PROCESS
Seen & UnSeen
Patterns of the Rainforest Emma Thompson CAP 1 Form + Function Communication Design Sam Fox School Washington University in St. Louis Fall 2017
PROMPT Humans today travel to a variety of places, for many reasons. On these excursions, people often choose to take a few key items with them. For this project, you will design an artifact—a travel companion—to accompany someone on a specific kind of trip. This companion may take the form of an app, a kit, a language guide, game, booklet, or something else. The final product should serve as a prototype that both functions and delights. Your first step will be choose the destination of the trip you are designing for. The destination should be somewhere local but off-campus— somewhere that you’ve never been before. It could be a neighborhood, business or historical site. Let’s say you chose an eating or drinking establishment: What is the history of the business and/or of the building? How would you recommend the user get there and navigate not only the neighborhood, but the building and menu? What are related recipes and the histories of them? After selecting the travel scenario, consider your audience. Who is your user? What will your user need or desire? Throughout this process, you must conduct a minimum of 2-3 of the following types of research to guide your design decisions: Interviews Visual analysis Literature research Statistics gathering
Observation Questionnaire User testing
Your research will play an important role in selecting your content. What is the purpose of your artifact—and how does your content serve that purpose?
image of climatron
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RESEARCH At the beginning of this project I was confused about what exactly I was going to make. I had a lot of initial places I could go to including a new coffee shop, sk8liborius (a chuch that now is a skate park), or the Saint Louis Fashion fund Incubator. I eventually settled on the Climatron found inside the Missouri Botanical Gardens. My mom has kept pressuring me to go there because she heard that it was one of the best botanical gardens in the country. So I thought that this was a great time to actually go there and experience it. When I walked into the climatron I was immediately surrounded by nature. I felt as though I was in another world. I loved looking at all of the different colors and patterns that I was seeing around me. This idea of patterns moved me forward into my final design.
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research work
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reserahc work
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toki climatron thing
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DISCOVERY As I was starting to do my initial research, I remembered a project I had seen sophmore year at the design studio TOKY. I went and looked it up on their website to find out more about it. The project was an invitation for the Rainforest alliances annual benefit event. I learned that they used a kalidescope effect on all of the images. This idea got me thinking about the possibilites of a kalidescope. I loved the idea of adding an effect to the experience of a place. Also that a kalidescope created a new pattern of the environment that you were seeing. As I moved along I learned that the viewfinder version of a kalidescope was known as a teleidoscope. This was the item that would be used in my project. I knew from the start that I didn’t want my project to be digital I felt as though that took away from the idea of going into a natural environment in the first place. I also knew that I couldn’t make my travel companion just about identifying plants it needed to show and give more information. I came to the idea of making an activity where kids can learn about different plants and learn where they are located in the rainforest and the patterns that are found on rainforest plants.
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notes
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notes
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inspo
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inspo
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inspo
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Laser Cut File
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inistial illustrator file of things
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REFINEMENT Once I had my concept flushed out I needed to make the pieces that would be used in my activity. I am well versed with the laser cut machine so I thought the best way to get clean crisp lines was the use that to create my pieces. I then needed to work on how the type and images would fit on the unusually shaped pieces. I decided to include guide like pieces of different patterns in order for kids to identify what they were seeing. Initially I had them as images but I soon discovered that this was not working. I then made them into vector drawings that blended into the environment of a rainforest. I worked hard to determine where to place the text on my pieces and determined that it needed to be placed towards the bottom and centered. I worked hard to make my identification system easy to understand.
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notes agin
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notes agin
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notes
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illustrator file
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illustrtor
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illustrator
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final image
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final collage image
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CRITICISM The one main criticism that I got was that my users did not really know where to start in the activity. My instructions pieces were the same size as the identification pieces but a different color. I thought that this would be enough for someone to tell the difference but I guess not. I plan on creating some sort of hierarchy where a user can know where to start the activity. I got good feedback on my craft which I am very proud of. This time around the sticker paper I ordered for my first project that hindered me actually helped me this time around. I also got praise for how I included an element of design in a project. Overall I feel as though this project went better than expected. I have been able to grow this semester and I believe that my last two projects have turned out way better than my first two.
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