Yesterday we had our mid-way crit session for our current OUGD405 100 things brief. We each had to lay out our current work and sheets were handed round with guided questions that we would answer about another member of the groups work. We then took another sheet and answered the same questions based on our own work. I found the crit session really useful and it helped me to re-focus my idea and take it further forward. Here are images of my sheets from the session:

Evaluation


- What is the problem?
To communicate the importance of information graphics through the visual of an information graphic.

- What subject/area of study are you focussing on?
I have chosen to focus on facts and figures giving my design a much more infographic format. I have left the contents open and quite broad as I hope to create an exhibition promotion using viusal language and type.

- To what depth are you investigating this area/subject? Is this sufficient?
I have researched into information graphics very thoroughly however, I do feel like my primary research is lacking. I have been out and taken over 100 images of my own. Despite this I hope to create a questionnaire to develop my understanding and create more area's of study. However, because I am laving the top quite broad I feel I have a sufficient amount of investigation into my topic and with a little more development of this I hope to begin creating my products within the next few days.

- What is the form and amount of your research to date?
So far I have collected a range of secondary images, I have been out and taken first hand images, as well as collecting facts and figures from online sources. I now hope to create a questionnaire to develop my research and take it further. I collected over 100 of each category to create a wide and varied understanding of my subject matter.

- What visual material do you have to work with?
I have collected over 100 images from online sources looking at information graphics, the structure colour themes and typographic forms etc. I have also been out and taken over 100 images of my own primary research looking at road signs, visual communication, mappings, signage etc. I hope to research into typography for my products, however my initial idea was to look at the typeface used on road signs and develop this as this is a nice link between my designs and other forms of communication.

- Is there an appropriate amount of work for the time you have had to develop it?
So far, I feel I could have done more research. However, I have been working on other briefs and in other area's which had to take priority. However, I feel I have a sufficient amount of work and following our crit session last Friday my idea's are now much more focused and I am prepared to take them to the design stage after some final research.

- If there isn't why is this? How could you improve your work-rate?
I do feel now that I can focus more thoroughly on this brief after tomorrow when we hand in our Essay's to Richard for our OUGD401 Context of Practice module. I hope to focus on this brief for the next week and in a week's time when we have our next crit session I will re-evaluate where I am at, which designs work and which ones don't and be able to take the brief further from there.

- What is your timescale? When is the deadline?
Our next crit session is on Monday 30th Jan, Our final Crit session is on Monday 6th February and our Module deadline is on Wednesday 8th February. I hope by next Monday to have a theme ad focus for my designs with at least 5 products produced ready for the crit. I have booked a print slot for Friday 3rd of February and so hope to have all 10 products produced and printed by then ready for the final crit session on the following Monday.

- What is achievable in the time available?
 I hope to be reasonable and create a series of stickers which I can then use on stationary etc. I also hope to create storage which will tie in with with my stationary theme and the design will be aimed at other designers or people who visit the exhibition and enjoy Information graphics. Along with my stationary and storage I will create a series of posters, postcards and business cards as promotional items for the exhibition. As there is very little construction with my idea, and items are mainly 2D, I hope that this is all achievable within the next 10 days.

- What methods are you using to evaluate the progress of your ideas?
I am evaluating my work at each stage and gaining peer feedback throughout the design process. We have also had weekly crits which are useful as these are not with my peer group and I am able to find different perspectives and opinions on my designs.

Focus


- What are you identifying as areas worth developing further?
I am hoping to develop the link between typography and information graphics further as well as focusing on facts. I hope to base my entire design of different facts and figures.

- What are you trying to communicate?
The importance of information graphics in everyday life and how signage is everywhere and communicates things across different language barriers.

- What audience have you indentified?
I hope to aim my products at young designers, people interesting in information graphics and who attend the exhibition.

- What problems have you identified?
I have found it challenging to find inspiration when designs and information graphic and information graphics. I also feel that figures and statistics about information graphics are harder to find than opinions however I have chosen to base my designs on this format.

- How do you intend to solve this?
A workshop we did a few months ago for the OUGD403 brief was really useful when we looked at icons and so I hope to create a series of about 5 icons as inspiration which I can take further in hope of creating an information graphic about information graphics. I will also undertake further research and try to find more facts, figures and statistics that are interesting and will engage the audience. I also hope to combine this infographics format with typography to create a combined result.

- What further research does this require?
I will create a questionnaire to collect primary research about information graphics and what people really think of it. I will also research online for secondary research including facts, figures and statistics.

- What is your intension?
I intend to communicate facts about information graphics in a simple format on stationary, storage and through visual posters.

Development


- Have you moved on from your initial starting point. If so how and why?
Initially I began looking at my current idea however after our first crit I chose to focus more on visual representations looking at how we associate fast and slow with the hare and the tortoise. However, when I went away and did further research into this I decided that there isn't enough information to fill a month long brief and chose to go back to my original idea.

- What methods are you using to document this development?
I have kept an ongoing documentation of my progress on my blog and hope to include images of design sheets and direction sheets further progression on my blogger also. I have also kept regular evaluations going on my PP blog showing how my idea's have developed.

- What proceses will you need to use to develop your work?
I will be using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign to create my final designs and therefore will use skills learnt in our previous workshops to guide and aid my design process.

After this mornings studio workshop with Fred we had to look at 5 things we could take further with reference to our research. My favourite two topics were looking at typography within publications and also how the audience affects the style of a magazines. For example, one theme of magazines (cooking) could take many different forms and be aimed at many different people or age ranges by the style and the information it includes. I have decided to combine both of my idea's together looking at how style, image and type is affected by the target audience. 

^^ Very bright colours, childish font cartoon style imagery; aimed at young children

^^ Again this magazines is aimed at children however much more structured this time. There is still a strong use of bright colours and a child-like 'fun' font to give characterised typography.

^^ This magazines layout is obviously aimed at a much older target audience. Simple colour theme which is very mature and a structured format which is simple and easy to follow. The typography uses a serif font which is very formal.

^^ Again like the magazines above this one uses simple fonts however is possibly target at a younger audience than above yet still adults because of the use of san serif font, simple colours and photographic imagery.

^^ I really like this design layout and feel that it is aimed at young to middle-aged women. The publication uses a very feminine font and simple imagery.

^^ Finally, this publication has a very structured format, still using a rather feminine typeface obviously aimed at women. This magazines format is very different to a 'classic' cookery magazines however, it it much more structured and basic which works really well and the colour themes throughout are a really powerful visual.

5 ranges which we can further research as a group based on the research and developed area's we have studied so far;


- Budget (whether some magazines use better quality printing methods, more colours, paper thickness etc.)
- Audience (one specific topic, e.g Cook books could have very different target audiences for example Older women in contrast to children)
- Format, Layout (Technology magazines are much more text based than gardening magazines which dominate imagery)
- Distribution methods (book shop, supermarket, exhibition, free flyers etc)
- Style and Promotion (various adverts that are found in books, magazines etc)

Today, We all came back together as a group and collective reviewed the research we have collected. We had four things to base our review on; 5 things with regards to our three original categories, 5 things we now know, 5 things to research, 5 problems that we came across. 


5 things with regards to 3 categories
- Magazines are much more images based than books.
- Instructions have been printed on the majority of things, e.g (Who should breast feed a child, mother or father)
- Magazine covers generally relate more to the contents than book covers do
- Each genre in fiction involves design stereotypes.
- Fashion and Celebrity magazines generally use models on the cover


5 things to research further and develop
- How the cover of a magazines relates to the inside context
- How the contents of cooking magazines varies to the contents of cook books
- Manga Comics; observe the range of themes / structures etc
- Children's fiction book sleeve designs
- Flyers; what attracts the audience


5 problems we encountered
- Getting hold of research documents that aren't kept private from the public
- Finding examples fo reference books
- Finding a wide range of comics that are still around
- Finding online resources for health and fitness publications
- Finding original sources for the public sector


5 things you now know about the categories
- Annual reports are very design based publications
- Safety publications use a majority of design based media
- Gardening magazines are mainly photography
- Fashion magazines have a very distinctive colour palette and font format
- Comics are aimed at adults just as much as they are at children

In today's session with Fred we explored different types of publishing and in or Blog groups selected 30 different sub categories. We each decided to then take 6 of these sub categories and research 10 aspects relating to each one, resulting in 60 types of publishing. As we started out with magazines, books and general as our three themes I resulted in cooking and home as my themes for magazines, my themes for books are cooking and educational and finally my themes for general are research and annual reports. Here is a collection of my research...


Research Documents - 

- graphs, flow charts, information, data, opinions, NHS documents research 

In today's session with Fred we explored different types of publishing and in or Blog groups selected 30 different sub categories. We each decided to then take 6 of these sub categories and research 10 aspects relating to each one, resulting in 60 types of publishing. As we started out with magazines, books and general as our three themes I resulted in cooking and home as my themes for magazines, my themes for books are cooking and educational and finally my themes for general are research and annual reports. Here is a collection of my research...
Annual Reports
- fashion, science, technology, design, business, 


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