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.
Showing posts with label Ideation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ideation. Show all posts
Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Monday, 30 May 2016
Fourth Item
Over the weekend I have also been working on my fourth item. For this, I was planning on creating labels for cleaning products. I decided to create some car cleaning products, which ties it back to the original poster which would've brought the visitors to the conference in the first place. It will be quite a nice tie back, since the man on the poster was hosing down the 'e' as if it was his car.
At the moment, I have it so that there are 5 different cleaners, although I'll take them to the teachers on Tuesday and get their feedback. I'm thinking it would either be better to have the visitors choose one of the cleaners to take, or else I just have one cleaner available.
If I were to do this, I would choose the "Quick Detailer Mist & Wipe", as this would also tie back nicely to the fact that it's about the lengthy process of detailing and crafting type, so it would be quite good to have a "quick detailer" cleaning product to take away from the conference.
I have attached my current products and labels below, mocked up in-situ.
At the moment, I have it so that there are 5 different cleaners, although I'll take them to the teachers on Tuesday and get their feedback. I'm thinking it would either be better to have the visitors choose one of the cleaners to take, or else I just have one cleaner available.
If I were to do this, I would choose the "Quick Detailer Mist & Wipe", as this would also tie back nicely to the fact that it's about the lengthy process of detailing and crafting type, so it would be quite good to have a "quick detailer" cleaning product to take away from the conference.
I have attached my current products and labels below, mocked up in-situ.
Micro Banners
Over the weekend, I had been working on creating my banners for my design conference, and mocking them up in-situ. I have decided on doing large scale banners on Te Ara Hihiko, as a visual cue that the visitors have arrived in the right place for the conference.
On one side of Te Ara Hihiko, the main feature is having a stained blue window, with a halftone image of a man cleaning the window. I am going to continue this diagonal line feature by having a part of the blue stripped off, so that the man has squeegeed it clean. I am also having a blue diagonal line follow the shape of the concrete by the stairs, with the word "micro", to indicate that the conference is there.
On the other side of Te Ara Hihiko, Taranaki St side, I am having a large scale banner, tinting/staing a large section of windows white, and having my halftone tools in black. This relates to the brochure cover, and acts as a way of pulling my transmedia suite together, and also creating interest to the visitors. On the wall near the entrance, I have a halftone person, this time working on type with a chainsaw, and he is cutting a section off the number 12, to make it perfect.
In terms of way finding, I am continuing this idea of the diagonal blue lines, and using this to help navigate the users to into the building and ultimately to The Pit for to listen to the speakers.
I have attached all of my banner mock-ups below:
I will take these banners to class on Tuesday to get some feedback from Lee and Donald. I am also going to take my fourth item as well, which I will attach to my next blog post.
On one side of Te Ara Hihiko, the main feature is having a stained blue window, with a halftone image of a man cleaning the window. I am going to continue this diagonal line feature by having a part of the blue stripped off, so that the man has squeegeed it clean. I am also having a blue diagonal line follow the shape of the concrete by the stairs, with the word "micro", to indicate that the conference is there.
On the other side of Te Ara Hihiko, Taranaki St side, I am having a large scale banner, tinting/staing a large section of windows white, and having my halftone tools in black. This relates to the brochure cover, and acts as a way of pulling my transmedia suite together, and also creating interest to the visitors. On the wall near the entrance, I have a halftone person, this time working on type with a chainsaw, and he is cutting a section off the number 12, to make it perfect.
In terms of way finding, I am continuing this idea of the diagonal blue lines, and using this to help navigate the users to into the building and ultimately to The Pit for to listen to the speakers.
I have attached all of my banner mock-ups below:
I will take these banners to class on Tuesday to get some feedback from Lee and Donald. I am also going to take my fourth item as well, which I will attach to my next blog post.
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.
Sunday, 22 May 2016
Poster Development - Independent Study
Today I was working on developing my poster, trying to experiment with scale and composition to create a more interesting layout. I came up with quite a few different compositions, and I have attached a couple of examples below:
I'll continue working on my brochure until Tuesday's critique, so that it's more refined and I can get feedback on a more polished design.
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.
Saturday, 14 May 2016
Illustration Development and Progression
Yesterday in class, as well as this morning, I was developing my illustrations of the people manipulating, cleaning and dissecting the typography, so that I could chuck them into my brochure. I have attached an image below with each of the images so far.
Some of them aren't full body, although that doesn't matter as I'm layering the speakers photo on top of each photo, so it's going to cover that particular area (particularly in reference to the image of a man dusting the 'c').
Some of them aren't full body, although that doesn't matter as I'm layering the speakers photo on top of each photo, so it's going to cover that particular area (particularly in reference to the image of a man dusting the 'c').
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.
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.
Sunday, 1 May 2016
Independent Study - Researching Speakers and Rapid Ideation
Over the past few days, I've been looking at some potential speakers for my design conference, and I've decided I'm going to do a typographic conference.
I've come up with a list of 8 speakers so far which I'd consider using, who I feel fit the theme quite nicely. I don't think I'll use any of these 8 as my keynote speaker, and I'm instead going to look at using a more famous and well-known designer as the keynote, in an attempt to draw more interest and attraction to the conference.
In terms of a famous typographer or graphic designer that would fit this conference, my initial thoughts string straight to Neville Brody and David Carson. They'd both be a good fit as they deal with typography, and craft it so carefully, although in a very different way to the modern typographer.
The 8 speakers I've looked at so far are:
Fay McApline (NZ)
Kris Sowersby (NZ)
Hannes von Dohren (Germany)
Dave Foster (Australia)
Charles A. Bigelow (US)
Vincent Connare (US)
Matthew Carter (England)
Stefan Sagmeister (Austria)
In my physical workbook, I've also sketched up 2 pages of thumbnails for a few different takes on the typographic conference. I've come up with about 32 different ideas at the moment, and also mocked up a few basic ones on Photoshop and InDesign to show at Tuesday's class.
On Tuesday I'll look to get some feedback on these concepts, and which ones I should continue to develop. I feel like I've got a few more decent thumbnail concepts that I will look to create digitally as well.
I've come up with a list of 8 speakers so far which I'd consider using, who I feel fit the theme quite nicely. I don't think I'll use any of these 8 as my keynote speaker, and I'm instead going to look at using a more famous and well-known designer as the keynote, in an attempt to draw more interest and attraction to the conference.
In terms of a famous typographer or graphic designer that would fit this conference, my initial thoughts string straight to Neville Brody and David Carson. They'd both be a good fit as they deal with typography, and craft it so carefully, although in a very different way to the modern typographer.
The 8 speakers I've looked at so far are:
Fay McApline (NZ)
Kris Sowersby (NZ)
Hannes von Dohren (Germany)
Dave Foster (Australia)
Charles A. Bigelow (US)
Vincent Connare (US)
Matthew Carter (England)
Stefan Sagmeister (Austria)
In my physical workbook, I've also sketched up 2 pages of thumbnails for a few different takes on the typographic conference. I've come up with about 32 different ideas at the moment, and also mocked up a few basic ones on Photoshop and InDesign to show at Tuesday's class.
On Tuesday I'll look to get some feedback on these concepts, and which ones I should continue to develop. I feel like I've got a few more decent thumbnail concepts that I will look to create digitally as well.
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.
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
Responsive Web Design
Below are some mock-ups of how my coded article page reacts when used on different sized browsers, such as desktop, mobile and tablet.
Coded Responsive Article Page
After class today, I continued working on my coded article page, and making it responsive. I'm super stoked with how this has come along, and how similar I've managed to get it to my Photoshop mock-ups. Below, I have attached some images of my responsive mock-ups with some annotations.
I have created a responsive page, so that it is suitable for all different sized devices, such as a desktop, mobile, and even tablet:
I have created a responsive page, so that it is suitable for all different sized devices, such as a desktop, mobile, and even tablet:
I've worked a lot on these different screens and tried to figure out how I can make theme suitable for each device. The desktop screen is obviously a lot larger, hence the larger font sizes and image sizes etc. I've also included the main navigation bar in there also. Once the browser width gets below 940 pixels, the search bar become a smaller search icon, the navigation bar turns into a hamburger menu, while the logo moves centrally and the tagline disappears, as it would become too small to read anyway. The secondary navigation bar (to navigate within the category) also shifts to two lines rather than one, for when the browser width gets smaller. The social media icons also get smaller.
The font sizes all reduce, while the photos get smaller as the browser shrinks. As it keeps reducing in size, into the mobile width, the photos continue to shrink so that the whole photo fits on the screen at once, while the 'related stories' photos move into two columns rather than one, otherwise they'd become too small to see and read the headline. The comments sections become longer as the browser becomes narrower, in order to fit in the whole comment.
I am extremely pleased with how this has turned out!! I'm going to Photoshop up a mock-up to see how they would look on desktop, iPad and iPhone display, so that it puts it into context.
On Tuesday we have our final presentation before hand-in, so over the next few day's I'll continue to steadily work on the InVision prototypes, and once they're done I'll move onto the UX and UI Specifications, as well as the Speculative sitemap and Rationale. I feel like if I continue to work at the rate I have been so far in this project, I'll be able to polish it up to a standard that I'll be proud of and hand in work that is to the very best of my ability.
The font sizes all reduce, while the photos get smaller as the browser shrinks. As it keeps reducing in size, into the mobile width, the photos continue to shrink so that the whole photo fits on the screen at once, while the 'related stories' photos move into two columns rather than one, otherwise they'd become too small to see and read the headline. The comments sections become longer as the browser becomes narrower, in order to fit in the whole comment.
I am extremely pleased with how this has turned out!! I'm going to Photoshop up a mock-up to see how they would look on desktop, iPad and iPhone display, so that it puts it into context.
On Tuesday we have our final presentation before hand-in, so over the next few day's I'll continue to steadily work on the InVision prototypes, and once they're done I'll move onto the UX and UI Specifications, as well as the Speculative sitemap and Rationale. I feel like if I continue to work at the rate I have been so far in this project, I'll be able to polish it up to a standard that I'll be proud of and hand in work that is to the very best of my ability.
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.
Thursday, 14 April 2016
Working on the Desktop InVision Prototype
Today I kept working on creating my final InVision prototype for the desktop, and creating the final few screens in Photoshop. I'm really happy with how it's all coming together, and am excited to see how I can create a responsive piece with this prototype and my mobile prototype.
I have attached a few images of a couple of the InVision screens below, and will upload the link to view the InVision in a couple of days once it's all completed. The images should give a good enough idea of how it's coming along.
I have attached a few images of a couple of the InVision screens below, and will upload the link to view the InVision in a couple of days once it's all completed. The images should give a good enough idea of how it's coming along.
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