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process
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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RESEARCH
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The project started as an exploration of all social media, and creating information graphics based on those findings. I first found all the facts and figures I could about Twitter, social media, and what the competition for Twitter was. The research extends far beyond what you see here. 7
I wanted to focus my project on Twitter to explore what it was all about. I was skeptical of this new form of social media because I didn’t enjoy Facebook and it’s complicated features. I signed up for Twitter in September, 2010 and really enjoyed my experience with it. Twitter was fast, direct, and broad. I was interacting with famous artists and designers that I would not have known or heard about if it weren’t for Twitter. The research grew from this experience. I read books, blogs, statistics, facts, reviews, etc. about Twitter and than organized all of that information into what the final display held. This was not easy.
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PROCESS
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Through out this whole experience, I’ve learned that sketching is very important. It’s the simplest, quickest way to get your ideas down and do some important thinking before a design starts taking shape and you get stuck. I will always have a sketchbook with me now. 10
One of the most difficult things to figure out was what content I wanted to show. This was one of the first hurdles and once I figured this out, it made the design aspect and type setting another challenge in itself, but it helped me grasp exactly what I wanted to say. I wanted to show positive information about Twitter.
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The sketch on this page is when I reached a breaking point. I was struggling to find my hierarchy and how I wanted my display to look. Another student suggested I have an array of different sized squares surrounding my central brand or idea. This was a hierarchical mess, and made it a great challenge to find a clear, concise path for the viewer to follow. This is when things started to get more interesting as well. I felt that the core concept was coming together through the display. I was spewing information in a neat and somewhat organized fashion, similar to Twitter’s characteristics. Through class critiques I was finding out what was working and what wasn’t. I also received views of people who didn’t use Twitter.
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Once I figured out what information I wanted to show and how I wanted to display it, it was time to put things together in rough mock up form. This was crucial for my project, because I had to make sure there was a clear path among the organized
chaos of information I was displaying. I was concerned that I wasn’t showing enough information, when in the end I probably overwhelmed the audience with too much information. This shows the depth and concentration of my research.
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For the mock up on the left, it was created full scale with foam core. I spent roughly $180 on foam core, and $100 on printouts. I cut out over 200 squares and rectangles. This mock up prepared me for the final piece and gave me a solid understanding of how the information should be organized and displayed.
There were several mock ups that needed to be created in order to organize the information and make sure the hierarchy was working. Some people felt it was too chaotic at first, and wanted a direct path to follow. Another suggestion was to use the little squares to create the path.
The name Tweetable took about a week and a half to decide on. I took careful consideration and asked the whole class for their input. In the end I went with something I liked. Sometimes you have to ignore what others say, and trust yourself.
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Examples of layout progression using a 1”X1” grid
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purpose
hashtag
velocity
retweet
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# of users
new products
biblio
Dell cory booker
egypt
6 follow
@reply
mobile device
trends
naked pizza education
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dalai lama
followers
DM
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POSITIVE, SOCIAL INFORMATION SHARING moonfruit
tweet
loswhit
username
sesame street
140 characters
gender
lists
coffee groundz
outside US
stephen colbert
barack obama
tweet content
brand loyalty
10ft 10ft
10ft
9ft
9ft
9ft
purpose
purpose
biblio
tweet content
follow
egypt
tweet content
follow
gender
stephen colbert
mobile device
new products
cory booker
gender
cory booker
purpose
egypt
education
retweet
# of users
trends
gender
cory booker
retweet
trends
education
barack obama DM
moonfruit
outside US
# of users
biblio
outside US
140 characters
naked pizza
outside US
username
hashtag
loswhit
tweet
POSITIVE+SOCIAL INFORMATION SHARING
stephen colbert
tweet
dalai lama
brand loyalty
moonfruit
barack obama
fly on the wall
hashtag
tweet
dalai lama
brand loyalty
lists
coffee groundz
DM
naked pizza
POSITIVE+SOCIAL INFORMATION SHARING
velocity
Dell
loswhit @reply
sesame street
username
140 characters
followers
velocity
Dell
lists
coffee groundz
fly on the wall
hashtag
loswhit
dalai lama
brand loyalty 140 characters
@reply
sesame street
trends
kezgc new products
POSITIVE+SOCIAL INFORMATION SHARING
# of users
retweet
education
naked pizza followers
followers
egypt
biblio
twitter kezgc
barack obama
moonfruit
tweet content
follow
stephen colbert
new products
mobile device
mobile device
kezgc
username
@reply
sesame street
fly on the wall
velocity
Dell
lists
coffee groundz
DM
10ft
10ft 10ft
9ft
9ft 9ft
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purpose stephen colbert
gender
purpose
tweet content
follow
cory booker
retweet
follow
cory booker
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3ft
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5ft
purpose
tweet content
gender
egypt
1ft
6ft
7ft
retweet
8ft
tweet content
gender
egypt cory booker
mobile device
9ft
10ft
11ft
12ft
egypt
biblio biblio
biblio
# of users
retweet outside US
trends
education
kezgc
mobile device
stephen colbert
barack obama
followers
outside US
trends
# of users
education
mobile device
stephen colbert
barack obama
followers
outside US
trends
# of users
education
barack obama
kezgc
new products
moonfruit
username
140 characters
naked pizza
username
moonfruit
naked pizza
kezgc
POSITIVE+SOCIAL INFORMATION SHARING hashtag
loswhit
tweet
brand loyalty
POSITIVE+SOCIAL INFORMATION SHARING
@reply
dalai lama
loswhit
velocity
Dell
140 characters
fly on the wall
tweet
dalai lama
Dell
brand loyalty
velocity
sesame street
fly on the wall
follow
POSITIVE+SOCIAL INFORMATION SHARING
@reply
140 characters
fly on the wall
lists
coffee groundz
lists
coffee groundz
DM
tweet
dalai lama
velocity
lists
coffee groundz
DM
Dell
brand loyalty
sesame street
hashtag
naked pizza
new products
loswhit @reply
username
moonfruit
new products
followers
sesame street
hashtag DM
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Materials and Cost of Exhibit
Foam core
Plexi
Printing (paper)
Printing (vinyl)
Acrylic Letters
Twitter Feed
= monetary cost = time spent on production/install
I learned a lot about materials through this project. Overall, I spent probably about $1600. This includes the cost for the final display. My brother helped build 3 separate panels that combined were 12’X8.’ My family came and helped, with production work as well. 17
Once I really dug into the display, typesetting, creating info graphics, I realized how much work this was going to be. For the foam core mock up, I spent an entire weekend cutting foam core boxes. Ultimately, it really helped me flesh out some problem areas and get an overall feel of how the layout should work. It was helpful to have a living structure that I could base my next step in the process on. One comment I received that was kind of difficult for me to use was that my display didn’t show my personality. It can be difficult to show who you are through a work that is about a different entity. It also made me question what design personality was, and got me thinking about who I am as a designer.
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INSTALL
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The installation process was slow. I used the grid I created on the computer to lay everything out. I had a lot of help from friends and family to finish the first install. It was a lot more production work than I expected. I had to draw a 1”X1” grid on the panels before I could lay the squares out. 20
Creating 140 squares with different dimensions and various pieces for each was a great feat. The Friday before this was due, I sliced an 1/8” piece off of my pointer finger. I cried, I laughed, I bled a lot; and in the end I survived. With the help of friends and family I finished on time.
The materials I used were a variation of plexi glass, vinyl printouts, foam core, plexi cylinders, paper, and the panels that everything were attached to were made out of MDF board. I used nails, screws, tape, hot glue, and velcro to attach everything.
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The final installation was not without hiccups. The floor below my panels was very uneven; very uneven means a dip of 6� in the center. Pieces kept falling off of the 3-D info graphics, and the plexi glass would not stay clean. The display included a live, interactive Twitter feed.
The Tweetable Tips (right) were a takeaway piece. They had a button attached to them and on the back each had a different tip about being a good twitterer parodied off of a known proverb. This was probably the most fun thing to create.
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The final gallery exhibit was pretty successful. The most enjoyable part was seeing people tweet and how they interacted on Twitter. I know I kind of became a spokesperson for Twitter, and I think I’m fine with that because I enjoy the social network and have benefitted from it. I know this was a trendy topic, and I’m sure I’ll look back and realize how dated it will become! Gallery night was a little overrated. There was only so much time to talk with people, and there was so much going on that most people couldn’t or wouldn’t take the time to really read all the information or appreciate the work for what it was. All in all, I had some good reactions, great praise, and felt very proud of my final work.
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TWEETS
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I allowed others to tweet through my account using the hashtag #tweetable. Some were hesitant to tweet, but it became a sort of social experiment. It was interesting to see what people wanted to say in this context.
I signed up for Twitter September 2010, and didn’t start utilizing it until winter of 2010. It was interesting to see how many followers I accrued and how quickly they accumulated. I learned the more I tweeted, the more followers I had. By the time of the display I had about 150 followers. 26
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The interactive Twitter feed was supposed to run using an Apple script that would automatically add the hashtag #tweetable and refresh the browser window. There were some glitches with this, so I had to just help people tweet and make sure they used the hashtag. For Twitter users, they caught on right away and understood what I was trying to accomplish. It became a social experiment. I’ve gained about 20 followers through the exhibit and have been entertained by the tweets written through my account. I used my personal account because this was my project and I didn’t want to lose any followers that I had already gained.
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EVALUATION Meeting Project Objectives = B+ Quality of Design Creativity = B Typography = A-
Aesthetics = B Installation = B+
Hierarchy = A Craft = B+
Color = B
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SUMMARY Through this experience I learned a lot about myself personally and as a designer. There were many moments where I found myself learning on my own or outside of the classroom that were crucial. The social aspect of this project made it really fun. I got to interact with strangers and teach them something about a topic I have become passionate about. The tweets I received were the most rewarding part of the project. Finishing this project, I feel my education at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design is complete, and I know I will continue learning. Beyond school, I hope to learn more about social media, marketing, and how I can utilize these tools as a designer. I also would like to continue working on print based projects and learn more about different printing techniques.
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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Digital Surgeons: Created a PDF of Twitter user statistics, including demographics, content, and time spent on Twitter.
Edison Research, Arbitron Inc. 2010: Conducted their own research about social media in the US.
Website Monitoring: Monitors traffic on websites, number of users, how often users interact with the site.
Mashable: A blog dedicated to anything technology and social media related. I got a lot of information from various articles and links they posted.
Twitter: Their resources were very helpful with the basic elements and history of Twitter. Twitter Power 2.0, by Joel Comm: How to use Twitter effectively; stories and examples of how Twitter helped companies or people.
Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets: Random tips about Twitter’s interface and how to use it effectively.
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THANKS! I want to thank everyone who helped out with the success and final realization of this project. I could not have survived without all of you. To name a few: my family, Danielle Gagliano, Paul Altott, Chris Walker, Midland Plastics, National Sign and Design, the Catral Doyle Creative team, and @jenibreni for convincing me to sign up for Twitter. Your help and time was greatly appreciated. Kezra Cornell
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