Including Colour

Design Museum

KWADRAAT-BLAD

Design: Wim Crouwel ca 1967

TYPOGRAPHY: Working with sketches for the New Alphabet and preliminary artwork for Kwadraat-Blad.

New Alphabet was his most radical experiment, conceived in response to his experience of the first device for electronic typesetting; characters were designed to follow the underlying dot-matrix system.

THIN BLACK LINES

Designed by NENDO

The Thin Black Lines series includes furniture, lamps, vases, exploring the theme of outlines. The series was developed in cooperation with Phillips de Pury & Company and first exhibited in their Saatchi Gallery space during the 2010 London Design Festival. Rendered in simple black lines fashioned from bent steel, the forms are inspired by Japanese calligraphy. This distinct graphic quality allows playful manipulation of perspective, with objects often appearing as two-dimensional forms simultaneously. As your eye traces slight black lines outlining the pieces, volumes and surfaces appear and disappear, and the practical function of the product comes into focus.

MIMOSA

Designed by JASON BRUGES for Philips

Philips commissioned Jason Bruges Studio to create an artwork for the 2010 Solone del Mobile as a showcase for the organic LED technology developed at Lumibade Creative Lab. Mimosa is an interactive artwork consisting of slim OLED  panels arranged in petal configurations to form flowers. A motion sensor mounted above reacts to movement from nearby people, opening and closing the delicate petals snd changing the light conditions. The piece was inspired by the Mimoso family of plants, which open and close in response to environmental conditions. OLED technology is relatively new in consumer facing products. It creates light by passing electrictiy through.

Some interesting chairs I found at the Design Museum.

Further Companies

HOLMES WOOD

"We are the designers that specialise in wayfinding and environmental graphics, information and identity. Our approach is based on ideas of innovation, clear thinking and honesty. These connect with our detailed understanding of how people respond to their surroundings and to visual influences. The result is a long client list that ranges from small businesses to corporations, galleries and major museums."

 

VIRGIN ATLANTIC

"A comprehensive scheme provides Virgin Atlantic’s passengers with a fully branded experience ‘from booking to boarding’ at Heathrow. Design elements include signs, graphics, maps and interactive screens. "

THE NATIONAL GALLERY

"We created a cohesive, yet flexible sign scheme which communicates clearly with all visitors while complementing the architecture. Outside, our co-ordinated and elegant designs strengthen the impact of the Gallery’s presence on Trafalgar Square. Internally, the scheme is calm and reassuring, connecting all areas of the Gallery together. "

V&A MUSEUM

"Outside, a combination of bespoke glass components and banners creates a changeable system for presenting the exhibition programme. Inside we created a graphic language that works across all methods of communication with the visitor. "

3 Main Targets

I have used my evaluation to set three clear and achievable main targets for improving my designs.

- include colour   to make my designs look more interesting and easier to follow for wayfinding
- consider typography   to have quite different and even more unusual designs; text illustrating words; emerging text and images
- get opinions  to help improve designs

Evaluation

EVALUATION OF WORK DONE SO FAR

So far I have thought of many initial ideas for wayfinding after analysing existing brands, logos and various types of wayfinding and architecture. I then selected and developed one of my ideas which I felt was the most clear and interesting and also suited the description of the school. After researching a range of artists, I designed four similar designs which are weird and quirky though quite simple - I must include colour and consider typography for my final design.

Presentation

We were asked to put a presentation together for our key concept using powerpoint which had to include key ideas about how the school should be represented and how i approached the project. I also had to include references and inspiration, early idea generation and clear and detailed concept drawings including reference to materials and possible processes.

Unfortunately, our client, Kim Lodge the lead architect, was unable to attend the lesson, therefore I was unable to perform my presentation. I have put the slides from my powerpoint on my blog and written next to each slide exactly what I would have said in my presentation.

First, I started thinking about how I wanted the school to be presented and how I could include this in my designs. I wanted the school to be presented as fun and exciting through the use of images - preferably large scale. I wanted to include clear and simple wayfinding for easy navigation for students and for members of the public visiting the school. From the results of my questionnaire, I found most people wanted there to be a graphic and fine art feel in the new building.

I started thinking about how I could use interesting images for wayfinding instead of the usual arrows and words. I thought maybe having an image of a dancer on the wall holding a piece of ribbon which would leads you from the dance department to the reception would be quite a unique and original idea though in the end I didnt feel it was as weird or peculiar as I wanted my designs to be. I liked the thought of an image leading a person from one location to another location so I definitely wanted to include this.

I began looking at artists such as Yuri Shimojo for inspriation. I found her images really interesting to look at as they are weird and different which are exactly the charateristics I wanted to include in my designs.

Lucy Mclauchan, another artist I looked at for inspiration. I love how she uses many different images to creates one final image. I considered this when creating my wayfinding designs.

After looking at the previous artists, I produced this design using a computer. The design is unique and different but also weird and grotesque which would be interesting for Brit school students and memebers of the public to look at. It also provides clear and easy wayfinding as the spiders act as a trail students should to follow e.g. the image of the face would be in the canteen with spiders from the reception area leading towards the canteen revealing the main image of the womans face. In the reception, there would be some sort of sign post or key showing students which symbol or image they should follow, e.g. canteen [image of spider]. This design is ideal as it has a feel of both graphics and fine art, it is fun and exciting and allows easy navigation from the clear wayfinding. Paint is a possible material that could be used to apply my design on the wall.

I have put my design on an architectural rendering to illustrate how it might look like in the space.

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TRIALS

I did some trials using the same characteristics as Yuri Shimojo and other artists before I created my final design.

 

In my design, spiders, worms, liquid and flies would act as a trail students and vistors would follow to take them to where ever they want to go. The trail of spiders, worms, liquid or flies would begin at the front desk/reception, where a sign post would stand, leading them all the way to their destination (e.g. canteen, art department, etc) to reveal a large scale image of a woman with spiders falling out of her mouth, blood or water pouring out of a persons nose, worms shooting out of a womans mouth or flies escaping from a womans hair.

The sign post may look something like this.

Random, weird and unique but still clear and professional.

Inspiration

YURI SHIMOJO

Yuri Shimojo creates strange, grotesque images. I love how see uses lines of various thickness and lenghths. My favourite images are the ones she has made using a maximum of three colours: white, black, red/blue etc. It is interesting to see how the image can appear and still look so interesting with a minimal amount of colour. I will consider this when creating my wayfinding designs.

LUCY MCLAUCHLAN

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I have decided to continue working with my third idea involving large scaled images on walls.


Most students from the Brit school described the school as original, different and unique in a sense that it is a performing arts school involving a diverse range of people creating a peculiar environment. The Brit school was also described as creative and talented.

From the words used to describe the school, odd, peculiar, strange and grotesque came to mind.

I have tried to put all the key words together and involve them in my designs.

ORIGINAL
UNIQUE
DIFFERENT
CREATIVE
ODD
PECULIAR
STRANGE
GROTESQUE

Aedas

Aedas are a leading international design practice which offers services in architecture, interior design, master planning, landscape, urban design and building consultancy within Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.

"We are committed to our core value of design excellence and are dedicated to research & development and sustainability."  -Aedas

"Our unique framework allows us to apply international expertise in local economies, supporting the communities in which we work."  -Aedas

Colour & Typography

COLOUR

Colour is a significant element I must consider when designing my wayfinding designs. I have to think carefully about what colours I include in my designs as certain colours can influence moods an individual has towards their surrounding and towards other individuals. Some colours can also cause people to concentrate and for others, a distraction. I should also consider having different colours for each strand or only using the colours from the Brit school logo: orange, green/blue, white. It may be interesting to have a colour theme through out the entire building.



TYPOGRAPHY