My Logo Design

As I am creating my own social network I now need to design the logo for it and chose what colour scheme I will use as the basis of the page. I cannot use blue as I feel this is too similar to Facebook and I do want my social network to stand as its own, especially because of copyright reasons too.
I originally liked the idea of using red and black for my colour scheme but after playing around and creating some logo ideas I decided it seemed to harsh and did not reflect a friendly site.

I felt I needed a more neutral colour scheme which is how I got on to working with green for my colour scheme. Green has neutral connotation and it is not gender specific so would be perfect for a social network page. Below you can also see how I have started trying to see how I would set out the site as well. 

Tutorial Notes: Using After Effects

A Change of Idea - Cyber-Bullying: Amanda Todd

I am always up-to-date on the news and current affairs going on in the world through my regular use of sites such as the Daily Mail, The Independent and Sky News. It was when I was reading through the news feed on the Independent that I came across a chilling story about cyber-bullying. Amanda Todd was a fifteen year old girl from Canada who had fallen victim to cyber-bullies. In an attempt to drive the bullies away Amanda created a YouTube video explaining how all this victimization made her feel and asking for it to stop. The video had the opposite affect as it just supplied more fuel for the bullies. A week after Amanda uploaded this video she decided life was not worth living and committed suicide. The video has now been watched by hundreds of thousands and this story has shocked so many people but the problem is this is becoming an increasing problem. More and more children are choosing to die in order to escape the bullies.

One of the reasons for this increase is the use of social networks for communication. By using social networks people feel like they can hide behind them, it gives them the opportunity to say what they would not have the courage to say in person. For Amanda YouTube gave her a platform to cry for help but devastatingly it was social networks that had caused the problem by providing a way for the bullies to target her in the first place. This ties in with a point mentioned in one of my previous posts on the film The Social Network, the fact that what is written on-line cannot be erased as such, even when you delete something it becomes archived. More than that though the effects of what has been said are what can never go away, can never be taken back. For Amanda the nasty words of these individuals haunted her until the day she died, because a great deal of bullying takes place on-line the comments are there for all to see, for anyone to add to. It is a tool used by cowards, without the provision of social networks many would never begin to say the things they have in person.

After reading about Amanda I have decided to change the narrative and theme of my animation. I will now focus my animation on the psychological effects these on-line networks have on the individual, both emotionally and socially. Just like Amanda my main character will be a young girl which seems to enhance her vulnerability. I will show how she becomes a target for the cyber-bullies and then I will show the effects this has on her and the turmoil she suffers.I want to show her inner most thoughts and struggles so I plan to create a few almost fantasy scenes which represent her mind.

Designing My Social Network

Due to copyright reasons I cannot use Facebook or Twitter within my own animation, so instead I will be creating my own. I like this idea as it also makes my project universal, and not just specific to Facebook users as there are so many different social networks out there it would be great to create my own page. Below is few different choices of names that I have considered for my own social network. I have decided to opt for YourBook as the title I will stick with.

Tutorial Notes: Using Flash

Facebook in the News: Tracking Your Life Offline

'How Facebook will track your offline life with Datalogix'
Grace Nasari
Digital Trends
October, 2012
http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/fb-datalogix/


Seeing that my potential project idea is based around the idea of showing someone's life through social networking I felt that this article was useful. Facebook as a company are now able to follow your life even when you are no longer on-line. I find it fascinating how you can learn so much about a persons life through their on-line profile but it is all information that the individual has chosen to display. The fact Facebook now have access to information about us that is out of our control is quite a daunting prospect and shows the power of technology. The article states that;

'the social network has time and time again been criticized for violating privacy in its quest to be an ad platform.'

Facebook manipulates your information for its own personal gain, exploiting our 'private profiles'. However it is us that chooses to place ourselves and this information on-line. We have then set the foundations for them as a company to be able to cross the line. The new partnership with Datalogix means that all our offline shopping and purchases will be able to be monitored. We are opted into this program by default when signing up and agreeing to Facebook terms and conditions, therefore there is no way to get away from it.

Research: Animations using Facebook

I have begun searching into other animations that use social networks as their focus or within them to get an idea of what others have done. It is interesting to see how others have decided to set up a narrative around a site such as Facebook but I am also interested in what techniques and styles they used.

The video below I found on YouTube, it was created by a user named as HolidayCarrot. I really enjoyed this animation as I found it so simple yet it seemed such a good idea. The technique used is stop motion but the story is told through a profile picture on Facebook. There is not much of a storyline to it as such but I still really like this animation, I have tried to see if this guy has created any other animations but there is only one which is of drawn out stick men. I want to try this idea out myself though I do not plan on using it to tell my story it could always be an element within my animation.