Rational Remix is a collection of my work during my MA degree journey at the Academy of Art University. The title expresses the design philosophy underlying my graphic design process.
In my opinion, design is a process of ideation, planning, and visualization. Moreover, design is a functional art as well as a rational problem-solving method.
A song can be transformed through the process of remixing. Adding or subtracting notes and beats, or simply changing such elements as the intensity, pitch, speed, or length, can take a song in a whole new direction.
For me, a designer is also a remixer of sorts, rearranging and creating new visual elements by using one’s expertise to create new designs.
PROJECT 01 Page - 010
Meta 2020 Sustainability Report
PROJECT 02 Page - 028
ASD ART Brand project design
PROJECT 03 Page - 088
ROXIE Theater Website & App Design
PROJECT 04 Page - 118
Color & Light Book Redesign typography
[Re] Connect Conference Visual Design
PROJECT 05 Page - 134 Detective Series Book Cover Design
PROJECT 06 Page - 164
PROXIMA NOVA Type Specimen Promotion
PROJECT 07 Page - 172
Sustainability Reports are intended to give shareholders, investors, and other interested people information about the company’s activities and sustainability process. This project is focused on the 2020 Sustainability Report of Meta. The goal of this project is to provide an entertaining solution and present information through photos, illustrations, data visualization, color, and typography. The report design will feature a visually stunning cover and book, with strong typography, and beautiful data visualizations that make it a joy to flip through.
I chose to reevaluate the brand image and philosophy after Facebook was renamed Meta. My design combines monochrome graphics and laser organic graphics to build a bridge between the digital world and the real world. Digitally designed works can convey to the audience a sense of technology and inspire imagination about the future.
ASD ART is a service brand that provides art content to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to improve their communication and social skills. Creating art also provides a way for children with autism to improve their general self-concept and give them a sense of independence. The art fits naturally with this target group in that it can help those with autism express themselves through images while also providing a soothing activity.
Activities: The brand organizes art activities, giving autistic children the opportunity to interact with new friends through art or crafts in a comfortable and gentle environment ; Channel: Media channel showcasing the content of handmade art tutorials. Children and parents with autism can learn some special art-making methods from videos and practice simple communication and cooperation skills; Product: Emotion cards contain different feelings and emotions, help children understand emotions, and express emotions effectively
I wanted to build the brand's logo around a symbol that refers to both autistic people and art.
The half-open door represents the feeling that people with autism are open and willing to communicate with others.
One side of the door frame becomes a brush pattern, with the shape of the brush being dragged across to convey that art helps open the minds of people with autism.
The services provided by ASD ART not only treat the mental health of children with autism but also provide opportunities for children with autism to integrate into society, which can give them some hope for their future and their families.
ASD ART services enable the creativity of children with autism, and children with autism often have an advantage when it comes to the arts. Many were gifted in painting, music and even drama.
As a service organization for autism children, brand positioning is friendly and warm.
ASD ART should convey a sense of hope and kindness. This brand is for children with autism. I chose pink for a warm feel to balance the soft nude. For the font, I chose sans serif for a friendly and creative, and modern feel. Use some lines and organic shapes as graphic elements.
The concept of the poster series for ASD ART brand is to use the silhouette of a child in a bottle and the negative space to represent a small child with autism. The yellow design element represents art. On the first poster, the yellow cup microphone is connected from the bottle to the outside of the bottle, representing art is helping autistic children communicate. Art is the medium of communication for autistic children.
The same concept of negative space, in the second poster, with the child in the bottle trying to go out and the child at the top of the bottle reaching out to help him, represents art is helping children with autism build friendships. Art is the bridge of friendship for autistic children.
In the third poster, a child in a bottle holding a yellow balloon is flying out of the bottle. The yellow balloon represents art, through which children with autism can actively express themselves while expressing their emotions and thoughts. Art is a window for the emotions of children with autism.
Many children with autism are visual learners, meaning that they learn best using images and graphic organizers. To teach these kids emotion recognition, it can help to work with flashcards that show faces and body language typically associated with specific emotions.
ASD ART presents Emotion cards containing different feelings and emotions, helping children understand different emotions, and allowing children to express emotions effectively. 8.9 x 5.8cm Flashcards with the 12 different feelings and emotions so a kid can communicate effectively.
BUILD CONFIDENCE: flashcards will be a great aid to help the user express themselves to communicate their different feelings and emotions.
SPEECH THERAPY: My Feelings and Emotions Flash Cards are a great aid to help with speech therapy and communication development.
NEVER LOOSE CARDS: with your My Feelings and Emotions flashcard set you to get a Ring to keep cards together, and tidy, and to prevent them from being lost.
ASD ART has divided the usage into three levels and designed some games for parents to play with their children.
ASD ART has a Youtube media channel showcasing the content of handmade art tutorials. Children and parents with autism can learn some special art-making methods from videos and practice simple communication and cooperation skills with their children at home.
ASD ART organizes autistic children and parents to participate in activities, giving autistic children the opportunity to interact with new friends through art or crafts in a comfortable and gentle environment.
Wash hand area
Activity point 3 Video area
Activity point 2
Event are entrance
Sign in and Get activity ID card:
The staff will give parents and child a new activity ID at the entrance, and the child can write his or her name in the blank. This will make it easier for the staff at the activity site to call the child by his or her name and for other children to be invited to join the activity.
Children will receive bonus stickers after participating in activities and completing games at activity points. If the child invites other children to join the game, he or she will get double the stickers.
Children can return to the entrance and use their activity ID card with six reward stickers to exchange for a mystery gift Bag.
Activity rules: There is a place to collect stickers on the back of the activity ID card.
Staff says words for different emotions and children make expressions with playdough on Playdough Face Mats. Successful production will complete the activity and receive ONE bonus sticker.
Your child can invite other children to play. Double the reward if two children make the playdough face expressions together.
Playdough Face Mats
At Activity Point 1, parents can pick up a folded brochure card. The benefits of playdough games for children with ASD are introduced on folded. As well as some examples, parents can have guided communication with their children during the game.
CONTENT OF FOLDED
BROCHURE CARDHappy is always the easiest to start with. The eyebrows and up but not too far up, and the mouth is a smile. Remember to also connect with how their body feels when they are happy.
When sad the eyebrows go down at the sides and the mouth is down at the corners. Discuss how their head may hang low, they may not look at people and their body may feel heavy.
Can change a sad face to an angry face by simply changing the eyebrows. Just by making them go in towards the nose changes the whole emotion.
Worried has the same shape eyebrows as sad but higher up.
Surprised has high eyebrows and not usually a sad mouth but often an open mouth or happy. How the body feels scared worried and surprised are very different too.
Scared, worried, and surprised are often confused. However you can show how when we are scared, the eyebrows are high and the mouth can be like a sad mouth.
During the activity, Parents can talk to the children to help them learn better and understand facial expressions, which are critical to the success of social interactions. This game teaches children how to express different emotions using a combination of three areas: eyes, eyebrows, and mouth.
Practicing
Learning to recognize emotions through our facial expressions (nonverbal communication) is an important part of our social and emotional development. These face mats, labeled with different moods and feelings, can be a fun addition to your kids’ or students’ emotional activities
Playing with playdough is an effective calm-down activity that kids can turn to when feeling overwhelmed by big emotions. And, as an added bonus, these mats portray different moods, so they are a very relevant selfregulation activity.
This activity can help as a conversation starter to discuss feelings and emotions.
For example: “Let’s make a sad face. How do you know this kid is sad. How do the eyes look? And the mouth? What about the eyebrows? Why do you think this kid may be sad? Can you remember when the last time you felt that way was? Why did you feel sad?”
Strengthens fingers and hand muscles
Improves dexterity (which will help purposes like writing and drawing)
It helps practice hand-eye coordination
Fosters creativity
The staff randomly draws cards and hands them to the children in a messy order. If the child can arrange the cards in the correct order, he/she successfully completes the game. TWO bonuses stickers are awarded.
Your child can invite other children to play. If two children complete the game together, the reward is doubled.
Front
Back
The sequencing game is a program that teaches children to sequence a series (e.g., numbers and letters) and the steps of an event. For beginning ASD children, it starts with putting the numbers or letters in the correct order. Then move towards visual sequencing, i.e. watch and then sequencing of daily routine.
The staff can disorganize cards, back side up. The cards are then randomly selected for the children to arrange the order.
At Activity Point 2, parents can pick up postcards. The benefits and assistance of Sequencing Game for children with ASD are described above. Consider that It might be difficult to brainstorm a variety of materials for the sequencing program. ASD ART also provides some ideas and directions that are helpful to parents to prepare materials for sequencing games.
The child sits across from the staff. The child watches the staff make a 3D model of a cardboard house. At the end of the observation, the staff member asks the child which side of the house he or she (the staff member) can see, and the child picks from four cards. If the selection is correct, the game is completed and the child receives THREE bonuses stickers.
The child sits across from the staff. The child watches the staff make a 3D model of a cardboard house. At the end of the observation, the staff member asks the child which side of the house he or she (the staff member) can see, and the child picks from four cards. If the child gives an incorrect response. Ask him/her to come to the staff position and identify what can be seen on the staff side. Ask the child to go back to his/her original place and ask the other-perception question
The child will learn to judge what he can see and what others can see. The child should understand the way another person sees things in physical space. Even when people are looking at the same object, we do not always see the same picture as what we see is depended on our positions.
Exercise children's observation ability when the staff builds the carboard house model;Exercise children's visual perspective and spatial imagination; Exercise the child's communication skills, receive and answer information. Ask the child to go back to his/her original place and ask the otherperception question. No matter whether the child gives a correct or incorrect answer. It is always good to explain the principle to him/her that people do not always see the same thing.
ASD ART also provides blank cardboard materials for parents to pick up at Activity Point 2. Parents can make them with their children when they get home.
The Roxie Theater is a non-profit community arthouse cinema. It is a San Francisco landmark in the Mission District that brings people together to meet and connect through distinctive cinematic experiences. The improved website needs to be well organized, with a clear hierarchy, and easy for the audiences to use. In the end, it can bring more users to the theater and more opportunities for independent filmmakers to show their work.
Based on the theater’s history, content, and positioning, redesign a more engaging and user-friendly theater website and app to increase the theater’s attention, audience, members, and subscriptions.
I picked a book of choosing to redesign: Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter, Author is James Gurney. A researched study on two of art’s most fundamental themes, Color and Light bridge the gap between abstract theory and practical knowledge. Although this book has excellent painting works and really practical art knowledge, I think there are still some typographical problems.
The redesigned book has an obvious and better-designed style. It will not be as clichéd as the art teaching books common on the market. The typographic design will be more layered and more convenient to the audience’s reading, while also attracting consumers.
Information Architecture Conference 2022 (IAC22) is the 23rd edition of the annual premiere IA conference. It’s one of the leading conferences for information architects, designers, and others who create and manage UI and information environments. The theme is [Re]Connect, and will cover topics: [Re]invent ways of doing our work. [Re]invigorate the practice. [Re]charge the community. [Re]vise our perspectives on information architecture.
GR 619 Type Composition COURSE
John Nettleton INSTRUCTOR Fall 2021 SEMESTER
Design a series of three book covers—which includes the front, spine, and back, to represent a reissue from a publisher. These books will be different enough to reflect their features themselves and have some grounding elements to tie them all together. The final design will easily convey information and ideas to readers and provide an effective visual effect.
I picked detective or crime fiction. If layout design elements are part of the job of a typographer, then the layout of the story is the job of the detective novelist. This is a genre in which the mystery of the story is solved through logic and deductive reasoning (typically, to identify the murderer). Members of this target audience are typically very logical, like solving puzzles, and are curious, diverse, and rational. Readers fall within a large age range, mainly from teenagers to middle-aged people, but this is not a popular genre for young readers.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in Graham's Magazine in 1841. It has been described as the first modern detective story. C. Auguste Dupin is a detective in Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women. As the first fictional detective, Poe's Dupin displays many traits which became literary conventions in subsequent fictional detectives, many later characters, follow Poe's model of the brilliant detective.
A Study in Scarlet is an 1887 detective novel written by Arthur Conan Doyle. The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become the most famous detective duo in popular fiction. There was a homicide in a suburban villa. The victim fell in a pool of blood, but there was no wound to be found on his body. The word "RACHE" was left on the wall. Holmes inferred the characteristics of the murderer based on the on-site information and started with various detailed pieces of clues to solve the case.
Murder on the Orient Express is a work of detective fiction by English writer Agatha Christie featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The elegant train of the 1930s, the Orient Express, is stopped by heavy snowfall. A murder is discovered, and Poirot's trip home to London from the Middle East is interrupted to solve the case. Poirot is one of the most famous detective characters.
OBJECTIVE
Type foundries deliver promotional materials when they release new typefaces. Develop an engaging type promotion that includes a type specimen. This must appeal to graphic designers and a type-savvy audience.
As with every major project, I started with a creative brief; however, I had more freedom to develop content. The format could be anything from a multi-page promotional brochure to a poster that unfolds, and I chose to design a website. Most importantly, I wanted to make this piece fun and engaging; my goal was to make the typeface sing, show its proper usage, and illustrate its appeal.
To my family, thank you for your love and support. I hope that I am your pride and joy.
To my instructors, Mary Scott, David Hake, Hunter Wimmer, John Nettleton, Sandra Isla, and Jason Mitchell. Thank you for your teaching, for your timely guidance, for helping me overcome my difficulties and doubts during the design process, and for your many helpful suggestions for improvement.
To my friends, thank you for your companionship and help, both onsite and online. We all learned from each other during our time at the AAU, helped each other out, and had an enjoyable and unforgettable time together.
To my grandmother, I will always miss you and love you.
Yixin Zeng CONTACT +19173789622 yixinzeng@outlook.com yixinzeng.design@gmail.com