Journey book josie mathews by Josielouisemat

Visual Systems Journey Book Josephine Mathews Level 5 (BA) Hons Graphic Design

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Design is not just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it worksâ&#x20AC;? Steve jobs

Visual systems is the unit I worked on at Arts University Bournemouth in the first term of second year. One function of Graphic Design is to synchronise and co-ordinate different kinds of material and content in order to communicate a coherent and comprehensible flow of information. This unit explores ways of constructing systems of rules, scripts, specifications and templates to constrain and focus graphic expression. Such visual systems can range from typographic grids, which can be designed in such a way to permit a designer to produce a wide variety of layouts, to a tightly defined system of rules that generates graphic outcomes independent of any further engagement by a designer. In this unit we had to consider the role of heirarchy in structuring information by categorising, sequencing, and prioritising content, as well as the way in which systems unify content across a range of different media and sites of display. This unit will explore ways in which graphic systems map other kind of systems.

Visual Synthesis: Portrait of campus Pages 10-65

Wayfinding

Pages 68-125

Industry brief: Good Energy

Pages 128-161 6

Industry visit: Fitch Pages 164-175

Book Design Pages 178-185

â&#x20AC;&#x153;...the systems approach involves the pursuit of truth (science) and its effective use (technology), plenty (economics), the good (ethics and morality), and beauty and fun (aesthetics).â&#x20AC;? Russell L. Ackoff

Assignment 1: Visual Synthesis In this project we worked in teams of 5 to map, analyse and recreate the data systems of Arts University Bournemouth within a set of synthesized visual systems. Firstly we had to map the campus, breaking down the map into modular elements to cover the whole of AUB. We then had to analyse selected elements and deconstruct these elements into systems and data. Once we had our data we had to re-deploy the data to synthesize imaginative visual systems and then use the visual systems to develop outcomes for elements of a studio exhibition. I initially found the brief to be a little complex but once broken down it became clearer and since it is open to so many outcomes it makes the journey in creating one exciting and important for developing my skills in graphic design.

Initial ideas: mindmapping In my group I was working with Lewis Son, Jack Hurley and Stefan Man. First we all mind mapped our ideas before starting research. I explored many ideas such as looking at people; their interactions, conversations, feelings, light; shadows and how light changes throughout the day, materials; different materials in different areas and clothes people wear, sound; distinctive and varying sounds in different locations, temperature; how it changes in different areas depending on time and many more. I wanted to explore as many ideas as possible since I found the brief to be very flexible. We all met up to collaborate and discuss our explored ideas; the others looked at smoking, pollution, lights, chairs, people looking at phones, binary code, interactivity, recycling and more. We decided to collect our own data on a single idea we had selected to see which was most consistent. I decided to look into people and their feelings since that would be quite a unique perspective of the university. CAR PARK ENTRANCE ENTERPRISE PAVILION

WORKSHOP

WEST BUILDING

UNIVERSITY HOUSE

STUDIO THEATRE

ARTS BAR REFECTORY

RECEPTION

GALLERY ORIGINS CAFE

LIBRARY

NORTH BUILDING

Key Entrances Lifts Stairs

NORTH LIGHT STUDIOS

Toilets Disabled Toilets

Initial ideas: Feelings I put up 6 posters around the university asking people to write how they feel (and why), I felt that getting an understanding of the studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feelings would convey a more personal and unique perspective of the campus. It was simply an experiment to see if people would write on them and surprisingly after a few hours quite a few people had. People expressed many moods from frustration to happiness. Once I had the data however I felt a little stuck as to how I could could take it further, I questioned what further research I could conduct to gain more data; perhaps asking questionaires or to fill out a survery or more posters. After discussion with the group we felt the data was too vague and we decided to not take it further and develop the other ideas.

Research: Recycling We decided to go with the idea of recycling in AUB since itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a prominent system and lots of data can be collected. We recorded the amount of recycling bins and normal bins in different locations inside and outside the university and took the primary research further photographing the contents within some of the bins.

Bins

Location

Recycling bins

Uni House

Outside

Workshop

North building

Fine art

Canteen + Arts bar

Costume + Fashion

Library

Research: Contents of bins We decided to look through and photograph the contents of some of the bins to get an idea of what was been recycled where and to extend our primary research. We learnt that generally depending on the location more items were recycled than others, for example outside coffee cups and food packaging.

Research: Recyling and waste We all decided to do secondary research on recycling and waste to see what we could find out to develop the ideology further. I researched online and learnt some significant facts: • An average person throws away 7 times their body weight each year. • We make 20x more plastic compared to 1950 • Recycling one plastic bottle can save enough energy needed to power a 60 watt light bulb for 6 hours. • Globally an estimated 1 million birds and 100k marine animals & sea turtles die every year from endangerment in, or ingestion of plastics. • About 20k toness of Aluminium foil (worth £8m) is wasted each year, only 3k tonnes is recycled (£1.2m). • If we produce steel from recycled materials it saves 75% of the energy needed to make it from orginal materals. • Every day 80 million food and drinks cans end up in landfills. • The UK use 6 billion glass bottles and jars each year. • Every year each family throws away 6 trees worth of paper.

Research: Mobius logo We decided to also research on the recycling mobius logo as we wanted to incoportate it within our design. • The one pack recycling label. • It appears on all sorts of packaging from soft drink cans to bread bags and plastic bottles. • It says what type of packaging it is and whether it is recyclable • The mobius logo is three chasing arrows with the arrows twisting and turning among themselves. • Based on August Ferdinand Mobius, the 19th century mathematician, he discovered that a strip of paper twisted once over and joined at the tips formed a continuous, single edged one sided surface. • It was designed by Gary Anderson in September 1976.

“The figure was designed as a mobius strip to symbolize continuity with a finite entity. I used the arrows to give directionality to the symbol...I wanted to suggest both the dynamics (things are changing) and the static (it’s a static equilibirum, a perminant kind of thing).” Gary Anderson

Research: Generative systems I researched into generative systems and generative art to gain a better understanding of this system. A generative system is one that has a pre-determined set of rules that give rise to a range of unpredictable results. You determine the rules and the rules determine the design. A simple method could be to take a dice and assign 6 colour squares to each surface. You roll the dice 6 times and a pattern of 6 horizontal colour squares emerge as a result. The notion of generative systems has a wide application and can be found in approaches to art and music. A model in contrast to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;static modelsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is the description of computational algorithms in a generative design process; Algorithm as a model. These algorithms are instructions, simple rules which evolve multiple states. These new models therefore allow us to simulate the complexity of urban and architectural systems. These dynamic simulations may enable us to understand how systems work or how spontaneous pattern formations occur.

Research: Plastics • Nearly all types of plastics can be recycled - however the extent to which they are recycled depends upon technical, economic and logistic factors. • As a valuable and finite resoruce, the optimum recovery route for most plastic items at the ‘end-of-life’ is to be recycled, preferably back into a product that can then be recycled again and again and so on. • The UK uses over 5 million tonnes of plastics each year of which an estimated 24% is currently being recovered or recycled.

Design process: Ideas After researching we came together as a group to discuss ideas on what we can do with our data. We came up with the idea of using Augmented Reality within our design in some way, we thought of creating an A1 print or slab of acrylic with the title ‘recycling’ and a redesigned personalised mobius logo to represent recycling in AUB. We thought to create a tracker to scan with the app Augment and a 3D image would appear, whether it be a redesigned logo or data representation we were unsure yet. Here I am showing the mock up of the poster design with the title Recycle and the tracker for the Augmented Reality element, at the bottom we thought to display general facts on recycling and perhaps include AUB’s sustainability policy. The idea is that it will convey relevant information on recycling and represent our data in a unique and engaging way; using Augmented Reality will add curiousity to our design and will be a unique clever technical representation.

RECYCLE

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Design process: Ideas We thought about how we could represent the data for each building and came up with the idea of creating 10 slabs of acrylic, 8 for each area/building, 1 for a whole map of campus and 1 for instructions on how to scan with the Augment app. We would spray paint the base of a building (like a birdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye view) onto each slab and laser cut the location, for example; university house. The instruction slab would also be laser cut. We would then perhaps put the slabs stacked up into a clear acrylic box. We thought about what 3D imagery would appear once the slabs were scanned and thought that perhaps it could be a low poly generative art shape, this would be a 3D shape with points created directly from the data. It would create an abstract and interesting representation of the data.

Research & process: Augmented reality I decided to research Augmented Reality so I had a better understanding of it. Augmented Reality is a technology that super imposes a computer generated image on a userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a live, direct or indirect view of a physical, real world enviroment whose elements are augmented by a computer generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called meditated reality, in which a view of reality is modified by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s current perception of reality.

Testing stage We created a tracker, an image that the camera will record which a 3D model will appear on. It needs to have lots of corners and complexity so the camera will track it from all angles more easily. We discovered that the tracker with more lines has more referring points meaning the app scanned it better.

Design process: Augmented reality Testing stage We used cinema 4D to create the 3D models and used the word â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;fireâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as a simple testing model. With 3D typography it looked a lot better than the low poly shape which represented the data; it looked a little weak in appearance.

Design process: Augmented reality Cinema 4D We used a software called Cinema 4D to create the models for the augmented reality. This complex software was used by one of my team members Jack, these images will show when the trackers on our posters are scanned. This particular model is the personalised AUB recycling logo Lewis and I designed to represent the recycling system data in our project. This software was vital for our project since it allowed us to use the Augment Reality element to our full advantage.

Design process: Tutorial We discussed our design ideas with our tutor Alice in a tutorial, from this we explored what to change and what to continue with. • Look into the contents in bins and find out what the most recycled piece is. • Instead of a low-poly shape to represent the data the shape could be the most recycled iterm from each area e.g workshop: wood. We can just assume this. • Instead of seeing the clear data we should present our information with a clever visual representation, not an info-graphic. • The tracker could represent a graph of the information (data). • Alice really liked our idea narrative, she very much liked the innotive interaction but the slabs are too aesthetic, they’re too focused and less conceptual. Our idea is richer than a small visual acrylic slab. • The trackers could be placed on different recycling bins around the area for people to scan. • Transforming the data into a low-poly shape is infographics land. We’re sticking too much with our data, we need an extra piece towards our design process. We need to expand on the info-graphic and take it a step further. • The Augmented Reality element is really good.

Visual research: AUB branding We looked at AUB branding to gain inspiration when it came to designing our personalised AUB mobius logo, we were greatly inspired by the bright colours and bold bright curved shapes.

Design process: Logo ideas Lewis and I took the mobius logo and experimented with redesigning it to be an element of our design, we wanted to portray recycling inspired by the 3 arrows within the mobius logo but also relate it to AUB so it would specifically represent recycling as a system. I began experimenting with designs in my sketch book; I cut up AUBâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leaflets and played around with them seeing what I could create.

AUB

AUB AUB

AUB

Design process: Logo concept We decided to include this logo since it will represent recycling at AUB effectively as a system and this logo can be incorporated into all recycling bins at AUB. We decided to use the colours of AUB branding which is a fluorescent orange and a mint green. We also used the most similar type face to the one AUB uses on itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s printed material and website and put the logo in the curved square that is the AUB logo. We wanted to show the 3 arrows of the Mobius recycling logo but in a less obvious and more suggestive way. We used the software Illustrator to design it since this software enabled us to experiment effectively with the design playing around with colour, shape and size.

AUB

Design process: Finalised logo We chose these 4 logos as our favourites and changed the green so it matched the exact green from the AUB website (using Photoshop).We conducted a survey (with other students on our course) to see which was the favourite. The top left one was voted the most by everyone we asked so it was the logo we decided to use. This logo was deemed to be the most salient in design and was deemed to portray AUBâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s identity most effectively as well as the static directionality of the Mobius recycling logo. The logo stands out more possibily because of the dynamism suggested by the 3D feel of the shapes.

Design process: Ideas After the tutorial with Alice we decided to scrap using the slabs and using acrylic at all since Alice said they were â&#x20AC;&#x153;too aesthetic, too focused and conceptualâ&#x20AC;? and we agreed. We thought instead to create 9 A2 printed posters. 1 printed poster will contain instructions on how to use Augment and scan the trackers, each of the other prints will contain the trackers to represent the data for each area. We redesigned the trackers to represent the data on an infographic chart (of the amount of recycling bins for each area) with the points joined to create an abstract geometric shape. When the trackers are scanned a 3D Augment model will appear for each area and the model will be the least recycled item in that area. Stefan used a colour system creating the colour pantones for each area from the amount of bins in those areas to use for each specific print.

Design process: Print mock ups We showed our orginal finalised posters to Alice with the augmented 3D models and she said that there was too much information on the posters, we only needed the location and the text saying Scan me, the data of the bins in the bottom right corner was irrelevant and unclear. The bars of colours were too bright and bold and took away from the graphical image of the trackers so we redesigned them to be lighter more pastel sold colours so the trackers would stand out and be the focus of the prints. Alice said the augmented models needed to be more engaging, perhaps facts as apposed to the message stating ‘start recycling ......’, however we found that including facts would be too long and the message still needed to be simple so instead we came up with creating a print saying “Can you guess what needs to be recycled more in these areas?” and then the answer to the question once scanned with an image of that model to make it more engaging. We also redesigned the posters to be squares as apposed to A2 prints.

Design process: Ideas Each poster for each area will have a 3D image like this appearing once scanned to show what needs to be recycled more. In the University house it’s paper, outside it’s coffee cups and food, in the workshop it’s wood, in the north building it’s paper, in the fine art building it’s everything, at costume and fashion it’s fabric, in the canteen and arts bar it’s food and in the library it’s books and paper. We wanted to communicate our data in a more abstract and innotive way as well as creating interactivity and inspiring people to recycle more.

Printing: Final Piece Our finalised prints measured 420mm by 420mm. As opposed to being rectangle we changed them to squares so they fit together as a grid nicely and are more visually pleasing. We played around with changing the colours of the trackers but found that the app Augment struggled to scan a different colour as it blended too much with the background so we kept it to black, they stood out better as black against the background colours anyway. We removed all irrelevant information and simply kept the location and the message saying Scan me. We also removed the instruction poster as it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hugely needed, we could simply just explain how to use the app Augment.

Final prints

Final evaluation In this project I worked with Stefan Man, Lewis Son and Jack Hurley. Our project effectively presented the recycling system of AUB through 11 prints and augmented reality. I feel that our final design was a sleek and unique way to present data, however there are several elements that could be improved and if we were given more time we could take our idea a lot further. According to the final critique we had a good visual system in place with actual data but it needs more of a story and a payoff, the engagement needs to be extended and more elements can be added. They discussed improvements to our design was to perhaps add an emotive application – adding emotion to the trackers making them expressions would make it more engaging and personal, also it was mentioned that our piece was partly abstract and partly a campaign, it falls apart as a campaign but the abstract quality was beautiful. If we had more time we could take our design a lot further developing it into an app so the trackers could be scanned from a unique recycling within university app, apply the trackers to recyclable merchandise such as coffee cups and perhaps link the trackers to a website enabling much more communication of relevant and interesting information – this is where the information we researched on recycling and wasted materials could play a part. Our piece effectively was an acquiring of knowledge through visual imagery but the visuals lacked value, a hierarchy was needed. The augmented 3D models which appeared once scanned contrasted to the sleek design of the prints, they lacked value and were a little dull, I feel that if we had more time we would make them more engaging as apposed to just typography and a model it could be a moving animation or more factual, we did find however if the augmented models were facts they would be too long and would look naf.

From this assignment I have learnt about augmented reality, generative systems and art, general visual systems and how to identify, record and present them in a unique and abstract way. Focusing on the group dynamic I personally feel that the distribution of work was unfair and the communication of ideas was fairly weak, although we met up to discuss and direct our ideas and tasks I felt that a couple members of the group decided to take on the majority of the workload designing the layouts and trackers for the posters and the models without much discussion within the group, I felt left out and found I was not given much of a chance to input my ideas on the layout and models; there was little direction for myself and another member of the group, we felt we could have contributed a lot more but were not given the chance. This hindered the overall design since it could have been developed further with every single member’s input and if more communication and direction was given we could have all equally contributed meaning more production of significant work (all contributing to the design process which is key within this assignment; I have found that working with a design process is key in creating a good design). Also a big hindrance to the final design was the fact that a team member was away abroad and gave absolutely no input which left us as a group of 4 instead of 5; to improve in future I feel like the group should all meet up and clearly discuss who does what or meet up to design and experiment together rather than individual members getting on with it leaving other members with little to do and little opportunity to contribute. I generally tried my best to record all ideas and development within my reflective journal and sketch book as it helped me develop my ideas and understand the other member’s ideas better.

In the future I feel I will be more confident with a step by step structured process of: initial ideas, primary research, secondary research, idea development and experimentation which will lead to the final outcome, all these steps are necessary for creating a decent design. We learnt in our first tutorial with Malcom and Martin that we were too focused with ‘ideas’ when they haven’t formed into ideas yet, they were only starting points which after further development would turn into sufficient ideas. We initially decided to collect data on different systems within the campus which we were curious about since from our own brain storms we had come up with many different ideas; to narrow them down more we felt it was necessary to focus on a single idea each and see how much data we could collect from them. We collected data on feelings which was my idea, the amount of recycling bins and normal bins in different areas of the campus, the amount of fire exits and fire extinguishers in and around the campus and the amount of opening and closing doors. I put up 6 posters around the campus asking people to write how they feel and why, I felt that recording the emotions of the people within the university is engaging and interactive and offers a unique perspective of AUB but it was only experimental and although lots of people did write on the posters as a group we felt it was difficult to take the idea further. After group discussion we decided to go with the idea of recycling in AUB since it’s a prominent system and lots of data can be collected; so from recording the amount of recycling bins and normal bins there were in individual areas (outside, north building etc) we had a fair amount of data which we could use to inform our design process.

We all individually researched on plastics, recycling facts, AUB’s sustainability, augmented reality, generative art, the Mobius logo and generative systems – these helped inform our process since the facts gave us a better understanding of recycling and provided us with necessary information we could use in our piece. Researching augmented reality was informative for myself since I have never used it before and was curious to learn more so I had a better understanding of it. On the whole the most necessary research contributing to our idea was the primary data and the technical research so we could understand the augmented reality better which a team member had shown us. Overall this project helped me understand visual systems better and how to collect and record relevant data to turn into an abstract presentation of a system, I feel that our overall design was generally aesthetically pleasing and unique with the augmented reality element; it communicated the data and the recycling of AUB through the imagery but there is a lot of room for improvement and a better design could have been created if the group dynamic was stronger and we communicated better with each other.

Development: How can we take it futher? Applying the designs directly to coffee cups would promote recycling and make it more engaging, we could apply it directly to other things such as recycling bins and food packaging. We could also take the augmented models a lot further making them more engaging or rewarding once scanned, we could also link the trackers to a specific website on recycling in AUB with bold facts.

“Alzheimer’s disease results in marked declines in navigation skills that are particulary pronounced in unfamiliar enviroments... People with Alzheimer’s disease would have an easier transition moving into new residences if these larger, and often more institutional, enviroments were designed to compensate for decreasing orientation skills.” Dr Jan Wiener

Assignment 4: Wayfinding In this brief we had to work in groups of 4 to design a wayfinding system for people with dementia living in care homes. This system must demonstrate ease of navigation, encourage independence, while at the same time be a pleasing environment within which to live. In our groups we will identify a specific location or sets of locations within a care-home enviroment, and use the creative strategies within visual systems to produce a comprehensive wayfinding system for our users. It is crucial that we research the users and associated symptoms of dementia to engage with the specific context of this project, and understand the issues associated with dementia and navigation. I initially felt like this brief sounded quite challenging introducing me to a new system of design so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. I can see that research (especially secondary) is a key element in this brief since to produce an effective design a full understanding of wayfinding and people suffering from dementia is vital. I am looking foward to learning more about visual systems and how to tackle real world design problems.

Research: Signage and wayfinding design We decided as a group to conduct key research before any idea generation to gain a better understanding of the context, the user and wayfinding. I initially began researching on wayfinding to learn more about it, I got a key book out the library called signage and wayfinding design, this book explained wayfinding thoroughly, different forms and examples of wayfinding and how to effectively create a wayfinding system for a client in industry.

Research: Signage and wayfinding design Firstly I learnt from this book that if signage for wayfinding is needed it should be one of confirmation, to make a visitor comfortable with the path taken - it is far better to say too little than too much. To quote Mies;

“Less is more” Signage either adds some degree of quality to the enviroment in which it finds itself or it takes something away, diminishing the experience by being distracting to a visitor. If a message is there and is unnecessary, that’s a serious distraction that should be avoided. If a message is too big or visually loud if it overwhelms and negates other things such as the feeling of architectural materials, the play of light, reflections, the texture of surfaces, transparency, distant views and a myriad of other enviromental elements, including the presence of other people, then the message is not quite right. (The same goes for it being too small). The best signage is in the right place at the right time, considers the viewer, and is neither overly repetitive nor demanding - it seems to take on an air of invisibility. It’s there, but it’s taken in and taken for granted.

Research: Signage and wayfinding design An opportunity exists for signage to add considerably to the excellence of any built enviroment, adding, by careful attention to details, colour, compatible materials, and most importantly good typography that is easy to read and has character, often to reinforce the style and standards of the place, institution, or company which stands behind it. Signage and wayfinding are most commonly expressed in unified sign programs that informationally and visually knit together a sight. Typically, the primary objective of a signage program is to help people find their way through the enviroment, whereas effective wayfinding solutions often require more than wayfinding alone - pathways, other visual cues, prominant landmarks, human guides, portable GPS systems. A key objective in wayfinding is to enable each person to form a mental map of a site or environment, so the clearer the physical layout of the site, the clearer those mental maps will be. Even the most carefully conceived sign programs canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t solve all the problems of navigating a site that contains confusing pathways. Placemaking (such as banners or sculptures) creates a distinctive image for a sight, and can be expressed in several ways, Signage and interpretive exhibits can create a sense of place, as can gateways, portals, gathering points and landmarks. What separates placemaking, ih the EGD sense (Enviromental graphic design), from other forms of placemaking is the explicit communication of information. Without this communication placemaking becomes an exercise of architecture, interior design, scultpture and so on.

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Research: Signage pyramid model In the book Signage and Wayfinding Design it mentioned the signage pyramid model. The signage pyramid approach is a classic divide-andconquer strategy for solving a complex problem. By breaking down a complicated, nebulous, seemingly insurmountable signage problem into itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s component parts, each of those parts can be more readily solved. The signage pyramid method views all signage problems as composed of three distinct but interactive systems, just itemised, that must be balanced in the design process.

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1) How did the patients get around? The patients had 1:1 help with walking around, and had to be observed. These were patients with end stage dementia in an end stage dementia ward. However when I had a placement in the hospital, they generally just walked around, and there were no sign posts to help them if they got confused-usually a nurse would direct them back to their room. 2) How did they react to modern technology? (E.g TV, computer, laptop, iPad, interactive systems) I looked after a patient who had Alzheimers (most common type of dementia), and we watched Laurel and Hardy together as he said he used to love watching it. He really laughed and didn't get scared by the TV. No patients were shown computers or laptops, but were given newspapers to read and were read to. 3) How long did it take for the new patients to adjust to their surroundings - learn their way round? In a different setting in the hospital they got used to it quite quickly as were only short term patients (i.e. if they had falls), most of the time though they were in bed and didn't really walk around. I also worked in a dementia assessment ward (to see if they are suffering from signs of dementia), and it took them a little while to get their head around where to go, and where there room was. One guy just kept walking through the corridors not knowing where he was. 4) How did the newcomers cope with the new environment? A lot of them didn't particularly like it, as it wasn't their home, and in lucid moments wanted to go home and thought their family was coming to pick them up. A lot of the time though they weren't aware of their surroundings and so generally just sat down and didn't interact with anyone/anything. 5) What were the most significant things that they forgot? Generally the patient forgot who they were, and kept asking why we were in their home. They also forgot things like family, generally not recognising who they were. 6) What were the most significant things that they remembered? One man (who I watched Laurel and Hardy with) always remembered his wife, never forgot her- and always asked when she was coming home. Another man was a Pharmacist and he never forgot that so moved around furniture saying 'lets get to work' and thought that all the staff were his assistants (so we played along with the story). 7) What was the signage like where you worked? (The sign posts for directions) From what I remember there wasn't really any signposts in the settings I worked in, as usually we would direct them if they got lost. 8) Were there any significant patterns of behaviour within all the patients? Aggression as were confused about everything, frustration, detached. One woman had both manic depression and dementia; so had moments of remembering who she was and was really sweet and kind and the next was really angry and started to hit you! 9) Was the nursing home homely or too aesthetic, how did the patients like the environment? The nursing home was quite homely in the main room and they made it communal, so the patients all sat down together and ate. Yet their rooms lacked homely feels, and were too aesthetic. 10) When the patients get aggressive what calms them down? Most of the time took them to a quiet room, one guy calmed down when he listened to classical music.

Research: Questions My sister previously worked in a care home caring for dementia patients when she did her degree in nursing so we constructed some relevant questions to ask her to learn more about how the people with the illness coped in a new enviroment. From this we learnt that generally the patients were confused with their memory, agrressive at times, get lost easy, home sick, scared, not recognising who they are, detached, appreciated TV and the hospital lacked signage, they generally relied on help from the nurses to get around.

Research: Lost in space I also researched into a book called Architecture and Dementia, Lost in Space. It was a very informative book exploring in depth people suffering from dementia and how they perceive space, light and architecture. Memory panels, boxes, and display cases that hold biographical items that pertain to the residents’ life histories are an important part of historic interior design concepts that cater for the specific needs of people affected by dementia. These are typically installed in the hallways and entrance areas of live-in residential facilities to assist orientation and stimulate a sense of identification. As a part of therapy, these can be augmented by visual or acoustic stimuli such as birdsong, the sound of a stream gently flowing, or materials that can be touched (such as tree bark), that awake personal memories and invite interaction.

There was an example of a dementia sufferer and how she changed her enviroment to cope with the illness. She seems to become less, differently and no longer ‘automatically’ anchored in space, she made changes in her home in order to deal with this, she started claiming certain spaces in the house and, with the help of her husband and assistants re-organised them in a particular way. Since she began living with dementia, Mary has claimed particular belongings and spaces in the house for her own; in the kitchen she has her own cupboard with her cornflakes, cup and glass, always kept in the same place. In the sitting room she has her special arm chair, with her blankets, her coffee table, hers books, her drinks and her candle. She can’t stand people sitting in her chair or eating her candy without asking. The places in the house that Mary claims for her own are organised in such a way that they make it easier for her to mediate space, easier in terms of physical and cognitive effort.

Research: Lost in space â&#x20AC;&#x153;Identity is: to own, if you cannot identify yourself (with the house) then you do not dwell, then you lodgeâ&#x20AC;? claims John Habracken. Including identity as a dimension of orientation thus implies that orientation is considered not merely a matter of wayfinding, i.e knowing how to get from one location to another, and relates to questions like: can I be myself here? Can I find a place for my own? Do I feel at home in this place? Our sense of space is a projection in the mind of each of us, which is why the impression that a room makes differs from person to person. For people with dementia, the availability of dual options is particulary valuable, enabling people to calm down and become themselves. One-sided options forcibly constrain an environment that for many residents is already much smaller than they are used to. A variety of spaces give people the freedom to live their own lives in harmony with others and creates a basis from which people can get to know each other. Dementia describes a disorder in which the progressive deterioration of cognitive faculties ultimately leads to a loss of the competencies one needs in everyday life. This is sometimes accompanied by non-cognitive disorders in the form of apathy, depression, aggression, sleep disorders and delusion, which are often a considerable burden for the patients themselves as well as their relatives.

Inital ideas: Mindmapping After conducting our research we met as a group and began brainstorming ideas for our wayfinding system. We originally came up with a whole range of ideas, such as some form of ID card each person will own which they can scan on a technical system built into a sofa and screens within picture frames which will present the current location of the patient and give them the directions back to their room. We also thought of bracelets the patients could wear as opposed to ID cards as they could lose them. The technical system with the directions will be personalised to each person so on the screen when they scan the card an image of themselves or something significant to them will appear such as a previous pet or a family member. We wanted to avoid interactivity or typography, simply just a visual demonstration of directions. We also thought of colour coded floors and personalised doors with images of their family or themselves on so they recognise them. We wanted to keep the system simple, welcoming, friendly and familiar but we found that doing this for people with dementia was proving to be very difficult, there were so many key elements to consider. We thought about placemaking too, perhaps incorporating large sculptures at key locations like the bathroom - this could be a large toilet sign or something so they would be easy to remember. We thought of themed floors like orchid floor and daisy floor, incoporating nature into the design would keep it as a calming and aesthetically pleasing environment.

Inital ideas: Sketches I sketched out a basic illustration of our ideas, at this point we felt they were quite weak and unoriginal, in need of lots of development. We spoke to Alice about our ideas and she said to break it down; recognising their room is key, maybe we should avoid using scanning bracelets as that seems too institutional and unfamiliar, we should see how the system would translate out to all spaces. We felt that a technical element was key and making it homely was important too but merging the two effectively was difficult.

Inital ideas: Themed floors Here I sketched out the possible look of the themed floors. I felt that incorporating nature into the care home enviroment would create a calming and soothing enviroment. However this element of the system felt inconsistent with our other ideas.

Inital ideas: Placemaking Here I sketched out the possible look of the placemaking sculptures, I thought of large male and female icons by the toilets, a large knife and fork by the canteen and possibly a large scultpture of a tree by the garden. At this point we as a group felt that in a normal wayfinding environment of a modern building these could work but for dementia patients they felt too bold, aesthetic and unfamliar.

Visual research: Placemaking I conducted some visual research on placemaking and supergraphics to get a better visual understanding of what it looks like in a real environment. The others conducted visual research on dementia carehomes and layouts, we needed some inspiration to further our idea generation as at this point we felt a little stuck and our ideas were inconsistent with each other.

Design process: Idea exploration We stuck up all our visual imagery and mind maps on the wall and began pulling apart our ideas and placing them on sticky notes to inspire further ideas. From this we came to the idea of wayfinding through a routine and thought how we could possibily create some sort of system to help dementia patients navigate through a routine as opposed to around the carehome. We felt a routine is a key element of everyday life and since the brief is asking us to encourage independence we wanted to explore the idea of how independent dementia patients in a care home are when it comes to finding their way through their general routine.

Research: BBC interviews We watched a few BBC interviews with dementia sufferers to continue our research and gain a more personal understanding of how they cope with the illness, they came up with specific techniques such as keeping everything in one place or a special box to avoid confusion. “I have to leave everything in my washing-up bowl to remind me whether I’ve had my beakfast or not because I can’t remember.” “I actually went for a whole day once without any food or drink because I never get hungry and I didn’t take my medications or anything - it was a disaster, you can imagine the next day I fell apart completely” “Doing ticks and boxes doesn’t work for me because I can’t remeber if I’ve ticked it or not.” “The only thing that works is to have a washing up bowl and to put the knife, fork and spoon into the bowl.”

“For sometime, i’ve struggled to remember whether i’ve cleaned my teeth, shaved, combed my hair in the morning when i wake up, so now what i do is i have a box. I take everything and once i’ve used it i place it back in the box.

It’s developing little straedgies like this that allow me to live independently and live well.”

Research: Colours I conducted further research online and decided to look into colours since we wanted to try and create a colour system for wayfinding through a routine. I learnt that generally red is stimulating and green calming, these two colours are generally universally recognisable and since people suffering from dementia have problems with memory these two colours are easily distinguishable and recognisable.

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‘Red is considered to be the most physiologically stimulating colour, it’s useful in areas of high activity.’ ‘Green is considered to be the most restful of colours and said to reduce activity in the central nervous system and help people feel calm.’

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Design process: Lightrings After watching the BBC videoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s presenting personal accounts of what itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s like to suffer with dementia we brain stormed in depth and discussed a wayfinding through a routine system, we wanted to focus on creating reminders to do the little things key to a daily routine such as brushing teeth and shaving; forgetting to do these simple tasks must be so frustrating. From researching the colours we decided to stick with using red to represent when something needs to be done and green to represent done, the colours are simple reminders to do simple tasks. We thought about how we would incorprate these colours into items, perhaps with small LED rings around the items that light up and change colour depending on whether an item is to be used to not. We pondered how the lightrings would go on the objects, whether they will be around the base on in a separate container that the item is stored in. We initally focused mainly on the toothbrush and morning routine.

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Design process: Tutorial We had a tutorial with our tutors Martin and Malcolm to discuss our ideas and where to take them from this point. We brought all ideas to the table including the themed floors and other elements but they felt that we needed to narrow our ideas down and really liked the whole wayfinding through a routine concept which by this point we had named â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;change of state.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; They discussed that we should design the colour coding system into the objects as opposed to additional so they would be part of the experience, not adding to it. To do this we would need to make the colours subtle but noticeable at the same time. From this we decided to focus on this concept and expanded it as much as we could in the time we had left.

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Design process: Mindmapping We called our new concept for wayfinding through a routine â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;change of stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; since the ideology behind it was exactly that, an object changing itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s state (whether it be colour or something else) to indicate whether it has been used or not. We all came up with ideas on how to apply the colour system of red and green to the objects and had a look at the general routine a dementia patient would have at a carehome. We thought about the items being stored in containers or cupboards which change colour when they are removed and put back, we thought about applying timers to the objects and whether we should keep the LED lighting or make it subtler since that could look a little too aesthetic and unfamiliar. We all decided from this point to sketch up our own basic illustrations of how the colour system could be applied (focusing on the morning routine).

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Design process: Sketches Here I have sketched out my general understanding of the concept change of state and how I would like to apply it to the objects and elements of a morning routine, I decided to focus mainly on the morning routine since this is a key and generic element of a day to day routine. I also thought of how it could be applied to cups or plates in the kitchen.

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Design process: Illustrations Here I skecthed out my illustrations on Illustrator of how I would implement the colour coding into the bathroom objects, I wanted to focus on the ideology of making the colours part of the experience as opposed to added to so put them within the designs of the objects. Also I felt that using LED lighting would look too aesthetic and clinical so decided that the colours would not light up and would be water resistant. The items would be on a timer so would stay green after use in the morning and by the evening would turn red again.

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Design process: Illustrations I also applied the colours to the shower so they would know whether they had showered in the morning too. The idea is that once they had showered the shower would turn green to represent that it had been used, it would be on a timer so would reset the next morning so they would be reminded on a daily basis whether they had used the shower or not.

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Design process: Illustrations In this sketch I wanted to represent the process of using the tooth brush and the colour change. I thought of perhaps having 1 or 2 holes by the sink where the items are kept such as the toothbrush, razor and soap. The hole on the left will have a red ring around it and all the items within it will be red, in the morning when the patient picks up the toothbrush and uses it, it will fade from red to green and they will put it in the other hole which will have a green ring around it. Once all the items have been used and have turned green they will be all placed in the green hole. By the evening the items in that hole will turn back to red along with the ring around the hole and the other hole will turn red so they can repeat the process every morning and evening and always be reminded by the colours whether the task has been done or not. This helps them maintain their independence and avoids the frustration at forgetting whether they had completed these daily tasks or not. I used the software Illustrator to create these designs, Illustrator was key in creating the visuals for this concept.

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Design process: Illustrations Here I have illustrated how the items would look before use and after use. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want the colours to be too obvious or too invisible and take over the objects, but be part of the design and be noticeable.

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Design process: Finalised illustrations We perfected our illustrations on Illustrator for our final presentation, we wanted to clearly show the colour change and the simplicity of this concept.

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problem:

Final presentation

‘I have to leave everything in my washing-up bowl to remind me whether I’ve actually had my breakfast or not because I can’t remember...’*

‘For sometime, I’ve struggled to remember whether I’ve cleaned my teeth, shaved, combed my hair in the morning when I wake up...’** Those suffering from dementia struggle to remember whether they had cleaned their teeth, washed their face, combed their hair and eaten meals. *http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31773339 **http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05zky7d

solution:

We recognised routine as a significant element in maintaining independence. We focused on bathroom items such as toothbrushes, razors and soap as well as kitchen utensils and plates because mealtimes are an important factor in daily life. Our system looked at changing the state of everyday items after use through a simple LED colour coding system; red represents ‘to do’ and green represents ‘done.’ This way, it would be immediately recognised that tasks such as cleaning your teeth had been carried out.

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WAYFINDING WITHIN A ROUTINE

Here we implemented the system directly into a toothbrush, imagining it would stay green until evening when the task needs to be repeated.

We considered a storage pot that used the same system as the toothbrush - this could possibly hold more items, eg a razor or comb.

Colour-changing pots installed directly into the bathroom surface. These would be on a timer so they could change over when the user needed to clean their teeth again.

We applied the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;state of changeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; idea to the grip of the toothbrush, imagining that it would expand after use for a while, making it harder and less appealling to use.

This is only a selection of ways in which the concept could be implemented; it could also be applied to texture, size, sound, or other interactions. The idea involves using two basic states to indicate the use of an object or appliance, and utilising the change of these states to aid memory and increase independence, it does not matter which form these states take, as long as they can be differentiated.

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Final evaluation In this project I worked with Hannah Spearman Oxx, Will Hunting and Abbie Smith. Our wayfinding system effectively took a different outcome for the brief presenting wayfinding through a routine. I feel our final concept was a very simple system yet effective one promoting independence for dementia patients when it comes down to remembering the simple tasks of every day life; we learnt through research that people suffering from dementia feel much frustration at being unable to remember whether they had completed these tasks or not. According to the final critique we had a nice simple product solution and it was questioned what other products we could use our system on. It was agreed that the system encourages a sense of independence and control and questioned what other elements we could add to it if we took the idea further such as sound, texture etc. It was also mentioned that the lights could confuse them if they changed colour and might make them feel that the product is not theirs since it looks different, perhaps we could work on making it subtler and more invisible yet recognisable none the less. We discussed in our presentation the possibilities this concept ‘change of state’ could be taken to if developed further, aside from focusing mainly on bathroom products we could apply it to the canteen – plates and cups could change from green to red once used, we could also apply it to medication or other general reminders such as ringing home or completing important personal tasks subject to the specific person; we could apply the change of state to the texture of items, they could change from one texture to another once used if the colours create too much of an unfamiliar environment and we could also apply this to sound, the possibilities are endless.

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From this assignment I have learnt a lot about people with dementia and their perception of reality, from how their memory is affected to their reaction to light, people and their surroundings. I also have learnt about wayfinding systems and how to develop an effective one whether it be signage, navigation systems or something completely different – the route we tried to take with this assignment. Focusing on the group dynamic I feel that as a group we all worked effectively with each other helping build on each others ideas and inputting a fair amount of time and effort, we could have been a little more organised with our time management and I feel it took us a little while to narrow down our ideas since there were so many on the table but the strength of our concept came with team work. This assignment was heavily research based so right from the start it was key of us as a team to gather as much relevant research as we could to gain a fluent understanding of the the user and context. I began by thoroughly looking through 2 key books, one called signage and wayfinding design and the other being lost in space (Dementia and architecture), both were packed with key information in relevance to the brief. From Waydinding design I gained a better understanding of wayfinding systems; it discussed the process of creating an effective wayfinding system, all aspects of wayfinding systems from signage to placemaking and lots of key examples – from reading this I found it much easier to brain storm ideas on creating a wayfinding system since I was well informed. The second book; lost in space went into great detail on dementia patients and architecture, It discussed the best environments for them, examples of people with dementia and how they can operate effectively within their homes independently and much more relevant and key information.

The key research which inspired our idea of change of state however was the BBC videos interviewing people with dementia we watched, they discussed how they managed to stay independent and what helped them remember what they had done, also heavily expressed their frustration and forgetting to do the little things such as brushing their teeth and combing their hair. From these we conducted further research on the internet to help inform our ideas such as the most relevant colours to use, also the questions I asked my sister on the dementia patients she cared for was very helpful for our understanding. Overall this project developed my knowledge on way finding systems and dementia, I feel that our overall concept was strong and simple but can be taken much further.

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Development: How can we take it futher? Taking the concept further as discussed in our final presentation we could venture from sticking to colours to using texture, applying a texture change of state to the tooth brush for example would be a subtler reminder whether it has been used or not and would look less aesthetic and clinical. Perhaps the toothbrush could expand once used or the surface material could change. This concept is only in itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s developmental stage considering the time we had for this brief so could be developed a lot further and applied to a lot more than just the bathroom.

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Assignment 5: Good Energy In this project we chose a live brief to work with and I selected Good Energy. An important aspect of this brief was a professional approach to presentation. A key requirement of any live project is an ability to communicate your ideas to your creative team and your external partners both visually and verbally. This brief aimed to exercise our ability to expand brands and extend the brandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s key message. We worked in groups of of 4 and I worked with Hannah Spearman Oxx, Marika Oshida and Mitch Mulley.

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1.0: Background (Setting the scene, reason for brief, context) At Good Energy we are in a transition point in our development, we’re growing up and need to grow up our brand as we do. In 2015 we have revisited our origins. We have revisited our mission to get a more defined company objective vision... The Good Energy Mission: To tackle climate change and the security of energy in the UK by turning the industry upside down and demonstrating a blueprint for what the future of energy in the UK can look like through championing energy generated by sunshine, wind and rain. To achieve this we need to be a commercial success story (otherwise it wouldn’t be a viable blueprint!). 2.0: Objectives (What trying to achieve / measures of success) We need to glue together what we already have with a brand promise that drives our brand territory (Progressive Energy) against our future target audience (Trend Adopters) without alienating our environmental heartland (Greens). We need a brand look and feel that is evolved out of our existing and we need customer facing key messages that drive our domestic acquisition advertising activities. 3.0: Target Audience (Who is it aimed at, what is useful to know about them) We have segmented the domestic and business customers from an energy point of view and have focused in on 3 segments with one as a bullseye. Our proposition will have elements that deliver against each of our key segments... Primary – Trend Adopters Secondary – Greens and savvy controllers. The mind-set that links all three together is that they are more engaged with energy per-se through technology but for differing motivations. Trend adopters is an interesting territory from a branding point of view. As the name suggests they are interested in new ways of doing things, it doesn’t have to be new technology, but technology can be a facilitator. They like Good Energy because we are offering an alternative to very established and old industry model. Good Energy offer a decentralised way of generating, through technologies that embrace the elements (weather) to generate electricity 4.0: Creative Requirement (Deliverables, What to be created, expectations, included OR not included) There are 3 elements: Brand Promise – born out of our brand territory, a brand promise is a short sharp customer facing statement that defines what Good Energy brings to its customers. It needs to be inspirational, believable and easy to understand. It also needs to be real. It is the essence of who Good Energy is. Brand Look and Feel – This needs to reflect our Brand territory and Brand Promise. In practical terms it is a set of creative guidelines (colour, fonts, direction on imagery, use of logo etc) and can be illustrated or brought to life through a mock advertisement. A great look and feel can transcend different media types (print, TV, web, social) and can be both tangible and abstract. Key advertising messages – This will be 2-4 key customer facing messages that reflect the brand, starting with the emotional and supported by the functional. In Good Energy’s case, the functional revolve around great customer service and fair price. It’s important to articulate these concisely as they would need to be used consistently across most customer acquisition communications and brand activities.

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The brief: 5.0: Content / Key Messages / Story (Copy, headlines, promotions etc) We have been through a rough framework for the brand and arrived at a positioning around ‘progressive energy’ but this needs building up into a brand promise with a differentiated essence at the heart. Also we are on the journey with what the actual core proposition will encompass and the brand needs to wrap it-self around where we are heading on this. We have a tone of voice built out of our current brand but I’m sure this will need evolving. Our look and feel was evolved about 2 years ago, prior to us fully understanding our audience. This is the end result of the project I’m looking to deliver. The brand needs an evolution, not a revolution. The yellow works really well for creating standout in a stale crowd, but it needs contemporising. Also our CEO is essentially the face of Good Energy, she is a highly respected Atmospheric Physicist cum Entrepreneur and anything we do needs to chime with this. It’s not all about Juliet, but it does need to embrace her as an asset. Given all of the above, a brand that harnesses the natural elements is an area to explore. 6.0: Where will Creative appear (Channel, Coms or Marketing tool e.g. Online, Print, Social etc) All media 7.0: Desired outcomes / Calls to action (what are the audience being asked to do / conclusion drawn) Good Energy is a growth brand, we need stand out from a dull crowd. Our aim is to use this to deliver marketing activities that drive up our brand awareness. It needs a promise, look and feel and key messages that resonate with the audience and make a positive impact (people can remember it). 8.0: Sizes / Dimensions / Considerations (Key info, parameters Watch outs e.g. A4, 150mm x 50 mm etc) Our logo is locked down. Good Energy is not a ‘shock’ brand. Climate Change as a subject has struggled to make the required impact because of the doom and gloom that surrounds it. We are here to provide an easy step in helping to manage climate change (switch to renewable electricity will cut 24% of your carbon footprint in one move).

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Early adopters: Early adopters of tech and trends show high interest in the proposition and less price sensitivity 1.2 million households High interest in proposition and less price sensitive Younger, more likely to have kids. Higher social grade. More likely to own new console/3D TV. An early adopter.

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Attitude towards energy Naivety regarding energy. Finds bills confusing and worries about a surprise. Is not going to spend hours looking for the cheapest provider, but does use price comparison sites. Largely sees it as just another bill they have to pay. Attitude towards green issues Is least convinced by the evidence on climate change, and doesn't think there is anything they can do anything about it. Relationship with energy providers Would like energy companies to have some personality and not to be just another faceless corporation (but more likely to want a well-known provider). Wants to see innovation and leading edge tech. More likely to view the gender balance of a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s board as a decision factor.

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Research: Who is the target audience? To help Good Energy prioritise groups more likely to be interested in the service, and with greater value to GE, segmentation analysis was conducted. They provided us with a PDF displaying all their in depth research on customers and their genral lifestyles and attitudes to a green energy provider. They explained to us that they needed to develop and extend their branding further focusing on the target audience Early Adopters. The Early Adopters are least convinced by the evidence on climate change and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s anything they can do about it meaning they are least commited to switching to Good Energy. Effectively, we needed to create either a concept or effective form of advertising to promote their brand further and making it especially desirable to the Early Adopters. Good Energy want to stand apart from the negative sentiment towards energy providers and liven up the UK in winter months with a sense of fun, imaginitive use of local spaces, and colourful and energetic executions that bring their brand strategy to life.

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04. Healine Lockups

Illustration by the artist Yoko Knodo

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Research: Brand guidelines Good Energy provided us with a PDF showing us in depth their brand guidelines so we could gain an understanding of how they present and promote their brand and their general visual identity. This included the typography they used, the tone of voice, the logo and the strapline, the colours and the illustration they used. Since the brief was asking us to expand on their branding these were only rough guidelines which we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to strictly follow.

06. Colour Use

GOOD ENERGY - BRAND GUIDELINES MARCH 2014

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Initial Ideas: Mindmapping We began to explore the possible ideas we had for this brief. We thought to incorporate humour, perhaps we could venture into a humorous advertising of the brand which would extinguish the negativity associated with energy providers. We also looked at interactivity and thought that engaging the people with the brand would help to advertise it, there could be an interactive board which is all hazy with pollution and a button in front of it, when people switch the button the pollution disappears and positive imagery appears behind like a clean natural environment. This idea engages the audience and also is an effective metaphor, the act of switching the switch communicates switching to Good Energy. We thought of possible merchandise such as a snow globe, an earth could be in the centre and instead of snow, of course, there would be pollution as a grey mist. We wanted to venture into somehow expressing pollution and how if the energy switch is made to GE people could make a change and help reduce their carbon footprint. We also came up with the idea of possibly using animals affected by pollution as a sympathy card to draw people in but the risk with this idea is that it would not extinguish the negativity and people may be deterred due to compassion fatigue.

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Initial Ideas: Mindmapping We continued our exploration of ideas and came up with a whole range of ideas. We explored interactivity and bringing people together through group effort to make them feel part of a community, perhaps continuing with the large board and interactive switch to change something on a screen or the image changes more progressively depending on how many people interact with it. We looked at light bulbs and how we could get people to work together to convert kinetic energy into power such as the wind turbines do.

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Initial Ideas: Dominoes idea Hannah came up with the idea of dominoes falling to show a metaphorical representation of the impact it could create by switching to Good Energy; effectively, a chainreaction. The idea could be that the dominoes could have the brand colours on them or logo, and before there could be smoke, haze, pollution and as they all fall down in a dramatic animation the sun could come out and a clean natural enviroment would appear and at that point the strapline would appear, â&#x20AC;&#x153;switch for goodâ&#x20AC;?.

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Research: Interactive epheremals We had a look at this book which explored all sorts of interactive advertising as we felt interactivity was key in engaging people with the brand. From this I came across a page on scratch card epheremals and from there thought about how we could create some form of advertising scratch card, I felt this would add a fun element to advertising perhaps expelling the dullness and negativity associated with energy providers and switching to another as many customers see them as just energy bills that they have to pay as one of their everyday mundane tasks.

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Research: Animals affected by pollution I decided to conduct some research on animals affected by pollution in case we wanted to incorporate this information into our designs, it could perhaps be included within the scratch card idea. Although using sympathy as an advertising technique can be effective to a point it can also be ineffective since people can be deterred due to compassion fatigue - being exposed to imagery of helpless animals/people too much and lacking an emotive connection. Polar bears are classified as marine mammals because they spend most of their lives on the sea ice of the arctic ocean. Because of ongoing and potential loss of their sea ice habitat resulting from climate change, polar bears were listed as a threatened species in the US under the Endangered Species Act in May 2008. Polar bears are at the top of the food chain and have an important role in the overall health of the marine enviroment. Over thousands of years, polar bears have also been an important part of the cultures and economies of Arctic people.

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Design process: Scratch cards In the scratch card idea I wanted to communicate how quick it is to switch over to Good Energy since many people tend to see it as a tedious and lengthy task. So I thought if they receive a Good Energy scratch card the message beneath will mention how in the time it took them to scratch the card they could have switched to good energy. I also pondered that the dark grey surface on the card before it is scratched off could represent the pollution and the images/message revealed beneath will show positive imagery of perhaps clean energy/facts on good energy or just a bold statement. It was at this point I came up with the catch phrase “Quick switch. Big impact” to express the ease of the switch and the impact it could make on the target audience’s carbon footprint. I thought to create small circular tokens with the brand logo engraved on them which would come with the scratch cards and people can keep as a key ring, the idea behind these would be that they are cleaning away the ‘pollution’ with the brand (logo) and then they can keep these as keyrings to make them feel part of a community if they decide to switch - the green Good Energy community.

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Design process: Scratch cards I used Illustrator to draw up the designs of the scratch cards and whilst drawing them I came up with the idea of making the cards into worlds. The idea behind this is that as the person scratches the grey pollution away they are cleaning the world of pollution with the brand (logo) token. I thought the message revealed behind could express the ease of switching over to good energy and the catch phrase “Quick switch, Big impact”. On the back of the card would be some information on the energy provider and a QR code that leads to their website. I also thought that the disks could come in little envelopes with the scratch cards however this would add more packaging meaning more waste. I decided to use light pastel colours for the earth and keep the design quite simple and pleasing so it’s visually pleasing. I used the brand’s brown for the typography and logo of course to keep that link with it’s original branding and used the font helvetica as a clean sans serif equated to the modern sleek design.

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In the time it took you to scratch this card you could have switched to Good Energy.

Quick switch. Big impact.

Open me

All our electricity comes from local, natural sources like Cornish sunshine, Scottish wind and Welsh rain. So simply by switching to Good Energy you can help take the UK closer to a cleaner, greener future. With your support, we can build more new wind and solar farms and continue to use our industry-leading Feed-in Tariff service to support a community of independent renewable electricity generators across Britain.

Scan the code to visit our website for more information:

Open me Open me

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Design process: Tutorial In the tutorial we showed our design to our tutor Alice and discussed how we could develop it further, we also discussed the dominoes idea. She said perhaps there was too much information on the back, instead there should be a bold striking fact. She said that maybe we should avoid using the QR code since they’re a little dated and it looked quite clunky and contrasted with the clean design. She said that the message concealed should be more rewarding when they scratch it away, something more up beat. It was also discussed how the scratch cards could be sent to people, whether they’re sent through mail or handed out at busy places like train stations or shopping centres. She said the dominoes idea was effective in showing a chain reaction but didn’t relate to the scracth cards so we could present as a separate idea but we found we didn’t have enough time to develop both designs so focused on the scratch cards. From this point we knew we needed to refine the design, content and pay-off.

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Design process: Finalised designs We decided to change the message on the cards so it would be more rewarding; “Thankyou for scratching this card, now you’ve got an oppurtunity to join a community and make a change”. We felt that this would encourage them more to make the switch if they felt like they would be part of a community and that it would mean something. We also put “In the time it took you to clean this earth you could have switched to good energy.” as opposed to “in the time it took you to scratch this card...” to really enforce the ideology of the earth being cleaned once scratched. On the back of the cards we cut down the information to a quick sharp statement “By switching to Good Energy your carbon footprint is instantly reduced by 24% and Britain could be one step closer to being a zero carbon nation” to really bring to the surface the impact they could be making by making the switch relating it back the statement “Quick switch, Big impact”. We decided to scrap using the QR code and keep the address to the website so it would relate to the simplicity and cleanliness of the design and changed the font to Arial which was one of the fonts the brand uses. We thought about the colours and felt it was necessary to include the mustard yellow as that colour is very much part of the brand’s visual identity.

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InInthe you to toscratch clean this thetime timeitit took took you this earth card you could have switched to Good you could have switched to Good Energy. Energy.

Quick switch. Big impact. Quick switch Big impact

Thankyou for scratching this card, now youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got an oppurtunity to join a community and make a change

InInthe you to toscratch clean this thetime timeitit took took you this earth card you could have switched to Good you could have switched to Good Energy. Energy.

Quick switch. Big impact. Quick switch Big impact

Thankyou for scratching this card, now youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got an oppurtunity to join a community and make a change

By switching to Good Energy your carbon footprint is instantly reduced by 24% and britain could be one step closer to being a zero carbon Scan the code to visit our website for more nation information:

goodenergy.co.uk

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Design process: Making the scratch cards We decided to actually make the scratch cards and the tokens to bring our concept to life and make for an engaging and effective presentation. Firstly we measured out the necessary sizes by printing off 3 different sizes to see which would be best and found that 102.94 by 100.1 mm was the most appropriate size. The other two were too small and too large. We printed them off on paper double sided and laminated them using sticky back plastic in preparation for the paint to create the scratching surface. From online research and a test we did we discovered that mixing acrylic paint with a drop of washing up liquid and applying it to a waterproof surface (such as stickyback plastic) would create an effective surface which can be easily scratched off. We painted silver acrylic paint with the washing up liquid onto the laminated cards with a paint roller, coating it with several layers and once dried we cut them out. We used the laser cutter to cut out the acrylic tokens and engrave on the logo.

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Final evaluation After our presentation to Good Energy our design was critqued, it was questioned what other materials we could have used and the interactivity element was praised. Also it was said that it had a good fan element, as we handed out the scratch cards people perked up and were curious. It was also said that the scratch cards would become waste which would contradict Good Energy’s clean climate policy and we explained how if they were to be produced we would perhaps make them out of recyclable materials. It was questioned what the exact message was and if something more appealing could be behind it to draw people in and it was mentioned that it would be good in promoting the brand as children would be intrigued and would bring the scratch cards to their parents if they received them. They said we should consider further how and where they are distributed. Overall I am pleased with the outcome of this project especially since we only had a few days for it and proud that the scratch card idea and designs were my work. I feel the strengths of the project were the aesthetically pleasing aspect and the clever thought process of the act of cleaning away the pollution with the brand but I feel there is room for improvement and if we had more time we could had presented more ideas along with the scratch card. I feel alone the scratch cards were very simple and weren’t exactly a new advertising ‘concept’ in themselves but more of a physical solution. I have learnt how to work quickly and effectively with little time and now know how to make my own scratch cards. Looking at the group dynamic I felt we all worked very well together although I did feel two members of the group held back on ideas and went with mine quite fast but I feel that was generally due to the short amount of time we had. One team member didn’t put that much input into helping with making the scratch cards which I found a little frustrating since more team effort would have made the process faster.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;...Discover, define, design and deliver. Thats our process.â&#x20AC;? Fitch employee

Assignment 3: Fitch In this project we had to contact and visit a design studio in order to grain insight and uncover the roles within any creative group and consider the possible expectations of ourselves as new designers. The research element within this brief will also help inform our awareness of current trends within industry. We visited a leading design company based in central London called Fitch. During the second year of our course we will be develping our ability to think and work more critically and independently. As well as feedback from tutors and peers we will need to constantly reflect on our own learning. It is essential as we prepare for the Graphic Design industry that we become increasingly independent and develop confidence in our own judgement and critical analysis.

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What was it like? The company is made up of various departments; interior design, product design, architects etc, they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just do branding and retail. Fitch is a global company, it has 350+ associates and is in 9 countries with 14 studios. There are lots of opportunities for the employees to travel, designers can go off and work in Mumbai for example encouraging collaboration globally. The studio we went to was in central London right by Paddington station. I found the studio to be a very nice and spacious environment encouraging creativity and inspiration. It was really exciting to be in an actual studio of a leading design company in central london and to gain a feel of what it would be like to work there. The visit has greatly inspired me to apply for an internship there as I would love to work with them and gain a more indepth insight into this company. The people seemed friendly and happy to answer our questions. Although it is such a large company that does not deter me from wanting to work there since their work was so brilliant and overall the atmosphere was a friendly, hardworking and productive enviroment.

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Workshop We had a quick workshop to inspire idea generation; we were put into groups of 3/4 and had to select 3 cards, one represents a consumer, one a brand and one the way of advertising that brand. We got Starbucks, promotional mail and a customer who was a rich single man with lots of money to spend. With the little time we had it got us to think fast and I felt with less time more ideas are effectively brought to the table because people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hold back the more abstract ideas, no idea is a bad idea.

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About the company: What we learnt “Bold thinking, Seamless experience” Fitch’s process and effectively motto is “Discover, Define, Design and Deliver”. Discover: The insights team work with help defining a brief and work closely with the client, they look at how customers behave globally and locally. Trading innovation and development to identify relevant patterns of change. They build a picture of target audiences through interviews, observations and behaviaral analysis. Innovation sessions is brain storming with clients working through knowledge with trends and profiles and the client in order to understand what they want to achieve. Define: Strategy: Creating new brands and unpacking existing brands to inspire design. It is an important stage for the designers to understand the position of the brand. They journey map: map customer’s journeys and ‘missions’ to identify oppurtunities, how the customers work their way through the store - how they interact with the brand such as digital touch points. Design: This is brand creation and brand re-creation, they launch fresh new brands into the world with a bold brand language and relevant experinaces, they also reinvigorate brands with a new way of thinking and behaving. They aim to deliver a seamless brand experience in physical, human and digital form. Deliver: Implementation support: onsite management, working with appointed contractors. They create brand guidelines and documentation, context package and global distribution so people understand the design and process behind it whether it be the client or another company. Measurement: qualifier and quantitative capture and reporting methods including: social, web and app metrics, retail analytics. They monitor consumers and their feelings within a space.

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Their work

Addidas

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Ann Summers

Creyate

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;The grid system is an aid , not a garantee. It permits a number of possible uses and each designer can look for a solution appropriate to his/her personal style. But one must learn how to use the grid; it is an art that requires practice.â&#x20AC;? Josef Muller-Brockmann

Assignment 6: Journey book This project will give us the opportunity to select, organise and structure information through visual systems using grids, typography, composition, hierarchy, colour, etc. We will document and tell the story of our design process through a systematic and considered presentation. This project is on this journey book itself, we had to consider carefully how we documented our work and effectively tell the story. We had to think about the narrative of the elements that we include and be selective. We are encouraged to evaluate and edit our work. We had to include key research, insights, design thinking, testing, experiments, critical analysis and all material that is relevant to our creative process. This should include photographed pin-up reviews/tutorials and prototypes, iterations of key design elements and reflections of our design development.

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Design: My book As you have looked through this book you will have seen an in depth documentation of my design process and journey through this unit; Visual sytsems. I wanted to keep the design simple and clean. I used the sans serif font helvetica as that is a modern and easy to read font and used large imagery to engage the reader, I tried to occasionally vary my typographic language to engage the reader further and make important elements of the text stand out. I used a colour system within my book to keep the chapters organised but decided to only subtly implement the colours so they do not distract from the imagery and text. I kept my text size at 10pt, so it didn’t occupy too much space but isn’t too small to read either. I wanted to really portray the creativity within my book and keep it visually pleasing with the large imargery and occasional coloured pages, I feel minimalist designs can be quite boring and I wanted to avoid that. According to my tutorial which I had midway through the two weeks we had to create this book with one of my tutors Mike, he said; “The book has a good logical grid and layout which you are using well to juxtapose an interesting and varied/colourful series of images with 10pt helvetica text. Try to vary the techniques of expressing your thought processes through a more imaginative use of typography”. To plan the content of book I sketched out a rough layout so I had a guide to follow of what the pages should be.

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Design: My grid I used a 22 by 36 grid as I wanted plenty of guidelines for my imagery and text, I felt that more gave me enough space to play with and this worked effectively for me.

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Design: Front cover I experimented with typography and a range of ways to present the unit Visual systems and decided I wanted to incorporate my colours from my colour system into the front cover and use the font helvetica to keep it consistent with the rest of my book.

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Unit Evaluation During this unit Visual Systems, I feel I have gained a more in depth understanding of certain systems such as data systems, generative systems and wayfinding systems and have developed my abilities and skills in graphic design and especially in working with others. I feel looking over the work I have done that my strengths come with my ability to conduct in depth research since I understand that is key to informing a good design and my sketch book where I have thoroughly documented and sketched ideas. It has also developed my skills in book designing and grid systems since I have spent a lot of time and effort in perfecting the design of this book. I feel that I have achieved more than I thought I would considering that at the beginning of the Unit I was quite apprehensive about the brief and felt a little out practice with using software such as InDesign and Illustrator but as time went on and I put all my effort and dedication to working on my weaknesses my confidence and abilities have developed to a better level. Working in groups at first was a little bit of a struggle since I found that I work very well individually at my own pace but over these past few weeks I can happily say that my team work skills have improved and I can see the significant benefits of working with others, collaborating and sharing ideas with each other openly. A specific key element to this unit for me was introducing me to a design company and visiting a real studio where I could really see graphic design (and all areas of design) brought to life and could see myself becoming apart of that world in the future, it has inspired me and filled me with determination to continue to work hard and focus on developing my skills.

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.I felt that at the beginning of the year I was doubting whether my future truly lay with graphic design but having progressed fluently in this unit and course so far I have emerged with a much better perspective and ability. I found that I struggled with the short amount of time we were given for each brief (2 weeks or less) and the level of work that was expected put a lot of pressure on me, but I have learnt how to work effectively within the time constraints provided. I feel this will be something I can improve on further as I learn better how to organise my time and work collaboratively. My favourite brief within this unit was the wayfinding for dementia patients brief since it introduced me to a new system within graphic design and helped push my thinking and ideas out of the box, I felt I was able to confidently explore a range of new ideas collaboratively and effectively with other people within my group. I feel I have completed the work so far to my best level and am excited for the future within this course.

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Bibliography Images: page 21: http://treewisetreeservices.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/recycling-logo.png page 23: http://butdoesitfloat.com/Does-the-flap-of-a-butterfly-s-wings-in-Brazil-set-off-a-tornado-in page 34: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ydF9i2Bo79c/maxresdefault.jpg page 70: http://provomayor.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sign-Family-Overview.jpeg page 72: http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/travel/downloads/tube_map.html page 79: http://image.issuu.com/140909081123-293b6b26e6e78658a0dfda2c85378f3e/jpg/page_1.jpg page 122: http://greenhousepr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Good-Energy-logo.jpg page 139: https://resize.rbl.ms/image?source=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.rbl.ms%2F1904985%2F1216x700. jpg&size=2000%2C2000&c=KMqEi3BU0eP9RGel Page 166-167: http://www.fitch.com/?page=0 page 170: http://www.twenty6magazine.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/full_width/images/inline/ story/3303_helvetica-font.jpg

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Research: Page 19: Telephone (2015) Available at: http://www.bournemouth.gov.uk/BinsRecycling/ RecyclingRecyclingCentres/FactsAboutRecyclingAndRubbish.aspx (Accessed: 20 November 2015). Page 21: First person: Gary Anderson (no date) Available at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/ b242fb98-996d-11e1-9a57-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=published_links%2Frss%2Flife-arts_ design%2Ffeed%2F%2Fproduct (Accessed: 20 November 2015). Page 22: Fran Costillo. (2010). Generative systems: a paradigm for modelling complex adaptive archictecture. Available: http://complexitys-culture/generative-systems-a-paradigm-for-modelling-complexadaptive-architecture/#.vhgoqN2kqk0. Last accessed: 4th October 2015. Page 25: Plastics recycling (2007) Available at: http://www.bpf.co.uk/sustainability/plastics_recycling.aspx (Accessed: 20 November 2015). Page 31: Augmented reality (no date) Available at: http://mashable.com/category/augmented-reality/ (Accessed: 20 November 2015). Page 67-71 and 75: Calori, C. and Chermayeff, I. (2007) Signage and Wayfinding design: A complete guide to creating environmental graphic design systems. 1st edn. United States: Wiley, John & Sons. Page 78-83: Feddersen, E. and Ludtke, I. (eds.). (2014). Lost in Space: Architecture and Dementia. Basel: Birkh채user Verlag GmbH. Page 94: Eley, A. and Reed, J. (2015) Living at home with dementia. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ news/health-31773339 (Accessed: 20 November 2015). Page 96: Porsmose, A. (no date) Colour your world...and theirs!. Available at: http://www. dementiacareaustralia.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=98&Itemid=81 (Accessed: 20 November 2015). Page 136: Viction and Cheung, V. (2011) Hands on: Interactive design in print. Edited by Viction Workshop Ltd. Hong Kong: Viction:workshop. Inline Citations: (Viction and Cheung, 2011) Page 138: Pollution | threats | WWF (no date) Available at: http://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/pollution (Accessed: 20 November 2015).

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