gd A Graphic Design Applications
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gdA Project One
Project Two
OKIDO
ICA
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Project One OKIDO
Contents
The Brief
Research
Analysis
Prototype
Final Idea
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Brief The arts and science magazine for kids The aim of this illustration based project was to develop a character from a theme explored in our first session and then to produce a fully illustrated outcome which would be both educational and child-friendly. The final format of the outcome could be anything but it would have to convey an educational message and have some sort of narrative. The character would be inspired by our workshop sessions with Rachel. Rachel Ortas who is the co-founder and creative director of the OKIDO childrens magazine was the project leader and our mentor. The aim of this project was not only to produce a character, but also to consider its origins and habitat in order to create a story.
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Okido Research: No Consumer Clutter Founded on the basis of providing children with fun yet educational reading and with strictly no childrens merchandise to promote with adverts and freebies, the okido magazine is an inovative idea to combine science and art in a fun way for children aged between 2-7 years. Prior to this, children had only the likes of Bob the Builder and Barbie magazines to purchase which contain a bombardment of adverts for toys and sweets on every other page being driven by sales and marketing rather than the educational learning of their target audience. This new educational tool is not only available in paper format but the online website contains many interactive games and areas that children can access. The idea of putting it online is in keeping with the way more and more children are learning and interacting today.
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What’s it all about? The creation and initial production of this popular magazine began in the home of one of its co-founders, and from this location things escalated and grew into what it is today. A grant from the Wellcome Trust boosted the production of the magazine and allowed large scale commercialisation of the product reaching as far as India. The magazine has also received an award from the Wellcome Trust in recognition of its work. The simplicity of the imagery used in the magazine and its layout with the absence of outlines is a reflection of its humble beginings. The images have the appearance of being screen printed and the colours used are slightly desaturated which gives an overall calmer feel and doesnt distract too much from the important educational aspect of the articles. As well as providing entertainment for kids, the magazine educates children about important issues including the environment and the human body. There is also an activity section so that children can learn through ‘doing’ rather than just ‘reading’ or ‘watching’, and this also serves to bring siblings together or children and parents in fun activities.
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yo gabba Research: TV entertainment for kids A very popular childrens television programme on the Nic Jn. cable network, Yo Gabba Gabba continues to gain popularity with young children of all ages. Being a programme targeted at a young audience it unusually also appeals to a much older audience with its use of celebrities as special guests on the show. Like the Okido magazine, the show aims to educate children about various issues but in quite a different way. Whereas the magazine is a bit more subdued, the show is very lively, colourful and full of music and drama. It appeals to more of the human senses and uses the ever popular and mainstream television screen to reach its audience.
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TV entertainment for kids The show is made up of five imaginary characters and one human presenter. Each one of them is extremely different in appearance (size, colour, shape and form) and personality highlighting a very distinct diversity amongst friends. The usually successful interaction between such an aray of characters is in itself a very important lesson for children today. The advantage of a moving and talking 2D image to a 1D image is that the audience, especially a young and easily influenced one, can relate to it more. Drwaing from this, i will need to make my character interactive and include some motion to make it more appealing and memorable.
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Moomins Research: From books and comics to television The Moomins are a set of characters originally created by Swedish-Finn illustrator and writer Tove Jansson. They are a family of trolls, although their roundish appearance with large snouts seems more hippopotamus like. They live as a unit in harmony with their surroundings, neighbours and friends experiencing various adventures and living a very carefree life in Moominvalley. The characters are said to be inspired by real people close to Tove Jansson, namely her direct family. This must have no doubt aided her in portraying a real sense of family between the Moomins.
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Research: From books and comics to television The series became large scale as a comic strip in the popular London newspaper The Evening News in the 1950’s and progressed as a series of books and a television animation. It has also been presented as an opera over the years and provides the basis of a theme park in Finland. The Moomin stories have a very humane message. The books have caprices and utterances which ponder life and ways of the world. With reference to the original stop-motion puppet animation made in the 1970’s the programme title is very venacular, and this combined with the overall cinematography gives the Moomins a vintage and genuine feel. Its this simplicity in its imagery that makes it appealing to audiences even today as it reminds people of a simple and carefree life while still touching on issues and themes which effect the population even today.
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Analysis Turning research into reality In a session with Rachel we visually examined the different variations of characters that could be made, this was to help us use the research we had done on existing childerens characters and draw up new versions of the ideas we had already explored. The task was to draw the characters we had been exploring in previous sessions, over three pieces of card, the head on one the body on an other and the legs on the last. doing this in a group , we then swaped body parts with others creating strange looking mutations of our characters. The next part of the session was a game of ‘consequences‘ when a paper was passed around and a short sentence was written with a theme Rachel called out. The result was a
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disjointed story which somehow made sense and opened up new possibilities to strange narratives and a characters habitat. One of the outcomes was as follows: “The happy holly and the beautiful, funny mrs merkin in the sky ate a big pile of rotten tomatoes and drank cold tea. the first one said “don’t eat ice-cream“ and the second one answered “no“. Sorry but im leaving now”.
Analysis Looking back at my reseach I have come to the conclusion that there are various aspects of the characters I have observed which have been effective in capturing the attention of the children. The Okido magaziene presents simple forms with contrasting colours, and easy to read child friendly typography. This is effective at comunicating simple messeges that are short and easy to understand. Yo Gabba Gabba uses characters which are based on toys that children may play with in nurserys and at home, they come to life and educate the children with the use of musical themes and dancing. The Moomin chacters are based in a fantasy habitat called moominvalley and are themselves makebelieve creatures called Moomin trolls. They have large facial features which make them distinguishable from other characters. I will use this analysis from my research to begin experimentation on my own character which will take influence from a fruit bowl as its habitat, and will encourage healthy eating to its audience.
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Further Experimentation I then moved on to experimenting with my characters’ message and making the nutritional education more apparent by using real fruit and taking pictures. This would be made into a stop-motion animation where my character could be located in a fruit bowl as its habitat and interact with fellow fruit characters. The avocado fruit was my choice as the most suitable fruit to base my character on as it worked well on many levels. The exterior colour is green which indicates a fresh and healthy character. The shape is a simple water droplet shape which is easy to draw and instantly recognisable. It is also not a very popular or well known fruit amongst children and so i wanted to bring it to their attention.
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Further Experimentation This was the next stage in the development and experimantation. I decided on calling the character Mr Avocado, but now i wanted to experiment with the different moods and emotions that could be made by altering the facial features. The idea of this experimenttation method was to realize the different variation of the character that could be made. The blue and red colours being contrasting colours were helpful in that they enable you to concentrate on reading the mood and facial expresion of the character. The different parts of the face were cut out of card which enabled them to be moved easily.
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Final Idea Animation The final plan was to make a short educational animation to introduce a child of 0-3 years to numbers. I wanted to incorporate the character of Mr Avocado as a promotion of healthy eating. An avocado being a very good source of nutrition it would be ideal. Also not many people know that the avocado is a fruit and this gave me more reason to push ahead with the idea. At a total lenth of 34 seconds the final animation called “Count With Mr Avocado� is short and meaningful. With the use of distinctive complementary colours and cheery background music it counts with the child while each tooth grows to reveal a differentnumber. The objective is to help the children
count up to 12 in time with mr avocado. there are three educational aspects to my animation, the first being that the very fact his name is mr avocado is teaching the child what it is and showing them how fun it can be. Secondly the numbers are revealed one by one so as to encourage the child to guess what number comes next. Thirdly, to introduce to the child the growing of teeth which they will have already experienced and will again in the near future.
To view Count with Mr avocado: h t t p : / / w w w. y o u t u b e . c o m / w a t c h ? v = t i y u r d c 0 r k E
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Project Two ICA
Enhancing audience participation within the ICA
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part one
part two
R e s e a rc h
P ro p o s a l
Spatialization
Implement ation
The spatial distribution of a population within the confines of a given area
To put (a decision, plan, agreement, etc.) into effect
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part one
Research Contents ICA
background & brief
BFI
memory board
BL
evolving english
V&A
magic lantern
TATE
interactive zone
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SPATIALIZATION
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The Brief
The brief asked to find a way to increase audiance participation in the ICA. the It was noticed that visitors were not interacting with certain areas in the ICA as much as they should be. This was leaving some parts of the building empty and other parts overcrowded. It was asked of us to use our grapic design skills to come up with a solution for the lack of interaction between the ICA and it’s audiance. This idea would have to be cheap to implement, to The ICA’s building comprises of two main communal areas with a narrow corridoor adjoyning in the middle. the twohad noticed the way visitors use its space was effecting which would increase audience participation within the ICA. We were asked to pay specific attention to the ICA’s reputation of being the most experimental and unique institution of the arts. The idea must be able to encourage the audience to interact more with the space within the ICA, and should also somehow physically engage people to learn more about the space and what is contained in side it.
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ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts
This most distinguished Institute located on the mall is the epicenter of all that is new in the world of contemporary art. It combines work from different artistic principals to showcase exhibitions and films which are contextualized within its walls. Originally concieved by Herbert Read and established in 1947 the ICA has since been a playground for artists, poets and writers alike. It has played host to the exploration of both contemporary and traditional concepts. Exhibiting challenging and at times highly controversial works has been the corner stone for the ICA’s success. Among other artists debuting at the ICA, have been shows from the likes of Damien Hirst, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Luc Tuymans and Steve McQueen. The institute prides itself on helping emerging artists gain global recognition after first passing through its prestigious doors and is always looking for the next most talked about artist.
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An overwhelming factor in its armory of excellence is the ICA’s ability to integrate cutting edge technology and contemporary art concepts into its exhibits. An example of this would be the recent show of Nathaniel Mellors work which was shown for more than two months and brought in masses of visitors. The ICA is by far the most fore-thinking institute for the combined arts and continues to amaze visitors with its ever changing exhibits and contributions to the arts.
The ICA’s Graphic identity The ICA has recently made some drastic changes to its visual language and spatial design. Its new staff members wanted to address some of the issues that were effecting the daily running of the institution. The first point of engagment most people had with the ICA was its website, so this was simplified and de-cluttered by adding a simple navigation system and keeping to the black & white theme it uses in its other leaflets and publications. The ICA used this concept of simplification to modifiy parts of its internal space and make them more accessable and easier to interact with. The glass walls of the book shop which took up a large space in the main entrance area were replaced by an openplan shop where the books where placed on tables encouraging people who were not intending to visit the bookshop to have a browse. The building underwent a major change in recent weeks and the ICA had undergone a major referbishment, this was to improve the way visitors used the space.
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Inside the ICA One of the main reasons why the ICA has had spacial design issues is due to the buildings shape, in particular the area labelled on the floorplan opposite ‘concourse‘. It joins the cinema, shop and box office which is the main entrance area with the bar cafe and theatre which is the furthest part of the building and runs along the side of the lower gallery. It acts as a cut off point from one part of the building to the other and has proved to give visitors the choice of walking through it or turning back. I intend on basing my idea on the many walls the ICA has and how the phisicallity of a wall can be broken down in a simple and in-expensive way. This will be the most effective way of improving the ICA’s spacial design and help visitors to interact more with the spaces made available.
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Mapping & Orientation According to a systematic study of visitor orientation and circulation by Bitgood & Richardson, in 1987: - Environments should be designed with a minimum number of choice points. The easiest circulation patterns for people to form a cognitive map are simple geometric forms such as circle, square, or cloverleaf. Intersections with angles other than 90degrees make it more difficult to form a cogntive map. Therefore, pathways that form right angles should be preferred. - Hand-carried maps are preferred by visitors and a map should be simplified as much as much possible, as too much detail causes confusion. The map should also include easily identified landmarks in the environment. - Provide redundant wayfinding cues. Recurring cues also give a feeling of security to the visitor. - Give people choices (information desk, maps, direction signs, etc.) The use of symbols (such as animal silhouettes) to indicate directions can be confusing if used without words and if the symbols are not easily recognized.
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Pictured is the long walk-way labelled on the ICA’s floorplan as the ‘concourse’. By definition a concourse is: “ a large open area inside or in front of a public building, as in an airport or train station”, going by this dictionary definition and not a colloquial meaning suggests that the ICA has greatly misunderstood this space and has even installed columns to add further confusion. The ICA’s reason for creating the divides is to make seperate exhibition spaces, but is detrimental to the workings of the building as it allows visitors to stand in the walk-way making an obsticle of themselves and obstructing others walking through this space to get to the other side of the building. I my self was hesitant to walk through the concourse to see what was on the other side of it.
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BFI British Film Institute Formed in 1933 on the basis of providing information to the public on all aspects of film, the BFI is the best place for somone interested in true cinematic culture. It was setup under the pretext of encouraging the public to better appreciate film and all that goes on behind the scenes to create a good movie. The BFI has many ways of interacting with its audience. The variations of permanent exhibitions within the institute make the BFI a unique place for all who appreciate the art of film to visit.
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Memory Board The board is located in an area in the BFI which hardly has any activity. Given that it is an object that encourages the visitors’ interaction it should be placed in an area of more activity and introduced to the public in a more engaging way. An example of a way in which this board can communicate more effectivly would be to constuct a touchscreen display that can be more visually engaging and encourages audiance participation within the BFI.
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Mediatheque Archive The mediatheque is an interactive room housing several computer screens where visitors can watch archived films and programmes otherwise not available on the BFI’s cinema screens. It’s free and enables the chance for visitors to talk to a film specialists, you are then guided to a comfy seat where you are given headphones and a user name and password to access hundreds of titles. When you have finished you are given the chance to fill out a questionnaire and leave any comments and suggestions. The graphic design of the mediatheque is not very clear, the first time I walked passed it I was put off by the glass doors being closed and the people inside looked as though they had paid to get in.
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Marxism Today The Phil Collins piece was tucked away in the corner of the BFI but being next to the BFI shop it was in a good position, the way the space was curated was quite impressive. The first thing which greats you when entering is the comments book. This is the point of interaction between the audience and the artist, you are then greeted by a BFI member of staff who tells you that you must walk the long dimly lit corridor to view the exhibition. Walking into the dark, loud voices are heard and the user feels quite uneasy. At the end of the corridor you reach the screen which is situated in the middle of the room. The idea behind this is that you are able to use both sides of the screen to project on, and the audience is invited to walk through the screen (or rather past the side of it) to view another film.
Although this method of inticement sounds uninviting it is to be noted that the BFI is an institute which houses many cinema’s so this set-up should be expected to simmulate a cinematic experience.
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BRL British Library The collection at the British Library includes well over 150 million items, in most known languages and also provides manuscripts, maps, newspapers, magazines, prints and drawings, music scores, and patents. The library is always busy with an impressive 16,000 people using the collections each day (on site and online).
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Evolving English The Evolving English exhibition is an interactive piece with screens and headphones everywhere. There were alot of buttons to press which is always a good way to engage an audience. On each of the columns was a box called speeches which was a very interesting way of playing audio out loud, this box would first intice you to stand in front of it and
then after a few seconds the words being projected all around the walls of the room were played. So, the effect of combining the constantly changing projections of speeches and quotations from famous people from writing to the actual recording of their voice speaking it was a very effective way of capturing the audiences attention.
I like the way the projections have such an effect on the atmosphere of the room. When the colours of the words change and move they give the effect of a constantly changing scenery. This could be a way of encouraging interaction by projecting a set of instructions so gallery goers can choose to visit different parts of the exhibition space.
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V&A Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A), set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Named after Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, it was founded in 1852. Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, in virtually every medium, from the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa. Alongside other neighbouring institutions, including the Natural History Museum and Science Museum, the V&A is located in what is termed London’s “Albertopolis”, an area of immense cultural, scientific and educational importance.
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Magic Lantern This installation was a giant zoetrope which was installed in the bell tower of the V&A. The idea was to represent the V&A’s history of knowledge and wisdom encapsulated as a kenetic sculpture. The artist took the idea of a moth hovering around a lantern of knowledge. The sculpture was constructed to be a Giant Zoetrope (the largest of its kind). The interaction the audience has with the piece is first hearing about it from inside the V&A by way of a short film on its construction in the main foyer. In the courtyard there is a minature version of the Zoetrope which informs the visitor of the main exhibit in the bell tower which can only be viewed from outside the V&A’s building. This highly interactive piece tells the viewer of the main exhibit but doesn’t tell them how or where to go to view it. This gives a sense of mystery and adds to the overall effect of the exhibit. I may consider taking the idea of mystery and discovery and implement it in my final idea.
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TATE Tate Modern Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain’s national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group (together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, Tate St Ives and Tate Online). It is the mostvisited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year. It is based in the former Bankside Power Station, in the Bankside area of Central London. The collections in Tate Modern consist of works of international modern and contemporary art dating from 1900 until today. The Tate Collection is on display on levels three and five of the building, while level four houses large temporary exhibitions and a small exhibition space on level two houses work by contemporary artists.
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Interactive Zone This interactive zone is a booth type structure which is located on the second floor of the Tate Modern. The idea behind it is to seclude the audience in a space which is enclosed yet is still open. The colour of the structure is bright and vibrant which attracts all who see it, but negative aspects of this way of interacting with the audiance is the lack excitement is creates when you realize its only a television screen in a fancy booth.
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Ai Eeiwei Sunflower seeds This was a highly interactive piece by a world renound artist which health & safety organisations kicked up a fuss about. This was due to its supposed “over interaction� as the thousands of sunflower seeds which were hand crafted from pebbles were painted with a lead based paint. The paint was the cause of dust being present when the public walked on them. The interaction with the audience that this exhibit achieved was very interesting as you became a part of the artwork, being able to touch and feel it, therefore involving more than just the visual senses and so enhancing the overall experience of this piece.
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Ai Eeiwei One-to-one This was another very well curated and thought out addition to the main Sunflower seed piece. The idea was for the visitors to interact directly with the artist and ask a question regarding the exibition or anything that the visitor would like to communicate to the artist. The method used for this most unique continuation of Ai Eeiwei’s work was a tiny camera that reccords the person standing infront of the screen stating their question. The technology which is used in this part of the exhibition is not newly developed but has not been used in this way before making it something new and innovative. The recording of ones questions in video format to the artist is in effect better than trying to meet the artist themselves as this is usually a difficult and impossible task.
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part two
Proposal
Put (a decision, plan, agreement, etc.) into effect
implementation
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IMPLEMENTATION
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ICA See-through Wall My idea, which I feel is the most effective and inexpensive way of improving the audiances participation within the ICA consists of a number of projectors being setup to project on certain walls within the ICA to reveal what is going on behind that wall. For example, if there is a opening night show taking place in the lower gallery (labelled A in the diagram opposite) then a projection of the event would be shown on the interior wall of the reading room (labelled B) so as to intice people from the reading room into the gallery, this would be effective as the projection would look as though the wall was a window into the next room, breaking down the physicallity of the wall without actually removing it and thus making the rooms feel connected and creating an illusion of space. The same would be done on the other side of the wall where people in the lower gallery would be able to see into the reading room thus inticing them to move around and interact with the space in the ICA more.
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A B
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See-through wall trial Having decided on my final idea I went about testing if it was as effective as I hoped it would be. In the FDA studio I setup a projector which shone on a wall behind which was another room, the projected image was a recording I had made earlier of the library. The viewer was made to think that behind the wall was the library therefore encouraging them to investigate further and thus inhancing the audiences curiosity. This inturn would enable the audience to explore more of the building.
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Conclusion I feel the testing of this idea was sucsessfully done and even though the image which was projected on the wall was false in implying that a library was in the next room, it did achieve its goal in making the audience investigate further and visit the other room. This idea is a work-in-progress and requires further developing and trials to find the bestway of achieving the effect i would like it to have on an audience. Projectors are very versatile and can be used in different situations to create different effects, the technology of the projector is also getting better with pocket size projectors and HD picture quality available.
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