My final outcomes here are simply more detailed versions of previous iterations, dealing more with the typographic detailing as well as polishing off the videos and animations with audio as well as smoothing out several transitions and animations.

I found my larger animation to come alive with the improvements, the transitions are now much more varied and interesting, meaning that even though it is multiple minutes long, it is exciting to watch while continuing a large amount of interesting and intriguing information, I believe I have delivered this in an effective and accessible way. Alongside the App, in particular the converted interactable infographic that exists within it, this infographic really is the most effective part of the app, that combined with the ability to scan your local area and get that areas light pollution level, you can then translate that light pollution grade to other relatable occurrences, something that I think would improve this would be to offer some comparative areas light pollution level, however the user themselves could do this simply by entering a different postcode into the app and thus getting a different areas light pollution results returned, however given that this is not expressively mentioned within the app would mean that it could make a marked improvement of the amount of use that my users get from the app and in particular, the infographic within.

Overall, I found my FMP massively challenging, but equally rewarding. I believe I have taken risks with my FMP, delving into motion but I do think that it has forced me to learn new skills, given the perfect topic area for motion there really was no other way that these issues could be designed apart from having motion sitting at the centre of it, saying that though I still find my use of static ads both meaningful and interesting, I have avoided simply making for the sake of making, everything here has a purpose and helps to either strengthen the brand or strengthen the level/sophistication of the communication within the brand. With this in mind I think the outcomes could be expanded upon, further experimentation into different animation software’s would help me to realise what else I could do, unfortunately I lacked the timeframe to conduct this extensively, however I did have the chance to experiment with the cinema 4D engine within after effects, I feel much more exploring into new programmes may have perhaps harmed my outcomes more, I think I gave myself enough of a challenge for such an important and lenghty project, and overall I think I have met that challenge well and am therefore a more rounded designer because of it.

My outcomes at the time of the formative presentations are above.

I belive these outcomes are certainly the embodiment of my entense research in both theoretical and conceptual settings. However, while the positives here are the well informed nature of the outcome, I think the actual conceptual visual cohierency and typographic detailing as well as the overall sophisitication of th outcomes needs vast improvments, there is no need, in my opinon to explore any further concepts in the form of research I have all i need. I should be concentrating my efforts into creating detailed outcomes, and perhaps limiting my number of outcomes significantly, at least for the time being concentrating all my efforts into perhaps just making a small but detailed and useful app as well as a single, informative and experiemental/experienctial motion animation would help to really hammer home exactly what details and systems should exist where. For example, the increasing of weight to show light is intensity is good, and so I should push this concept as far as i can, explore every hole that the techqnieu can fit in, and this should be done before making a large scale outcome in order to prevent the dissolution of the campaign and it’s meaning as well as it’s visual and typographical impact.

The motion animations are functional, but they could become much more, the potetnial here is endless due to a carefully researched and selection format matching perfectly with the issue at hand, light pollution in motion is perfect, and I do not think i have met the potential here, but there is so much more than can be done that should perhaps be done by taking myself back to sketches and stepping away from after effects, a somewhat restrictive programme if you’re not highly proficent in it’s tehcniques and systems, as i am still quite new to the programme, this would likely help to exapnd the experimental nature of my outcomes while preventing a disjointed and seperate feeling throughout my outcomes.

my static outcomes should use ugency in more ways, for example, experimenting with small caps and point size more, the screen bounds can be broken to give a greater sense of scale and movement, such an important part of my outcomes movement should be considered in every sense within ever outcome.

moving forward I think i will look back at my first project this year, which was also a social campaign and see what were the massive positives there, not in the visual systems, but in the foundations of the concepts of the campaign overall, for example, that project was split into different sub sections with mt designs forming an overarching brand, light pollutino is such a massive and complex issue that affecs so many that this may be the new and refined way to translate my research through. Rather than light block sights perhaps it could be called

Lights Vs …..

And then sub sections can be put in after the Vs, allowing the audience to instantly connect with what the designs infront of them are meant to be showing, helping the formation of connections and making my designs more accessable to the widest audience possible.

While there is still plenty to improve and refine before submission, I think i have successfully engaged with new and exciting design challenges, I have not shyed away from after effects, a programme that I have previously tried to avoid. I belive I have clearly found a very important issue and, through research and experimentation have discovered the perfect format from which to express my social campaign from, it is just a case of taking a step back for a short time and perhaps looking at this project with fresh eyes and drawing up a new structure, ensuring to keep the visual language elements I have already created that seem to be working. I look forward to transforming this project more and hopefully working out the problems in order to allow my social campaign to reach it’s full potential and make real, social change.

Ext motion fixes

In the hope of better communicating the essence of light pollution i have moved further into 3D within my animations, this is another type of animation entirely and therefore may benefit frobeng made in Blender rather than after effects, however given my lack of experience in blender i think it would be benefitical to make my outcomes in after effect and then port them over to blender for application of noise, 3D effects and the insertion of objects.

At the time of making i was aware that making 3D text in after effects is a very difficult task, it is very hard to do well as the work so easily falls into an amateur looking catageory, for this reason i do not think that iincluding it in this project is a very good idea, I am alreadys stretching myself enough by learning after effects purely for my FMP as well as the fact that the use of multiple programmes for the same animation may cause corruption issues not to mention that the different visual styles that possibly would be created will cause massive rifts in the coheriency of the visual languge, my visual langauge is postive at this moment and does not need much ammedning, I would not want to upset the balance without having at least some solid outcomes made beforehand. For these reasons i feel that experimentations such as these should remain to be explored until further in the project, once my otcomes have been develedoped further and only small adjustments need to be made to the foundations of the visual language/storyboards for the animations.

Apart from the 3d effects, the improvements I have made to the animations are overwhelmingly positive, I think is this becuase previously I had made the basic structure and outcome, but beuase of this the actual amimation uses bare bones techniques in order to just translate my ideas within my storybaord, however with this extra time I now have I delved deeper into each section and transition and explored more in depth what I could do to each of them, this rise in quality is also supported by the now more consistent typopgraphy, a clear consistency in left aligning as well as block paragraphs often appearing in simlar places, only having the weights changing, and the weights being changed are there with reason, to reflect the varying intensities of light pollution present around different local areas.

With the now more consistent typography, the different weights are now more noitceable and contain more visual impact, as they are clearly meant to exist in that state. This is a difficult task as the rules of tpyography do often prohibit me from executing a dynamic type weight, shifting multiple times even within the same word.

I find the increase play in scale positive as well, light flashes more like a distant sun that impacts more than the whole page, rather than bulbs simple illuminating the very surrounding area, this helps to bring more impact as well as have more infomration be revealed imbetween the flashes of light, A technique I find to be an effective way to translate infomation.

Infographic and pragmatic light use (Urban Sun Conceptual Research)

The urban sun is an important piece of research for my project, the use of projected and pragmatic light correlates well with my large scale stencil outcomes, it helps to show how this would be possible and open up more aveneus as to how to execute this idea.

I have developed a large scale infographic to support this, the infographic uses the information translated from various scientific papers on light pollution and the bortle scale. Using the bortle scale as a system to viualise and make more accessable I have made my infographic much more accessable than the papers from this the information has been translated from. In addition to this, the effects of light pollution here are not just to do with the night sky, an issue that I had spotted early on in the project that organsiations seem to often fall into, my infographic has also translated the health and environmental effects of light pollution.

The elongated format on which the information sits upon helps to incease the legibiilty of the information, you cna clearly scan downwards through the document and spot, at what point certain things arent visible or at exactly what point light pollution will begin to disrupt your sleep etc. I think this is a vital part of the infomrgraphic as it makes the progress towards lowering light pollution tangible, members of the public can see this infographic, then use my app to find their local levels of light pollution and how to reduce it. The audience can then check back some time later and spot if it has reduced, and then understand what that reduction means for the health of them, and everyone around them.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p1dZBIEz8HDx93R_dFySBbwAKiUCv3OI/view?usp=sharing

These outcomes now tell a coheriant a story, with this in mind, I feel a user journey would help to concrete this story, and easily translate my objectives and how I hope to achieve them alongside why they are the correct outcomes for achieveing these objectives. A user journey has been used for previous projects and did help the client understand my creative decisions, and so it would be wise for it to be my next port of call before inital submission to allow for the clearest and most useful feedback possible on Monday.

https://samcampbell.net/

https://www.behance.net/gallery/4308595/NHN-NEXT

https://motionographer.com/

https://mvsm.com/project/haibike

Activity

https://filmlondon.org.uk/flamin

Motion Reseach

Moving with my previous reflections, mainly consisting of the negative elements of my static designs I have decided that perhaps my information should sit further into the format of motion and moving images, if the static examples are still appearing flat and boring to look at, then maybe an extended motion animation that takes you through the different parts of light pollution and importantly, how to combat it.

My inital plans are below.

1, What is Light pollution?

1-2 minute motion animation, focussing on the statisitcs of light pollution and the translation of the phenomonon in order to make it accessable to the genreal public as well as generating intrituqe to invite people to explore the further content I have made.

Covering what light pollution is would be informing people that it is caused by artificial lighting, light shining upwards in the sky, creating a sky glow that obscures vision and brightens the natural inky black of the night.

A general rule of thumb is that the more urban your are, the higher your local levels of light pollution are.

An introduction into the bortle scale, the nine different grades that exist and exaplaining what makes somethin the grade it is.

An important informative section would be to state that light pollution does not only affect night sky quality but also the health of those that inhabit highly polluted areas.

2, Effects of light pollution

A lessened sky quality is the most easily perceivable effect of light pollution, as moving areas can have this effect be removed by only driving a small number of miles away from overlit areas such as cities.

The disruption to melotonin production would be vital here, as many of the health effects spawn due to this disruption, a lack of sleep and hormone production can cause any number of health conditions, but tend to manifest as cateracts and cancers.

the financial statistics and multiplication statistics should come into play here, they will help to prick up the ears of those listening and watching the second part of the motion animation.

There is also a significant environmental impact, however i feel this should be included after the effects to humans health due to a sense of urgency needed to be made as the forming of cancers in humans will be of a greater concern to city dwellers as something like the health of bats ad foxes will be.

3, What can be done about light pollution?

This quite possibly the most imporant section, as this is where the audience will be asked and guided to changing their local light pollution. Making it as simple, but as effective and easy to follow as possible is an absolute nessesity.

the five steps have been examined earlier and include

Storyboarding the animation

For section 1, what is light pollution? the inital storyboard is below (with annotations)

My storyboard and the inital creation of the animation dont expand much past the techniques seen in the smaller scale animations i have made previoudly for this project, however I think that it’s good and a useful exerceise to condense them down and place them all into one, longer animation that tries to use all the techniques available to me at this time in enough varience in order to ensure the viewer is not bored halfway through but also that the animation is not too fast or contrasting that none of the information within is lost or illegbile, it is always a massive design challenge to find the perfect balance between dynamic design and functional legibitity, I think i have managed this to a good degree here, the animatoins are interesting and expressive, but hang on at their completed state for long enough to just about ensure the information is actually given time to be read. Of course this could be paused to allow the viewer to read at their own pace, but I do not think that this should be considered going in to creation, as the designers behind the animation should be catering for their audience in order to make then feel more considered and therefore, assist in the formation of an emotional connection with the light block sight campaign.

Some negatives of this animation are the massively varied typographic langauge present here, I used varied weights and settings to try to change the pace, however I do not think this has been done to the highest degree, it doesnt feel like the pace is changing, the quality just feels lower and inconcsistent, a good design will be able to fill the animation full of varied techniques and type but without it feeling disconnected or many different things just carelessly jammed together, my example here does exhibit symptoms of these to a worring degree, however given this is only an inital outcome, this is the time and place for improvements to be made, i would much rather remove these issues now rather than a day before submission. I do like the small inclusions of different light colours, however these should be used very sparingly in order to hold its impact when used, once again it should find that balance between changing pace which is good, and causing a feeling of disconnect which would distract from everything else I have made, the details must be perfect and the theory must be complete and legiible in order to prevent distractions from the overall narrative.

Further experiments have allowed me to delve further into motion, I was impressed by my use of light in the very small scale logo animation, although the logo and name are subject to be changed, the techniques were very interesting and therefore i have created more in order to begin varying my material.

I have the simple animation of light appearing as light and then illuminating the text, this is positive, but is used for different techniques by many people. Because of this, I thought a good approach would be, in order to make my content more unique and identifiable amongst other motion animations, delving further into what elements can represent a light reveal, and trying to have content reveal the type without just having to literally reveal something using a single coloured light glow.

What are you missing animation goes above^^^^

My first experimentation does not stray too far from the previous, but it does use a mix of lighting techniques, including beginning to play with scale, I think the scale elements here are positive. I think this because of my previous considerations from my research, I want more impact and urgency in my designs in order to set an appropriate pace, I think that using a large spotlight that exists outside of the screen bounds and swings in, alongside the light brightness brings a massively varying pace to the animation that not only makes it more interesting but also forces your eye to adjust to the rapidly changing light levels, bringing optical discomfort and contrast that can be executed more effectively when paired with the playful scale that is beginning to be explored here in the example above.

Warmer Lights Animation

exploring further into experimentations I have altered the text itself and attempted to move into something more sophisticated than just illuminating the text, but instead having the text change weight and colour to represent the wasted light of light pollution. I think this example does execute what I theoretically wanted to do, a more sophisticated and implicit execution of the experience and impact of light pollution. However, conceptually I do not see this working within animation in its current form. It just appears too close to something that belongs in a PowerPoint presentation. The very uniform scale and centre type degrades the overall quality and becomes a far too distracting factor within the animation. This could potentially be fixed if given a scale treatment similar to the previous animation example. an overscaled type example that fits over the screen bounds perhaps with some noise and texture added in would help to prevent this problem from occurring, although I don’t think the style of the type animation fits in combination with my other examples and so I would need to commit to this style completely or the other and at the moment I am in general, not preferring this example and so I do not see this animation seeing placement further in the project.

Logo animations, revamped

This logo animation does not differ massively from the previous, apart from the actual name and the inclusion of the Asterix that acts as a star/light. The small elements that have been changed are positive in my opinion the colder colour scheme is a better reflection of the cold and artificial nature of street lamps, I am finding that my colour scheme is changing slightly as the days pass on, I find this to be positive as it becomes less flat most times I change a shade or tone, my colour scheme also seems less flat, something that compliments the motion and glows based designs that are seen throughout these experimentations thus far.

The Bortle Scale, Examined

What Is The Bortle Scale? Light Pollution Classes Explained

Understanding the Bortle Scale

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/6/e1600377

talk about the pdf files thats well useful, the bortle scales potential but its usefullness needing massive translation, but say its worth it due to the potnetial opporunties for information design that can exist in any format, even my motion examples could portray the bortle scale.

These three images have most of the info needed to make a data vis of the bortle scale, some maths will make these useful.

With my conceptual experimentations moving forward and seemingly having found their medium, motion in light, I have moved forward and created a more full range of outcomes that can now be placed within deliverables. I thought it was a nessecary step as it’s vital to not waste time creating deliverables that would not be useful, this would not only make useless content, but would allso reduce the time that could be spent on making more useful designs. With that in mind these examples use a mix of motion and static, while it’s clear that the moving examples are clearly more innovative and experimental than a simple static monogram, however I still think that having some static backgrounds from which to implement and build motion from is a good idea, I think this is a good idea partly due to my limited experience in creating motion designs, I find that having some static content made first is almost like creating parts of a storyboard, with each element of the visual language being a panel in the storyboard. If this is done well I should be simply transferring the static elements and simply making them move in after effects rather than having to constantly be spontaneously innovative in a programme like after effects, which I lack the expertise that I possess within programmes such as photoshop, illustrator, indesign or XD.

Lights Block Sights

I tried a number of different names after spotting that my previous name, spotlight, was too genreal and didnt say ‘stop light pollution’ my other names are somewhat similar but do speak slightly different messages, my other examples are below;

light snjgneg

egetgetjger gerg

wer

gwerg eg

wetnweg

I think these examplse show a clear progression, as well as a condensing of my message and attempts at inputting a call to action and insight into what designs are going to fall within a campaign titled ‘lights block sights’. While they all do okay at this, they are merely functional and I think that lights block sights is the easiest to remeber amongst all of these examples, having a memorable name and slogan is key to creating a good quality campaign, while the name must be backed up by innovative designs and concepts a good name that my audience can resight without constant reminding sets a good foundation moving forward, and I think lights block sights acheives this to a good degree.

I have altered my typeface to move away from serifs, while I had plans to utilise the serifs as the elements of the type that illuminated, the abstract shapes that isolating serifs made intrigued me and could perhaps make letterforms of their own. However, a super clean and wide weighted sans serif such as Dunbar allows me to do this in a dlightly differetn way, given the overwhelmingly uniform lines that make up each letterform to be deconstructed and potentially put back together, through the flashing light visuals shown throughout my motion examples to flash different figures and forms in quick succession, hopefully bringing everything back to this sense of urgency that I am trying to create within my designs, particularly the motion examples.

An observation that I really liked from using Dunbar is the use of a illuminated double ‘ll’ in light pollution, illumating the two l’s side by side in a cold blue really strongly reminds me of ceiling mounted flourescent tubing, these are perhaps the most obviously artificial forms of lighting and so having my examples give an essence of that is really successful and shows that even really simple shapes, when put in a certain motion, can convey complex ideas and visuals, if done well.

A final positive of Dunbar is its massive varience in weights and typeface options, Dunbar has three faces,

Dunbar Low

Dunbar High

Dunbar Text

These different sub sections are perfect for such a minimal and clean typeface. Having different sub typefaces for headings, copy and pull outs etc. helps to set a varing pace that otherwise may become monotinous if just using the same, geometric forms over and over again, with only a slight weight change present to differentate huge headings from tiny body copy.

My Maruqe draws inspiration from two different elements previously explored, after I had deciede to change from my ‘spotlight’ visuals, I went and looked back at what other forms could be explored, below are some of the examples, informed by the information an research throughout the project so far.

My experimenations here do take some inspiration from my origional logo marque, a downward facing spotlight, I think this idea was solid and functional, since the issue was just the fact that it wasnt unqiue and identifyable enought I felt that if i could just make a version that was more unique, the problem would be solved. As i progressed through more maruqes I started looking into more visual metaphors, in particular the stars themselves, since both sights and lights are present within my name and tagline, using an asterix to represent a star or a lamp seemed perfect. And so I decided to see what Dunbars asterix options looked like and the clean but slightlly rounded asterix was perfect for animations and illumination, however a familar problem of lacking identifiability creeped in, I can’t just use a uniform sans serif asterix as my marque, it would be less unique that my downward spotlight logo. And so I engaged my research within the bortle scale more, and through using the nine different grades within the bortle scale, I edited the asterif to have nine points thatt gradually gain more and more weight, almost as if the light is increasing in intensity as you move through the marque, that is not almost a visual representation of the bortle scale itself, given the usefullness of the scale, I feel it will be more present as i move through creating more outcomes further into the project.

In my opinion the marque works, it’s identifyable and it contains considerable meaning as well as spawns some potentially more interesting visual systems, I am liking the fact that I can translate a greater sense of light intensity without having to actually increase the light intensity on the page, perhaps this can be done if more ways? whether through the very context the designs sit on or through different visual elements such as the typography or format, the light intensity can then be altered depending on the location that the content is being viewed in, this makes my designs more personal and experiential, something that has been commonplace in my desired outcomes throughout the project and would, in my opinon help to elavate and transform the project higher than it is at the moment.

Aside from the logo maruqe and the motion examples, my static examples above are much less successful, they use a simlar colour scheme and begin to play with scale and the statistics that light pollution creates, I think the stats includsion may be nessecary simply due to their ease of interpretation and thus, their accessability amongst the genreal public and particularly my audience who will be fully aware of glaring lights and the presence of different types of outdoor and indoor lighting throughout their local area.

The colour scheme makes my static examples very contemproary, supported by the ultra clean sans serif, however i think the static format and contemporary colour scheme combined bring out something negative in the typeface, there is something that is omnipresent within the motion examples that is almost completely gone in the static examples, the lack of layering and faux 3d elements makes my static examples extremly flat, given their flatness they do not jump out of the page and scream engage and urgency, and they certainly do not match the motion animations, their layering through flashing lights and revealing/concealing dynamic information is well done, but this is not achieved in a static poster or app screen and so these outcomes are not effective at all, they translate the facts and figures of light pollution and thhe bortle scale, but they fail almost compeltelty ast doing this to an interesting and engaging extent. Given these observations it seems my content should either sit entirely within the motion format, or the static examples need a huge revisiting and transfomration,, however at the moment i do not see how Ii would create the same atmostphere of the motion animations within a static format, and especially in a print format.

With the theoretical considered, I should now really consider what conceptual research is going to be useful to me, My issue is light pollution and so light must sit at the centre of everything i create. Light and shadow is often used in design with a high level of effectivness, given light and shadows constant appearance in design, there is plenty of research from a wide array of contexts that I can find.

Ranging from print to digital and moving to static, many of the conceptual concepts i have been looking at are below

https://www.behance.net/collection/182427583/FMP

while many of these projects have a black and white colour scheme, I do not think this would be a good idea. The limiting factors of a black and white colour scheme are very present, it would also limit me in how I could use light and shadow, the use of multiple colours would allow different types of light to interact with each other, something that would not be possible if only using a black and white colour scheme, perhaps using a dark background with multiple, highh contrasting and bright colours in the foreground would help to direct attention to my material while ensuring variety and contrast in my designs.

Light pollution is not a black and white issue, there are many different factors that cause it and so therefore I feel the colour scheme should reflect that. If my message is the artificual vs the natural, then these should be represented by individual colours, perhaps a natural orange glow battling a glaring and painful cyan glow, this way the battle of artifical vs natural can exist without the need to explicitly say it, as well as offering wide contrast and visual impact throughout my campaign while simultaeously avoiding the use of night sky photographs but still giving off a feeling of the night and the lights that brighten it.

My research here takes my theoretical research so far and begins to ask the questions that i will soon begin answering within my concepts, as well as looking at the different techniques and processes can be used to create my inital visual language.

Initial Three Concepts

My three intial concepts use a variety of different techniques, inspiration and approaches to solve the problem of light pollution in cities.

concept deconstruction & reflection

1,

Light diffusion as a way to reveal information. Although these examle often use a black and white colour scheme I do not think it is nessecary, the incluscion of coloured lights onto a white/black background could be an interesting way to create a dark and light alternative that I feel would compliment the artificial vs natural nature of light pollution. It also allows for further expansion of the designs by catergoising content based on whether it exist in the positive or negative colour scheme.

Something that I find particularly interesting are the examples here that are using noise heavily, they give the illusion of diffused light and when there is a gentle enough decay of the noise pixels, it gives a slight visual of stars in the night sky, this however would likely not be as obvious when placed on a different colour scheme, but I think that perhaps this being a more implicit addition would help to make my content more intelligenxt packed with meaning.

Gestalt theory seems important to use here I think that having content existing in the negative space is another way of effectivley revealing and concealing with the use of contrast, perhaps something like the artificial is the content that exists in the positive space, and the more gentle, natural content being revealed in the negative space. A consideration for this technique would be how to make this interesting beyond a simple one time reveal would be a challenge, but if the pace can be changed enough throughout the different outcomes I think this could be a very effective way to translate the feeling of light pollution into my designs.

2,

My second concept more so focusses on the vertical axis, calling to action through simple actions that can be executed by anyone, but focusesing on my target audience of permenant city dwellers. Asking people to look up is an effective way to engage the audience and establish a connection to the designs more than simply viewing what is infront of them, but experiencing something. However I think that more should be done with this idea, as previous example campaign lacked action then it should be at the center of this concept in particular, as well as asking people to look up to view what sights are above them, with a campaign that focusess on the verticle then looking up should also allow my audience to fully engage with my content. This is seen most effectively within the overhang concpet seen above, having a poster than hangs above the user allows me to input important questions/statistics in the overhang section, with important data visualisation/information designs existing in the rest of the print example.

3,

My third and final concept uses glare at its center.

I liked that my previous example is more based on experience, I also like it being used within this concept, the idea of light pollution can be translated onto peoples phone screens and computers, glare exploits the human eye into not allowing it to adjust to the massively contrasting light levels present within the (Movement based) designs.

I do not see this being done elsewhere and so the concept concerns me as to it’s overall effectivness, however it will be very innovative if done correctly, if this does not work it may still hold some of that impact if diluted and slightly altered in order to prioritise legibilty and functionailty over pure visual impact, this could perhaps be used varyingly to create a complex pace and set the tone for the different content that I will create.

Motion is not something that is often seen within my portfolio and so I like the opportunites that this concept brings forward, experimentations in after effects would reveal a whole different side to my skillset and massively diversify my portfolio. This would mean a large learning curve that could hurt my overall mark for my FMP, but I feel the risk is appropriatly risen with the reward potential, as well as the general excitment I’m feeling about the opportunity to fully immerse myself in motion design with such an interesting medium as light and shadow.

Reflections & Considerations

With considerable experience with creating a large amount of concepts for previous projects I think that this project is no different in that all of my concepts have some parts that are positive and can be transferred between and then combined together in order to make one successful concept, rather than just take one of these three concepts and ignore the potential positives that may exist within the other two.

I think the use of light in a pragmatic sense should be a concept to be taken forward, I feel this resonates well with all of the concepts that i’ve explored so far, the opportunities are vast and the design challenge of using environmental light to my own design advantage is not something that is often seen within design and is especially not something that previous light pollution cmapaigns have attempted, this massive different approach will help to set the tone of ‘this campaign is not the same as others’ hopefully then setting my audience in the mindset I want them to be in.

I think movement should exist within my campaign, it is my final project and thus should challenge me in new ways, and after effects is a programme i have basic knowledge in and would benefit from a project based around it.

With a clear direction and large amounts of research behind me, I feel that I can create an effective creative brief that will help to plant my research and condense everythin i have done so far into a neat page that can be reffered back to on a consistent basis in order to ensure that I am indeed solving the problem and ensuring I am not adding to it.

My creative brief ensures a immediate understanding of light pollution and its effects on both peoples health and the sky that exists above. I think this is good practice, having this structure of getting the audience to understand the issue first, then the effects and then how to solve it will prove useful in my inital outcomes. Statistics seem a good way to get this across as the numbers here are quite easily interpreted by genreal audiences, the longer, heavily scientific facts are far less useful then something like “3bn a year” and “70% wasted” this allows the audience to place these numbers in contexts that they understand, materialising the issue and making beginging to create a sense of urgency by placing the numbers at the forefront of my content, something that other campaigns did not seem to be doing.

My target audience is at the heart of the problem, permenant city dwellers, I think that identifying an audience that is most effected by the issue at hand, but simultaeuosly are the least aware of the effects is perfect, this way my outcomes will be hitting the optimum population and allow for the most effective and wide stretching change throughout cities across the entire world.

I do think that my current message is positive, asking something simple and acheiveable, a simply short pause and look up will stop people in their tracks as well as allow for my audience to pause and consider not only my designs, but also their health, this is particularly pertinent within my own audience due to the fact that many of then would not have even considered the health effects of light pollution previously, this short period of thought will help to get them on board with my campaign, if exectuted well.

My deliverables could exist in any context, but it must be accessible quckly and allow for a wide range of content to be displayed, as urgency is to sit at the heart of my campaign, slow burning outcomes will be lost in the now huge pool of unsuccessful light pollution campaigns.

visuals

I have included a range of cliche visuals as well as more successful matierals, I have always thought it is improtant to engage and consider unsuccessful outcomes and they will teach you what to avoid, while the successful outcomes merely teach you what has worked well in the past, but I still must make my campaign unqiue and so must be different in message, so therefore the unsuccessful outcomes are often more useful to me and my creative process that the more successful examples. something that I have included that blurs the line between theoretical and conceptual research is light pollution maps, they are simply data visualisations, but I do seem to keep coming back to them, the exciting mix of visual language, interactiviety and being built on a massive amount of statistical analysis makes them extremly interesting to me, they are also very personal at the same time as being massively general, you can see what light polltions levels are on your own street, but you can also zoom out and see entire continent as a whole, this interests me greatly and I would like to incorperate these ideas into my own designs at some point.

On a whole, I belive my creative brief has helped to set a solid foundation on which to move forward, I have a document that contains many failures and successes on the topic of light pollution that should be considere at every opportunity. My creative brief also contains a wide range of condensed theoretical research, such as statistics and statements that help to translate the issue of light pollution in short snappy sentences understandable by all.

Moving forward I should now begin to create my own content, with all the pitfalls and dangers in mind I think I should be in a place whereby the issue of light pollution can now begin to be solved.

Urgency!

Something that previous campaigns lacked is this sense of urgency in the reduction of light pollution. The International Dark Sky Assosication

International Dark Sky Association

This is a perfect example of what I am talking about, the website speaks about useful and concerning information, but the visuals remove all sense of ugency from the information, it seems that using actual photography of space and night skies does this, it makes the users get lost in the beauty and peacefulness of the night sky and that is where it ends, the information that follows is taken with this as its visual language. Making the information fall into the back of peoples minds as just pretty pictures, rather than actual, urgent problem solving. From my theoretical research it is clear that there is suffienct information about light pollution to make a campaign that inspires urgency, there just doesnt seem to be anyone who is taking up the design challenge.

This problem is further compounded by everyone seeming to fail in the same way, using the same visual language, a quick search about light pollution can return hundreds to images and campaigns that all use the same range of photographs of a starry night sky with a vague tagline about not losing the sky, this clearly isnt working and so a consideration for the future should be that astrophotography should exist as far away from my matieral as possible.

Exploring further into previous campaigns there seems to be a lack of “what next?” matieral, it’s great to say that light pollution must stop and you shouldnt use lights when they arent needed, but what comes after that? If i see material stating to reduce light pollution is all i can do is turn my oudoor light off or install a sensor for streetlamps? There is plenty more that can be done, but much of it is outside of public control and so with this in mind there may be an opporunty to make that advocation process easier for the general public.

I keep seeing this photo within my research.

And this photo is an example of the problems I keep seeing, there are five steps here, four of them are within the public control and one is a vague statment to take it further, but with no instructions on how to do so. Within my research I have found that only one eighth of light sources are within the direct public control.

ARTICLE HERE>

Which means, there is 7/8 that are hidden within this fifth step and there is no advice on how to complete this fifth step, but there are 4 steps to reduce light pollution directly, but this only accounts for 1/8th of all light pollution sources.

This is where the problem lies, while the visual language clearly needs to avoid usage of photography and ‘pretty’ space photos, it must also address this issue, there must be massive detail on not just what is advocation in your community, but why you should and exactly how to do it! Making outcomes that literally walk people step by step through how to submit forms and what policies should be in place in their local area would be more beneficial than simply posting a picture of a pretty sky and saying ‘dont lose this’. One has a clear call to action and steps, the other wants something vague and seemingly unacheiveable. This must be kept in mind throughout the project in order to ensure im not falling into the trap that many have before and that I am making real opporunties for change, not wanting vague changes with no idea of how to get there. This will be done through large amounts of research in order to understand the processes involved and if i do not understand how to advocate for less light pollution, how can I hope to pursuade and guide others through the process?

Take Aways

this research has spawned vital observations that, if taken forward in everything i make, will ensure that my outcomes effectively solve problems. The points revealed are summerised as

Urgency is needed!

Be Personal

and

Focus on the real problem!

The real problem being guiding people on how to change the lighting policies present within their communities, which is where the vast majoirty (7/8ths) of light is.

I think that in the execution of individual cities policies being looked at, the personal touch should also be achieved, this should also help create a more urgent and direct message within my visual material.

Presenting and consolidating my research and visual stimuli

So far I have spent the majoirty of my time in the research stage, I think this will be the most important part of the project, given that it is my final major project a complete and undisputable total understadning of light pollution is needed before visuals can even begin to be made to any successful degree, still, while reading papers and examining best practice is what my FMP has been so far, some of my work is when examining the best practice examples and any material, within the examination of the material for the main purpose of the theoretical there is alwasy oppotrunities for visual stimuli, I have found particular visual inspiration upon examination of Light pollution maps, these bright and interesting maps are live studies of light pollution across the world, they are information design and data visualisation in a universally understood format, with this in mind I think I should make note of the success of light pollution, they are not only assisting massively in the lack of studies for light pollution. This makes them massively important now, and possibly later, the bright and expressive colours and patterns spotted within the maps themselves could easily be seen within my own designs.

Light polltion maps interest me due to the fact that, while they are placed on top of a geographical map on the earth, the map background is hardly needed due to the spider web type patterns formed by large cities the locations of those cities can be navigated without names or titles clouding the colourful light pollution. the concept of having light overlayed an actual line drawing illustration and having the light itself form the borders and content could be used as an effective way to express the extent and intensity of light pollution throughout the world. the huge range of colours seen are sure to attract attention to material created while avoiding appearing too cliche by avoiding the placemnet of literal space and sky visuals to force audeinces to assosicate light pollution with the visual side of my campaign(s).

Light Pollution as a unique issue

Something else that I think is important to pick up on are the elements of light pollution that make it a unqiue issue, these elemtns make it stand out against other pollution related issues that the world faces.

It’s sensitivity is very unique, huge polluted and illuminated cities can exists almost adjacent to vast open areas of nearly 0 light pollution, so much so that nationall parks are able to achieve grade 1 status while the cities that surround them are far below the grade 9 status, this is all within the same country and so when changes are made by individuals, the impact is seen, and this impact is seen immediatley, I think this is key as capitalising on it and considering it when craeting my advocation campaign will allow me to play on the strenghts of light pollution advocation as well as avoid potential pitfalls with treating it as just another pollution issue to add to the list. This tangibility in the results of reducing light pollution should help to increase the motivation once inital action is taken and should be considered particularly within my user journey, this will make the scope and further outcomes that I create in the future become optimised in their effectivness and continue to actively engage a message of consistent interest with positive change in mind to my target audience, permenant city dwellers.

Looking up

My message is simple, I want a lowered level to light pollution to those who need it most however, I think I lack my way to get there at this point. As my campaign is centered around light pollution, the casting of wasteful light up into the sky that disrupts both astrophotography and natural bodily cycles I think that asking those affected to look up will hopefully bring them into consideration into the issue, indivduals are extremly busy now, and there is often a lack of pausing in life, a moment spent looking up and reflecting on what is above could help to connect with my audience and therefore allow my designs to have a greater impact, the act of looking up is also punchy to write as well as quick and achievalble by all, ensuring the largest audience are reached as possible. My content could potentiall reflect this, using the visual systems from light pollution maps may create the colour scheme, however focussing on the verticle and the expansivness of the sky above could assist in the creation of my format and further visual systems. I think this also links in well with my previous observation that light pollution is a unique type of pollution, containing a greater sensitivity and tangibility than most other forms of pollution that city dwellers come into contact with every day, extended verticle formats are unusual, although they do reflect the larger buildings found within cities everywhere it is not often seen in advertising, billboards are noramlly horizontal and signs usually square, this change of assumptions may help create a quick snap of attention to my designs over the clustered, busy scape of many cities.

Surprising Assumptions

This idea of executing work in such a way that it goes against my audiences assumptions in order to direct immediate attention could be extremly effective at gaining that inital participation from my audience, where intelligent and engaging design can then begin to work forming a key emotional connection to the widest ranged audience possible. This is already seen in my inital sentence for the project, ‘creating a darker future’ the subtle change in wording has already began to alter assumptions and get myself into the mindset of making a pollution campaign that strays from the usual, bland promises of a bright and fluffly future, directly reflecting the unqiue nature of the issue of light pollution in a modern age.