Part of our last assignment for the year with regards to Design Studies is to identify 5 books I will read as a result of this module, 5 things I want to do to my blog etc. and 5 people I will make contact with.
These include (and have already purchased some):
- Blink - a book by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of first semesters read "The Tipping Point".
- Semiotics: A Graphic Guide by Paul Cobley, as I found semiotics very interesting.
- Designing Infographics by Eric Meyer, I have become increasingly interested in infographics and data visualisations as a result of several paths during Design Studies and would like to learn how to incorporate this clean presentation style into my future projects.
- I plan on investing in several of the books in the series for my course anyway, however Basics Design offer one called Design Thinking, which is something I need to consider more deeply, namely the user and the effect a design can have on it's surroundings as often we get caught up on the aesthetics only (stemming from reading about ethnography).
- Wordpress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson. This sort of leads me into my next top 5 catagory of what I plan to do over summer, and as you tell, regards moving over to Wordpress very slowly but surely.
All of these are available on www.amazon.co.uk.
The 5 things I plan to do over summer are:
As I am already an avid blogger and tweeter, I have not added these to my list as it is something I already regularly do.
- I do plan however, to move from Blogger to Wordpress over summer, and archive my posts.
- Finances permitting, I'd also like to take a short trip to The Netherlands to visit, along with visiting Norway (which is already booked), allowing me to visit their Architecture & Design Museum, as well as possibly visiting a Jewellery exhibition as I plan to travel with JMD student(s).
- Complete my LinkedIn profile and begin to use this more thoroughly.
- Organise my Flickr account into a more manageable system, along with updating it with recent albums.
- And finally, StumbleUpon more things every day - and as a result try to blog about a new find at least once weekly.
Finally, 5 people I would like to make contact with:
- HKU Utrecht if I am lucky enough to be invited to apply directly to them for an exchange opportunity.
- Continue to follow people on Twitter, while always looking for new companies and designers to follow. (I currently already follow most guest lecturers from this year's lectures etc.)
- Although it would not be a new connection, I plan on staying in contact with our current 4th years, keeping up to date with their job prospects and life as IED graduates, hopefully giving me an insight into life after DJCAD.
- Aim to get published by finding an amateur online design magazine, and make contact about perhaps submitting an article.
- Get, and start using Skype - as suggested by Lauren Currie (@RedJotter) some weeks ago.
Showing posts with label Infographics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Infographics. Show all posts
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Design Studies: Service Design Tools
For our current Design Studies assignment we had to visit some websites that document ways to help you when researching for design. One of these was designstudiestools, to which I found the case study for Blueprint quite helpful.
Blueprint is similar to how we work during the early stages of a project - listing the main issues on post it type notes and sticking them under the corresponding group. This enables you to see patterns and visualise connections between topics. This also ties in with my relatively recent interest in Infographics - which also aim to visualise information, in a more simplified form.
For future projects I may continue with my front line of attack with sticky post-its, however I may then re structure my findings in a more easily understood visualisation in the likes of Photoshop, for future reference. The clearer a picture you can get before delving into designing, the cleaner design you will end up with, so it would seem.
Blueprint is similar to how we work during the early stages of a project - listing the main issues on post it type notes and sticking them under the corresponding group. This enables you to see patterns and visualise connections between topics. This also ties in with my relatively recent interest in Infographics - which also aim to visualise information, in a more simplified form.
For future projects I may continue with my front line of attack with sticky post-its, however I may then re structure my findings in a more easily understood visualisation in the likes of Photoshop, for future reference. The clearer a picture you can get before delving into designing, the cleaner design you will end up with, so it would seem.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The Curriculum Vitae & Semiotics
I was surfing the abyss that is the interwebs when I came across a few sites that listed interesting resume ideas. This got me thinking - what will I chose to do to attract attention when it comes to looking for a job that doesn't involve serving drinks to drunk students?
Here are a few of my favourites:
The Origami CV
I like this one because it is simple and unusual. Imagine receiving something like this via post - it would certainly make me smile, especially if it was in a more interesting shape that you have to unfold. Takes folding paper to fit envelopes to a whole new level!
The T-Shirt CV
This is a cool idea as again it makes for an interesting delivery, but the only problem I can see with this is if you have never met who would be reading it - you may insult them by sending a size far too small or vice versa.
That aside though - I like this idea of printing on something other than paper, which leads me to what else could you print on?
The Infographic CV
For those of you who have read some of my recent postings - this one excites me a lot!
It's simple, efficient, and interesting without being cluttered up with a lot of writing. The initial impact of seeing it makes it a very successful way to display your stats and traits.
The Compact CV
This one is similar in a way to the origami one shown above, although is very compact. If you were to send this in a very very small box then it would be surprising to get in your in tray.
It's simple and clean, and a way of sprucing up a simple text based CV, but keeping a traditional format inside.
Probably good for those who are will to try a more ambitious CV style but not willing to risk a crazy graphic design style.
The Whole Package CV
This one is good, although it is a lot of work.
Receiving a well thought out pack with miniature flyers, brochure of work, contact detail cards and a poster is a nice thought, and reminds me of a pull out in The Guardian or The National Geographic etc.
It's a nice idea, but as I say - it's a job in itself to make it all. I guess it depends how long you have been out of work, and how much time you have to make all of this!
The Comic Book CV
This one has a lot of impact. I like the simplicity, and the fact that you can get text on it without it being irritating - although how much text you need I guess is something I could tell you if I read more into semiotics.
The limited colours also mean it doesn't get cluttered as easily - something I'm sure employers like. Surely there is nothing worse than trawling through hundreds (and in this climate probably thousands) of applications for a single position, and being bombarded with busy sheets and a lot of pointless text. Although as these are all for creative positions and I myself hope to also be applying to something in the creative industry - you'd hope applicants would have a sense about this given their field. You never know though - they might just be the ones without a job.
I think I would write my website address on 50 bananas and send them in a basket to whoever I wanted a job with. Overwhelm them with fruity madness!
If that didn't work, I think I would perhaps make a box of teabags - but replace all the information on the box with my information - but fill it with some nice fruity tea bags and send them to an employer. Who doesn't like tea, right?
Here are a few of my favourites:
The Origami CV
I like this one because it is simple and unusual. Imagine receiving something like this via post - it would certainly make me smile, especially if it was in a more interesting shape that you have to unfold. Takes folding paper to fit envelopes to a whole new level!
The T-Shirt CV
This is a cool idea as again it makes for an interesting delivery, but the only problem I can see with this is if you have never met who would be reading it - you may insult them by sending a size far too small or vice versa.
That aside though - I like this idea of printing on something other than paper, which leads me to what else could you print on?
The Infographic CV
For those of you who have read some of my recent postings - this one excites me a lot!
It's simple, efficient, and interesting without being cluttered up with a lot of writing. The initial impact of seeing it makes it a very successful way to display your stats and traits.
This one is similar in a way to the origami one shown above, although is very compact. If you were to send this in a very very small box then it would be surprising to get in your in tray.
It's simple and clean, and a way of sprucing up a simple text based CV, but keeping a traditional format inside.
Probably good for those who are will to try a more ambitious CV style but not willing to risk a crazy graphic design style.
This one is good, although it is a lot of work.
Receiving a well thought out pack with miniature flyers, brochure of work, contact detail cards and a poster is a nice thought, and reminds me of a pull out in The Guardian or The National Geographic etc.
It's a nice idea, but as I say - it's a job in itself to make it all. I guess it depends how long you have been out of work, and how much time you have to make all of this!
The Comic Book CV
This one has a lot of impact. I like the simplicity, and the fact that you can get text on it without it being irritating - although how much text you need I guess is something I could tell you if I read more into semiotics.
The limited colours also mean it doesn't get cluttered as easily - something I'm sure employers like. Surely there is nothing worse than trawling through hundreds (and in this climate probably thousands) of applications for a single position, and being bombarded with busy sheets and a lot of pointless text. Although as these are all for creative positions and I myself hope to also be applying to something in the creative industry - you'd hope applicants would have a sense about this given their field. You never know though - they might just be the ones without a job.
I think I would write my website address on 50 bananas and send them in a basket to whoever I wanted a job with. Overwhelm them with fruity madness!
If that didn't work, I think I would perhaps make a box of teabags - but replace all the information on the box with my information - but fill it with some nice fruity tea bags and send them to an employer. Who doesn't like tea, right?
Monday, February 21, 2011
Design Studies: Polysemy, Trolling and Lolcats
I hate trollers.
For those of you who do not know what trolling is - it's the act of leaving online comments on blogs, forums, websites and articles that aim to take the wrong meaning and cause an argument. A good example of endless trolling is YouTube. They aim to antagonise readers, and provoke unrest, irritation and ultimately, an argument.
Polysemy is the study of meaning in signs - and the conclusions that may be derived from it. Text confirms a specific meaning, and on the flip side, a stand alone image may result in several possible meanings to be interpreted.
So, trollers aim to purposely derive a meaning from a post, but purposely take the wrong meaning from the topic in hand - thus causing the aforementioned friction. They ask stupid questions, hoping to lure people into an argument. They are basically petty people who have nothing better to do than sit online causing fights and continuing to be deficient in vitamin D.
I found a fantastic blog post on this from via Flowing Data by Courtney Stanton, an interactive media and video games producer from Boston, MA. She documents the troller comments left on her blog, and has some good examples of how the meanings get crossed - through the use of mind maps, generated using Many Eyes.
An article in The New York Times explains exactly what trolls do, and how it all began. Take a look - but it's quite disturbing, and frankly, extremely sad.
This then leads us to the internet meme. A good explanation of this can be found on thedailymeme.com. As it states, a meme can evolve - thus meaning it is an example of polysemy, where an image has over time developed a new meaning. The popular site icanhazcheeseburger.com is the home to the popular internet phenomenon the "Lolcat", where images of cats doing things are interpreted by overlaying text. Without the text - it is merely an image, with quite probably a reasonable explanation as to why the scenario has occurred. With the added text however - a new aspect is brought to the image, giving the viewer a different context to perceive the situation. This is an example of predicate transfer, by which assumptions are made due to a sentence, that may not in fact be true.
For those of you who do not know what trolling is - it's the act of leaving online comments on blogs, forums, websites and articles that aim to take the wrong meaning and cause an argument. A good example of endless trolling is YouTube. They aim to antagonise readers, and provoke unrest, irritation and ultimately, an argument.
Polysemy is the study of meaning in signs - and the conclusions that may be derived from it. Text confirms a specific meaning, and on the flip side, a stand alone image may result in several possible meanings to be interpreted.
So, trollers aim to purposely derive a meaning from a post, but purposely take the wrong meaning from the topic in hand - thus causing the aforementioned friction. They ask stupid questions, hoping to lure people into an argument. They are basically petty people who have nothing better to do than sit online causing fights and continuing to be deficient in vitamin D.
I found a fantastic blog post on this from via Flowing Data by Courtney Stanton, an interactive media and video games producer from Boston, MA. She documents the troller comments left on her blog, and has some good examples of how the meanings get crossed - through the use of mind maps, generated using Many Eyes.
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| world map of trolling comments |
This then leads us to the internet meme. A good explanation of this can be found on thedailymeme.com. As it states, a meme can evolve - thus meaning it is an example of polysemy, where an image has over time developed a new meaning. The popular site icanhazcheeseburger.com is the home to the popular internet phenomenon the "Lolcat", where images of cats doing things are interpreted by overlaying text. Without the text - it is merely an image, with quite probably a reasonable explanation as to why the scenario has occurred. With the added text however - a new aspect is brought to the image, giving the viewer a different context to perceive the situation. This is an example of predicate transfer, by which assumptions are made due to a sentence, that may not in fact be true.
Of course this cat is not actually editing Wikipedia - however if you imagine this photo without any text, it is merely a photo of a cat near a laptop, however with the text - you instantly have a sense of a "personality" and get the general scenario that is insinuated by the text.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Infosthetics!
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| The Illusion of Diversity |
I'm still glued to my screen like a 16 year old when the new Halo is out, but I'm currently creeping on Infosthetics, which is another data visualisation website, similar to Infographics, which I mentioned in a previous post.
You will lose hours, if not days to this if like me you enjoy geeking it up on data, statistics and random facts.
It helps when they look cool too!
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