How to...

... Travel with a laptop!

This week was pretty fun. We started off on Monday by picking a random number between 1-1000. Each number corresponded to a page number from an intriguing book titled 'How to do 1001 things' The one we got would be the one that we'd be working on for the week. I picked the number 73, so I got the exciting subject of 'How to travel with a laptop'.

Again, like the majority of our other briefs we've been working on, this brief was quite restricted due to the subject but also quite broad as we were briefed to 'Respond' to the subject without any particular definition on what they were after at the end. I went straight into a brainstorming different concepts and ideas, considering different formats, target audience, uses, message etc on where i'm going with the assignment. I narrowed things down a bit...

Concept
From my research I gathered that the majority of the people who travel with a laptop regularly, were aware of the safety precautions they would need to consider. Therefore I decided on designing a resolution that would be included with a purchase of a brand new laptop; aiming at the people who are not used to or are new to having a laptop.

Audience
People who have just brought a new laptop, people who are switching from desktop to laptop and not knowing the safety precautions.

Format
Digital print on acetate/ transparent stock

Resolved?
For the final resolution, I designed an instructive/ informative screen protector that would come with a laptop purchase. Aswell as protecting the display, it would be one of the first things the user's see when they open up the laptop. The resolution aims to remind and instruct the users to be more aware of the safety precautions they would need to make with the laptop.

The layout of the design was influenced by comics and instructive flight cards, but carrying a lighter minded approach that would appeal to both younger and more mature users.

Recognition Day

One of the first brief's we were given after coming back from our Christmas, we were given a week to work on and submit a resolution that responded to a live brief for either Don't Panic or for Recognition Day. With Don't Panic, we were to design a resolution that reflected/ defined/ visualized/ interpreted the word 'Pure', which would be for an A2 print out. For Recognition, we had to design an A6 postcard design that would helped spread the word and the ethics of Recognition Day.

I decided to design for the Recognition Day brief simply because I was more interested in the theme of recognition and the idea of how it encourages people to spend a moment to thank the small things and the people around them. Especially in a time like this and the way society has been carved out like it is, people really don't spend enough time showing their appreciation of other people and the minor things that make a huge difference.

After exploring a few different directions for this brief, I developed a few resolutions with the emphasis on 'Thanking for the small things that make a difference' and that saying thank you isn't a difficult task. I've always had a fascination with tall buildings, huge flats with tiny windows in them, and inside every tiny window is someone's home, their personal space and probably a place that they spend most their lives in. From this, I also looked into the idea of how it can come from anyone, so a few of my resolutions revolved around images of cityscapes.


Final resolution
This was the final resolution and also the design that I submitted. I wasn't satisfied with it at all really. It might have been due to the fact that I was still in my christmas mood, but the first few weeks of coming back didn't go too well. I was quite excited with the brief from day 1 as it was a live competition and that people from ourside our college would see this. I really wanted to do a good job on this and produce something that both responded to the concept of recognition and also reflected a bit of who I am as a designer so far. Unfortunately, I was a bit stuck with ideas on this, quite a few of my iniital ideas had already been done and I really wanted to push my ideas a lot more.

Looking back, there were a few other ideas I wanted to go with, but was restricted due to the time limit we had to work on it. In the end, I finished with a piece of work that i'm not happy with at all, I don't think the messege is too clear and the piece doesn't really convey the thought that i've put into it. I spent to much time brainstorming different concepts and ideas, which meant that I left the practical side till the last minute, which obviouslt restricted the potential of my final resolution. I have however learnt that I need to be a lot more organised, I need to keep on track with the work load, make decisions alot quicker and move on if they don't work out.

Below are a few examples of the other resoltuions I came up with.

Visual Language - Evaluation

With this module, I’ve definitely explored around with different mediums a lot more. I’ll looked into the idea of what is a line in a more conceptual way which provided me the opportunity to test out things that I’ve never really got the chance to so far. My approach to this module has been quite flexible and open minded; looking at the topic from different perspectives and narrowing things down through constant experimentation. I’ve also been able to critically analyze my own work and move on with an informed decision, not allowing any particular styles to dominate what I should explore before moving on to a final resolution.

In terms of research, I’ve looked mainly into secondary resources, mainly into different designers/ creative’s of all disciplines to help identify the direction of my studies, ranging from photography to installation designs. Through recording on my blog, it was rather easy and convenient to add to my inspirations for my ideas. In terms of primary research, I carried out a brief questionnaire to identify what people’s first impressions/idea of what a line is, which helped me to identify where my ideas went. Although not much primary research was gathered for this module, I don’t think it affected my work process that much, as I felt that this module was more about constant experimentation and development into what a line is. Although maybe not considered to be research, the constant crit’s we had every week kept me on track to where I was at during the long module. I got plenty of influential opinions and constructive criticism, which inspired and influenced my development process towards resolving the brief.

I think one of the strengths from my work that have been evident from this module has definitely been the way I’ve approached the brief. It might be because of the amount of time we’ve been given, but I feel that I’ve been a lot more open to different ideas with this module. Rather than circulating around a particular idea, style or format I’ve been open to explore different mediums, working from 3D CAD to lego bricks. My final resolutions turned out quite well, hopefully demonstrating the concept and ideas behind it.

For such a long brief, it was difficult to keep a constant workflow and with the other briefs we have to work on, this made it even more difficult. Therefore I would definitely say that some of the weaknesses of this module were the organization skills, time management and keeping myself motivated. Again, I am aware that some areas of this module are a bit limited; it was rather difficult to stay focused with all the individual parts of the module, which I had to make up for towards the end. This has been said already, but I will be responding to these weaknesses by constantly adding to my work for any future briefs, the blog has helped a lot to keep my work organize for this module and has provided a good source of self reflection, this will be something that I’ll use a lot more from now on.

5 things I would do differently.

- Start the work and do something! – It was difficult to make a start on this, despite leaving it as a last priority due to other assignments. I was being quite indecisive to begin with, which I later discovered could have been resolved simply by doing something ad writing thoughts and drawings ideas out.
- Organize and categorize work from the day I receive them. - with the amount of work involved and small tasks to complete, it was difficult to record and keep track of all the work.
- Start work early and note down any thoughts/ ideas. – Especially when stuck for ideas or don’t know how to start, simply drawing things, writing down a few words and getting stuff down on paper really does help make a start.
- Keep a healthy daily schedule. – My sleeping pattern was a disaster for some time during this module, which affected my workflow and general concentration.
- Continue and use my blog more. – This has proved to be useful and I will be using this a lot more to document anything from thoughts, to the new magazine I’ve purchased.

Line 23/03/09

Althought not directly related to my work, these pieces have been of some sort of influence to my ideas on 'What is a line?' brief.

Keep your distant bus add
By Dukes of Urbino
The closer the driver gets to the back of the bus, the more distorted the type get's. This encourages drivers to keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front.


Cover for Zoot Woman
The design adopts a more artistic format, experimenting with type in a 3 dimensional space. This is the type of area I'm looking at for developing my idea on the typeface. From the work I have generated, I am planning on using typography in a 3 dimensional space, exploring type as an interactive element while looking into perspectives and depth. I think this will be an interesting direction to go upon at this late stage, where I have generated a typeface already, but using the time to explore the idea further.



A piece of work I so happened to bump into during one of my random ventures into the Leeds Met buildings. The piece is by Cornelia Parker, more of a fine artist than designer, but decided to take a few snaps to record the stunning results of such a delicate and tedious process, which is similar to what I'm practicing with my typography.

Playing with Lego!

The results of 2 hours playing with Lego.
Not much else needs to be said here really. By this stage, my concept is clear and it's simply a matter of experimentation to identify the most suitable format as a resolution to the question of 'What is a line?'

I quite like the alphabet, the only one that I struggled on was the 'P', the rest were resolved quite efficiently. The results are interesting but I want to move on again. I prefer the paper pieces I posted up earlier as they seem more dynamic in comparison to the static nature of the Lego blocks.

Line - 22/03/09

In terms of the direction I intend to pursue, I have decided to continue my exploration into the concept of space, perspective and depth outside a Mac. I find the 3d experiments a lot more interesting compared to the screen - based visuals that I have generated earlier on. Which is why I have decided to venture on the use of different 3D materials, exploring 3d space, depth and dimension - capturing and recording my progress through video and photography.

I like the interactive element of the concept of perspective, especially with typography as it engages the viewer quite effectively, therefore I have decided to stick with typography. In terms of directions to resolve this project, I have considered a few different formats that I will experiment towards:

- Installation
- Window display
- 3d billboard display

Line | Photoshoot 01

Furthering my investigation into perspectives and typography, I carried out a brief photo shoot to explore this concept outside a Mac. Up to this point, most of my work on this has been done digitally, which I wanted to move away from.

I created a few paper boxes of 2 different sizes, and played around with different layout and compositions, in an attempt to capture the forms of letters from different camera angles.

As a conclusion to this, I think the photo shoot has been more of a test on what I'll need to prepare for a 2nd photo shoot; the photos although were quite interesting, they didn't really reflect the concept and ideas on typography that I was looking for. The studio has been re-booked for another session on tuesday, which I will make a 2nd attempt on but probably using lego bricks instead as it would be easier to construct shapes out of.

12/03/09

An update on what i've been doing with lines! Refined the typeface based on Century Gothic, showing perspective with typography.

Original layout of the typeface, top/ plan view

Contact sheet showing 360 degrees view of the typeface in its final composition in a wireframe render.




A few different perspectives of the the typefaces, focusing more on the form and aesthetics of shapes and the layering of lines to form different 3 dimensional forms. I like how these resemble buidings in cityscapes, yet some how containing a glimpse of type within.


Front view - You can see how the layers of shapes vary in height, position, thickness and size to form the letters they belong to.


Side view - the 5 lines of letters are evident here




Just a few final renderings of an isometric view of the whole typeface, introduced a bit of colour to see what happens but wanted it to be quite subtle. Like the way the letter forms are slightly visible but distorted aswell as it's not being views at the correct perspective.

What is a line - Crit update 18/03/09

A brief update on where i'm currently at with this project with approx 2 more weeks till the deadline. So far, I have worked around the concept of perspectives and how a certain thing can only be seen at a specific point of view. This has been explored through shapes, layering and depth along with typography and how type can be formed by separate shapes that can only be visible and understood from one perspective.

Questions that I wanted answers to from this crit include:

1. What else can I consider with the concept of perspectives?
2. What other ways could I record type with this concept?
3. Is the concept of perspective and a line of perspectives?
4. What other mediums could I consider?
5. Should I move away from type? If so where should I develop this?

I received some really constructive feedback from my crit group, which has helped direct where I should move on to next. There has been a few mixed opinions as to what I could consider and experiment with, but the majority felt that the concept was clear, but I should move away from digital and experiment with 3D, interactive etc. So far, the majority of my work has been digital based, eventhough I am working on 3D visuals, and I totally agree and had intentions to move away from, however I felt that I wanted a bit more time exploring the concept with type more, which was more efficient to work on digitally.

As a general conclusion/ statement of intent of what I plan to do now...

I have decided that I want to stick with typography, although it has been suggested that I could move onto something more challenging, I still feel that I haven't completely explored the concept of perspective fully and therefore would be a shame to focus on the subject more than the concept at this point.

Whie I will continue to explore shape, depth, form and layering digitally, I will move onto more hands-on stuff. Things like making things out of lego, folded paper and recording through photography and video. The photography studio has been booked and it would be interesting to experiment with 3D form, depth and perspective in an envionment with controlled lighting.

18/03/09

Continuing with my exploration into the concept of a line of perspective, I have started to develop a typeface based on the Century Gothic font.






I decided to venture outside type with this concept, so worked on a self portrait ( wanted to try something non mechanical that has more organic shapes) and achieved some interesting results....

This one reminds of Cyclops from X Men!*


Another quick render showing the piece in motion and at different perspectives. I think i'm going to stick with type for now.....

What is a Line - Pavement Drawings

Some pavement drawings I found that reflect the concept of a line of perspective in a totally different way again. In comparison to the previous post on Clouds, which explores how 3D installations create a 2D image, these drawings look at that concept at an opposite point of view. 

Demonstrating a very high understanding of perspective, these images show how at a certain view, these 2D pavement drawings are made to look like realistic images, that adapt to the real environment. 

Below are a few pieces produced by 3 different artists, who either specialize or have done work on pavement art. 

Edgar Müller

Julian Beever

Kurt Wenner

Clouds

From the last crit, I managed to clarify where i'm going with this project. Looking into perspectives, line of views and dimension. I have continued to experiment with 3D shapes, perspectives and started experimenting with this concept along with typography. 

Below are a couple of pieces by Fred Eerdekens (who Becca recommended me to look into as part of my research), his work really reflects another dimension to my ideas and concept of a single lined perspective as this current point, and also adds the element of lighting that I should consider. 

Line 04/03/09

Further experimenting with 3D shapes, depth and dimension and merging with 2D based design software like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to tweak the stroke weights, colours and final look and effect of the type. 

Try viewing with 3D glasses! - Just a quick experiment into 3D effects by layering the layers with different colours. This effect adds to the idea of perspectives and depth