Category: Picture Symbol Icon

The Brief…

As individuals, we have to design a double-page spread showing the first two pages of a selected article. There must also be the same article that has been adapted to fit onto a portrait iPad screen.

I chose to go for the gaming article: https://bit.ly/2DyV9RH

I first started with this image as I had played the game mentioned in the article and found that it was the most appropriate referance for what the author was trying to get at. However I flipped the image so that the slope leads your eyes from left to right as you go across the page. The image is visually stricking so I wanted to maintain as much of it as possible.

I realised i needed more text on the page so I expanded the text box to the top of the page, I made the right page three columns and the textbox would have a width of two with a column for the background. Because the game was not mentioned, i added in the title discreetly so it didn’t take up too much attention but was still important hence the large size and only a text outline. Finally i made the title bold so that it was clearer and the authors text in white so it was distinguished as a subtitle.

The line is in the white textbox is alligned perfectly at the centre along with the cloacked person in the image.

For the iPad layout, it was difficult to stick to a similar format so I changed the whitespace to cut horizontally across the image instead and use that to split up the page. In the top of the image, I added the title and scaled it to a correct size. I did the same for the other pieces of text that aren’t part of the main body of text.

Unfortunately, I also had a problem with the whole article being a little pixelated when i transferred it across to my laptop so apologies.

Finally, I removed the parting line as I couldn’t find a use for it when converting over to the new format.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this task as I have wanted to expand my abilities to make things look more professional and less amateur. The progams such as InDesign and Photoshop also took me on a steep learning curve but I feel i have a good understanding of the program now and I am able to carry out what I have as an idea in my head. They are both massive programs so I know I still have a lot more to learn!

The Brief…

In groups of three, we were to research and create a signage intervention in DJCAD. We had to make and install physical signage and/or objects that will effect the behaviour of people in a chosen space. It must be installed in DJCAD and be on display for 1-2 hours while we descreetly take observations.

Initial Ideas

We wanted to come up with something original and didn’t want to go for a signage that merely instructed or prompted a corresponding action – e.g.  “look up”,   as there would be minimal significant experience to be gained from that, for either us, or the participant.

Our first idea consisted of how we could create a sign that would change a persons path by phychologically pushing them towards a less practical decision. For example in DJCAD, along the walkway,  eveyone we observed walks mainly through the double doors as it is closer and larger than the single door adjacent and to the right. Both of them lead into the same room and are only two metres apart.  If however there was a sign stating that both were open, it may make the individual stop and question why the signs were there.  While the signs would provide no additional information,  it may draw the participant in to read it incase,  it is to state one of the doors is closed for example.

Typically, above signage text there is an icon/graphic that reinforces the message in the text. If we change this to try to subtly influence behaviour, will it work as intended. For example,  if there were two identical arrows pointing towards both of the doors it would correspond with the text as expected, yet if one arrow was larger than the other, the information is still true but would a larger arrow to the right descreetly make people walk through the smaller, more inconvenient door?

That was our first psychological idea,  but we wanted to make something that would be significantly more interactive for people. As we sat in the green seating area, we joked that it would make a good ball pit.  From that,  we developed it into question as to whether different signage could influence if people woul play in the ball pit or not. For example, would individuals be more likely to interact if the sign dared them to do so,  or would a simple sign saying: have fun – enjoy the ball pit, as a statement work better?

Instead we decided to use the balls as an individual vote in a poll system so we would use signs to ask the question then they could take balls out of the bag and vote. They could pick three so it would force them to have a prefered one instead of one in each but the pits would fill up quicker and having it look like there were more responses would make more people participate.

The two different polls we put up were one which was personal opinion and no right answer (cough cough Queen), so there was Queen against The Beetles. The second poll was what they believed was correct. The sign asked which had a larger surface area between Russian and Pluto.

The activity got a lot of people involved and talking, plus just having a bit more colour in the area made it nicer to sit around and occasionally throw a ball at a friend too.

The Brief…

We were presented with 9 records that have been recognised for having defined and popolarised entire genres of music, the subcultures, fashion and visual languages associated with them.

The list was as follows:

So What – Miles David (modal jazz) 1956

Do the reggay – Toots and the Maytals (reggae) 1968

New Rose – The Damned (punk) 1976

Music for Airports (1/1) – Brian Eno (Ambient) 1978

Rapper’s Delight – Sugarhill Gang (hip hop) 1980

Bela Lugosi’s Dead – Bauhaus (goth) 1982

Strings of Life – Rhythim is Rythim (techno) 1986

The Pleasure Principle – Janet Jackson (r&b) 1986

Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana (grunge) 1991

 We had to design a front cover of one of the chosen pieces.

Oblique Strategies

I chose ‘Music for Airports’ as I was also intersted in the oblique strategies cards that were a side task only for the ambient vinyl. Brian Eno (the creator of my album) and Peter Schmidt published the oblique strategies in 1975. They are a card-based method for prompting creativity, part of “Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas”.

Throughout the process I drew three cards which were:

You don’t have to be ashamed of using your own ideas, (this was a confidence booster that encouraged me to not hold back on my ideas, and anyway, if it was a bad idea, I could blame this card!).

Don’t be afraid of clichés, (this was helpful as clichés can nevertheless be a deeply held view or something that has genuine relevance.. So in the case of making an album cover, if a cliche image brought across the intended feeling, this would want fine, as that visual display would convey what will be heard on the vinyl).

Tape your mouth, (this was a rather interesting one if I took it literally as people would be looking at me rather weirdly in the studio if they did not know the context, so I didn’t use tape but didn’t speak to others while working on the cover. Not only did I actually crack on and get work done, I couldn’t ask others for advice which had both positive and negative effects. As a positive, I had to trust my ideas. This was affirmation of the previous two cards as well. Then as a negative, I couldn’t receive any advice in the moment on how I could look at something differently or perhaps receive positive feedback on my thought process.

Visual Research Board

When I first listened to the song it instantly reminded me of the opening scene from the movie “Hector and the Search for Happiness”. The music compositions were similar, both very dreamy, visualized also in the movie as the main character is dreaming and flying a biplane through the clouds. I also thought the plane linked back to the airports in the title.

My aim for my album cover was to create a simpler dreamy scene conveying peace and relaxation, as well as being quite minimalistic with colour.

While looking at album covers (left side of the board), I wanted to take two things from what I had found. The first being that the serif handwriting font was soft and I would take something similar to that. The second being that the origami made the album stand out and there is something soothing about a shape or objects being crafted from paper so its light and clear. In further exploration of origami for inspiration, I discovered a range of different clouds and went for the ones with the origami boat in the image. I also decided to have a base or an image that partially bleeds off so that there isn’t blue bordering the whole cover.

Final Design

So the cover was now looking sharp. I drew the images then cut and stuck them onto the blue paper background. It also allowed me to move things around and see how the page would balance out. I tried to split the page into thirds so the mountain range was the bottom third, and the top cloud would be in the top third so it’s the only thing that takes away from the dotted path and isn’t too distracting but in nevertheless leads the eye through the composition.

The dotted lines were to show a path of the plane but I decided to put the title at the end of the path as the dots already lead the individuals eyes to this main and only bit of text information.

I only used a grey pen to do all the colouring for simplicity and the blue background is the only other colour. I was going to have the writing in orange as it is the contrasting colour to blue for impact but I decided to stick with white as it looks smooth and was truer to my concept of peace and simplicity. The dotted line to leading to the text felt sufficiently to draw the eye.

Conclusion

I am happy with the outcome.  I found that the oblique strategies cards were very useful through the whole process. I think I achieved what the first two cards promoted as I didn’t shy away from producing what could be considered a cliché scene for a dreaming/ambient setting yet, the ideas on execution were my own and I trusted them.  The only fault I have with the final cover is that it could be executed a little better technically in areas such as cutting out the album title as it looks scruffy. Other than that I love the origami effect and the all round neatness of the other images on the cover. I’m thinking about adding a small airport to the mountain side to further connect to the album title but I don’t want to spoil the serenity and simplicity of the current image.