This is my last post on the mastery journal. As I write this I am filled with emotions of accomplishment, nostalgia, and overall pride. During this year on the MDMFA I have discovered and developed new design processes, I learned to think critically and come up with creative and effective solutions to design problems, and I have become an overall better designer. Each course of the MDMFA has contributed on my personal and professional development as a media designer, while also providing me with tools for the development of a thesis presentation that portrays by newly acquired skills. Below I present my reflection on these matters and my mastery journey:
Contribution to my professional development.
Techniques learned and used to complete the thesis presentation.
Personal triumph
Mastery
On this class I planned my mastery journey. I learned to manage my schedule, to be professional, and to keep inspired.
Time management skills learned on this class allowed me to keep a good pace throughout the process of researching, writing, and designing the presentation.
Got my first A.
Defining Client Needs
Learned brainstorming, research, and sketching skills.
Sketching and brainstorming techniques learned on this class helped me design the presentation and find the most effective projects to be used on the presentation.
Learned how to develop effective logos.
Brand development
Learned about vision boards and included their development to my design process.
Design consistency techniques and concepts learned on this class helped me on my thesis development, by keeping my presentation constant and coherent on its design.
Developed vision boards that effectively portray the intended voice and tone.
Effective Copy Writing
Gained confidence, and learned to write good copy.
The techniques learned on this class allowed me to develop my personal voice and tone for the thesis presentation. It also allowed me to develop a presentation free of grammatical errors.
Developed effective ads that successfully pulled heartstrings through its combination of copy and imagery.
Design Research
Learned different design research techniques, like primary and secondary research.
The researching techniques learned on this class helped me write a thesis that is persuasive due to its use of reliable sources.
I learned more about my community and its residents.
Organizational Structures
Learned how to design and develop different types of motion graphics.
These techniques were used to expand on past projects by adding motion media to past campaigns. This made them stronger for their inclusion to the thesis.
Learned how to make motion more effective and natural by applying the nine principles of animation.
Design Strategies and Motivation
Learned market research techniques for the development of effective brands.
These techniques allowed me to accumulate strong research information to persuade the success of Boxpark sushi as a brand on my thesis presentation.
I found a unique concept for the development of my Boxpark sushi brand.
Design Integration
I learned how to develop strong brands.
The techniques learned on this class allowed me to develop a strong enough brand to be presented on my thesis.
I developed a unique and strong brand.
Multi-Platform Delivery
I learned to develop brand advertisement for different types of media.
The techniques used here were explained on the thesis presentation in order to persuade the success of each ad created for Boxpark Sushi.
I developed effective ads for many types media.
Measuring Design Effectiveness
I learned how to measure the effectiveness of brands and design.
The techniques learned here allowed me to measure the effectiveness of my past projects in order to include the most successful ones on the thesis presentation.
Found out that my Boxpark Sushi brand was very effective.
Presentation of Design Solutions
I learned how to develop persuasive presentations
The techniques learned on this class allowed me to develop a persuasive and strong thesis.
I wrote a thesis I can be proud of.
Professional Practice
I learned how to be ethical and professional in my field.
Not Applicable (Thesis is done).
I am graduating with a perfect 4.0 GPA.
An experience map portraying my journey throughout the year.
Throughout the four weeks of the Presentation of Design Solution Class, students built a thesis presentation portraying their Media Design work and mastery over the field. The persuasiveness of each presentation was measured under the Full Sail University Degree Learning Outcomes. Below are three important takeaways from my experiences on the Presentation of Design Solution Class:
Synthesis of Research
Directing research is the first step to take on any design project. A designer must acquire a good knowledge of the client, competitors, audience, and overall market in order to take informed and effective design decisions. While including research on a design process allows for the development of effective design solutions; the synthesis of research allows for design solutions to be innovative and substantiated by strong rationales. Synthesis “combines information from two or more sources”(Sullivan, 2011, para. 1). This combination of research helps the designer ideate new solutions by comparing and contrasting ideas, finding similarities, and developing new creative solutions.
Thesis presentation image portraying the synthesis of primary and secondary research to find a radical differentiator within the Hannibal Square neighborhood.
Innovative Solutions
The Media Design business exists to provide solutions (Creative Bloq Staff, para. 7). Therefore, the success of a Media Designer’s work is measured by how successful a given project is in solving a client’s design problem. A media designer should always aim to provide innovative design solutions, as these designs are key to differentiating a brand from its competitors. A brand is portrayed and expressed to its audience through design. Therefore, innovation in design is necessary in order to allow a brand to find a strong placement on a market .
Thesis presentation image comparing Boxpark sushi’s innovative design solutions to the design solutions of its competitors.
Acquiring Competencies
The media design field is always changing. New technology constantly emerges providing new tools and processes to design. As designers it is important to know that “although there are basic principles to good design, the mechanisms we use to bring designs to life are always changing” (Krohn, para. 9). A designer must have good knowledge of the principles of design, yet constantly learning new competencies is imperative for a media designer to be relevant on the field.
Thesis presentation image portraying some of the competencies learned through the Full Sail University MDMFA
During the Measuring Design Effectiveness Class, students learned and practiced processes of measuring the success of design projects. The class allowed for critical thinking to be exercised in order to measure the value of the Boxpark Sushi branding and its success on communicating and relating to its target audience. Lastly, the data recollected from these practices were reinterpreted and presented through the use of data visualization and infographics.
Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming
Throughout this month a series of readings were provided to aid the learning of concepts related to the measurement of design effectiveness. The most useful readings were the books A Designers Research Manual, and Design currency: understand, define and promote the value of your design workby Jenn & Ken Visocky O’Grady for their information on conducting surveys, identifying hard and soft values, and the hierarchy of user needs. Also the article Big Data for Humans by Rosemary Radich was informative through its insight on the need of data visualization. The article What is Data Visualization and Why is it Important by Chris Pittenturf provided a dissection of the attributes of good data visualization. Lastly, the article What Is an Infographic? What They Are and Why They’re Useful by Josh Ritchie provided information on infographics and their use for communication.
Connections were made during the infographics peer review process. During this assignment, additional research helped to build upon previously learned concepts. The book Cool Infographics : Effective Communication with Data Visualization and Design by Randy Krum provided a deeper insight on the definition of infographics. On the article What Is an Infographic? Find Out What They Are and Why They’re Useful Josh Ritchie defines an infographic as “a form of visual communication meant to capture attention and enhance comprehension… The broadest descriptor of a specific type of visual communication that includes graphics showing data, copy, or both” (Ritchie, 2019). Krum expands on this idea by stating that an infographic is “a larger graphic design that combines data visualizations, illustrations, text, and images together into a format that tells a complete story” (Krum, 2014). While both authors describe infographics as a graphic design that includes data visualization, copy and imagery; Krum adds that infographics tell a story. Therefore, infographics utilizes data visualization and design together in order to communicate a story; making its data easy to comprehend and attractive. This synthesis was utilized in order to design the final infographic. This design utilized Krum’s three part story format which includes an “introduction, key message, and conclusion” (Krum, 2014). The introduction provided information on the goal of the original survey and the amount of responses that it received, the key message included the data results from the survey, and the conclusion closed the story by providing information on how this data helps the boxpark sushi brand in its future development. This format allowed the infographic to feel complete and to successfully communicate its message.
Introduction of the Infographic
Key Message of the infographic
Conclusion of the infographic
Problem Solving
A particular design problem that needed to be solved took place during the infographic design process. In this assignment students had the challenge of interpreting data and communicating their survey results through data visualization. The problem laid on communicating this results in the most effective way possible utilizing the Boxpark sushi branding. In order to communicate the data through the Boxpark Sushi brand I developed two solutions. The first one was to utilize imagery related to the brand within the data visualization in order to communicate the brand and the information that each graph was portraying through it. The second solution was to utilize the brand colors and textures within the data visualization to communicate the brand, and communicate the graphs information with the use of iconography and copy. The first solution proved to not be effective since the inclusion of imagery made the data visualization elements too overcrowded, lowering their legibility. On the other hand the second solution was able to portray the brand well and allowed for the data visualization to communicate its intended message effectively.
Data visualization using imageryData visualization using brand colors and textures
Innovative Thinking
Compared to others in the industry my work did not vary much. The effectiveness of the designs were analyzed utilizing popular processes like surveys and according to the concepts of soft and hard value used by many professionals. While the overall process of analyzing the effectiveness of the Boxpark Sushi brand was made following industry standards, some innovative thinking was exercised during the infographic design. The first draft of the infographic contained legends within the data visualization elements in order to help the reader understand the data portrayed; yet after further research this was changed. According to Krum, “chart legends make readers work twice as hard to understand a particular chart because they have to look back and forth between the chart and the color key multiple times to understand the different sets of data represented in the chart” (Krum, 2014). In order to communicate the same data without the need of charts some graphs needed to be changed in order to include iconography or copy within it. This forced me into experimenting with different charts in order to find the ones that would be accurate on portraying the data, would allow for the brand elements to be incorporated, and allow for copy or iconography to be included within it.
Original graph with legendFinal graph without legend
Acquiring Competencies
Academic
Occupational
Technical
Data visualization – Used to interpret data through imagery making it easier to comprehend. Storytelling through infographics – Used to make infographics attractive and dynamic. the most popular storytelling sequence is introduction, key message, and conclusion.
Surveys – Used to obtain feedback from a target audience and measure the effectiveness of design within that market. Infographics – Used to make hard concepts or ideas easier to comprehend. It utilizes design, data visualization, copy, and imagery to communicate.
Conceptual
Soft value – Qualitative value that provides a brand future gain and audience loyalty. Used as a factor to measure design effectiveness. Hard value – Quantitative value resulting from any given project. Used as a factor to measure design effectiveness. Hierarchy of user needs – Used to measure how effective a design is in providing a good user experience. Design Staircase -Used to measure how profitable a design is to a company.
Survey Introductory paragraph – Used to explain the purpose of a survey. It provides responders with clarity on how their feedback will be used. Effective Survey Questions – Questions tailored to obtain usable and reliable data from survey responders. Qualitative data – Data that portrays information on user experiences. It provides information on how effective a design is in communicating its message Quantitative data – Data that is easily measurable. It provides information on measurable gains or losses.
The information experienced on this class will be of important assistance for future design endeavors. On my future work as a designer, I plan on taking design decision based on the value and effectiveness that each choice will add to the final result. Identifying the soft and hard values on that each decision will allow for final designs to be purposeful rather than aesthetic. Measuring each design choice against the Hierarchy of User Needs and the Design Staircase will also allow for final designs to be user and client oriented rather than self-referential.
The use of surveys and questionaries will also be important for their aid on providing information on how a design can be interpreted by users or clients. Surveys are good tools for measuring the degree of effectiveness on a design and finding which attributes need to be worked on more closely. These tools will be utilized in future endeavors in different stages of projects in order to understand if each design decision is successfully portraying the message intended.
Type of survey question utilized to measure the effectiveness of design decisions.
References:
O’Grady, J. V., & O’Grady, K. (2009). A Designer’s Research Manual (pp. 48). Rockport Publishers.
O’Grady, J. V., & O’Grady, K. V. (2013). Understanding Your Services. Design currency: understand, define and promote the value of your design work (pp. 36-67). New Riders.
Krum, R. (2014). Cool Infographics : Effective Communication with Data Visualization and Design (pp. 2-8). Wiley.
Ritchie, J. (2019, November 14). What Is an Infographic? Find Out What They Are and Why They’re Useful. Retrieved April 28, 2020, from https://www.columnfivemedia.com/infographic
Through the Multi-Platform Delivery class, the BoxPark Sushi branding project came to a conclusion. During this month students developed a logo for the brand. Media assets for advertisement of the brand were designed. Also, a brand guide was produced in order to establish guidelines for future design. Lastly, Students reflected on their brand development process in order to analyze the effectiveness of their final design choices.
Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming
Throughout this month a series of readings and video tutorials were used as guides for the development of the logo, media assets, and brand guide. Some of the most useful were Chapter 3 of David Airey’s book Logo Design Love since it provided guidelines for effective logo design, The article How to Proceed with Sketching of logo Design by Henna Ray, for its guide on the process of sketching logos, the tutorials by Terry Lee Stone Evaluating Creative Briefs for its information on measuring design effectiveness, and the article How to Create a Brand Style Guide by Shirley Chan for its guidelines on Brand Guide development.
Particular connections were made during the logo design process. This assignment used Airey’s seven elements of iconic design as a guide for the logo development. Airey recommends to keep design simple, make it relevant, incorporate tradition, aim for distinction, commit to memory, think small, and focus on one thing (Airey, 2015). In the same topic Ray recommends for logo development to start with sketching, since this process “gives you the freedom of thought and the process of creating a logo design become much smoother” (Ray, 2018). She also provides tips for the sketching process like researching the brand and using software to find iconography. Information from both of these readings was used for the logo development. In particular Ray’s recommendation of using software to find iconography was very useful since this helped to keep designs simple, traditional, focused and relevant. The software was able to provide iconography related to the brand attributes that could be used in creative ways within the logos. Also having deep knowledge of the brand helped create logos that were distinct and relevant to the brand’s message. While the authors provided different recommendations for logo design, following their process allowed me to develop logos that met both of their criteria.
Logos developed by following Airey’s and Ray’s processes
Problem Solving
A design problem that needed to be solved this month was keeping the new design elements constant with the messaging developed on the previous class, while also keeping Airey’s elements of iconic design reflected within the designs. The first logo developed for the brand was successful on mirroring Airey’s elements, but it deviated from the brand’s messaging and look and feel. In order to recover the the brand’s look and feel it was suggested to incorporate the polka dot aspect of the brand back into the logo. This first solution resulted on a series of logos with thicker lines, and separated shapes forming circular forms. While this solution allowed the logos to reflect the brand more closely, the simplicity was decreased. The second solution involved keeping the shapes unbroken, but making the lines thinker and making any corner on the shapes rounded. This solution proved to be the most successful since it allowed the logo to keep its original simplicity and portray the brands bubbly and young personality.
Original logo and the three resulting logos from the first design solution Resulting logo from the second design solution
Innovative Thinking
Compared to other professionals in the industry my design processes did not vary much. In fact the processes of other designers were followed in order to maintain the designs effective. An example of this can be found on the logo development where Airey’s elements of iconic design were followed. Another example can be found in the Brand Guide development were Shirley Chan’s How to Create a Brand Guide article was used as a guideline. While the overall development process was aligned to the industry standards, some innovative thinking took place during the logo development. Initially original font used for the logo did not reflect the brand attributes effectively. Therefore, I was driven into designing a series of custom fonts that would be more closely aligned to the brand. This font was inspired by the headline and subhead fonts of the brand in order to make sure it complimented the rest of the brand design. This extra step allowed me to design a fully unique, hard to replicate logo with a custom icon and typography; that effectively reflected the BoxPark Sushi brand.
Comparison of the BoxPark Sushi logo font with the Potra and Fredoka One fontsFinal font after further refinement
Acquiring Competencies
Academic
Occupational
Technical
Master pages– Master pages are a tool to create page layouts within Indesign and other software. They help to keep design constant. Blurb – A book printing website. common easy to print page sizes can be found here. Issuu – A digital publishing platform that can be use to display multiple page portfolio pieces.
Clear space – Specific and scalable space around a logo to ensure it keeps its legibility and impact. Brand Guide– A guide used for future asset design development. Retrospective – Analysis at the end of design project to learn what went right and wrong, in order to avoid mistakes in the future.
Conceptual
Airey’s Elements of iconic design – Seven logo elements that ensure design effectiveness. Design communication Elements – Typography, imagery, and design work together to communicate a singular messaging.
Production Plan – A plan for design production used to schedule deadlines for the designer and client.
References:
Airey, D. (2015). Logo design love: a guide to creating iconic brand identities. New Riders.
On the Design Integration Class at Full Sail University, students continued to work on the BoxPark sushi brand. During this month the voice and tone for the brand was explored and decided upon. Both a static vision board and dynamic vision board were designed in order to display how the brand’s voice and tone would be expressed through static and dynamic media. Also a media plan was develop, which allowed students to explore the most effective media in which BoxPark sushi can be advertised. Lastly the Design Brief from last month got finalized by including the new voice and tone information acquired throughout the month, and redesigning the document based on the voice and tone of the brand.
Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming
During this class, a series of articles, and readings from the book Advertising: Concept and Copy by George Felton were provided regarding the topics of voice and tone, mood or vision boards, color, typography, texture, visual hierarchy, medium delivery, print and digital media, and design briefs. Personal secondary research was also conducted regarding communication through design, dynamic media, and voice and tone in order to create an annotated bibliography with reliable information on the subjects. Connection between research and the assignments that took place during the class, can be mostly seen on the development of the dynamic vision board. Most of the information considered for the development of the assignment came from research made on voice and tone, specially the articles Inconsistent tone of voice will damage brands by Sebastian Joseph and Discovering your brand voice by Lynn Manternach. On his article, Joseph explains that the voice and tone of a brand should be exercised in all forms of communication past just advertising mediums. He describes that “the perceptions consumers get from an advertising campaign should match their day-to-day dealings with brands” (Joseph, 2012). This way there are not disconnections between the voice used in advertising and the one used by the company itself. Lynn Manternach’s article is centered more on discovering your brand’s voice. In it she discusses that every brand has a voice, which is its personality; and in order to be utilized it needs to be discovered. She explains that this voice can be found by researching the brand’s history, values, and promise; since it should reflect these attributes.
While the authors speak about voice from two different perspectives, both speak of the importance of keeping a brand’s voice constant through all forms of communication in order to maintain a unified perspective on the consumer’s relationship with a brand. The development of the dynamic vision board was guided by this main idea. It needed to reflect the same voice and tone that was developed and utilized on the static vision board. While this voice was expressed through static graphics before, this time it also needed to be expressed through motion and sound. This extra layer of voice expression was accomplished by implementing upbeat music and animating the graphical elements according to it. This approach allowed the dynamic vision board to feel energetic, dynamic, and fast, all aspects of the voice and tone of the BoxPark Sushi brand.
Dynamic vision board
Problem Solving
Continuing with the example above, the dynamic vision board’s main design problem was how to translate the voice and tone of the previously designed static vision board into dynamic media. The voice of the static vision board was expressive and young. It showed movement with the use of patterns and it utilized bright loud colors. In order to translate these aspects I thought of two solutions. The first one was of animating graphical elements like typography in dynamic ways, utilizing fast 3d motion and transitions with small patterned objects rapidly moving, coming to life and dying as if being affected by the motion of the main elements. Also the recording of footage was taken into consideration, representing patterns of sushi from different perspectives. The expected solution of this approach was to utilize dynamic animation as the tool that would hopefully communicate the energy and expressiveness of the brand, by also being backed up by footage utilizing fast and dynamic camera movements.
The second solution was to first find an upbeat music bed that would be used as a guide for the animation of the elements. The beats of the music bed would dictate the appearance of each element creating a relation between the sound and imagery. The need of energetic, fast and dynamic music would be necessary in order reflect these attributes in the visual side of the dynamic visual board. This solution was the one decided upon, since it was the most time saving approach. The music bed utilized had fast beats that allowed the animation of elements to also be fast and not utilize complicated transitions. The communication between the imagery and sound reflected the energy and youthfulness of the brand without the need complicated animation or excessive elements to be displayed on screen. Lastly, not all footage needed to have a dynamic camera movements since plenty of these would be on screen for very short times.
Sample of unused filmed footage for the first considered solution
Innovative Thinking
Compared to other professionals in the industry my work did not vary much, in actuality many of the work done throughout this month was based on processes from other professionals. An example of this can be seen on the voice and tone assignment, since Erika Hearld’s brand voice chart from the article 5 Steps to Find Your Brand Voice was utilized in order to define the voice and tone of BoxPark Sushi. Another example can be found on the Media Plan assignment in which Terry Lee’s Media Matrix was utilized to determine useful media assets for BoxPark Sushi advertising. While these templates were extremely useful to determine the brand’s voice and useful media assets; in future projects I plan to take these concepts learned and use them to come up with my own processes that would align better with my personal workflow. I think this would be important in order to differentiate myself from other professionals and to make my design process feel more organic.
Comparison of an Erika Heald Voice Chart and Mine
Acquiring Competencies
Academic
Occupational
Technical
Voice chart – This tool can be utilized as a reference to ensure that the brand’s voice is being used effectively through all forms of communication.
Vision Board – Also called Mood Board is a tool for collecting inspiration and portray possible brand look and feels before any design takes place. Dynamic Vision Board – Serves the same purpose as a vision board, but it is made on dynamic media using motion and sound.
Conceptual
Visual Hierarchy – utilized to direct a viewer’s eyes in order to communicate a visual message. It utilizes scale, contrast, direction, and position as tools. Ken Burns Effect – A technique that can be used to bring motion to static images. It applies artificial zooms and pans in order to add visual interest.
Tone – While the voice of a brand cannot be changed, the tone can be modified to communicate with different target audiences. Voice – The voice is the personality of the brand. It can be used to make a brand become familiar with customers. Tagline – It is a single sentence description of a brand. It is used to help target audiences become familiar with a brand. Therefore, it needs to be short and memorable. Mission Statement – It is a short paragraph that tells audiences who, why, for whom, and what a brand is. Introductory Paragraph – It is a sentence that introduces the brand through its personal voice. This text is made to be used in advertising media. Media Plan – The process of finding which mediums are most likely to reach a target audience. It is used to find useful advertising medias for ad campaigns.
During this month we took the first steps into developing an advertising campaign for a fictional sushi restaurant named BoxPark sushi. This fictional restaurant is located at a fictional BoxPark mall in East Side Milwaukee. Throughout this month we utilized design strategies in order to research and organize information regarding East Side Milwaukee, BoxPark, sushi, close competitors, and target audiences. We analyzed BoxPark sushi in order to obtain ideas on what unique benefits it can offer its clients according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Settle and Alreck’s Shopping List of Needs. Lastly, this obtained information was introduced into a creative brief in order to use it as a guide for the rest of the advertising campaign development.
Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming
On this month both primary and secondary research took place, and connections between the both were necessary in order to come with solid conclusions. During my initial research I decided to interview people that were familiar with sushi and to try sushi first hand at restaurants and grocery stores. Synthesis and connections took place during the following secondary research. One example of this synthesis took place when I learned through secondary research that the name of Uramaki rolls (a term I learned at a restaurant) were also called inside-out- rolls and were invented in the 1960’s in California (Lee, 2019). This two sources of information allowed me to see that sushi has the ability of changing the way it is made according to the influences of the area were it is created. Connections like this one opened my interest towards the possibilities of utilizing the concept of fusion sushi as a differentiator for BoxPark sushi, and to base the development of the BoxPark sushi brand around this idea. As expected the idea of fusion sushi worked well with the BoxPark sushi brand. East Side Milwaukee having a big population of adventurous young adults, and BoxPark being a non-traditional mall; Boxpark sushi’s location would be perfect for serving non-traditional sushi that surprises the palate.
Screenshots of some of the research that was synthesized for the final creative brief:
Photograph of a BoxPark Mall
Problem Solving
A design problem that needed to be defined and solved took place during the final development of the creative brief. BoxPark sushi’s biggest design problem is convincing customers that they are still eating sushi even though non-traditional sushi ingredients are being used. Two solution were considered for this design problem. The first one was to advertise BoxPark sushi as a place that provides many flavors, yet it still provides the sushi experience, maintains the sushi form, and is made by experienced sushi chefs. The second solution was to separate the fusion sushi aspect from the traditional sushi aspect of BoxPark sushi by perhaps using two menus. At the end the first solution showed to be the best one, since through interviewing sushi eaters it was determined that the quality, process, and knowledge of the chef meant more to the clients than the ingredients used on the sushi itself. Therefore, fusion sushi can be accepted by sushi eaters if they see that the quality and expertise is present.
Screenshots of the advertising problem and its objective within the final creative brief:
Innovative Thinking
Compared to others in the industry my work did not vary much. Creative briefs can be made in different ways, yet they still have the same purpose which is to create a guide for the design of a campaign or brand. An area on this process that demanded innovative thinking took place during the consideration on how BoxPark sushi can fulfill all of the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and all of the Settle and Alreck’s Shopping List of Needs. This exercise allowed me to see BoxPark sushi from many perspectives and brainstorm many routes of were its branding could go. While in the industry normally a brand is already stablished before an advertising campaign is developed; in this project we also had to create an idea of the branding while developing our creative brief for the campaign. This extra step allowed me to see the different possibilities of were BoxPark sushi could go and to choose the most successful solution.
Screenshots of the considerations on how BoxPark sushi can fulfill all of the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and all of the Settle and Alreck’s Shopping List of Needs:
Screenshots of the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the Settle and Alreck’s Shopping List of Needs utilized on the creative brief:
Acquiring Competencies
Academic
Occupational
Technical
Synthesis Writing – Writing that combines the information of two or more sources in order to support a thesis.
First Hand Use – Easy to follow Primary research strategy utilizing personal experiences as the source. Becoming a Student – Secondary that involves learning as much as possible of the client and product. Learned about consumers – Primary research made by interviewing customers of a client or searching for reviews or forums online Category of the Product – Research that involves learning about a product and its placement on the market Demographics – A quantitative form of Market segmentation mostly obtained through secondary research. Psychographics – A qualitative form of Market segmentation, mostly obtained through primary research. Buying Behavior – A guide to find the when, what, and why a target market might buy a product or service. Creative Brief – A brief created to be used as a guide of the messaging of an advertising campaign. Product-Oriented strategies – Advertising strategies that emphasize the product rather than the costumer Consumer-Oriented Strategies – Advertising strategies that emphasize on the target market and the market position.
Conceptual
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – A list of five needs made by Abraham Maslow that all humans try to fulfill. It can be used as a guide to create strong advertisement. Settle and Alreck’s Shopping List of Needs – A list of 15 needs by Robert Settle and Pamela Alreck that can be used as a guide to create strong advertisement.
Directcompetitors – The closest and most similar competitors of a brand. They should be targeted first. Indirectcompetitors – Competitors with some similarities to a brand, but have strong differentiators. Should be targeted after the direct competitors. Replacementcompetitors – Competitors with no obvious similarities, yet a customer might still choose them over a brand. Last to target.
References:
Felton, G. (2013). Advertising: concept and copy. New York: Norton & Company.
Through the Organizational Structures class I learned about the history, basics, and the intricacies of Motion Design. I also learned how to successfully implement storytelling in design in order to create a connection with target audiences. Lastly I got a deeper knowledge of the opportunities, and work environments that are available to designers throughout their careers. Throughout this month I was able to build upon my motion design and graphic design skills by taking part of design challenges and creating infographics for this mastery journal.
Connecting/Synthesizing/Transforming
A good portion of the activities within this class took part in readings and absorbing important information regarding motion, storytelling through design, and the structure of design employment. While these readings were mostly informative, I was able to connect the learned terms in technical practice through the design challenges. An example of this can be found on the After Effects design challenge, where I implemented the concept of linear and nonlinear velocity provided by Jon Krasner through the use of keyframes. In this challenge I was able to change linear velocity to nonlinear velocity by utilizing easy ease key-framing and the graph editor, in order to make my animations look less mechanical. Having a good knowledge of the principles of animation, also provided by Jon Krasner in his book Motion graphic design: applied history and aesthetics, was extremely useful during the design challenges, specially in the ones that involved character animation. The utilization of other learned concepts like linking a story with the experience of the audience, introduced by Amy Huber, where also helpful in my work. This can be seen in my infographic on design work environments, which starts by trying to connect with the target audience’s experience by asking if they are new designers and are not sure where to go. The connections that I was able to create between the reading materials and my assignments allowed me to work in an analytical way rather than a mechanical. By this I mean that whenever I had to follow a tutorial, I did not follow the steps in a mechanical way but instead I was able to see the why behind each step.
Examples of an Animation Made by Following the Principles of Animation VS One That Does Not Follow Them.
Problem Solving
The latest design problem that allowed me to take different steps than the ones presented in class, can be seen in the last design challenge. In this design challenge I decided to create 2.5 parallax images communicating the stories from my previously made Elephant Sanctuary of Tennessee testimonials project. One of the images I utilized in that project was a close up portrait of an elephant. The design problem with this image was that cutting the image in layers and utilizing 3d cameras as instructed in the tutorials provided, would not portray the three dimensionality of the elephants facial features well. In order to solve this design problem I noticed that I could take three different paths, the first one would be to utilize a projection map, the second one would be to utilize a displacement map, and the third one would be to change the photograph to one with a defined background in order to go the way the tutorials instructed. First, I decided against the third option since I wanted to challenge myself and make this image work. Secondly, I decided against using a projection map, since this involved creating a 3d geometry in which to project the 2d image. This step of creating a custom 3d geometry would have taken way too long and I would have missed the deadline provided. Lastly, I chose to utilize a displacement map; which involved creating a grayscale solid representing the position of the images three dimensionality, with the lightest part being closer to the camera and the darkest parts being the farthest. Through the use of the displacement map I was able project the image into the solid creating a 3d effect. While the resulting parallax was more limited than a projection map in terms of rotation, the effect was enough to solve the design problem.
Final Result of the Design Solution Presented Above
Innovative Thinking
I believe that when measuring my work with others on the industry, my work might not compare to the level of skill of many admirable designers. Yet, This work was made in much smaller periods of time and with no budget compared to other work made within the industry. In order to meet the deadlines for this class I had to make great sacrifices. I was forced change my desired design style, procedure, and way of thinking for each assignment since I only had days to complete several motion design projects every week. In order to speed up production in this months projects I had to utilize a combination of several different software. I utilized software like Articulate Storyline and Powtoon for simple animations, Adobe Spark for voiceover and music, and Adobe Premiere for my final edits in order to create work that could have all been done much better in After Effects, but in much longer periods of time. Through research I also noticed that plug-ins where available in order to solve many of my design problems easily, yet i did not have the budget to purchase any of these resources. The tight deadlines, lack of budget, and amount of work forced me to take innovative routes for many of these projects. Instead of creating my own animations, I looked for software with built-in animations in order to speed up the production process. I utilized software that made voiceover production and music purchase faster and free. I even utilized Articulate Storyline for animation, a software that is originally made to create interactive e-learning presentations.
Final Product of a Dynamic Infographic Made with Articulate Storyline, Adobe Spark, and Adobe Premiere
Acquiring Competencies
Through this process I was able to learn new concepts and implemented them in my practical work. Some of the most important skills I learned this month are the utilization and projection of the animation principles through key-framing and character animation, the implementation of storytelling in motion, different ways of creating parallax with photography, and innovative ways to speed up production under tight deadlines. Below are some of the most useful concepts learned throughout this month:
Academic
Occupational
Technical
Motion paths – predetermined paths dictating the movement of an element Attentive design storyteller – A storyteller that attends to their audience. His goal is to connect with the audience through his story’s visual elements, values, and morals. Presentation design – composed of the framing of the problem, idea generation, design, and testing (in that order).
Dynamic Digital Signage – network that utilizes a server to broadcast visual information Pre-production – The process where a story is made for video production. Scripting, scouting, storyboarding, and all planning for production take place. Production – The filming (live action) or creation of elements (motion graphics) of a video production. It also includes the creation of voice overs, music, and sound. Post-production – The editing of a video production Storyboard – A succession of frames that establishes a concept’s basic narrative structure. Utilized for visualization of the production of a story. Pre-press files for print – The process of making print-ready artwork, designs, layouts, or any content that will be sent to a printing press. Concepts for clients – Design concepts to be shown to a client or put together in a presentation for a client. Usually the client is shown a wide variety of concepts to choose from. Asset design – The creation of assets and elements to be used for a brand. Asset design includes the constant development of a brand, marketing materials, and stock art.
Conceptual
Primary Motion – The movement of elements in space Secondary Motion – The movement of the camera in space Linear Velocity – motion without acceleration or deceleration. Non-linear velocity – Movement that accelerates or decelerates to make animation feel more natural Visible Elements – The character and settings of a story. Morals – The morality presented by the character of the story. These get tested in the plot as the story reaches a resolution. Values – The final message of a story. It is supported by the morals, and visible elements of the story. Ethos – The trustworthiness of the speaker or story Pathos – The emotional engagement of the audience with a story Logos – The logic of a story Affective Primer – The steering of the emotions of an audience towards an action Progressive disclosure – Giving the audience just enough information when needed. Protagonist – Main character of a story Antagonist – Villain of a story Pictorial continuity – cohesion in content and style of visuals Sequential continuity – logical flow of events between frames Mentors – Experienced designers that guide and help newer designers. Design agencies have plenty of mentorship opportunities. Human-centered design – A term introduce by David Kelley. It is design aimed to enrich the user experience and to solve human problems.
Immersive Environments – Environments that merge imaginary and physical environments through the use of motion design Universal truths – Ideas, notions, and concepts that hold true for almost anyone Change agents – Composed of idea generators, doers, influencers, and suppliers. Rewarding change – Offering the audience a reward for their change of mind. Maslow’s original Hierarchy of Needs – Human needs composed of self-actualization, esteem, belonging, safety, and phycological needs. In-house designer – A designer that is hired by a company. He attends to the company’s design needs, and develops the company’s brand. The company is his only client and he is hired as an employee. Agency designer – A designer that works at a design agency or firm. He develops the brands of the agency’s clients. He works alongside other designers in order to meet the agency’s client needs. Freelance designer – A designer that works on his own. He chooses his work hours, location, and clients. A freelance designer creates looks for clients and creates relationships in order to keep getting work.
References:
Krasner, J. S. (2013). Motion Graphic Design: Applied History and Aesthetics (3rd Edition). Taylor and Francis.
Huber, A. (2017). Telling The Design Story. Taylor and Francis.
Throughout this week I was able to gain an understanding of my options for work within my industry. I was able to learn about the work environments, the benefits, and downfalls of working as an in-house, agency, or freelance designer. When I developed my previous dynamic infographic I found myself committing some mistakes, like not timing the animation with the voice over and having long static moments. These mistakes resulted in the message not being communicated clearly, since the audience was not sure where to focus their attention. On this post I decided to challenge myself once again and give the dynamic infographic another try.
In order to avoid my previous mistakes I decided to plan ahead. The first problem was that the recording of the voiceover was not going to take place until the end of the project, since the talent was not going to be available until the end of the day. The solution taken to this problem was to first write the script, and then work on the animation according to it. This time I decided to leave long periods of static image within animations, that way I could have the flexibility to edit the video according to the timing of the voiceover at a later time. Unlike last time, I decided to utilize an online browser based animation software named Powtoon instead of Articulate Storyline for the animations. While Articulate storyline is a software mainly utilized for the development of interactive e-learning videos, Powtoon is utilized for the creation of fast and simple animation videos. Even though their functions are different, both Articulate and Powtoon ended up having very similar aspects within their animation process. For both you can apply enter and exit animation presets to elements, and both have a large library of useful elements. While After Effects would have been the ideal software to use for this project, Powtoon saved me a considerable amount of time by providing me with animation presets and a library of assets that would have taken a long time to search for and keyframe within After effects. After the animations were made I continued the process in Adobe Spark. Within Spark i was able to find royalty free music and I also recorded the voice over once the talent was available. Lastly, I did my final cut in Adobe Premiere. Here I cut the video in order to retime the animations according to the voiceover and the background music. Leaving static images within animations came in handy, since it provided me with room to edit, and time the video and audio perfectly.
The design of the timeline allowed me to see at my past experiences as a designer and to understand how these experiences shaped me into who I am as a professional. I came to see that I enjoy being an in-house designer mostly because of the job and income security. Johanna Björk states that in in-house “your paycheck is handled by people who actually know finance and arrives, on time, deposited right into your bank account” (Björk, 2010). This statement is very true, and being able to express myself as a designer and not having to worry about the competition or a loosing my job gives me a sense of security that allows me to focus on my work. As of now, apart from going in-house I am also open to being an agency-designer. This is because I believe that I would enjoy working alongside other designers and like minded individuals. An agency would also provide me with a wider portfolio and clients. In the future I think I could go full time freelance, since I would have a strong portfolio and many years of experience. Still, following Ram Castillo’s advice “there’s nothing stopping me from freelancing with clients after hours and on weekends” (Castillo). Therefore, I am always open for freelancing if the opportunity arises.
Academic
Occupational
Technical
Adobe Creative Suite – A collection of desktop and mobile software utilized for design needs. It includes software for photo manipulation, vector art, video editing, motion graphics, web development, and UI development.
Corel Graphics Suite – A collection of desktop software utilized for design needs. It includes software for the creation of graphics and illustration, photo editing, page layouts, and font management.
Pre-press files for print – The process of making print-ready artwork, designs, layouts, or any content that will be sent to a printing press.
Concepts for clients – Design concepts to be shown to a client or put together in a presentation for a client. Usually the client is shown a wide variety of concepts to choose from.
Asset design – The creation of assets and elements to be used for a brand. Asset design includes the constant development of a brand, marketing materials, and stock art.
Conceptual
Mentors – Experienced designers that guide and help newer designers. Design agencies have plenty of mentorship opportunities.
Human-centered design – A term introduce by David Kelley. It is design aimed to enrich the user experience and to solve human problems.
In-house designer – A designer that is hired by a company. He attends to the company’s design needs, and develops the company’s brand. The company is his only client and he is hired as an employee.
Agency designer – A designer that works at a design agency or firm. He develops the brands of the agency’s clients. He works alongside other designers in order to meet the agency’s client needs.
Freelance designer – A designer that works on his own. He chooses his work hours, location, and clients. A freelance designer creates looks for clients and creates relationships in order to keep getting work.
Job security – The certainty of keeping a job and a salary. In-house designers have the most job security since they are hired by a company. Agency and freelancers have lower job security, since their employment rests on the amount of work coming in.
Design or marketing agency – A company that is sought for design, branding or creative content. Usually composed of many designers that work as a team.
Company art department– A department within a company that is in charge of design, creative content, and branding. I can be composed of a team or a single designer.
Through this process I got understanding of the importance of stories within Motion Design, and how they can be utilized to communicate a message and persuade an audience. When making this infographic, I decided to challenge myself and make it into a dynamic infographic. This approach forced me into thinking outside the box, and utilizing several different software in order to meet the deadlines and create a professional product. After brainstorming ways of creating this infographic, I ended up utilizing the E-learning software Articulate Storyline for the animation of the elements. Afterwards i used Adobe Spark to make the rough cut, voiceover, and acquire the music. Lastly, I utilized Adobe Premiere to make the final cut, and time the voiceover with the animation.
I decided to utilize Storyline instead of After Effect because it provided me with a faster workflow, yet I wish I could have used After Effects for a more controlled animation. This experience thought me that sometimes sacrifices need to be made in order to meet tight deadlines, and that the more software you know the more possibilities are available. Some of the important concepts I learned this week are the composition of a story. A story communicates specific values, therefore its morals and visible elements should always align and support this final message. When creating a story, one should think on how its characters, settings, and character morals will support its final message. In other words each aspect of a story should have a reason to be there. Another important concept is the importance of a story’s tone and feel. As mentioned by Amy Huber “a story ‘s resolution can influence the audience” (Huber, 2017). One last important concept is research; when writing a story one should first research its target audience, and the subject being displayed. According to Jon Krasner “Attention must be given to the demographics of the target audience and their prior knowledge of the subject being addressed”(Krasner, 2013). By researching before writing, one can build a foundation in which a more credible and relatable story can be made.
Academic
Occupational
Technical
Attentive design storyteller – A storyteller that attends to their audience. Presentation design – composed of the framing of the problem, idea generation, design, and testing (in that order).
Pre-production – The process where a story is made for video production. Scripting, scouting, storyboarding, and all planning for production take place. Production – The filming (live action) or creation of elements (motion graphics) of a video production. It also includes the creation of voice overs, music, and sound. Post-production – The editing of a video production. Brainstorming – A way to gain ideas. Idea drops – using visual language to collect ideas Storyboard – A succession of frames that establishes a concept’s basic narrative structure.
Conceptual
Visible Elements – The character and settings of a story. Morals – The morality presented by the character of the story. These get tested in the plot as the story reaches a resolution. Values – The final message of a story. It is supported by the morals, and visible elements of the story. Ethos – The trustworthiness of the speaker or story Pathos – The emotional engagement of the audience with a story Logos – The logic of a story Affective Primer – The steering of the emotions of an audience towards an action Homo Narratus – Kendall Haven’s description of humans as storytellers Gossip – Intimate storytelling Casual reasoning – Cause and effect way of thinking Conflict – Provides a sense of urgency progressive disclosure – Giving the audience just enough information when needed. Protagonist – Main character of a story Antagonist – Villain of a story Pictorial continuity – cohesion in content and style of visuals Sequential continuity – logical flow of events between frames Animatics – Animated sketches composed of 2d and 3d content
Universal truths – Ideas, notions, and concepts that hold true for almost anyone Change agents – Composed of idea generators, doers, influencers, and suppliers. Rewarding change – Offering the audience a reward for their change of mind. Maslow’s original Hierarchy of Needs – Human needs composed of self-actualization, esteem, belonging, safety, and phycological needs.
References:
HUBER, A. M. Y. (2017). Telling The Design Story. Place of publication not identified: FOCAL Press.
Krasner, J. S. (2013). Motion Graphic Design: Applied History and Aesthetics (3rd Edition). Taylor and Francis.
Jose Caceres' Mastery Journal 