Communications Design

[aundreamariaverdiart]

P2_Packaging Assignment

[aundreamariaverdiart]

[tayjacorneiro]

Design Thinking

Design thinking is an essential instinct all artistic must develop. The organization of various elements can determine whether they can coexist in a successful manner or not. There’s an infinite amount of things to consider in the process such as whether you’re working in a two or three-dimensional space, color scheme, shapes, textures, negative space and many other details. This is important because your ability to flex your design thinking muscle communicates your strength as an artist and your ability to adapt to different situations. 

My chosen article titled Utopian Image: Politics and Posters discusses how creative imagery once used in politics to communicate a message has now become a valuable commodity in modern day society. The author explores posters ranging from the 60s to the 70s in different areas of the world during a time of unrest, when the public was greatly dissatisfied with the government’s choices and wanted their voices to be heard in a striking way during protests. Activists and art students would be working around the clock in order to make the imagery come to life, with copies sometimes varying between 300,000 and 600,000. It seems to be a common theme that in the moment of the political climate, the poster isn’t the artwork of one specific person but that it belongs to everyone involved in the cause. For example, there might be a very crucial interaction that happens and rather than praising the artist for creating the visual, the protesters are more focused on quickly being able to use it to advance their own cause. It’s interesting to see imagery once use to raise the visibility of an issue an exact change are not exempt from the forever looming reality of capitalism. 

Political posters can be seen as edgy or groundbreaking either in the message or design mechanics. The imagery inspired by the foundation of a rebellion can lead artists to make alternative decisions that may not be typical for the time in order to symbolize change. This can be seen in commentary on Grapus’s Let’s Go poster in 1976, “The massive san serif lettering of the title gives the announcement of great authority to the rainbow like gradations of color feeling letters…Grapus’s poster reveals an awareness of the importance of image to the communication and political ideas that was years ahead of its time”. Crucial aesthetic decisions are also shown in Grapus’s Expo Grapus poster in 1982, “Its radically informal method of composition, the stylistic collisions and casual violations of image and surface, embody a new way of thinking and a new set of values”. This shows that even an artistic analysis of political posters can appreciate the drastic and out of the box decisions made for the sake of a change in government policy.

In reference to this article, artists during the 60s and 70s showed great strength in design thinking in their ability to quickly create a strong image to be mass produced to the public in the midst of protest. They used various art elements and principles to reflect the needs of the masses with the hopes of inspiring change. 

https://designobserver.com/feature/utopian-image-politics-and-posters/37739

[aundreamariaverdiart]

I like your description of design thinking, I think its concise and straightforward. The topic of design in respect to war-time era posters is very interesting, and I like how it is mentioned how this form of design is thought provoking and insights change. 

[wallofwalker]

Human-Centered Design within The D Word: Psy Ops by Steven Heller

This write up will be based upon the topic of human-centered design. One of many ways designers tackle a problem is by putting the human perspective first into play when designing and problem-solving. This method is important because it helps designers truly understand their audience and know what works when trying to relay a message or project an idea clearly and efficiently to their target audience. As a designer, this may seem simple as we are human and think that we understand what a human-centered design may seem like, but each life/ situation is different and composing an idea based on your targeted human will be the challenge.         This idea can be seen in an article by Steven Heller called “The D Word: Design Ops,” published on Design Observer. Heller’s article discusses the United States Army’s tactic in helping strengthen a soldier’s morale and psychological aptitude. The Army did this by designing pamphlets that “undermine(d) a battle-weary soldiers morale.” It was believed that a soldier was more susceptible to “doubt and despair” rather than to their own rational thought in times of battle. As a result, the US Army believed that designing these pamphlets would help the soldiers resist these thoughts of doubt and despair and help their psychological resistance to fight back. The article states that these pamphlets were mainly made around the 1950s and 60s in the midst of the Cold War. It states that the Defense Department’s Psychological Division would “produce enemy simulated leaflets” which were moved around field maneuvers to hopefully expose soldiers to what they could potentially experience on the battlefield. These simulations of sorts were enacted to help improve the deteriorating mental state of soldiers and to make sure that they were psychologically strong for when the real threat came knocking on their doorstep.           This article relates to human-centered design in the way that the United States Army personally designed these pamphlets with their own soldiers in mind. They specifically took into account the mental state of their soldiers and how they could make some kind of propaganda that would benefit their soldiers by installing an almost fear-like sense into them in order to strengthen them for the future. From the pictures of the article, Heller includes images of the pamphlets and they created. The designs of them appear to depict images of loved ones and the enemy. Again, the military was targeting the mental psyche of the soldiers. They achieved this through human fear and human compassion by including these images throughout the propaganda. In the article, Heller also talks about how the pamphlets were “Crudely printed on rough paper” and how the “typography is competent but undistinguished.” This shows that the Army wanted the flyers to seem hostile/ unfriendly and uninviting to the reader to set the theme of an enemy.         In Conclusion, Human-centered design is important in helping solidify a strong connection between human accessibility and understanding of a message or purpose. While the US Army’s efforts might have seemed like an “Anti Human-Centered Design,” it was what they thought would hit home for the soldiers best and help with the war effort by strengthening the psychological stability of all in service.

-Walker

Article: https://designobserver.com/feature/the-d-word-psy-ops/39275

[aundreamariaverdiart]

I think that this is an interesting sect of human centered design. I’ve never considered how design could impact or have a place in war. I usually associate human centered design with furthering a product to better help the public/end-user. Although this is design intended to help others, it is ultimately at the expense of another and was used as propaganda. It had never occurred to me how design could be used for something negative, however we can learn from past mistakes and create design to further more positive change.

[aundreamariaverdiart]

Human Centered Design

In the 21st century, most aspects of our lives are digitized and using technology is ingrained into our day to day lives. Websites and apps are used practically everyday and are redesigned consistently for user friendliness, especially web design for online grocery service Instacart. Instacart’s website is well known for its design tailored for the visually impaired and is an excellent example of human centred design.

The founders of Instacart noticed that the blind and visually impaired favored using their service so their website was redesigned to better accommodate their consumer. Within each grocery department, product options are well defined for readability. Increasing product quantities is present in the main interface instead of the cart for ease of use. The interface has a strategic color selection and utilizes color contrast to better help those with visual impairments.

I found this article interesting as I didn't know that those with visual impairments were taken into account when designing a website. I also researched what features of a website could better help those with visual impairments which include: contrast, color choice, and using enlarged text. I also think that human centered design is one of the most important aspects to designing because everything we make is meant to be consumed by people. So, having the end user in mind and taking into consideration how the consumer with receive and utilize the product is an important factor to designing.

Human centered design requires out of the box thinking that leads to creative solutions that wouldn’t come about through traditional design methods. Design involves solving a problem and having the end user in mind helps to better solve that problem. When the end user is kept in mind, products are designed better and companies that utilize human centered design flourish more than their counterparts.

IDEO is a design firm well known for its human centered design tactics and they have even created their own process for design. They begin their processes by observing the user to understand how they product gets used by the public and to better design a product. Then, they try to understand the end user experience. Both sets of  information are used to create solutions and better design for others in a six step process: observation, ideation, rapid prototyping, user feedback, iteration and implementation. Human-centered design is all about building empathy with the people you’re designing for, generating tons of ideas; building prototypes, and sharing what you’ve made with the people you’re designing for.

From their “Field Guide to Human Centered Design” the IDEO team stated “When you understand the people you’re trying to reach—and then design from their perspective—not only will you arrive at unexpected answers, but you’ll come up with ideas that they’ll embrace.” That is the main idea of human centered design. IDEO understands that if they can experience what the user experiences they can use that to fuel design solutions. Good design doesn’t always have to involve the best ideas or best technology but as the most helpful to others.

[aundreamariaverdiart]

Design Thinking

The most interesting article that I came across focused on the career of Derrick Kardos, a graphic designer who makes props for film and television. His job entails delivering the authenticity of settings or time periods via the prop signage or posters he creates for each project. I found this article interesting as I didn’t know that was something graphic designers even did, and I like having the knowledge of how expansive the field can be; especially being new in the field. I also thought that this article presented a different approach to design thinking as this form of design was applied to the radio, television, and film industry. I had always wondered how the art department of this industry functioned and with the article I was able to gain new insight.

The article follows Kardos’ career from his beginnings in the independent film industry as a producer’s assistant in the 1990’s. He didn’t get work as a graphic designer until the 2000’s when he was approached to make mock political campaign posters for “The Manchurian Candidate.” Since then he has worked on films such as “The Devil Wears Prada”, “Music & Lyrics”, “American Gangster”, and “Black Swan”, among others. Kardos also mentions in his field of design one can have limited amounts of time to complete work with so much to do and in the end the designs don’t make it to the final product. Many movie scenes including pieces can be cut or a television pilot might not be picked up by a network. This field of design also requires a high attention to detail. Although his extensive work goes unnoticed by audiences, his designs for “American Gangster” was nominated for an Oscar.

I thought it was interesting how this article highlighted a different area of graphic design. I also liked how it described the processes of creating all the work required for these projects as well as doing a good job of showing the reader what it's like to work on these films as a graphic designer. It peaked my personal interest as I had an interest in doing art department work for radio, television, and film in the future and helps me get a better idea of what to expect for an upcoming internship I have creating graphics for movies.

This style of design has to be approached in a specific way in order to be successful which is also dependant on the nature of the television show or film. Ultimately, the design needs to be realistic, whether it be for a time period specific project or parodic. A project taking place within a specific time period has to be true to the time period to be believable which requires extensive research. Kardos also mentions how even “unrealistic” pieces of design required for a project “must be real within the context of the story”. So even if certain signs or newspapers are outlandish and would not occur in real life, they are still in keeping with the visual system and tone of the project.

[aundreamariaverdiart]

1302 project 3

[aundreamariaverdiart]

1302 project 2

[aundreamariaverdiart]

[aundreamariaverdiart]

1302 Final Statement of Intent

I have created four different animal icons similar to a wayfinding system. For this particular project, I chose various reptiles such as a snake, gecko, turtle, and a lizard. These animals are all being depicted in a geometric style which maintains simplicity and readability while also being visually intriguing.

[aundreamariaverdiart]

1302 Statement of Intent

I have created four different animal icons similar to a wayfinding system. For this particular project, I chose various reptiles such as a snake, gecko, turtle, and a crocodile. These animals are all being depicted in a geometric style which maintains simplicity and readability while also being visually intriguing. 

[jakesvanart]

My favorite artist plays a pivotal role with my favorite band Black Flag. Raymond Pettibon is an artist based out of the L.A. and Venice beach area.  The work he is most known for are designs such as flyers, posters, t-shirts, album art, and logos for bands such as Black Flag and Sonic Youth, as well as many others.  He is credited with creating the Iconic Black Flag logo as well as Sonic Youth’s Goo album cover.  His style has always leaned towards the darker side of life; wether it be from his specific sketch like style of drawing and painting involving frequently picking up the pen or brush creating a very rigid piece, or his art ideas like a specific flyer he did of Charles Manson naked pretending to be Jesus on a cross for a black flag concert.  When looking solely at his art, you can almost feel as if the image itself is physically shoving you because of how much your being provoked by it.  I truly admire the dark sense of humor his art brings to the world.      

[brainhearthustle-blog]

IDEO human centered design

[humananddesign]

[dogzipy]

why you should care about design

To most people, the ideas of design and engineering seem like some magic that happens behind closed doors, performed only by people with high educations and high salaries

However, here we’ll learn a little bit about how we’ve gone from this

to this

First, let’s talk about a little bit of background information:

Lets assume products are designed to help people (in a perfect world), and to help people, you must understand, well, PEOPLE. In short

PROBLEM = DESIGN OPPORTUNITY

DESIGN OPPORTUNITY = PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Thats it. Thats the whole basis of product engineering, build something to achieve a goal. And make it efficient!

Okay, so now that we know the goal, how do we get from acknowledging a problem to creating a fully designed and functional product that people use?

Well, it takes a lot of gathering information and reflecting before anything can happen. Were gonna talk about some fancy words for a minute but bear with me:

Usability- the degree to which something is able or fit to be used

We can test how easy or difficult a product is to use by testing many people’s experience with it. This is called usability testing. In fact, some people’s careers are just testing usability and quality of products for companies. One of the ways we test usability is through user research.

User Research-  understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies.

Basically, the process of collecting data about possible users. Sometimes this looks like one on one research, such as a usability test, or looking at masses of data to analyze peoples needs thought things like surveys, censuses, and experiments. 

This helps us to learn a little bit about the overall experience of the product, the broader environmental contexts, user struggle areas, and efficiency. 

Last word to learn: 

Ideation- to generate and communicate ideas about products through visual representations (usually drawing/ prototyping)

this is the part where you start to draw out ideas for products that solve the problem at hand. 

Heres an ideated image of a wheelchair that has many different amenities like an X-box screen and subwoofers. While not everything in this drawing is perfect and planned out, it achieves some goal the designer had, and communicates their ideas. 

From here, countless rounds of product testing, ideation, and prototyping will be done until a product is manufactured and available to users. 

Finally, here is a small list of some guidelines of design to keep in mind:

Accessibility: Is my product accessible to a wide range of users?

Constraints: Are there parts of my design that are physically impossible to accomplish given the technology and resources available?

Privacy- Am I respecting my users privacy in the development and the execution of my product?

This process is not simply a one and done deal. The way that we got from hard to use, ancient wheelchairs to modern wheelchairs is through constant design improvement! Because we are always learning more about people’s needs, and we are constantly coming up with better ideas improve products!

The future could hold something greater! 

You are impacted by every single product that you use in your everyday life. We know this because as users, we HATE it when a product is difficult to use. 

Question design choices made about the products you use, and your ideas, too, can contribute to future of design! We never know what it could hold…

[webdesignclub]

Design Thinking 101 Tutorial - The design industry has evolved quite a lot in the last few years and today there are a number of different responsibilities encompassed by the umbrella term designer: UX Designers, UI Designers, and Product Designers. Web Design & Web Development

[noosphe-re]

Producing inner images is a natural process common to everyone. It is part of thinking. Associative, wild, free, ordered and systematic thinking in images, in architectural, spatial, colorful and sensuous pictures – this is my favorite definition of design.

Peter Zumthor (via inthenoosphere)