“I am always learning that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” —Pablo Picasso
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Project Brief Brainstorming Research Organizing Implementing Refining Finalizing Insights
As first-year graduate students in Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design, we were only beginning to get to know one another. Hence, our first studio assignment was to introduce ourselves to our classmates with a self-portrait. The only requirements were to organize our information using at least two of Richard Saul Wurman’s five hatracks, also known as LATCH. Wurman’s LATCH concept is used to organize information and it is especially useful for technical documentation.
L A T C H
ocation lphabet ime ategory ierarchy
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As I walked home from school that afternoon, I was clueless on where to start. Who am I? I know who I am, but how should I express this to my classmates? I unrolled a giant sheet of paper and stared at it. It was overwhelmingly blank. I needed to start small. I began writing out lists of information about myself (a & b). I listed in chronological order each place I’ve lived, in hierarchical order how I spend my day, and in alphabetical order the computer programs I used from childhood. I created a list of possible categories.
(a)
(b)
(c)
I then moved to visualization (c), which was much more difficult. I didn’t really know what I was trying to say or how to present it. I even created a venn diagram that was supposed to illustrate the balance of my life, with fun activities on the left and less satisfying activities on the right.
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At this point, I was very unsatisfied. I sent out a survey to friends and family, gathering data about myself (d). I received 10 responses. I noticed a specific trend: I’ve always been a huge nerd involved in nerdy activities (e). While reflecting on my experiences, many life-changing events came to mind, but I felt these didn’t define who I am. What defined me was how I had dealt with these situations, how I had pushed through them, and how the many people I loved helped me along the way. I noticed I often used humor to cope with these events. Therefore, I decided to humorously map the many nerdy activities that I have been into since birth. Through these nerdy items, I demonstrate how they helped me cope, led me to my best friends, and allowed me to figure out what I wanted to do in life. And it would be done with humor.
(d)
(e) Answers to #3
1. What is my favorite animal? Color? Season?
“Your cat chewing on my hair when I would sleep over at your house. Getting boba in Carmel Mountain and sitting around, talking. Or throwing the boba at random pedestrians.”
2. What did I want to be when I was 9? 3. What is one favorite memory you have of us? 4. What is my favorite quote? 5. How would you describe me? 6. What are my favorite activities/things to do? 7. What is most important to me? What are my values? 8. How do you think I have changed over the past year or so?
“A lot of great Halloween parties, and the other more nerdy ones too! DDR was the thing back then, along with karaoke and pool parties.” “Gumbands. That is all. Oh, and writing fanfiction! OMG, nerdettes for the win!” “LONG facebook messages that took us hours to write.” “We hadn’t talked for a while, and then I heard you were in the hospital. I called every day for a while. Even though we may not talk every day, you’re one of those special people that the world would be a little less sunny without.” “I remember freezing your underwear too.”
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First I listed every nerdy activity in which I had ever engaged. My mother and a few close friends reminded me of many embarrassing memories! I then filtered, removing things that were very short-lived or that didn’t really have much influence.
(f)
After I compiled my list, I drew it along a time-line (f). I scratched out less significant activities, added more, and began brainstorming how I wanted to present my nerdiness. I wanted to map my information by time and hierarchy. By time in the sequence of growing up, on the page from left to right. By hierarchy in the degree of nerdiness, on the page from the bottom to top.
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(g) I started sketching different ways to present my nerd chart (g). I thought about a line graph, bar graph, cluster chart, and bubble chart that correlated size and location with the content. I even pondered creating a DNA strand made up of my information. None of these made sense with the content. Dan, along with my classmates, thought the bubble idea was in the right direction because it allowed for so many ways of representing the information. In the end, I decided that I would create blue speech bubbles containing each of my nerdy interests (h). I used these bubbles because I love reading comic books, and they’re my favorite color: blue. The bubbles are multifaceted. Their size tells how much the interest influenced my life. Their color’s intensity demonstrates how intensely I was involved ...or obsessed. I created a grid system: the height of the bubbles on the page illustrates the degree of nerdiness, and the position from right to left shows the chronological sequence. I chose the font “Comic Book” because it matched comic book text. I titled my chart “The Makings of a Nerd” because the content made up me: a nerd.
(h)
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I had the basic design down, but my nerd chart was far from finished. Sure, all of my content was on the poster, in order and fit to size, but the visuals were failing to fully represent the content. The poster wasn’t...nerdy enough. Besides the font and speech bubbles, it didn’t look like a nerdy comic book. The single blue color blended everything together and there was no hierarchy to the bubbles besides size. I talked to many of my classmates, relatives, and professors. I received valuable input about comic style and nerdy visualization. Some suggestions weren’t right for my project, but many helped push it further. I wanted my poster to be a comic book that spoke to its viewer. I studied many comic books from my collection and imitated the title style, the word placement within speech bubbles, the common colors, and the various bubble types. I created square speech bubbles to add variety, and I made these represent categories (i). In all, I created yellow square bubbles, blue round bubbles, and green thought bubbles.
(i)
C 0 M 10 Y 100 K 0
C 42 M 0 Y 21 K 0
C 60 M 11 Y 81 K 0
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(j)
The last stage of my project was finalizing small details and double-checking for errors. I scanned pages from my Marvel Comic Books and used them as a light background. They added a faint layer of speech bubbles behind my own. I finalized the humorous language and placed the legend in a noticeable location. I proofread the content for proper spelling and grammar, shifting bubbles to make sure everything was readable. To test legibility and readability, I printed a test page at 100% and finalized the poster size at 25”x30”. My classmates and I printed a 3” strip of each poster to test color. As a last touch, I added “Zing!” “Pow” and “Bam!” near the major nerdy events in my life (j). The speech bubbles overlap and interweave to demonstrate how nerdy interests seep into every facet of my life, bringing me to where I am today and helping to shape the person I’ve become.
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1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10)
Always look to the world around you for inspiration. Have a purpose behind every decision. Listen. Not all advice is good, but all advice has value. Find the value and use what is best. Revise, revise, revise...and then revise again. You can never edit or revise your project too much. When you think you’re done, ask around for some more advice. Double-check everything. Always test print at 100%. Always check colors. You need to reach a point of satisfaction and stop. This usually involves a deadline. Deadlines don’t mean you can’t keep working on the project for your own enjoyment. Embrace who you are and your personal style, no matter how nerdy it may be.
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