Week Six

Over the weekend I completed the Canvas bag design, but we are still tossing up[ between with or without the background. Lee said with because it compliments the rest of our designs )poster etc.). I also made up the backing image for the website so that Sarah could put that in the code, or however it works :) In class we were told to add some details to the beach poster. Mainly a more obvious where and when and that its a come to the beach to clean up day.

On Tuesday also just told to fix up some minor things and wrote our rationale. We then went and printed our poster, flyer and canvas bag design. 

Final Critique

We just refined our stuff further. Adding more information and writing our rationale. Through writing the rationale we thought about how our transmedia will be distributed across the event. Our poster is an invitation and is supported by the website by encouraging people to help with the cause, our flyer will be given during and be taken away along with the canvas bag which will also be taken away and during event. And how this all contributes to the narrative of the seagull story that we're telling.

Feedback and Minor touch ups

Today we printed our transmedia out to see what they would look like printed out to scale. From the feedback we received, we needed to decide on our final type solution because the type from the flyer seemed to confined compared to the poster where there was spaced type (free feeling). Also, we needed to touch up our flyer image with slightly more contrast. For the bag we needed more contrast between the bird and the bag because the bird was getting a bit lost against the canvas bag. We added a background and a little more contrast which helped the image to pop out more.
Overall I think it was a pretty productive day, we just need to touch up our final type to make it more cohesive accross the transmedia.

Developing Final ideas

We are in the process of developing our ideas to the final stages. Hayley finished the drawings for the website and canvas bag and we have experimented with text and type arrangement. We also decided to change out call to action from "Seas the Day" to "What's yours is mine" because it seems to make sense with the meaning we want to get out to people. I think we are progressing further in our project we just need to refine our type and make some finishing touches to each of the trans media.

Week Five

Monday was critique day where we sat all our work out on tables and walked around looking at what everyone else had done. After that we sat down in groups of three (or in our case four) pairs. From here we were told what was working and what wasn't working for us across our poster, flyer and website. What wasn't working for us the most was our type game and the fonts we were using.
On tuesday we realised someone else was also using the same heading, call of action as us. We decided that over the coming week we would come up with another one because of this. In class I worked on the canvas bag imagery while Sarah continued to work on the website. We also had our critique where we were told where and what the things we should fix up were.

Week 5-session 2

It was pretty much just refining ideas in class further and asking for feedback from peers and also tutors. In the lesson we were told some questions we could use to refine our concepts in a way that we will understand and as well as our target audience. We decided to work on our idea concept and refining our drawings and trans media.

Week 5- Session one-Interim

We had the interim critique today. It was quite useful in terms of seeing what others had produced and also hearing what we needed to improve on. We need to improve on our hierarchy,positioning, grid and also the type of text because the text isn't flowing with the words as much as we wanted it to. I think going forward when taking the feedback in to consideration we can improve our layouts so that they visually flow better.

Week Four

In class one we had one on ones with the tutors. We were told we need to make our call to action a lot stronger. What we had wasn't good enough so we worked on that for the rest of the class. Sarah also worked on our website.
In the second class we realised that the website needed to be resized as it was having sizing issues between sarans laptop and mine, which is a 13 in.

Week4-Class-Session two

Refining Ideas

We just continued discussing our ideas and illustrating concepts. I tried fixing parts of the website because there was a sizing issue on different sized screens. We still need to help make all our concepts cohesive in some way.

Week 4-Class- Session one

Developing Ideas

We discussed our ideas and continued developing imagery and brainstorming text and sayings. We brainstormed some more sayings because our call to action wasn't clear and wasn't the main focus of the poster at the moment. After the one on one we were asked to develop a better call to action and have the beach clean up as a secondary source of information.

Week Three

Monday started of with a group critique where we got into groups of three or four pairs and talked about what ideas were better/ worse, what was working for us the most. Over the weekend I had come up with a illustrated basic poster of a seagull standing on a pile of coke cans and drinking one. The idea was he was kind of portraying humans in a sea animals aren't actually the ones making the rubbish kind of way. This poster was also my first attempt at illustrating anything on the computer. The group seemed to like my idea so Sarah and I agreed we should continue on from that point. I had my CSS class that afternoon. This time around I got a computer that worked and managed to follow the guy teaching us most of the  way through, though I was still a bit confused tbh. In class two we continued on from our critique but also looked at the websites we had found and talked about them in larger group settings. This gave us a basic idea on how we wanted to layout our website in the best manner.

Week 3- Homework

Illustrating Visuals

Hayley is illustrating the visuals since we went with the illustrated style as we agreed that it would suit our beach event better. We progressed in our project as we listed up the different visuals that could be drawn and adapted across all the media, to tie the project together.

Type and layout

I think i'll be trying to develop some text layouts and drawing up layout thumbnails where we can combine the visuals and text next week. Also, I was thinking about experimenting with the website with type first to get an idea of where all the information should go before adding the imagery.

CSS Workshop

Placement and Design

Through the workshop we were able to see how to code the design parts of a website. This was in terms of colour,placement,text size and text type. The workshop helped to expand our knowledge of websites and also helped to develop our project as we were given templates to experiment with for our particular event. I think through learning the coding it will be a lot easier to edit the code to fit our website well.

I also learnt that the website will use text that the user has on the computer so it could affect our design if the user gets a different font because they don't have it on their computer. To counter this we could use simple font that everyone has but could lay it out in a interesting way.

Week 3- Session 2

Discussion about transmedia and Grid

There was a lecture on Grid. It helped to revisit the grid system we used in puna, as I learnt that grid does make a composition flow better and make the words easier to read. The exercises used in punas were also suggested and I think that revisiting the exercises would help with the layout of text in our flyers and also our website. I think we progressed in our project as we were able to start to figure out how the text could affect the layout of the flyers and website, I then began trying out layouts in Indesign to see how I could layout the text in our flyers.

We looked at good websites and some bad websites and listed points on why they were good and why they were bad. We then compared the websites with our peers and discussed why the websites were good. We were then able to get an idea of what our website wire frame could look like. We advanced in our project in terms of our idea thought process. Through looking through the websites we were able to see the text sizes and imagery and how we could place ours effectively. 

We then were able to list the different imagery we wanted to display in our flyers and website.

Week 3- Homework

Website Research

We looked at good and bad websites, and wrote notes on what made the website effective or not as effective. We also drew thumbnails of the layouts to see how the visual presentation of the websites made the websites effective or not effective. It will help to advance our project as we will be able to see elements we could adapt into our website to make it just as effective.

Font/Type Research

I researched some different font types and also tried out different sayings for the poster we decided in class to hopefully help the meaning of the poster. I think we made progress on our project as I think that the visual is strong but adding text could make the visual even more effective.

Thumbnails for Transmedia

Drew up some thumbnails for possible concepts for Transmedia. It helps to brainstorm some early ideas just to get an idea of where the project is going. I think the more thumbnails I do the more ideas we can use to advance the project.

Week 3- Session 1

Interim and Critique

We discussed our ideas in groups. It helped to see all the different view points of each person at the table. We discussed which concept worked better, visual style and text and type which worked best. We decided that the illustrated style that Hayley used was more convincing for a beach poster and also the concept of a seagull drinking coke at a beach. The concept of the birds copying the humans and that causing the beach to be full of trash. Also, suggesting that, that is what we look like to them at the beach and the fact that we aren't caring enough. This Critique overall, did help advance the project further as it helped to pick a better visual style, concept and we were able to see that maybe the text and type needed a lot more work to push the concept of the poster further.

Refining Ideas and Thinking about Trans-media

For the second half of the lesson we thought about the different media we are required to use for the project and what sort of ideas we could do. I also looked at some font types and also was thinking into a rhetorical saying that could be put on the poster to add more context to the image and making it more clear of it being a beach clean up poster. The clear meaning to the poster would advance our project further.

So far, we were thinking of maybe an image or gif for the website and also for the extra thing, maybe a bag for people to use during the event to pick up trash. We listed the different things we could do, which helped to have a broad view on what we will possibly achieve in the next few weeks of the project.

Week 2

For homework we made up mood boards that we were to talk in class about. We split of into groups to do so. We went around the group and it was interesting to note how different groups approached making mood boards. Some were more colour based, some were more overall imagery, some pattern. After class I had my HTML thingy. It wasn't the easiest as my computer wasn't working and my laptop doesnt have dremweaver on it. I ended up pairing up with someone else. It still wasn't the easiest thing to understand though. In the next class we talked to the tutors about the ideas we had come up with so far. They told us to look at the class discussions we had on Monday for some more inspiration instead of 'this is what this is'.

Week 2- Independent

Refining Concepts and Ideas for Interim Critique

For Homework we were tasked with refining our ideas and concepts to the style we want for the interim critique. I brainstormed more ideas which were more rhetorical because I learnt from the one on ones with the tutor that my ideas lacked a lot of the rhetorical ideas. I tried looking back at the list and creating more concepts, then I stylized them on illustrator and added some sayings/text to possibly make the meaning a little bit clearer. Drawing the concepts on illustrator gave me a better idea of whether the concept worked or not so it advanced my project a little bit further than last week. I think drawing the concepts in my chosen media will also help to push the meaning of the posters further and therefore advance the project.

Week 2- Session 2

One on One with Tutors and Refining our ideas

We discussed our ideas, our stylistic approaches to our to our mocked up posters and the rhetorical approaches we used to convey meaning and also ways that it could convince people to participate in the beach clean up. After looking at the class's ideas I felt that our ideas were a little too literal and in some ways not as convincing rhetorically. It was difficult to shift from approaching the topic in a literal to rhetoric. After the one on one, it was suggested that we review the exercise from the last lesson to come up with ideas. After revisiting the list of words I was able to come up with more rhetorical approaches that I could use. This helped advance the project as I think that I have come up with more convincing rhetorical posters that I had before.

HTML Workshop

Learning the basics of a Website Structure

We went to a workshop where we were taught how to basically put in font in italics and bold, create headings and sub headings, adding links, creating different pages to link to and also creating command boxes. I learnt a lot of new things on coding the basics of the website and I think I probably still need a little bit of time to figure out how to structure the website properly. However, I think that our project will advance further when I master the techniques of website structuring throughout the project hopefully.

Week 2- Session 1

Lecture- Representation and Association

We had a lecture discussing the ways that different media can change the meaning of posters.I learnt that even the style of illustration can cause the meaning to shift. For example a painting vs. a loosely illustrated image. the painting has more of a older feeling so would appeal to more mature crowds whereas a loosely illustrated piece would appeal to a younger crowd of people. This helps to advance our project as it can help   create a response that would be visual appealing to the crowd we want to target when refining our posters.

Class Activity 1- Discussing Mood Boards

We were split into groups where we discussed our mood boards and ideas with the people that were doing a similar topic. I learnt that although people were doing the same project they had a different style that would express a different point of view on the topic of a beach cleanup than what I was doing. For example my approach was more of a illustrative and experience feeling of a beach ( based on what the experience of a beach is), compared to other which had more active driven imagery. Also some focused on colour more than the actual surroundings. This helped to advance our project as we were able to see the different types of experiences that people imagine at a beach. I think we were thinking of possibly creating imagery which expressive of the feelings and surroundings of a beach in order to persuade people at the moment.

Class Activity 2- Design matrix Exercise

We did a random input exercise in class where we were split into our events that we were going to do and then we were asked to yell out different words under the categories of Subject,Audience,Tangible,Themes and Style. This helped to find a wide range of ideas that could be used in our own projects and also be used to create imagery for our mix media project that is more interesting than just drawing up ideas independently. I think the exercise was helpful and will help me generate more interesting imagery for my poster, flyers, website and other item.

Week 1- Independent

Mood boards and Thumbnails

We collected images for our mood boards to get an idea of the feeling and style we wanted to convey in our mix media project of Koha. After collecting some imagery I was able to make more of a connection to the subject matter of beaches but also the types of styles that are used in beach design for a specific reason. This helps to clarify the different styles that we could use for our project and also helps us to figure out how incorporating specific styles could create a larger depth in meaning.

We also drew some more thumbnails of different rhetorical responses to a beach clean up. From Thumb nailing further and then drawing up bigger versions helped me to be able to add more detail or see parts that could have more detail. This helps to advance the project as the more ideas I generate, the more I'll be able to come up with the idea that I'm completely happy with.

Week One

First week. In class discussed the paper an then split of into partners. From here we did a group activity around the simpsons characters. For homework we were tasked with deciding what location/ idea we wanted to work with for the project. By tuesdays class we had mostly decided on doing the beach cleanup.

Week 1 - Session 2

Understanding the brief, Visual Rhetoric and Thumbnail Sketching

We discussed the requirements of the brief further. Then we were asked to do a reverse brief that would help to guide our project. I found that writing down the ideas in the reverse brief helped to clarify parts that we wanted to express through our multi media project. This will advance our project as we will be able to see what we want to achieve more clearly.

We also re-discussed ihi and wehi in terms of visual rhetoric. It helped to refresh what we learnt in the last project and be able to incorporate it into this project. Ihi and wehi should help to advance the project as visual metaphors provide a stronger meaning to images and the project is wanting us to create a persuasive multi media project.

We decided we wanted to explore the event of Beach Clean ups after researching the events for Homework. We then went on to develop some initial thumbnails for possible imagery we could use using visual rhetoric. I found that sketching some images helped to get out some ideas that I had in mind. Maybe continuing with the thumbnails for homework may help me figure out some more ideas and imagery we could use. Also, resourcing some examples of visual styles,drawings,marks,imagery could help to inspire more thumbnails that I could later refine.

Week 1 - Session 1

Introduction to the Brief/ Simpsons Exercise

We were introduced to the brief (Koha). We were shown examples of multi media work that we could incorporate into our design idea which would help to start thinking of what types of ways we could communicate our ideas.
We did an exercise using characters from the Simpsons to help to try and think about how we could encourage different people to join in, in the event we choose. I found that certain elements of events may not necessarily appeal to everyone so it is important to think about those things. There were questions on stream that helped to start to think about how elements of the event could appeal to the certain character. It did help to start off thinking about the different target audiences and probably will be helpful to advance the project.

Simpson Exercise (in class)

Neighbourhood website

Person: Barney Gumble

He would see it as an opportunity to drink. He is a social drinker.
He is influenced by Homer because that’s how he started drinking.
Kind of like ‘octoberfest’ more like a festival. (beervana?)
He is definitely time rich. He lives alone so this would be a great opportunity for him to socialize.
He took a dance class so music and dancing could also be a good idea.
Could also be an event to get his life back on track and away from alcohol.
Win win situation
Emotional person and also a doer. Lack of self control and is easier to persuade.
Free Alcohol would attract this person the most. Social becomes a bonus for him. He could meet a lady.
He wouldn’t go if there wasn’t any alcohol. The location should be close to him cause he is too fat.
If we promoted it as a more formal event, he probably would back out.

As a designer a simplistic and to the point event website. For a guy that is barely sober something complicated is out of the question.