minimum... <::::::::::::::::::::::::::}]XXXX0

[DearDaniel]

In a world, where a little mother gains the power to manipulate size at will...

The safety of the neighborhood is in her hands


DearDaniel-2.jpg

Minimum is a 2012 fantasy adventure film produced and directed by Dear Daniel, The Endearing Designer. It stars Little Mother and Little Baby, as well as several dogs, cats, and a radioactive spider. The filmed was released to online forums and theatres on January 17th, 2012. It opened to rave reviews and has developed amazing success at the box office.


Plot

Little Mother is a young stay-at-home mother. She is also a professional designer and Photoshop user.

One day, a radioactive spider escapes from the nuclear power plant and enters her home. The spider bites on her computer wire while she happens to be using the Minimum filter in Photoshop. This causes the spider to be electrocuted to death, but the radiation from the spider causes the filter to react with her in an unexpected way.

Little Mother gains the power to minimize herself and things around her at will, thus becoming a true Mini Mum. However, she is puzzled with her new found powers as that is not what the Minimum filter actually does in Photoshop. Could it be that she still has other untapped abilities?

And thus her adventure begins... and she's bringing the baby with her!

[DearDaniel]

Production & Packaging

The production of this piece is centered on the Minimum filter that you can find in Photoshop by going to Filter > Other > Minimum.

The concept for the package cover art is based on clever use of the name of this filter:

• Firstly, the word minimum gives a feeling of something being at it's most basic level. Thus the simple and minimalistic look of the cover design contributing towards the feeling of 'minimum'. Using only black and white and keeping the available elements at the bare minimum.
• Secondly, the word minimum implies something being as small as it can be. Thus the small size of the text and image used on the package cover design.
• Thirdly, the word minimum can be split up into the words 'mini' and 'mum', thus referring to the storyline of a young mother (mum) who can make herself mini. Also contributing to the picture of a mother with a baby stroller in the cover design.

Concept Development

As simple as the piece looks, the concept gave me a lot of headaches in developing and putting forward.

The first was the consideration of what type of piece to create. I had already done a really fancy concept for my first entry, and browsing through everyone else's amazing and brilliant entries, I found that I was growing a bit bored of fancy concepts.

So I decided to create something at the extreme opposite. Something at the bare minimum, that just barely makes it. Easier said than done though...

I needed something bare minimum, yet nice, yet clean, yet meaningful, yet related to a Photoshop item, and yet witty and clever and strongly attention-grabbing at the same time. How do you put so many criteria into something so small and minimalistic?

So, after many hours and days of stressing out, then destressing, then stressing out, and destressing, and pacing around the house, and stopping to relax, and pacing around the house, and stopping to drink some tea and relax...

Eventually I reached the result above... Finally...


Photo Credits

One simple, minimal image was used in the creation of this piece. It is available at:

• http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1331087

Other Works

You can have a look at my other competition entry by clicking on the link below:

• Photoshop: Use Legacy

Conclusions

Thanks a lot for taking the time to look at my entry. It seems like an easy piece, but as they say, the simpler and more minimalistic the piece is, the more time it takes to develop the initial concept.

It's something different from the norm, so I guess you'll either love it, or you'll hate it. :P

I hope you enjoyed it, and all the best. Thank you once again to Colin for organizing this contest, as well as to Avi and Oliver for taking the time to judge....

[DearDaniel]

And again, I'm reserving this spot for anything else that I might want to add.

Cheers,
Dear Daniel

[Mussarela]

Love it. Great idea.

[Pepitoto]

You need balls to post that kind of entry.
Respect man.

[DearDaniel]

Thank you Mussarela and Pepitoto.

Lol. Yes, it indeed took a lot of balls... :P

Let's see how it goes.