Design Systems: A breakthrough

I'm not exactly sure what has been going on with myself this semester, but I feel like I've digressed in progression of being a Senior. Whenever I would think about branding class I would get so excited about what I wanted Pot Pit to be, but for some reason could never put it on the page. No matter how many different approaches I took at rendering, or organization of objects.
So after my mid-semester crit and a good sit down with Kidwell I think something definitely clicked. I had just too many ideas about what I wanted this rebrand to be, and could NOT get them straight. But, after fixing things here and there, then mixing all my three ideas together I think I finally have something, and I'm quite proud of it. Now...I just need to apply them to all the goodies that come along with a brand. Here is a little bit of process that has gone on within the last two weeks.

Above this image are some new signatures that I experimented with. And this image is one of the initial web-page ideas...

 Right about here in the process is where I started questioning the my entire idea of where pot pie was going...so I started over with my brand-mark.

 And here is where the revelation happened. It was the probably the most relieved I've felt in a really long time. Showing the contrast I have withint he type represents the contrast I have within my attributes that I want Pot Pie to be.

 As well as here...the contrast is elegant but, comfortable and a bit silly/goofy.

I also addressed my color palette. I felt that the color palette I had before was a big melancholy, so hopefully adding red and brightening up the other colors will help that.

Different type....

And mixing my ideas from previous stages together I think really helped. I love the wood texture so I decided to utilize it after all.

Dematerialization of Screen Space

"The Internet is all these: a kind o chameleon-like civilization that seems to perpetually remap its identity in response to the ever-changing demands of a mercurial market. In a world in which everything is customized, even our boundaries are on the move."

This statement resinated most with me, i'm not exactly sure why,  besides the fact that is SO true. Being a designer on the brink of media being the way of doing most everything is quite fascinating. I grew up with this vital time of where media has changed so much, but I wasn't exactly saturated in it as much as the kids are today. It's just interesting to me considering that the generation growing up now is called the "me" generation because of all this customization and knowing that they can have it their way. Considering this element as a graphic designer we have to make that experience just what they want, and if it isn't what they want, we need to make it so that they can have it their way (just like sonic, at least I think that's the correct reference).

MX: iphone scenario

Polititeens iPhone Vocab

This is the iphone app where my balloon 3d sketching comes into play. The beginning frames are pretty static. But, keeping it simple at first then getting more complex within the system I think will be a good plan due to how diverse our application is. Especially considering the size of the iphone.

Within this version I addressed a lot of the changes that were brought up in last class to my ipad scenario, so hopefully it's a much more concise aesthetic. I tried to play with type and color more. Getting more yellows besides just the golden one was important, which I think helped a lot.

EDITING SCENARIOS DOWN:

After meeting with Marty and considering our production time and how much we actually committed to producing at the beginning, we re-evaluated what we would then have as our fine 6 scenarios, versus our final 8.

We will have two hubs, two iphone and two ipad scenarios.

iPhone: Currency Comparing and Political Ling
iPad: Step Back (Past political campaigns of the past game) and participating in a debate.
Hub: Signing up for a debate/adding and saving information for the debate and Going over the top 10.


I feel much more at ease, even though I just lost one scenario...but it will definitely help consider time restraints and really tightening up our aesthetic.

MX: Step Back Game, Scenario 1

iPad Scenario 01: Polititeens


Having a go with a scenario through and through, while using our design standards was definitely needed. Although, within this specific scenario I feel that I'm still really stuck in box land. I'm not sure why, or what needs to happen due to how simple this game is. But, using more layers and transparency I think will help a lot. Also figuring out how to use type in a more dynamic way, so that it's not so repetitive. We want this to be fun, not rigid.

The home page I feel is getting there. The jumbled up part of the system I think is coming through. I'm still not sure if there needs to be a note on the front page to indicate that the larger the image is the more views it's getting. This will help with showing trends and whatnot through our entire system when that need calls.

As Ian and I were working on these throughout the week, we both felt we were struggling with box land, so that's something to address ASAP. Saturday and Sunday, here we come!

MX: Polititeens

 Class last Friday was a lot of fun, considering all activities involved. But, most of all I really enjoyed the brain activity that happened. When building these structures something clicked in the brain that hadn't yet happened, and if these renderings of that clicking don't look as good as they should, doesn't mean they won't.

Here to the left is my first structure I built when 3D-sketching. It was meant to represent sorting. So there are specific steps and ways of someone getting deeper and deeper into richer information. When building this, the structure could not hold all the weight I was putting on these plastic straws so it started to do this balancing act when I held it up to show...then from there on we got our first idea of how to render our homepages...shown below.

 Here is how I was representing the way our vocabulary feature works. There is one word, and different users can make their own definition and then get rated on how well they defined the word. The balloon= word. Then the purple dots=people's definitions. As you can see the purple dots are different sizes, so that represents the feedback and rating system the other users did on the word.

 Here is the first attempt at handling the mobile balancing act on the ipad. I'm not sure how well this is working, or if it is even working at all...but I still really like the idea of switching out information based on how much people are reading the content involved.

 Going off of the mobile idea I had this idea of a slot machine, and how when you turn it you never know what is going to match up. So considering the two sided political stances, such as liberal and conservative I thought it'd be interesting to see the juxtaposition with stories aligned with other stories. So ideally there would be a button to mix them up, and they would all roll and then land on different top stories, spotlighted students, and anything that would be going on during that day (i.e. debates, events, etc.)

As far as the iphone goes, I still have one more screen to explore with this one. Here is the balloon idea rendered out in photo shop. It still looks very 2D, so working with shadows and light I think is where it needs to go. I do however enjoy the way the scale is working, especially within the typography, because if the definition is tiny...no one can read it, so they'd have to investigate further.

Visual Advocacy: Ivanhoe Further Research and Plan

Walter May Interview:

We began the informal meeting with Walter May by reviewing our project idea with him and telling him a little more about what we had in mind for the empty lots in Ivanhoe. Dina Newman also sat in on the meeting.

Questions we asked:
What lots would be available and safe for setup?
How many total lots does the Ivanhoe Foundation own?
Is there a map we could get a hold of?
Which block leaders would be available and want to get involved?
Do you have lawn equipment we could use to clean up the chosen lot for the prototype?
Is there any organization in particular that we should get involved with?








What We Found Out:
The Ivanhoe Foundation owns most of the empty lots on Woodlawn and many in back of the center on Highland St. It is difficult to get past the loitering issue in using the empty lots. That’s why basketball courts aren’t put up. They have a project going on right now with a local artist, “Shane” who works on “Ugly Houses” by putting art on the boarded up buildings using painters and graffiti artists. There is one at 31st and Holmes. There would be a lot available for us to use at 3703 Highland St., which is right behind the Nutter-Ivanhoe Center. The organization is tearing down the house beside the lot as well as taking down the chain-link fence that surrounds it. This demolition should happen within the month. This lot would be safe for us to use for setup and prototyping. We have their permission to use it for the project just as long as we let the foundation know when we will be there so that they know it isn’t someone “dumping” on it. We considered using the wood from the house being torn down next to the lot, but Walter told us that all of the good wood from the houses is given to Habitat for Humanity and the rest is demolished. He also put us in contact with Douglas Bowl who keeps maps of Ivanhoe. He ensured us that Douglas would have detailed information on every part of Ivanhoe, including a map of specific blocks (information we would like to use in the project). Also, we learned the block leader for our given lot is Pam Sweeney and we were also given contact information to speak with her about helping out or becoming more acquainted with the neighborhood.


We met with Lea Griggs from the sculpture department at KCAI to talk about building our objects to put in the lots. Although he said he could not help us out this semester, he did give us a few more people to contact at KCAI as well as some locations we could find and re-purpose materials (i.e. KC Steel, Asners Junk Yard, Liberty Wood, Make in Wesport, or using old wooden palettes). This step did not necessarily help with the interest in collaboration so we are continuing to look on craigslist for objects we could use in our prototype.


From here, our plan is to pursue the new contacts and prepare for an actual prototype. This means construction and planning of the lot objects. In addition to that, we have begun designing a new map, survey for residents of the area, as well as sketching out our prototype ideas.

Plan for the Past Week 9/26-9/30Things to be Accomplished:Sketches
Secondary Research
Survey
Rent video camera to document process/setup
Yolanda—talk about girl scouts
Vector map
Pick location and photograph “before”
Meet and discuss lots with Walter May
Continue framing pesentation


Collaborate:Sculpture Department
Urban Youth Center
Churches


Planned Prototype:Grill
Benches
Picnic Table

Here is the Map of the first quadrant that our prototype lot would be. 

MX: Wireframe Presentation

Political Division and Collaboration