#cbeebies redesign

[gogojetters]

▪︎ REDESIGNING JETPAD (JETT)

Part two of what I intend to be my Go Jetters Re-Imagined / Redesigned series !! This time, is a redesign that allowed me to be a little more creative- JetPad !! In the show's canon, JetPad is both the name of the Go Jetters' mothership, and a sentient super-computer who helps to run the GJA, and assists Ubercorn in missions. I wanted to separate the two entities, and allow for JetPad, the sentient super-computer and CHARACTER to have more personality and storyline presence. So, she now has a holographic human form, allowing her to actually go on missions!

Similar to Ubercorn, Jett's design features a 70s and 80s Disco influence, but with Jett, I wanted her to look more professional than party. She wears an orange bustier top, and white flared bell-bottom style pants, with glittery star patches to tie her back into the Go Jetter identity. Mostly hidden, she wears a silk belt, with a star brooch. Over top, she wears what is probably my favourite clothing item of hers, a blue blazer with shoulder padding! Jett also wears orange boots, and winged glasses. All of her design elements in terms of outfit are inspired by the design of the JetPad vehicle, with the glasses emulating the large front mirror, the padded shoulders on the blazer for the large overtop vents, and even the heels resembling the two side jet boosters of the airship. I personally felt that even if the mothership and the sentient Jett were separated as entities, the latter possessing visual similarity would help to keep her recognisable as "JetPad".

I also changed her hair from my last design, giving her something more short, swoopy, and dynamic, as opposed to the rigid state of the old one. Plus- I think that this one is more visually unique. In terms of personality, she is the dead-pan, and slightly snarky foil to Ubercorn, assisting him and the Go Jetters in missions, as she is hooked up to all of the technology they own, as well as the internet. She can interact with the world around her, but people sometimes fall through her hologram body, mistaking it for real. And that's my design deep dive !!

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I hope that you all like my redesign- I am SO SO SUPER PROUD of how this one turned out!! Now that I have that free time I mentioned in my last post, I hope to do the rest of the main cast, and create a full collection of these artworks!! These redesigns bring me so much joy, and I hope that you all like them just as much. Just like Ubercorn, I have made a "Funky Fact File" version of the work, to help you all get to know Jett, with the bio including my headcanons, a little bit of canon itself, and a fun alternate layout. Thank-You for reading through this whole post !! ♡♡♡

Post also available on Instagram ☆

Original JetPad Design (The Mothership) - (For Reference)

[archerygun]

Sometimes, I get a bit weird. A bit funky. Frankly I lose all sanity. And the only way to cure that is by drawing whatever godforsaken terrible cursed idea has implanted itself in my brain and begun haunting me.

So I present yet another instance of this happening (probably a year old by now) for your enjoyment. Some of these designs I like more than others tbh but that’s a problem for future me if I ever decide to redraw them and repeat this mistake.

If you remember this show, sorry?

[instantelephantmix]

How weird cat books shaped my life: a personal Warriors essay

I think we all have something we got into at a young age and we're still a fan of today. Sometimes that thing is way, way more important than you even realise.

When I was a young child, I had pretty stereotypical interests - I liked doodling, watching cartoons, and reading books about animals. I always did like animals a lot, especially cats, I was always living with at least one cat while growing up. The first two I remember were Moët, he was fluffy and timid and ginger-and-white, and Hemingway, or more commonly called Hemmy as nobody wants to shout "Hemingway" up the street when they want their cat to come home.

Above: Hemmy looking dumb.

When I was around 7, I was taking a look around the children's section of my local library and saw something I'd noticed my older sister reading recently. Warrior Cats: Into the Wild. I just wanted it because I liked the cover and I liked cats, and my parents allowed me to take it despite it being rated 9+. I think that, if they'd been stricter, I might have been an entirely different person - who knows though? I just know that those Warriors books hugely impacted my interests and hobbies.

I started reading and god, I was obsessed. There was something about the culture and history of these fictional wild cats that was so intriguing to me, but still simple enough for my young mind to digest. Being a homeschool kid who hadn't fully accessed the internet yet, I had no friends at all, so my family had to look at all my terrible drawings of fighting cats and endure me talking about them.

Below: a bad drawing of Sol from long, long ago. He has a giraffe neck.

There was something I always wanted though: a Warriors TV show or a movie. Ten years later we still don't have that, despite all the talk of a movie being in production. Where the hell did that go? But luckily, fans of the books had started making their own adaptations. Enter the late 2000s and early 2010s, the time of SSS Warrior Cats - an animated Youtube series based on the first book. I asked my mum if I could watch it and she allowed me to, opening up the door to a whole new portion of the internet.

Gone were the days of playing Flash games on the Cbeebies website, I had youtube! This was a massive inspiration to me, I decided I wanted to be an animator. Obviously I wasn't as skilled as the SSS team, I still don't think I am - but I tried.

Above: a run cycle animation from around 2015. My older animations are all sadly lost to time, the program I made them on was discontinued so I have no way of opening my old files.

Below: a new run cycle, 2021.

But over time, each member of the SSS team quit, and the channel became a wasteland with the series left unfinished. What was I to watch? How would I satisfy my desire for edgy animated cats? That was when I found Dimstar's Past, a series based on Warriors OCs, which also inspired me a lot. I think the creator turned out to be homophobic, which is a massive shame - but "separate the art from the artist", as they say.

I'd now seen these OCs, and I'd seen my sister writing stories about characters she liked, so what if I were to create my own Warriors and tell their story? While I'd written a few short, low-quality stories in the past, as most kids do, I think Warriors fully inspired me to write. I created "Rootstar's Past", a complete and obvious rip-off of Dimstar - but the story still exists in my mind, albeit very altered since then. I never even finished the first version. As I learned and became a better storyteller, I created better characters and more thought-out stories. Eventually I moved on from cats and wrote about more "human" characters - a lot of the time they aren't actually human, but they act like it.

Above: Rootstar's 2013 design, and his 2020 redesign.

Warriors also got me into roleplay, through playing Roblox and exploring forums, which further developed my writing and "impulsive storytelling" skills. I really miss the old Warriors Roblox games, like Lake Territory - morphs and maps may be better these days, but they don't hold the same charm at all. (For those who don't play Roblox - a morph is an object that the player can take the appearance of, though a button or GUI, to create looks that wouldn't be possible with the regular avatar editor.)

Above: Forest Territory, an old Roblox game. Notice the very cylindrical morphs that I still love.

I remember how I met my first real friend through Warriors roleplay. She was older than me, I was only around 9 when she was 16, but we got on surprisingly well. Me and my sister have the same 7-year age gap, so I was used to it. We shared other interests too; Five Nights at Freddy's, Undertale, and later Harry Potter. Sadly she was banned from Roblox and I never saw her again. I hope she's okay, whatever she's doing nowadays. I fondly remember our extremely angst-ridden characters - poor Soul, she could never get a break.

I made so many memories in those games. Playing in "Fan Clans" with magical powers, laughing at newbies who'd never read the books (don't get me wrong, I wasn't a rude person, but I was badly influenced by those who were), making the most complex morphs possible, creating cat romances, making drama... I want something like that again, but unfortunately roleplays don't seem to have any heart to them these days. Or maybe I'm the one who's changed? I don't know for sure.

There's one more interest that Warriors brought to me, although it's a very childish one. I won't go into too much detail because of that, I don't think anyone will care that much, but it does belong in this post.

As well as animation, there was another thing I saw people making short films and series with - Littlest Pet Shop toys, those stylised animal figures that Hasbro makes. They're not everyone's cup of tea, but I have to admit I fell for them and ended up collecting them. With the cats I made several Warriors fanseries and posted them on my mum's youtube channel, where they remain to this day. They're all unlisted or privated though, and I don't plan to show them to anyone, they were genuinely terrible. Maybe if I'm very drunk one day, or I don't care about my reputation, or someone pays me for it.

Below: my Littlest Pet Shop cats.

These days, Warriors doesn't hold quite as much significance in my everyday life. It still means a lot to me though - I like learning about the new characters, making my own, and doing art and animation for the community. It was my first fandom, and still my most consistent. I imagine its importance to me will only decline over time as I grow up and find new interests, but who knows? Maybe it'll stay with me forever.

Warriors probably made me into a furry, at least indirectly. I can never forgive it for that.

So what else am I doing? What fandoms am I in? I like Doctor Who, vampires, and I'm studying Digital Media in college, if that's of any interest to anyone. I still play Roblox and collect LPS, and I animate (very slowly).

Oh, and it's my birthday. Happy birthday to me. I'm 17 now.

[jwhannamspecialism]

BBC Creative Director Notes

reative Director of BBC children - Designs CBBC, and Cbeebies

Run games and other similar experiences as well as writing briefs. Resourcing and recruiting.

Redistributing other resources the BBC has used to make better use of them.

CumbriaVision pitch

Basic HTML and CSS 

Started as a junior designer for the children’s team at the BBC

Created billboards and banners for Escape Room

Designed for campaigns like Remembrance season and big brands like Dragon’s Den and Strictly Come Dancing

Joined TV platforms team - moved jobs to Salford - responsible for Red Button services - Restrictions to web design back then

Worked with team that created iPlayer design.

Played with new technology to create concepts for web designs

Tasked, as a senior designer, to redesign the Cbeebies website and bring it into their global experience language - enhanced the images, put more adult centred stuff at the bottom.

Release slow changes and iterate new designs in process instead of all at once

Thinking about end to end experience by adding something for the children to play with while the website underwent changes.

Experimentation with mobile and tablet platforms - big buttons, analysed how children used these devices - created button size prototypes - 64x64 px size

iPlayer on Xbox One and navigation with voice control - understanding how people use their voice to get to content.

Creative Director leads teams of people to do the design

9-10 mil views a week on the BBC homepage.

What do I love most about my job?  - Loves solving problems, creating what people need through UX and UI - Growing teams and giving others opportunities 

What have I learned along the way? - Be flexible and adapt, have empathy, learn to fail, be inquisitive, self belief, organised, have resilience, take on challenges, collaborate

PORTFOLIO - Variety of skill sets, challenges overcome, narrative behind each project - what did you get from it, what did you learn, mistakes made, what you would do differently.

BBC rotate people around departments - new skill sets and personalities for the teams.

[emmacorbe]

David Wilson - Google

WEEK 4

For Fridays lecture we had David Wilson who is a former pupil from Ulster University to come and speak to us, he currently works for google.  David told us the process from being a graduate to working for google and what his job role now is there. 

He graduated in 2011 and began working for design ethos, a small design company.  Here he learnt many skills and got put on projects to help him develop his skills.  To further his career David started working for BBC. Here he created banners for the radio 1 website and took part in the redesign of it.  Coming up tot he olympics he helped create the BBC sport app which had an amazing 2 million downloads.  When working on the BBC sport website David used a clever technique.  Instead of recreating the whole website and facing possible complaints and faults from everyone viewing it, he recreated 2nd and 3rd tier sport parts of the website such as the horse riding news for example, as these pages won't be viewed by many people as they aren't as popular sports and this means he was able to get feedback to help him rebuild the tier 1 sport parts of the website e.g. football and meet the viewers needs better. 

When offered to work with cBeebies he decided to take on the opportunity as a change.  Here he designed apps such as ‘story time’ and refreshed the website.  However, after a year he decide to go back to working for the sports section of BBC and was a creative director for the common wealth games.   

A year and half later after applying to work for google, David finally heard back from them and he today he currently works there on the android ux team.  He is involved in the ‘Android Go team.’  The android go edition launched in 2017.  It is for countries such as India who are in the past by a possible 10 years, therefore they still use button phones and iPhones are very new to them.   David would make the device easier to use for them, he wouldn't make screen designs that us in the west would use, instead he is designing the way he would've had to of designed 10 years ago.  He goes on research trips to places that involves these groups such as Dubai/Kenya to gather information and to watch the groups use the device so he can identify problems they are having with using it so he can better the screen designs.  As a designer he also needs to take into consideration that these old time phones don't have as much data storage as we do now, therefore he has to ensure the software he is creating for them won't take up much storage. 

Digital wellbeing is something we are being made aware of today as it is becoming increasingly known that we are spending too much time on our devices which is affecting our health. Therefore, the designers on the ‘Android Go team’ are currently trying to make this aware to the new users before they get addicted to their phones like we can be today.

I loved hearing how interaction design has taken David down so many different paths, it has enabled him to travel and learn about other cultures as well as get involved in some projects. 

[ailsiseburns]

David Wilson Lecture.

A former Ulster University graduate David Wilson came to speak to us today, to inform us on his journey. 

David graduated in 2007 and his first graduate job was in Design Ethos, he stayed there for a year, and in 2008 he was given a job as a Junior designer at the BBC. David’s job in the Radio and Music sector, where many of his projects involved creating Banners for the radio shows on the BBC website. He was then given the title of Midwieght designer, where he completely redesigned the website, to make the different radio stations have different themes, to suit the show’s content.

After 2 years he was then moved to the sport sector, close to the upcoming Olympics.David had to create an app suitable for android and IOS for the coverage of the Olympics on BBC. After this, he moved on to apply the same idea of the app for the Olympics but for everyday sport, however it had to be responsive so that it was the same on all devices and could be accessed on a wide range of devices.

David then moved to the the children’s sector of BBC (Cbeebies) where he was made creative director, here he did less design work, and managed design teams. In that time he managed the refresh of the Cbeebies website and to make it serve laptops and mobile devices, such as tablets and phones.David also oversaw the introduction of more interactive games and songs for children.

He then moved back to the sport sector for a year as creative director, to oversee the transition for events such as the Common Wealth Games and World Cup.

David was accepted into Google in the London Headquaters, where he is a member of the Android UX teams, where they are working on the Android Go edition, making Google apps more lightweight for older phones, as a lot of growth is coming from emerging markets such as Kenya, Mumbai, and Nigeria. The goal is to make cheaper devices run android better. David and his team go on expeditions to these countries to get first hand data on what needs to be done, they look for consistent reoccurring issues, patterns and themes so that there is an opportunity for a solution.

Phones that we used in 2011-2013 are only being introduced in these countries. They are so precious and looked after that they are regularly passed down. People from these emerging markets are going from no phones perhaps to these complex devices that are hard to use for inexperienced users. Therefore Google try to make things more visual to those who don't speak a lot of English, and try to concentrate on storage, ram and battery. This is where the solution Android Go was created, it is lightweight on devices and make it easier to run on their older devices.

David also worked on the Digital Wellbeing project Google introduced, where we as users can be made aware of the time spent on devices, as we have a high percentage of people becoming more addicted to their devices everyday. They address addictions by ‘do not disturb’ features, not showing notifications, timers and  the ‘wind down’ feature to remind people they were planning to go to sleep at a specific time and the phones display goes grey and ‘do not disturb’ automatically turns on. However, designers can only do some much as they cannot force these upon users and have to allow users the choice to not use these features.

David sees these trends happening again in India, especially with the launch of ‘Jilo’ phones in India, which are older phones with new software and have very cheap data so they are more accessible. However, they are now becoming addicted to these devices as they are a whole new experience, therefore Google are working on implementing digital wellbeing there too, to stop addiction to devices escalating like it has in the western world. 

David explained how his team is made up of people who specialise in interaction, illustration, motion, research and writing so it is key to cover all areas to get the most out of everyone’s abilities, as this variety ensures that they limit the faults and allows them to create a higher quality product.

David emphasised that as designers, we should be showing our processes, not just our solutions and final designs, as the journey is more important as it shows how you got to that final solution, he said we must trust the processes, even though we want to jump to conclusions. But we find when we go through the processes we usually get better solutions than what we initially thought. David gave real insight in the industry and how to be as ambitious as possible, and how anything can be possible in the world of design! Thank David!

[gogojetters]

▪︎ REDESIGNING GRANDMASTER GLITCH

Part Three of my Go Jetters Re-Imagined / Redesigned series, and for now, the last adult character- its time for the one and only, Grandmaster Glitch !! It was a very fun opportunity to finally get to try my hand at redesigning the series' main villain, so I really wanted to go all-out on making a visually unique answer dynamic design, that really screams "Grandmaster Glitch", inside and out.

For my design, I decided to take cues from 70s and 80s cartoon villains, from series such as Masters of the Universe, Transformers, and TMNT. The idea was for the outfit to appear more menacing than Glitch himself, with sharp and square shapes, which convey his villainy, contrasting with his much more goofy, and misunderstood personality traits. His design is also meant to look a little bit like it could have been based off an old Go Jetters' uniform- as Glitch was an expelled ex-student. I'd like to think that he modelled the base suit from his old Jetter suit from the 80s, changing every little detail to eventually end up with what he got. It's definitely a home-made job, regardless. I also took some steam punk influence into consideration for this design, with the mechanical and metal details reflecting that part of his style, and calling back to the similar nature of his inventions.

Glitch's 70s - 80s villain inspired look is meant to contrast and rival Ubercorn and Jett's designs, which take influences from a different part of the same era, which better helps to identify them all as the "adults" of the cast, if their general personalities and demeanour did not do so already. I also tried to physically age Glitch a little from my last designs, making him truly look like a man having his evil mid-life crisis / power trip. I like to think that he wears his helmet at all times, because he's started balding underneath and he's rather self-conscious about it, and how it "ruins his image". I also kept his jet-pack's wings- which are retractable !! And that's my design deep dive !! ♡♡

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Thank-You for reading all of the way through- I hope that you like my redesign !! Once again, I am SO-SO incredibly proud of how this design turned out, and I really think it's an improvement over my last Glitch designs. Nice to see him finally looking his age. Next up, will most likely be Tala, starting us off for the kid and teen characters from the show ♡♡ . Just like the last two, I have made a "Funky Fact File" version of the work, so that you can get to know Glitch, with this bio including both my headcanons, and a little bit of canon information, and a fun alternate layout. Thank-You again !! ♡♡♡

Post Also Available on Instagram ☆

Original Grandmaster Glitch Design (For Reference)

[gogojetters]

▪︎ REDESIGNING UBERCORN ☆

What if I made an Ubercorn design?? Well, imagine no more, because I just did!! When I redesign the characters, it's always to add more detail and flair, NEVER because I hate a design. Plus, the canon outfits are a little too plain for my art style. So here's what's hopefully the first post in my new redesign series, of Ubercorn!!

I stuck mostly to Ubercorn's 70s and 80s inspired disco look, giving his jumpsuit a bit of an upgrade, making it look a little bit less like a baby's onesie. The top half resembles the canon one a little, still being white with a star pattern, but I deviated from there with a purple star button, a deep neck with a popped collar, blue diamond patches on the arms, and Rainbow sleeve cuffs. The bottom half of the suit deviates a little more from the canon suit, but I encorporated the canon suit's blue into this part, creating a blue-to-teal glittery gradient that stands out amongst the Go Jetters' solid-colour suits. His pants also have the same Rainbow cuffs, creating a bit of unity in the look.

I also tried to encorperate some more modern aesthetics into the look, to account for Ubercorn's love of high technology. I replaced his goggles with a star-shaped visor, with a purple and red gradient which pays homage to his old goggles. Additionally, I decided to give him a protective hairstyle, as in flashbacks or photographs in the episodes, we see that Ubercorn has 4C hair !! I wanted to bring that into his modern look, while still keeping a similar energy to his original hairstyle, so I chose to give him braids, which he wears half put-up, and half down! His tail is also braided, to match ! He also has a little bit of a beard because I just think it looks nice. Don't question how it works if he's covered in fur. Shh. The rest of the design is pretty much the same, with his horn receiving a slight curve, his hooves staying shiny, and giving him some cheek fluff, and earrings. His eyes are a cyan-blue, as I headcanon that Unicorns and other antro horse species to have thevprinter-ink colours as their natural eye colour options. And that's the deep dive into my design !!! ♡♡♡

I really hope that you like my redesign, I'm very proud of it!! I love to create these redesigns, and would eventually like to do the whole cast in this style. This would mean also drawing the Funky Four; Xuli, Kyan, Lars and Foz, then Grandmaster Glitch (& the Grimbots!!) and Tala. I would also love to include my design for JetPad's holographic human form, as to include her in the main group too. If I wanted to further extend it, I could also do Professor Wave, Professor Nouveau, or Finn! I will have to see how I go for time, could take a couple months until I am actually free enough to do all of this, if any. If there's enough positive reception on this, I'll have to get to work sooner !!

As a bonus, I have also made a "Funky Fact File" version, which includes some of my headcanons for Ubercorn (plus some canon stuff!!), and a fun alternate layout. Thank you for reading through this whole post!! ♡♡

Post Also Available on Instagram ☆

Original Ubercorn Design (For Reference)