design a dictionary 15

I filmed this draft with a phone a couple of weeks ago because I couldn't get a hold of a good camera. I was very limited with what I could do, hence no zoom and poor quality, but for the purposes of development and experimentation it's ok:

I did manage to film the actual thing a couple of days ago though, and will be editing tonight. Aside from that we were given the brief for our next project (a group project) titled 'Unknown Land.'
It sounds interesting. It is!

design a dictionary 14

S, s
/ɛs/ Show Spelled[es] Show IPA 
–noun, plural S's or Ss, s's or ss. 
1. 
the 19th letter of the English alphabet, a consonant. 
2. 
any spoken sound represented by the letter S or s, as in saw, sense, or goose. 
3. 
something having the shape of an S . 
4. 
a written or printed representation of the letter S or s. 
5. 
a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter S or s


O, o
   /oʊ/ Show Spelled[oh] Show IPA 
–noun, plural O's or Os; o's or os or oes. 
1. 
the fifteenth letter of the English alphabet, a vowel. 
2. 
any spoken sound represented by the letter O or o, as in box, note, short, or love . 
3. 
something having the shape of an O . 
4. 
a written or printed representation of the letter O or o. 
5. 
a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter O or o.


F, f
   /ɛf/ Show Spelled[ef] Show IPA 
–noun, plural F's or Fs, f's or fs. 
1. 
the sixth letter of the English alphabet, a consonant. 
2. 
any spoken sound represented by the letter F or f, as in fat, differ, or huff. 
3. 
something having the shape of an F . 
4. 
a written or printed representation of the letter F or f. 
5. 
a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter F or f. 


T, t
   /ti/ Show Spelled[tee] Show IPA 
–noun, plural T's or Ts, t's or ts. 
1. 
the 20th letter of the English alphabet, a consonant. 
2. 
any spoken sound represented by the letter T or t, as in tub, but, or butter. 
3. 
something having the shape of a T . 
4. 
a written or printed representation of the letter T or t. 
5. 
a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter T or t. —Idiom 
6. 
to a T, exactly; perfectly: That job would suit you to a T. Also, to a tee. 




soft
   /sɔft, sɒft/ Show Spelled [sawft, soft] Show IPA adjective, -er, -est, noun, adverb, interjection 
–adjective 
1. 
yielding readily to touch or pressure; easily penetrated, divided, or changed in shape; not hard or stiff: a soft pillow. 
2. 
relatively deficient in hardness, as metal or wood. 
3. 
smooth and agreeable to the touch; not rough or coarse: a soft fabric; soft skin. 
4. 
producing agreeable sensations; pleasant or comfortable: soft slumber. 
5. 
low or subdued in sound; gentle and melodious: soft music; a soft voice. 
6. 
not harsh or unpleasant to the eye; not glaring: soft light; a soft color. 
7. 
not hard or sharp: soft outlines. 
8. 
gentle or mild: soft breezes. 
9. 
genial or balmy, as climate or air. 
10. 
gentle, mild, warm-hearted, or compassionate: a soft, grandmotherly woman. 
11. 
smooth, soothing, or ingratiating: soft words. 
12. 
not harsh or severe, as a penalty or demand. 
13. 
responsive or sympathetic to the feelings, emotions, needs, etc., of others; tender-hearted. 
14. 
sentimental or flowery, as language: soft, meaningless talk. 
15. 
not strong or robust; delicate; incapable of great endurance or exertion: He was too soft for the Marines. 
16. 
Informal . easy; involving little effort; not difficult, laborious, trying, or severe: a soft job. 
17. 
Informal . easily influenced or swayed; easily imposed upon; impressionable. 
18. 
lenient, permissive, or conciliatory, especially regarding something that is conceived of as dangerous or threatening: to be soft on communism. 
19. 
(of water) relatively free from mineral salts that interfere with the action of soap. 
20. 
(of paper money or a monetary system) not supported by sufficient gold reserves or not easily convertible into a foreign currency. 
21. 
(of a market, market condition, or prices) declining in value, volume, profitability, etc.; weak: a soft tourist season. Compare firm1 ( def. 7 ) . 
22. 
(of money) plentiful or available at low interest rates or on easy terms: a soft loan. 
23. 
soft-core. 
24. 
Metallurgy . 
a. 
(of a metal) easily magnetized and demagnetized. 
b. 
(of solder) fusing readily. 
c. 
(of a metal or alloy) fully annealed, so as to provide minimum mechanical hardness. 
25. 
Photography . 
a. 
(of a photographic image) having delicate gradations of tone. 
b. 
(of a focus) lacking in sharpness. 
c. 
(of a lens) unable to be focused sharply. 
26. 
Phonetics . 
a. 
(of consonants) lenis, especially lenis and voiced. 
b. 
(of c and g ) pronounced as in cent and gem. 
c. 
(of consonants in Slavic languages) palatalized. Compare hard ( def. 38 ) . 
27. 
Military . (of a missile-launching base) aboveground and relatively unprotected from enemy attack. 
28. 
Aerospace . (of a landing of a space vehicle) gentle; not harmful to the vehicle or its contents: a soft landing on the moon. 
29. 
Physics . (of a beam of particles or electromagnetic radiation) having relatively low energy: soft x-rays. Compare hard ( def. 40 ) . 
30. 
(of a delegate, voter, etc.) not committed to any one candidate. 
31. 
foolish or stupid: soft in the head. 
32. 
(of a detergent) readily biodegradable. 
–noun 
33. 
something that is soft or yielding; the soft part. 
34. 
softness. 
–adverb 
35. 
in a soft manner. 
–interjection Archaic . 
36. 
be quiet! hush! 
37. 
not so fast! stop! —Idiom 
38. 
be soft on someone, Informal . to be amorously inclined toward a person; have an affection for: He's been soft on her for years. 
Use soft in a Sentence 
See images of soft 
Search soft on the Web 


Origin: 
before 1000; Middle English softe yielding, gentle, mild, Old English sōfte agreeable; cognate with German sanft 
—Related forms 
soft·ly, adverb 
soft·ness, noun 
o·ver·soft, adjective 
o·ver·soft·ly, adverb 
o·ver·soft·ness, noun 
su·per·soft, adjective 
ul·tra·soft, adjective 
ul·tra·soft·ly, adverb 
ul·tra·soft·ness, noun 
un·soft, adjective 
un·soft·ly, adverb 
un·soft·ness, noun 
—Synonyms 
1. pliable, plastic, malleable. 5. mellifluous, dulcet, sweet. 10. tender, sympathetic. 11. mollifying. 15. weak, feeble. 17. compliant, irresolute, submissive.

http://dictionary.reference.com/

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design a dictionary 12

So today was exhausting! But i got a lot done .. as it stands all I have to do is attach the zzzzip to the 's' and they're good to go.

I made some miniature versions of them that I will be zooming into; so that just the colour is apparent, then cutting to a close up of the larger scale ones and then zooming and adding movement with someone inside etc to create various illusions and visual effects.

Some friends and I will be 'animating' the letters, creating little 'puffs, pulls, punches' and movements that create a sense of softness and comfort, soft nature, sweetness ... 

The overall all feel of the film will be that of a child's educational television programme such as 'the clangers' , 'the flumps' , and 'sesame street' etc.

I had a little trouble constructing the  's' because of its awkward shape and the fabric's tendency to stretch and warp but overall, considering the amount of time I had, i'm pleased .. now I just need to get filming.

In the meantime here are a couple of inspirational clips off of youtube, a few childhood favourites that animate the letters of the alphabet using sound and movement, creating various characters and allowing us to learn through colour, play, song, repetition and interaction:

design a dictionary 10

Today was spent making the pattern pieces for these giant letters ... and to be honest I'm wondering whether I'll be able to get them done in time, as I also want to make a video. 

I've decided to attempt to make them reversible so that you can climb inside and be enveloped in fleece but also that they can look fluffy for the onlooker ... and be an interesting subtle creamy beige furry mass of a letter.

I'm also thinking of having the centre of the 'o' be a 'hatch' to climb in and out of, so you basically unzip the centre, climb inside and then zip your self in .. so you'll end up being able to really stretch out in this giant circular envelope of juicy soft stuff. 

I don't know why I only have pictures of the 'f ' ... I've finished making the pattern pieces for all the letter except the 's' which is taking longer than intended because of it's annoying shape. I also need to buy more fleece, poor bank balance! jeeeez ... 

Ideally I'd like the final piece to be a video installation ... I was inspired by this late 70's kid's show called 'The Flumps' which I'm a fan of :

I just love the sensibility and the clever simplicity of it, not to mention it's visual appeal. I feel like kid's programmes are so into force feeding some sort of educational or moral message, and in a very 'smiley middle aged man wears red jumper, brings out the finger puppets and then sings' kind of way ..  or in a 'saturday morning, poorly produced CGI cartoon' kind of way.

The music in the opening of  'The Flumps' is so simple, honest and charming and really makes me think of round furry characters .. 

I'm visualising a video in which people in the 'sleeping bags/body bags' limp, jump, hop into shot. I love the idea of people inside them animating the word in a 'flumpy, frumpy, uncoordinated' way, bumping into one another, possibly tripping etc ... I'm also thinking of the idea of being 'softly spoken' and having a motherly voice and then a child's voice read aloud the definition of the word 'soft' whilst the visuals happen, and then maybe having a live demo of how to wear one.
We'll see.. anyways .. knackered!

design a dictionary 9

design a dictionary 8

making the giant pillow bag thing:

lining: fleece

outer part: cotton

seriously, stick your head in that and you're lost .. its really soft.

design a dictionary 7

I went fabric shopping in soho and shepherd's bush today:

fluffy stuff and candy colours and polka dots and stripes ...

 There were some really lovely soft furs and things but nothing soft enough in white ... so i think im gonna stick with this fleecey stuff i found in primarni for the lining ..

There was also the idea of possibly using some ugly fugly faux fur in disgustingly bright colours ..

In the end i settled for some polycotton in four lovely pastel shades:

I chose these ones in particular because they are very 'ice-cream parlour, candy coated, sweet, soft' colours and because they feel like bed sheets!
The plan is to have the lining be soft fleece and then the outer layer will be these fabrics .. so each letter of 'soft' will be a different colour ..
Also, the zip arrived today:

I really like the fact that it's chunky and white, sort of toy-like and goes well with the colour pallette ..

Also spotted these in urban outfitters:

Quite good for construction ideas ..



design a dictionary 6

a giant pillow that you can step in to! curl up inside and hideaway .. be completely enveloped in softness .. escape .. a soft and fluffy inside to shield you from the cold, harsh realities of the outside .. 

i started to think about having the pillows/cushions/sleeping bag type things be in the shape of letters, and have people squish and smoosh their way inside forming the word 'soft' .. so it's like a personal discovery for those immersed head to toe in blankety soft stuff and also for onlookers who can laugh as they watch you try and squeeze inside .. creating a bold graphic statement.

the subtle body movements (like little twitches or shuffling) and sounds that the person will make (eg: coughing, snoring, muttering, those soft sounding noises i mentioned in an earlier post ) whilst inside will 'animate' the letters, and the meaning of 'soft' defining it through interaction and in a tangible and sensory way whilst also adding an element of playfulness.

Looking online there are letter shaped cushions available, i just need to decide on fabrics and colours/patterns etc and then think about how i'm gonna go about making these giant, big enough to fit a person inside versions. tbc

design a dictionary 5

TK Maxx, Clapham:

Morleys, Brixton:

some towels

some cushions

some fat thighs on fat cushions

ooohhhhhhhhhhh

design a dictionary 4

design a dictionary 2

Step 1: Pick up 'sack'

Step 2: Place over head

Step 3: Rub over face

 Two 'hoods' one lined with that soft fleece/dressing gown stuff (i used a throw from primarni) and the other with the disappointing velvet from tooting market ...

Testing it out it just doesn't feel like enough, like its not a full sensory experience like i intended .. 

I was toying with the idea of a fleece 'onesie' or something that completely envelops you head to toe, like you become soft ..but instead of rubber latex a really soft fabric .. you know when you feel something and its just so utterly luxurious and meltingly soft that you just have to snuggle up to it? Like that .. but we'll see what budget will allow .. though budget anything doesn't conjure up images of anything vaguely luxurious i'm hoping i'll be able to find something that serves as a decent substitute...

....

Upon further reflection i've been letting my imagination run away with me and been thinking up lots of fun ideas...

I was thinking about how i could really make the 'definition' be a fully sensory experience, much like educating those with autism (i'm familar with this as my brother is autistic)

With autism the key is to use the senses to convey meaning, so through light and play therapy, colour and sound etc the child picks up on these sensations and can then 'sense' the meaning, so understanding it through experience.

So .. how can i convey the word 'soft?' For me when i think about this word or sensation i think of duvets and blankets and teddies and marshmallows and mums and feathers and pillow fights and slumber parties and warm towels after a bath ...
ok, indulge me ... what if you were to place your feet into the comfiest slippers and then slip into an all in one made of the softest fleece? To sip a mug of delicious hot chocolate topped with those teensy marshmallows whilst  lounging in Joey Tribiani's leather chair? And then dive into pastel shades of billowing softness? Velvet throws and crinkled piles of sleeping bags and dimpled sheets and puffy down? mmmmmm ahhhhhhhhhhh yeahhhhhh ...