Task 2 Environmental sign systems (wayfinding)

'Legible London'

I lived in London for three months in the summer of 2006. When I began walking about the city I felt intimidated by the size of the city. I had a Tube (train) map and an A-Z map I used to find my way around. I mostly used the Tube to get to where I needed to go. I was afraid to travel too far a distance on foot for fear I would get completely lost. I attempted to use the Tube map and the A-Z together, but doing so seemed to confuse me more.

 

After several weeks of avoiding too many walks and relying way too much on the Tube to get me around, my friend began pointing out places that were familiar, like Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and Covent garden, all these places I knew. I began to realize they were very close, walking distance of were I lived. At that point I felt almost silly that I had been taking a train to get there and it was only a 10 or 15 minute walk.

 

Transport of London found this to be the case in their research of the sign systems that were currently in place throughout London. Two years ago a study was done on the effectiveness of the mapping system for people traveling on foot. The study showed that the problem was the 32 different pedestrian wayfinding systems used within the central charge zones. People rely a great deal on the Tube maps to find their way around. The tube maps are schematic and distorts the real distances of destinations making people think it is much farther to walk than it is really is.

 

After gathering this data Transport of London decided to create a new environmental sign system (wayfinding), ‘Legible London’, that would provide more information to people who wanted to walk. This system would give people more confidence when traveling in London on foot.

 

The concept was to use “mental mapping” by connecting areas, regions, and transport systems. On November 2007 they placed nineteen pilot (prototype) maps in the West end of London, concentrating on the Bond Street area.

 

Strengths of the system:

The research from the prototypes found that 85% of 2,600 people found it easy to use and 90% felt the system should be used all across London. Almost two-thirds of people responding said the system would encourage them to walk more. The study showed people on foot were 16% quicker in their travels after the installation of the maps. (Research conducted by Colin Buchanan)

 

The prototype signs have an audio commentary which you can access using your mobile phone. Each sign has a unique commentary of the surrounding area with useful travel information and a description of the geography of nearby areas.

 

Weakness in the system:

Many pedestrians stated the cardinal directions needed to be posted larger on the maps; that there was still confusion of which direction they were walking.

The measurements of distance were an issue; should the distance be shown in time or measurements in meters.

Source website 

 

The prototype scheme for ‘Legible London'

The new maps now show the approximate time in relation to distance, which the existing prototypes do not have.

Environmental Sign Systems/Wayfinding

Stage 2: Qualitative, visual research

At this point I am pulling more towards the 2. Communications project ( 'Visions of a Day', recording a day in my life. This will allow me to further pursue typography as more of a graphic element rather than just information to be read.

-I will begin my research deeper into who my target audience is, look into the supplies needed for my research and development of my project and begin estimating the cost and time it will take to set up my project.

- What day am I going to be out and about? I need to decide on a day to go out and record.

- I will need a recorder I can borrow. I will check on campus to see if I can borrow a recorder from the photography and video department. It is crucial that I can have time to set up a day and have the recorder for that day.

- I spoke with a roommate, Emmy, who is willing to help me set up the audio program she uses and show me how to use it so I can edit my recordings for the book.

- I started sketching out ideas on the layout and design of the book, but it is too soon to put anything down in stone as of yet.

Stage 2: Research for my book,' Vision of a Day'

I was telling one of my my roommates a bit about my project, book 'Vision of a Day', and she was quite interested in the topic. She suggested I take a look at 'Post secret', an ongoing community mail art project project created by Frank Warren. 

She told me she had been following it for a few years now. I had never heard of this site before. People take secrets that they can't and don't tell anyone else, write them on a postcard and send it to Frank. He selects postcards  and posts on his website. It connected with my project in a sense that it is every day people and their conversations, most private conversations, communicating, connecting. 

Stage 2 Divergence

I ultimately want to design a self-promotional book that speaks something about me and myself as an evolving designer. I want it to be challenging. It should be diverse, informative, a real part of who I am as a designer/thinker, positive.

I have broken down my prior list of ideas and came up with two strong ideas:

1. Learning 

'Love and Marriage' what does love and marriage look like today?  

 A book about 'Love and Marriage' in different cultures. I would interview several different people in different cultures and find out the different culture, religious, traditions, and even medical views about marriage and love today.

A diverse group of people of all cultures, and informative tool to broaden knowledge of other cultures.

 

2. Communicating 

'Vision of a Day' a book design created from an audio recording of an entire day of conversations and encounters throughout my day. The concept is to record a day of events, encounters, conversations in a days time, to analyze the audio and to create a visual of what the events, etc. feel like and define the meaning visually. 

My audience is a wide range, teens, young adults,adults, people interested in the arts, creativity, communication, design.

Stage 1 Definition, step 3 More detailed list of ideas

Once I have done a bit of brainstorming about my passions and made a list, I want to break each one of my passions down and find out if I can come up with a few ideas for each subject to start with. I might start by making a map, creating a word list, jotting thoughts down or sketching out images that come to mind (at this point a lot of it doesn't really make any sense to the outsider looking in, it is a bit abstract at this point).

I ultimately want to design a self-promotional piece that speaks something about me and myself as an evolving designer. I want it to be challenging. It should be diverse, informative, a real part of who I am as a designer/thinker, positive.

My passions:
(the blue is my added thoughts and brainstorming)
(the purple is my continued search in more detail)

The arts; drawing sketching, painting, sewing, designing, photography, I ALWAYS have my camera with me. Art is my one true passion in my life.
- Imagination at play
- An illustrated story bringing one of my imaginative thoughts to life, like when I was very young I thought a tornado was an enormous tomato with large green arms and legs, tossing houses and cows about. How my youth and imagination is key to my design work, keeping a "playful" light on design.

I think I could combine the ‘imagination at play’ idea with the ‘random connection’
-Childhood stories, my imagination as a child
-My every day conversations with people
-Encounters with others
-Random stories and thoughts

- a journal type layout with illustrations, rough sketches and thoughts about randomness

- more of a ‘random collection’, which would combine more of a ‘my life’, or ‘I am living what are you doing?’ theme, like ‘The Mighty Boosh’, they have a random collection of crazy fun, off the wall book of mayhem really!

- dare to dream
I like to link this idea with my individuality subject as people not being afraid to dream and go out and live their lives, not caring what people are going to think about them. I could also link these to the ‘random collection’
- a book about my sewing and tote bags
- stitched!
- In Stitches

Music - I cannot image my world without it. I have been influenced by music since birth really.
- bring a song to visual life using typography
- what music means to me
- If I were a song what would I look like and how would I be sold...my visual..?


Traveling - I love going to new places, meeting new people and learning about new cultures.


Problem solving - I truly enjoy finding solutions to problems, be it in my design work or my every day life.

Reading - I love a good science fiction or fantasy adventure and just let my imagination go.

How much do we really read today? Statistic on how many books the average person between the ages of 25–35 reads each year in the UK.

Communicating - I enjoy connecting with people

Connections
- Every day conversation
- Random encounters with people, strangers on the street, at the grocery store, in the park, on the train or bus. I just read this book by Douglas Coupland, 'Life after God'. At one point the character is stuck in the desert with no food or water, has no idea where he is and it is now dark. An old man, just passing by, ends up helping him to find his way and gives him food. 
- Random acts of kindness
- Conversations with people, small an abrupt, by strangers, comments we hear people make on the street...

I want to work with the idea that design is in the every day happenings. I read ‘79 short essays on design’ by Michael Bierut. In the book he spoke about an online forum he set up for fellow designers to discuss their work. Michael himself posted about a topic other than design and people were upset that he used the design forum to discuss things other than design. Michael felt that design is everywhere and involving just about everything. I want to create more of a self promotion piece about my every day experiences, creating visuals for my emotions in my connections with people and situations in my life

an abstract visual communication about random encounters in a person’s life, Everything is design!


- 'I'm living what are you doing' a book about life, the every day little bits that we quickly forget or they just get brushed aside waiting on the BIG bits.

- Random comments I hear in my every day life- a book of randomness
- People and comments
- Negative comments/ positive comments
- Comments that other people have told us about ourselves, negative and positive. How long would it take a person to recall a negative comment verses a positive one?

Learning – I learn new things every day. I am passionate about getting out and seeing life and learning from others.

'Love and Marriage' what does love and marriage look like today?

Living life and taking in and enjoying every moment – Taking each day in as a new experience


Individuality - I love people that get out there and live, who aren't afraid of what anyone else thinks and just creates, lives dances to their own tune

task 1

Not all typefaces speak the same language.

As a designer I use type as a means to communicate a particular message. There is a great deal of typefaces today that one can get burried in the decision of what type is going to work for a particular design situation. I can use Helvetic/Neue Haas Grotesk (designed by Max Miedinger, 1957-1983) in many visual solutions, yet with Zapfino (designed by Hermann Zapf, 1998) I may be a bit limited in my use for a particular solution. I do like to experiment with many styles of type, but that doesn’t mean I should or will I ever use every one of them to communicate with. I can convey any number of visual communication solutions with just a handful of strong and simple typefaces, such as Syntax typeface (designed by Hans Eduard Mier, 1968), a Humanist Sans serif typeface, or Gill Sans (designed by Eric Gill, 1927-1930).

I do experiment with what I feel is a limited typeface to find more solutions for its use, rather than assuming it has one place in the communication arena, but find myself going back to certain types that I know will work and fit the solution. Design is an ongoing learning process, yet when it comes down to finding a solution I have to go with my intuition and what feels right for the particular work.


Futura is a strong typeface used in many different instances. Paul Renner designed Futura typeface between 1924 -1926. The typeface was based on geometric forms, which represented the Bauhaus movement of 1919 - 1933. The “O’s” are perfect circles and the peaks of the “A’s” and “M’s” are sharp triangles. Even though Paul Renner was not associated with the Bauhaus, he believed that typefaces should represent the modern rather than be a restoration of earlier designs.


Futura typeface is a clean, crisp and easy to read design. I can use it in such a wide range of visual solutions unlike some typefaces for instance FF Kosmik (designed by Erik Van Blokland, 1993) or Hypnos (designed by Jean Antoine, 1969), which are limited in their use and feel in a communication solution.




When I get lost in the London underground I reach for my map for directions. In those moments I want nothing more than clarity. Edward Johnston designed the Johnston typeface for the London Underground,1915. He left medical school in Edinburgh in 1898 and decided to try his hand in the arts in London and studied medieval manuscripts at the British Library. He was greatly influenced by the manuscript collection at the museum and his passion for lettering began.

In 1915 Johnston was commissioned by Frank Pick, the director of London Transport, to create an alphabet design for the London Underground. Working beside Eric Gill (one of his pupils, whom also designed quit an impressive collection of typography), Edward Johnston finished the design in 1916. Johnston typeface was one of the first humanistic sans serifs, which was influence by the Roman, square style type. It is simple, classic and versatile in visual communication solutions.






Designers like Carson and Stagmeister changed the way type is used in design. They used their gut instincts and went with what they felt would work best for the end product. I am inspired by Stagmeister's work with type, especially his hand written type styles. I am often torn in a desire to be abstract and more diverse in my communication designs and a need for organization when it comes to readability in my work. Clean clear simple contemporary design.



Sources: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/305518/Edward-Johnston
http://www.ejf.org.uk/EEC/index.php/wikipedia/New_Johnston/
http://www.linotype.com/391/aboutthedesigner.html
‘Thinking with Type’ by Ellen Lupton 2004
‘An A-Z of Type Designers by Neil Macmillan 1991
'Johnston's Underground Type' by Justin Howes2000

Stage 1 Definition What AM I doing now?

What is the project/problem? I am to find a subject I am most passionate about and design a book on that subject. What are my passions/ what am I most passionate about? At this point in the process I am looking for ideas for my project and need to make a list of my passions and what drives me the most. (I always like to start with a definition, it's just fun) pas⋅sion [pash-uhn] –noun 1.any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate. 2.strong amorous feeling or desire; love; ardor. 3.strong sexual desire; lust. 4.an instance or experience of strong love or sexual desire. 5. A person toward whom one feels strong love or sexual desire. 6.a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything: a passion for music. 7.the object of such a fondness or desire: Accuracy became a passion with him. 8.an outburst of strong emotion or feeling: He suddenly broke into a passion of bitter words. 9.violent anger. 10.the state of being acted upon or affected by something external, esp. something alien to one's nature or one's customary behavior My passions: The arts; drawing sketching, painting, sewing, designing, photography, I ALWAYS have my camera with me. Art is my one true passion in my life. Music - I cannot image my world without it. I have been influenced by music since birth really. Traveling - I love going to new places, meeting new people and learning about new cultures. Problem solving - I truly enjoy finding solutions to problems, be it in my design work or my every day life.    Individuality - I love people who aren't afraid of what people are going to think of them and dance to their own tune. Communicating - I enjoy connecting with people Learning – I learn new things every day. I am passionate about getting out and seeing life and learning from others. Living life to the fullest - taking in every moment  Reading - I love a good science fiction or fantasy adventure and just let my imagination go.

Stage 1 Definition Breaking down my list

Once I have done a bit of brainstorming about my passions and made a list, I want to break each one of my passions down and find out if I can come up with a few ideas for each subject to start with. I might start by making a map, creating a word list, jotting thoughts down or sketching out images that come to mind (at this point a lot of it doesn't really make any sense to the outsider looking in, it is a bit abstract at this point). 

My passions:

(my added thoughts and brainstorming)

The arts; drawing sketching, painting, sewing, designing, photography, I ALWAYS have my camera with me. Art is my one true passion in my life.

- imaginations at play

- An illustrated story bringing one of my imaginative thoughts to life,  like when I was very young I thought a tornado was an enormous tomato with large green arms and legs, tossing houses and cows about. How my youth and imagination is key to my design work, keeping a "playful" light on design.

- dare to dream

- a book about my sewing and tote bags

- stitched!

- In Stitches

Music - I cannot image my world without it. I have been influenced by music since birth really. 

- bring a song to visual life using typography

- what music means to me

- If I were a song what would I look like and how would I be sold...my visual..?

Traveling - I love going to new places, meeting new people and learning about new cultures.

Problem solving - I truly enjoy finding solutions to problems, be it in my design work or my every day life. 

Reading - I love a good science fiction or fantasy adventure and just let my imagination go.

Communicating - I enjoy connecting with people

- Connections
- Every day conversation
- Random encounters with people, strangers on the street, at the grocery store, in the park, on the train or bus. I just read this book by Douglas Coupland, 'Life after God'. At one point the character is stuck in the desert with no food or water, has no idea where he is and it is now dark. An old man, just passing by, ends up helping him to find his way and gives him food. 
- Random acts of kindness
- Conversations with people, small an abrupt, by strangers, comments we hear people make on the street...

- 'I'm living what are you doing' a book about life, the every day little bits that we quickly forget or they just get brushed aside waiting on the BIG bits.

- Random comments I hear in my every day life- a book of randomness
- People and comments
- Negative comments/ positive comments
- Comments that other people have told us about ourselves, negative and positive. How long would it take a person to recall a negative comment verses a positive one?

Learning – I learn new things every day. I am passionate about getting out and seeing life and learning from others. 

- 'Love and Marriage' what does love and marriage look like today? 

Living life and taking in and enjoying every moment – Taking each day in as a new experience

Reading - I love a good science fiction or fantasy adventure and just let my imagination go.

Individuality - I love people that get out there and live, who aren't afraid of what anyone else thinks and just creates, lives dances to their own tune

Why do I design?

Design has continuously been my voice and connection with people and the world. Some people can describe an object using words with such ease. When words escape me, I have used my art to communicate for me. I can’t even begin to count the times I have been in a conversation with someone and ended up with pencil and paper in hand as an attempt to describe an object or a situation. I see an empty room and I can quickly visualize this space filled with furniture, colors and lighting. My mother would say, “ I don’t know how you can visualize all of that”. She never could. I assumed everyone could see things this way, but eventually found out there are many people whose minds do not and cannot work this way. My friend is a strong writer, yet I struggle to come up with half the words she can for describing something, but I can imagine it in my mind with such vivid details as to create a physical image from it. This is how I communicated and problem solved, visually.


I love glue sticks, textured paper, brainstorming and sketching out ideas, playing with typeface styles almost indefinitely and still get excited about a new box of crayons. I have always had quite an imagination and a desire to sketch out my ideas. I remember, I must have only been about four or five years old, thinking that a tornado was actually an enormous tomato with green arms and legs, going around picking up houses, trees and cows and throwing them about.

I was bullied through grade school for not dressing and talking like everyone else and just not fitting into any particular group. I felt as though I were a misfit. Sometimes, I feel that maybe I still am?


My mother gave me my first set of crayons and sketchbook at a very young age. I fell in love. Art was my sanctuary and I had little desire to do anything else in the world. As far as I was concerned there wasn’t anything else. Ok, there actually was a moment in time when I wanted to be an astronaut and shuttle to the moon. I was nine.

The dream of flying to the moon was short lived as I was pulled back to my dream of working with Walt Disney and having a career in cartoon animation. I spent hours and hours every day sketching characters from the cartoons and made wallpaper out of them.

I was also a very quiet and shy child and was that way throughout middle school and into high school, but I had my art to keep me company and therefore, there was no real push to look outward for connections. The bullies confirmed that reaching out to others was not a good decision for me and as they pushed me I pushed further into my art. My art was then my escape from my harsh reality. I was quiet and kept quiet. Most of my school memories were either racing home each day after school to dodge the bullies or in my art world and that is where I stayed. The times in my life that were most challenging and hard, my mother always bought me a sketchbook and pencils. She too knew that it was my passion and what I held close to in my life.

I started working full-time when I was sixteen years old. I worked in many different fields; baby sitting, restaurant and hotel work, education and nursing. I even went to school and received my assistant nursing license, but no matter what field I pursued I was constantly being pulled back to the arts.

I was living in a small community in Kansas and design was not an option as a career, so I eventually moved to Texas. I researched and found a design course at a local community college. I was in heaven! I found myself surrounded by people with rich imaginations, a passion for design and life in general, a community of people like myself.

When I started my college courses I didn’t even know how to turn a computer on. I did not let that discourage me from learning about design. I embraced that challenge like so many, knowing that computers were to be an important part of contemporary art and design.

After all that discomfiting experience at such a young age in isolation I now want to reach out and communicate, make creative connections with people.

“The eye – it cannot choose but to see; we cannot bid the ear be still; or bodies to feel, where’re they be, against or with our will” - Wordsworth

I read ‘The media is the massage’ by Marshall McLuhan this morning. He wrote a really interesting book about how societies have been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication.

In today’s electronic society we have shifted our attention from action to reaction. With technology moving so quickly as soon as we get information and take it in, it is replaced with yet newer information.

There are some great quotes and some viewpoints that were quite humorous as well. It is an eye-opener, or ears?...or mind?....hhmmmm?..Haha.

Publishing and Design Authorship

I checked out 'Process; A Tomato Project', which is quite interesting in the way they use photography to create feeling and a story throughout the book. 

I will keep reading, brainstorming and researching....

Visual research; an introduction to research methodologies in graphic design, by Ian Noble and Russell Bestley

This book has a great deal of helpful information. There a several case studies, including the chapter on designer as author and Matt Cooke's research methodology, which I am using as a guide. 

Playing around with Helvetica

Better.....

Playing with typefaces a bit...

Thinking with Type By Ellen Lupton

I checked out and read Thinking with Type By Ellen Lupton over the holidays. It is FULL of great information regarding type, how to use it, but there is even a bit of history on type.

I really liked this passage, which was taken from the book: 

" Many books define the purpose of typography as enhancing the readability of the written word, one of designer's most humane functions is in actuality, to help the readers AVOID reading".

There are also different projects one can work on to help them designing type. I worked a few and found them quite helpful. 

A bit of playing with words....

The Ten Commandments of Typography By Paul Felton

A quick read to get the brain going!

 

There are basic 'rules' in typography for ease of view and aesthetics, but through the years type has been designed in so many ways that the rules are always being broken so to speak.

This book is a split book, one half of the book has ten basic 'commandments' in typography. The other half of the book is "type Hersey' about breaking the 'commandments of typography'.

This book is informative as well as very humorous. It gives you the basic ways in which type can be easily read and used, then it takes a spin and shows ways that the 'rules' can be broken in type to be more interesting and aesthetically appealing. 

'Helvetica' A documentary film by Gary Hustwit

A friend told me about this film 'Helvetica' about a year ago. He thought I would really enjoy the film and suggested I take a look at it some time. I almost forgot all about it until this evening when I came across it in the university library. I checked it out and found it a good source of information regarding my studies at the moment. I have been reading about typography, its uses and a bit of the history of type itself.   

I enjoyed hearing from both sides of the spectrum of people who rebelled against using Helvetica at all to those who won't use any other type than Helvetica.

Helvetica IS the most used typeface. In the film many graphic and typography designers were interviewed about the Helvetica font and how they viewed it. Either people loved it like Micheal C. Place, a London designer or simply hated it as Erik Spiekermann, creator of Meta typeface in 1991. Either way they all agreed that Helvetica is like air, the wind..It is everywhere.

One man, Lars Muller said, "Helvetica is like the perfume of the city, people really don't notice it is there, but miss it if it was gone."

I really enjoyed this film and recommend it to anyone interested in type, design or even history for that matter.