A UMW DesignBlitz
Since Saturday, I have trying my best to observe all of the signs, posters, etc. around this campus to make this blog post. Here is what I have come up with!
Color
The colors in this poster for “Spooktacular” help to attract attention as well as add to the message and unity. The primary colors are black and orange. Certain pairings of colors can be fairly universal signals of certain events, places, etc. For example, seeing red and green remind people of Christmas. In this case, seeing orange and black remind people of Halloween. So, even before someone gets close enough to read the poster, they know its a Halloween thing. For people like me who love the holiday, that might make them more likely to approach and read it. The green, with its more sickly, slimy color and when combined with the other colors, also helps to add to the Halloween mood of the poster. In addition, the bright yellow of the sun also helps attract attention, as bright colors scream “look at me” the way a pastel color never could. The colors also help add to the unity, as they tie the Halloween message more into the poster, as compared to if it had just been white.
metaphors/symbols
The owner and dog in this sign above the poop bag dispenser help to clearly state that this is a thing for dog owners. Even if someone had never seen a poop bag dispenser before, and hadn’t read the words on the dispenser yet, they would at least understand that is for people when walking their dogs. For those of us who have seen and maybe even used those dispensers before, we just have to see the sign to know what it is and if we need to go over and use. I don’t normally have that problem, since I always seem to have accidentally left poop bags in my jacket pocket even if I’m not walking the dog! Also, since they are larger, non-print signals, they can be understood from farther away. For example, I am near-sighted. I might not be able to read the words printed on the dispenser from far away. However, I would be able to see the symbols and easily understand what the gist of the object might be.
minimalism & use of space
This isn’t minimalism, but it definitely is not the best use of space. This poster board has very important information on it, but the pieces of information are all scattered throughout the board. It makes it look half-finished or unfinished, and not as professional as I’m sure would be liked. It’s all mostly white paper, with not much bright color. Neither the layout or the color really attracts attention. Now, I can’t say what the error or solution would be. The poster board looks to be too big for the information on it. The business card in the middle really helps to solidify that. If that card would be moved to the right and another poster/paper was put in the middle, the same size as the leftmost poster, there would be less awkward open space and be more pleasing to the eye, making it more likely for people to look at the board.
P.S. I am not a designer. Any solutions I have might not be the best. Honestly, I did not create this, but I’m not sure I could do much better!
form/function/message
From here-http://thisweekin.ds106.us/design-resources/-it mentions “How well does design convey its meaning or potential use or real world objects?” In this case, this is a poster. However, it looks like a ticket or baggage tag (it does say “Passenger Baggage Tag”). They helps to convey what the poster is saying before the viewer gets close enough to read fully the text. It looks like something many people would recognize, helping to attract viewers and convey the message of “traveling”.
rhythm
From here-http://thisweekin.ds106.us/design-resources/-it mentions “Rhythm is the repetition or alternation of elements, often with defined intervals between them. Rhythm can create a sense of movement, and can establish pattern and texture.” In this case, there is repetition of the size of the green shapes across the page, each separated uniformly apart. This is the pattern of the sign. The change in colors help to create the movement of the sign, guiding your eyes to the next one, while also helping to separate the information. With the differences in color, there is some texture, as not everything is the same color. With the pattern and texture, it makes it more eye-catching and pleasing to the eye, making library-goings more likely to use the sign.
unity
From here-http://thisweekin.ds106.us/design-resources/-it mentions “The concept of unity describes the relationship between the individual parts and the whole of a composition. It investigates the aspects of a given design that are necessary to tie the composition together, to give it a sense of wholeness, or to break it apart and give it a sense of variety.” This sign has many different fonts, which gives it variety. However, it does not look messy or confused. One aspect of it, its black-and-white color scheme, help to unite all of the different fonts and the picture, so that they all tie together. It looks less like a random hodgepodge of wording and design and more purposeful and put-together.
This was not the easiest assignment to do. Unlike other harder assignments, this was not hard because of technical ability, but because 1. it took several days to do, 2. it requires understanding concepts that I have not really thought a lot about before, and 3. I felt uncomfortable taking pictures of random things, especially the dog poop bag dispenser, when there were other people about! Oh, and 4. I apparently can’t upload to Instagram from my computer. I somehow did it the first time, but I don’t know how! Using Instagram on my phone (on Safari, as I don’t have the app) was not hard, but I spent a lot of time trying to use my computer first!
Since Saturday, I have been staring at all of the posters, signs, etc. that I have seen around campus and trying to figure out what makes them stand out, what makes them unique, in a good way or a bad way. Sometimes I take pictures of them right away. Other times I would go back later that day or even a few days later. Sometimes that was dictated by how many people were around there!
Then Wednesday, I decided to look at what I amassed and see what goes where. This is where this blog post came to be. I uploaded every image to Instagram, all with the same caption, except I change what I’m talking about for each image. This way, it is clear that they are all for the same project for the same class, without them being all on one Instagram post. If I continue to use Instagram afterwards, which out of all my social media accounts I think it is the most likely, then that way I, and any followers, know why I posted these pictures!
Another difficult part was understanding each of the categories. Some of them blend together a bit for me, such as “use of space” and “proportion” so I had to really look at the nuances and just make a guess.
Ultimately, I did enjoy this design blitz. I think I paid more attention to both this campus and design, so I think that makes it successful. I am definitely still learning the vocab though!
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