Studio Brief 1: Final pictograms

  Here are my final pictograms I have chosen, when I have put them all together I can see that the ones featuring harsh black lines and the solid circle don't look as good as the grainy faded ones. I'm going to edit them so they all work well together as a collection.









 
Here are the final pictograms, they are influenced by the ideas of Hoffman and the relationship between a dot/ circle and it's background and how 'a small dot is put in the centre of a square it demands to be felt'. I also took onboard his ideas the line and how a line acts as 'the connecting link' I think this fits well as the line can be seen as connecting all the pictograms together in terms of how they look but also connecting the people together who are on this trail.
I wanted my designs to go against the rules of Otl Aicher's pictograms for the Munich olympics, they are so good they cannot be improved upon or copied therefore I wanted to go in a completely different direction. I went against his use of a grid and decided to collage in a very free way.

Studio Brief 1: Pictogram development

CHURCH

To create these I used the shapes found in the letters 'ch' these create two curves and one straight line which were nice to play around with. I like the arches as I think they look like the arched windows commonly associated with church windows.


I then extended the arches into more oval shapes and added some dashed lines into it to replicate lines from the cross.




For the collages I wanted replicate the curves from the letter c and h. To do this I cut out circles and used the white space to create the curves. I combined them all with straight lines again to represent the cross and the stem of the h. My favourite one is the top left one as the newspaper reminds me of bible pages or old religious text.

BATTLE/ BRIDGE

For a representation of a battle I wanted something that looked dangerous and disruptive. I drew an X and used the components for this to create other symbols.


I carried on this experiment and added more lines to create more urgency to the designs.

 For the collages I wanted them to represent this triangle shape still but look more rugged. I used red pen to add dashed lines to represent blood often shed in battle. I like the one on the right the most as I think it looks dirty and grainy like you would expect from a battle. The one on the left however would be much easier to use and looks more directional.

MUSEUM

For museum I used a similar method as the others, taking the letter M and creating symbols that use the the stems from this. I think it makes an easy starting point that generates lots of ideas quickly.

I carried on with this idea and liked the ideas I was generating. They remind me of the pictogram i first drew which is an iconic symbol for a museum. The pointed 'V' bits look like a pointed roof.


My favourite collage is the one on the right as the upside down V shapes look like an unusual interpretation of an M. I also think it looks like the pitching of a museum roof.

MEDICAL SCHOOL

For this I googled common symbols associated with a medical school I then altered these and used lines from them to make new designs. I also used the letters MS and intwined them with each other to make more pictograms.
 
I then tried to do a collages which used the lines from the M and the curves from the S. I found these hard to do as the curves of the S were hard to create through collage, as you can see from the bottom image I tried to create  an S using the white space from a  cut out circle. I didn't like using this method for creating pictograms for this certain place therefore I focused on my hand drawn designs more instead.









HIDDEN LIBRARY
 For these designs I used the arches of the windows bellow the library to inspire my design. I think they are a key part of the building even though they don't relate to the library (as this is upstairs). I also did some designs using the 'L' of library but found this difficult to work with.



 For the collage I wanted to represent a person holding their arm out as though they're reading a book as this is a common symbol to represent a library.  I used a combination of collage to get a perfect, texture circle and lines created by pen to be more delicate in juxtaposition with the chunkiness of the circle.

Studio Brief 1 research

Facts about Leeds:

1. Made some of the UK's most expensive furniture
2. Home of Cluedo
3. First print of monopoly here
4. 1884 Home of M&S
5. 1st county maps of England drawn here
6. 1st commercial railway
7. Freeserve. Worlds 1st internet service provider started here
8. Inspiration behind the name of Pudsey bear, named after the graphic designers hometown
9. Invented mouse trap
10. Invented jelly tots
11. 1st flat iron building
12. Literary giants: Barbara Taylor Bradford, Alan Bennett, Arthur Ransom, JRR Tolken

Waddingtons, a factory in Leeds created and printed the first version of monopoly in 1936. To celebrate this in 2008 they released a version based in Leeds.

In 1941, the british secret service (MI9) had Waddingtons create a special edition of monopoly for WW2 prisoners of war held by the Germans. Hidden inside the games were maps, compasses, real money and other useful object to help them escape. The Red Cross helped to distribute them.



Streets:
Park Row
East Parade
Commercial Street
Lands Lane
Albion Street
Briggate
Headrow


Looking at large scale hunts around other cities similar to monopoly to get inspiration. These are done as team building exercises.



I created a map on google pin pointing the places I want to go to on my trail to make sure they are with in walking distance of each other but to also work out what direction I will need to send people in.

I then did some research into each of the places and found interesting historical facts about each of them.

LANDS LANE
At the heart of lands lane sits Leeds church, built in 1866-1868. Designed by architects Richard Adams and John Kelly. It is a grad 2 listed building which was converted in 1980 into commercial use. It is not Byron Burgers



BRIGGATE
The bridge and a battle
> 23rd January 1643, Sir Thomas Fairfax faced the Yorkshire Royalist (led by Sir William Savile)
Fairfax led his troops up past St John's church whilst a different group attacked from Boar Lane, another group attacked from Leeds bridge from the south. With assaults from 3 different directions Sir Savile's Loyalists crumbles in just 3 hours. The victorious parliamentarians took 500 prisoners yet they were set free when the promised not to take further part in the conflict.

> 1888 footage of worlds first moving image

> Trams ran here up until 1950



PARK ROW
> Britains first permanent traffic light system installed here at the junction with bond street in 1928 by Herbet Thorp.
> Leeds city museum was first situated here until it was damaged in WW2 by german bombs


EAST PARADE
1834 Leeds school of medicine was purchased here opposite LGI



COMMERCIAL STREET
> home to the independent leeds library, exclusive to members who pay an annual fee. Has been here since 1768. Books include travel, typography, biography and history. 1,500 new books are added every year. Grade 2 listed building.




IDEAS

1. Cards, similar to community chest/ chance. The front has the info of the place/ history. The back has directions to the next place.
2. A map in the style of a monopoly board
3. Something collectable, cards on a pinboard for people to take containing facts about the history
4. Card dispenser on a building with cards to collect **
5. An A-board with an arrow hanging on it in the direction of way to go., parts of the arrow are detachable and collectable. **
** Relating to pentagram, something cheap and easy to move/ relocate. Something easy to take and collect.

PROPOSAL
Monopoly was first printed in Leeds in 1936. This isn't a well known fact about the history of Leeds. My task is to make people more aware of this knowledge as well as other lesser known facts about Leeds' history.

COLOURS
. Red
. Yellow
. Green
. Blue
. Brown
. Light Blue
. Pink
. Orange
. Light green (background)
. Black & white



A simplified version of my idea. Having property cards hung on hooks for people to take and collect.

What size is a monopoly property card?
8.7cm X 5.6cm



A small prototype. To try get my idea down and easy to explain to people.

The measurements for the actual thing =
Board: 610 x 305 mm
Cards: 87 x 56 mm
Board with boarder: 420 x 220 mm
Height: 220/ 56 = 3.9
Width: 420/ 87 = 4.8

3 cards tall by 4 cards long

Penguin Book Covers, creating the covers

 I kept the iconic green colour like Marber did by printing my designs on green paper, I think it maintains the iconic theme of colour expected by penguin customers. The use of black works well when printed onto it as it maintains that dirty, grainy feel which makes them seem a lot older than they are. I decided to flip the Marber grid and display my image first followed by the authors name and book title. I think this makes you look more at the image rather than the text. I added a black continuous line wrapping around the front cover to the spine.

For the back cover I displayed the blurb at the bottom in line with the title and authors name on the front cover. The rest of the page is blank to emphasis this new grid layout.

Studio Brief 1: Research

To kick off my research into way finding I went to the library and found this book. It helped me understand things such as colour, pictograms, positioning and such in relation to way finding.

Eye Level
The golden rule is that 'eye level' is the perfect level for conveying information
However this relies upon the person walking looking directly in front of them which is generally not the case, most people walk with their shoulders slumped forward and their head tilted forward therefore would miss the sign. Busy places also need to be taken into consideration as the sign needs to be seen over people's heads.

However these don't need to be considered for my way finding system as it is interactive therefore needs to be at a height that people can reach.

Pictograms
The book also talked about the pictograms for the Munich Olympics by Otl Aicher. Their opinion was that they are so simple yet so good that they can not be improved upon. They need to be done in a sensitive way like Aicher has done.

Colour
Humans do not have the ability to register colour. If you were to try memorise a specific shade of a colour you would find it hard to remember it a few minutes later. Therefore we only see colours as blue, red, green etc and not specific shades. As humans we also find it difficult to remember the specific colours when things are colour coded therefore it is better to represent a colour with an object as well to make it easier to remember.

In way finding systems colour can be used to give things a hierarchy, for example important notices being displayed in red, and those of lesser importance in black and white.

The book also discusses whether or not colours for things such as emergency exits should be standardised as in the US their emergency exits are displayed on white backgrounds with green text where as in Europe they are the opposite.

When using colour, the book suggest using white lettering as black letters merge into the colour and start to look dirty.

You need to bare in mind the surface you are printing on as this changes the colour.

Red
Used to make a statement

Yellow
Used for sending out signals, a disruptive tone.

Blue
Preferred by clients, looks good in light shades but not too dark/ almost black

Green
not often used in way finding

Types of Grid

Types of Grid System Useful for Layout Making

A grid is an arrangement of horizontal and vertical lines that subdivide a page vertically and evenly into margins, segments & images. These lay the basis of a modular & systematic methodology to the layout, especially for multipage records, making the configuration process faster along with ensuring visual consistency between related pages.

Essentially grids are of four types, namely:

1. Manuscript Grid

also known as a single column grid or a block grid.

It is the easiest grid structure of them all, they are useful for broad continuous blocks of text.  

2. Column Grid

Column grids are made up of multiple columns inside a format. The width of the column should rely upon an element inside the format for example the text size. 

3. Modular Grid

Modular grids are similar to column grids however they contain rows, they are great for projects that require more control. 

4. Hierarchical Grid

Hierarchical Grids are often found to be used online, it is an odd grid that doesn't fit the formats of the other grids, the columns have a tendency to shift. 

Penguin Book Covers, Collages

Taking photos for the front covers. As I am doing 3 penguin crime books I need images that look mysterious and interesting. I selected these three images that I took as I like the natural side of them as they cant be manipulated you just have to wait for the right moment. I then edited them into black and white as I found this more fitting with the penguin crime books designed by Romek Marber and it also makes them look more atmospheric. 

 

I then cut up each one of these images to create a collage for each of my book covers, I remembered reading an article on how Romek Marber used unfinished circles to add mystery to his collages for the covers he created therefore I used this idea in my own collages. These designs are being created for the book 'closed circuit' as it juxtaposes the book title. You would imagine something 'complete' when you hear the title yet the elements of the collage are incomplete.

Here is the final collage I chose to use, I think it has order to it yet has enough distortion to work well. I like the background as it helps to add another dimension to it rather than it just being white therefore I chose to keep some of the background visible on the front of the book cover.















Here is the collage I created for 'Or be he dead' I cut up the strips of the photograph in diagonal lines to look like a the edges of blades to add a unsettling feel to the college. I arranged this on my cutting mat as I liked the dark background as it accentuates the harshness of the white space more. 

I found the name 'death of stray cat' rather unusual for a penguin crime book, because of this I wanted to create a collage that looked odd to reflect the unusual nature of the book title. I decided to cut up parts of the picture in squares and re arrange them in a different order to create a subtle disruption.