T4: Type Conference Final Process

Micah and I began with Beneath the Surface. We ended with Duplicity, TypeCon's 2012 conference theme dealing with form and perception. In my opinion, getting to where we ended in final critique was a very long process to go through. In the identity alone, Micah and I kept coming up with more and more ideas on how this theme of multiple messages residing in one form could evolve. Throughout the beginning stages, our identity was constantly being questioned. Is this reflecting our type experiments? Is this reflecting BOTH of our experiments? Should we use an icon?

When we began thinking of our artifacts, we knew we wanted ones that were not only different than usual, but ones that reflected the multiple forms of our project. Our six artifacts were 1. a custom typeface, thanks to fontstruct 2. a mailer 3. laptop sleeve 4. name tags 5. venue banner 6. iphone app.

To recap, the mailer contained information about the conference, a return mailer that is perforated to be returned for further information, and a poster. The laptop sleeve contains patterning on the inside, while the outside houses the logotype. The name tags were unique in that they provided a way for attendees to network with no excuses with the perforated pad of name tags that could be handed off. We even thought of possibly making that for the iphone so attendees could "bump" their business card to one another. For our venue banner, it has three sides to it so that when they are hung vertically, they would ideally rotate allowing an attendee to view the different messages that are around the banner. And finally, the iphone app would contain the schedule of the conference, providing the attendee with choices between sessions and different sneak peek bios on some of the guest speakers.

To restate, our venue that we chose was the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. We originally chose it because of it's multiple floors and multiple rooms which allowed for lots of workshops, breakout sessions, and whatever else that would be in our conference. There is also a place for speakers to speak in the auditorium and Rozelle Court. During critique on Friday, one of our guests judges pointed out that there was also a nice contrast between the old and new architecture which plays well with our conference theme.

Overall, I'm really happy with where we ended up. Of course some things could still be fine tuned a little more...such as the mailer, but I think our artifacts are strong. Plus, Duplicity is a way better name than Beneath the Surface!

VISUAL PROCESS