Category: Project yr 2

Mood-board for Poster visuals

Above you can see the mood board I created of all the posters and visuals that fit the visual style I want to design for my project. The colour palette seemed heavily to be red black and white which can be the potential colour scheme  I can use in my project. I think at this point, I am trying to figure what kind of visual or visual style is fit best for my project. I am trying to show the dark side of data collection rights and idea of exploitation and being psychological profiled by big companies. With these key points I want to discuss, i want my project to have a provocative tone of voice, not focused on clean digital illustrations but a style which provokes viewers. The posters visuals above to me fit in the most with the message I want to communicate. Especially poster designs from Gunter Ranbow the designer of the three posters which is focused on the face on bottom right corner. He used a portraits and split it int o5sections with a solid bright red colour.

In the moodboard, there are several different styles of imageries and dynamic layouts which can easily fit well with my project. I’ve been thinking of potential imagery and style for my posters etc. The first few things the came to my mind was focusing on the human face, portraits and distortion. You can see few posters in the mood board which focus on the same imagery. The idea emerged from was I wanted to show the viewers directly the same of brain washing, exploitation and being conned. I thought the use of portraits and distortion style would fit in well with the themes and context of the project. The aesthetic I want to focus on was my gritty, provocative and dynamic visual language which engages with the viewers when they pick up a booklet or look at the poster on a billboard. I think those kinds of imagery can be explicit and would directly communicate the purpose and context of the exhibition. This can be really good to draw people’s attention and the visual language would be help the message I am trying to communicate.

Another visual ideas I was thinking was  focusing at more typographical imagery focused on colours, words to communicate the exhibition to viewers. I believe this is also a style which correlates well with the project of human data as it is all words. The context and the visual metaphors can be interesting using all typographic language.

The colour scheme I was thinking was focused on black and white with a bright dynamic colour. The first colour scheme I thought was blue, black and white. The reason for this was, the whole data collection scandal has risen because of Facebook data base. I think by using the colour blue which correlates to Facebook would really put the exhibition into a context and when viewers see the branding visuals they would immediately  think of Facebook as they are associated with blue due to very strong branding. Also, I thought about red, blue and white. The reason was red is a very provocative colour used in many posters and visual materials. I think focusing on from colour psychological blue is seemed to be a calming and associated with safety and earthy. But context I will be using is completely opposite which is a good visual metaphor to show actually this exhibition is not about safety, it’s completely the opposite. These are all potential colour schemes and ideas for imagery I will be experimenting during the process. There are many ways to deliver the outcome and I would need to try out different things to chose the best visual language appreciate for the project.

 

I started to do some research on already existing branding identities for festival, exhibitions. I used a book called ‘Graphicfest’ which includes identities for festivals and fairs. I thought this book would be really useful to see different styles graphic designers used in creating branding for festivals which can link with exhibition design. I found some amazing designs which will influence my style and help me decide the visual aesthetic for my exhibition design. One of the identities I really loved was  ‘Montaz Film Festiwal‘ created by Justyna Radzeij, it is interested in technology targets post-production lovers and film makers. I thought the branding was beautiful and dynamic which represents the young target audience. The designers used spliced different images, different shapes, forms, styles together for dynamic collage. They used liquify effect that focused on different tones of blue for a dynamic gradient. The posters includes photographs and shapes merged into each other which creates an interesting visual. They used a simple colour palette of shades of blue, black and white. The white is used for text to make it stand out on the poster and black as the background for negative space and help the visual hierarchy. The blue liquify shapes I think enhanced the photography, created a dynamic, passionate visual branding. The use of heavy weight sans serif really worked well with the modern contemporary aesthetic that fits in with the design trends today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Festival de Arte Urbana – Julia Foti

This a festival to celebrate music, photography , art and freestyle. The branding was created by Jullia Foti. She believes the she represented the ‘visual poetics; of streets, throughout multiple layers generated from photography, posters, brush strokes, aerosol paint, and illustrations. I think this branding identity is raw and has a edgy style to fit the young target audience that loves the street style. I think it fits in with the context of streets, the grasps the essence of street style with graffiti, layering, bold colours. I think these design fit in with the audience very well, they are contemporary, the aesthetic is clean in a way but also so much on the page reflect the street style. The layout of each posters are dynamic, layering on brush strokes really change the mood of the designs. I think this style wouldn’t fit my target audience or communicate the message of the exhibition. But, collages and layering is a visual that I am thinking for my designs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BAZOOKA – Tabasco Agency

These are the branding identities created for Bazooka, they have innovative approach producing videos, commercials, and TV serials. Tabasco Agency created a dynamic visual identity which they say they are inspired by the name of the agency.They used a logotype as their main focus and created fu playful visuals. The layouts are also clean using simple colour palette of black, white and beige that creates a monochromatic design framework. The emphasis on the Z is fun, creates a strong brand identity for recognisability.  I think is an example of how you can really create a very dynamic design just focusing on a letter, essentially basing your designs on that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Delta of the Future, the delta of the future- Studio de Ronnes

This is another exhibition branding I really liked and I thought it had very interesting designs. The visual identity is focused on the human relation with the nature and its consequences. They focused on simple  delta shapes of the place. This was an architecture exhibition, they use of the delta shapes is very interesting and created a contemporary designs. The used 4 main colours representing each shape which was red, green, yellow and blue. They all work together very well in bold solid colour blocks. In the branding, they used bold sans serif fonts to communicate the message across effects we create on nature. The tone of voice is not provocative however, it all works together, there is not small symbols, illustrators it’s all focused on the text and the solid shapes. The visuals are very bold and eye catchy, the text on posters fill up the most space on the page with shapes surrounding the text. I think as hierarchy it is very succesful , the eye follows it easy as there nothing unnecessary on the page. The billboards designs and booklets they used the consistent style. Overall, I think it communicates the message very well, the name of the exhibition works really well with repetition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Game of Badminton – Tor Weibull 

A Game of Badminton is an exhibition displaying incidental photographs of a badminton game. Inspired by the subject matter, Tor Weibull turned the square pattern of a badminton net into a clear grid for the show’s visual identity.  The high and low movements of the game were also reflected in the development of Bad Mono, the dynamic typefaces seems like it is distorted but it shows the movement of the badminton shuttlecock. The identity is visually really good, the use of negative space on posters, custom type face which reflects the game it selfs. The identity fits with the dynamic movement of the game.The colour palette is very limited, it is black and white which is also works well, the main focused is on the imagery and type face. The grid system creates a very clear system to follow each detail on the page. The type face and grids also work well together, it is a eye catchy contemporary brand identity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Design is Future – Toormix

The Design of Future ‘congeresstival’ aimed to generate questions from the standpoint of design as innovative tool. The brand identity is designed to be vibrant type-driven visual communication materials, where visitors were invited to ‘travel’ to future through three worlds: the profession, company, and society. This branding is one of the designs which I was really excited about. The exhibition is about future technology and the visuals also represent this idea of futuristic elements. The vibrant in your face yellow catches visitors eye. The posters have very dynamic grid systems with use of bold sans serif type faces in thick and thin weights for hierarchy in body text. The block custom type face fits with the technology theme. There are illustrations linked with the earth and other planets floating around the page which completes the theme. The palette consists of yellow, black and white. I really liked the poster of astronauts in the middle and the large type face is covers parts of the imagery which is a smart technique to involve both elements. The use of yellow and white can be seen risky but I think the imagery is dark which all works well together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doing all these already about festival and exhibition branding has really helped me and given me many ideas for my own project. I think the next step is to figure out and finalise the visual style I want my branding to have, I also created a mood board of posters and type faces I really like. The next step is to do more research on posters, type faces and create a name for my project.

• Create a name for the exhibition
• More research on branding
• Search for potential type faces for logos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next step was to research designers, artists that focus on data collection rights, loss of identity and privacy. I also want to do some research on apps that collect data on our phones. I think when we are using it or clicking ‘I agree’ on the websites ‘cookies’ etc, we don’t know what that leads too. Many of us don’t read the terms and conditions before agreeing or signing up to an app. I did a little research on apps that collect data.

One of the main social media companies Facebook is hugely involved in the data collection rights, they have been in court for working with Cambridge Analytica and had to pay a huge fine to the leaking their users datas. Facebook has a massive data collection for millions of people around the world. I read some articles about the data collection scandals and it is mind blowing the amount of data they hold on each user. The extend of data leads to where you live, your conversations, images, voice notes, even to your camera and microphone. In the article, it says the data collected for each person can be hundreds of word documents.

“Facebook offers a similar option to download all your information. Mine was roughly 600MB, which is roughly 400,000 Word documents” 

“Google offers an option to download all of the data it stores about you. I’ve requested to download it and the file is 5.5GB big, which is roughly 3m Word documents”

The extreme levels of these data collections can be very dangerous if used by individuals such as seen in the past. It effected the democracy, your very basic human right of privacy and free will. This raises the question of will we ever have a democratic vote ever again, with al these extremely large data collections this seems like very unlikely. I focused on apps on our phones, I created a list of all the apps I use which stores my data. The list includes healthy app called Health which belongs to Apple, it comes already instilled and yo can activate it by agreeing. You can download your medical record, you can track you can count the steps you did in one day, how much calorie you lost, asks you about your age, weight, height basically every details about you. Before, researching about this topic to me that app seemed like a very easy way to track my health, I didn’t need to go to a GP to track how healthy I am. One of the main reasons we all use these apps because it makes our life easier but we don’t see the underlying factor of data collection.

Other apps that many people have on their phone are communication apps such as Whatsapp that belongs to Facebook, dating apps such as Tinder, social media such as Instagram, Twitter. Also, Apple has a feature on their latest phones of facial recognition and finger prints. You can unlock your phone with your finger print and facial recognition this can be seen as a huge technological feature  but we don’t really think the data collection side of it. This means Apple has the facial recognition of millions and millions of users. This is a massive data which is same as finger print, it us unique to everyone like signatures. In every part of our life from personal relationships, to our finger prints, personal details such as weight, height they are being collected as data from all these apps that we download on our phone. Google collected data of every single search you do on their browser, they know every single location you have been etc. The thought of all these are very concerning and shows the extreme level of surveillance, loss of identity, and loss of privacy in todays society. It shows the effects of technological advancements being used in a way to control our life.

DESIGNERS,ARTISTS,EXHIBITIONS.

EXHIBITION: Future and Arts: Al Robotics, Cities life- How Humanity will live tomorrow?

This exhibition in Mori Art Museum in Japan focuses on the future of human life, city life and humanity in general. They questions such things like ‘What Is True Affluence, What Is It to Be Human, What Is Life?’ focused on the impact technological advancements in our everyday life and focuses on artificial intelligence will then replace human intelligence, the advent of “singularity” will potentially usher in enormous changes to our society and lifestyles. Another development, that of blockchain technology, looks set to build new levels of trust and value into our social systems, while advances in biotechnology will have a major impact on food, medicine, and the environment. The exhibition has more than 100 works installations, art works that question the many questions about the future of humanity. The exhibition will aim to encourage us to contemplate cities, environmental issues, human lifestyles and the likely state of human beings as well as human society – all in the imminent future, via cutting-edge developments in science and technology including AI, biotechnology, robotics, and AR (augmented reality), plus art, design, and architecture influenced by all these.

 

I researched some artist that focus on the topic of data rights, surveillance and loss of identity. I believe doing this research it would help me finalise the purpose of my exhibition and what would be in the exhibition for viewers. These are the questions I a still trying to find answers.

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE

They focused on quantified this data regarding to the privacy risks that users take in posting photos, which are often at odds with their own stated privacy preferences or policies. They were able to identify sixty-eight categories of risk in the form of information that machines are able to glean in photos. This includes details in like recognisible geographic features in background, wedding rings suggested relationship status, objects in the image that might indicate medical history, a child hand holding an object that might indicate parental status and many more elements which people don’t notice. Every photo people upload on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook can be processes in the way to gain detailed data about the person.

ANN HIRSCH & MARISA OLSON

The two artists focus on social media and sharing, surveillance, data. They focus on photographs, formerly meta data, and between a media user/consumer’s clinging to a right of private versus a tendency to rampantly overshare. This also links to Roomba vacuum cleaners autonomously collecting data about their owners home layouts and life style that then can be used by Apple, Google and Amazon.

MARTINE SYMS

2004-2016 her work on digital realm, a set of flat screens streaming real time data from Twitter and other social media sources. Gives a good sense of the persuasive influence of digital technology on daily life, whether in police surveillance  or assignment of people stars status. Also, focuses on smart phone on finger wok to access it’s information.

ZACH BLAS

Blas is an another artist that focused on the facial recognition features in phones and the data collected. He has designed a blobby pink plastic mask to thwart facial recognition scanning, a technology within the potential, possibly already realised, of using racial and sexual stereotypical to isolate groups of social undesirables. His idea focuses on a different aspect of facial recognition datas that undermine different sexual group and racial groups.

Zach Blas, Fag Face Mask, October 2012, from the series Facial Weaponization Suite ©the artist October 20, 2012 , Los Angeles, CA

 

Reference:

https://www.mori.art.museum/en/exhibitions/future_art/index.html

https://aperture.org/blog/image-public-private-secret/

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/09/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-microchip/570946/

https://mashable.com/2014/03/07/biometrics-facial-scan-mask/?europe=true

https://www.axios.com/china-us-technology-surveillance-state-5672b822-fdde-45f9-ac77-e7b5574e9351.html

https://www.bustle.com/p/6-apps-that-collect-personal-data-because-faceapp-isnt-the-only-one-18218630

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/28/all-the-data-facebook-google-has-on-you-privacy

The Great Hack

After talking to David, I really liked the idea of data collection but I didn’t have much knowledge on it so I did some research on cases of data collection. A documentary film on Netflix called The Great Hack focuses on data collection case. As I was watching the film I made notes on significant facts.I was moving away from the human micro chipping implant idea as data collection I felt like had more to do and I would be able to move it forward in the project. The film focuses harvested data was used for psychological profiling to target America voters with pro-Trump content in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections. These datas were harvested by a company called Cambridge Analytica. Also, the film includes David Carroll, an American professor who sued Cambridge Analytica following an insufficient response to a data subject access request.

“We are now a commodity”

In the film, it is said that Cambridge Analytica carried out the pro-Trump campaign called  ‘Project Alamo‘. In this project, they spent $1 million a day on facebook ads, also on Youtube and Twitter. Cambridge Analytica had all the data and they would target each state in America, they claimed to have 5,000 data points on every American citizen. The way they collected data was surveys on Facebook, the small short surveys that would tell you things about personality etc. Cambridge Analytica would ‘predict personality behaviour’ and from this they would obviously influence how you vote. In the film, they also use another case of Ted Cruz campaigns in America, the Cambridge Analytica worked on their campaign too. There were many news headlines called ‘Ted Cruz campaign credits psychological data and analytics for its rising success’ Cambridge Analytica would mine facts about people from Facebook, harvesting data from each person and their friends, family, post shares, images, videos, status updates and private messages. All these facts would be collected as data to figure out where they stand in the voting. This was called ‘psychological profile’.  The people who were not sure on who to vote would be seen from all these data points and would be called ‘the persuadables’, that group of people then would be targeted in the campaign, with fake news, statuses, ‘you might like this’ sections, recommendations. All the psychological targeting effected the Trump election 2016. Also, the documentary gives more examples that this happened around the world such as Brexit 2017, DO SO campaigns.

Investigator journalist for the Guardian Carole Cadwallader, she investigated Cambridge Analytica how that ties to Brexit Campaign leaving the EU. There are evidence that Cambridge Analytica was also involved in the Leave EU campaigns, all the evidences are shown in the documentary.

There are other cases like this where a company uses data to target their costumers or users such as Roomba Vacuum cleaners company mapping out peoples homes and sharing them with Google, Amazon or Apple.

In addition, I was researching for more data collection cases and I found an article that focuses on China and their surveillance systems. China has sophisticated systems of state surveillance, and elements of these systems have long been powered by technologies developed by American companies. Beijing has used U.S. tech to surveil its citizens, violate human rights and even modernize its military. Some companies have pulled out of China of their own accord in the past. Google refused to censor its search engine in China in 2010, leading to its ouster from the country. Other companies may follow suit if they realize their technology is being misused. I also want to focus on the recent news of researchers in China have developed an ultra-powerful camera capable of identifying a single person among stadium crowds of tens of thousands of people. The 500-megapixel camera was developed by scientists at Fudan University, in conjunction with Changchun Institute of Optics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Its resolution is five-times more detailed than the human eye but it is not the most high-resolution camera ever developed. A 570-megapixel camera was put to work at an observatory in Chile in 2018, however its purpose is to point skywards in the hope of observing distant galaxies. This camera is however used as surveillance in the society, it uses facial recognition technology combined with real time tracking can spot and pick a person in a stadium full of people. There are an estimated 170 million CCTV cameras currently operating in China – the equivalent of one for every 12 people in the country. This shows the extreme surveillance system in the country with also media bans and restrictions. This a huge human rights use of extreme surveillance and control. Another way that shows Chinas extreme levels is the so-called “spy bird” programme uses flocks of robotic birds equipped with high-resolution cameras in order to secretly surveil people on the ground.

The extreme surveillance systems benefit the China’s social credit systems, which gives people rankings depending on their behaviour. This reminded of the Black Mirror episode, season 3 episode 1 called”Nosedive”. In this episode, people give each other rankings on their phones, the story focuses on a young woman obsessing about her ranking and creating fake relationships with people to increase her rankings. So China’s social credit systems people with low scores will face difficulties finding a home, finding a job or placing their child in a desired school. I don’t know the way system works or how you increase your credits but it seems like the more you follow the rules in the society and obey the values your credits will go up. This is a system of control, people would be living in fear.

“By rating citizens on a range of behaviours from shopping habits to online speech, the government intends to manufacture a problem-free society,” Human Rights Watch researcher Maya Wang wrote in a blog post about the programme.

From all this research,I want to focus on data collection rights and the process of loss of identity and privacy. I feel like I have enough knowledge and the next part of the process I want to research designers, artists who focus on data collection, privacy, loss of identity in society,

 

References:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/cruz-campaign-credits-psychological-data-and-analytics-for-its-rising-success/2015/12/13/4cb0baf8-9dc5-11e5-bce4-708fe33e3288_story.html

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/24/facebook-to-pay-5bn-fine-as-regulator-files-cambridge-analytica-complaint

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/25/roomba-maker-could-share-maps-users-homes-google-amazon-apple-irobot-robot-vacuum

https://www.axios.com/china-us-technology-surveillance-state-5672b822-fdde-45f9-ac77-e7b5574e9351.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/china-surveillance-camera-facial-recognition-privacy-a9131871.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2019/02/18/china-facial-recognition-database-leak-sparks-fears-over-mass-data-collection/#1f6931c4fb40

The topic I want to focus this project was Human micro chipping implants, the topic fits in with the modify theme as it shows the changes and developments in technology focused on humans. It also relates to trans humanism aspects and to whether what will life be like for humans in 50 years. Human micro chipping implants is a huge development and there is a divide between whether is it practical or dangerous.

Chipping implants first started in Sweden and there is a huge part of the population already been chipped. The implant in human bodies could transform the way  you tackle many everyday tasks. There are positive aspects which some people focus on such as one of the articles I read people argue microchips reduce the amount of personal items employees need to carry also makes the tasks easier. The first experiment with RFID implant were carried out in 1998 by the British Scientist Adam Walker. The RFID is transponder encased in silicate glass which is then implanted in the body, the way it works is the radio waves transmit data from the tag to a reader, which then transmits the information to an RFID computer program. The common use of RFID is for pets, in commonly in America the owners use RFID implants to track their pets incase of lost or kidnapping.

The implants can have benefits to humans such as  can be beneficial to employers in hard labour jobs. I found an article which had a real life case of a person talking about their experience with the chip and they explained their opinion. Hannes Sjoblad said “I use this many times a day, for example, I use it to unlock my smart phone, to open doors to my office”. He believes the implant is designed to make his life easier. He also calls himself “biohackers”, “human body is a good start but there is a room for improvement”. He believes in trans humanism that technology and science will increase the human life experience. One of the things I thought very interesting was he said he has ‘chipping party’ with other people in his community who also have the implant. This creates a community and belonging system to people. This raises the issue of whether in future if implants will become very popular would the society be divided into ‘chipped’ or ‘non chipped’ For the exhibition, I don’t know which area I want to focus and I need to figure out what I’m trying to say to people who come to the exhibition it needs to purpose.

For humans, the chip implantation cost would be $150 & $200 said Angela Flucher, Applied Digital Spokeswoman. The implants have spread across to world to now UK, USA and rapidly to other countries. A UK based company Bioteq launched in 2017 does human chipping RFID implants. In the website, they have the slogan of ‘Human re-engineering’, they also sell implant kits for people to purchase.  All these technological advancements of chipping implants, customised babies etc they are all part of the extropianism belief of evolving framework of values and standard for continuously improving human condition. By changing the nature of a process seems to be the development to benefit the human life.

Black Mirror TV series on Netflix focuses stories that tap into the collective unease about the modern world including microchipping implants. “Arkangel” is the second episode of the fourth series of anthology series Black Mirror. In the episode, “Arkangel” is the name of an implanted chip technology that allows a parent to track and monitor their children, as well as pixelate images that would cause them distress. The episode focuses on effects on chipping, parental control and humanism. I watched the episode to get a clear idea of the message they want to communicate. They were showing the dangerous effects of the idea of controlling someones mind. In this episode, the mother controls her daughters life through an app, she was able to blur things she doesn’t want her to see, she was able to check her health on the app, how she was feeling, what was scaring her etc. I thought in a way that episode can be reflected on the society the way media and government controls the things we watch on tv, see on social media, they can watch our actions by surveillance cameras. With that idea of being monitored, controlled I also focused on George Orwell’s book ‘1984’. The story is set in a dystopian April 1984, nearly 40 years after the end of the second world war, and a few years after the so-called Atomic Wars, Winston Smith is a middle-aged man who endures a squalid existence in the totalitarian superstate of Oceania under the constant surveillance of the Thought Police. Orwell focuses on the idea of surveillance and the term ‘Orwellian’ was created him and  is used by many people in the society. Orwellian is an adjective describing a situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society.

Today I had a tutorial with Theo as a group,  I had the chance to tell the group my idea of focusing an exhibition on human chipping implants. Theo’s feedback was positive and he suggested that I should do further research  on topics such as Extropianism, trans humanism. After the tutorial, I was still finding it hard to have a clear idea in my head of what I was going to do. I didn’t know where to take this idea, to which perspective I want the exhibition to be about whether an informative, related to science and technology exhibition  or something that has an opinion whether against such advancements like chipping. I was also really interested in the idea of surveillance, controlled society idea from the Black Mirror research. I then spoke to David about all these ideas in my head, he suggested I should decide what the purpose of this exhibition is, what I want to be included in the exhibition. I told him I want to focus on the surveillance side or the effect of all the advancement in society that can be negative. He suggested I should do some research on data collection which can be linked to my ideas.

References:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/11/alarm-over-talks-to-implant-uk-employees-with-microchips

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2145896/thousands-people-sweden-get-microchip-implants-new-way-life

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/microchips-privacy-implants-biohacking/

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2018/october/why-implanted-microchips-in-humans-are-about-to-go-big

 

I carried on searching about others themes and topics like beyond borders and modify. For the theme beyond borders I focused on the word ‘beyond’. So I wanted to do something about the universe so it’s outside of the borders of the earth. I watched a documentary about sun and I was really amazed by the sun storms happening on the sun and the diagrams and images from those sun storms were fascinating. I think one of the topics I found interesting was what would happen if a massive solar storm hit the earth.When a sun storm happens,  we need to calculate how fast or close it is to earth and if it isn’t calculated and communicated fast enough it could hit the earth and the damage can be significant big. I searched about sun storms why they happen and visuals from those data. I could design a sculpture exhibition focusing on the sun storm or how the earth would look like after an explosion. I think this would be a very interesting topic and the outcomes for the exhibition can be good.

Also, focusing on the beyond border theme on the earth. The question of what would happen if the world was borderless is a common question and there are lots of people with positive and negative opinions about it. I can create an alternative world exhibition where designers artists show their alternative world focusing on freedom, borderless environment. I also searched for synonyms for beyond and border which could help the idea for focusing on solar storm or the borderless world idea. The words that caught my attention was afterlife, eternity, boundary, enclose.

I think the two ideas can really be searched into and used as the project for the exhibition. However, I still wasn’t able to make a decision and I had to cut down my ideas into 2 as the more I was thinking I had new ideas which confused me even more.

Modify

making changes to something

The last theme that I hadn’t looked much into was modify, the word means making changes to something. This theme could be adapted to an environmental issue or political or social issues in the society. But I wanted to focus on the technological and social aspect of it. The word modify synonyms are alter, customise, adjust, adapt, reform. I think as the alter and adjust words gave me the idea to focus on the changes in the technology on human behavior and way of life. The technology is growing and improving which results in changes in our lives and this can be in a good or bad way. A topic we I have had conversations with my friends was human microchipping implants. At first it seems like it is not possible but in Sweden a huge population of the country have had a chip implanted on their left hand. I’ve read few articles focusing on this issue and I think this is  a huge change into our life. This technology changes the way you live and it is spreading across the world. I think this is a very interesting topic, an exhibition focusing on changes in human life, being chipped and monitored by people. The idea behind this technology was to improve human life but there are huge discussions and arguments to whether this is correct.

The exhibition would be about the way technology altered our life and how we are being controlled and watched. To the society, this is portrayed as an improvement to their life however it can be used in an unethical way. Many articles discuss this issue so I would be doing a lot of research reading into cases and some articles speak to people who have been chipped and their perspective. The exhibition would consist artists focusing on being controlled and creating a world to show how our life would be in 20 years time.

Speaking to few of my peers and Theo I think modify human chipping implants is the topic I want to base my project on and create exhibition materials focused on future of humans. I will carry on researching more into the chipping process and effects on humans around the world. I still don’t have the main idea and purpose of the exhibition but I think when I do more research into the cases. I found a UK based company that does chipping implants. The website gives you information and even sells “implant kits” for people. The chipping implants started m Sweden and now moving across the world.  For the exhibition I could as I said focus on the impacts of these implants.

Today I started the research about the On Display brief. This brief was launched few weeks ago and we had time to focus on the themes involving the project. The brief consists of choosing a theme from the list given to us and base our project on a topic related to the theme. The project is to create a branding identity for an exhibition. The branding identity involves creating a name for the  exhibition, logos, leaflets, way finding designs and other digital outcomes. To start off the project I researched about themes that I found interesting. Those themes were codification, brutalist architecture, glitch, etymology.

codification

the action or process of arranging laws or rules according to a system or plan.

The way I researched about the type of codifications, there are several system which if I research into them I can find a topic on this theme to base my project on.

• Alphabetic system,
• Simple numeric or sequence system,
• Combination system,
• Block system,
• Decimal system,

The reason this theme seemed interesting as I can see the type of visuals I can create, playing around with type and numbers to show the codification system. I am still unsure on the topic that relates to codification. I started to research topics I had an idea of linking codification to human behavior. I used the codification into human behavior  and how our brain works the way it does. I think this could be a good starting point and clear path for me to find an interesting topic for the exhibition. My other ideas were focusing on colour codification,

reference

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-body/mind-brain/

Glitch

a sudden, usually temporary malfunction or fault of equipment.

Another theme that I found interesting was glitch. I liked this theme as I had ideas about the type of visuals I could create using distortion on type and imagery. The things I’d focus on the glitch was to start researching articles, stories that are interesting. I wanted to move away from the cliche ideas or visuals for glitch as it can be repetitive and I have created designs focused on distortion. An interesting topic I found was real life glitches. I found an article that focused on glitches in real life, photographs of ‘fault’ or unusual things. I think as an exhibition it could be interesting focusing on real life things, for way-finding system or the visuals on leaflets etc could be interesting. Another idea or topic that I found interesting was human consciousness and hallucinations. I think researched into what is hallucination and why it happens. It is defined as a brain glitch, hearing, seeing or smelling things that don’t exist out of their mind. It’s known to be related to chemical reactions in your bran. I think an exhibition focused on hallucination could be interesting, I could research into the causes of hallucinations and why some people have them more often  An addition, the causes of hallucinations are linked with several illnesses such as Schizophrenia. More than 70% of people with this illness get visual hallucinations, and 60%-90% hear voices, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. I think these ideas are good and with experimentation the outcomes would be good. However I wanted to search more into other themes and ideas.

glitched images taken by people 

I also thought I could focus on illusion, it may not be directly related to glitch as glitch is more of a computer system fault or crash but I liked the concept. I first searched for words related to illusion to which i can use as the exhibition name or can be used in the short animation. The words were mainly delusion, impression, imitation, vision, deception. I liked the words delusion and deception. I was researching about hallucinations, one of the articles on the side was called ‘what if universe is an illusion’. The articles talks about how some scientists do believe that we live in a hologram and that there is a distinct possibility. This is part of the simulation theory when researched in depth I think I could create interesting visuals. I can create visuals focused o holograms and the idea of fake reality is an interesting concept to research.

references:

https://brightside.me/wonder-curiosities/27-times-people-caught-real-life-glitches-568210/
https://www.space.com/39510-are-we-living-in-a-hologram.html

 

The first small project we were given was to create 100 marques for ourselves. Branding for yourself is an important part of your portfolio. It can bring together your practices and should give an insight to clients and companies about you. To start of the project, I did some research on what makes a good personal logo, what reflects my personality and style as a designer.  I did a small mind map of ideas noting down ideas and symbols that I believe reflects me as a person. Some were basic initials ‘by’ ideas, use of shapes and lines to create my name mainly typography. The initials are simple and clean idea but it can be seen cliche and it doesn’t fit in the aesthetic I want to achieve with my logo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to do some research on existing logos for more ideas. I had a look at books form the library which focuses on several types of logos. I found few designs which fit in with the clean and contemporary aesthetic I want to achieve. I wanted to stay from the corporate, traditional logo types as I believe that style doesn’t represent me as a designer. Traditional, corporate logos focus on dark colours, versatile and mainly all have very similar aesthetics trying to achieve goal of being recognised by costumers. I took few photos of logos I found interesting from the book, especially the design on the right. It was designed by Taste Inc, 1995 for Treasury Shigemura, Architecture Practice, Japan. The logo is a beautiful contemporary typography line work. The main aim for the graphic designers in Taste Inc was to create work that has ‘international language’. Graphic designers in Japan had to master the art of designing logos that work on purely visual terms, often abstract forms and striking colours. At first glance, logo looks like series of Japanese characters or meaningless minimalist squiggles however, when the T joins the S, it looks complete and it all makes sense. This is a very smart logo which doesn’t exploit the western architectural symbols of high tower buildings or other cliches. The logos on the left also caught my attention due to their focus different weights of type and mainly typography.

I started the idea process by creating 15-20 logos everyday. By this way, I wasn’t pushing myself too much or getting bored from m ideas. I think doing a little research before looking at ideas influenced by work as I could see what kind of styles I actually liked and would want to use.

 

These are some of the ideas I came up with using my initials and other symbols that represents me. First of all I focused on the initials ‘by’ so I can get them on paper and move on to different ideas. The initials mainly are lower case b and y, as seen on the number 17, I didn’t want to have sans serif or serif fonts so I sketched a very free hand unstructured b and y heavy weight bold and merged into each other. I also added the two dots which can be seen in many designs illustrated in some parts. The two dots are from my name,In the Turkish alphabet the u has two dots on top and it can never be pronounced correctly by people and my friends. I thought this can be a funny metaphor and visually it looks interesting, it could make question what the two dots mean. The logo 17 was one of my favourite as I wanted to screenprint them and layer it. It could look too much as a logo but I like screen printing so I wanted to involve that in the process. I tried to make the logos interesting and unique. Also, number 38 was seen as as creative from some of my friends in the presentation day. It is blocks of shapes as seen on the left. The idea behind this was to use shapes to write my first name, each shape represents each letter. I could take this idea in different directions as seen on number 14, it is layered on each other so it’s not too long. I added colours as well as black and white can seem too professional or boring.

These are other ideas that I liked and they vary in styles. In some of them I used symbols that I believe represents me. An example number 68 and 69 you can see outlines of mountains. The idea was the small village I was born in there’s a lot of  mountains so it represents where I’m from. Then I placed my name in simple type face around or inside the mountain. I think this could look more complete in a circle border black and white negative space. It would make it stand out more and create a contract. Also, I played around with the letter s and u. The letter s in my name also has a small dash at the bottom. I merged the letters u and s seen on number 62. These are the letters that doesn’t get used when pronounced, when used together they kind of create a simple minimal symbol. When added colour I think it would look interesting.

research materials:

Logo, Micheal Evamy, 2007, Laurence King Publishing

Logo Lounge Volume 4, Fishel and Gardner

Today it was the launch of the 48 hour project which focuses on Student Voice in the university. The aim was to create branding identity for Student Voice with several outcomes. The brief stated that they wanted rebranding which would be used in several campaigns in around the university both internal and external. The key objectives was to create campaign posters which raised awareness to Student Voice and create a brand for students that can be recognised by Cardiff Met students and people in Cardiff. It campaign outcomes should be engaging, eye catchy, vibrant but also should be appropriate to corporate university standards. It should convey messages of listening to students and for them to engage in the surveys which will improve their student life in the campus and outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a group we decided to brain storm ideas from the brief. The clients didn’t specify the specific outcomes they are expecting , for this reason we had freedom and could take this to any direction we wanted. To start off, we focused on artists the type of styles we like on posters and visuals which we find engaging and eye catchy. Our main focus was Cardiff city, for students what kind of things catch out attention. The main attraction was the graffiti around the city which can be seen in town centre and other areas of city. Graffiti is a type of art associated with young people and also is a style which can be used to create engaging, unique visuals. An example, the long wall in town centre consists of several graffitis from different artists around Cardiff. This was the start of point for our project, we wanted to focus on students interests and graffiti seemed like a style where it represents us and the style is what we all find interesting. In addition ,we felt like other groups might not choose that style as it can be seen risky and too bold but we wanted to create dynamic visuals with a unique style. It reflects the youth and the corporate style wouldn’t suit the target audience however, branding visuals with have both elements to meet the clients needs.

 

grafiti posters/pics

We collected images and art works that inspired us and could influence our designs. The graffiti style is very bold and can be seen too much for the university standards and the aesthetics they are expecting from us. The main focus on this brief is to focus on the message we want to give across to the students, the make them feel welcomed and supported. The graffiti language may not fit in with the message  Student Voice is aiming to achieve. To make the tone of the voice more subtle however still focusing on students interests we decided we should bring cartoon style and mix both elements together. By this way, the visuals would be playful and dynamic focusing on bright colours to increase the level attention but also to create a strong brand image for Student Voice.

We started the idea process by focusing on the ‘Voice’ word to come up with imagery and symbol that fit in well with the theme but also not cliche like a megaphone. Our focus was to create a  contemporary dynamic visuals and branding that fits in with trends in society today. The voice word gave us ideas of sound waves, with this idea we could create illustrated playful type faces. Jack mentioned artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. We liked the idea of focusing on pop art and it would fit in with the cartoon, graffiti style. We decided to focus on a mouth. This would fit well with the student voice theme and if used in a smart way can be a nice metaphor. It seemed very cliche at the start but I believe in the form of pop art and graffiti it would look really good. The idea was to illustrate the form was ‘talking’, speaking up about your opinions and getting involved. To capture the form of speaking up we came up with the idea of a big mouth with lots of illustrations and patterns like sound waves around it to capture ‘shouting’

These are the illustrations Georgia designed, we decided to go with the  third one which has the most patterns, the mouth is placed side ways which visually looked better. Using this illustrations we all started to add colour and decided to base our campaign around it as the main imagery. We also decided on the type face style, as bubble hand drawn style which also relates to graffiti styles. We wanted the type face to be playful and thick in weight. First I had the idea of creating type using sound waves, type which floated and merged into one another. This idea would really suit the theme however, the illustration is very heavy on the page, we decided to keep the type face simple to balance the visuals.

The type face above will be used in posters and other outcomes materials such as phone cases, note books, badges, leaflets etc. The type face is  playful but also simple to compliment the illustration. For the posters, the student voice was illustrated and merged to create the title. The words merge and blend together and create a border in a sense to help hierarchy.

Before the finalised title design, we were using the title above but David gave us the feedback that it reads as ‘voiceo’ due to the way T was drawn. A few of our peers said the same thing so we decided to change the the t into something more simple. We tried few different ways like it been a long exclamation mark and rounds the same way floating under the voice. It didn’t look seem to work that way so we decided to just have a round exclamation mark after voice in the same style as S.

The coloured versions of the title to each posters designs. I created 4 poster designs in the same style but with different colours from the illustrations. Holly created 4 different illustrations using different colours from those I made 4 posters and phone case mock ups. For the title, we used colour palette of #f6d4ff, #f5804a, #eb4097. They are all bold vibrant colours, the colour palette is very diverse full of bright colours. All 4 illustrations have several different colours but we decided on 4 main background colour for each poster which can be used in several different locations in the campus, it can also be used for events depending on the time of the year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the first 2 posters I designed using the illustration and the type face. I added pattern I created on Photoshop using the liquify tool to flow the style on the illustration. The round spikes coming out around the illustration work well together creating a one image which fills in the space on the poster and creates a dynamic on the page. First poster, I chose to use the background colour lighter to let illustration stand out, the hierarchy on the page starts from the main image positioned on the centre of the page. The title sits on the centre top to focus the eye on the poster. The colour of the title was chosen from the illustration a vibrant orange as in colour psychology it’s seen to increase the level of attention and memory performance. The body text of information is placed at the bottom to use the space on the page effectively. I chose the sub heading the same colour as the title to create a consistency and body text is also dark blue which is also used in the illustration. I believe this is a dynamic poster which represents students and a visual which will catchy peoples attention walking around the campus. I think the layout is simple there is a structure which people can following and everything is positioned in the centre to increase readability. The corporate logo of Student Voice placed on the bottom right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the other 2 posters which are in the same layout style but different colour palettes. The reason for this decision is because I wanted consistency, if all designs looked completely different this would make it harder for people to recognise the brand. This main aim for the brief to create a branding where people recognise and catch peoples attention. The layout is not playful but overall each element on the poster works well together. There is a main colour coordination between titles and illustration creating a dynamic poster.

 

 

 

 

 

These are the 4 illustrations used in posters. The main colours are blue, yellow, green and orange. Orange is known to increase memory performance and level of attention this works well with creating an eye catchy poster. Green represents earthy welcoming mood and yellow and blue also calming, vibrant colours. We chose a broad colour palette because most visuals created in the past focus on 2-3 colours which seem boring and it doesn’t fit the target audience.

I created a phone case mock up as freebies which can be used in Student Voice events. The designed follow the same colour palettes using the illustration and the title. I think they are really nice designs which can be used by students and other people. Holly created a wall mural mock up seen below. We thought we can have the illustration on the wall in one of the buildings in the campus. This would attract everyones attention walking past from students to teachers. It can be used in town for the public to advertise the Student Voice events and other advertising materials.

 

These are the other freebie mockups badges and notebooks which can be given in events. These boost the brand image and we focused on students needs as these are the materials we all use.

evaluation

I really enjoyed the 48 hr project, before the launch I was nervous to where we can create something a final project in very short amount of time. However, once we got into groups, each member of the group worked together and brain stormed for unique interesting ideas. I like the theme of our project, I think it’s a has a different direction and it’s risky but I’m very happy with the outcomes. This project showed me how much work can be done in short amount of time, also working together as a team and being organised impacted our motivation and the quality of our outcomes. I believe we created designs that would meet the needs of the clients, focusing on students but also keeping it university appropriate. Also, it has a strong brand identity, everyone can recognise it from a bold illustration which is one of the aims of the Student Voice.