IM: We've been featured!!

Here on Bristol 24/7 and
Here on Labour MP Kerry McCarthy's blog

How exciting!

IM: Recording sound

To get sound for the map we used tascams, I had never really used one before but they were relatively easy to use. After getting permission it is easy enough just to press record and let it run (of course after selecting the correct gain etc.). In this way we collected many awesome events with different generes as well as ambient sound of the river, shopping mall and even the inside of the cathedral. Unfortunately some where too quiet to be heard however so they could be not included on the map.

After a sound is captured I cut it in Audacity (a sweet free program for audio editing) and adjusted the volume, it's then very easy to upload onto http://www.thinglink.com/ on which we used the map as the base image, similar to Toronoto's sound map, and using the same widget.

IM: The Map Itself.

Excuse the formatting! It's impossible to change the size of this image now! :(

imon Elvin's map (FM Radio map in London) I used as a basis to create the map, using a google images map of Bristol I traced over the river and used the magic lassoo to colour the area, then after using a map created by a student from Bristol rather than google maps so that it is based on the real neighbourhoods rather than the data from google which may be innacurate. I liked it blank (See above) but others suggested that we put the names of areas on there as it's easier for people who are not from Bristol or are unfamilar with areas to put the names of them there too. So as you can see bellow, the finished map! A bit higher quality on the actual page!

IM: Coming up with a logo.

So we're thinking about spreading the word for our website, we've got this nifty idea that we put a few post card type
adverts in musical locations saying "Does Bristol deserve its Musical title?" Then have a free music
download cod
e on them which they can access via our site. Should get the right kind of people interested as they are in Musical venues, and free download of music, who can resist? :D

Anyway, for this, and some business cards and a poster hopefully we need a running theme, mainly, a logo!

In a production meeting yesterday we discussed a few ideas but the predominant one was a clean and clear minimalist representation of the tree at the bottom of where I live which has a kind of banded material jumper on it which can be seen on the left.

Clear cut and minimalist is the easiest for a large group to understand, the tree is always lovely aesthetically and often used to represent other things. Trees are innate to humanity I like to think so, no one could argue against a tree being used! Also it branches out and spreads just like a city does AND more importantly like music. Music because it splinters into smaller and smaller divisions and peculiarities, even though really they are all joined to the same term of music.

The choice of colours, black and white is obvious to keep it bold, and the colours then on the black and white to make it stand out and keep it interesting, not to mention Bristol is certainly a colourful city.

Anyway enough of my blabbing here's what I did (using artweaver, a very good free

photoshop type tool):

Took a sillouhette (sp?) type thing of a tree and outlined it, made it black, added a white circle behind it and put some coloured bands on it to represent the one seen on the left (I put different colours though, so that the theme we stick to on the website is a bit wider than pink, red and purple)

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You can see my first attempt VVVV down there.

I uploaded this to our integrated media facebook page and asked for opinions! Isabelle said the colours were a bit too bright maybe turn the saturation down a bit, so, yes sir, I did that.

Attempt number two:
I dont know if you can see really but the colours are a little more

subtle and a little less offensive to the eye. I didn't turn the

saturation down as such but I fiddled around the with "curves"

option.

Reuploaded to facebook, James suggested making the tree look more elegant and making the branches more thin at the end, alright James, I'll do that.

Attempt Number 3:

There you are, finished logo hopefully though Lara still has to give her opinion :O

I trimmed it down too and added a bit of Gaussian blur so that it wouldn't look all pixelated...

Now to think about business cards and posters and all that jazz.