personal development plans: The diary for those lacking t' studio

It seems like a while since I have written in the blog, what after the abundant entries just a few weeks earlier. And longer still since I have written anything resembling a studio diary. I guess I need to develop that particular area of my blogging activities.

To start off with, I've been working on the YCN Cartoon Network brief, which is an ad campaign to encourage the imagination, as some of you may or may not be aware of. I've admittedly dithered a little in the last few weeks, after getting the basic research down to the ground I just found that I had not explored the full potential of what I could do with the brief.

I've settled upon an idea that will hopefully not only encourage the target audience of the Ad to briefly peel themselves away from the ol' box long enough to do something a little creative, but also should give Cartoon Network that little more exposure and web site traffic. In essence, my ad campaign is split into two halves - The first part presents a challenge to the audience, and via a competition the second half will have a winner's idea incorporated as the solution to said challenge. There will be a variety of these challenges, to cover a range of different creative and crafts skills.

At the moment, I'm just trying to decide whether to create a young character to front the campaign (with interactions with the current stars of the Cartoon Network channel) or to use one of their established characters - It is really a case of what is feasible versus having someone that can readily typify the intended audience.

All in all, I'm still enjoying the brief, despite the fact that many of the animation group know about my attitude towards children. I just need to keep remembering that I may not entirely appreciate the shows they watch, but when I was but a wee bairn, I too was watching and enjoying the sort of shows I generally roll my eye at nowadays. Yes, I said eye. And I'm not scottish.

In other news in the pig sty I call a bedroom and studio, I've been working on ideas for the upcoming open brief, with the intention of using the opportunity to promote myself as an animator/illustrator. Rudimentary ideas are forming, and I just think that something like this will help me prepare for the harsh, harsh world when I am jettisoned out of college at the end of this year.