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.
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.
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.
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.
Moving forward with my concepts I have decided to try to combine the positives from all three of my inital concpets in order to properly develop my outcomes and ensure they reach their full potential.
Inspiration
the marque for this concept is taken from the visual from a street lamp, although it is based on a downward facing lamp it protrays the general visual of a light ray, and so I think it makes a positive, but very general appearing logo marque. With the inspiration in mind i brainstormed a large amount of experimentations, I think my explorations here helped me achieve a better understanding of the forms of a light ray as well as gain a better formed logo marque in general. I ended up with two final outcomes one appears more italic and less like an information ‘I’ which while i think it makes my marque more recongnisable it may not need to be massively recongnisable on its own as I could simply not have the marque appear in isolation often, this would then need the implementation of more unique logotype to accompany the marque, potetnially limiting the freedom I have with both the maruqe and the type that would accompany it. This seems to be bringing up a large amount of potential issues in the furture for a marque that I have only just created, and so in reflection I think it may need to be changed but regardless of if this marque is to be my final outcome, i still think the experimentation and observational design concept it has spawned will continue to prove useful for the remainder of the project.
Type
I think my logotype runs into similar issues as my maruque, I think that my type utilises light and the elements within the maruqe very effectively, taking a small section of the maruqe and then having it illuminate in both a positive and negative example, while the marque has been translated effectively it seems the marque that is being translated well has not been made in a good foundation and thus i feel i am not moving forward. as effectively as I could potentially be. Somethin positive that has come out of this experimentation is the use of my colour scheme is seeming to be positive, the negative and positive outcomes for the same marque are working well in my opinion and i am excited to use this concpet further and perhaps move it into the more motion based outcomes. Of the motion outcomes that I have created thus far I do think they show the most effective work that I have created so far within my FMP, light in motion is a fantastic context to build from and seems that the layering of different light togtether can dynamically and simultaneously conceal and reveal different information as well as bring the experience of light pollution to my audiences screens.
I am thinking that if this can be brought to print in some slightly altered way then my print outcomes would be able to have their own visual impact, unable to implement motion innto print outcomes I may still be able to have some element of movement by using the natural light of lamps or the sun itself and stencils to have the projection of the light through the stencil print outcome change depending on either the time of day, or the lunar cycle that is currently active. Alternaitvely, the legibilty of the projection could depend on the level and intensity of light pollution within the local area, allowing individuals to see how much light pollution is present in their area in a perceicable way for a universal audience.
Bortle Scale
An interesting observation within my research is the discovery of the bortle scael, I had previously found this but quickly skipped over it whille I was more focuessed on how to have a more experienctial outcome, but after more consideration the bortle scale seems a perfect way to measure light pollution and then, through (perhaps) information design I could create a personal campaign that allows a more accessable measurment of light pollution that is not in vague grades of 1-9 but instead in accurate and accessable effects that occur on each grade, allowing individuas to fully appreciate the severity of living within a bortle grade 9, both the environmental and the health effects that occur, along with what is the most likely cause of the local pollution being so extreme.
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
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.
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.
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.
I have decided to push forward my light pollution concept, leaving neuroplasticity behind was initially not what I thought I would do, but with intervention from my peers as well as my tutors, the exploration of the brain is a very easily explored rabbit hole, the huge amount of research available would be that I could easily spend the whole project researching and discovering new ideas, without the refinement of any of these, resulting in a poorly made, but expansive range of outcomes. The critiques about my concepts have also resonated with flaws within myself, I already enjoy the theoretical side of research enough to the point that a research rabbit hole would have its effects massively amplified for myself, Light pollution has massive potential and the research will be more focussed to one area, allowing my message and work to have a more coherent and developed translation towards my clients/audience.
Further Research and Unearthing
Now that I am able to fully commit to researching light pollution, I think I need to develop my message and my desired outcome further, this is not my deliverables as such but instead what I hope to change in the world rather than how I will do it, although how i will do it is to come immediately after this step.
The formation of my message is being supported by extensive research, such as TED talks, scientific & Journalistic articles as well as examining previous campaigns that have a similar goal to mine, identifying then avoiding any pitfalls that I may encounter.
This TED talk, by astronomer Kelsey Johnson has an interesting tone, considering Johnsons background, an astronomer, she is of course concerned about the effect that light pollution has on the night sky and sees that the awe inspired state of an open sky can have positive effects on all those who are able to access it, but she also puts this aside and realises that this will not resonate with everyone as well as it does with her. She brings up striking statistics that I had no idea about, this talk certainly changed my perceptions of the impacts of light pollution. Some key pull out stats are found below
“$3 bn wasted every year due to light pollution”
“The amount of light pollution doubles every 35 years”
“Light pollution causes as much obesity as junk food”
“60-70% of outdoor lighting is wasted light”
“Disrupts Melotonin Production & the circadiant cycle”
Although all of these were stunning to me, it is the last two that particularly interested me, the fact that outdoor lighting is only 30% effective stuns me, particularly when you put a 70% inefficiency rate into a different context, such as surgery or even something like betting odds.
I am sure that these stats will fuel many of my designs as I move forward, they are sure to resonate with a large audience as light pollution appears to impact every aspect of people life, it is much more than simply just light that causes disruption.
Circadian Cycle & Melotonin Exploration
A mention of Melatonin production and the Circadian cycle is mentioned within the talk, and so this has been explored further through research.
Melatonin is heavily involved in making the body ready to rest, calming and tiredness allow you to rest well and deep, the constant disruption by streetlights and other artificial lights during the evening disrupt this process, by disrupting the bodies circadian cycle it sets of a chain reaction of faults simply just from the lack of melatonin in the body. Known as a master or biological clock a circadian cycle keeps people awake during the day and allows for rest in the night, without this people suffer from the same symptoms as sleep deprivation, which in extreme cases can lead to permanent depression, anxiety as well as more physical illnesses, that go as extreme as a 50% higher chance of contracting breast cancer due to hormone imbalance. Alongside a general fatigue and lack of focus during the day, while the monetary cost of light pollution is priced at around $3 billion, the disruption to work due to a lack of real, well rested focus throughout the year has no number that I can find but is likely to be higher than $3 billion from other, mentally draining based statistics acquired from my Menstrual cycle Empowerment project earlier in the year.
A circadian rhythm is also responsible for the cause of jet leg if anyone is curious as to what a short-term experience of melatonin disruption is like. Full information can be found here, the information I have provided is merely there to give my response to the article as well as pull out important information for my own convenience when seeking statistics and design system inspiration later in the project.
After my research further into the depths of light pollution I now feel i understand a greater extent of it, it appears to affect the population more than people realise, and the cost and death toll of light pollution is a large number, but impossible to numerically list.
My thoughts for what forms my visual language can take:
I still think that light pollution maps are a good source of design, the RGB shapes and graph like look with bright and vibrant arrays of colour would work well on screens, as well as give my designs a way to connect with the aesthetics of light pollution without having to extend into the cliche. This would be a challenging colour scheme, it being the full RGB spectrum to work with, but I think if done carefully and with high skill, it could open up large amounts of opportunities and the full range of colours available would become a great asset to my designs.
The shapes and forms of the maps themselves are interesting to me. Within my project timetable I have to submit a short sentence that sums up what I want to do for my FMP, my sentence read;
Advocating for a positive, darker future that promises to connect people closer together.
I think the key part here that draws most attention is that i am advocating for a darker future, I found an element of subversion in this part of the sentence, of course often in good design campaigns and charity work in particular a phrase is often to do with bringing a brighter and happier future, while I still hope to repel a negative future and bring about positives, my subversion in wishing for a ‘darker future’ attracts people’s attention, the majority of my audience will be used to assertive models of campaigns, generally uttering quite similar, blandly positive phrases, this quick change in vocabulary should hopefully snap people’s attention and make my campaign stand out from the crowd upon first interaction.
As well as being an interesting phrase to base my campaign upon, I think it could be take further, I wonder if I can base my campaign around subverting and challenging the usual campaign you would see in the advocation for lowered light pollution, engaging even my preconceptions that light pollution is mainly about tiny animals preservation and looking at a merely ‘pretty’ night sky, then I can hit the audience with stunning, hard hitting facts, such as the causing of cancers and huge cost to the economy that light pollution has.
The usual, assertive model of light pollution campaign can be seen in the examples listed below.
As well as having a general unengaging, passive and cliche set of visual language, these campaigns only focus on the night sky aspect of light pollution, while to me this is a massively important part of reducing light pollution and will hopefully come into my project soon to create a feeling of missing out as well as connect people through the images of their night sky. This lack of consideration for the other impacts light pollution have not longer lessens the message by making it seem less urgent of a problem, but also, if an individual is not particular interested in viewing the night sky well, this may be due to the simple lack of consideration for what it will look like. They will immediately switch off from the advocation in front of them, my message needs to be refined and engaging if i am to create impactful designs.
As mentioned, the lack of night sky quality is still an important part of light pollution as it allows individuals to see the difference that can be made, and be put into a state of awe by their difference, a phrase ‘falling into space’ presents many interesting creative opportunities, it is spawned from the sense of vertigo that individuals often feel when starting into the night sky, a feeling like you’re going to fall back into space is common, and the phrase can be explored further and dissected for its metaphorical potential. Combined with this, when examining the patterns that light creates on the earth at night, they do not look like bright bulbs of lights on the earth’s surface, but instead seem to resemble a glowing golden spider’s web, or the growing extremities of cells in the human body, this metaphor interests me and I am wondering if it could be used within interfaces or formats in order to create the shapes and objects within my deliverables.
Deliverables Brainstorm
At this moment, my initial, single sentence long proposal is inspiring my deliverables. I am primarily advocating for a lowered level of light pollution, and hoping to do this by bringing people closer together in a dimmer future, I hope to create an application that will be social in nature, allowing individuals to contribute their photos of the night sky, whatever the quality and allowing for interaction based upon their night sky quality, hoping to pair up contrasting individuals in order to inspire both to explore my content further, seeing my other deliverables which at the moment include additional formats that will be more informative in nature, as the emotional connection to lowering light pollution has been made and this step is giving that emotional connection an action that can be completed, that action being inspiring the individuals to advocate the message of lowering light pollution as well as raising awareness for the seen and unseen effects that light pollution has on the population, these deliverables can be a website, information design style posters and digital banners or informative motion graphics, I think that motion graphics would be a useful format here not only due to the lack of them in my level 6 portfolio, but also because the issues I am communicating are complex and will need crystal clear translation as well as maximum visual impact.
Moving forward I think that I now need to utilise this ever more summarised message to create a plethora of potential outcomes and being applying my theories and viewpoints to a coherent, engaging set of visual and typographical systems, my project will now begin to move from the theoretical, the identification of the problem, to the conceptual, the creative solving of that problem.
There is a plethora of material available when researching into astronomical design. It is a well-covered topic in both static as well as motion design with the main purpose being similar to mine in hoping to raise an appreciation for the worlds that exist external to earth.
The visual chliches are quick to find, often using colour palettes of magenta, cyan and orange to translate the cosmic elements of space with the sense of scale mainly being translated by good use of empty space and simple geometric shapes to split up the pages. While this is very commonly seen, I still think that i can take a lot of inspiration forward from these designs, my own visual systems will need to be more innovative but they can easily be built on the foundation seen in the examples below, the colours schemes used can be interpreted without being too cliche, if a colour scheme is effective at conjuring memories and associations of astronomy then I think I will be able to use a more basic colour scheme, this will in turn hopefully allow my typographic and other visual elements to contain more implicit messages and visual styles, allowing my message to develop and become more intelligent, having the viewers actively participate in the deconstruction of my designs.
If i am to be trying to get people to think and comprehend complex material such as sizes of starts and numbers of cosmic bodies, then their mind will need to be engaged from the very start, and thus the colour scheme would perhaps be more advantageous if used with a more explicit message, simply to introduce what kind of content will be contained within that colour scheme.
After researching through various previously made designs for astronomy as well as identifying the regularly seen cliches and poorly engaging examples, I think a way to avoid this occurring within my designs could perhaps be by further deconstructing exactly what it is I want to convey, this should hopefully give my content more meaning and stop my designs from looking too general, without further thought my first ideas for designs involve the use of large circular shapes and violet/navy backgrounds with large, impactful shapes in the foreground. This almost exactly replicates the example seen below, of which there are many very similar to it, While the typographical systems of the example below are positive, and use a good sense of hierarchy and format, the visual style is far too general in my opinion. Star styled backgrounds will help my audience identify what topic area my designs fall within, but I am sure this can be done to a more innovative and intelligent degree, this way the work requires no thought, space and the stars are your first thought and there is no room for contemplation or wonder, something that must be a part of my designs especially when dealing with such a wide open and contemplative topic such as space and astronomy.
Reflecting on the previous designs and information, I have delved further into my topic area. I am not just interested in educating and interesting people in astronomy, but my work has more of a purpose, and hopes to apply this knowledge I am hoping to translate to consumers by igniting a desire for the stars as a first response to interacting with my designs, but also then moving to utilise that ignited desire to advocate for a lowered level of light pollution, given the similarities in visual language between light pollution and astronomy these two topics could easily exist under one umbrella brand or organisation, however the topic of light pollution gives me additional stimuli for the generation of visual material, I am able to look at a greater amount of created content as well as a more focussed area of research, I think this will streamline my designs process as well as innovative my initial visuals.
When I take what I am hoping to do and attempt to deconstruct it into individual bits of information, I think my work is about people firstly, it hopes to inspire and stun individuals into a state of awe, as well as this I think my work hopes to connect people through the completion of a similar activity, simply looking up and appreciating what is above them, but by doing the same thing they are experiencing a unique experience, as this message beings to take form I am hopefully able to create more innovative and specialist visuals than simply replicating the shapes of planets and stars, but instead I am able to be inspired by my core message in order to create ephemera that is set apart from cliche, previous examples.
Identifying exactly what light pollution is, how much of an extent it has affected life as well as the different factors to its production seem an important section of research, this will ensure that my visuals are well informed and then should also help with any copywriting that will accompany the designs.
Light pollution is massively sensitive, a matter of a few streetlights and a small number of kilometres/metres can ultimately result in a dramatic change in sky quality. This means that while the quality of the sky can degrade extremely quickly, it can also be improved massive with some small changes, examples above give a breakdown of how much energy is wasted with common streetlights, different styles of lights can then be a large contributor to a change in sky quality. Simply removing street lights is clearly not an option as visibility is a vital part of city life post sunset.
While my initial angle for my campaign is focussed on attracting attention to the wonder and beauty of the night sky and using that to pique peoples interest into what could happen if lighting is reduced, light pollution does not just affect the quality of the night sky, as listed in the article below there are several other effects that can occur with sustained light pollution, this could help in widening my target audience, having my primary message and visuals about the effect light pollution has on the night sky, I can also have secondary and tertiary messages displaying the other effects light pollution can have on environments and activities throughout the world.
Maps
When researching this topic, I came across the existence of live light pollution maps, these are very interesting to me for several reasons, firstly the interactivity element of them allows you to explore what areas around you are least/most effective as well as see the history of light pollution in action, the maps also provide interesting design opportunities. The fact that you could very possibly be able to place the hot spots from the map and remove the underlay of the actual locations themselves, the user would likely still be able to navigate the map and location major and some minor cities and countries simply by the rough outline provided by the map. Designing and advocating by using what isn’t there is an interesting visual prompt, I find this could link in with my campaign by capitalising on the realisation that people do often fail to look up and realise that there is far more above them than in front or below them.
Upon discovering this I am immediately thinking of typographic opportunities in a vertical format, the tagline of ‘look up’ could be expressed in a number of different and innovative ways, as well as in a number of different contexts, both static or moving, digital or physical. encouraging people to ‘look up’ is a simple and memorable action, and something that everyone can do in their own homes/gardens, there is also an element of interactivity here that could support in an advocation for action, individuals could perhaps be able to see what their sky could look like if the effects of light pollution were removed, this could generate an effective feeling of FOMO and become a driving force in building an emotional connection with those who come into contact with my campaigns.
Pentagrams ‘Friends in Space’ work, connecting people when they are apart by live updating them about what is happening above, an element of interactivity that I would love to include within my own designs, especially if I hope to create my outcome within the UX/UI Category. Additionally, I think there is clear opportunity here for AR to be used in live application and the potential is massive. I think this would be a good example to examine in further details, it is created by pentagram and therefore should hold a large number of messages and quality design that I can find inspiration from.
I think that the ability to connect people using the night sky is something that would be advantageous to my campaign, as well as being a way to help people make sense of what is above them, it’s one thing to have people in awe at the spectacle above them, but to then make sense of the sky above them would elevate my ideas much further and offer a more interesting and innovative campaign than made previously, by taking the social media style seen within ‘Friends in Space’ and deconstructing that to see what elements are transferable into my ideas could help to create this feeling of FOMO that will assist in the advocation in lower light pollution, those living in cities seem to have just accepted that they cannot view the night sky in any kind of quality or clarity, to have a constant, social reminder that it can be much better and doesn’t not really require a huge overhaul of life to get there could be a key message within my campaign.
While Pentagrams example is more focussed on the idea that there are people floating above you, I am trying to get people to appreciate the huge and numerous cosmic bodies that are above them, but they simply cannot see it, and so as my campaigns foundations are considerably different then I think it would be a safe move to really get inspired by this project. the visual elements used appear scientific, but the visuals are not too heavy, this implication that everyone can understand what is happening above them would work well in my designs potentially, I also think that the colour scheme is avoiding hitting the cliche head on, but still able to be easily identified by its smart use of line work and type.
I would like my designs to be more person orientated, as well as a further encouragement of action, once again this idea of ‘look up’ should be hammered into every design I make, moving forward with this inspiration I think it would be good to not only further my research as I narrow down my approach but also i think it would be a good time to brainstorm some initial visuals, using these posts as a foundation of a to do/not to do list that should assist me in the avoidance of cliches and unengaging visuals.
Neuro & Brain Activiy/Plasticity Material
My second concept still being considered now focuses on the mind and its potential. At this point I have identified a specific area of interest, that being neuroplasticity and its potential/application in real world scenarios. In direct comparison to my previous idea the amount of visual content available for this direct topic area is extremely minimal, and that that exists appears to be too far and either end of the spectrum, appearing too scientific and untranslatable and therefore, will not engage a large audience or form emotional connections. The other band of work I can find seems to go too far the other way, looking at only the very surface level applications of plasticity, creating click bait articles that promise to ‘change your life in 5 tips’, this kind of advertising can be easily identified now and thus appearing uninteresting to me. I found this second approach to not resonate with me due to the fact that the information shouldn’t need to be click bait, the application of neuroplastic techniques has more real world uses that I have seen, it is below the surface that the really interesting information exists but being below the surface it often exists in the first manner, being too scientific and lacking emotional design. The two need to be met in the middle for real world change to be made, I think that by examining both ends I can hope to make that connection myself in my campaign and open up the results of cutting-edge research to the general public, and especially to those who are most in need of it.
As the examples of neuroplastic design itself is next to nothing, I have been forced to expand my search of material to a wider field, looking at neuroscience in general and the application in real life scenarios, immediately I was hit with floods of these circuit board/brain visuals that appear so cliche they lost meaning immediately, while I must avoid creating designs similar to this at all costs if i want my work to make any impact at all, I think that acknowledging the cliches early on and writing about them is key to removing the cliche thoughts from my head and allowing room for the deeper, more purpose filled ideas to come in.
As well as being cliche, one of the designs here ‘sentis’ did have an interesting and useful introductory motion video on what neuroplasticity is and how it can be used, although once again applied at a surface level it is still useful to grasp the basics before delving further.
(SEntis video goes here)
Looking further into neuroscience based design I have found this example by “”””” called serotonina, the visuals here, in my opinion are more successful, the very appearance of the brain itself make it fall quickly into cliche, however when the designs are not including the brain itself, particularly the web like design image, the outcomes seem more effective, they give an idea of the brain and neuro-connections without having to say it out loud. I think that, after looking at these designs I can use the cliches to my advantage, given that the cliche image of a circuit/web style brain is quite heavily used in the limited example I could find, then I can be quite abstract with my visuals and still have this strong connection to the brain itself due to the common appearance of designs like these,
Finally, looking towards pentagram again I could not find many projects relating to my practice, however I enjoyed looking at the ‘welcome’ project, I found the translation of the visuals of ‘DNA’ particularly engaging, there are other reasons for it looking this way, the use of large block colours in such a heavily advertised space in London offer a direct contrast and therefore make the sides of this building stand out from those surrounding.
I am interested in the more abstract and less literal style used here, the double helix structure of DNA is thankfully not used and so avoids falling into cliche, but the alternating colours and bar like structure of the building gives the idea of a DNA chain, without having to use it directly, this allows for viewers to think and make the connection themselves, this should take prevalence in my own designs and certainly form a part of the foundations in the work that I create.
Now that I have conducted research into multiple areas for my FMP, I must decide what to move forward with, I can only choose one topic. At this point I am unsure what concept to push forward, initially I am thinking that the neuroplasticity has more application and a greater opportunity to open up employment opportunities post degree life, however the interactivity and community building aspects of my first concept also interest me. Moving forward I will begin sketching initial ideas and there then judge which is the most successful concept from there.
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