Vital Stuff: Works and the Progress

New Placard Direction

2008-05-14T01:54:00.000-07:00

With more discoveries during this project I realized how over complex my ideas were for such a small assignment. I realize that trying to fit a info graphic into my placards was not only very hard to do but that it was not a necessary element needed, considering the actual info graphs we just made. Although it was a great attempt, in my opinion, it didn't quite hold up to what it was I was wanting to convey and how I wanted it to be viewed.
With all these problems suddenly arising during final crit about legibility and hierarchy, I decided that it would be easier for me to resolve this problem by going back to some initial ideas and going from there.
I specifically chose to go with the idea of personalizing my icons with a member of the family who would use these objects the most and providing sort of a cheesy 60s quote as well to unite the group as a family and to show each persons devotion to these objects in their everyday lives.

Set 2:

Set 1:

Final Placards

2008-05-04T22:35:00.002-07:00

Final Placard Refinements:

-I made the text inside my icons smaller
-I Changed the color of my title and spread it across all three frames since the information in the band at the bottom will be static throughout all three in my flash movie.
-I lowered the saturation a bit
-And changed the call out color from harsh red to a more subtle yellow, which I think compliments them nicely. I also tried to reference the colors in my spreads more and the original colors of my icons.

For my final placards I added a few extra elements that I thought were complimentary to the set, and I also made some necessary changes for better legibility in the small format.
I decided to add in a background image for each one that represents the floor of each room that pertains to my icons and objects. So for the iron I added some bedroom carpet, for the pan I added a wood grained kitchen floor, and for the plunger I added a tiled bathroom floor. I decided to print them out onto notebook paper to emphasize on the documentary aspect and then I photographed them for depth.
I also made revisions and changes to my object list for each icon.
For the Iron I chose to show Clothing: Shirts, Pants, Socks, and Undies
For the Pan I chose to show Food: Pancakes, Eggs, Cheeseburgers, Steaks, Grilled Cheese
For the Plunger I chose to show Toilet Trash: Toilet Paper, Soap, Gum, Fishes
Along with these changes I also changed the year increments for each object, so instead of each object representing 1 year, each represents 10. The red still represents 50 years which is stated in the last frame. I did this mainly because the scale of each object became to illegible even for me. I feel that they are at a nice size now and you can actually recognize the objects, some more than others.
One last change I made was the inclusion of the year for which each object was created. I decided to separate this information from the title by punching it out of my solid icons, and letting the title stand on its own by making it brighter.

The Line-Up

A close second:

Inspirational Concept Techniques!

2008-04-25T18:23:00.000-07:00

Here is some very different concept inspiration but pull from it what you like. Some address the icon, image, and word together and some just reference the icon and image. Either way I believe that concepts are very strong and evoke other meanings than the icon can not do alone. I also tried to find inspiration using different techniques, as you'll find out they vary from drawings, to photos, to paint, to whatever.

Placard Image Concepts

2008-04-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

FINAL COMPS-

Concept, Formal Exploration, Element Composition:

Final Image Concept:
So I decided to go with one concept that was much stronger than any of the rest of my concepts. Mainly because of how long my thought process was for it and the amount of attention it will need to be pulled off in a successful manner.
My inspiration originally derived from the work of Chris Jordan and his series of photography titled Intolerable Beauty. Here Jordan accumulates information on the levels of consumption and exposes them to his audience, us, in the form of a collage. What drives him to do these extraordinary pieces is what seems to be so interesting to me, The Information on our consumption levels which he states, "can be desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful. For me, I feel there was a direct connection in that since the beginning my theme didn't speak directly to beauty but it was my goal to find it.

ICONS & OBJECTS:
Iron - Clothing
Frying Pan - Food
Plunger - Toiletries

My objective is to take the object that each of my icons affect the most and to create 3 separate 3-D renderings of those objects based on each year that the icon has been existing. I chose to represent each year with two objects. For example, hypothetically, if the frying pan has been existing for 94 years, I would make a collage using 188 pieces of food linked together to create a larger pile of food (94 x 2 = 188). With photography and icon placement I will explore relative scale amongst the three piles as well as relationship to the size of my icons.

Patterning Ideas:
Iron - Clothing
-Pair of socks every decade
-Pair of undies every 50 years
-Shirt and Pants every other year

Frying Pan - Food
-Fish every decade
-Steak every 50 years
-Eggs and Pancakes every other year

Plunger- Toiletries
-Paper towel every decade (distinguished from toilet paper by visual pattern and texture)
-? every 50 years
-Two different colored toilet papers for every other year

I also plan on implementing experimentation with xeroxing the objects, using full color to create some patterning and using various materials to actually build these things such as toothpicks to create to structure support.
Images of process will come shortly!

Suggestions?

Top 3 Image Concepts so Far:
1. Showing the effects of time through an abstract representation of the physical marks and tears that my objects obtain over time. Using various mark making tools and materials to show scratches for the pan, tears for the bear, and burns for the iron.
2. Showing members of the family who would interact most with the objects. A mother in her apron for the pan, a man in his suit for the iron, and a young child for the bear.
3. Showing the objects that my objects affect in a mass collage. Using cut-outs of: clothing for iron, food for pan, crap for plunger

The objective for this assignment is to effectively combine three of our icons with type and image to create great form through the experimentation of using hierarchy, elements of color, image, and various processes. phew!

Project 3 Statement

2008-04-20T22:08:00.000-07:00

From this project, the greatest thing I learned was how important it is to know your content and be able to apply different design devices to it in order to make your content stronger, not weaker. A lot of the time I tended to bring in stylistic elements that didn't really relate to my content but were visually what I wanted to include. Before I tried adding in things like animations and at times I completely forgot about my content and how it was supposed to speak to household object that were shabby yet antiqued.
I also realized how important it was to work on both the magazine spreads and the info graphic simultaneously because you want them to feel whole and not separate with each other. I specifically focused on relating my image content throughout and using color to denote importance.

Magazine Spreads

2008-04-19T12:53:00.001-07:00

Finally, after weeks and weeks of countless revisions, editing, and nit picking, it's almost over. Here's what I have come to.
Any final suggestions?

Text Refinements

2008-04-10T13:31:00.000-07:00

Hand to Digital Translation

2008-04-08T02:21:00.000-07:00

Update:

I made some color alterations and a change of names. Since the title of my Article is Shabby Relics I thought to introduce a new title for my info graph that spoke to the idea of age-old objects. I came up with the title Take Care to emphasize the evolution of my icons and how easily they can be worn or forgotten .

Critique Suggestions from Laura and Jamie:

Lighten the brown background
Scale the collaged images up a bit
Multiply the colored bars to show where they overlap
Make the dates inside of the text box larger and scale the icons up
Continue the colored bars over into the time line to create a nice pattern
Scale the title of my info graph to the size of my sub-heads in my article
Incorporate another sub-head on the second page of my article
Rework the scaling of my pull-quote
Take "Key" out

Major Editing:

So I rearranged my info graphic and added some new elements to it. I decided to show the collages directly on the background instead of the circles because of how distracting they were. Also, I made my time line accurate, keeping the intervals evenly spaced while varying the lines connecting to it. I also reworked the boxes surrounding my text and images containing them in clumps for easier understanding since I have varying angled lines.

Some elements kept were my color selection , only brightening for legibility, and my centralized time line allowing better space management.

Quick Question, Should I incorporate the name of each room, could i make the images clearer by adding more imagery?

Some process thoughts:

This idea, which was leading more towards a playful effect, was to show different ways to extend the life of your household appliances. I decided not to go with this idea because it simply did not match the overall tone I was going for. It became too comical and competed with the set of icons I had already established.

A great idea though. Maybe I will consider exploring this some other time later.

First Draft of Infographic Spread:

The Evolution of my Time Line:

Finally, I came up with the solutions of leaving a space between each row of information, allowing free space for my icon evolutions, as well as using lines to link each fact with each date. Yay, a simple solution alongside some technical adjustments for a quicker and easier read.

*side note: still working on the clarity of my icon evolutions for easier comprehension, specifically speaking to the phone and the bear

So I flipped it vertical and tried using both sides of my time line while not overlapping areas of color. Although I became satisfied with the vertical structure, now I had developed a new problem in that I hadn't considered space for the icons I was going to include, as well as not being able to link the text directly with the dates.

So I started off with a time line that was a bit confusing and a bit fussy as well. I had problems with the overlapping of certain areas that had no meaning, but because this is an infographic time line there is no place for "no meaning."

Things to think about and keep in mind:

1. Emphasize more on the collage aspect of my infograph. Lose the hard-lines as they don't fit in well with the content.
2. With the time-line, try working outwards from a central view point for a more dynamic and readable composition.
3. Find a better way to integrate my imagery with the time-line. Maybe picking a specific time period for each icon and depicting that entire room setting would be better. Work on the hierarchy of each section of info, giving one more dominance than the other.
4. Work on the framing of sections and other technical mistakes of the infograph.
5. Continue rapid development of icons. Maybe they work best without the frame? Is there any other way to show the between stages of each transformation without introducing more icons.

Suggestions?

Some Infographic Inspiration

2008-04-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

Check this Out!

I was flipping through some of my art magazines and thought this article was pretty cool. The title pretty much says it all, and the actual information graphic by Tyler Lang is amazing. This article gave a really good insight on the impact of graphic design and really broadened my knowledge on how many design based jobs are really out there and how many jobs offers one can receive through good process development and the encouragement of some teachers. I really like that Mimi Zeiger, author, included some of his process thoughts which I closely related to how I went about mine.

Just thought I'd post a bit of inspiration, ENJOY!

Informative Timeline

2008-04-04T18:37:00.001-07:00

More, More, More Evolution of Icons:

In the process of evolving my icons I realized that as I made them simpler the subject matter became clearer. Because of the addition of my newest sets, (one's without wear & tear and leading up too), some of the flaws in my earlier decision making became more apparent. In the beginning I was focusing too much on the actual object than on the physical wear & tear . Because of that, I created more problems for myself than necessary in the long run. Although I've found a "happy place" with this New Evolution of my icons, I plan on revisiting the previous ones to elaborate more on the subject of the wear & tear, seeing that, bringing out those features was my initial purpose.

Since I chose time as my research angle, I decided that a visual Time Line would work best to show the wear and tear of my objects. Here are the extremities of each icon (icons on the left show each item before it was manipulated, and after on the right). Although the actual style and form of the objects aren't changing over time, progressively the static objects gain physical features relating to the nature of the objects' environments and how their surfaces are affected.

Is this effective so far?

Infographic Research Information

2008-04-04T13:11:00.000-07:00

Final Hand-Rendered Infograph:

Some close-ups:

"Mind-Mapping it out," was the primary focus during this stage of the process. The goal was to bring out viable information, pertinent to the topic of your choice whether it be through Time, Location, or Comparison, was the key.

Updated Physical Process:

Meanwhile, I was Developing a Name

2008-04-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

This phase in the process was probably the hardest, Naming the Icon System. This step was very crucial on good decision making . Because we've been developing these icons for such an extended period of time, it was important to be able to sum it all up in one word or brief phrase.
I chose the title , Shabby Relics, because of the connotative and factual meanings that both words obtain.
Shabby- showing signs of wear and tear ; run-down or dilapidated; deteriorated in condition, especially through neglect.
Relics- an object having interest by reason of its age or its association with the past; a surviving trace of something; something kept.

Some other possible names:

Age-Old Relics, Ordinary Die-Hards, Fragmented Relics, Fragmented Objects, Household Relics, Pieces of the Old Home, Burned Out, Shabby Relics, In Ruins, The Forgotten Past, Deterioration, Old & Decrepit (not like an old person), Well-Worn, Outdated, Passe', Old-Fangled, Run Down.

Defining with Color

2008-04-04T11:46:00.000-07:00

Here, I tried defining my objects even more with a Three Color Application, treating the dark brown as the main structure for my icons, the tan to bring a dirty feel to it, and the yellow to highlight focal points.

Here are more examples of my color investigation:

Some Visual Inspiration

2008-04-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some Inspirational Photos that I thought related to my subject matter......

...... and these photos, particularly, relate to my icons:

A Closer "Look for Color"

2008-04-03T12:52:00.002-07:00

Here were some potential color palettes for me to work with. I really focused on colors that have connotations of being old, dirty, dusty, etc.

Developing an Icon System

2008-04-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

The next step in this project was to develop a system of Icons that referenced our scrapbooks. Some key things that I focused on during this process were: paying attention to stylistic approaches, what formal language is being presented, and is the set systematically cohesive.

Connotative Description:
Die-Hards, Age-Old, Somewhat Vintaged, Shabby, Precious (thanxs Morgan), Time-Worn, Familiar, Environmentally Established, Relics, Constantly Used, Antiquated, Physically Manipulated, Hand-Held,

Attributes of my Stylistic Approach:
Cozy, Smooth, Classic, Highly Defined, Homey

Welcome to Semiotics

2008-04-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

For the first assignment, Semiotic Scrapbook, our main goal was to develop a visual language that spoke directly to a subject matter of our choosing. Icon, Index, and Symbol are three of the words that we expounded upon to form our research around. This part of the project specifically taught me the importance of how those things relate.