Week 6 - Session 2

We found that our poster needed more text to really push the idea forward - getting people to come to the fairtrade event. After adding the text we found that our text composition did not appear as exciting as our loyalty card so we tried different compositions, sizes and typefaces to help boost it up. After we got everything sorted, we had a test print of all our transmedia to make sure the colour turns out how we want it to, and it is also good to see how it looks in actual size.

One of the first test prints we did.

Week 6 - Session 1

At this stage, we are just having minor touchups. We had a one on one talk with the tutors and made a list of things to consider and fix:

Loyalty Card
-Think about the use of imagery. Make sure it relates to what you're taking home away from the event. e.g. We are currently using a plunger image for our loyalty card however the card was originally meant to be used at a cafe. Since they don't really use plungers at cafes maybe a coffee cup would be more appropriate.

This could potentially work if our loyalty card is used to buy plunger coffee at the supermarket/cafes (ones you can make at home) The image will be more cohesive in this matter.

Flyer
-Does this need a title or not?
-Make text box narrower.

Poster
-Reiterate the purpose of our event. Make it clear to the audience why we want them to come.
-Keep text typeface consistent throughout all resources.

Website
-Aligning boxes, creating more white space for imagery.


As for the rest of the lesson, we tried to fix everything that was listed above. 

Week 5 - Session 2

We refined for most of the lesson, as well as getting feedback from the tutors and peers. I find that getting feedback from different people really helps on improving our transmedia. It's interesting to see the different view point from other people since it differs to ours. Refinement mainly consist of us trying to keep everything consistent such as text, composition and imagery.

Week 5 - Session 1

In development stage. Currently refining all our transmedia to make sure everything is consistent as a whole. We also drew up some new images to see if we can make any changes to our current transmedia. We had a big play around with type and composition since our transmedia was lacking that aspect. I found that hierarchy really makes the text look more appealing and easier to read.

Week 4 - Session 2

In the lecture today, we had a look at resizing our images for our websites. I learnt that too much pixels is only good for printing but not for web design, and that converting images to the right pixel is  absolute necessary for web design. During the lesson I continued to work our my website coding. I found that I had a lot of issues with sizes and how the text and images were not fixed in the same spot when I viewed my website on bigger screens. I decided to go to the troubleshoot to find out what the problem could be. During the troubleshooting session I learnt that some css coding were cancelling each other out and that could be the main issue on why my text were moving on the page as I minimise the screen. To correct this, the tutor suggested that I could fix this using javascript but does not recommend it as we had never learnt this. So for independent work, I might try restarting my website and try different codes.

Week 4 - Session 1

We presented our flyers to our peers and tutors for some feedback. It turns out that our visual style is working fairly well as it is running consistent throughout our project. However we have to give our tagline another thought. The tagline "Real coffee made by real people" did not seem to support our imagery that well. So for our independent work, we need to come up with some new tag-line that works better with our concept. For the flyer, we decided to go for my one (Rebecca). As for the remainder of the lesson, we started to play with html and css codes so that we can start making our website.

Week 3 - Independent Work

We started to draw thumbnails for our flyer, and out of those we each picked two that we wanted to develop further on photoshop. We also started to test out text and type using the grids method on indesign. This enable us to see what composition would work well in terms of hierarchy and visual flow. We began to render our images on photoshop, cropping in and trying out different compositions so that we can show them in class on Monday. As for our extra open choice, we had a final decision to do a loyalty card. It is a fun way to promote and support fairtrade coffee while getting something in return - free coffee.

CSS Workshop

Unlike HTML which is for content and and web page structure, CSS is used for presentation and design. We had a look at how to colour texts, change their font size, change typeface, create padding and place information and images. We used our previous code from the HTML workshop and started to tweak our information and make them look more presentable using the CSS codes were taught in the lesson. As practise, we are asked to download some templates from stream and start to experiment with the codes that we learnt which will be a big step when we start making our website. Although the information we got were simple and clear, I feel like i'll need to have some more practise in my own time to get use to it.

Week 3 - Session 2

In today's lecture, we had a reflection on how to organise text using grids. In our previous project (Puna) we learnt that grids helps create structure and ordering our information. It also helps organise packed information, making everything feel unify. We also had a discussion on how type supports the flavour of your idea and it was good idea to start thinking and testing the typeface that works well with our topic. We also had a look at text hierarchy, discussing how the use of size and colour can help differentiate different information to prevent it from looking like an error. This will help us organise our website and flyer to create easy navigation for the audience. I think that making some wide-frames and revisiting the grid exercise will help us create a stronger website so this is something I need to try out in the weekend.

For the rest of the lesson we decided to look at some more websites, picking out the stronger ones that may be a good guideline when we start to make ours. After choosing some that we thought works well, we started to create some wide-frame to see the patterns they form and how they approach the grid method. We then started to plan our content for the flyer and website by finding information from previous research. After this, we are planning to test out various formats we can do before making our flyer mockups.

Week 3 - Session 1

For interim critique, we shared our posters and ideas to our table to see which poster was working well in terms of visual style and text. We then discussed how we could develop our poster to create a stronger meaning. As a group we decided to go with my concept (Rebecca) as the poster reflects our concept better - an event for everyone to gather together to enjoy coffee and help each other. This is a more positive way to address our issue rather than forcing our audience to go fair-trade. We found that the other posters were a bit confusing in terms of the graph and percentage. Although fair-trade was listed at 100%, the graph was only at 50% of the cup. And in terms of our idea it did not excel as well as the one we chosen. I found that the critique was a helpful strategy to advance our project as we were able to see what was working and what wasn't. This can help us to further develop our poster and also our project overall.

For the remainder of the lesson, we decided to research for some fonts that might work better with our topic. So far the type that we picked did not fit in with our visual style. It appeared too bulky and constructed whereas our style is more free and loose. We also started to plan about our open choice. We are thinking of a stamp card, so that every-time you buy fair-trade coffee, the audience will get a stamp. If the card is fully stamped, they can receive a free coffee. This might be an interesting and fun way to get people to engage with fair-trade. After all, who doesn't like free coffee?

- The one that we picked to develop further.

Week 2 - Independent Work

After feedback, we picked the two ideas that worked well and started to produce them digitally. We found that our previous poster concepts had more of a negative impact which may not be visually appealing to attract our audience. I researched some more visual styles and found that illustration may work quite well for both of us. Afterwards, I started to draw out my images with ink pen so that I can later scan them in to render on illustrator and photoshop. I tried to keep my images simple yet also loose to create a playful atmosphere. I had to refer back to our mood boards in terms of colours and texture and found that I should have a limited colour palette that relates to coffee break and fair-trade. I feel that after drawing our ideas out and working them digitally, allowed us to see if our concept is working well as a poster rather than it did as a thumbnail drawing. It also help us to grasp our idea more clearly when we drew our own images. It allow us to see what images work well with our topic and what didn't.

HTML Workshop

In the HTML workshop, we were taught the basics of coding and creating a website. The tutor demonstrated how to create create headings and sub-headings, converting our type in bold and italics, adding links and pictures, and adding links that diverted the user to a new website. I was able to grasp the general gist of it but we still need to have some more practises before constructing our website. I think this will become a little more clear after our CSS workshop next week.

Week 2 - Session 2

We started todays lesson by walking around the room and seeing what others have done over the weekend. It was interesting to see what the other groups have done for the Beach cleanup and Neighbours day. I quite like seeing the different mood boards that was being presented. I found that some groups actually went out to collect some raw materials, which my partner and I can consider. We might go out to a cafe that supplies Fair-Trade coffee such as Havana and do some interview and coffee testing.

We also had a session where we shared our ideas and posters with the people on our table to get some feedback. It was also useful to see if they could unpack the intended idea in our poster. After having a chat with our peers and one on one chat with the tutors, we found that a lot of our ideas needed refining. It seem that we were too focused on the political issue of Fair-Trade. Our posters were not visually appealing in terms of attracting the customer to the event. We were given feedback to try and make our idea more positive. During the rest of the lesson we started researching some new graphic style that we can do to make our poster more inviting. We figured that using an illustrative style or mix media (ink pen and watercolour) may work with our idea as it appears more friendly, and as one of the tutor said "cute". We also drew up some new thumbnails that looks at our idea in a positive perspective. This lesson helped our project as we were directed back to right path after being lost in the negative aspect of our idea.

Week 2 - Session 1

In today's lecture we had a discussion about the use of different mediums and how it can change one meaning from another.  It can also vary how serious the meaning of the work is which I found quite interesting. We originally had our mind set on a more graphic style but after the lecture, we decided to be more open with our choices and have a further exploration of different styles to find the one that builds the best atmosphere for our topic. We also had a look at composition and juxtaposition, and how combining two images may have a lot of meanings and can tell a story. We also had a discussion about shapes and colours and how overlaying them can start to mean things, for example, we had an image that was repeated (changing the colours each time) and then overlaid each other to suggest the idea that the person was high on drugs.

In class we were split into groups that did the same topic. We discussed about our ideas and shared our mood boards around our group so that we can see the ideas that other teams have and how they approached the topic. It was interesting to see the different research and styles that others had did. Although we were doing the same topic, everyone had their own unique twist, for example, our concept is to have the viewpoint of both the farmers and our society (showing different life styles) while another team was concentrating more on the intangible aspect of Fair Trade Coffee, focusing on the emotions. We also as a group, decided to break down our topic to fill in any missing information. This allowed us to further investigate our topic to help us improve our thumbnails and ideas.

Week 1 - Independent Work

For independent studies, we started collecting materials for our mood board to help us generate ideas and figure out a specific style that we wanted to do. I found that different styles can express different meanings so I tried to include a variety: photomontage, illustration, graphic and mix media. Although we had our mind set on graphic we still wanted to try different approaches as it might take our poster to the next level. After creating our mood boards, we were able to make a connection between the pictures that we generated and our various style, to get us started with our initial thumbnails. 

We also started producing some initial thumbnails to help us see our idea visually. We tried to draw our thumbnails in a rhetorical manner as it provides a stronger meaning and gets the audience to engage with the imagery. While drawing our thumbnails, we tried to keep the audience in mind, thinking about our style and imagery and how it may attract them on the first glance.

Week 1 - Session 2

Today's lesson, we had a further discussion about the brief (Koha). The reserve brief was also introduced to us. As a team we decided to start on it during class before completing it in detail for homework. The reserve brief is put together to help us understand and clarify our topic more better, and it is also a useful exercise to refer back to if we were to become stuck. The reserve brief was also a good starting point for us to generate some visual and imagery for our thumbnails.

For the second half of the class, we had a quick reflection on our previous project ihi and wihi. We discussed the use of visual rhetoric and how it can be useful in the Koha brief as well. It will build a stronger connotation in our imagery in order to persuade and attract our target audience. We also had a look at mood board examples in class and began to generate our own to help us gather useful imagery and symbols related to our topic.

We started on our initial thumbnails to help get our ideas out visually. After speaking with the tutor, they suggested that we could possibly compare the farmer's life and our life when it comes to coffee. We were encouraged to explore different experiences, cultures and perspectives. Also another issue we can show is the challenge of freedom - coffee bean farmers are pretty much working in slave conditions and lack the awareness they need for a better working enviroment.

Week 1 - Session 1

In today's session, we were introduced to the brief (Koha). The lecture thoroughly explains the aim of this project responding to aspects of Koha. We were shown examples of multi-media works that demonstrates various ways for communicating ideas. This became a starting point to help us plan and generate different ideas as we approach the brief.

We were also given an exercise to complete in class and for homework - using characters from the Simpson show, we are asked to complete some questions on stream regarding to the behaviour and characteristic of the individual. This exercise was a successful way to practise on encouraging people to join and participate in an event. It also allowed us to see that certain events does not necessary appeal to everyone. This may be a concern / problem that we might run into later on, so it is helpful for us to start thinking on how we can approach these people.

Simpson Exercise (In Class)
1. Person: Barney Gumble, Event: Neighbours Day

He would see it as an opportunity to drink. He is a social drinker.

He is influenced by Homer because that’s how he started drinking.

Kind of like ‘octoberfest’ more like a festival. (beervana?)

He is definitely time rich. He lives alone so this would be a great opportunity for him to socialize.

He took a dance class so music and dancing could also be a good idea.

Could also be an event to get his life back on track and away from alcohol.

Win win situation

Emotional person and also a doer. Lack of self control and is easier to persuade.

Free Alcohol would attract this person the most. Social becomes a bonus for him. He could meet a lady.

He wouldn’t go if there wasn’t any alcohol. The location should be close to him cause he is too fat.

If we promoted it as a more formal event, he probably would back out.

As a designer a simplistic and to the point event website. For a guy that is barely sober something complicated is out of the question.