Writing Visually

"writing can be a challenge, especially for artists and designers who tend to be more visual than verbal."

This opener really caught my attention. As visual thinkers it is easier for us to express ourselves with images rather than just spelling it out. When were running around mostly concerned with the way things look its hard to actually take the time out to write down exactly what you want to say. I have always known I relate better to anything visual, so it is easy for me to jump the gun and just start making things that look appealing. The goal of this book is to explore how written communication can have a positive influence on our visual work and help us better understand the process of visual communication. Not only does writing help generate lateral thinking but equally as important, it serves as a reference tool when the project is completed.

The book explains that writing as a form of idea generation can overtime become stronger and lead to clearer communication, not to mention having a concrete check once the project is over to make sure everything you wanted to say was said. One thing i do find that I fall short on in my projects is the execution, having a final product that says what I intended it to in the beginning. Personally I know i get sidetracked and my ideas change constantly throughout a project because I dont have that concrete message/idea spelled out. I know if I can consistently use the tools they talk about in the article I can start to make consistent design that reflects exactly what I intended at the start. Some of these methods include mind maps, concept maps, free writing, brain writing, word lists, outlines and reflective writing.

Mind maps can be helpful because of the unexpected connections that are made. It lets you come to a new concept or idea you would not have orinarily placed with your topic. It is also interesting to make mind maps with others on the same topic and compare where they went with it. overally its a great way to generate numerous ideas. Concept maps are like mind maps execept they allow for a more thorough investigation of the realationships and meanings between two concepts. I like making maps and lists but I think free writing is the hardest to actually make yourself sit down and do. Brainwriting is the written equivilent of traditional brainstorming. This is used for team projects to collaborate on as many ideas as possible. I am a huge list person. I use it everyday as a way to simplify the important things. I do also enjoy the feeling of acomplishment that comes with drawing that line through something that is finished. For design concepts though I think lists are a great way to generate words and start to zone in on which ones are more important/relevant than others. Outlines are structures that help organize information. Again, when designing anything its so easy to get sidetracked (maybe thats just me?) but i think making an outline is a great way to set small goals and acomplish what you want on time.

refined concept statement/audience persona

{ tangibleuncertainty }

tangible capable of being touched; discernible by the touch; material or substantial.

rough smooth bumpy grainy prickly velvety slippery sticky


uncertainty uncertain: dependent on chance or unpredictable factors; doubtful; of unforeseeable outcome or effect. confused unsettled unpredictable indefinite anxiety concern gray-area unstable hesitation


{ audience persona }

Kayla, formally an art student at Colorado University, is a 23 year old wanting more out of life than a rigid schedule and people telling her what to do. Despite what her friends and family think, Kayla decided to take a few years off and life her life how she wants to. With each day blank, Kayla wakes to the exciting possibilities of new things. Kayla flies by the seat of her pants, and will try anything once. While she loves the rush of skiing and snowboarding with her friends, Kayla also equally enjoys being alone. Kayla has always been creative and interested in art. While in school, Kayla was disturbed with the structure and decision making that suppressed her creative expression. As a child Kayla loved playing with play dough and legos. Now older and living by herself, she enjoys dabbling in different hands on art projects. Kayla is environmentally tactile, If shes not at home working on her own projects, shes running around outdoors collecting various knick knacks to get her creative juices flowing.



{ to suggest }

touch me
imperfect / impractical
texture
life is unstable/uncertain
feeling

subdividing root rectangles

A method of dividing the page is using root rectangles. These are rectangles that can be subdivided into smaller rectangles that keep the same height to width proportions of the original.

Brainstorming Reading

Brainstorming

CUBING probe topic from 6 different perspectives
1
describing // physical describe your topic. what does it look like? color shape texture size? identify its parts.
2
comparing // how is your topic similar to other things? how is it different?
3
associating // what other topic/thing does your topic make you think of? can you compare it to anything else?
4
analyzing // look at the topics components. how are these parts related? how is it put together? Where did it come from? where is it going?
5
applying // what can you do with your topic? what uses does it have?
6
arguing // what arguments can you make for or against your topic?

KU Biodiesel Initiative

KU Biodiesel Initiative is a student-run operation that uses the cooking oil generated on campus to produce biodiesel.Their goal is to meet the needs of all of KU's buses, landscaping and maintenance equipment along with powering generators. They work with Alternative Energy Society student group to promote the benefits of biodiesel and other alternate fuel sources.

associated word list

bold daring hazy dramatic conflict problematic confused mixed-feelings wedding baby borrow steal share husband wife friendship second-thoughts emotion intriguing feminine decisions indecisive unsure love lust happiness warmth jealousy cheat right wrong moral vouge smart mod style lend take pure everlasting dangerous intimidated green-eyed envious suspicious untrustworthy trust suspect concealed hidden private truth surprise strom astonishment unexpected child cuddle baby mother father pregnant single plain elaborate ring Manhattan one-night-stand fling other woman choice risk understanding accepting justify gamble opportunity empathy love-hate-relationship London recreate self awareness motherhood discoveries happily-ever-after sticky-situation upset torn deal-breaker child-free parenthood compromise decisions broken heart lonely helpless selfish unfaithful self-interested, self-seeking, egoistic


steal

• to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, (esp secretly or by force)
• to take, get, or win, insidiously, surreptitiously, subtly or by chance
• baseball (of a base runner) to gain a base without the help of a walk or batted ball, as by running to it during the delivery of a pitch
• to gain or seize more than one's share of attention in, as by giving a superior performance (stealing the show)
• to commit or practice theft
  

morals

• of, pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical: moral attitudes.
• conforming to the rules of right conduct (opposed to immoral)
  

selfish

• devoted to or caring only for oneself; concerned primarily with one's own interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others
• characterized by or manifesting concern or care only for oneself: selfish motives
• moral compass
  

suspicious

• tending to cause or excite suspicion; questionable: suspicious behavior
• inclined to suspect, esp. inclined to suspect evil; distrustful

bold

• not hesitating or fearful in the face of actual or possible danger or rebuff; courageous and daring: a bold hero.
• not hesitating to break the rules of propriety; forward; impudent
• necessitating courage and daring; challenging
• striking or conspicuous to the eye; flashy; showy: a bold pattern.

sticky

• having the property of adhering, as glue; adhesive
• requiring careful treatment; awkwardly difficult: a rather sticky diplomatic problem

surprise

• requiring careful treatment; awkwardly difficult: a rather sticky diplomatic problem

relationships

• a connection, association, or involvement
• an emotional or other connection between people

loyal

• faithful to one's oath, commitments, or obligations: to be loyal to a vow.
• characterized by or showing faithfulness to commitments, vows, allegiance, obligations, etc.: loyal conduct

risk

• exposure to the chance of injury or loss; a hazard or dangerous chance: It's not worth the risk.

compromise

• a settlement of differences by mutual concessions; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles, etc., by reciprocal modification of demands
• an endangering, esp. of reputation; exposure to danger, suspicion, etc.: a compromise of one's integrity.
• to make a dishonorable or shameful concession

tear

• a drop of the saline, watery fluid continually secreted by the lacrimal glands between the surface of the eye and the eyelid, serving to moisten and lubricate these parts and keep them clear of foreign particles
  
• fluid appearing in or flowing from the eye as the result of emotion, esp. grief.
• something resembling or suggesting a tear, as a drop of a liquid or a tearlike mass of a solid substance, esp. having a spherical or globular shape at one end and tapering to a point at the other
• to pull apart or in pieces by force, esp. so as to leave ragged or irregular edges.

TONE

fiction
city
impulsive
torn
desire
non-traditional
sophistocated
contemporary

TO SUGGEST LIST

• to suggest that everything is not always black and white
• to suggest emotions override judgement
  
• to suggest that love is worth all the trouble
  
• to suggest people dont always know what they want
  
• to suggest bold/daring
• to suggest scandal/exciting

QUOTES // PHRASES // SONGS that set mood & tone

BOLD AS LOVE john mayer (emotional aspect of colors)

Anger he smiles towering in shiny metallic purple armor
Queen Jealousy, envy waits behind him
Her fiery green gown sneers at the grassy ground
Blue are the life-giving waters taken for granted
They quietly understand
The once happy turquoise armies lay opposite ready
But wonder why the fight is on
But they're all bold as love

ASSASSIN john mayer

I was a killer, was the best they'd ever seen
I'd steal your heart before you ever heard a thing
I'm an assassin and I had a job to do
Little did I know that girl was an assassin too
Suddenly I'm in over my head and I can hardly breathe
Suddenly I'm floating over her bed and I feel everything

HOPELESS train

You're in and out up and down
Wonder if you're lost or found
But I got my hands on you
Are you strong enough to toe the line
Are you gonna make me yours
Or do I make you mine

HAPPINESS the fray

Happiness is a firecracker sitting on my headboard
Happiness was never mine to hold
Careful child, light the fuse and get away
‘Cause happiness throws a shower of sparks
Happiness damn near destroys you
Breaks your faith to pieces on the floor
So you tell yourself, that’s probably enough for now
Happiness has a violent roar

THE HARDEST PART coldplay

And the hardest part
Was letting go not taking part
Was the hardest part
And the strangest thing
Was waiting for that bell to ring
It was the strangest start
I could feel it go down
Bittersweet I could taste in my mouth
Silver lining in the clouds
Oh and I
I wish that I could work it out
And the hardest part
Was letting go not taking part
You really broke my heart
And I tried to sing
But I couldn't think of anything
And that was the hardest part
Everything I know is wrong
Everything I do it just comes undone
And everything is torn apart
Oh and thats the hardest part

"Decisions determine destiny."
-Frederick Speakman

Emily Giffin Series

The series I want to redesign is a set of books by Emily Giffin. Something Blue, Something Borrowed, and Baby Proof. Ive actually read these books and they were really good. Although they look nice I think they are pretty plain. An older lady I worked with recommended them to me, im not sure i would have picked it up otherwise. I wanted to redesign these for a different audience. These covers portray just another wedding/marriage/love novel but the story is quite the opposite.

Something Blue

From the New York Times bestselling author of Something Borrowed comes a novel that shows how someone with a ‘perfect life' can lose it all—and then find everything. Darcy Rhone thought she had it all figured out: the more beautiful the girl, the more charmed her life. Never mind substance. Never mind playing by the rules. Never mind karma. But Darcy's neat, perfect world turns upside down when her best friend, Rachel, the plain-Jane “good girl,” steals her fiancé, while Darcy finds herself completely alone for the first time in her life…with a baby on the way. Darcy tries to recover, fleeing to her childhood friend living in London and resorting to her tried-and-true methods for getting what she wants. But as she attempts to recreate her glamorous life on a new continent, Darcy finds that her rules no longer apply. It is only then that Darcy can begin her journey toward self-awareness, forgiveness, and motherhood.

Something Borrowed

Something Borrowed tells the story of Rachel, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan. Rachel has always been the consummate good girl---until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend, Darcy, throws her a party. That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy's fiancé. Although she wakes up determined to put the one-night fling behind her, Rachel is horrified to discover that she has genuine feelings for the one guy she should run from. As the September wedding date nears, Rachel knows she has to make a choice. In doing so, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk all to win true happiness.

Baby Proof

From the author of the smash hits Something Borrowed and Something Blue comes a novel that explores the question: is there ever a deal-breaker when it comes to true love? First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes . . . a baby carriage? Isn’t that what all women want? Not so for Claudia Parr. And just as she gives up on finding a man who feels the same way, she meets warm, wonderful Ben. Things seem too good to be true when they fall in love and agree to buck tradition with a satisfying, child-free marriage. Then the unexpected occurs: one of them has a change of heart. One of them wants children after all. This is the witty, heartfelt story about what happens to the perfect couple when they suddenly want different things. It’s about feeling that your life is set and then realizing that nothing is as you thought it was--and that there is no possible compromise. It’s about deciding what is most important in life, and taking chances to get it. But most of all, it’s about the things we will do--and won’t do--for love.

about Emily Giffin...

bookcover // research

series group of related or similar things arranged in temporal, spacial or other order succession sequence things follow in logical order or a recurrent pattern sign stimulus pattern that has meaning icon a sign that looks like / resembles the thing it represents
visual - a picture of your face is an icon of you
verbal - bow wow (the words resemble the sounds they make)

index defined by a sensory feature (directly visable, audible etc.) that points to "B" visual - upset facial expression is an index of their displeasure
verbal - words when they directly point to their meaning without depending on any
relationship to other words. (I, me, you, this)

symbol linked to their object arbitrarily (learned behavior) reliant on conventional usage to determine meaning

• easily removable from their context
• closely associated with large sets of other words

bookjacket success
an effective book cover manages to catch the eye and convey the idea behind the book on a single page

giving just enough information the couples faces hidden increases interest, you cant get to know them until you actually read the book

the slanted envelope gives the 2D surface depth, the envelope also sparks interest and makes the viewer wonder what is inside

the texture of this lolly pop grabs the viewers eye at first well because everyone loves candy, but once the viewers attention is caught at second glance the combination of word and image. putting the word crime with a lollypop instantly shows the viewer a certain feeling of the book; making the word "crime" more exciting than how you would feel if you just saw the word crime by itself.

im drawn to books that portray distress or just maybe the irony that the cover appears to have been torn up when in reality its smooth

this cover is successful because of how the text words and meaning interacts with the image. the tilted lampshade along with the tilted letter F creates interest while the clean appearance of the book goes well with the title a perfect mess; they portray the phrase a perfect mess



giving just enough information the couples faces hidden increases interest, you cant get to know them until you actually read the book

This Means That

SEMIOTICS the theory of signs

• tools, processes and contexts we have for creating interpreting and understanding meaning in a variety of different ways
• signing is vital to human existence; it underlies all forms of communication
• very diverse; include gestures, facial expressions, drawings, designs, food, rituals, & primitive symbols
• signs are important because they can mean something other than themselves (apple means apple BUT apple also means healthy)

signs are not isolated, they are dependent for their meaning on the contexts in which they are read and understood

signs formed through...

• the society that creates them
• by the structures they employ
• through the sources they use
• ex. health (western culture) we would say the WAR against aids or the FIGHT against caner or the topic of time; we talk about using time wasting time saving time and spending time as if it were money.
  

signs we find in each society are superficially different yet they seem to have the same underlying structures

structural similarities

• perform rituals
• play games
• adhere to moral systems
• engage in forms of symbolic representation
• creating hierarchy

Societies have 2 basic sources of signing

1. natural (wearing clothes in the cold)

2. conventional (the kind of clothes/ how we wear them)

• conventional depends on the rules of the particular society which were in

THE JOURNEY OF A MESSAGE

sender // who
intention // with what aim
message // says what
transmission // by which means
noise // with what interference
reciever // to whom
destination // with what result

SIGNIFIER & SIGNIFIED

1. same signifier with different signifieds

• one object can have different meanings
• (apple can mean temptation, healthy, fruit)
  

2. different signifiers with the same signifieds

• different things can all mean the same thing
• (different languages have their own word for apple)

ICON
with any icon there is some degree of resemblance between signifier and signified (degree can be high or low)

INDEX
When there is a physical or causal relationship between the signifier (the photograph) and the signified (what the photograph depicts) the non arbitrary relationship is indexical
It is important that we can detect the causal link between a signifier and what is being signified (smoke caused by fire)

SYMBOL
arbitrary relationship between signifier and signified

TRANSMISSION
messages are always transmitted through a medium
medium carries the message from SENDER to RECIEVER
mediums can be..

• presentatinal // voice, face, mouth, eyes
• representational // through paintings books drawings
• mechanical // internet TV radio fim

ex. With a smiley face where the eyes are exactly the same, the mouth is the transmitter of emotion - differentiates between if the face is happy or sad.

SENDER & RECIEVER
How we make sense of the message depends on how we interpret it and who we think is receiving it

• distinction between “receiver” (the actual person that gets the message) and the “addressee” the person (real or imaginary) who is said to be the target of the message
• the aim of the sender is to make sure the message has reached the right receiver without anything going wrong

Sometimes we mean what we say / sometimes we say one thing and mean another (sarcasm)

• Non litteral forms of meaning enable us to make the familiar seem unfamiliar and the unfamiliar seem familiar.
• Non literal communication will make us work harder when it comes to deciphering the various meanings that human beings create.
• All of these things (used judiciously) can be used to create more resonate meanings

Similie X is like Y

• the likening of one thing to another; a stated comparison between two different objects images ideas or likenesses
• Ex. busy as a bee, dead as a doornail, flat as a pancake, at the crack of dawn
• Also appear in visual communication… light bulb above persons head to represent having an image, heart for love (clichés)
• When we like one thing to another we tend to highlight the features that interest us
• helpful simile enables us to see an old object or image in a new light by making a connection with another object or image in respect of a certain property or feature

Metaphor X is Y

• most interesting when they link something familiar with something unfamiliar
• (by drawing attention to the ways in which a familiar thing x can be seen in terms of an unfamiliar thing y, we help to show that the qualities of the first thing are more like the second thing than we had initially thought
• they work by a process of transference showing … while x doesn’t have certain properties literally it can still have them metaphorically
• Implied comparison between two similar or dissimilar things that share a certain quality

METONYM
when one thing is closely associated to – or directly related to – another, it can be substituted for it so as to create meaning

SYNECDOCHE
not what you put into a piece that matters but what you leave out: using a part of something to stand for the whole thing, or the whole thing to stand for part