nelson-atkins. the poetic. the final.

Fiesta in the Park: help Frida & Diego find their friends!

Our(Kim+my) concept revolved around finding Frida & Diego’s friends in the park; their friends were the pre-determined actions of each of the six sculptures that the Nelson-Atkins design team had selected. Each sculpture is a different tomato/friend that is a different color with a different mustache.

While in the Bloch Lobby, Museum guests will receive the booklet. From there the guests are prompted to stop by the Zócalo outside, where they will receive their map and clue sheet. Each clue is a different sculpture and friend to visit and learn about. Upon visiting each friend, the clue sheet will be punched. After having visited all of Frida & Diego’s friends, the Museum guest is to head back to the Zócalo where they will officially join the Stache Crew and receive a free bracelet.

On the back of the informational cards, there are art related activities that revolve around the action of the sculpture. It prompts the guest to draw or write about the certain action, upload online and tag the post with the Stache Crew hashtag. The Nelson-Atkins will then collect all those posts, create a slideshow and post on their Facebook and website.

all collected pieces.

pieces received between the Bloch Lobby & Zócalo.

all pieces received: map & clue sheet, informational cards, booklet and mustache bracelet.

all six friend/sculpture cards: informational fronts.

all six friend/sculpture cards: activity backs.

reflection. classmate projects.

One of the greatest things about Graphic Design is the ability to go after/design a project based on your views and style. That is something that we were able to explore this semester with Typography 4: experiment type. Even though initially when the class was selecting various examples of typography and a lot of the examples were the same, most of our final projects covered different topics/niches of design and typography. I think that all of us, students also floated towards ideas that connected with each of us and because of that we were able to dive into projects that we connected and thus were passionate about, which helped to further build and transform our typography and design skills.

The ideas that a few of my classmates came up with really connected with me; their projects, end piece and design may not have been close to my style, but the concept clicked with me. The actual idea of memories and the way in which some people think and relate memories is very interesting to me. Moreso, it is the psychology part of memories that interests me…the connotations that we have with words, colors, smells, anything related to our senses, as well as what we have learned as graphic designers, the overall idea of color, shape, or type relation.

I was also interested in the idea of working with children and how at a young age, we could possibly start to develop design terminology and graphic standards. I think that children are often a better topic to study than we may give them credit for. Yes, children are young and inexperienced in the world, but they often also give us those unbiased/untainted opinions.

The idea of engagement and interaction is another idea that is fascinating to me. This is also a topic that connects to design as a whole, the idea of getting people to think or act or react to certain situations or content.

As far as direct relation of the above ideas into projects or ways to push further; I feel if anything it would really be reworking those ideas to fit my style of design and my way of thought. I think there are ways to bring those three things above together or at least singularly into design practices. But, to just simply spout ideas seems unsuited and not helpful; I really believe that all the ideas that students focused on in class can and do relate to some part of design, either small or large impact. If there were given situations, it would be easier for me to connect to a real world use, but as that is in the air, there is no way for me to just jump from idea to product or projected project. 

nelson-atkins. the poetic. process.

random hit of inspiration sketches+description on tuesday night (4-25).

BOOKLET = the idea of a pop-up struck is a nice interactive piece that shouldn't be TOO hard to do. but have the word FIESTA from the front with the tomatoes be the pop-up, so you see closer whom you're looking for + it actually LOOKS like a party. Or maybe Frida+Diego pop-up to remind the kids to find their friends!

CARDS = backside of cards can be laid out next to one another to show a very light image of Frida + Diego or spell out 'Stache Crew in the background lightly or something to tie in collecting the cards with finding friends or the 'Stache Crew. Maybe on the illustration of the tomatoes and then add in a texture or image/part of the statue that they're looking for in the mustaches; for further help/clues...and then we could make the tomatoes larger in the book; have more "foreshadowing"/clues throughout the booklet.

MAP = has a top flap that starts initially over the map so you just see the tomatoes on the map, but pulling/flipping up the top of the map reveals the clues on the hidden side of the flap. the revealed map on the paper has the current map with the tomatoes + sculpture silhouettes.

what we had by friday (4-26).

six informational cards fronts.

six informational card backs combined.

Diego informational card.

Frida informational card.

booklet front.

booklet spread 1.

booklet spread 2.

booklet spread 3/map.

booklet back cover.

folded open map + clues.

back of folded map/clues.

mK feedback.

*it's looking great

*downsize "LARGE titling typography"

what we had for monday (4-29).

six informational cards fronts.

six informational card backs combined.

Frida informational card.

Diego informational card.

booklet front cover.

booklet spread 1.

booklet spread 2.

booklet spread 3, fold out map.

booklet spread 3, fold out map.

booklet back cover.

map+clues front.

map+clues open.

map+clues back.

Our main focus was to bring in more "fun" and user interaction. We did some more research into different types of activities that children often do. One of the more inspirational moments was thinking about large puzzles, piecing them together to create one larger image; we thought that it would be interesting to add more of a welcome to the 'Stache Crew via a large puzzle image. The very light opacity of an image on the back of the informational cards would add more encouragement to go to all the sculptures to finish this mysterious image. We also kept in mind the idea that the child might run off with the map and thus leaving the parents without one. During our user testing, we saw a few moments where the child was looking at the clue wording and the parents were looking at the map; thus we felt that two maps would allow the child and adult to each have one. We also thought that one of the maps should be larger to show a more in-depth layout of the sculpture park.

final experiment/testing. experiment 8.5–9.

"the installation of interpretation"

Writing in general is one of those areas where the style is most often dictated by the author + not the viewer. Though there are circumstances that allow the viewer to dictate order, meaning, placement and really change any part of the writing that they want. For creative exercises, often writers will mimic the style of other writers or of a specific piece; the intent at this point is not plagiarism, but to look further at the form and structure of letters upon a page. These moments are often supposed to flatter the writer. That idea combined with the idea of many poets and writers to want the viewer to get whatever message they can out of their work is the accumulation of this installation. 

It also appears as a bit of a breakdown of the text, from the first "original" form of Camus' words to the abstracted form based on restructured lines and poetic images of the text. Within this installation are five different interpretations of Camus' first paragraph from A Happy Death. The first two are highly focused on selective word choice display. The third is focused on a "designer gut" placing+overlaying images in Photoshop that appeared to connect. The fourth focused on moving far away from the initial structure of the sentences, hiding the phrases that she felt was most important and even "discarding" phrases/images that were "unnecessary." The fifth focused on restructuring the phrases into a poetic voice that resinated with the designer. Images in color were considered complex/layered and thus added another layer of information by adding color, where as the black and white compositions were less complex.

the "installation" of interpretation.

camus, A Happy Death, original book layout.

layout, focus on pulling out the letter.

layout, focus on pulling out the word.

designer 1's interpretation.

designer 2's interpretation.

designer 3's interpretation.

the presentation.

Reading Reflection+Notes.

"4 Surprising App-Design Principles"
*design the app like no one is going to see it
*design it simple, easy to navigate
*keep navigation the same throughout, from home screen to last page
*don't force users to sign in/up
*repeat, repeat, repeat

I never really thought that to design an app, I should focus on the fact that the user isn't paying attention or has something else more important in front of them. I thought that you should just design like you have their attention or take it; so it's a bit different that design when I think of posters and other promotional materials.

"How Tech Is Changing the Museum Experience"
*apps are slowly being created to simplify the museum experience from navigation to certain exhibits or pieces in the museum to adding more context on pieces of work
*GPS + the use of navigating within a museum requires a high/fast wireless network and hot spots throughout the museum, which not all places can afford
*Smithsonian is one of the top museums right now to be designing and working in conjunction with additional user interaction
*apps for tour guides are the minimum at the current usage of smart phones and museums

It's interesting to me that the ideas mentioned above were a lot of similar ideas that we talked about last class; thus obviously something to continue. I think GPS in museums would be pretty awesome and nice to be able to easily get yourself to the newest exhibit of your favorite artist and quick.

"Icons"
*easy recognition of icons should be high priority, make it easy on the user
*should be based on newer associations of objects, don't reference styles of the object that is no longer readily available+popular
*keep the style consistent
*if creating a productivity style app, have the standard app icons in their native form, not words or blank
*for other tab icons, there are websites that have icons for you to use or you can create your own following closely the guidelines

I never realized that there were "standard icons." At least, I never realized this consciously; I think I had just accepted because I was able to figure out the app and what to do without having to read instructions. Using a standard set of icons leads me to think that using these would help the user be able to navigate the app without their full attention + thus create a success.

"Gestures"
*there are standard gestures for multi-touch that many apps include, adding the familiarity of navigation
*most custom gestures, those outside of the standard are often used in games, art or music
*keyboard stays the same for searches; keep consistent
*when designing think about what the finger or hand is covering when using to navigate the app
*focus on simplifying and testing with audience group

The first thing I thought of when reading about gestures was the Paper Fox, storybook app that I had recently been playing with on my iPhone. For one of the games, the gesture for moving to look in the tree was opposite of what my laptop was, so I was disoriented at first but slowly remembered how I needed to move my fingertips to create the action. What the lead me to think more about is, would people in many cases just get upset with the app and leave because it was not in the same movement as they are used to. But the focus here is to make sure that I have testing groups to check out my app and see if it makes sense to them.

in class. working. experiment 8.

the narrowed down compositions to use for final experiment/test.

baseline of the last line of the first image is the beginning baseline for the next image.

I asked a classmate to create a composition with the images that I had taken of Camus' first paragraph of A Happy Death. The interesting part for me was that my classmate was attempting to break away from the set format + the way that the reader would automatically read the text.

the whole composition (with all pieces).

the final composition (according to wendy, the curator without the "unnecessary parts").

reveal of layering compositions.

reveal of layering compositions.

Kim was simply going with her designer gut, placing images that seemed to connect together next to each other. they were multiplied in Photoshop.

After speaking with Wendy+Kim about their focus for placing the images I started to think more about:
*layering the images in a way that breeds interactivity + adds more choice into the mix
*break away from the initial need to keep images in order of text in book
*think about changing fiction text into poetic text
*think about creating a visually interesting photo composition
*there is much work to be done between now + friday

nelson-atkins. the poetic. testing day + process.

the essentials: booklet, cards, bracelet.

testing family 1: deciding where to go first.

testing family 1: receiving their first information card.

testing family 1: on to the next sculpture.

testing family 1: confusion on the map + where the Turbo is located.

testing family 2: "should we help Frida & Diego find their friends?" "yes!"

testing family 2: "Which friend do you want to find next?"

testing family 2: "resting" + reading the informational cards.

Both groups provided similar comments.

The Map appeared to be "reversed" or "upside-down." Both groups flipped the card for a better directional view to fit their purpose. Suggestions that were made regarding to add in a compass for easier navigation of the map+Sculpture Park. Another confusing matter was the placement of Frida and Diego with the friends on the map; both groups thought the two were part of the search and find. 

Other possible revisions include: defining the path to "Turbo", refine some of the tomatos' placement, placing more elements into the map (building names and placement of shuttlecocks), and influencing a path to follow. 

Group One's route was based on closest placement of the tomatoes/sculptures. Group Two followed the order of the tomatoes listed; they also wanted a more distinct colors between the tomatoes.

Both groups enjoyed the concept of the search and find, the characters, information, and reward system. Other ideas for the map that Kim and I considered was: a number system, "you are here," a map for the booklet/adult section, and signage along the route.

the map+clues and informational cards.

the booklet.

feedback from Assistant Professor Michael E. Kidwell.

*add map to booklet

*add in more "warmth"

*change paper

*add color to cover, to make more part of system

*print + cut + rescan vectored mascots...seem too formal

*have text size correlate to audience