My Animation is based on MP’s expenses after the expense scandal and how costs of running their second homes plummeted by 35%. While researching for information, I came across ‘The John Lewis’ list; this is a list of household items that MP’s are allowed to claim to furnish their second homes. Why John Lewis though? Well this label emerged when the comparison between the pricing at John Lewis and the allowances MP’s are allowed, those checking the claims were said have been checking that what MP’s spent was in the price range of John Lewis. John Lewis has been classed as a middle to higher class store, purely because of their pricing, however when John Lewis got word of this so called ‘John Lewis list’, they were very offended to have been classed as an ‘Expensive store’ relating to Members of Parliament and their expensive taste for furnishing.

This idea of how Mp’s have the price range to spend in such a store, led me to think comicly about how it reminded me of an old game show I used to watch: The generation game. Where items would role on a conveyor belt past the contestant playing, and they would have to remember every item. I made this connection from how I’ve researched into the more bizzare claims MP’s have gotten away with until the expense scandal. The John Lewis list is a price for keeping our MP’s, because there was a price range, MP’s would abuse the system by claimed the total amount, simply because they could, rather than spending what is actually needed out of our tax money.

This John Lewis logo, has now become the inspiration behind my Animation. I’ve started to create my animation, which is introduced by each letter dropping into the shot one by one, to reveal the title, ‘The John Lewis list’. This i then aim to lead onto a visual of a receipt as to relate on how MP’s submit their claims.

As the logo is very plain, I created it again Illustrator in order to have a high quality version of my own as the logo happens to be a custom font. I then took that into Photoshop and added a shine which instantly created depth to the logo. I did this to represent the upper class feel John Lewis has to its store. This then I placed onto a smooth, and light gradient background with their signature colour green creating a style to the animation – or at least it’s intro so far!