Oct 17, 2017
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22/11/2017 Questionnaire 2.1, Colour and Taste This questionnaire came in two ways, in the first part I wanted to expand on the ”triangle, circle and square” experiment from last week and ask whether there is in fact something more behind the way people linked shapes and colours together. I wanted to learn more about colour theory and how it could be translated into a multi-sensory experience, so I asked the audience to match 12 colours (yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, dark blue, light blue, light green, dark green, grey, black and white) with the four main taste sensations sweet, salty, sour and bitter. I also wanted them to define in more detail what the colours would taste like. I was hoping for spontaneous and instinct driven answers rather than having them think too much about what a suitable response would be like. Individuals often linked colours with the actual colour of food items, i.e red tastes like strawberries, light green like kiwi and black like burned toast. Photographs by Merbecks, V. (2017)
3/11/2017 Good design should foster observation, memory, dialogue, reasoning, and communication (Frascara, 2004: 120). Sources: Frascara, J. (2004). Communication design. New York: Allworth.
26/10/2017 Candy Chang - I wish this was
I wish this was is another participatory public art project by Candy Chang, which explores the process of civic engagement. Inspired by the limited dynamics of community meetings as well as the volume of abandoned buildings, Chang posted thousands of “I wish this was ___” stickers on vacant buildings across New Orleans to invite residents to share their ideas for these spaces. Infusing street art, urban planning, and ethnographic research, the project reveals the hopes, dreams and colourful imaginations across different neighbourhoods, challenges barriers to participation, and provokes new insights for what New Orleans might yet become. The stickers are vinyl and they can be easily removed without damaging property. Responses ranged from the functional to the poetic: “I wish this was… a butcher shop, a community garden, a place to sit and talk, a city without theft, a place to buy flowers for my baby, full of nymphomaniacs with PhDs, your dream, Heaven“. (Candychang.com, 2010) The experiment continues on today and has expanded to cities around the world. The project also became the prototype for Neighborland, a nationwide toolkit for civic projects co-founded by Chang, Dan Parham, and Tee Parham (The Neighborland Handbook, 2016)
From all three examples of Candy Chang’s work, I think this one is the most relevant in relation to my own practice as a graphic designer/problem solver. By directly approaching the audience and asking what their plans and dreams for abandoned buildings within the local community would be, designers, architects and urban planners can draw meaningful conclusions and come up with a well informed solution that finds great use and appreciation. People who have lived in that area know best what is needed so this is a really useful and creative tool to get them involved in the planning stage. Participation gives them a voice and makes them feel important.
Sources: Candychang.com. (2010). Candy Chang » I Wish This Was. [online] Available at: http://candychang.com/work/i-wish-this-was/ [Accessed 26 October. 2017].
The Neighborland Handbook. (2016). How to order stickers – The Neighborland Handbook. [online] Available at: https://handbook.neighborland.com/how-to-order-stickers-9cc7b70f5466 [Accessed 26 October. 2017].
Pictures: http://candychang.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/I-Wish-This-Was-grid-Marigny-1000x603.jpg
http://candychang.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/I-Wish-This-Was-a-grocery-w-fresh-produce-and-pumpkin-pie-1000x603.jpg
26/10/2017 Candy Chang - Before I die
Before I Die is a global participatory public art project that invites people to contemplate death by reflecting on their life, and sharing their personal aspirations. The original wall was created on an abandoned house in New Orleans by artist Candy Chang after she lost someone close in her family.
“I thought about death a lot and it made me feel deep graditute for the time I have and brought clarity to the things that are meaningful to my life now. But I struggle to maintain this perspective in my daily life. I feel like it is easy to get caught up in the day to day and forget what really matters to you.“ (Chang in Ted Talks, 2012) Candy Chang turned the side of an abandoned house in her neighbourhood into a giant chalkboard, and stenciled it with a fill-in-the-blank sentence: "Before I die, I want to ..." Anyone walking by could pick up a piece of chalk and share their personal thoughts in public space. I really like the concept of turning a neglected space into a constructive one, where people are allowed to reflect on their hopes and dreams. Responses included “Before I die, I want to live off the grid; Before I die, I want to be completely myself, Before I die, I want to plant a tree, Before I die, I want to cure Alzheimer’s, Before I die, I want to be loved passionately, Before I die, I want to spend a month in Europe.“
Since then, over 2,000 Before I Die walls have been created in over 76 countries around the world and 38 languages, revealing community’s longings, anxieties, joys, and struggles. The walls explore how public space can cultivate self-examination and empathy among neighbours and compassionately prepare us for death and grief. Each wall is a tribute to living an examined life. With the help of thousands of people who have contributed to these walls in their communities, Candy Chang and writer James A. Reeves have developed a website to exhibit common humanity, contemplate mortality, and better understand what it means to be human. Death is a really personal issue, so I really like how this project opens up the audience to share their aspirations, dreams and hopes for their lives. I think the ”Before I die” wall is a really great example of how audience participation can lead to discussions among contributors who then share their personal thoughts. It spreads positivity and reminds the audience that our time on earth is limited and that we should make the best use of it.
Sources:
Candychang.com. (2012). Candy Chang, Before I Die. [online] Available at: http://candychang.com/work/before-i-die-in-nola/ [Accessed 26 Oct. 2017].
Chang in Ted Talks (2012) Candy Chang, Before I Die. [video] Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/candy_chang_before_i_die_i_want_to. (2017) [Accessed 26 Oct. 2017].
Pictures:
http://candychang.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Before-I-Die-NOLA-responses-2-1000x602.jpg
http://candychang.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Before-I-Die-NOLA-responses-be-completely-myself-1000x602.jpg
1/11/2017 One area I am particularly interested in as part of this research module is how the audience can play an active role in the design process and contribute to the creation of content. I came across a promotional website called ”The Universal Typeface Experiment” by French pen producer Bic that I thought fit very well into the context of participatory, user-centred and interactive design solutions. The website was originally intended as a product launch for Bic and was developed by Tribal DDB Düsseldorf in collaboration with Dutch advertising agency MediaMonks. The idea was to crowdsource handwriting contributions from around the world and combine them into a single typeface that could be explored through various demographics (Mediamonks.com, 2016). As part of the experiment, visitors of the website could contribute their individual handwriting (Latin alphabet). An algorithm then plot the shape and motion of each letter to create an ever-evolving average typeface alphabet. In total, Bic analysed 868,496 characters from 125 countries to establish a universal pattern. The darker the shading behind a letter, the most uniform it was written across contributors, while a lighter shading suggested more varied results. As part of the experiment, users could also answer some demographic questions, enabling automatic aggregation of statistics about handwriting. The alphabet can be explored by different categories such as gender, age, country, left or right handness and industry the contributors work in. It’s really interesting to see how local, national and global handwriting differs. For example, while the writing style between the UK and U.S is very similar across the entire alphabet, there are dramatic differences between Angola and American Samoa. What is more, left-handed people tend to write letters more narrow than right-handed people, and older contributors left bigger gaps between the lines of the letters. Handwriting is something quite personal - scientists even claim they can read up to 5,000 different personality traits from it. I really like how this project brought audiences closer together and showed them their differences and similarities. I also like how Bic combined the task with a more scientific approach that collected demographic factors for further analysis. The audience was actively involved in the creation of the universal typeface which can now be downloaded for free.
Sources: Mediamonks.com. (2016). MediaMonks, Creative Digital Production. [online] Available at: https://www.mediamonks.com/campaigns-content/work/bic-the-universal-typeface-experiment [Accessed 1 Nov. 2017].
Images: https://media.wired.com/photos/593252765c4fbd732b551d5b/master/w_1200,c_limit/Screen-Shot-2014-06-25-at-5.12.51-PM.png
https://www.mediamonks.com/html/projects/bic-the-universal-typeface-experiment/case/inc/image/universal_typeface_2.jpg
https://www.dexigner.com/images/article/24219/BIC_Universal_Typeface.jpg
Audience Interaction - Previous BA work
For this project I had to link a city of my choice, London, with a given, unusual audience, in my case lottery players. I started off the project researching the audience and trying to understand what their interests, motivation and desires are. As part of my secondary research, I looked at people’s different strategies when choosing Lotto numbers and what factors might influence their decision-making. Although it could be argued that there is no accurate mathematical system to calculate and predict future lottery numbers, every lottery players seems to believe they can trick the system with their own personal strategy. Conducting a questionnaire also helped me gain a better understanding of the emotional attachment these players establish to their numbers. Directly approaching the audience ultimately then led to very interesting concept where the person would look for lottery numbers in their daily life. This built the foundation for my outcome ”London - things, Places and People”, which allows the reader to reflect on their daily life and translate these impressions into lottery numbers from 1 to 59. In this way, it gives relevance and meaning to the Lotto numbers without establishing an emotional attachment. With over 6600 entries, it allows almost endless possibilities from sports to politics, music genres, London underground stations, renowned museums, galleries and sights, and well known national and international personalities. Looking at dictionary layouts helped me understand how a large body of information can be displayed in the most user friendly, practical, informative, yet visually interesting and appealing way. The reference book comes with an illustrated A1 Map of London which provides an additional system for the calculation of lottery numbers. It includes 1827 street names, parks and other well known public places in London. Personally, I think, this project has been a really good example of how audience research and especially conducting a questionnaire and directly approaching people helped me establish a concrete need. Design/Illustrations/Concept by Merbecks, V. (2017)
Audience Interaction - Previous BA work
Another project I produced as part of my final year BA studies focused on ways to help people improve their financial capability. My initial focus was on an analysis of the psychological processes involved in the decision making process of spending and saving money. In a questionnaire I conducted, the audience proposed they would feel “depressed, bored, sad and somehow also embarrassed“ if a low point in their financial budget restricted the choices they would normally want to make. Saving money is probably not the most interesting and enjoyable thing to do, hence I started to look at more playful approaches for creative money management advice and came up with the idea of free things people can do. “Free and Free“ is an online community where users can share their advice on maintaining fun, excitement and above all happiness in their lives. Through the app, registered users can upload their own ideas or interact with existing content (like, comment, share, add to to-do-list, calendar, etc.). I looked at a number of activities which people normally like to do in their free time (and cost money) and tried to think about similar and free alternatives which they could do instead. I also directly approached the audience and asked them to share ideas. Free and Free is full of experiences, new opportunities you can explore, challenges you can take, skills you can learn, creative tasks you can complete and adventures you can go on. Involving the audience in the establishment of content created a very effective and convincing visual communication outcome. The community based platform brought people together and encouraged the direct exchange of ideas and experiences. It also made them feel less lonely in the attempt to improve their financial situation. Design/Illustrations/Concept by Merbecks, V. (2017)