Throughout this assignment, I have looked to use various methods of cleaning and polishing real life things as a way of portraying the polishing of type. The use of this metaphor develops across the transmedia suite, starting with a man cleaning his type as if it were a car, and ultimately links back up with my fourth item of a car cleaning product.
The theme develops and progresses throughout the suite, consistently using different imagery to replicate something being polished, cleaned, fixed, or closely examined.
The bright blue colour has been used to represent water and cleanliness, while the use of diagonal lines help to create movement throughout the designs, particularly the brochure.
The large scale banners act as a means of wayfinding for the conference visitors, as a visual cue that they have arrived at the right place. One of my banners, is a large scale replication of my conference’s brochure cover page, with some slight adjustments
to fit the paneling of the windows.
My other banner consists of multiple smaller aspects spread around the building, such as the man cleaning the window on Te Ara Hihiko D Floor, and also the man using the chainsaw to cut the ‘12’ down to size. There are also some other small features to enhance the building such as the diagonal blue lines running along and walls and ground to assist with the wayfinding around the conference venue.
My fourth item has been chosen in order to tie the whole project back to the initial poster. It’s also quite a nice little giveaway that they will receive, as the conference is based on the lengthy process of crafting and detailing type, while the car cleaner is a “Quick Detailer Mist & Wipe”.
Overall, I am extremely pleased with how this project has developed and progressed throughout the six weeks, and I honestly feel that it has come together as a really effective transmedia suite.
Showing posts with label Class Reflection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Class Reflection. Show all posts
Thursday, 2 June 2016
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Week Six - Session One
Bearing in mind that today's session was the final critique before Friday's hand-in, I made sure to have a poster and brochure developed to a high standard, as well as my banners and fourth item mocked up in-situ.
Near the beginning on the class, Donald stopped and had a look at my banners and fourth item, and really liked how they related to my design conferences theme, while still developing and progressing the imagery.
Towards the end of class, Lee came over for the one on one critique, and I showed her through my whole transmedia suite. She gave me a few minor suggestions for the brochure, such as nudging some type over slightly on two pages (Hannes von Dohren and Stefan Sagmeister pages), and said how the page with the pull out quote, being full blue with white text reversed out, was really strong and powerful, so suggested finishing the brochure with that as well, by having the back page full with the Massey and Design Institute logos reversed out in white.
Lee really liked the banners, especially the large scale white banner, how it used the windows to it's advantage, and the spanner extended down longer than the other tools because it was on a longer window, while other tools such as the scalpel were cut off short since they were on a shorter window.
For the cleaning product, Lee suggested using just one cleaning product, possibly and "all purpose cleaner", or even using the "quick detailer", as I had mentioned yesterday in my blog post, it has quite a nice connection since it's about how long it actually takes to polish type, so the "Quick Detailer Mist & Wipe" almost acts as a solution to it. Therefore, I will use one cleaning product, and have it come with the sponge and rag in a little set as seen in the photo.
My whole transmedia suite has been printed out and placed into my physical workbook, as well as attached to my most recent blog posts.
I'm going to look to head in and print today or tomorrow, after making the final few changes. I'm really happy with how this has turned out, and I'm looking forward to Friday's presentation, not only to see everyone elses work, but to display my work and see how it looks as a whole transmedia suite once professionally printed.
Near the beginning on the class, Donald stopped and had a look at my banners and fourth item, and really liked how they related to my design conferences theme, while still developing and progressing the imagery.
Towards the end of class, Lee came over for the one on one critique, and I showed her through my whole transmedia suite. She gave me a few minor suggestions for the brochure, such as nudging some type over slightly on two pages (Hannes von Dohren and Stefan Sagmeister pages), and said how the page with the pull out quote, being full blue with white text reversed out, was really strong and powerful, so suggested finishing the brochure with that as well, by having the back page full with the Massey and Design Institute logos reversed out in white.
Lee really liked the banners, especially the large scale white banner, how it used the windows to it's advantage, and the spanner extended down longer than the other tools because it was on a longer window, while other tools such as the scalpel were cut off short since they were on a shorter window.
For the cleaning product, Lee suggested using just one cleaning product, possibly and "all purpose cleaner", or even using the "quick detailer", as I had mentioned yesterday in my blog post, it has quite a nice connection since it's about how long it actually takes to polish type, so the "Quick Detailer Mist & Wipe" almost acts as a solution to it. Therefore, I will use one cleaning product, and have it come with the sponge and rag in a little set as seen in the photo.
My whole transmedia suite has been printed out and placed into my physical workbook, as well as attached to my most recent blog posts.
I'm going to look to head in and print today or tomorrow, after making the final few changes. I'm really happy with how this has turned out, and I'm looking forward to Friday's presentation, not only to see everyone elses work, but to display my work and see how it looks as a whole transmedia suite once professionally printed.
Friday, 27 May 2016
Week Five - Session Two
On Friday's class, I brought my developed brochure and poster to class, and had some my one on one session with Lee, and briefly with Donald as he walked past at the beginning of the class. I had made some quite big developments in my poster, still using the same man hosing down a letter, although changing the scale and composition to make it a lot more interesting to look at. I realised that the whole 'e' didn't need to be on the page, I could have it cropped out and people would still know what it was. I feel like the change from a halftone letter to a solid letter on the poster was a big positive development, helping create some more hierarchy within the poster.
Donald just looked at the poster, but really liked the development. He liked the enlarged scale, use of larger dots in the halftone, and also found the new diagonal blue section (representing water from the hose) a lot more.
Lee liked the poster improvement, and said the typographic layout was really lovely. Which is fitting as my conference is about polishing type to perfection, so ultimately the aim is to have my own type fully crafted and polished. In terms of the brochure, Lee really liked this as well, and suggested now to focus on coming up with the banners and the fourth item.
In terms of my own opinion, I'm really happy with how my poster has come along. I felt as if I was stuck working with the same image, at the same scale, and trying to force that to work, so I sat down and tried playing around with scale in an even more dramatic fashion, and using cropping on the letter 'e' to make it more interesting, rather than being centred. This also freed up space for the rest of the type to nicely sit on the right hand side of the page. There are a few small things I noticed to change. One being some of the kerning on the sub-heading "A typographic conference polished to perfection", adjusting the shadow of the 'e' slightly, and then a slight change to the water coming out of the hose. These changes have been highlighted and pointed out in my physical workbook on the poster printout.
I'm happy with how my brochure has developed as well. I feel as though it expands and develops from my poster, introducing more of the blue line, more tools and keeps the viewer interested by slightly changing the layout on each page, while sticking to the same grid structure.
I have attached my poster below, and the brochure can be seen mocked up in my physical workbook:
Donald just looked at the poster, but really liked the development. He liked the enlarged scale, use of larger dots in the halftone, and also found the new diagonal blue section (representing water from the hose) a lot more.
Lee liked the poster improvement, and said the typographic layout was really lovely. Which is fitting as my conference is about polishing type to perfection, so ultimately the aim is to have my own type fully crafted and polished. In terms of the brochure, Lee really liked this as well, and suggested now to focus on coming up with the banners and the fourth item.
In terms of my own opinion, I'm really happy with how my poster has come along. I felt as if I was stuck working with the same image, at the same scale, and trying to force that to work, so I sat down and tried playing around with scale in an even more dramatic fashion, and using cropping on the letter 'e' to make it more interesting, rather than being centred. This also freed up space for the rest of the type to nicely sit on the right hand side of the page. There are a few small things I noticed to change. One being some of the kerning on the sub-heading "A typographic conference polished to perfection", adjusting the shadow of the 'e' slightly, and then a slight change to the water coming out of the hose. These changes have been highlighted and pointed out in my physical workbook on the poster printout.
I'm happy with how my brochure has developed as well. I feel as though it expands and develops from my poster, introducing more of the blue line, more tools and keeps the viewer interested by slightly changing the layout on each page, while sticking to the same grid structure.
I have attached my poster below, and the brochure can be seen mocked up in my physical workbook:
By Tuesday, I'm going to have my banners done and mocked up in-situ, as well as my fourth item finalised and mocked up in-situ as well. For my banners, I am going to use them on Te Ara Hihiko, to help with the way-finding, and act as a visual cue that the visitors to the conference are in the right place. I'm wanting to do a large scale banner, and possibly a few smaller features. I'm going to continue developing this idea of people cleaning and polishing. For my fourth item, I think it is fitting to do personalised "micro" cleaning products, potentially for car cleaning, that way it relates directly back to my poster, where the man is cleaning an "e" as if it's his car.
I'm really excited to work on the banners and fourth item, and see how they will look when mocked up in-situ. Over the weekend, I will head back up to uni and take some photos of Te Ara Hihiko so I can create this mock-ups on Photoshop. I find it super fun trying to make things look realistic and mocking them up in context, so I have a feeling I'm really going to enjoy these next two tasks, and am confident that I'll be able to produce a quality banner and fourth item which continues to develop my underlying theme of cleaning, polishing and working with typography.
I'm really excited to work on the banners and fourth item, and see how they will look when mocked up in-situ. Over the weekend, I will head back up to uni and take some photos of Te Ara Hihiko so I can create this mock-ups on Photoshop. I find it super fun trying to make things look realistic and mocking them up in context, so I have a feeling I'm really going to enjoy these next two tasks, and am confident that I'll be able to produce a quality banner and fourth item which continues to develop my underlying theme of cleaning, polishing and working with typography.
Tuesday, 24 May 2016
Week Five - Session One
For today's class, we had been told that we were going to have a class critique/viewing at 9am. For this, we had been asked to bring along a developed poster, printed in full-scale A2 size, as well as a developed brochure.
It's super helpful printing the poster in full size, or tiling two A3's together, because it makes it so much easier to make sure the type is all the right size, gives you a better idea of the proportions of everything, and makes it easier to see how the overall hierarchy and visual flow works. I printed mine in A2, and got some helpful critique from both Donald and Lee.
They said to drop the information text size by one point, and then increase the bolded information text by one point to slightly emphasise the hierarchy. Along with that, they made the comment that it was slightly subdued, and nothing really pops from the poster. With that being said, I think I will look at using a brighter blue, rather than the dull light blue, and also bringing in some more black, possibly in the larger text reading 'micro'. I didn't realise there was a feature on Photoshop which I can use to create the halftone texture, so I'm going to use that rather than finding a texture to replicate this. The texture appeared as if it were a whole bunch of hexagons, so I need to change this too.
I completely agree with their feedback, and will use this as I develop the poster. Also, I have used the same basic diagonal line in each of my developments, so I might experiment with having the line go a different way in order to slightly alter the visual flow of the page.
I have attached my poster below.
It's super helpful printing the poster in full size, or tiling two A3's together, because it makes it so much easier to make sure the type is all the right size, gives you a better idea of the proportions of everything, and makes it easier to see how the overall hierarchy and visual flow works. I printed mine in A2, and got some helpful critique from both Donald and Lee.
They said to drop the information text size by one point, and then increase the bolded information text by one point to slightly emphasise the hierarchy. Along with that, they made the comment that it was slightly subdued, and nothing really pops from the poster. With that being said, I think I will look at using a brighter blue, rather than the dull light blue, and also bringing in some more black, possibly in the larger text reading 'micro'. I didn't realise there was a feature on Photoshop which I can use to create the halftone texture, so I'm going to use that rather than finding a texture to replicate this. The texture appeared as if it were a whole bunch of hexagons, so I need to change this too.
I completely agree with their feedback, and will use this as I develop the poster. Also, I have used the same basic diagonal line in each of my developments, so I might experiment with having the line go a different way in order to slightly alter the visual flow of the page.
I have attached my poster below.
Along with the poster, I presented my brochure spreads. On each of the spreads, I have a blue line run through the page, varying in direction each time. I had some comments about how it would be quite cool if I made the line carry through the whole page, even while changing direction at each page fold. On each of the pages, I also had a progression of the 'polishing' idea, using illustrations of surgeons etc, as well as a photo of the speaker and a piece of their work. I had the feedback to remove either the photo of the speaker or the piece of their work, so that there aren't too many elements competing on the page.
They quite liked my brochure cover page, how it isn't an exact replica of the illustrations inside the brochure and on my poster, it is more subtle, with just a whole bunch of tools which can be used for crafting objects. Donald suggested to try and sneak in a tint of blue like I have in my poster, to relate it even more.
My brochure can be seen in my physical workbook. I have made a mock-up prototype of it, and written my self-critiques onto each page, so I know what to develop.
They quite liked my brochure cover page, how it isn't an exact replica of the illustrations inside the brochure and on my poster, it is more subtle, with just a whole bunch of tools which can be used for crafting objects. Donald suggested to try and sneak in a tint of blue like I have in my poster, to relate it even more.
My brochure can be seen in my physical workbook. I have made a mock-up prototype of it, and written my self-critiques onto each page, so I know what to develop.
By Friday, we just need to keep working on and developing these, as well as thinking about our Banners and fourth item. I haven't really brainstormed yet as to what I want my fourth item to be, although I want to make it a clever option in relation to my topic and theme. For the banners, I would like to do some large scale thing around the campus somewhere, potentially to assist with wayfinding to the conference.
I really like how this is coming along, and I'm excited to see how it develops over the course of the next week and a half before hand-in. I enjoy creating these transmedia sets, and trying to create similarities across each media while progressing and developing the theme.
I really like how this is coming along, and I'm excited to see how it develops over the course of the next week and a half before hand-in. I enjoy creating these transmedia sets, and trying to create similarities across each media while progressing and developing the theme.
Friday, 20 May 2016
Week Four - Session Two
During the lesson today, we continued to work on our projects during studio time. Both Lee and Donald moved around the class giving 1 on 1 critiques to each person, on their brochure and poster.
For the most part of this lesson, I just worked on developing my brochure, and showed Lee my work once she got around to me. It was towards the end of a class, and there were still quite a few people waiting to be seen, so it was just a very quick critique session. Basically I was told to keep developing it as I have been, and making sure to keep the style across all the whole transmedia set. Lee also said to try making the tools on the front cover into spelling 'micro.'
I'll give this a go over the course of the next few days, so that it's ready for the critique on Tuesday. We are having a class critique and are required to bring along a developed brochure, as well as a developed poster.
I have attached my current brochure below:
For the most part of this lesson, I just worked on developing my brochure, and showed Lee my work once she got around to me. It was towards the end of a class, and there were still quite a few people waiting to be seen, so it was just a very quick critique session. Basically I was told to keep developing it as I have been, and making sure to keep the style across all the whole transmedia set. Lee also said to try making the tools on the front cover into spelling 'micro.'
I'll give this a go over the course of the next few days, so that it's ready for the critique on Tuesday. We are having a class critique and are required to bring along a developed brochure, as well as a developed poster.
I have attached my current brochure below:
Tuesday, 17 May 2016
Week Four - Session One
Over the weekend, I mocked up a brochure for my design conference 'micro'. I only really mocked up the speaker spreads properly, and just placed the text into the intro pages etc.
Today in class, I continued working on the brochure, and actually laying our and crafting the other pages (intro, timetable etc).
I spoke with Donald towards the end of the class, and he quite liked the layout. However, he said the diagonal line gets a bit repetitive, and said that since I've got quite unique stylistic approach, there isn't really any restrictions, and to take this and run with it, and use the freedom it gives me to really push my design.
By Friday's class, I'll develop my brochure further, and have it printed so that I can get some more valuable critique, which will allow me to continue developing it over the weekend. The further refined it is by each class, then the more polished it will be by the end of the project.
Today in class, I continued working on the brochure, and actually laying our and crafting the other pages (intro, timetable etc).
I spoke with Donald towards the end of the class, and he quite liked the layout. However, he said the diagonal line gets a bit repetitive, and said that since I've got quite unique stylistic approach, there isn't really any restrictions, and to take this and run with it, and use the freedom it gives me to really push my design.
By Friday's class, I'll develop my brochure further, and have it printed so that I can get some more valuable critique, which will allow me to continue developing it over the weekend. The further refined it is by each class, then the more polished it will be by the end of the project.
Friday, 13 May 2016
Week Three - Session Two
Since last class, I just continued working on my poster. During class today, we had some studio time to continue working on our projects and refining our posters. Towards the end of class, we were asked to prepare a basic brochure for next week. They said to just chuck all of the body copy and imagery in, and then start crafting it from there.
I'm looking forward to seeing how I can get my brochure to look. I feel like the style I've chosen for my poster gives me a lot of freedom for the brochure, which I'm looking forward to. I also always enjoy trying to make a whole suite of things, keeping everything to a similar style while making sure the concept develops and progressed throughout, without getting boring and repetitive.
By Tuesday, I'm hoping to have come up with a few more illustrations and different imagery of type being crafted or manipulate, and also a basic brochure concept that I can get some feedback on. I've got some good ideas on how I'm going to lay it out so it will be good to see how it turns out.
I'm looking forward to seeing how I can get my brochure to look. I feel like the style I've chosen for my poster gives me a lot of freedom for the brochure, which I'm looking forward to. I also always enjoy trying to make a whole suite of things, keeping everything to a similar style while making sure the concept develops and progressed throughout, without getting boring and repetitive.
By Tuesday, I'm hoping to have come up with a few more illustrations and different imagery of type being crafted or manipulate, and also a basic brochure concept that I can get some feedback on. I've got some good ideas on how I'm going to lay it out so it will be good to see how it turns out.
Tuesday, 10 May 2016
Interim Presentation
Today was our interim presentation, where we got to put up 2 of our concepts, and have them critiqued as everyone walked around the class. It was a good method of an interim, as everyone sat a piece of paper next to their posters, and then we all walked around and wrote some feedback on each poster. That way, it ensured that everyone got some helpful feedback in order to help them develop their posters.
I had decided to call my conference 'micro'. Each of my posters had different taglines depending on their imagery/concept. For example, ones with type being polished had "A typographic conference polished to perfection", while dissection ones had "A typographic conference with a cutting edge".
For the presentation, I had mocked up 7 different basic concepts, and had to narrow them down to 2. I quickly asked a few of the people I was sitting with which ones they thought I should present. They suggested the surgeon concept, and my other concept with the magnifying glass (can be seen attached at the bottom of this post).
The interim took about an hour, and I had some valuable feedback written about each of my posters. However, Lee came around for the 1 on 1 session during the latter stages of the class, and I thought I better show her my other concepts to see if they were really my best. As there was one that I thought was better, and she had liked the thumbnail sketch of it last week, so I thought I'd show her the digital version.
I showed her it, and she really liked it, and said it was better than the other two I had put forward, and if I had of presented that one, it would have "been a winner". The poster is the one of the man hosing down the type, as if it's his car. It's definitely a lot more interesting and engaging for the viewer, and there is a bit of humour in it.
Now that I've decided I'm going to use this poster to develop, I'm going to take into consideration about what Donald had said last week, about making it into a series. I'm going to look at different ways of people manipulating, fixing, cleaning and polishing type, that I can put into my brochure. I'd like to use the surgeon idea, although in this new style I'm going to use, rather than an illustration. I'd like to have different people doing various things to the type, each one letter at a time, and have it spell out 'micro' (my conference name) throughout the brochure. For example, 'm' on one page, 'i' on the next etc...
By next class, we just need to keep defining our conference, fleshing it out, and developing our idea. I have attached all of my initial interim posters below. They can also be seen in my physical workbook.
I had decided to call my conference 'micro'. Each of my posters had different taglines depending on their imagery/concept. For example, ones with type being polished had "A typographic conference polished to perfection", while dissection ones had "A typographic conference with a cutting edge".
For the presentation, I had mocked up 7 different basic concepts, and had to narrow them down to 2. I quickly asked a few of the people I was sitting with which ones they thought I should present. They suggested the surgeon concept, and my other concept with the magnifying glass (can be seen attached at the bottom of this post).
The interim took about an hour, and I had some valuable feedback written about each of my posters. However, Lee came around for the 1 on 1 session during the latter stages of the class, and I thought I better show her my other concepts to see if they were really my best. As there was one that I thought was better, and she had liked the thumbnail sketch of it last week, so I thought I'd show her the digital version.
I showed her it, and she really liked it, and said it was better than the other two I had put forward, and if I had of presented that one, it would have "been a winner". The poster is the one of the man hosing down the type, as if it's his car. It's definitely a lot more interesting and engaging for the viewer, and there is a bit of humour in it.
Now that I've decided I'm going to use this poster to develop, I'm going to take into consideration about what Donald had said last week, about making it into a series. I'm going to look at different ways of people manipulating, fixing, cleaning and polishing type, that I can put into my brochure. I'd like to use the surgeon idea, although in this new style I'm going to use, rather than an illustration. I'd like to have different people doing various things to the type, each one letter at a time, and have it spell out 'micro' (my conference name) throughout the brochure. For example, 'm' on one page, 'i' on the next etc...
By next class, we just need to keep defining our conference, fleshing it out, and developing our idea. I have attached all of my initial interim posters below. They can also be seen in my physical workbook.
Friday, 6 May 2016
Week Two - Session Two
With interim presentation coming up on Tuesday, today's class was mainly spent developing our idea and concept, and fleshing out our idea, keeping in mind that we need to develop and progress this idea throughout a trans-media suite, not just on one poster.
I've started mocking up a few more concepts for Tuesday's interim, and I'm feeling confident with the ideas I've come up with so far. I'm looking forward to the Interim presentation on Tuesday, where I can get some feedback on my posters and see which ones to develop and keep working with.
We have been asking to come up with 2 posters, either for different conference concepts, or just different stylistic approaches, as well as to research some of our speakers work.
I've started mocking up a few more concepts for Tuesday's interim, and I'm feeling confident with the ideas I've come up with so far. I'm looking forward to the Interim presentation on Tuesday, where I can get some feedback on my posters and see which ones to develop and keep working with.
We have been asking to come up with 2 posters, either for different conference concepts, or just different stylistic approaches, as well as to research some of our speakers work.
Tuesday, 3 May 2016
Week Two - Lesson One
During today's class, we had a small presentation/lecture on using Random Input and Movement in order to generate ideas quickly. I found this super helpful, and it was interesting to see how quickly you could come up with more abstract and intriguing concepts to show the same theme, ideas that I definitely wouldn't have come up with without trying the random input.
To do this, we grabbed a magazine that Lee provided us with, and we picked out a couple of words. From these words, we generated four concepts for each, relating to some form or aspect of Graphic Design.
We had some more 1 on 1 sessions with the lecturers to run over our homework, and show them the concepts we had generated over the weekend. I initially spoke with Lee about mine, and showed her my initial digital mock-ups. I also showed her my thumbnail concepts. She had some good feedback about the idea, and encouraged that I try to put some sort of funny 'pun' or 'in-joke' in the poster to increase interest. Lee really liked the thumbnail of a man washing and cleaning the type as if it was his car.
I later spoke to Donald, and he liked the idea of 'dissecting typography'. Upon looking at my thumbnails as well, he said that I could use a few of the ideas as part of a series, that could develop and progress throughout my poster, brochure, and other forms of media.
These thumbnails can be seen in my physical workbook.
By Friday's class, we have been asked to continue to research and decide on our speakers, conference name, and keep working on a tagline and brief description of the conference, to go on our poster.
To do this, we grabbed a magazine that Lee provided us with, and we picked out a couple of words. From these words, we generated four concepts for each, relating to some form or aspect of Graphic Design.
We had some more 1 on 1 sessions with the lecturers to run over our homework, and show them the concepts we had generated over the weekend. I initially spoke with Lee about mine, and showed her my initial digital mock-ups. I also showed her my thumbnail concepts. She had some good feedback about the idea, and encouraged that I try to put some sort of funny 'pun' or 'in-joke' in the poster to increase interest. Lee really liked the thumbnail of a man washing and cleaning the type as if it was his car.
I later spoke to Donald, and he liked the idea of 'dissecting typography'. Upon looking at my thumbnails as well, he said that I could use a few of the ideas as part of a series, that could develop and progress throughout my poster, brochure, and other forms of media.
These thumbnails can be seen in my physical workbook.
By Friday's class, we have been asked to continue to research and decide on our speakers, conference name, and keep working on a tagline and brief description of the conference, to go on our poster.
Friday, 29 April 2016
Week One - Lesson Two
During the lesson today, the teachers came around and had some small 1 on 1 conversations with each of us, in order to see what ideas we had come up with over the past few days, and trying to help us clarify and flesh out our ideas.
I had come up with three ideas which I was thinking of using:
1. How to measure success in design: Fame vs Satisfaction, Money vs Enjoyment etc.
2. Confusion around design degrees: Workload, what we exactly do, future jobs etc.
3. Crafting and Polishing of typography: The fine micro details of typography
Out of these three, since I really like typography, I was leaning towards the third one. A design conference about the perfectionists inside of us, and the polishing and crafting details that type requires.
For homework, we have a couple of tasks that needed completing. Firstly, we are required to continue to define our design conference, come up with a name, and try to come up with some sort of tagline/subheading for it, which works hand in hand with the title or imagery used. Along with this, we have been asked to research some potential speakers for out design conference, and then come up with some thumbnail poster concepts. Once we come up with a decent amount of thumbnails, we need to either draw or print in A3, three of these concepts to see how they work once digitally created.
I will come up with these for Tuesday's class, and they'll be in my physical workbook.
I had come up with three ideas which I was thinking of using:
1. How to measure success in design: Fame vs Satisfaction, Money vs Enjoyment etc.
2. Confusion around design degrees: Workload, what we exactly do, future jobs etc.
3. Crafting and Polishing of typography: The fine micro details of typography
Out of these three, since I really like typography, I was leaning towards the third one. A design conference about the perfectionists inside of us, and the polishing and crafting details that type requires.
For homework, we have a couple of tasks that needed completing. Firstly, we are required to continue to define our design conference, come up with a name, and try to come up with some sort of tagline/subheading for it, which works hand in hand with the title or imagery used. Along with this, we have been asked to research some potential speakers for out design conference, and then come up with some thumbnail poster concepts. Once we come up with a decent amount of thumbnails, we need to either draw or print in A3, three of these concepts to see how they work once digitally created.
I will come up with these for Tuesday's class, and they'll be in my physical workbook.
Tuesday, 26 April 2016
Introduction to Print
Today's class was an introduction to our new studio paper, this term I am doing 'Print'. The lecturers introduced themselves to us, and we got introduced to the brief as well.
I find the brief quite interesting and exciting, as we have a whole suite of things to produce. I'm looking forward to seeing how I can make them all look as part of one larger trans-media set, and how I can develop and refine my concept across the next 6 weeks.
Most of today's class was around brainstorming initial ideas around potential concepts to look at for our design conference. We had split into groups at first, and brainstormed some key words or ideas that relate to graphic design, and how we could use these. Once we had done the group work, we joined back up as a whole class, pinned them up on the wall and began discussing the key points of each.
I've drawn up our initial brainstorms in my physical workbook.
By Friday, we have been asked to narrow our ideas down to a couple of concepts that we think we would like to go with, so that we can then begin conceptualizing these and coming up with quick thumbnail sketches for part one of our suite, the poster. We've also been asked to begin searching for some visual precedents of some posters or trans-media suites that we find appealing or interesting, which we could go on to use as inspiration.
I find the brief quite interesting and exciting, as we have a whole suite of things to produce. I'm looking forward to seeing how I can make them all look as part of one larger trans-media set, and how I can develop and refine my concept across the next 6 weeks.
Most of today's class was around brainstorming initial ideas around potential concepts to look at for our design conference. We had split into groups at first, and brainstormed some key words or ideas that relate to graphic design, and how we could use these. Once we had done the group work, we joined back up as a whole class, pinned them up on the wall and began discussing the key points of each.
I've drawn up our initial brainstorms in my physical workbook.
By Friday, we have been asked to narrow our ideas down to a couple of concepts that we think we would like to go with, so that we can then begin conceptualizing these and coming up with quick thumbnail sketches for part one of our suite, the poster. We've also been asked to begin searching for some visual precedents of some posters or trans-media suites that we find appealing or interesting, which we could go on to use as inspiration.
Friday, 22 April 2016
Hand-In
Once arriving in class, we were instructed that the class was going to be solely studio time, where we had the chance to ask Tim and Tristam for any final feedback or last minute questions around submission criteria.
I spent this studio time sticking my final few print-outs into my physical workbook, as I had already finished my PDF presentation of User Journeys, and UI/UX Specifications. Towards the end of class, I downloaded my InVision files, zipped up all of my folders and submitted them on stream.
I spent this studio time sticking my final few print-outs into my physical workbook, as I had already finished my PDF presentation of User Journeys, and UI/UX Specifications. Towards the end of class, I downloaded my InVision files, zipped up all of my folders and submitted them on stream.
Thursday, 21 April 2016
Concept Rationale
NZNW, (New Zealand News Wall) is a condensed news wall which allows for efficient navigation of news, in a more entertaining, image-based way. It was inspired by 4News Wall, created by Channel 4 News. However, their site was compiled out of GIFs, which in my opinion got super annoying and distracting seeing so many moving images all at once.
The creation of this News Wall came down to the notion that people are more likely to remember, or identify things with pictures than they are with words. If someone was to try and remember the main picture used in the article, or what the heading said, the chances are they’re more likely to remember the image having registered it visually rather than skimming past it to the body content and not fully taking it in.
Within the site, there are category and sub-category filters, which allow these news walls to be filtered down somewhat, in order to improve the efficiency of the navigation. Along with this, I have added in some date filters, which run down the right hand side of the news walls. What this does, is it allows the users to filter their searches even further if they’re looking to find something specific, otherwise they’re free to continue scrolling down the pages. The dates are written down the page, so by scrolling further down, you are able to click on older dates from further back. In order to improve efficiency for a user trying to find an article from a couple of months, or even a few years ago, I have further included a ‘Change Dates’ tab, which allows the user to change the months and years that they view articles from, via a small pop-out menu.
Another strength of NZNW is the chance to set notifications to receive updates upon the release of new articles, and the ability to customize these to suit your own preferences, as the user gets to select exactly which categories they want to be notified about.
The New Zealand News Wall is an intriguing step away from the plain old website, while making sure to keep the same news website feel to it, through the use of some traditional and common aesthetics such as the category tabs at the top of the page, although getting more creative in the approaches to how the site is actually navigated.
The creation of this News Wall came down to the notion that people are more likely to remember, or identify things with pictures than they are with words. If someone was to try and remember the main picture used in the article, or what the heading said, the chances are they’re more likely to remember the image having registered it visually rather than skimming past it to the body content and not fully taking it in.
Within the site, there are category and sub-category filters, which allow these news walls to be filtered down somewhat, in order to improve the efficiency of the navigation. Along with this, I have added in some date filters, which run down the right hand side of the news walls. What this does, is it allows the users to filter their searches even further if they’re looking to find something specific, otherwise they’re free to continue scrolling down the pages. The dates are written down the page, so by scrolling further down, you are able to click on older dates from further back. In order to improve efficiency for a user trying to find an article from a couple of months, or even a few years ago, I have further included a ‘Change Dates’ tab, which allows the user to change the months and years that they view articles from, via a small pop-out menu.
Another strength of NZNW is the chance to set notifications to receive updates upon the release of new articles, and the ability to customize these to suit your own preferences, as the user gets to select exactly which categories they want to be notified about.
The New Zealand News Wall is an intriguing step away from the plain old website, while making sure to keep the same news website feel to it, through the use of some traditional and common aesthetics such as the category tabs at the top of the page, although getting more creative in the approaches to how the site is actually navigated.
Tuesday, 19 April 2016
Weel 6 Session One: Final Presentation
Today's class we had a chance to user test in small groups, as well a present in groups to Tristam. In the user testing, it was our final chance to see what worked, and what needed changing, so that we could go and make any last changes before Friday's hand-in.
For today's class, I had prepared my two InVision prototypes, one for mobile and one for desktop, my speculative sitemap, as well as my fully coded web pages. Below are the links to each of my InVision prototypes.
Mobile: https://invis.io/BM6ZR5CYV#/151592638_Home_Page
Desktop:https://invis.io/BX72B3IKQ#/150904397_Home-Page
In the user testing, my group had no problems with navigating their way through both my mobile and my desktop version. They were super impressed with the visual aesthetics of my website, as well as how it was easy to navigate, they said there weren't any stages where they were unsure on what to click next to get to the next part of their user journey.
The second part of class, my group went up for our presentations with Tristam. During this presentation, I got more good feedback on my website, and didn't come across any major changes that I needed to make by Friday. This meant that I was able to continue working along and begin whipping up the UI and UX specifications. It was good to get clarification on what exactly to do for the speculative sitemap, as my initial mock-up was 'too-detailed', as I had included more possible links than was required.
In a way I'm looking forward to handing this project in on Friday and moving on to the next assignment next week, in my Print module, although I'm going to miss this paper. At the beginning, I didn't really have many ideas as to how I was going to make my newspaper unique and stand out from the rest, although after working on it consistently, and ideating week in week out, I feel like I've come up with a strong concept. My concept's layout in terms of tabs at the top of the page, search bar top right etc are all very conventional, although it's more in the actual user's navigation of the site where my website stands out from an ordinary news site.
At the beginning I also found coding super confusing, and struggled to wrap my head around it. Surely enough, it helped by jumping straight in early on and having a play around with it, even during the wire framing stage I was experimenting with the coding of the article page. In the end, starting on the code so early on worked in my favour, as week in week out I was able to slowly craft my website and refine the detailing to get it exactly as I wanted it.
For today's class, I had prepared my two InVision prototypes, one for mobile and one for desktop, my speculative sitemap, as well as my fully coded web pages. Below are the links to each of my InVision prototypes.
Mobile: https://invis.io/BM6ZR5CYV#/151592638_Home_Page
Desktop:https://invis.io/BX72B3IKQ#/150904397_Home-Page
In the user testing, my group had no problems with navigating their way through both my mobile and my desktop version. They were super impressed with the visual aesthetics of my website, as well as how it was easy to navigate, they said there weren't any stages where they were unsure on what to click next to get to the next part of their user journey.
The second part of class, my group went up for our presentations with Tristam. During this presentation, I got more good feedback on my website, and didn't come across any major changes that I needed to make by Friday. This meant that I was able to continue working along and begin whipping up the UI and UX specifications. It was good to get clarification on what exactly to do for the speculative sitemap, as my initial mock-up was 'too-detailed', as I had included more possible links than was required.
In a way I'm looking forward to handing this project in on Friday and moving on to the next assignment next week, in my Print module, although I'm going to miss this paper. At the beginning, I didn't really have many ideas as to how I was going to make my newspaper unique and stand out from the rest, although after working on it consistently, and ideating week in week out, I feel like I've come up with a strong concept. My concept's layout in terms of tabs at the top of the page, search bar top right etc are all very conventional, although it's more in the actual user's navigation of the site where my website stands out from an ordinary news site.
At the beginning I also found coding super confusing, and struggled to wrap my head around it. Surely enough, it helped by jumping straight in early on and having a play around with it, even during the wire framing stage I was experimenting with the coding of the article page. In the end, starting on the code so early on worked in my favour, as week in week out I was able to slowly craft my website and refine the detailing to get it exactly as I wanted it.
Friday, 15 April 2016
Week Five Session Two
At the beginning of class we had a brief talk about user experience and user interface, and how we need to present these for our final submissions, to clear things up for anyone that was confused about exactly what was required.
After this, we had open studio time. I decided to work on doing the detailing for my coding of the article page, and getting it to perfectly match the aesthetic I have created on my InVision prototypes and Photoshop mock ups. Tim helped me with a few bits I was unsure about, although after he cleared those couple of things up I found myself understanding the code a lot better, and managed to do the rest of the site completely independently with ease.
That's one of the areas that this project has helped me grow in, learning how to code using HTML and CSS, as I now am aware of what each attribute and function will create or edit when typing it, rather than guess work.
I also spoke to Tristam about the ideas for the responsiveness between my desktop and mobile versions, and clarified all of this. After having a chat, I've realised I'm well on my way to having this finished and refined to a high standard by next Friday's submission. For Tuesday's presentation, I'm aiming to have my mobile and desktop prototypes completed on InVision, and I'll finish up my coding of a responsive article page tonight, so that will also be ready for Tuesday's final presentation before submission.
Once I've finished crafting it tonight I will post another blog post with attached images of my coded site. I'm super happy with how it's looking now and how far it's come during today's studio time and I'm excited to see the finished product tonight.
After this, we had open studio time. I decided to work on doing the detailing for my coding of the article page, and getting it to perfectly match the aesthetic I have created on my InVision prototypes and Photoshop mock ups. Tim helped me with a few bits I was unsure about, although after he cleared those couple of things up I found myself understanding the code a lot better, and managed to do the rest of the site completely independently with ease.
That's one of the areas that this project has helped me grow in, learning how to code using HTML and CSS, as I now am aware of what each attribute and function will create or edit when typing it, rather than guess work.
I also spoke to Tristam about the ideas for the responsiveness between my desktop and mobile versions, and clarified all of this. After having a chat, I've realised I'm well on my way to having this finished and refined to a high standard by next Friday's submission. For Tuesday's presentation, I'm aiming to have my mobile and desktop prototypes completed on InVision, and I'll finish up my coding of a responsive article page tonight, so that will also be ready for Tuesday's final presentation before submission.
Once I've finished crafting it tonight I will post another blog post with attached images of my coded site. I'm super happy with how it's looking now and how far it's come during today's studio time and I'm excited to see the finished product tonight.
Tuesday, 12 April 2016
Week Five Session One
Today's class was pretty much completely studio based. At the beginning, we went over all of the submission requirements, which allowed everyone to be extremely clear on what needs to be handed in next week.
For the remainder of the class, I continued working on creating a polished InVision prototype, and created some more screens in Photoshop.
I decided that for my user journey for Mike Richards, since he always refreshes his laptop looking for new articles, I'm going to add in a feature which allows you to get notifications on your laptop every time a new article appears, and I'll include an option so you can further choose exactly what categories you want to get notifications for.
I feel like I'm on track for the deadline, and I'll continue to steadily work on this project over the next week so I can get it as refined as possible for the deadline. I'm really happy with how my project is coming along, and the photoshop screens are starting to look really good!
For the remainder of the class, I continued working on creating a polished InVision prototype, and created some more screens in Photoshop.
I decided that for my user journey for Mike Richards, since he always refreshes his laptop looking for new articles, I'm going to add in a feature which allows you to get notifications on your laptop every time a new article appears, and I'll include an option so you can further choose exactly what categories you want to get notifications for.
I feel like I'm on track for the deadline, and I'll continue to steadily work on this project over the next week so I can get it as refined as possible for the deadline. I'm really happy with how my project is coming along, and the photoshop screens are starting to look really good!
Tuesday, 22 March 2016
Week Four Session One
Today was our small interim presentations, where we would go and present our wireframe prototypes, both on InVision and printed out, to either Tristam or Tim, and then in groups of four, we would do some user testing to make sure these websites were easy to navigate.
Early on in the class I got to see Tristam and present my work, I didn't really get too much feedback, although Tristam liked what I had done, and said that I was well on the right track. I had whipped up a full InVision prototype for my 6 user journeys, printed out all user journeys in wireframes, made a few photoshop mock-ups of how I want the pages to look, and then had also coded up a responsive web page, which was coming along quite nicely.
In the groups of four, I was with Xavier, Luke and Fraser, where we each went around and tested each other's user journeys via InVision. The feedback I got on mine was that it was all really easy to use, and they liked the 'date filter' which runs down the right hand side of the screen, which allows a simple filter of articles. They all managed to successfully complete each user journey without any real struggles. However, I will continue to go through and check to see if there are ways I can improve each user journey in relation to my personae.
Overall, I am really confident with where I am in this project at the moment, and think that I'm definitely on the right track. We don't have class on Friday due to it being Good Friday, so our next class isn't until next term. Until then I will look to continue developing my website and see how refined I can get it by next class.
Early on in the class I got to see Tristam and present my work, I didn't really get too much feedback, although Tristam liked what I had done, and said that I was well on the right track. I had whipped up a full InVision prototype for my 6 user journeys, printed out all user journeys in wireframes, made a few photoshop mock-ups of how I want the pages to look, and then had also coded up a responsive web page, which was coming along quite nicely.
In the groups of four, I was with Xavier, Luke and Fraser, where we each went around and tested each other's user journeys via InVision. The feedback I got on mine was that it was all really easy to use, and they liked the 'date filter' which runs down the right hand side of the screen, which allows a simple filter of articles. They all managed to successfully complete each user journey without any real struggles. However, I will continue to go through and check to see if there are ways I can improve each user journey in relation to my personae.
Overall, I am really confident with where I am in this project at the moment, and think that I'm definitely on the right track. We don't have class on Friday due to it being Good Friday, so our next class isn't until next term. Until then I will look to continue developing my website and see how refined I can get it by next class.
Friday, 18 March 2016
Week Three Session Two
Over the past few days since our last class I have been looking at information architecture and developing my concept. I quite like the layout, although will continue to develop and refine it through user testing so that it can become far more effective. I had a play around with InVision, and it was good to get it on the screen and interact with it properly.
The class today consisted of another lecture from Tim, this time about JavaScript. I found it interesting to see how JavaScript can be used, as it was one of the trickier things to wrap my head around last year in the Kaitiakitanga brief.
For the remainder of the studio, I was playing around with the code and trying to develop the template to fit my concept. Below I have attached some photos showing my developments, the main titles at the top are just placeholders, as I'll focus on the labelling and branding later in the project, after the user journeys etc have all been developed.
The above snip is a development from my last one, where I was just working on creating a page for 'Team Wellington News' to practice some coding. I have been working on developing it for the smaller devices such as phones, and I will then progress it and work on it as a larger scale web version once this is further refined. We were told last lesson that it's generally easier and more efficient to do the mobile version first, and then the web one after that.
The attached image shows my developments during studio time today, where I continued to work on adding in sections and categorizing them, with the larger labels such as 'Sport'. I am going to colour code them so that each one is easily recognizable and easy to differentiate between sport, business, worldwide etc.
I really like how it's coming along, and I'm definitely getting more confident with my coding the more I play around with it. I feel like once I've refined this further, I'm going to put in one of the hamburger icons in place of the tabs at the top of the page, to reduce a bit of space.
I will continue to update my blog with iterations along the way. Next week we are having a interim presentation where we present some user journeys for each persona, and our progress so far.
I really like how it's coming along, and I'm definitely getting more confident with my coding the more I play around with it. I feel like once I've refined this further, I'm going to put in one of the hamburger icons in place of the tabs at the top of the page, to reduce a bit of space.
I will continue to update my blog with iterations along the way. Next week we are having a interim presentation where we present some user journeys for each persona, and our progress so far.
Tuesday, 15 March 2016
Week Three Session One
At the beginning of today's class, after the Daily Future's exercise, we had another quick workshop with Tim, on creating responsive websites, which can fit onto laptop screens, and mobile phones.
It was interesting to see how to code this, so that when the screen is reduced to a certain side, the layout changes so that it's more readable for the viewer, rather than having horizontal scroll bars to navigate the page.
Although we only need the web version or the moblie version, I'd quite like to code it so that it accommodates to both of them for my final hand-in.
By next class, we just need to continue working on the wireframing for the user journeys of each persona. I'd also like to have a go at whipping up some wire frames on Photoshop, and then chucking it into InVision, so that it's easier to test how a user navigates through the site. After this, I'll then look to develop my website in relation to the feedback I get given, so that I can continue to develop and progress the website over the course of the next few weeks.
It was interesting to see how to code this, so that when the screen is reduced to a certain side, the layout changes so that it's more readable for the viewer, rather than having horizontal scroll bars to navigate the page.
Although we only need the web version or the moblie version, I'd quite like to code it so that it accommodates to both of them for my final hand-in.
By next class, we just need to continue working on the wireframing for the user journeys of each persona. I'd also like to have a go at whipping up some wire frames on Photoshop, and then chucking it into InVision, so that it's easier to test how a user navigates through the site. After this, I'll then look to develop my website in relation to the feedback I get given, so that I can continue to develop and progress the website over the course of the next few weeks.
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