PROCESS graphic design: 451 JEANNIE LUTZ FALL 2012
HOW TO READ THIS BOOK Welcome to my process book, documenting my work in Graphic Design 451: Branding. This book includes my thoughts, reflections, research, ideas, concepts, project iterations, critique, and a lot more. Don’t feel like you must read every little bit of content in this guy, as you’d be reading for quite a while. Flip through it, and read about whatever catches your eye. Or by all means, read the whole thing, whatever you fancy.
THE KEY
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Reflection Question or Thought As I work, I try and document any questions or thoughts that run through my head. Doing this allows me to have jumping off points if I am stuck and then can come back to it later. It also helps me to be very thorough while researching. Tweet-tastic. Fall 2012
Select Tweets You get a little insight into my Twitter feed. Throughout this book, I have included mostly tweets that were sent while working on design.
WHAT I LOOK LIKE AT 5 AM If you ever decide you want to collect a bunch of really unattractive photos of yourself looking at your computer screen, Lifeslice is for you. The program (well really, it is a collection of scripts) is described as being used by the developer as, “how I use my webcam to spy on myself.” http://wanderingstan.com/lifeslice
OCTOBER 31
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NOVEMBER 7
DECEMBER 6
»PROJECT ONE POETICS OF SPACE
MARINA CITY
PROJECT BRIEF
This is a seven week project that will require you to design a full identity system and a comprehensive graphic object of your choice (to go along with your solution) depending on your concept for one the buildings listed. You need to start this project by doing some in depth research on your building.
9 I just need sleep. Aug 22, 2012
Why Marina City? I chose Marina City for two reasons. Firstly, I had a trip to Chicago already on the books. I figured that seeing it in person would be an extra layer of research that could really benefit my project. Secondly, I thought the idea of a city within a city was fascinating, although, I didn’t really understand what that meant yet.
One class and then I can relax at work. Coffee makin’ Aug 22, 2012
If anything, today I will be productive. #run #homework #beerandpizzawithfamily Aug 26, 2012
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I started my research as I always do, by consulting Google. I looked at images, read a bit about it, and then looked at directions from my hotel that I was staying at in Chicago the next weekend and Marina City. It was a straight shot and only an 8 minute walk from my hotel!
RESEARCH
The Architect: Bertrand Goldberg Bertrand Goldberg designed Marina City in 1959, and it was completed in 1964. He was born in 1913 in Chicago and died there in 1997. He had training from many institutions, including two years at Harvard which he left to study at the Bauhaus in Berlin. He had strong interests in finding solutions to meet individual problems, and came up with answers that had unique character and were innovative. His early designs (residential) were highly personal and attentive to individual spacial needs. In the thirty years after Marina City, his work followed his deep interest in education and healthcare by designing (and building) numerous schools and hospitals. “Marina City was never a contemporary style of building in my mind. It was a development, a technological... and aesthetic wringing out of a concept which had a considerable amount of reason for it’s existence.” -Goldberg. The experimental complex was financed by unions who feared that the outflow of people from the cities in the early sixties would lead to a decrease in jobs. Marina city would give an alternative to the villages and small towns, offering everything in a small area.
So does this mean that his main goal was to have form follow function?
What exactly was the problem that he was trying to solve by creating this city within a city?
How does a resident arrange their furniture? I wonder if that would be weird to live in a building with few right angles, as I am very used to living somewhere with only right angles.
Photos from Craigslist and retail postings of condos for sale.
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What is Marina City Like Today? As a pioneering mixed-use property with important multifamily residential, commercial and recreational components, Marina City does indeed continue to inspire developers and designers for whom sustainability is a key goal. “It was one of the most complex urban projects ever built,” Goldberg noted. “It was, in its time, the highest apartment towers in the city, the densest development, and the first mixed-use complex in Chicago [in decades]. It was the first to bring housing downtown. It was Chicago’s first planned development–Number One on city block Number One.” [-MHN Online] However, some things have changed. For example, the movie theatre is now The House of Blues concert hall. Marina City houses Sax Hotel, as well as an upscale bowling alley, a bank, and restaurants Bin 36, Smith and Wollensky, and Dick’s Last Resort. The ice skating rink was demolished in order to give pedestrian and vehicular access to the residential towers. The raised common plaza was also redesigned. In 2006, decorative lighting was installed around the circular roofs of the mechanical sheds that top each tower.
“I want you to be @amytangerine when you grow up” -my mom Aug 30, 2012
I can’t wait until people stop coming to class and I can actually find parking. Aug 28, 2012
Designing for the Greater Good
Why the Circle?
“My kind of architect is a part of society—a designer, yes... but also an inventor and a knower of his people.”1
The towers were the first circular apartment buildings in history. And Goldberg’s choice in the circle was based on more than just aesthetics. The circle gave the highest ratio of usable floor space to exterior skin. And to Goldberg the circle offered still something more. He once said, “(I) wanted to get people out of boxes, which are really psychological slums . . . those long hallways with scores of doors opening anonymously are inhuman. Each person should retain his relation to the core. It should be the relation of the branch to the tree, rather than that of the cell to the honeycomb.”3
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What Goldberg said about living in boxes is interesting, because Can and I spoke about how strange it would be to live in a place without right angles. We are so accustomed to right angles. Would you feel uncomfortable? Or like Goldberg suggests, would we feel more human and connected? Would we be more at home in a circular structure? Or if that were the case, would it even apply since we would be living in a portion of the circle and not the whole thing, as in would the piece of the pie apartment still translate into that humanistic view?
16 Marina City: Bertrand Goldberg’s Urban Vision4
Pink dots denote talking points for the presentation I gave to the class on Marina City.
“Jeannie you look tired.� ... Thank you? Sep 02, 2012
Seeing Marina City in Person
i have a ton to do this morning, but all i can think about is 7:30 is when einstein’s opens and DAMN i need a santa fe wrap Sep 04, 2012
IDEATE 25
We had an in class workshop aiming to come up with a typeface for our building. The idea was that it could eventually be used in a logo (if we decided that what we came up with was applicable). I was inspired by a lot of the geometric examples we were given, and decided to try and make a grid out of the floor plan of the residential floor of Marina City. Grids are usually made of right angles, and I wanted to see what a grid with no right angles would look like.
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I printed a few sheets of this grid/pattern out and created letter forms out of it. However, Can and I felt that they looked a little to Gothic like thanks to the weird triangles that many of the letter forms used as terminals. I liked how they overlapped, but felt that it would be too intricate of a grid for it to then read back that it was created in a custom grid. I threw it in a letter form just for kicks. I knew that I would not like it. I’m glad I did it, because I cam back to it later on. I needed a new direction, so I looked through the photos that I took in Chicago.
In this one, I noticed the layering of the floors. When looking almost straight up at the building, it looks almost as if each residential floor is just a little thin layer of something, like paper, pressed right up against the next. It reminded me almost of paper flowers in that layering way.
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I also was influenced by the photos of the water by the marina. Could I bring that into my typeface? I was thinking that the layering shows what it would look like looking up at the building, the water color would mimic the water below, and that layering would play another role in that it mimics the waves in the reflection of the building in the water below. Why not bring in all three: the cool geometric floor plans, the layering effect, and the water. I really liked how this turned out, in and of itself. I love that the counters of the letter mimic the shape of the towers. I like the rounded layering at the top of the letter, no matter how subtle, and I like the layer of geometric lines to represent that interesting floor plan. Feedback from Critique:
•• Try the grid as a background rather than a layer in the M. •• Try making the balcony scallop into the M and C place the logo •• •• ••
in a scalloped shape, elongate the M (it is too short and fat, needs to be long and tall). Try using the M to represent the outside of the structure and the C as the inside of the structure. Use the negative space around the buildings jutting up in the sky as an M. Look at Pur’s logo for inspiration.
GENERATE
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FEEDBACK
Critique 9/12
•• The M’s in circles, or even a circle shape (scalloped circle) looks •• ••
•• •• ••
like an M&M. The image with the towers making an M with the negative space seems interesting. It lends itself to the perspective from the street. Photo aspect could be taken out, and could create an interesting form. It could be flexible with the time of day. Different typeface, maybe an even taller, more condensed ‘M’ might make the negative space seem more building-like. The buildings could be closer together, see them as a whole, rather than the negative space of the M. Do something to the white space to show that I am illustrating the building. Bring something from the architecture into the white space. The solution of the C with the M and negative space of the buildings could be interesting. Remove the dip from the m, and have it match exactly with the scallop. It could abstract the M a little bit, and reference the architecture a bit more. Floor plan is an interesting pattern, but it is of a secondary importance; the architecture on the outside is more important. The floor plan pattern probably shouldn’t be used in the logo because it’s not a crucial aspect of the building, but could be used in the whole identity system as a graphic treatment. The roundness on top, and the building is so structured, it already says enough without using the floor plan.
I like the idea of using the floor plan pattern as a part of the graphic treatment to the identity system as a whole, but not in the logo. It seems like I was trying to convey too many aspects of the building at once, and didn’t fully convey any of them well. I think I need to focus on one main aspect, and let that guide my design.
My Brentwood hoodie just got called out. I really need some new sweatshirts. Sep 13, 2012
IDEATE 35
Initial Proposal Ideas Something that I noticed when visiting Marina City was that it was very visitor unfriendly. It was difficult to find where to enter. The “museum� part was dark and uninviting. I think that whatever I do to enhance this building with my identity design should be to aid visitors in exploring and learning about the building and its history. I could create a mobile app that acts as a visitor’s tour guide to the building. It could inform the user about the building and simultaneously walk them around the areas that are open to visitors. I could create a virtual tour of the inside of the residential area of the building, since it is so unfriendly to visitors. I just am progressively getting more and more awkward. Sep 13, 2012
I could create a poster or handout for parts of Marina City that do attract visitors (i.e. House of Blues) about the rest of the complex. I think it would be easy to go to one of the restaurants or House of Blues without even realizing that it is part of something bigger.
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More Proposal Ideas What if I created an event that toured people through two condos, one as it would have been when it was first built, and one that is of modern appearance. It would teach people about the history of the building and the history of Bertrand Goldberg. That would be a lot more informational and educational to the people participating. However, a mobile app would have the potential to meet a larger audience.
The House of Blues is still a pretty popular venue in Chicago. When the tour takes you through the House of Blues and tells the normal history and such, it could have an option to purchase tickets for the House of Blues concerts, showing the next five or more upcoming artists.
So if I did stick with a mobile app, what would I want it to do? I would want it to act like a tour guide through Marina City, but that would allow the user to start the guide at any point of MC, pause it, skip a part, or resume the tour at any location in the complex. (It would need to use GPS to cue the guide points; it would be geocoded.) I would want it to be able to provide a background history at the user’s request about certain parts of the complex. It could show surrounding areas of interest (in a map) and give a list of the top food choices in walking distances. It could also include a Scavenger Hunt, making the tour fun for kids or uninterested adults alike.
Actual quote from my reading: “Futura should be used in a minimalistic, very cool way.” …ha? Sep 17, 2012
RESEARCH
There aren’t very many good tour guide travel apps out there! Everything that I’ve seen so far is either very user unfriendly, or simply keeps track of the places of interest you log that you want to see (A.K.A. a list). GeoTravel has an app that you can watch a little video on. However, once you download the app, it is hard to tell if you like it enough to actually buy a guide.
MobilyTrip (as shown below) is an app that seems its primary use is journaling as you travel. However, they claim to have guides. After the 10 minutes it took to download the guide of Chicago, I opened it and was presently surprised. It is well organized and nicely designed. It would be cool to have the images that are used be a mix of professional images and user images that have used the app and allowed their privacy settings to share their photos. Also, the app pulls information from wikipedia, but does not read it to you. (I was confused at why there is a play button if it does not have this feature.)
FEEDBACK 39
Individual Meetings During a meeting with Can, we talked about moving back towards the older versions, like the M&M looking one, with the M in the center of the circle. He mentioned that the M has a presence, and is perfect to incorporate the buildings, and maybe to eliminate the perspective.
Wish I had a shirt that said, “it’s ok. I’m an art student” especially for days like this when I’m laying on the concrete to take a picture Sep 20, 2012
Or “don’t even worry about it... It’s an art project” #tshirtideas Sep 20, 2012
GENERATE
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The Mobile App I spoke with Can about the idea of the mobile app. He liked the idea and that it was derived from my actual experience at MC. We talked about creating a replication of the apartment being a part of the tour guide. Also, that the guide can be really history based, since that is what I was interested in. It can be almost like an art museum guide. It can bring in information about the architecture and the architect himself. It can be really intellectual, and get people really interested in the building. The scavenger hunt can operate under the same system, creating two different experiences under one. So the kids experience one half of the app and building, and the parents the other. It could then create dialogue between the two parties. One thing that Can said about the scavenger hunt that I hadn’t thought about was simply adding a point system for the kids. That is something easy to include that would make it even more like a game. The app could keep them entertained, while simultaneously educating.
Self, you have so much to do tomorrow. Go finish your dang HW so tomorrow doesn’t suck so bad. Aka so you don’t have to get up at 5am. Sep 23, 2012
GENERATE 44
I started out figuring out the functionality and usability of my app by walking through the steps mentally and taking notes.
App Wireframe
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Lets be real here... Who actually uses QR codes? Sep 26, 2012
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Marina City iPhone App
Version One
I think I’m witnessing bird rape right now. #artbuilding #utk Sep 30, 2012
FEEDBACK 55
App Critique
Logo Critique
•• Screen of interest points: menu of icons to skip through, if the •• Logo is pretty close as it is. •• Layering concept, good reference to the building. user didn’t want to do it linearly. •• Scavenger Hunt: levels of difficulty? Or make more game like? •• Towers in the M, good. •• Color scheme? Unlock levels? Rounds? •• Consider the app for people living there as well. Creating a •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• ••
community within the app. GPS tracker map that checks off sites on the map that you have already visited. Gallery section for people in the tour, where users can post their photos of MC. Flexible logo on first screen, where the user’s uploaded photo can shine through the logo. User could upload photos to pertain to the scavenger hunt, and the users can generate the scavenger hunt. “Hey I found this sign, can you find it?” Challenge: make it usable to natives, make it reusable. Broaden spectrum of app. Idea of splash page with logo: no one likes splash pages, but it could be first menu screen. Background of app: color scheme. Too desert-y. Maybe try slightly different tints? Different hues? Substitute check marks in scavenger hunt for logo?
Coffee coffee coffee. #faffeine as the dodes likes to say. Sep 30, 2012
GENERATE
I like the idea of creating a community for MC. However, would this really be that useful as an app? It seems like it might be more useful as a Facebook group, message board, or website. It seems like creating such a niche social media would be more useful to just utilize an existing large social media.
I also understand the comment about this app being a one use deal. People don’t like downloading an app that they will only use once. However, I know that if it was usable and created an experience that I personally would do it. In fact, I have done it. I really like the ideas of the gallery section, and the map of the complex with points of interest notated. Does this mean I would need to actually map out the points of this tour? I feel like there really isn’t enough online to create all of the content that would require. I might just have to create a theoretical map. On that line of thought, do I need to create all of the items in the scavenger hunt? (I will address these questions with Can on Monday.)
This is what I came up with in response to my critique. I started out by trying to just make the screens, but I was running into so many usability problems, that I went back to wire framing the new screens first.
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I tried to address the background, and Anna suggested trying an image of the side of the building. This probably isn’t quite what she was imagining, and it definitely didn’t work out. I then tried a subtle textured gray. I felt like it looked too cold and industrial. I was really happy with how the bottom menu turned out. I changed the gallery icon (after doing the wire frame) to layered poloriods to match the other icons a bit more.
Couple hours of sleep, and going into an all nighter. Wish me luck. #caffeine Oct 02, 2012
In the last 46 hrs I’ve slept 4 of them. Oct 03, 2012
Testing Out Different Backgrounds
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Screen Shots of Current Maps of Marina City
Working on the Map/Non-Linear Tour Screen
Edited Versions of My Photos for Example Photos in the Gallery I used a free psd resource5 of all of the Instagram filters. A little cross processing always makes photos look a little more enticing.
@JulianSmithTV a guy’s phone started ringing in the art building at UT. “I MADE THIS FO...” And then he picked it up. Oct 03, 2012
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I created a window version of my logo for the featured photo of the month to be posted on Facebook.
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Facebook Page I created the facebook page. Instead of mocking one up, I just actually created one. So it still exists on Facebook. www.facebook.com/MarinaCityChicago
67 The Finished Logo
Ostrich sans Rounded Medium Ostrich sans Black
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CMYK
RGB
90 53 48 18
26 94 108
73 25 37 1
69 150 156
45 3 25 0
138 202 196
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Content
RT @emmamesk: Try to peek at design teacher’s notes, oh, they’re in turkish. Oct 03, 2012
About Marina City: Marina City is an iconic residential complex in Chicago, Illinois designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg. He was an innovative architect, with strong interests in individual solutions, betterment and the good of the community, and social spaces. The complex was designed in 1959 and completed in 1964. It consists of two corncob-shaped towers, The House of Blues, Sax Hotel, a bowling alley, a bank, a few restaurants, and a Marina. The towers are 65 stories which come to 587 feet tall, and at the time they were built, they were the tallest residential buildings in the world. The complex was built to be a city within a city, and originally housed a theater, swimming pool, ice skating rink, gym, bowling alley, restaurants, and stores as well as the marina. As you can tell, these amenities have changed and updated as the years have passed. Originally, Goldberg designed the buildings to solve the problem of people moving out of the city into the suburbs. Chicago was becoming desolate. So he created this ‘city within a city’ that included everything you really would need, including your office in the 16-story office building. It really was all about convenience, housing a “teleview teller” near the tunnel to the office building, which was the 1960s version of an ATM, allowing the user to see the teller at Marina City Bank on closed-circuit television.
The House of Blues: The original building in which the House of Blues now resides was the Movie Theater, which really wasn’t being used. The House of Blues is a chain of 13 live music concert halls and restaurants. The first location, in Massachusetts, was opened in 1992 by Isaac Tigrett and Dan Aykroyd. After opening two more locations, the Marina City location was opened in 1996. Tigrett commented on the Chicago location saying, “Chicago is culturally behind the blues, and it’s an honor to be bringing something that people here love so much. We have to be careful to create something that people will be proud of.”
Possible App Updates Scavenger Hunt Challenge Addition of more history and facts Nearby places of interest
“This was the city where blues got plugged in,” Aykroyd told the Chicago Tribune. “It became electric here in Chicago. And we’re going to electrify the city with this.” And that it did, housing musicians such as Kid Rock, Guns N’ Roses, Boys II Men, and BB King. Upcoming concerts include Motion City Soundtrack, All Time Low, Citizen Cope, Jake Owen, The Starting Line and Sister Hazel. 61 hrs. Still only 4 hrs of sleep within those 61. Sushi needs to get in my belly and then I will be asleep for days. Oct 03, 2012
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Identity Project One Final Proposal Background I chose Marina City solely on the fact that I would be visiting Chicago early on in the project. I was hoping that seeing the building in person would give me connections that I might not have gotten otherwise. During my research, I became really fascinated in the architect and the way he designed the buildings. Every little detail was thought out, and every choice was made for a specific reason, not just arbitrarily or based on cost effectiveness. Goals Create a logo that is more representative of the building than their current logo. Create it with no right angles to mimic the inside floor plan of the residential floors of the towers. Create it to feel somewhat airy, to show that natural light flowing in from the big outer windows. It can speak to the height of the sky scrapers and the river below it.
Solution I chose to do a layered, elongated ‘m’ as the icon for the logo. The Counter Form The counter form of the ‘m’ offers a nice elongated shape which references back to those two towers, the most prominent part of the complex. The Rounded Layers The rounded layers emanating from the ‘m’ have a dual meaning. Firstly, they give another visual remark to the look of the petal shaped balconies. When looking up at them from the street they start to just look like little slivers butted up next to the one below it. The other thing that the layers comment on is the look from the building down. It is on the Chicago River, and I felt that these layers alluded to the ripples of the water below.
Application Project One Final Proposal Background Visiting Marina City myself gave me a perspective that I would not have had otherwise. I realized that the complex is very visitor unfriendly. It is difficult to navigate through the complex, hard to know what areas are visitor-friendly, and it gives almost no history or information about the building. Goals Create a mobile application to aid visitors in touring Marina City. Solution I chose to make an iPhone application which functions as a virtual tour of Marina City. The Tour The tour provides the user with information about the different parts of Marina City as well as its history, while also navigating them through the complex (aided by GPS tracking).
The Options The actual navigation of the complex can be done in a linear fashion in the tour, or the users can skip around from one point to another. Users can choose to include additional history about each point of interest and information about the architect on the tour. They can also choose to utilize an audio component, which would eliminate the need for the user to read the information on the screen, allowing their eyes to be free to explore the points of interest. The Features The Marina City Guide App has two additional features, aimed to make the tour a little more fun for the whole family. Throughout the tour, users can take geo-tagged photos and share them to the app’s gallery. They can also browse the photos in the gallery and “like” their favorites. Each month, the “most-liked” photograph in each point of interest is used as the featured photo for that screen of the tour. The other feature is mainly geared for the younger audiences touring the complex. It is a scavenger hunt that they can simultaneously participate in while touring the complex. The idea is to engage the whole family, even if the child is not interested in the history of the architecture of the building.
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References 1. http://www.academia.edu/1536041/The_Goldberg_Variation _On_Bertrand_Goldberg_Architecture_of_Invention_ 2. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=2f4ce d21-9b08-4220-8ce7-18141d3ed50d%40sessionmgr111&vid=1&hid=108&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=aft&AN=505391424 3. http://www.blueprintchicago.org/2011/01/21/marina-city/ 4. Marjanović, Igor, and Katerina Rüedi Ray. Marina City: Bertrand Goldberg’s Urban Vision. New York: Princeton Architectural, 2010. Print. 5. http://www.petapixel.com/2012/08/06/free-instagram -filters-for-photoshop/
Oh yay. I’m sick. Guess that’s what happens when you stay up for a million hours. Oct 04, 2012
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WHAT I LOOK LIKE AT 6 AM OCTOBER 29
OCTOBER 31
NOVEMBER 7
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NOVEMBER 12
DECEMBER 3
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»PROJECT TWO A1 [SELF BRANDING]
1. 2. 3. 4.
INTERVIEW MARK SELF-PORTRAIT STUDIO TOUR GUIDE
PROJECT BRIEF
In this project, we are going to explore various aspects of being a design student. Each class period will be used as a mini-workshop. This is a relatively short project and you will be working with a strict set of modular formats, so there should be lots and lots of visual exploration. Considering the time constraints, think within tools, processes, and methods instead of thinking within forms. Think flexibly. Keep in mind that everything you do with each step of the assignment will connect; you are not designing static forms, you are designing a visual toolbox.
GENERATE 85
A5: The Interview Jesse and I partnered up for the interview, and we decided to do ours over Facebook chat. It is convenient, plus that way it would be more of a conversation, and it would save our answers exactly as we said them. (In contrast to a conversation face to face, where we might not be able to transcribe the answers exactly.)
Jesse: Ok! Sorry about that! HELLO! Jeannie, what did you always want to be when you grew up?
Jeannie: I suppose for a while I wanted to be a singer. That dream was cut short pretty quickly when we got a karaoke machine and I realized I really can’t sing. So then I wanted to be an elementary school teacher.
Jesse: Haha! No, plenty of famous singers can’t sing! Not saying you can’t too or anything! But that’s awesome! Do you like kids or plan on having any in the future, if you don’t mind me asking?
Jeannie: Haha its an interview! I could always pull a whats his face and just not answer. I do like kids. I was a teacher’s assistant or something like that in 12th grade in a 4th grade classroom. That many 4th graders was like hell. I just didn’t have the patience. I do plan on having kids of my own, but I suppose time will just have to tell the details of that one!
year of college, before I started design.
Jesse: That’s awesome! And now you’re a senior in design with one more semester to go! So would you say you thoroughly enjoy design? Jeannie: I do. There are definitely parts I dislike. AKA spending hours and hours working on something that doesn’t turn out as I expect it to. Things like that.
Jesse: Ah yeah definitely! Sorry that was kind of a tough question, I was thinking about it right after I asked you! So, you enjoy design, but what do you dislike? Like seriously dislike? What would you definitely not want to have anything to do with? If you don’t mind me asking?
Jeannie: I hate hate hate coding. HATE. CODING. and creating typefaces.
Jesse: Hahaha! I don’t know if I could have the patience either! So what led you to design?
Jesse: Yea, I dont blame you! What’s your fav type face?
Jeannie: I was really into crafting. Scrapbooking in particular. I
Jeannie: I really like pretty much everything that Hoefler
started interning for a scrapbooking community/company. I then started designing sample projects for scrapbooking companies. They’d send me their product for free, I’d make scrapbooking layouts with them and post them online. My dad made the comment that I naturally had a good eye for balancing elements on a page. That led me to thinking about design. That was freshman
Jones has done. Sentinel, Archer, Gotham, Tungsten.
Jesse: Oh my goodness! Those are all typefaces I like! Ok, but stepping away from design for a sec, I’m gonna ask a few random questions if that’s ok!
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Jeannie: Perfect! I like those!
never buy it. because I can’t. stop. eating. it. ever.
Jesse: Awesome :D Ok! Alright, if you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Jesse: HAHAHAHA! That stuff sounds awesome! I need to try it! Ok, next question: do you like wal-mart?
Jeannie: Thats a good one!!! Understand someone’s true inten- Jeannie: God no. I go way far out of the way to go to Target tions in situations, yet at my will. aka i would have to “turn it on”
instead.
Jesse: Ooooo! Man, that’s an awesome power! Kinda like Mel Gibson in “What Women Want” except better, not just on women, and not a bad movie!
Jesse: ME TOO. I had to go last night, and just hated it and myself when I was there... Next question! What’s your favorite city?
Jeannie: haha
Jeannie: hahaha! Favorite city... i dont have one!
Jesse: I mean, maybe some people liked that movie. Just not me. Ok, next question: What is your biggest fear?
Jesse: That’s ok! Do you prefer the city or the country/wilderness/less people?
Jeannie: divorce.
Jeannie: haha this isn’t going to be the best answer either.
Jeannie: thats not entirely true. i guess its just loss of a love one, either through divorcing someone i thought to be forever, or by a family member dying. woah shit just got serious.
Jeannie: :) Jesse: Oh man, yea that could be very scary. Very serious, okay time for something else! What’s your favorite food! Jeannie: Blue Bell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream. I
I think each has its time. I like living in suburbs/small city. I wouldn’t want to live in a big city. too many people. too hard to get around. And i like the country at certain times too!
Jesse: Oooo! Good answer! Ok, sorry three more questions and I’ll wrap mine up! Sorry it’s taking so long! If you could get completely get rid of all social media, or just some of them, would you?
Jeannie: nope. i enjoy social media. I don’t enjoy how certain people use it. but typically I can just block them or something! ;-)
Jesse: Just this last one I miss counted! What’s youre favorite
website?
Jeannie: tylersherrill.com Jeannie: just kidding. my bf told me to say that Jesse: hahahahahaaha! I was just about to say, I’ve never been
Jeannie: In what environment do you work best on design work?
Jesse: In my room, at my desk, late at night! Jeannie: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
there! But thank you so much Jeannie!
Jeannie: i really like pinterest, but its getting old. old content. and now i’m used to the novelty of it. so I suppose we’ll have to see what the next big thing is. for now, still pinterest. or NPR. ;-)
Jesse: NPR is nice! Jeannie: What motivates you? Jesse: Time and pressure. A sense of urgency, as well as friends and loved ones!
Jeannie: What is your typical morning routine? Does it vary a
Jesse: I once drove to the beach to see Ashley on a school day! I got out of class, and she wanted me to go see a concert with her. She lives literally on the Atlantic coast and it was around 4 pm. I had a test the next morning at 10 am. I went, we got to the show, I didn’t even get to look at the ocean, even though I drove 850 miles, and I made it back and aced that test!!! Jeannie: What do you do when you feel uninspired? Jesse: Hmm, I hate it when that happens. I usually try to make the project fun, and look at cool examples on design websites such as booooooom or quipsologies!
lot? Or do you typically do the same thing every morning?
Jesse: My morning routine? It’s usually super boring! I mainly just wake up, brush my teeth, take a shower, put in my contacts, get dressed and head out! It’s usually super rushed! I want to work out, exercise, eat a healthy breakfast, and read the news every morning, but I don’t!
Jeannie: If money was not in the picture, would you still be in design school to be a designer? What is your absolute dream job?
Jesse: Yes! I still ask myself this question a lot! I enjoy doing something that changes! I enjoy creating! However, my dream job would be a paleontologist probably.
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Jeannie: Do you have any reoccuring dreams? dreams.
Jesse: The first comp. Actually creating some form I think is the best part of process! I need to work more on research and brainstorming I think. I usually have the hardest time getting started!
Jeannie: Do aliens exist? If so, are they friendly?
Jesse: Ok, and one more question for you: What’s your favorite
Jesse: No, not really. Not that I can think of. I forget a lot of my
Jesse: I’m not sure. I would like to think they are out there, and man, I hope they’re friendly, and if not I don’t want to find them. They shouldn’t have any reason to hate us!
Jeannie: What do you spend the most on in the grocery store? Jesse: Meat! I’m a butcher after all. Jeannie: What are your 5 favorites (anything)? Jesse: Pickles (food), The ocean (place), After Effects (program), Armadillo (animal), Amazon (Store)
Jeannie: Was an armadillo your Subject trans animal? if so, did you like them as much before? or how did subj trans change your view of armadillos?
Jesse: Actually no, armadillos were not my subject translation, sort of for that reason. I like them, and didn’t want to do so much work with them that I ended up despising them! Jeannie: What area of your process do you feel that aids you the most? And what part do you feel needs the most work?
program?
Jeannie: I typically like illustrator the best. however, i really wish all of the shortcuts were the same from one CS program to another.
Jesse: And thank you so much for answering my other question too! Any others I can help you with? Jeannie: haha thats awesome, nah you are good. now time for designing your stuff!! :D
I’m the only person in a+a today. Maybe that’s because it’s the Saturday of #FallBreak. #doublehomework Oct 13, 2012
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We had to lay out the interview in on an A5 paper size. I chose to use Hoefler Jones typefaces, since that is what Jesse had mentioned during the part of the interview where he was interviewing me. I also did his name big and vertical to reference some of his work. He usually does his name giant and then hyphenates his last name. However, with the layout, the hyphenation didn’t look too great, so I nixed that. I chose a soft orange-red color to add another level of hierarchy to the information. I tried to “highlight” the responses that seemed to characterize his personality. I always say that Jesse is the nicest person you will ever meet. (He really is.) And so these parts of the responses help characterize him to that and show a bit of his quirky nature. During class I realized we may have been only supposed to design this on one A5 sheet. That is what everyone else did. However I looked back at the brief and it didn’t specifically mention to only use one sheet. Maybe I got lucky in finding a loophole! I also printed this on a natural colored paper that has a light fleck in it.
Jesse Hawkins
an interview with
What motivates you? Time and pressure. A sense of urgency, as well as friends and loved ones!
What is your morning routine?
It’s usually super boring! I mainly just wake up, brush my teeth, take a shower, put in my contacts, get dressed and head out! It’s usually super rushed! I want to work out, exercise, eat a healthy breakfast, and read the news every morning, but I don’t!
In what environment do you work best on design? In my room, at my desk, late at night!
What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
interviewed by jeannie lutz
What do you do when you feel uninspired?
Hmm, I hate it when that happens. I usually try to make the project fun, and look at cool examples on design websites such as Booooooom or Quipsologies!
I once drove to the beach to see Ashley on a school day! I got out of class, and she wanted me to go see a concert with her. She lives literally on the Atlantic coast and it was around 4 pm. I had a test the next morning at 10 am. I went, we got to the show, I didn’t even get to look at the ocean, even though I drove 850 miles, and I made it back and aced that test!!!
Do you have any reoccuring dreams?
No, not really. Not that I can think of. I forget a lot of my dreams.
What do you spend the most on in the grocery store? If money was not in the picture, would you still be in Meat! I’m a butcher after all. design school to be a designer? What is your absolute dream job? What are your 5 favorites (anything)? Yes! I still ask myself this question a lot! I enjoy doing something that changes! I enjoy creating! However, my dream job would be a paleontologist probably.
Do aliens exist?
If so, are they friendly? I’m not sure. I would like to think they are out there, and man, I hope they’re friendly, and if not I don’t want to find them. They shouldn’t have any reason to hate us!
Pickles (food), The ocean (place), After Effects (program), Armadillo (animal), Amazon (store).
Was an armadillo your Subject Translation animal?
Actually no, armadillos were not my subject translation, sort of for that reason. I like them, and didn’t want to do so much work with them that I ended up despising them!
What area of your process do you feel that aids you the most? And what part do you feel needs the most work? The first comp. Actually creating some form I think is the best part of process! I need to work more on research and brainstorming I think. I usually have the hardest time getting started!
IDEATE
A4: The Mark To start brain storming my mark, I mind mapped thoughts regarding being a design student. Do note, that under the “How I feel about my work and style� category, many of the thoughts seem negative. I do like most of my final work that I create, despite how it looks! Sometimes I think it is easier to notice the things that you need to improve than your strengths.
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Although the mark can be just based off of one of those words, I saw them each as parts, and wondered if I could create a mark that was based off of simple elements representing each one of the parts. These are my initial sketches and marks. I knew these were horrible, but I also knew I needed to get them out of my system so that I could develop my ideas into something good.
GENERATE 95
I have done a pretty good job this semester at forcing myself to just make something at the beginning. Even if it is turning out horribly, I know that I have to go through some poor solutions to get to the good stuff, and I’ve been pretty conscious about trying to be faithful that it will turn into something, even though the initial version(s) are horrible.
What is the name of your alter ego? Or if you had one, what would its name be? Oct 13, 2012
A3: The Alter Ego Really, what the heck is an alter ego? So I asked Google. And I came upon a website1 that really helped me get started, by asking prompting questions. (I then shared it with the rest of the class on our Facebook page.) Think about one or more things you wish to do with your life. Graphic Designer in scrapbooking and product design, as well as textile design. Pattern and Illustrative master.
Think of a name for your character. Jacie Otterly Create a world for your alter ego. Travels often, but lives in Charleston, SC with her hot businessman husband, 3 kids, and 2 pets in a 3-story house, complete with a studio and a secret playroom for the kiddos.
Think of one above-and-beyond accomplishment for your alter ego character. Best selling graphic design book and most requested lecturer. Also has completed the Disney Princess Half-Marathon. Make sure you and your character share the same interests. Loves cookies, enjoys painting, listens to really great music, drinks great (and rare) beer. Also owns an otter as a pet, along with a cat named Moo. Give your character a personality. Witty, smart, funny, truthful, kind, patient. Paint a picture in your head of what you want your alter ego to look like, if this doesn’t work try drawing your character. HOT!
On the name: This one was tough. I wasn’t sure what I wanted my alter-ego’s name to be. I actually really like my name. When I was a kid, I wanted to go by J.C. (my first two initials). My mom said no because that is the initials of Jesus Christ. So I started signing all of my notes to my friends “Jacie”. Ever since subject translation, I have been even more obsessed with Otters, so I decided to have that be my last name. Plus, I think that they translate nicely as a symbol for my words. They are linear, but flexibly so. Which makes me think of the ideas that I was playing with, of setting a structure, and allowing yourself to think non-linearly within the structure.
97 If I get a ticket for parking 25 mins early to do HW I will scream. Oct 15, 2012
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I started thinking about the word version. I am a version of myself. I remember past versions of myself. I am consistently saving in versions. I can always go back to old versions. I also starting thinking about the comment that was said to me this summer during my internship. “That’s what we do here; we make cute things.” Why can’t I sometimes just make cute things? Why do I always need a full concept? Can’t cute just be my concept? Does that make me less of a designer? No. It doesn’t. “Cute” or “pretty” are like curse words in our program. I’m not saying I want it to be different. Concept is the hard part of design; cute can be secondary, and it is easy to achieve. However, clients in many industries still want cute. So I’m glad we are learning to design conceptually, however, it is naive to think that conceptual design is the only kind of design, or the only kind worth anything.
Getting Out of the Computer I knew I needed to do something to get my brain churning, so I grabbed some canvas board and broke out the paints. I started just by painting some of the logo ideas I had sketched. I felt like this was almost a waste of time. I already had sketched these out. What would putting them in paint do for me? But I knew that I wasn’t able to think of any other solutions, so I just did it. Hopefully the process would lead me to something.
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I wanted to try a collage, so I took screen shots of files that were labeled “_v1” and originally laid them out digitally, and printed it as one sheet of paper. I thought I might cut “_v1” out of it, but it was too light, and I thought it wouldn’t work very well. So instead, I printed each screen shot out on a separate piece of paper, then I started cutting parts of it out at random, and glued them on the canvas board. Gosh, some of these first few versions are so ugly, and they turned into (mostly) good work. It was nice cutting into paper again, even just haphazardly.
Stress is no bueno for the body. Exhibit A #mystomach Oct 17, 2012
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During critique we talked about the multiple showing up to illustrate the idea of many versions. This is right up my alley with my interests in pattern making, so I created a non-repeatable hand-graphic geometric pattern. I really like how this turned out. But again, I didn’t know what I could do with it. I figured I might be able to use it in my self-portrait.
So glad @tarawrskulz and @emmamesk are on the same all nighter sched as me. Oct 17, 2012
103 I feel like ass. Oct 17, 2012
More Logos I (re)started by digitizing some of my sketches. I really liked this first one, which was influenced by peaking over Emma Mesk’s shoulder during class. She had written “dars” in script block letters, and added a bit of a shadow to make it look 3D. It was cute and hand-graphic, so I started with that.
104 RT @emmamesk: ugh get me off the internet. get me off, internet. Oct 17, 2012
These next ones were just digital sketches, trying to get the idea across of feedback, or a feedback loop, or the movement of ideas.
Well, grande is the size... I’m trying to figure out what the triple part is... #areyoukiddingme?!?! Oct 17, 2012
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I liked this one a bit, reminds me of “turning a corner”.
After I finished this, I looked back at what I had just done, and felt that it’s geometric feel almost looked 3D, just because of it’s shape.
I added some gradients to make it really look 3D. I loved this, but it didn't seem like it fit me very well.
106
My doodle iterations were much more methodical than I had assumed they would be, and didn't turn out as cool as I thought they could have.
Along with turning the corner, I thought about turning over a new leaf, about the pealing up of something to make room for something else. The pealing up of the corner of the X seems a little trite.
Triangles are tough to work with when your letter's angles differ from each other.
Damnit. How did that x turn into an r?! #sleepdeprived Oct 17, 2012
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At about 2:30 AM, I realized I was no longer using the correct letters in my mark. At some point I had by accident swapped out the x for an r. No idea how that happened. Then, as I was looking at it, I said to Tara “CRAP! What do you think of when you hear the two letters ‘xr’.” I wasn’t even looking at an x, it was a logo of the vr combo. With that I decided to take a nap. I had been working on these ideas with the wrong letters for about an hour, so after the nap I went back and fixed them to the correct letters. And that 30 minute nap might have been the best sleep I’ve had in my life. Check out this sweet “Portable Napping Device” that Jared made for another class. (He calls it a pillow suit.)
Does it still count as an all nighter if I get 30 mins of sleep? IN A PILLOW SUIT! Oct 17, 2012
I isolated some different groupings within the painted pattern I had made, and then I created vector forms of those groupings. I removed the canvas texture only from the white space, and then isolated those squares and rectangles to create my letter forms.
109
I think the V might look a bit too U like.
110
Regarding Color I chose the pink color for that pattern pretty arbitrarily. I liked the color. I had just bought it, so I had a whole tube of it. What color do I want to use to represent me and my design in the pattern? According to color-wheel-pro.com, "Pink signifies romance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness." However, "Light yellow is associated with intellect, freshness, and joy," and "Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness." I needed to think about this color in regards to pairing with black, and yellow doesn't pair too great with black. "Yellow is seen before other colors when placed against black; this combination is often used to issue a warning." I was leaning more towards a blue color, but I didn’t want to use a true blue simply because of the masculine connotations. In this day, it is hard to avoid that. It is pretty engrained in our society, and my work is definitely not masculine. I wouldn't say that it is all overly feminine, but some of it is. It is for sure more on that side of the spectrum. So I decided to try a lighter bright blue and a navy to see what I could come up with.
111
Back to the Alter Ego Self Portrait My idea was to use the repetitive to illustrate my self-portrait and in turn, also illustrate the idea of version. Can responded most to the hand painted iterations. I needed to figure out how to get my mark from my pattern, either by getting a way better scan of it, or by recreating it digitally. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get that same hand nature by creating it in the computer. He also suggested that I simplify some of the shapes in the hair and face, because as is, they just read as mistakes.
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FEEDBACK
Individual Meetings 10/17
•• Can responds most to the painted square pattern. •• Use this to create a visual language. •• The silhouette version of this needs to have a smaller scale, ••
and needs to have a higher quality scan. (Fix the colors and retain details). The pattern offers a lot of opportunities. I can create text/ words from it, create a frame of the elements, etc. It is modular, mostly vertical squares and rectangles, 2 colors. Look at this bare essence when creating the mark. How does that play out? Keep it hand painted. Look at the pattern through a small window, isolate a small area to create the mark.
The pattern faces: •• They are too closed, not as open as the painted pattern. •• The small shapes don’t read well. The small details (hair) look like mistakes. •• The computer generated square pattern doesn’t fit the rest of the style of the patterns.
Really glad my appeal for my bullshit parking ticket got denied. #sarcasm Oct 20, 2012
IDEATE 115
A4: Map Tour
I’m really excited to get 3 hrs of sleep tonight. #not Oct 21, 2012
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This simple diagram is the start to a map of the physical path I take into the studio. I was thinking that I could create a map of the physical path I take and a "conceptual" path I take with my thinking and in my head. Those lines would have to be a different style (maybe dashed lines, or dotted lines).
GENERATE
Ideal Workspace I liked the idea of using hand illustrated icons and handwritten descriptions and notes about my studio space. I have a very specific way I have to work in order to actually get anything done. I have to sit in the studio, with headphones in, and drinking coffee or diet coke (sometimes both). I have to be in a space that I use only for homework, so that in my head I don't have any other options. I have to minimize distractions. I either listen to music or NPR. The space doesn't really matter, as long as it is designated to me as my specific work space. For a while (before design) this space was the library, on a specific quiet floor, and I always sat the same general area. It would take me a lot longer to get started if someone was in my area and I was forced to sit somewhere else. I use a lot of to-do lists. I like to check things off, and it keeps me focused as to what needs to get done. I work better in the morning than in the afternoon or evening. Most of the way I work in the studio is simply resulting from tactics I have to employ to keep myself focused.
I am also very particular about the materials I use. I always use the same pens - Pilot G-2 .38. I have a box of Sharpies that I often use, with pretty much every color ever made. Fiskars non-stick scissors. Fiskars finger-tip xacto. Tombo Dry Adhesive. My MacBook. Wacom Tablet. Magic Mouse. Rebel T1i camera. Sketchbook. (I used to be extra particular about this one. I still am in that it has to have an o-ring bind so that it can flip back on itself. I have loosened my standards as to the paper weight, simply because my exact preferences are either too expensive or require too much extra work. I used to buy a sketchbook with an ugly cover that I would unbind, create a new cover, and rebind it.)
@evanmilby day 2 of 4am rising. 3 am your time. #ineversleepanymore Oct 22, 2012
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This illustrative “map” is an idealized version of how I work. If I could have the ideal, what would my space and design process look like? Calories wouldn’t count. I wouldn’t ever run out of any supplies. My coffee would never get cold. I would always be on track and on top of things schedule wise. My computer would be faster than I could imagine. My hair would always be straight. I would never run out of ideas. ...etc.
IDEATE 120
Another Mapping Idea Could I come up with more quantifiable data that wasn’t just the number of pens at my desk? A friend of mine posted this on Facebook: “54 totals days until graduation, 23 days of class, 6 exams, 3 clinicals, 2 presentations, 1 concept map, and 1 paper until Graduation! Not that I’m counting or anything...” What if I could include information such as... Avg. size of each project folder (ie. 5 gig) Avg. time spent in class per semester Avg. time spent on homework per semester Avg. time spent on each project Avg. cans of diet coke consumed per semester Avg. Pilot G-2 .38 pens exhausted per semester Avg. Pilot G-2 .38 pens lost per semester Avg. number of tweets while designing per semester Avg. cups of coffee drank Number of parking tickets in time at UT Avg. amount of sleep per night Avg. amount of xacto blades used in a semester Avg. amount of sketchbook pages filled in a semester Avg. amount of time of my critiques per semester I could include a few of those in a hand drawn illustration of my work space.
This kind of data collection has always been really interesting to me, which probably explains why I liked to have such detailed process books, why I used to document my life in form of scrapbooking, and why I keep everything. I like this idea of analizing yourself and your life in quantifiable terms.
Exhausted. I need an IV of diet coke please, and thank you. Oct 23, 2012
INSPIRE
More Mapping Ideas I was chatting with my boyfriend about the project, and this idea of mapping in general, and he referenced a study in a book he had read, Incognito by David Eagleman. He was talking about this study that tracked the eyes of participants while they looked at a painting, analyzing how they moved their eyes and how the path changed as a result different ‘quizzes’ or questions.
I could trace my eye movement around my computer screen, or my hand movement at my desk, or my body movement through the studio. (I had already thought of the latter.)
GENERATE 122
I was still really interested in collecting data on myself, and I wondered if I could create my map in the same way that my geometric pattern was made but utilizing or showcasing data. I was thinking that I could add to the things already posted on my desk. I wanted it to have a variety of stuff, possibly photos, definitely illustrations of things I use. I wanted to include tweets while in the studio, as I felt that these could be a good reflection of how I felt while working. I wanted to include data as well, but I didn’t know what that was yet, or how I would get it.
@emmamesk hahahha poop self mark? I say hellz yeah! I want a poop logo! Oct 24, 2012
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How can I accurately and relatively quickly collect data? I don’t have months to track it. Can I track data from time past?
I did a quick set up of my "bulletin board map" without photos or data. I also included notes and lists that were already on my desk, or already pinned up. The tweets I simply wrote down without a date, time, or any indication that they were from twitter. While researching data collection, I found the website Quantified Self2, which is super interesting. Some of the things it showed were pretty cool. In fact I spent way too much time on that site. I was really interested in the Expereal app (at this time it was not released yet) and LifeSlice, which I installed and hoped that I got it running since it used scripts. It runs in the background of your computer and takes a screen shot every hour of the active screen and a photo through the isight camera. It also collects a few other bits of information. I did manage to get it running, hence the early morning screen shots of my face in this book.
The Map Content: I included a few person photos, a few photos from working in the studio, a few twitter updates while in the studio, to do lists, other random notes or bits that were already on my desk, and a few statistics. These stats aren't very interesting, and I'd like to get some more that are a bit more telling of my work or process or me as a designer. The facts that I included here are: •• Pens currently on desk: 16 •• Worst grade in a class: B - GD150, Su. 2010 •• Folder size of last project: 7.83 GB
Morning. Lets get shit done. #design #onedayillactuallysleep Oct 24, 2012
FEEDBACK 125
Critique 10/24
•• The bulletin board idea looks natural. It looks like it actually •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• ••
is always like that (on your desk). It also ties in well with your self portrait, with the modularity. Figure out file size as data, that would be interesting. Organize by date. Earliest file on your computer? Like the bulletin board on the desk, but include your computer (closed) in the shot. Like the diet coke. Self portrait, use the other photo (the headshot instead of the senior picture). Right now we are lost the movement, expressionist photo. Combining the posed photo with the pattern doesn’t work as well. What if the bulletin board items were all over your body, and you were photographed against a wall? (They would still need to be all readable.) Combine the self portrait and map? Modular VX logo is not as tight as it could be. It doesn’t look as hand-made as some of the others. Lower the opacity to see the canvas texture a bit more underneath it. Go back to the pink-ish color. _VX references computer protocol or programming or something along those lines. I might want to rethink the name. Maybe you want a gif, that has a word before the ‘_vx’ that changes, i.e. “Word_VX”. Need to fix the print out so it doesn’t look like a cross-processed filter on the map. Logo: Use a typeface to type out and place each square over the type and then delete the letters, it might help to create the letter forms a bit better.
I really liked the idea of combining the bulletin board and the self portrait, especially since I didn’t have much to go on with the alter ego at this point.
Written Critiques
127
129
GENERATE 131
@ohsweetcarolion ill be in the studio all day today! Maybe I’ll get to see your lovely face?! Oct 28, 2012
132
I wanted to see what it would look like if I created my grid with blank papers and added my content after the fact. I wanted to have a place to include my logo, and I also thought that actual handwriting on the printed piece could be a nice extra element instead of the photographed handwriting in the last version.
133
Combining the Map and the Portrait One of the suggestions during critique was to apply the items on my bulletin board to my body, and I thought that was an interesting idea. So with the help of Emily Gilles, we did a little photoshoot with the desk items attached to my body. This was a lot more difficult than I imagined. I couldn’t really move very easily, especially my arms. The editing was also a monster.
135
Korry suggested that I type the letters out and follow them by placing my blocks on them, so it might make the logo a bit tighter and easier to read. It definitely helped. The class also suggested that I bring the underscore back in.
Putting it All Together I really like the photo with my work space mapped on my body. However, I didn’t know how I want to include my logo and my interview content. I was going for simplicity, but I didn’t like how it ended up; it just seemed a little trite.
137
I don’t like how this changed the color of the pink, and it really doesn’t look that great, but I wanted to experiment to see how the pattern would look behind the image. I really didn’t have a great solution for putting it all together at this point. It also was still more than 2 colors, which was one of the restrictions in the project.
Why do I have an inability to make decisions lately. This is so not like me. Hey self, go back to normal now please. Nov 04, 2012
Poster Changes When readdressing my poster again, I kept finding myself making small layout tweaks, and small tweaks to the photograph to make it exactly as I felt that I needed it for the poster.
At this point, with all of these barely different iterations, I was completely over thinking it.
FEEDBACK
Critique 10/31
•• Try pattern with name, maybe a different pattern? •• Contrast of type with imagery is nice. Don’t bring pattern everywhere; there is a nice crisp contrast between the two.
•• Smaller logo is better, and can even be a bit smaller. •• Seems though you are trying to say that you are your studio, •• ••
••
that your studio is wherever you are. You are a mobile studio. I could try another line under Jeannie Lutz. (_VX could work.) Three lines could activate the space a little bit more. Maybe simplify the logo a bit, and explain VX on the poster. Think about when someone is looking at this poster, what do you want them to get out of it? What do you want to advertise about yourself? What am I trying to say to the viewer through this poster? Add contact info.
•• Could play with multiplicity. See multiple shots in the poster. •• ••
•• ••
Four completely different posters within one. Could do four different versions of myself. Is it important to read the content to the viewers? Probably not to read every single one. If I decide they aren’t important, make them harder to read. If I decide they are important, make them more readable. The layout of the left is the strongest. I need to shrink body type, and bring my name down a bit and center it. The rag draws attention to the space by the E. Make the type four column at top, and include content about the pattern aspect or the mobile studio part or the version. Reminds Jared of Jetset poster series.3 The way my self portrait is set up you gives a lot of contrast to the shapes, so maybe ground the logo a bit in a similar way. Maybe try cropping out head if the content on the body is what is important.
141
What led you to becoming a designer?
What do you see for yourself in the future?
What inspires you? Where do you look for inspiration?
What does your design process look like?
I’ve always been artistic, but not so much in the traditional ways. I wasn’t ever
I am really interested in patterns, and although I am not so involved in it
I often peruse Pinterest. I have found a few designers who are often posting
I start out a project by ideating, mind mapping, and researching the subject.
very good at drawing people or still lifes, and so I never really saw myself as
anymore, I still love the crafting community. I would love to either work
new content (not just re-pins) that is often right up my alley. Other websites
I also research any similar projects or initial ideas to the solution, and look
good at art. I am an outgoing person, and as a child I was constantly looking for ways to express myself. In Elementary school I wanted to be a country
with a scrapbooking company as a product designer or as a textile designer. Currently, I am working to broaden my skills in pattern making and illustra-
I like to peruse include For Print Only, Oh So Beautiful Paper, Serifs & Sans, The Dieline, Share Some Candy, and Designworklife.
at those projects as inspiration. I then jump right into creating, getting a few different solutions down in visual form. These first versions are horrible,
music singer. That dream was shot down really fast, when I realized that I
tion to make that dream job a reality. The other aspect of design that really
can’t sing. I eventually got into crafting, and scrapbooking in particular.
interests me is usability in interactive design, such as mobile applications.
Another way that I gain inspiration is simply by always keeping my ears open
changes or paths I might want to explore. Once I hit a dead end in a solution,
I started interning for a scrapbooking company, and that led to designing sample projects for different paper lines. My dad commented that I had a
I like that kind of analyzing and testing.
to new ideas. If I get stuck or hit a dead end, I will talk about a project to people who are outside of design. Sometimes they will say something, often
and I feel that I have hit a wall, I refer back to these previous iterations and the ideas I had stemming off from those. I will usually experiment with some
natural eye for balancing elements on a page, and he is the one that actually
I chose design because it makes me happy. I like the visual problem solving
in passing, that will spark an idea. Keeping my current projects in the back
of those ideas until I find a new path to take.
suggested design. I am so glad that he did, because it is a perfect fit.
with no one right answer. I love that my art, something that is a part of me, is used to communicate a message, either for myself or for a client. As long
of my head allows me to be designing no matter what I am doing, even if it is having dinner with my grandparents.
but I don’t throw away anything. I save each one and document potential
I treat feedback in a similar manner, by documenting all of my critiques
as what I am doing in my work can stay true to myself, and not simply
and ideas stemming from that feedback, and then referring to it as I move
production work, I will be very happy in whatever I do in life.
forward with the design. This process continues circling back around until I find a solution that I am happy with, and from there forward it is all about
JEANNIE LUTZ _ FINAL
refinement until perfection.
CONTACT _
jeannie.c.lutz@gmail.com jeannielutz.com
What is ‘_vx’ ? ‘_vx’ is a way to visualize my process and my work. The ‘_v’ (version) is what I place after my file name followed by a number (x number). I am very iterative in the way I work, many times having hundreds of files for one project, and this mark is representative of that.
I ended up with two final versions that I printed, so that I could decide which one to turn in after seeing the printed versions. I really liked this version best on screen, but I’m glad I printed the other one, because once printed, it was declared the winner.
What led you to becoming a designer?
What do you see for yourself in the future?
What inspires you? Where do you look for inspiration?
What does your design process look like?
I’ve always been artistic, but not so much in the traditional ways. I wasn’t ever
I am really interested in patterns, and although I am not so involved in it
I often peruse Pinterest. I have found a few designers who are often posting
I start out a project by ideating, mind mapping, and researching the subject.
very good at drawing people or still lifes, and so I never really saw myself as good at art. I am an outgoing person, and as a child I was constantly looking
anymore, I still love the crafting community. I would love to either work with a scrapbooking company as a product designer or as a textile designer.
new content (not just re-pins) that is often right up my alley. Other websites I like to peruse include For Print Only, Oh So Beautiful Paper, Serifs & Sans,
I also research any similar projects or initial ideas to the solution, and look at those projects as inspiration. I then jump right into creating, getting a
for ways to express myself. In Elementary school I wanted to be a country music singer. That dream was shot down really fast, when I realized that I
Currently, I am working to broaden my skills in pattern making and illustration to make that dream job a reality. The other aspect of design that really
The Dieline, Share Some Candy, and Designworklife.
few different solutions down in visual form. These first versions are horrible, but I don’t throw away anything. I save each one and document potential
can’t sing. I eventually got into crafting, and scrapbooking in particular. I started interning for a scrapbooking company, and that led to designing
interests me is usability in interactive design, such as mobile applications. I like that kind of analyzing and testing.
Another way that I gain inspiration is simply by always keeping my ears open to new ideas. If I get stuck or hit a dead end, I will talk about a project to
changes or paths I might want to explore. Once I hit a dead end in a solution, and I feel that I have hit a wall, I refer back to these previous iterations and
sample projects for different paper lines. My dad commented that I had a natural eye for balancing elements on a page, and he is the one that actually
I chose design because it makes me happy. I like the visual problem solving
people who are outside of design. Sometimes they will say something, often in passing, that will spark an idea. Keeping my current projects in the back
the ideas I had stemming off from those. I will usually experiment with some of those ideas until I find a new path to take.
suggested design. I am so glad that he did, because it is a perfect fit.
with no one right answer. I love that my art, something that is a part of me,
of my head allows me to be designing no matter what I am doing, even if it is
is used to communicate a message, either for myself or for a client. As long as what I am doing in my work can stay true to myself, and not simply
having dinner with my grandparents.
production work, I will be very happy in whatever I do in life.
I treat feedback in a similar manner, by documenting all of my critiques and ideas stemming from that feedback, and then referring to it as I move forward with the design. This process continues circling back around until I find a solution that I am happy with, and from there forward it is all about
JEANNIE LUTZ _ FINAL
refinement until perfection.
What is ‘_vx’ ? ‘_vx’ is a way to visualize my process and my work. The ‘_v’ (version) is what I place after my file name followed by a number (x number). I am very iterative in the way I work, many times having hundreds of files for one project, and this mark is representative of that.
GET IN CONTACT _
jeannie.c.lutz@gmail.com | jeannielutz.com
FINAL
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References 1. http://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Alter-Ego 2. http://quantifiedself.com/ 3. http://www.experimentaljetset.nl/archive/artimo-a-z.html
Thanks for the email, @expereal! The app is downloaded and already in use! Nov 07, 2012
Expereal
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IN A STORE NEAR YOU This summer I interned at American Crafts in Orem, Utah. It was an amazing experience. They just treated me as another designer on their team, and so I got to work on a lot of different projects. This was the first thing I found in a store, and I wasn’t expecting it at all. I was a little excited. I’m pretty sure I was dancing around the store after that. It was a cool thing to see something that you worked on actually produced, too bad I didn’t see anyone buy it!
Last night I found stuff that I worked on at American crafts at TARGET!!! Nov 08, 2012
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»PROJECT THREE TRANSMEDIA DESIGN
PROJECT BRIEF
Goal: develop a dynamic/flexible identity system for our newly formed Graduate Program: Transmedia Design. The final form will be an 8-page PDF that includes a cover, brief, concept and form development, documentation, research, possible applications, and bibliography. Transmedia Design is a 3 year MFA-granting track, focused on idea-driven communication and exploration. Candidates are encouraged to make lasting connections between traditional and emerging practices, collaborative modes of expression, and alternative problem-solving methods. Candidates will explore how art and design functions beyond the borders of the art building itself, tackling personal, social, polititcal and technological issues. Ours is a place where data can become dance, where video can be crafted by hand, and where the impossible might be designed. We combined time-based media and graphic design into Transmedia Design because we knew, by doing so, that we could provide a more holistic and enriching approach to learning at the Graduate level. The beauty of working together with a diverse faculty is that we can understand and visualize the same problem from different perspectives. The problem is the same, but the methodology or process behind solving is different.
RESEARCH 151
The Shape of Design Reading: Well, as true as this reading is, it talks about the design process in such a way that makes it sound cheesy. When it refers to starting to create movement by thinking of the worst solution to the objective possible—that our ideas can only then get better from there—it seems as if it is saying that we need a way to trick ourself to give ourselves confidence. It is almost saying that we are weak and need a “good job, baby, you can do it!” “It’s okay self! Look! At least you are getting better!” (From that first intentionally bad idea? Come on.) I understand the idea of creating momentum. I do certain things to create that in my own process that are fruitless, but I don’t think it is necessary to trick ourselves in this manner. We are smarter and stronger than that.
David Thornburn Lecture
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Embracing Flux Reading: Holly Willis Discussing this idea of systems and systems thinking and embracing dynamism in design methodologies and education involves BIG TOPICS that cannot be broken down to understand them in specific instances, rather in a holistic way, which is really the general problem that has thrown us into this state of flux in the first place. Design is no longer about creating artifacts, rather it is about creating contexts, experiences. Participation is collective; It is about building cognitive structures, platforms, and systems. The tools are understanding the ideas. So how do we solve this problem of teaching in a way that is characterized by flux rather than stability, and there again we come to the problem being so rooted in our way of thinking that we are even trying to solve in the same manner of what we are solving. Meaning, we are looking to solve this problem in the first place, looking at it as though there is a solution in the end. But we need to be free of hypotheses-thinking and instead be open to dialogue that is dynamic and generative instead of seeking an answer. However, this seems problematic in that we cannot change our pedagogical practices without a plan, and the lack of plan is what is needed in order to embrace this idea of flux.
Updated Mind Map
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“State of Transience” Project by Sander Wassink “The on-going project, State of Transience, is a responsive design process, which is continuously shifting over time. Using the relatively simple design archetype of a chair, Wassink repurposes materials, making additions, subtractions and mutations, to suggest the impossibility of a final or fixed form. Each new version of this chair, documented in incremental stages, shows evidence of it’s future potential. Every new state is a testament to ingenuity of human production and the fragility of supposedly rigid constructions. In this way the project maintains a lineage of its arrangements, preserving both it’s past iterations and suggesting future possible developments simultaneously. The goal is not a finished product, but instead a material history of combinations and constructions.”1 I feel that this abstract of his project is incredibly parallel to this idea of transmedia design. Specifically, the idea of having a responsive design process that is constantly shifting. He also mentions this idea of flux by respecting the past, but having an open future.
IDEATE
In my original research, ideating, and just thoughts on this idea of Transmedia design I was really focusing on the more negative concepts and effects of this broadening of our paradigm. The idea of Flux bring forth concepts of instability (uncertainty, insecurity, foundation, balance, falling, failing, fear), change (unfamiliar, newness, moving places, new friends, unsure identity, transformation, adaptation, future potential), and improv (story telling, gut reaction, reaction based, open, going with the flow, quick, instant, IM, text messaging, regret, processing, thinking, quick witted, smart). So as I was moving forward, I wanted to be able to understand this concept of Transmedia Design in more of a positive light, not focused on the negative ideas regarding flux resulting from hating change.
RESEARCH 157
More Lectures and Articles Dan Goods I found a lecture2 by Dan Goods on Transmedia Design which they define as communication design across space, time and behavior. •• Design is more than just about pretty colors and typeface. •• But it is also more than just big ideas and concept. •• Roland Young once told him- you can create your own portfolio, and then you can create your own job. •• Dan was being too practical. He was keeping himself in a box. Even when he tried something non-practical, it still turned practical; he needed to just go play! •• “I don’t know anything.” •• Make your own path. •• He would make something to help him understand these big scientific concepts he was working with. •• New Media- made a cloud that was run by data. How do you make a cloud? Found a material called liquid crystal: no poweropaque, add power- transparent.
Brad Bartlett There were two other lecturers in this same event. One of which was Brad Bartlett: •• Logotype- how does it live in the future? Does a logotype have to be a fixed mark frozen in time? Can a logo react to changing context? Can it have a dialogue with its surroundings? •• “The Process is the most valuable thing... the way that making a work with people changes you and changes the people probably has more importance than the actual object left behind.” - Chris Drury. April Greiman Interview I stumbled upon an interview3 with April Greiman, which comments on some of these ideas surrounding Transmedia Design. •• Often people refer to her and her work as “new wave” or “postmodern”. She fought the label “Graphic Design” because it is so broad. Fine art is visual communication as well. That term is really indicative of a technology (print) that is not the only medium anymore. •• There is no difference between fine art and design. Everyone in America is hung up on labels, whether you are a fine artist or a designer. She thinks that the best of art is all well designed, and that the best of designed is all pretty fine art.
Don Norman Article Don Norman wrote on the idea of transmedia design.4 •• Transdisciplinary Creativity •• Make sure that designing is pleasurable. It requires emotions to be a major component of design thinking, and must incorporate action as well. Actions that use the whole body in movement, rhythm, and purpose. •• If cognition is about understanding the world, emotion is about interacting with it: judging, evaluating, and preparing to engage. •• Transmedia talks of the new emergence of multiple media in common pursuit of a story or experience. It still focuses on corporations commerce, but it is still based on a distorted view of commerce; we make it, you consume it. Why the asymmetry? We should all be producers. We should all have a say in what we experience. •• Everything to do with free, natural, powerful expression. •• Co-development, co-creation, co-ownership: we all produce; we all share; we all enjoy. Teacher and student learn together achieving new understanding. •• New technologies allow creativity to blossom, whether for reasons silly or sublime, invoking a creative spirit. •• True creativity requires some thought, some work, and some effort. It has to be reflective, even if only after the fact. Mindless creativity has its place, but the real challenge is to unleash the substantive creativity inside most people. •• The new design challenge is to create true participatory designs coupled with true multi-media immersion that reveal new insights and create novel experiences.
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Benefits of a Transmedia Design Program:
•• Collaboration •• Open Source •• Ideas you didn’t know you had •• Develop Strengths •• New Interests •• Open Framework •• Professional Feedback •• Help where you need it •• Inspiration •• New Connections, Conceptually and in Networking •• Explore Possibilities •• Productive Play •• Focus your concepts through exploration •• Gain knowledge through others’ interests
“Instead of solutions for problems, programmes for solutions. The subtitle can also be understood in these terms: for no problem (so to speak) is there an absolute solution. Reason: the possibilities cannot be delimited absolutely. There is always a group of solutions, one of which is the best under certain conditions.” - Karl Gerstner
INSPIRE
London Victoria
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Dezeen Watchstore “Each early idea explored had a connection with time—an expression or representation of it—and was deliberately quite ‘neutral’ in style, so as not to strongly suggest any particular aesthetic other than the generally modern, progressive design characteristics of the products featured in the store. As the symbol moves through 86,400 different combinations of shape and colour, abstractly representing local time in 24 hour format, the identity becomes a timepiece itself while always remaining recognisable. The outer grey circle is slightly darker in winter, lighter in summer; the hours and minutes are represented by incomplete circles with consistent radii that approach 360º over a period of 24 hours and 60 minutes respectively. Seconds are represented by a complete circle that radiates from the centre of the symbol, increasing its diameter in 60 stages until resetting to zero each minute. The hour shape changes colour 24 times a day.” [From ID5]
OCAD U Personally, I didn’t really like this logo at first, until I saw it in use in the different applications in the video. I love the envelopes, the certificate, the student ID, and the business card. “Every year, graduating student medal winners will be invited to design a logo within the basic window framework, providing the university with a set of logos for that year. As OCAD U grows and matures, a living library of identities will emerge, recording the ideas and aesthetics that have shaped our culture over time.�6
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National Music Centre
RESEARCH 165
Andrew Blauvelt Lecture:7 Relational Design: paradigm shift across all design fields that prefers process over products, open platforms and systems over one off objects, and experiences over design services. It is not anonymous, closed, independent. It is connectedness, open, interdependent. Interested with design’s effects rather than its form or just its meanings.
Luis von Ahn Lecture:8
•• Human Computation •• Captcha •• There are still a lot of things that humans can do that computers cannot do.
•• Good use of wasted human processes •• Created games to determine accurate tags for photos for search engines.
1. Birth of the User (Viewer/Consumer) Ease of use is what’s driving design. 2. Democratization of the Designer Users to become the designer Designers creating platforms for users to design (Zazzle, Lulu, etc) 3. The Rise of Open Systems/Distributed Subjectivity Framework Conditional Design Algorithms/Perimeters 4. The Dominance of Context Users+Designers+Objects Casa de Musica: logo generator 5. The Power of Many Crowdsourcing Threadless//Product Design Platform Social//Funding-Microfunding 6. The Rise of the Social Social Logic
Eddie Opara Lecture:9
•• Taught by Jesuit Priests to think not for yourselves, but for ••
the group, for the many. The Labour Party: sharing, collaboration. You don’t really own anything, everyone does.
Morgan Stanley: •• biggest screen in country •• Interactive 4D branding •• Not just motion graphics, it understood itself. It knew when to push more content, when to change it, etc. •• Xray: showed the silhouette of people in the building Prada: •• Runway wallpaper: he used his body as a model, and then didn’t know what was going to be done with the work, but didn’t care. •• It is amazing what other people do with your work. •• It was implemented in a jukebox style system of changing video clips throughout the screens in the store. Brooklyn Museum of Art: •• Flexible Identity, not in that it is always changing, but because it is able to evolve and to change for its needs and applications. •• Transformation: brands can never stand still. Instead they need to change and be adjusted over a course of time by the community at large. The designer is not in charge anymore.
Posters on Thoughts of Democracy: •• Democracy is so many different things, we don’t really know what it is. •• “Democracy is the Helvetica of Politics.” •• “Kiss the fist of Democracy”- shoving it down people’s throats. Which might not be the best solution for everyone. SORG architects in DC: •• Female owned (mother and daughter) •• Needed identity, didn’t want it to be feminine or masculine. They wanted to be taken for what they believe in: construction. •• The logo is modular, flexible, of pieces. The Baffler: •• Identity that didn’t crowd the writing itself •• Mark: partly nostalgic, but modern as well. •• Nostalgic and contemporary at the same time: balance. North 8: •• Luxury Condominiums in NY, Tall Brothers •• They were marketing towards a young audience. •• Used News Johnson typeface from the London Underground. •• He educated the client on typefaces and would quiz them. UCLA Architecture School: •• All of the collateral for UCLA’s architecture school. •• They wanted to pronounce themselves as the best. •• They didn’t originally ask for branding, but he convinced them that they needed it.
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•• The logo he created was only used for a year, and that year •• ••
there was an increase in interest of the school by 60%. However, the University made them change back to their standard logo. Made a new non-logo type mark that they can use that transforms.
Tick Tock-JWT: •• Pie charts that explode out •• Lots of data, trends of what they (JWT) did that year. •• It is an analysis of them, how they work, of their work. •• Cover transforms as you tilt it. •• This is great process book inspiration. St. Regis Hotel Table: •• Touch screen table designed with Potion Design •• Share information with others •• Designed the UI Orchestra at St. Luke’s: •• Educational Program- teaching about rhythm •• Drum with a USB hooked up to a computer •• Great way for kids to learn. •• Each tap created great graphics, each kid’s playing created an entirely different construct on the screen. •• Next year they utilized the wii to build collages by waving and clicking the wii as a conductor.
MIG: •• Wanted to create a software that anyone can utilize •• Used to design content management systems for social networking sites. •• Can we do this to get the clients off our back? •• Drag+Drop, Sorting Containers, Publishing Containers •• It is in a browser, but feels like using a desktop application. •• Website development- now clients can control the content of their site. They can update it themselves. •• Open standard: developers design any kind of module and can hook it up to the MIG. •• Anyone can use it, but the visual interface stays the same. •• It is simple. Users get it. •• Not just for websites: agnostic. •• JWT View: visualization engine that visualized any content that they put into it. •• What does the information look like? Unit objects, Relationships, Volume, Etc. •• Desktop Application- AIR •• They input all the information, all the content. •• Three different visualizations: clusters. •• Shells/vessels that the client can put anything into.
“As I got older, I got better.” “As we get older, we get better.” We need to believe this in ourselves, that we are always changing and getting better.
Twyla Tharp: The Creative Habit Jake suggested that I go back and read the chapter on Ruts and Grooves in The Creative Habit. I thought that was a great suggestion, but I couldn’t remember where I put the book! While I was looking for it in my closet, my closet shelf collapsed on my face. So I’m blaming Twyla for that one. Regardless...
•• A rut can be the consequence of a bad idea, an end product
••
of bad timing, because of bad luck, but most often then not a consequence of sticking to tried and tested methods. Ie. “We’ve always done it this way.” That is not a good enough reason to keep doing it if it isn’t working. Change it up. When you’re in a rut, you have to question everything except your ability to get out of it.
Ruts and Grooves (Chapter 10)
•• While working, always ask yourself, “Is this piece moving ••
•• •• ••
forward or staying in place?” A rut is when you are spinning your wheels and staying in place. It is not creative block, at least you know your motor is running. Creative block (writer’s block) is when your engine has shut down and the tank is empty. Being blocked is most often a failure of nerve, with only one solution: Do something, do anything. A rut is more like a false start. You know you are in a rut when you annoy other people, bore your collaborators and supporters, fail to challenge yourself, and get the feeling that the world is moving on while you are standing still. Perhaps the surest sign is a feeling of frustration and relief when you are done rather than anticipatory pleasure. (“I can’t wait to get back here tomorrow!”)
Dealing with a rut: 1. See the rut, which can be hard if you are creating on your own. You have to make a habit of reviewing your efforts along the way, seeing where you’ve been and where you are to make sure you’re still heading in the right direction, if any. 2. Admit you are in a rut. This requires an admission that you’ve made a mistake. Don’t allow yourself that you are in denial. The more disciplined you are, the less you’ll be willing to cut your losses and stop the insanity. 3. Get out of the rut.
•• When optimism turns to pessimism during the creative process, you are in a serious, dangerous rut. But often it’s not the work alone that triggers the shift to pessimism. It can easily be something around you, too. Think: What has happened? (Outside stressors, ie. relationship problems, money problems, health, etc.) What is making you hate the material you are producing? If it’s something in your environment, the simplest solution is change your environment. If it’s a micro-rut, a momentary stall as you try and get from one part to another during the day’s work, change your scenery.
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Get out of the house. Take a walk. Grab lunch with a friend. Something different.
•• In a bigger rut, what you really need is a new idea, a new ••
••
solution to the problem. Give yourself an aggressive quota for ideas, a challenge. This forces you to suspend critical thinking. To meet the quota, you put your internal critic on hold and let everything out. You are no longer chocking off good impulses. This triggers leaps of imagination, and later thinking builds on earlier thinking. We get in a rut when we run with the first idea that pops into our head, not the last one. Sometimes you can’t identify a good idea until you’ve considered and discarded the bad ones.
Challenging your assumptions is another important corrective procedure to getting out of a rut. We often forget to apply pressure to the idea, to poke it, challenge it, push it around, see if it stands up. Do this by: 1. Identify the concept that isn’t working. 2. Write down your assumptions about it. 3. Challenge the assumptions. (Try and think the opposite. Ie. This should definitely be a poster. The challenge would be to make it a mobile app, or a tiny business card hand out, etc.) 4. Act on the challenge. Challenging assumptions make light bulbs go off in people’s heads.
•• The opposite of a rut is a groove. The thing about them, is that you rarely know you are in one until you fall out.
•• Grooves come in all shapes and sizes, and they’re usually ••
preceded by a breakthrough idea. But a breakthrough is usually emotional, not technical. You can also find a groove in other ways than a breakthrough, it can be in congenial material, in a perfect partner, in a favorite character, or a comfortable subject matter. A groove can be found in the grooves created by others.
She talked a lot about challenging yourself in this chapter, which is perfect considering that is the point of my project thus far, using the logo to challenge yourself and others.
IDEATE 170
Sketchnoting I needed an idea, something to go on to get me moving, specifically visually, and after re-reading Twyla’s chapter on Ruts and Grooves I decided to do a little sketchnoting.
While sketchnoting, Meredith Owens mentioned that this idea of Transmedia Design is like cross-pollinating. I thought that was a great way to think of it. Sharing ideas, sharing inspiration, sharing brain power, in a kind of symbiotic cross-pollination.
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Noticing the Unique When thinking of a logo or form that would act as a framework to house these challenges that I mentioned earlier, I went back to something I noticed while sketchnoting. The hanging offices in the building are interesting. They are pretty unique; you don’t see them often. They are pretty open. You can see the people working in them from across the atrium. And they house something that is crucial to the program’s success – our professors.
So I created a vector illustration of the office, and then played with breaking the plains that form the sides of the office, pulling each one out. I was trying to play with the idea of breaking out of the box, of letting your ideas and concepts grow to a place that you never imagined they could be, breaking the mold. I thought all of these ideas went really nicely with the whole concept of Transmedia design.
While still playing with the plains that form the shape of the office, I started experimenting of how I wanted the content to look in the window. Would this be just a part of a finished project? In my last project, getting out of the computer and painting is what really spurred me onward. So I clipped into that part of the finished project that shows that challenge I gave myself. I also tried simplifying the idea by visualizing the challenge itself instead of its effects or applications.
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In-class Workshop My idea is to allow students to challenge each other by submitting cards of their visualized challenge to be scanned and placed into the logo. The logo would be changed daily, so that students could refer to the website, see the current logo and try to use that day's challenge on their projects. So let's say a student in 4D is working on a video project, and the logo is this:
They might try to create a clip that is animation of paper elements into their normal shots. They might try a different transition effect between shots that mimics a ripping effect. They might include negative space between certain shots that mimic the white space. They might roughen up the whole feel of the video instead of having it clean and with no loose ends. They might change the colors in their video from vibrant colors to neutrals. Students could interpret these challenges however they need to, but the idea is to broaden their thinking, to allow them to step back from their projects, and to challenge themselves to look at it in a new way, so they could try something different when they needed a kickstart.
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Originally I thought that students would submit challenges when they came to a conclusion in their project. They would think back as to a key moment in their process that really helped the project fall into place. So for example, my last project I forced myself to get out of the computer and paint. So my challenge would be a visualization of painting (and specifically, painting a pattern). I think they could still be encouraged to visualize in this way. However, if these challenges end up being the influence that drives them forward, we would end up just repeating the same group of challenges. So this could be opened so that students could submit them whenever they want, with the idea of sharing and collaboration, they should be encouraged to submit them at least once a week to help other students move forward even if they themselves aren't needing a specific challenge. In the class workshop, I handed out 3x5 cards and asked my classmates to visualize a challenge on it. I then had them hand it to the person next to them. I challenged them to brainstorm a few ways to utilize that visual challenge with their own work. I told them they might want to take a picture of the card they were given to document it in case they want to go back to it, and then I collected the cards to scan them in. I did let them know that they would be on my blog if they wanted to go back and look at all of them.
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This is just the last version of the logo I had created. This is not the final way that the cards would be implemented, but this gives you an idea of a way they can be applied to a mark of some sort.
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In Class 11/21 Pigment Pol:
•• Application for their identity •• Atmodesign+Feld •• Backgrounds come into the identity itself
Could I create an interactive site similar to this to create the challenges? It wouldn’t be as tactile. But it would be easier and more fun to participate in. It would be easier to maintain/update.
Moscow Design Institute:
•• Variation is interesting •• Use of typography is what ties it together •• Creating a set of rules for elements to participate, just like we did for people to participate in.
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Individual Meeting with Can 104 Identity: The marks that people make (like the handwriting part) can play off a template. The logo can be much more static, but my idea can come into play when there is a series. The 104 identity works because it is very rigid, very strong. It is able to carry all of the handmade and make it work.
•• My example of “This side up” really resonated. Maybe plays off •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• ••
of the idea of a logo and a template. So maybe it’s a visual for whatever the context is. So maybe I make a poster, and the mark changes of with what people generate. More direct 1:1 translation, instead of so open ended with the challenge idea. Start with a straightforward typography solution, then have a place for the handmade aspect. It can be a response, or a visualization of what the lecture/ event/application is. Template can be utilized in different material. Maybe it’s not as direct as “hey respond to this”, but an inventory of visualizations that can be chosen in each application based on the context. The essence of what I am thinking always comes back to the idea of a database. I need to keep thinking in this way. (How do I want to create this database?) Practically, if I do something handmade, it is a lot of labor involved on the back end. Is that ok? Yes. Database idea reminds me of the tagging idea, captcha guy. It could utilize Adobe Bridge to organize it. Think about a static mark, and different layouts that it could pan out in. Work on the grid and strong visual to ground the handmade aspect. Give more thought to the database idea.
GENERATE Did design HW for a good 11 hrs and then watched #Brave with the dodes, until he was full of popcorn and ptfo’d Nov 23, 2012
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Posters Can suggested I work more on the application side of things, so I started with a poster. I spent a lot of time in my font manager playing with different typefaces, testing them with the words “Transmedia Design”. I wanted it to be something that felt contemporary, open, versatile, new, and could touch on the idea of a transition.
Typeface: Verlag
I liked the idea of using Interstate because it is something that is versatile enough to work in many different contexts that the school would need it for, but is unobtrusive. We see it daily (while on the interstate), while we are in motion. We are transitioning from one place to another. We are moving forward. (I mean, if you are moving backwards on an interstate, there might be a little bit of a problem.)
Typeface: Interstate
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I used an upcoming lecturer to comp up the poster, and used information straight from his website as the content. I used one of the cards from the workshop as a visualization example, not necessarily as an example of the card that would be used for his actual lecture. I also experimented with adding a photo of his work, but I think this negates the idea of the visual database. Why have the visualization if I also show his work? It is just confusing.
IDEATE 191
I was really struggling with how this database would be created. It is important to me to have it be student created. What needed to be included in the database? It needed to be pretty big in order to be used as the visuals for all of the printed material, etc. So I started a mind map, covering some of these questions I had and possible solutions.
GENERATE 192
Getting out of the computer really seems to get my brain moving, and I know I'm not alone here. In many books I've read, they suggest this method when stuck on a design solution. This will be a database of handmade visualizations created by the MFA students and professors in Transmedia Design, to be implemented in the program's collateral material.
On the back end of things: •• One person should be in charge of the organization of these cards. •• They should all be scanned and edited in a consistent way. •• When uploaded, the information on the back of the card should be documented with the image in form of tags in Adobe Bridge. The artist's name should also be tagged to the image.
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The Rules
•• Every Monday morning, the students in the program and their •• Before turning them in, participants must flip the card over ••
professors will make a handmade visualization on a X (to be determined) sized white card based off of a prompt designated by the professor. The prompts must be open ended.
Example Prompts include, but are not limited to: •• Visualize the jumping off point that drove you home to your final solution(s) in your last project. •• Visualize the person to your right's main concept, themes, or styles in their current project. •• Visualize an abstracted challenge for another person in the room to implement in their current project. •• Visualize your main vice or biggest obstacle in your work.
•• Students/Professors involved are recommended to avoid the use of words in their visualizations.
•• Participants can only spend 10 minutes on the visualizations, •• ••
and cannot discuss their idea for the visualization to their classmates. However, this does not ban all conversation, only conversation about the visualizations. Participants are allowed to create more than one in the alloted time frame. If a participant wants to work digitally, this can be permitted as long as they are able to print the work and adhere it in some way to the card before the allotted time is up. (These cannot be digitally submitted.)
•• ••
and write a few key words IN PENCIL of what it is, what their concept is of the visualization, what the thought process behind it is, and/or connections. These "tags" should be in the form of a list, not in sentences or paragraphs. If necessary, a simple phrase can be used. The full name of the artist must be clearly written IN PENCIL on the back of the card. If these cards are used as a challenge for another participant, I recommend to the professor to not allow the students to read the tags on the back of the card. I believe it works well to either have the students ideate and brainstorm for a few minutes on the visualization given to them or to take a picture of it to refer back to later on. Then they can quickly return the cards to be turned in.
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These visualizations can be used in the program's collateral, such as posters, business cards, letterheads, envelopes, program catalogs, brochures, and applications (or application instructions since the applications seem to be done digitally online now). I also can see these being utilized in material for each individual student. For example, how cool would it be to have a "You are almost done!" mail out that lets each student know that they are on track to graduate with their MFA in Transmedia Design. I envision this being something sent out towards the middle or end of their second to last semester in the Program. It can include the requirements that they are missing, and can include some or all of their visualizations. It could be a pre-certificate that actually serves a purpose and will contain a level of pride to the student because of the customization of their work, no matter how quick it is. This kind of personalization can be done pretty easily on the side of gathering the visualizations by searching for the student's name in the tags in Adobe Bridge.
At this point I was also thinking about a personal letterhead to be used for in-house (and possibly some out-of-house) memos and other communications. The visualization used could be something that references their personal work in concept or form, or could be one of the visualizations that they have created for the database. It would be much easier for someone who does not know them to just search their name. However, if they were in charge of creating their own letterhead (within a template), it wouldn’t be too difficult. They could simply make a list of words that describe their work, and search these one at a time. They could also base the visualization off of the context of the communication. For example, if they are writing a student to remind them of a project deadline since the student has been ill, they could use a visualization tagged with a word such as time or empathy.
Looking back at the last poster iterations, I like the clean, crisp, and open format of the last poster iteration, but I wondered what it would look like with a grid of a bunch of visualizations that reference ideas/qualities of their work. The first thing I did when creating this poster iteration with the grid of visualizations was to place in that blue weaved visual. I was thinking, “hey, this does look cool.” I got almost done and thought, “this was a horrible idea. It looks awful.” I finished by adding the black backgrounds behind the text, rearranged things, and was surprised that I didn’t hate it. It looked pretty interesting. However, there is so much going on, that although it might draw your eye initially, I don’t know that it would really grab the attention and curiosity of students going forward. (Remember, ideally this would be a system. So with each lecturer the framework stays the same. The written content would change, and the visuals would change out to represent ideas of their work.) This looked WAY better on screen than it did in print. In fact, it looked horrible once printed.
The Static Mark I wasn't in love with Interstate. Something just didn't feel right. After doing the first version of the mark, I switched to Gotham. I do like the E in Interstate, but the lowercase characters have really harsh terminals. I wanted the flexibility to be able to use the lowercase of the same typeface in the mark. Gotham is much better suited for that.
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I stepped away from the posters and worked on a different type of application. I wanted to see if the same kind of system would work on a different type of print material, so I worked on a handout.
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Critique with Cierra, Justin, and Deb
•• Would this application in the lecture poster be deceiving? •• It is very dependent on the system of the database being ••
•• •• •• •• •• •• •• ••
followed strictly. Would it just be the challenges for the week? Or could their work be used too? Could they submit a photograph of their work with it tagged? (I said no, because I wanted these to be visual explorations especially of ideas/concepts/reflections kind of thing rather than just a poster that a student made. I also think it would be important for the visuals to be all created in the same size. (A size restriction). Is this database a website? (No, but it could be.) Everyone has cellphones. Why don't they take a photo of the exploration and just upload it to the database? It would be very quick to upload and reduces time on the back end. Use what we've got, rather than reinventing the wheel. Utilizing Flickr? Yale Website: students can upload whatever they want to the homepage of the website. Take a look at that, and look at what that looks like and what that means that openness. Need to be very specific on the applications. I think that this would be more misleading right now, at least the way you've handled it in the poster. You'd need to be very clear about the way you use it. 5-10 minutes for the exercise is good time frame. Realize the kinds of things you are going to get, the variety, that it's only 5-10 minutes worth of work. You are going to really have to think about how you are going to control that quality issue in the application.
•• No one is going to curate it. The reality of the situation is that it's not going to happen, and its not worth it.
•• You are over-complicating it. It can be simplified, and can be better in general. It seems too complex right now.
•• Like the idea of the visual experimentations and comments at the beginning of class.
•• Need to be more clear about how I get that visual, and what I
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•• ••
do with it. What makes sense? It might just not make sense in a poster kind of context. Or you might be very particular in the way that the visual is shown and how the artist’s work is shown. You are asking for these visuals to comment on too much, and it becomes too much. That seems less interesting. I like the idea of this database just for the sake of existing. That would be interesting. It doesn’t need to be involved in everything, but an example of quick, spontaneous work. As a potential student coming to the website for the school, that would be interesting. Experiments are conversation starters. It’s like a Monday morning reflection. Typographic system: be careful adding more on to it. Be careful with the triangles. All of the sudden it looks like a logo. This is where the challenge is typographically. How do you make it have personality without being “a logo”. Come back to this database idea. Look at the connection between the visual and the logo (not saying the logo needs to come right from that), if you can’t come up with a connection, keep it simple.
GENERATE
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Eyes Closed Random Connect
I started mocking up a gallery of these visualizations that could be a website in and of itself, as Justin suggested.
I liked the idea of having the visuals be really teeny icons that would always be in the same place, but the site would slowly fill up with the visuals as the year went on.
When the user clicked on a card it would enlarge. If they clicked again it would show the key words. Then they would click it again to close it.
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This is what the site would look like as we added more visuals. Slowly all of the white would be filled with the cards.
FEEDBACK
I spoke to Anna about this project to get her feedback before critique, explaining my problems I was having (ie. there is no purpose to it; it is not an identity). She made the suggestion that there could be another step. Each week students would have to choose one of these to respond to. It could be used in their current project, or it could be a new project. Those short projects would be documented and submitted and connected to the visualizations. So that when someone clicks on the visual, they can see the keywords and the student work influenced by or done in response to that visual.
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Full Class Critique 11/28
•• Do you want these to be representing the program? •• How would you ensure the quality of the work/submissions? •• Monday mornings? You are going to get a line. •• Alchemy Program’s functionality would be a way to use the •• •• •• •• ••
database, that could then become an identity. The interesting aspect to this is the idea of filtering, or sorting through tags. It is the intriguing part. In terms of bringing that in, I don’t know how to accomplish it. In terms of application of these visuals, try them monotone to unify them. They need a homogeneous quality. Reminds David of sites like Dribbble where you can look at thumbnails of what people are working on, and sometime its just a crop of what they are working on. You can’t see everything, but it can intrigue you. One thing creatively we do every morning already is the sign in sheet, which can be a representation of your own identity. I could try and utilize this somehow. We already do it anyways, so why not make something out of it. Incorporate it into something that already exists. Bringing something new in and forcing people to do it probably won’t generate so much creativity.
•• Apple more constraints; boundaries are necessary, like writing something a certain way everyday.
•• Like that you are wrapping the identity into the class itself. •• •• •• •• •• •• •• ••
Maybe the instructor(s) have a single word that drives this exploration (a prompt) every Monday, and that is the unifying theme throughout the semester or week. A constant theme, that will also show change over time. Maybe it should be more collaborative than individual. Helen Armstrong’s project: “Linked”- maybe do a similar thing with ‘Transmedia’ What if each student writes the word “Transmedia” everyday, however they want. Then you would have a database of hand created words. Could include another word too, not just ‘Transmedia Design’. Almost like going through the fonts on the computer. We don’t utilize the space in our hallway, I could curate info from people from utilizing that space. I could include others outside of the program that way. The biggest issue is generating it.
INSPIRE
Inspiration from Critique Tara's suggestion of taking another look at ‘Linked’ by Helen Armstrong.10 What Helen says about Linked: “To structure this project, we created a framework populated by a diverse set of students. The word LINKED emerged as our topic, our theme, and as our project structure. We asked our students to think about ways in which they saw themselves as members of their social groups and citizens in a connected society. Each student was assigned one a letter, and asked to create a module, a two-second animation of it. The workflow used existing online platforms—Googledocs, Flickr, and Vimeo—and required little technical expertise. A good portion of our students were not art or design students, so we could rely on no prior experience with creative platforms or access to proprietary software. The result was LINKED, a 17 second animation.11 This project inspired our students to think beyond their own classroom to evolving forms of cocreation and encouraged them to celebrate individual perspectives and voices.”
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Another pretty cool project I found through Helen Armstrong’s book, Participate, is this project by LUST. They created a poster wall that automatically generates posters based off content from the internet. There is a physical wall12 (a permanent installation) in the Graphic Design Museum in Breda (The Netherlands) and an online wall.13 “New posters are automatically generated when physical events occur in the space: for example, when visitors enter the space, when visitors view the touchtables, and when visitors approach the wall itself.” Now, they have created Posterwall 2.014 which utilizes tweets, QR codes, and social sharing.
IDEATE
Project Breakthrough
INSPIRE 209
I was struggling since I got the idea of a database to come up with something that will move this project forward, while keeping in mind the feedback I have gotten (specifically Deb’s). After looking through Helen Armstrong’s book again and the Yale Art School website15, I finally feel like I have moved into a new direction that could actually be worth something. I knew I needed to come up with something different than the abstract visual challenges. It was just too broad to really allow students to understand what it was functioning as. The idea of the sign in sheet was mentioned in critique, that it is something we already do every morning with our hands. Although the MFA program doesn’t use a sign in sheet, they could do something similar that would unify the class and their projects throughout the semester. I was having trouble with the mark itself, so why not have the students generate the ‘Transmedia’ part. They can write the word ‘Transmedia’ every Monday morning, creating a database of hand created visualizations of that word.
IDEATE
The idea is that the MFA Transmedia Design students would create the source material, the hand graphic visual of the word ‘Transmedia’. All art students and professors would then be able to get on the website and manipulate the images in a web app that would function much like Alchemy or some kind of open source drawing web based application (Google’s SVG-Edit?). The edited version would replace the source image in the database, so these Transmedia visuals would evolve with time. Users could then select one, and it would immediately change on the website as the main logo. I really like this idea of open source and the evolution of ideas. In this case, ideas in form of edits/manipulations/additions that just build upon each other. This allows everyone to feed off of each other and to work together, just as we do in class. Even if we don’t realize it, our work is very much influenced by the people around us. Biggest Problem: First and foremost, as far as I know, this open source web-based graphic manipulation app does not exist yet. There are plenty of image editors. That’s not what I want.
Should the source content be generated by prompts or themes? Or should students just be allowed to create whatever they want each day? Would they end up creating themes for themselves? Or would they just get bored with it? How would a logo then be chosen to be used in print and collateral material?
GENERATE 211
I went ahead and gave myself the “Monday Morning Challenge� of writing out the word Transmedia in anyway my heart desired. I needed some visuals to work with to see how it looked in a logo, and so I created these three visuals pretty quickly.
I used my visualizations to start playing with the logo. I knew I wanted something simple and digital as the second part to come back to that main medium that these students work in: Digital.
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When working on these logos with the handwritten "Transmedia", I was thinking a lot about the idea of having this hand created visual placed with the digital and used as a mark for the program. I added the bar over design to signify a linkage. I liked the idea of connecting the letter forms of ‘DESIGN’ to reference that collaborative nature of this program, and of passing information and ideas from one person to another. In the last iteration I added in the anchor points that were shown when editing it in Illustrator. I thought this commented on our work being never finished, always being able to go back and pull from it, edit it, or continue it. And again, it really hit on that digital medium that we have in common and balanced out the hand graphic.
Generating Source Visuals I needed to see how other people would actually respond to the task of writing the word, so I asked Emily Gilles and some of the juniors in the studio to write out the word ‘Transmedia’ however they wanted. They could use any material, however they wanted to do it, it just had to fit in a 8.5 x 3.66 inch frame. A few other juniors came in, saw what they were doing and came over to me to ask if they could create one too! This was great, because to me it said that they thought that the activity looked like fun. Some of them did just one, some did three. They came up with some really interesting visualizations of the word, and they definitely had a good time while doing it.
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Logo Experiments
FEEDBACK 217
I had been working on this for a while and needed to step back and get some feedback. I had Anna take a look at it. She liked the pairing of the computer-made with the changing hand graphic. However, she didn’t like the blue anchor points, and wasn’t sure about the line above ‘DESIGN’. She felt that her eyes didn’t know where to focus with the anchor points, and maybe if they were removed that the bar separating the two parts would work better. Tara had similar feedback, but mentioned that the anchor points might not read well when small. She also agreed with Anna that the bar above ‘DESIGN’ wasn’t quite right. She referred to my hand visual with the linking letter forms and said I might want to do that kind of thing instead of the bar. She also suggested I try doing the logos in a monotone or a duo-tone to unite them a bit more, which had been a previous comment in critique that I hadn’t gotten to and kind of forgot about! Tara liked what I had said about the manipulation of the visuals being similar to the evolution of ideas, and suggested I make a GIF. She showed me a super cool open source application called NormalType. It allowed you to manipulate text and created a GIF out of your changes to the type.
GENERATE
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I went ahead and tested out different monotone and duo-tone combinations and placed them in the logo to see how they interacted, and to see if that would work in the logo. I wasn’t thrilled with the result.
I also realized I hadn’t tested out the manipulations to see how those would work, and to see if they functioned as I pictured in my head. I thought it was pretty cool, and created a GIF out of the logos on the next page.
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The Mobile App As I was thinking about the app and website, and how they would function together, I realized that the app really could have all of the functionalities that I was putting into the website. Why not have it be one more streamlined system (in App form) instead of two systems that have to use both to function.
The orange just isn’t going to cut it. It’s horrible.
IDEATE 225
I think that these visuals need to be locked after three edits. This way the logos don’t get just absolutely crazy and pointless. Still with three edits they are pretty crazy, but with a couple, they can be interesting. How should I designate retired visuals? A different section in the gallery? Can these still be selected to be the default logo, so they are just uneditable? Or are they done and done once retired and used as the logo once? Should an evolution animation of how the logo has been changed be what is actually shown on the program’s website? So the user would click “Make Default Logo” and it would generate an animation from that visuals past versions. This would solve some of the problem with the edits getting too crazy, because you would be able to see where it started.
GENERATE 226
App - Version 2 The about screen states: “Welcome to UTK Transmedia Design’s App. Every Monday morning the MFA students in Transmedia Design are asked to visualize the word ‘Transmedia’. Those students will then upload their visuals to this application. These visuals can then be viewed in the gallery. But here is the fun part, any UTK art student can edit these visuals and select the visual that is currently used as the logo on the MFA Transmedia Design Website. The Rules:
•• A visual can only be edited three times. It is then retired from further edits.
•• Tap the gray star under a visual to choose it to be the current •• ••
logo on the website. A yellow star under a visual means that it is already the current logo. Tap the heart to like the visual. The most liked visuals each month will be used on lecture posters and other print material... it is all up to you which logos those are!”
FEEDBACK
Critique 12/3
•• What if they don’t have a smart phone? •• •• •• •• ••
•• ••
“Then they probably aren’t needing to be in Transmedia.” -Anna Maybe there could be a way for critiquing. As in, they post a project, and others can give feedback. Worried that people might not continue using the app. By setting the rule that they have to do it every morning, and with a professor enforcing that, you are more likely for students to participate. There will always be new content. At some point you might run out of other students that want to participate, but probably have enough longevity. One of the problems on this is that it is very dependent on input from a very specific demographic. Not everyone has smartphone. There needs to be a web option. Explaining it well, but maybe over complicating the app. The editing thing on your phone might be the only part thats not be appropriate for your phone. Auto-manipulate? The app generates different distortions and stuff, click next until you like one. Maybe do an auto-editing. They can crop it, but allow the app to select the white. Will selecting the white blow it out? Hopefully not, but if there is a web option, then they could scan it.
•• Enjoy the contribution aspect, and database feel, but the
•• •• •• •• ••
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logos lack a consistency. They don’t belong to the same visual language. How can we tell these people to write this word Transmedia in a certain way, or within contraints, so they will have a similar feel. Ex. Conditional Design. Start with the rules, and how you set it up. Maybe use weekly rules, each week they change, but not so much that they become inconsistent again. Don’t need to comp out an entire website screen-by-screen. Not sold on how ‘DESIGN’ is connected, but like the constant element. (So don’t have them write design too.) Can liked my visual example that Tara had mentioned that she liked as well (blue and connected). Also liked DESIGN small and in Gotham, but if I wanted to try and connect the letterforms, try Futura Bold, something super geometric. I could try something super faint as well, with a really light stroke. Most geometrically modified things are done with Futura. App might need to change once the constraints are set up. Don’t want them to look SO separate from each other.
•• *Can immediately turns to Emily Hennen* “You’re so hyper this morning.”
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Final Steps I was trying to work through a different ideas for constraints to the generating step of these visuals to unite them visually, and really I think the most feasible solution is a simple color constraint. I really have wanted to keep this open to play for the students generating the visuals, and for that reason, I don’t want to limit the materials used. I was trying to see if I could use a few colors in the constraint, like seen in the red, blue, and green examples on the last page. However, I feel that with other media beyond markers, it will still lack a visual cohesiveness. Therefore, I think a black and white constraint will be the most flexible for them in their creation stage, yet still provide the unity I am looking for.
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References 1. http://www.sanvans.com/site/index2.php?tags=WORK 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvtS5Asd0Ws 3. http://idsgn.org/posts/design-discussions-april-greiman -on-trans-media/ 4. http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/the_transmedia_desig.html 5. http://identitydesigned.com/dezeen-watch-store/ 6. http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/ ocad_u_all_new.php 7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwTPOnic-TY 8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx082gDwGcM &feature=gv
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9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RH9OoaFOGM& feature=player_embedded#! 10. http://www.helenarmstrong.us/portfolio/linked -student-co-created-animation/ 11. http://vimeo.com/11199276 12. http://lust.nl/#projects-3041 13. http://lust.nl/posterwall/ 14. http://lust.nl/#projects-3465 15. http://art.yale.edu/Home
WHAT I LOOK LIKE AT 7 AM OCTOBER 29
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THIS SEMESTER Reflection I have put a lot of work into this semester. I do every semester, but I have been really focused on growing as a designer and making my work the best that it can be instead of just trying to do well in my classes. I have learned that it really is more about what I can learn from my classes than what grade I get. However, with that effort I have put in to really do my best, I did not realize the pressure I had put on myself. I did not do a very good job at managing stress this semester. I didn’t really realize that I was more stressed until I realized that other peoples’ stress and drama was affecting me just by hearing about it. I try and be a good friend and listen to others’ venting and troubles, but I think I need to find a way to minimize that exposure next semester if I get to this level of stress again. Over Christmas break, I am really going to try and find a little place of zen and really dig deep into what exactly has caused me to feel this way so that I can take care of that before next semester. I do know that it got worse at the end of the semester when I stopped running, so maybe that is something that I need to make a schedule for that I commit to for next semester.
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Looking back at my projects, generally I am happy with them. I feel that I have done a pretty good job of turning them in at a finished and professional-looking level. However, that does not mean that I wouldn’t make changes to them. I think that the self-branding project has a huge potential to grow, especially in regards to data gathering and analysis. So I think this is a good avenue to explore in terms of my Thesis project. I am excited for a break to get myself back on track mentally, and I am really excited to see what next semester brings.
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