2D brainstorming grid

This is the grid I created for brainstorming the second set of ideas to go alongside my social poster. The Y axis is Places - where the item might be seen. The X axis is Media - what type of thing the item could potentially be.

My Mantra

Don't Clean Your Desk.
I've embraced this mantra, unknowingly, for just about my whole life. When I've tried to clean, I always get distracted, or find that I can't throw things away because somehow I know I'll need to use them in a project in the future. But, in the midst of design projects, cleaning my desk would just take away time from working on the project itself – not that searching for things I can't find doesn't.

Taken from Bruce Mau's An Incomplete Manifesto For Growth

Bruce Mau is a Canadian designer and, from 1985 – 2010, was the creative director of Bruce Mau Designs. He is also the founder of Institute Without Boundaries, a nine-month extensive graduate program through the School of Design at George Brown College in Toronto. Though he started out as a designer, Mau moved on towards architecture, art, film, and other forms of media. He has worked in various capacities at a number of universities in the United States. He completed his Incomplete Manifesto For Growth in 1998 as a method to help designers think through their creative process.

Social Poster - Rapid Prototyping

We are working on a poster project, using one of the posters from the Graphic Advocacy project and creating a supplemental annotation for the poster. I am working with the "Where's My Vote, Russia?" which deals with the suspected mass voter fraud in the 2012 Russian presidential election. The poster is here.

Here are some images of the rapid prototype models I created in just a couple hours based on brainstorming ideas I came up with.

This iPhone app would allow users to interact with various aspects of the election and learn about all the factors that went into the fraud suspicions and the idea that the Kremlin was organizing voter fraud on a large scale.

This website would compare and contrast the practices of the Russian government to those of our own system, in order to put the mass scale of fraud into an American context so that American viewers can better identify with the Russian people's outrage.

This booklet would allow viewers to see how political corruption is not only an issue in Russia, but also globally. Another idea using this same global scale approach would be to have an iPhone app or website with an interactive world globe where users could rotate the globe, zoom in on various countries, and learn more about corruption in those countries.

5 x 5 grid

This is a method of brainstorming we used for the beginning of the process.

The Great Gatsby - Original Dust Jacket

This Means That

This Means That: A User's Guide to Semiotics


Semiotics: the theory of signs

Signs represent a symbolic relationship between two or more things. How can one thing mean another (for example, apple=health)? We subconsciously analyze relationships between things and form connections in our brain based on cultural context. Different cultures will make different links and not all symbols will have the same meaning when taken out of that context.

In a photo of Adam and Eve, an apple will signify temptation. In other contexts, it will signify health or fruit in general.

We also make references based on cause and effect. A black eye will signify a punch in the face, smoke signifies fire, ticking signifies a clock or time, etc.

We create symbols drawn from the nature of an object. A dove represents peace, a lion represents strength and leadership, a lily represents purity, and so on. In the case of these symbols, we need to know what they stand for in advance; we can't necessarily derive their meaning just by looking at them.

Depending on where we place emphasis, the meaning can shift as well. In the sentence, "I didn't eat Grandmother's chocolate cake," try placing emphasis on each different word. "I didn't eat Grandmother's chocolate cake" has a different meaning than, "I didn't eat Grandmother's chocolate cake," etc. These same transmittal changes can be applied to any message. A writer message is meant to be received by a reader. A designer's message is meant to be received by a viewer. As designers, we must watch for ways to convey different meanings in these various ways.

In addition, there are different ways to mean things. A statement can be sincere or sarcastic. The tone of voice, facial expression, and other communication methods can change the meaning of a message even if the message itself is the same.

Methods to alter the meanings include simile, metaphor, metonym, synecdoche, irony, lies, impossibility, depiction, and representation. Each of these can be manipulated to give new insight into ideas and meanings of images, objects, and texts.

Sometimes, the communication tools lie not in what you include, but in what you leave out. Gestalt or implied information.

Chip Kidd: Book Cover Designer

Chip Kidd is a brilliant book designer who works for Alfred A. Knopf Publishing. I love the way he thinks through the message the books is portraying and finds a brilliant way to show that through design. In the top video, he describes his process and how his designs were ultimately rejected by the publisher. In the second video, he share about his successes as a designer as well as the process and how the cover of each book demonstrates the message contained in the book itself. He is a great entertainer as well!