Information Design

This week my new focus is on implication. I had a great meeting with Hannah that showed me I need to dig deeper in my research to show how my topic is important. I am still at the sketching stage (see below) and I think I kinda jumped the gun (as usual ugh) with data visualization. I really liked the website with the different kinds of data visualizations (the one with the blue circles) and I spent a lot of time exploring different methods to portray my data. However, I started doing this before I had my concrete data set up. I still need to do some research about how waste in the beauty industry negatively affects the environment and what that means for people looking at my infographic. Hannah’s main question was just “why?” Moving forward, I need to focus on finding hard/concrete data before I continue sketching how to represent that data. I think my main trouble with this is that a lot of the data I have been finding are individual statistics. For example, waste from the beauty indu...

 I am really excited for this project! It will be a data visualization of sorts, kinda similar to an infographic but I think more refined. I don't have anything yet to show for this project except research, which can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VB-FmgRJcn7wMTWysu6jnd-Jat0-0f20ZXpLRYEG6-0/edit?usp=sharing I would say im in between topics right now with some minimal research in each to see which interests me more. For Monday's class (10/19) I came with research on the defunding of arts programs in early education. I am still interested in this but I am exploring other options just so I don't feel stuck too early on like I did with the last project. I think I need to pick a really exciting topic that I will look forward to designing for throughout the entirety of the project.  My other options are food insecurity (I took an Environmental Justice class last semester and it was my favorite LSA class I have ever taken and I learned a lot about this- though ...

Blog Post 10/16/20 I am really proud of what I accomplished for this project. My process I think started off very slowly. I really didn’t get into “designing” until probably about halfway through because I think I started very timidly. My first iterations were focusing on laying out information, but much of what I planned for then didn’t even really stick, except the left aligned text. So though I kinda veered in a different direction, every step did inform the next. And I think that is the beauty of process, to see how a project evolves. One thing I did throughout this project that I always hate when it happens is when I get stuck and end up panicking and then quickly changing my whole project. This happens when I don’t feel excited about what I’m working on= I’m not motivated to complete it= procrastination. I felt this about three quarters of the way through the project where I was in a funk. Though, some cool explorations came out of it. So I am thankful and grateful for the realiz...

 Here are Sketches from throughout Project 1 Sketches

Below are a few screenshots from this week of iterations and they have come a long way. I can confidently say that I am out of my funk and am back on track and excited to finish executing this project. These screenshots show my work from Monday (10/5) which are still a little rough to Thursday (10/8) which are much more developed. After talking to my peers and Hannah this week I have decided to veer away from using “map language.” This is because the nature of my system and the language I am using. Students will have all the steps laid out for them through my system- banners in the CC, directional signage along the route and around campus (along with hand-holdy and straight to the point language)- that adding a map into that would be superfluous and unnecessary. Through my system I am assuming that students will find out exactly where they need to go and rely on a secondary map for assistance in direction. This is also exactly what I would do/have done as a college freshman. I am kind ...

Blog Post 10.2.20 At this point in the project I will honestly say I am stuck, or somewhat in a funk. These are my iterations that I presented in class on Wednesday, 9/30/20 and I am not happy with them at all. These are 4 different banner designs to be used in each dorm. The order from left to right is the order in which I designed them. They are a bit all over the place and messy and not indicative at all of the work I’d like to be creating for this project. So looking back at them and after critique, I do realize there are redeeming qualities to these banners. A lot of the feedback I got during critique was that the information is legible in terms of layout and composition however it’s the color choice and layering that doesn’t work, and I completely agree. These designs were made over time and I think more so out of my wanting to produce SOMETHING even if I wasn’t necessarily happy with the outcome. I am also a little unsure where these designs came from. I think it was mostly just...