Multi Media Ex.--> Project 2 Final

Set up in a systematic grid, inside each square would be a thumbnail of the work. When clicked on, the work appears in the box and the viewer is able to view multiple images of the work by scrolling from side to side (or clicking on arrows?) As work is added, the grid becomes larger and tighter. I wanted to create a site that would visualize the addition of new work, so that if someone hasn't visited the site in a while, they will be able to tell right away whether there has been new work added. There would be close buttons in the window so that the user mat return to the full grid view. The site is so simple, in part due to my incompetency with flash, but also because I don't think it necessary to be elaborate. Ideally, in the final design, my name would be incorporated into the grid and would function just the way the other thumbnails would. What I am proud of is that I have had a chance to look through my work over the last three years and determine what I want to display to the world.

Multi Media Ex.-->Reading Response 3: The Language of New Media, p 95-103

What defines "the classical screen"?

The "classical screen" is essentially a flat, rectangular surface, it is intended for frontal viewing, rather than panoramic. The screen exists in our space, our body, and acts as a window into another space. The other space, is a space of representation and typically has a scale different from the other.

What was the computer screen specifically developed for?

The computer screen appeared in the middle of the 20th century for military purposes, but it does not get a public presence until much later. Back then it was not used for so called public entertainment, but for surveillance.

What is the 3rd type of screen after classic and dynamic?

This is called the screen of real time. With such a screen, images can change in real time, reflecting changes in the referent. This also allows for the image to be updated in real time. In older photographic technologies, all parts of the image are exposed simultaneously, while with the real time screen, an image is produced through sequential scanning. The different parts of the image correspond to different moments in time.

How does the Peter Greenaway film comment on the screen in the author's view?

He sees the film as a metaphor for a tendency in the Western screen-based apparatus. Here the body must be fixed in space if the viewer is to see the image at all. The imprisonment of the body takes place on a conceptual and literal level. both appear in the screen apparatus.

How is representation vs simulation represented in mosaics and frescoes vs renaissance paintings? In naturalism?

Frescoes and mosaics represent an illusionary space that begins behind the surface of the image. The mosaics and frescoes are immobile and stationary. In contrast the painting is movable, can be separated from the wall and moved anywhere. A painting reprents a virtual space that is distinct from the physical space.

Multi Media Ex.-->Reading Response 2: The Language of New Media, p 78-93

Why do new generations favor cinematic language over print?

The new generation is beginning to grow up an extremely media-rich environment. The cinematic language has become the basic means by which computer users access and interact with cultural data. Today millions of people communicate with one another through the same interface. In contrast to cinema, all users are able to speak the same interface language of the computer. The user is able to acquire new cultural information because the language is based on familiar forms. Cultural interfaces draw on older forms such as cinema and the printed word.


In today's new world of cultural data & experiences of the computer, what are some outdated interface metaphors still employed?

Cultural interfaces still use elements of the HCI such as scrollable windows with text and other types, hierarchical menus, dialogue boxes, and command-line input. Historically the human computer interface in known for reformatting other media whether it be the printed page, film, or television. HCI designers rely heavily on the conventions of the human-made physical environment beginning with the Macintosh's use of the desktop metaphor.

Degree Project Thoughts Take II

As a branch off of sustainability, I want to focus on food, and how making the right food choices can grow a more sustainable society. Lately there has been a lot of talk about the food industry, what is good for us, what is not. Most people are uneducated about the food they eat and its nutritional value. They never think about the process by which food gets from farm to table. Eating for the most part is an absent minded activity. We eat mainly to get full. By making deliberate choices about what we consume, we can turn eating into a conscious activity, one that normally doesn't call for any. As people are getting fatter and disease rates grow higher, it is the perfect time to begin informing people about what they eat, where it comes from, and how they can better their lives by becoming more conscious eaters. I think college students are in need of the most help due to our busy schedules and whacked out sleep cycles. Often out of convenience, or lack of knowing how to cook, we either eat fast food or go to the cafeteria, when in fact it would be cheaper to buy groceries and make something that would last for a week or more. I want to use graphic design to inform this group of the nutritional value of what they are eating and give them the reason and tools to change their habits.

One of the goals is to change the way in which college students living on their own think about food, how they get it, and what they are eating. The second is to give them the reason to buy and cook healthy food, why it is important to buy from local grocers and eat foods that are in season. The primary message for this project is that buying local, organic foods will promote a more sustainable society as well as becoming conscious eaters and understand where their food comes from. The communication strategies would involve messages of an informational nature with statistics and reasons/suggestions for improvement and why we should change the way we go about eating.


Competitive Landscape/Bibliography?

Food Inc. (film)
Supersize Me (film/book)
In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan
Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer
The Future of Food (film)

Visual Advocacy-->Final Design Ignites Change Mock-Ups

Nearly half of all high school students in Kansas City don’t graduate. Students note a lack of connection to school, boredom, and personal issues contributing to their decision to drop out. Zeal is a speaker series designed to get high school kids excited about finishing school. Speakers come from the local community and include a range of athletes, artists, and corporate professionals. Zeal will provide students with five speaker sessions during the school year. Speakers talk to students about their careers while after-session workshops provide the students with meaningful insight and hands-on experience in learning a career-specific skill.




Athlete Poster


Designer Poster


Postcard


View the DIC project page

Multi Med. Ex.--> Wireframe Sketches

Multi Media Ex.-->Reading Response 1- The Language of New Media p 63-78

When the Macintosh was released in 1984, the vision of the GUI was a clear definition between the human and the technological creations. It stayed true to its principles of clarity and functionality. In this case when the user creates a file it never disappears unless it is deleted by the user. The passage states that all culture, both past and present, came to be filtered though the computer and the human-computer interface. Translation: the computer interface acts as a code that carries cultural messages in a variety of media. The thing about this is that movie and tv screen did not disappear from these applications, they were integrated into them.

The interface of the computer determines how the user is going to react to the computer itself. The interface also comes into play in society with work and leisure activities which are increasingly involving the computer in many different aspects and utilizing the same interfaces.

Human-computer interface (HCI) describes the way in which the user interacts with the computer. It also includes the metaphors used to conceptualize the organization of computer data. Originally HCI was invented when the computer was primarily used for work. During the mid-1990s the computer was largely thought of as a tool used to archive cultural content, but by the end of the decade the computer was becoming more than just a toolbox, turning into a "universal media machine." HCI has evolved into a set of controls used to operate a machine and the combination of the printed word and cinema become distinct ways of recording human memory and experience.


What Are Two Aesthetics defined by Blade Runner and the Macintosh?

First was a "futuristic dystopia" that combined futurism and decay, computer technology and fetishism, retro-styling and urbanism, L.A. and Tokyo. The Macintosh popularized the Graphic User Interface (GUI) which remained true to the modernist values of clarity and functionality.

How did the role of the personal computer shift in the 1990s?

At the beginning of the decade, the personal computer was still thought of as a sort of typewriter. It was used to produce cultural content that was stored and distributed in the appropriate media. By the end of the decade, Internet use became commonplace, and the computer's public image was no longer just control, but a "universal media machine" that could be used to author, store, distribute, and access all media.

How are the work and leisure spaces differently perceived in industrial and information societies?

Work application are considered to be the word processors, spreadsheet programs and database programs while leisure applications are computer games, and informational DVDs, etc. The reading states that these two sets are converging in our modern technological age. The information society is engaged in many activities that span across both of these areas: imputting and analyzing data, running simulations, searching the internet, playing games, watching video, listening to music, etc.

What does Human-Computer-Interface mean and entail?

The Human Computer Interface (HCI) describes the ways in which the user interacts with the computer. It includes physical imput and output devices like the monitor, keyboard and mouse. It utilizes metaphors to conceptualize and organize computer data such as files and folders on the desktop. The HCI also includes ways of manipulating data such as copying, renaming, and deleting. It can list the contents of a directory, start and stop a program, and set te computer's date and time. The term HCI was coined when the computer was primarily used for work.

Multi Med. Ex.--> Website Prototypes

Prototype 1: The Grid

Set up in a systematic grid, inside each square would be a thumbnail of the work. When clicked on, the box expands in the center of the grid and the viewer is able to view multiple images of the work by scrolling from side to side (or clicking on arrows?) As work is added, the grid becomes larger and tighter.

Prototype 2: The Tagging Wheel

What appears on the home page is a circle with cropped work on the perimeter. When the viewer clicks on a piece the circle zooms, centered on the selected work. The viewer is then able to navigate the circle in this zoomed state by clicking and dragging. Lines may be drawn between pieces by tagging them with similar qualities or type of media, similar to the mutual friend map on Facebook where lines are drawn between common friends.

Prototype 3: The Rolodex

Here the work is displayed like a rolodex file system. When the work in the middle is selected, the ones in front of it get moved to the back, in the same order.

Visual Advocacy--> DIC Project Page Revised

Nearly half of all high school students in Kansas City do not graduate. Most students note a lack of connection with school, boredom, and personal challenges contributing to their decision to drop out. Zeal is a speaker series designed to get high school kids excited about finishing school and going to college. Speakers would come from the local community and include a range of athletes, artists, and corporate professionals. Zeal would provide students with five speaker sessions during the school year, one every two months. The speakers talk to students about their careers and what they had to accomplish to reach that point. After the session, the speaker would give a workshop for interested students where they demonstrate a skill used in their profession.

Degree Project Thoughts

I have spent a lot of time this semester thinking about, not surprisingly, what I want to do when I graduate. I have come to the conclusion that I really don't know, and that is ok (for now). This is the first year in school that I have begun to seriously pay attention to what I believe in and realize how important it is for my happiness to stay true to those beliefs, let alone stand up for them. I came to graphic design because I was inspired by the idea that what I created could be used by someone other than myself, and beyond that, the idea that design has the power to change.
My vision for the degree project is probably not far from many of my classmates in some respects. I want it not only to reflect my three years in the design program, but showcase who I am both as a designer and a person. With this in mind, throughout this semester in Visual Advocacy, I have come to realize how passionate I am about sustainability and the "green movement." I had been conscious of these movements before, but I had yet to dig deep into the research of "Cradle to Cradle" and the like. One of the things that I have always been interested in is sociology and anthropology. I want to figure out some way that design can visualize the ideas of what it means to live in a sustainable world.
I am not solely talking about the environment, but the planet as a whole. As I have begun to think deeper about what these "buzz words" really mean, I think the general public has gotten so caught up in the green movement, myself included, that we have lost sight of what it really means to be sustainable.
Beyond considering the materials used in the design, I want to create something that not only informs people about what sustainability really means, but encourages them to act with the knowledge they have gained. Going back to the ideas in the first paragraph, I want to create something that is in some way physical, because I think it is the only way to get this sort of idea to stick. Think of the design building, and all the little reminders there are about the importance of reduce, reuse, recycle, and are we not reminded of these ideas every time we see it on the wall?

The 100th Post!!-->Visual Advocacy-->DIC Project Page

Project Name: Zeal

Description:
Nearly half of all high school students in Kansas City do not graduate. In 2008, the KC School District reported a 40% dropout rate. According to the national average, Kansas City is ranked 26th among the nation's top 50 schools with a dropout crisis based on data from the last 10 years. Most students note a lack of connection to school, boredom, and personal challenges that contribute to their decision to drop out. The program I have created makes students aware of the importance of staying in school and provides them with the tools and resources to succeed in high school and beyond. Zeal engages students in blogging in order to keep their interest in the program and provide them with a space where they can seek support from peers and teachers.

Visual Advocacy--> 501 (c)reative

This St. Louis-based design firm has a unique specialization: they only do work for nonprofit organizations. In 1994 Karen Handelman quit her job at large corporate firm in Chicago in search of a way to combine her interest in graphic design and volunteer work. After spending a year working for Habitat for Humanity, 501 (c)reative was hatched (the name is a reference to the 501c designation given to nonprofit organizations by the Internal Revenue Service).

Typically in the world of nonprofit organizations, they rely on pro bono work to advertise for themselves. " 'Many design firms do pro bono work as a way to connect to the community,' Handelman says. 'Unfortunately, as I learned from talking with people in the non-profit world, the fact that the work is free can short the organization in terms of client status.'" This also makes it easy to push them aside when a paying client demands work. Handelman's goal is to give nonprofit organizations the same attention through an assurance of quality and consistency in their materials.

Often times non-profits do not have a specific budget, but rather a wish list. They proceed from there based on what the organization can afford. They also have a different way of doing business, which means rarely charging by the hour. Instead they sit down and discuss what the needs are of the specific organization and what is good business for the firm.

Some of 501's current clients include Forest ReLeaf of Missouri, Humane Society of Missouri, Missouri Department of Conservation, the Missouri Historical Society and St. Louis Public Radio. Handelman's next plan is to increase the firm's national exposure.

I think it is important for us as designers to realize that non-profit organizations and other causes need just as much attention as any other client we may come in contact with. They deserve just as much exposure as let's say...Anheuser Busch. Another aspect to the firm is the Handelman encourages her employees to do volunteer work themselves." 'She encourages her staffers to volunteer two hours a week during work time. Initial projects have included collaboration with the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. 'It’s fulfilling for the staff, and it makes a difference in how they approach their work,' Handelman says. “Getting out to volunteer shows them the fuller picture of non-profits.'”

It shocking to me that as far as I know, this type of firm has not existed before. What is even more fantastic is that 501 has been so successful and is growing, looking to expand on a national level. This success shows both the demand and the desire for this type of work. Non-profits are obviously looking for a way to boost involvement and what better way than through their promotional and other materials? The people involved in these organizations are the "bread and butter" sort of speak, they are the ones that keep it going strong. With the designer's help, who knows how far they could go? All we need to do is CARE!!!

Desn Systems-->Branding Colorado--> Applications Round 1

Tri-color brand mark



Single-color brand mark



Business Card



Letterhead/ envelope



Letterhead Detail



Website



T-shirt



Advertisement 1



Advertisement 2

Visual Advocacy--> Design Prototypes

I am working on developing a system that could possibly be implemented into a school program that already exists. It is one that the students would be enrolled in at the start of high school and continue with through their senior year. The program would include featured guest speakers to come in and talk to students, those who are high school dropouts and presumably unsuccessful, and those who have completed high school and are successful with good jobs.
The program would be centered around a web-based environment where after these speakers come in students would have assignments to complete on the website based on the speaker. Students would have to complete the assignments before their next advisory meeting. Teachers would be required to participate and check up on students periodically.
The website would also serve as a forum with a blog dedicated to talking about their everyday lives, what is going on, etc. Each grade level would have their own specific page and blog feed as well as specific tools to help students in that grade. These might include study guides for specific subjects, information on various careers and how they relate to what the students are learning in school, as well as career quizzes/ guides to help students figure out what they are interested in.

The following are prototypes for the web-based component.






These are some quick mock ups of design directions beyond the wire frame sketches.

Visual Advocacy--> Outside Research Summary

So far it has been extremely difficult to make contact with people in the community about this issue. However, what I have gathered from the few that I have talked to is that the high school dropout crisis is a big one in this city and one not easily solved. There are a lot of factors that play into the issue, the biggest being poverty and the workings of the school district. It appears as though the problem won't be completely resolved without somehow addressing all the "issues behind the issue." One person that I talked to mentioned that many students drop out either in 9th grade or during the transition between middle school and high school because the transition is too difficult. These parts of the puzzle I found very little information about on the web. Most of what I found on the internet were surveys and statistics based on a general analysis, but they did not focus on the problems specific to the Kansas City demographic.

Visual Advocacy--> Problem Presentation

Desn Systems-->Branding Colorado--> Iterations

Final Direction (above)
Brand Iterations (below)

Multi Media Ex.--> Bike Community Posters

Final Research Posters for KC Cycling Community

Visual Advocacy--> Brainstorming Solutions

Students

How do you address the issue without directly talking about it?

Students are NOT ready to listen, how do you ge them ready?

What is already being done? Can/ how do we fill the gap?


**For some students, the transition between 8th/9th grade is rough, and they consider dropping out around this time.


School supplies with info that relates to what they are studying in school

-notebooks
-notepads
-binders
-folders


Share stories from people who have dropped out (not been successful) and people who have stayed in school (been successful) **Emphasizes the importance of staying in school.

-video
-speaker program
-workbooks
-advisory groups-meet after lectures and discuss?

-info packets received at the beginning of school with information about supportive people at the school if the student is having academic/emotional difficulties.


Program to help students who are transitioning from middle school to high school

-differences
-How they can be better prepared
-What to do if they feel they are having trouble either academically or emotionally (workbooks/advisory groups may tie in).

Visual Advocacy--> Problem Statement

Problem

Nearly half of all high school students in Kansas City do not graduate. In 2008, the KC School District reported a 40% dropout rate.

According to the national average, Kansas City is ranked 26th among the nation's top 50 schools with a dropout crisis based on data from the last 10 yrs.


Audience Definition/ Characteristics

Most students drop pout when they have only a year or two left of school. There is no single reason why students drop out, but rather a cluster of reasons:

-lack of emotional connection to school/environment
-school i boring (uninspiring teachers)-> unmotivated
-academic/personal challenges (become a parent/need to help family)

For most students dropping out is not a sudden act, but a gradual process of disengagement

-attendance patterns are a warning sign
-not enough rules/ too much freedom


What social behavior do you want to change?

-change the way students look at school
-change the way they are being taught
-change the way parents Are involved in their child's education

Internship--> The ABQ Museum--> Miniatures

The advertisement I designed for a show called Miniatures and More at the Albuquerque Museum this fall. The ad was published in the September issue of Southwest Art magazine.

Multi Media Ex.--> Web 2.0 Community Model--> Graphic

Corie, Jessica, Cassie

Multi Media Ex.--> Web 2.0 Community Model

1. Membership
For the Web Community this would involve authorship on the site. Members are able to add to the content in addition to being a reader and follower. Being apart of the online community would be less personal than a physical community, but it allows for a wide range of members because the community becomes globally accessible.

2. Influence
A community and individual’s influence within the community in a Web 2.0 environment would involve the quantity and effectiveness of the member’s participation in authorship, commentary and sharing. The community platform would allow access for all members to be published and heard equally by everyone and each other encouraging an equal exchange of power.

3. Integration and Fulfillment of Needs
Involvement in a Web 2.0 community allows participants with common interests to find what they desire and contribute information that enables others to obtain what they need.

4. Shared Emotional Connection
Emotional connection through Web 2.0 is enhanced by the quality of the interaction by the individual user. The time and energy invested into the community is rewarded by recognition and deeper involvement in the community.

User Experience--> Ziba Soy--> Final Site Pages

Information Architecture--> Collect--> Final Site

Click here for my final bottle cap site. For best viewing experience open in Safari.

User Experience--> Ziba Soy--> Site Pages 1st version