Author: subba989

Reading Response 3

 How do they play with the viewer or their audience? Post 6 image examples of this work to the class site. 

What does the visual message mean?

What associations does the viewer have with the object?

Quantitative analysis is based on mathematical principles, in particular statistical methods of surveying and interrogating data. The designer can place visual forms to compare the range of positive and negative responses from a target audience.

I want to interview my target audience with a set of questions to find out what their emotional responses are to each topic I want to address. My sample sizing will range from all body types, to various ages in the spectrum. I’m designing for this group of people so I should know what they’re thinking.

Noah Neiman

Before he found his way into the gym, Noah Neiman, co-founder of Rumble Boxing, was on a different path entirely.

“Blame it on the blasting hip-hop beats, or the crazy-high energy of the instructors (and your fellow boxers), but Rumble has easily become a favorite amongst NYC’s very dense population of boutique fitness studios and one-of-a-kind gyms. Just five weeks into its grand opening last fall, Rumble was already bringing in over 3,000 customers a week, a kind of success that – as far as we know – is pretty unprecedented in the world of fitness.”

“I mean, our idea was really to create a studio that was kind of a gym, but also not a gym. And we’ve definitely done that. So as you walk in, it’s kind of like a lounge-type space where people just hang out. I mean this is the kind of thing where people come sometimes like 30 minutes early to a class just to chill here.”

“At Rumble, it’s really more of a community and an experience. People love to hang out before class, or after class, and that’s really what I love about it. We sell fun. We sell a fun experience. You happen to get a great workout, but that’s a byproduct.”

“We’re like the anti-gym. We’re the happy hour.”

Not sure if he could be qualified as a designer in the classic terms but he designed a company that became exponentially successful overnight. I’m inspired by his thought process of anti-gym and selling an experience, I believe this is what my clientele wants and to see him successfully design a studio that addresses some of my goals makes him a designer that is inspiring for my thesis.

R/GA

R/GA is one of the most successful advertising agencies. They create advertising and marketing products based in technology and design. It’s an interactive agency. Some of their notable creative work was with be flying into the screen.

Superman (1978) The opening title sequence for Superman by visually enhancing each name so it appears to be flying into the screen.

Nike+
An online brand platform that gives runners a tool to record, track and share their running data. Connects runners to an online community and shows their progress over time.

“Nike is pushing the boundaries of experience design in many ways, from thinking about its experiential retail with new stores to bringing the consumer closer to the brand by releasing services such as Nike On Demand,” says Una Walsh, Group Executive Creative Director, Experience Design, R/GA. “Those aren’t really about interfaces; they’re more about that connection between consumer and brand.”

Looking at such a big corporation for inspiration is difficult because they have plenty of resources and the man power to create such cool products. But nevertheless the innovation and the design process are still to look towards for inspiration as a goal to achieve. 

Michael Robinson

Michael is a professor at Parsons and has his own studio in Brooklyn focused on building community through meaningful design work for brands, cultural institutions, universities, fashion and etc. He has so many categories for creations from Brand Creation to logos and traditional graphics and everything that entails, to video/animation, virtual reality, consulting and installation even.

In particular I like the experimentation with typography under the Logo and Identity Design category. Lots of colors, lots of dynamic work. Very experimental in the sense that nothing looks the same, but there is a style to it however.

He is my Identity Design professor and I’m learning a lot in that class. He refers to his process and his work often when describing how to go about certain projects or challenges. Even though my intention of my project is very corporate I want to ensure that there is a great deal of experimentation and graphic design involved. He uses the key concept of Rhetoric throughout his work with typography. I see Irony, Antithesis, Hyperbole throughout the typography experimentation. 

Reading Response 2

Part 1

“Abstraction for me is, getting rid of everything that is not helping make my point.”

“Take a topic and squeeze the hell out of it.”

“The moment i give too much decision making to the user, it takes away from the surprise. The user wants something exciting.”

“How can you ask me to win the lottery, under pressure with a gun?”

I think I have a great work life balance. Unfortunately or fortunately I think I sometimes merge them together. I multi-task often, just focusing on my design work can lead me to procrastinate or be at a standstill for ideas so I like to keep my mind active. Sometimes I work with friends or go for coffee, changing the scene, the environment and sometimes a collaborative effort from my colleagues or my friends also keeps my mind stimulated and focused.

I’m trying to get good at the design thinking behind each project. Understanding why I make certain moves in typography, graphics, colors, layouts instead of just opting for what looks nice. Abstraction in the sense that I want the user to know what the design represents but not giving away all the information. So I want to go more into the research aspect, and the documentation behind each artwork/design.

I’m reinventing my image making process by focusing my efforts on the research aspect more than I ever have. I’ve always been into the final product but I want to take it back to the process and still come up with a good final product.

Authenticity in design to me is usually some sort of originality, I guess we live in a world where all ideas are taken from existing ideas and the past. “Talent borrows, genius steals” One of my teachers says this in class and I guess authenticity can also be just something that gets the point across. A design or artwork that may have a greater meaning or purpose behind it, could also represent authenticity.

“Some people love it, some people don’t. Thats life.”

I want my work to tap into emotion because essentially that is what branding does. Or thats the whole point of successful branding. I’m not sure if my normal design work is made with the intent of tapping into emotion necessarily but good design work always comes with a positive customer experience.

Part 2

  1. Brandless Pop Up Exhibition in Milk Studios

“Brandless was brought to life on July 11, 2017 with the intention of making better stuff accessible and affordable for more people. Our mission is deeply rooted in quality, transparency, and community-driven values. Better stuff, fewer dollars. It’s that simple.”

I feel like this exhibition is interesting because this company sells a vast range of products all for only $3 but the way they go by “brandless” almost ironically creates its own brand because the colors/type/aesthetics are all consistent. My thesis will show how important branding is and this is a good case study exhibit. 

Tina Sharkey at Brandless Pop-Up Shop in Los AngelesBrandless Opens Pop-Up Shop in Los Angeles

2. Designer Maker User: The Design Museum in London

Designer Maker User is an introduction to the museum’s collection, looking at the development of modern design through these three interconnected roles.

Designer Maker User features almost 1000 items of twentieth and twenty-first century design viewed through the angles of the designer, manufacturer and user, including a crowdsourced wall. The exhibition covers a broad range of design disciplines, from architecture and engineering, to the digital world, fashion and graphics. Designer Maker User features a bold, colourful and engaging display designed by Studio Myerscough, with digital interactives by Studio Kin.

I like the concept of Designer Maker User. I feel like my thesis corresponds with the importance of Designer and User at least and there is a significant relationship there that is a huge part of the design process. This exhibition covers a huge variety of fields, I would be most interested in the digital world and graphics aspect for my thesis.

Image result for Designer Maker User
Image result for Designer Maker User

3. Why Exhibit

The only active apparel and athleisure trade show – where fitness meets fashion.

The Active Collective was started in 2014 as a sub-category on the floor of our well-known Swim Collective Trade Show. In early 2015, Active Collective launched as its own show in Southern California, and has since been crowned as the only trade show specializing in active and athleisure fashion. The show features fitness events during show days, as well as events for manufacturers to mix and mingle with buyers and media.

Showcasing over 120 brands, the Active Collective has featured a wide range of products from the fitness fashion marketplace including active performance, active fashion, accessories, and footwear. Don’t miss out on the industry’s leading active fashion and athleisure trade show, occurring twice annually in Southern California, and twice annually in New York City.

Ultimately my thesis is not just about branding but branding specifically in the fitness sector. A huge part of what makes a company popular if relevant is the fashion. I think athleisure is a huge part of the rise in this industry and making it the trend it is today. So going to this expo you would be able to compare all these different companies and brands, see the similarities to recognize whats popular and trending and what makes each one stand out on its own. 

Reading Response 1

“Even the term graphic design is felt by some to be rather outmoded, embedded as it is within the traditions of print and static forms of communication, and alternative names, from visual communication to communication design – or rather nonsensical descriptions such as design for communication – have become more widely adopted in an attempt to appear up-to-date, modern, and in tune with the digital, interactive, individually focused and personalized brave new world.”

I study Communication Design, which I guess is a more elaborate Graphic Design major. It’s using Graphic Design in other contexts, and on different digital platforms. In it’s core, Graphic Design, it essentially always comes down to typography, color, layout and aesthetic for a bigger purpose or message. I guess the proposed audience changes with every project. But with this thesis project my audience is women’s in their 20’s-30’s. The idea of my project will be aimed towards targeting this group of women but my final product a brand guideline or a presentation pitch will probably be targeted towards people in related design fields or venture capitalists, so it has to be formal but engaging. I want to convince people that this project, this idea should be or could be real.

I’m not sure how it could benefit anyone, but for anyone curious in the design process? The design process being, the reasoning behind each font choice, color, form and layout. I would want people (my target audience) at the very least to look at my work and be convinced that they need to join my fitness studio. (my thesis project of choice) What are the most important things you consider before applying for a membership? (i.e what determines that it’s worth your money) I’m considering on focusing on the issue of body image and our obsession with results, how that negatively impacts us and how we need to move away from dieting and extreme short period goals, and focus more towards a wholistic healthy lifestyle change. 

What attracts you to look into a studio/gym in the first place? 

What makes you want to change your lifestyle?

What do you want personally with your body, how do you decide?

What motivates you?

“Rather than creating a series of visual proposals and variations of design solutions, he decided to concentrate on developing a working methodology for his client that could be utilized in the the development of future projects and provide a handbook for effective visual communication.”

I want to concentrate a lot of my efforts on creating a good strategy or “working methodology” for my client, in my thesis project. Because it’s a lot more than the aesthetics, its creating a message that emphasizes a solution but makes sure not to make false promises. Finding the in-between for successful advertising but also creating a brand image and mission that is so powerful and moving that attracts people in itself. I want people to understand that wherever they are in their fitness journey, its just about staying committed and any changes they make should ideally be long term. I guess I’m still figuring out the message and keeping that consistent throughout the process.

“Design is a process of discovery through thinking and making, and our ability to discover is generally greater than our ability to invent.” Inventing doesn’t necessarily just apply to creative art pieces but to design thinking. I want to be able to study and implement design thinking and digitized solutions for what they are primarily used for which is increased customer experience personalization. “The development of new technologies that (to an extent) empower and enable end users to shape, adapt, personalize, and contribute to their engagement with a message or communication has led to something of a crisis of confidence within graphic design.” This core principle is tied to branding, advertising, editorial design, information design, way showing, packaging, and promotion, have remained fairly consistent.

“Design research is both guided by and forms the underpinning rationale for the development of a theory of design. A theory comprehensive and explanatory framework or system of concepts; it is a set of rules or procedures formulated in the mind.”

“It is easier to find a world than to make one.” I applied this knowledge to my thesis, I’m not trying to create something different or new, I’m trying to combine concepts that already exist so I can disrupt the current fitness market. I’m trying to also use design in the creation of the whole idea, not just the aesthetics of it.

 

 

Self Reflection

I started out with graphic design, primarily using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to make graphics for people who requested calendars or icons or backgrounds on Twitter in freshman year of high school. The requests came from fanbase accounts. I didn’t have any classes on these programs or the rules of graphic design until I built my own interest and my curiosity for it. I’ve always been into traditional mediums of art as a hobby, drawing, painting, collaging and even photography if that counts. When I started out as more of an artist less of a designer, my project directives were more subjective and reflective on my identity. I left India at a young age and I’ve always found myself integrating my culture into my work, from a slightly outside perspective. I would say my culture doesn’t consciously affect my personal art and definitely not my graphic design. When it comes to my personal art of drawing & painting & photography I love portraiture. 

Now I stick to 2D visuals eg: posters/banners/invites/advertisements to logo design and UI design for both web and app. I would summarize it as creating good visuals for commercial purposes. Good visuals really depend on each project, each goal each method has to be altered accordingly. When I design, of course visually pleasing is one of my most important aesthetic values, easy to read/follow, creative but still following the rules of good graphic design.

I’m going into Branding/ Digital Experience hopefully. I hope to be able to incorporate creativity and design thinking beyond visuals. I think it contributes a huge part of the world, we are all always on our phones or laptops searching for something on whatever site we’re on, and if the design is pleasing and effective it makes the experience of that search seamless.

 

Allens Questions:

– Who/What asked you to make the Twitter icons and posts?

– How does your culture influence your current design work?
 
– What themes did you play with in your traditional media?
 
– What are some attributes related to “good visuals”?

History Of Design Final

Write Up:

Recently an annual famous festival took place in Los Angeles, called Coachella. Infamous for a lot of culturally appropriated “festival wear.” Many outfits are “inspired” by distant foreign countries and cultures, most commonly Native American, Middle-Eastern, Indian, and Southeast Asian. This whole concept when the western world gets “inspiration” from other countries and cultures reminded me a lot about the “exoticism” period in the Art Deco movement. “Exoticism” by definition is style or traits considered characteristic of a distant foreign country. “Cultural appropriation” is when members of a dominant group exploit the culture of a less privileged group of people, usually with little understanding of the history, reasoning, and traditions behind the culture. Both cultural appropriation and exoticism in my opinion devalue the richness of a culture and exploit it for fashion and decoration. During the Art Deco period, we saw objects like a Sarcophagus Vanity Case which has obvious Egyptian influence, and dressing tables and vases inspired by African tribal art. “Exoticism” was stimulated by trade with the East in the 16th and 17th century. England also had imperial control over China, India, Africa and the Pacific. Inspiration was also drawn from Islamic ceramics, Indian textiles and Japanese prints. Everyone was fascinated by these “exotic” cultures and their cultural items had become a “trend.” I chose to transform a standard western item into an art piece inspired by Rangoli designs from Hindu culture. These brightly colored designs are traditionally made on the floor outside the entrance to your house with powders. Rangoli is a form of welcoming guests and different deities into the house. It is also believed that with Rangoli, you are inviting all the gods to visit your home and give the blessings, there are many stories in Hindu mythology in which rangoli is created to welcome Gods like Lord Ram, Goddess Lakshmi, and Lord Krishna. There are many more designs that are drawn by women like a peacock, many free-form images, flowers; religious icons, etc. The main motive of creating Rangoli designs is that it brings good luck. However, these designs are made with no gaps in between, as it believed that an incomplete Rangoli would attract evil spirits. I chose not just any standard item, but oversized denim jackets have definitely been an on-going trend in this type of weather.

A lot of the creators of the Art Deco period designed individually crafted and limited-editions and the jacket I painted is also individually crafted and cannot be mass produced. Art Deco was also known for its decorative style, quite a lot of ornamentation on their items. And thats what I did, I added ornamentation and patterns on this jacket.

As a person of Indian decent, I understand the culture and the meaning behind the traditional Rangoli design, so I feel like I’m allowed to use it as inspiration and even though it is frustrating to see all these culturally appropriated items everywhere, I believe that if one is inspired by art and culture that is not their own which I have to admit can’t be helped, they should be proactive and learn everything about it before using it to benefit superficial aesthetic purposes. 

 

 

 

Oculus Trend Spotting

Walking through the Oculus, the stores I looked at were Another Story, Sam Edelman, Kate Spade, Vince Camuto, and Tory Burch. A couple of trends I spotted were jute platform bottoms for shoes. This trend spread across almost all the stores. Another trend that was very prominent across all stores were these little fluffy balls brightly colored, on shoes, on bags, on jewelry even on some sweaters (in Kate Spade) they came in different sizes depending on what item they were on. Another theme that wasn’t prominent amongst all stores but I noticed it first at Kate Spade, there was a very obvious peacock theme going on amongst products however with Tory Burch, I first noticed the white washed peacock chair in the window and it was interesting because I intern at Jimmy Choo for Visual Merchandising and we had a peacock chair in a natural finish delivered for our Madison store. Back to Tory Burch, the peacock theme was less obvious here in my opinion it was more about the color scheme. As the weather becomes warmer, we can definitely see the silouette of desired clothing becoming looser as skirts start to span out and dresses are a bit wider and don’t cling to your body.

Consumer Research

The question I decided to ask was “Why are “New Yorkers” associated with wearing all-black?” I made a survey on SurveyMonkey asking the following questions of where people see this trend in New York and basically describing the typical person they see who follows this trend and why they believe it is a trend in New York. Location wise, it was so diverse so its safe to say there isn’t a specific area in the city where people are known for wearing all-black but its just a general consensus, some people said Greenwich Village, Soho, Korea town, Lower East Side, West Village all the answers were varied. The answers are to why are also extremely varied, theres isn’t one specific reason. I got answers that said that all-black is trendy, casual, comfortable, classic, minimalistic, luxurious, low key, mature, artsy, high-fashion, goth. I think the best statement I received when I asked a participant on the street was that “a New Yorker has to look chic whether its for brunch or a night out and an all-black outfit does that for them.” An interesting question that I asked was if they believed that this “trend” would continue into the summer 60% of people said this trend it would and 40% said no. In conclusion I believe that New Yorkers are associated for wearing all-black because of all the adjectives people gave above, as a diverse population of people we have artistic, working people, minimalists whoever the people are at the end of the day, New Yorkers are chic. All-black is a convenient way for us to look chic at all times of the day whether its for brunch or night out or for work. We are put-together people and obsessed with efficiency and an all-black look is a safe choice that accomplishes all of the above. “it’s easy, it’s comfortable and it looks good.”

Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YZN6YTQ

Week 11 Reading Responses

I would say this week I combined a bunch of experimentations I did in the past weeks and put it all together, colors, layouts, and shape experimentation. Definitely a lot of usage of white text and how background colors/shapes can help accentuate the form.

Week 10 Reading Responses

This week I decided to experiment with shapes and how they can just add an interesting visual element in the background.

 

Week 9 Reading Responses

This week, I again went for the experimentation with each quote. The first response hinting to the Supreme branding, however the others are just experimentation with color and layouts. Definitely a lot of circle shape incorporation this week.

Skip to toolbar