Online united TEST by Marcia Stewart

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Limited Edition

united

KEEP ME!

BY DESIGN

issue 03

COLOUR THEORY: © Xtine Burrough And Michael Mandiberg 2009 Modifications: adam hyde 2009 Christopher Blount 2009 Marisa Olson 2009 Patrick Davison 2009 xtine burrough 2009 SEARCHING AND SAMPLING: © Xtine Burrough And Michael Mandiberg 2009 Modifications: adam hyde 2009 Clara Jo 2009 Devendra Laulkar 2009 Marisa Olson 2009 Michael Mandiberg 2009 Patrick Davison 2009 Vieri Tucci 2009 xtine burrough 2009 FILES AND SERVERS: © Xtine Burrough And Michael Mandiberg 2009 Modifications: adam hyde 2009 Dave Mandl 2009 Marisa Olson 2009 Patrick Davison 2009 xtine burrough 2009 THE METAPHOR OF GRAPHIC APPLICATIONS: © Xtine Burrough And Michael Mandiberg 2009 Modifications: adam hyde 2009 Clara Jo 2009 Elisa de Castro Guerra 2009 Marisa Olson 2009 Patrick Davison 2009 xtine burrough 2009 ARTICLES: Michael Mandiberg & Xtine Burrough: www.mandiberg.com Short Bio. www.missconceptions.net/about Contact and Biography. Digital Foundations: www.flossmanuals.net/digital–foundations.org OR www.wiki.digital–foundations. Floss Manuals: www.flossmanuals.net Scribus: www.scribus.net Thinking With Type: www. Open publishing: www.purplebark.net PRE PRESS DOS AND DON’TS: Deborah Roberti, EspressoGraphics.com OTHER CONTENT: All other content was written by Marcia Stewart. The fonts used throughout are Goudy Old Style, Vincent and Trashand. United by Design was printed on royal offset hi brite 70gsm paper using full process colour. 1500 copies of United by Design were printed and distributed free to design and high schools around New Zealand. WorkSpace articles and images written by Veronica; Ice Fest written by Irene van der Meer. Food Design written by Tessa Hewlett and Regina Speer. FOR MORE INFORMATION: Follow us on instagram: @unitedbydesign Contact information: unitedbydesignnewspaper@gmail.com COLOPHON: United By Design Issue 3 was created by Marcia Stewart in Dunedin, New Zealand. It was printed at ODT print in Dunedin. Much of the content within this newspaper is from writers of Digital Foundations. Produced by Marcia Stewart.

COn TEn TS.

Newspaper

Much of the content in this newspaper has been shared from the open source book “Digital Foundations”, written and produced by Xtine Burrough and Michael Mandiberg. This open source book was written to be shared, and edited and distributed. United By Design aims to put useful information into the hands of young graphic designers. We encourage designers to share their tips, tricks, work and inspiration with others around the world so we can learn a variety of skills in the design world.

designer success Zac Imhoof ................................................. 05 Megan Mcphail ...........................................07 Sam Stewart ................................................ 09 Tomika Terry .............................................. 10 Jessie Wong ................................................ 13 Julia Mcrae .................................................. 15

OTHER ARTICLES Michael Mandiberg & Xtine Burrough ..... 03 Digital Foundations ................................... 03 Floss Manuals ............................................. 03 Thinking With Type .................................. 12 How to be a Graphic Designer .................. 14

SECTIONS

IMAGERY Vector and Raster Images Line Art and Flat Graphics The Pen Tool Colour Theory

RESEARCH

Searching and Sampling Licensing your work Fair Use and Appropriation

3. PRE-PRESS

Graphics General Rules Page Layout Fonts

TYPOGRAPHY

Misuse and Overuse Free Font Websites Thinking With Type Typography Terms

5. And more

Design Slang File types Promoting Yourself

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Digital Foundations

open publishing

“Digital Foundations: An intro to media design” was written by Michael Mandiberg and Xtine Burrough, who are both educators in design. Whilst teaching classes that take place in software laboratories, they noticed that many of their students expected to learn to use software, but gave little consideration to aesthetics or art and design history. At first they tempted to oblige their students’ thirst for so-called practical knowledge, but they recognised that without visual, theoretical, and historical frameworks, practical knowledge is basically useless. After settling for years on books that don’t really encapsulate a class, they finally decided to write the book that all introductory media design students should be using. A student can be working towards a degree in art, communication, graphic design, illustration, and so on in a traditional classroom setting, or a self-taught found-it-on-the-bookstore-shelf learner. Within the 20 chapters of the book, they have shared some history, followed by visual references, and then digital exercises that don’t’ just talk about which button to click, but to connect technical training to colour theory and composition. They explore creative software in a manner that brings design principles into the software demo. Originally, this book was printed as a manual to the Adobe Creative Suite, the software found in classrooms and labs around the world. However, just a month after the book was published, they teamed up with Floss Manuals to convert the manuscript into one that teaches the same design principles using open source software such as Gimp, Inkscape, Scribus and other Libre Graphics tools. Digital foundations contains a small amount history, followed by visual references, and digital exercises that explore creative software (Adobe) in a manner that brings design principles into the software demo. This work received praise from other creatives such as Ellen Lupton, who describes it as “A book that teaches visual thinking and software skills together. The text leads readers stepby-step through the process of creating dynamic images using a range of powerful applications. The engaging, experimental exercises take this project well beyond the typical software guide.”

Open publishing is a process of creating news or other content that is transparent to the readers. People can contribute anything to the information and see it instantly appear in the pool of stories publicly available. Those stories are filtered as little as possible to help the readers find the stories they want. This is really beneficial because readers can see editorial decisions being made by others. It also means that if they can think of a better way for the software to work, they can copy the software because it is free and change it and start their own site. If they want to redistribute the news, they can, preferably on an open publishing site. Open publishing is generally written by volunteers from all over the world. Every contributer must have a high level of trust within the open publishing community, as each person has the freedom to speak their mind about what they believe is right.

To find out more information, visit their website: wiki.digital–foundations.net

The engaging,

Digital Foundations – Intro to Media Design

Floss Manuals

experimental

Floss Manuals was started to remedy the deficit of good documentation on how to use free software. The original idea, which still continues today, was to distribute the means to contribute to manuals, text books, and teaching materials by creating a very simple and easy to use interface for collaborating on the creation of comprehensive texts about Free Software. It was launched in 2007, and their strategy since the beginning has been to develop large communities of people to produce high quality free manuals about Free Software in their own language. Floss manuals is a really useful tool for designers to use as it is not only open source, but you can also edit content that may be out of date so keep the design community informed of the latest software and technology.

exercises take this project well beyond the

typical software guide

To find out more information, visit their website: www.flossmanuals.net

–Ellen lupton

en.flossmanuals.net/digital–foundations

Michael Mandiberg

Xtine Burrough

Michael Mandiberg is the co-author of “Digital Foundations,” a book which teaches the Bauhaus Basic Course through Adobe design software. He is also an interdisciplinary artist, designer and scholar whose work employs each of these methodologies, in part to investigate the significance of their overlap. He creates conceptual art projects, design objects, and publications that explore themes that include environmentalism, systems of exchange, pedagogy, software art, collaboration, Free Culture, and appropriation. Mandiberg describes himself as an “Appropriationist at heart. I derive visual inspiration from the Internet, conceptual art, design, the end of print and the dying American empire. My work is both formal and poetic.” His work has been exhibited at such venues as the New Museum for Contemporary Art in New York City and in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Xtine Burrough is media artist and educator and the co author of Digital Foundations. She has worked in a variety of formats, including the web, digital video, photograpy, and letterpress printing. Recent projects include www. delocator.net and www.mechanicalolympics.org. These are websites that empower online users in the analog world and promote autonomy and interpretation. She uses databases, search engines, blogs, and applications — often in combination with popular sites like Facebook, YouTube. She creates web projects and communities that encourage interpretation and autonomy. Xtine believes that art shapes social experiences by mediating consumer culture and envisioning imaginary practices. As an educator, she is interested in bridging the gap between art and design histories, theories, and practices. Xtine Burrough also has set up a YouTube account with several video tutorials and lessons that further enhance the skills taught within Digital Foundations.

Xtine Burrough

Michael Mandiberg

To see Mandiberg’s work, visit: www.mandiberg.com To see Xtine’s work, visit: www.missconceptions.net

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Imagery can be a literal or metaphorical aspect to your design. It is an instant visual communicator and by choosing and using your imagery correctly, you have the power to get your message across in an instant.

imagery 01 Vector

Raster

Computer graphics are created in one of two formats: vector and raster. Computer files containing these graphics may contain vectors, rasters, or both. Using mathematical algorithms creates vector graphics: formulas that describe where points, lines, and planes exist and how these elements relate to one another. Vector graphics can be scaled up to any size and retain their smooth edges. Vector graphics look smooth and crisp at their edges, and they can be easily scaled to any size. Logos are nearly always developed as vector graphics, as a logo has to fit easily on a business card, a website, and possibly a billboard or bus wrapping. Raster or bitmap graphics are built from grids of pixels. Each tiny pixel contains a unit of colour information. Bitmaps are used for digital photography and scanned images. Bitmap files are not as easily scalable as vector graphics. The original “flat graphic style” can be located in Plakatstil, which translates from German to English as “Poster Style.” Plakatstil is the opposite of decoration. It is bold and minimal, the type is large, while the image is sparse and colours are bright. Lucien Bernhard’s 1906 poster design entry to a contest held in Berlin by the Priester Match Company is considered the first work to embrace this new graphic style, possibly inspired by the industrialization of city life and a desire for fast-paced communication.

NOTE:

Illustrator and Flash are applications most often used to create and modify vector images.

The Pen Tool RASTER

VECTOR

RASTER

VECTOR

The Pen Tool is prominently used for creating flat graphics or line art. It can be used to make complicated forms by tracing images and combining simple shapes. In addition to contouring and tracing, the Pen Tool is often used to create shapes that are used for masking. The Pen Tool can be a little difficult to learn, as the process of using this tool sometimes feels counter-intuitive. You must be aware of where the next point is before plotting it. Visualizing lines, shapes, and space before they exist can be challenging. The paintbrush can be used to create quick gesture drawings of the lines and shapes that can then be recreated accurately with the Pen Tool. With enough practice on top of template layers, newbies are sure to develop Pen Tool intuition.

Image acquisition There are several ways to bring an image into the computer. The two most common are photographic in nature, this is, both methods involve exposing sensors to an item or scene in the real world. The camera or scanner then writes digital data to display that image on the screen. While the sensor technology is essentially the same, a camera is made to capture scenes with depth of field, while a scanner is made to focus on and capture just one flat plane.

Colour Theory Colour has always been present in our natural environment, and in art across the world. Specific colours can help create certain messages and feelings that can help draw attention to the objects. German Bauhaus school educators Josef Albers and Johannes Itten helped define and expand upon colour theory during the years 1919 - 1923. Albers created a course in colour theory that inspired the tutorial in this chapter. The traditional colour wheel utilizes the RYB (red-yellowblue) model. In a subtractive colour model, red, yellow, and blue are the primary hues, which can be mixed together to create any other colour within the colour wheel. Complimentary colours are opposite, whilst similar colours sit side-by-side on the wheel. When the primaries are mixed together in the subtractive system, the resulting product is black becuase all of the light shining is absorbed, leaving no light to reflect back to the eye and convey colour. The CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) colour model is another digital spectrum that is specific to the print industry. Artists and designers often create high volumes of printed media using the CMYK colour model

COLOUR LEADS THE VIEWERS

to synchronize the digital file with the four corresponding printing plates. This system is also subtractive, even though it is utilized in a digital environment, so mixing equal parts of cyan, magenta, yellow and black produces black. The CMYK colour mode enables digital producers to access Pantone colours, a set of industry specific colours that are made to render a clear translation between the colour that is presented on the screen and the colour that will result from the printer’s equipment. Television screens and computer monitors do not use ink or paint – they use red, green, and blue light. RGB is an additive colour model. Coloured light is mixed with red, green and blue as the primary colours. When the primary colours in the RGB model are mixed together the result is white.

THROUGH THE DESIGN AND EMPHASISES

To find out more information, visit: wiki.digital–foundations.net/index.php?title=Chapter_5_CS6

THE KEY INFORMATION.

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Line Art & Flat Graphics

No matter the weight of a line, from finely etched crosshatching to bold marker or brush stokes, line art is binary: the colour is either on the paper or it is not. Line art uses solid colours, and does not include a continuous tonal scale. A newspaper headline is line art, but the photograph below the headline is not line art. Line art has routinely been employed in the commercial arena. Andy Warhol blurred the line between the worlds of commercial and fine art by using line art and flat graphics on paintings to be shown in galleries and museums as a critique of the commercial world that this genre serves. Visible in Warhol’s illustrations of Cambell’s soup cans are thin, black lines that delineate the top edges of the soup can and a large, flat field or red–orange on the label. Historically, layers of line art would have to be created and photographed, so the printer could recreate the gradation on the single printed page, with individual screens of overlapping colour or value. Since the 1980s, digital technologies have influenced both the commercial printing industry and the designers and media crafters who send files to print. Printing has become less focused on “camera-ready” materials now that print-ready files eliminate the need for re-photographing original art. Plakatstil is the original flat graphic style used in advertising and poster campaigns (see Jim Fitzpatrick’s 1968 poster for Che Guevara).

Plakatstil translates from German as “poster style.” Plakatstil is the opposite of decoration. Flat graphics are bold and minimal; often type is large. Lucian Bernhard’s 1906 poster design entry to a contest held in Berlin by the Priester Match Company is the first work to embrace this new graphic style. Bernhard was inspired by the industrialization of city life and a desire for rapid communication. In posters such as Bernhard’s, or Jim Fitzpatrick’s poster of Che Guevara, the colour palette is minimal, the contrast between shapes, values, and intensity is extreme. In this political poster of Che Guevara by Jim Fitzpatrick (1968), the portrait is represented as a flat graphic. The contrast between the white and the black (original colour is red) is intense. The message is quickly understood through a design that is both minimal and powerful.

NOTE: Use contrast to help your design stand out. Che Guevara by Jim Fitzpatrick. 1968.

or the past two years I have been studying Industrial design at Massey University in Wellington. The photos below, showcase the last two projects I have completed this year. The first is a hand sculpture made from Jarrah, steel and a rock display following a minimal material form language, also made from Jarrah and a fish net stocking. These are sculptural pieces that helped me understand ergonomics, semantics and creating symmetry within products. This was a six week paper that started with building spaghetti bridges to understand how minimal material forms work. The second photo was the most recent group project

where we were given the domain of the garage to design two tools, one of which was to be digital and the other mechanical. After a week of research and asking people what we could improve within garages, we settled on the theme of DIY in which we found two issues. The first was that most power tools are aimed at a certain demographic. With the rise in the DIY culture there is an opportunity to create something for these people. We designed the drill to be less intimidating by using a simple elegant design and taking into account anthropometrics to shaped the handle and body to fit the hands of smaller males and females. The tablet first and foremost is a tool for learning. We took inspiration from Pinterest and Instructables to design a platform for people to find inspiration and then in the same place the tools and instruction to go about the task. The physical shape of the tablet followed the same form language as the drill, displaying long curves and creating a shared semantic using the orange flares.

The handles are an important part as they allow the tablet to be hooked, clipped, hung or held in a multi-functional way. All of the projects we are involved in at Massey are designed to teach us about the processes and materials involved in making products. We put strong focus on sustainable design and understanding people on a physical and psychological level.

ZA C I MH O O F/ Des ig ner s u c c es s Nga Pae Mahutonga Massey University Industrial Design Website: www.zac-imhoof.weebly.com Image 1 & 2: Hand sculpture made from Jarrah and steel Image 2: Digital and Mechanical tool (Images supplied by Zac Imhoof)

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Designers must be inspired by others to influence our designs. Research aspects that you are attracted to. Examine what it is you like about these aspects, and ask yourself, “What does the design communicate? How was it created?”

research

02 Fair Use Reproduceablity is a principal trait of digital media. Unlike paintings, records, books, videotapes or even photographs, an exact replica of digital media can be made from the original file. This is true for digital photographs, Compact Discs (and MP3s), DVDs, and websites. From sampling to mashups, collage to subvertisements, contemporary artists and content creators use digital files as source material for the derivation of new works. These works are considered new and original, but they are sometimes built with bits and parts of copyrighted works. In the digital age, new works are often created when more than one existing work is recombined in a new way, providing new visual relationships and new ideas. Fair Use is not piracy! Fair use is legitimate and legal use of copyrighted media, as protected by copyright law. Fair use is free speech. Fair use is not file sharing Copyright content can be used in a new work as long as permission is obtained from the copyright holder, or if the media use falls into the category of fair use. Under the fair use clause of copyright law, limited copyrighted material can be used for a “transformative” purpose, such as commenting upon, criticizing or parodying the initial material.

Appropriation Appropriation is a word that is used by media artists to describe the visual or rhetorical action of taking over the meaning of something that is already known, by way of visual reference. The most commonly known and referred to example of this is Andy Warhol’s appropriation of the Campbell’s soup can. Warhol appropriates the original to create art that relates to popular culture in its iconic form. By transforming not only the size and graphic palette for portraying the soup cans, but also the place where the viewer will encounter them. Warhol appropriates the soup cans to create art that relates to popular culture in its iconic form. Appropriation is a common practice for designers and falls into the category of fair use. Another traditional protected purpose is educational use in a classroom. Keep in mind that just because you cannot be sued for using appropriated work for assignments, you should be using it for reasons that advance your education, not just for convenience. Plagiarism is an ethical offense separate from copyright issues and hides the fact that ideas or content have been copied from somewhere else. Even in cases where no legal violation has occurred, plagiarism is a serious ethical violation that destroys the plagiarist’s credibility.

Licensing Your Work THE FOUR KEY FACTORS of copyright

Licensing work with a Creative Commons (CC) license is easy. The six types of licenses and a very brief description of each follows. More information can be found on CreativeCommons.org.

The purpose of the original work.

The nature of the original content: copy right does not limit use of the fact or ideas conveyed by an original work, only the original creative expression.

This licence allows others to distribute, remix, tweak and build upon your work commercially, as long as they credit you.

The amount of the original work used.

Attribution-Sharealike

The effect that the new work has on the potential or actual market value of the original.

Attribution-Non Commercial Sharealike

Attribution

Weighing these four factors in a copyright case is not an easy task, which is why judges have been asked to do so. However, successful commercial media that takes advantage of the fair use clause include Saturday Night Live skits, The Simpsons cartoons, and Weird Al Yankovic songs. These works all make use of parody, one of the traditional protected purposed. (Image bottom right)

inkscape

Attribution-Non Commercial This licence allows others to remix, tweak and edit your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you.

This licence allows others to remix, tweak, and edit your work commercially, as long as they credit you and licence their work under the identical terms.

This licence allows others to remix, tweak, and edit your work non commercially, as long as they credit you and licence their work under the identical terms.

Attribution-No Derivatives This licence allows for redistribution, commercial and non commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.

Attrubtion-Non Commercial - No Derivatives This licence only allows other to download your work and share it with others as long a they credit you, and they can’t change them in any way or use them commerically. To find out more, visit: www.creativecommons.org.nz

Inkscape is an open source drawing tool for creating and editing SVG graphics. More than just a text vector editor, Inkscape provides an interface for manipulation of vector images, allowing the artist to express themself freely. Like other drawing programs, Inkscape offers creation of basic shapes (such as ellipses, rectangles, stars, polygons, and spirals) as well as the ability to transform and manipulate these basic shapes by rotation, stretching, and skewing. A user can either manipulate the properties of objects individually and precisely through the XML editor or, in a more general and intuitive fashion, with input devices such as mice, pen tablets, and even touch screens. Since the beginning of its development, the Inkscape project has been very active, providing stability for the current software and the capacity for future growth. To find out more about this open source software, visit: www.flossmanuals.net/inkscape or www.inkscape.org/en

Attribution

No Derivatives

Non Commercial

Sharealike

unitedbydesign.net y name is Megan McPhail. I am a designer, creator and memory maker. I believe that everyday is a new opportunity to unmask beauty in the world, to find inspiration and extract information that can be used to develop a design problem into a solution. I always put my heart and soul into creating a magical design outcome that exceeds expectations. This passion for design extends to pushing past boundaries into new territories. To do this I explore new methods of production, with the purpose of creating a unique interaction between the design outcome and the target demographic. The creation of limited edition foil prints has come from an experimental and open approach to design, where perfection was not sought but embraced. There was an emphasis on creating a hand rendered outcome that reflected my personal design aesthetic. The imperfections of hand rendering can be seen through distressed lines and cracks that differ in each individual print. The overlying theme for these prints was the upbeat forms of nature and human life in Wanaka, New Zealand. I used foil due to its unique ability to take on the properties of light. Foil brings life to my designs through reflection and movement capturing the way the sun enhances our natural environment. Further relationships with nature can be seen through bold lines that collide to create abstract snowflakes, rose and deer silhouettes. The prints involving text aims to portray uplifting messages to encourage a positive outlook.

MEG A N MC P H A I L / Des ig ner s u c c es s Otago Polytechnic, Communication Design Website: www.manmdesign.com Email: meganmcphail1@gmail.com Instagram: @meganmcphaildesign Image 1: Gold Foil Deer Image 2: Gold Foil Typography (Images Supplied by Megan Mcphail)

Searching and Sampling The Internet is a treasure trove of photographic imagery. Artists and designers often combine media elements from this visual archive in inventive ways or use downloaded images as research for their own creative work. While we admittedly live in a “copy/paste culture,” using a downloaded image from the web has legal ramifications governed by copyright laws. Thankfully copyright law protects certain types of Fair Use of copyrighted material. In addition to Fair Use, many works are in the Public Domain or are licensed Creative Commons. Determining what is protected, what is Fair Use, and what is free to use is part of the cultural producer’s job. A few search techniques will make it easier to successfully sort through the vast online image archive. Understanding some central principles of Fair Use is helpful when thousands of protected images are only a mouse-click away. Just because you can download an image doesn’t mean you can use it! An image may be protected by copyright laws. Similar to a patent, a copyright is a legal tool for preserving control over the use of a creative work. Books, poems, music recordings and compositions, photographs, paintings, sculptures, radio and television broadcasts, films and even dances can be copyrighted. Public Domain images have no licensing restrictions. An image automatically enters the Public Domain when a copyright expires. Public domain is currently under

attack, as media corporations struggle to control their monopolies. The irony is that copyright was introduced to protect authors from this type of monopolistic power. To find out more about Free Culture, Public Domain, and the Creative Commons, visit CreativeCommons.org, or lessig.org. Lawrence Lessig is one of the founders of Creative Commons and the Free Culture movement.

An image is protected by copyright unless:

just because you 1.

The use qualifies as “fair use”.

can download 2.

The author declares it is part of the public domain.

an image, it doesn't 3.

The image is old enough that the copyright has expired.

mean you can use it. 4.

The author licenses it under an alternative model.

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Pre-press is an essential part of any print design. As a designer it is imperative that you follow these pre-press guidelines to ensure your documents are correctly processed by the printers.

pre-press 03

When creating a project, whether it be an entire book or a simple newsletter, and sending it to a commercial printer or service bureau, you’ll save yourself some hassle if you adhere to a few simple do and don’t guidelines.

Graphics Do:

Supply ALL of the graphics used to create your project. Desktop publishing applications like and InDesign link to your graphics; they do not embed them in the document. If you don’t supply the graphics along with your InDesign documents, the printer will get a missing picture error, and won’t be able to continue until you supply the graphics.

Do:

–Use TIFF or .psd for halftones: graphics that are not just black and white, but rather, have many shades of gray or colour gradation (i.e. scanned photos that were created or edited in Photoshop or an image editing application). For information on resolution, see the tutorial on half toning tips. Black and white clip art (no shades of grey— just 100% black and 100% white) looks best if scanned in and saved in 1200 dpi Bitmap TIFF format. –Use EPS or .ai for line art, illustrations, charts, clipart, etc.—graphics that are basically black and white and were created or edited in vector applications such as Illustrator or Freehand. Resolution should be at least 600 dpi, 1200 dpi is the standard and creates the best print quality.

Do:

Check with your printer to see if they charge extra for breaking any of these “rules.”

Don’t:

Use other graphic file formats like JPEG and GIF. Just because you can import them into your desktop publishing application doesn’t mean that you should. Stick with TIFF, .psd, .ai and EPS. If your graphics are in any other format, convert them.

Do:

Check your mode for colour TIFFs and .psds. Save colour TIFFs and .psds as CMYK (not RGB,never RGB). Save black & white TIFFs and .psds as Grayscale.

Do:

Most, if not all, of your image editing and graphic manipulation (i.e. lightening, darkening, etc.) in the original program that the graphic was first created or edited in, rather than the desktop publishing application. For instance, if a Photoshop TIFF needs to be lightened or darkened, lighten or darken it in Photoshop, not in Quark. Even though Quark will lighten or darken an image, adjust contrast, etc., you may get different results once you project goes to press and is printed.

Do:

Name your graphics with the appropriate file extension: filename.tif, filename.eps.

Don’t:

NOTE:

This newspaper was designed and printed in Cyan and Black only. This is because it reduces the price and helps the environment by using less ink. United by Design was printed using web offset, in which a continuous roll of paper is fed through the printing press.

Rename graphics once you have placed them in your desktop publishing/page layout document(s). If you do, make sure to go back into your document and re-link the graphics.

General Rules Do:

Create and edit your text in a word processing application such as Microsoft Word and then import the text to a desktop publishing application such as QuarkXPress or InDesign where you can create your page layout, format the text with graphics, etc.

Don’t:

Don’t use Microsoft Word as a desktop publishing application. Word does have many of the same layout features as desktop publishing apps such as Quark and InDesign (i.e., it can create columns, import graphics, create nice laser prints, etc.) but when it comes to commercial printing, Word is not going to get you very far. Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, etc. are word processing applications, NOT desktop publishing/layout programs. They handle font replacement differently and often cause reflow.

Do:

Provide the printer with a hard copy laser print out of your project, as well as all of your layout files (in Quark, InDesign, etc.), graphics and fonts. Inkjet printers are fine for initial proofing and printing, but always get a final printout (and proof it) from a PostScript laser printer.

Don't:

Don’t assume that what you have printed out and submitted as hard copy or see on your monitor is what you will get. Take a good long look at proofs and bluelines supplied by the printer.

Do:

Take your printer’s advice.

Don’t: Don’t assume that you know more than the printer.

Don’t:

Don’t create your page layout for multi-page documents in draw programs such as Illustrator. Use desktop publishing apps like or InDesign.

oh, croP

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Page Layout

Fonts

Do:

Don’t create 60 by 90mm text frames in a 100mm by 110mm document setup and manually add registration marks.

Supply the printer with ALL of the fonts used to create your project (even the symbol, fraction and dingbat fonts). Try not to use TrueType fonts, and for PostScript fonts, make sure you supply the printer with both the screen and the printer font parts. Remember to include fonts used to create EPS graphics, and fonts that the printer probably already has (i.e. like Helvetica, etc.). There are many different versions of some fonts and a “wrong” version can cause reflow/repagination problems.

Do:

Don’t:

Use a document setup size (i.e. your page dimensions) that is the same as your trim size. For instance, if you are creating a 60 by 90mm book, set up your initial page size in the document setup for 60 by 90mm.

Don't:

Make page elements that bleed extend at least 1/8th of an inch beyond the page boundary.

Don’t:

Don’t use your page layout/desktop publishing program’s predetermined “hairline” rule. The width varies from program to program, and prints out differently on a laser printer than on an image setter, if it prints at all. Don’t create rules that are less than .25 pt.

Do:

Watch for widows, orphans, rivers, bad kerning and other desktop publishing no-nos that will make you look like an amateur. Get rid of double-spaces after periods, don’t use spaces to align columns (use tabs) or to create paragraph indents. Know your en dash (–) from your em dash (—).

Don’t use Bold or Italic in the style menu or hit the Bold or Italic button when you want to bold or italicize text in your page layout program. Use the actual font. For example, in InDesign, if you want to create text that is Helvetica Bold, don’t select some Helvetica text and then bold it. Instead, select the text and change the font itself

}

Do: Don’t:

S A M S T EW A R T Otago Polytechnic, Product Design Website: www.samstewartphotography.com Facebook: facebook.com/samstewartphotography Instagram: instagram/samstewartphotography Image 1: Karamea Music Festival (top left) Image 2: Client Wedding (middle) Image 3: Lindis Pass (bottom)

Don’t:

Don’t use TrueType fonts. Period. Always use PostScript or OpenType and Adobe fonts (Macintosh or PC/ Windows) are always a safe bet. TrueType is fine for printing to a laser or inkjet printer, but TrueType fonts can cause severe problems when it comes to commercial printing. Many commercial printers won’t even print a project that contains TrueType fonts. Often, they pop.

Don’t:

Don’t use 20 different fonts for a 4-page newsletter. It makes you look like you don’t know what you’re doing. In desktop publishing, consistency is everything. Use one font for your main body text, another for your main heads, another for photo captions, another for sidebars, etc., but don’t mix and match fonts for your main body text or make every headline a different font unless you’re trying to create some sort of chaotic effect and it is your intention to confuse the reader. Too many fonts is not only considered to be bad design, but it also slows printing to a crawl.

have always been interested in design, sketching, doodling, carving a piece of wood with a knife or wondering how things work. This led me to Dunedin to study my Bachelor of Design (Product) at Otago Polytechnic. For me it was a great overview of design and I grabbed some great skills along the way. I’m not currently working in product design but I have taken the skills I learnt and used them in a different direction. Along with my wife Penny we created and designed an organic energy bar. Feeling like the organic snack foods were lacking we thought to create our own. This led us to our current business of Awaken Energy Bars. We sell them in organic stores and a few supermarkets around New Zealand. The initial stages were great, packaging and branding design, recipe design and so on. After that was completed we felt we needed something else creative to do. I decided to pursue my photography passion a lot more and have recently launched my photography business ”www.samstewartphotography.com” I shoot weddings, landscapes, music festivals and food. I love it all. Shooting a wedding is an amazing experience, capturing the images for such a significant day in people’s lives is fantastic. I have recently also teamed up with an architect, which requires turning his 2D plans and drawings into 3D models. This is also very rewarding, helping them to visualise their house is pretty cool.

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“If you’re interested in becoming a fashion designer, then Otago Polytechnic is absolutely the best place to study. I love Otago Polytechnic graduates.” FRANCIS HOOPER WORLD

Apply now for 2015 and gain the skills you need for a career you love! Health, Community and Education

Nursing Midwifery Occupational Therapy Social Services Tertiary Education

Creative Art Design

Hospitality

Cookery and Culinary Arts Food and Beverage Service Hospitality Management

Business, Tourism and IT

Business and Tourism Computing and IT

Trades and Technical

Construction Engineering

Sport and Adventure

Debrief Exhibition - Graduates of 2013. The Debrief and Collections show during November exhibits fresh and creative work from the Otago Polytechnic graduates of 2014. If you happen to be in Dunedin, his is a great opportunity for you to come experience the work of New Zealand’s future designers.

Sport Adventure Snowsports

Life Sciences

Horticulture Veterinary Nursing and Animal Care High Country Farming J01918

Opening night – Wednesday, 19th of November, 5:30pm – 8:30pm ‘Debrief’ open to public – Thursday, 20st of November, 10am – 5pm ‘Debrief’ open to public – Friday, 23nd of November, 11am – 5pm ‘Collections’ fashion show – Friday, 21nd of November, doors open at 7pm, seated by 8:15 tickets $40+bf Available in November ‘Debrief’ open to public – Saturday, 22rd of November, 12pm – 6pm ‘Debrief’ open to public – Sunday, 23th of November, 10am – 2pm

am currently in second year studying a Bachelor of Visual Communication Design, majoring in advertising, at Massey University in Wellington. My approach to design often revolves around a lot of procrastination which I actually believe helps with my creativity. I always find myself spending hours, flicking through websites to look at other artist models for inspiration. It’s amazing how many talented people there are out there and they are what motivate me to keep generating new ideas. Helpful websites such as Booooooooooooom, Designspiration, Juxtapoz and Colossal are all my favourites to stumble upon. I have always been passionate about design and am fascinated with colour and idea generation. My favourite paper at Massey is Brand Communication. The vibrant work above with ‘Moments’ written on the packaging was to redesign a biscuit range for the brand Ernest Adams. The idea

University Book Shop Advertisement - Awaiting artwork.

behind this brief was to help Ernest Adams regain market leadership, as currently Farm Bake is the dominating brand in New Zealand supermarkets. The work created above was done collaboratively with another student and I was lucky enough to take on vital roles, such as illustrating the packaging. The best part of this brief for me was generating ideas to help Ernest Adams, which led to creating a biscuit range ‘Moments’ that targets woman who want a biscuit to compliment the type of drinks they like to consume on a daily basis. These fun doodles are there to look vibrant on the shelves with an illustrative style that triggers an emotive response from woman. So that they take a moment out of their busy lives and indulge in our product. One of my teachers at Massey told me a few words of wisdom that I have manipulated into my own words to share with you, “that our generation can’t make the same mistakes they have; as designers we need to come up with new innovative ways of thinking. We are the new generation of designers, be bold, be brave, and University is the best place to start breaking the brief, because if the brief isn’t broken then we would be boring, wouldn’t we?” I guess this is what I want to take with me when graduating Massey University, hopefully these design skills and even life skills that I have learnt will challenge me to take on the world as a designer, to keep learning and experimenting. Also another big factor would be to be happy. A goal that

I have always had as a little girl is to own my own business one day and I still don’t know what form this business is going to take, but I know one thing for sure is that it is going to revolve around creativity. For now, work experience is my top priority in the design field.

TO MI KA TER R Y / Des ig ner s u c c es s Nga Pae Mahutonga Design School, Massey University Visual Communication Website: www.tomikaterry.tumblr.com Image 1, 2 & 3: Packaging Brief (Images supplied by Tomika Terry)

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Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does. David Carson

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There are so many choices of fonts when it comes to designing. Choosing the right font to compliment your content and target audience is extremely important.

typography 04 Misuse and overuse

thinking with type

A common problem amongst design students is simply using a typeface because it is cool amongst your peers. We shouldn’t use a typeface because of their popularity; we should use them because they compliment the design but most importantly we need to consider readability. Free font websites are great for those who cannot afford to pay money for use of fonts, but this is the cause of designers beautiful fonts being misused and overused. A popular font does not necessarily mean it’s a good one. No matter how cool you may think it is, you need to think about what a font should communicate about your outcome.

Thinking with Type is a really useful guide to using typography in visual communication design, from digital screen-based typography to print. Author, Ellen Lupton displays the latest information on style sheets, the use of ornaments and captions, using uppercase and lowercase, as well as information on font licensing, mixing typefaces, and hand lettering. Throughout the book, visual examples show how to be inventive within systems of typography, what the rules are and how to break them. Thinking with Type is a type book for a range of people, including designers, writers, editors, students, and anyone else who works with and uses words. Ellen Lupton is a writer, curator, and graphic designer. She is director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art. As curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum since 1992, she has produced numerous exhibitions and books. There is also a popular online addition to Thinking with Type (www.thinkingwithtype.com) in which a lot of the resources are also displayed.

Thinking With Type – Ellen Lupton

Find some good free fonts from thee websites: www.fontfabric.com www.exljbris.com www.fontsquirrel.com www.google.com/fonts www.exljbris.com www.losttype.com www.dafont.com

on s u w o l l o ! f m a r ag t s n i

NOTE:

This newspaper uses a combination of Goudy Old Style, Vincent and TrashHand.

This book is

scribus - open source Scribus is an application, designed and made through open source materials from many contributers. Scribus is ideal for layout, typesetting and preparing files for professional image setting equipment. It also has the ability to create animated and interactive PDF presentations and forms. Some common uses for Scribus include writing small newspapers, brochures, newsletters, posters and books. Scribus includes an online wikipedia page that describes each element with how to’s, articles, and reviews.

essential

reading for design

To find out more about Scribus, vist www.scribus.net

students,

Keep up to date with our social media! Follow us on instagram, check out our and be sure to visit our blog. We share the latest information on national and international design, and up and coming graduate designers. Our blog aims to unite together designers – by allowing them to submit their work, thoughts, tips, and tricks on design. We want to share a range of work, across many different styles so that United By Design can become a base for sharing, learning and inspiring the world of design.

and the perfect

WEBSITE: www.unitedbydesign.net INSTAGRAM: @unitedbydesign PINTEREST: www.pinterest.com/unitedbydesign

# UNITEDBYDESIGN 12

Wake Up Drug. John maeda

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Font forge J ES S I E W O N G / Des i g n er s u c c es s Font Forge is a key tool for graphic designers. It allows you to edit existing fonts, or create a new one. Font Forge is open source software, available on both Mac OS, Linux and Windows. This means that it is a community maintained software, and anyone can contribute or update the source code. Font Forge is also used as an guide for help and assistance, and it offers guidance into the design of a typeface. To use Font Forge – visit en.flossmanuals.net. It is here that you can make adaptions to the source code in order to keep improving its qualities.

Otago Polytechnic, Fashion Design Website: www.yumeibrand.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/yumeibrand Instagram: @jessieyumeiwong

Image 1: YUMEI Leather bag, top and skirt. Image 2 & 3: 2014 Collection (Images supplied by Jessie Wong, Photographs by Ben Drinkwater)

TYPE TALK Counter

The partially or fully enclosed space within a character.

Bowl

A curved stroke which creates an enclosed space within a character (the space is then called a counter).

Ligature

The stroke that joins adjacent letters in writing or printing.

Ascender

The part of a lowercase character (b, d, f, h, k, l, t) that extends above the x-height.

Descender

The part of lowercase letters that descends below the baseline of the other lowercase letters in a font face. In some typefaces, the uppercase J and Q also descend below the baseline.

Cap Height

The height from the baseline to the top of the uppercase letters in a font. This may or may not be the same as the height of ascenders. Cap height is used in some systems to measure the type size.

Baseline

The imaginary line on which the majority of the characters in a typeface rest.

Kerning

The adjustment of horizontal space between individual characters in a line of text. Adjustments in kerning are important in large display and headlines. Without kerning adjustments, many letter combinations can look out of place. The objective of kerning is to create visually equal spaces between all letters so that the eye can move smoothly along the text. Kerning may be applied automatically by the desktop publishing program based on tables of values. Some programs also allow manual kerning to make fine adjustments e.g Adobe InDesign.

X-height

Traditionally, x-height is the height of the lowercase letter x. It is also the height of the body of lowercase letters in a font, excluding the ascenders and descenders. Some lowercase letters that do not have ascenders or descenders still extend above or below the x-height as part of their design. The x-height can vary greatly from typeface to typeface at the same point size.

To view Ellen Luptons type anatomy diagram - scan this QR code.

riginally I started sewing to make little things for myself. I’m not sure why it was that when I was 10, I wrote a speech about a young New Zealand fashion designer, or when I was 11 I started going to sewing lessons every week. It’s funny how a seemingly small decision at the time will determine the direction your life will end up taking. I am currently in my final semester of a Bachelor of Design in Fashion at Otago Polytechnic. We’re at the beginning stages of our final collections right now which is a thrilling yet daunting time. Everyone gets very emotionally attached to their work and we’re all going to be a little bit sad once we reach the end. I’m interested in the lives of people around me and the events that swirl through our social systems. For example, my last collection was based on the idea of perspective. I think it all got a bit muddled up but I was trying to convey the thought of how people perceive each other and that through various lenses this picture can change so vastly depending on where you’re standing. I appreciate the power of fashion to communicate ideas and concepts. It’s a vehicle for my personal narratives. They don’t need to be spoken, the way you dress can say so much about yourself to the world. Subconsciously, there is something unintentional about my designs that runs throughout my work, tying it together. My style is a distillation of my personality; you can see this with everyone in the fashion class now and it’s pretty cool. I love working in heavy fabrics, probably because I can manipulate them better. They agree with me, we speak the same language. Collaboration is also an important part of my design process. I find that ideas flow freely in conversation with like minded people and multiple perspectives nearly always help strengthen a body of work. Plus it’s more fun! Over the past two years I’ve had incredible opportunities to work with leather. In April I was lucky enough to show a four piece collection at Wellington Fashion Week made entirely from New Zealand Light Leather’s premium deer nappa. In working with leather, it is important for me to create quality products that will stand the test of time. I like to compare the leather bags I make to a good pair of Doc Martins; they’ll weather your journey with you, each little scratch and mark another adventure in your story. This experience has tempted me into working with leather after I graduate and at the end of the year, I’m looking forward to producing a bag line under my label YU MEI.

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Design and technology go hand in hand, which means staying up to date with the latest design know-how is key, especially when design is such a competitive industry.

extras 05 DESIGN SLANG

SOFTWARE TIP

SHOWCASE YOURSELF

Hue

It is very important that file extensions, or suffixes, remain intact. The extension assists the computer operating system. It tells the system the type of file and the application to use when opening the file. This is especially important when bringing a file from one operating system to another (such as going from a Mac to a PC).

Promoting yourself can be difficult, however a great way to do so is to start a blog or create a website. If you don’t already have a blog, you can get a free one at WordPress. com. WordPress has a large community of users, great documentation, loads of themes and plug-ins, and it is open source (meaning, the source code is available for augmentation and manipulation.) Tumblr and Blogger, are also quality blog platforms.

Is colour (e.g. red, blue, green, yellow) Intensity, Saturation, Chroma and Brilliance all refer to how much pigment is in a colour, which translates to how vivid a colour appears.

Spot Colour

Inks that are not mixed from the four process colours. They are used for items such as logos, that need to be consistent in colour no matter how or where they were printed. Any time that you add extra ink to a print job, it increases the price. Metallic and fluro inks are also spot colours.

DPI

Dots Per Inch. The more precise way to define the resolution for a file that is to be printed.

PPI

Pixels Per Inch. Part of how you would define the resolution of an object that is screen-based.

Adobe Illustrator Tip

When opening an file you cannot open it on another computer without have the content, such as imagery an typefaces, saved on the computer you are opening it on. This will show up blank if not and typefaces will be changed to a default one. So include your typefaces and images when transferring your files.

PDF Tip

Saving your finished files as PDFs is great for presentations, where you can open it up and present it as a slide show. PDFS are also the preferred way to save a file to send to print.

Is the fade from one colour to another.

how to be a graphic designer

Render

1. Become a collector, not a hoarder! Collect designs

Gradient

A rendition or draft of a project. When someone talks about render, it can mean the projects appearance: “It’s a pencil render” means it’s a sketch.

Thumbnail

Small scale rough sketches of a design concept.

jargon.

that you like the look of and keep them all together to use as a source of inspiration.

2. Buy books – Don’t forget about books! Even though the Internet has a large amount of resources, there’s nothing better than flicking through a beautifully designed book.

3. Read design blogs – or make your own! These are

a good way to keep up to date with what is happening both nationally and internationally in the design world.

4. Make connections – Keep an eye out for events and other activities where graphic design may be needed. It is also great to meet like minded people that can offer you valuable feedback and critiques on your work!

5. Take photos of everything – Photos are another way of collecting inspiration. Take photos of anything and everything that may interest you. However, remember to respect copyrights when taking photos. Do not reuse or republish others’ copyrighted content without permission.

WordPress: www.wordpress.com Tumblr: www.tumblr.com Blogger: www.blogger.com

NOTE:

The United By Design website and blog was created using WordPress.

6. Redo or improve your old designs – Sometimes,

when looking at your old work you cringe, but the thought process obviously had potential and it is interesting to see how much you have improved over the years.

7. Have a killer portfolio – As designers, our portfolio

is all that we have to show our potential clients to hire us! So make sure that you keep your portfolio up to date with only the very best of you work. It can be helpful to create fake briefs and clients in order to produce outcomes for your portfolio.

8. Attend lectures and workshops – Take note of what’s around you – check out your weekly newspaper to keep up to date with the latest workshops and lectures.

9. Go to exhibitions – Exhibitions are a great way of

seeing trends, and what other creatives like yourselves are up to. Immerse yourself in art and design, you never know, they quite often have free champagne.

10. Travel – Travel is hands down the number one way of learning, experiencing and meeting people. Through travel, you can learn about different cultures and how they use design.

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DESIGN SLANG .indd

InDesign document.

.ai

Adobe Illustrator file.

.psd

Photoshop document.

BACHEL O R O F D ESI G N ( C O M M U N I C AT I O N ) The Bachelor of Design [Communication] degree emphasises creative story-telling through a variety of media: text, image, sound, digital filmmaking and interactive media. Much more than a graphic design course, your ideas and creativity will be extended and connected to real world projects.

For further information:

www.op.ac.nz/design www.op.design.ac.nz/debrief 08007 726 786

Vincent Egan - 2013 Graduate

.pdf

Portable Document Format.

.png

Portable Network Graphics are the ideal web graphic types.

.mpeg

Moving Picture Experts Group Phase.

.rtf

Rich Text Format, non-proprietary word processing format.

.txt:

Text only, no formatting. .jpg or .jpeg - Joint Photographic Experts Group - a compressed image file format often used for photographs on the web.

.gif:

Graphic Interchange Format - a compressed image file format often used on the web for logos, moving images and other graphics with low numbers of colours.

.eps:

Encapsulated PostScript

was first introduced to screen-printing while studying towards a Graduate Diploma in Communication Design. Instantly I was drawn to its process, the colour mixing, the smell of the ink and the hands on approach to printing my designs. This combined with my interest in textiles lead me to start my own Dunedin based textile and print label Gertie & Alma. I love to make and create, so often once I have printed I can’t help but add a hand painted touch or to stencil in some more colour. This is how I keep my designs developing and growing, the designs aren’t finished until I hand it over to the customer! I like my designs to reflect both vintage and modern aesthetics and I achieve this through the use of colour, layering and motifs.

Originally my fabrics were intended for home wares but the response I got was that there was a need for fashion textiles and most of what I sold went on to become dresses or blouses. So as it has turned out my designs have ended up in both fields, which I love and really is the beauty of bespoke design–not everyone will have it!

j ul ia mcr a e /D e si gn e r succe s s Otago Polytechnic, Communication Design Facebook: www.facebook.com/gertieandalma

Image 1 : Screen printed textile (left) Image 2 & 3: Textile made into a dress (right) (Images supplied by Julia Mcrae)

WORKSPACE DUNEDIN

unitedbydesign.net ICEFEST CHRISTCHURCH

The Research and Enterprise department at Otago Polytechnic saw the opportunity to extend its reach from education to work experience, and beyond research to commercial engagement. When you’ve got a fabulous idea, or you run a business on the brink of astonishing growth, gaining access to professional services across a range of disciplines can be daunting. This is where workSpace’s and Otago Polytechnic’s deeply embedded ethos of action, practical application and project follow through comes in. workSpace as it is today – is the union of the communication design studio, newSplash; and the rapid prototyping, engineering and product design workshop, Innovation Workspace. Due to its commercial nature and its interdisciplinary capability workSpace has served as a business transformation hub, research output facility and work experience platform for exceptional students. This has led to collaboration of unheard of proportions, allowing the realisation of economic and employment benefit to the Polytechnic, students and to the businesses that engage with us. .

As part of IceFest, New Zealand’s premiere Antarctic exhibition, a team from workSpace created a variety of interactive exhibits for the Antarctic Time Travel Exhibition. This exhibition, displayed within a series of 9 shipping containers, took the audience on a journey through Antarctica’s 50 million year history. It also posed possible scenarios for Antarctica’s uncertain future and how this might impact generations to come. Using cutting edge NZ-led Antarctic research, the exhibits focused on climate change, and aimed to answer big questions by showing how the continent had been affected by CO2 throughout Earth’s history. workSpace’s role was to deliver this information in a creative, interactive, and educational way. Over a period of three months, and many design iterations, 12 scientifically accurate interactive exhibits were constructed and delivered to Christchurch for their unveiling. The experiences we created were diverse in their media, ranging from screen-based interactives and animations; a pop-up map of Antarctica; an interactive LED-lit graph; listening posts; and a photo booth which encouraged visitors to personally pledge action to reduce their CO2 emissions. The screen-based and graphic elements were created through collaboration between the team’s illustrators, animators and developers, all housed within plywood casings whose forms alluded to the monoliths of ice and rock that typify the Antarctic continent. Throughout the whole design process we were mindful of the fact that the end product had to be sustainable. This led us to work with some new and interesting materials we had not worked with before, such as PEFC-certified plywood, low-VOC paint, soy-based inks, and sustainable printing vinyl. Wastage and new material consumption was kept to a minimum by using reclaimed materials for prototyping. The IceFest team at workSpace was led by Lewis Earl and consisted of several product designers including Patrick Gallagher, Ken Wyber, and Jess Dobson. On the team for their graphic and screen-based expertise we had Oliver Powell, Michelle Grey, and Anna Soo, led by Irene van der Meer. We also had a team of highly intelligent developers including Anton Smith, Taua Piri, and Neville Auton. The overarching direction of the exhibition’s vision was expertly steered by project managers Lynda Henderson and Eva Gluyas. The Antarctic Time Travel Exhibition was displayed in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square for the duration of NZ IceFest, during which time it entertained and educated thousands of visitors. It is now showing at its new home, the International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch, until April 2015.

Interactive plynths with iPad screens at Ice Fest in Christchurch.

The workSpace team in action.

food design conference The first such event in New Zealand, the International Food Design Conference was held at Dunedin’s Sargood Centre from the 2nd to the 4th July 2014, and entertained and educated over 150 people from the food industry and the general public. A collaboration between OP’s Food Design Institute, OP’s commercial design studio workSpace, and major sponsor Silver Fern Farms, the conference combined food experiences and environmental design to create a new medium for storytelling. Given a brief of ‘on the edge’, and a list of mood words (industrial; edge; shiny; knives; stainless steel; concealed; dark; wild/wilderness; and cutting edge), student designers Regina Speer and Tessa Hewlett applied an experimental, avant-garde, and edgy atmosphere to NZ’s traditional pasture-to-plate heritage. Although this theme contained an amount of criticism of NZ’s meat industry, the Food Design Institute encouraged the designers to push it further, creating an intentionally bewildering and tense storytelling environment. To create maximum impact, guests were initially shown through two minimally-decorated rooms before the themed rooms began. Reclaiming materials from scrap yards and industrial settings, the conference physically comprised of a pasture of artificial grass, pea-straw seating and native plants, complete with plywood cows and a rusting truck; a slaughterhouse and chiller room with sawdust floor and canvas carcasses hanging from the ceiling; and a butchery with sound-effects and actors cleaving bread buns with oversized knives. Metal

Butcher counter at the Food Design Conference in Dunedin.

Laser etched wooden sign at the Food Design Conference.

railings corralled and confined guests, suggesting that they themselves were the animals to be slaughtered. This mixed-up atmosphere was reflected in the food: vegetarian meals served on bone plates, lollies made from meat, all washed down with beetroot-juice blood. The result was open-mouthed trepidation, followed by wholehearted enjoyment of the experience: the Food Design Institute and Silver Fern Farms were thoroughly impressed and have expressed an interest in working with workSpace again. Ultimately the success of the conference showed the power of design thinking and the design process when applied to other spheres.

Ice Fest team members: From left: Christina Sandford, Jess Dobson, Martin, Adam Gorrie, Ross McFadden, Oliver Powell, William Early, Anna Soo, Irene van der Meer, Neville Anton. Left front: Victoria Griffin, Abigail Wallace, Lewis Pearl, Patrick Gallagher, Lynda Henderson, Ken Wyber.

THANKS.