On the back of my D&AD entry, my FMP had been on the slight back burner for the recent weeks. Focusing so much on tweaking my Bacardi Boom concept as I wanted every little detail perfect such as the timing of the edit to be on each separate beat. It took me at least twenty different final edits to get to the last one. Although I probably should have balanced out equal time for my fmp with my D&AD project, I am happy with how I submitted my concept video, fingers crossed.
But now onto the FMP final major project, the biggest solo project throughout my whole three years on the Advertising and Brand Design Course. A hugely anticipated body of work which will be somewhat on the front line of my portfolio prior to leaving Ravensbourne. In all honesty, finishing Bacardi, Realising that all was left was the FMP was a huge pressure as I knew it had to be up there and be my best piece of work to date. Which leads me onto saying how stuck I was when it came to making a decision where to begin.
The first method I used to get to the stage of establishing my FMP was through numerous chats and one to ones with both Brian and Derek. Brian's advice was the one which drove me to finding my area. He said take a look at your portfolio, what have you got a lot of on there already, which involves a lot of event branding, design, music related bits of work and finally a few bits of copy but not as much as I would have liked there to be. Following on from my Bear London Interview, I realised that Copywriting was an area I sparked in over design. Which was the first major step in my area for my FMP.
Spotting that ‘Gap’ in my portfolio meant that I would identify and execute a body of work to accommodate that gap, which involved a copy led piece of work with a hint of design, but the main focus beign around the copy and literature. I decided I wanted to punch a hole in this FMP with a specific attitude which I give off with my work. This is through the tone I approach a piece of work for example ‘Meet Barry’ was an example of an attitude I can offer.
So the first step of my ‘Research’ stage of my fmp concluded in me discovering my gap in my portfolio, the second bit I decided on was to stick to my strengths, have fun with this project at the end of the day but also try and learn something new. These three lines are often easier said than done, but in my case I liked this approach. My strengths I decided involved adding tone and attitude through copywriting and also design.
Researching what was already out there when it came to fusing together cleaver funny copy with design was difficult, as its quite a niche thing. As usually its either one or the other. A piece of work is either design driven or copy driven. But I did research into things such as Ross Plaskow’s ‘How to lose your shit’ step by step video. This example inspired me to think about how i can execute my fmp. Below you can watch the short animation which Involves a snappy title for the ‘How to lose your shit’. The things which I liked about this piece was the spin Ross put on the title through the simple animation. Was this something I could adopt and pour into my work?
Other bits of research which drove me to my first few ideas was meme culture. Being connected to culture and the types of content we share as millenials on social channels I thought would be a good insight into my FMP. Such as the throwaway memes which contain a nostalgic picture with a short bit of copy. This structure was one I liked as it was quick, effective and got people's attention
To anyone other than millenials, they may look at memes and think what on earth, how is that funny, how is that popular etc, but memes are an area which has taken over the internet as such, It has revolutionised the way we all communicate in terms of humour and life in general. The term meme originate from the Greek mimema, meaning “imitated”. In other words memes are just gags or bits of media which have been regurgitated into a low budget amatuer format.
The next stage on from this research section was to begin with the ideation stage.