The LAB

Just before the Easter holidays we had an initial deadline for our Final Major Projects where we had to exhibit our work in an enclosed room in the studio which was called The LAB.

The reason behind this was to push us to have our projects at a very finished stage a few weeks before our final show. There were also some designers who came in to speak individually to people about where they could take their projects and give some advice. If I'm honest my FMP is nowhere near finished as I spent so much time producing award entries. I wanted to spend a lot of my time on these as we will not get another chance to enter these when we graduate.

My idea that was exhibited is as below:

Playstation Brief –
Create a campaign that gets children to combine virtual sports game playing with getting involved in real sport.

Solution –
Incorporate real sports into the virtual sport playing experience.

Why?
Hardcore virtual sport game players will not wish to give up their console completely. Players of real sport are
occasional virtual sport players also. Rather than alienate either group with a campaign against playing virtual
sports, I have decided to bring these people and both worlds together and create a Playstation community.

Output –
Campaign called ‘PlayNation’ that merges both virtual and real world together.

Benefits for Playstation – Sony
Publicity via various medias. New image as a promoter of health and talent. Help in the fight against obesity.
Create new communities and get people talking.. Create relationships and promote sports playing ahead of the
World Cup and Olympics 2012.. Make Money from product sales. Increased console sales to players of real
sport.

Benefits for Children: Healthier Lifestyle. Ability to talk more. Work in teams.. Achieve a feeling of success.
Chance to better themselves and increase confidence..

*Impossible to cheat: Even if it is done indoors: Bouncing ball. = still physical activity. Anything is better than
nothing.

Brand:
The name ‘ PlayNation’ is a play on words of ‘Playstation.’ The reason for the word nation is that Playstation is an
international brand so this can be used all over the world. It divides nations in the same way sport does but
brings them all together in the form of an online world that mixes virtual reality with reality. The word Play
remains as it works on both levels. Playing real sport aswell as playing virtual sport..

There is a lot more to be said about the idea as it needs its own Manifesto but this will be worked up for the show.

Dan Ingham and Stephen Owen were the people from industry that came to speak with me about my work. They offered good advice liked the idea overall as it had so much potential. They suggested I focus on one area of it and have fun with it to make sure it becomes a hard hitting campaign. At the moment I have the idea sorted but need to communicate with the viewer much more effectively so they get it straight away. A suggestion that came up was to focus on my iphone idea as everyone does posters for their final show and the industry is going much more interactive and digital based. We spoke about some work I had seen of Stephen's for Umbro which has a similar feel and they agreed that the style of it all should look real rather than half digital and half real.

I think the idea of bringing the deadline forward was a good one as people are at more of an advanced stage that they might have been. However, I don't feel anyone is anywhere near a finished standard with their work so it didn't work in that respect. It was good to get people in as ultimately these are the type of people who will be looking at our work in the final show.