Imagined Journey – Book Prototype – Project Five (2130)

Instruction

Further the prototype for the book.

Purpose

Reach a final design and presentational look.

 

My Interpretation

I decided to bind the book with thread and create a tightly wound spine, or as tight as I could get it. I used standard needles and cloth thread, not the strongest, but what I had. I made the cover out of chit board and covered it with a faux brown leather to give the exterior a mild and unassuming look, a contrast to the fun and colorful insides.

Sensory Abstraction – 3D Prototypes – Project Six (2110)

Instruction

Prototype ideas for the three dimensional aspect of the project.

 

Purpose

Explore what can make the poster three dimensional and how it impacts the composition. Use more than two dimensional space.

 

My Interpretation

I already knew for my main aspect of the 3D element I wanted to cut out a hole in the dead center of the poster. However, due to needing more of this aspect, I explored various textures of mod podge and similar materials on paper and foam board. I tried drying the finish upside-down to create a dried dripping look, but the mod podge was too thick to properly create the texture. Normally brushing the mod podge on didn’t add enough texture, and putting too much made the ink below it run. I tried rubbing loose cotton balls onto the wet mod podge to get a new and interesting texture, but this ruined the foamboard and paper, ripping up and discoloring the material. For the final design, I decided to brush a medium/large amount of the finish on the parts I aim to highlight and pat the still-wet mod podge with a brush to create a very small bumpy texture.

Sensory Abstraction – Final Print of Draft – Project Six (2110)

Instruction

Print out a 30″ by 30″ version of your draft – with color – on normal printer paper.

 

Purpose

See how your poster will truly look with color. Focus on new details and what is working and what doesn’t.

 

My Interpretation

I wanted to have a relatively dark analogous color scheme. Purple to red to orange and everything in between, keeping a grounded and familiar sense to the piece while still having contrast between a dark purple and a bright orange. I wanted to imitate the red velvet seats of most auditoriums  by making the background a deep red gradient. I wanted to emphasize the central figure being in a spotlight by making the shapes bright orange, and the subtle dark purple emotional aspect of the bittersweet feelings lingering around the figure, also mimicking the shape of a bow. I wanted the top dripping lines and bottom wavy lines to be connected but different in their own kind of gradient, one linear, one radial. Finally, with the background being a gradient, keeping the last curves one solid color almost make them look like different colors because the background they are on is changing, again, trying to mimic the experience and the disorientation it may bring.

Imagined Journey – Final Page Designs – Project Five (2130)

Instruction

Finalize the storyboard ideas and visuals for the book pages.

 

Purpose

Work towards a final product.

 

My Interpretation

I did all my illustrative work in Affinity Designer using vectors and similar tricks for the look. I wanted a clean, stylized and fun vibe, lots of colors, but never too flat and stark. I wanted to include lots of detail for the eye to get caught up on because I made the pages 12″ by 12″. I struggled a lot working within the most detailed pieces, as my iPad began to lag a lot in such cases. Unfortunately, due to time constraints and availability of resources and how the final product looks, I completely dropped the idea of an interactive element. I felt it would cause too much distraction, as well as printing out the extra pages necessary would be an extreme hassle that I did not have the time for.

Sensory Abstraction – First Print of Draft – Project Six (2110)

Instruction

Print out a 30″ by 30″ version of your draft – no color – on normal printer paper. Critique.

 

Purpose

Get feedback on your design and improve on it. See how your poster will truly look in person and adjust accordingly, should you need to. Focus on details and what catches the eye.

 

My Interpretation

After receiving critique on my draft, I changed a lot of details around on my poster. Most prominently, I changed the colored bits on the re-design to be larger, have more weight, and match and mimic the rest of the composition in its overall feel of size, scale, and space creating unity. I flipped around the bottom waves for balance and adjusted them so they don’t draw too much attention to themselves. Finally, I fixed overlapping issues of useless small and unintentional spaces and rearranged some background curves to be more appealing and move the eye around the piece more.

Sensory Abstraction – Drafts – Project Six (2110)

Instruction

Create drafts of the final poster with the combined representations. Do not add color.

 

Purpose

Design a possible final project with what you currently have and are using with the combined representations. Define the experience in different ways.

 

My Interpretation

I wanted to have a figural shape in the middle representing the actor taking a bow. For both versions, I settled with this descending line shape with a hole cut out. My first draft was too simple for me. It had a lot going on, but what was going on wasn’t complete enough to convey the feeling of taking a final bow well enough. My second draft is one that I connected much more with, much busier, but still a relative focus on the main “actor”. A lot more is going on compositionally, although some aspects (the audience/house and the dripping paint from the set) are very representational and will be changed later. I kept both drafts in grayscale to not add color, but I changed the grays to get a sense of depth for future additions of color.

Sensory Abstraction – Combined and Merged Representations – Project Six (2110)

Instruction

Combine and merge previous representation of senses to develop more complex representations closer to the true sensory experience.

 

Purpose

Work with designing what is the most and least important parts of a particular representation. Iterate as much as possible, merge representations, combine representations, subtract representations. Experiment and find something new, keep in mind if the new combined representation still hold the same meaning or if it has changed.

 

My Interpretation

I split groups of combinations into three sections: the audience, the actor, and the set. For the audience, I ended up mostly combining sight, sound, and scent representations as you can never touch the audience as you bow, but you can definitely hear them. I focused a lot of waves, emanating lines, and stacked/busy compositions. For the actor, I focused mostly on touch and emotions. I iterated a lot, and some patterns, such as [REDACTED] were a combined pattern that lost the meaning that it’s two parts held together. I found a lot of success in negative space and erasing a lot in this section. Finally, for the set, I focused back on scent and sight again. The set is usually a very harsh and chemically smelling place, as well as a very special place that only the actors get to interact with. I aimed to explore that by being so personal with the representations and their combinations.

Imagined Journey – Prototypes – Project Five (2310)

Instruction

Create some prototypes for what your project will display.

 

Purpose

Discover how you can make your idea into a reality. Practice.

 

My Interpretation

For my project, I wanted to do a storybook of sorts. I am playing with the idea of making it interactive (having sliding pieces, having textured areas, having pop-up pieces, and having fold-out pages). I do not want to distract from the story how it made me feel. If the interaction becomes too difficult or distracting, then I will remove it. Anyways, for the prototypes, the sliders were easy to understand, the horizontal one was the most effective. The diagonal and vertical ones didn’t work and the multi-layered one worked, although it was shoddy. For the pop-ups, I explored how different kinds of pop-ups impacted the shape of the book. Most normal pop-ups and kirigami can only be viewed in a 90 degree angle shape, and opening the book all the way would tear it. I came up with a tab idea that allowed for more freedom in plcement as well as shape, all while allowing the book to open wide.