Inspiration: Thanksgiving Break

Well, I'm starting off my Thanksgiving Break with the discovery of a beautiful blog by MichellesWork (http://michelleswork.wordpress.com/). I've absolutely fallen in love with what she does (added bonus: She's licensed by Urban Outfitters!). Here a a few of my favorites (also for my future reference because I know it'll get lost in my computer).

Science Fair Proposal

Hypothesis: If an ad for a product is placed near a related or relevant article in a magazine, then the company's revenue for that product will be higher.

Independent: Proximity of the ad from said article in the magazine. (EG directly next to, 1 page over, 2 pages over, etc.)
Dependent: Revenue of the product (in USD)
Control: Cooking Magazine

This connects with my senior project EQ because advertisements are a medium which utilizes graphic design, especially in magazines. Graphic design of ad really dictates the success of the campaign, which is typically why companies either outsource professional graphic designers to do the campaign or have an in-house art department. I was suggested to do the placement of the ads, and I believe it still correlates with the EQ because it's another factor which pulls a reaction (IE buying the product) from the reader.

How I will perform the experiment:
1. Gather a cooking magazine.
2. Determine which articles are the main focus of the magazine (the cover stories)
3. From there, determine which ads rose more interest, as well as the ads that were overlooked.
4. Determine the proximity of the ads that rose interest and the ones that did not from the articles that were pointed out in step 2.
5. Call the company and ask for their revenue.

I will use a chi squared test to determine the statistical validity.

Equipment that will be needed are:
-cooking magazine
-pencil & paper
-telephone

This will be a math and computer science experiment.

Concerns:
I'm not sure if the company will be willing to give me the information I need...

Inspiration: September to November

I've been really inspired lately from a lot of other designer's work. Since my computer is getting full of them, I figured I might as well post them here for future reference. I've collected majority of these from online design blogs that I browse daily.

What I've Learned So Far

Q: What have you learned how to do since you started working on your senior project?
Honestly, what I've learned since starting is how to be more patient with design. Multiple sources I've read, especially the design books, have stressed the importance of drafting, re-drafting, and re-drafting the re-drafts. They basically told me that in order to find what truly works in a design, I need to design MULTIPLE times, which really tested my patience.

When I usually design, I would get an initial idea and simply run with it without any thought of other ways to rework it or improve it. So practicing this was really irritating at times, especially after getting (mostly negative constructive) feedback from Elissa, Jocelyn (assistant design editor), Mr. Strand, Mimi Orth, Paul Ender, Dan Austin, and even Cynthia Schroeder (the day she dropped by). It meant sacrificing lunches and staying after school until 5:30 to re-design 90% of the original spreads in Strand's room (whose air conditioning has been broken for the past TWO WEEKS and gets to be, like, 137 degrees inside with (what feels like) no oxygen... with flies.) In the end, it'll pay off, though :D

My senior project so far taught me to change my attitude towards conceptualizing designs by designing multiple times and then stepping back to see what works, and what doesn't. I've applied this with yearbook, which really benefited in the long run because it (hopefully) will pay off in a more visually impacting book. On another note, it has also taught me that I can't be lazy.


Q: Post evidence of this accomplishment. 

Note: I've laid out all the failed yearbook spreads I've designed in the past week. Sadly (but thankfully) none of these will make it into the book. 

Another Note: This is just 1/4 of the drafts. The rest is either currently inside the yearbook room, or I threw them out by accident. There are also all the drafts that DIDN'T make it to the computer (I always do preliminary sketches on whiteboards and random pieces of scratch paper).

Q: What research helped you to do this and how?

I got the most input about this strategy mainly from the book, Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming, by Ellen Lupton. The book is mainly about the preliminary stages of a design project, in which one of the steps needed is to draft and draft and draft. One part of the book really helped me because it had a case study called Texturactive Identity, which took an in-depth look at the creation of a logo for the fictional company Texturactive. The graphic designers that were assigned to tackle the project of creating a logo for the company mocked up at least 10 different logos, each completely different from each other. They all looked beautiful, and utilized the meaning of the company name well, but the wow factor was lacking for some compared to others. From there, they stepped back and examined what strategy(s) worked the best and created the final product from their consensus. 

I have now applied this strategy to yearbook as well; last week, the division pages for the book were mocked up and resulted in 9 different spreads. We hung up all 9 (including the 2 we designed at Yearbooks@theBeach in August) and stepped back, picked apart each one and looked for what worked and what didn't work. We came to a consensus on combining the looks of two different spreads together. Ultimately, we came out with a stronger design than if we had simply stuck with just one.

Independent Component 1 Plan Approval

I plan on applying my graphic design techniques to the place where I first acquired them– yearbook. Since I'm design editor, I get a heavy load of designing and conceptualizing the spreads. Currently, because it is the beginning of the year, my main responsibility is to design the theme-centralized spreads (including cover, endsheets, division pages, senior section) and the coverage/content spreads (academics, student life). What I design this deadline will determine what the entire book will look like, so I feel that this part especially fits my senior project well because this will be where I apply the "creating things stemmed from an idea" aspect.

I plan on meeting the required 30 hours by working in elective on Tuesdays and Thursdays on the designs. I will also work after schools whenever possible (most likely everyday) since the workload and deadline will call for that. I usually stay after school designing from 1:30 until 5:30. Again, because of my job, I'm mainly on the computer designing so sidetracking or additional duties are not an issue. In order to present evidence of this work, I'll be keeping a log every day I'm working as well as keeping each and every draft, which I will print out at the end of each work day. (Because we start yearbook in August, I have not had the chance to save the preliminary drafts for some, but I will for the new ones that will materialize throughout this deadline.)

This study will relate to my EQ because at this stage of the yearbook, my entire goal for the designs is to make an impact on the readers (students, you, etc.) who will eventually receive this book in May/June. The entire point of yearbook design is to draw the reader in to reading the copy and admiring the photography, and the first step in order to do that is to make a strong first impression. Yearbook design is simply an extension of graphic design because of this, and this will help my discover more answers because I'm getting first hand experience through trial-and-error.

Defining the Essential Question

1) What is your essential question?
My essential question is "What is most important to impact an audience through graphic design?

2) Define the words in your EQ to make sure we are on the same page regarding what your EQ means. 

• "most important" = at this point, I think it translates to "best strategy"
• "impact" = pull a positive reaction from someone i.e. make the person want to continue looking
• "audience" = the beholder, the person looking at the design, the reader, etc.
• "through graphic design" = e.g. ad campaigns, editorial designs, prints, packaging design, and other mediums which use design.

3) What are some possible answers to your EQ so far?

From what I've researched so far...

• knowing and understanding your target audience
• keeping up with current trends of design
• strong typography
• visual/verbal communication
• stylistic identity (e.g. logos, etc)
• .... that's all I have so far. I'll research more, I swear.

4) What has your most important source and why? Be specific. If it is a person, name them and what they do; if it is an article, book or video, name the title and author.

So far, my best source(s) has/have been the book, "A Graphic Design Project From Start To Finish," which is written by a collaborative team of graphic designers. It's been a step by step guide showing me what exactly the graphic design world holds and how it works. For example, it not only explains typography and color, but also deal with how to define the problem at hand and conjure up a solution for it by combining color, type, photo, and other graphical techniques. The other book which has helped me is "Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming," by Ellen Lupton, because it got my eye familiar to what graphic design is by dissecting successful graphic design projects and pointing out the techniques the professionals used, specifically how they brainstormed the initial idea and built upon that. 

Second Interview Questions

I will be interviewing my service learning person, Mimi Orth, who is the representative of Herff Jones Yearbook Publishing for iPoly. She has worked in this profession for very many years, working with schools in the LA area to help them produce great yearbooks. In addition to iPoly, she works along side many award winning staffs such as Brentwood HS and Walnut HS, whose work I really admire. Also having studied design at UCLA, I feel that with her experience, she will have great insight to this subject that would help me greatly with my senior project.

The questions I plan on asking, in no particular order, are:

1) What does your job at Herff Jones call for? What can you say from your observation about the transformation of graphic design in yearooks from what it was when you started to what it is now?

2) How is working with so many different schools' designers like?

3) How is it like working with graphic designers within the yearbook realm? What encounters have you had with them? What knowledge did you gain, if any, from working with them?

4) What is your educational background in design? What did you gain from it?

5) How did you first become interested in design? Why?

6)  How did you become the "Font Queen"? What are your favorite fonts? What makes typography so important to you?

7) What do you do in your job that involves design? What skills does that require?

8) What is the typical work day for you?

9) From what you've observed in you job and in your overall design experience, what qualities do graphic designers possess that make their designs impacting? Which of those qualities do you think you possess?