work do, nano
Sep. 4th, 2008 09:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
burntcopperYesterday was the work do - lectures, team building activities, reports fromt eh different sectors, etc. Some reports over-ran. me, ross and Morag spent a large portion of the reports part doodling. Ross - cartoons. Morag - costume designs. Me - backs of heads, shoes, wrists, sketches of my conina costume fromt he back. The guest lectures were awesome and funny.
Fortunately, the team-building exercise was t-shirt design for the company, and sadly we had management on our team. Who had ideas that... it was an eclipse. That would take a paragraph to explain the relevance. Not to mention as me and the Liverpool boys pointed out, over-done, not original, would get mistaken for every other company/tv show that had ever used it as a symbol. Essentially too generic. So we beat them down and plumped for the design showing a stylised representation of someone's guts, theme being open access. With the classic moment of the management frantically poking me when there was five minutes to go (I'd volunteeered to draw as long as someone else designed because I can't design for shit) as i'd been idly sketching out the basics and placement of guts and heart and so on.
Them : "Shouldn't you start drawing the final thing?"
Me, loudly : "I will start drawing the instant you lot decide on the design. I'm not drawing until you decide where we're putting the slogan and logo."
Them : "Oh. Ah. Um, there and there."
me : "Thankyou." :draws it in two minutes flat:
:smug: we got joint second. For sheer eye-catching-ness and obviousness of image (the winner so deserved it. And they were funny, too.). Like me and the Liverpool boys said, the entire point of a logo t-shirt design is 'Catch the eye first, then if you're really lucky you might even get a clever second meaning.' Slightly peeved that we didn't get to use James' idea of matrix-style code text and then 'Biomed Central : No Password Required' (don't ask, it's the abstracts that you get and can't access the rest of the info sans subscription) but that would've required a decent design program with good fonts to stand out and look good.
Then we went to Loom, and laughed and jabbered and drank and danced and nearly everyone had gone by 9:30, and it was deemed a good night. Patrick leant me his camera when I wanted to take a photo, and then went 'how come yours are so much better composed?', so I pointed out that I spent three years learning how to compose a decent shot. (not to mention knowing how to keep the camera still even when you're pissed and you're not using flash) So then had carte blanche to play with it when I wanted it. And I do like having people who know how to pose when you're giving vague direction - Patrick, Morag and Kevin are good models. And we have a fabulous shot of Kevin looking ridiculously cool. Abi is bloody gorgeous, but kept trying to pout, so I got Kevin to make her laugh so we have good blurry shots instead.
Decided on the nano. I think. Going with 'the one where they stay in Prince Caspian'. Which will hopefully be a bunch of scenes rather than plot. And oh god. World-building and politics and vs. early renaissance which I'm pretty sure the Telmarines are. Research. FUCK. Not to mention I have no idea how to end it. All the other nanos I wrote had a plot, or at least a chain of events.
Um, do any of you lot know where I would find details on how long it takes to build a medieval castle?
Fortunately, the team-building exercise was t-shirt design for the company, and sadly we had management on our team. Who had ideas that... it was an eclipse. That would take a paragraph to explain the relevance. Not to mention as me and the Liverpool boys pointed out, over-done, not original, would get mistaken for every other company/tv show that had ever used it as a symbol. Essentially too generic. So we beat them down and plumped for the design showing a stylised representation of someone's guts, theme being open access. With the classic moment of the management frantically poking me when there was five minutes to go (I'd volunteeered to draw as long as someone else designed because I can't design for shit) as i'd been idly sketching out the basics and placement of guts and heart and so on.
Them : "Shouldn't you start drawing the final thing?"
Me, loudly : "I will start drawing the instant you lot decide on the design. I'm not drawing until you decide where we're putting the slogan and logo."
Them : "Oh. Ah. Um, there and there."
me : "Thankyou." :draws it in two minutes flat:
:smug: we got joint second. For sheer eye-catching-ness and obviousness of image (the winner so deserved it. And they were funny, too.). Like me and the Liverpool boys said, the entire point of a logo t-shirt design is 'Catch the eye first, then if you're really lucky you might even get a clever second meaning.' Slightly peeved that we didn't get to use James' idea of matrix-style code text and then 'Biomed Central : No Password Required' (don't ask, it's the abstracts that you get and can't access the rest of the info sans subscription) but that would've required a decent design program with good fonts to stand out and look good.
Then we went to Loom, and laughed and jabbered and drank and danced and nearly everyone had gone by 9:30, and it was deemed a good night. Patrick leant me his camera when I wanted to take a photo, and then went 'how come yours are so much better composed?', so I pointed out that I spent three years learning how to compose a decent shot. (not to mention knowing how to keep the camera still even when you're pissed and you're not using flash) So then had carte blanche to play with it when I wanted it. And I do like having people who know how to pose when you're giving vague direction - Patrick, Morag and Kevin are good models. And we have a fabulous shot of Kevin looking ridiculously cool. Abi is bloody gorgeous, but kept trying to pout, so I got Kevin to make her laugh so we have good blurry shots instead.
Decided on the nano. I think. Going with 'the one where they stay in Prince Caspian'. Which will hopefully be a bunch of scenes rather than plot. And oh god. World-building and politics and vs. early renaissance which I'm pretty sure the Telmarines are. Research. FUCK. Not to mention I have no idea how to end it. All the other nanos I wrote had a plot, or at least a chain of events.
Um, do any of you lot know where I would find details on how long it takes to build a medieval castle?
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Date: 2008-09-05 09:00 pm (UTC)From a quick look at the text, there's no direct reference to what Cair Paravel was built of; the illustrations show stonework in the Western European style - but some of the brick castles in the Hanseatic area went up very quickly indeed; if I remember correctly, Malbork Castle (the gargantuan HQ of the Teutonic Knights) was a functional fortress within two years of its foundation.
In terms of construction, Cair Paravel is like a number of the Renaissence-era Loire castles; halfway between a fort and a palace (which fits with the early-Renaissence Telmarines) - have a look at places like Saumur or Château de Langeais; it's certainly feasible to speak of rebuilding one of those in a few years, especially with surviving solid foundations.
(Of course, this might be getting slightly too picky and precise, but hey...)