In response to a friendly ‘how’s it going?’ txt from me, my friend went on a mini-rant about how he’d been battleing various graphics programs all day. He’s not alone – is there anyone on this planet involved in the creative disciplines who doesn’t spend a good chunk of their time yelling at the computer?

Why??
It doesn’t have to be this way, people!

So this got me thinking. In 2010 I completed an honours year, the underlying topic of which was ‘user frustration with technology’. I did a whole bunch of research to do with why people get pissed off with their technology, as opposed to say, their home, their natural environment, or their (other) technological environment that doesn’t piss them off. I’ll post up the project in the next little while (as the outcome travelled down a tangent that isn’t relevant to this post so much) but the basic principle is an interesting one to think about.

I mean, if we designed our technology, then why didn’t we design it to make us feel good about it?
Talk about Maltheist God complex.

Enter Interaction Design, the discipline that, in my view, is trying to undo all the shitty tech design of the past and make us more friendly with the machines that we designed ourselves. Makes sense really.

So, what does this have to do with me, and with you, oh faithful internet readers? Not a lot for the moment, but this is a heads-up. The tech world is changing. I’ll be working towards nice, lovely, HCI over my career, because there’s just no point putting up with it any longer. And I’m not alone. You can help! Question your interfaces, rebel against super-complex systems, and if you’re so inclined, corner an IT guy at your next BBQ and stick it to the man (or machine…)!

The posters and hero images below, apart form being examples of my graphic design work, are also examples of how I design; beginning with the original idea, I work up a couple of variations to be checked by the client, then refine the variation they prefer. I believe in a collaborative design process – communication between all involved in a project is key!

I produced the second set of images (‘drinks with friends’) at the same time as the first (‘scav hunt’). This examples my ability to take on multiple quite visually/conceptually varied projects at the same time without compromising the ‘look’ of either.

The hero images went up to RUSU’s website, and the posters (formatted to A3) were printed and distributed around the Melbourne City campuses.

While we all studied Industrial Design, we all have markedly varied interests and talents within this field. The challenge in creating a unified brand for us, then, lay in the generation of a graphic motif that could represent these differences while maintaining the group’s visual family.

I undertook the responsibility to design this identity, though with regular input from the other members of the collective.

I used the bracket from a piece of music (a chromatic scale) as the underlying motif. The images below show the progression through original design, iterations, business card (stamps) and finally branding on the collective’s website www.thescaleofthings.com

Mouse over for a description of each image.

The Scale of Things are: Jessica Bird, Imran Shamsul, Simone Steel, myself and William Campbell.

We presented three concepts to the editorial panel and executed their preferred theme (images below), as well as sourcing printers quotes and investgating stock options. This theme was based on the iconic Melbourne ‘Melways’ street directory, and is complete with “hand drawn” cartoon and notes, scanned post-its and paper-clipped polaroids in order to present the publication as a personal reference guide.

While myself and the other two editors worked closely together, I was solely responsible for the “drawn on” effect – I used a Wacom tablet to draw over each page after they were layed-out in InDesign.

The final publication is 80 pages, printed on 100% recycled stock in a run of 7000 copies. Below are some images of the process I followed for the “hand drawn” effect, and of the final publication.

If I can get my hands on some more of the blocks I’d really like to continue the alphabet, or redesign a few of the letters.

This one’s another typography exercise that I’ll turn into something one day, or maybe I won’t. We’ll see. It was fun in the making anyway

I recommend clicking through to the larger image, especially on the finished ones.

To begin:

And then:

Below are three mood boards I created to represent the kind of environment my objects would best sit in. They are: menu, location (note the rain spots), and colours & textures.

After that are the two posters (originally formatted to A2) that were presented with the prototypes.

Forming the World was a First Year Studio that focussed on the process of redesigning a coffee percolator. The emphasis was on how the designer works through their ideas; the folio begins with ‘drawing in a void’, a section of seemingly unrelated drawings meant as a visual exercise in ‘emptying’ the designer’s brain to ‘make room’ for the required project.

The strength in this project lies in the evolution of an iterative design process; I learnt, with this project, how to tease out the best results through following a repetitive sketching/forming/prototyping/sketching… process.

This was also the project that introduced me to the idea of ‘intention’; what was the designer trying to communicate to his/her audience through the project? Did they understand that? Does it matter?

I’m still striving to answer these questions with my current work. Or striving to understand if they are questions worth answering…

Mouse over the pics for descriptions.

A quick one to draw your attention to the newest feature on this humble site of mine: the blogroll.

It’s at the bottom of the column on the right of this post.

Go on, check out the cool links I’ve got going. They are mostly emerging designer/makers like myself.

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X

Every now and then I’m proud enough of one of my sketches to share them with the interwebs. Here’s one of them:

I drew the X as a typography study, then sewed over it as a material study.

X’s are always so tricky for me to draw!