

DIY tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEqoWRUc8QQ&feature=player_detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR66p2rv_Xc&feature=player_detailpage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NqdSCtqW5GA


Thoughts:
Implications of foamboard - more work goes into it, looks more presentable, perhaps implies a more upmarket presentation to a group of people you want to impress with the images and presentation itself - clients, investors, etc, rather than a group of technical artists who are only really fussed about the designs.

However - technical artists would perhaps need top and side views, etc, rather than only 3/4 views.

What we have - some images that present the design itself outside of the immediate context of its use - the focus of the image is primarily on the visual design primarily and not on its placement in a wider world.

Fran idea - if I want to work in a real-world contextual message, I could have a couple on the wall, have on propped up on a desk and then one in one of those large black zip-up portfolio bags. Sort of really literally gives the message that these are images that will be taken and displayed to clients.

Lecturer feedback:
Fran - foamboard mounting has a definite 'design' feel to it
Rebecca - foamboard feels too high-school



2. Page Layout

Our aim is to provide as much information to the design team as possible.
So clarifying things like

• Materials the objects are made of  - reference image cutouts or text indications
• Any hard-to-understand or fine detail - blown-up detail
• Any function or moving parts or transformations - drawings of object in other states
• Scale - relative scale with objects or a clearly defined measurement
• 
  

Current version:













http://zurb.com/article/1205/17-design-feedback-techniques-that-influe

http://zurb.com/article/1252/influencers-answer-how-do-you-present-des

http://www.graphicdesignblender.com/presenting-design-work-to-your-clients

http://www.richardbaird.com/design-survival/

http://www.richardbaird.com/about/

http://www.richardbaird.com/2012/05/10/the-designers-guide-to-presentation/