Navigation Project

Since I'm fairly new to the design world, I wanted to design a piece to show as part of a portfolio. Therefore, my app is a personal collection of the projects and observations I have completed over the semester.  The intended audience would be anyone interested in looking at my work (hopefully more than just Mum and Dad). At first my concept was based on the collision of urban and organic design, as I felt that was really the underlying connection between all of my projects/outside studies. Then, as I spent more time with the content I was mainly focusing on how each design concept related to one another. There was a flow throughout the themes, which intrinsically linked or threaded them together. This is how 'Common Thread' was born.

It's easiest for me to just layout what was going on in my mind when developing this navigational structure. So here it goes...

My content starts with the grid project, because with any type of design there is some form of underlying structure.
The grid poster leads into the grid observation to show how a simple grid can be used in the 'real world'.
The grid observation links to The Eames research post. This is because to me the most interesting part of their work was their house, the structure of which was based on a pattern of repeating a cube. However, they amended the original layout of the building so they wouldn't disturb its natural surroundings.This started to combine the harsh, grid structure with a softer, organic feel.
This lead me to my craft project, as although it was designed on a physical cube, the story was about the overwhelming, unpredictable nature of the sea.
Constructing the cube gave me a great appreciation for artists who used paper as their medium, so my observation was on a fabulously intricate paper city.
The city was built using multiple layers of paper, tying in nicely to my layers observation of another 'paper artist'.
The layers observation was great inspiration for our layers project. Where we designed large scale installations using whatever material we desired. My group focused mainly on paper and yarn.
With those materials we created a lot of hand woven messages; exploring the different kinds of type you could make.
Type was an obvious choice for the next observation. From our layers project we learned a lot about texture, and how typography can be used to develop a pattern or texture.
Which we learned A LOT about in our texture project, where type was the only thing that could be used to recreate an image.
Contrasting that highly visual project, I found an article on an architect who tragically lost his sight, forcing him to rely on his other senses, especially touch. He had to develop a new way to print out his blueprints in a way he could still understand them. Braille.
The determination this man had, gave me an overwhelming sense of his 'voice' and love for constructing environmental spaces. This lead me to my voice project, where we had to use a building to display a message to a certain audience. My message was to the students/business professionals in Boston encouraging them to slow down and appreciate life.
An artist who was phenomenally successful at portraying that message was Sister Corita. Her messages impacted so many people, and through their design expressed core emotions such as joy and faith.
J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyers (both authors of incredibly popular books/movies) have affected even more people with their creative imagination. Not with the same type of message as Corita, but one that has spread as far, if not further.
But back to Corita's work, she leverages image, type, and colour in her designs to communicate her message.
Her use of image brings me to one of my favorite photographers who really observes the natural light, reflections, and colours. His photographs are mainly of the ocean, and materials/scenes found around it. 
The variation in his photos of the colour blue could have really helped my blue colour study at the beginning of the term. 
Sol Lewitt is an artist who really takes colour study to the next level. His large scale installation art was so vibrant and in your face you couldn't help but be awed by it. 
Speaking of large scale artists, I found an article on an environmental artist who uses fields to construct his art. I really liked his use of natural materials and the temporary nature of his work. 
Similarly, there is another artist who also works with organic materials, but mainly in small scaled items, like terrariums so small they can fit in your hand. 
Scale also has a lot to do with the way in which we read things, or the hierarchy in our work. Granted, colour, image, typeface etc, also affect hierarchy, but it is mainly the shift in scale that catches peoples attention. So for the hierarchy project, we had to play with the scale shifts in order direct our audiences attention to different things. 
Finally, hierarchy dictates what people see first and how easily they compute the message. This is an essential part of navigation. If there isn't something big to say 'hey, go this way' the signage (or whatever tool is used) is not successful. These bathroom examples were clever, simple, yet effective.


My grid was a 6 column grid with a 1 pica gutter width. This worked well for my project, because it allowed me enough freedom to play with different widths of the text columns and images. This being said, to go along with my concept, there were a number of places where I chose to ignore the grid.  Where this happened was often where I used the script typeface (Halohandletter Script), emphasizing the organic. Whereas, the areas with the serif font (Univers Ultra Condensed) I generally stuck pretty close to the grid.

Here's the link to my navigation project-hope you enjoy. Changes to the navigation page and icon come!

Texture Project

My description for this photo was:

Deep purples fade to lavendar and crisp white. 

Rugged green leaves and vines contrast the fragility of the petals.

In total I ended up with 27 layers in Illustrator. I sectioned out the different areas of the photo and labeled them appropriately. The typeface I used was ITC Galliard Std, which is a serif font. I mostly used it's ultra black italic weight, so it would hold the most colour, and the ragged edges would mimic those of the natural leaves and flower. 

I originally had done my texture piece on a close up shot of a banana, but changed to this photo because it had a lot more texture to play with. I really wanted to see how much I could get the recreation to look like the photo. I feel that I could've made it look more like the original image, however, time was an issue. So some of the details on the flower/leaves are not as exact as they could be.

Grid Project Redo

In my first go at the project I was concerned about being able to read the message. In this round I wanted to see what I could do if I threw legibility to the wind. The same paragraph and typeface were both used.

"To understand is to stand under which is to look up to, which is a good way to understand."- Sister Corita

 

  

"Corita Kent's...work was a living meditation, with consciousness and devotion to the soul of the here and now"-Lorraine Wild.

Sister Mary Corita/Sister Corita Kent, was born Frances Elizabeth Kent in 1918, but changed her name when she joined the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1936. She is known in the design world as a legendary for her bright, progressive silkscreen prints.

It's unmistakable that she was an artist in the 1960s. Her work is clearly reflective of the time she lived in; full of change, hope, and social activism. It is also said she was partly inspired by Pope John XXIII's challenge for the Catholic Church to renew and rethink it's traditions. Corita's work combined colour, type, and image to create bold, beautiful pieces of art sending out a message of love, faith and joy.

"You shouldn't be a prisoner of your own ideas." -Sol LeWitt

A few weeks ago we went to Mass MoCA to see the the Sol Lewitt exhibit. During first readings about the artist, I was intrigued but a little skeptical because I've never been a big fan of abstract contemporary art. Not to say that I don't have an appreciation for them, rather I'm a bit puzzled by the canvases that are painted a solid colour, sold for a couple hundred thousand, and titled something like "Marching Band in Communist Russia".

I suppose my issue with this sort of art was rooted in the fact that I always interpreted the 'art' as the finished product, rather that the process itself. Because of this, LeWitt's work was fascinating and extremely eye-opening to me. He allowed the concept and process to be the art, letting the end product of this process be whatever it would be.

It may seem like a ridiculous comparison, but for me, looking at LeWitt's work was equivalent to learning how to cook. Before I could cook I always appreciated a good meal; how it tasted, how it looked. But until I learned to cook, I never understood the art and finesse required in the actual process as well. Knowing all the steps in the recipe gives you a whole other level of awareness and appreciation for the final dish. 

I also found it really interesting that LeWitt took the tangibility out of his work. Best said in his own words, he enjoyed making art for the public to view. 

"I believe that the artist’s involvement in the capitalist structure is disadvantageous to the artist and forces him to produce objects in order to live."          
   -Sol LeWitt

Grid Project

This was a two part project. The objective of it was to portray a human emotion through colour and type in a regimented grid (16 columns x 20rows of 1" squares). The emotion I chose to portray was serenity, because it's such a powerful emotion. 

Serenity is such an overwhelming feeling, it starts welling up in me, and slowly expands and changes until I'm completely worry free and healed. This emotion absolutely needed to be represented in a progressive gradient, shifting from one colour to the next without any jolting. It is peaceful. 

Part 1

Yellow, green, and blue were the colours I chose to represent this. Deep blues bordering on purple start off the progression, and slowly change to royal and aquas. As the colours progress up the grid, they get lighter, mimicking the feeling I get. The glowing yellows on the border of the white negative space show how I feel when I'm completely immersed in serenity. It feels as though I can fly. 

Part 2

My poem read:

It wells up inside of me;

that unmistakeable feeling. 

A sense that fills your soul.

All that was once wrong is now healing.

For this part, I wanted to keep it along the same design lines as part 1. However, I don't think I accomplished what I had in mind. The reason for this… Indecisiveness. I never decided whether I wanted the poem to be legible or not, and this is really evident in my work. I chose a serif font because serenity is not a cut and dry feeling, which to me is what a sans serif would show.

The larger I made the words, the more chaotic the piece became. The complete opposite of the emotion. The smaller the type, the more underwhelming and ineffectual it felt. 

After the crit in class, it was discussed that I can play with the legibility of the poem through scale, and that will hopefully clarify the message.