term long inspiration

I've been searching the web for some inspiration for my term long project. I'm thinking about doing a game/kit for couples, similar to these kinds of games (but a lot less sex oriented):

  
  

I especially love the Truth or Dare packaging (top left), using old-fashioned type and silhouettes and a card-based system. 

But for the actual look and feel, I have a couple different ideas.

I just about died when I saw this AMAZING Monopoly re-design. The icons are simple, the color palette is muted and subtle, and the whole thing just looks classy as hell. This was my first idea, going with a simple color and type palette and relying on icons to convey information visually.

I've always admired packaging (and everything else) from the 1950s; the bright colors with halftone photographs is an aesthetic that I think will work really well with my concept. 

And my 'just for fun' link:

Undoboy is a Portland, OR based designer that loves robots and bright colors, and his packaging is an interactive, integrated part of the product itself. I love his ideas and hope my packaging can be as fun as this is!

My next step is to now create my survey that will help me to find out what subjects, issues, problems, or arguments couples have the most. Here are some links to articles that talk about some of the problems "experts" find most common:

• WebMD.Com talks about 7 common problems in relationships, including communication, sex, money, division of chores, prioritizing, conflict, and trust. 
  
• Suite101.Com points to fears that cause issues, including fear of commitment, fear of intimacy, and fear of change.
• Suite101.Com has another article about the 10 most common problems couples face, including lying/cheating, imbalance of power, isolation, lack of self-knowledge, etc.

These articles are helpful for narrowing down what issues to focus on, but I want to pick a main 3-5 that are universal enough to design a flowchart for. Please help me out by commenting to this post with an answer to one (or all if you want!) of these questions:

1. My partner makes me so mad when they ________.

2. The thing I find myself arguing about the most with my partner is ________. 

3. Something my partner and I never fight about is ________.

4. The hardest issue for my partner and I to work through is ________.

5. I most want my partner and I to solve our problems with ________.

objectives + audience + deliverables, methodology and schedule

PHASE ONE: DEFINE THE PROBLEM    

STEP ONE: IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM
Communication is always a key factor in relationships between any persons in a community, whether it be family, friends, or partners. Sometimes communication between parties can break down, resulting in arguing that can often about recurring issues that never seem to get solved. People in relationships often feel lost and don't know where to turn for help; it may not be serious enough for professional help, but the relationship is starting to weaken and could deteriorate if nothing is done.

STEP TWO: STATE PROBLEM (OBJECTIVES)
The idea is, to through a comprehensive packaging identity and information graphics, guide couples through some common relationship issues, such as commitment, finance, parenting, and compromise, in the privacy of their own homes. This is meant to be an honest, sincere effort to open the lines of communication between partners and help them deal with their situations in a healthy, logical manner. I would like to provoke a sense of relief in a community of couples who feel lost in their relationships and there is no way to help them communicate better with their partner. The readability, easy-to-follow graphics, and accessibility of the information should draw the audience in, and the design should make it easy for them to keep this around to use over and over again.

STEP THREE: ANALYZE TARGET AUDIENCE
The audience I am trying to reach is couples, more specifically those who are having problems in the relationship but cannot, will not, or do not want to get professional help, couples who would like to learn better communication skills to avoid elevated conflict in common arguments, and couples who are looking for an easy and fun way of working through their problems. To first understand the issues I should address in my project, I will talk to couples or people that are in relationships and find out what their most common relationship issues are; this could be a survey that delves deeper into the reasons why people argue and yell instead of rationally work through their issues to come to a more thorough understanding of each other, or finding couples that have been married or together longer than 25 years and ask what they think has made their relationship so strong. I would like my audience to be co-authors in the content development of this project; I am in a relationship and know what my boyfriend and I fight about, but are our problems ones that others experience?

STEP FOUR: DELIVERABLES
- folding flowcharts that lead the couple through their situation or problem and are separated by topic (to be determined through audience participation)

- toolkit to help set the mood to ease the couple through the stress of the problem

+ candles

+ candy

+ MadLib-type love notes

+ music

- instructions on how to use the flowcharts/toolkit

- packaging and visual identity

- promotional materials

+ store display

+ internet/print ad

DUE WEDNEDAY, APRIL 13TH: Objectives + Audience + Deliverables posted to blog and presented to class 

PHASE TWO: AUDIENCE RESEARCH    

STEP ONE: DERIVE HYPOTHESIS
People in relationships tend to have a certain number of common arguments or conflicts with their partner that can be identified and worked through in a logical, rational manner.

STEP TWO: CHOOSE A METHOD
Through interviews and questionnaires, these main issues will be identified by the audience.

DUE MONDAY, APRIL 20TH: Survey developed and given out

STEP THREE: DOCUMENT RESULTS
The results will be recorded and taken into consideration for the final number of flowcharts to be designed.

STEP FOUR: REACH A CONCLUSION
A conclusion about the most common issues will be decided and research will begin on how to resolve them.

DUE WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22ND: Surveys compiled, data sorted and main relationship issues decided upon

 

PHASE THREE: DESIGN

STEP ONE: RESEARCH AND WRITE COPY
Accumulation of surveys, articles, books, and other sources will develop content for the flowcharts.

STEP TWO: CREATE GRAPHICS
Flowcharts will be designed based off the set color palette, type palette, etc. Other graphic elements will be made in coordination.

DUE MONDAY APRIL 27TH: Deliverables with 3 variations for each
- logo, type, color palette
- promo materials

STEP THREE: LAYOUT
Content will be placed within the flowcharts with accompanying visual elements.

DUE MONDAY, MAY 11TH: Deliverables with 3 variations for each
- flowcharts
- toolkit

STEP FOUR: EXTRA DELIVERABLES
Instructions other packaging elements will be designed to encapsulate the flowcharts.

DUE WEDNESDAY, MAY 27TH: Deliverables with 3 variations for each
- packaging

 

PHASE FOUR: FINALIZE

STEP ONE: PRINT DELIVERABLES

STEP TWO: PACKAGE
Final packaging assemblage with necessary materials.

DUE MONDAY, JUNE 1ST: THESIS PROJECT COMPLETE
- final packaging
- final deliverables

DUE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10TH: DOCUMENTATION
- process: documentation of audience participation/research
- photograph final product and post to flickr

reading response #4

"Audience as Co-Designer: Participatory Design of HIV/AIDS Awareness and Prevention Posters in Kenya" by Audrey Bennett, Ron Eglash, Mukkai Krishnamoorthy, and Marie Rarieya

I found the whole process these artists took to produce such wonderful work is an excellent model for audience participation in graphic design. This article was so thoroughly researched and I feel like it's a great accomplishment to help a country that is so desperately need in a design aesthetic to rally this campaign around. I think it's a wonderful idea to use the actual culture and its cultural symbols to create the awareness posters.

This got me really inspired to find some other audience-produced art and campaigns around AIDS awareness.

This poster for AIDS awareness on the Ivory Coast has a definite impact in the viewer, and the aesthetic seems to fit well with the culture.

The London SE1, a community website, reported a story about this triptych, the Keiskamman Altarpiece, that was being shown at Southwark Cathedral. 

"Each of the ten panels tells a modern story of life today with images depicting loneliness, hardship and confusion and restored pride.On the front are scenes of mourning where the community is suffering from AIDS. The first opening reveals the never ending circle of village life. The second opening uncovers the bereaved grandmothers assuming responsponibity for their grandchilden."

The triptyth was created by 130 South African women and men. It is such a touching piece that exudes the African culture's aesthetic with intricate intricate embroidery, appliqué and beadwork.

AMAGUGU, South African National Cultural Heritage Training and Technology Program 

A Durban Institute of Technology / Department of Design Studies led the Siyazama Project, an initiative in attempting to proactively face reality of the sweeping Aids epidemic in Southern Africa. They had rural women of the Zulu society create crafts based on the hardships they faced in their society, including the AIDS epidemic. Bringing crafts into the project fits into the Zulu society's tradition of the revered position of the craftswoman; she is seen as an opinion-maker in their community. These crafts truly reflect the aesthetic of the Zulu women and have a powerful message about the tragedy of AIDS.

And just for fun, this adorable (yet sobering) image from Mohamed Abbas, a designer in Cairo, Egypt.

reading response #3

"Cultural Probes" by Bill Gaver, Tony Dunne, and Elena Pacenti 

I think the probes were a great way for these artists to bring out the kind of answers they wanted from their audience of elderly people. Not only did they include textual cues, but visual cues that invited the audience to interact to generate their answer. I especially liked the different maps they included, and how they didn't just ask them to tell them where they had been or lived but these "zones" of more irreverent nature, like where they would go to be alone or where they liked to daydream. I think these questions make the audience feel like the designer cares about them as a person, not just as a demographic or statistic. Using these probes is a non-traditional way of researching your audience, and getting to know them will ultimately serve them better. Why would you spend so much time designing something if your intended audience doesn't understand it?

It almost seems like a project in itself to develop these cultural probes. Do Not Disturb, a senior thesis project website I found, is an interactive campaign much like Gaver's. From the Do Not Disturb website: 

"Do Not Disturb is an interactive campaign to promote awareness of nuisance noise. Instead of following traditional hard-hitting campaign approaches Do Not Disturb is about giving the issue a buzz feeling within the community.  Using three different approaches Do not Disturb encourages people to interact and participate with the issue through the Noise Poster, Noise Bomb Pack and the Do Not Disturb Website. By adding elements of interaction in to the campaign, it allows the issue to be communicated between people without it having to be verbal."

The designer's project is very well researched and she used cultural probes to find out about what kind of antisocial behaviors bother people and why. She made her audience think about what these things are, how much time they take away from you, what the person that engages in this behavior looks like, and where they happen. This allowed her to see how her audience responds to her idea and what they get out of it. It even helped guide the course of her project:

"This has led me to steer my project towards anti social noise.  Instead of concentrating on anti social behaviour as a whole I can focus my attention on the noise side of it. I feel that although I did not get the results that I had hoped for my probes have still been successful in influencing my project."

Therefore, I feel that cultural probes are important to my project as well, especially as it deals with relationships. If I made a cultural probes package, it could include some of these things:

- stickers of men and women that the user can place in home environments to show where, when, how, and why the couple argues

- pre-made flowcharts that ask the user to fill in the most common directions of arguments with their partner from beginning to end

Here are some cultural probe packages that I love for the design:

term long project overview

This humorous flowchart about the consequences of getting into Dungeons and Dragons at an early age is a similar to the design aesthetic I am going for; the relationships flowcharts would start with an issue, then would lead through a series of questions that one would answer to lead them to another path, eventually guiding the couple through their conflict.

Thesis: Communication Breakdown (working title)

Communication is always a key factor in relationships between any persons in a community, whether it be family, friends, or partners. Sometimes communication between parties can break down, resulting in arguing that can often about recurring issues that never seem to get solved. People in relationships often feel lost and don't know where to turn for help; it may not be serious enough for professional help, but the relationship is starting to weaken and could deteriorate if nothing is done.

The idea is, to through a comprehensive packaging identity and information graphics, guide couples through some common relationship issues, such as commitment, finance, parenting, and compromise, in the privacy of their own homes. This is meant to be an honest, sincere effort to open the lines of communication between partners and help them deal with their situations in a healthy, logical manner.

Deliverables

- folding flowcharts that leas the couple through their situation or problem and are separated by topic

- tools to help set the mood to ease the couple through the stress of the problem, including candles, candy, MadLib-type love notes, and other fun activities

- packaging, logo, type treatment

- promotional materials, including store display, TV and/or internet ad, etc.

Audience Research

- talk to couples or people that are in relationships and find out what their most common relationship issues are

- make a survey that delves deeper into the reasons why people argue and yell instead of rationally work through their issues to come to a more thorough understanding of each other

- find couples that have been married or together longer than 25 years and ask what they think has made their relationship so strong

nooKii is an adult game that is designed to enhance the private time couples share together. The packaging is sleek and very well designed; I would like my packaging to be as cohesive.

The Newlywed Game is a 70s television staple, but this home version looks just as fun. The packaging is simple yet elegant, something I would like my design to accomplish.

More research and inspiration are yet to come!

help!

I don't know how many people are reading each other's blogs, but I would really love some feedback on my term long project ideas. They are posted before "reading response #2", so please look and let me know what you think so I can make a decision! I'll try to get on some blogs and post my thoughts, too.

reading response #2

Culture Jamming

I've never actually heard of culture jamming, which I suppose is the point. Shamefully, I had to first turn to Wikipedia to get a general understanding of this 'movement'. Turning away from all mainstream social mentalities, culture jamming has no specific political message or is defined by any group, but the one thing in common is the tendency to poke fun at the homogeneous nature of popular culture. Its main platform is through guerilla communication, taking images that are often found in popular culture and turning them around to make fun of the message the original portrays.

     

Culture jammers are generally anti-establishment, going against forms of news media, government, etc. Coined by the collage band Negativland on its release JamCon '84, the phrase comes from the idea of radio jamming: public frequencies can be pirated and subverted for independent communication or the disruption of dominant frequencies. Culture jammers are thereby taking over public space or objects and using it for their own purposes or to disrupt the public's use of the space or object. 

       

One thing I like about culture jamming is that the anonymity lets artists be bold and explore intense messages that may be hard to work on inside an institutionalized structure. It lets artists take something they're passionate and disregard all societal rules and regulations; the world is their platform, and they're not afraid to use it.

   

But it's hard to build a community on a base of anonymous faces. Culture jamming is like complaining without coming up with a way to fix the problem; these pieces are interesting and get a loud message across, but don't offer society any solutions to changing the lack of individuality and innovation within the structure. Culture jamming doesn't seem to bring people together, but tears them apart by pointing out flaws that come off as 'preaching' if done in the wrong way. That's why humor is important to culture jamming pieces; if not done in a smart way, people will fail to see the message because they're too concerned with the blatantness.

It's interesting how some forms of culture jamming can become a part of mainstream culture, even though they are trying to go against society in their work. Artists like Shepard Fairey and Bansky started out as guerilla artists, promoting their work through dominating public spaces, but now have become icons in the art world. When does a culture jammer become too popular and they can no longer be associated with the movement? 

   

term long project ideas

I don't really know how many of these fit the perimeters of the assignment, and some may be recycled from other project ideas, but could fit this class better somehow.

Concept #1: Relationship Guide Flowcharts

Communication is always a key factor in relationships between any persons in a community, whether it be family, friends, or partners. Sometimes communication between parties can break down, resulting in arguing that can often be about recurring issues that never seem to get solved. People in relationships can often feel lost and don't know where to turn for help; it may not be serious enough for professional help, but the relationship is starting to weaken and could deteriorate if nothing is done. 

The idea is to, through a comprehensive packaging identity and information graphics, guide couples through some common relationship issues, such as commitment, finance, parenting, and compromise, in the privacy of their own homes. This is meant to be an honest, sincere effort to open the lines of communication between partners and help them deal with their situations in a healthy, logical manner, not a humorous Cosmo article about 'How to Tame Your Man'.

Deliverables 

- folding flowcharts that lead the couple through their situation or problem and are separated by topic

- tools to help set the mood to ease the couple through the stress of the problem, including candles, candy, MadLib-type love notes, and other fun activities

- packaging, logo, type treatment

- promotional materials, including store display, TV and/or internet ad, etc.

Audience Research

- talk to couples or people that are in relationships and find out what their most common relationship issues are

- make a survey that delves deeper into the reasons behind why people argue and yell instead of rationally work through their issues to come to a more thorough understanding of each other

- find couples that have been married or together for longer than 25 years and ask what they think has made their relationship so strong and advice they would give to younger couples

Concept #2: Video Arcade Revival

Video games have become a huge part of our cultural vocabulary since the 1970s with the release of the first video arcade systems and eventually the invention of the home gaming system. However, since video games have moved inside to the privacy of our own homes, we have lost some of those personal connections to other players we once had in the thriving video arcades of the 1980s. It used to be an exciting experience to go to an arcade with your friends and try and beat the high score; now with modern technology, this is done over the internet incorporated into our home gaming systems and we no longer physically high-five the person watching us battle aliens or defend territories through warfare. 

The idea is to get people excited about video game arcades again by reminding people of why we began going there in the first place: to interact with other players and experience the lights, sounds, and general whimsey of the arcade experience. The form would be in an informational research piece containing graphics that remind the viewer of the gaming culture from the arcade period that describes the rise and decline of the arcade, what the current state of the arcade industry is at, collectors, and what can be done to get this experience back into our cultural vocabulary once again.

Deliverables

- interactive informational booklet about the arcade industry; many charts, graphs, folding/sliding elements, etc.

- ad campaign that promotes supporting your local arcade, including billboards, t-shirts, buttons, stickers, etc.

Audience Research

- go to several video arcades around the area and document the experience to understand the people that are attracted arcades

- survey people to find out how much they remember arcades, how valuable that experience was, if they miss it, etc. to know whether this is something people are interested in reviving

Concept #3: Stuffed Animal Recovery Project

As a child, my mother would get my sister and I a stuffed animal for seemingly every occasion: Christmas, Easter, Valentines' Day, you name it, my mom gave us a furry creature. This has resulted in an enormous collection of perfectly snuggly stuffed friends that have been long forgotten in my and my sister's minds but could mean something amazing for a child that does not have something to comfort them in times of distress or to tell their innermost secrets to. 

The idea is to start a "stuffed animal recovery project", referencing the noble acts of other rescue organizations of animals and people. Researching of various organizations that work with children and take donations of stuffed animals would be required to build a comprehensive list of the people this project intends to help, showing the community that these stuffed friends will go to local sources and you know exactly where your donation ends up. Representatives would collect stuffed animals door-to-door or have designated collection sites where the stuffed animals could be dropped off. Another effective way to persuade people to donate is to provide materials that show where the materials for this object has come from and where it will end up if not given to a child who needs it. This campaign would help raise awareness of many organizations that are trying to help children, whether it be medically, mentally, or through family crises and help recycle something that often gets discarded or kept away in an attic or basement, to never be used again.

Deliverables

- campaign identity, including logo, type treatment, etc.

- collection bin and staff uniform designs

- awareness materials promoting the recycling of stuffed animals and the organizations it helps, as well as showing people where the stuffed toys came from and where they will end up if not donated

Audience Research

- generate memories in people by asking about their first or favorite stuffed animal as a child and how having this object did or didn't effect their lives; how important is this 'first' or comfort for every child?

- find out about other stuffed toy recycling projects and try to connect with them; can this become a nation- or even world-wide effort?

I hope these ideas are interesting and can generate the kind of project we're aiming for! I look forward to discussing and selecting a topic to get started on.