Saturday, April 2, 2011

Defteling's Blog: in praise of helvetica

Defteling's Blog: in praise of helvetica: "I've never liked the font Helvetica. I know, that's almost blasphemous, but I always thought it was just humdrum, so-so, boring, meh... well..."

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Environmental design

www.designmonkeyltd.com/environmental2
environmental-graphic-backdrops-design.jpgwww.retailtrafficmag.com/mag/retail_environmental_graphics_wayfinder/

off_the_wall_02-721882.jpg

www.abdesignonline.com/portfolio/education.html
environmental2.jpg

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

unit 7 reading chapter 5

With the first case there was a situation to get people to read and not throw away or delete. They developed a sophisticated information hierarchy. I can see how they were able to tackle the issues. The trash can packages are great and evoke the consumer to clearly see the desin of the product with out clutter. I enjoyed the las study that had the emotion factor in it.


hhtp://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/innovation

http://cleandesign.com

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Week 6 Reading

"Learning to Love Public Transport" - I chuckled a little at reading this because I do have a relationship with public transit. I am a big fan of the New York system and its design. I only visited New York once and within a day I was giving metro advise to tourist. What they did for LA seems similar and clean. I liked the Alcatraz way finding and if we choose the nature reserve for our project it will be an inspiration. Went to their web site(http://www.huntdesign.com/) and found more inspiration. I found the fact about the seven colors interesting. I need to go on a color diet sometimes because of my over use of colors. I went to an exhibit that DRS did(only skin deep) and it was great. I love their approach to exhibits. The World Trade Center project was well done and helped people to understand the tragedy of the day.Sometimes we need to look at the whole before we begin to dissect the parts and rebuild in an aesthetic way.
http://issuu.com/wayfinding_uk/docs/lost

AID=10829131&PID=3662453&SID=skim725X681820X8c3483c07527b87c9285aaaa7e5b15d7

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Week 5 Reading

Chapter 3
Prototypes and Testing
The first part of the chapter discussed the importance of structure. The first element of structure was the site map. The site map gives direction and flow to the project outlining your plan for the final project. I enjoyed the reference to the Winchester house. Second they talk about wire framing. The book reference wireframes as blueprints to your project. The book also discuss that wireframes should be simple and concise to give you an understanding of the project layout.

The second part of the chapter deals with testing and usability. MY favorite quote from Kathryn Campbell is what she said about the slanted roofs "Anticipate the problems when your designing. thats the design challenge." The book also discuses how important testing is in different stages, as well as the different testing methods.

Hot Links



look at this Jason

I worked on this for us to set goals. Please revise where it is necessary and post anything that you have worked on.

Thank you


Creative Brief

Date:2/9/11
Project: 2 Graph
Client:The Art Institute of Seattle

Background:
AIS students want to know what salary they anticipate upon graduating. They also want to know who their director is and how they have affected graduation salary while they where in their position.

The Audience:
The Art Institute of Seattle students.
The students are intelligent and aware of most things. The students do not need to be belittled of talk down to. Most students are unaware or afraid to approach their director.
The secondary audience is future students.

Objectives:
The objective is to give students a rough idea of what they will start at in the workforce as well as a background to who their director is.

The Medium:
The plan is to use css3 and illustrator.

The Deadline:

Week 8

The Responsible Parties:
Jason (Code Monkey) and Elissa (Elidar)


Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Graphic Information

Chapter 4 reading

This chapter talked about important key principles in design.
1. Color- conveying direction, way finding
2. Type Styling- sence of heiarchy
3. Weight and Scale- patterns priotize complex heirarchy
4. Structure-grid system
5. Grouping-multple parts in cohesian
6. Graphic Elements- attract the eye
7. Imagery-merege of text and imagery
8. Sound and Motion- visual cues

Hot Links:

1. Color
Color Wheel Color Calculator

2.Type Styling
Evolution of Type

3.Weight and Scale
Proportion

4. Structure
The Grid

5. Grouping
Grouping

6. Imagery
Image

7. Graphic Elements
Elements

8. Sound and Motion
Motion

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Project ideas

Diabetes stats
Career service grad stats
Mad Mens influence on Fashion

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Team Project

Team
Jason Welder
Elissa Foster

Project-
The 2009 Art Institute of Seattle Job Statistics
What percentage graduates in 2009 got jobs and in what fields.
Our client is EDMC corp which is the corporation behind the Art Institute of Seattle.
The audience is prospective students.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Week 3 reading Creative Brief

This was really thought provoking into the life of a brief. The brief is the soul of any project. It helps to establish direction as well as giving the team a manual to the project. The second part was just as interesting going into depth about who the audience is and how to fulfill their needs. Using method to find personas.

Hot links:

http://www.informationdesign.org/archives/personas/

I used this link due to its interesting articles on personas.

http://justcreativedesign.com/2008/09/26/how-to-write-an-effective-design-brief/

This is a great site and Jacob has great blogs on different subjects relating to design.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Week three drawings




Some of the pieces for the altar
















reading assignment 2

Chapter 2
The first part of the chapter was interesting. I knew about knowing the company and who is the final say, but I did not know about the allies. The next part of the chapter I wish I had for the class i had taken see real world story). The next part of the chapter dealing with the audience was very helpful in developing the understanding of needs and goals. The questions are great.

Real world.

I took an advanced Deamweaver class in which the Professor grouped us up as a design team. He wanted us to experience real world projects. Our goal was to create a site for NASA that was geared towards the tweens. We started off OK (this book would have been helpful), but then with egos and chaos it soon developed into a big mess. The site looked OK and unfortunately the pages looked wonky. We had lots of meetings and lots of arguments. I think the structure of the book would have helped us a lot. We did do a few things listed in the book. We assigned jobs. We talked about our audience. I do have to say it was quite a learning experience.


Hot links

hhttp://howdesign.com/article/artchantry/

I chose the above link because it was one of the process we used for my real world example. I think this is also related to what the book was expressing about audiences.


http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms242894(VS.90).aspx

I chose this link to relate to the structure of the team. It helps you understand what you need to developer a team project with re guards to technology. This is another great resource for understanding structure.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Week 1 Reading

Preface- I had to stop and think at one point when the phrase "An Amazing time to be a designer"came up. I think amazing is a little strong. Plus I went to the front of the book to see when it was published. I think technology plays a role in developing the designer today. I think that we need to embrace the technology and learn as much as we can and not turn our heads to the possibility of a new horizon in a digital age. I fear that some designers are pigeon holing themselves in a world of collateral and not expanding themselves to an open mind of web possibilities. In that sense, it can be amazing time for a designer. Only if and if they build on their assets and develop multi media web skills. I found the stories about information problems very interesting. Though, I found it strange that a person would put together a blender. My experience with this situation has been with nonuser friendly web sites. The kid where you have know idea where to click. Also you just need one piece of information and it takes 40 minutes to get it(I wouldn't really spend 40 minutes on a site like that).

Chapter 1- The beginning of the chapter was a discussion of what Information design is and the ways as human beings we take in information. I am a visual person, so I too respond to the visual engaging design before I even look at the words. The book also goes into the digital age we are in and how information is flying at us. We nee to assemble this information to make it user friendly. I enjoyed the antidote the book used for what makes good information design. The direct mail information was interesting some of it I knew from my advanced indesign class. I tend to notice a huge pile in the recycling bin at my apartments of direct mail. It doesn't make it past the mailbox.

Chapter 6-This chapter had some real world case studies using information graphics. I was drawn to blue Planet Foundation. I looked up the book and the photography is fabulous.

Excellent informational designer
When I was in advanced illustrator this was a great book for our "how to graphic" I think it relevant because it is information graphics.

Research for project1

http://gomexico.about.com/od/festivalsholidays/ht/make_altar.htm
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/altar/
http://www.squidoo.com/altar
http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1427-los-dias-de-los-muertos-the-days-of-the-dead
http://www.mysticvoodoo.com/day_of_the_dead_altar_art.htm#About_Day_of_the_Dead_Altars_

p174225-San_Miguel_de_Allende_Mexico-Day_of_the_Dead_Altar.jpg

day-of-the-dead---ja0027qui-009.jpg

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Project one Proposal



Name: "How to Build a Day of Dead Alter"

Client: Latino Cultural Center

Proposal for Informational Graphic

The Mission of the Latino Cultural Center is to serve as a regional catalyst for the preservation, development, and promotion of Latino and Hispanic arts and culture. During the Day of Dead celebration, LCC wants to add an informational graphic to their web site that would explain the meaning and construction of a day of dead alter. The graphic would include explanation of key items as well as a historical look at their origins. The graphic would be a pdf link from the event page that explains the celebrations at the center. The users would be able to print the pdf and use it to create their own Day of the Dead alter.