After further meetings discussing my concepts key points have been raised;
Conducting user research would be useful in order to allow my work to relate more accurately, especially if my target audience is for people around my own age range. within my second concept the facts that are used are good and interesting, but need to focus more on the empowerment aspect, I think this would be achieved by researching around the experimentation rather than the statistical elements of the menstrual cycle. My call to action would also be strengthened if this was done, overall making my campaign more successful and impactful in the long run.
Perhaps focussing on the “costs” of the stigma, in both a monetary and a mental context would make my work more relatable and have my call to action more understandable. The impact on mental health of a stigma that manifests in feelings of shame and silence is massively negative, however often goes undetected, this is a clear gap that could be filled by my campaign.
Continuing on with my second concept, the use of photography and illustration is a good visual system to work with, however the photography elements need to be more abstract when combined with a statistic, making the audience think for more time and visually and mentally explore the works that I design. I think that having the images be distorted by being placed into the “bracket” logo marque would make them more visually interesting as well as open up more opportunities for experimentation and will then allow me to make a more impactful campaign.
My client is very keen on creating wearable designs, and so this must be considered in my visual language, allowing my designs to be transferred onto clothes or badges & Pens etc would give my work an edge over other campaigns that are going to be created.
Final Concept Thoughts & Responses
Carefully combining my three ideas could make for one successful campaign, I like the bracket concept used in let’s talk, while I think that the concept of flow creates interesting backdrops and passive visual systems, finally distorting my visual elements proves to create memorable visuals and statistics. This will likely create the basis of my final concept, I still need to decide what material i will actually create for my campaign, however with my client often opting for “Multi layered” approaches to solving problems it is likely that my campaign will need to spread across a very large number of medias and locations to have the effect desired for the client, it is important to design for longevity as this idea will need to be transferred and displayed over so many different media platforms and to such a wide audience, and that the issue that is being discussed is so unique for every single person. I also think that compromising will be key, while it is obviously important to create the perfect outcome, knowing the limits of one single idea will be as important, this will help to keep my branding consistent and my discussion on message.
Through extensive research and brainstorming I have a large number of initial concepts that show promise, as my three strong concepts presentation is very soon I know need to decide which of these are the most successful and then proceed to refine them with visuals before presenting them to my tutor, mentor and client.
Conversation is clearly a key topic of my concepts, particularly the conversation that is not being had. How do I then bring people to have this conversation and consider it in their everyday lives?
One of my concepts is creating a social media campaign titled #YouToUs, Whereby individuals would share their stories and their cycles online, this would allow for others to bring in their own stories and reflect on them, a large number of these stories and cycles being share would result in many people conversing, comparing and sharing what they have to say in a safe online space, an option of anonymity would be considered to being with in order to encourage the first groups of people to become involved, there wouldn’t be many people who would want to be first in exposing how they feel about this topic.
Making something that acts as a platform for people to share would be good, however it would perhaps have adverse side effects with the potential of hiding these stories in this corner of the internet, and not getting it into the public eye where it is needed.
A concept brought on from my research and the lack of data I have noticed would be to highlight this lack of research by expressing my visual and typographic systems in a distorted manor, reducing the amount of visible visuals based on the amount of missing data is present within the statistic I am expressing
The use of a clock representing the menstrual cycle could be a strong concept, this would allow for large amounts of information design to be incorporated around the imagery of a clock, it would also create the basis for a motion design based movement, comparing the duration of cycles to the number of hours moved on this “menstrual clock”. However, I feel this may become emotionless and be too focused on the information, not the people it is hoping to empower and educate.
A concept of “Sparking” a conversation, using sparks and speech marks near form the logo marque would create interesting, varied visuals as well as helping to provide a context for me to express my information design in. A clear context would be this concept of electricity or sparks, using this as a basis for my data visualisation. and information design would help me move away from the slightly cliched approach of blood reds and uterus diagrams often seen in previous attempts at breaking down this stigma.
The concept of using a “.” period mark in correlation with the actual word period presents interesting opportunities to encourage people to speak and share statements and stories relating to their experiences. While this use of period and speech marks would be interesting, the use of speech marks as a logo or as a visual system has been done many times before and even used heavily in the design document examples provided for this project by my tutors, if I were to choose this idea as one of my three strong concepts, it would need much further refinement in order to give it a unique and interesting spin as to differentiate it from what has been made previously.
Reflections
I feel the use of Ink and Menstrual products combined would make for an interesting visual language, it would need further development as to not simply be writing on pads. However after further thought this concept does not seem to move further than this idea, it seems more a clever gimmick that an actual concept for live changing campaigns, perhaps this will be adapted and will manifest itself in another idea in the future with more longevity.
Moving on, while the use of period and speech marks themselves are already often used within stigma related campaigns, the use of punctuation and typographic glyphs does interest me, there is a very large number of glyphs available to me and so I do not want to write this idea off yet, a simply believe there is room for improvement before this becomes a viable concept.
Finally the idea of using missing visuals and type to express a lack of research is very interesting, if executed well it could make for unique visuals that attract lots of attention as well as carry a strong and memorable message, however how this would be made into an entire brand rather than just a dingle visual would require further thought but as a base concepts i think it would benefit from visual and typographic examples being created
My other concepts seem to be merely logo ideas or concepts that could be incorporated into my three main concepts here. And so I believe these three ideas will be put forward for further development, and then presented with more detail as my “Three Strong Concepts” presentation, after my clients and tutors thoughts on these concepts I will then begin to create my final concept that uses all the positives of my ideas, allowing for the negatives to be removed.
Key questions have been raised in my most recent meetings with my client and mentor. The issue of menstrual cycle stigma lies in the correct way of solving it, how do you normalise an issue that is different for everyone?
My initial response to this is that the solution must be to simply encourage conversation and allow individuals to figure out their issues themselves but ensure them that they will be supported during and after they discuss their issues and concerns. As well as having a different point of view, everyone also has a different level of knowledge, this must be considered within my designs and therefore I think an appropriate method of approach would be to provide a basic level of knowledge for everyone, and then to encourage conversation. I thought this a good concept as there would be no point encouraging those that know nothing to engage in conversation, as that would result in a poorly led conservation, by providing a base level of knowledge it is ensured that a intellectual and honest conversation can be made.
As well as discussing the unique nature of the issue, more examples of previous attempts at breaking down the stigma were raised, recently a large “Realism” step has been made in the menstruation empowerment movement, one consideration is how do I go past that step, what would come next to engage people further?
Concept Progression
As well as discussing the nature behind the issue, I also Discussed my initial concepts. Such as the use of ink as a method of both translating “Flow” and as a way of translating the need for conversation. This provoked positive responses, however there are several examples of this being done before, so it would need further development to really make a large impact and improve people’s wellbeing.
My work would need to be placed in a context, with a target audience in mind, there is a clear disconnection between co-workers about this issue and so the workplace would be a perfect place to look at as an example for where improvements can be made. While I like the idea of focusing my campaign on the workplace, I do think it misses the actual issue of lack of education and conversation at a younger age, by the time people are in a professional workplace, they have already gone through the initial stress and shame of starting their period, unprepared. Fixing the issue in the workplace would serve to begin breaking down the stigma from a purely conversational and facility standpoint. But if I were to make a more educational based campaign, then aiming it at younger people would prove more useful.
How do you spark a sensitive conversation?
After research on this question and a brainstorm about how this has been done before and how it can be applied to my campaign:
Noting what people want and how previous campaigns have fixed issues of this kind is key to understanding the criteria to break a stigma. I have looked in particular at the mental health stigma and how that has progressed over the past number of years, It’s position now at the forefront of conversation is the same effect that I would want my concept to contribute to.
My first strong concept, titled flow, utilises a specialist typeface, called “Dugas” Uses a vertical distortion to better translate the feeling of Flow. Here I could potentially utilise the ink textures that i have studied, this would provide viscosity and a texture to the work, I envision these textures being mainly for the background and as a pattern to place onto various ephemera. I have tried to use a contrasting, but still unique typeface with Dugas, a calligraphic font sits atop Dugas, I like having this element of layering in my work as It will allow me to display a larger amount of information in a smaller space, leaving extra room for the flow like backgrounds to be appreciated. These elements would make for good infographics, as simple monoline icons layered with the text would assist in getting the visuals of menstrual products into the public’s eye, exposing lesser known menstrual products will be helpful in breaking down the stigma as it would make these items more normalised in the publics eyes.
Concept 2: Let’s Talk
My second strong concept, titled “Let’s Talk”. Focuses on the use of conversation to bring the menstrual cycle into the public eye in a positive and considered light. My initial thoughts is to use a mixture of photography and illustration, expressing interesting and conversation sparking facts and statistics with supporting, digitally manipulated illustration pieces to help the facts stick into the heads of those who come into contact with them.
My use of the double square brackets with text in between them could be used to subcategories my campaign and allow different elements to take sole focus throughout the different media I create. The brackets are manipulated into the type here as well, an element that could be further incorporated into my visual language. This concept was inspired by other campaigns that use speech marks or period points to encourage people to speak out, but my idea is unique as the brackets as a logo marque would have an empty space in between, representing the important conversations that are not being had.
Concept 3: Missing Piece
My final concept would also use a mixture of type, photography and illustration. This concept focusses on distortion effects in order to visually and typographically express key statistics that in turn will also create interesting and memorable visuals that could easily become hero images for leaflets, editorial spreads or posters alongside digital outcome like a social media campaign. The marque for this concept would likely use a jigsaw with missing pieces or something that hints towards a jigsaw, without it becoming to literal by drawing a puzzle piece itself.
I think the concept for visual distortion is stronger than the type distortion, however while this concept may potentially be my strongest, it does need the most development to become viable. This entire concepts being successful rests on testing to achieve the correct level of distortion, how I would make something distorted enough for people to slowly understand the visual and stat that is being expressed, but no too distorted as to make it look poorly made or unable to be understood at all, finding this balance would be key and would therefore need a large amount of logistical thinking and experimentation before I even know if it is a strong concept, However I do like the visual system and would like to express this in my other concept somehow as i think that having distorted visuals alongside facts and statistics would allow for viewers to have something visual in their head, assisting in remembering the statistic and allowing them to spread my message for me.
Reflections
After my meetings discussing my three strong concepts, I think that they all have strong concepts within them that can be transferred however they all need a significant amount of development before my strong concept becomes visible. They all use varying types of visual elements to express a similar message and so it shows that I have researched my topic thoroughly and understand the brief. Finally I think that my target audience needs further refining and identifying, this would be better discussed with the client as to ensure that whatever I make will be correct in their eyes.
In response to both the mentor and client meetings recently it is clear the complexity of this issue and therefore the safety in conducting further research in order to ensure that the outcomes created are of the highest quality and effectiveness.
Finding more data and statistics allows me to begin experimenting with my information design. Although some has already been done I think a greater emphasis on interesting facts and shocking statistics would prove useful to my future designs.
Studying more numerical and data driven research allowed me to momentarily disconnect from the visual elements of my work and see how the numbers could be represented. Then once all of the studies had been examined I looked at how to express these numbers in the most effective way possible, my initial research on data visualisation would be well suited to this kind of research, however I am unsure of the visual impact this will have, even if i were able to express the data visually, this would only be one part of the project. I want to avoid creating my entire campaign around one single poster or advertisement, this usually leads to a lack of brand cohesion by the oversaturation of brand elements that will inevitably drastically lower how recognisable the campaign is due to the overuse of different branding visuals.
Initial Concepts
My first concept brainstorming session looked at what already existed and extracting key words and phrases from the project brief, works like Spark and Flow interested me, the connotations that surrounded them would work doubly effectively for creating conversation as well as having ample material to generate visual metaphors from. My entire brainstorming session with marques and written concepts are listed below:
My key concepts taken from this brainstorming are the visualisations of “flow” taking inspiration from both the flow of a period and the flow of conversation hoping to be achieved by the creation of my campaign, I think that this also presents and interesting opportunity to express my visuals using ink, given that the consistency of blood and ink are quite similar, alongside the connotations that ink has with writing and conversing would potentially make for both interesting visuals and a powerful message. Texture studies and concepts are found below:
Connecting people is an important point of this campaign, by connecting people through the generation of conversation the stigma can be broken down in a friendly and casual manor, ensuring that those in future generations do not suffer health issues due to a feeling of shame associated with their period. The use of tubes correlate with both connecting things and the actual uterus itself.
Finally a more light hearted or satirical way of executing this project is expressed through my #YouToUs campaign, by encouraging others to share their thoughts, stories and cycles under a more light hearted campaign it may encourage individuals to engage more, visuals would match the tone of the campaign title, luring people in with light hearted and interesting visuals and text, before educating them with more hard facts and statistics.
I am in a good position to continue creating concepts and perhaps even generate further visuals for my concepts as the three strong concepts milestone looms I must now simultaneously continue exploring new concepts while whittling away the less successful concepts in order to begin forming my more refined visuals for a smaller number of ideas.
Meeting my mentor, Izzy Young allowed me to get an industry professionals POV of my way of thinking on answering this brief, as well as being an additional source for feedback and general project based conversation, in my initial meeting many issues were raised.
Much was taken away from the meeting, the opportunity for a collaboration with other, larger companies would be a more effective way of ensuring the reach of my project was lengthened, giving the work more exposure and achieving it’s full potential. Issues with a seemingly cliche colour scheme that would have to contain an abundance of red has been adjusted to include many shades in order to better represent the unique nature of periods.
My research involved looking into the foundation “Plan International” this was mentioned of being a particularly reputable source of information and so is pushed further into the forefront of my research and will likely be referenced many times within the visual information design examples that I will create.
A useful link for my future work could be linking the physical cost of menstruation product such as tampons and pads to the psychological cost that the stigma surrounding periods has been placed on people’s heads.
More research is needed into my exact target audience, as the client brief was quite general in that regard this needed to be brought up with the client specifically to ensure that the ensure that the message I communicate is communicated correctly and appropriately.
Client Meeting
After a meeting with the client a clear objective of them was a multi layered approach, firstly introducing viewers to the campaign/issue on a digital and social media format, heavily inundated with visual imagery and aesthetics, other layers would include more and more information in order to educate those on the issue at hand.
This being such a social issue, the stories of people would be key to creating a successful campaign, ensuring to include personal statements and uncovering the hidden realities of menstruation in all areas of life. As well as different areas of life different gender were pointed out as a very important topic, ensuring that the hidden corner of an already hidden majorities problems were brought to light, this was already a clear issue within the brief, but after the client specifically mentioning it means that to me, it should be given upmost priority.
After bringing up some of the examples provided within the brief the overuse of a bright “Blood” red was a particular problem, reds would be fine to use, however they needed to represent the true and more differing shades of blood found within everyone’s period. A multitude of shades would mean a more true representation would be created and the message more accurate.
there was no need to include bilingualism at this point or previously created “Frame” visual language as the work would need to “speak for itself”.
The most interesting part of the meeting was learning about the clients plans for the future, the end goal of the project (Aside from the total breakdown of menstruation based stigma) was a cross culture menstruation festival, this means that logo marques and slogans would be required as a way to make the visuals created for Frame would be easily identified for advertising purposes if this festival concept is to come into reality in around a years’ time. I thought this also brings the perfect opportunity to implement wearable visuals, including marques and patterns, names and slogans on clothing and accessories would be a good way of getting the existence of Frame’s campaign better known by having “mobile advertisers” purchasing the items and creating conversation.
The message translated across for me was that longevity was key in design, as well as the need for a society where menstruation is simply treated as any other behaviour/occurrence. The clients and activists involved in the breaking down of menstruation stigma all share an extreme sense of passion and duty related to solving this issue, this passion would need to be translated into my designs otherwise there is little hope for this campaign to land effectively.
Finally the emphases that this is not a “one size fits all” issue was crucial, there will not be a blanket solution as this is a fluid issue where the responses will need to be as unique as individuals menstrual cycles themselves. This also brought up an emphasis how the issue needs to be solved in an open and honest way.
Overall I found this meeting very successful and exciting, the passion contained by the clients works to refresh my enthusiasm and passion to answer the brief as well as motivates me to go the extra mile to create innovative and thought provoking visuals that will assist in the breakdown of the stigma surrounding menstruation. This meeting has left me with a plethora of thoughts and concepts as well as additional resources to extract useful data from within.
Following on from my initial research on both the menstrual cycle as well as information design separately, I think it would be a useful time to look at the previously made examples that combine the two, ensuring that I understand the issue as well as that I do not accidentally recreate a campaign that has already been designed.
A form of data visualisation found here is a very linear way of answering the brief. I think that while it does the job of information design, by making large amounts of information more clear and concise, it doesn’t do it in a particularly innovative way, the overly scientific looking diagram would look at home within a science textbook, however perhaps would not turn the eye of the average member of the general public wanting to find empowerment within their menstrual cycle. Herein lies the main issue with the work, it works to describe the menstrual cycle, but it fails entirely to empower it, being far too descriptive and lacking all emotion it does not contain a context in which to express the information it is presenting. This work would perhaps be useful as a stepping stone in my experimentations, a halfway point where I could utilise the information put together so tightly into a more emotional and visually interesting manor that works to empower those that read it, while not diminishing the informative nature fully.
A much more emotive and visually designed example is Ninas Visibles, there are several elements here that interest me, firstly is the typographical style, the friendly but not overly feminine letterforms work to give the designs a unique and individual feeling. These typographical elements could both be created by myself by hand and then would allow me to experiment widely in order to achieve a finish more suitable to a different target audience. The target audience for this project is school children, this explains the remainder of the visual language which utilises a bright colour palette and illustrations. working to perhaps create small amounts of conversation among young children but to me it seems more like something would support the small amount of teaching given to children in school about the menstrual cycle. I would want my work to create a larger impact, and therefore may require to be aimed at an older audience, but perhaps young enough so that their minds remain mouldable as to ensure lasting change and conversation is created by the designs I will create. Overall, I find this project has impact, but its effects would be considerably smaller when paired with a different project that could impact others within multiple media platforms as well as a larger and more vocal target audience.
The Our Rules campaign provides a visually stunning colour palette as well as an interesting and illustration approach. Illustrative approaches is not something that I often do within my designs, however as represented within this campaign it is so much more effective in translating an emotive and empowering response. This would also help to develop my portfolio much further as well as widening my skillset. How this style of work would be translated into information design would be challenging and would require innovative thoughts as it could not be used within the “Classic” data visualisation style found within my first examined example. Perhaps an infographic approach would therefore be more effective, however at that point the visual impact that the visuals would have may then be diminished if large amounts of text were placed alongside the illustrations, this would then dilute the impact of the illustrations, making the visuals look overall, underwhelming.
In order to assist in understanding the brief I have conducted large amounts of research on the menstrual cycle as well as researching the stigma around it in order to understand the issue better to allow me to create a socially successful and effective response.
Among the resources provided with the client’s brief was “Plan International” and their document on menstruation. For me this is an extremely important document that contains almost everything I need, supported by the other documents provided as well as my own research Provides me with a full picture of how large the issue is as well as ideas on the effective ways to combat it and break down the stigma.
Plan international brings out vital statistics gained from social studies as well as real life stories of individuals experiences and their wishes for improvement. Getting other opinions and real-life experiences will be very important in creating social interaction among affected individuals that will in turn, assist in the breakdown of the stigma surrounding menstruation. A focus on the impact within the educational sphere of life implies where the most room for change and improvement lies, after researching it seems a complete overhaul on how schools educate all genders and sexes of pupils in relation to the menstrual cycle is needed in order to promote safe conversation and raise important issues among young people. The key parts of this document are highlighted above.
The history of stigma around menstruation exists all the way back to the writing of the old testament, showing that this has always been an issue throughout every society to date. While this issue has existed for thousands of years, the current topical issues are often changing, more modern and current issues alongside the lack of appropriate education is the portrayal of menstrual products in the media, whether it be in TV advertisements or within social media. A focus on being hidden, clean and discreet encourages women to feel shame and a need to be silent when they are being affected by menstruation, unable to voice their concerns their mental health begins to be impacted, further hurting their self-confidence as a vicious cycle that remains to be fully broken. Menstrual health is becoming more of a common conversation within modern society and does look to be next in line for being brought to the forefront of the media. This is caused by the existence of the charities and organisations below whose mere existence assist in bringing up the issue in conversation while simultaneously funding to end “Period Poverty” by supporting those who are hardest affected.
Many statistics help to translate the urgency for change that are found within many different resources, an overall feeling of shame and silence is commonplace when studies are conducted.
12% of girls Plan International UK surveyed had been told not to talk about their periods in front of their mothers and 11% had been told not to talk about them in front of their fathers.
“YouTube is a good source and there are great resources out there”, there is also a need “to vet the resources” to ensure that factual knowledge is being transferred to young audiences. The fact that online resources are generally seen as by far the most useful showcase that education is failing young individuals every day in educating them about everyday things that are occurring with over 50% of the world population.
further deconstruction of the brief is found within my “Six Frames” task, looking at the brief through six different lenses allowed me to gain multiple objective viewpoints as well as focussing on what information I am missing within the brief that could be provided by the client in order to allow me to create ever more effective outcomes.
I found this exercise useful in making me look back at the brief before running away with my research and early concepts to ensure that I really understood exactly what it is that needed to be created. Being in the final year of my degree I now have access to a very large amount of types of content that I can create, digital, physical, static, moving and others. This means it is more important than ever that I create work in the correct formats in order to hit the target audience with the most impact as possible and that my content achieves its full potential, my brief is attempting to fix a very social issue and so there is room here to make real change in the world, making my own contribution to mending a global issue.
Moving forward I still need to create my own examples of information design, this can be unrelated to my actual brief however will prove useful practice for the creation of refined outcomes in only one or two weeks’ time, rough sketches and brainstorming is another key aspect to creating effective responses to work, just as vital as research and brief deconstruction.
Introducing me into my third and final year of my degree is a live brief project that is centred around the lack of empowerment and the presence of stigmatisation around the menstrual cycle and those directly affected by it.
“Your communication must be clear and your science must be accurate.”
This project is all about presenting true and clear information in an attitude changing, attention grabbing way. Most of my information gathering will be centred around the menstrual cycle and discovering the standout stories of those within my clients target audience. Previous attempts have been made at solving the issue my client presents to me, this allows me to research and reflect on those previous attempts and examine what went well and what went wrong, ultimately increasing the chances of my project to be a successful collecting of both emotive and informative design works.
Initial Lectures are being centred around the gathering and presenting of large amounts of information in a clear and visually interesting format, suggesting that this project be one of data visualisation & Information design. This is not something that I am overly experienced around creating and so there is much research to be done around the topic.
My brief mentions how the breaking of stigma is a key aspect and so it would potentially be a useful research method to find other stigma breaking movements that are perhaps in unrelated topics to my brief and examine what elements made those so successful. This alongside research into examples of effective and ineffective information design will allow me to better understand how to create successful examples myself.
The introduction of both clients and industry professional mentors coupled with the completely autonomous responsibilities means that my success will largely be measured by my discipline to continuously schedule meeting and my motivation to prepare for those meetings in order to have them yield tangible positive results.
Information Design and Data Visualisation
There is a large amount of work on data visualisation and information to be found around various design resources.
While many Data Design projects have been provided to me within lectures, I have decided to take my research further and discover more for myself in order to achieve a wider range of outcomes.
Many of these projects span across a large range of topics, from measuring cities to measuring Film Lore, there is no limit to what data can be visualised and how uniquely it can be done. Many of them take on the form of charts and graphs, this is interesting however I do not think these are the most successful examples of my research folder. They may all contain unique visual language and keys however those created with a balance between striking visuals and data condensing and visualizing are the projects I consider most effective.
Creating a data visualisation that looks too close to a scientific graph runs the risk of not being interesting/clear to examine, however creating a piece of work with too little consideration for the condensing and displaying of the information will not be able to be read and the data will not be able to be extracted and understood with enough ease, if the information is easier to read in plain text format, then the designer is not doing it correctly.
Throughout my initial research the German Design Studio Bureau Oberhausen seem to consistently be creating informative and extremely well designed examples of data design that mix design with science and data collection.
Our Daily commute is German Design Studio Bureau Oberhausen attempt at recording the studio members commutes and then following to visualise the data in an aesthetically pleasing way. While there is minimal purposeful design here, the elements created are powerful for either aesthetic reasons or for clarity of data, there is still interesting ways the data has been visualised that I could include into my own information design. The subtle background photography and illustrations help to solidify the colour scheme with a low opacity and Grayscale filter do let take away or overrun the page leaving plenty of focal room for the bright and contrasting lines representing peoples routes and the very key information on the page. This method of using duller greys and blacks for interesting and background information and extreme colour to highlight only the most key information is a well-established way of attracting attention and building hierarchy.
I like the colour scheme used here, however I doubt the relevance of using it within my own project given the topic and previously used colour schemes for similar issues a different colour scheme may be used, however the theory behind the colour scheme seems important to me and therefore should at least be attempted to input into my experimentations further into the project.
Comparing Relating Outcomes
A Comparrason of two different pieces of information design, made by the same designer, @PaulButton on Behance.
It is always an important part of research to compare different examples, these two examples are of different success and therefore it is vital to note why I think one is more effective than the other. Both examples are created by the same person.
In my opinion I find the “Apollo” example far more successful than the “Mars Mission” example, after a search on their website this view is supported not only by the price of each work but also by the number purchased as well as the initial reaction from others.
The overall less graph/chart like appearance of the “Apollo” example make the piece look more like a work of art rather than a scientific chart, this naturally attracts people more than the “Mars Mission” example. The use of photography mixed with illustration is used in both examples however I think the lines weights and variation of those weights makes the “Apollo” example even more appealing to look at. All of this is supported by two varying colours schemes, a brighter yellow/orange line style outperforms a more tame and less contrasting gray with red & blue in my opinion. Both examples have their merits however I feel that one’s merits would place it closer to a history book and another would place it closer to a design studio. Finally I feel as though more information has been placed onto the “Apollo” example without overcrowding the page or disrupting the extreme clarity of what is a very large amount of information put onto a small amount of space, comparing this amount of data with how “Our Daily Commute” put their amount of information into multiple pages assists to show just how carefully this piece of information design has been thought through. Overall, this would attract more attention from the general public and therefore if the work were created with the intent of creating conversation, more inspiration can be taken from the “Apollo” example.
Using Perspective or Circles
throughout the many examples found within my research folder I found that a common theme was displaying data using circles, it was by far the most used shape. I can see why this is, the ease of comparison as well as the aesthetics of a nice rounding finish is achieved alongside many opportunities to branch of additional data from the circles use. However, something else that I have noticed being used in a smaller amount of example but that seems very effective is the use of perspective in order to create a greater sense of contrast between results. Here in a world population data visualisation the 1 Billion mark seems so very far distant to any other results, doing a much better job than a simple flat line that is just longer on the page could achieve, this effect is supported by smaller and smaller titles displaying the information, really hammering across the impression of just how immensely large a number of 1 billion actually is, a number very hard to visualise by human minds due to its enormity, the designer here has effectively comprehended a number incomprehensible by human minds unaided. This tool of perspective is invaluable to me and will no doubt make an appearance within my experimentations throughout the following weeks of the project.
Developing my MYOB project further I have decided to make some text elements larger to increase legibility as well as having the mockups flow downwards rather than horizontally, this helps to make the viewer more likely to continue scrolling through the various visuals. I found this project the hardest to present within a portfolio due to not only the large scale of work made but also the variance in the format that the work was made. Within my subject work the vast majority if not all of my work is made within a digital format and therefore is consistent in the way that it can be presented, mockups are used effectively and allow for a more consistent visual style. However, for this project some of the work was manufactured products, I treated this as a way to separate the two elements of the project, digital products are presented first, with digital second and then some large photographs of the products that were manufactured being used to split the two sections up and break the quite dense workload up with two large and simple photographs that showcase what we made and give the viewer an idea of how many were manufactured within the timeframe of the project.
The Met Living project is showcased smoothly and priorities the strong digital elements created as well as the overall general aesthetic of the project. A clear and simple branding system is in place within this project and that is showcased by using the geometric lines throughout this section of the portfolio and even using this style to showcase the colour schemes and to help transition between the different work created for the project.
The motion graphics and app created for this project was the most successful elements of this project, this, unfortunately, does not get translated well within a static PDF, however, the posters and leaflets are still showcased effectively.
In order to format the portfolio in the most effective way possible I have split up the different projects into different pages, however, each project exists as one page. This allows the viewer to view a project as far down as they would like, and if they ever feel as though a project is going on too long and wishes to skip, they can simply skip that page and be taken straight to the next project. This can then be as easily repeated in reverse.
This helps to solve the issue of the project potentially being too many pages long, the file will then be condensed in order to be able to fit inside as an email attachment.
My website using Adobe Portfolio and includes customised elements on a pre-existing template, due to the small number of projects that are on my website I have used large thumbnail images and smooth and hero images in order to fill the page in a more aesthetically pleasing manner. The project pages have large masthead to continuity between all pages of the website, Moving entities are given priority as they are not shown within my portfolio.
My website contains a large amount more information than my portfolio, treating my website as an opportunity to explore further into what I have made and why I have made the decisions that I have throughout the various projects that I have posted onto my website.
Adobe Portfolio Is the correct choice for my website as it works well alongside other Adobe programs, as well as the ease of including more projects in the future throughout level 6 and beyond university.
Aidan's Graphics Blog 