Statement of Intent
To create a map of an excursion on campus, I will engage in “slow looking” to communicate with viewers. Focusing on small details to define steps within this journey will allow me to combine words, digital images, and sketching applications. My goal within this composition is to learn how to accurately represent objects in a realistic way while also taking more risks. I want to create a map that is playful and interactive in order to convey ideas and observations with others.
Ideation
Within the ideation stage, multiple steps were taken in order to fully engage the practice of slow looking within my design. To begin we picked a spot, object, or scene to draw and then place it on the “oval”. I chose Orton Hall because its tall cone-shaped roof is how I find my way home. It is always a prominent feature that I look for in the sky because I know it will guide me in the right direction. After this, we focused on drawing texture, which has always been challenging for me. When completing the worksheet below, I chose to draw water droplets, an onion, and a herringbone tile pattern. This variety of objects allowed me to simultaneously focus on very structured and more random patterns found in nature. I found it interesting to play with the direction the sun would strike these elements since it changes where shadows should be placed. Following this activity, we started creating maps out of memory. I created a map showing the route to my best friend’s house in my hometown. I found that the best way to convey an idea, other than typography, was through pictures. For each business or company in town, I used a drawing instead of a label (seen below). I found that this tactic was also heavily used within older maps in the OSU Gardner Family Map Room. Here our class was able to compare different features of topographic maps, thematic maps, and more. These included things like graphic representations, the scale of objects, keys, orientation aspects, colors, infrastructure, and symbols. I was able to incorporate these same features within the exercises of this assignment as well. When creating a visual representation, I took pictures of my destination in order to show viewers each step. The collection of images containing these details can be found below. These combined with my Written Steps to explain a journey to one of my favorite places off campus, Buckeye Donuts. The detailed directions were essential to practice for the planning and creation of my own map during the ideation phase.
Iteration and Production
Throughout the ideation phase, I struggled to decide on a thumbnail that accurately presented the message I wanted to send. While I wanted my map to be technically correct, I also wanted to creatively explore a theme. I quickly sketched multiple ideas of possible layouts (shown below) and found that my favorites included a cube due to its interactiveness and a design including donuts. Once I was able to decide on a layout, I mimicked the pattern in Adobe Illustrator in order to get accurate measurements for each donut. I found the radius of each circle and placed them strategically so that the sprinkle pattern could easily be seen. Using this template, I transferred the layout onto drawing paper and then labeled the title, key, and steps. Within the next phase of my map, I drew the imagery within each donut that contained the points of interest toward my destination. These include Hayes Hall, Stillman Hall, Hughes Hall, and High St. I decided to draw the exterior of each building because it was something that could be easily recognizable for someone using this map. After this, I finished outlining all of my shapes. I chose to do this by hand because no donut is a perfect circle, therefore I wanted to emphasize the imperfections in order for them to look more realistic. For my final path, I chose to break one of the rules lied out in the rubric which was that only one hue of color could be used. In order to successfully achieve my desired theme, I glued real sprinkles onto the paper. This was a very scary process for me because I am not a rule breaker and I typically prefer having direct guidelines to comply with but doing so allowed for my map to become three-dimensional and more dynamic.
Reflection
This assignment taught me that it’s okay to break the rules sometimes. Doing so by using sprinkles in my final composition was something that was very far outside of my comfort zone. Because of this, I was hesitant to incorporate them, but in the end, I’m glad I did. I feel as though they not only add to my playful donut theme but also create a large emphasis on the path users should follow. This was proven within the group critique as one of the most common responses was that my composition was themed, imaginative, and included multiple senses. To improve upon this map, I would love to add more color in order to make the points of interest stand out more. Making them visually “pop” would create harmony between the black and white hues and color. However, learning to broaden my horizons and expand upon my initial ideas has been something I have been working on since the beginning of the class. That being said, my biggest achievement within this assignment was taking risks that I normally wouldn’t.