My main goal in this project was to create something unique and accessible in more ways than one. I always had the idea to include sign language in some way, but coming up with a way to naturally incorporate it into the map in an intentful way was my goal.
Ideation
At the beginning of this project unit, we were asked to read the first two chapters of Slow Looking by Shari Tishman to put us into the right mindset for this project. We were asked to find two quotes from the reading that stood out to us and these are the ones I chose:
“slow looking is an important counterbalance to the natural human tendency toward fast looking…”(5).
“altering our distance from things, or adjusting our breadth of view, in order to bring certain features into relief” (20).
This reading really opened my mind to the idea of slow looking because I had never really thought about it before. It brought to my attention that experiences are not just about what we see but also about what we feel, hear, and smell. Taking those elements into consideration when creating designs, in general, is so important for how it is interpreted.
We then learned about shading and textures and how to create those effectively. Here you can see my attempts at shading gradients and shapes, and creating textures, along with the pin activity we did in class. In this activity, we were to find a location on the oval, make a sketch of what it looks like, and write a poem about the location.When it was time to embark on our “slow-looking journey,” I really had no clue where my destination would be. I then remembered about a week before this day, I was walking to work (Raising Canes), and I saw this stunning tree. It was right at the beginning of fall and this was the only tree that had begun to turn in this area. It stood out so starkly from the other trees and it captured my attention immediately. I decided to walk to this tree for my project. When the time came to document the journey, I walked to the tree and it was completely bare. If I’m being honest, it made me sad. But it made me realize a beautiful lesson; just because something isn’t at it most beautiful state when you come across it, doesn’t mean it never was/will be. I aimed to portray that on my map in some way.These are the pictures I took on my in-class journey that show the points of interest that I describe in both my map and my video directions.While I was walking my journey, I created this collage (before I even knew we were going to have to do it in class!) on Notability, writing all of my observations, directions, landmarks, sounds, and smells, and later inserting the pictures I took and labeling them. This was really just a note-taking method for me and I used this as a reference when brainstorming ways to include the other senses in my map. It also captured how I was feeling/thinking while I was walking which was useful to have as well.Our next in-class task was to create a collage to represent our journey. I struggled a lot with this part actually, because I didn’t have any clue where I wanted to go with it. Oddly enough, though, my final map actually turned out to look very similar to my collage. I went into apple maps on my iPad just to see what kind of layout I was working with and discovered that you can make the buildings look 3D on the app. I took the screenshot you can see on the left, uploaded that image to Adobe Fresco, used layers to trace the buildings and roads, and went from there. I then sketched in notes, directions, landmarks, shading, and added the images I took on the journey to their coordinating places. After I had completed this, I had it large-scale printed at FedEx so that I could easily trace it for my final, and also make revisions to it. Click on the image to see a timelapse of the creation of this collage.
Production
Here is the draft that I created based on my collage. As you can see, it’s fairly similar to my collage but quite different from my final product. When I began moving from this draft to creating the final, I had a very productive conversation with my professor about my intentions. I wanted to include QR codes that led to videos I was going to create in which I use ASL to show the directions of my journey. She encouraged me to use the “QR code look” to inform the style of the rest of my map. From there, I focused on incorporating the blockiness while keeping it fun and balanced. Here I also used the foil flakes not quite as they were intended and it looked more like glitter which I did not like and began to second-guess my choice.This image shows the testing I did on how I wanted each building and the trees to look. In my draft, the buildings were more rounded and had little to no detail on them. Here I blocked them up and added windows and brick-like patterns to them. At this stage, I also decided to keep the trees the way they were in my collage, forgoing the blockiness.I then filmed and edited my ASL videos. I filmed the videos of me signing on my phone and uploaded them into Adobe Premier where I inserted any contextual images and captions needed. I then took those videos, downloaded them, and uploaded them to YouTube. I then used the YouTube links to create six separate QR codes for each clip in Adobe Express. I arranged these codes into a Google doc, printed them, and tacky glued them onto my map.These are just a few stills of my ASL videos; to view all the clips, Click on the image to view the YouTube playlist I created of all the clips.Here you can see each of the steps in creating my final map. The first step was to ink in the buildings, roads, and paths, the second was to paint in the trees, followed by inking in the tree trunks. I also printed and glued my first qr codes here. I spoke with my professor about her recommendation for gluing down the foil and she suggested trying out gold size, so I ordered some on Amazon. At this point, I considered foregoing the foil. My trials weren’t looking the way I wanted and I hadn’t yet tried it with the gold size. But I decided to take a risk and use it anyways and I am very glad I did. The foil was very messy but I think it adds a lot to the map. I also put the foil on the main tree to separate it from the other trees. While I was placing the foil I accidentally got the foil on the qr codes, so I decided to reprint them in red and that made them blend in much better. I also added the key, context, compass, title, and start/end.
Reflection
I loved this project. Compared to the previous projects in both this class and design fundamentals, this has felt the most like what I hope to do in my career. It was so much less about precision and more about exploration and creating something unique and experiential for others to join in on, which was the most exciting part for me. I was also able to incorporate new mediums, techniques, and lettering, all of which were amazing to work with and get used to. I personally love lettering and this was the first project in which I got to express that.
