Type3: Resume

So, it's a little difficult to describe myself. Sometimes I think other people see things that are not necessarily things you notice about yourself, so I decided to leave a small board at work to see what things they perceived of me. I asked about characteristics, first impressions, etc.

Some Ideas

Below are some ideas about my opening title sequence. The first one would be displaying a lot of different things in a bowling alley in series of 3's through a narrative. An example that I am thinking is the AT&T commercials. The one's that subtly hide/show the "raise the bar" slogan.
This one is using the lane and the progression as the additive movement in the video. It will go from beginning of the movie to the end passing all of these symbols..which would be stylized.

This approach is a stop motion movement piece. It will consist of objects that are involved with bowling and the successful side of bowling (trophies, money aka check)

Positioning Statement

Get Your Bearings:
Develop a Positioning Statement

A single sentence is one of the most powerful marketing tools you can develop. A positioning statement clearly and concisely defines your core target audience, your product or service, and your distinct value by answering three key questions:
1. Who are you?
2. What do you do?
3. Why does it matter to your customers?

It’s a challenge to articulate your value in a single sentence, but it’s essential for getting your bearings. With a sharp positioning statement, you bring clarity and focus to all of your marketing efforts, allowing everyone in your organization to communicate a consistent message in the process. It’s also an invaluable tool for planning design projects! Use it to ensure that all of your materials – your logo, website, packaging and advertising – support your message.

As you begin to reflect on your 2009 marketing efforts and look ahead to next year, a positioning statement is a great way to measure your effectiveness and plan your go-forward strategy. If you already have one, now is also a great time to review and refine it. With an effective positioning statement, you’ll have a compass for all of your journeys into the creative world!


I got this in an email from a design group in Colorado Springs called Design Rangers. I joined their monthy email subscriptions, and thought this might be useful.

VISLANG: 11.16 Progress

Today's critique went really well. There's was good work, and many great comments/ideas flowing around. I began the crit and here are some things noted:
-have a contents page...or in the location of where contents usually is have a description of the specific persona. Characteristics, what this person might sound like, how will you be able to pin point them
-on the back page, maybe, have a small description of how to stop "the know it all" or how to speak with someone who has these characteristics
-possible external package-a separate form or same thing that is laid out for the viewer discover and grab which one is needed
-Research better title names - "The Know It All" is the easiest to pick up on compared to the following three
-try iconic forms on the cover - I've tried the sketchy direction - what other styles can I explore
-there's good facial emotion coming through the last 3 covers - depicting and communication, but not as successful with "The Know It All"
-A screen print or vector style was suggested
-setup a context or an explanation to clarify who's getting the book - you wouldn't give "The Know It All" book to someone who communicates like them - the person speaking TO "The Know It All" is the holder of this book

Starbucks Chalkboard

Hey, if you're ever at the Starbucks on the Plaza, check out my board...as well as the larger board (not pictured) that I did.

Sagmeister: The Power of Time Off

VISLANG: PROCESS

So I began to interview and ask some of the other students about their postcard conversations. I originally began with just the classmates in my group (The Paper Plates), and received data from that was only a little helpful. Some of the characteristics of possible persona's consist of the following.

Rick's conversation: Dark/creepy/negative/dry humor/schizophrenic
Carly's conversation: Confused
Dustin's conversation: Observant/purposeful/simple/meticulous/perfectionist/effective





I wanted a broader range to still see what kind of persona's I could come across and possibly move further with, so I decided to interview a couple other students and their persona's I came across are below...based upon their responses.

Tammy's conversation: Confused
Jessica's conversation: Know it all
Dmitri's conversation: Unpleasant
Jonathan's conversation: Frustrating/upset/annoyed
Micah's conversation: Snowball effect
Mo's conversation: Basic/generic

NA: OPENER!

The openers purpose it to present and introduce the show in a visually pleasing way that describes what kind of show it is, and also communicate to the viewer who is in it or hosting the event or show. In a visually linear form it will take and describe to the viewer the people involved. I think this graphic design piece exists because it helps tell and inform the viewer of what's happening.

Context for the work:
Surrounding this would be a commercial before hand which would most likely consist of an advertisement for a company to persuade the users to buy their products. (Brunswick, Storm, etc) Behind this opening will consist of the actual show the opening is for.

This will appear on a sport channel (since that's kind of the only place I have seen bowling televised, and it will be right before the event (possibly the last commercial before the viewer is returned to it's regular showing.

I am thinking this will most likely be a stand-alone that does not require a presenter physically, but voice over will most likely be present. Some other things on this channel would be other sport related commercials (again commercials persuading users about other products such as bowling ball or new innovative bowling bag or something along those lines. Also, since this is a sports channel, there maybe interruptions from other sport coverage that may not necessarily be bowling related.

The audience consists of all age groups and types of people. Mainly, of course, they would consist of people who have some knowledge or interest in the sport of bowling. They would be family members, other professional bowlers, and prospective bowlers. Also, a small portion would be bowling companies (ones that have either sponsored, want to sponser, scouts, etc).

PROCESS
The project I have chosen to go with is the show opener. I am deciding to go with this one because for one I find it more of an interesting idea to work with, but also because I think my subject matter (bowling) does not have a broad of a range of audience such as football. This will intern leave an opening for grasping other audiences and retrieving more viewers because of my visually pleasing opener. ha.
Well based on the Trollback & Company lecture event I went to, I would say that many professional places are currently working on openings for shows/movies/events. For example, Trollback showed a couple of openings for TED, Nickelodeon, and more TED-like event openings. Also, MK-12 has done openings for movies like "Stranger than Fiction" and "Casino Royale". From these examples, I think they will play well as far as recognition and thinking along the lines of current works. I think it will even play well that I took our simple first project of making books, and integrated the subject/style into something more broad and advertising related.

RESEARCH EXAMPLES
With this example, I like the approach with stop motion. It uses image, sound effects, and voice to show depict the event of bowling.



In this video I like the way they go through the titles (as the camera is traveling down the lane), but also the idea of personifying the pins. Kind of like the way I did, but visually depicted them.




In this video they are using the action of bowling to as a way of depicting their insurance company. Gotta love the cavemen.







This is kind of the route I would like to do. Promote a bowling event/competition.



Also an example of what I am thinking of doing with my movie.



An 80's version of the video above. ha. A series.

Statement for Nonlinear Project

What do music, voice, and sound effects bring to a narrative that is different from visual communication channels?
The elements of music, voice, and sound effects bring a complete realm of interactivity and experience to the viewer. In my interactive media player I chose sounds that are relatable which allows the viewer to understand what's going on. I chose music to add feeling to my videos. One is a very dramatic, building up to the moment emphasis one.

The different communicative qualities of music, voice, and sound effects (compare and contrast)
Well to start off, each of these give the viewer a different feel, a different experience. Depending on the musics' overall tone, it can be a positive or negative , happy or sad feeling. Voice overs usually tend to give a sense of personal one on one speaking (conversational). Some would be factual information and narrative speaking. In my nonlinear interface my voice over is a comedic experience from the pins point of view. I wanted to set a humorous tone that would personify and explain what the pins might be thinking...if they could think.

The differences between simultaneous and sequential communication
The main idea behind simultaneous communication is you can do a lot of things at once. For example, with our nonlinear interfaces, the user is able to press as many of the sound effects and music tracks as they want all at one time. This gives the user the ability to create their own sense of chaos or humorous video. Sequential communication differs from simultaneous communication because this is where the user is only using one at a time (or going in order). In my interface, the user is only allowed to play the videos sequentially, but is allotted the option of playing the sounds simultaneously or sequentially.


User vs designer control of your project
Well, the control I (the designer) had over the user I think is in the movie clips. I allow them to see the two different point of views and the kinetic type piece. I wanted the viewer to have long videos to play the multiple sounds a couple times or at least have the sounds play all the way through. I did also (unfortunately) cut off the end of some of the music. I based my cropping of the song around the kinetic type movie. I also hindered the viewer from seeing all three movies at once. I wanted them to view one at a time.

When the user is in control, the user is able to view the one movie with multiple sounds (music and sound effects). They can choose a clip from the top bar and layering sounds from the bottom bar. The user has the option of playing the movie correctly with each corresponding sound effects and music, or create their own narrative and hysterical movie.

Participants’ ability to discover relationships through interactive play
I think the participants will discover relationships in anything interactive. The user goes through a small learning experience that's an adventure at the same time. They press buttons, not knowing what's going to happen (although they may have some sense) and from revealing all of the buttons, they of course must combine and mix them. For example, in my interface, the user I think willl find something that is a remembrance of their own bowling experience.

I actually really enjoyed this project. Yes it was a bear, but I really felt accomplished when it was done. I caught on pretty quickly when I started to get the hang of setting up my interface. I was able to import all my sounds and music in like 30 mins. From there I think worked on making it visually pleasing. I did run into some small setbacks from my thumbnails. After working in flash and seeing exactly how the action script works, I realized what you were saying all along with the simplicity of our designs and how much code our ideas would actually take...with the time frame we had. I'm ready to start making other interfaces and doing more with action script. Doing the code by hand also brought me back to thinking about websites. YIKES!
I thought it was interesting to see the relationship of anticipation between the movie aspect and our interface aspect. Both have that sense of anticipation, but in different ways. In our movies, we sort of set up the scene. (maybe put a little foreshadowing or hold on a scene a little longer than the rest to give it emphasis. In the interfaces, there's anticipation behind the buttons...well the movies too I guess also. There's a sense of "what does this button do?" and "I wonder what would happen if I combine these together?")

VISLANG: 1 ON 1 CRIT

I JUMPED!....ahead.

Schematic:
First the schematic was addressed. Some things I need to work on:
-MORE BEEF! I need to make sure that I include the other aspects of the communication model on top of the six commonalities.
-I should now move forward past the basic state of the model and make it more visually appealing
-Explore other options of showing the "repeating" back and forth-going back through
-nice part-feed ends up going through itself

Book:
-Personas (Thumbs up)
-Current Personas (The Businessman/ The Housewife/The Gossip Girl/The Average Joe)
Too basic, generic, and stereotypical
-HAVE A CONVERSATION!
-Use your basic model to pull and grab specific parts of it to create different models for each different persona book
-Icks nay on the communication definitions ay
-Nice icons-think about them being more interactive and relatable to each persona
-Keep the basic-ness of the illustrations
-Copy-Nice use of humor (Thumbs up)

Questionnaire:
I have gathered some information from others posts, but will also do a little questionnaire to make sure I get clear answers to use for my personas.

1. In one word (or very little words), how would you describe your conversation with Josh (StrawberryFeldmanForever)?
2. Were there any misunderstandings within your conversation?
3. What was the most successful part about your conersation? if any
4. Unsuccessful?
5. What is the main idea behind your 1st postcard? What were you trying to get across?

Just the tip of what a persona is:
As used in the design field, the Persona is an artifact that consists of a narrative relating to a desired user or customer's daily behavior patterns, using specific details, not generalities.

Personas are fictional characters created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that might use a site or product. Personas are useful in considering the goals, desires, and limitations of the users in order to help to guide decisions about a product, such as features, interactions, and visual design. Personas are most often used as part of a user-centered design process for designing software and are also considered a part of interaction design, however they are also used in industrial design. They are captured in 1–2 page descriptions that include behavior patterns, goals, skills, attitudes, and environment, with a few fictional personal details to make the persona a realistic character. For each product, more than one persona is usually created, but one persona should always be the primary focus for the design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personas

Progress: Communication Theory

So I began researching the Dick and Jane stories. They seemed to be simple in the early years of the books, and as they years went by they progressed into very elaborate and even multiracial. After thinking about these stories I find that I like the simplicity or the statements, but not the dialogue style. I think it might become difficult if I use characters to narrate my thinking.

After that I found some other styles/look and feel I would like to portray. What I liked about these works is the simplicity and boldness of the type and imagery. I would like to possibly try the rendering style of the violet image below also. Something a little more free flowing and stylistic. I would like to do monochromatic with that route also because it will give me more flexibility with creating multiple books. With the multiple books, I would like to display them using different persona's. This one is "the basics" and I would like to have a couple others. ( "the shy kid"/ "the housewife"/ "the business man"/ "the gossip girl"/ "the jock")













After going through with this book I asked around for some input. After a couple comments, one very important one was discovered! MY ANNOTATIONS! Below will be a couple of options of how I will display my annotations. They are currently not in my mini mock up. Also, below are more color options for the multiple books.

Design is for Everyone

Alright, so below is an overview of the book to date. I have started a new approach with working in the cover into the spreads a little more. The titles are large, but subtle due to them being the same color as background which allows them to seep and interact with the page. On the right side of the page, the body of text is being shoved outward to highlight the title again. (It's such a large force that it shifts the paragraph over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I'm a little worried about my cohesiveness now...I feel like the flow on the inside of the book is a little off. Suggestions?

CONCEPT PROPOSAL ONLINE CRIT

ABBY:
I really like your dog concept. It was very interesting how you made the dog the message. Also, you might want to think about things dogs do...such as fetching. What if somehow (this could get complicated maybe) the owner is the sender and the dog is the receiver, and the dog is retrieving the object (message). Along the way, the dog can get distracted or interrupted by another dog, fire hydrant, etc. Just a thought.
I would definitely like to see some of the ways you are planning on annotating these also. This could be fun with the little pop outs and such. I also really like the simplicity of yours. Its simple, easy to learn and understand the concept of Communication Theory.

BRYAN:
I like that you're looking past the first layer of communication theory. That you're exploring other options and factors such as lighting etc. Some clearer examples of what you are wanting to do would help us understand your thinking a little more. I think with the range of factors that you do have, there's plenty to work out a great concept.
With your last model, that has huge potential for a brochure approach. I noticed that the text seems almost in column form; therefore, you can use it to your advantage and have each column be a different reveal. And when those are revealed, the annotations for that reveal would be on the right side of the brochure, which would make all the annotations of the back of the brochure and the actual model on the inside. (both sides would be great as posters for said audience designers wall)

DMITRI:
I feel that you had some great concepts. I like the idea of the growth one, and how users can select their own path in building the info graphic. The other two concepts were pretty similar, but different approaches, and in all actuality...just the stronger of the 3. I really like the stop motion! It's humorous and visually pleasing, but like everyone has already said it's not as interactive with the viewer. The illustrations have great potential for making your piece that much more of a refined graphic design artifact. (They play well) I'm not sure if you are thinking about using color, but I think color (very subtle usage) could be nice as highlighting special things. (annotations, etc.).

VISLANG: SCHEMATIC

I began with finding the 6 commonalities (sender, channel, message, receiver, noise, and feedback). From there I drew out a couple iterations of basic lines defining where exactly each one occurs in the communication model. Finding some very little form, I began relating that form to other recognizable forms. I came across a mushroom, a teeter totter, a swing set, and finally a pendulum. I feel that a pendulum is definitely representational of my postcard conversation in a way (repetitious, looping).