Final Review! w00t!

This semester was about exploration. Exploration of type, exploration of image and exploration of a system. In all three classes I had room to experiment. Through my type, and interestingly enough, image classes, I had a chance to get a good grip on my typography. My type became a graphic element on the page, rather than static text slapped onto an image. I had a chance to explore expressive type, with many different approaches that ultimately ended up as applications. It was the same in Visual Communications. The ending result was applications of an already developed experiment. However, the path to that conclusion was different. I took many steps, and many more little steps in those, that all built up to a comprehensive system. Through this process I have learned something about myself. Upon reflection of my work and critical feedback of my teachers and peers, I have figured out that a systematic, step-by-step approach is the best way I can work. This semester, I set goals for myself to employ clean, simple type, immediate imagery and powerful, grasping concepts. I believe I have achieved those goals.

Pictionary?

A little late, but next time we play...

How I Got Here: A VisCom Summary

The Object

The Icon

The Visual Inspiration

The Color Palette



This semester was a long build-up to develop cohesive and communicative system. We first started by analyzing what a system was. We then created a set of icons that could work across multiple application. In this final project we have taken those icons and applied them to a museum exhibit. This sums up the strength of our systems because we could see how effectively our choices show through. For example, I have chosen geometric shapes for my icon system, and now they have contributed by forming interesting patterns. Another example is my color palette. Because I chose to go with a more serious tone, I could focus on more serious subjects with my icons, such as poverty, death and corruption. It is easy to see the success and failure of a system in its applications.

Final Museum Exhibit

Addition of Hats and Street Banner Layout

I wasn't sure about these two elements because I'm adding them last minute. Should I keep them and keep working on them, or get rid of them all together?

Posters for Image

Finalizing Museum Exhibit

I'm so close! I can feel it!

Final 10

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I believe these selection best represent the 10 requirements and best represent the extent of my research. The numbers are matched to the requirements posted on the VisCom blog. In the end I decided to juxtapose words with patterns, as can be seen by my final product.

Further Color and Concept Refinement

The colors are now more muted, but still serious. It was important that the icons not be muddied by the background color, yet it add something to the compositions. The font is all the same across all of the words. I have also included the title of the exhibit to the compositions for clarification.

Colors!

I have further refined all my content. I have a consistent theme now, of big san serif font against a pattern set on a diagonal. I didn't know how excatly incorporate the smithsonian logo, so I tried big and small and all different kinds.

I'm So Organized

It's my artboard for my VisCom iterations.

Viscom Crops

I picked my direction and went in and made interesting crops to seven different compositions. I tried to make the crops all different, for example, I had ones that were straight, and ones that were crooked. Ones that were zoomed in, and ones with lots of white space. Ones that focused on the word, and ones that focused on the the pattern. I'm happy with my results, and I feel like I could use all of these, but I think a mostly consistent direction would work better.

Final Flyer

Heyo!

Hats: Patterns and Juxtapositions

Here is a good range of my studies for the initial steps in this project. I first started out having my patterns and juxtapositions be separate, but after making the death count composition, I decided that it could be a powerful tool. I tried it with many different options, and am happy with some of my results. I also tried to fish for deeper metaphors with my words. The wheels of the truck that carries the word BATTLE are made from army helmets, therefore the helmets are carrying the weight of war.

My Website? Maybe? CSS?

Here is the domain that I was provided with by a certain Eppelheimer. I did my best with it. There is also a link to my CSS hierarchy exercises, if you're interested in that kind of thing.

Final Photos for Book Covers