VISUAL SYSTEMS LEWIS SON
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Chapters Assignment One Assignment Two Assingment Three Assingment Four Assingment Five Assingment Six
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Unit Outline One function of graphic design is to synchronise and co-ordinate different kinds of material and content in order to communicate a coherent and comprehensive flow of information. This unit explores the ways of constructing system 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 as 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. As part of your exploration of visual systems you should consider the role of hierarchy 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. As well as designing your own visual system you should also consider the systems with which designers must interact: colour systems (pantone, RGB, CMYK,
web-safe), software systems, typographical specification, print specification, html, ect. Visual systems often correspond to, and represent other systems that are seen to exist in organisations or texts; therefore this unit will also explore ways in which graphic systems map other kinds of systems. Within this unit you will also be encouraged to undertake visits to consultancies in order to produce case histories that will develop your understanding of the possibilities open to you in respect to employment or postgraduate study.
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About Me Heya I’m Lewis, this book on visual systems signifies and portrays my journey throughout the unit. This book also shows the design process I undertook in order to complete the assignments; which includes exploration, initial research, experimentation, initial designs, developments, and refinements. For this unit I had to collaborate within a team of young graphic designers; how the group came together
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to elaborate and idea generate was something unique that I can take away from this unit. I learnt a lot throughout the unit as its helped me to discover and learn new techniques that I will implement in future projects. This unit on visual systems has also helped develop and improve my graphics thought design as this will make me a much better Graphic Designer.
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Tutorials Our tutors came to us and picked out the positive aspects that worked really well and would then lead on to what doesn’t work well, and how we can improve our work in terms of design and graphic thought. To push us into a direction that gets us thinking more creatively, is something that was it creates further developments to your work. Across the whole unit our tutors gave us guidance and reassurance which boosts are confidence to drive our ideologies forward. Showing every little detail of work allows are tutors to get a clear perspective on what message you are trying to convey. Giving us this critical analysis is a lot better then working on your own and producing a piece that no one else has seen. To get other peoples perspective really does help your design because as a designer you are always looking for ways to improve.
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ASSIGNMENT ONE
VISUAL SYNTHESIS LEWIS SON, JACK HURLEY, JOSEPHINE MATHEWS , STEFAN MAN
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Andreas Lauhoff, 1999 Speech recognizing letter-forms [acrylic]
Synthesised Visual Systems A visual system offers an underlying structure to design, a set of rules that can be deployed to inform a limitless set of creative implementations. Visual systems, the parameters, colours, ratios, processes ect. Within a given design framework bring a coherence and consistency to all the modes of communication within a visual identity. Visual systems can offer a creative
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strategy at the development stage of the design process together with an extensibility of the visual identity of the final outcomes. Systems in the broader sense are all around us. Systems Thinking and Systems Theory are concerned with the characteristics and operation of these systems and how they may be put into practise. The underlying characteristics of any system can be
analysed and distilled into sets of rules and data. These in turn can be synthesized into purely visual systems. Ratios and colour sets could be used as a basis for a visual identity to resolve a design problem. Any design problem will have a specific criteria that needs to be addressed and these criteria can inform the type of systems that might offer potential as starting points.
Assignment Brief For this project you are required to create a portrait of the AUB campus. You will be working in small groups to map, analyse and recreate the data systems of your surroundings within a set of synthesised visual systems. You will be encouraged to think innovatively about how you might find and generate data and analyse systems in the creation of new work.
1.1 Map and Select Work in groups to map the campus, and break down the map as modular elements to cover the whole of AUB. Think beyond the obvious attribute that you might include. Consider time, wind, human behaviour, sound, movement, ect.
1.2 Analyse and De-construct In your groups, analyse selected elements and de-construct these elements into systems and data.
1.3 Re-deploy Exhibit Re-deploy the data to synthesise imaginative visual systems (e.g. allocating colours/ grid rules/ sequences/ typographic rules ect). Use the visual systems to develop outcomes for elements of a studio exhibition. The exhibition as a whole will re-map the campus as a portrait of a place through innovative use of data and visual systems. .
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Generating an Idea The initial stage of the design process is to conduct research and data that would help push you into experimentation and exploration. Brainstorming is a great way on getting ideas down on a page, and to think of potential possibilities on what could work. Brainstorming is also a good method of exploration, how you write anything that is in relation to a system around campus. Creating a portrait of the AUB campus for me was difficult as the brief gave me the impression that this assignment isn’t constrained, its wide ranging
and there’s a lot of aspects that can be looked into within the campus. The mindmap helped me receive a greater understanding and a better perception on the variety of systems that are in place around campus. I can only explore so much because of the tight deadline and so there was little exploration for myself and my group to conduct. Experimenting is vital in terms of the design process because it brings out a more thorough concept. Conducting a trial and error creates a much more experimental piece.
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Experimenting Data Systems Creating a portrait of the AUB’s campus meant that I needed to conduct some forms of data so that I could use that as a starting point to develop an understanding of the campus.
feel that people don’t take much interest to what’s opened and closed and that people are somewhat oblivious to what doors and windows are left open or closed, whether there open or closed for a reason.
I chose to collect data based on opened and closed doors and windows. I chose to conduct this data as I feel that in order for me to understand more of AUB I will have to conduct data that is across the whole of its campus. With doors and windows I
Selecting an aspect of campus to collect data from allowed me to get a better perspective of campus; walking round and conducting a tally on the number of opened and closed doors and windows meant that I had unique and innovative data to everyone else in the group.
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Where are the Bins? For our group work we conducted our own data across the campus and we came together to push one of our ideas forward; the idea with the highest potential concept was the one to be chosen. Stefan’s concept on sustainability was the one we chose to implement for this assignment. His data was conducted by tallying the number of general waste bins to recycled bins inside and outside all buildings within the campus. We chose his idea because we thought that sustainability was an element on which not many other groups would
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choose. Recycling in itself is a system that is commonly known by many audiences of all ages, and so for us to choose sustainability was a good idea to implement. Sustainability is always a good topic to discuss because there’s always room for improvements when it comes to being green. Designers especially have to consider sustainability; always finding out new ways on how to improve the sustainable ethics of their design and how to get more people to recycle.
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Generative Art “Sound travels as compression waves through gases and liquids. Stable in its immateriality it remains true to its original data. Here sound input has a stronger power over a flow field. It creates waves that propagate through the fluid. When two sound waves run towards each other, they collide and interfere with each other’s patterns. A snapshot of this collision is translated into a 3D model and produced with a milling machine.�
Generative art is produced by a set of data systems that are merged with visual aesthetics such as digital art, fine art, screen prints, and drawings. Generative art comes across as contemporary art as its modern and slick look tempts the audience to look closer at its visual aesthetics, then as you get closer you realize that this piece of art is generated. The visual data in itself is a system as every generated detail is refined to communicate a purpose of its conducted data.
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Augmented Reality In the world of never ending world of technology augmented reality is a fresh and modern method of visualising a realistic concept. Augmented reality allows the audience to see a visualised concept in a realistic surrounding. This technology is used a lot in architecture, interior architecture, product and packaging design. However augmented reality could also be implemented as a more interactive and informative piece of digital graphics and a piece of motion graphics.
We thought that to create a piece that could be interactive would have more of an effect then a still print. Augmented reality works when you download the app on your device and then scan a form of visual data such as a scatter-graph or a line graph using the device camera. Then once you’ve scanned, a three dimensional object will appear from the screen. This form of innovative interactivity links in with the assignment as it combines both design and data together.
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Developing the Data The data we collected from the recycling bins allowed us to create a line graph. The graph indicated the amount of recycled bins to general waste bins. The idea was on each print we would show a different location of the campus. We narrowed the areas of the campus to several iconic locations: the University House, the Gallery, the Library, the North Building, the Refectory, the Workshop, the North Light Studio and the courtyard. The key concept of these ideas is that users would be able to scan the data and an augmented image would appear based
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on sustainability. We want the design to be minimal as this would exaggerate the ideology of sustainability and how simple it is to recycle. This print was designed using both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign as the print consists of both shapes and typography. The contrasting connection between the two improves the aesthetics of the print and grabs the audiences attention. As a group we feel by enticing the audience to interact with the prints it would create and communicate a more dynamic message.
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Mรถbius Logo The recycling logo was designed by Gary Dean Anderson who was a graduate at the University of Southern California in 1970. The recycling symbol was initially to be used to identify packages made from recycled and recyclable fibres. Anderson got the idea of the logo from the Mรถbius loop that was discovered by a German Mathematician August Ferdinand in1858. Anderson began designing the logo
in relation to the Mรถbius strip. He identified the strip as a symbolic representative of infinite. Over time designers have tweaked the logo to a more minimal design. The triangles consist of a never ending cycle, the three main aspects are; reduce, reuse, recycle. From the research we conducted from the Mรถbius logo we thought to recreate it into a unique style that resembles AUB. We feel a unique stylized Mรถbius logo would influence a fresh idea to the audience to recycle more.
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The Identity of AUB I walked around campus to get a feel on what kind of artwork was around. Identifying the style of AUB allows us to understand what visual system is in use in terms of their house style; whether they have multiple styles or just one dominant aesthetic. From walking around campus I came across a lot of coloured shapes that consisted of different combinations of shapes such as rectangles and circles, curved and straight edges, right angle triangles and semi circles. This kind of style I found quite distinctive
as the collaboration of basic shapes works well together. It creates a sense of simplicity and modernism as the two create a very distinctive and powerful design for AUB’s house style. I collected some physical material and it allowed me to think of whether I can implement this design into the recycle logo that we’re going to design. Identifying the surroundings of AUB has inspired me to design and implement AUB’s unique personalised recycle logo in our works.
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Logo Concept After I conducted my research and data I thought it was the time of the design process to produce sketches. The drawings show initial ideas on what AUB’s recycle logo could potentially look like. I played around with shapes and colour and I thought to go let my creativity take over producing a wide range of drawings no matter how dull or simple the design is, it goes towards a development.
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Logo Development The research based on the Möbius logo influenced us to progress with the development of AUB’s unique recycling logo. These logos were designed using Adobe Illustrator, as this software allowed us to play around with shape and colour a lot better then most other programmes. The sketches that we drew allowed us to replicate the logo in a more digital perspective. The developed logos were designed by myself and Josie in the group. We worked together to design the logo with the highest aesthetics and the highest resemblance to the Möbius logo but also shows an innovative style that would makes it unique for AUB’s use. We decided to stick with the triangle as that in itself is distinctive to
the Möbius logo. A curved triangle or having a curved shape entirely to make it more modern and stylized. The colours as well needed to represent a sense of sustainability. We thought that a traditional green was to bright and primary so instead we used a teal which was more subtle and mature for the logo. As well as the teal we felt that an orange would give the logo of a more unique vibrance. The grey works well with both the teal and orange as it adds more tone to the logo. We wanted to show a variety of logos so we chose to design multiple logos to give us a better perspective on what logo we can use. We then had a group discussion on which logos to take forward.
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Logo Refinement The logo refinement is being able to select a few of the best logos and tweak them to make the designs more accurate. them up to a high standard. We decided to get rid of the oranges as we wanted to stick with one colour that would work with the charcoal grey. We chose the teal as that was the most relevant to the recycle green that’s already in place. We brightened up the
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teal to make it more vibrant so that it contrasts even more nicely with the grey. We then decided as a group to which logo to select for the assignment, however we couldn’t come to an agreement. I then conducted a tally to which logo people thought was the most relevant and similar to the recycle logo as well as the most stylized. From the data that we were then able to choose our logo.
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Interactivity These scans were produced by the data that we conducted. Initially the scan was a basic graph to show the amount of bins to recycled bins. However we felt that this graph was to plain and we thought on how we can make this data more aesthetically pleasing to the audience. We joined up all the edges together to create a more complex but more visual graph which will be the basis of our augment scans.
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Cinema 4D To improve the technicality of our project and to exaggerate the means of augmented reality we used Cinema 4D. The software is complex yet very effective as it allows three dimensional manipulation and interaction. We used cinema 4D for the three dimensional typography as well as the object that will along side it. The idea is that when the user scans the data an image of the most wasted
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material will appear from the creation within CINEMA 4D and the text will tell them to recycle more of that material. Depending on the whereabouts of the bin, across the campus different materials in different buildings are being wasted. The narrative of our concept is to get more people to recycle the material that is being wasted the most to improve the sustainability of the campus.
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Development Prints From the initial prints and our tutorial we understood what we needed to change in order to exaggerate the aesthetics. We added a colour system that was in relation to the data that we initially conducted. The pantone of each location was different to one another, making each individual print unique. We took the pantone and implemented that into the design of the
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print to further show the data within the our design. Along with the scans and pantones we used a grid system to layout the type on the prints. The type reveals to the audience where the data was collected from across the whole campus. Printing these out into proper dimensions allows us to make further developments and refinements that we feel that we need to make.
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Final evaluation that the group work meant that the ideas were being generated quicker then if you were to work independently. The weaknesses were that your work could be easily by one of your group members and that for me anyway at times it felt like a competition on who can provide the most amount of work and who comes up with the significant ideas that make the project. As a whole the project brief For me personally I found this way basing it around campus was good of working beneficial to the brief as as it was interesting to understand four heads are better then one and a lot of AUB, I very much enjoyed the data collecting, to carry out so to come up with four ideas and tally charts making you perceive in push one idea further meant that the emphasis on that on idea was a a different way. group decision, and that it felt that the idea we pushed forward meant Once we gathered the data along with the pictures and charts to that this idea was the greatest in indicate where these bins are terms of potential out of the ideas located we then started to wonder that the rest of the group made. how can we inform the design process. Jack, another member However as well as this being a significant and beneficial method of from the group speculated on working I felt that some good ideas Augmented reality and how were brushed aside for the sake of we could potentially input the technicality into this generated a group decision therefore for me idea, making it an interactive piece personally I felt that it was difficult for the exhibition. Our tutors found to expand on an idea that wasn’t it pleasing once they had visuals even mine to begin with. Working on what could be augmented along those lines for me felt difficult as I’m used to independent from these data scans that were working and so my idea generating designed from illustrator, by Stefan. and how I push that idea further is In terms of experimentation we different to those that played around with the idea of I work with. making these data scans onto acrylic slabs. We thought to laser My primary research conducted cut these pieces of acrylic and on how many opened and closed doors there were around university. have the scans on top, allowing the audience to physically hold the During our tutorial I had a better slab and then see the augmented understanding on what the brief shape appear like a hologram. As actually meant and so we were told that the exhibition represented a group we wanted a print and a three dimensional object for the the campus as a whole and so exhibition because we thought that our own group projects would it would be good to have some come together and portray that. intricate visuals as well as a nice The strengths of the project were The collaboration and group sharing for this brief allowed us all to come up with ideas a lot more fluently as ideas where being bounced across the table, this allowed us all to question these ideas and to challenge our ideologies making the process of the brief to be driven and expanded as there were multiple brainstorms being created.
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interactive piece to increase the narrative of the work. However, with the guidance of our tutors they thought that the acrylic slabs would take away the rich ideology of augmented reality; and so we decided to have these scans on print, taking away the three dimensional factor from the exhibition. We then experimented with composition and scaling of these scans, playing around with type and colour. For example, the tutorial that we had some guy was like go to a exhibition or an art gallery and casually look around, and then go back to that exhibition and only look at apples. You then have look much carefully at things, and that you try and pick out certain colours and shapes that are associated with apples. Taking that concept and then putting it into the brief was an eye opener, it allowed me to take a step back and say ‘okay then let’s go round campus and pick out open and closed windows and doors. Going round campus and conducting that research for me was fun as I looked at AUB in a different way.
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Further Development If we were to take this project further we would implement these scans across campus to actually get people to start recycling more. We would have these scans on coffee cups so that its spreading the message to wider audiences.
and fresh campaign that would actually get people to start thinking about what they dispose. A website and blog that is in relation to AUB’s website could also be beneficial as this campaign would go online for users to take notice.
We would also have the scans on recycled bins. The instructions on how to download the app would be on the design so audiences would feel inclined to download the app and see what augmented object would appear. A campaign on campus could also be a good idea to get more people to recycle, a modern
Social media could also be a significant method that would target a more younger audience. I feel this would be more dynamic as the majority of the audience around campus are students and so I feel that it would be effective.
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ASSIGNMENT TWO
SMINT OPTIONAL BRIEF 54
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Smint Competition It is important to recognise the benefits of entering competitions and developing your work within a ‘real-world’ context. It can also help to build your portfolio and gain exposure to potential employers. Competitions provide opportunities for new designers to be recognized for their ideas. This offers a great platform to show your work. Every brand has an underlying visual system that informs the design structure of touch points with it’s
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customers and potential customers. There will be a tight control of the brand narrative or company persona that these implementations generate. This competition brief requires you to push the Smint brand and it’s execution further, whilst keeping to the same family as the Fresh to Impress campaign.
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ASSIGNMENT THREE
INDUSTRY VISIT
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Rationale During the second year of the course you will be developing your ability to think and work more critically and independently. As well as feedback from tutors and peers you need to constantly reflect on your own learning. It is essential as you prepare for the Graphic Design industry that you become increasingly independent and develop confidence in your own judgements and critical analysis. It will also be important to look to the future and to consider companies and areas of professional practice with which you might wish to align. For example, some companies have a strong ethical perspective and will not work with particular brands or
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political parties. Others have a clear sustainability ethos. This in turn drives the clients and businesses with whom they choose to collaborate. What type of designer are you? Do you have a more conceptual approach? Are you driven by aesthetics? Does your chosen field require strong digital skills? It is important to reflect on your personal philosophies as well as your design strength in relation to industry.
Assignment Brief For this project you are required to visit a design studio in order to gain an insight and uncover the roles within any creative group and consider the possible expectations of you as a designers. The research element within this brief will also help inform your awareness of current trends within industry.
2.1 Research and visit to industry Produce a list of possible companies you wish to visit with a rational for each choice. You need to include the company name, contact details and a web address for each.
2.2 Questions Devise a list of ten questions that you want to ask your selected company.
2.3 Industry Visit & Presentations In your groups, you will need to make contact with your chosen company and arrange to visit. Make sure you make notes and where possible to take photos. After the visits taken place, the group will deliver a five minute screen-based presentation of your findings to the rest of Level 5.
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Wolff Olins Wolff Olins is a design agency in London that specialises in branding and creating identities. This award winning design agency has worked on big projects such as the 2012 London Olympics as well working for big companies such as EE.
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10 Regents Wharf All Saints Street London, N1 9RL United Kingdom +44 20 7713 7733
http://www.wolffolins.com
ManvsMachine Another award winning design agency based in London. They’ve worked a lot more on identity as they’ve produced work for ITV, Xbox, Honda, and Film4. From looking at their work they’ve worked on a wide variety of projects which appeals to me.
The Old Stables Norway Wharf 20-24 Hertford Rd London N1 5QT +44 (0)20 7613 2040 http://manvsmachine.co.uk hello@manvsmachine.co.uk
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What was it like? A creative and social environment is what I felt at the Design Bridge. The highly respectable and award winning design agency was very modernised as it was very much what I expected of a design agency; it felt like a positive working atmosphere.
the Design Bridge. This would give us an insight to a potential internship as we get a better understanding of the work environment and how they tackle their projects.
Overall I think the Design Bridge is a highly respected graphic design agency and The tour around gave us an I could potentially see myself insight to how they tackle working somewhere similar. projects and satisfy clients. The only concern that I Dedicated rooms for client have is that the projects that one to ones, research they’ve worked on is a lot of departments, a photography branding and advertisement. studio, their own 3D printer, a For the future I would like workshop, and a kitchen. The to design a variety, not just design bridge has everything packaging. This industry visit you need inside which has given me a much better increases the productivity and insight to working within efficiency of their work. industry, its also given me the confidence and determination At the end of the tour we had to get internships to help time to ask them general boost my work experience. questions of work within 73
How did you get yourself to working at the Design Bridge? “During University Sally took part in the Dog’s Bollocks Student competition. She didn’t win not in short-listed, however she received an email by the Design Bridge to come in for a chat. She went into the studio, and came out with a full time placement at the Design Bridge. The other tour guide studied Product Design in London and received an internship at the Design Bridge. He was then offered full time work after his internship.”
How many designers are working at this branch? “Over one hundred designers are currently working at the London Design Bridge. Everyone’s part of this one big team, everyone gets along very well and regularly go on socials together after work. There is the option to try out work overseas at the other branches of the Design bridge. So a lot of the time designers go and come in all the time, from all sorts of different areas.”
How much time do you get given for projects? “The duration on projects depends on what the project is, as well as the client. Sometimes the client would say that they want designs by this time, however a big project would take more time for us to design. It takes a while for our designs to make it to the shelf as we undergo a long process, the deadline for our projects are in one to two years time from now.”
How big are the groups? A huge budget on a project means a bigger group as we need more eyes of designers to make the project worth more. The group numbers range depending on the project and the time scale of a project.
How vital is it when it comes to working in groups? “Team work is an essential in graphic design, its great because we have specialized groups for different projects. We take everyone’s specialism and we create groups that would work well, its not that we get random people to form a group.”
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How much client input is there when it comes to project work? “A research team work closely with the clients as they get significant information based on what the client is asking for. Clients are always involved in the projects, they help shape and mould the ideas and designs throughout.”
What work would you like to see in portfolios? “We’d like to see a variety of wide ranging design works. Research and ideas are significant for key concept idea generation, so we’d like to see that as well. Show you’re personality as well, we want to see some work that you’ve done in your spare time.”
What should I expect if I were to attend an interview at the Design Bridge? “As well as your portfolio its significant to us to understand what type of person are you. Personality for us matters more then your portfolio as any designer can design, but what makes us all different is our unique personality. We aim to look whether you can fit in, as feeling comfortable would make work a lot easier for yourself.”
What was the most difficult? “Generally because the groups are specialized we don’t see the projects as difficult, we have a lot of fun producing the work. We’ve done a lot of work for Lipton and there’s a lot of different but similar projects that make it more easy for us to understand the demands of the client.”
Do you feel there is much competition with the other design agencies? “There is not any real competition between us as there is a lot brands that need design. We don’t take much notice to what other design agencies are doing, we focus on ourselves to ensure good design, we’ve won a lot of competitions and won a lot of awards so we feel that we don’t need to compare”.
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ASSIGNMENT FOUR WAYFINDING WAYFINDING
LEWIS SON, JOSH DAVIES, RYAN BUNNING, LILLY STANSBURY
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Rationale During this project you will build on your exploration and understanding of visual systems and begin to recruit your creative strategies to solve real world design problems. Wayfinding design involves the development of visual systems of signage, landmarks and mapping to facilitate the navigation of complex environments. Wayfinding systems with urban, architectural or natural environments build on the inherent structures within the environment and engage with the
expectations of the visitor. Buildings have floors, corridors and rooms. There will also be relationships with other buildings and the functionalities within these spaces. Outside spaces have paths and junctions, or areas, seams and edges. A visual system must allow a consistent visual language to facilitate effortless understanding and navigation. This project will address the specific challenges around designing for people with dementia in care-homes.
Assignment Brief For this assignment you are required to work in groups to design a Wayfinding System for people with dementia living in care-homes. This must demonstrate ease of navigation, encourage independence, while at the same time be a pleasing environment within which to live in. In your groups you will identify a specific location of sets of locations
within a care-home environment, and use the creative strategies within visual systems to produce a comprehensive wayfing system for your users. It is crucial that you research your users and associated symptoms of dementia to engage with the specific context of this project, and understand the issues associated with dementia and navigation.
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Mindmaping As a group we came together to elaborate on an innovative wayfinding system that could be introduced for people with Dementia in a care-home. We wanting to aim for a conceptual piece that could well be implemented realistically. Our mindmap allows us to explore the possibilities to what we can have as our innovative concept. In order to understand Dementia more in depth we researched some facts and statistics.
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Getting some ideas on a page was a significant stage for our group because generating an idea means that you have to consider any potential idea. When we did put some ideas down it allowed us to then go more into depth and expand our research which allows are idea generation to be more accurate and researched based.
In 2015 there are 850,000 people with Dementia in the UK. The rate will increase to over 1 million by 2025.
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Lost in space Numerous scientific studies have shown that architecture has the potential to benefit the process of recovery and to influence the behaviour and well being of people with dementia. Although these findings are being implemented around the world in the designs and conversion of care homes for the elderly. Hospitals are only just beginning to take such recommendations on board. A possible model for future facilities are the Acute care for the elderly (ACE) units in the USA which aim to ensure that patients remain as independent as possible during their stay
in hospital. The combination of geriatric care by a multi disciplinary professional learn and a suitably designed living environment has proven to have a positive effect on the patients. People with dementia know and recognise their own belongings more then so then other people. Spaces need natural light and sheltered outdoor seating. Care homes should encourage patients to keep active; seeing gardens are important and must be designed well.
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Living for the Elderly People with dementia are no different to the rest of us. It is just that they have to deal with the challenges of a particular illness. Accordingly, the closer they live to their home environment and the better the care facilities are integrated into the local neighbourhood, the more they can make use of their individual resources and that of their social environment. People suffering from dementia react more sensitively to their environment as their ability to adapt. Designers need to be good at observing in order to learn what they can from people with dementia about planning
and design principles that have the potential to benefit us all. Decisions made at an early stage in the planning process, such as the choice of location, and size of type effect the quality of life for the user just as much. This research has given us significant information about how we can design a useful wayfinding system for those with dementia. To create a wayfinding system for people with dementia means we need consider our research and use it to our advantage, by implementing it to our concept.
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Dementia Source Our group was fortunate to have a reliable and significant source that was able to improve the idea generation of our wayfinding system. Josh’s mother who works closely with the elderly in a care home has given us information about Dementia patients and how a system is vital for them to live the way should. We received a document based upon the key aspects to making a good wayfinding system. The document explained and provided information on colour, outdoor and indoor space,
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windows, and bathrooms within a care home. I read the information thoroughly wrote post it notes on the key bits of information and stuck them on our mindmap; so that we expanded our idea generating on a much larger scale. We learnt so much from this research that we decided to keep this data so that when we do go for a decisive concept we have the research that backs up the reasoning for the design.
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Supergraphics Paula Schers’ effective wayfinding system based on supergraphics is an innovative and maximal design that makes it easy for users to know their whereabouts and how to get around. Her simplistic designs give an easy understanding to the users as her usage of symbols make it easy and recognisable to a large majority of audiences. This is a great example of a wayfinding system as generic
signage is used in most wayfinding areas such as hospitals and schools. Paula Schers’ maximal design targets a larger audience because those that can’t read English can understand a generic symbol that is recognisable on a international scale.
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A village within a home Dementia patients remember significant memories from their past, longing to remember the good old days. An old village would make them familiar with their surroundings, and appeal to them so much more then a modern design. The idea on placemaking the village will mean they will remember how to get from A to B. We as a group all thought that this was a great concept to implement as the large scale on a village meant that there were a lot of visuals that could work when it comes to placemaking. These iconic placemakers
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such as a phone box, a police box, a lamppost, street signs and bench will keep the house style of the village concept. This idea engages with the patients as it brings a warming home for them to live in. A village is recognisable so by making the destination the landmarks it will make the locations a lot more rememberable. We need to consider the indoor and outdoor space, the scaling of these placemakers; whether their three dimensional or are they just images on a wall.
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Placemaking If the person has recently moved home, or if they are going to a new day centre or having residential respite care they may feel uncertain about new surroundings. In this situation it may help to show the person familiar items such as photographs or clothing, in order to indicate that they belong in this new place. They may need extra help in finding their way about. They may need extra help in finding their way about. They may also be more confused about the layout of their own when they return. This disorientation might disappear once they become familiar with their new environment.
However as the dementia progresses, the person may fail to recognise familiar surroundings and they may feel that their own home is a strange place. Placemaking was an idea that we thought to introduce into the project as it emphasises the village concept within the care home. By making the patients feel homely and at place we can use these signifiers to bring a recognisable aesthetic into the care home. These iconic signifiers will act as landmarks and indications to the whereabouts of the destination, making it an effective wayfinding technique to get around.
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Street Signage The street sign concept was an idea generated by everyone of the group, we thought if we were going for the village concept we should look at the signifiers associated to the village. We experimented with different street sign fonts as some are more dated then others, we wanted to use the best suitable font for our wayfinding system as it would be used around the care home. We decided to go for AES Ministry because that typeface was introduced in 1930 street signs, it adds historical value to the care home. In terms of a wayfinding system the road signs will be located around the care home, in between the destinations as well as the destinations.
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Implementing the research From our researched we discovered that curved corridors make it a lot easier for the dementia patients to move around, because they would get disorientated if the corridors where narrow and straight. Big open windows as well make them feel less claustrophobic and creates a more bright interior.
so its important to make sure that the colours don’t clash together. These sketches were drawn by Ryan in our group. He drew a curved corridor and added in colour to get a view on what it would look like.
We played around with colour and colour coding. From our research we found out that similar colours had to separate because people with dementia would get confused,
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Developing the Village
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Gathering the research was effective for us as it allowed us to implement all of our knowledge and understanding in a more visualized conceptual design.
in. The street signage will also be indicated low enough for them to notice because if it were to be positioned to high then it would strain there neck if there were to look upright.
An idea came from Ryan whilst we were in the design stage and thought to give the patients a unique and personalised door to their room. It would be easier for them to know which doors is theirs if they forget, and it would be a great way to make it their home as their front door is personalised to them.
The door numbers would also be in a different typefaces as this would increase the personality factor. The placemaker landmarks would also be positioned around different areas of the accommodation, making it easy for them to know the whereabouts of their location.
The contrasted coloured railing along the corridors helps them differentiate the railing to the wall. The coloured walls are colour coded to let them know what part of the home their
The coloured coded floors would also be in contrast to the walls so that they patients don’t feel disorientated.
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The Roundhouse concept As a group we thought really hard to what kind of wayfinding system we want implement. A conceptual piece that portrayed our research into dementia that had so much meaning behind it. The project challenges our design process heavily as we needed to understand and research thoroughly in order to make the design relevant.
thought to design a building that makes it a lot easier for patients with Dementia to live in. We gathered from our research that curved corridors makes it easier for them to get to their destination. The windows as well allow them to feel less claustrophobic and too allow more natural light to seep through the inside of the building.
The Roundhouse is a concept that we as a group were thinking about; the ideology of good modern architecture being an effective wayfinding system in itself. The brief states that we had to design a wayfinding system, and so we thought to go for blue sky thinking and take the brief to a much bigger scale by designing a architectural building. We
Our innovative concept will exaggerate the means of wayfinding as we will develop more ideas that are in relation to the Roundhouse. As well as to design a building, we thought carry on with the village concept as these ideas can be integrated together.
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Developing the Roundhouse The designs of the Roundhouse were designed on Google SketchUp by Ryan in our group. The first designs that he produced were in relation to the research and understanding of Dementia; the usage of curved corridors and big windows. On these designs he developed and improved the concepts visuals by adding colours and more simplicity to the buildings architecture. Working not just with the exterior of the architecture we looked into what the inside could look like. The interior would be more significant in terms of wayfinding as we are implementing the village concept.
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These developed designs are to exaggerate the concept by giving this feeling that the architecture could be implemented realistically if this were to be taken further. A floor plan in adaptation was something we thought to design as it would give more information on our concept. Playing around with floor plans and colour coding each area of the Roundhouse emphasises and portrays our research as each colour would act as a colour system to those with Dementia, we looked into what colours work well and we want to show that.
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Pendant Concept We initially said as a group that we should stay away from technology based ideas as we felt that when it comes to dementia patients at a care home they would not necessarily keep up with modern technology. However the pendant idea came from Josh in our group. He thought that a pendant would be a simple yet effective concept that will make wayfinding a lot easier for people with dememtia The pendant would act as a GPS tracker so that if they get lost they have the technology to find there way around. The idea is that the dementia patient would use the pendant to
get around the care home. The LED display would give them directions on how to get around. We drew up some concepts on Google SketchUp and we decided that for the sake of the presentation we should have something physical for the audience to hold. Josh decided to 3D print the pendant so that it exaggerates our concept. The pendant would include colour coded buttons that match the colour coded locations within the care home; including the nearest bathroom/ toilet, the communal area, the canteen, and their room.
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Final evaluation The dementia project was something that challenged the way I designed because I was constrained to what I produced because it was for a specific target audience that I can’t really relate too. My group had a great work ethic as we wanted to drive our innovative concept, it allowed us all to work together and I felt that the morale on this project was a lot better then on the other assignments. Id say the designs that we produced for this assignment was a positive aspect as I was content to what we had produced. The research that we conducted was at a good standard as I feel that this brief was more targeted and centred around the research and we took that into the design aspect. I’d say our main strength of the assignment was the roundhouse concept as I feel that it represented innovation and ambition towards the project as this unique concept was different to everyone else’s concepts. I’d say the main weakness of the assignment was of the pendant concept as I feel that it was more Josh’s idea that we wanted to
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implement. However, I disagree with the concept because I feel it defies the ethics of our concept. The 3D outcome didn’t look aesthetically pleasing, and the designs for the pendant were not designed very well. Also the presentation of the final outcomes didn’t look great either because the pendant print spoilt the visual designs of the Roundhouse. If there were room for improvements, then I would get rid of the pendant idea and focus more on the interior architecture. I’d say that the composition of our prints lacked creativity and so they could be laid out more visually. I also feel that maybe we spent too much time designing the architecture as opposed to the village concept. I think that the Roundhouse was purely conceptual and that the village was more of a realistic concept that could be taken further if we were given more time to experiment with our rich concept. Overall I am content with the work that me and my group produced however I do feel that there was great potential for our concept and that we could have done slightly better in terms of design.
THE ROUNDHOUSE ARCHITECTURE
The architecture of the building is very important, as it acts as a wayfinding system in itself. We designed a building using information we sourced about existing care homes and the preferences of the residents. The building has a modern exterior which features a cafe, communal area, reception, staff room, living quarters and finally service areas. This concept could still be developed further, given time we’d like to have extended the building onto two stories, to accomodate more residents. One of the most important aspects of our building is the curved corridors as this simplifies the journey from room to room, with as little turning points as possible. number of areas, it’s slightly off-centered in the building, so that it can be seen from most points of the building. This is so that wherever the residents are, they will always be able to access the garden. The cafe and communal areas are also large parts of the building this is to encourage the residents to be more interactive. The building has been designed purposefully based on a circle, to make the wayfinding system as easy as possible to navigate around. We will also have landmarks dotted around the building too increase the village feel and make life in The Roundhouse better for everyone.
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ASSIGNMENT FIVE INDUSTRY BRIEF
LEWIS SON, GREGG FELLOWS, SAMUEL SANTOS
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Assignment Brief South Coast Roast, the offshoot coffee roasters of Boscanova, have recently undergone a re-brand and are rapidly moving forward with their coffee roasting ventures. South Coast Roast are soon to be opening a specialist built roaster venue to produce ethically sourced, responsibly grown coffee that has been roasted in the fine town of Bournemouth. The assignment is to design the packaging for the South Coast Roast 250g coffee bags, using creative solutions to keep the packaging ethical, cost effective and looking great.
Visiting South Coast Roast The presentation at South Coast Roast gave us a real feel for what they wanted out of this brief. We arrived as a group and sat in the centre of the coffee shop around big wooden table, customers were coming in for there roasted coffee, the place was buzzing. We learnt a bit about the guys at South Coast Roast as gave us a significant insight to their business. They showed us the coffee bag that they had in use and it was very plain and very basic for a packaging design that will be bought by customers. They reiterated that they wanted a fresh design that they can implement so that it becomes more then just a plain brown bag. They also said that we can design more then
just the coffee bag, the possibilities of a design that could be implemented on a vast range of mediums such as coffee mugs, cups, t-shirts, stickers, the menu, and anything else we could think of. They also reiterated that with their logo its up to us whether we stick with it, tweak the design, or change it entirely. This exaggerates the means of creativity and allows us not to be constrained as we were told that we could do whatever we want. There are no expectations so its up to our group to come up with some effective aesthetics. Due to the tight deadlines we have to start the design process straight away, and to emphasise more on a conceptual piece.
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Design of the Ninties I felt that South Coast Roast’s target audience was a mature young adult age group. When it comes to 90’s design its more funky as this young trendy style is old school grunge. Our group decided that if we were to implement a combination between an old school design with a more contemporary style it would attract more of the target audience to improve the sales of South Coast Roast. This retro design could be implemented by taking the stylized aesthetic qualities and
re creating them into a house style design. I researched into 90s design and created a mood board for us to work upon. We had a closer look at what makes an old school design and we found that colour and shapes are significant within this style. The bright fluorescent colours, and the combination of curved rectangles, sharp triangles, and cylinder like stokes; certainly something we can play around with.
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No Rules Inspiration To design a logo for the South Coast Roast meant that we had to initially get inspiration on what kind of design we want to implement. We gathered that we want our logo to convey they style of the nineties and that we need the logo to represent the target audience of South Coast Roast
designs. The book appealed to me as I found the logo designs very aesthetically pleasing. This significant inspiration will be added in with my other forms of research so that I am ready to design a logo that is aesthetically pleasing to the target audience.
No rules was a book that I found in the library, and I found it very inspirational. The book showed a variety of trendy and stylised logo
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Logo Concepts We thought to re create a logo because we thought that redesigning a new logo would allow us to have more freedom as opposed to being constrained by a specific design. We thought to come up with some designs based upon our research on nineties, as this would create a stylized retro aesthetic that would be implemented as South Coast Roast’s house style. Initially we drew out some rough sketches that would be in relation to our research. We experimented a lot with shape and colour
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as we wanted to create a pleasing visual aesthetic. As well as a new logo, I thought to play around with the logo that is already in use, as I think it would be good to show a variation between a new and tweaked logo. I played around with colour, to see what works well together as an experiment. From these sketches we now have to start thinking about how to design them digitally.
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SOUTH COUST ROAST
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Logo Development We had a realistic vision on what logo we could design, we used Adobe Illustrator as our main programme to develop the sketches into more developed designs. When it came to tweaking the logo, we kept the type face and played around with colour and composition. Bandung pride is the current typeface and personally I think that it looks unique in itself and that it already looks aesthetically pleasing and so I thought to just
tweak the design. The other members of my group, Sam and Greg, thought to be more creative and design a totally different logo. To change the typeface, the colour scheme, the shape, and just the overall aesthetic gave us more freedom in our design .
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Our Mock Ups In the real world of marketing and advertisement a mock-up is a great technique to show a client what their product would look like without having to spend any money. For this project I felt that revealing a range of mock-ups would emphasise our designs as they would see how we implemented the logo onto a range of multiple mediums.
We’ve designed several mock-ups including a coffee bag, a t-shirt, a coffee cup, and coffee mug. We want to show South Coast Roast that we didn’t just design a logo, we created concept; the idea that we can use a logo or a variety of logos and implement that across different materials.
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Physical Material Having something physical is something that a digital mock-up cannot show, for the sake of a presentation I thought to have something three dimensional so that it would help emphasise our conceptual design. I thought to have our logo design on a coffee cup as a cup is a generic object that is used in most coffee shops. I printed three of my logo designs and spray-mounted them on. I thought to show something else as well as a coffee cup so I thought to show the coffee
bag with our design on. Considering the brief was based around the coffee bag, we only had a mock-up of the coffee bag so I thought to go more into detail as opposed to just placing a logo on the bag. I designed a label that would be used as a sticker that keeps the coffee within the bag. The sticker is in relation to my design so that I keep the consistency of the house style.
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Final Prints SOUTH COAST ROAST
SOUTH COAST ROAST
LOGO CONCEPTS
PRODUCT MOCK UPS
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Final Evaluation The presentation went really well, the guys from South Coast Roast loved our designs and our overall concept of implementing a stylized logo onto different mediums such as mugs and cups. I spoke about the design process and how we tackled the brief from research to the final outcomes, which emphasises and reinforces the detail into out designs. I really enjoyed the Industry brief as I feel that my creativity really showed within my designs. The brief allowed me to be as creative as I want, so I feel that a lot of the designs were personalised to my style aesthetic. The group work itself was good as Gregg and Sam produced the work that was needed for this project. However, I feel that I was the dominant member of the group as I produced more of the work in the lead up to the presentation which meant I had to take on the majority of the work. This didn’t bother me because the brief was quite simple and easy in terms of meeting the requirements, the brief itself was quite
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wide ranging and that I felt that I wasn’t constrained. I really enjoyed designing the logos as it was something different in terms of the other assignments. The work I produced was something that could potentially be in my portfolio. If there were room for improvements, then I would emphasize on the packaging design for the coffee granules as it was stated in the brief that we needed to create a design. The idea was that the logo concepts could be implemented into a range of mediums, however I feel that we should had focused a little bit more on the packaging and spending more time on designing it, or at least designing a range of coffee bags. I feel that we can’t take this project further as we produced the work that was necessary, and that its down to South Coast Roast whether or not they take our work forward and actually implement our designs into action. The work we produced was only conceptual and its for them to consider, although it doesn’t take away the fact that I really enjoyed this assignment.
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ASSIGNMENT SIX JOURNEY BOOK
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Assignment Brief This project will give you the opportunity to select, organise and structure information through visual systems using grids, typography, composition, hierarchy, colour, etc. You will document and tell the story of your design process through a systematic and considered presentation. Produce a journey book that communicates the journey of your Visual Systems unit. Consider carefully how you document the development and realisation of your work. Tell the
story. Think about the narrative of the elements that you include. Be selective. You are encouraged to evaluate and edit your work. Include key research, insights, design thinking, testing, experiments, critical analysis and all material that is relevant to your creative process. This should also include photographed pin-up reviews and prototypes, iterations of key design elements and reflections on your design development.
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Inspirational Composition The journey books design was influenced and inspired by my previous book design that I designed in first year. Last year was the first time I used InDesign, and for me I felt my style for the visual display book was good. However there was a lot of room for improvements for that book, and so I thought to improve on my weaknesses in this journey book. The idea of the stylising has transferred from my first year book into my second year book. The large scaling of high quality images for me is a significant style that I have
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tried to keep consistent throughout this journey book. I feel that the comparison between big images and small text is a nice aesthetic. For this book I have kept it white and clean. Some pages I will fill the white space, and then on other pages there will be a lot of white space. The contrast of composition and scaling is a consistent factor throughout my book, which for me creates my own unique house style, which therefore emphasizes the personality within the book.
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Typographic and Grid System My grid is laid out in a 18x22 system with a 5mm gutter in between. Grid systems aren’t my speciality but I thought for the journey book to create one, so that it helps my consistency. I chose the body text to be Helvetica light because its a generic font that is easy to read to a large majority of audiences. Its in 8pt which is small but its not too small I feel. Its 8pt because
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I wanted to have small text next to the big images. My heading and subheading is Museo Sans, which is a nice clean san serif font. Its simple typography works well in my book as it portrays a minimal and simplistic design.
Chapter heading
MUSEO SANS 34pt and 20pt
Subtitle/ Heading
Museo Sans 900 Museo Sans 500 Museo Sans 300 Museo Sans 100 20pt
Body Text
Helvetica Light Helvetica Light Oblique 8pt
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Visual System Final Evaluation The visual systems unit for me was very enjoyable. I put in a lot of hard work into the unit which made me enjoy it more as I was continuously preoccupied with the work load. The productivity was high as I was determined to get something good out of this unit. I am content with my creativity strategy for this unit as I had to re-adjust and adapt my creative thought and design in order to complete the assignment. The group work as well for me was really good. In terms of work ethic each group that I worked with was determined to complete the assignment to the high standard. Before the unit I didn’t really have any group work experience, but certainly after this unit I can say that I’ve contributed within a group and thought of some significant ideas that I was able add to the team. I would say that I was a good team member for all the assignments. Assignment one for me was the only assignment that I didn’t do as much as I wanted to. That was down to the two other members of
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the group taking on all the design works. When it comes to idea generation I can provide enough relevant and valid information, however when it comes to design I feel that its one of my strengths. And because I wasn’t involved much in the design I felt a little out of place. The group for the wayfinding project was really good as we all contributed and we were all satisfied with our outcomes. We all had a good work ethic and we were all determined to get the work done. For the industry brief I felt that I was the one to make the significant decisions because I was the only determined member of my group that spent the most amount of time producing. Despite all the negatives of the group work overall I am content with the group work and I am pleased with what our outcomes were. I very much enjoyed the industry visit to the Design Bridge as I am determined to get internships for future work experience. This unit really influences my determination
as I am now focused to get more insights to working for a design agency. Being able to look around their design studio and asking them questions about work felt very real as I feel that I am in a position to start thinking about my future and what kind of designer am I. The visual systems unit has put me into this productive mind-set that I am here to start and create a beautiful portfolio so that I can get a job in the field of graphic design. The work I am happy with and I am happy with how myself and the group carried out the design process. My creative strategies have improved for this unit as this visual systems unit has helped developed my creative thinking and idea generating. Designing the journey book for me was a good way on bringing in all my content together in a formulated system. I enjoyed every moment of this unit and I am very happy with what I’ve been able to achieve.
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