Major Project Report

Major Project Research Summary | Davide Ragazzo | MA Graphic Branding & Identity | 2011

Major Project Research Summary Davide Ragazzo MA Graphic Branding & Identity // 2011

University of the Arts London

Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of London College of Communication MA Graphic Design.

Title font is Optima; text is set in Garamond and Akzidenz Grotesque.

UALLCCMAGB&I2011 I would like to thank all my tutors at LCC and every single person who took 5 minutes of their time to participate in the survey.

A very special thanks to London, the muse of my whole year, I probably couldn’t have done it in any other city.

Introduction

1

Silence

4

Sound

16

Sounds and colours

22

Emotional colours

30

The outcome

38

Critical reflections

52

Bibliography

54

Boulevard | Leonid Afremov, 2004

1. INTRODUCTION

“Colour is the keyboard and the eye is the hammer.

The soul is the piano with its many strings.”

- Wassily Kandinsky -

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1

Introduction

In a world dominated by sonic

The final outcome is a new brand

and visual stimuli everywhere, the

allowing people to manage and share

communicative power of sounds an

their emotions through music and

colours can lose its effectiveness.

colours.

This project explores sounds

All this areas represents the main

and colours’ features, meanings,

focus of this report as well.

correspondences and differences.

In order to not make it too long, boring,

The main common point they have

or misleading, the Report includes

is really the fact that both have a big

just the main points and experiments I

impact on people’s emotional sphere.

have done. Therefore, all the material

Therefore, my Major Project aims to

has been included in the Major Project

find an effective and simple language

Research Summary. That is because I

to communicate particular emotions

strongly believe that, although the final

to a wider public through the use of

outcome is quite simple and it doesn’t

sounds and colours.

show all my findings in it, everything

The starting point of my study was the

deserves to be quoted, being an

visualisation of an intangible resource

integral part of my mental process

like the silence in a visible and

thanks to how successful the final part

objective way.

of my Major Project has become.

Despite the initial definition of a

Given the chaotic nature of my

rigorous and detailed methodology,

research path, in the following

my research lent me to change my

chapters I will explain how I faced my

intentions many times, trespassing

project alternating theoretical sections

soon in the fields of sound, colours

to practical ones, because otherwise

and emotions.

the reader wouldn’t understand the mental process which brought me from one stage to another.

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Emotions

Colours

Sounds

“Colour is the keyboard and the eye is the hammer.

The soul is the piano with its many strings.”

- Wassily Kandinsky -

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3

2. SILENCE

“If we all quieted down a little, maybe we’d understand something.”

- Federico Fellini -

4 MAJOR PROJECT REPORT

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5

Starting my research

My search for a topic for my major project was complicated by the directive: choose something that you are really interested in.

Having an inordinate range or interests, I spent almost two months changing my idea and presenting my tutors new proposals.

My final decision was about doing something related to sound, because in my own life it has always been very important.

I am a musician, a devoted big music fan and I strongly believe that sound has the ability to evoke emotions.

Despite of this, I am also aware that nowadays we are saturated by it.

Loud and disturbing sounds are everywhere: at home, on the streets, at the work place, at the theatre.

The list goes on and on.

Today, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a home where a television or music system is not blaring away, or a street free from the constant ringing of mobile phones.

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A blurry image of London’s pollution | Personal picture

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Man is busy making his livelihood.

Environment experts have predicted

So busy that you hear mechanical

that in the 21st century we will suffer a

noises everywhere you go, but hardly

shortage of water and silence. 2

get to hear the sound of people talking

As people grow more aware of noise

to each other.

pollution, a need to communicate

1

The same is true on a visual level.

information about the need of silence

Light, colours and screaming

is increasing as well.

messages bombard us everyday

The problem is still not faced with the

all the time, ended up losing their

right prominence and the information

communicative effectiveness.

about it is usually entrusted to

We reached a level that there is

scientific languages, usually not

absolutely no silence in our lives.

accessible to wider public and visually

However, “in silence, we can hear

not attractive.

our soul speak”. So goes the saying.

Getting in touch with our inner self

“I know all about noise, you measure it

is truly the way to attain joy and

in Jezebels!” 3

contentment.

All this can have a catastrophic

In this context, my first idea was to find

effect on us, both physiologically and

a way to give a visual representation to

mentally.

an intangible resource like the silence.

The goal of the visualization was not

But where is this ever eluding silence?

a scientific one; it was rather to raise

Life in this noisy jungle where we live

people’s awareness to ambient noise

makes one wonder whether such a

using accessible languages and

thing as silence exists.

showing them the benefints of silence.

1. Sai Ka Aangan (2010) | Power of Silence, p.42 2. Gordon Hempton (2009) | One square inch of silence 3. Rupert Taylor (1970) | Noise, p.18

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Silence visual languages

My research question at the time was:

I found a massive amount of

How to visualise silence?

material on the topic. Most of the

A quite challenging route to go, but

representations were just artistic

also a really general one.

attempts to express the silence from

In order to acquire the necessary

a personal point of view, but others

knowledge and to define better how I

really aim to make visible the intangible

wanted to face my topic, I focused on

features and effects of silence.

studying which visual languages have

The most interesting findings are

been used to represent sound, noise

available in my Research Summary.

and silence in the past and present.

Silent City | Kjellgen Kaninsky, 2011

Flowmarket e-commerce website | 2011

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Subject definition

In order to be able to communicate my

We probably can not express into

subject I needed to define it in detail.

words our emotions as much as we can do with the silence: pain, suffering, joy,

Silence is defined as the complete

melancholy, anguish, amazement, love.

absence of sounds or as the lack of

When we try to explain them by words,

any verbal communication.

they can lose their natural strength,

The sound, in turn, is by definition

and in any case they must be told with

a mechanical vibration transmitted

words enriched by silences.

through an elastic solid or a liquid

Therefore, silence does not mean

or a gas, with the frequencies in the

complete lack of expression; this is just

approximate range of 20 to 20.000

related to the verbal communication.

hertz. 1

Furthermore, its meaning can vary from very negative to extremely positive ones.

According to this perspective, silence and communication seem to be two

Also in terms of effects on humans,

contradictory terms, but they are finely

silence is able to induce relax, rest,

intertwined.

concentration and creativity, but it can also be the cause of fear or isolation, as

There is a silence that replaces the

well as a series of health’s problems like

word to say the pain and anguish, that

anxiety, insomnia and heart attacks. 3

expressing joy and tenderness, love or inclination to listen. There is a silence

This first stage of knowledge acquisition

that gives strength to the word, when

made me realize how vague my topic

dilates its timing and enriches the

still was and how the concept of silence

word of emotional meanings, there is

can assume completely different facets

the silence that feeds itself in waiting

depending on the context.

for a word.

2

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What am I trying to represent?

Next, to avoid reaching wrong or too personal conclusions, I decided to take

Before I was able to narrow and refine

a survey, to gather informations about

my research question, I clearly needed

what people really look for in silence.

to find out what exactly was my subject

In order to that, I set up a survey on

of study. I started brainstorming

Survey Monkey asking people three

and researching about the different

simple questions.

meanings and facets that the concept

They were firstly asked to sit down in

of silence can assume.

silence and relax for one minute.

The effects of silence | Survey results

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The situations of silence | Survey results

Next, every interviewee was asked to

Five hundred people took part on

think about silence in a positive way

the survey, and it allows me to have

and to write down:

a general knowledge of what people

• three situations related to it • three effects it can have on people • three objective features

think about positive silence, and which features and situations they use to link to it.

To keep track of the informations I

I also tried to take the survey using

was entering, I entered them all into a

paper questionnaires. They have been

spreadsheet.

distributed in the Camden Town area,

When the survey was ended I organise

but people’s response was really low

them in charts to facilitate their

and their reaction often quite rude, so I

comprehension for the next stage.

soon stopped using that method.

However, the pool of responses was generally quite good.

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1. Catherine Soanes (2005) | Dictionary of English 2. Fucsia (2009) | The silence in the world 3. WIlliams Kipling (2001) | The power of silence

Visual experiments

The survey had finally shed light what

Most of these exercises were visually

on what I wanted to visualize.

interesting, but they did not lead me to

Therefore, tired of theoretical research,

any real conclusion, probably because

I decided to start experimenting with

it still was too early to look for a

shapes and materials, in order to

practical solution.

transpose the results of my survey into

Despite of this, they have been a

a visual project.

positive exercise to deeply understand

I mainly focused my attention on

the subject, gaining feedback in the

the features of silence (absence,

definition of the project focus.

transparency, brightness), trying to get out a concept from the ideas that came out from the survey.

In the first place, I wrote the world “silence” in different ways, underlining a different trait every time.

Next, I started testing differently.

I wanted to find more original and unconventional ways to make this features truly visible and universally understandable.

I kept on writing the same world , but with different materials as transparent paper, sugar, gunpowder, chalk, light.

Ultimately, I tried to find and photograph a “visual-metaphor” capable of reflecting as more features as possible in a single image.

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Sugar on white paper | Personal experiment

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White feather on red brick | Personal picture

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Audiovisual | Jakob Kirkegaard, 2010

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3. SOUND

“There is always something to hear, there is always something to see.”

- John Cage -

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The sounds of silence

The previous experiments were clearly

Absolute silence is a quite extreme

addressed to give a concrete form to

condition in nature. It is possible just in

silence, understood as an absolute

three conditions:

lack of any sound.

For this reason the set of colours was very limited, and the expressive possibilities as well.

• in the empty space; • in case of deafness; • in the anechoic chambers 1

I soon began wondering if absolute

An anechoic chamber is a room

silence is a really possible condition in

designed to stop reflections of either

nature. In fact, when you think about

sound or electromagnetic waves.

the highest level of silence you can

It simulates a quiet open-space of

hear, this is still far away from being no

infinite dimensions.

sound at all.

Moved by my extreme curiosity I went to visit the anechoic chamber of the

Is absolute silence possible?

University College of London, based in Euston Square.

The University College of London’s anechoic chamber | 2011

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White noise spectrum

I came across two important

hearing two sounds, one high and one

discoveries, confirming other people’s

low, respectively the nervous system in

opinions I previously read on internet.

operation and the blood in circulation. 2

Firstly, absolute silence is not even possible within this special room.

Therefore perfect silence is an impos-

Secondly, this extreme condition is

sible condition in reality, as John Cage

strange and disturbing, not positive at

said, “until the world survive, there will

all. As a matter of fact, these rooms

be sound.”

have a profound effect on the people

The latest discoveries and observations

who go into them.

opened my eyes. People are not looking for absolute silence, but rather

Stepping into the chamber is a strange

for a particular kind of sound.

experience, like being in a field in the

In this direction I consider the Gordon

middle of the night. Despite you expect

Hempton’s definition of silence much

to hear silence, you immediately start

more exhaustive than the dictionary’s one.

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Sounds of silence | Susan Kessler & Petra Eichler, 2006

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“Silence is the absence of all

After these findings I had to redefine

mechanical vibrations, leaving only the

my research question, because I

sound of nature at her most natural.

clearly was not trying to represent

Silence is the presence of everything

the total lack of sound, but rather a

undisturbed”

particular form of it.

That is why, although I had always

This is confirmed from the fact that

spoken about silence but thought of

our own search for “peace and quiet”

sound, I definitely moved my attention

never extends as far as wanting no

on this field.

noise at all.

My new research question became:

Real silence is strange and disturbing,

“how to visualise sound”?, with a

not relaxing. Most people cannot sleep

particular focus on the sounds of

without at least some background

silence.

sound.

As soon as I changed perspective,

Moreover, studies have shown that

I have seen a whole new set of

natural or slow music played at a really

possibilities in front of me.

low volume have positive effects on

I did not have to visualise the absence

people’s mood and health.

or lack or something, but rather the

3

I also discovered the extremely

presence of it.

beneficial effects of a particular kinds

Therefore, I decided to start defining

of sound called white noise.

the visual form of sound from the basic

Consisting in a combination of all

visual parameter: the colour.

frequencies of sound being played at the same time at a low volume, it is an incredibly effective sound-source encouraging deep relax and rest.

1. George Foy (2010) | The Quest for Absolute Silence 2. John Cage (1973) | Lectures and Writings 3. Oli Usher (2005) | If these walls could talk (The Guardian article)

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The fol

used in

4. SOUNDS & COLOURS

The sound of colors is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would express bright yellow with bass notes or dark lake with treble.

- Wassily Kandinsky -

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Song visual translation | Personal experiment

llowing Research Summary contains all the material I collected and

n the last six months of my Master Degree.

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What has been done before?

Does sound have colour?

The phenomena started when Sir Isaac

And is there a way of knowing what

Newton puzzled over the nature of light

colour is emitted by a sound?

and its relationship with sound.

The physicist undestood, as have many

Converting sound to graphical images

inventors and artist since, that both are

is hardly a new idea.

wave phenomena that operate over a

I found myself interested in the

range of frequencies.

physical correspondences between

Newton associated each of the seven

them, in how one can be converted to

colours that he saw in prismatic light

another and vice versa.

with the seven notes of the harmonic

The topic is certainly not new, since

scale, ignoring the fact that many more

it has been treated by many people

shades of colour exist.

before, but most of the time the

His arbitrary random associations

association was arbitrary, conditioned

inspired a three centuries movement

only by our cultural practices and

of artists. 1

psychological preferences.

However, in order to be able to create

Another interesting theory based on

my own visual language I had to

randomness was given by the famous

became familiar with their vocabulary.

Wassily Kandinsky. He described each of the most common colours and

Over two centuries ago, dreamers

compared them to musical sounds.

started to imagine instruments

“Absolute green is the most peaceful

that would use combinations and

colour there is: it has no overtones of

sequences of colour to affect us as

joy or sorrow or passion. I would think

musicians do with combinations and

the best way of charaterizing it would

sequences of sounds.

be the sound of a violin.�

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2

Three Centuries of Colour Scales | Rhythm-Light.com, 2006

Light, Sound & Alpha Brain Wave Correspondences | Anthony Fiorenza, 2007

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While I was studying the topic in depth

It was then that I came across an

I came across a neurologically based

interesting theory by Anthony Fiorenza.

phenomenon called synesthesia.

In simple terms it is a phenomenon

His study proposes a correspondence

where the senses of a person get

relation between light and sound by

mixed instead of remaining separate.

juxtaposing the spectrum of audible frequencies and the spectrum of

“Sometimes certain sounds make me

visible frequencies by means of a

see green dots everywhere that dance.

mathematical modellation. To do that,

I often see dancing waves of small

the values of the wave frequency from

pink octagon shaped things. Surfaces

28 Hz to 4 KHz (nearly the spectrum

can ooze red, black or yellow.” 3

of fundamental frequencies from the texture of a piano) have been

I found it really interesting for my

converted to values of wavelength

purpose, but being an extreme

from 400 nm to 700 nm. 4

subjective phenomenon, it has not been so helpful in my research of a

Despite there is still a random

universal correspondence between

parameter, this theory is by far much

sound and colour.

more scientific than all my previous

After all, sound has tone, light has

findings.

colour.

1. Fred Collopy (2009) | Colour - Volume 2.3 2. Wassily Kandinsky (1977) | On the Spiritual in Art 3. www.experienceproject.com (2011) 4. Andrè Range Macedo (2009) | Visible and Audible

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Visual experiments

How could I create a visual melody?

The sounds of silence are what I was trying to visually represent at the

After I gained the necessary

moment.

knowledge about the topic, I decided

In order to convert that sounds into a

to apply it in a practical way.

coloured representation I needed to

First of all I visited different places

establish a precise colour scale.

around London to record different

I assigned a particular colour to

sound samples.

each of the main seven scores of the

I have chosen to visit five of the places

musical scale, with reference to the

I have found through my survey about

Anthony Fiorenza’s study.

silence, because I still wanted to relate

Furthermore, I associated a particular

to silence in some way, despite the

colour tone to each variation which a

fact I had slightly changed my focus

particular note can assume.

point.

E

D

C

B

A

G

F

Colour Music scale based on Anthony Fiorenza Study

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Then, converting the .wav files previously recorded into .midi, I have been able to obtain classic musical transcription of the recorded sounds.

Ultimately, thanks to the previously defined colour scale, I translated a small portion of every sound into a coloured representation.

In order to do that I established a basic grid of lines, which has been coloured according to the pitch and duration of the various scores composing the samples.

The results of this process are visually strong and interesting, giving a visual image of different relaxing natural sounds.

Despite of this, I was still convinced that the chosen colour scale was too generic. In fact, according to what I was doing, different sources of sound emitting the same range of scores, they would have generated an identical visual translation.

I was clearly still missing a real common point between colour and music.

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The underwater sounds of the Camden Road Indoor Pool | Sound visual translation

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Audiovisual | Jakob Kirkegaard, 2010 Chromotherapy Shower | www.luux.com, 2011

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5. EMOTIONAL COLOURS

“Each colour has its own expression value, that is why a particular colour can communicate emotions without showing real objects.”

- Stanton McDonald-Wright -

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The meaning of colours

The previous set of experiments left me

regarding colours and emotions.

deeply unsatisfied.

Wassily Kandinsky had written a really

That is why I decided to visit again the

interesting theory about this topic.

locations under analysis, hoping to find

Thus confirming he was the pioneer and

a way out from my endless questioning.

his views were always interesting in the

I listened again to the natural sounds

subject.

and observed carefully the colours that were surrounding me.

“Light red is a warm color, which

This made me notice how the only

expresses force, energy, decisiveness,

aspect that truly differentiate a situation

joy and triumph. It is a persistent and

from another was the set of emotions

strong tone.”

that they were able to provoke in me.

In fact, my feelings when I was sitting in

I then found another original theory by

the middle of Hide Park were completely

Robert Plutchik, according to which

different for the ones I felt being

primary emotions can be combined and

underwater in the Camden Pool.

mixed, exactly like colours.

That is why I should not have used the

He created a wheel of coloured emotions

same colour set to represent completely

showing his psychoevolutionary theory in

different emotional situations.

a very clear visual way.

I suddenly had an insight and I assumed the emotional sphere as the common

I also studied in depth the cultural

point between sound and colour.

meanings and associations linked to

I had finally found what I was looking for.

colours, focusing on the western’s ones in

Moved by my new intuition I began

order to avoid confusion.

studying in depth the meaning of

Combining all my findings, I have been

colours, to understand which feelings

able to have a clear overview of the main

can be expressed by a certain hue.

meanings associated to a certain hue.

I found many interesting theories 32 MAJOR PROJECT REPORT

The meaning of colours | Personal summary

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Physical effects of the colour therapy

34 MAJOR PROJECT REPORT

Colour therapy

Colours don’t only symbolise emotions.

Therapist trained in chromotherapy

They also have a strong impact on the

can use colour and light to balance

way we feel.

“energy” wherever a person’s body

We cannot avoid reacting to colours.

be lacking, be it physical, emotional,

They are an essential aspect of how we

spiritual, or mental. This form of

see the world, affecting our preferences,

therapy is surely really interesting and

characters, behaviour and personality.

innovative, but its effectiveness has

Colours are forces, radiant energies that

been repeatedly questioned.

affect our mind and spirit positively or

However, there is another form of

negatively, whether we are aware of it

treatment based on coloured lights,

or not.

which is valid and proven.

They are something that should be

It consists of exposure to specific

experienced and understood not only

wavelengths of light in order to treat

visually, but also psychologically and

physical and mental disorders.

symbolically.

It demonstrates the communicative

That is the reason why coloured lights

efficacy of the colours and the fact that

have been used for thousands of years

they are powerful instrument to use

as a truly holistic, not invasive and

knowingly.

powerful therapy.

I discovered the existence of a real form of alternative medicine based on colours, called chromotherapy.

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An emotional colour code

Particular kinds of sound can

At this point I have been able to define

touch our soul and induce intense

a range of hues associated to every

emotions, which can be drawn by

emotion, and to visualise them in

colours.

different ways.

Love, for example, can be expressed

After acquiring the necessary

with a range of colour which vary from

knowledge, it then became a matter of

bright orange to dark red.

practice.

Next, I tried to associate these scales

My conclusion was that the translation

to the places visited some time

of sound into colours should have

before, through a compatibility chart,

been related to the emotions that they

according to the emotions that I

both are able to evoke.

experienced in each of them.

Not every colour can be used to

I did that because I wanted to correct

symbolise a particular sound, because

my failed experiments, using just a

just a certain set of feeling will be

certain colour scale for each of them.

experienced by people exposed to that

My attempts have eventually failed.

particular sound.

In fact, because of the large number of

For these reasons I decided to define

emotions experimented in every place,

a set of colours able to express

the resulting colour scale resulted as

certain sensations. I choose to take

almost the whole available.

into analysis the main emotions I felt

Despite of this, all the study behind

in the places I visited for the previous

it has been really useful for me and it

experiments.

allowed me to fully understand colours

I then bound a set of colours to each

and their emotional power.

of them, according to the meanings of colours previously studied.

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6. THE OUTCOME

How do you feel today?

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Premises

Theoretical research and experiments had kept me busy for almost five months, and allowed me to acquire a substantial wealth of knowledge about the subject of study.

However, time was getting short and I needed to find a practical outcome as soon as possible.

I began thinking about how I could have applied the sounds/colours/ emotions correspondences and knowledge to a concrete and real project.

Since the master I am attending is called Master in Graphic Branding & Identity, the final work was supposed to have some kind of relationship with the branding field.

How could I apply my knowledge to branding?

How can the emotional power of sounds and colours be used to gain a certain emotional effect in the user and enhance its experience of a brand?

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The idea

Target audience

Media

The first question I asked myself was

Because of my target audience choice,

about the users and their profile.

I needed to create a brand applicable

Who is interested in music, colours and

to a large number of media and devices,

emotions?

in ordern to reach completely different

Since it is a subject which basically

age groups. However, I mainly focused

interests all ages, I needed to create

on creating a screen based outcome,

a brand able to communicate to the

because I strongly believe that new

widest audience possible.

technologies are able to make a product

Despite of this, I chose to prioritize the

attractive, especially for young people.

younger generation, between 15 and

In addition, new technological devices

30 years old, because they are by far

such as iPhones and iPads are a

more interested in music and innovative

perfect media to combine sound and

products.

colours in a powerful commercial product.

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Brand In this context, my idea has been the

I wanted to extend that concept.

creation of a music player based on

Music is not just an emotional trigger.

the user’s mood.

It is also a powerful communicative

Songs are usually classified by criteria

tool. My aim was to create a sort of

as artist or album. However, when

musical community where people

people listen to music, they usually

could track, manage and share their

care about their emotional reaction

mood through music.

to it; they look for something able to

I wanted user to be able to listen

match their current mood.

songs matching their mood, but also

How many times have we listened to

enable them to change it using the

a song just because we are sad, or

emotional response generated by

angry, or to be energetic to go out?

particular sounds and colours.

What is really important about music is

In a few words, a sort of portable

our emotional response to it.

colour & music therapy.

That is why I thought to use two

Moreover, I wanted to make it possible

powerful tool as sound and colours to

to know how the rest of the world is

enhance the musical experience of the

feeling and to give the possibility to

listener.

connect with other people who feels in the same way and know what they are

At any rate, the classification of music

listening to.

by mood is not a brand new concept.

Therefore, the focus of my project

Musicovery for example, is one of a

was not just to create a music player,

few websites where people can select

rather than produce a powerful and

how they feel and listen a playlist

accessible tool to manage and share

based on their own mood.

the way people feel.

However, what I wanted do was much

A 360° emotional experience.

more than that.

42 MAJOR PROJECT REPORT

Project development

Visual language In order to give a strong and recog-

The choice of using this set of smileys

nizable visual image to my project I

has proved successful also because

focused on the creation of a coloured

they have been used as effective

language to express feelings.

pointers on the Mood Map (see pag.46), indicating the mood of a particular place

First of all I chose a set of eight basic

at a certain time.

emotions that people are used to feel.

Next, based on my research about colours and meanings, I tried to

Happiness

express them through simple symbols.

The goal was to find a effective way to

Love

communicate without using a spoken language.

Anger

For this reason, I created a system of coloured smileys, all similar but each

Boredom

one characterized by a certain colour and a particular facial expression.

Sadness

I tried to make them as simple as possible, to be usable on screen and even on a small scale.

Thoughtfulness

However, I could not help but include details such as eyebrows,

Relax

because they proved to be essential to characterize and distinguish one

Fear

meaning from another.

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Naming and logo The project name “Moodtrack” was

Then, after the creation of the eight

not only chosen to express the topic in

emotional smileys, I clearly understood

simple way, but also to emphasise the

that they needed to be present in the

meaning of both the words.

logo as well, to not lose the graphical

In fact “track” can mean song but can

unity of the brand.

also be also be referred to the act of

I could not use all of them for reasons of

“following your emotional state”.

space and design proportions.

For this reason I thought it was a

That is why I decided to place side by

perfect name for the brand I was

side the two most representative ones,

creating.

happy and sad, to give a clear idea

Simple, clear and attractive.

about the emotional connections of the software.

The choice of a logo has been a quite

In addition I added a pair of headphones

long process.

to each of them, not to lose the

At the beginning I was trying to create

immediate association with the music

a symbol clearly related to the music

world.

world. I tried to draw an equaliser, a

Ultimately, I wanted to add an effective

pentagram, a treble clef.

claim to it. At the beginning I was trying to include the essence of the brand in a few words: Track your mood; Share your emotion through music; Emotional music.

In the end, I realized how the use of the question that I planned to appear just entering the music player was a much stronger and representative option.

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Functions and layout Moodtrack has been thought as a brand

All these functions are explained in detail

for various media devices.

in my Major Project Outcome, which is

I decided to develop the iPhone App

an instruction guide of the App.

because i thought it was the most representative device for the new brand.

An important feature of the new brand

In fact nowadays people spend most of

it is that its whole interface changes

the time listening to music through their

hue depending on the user’s mood,

smart phones, and Moodtrack has been

thereby taking advantage of the strong

thought as something that is able to be

communicative power of colours.

with you at all times.

In my early tests on the layout of the The App’s interface is really simple and

App, I encountered some important

intuitive. It has got four main options:

obstacles. In fact this first hypothesis

• The profile, where users can update

were missing graphic unity and it was

and track their emotional history.

too focused on the music player’s

• The mood player, which plays songs

options.

and therapeutic coloured animations

Moreover the large amount of

according to your current mood. It can

information contained in each screen

also gradually bring you to another

made its usability very poor.

attitude if you are not satisfied by the

After experimenting with different

current one.

amounts of information, I deleted the

• The mood alarm, through which you

unnecessary ones and limited them to

can decide how to wake up.

the name of the track and the basic

• The mood map, that allows you to find

buttons.

out how people feel around you or in a

By limiting this information, I finally

specific geographic location and which

gave the necessary importance to the

songs they are listening to.

emotional affect of music and colours,

Furthermore, Moodtrack integrates

rather than the commands that any

with popular social networks including

music player can have.

Facebook and Twitter, allowing you

In addition, the result is clearer and

to share your feelings and emotional

cleaner.

playlists with your friends and contacts.

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First hypothesis

Go

5.

Gloomy Sunda y

Billie Holiday

Log Ou t

Final hypothesis

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47

Advertising / City branding One of the most interesting functions of Moodtrack is to allow people to know how people feel around the world and what they are listening to.

I thought that the application of the same principle to the real world could have been a powerful instrument of advertising for the new brand and an attempt to brand the mood of the cities itself.

People all over the world register their emotions through the songs they listen to, according to a colour coded “mood index�.

Answers continuously get calculated statistically.

The everchanging median value for a certain city gets projected on strategical places, representing a clever and powerful advertisement for the brand and an attempt of branding the cities themselves.

A sort of audio-visual thermometer showing the dominating mood of a particular city.

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Hypothetical screen installation in Duomo Square | Milan

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Brand’s media Since Moodtrack has been thought to

The Mp3 music player represents the

be applied to various devices.In fact

transposition of the brand’s features

it is an App for iPhone or iPad, but it

and principles in a tangible object.

is also a website and a Mp3 Portable

It is designed to play playlists created

music player. I wanted to show how

through the Moodtrack App or website

the layout of the App can be easily

and downloaded on the iTunes Store.

adapted to the other devices.

Users can choose music by pushing

I made some sample screens for the

the coloured button corresponding to

iPad and the website (see Research

their mood, exactly as in the multimedia

Summary).

applications.

The layout is slightly different because of the different screen sizes, but the overall image and the distinctive traits of the brand are in common and clearly visible.

Moodtrack Portable Mp3 Music Player

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Further development The previous development shows the potential of this project, which represents far more than a simple music player.

Its basic elements can be applied to further developments.

I developed some hypothesis of merchandising.

They represent another way to express people’s mood, through the visual language of the brand.

The same concept has got endless application possibilities.

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7. CRITICAL REFLECTIONS

After a deep research into a variety of areas I can definitely say I enriched my knowledge. I found myself particularly interest in the colour theory and in the emotional connections of sounds and colours.

The final outcome design process has been interesting and challenging, and I am quite proud of the result.

However, critically reflecting back at the Major Project, there are some points that I could have improved.

First of all, for interactive products the test with the audience is a vital part of the design process. The feedback from the audience can improve the quality of the product and eliminate any weaknesses.

Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to test my product on the field.

Furthermore this would have required to make the real App and my knowledge in the area are quite scarce.

Therefore, I would like to test the product in order to see people’s reaction on it.

I think I will do ask help to someone expert in the field in order to practically make the software, because I believe it could be a useful and innovative project.

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53

8. BIBLIOGRAPHY

What I have read.

What I have watched.

What I have consulted.

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Bibliography

Books and articles Listening to Noise and Silence: Toward a Philosophy of Sound Art Salome Voegelin | Continuum Publishing Corporation, 2010 Sound Art: beyond music, between categories Alan Litch | Rizzoli, 2007 Background noise: perspectives on sound art Brandon LaBelle | Continuum, 2006 Sound of Art: Musik in der bildenden Kunst; les grands Spectacles III Eleonora Louis, Brigitte Felderer, Toni Stooss | Salzburg, 2008 One Square Inch of Silence: One Man’s Search for Silence in a Noisy World Gordon Hempton & John Grossman | Har/Cdr Edition, 2009 This book is about our sound of silence Hrsg. Petra Eichler and Susanne Kessler | Verlag der Buchhandlung, 2007 See this sound = Promises in sound and vision Dieter Daniels & Manuela Ammer | Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, 2010 Zero Decibel: The quest for absolute silence George Foy | Scribner, 2010 In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise George Prochnik | Doubleday, 2010 Silence: Lectures and Writings John Cage | Marion Boyars, 1973 The Anarchy of Silence: John Cage and Experimental Art Julia Robinson | Museu Dart Contemporani de Barcelona, 2010 The History of a Color Michel Pastoreau | Princeton University Press, 2001

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Colour and Meaning. Art, Science and Symbolism John Cage | Thames & Hudson, 2000 Cromophobia Davide Batchelor | Reaktion Books, 2000 My many colored days Dr. Fancher, Lou Seuss | Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1996 Sound diplomacy: music and emotions in transatlantic relations Donna Dailey | AA Publishing, 2004 Colors of London Julia Robinson | Museu Dart Contemporani de Barcelona, 2010 Power of Silence Say Ka Aangan | Simon & Schuster, 2010 Noise Rupert Taylor | Penguin Books Ltd, 1970 Oxford Dictionary of English Catherine Soanes | UOP Oxford, 2005 The power of silence Williams Kipling | The Guilford Press, 2001 The Quest for Absolute Silence George Foy | Scribner Book Company, 2010 Lectures and Writings John Cage | Wesleyan U.P., 1973 On the Spiritual in Art Wassily Kandinsky | Dover Publications, 1977

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Websites Color and culture | Color School, 2007 <www.color-club.com/special/school/060901.html> Symbolism of color. Using color for meaning. | Deborah Griggs, 2007 <www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/color2.html> What is synestesia? | J. Weinstock, 2007 <www.scientificamerican.com> Plutchikâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eight Primary Emotions And How To Use Them | Daniel Benjamin Smith, 2010 <http://dragonscanbebeaten.wordpress.com/2010/06/04> Kandinsky Color Theory | A. Evert, 2007 http://www.myspace.com/evertrobles/blog/316135676 I colori del silenzio | A. Roggero, 2005 <http://greyhound.myblog.it/archive/2005/10/27/i-colori-del-silenzio.html> Environmental color mapping using digital technology | Lisa Leff, 2007 <www.deseretnews.com/dn/view0,1249,66022741,00.html> Synesthesia | 2011 <www.experienceproject.com> If these walls could talk | Oli Usher, 2005 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/aug/11/4> Behance <www.behance.com> Deviantart <www.deviantart.com>

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