Tuesday, October 26, 2010

MX: Refine Refine Refine

During this round of iterations, Tammy and I tried to 1. work together on creating a beautiful webpage. 2. refining the icons for each 3. keeping the brand consistent and making it rich.








I'm really liking the way our website is shaping up. I think for sure now, both Tammy and I's styles are coming together quite nice. I'm diggin the large type with the integration of beautiful imagery, as well as our grid structure to the website. Once we make some final design decisions and open up the space between pods, there should be a clear hierarchy and a nice balance between text and image.




Sunday, October 24, 2010

DESIGNSYS: Touchpoints A: Revised

BUS CARD 1

BUS CARD 2

LETTERHEAD POSSIBILITY 1

LETTERHEAD POSSIBILITY 2

LETTERHEAD POSSIBILITY 3

ENVELOPE

STATIONARY

Friday, October 22, 2010

TRAVELAIR: Touchpoints A - First Round

An Envelope

My Brand Identity

Billboards

Stationary – Notepad, Post it, Letterhead

Buttons & Business Cards

Uniform/Passenger Wearables

Thursday, October 14, 2010

VA: Meeting Angel from the 42nd Street Mural Project and the creation of Ralph the Rosedalian

Mo and I met with Angel Dew, who is the creative mind behind Rosedale's 42nd Street Mural Project, this past Wednesday (10/13). Mo and I felt that she was a great person to get in contact with for our project about addressing Rosedale's distinct boundaries and community pride issue. Angel lives in Rosedale, and is an active supporter for gaining help for her community. She worked with schools in the Rosedale community and also the got some funding to start the project. About halfway through the project, the funding was pulled and the mural was unfinished. Still today, there are open canvas's ready to be filled. She said spaces are available for any artists, however, it's all volunteer based and artists have to provide their own paint as well as get their mural approved by Wendy Wilson.

After presenting our ideas and prototypes to Angel, we could tell she was excited. She was a great source as far as helping us improve our efforts of effective prototyping. She thinks we should attack multiple banners off Rainbow Blvd, to create a higher impact for drivers coming from both directions. With the fire hydrants, she agrees that it's a great way to easily create a sense of place. Again, I think multiple installations of this would be effective. And finally, most of her excitement came from the idea of guerilla stenciling engaging and interactive messages. We're going to stencil "We _______ Rosedale." and fill in some blanks as well as leave some blank with pieces of chalk nearby. We want to know what the Rosedale community thinks.

Angel strongly pushed the idea of gaining help from KU MED. They are the biggest influence in the area, and she said are most likely the ones able to help fund and support the surrounding community. Angel also gave us some other resourceful people to get in contact with from KU MED, the Community Outreach Program, the Latino Medical Association, the Kansas City Arts Center, and the Kansas City Star. Angel also said she would help us with some stenciling action. She's really excited and wants to be involved, which is AWESOME!

RALPH THE ROSEDALIAN
At 12:30am Thursday morning, Ralph the Rosedalian was brought to life. Located right off 43rd Street across from Frank Rushton Elementary, Ralph stands with his eyes wide open, and his bow tie straight, saying "Hello!" to Rosedale and passing commuters. I followed up around noon that day and Ralph was still intact greeting me as I went to take his picture. More feedback to come on how Ralph interacts with his community.










Tuesday, October 12, 2010

MX: IPHONE VISUAL DIRECTIONS




















Gap goes back



SWEET! GAP decided to change the logo back to the old logo. Gap switched back to the old logo so quickly that their facebook page didn't change at all to the new logo.

Monday, October 11, 2010

ROSEDALE: PROTOTYPES

These are my sketches for Lance and I's three ideas, or you could call them prototypes. I basical have some visual representations of what were thinking of doing.



Here is what we did in class today. We took these as templates and basically drew all over them, it was a good way to keep our ideas contained within these directions.




Mo and Lance's brainstorming via Mo's Blog post

Lance and I have done a lot of brainstorming for this project. We always go back to our question which is "how can graphic design help give the Rosedale district distinct boundaries and a greater sense of community pride?". We have focused a lot on the banners, because it seems to be the one thing that everyone goes to first. Every member of the Rosedale community has either hinted at or told us that they need new banners, or would at least like to see them. It is hard to really bridge away from this solution since it is wanted so badly from the community members. Lance and I have thought about the banners, and maybe making them participatory.

Maybe the kids draw the artwork? What if someone were to ask them to draw their vision of Rosedale, and that gets printed on the banners? They would then feel directly apart of the community, and they would have a semi-permanent mark within it. They would be proud, and would want to show it off to their family and friends.

What if the old banners were re-claimed and turned into handbags that are sold at a local market to promote grocery shopping? Or maybe the bags are sold at the church's to promote library usage, because it is good for holding educational material?

We also thought about points of positive interest within Rosedale being accentuated. For example, the fire hydrants are a positive thing. They could be painted by the kids, and this would be subtle, but powerful if you were to come across one.

The idea of stenciling seems very appealing as well, being it is affective and affordable. It also won't damage the surfaces if chalk or natural materials are used. The stencils could sustain many uses as well. These could say many different things such as factual information, or emotional snippets. For example, "the Rosedale farmer's market is from 12-3 on Sundays at the health center" or "visit us at www.rosedale.org for more information".

Lance and I have contacted Angel Dew who was the coordinator for the 42nd Street mural, and she believes strongly in the arts within Rosedale. She mentioned her want for a youth art center behind the mural, and this was of interest to both Lance and I. Although it might be better to consider for a degree project, we are going to keep this in mind.

The directional signs that are used in Rosedale could also be altered to give a sense of distinction. For example all of the signs that are in Rosedale could be a different color compared to Kansas Cities. This would be a simple change, but it could be just enough to mark Rosedale.

Lance and I also talked heavily about taking an old photograph of Rosedale and painting parts of it around the city. It would fit together like a puzzle, and could go on display in the park or something. Although, this idea was highly revolved around us and not necessarily the members of the community. We see this as a problem.

I will say that it is difficult to try and rule out the banners for the sake of good brainstorming, because we know that Rosedalians want new banners pretty badly. So, we are trying to brainstorm deeper into the idea of banners. How can the banners stem across other systems, and help out the community in a dual fashion?