Earth artefact research. - brief two

EarthArtefact.

EarthArtefact.

EarthArtefact.

EarthArtefact.

EarthArtefact.

EarthArtefact.

EarthArtefact.

EarthArtefact.

EarthArtefact.

EarthArtefact.

EarthArtefact.

EarthArtefact.

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EarthArtefact.

EarthArtefact.

The Golden Record The golden record is a golden disc designed

by NASA to convey all information about life on earth. This disc was attached to two voyagers, in the hope that someday an extra-terrestrial would find the disc and understand a little more about earth, and all life’s existence on earth. The disc included music, greetings, photographs and the location of earth and its appearance at the time the record was developed. The Golden Record consists of 115 photographs, greetings in 55 languages, a montage of sounds on Earth and 90 minutes of music. considering which photographs to include, the panel was careful to try to eliminate those that could be misconstrued. Though war is a reality of human existence, images of it might send an aggressive message when the record was intended as a friendly gesture. The team veered from politics and religion in its efforts to be as inclusive as possible given a limited amount of space.

Information about human anatomy and diagrams from World Book Encyclopaedia was included to explain reproduction, diagrams of the human sex organs and silhouette images chronicling conception to birth were also included. The sound of a kiss was also included in the record. The structure of our DNA was also included by way of a set of illustrations. Photographs were taken to depict how humans eat and drink, they staged a photograph of a woman licking an ice-cream cone, a man taking a bite out of a sandwich and a man drinking water cascading from a jug. A photograph of Olympic sprinters racing on a track was included as it showed various races of humans, the musculature of the human leg and a form of both competition and

entertainment. Photographs of huts, houses and cityscapes were also included to give an overview of the types of buildings seen on Earth. The Taj Mahal was chosen as an example of more impressive architecture, as it was built in honour of a person not a god. A photograph of the golden gate bridge was also included to clearly show how a suspension bridge connected two pieces of land separated by water. An extract from a book was also included as it gave the extra-terrestrials a look at our written language, the chosen page was from Sir Isaac Newton’s System of the World, where the means of launching an object into orbit is described for the very first time.

The 55 greetings were left up to the native speakers of the languages. In Burmese, the message was a simple, “Are you well?”

In Indonesian, it was, “Good night ladies and gentlemen. Goodbye and see you next time.” A woman speaking the Chinese dialect gave a welcoming, “Friends of space, how are you all? Have you eaten yet?

Come visit us if you have time.” The final greeting, in English, came from a 6 year old and said, “Hello from the children of planet Earth.” Biologist Roger Payne provided a whale captured with hydrophones off the coast of Bermuda in 1970. Thinking that perhaps the whale song might make more sense to aliens than to humans.

Brain waves were also included so that should extra-terrestrials millions of years into the future have the technology, they could decode the individual’s thoughts. in an hour-long session hooked to an EEG at New York University Medical Center, Druyan meditated on a series of prepared thoughts.

The 1970’s Fashion Fashion in the 70’s was all about flares, and platforms, think disco, think bold colours and geometric prints, bell bottom pants, mini skirts, jump suits, belts & tube tops. Dresses were very loose fitting and hippie was still a major influence in this type of style. Men’s’ fashion was about bright colours and high wasted trousers, loud bold shirts, turtleneck.

Music Punk also influenced fashion, safety pins, doc The 70’s was the rise in disco, artists like martins & dog collars were all part of the look.

Barry White, Bee Gees, ABBA and queen were at the forefront of the disco era, both in America and in the UK. Disco was what made people want to get up and dance, throughout the 70’s discotheques began to open up all over which saw the tile floors, flashing lights and bright colours, and of course the iconic disco ball. It gave rise to a new craze in the 80’s where roller disco became popular.

Funk was also a popular sound, crated in the late 60’s and popular through the 70’s it involves electric bass and rhythmic groove to create music that is danceable. Jazz was also a popular form of music, although more so in the 60’s it merged with funk in the 70’s to form a more electric sound.

The Golden record was launched in 1977, so let’s take a closer look at that decade.

What was popular what were people dancing to, who were people being influenced by?

The golden record is essentially a time casual for that era, but what’s changed?

Cinema Films like the Aristocats and Frankenstein were made in the 70’s. The 1970’s also gave rise to CGI, it was early days but would one day lead to hit films such as avatar.

Cinema was at large, and films like jaws, clockwork orange, the godfather, superman, rocky and Saturday night fever were all the makings of the 70’s era, These films were so large that re-makes are still being created, and the originals still being talked about.

Star wars was also a very popular series, and still remains just as popular as it was.

Art Minimalism was an art form that started in the 1950’s and continued through to the 70’s. Art forms were simple, inexpressive in their appearance. The point was to get the viewer to engage with the work, without being distracted by the theme and composition, creating their own stories. In the late 60’s early 70’s contextual art was popular, It was much more about the idea behind the art work rather than the work itself, almost as if the idea was the work.

Other The 1970’s decade also saw the break up of The Beatles, the introduction of VCR’s, the resignation of president Nixon, the founding of Microsoft, the death of Elvis Presley, the first test tube baby, Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain’s first female prime minister, cigarette adds are banned, cat scanning is introduced, Disney world opens.

Now Much like the 70’s back then, Modern day has its perks, and it’s drawbacks, things now are much more expensive than they were, but things have also developed and improved, we’ll always remember the 70’s for disco, but how will our era and our legacy be remembered, what will history books say about us in another 50 years?

Music Although the 70’s brought us the greatness of ABBA and queen which we will never forget thanks to their catchy lines and sing along attitude, modern day brought us Gangnam style by artist PSY which became a big hit and had everyone copying the dance, and then came ‘what did the fox say’ which was some what of a novelty song with various animal and other noises that people would imitate. Most recently though the craze has been the Harlem shake with thousands of people copying the video and creating their own versions, even celebrities got involved.

Since Youtube was founded in 2005 it’s allowed everyone and anyone to upload their videos and share their music and sound with the world, it is however responsible for the discovery of Justin Bieber, a sad time for music. Humorous songs did start to appear though, like double rainbow & the duck song.

Fashion Fashion today is a bit of everything, there doesn’t seem to be a specific piece of clothing that everyone has to have, each person has their own style, some people prefer vintage clothing and others prefer high street, it’s all widely available in today’s world. Popular clothing seems to be skinny jeans, t-shirts, jumpers. Less of the bright colours of the 70’s and more neutral tones, beige, brown, black seem to be the colours opted for. Shoes are one thing that seem to be changing, at one point in time everyone had a pair of crocs. Now everyone dislikes them. Then jelly shoes were in fashion for a while and so were Nike blazers. Now it seems there are no set rules, people dress how they want, even nipping to the shop in a onesie or pyjamas isn’t considered strange.

Cinema Now a days the highest quality CGI can be found in most movies, and some are even 3D, technology has advanced so much since the 70’s that now when you go to the cinema to see a 3d movie, you feel as though you’re part of the movie, the movie engages with an audience on a new level, surround sound and CGI work together to create a unique viewing experience. Films such as Disney’s Frozen have been released and caused a serge in popularity. The hobbit, The hunger games and The fault in our stars were all released after been eagerly anticipated. Horrors seem to have become more popular too, with a release of new ones like Sinister, Cabin in the woods, the conjuring and Insidious, the thrill and adrenaline factor makes seeing these in cinema even more terrifying.

Art Minimalism continued to influence design practices of today, type we use is quite minimal packaging never says more than it needs to, it remains plain and crisp. Art as a field has broadened from sketching and painting to almost anything that involves creativity, video is art, photography is art, sculpture is art, gardening is art, building a snowman is art.

Art in the modern day has less restraints than art in the 70’s when it was very much about art movements. Now we seem to use these movements as inspiration and guidelines rather than set in stone ‘all art must be this’

Other Much like the 70’s today also has its moments.

It saw the creation of the invisible skyscraper, the artificial pancreas, the discovery of King Richard the 3rd, the death of Margaret Thatcher. Ian Watkins pleaded guilty to sex offence, nelson Mandela dies, Paul walker from fast and furious dies in car crash. Tom Daley comes out as being gay. Malaysia flight 370 disappears. A referendum decides Scotland will stay part of the UK. Ebola strikes in Africa and spreads like wildfire.

Stefan Sagmeister Born in Austria in 1962, Stefan Sagmeister was originally on a path to become an engineer. After shifting his course in life towards design he studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna andd was accepted at the Pratt Institute in New York on a Fullbright Scholarship after that. He first started working professionally in the field for Leo Burnett, in their Hong Kong office in 1991.

After a short stint there he began working with Tibor Kalman at his studio M&Co. It wasn’t long after that that Tibor announced he was closing the doors on M&Co, in 1993, and Sagmeister formed Sagmeister, Inc. He has been there ever since.

His studio is very small in size and he works only with clients that appeal to him. He astonished the design community in 2000 when he closed the doors on his studio and took a year off for personal reflection. When he came back he published his first book,

Made You Look. Thoroughly convinced that the reflection process was important in his continued creativity he has toured the design circuit giving many lectures and presentations about his personal success.

He continues to operate his studio where he works for clients from a wide range of industries including fashion and music.

Inspirational and intriguing designer Stefan Sagmeister is recognized for his unorthodox, provocative designs that tweak the status quo and question the designer’s role in society.

A cunning trickster turns convention upside down, stretches the bounds of propriety, stomps on mores and taboos and alters popular perceptions. Stefan Sagmeister has long fit this “bad boy” bill. Known for upsetting norms, he tricks the senses through design, typography, environmental art, conceptual exhibitions and, lately, video.

David Carson Typography spun into a whirling end-ofcentury gyre in the 1990s, and David Carson was at its center. The incendiary pages of Ray Gun magazine inflamed the eyes and minds of countless young designers who sought to tap into the freedoms unlocked by his bold new style. Carson shaped everything in his path for his own purposes, endlessly contorting type, layout and grid into new configurations and abandoning design’s established truths of order and legibility. He represented a new breed of visual author.

Although Carson has produced everything from books and ad campaigns to videos, magazines were the crucible of his style.

The big, cheap pages and open-ended seriality of the magazine offered an ideal arena for experimentation over time. His

first gig as an art director was for Transworld Skateboarding (1984–1987), followed by Transworld Snowboarding and the surfing magazine, Beach Culture. When publisher Marvin Scott Jarrett launched Ray Gun in 1992, he invited Carson to be the founding art director—the magazine became more famous as a platform for Carson’s visual voice than for its music content. breaking the traditional mold of type on a page and demanding fresh eyes from the reader. Squishing, smashing, slanting and enchanting the words on a layout, Carson made the point, over and over, that letters on a page are art. You can see the repercussions of his work to this day, on a million Flash intro pages

Bernard Meadows Sculptor, mainly in bronze. Born 19 February 1915 in Norwich. Studied at the Norwich School of Art and at the R.C.A. and studio assistant to Henry Moore. Served in the R.A.F. for some of the time on the Cocos Islands, whence he derived the crab motif of many of his works. Represented in the Venice Biennale 1952 and 1964, the Antwerp Sculpture Biennale 1953 and 1959, the São Paulo Bienal 1958, etc. First one-man exhibition at Gimpel Fils 1957 and in New York at the Paul Rosenberg Gallery 1958–9.

Awarded an Italian state scholarship 1956.

Taught at the Chelsea School of Art 1948–60; Professor of Sculpture at the R.C.A. from 1960.

Like so many of his generation, Bernard Meadows was profoundly affected by growing up during the Great Depression and serving in World War II. Born into a working-class family, Meadows quit school at age sixteen so that he could earn enough money to study painting at the local art school, which he did from 1934 to 1936. He spent the next three years working for and studying under the sculptor Henry Moore, from whom he learned about direct carving and the biomorphic forms of surrealism.

Moore became a mentor to Meadows, and they remained friends for half a century.

Rankin Destroy Youth Music Week was organised by children’s music charity to celebrate Youth Music’s a10th Birthday, they have teamed up with Rankin to ask 70 musicians and visual artists to effectively ‘destroy’ their own portraits taken by the iconic photographer, and create original pieces of art. The stellar roll call of names includes Joe Strummer, Ian Brown, Marianne Faithfull, Andre 3000, Michael Stipe and Kylie Minogue as well as bands like Pete and the Pirates, The Enemy and The View, inspired by Rankin’s son Lyle and his love of music.

Most of the portraits have been ‘destroyed’ by the artists themselves. For example,

Florence Welch has taken to drawing over her portrait with a metallic pen, inspired by her school days of decorating photos from magazines and Debbie Harry has burnt, masked out, painted and stitched-up her picture to make a series of six ‘destroyed’ portraits. For Joe Strummer though, Damien Hirst was asked to paint over the portrait, reflecting his feelings on Strummer. “I tried to keep it about him as a person. I kept looking at the thing on the hand, where it said ‘Joe’.

Joe Strummer was a great guy who I met, who was much more of a hero in real life. You don’t meet many people like that,” explains Hirst.

Wolfgang Weingart Designer and instructor Wolfgang Weingart is recognized for his typographic explorations and teaching at the Schule für Gestaltung Basel, and who, through the work of his students, created a more experimental and expressive approach to typography that was influential around the world.

In his work, Weingart demonstrates his mastery of typographic rules and the meaning achieved in breaking them. His career is one of curiosity and experience, aptitude rather than learning, and of ordered experiment and visual enjoyment.

Looking at the complete output of Weingart’s work suggests neither pessimism nor traditionalism. In his earliest experiments, Weingart created abstract patterns with

type, and went beyond the unconventional almost to the absurd. But these explorations produced an evolution, a tangible esthetic, and a deep appreciation of typography, all of which are evident throughout Weingart’s work. Weingart’s manifesto, entitled Is This Typography Worth Supporting Or Do We Live On The Moon? shows his mastery of layered type on tinted panels.

The technique reappears in color in the early 1980s posters for Kunstkredit, a cultural organization based in Basel, where he uses a film montage technique combined with multilayered dot screens.

Robert Bradford Robert started his artistic career as a painter and film maker. After 5 years in the US, where he exhibited his paintings widely, he returned to the UK and decided to specialise in sculpture. Since 2004, he has become particularly well known for his large imaginative sculptures which use discarded plastic toys. His recycled art is collected worldwide by private galleries, institutions and museums like Ripley’s Believe it or not. Robert now lives in Herne Bay, Kent and is happy to work from or interpret his clients own human, animal or object photos and/or incorporate their own toys into his commissioned works. He can make almost

anything with the versatile methods he uses.

Robert has now created dozens of largescale sculptures that use up to 3,000 toys each. He began with plastic figures and branched out to cuddly toys and household objects like nail brushes and Brillo pads.

Most of his works are commissions from pet owners who want a toy version of their pets. He works from a photograph of their furry friend to create a striking, if a little plastic, likeness.

His largest works, ‘The Toy Soldier’ and ‘The Toy Angel’, took almost two months to make and are layers of thousands of models, figures and game parts meticulously chosen from car boot sales and thrift shops.

Petros Afshar Petros Afshar is a well rounded talented Illustrator and Graphic Designer born and raised in London, England pa with a passion for gardening and love for penguins, in my spare time I like to dabble with music production. ‘I fell head over heels for geometric art, including swiss typography, art deco and modernism simply because I’m generally into pieces that have a balanced structure, scaled composition, and graphical elements that are tied to position, rotation

and scale. In my spare time do PR work for monthly and annual social events, as well as freelance work for several clienteles.

I currently use Adobe Illustrator CS5 and don’t think I’ll be upgrading anytime soon as I’m one for getting attached to a particular software version and despise constant upgrades- if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! My tool of trade has to be the Shape Tool, as it’s the fundamental function used to piece my design works, as well as the Pen Tool.’

Helen Huang Helen Huang is an illustrator from the US, who is originally born and raised in China.

She is a full time designer at an interactive ad agency and has the passion for illustrations.

Through her beautiful illustrations, she tries to capture every inspiration she has and shares her vision with the world. Helen says, her heart always desired to be in a creative field which motivated her to change her career choice from being a lawyer to a designer.

‘I dreamed of becoming a fashion designer

when I was young. I’ve always had a passion for it. So my illustration can also be viewed as fashion illustration for women. Fashion or art, there is no line drawn. As for future plans, I am currently illustrating a children’s book. My next goal is to get into professional fashion illustration for magazines, clothing or cosmetic brands. In the meantime, I am just enjoying creating art, learning new things, pushing my style forward.’

Joshua Harker Joshua Harker is an American artist considered a pioneer & visionary in 3D printed art & sculpture. His series of inmakable technically complex tangles is credited as the first to break the design & manufacturing threshold of possibility. His pursuit of a process to bring his works into the 3rd dimension culminated after nearly 20 years in a perfect storm of software development, materials engineering, & 3d printing technology advancements.

“My art is about pushing the limits of form… an exploration into what can be made & how to accomplish it. I incorporate digital tools, software, & technology in my work not only out of utter necessity in the forms I make but also that I feel absolutely compelled to make art with it, to humanize the inhuman as we’ve done with stone, clay, metal, & wood… digital data as medium, computer as chisel, & 3d printer as forge.”

Kevin Mack

Kevin Mack is a pioneering Digital Fine Artist and Academy Award winning Visual Effects Designer. He received the Oscar for his work on the film WHAT DREAMS MAY COME. His filmography of over thirty films can be seen on the Kevin Mack IMDB page.

Kevin became obsessed with drawing, painting and sculpting before he learned to talk. In high school he received a scholarship for drawing classes at Art Centre College of Design where he went on to study Fine Art, Illustration and Film. After college,

Mack supported his experimental fine art and music by working in the film industry doing traditional glass matte painting, scenic painting, sculpting, model making, animation, storyboards, concept art and set design for commercials and movies. “I have an obsessive fascination with the visions, ideas and processes that inspire my work. The creation of vivid depictions and expressions of these imagined and emergent realities is my primary preoccupation in life.�

Tim King

While also respectful of traditional lostwax bronze techniques, Tim has integrated digital design and 3D Printing options into his creative process. He enjoys life-long learning about tools and techniques which enable the translation of his ideas of beauty and emotions into physical world creations.

He sees combinations of 3D printing with ancient bronze work flows as an amazing opportunity to expand awareness, affordability, and love of heirloom quality

art to a much wider audience. His current focus is upon family and dance themes. “I produce art as a means to express my joy and wonderment at all of the beauty and goodness I see in the world. I am strengthened by the everyday charm around me, and want to share this with others.

My art is as much an expression of the beauty, as it is a statement that I will never take these small blessings for granted.�

Paul Liaw

Adobe approached me to do an encore after the success of the rhino. So they said I can make whatever I want as long as its in colour.

They sent me a swatch of the colours available for the printer. Which is pretty much CMY but no K. so no black, no white. Only pure colour.

The turtle is based off of a snapping turtle, alligator snapping turtle mix. However the coloration is based off of painted turtle, box turtle, leopard tortoise, terrapin, as well as me making stuff up once I got the hang of it.

Mike Joyce

Mike Joyce was born in the hot summer of 1972 in Troy, New York rendering him Troy-Bilt, just as reliable as the company’s signature rototiller. Thirty years later Mike founded Stereotype Design in New York City, a studio specializing in projects for the entertainment industry. He has designed album packaging for established artists such as Iggy Pop, Katy Perry, Fall Out Boy, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Natalie Merchant, The Lemonheads, David Sedaris, Morphine, Heart, and Aretha Franklin. Mike’s work has been featured in over 100 publications including Print, Communication Arts, +81, Graphic, Rolling Stone, Coupe, How, Computer Arts, IdN, Inked, NME, and New York magazine. In 2000 Mike was selected for Print Magazine’s exclusive New Visual Artists annual issue, showcasing twenty emerging designers under the age of 30. His work has been shown in exhibitions by the AIGA, the Type Directors Club, the Hofstra Museum, the One Club, PowerHouse

Arena, the Art Directors Club’s first Young Guns show, Fort Point Boston Art Walk, De Velinx Gallery in Belgium, The Arts Center of the Capitol Region, Fourth Arts Block, and selected for the Permanent Collection of the Library of Congress. Mike has served as a judge for advertising, design, and interactive award shows for the Art Directors Club, the Type Directors Club, the Alex Steinweiss Awards, and co-chaired Young Guns 4. In 2012 he launched swissted.com, a personal project combining his love of Swiss graphic design and punk rock by redesigning old show flyers into hundreds of International Typographic Style posters. The site has since amassed over 750,000 visits, spawning editorial features, gallery shows, and a 200 page oversized art book published by Quirk Books. He taught typography and design to third- and fourth-year students at School of Visual Arts for seven years. Mike lives and works in the West Village of New York City and refuses to design wedding invitations.

James Gulliver Hancock James Gulliver Hancock’s obsession with re-imaging his world has seen him work for major print, TV and music publishing releases including: Coca-Cola, Ford Motors, Herman Miller, Paypal/Ebay, Caterpiller, The New York Times and Simon&Schuster.

He has participated in projects in the USA the UK, Indonesia, Austria, Germany, France and Australia, taking his whimsical perception around the world. He grew up in Sydney, Australia, and studied Visual Communications at the University of Technology, Sydney. In kindergarten he remembers devising the most complex

image he could think of … refusing to move on to the next activity after painting, instead detailing a complex drawing of a city of houses including every detail, every person, and every spider web between every house.

He still has the drawing. In high school he discovered technical drawing. He has always been obsessed with machines and the way things work and rendering the meeting of tiny screws in perfect perspective was a delight. This is now married with a love of colour, paint, and controlled mess as well as connecting it to deeper conceptual and philosophical meaning.

Adam Hayes Adam Hayes is an artist, illustrator and designer, currently working from his quiet studio in England’s Peak District. In 2006 he graduated from The Royal College of Art and has since worked on various projects for himself, his friends and for a growing list of clients worldwide. Best known for his hand rendered typography, Adam also creates intricate and imaginative maps alongside beautifully detailed line drawings.

His preferred work is for organisations

involved with environmental or social change; in 2009, Hayes traveled to Sierra Leone where he partnered with residents on a new billboard to prevent the spread of AIDS and HIV. The design was supported

by President Koroma and Christian Aid, and the promos were mounted across the country. Clients include: Toyota, Sony, Apple, IBM, Nokia, Converse, British Airways, Unilever, The Guardian, Ernst & Young, Experian and Shakespeare Globe Theatre.

Andy Council Andy Council is a Bristol based artist who has enjoyed international recognition for his work in recent years. He has recently exhibited with Corey Helford gallery in Los Angeles who brought the ‘Art From the New World’ exhibition to Bristol Museum.

He has also shown his work at the RWA and has a piece in Bristol City Museum’s

permanent collection. His style is a highly individual amalgamation of architecture, structure and character; rendering intricately detailed compositions of imagined creatures composed of iconic objects. His work has featured in many books and magazines, walls and windows. The city of Bristol is often present as inspiration and subject matter in his work.

Brief Background The Voyager Golden Records are phono graph records, which were included aboard both Voyager spacecraft, which were launched in 1977. They contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form, or for future humans, who may find them.

The Voyager spacecraft’s are not heading towards any particular star, but Voyager 1 will be within 1.6 light years of the star AC+79 3888 in the Ophiuchus constellation in about 40,000 years.[1] as the probes are extremely small compared to the vastness of interstellar space, the probability of a space-faring civilization encountering them is very small, especially since the probes will eventually stop emitting any kind of electromagnetic radiation. If they are ever found by an alien species, it will most likely be far in the future as the nearest star on Voyager 1’s trajectory will only be reached in 40,000 years. Carl Sagan noted that “The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this ‘bottle’ into the cosmic ‘ocean’ says something very hopeful about life on this planet.”[2] Thus the record is best seen as a time capsule or a symbolic statement rather than a serious attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial life.

“For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk, we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas enabling people to work together ... to build the impossible.

Mankind’s greatest achievements have come about by talking ... and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn’t have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future with the technology at our disposal - the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking” - Stephen Hawking

Brief Over the next few weeks you are required to submit creative proposals through to finished design work/animation for a new version of the ‘Golden Record’ entitled, ‘Earth Artifact’, This does not have to be a slavish reproduction of the original golden record, but could be a more contemporary version, which should be reflected in the content and the format/media channel of your choice.

You should document all stages of the research and design process, which should demonstrate a critical understanding of the design challenge. You should be inventive and demonstrate your ingenuity in solving this creative challenge. It is important you generate several creative solutions, taking one justified idea forward to a final solution.

Books that an alien would find useful.

Thesaurus like the dictionary, but different, the thesaurus offers replacement words, helpfull if the Alien takes a fancy to creative writing, and it broadens the mind offering multipe word solutions

Dictionary the dictionary is the holy gerale of words, so for an Alien, asuming they already know how to speak our language, a dictionary would help with any words and parts of a sencence they dont understand, and teach Aliens how to spell and pronounce words

Science If aliens do exist, then they’ll need to understand a little more about its structure, science off atoms, elements, compounds that makke p the earth, the oxygen we breathe, the blood in our veins, science is the answer.

Maths maths might be easier to understand for an alien, because as humans numbers are often the same when written down, we might have different words for them, but the formulla and equations that we work with are still the same. so If an Alien learnt numbers they’ll understand a lot more.

First aid fist aid, often overlooked and taken for granted, but a vital part of life, if it’s understood it can help save lives, or if you’re an alien, understand what can go wrong with humans and how to correct the errors.

Music music is something that can be understood and expressed by all humans, and some animals. if extra terestrials get to grips with how music affects us, it gives everyone some common ground and something to bond over

Knewledge a little summary of everythiing, covers everything from biology to geography, could help with finding an area of interest and offers lots of pictures which could help with understanding

Drawing drawing might help Extra terestrials with things like advertising and design, and the construction of different images and different media used within the art field. things that aliens might not be familliar with

Birds because just like with animals, birds populate a large amount of the earth and identifyin them can be difficult, but with signs saying dont feed the pigeons, its important that they can in some way be identified too

Planet earth seems obvious but still necassary, what better way to learn about the earth than from a book entitled planet earth. it includes views from above that an alien might find usefull in order to get their barings

Animals because they wouldnt just be sharing the plannet with us humans, they’d be sharing it with all the animals here too, and knowing which ones wil eat your face off and which ones are friendly is key if you’ve never seen animals before

Dinosaurs It sounds silly, but seen as though some of our fossil fuels are made up of the bodies of these extinct animmals, its fairly reasonable to say they’re an important part of our history. not only that but theiir extinction is one of the unanswered questions of life.

Ideas.

Idea 1. - box of things.

This idea is based on the fact that sometimes we need to see things in order to understand them, I generated this idea by thinking about the things that would be hard to comprehend to an alien, things like what humans are, what we wear, what we look like, how and where we live. I could create a box made of wood or Perspex and then create a series of 3d models to go inside, things like a modal earth, a human, a t-shirt explaining

our anatomy, a modal of a house and a car.

Perhaps a modal gun and toy soldiers. A dinosaur to explain science and what we know of the planet. Along with this I could create some sort of queue cards that explain what the objects are and how they work.

Idea 2. - Info graphics/ paintings.

A set off paintings or info graphics that illustrate what defines and controls us as a species and looks at politics, social standards, technology & fashion. I want to look and try to explain these things from an aliens point of view. For example if you were to explain politics to an alien they would probably laugh at how absurd it is, and how non of the politicians ever do what they say they’re going to do, I could show

this by including faces of politicians and then de-facing them so they become humorous.

Could explain the social expectation using fashion and the idea that girls can wear skirts but boys cant, and at the same time, boys can wear no tops in public, girls cant.

And I’ll explain technology and money as the things that rule and control us all. And also things like using toilets and eating food.

Idea 3. - an illustrated story I could create a story book for aliens either explaining the human species or depicting an aliens first visit to earth. It will cover things like the seasons and what to wear, explaining weather, animals, houses, transport, hospitals. Each things the alien will encounter and figure out by themselves, the book will also include a section on what we perceive aliens to look like (think E.T, American Dad’s Rodger, men in black). The

story will be based on an alien character who travels around earth experiencing new things and learning as he goes, because the nature of the book is to learn, it will be aimed at children as well as aliens. As the alien experiences more of the earth he becomes less shy and makes friends with people along with animals along the way, he is also taught rigght from wrong on planet earth

Idea 4. - A ‘spotters guide’ This was an idea I had based on books that already exist, like bird spotting, and train spotting. Only This one will Feature Humans, and will explain stereotypes and labels, (for example chav, OAP, emo.

Etc.) this will help aliens understand the urban language. It will be light hearted and feature an illustration of these stereotypes and a short description e.g. ‘can often be found..’ and ‘characteristics’. Then I’ll

have a section on animals and transport, technology. Then I’ll do locations, e.g. the office, then a short sentence explaining an office, then a spotters guide to stationary, I could also do schools, hospitals shops,etc.

Then I’ll have a section on road safety and a spotters guide to road signs.

Idea - 1. Box of things This idea is based on the fact that sometimes we need to see things in order to understand them, I generated this idea by thinking about the things that would be hard to comprehend to an alien, things like what humans are, what we wear, what we look like, how and where we live. I could create a box made of wood or Perspex and then create a series

of 3d models to go inside, things like a modal earth, a human, a t-shirt explaining our anatomy, a modal of a house and a car.

Perhaps a modal gun and toy soldiers. A dinosaur to explain science and what we know of the planet. Along with this I could create some sort of queue cards that explain what the objects are and how they work.

virtual A virtual box would mean that any body all over the world could have access to it, this means that the box would contain a wide variety of objects and texts from all around the globe and would be a less personal approach, however in doing so it would mean that there would be a wider range of artefacts from earth each meaning different things to different people, a plus side to the virtual box is that size is no issue, for example if someone wanted to put a horse and cart in there for whatever reason, it would be impractical to make a box large enough to host the items, a virtual box offers the solution to size problems and gathers a larger area of earth over different kinds of perspectives.

Physical A physical object has the advantage of being hands on, people can hold it, open it, look inside it and study it, this type of object has the advantage of engaging with different types of learners, as some people don’t necessarily learn through sight alone and we don’t have any way of knowing what methods suit aliens, therefore having an object they can hold and engage with increases our chances of them understanding our world because when objects are in 3D they become easier to interpret than a 2d image or a description. we have the technology to replicate 3d on screen but nothing beats holding an object in person.

Personal approach A personal approach would be all about me and what I thought was relevant, it could go down two routes, either I include objects that reflect the earth today such as a small modal of the earth, and figures of politicians, celebrities, war, climate change and some history, or I could make it more personal by including objects that are not necessarily to do with earth, but to reflect my time in earth, so things like photographs, and objects that reflect me and how the earth has made me who I am.

Indirect approach an indirect approach would include putting other people in charge of the box objects, meaning the things that go in are relevant to them, so the box would be like a time capsule for the human race where each person commits something different, I could also ask people to write on a tag what their object is and why they chose it, that way an alien could also learn what these objects are as well as understand their relevance, people will also have different responses to the ‘why’ so one person might go into detail using a very formal language where as another might opt for a light hearted joke approach.

Ideas - 2. Info graphic/ painting A set off paintings or info graphics that illustrate what defines and controls us as a species and looks at politics, social standards, technology & fashion. I want to look and try to explain these things from an aliens point of view. For example if you were to explain politics to an alien they would probably laugh at how absurd it is, and how non of the politicians ever do what they say they’re going to do, I could show this

by including faces of politicians and then de-facing them so they become humorous.

Could explain the social expectation using fashion and the idea that girls can wear skirts but boys cant, and at the same time, boys can wear no tops in public, girls cant.

And I’ll explain technology and money as the things that rule and control us all. And also things like using toilets and eating food.

Painting paintings and info graphics have different methods of communicating. A painting is viewed differently to a graphic, we tend to study them more to find deeper meanings, and treat them as antiques, fine art in particular has this aesthetic quality to it that info graphics don’t , for example brush strokes and the layering of paint can create texture and tone in a way that info graphics struggle with, different techniques can be used and experimented with to create pieces that are very different from one another, for example photorealism paintings look just like photographs, these are different to impressionist paintings by artists like Claude Monet who use very obvious brush strokes and more vivid colours than the ones depicted by real life. Paintings also tend to be framed and treated so that they don’t whether and are protected from the elements more that graphical designs. Different types of paints are also available which each give off different effects, paintings do tend to last longer on account of them being looked after and seen as more historical objects.

Info graphic an info graphic would obviously be a more graphical approach, using vector images or a graphic tablet to create images that don’t offer the same tone as a painting but do offer other advantages, for example a graphic can be printed, and re printed, and put up almost anywhere around the world, they tend not to be studied as deeply as paintings as the meanings are usually intended to be understood straight away, info graphics aren’t meant to be hard to decipher they’re intended to explain, inform or persuade. They don’t tell stories in the same way that paintings do, but they do convey messages easier, and are more widely available to the public, because there isn’t as much stigma attached to to their display, they don’t necessarily belong in galleries or rich peoples houses, they can be found on billboards, busses, posters, tv, travel agents, practical everywhere all over the world. Info graphics have the benefit of being created simply, mistakes can easily be erased, text and image can be re arranged and altered until the desired effect has been reached by the designer.

Idea - 3. Story book I could create a story book for aliens either explaining the human species or depicting an aliens first visit to earth. It will cover things like the seasons and what to wear, explaining weather, animals, houses, transport, hospitals. Each things the alien will encounter and figure out by themselves, the book will also include a section on what we perceive aliens to look like (think E.T, American Dad’s Rodger, men in black). The

story will be based on an alien character who travels around earth experiencing new things and learning as he goes, because the nature of the book is to learn, it will be aimed at children as well as aliens. As the alien experiences more of the earth he becomes less shy and makes friends with people along with animals along the way, he is also taught rigght from wrong on planet earth

Online an online story would mean that the book couldn’t be held in the same way that it would be if it were printed, however it does have certain advantages in that it can’t really be lost, if its online and available for download it can be read from a mobile device without internet, assuming it has already been downloaded. it also means that the pages cant be torn or lost. However the size of the pages can’t be reflected as easily in an online book because if the book was created to be A5, or A4 when printed, digitally it would only be the size of the screen of the device on which it’s displayed. an advantage of having a digital book is that it can be downloaded to different devices, where as a book can’t, you’d have to buy multiple copies if you wanted it in more than one different place, or take it with you which could take up space.

Printed a printed copy has the advantage of being held and the pages turned by hand, this would mean that it was more interactive and appropriate for learners that learn by interaction. The good thing about a book is that it’s available when internet and technology fails, i.e power cuts or loss of battery. It can be argued that physical books are more traditional than technology based books as they offer a broader look at earth, meaning more of the earth will use paper based books rather than technology so paper would reflect a wider population. however this being said we as a race are moving forward and if technology is moving forward should this also be reflected in our reading material. A printed copy also comes with that new-book smell that technology doesn’t have, and if it’s used for learning purposes then pages provide paper so additional notes can be jotted down if necessary.

Idea - 4. Spoters guide This was an idea I had based on books that already exist, like bird spotting, and train spotting. Only This one will Feature Humans, and will explain stereotypes and labels, (for example chav, OAP, emo. Etc.) this will help aliens understand the urban language. It will be light hearted and feature an illustration of these stereotypes and a short description e.g.

‘can often be found..’ and ‘characteristics’.

Then I’ll have a section on animals and transport, technology. Then I’ll do locations, e.g. the office, then a short sentence explaining an office, then a spotters guide to stationary, I could also do schools, hospitals shops,etc. Then I’ll have a section on road safety and a spotters guide to road signs.

Online much like the story, the online version of a spotters guide would provide the same advantages and disadvantages, however it would provide more space so that more things could be spotted, because if the book is online you’d be able to do a spot search if you knew what it was you were looking for/ at and then tick it off, It wouldn’t be as practical to have all this information in one book as the book would be huge, meaning it would be too chunky to take out and be useful. you do have to rely on technology though, which means that you’d have no guide without technology unless it was wind or solar powered. Again though, online books can be downloaded to multiple devices and taken anywhere.

Printed A printed copy could either be, binded, hard back, or paper back. The advantage is that if it’s taken with you then you always have the opportunity to fill it in, and it’s also more interactive as it acts as a dictionary, assuming that an alien has never seen anything on this planet, they can look up the object according to the picture and then understand what it is they are looking at, where as online it would take longer as there would be more pages to look through and you wouldn’t be able to flick through as easily. A printed copy is also a better way of taking down notes, as online copies don’t offer the same interaction, you can’t just take out a pen and scribble down a reminder on a digital book. And as said before you don’t have to rely on technology.

Feedback and Decisions After taking all four of my ideas to the table and presenting each one individually explaining their pro’s and cons and making sure each one was fully explained I then put them up for discussion. After a small conversation with this group of people it was decided that my first idea was the one I should take forward as it had the most potential, and could really go somewhere. when I expanded on my idea I explained that the box could either be virtual or physical.

The physical object can be held and interacted with but space for objects would be limited. The other alternative which was the virtual box seamed most popular as it meant that people from all over the world can view and interact with it. The point was made that social media is the best way to go, by opening up and inviting people in to help me with my project, I intend to ask people ‘if the world was going to end and they could only leave one object behind, what object would that be and why’. I’ll then ask for a picture of the object and explain that it can literally be anything from technology such as a computer to a photograph of their family, or even a mode of transport or a location, such as a car of a picture of the Eiffel tower.

Then once I have enough imagery and explanations I’ll create a book out of the results

First step Step one for me was to get the message across so I took to social media in an effort to draw attention to my project and drum up interest as well as encouraging people to take part and get involved, the more the merrier. The more pictures and information I have, the better my project will be. I’m going to look closely at social media to see which ones are most widely used, social media is a good platform to start at in order to begin getting my message out there. I can ask for help and volunteers to post images, as well as advertise my outcomes. I’ll start by looking at some social media statistics because it’s important to understand where my target audiences spend most of their time. once armed with this knowledge I can use it to my advantage and begin to start posting in these areas and piecing together my findings and responses. once ive gauged these sites and picked out the key statistics for helping me identify their audiences, i can then p target my work at these specific areas of social media, because some might be more effective than others at certain areas, for example instagram prodominantly uses pictures, wheras facebook and twitter have it as a feature. Twitter has a character limit where as facebook doesnot, and twitter is the fastest growing with more users every year.

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook has a total of 1,366 million active users

Twitter now has a total of 238 million active users

Instagram has a total of 300 million active users

23% of Facebook users login at least 5 times per day

Twitter was the fastest growing network with a 44% growth from 20122013

23% of teens consider instagram their favorite social media site

70% of marketers used Facebook to gain new customers

34% of marketers use Twitter to successfully generate leads

13% of the worlds internet users use instagram

26% of users fall into the largest braket of being 25-34 year old

500 million tweets are sent per day by users on Twitter

more than 20 billion photos have been shared on instagram

Second step - Reaching out to people The first thing that i did was to get myself logged on to all of my social media acounds and broadcast for help straight away, because not only does it encorace audience participation, but it also keeps people interested, interegued and up to date, it also acts a little bit like a consent form and doesnt give too much away, the message is short and sweet, it allows those who are interested to come forward, while

not taking up too much of the news feed so as to put people off, the capitals also help to draw attention in. I used three social media sites (excluding tumblr) to drum up some attention. The three social media sites I chose are the same three I researched into, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Facebook because it has the largest amount of users and therefore more people will likely see the post, Twitter because It’s the fastest growing

social media site and folowers from all over the world will be likely to see it, rather than just those that are ‘friends’, and lastly instagram because images are highly important in graphic design as they sometimes llow a better understanding of things than words ever couldand the yellow stands out to people who are scrolling through, makes them more likely to read it and engage with it, this means that even if people dont wish

to take part they still remain interested and are likely to follow the project to see how it turns out in the end, meaning th. the use of social media as a whole will help me greatly in reaching out to a wide range of people of all different ages, ethnicity and gender, this will make the results for my final piece more acurate, and ill be able to gain a larger range of imagery and reasoning, hopefully from different areas of the world too.

Third step - Creating a survey since begining this processs ive realised that not everybody is as open and upfront, willing to share their objects openly, I realised that this could cause a fair few problems if i didn’t find a way around it, so I created a survey for people to fill in, it only concists of two questions, but they’re the only ones I

need to know the answers to at this moment in time, what would your object be and why. The survey though has the advantage of being anonymous, so no one can see their answers, and im not aware of t who’s answered. The survey also gives me a rough idea of what people would put into the virtual

box. The only isue with the survey is that it provides me with a n object and a reason, but no image. I thought about this and came to the conclusion that a vector image might be the way around it, because a vector image created in illustrator by me wouldnt have any copyrights attatched to it, and as well as

letting me have more input into the project. once the survey was up and running I used social media sites Instagram, twitter and facebook again to advertise it and encorage people to fill it in, take part and help me out. it wasnt long before people started to respond.

survey Results As we can see from these results, people are extremely varied and different, some people would leave behind more personal objects than others, and some apear to

leave behind more maerialistic items, such as a football or a comb whare as some would leave more philosophical items like their children and their bodies

Vectors I stated earlier that because of the results from the surveys not having images attatched i was going to create my own, on the right are four examples of objects that people would leave behind and their reasons for doing so, these are the images I’m going to create vectors of. , A football shirt, a football, an old teddy and a computer. the next four pages will show my completed vectors for these images . I can then upload them onto my completed blog myself if i wish to do so, and then that way they can also be included in the book. I’ve only completed four up to this point as vectors take quite a while to complete, bare in mind i do not use live trace so everything is done manualy. I hope to complete more of these vectors though, because as we saw on the previous page there are a large variety of answers, some might prove more taxing than others but i’ll do my best to complete the majority of them

Vectors - Old Teddy

Vectors - Computer

Vectors - football

Vectors - Football shirt

Fourth step - thumbnails The thumbnails bellow are little visuals that help me to picture what my blog will look like and therefore decide the best layout for it. If we view the spread as a double page with two rows and six columns then so far I’m liking the one in the first row of my thumb nails and the second one along, this is because the images will be irregular, I like this look because it appears more interactive

and less regimented. It also allows images to keep their own dimensions. The first row features two thumbnails that are similar in style, the difference though is that the second image features the images in an irregular order, whereas the first doesn’t .

The next couple of thumbnails in that row feature two image columns rather than three the first one features the title and description

on the left and the images are regular in their appearance, forming a wall like effect.

The second one however features the same layout with slight differences, the images aren’t as regular and I think I prefer this effect more than the other. The title and description is on the right hand side this time rather than being on the left I’m not sure I’m a fan of the idea though because of

the fact that generally speaking people read from left to right rather than the other way around. So the title and description might be missed and therefore the aim of the blog might not be clear at first glance. In terms of the columns though I think I’m preferring three columns as opposed to two. The next two thumbnails in the first row feature blog thumbnails with only one column that can

be scrolled down and shows the images one after the other, like a traditional blog, but I’m not sure I like this as it doesn’t seem to make the blog look as aesthetically pleasing to people who will be viewing the blog, and that could be a problem if I want people to interact with it. The title on the first thumbnail is displayed at the top of the page, however there is no image on either of these blog

thumbnails as I thought they would take up space and draw attention away from the actual blog as the one column approach seems fairly simplistic. Moving on the second row I have decided to try some layouts with four columns rather than three, two or one . The title appears at the top on the first two thumbnails, but not at all on the third, a description is present on all three

of these thumbnails. However the second one differs as the images are irregular and more spaced out. The next image in the row shows one column but the title is on the right, so again I’ve ruled it out as I don’t like the idea of the message not being clear enough.

Then finally the last two images thumbnails show the title and description amongst the blog posts, the first its in the middle, and the

last one it’s on the left. However I don’t like this much either as it draws attention away from the meaning of the blog again as t the users of the blog might not see it straight away as it is sandwiched between the images, and I really want the blog title to stand out on its own along with a description and I do quite like the idea of the blog having an image on the left rather than the right.

Fith step - Creating a blog The thumbnail I chose to create in blog format was the second column in the first row. I chose this one because the title, description and image were all on the left, and they were isolated so that people would look at them first and understand the interactive nature, and the message behind it. I also like the irregular look of the images because I think they’re better to look at, they give the blog a certain amount of character The site that I will be using is tumblr as it has many users and can alow for submitions and posts from other people outside the blog. This is ideala for me as I need a wide variety of users to help me with my project. I also found out that tumblr has a very wide range of people and is accesible in lots of different contries.

I started out with an untitled blog with a default dolkadot background and diamond image and i changed all of this straight away so that the name so that it reflected my work, rather than naming it after the brief though I named it so that it reflected the fact it had been left behing, whats left of earth and it’s people. I also made the background cover image sp an image of space and changed the main image to a pictire of a little blue alien that i created in illustrator I also changed the background colour to black tarthr than white to reflect space and made the text a light shade of gray as to match my research and development book.

Already the blog is starting to take shape, it already looks reflective of space and the brief in general. my virtual box in the form of a blog is almost up and running.

The next thing I did was customize the theme by changing the background of

the actual blog to an image of space and adding the same blue alien to the side bar. i then made the sidebar a light gray shade to match the theme and to try and keep it consistent throughout both the blog and the project in general. The next thing that I did

was to make the text a dark gray colour, not uite black because that might look too sharp, but still dark enough so that it can be read above the light gray background of the sidebar, which is sositioned on the left just like in the thumbnail I created earlier.

The next thing that I did was make the title colour black, because unlike the text I wanted the title of the blog to stand out and be quite sharp so that people look at it first and read it so that their interest is peaked and they explore the rest of the blog. I then made the post titles the same colour as the text in the sidebar this is because I wanted to keep the colour pallete as minimal as possible, I came across this idea when I was looking at artists, I found the simplistic ninimal style quite appealing.

A lthough post titles might not appear that much in my blog because they are more for text posts that image posts, but still, if at some point they do appear, it will look appealing if they match the rest of the blog. moving on to the post background and borders, the background is much easier to see on text posts as it is the colour that appears behind the text, on images this background colour appears as a slight border surounding the posts, which is then surounded by a border itself, this border appears as a thin line i’ve made this border a slightly lighter shade , the same shade as the post title and text colour. these shades appear quite similar, but once they’re posted the difference is more obvious and still remains clear and easy to read. the next few things i did was set the blog up so that the columns title and links are all visible, the tree columns creates the efect that i wanted to achieve. The last thing i did was set up asks and submissions. this is the key point that allows people to submit their own photos and posts, and allows them to ask questions themselves. while at the same time alows me to see their posts before they go public.

Sixth step - Promoting the blog Now after creating my blog I need to get the word out there about it, so what to do.

Well since I already have a tumblr account I thought that would be an appropriate way to go, so what I did was log onto my other tumblr account. Then I messaged most of my followers asking for their help. I sent the same message to everyone, which was rather strange because not a lot of people had ever spoken to me before, so i made sure i was polite and pointed out the fact I knew it was a random act to message all these people. there are two options when sending messages, there’s an annonymous option and theres a non anonymous option.

Then there’s the ask option or the fan mail option. The ask option has a character limit and most blogs have set it up, and then theres the fan mail option, this allows more text to be sent as it doesnt have a character limit, however there’s a fair few blogs that don’t have fan mail set up, and you have to be following the blog in order to send fan mail, and for a certain amount of time. I made sure I posted non anonymously and used fan mail where it was possible as I could fit in more characters. then after that I created another post from that same account promoting the blog. I used my other blog because it was already established, it had followers so people will see it more, it seemed like a good way to reach out to people. I included the link to my blog and I also gave an explination, splitting it up into sections so that it wasn’t a big block of text that would put people off of reading it all. I kept the message light and simple as to entice people into reading it, i also asked people to re-blog it so that it would appear on more dashboards than just mine.

here on the left of this text shows some of the responses I’ve been getting from posting asking for help. and then below this text are the notes that I’ve gotten from trying to promote the blog, as can be seen the majority of the responses are positive, most people are willing to help me, now it’s just a case of alowing people time to post their images as I do not want to rush or pester people into it at all. I want people to enjoy the proccess and not be put off by it. I think that the blog could be quite

successfull if people get behind it. Then hopefully once the blog fully takes off and more and more people start interacting with it, the better promotion is, the more likely people will be to visit the page and submit their own photos, I’ve also said that once the blog is made into a book of all the images that I will credit any of the blogs and people that have helped me out with it, this is just a little insentive, it gives something back to the people, who will have helped me a great deal on this .

Seventh step - More Feedback and Decisions After presenting the blog how it currently looks, a few issues were pointed out that I had not previously considdered. The first was the over all look and feel of the blog, In an effort to make the blog look as interactive as possible, i’d nelected slightly my role in the project, as it’s my job to oversee the standard of imagery used in the blog. some images didn’t live up to the standard of what would be expected, for example the vector images dont show off the true potential of the objects, so maybe these can be withdrawn and replaced with actual photographic representations. I’d also used a n image of a blue alien in the sidebar of my blog which was there to show a message of space, however it only seems to have sucseeded in making the blog appear childlike. The same goes fot the background of space. it takes attention away from the images hat people have left. What I need to do is highlight the areas that are causing problems and then work on each of these areas in turn, with the intention of making the blog more contemporary, so that the images within the blog are the main focal point.

Title font is not profetional looking enough, this makes the over all look of the blog appear childish as it’s the sort of font that could be found in a childrens book.

The image quality need more heavily as at the don’t reflect thier prod light and some images

The submit option is burried within a links tab, this could cause problems if people are new to the site and cant find where they need to be to submit their images

the meanings of som are unclear, this coul a visible caption to have a much cleare

The image of the Alien doesn’t make the blog look interactive, it makes it look childlike and ruins the feel of the blog and takes attention away from the posted images.

The font for the description and for the tabs is unconsistent, the title font doesn’t match other fonts and makes the blog look unprofetional and tacky.

ds to be regulated much e minute some images duct in their optimum are of quite bad quality

me of the photographs ld be fixed by adding the images so they er meaning to them.

the amount of space between each image seems to be limited. theres not enough to make the blog feel contemporary enough and it makes it dificult to focus on one image.

the blog appears to be quite dark, this is most likely due to the background, but dark colours appear throughout, in the side image and text, i think i need to use softer colours.

the blog appears cramped. this could be because i opted for three columns rather than two or one. however iI didnt know this would be the case until i added all the images.

the space background doesnt work at all. it was meant to show that the project is linked with space, but this is in the description anyway. it takes attention away from the images posted.

After analysing where I’m up to my next step is to crreate a set of new thumb nails to reflect what my new blog style will be like, then once I’ve done that I’ll re-create my blog in this style, and then once I’m happy with it I’ll work on my images so that the vectors are no longer in the picture. and then i’ll look at the images as a whole and work out which to keep and which ones might need upgrading to a better quality representation.

I’ll look atthings like captions, and links and titles fonts and colours. Once I’m happy with the blogs appearence I’ll start looking into book layouts and making the images work on each page as theyre all different sizes, I’ll make a few different examples and layouts so that I’ll have something to fall back on if one doesn’t work out. Then I might also look into editing the images so that they all fit under a similar colour scheme . but wht I’ve learned from this is that it’s important to test each piece to make sure you end up with the look and theme that you want to achieve.

Because here my aim was to make the blog more interactive, but I ended up making it look off putting. I needed to ask myself what is it i’m trying to achieve, who for, and most importantly, does my work reflect that.

Eighth step - more thumbnails The thumbnails on the bellow are little visuals that help me to picture what my blog will look like and therefore decide the best layout for it. If we view the spread as a double page with two rows and six columns.

The thumbnails I made previously were not contemporary enough so I’ve changed them so that they are much more contemporary and the colour scheme is different, much

lighter and therefore easier to look at, because the more clean, neat and tidy the blog looks the more likely people are to interact with it. So if we start with the first three thumbnails in first row we can see how the description is at the side of the blog , however on the first one it’ s quite dark and the title is disjointed so having the title next to the description is something I chose to

do next, the second image shows the title and the description in a different place, it’s much further down the page and is directly on the background, where as the third image the title and description is in its own box. The images are also laid out differently, the first one shows two columns but is still appears cramped so the next images show one column but the first one contains an

image caption whereas the last one doesn’t and the images appear to be smaller. The second row of three thumbnails show the title and description at the top of the page.

The first one is in a different colour at the top of the page, whereas the other two thumbnails show the description on top of the background colour. the difference between them is that the links are in different

places, the first thumbnail in this row shows links on the right in square boxes, in the second image the title, description and links are all seperated with lines and the links are at the bottom, in the third thumbnail shows the links inside white lines between the title and the description. The backgrounds are light gray because of the colour scheme. the first two images show the images with

no border, wheras thelast one doesn’t.

The fourth column shows how images can appear on the blog without just being in one column, the thumbnail at the top of the collumn shows a darker background than the previous ones, this is just a variation of thelight gray that i’ve previously shown. there’s lots of negative space which helps keep the blog contemporary while also

Title.

showing multiple images at once. The one below shows the title and description on the left and the images much more spaced out with white backgrounds behind each image.

The spacing helps the blog not look cluttered and clustered. The light background also helps with space. The last four thumbnails are all quite similar with slight variation. the two in the first row show a different number

of columns, one with two columns and one with three, there’s a decent amount of space between each image. The title, description and the links are all in their own seperate boxes. The thumbnails below these two show the exact same layouts, the only difference is that the ones bellow have captions so that the meanings can be more clear that they were previously. as for fonts i’ll try to use helvetica.

Eighth step - new blog layout The layout that I’ve chosen is this one because it’s contempoarary with just the one column, the images remain fairly small so that two can be seen at once on the blog. I’ve chosen a gray colour scheme because it’s much more contemporary than what I had before, theres no alien or space background on this one. It’s just the plain gray and the title, the thing that’s different is the fact that the images can now do the talking and its clear what each image means.

Title font is helvetica, it’s black so that it stands out against the description. Helvetica is an improvement because the font is easy to read and the letters are much clearer.

The image qua need to work on reflect thier pro This is somethin

The submit your legacy tab is much more visible and isn’t hidden in another links tab, it’s simply put with the links at the bottom of the description so it’s easily accesible.

the meanings o are still quite unc to the images so meaning to the

The lack of an image helps to keep the blog looking contemporary and modern, ther’s no cartoon type illustrations or vectors that distract attention away from the images.

The font for the description and for the tabs is much more consistent, I’ve used helvetica again here so that it matches the title font and makes the blog look profetional.

ality is still something that I as some of the images don’t oduct in their optimum light. ng I am getting round to fixing.

of some of the photographs clear, I’ll add a visible caption o they have a much clearer em once I get new images.

the amount of space between each image is still quite limited, but becaause of the new contemporary style of the blog this space between is not an issue anymore.

the blog is much lighter, this is because of the change in background, I used softer colours so that the blog wouldn’t appear to be dark and off putting to viewers.

the blog appears to be less cramped. This is because I’ve taken into account the fact that the blog looks better and more contemporary with just one column as apposed to three.

the gray border around the images is the same shade of gray as the description background, this is to keep it consistent, the images look plain without this border.

nineth step - replacing bad images

As I mentioned previously, some of the images on the blog were not of the quality that I’d like them to be, so one of the things I’ve done is looked up alternative images that are more aestheticaly pleasing or fit the meaning better than the current image.

Either that or the images are just generally of a better quality than the ones I currently have. I think I’ll remove some images from the blog completely because not all of them work

well or are hard to represent with an image, for example a pun or a joke , that’s hard to represent because the thing itself isn’t visual, it’s more to do with words and language, if it were to be represented it could come across looking child like and not as effective as I’d like. I’ve also added images in that represent the answers from the survey that I took earlier, these include items like a cd collection and a photo album, I used flickr to gather these images

tenth step - book layouts.

After focusing on the blog aspect of things so much I decided I’d have enough images and captions to start putting a book together I looked at lots of different book styles on flickr and pinterest as well as i n person. I came across three distinct styles that I liked the look of.

One of the styles was more like a diary, the pages didn’t have much order and the books were full of random images and items that had been collected over time such as old train tickets and photographs of different places stook down at random intervals throughout.

These books were among the most interactive as they had tings goin on all over the place.

The second style that I came accross was the one where the images on the page seemed to follow no logical ofder and were placed randomly throughout the pages, only the text and overall layout of the book still seemed frofetional enough so that the images didn’t look completely rediculous in these random orders. I think these random orders helped to break up the page though and stop the book from looking routine and boring.

The third style that I came across featured images on their own, isolated on one pace with a small caption either below the image or on an opposite page this style works to draw attention to the image and to make the images appear more important. It also, much like the previous style, keeps the book layourt looking contemporary and helps to break up big blocks of text

Eleventh step - Creating book layouts based on the layouts and designs I’d been looking into previously I decided to create some of my own. so the first thing I did was to figure out a suitable layout for my book once all the images are In it. I’ve come up with three possible layouts. A scrap book style one with pages that show photographs at different angles and post-it-notes and polaroid pictures set out almost like a diary archive. I thought that this would look okay because it would go with the theme of my blog, but now that I’ve changed the theme of my blog I don’t feel as comfortable with this layout as it doesn’t match everything else that I’ve done so far, It just makes the work seem a little bit underwhelming. I think although It’s different to look at, the images are the main focus of my work, and here in this particular layout, the images dont comunicate very well they become hidden amongst everything else that’s going on on the page wicc is perhaps something I should have thought about first I also think that the veriety of different texts running throuhout dont help to keep the layout consistent, though initialy I did do this on purpose to diferentiate between hand written and printed type, on reflection though thisapproach does appear to be rather messy, which takes attention away from the interactive effect I was originally trying to achieve.

Eleventh step - book layouts The second style that I looked at was where the images are layed out randomly on the page but they actually have some order because they are laid on a grid so the images can be moved around and placed in order to fit this grid system. The same can be said for the type setting and the way that the type is aranged, for example it can be rotated and moved so that the text also fits within the grid system. What I like about this layout is the fact that the images dont need to be altered much to fit in with the layout they only need to fit in with the grid, this means that less of the image is lost. It also means that the cost of printing the book will be less because as mentioned before there are less images to a page and therefore less pages to print. What I also like is the fact that the design looks contemporary and it fits in with the theme of the blog and the colour scheme once again matches the theme throughout my work. The only thing that I’m not entirely sure about is the colour of the text that I’ve used, I’m not sure weather it would look better dark or light, I’ve left it dark for the time being because it’s easy to read darker text and it also means that it’s easier for people with bad eyesight to read it.

Eleventh step - Creating book layouts The third layout that I looked at was one where the images were on teir own seperate pages with the captions below them. I used grays and whites as the colour scheme throughout because it fits in with all the work that I’ve done so far, this includes my research / development and my blog. I like the work I’m doing to look like it belongs together as the two outcomes should work with each other and not clash. I want there to be a clear connection between the blog and the book. Hovever cost is something I need to bear in mind as the book with single images on each page will mean that over all the book will have more pages, this means it will therefore be more expensive to print. One of the problems i am finding with this design is that the images are not all the same sie and they vary a lot in terms of their legnth and width, this has caused me some layout issues because the look is never consistent. some images look better than others and some are scaled down to fit within a certain space. the portrait images appear to be smaller than the landscape ones because the hight is the aspect used to scale the photos. however having the images on their own does help to show how important each individual item is, the only thing that ruins this effect is that some are bigger than others. if they were all the same size this problem would not occur.

Twelth step - final book design I went for the second of my layout looks in the ned because it was the one with most structure, it had a solid grid system behind it and the design itself looked most contemporary.

The cover of the book is based on the layout of the inner pages in quite a blocky style, the leather look background is to give the book an authentic and simplistic feel to it, If it was going to be an artefact I wanted that to be reflected in the cover so that it looks both contemporary and aged at the same time, I chose not to have any images on my cover as the images are all inside and I wanted to reflect that and not give anything away .

The layout of the inner pages varies a lot from one image to the next, but all the images are contained within a grid system so they do have some order and structure to them but I like the missmatched look and the placement of the type in different areas, it makes things look contemporary and modern, like the brief specifies, theis is a modern take on the golden record so it needs to be something that reflects how modern we are in society today, this is reflected in both the blog and the book.

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