Wednesday, April 28, 2010

InfoArch: Matchbook Website

BEHOLD, my matchbook collection website. Below is my pdf progression of my how to navigate through the website. To recap, I wanted to highlight my illustrations and not have anything too distracting from them, but I also wanted something to sort of showcase them also. It's a classic/old school dated sort of look with the color illustrations. I think there's a nice mix within the website and a good balance between what's digital and what's analog. The wood in the background is to reflect a bar top because when I thought about where matchbooks might live, I thought bars are a good place to expect them. Not all of these matchbooks are from bars, though I don't think that matters.

There's an about page...about the collector and his collection.
A quick history of matchbooks page.
Then, let the sorting begin. First by location, alphabetically.
Then by venue.
and last by size.
The rollovers are a colorized square that is overlaid each matchbook. Just a subtle signifier of where you are.

The matchbook pages are pretty simple. Large image of the matchbook with a quick history overview. The bottom right corner has a "compare" button. This allows the user to view the infographics.
One of the infographic pages it might lead to.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Type 4: Conference Criticism

Type 4: Duplicity Artifacts

Duplicity to restate:

Duplicity Theme

In todays media, we are so desensitized by the aesthetics of what is being produced that we end up losing the essence and deeper meaning of what's actually being communicated. How can designers make the appearance of a message influence you to make one conclusion over another? This conference will inspire you to dig beneath the surface and explore different techniques of how typography can influence perception and create a deeper layer of meaning. From 2-dimensional ambigrams to the 3-D realm of environmental signage, the theme of this years typographic conference will make you look at typography in a new perspective and find multiple messages within a singular form. Duplicity has the motivational power to ask yourself "how can typographic form communicate or enhance the depth of content in my own work."


The Conference Structure

Held at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, we chose this location for its multiple levels and modularity to host different types of activities: an ampitheater for lectures, gallery space for work to be hung and vendors to present, class rooms for workshops, cafe and kitchen for refreshments, and an outdoor lawn for exterior activities and event space. Our conference deals with multiple elements typographically on many different levels. Typecon 2012 is broken up into a three day conference where the intensity levels of the workshops and lectures progress each day. Broken into two sections of 2D and ambigrams, and the other being 3D environmental typography, this conference orchestrates an incredibly inclusive educational experience for attendees.
The attendees have the choice to cross between the duplicity of levels and subject matter throughout the conference.


Graphic Standards:

We started our identity with a logotype, we tried to build this custom logo typeface out of geometric forms that gave a similar appearance to my 3D experiments which creates depth, and also utilizing those geometric shapes that could work in different directions and orientations to reflect the turning abilities of Lances ambigram experiments. I've researched the Colorado designer Alvin Lustig and utilized his process of taking small sections of typographic letter forms and reproducing them into graphic elements or patterns. This worked quite well in the diamond shaped patterns I've designed that have overlaying transparencies to create a false 3D depth. While I cut small sections of the letter forms out, Lance used the entire letter to create some interesting graphics and patterns that adhere to his ambigram modularity. So our patterns have direct reference and construction from our type face Duplicitous.

We have also created a 2D representational icon of a 3D looking letter D, that coincides with the logotype. This icon is used throughout our campaign to signify a sense of curiosity of whats beyond. This mask shows different layers of letter forms and graphic elements going back into space from the flat surface of the page.

Minimizing the entire color wheel, we chose to use 3 energetic colors of green, blue, and orange to have a fresh energetic feeling and transition from two extremes of the 2 and 3D realm.

Our typeface choices are as follows: Letter Gothic for our subtitle "TypeCon 2012," Universe for most of the headers and title work throughout the campaign for its versatility of condensed to expanded, Helvetica Lt for body copy work, its easier on the eyes than helvetica and also has more variety throughout the family, and then there is Duplicitous, the Typeface which Lance has created and I have art directed from time to time which is thought of as a nice amalgamation of the two of our experiments.


The Artifacts Brief

We wanted our artifacts to have some sort of duplicitous nature to further iterate our conference theme. Most of our artifacts diminish the line between poetic and practical, to create a new convergence of both elements clearly.

Name tags: This artifact fulfills the practical in two ways. We need name tags for immediate recognition of staff member to seek information, records for registration, and also for networking purposes. Our solution for this was to make a perforated stack of social networking cards that could easily be ripped off your lanyard to give your information to a potential contact. The front of the card displays your name and is color coated: Orange for professionals, Green for students, and Blue for Staff. The back of the card is left with a light pattern so you can write down whatever type of contact info you would like your new design contact.

Invitation Mailer: This is one of the only pieces in our campaign that fulfills the practical, persuasive, and the poetic. It is an advertisement to entice viewers to come to the event, it lists important information to practically give someone an idea of what this conference is about, and its just plain pretty to look at. Following the duplicitous nature, the mailer is a six panel old out invitation with perforated business reply info, a conference overview, and the back side is a keepsake poster. This three in one piece is what guests will get several months out from the time of the conference.

Venue Banners: - still editing copy

Lap Top Case: - still editing copy

Event Schedule: - still editing copy
























Thursday, April 22, 2010

InfoArch: Illustrations

Wow are these tedious! I really like how they are looking, I just need to speed it up!


Wednesday, April 21, 2010

T4: Experimenting with fontstruct a little

So below are two different directions of the fonts I created for our Duplicity TypeCon 2012. I started out a little rocky as far as figuring out how to work the program, but once I figured it out, I got a clear rhythm and made these. I only did the letters we needed until we figure out a direction.

IT'S FINISHED!!!!! OUR FONT IS FINISHED!.....I think

UserExp: ADVENTURE AWAITS!

Below is my first attempt at the poetic adventure to the shuttlecocks at the Nelson. Right now it is a label that would fit around the water bottle and then as the user walks to the Nelson following the directions provided, they would be creating a shuttlecock. As suggested by someone last time, I tried perforating the bottle to eliminate the scissors, but it turned out to be unsuccessful as far as ripping the bottle and tearing all the perforations. So I'm back to using scissors. Now, I am thinking about treating these two things as separate artifacts. The water bottle of course is one, and a package holding the scissors, screws, and directions will be in a different packet.



InfoArch: Matchbook final direction