Creation of a Starfish
Spring 2016 // Skills: Communication Design, Print Media
A collabortative project on how to communciate a complex series of steps and consideration in fabricating a three-dimensional form in a 24"x36" poster.
24"x36" poster
Early Exploration: Content and Scale
From mini thumbnail sketches on paper, the content of the 24x36" poster is then collaboratively explored at a 1:1 scale on the whiteboard to determine the optimal way to commuicate. Through this exploration, we come to understand the interplay beteween visual heirachy, viewing distance, and engagement.
Collaborative exploration with thumbnail sketches and 1:1 whiteboard drawings.
Iteration
After an analog mock was created, a digital mock was then rapidly-prototyped and iterated with the proffesors and peers' feedback. The feedback ranges from typography, grid layout, to the quality of photo documentation.
Showing Messy Process Cearly
As we iterate through our designs, it becomes apparent to us that we need to communicate the design process, its methologoly, and its messiness. As we tigthen up our grid layout and visual heirachy, we try to strike a balance beteween communicating the design process's messiness clearly without being sterile. This messiness is insinuated through the foam debris and intentional misallignment of the objects within the internal grid system of the poster.
Sterile, Messy, and Showing Messy Process Clearly (from left to right).
Final Product
A picture is worth a thousand words. Instead of cluttering the poster layout with multiple callout layers as we initially explored, we chose to integrate the tools and processes into one singular background picture thereby reducing the amount of layers neccesary. This reduction of layers reduces cognitive load as well as clutter. Additionally, the poster also provides the context of material fidelity by contextualizing the practice in the top right corner. Lastly, the user is also trusted to be able to navigate the poster photographically and typographically. At a glance, the photographs summarizes the poster from afar, and up close the text reveals the specific details.
