Initial Ideas

Cherry Blossom

Madame Butterfly

A short story

An American naval officer, Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, arrives in Japan to take up his duties on a ship docked in Nagasaki. On the suggestion of his friend Sayre, he takes a Japanese wife and house for the duration of his stay there. His young bride, Cho-Cho-San, is a geisha whose family were strongly opposed to the marriage and disown her. Pinkerton's ship eventually sets sail from Japan. In his absence and unbeknownst to him, she gives birth to their child, a son whom she names Trouble. As time goes by, Cho-Cho-San is still convinced that Pinkerton will return to her some day, but her maid, Suzuki, becomes increasingly skeptical. Then Goro, a marriage broker, arrives and proposes that she divorce Pinkerton, telling her that even if he does come back, he will leave her and take the child with him. He proposes a Japanese husband to look after her—Yamadori, a prince who had lived a long time in America. Although she has no intention of going through with Goro's plan, she tells him to arrange a meeting with Yamadori.

At the meeting Yamadori tells Cho-Cho-San that Pinkerton only thought of the marriage as temporary as was common in America, and suggests that he would eventually divorce her and the baby could well end up in an orphanage. Instead, his marriage proposal offered her the possibility of reconciling with her family and keeping her baby. Angry and upset at what she hears, she has Suzuki turn Yamadori and the marriage broker out of the house. She then visits the American consul in Nagasaki, Mr. Sharpless, in an attempt to allay her fears and ask his help in getting Pinkerton to return. As her story unfolds, Sharpless feels increasing contempt for Pinkerton. She asks him to write Pinkerton and tell him that she is marrying Yamadori and will take their son with her if he does not return. However, she says that she has no intention of really doing this and only wants to play a "little joke" on him. Sharpless gently tells her that he could not take part in such a deception encourages her to accept Yamadori's offer and reconcile with her family.

Weeks pass with Cho-Cho-San anxiously scanning the horizon for the arrival of Pinkerton's ship. Finally, she sees it coming into the harbor and is overcome with emotion. She and Suzuki prepare the house with flowers to welcome him. Cho-Cho-San dresses in her finest kimono. Then she, Suzuki and the baby hide behind a shoji screen intending to surprise him when he arrives. They wait all night, but Pinkerton never comes. A week later, they see a passenger steamer in the harbor. On the deck is Pinkerton with a young blonde woman. Again she and Suzuki wait all night for him in vain. The next morning his warship is gone from the harbor. Distraught, she visits Sharpless to ask if he had written Pinkerton and why he has left without seeing her. To spare her feelings, Sharpless tells her that he had indeed written Pinkerton who was on his way to see her but had many duties to perform, and then his ship was suddenly ordered to China. Cho-Cho-San is sad but relieved. Then the blonde woman from the steamship enters the office, identifies herself as Pinkerton's wife and asks the Consul to send the following telegram to her husband:

"Just saw the baby and his nurse. Can't we have him at once? He is lovely. Shall see the mother about it tomorrow. Was not at home when I was there today. Expect to join you Wednesday week per Kioto Maru. May I bring him along? Adelaide."

In despair Cho-Cho-San rushes home. She bids farewell to Suzuki and the baby and shuts herself in her room to commit suicide with her father's sword. After the first thrust of the sword, she hesitates. Although she is bleeding the wound is not fatal. As she raises the sword again, Suzuki silently enters the room with the baby and pinches him to make him cry. Cho-Cho-San lets the sword drop to the floor. As the baby crawls onto Cho-Cho-San's lap, Suzuki dresses her wound. The story ends with the words: "When Mrs. Pinkerton called next day at the little house on Higashi Hill it was quite empty."

Japan

For Meeting..

The Fine Art Year Book: FINE ART - SHEILA.GAFFNEY@LEEDS-ART.AC.UK

For Monday- 

General questions for Lorenzo on Wednesday

Own take on the thirsty concept.. Think about layout.. what will the double page spread look like?

@ 4.30pm = meeting to show stuff done over the weekend..

QUESTIONS:

Additional to yearbook.. will it be more than a yearbook?

Japanese stuff..

Just a few pieces of design and pattern that I have put together to get a feel for the japanese culture, as I want to show this in my work for madame butterfly.. and I think its important to show this to get across the culture difference and to maybe make people want to see it..

Madame Butterfly

I have decided to focus on one opera, that would be played at the picnic in the park event.. 

I am going to look at 'madame butterfly' opera.

I have chosen this as when I have looked at the storyline, I could see plenty of different areas I could look into, to make this a really interesting brief.

Story line:

About a young Geisha woman named Butterfly and her love triangle with Lt. Pinkerton and Suzuki..

It is set in the 1890's and takes place in Japan..

I need to look into the Japanese culture, specifically at their art culture, and pattern design, what colours best reflects them..

And also at Geisha's, and the way they look and their beauty..

I want to keep the poster quite simple but show a bit of the story line..

Opera Research

Maybe I should look at just one opera for the theme of my picnic.. then I can focus more on one element of opera, rather than a whole range of different operas that tell different stories..


- Tosca
- Der Rosenkavalier
- The Tales of Hoffman
- The Death of Klinghoffer
- Jakob Lenz
- The Flying Dutchman
- Madam Butterfly
- Caligula
- Billy Budd
- Dr Dee


Tosca:




One of the songs sang in the Tosca Opera.. get a feel for the music.. which I want to transfer to my design products


Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)



A well known opera piece by Mozzart.. 


Katherine Jenkins..
Well known singer, that would probably be performing at the Opera in the Park.. she has done before..



This video also shows people in the background.. people who enjoy the music, and looks like there are a range of different types of people.. though opera is thought to be a very wealthy leisure.. these kind of events are available and affordable to people who enjoy listening to the music..

M&S Research..

- One of the leading retailers with 21 million people visiting their stores each week
- “In Food, we will establish a clear market position as a specialist high-quality retailer, inspiring customers with our unrivalled quality and innovation. Our focus will be on fresh, speciality and convenience, bringing the Best of British and Flavours of the World to our customers."
- 'Only at M&S' = the brand they are building on
- M&S food wants to be established as being specialist, high quality food retailer, that focus on the freshness, speciality and convenience.
- Food halls (* maybe looking at buying a picnic for eating inside the food hall.. would there be target audience?)
- M&S donate unsold clothing, food and unwanted equipment to a range of charities, such as Oxfam, Newlife Foundation, Shelter and FareShare and also raise money through different activities, currently for Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Butterfly Conservation, Groundwork, Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, Macmillan, Oxfam, The Prostate Cancer Charity, Shelter and WWF.
- M&S target market: Age, income and social class.. Their market needs to be employed, so they are able to spend money on trendy, stylish clothes and food. The age ranges for the clothes, as they have clothes for women, men, children of all ages.. However, for food, the market they aim at is for people who enjoy fresh and healthy food, again people who are willing and able to pay extra for this.. for men and women..

M&S Posters/Designs

The Living End..

Just a lil something.. like the looking at typeface posters, using lyrics from songs.. think I should do at least one a day.. end up with a range maybe..

Had a quick look at this again, fresh eyes.. maybe have a look at making the words fit into a square.. looks a bit more like a tv screen..

Pattern

I want to look into pattern a bit more, and use this in some of the products.. This is a pattern still made from the 'O' in CAC Champagne typeface.. I was specifically looking at this to be the pattern for the blanket.. Keeping the traditional red and white crossed pattern in mind, but changing the pattern to look a bit more complex..


I need to see how many patterns I can create and see which one works best..

This one feels more like a material.. as if it has been weaved like this.. and because the single pattern hasn't been reflected, it feels more like the traditional pattern in a way..

Again.. this looks like a material, but has much more white in it than the pattern above.. looks more equal to the red, and is quite similar to squares, just a bit more rounded.. 

Tessellating the pattern, I came up with this pattern.. which looks like there is lots going on.. a bit unsure about it..

After me talk..

.. I was looking back at the burlesque night poster I was asked to do last year for a friend, and I have decided that I want to develop the poster into an events night.. I think I would only like to spend about a week on it, but to make products for the event, like scratch cards for invitations, and could also make other fun things, like mugs, pens, pinny, tshirts.. really excited to make this brief up.. could be some fun..

Typeface

I want a typeface that looks classy and expensive.. it would probably need to be in italic and quite thin in weight.. 

Tpefaces that I have circled I think work better than the others.. I prefer the above typeface, with it being quite thin and italic, which is what I had in mind to begin with..

Opera:


- Dramatic
- Acting, scenery and costume (and maybe dance)
- Orchestra
- Renowned figure = Mozart (comic opera-  The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte, as well as The Magic Flute, a landmark in the German tradition..)

I used the typeface CAC Champagne, and I had a play with the letters, for example here, the 'O' has been repeated and reflected and put together, to make a nice pattern.. this could be the actual logo for party in the park, which might be seen on the picnic products and other products that can be bought whilst at the event.. flags/food/clothes..

Playing around with colour a bit.. and with 'O'.. this pattern could be used on the napkins and blanket.. if I can collect a range, then I can transfer them on to my products.. or maybe have a range of colours.. as the patterns may look too different.. and not consistent..

When I think about operas, I think of a bouquet of roses for the leading lady at the end.. I have had a play with the 'O' and the 'P' from 'Park', and found that I can create a rose type symbol.. this might be able to be used.. i don't know..

I like the 'park' bit.. not sure on the rest.. I feel like it is quite big.. and thinking about it now.. I'm thinking rugby.. but the swirlyness of the rose might break that association.. just need to talk to someone about it..

I took the 'O' from opera away, making the rose the 'O' instead.. I thought doing this would make the 'opera' not readable, but I think you can understand what it says.. I have also moved the 'O' and the 'P' closer together, to bring the whole sentence together.. which I think looks much better and together..

M&S Picnic Brief

BRIEF 01


Deliverables:


Picnic/event:


- Plates
- Cutlery
- Napkins
- Food packaging
- Cups
- Tickets
- Posters/flyers
- Banners


The M&S picnic brief is a live competition brief that I would maybe like to develop, looking at making the material for the event, banners, posters and tickets.. If there is enough time..


What event?


Opera in the park (Temple Newsom), Party in the park (Temple Newsom), Wimbledon, Olympics, romantic picnic..


I would like to look at doing a picnic for people who go to opera in the park.. I think there is a good target audience, and from experience, it is a really good night, with great atmosphere.. though there were a few children, it was mainly for the adults..
I like the idea of opera being quite 'expensive' and I like the challenge of making a picnic (seen as cheap and cheerful) and turn it to an 'expensive' meal out.. by the way it looks..
I want to keep the tone of voice for this project quite serious, but have a bit of humour running through it..


Colour:


Black and white


Maybe include red, seen as quite classic colours, I want to try and take the traditional opera atmosphere, but bring it to the modern day..
I want to use pattern, try and simplify the opera and transfer it to the deliverables..


Maybe instead of a picnic.. it's turning into what you need for the opera in the park.. which will include the picnic, but will have extras, just for the event..