The final Ian Anderson workshop was group based and revolved around colour. We had to imagine that in the future, the world was governed by one organisation. The organisation was looking to brand itself and needed a colour. Each colour was owned by a separate company. We, as representatives of a specific colour, had to pitch to the organisation, explaining why our colour was the best choice. The winners of the pitch were the ones who could come up with the most convincing argument.
As the representatives of the colour yellow, we went with the simplest statement we could think of; that yellow was bright. Since the brief was set in the future, we had the opportunity to shape what that future looked like. Therefore our future was quite dystopian and Blade Runner-esque. Our future was shaped through looking at things we knew could potentially happen so therefore weren't too far from the truth. We explained that our reliance on fossil fuels had led to the world being covered in a thick smog, similar to those seen in Mexico City and Bangkok presently. We shaped a future that was dark and gloomy, that way our colour would stand out above all of the rest.
Our presentation was perhaps hindered by the fact that we had to spend a large amount of time explaining what our future looked like which led to a lot of questions related to that rather than our colour. Having said that, we were quite convincing and responded well enough to questioning. Our key point, that yellow was bright, was also difficult to argue with. The other presentation of note was given by the red representatives who went with the idea that red runs through everyone's veins in the form of blood. This was a great way of uniting everyone across the world under one ideology. We don't as of yet know who won the pitch, we find out in a week or so.
It was really interesting to see the questioning process. Normally during these sorts of presentations, every one is nice and doesn't often offer that much in terms of negative criticism. However, this time people seemed far more passionate about their colour and were desperate to come across as the best. Sometimes it was quite difficult to tell if people were more bothered about getting their own back after receiving a grilling themselves though...
The Ian Anderson workshops have often been the most difficult parts of the course, the expectations are a lot higher than they are at other times and concepts are scrutinised to a higher degree. This has meant that they've been the best learning experience too. I've learnt that a killer one liner to build from has far more impact than work that looks nice but that lacks any sort of strong concept, that you can't get it right every time and that evaluation is of huge importance. Above all else though, I've learnt that if a brief states that a presentation is involved, then that's what you must plan for and it takes precedence over the rest of the work. You might not have the best looking work, but if you can sell it in the right way, you're more likely to win the pitch.
