Thesis Topic

Just a Spoon Full of Design Humor

Helps the Message Go Down

"Humor is important for serious problems because it makes people remember."

-Paul Rand

THESIS:

Humorous and witty design is the best design solution in order to deliver a pleasurable experience to an otherwise non-pleasurable subject.

BAM!

Thesis Topic!

Past few posts here by a few of you, have been really helpful in my process and research. So... I agree it would be very beneficial for everyone to know what each other's topics are. Following Jones and Rob's plan for things I figured I would post my thesis topic. 

Observations

There seems to be a division in type designs that are prevalent today: those that are designed for readability, clarity, neutrality and timelessness – and those that are designed for a single purpose, that do not show such timelessness in their letterform design due to their expressiveness and lack of neutrality. My interests in typography are currently centered around this issue. It asks defining questions of traditional views on typography. What makes a successful font? How do you define an effectively designed letterform? Should typography itself, be expressive? Should everything in a design be considered, and connected even down to the typography itself?

Thesis Statement

I intend to show that letterform designs that are built to express the design they are to be used in; communicate, and connect with the viewer more effectively than choosing neutral letterforms for the design.

A Little Wisdom from a GREAT source.

Make time to watch this!!!!!

love, Abby & Paula Scher

Thesis Topic

I agree with Rob and think posting our topics would be helpful. My topic is "Enhanced Communication Experiences." Here is what I wrote in my proposal:

Observations
Often times communication can be static and uninteresting. Whether it be information about an exhibit or as simple as a calendar of events in a lobby, there is the opportunity to design it in a more compelling and captivating way. I’ve seen this done with motion, interactivity, and/or sound.

Thesis
I intend to prove that enhancing a communication experience with a dynamic element such as motion, interactivity, or sound can improve its ability to convey its message more effectively.

I encourage everyone else to post their topic, possibly even their proposal as well.

Sweet Geometric Alphabet

I came across this new identity created for Museum of Arts and Design in New York. Pentagram created an entire alphabet consisting of parts of a square and circle. It's really quite nice and simple. Check it out.

collective thesis ideas & interaction design

I know Bruce said this during class and since I missed last week I am not sure if this really happened yet or not. Is there a list yet of everyone's thesis subject?

I think if we posted a list of everyone's subject, it could be very helpful. I only know of 3 or 4 people's subjects, so I am curious to what others are doing.



Here is a book about the display of information, to those to two too it conerns:
Envisioning-Information

Here is a book about the Interaction of Design, beyond the human-computer interaction. It could be neats. Check here: Interaction-Design-Beyond-Human-Computer


Here are couple more book concerning interactiviting with design: 

Designing-Interactions
Designing-Interaction-Creating-Applications-Devices

Evolving My Thesis

After talking with Bruce today I'm redefining my thesis a little bit. I found myself getting stuck on signage too much and not focusing enough on the enhanced part that got me started on the whole thing. So while signage may be useful information, it is limiting. Therefore, I'm evolving my thesis past signage into more enhanced communication / experience. This opens me back up to explore a lot more of the motion, interactivity and other aspects that I was originally interested in to begin with.

Check out this sweet video on some of the work Lisa Strausfeld of Pentagram did for the Detroit Institute of Art.

relevancy

Lack of Signage

Just a random thought... it was brought to my attention today (thanks to the CNN coverage of the inauguration) that large events often times do not have adequate signs letting people know where to go or what is currently happening.

According to CNN's anchors even they weren't sure of where to go today. I'm writing this to remind myself later that large events are good venues for enhanced signage. These large events filled with people need to know where to go for various aspects of the event and how to navigate from here to there within the crowds. With such large events such as the inaugural address, it's the perfect opportunity for signs that can interact with people or can change as new information becomes available (maybe areas that have become too crowded or others that still have space available).

Just thoughts, not sure where it's going or if it's helpful yet.

Ah ha!

What do you call a sign that is more than a sign? What if a sign has motion? What about a sign you can interact with? Two words: enhanced signage. Yes, I've come up with a way to describe my thesis. My updated proposal deals with enhanced signage. I'm interested in how signs can provide more information and/or provide the information in a more engaging way. At this point I've looked at regular signage systems and motion designs. I've even found a few interactive systems that are similar to what I've described while not exactly there. These are a little more on the commercial side of things and I think I'd like to explore more of information side of things, like airport or subway schedules or routes.

Links:

A Case for Interactive Digital Signage - few reasons for why to move to interactive signage

Adidas interactive digital signage from YDreams - video showing a large interactive piece done for Adidas

MegaPhone - A large scale, very interactive game

pattern & texture

Just check this guy out, his work is nuts. But it does prove, you can make a pattern and/or texture out of anything you want. lookie lookie here

Reading All About Signs

While pondering how to finish updating my proposal I found some promising books on signage at the library. 

Signage Systems & Information Graphics

Pictograms, Icons & Signs

Sign Design (Can't find link)

Sign Graphics

I've got them checked out for a while so if you'd like to take a look at any of them let me know.

I've focused my research more on motion to enhance or expand information in relation to signs. That's rather wordy and I'm trying to work on it, any suggestions?

A few things I've found helpful

I've found a few places that are nice little web gems that may come in handy for some of you guys, on thesis work or just in general.

COLOURlovers.com - This is a pretty neat site that is all about color palettes and color combinations. Users can submit and rate different palettes, and download and import them into various programs that we all use - Illustrator, ect. 

ilovetypography.com - This site is just a blog detailing a lot of cutting edge typography uses in today's design. They showcase a lot of great work, and talk about anything new in the world of typography and type design. There are a lot of great articles here regarding typography for those who's thesis work is centered around type.

typographica.com - Many of you may already know about this website, but nevertheless this is a great website showcasing the new fonts and full type families that get published by the type foundries around the world. They do a lot of interviews with great typographers, type designers, and designers as well as showcasing some design work. 

Also, Rob told me about a great typography book that may be helpful for you guys who are doing typographic oriented thesis projects. The book is called Designing Type, by Karen Cheng. She does an excellent job of creating a book that centers around the issues that involve designing modern typefaces and letterforms. 

For those of you presenting this Friday, best of luck!

-cf

A little Experimental Motion gem.

For all you motion lovers out there...

this is really cool.

And the rest of the group seems pretty great with the work they have done.

In this they show a project and how it works as a system as well.

ta-ta, all

see you in the morning :)

motion & packaging design

I found this by accident, but its pretty neat. A blog all about packaging in design: thedieline.com

Also, I thought this book might be useful for those in motion graphics: Film Design by Von Arx. Published in 1983, this book by Von Arx, teaching alongside Wolfgang Weingart and Armin Hofmann at the Basel School of design, instructs on the use of design in film.  here are some photos of it: photos

Another motion book, for movie credits: uncredited book

Also type book for macro, micro type explanations (for Julie?): typography book

Motion Links

Here are some links to websites dealing with motion. More to come...

http://www.imaginaryforces.com/
http://mmbase.submarinechannel.com/titlesequences/
http://www.kurtzandfriends.com/index.html
http://www.pactitle.com/
http://www.susan-bradley.com/
http://www.designfilms.org/
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/917-title-sequences-from-saul-bass-the-master-of-film-title-design
http://notcoming.com/saulbass/index2.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UU132IUU_o&feature=related
http://prologue.com/#

First Things First 1964

Click title for link...

-wt

Website

This website is good to just look at different categories of design. It does take a little while to load though because there is so much on it.

graphic-exchange.com

Welcome Note

Welcome to the WMU Graphic Design Thesis Blog. I'm excited to get this started and I hope it will be a useful tool as we progress throughout the semester. I'd just like to voice a few guidelines on your posting.

• Please keep posts relevant to thesis related items. This isn't the place for personal blogging.
• Please be respectful of each other. This includes posts and comments, there is no need to attack anyone.
• Have fun!

If anyone else has more guidelines feel free to suggest them. I just thought it would be good to have a few to get started.

blogging about design...

this is real special.

www.notcot.org/

i visit this website a lot

it has a lot of different kinds of design.

also, Ellen Lupton's blog is pretty great too.

www.design-your-life.org/

peace out, homes!